Between Balance and Justice.

The flight back to Themyscira was short for Diana, what would have taken her mother days at sea, took merely hours for her. It was already night when she reached her home’s shores, she had hoped to arrive at dawn, but she was restless, and seeing Oliver recuperating in the med ward only made her feel more ashamed of what her people had done. Setting the controls of her invisible jet into hover mode as she made her way to a clearing, she thought she could see a fire burning in the royal courtyard. A celebration perhaps? Extending the landing gear to reach terra firma and turning off the engines, Diana stepped out of the vessel and made her way to the courtyard as quickly as she could.

When she got there, she found her amazon sisters preparing a great feast where all her people gathered around a great pyre at the center of the courtyard. Finding her mother and Phillipa sitting at their seats at the heart of the gathering, she wasted no time in approaching the two women and rested a hand over her mother’s shoulder to get her attention.

“My Daughter, welcome back.”

“Thank you, mother, I have come to talk about what had happened in Man’s world, there is much to discuss.”

Their smiling expressions growing colder, the Queen and her consort turned their attention to the fire up ahead where the rest of the amazons cheered and raised their fists in the air as the fires burned.

“Indeed… It would seem your friends did not take the matter well and had sent an assassin to kill me.”

Phillipus raised a hand to point to the pyre. “Our generals interrogated him in our presence with the lasso of truth, He’s burning for his crimes right now.”

“WHAT!?” Gasped the princess, storming past the table to move through the crowd of amazons to get to the fires. When she reached her way out of the crowd, she found her mother’s court standing there. Nubia, Aello, Alkyone and Ocypete turned to find Wonder Woman come into view.

“Welcome back your highness, have you come to see the ‘gift’ your friends gave us?” Spoke a stern Alkyone as she let her sword blade rest at her feet, her hands at the pommel. Her amber eyes reflecting in the firelight.

“Please, you must stop this! Put out the fires!”

“The deed is done my princess.” Explained Ocypete. “The League’s assassin has been executed, and all that remains is the brief memory our vigil lapsed but for a single moment.”

Aello snorted as she looked back at the flames. “At least the smell is gone.”

Turning to face the flames herself, Alcyone frowned. “Spoke nothing but gibberish too, I have never seen anyone resist the lasso as he did, truly he was the vilest of their kind.”

“He said his name was… Boston? Boston Brand, hmmmph, even their names sound guttural.”

“BOSTON?! DEADMAN!!!!” Going into a panic, it took all four generals to hold back their princess from entering the fires to try and rescue her burning friend, even if by now he had been reduced to cinders. Falling to a heap on the ground, Diana no longer struggled to break free as Aello stood to her feet and address the amazons of Themyscira and Bana-Mighdall, cheering when she raised her arms to gain their attention.

“AMAZONS! THE ASSASSIN HAS BEEN EXECUTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH OUR LAWS. IN THE NAME OF THE AMAZONS! IN THE NAME OF ATHENA! JUSTICE HAS BEEN…”

The fires suddenly grew in intensity, becoming so blazing hot, the rest of the generals and Diana were **** to back away as the flames grew to such heat that they turned sky blue. Looking back at the funnel of blue hot heat from the pyre, Aello could only step back as the fires rose higher and higher, being able to be seen by all corners of their island kingdom as it grew in height into a column of blue flames. Then something strange happened. The fires began to mold into a humanoid shape, forming arms, a chest, narrow waist, and legs. Molten gold wrapped around the fires to form jewelry, hooped earrings and collar adorn with precious gems and cooling into polished perfection. Robes of pure lavender flowed and enveloped the being’s waist, chest and back with such grace it was hard to tell if the fabric was not smoke, for it smelled of exotic flowers and spices over the intense heat that created them. When the being’s eyes opened, they were the intensity of a pair of stars, looking down at the shocked Amazons with an expressionless gaze.

“How dare you!”

Stepping back in shock, the Amazon people and their queen could only look up speechless at the presence of Rama Kushna; the Hindu goddess of balance glare down at them. Alkyone got back to her feet first as did the others, staring up at the blue, glowing goddess with stern defiance.

“What is this decept…?

“HOW!”

All the Amazons fell to their knees, clutching their heads and crying out as memories flooded their minds. Memories of a man who spent his life in a circus since he was a boy, performing for crowds cheering at his daring trapeze.

“DARE!”

The memories then turned to seeing his **** by a sniper shot in mid swing, with a crowd of thousands watching the bullet pass through him and his body falling limp to the ground below. Almost a third of the Amazons clutched at their chests where the man was shot as he fell to his ****. Hot tears streaking down their eyes as they could see his ghost looking over his ruined body. Sharing in his despair, until she arrived.

“YOU!”

Gasping, and regaining her strength to stand, Queen Hippolyta looked up at the being with humble reverence, still too stunned to speak. Rama Kushna took this time to explain. Her words both heard and felt as if it sifted into everyone’s minds.

“You attempted to slay one of MY heralds, on a mission of peace to your people.” Opening the palm of her hand, Boston Brand appeared, unharmed, but in his spectral form as he sat up to look around to find the Amazons looking up at him in shock. “You claim to represent peace, claim to represent love, claim to represent justice, in the name of your own god of justice.”

Looking out over the palace walls and out over the city, the fiery goddess narrowed her golden eyes at the temple to Athena. “Perhaps I shall share words with your goddess of ‘justice’, your goddess of ‘wisdom’… Your goddess of WAR!”

Taking a step, the Amazons fled from her wake as the fiery giantess strode through the gates like a spectre and marched her way down the cobblestone path of the city towards the temple.

Diana regained her footing and freed herself of her mother’s advisors to run towards her Queen, snapping the woman out of her shock. “Mother! What have you done?!”

“Diana?” Hippolyta trembled, her consort still on her knees clutching her chest.

Seeing the goddess make for the temple, Diana let her mother go and took to the skies, flying to catch up to the giant while the rest of the Amazons followed on foot, both out of panic as well as curiosity. In no time, Rama Kushna had stopped at the front steps to the temple, its columns of marble gleaming even in the night’s moon light where a marble statue of the goddess wearing armor and a winged helm was in a pose to strike with a bow and arrow.

“Athena… I call you out, I call you out on the actions of your flock and their actions against my own… Answer me.”

Stopping in mid air and crossing her arms to protect her face, Diana winced as a powerful gust of wind blew up and funneled over the temple. Along with birds. Thousand of birds, owls, screeching as they flew in and swirled on mass. **** to land and join her sisters in the streets, Diana could only look up as their patron Goddess took form in the air, dust and flocks of owls that represented her molded and took form to manifest her physical form on Earth. Even as this avatar, the goddess was regal, poised, graceful. A giantess wearing brass armor made of dust and feathers locked eyes with the Hindu goddess,

Neither spoke, instead staring at each other, before Athena turned her attention to the pale skinned man clad in red that sat in Rama Kushna’s hand like a frightened mouse. For a moment, Diana saw her goddess’s features soften, her hand reaching out as if to console the ghost, only for the blue goddess to pull him away, her eyes narrowing. Turning her attention to the Amazon people, Athena finally spoke, her voice a chorus of owl screeches… And a soft, calm voice heard in their heads.

“What have you done?”

Panicked and instantly humbled, the amazons fell to their knees with their heads to the cobblestone ground, many falling into mutterings of prayer at the sight of their goddess. The Queen’s advisors and generals did the same, their blood going cold as sweat slicked down their necks.

“What have you done?”

“M-my goddess… The intruder… He planned to…”

“Boston Brand wanted to broker peace. To offer kindness when YOU offered pain. Understanding is a three-edged sword my daughters; there is YOUR perspective, THEIR perspective… And the truth.”

“My goddess?” The Amazons found themselves prostrating themselves further as they felt their goddess’s voice echo into their mind, firm, yet not oppressively so.

“You are meant to be my champions in this world, heralds, paragons, avatars of the best and brightest you had refined yourself to be. As such you hold to a higher standard to those outside of this paradise, I have made you…”

Slowly turning her attention back to the pale man in red, Artemis bent down to eye the smaller spirit.

“You have done more in the five years of your unlife than any of my Amazons dare to claim in the centuries they have sequestered here.” Standing to her full height, the Goddess looked into the eyes of the stern gaze of Rama Kushna and nodded. “For the transgressions of my Amazons against you, I grant you a single wish.”

Everyone gasped in silence, some sitting up in disbelief while Diana covered her mouth with both hands. Crouching, Rama Kushna lowered her hand to let Deadman step off her palm and stand on the ground, his presence remaining visible even after both goddesses faded away. The gust of wind, the column of fire and the thousands of owls scattered and flew off, leaving only the street torchlights to illuminate the man as he stood looking over an entire people of warrior women.

Slowly approaching, Diana raised a hand as if to touch the man. He looked so… frail. So starved of colour and life. His skin was chalk white and shallow off his bones, his eyes pale and empty. For a moment he smirked back at her as his feet began to fade away, slowly becoming invisible again as Rama Kushna’s power was no longer keeping him there. Then he spoke, and the words felt like a cold spike in Diana’s heart.

“I wish… That the Amazons appeared as beautiful or as hideous as the deeds they perform.”

At that moment, he disappeared. And as one… The Amazons screamed. Snapping back to look in horror, Diana found her sisters, her friends, her mother, and family cry out in horror as their appearances wilted and withered. Aello screamed out staring at her hands as they aged and weathered before her eyes, the nails growing long, sharp, and chipped while mottled welts formed on the back of her hands and forearms. Artemis, the captain of the Bana-Mighdall fell to her back in a rigor’s pose as she felt her face grow wrinkled and aged, her eyes looking up to Diana’s as they became milky and pale looking. Nearby she could see her mother, or at least a woman wearing her mother’s crown and robes as she sat on her knees hugging herself, her clothes slack and billowing off her now hunched and crooked figure.

“Mother!”

Bringing up her mother’s face, Diana was horrified to find her face elderly and scarred, her teeth mishappen behind thin and cracked lips. Raising a boney hand to cup at her daughter’s face, Hippolyta croaked out a course response.

“My daughter… So beautiful… My… Treasure.”

Gasping as she realised the terms of Boston’s wish, Diana looked herself over and cupped her own face, finding… She was still the same. “I’m… I’m still me!” Looking around she found everyone weeping in sight of themselves, stripping of their youth, beauty and vitality, her island paradise had become what would best be described as a leper colony. Except…

“Why them, and not me?”