Chapter 14
"You have no idea how disappointed I am to see you here, Ismene," Diana said as she grappled with one of Aresia's Amazons. They might as well belong to the renegade, having abandoned their home to follow her here. Having decided that this could replace the one Themiscyra. "And your sisters."
"You defiled our home with the footsteps of men," Ismene grunted as she broke Diana's hold and rocked her chin with a punch. "And your mother called them heroes! At least she had the decency to throw you out, but she didn't go far enough, not by a long shot."
Diana took the punch in stride. She was stronger than any of these Amazons, and because of their relative youth and inexperience, they lacked any real chance at defeating her one-on-one, unlike the Amazons such as Eurydice and Helena who had first taught Diana how to fight. At twelve-to-one, however, they could overwhelm her with sheer numbers. With Hawkgirl engaging Circe and Raven guarding Audrey, Diana had only Koriand'r to help her. Aresia seemed content to watch from her perch.
Diana did have one other advantage, however. She could fly.
Another of Koriand'r's blasts struck Ismene in the back even as Diana was planting her foot in the young Amazon's stomach. The two-sided attack left the woman gasping on the ground. Before one or more Amazons could take Ismene's place, Diana flew up to join Koriand'r briefly. "Thanks," she said.
"Don't mention it," Koriand'r said lightly. "I'm trying to conserve my energy, however. It's nighttime, so even if I did have access to the open air, I couldn't replace the solar energy I'm expending anyway."
"You did mention being trained by warlords," Diana reminded her.
"True," Koriand'r agreed.
Surprisingly, the air between them was parted by an arrow, and their attention was pulled back to the crowd of Amazons below them. Several had resurfaced with bows and arrows, and they began firing.
Koriand'r burned two in midair into ash, but there were too many. "Guess we'll have to go back down and correct their behavior," Diana said with mock regret.
"They don't seem to know how to treat royalty," Koriand'r replied, eyes gleaming.
They parted in different directions and swiftly curved around and down, fists forward. They hit the group of Amazons from different angles and sent them diving to the ground. One who remained standing was deprived of her longbow by Diana, who boxed her ears with it before shattering it over her knee.
Meanwhile, Circe and Hawkgirl were sizing each other up as they moved in a circular pattern. "You're sure I couldn't interest you in a body to go with those wings?" Circe sneered, waggling her fingers. "You'd look great as a buzzard."
"I once read Odysseus pointed a sword at you, and you folded like a cheap accordion," Hawkgirl retorted.
"I was libeled!" Circe screamed before firing a bolt of lightning at her.
Hawkgirl deftly struck it with her mace, as if she were a tennis player hitting an ordinary ball with a forehand, and it was deflected into the wall, where it seemed to leave no scorch marks. "I've faced magicians before," she said calmly. "They no longer impress me. And your illusions lack credibility."
Circe hardly seemed to blink, and suddenly Hawkgirl was surrounded by nine identical Circes. The air was filled with fireballs, and Hawkgirl witnessed an illusory one dissipate as it struck her chest before a very real one hit her in the back and knocked her several feet onto her face with a grunt.
"Impressed yet, little bird?" Circe asked.
"Hardly," Hawkgirl snarled before leaping to her feet and scattering the Circe closest to her into atoms.
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Ismene was groaning as she got to her knees when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She tensed momentarily before grabbing the person's wrist.
"Easily, Ismene," Aresia murmured in her ear.
"Aresia!" Ismene gasped. "I'm sorry - "
"Don't bother. Let the others handle Diana. Dispose of that frail-looking girl and recapture the Kasnian woman, and Diana will be at my mercy," Aresia ordered.
Ismene nodded. "Of course, Aresia." She got to her feet and carefully skirted the rapidly disintegrating fight between Diana, Koriand'r, and the other Amazons.
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Diana pulled her punch just enough so that she didn't shatter her opponent's jaw, but she knocked the Amazon several yards through the air with her uppercut, leaving her in a heap by the wall. Those Okaarans, she noted with approval, must have been both good warriors and teachers, for Koriand'r was combining strength, flight, and skill to her advantage.
Then pain exploded in Diana's back in several sharp lines. She grabbed at her shoulder, and her hand came away with bloody streaks.
"You need to be disciplined, Amazon bitch. And you need a lot more than having your knuckles rapped. You will learn to treat me with respect!"
"Poison Ivy," Diana said, facing the redheaded temptress. Her arms were green and leafy from the elbows down, ending in overly large hands with wicked claws. One hand dripped red. "You've given yourself some modifications."
"They're gloves, actually," Ivy said, smiling savagely. "Suitable both for dinner parties and tearing your heart out."
"You have no idea how tired I've become of your antics, Ivy," Diana replied, and she meant it. Seeing her again made her feel more wearied than angry. "Those claws don't suit you. You're so self-destructive, you're going to tear yourself to pieces."
"That's just the sort of attitude I was talking about," Ivy hissed. "You think you have some special right to analyze my life! You and the Bat, and with Aresia's help, he'll be dead soon enough." She slashed powerfully through the air with both claws and missed Diana's face by inches as the Amazon leapt backward.
"Somebody needs to think for you," Diana said. "Come on, it's too noisy here. Let's talk elsewhere."
Before Ivy could react, Diana flew not at her, but just to the right of her. Her hand grabbed Ivy by the shoulder and carried the shrieking woman up through the air onto a high ledge, where she dropped her.
Audrey watched the two disappear. "The first time I saw Diana," she said quietly to Raven, "I saw her rip a helicopter in half. This has been much more impressive."
"Are you seriously hurt?" Raven asked without looking at her. Most of the Amazons appeared to be incapacitated, and those who remained weren't faring well against Koriand'r. "I can heal you."
"A few scrapes and bruises," Audrey replied casually. "I've suffered worse from my masseur."
Raven didn't respond as she finally noticed Ismene stealthily creeping along the perimeter of the hall toward them. "Please back up," she said neutrally. "I will need room perhaps."
Audrey followed her gaze. "Of course," she answered, backing up until the rough walls behind the marble illusion dug into her back.
"Out of my way, child," Ismene said warningly as she approached.
"Do not let my size belie my age," Raven murmured, lowering her hood. "My name is Raven, and Audrey is under my protection."
"You're Raven?" Audrey asked behind her. "Diana told me about you."
"She did?" Raven said, surprised. "What did she say?"
"You look busy. I'll tell you later," Audrey said.
"Better tell her now," Ismene interrupted. "You'll both be dead in a few minutes."
Audrey shrugged. "She said you were sad, and that you seem like someone who walks under a permanent shadow."
"She has no idea," Raven said quietly before a sort of pitch-black aura emanated from her body. Ismene was frozen in her tracks, and then she screamed before she was blotted from view.
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"Running?" Ivy asked as she scrambled onto her feet.
"You're the one who's running," Diana said darkly, hovering just beyond the ledge. Ivy took another swipe at her, but Diana floated out of range, leaving Ivy dancing precariously on the edge. She was forced to skip back.
"You're still running from that jail cell in Metropolis," Diana continued as Ivy tried to extend her arms far enough to hit her, but was left vainly waving her artificial hands in the air.
"What do you _care_?" Ivy cried in sheer frustration, her body shaking with emotion. "Leave me here, or knock me out, but stop trying to analyze me!"
"I ought to," Diana said, trying to keep an eye on the action below while she faced Ivy. "But I have so much to lose down there, and I'll take all the help I can get. Which I think you'll give me."
Astonished, Ivy laughed helplessly. "Why?"
"Because you're not doing this to kill Batman. Oh, I'm sure he's a bonus for you, but you're doing this to kill another man, namely the Joker. You think if somebody else does it for you, Quinn won't blame you for his death. It won't matter, though. You'll lose her anyway."
Ivy looked in every direction. She appeared to be debating climbing higher, or leaping to certain doom.
"First," Diana said relentlessly, "I'll survive today, and I'll make sure she knows what you're up to. Even if she never knows, it won't matter. Even though you laughed the day I used this term, when it comes down to it Harley is one more battered woman. And sooner or later the self-delusions and the lies die, and these women understand that their batterers don't love them. I think she can survive him. She seems to have learned how. And when she does, you could be there. Instead of running off like a spoiled baby that doesn't get its bottle."
"You have no idea," Ivy replied. Her claws were squeezed into fists so tightly that they were shedding leaves. "I have watched her for _years_ defend him and go back to him and she doesn't listen! She's killing herself for that monster, and you know what? I used my biggest weapon on her, and it didn't leave a dent. She wants to pretend I never said it, and go on being friends! No, sorry, not in my power any longer."
"So you'll kill him instead," Diana said. "And just as she's spent the last few years fixating on the Joker, she'll spend the rest of her life fixated on his memory. You know what she'll be doing twenty years from now? She'll be lighting candles at his goddamn shrine, and I can't conceive of any greater injustice being done to her than what you're planning to do. You're going to take him away from her, leave her mourning their so-called great love and their magical life together. You're going to condemn her to a life of being haunted by the vision of the man she sees him as, not the demon he really is."
Ivy looked at her blankly for a moment, and Diana saw that she'd really never considered this possibility. Like so many of her fellow villains, she was almost fatally unable to think of the consequences of her actions. Then she fell to her knees hopelessly. "But what do I have to lose?" she asked.
Diana resisted the urge to beat her senseless and get back to the fighting, knowing Aresia would step in to shift the balance any moment. "You walked out on her, Ivy, not the other way around," she instead said coolly. "She left the window open. Be her friend. Be there for her until the scales fall from her eyes. Maybe they already are."
"What?"
"You saw what the Joker tried in Las Vegas?"
Ivy nodded. "I wasn't watching at the time, but I heard all about it." She became sulky. "She was with _him_."
"And she led Batman to the Joker's lair."
"She's good at that. She doesn't think."
"She led him there on purpose."
Diana wasn't technically lying here. She knew Batman had followed Quinn back to the Joker, but he hadn't said whether it was intentional or not. So it was possible.
"She's betrayed him before," Ivy said hesitantly.
"Don't you think that's a good sign?" Diana asked.
Ivy didn't respond.
"Look," Diana said, losing patience. Poison Ivy, for all her botanical powers, was the smallest threat in Aresia's little army, and the time Diana was spending on her probably wasn't worth it. "Aresia said this island used to be barren. So you made the jungle grow, right? If you can make Aresia's very own domain turn against her and her forces, I'll guarantee that you're returned to Arkham where Harley is, and she'll never know what you were planning. Otherwise you'll wake up here tomorrow morning with a very big lump on your head, and you can hide here for the rest of your life. And you have three seconds to make your decision."
For two seconds, the look on Ivy's face was something like a deer caught in headlights. Then she slumped over. "All right," she said softly.
"Come on then," Diana said, relieved. "Let me know what you need to do, and . . ."
A trace of her old contempt returned to Ivy's face. "Are you that dense? It's already started."
Diana looked at her dubiously, but she forcibly removed Ivy's prosthetic appendages and tore them apart before picking her up under the arms and descending through the air.
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Hawkgirl looked to her left and right. Most of Circe's doubles had vanished, and her failure to create more suggested to the Thanagarian that she didn't have the energy to waste on them. Circe also had a massive purple bruise on her right forearm from a glancing blow of Hawkgirl's mace, but the arm was still functioning and the illusory Circe (whichever one it was) had a matching bruise. She might as well flip a coin to determine which of the two was real.
Circe's left hand glowed with a green fire that looked almost radioactive. "I wonder if you smell like pheasant when you're cooked," she snarled.
Hawkgirl only smiled and gestured. Her mace crackled.
The immortal witch aimed low with her flame attack. Any higher and the real blast would have obliterated the false image. Hawkgirl had anticipated this, however, and she leapt in the air, using her powerful wings to give her extra height. She spun and landed behind one of the two Circes so quickly that she didn't even have time to turn and look.
And because of where the two witches were standing, the other's view of Hawkgirl was blocked by the first one.
Hawkgirl hurled her mace straight at the Circe closest to her, knowing it wouldn't matter. It parted her form like mist, and the flesh-and-blood Circe had only a fraction of a second to see the mace coming into view and plunging into her midsection. All of the air rushed out of her lungs and she screamed soundlessly as the electricity poured into her body. She collapsed, almost cradling the mace as she passed out.
Going over to her, Hawkgirl reached down and retrieved her weapon. "Looks like it's your goose that was cooked," she murmured.
Then she cried out and fell down when she felt a powerful blow strike her on the back of the head.
"Plenty of goose for everyone," Aresia said with a smirk before going to take care of the remaining heroes.
Raven and Koriand'r were shoulder to shoulder, protecting Audrey with the wall at their backs. Five Amazons were still able to fight, and they approached with some degree of caution. Not only were they wounded and wary of the Tamaranean's fighting skills, but also they were unnerved by the sight of Ismene and a second Amazon on their knees. They stared straight ahead with no expression on their faces.
"What did you do to them?" Koriand'r asked.
"I introduced them to my shadow self," Raven said quietly. "They got as close to my father as one can without going completely insane."
Koriand'r poked one of them in the shoulder, and she fell over, making the Amazons hesitate further.
"Perhaps even a little closer than that," Raven admitted.
"Just how close is your father to you, Raven?" Koriand'r asked quietly.
Raven said nothing at first. Before Koriand'r could press her, everyone stopped as the marble floors and columns flickered, then died. Suddenly they were standing inside an ordinary, if spacious, cave that had formed naturally. "The witch is defeated," Raven said, avoiding Koriand'r's question.
"So is the bird," someone said from behind the Amazons.
They parted to let Aresia through. "As for Diana," she continued, "it appears she's abandoned you, Princess."
"Which princess are you referring to?" Koriand'r asked calmly.
"I trust you're not suggesting you're more than friends with Diana," Audrey said easily.
"You're right, she probably means you."
"Enough," Aresia warned them. "I don't know who you two are, but you're evidently powerful. I could offer you a position of honor at my side."
"You know nothing of honor," Audrey said.
"She knows nothing of a lot of things."
Aresia turned and saw Diana standing alone in the middle of the cave. "I know men must be removed like a tumor," Aresia said to her. "You are a part of the cancer if you stand against me."
"This place of yours is the tumor, Aresia," Diana replied. "I'm just glad you removed it from Themiscyra yourself, along with all of the Amazons you'd corrupted. It will make things much easier for my mother."
The whole cave shook with the force of something hitting it from the outside. Dust sprinkled down on the women. "What was that?" Aresia demanded.
Another voice spoke up from the shadows of the cave, no longer hidden by Circe's false light. "Chemotherapy."
Aresia whipped about, shocked. "Ivy? What are you talking about?"
One of the other Amazons ran toward the cave entrance. "Aresia!" she shouted. "The trees, the forest! It's come alive, and it's attacking the walls!"
"You weak, stupid thing!" Aresia shouted. "You said you wanted to rid the world of men!"
"I've reordered my priorities," Ivy said quietly.
Aresia shook her fist, and then she looked down and smiled. "I guess we'll just have to kill you all then."
The Amazons rushed in a group at Raven and Koriand'r, and Audrey beyond them.
Alarmed, Diana flew after them, and she didn't even notice Aresia moving not with them, but through them. She nimbly danced around the onrushing women and ran, not toward Diana, but toward Poison Ivy.
"You're an embarrassment to our gender!" she shouted at the largely defenseless Ivy. Her fist sent her flying, and she hit the wall headfirst, sliding to the floor in a boneless heap.
Diana didn't even see it, so focused she was on sending the weakened Amazons in various directions, but Raven did. "Diana!" she called, pointing at Aresia.
The Amazon princess' eyes blazed as she saw Aresia standing alone. "Stay down," she said coldly to the Amazon in her grip as she smashed the young woman's face into the ground. Then she flew at Aresia, knocking her into the wall. Whether it shook or not with the impact wasn't known, because whatever Ivy had done, the cave shook every second from outside forces.
Raven couldn't help but respond to the suffering of the woman Aresia had struck down. "Guard her," she said to Koriand'r.
Koriand'r looked around and saw Aresia was the only opponent left standing. "From what?"
But Raven was already teleporting to Poison Ivy's side. She looked dismayed as she reached down and put her hands on Ivy's head.
The healer's screams were drowned out by the sound of Diana and Aresia pummeling each other without mercy.
"You've lost, Aresia," Diana growled, her face red with fury. "Both your insane dreams and your desire to hurt me have failed."
"Not while I stand," Aresia retorted, kicking Diana in the ribs.
Diana caught the follow-up kick in her hands and flipped Aresia to the floor. "Your 'palace' won't even be standing for much longer, Aresia! And none of your followers are in any kind of shape to leave here on their own power. Do you want to go on fighting me, or do you want to save them?"
"I want to rub that holier-than-thou expression off your face!" Aresia shrieked before tackling her.
Koriand'r watched the fight with dismay. "Diana's right," she realized. "There's over a dozen people passed out on the floor. We need to call off whatever it is outside, or the entire structure will cave in on these people." She held her hands out to Audrey. "Come on."
Audrey quickly leapt into Koriand'r's arms and the Tamaranean flew them both around the fighting Amazons. "Raven," she called to the healer, who appeared to be recuperating next to Poison Ivy's body.
Raven looked up. "She suffered massive skull fractures, but she will live," she said slowly, panting. "Another thirty seconds and she would have died, but I was able to repair the damage. But the pain was intense, Koriand'r. I do not think I have the concentration left to do much else tonight."
"I think she's the one who started this," Koriand'r told her, gesturing around at the trembling walls. "She needs to stop it."
Raven shook her head, however. "She is unconscious. I suspect it will be some time before she awakens."
Koriand'r groaned. "We have no choice. Let's start bringing these women outside." She stopped. "Where's Hawkgirl?"
"There," Audrey said exultantly, pointing.
The two Amazons kept gaining, then losing, the advantage in their battle. Falling rocks were becoming as much a danger as anything else. "Oof!" Diana grunted as one struck her on the shoulder, driving her to one knee.
"You were willing to die for that frail creature," Aresia said even as she wrapped her hands around Diana's neck and began throttling her. "Willing to die for billions of male monsters. Now I want you to die for me!"
Diana couldn't respond, because she couldn't breathe.
Hawkgirl could, however, and the head of her mace landed heavily on Aresia's skull. The eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell over, her hands dropping from Diana's neck. "See how you like getting hit from behind," Hawkgirl said, rubbing her head.
"Thanks," Diana said, coughing. She rose and looked around. "You think we could move all these people out of here before the ceiling collapses?"
"Do we have a choice?"
A section of the roof chose that moment to succumb to the pressure from outside. Several feet across, it cracked and fell straight down.
Diana looked up. "Oh, Hera," she whispered as the great rock swelled above her.
There was a smashing noise, and the three women were momentarily obscured from view by clouds of dust.
When the dust settled, Diana was surprised to discover that they hadn't been flattened. They'd been protected by a transparent dome with a green tint.
Hawkgirl pointed. "John!"
Green Lantern modified the shield he'd generated around Diana, Hawkgirl, and Aresia so that the three were carried aloft. "You can't run away from me that easily, Shayera," he said, smiling.
Diana caught a red streak and watched as Flash and Superman began disappearing from the cave with women in their arms, then returning for new loads. "How did you know?"
"We got Hawkgirl's message a few minutes ago," he said.
Hawkgirl blinked. "Wow," she replied wryly. "Time really does fly when you're having fun."
"I saw how you celebrate Christmas, so from the look of you, don't _tell_ me you haven't been having fun," GL said.
"That's the last of them," Superman told Green Lantern as he used his heat vision to destroy a rock that had been a few feet away from landing on the Flash. "I assume you've got a good explanation for not telling us about this sooner?" he added, looking at Hawkgirl.
"Girls' night out," Diana said, finally permitting herself to feel relief that Audrey was going to be all right.
"Well, from the outside this place looks like it's got a really bad case of honeysuckle," Superman replied after a moment's pause, "so I suggest we leave now."
As they escaped the cave without further mishap, Diana looked back and saw that much of the island's vegetation appeared to have shifted position. While the earth itself looked almost barren, the mountain (or what they'd seen as a castle when they first arrived) was now covered with a dense layer of green and brown. Diana watched as the rock continued to buckle under the mutating plants, and she revised her earlier opinion regarding the relative danger of Poison Ivy.
Diana looked down at Aresia and smiled.
"What?" Hawkgirl asked.
"I can't wait to tell her she was saved by a man."
To be concluded . . .
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