Title: Understanding (1/1)
Author: BradyGirl
Pairings/Characters: Steve/Diana
Genres: Challenge, Drama
Rating: PG-13
Claim: For the
dcu_freeforall Challenge
(Diana/Steve)Prompt: T2, P18: Mind Control
Prompt Count: (1/15)
Warnings: None
Spoilers: Countdown To Infinite Crisis
Summary: After Wonder Woman does what she believes is necessary about villain Maxwell Lord, she is doubtful that anyone can understand.
Date Of Completion: January 25, 2009
Date Of Posting: January 27, 2009
Disclaimer: I don’t own ‘em, DC does, more’s the pity.
Word Count: 502
Feedback welcome and appreciated.
Diana paced, agitation in every movement. The wind gusted, ruffling her dark hair as Boston and the harbor sparkled far below her vantage point on Dorchester Heights.
She felt slightly nauseous, blood pulsing through her head. Her hands were curled into fists as she continued her pacing.
She heard the footsteps coming up the hillside. Steve came into view, holding his uniform cap on this warm day as the wind blew his blond hair.
“I had to do it.” She turned away, boot heels digging into the soft ground. “It is not like I wanted to do it. I did what I had to do.
“Of course now I am looked at like some monster. Bruce and Clark…they are appalled at my killing of Maxwell Lord. Their code is ‘Do Not Kill’.”
She paced to the edge of the cliff.
“I am a pariah now. People have never quite trusted my Amazon beliefs, I suppose, or maybe just do not trust a super-powered woman.
“My Justice League colleagues…friends…they do not understand.”
She moved again, one hand going to her belt, fingers curling in the glowing strands of her Golden Lasso.
“I used this to get the truth out of Lord. He had full mind control over Clark. Clark nearly killed Bruce! Beat him to a pulp! I had to use all my strength and Warrior skills to save him!”
She detached her Lasso, holding it in an iron grip, her muscles quivering.
“Clark was torn up over that attack and everything else he had done under Lord’s control. The look on his face as he gathered a bloody Bruce into his arms…” She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, then opened them, haunted shadows flitting under the surface of sapphire blue. “Lord told me…when I asked him the way to break his control over Clark…that the only way was to kill him.
“So I did.”
Silence stretched out on the hillside for a moment, then seagulls’ cries echoing out over the water pierced the quiet.
She spoke again. “They do not understand. They fight but they are not Warriors.” Her voice trembled slightly. “Lord would have used Clark to kill, to destroy…to take over the world.
“Clark being used that way…unable to stop himself…it would have killed him…destroyed his soul…I had a choice…watch Clark kill others while his soul died, or kill Maxwell Lord. There really was not a choice.”
Her voice hardened.
“And I would do the same thing again.”
She stared down at the Lasso, then slowly looked up at him, almost afraid of what she would see in his eyes.
She saw pain.
For her suffering.
She saw worry.
For her state of mind.
She saw regret.
For having been put in that situation.
She saw understanding.
For her choice.
He was a Warrior.
He understood that in war…
…sometimes you had to kill.
She went to him, his arms slipping around her as he held her tightly.
Her mate in love and war.
She had chosen well.
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