Heroes Come From Odd Places

Chapter 3- The Princess Who Protests

Diana had grown up an Amazon, a warrior made. She sparred, she trained, and she prayed to the gods. She followed in her mother's footsteps, training every day from dawn to dusk until she could wield any weapon she chose.

Sword, spear, bow, nothing- it mattered not to Diana. She would master them all. She was safe inside her bubble, protected by the gods. Themyrscira was safe, and nothing outside of it mattered to her.

Not at first.

One day, however, she saw the first ship she had in centuries.

"Mother," she said, "who are those people?"

She was too far away to get a good look at those on board, but even in the distance, a large ship was hard to miss.

"Presumably slaves and their masters." the queen answered grimly. Slavery was not a well liked topic by the Amazons. They did not keep slaves; the very concept was foreign to many of them, as it was to Diana.

"Mother, what is a slave?" Diana asked, frowning. Something about the word felt odd on her tongue, wrong, even.

"A slave is a person forced to serve another as if she were an animal, for no pay. They are given only food and shelter, and are not permitted to speak their minds or act of their own free will." The queen found she almost had to force those words out.

The idea was simply not right, was simply horrible in every way, shape and form.

"Why?"

"Why, what, Diana?"

"Why- no, how could someone do this to someone else?"

"It is a dangerous world out there. One with many injustices, wrongs that they do not seem to be anywhere near righting." 

Diana considered this, taking a moment to chew on it before asking, "Why don't we do anything?"

She didn't understand. Surely there were young women who were slaves. Shouldn't Themyrscira be somewhere safe for them, at the very least?

But her mother, despite sharing this sentiment, shook her head.

"We are protected by the gods here. It is best if here we stay. Man must right these issues, not us."

"But man isn't going to."

"Not anytime soon, no, Diana. But my orders remain firm."

That night, Diana found she could not sleep. Something was calling her to their world, urging her to come out. 

There were more things wrong with this world than just slavery. More wrongs that who, if not she, would right?

Diana made up her mind that night. She snuck to the alter, taking a deep breath.

"Forgive me, Mother. Forgive me, Hera."

And she stole from the alter.

Diana was the first Amazon any man had seen in a long while. When she strode through their kingdom, eyes stuck to her.

She ran into a tall man adjusting his tie, flirting with two women who seemed to be draping themselves all over him.

Disgusting, Diana thought to herself. The indecency that man showed was not something she was used to, but she shook her head.

"Where may I find your ruler?" she asked, her force firm and strong.

"Prince Regnai?" the man asked, raising an eyebrow. His voice was smooth and thick like honey, laughter on the tip of his tongue, though Diana saw something deeper than that in those blue eyes. Pain.

She ignored this for now. "If he is your ruler, then yes."

"Excuse me, ladies." Bruce stood up. The two pretty blondes pouted as Bruce offered his arm to Diana, who frowned, unfamiliar with the gesture. Bruce sighed and pocketed his hands, leading her as close to the palace as he dared.

"The prince is not a kind man. Don't say I didn't warn you." Bruce said, his voice getting dark and scratchy, a clear warning that managed to send shivers down the normally unflinching warrior's spine.

She was led by the guards from there to the throne room, where her eyes locked first on the redhead sitting at Prince Regnai's feet, rather than the prince himself.

He sat on his hindquarters as if an animal, wrists shackled together in "pretty" gold chains, his ankles the same. He wore a translucent, green skirt with gold fabric covering some indecent places, and a tight collar on his neck, gold as everything else was, had another chain dangling from it that the prince himself held idly.

Their eyes met, but he looked away as though he had done something wrong just by looking at her as an equal.

"He is a slave." Diana said bluntly, and the prince chuckled, nodding and ruffling his hair. The boy leaned into the praise, studying her with a shy curiosity. 

"Quite a good one at that, but it is not for sale. And yourself? It is not every day a woman shows so much leg."

Diana was dressed as the Wonder Woman we know and love from the comics, and she folded her arms. "I shall dress how I please. And you shall release that boy."

Prince Regnai laughed, a booming loud sound, and said, "Oh, no. Look at him." He lifted Wally onto his knees by his hair as if to display his power.

"I can do what I please to him. He is a slave; he sits there and takes it, or he receives a beating. He knows his place quite well." he dropped Wally suddenly so that his face planted into the ground and placed a foot on Wally's head so he could not get up again.

"I could sit here and humiliate him all day, and he would not raise a hand against me. Isn't that right, Wally?"

"Y-yes, my prince." Wally agreed, tears gathering in his eyes once more.

Somehow, her pity was worse than her laughter could have been.

Diana, much to her own surprise, stood down. She should have known more about this issue before she demanded the prince himself freed his slave.

Reluctantly, she left, going to find someone who could teach her about this world. The place she thought of to go was the nearest temple, to pray to the gods for guidance.

That is where she met Shayera.