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Learning To Fly	By : Isabelle_Jennings Category: DC Verse Comics > Wonder Woman Views: 6906 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: this story is non-profit, I don't own Wonder Woman or any DC Comics characters

Chapter List
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PART 2: SOME THINGS SHOULD BE BROKEN
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--- DIANA (continued) ---
Diana flew high in the night sky, few clouds left about, the moon's light and that of the stars reflecting on the waters below. She looked up again, imagining she could see the storm barrier she knew was there but could not see at this distance unless she focused her eyes deliberately on it, which she did not want to do. She floated there for minutes on end, looking off into the seemingly endless night sky and thought to herself: What am I to do? Should she listen to her lover, and try to simply let time work it's magic upon her, or should she... should she listen to the call within her? And was it a call, or was she being a fool, letting her own doubts about herself rule her where she would be wiser not to? Phillipus loved her, she would have to be blind not to see it was so. Wouldn't it be the proof of her heart's quality to honor that gift and stay for her when she was so wanted?
She sighed. If only the decision were a clear one. Her doubts had given birth to many children this night. She wanted to believe the best of her lover, but even there, Phillipus's words could be taken in a poorer light that she did not like to think on. How she longed to know for sure. To have a sense for this, to be able to tell what was truth from what was not.
She turned her back to the sky and flew to the spot she had met Phillipus on the cliff earlier in the day. She sat on the edge of the cliff there and just let herself think.
She hadn't realized how the time had passed when she saw the first rays of sunlight. Sighing to herself, she levitated up and alighted on the ground, deciding to walk back to her home. "I have decided then--I will stay." She told herself, having decided sometime during the night that she could not quite bring herself to say no to her lover's plea. Even if she were not quite sure of herself, she decided she had to believe in the one she claimed to be in love with--otherwise, what was the point of being in love in the first place? If you didn't believe, didn't trust enough to open yourself, you couldn't even have very good love making, could you? So she had to believe, otherwise, she'd be a coward, and that was the one thing she most dearly wished not to ever be.
She thought of going back to their home to tell her lover of her decision, but instead she decided on a whim to go somewhere else. And so, in seconds she found herself in a far off corner of the island. By the water there was a tower that hadn't been used in many years for anything but storage until Aresia had asked to have it for her own. She had wanted space for... reflection, Diana remembered the word the blonde haired younger woman had used. Aresia had come to the island from the outside world, cast upon their shores in a shipwreck. She had had a terrible experience at the hands of men on the ship she had been a passenger on. She had seen her mother be ravaged and killed before her eyes. Diana found she could hardly imagine such things, even now. She understood the words meanings intellectually, but the fact of them just made so little sense to her.
She rang the bell by the door and waited a moment. "Aresia?" Diana called. "It's Diana, are you at home?" She asked, but got no immediate answer. She sighed and let herself float off a little, looking past the tower out to the ocean, listening to the waves. She had made friends with Aresia, had been one of the only ones who really had been able to (not that others hadn't tried of course), she closed herself off so much. They had even been lovers, once, if only for two nights. Aresia had cried the second night and told her she needed time and that she'd wanted to be alone. Diana had given her that, approaching her again in a few days. They'd stayed friends, but had never been lovers again, and in recent years Aresia had been keeping to herself more and more and Diana had let the friendship wane more than she probably should have, occupied with her own growing inner struggles and with a new lover as she had been.
"Diana?" Aresia's voice spoke, Diana turned and smiled to see her friend at the door. "Hi." Aresia smiled back a little shyly.
Diana floated down to the ground close to her friend and smiled more brightly. "You have a lover in your bed, I can see it in your face." She spoke her instant appraisal happily, hugging her. "And she makes you very happy." She assessed, standing back and looking into Aresia's eyes.
"She does..." Aresia admitted, tilting her head to the side a little and smiling just a bit indulgently to her friend. Diana had always had a way of being surprisingly perceptive where Aresia had been concerned. Sometimes Diana thought perhaps that was the reason they hadn't worked as lovers, that she'd seen too much of her friend too quickly and that had caused Aresia to shy away from her. "Would you... like to meet her?"
"If you want me to?" Diana asked, playing with her friend's hair a little.
Aresia took Diana's hand in hers and kissed it in a way that showed how she cared. "Come in then." She took Diana by the hand and led her inside and up the stairs to the top level of the tower and Aresia's bed chamber. The warm sea breeze blew in and the view was lovely, especially, Diana had to admit, if she looked over at the bed where a woman was opening her eyes and getting up in bed, smiling to them both disarmingly. Diana was surprised though, because... she'd never seen this woman before. She thought she knew everyone. True, there were thousands of women in Themyscira, but Diana had been sure she knew them all by sight, knew all their names, and had talked with them all at least once in her life, most a good deal more than that.
"Hello..." Diana offered, curiously looking this woman over and trying to decide if she were... trustworthy.
"Hello... Diana of Themyscira. It's a pleasure to meet you." The woman offered her hand, covering her chest with a sheet.
Diana took the hand and held it for a little, her and the woman's eyes holding one another's. Diana let go and looked over to Aresia who was just now sitting down on the bed next to her lover.
"This is Cassandra Colchis, she's a..." She looked over to her lover momentarily.
"Visitor. To your beautiful island." She told, getting out of bed and going to retrieve her clothes, giving Diana a view of her unclothed body. Nudity wasn't a taboo in Themysciran culture, though it was accepted to wear clothing in public; in a residence or on the beach it was very common to go unclothed if you preferred. This woman looked like she'd had to take a moment to decide between modesty and expediency--apparently having decided on the latter. Diana saw Aresia looking at her lover with obvious want as Cassandra got dressed and that made her smile, that she was at ease with herself enough to feel that way in front of her. She seemed... better. More comfortable in her own skin, Diana supposed.
"If you are, that would be a first to my knowing. Unless you are a goddess, but I've never heard of a goddess with your name." Diana spoke curiously, sitting down on the edge of the bed a little ways from Aresia. "How did you get here?"
"Oh, you'd be surprised where I've been, Diana... No, I'm no goddess. Though, like yourself, I'm not without... power. And you needn't worry over me with your friend. After all, would I have been able to come here at all had your goddesses wished to bar me?" Cassandra asked.
Diana just shook her head and smiled a little. "You are a wonder then." She told.
Cassandra titled her head to the side a little and smiled as though amused. "If you say so, I thank you for the complement." She replied, moving between Diana and Aresia to get back on the bed. Diana turned around and Aresia went to snuggle up to her lover against the headboard. "Come closer." Cassandra beckoned Diana.
Diana complied, taking off her sandals and moving to the center of the bed and crossing her legs. "You haven't been to see me in a while." Aresia commented. "Is it because of Phillipus... or because of me?"
Diana tilted her head down a little. Aresia was nothing if not too the point--even tactlessly blunt at times--it was another quality Diana liked in her. "Some because of Phillipus." She admitted, looking up to her friend. "None because of you. Mostly because of myself. I fear, besides time with my lover, I've been rather... anti-social, of late. Perhaps you could relate in some small way?" She teased Aresia.
Aresia smiled. "Me? Oh, never sister." She actually blushed, just a tiny little bit. Diana smiled at that. She was always acting... strong, in control around other people, but she wasn't like that when the two of them were alone. She was happy Aresia had found a lover she could show this part of herself around too. "So, uh, what made you imitate me then? And, then, are you here for advice on brooding perhaps? I can give pointers." She offered playfully.
Diana saw Cassandra close her eyes and snuggle into Aresia's hair a little, sniffing her, at this. It was cute.
"No, I am as talented as I care to be in that area, thank you for your offering." Diana answered with a little of a smile. "But, what... made me your imitation, is a... restlessness. I wish to test myself, fly against the barrier. I wish it more and more as the days pass. But everyone tells me no. To give myself time. What do you think?" She asked.
Aresia was quiet a moment, thinking. "I think... maybe you should go. The outside world, they... there are probably a lot of young girls, women, out there, that you could help. But... it is... awful, and ugly. I wish I could... I wish it could be like it is here, with no... men. Sometimes I dream about killing them. As though if I could travel through time, as I am now, and kill the men who murdered my mother. Save her from them--save everyone. But... it's your decision, Diana. I would, I would never tell you to leave your home, for a place like that."
Diana could see the anger, the hatred in her friend's eyes. She had seen that look in some of her other sisters' eyes when they talked about the before, but never so intense. It made her sad, but it also made her angry as well, that someone had put that look in her dear friend's eyes. "Thank you." Diana answered softly.
"For what?" Aresia asked.
"Many things." She simply replied with a small smile. "And what about you, mysterious visitor to a hidden land? What do you think I should choose?"
Cassandra looked to her. "Do what makes your heart... sing." She advised. "Is that to fly away, or stay with your lover here?"
Diana thought of it. "Both." She admitted.
"Which one more?" Cassandra asked.
"Differently. One is a wonder, one I won't know until I travel there. The other is... I am in love, but it is... fragile, I think. I fear it may break, easily." She admitted.
"Some things should be broken, Diana. Some things, you smile just a little when you break them, don't you? And anyway, if this love of yours is worth having, it wouldn't break so easily as that, would it?" She offered. "Don't act, or fail to act, from fear. Fear is a monster Diana, to be beaten, bloodied and butchered, at every opportunity. Love makes your heart fly, princess of paradise, but it also makes it afraid of falling more than anything else."
Diana just looked at this woman and shook her head a little. "Unusual advice, but... worthy, none the less, I think." She admitted. "I will think on it. And I thank you as well. Now, tell me, if it would please you to, what is your story, that you come to our island so?" She was still curious, and she needed to think on that counsel both of these women given a while.
Cassandra smiled and met Diana's eyes intensely. "I like that you can meet my gaze so easily." She complemented. "Not many can." She looked to the ocean and seemed to let her thoughts drift. "I am from the same homeland as your people, your sisters. Greece. I was born a long time before your mother and her sister colonized the Sapphic Isle though. I was born on another island. I was singularly gifted in the arts of magic. A long story made short, the magic inside me lets me neither age nor die. I've lived many lives, known many people, and now I am here. As for why? I visited once, many years ago, but found no peace here. I thought to perhaps give it another try. So far, it's going somewhat better than I'd expected." She kissed her lover.
"Does my mother know you are here?" Diana asked curiously.
"Only the three of us know that." Cassandra answered.
"Besides the goddesses." Diana allowed.
Cassandra laughed softly. "Well, I wouldn't presume to speak for them."
Diana smiled a little at the corner of her mouth, not quite sure what to make of this woman. She was hard to get a sense for really, more so than anyone Diana had ever met. She could usually get a feel for a woman the first time she laid eyes on them, that sense did not come so easily this time. She shook her head a little. If Cassandra were as old and as well traveled as she claimed, perhaps that explained it. Perhaps she was simply very complex inside? "Well, you've both given me much to think about, but I think I should leave my friend Aresia to further puzzle out the mysteriously beautiful woman she has taken to her bed, yes sister?" She asked Aresia, moving to get up from the bed and retrieve her sandals.
"A task I will enjoy." She kissed her lover and then went to hug Diana goodbye.
"I wish you luck with your soul searching, Princess Diana of Themyscira." Cassandra gave Diana a hug herself. "I'm sure we will meet again."
"Yes, come back and visit... if you're not off... testing your limits." Aresia offered.
"I will. Should I leave, I will return at some point after all." She told, getting up off the bed and leaving.
Diana went down to the beach and took off her sandals again and carrying them with her by the straps to walk in the sand a while. No one usually came to this part of the island, so she was alone with her thoughts. After a while of walking, she sat down on a log and gazed out at the ocean, then a while after that, she took off her clothing and went for a swim. She thought perhaps her friend, Panopea of the Neriedes might be there waiting for her to play games with as sometimes happened, but she wasn't. She was actually kind of glad of that though, the time by herself did seem to make her feel better, it gave her time and space to think
--- PHILLIPUS ---
Phillipus sat in a lounge seat in the home she shared with Diana in the palace. She still had her own rooms, she supposed, but as things had developed between her and Diana, she had moved in with her and left her previous home vacant.
She'd talked at length with Queen Hippolyta about Diana and she'd confided her feeling and her fears with her, as much as she felt able to, and had sought her advice. She considered Hippolyta one of her closest friends, the one she most often turned to when in need of advice, and Hippolyta wholeheartedly approved of her as a match for her daughter. The advice and comfort she had received though had not done very much to help her decide what she should do though. She still felt woefully inept in the role she found herself playing. She wished, more and more, that love could just be simple. It always felt that way starting out. With Diana especially, things had just clicked, right from the start... but of course, it hadn't lasted. She knew, for some perhaps it did. Her dear friends Menalippe and Penelope being the obvious shining example--the couple had been together, monogamous, for nearly as long as she'd known them and they never seemed to fall out of love or lose passion for one another. She'd never known them to have even a small argument for that matter--a fact that she was, actually, not just a little dumbfounded by if she were being honest, given her own life experience in this area. Her amazement at them not withstanding though, it did tell her very plainly that finding lasting love -was- possible. It was just that she, apparently, had little talent for it.
It was then that Meda, one of her four captains, came in and asked if they could talk a while. Phillipus accepted. She and Meda had been lovers before, on and off. She'd lost count of how many times they'd gotten together and broken things off between them over the years. Meda was apparently just as bad at long term relationships as was she. They'd always remained friends though. Of everyone on the island, she supposed Meda was probably the one who knew her most completely. Flaws and all.
"I'm not the only one troubled this morning, I see." Meda observed softly, sitting on the other end of the seat with her, facing her.
"No... what troubles you though?" Phillipus asked, actually more than happy to focus on someone else's troubles rather than her own.
"Clyce left me yesterday..." She admitted softly, shaking her head. She looked a little like she might cry actually.
Phillipus sat up a little and moved over towards her friend, touching her hand. "I'm... very sorry to hear that." She comforted gently. It was downright depressing to her, in fact. Meda had been with Clyce for nearly the last forty years now, she'd thought maybe they'd last. She'd been happy for her, despite that it had made her jealous sometimes before she and Diana had gotten together.
Meda smiled charmingly to her. "It was good wile it lasted." She replied simply. "But some things are meant to be broken, I suppose. Not so with our friendship at least." She squeezed Phillipus's hand.
"Never that." Phillipus smiled reassuringly to her.
"No, never that." Meda affirmed, sitting up and kissing the back of her hand softly.
"Meda..." Phillipus met her friend's eyes and was somehow lost in them. Lost in time. And somehow, it was as though it were the first time for them. She remembered, she felt it, felt her heart beat fast in anticipation of that first sweet kiss she knew was only moments away. They'd been friends so long, and she'd been there for her to help mend her broken heart after the exodus. Of course it made since that they should be lovers.
"Kiss me." Meda softly encouraged her.
Phillipus did so without reservation, leaning the willing woman back on the pillows and running her hands over her body.
"I am betrayed." She heard the soft, rough sounding words and stopped what she was doing, looking down into Meda's smiling face. She got up, suddenly feeling herself again and realizing what she'd done. She looked over and saw Diana standing there, saw the tears on her cheeks and the devastated look in her eyes.
"Diana..." She looked over at Meda who now had an innocent, questioning look on her face--as though to say: 'What's the matter, what's wrong?' It made no sense. She looked back to Diana. "Diana, no... I didn't... that is I..." She was at a loss for what to say, how to explain herself.
"There is no need for words, my love. You were right. They don't matter as much as I thought they did." She told with quiet emotion as she turned to leave.
"Diana, no..." Phillipus tried again, but Diana was gone in an instant.
She sat down on her heels, stunned.
"You must feel very foolish in this moment, I imagine." Meda said.
"You..." Phillipus turned on her friend in anger, but it wasn't Meda who was there to meet her eyes, it was a woman she'd never seen before. "Who in Hades..."
"Shh..." Cassandra spoke, touching Phillipus's face and moving to kiss her again.
The kiss was like a blow to the head from behind for Phillipus, she didn't see it coming and it laid her out cold before she knew what hit her.
"You've played your part in this lover's tragedy. Now is simply time for the next scene. Truth be told though, nether I not The Fates know it's seeming. She may come back to you yet, my foolish one." Cassandra spoke to her before she disappeared from the room without a trace, almost as though she had never been there at all.
Hours later, when Phillipus awoke, she remembered none of this though. She would look for Diana. Hope. Pray. But in the end, she would conclude that Diana had simply left without saying a word to her. She wouldn't know the truth, wouldn't know why. Her heart would simply break, and she would be left with the choice of all abandoned lovers: Wait for your love to return, or grieve and try to move on.
What path she would chose, only time could tell.
--- DIANA ---
Crying, Diana found herself at her friend Aresia's door again, ringing the bell. Aresia answered more quickly this time. And, upon seeing how upset she was, immediately asked her to come in. They went up to her room and Aresia offered her all the comfort she could, telling her that it would be alright and that she'd find someone else who would be even better for her. Cassandra came in around then, and similarly offered comforting words. Diana told them both that she had made up her mind and was going to leave on her journey, through the storm barrier, to the world beyond.
Aresia told her that she supported her, but again, warned her to guard against men, that they should not be trusted, that they were enemies. Diana asked Cassandra if this was so. Cassandra told her that Aresia spoke the truth, but that there were many truths in the world and that Diana would have to chose which ones were hers. She gave Diana a necklace with a small, clear crystal on it. She told Diana that if she ever needed her help, to touch the crystal to her lips and say her full name and she would come. Aresia, for her part, gave her a pair of daggers to take with her. Ones blessed by Athena herself, which Hippolyta had given Aresia as gifts when she had completed her training as a novice warrior. Diana had at first refused the gift, knowing how much Aresia valued them, but Aresia insisted, saying she would not be able to forgive herself if she sent her off without weapons into the world of her birth. Diana relented and accepted one of the daggers only, wishing to set her friend's mind at ease, and saying she should keep the other one as a reminder of their friendship. Aresia agreed to the compromise.
Diana thanked her and hugged her friend and Cassandra goodbye and asked Aresia to tell her mother goodbye for her and to explain for her why she was leaving. Aresia promised that she would, and Diana left, up into the sky, flying up to dare the storm at last.
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(to be continued)
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Learning To Fly