Here's the next chapter, showing how Steve Trevor was started on his journey to becoming Wonder Woman. Sorry for the wait!
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I try holding onto the memory of who I was before I was Wonder Woman, but saying it was a lifetime ago would be an understatement. I was 27 or so before, the actual year and date of my birthday seems like its lost to time, I'm sure I could find it somewhere but what difference would it make? Nobody that knew Steve Trevor is around to celebrate or send well wishes, so I've always thought it was best to let the past stay the past. Sorry, I start feeling a little sentimental when I use this lasso on myself. But in the days leading up to his death and Stefania's birth, I was a pilot. My job was technically spy, but being in the sky was what I loved, what I woke up for in the morning. I don't like it so much anymore, brings back bad memories. I do remember when I finally returned to what we called "man's world," the terror that the battle I fell during was now referred to as "World War I," I found it impossible to believe that enough countries were willing to say "let's do that again," but I guess that's what happens when the ones who decide to go to war are also exempt from taking part in it.
General Marston, my commanding officer at the time called me into his office to discuss something top secret. I'm, obviously, not someone within the bounds of the gag orders they swear us to anymore, plus, the lasso wouldn't let me keep it secret anyway. They had a mission for me: Pose as an escort and go to a mythical island full of women and... Judging by the look on your face, Bernadette, this was probably much more common knowledge where you're from? That's swell. But to me, it was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard. I thought it was a prank or maybe a test to see if I was willing to follow any order, regardless of how ridiculous. My mission was to visit the island under the guise of a military escort, see what was what, report back, then figure out if there was a way to get this island of beautiful dames to join forces with the US of A.
Marston was playing things close to the chest and wanted to see the look on my face when he told me the story without any proof. I gave him a "so my mission is to fly out into the middle of the ocean and cross my fingers that a magical island will be there to land on? Got it." And he laughed at me before he told me that the person I was escorting might just be worth the risk to make the trip if it meant alone time with her. I had a bit of a weakness for the ladies at the time, not in a gross way, at least by the standard most men were held to back then when it came to broads. But a one-way trip to the bottom of the ocean needed quite the lady to make it sound enticing, so he led me to the tent where she was staying on base, she wasn't there. I was fully convinced this was a prank and I was ready for the boys to give me Hell for it, but then I heard a voice that felt almost enchanting, I was smiling before I had even laid eyes on her, and by the time I did, I was beaming.
I'd heard the phrase "weak in the knees" before, but I'd never felt it. Hell, I didn't think anyone had felt it, like "butterflies in the stomach," but I was feeling that too. There was a warmth to her, but it felt like she had seen more than anyone on this base combined. I instantly trusted her. She smiled at me and said something that I couldn't hear, or maybe "couldn't comprehend while I was still taking her in" is a more appropriate description. She shook my hand. She looked beautiful and delicate but her grip felt like she was making an active effort not to crush every bone in my hand. I shook but it felt like I wasn't budging her, she shook back and it felt like I weighed nothing.
"Captain Steve Trevor" I told her, attempting to sound like I wasn't head over heels already.
"Diana of Themyscira" she said, an experienced smile with an undeniable innocence behind her eyes.
We were to leave in the morning, so I gave her a tour of the base and introduced her to the guys, she drank all of 'em under the table. It was a sight to behold, when I went to take her back to the tent, she asked if she could visit mine instead. I, or Steve rather, was never one to go all the way on a first date, not that this was a date, but she could have asked me to chop my hand off and I would have asked "which one?" So she came back with me, not missing a step despite the countless beers she put down to show the guys she was no slouch. She looked at the photos of my Mother, the keepsakes from my childhood, anything I'd keep in my bag when moving.
We stayed up in bed all night, me telling her about growing up, her telling me about Themyscira. In fact, most of what I remember from my old life is specifically because I went into such detail that night. I told her things I wasn't even sure I fully remembered myself then. But she had a way of reaching down and pulling those memories out. She told me that she came from an island of women, isolated from the rest of the world. Diana said that she was curious about the outside world so she snuck off one day to it for herself, but now that she sees what condition the rest of the world was in, she wanted to return home to implore her people to help. I asked her how they would feel about a man visiting their island for the first time and she laughed and responded that if they saw a man so handsome, I wouldn't make it past the shore in one piece.
She had kissed me, but it felt unfair to take advantage of someone I'd watch drink so much, even if she didn't show it a bit. She understood, but I still think about how numb my mind felt after that kiss. She really was a wonder. In the morning we laughed over the fact that neither of us had slept, but I hurried to spend the next hour camped out at the coffee pot to make sure I was awake for our flight to the middle of nowhere, literally. We got a lift to the plane I'd be flying, stopped on a carrier to refuel and point us in the right direction to the island we couldn't see, and then took off. When you're flying, its difficult to hear your passenger, so we were shouting. I think I got a bit of nerves about the fact we had used up most of the fuel and it was still just ocean as far as the eye could see. And when I get the nerves, at least when Steve got the nerves, he started spouting the worst jokes mankind would ever hear.
"You know, I really can't wait to see this island of women," I joked, if that could be considered a joke. She put a hand on my shoulder and I could feel it tense up like she was moving rapidly, I thought she was trembling. A lot of broads tremble when the adrenaline wears off their first time among the clouds. "It's alright, even if something did go wrong you seem like you could take it." I complimented, if that could be considered a compliment. I turned back to check on her in her seat. But she wasn't trembling, she was laughing, cackling even. I watched that long brunette hair disappear like some kind of parlor trick, replaced by fiery red locks, her outfit changing, and all of the warmth I felt evaporating like piss on a hot sidewalk. I found out then that none of those feelings were real, they were an illusion, a manipulation, just like her outfit. Now, I only felt fear.
"Look, I don't think you're actually making it to the island, Stevie. Alive anyway. But, I can make this an all-girl flight if you'd like." With a wave of her hand, I saw a purple light and I could feel my line of sight getting lower. Blonde hair fell in my face, I struggled to keep on-course as my hands started to shrink into my sleeves. "Oh my goodness, what a looker you are, it's a shame I can't break you in, but no, I have somewhere to be and need to stay on schedule, I've only got 100 years or so to set all of this in motion... Too bad."
"What are you talking about!" I screamed in a voice that wasn't my own as I sat up in order to be able to see where I was flying.
"This little bit of role-play has been... Fun actually. I might have to try it out again. You have been quite the gentleman for being a young man in the Air Force in 1918, almost makes me feel bad for all of this, really. Almost. But when the Backward-Flash or whatever his name is and his friend came to me with their proposal, I had one condition, they remove Diana from the equation. The real Diana, the one you loved in another life. What you felt when you saw me? I held onto that, a simple spell really, like a love potion! You didn't know the difference, I threw years worth of your love for her at you and you thought that you felt that strongly about me in seconds. Maybe when Diana was still around I should have used that trick to steal you from her."
"I don't understand..."
"I honestly didn't expect you to understand it. I'm just proud of this fun little trick I played on you. I have an errand to run in a certain deep sea kingdom and I needed a lift."
"So you're just going to leave me like this? To die in the ocean? Because you're mad at someone I've never met?" My voice made me sound so... Small.
"No. I'm not leaving you to die here. Not in the ocean... We wiped her from existence, I had them drop me off before Hippolyta created that beautiful abomination of clay, I cast a spell to block them from the view of the Gods. No blessings to bring their pottery project to life. But knowing you were out there, a fragile mortal tied so intrinsically to Diana, all of this time since then, I so dearly desired to twist the knife and here you are, just in time for my next errand! It was too perfect, what are the odds I'd be in the area during the short, short span in which you lived. I know you have no recollection of any of this, because it hasn't happened to you anymore thanks to us. But trust me, cutie, you deserve this. Anyway, this is my stop, and this is yours."
She snapped her fingers and disappeared, at the exact same instance in front of me, an island appeared as if out of thin air. My wing struck the side of a mountain which sent the plane tumbling through the treetops of a rainforest. I felt branches and shrapnel pierce my skin, I was thrown from the plane, the last thing I remember was looking at the limbs I'd left behind in it before turning to toward the ground to see the shore of the beach rapidly coming toward me.





























