I saw bright lights, my assumption was that a guy like me made it to Heaven somehow, a guy who would proudly pick up a weapon and drop a body no-questions-asked for the powers that be. Funny how introspective you can get when you see your legs going in the opposite direction of the rest of you. But no, despite my belief that there was no way I was actually still alive after the fall, I wasn't dead. Little did I know, from that point I probably never would be. The heavenly voices I'd heard were actually those of my Sisters, only they weren't my Sisters yet, they were concerned onlookers that saw a woman in need and did everything in their power to help her. They dug up clay from the ground and set about rebuilding the 78% of my body that I'd lost on the way down, I remember them raving about the sky finally opening. I remembered the sorceress mentioning that she'd cut the island off from the view of the Gods. I heard a commanding voice, one with age, wisdom, and all the tenacity that centuries of leading a tribe of Warrior Women essentially exiled from the modern world. She called up to the skies, and it sounds like you've seen a lot Flash, so I'm not sure if this will be as unbelievable to you as the imaginary people I pictured myself explaining it to in my head, but the skies actually spoke back to her. She pled and demanded they help me and my tenuous connection to my mortal consciousness started to grow more clear and firm until I opened my eyes to see the women smiling down at me.
I would come to know these women as Hippolyta, my Mother, in the sense that I'd all but lost my life and she gave it back, Artemis, Nubia, the people who would grow to become my closest friends and family, but then, in that moment, they were a bunch of super powerful strangers who rebuilt the body I hadn't had the chance to get used to brought me back by directly petitioning the Gods to do so. I'd been brought up believing there was only one God and that he was pretty stern but hands-off, here I was being brought back to life by a whole handful of them. They'd wrapped me in bandages to help the new clay limbs bond then left me on the beach for fear of harming me before I was fully healed. I lied on the beach for days, feeling the loose clay forming my limbs harden, then loosen, then become flesh. A part of me. Or was I a part of it? I usually wouldn't get caught up in transcendent hokum like that, but I was immobile on a beach for a few days, so, "when in Themyscira" as they say.
When I could finally move on my own, I had been baking in the sun and I had no idea where the women had went. I found out later that they'd come looking for me but my dumb ass wandered into the woods and tried to fend for myself. I was aware of how I'd changed, but that didn't stop the existential crisis that hit me when I caught my reflection in a lake I'd stopped to drink from deep in the forest. I don't know if it's conceited to say that I'm the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen, I played no part in my appearance. I started to lose my sense of self, think about all I'd lost, but then, damndest thing, I saw a fucking kangaroo. Or at least, I thought it was a Kangaroo, its a divergent species native to Themyscira called a Kanga. They're actually capable of flying, well, more jumping really high and really far, kind of like Superman before he got the hang of it. Anyway, that really puts it into perspective, you're on a magical island with flying Kangaroos after a group of immortal women rebuilt your body out of clay and you're worried that you're pretty now? So I sucked it up and looked for civilization.
When I came upon them they were having a celebration. What of? Another day passed, they don't have work weeks or schedules. They train, they build, they celebrate. Wine by the barrel-full, the most elegant music I'd ever heard played live, laughter. No creeps lording over them, no worries of what's to come, no godsdamned war keeping them on edge. When they saw me, none of them had looks of concern, unease, or even pity for what I'd been through. One of them, I'm still not sure which, shouted "Sister!" And they all surrounded, embraced, greeeted me and supplied with the most delicious wine I'd ever had. I was never much of a wine guy, but I guess I wasn't any kind of guy anymore. In the moment I'd felt like I had no qualms with what I'd become, but when they started to treat me as one of them, talk about how excited they were to have a new woman amongst them, offer me some of their skirts and girly outfits, I started to feel a little upset about it. They understood, they'd been alone on an island for centuries, of course they'd be patient.
Back where I come from, if you threw a fit, the commanding officer would make sure that rebellion was beaten out of you. But they gave me my space, made sure I was fed, and constantly reminded me that I'd be welcome to join them as soon as I felt ready to do so. Eventually I'd had enough time to convince myself that my reservations were nonsense. I was a woman by every verifiable metric now, the fluidity of gender isn't something society was very aware of back then, but that's neither here or there. If I were a woman in every way that could be verified, why was I so adamant about drawing the line at a skirt? I apologized for my attitude and accepted my new attire. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have immediate reservations after seeing myself in them. My Sisters didn't really have mirrors, not that they didn't believe in them, they just had no reason to have them, so I had to borrow a reflective shield to get a look at myself. I was lost in the sight, until Artemis, one of my Sisters, challenged me to a sparring match. I got my ass kicked.
It took some effort to shake off the competitive streak I'd developed before but I think I handled it decently, that was when Hippolyta took me aside to talk to me about my place on the island. She asked who I was before, I told her that I was a pilot. After explaining what a pilot was and who I was a pilot for, she boiled it down to the simple concept, "So you were a soldier." After that, she explained to me that I had to take a role on this island to be seen as equal among my Sisters, she doesn't usually offer such counseling unsolicited, but since she gave me my new lease on my life, she felt responsible for me. Like I was her child, then she told me all about her yearning for a child, that she felt being a Mother was her purpose, but being on an island of all women and being cut off from the Gods who could grant such a thing, its like I was a Godsend, except she knew the Gods weren't sending help. So she felt my arrival was something greater, even above that. I thought it was silly at first, but as the memories of my old life and my old Mother faded, I started to consider her my Mother just as she considered me her Daughter.
It's hard to keep track of time without calendars or bills or obligations, but it did eventually seem apparent that I wasn't getting any older. I knew that they all looked great for their age but I hadn't, until then, considered that I was now one of them. Immortal. I'm glad the realization took me so long, because I think if I had known nothing bad could happen to me, I may not have tried so desperately during my training to avoid being hurt and probably wouldn't have been as effective in battle as a result. My old life and anything before that day I became Stefania, the name Hippolyta chose for me, was a distant blur. But I remembered the battle, there was a battle. There was a war. It wasn't over. I'd felt like I abandoned people I didn't remember to a fate I didn't understand.
A ceremony was held in which I'd officially take my place on the island as a warrior, I'd officially be declared Hippolyta's Daughter, and be sworn in as a Sister to all of the other women on the island. The only thing I had to do was tell them that that was who I was. They presented me with a golden, glowing lasso, the same one I used on you, they wrapped it around my wrists, and asked me who I was. The lasso compels me to tell the truth, based on the people I've seen try to resist, it begins to hurt, pushing every urge within you to truthfully answer the question being asked of you. But to my surprise, I felt nothing, "I am Stefania of Themyscira, Daughter of Hippolyta" rolled off my tongue just as natural as anything I'd ever said. There was much drinking and celebrating that night, not often that a new Sister joins their ranks. It would be a natural assumption that they fool around with each other, the only ones on the island, never having seen a man, spend all day sweating and sparring, and your assumption would be correct. I didn't partake because, well, even if I'd accepted the new person I was and the new place I belonged, I still hadn't grasped the concept of having a new body that was the opposite of everything I was before, so I politely declined their advances. I knew I was shorter, even though the only thing I had for reference was the seat of my old plane I'd found washed ashore. No matter how strong I got, stronger than a human could ever be, I felt soft. I would have to shave twice a day if I had work in the morning and a date at night, now I couldn't grow a thing under my eyebrows. Sweet benefit of being an Amazon I guess.
Things were great there, but I couldn't help think about the outside world, the people I left behind, the battle I checked out of early. So I told my Mother that I wanted to go back, not to stay, but to make sure I'd done everything I could to prevent loss of life. To make sure the witch that did this to me wasn't still out there, terrorizing anyone. The Amazons spoke legends of Circe, an immortal sorceress, but they could think of no reason she would hold a grudge against them. After a long back-and-forth she eventually agreed to grant my wish and allow me to return to Man's World. Given a boat and sent out into the open ocean on my own, I felt a sense of panic being out in the open water again, but I was determined to make it back to land, to see what fresh chaos this woman has brought to the world and put a stop to it. I wondered what I might see and wondered just how long I'd been gone.
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1944. Romania.
"Right this way. But remember, it's our secret." The witch smirked as she spoke to the teenage Arabic girl in her native tongue as she led her up the mountainside.
"If you are misleading me, my Father will parade the heads of your loved ones through this village." She replied, unamused but still curious enough to follow.
"If you trust me in regard to nothing else, trust that I don't have a single loved one in this village. I'm here for two reasons, to share this secret with you and because I just adore the castle." The leader of the village had lived in the castle until just about the time the red-haired woman arrived. Anybody who ventured up the hillside to question her about the disappearance disappeared just as mysteriously. She had promised them a plentiful harvest and livestock even in the dead of Winter. She delivered. The ground remained fertile and there were more pigs than the villagers knew what to do with, between that and the intimidation of being disappeared as well, everyone decided to leave well enough alone.
"Then just your head, it will save on pikes." The teenager quipped.
"Do you truly concern yourself with the amount of unoccupied pikes you have on hand? A beautiful young girl like you?" The witch asked, the young girl blushed and instinctively raised a hand to the large scar that took up half of her face, including through where her left eye used to be, running the few fingers she had left across it. Probably someone who had a score to settle against her Father. The source of her wounds were unimportant, to the witch at least. The winding path had led them to a cavernous opening with a tricky, long trek down to a natural pool with an unnatural purple glow, a pool that the girl instantly recognized.
"Why is it purple?" She asked, illuminated by waters.
"It's like the one you have back home, but with a few extra touches from yours truly. I thought we girls could not only de-age us and heal us, but make us look as pretty as possible. Go ahead." She motioned the girl toward it, their proximity seemed to make the pool bubble.
"Father says that-"
"Nobody cares." The witch interrupted as she shoved the young girl into the pool, she struggled and gasped. The witch laughed before reaching out and helping the girl out, she now looked a few years younger. She blinked, astonished that she was blinking, she could see out of both eyes. As she looked at her hand, realizing she had each digit back, she quickly touched her face, running her fingers along the area where her scar used to be. "I'll give you a moment. Careful climbing up, the pit makes you a little... hazy for a while."
The witch scaled back up to the entrance of the cave, where several men dressed in black ninja outfits, wielding swords. The witch smirked, as one stepped forward to issue a threat, he suddenly dropped to the ground and screamed in pain as his form shifted and altered to that of a pig, too panicked and mindless to comprehend the cruel fate that had just befallen it, it scampered away and started to sniff for food. She did the same thing to each of the remaining would-be assassins before sitting down, using one of the pigs as a footrest, conjuring an apple from nothing and eating it until the young girl was ready to join her. The girl tried to thank her, but the witch shushed her.
"No thanks necessary, Talia. Remember this location, use it as much as you'd like, if your Father asks, tell him you DON'T remember. All I ask in return. Run along now, I've got a few decades to kill."
