SquidgeWorld Archive

Chapter Text

Diana woke up with a strange feeling; it was one of sheer confusion. She just had this dream, apparently, where she defeated a force capable of taking Superman himself and throwing him into the deepest reaches of space. Diana first thought this was the absolute truth, but then she looked out the window, and suddenly her entire world was questionable.

"Suffering Sappho," she exclaimed, then beating herself in her mind for saying such a corny expression. "I'm not in New York! I'm in San Francisco!"

As she leaped out of bed, she kept wondering how she wound up across the continent from where she would normally call "home." Something was definitely afoot, and she intended to find out exactly what, but she knew the very first thing to do was to acquire more information.

As she went outside, she looked at the signs. Some of them were just regular advertising, but a few caught her attention. The first one was a sign for the Justice League, and she thought to herself, "Thank the Gods the League is still here. Maybe they could give me some insight." The second sign was equally weird and abhorrent.

She looked at it with interest first and then with disgust. It was one of Superman standing tall with the words "Superman is GOD" above his picture. After seeing this, she looked again at the Justice League sign and saw the entire thing. It said, "Justice League not needed. Go Superman!" Diana was always taught that worship should only be reserved for the Gods themselves, not to humans. She became unnerved at such a sight.

As she thought about the signs, her first notion was that there had to be a League at some point or else there wouldn't be a sign stating that they were not needed. She immediately changed into her uniform and went to the rooftop. Up there, something else happened.

She tried to take off, but her gift of flight just wouldn't work. For some reason, she couldn't fly and she got frustrated at this notion. "I know I can fly," she thought to herself. "I know I can, but for some reason, I can't. Everything seems weird, but I still have my uniform and the Lasso of Truth. Someone has to know something."

She went down the stairs to the street level in a state of pure confusion. This has never happened to her, her powers completely just failing without reason. Just then, she noticed a strange man, looking at her as though she was something created entirely out of fiction. All he did was stare, and for some reason, Diana knew there was a special reason why.

She thought who she could turn to that was in walking distance, but she also thought that if nothing she held as true WAS true, then there was no way to ensure anybody was where she thought they should be. As she looked at the JLA billboard again, she saw that she was in the picture, so there had to be a way to get to JLA headquarters.

The easiest but most embarrassing route for this would be to ask someone. As she tried to stop and ask someone, she found out these people act like little automatons, not thinking, just doing. Then she saw something flying toward her from high above. She instantly recognized him as he came closer.

"Superman, what is going on here," she asked.

"What do you mean Wonder Wimp? Everything seems just fine."

"Pardon me?" First, Diana thought the slip up was intentional, but after a pause without a response, she knew it was no mistake. "What do you mean by Wonder Wimp," she said as she walked toward a car. She put her hands on the car and then said, "I am not weak. I can lift this--" With that, Diana tried to lift the car, but to no avail. "GAEA! What is going on?!"

"Wonder Wimp, you always forget that your powers fail you when you need them and ESPECIALLY when I'm around," Superman chuckled.

"This is not a laughing matter, Kal!" It was at this point; she heard screaming coming from a couple of yards down the busy street. "I need to go," she said as she raced to the situation, knowing her flight gift would not work.

It was something that normally would be rather easy by her standards--a bank robbery. This was however, not her normal standard and some intimidation had to be done to diffuse the situation. Diana went through the doors and immediately said, "Please put down your weapons."

The robbers laughed at this notion coming from her. "Oh, please it's Wonder Wimp. Nothing to worry about here."

It was at this point Diana had an idea. Superman said that her powers failed when she needed them; maybe if she could convince herself that she didn't need her powers, she would be able to use them. She carefully concentrated on this notion as she made her way to a desk and took hold of it.

"Hey, look, she thinks she's strong! Are you gonna lift that big heavy desk all by yourself?"

"Yes, I am," she said, still concentrating on her powers not being needed. She took the desk and lifted it high above her head, then sending it careening into the bank robbers, stopping any hope they had of a successful escape.

The robbery was foiled, much to Superman's chagrin. He whisked her away to a nearby rooftop to discuss what happened.

"What are you trying to do? Everyone knows I am the best."

"I had to stop them and I would do it again if I had to."

"But you're ruining my publicity," Superman said as a white light began to permeate the entire scene. Everything disappeared, Diana included and what would happen next would be equally shocking to the Princess.

As penance for destroying two of her sisters, former queen Hippolyta wore the mantle of Wonder Woman in the past and the present. Now she has taken on a new, more challenging role, given to her by none less than the Gods themselves. She is THE EAGLE!

Her time was over, and she knew it. Her daughter reclaimed the mantle of Wonder Woman, but the former queen wanted to stay in Man's World for a while longer. When she did this though, she found herself in the middle of the Giganta War. She fought hard in the final battle for everyone's freedom, but it does appear that the peoples of the world just didn't understand this, at least in her mind. She still saw intolerance, greed, anger, racism, and all the other evils of men. These were, of course, evils that she wanted to eradicate and she lectured and instructed every day to women. Her ultimate goal was empowerment and not for special rights, but for equal rights. There was a big difference, and she understood this from her time spent in ancient Athens. Now the rules were different.

The rules changed when the Gods themselves gave her the mysterious title of "The Eagle." She constantly wondered about this and why she was deserving of this title. She also remembered their talking about her being "the new Eagle," meaning there was one before her. It kept her thinking about who the previous Eagle was, not knowing she was the temporal fragment originally known as the Earth-2 Wonder Woman. She always thought of this, and it was no different when she prayed to the goddess Athena.

"Great Athena," she began, "I ask of your knowledge. The Gods have been cryptic lately, and I do not understand why. I ask of you to help me with this Eagle thing. I don't understand it. I ask of you as I chant my prayers."

With a flash of light, she found herself upon the high Mountain of Olympus at the Temple of the Moon. Outside the door, she found Athena herself.

"Great Athena!"

"The Eagle does not understand her title. All will be explained soon. We will help you before you make the ultimate sacrifice."

"You mean, I will die, like the Gods said before?"

"No, Eagle. You shall destroy the entire universe."

She awoke from this vision after the trademark flash in shock. How would she destroy the universe? The very thought of it disgusted her, as it meant the end of everything, including the daughter she loved so much. It would include the end of her people, finally at peace. Would this also mean that the great mission of peace would also end? She couldn't think about these notions any longer; there was a lecture to give.

She appeared at Gateway University in all of her royal trimmings, if for nothing more than to keep appearances. The crown was noticeably gone, but she did carry a simple scepter to remind all of her heritage. As she entered the room, it was with the same notion she carried herself by in the Second World War. She was regal, commanding the attention of everyone in the room and she went to the podium; all eyes were on her.

"I would like to thank everyone for being here today. It's not often that I am called to give a guest lecture, as it is normally something that my daughter would do. In any case, I will try to do my best. Our nation is called Themyscira, and it was founded on three tenets: peace, love, and equality. We never sought special rights. Quite the opposite, we wanted equal rights. In the world we were in though, it seemed as if nobody would take our message seriously. They laughed at us, and told stories that we killed our children and brutally raped men while continually having strange lesbianesque festivals. It wasn't true. At that time, we needed to coexist with the rest of the world before we could begin our teachings. One of the things I wanted to do was make this more of an interactive lecture than to just have you hear me talk to you. Please feel free to ask me a question at any time. Yes, you in the middle with the hat."

"Were there lesbians in your society?"

Hippolyta checked at this question. "I knew this question would arise. This seems to the topic of many a discussion, and many different groups still see us as what I said before. To answer your question, yes there were and there still are. We welcomed them, just like anybody in our society. The Next question goes to the lady in the front row."

"Did you ever have slaves like other societies?"

"This is always tough for me to talk about, just like in any other civilized society. Eventually, we lost our way and became just a society of women. We stopped believing in our mission, and yes, we eventually owned slaves. After our exile, though, we discussed this in the Amazon Senate and it was one of the hottest discussions we ever had. We gave it much thought, and we decided that the slaves should receive the same rights as anyone else. They were living breathing people and our nation, just as other societies did, lost that notion. The slaves were freed, and we celebrated this as one people. Next question?"

"What were the Gods like?"

"I think you mean 'What ARE the Gods like?' They do exist, and I have talked to them. I know this made many of you judge me as insane, but I know what I believe, and I believe I have talked to them. They are fickle to say the least, and the old saying that they work in mysterious ways is true also. Are there any more questions?" After a pause, she saw another hand shoot up. "Yes?"

"When you were the queen--"

This question could not be finished, because then, the doors flew open and a man rushed into the room. He looked rather bulky and when he opened his coat to show off the explosives taped to his chest, everyone started to panic.

"Everyone sit down and shut up or the whole place blows!"

"STOP!" Hippolyta's scream was heard somehow, and he did stop. Unfortunately, it appeared the entire world stopped also. "What is going on," she voiced to herself, and it was then Athena reappeared.

"Eagle, you have grown. Your wings are beginning to fully spread."

"What do you mean? This is your doing, not mine."

"No, it is not. The Eagle did this by herself."

"I can't do this. I have the same powers as my daughter except I cannot fly."

"The Eagle had only those because that was what she believed."

"The Godwave hit me and then I--"

"No, The Eagle does not understand. You ARE the Godwave and your training begins now."