Saturday, December 7, 7pm

Cats in her apartment wasn't something she was used to. She'd grown up without pets for the most part, maybe a tiny song bird or fish here or there. It was nothing to do with allergies or her mother disliking pets--quite the opposite. Her mother always believed if you were going to open your home to an animal, you'd better have the time to dedicate to it. Fact of the matter was, neither woman ever did.

Even now as she paced the living room in a baggy tank and gym shorts, she kept tripping up over furry bodies that decided she'd been ignoring them long enough. Curses were plentiful on both ends she was sure, yet the cats kept staring at her like it was her fault and hers alone for the transgression. Or like maybe it was her fault their human was out on the winter night instead of on the couch where they could sleep on him. Or maybe they just figured she was trying to starve them by refusing to add any more food to their still half full bowl.

Glares were exchanged on equal measure before Danika went back to her pacing. Her body trembled when she stood still, fidgeted and tensed until she'd move again. She'd been like this the last few weeks. Ever since she woke up from her dream of dying, her dream of the Negaverse winning and destroying the world.

A dream that wasn't a dream. Memories of times she had yet to experience, of years that had yet to go by. She told Dom and Xan it was only shadows, nightmares nothing more. Yet those were only the things that haunted her--she remembered everything of her time as a knight of the Resistance. Of fighting alongside people she'd never met, laughing and cheering people she considered great friends yet Danika knew she'd never seen before. It was disorientating to say the least. Unnerving.

Almost as bad as remembering she'd failed. Andronicus taken by the Negaverse, Kairatos captured.... Hver and Nær dead while she'd hidden away. Hidden. Hid from battle, hid from the world in her city on Mars.

She hadn't been back in months.

She glanced towards the sky, knowing somewhere her red planet waited. Her city called to her, a phantom of the time when her skin bore the glowing flames. And a golden chain sat at her hip. Danika closed her eyes. She remembered that most of all. The Compact. Her oath. Did it even still stand? Did it even still exist? She'd never even taken her oath. Didn't have the freaking chain. No armor covered her, no markings. She only had a few scars--nothing like what she recalled.

So did it stand..?

Danika stood in silence for a long while, listening to her breathing, her pulse, the soft sounds of the cats. Dominic wasn't home, nor was Xanthus. It was still there. That phantom pull. No... more than that even.

What is the Compact? she'd once asked an empty library, the red stone holding no answers for her beyond the language she could not read. Only remember bits and pieces of, it seemed. Fragments. Taunting, horrifying, teasing fragments.

Danika let out a breath, and nodded her head. She had the answer now.

Checking to make sure her door was locked, and leaving Dominic and Xanthus a quick note--Going to my city. Back later.--that she knew wouldn't raise more than a brow from her mother if she happened to drop by for whatever random as hell reason, she paused to get to her room and load up her backpack. Just a few things--her cell, to see if it could in fact take some photos out in space, and a notebook and pencil. Eyeing some of the things on her nightside table, she'd paused, lingered, before throwing a few more things into the bag. Throwing that bag onto her bed, it took her mere seconds to transform, she hoisted the bag onto her shoulder now that she was sure it wouldn't vanish to wherever powering up threw her stuff and in seconds...


...she stood amongst the red stone that took her breath away.

No, there wasn't the same energy here that she remembered, but it... it still felt better to her. The red and grey rock of Mars was as warm to her eyes as it was to her hand as she let her fingertips slide across the side of the great archway into the marketplace she'd first encountered. Nodding to the statue of the three warriors, she set along to the libraries, following the same streets she'd taken months before. Nothing had changed of her city, though she still felt more... at ease here. Still no people, no new plants, but it was her city. And... she didn't feel the least bit guilty by considering as much, or viewing herself as being somehow selfish. It was hers. She bore it's name, she carried the mantel.

Her steps slowed as she looked into the empty buildings, red dust covering all she could see. Some days, calling herself Themiscyra felt heavier than others. Did she have the right to be proud of a city that held no people? No life? Or was that the point of being the knight of this place? To hope to whatever deities out there that somehow, some day, this place would stand long enough for people to come back. To survive long enough to protect this place until someone else could assist--and should the knight fall, trust linage or souls would continue the knight on to a new person to bare the mantel and name.

Gripping the strap of her bag she continued on. This wasn't meant to be a day of depressing thoughts or personal debates of the purpose behind Danika being Themiscyra. Though certainly she was sure she could find a body or two to join her over drinks for such talks if she really wanted to pursue something.

The libraries awaited her, not looming just... waiting. The doors with their intricate carvings, the mosaic windows, the women with arms open above the hearths of crackling fires and curling chains. The massive buildings were unrushed by time, untouched in a sense even as the red dust peeked in through wherever it could catch a crack. Just... waiting. She'd already wondered what sort of information was tucked away in the scrolls, tablets, and books. She hadn't even had the chance to explore the whole collection of buildings yet. Guilt came to her on that one. She'd had the time just... not the motivation. Still hadn't asked anyone she knew if they could read Martian...

Taking a breath and pushing open one of the doors, she slipped in and shut the door behind her. And went right for the area of the library with the symbols of the Compact.

The far wall, the alter beneath the massive relief of the curving shape, an infinity looping before and behind the other parts of the emblem, snaking around a large hoop, spikes pointed down from the right and left of the hoop. A wheel. A sun within the center? Or markings of flame? She wasn't sure, yet she approached the alter without much hesitation. The same headache she'd had before didn't reach her this time, even as she placed a hand carefully on the altar.

Taking a breath, she set her bag down beside the altar, got out her notebook and pencil--mechanical, because ******** sharpeners here--and her cell. Those she left on the altar before she looked back to the many, many.... many shelves. The first she approached were among the few she'd lingered by the last time she was here months prior--or so far as she could remember. She knew the symbol of the Compact. It was a place to start.

With careful hands and steady arms, she carried the literature back to the altar bit by bit, each one she could find with the symbol of the Compact. None of her memories gave her any insight to the language she was viewing, but how many historians were in the same situation? An unknown language could be cracked somehow... she just had to find the right clues. And her way to start would be with this first stack she'd gathered. Surely these weren't the only documents here that bore the symbol, but she'd take up all her time just collecting anything with the same symbol.

No, one step at a time. Opening up to a fresh page, she began.

Multiple books were soon opened at once, tablets arranged beside them to best glance between pages and surfaces. Scrolls unwound carefully, arranged on the floor so she could see more of them at once, yet mindful then of where her feet were. It didn't take long to notice patterns again--the same collections of symbols arranged on book covers, on the tops of tablets or scrolls. Repeated through the texts. She drew them down carefully into her notebook and used her cell to take photos--pleased to see the device actually worked. Of course she knew she'd need to remove the images from there soon as she got home, but for now... she at least had more to show others, try to get answers on. Better yet, translations.

For her own attempt at trying to keep her sanity, she tried to restrict herself to only noting down the symbols and collection of symbols that were written near the symbol of the Compact. Anything that might have looked like a list of sorts--as was often the case she quickly found with the scrolls, something that soon infuriated her as it ruined her overall plan for a while--was jotted down, just in case there was significance. Now and then she thought she recognized some of the symbols--as if some were maybe the Martian form of some of the planets' different symbols. Those were noted on their own pages, including any variations near the Compact symbol. The pages filled quickly with her copies and even her own scribbles of notes for what the characters might mean, or what the text looked like that they were found in. Some actually had illustrations within the pages, something she let out a long sigh of relief on—even if it meant more for her to write, more for her to note and scribble down.

It was… fun, really, to be doing this. Frustrating the more she realized she could be writing down lists of what someone collected in crops for all she knew, but she wasn’t sure what other lead to go on. Every now and then she stretched, walking around a little to keep her legs from getting too stiff, though she had to start alternating between standing at the altar and using it like a table, and sitting down with her back against it. Photo upon photo was taken, and pages continued to fill with her mindless attempts at translations and guesses. Grasping at straws really. More documents were collected, others put away in batches. More than once she grumbled to the empty building about how she should have brought someone with her. Or at least it would have been nice if she’d remembered ever learning the Martian language.

If something was leaving that key piece of information out of her memories of a not-yet-begun future… she was going to find someone to blame and hurt for such a travesty.

Pausing to glance at her phone, she groaned. Danika had been gone for four hours. She knew someone must have gotten back to the apartment by then, found her note. Didn’t have any new notes drifting in via knight ring—though on that thought she did pause to look around a bit under the various documents around her, just to be sure. No one was calling her. Or texting. Which was a good thing, she hoped.

The Page sighed, rubbing at her face with both hands before she looked back to her work. She was… not remotely closer to trying to understand the extent of the Compact here. She knew she’d been—became, whatever—a part of it. A member. But what was the oath? The extent of it, the source of it? She’d joined somehow, would in this life supposedly. How? When?

So much for the answers to her questions.

Themiscyra began to put her things away, making sure to try and keep the documents in their proper places. She’d searched a few different shelves by that point, even found the stairs to go up to the second floor and start to poke around there. More art had been present up there, resulting in her taking a lot of photos completely unrelated to the Compact and her search. Not that she was against the break, or the views. If anything, seeing the vases, even the paintings still present on some of the walls—battle scenes, yes, but also extravagant gardens there on Mars, or women in Martian attire standing on what must have been some of the other planets. She’d taken photos of the plaques near some of them, on the off chance she could ever find someone to translate things.

Yet for now she knew her time was up on this trip. Another would come, sooner she hoped this time, and hopefully… Kairatos might have seen some of the symbols, or any other knight with more time on the clock maybe had seen something similar. She tossed her pencil into the bag, followed by her phone. The notebook she’d kept open, and flipped back to the first page. Some of the chief collection of symbols were noted there. The most prominent one, the four symbols interlocked in various markings across buildings in the city. Beneath it, two sets of four more symbols. Each was prominent in some of the texts, but always they were on the same line as the four she’d seen around the city if the trio were on the same page together. Parts of the same whole? Similar meanings? References to the same person or place? Danika bent over her notes, peering at the attempts she’d made at trying to dissect the collections to best determine the individual parts. Parts of one of the secondary quartets looked similar to the main collection she saw, but most in the other… not as many were similar. She squinted, running a nail carefully along the lines. Surely it was just her own imagination that made that part of the symbol look like the symbol of----

      ----If he growled something out one more time, she was going to throttle him. Just turn around, grab her chain in both hands, and throttle him. Her back was to him on purpose, with her brother standing on the opposite side of the table facing her. She wasn't looking at him, either. She'd already caught a glimpse of his arms crossed and body postured to exclaim all the disapproval she needed to not hear right now. It wasn't her fault this man had broken the city's chief rules. Her city's chief rules. Her quill moved across the parchment in harsh script, knuckles white as she tried to keep herself from just snapping the feather into pieces. He'd... he'd broken the rules, and she'd done nothing to stop it. Had been blind to everything.

      "Let us take him back. You want a trial? Fine, have your trial. But return him to us--" His voice was full of challenge, full of infuriating dismissal of what that man had done.

      "He came here with full intent to break our laws, understanding full well the consequences if he were to be found out," she snarled back, still not turning to look at him. "If he were any other man, you would not be intervening in our judicial processes."

      She heard the heavy footsteps of a man encased in armor and her body tensed. She saw the figure of her brother straighten as well, his chin tipping up in challenge to the man approaching. Or a silent warning. "He is a knight. He has a duty to his people and his wonder. Return him to us. You have no jurisdiction retaining him here longer than a trial." She did not turn, though she bit her lip hard, trying to restrain herself. She knew this man at her back. Trusted him at her back. Yet now? She wanted nothing more than to strangle him. No jurisdiction? A prison warden, of Mars, having no jurisdiction to uphold sentencing if that were the outcome of a Martian trial?

      Oh how she bet the tides would have turned had these crimes been committed in Jovian space.

      Their argument continued as she tried to scribe the declarations that were to be sent to both men's wonders. To say he was distracting her from her task was an understatement, yet she knew that was the whole purpose. To keep her from sending out the very words he did not want to hear.

      "He committed a crime. I do not expect you to understand the severity of it, as these customs are not yours," she tried for a countless time. "I cannot allow someone, if proven guilty, to just leave the city and be done with it. That is not something the knight of Themiscyra can--"

      "He is my brother, Diana!"

      Her eyes shut, and before her she heard a sigh. "...am I outnumbered in this vote then?" Her eyes opened to peer at the eyes of her brother. His lips pressed thin before he let out a breath and nodded.

      "I am not saying your laws are invalid, don't think that. But we can't lock up a knight within your prisons. Let the Jovians deal with him, he's got a point. We won't be pushing for a retaliation if we let them handle it."

      Closing her eyes once more she straightened and turned, a wary eye cast on the Jovian knight behind her. He stood tall and brimming with challenge. A challenge she wanted nothing more than to answer, clash for clash, blow for blow. But the decision had been made. Nodding stiffly, she saw his shoulders lax slightly before he returned the nod. She would return his brother after the trial. Somehow. A headache already began to form. The politicians and bureaucrats were going to loath this. They were looking forward to using the knight as an example that none were above the laws of the city of Themiscyra while they remained within its guarded walls. She knew she could word it that punishment was still to be delivered, however their judicial proceedings did not explicitly dictate the punishments must be upheld only within Martian--or Themiscyrian--grounds.

      Turning back to her documents, she finished the letters that signaled the terms of their agreement. Glancing over her shoulder, she gave a snort. "You're lucky I tolerate you here."

      A cocksure smile flickered briefly upon his face. "I'm sure I'll be seeing the result of that tolerance at the tournament."

      "Assuming you get that far in it."

      The banter was something she needed as she finalized the documents, her quill marking out the quartets of symbols that represented her two comrades--Kairatos of Mars, Valhalla of Jupiter.

      By the seal of the Compact, her brothers in arms----


Danika took a deep breath, blinking anew at the page in front of her. No longer the room she'd stood in before, but the library. She looked around slowly. No Kairatos in front of her, or Valhalla at her back. Her eyes slid shut, and she breathed slowly before she peeked back at the page.

Yes.

The two quartets of symbols.

One she'd written on a page to Kairatos. The other, to Valhalla.

Were they... members? Then? Or was that just her oath she bound to the page? She remember telling Andronicus lifetimes but...

Valhalla had a brother?

Slowly pulling her pencil from her bag and jotting down these new notes, she wasn't sure what part of that... flicker, was the most disturbing, intriguing, or... baffling.

She wanted to strangle Val?


[Word Count: 3,369 || x3 Solos]