DC PRIME: LEGACY

WONDER WOMAN FINALE

"Why We Fight"

1942.

"You have fought well today, Amazon. Remove your helmet and show the world the champion of the Amazons!" Hippolyta commanded.

The Amazon pulled off her helmet, but it wasn't Io. It was Princess Diana. A gasp blew through the stadium like some sudden burst of wind. Easy Company looked at each other and laughed. Io suddenly appeared in the corner of Sgt. Rock's eye. He quietly smiled and nodded at her. He knew all along.

"NO! This mustn't happen! I won't allow it! My daughter..." The Queen felt her knees buckle from under her. She was only able to catch herself due to the throne that was to the right of her.

"You must. You promised the Gods." Philippus whispered to her. She put her hand on her Queen's shoulder to calm her nerves. She knew it must be done. She cleared her throat and declared, "Amazons! I give you, Princess Diana, champion of the Amazons!"

Diana stood and waved. She knew that she should enjoy the moment, because her journey had only begun. She hoped that she was ready for whatever hardships that were to come.

Miles Outside of Stalingrad, Russia, 1942

A thick, stone grey blanket of smoke hides the sky over the outskirts of Stalingrad. A solitary forest green van wheels its way through the ravaged and ruined plain lands which border the city, the barrels of PPSh-41 submachine guns poking out of the sides and back. A group of four await its arrival, spotting it as a tiny speck in the distance. Two men and two women. All stood in a line and heavily armed. One woman slouches, the other obsessed with her posture. One man surveys their surroundings, while the other periodically looks down into his thick winter jacket and smiles lovingly.

"Keep your eyes open, Aleksandr." One of the women commands, Aleksandr's face being dragged away from the inside of his jacket.

"Just need to make sure he doesn't wander off, Yelena. He's only little."

"He'll be little and dead if you don't keep your eye on the ball… and so will we."

The other woman turns to Yelena, "Calm yourself. We haven't been hit in days now-"

"That's exactly why I'm not calm, Svet." Yelena bounces back.

Svet continues, "-besides, Arnold is on watch. You're on watch, Arnold, right?"

"I have the eyes of a hawk, Svetlana. Of a hawk." Arnold speaks in complete seriousness.

"...of a hawk!" Aleksandr chuckles.

"They're here." Yelena scoffs, approaching the slowing van. Its tyres crunch the sediment below it as the vehicle takes a swift turn until coming to a complete stop, a quick and small gust of dust shooting from beneath the wheels. A relatively plump middle aged man exits through the driver's door and quickly hops around the vehicle to open the back. Five figures exit from the rear. One skinny, one short, one with a massive mole on his nose and another with a hard, stone face. The last was a much different animal than any of the rest. Silky black hair, dark eyes, an ancient looking red, white and blue armour and a sword and scabbard. She towers over everybody, over six and a half feet tall. As beautiful as she is threatening. Her presence fills the air.

"Ah. Our ace in the hole. Finally!" Aleksandr shouts.

Yelena clears her throat before speaking up, "Ahem. Miss Prince, it's a pleasure to finally meet you."

Diana looks around at the group.

"Oh…erm." Yelena points at every member of her squad, "Arnold, Svet and Aleksandr."

"Hi! How are things going?"

"To sh*t." Svet laughs.

Arnold steps forward to Diana, saying to her in the coldest tone possible, "I'll be watching you very closely, Ms. Prince."

An awkward silence.

"He means that in a good way. He won't let anyone in his squad get hurt. Think of him as your overprotective big brother." Aleksandr giggles, "I'm glad you're here." He shakes her hand.

Diana notices something moving in Alek's jacket but quickly dismisses it. "I have to say, Yelena, I expected a lot more gunfire. Things seem- still here."

"Eerily still. We were flanked the hell out of about five days ago- the Luftwaffe wouldn't stop hitting us, but now…? Silence. Too much silence. I have a feeling they're going to hit us hard next time. Really hard. Could happen at any moment."

Arnold's head tilts up, "It will be dark soon, we should find shelter."

"Good idea. Come." Yelena turns and leads the pack. "We'll seek refuge in the factory nearby."

Diana stares off into the distance, taken aback by the block of factories in front of her. Empty husks of black and grey buildings out in front of her like a thousand rows of standing corpses. They are stood up but they do not speak nor breathe. They rot. Her right hand escapes her side and begins to clutch her sword, holding onto it for what would seem like dear life. Alek pats her on the shoulder, "Damned Nazis, eh?"

Later that night

Crackling away, a small fire heats the ground floor of an abandoned factory. Diana sits about a metre away from it, atop a wooden chair with crooked legs. Aleksandr lays down across from her, that thick winter coat still wrapped around his body. The floor screeches like a wailing banshee, Svet dragging another chair to the area around the fire and planting herself on top. "Here." She says, passing the Amazon a cup of vodka. "I found something here that isn't piss wine."

"Oh. Thank you." Diana smiles until she looks down at the liquid and sniffs it.

"Yelena and the Americans are setting up a perimeter… we finally convinced Arnold to take a nap." Svet speaks while pouring herself a drink.

Aleksandr springs up, "Wait… how the f*ck did you manage that?" A squeal comes out of his jacket, Diana raising an eyebrow. "Aw crap." He unzips the coat, a small golden brown puppy revealed behind the curtain. It's eyes are black, the light from the fire being caught and reflected in them. Its nose small and wet. Alek lifts it, apologising to the animal.

Diana's spirit instantly rises, laughing and almost spiking her vodka. "Aww. Hello!"

"Oh. Yes. You haven't met the heart of the group yet. Found him under a collapsed office building a few weeks ago. I'm gonna give him to my niece. She lives in Stalingrad." Alek smiles.

"What's its name?" Diana asks

"Archie… after Archie Andrews."

Diana looks lost.

"Hah. Guess you don't get much time to read on your job, eh?" He reaches into an inside pocket and pulls out a yellowed and worn copy of Archie Comics. "Take it, it helps keep your mind off things. I've got plenty."

Diana takes it flicking through and chuckling at a few select pages. "Thank you. Erm. You sure know how to make someone feel welcome." She says slightly nervously, lifting her cup of vodka, still confused about what to do with it.

Svet breaks into laughter, "Let me help you with that." She says before she downs her vodka, "Like that, friend."

"I think I'll save it for later."

A brief moment of silence until, "So. Where's home? Where does a lady like you come from?"

Diana looks down, almost cracking up, "I'm an Amazon from a remote island called Themyscira- which is full of immortal warrior women just like me- it sounds ridiculous, I know."

Alek looks surprised, "...that's actually less crazy than I thought it would be. Visitor from outer space was my best bet."

Svet cuts in, "Android was mine."

"You all made bets?"

"Well. It's not every day an indestructible woman with super-strength and a sword and shield comes out of the sky and helps you out with your war." Alek pours himself a drink, "Not a regular occurrence- besides- it passes time. We've heard stories about you-from the Americans. You're kind of a living legend."

"I just- do my best."

"So… what's home like? I mean, I'm sure you've got some stories to tell."

"You're prying, Alek." Svet remarks.

"No. It's fine… I'm used to it." Diana regains her focus, "Well. It's… paradise. It's in an endless summer, the land provided everything we needed. The days were beautiful and the nights even more so. There were… festivals… parties every night. Just me… my sisters… and my mother." She pauses. "I had no idea that there was a whole world beyond that island. It was all I knew."

"Why did you leave?"

"I saw what was happening here. Just a slight glimpse." She takes a breath. "I decided couldn't let this world- your world- crumble while my sisters and I sat there and pretended like everything was okay. It'd be apathetic, it'd be- completely immoral." Another breath. "My mother told me not to. She said I'd be tainted- ruined- broken. She said as soon as I step foot off of that island I will never be able to return. And I can't." She sighs.

"It's a beautiful thing you did."

"Being really bummed out?" Diana responds.

"Sacrificing your own comfort to help us. You owe us nothing and yet you give up paradise for us?"

"But I'd do anything to be back there."

"Like any sane person. It's natural. Home is home. But sometimes we've got to make do with what we have right now. Look at Arnold over there. Farmer. The only thing he wants to do all his life is pick up boulders. Look at him now. He's made himself a family over here. He… belongs." Alek goes into a shout. "YOU BELONG, DON'T YOU, ARNOLD!?"

"I would die for all of you." Arnold responds as he rests his head in the corner. Diana, Svet and Alek share a laugh.

"You just need to cling on to the good stuff." Archie looks down and rubs his puppy's chin, "You're the good stuff, aren't you, you little bastard?"

A pause between the two until Diana speaks, "So. What's home like for you?"

"Oh. It's boring. There's really nothing to tell. I went around and delivered mail."

"Any family?"

"Just my sister and niece. I'm really the most boring man on Earth. That's why no woman would ever love me! I'm so uninteresting!" Alek pauses for a second, Diana chuckling. He takes a breath. "Erm. How about we get some sleep?"

"Well I'll drink to that." Svet answers. "Can't take any more of your self loathing."

An Hour Later

"LUFTWAFFE!"

Bullets. Gunpowder. Dirt. Blood. Fire. Shrapnel. All fly in the air, Diana snapping back into consciousness and grabbing her shield, protecting herself, Svet and Aleksandr from the collapsing roof. Arnold springs up, spinning around for a bit in a frenzy, noticing the approaching lights. "They're on land!" He shouts, grabbing his gun.

"Yelena!" Svet screams, "Yelena's out there! It's not safe!"

"It's not safe anywhere. You two need to get to the van. Arnold and I will hold them off." Diana commands.

Two of the Russians run out, guns in hand, Arnold pulling a pin from a grenade and throwing it impossibly far out of the window so it lands atop a moving vehicle. "Ready?" It explodes.

The Amazon kicks a wall down, the two running through it, shielding themselves from the rain of shrapnel. Five German soldiers approach, the Americans all having been taken out. Diana smacks her sword against her shield, letting out a war cry. Arnold copies her, dragging the trigger of his gun back and taking two soldiers out in a couple of seconds, screaming. Prince leaps up into the air, landing shield-first on top of one of the soldiers and then bashing the other two in the face with her bracelets.

Her head whips to her side, the lights growing brighter as they get closer. A truck zooms forward at her, the amazon's mind quickly reacts, and then her body. Springing up, her legs propel her into the sky, the truck missing her as she lands back down on the ground. Diana turns again, throwing her shield at their wheels and taking them out. Sprinting, she has her sword drawn, her body then dropping into a slide as she reclaims her shield from the side of the truck. Approaching the driver's door, she demolishes the Nazi's face through the window. With animal reflexes, her arm flies up, her bracelet deflecting a bullet from behind. Spinning around, she finds another solider, lost and confused for a moment. Quickly, she slices at his hand, the soldier dropping his weapon and to his knees before she gives him a boot to the face.

She turns, Arnold catches up holding Yelena in his arms. "She's wounded."

"Goddess." Her eyes fix into the distance, more and more sterile white lights quickly approach. "We need to regroup with the others."

The brakes of the van screech as Svet hauls it around the corner with her teeth grit, Alek sits next to her, trying to keep Archie calm. It comes to a forced stop, the rear end of it almost hitting Arnold and Yelena. Clouds of dirt and dust are flung into the air by the wheels. The two quickly hop in the back, Arnold taking a little bit longer with the added weight of Yelena.

Arnold lays the wounded soldier down on a row of seats in the back, Diana standing there feeling useless. Svet turns to the back, "How is she?" She asks. "How is she!?"

"A shot to the stomach." Diana waits for Arnold to lift her a bit, noticing a matching bullet wound in her back, Yelena groaning in his arms, "It's clean."

"Thank god."

"Shhh… Shhh… It's alright. It's alright…" Alek says softly but nervously, trying to calm down his dog. "It's okay."

"God damn. They got us. They got us."

"The Americans proved to be REALLY useful… didn't they!?" Alek shouts sarcastically. "Really saves us!"

"I failed." Arnold sighs to himself.

"Where are we going?" Diana asks among all of the chaos.

"Stalingrad. Before the Wehrmacht get there." Svet replies. "We'll get Yelena to a doctor,- get some volunteers- we'll be able to prepare for when they come back."

Silence takes over the room until Diana asks, "How's Archie?"

"Still kicking." Alek smiles. He strokes the dogs's belly, Seen some sh*t, haven't you?Little bastard." The puppy continues to yap, his owner's fingers brushing against his head.

The explosions start to become a little quieter, Svet's eyes looking to the rear view mirror. "I think we're okay… for now, at least."

Alek breathes a sigh of relief, Diana sliding her sword back into its scabbard, Arnold giving a manly nod.

"There's an old trench nearby. We'll camp out there until daylight. Then we'll start moving." Svet orders.

"Sounds like a plan." Alek concurs.

"Damn right." Yelena chokes, Arnold quickly putting his finger on her mouth. The Russian woman's eyebrow raising.

"You shouldn't speak." The mass of muscle's eyes go from Yelena to Diana, looking up at her, "You kicked some ass back there."

Diana chuckles and then gives Arnold a face of sincerity, "Thanks."

Morning

Sitting atop the van, Diana Prince stares through a pair of binoculars, her head slightly poking above the top edges of a trench. She observes her surroundings, running through her Amazon training in her head. Skin is covered in soot and ash, knuckles are bloody. There are a few chips in her armour, a couple of scratches on her bracelets, her hair is messy and dirty. Both eyes are wide open but she begins to tire. She has been watching for hours. For a second she allows her eyes to close, the fire and death coming back to her, she opens them again in a minor panic.

Crunch. Crunch.

Below her, small taps and crunches begin to sound off. She tears her sword out of its scabbard, stabbing it at whatever horror stands below her. Archie's tiny head tilts a bit in confusion, resolving to lick the point of it. The Amazon gives the puppy a charmed smile, withdrawing the blade. "Sorry."

"Diana." Svet calls from the driver's seat, "Hop in the back and wake the others, would you? We're leaving."

Later

"You can't get up."

"I'm getting up, Arnold."

"You need to rest."

"What I need is to feel like I'm not a burden." Yelena raises her voice, pulling Arnold's hand off of her arm. She lowers her tone, "I'm sorry."

3 of the 5 in the group sit in the back of the van while Diana and Svet ride in the front, Svet driving. Svet turns her head, "Arnold is right, rest, dear."

"How long until we hit Stalingrad?" Diana asks.

"We're going the long way around so it'll be a few hours yet."

"Why aren't we going through the factories?" Alek breaks in.

"You think they haven't got Wehrmacht waiting all over there? The place is a damn death trap. It's probably how they got us before, besides-"

"No." Yelena cuts Svet off. "It isn't." The blonde haired woman grabs Arnold's gun out of its holster, shooting Alek in the shoulder and elbowing Arnold in the face. Archie loses his mind. Diana draws her sword, Yelena pointing the gun at the back of Svet's head in retaliation.

"Yelena." Svet gasps in shock. "What the hell are you doing!?"

"Saving us. The German want the Amazon… dead or alive. They get her? We all run free."

"What about Stalingrad? What about our home? Our country?"

"There is no way we are winning this war, Svet. You know this. I'm doing this for all of us."

"You're not doing this for us, you're doing this for yourself."

"You're wrong." Yelena looks to Diana. "Put down the sword."

"Hah. You wouldn't hurt her." Diana shouts. "I know that. You know that. Put down the gun."

Yelena pauses for a second, taking a moment to think, "No- no I wouldn't." She pulls the gun on Diana and fires, the bullet hitting the Amazon in her forehead. It breaks her skin but not her skull and sends her head into the dashboard. Svet makes a decision of her own, quickly spinning the wheel of the van and sending it into a frenzy to which it ultimately falls to its side.

Diana blacks out for a moment but quickly regains focus, noticing Yelena crawling up out of the back, Arnold trying to grab her leg but her other foot giving him a heavy kick to the face. Alek and Svet both lay on their sides, unconscious. Barely breathing. The Amazon looks to her right, her arm and sword trapped in the mangled and crushed metal ball of mass that once was the van, she pulls her hand out and, with one boot, kicks the thick metal door of the van off of its hinges. Using every ounce of her strength, she hauls her weight out of the van, getting to her feet atop the overturned side of it. Putting her hand on her forehead, she finds a funnel of blood, feeling dizzy as she remembers the shot to the head she just took.

Directly in front of her, she spots Yelena, stumbling along with a gunshot wound to the stomach and what seems like a broken ankle. In her hand she notices a flare gun, which the traitor points to the sky. Overcome with rage, Diana leaps forward and pounces on top of the Russian woman before she can fire the gun, punching her in the nose as they hit the rocky, barren land. She's forgotten her Amazon training, all that remains is an angry, uncaged animal. Yelena's face begins to look like it has exploded into a bloody mess, Diana's eyes stabbing into her swollen ones like a spear.

The butt of the flare gun smacks Diana's head, normally this have no effect but the shock and awe of the vehicle accident coupled with the shot to the head she took now begins to get to her. She lets go, rolling around on the floor for a couple of seconds. Yelena pulls a knife from her boot as she gets up, looking to the seemingly defeated Amazon and opting not to gut her out of pity, "Living legend." She chuckles, pointing the flare gun to the air.

Two shots ring. One louder than the other.

A bright missile of red mist fires far into the sky, giving an signal seen from miles away. Yelena looks down. Two bullet holes in her stomach. One old. One new. Just created. Her body sways around for a bit until harshly hitting the cold, solid ground. Dark red liquid begins to drip from her mouth.

Diana looks back to the van. Alek holds the weapon that shot the traitor down. His head is streaming with blood, his left hand twitching and his right leg just about ready to give up. It does. And so does his left. He drops dead.

A high-pitched whine sounds off in the distance. Archie scurries along to Alek, going to rub his head against his friend's hand. The Amazon walks over to him, picking his small body up with one hand, and then to the wreck that was once a van. As she takes a deep breath, she feels her strength come back to her. Using one hand, with only a bit of straining, she lifts the van up onto its wheels. Reaching through the driver's window, she checks Svet's pulse. She has none. A moan from the back. Diana zips around.

"Diana. You have to leave." Arnold groans, speaking through his lungs, "They'll be here in minutes."

"I can't leave you here." She says back. Trying to be reassuring, "There's still time."

"No. There really isn't. I'll slow you down. There's no hope for me. Look at me." Arnold looks into her eyes, his body mangled and covered in blood. He gives her a smile.

"They'll get you. They'll do who knows what to you. I can't just let that happen."

"No. They won't." He looks down at his hand, pointing with his eyes to the grenade held tightly in his palm with his massive fingers, and then to the bank of explosives in a case which rests in the corner. "Go. Please." Diana nods. They shake hands.

The Amazon steps outside, looking up at the sky. The clouds are moving away. The sun isn't revealed just yet but it's coming. Diana walks over to Aleksandr, plucking a piece of paper with an address written on it out of his pocket. She gives a loving stare down at the puppy in her hand. His small, black eyes look into hers. "I guess it's just you and me."

28 Hours Later, far into Stalingrad

Diana's bruised hand pounds against the hard, cold wooden door of a small house, she breathes heavily in and out. It opens. A slightly worried Russian woman answers to it, looking confused for five seconds until Diana gathers up the will to speak. "I was a friend of your brother's."

"Was?" She puts her hand over her mouth. "What do you mean "was"?"

"He…" She looks up at the sky. "He wanted your daughter to have him."

"Who?" What!?" Diana hands Archie to the woman, her hands reluctantly accepting the animal.

"Take care of him… he's- he's a good dog." She loses her train of thought for a second. "His name is Archie." She readjusts her thick winter coat. As she does, the woman notices Diana's sword and armour.

"Wait a minute. You're this 'ace in the hole' he was going on about, aren't you? The warrior woman? The one who was going to help us."

"I just… I'm sorry. I just want to go home." She says, broken and tired. Turning, she notices a flock of people gathered around her. They'd been following. Their faces are hardened, some are old before their age. Their cheeks red, their arms weak. Broken. Tired. Diana looks up to the sky again, the sun almost poking through the crevices of the clouds. She looks at these people once more. Archie yaps. With a massive breath and a fix of her posture, the Amazon opens her mouth, "Prepare your city for battle."

Well, it's been 2 years since DC Prime, or, as it was later called, Prime Fiction has really updated. We started this project in 2013 and it created a whole bunch of great, close friendships that we still share to this day, spawned some really fabulous stories and made itself a nice little fanbase. Thanks for reading this story to the end, and, if you've been following in real time, thanks for coming back after two years of inactivity. It means a lot to us.

Stay tuned for more DC Prime Legacy one-shots that will wrap up some of the loose ends left in the DC Prime Universe.

-Joey West, assistant to the regional manager of DC Prime.

This story was one of the first that we found a writer for and it was originally written by Justin "TheRealManos" Cristelli, which was kind of a big deal since Justin was, and still is, a published novelist (and a great one at that). He's also the writer of his own comic book series by the name of Red Knight, and so, when he asked us if he could write Wonder Woman for us and reimagine her for the DC Prime Universe, we were very excited.

And after three great chapters, Justin decided to leave, but he left us with a great setup for Wonder Woman as the grandmother of all superheroes, one who fought in World War II (and this was pre-Wonder Woman movie, by the way). We kind of did nothing with it. She had a few appearances in Captain Marvel: The Power of Shazam, the other WWII title we published, but as soon as Justin left, our big crossover event, the Reign of Krypton, began and it was time for Diana to join the rest of our heroes in the then present day of 2013. Brian Benjamin wrote a great four-issue story that had Wonder Woman confront Ares and the Greek Pantheon at the dawn of an interstellar war.

But I always felt it was a missed opportunity that we didn't do more with Diana in World War II, so I wrote this short story and I hope you enjoyed it.

-Nobody ever credited themselves for writing this book so I think it's fitting I don't either