That night, the dreams returned with greater intensity than ever before. Diana found herself standing on a battlefield unlike any in the Amazon histories—a landscape of mud and twisted metal, bodies sprawled among strange mechanisms of war. The air was filled with smoke and the scent of chemicals that burned her throat even in the dreamscape.
Above the carnage, a figure watched from a distant promontory—tall and imposing in blood-red armor, his face hidden by a helmet of the same color. Though she couldn't see his features, Diana somehow knew he was smiling, drawing satisfaction from the suffering below.
"This is your doing," she called to him, her voice carrying across the impossible distance.
The figure turned toward her, and though she still couldn't see his face, she felt the weight of his gaze—ancient, malevolent, and somehow familiar.
"No, daughter of Zeus," he replied, his voice like metal grinding against stone. "This is the doing of men. I merely channel what already exists in their hearts."
Before Diana could respond, the dream shifted. She was no longer on the battlefield but standing on the shores of Themyscira. The peaceful waters surrounding the island were disturbed by something falling from the sky—a strange metal bird trailing fire and smoke as it plunged toward the sea.
Without hesitation, Diana dove into the waves, swimming with superhuman speed toward the crash site. Through the clear water, she could see the metal bird sinking, and within it, a figure struggling to escape.
A man.
The first man she had ever seen outside of Amazon artwork and histories.
Diana reached the sinking vessel, tore open its metal skin with her bare hands, and pulled the man free. He was unconscious, blood seeping from a wound on his forehead, but undeniably alive. As she swam with him toward the surface, toward the shores of an island no man had ever touched, Diana knew with absolute certainty that everything was about to change.
She awoke with a gasp, the dream still vivid in her mind. Outside her window, the first light of dawn was breaking over the horizon, painting the sky in shades of gold and rose. For a moment, Diana remained motionless, trying to process the unusual clarity of the vision. Unlike her previous dreams, this one had possessed a quality of immediacy, as though it were happening in real time rather than some nebulous future.
Making a sudden decision, Diana rose and dressed quickly in a simple tunic and sandals. If she hurried, she could reach her private cove before the morning training session began. She needed space to think, to process the dream's implications away from the concerned gazes of her mother and sisters.
The island was still largely asleep as Diana made her way through olive groves and across meadows toward the secluded beach. Birds greeted the new day with song, and a gentle breeze carried the scent of salt and wild herbs. The peace of the morning stood in stark contrast to the chaos of her dream—a dream that now seemed more prophetic with each passing moment.
Reaching the narrow path that led down to her cove, Diana descended quickly, eager to feel the sand beneath her feet and the cleansing touch of the sea. As she emerged onto the small beach, however, she froze in shock, her breath catching in her throat.
The horizon, normally empty save for endless blue, was marred by a column of black smoke rising from the water. And in the sky above, a metal shape remarkably similar to the one from her dream circled like a predatory bird. The sight was so identical to her vision that for a moment, Diana wondered if she might still be asleep.
Without conscious thought, Diana found herself running toward the water, her body moving on instinct born of prophetic vision. The sand flew beneath her feet as she reached the shore and dove into the waves with perfect form, her powerful strokes carrying her swiftly toward the source of the smoke.
As she swam, she could see another metal bird—this one intact—firing what appeared to be weapons at something in the water. Following the trajectory, Diana spotted the crashed vessel from her dream, half-submerged and rapidly sinking. Its wings were broken, the fuselage torn open and filling with seawater.
Near it, a man struggled to stay afloat, one arm moving weakly while the other clutched what appeared to be a leather satchel to his chest. Even from a distance, Diana could see blood staining the water around him. His face was pale with exhaustion, his movements growing more feeble with each passing second.
Increasing her pace, she closed the gap between them just as the man's strength appeared to give out. His head slipped beneath the surface, bubbles marking his descent.
Diana dove, her enhanced vision allowing her to see clearly through the Mediterranean waters. The man was sinking rapidly, unconsciousness having robbed him of the ability to save himself. She reached him in seconds, wrapping a strong arm around his chest and kicking powerfully toward the surface.
As they broke into air, the man remained limp in her grasp. Diana could hear the mechanical roar of the attacking metal bird as it circled back, apparently spotting them in the water. Acting on instinct, she dove again, pulling the unconscious man deeper to avoid whatever weapons the flying machine might deploy.
Underwater, she changed direction, swimming parallel to the shore for several hundred yards before angling back toward the island. The strategy appeared to work—when they next surfaced, the metal bird was circling the original crash site, apparently having lost track of them.
With powerful strokes, Diana swam the remaining distance to her cove, the man's weight hardly registering against her Amazon strength. Reaching the shallows, she lifted him into her arms and carried him onto the beach, gently laying him on the sand.
For a moment, Diana simply stared, taking in the reality of what lay before her—an actual man, the first she had ever seen in the flesh. There was something both alien and familiar about him, as though she were encountering a creature she'd only read about in books yet somehow recognized instinctively.
He was tall and well-built, with features that even in unconsciousness suggested strength of character. Wet sandy hair clung to his forehead, and his jaw was covered with stubble several days old. His clothes—some sort of uniform, though unlike any she had seen in Amazon archives—were torn and singed in places, speaking of his recent ordeal. The wounds on his body told a story of combat and narrow escape.
Kneeling beside him, Diana checked for signs of life, relieved to find a steady pulse despite his ordeal. His chest rose and fell with shallow breaths, and as she watched, his eyelids began to flutter.
Slowly, his eyes opened—blue like the Aegean and momentarily unfocused before settling on her face. Something like wonder passed across his features, quickly followed by confusion.
"You're a man," Diana said, the words emerging in a tone of amazement rather than accusation. All her life, she had heard tales of men's cruelty and corruption, yet this one had fought to survive with admirable determination, even while wounded and outmatched.
The man blinked, coughing slightly to clear water from his lungs before a small, pained smile touched his lips. "I sure hope I am," he managed to reply, his voice hoarse but carrying a note of ironic humor despite his situation. He coughed again, bringing up more seawater. "And you're... real. I thought I was hallucinating."
"Why would you hallucinate me?" Diana asked, genuine curiosity in her voice. She had never spoken to a man before, and each word felt like a small adventure—a transgression of boundaries that had defined her entire existence.
"Beautiful women rescuing drowning pilots isn't exactly..." he paused to catch his breath, wincing as he tried to sit up, "...standard operating procedure." His eyes took in her unusual clothing, then moved to the unfamiliar landscape surrounding them. "Where am I? This island wasn't on any of my charts."
"Themyscira," Diana answered, then realized the name would mean nothing to him. "The home of the Amazons."
"Amazons," he repeated, his expression suggesting he recognized the word but couldn't quite believe it. "As in... warrior women from Greek mythology? That kind of Amazon?"
Diana tilted her head slightly, puzzled by his reaction. "We are not myths. We have existed for thousands of years, though we remain hidden from the world of man." She gestured toward the magical barrier visible as a distant fogbank. "Our island is protected by the gods."
The man looked as though he might argue this point, but another wave of pain crossed his features. He glanced down at the waterlogged leather satchel still clutched in his hand. "I need to get back. This information... people will die if I don't deliver it."
"You're injured," Diana pointed out. "And your flying machine is destroyed."
"I've had worse," he answered with that same hint of humor, though his pallor suggested otherwise. "My name is Captain Steven Trevor, by the way. United States Army Air Forces." He extended his hand toward her in what appeared to be a greeting gesture.
Diana looked at the offered hand with curiosity before carefully taking it in her own. "I am Diana, Princess of Themyscira, daughter of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons."
"That's quite a title," Trevor replied, a hint of awe creeping into his voice despite his obvious pain. "Thank you for saving my life, Princess Diana."
Before Diana could respond, the sound of approaching voices reached her ears—Amazon warriors, likely drawn by the unusual sight of smoke on the horizon.
"Diana! Are you there?" called a familiar voice—Menalippe, Antiope's lieutenant.
The voices grew closer, accompanied by the rhythmic sound of running feet against sand and stone. Diana glanced up from the mysterious man, torn between fascination and growing concern. Her sisters would not react well to a man on Themyscira—the first breach of their sacred isolation in millennia.
"Can you stand?" she asked urgently, reaching out to help him. "My sisters are coming. They may not understand your presence here."
"Sisters? There are more of you?" Trevor asked, attempting to rise despite his obvious pain. He swayed unsteadily, one hand pressed against what appeared to be a bullet wound in his side.
"Many more," Diana confirmed, supporting his weight with ease that seemed to surprise him. "And they have not seen a man in thousands of years. Some may not react well to your presence."
Trevor's eyes widened at this information. "Thousands of... listen, I don't know what's happening here, but I need to get this intelligence back to Allied command. There are weapons being developed that could change the course of the war—weapons beyond anything we've seen before."
"War?" Diana's attention sharpened, her dream of Ares and battlefields suddenly vivid in her mind. "What war?"
"What war?" Trevor repeated incredulously. "The war that's consuming half the world. Where have you—" He stopped, looking around at the pristine beach and lush island beyond. "Right. Hidden island. Thousands of years of isolation. I guess you wouldn't know."
Before Diana could answer, six Amazon warriors crested the path leading to the cove, weapons already drawn. They froze momentarily at the sight before them—their princess supporting a man, an actual man, on the shores of their protected island.
"Diana!" called Menalippe, "Step away from him!"
The other Amazons spread out in a semicircle, bows and spears leveled at Trevor. Their expressions ranged from shock to outrage, with an undercurrent of fear not of the injured man himself, but of what his presence represented: a violation of their sanctuary's most fundamental protection.
"He was drowning," Diana explained, not moving from Trevor's side. "I pulled him from the wreckage of a flying machine."
"Release her!" Menalippe commanded Trevor, interpreting his grip on Diana's shoulder as threatening rather than for support.
Trevor, still disoriented but rapidly assessing the danger, took in the armed women surrounding him. His military training kicked in despite his injuries, and he slowly raised his hands in a universal gesture of non-aggression.
"Ladies, I mean no harm," he said carefully. "I'm Captain Steven Trevor, United States Army Air Forces. My aircraft was shot down, and this woman saved my life."
His words did nothing to soften the Amazons' stance. If anything, their grips on their weapons tightened at this confirmation that he was indeed a soldier, a warrior of the outside world they had abandoned centuries ago.
"How did you find this place?" demanded Venelia, another senior warrior, her spear aimed directly at Trevor's heart. "Who sent you?"
"I didn't 'find' anything," Trevor replied, his voice steadier now despite the pain evident in his posture. "I was escaping enemy fire and crashed. I don't even know where the hell I am."
Diana stepped forward, placing herself between Trevor and the weapons of her sisters. "He speaks the truth. I witnessed his aircraft fall from the sky while being pursued by another. He was unconscious when I reached him."
"Move aside, Princess," Menalippe ordered, her tone softening slightly but remaining firm. "The Senate will decide what to do with this intruder. Queen Hippolyta must be informed immediately."
"He is injured and poses no threat," Diana argued, standing her ground. "There is no need to treat him as an enemy."
The tense standoff was interrupted by a sound that none on Themyscira had heard before—the mechanical drone of aircraft engines growing steadily louder. Everyone, including Trevor, looked skyward as two HYDRA aircraft appeared over the cliffs, having followed the smoke trail from Trevor's downed plane.
"They followed me," Trevor muttered, his expression darkening with understanding. "They can't let me get back with what I know."
In one fluid motion that belied his injuries, Trevor reached into his sodden jacket and withdrew his service pistol—a move that prompted the Amazons to raise their weapons higher. But instead of threatening the women surrounding him, Trevor aimed at the approaching aircraft.
"Get down!" he shouted as one of the HYDRA planes began its strafing run, blue energy building at its wing-mounted cannons.
Diana, who had never seen such weapons, reacted on pure instinct, moving to shield Trevor with her own body just as the aircraft opened fire. The blue energy blast struck the beach where they had been standing moments before, disintegrating sand and stone into nothingness with a horrifying efficiency that none on the island had witnessed in their long lives.
The Amazons scattered, their military discipline taking over despite their shock. Menalippe shouted orders in ancient Greek, directing her warriors to defensive positions among the rocks while maintaining sight lines to the attacking aircraft.
"What manner of weapon is this?" she demanded, her eyes wide as she took in the perfect hemisphere carved from solid rock by the energy blast.
Trevor, who had rolled clear with Diana's help, looked grim. "HYDRA technology. Powered by something they call the Tesseract. Nothing we have can match it."
At the word "Tesseract," both Menalippe and Venelia paled visibly, exchanging glances loaded with recognition and dread.
"The Cosmic Cube," Venelia whispered. "How did mortals acquire the Jewel of Odin's treasury?"
There was no time to explore this revelation as the second aircraft began another attack run. This time, however, the Amazons were prepared. With coordination born of centuries of training, three archers loosed arrows simultaneously at the approaching plane.
To Trevor's amazement, these were no ordinary arrows. Their shafts glowed with a golden light as they arced through the air, slicing through the aircraft's wing with supernatural accuracy and force. The HYDRA pilot lost control, his damaged craft spiraling into the sea several hundred yards offshore.
"Direct hit!" Venelia called out, a note of fierce triumph in her voice.
The victory was short-lived. On the horizon, emerging from the same direction the aircraft had come, a sleek vessel appeared—clearly not of Amazon design. Its hull was black metal adorned with the distinctive HYDRA emblem, and mounted on its bow was a cannon that pulsed with the same ominous blue energy as the aircraft weapons.
"Reinforcements," Trevor stated grimly, checking his pistol's magazine with practiced efficiency. "They really don't want me to deliver my intelligence."
Diana looked from the approaching vessel to the mysterious man beside her, pieces falling into place in her mind. "You stole something from them. Something important."
Trevor met her gaze directly. "Information that could save thousands of lives. HYDRA is developing weapons and soldiers that could shift the balance of the entire war." He patted the waterproof satchel still secured to his body. "I've got the evidence right here, but it won't matter if I don't make it back to Allied territory."
Before Diana could respond, more Amazon warriors appeared at the top of the cliffs—a full regiment led by General Antiope herself, alerted by sentries who had spotted the aircraft and vessel approaching their shores. With them was Queen Hippolyta, her golden armor gleaming in the morning sun, her expression a mixture of regal authority and maternal concern as she spotted Diana on the beach below.
"Form defensive positions!" Antiope commanded, her voice carrying clearly despite the distance. "Archers to the high ground! Shield bearers to the shoreline!"
The Amazons moved with swift precision, taking up battle formations that had been perfected over thousands of years of warfare. Diana found herself momentarily in awe of their efficiency, despite having witnessed countless training exercises. This was different—this was real combat preparation, something she had only experienced in the practice arena.
As the HYDRA vessel drew closer to the shore, a hatch on its deck opened, and soldiers in black tactical gear emerged. Their helmets concealed their faces, giving them an appearance more machine than human, and each carried a rifle-like weapon that hummed with the same blue energy as the ship's cannon.
"Tesseract weapons," Trevor identified grimly. "One shot disintegrates anything it touches. No wounded, no bodies—just gone."
Hippolyta descended to the beach with regal composure, her personal guard forming a protective circle around her. Her gaze swept past the HYDRA vessel to fix on Trevor with an intensity that would have made a lesser man flinch.
"Who is this man who brings death to our shores?" she demanded, her voice carrying the weight of thousands of years of command.
Before Diana could explain, Antiope interjected. "It matters not who he is, sister. What matters is that weaponry powered by the Cosmic Cube is aimed at our warriors." She pointed toward the HYDRA vessel, now less than half a mile from shore. "The blue energy—there is no mistaking it."
Hippolyta's expression hardened at the confirmation of what she had already suspected. "The sacred relic that Zeus and Odin quarreled over," she murmured. "The power that was deemed too dangerous for either pantheon to wield exclusively." Her eyes narrowed as she studied the approaching vessel. "How did mortals acquire such force?"
"That's what I was trying to find out," Trevor interjected, struggling to his feet despite his injuries. He addressed the queen directly, recognizing her authority from her bearing and the deference shown by the others. "Your Majesty, I'm Captain Steven Trevor, Allied intelligence. HYDRA—the organization attacking your island—has acquired technologies beyond anything the world has seen. I've gathered critical intelligence on their operations, but they're determined to stop me from delivering it."
Hippolyta regarded him coolly. "So you have brought their wrath to Themyscira, breaching the protective mist that has concealed us for millennia."
"I had no idea this island existed until I crashed offshore," Trevor replied honestly. "But now that I'm here, I'm afraid we have a common enemy."
As if to emphasize his point, the HYDRA vessel's main cannon discharged, sending a blast of blue energy toward the assembled Amazons on the beach. With split-second timing, three shield-bearers moved into position, raising circular shields of gleaming metal unlike any Trevor had seen before.
To his astonishment, when the energy blast struck the shields, it did not disintegrate them as expected. Instead, the shields glowed momentarily with the same blue light before seeming to absorb and diffuse the energy harmlessly.
"Uru metal, forged by the dwarves of Nidavellir," Antiope explained, noting Trevor's surprise. "A gift from Odin to Hippolyta in an age long past. One of the few substances that can withstand the Cube's power."
The HYDRA soldiers, apparently equally surprised by the failure of their weapon, changed tactics. The vessel accelerated toward the shore, clearly intending to deploy its troops directly onto the beach. As it approached, more soldiers appeared on deck, their weapons charged and ready.
"Amazons!" Hippolyta called out, drawing her own sword—a magnificent blade that gleamed with an inner light. "Defend our home as you have for millennia! Let no enemy set foot on our sacred shores!"
The warrior women responded with a unified battle cry that sent chills down Trevor's spine despite his combat experience. Here was a sound that had terrified enemies across ancient battlefields, a declaration of martial skill honed to perfection over centuries.
As the HYDRA vessel reached the shallows, its bow opened to form a ramp, and soldiers began pouring onto the beach. The Amazons met them with a discipline and ferocity that momentarily halted the HYDRA advance despite their superior firepower.
Arrows rained down from the cliff positions, finding gaps in the HYDRA tactical gear with unerring accuracy. The foremost Amazons engaged in close combat, their bronze swords and spears proving remarkably effective against the modern body armor of their opponents.
Diana watched in a mixture of awe and horror as the battle unfolded. She had trained all her life for warfare, yet the reality of it—the sounds, the smells, the raw violence—was both exactly what she had expected and nothing like it at all. Her body tensed with the desire to join the fray, to put her training and unusual abilities to use defending her home and sisters.
Trevor, despite his injuries, had taken up a position behind a rock outcropping, using his pistol with practiced precision whenever a HYDRA soldier presented a clear target. His ammunition was limited, so each shot was carefully considered and delivered with the skill of a trained marksman.
"Diana!" Hippolyta called, spotting her daughter's combat-ready posture. "Return to the citadel immediately! The Senate chamber is the most defensible position!"
"I can fight, Mother!" Diana protested, gesturing to the battle raging around them. "I've trained for this my entire life!"
"This is not a training exercise!" Hippolyta replied sharply. "These weapons—" She was cut off as a HYDRA energy blast struck too close, forcing her to dodge behind a boulder.
The tide of battle was turning. Despite the Amazons' superior combat skills and discipline, the HYDRA weapons were exacting a terrible toll. Wherever the blue energy struck, Amazons simply ceased to exist—warriors who had lived for thousands of years erased in an instant, without even bodies to honor in the sacred funeral rites.
"Egeria!" Diana cried out as she witnessed one of her childhood tutors disintegrated before her eyes. The horror of it struck her with physical force, momentarily freezing her in place as she processed the reality of death for the first time in her sheltered existence.
The momentary paralysis shattered as a HYDRA soldier took aim at Hippolyta, who was engaged with two other opponents. Without conscious thought, Diana moved. One moment she was yards away; the next, she was between her mother and the energy blast, her bracers raised instinctively.
To everyone's astonishment, including Diana's, the energy that had disintegrated stone and flesh alike struck her bracers and rebounded, blasting the HYDRA soldier who had fired it into oblivion.
"The Bracelets of Submission," Hippolyta whispered, staring at her daughter with a mixture of pride and renewed concern. "They respond to your divine—" She caught herself. "To your unique gifts."
There was no time to explore this revelation as the battle intensified around them. Antiope led a flanking maneuver, attempting to circle behind the HYDRA forces and cut off their retreat to the vessel. The general fought with a skill born of countless conflicts, her movements so fluid and precise that she seemed to anticipate her enemies' actions before they occurred.
Trevor had joined a group of Amazons who had established a defensive position using fallen boulders as cover. His pistol was empty now, but he had acquired a fallen HYDRA rifle and was providing covering fire for Antiope's maneuver.
"Your weapon skills are adequate," noted Artemis, one of the senior warriors positioned beside him. "For a man."
"I'll take that as high praise," Trevor replied without taking his eyes off his targets.
The HYDRA commander, recognizing the tactical disadvantage his forces were facing despite their superior weapons, ordered a retreat to the vessel. As the soldiers began to fall back, Antiope saw an opportunity to end the threat decisively.
"Forward!" she commanded her squadron. "Take the ship!"
Diana, who had joined the fighting despite her mother's orders, saw Antiope charging toward the retreating HYDRA soldiers. She also saw what her aunt did not—a soldier who had concealed himself behind a rock formation, energy rifle aimed directly at the general's back.
"Antiope!" Diana screamed in warning, already running toward her beloved aunt with supernatural speed.
Antiope turned at Diana's cry, but too late to avoid the blast entirely. The blue energy caught her at an angle, disintegrating her left arm and shoulder while the momentum of her movement carried the rest of her body clear.
"No!" Hippolyta's anguished cry cut through the sounds of battle as she witnessed her sister and general fall.
Diana reached Antiope's side first, cradling what remained of the proud warrior in her arms. Antiope's breathing was labored, her normally composed features contorted with pain, but her eyes remained clear and focused as they found Diana's face.
"The true enemy—" she gasped, blood bubbling at the corner of her mouth. "It is not these men. It is the one who gave them the Cube's power."
Diana's tears fell freely, landing on Antiope's armor. "Save your strength. The healers—"
Antiope shook her head slightly, the movement clearly causing her agony. "Listen to me, Diana. You have always been different. Special. There is a reason—" She coughed, more blood appearing. "Hippolyta has kept the truth from you to protect you, but you must know now. You are not made of clay. You are—"
"Don't speak, Aunt, please," Diana begged, tightening her embrace as if she could physically prevent Antiope's life from slipping away.
"You are the Godkiller," Antiope whispered, her voice fading. "Zeus's final gift. The only one who can stop Ares." With tremendous effort, she raised her remaining hand to touch Diana's cheek. "Find the Godkiller sword. End what began millennia ago."
With those words, Antiope's eyes closed for the final time, her body going limp in Diana's arms. For a moment, the battle seemed to fade into the background as Diana experienced her first true loss—the death of the warrior who had trained her, challenged her, and apparently known truths about her that had been kept hidden all her life.
The moment of grief was brutally interrupted as more energy blasts struck nearby, reminding Diana that the battle continued around her despite her personal loss. Rage unlike anything she had ever experienced surged through her veins, accompanied by a strange new power that manifested as crackling energy around her hands and forearms.
Gently laying Antiope's body down, Diana rose to her feet, her eyes fixed on the HYDRA soldiers still firing from the relative safety of their vessel. Something fundamental had shifted within her, a barrier broken by the combination of grief and rage.
Without her bracelets—which had been partially damaged in the earlier energy deflection—the power flowing through Diana's body had no containment. It built rapidly, energy crackling around her entire form until she became a living conduit of what could only be described as divine force.
Trevor, who had fought his way to a position near the beached HYDRA vessel, witnessed the transformation with awe. The woman who had rescued him was now surrounded by an aura of power he had no context to understand—lightning-like energy emanating from her body while her feet actually lifted several inches off the ground.
"What the hell?" he muttered, though his words were lost in the growing rumble of energy building around Diana.
The HYDRA commander, seeing this new threat, directed all remaining firepower at the glowing Amazon. Energy blasts that had obliterated her sisters struck Diana directly—only to be absorbed into the nimbus of power surrounding her, adding to its intensity rather than harming her.
With a primal scream of grief and rage, Diana thrust her arms forward. The accumulated energy discharged in a blinding flash, a wave of pure force that struck the HYDRA vessel with devastating effect. Metal twisted and warped, electronics sparked and failed, and soldiers were thrown like rag dolls across the deck or into the sea.
The ship's main power core, destabilized by the energy surge, began to emit an ominous whine that even those unfamiliar with the technology recognized as a precursor to catastrophic failure.
"Everyone back!" Trevor shouted, recognizing the danger. "It's going to blow!"
Amazons who had been pressing the attack immediately fell back, their battlefield discipline responding to the warning despite it coming from a man. Diana, however, remained where she was, her body still crackling with residual energy as she stared at the HYDRA vessel with hatred burning in her eyes.
"Diana!" Hippolyta called, her voice cutting through her daughter's rage-induced trance. "Come back now!"
The queen's command, combined with the rapidly escalating whine from the vessel, finally penetrated Diana's consciousness. She turned away from the doomed ship just as Trevor reached her, grabbing her arm with surprising audacity.
"We need to move! Now!" he urged, pulling her toward the shelter of the rocky outcropping where other Amazons had taken cover.
They had barely reached safety when the HYDRA vessel's power core detonated. The explosion was unlike anything Themyscira had witnessed in its long history—a blinding flash of blue-white energy that vaporized the ship and a significant portion of the shoreline, sending a shockwave across the water and beach that knocked even the sure-footed Amazons off balance.
When the air cleared and the echoes of the explosion faded, an eerie silence fell over the battlefield. Where the HYDRA vessel had been was now only a perfectly smooth crater extending into the sea, water already rushing in to fill the unnatural depression.
The surviving Amazons emerged from cover, many wounded, all shaken by this unprecedented attack on their sanctuary. Warriors who had lived for millennia without experiencing the loss of a sister now looked upon dozens of empty spaces in their ranks—comrades erased so completely that not even ashes remained for proper funeral rites.