“More if he is the man he claims he is. I have only met him here, and it would not be the first time I have been taken in by a lie.” Diana’s tone had grown somewhat bitter by the end of that, or as much as Diana was capable of being bitter. It was not much, but it was present.
Diana heard it, and felt her own face grow hot, because she knew what it sounded like. It sounded like every woman who’d been stood up by a man, and that wasn’t what she’d meant at all. “My mother, Hippolyta,” she began, offering an explanation for the tone. Thor didn’t need an explanation, nor was he entitled to one, but Diana gave it anyway. “When I was young, she told me tales of the creation of the Amazons. I was one, you see. These were tales of our creation, of our Queen freeing us from slavery, and the charge laid at our feet because of it.”
The God of War, poisoning Mankind, send help. That old story, and Thor knew that part. This part, no one but Diana knew, because she did not discuss it. “She told me that she crafted me out of clay, and begged Zeus to give me life. Such was her devotion that he did.” Diana’s tone now was sarcastic, showing as nothing else could that that was not the case. “Later, after I’d left Themyscira to fulfill my destiny, I met a man. Sir Patrick Morgan. He was the head of some war council that I didn’t understand, then. It was my first time among the humans, in London, and all I knew was that I was to find Ares and slay him to put an end to this madness.”
Diana rolled her eyes, because it had been nearly a hundred years since then, and now she could hear how stupid it all sounded. “Imagine my surprise when we reach the front lines of the war, and Sir Patrick Morgan steps out of a building and drops one on my head. Ares, the God of War and my half-brother, in the flesh, and it was he who told me of our parentage, and Hippolyta’s lies, before I slew him. And that part was not a lie.” Diana looked up at Thor with something of a rueful smile on her face, and shrugged.
“So you see, I am perhaps not the best judge of character. I tend to see the good in everyone, even when there is none to be seen, and I am just a fool.” She paused, and reached for his hand again. “I did not defeat you. We were playing, and I know I did not see you at your strongest yet. I don’t know which of us would win, in a true fight, nor do I know why we would ever have one.” She squeezed his hand, laced their fingers, and this time she did not let go.