Who: Pyrrha and Diana What: Diana has a dream of Bruce giving her a gift. Said gift shows up when she wakes up, and emotions happen. When: Recently Where: Her townhouse Warnings: Mentions of dream character death, also some mentions of World War I battlefields/No Man's Land
Diana hadn’t been as cheerful as she normally was of late. She’d been more somber and subdued, especially when Kitty wasn’t around. Smiles were rare in those instances. Side effects from her dreams. She didn’t like it, but she couldn’t help how she felt. The level to which her dream self was in mourning and had shut herself off was more than impossible to ignore.
And yet when that creature from Superman’s homeworld had started wreaking havoc, she’d tried to ignore it. It wasn’t her fight, she wasn’t going to get involved. Lex Luthor may have found proof that she was much more than she seemed to be, but Diana was more than content to go back to Paris and go back into hiding.
But eventually, her conscience won out and she left her flight and went to help Batman and Superman fight the monster. The three of them worked well as a team, though another blow had been struck when Superman had died. Diana had used her lasso to try and hold the monster back so that Superman could strike the killing blow. But the monster had broken free, her strength had failed her. The monster died, but so had Superman. Another good man had died, and she couldn’t help but to feel like it was Steve dying all over again in a heroic sacrifice.
However, after Clark’s funeral and a last talk with Bruce, Diana returned to Paris and her job at the Louvre. That’s where she got the delivery from Bruce. The original photograph that had been taken of her, Steve, Sami, Chief and Charlie in Veld after they’d liberated it. It was hard to see Steve’s face again after so many decades, and it was even harder to look at the picture knowing what happened to Veld the next day. Seeing her friends, all of them save one being dead, brought back memories and pain. But she thanked Bruce for bringing Steve back to her.
Upon waking up, Diana was already an emotional mess as she sat up. However, as soon as she glanced at the clock, the photograph was sitting there, encased in the protective plastic that Bruce had had it delivered to her in. Picking it up, she pressed her lips together tightly as tears welled up in her eyes. She was too focused on Steve and the picture to realized that she’d started sobbing.
Pyrrha hadn't been sleeping well herself. Despite the more positive outcome from the dance, she'd been feeling depressed and a little down on herself. Jaune was clueless, and she was a little worried about that breach in the city's defenses. They might have taken down the Grimm, but the mood before the upcoming tournament had gotten a decidedly anxious undertone.
So she was in the kitchen pouring herself some milk (Ruby would be proud) when she heard movement in Diana’s room, and... was that crying?
Unsure if she should do anything, Pyrrha wavered for a moment before walking to Diana's room and knocking lightly, "Diana?"
The knock caught Diana by surprise. Had she been that loud? She sniffed and brushed some tears away. “Come in,” she said. At least Kitty hadn’t stayed the night, so Diana was clothed. Tank top that showed off her shoulder and arm muscles and a pair of boxers. Though Diana hadn’t moved from her bed save for sitting up.
“Are you all right?” Pyrrha peeked in, making sure that Diana was actually dressed before she came in. Though seeing Diana even like that was a stark reminder that Pyrrha Nikos wasn’t quite as straight as she might think she was.
“That’s a stupid question. Do you need anything?”
It probably didn’t help matters that Diana’s hair was a loose mess of a mane at the moment. She tucked some hair behind her ear and looked up at Pyrrha when she came in. “I don’t know. I’ve had some tough dreams lately.” She looked down at the photograph in her hands. “I lost someone, and a new friend brought him back to me.” She indicated the photograph. “It is a lot to take in.”
It didn’t help matters at all, but luckily Pyrrha could focus. She looked at the photograph. It seemed old, and not just because it was Black and White. It seemed like it had the weight of memory behind it. “It looks like they were lost for a very long time.”
Perhaps talking about the people in the picture would start. She shifted and pat the bed beside her for Pyrrha to sit down. Diana took a slow breath. “That’s Sameer, Sami we called him. He wanted to be an actor, but he told me he was the wrong color. I believe he escaped the Armenian genocide during World War I. That’s Steve Trevor, an American soldier working as a British spy to get intelligence on the Germans. He...was a very good man.” Even here she couldn’t admit outloud how she felt about him. Perhaps she never would.
“This is Chief Napi, an Native American demi-god. He worked as a smuggler, having no home to go back to after Steve’s people had taken his people’s home. This is Charlie, a sharpshooter who was troubled by his war experiences. But he was a wonderful singer. I miss hearing him sing.”
Once she too a seat, Pyrrha sat patiently as Diana told her about the people in the photograph. She knew, even these days, that the color of one’s skin could give people unfair advantages or disadvantages. It could have only been worse in the early part of the 20th century.
She could also hear the emotion in Diana’s voice, but let her have her privacy. She wondered if she could ever love someone like that.
“Singing is better than waging a war.”
“Yes, it is. I hadn’t known he could sing until a little while after this photograph was taken.” Diana held the photograph gingerly, as though she were handling an artifact that was 4,000 years old and might crumble to dust if she touched it wrong. “This was taken in the village of Veld. We were on a mission to find where the Germans were preparing to launch a new kind of mustard gas attack from, but while going through the trenches to navigate around No Man’s Land, a woman grabbed my arm and told me about this village. The Germans had invaded it and were using people for slave labor. I insisted that we go free those people, but Steve refused saying that no man could cross the area to get to the city safely. Not being a man, I took up my shield and I crossed No Man’s Land. We liberated that village and that night there was much joyous celebration. It also snowed that night, the first time I’d ever seen snow.”
Somehow, that was the most Diana thing that Pyrrha had ever heard of. She liked to think she’d have done the same, and looking at who she Dreamed she was? She just might have. Perhaps the Wonder Woman and the Untouchable Girl would make a fantastic teamup.
“I guess it doesn’t snow in Paradise. I think you’re all missing out, a little.”
“Perhaps we are. Though sometimes I miss the warm weather of the island.” She also sometimes missed the climate of Crete, but at least she could go back there to visit. Themyscira was out of her reach to ever find again. Though she’d undoubtedly try to find it at some point in her dreams. Or that was her hope, at any rate.
“Still, Steve showed me how they dance that night. Though to me it looked more like swaying.”
“That’s kind of what slow dancing is.” Pyrrha smiled, remembering her own dance. She’d never quite gotten the slow dance she’d wanted from Jaune, but at least they’d all had fun. “Though I think both him and you would be scandalized by how people dance in clubs these days!”
Diana gave a little chuckle. “We probably would be. Or at least Steve might. While my dream self hasn’t gone to any clubs, I don’t think she’d be scandalized if she did.” Diana was rather open and accepting of a lot of things, even in her dream life.
“I wish I could see Themyscira.” It really did sound like Paradise. A free and just society of women warriors? Part of Pyrrha thought she could belong there, though she didn’t think she’d stay forever. There was too much good to do in the world. And honestly, she did like men.
“Themyscira is beautiful. It was very peaceful until Steve accidentally found his way to it.” He had been followed by the Germans and that had been the first time Diana had experienced death. Antiope’s death still stung, and she was just glad her aunt was very much alive and well in this world.
“Disaster seems to follow men wherever they go. If they weren’t so nice to have around and some of them not that bad, I’m sure the world would be a better place without them,” Pyrrha joked.
“It worked on Themyscira,” Diana said with a little smile. “Though I think love and empathy are what would ultimately and truly change the world if more people had both.” There was far too much hate in the world. More people needed to show love and empathy to fellow human beings.
“I believe there’s more than enough of that in the world today. It’s just that the people with the real power and money are the ones without any heart.” Pyrrha feared her own world wasn’t much different in that respect. But there were some good people in power, weren’t there? Like Ozpin.
“Some of them have a heart, but not all of them wield it.” Diana was referencing Bruce Wayne. She may have only recently met him, and he may seem like a stereotypical rich man who didn’t really care about anything, but she saw he had a heart, and he cared about the world and the people in it. “Still, those of us who have the heart should be louder and make our voices heard.”
Pyrrha nodded, agreeing with that general sentiment. She didn’t know if Diana needed to talk more, but she noticed how she looked at the photograph. “Tell me about him. About Steve.”
Maybe if she talked about him she’d feel better.
“Steve was a good man, trying to do what he believed was right. He wanted to stop the war, to save as many lives as he could. And he never talked down to me, even when I understood nothing of his world or the technology in it. He just calmly went with it, quietly explaining what I did not understand.” Diana’s smile was small and sad as she looked at him in the photograph.
“I fell in love with him, but I never got the chance to tell him that. His last words to me were that he loved me.” It was hard to think about, and she missed him.
He sounded a lot like Jaune, and Pyrrha felt her chest constrict at the thought. Was it too soon to say that she loved him? In her dreams it certainly felt like it. Yet again, was that too soon?
“He probably knew that you loved him. He sounds a lot less oblivious than my own crush.” Pyrrha smiled ruefully. “He sounds like a really good man.”
“Perhaps, but it is always better to say what you feel for someone because you never know when one of you may die.” That had hung on Diana’s heart for the entire century she’d gone into hiding during. She’d never had the chance to tell Steve how she felt, and she’d watched him die to save millions of lives.
And yet his death had given her the strength to actually stand up and kill her brother. Diana didn’t like to kill, but she knew that Ares would never change, and killing him was the only way to stop him.
Pyrrha was sure she’d get the courage eventually. While the life of a huntress was dangerous, she wasn’t too worried about either of them dying while they were still in school. She could tell Jaune eventually.
Technically she had but she had the excuse of that whole Valentine’s Shenanigans so it didn’t really count. It might hurt a … whole lot … but at least she had that cover.
Wordlessly, Pyrrha leaned in and gave Diana a hug.
If ever asked, Diana would encourage someone to confess their feelings sooner rather than later. No one knew what tomorrow would bring in any life. And in this one, nuclear war seemed to be a very real threat piled on top of the crazy that happened in Orange County from time to time.
When Pyrrha gave her a hug, Diana closed her eyes and returned it. She definitely needed the hug, needing some comfort, though she rarely would ask for it.
Not saying anything, Pyrrha let her presence and her arms do the comforting and the talking. She couldn’t put herself in Diana’s shoes, couldn’t know that kind of grief. Though she didn’t know it, she’d experience her own kind of grief later on.
Eventually she pulled away and smiled at her. “Would you like something to drink?”
Diana took comfort in Pyrrha and relaxed a bit. It was still hard, and she had a feeling that she’d be feeling the loss for some time yet. The photograph would probably always be a double-edged sword for her, but she would much rather have it than not. It meant more to her than she could ever express that Bruce had actually tracked it down and sent it to her.
“Yeah, I would,” she responded after they broke the hug and she gave Pyrrha a little smile in return.
“Okay.” Pyrrha got up, disappearing from Diana’s room. On the way back with a glass of water, she detoured into her own room to get something.
When she returned, she handed Diana the glass, then held up a very nice frame. “I think this would be big enough for that picture…”
Taking the glass with a note of thanks, Diana took a drink as she looked at the frame Pyrrha held up. “Oh Pyrrha, it’s gorgeous. Are you certain, though? If you have a use for it, you can keep it.” Diana wasn’t about to take something that Pyrrha might use.
“I’m positive! It didn’t have anything important in it, and that photo deserves the very best.” She didn’t think her Olympic Team photo was anywhere near as important and she could pick up a cheap frame later. Pyrrha would rather Diana have something, especially after all she’d done for her.
“Thank you, Pyrrha. I appreciate it.” The photograph definitely needed a place of honor, and a good frame to go with it. It would take a while to get over the initial pain and sadness she’d have looking at it, but she wouldn’t hide it away. Diana had a feeling that Kitty would understand the need for the photograph to be displayed. Besides, it held more meaning than simply having an image of her former lover.
“Any time,” Pyrrha promised. After all, what better than to help someone she considered family?