Memory Lane

Chapter 18

The three of them sat down. Daniel pulled at the hem of his shirt, not meeting anyone in the eyes.

"When I left that morning, it was normal," he started. Slowly, placing the events in ordered before he said them, making sure his details were accurate, and building up the courage to save them. "I was parachuted into Germany, into the northern forests. I was told that there was something to do with tome HYDRA tech, causing a disturbance and that we needed to get to it before they did."

"But it wasn't this HYDRA tech, was it?" Diana asked.

Daniel shook his head. "I'm not sure what it was, I'd never seen it before." He looks up and meets Peggy in the eyes. "When I finally got to it, I was exhausted and honestly thought I was hallucinating. A temple had erected itself, right in the middle of the forest. The closer I got, the louder a buzzing noise in my head became until I got to the doors and it stopped. At first, I thought it had to do with the tesseract, maybe this had been where they found it. As far as I'd known, it matched all the record."

"What is a tesseract?" Diana asked.

"A blue glowing box that's dangerous," replied Peggy, "and lost forever." The Amazon nodded.

"I got inside," Daniel continued, "fairly easily I must add, and walked for what could have been forever down a maze. Eventually, I started to see a light, so a followed it, and I found a sword."

"A sword?" Peggy asked. 

Daniel nodded. "I left the maze, I'd marked the path I'd taken, and went to my extraction point with the sword." He turned to Peggy. "Do you remember how strange the chief had been acting?" Peggy shook her head. "Right, well, it only got worse when I got back. He kept on obsessing over it, carrying it around everywhere, saying we'd be victorious now that we had it."

"What did it look like?" Diana asked. Daniel described it to her. "The sword of Peleus," she said. "It guarantees that whoever has it will be victorious in their hunt or battle."

"Then it's a good thing we had and not HYDRA," said Peggy. Daniel nodded.

"But it didn't get better," suggested Diana, implying for Daniel to continue.

"No, it didn't. He started going on about how the gods would finally see his ways. I overheard him one day in his office when he'd thought everyone had left talking to the sword. I never told you, Peggy, because I didn't want to worry you when you were injured and I was hoping whatever it was would be fixed when you got back but I was wrong. I'm so sorry. When you came back and..." he trailed off, a tear sliding down his face. "It's all my fault, I should have done something."

"There was nothing you could do," Diana said. "This is my fault. I thought I had defeated Ares, but clearly, I did not. He must have taken over the body of your chief, that's how he knew how to contain me for so long." They sat in silence.

"What happened next?" Peggy asked quietly.

Daniel looked back to the ground. "He... he said he had a mission for you, and you were, of course, ready to take it. And he sent you off, and you never came back. He searched, practically tore up every brick in America, or so he said, but I don't think he was looking at all."

"He was," Diana said, "but not where you'd think. He wanted to wipe out the Amazons, but he can't hunt them. And he's not in battle with them. But he could hunt her, he must have known Mother would take her in; because she didn't die in battle she's not under the same protection from the sword like the rest of the Amazons." Peggy tried to ignore the fact that Diana had said Mother. Somehow, after everything she's seen at the island, she resented Diana for abandoning them. "Now we know how to stop him."

"How, he can't lose a battle?"

"No, but we can steal the sword. Then we can't lose."

"And how will we do that?"

"Well, we can get this ship moving for starts." They chuckled. Just for a moment, suddenly realized the situation for what it was, stealing an ancient sword from a god. Then they got to work.