On the trail
Diana was never one to 'go on patrol'. She was always more comfortable in the role of guider, trying the help those who were going through the Shift for the first time, to try and bring together the wildly diverse people caught in this strange loop. But it had been so long since the last time she was aware of herself that she felt the need to 'kick the tires' so to speak of what she was actually capable of. The lasso and the bracelets appeared as they always did in the strange and ancient olivewood box emblazoned with her sigil, but the tiara was not with them. But her divinely gifted powers were back, including the ability to commune with animals. She was amused with the observations of the dog that was Deanna's pet and companion, intrigued that he was well aware there was a difference between herself and his mistress (it was their scents he told her).
With what Donna and others had told her, especially about buildings changing their facades, Diana wanted to look around for herself and see if she could recognize a pattern. Thank Hera she could still fly. She took to the air early in the morning, when the city was still sleepy and just coming to life. Even in the October chill, Diana lifted her face to the sky, thanking her patrons as she always did for the gifts they had given her and prayed to be a worthy representative of her sisters.
Her devotions were interrupted by a sharp pain in her side. She shifted to the side and barely missed being hit again by some sort of projectile. She might have accelerated healing but it didn't mean she wanted to have to use it. She looked around to see what was happening, and spied someone running along a roof, a flash of black and blue catching her eye.
WOW, she heard. So, you're just gonna let some random assholes shoot at us?
Diana's eyes narrowed. Not hardly, sister. Not hardly at all.
It was nice to see that her fighting skills had also survived her hiatus. She made short work of the majority of Darkseid's pawns, then looped the lasso around one, holding his chin tightly so that she could sweep his mouth in case he had a poison capsule in it. She wasn't going to be robbed of answers via a coward's way out again. "What is happening to the city?" she demanded. "Is it one of Thanos' accursed talismans?"
The building they were on shifted as she spoke, even the clothing they both wore shifted, her to something very futuristic, his something resembling a medieval dungeon master but she did not release her hold on the lasso. It helped to hold her to the present despite the way time buffeted around them. "Yes, yes, it's the Time Gem!" he said.
"Where is it?" she asked, her voice hissing out from between clenched teeth. She saw the struggle the man made. She wouldn't put it past Darkseid to trigger a physical response to kill the man if he said anything on the whereabouts of it. It would be far too easy.
She wasn't expecting the man's eyes to whiten, or for a voice to leave his mouth that was not entirely his own "Follow the trail as history takes a turn to the east," he intoned. "Further north than time for tea." He repeated the phrase again then slumped forward as iff the utterance had taken all the energy from him. Diana checked his pulse. He lived. She shook him awake. "What does that mean?" she demanded. "Where is the gem!?"
"I TOLD YOU I DON'T KNOW!!" The man's eyes were once again his own, he looked shaken and confused, as if he was repeating an answer to her he'd already given. The Lasso always exposed the truth, and Diana knew the consequences of not taking the words spoken by one in it as such. The man had no knowledge of the location, and yet he'd given her a cryptic clue. She didn't think the clue came from him, however. She released the lasso from around him, still holding his arm tightly.
"I have a message for you to bring to your master," Diana said, spitting the last word out like it was poison. "Tell him, Wonder Woman is coming. Tell him he has not seen the last of the Amazons. Tell him I will take more of his miserable soul to throw in the pit of Tartarus before this is over." She pushed the man before she rose into the air. "Tell him 'The Princess of Themyscira is not done with you yet, false god.' Go, before I decide to change my mind." She knew she wasn't going to; she wanted Darkseid rocked back on his heels a little bit. They had all worked together in the past to capture and contain Thanos' troublesome baubles, they would do it again.
So I guess we're going down the Freedom Trail, huh?
Diana's brow furrowed. It was rare for Deanna to interject like this, that she'd done it twice in one evening made the Amazon take notice. The Freedom Trail?
Psh, don't act like you don't know what the Freedom Trail is, Di. 'Follow the Trail', there's only one 'Trail' in Boston, she 'said'. 'North than time for tea'? That's gotta be up near Faneuil Hall, north of the Tea Party Museum. WHAT? I OCCASIONALLY listen to my dad. You know? The HISTORIAN?
It made sense. There were many sites along the fabled trail that ran from the Common up through Charlestown and the place Deanna pointed out was very important historically. She would need to see it for herself. She would need to talk to Bruce on it. But first, she needed to see if she could find more answers on her own. Especially answers about how much it was she could actually do after being away so long.
