Not by shelling. By the orphans themselves—Élise and the others, their eyes milky white, marching into the flames with matches in their tiny fists. Ares's gas had found them first.
The soldiers fired. She didn't dodge.
The first bullet stopped an inch from her heart. Then another. Then a hundred. They hung in the air like frozen hail. From the trench, a young German soldier—barely eighteen—dropped his rifle. "Hexerei," he muttered. Witchcraft.
Élise walked toward her through the fire, the child's voice now layered with something ancient. "You cannot save what does not wish to be saved, Princess." Wonder.Woman.2017.720p.HEVC.BluRay.ORG.HIN-ENG....
"I love you anyway."
Diana knelt, wiping soot from the child’s cheek. "No. But I believe in you."
She looked toward the German trench line, where a general named Ludendorff was rumored to have a new gas—one that didn't just kill, but made men forget love entirely. "Ares thrives on despair, Steve. If I let one child die to save a hundred, I’ve already lost." Not by shelling
That night, the village of Veldt burned.
Diana hadn't meant to reveal herself. But when the artillery shell screamed toward the huddle of orphaned children in the Belgian village of Veldt, her body moved before her mind could catch up.
She wrote no letter of doubt after that. Only one line, to Themyscira: The soldiers fired
Steve watched from the ridge, binoculars trembling. "She's not winning a war," he whispered to Etta. "She's ending one."
Diana's hand went to her sword. Then stopped.
For a long moment, the rain fell between them. Then the young soldier stepped out of the trench, hands raised. Behind him, another. Then another.
The lasso glowed—not gold, but white. It wrapped around Élise's tiny wrist, and the possession didn't shatter. It wept . The ancient voice howled, then fell silent. Élise collapsed into Diana's arms, human again, sobbing.