Chapter Text
Before the bards sang tales of Boudica, Hua Mulan, and Joan of Arc, the great halls rang with the legend of Queen Alexandria and her Amazons. A nation that had thrived since the dawn of time, the noble women of Themyscira prided themselves on a society built on peace and sustained with strength.
Over millennia, the Queens of Themyscira ruled the Amazons with iron grace and complete devotion to her people. Through lineage or blessing, the line of Amazon Queens bestowed upon her people the core principles of truth, peace, and strength. The Amazons flourished under their Queens’ maternal gaze. Many followed tradition and dedicated themselves to becoming the fiercest warriors known in lore. Several kept their sacred island afloat by perfecting the medicinal arts, agriculture, and engineering. A select few were tasked to be the keepers of Amazonian history. It is only through their meticulous scripts that the legend of Queen Alexandria, the Queen who led the Amazons to a new era, came to pass.
The ascension of Lexa arrived as the new age of man began. Queen Becca, having served the Amazons into old age with quiet humility and grace, was eager to watch her ward bring new vitality to her people. The first few years under Lexa's rule revealed a Queen who placed her people before all else. Lexa was undoubtably special, and there were rumors that the gods had bestowed upon her divine gifts - intelligence, beauty, strength, and preserverence. In spite of her young age, Lexa possessed a wisdom and vision that few others, even past Amazonian Queens, could claim.
She was adored by the masses, but none loved her more than her childhood companion Costia. They grew up together, trained together, made mistakes together. While her people were always at the top of Lexa's priority, some could argue that Costia came a close second. There was an innocence and freedom in Lexa’s love for Costia that came from youth and idealism. And because Lexa loved with all her heart, she possessed all the elements that sustain such genuine love – forgiveness, vulnerability, and trust.
As time passed and men grew daring in their exploration of the world, Themyscira began to extend their reach as well. When news came that Hercules, champion of men and the gods, wished to visit the sacred island and pay his respects to Queen Alexandria, Lexa had granted permission with optimistic curiosity. She had long been seeking an opportunity to learn more about man and their world. Themyscira had been isolated for too long, and a nation stifled is a nation doomed to fail. What better way to learn the mankind's best qualities than from their blessed champion? Bolstered by Hercules' flourishing words and exuding praises, Lexa trusted that the gods could only have placed so many favors on a man that was honorable.
She was wrong.
A fortnight after Hercules and his loyal men set foot on the island, Themyscira found itself besotted and in ruins. Homes were sacked, sacred temples were desecrated, armories were ransacked and turned against their owners. The men fought cruelly and without honor, stabbing the backs of Amazons who had offered their homes. Healers were sought out and slaughtered to prevent any aid reaching their friends and lovers wounded in battle. What had first been a peace offering was mere a game for Hercules, a selfish and devious ploy to fulfill a superficial list of labors that would prove his masculinity and divinity.
The few Amazons who survived were chained and paraded like slaves amongst the crowd of jeering men. Even their beloved Queen was shackled and forced to kneel before Hercules in submission. In a moment that forever branded in her memory, Lexa watched as Hercules dragged Costia before her and laughed as he slowly slit her throat from ear to ear.
The pain that tore through Lexa the moment she saw the life fade from Costia’s hazel eyes was a pain she never imagined possible. Her soul tore itself to pieces inside her chest, the blood in her ears pounding so hard she nearly missed the cruel laughter of her oppressors. Somewhere deep inside her mind, Lexa wailed and screamed until her voice was hoarse. But she remained stone-faced and silent as Costia’s blood bled and stained the dirty clothes of her ruined garb. In that moment, there was only one thing Lexa on her mind.
With a strength unknown to Hercules, Lexa launched her chained body at the champion of man. With a howl escaping her lips, she sank her teeth into his sweaty neck and ripped his throat out.
The Queen of the Amazons rose above the gurgling husk of Hercules, her eyes feral and mouth stained with the warm blood of her enemy. With a ferocious cry, she snapped her chains apart, the shackles still bound around her wrists. Her Amazons, revitalized by the sight of their victorious queen standing over the body of their enemy, found the strength to rip their chains off one by one. Soon, every Amazon still standing stood tall and angry, their shackles hanging loose around their wrists as fury rolled off their shoulders like steam in cold air. The men who had carried themselves so arrogantly with hubris now shook with fear before the vengeful warriors. Lexa was the first to advance, stalking up to the crowd of men with a sword of a fallen Amazon clenched in her fist. Her demeanor was frighteningly calm as she approached closer and closer to the murderers of her people.
“P-please,” stuttered the soldier before her, his eyes wide and bulging with fear. “Please, f-forgive us.”
Lexa halted, her eyes landing on the man who looked on the brink of passing out.
“Forgive you?” Her voice was soft, so soft that the entire crowd before her fell silent in quivering anticipation.
“Forgive. You.” She repeated, her rage swelling like an angry ocean.
"This," Lexa snarled as she pointed her sword to the body of Hercules, “is your champion. This is whom you choose to represent mankind. A barbarian, who came to my land under the guise of a friend, who deceived his hosts in their own homes, who burned and raped and slaughtered my people, who slit my lover’s neck like a pig!”
The men visibly shirked in the presence of the vengeful Amazon. Lexa reveled in their fear as her teeth ached for blood. “You have shown me the horror that is mankind. You are cruel, dishonorable, and full of hate. I was mistaken to have ever placed faith in you. Our blood has been spilt on our own land by your hands."
Lexa turned, her eyes skimming the hardened fury set in the eyes of her sisters. Her heart turned cold as all pity vanished from her.
"And now, blood must have blood."
Green eyes turned as grey as stone as she stared at her cowering enemy. Lexa still tasted the copper of the champion's blood on her tongue. She felt the weight of her shackles on her bruised wrists.
“You are not worth forgiving,” Lexa growled, bringing the tip of her sword under the man’s quivering jaw. “You are not worth saving.”
With a savage war cry, Lexa plunged her sword through his neck up to the hilt. She stood back, unmoving, as her warriors decimated the remaining men with cruel precision. The blood of her enemy ran over her bare feet. Lexa felt only emptiness.
~*~
The aftermath of the massacre brought forth the greatest change to Themyscira. The gods, as atonement for their lack of intervention and the mistake they had made with Hercules, granted the Amazons the gift of eternal life and peace. They shielded Themyscira from man’s world, rendering the island virtually undetectable by any man. Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera claimed the Amazons as their champions and granted them divine favors of wisdom, beauty, and companionship. And while Lexa was grateful for the happiness the gods gave her people, she harbored a residual anger towards her patrons.
Why had the gods refused to aid them before all was lost? Why, when Lexa had prayed and begged and cried for the gods to save her people, to save Costia, had her words fallen on deaf ears? Why would they grant her eternal life if only so she can mourn the loss of Costia for eternity?
Lexa had resigned herself to spending eternity forever in guilt, and she devoted herself entirely to the serving her people. Her naivety and her weakness had led her to blindly trust, and it had brought death to all she loved. Love is weakness, and she would not let it cause harm to her people ever again. Even if that barred Lexa from her own happiness.
For the next hundred years, Lexa ruled over the Amazons. She dedicated herself to teaching, fighting, and leading with a fair hand. She kept the manacles on her wrists to serve as a reminder of her failure and of the hatred of man, and many of the Amazons emulated their Queen and retained their shackles. They became so integrated into their culture that soon, Amazon gauntlets made of impenetrable metal were incorporated into their unique fighting style. Lexa watched her people move on and find joy in the simplicity of life. Yet her heart remained weary with the burden of the past and of her eternal duty, and her soul still ached from the love that was so cruelly taken from her.
The gods kept their words. They left the Amazons in peace, calling upon Lexa and her warriors only upon the most dire of mythological circumstances. Centuries passed, and never once did man appear on the horizon beyond the shore. But what did appear, on a not so special day nearly two hundred years since their promise, was most certainly not a man.