[A day before the battle]
The camp of the Kingdom of Storms was already awake when Constantine stepped out of his tent.
He stood there for a moment, coat pulled around him. He could see thousands of soldiers moving between rows of tents, cookfires were starting to get lit up for a meal in the morning, he could smell the scent of mud that got spread out from all the walking of the soldiers, and the smoke that came from the fires everywhere.
It was then that suddenly, as he was 'enjoying' the sight, he could hear someone speaking to him from his side.
"You look like you had too much to drink last night."
He turned to see who it was. It was an Amazonian named Lois Lane, an advisor to Queen Hyppolita. She was leaning against the tent pole to his left, arms folded.
"I always look like this. Don't bother mocking me with that." He muttered. "Can I help you with something?"
"I don't think so. And that is what troubles me." Lois said.
Constantine raised his brow. "...Care to elaborate?"
Lois turned her eyes on the thousands of soldiers' tents of the encampment. "As advisors, our job is to outthink fate. We're supposed to give solutions that protect our people." She paused. "But I can't see any. None have been left to us."
"You feel like we're being pushed into this war?" questioned Constantine.
"I do," Lois said simply.
"...My king was murdered in front of my eyes," said Constantine simply.
"By an eighteen year old girl who's been nothing but empathetic and peaceful in all the time I've known her," Lois said. "She grew up with the Amazons. She was fostered among us. I know her better than perhaps even her brother. Something feels very wrong. The sudden deaths. The quick escalation of violence…"
"There is nothing sudden about the evil actions of the Els over the years," Constantine said bitterly. "I understand wanting to see the best in people, but don't ignore their sins, Lois. You can't ignore the innocents that they've imprisoned and oppressed."
"I do not," said Lois. "But even I can tell… your bias is not from that. Your bias comes from your prophecy."
Constantine scoffed. "My visions are true. The Els can only bring destruction and ruin to our world."
"Which is why you told your late king to assassinate their king that kickstarted this debacle in the first place?" Lois said. "I can't help but think that you are working hard to fulfil your own prophecy, John. I don't believe your prophecy explicitly mentions the Els, is it?"
Constantine frowned, he then recited the prophecy that he once uttered: "They come from the stars. They will look like us. They will sound like us. But they are not like us. They are demons, and the demons will take our world. They are here. They have stepped onto our world from theirs. The green man waits. Gods are born and gods are killed. Castles crumble. People tear as easily as parchment. Swifter than a crossbow bolt. More powerful than castle walls. Soaring over moats and fortification. Look… up in the sky… our end."
Constantine took out his smoke pipe and lit it. He inhaled the smoke and breathed it out.
"Tell me then, Lois… if that is not the Els… then to whom it was referring to?" he asked.
"The prophecy is a fickle thing." Lois said. "Most are not even valid."
"I agree. Most prophecies can be blissfully ignored." Constantine said. "But sometimes… events are foretold which hold too much truth… and ignoring these divinations would not just be foolwardy… it could spell disaster."
"Which my point remained." Lois said. "If you didn't ask the Green Man to kill King Jor-El… all this wouldn't have happened. You are fulfilling the prophecy by yourself."
Constantine sighed deeply. "If there's nothing that you want me to do, you can go, Lois. I want some alone time."
Lois held his gaze for a beat. Then she walked away into another camp without another word.
Constantine stood in front of his tent and watched the soldiers prepare for a war he had done more than most to bring about.
—
[a couple of minutes before the battle]
In the middle of the battlefield, before either army advanced, Princess Zala and Princess Diana stood alone against the combined army of the Kingdom of Storms and Themyscira.
Diana had arrived on her pegasus, the horse folding its wings as her boots hit the ground. Zala barely touched the ground as she stood, her feet grazing the grass.
Queen Annisa stood at the front of the combined force, Queen Hippolyta at her right. Annisa's face was tight with rage, especially after seeing Zala standing in front of her.
"You dare face me, alien?" Annisa said. "Bringing the daughter of the queen of Themyscira will not help your case in any matter. Your only choice is to surrender and face justice, or we will bring down justice to your own people as well."
"You must cease this madness, Queen Annisa." Zala said. "I did not kill anyone, nor do I know of such circumstances."
Annisa laughed. "Not only did you kill my brother and my father, but now you dare to tell me such an obvious lie? Everyone in my court saw as you brutally murdered them, alien, there is no use of blatant lies."
"But it is true," Diana argued, and she turned to Hippolyta. "Mother, the circumstances are strange. Zala would not have done it. The news of King Jor-El's death had barely reached her."
"Just because she is your paramour, Diana, doesn't mean that she cannot be guilty of anything," Hippolyta said. "The evidence is there. It is clear as the sky. Princess Zala had murdered King Jefferson and Prince Jacob in cold blood. It is your fleeting and biased word, against the testament of the entire court of The Kingdom of the Storms."
"The kingdom who happens to be the one responsible for my own father's death, Queen Hippolyta." Zala crossed her arms. "Or have you forgotten about that? Our kingdom held back when our king got assassinated by the dirty assassin of their kingdom, in fear of a brutal war, as my mother said, but instead you yourself marched on us against the very culprit of what started this in the first place. I had thought honour meant something to the Amazonians. I thought wrong."
"So you admit to the murder of my father and brother?" Annisa frowned. "The motive is clear. Revenge."
"I said no such thing. I will continue to deny it as I didn't do it," Zala said, frustrated.
Diana held her ground. "Know this, if you decide to continue, then you will have to face the two of us first."
Everyone quickly brandished their weapons, ready to fight one another.
But it was then that Zala suddenly fell from her floating position. Her mouth and nostrils filled with water and she was choking, drowning on dry land. Diana went wide eyed. "Zala!"
She pointed her sword at Annisa. "What manner of cowardice is this?! Cease it at once!"
Annisa frowned. "That is not my doing."
Diana's grip tightened on her sword. "Stop this! Mother!"
Hippolyta looked at Diana with pity. "Oh, you poor child…"
"Once again, that is not—"
Something then crashed into the ground between the three sides. Queen Lara. She landed hard, a crater forming beneath her feet, her expression set in a deep frown. She never turned toward Zala even once. But the moment she arrived, whatever power had been drowning Zala broke apart, and Zala coughed up the water from her lungs in a ragged heave. Diana dropped beside her immediately and supported her.
Hippolyta raised her sword the moment Lara arrived. Annisa took a step back.
"Lara!" Hippolyta shouted. "Do not do anything foolish if you love your people. Surrender. We have your son."
"What?!" Annisa exclaimed. "I did not know this. Why didn't you tell me, Queen Hyppolita?"
Lara ignored Annisa and spoke directly to Hippolyta. "And if I surrender, what then?"
"You and Zala are going to come with us. Peacefully," answered Hippolyta.
"They must answer for their crimes," Annisa growled. "Blood must be paid with blood."
"No," said Hippolyta simply.
Annisa frowned. "What is the meaning of this?"
"If you kill them, their kingdom will hate ours for generations to come," Hippolyta said. "While you might be queen, Annisa, you are still a child. There are other ways to end this. No one has to die."
"No one has to die?" repeated Lara.
Hippolyta offered her hand. "I give you my word. From one queen to another."
Lara took her hand and shook it. Then she smiled. A slow cruel smile.
"But where's the fun in that?"
The beams came from her eyes before anyone could move. Hippolyta split in half right from the middle. The sound of it hit the field like a struck bell and the silence that followed lasted exactly one second before Diana screamed.
"MOTHER!!!"
She brandished her sword and rushed toward Lara, but Lara had already taken to the sky, rising fast before Diana covered half the distance. Behind Diana both armies surged forward at once, the field erupting into chaos.
Annisa stood beneath what remained of Hippolyta, her face white with shock.
"Monster!" she shouted at the sky.
"You brought your army here, Queen Pierce," Lara's voice came from above, growing distant. "You will have your war as you requested. We will wipe you out."
The armies crashed together below her.