| “ | Time to do the right thing. Even if it's for the wrong reason. | ” |
—Diana before the Thanksgiving battle |
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Diana Ladris is a character appearing in all of the Gone books.
Description
Diana was sent to Coates Academy when her mother tripped and fell down the stairs, and she blamed her father for it, therefore sending him to jail. The police eventually realized she had tricked them and she was sent to Coates.
In the first book Diana, who was well fed and still beautiful, was seen as a mysterious beauty, at least to the Perdido Beach kids. The Coates kids knew her for what she was; a cruel, condescending, sarcastic, sardonic, manipulative girl and Caine's loyal girlfriend. She stood by and allowed Caine to encase the hands of uncooperative mutants in cement. At the end of the first book her true feelings for Caine are revealed when she chooses him over warm food, shelter, and a life without Drake. She also has a soft spot for Sam because before the fight happened she sent Computer Jack who had made a deal with her to go warn Sam.
After the FAYZ, Diana becomes a barista.
Power and abilities
Diana has a power, although it was considered weak by FAYZ standards. She is able to see how powerful someone else is - they use a system of bars, with one bar being the weakest, and four bars the strongest, similar to that of a cell phone battery. The only two four bars are Sam and Caine. However, Little Pete was by far the strongest mutant. He was not read - but they estimated him to be somewhere around a seven bar, if not more.
Two days after conception, Gaia was already a two-bar, which worried Diana. Gaia is one of the most powerful entities in the FAYZ, along with Little Pete.
Early on, Diana used her power to test the threat that others posed. Most people were two or three bar, and Caine was the only four bar until she met Sam.
Appearances
- Gone
Diana went with Caine, Drake, and Jack to Perdido Beach. She's one of the first few people to find out that Sam and Caine are twins. When Sam, Astrid and Little Pete are captured by Drake, she reads Astrid as barely a two bar.
Diana, Drake, Computer Jack, and Caine film Andrew taking "the poof" and are the first to discover the tempter. Before the Thanksgiving Battle, she sends Jack to go tell Sam about how to avoid the Poof, because she knows if Sam takes the Poof and leaves her with Drake, he will take out his hate on her, and she will eventually be killed. Her role in the battle itself is minor as her power doesn't really help her fight. When Sam is about to 'poof', Diana tries to tell him how to survive it, but is too late. This is one of Diana's first signs of being good. Jack arrives too late, but Sam and Caine don't take the Poof, which allows her temporary fear of Drake to subside. After the fight, Astrid suggested her to join "Sam's side" but she refuses saying that the "bad girl always goes with the bad guy" (Caine). It is hinted Diana has affection toward Caine yet doesn't seem to express it or any other emotion.
- Hunger
In Hunger, she's first shown to be taking care of Caine after he comes back from the Gaiaphage. She asks him what the Gaiaphage is, but he doesn't tell her. The start of the book also tells readers that her rivalry with Drake is still going strong. When she is talking about Caine killing a boy named Chunk, she is a little too graphic about it and even she gets upset, showing that even though she may think so, she isn't emotion-proof.
When Caine forms his plan (unknowingly to feed the Gaiaphage) Diana has to go into town (Perdido Beach) to get Jack. To do this and not be recognized and potentially captured, she has to shave her head and pose as a boy. Jack recognizes her, but Dekka and Brianna don't recognize her, so the disguise serves its purpose. She manipulates Jack into coming with her.
Diana and Jack go to the Power Plant while in town, "Freak vs Normal" chaos breaks out. At the Power Plant, Jack turns off the power in Perdido Beach (and the FAYZ) so Caine can try to bargain food (radiation) for light. Diana keeps telling Caine that he can still change his mind, fearing that the radiation will kill them all. Sam points out that they're surrounded, and then Caine discovers he's feeding the Gaiaphage.
They escape and race to the mineshaft. On the way, Diana takes a shot at her nemesis, Drake, and Drake tries to kill her, throwing her head first into a rock. This leads to Caine "killing" Drake. She is on the brink of death as a result of her head being smashed against a rock. Quinn arrives with a severely injured Sam and he and Caine goes down into the mineshaft to find Lana. Lana heals Diana, and she gets to live for at least a few months without having to fear Drake.
- Lies
Diana first appears when Caine walks in to her bedroom to tell her that Panda is dead. She hesitantly consumes Panda with Caine and becomes a cannibal. Shortly afterwards she implies to Caine that she wants him to kill her, because she hates herself, but Caine refuses. She is shown as extremely sick, being much less attractive than she was before. Caine is the only one who is really taking care of her and he states she is one of the only two things he has in the world: Diana and the idea of the island that Bug told him about. Diana finds this hard to believe but shows no true attempt to stop Caine from leaving.
Diana is shown to be suicidal; she knows that she would not be accepted by Sam and the Perdido Beach kids, and so her only option is to stick with Caine and slowly starve to death. She no longer cares whether she lives or dies, although, she notices that despite everything she still has enough energy to keep up with Caine, and she hates herself for it. When they reach the island, Caine and the others are tricked by Sanjit into eating some drugged food. Diana is the first to wake and she and Bug are the only ones who had not been tied up. She notices Sanjit attempting to escape with his adopted brothers and sisters in a helicopter and knows that Caine will never let them live for tricking him. She therefore tries to kill him, but is stopped by Penny, who apparently is in love with Caine. Penny wakes Bug up by giving him terrifying illusions, and he unties her. She then wakes Caine, since she has also noticed the Brattle-Chances escaping.
Diana begs Caine not to kill Sanjit and the other children, but he uses his telekinesis to hold the helicopter in place. During this time Diana is begging Caine not to kill the kids, but Penny shouts abuse at them both so he also makes Penny hover above the spinning rotor blades. In a final attempt to save Sanjit, Diana starts backing off the cliff they are standing on to scare Caine, listing the things she has done for Caine and revealing that she is in love with him. She accidentally takes one step too far and falls off. At first Diana struggles, but then she accepts the coming death and drops freely. But Caine releases the helicopter and Penny and saves her. Sanjit is starting to realize she tried to help him.
- Plague
In Plague, Diana is still on the island with Caine, Bug, and Penny, where she tends to Penny's broken legs. Caine and Diana grow closer and share many intimate moments. When Diana asks him if he loves her he says that she's the only person he can't live without. They end up having sex several times. Quinn then arrives at the island with orders from Edilio to bring them back to Perdido Beach. Diana tells Caine that they should stay on the island but Caine can't resist the thought of being in charge of Perdido Beach. Diana, wanting her and Caine to redeem themselves, begins to tell Quinn to go away but when Caine asks her to read Quinn, she picks up a power that could only be one persons: her baby's. This is when she first realizes she is pregnant. Penny, Diana, Bug, Caine, and Quinn all ride back to the mainland with the boat Quinn came on. Caine takes over Perdido Beach calling himself King Caine and saying that Diana will be his Queen. At the end of Plague, Diana and the rest of the survivors have the chance to either choose to go with Sam to Lake Tramonto or stay in Perdido Beach with Caine as their ruler. She chooses to go with Sam, with good reason, revealing to Sam, Dekka, and Brianna that she is pregnant with Caine's child, whom she believes had more powers than a normal baby, after realizing that the kid already has two bars and it was just two days since she and Caine had sex.
- Fear
In Fear, Diana is still pregnant and she begins to realize that the baby is growing too fast. She is only four months along and she is already rather large and she had felt it kicking for 3 weeks (since she was 13 weeks) Which isn't associated with that time. Even with her pregnancy, Sam says she is still beautiful and she is still "Diana." She tells Sam this and he warns her to keep quiet or people will freak out.
When Drake kills Howard, everyone is warned and safe. But what they don't know is that the Gaiaphage wants Diana's baby so that he can be reborn. Drake was sent by the Gaiaphage to bring Diana to it. Drake as Brittney walks at the bottom of the lake and crawls up into the boat that Diana shares with Roger, Justin and one of Justin's friends. Drake captures her by threatening to drown Justin if she does not come along. He takes Justin and Diana to the mine, whipping them if they are slowing him down too much.
When they reach the mine, Diana notices her baby is growing the whole way down. She is full term and is in labor when she reaches the Gaiaphage. Brianna comes and delivers the baby girl. Diana tells Brianna to run and make sure to keep the baby safe, but Penny makes an illusion of a hospital, with the Gaiaphage as a cradle, which Brianna lays the baby down in. The Gaiaphage takes control of the baby, but Diana is determined that her baby, who is named Gaia, is still inside. Diana whispers to Gaia that she loves her even though she is a monster. When Diana, Gaia, Drake/Brittney and Penny are walking back out of the mineshaft, Gaia reaches into Diana's memories and sees pictures of who she knows, and it is noted that Gaia spends a little longer on Caine, but then Gaia sees and smells and tastes what Diana tasted in Lies: Panda.
Diana carries the baby to Perdido Beach, trying to reach the barrier, and the baby keeps growing in her arms. After a while, they reach Sam, Quinn, Caine, and Astrid. Diana is concerned for her baby. They fight until they can hold off Sam and Caine long enough to reach the barrier. Gaia crushes Caine against the barrier. And still tries to take down the barrier and move on. Instead, the barrier is clear and the people on the outside can see everything that is happening on the inside, including Sam attempting to burn the baby, which runs off. The last we see of Diana is her running after her burning baby along with Drake.
- Light
In Light, Diana sticks with Gaia, who is still growing and never gets full. At this point, she is still fantasizing about Gaia being just a normal little girl.
Drake gets sent off to find her something to eat, and Diana and Gaia see an adult climbing up the FAYZ wall on a ladder, to get a better view of the inside. Gaia hits Little Pete through her mind, and for a second the wall is gone and the adult, Alex falls through. Gaia then brutally rips off his arm, cooks it with light beams, and then eats it. Gaia heals Alex's bleeding shoulder after Diana's request. In the night time, when they are close by Lake Tramonto, Diana says that she has to pee, but instead runs towards the lake, warning that Gaia is coming.
She is one of the few people to survive the attack by Gaia and she walks to town with Astrid and a couple of the injured, to get healed. She tells Astrid and Edilio about Gaia's powers. Then she goes outside and she meets a beaten Caine and together they escape back to the island after Caine tells her that he loves her and they share a kiss. On their way in the boat she tries to contact Little Pete, telling him to take over her body, like the Gaiaphage did to Gaia since she has finally realized that Little Pete is the only one who can stop this. On the island Caine and Diana make love one last time.
When they come back to Perdido Beach with the missiles, Caine gets out of the boat with the missiles, but pushes the boat away with Diana in it. He confronts Diana about giving her body to Little Pete. Diana tells him that it does not matter, because Little Pete didn't take her offer, and Caine says it is because he got a better offer, revealing that he has also been contacting him. Caine uses his power to lift a devastated Diana out of the boat and bring her over to him. He says that he wrote two letters on the island. One of them was for her. A tearful Diana and a very calm Caine share their last kiss. Caine explains that he wants to beat the Gaiaphage and have himself write the end to his own story, not Gaia. Diana then tells him that he loves her and that he wants redemption, Caine just shrugs and it is never explained directly that he does, but it is implied. Caine then moves Diana back into the boat that is now floating many meters away from the mainland.
Diana jumps out of the boat into the water after Caine has left and meets Sam running around lost in the burning town, looking for Astrid. Sam takes her hand and then run through a burning Perdido Beach. They reach find Astrid at the "battlefield" where Caine has just been taken over by Little Pete. Diana runs towards him, but Edilio grabs her and pulls her away. The Gaiaphage gets killed, but kills Little Pete in the process and leaves the bodies of Gaia and Caine in ashes.
In the end, she is sent to a hospital in Santa Barbara with Astrid. Diana later receives a letter from Todd and Jennifer Brattle-Chance, the letter that Caine wrote apologizing for hurting her and telling her that he has always loved her, which she cries and laughs when reading over multiple times. Diana is invited to live with Sam and Astrid in Los Angeles, an offer which she accepts.
Monster
Diana appears only briefly in this book. After escaping Tom Peaks, Dekka Talent and Aristotle Adamo (Armo) go to Perdido Beach. Dekka goes to the graves in the town, spending much longer on Brianna's grave due to her still-present obsession with her. A figure comes up to her, and is revealed to be Diana. Diana explains that she lays flowers for each grave every week, and still mourns over the loss of her lover Caine Soren. Dekka explains the situation with the meteorites and the Dark Watchers to Diana, and then the two depart. Diana is not seen after this scene.
Relationships
- Caine Soren
Diana and Caine had a romantic relationship. Caine was in love with her, and the feelings were presumably returned. Diana was the only one capable of standing up to Caine; she called him out when she felt he went too far, and hers was the only opinion he really cared about. He is also the father of her child Gaia, who has the power to grow to any age she pleases. It is worth noticing that after Diana's almost-death in Hunger, he doesn't directly say that he loves her in front of anyone else again, and just argues or shrugs when any asks. But in Light, Virtue says that he loves Diana, and Caine tells him to shut up, but Toto (the truth teller) says that he does.
- Penny
Diana did not like Penny, finding her creepy. However, despite this, she still cared for Penny when her legs were broken, bringing her food and DVDs, along with helping her get into the bathtub.
- Sam Temple
Diana always had respect for Sam ever since she met him, this may have been due to the fact that she knew he would protect her from Drake if something happened to Caine. In Plague, Diana chooses to live with Sam's community at the lake, showing that she trusted him. At the end of Light, it is shown that Sam and Diana were both close and very good friends as Sam and Astrid wanted Diana to come and live with them.
- Dekka, Brianna and Taylor
Dekka, Brianna and Taylor all hate Diana until after the end of Plague, because up until then she is allied with Caine. She mocks Dekka when she realized that Dekka is a lesbian and has a small crush on Diana. Dekka never likes Diana but eventually forgives her, and Taylor seems to have forgiven Diana too. Brianna and Diana eventually become good friends.
Notes
- It is unknown exactly when Diana turned fifteen, but it happened between Gone and Fear.
- Diana is the only person to give birth in the FAYZ.
- Diana claims to have been very popular on Facebook before the FAYZ.
- As a side effect of almost starving, Diana became infertile. However, she later gives birth to Gaia. This was presumably a mistake.
Quotes
Diana:
- "Bada bum bada bum bada bum bum bum."
Diana to Caine:
- "We're sitting in the dark, willing to sell our souls for another peppermint, with enough uranium to give a terrorist a wet dream. No, nothing's funny about that."
- "We're not beaten yet, Caine."
- "No, you sick stupid creep, I love you. I shouldn't. I shouldn't. You're sick inside, Caine, sick! But I love you."
- "Betray you? I've been with you every day, every hour, from the start of this nightmare!"
- "Sure, what could possibly be dangerous about a nuclear -"
Diana about Drake:
- "Oh, look: Drake's trying to think."
Diana to Jack:
- "Don’t flatter yourself, kid. You’re only good for one thing. You’re not Courageous Jack or Fighting Jack or even Lover Jack, although I know you have your sad little fantasies. You’re Computer Jack. Sam won’t let you do what you can do. Caine will."
Diana to Gaia:
- "Yes, I'm a monster, and so are you, little Gaia. But your mommy loves you."
Gallery
| Coates students |
|---|
| Caine Soren | Diana Ladris | Drake Merwin | Dekka Talent | Brianna Berenson Brittney Donegal | Taylor | Computer Jack | Bug | Penny Andrew | Frederico | Mallet |