Fate/Heroes - Chapter 40

The island of Themiscyra was located at the mouth of the Terme River close to the Black Sea. It was covered by a thick, perpetual mist which covered the island from all forms of long range telecommunications.

Radar, satellite, infra-red all came up negative when trying to pierce through his fog, which allowed the women who dwelled on the island to live peacefully for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

All Amazons could be killed, but thanks to the blessings they received from the Five Goddesses; Athena Goddess of Wisdom, Poetry, Art and War Strategy; Artemis vɨrġɨn Goddess of the Hunt and Moon; Demeter, Goddess of Agriculture, Fertility, Sacred Law and the Harvest; Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth, Home, Architecture, Domesticity, Family, and the State; and Aphrodite, patron Goddess of the Amazons and Goddess of Love and Beauty, they could no longer die.

They received plenty of blessings from the Five Goddesses but their gift of beauty and eternal youth were what made the island of Themiscyra so enticing to the members of the Church of Areopagus. With the blessing of the One True God of War, the members were promised any woman they wanted from the island, all of whom were beauties that could turn heads of both men and women from the outside world.

It was a veritable paradise for women. Plentiful crops and harvests every year and enough wild game to support all the women on the island to go hunting every once in a while.

All the girls on the island were trained in hand-to-hand combat from a very young age. Despite not being on the same level as Wonder Woman or their Queen Hippolyta, they were still a force to be reckoned with.

Diana Prince, the secret identity of Wonder Woman, and supposedly the most beautiful woman in the entire world passed through the thick fog that didn’t even allow her to see the end of her boat, and the image of a sandy white beach with thick luscious jungle on its cliffs, several sharp arrows aimed at the hero, before a look of realization came upon their faces.

“Hold! Hold!”.

The beautiful mȧturė woman, whose long black hair was tied up into a high ponytail which reached halfway down her back. Her striking blue eyes were similar to Cassie’s but the younger girl lacked a certain charm that her older aunt had, her more developed curves didn’t do anything to hide Diana’s gorgeousness.

A older, blonde haired woman came out onto the sandy beaches to meet her estranged daughter. The Queen of the Amazons narrowed her eyes at her blood, before letting out a deep sigh at her daughters return.

“Why have you come Diana? We weren’t expecting you to come back after informing us of the cult that Ares had created. What is it you dėsɨrė?”.

The daughter of Zeus showed a pained expression at her mothers distance from her, muttering something under her breath. She sighed before handing her a picture of silver armored warrior, covered in a ancient Greek writing. The spear in the green haired man’s hands looked familiar to the amazons around their Queen, but the latter’s eyes widened before she looked back at her daughter in surprise.

“Who is this person Diana? How does he have the armor and spear of Achilles?”.

“You know of it mother?”.

Queen Hippolyta nodded and frowned at the image of Gray wielding [Diatrekhōn Astēr Lonkhē: Spear-tip of the Star Traversing Skies], a pained memory came up from deep within her fountain of memories.

“Achilles battled a close friend of mine. She left Themiscyra just like yourself and got embroiled in one of man’s many wars. It was said that Achilles became distracted by Penthesilea’s beauty that he did not put his full effort into the fight. Once he reassured himself, he killed Penthesilea but her death weighed heavily on him….”.

Despite being several thousand years ago, the memory of her sister being killed in battle against the Greek hero came bubbling up causing Hippolyta’s eyes to water slightly. She had almost forgotten about her sisters death but the image of Gray caused a newfound anger to burn inside the Queen of the Amazons.

She looked at her daughter with a deep and profound look in her eyes.

“Is this man fighting on the side of Ares?”.

Diana shook her head and noticed that her mother let out a deep sigh.

“That might be for the best then. Achilles’ near immortality was both a blessing and a curse. It would be hard to face an opponent with the same abilities and skills as the original. May I know how you came upon that picture?”.

Diana told her mother, not leaving any detail that the League did not know from her words.

“Some of the members of the Team, a division of the Justice League which focuses on cultivating future heroes, fought this man. He called himself “Rider” and overwhelmed everyone on the Team, but revealed that he fought for the Achaean Army and possessed a prowess with the spear that was unrivaled. He used pankration to subdue the Team, which as you know-“.

“Was taught by Chiron. That blasted centaur was always teaching demigods even at the request of mortal kings. I admit that his skill with the bow was dangerous, but I haven’t heard from him in over a thousand years!…. Are thinking that he might be the reincarnation or clone of Achilles perhaps?”.

Diana shook her head in disagreement.

“I doubt that even a shred of DNA survived from over two thousand years ago. Even someone with a semi-immortal body like Achilles would have faded with the passing of time. A reincarnation seems more likely despite it already sounding outrageous”.

Receiving the power of beings long thought lost was not a figment of their imagination. A former member of Amanda Waller’s code named, “Suicide Squad”, the Enchantress was a metahuman from over four thousand years ago. She possessed powers that could warp reality and bend atoms to her will.

She was defeated by the other members of the Suicide Squad, but not killed. Just sealed away in the coffin that once held her. Courtesy of the Justice League.

Queen Hippolyta stared at her daughter with a expressionless gaze. After leaving Themiscyra all those years ago to ȧssist that American soldier in their war against Ares Diana had only returned once every year, opting to help others settle their battles in order to protect the innocent.

With the birth of the Justice League Diana had only returned once every few years. The job of Wonder Woman took over most of her life, spending the remaining time as a collector of fine artifacts based in Gateway City. Helping the Curator of the Museum there.

“I will not see you off Diana. I’m sure your “heroics” have kept you busy so I won’t entertain you any longer. If their is anything you need, food, water, clothing them I’m sure that the others may-“.

“Vessel approaching! Vessel approaching!”.

Diana, Queen Hippolyta and the rest of her accompanying Amazons turned their heads back to the perfect blue ocean in front of them, ripples appearing on the near perfect illusion Zeus had cast on the island thousands of years ago.

Her eyes gradually widened as dozens of small vessels carrying between 15-20 armed men and women came through, all bearing modern weaponry, far superior to any cold weapon that any of the Amazons carried.

She turned around to look at her mother, and couldn’t help but shout at her.

“You must retreat! Return to the city and hold your ground there! On the beach without ample cover you’d be sitting ducks! Please mother, just listen to-“.

“Do no such thing! Where do you think we could run Diana! Back to the city where they could **** and pillage us? We might as well lay await in out beds for them to come!”.

Hippolyta looked at her daughter, a bottled up rage was unleashed on the young demigod causing her to flinch slightly at her mothers harsh words.

The Queen of the Amazons unsheathed her sword and rose it high above her head, earning the war cry of dozens of armed women who all looked at their Queen in an unfaltering loyalty.

“Charge!”.

Diana looked on at the scene in front of her. A look of conflict evident on her face. Getting a message out to the Justice League was impossible from Themiscyra, and the daughter of Zeus didn’t want to leave her fellow Amazons in a battle that may decide the fate of her people.

Batman and Superman already knew where she was headed and they knew that she wouldn’t be more than a few hours considering that she took her invisible plane to Greece before flying back to Themiscyra herself.

The most beautiful woman bit the bottom of her lip in frustration. To take on hundreds, if not thousands of people armed to the teeth, some of which were metahumans if Batman’s information could be trusted was a feat that even she found hard to accomplish.

And that also included trying to prevent as many deaths on both sides as possible.

She let out a deep breath before unsheathing her sword and raising her shield just like her mother. The sound of the earth cracking beneath her as she leaped towards the battlefield echoed throughout the island.

A symphony of Kings and Gods was just on the horizon.