Chapter 15: A Meeting
There was a pause as nearly everyone who could see the god dropped to their knees. Only Odin, Batman, Thor and Odin's army of the dead were standing. Loki probably would have been standing had he not been on his back when Zeus appeared.
Thor and Batman were both about 50 yards from Odin and Zeus. When the Greek god appeared, Thor had stopped running for a moment but then had started running even faster. Batman followed suit.
Zeus put a hand on Ares, who had returned to his natural form, and lifted the god slightly off the ground.
"Odin, my apologies for the actions of this fool," Zeus said. The respect in his voice for Odin was as clear as his contempt for Ares. "You had beaten him fairly. His god status is the only reason he lives. He should have accepted that and stayed down."
Odin said nothing. He was standing with one foot holding down a struggling Loki. Finally, he spoke.
"No one called you here."
Thor, who was close enough to be considered part of the conversation snarled slightly and shifted his hammer in a menacing fashion. Batman had moved several feet away, close enough he could respond if necessary but far enough away that he was simply an observer. He glanced over to where Diana was kneeling, but other than confirming that she was alive and conscious, he could only see her back and could not really confirm how she was doing.
"No. But Hades was looking for some of his charges. It seems someone removed some spirits from the Elysian Fields," Zeus snarled, looking at Ares as he spoke the last sentence.
Zeus waved a hand and the Greek warrior spirits disappeared.
Odin said nothing.
"The field is yours, Norseman," Zeus said. "The right to punish Ares is also yours, but I would like that privilege."
"The actions of Ares do not erase the actions of Hera," Odin said.
Zeus sighed a bit. The differences between the two showed a bit. "The field is yours. Loki is once again in your control. The island, well, the island can be moved. This will never happen again. I cannot imagine that Hera would give him another chance to betray her trust."
"Hera needs to be held accountable," Odin repeated.
"What would you have me do?" Zeus said with some frustration. "I give her to you for punishment and then the Amazons, with a host of my gods, come pounding down your door demanding her back. So, there is war. I punish her myself and your group and the Amazons come pounding on my door. And, again, we have a war. The point of this miserable island was to avoid a war. The goal of Ares and Loki was to start a war. Let's not let them win."
"War does not frighten me," Odin said. "But you are right, Loki should not win." With that, Odin put some extra weight on the foot holding Loki down. "I would rather put my energy to seeing if I can derive a punishment for my blood brother that is worse than what you can imagine for your son."
Zeus smiled.
"However," Odin continued. "If you expect me to believe that a mother's love blinded Hera to the faults of Ares, I will fight you here for considering me a fool."
Zeus' smile disappeared.
"Have her move the island," Diana said through clenched teeth.
Odin and Zeus both turned to look at her. "Explain," Odin said.
She looked up and Zeus flickered his hand in an upwards motion, clearly ordering her to stand.
If he had been less control of his emotions, Batman would have gasped. As Diana stood and turned to face the two gods, he got a clear look at her. She was a vision of primal beauty. Her eyes nearly glowed with anger, pain and disgust against the dirt and bruises on her face. She was holding one arm against her body and as she stood, she favored one leg which was nearly covered in blood – some dried and some new. In fact, she couldn't stand completely upright, but bent slightly as she kept weight off her wounded leg. He saw her make eye contact with him for a spilt second and then quickly look him over for other injuries. A mix of relief and happiness danced across her face but it quickly disappeared as her gaze returned to the gods.
"Have Hera move the island," she said. "Blóta must be moved to protect its citizens. Have Hera get involved."
"She can't do it," Zeus said. "She doesn't have enough power."
Diana nodded in agreement. "She can't do it alone. But she can help Odin and the Norse do it. It needs to be a group decision. It will wear Hera out and not gain her any worshippers. It will take a lot of time for her to recover. It may not as much of a punishment as Odin would like, but it will be a kind of punishment. But not enough of a punishment that anyone will pound down any doors."
Odin looked at Diana. "This is your protector you speak of."
"And I credit her for my surviving this day," she said. "She may be angry with me for the suggestion, but neither the Amazons nor the Blótans can survive another war between the gods."
Zeus looked at Odin. "She's right. But her suggestion would really set Hera off. I think I would rather chain her to a rock for a few centuries. At least I wouldn't have to live with her."
"What is a few centuries reclining against a rock to Hera?" Odin said and motioned towards Diana. "Her idea is better. Since I can't hurt Hera physically, I would rather hurt her pride."
Zeus grimaced. "But you are punishing me as well. What if we do what you did to Loki? While Hera is chained, we could have a snake drip poison on her."
Odin snarled. "When did she start feeling pain? If you won't let me punish her the way I want to, then we are going to accept the Amazon's plan."
Zeus frowned. "All right, she will oversee our side of the move of Blóta. The move needs to take place in four days. She will meet you in the usual place in two for planning."
Odin nodded. "Agreed."
Zeus tightened his hold on Ares. "Now, if you will excuse me, I need to take my son back home. You will not hear from him again."
"Wait!" Diana shouted.
Zeus gave her a look of disgust but did not leave.
"Ares needs to me what happened to my mother," she said.
Zeus looked at Diana and then at Ares. "He didn't do anything to your mother. She was the one who told Hades about the missing warriors. She was with Hades when he called for me."
Ares, sensing he could somehow redeem himself, spoke. "Loki wanted to kill her with the others but I knew that was not right so I sent her back to Themyscira."
Loki howled with rage under Odin's foot. "You idiot! How do you have enough brains to walk around? Even if you didn't want to kill her, which was stupid, there were about a million things…."
Loki was silenced by Odin, who had spoken a few words which had taken away his power of speech.
"Satisfied?" Odin asked Diana.
Diana nodded. A few tears were trickling down her face but she did nothing to stop them. Batman did not know if they were tears for the Amazons they had killed or joy that her mother was not among them or both.
Zeus looked at her with a gentle expression. "Your mother is safe. You have my word on that."
He looked at Ares. "You do not get any credit for that."
The last flicker of hope drained from Ares.
Batman watched the relief sweep across Diana's face. Then, as if it had been the only thing keeping her going, she lost consciousness and dropped to the ground.
Odin watched her fall and turned to Batman. "Tell her she has my protection. She fought Loki well. Tell Atreus I will be back in four days. He has until then to care for the dead."
He looked coldly at Loki. "And now you, my brother, let's see what we can dream up for you."
Loki said nothing but the hatred on his face was enough.
With that, Odin said a few words and he, Thor and Loki disappeared. Zeus nodded at the Dark Knight and, with Ares still in his grip, disappeared as well.
They had not completely disappeared before Batman reached Diana. He gathered her into his arms and held her for a moment. If she didn't regain conscious in a few seconds, he decided, he would carry her to a medic.
But just as he was trying to decide if he should just tend her wounds himself, she woke up and smiled faintly at him.
"We won," she said simply.
He looked up and across the island where the bodies still lay. As far as he could see, there were corpses, injured warriors and a landscape showing the signs of the recent struggle.
"I'm not sure about that," he said grimly.
She sat up and looked at him with a faint smile on her face. "I know."
She sat up. Batman placed his hand on her back to help but she seemed steady. He knew they needed to talk about what she had done and what it might mean. The battle had probably worn her down as much as it had him, but he didn't know when Zeus was going to talk to Hera.
"Odin says you have his protection," he said simply.
She looked at him with horror. "What will I do if I actually need it?"
"Adapt," he said firmly.
Her face hardened. "That's your answer." It wasn't a question but he could tell she wanted him to change his thinking. As he wasn't, he said nothing.
She looked at him for a minute. Then, despite her pain and exhaustion, her face set with determination. She inhaled deeply.
"Of course," she said with a hint of sadness. "That is all I can do."
With that, they both made their way back to Atreus and the rest of the Blótans.