And now we've come to the end of our story. We hope Dick and Donna, et al, have enjoyed this little adventure we've borrowed them for (we only wish they were ours, or that DC and its parent(s) would let us officially play with them for a while).

Thank you all for reading, and for your generous -- sometimes VERY generous -- comments. We're hoping to collaborate on a couple of more fics, but since one of us lives on the East Coast and one of us lives near the West Coast, collaborating is a bit of a challenge. When we do, though, we'll post the results here.

Thanks again, and we hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it.

-X- -X- -X- -X- -X-

I feel the arrow vanish from my hand and finish the cartwheel leap that took me over the basin and let me plunge the arrowhead into the water. I land in a crouch, one hand down for extra balance. From here, it's an easy twist to any number of fighting stances, but I take a breath to assess the situation. Ares and Apollo are only now turning to face me with almost identical stunned expressions, and beyond them stands an angry Zeus.

A Nightwing in the hands of an angry thunder god is not in a good place.

We're frozen for a moment that might be an eternity, and then Apollo looks around. "Which one of you gave him that kind of agility?"

I'd laugh if the situation weren't so dire. "Hate to disappoint you, but I earned that on my own."

"She was not intended to kill it!" Zeus' booming exclamation tells me Donna succeeded, but my elation is killed by his anger.

I stand carefully, calculating the dangers. Ares has recovered from his shock and Zeus can't see the nod he gives me. His face is serious, but there's laughter in his eyes. He won't engage me. Apollo looks disgusted and might be goaded into a fight. Athena is pleasantly surprised. Aphrodite -- I look away from her. She's wondering whether that agility is useful in other situations. Finding out is a pleasure reserved for me and Donna.

I note all of that as I stand, and then my anger rises to meet the thunder god. "If you're telling me you'd rather imprison someone forever, locked in an eternal fight, then she killed the wrong monster."

All of Olympus goes storm dark, and the lightning flashes blindingly bright, the thunder rolls deafeningly loud. Good job, Dick, now the king of the gods is even more pissed off. You're supposed to be good at calming tense situations, not making them worse.

I'll try, but I've never had to calm a god before. "There were other options, especially if Artemis has more of these arrows lying around. I don't understand why you'd choose the one you did."

I do, actually, but I'm not stupid enough to say it aloud. They've grown lazy and complacent and don't want their peaceful retirement disturbed. They don't want to waste weapons they can no longer make. Better torture Donna and me forever than risk their own convenience.

"One prophesized adversary at a time," Athena provides an additional answer. Maybe I'm judging too quickly. "And when defeated, another is sent. Our father wished to break the chain."

"I've spoken before about explanations." The air around Zeus crackles with ozone. "They are not needed. Your purpose is to obey, to provide what we need without question."

"When do you provide what we need?" I ask. "The relationship between gods and men has always been reciprocal."

"Men have abandoned the gods. We owe you nothing."

"You want to know why people abandoned you?" I can't help myself. Too much of Bruce's confrontational nature in me. "It's because you don't understand we're not ignorant slaves."

I turn slowly, meeting each one's gaze. More gods have arrived, silently, even their presences still in this gathering. Most of them I don't recognize, but all of them are watching and listening intently.

"We were ignorant, once," I say, and wish I'd paid more attention in history and literature classes. "That's when you came and taught us, helped us. But that was a long time ago. We've grown up."

My circuit complete, I face Zeus again. "I'm not saying we don't need gods anymore -- but how we need you has changed. You failed to change with us."

Words come to me, bubbling from memory. I see the place where Slade sent me, and the girls who delivered his message, all the ordinary tourists at the monument. It isn't life passing before my eyes. It's the truth I'm trying to show the gods. "One of our greatest presidents said that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. It's your choice, all of yours," I add, acknowledging the gods gathered here. "Stay here on Olympus, distant, forgotten, unworshipped. Or get to know us again and get involved."

"Are you offering to be an ambassador and aide?" Apollo appears to be coaching more than questioning me. "If we send you home?"

"More a liaison, at first. Later, maybe, an ambassador." I don't say why I can't be their ambassador right away, but they all know. They haven't earned enough of my respect yet.

Apollo nods. Several others as well. They want this. Even Zeus sees it, and though his fury is not tempered, he doesn't countermand them. I've won. So why am I still tense?

The king of gods says, "It is agreed. Leave us."

A sudden blackness. Dick landed, not gently, on stone.

It was dark. Night. The same night he'd left? He had to think so. Behind him, leaves rattled accompaniment to the more distant music of the surf. Ahead of him a wall of darkness loomed in the pale moonlight. A rusty stench assaulted his nostrils. He blinked, and a pair of figures standing close together, confrontational, came into focus. He recognized Diana immediately. The other woman he'd met, but had to search for her name. She was the priestess, he remembered. Penelope.

"Open the gate," Diana demanded. She held something bright in her hands. Her lasso. Dick could see that one end of it was wrapped around Penelope's forearm.

"Nice way to start a partnership," Dick muttered, hoping the gods would hear, as he pulled himself to his feet. Diana either hadn't heard him or was too focused on what she was doing to respond.

"I cannot obey, Princess." Penelope's chin went up in defiance. "Your lasso cannot force me to betray the gods who made it."

But, the priestess wanted to help. Dick saw that, clearly, though he had no idea why she'd choose to go against the gods she served. So he asked, "What's going on?"

His voice made both women jump. Diana recovered first. "Dick! Thank the gods you're all right."

"We'll talk about those gods later." Later, when he wasn't still angry with them. "What's happened?" He stepped closer, cursing the long robes that hindered his movement. They hadn't on Olympus, thankfully, or he'd never have managed to get the arrow to Donna.

"Donna is beyond that portal, trapped in combat with some monster." Diana pointed with her free hand toward the cliff, and now Dick made out a massive door opening into blackness beyond. "And I would help her kill it so we can return together, or else I will take her place. I caused her to be in this position, and I will free her from it."

"She's already killed it." Dick directed his words to the priestess as much as to Diana. "If Donna's not back yet, it's because the bastard refuses to release her."

"If the gods demand she remain, I cannot free her," Penelope insisted.

It struck Dick that Zeus could well be petty enough to lock Donna in Hell forever because her boyfriend had mouthed off. Or it could be that the king of the gods thought leaving her there would ensure Dick's cooperation, as his presence on Olympus should have ensured hers? Trying to think like the gods did was giving him a headache. But, punishment planned didn't mean punishment accepted.

To Diana he said, "Tell her to explain how to open the gate. If she can't do it, we will."

Diana repeated the question. Penelope closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "There is a crystal," she said, compelled by the lasso. "Concealed in my robe. Light beamed through the correct facet will open the correct portal. But there are many facets and many angles at which to hold them to the light. Many doorways. Only one leads to Donna."

"Which one?" Diana snapped.

"No." Penelope shook her head. "I cannot tell you that."

"It's a puzzle," Dick concluded. "One he doesn't expect us to figure out. He expects me to take eternity trying." And he's still underestimating humans. Especially me.

"Give him the crystal," Diana ordered.

Penelope obliged, producing the crystal, a half-burnt candle, and the flint and steel to light it. Dick took them all to the rear of the cave. There, he found a small crevice, barely lit by moonlight. It looked like a half-healed wound, and had to be the closed portal. He lit the candle and held up the crystal to study it. There had to be a pattern, a way of figuring out which door to open.

Within the crystal a thousand tiny fissures carved innumerable patterns. Tiny inclusions of various materials would alter the light passing through as well. His brain could calculate only so many refractions before it got lost in the inner faceting. It would take him years to work it all out, if he ever could.

This is what Zeus wants, Dick realized. He expects me to get lost in the direct problem. But, that's not how Dick had been taught to think. There had to be a different solution. The priestess needed a way of knowing, and remembering, the proper positions. She'd have to hold it in her hand so -- he mimicked what he thought should be the reasonable movement, adjusting for Penelope's height and frame. His little finger brushed the most miniscule of patterns carved into the base of the stone.

He turned the crystal over, studied the base. But, even with the candle held close, he could not see the carvings, if that's what they truly were. He went on instinct, and held the stone as if he were using it again. He closed his eyes so he could focus solely on touch. Yes, the markings were tiny letters. He had to struggle to remember the Greek Donna had taught him, but he could make out words, names of locations. Most of them meant nothing to him, but if he held the crystal just so he could make out the word "Limbo."

Limbo. The place he'd seen through the basin fit every definition of Limbo he'd ever heard. It was a guess, but it felt right to his sense of pattern. There was only one way to be certain.

"Be ready, Diana." Dick held the candle up to the crystal, directed its flame toward the gash in the back wall.

A portal yawned open, and he tensed, ready for battle in case he'd chosen the wrong door.

"Dick? Dick!" He barely had time to register that it was, in fact, Donna on the other side of the portal before she flew at him, throwing her arms around him.

He dropped the crystal and candle, wrapped her in his arms. He'd felt her instinctively pull back the moment she touched him, and tightened his own hold on her. Against her ear he whispered, "Squeeze as hard as you like. I won't break now."