The sun could not hide the shadows of the clouds passing through the sky, just like the moon couldn't stop the oceanic tide from rising as Victor and Harper trudged back onto land. It was difficult not to feel discouraged after such a hefty rejection, but there were still others that hadn't completely dismissed her idea.

"I told you. No one will agree to this without Clark." Victor's helmet retracted automatically away from the right side of his face, and disappeared beneath the layers of metal on the other.

"There's still more people to ask." Harper replied quickly, but it was obvious that this failure had chipped away at her optimism. "How about Diana?"

The waves hit their armoured backs one last time before they finally found themselves marching over the darkened sand. Victor grimaced, and the lines on his face deepened at the expression. "She returned to Themyscira. I think she's been crowned queen of the amazons."

Harper sighed. "Great, more royalty..."

"I've spoken to her partner, Bastion, a few times but I haven't seen Diana since she left." Victor stopped and tried to wash the bitter taste of defeat from his mind with the oncoming sunset. "I don't think their son even visits them anymore."

"And their son is...?"

"Dionysus." Victor answered, semi-distracted by the explosion of colour painting the horizon.

"Oh...yeah. Should have guessed." She remembered that name from the first day she had landed there. He was a massive guy with the resemblance of a Greek god, just like Diana. Harper exhaled. She never thought that a child of Wonder Woman could grow up to be so reckless. "It's a bit weird that she has a son, I thought that was impossible. Aren't all amazons female?"

"Apparently not." A cold gust of wind blew passed them, and though it attempted to seep through their suits, it failed miserably. "There were male Amazon's centuries ago but...well, it's not my place to talk about it."

"Then I guess I'll just ask Diana." Harper said with a sting of disappointment. She was beyond curious about the subject, and to know that it was at all possible for an Amazon to raise a son went against everything she knew about Diana's people. "Do you know how to get to Themyscira?"

Victor shot her the most perplexing expression; it almost insisted that the answer to this question was obvious. "Well, Bastion's one of the only men they've let in for centuries...so no, I don't know how to get there."

With that being said, Victor started to press his index finger against his left forearm. There was a low buzzing sound, and very quickly, a Boom tube cracked open in front of them. Harper gaped at the portal in surprise. "Umm...where exactly does that lead?"

"I don't know where Themyscira is, but I've sent Diana close by. This should take you somewhere near the island, but you'll have to find Themyscira on your own."

"You're not coming with me?" Harper asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I wouldn't be welcome." Victor said as if it were obvious. He gestured to himself, then to Harper in a failed attempt to help her understand. When it didn't work, Victor sighed and continued to speak. "As I said, men aren't typically allowed on Paradise Island."

"Yeah, but that was before this 'Bastion' guy was allowed in." Harper retorted. "Things change. I highly doubt that Diana would punish you for that."

Victor's gaze wavered to the ocean calmly rolling over the rocky landscape. He didn't want to offend Amazon tradition or law...but he had no desire to leave Harper's side either. After so many years tying to survive the passing of his heart, she had returned to him by some indescribable twist of fate. He knew it couldn't last...and that she was not his to keep, but in his blind relief he had chosen to dismiss any thought of her leaving. He could speak of it, and yet inside, he did not believe her imminent departure to be waiting at the end of this journey. Love is the emblem of eternity, after all; it confounds all notion of time; effaces all memory of a beginning, and all fear of an end.

"If you really want me there then I'll go, but if they throw me into the underworld it's your fault." Victor quipped, though he did seem rather uneasy about the idea of visiting Themyscira despite his agreement.

"I can live with that." Harper teased, and without anymore delay, she entered the boom tube.

Victor stayed put for a few further seconds and watched as the sun finally dipped beneath the distant hills. The explosion of colour against the distant horizon slowly dimmed, and Victor finally tore his eyes away. He hadn't yet asked Diana to return to the team. In fact, he'd asked everyone except for her. The reason was, quite simply, that he didn't want to travel to Themyscira and disrespect their customs. Then after all the rejections he just lost hope that she would ever agree.

With an uneasy feeling consuming him, Victor finally followed Harper through the boom tube. He stepped once, twice, thrice, and then his fourth step found only air. Victor fell from great heights, and crashed back into the ocean. He hadn't considered the fact that Diana could fly, and so may have given coordinates that didn't lay on ground level. After sinking for what felt like a small lifetime, passing by the vast emptiness of the ocean, he finally reached the bottom. Harper was already there with the suit of her mech folding it's arms with impatience.

"You know, I really wasn't hoping to be thrown back into the water." She commented, and behind her the small lights of her mech revealed a completely translucent fish...that is, except for its insides. It had glowing dots on either side of its body to help attract pray, but this was nothing unlike the things they had seen on the way to Atlantis. "How are we meant to know which way to go if we aren't on the surface?"

"I've scanned the area. There's an island just up ahead. It seems fairly standard, nothing that would suggest that it's Themyscira, but it's definitely a start."

Harper nodded and wasted no time marching through the restricting water. Each step took twice as long to take, and the occasional sea creature jumped out from the darkness, distracted by their lights, and swim toward them...or try to eat them. They had to switch the voltage to something a little higher, and more painful to the eyes of a creature that lived on the bottom of the ocean, to prevent this from happening again.

Finding land wasn't too difficult, but when they stepped onto the shoreline the island was anything but ordinary. It seemed to sparkle with mysterious magic. Birds flew overhead, but they weren't just birds, they were Phoenix's; with every strong flap of their wings a burst of fire coloured the sky. Every tree looked ancient, and yet still in the prime of their lives. The bark almost looked to be flowing with sorcery. From over the lush green hills appeared four muscular women, each carrying a sword in one hand, and a shield in the other.

"Halt!" One of them yelled in a voice that shook the ground with rage. "You are trespassing on sacred land. What is the purpose of this insult?"

"We're here to see Diana." Harper replied, though this only seemed to anger the amazons even further.

"That is Queen Diana to you." One of them growled. "You have broken Aphrodite's Law by bringing a man to our shores. You are not worthy of a consultation with her majesty."

"From what I've heard you have a man living here now anyway. I don't think that law applies anymore."

Victor placed a hand on her shoulder, motioning for her to cease testing the patience of the amazons. They already looked beyond annoyed, and he knew first-hand that they were some of the most ferocious people when angered.

The fourth amazon, who sported a head of blazing red hair and who was taller than even Wonder Woman herself, shook her head at her sisters disapprovingly. "We are to take any matters of man's world directly to the queen, those were our orders. Save your offence for later."

The redhead finally glanced over at Victor and Harper, eyes thoroughly analysing their alloy shells.

"Follow me." She ordered, sheathing her blade and disappearing back behind the lusciously green hill. The other amazons watched with cautious eyes as the two trespassers sauntered after her.

They were lead away from the vast beach and to the ancient buildings of Themyscira. It had all the makings of an Ancient Greek city; structures carved out of solid marble and a wall that enclosed the city away from the dangerous woods that lingered nearby. The place itself was full of training arenas and women built with more muscle than most men, the palace was much less extravagant than the one in Atlantis and filled with trophies of indescribable mythical beasts.

Right in the centre was a man, around fifty years old, with bright blonde hair and mismatched eyes; one blue and the other brown. He was admiring the wings of a slain Chimera, but seemed to know that they were there before they'd ever entered the building.

"Bastion." Victor greeted with remarkable indifference and the man finally turned his attention towards them.

"Victor." Bastion nodded. "This is the last place I expected to see you."

"Desperate times." Victor replied simply, then as Bastion's gaze wavered over to the Atlas mech, he gestured towards it. "This is-"

"Harper, I know." He interrupted nonchalantly.

"Yeah, but she's-"

"From the past, and has come here to ask us to rejoin the Justice League." Bastion finishes again, crossing his arms and tapping his index finger against the rough fabric of his shirt. "You already know what the answer will be, but you've come with her anyway to distract yourself from the fact that she will be returning to her own time soon, should I continue?"

Victor's eye twitched in obvious annoyance, but he somehow managed to contain it. Harper, on the other hand, had absolutely no clue how Bastion was so well-informed. Apparently, Bastion was also aware of her confusion because he swiftly addressed it.

"I'm telepathic." He said, and somehow his eyes flared with an entrancing pattern; like thick medicine being poured into water and swirling into erratic shapes. "Diana's here."

The moment that he said this a large figure stormed into the room. A ginormous eye swung at her side, her right hand clutched around the detached veins and optic nerve. "The Cyclops has been slain. He will no longer ravage our cities borders-"

The dark-haired woman stopped in her tracks, gaze resting on Victor with apparent shock. It wasn't two seconds later that a smile shined across her face and she approached him with open arms. "My old friend! It has been too long!"

She captured him in a tight hug, and when she did so the loose eyeball swung against his back with a squelchy 'whack'. Harper would have shivered in disgust, but she had been grown in a lab. She'd seen worse...much worse.

There was a revolution on the faces of her guards, but not at the gore-ridden organ, but at the fact that Diana was allowing another man to stay without punishment. She had learnt during her time in Man's world that any form of discrimination was wrong, even when directed towards men. She had no desire to partake in such dreadful traditions.

"And this is?" Diana motioned towards the suit of armour behind Victor.

Bastion swiftly took the eye from Diana's grip and started searching for a spot to place it. "Harper, but the one from like twenty-five years ago..."

Diana's blue eyes widened but she didn't even question this explanation, and regained her composure very quickly. "I'm sure there must be an interesting story behind that, sister."

"Not really. I accidentally made a wormhole out of a black hole device. Standard time travel stuff."

Diana raised a perfect eyebrow at her but smiled nonetheless. Technology and science was as foreign to her as magic was to Harper. "I'll take your word for it."

Bastion, who had finally found a place for the new trophy beside a Cetus' tail, decided to rejoin the conversation in perhaps the worst possible way. "They're here about Dionysus."

The dazzling smile of the Amazon queen quickly faded and was replaced with a sorrow that Harper, without knowing motherhood, could not comprehend. "What has he done now?"

"Oh, you know, just helped topple a few cities to the ground." Harper answered with a twinge of sarcasm, but this was mainly due to her own irritation. "How did this happen? He's the son of Wonder Woman, for God's sake. I thought he would have been trying to stop this, not join it."

Diana grimaced. Suddenly, there was unimaginable pain dwelling in her bright eyes and it was so intense that Harper almost felt bad for asking...almost. "I'm afraid that I wasn't there for the majority of his childhood. He resents me for that and has decided to go against everything that I stood for in the process."

"Why weren't you there? He's your kid, surely that's just an exaggeration."

"No, for at least twelve years of his life I never really saw him." Diana's shoulder's tensed, but Bastion finally stepped closer to her and rubbed her arm comfortingly. "If he were born a woman it may have been different, but instead I was so shocked by the appearance of a male Amazon that I fled."

"She had given birth while I was away, and when I returned Dionysus was on the bed screaming but Diana wasn't there." Bastion added. "I raised him the best I could, but he struggled with his heritage. It was a part of him, and I couldn't teach him what he needed to learn. For a while, though, he was a good kid. He listened to me...that changed when I decided to forgive Diana for leaving. He saw it as another betrayal."

"I didn't mean to stay away for so long, but I uncovered things about the amazons that I wished I had left buried." Diana nodded at her guards, and they departed. "Apparently, it wasn't impossible for a male Amazon to be born...and Dionysus wasn't the first one."

Harper scoffed. "How is that even possible? You're from an island of all women. I thought kids weren't really an option for the rest of them."

"In the beginning, there were only ten of us but Athena convinced Demeter to grant us the gift of fertility until our numbers reached exactly 5000. This was during my great grandmother's reign as queen. They would swim out to nearing ships, seduce the men on board, then cast them into the vast ocean once they were done."

Harper glanced over at Victor, who looked just as surprised as she felt. Apparently he hadn't heard this story either, which was refreshing since Harper had just spent the last few days being the only clueless one.

"My sisters celebrated the births of their daughters, but Athena ordered that any male born to an amazon must be thrown to a watery grave; with their fathers. The population quickly reached 5000, and our fertility was snatched away from us long before my mother was prepared to have children. It made her desperate enough to turn to Olympus for a daughter. The only reason I was unaffected was because I was born, not just an Amazon, but the daughter of Zeus... When my mother found out about Dionysus she commanded me to kill him, and when I refused she journeyed to man's world to search for him herself. I spent the next decade trying to lead her away from his trail."

"So he hates you...for protecting him?" Harper questioned.

"It isn't that simple, and he is not to blame for his hatred of me or my people. In his eyes, it is completely justified." Diana sighed. "I only wish that he hadn't turned against his father as well."

"Well, here's your chance to make things right. We're trying to reform the old Justice League...to put a stop to this generation of reckless supers. If you joined it would carry a lot of influence over the others."

Diana's face fell to one of even more torment than before. It looked remarkably like Queen Camille's expression...and, already, Harper knew what the answer would be. "I...cannot leave Themyscira. To do so would be an automatic forfeiting of the crown, and it is my duty to lead my people into a new era. If I leave they may fall back into their previous practices."

Harper crosses her metal arms over her chest and frowned. "That can't be the only reason. The Wonder Woman I know would do anything to protect Man's world. Even relinquish her rule."

Diana closed her eyes, almost as if she were in excruciating pain. There are some wounds, after all, that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds. "Amazons were given the honour of immortality for their faith and devotion to their gods. When I returned to Themyscira, Hera took that gift away from me. She decreed that the moment I stepped away from this island, that I would begin rapidly ageing. She was always looking for some excuse to kill me..."

"But your a demigod. Surely she can't kill you that easily. She could be bluffing."

"Are you willing to take that risk?" Bastion interrupted with annoyance. "She could die before she ever makes it to the land. Would you be willing to carry that burden if you were the one that made her go?"

"For the sake of the people suffering under your son's immaturity, absolutely." Harper didn't hesitate, not even for a second. She would have allowed almost anything if it meant stopping this group of delinquents.

Bastion sneered. "You've got your answer, and now you've outstayed your welcome."

"Oh yeah? And what's your excuse? Why are you deciding to let innocent people suffer?"

A growl formed low in Bastion's throat, it sounded almost animalistic in nature. "I've tried to stop him, but he's beyond my reach...and don't speak to me about suffering, I've payed my dues. I owe this world nothing."

It was bewildering to Harper how someone so cynical and cold towards the world could win Diana's favour. Even now as he dismissed the earth to the whims of his son and the other young metahumans, Diana looked utterly torn. Clearly she was more conflicted about the situation than her partner was.

"Fine, whatever, just pretend that nothings happening...but one day an evacuation of the city's not gonna succeed, and your son will turn from a reckless asshole into a murderer. Try sleeping with that on your conscience. At least I'll know that I did something to stop it."

With that, Harper grabbed Victor by the hand and dragged him out of the giant forum. This rejection hit harder than the last, but still she used it as fuel to push forward. There had to be someone still willing to do the right thing...anyone.

———————

Author's Note: Yooo, it's my birthday! And for a present I want to know which story in the series has been your favourite so far! 😂❤️