AN/ Woot so here's chapter nine, I thought I'd upload it sooner than normal mostly as a means to motivate myself to get on with Chapter ten, I've finished planning the rest of the story and I'm pretty sure it should be ending at around twelve chapters including an epilogue. Anyways I hope you like this chapter, its a little away from the episode in places and carries a little bit of humour as well I think.

***Episode references 'The Balance' and 'Comfort and Joy' ,contains direct quotations***

Of course I own neither the show nor the characters :)

Chapter Nine

The doors were heavier than the Princess had originally anticipated and it had taken a hefty shove from her to force it open, inwardly she hoped that it hadn't made too much noise, or activated some sort of defence system. Before Diana could step through the opening, Shayera was already making her way through mace in hand and leaning slightly forward ready to enter battle should she need to. Carefully the doors were returned to their places and Diana quickly but silently caught up with Shayera who seemed just as eager for battle as ever.

"Don't you ever get tired of fighting?" Diana whispered dryly as she watched Shayera scan every detail within the room as if she were praying for danger.

"Don't you ever get tired of talking?" Shayera bit back as she continued to peer around.

The Amazon snorted but kept quiet, the library was much larger than either of them had anticipated and the strong smell of aged books and parchments was threatening to make both women sneeze.

"You know" Shayera muttered "Hell is the last place I thought I'd find books"

Diana raised an eyebrow as she poked her head around a bookshelf wrinkling her nose from the musty smell of dust and pages.

"Why do you say that?"

Shayera crept up behind her still pointing her mace in front of her "For one thing...books are flammable...besides what are you going to read about?" Shayera paused a moment as she glanced over her shoulder looking at an iron maiden "Aside from effective torture techniques"

"I wouldn't know" Diana muttered "I can't say I've ever had a desire to visit"

"I'll bet"

"Shhh" Diana shushed.

Shayera froze "What is it?"

"I think he is close by" Diana explained before she turned around another corner.

As they continued to stealthily make their way through the vast library, Shayera continued to look around as she allowed Diana to concentrate on finding Faust. The first thing she noticed were skeletons hanging on the wall, what struck her about these particular skeletons was the fact they were aflame.

'I'll bet that'll come back to bite us later' Shayera thought grimly as she stared at them a little longer.

"Interesting taste"

"What?" Diana asked distracted as she concentrated on silencing her heels.

Shayera pointed to the hanging skeletons "Those guys"

Diana glanced behind her at the Thanagarian before looking up at the hanging skeletons, she frowned "Well...can't say I'm surprised...could be worse"

There was silence and Diana felt that they were getting closer to finding Faust, she couldn't hold down her eagerness to find him to exact some punishment on him for what he had done to her and her people before. Briefly she glanced over her shoulder to check on Shayera, had she wanted to punish her too? Yes she had, but now she realised Shayera was doing an efficient job of that on her own. Amazons never had much love for forgiveness or second chances, but Diana had learned much on these topics since living in man's world, Superman had been given another chance and he was like a brother to her. It was then Diana decided that Shayera had the right to a second chance, a chance to prove herself and show that she had just made a mistake, the situation she had been in was hardly an easy one.

'She was in the perfect no win situation...but when push came to shove, she came through for us...just like always'

Diana pondered on Wally's words and silently wondered if the young man had more wisdom than he showed, and she wondered if she had as much as she thought.

Meanwhile Shayera had become distracted by the mountains of books, she had always been naturally curious and inquisitive something she had always considered a positive trait, and she would read just about everything and anything to further her knowledge. Reaching out Shayera ran her finger down one of the spines of the many books and was stunned to find that the book itself felt ice cold to her touch, despite them being in Tartarus. This only fuelled her interest and she grabbed the book in her hand and removed it from the shelf, as one would do with any book she peered at the front cover in search of a title or an indication as to what the book was about. Horrifyingly though the cover appeared to be made of skin and there was what Shayera hoped wasn't a real face. Staring at the book before her with a combination of curiosity and trepidation, the Thanagarian was startled as the 'eyes' opened revealing icy blue irises.

"Woah!"

She threw the book away as if it had taken a bite out of her hand, and she made a quick promise to herself not to touch anything else in this place, just in case something should bite her arm off.

"Shhh" Diana shushed again and this time Shayera became irritated by it, she would have snapped about telling her not to shush her but changed her mind. It was clear in the Princess's face that they were close.

Shayera crept closer to Diana as the latter peeked around a corner to look, the Thanagarian peeked around too and noticed that the Princess didn't move away or indicate that she didn't want her close. Shayera would have pondered on the meaning as to whether or not Diana's resentment was cooling down but her eyes fell on the contraption in the room.

"What the hell is that?" Shayera whispered quickly to Diana who merely narrowed her eyes.

"The Annihilator armour" Diana breathed never taking her eyes off of it "And Faust"

"So...We're just going to go in there and - "

"No"

Shayera frowned annoyed at being interrupted "So what are we going to do then Princess?"

Diana glanced at Shayera "Before when I fought it, we discovered that the armour feeds off of rage, if we fight it, it grows stronger"

Shayera sighed with frustration "You mean you dragged me down here just to tell me I can't hit it?"

"No...Your mace is a last resort"

"Geez" Shayera complained "And what...you think we're going to negotiate with him or talk him out of whatever he's up to?"

Diana shook her head "I don't know...but we don't want to risk making him stronger"

Shayera sighed again "Fine...let's just get this over with, at least I won't have to go far if I get killed during this"

She was shot a look from the Princess she couldn't quite read and she was busy trying to figure it out when Faust caught their attention.

"Incredible...wouldn't you agree Princess? The lost scrolls of Herculaneum, Merlin's Juvenilia, Pierre Menard's Don Quixote, Dark Tomes that make the Necronomicon look like a children's book"

Shayera wasn't particularly interested in what Faust was babbling on about, quite frankly she just wanted to get this over with, and it seemed that as she peered at Diana she didn't much care either.

"There's an Arcana here to quench even my thirst for knowledge, at least for the next five thousand years or so"

Okay she was fed up with his monologing now "Why would anyone bother taking over this dump?"

"To get revenge on Hades for betraying me, I planned to torture him for a few millennia but Hades tried to make a deal, he told me about this place, kept his end of the bargain...but I didn't keep mine...I still don't understand why he was surprised, but now I'm in heaven...figuratively speaking"

Shayera glanced at Diana hoping that she was going to give some indication on a plan, but it seemed the Princess wasn't quite sure what their course of action should be either, Shayera decided to go with what she was comfortable with.

"We're revoking your library card!"

"Oh...you want to fight, not in the mood" With that Faust sent a purple beam towards where they were standing, Shayera raised her mace ready to bat it away but it struck the ground and created some kind of tornado.

Both women were lifted from the ground and consumed by the tornado, in the next breath Shayera found she was falling. Shayera was falling too quickly and her wings were being forced back unable to present resistance to the air as she fell, before she could even attempt to break her fall the ground did it for her.

"Snow" Shayera grumbled to herself while buried in the cold wet substance, she'd been hot in Tartarus but she wasn't sure she wanted such a drastic temperature change, that and she really didn't like snow...not anymore.

While she sat for a moment trying to get her breath back she remembered the first time she had encountered snow, it had been on a wintery planet close to Christmas time...she had spent that Christmas with John.

'Like I need any more reminders of what I've lost'

Eventually Shayera found the energy to sit up and the majority of the snow fell off of her, as she looked around to check on Diana she noticed the Princess striding over to her...of course she landed perfectly fine.

To the Thanagarian's surprise, a hand was offered and despite what it meant, despite the fact it could mean that the Princess had cooled over her betrayal, Shayera didn't accept it. She didn't want Diana to help her because she felt she was supposed to or because she pitied her or something, just because she was an outsider and was unaccepted by many she came across...didn't mean she couldn't take care of herself.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just didn't think I'd need a jacket where we were going"

Standing up beside the Amazon, Shayera realised just how cold it was she hadn't expected to come across snow in this assignment, and moving from one extreme temperature to the other did nothing for her. Of course Diana appeared unaffected as always.

"Aren't you cold in that outfit?"

"No...Not really" Diana replied.

Shayera frowned, of course the Princess wouldn't be cold...the Princess was immaculate, perfect...unstained by betrayal and lies, free from a guilty conscious. Right then at that moment Shayera was filled with bitter resentment, she herself was the complete opposite, marred by secrets and lies never in her life had she ever been free of deceit until now and her soul was stained more than it had ever been.

"Of course not" Shayera started "The Princess doesn't get cold; the Princess doesn't even sweat in the fire pits of Tartarus"

"I do too sweat" Diana replied indignantly.

"Please you glow...I wouldn't be surprised if you never had to - "

At that moment Shayera was interrupted by someone screaming in agony, both women glanced at each other and made their way towards the sounds. As they flew Shayera looked at Diana.

"So I guess we'll need his help after all"

Diana glared a little ignoring the subtle 'I told you so' "We might as well free him while we're here...I don't want to stay here any longer than we have to"

"Got that right" Shayera agreed with a smirk.

"Earlier" Diana continued "When you said about not having to go far if you die here...what did you mean by that?"

Shayera's smirk faded "What do you think I meant?"

"Well, I think you're wrong"

Before Shayera could reply Diana sped up and breached a small cliff, there both of them found Hades chained and being tortured like Prometheus, but with many more vultures. Shayera was both curious and disgusted by what she saw and along with Diana immediately made to free the God of the Underworld.

"Get off of him!"

Moments later after batting and striking the vultures, Diana and Shayera stood before Hades, Shayera found it amusing how close he looked to what she had imagined, having said that she was sure she had seen his face in some of those Greek Mythology books she had borrowed from the Princess once.

"Did Faust send you? Did he decide that the Vultures weren't enough?"

"They aren't enough Monster" Diana informed him before lifting off and breaking the chains with one strike.

As Hades dropped down he splashed the liquid that they were standing in, it was then that Shayera realised they were standing in blood.

'What next?' She thought to herself 'And do I even want to know?'

"It appears I'm in your debt My Child" Hades greeted with a smirk as he busied himself regenerating his armour.

"Thank the Gods Hades...if it were up to me...but even here there has to be order"

"Faust doesn't care what happens to this place" Shayera added.

"No one ever appreciates your work until you're gone" Hades said dryly as he took his cape.

"Come on...we're putting you back on the throne"

"Or die trying?" Hades asked with amusement.

Shayera shook her head with a smirk as she hefted her mace "Not in the plan"

At that moment Hades engulfed them within a small hurricane which served to teleport them back to the library, the three of them found themselves once again standing outside of the large double doors.

"So..."Hades began still with a hint of amusement "What is this plan of yours?"

Diana glanced at Shayera "We take Faust down...only problem is he could just teleport us like before"

Shayera smiled slyly "He said he wasn't in the mood...I think I know what will put him in the mood to fight"

"What's that?" Diana asked interested.

"Don't worry, leave that to me...just make sure you" Shayera pointed her mace at Hades "Are ready once I have his attention..."

Without allowing a moment for further contemplation Shayera heaved the door open and made her way inside, both the Princess and Hades watched as she energised her mace and started lighting the very flammable books.

"Fiery little one isn't she?" Hades smirked as he watched the Thanagarian burn his library "I'll have to overlook her vandalism if you successfully return me to my throne"

Diana narrowed her eyes "Never mind about that...just make sure you're there to back her up...if something happens to her because you aren't...then I'll deal with you once I've finished with Faust"

Hades held his hands up in mock surrender "You have my word My Child, but you are keeping interesting company"

"Just get going" Diana sighed impatiently.

Hades shrugged deliberately and began making his way through the flames, after all he was the God of the Underworld fire wasn't something to be concerned about.

To be Continued