Kara pulled at the red sash that attached to her left hip, came up to her right shoulder, and draped over it. The blueberry blue tunic hung above her knees and cinched at the waist with a golden belt that had a dagger attached to it. She sighed as she looked in the mirror.

"You look good." The corners of Kara's mouth pulled in at Diana's compliment. She fiddled with the golden House of El attached to her right shoulder and that her sash ran through. "No armor?" Kara shook her head.

"I still have my powers in the Underworld," she ran her fingers through her hair, "and besides, I've never been a fan of armor."

Diana took Kara by the shoulders and directed her to the vanity. She made her sit and braided the hair on the left side of Kara's head. Diana focused on her fingers working through Kara's wavy blonde hair "How are your eyes?" A crease formed between Kara's eyebrows as they twitched.

"Fine."

"Cassandra told me they became light-sensitive after you used your heat-vision."

"Hm." Kara glanced down as she smoothed down her skirt. "I haven't used my heat-vision in in a while. Not since the attack from Apokolips."

Diana ran her hands down Kara's shoulders. "When you collapsed like that, yesterday, I couldn't breathe. We just got you back, Kara. The idea of losing you again, it frightens me." A knock on the door prompted Kara to stand and follow Diana. Artemis stood in full armor waiting for them with Io next to her. The armor smith held Diana's Wonder Woman gauntlets, sword, and the lasso.

"Cassandra is already at the Underworld entrance with Thrax, Circe, and Queen Hippolyta."

Kara ran her hand over the braids. "Let's not keep them waiting." Artemis and Kara led the way as Diana walked with Io to apply the finishing touches of her Wonder Woman uniform. "Everything copacetic?"

Artemis' brow furrowed. "I am not sure what that means?"

"Calm, more or less. Wasn't sure if we should expect high tensions when we get to the entrance."

"Everyone is eager to get to retrieve Donna. When I passed Cassandra on my way here, she told me Thrax was still unconscious."

"Then the spell is holding."

"Circe has doubts it will once we pass the threshold since magic in the Underworld is unpredictable."

"Odds are, Hades and Zeus have something to do with it. And speaking of Circe…"

Artemis frowned. "Were we?"

"Once we're in the Underworld, the rules of the holy don't apply."

"They do in my mind."

Kara nodded. "Understood."

The entrance to the Underworld resided on the last sublevel of the Temple of the Dead. Its doors were 50 feet tall and 30 feet wide and made from solid gold. The relief depicted souls in torment amongst rocks and flames in the bottom half and open fields with happy people in the upper half. There were no handles or any other visible way to open them.

"Hephaestus forged these millennia ago." Phoebe pressed her palm against the door. Kara's mouth fell open as the figures moved to act out scenes of torture and joy in their respective resting places. They stopped the second Phoebe removed her hand.

"They're terrible."

"The truth sometimes is."

"Ladies?" Phoebe and Kara left the doors and joined the rest of the Amazons standing around an altar.

Kara pointed at the stone "Please tell me we're not about to enact a human sacrifice to open these doors."

"I nominate Thrax as tribute." Circe snickered at Phoebe's comment, which earned her and Phoebe a smack in the arm from Lyla who was in her Harbinger uniform.

Nione's eyebrows rose. "No, we are not." Her right hand hovered over a tome like the one used to summon Circe, but thinner and a lighter hue. "Thrax's presence violates the agreement Olympus made with the Amazons." Scyleia handed Nione a dagger she had heated over a fire. Nione used the blade to cut strands from Thrax's hair and dropped them in a copper bowl filled with what looked like potpourri. Scyleia then handed her a twig with fire on it that Nione placed in the bowl. The contents crackled as the fire consumed them. Eyes followed the trail of smoke that wafted up from the charred remains. The cavernous room remained silent until the smoke reached the ceiling where several terracotta-colored, frisbee-shaped facades were carved into it.

"Now what?" Cassandra pinched Kara in the ribs. "What?"

"Watch," was Lyla's reply.

When the last of the ingredients turned to ashes, a boom—like a cannon shot—echoed through the chamber. A white light flashed where the altar was and forced everyone to close their eyes. They opened them again when the light faded to find a golden and very naked man standing on the altar wearing a helmet with wings on it and carrying a staff the same color as him. "May I ask why you summoned me with tainted incense?"

Nione bowed to the god before them. "Hermes, we need you to open the doors of the Underworld."

"And why would I do that?"

"Because that tainted incense belongs to Thrax, son of Ares' son." Hermes turned his head to regard the sleeping demigod.

"Hades did not inform me Thrax had escaped his confines. This must be corrected." He turned back to Nione. "You do not need to enter the Underworld if his return is what you seek. Something was stolen from you… or someone."

Diana cleared her throat and bowed. "My sister."

"Donna of Troy… I remember that day. It was an honor to take your sister to the Elysian Fields, your Highness."

"Will you help us?" He gripped the edge of his helmet and tipped it at Diana. "Thank you."

The wings on his staff and helmet flapped as he floated into the air and rotated to face the door. The figures on the door moved from their places to the crease where the opening was and pulled. As the door opened inch by inch, rock fell from the walls and ceiling until it stopped with space for people to walk through one at a time. Hermes pulled his staff back and floated down to the altar.

"I will allow this door to stay open for two days, for two days is all you have left to restore Donna of Troy." He motioned for Diana to approach and knelt on one knee, though the knee did not touch the altar. "This will keep you aware of the time." His free hand stretched out to catch sand that materialized in midair. It formed a small hourglass with a chain attached to the bottom. His hand curled around it and uncurled to reveal two hourglasses. "Best to give you two in case Hades plays any of his games." Diana took them and put one around her neck. Hermes snapped his fingers, and they turned over to let the sand run. "Best hurry if you want to succeed." The shine of skin brightened and caused everyone to close their eyes again; when they opened them, he was gone.

Kara cleared her throat. "Let's get to it then." Artemis who had a hold on the new chain attached to Circe's cuffs stepped away from the altar with several other Amazons and Kara.

"Cassandra." This stopped her from doing the same and go to Diana instead. "Take this," she held the other hourglass to her, "it's for you."

"Are you sure?" She grasped the chain and lifted it around her neck.

"I am. I have treated you too much like Wonder Girl the sidekick and not Wonder Girl the heroine. You deserve to be trusted and treated as a partner."

"Thank you, Diana." The princess gave Cassandra a reassuring pat on the arm and followed their companions.

Once at the entrance, Diana gave her mother a hug, took a torch from Philippus, and stepped into the darkness. Artemis shook Philippus' hand then pulled Circe in after her. Kara followed with Thrax over her left shoulder and a torch in her right. Cassandra took a breath and brought up the rear.

"Stay vigilant, Amazons. Doorways work two ways, entrance and exit. As long as these remain open, we can expect things to attempt an escape."

The guards bowed to their queen. "Yes, your Majesty," they replied in relative unison. When the queen left with her queen's guard, Philippus gave instructions.

"Phoebe and Scyleia will take the first shift to guard the doors. The rest will guard in pairs at each entryway from here to the Temple's grand doors." Lyla and a guard named Orithia flanked Philippus as they left the other guards to their orders. Phoebe and Scyleia planted themselves to make an equilateral triangle with the opening being one point and them being the other two. They had been there for less than five minutes when Scyleia spoke.

"Did you notice how Hermes didn't blink?"

Phoebe giggled. "That is what you focused on?" Scyleia motioned as if to poke Phoebe in the leg with the bottom of her spear, but her sister was too far out of reach.

In the Underworld…

The trail into the Underworld ran smooth and winding between man-sized stalagmites. Darkness hung in the air, thick and heavy like a wet blanket. Kara waved her torch towards the edge of the trail. "The light doesn't reflect off the rocks." She reached behind her and handed the torch off to Cassandra then shifted Thrax into a fireman's carry over both her shoulders.

"Keeps us from seeing what's beyond them." Her fingers grazed her lasso. Its light permeated the darkness more than the torch to show rock and nothing else. Cassandra's shoulders dropped and her features relaxed.

Minutes or maybe hours later, the trail curved less and widened. Diana turned left around a stalagmite wall to find a small, black sanded beach. A wooden pier—grey from age—extended from the beach's left side. The others stepped out around her and looked over the dark water. Diana took measured steps towards the pier and the others followed. The wood—on closer inspection—had holes in it and some boards appeared rotten, and yet they held firm.

Circe flicked her fingers at the water. "Anyone fancy a swim?" Kara's body shivered and contracted at the sight of faces flowing within the waves that produced no sound.

"I would," Cassandra gripped her lasso, "but there's no lifeguard on duty. Safety first."

From a red pouch attached next to her belt, Diana pulled a coin. Her thumb rubbed over the face of it and her ring finger against the back. Those fingers gripped the cool metal as her forefinger pressed against its edges. With a flick of the wrist, the coined skipped across the dark waters.

"Ten bucks we get a ruddy looking dude with a hat and a beard."

"I'm thinking more of an Attack of the Titans, look." Circe rolled her eyes at the dialog between Kara and Cassandra.

"I'm surrounded by children," she mumbled under her breath. "And it's Clash of the Titans."

Diana ignored them all. "There he is."

In the distance, the water sloshed and bubbled. It created a trail of bubbles that made a beeline to the women. It was 50 feet away when the ship broke through the surface like the Flying Dutchman from the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Souls clung to the sides of the dilapidated ship as it floated to a stop on the pier's right side. A tall man in a black tunic with a golden belt and matching sandals stepped out of the cabin in the middle of the boat. He grabbed an oar and knocked the desperate souls off his ship. In the light of the torches, he had reddish-brown hair and a strong Roman nose. He was handsome in a Grecian urn kind of way.

He pulled a Captain Morgan pose with one foot on the deck and the other on the starboard railing. "You bribed?" In his right hand was the coin Diana tossed into the water. His hazel eyes narrowed on the unconscious Thrax on Kara's shoulders. "This is serious. Get in." Kara took the hand he held out to her as he assisted her into the boat. After Kara was on the deck, he reached out and found Circe staring at him. "Circe."

"Charon… you look good."

He raised an eyebrow. "You too. That green in your hair brings out your inner bitch well." Artemis and Cassandra snorted at the insult and stepped into the boat. "Your Highness." Diana accepted his offered hand. "Lovely as always."

"I do not believe we have met, Charon."

"No, we have not. I have had the privilege of escorting several of your enemies."

"I see."

Charon hopped onto the deck and grabbed his oar and pushed off the pier. Cassandra and Diana moved to the front of the ship while Kara and Artemis took Thrax and Circe below deck. Cassandra watched the boat bump into the souls with a pained expression.

"When I was little, I feared I would become a lost soul such as these." Cassandra startled at Diana's confession.

"Do you think Amazons are down there?"

Diana shrugged her right shoulder. "There could be. The Amazons existed long before I did. And none of us are perfect." She pulled Cassandra into her embrace when the demigoddess didn't reply. "My dearest, child. If you are lost, then talk to me, please. I hate to see such turmoil within you."

"I'm not lost, Diana. I'm concerned on what we'll find down here."

"What do you think we'll find?"

Cassandra slid from Diana's reach. "That we don't get to take Donna home." The princess looked over the water. The shore behind them had disappeared and there was none to be seen before them.

"Losing a sister is a terrible a thing. The anger, confusion, doubt, and denial wraps around you as boa constrictor would its prey. You can either let it swallow you or fight back." Diana faced Cassandra and waited for her to do the same. "The burden of carrying Kara's secret has weighed on you, I know. And yes, Kara told me everything when she showed up." She ran her fingers through Cassandra's hair. "She's here to stay, she promised. Remember that."

Cassandra sighed. "I'll try."

"Land ho!" Charon grinned as he adjusted the rudder. "I always get a kick out of that." Where there once was no land, a red sanded shore emerged 100 feet away. The pier attached was made of a sturdy Redwood and brown stone. Kara with Thrax still on her shoulders and Artemis with Circe stepped out of the cabin. Though there was no anchor, the ship stopped. Diana and Cassandra were the first off on the port side. Artemis and Circe followed. "Leave him, Kara Zor-El."

The authority in Charon's voice vibrated through Kara. Her head bowed in submission before she laid him on the deck and stepped off the ship. Once she did, she gave a hard shudder and rubbed at the goosebumps decorating her arms.

"Where are you taking him?" Charon pushed off from the shore towards the river Cocytus without answering Artemis' question. She reached out to grab the edge of the boat, but Kara yanked her back.

"Where Thrax is going, I don't think we can follow."

"Right you are, Daughter of Zor-El." The women turned to find one of the loveliest women any of them had seen, or perhaps she came across that way due to how dark and dreary their surroundings were. "Thrax is being taken back to his prison with Hades. You must go another way if you wish to restore Donna."

"Can we…?" Cassandra trailed off as she waited for a name.

"Persephone," Diana said with a slight bow.

"You can," she replied as she returned the gesture, "but keep what I say in mind as you venture through the Underworld. Hades put many traps and tricks in place to ensure someone does not take a soul from its final place, resting or otherwise. You will face many challenges. If you defeat and pass these tests and trials-"

"We can restore Donna's soul," interrupted Artemis.

Persephone shook her head. "Restoring Donna is a possibility."

"You Olympians don't make it easy, do you?" A question once asked in jest at times before, bitterness and anger now laced Kara's voice. Persephone reacted with the same amused smile she gave Cassandra's question earlier.

"Your challenges await you. May you face them well." The ground rumbled and cracked before fast-growing stalagmite and stalactite erupted and fused into walls. The walls separated them: Cassandra and Diana; Artemis, Circe, and Kara. No amount of Amazonian or Kryptonian strength could shatter them. Hades' game had begun.


This wasn't my favorite chapter in terms of editing, but it's a good segway for the next two chapters.

Also, just feel the need to say I don't believe in any of this Greek mythology. It's important to keep in mind that though myths are fun to learn from and enjoy, they are just that... myths.