Chapter Twenty-Six: Vanished.
Perhaps Harry was just being paranoid. All of these years where he saw something happening to the island made him rather suspicious of any problem, large and small. Donna and Diana didn't seem to think anything was wrong.
"Although," Diana commented. She placed her hand on her chin, tilted her head back, and looked a bit thoughtful. It was almost like she was recalling something. She paused and started again. "Although, it was very odd that our mother planned this trip and she had to drop out at the last second."
Harry frowned extremely deeply. Hippolyta had planned this trip and it was out of character for her to just drop something like that. Unless there was a pretty good reason, unless something came up, and she needed to get her daughter's out of harm's way, Hippolyta would not have canceled the trip. Harry frowned, all possibilities of what might have happened seemed a little bit grim.
Selene turned towards him, helpfully chiming in. 'Yes, she did seem insistent up to this point that she was here. She wanted to look over the modifications made to the Church and I'm sure she wanted to be inspired.'
Harry was getting all kinds of vibes that something was off. He couldn't really determine what, but something was off. He turned to Diana, who was frowning at him. "Is there something wrong?"
"Diana, did your mother happen to tell you anything before she sent you two through the portal," Harry said. He might have been grasping at straws trying to figure out what was going on.
Diana shrugged her shoulders, but it was Donna who answered in her own way. "Well, she didn't send us through the portal, as much as she shoved us through the thing. She did seem to be in a bit of a hurry."
Harry frowned, the more that he heard, the more alarm bells were raised. He turned to Kara and Kat which were on either side of him. Both of the blondes seemed to be a bit apprehensive, especially Kara, who had been through this sort of thing often enough to know that something rotten was in the state of Denmark.
'So, we're going to go check things out, aren't we?' Kara asked.
Diana jumped in on the bond link. 'Well, I thought that something was odd, but I didn't want to spook Donna. So, what are we going to do about her?'
Donna frowned. She could hear things get oddly quiet and it was almost like all four of them were talking about her behind her back. The young Amazon Princess folded her arms over her chest and stuck out her lip in an atomic pout. She could not believe this, but at the same time, she could believe this.
"You think something was wrong, didn't you?" Donna asked.
"I'm sure it is nothing, Donna, why don't you go inside, and we'll be right with you in a minute?" Diana asked. Donna opened her mouth, but Diana gave her one of those stern looks.
Donna backed down and sighed. "Fine."
Donna made her way back into the Church and Harry turned to Diana. The Amazon Princess shrugged her shoulders and sighed.
'I'm pretty sure that she's a lesson that I have to learn about the consequences of karma,' Diana thought. 'You know, the consequences of how I acted up as a child. That's unsettling, isn't it?'
'What's unsettling is what happens on the island, to make your mother abandon a trip,' Harry thought. The four of them were about ready to leave back through the gateway.
'Yes, Harry, we know, stay on our toes,' Kara replied to him. That was something that went without saying, as far as she was concerned.
The four of them stepped into the gateway. There was a warm feeling that washed over their body when they entered. It was set up to be rather nice and smooth. Harry held onto Diana tightly when she entered through the portal.
The group dropped down onto the ground with a series of thuds, hitting extremely hard when they landed.
Harry looked around, the island was as beautiful as they left it. One could argue that time increased the beauty.
Diana frowned. Having lived on this island every single day of her life, she was not as swept in by the beauty as others might have been. Her frown grew the more when she leaned forward, craning her neck to search the island.
"There are normally Amazons training over there," Diana said. She pointed towards a training arena. "It's every day like clockwork, they're training on the island. I wake up for breakfast, and they're there. I go to sleep at night, and they're there. But they're not there, in the middle of peak hours on the island."
Kara grabbed the Amazon Princess by the hand and steered her forward. The four of them walked forward and looked at the island.
Harry tried to communicate with Hippolyta mentally. There was something up with what was happening on the island. The fact he couldn't locate one of his mates was rather disturbing.
"No one's here," Diana whispered. She looked around fretfully. Her eyes widened when she gazed around the island. Her heart kept beating harder across her chest when she viewed the island. "It's like everyone was here, and now they're gone. All gone."
Harry, Kat, Kara, and Diana spent a lot of time searching the island. The young wizard was thinking about any number of reasons why his Amazons could have disappeared like that. Diana was holding things together, but it was obvious that she was stressed.
"Don't worry, I'll find her," Harry informed her.
Diana nodded in response. "I know, I have faith."
She always had faith in her god. The young Amazon Princess craned her neck up and could feel a thumping about the back of her head. It was almost like her mother was reaching out, but something was stopping her.
Diana couldn't reach back if she wanted to and believe her, she did want to. That's what made things extremely stressful. The Amazon Princess placed her hand onto her cheek and stroked it.
"You feel that, don't you?" Kat asked.
"Yes, I can feel it," Harry said. He performed a series of charms. There was a ripple effect that knocked the magical energy back and essentially threw him back to square one. "It was almost like the Amazons were here, and now they're gone. It's really frustrating."
Diana thought that frustrating might not even begin to describe what this felt like to her. A good portion of her world was removed right underneath her grasp.
Kara stepped forward. She wanted to check out the monument to Harry. If someone did this to get at him, maybe they would have destroyed or at least vandalized the monument.
Much to her surprise, the monument was completely untouched. That caused Kara to frown. She thought that she had all of the answers, but no matter how many answers she thought that she had, there were some people who kept changing all of the questions.
The blonde wasn't going to even discuss how positively infuriating it was for her to go around in circles like a hamster on a wheel. She just spun the wheel around with no rhyme, no reason, no purpose whatsoever. She bit down on her lip and left an impression down on it.
"Okay, is it just me or the fact that the monument has been left untouched the oddest thing of them all?" Kara asked.
Harry shook his head. He once again tried to test for any kind of magical residue about the area of the monument. "No, it's not just you. It isn't someone who had a grudge against me."
"It might not be someone who has a grudge against you, but it could be someone who is going to get your attention," Diana reminded him.
"Diana, there are far easier ways to get Harry's attention, especially if the person is a beautiful woman," Kara replied to her. "And you know…"
"Attacking the island will only cause me to get a bit agitated with whoever did this," Harry said. There was something oddly familiar about some of the magical residue on the island.
Harry pushed at the residue, but it didn't bend, it didn't break.
"The Amazons are close by," Harry informed her.
"My sisters are close by?" Diana asked. She breathed in heavily. "Well, if they're close by, why is it that I can't see them?"
"Because there's someone extremely powerful blocking us," Kara said.
That caused alarm bells to rise in the back of Diana's head. "But, who can be powerful enough to block Harry?"
Harry frowned when he thought about this. Diana brought up an interesting point that he had to consider extremely carefully. "Who would be powerful enough to block me, indeed?"
"Well, it could be Circe," Kara suggested off hand. That caused Diana to cringe.
"Well, you might be on the right track."
It was almost on cue, but Hera turned up on the island. Diana had seen Hera a few times already, but it never ceased to amaze her being face to face with the Queen of the goddesses. The woman's breath was taken totally away.
"Hera, it is an honor to see you," Diana said. She respectfully stepped forward and gave a warm smile to her.
"Yes, I would have to agree with my daughter's sentiments," Harry informed her. He turned towards Hera. "Is your marriage with Big Z still hanging strong?"
"Strong as it's ever going to be," Hera muttered underneath her breath. She shook her head and the dry tone didn't leave her voice when she spoke. "But that's not the reason that I'm here. The goddesses have all sent a shift and I was the one that has been elected to tell you. It was fortunate enough that Diana and Donna escaped the island."
Fortunate might not adequately describe it. Even with the suspected circumstances, Hera doubted that Harry would take things too well to see two his daughters disappear like that. She couldn't really blame him, for it showed his character quite nicely.
That being said, she hated to be in the crossfire when he tore up everything. It was odd that he was calm right now, but then again looking closer, she could see that he wasn't. Kara's presence was enough to keep him in line.
She shuddered to think how bad off either of them would be without the other.
"What kind of shift?" Harry asked, finally breaking the awkward silence that was born out of what she was saying.
"The island is still here, the Amazons are still on it, but we just can't see it," Hera said. She pressed her hand against an invisible wall, as if to demonstrate.
"That's about the lines of what I was thinking," Harry informed Hera.
"How did this happen?" Kat asked.
Harry turned towards her thoughtfully. "There are any number of enchantments that can warp the fabric of time and space. Allowing two places to exist on the same plane, but some people not being able to access the plane, which makes me think that a Fidelius Charm of some sort was performed, although far more sophisticated."
"But to hide people, rather than a place?" Kara asked.
"Oh, you mean like some kind of hyper stasis translocation field," Kat piped up.
Diana looked confused, but Harry smiled and nodded. "Yes, exactly like that."
Hera knew that they were only guessing, but their guesses seemed to be on the mark. Someone hid the people on the island, because it would take far less magic to hide the people on the island, then the island itself. At the same time, performing such magic could be really tricky for obvious reasons.
"So, what do we do know?" Kat asked.
Diana looked determined. "I vote for asking Circe ourselves."
A scantily clad Hippolyta was slumped against the wall. She managed to send her daughters on through, hoping that Harry would pick up on the fact that something was wrong. She didn't want to alarm her daughter's in any way, but for her to go through, would also leave her sisters vulnerable to attack. Hippolyta needed to stand and fight and she knew that her daughters would be safe at the Church.
Only things didn't go as planned. Her warriors didn't even get to attack the person invading their lands one time, because the battle was over without a single shot fired.
She was in a rather tight situation. Her toga was ripped off and she sat there in her undergarments. Hippolyta hated the fact that she was chained up and in her underwear. That never was a good sign, unless her husband or her sisters was involved.
The most galling thing about this entire mess was that she could reach out to Harry. He was pretty much right in front of her, all she had to do was concentrate on him. There was a static in her mind and a few faint whispers.
Harry called out for her.
'Yes, I'm here,' Hippolyta thought. Her statement fell on deaf ears. Harry was about twenty feet away from her and technically about twenty feet above her as well. This was a part of the palace that was seldom used. Prisoners used to be kept here, but it was a security risk to the island, so they ceased doing that.
Now they were kept underneath the island. Hippolyta hated being so helpless.
"Aw, one would think that you're out of control, and you can't find your way back home," a voice cooed.
"Witch, you think that you're in control, but Harry will find out….." Hippolyta started, but a gag appeared in her mouth and her words didn't have any more sound. She decided with a glare of utter contempt towards the woman who did this to her.
"Oh, you think that your master will be able to find out what's happening here?" she asked. There was a taunting tone to her voice. "Honey, I'm counting on it. Trust me, that's the one thing that I'm counting on, that he'll be able to figure out what is happening. I've wanted to meet him face to face for a long time."
Hippolyta's mouth had some course words that begged to come out. Unfortunately for her, with the gag on her mouth, it was next to impossible to say any of those words. She had a gag rammed into her mouth it was hard to even give an angry groan.
"I'm sure that you're asking if there's better way to contact him," she continued, smiling deeply. "I'm going to tell you that there might be, but there might be any way nearly as fun as this. Although, out of all of your sisters, you might be the one that is the most fun to deal with."
Her eyes traveled over Hippolyta's toned and fit body.
"You have a body fit for a Queen," the Sorceress said from the shadows. Her finger traced lightly down the side of Hippolyta's neck. It slowly reached the woman's collarbone and stopped right before she reached the woman's cleavage. "I'm sure that you want to speak now, so I'll indulge you with a few moments. A silent captive is not nearly as amusing or entertaining after all."
She gave a laugh and slowly removed the gag. It too Hippolyta a few seconds to realize that the gag was off and she could speak clearly.
"Why do you do this?" Hippolyta demanded of her.
"I told you, it's because I wish to meet Har-Zod," the Sorceress said. "I'm afraid that if you're looking for a more complex and elaborate explanation, you'll find none from me. It is what it is and that's all that it is."
Hippolyta again wondered what she was getting herself into. Her mouth opened and shut. It was like she was trying to force out the words, but they weren't coming out of her mouth. It was like something was stuck in the back of her throat.
"You know, I forgot to undo one little enchantment, just a moment please," the sorceress said. She waved her hand, looking practically bored when she did so. "Now, I think that it would be much easier for you to speak freely."
Hippolyta was able to speak freely. Her eyes locked onto the woman in front of her. "Circe put you up to this."
The Sorceress looked torn between amusement and agitation. She settled for giving a round of forced laughter, before she grew seriously. "Circe…..I'm sure that was what you think happened, wasn't it?"
"That's what I assume happened, she put you up to this," Hippolyta informed her.
"It's a simple answer, but the simple answers aren't the right ones," the sorceress commented. "It's time to show the world that the student was able to match the teacher in every single way possible."
Hippolyta decided not to say a single word in response. It seemed to her though that this student had a lot to learn if she thought that she was going to get one up on Circe. Although, she would have to give her points for doing what Circe had not been able to do yet, and that's capture most of the Amazons.
"It's a shame that my sisters, your daughters, weren't right beside you," the sorceress added. "You sent them off of the island…a shame because they would have been the thing to draw Har-Zod here faster than a speeding bullet. For that nasty little trick, I think that you deserve to be punished."
Harry frowned, he hated when people started to change all of the questions on him. Especially when he felt like he was right on top of something, but whatever he was right on top of, it was completely and utterly out of his reach.
His lips curled up into an obvious frown. Diana was about ready to say anything, but Kara shook her head.
'Trust me when I say, it's better that you don't bother him when he's trying to do something like this,' Kara thought. 'When Harry becomes fixated on a problem, he has razor-sharp focus.'
'Almost annoyingly so,' Gwen thought. 'Oh, and thank you for saddling me with the younger Amazon Princess, I miss Doc Ock.'
'She isn't that bad, is she?' Kara asked her.
'No, I think we've come to a bit of an understanding,' Gwen commented. There was a certain tone to her voice.
'You webbed my sister to a chair, didn't you?' Diana asked. She wondered why she didn't think about that.
'Maybe,' Gwen said with a smile. 'Actually, she was thinking about sneaking through the gateway onto the island when I caught her. And I doubt that traditional timeout would work for an Amazon.'
'No, they see it as a challenge that they have to fight,' Diana thought. She didn't know what she would do had she been in Gwen's position, but she decided that Gwen must have done the right thing all things considered.
'I kind of wish I was there to see this,' Kara commented. Then again, she knew the older Donna, and it was apparent that the younger version was not as mellowed out as she was. Not that older Donna Troy didn't have her moments.
Harry didn't say anything. Hera stood at his shoulder and looked at him.
"You can tell me something, I'm not going to blow your head off, contrary to popular belief," Harry said. He looked over his shoulder towards Kara at that moment, who shrugged her shoulders and sighed.
"Well thankfully," Hera responded to him. She frowned deeply when she looked at him. "But do you feel the same magical energy field that I have?"
"Yes, it's odd, it's almost like we're standing on top of the missing Amazons," Harry said. He concentrated as hard as he could, but all he accomplished was the near bursting of a blood vessel on the top of his head.
He groaned when he rubbed the top of his head. This didn't really go as planned for him, that was for sure.
"Problem?" Hera asked.
"Actually, I would see that you have a problem, and I want to offer my assistance."
The one and only Circe showed up on the island. Diana's eyes widened and she took a step towards the sorceress, but Harry grabbed her by the shoulders.
"You always surface when there's trouble, Circe," Harry commented to her. "What did you do this time?"
"You recall the arrangement that we made?" Circe asked her.
"What arrangement?" Diana questioned. Harry shook his head at her and mouthed, "later."
Diana accepted that, at least for now. Her lips curled into a nice little pout once again. That seemed to be her default expression when things went completely south her.
"I recall our arrangement, Circe," Harry reminded her tensely. "But you know that was to pay a debt with Selene."
"Yes, I understand, and by proxy you," Circe agreed. She did recall. "And I swore that I would not attack the Amazons…"
"But there was nothing to stop you from doing it through another party, was there?" Diana asked.
"You turn someone into a pig one time, and they suddenly get sore about it for the rest of their life," Circe answered to her. "But, Isobel…..she took some of my teachings far too well and decided that she would be superior to me. After that happened…."
There was a loud rumbling sound coming off of the side of the island. Something rose from the waters of the island.
Diana's eyes widened and she whispered. "Great Hera."
Hera raised her eyebrow at her and Diana blushed, realizing that Hera was next to her whilst making her proclamation.
"Well worth taking my name in vain, dear," Hera remarked .
A Chimera rose out from the depths and was about ready to descend upon the group on the island.
To Be Continued On March 30th, 2015.