One month later:
The Justice League stood on the watchtower, looking at the door, which bore the name 'Wonder Woman'. Since they had returned from the mission on Themyscira, Diana had not been the same. The death of her brother so soon after his liberation had broken her heart and she had barely left her room since it had happened.
Batman pounded on her door, trying to get Diana to listen to reason.
"Wonder Woman, we have a meeting, we need you to attend."
"NO!" Came a response that seemed more like a sob than a shout.
Superman pulled Batman away from the door, hoping that the confrontation could end in a peaceful way.
"Batman, let me handle this, I don't think pounding on her door and demanding things from her is the best way of going about this. Her brother just died."
"He died a month ago and he betrayed us all."
"He helped us."
"He 'used' us Superman, there is a very distinct difference."
"Whatever he did to us. He's dead and Diana is hurting. You can't just tell her to get over it. Grieving takes time."
Batman glared at Superman but didn't argue any further.
"So what do you suggest?"
"How about asking politely."
Batman almost seemed to smirk, but nonetheless decided to move out of the way and let the man of steel through. Superman walked up to the door and proceeded to knock. Instead of the flat refusal, this time the door shot off of its hinges, slamming the man of steel into the wall opposite the room. Batman and the rest of the league league peered into the room from the door in what might be considered a very comedic way.
They saw Wonder Woman, in her costume, with a look that would send any sane person running for cover. Unfortunately, most of the heroes weren't completely sane. Batman was the first to speak.
"Diana, I know that the loss of your brother is painful, but we need you to attend this meeting with us. It's a matter of the utmost importance."
Faster than he could blink he was pushed up against the wall next to where Superman was still trying to pry himself out of the man shaped dent he had left in the wall.
"I don't care Batman. My brother gave up his own life to save a place that hated him, and now he's gone. Do you get it, GONE! I'll never, ever see him again. I'll never get to apologise for everything that went wrong with his life, never get to do anything with him ever again. And why? Because of his damn selflessness."
Diana's rage over the course of her rant gradually died and was replaced by a heart-wrenching sob. She fell to her knees and cried into her hands. Batman looked down at the Amazonian, and if one looked closely, they could see a flash of actual compassion and remorse flash across his face.
It was in fact J'onn who stepped forward to provide comfort to the distressed Amazon, He placed his arm over her shoulder in a comforting gesture before brining her to her feet and leading her to the conference room where the League's latest meeting was being held.
Themyscira:
Meanwhile the island of Themyscira was busy having a celebration, news had spread extremely quickly through the population that Hades had been slain, what was not known was who did the deed. Many assumed that it was either their queen or princess, but could not verify these rumours because the queen had not left the palace since the events. Most believed that she was recovering from her battle with Hades and this only convinced the residents of the island to celebrate more, dedicating it to their queen's grand victory and her speedy recovery.
The reality was very different, if any of the Amazons had come to the palace lately, which had been practically sealed off.
Inside the palace stood the queen's most trusted council. They were drumming their fists against the door to the queen's room in hopes of rousing her from her isolation and getting her to interact with her subjects.
"My Queen." Said Philippus in a frustrated voice, the dark-skinned amazon seeming more and more annoyed with her queen's refusal to answer them. "Open the door an speak with us, please."
They heard no response, and finally deciding that checking in on their potentially injured queen was more important at the moment than respecting her privacy.
"Penthesilea please, if you would."
The mighty amazonian warrior moved to the front of the group… and Spartan kicked the doors apart. The entourage entered only to find the room dark, the curtains drawn, a hole dug in the floor with the marble carefully removed and their queen, hoisting a coffin with the royal symbols on it that the amazons knew all too well.
"MY QUEEN! What are you doing burying that thing in the palace."
The queen of the Amazons glared at her sisters.
"Because he is my son and he deserved a proper burial." She said with conviction.
"Why would you want that monster to be buried on the island? When did he even escape his prison? The guards never reported anything wrong."
"I am burying him here because it is his right as the prince of Themyscira. I denied him his birthright for so long but I will do this one thing at least to try and atone for my mistakes... no matter how insufficient it truly is."
The amazons stood shocked, near paralysed in astonishment. They were so bewildered by their rule that they did not even notice the queen's refusal to answer their second question. Hippolyta had been one of the ones who was most supportive of the righteous vengeance they had laid upon the prince, but now she seemed to have completely changed her mind, flipping entirely her previous views and was actually sounding like she genuinely cared about the cursed boy.
"My queen, why have your thoughts on the boy-"
"He is not just a boy, he is my son." The queen stated with a conviction not seen in her words for some time, which brought the amazons back somewhat. Deciding to obey her lest they incur her wrath they changed their words… but not their attitude.
"Very well my queen, why have your thoughts on your son changed so suddenly, he was a spawn of Hades who tainted our island with his very presence. Now you are going to bury him underneath the palace itself. And how did he die in the first place, we haven't heard anything from the guards at his prison that said he had perished."
The queen pulled again on the rope, hoisting the coffin even higher into air and towards the hole she had dug to bury her deceased son.
"He escaped, and came back with his sister Diana. The island may believe that it was Diana or myself who struck the blow that killed the death god, but it was not. It was Nathaniel."
The amazons stiffened slightly at the use of the boy's name, which had not been spoken for over a decade and a half
"My queen, surely you were confused or hallucinating, why would your son work to kill Hades, he was the boy's father."
"And I am his mother… despite my poor parenting." The last bit was whispered only to herself but the others heard it all the same.
"In any case, Nathaniel tricked his father and slew him. As Hades died, the death god was consumed in hellfire that burned all traces of him from the mortal world. Including my son himself. His final sacrifice will not be in vain as long as I rule this island and I will bury what little of my son I have left in the place where it is meant to be."
Many amongst the entourage felt like protesting the decision made by their queen, but seeing the stubbornness in her eyes as she hoisted the coffin further into the air and towards the hole made them realize that no amount of arguing would deter their queen from her mission. Bowing to her they all left the room, closing the doors behind them as they left. Hippolyta lowered the coffin carefully into the hole she had prepared for it, knowing that with no effort she could later go down the royal crypt, joining the body of her own mother; the first queen of Themyscira who was killed millenium ago, and move his coffin to its proper place.
Having finished her task the queen once again gently set the marble floor piece back where it belonged… and began to cry tears of sorrow.
Before when she had had a mission, putting his body down in the crypt without anyone knowing, she had been able to hold off the feelings of sadness by holding onto some kind of obligation to not weep until her task was done. Now it was and she could feel the incredible sense of failure and guilt sweeping over her. Water poured from her eyes like rain from clouds as she lamented the loss of her boy.
"Hollow." She muttered. Was this how he had felt, when she had betrayed him, when she had stabbed him. He'd told her himself, that he didn't love her, that he didn't care for her. Thinking back on her final moments spent with her child she could only cry harder. He'd told her that that part of him; the part that loved and cared was dead, but what made it worse was when she'd finally managed to kill it.
It hadn't been early on, during his childhood, with her cold hatred and wilful ignorance of his needs as a babe. Nor had it been during his young adolescence, with physical violence to add to her already hateful demeanour. It had been that day, fifteen years ago. Such a short time considering how long her son had lived in pain and neglect. The worst part though was to know what she could have had, the life she could have saved, had she only the chance. It broke her inside, Hippolyta could feel some part of her heart and soul shatter from the terrible blow.
It was that moment she remembered something. Something her son had told her long ago when she had questioned him on their immortality.
'People waste so much time, and then they ask for more, because if they could have all of that time, they could fix any mistake. But people don't get that time, because they don't deserve it. Because if you can't make the most out of every single moment, you don't deserve a single extra second.'
His tutor, the normally kind and patient Hellene who served as chief historian on Themyscira, had struck him soon after, believing his words to be an insult to the amazons and a claim that his sisters did not deserve their gift of immortality. She herself had forgotten his words soon after but now, sitting on her floor, wallowing in shame and misery she finally understood what her young son had been trying to tell her.
'It was him, he was talking about himself. He thought, even back then that one day one of us was going to kill him. He knew.' There she was a woman with access to infinite time, she would never age, never die, at least not naturally, but in the end she couldn't make the most of her time with her son, and now it had run out. And she could think of no one less deserving of more time than herself.
At that moment the seconds seemed to drag on for decades, the minutes felt like centuries and for the first time in millennium the queen of the amazons prayed for a man. She prayed for her son, that he was safe, that his soul had found its way peacefully into the eternal bliss of Elysium, that perhaps one day, in spite of all of her crimes against her innocent child, she could join him, she would spend an eternity begging forgiveness if she had to.
"Please." She quietly begged the gods above her, her tears splashing on the marble floor. "Please let my son be safe, let him be warm, let him have peace. I could never give it to him but please, I beg that you might.
She sat on the floor, trying in vain to find some sign that her prayer had been answered... none came.
Her tears drying up after hours of crying, Hippolyta resolved to go to a place she had not gone to for many decades: Her son's chambers.
The revelation that she had not seen her son's rooms, where he had slept, eaten, and lived for his entire early life, for so long, despite having spent enormous amounts of time in the rooms of her daughter was just another reminder of her failure as his mother.
Deep in thought, the queen of the amazons did not realize that she stood in front of her son's door until she felt her feet stop in front of giant white double doors. She could swear she still felt the dreary and depressed atmosphere that had accumulated over the course of decades of hatred, vengeance, pain and sadness. She pulled herself together under the oppressive aura and pushed the doors apart, entering the room used by her son so long ago. She was shocked to see almost everything in the room was in need of repair. The curtains that should have ensured privacy were instead on the bed, pulling it off Hippolyta ignored the 15 years worth of dust that flew into the air as she saw the lack on any kind of blanket or covering to provide warmth on cold nights. The rest of the room was in a similar state of disrepair and from the dust it had been that way since long before her son had been imprisoned.
Fresh tears flowed once more from her eyes as she reflected on the past, what a joke she was. She could have had something wonderful, a son who would love his sisters both by blood and by bond, a daughter who would be the perfect princess, perhaps even grandchildren to watch as they grew and signalled the next generation. All of that was gone, nothing more than a fantasy. It only made her pain grow, not that she could have guessed what her son would have wanted, she'd never even tried to find out. The saddest thing was it wasn't for a lack of ability, she knew everything about Diana, because she had made it a priority to maintain a strong relationship with her daughter. Her son on the other hand, was another story. She had never made any attempt to make a good mother-son relationship, preferring instead to wallow in her hatred of both him and his father and in doing so she had doomed any chance of knowing anything more about her first born child than just his name and appearance.
Moving over to the desk that was located on the far side of the room she leaned on the rotting wooden chair. Surprisingly it held her weight as she inspected the desk. It was the same one that was in Diana's room, one of the only things that did not need repair as it was made of solid marble. She ran her hand over the surface as if trying to get a sense of what her son had done here. Afterwards she gingerly took hold of a familiar book that rested on the table, her eyes widening.
It was a journal, she knew this if by no other reason than Diana had one just like it. She hurriedly opened the book, desperate for something that might let her feel some sliver of hope to understand her child.
'Entry 1. Mother brought home a new girl today. I hate her.'
Hippolyta stared at the book. That must have been when Nathaniel had been around six years of age just after she had brought Diana back to the temple.
'Everyone says she's a gift from the gods I wonder if they can take her back?'
Reading her son's words shocked the queen, ever since she had brought back her daughter from her birthing bed her son had adored the little girl. It had been the one thing in his life she had never tried to find any kind of fault with.
'No one lets me see her but they say she's pretty. Hellene's much meaner than normal now, she says I'm expendable now, that soon I won't be around anymore.'
Hippolyta ground her teeth, Hellene would pay dearly for that. She stopped herself, she'd lost any right to feel betrayed or angry about how her child was treated when she'd begun treating him like that.
'Mother says that she's going out to witness the games maybe I can take Diana and give her back to the gods then all of the sisters will stop being so mean.'
The entry ended there. Turning to the next page, hoping to find something, anything to explain why her son had started loving her daughter. She was instead met with the sight of moths and eaten pages.
'Entry 2.
Mother is-
turn-
I'll-'
Hippolyta flipped further and further through the book, hoping to find one just one more entry that was whole. Tearing though the pages she tried in vain, insects had long since made sure that nothing was left, just fragments of entries, small scattered words as pages were eaten down to the bindings. Finally she came to the end, the last pages.
'Entry -'
There was no number, the insects had eaten it off.
'It's my day of anointment today, finally.'
"No." Hippolyta whispered, the gods couldn't despise her this much, the fates couldn't leave her with this. She wanted to stop, wanted to throw the book away and run screaming from the room, but her guilt wouldn't let her, she couldn't leave until she knew, knew exactly what she had killed that day.
'I'm finally going to be confirmed as prince of Themyscira, I'll be in charge if something ever happens to mother, gods forbid.'
Hippolyta smiled, even after all she'd done he'd still been worried about her safety.
'Diana's excited too, the little one's been bouncing off of walls talking about what a great king I'll be one day, I really should slow her down, too much talk like that and some of our sisters might think I have ideas.'
The queen scowled, her anger getting the better of her. Of course they would, none of her sisters would ever assume anything but the worst of her son.
'I just hope that this will finally convince mother that I'm not evil.'
Tears again gathered in her eyes, It was painful to know that that was what her son thought of her. Then again his thoughts weren't inaccurate.
'I've been waiting for this my whole life, mother's been postponing it for years, saying I'm not ready or that my sisters need more time to get used to me. I guess my patience has finally been rewarded.'
A choked sob erupted from the queen throat, she knew what would happen when he put the book down, when he left for his anointment. She wanted to yell at him not to go, to run away from the island and find people who would care for him, care for him better than his family, though that was not a high bar to clear.
'I guess I'll find out.'
The entry ended there.
Hippolyta fell to her knees, clutching the book tightly to her chest as she let out a near inhuman wail. She sobbed and cried and screamed to the heavens her rage, her torment, her sorrow, her despair. She cried for the child she had lost, for his childhood, robbed from him by her, for his birthright, stolen by her, for his heart, broken by her, for his life, ended because of her.
Taking hold of every last bit of courage she had, she turned the page.
'Final entry'
She sobbed
'Is this all I'll ever be?'
Tears made tracks down her cheeks.
'I wonder what they'll do to me.'
'The worst we could.' Though Hippolyta as choking sounds came from her throat.
'I wonder, did I do something to deserve this?'
"NO! She wailed out loud, trying to convey to him her sorrow. "Your didn't do anything, it was us, it was all us."
'I almost expected this from mother, from the others.'
It hurt to know just what he thought of her, but she was proud of his deductive skills.
'But Diana.'
Hippolyta's blood ran cold.
'I should have sent that traitor back to the gods when she first came around.'
How had she done it? How had she managed to ruin everything good her child had ever had?
'No, she didn't mean it.'
Hippolyta was confused, the writing's quality was starting to degrade, becoming harder to read.'
'She betrayed me.'
The writing was back to being perfect.
'She didn't understand.'
The writing was barely legible.
'She's Just Like Them.'
She was more concerned now than ever.
'She loves us.'
A slight twinge of fear stirred within her.
'SHE BETRAYED US!'
She was crying harder than ever before.
'She didn't mean it. She loves us.'
She tried to read the words of encouragement, the words that defended his sister but they were badly scrawled in tiny penmanship at the bottom of the page. Still it seemed that her son's kindness had gotten the last word. She smiled slightly, taking this one bright spot and turned the page.
Her blood froze in her veins. Written in impossibly still wet blood on the inside of the book's back were two words.
'KILL EVERYONE!'
Hippolyta dropped the book. Scrambling across the floor away from it as if just being near it would kill her like it said. Moments later her back slammed hard against the frame of his bed, apparently that was as much as the piece of furniture could take because seconds later the legs collapsed and the bed fell to the floor.
Staring at the book, at the small bit of understanding she'd gained by reading it. Looking at the room, at the four walls that had housed more misery and hate over the last two thousand years than they ever should have, Hippolyta let out a choked sob and prayed once more to Hera.
"Please, lady Hera, let me see into the past, let me see the life of the one who lived here."
She looked around the room as ghostly apparitions played out a scene in front of her. The ghostly image of her son laid on the bed, wrapped in the curtains and moving fitfully in his sleep. Light filled through the curtains and he stirred. Untangling himself from his makeshift blanket he moved throughout the room, his mother following him with a sad expression on her face. He moved through the room. Pulling things off the shelves as he went, the ghostly doors slammed open and another person walked in, their face covered in shadow so she could not identify which one of her sisters it might have been.
"Get ready boy." She snapped at him as she threw him a new tunic.
"The queen has an announcement to make." Disgust and venom were dripping from every word, as if she was a poisonous snake that her son had offended with just his existence.
The two left the room and the simulated day changed to night, Nathaniel stumbled through the room in a cut up tunic with a broken sword in his hands. He flopped onto the bed, shrieking into his pillow to find some relief from the pain that he was surely suffering from, Hippolyta would have run to the boy and tried to comfort him, but as this was nothing more than an illusion she could only stand helplessly by and cry out, desperate for this scene to either change or to allow her to help her injured child.
Her eyes snapped over to the ghostly door as it creaked open, even so long ago the room was in need of fixing up. Around the opened door peaked the head of a young Diana, probably five or six years old, looking sheepish as she entered her brother's room, youthful ignorance and innocence blinding her to the degrading conditions her elder sibling was living in.
"Big brother." She said quietly, tip toeing over to the bed. Despite her previous turmoil, the Amazonian queen could not help but let out a small smile at seeing her eldest children together.
Diana was now next to the bed, and climbed up onto is a second later. Sitting crossed legged next to her brother she began to poke him in the side.
"Big brother, big brother, wake up and play with me, we have to play." She whined in an adorable voice that brought back such fond memories for the queen.
Suddenly the lump that was Nathaniel sprang up and leapt onto Diana, eliciting a scream of fright that quickly morphed to laughter as Nathaniel tickled her sides, laughing with her even though Hippolyta could clearly see the pain in his eyes.
"That will teach you not to disturb people when they are sleeping little sister." He said jovially, Diana still laughing hysterically.
"Stop it big brother, please… please stop!" She managed to gasp out in between fits of shrieking laughter.
"Why should I?" He asked, pretending to contemplate it as he tickled her.
"Ple-please." She managed, her laughs now becoming less happy and more protestant.
"Fine." He said, letting go of his little sister and sitting with his back facing her, waiting for the inevitable attack that he knew was coming.
Sure enough, Diana bowled over Nathaniel and the two of them ended up at the foot of the bed, Nathaniel laughing a genuine laugh, as Diana looked around confused at the sudden shift in view from her place sitting on his chest.
Had her tear-ducts not been empty from near constant crying over the course of the day, Hippolyta would have shed tears of joy and sorrow, joy at the scene that was playing out in front of her between the two. And sorrow that she would never be a part of such wonderful interactions between her family members. She took a deep breath and let it out shakily.
"Thank you queen Hera, I am grateful."
The queen of the amazons moved over to the images ghostly images, kneeling in front of the image of her son as his eyes expressed the type of genuine joy that she could not remember seeing on his face during his time with her. She was grateful that he had had some experience with true happiness, though sad that she had never brought him any of it.
She reached out and ran her palm over his incorporeal face but her hand fazed through it, reminding her once again of what this was, a memory of a time long past that could never be reclaimed. Hippolyta rested her head against the mattress, letting what few tear she had left soak into the long forgotten sheets.
Suddenly she felt a soft touch on her shoulder, a hand, gently resting on it. She flinched and turned quickly, the lack of sound alerting the presence of another convincing the queen it was an enemy. What she saw, however, caused her to gasp in shock.
There, standing before her, was her child. Nathaniel's gently smiling face, filled with kindness and slight longing, was looking down on her. Hippolyta looked up in wonder at the apparition before her.
"Nathaniel..." She whispered, reaching forward to touch her deceased child. He fingers reached him... only to pass through his ghostly form.
"I'm sorry." She whispered to her son's spirit. "I am so sorry for the pain I caused you, I can never apologize enough to right the wrongs I committed against you and those that occurred under my watch. I have no right to it, but I ask, no beg, for forgiveness."
The ethereal form looked down at the amazonian queen; on her knees and pleading for forgiveness with tear tracks running down her cheeks and eyes red and blotchy from crying. She looked the picture of a broken woman. He knelt down to her.
"I will never forget, it is what made me who I am." His voice echoed, and another sob passed through Hippolyta. "But I can forgive what has happened, for I have moved past it." And on those last words his hands moved forward as he encircled her in one last action from a son to his mother.
The queen's eyes widened as she felt her son wrap his arms around her kneeling form, his touch feeling solid even though she could clearly see right through him. She closed her eyes, choosing to appreciate this last moment with her child, soaking in the warmth of his form and for the first time ever choosing to commit to this moment with her son. In the end however her child was not truly there, but Hippolyta enjoyed the hug for as long as she could until she felt it fade away, signalling that this time she was given with her child was over. As she opened her eyes she saw him fading away before her very eyes. His mouth moved, uttering one last message to his mother.
"I will always be here, I gave my life for the world and our people, to shield them all from the wrath of petulant gods, I will continue to do so. Whether or not they deserve it the powers that rule above mortals must be kept in check, and only I do that. Perhaps we will meet again, in time. Until then, know that I will do my duty. After all, what kind of brother would I be if I could not protect my sisters."
With that, he faded away and in his place was a map, a map Hippolyta recognized as one of Themeyscira. Set right in the mountains in the north of the island was a large red X. Holding the piece of parchment close to her chest Hippolyta allowed herself to let a small smile rise on her face as she left her son's room, thankful that, even though she did not know if she deserved it, her son had granted her forgiveness.