Small boats roamed up and down the River Thames as they had for hundreds and thousands of years. The night's chill on the river forced the two men on one of the boats to clutch their coats tighter to their bodies. One of the men, an older man with light skin and dark hair cut neatly, was sitting at a small table, flipping through the day's newspaper and reading by the boat's lights and a small wall lamp.

"...Gunners, givin' me fits this season." He said to the man he shared the boat with on that night, flipping over to the page of his paper.

The other man looked younger than the seated man, though not by much. Unlike his partner he had dark brown skin, close cut hair and a cigarette in his mouth. He was also wearing a scarf in addition to the jacket and long pants that his partner had.

"Manager needs to be sacked, I'd say." He grumbled, peering into the darkness of the night on the river. "Reckon it's time for a change."

The boat chugged along the river, leaving both men to their mundane route.

"You might be right... aye..."

The seated man rose, spotting something in the gloom of the night. He put down his paper and drew his partner's attention over to the still figure in the water.

"What's that then?" He asked, squinting to try and get a better look through the night.

The boat pulled up alongside the object.

"Appears to be a horse." The dark skinned man said.

"More like a dead horse." The first man said. "Let's have a look."

The second man stood on a small platform, switching on the boat's spotlight, meant to illuminate anything that might be found on their nightly patrols up the river.

The light moved across the water, lighting up the gloomy thing so that the two men could get a better view of it.

"Jeez, what a stench." The second man said, looking over the boat's edge.

Taking a look, finally able to see clearly with the spotlight on, the first man noticed that whatever this thing was, it didn't look normal, unlike anything he'd found in the Thames before.

"Somethin' got hold of it?" He asked, trying to see where the creature ended and another began, and found that he couldn't. It almost looked like the horse and fish were one and the...

"Thas' the biggest carp I've evah-" The second man began before he trailed off, looking down at the figure in the river with a growing sense of confusion, disgust and muted horror.

"Bloody hell."

He finished, seeing the rest of the creature that rested below the water, unseen by the men until the spotlight had finally allowed them to peer past the surface.

Lying dead in the River Thames, a hippocampus, a great mythical beast of the Mediterranean sea, rotted away. Abandoned by its god, the beast's presence was a sign, a signal for one thing.

The war of the Olympians, and the god of the oceans, had come Britannia, and they were not leaving until they had what they wanted.

The days after Diana learned of her heritage were difficult, the princess had come face to face with secrets that had been kept from her by her family, and though she was now receiving some of those answers she felt she deserved from Nathaniel, she knew that there were some questions she could only ask her mother.

Still, Nathaniel had been adamant, even after the breakfast they had cooked together had been finished, that he would not undo his work, nor Hera's. His use of such power and illusions on their own mother had saddened Diana, but she had come to accept that this was something that needed to happen. Nathaniel would never forgive their mother until she knew his pain, what she and all of her people had done. Nathaniel had likewise agreed that reconciliation with Hippolyta could come if she could accept what she had done seeing the full extent of it through his eyes and his mind.

In the dark place that she was in however, there were a few small bright spots; she and Nathaniel had reconnected. A lifetime spent being pushed away from each other, combined with 15 years of separation and believed imprisonment had rusted the siblings' ability to talk to each other more than either would have liked to admit.

Luckily for the two of them, Zola, who Diana had brought along with Hermes, appeared to have no problems coming up with topics for the two to talk about. Her seemingly endless stream of questions about their lives before the mortal world dredged up some painful memories for the both of them, but the mortal woman had seemed intuitive enough to notice and so moved them on. Nathaniel and Diana, over the course of the meal, had ended up recounting to their listeners at least a dozen little adventures the two had had during their younger years, dodging caretakers and running wild through the halls of the Amazonian palace.

Nathaniel honestly couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed as much as he had during the meal. Perhaps during one of his outings with Grail? No, Grail was a wonderful woman when one got to know her, but not so prone to humor and laughter that wasn't of the sadistic kind. He sighed a little at the thought, but a content smile soon blossomed. Grail could be hard, but she made him happy, and he made her happy, at least he hoped he did.

It seemed as if the fates themselves had set their sights on ending Diana and Nathaniel's little reunion. The Justice League called, drawing Diana away for some kind of meeting. Pausing, looking almost pained at the thought of leaving, Nathaniel smiled at her and waved, letting her know that it wasn't a problem that she had to leave. Smiling back, Diana exchanged one last hug with her brother, for the moment at least, and asked Hermes to bring the three of them back to her residence in London.

As the flash of godly light faded away, leaving behind only the natural shine of the sun, which had risen well into the sky as the morning wore on. Nathaniel watched the spot for a few moments more, not sure what he was waiting for, but feeling the need to wait all the same. After a few moments, when nothing out of the ordinary happened, he shrugged and went back to his kitchen. Diana and her group's sudden departure had left him the unenviable task of cleaning up.

He had just gotten through the dishes, pilling them up on a drying rack on the kitchen counter when he heard it. The telltale 'Boom' coming from his living room. His body tensed up slightly as he moved towards the sound, only to relax when he saw Grail starting to sit down on his couch.

"Well, I didn't think you'd come and grace me with your presence for at least a few more days."

Grail didn't even finish sitting. Instead she stood to her full height and launched herself at Nathaniel. The prince of amazons was surprised when she collided with him, wrapping her arms around his neck and peppering kisses along his face before locking lips.

"I found it." She whispered to him when she finally pulled away. "I found him."

Nathaniel looked at her wide eyed.

"What? Where?"

"He was wandering around in one of the anti-matter universes. It's time Nate, all we have to do is convince him to help us."

Nathaniel smiled brilliantly, pulling Grail closer.

"That's amazing, but are you sure this is a good idea? beings like him aren't really prone to taking orders."

"We have what he wants Nathan. He'll listen to us if it means getting what he wants."

"Us? you mean you and your mother?"

"I mean you and me Nathan. I need you with me on this one."

"I'm always with you. I love you."

Grail smiled beatifically.

"I love you too, you giant idiot."

Nathaniel picked his love up, twirling them around.

"Hahaha. Stop it." Grail laughed, but didn't fight as she leaned down to kiss him.

"I don't hear you complaining." Nathaniel chuckled before dropping the two of them down onto his couch.

"I found something for you too." Grail whispered as she broke away from their kiss. "I found your brother."

Nathaniel's eyes widened.

"You did? Where?"

"Calm down Nathan. Mother-box found a universe that was leaking your energies, almost exactly. I don't know where they are exactly, but that should narrow it down, shouldn't it?"

Nathan laughed. He threw back and laughed his heart out.

"My dear." He rested his forehead against her's. "I know I just said it, but I'll say it again. I love you."

Grail smirked.

"I know."

"Oh, you finally watched Empire?"

"I had to. You wouldn't shut up about it."

"...And?"

"It was alright."

"That good?"

"It was alright."

"Well then my dear." Nathaniel got up, pulling Grail with him. "Where do we head first?"

Grail raised her Mother box.

"How about we deal with him first, then we can deal with Asura."

"You're the boss."

"At least you remember that."

A sudden 'Boom' filled the apartment, and the two left, leaving Nathaniel's house to gather dust.

"Well, better get going."

Or not, as a single clone emerged from the hallways, dressed in a stylish business suit.

"Boss? Boss? Hey boss, where are you?"

The clone looked around but couldn't find his original.

"Damn, looks like he left. Whelp, better head off. Company's not gonna run itself."

And so the clone left. Off to work.

The memories were a torture beyond the pale. Hippolyta couldn't do anything but sit, watch and feel. Every terrible blow, every unjust punishment. She watched as she and her people delivered horror after horror onto her young child. She had no idea how long she'd spent in this hellish state. The only real marker of time was the age of her son as his childhood passed her by.

She watched as Diana, at this point a girl of perhaps four years old, cracked open the doors to her son's rooms and climbed into his bed. The little girl shook her brother awake, pleading with him for comfort in a wake of a nightmare. At first, Hippolyta had found these scenes of affection and family to be heartwarming. Now though, she dreaded the nights when Diana would knock on her son's door. She knew what awaited Nathaniel's younger self come the morning.

To think, these feelings must have been all that Nathaniel had to understand the world when he was that age. He knew nothing of love besides what Diana gave to him. It shocked Hippolyta that her son hadn't lost himself as a child. What had there been for him? The barest of educations her sisters would deign to give him? Constant attempts to sabotage his every endeavour? Perhaps a biting remark and ridicule if he ever did succeed, and violence and beatings when he failed?

Hippolyta tensed and prepared as the night faded and the dawn rose. The doors to Nathaniel's chambers burst open and she saw herself enter. She felt a vague sense of familiarity as she watched herself. Looking down at her son and daughter, a scene that to any true mother would have been one to savour, the queen watched her own younger self strike her son. She took care however, not to disturb her daughter. Nathaniel snapped awake, recoiling from the blow and retreating. The bed he rested in was still not big enough however, and she watched as he tumbled off of the edge, waking Diana as he laid out on the floor, eyes dazed and head lolling.

"Diana." The younger Hippolyta said, her voice sweet and kind. "What are you doing here?"

"I was with big brother." She replied, smiling at her mother. "I had a nightmare. He helped me sleep." Her past self scooped Diana up into her arms, cradling her daughter and holding her close. A pair of her sisters came up behind her, looking kindly at Diana, before glaring down at Nathaniel, who had just begun to get back up from where he'd been laid out by his mother.

Hippolyta herself could feel the pain of the blow, the nauseating dizziness that came with it. She had felt ever ounce of pain that had been brought against her child, and felt it as intensely as he would have at the time. More often than not, the wounds would bring her to tears. Not because she couldn't withstand the pain. Instead, it was the sheer hopelessness that seemed to permeate every moment of her son's existence. The horrible loneliness and heartache was something that she felt just as much as the blows themselves, but she also knew that what she was feeling now was only a fraction of what was to come.

This reality, this punishment her son had bestowed upon her. She had long come to understand what it was. She waited for the next blow.

"Come Diana, it's time for your lessons, Thanks to your brother, you're already late." She turned to the two guards. "Take him to the training fields, Inform Egeria that the boy requires further training."

Nathaniel's face turned white, a look of pure, absolute terror blooming. He tried to reach out to his mother, perhaps hoping that he might be able to convince her to spare him.

Such efforts were wasted however. Hippolyta knew that she had already left the room, taking the young Diana off to her childhood room to help her prepare for the day. One of the two guards grabbed her son by his hair, yanking him to his feet as he screamed and cried. He gripped at her wrist, trying to get her to loosen her grip on his head.

"You despicable little thing." The other hissed, kicking his legs out and forcing another scream from his lips. "You knew the punishment for your actions. Come, let us see where Egeria is. I'm sure she'll make extra time in her day for you."

The amazon dragged Nathaniel out of the room by his hair, not letting him have any chance to change clothes, put on his sandals, or prepare in any way for what promised to be a truly hellish ordeal. Hippolyta had known that Egeria was one of Themyscira's most stringent trainers, but until she had watched her first lesson with her son, she hadn't known just how demanding and even terrifying she could be.

The thought passed her that it was perhaps that harshness and terror that had forged her son into the weapon that he was. She knew that Egeria tolerated few mistakes when training. Diana had come back from lessons crying or bruised more than once. Watching her train Nathaniel on the other hand, was less like watching training and more like watching a very physically demanding round of torture. She watched as Nathaniel ran through his forms. At the age of ten, his technique matched that of seasoned amazons and as a mother she couldn't help the small flare of pride and relief at Egeria's disappointed face when she could find no error in her son's movements.

That small relief was finally quashed when his foot shifted, barely in inch out of place, nothing more than a millimeter. On any of her sisters, even for Egeria herself, it would have been an inconsequential, if not completely unnoticeable, mistake. For Nathaniel however, it was enough for punishment. Egeria struck out with her sword, swiftly knocking Nathaniel's blade out of his hands. She swung at him again, and just barely missed as Nathaniel back-pedalled furiously to put distance between himself and his 'teacher'. Egeria was faster however, and closed the distance quickly. She raised her sword high and Hippolyta closed her eyes. Even if she had to feel the pain of the blow, she wouldn't, couldn't watch.

She still heard the blade cut through the air, the horrifying sounds of metal sheering through flesh accompanied by her son's cries of agony. The pain blossomed in her hand, engulfing her fingers as she gripped them to her chest.

'So, that was today.' She though bitterly. She knew now why this day had seemed like a vague familiarity. This was the day Nathaniel had lost his fingers in training. Feeling the pain subside, though it was still a deep and penetrating ache accompanied by the complete loss of feeling in the fingers of her hand, she turned and watched as Egeria dragged her son back to his feet by his tunic. His hand was still bleeding, and perhaps the only positive of this was that Egeria had cut the fingers off of Nathaniel's non-dominant hand (he hadn't quite learned to be ambidextrous yet) so he would still be able to hold his sword.

How Hippolyta longed to rush to her son. To carry him in her arms and tend to his wounds. She would apologise to him, beg forgiveness. She would care for him as she had never taken the chance to do before.

However, Hippolyta knew how things went by now. She watched as bleeding, crying, and cradling his fingerless hand to his chest, her son rose to his feet. He blinked the tears from his eyes and got back into his stance at Egeria's command, and ran once more through his forms.

They were perfect now. Not a hair out of place. Egeria scowled as he finished, and kept the boy back long after he should have been dismissed. She ran him through his forms over and over again, switching between different patterns on a whim. Watching him Hippolyta was shocked. Egeria was running her son through combat drills he should never have been performing at that age. The techniques she was drilling into him were advanced, difficult, effective, and with every mistake she so harshly punished, she was improving him leaps and bounds ahead of anything that should have been possible, even for the most gifted of amazons.

She could see it in Egeria's eyes however, she didn't care what she was teaching her son. All Egeria cared about was that with every new technique, came new mistakes, and with new mistakes, came new opportunities for punishment.

The sun had reached its zenith long ago, and was starting to descend into the afternoon when finally Nathaniel was called away. No food, no water, no breaks, nothing but grueling training from dawn onwards. She watched her son limp along, a circle of bloodstained ground forming behind him as his life poured red from the marks of every punishment. Egeria had since left, but tasked Nathaniel to clean the arena for the younger children's trianing. Hippolyta watched, writhing and screaming her feeling of his pain, as Nathaniel stood. He didn't clean the arena, he didn't even acknowledge Egeria's words. His dead eyes stared ahead as his body ran through forms. She knew her son had lost consciousness some time ago, while Egeria had still been supervising him.

Finally he stopped practicing. In fact, he stopped moving at all. Hippolyta tensed, waiting for the worst of it. She waited for the worst of her son's pain to come.

Nathaniel died.

He dropped dead right there in the arena, his own blood mixing with the sand to create a gory dirt. He fell to his knees and then on his side and simply died.

Of all of her son's pains that Hippolyta had felt, nothing compared to death. Nothing was quite so horrible as feeling Thanatos' cold claws wrench at her. She had shivered and shrunk away as the freezing sensation of a mortal's end had crept up and sunk its talons into her son, and through him, her. She also knew what awaited him on the other side of that divide. With all that her son had suffered, combined with his father's rule over the underworld, Nathaniel would likely receive nought but the most sublime of existences after death, if such rewards really existed for the deceased. Instead, the claws recoiled, freeing her son's soul and retreating back into the darkness. Nathaniel gasped to life, his body flaring in a pain that should be impossible as his body healed. His wounds closed up, but not without cost as the skin stitched itself back together elicited new agonies. Nathaniel looked up from his place in the dirt, seeing the world once again after his latest brush with death.

With her son's resurrection Hippolyta too could see the world once again. Looking around she saw the small form of her daughter rushing towards her older brother. Diana ran to him, and in response Nathaniel rose up to his knees, still kneeling in the dark brown bloodstained circle of sand. Behind Diana, other children watched and whispered amongst themselves, and behind them, Hippolyta could see herself and several other teachers and warriors, glaring impassively at her suffering son.

Diana fussed over her brother, but even through the lingering pain, Nathaniel made light of everything for her sake. He joked with her for a moment before patting her on the head, making sure she didn't see the still missing but slowly regrowing fingers of his non-dominant hand.

"Egeria said you would clean the arena." Hippolyta flinched away as she heard her own voice. The other amazonian children, as well as the teachers, glared at him.

"Apologies mother." He rasped. A lack of water, not to mention death, had dried out his throat and hurt his voice. "I'll get it done in a moment."

"Don't bother." She dismissed him with a wave. "It was foolish of me to think you could perform even this simple task to satisfaction, Egeria reported that you made many an error during training."

"It wasn't my fault." Nathaniel gasped out, tearing up. He pulled Diana behind him, not letting her see his tears. "I couldn't hold the rakes correctly."

He showed her his fingerless hand, looking at her as if begging for understanding.

Hippolyta scowled at her younger self, even as her younger self scowled at Nathaniel.

"I see you still have a working hand." She gestured to his other hand.

"But mother-" He replied.

"Enough." She barked. "I won't have any of your blubbering excuses, now leave. Perhaps catching your own dinner with show you not to shirk your responsibilities. If you cannot care for this area nor consider how others are inconvenienced by your sloth, then the cooks should not have to tire themselves preparing food for you."

Her son didn't argue any further, instead he got to his feet and began to walk towards the edge of the arena in the direction of the forest. Diana followed after her brother, holding his hand and talking to him. From her vantage point Hippolyta could see the small smile that stretched across her son's face as Diana spoke, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. At the end of the arena she heard herself call out to Diana, who raced back to her mother. Nathaniel watched from the shadows of the exit, seeing Diana race into her mother's arms and be led gently back to the group of younger children. The kind smile that the younger Hippolyta gave to her daughter was one that she knew would never be directed at her son. It hadn't since those first few days of his life, before she'd let hate and anger change her for the worst.

The shadows seemed to collect around Nathaniel, bathing him in darkness. She saw his eyes flicker down at Diana, and for a moment there was a look in her son's eyes. There was a hatred there, an unfathomable, unspeakable rage that spoke of torment and terror too immense to ever be comprehended.

A shadowy had slunk up his side, resting on his shoulder, and a face appeared in the darkness. No, Hippolyta realised, not a full face, half of one. The face moved close to Nathaniel's ear, and she could hear its whispers in the dark.

'Look at her. She runs back at her beck and call. She's not your friend, I'm your only friend. You made me, I'm here for you.'

Her son stared back into the arena, flexing his newly regrown fingers.

Hippolyta stood beside Nathaniel, watching him as he watched his sister train.

He shook his head, turning away from the shadow.

"No, she... she loves mother. I do as well. She birthed me. If I wasn't so worthless, perhaps she wouldn't have had to carve Diana, but I'm happy she did. Diana doesn't hate me. She loves me. I know it."

'Does she?' The shadow asked. 'Does she defend you from our tormenters? Does she care for you when you are injured or sick, like you do for her? Everything is for her, and what are you left with? Nothing. Don't you hate her? Just a little?"

Nathaniel looked down.

"I do." He whispered. "Are you happy? Sometimes... sometimes I hate her, but I love her more."

Hippolyta watched as he ran away, off into the forest to be alone, and likely to catch his food.

"Look at you, so much horror, and still you persist. You stand and you love, despite everything."

She sank to her knees, tears streaming as they had for hours.

"I wonder where you get it from?" She asked the memory. "Certainly not from your father or I. I wonder, have I ever made you smile?"

"Perhaps once or twice, when he feels especially weak."

Hippolyta's head snapped up, her eyes latched onto the shadow as it stared down at her.

"Indra has always been ruled so easily. The curse of hatred ran through this one's bones so early, it's truly astonishing that he had not accessed his eyes until this point."

"What are you?" She asked fearfully.

"Me? I am him, he is me, we are one and the same."

"You can see me?" She asked again.

"Perhaps." It said. "When the fool forced you in here, so too did he bring in a piece of himself, and with that, a piece of me."

Hippolyta just stared at the figure, as it and the arena began to fade away, making way for the next of her son's memories.

"I admire his ingenuity though." It said before the darkness claimed them both. "A fine test of the Mugen Tsukuyomi, and ironic. To subject an illusion made real by nightmares to a nightmare illusion of his reality, and he doesn't even realise it. How sickeningly poetic."

"What?" She asked, but she got no reply, instead she was flung head first into the next of her son's tortures.

The time was coming. The old man watched as his son left the depths of his own dark universe to ascend and find his brother. He mourned silently again, as he had since the last time he had had to mediate between his children.

This time, his eldest son was something more than just his child however. Chakra flowed through his body, but it was not all. Not only that, but it seemed Indra had learned since his last life. His abilities, powerful on their own, had been augmented by allies. And yet, he still did not approve. Indra's heart bore such hatred, such immeasurable hatred. The old man could not allow that rage to rule once again. It would breed nothing but strife and conflict.

Turning his eyes away from his traveling son. He turned towards his other child. Asura had awakened, but only recently. He was only beginning to learn how to embrace his power, but Asura's light had attracted allies who would help him. His friendships and the love he spread, the old man knew, would bring him strength, the kind of strength that Indra could never gain with his path.

Indra was a black hole, powerful beyond reason and capable of attracting others. However, those he brought close to him would eventually be devoured, consumed and crushed.

Where Indra was a black hole. Asura was the sun. The same at their core, but where Indra devoured and destroyed, warped and changed, Asura bathed his allied in his light, they orbited around him, basking in his light and following him even through endless darkness.

He could only hope that Asura could pull Indra into the light, as only a few had done before.

I updated my previous stories, posted a new one, and now I am updating my most popular story. This is a long time coming, and like my Titan of Defense story I hope to give you quite a few updates in the coming weeks and months. Now this was crazy.

We see the beginning of Diana's comic arc, some interaction between her and Nathaniel. More Nathaniel/Grail, I honestly hope they don't seem too out of character around each other but they are meant to be the only people they can relax around. We also get the intro to the events that lead up to Forever Evil and Darkseid War.

Now to any Naruto fans, you've probably made guesses at who that was. Also, we see more of the Mugen Tsukuyomi. This is kind of like the Road to Ninja technique that Obito uses on Naruto and Sakura.

Sorry it's a little short, but the next chapter I hope to have done by the end of this week. So look forwards to that.