"Give me one good reason I shouldn't tear you limb from limb Messenger."
The room was awash with tension as Nathaniel held Hermes by his throat, pinning the messenger god to the wall.
"Zola-" Hermes tried to choke out, only for Nathaniel to shut him up by squeezing down on the bird-man's oesophagus.
"I'm sorry, but 'Zola' is not an acceptable answer."
"Back off mate." Lennox tried to pry Nathaniel from Hermes, only to find himself held by the throat up against the wall right with the god.
"I told you Lennox, that if Diana came to harm I'd kill you. We understood each other at the time if I recall. Now, I hear that my sister has not only come to harm, but has been shot by Eros' pistols and is about to marry another version of my father. I believe this is ample provocation to end your life."
Lennox struggled as he skin began to crack around his neck. Nathaniel was quite serious.
"If I recall correctly, you said if 'I' hurt her you'd kill me. I didn' hurt a hair on her head, Hades shot her in the chest."
"You're not doing either of us any favours Lennox." Hermes choked out.
"Stop it." Zola pounded on Nathaniel's back. "This isn't going to help Diana."
"No." Nathaniel agreed. "But it'll help me feel better, and when I feel better I can go and help Diana."
"And how do you plan to do that?" Hephaestus asked, entering the room.
"I have my ways Smith." Nathaniel growled.
"Oh put them down boy. I swear, if I had gotten hold of you you'd never think to be so rude."
"Ifs and buts, Hephaestus, are excuses that I have not the time nor the patience for."
"Wonder Woman's goal was to rescue this mortal girl." The Smith said.
"My name's Zola." She interrupted.
"And you've been rescued. Didn't any of you stop to think there would be a price."
"Honestly?" Nathaniel asked. "I did. In fact, I was almost sure the girl would die in the process, then Diana could rid herself of this dangerous and senseless quest."
Hermes growled.
"You would let harm come to- ack"
Nathaniel's hand gripped tighter over the Messenger's throat.
"Not personally Hermes, but if she were to suffer some unfortunate attack my sister could not stop? I'd shed no tears. Let Zeus' newest toy die before Hera has the chance to truly have her way. It would be less drama for everyone involved."
"I'm right here." Zola exclaimed, exasperated.
"Speaking of cost." Eros seemed frustrated. "What about you father? You gave my guns to Wonder Woman, and they were used against her. What were you thinking?"
"A good point Eros." Nathaniel turned his glare to Hephaestus. "I swear Hephaestus. If this is your doing, even your great deeds towards my brothers will not save you."
"Holy... can you idiots stop arguing and start figuring out how we're gonna save Diana!?" Zola shouted, slamming her hands on the table.
Nathaniel's face changed to one of reluctant acquiescence and after one more good squeeze, he released Lennox and Hermes. The two men fell to the ground, clutching at their throats as they gasped for breath.
Once he had enough air in his lungs, Hermes moved to sit beside Zola, glaring at Nathaniel the whole way.
"Good boy." Nathaniel mocked. "Slink back to your master like a good dog."
Hermes glared bloody murder at the prince, before looking at Zola with a far softer expression.
"We're not. Zola, I sword I would protect you, and going back-"
"Would be breaking an oath?" Eros asked incredulously.
"It doesn't matter whether the Messenger will go or not." Nathaniel said. "Get me through the gates of Hell, and I'll handle the rest."
"And how do you think you're gonna get to hell without the Messenger taking us?" Lennox asked.
"I've been invited. You'll be my guests."
"Right." Lennox said. "Hermes..."
"Heat of the moment." The god filled in.
"Yea."
"Then it's settled, and I have work to do." Hephaestus left the room, striding back into his forge. "I mean, it would be rude of us to show up without a gift."
"I've got his gift." Nathaniel snarled. "The same I gave him last time."
In the underworld, Diana sat at a vanity. She was wearing a dark turquoise gown, which she had adjusted in order to see the small bullet hole that rested above her left breast.
"Does it hurt?" A woman asked from another part of the chamber.
"No." Diana replied. "It's a hole. It aches."
"Well, I'm sure my lord will happily fill it in your wedding chamber." The maid told her.
"Yes, though I don't know what makes him happy." Diana said.
"Hades? Given eternity you might have a chance of finding out."
"Have you been with him a while?" Diana asked.
"I've... eternity doesn't end, my lady." The woman answered hesitantly, opening the curtains. "He's done something for you."
"He has?" Diana made her way over.
"Come see."
Diana looked out at the underworld, seeing that Hades seemed to have recreated Themyscira out of the souls of the underworld. The island of the amazons was immaculately recreated, glowing white as Hades' subjects wove together at his will to form her home.
"Oh." Diana looked on shocked. "Paradise Island. Please let my lord know that I'd."
"His love can be clumsy. And though he means well, it can also be cruel. Don't worry. I'll inform him that you'd rather not be reminded of home. That..."
Diana was distracted from the woman's words as she saw flecks of red drip onto the curtains and the floor.
"Girl... you're bleeding." Diana said, concerned.
"I'm sorry, my lady." She apologised.
"Sorry? Who did this to you?"
"He... wouldn't let me leave. In trying to escape, I damned myself, and he will never let me forget."
"Who?" Diana demanded. "Tell me!"
"I did!" The girl cried. "I did this to myself! My name is Persephone. I was Hades' wife once."
"I am so freaked out by all this." Zola said as she and Hermes walked through a small wood.
"That's understandable Zola. While months passed for you in hell, here it was only a few days."
"Both realities are real, though it may be hard for you to grasp."
"Um, Hello? In case you haven't noticed Hermes, I do pretty well with all the crazy gods and weird mythology crap. But Wonder Woman saved your life, mine too. It just kinda sucks you won't return the favour. I'm having a hard time dealing with that."
"Then you shouldn't. Especially because it's not your burden to carry."
The two's attentions were suddenly grabbed by a flash of light appearing to their right. As it faded, Hermes' face broke into a wide smile.
"Aphrodite!" He greeted enthusiastically.
"Whoa." Zola whispered.
"A pleasure as always?" The goddess of love asked rhetorically.
Hermes leaned forwards to kiss her hand.
"Indeed it is. Zola, this is Hephaestus' wife."
Zola stared at the naked woman in awe.
"Yer kidding me?"
"The Smith has his charms, girl." Aphrodite told her.
"Aphrodite, this is my charge, Zola. She's-"
"Blossoming from Zeus' seed." Aphrodite interrupted, bending down to look more closely at Zola's stomach.
The woman in question had her hands over her face, blushing maddly.
"I've... I've never felt more ugly in my life." She bemoaned
"Ugly?" Aphrodite asked. "But you're beautiful! Never forget that."
"Easy for you to say."
"True that." Hermes quipped.
"Zola, I overheard what you were saying , and if I can give some advice. It's wrong to fault the Messenger, without considering the message."
"Are you going to hell with the rest of them?"
"Me? No. There isn't any space in hell for love. It's too cluttered with memories and regrets."
Charon's ferry crossed over the river styx, bringing her passengers across the waters of the underworld.
"So what's our plan of attack, Hephaestus?" Lennox asked.
"We find out seats." The smith god responded.
"If you think those souls will let me pass peacefully, you're a fool Smith." Nathaniel said. "Just stand back, I'll deal with it."
"So then how are we gonna find Diana?" Lennox asked.
"Why look?" Eros turned to the demigod. "We know where she'll be."
"Which means I know in what direction I have to cut my way through this damn place." Nathaniel muttered. His eyes closed for a moment, before reopening to show off his Rinnegan.
"But ain't the point of this to not let her get there?"
"We'll see." Hephaestus said.
"There's no stopping where she'll be." Nathaniel told him. "What matters is that we stop her from becoming what my father wants."
The group got off of the boat as Lennox covered his eyes wincing,
"'Ow? The light, it's blinding. Where is it coming from?" He asked.
"In light of his family's refusal, Hades must have invited every soul he has."
Nathaniel groaned.
"Right, so I have to cut through all that humanity has ever been to get to her." He cracked his neck. "Well, just another Wednesday, I suppose"
Nathaniel's form glowed a radiant silver, surrounding him and slowly solidifying itself into the torso of a greek warrior. One of the arms wielded a massive double-edged greek glade while the other held a round hoplite shield.
The souls that made up Hades realm began to writhe and squirm before violently swarming towards the group.
"Ahh great." Lennox groaned.
Nathaniel swung his sword, the blade cutting through the approaching horde and turning souls after soul into a pile of glowing, bloodied parts. More swept forwards, forming into an arm to slam into the silver warrior but Nathaniel raised his construct's shield to block to blow.
All the while, Nathaniel kept up a steady pace as he waded into the seemingly endless tide of souls that made up his father's army.
"I killed you once father." Nathaniel said, knowing that Hades could hear him through his subjects. "You came back as this. Now you seek to take my sister. I won't have it. Perhaps the next version of you will be more reasonable, or perhaps there won't be another. I'll certainly try my best."
More and more souls assaulted the hoplite, which immediately formed a second set of arms as it seemed to have two fronts, each facing a different direction. A new sword and shield sprouted in its hands, allowing Nathaniel to attack and defend from his father's onslaught from two directions.
"The choice is yours Hades." Nathaniel continued. "Give me back my sister and we will leave without further aggression, or don't. In which case I will tear you and this realm down piece by piece."
His only response was a new wave of souls which slammed into him from the side.
"So be it. The die is cast Hades. May the source have mercy on you, for I shall have none."
As her brother was crossing the river styx, before the souls of Hades slammed against his sword and shield, Diana was preparing for a wedding. Her wedding.
"Be still, we're almost done." A voice growled.
Tending to Diana, three women dressed in gowns surrounded her. The three women, with the faces of dogs, snakes for hairm and grey-green skin applied the final touches of makeup to Diana's face.
"There." One of the three said.
"Finished?" She asked.
"Not yet." The dog-faced woman leaned close, baring sharpened yellow teeth at Wonder Woman. "If you dare shame your husband. We will rip you to shreds and feed them for eternity to every rat that has ever existed and has yet to be born."
Threat finished, the women backed off, pulling a curtain and revealing Diana in a red dress. She looked beautiful, the only exception being the severed hands that clung to the bottom of her gown like gruesome decorations.
"Father, your bride." One of the the women, known to the world as the furies, said.
"My bride. My, my, don't you look... wonderful."
Hades sat upon a horse, pulling another by the reins for Diana. The bride to be climbed aboard the horse, riding alongside the king of the underworld.
"This is so beautiful. It's all I could want in a wedding, my lord."
"That's very kind of you to say." Hades told her.
"My words weren't meant to just be kind."
"Well, few are."
The two continued on in the sea of white. The souls of Hades' kingdom watched on silently at they went.
"I'd like to be honest with you." Hades said.
"Please."
"I'm incapable of live."
"I don't believe that, you had children." Diana pointed out. "At one point."
"Yes. Alecto, Megaera, Tisiphone, Melinoe, Zagreus. I believe even your brother Nathaniel was the child of one of my previous incarnations."
Diana's hands tightened on the reins of her steed.
"Even so, I believe... I chose to live here because I wanted to alone."
"But you don't." Diana replied.
"And I'm not. Of all the realms, the heavens and earth..." Hades trailed off, lost in his thoughts, before he suddenly seemed to return to the present.
"It's been brought to my attention that you may not actually love me." He told her. "That this could be an elaborate ruse on your part, used to secure the freedom of the mortal girl. Is your will that strong?"
"That would be very foolish of me, lord Hades." Diana tried to assure the lord of the dead.
"Indeed. You realise that I would find Zola again, and drag her and the child back, or worse."
"I do." She lowered her head.
"Not yet my dear. We haven't reached the altar."
"My heard belongs to you my lord."
"Well, seeing that's something I wounded. I'm in need of your truth."
"I just told you-"
"Yes, you did. But a tongue can be many things. Most of all, cunning. So I thought, perhaps we would break from tradition. That you would wear your ring before the ceremony."
"If that will prove my love, then I accept."
"Good."
The two finally reached the altar, where Diana could see that her golden lasso had been twisted into a noose. It dangled in the air and Hades gestured to the knot.
"Behold, your wedding ring. Around your neck, you will profess your love... or not. Your truth then, will bind me, or hang you."
Diana looked at the rope before her eyes wandered around her. As she looked, she saw something in the mass of glowing figures. Strife, clad in a shredded black dress that revealed much of her body, stood to the side, a smile forming on her face.
"What is she doing here?" Diana asked, astonished by her sister's presence.
"I invited her." Hades told her. "My former son might have stolen her power, but she asked to join us for the ceremony, and I felt inclined to allow it."
The two continued forwards.
"In fact, it was with her help that I realised that your words might not have been sincere. Everything Strife says is poison. Little of it is truth, and when it is, it is wielded only to wound and harm. Perhaps she believes that you lie, and that you will die."
Diana glared at her sister, who offered only a smile and wave back. The smile then turned into a poisonous grin as she looked between Diana, Hades and the lasso that formed her wedding right and her hanging noose.
"You've promised your love, but I need more." Hades told her.
Suddenly, the ground rumbled and shifted. A great roar was heard in the distance, and Diana could see a glow other than Hades' subjects on the horizon. Hades' face contorted into a snarl.
"A wedding-crasher. It seemed my family could not help but to bring conflict and chaos with them." He turned to Strife. "Mayhaps I should not have allowed the former goddess of chaos to attend a wedding."
Strife's face was the picture of innocence, she pointed surprised at herself before shrugging her shoulders.
Diana looked between the two, unsure of exactly what they spoke of.
"Come Wonder Woman." Hades told her. "Best ensure that no disgruntled family gets in our way."
Suddenly Diana realised what Hades must have sensed, or to be more accurate, who. Nathaniel. Nathaniel was here, and he most likely wasn't happy.
A part of Diana wanted to roll her eyes, of course he'd come, even when she'd told him to stay. On the other hand, if this was to be her wedding day, at least he could be here to see it. She ascended the steps towards the rope.
"Your promise is not enough." Hades told Diana as the noose was lowered.
"But Hades, what can mean more than a promise?" She asked.
"Proof; Your lasso. Hestia's own power has it that anyone bound in its power is also bound by the truth."
"So... you don't trust me?" Diana asked.
"That sounds awful." Hades responded. "So let's say, given your answer, I won't have to."
Hades stared down Diana.
"Do you love me Wonder Woman?" He asked.
Diana looked out over the souls of the dead. To the side, Strife smirked at her, as if waiting for her inevitable answer.
"Hell..." Diana said, closing her eyes. "I do love you."
"Then it's settled." Hades smiled.
The officiant, a robed and hooded being who's face was obscured, began the ceremony.
"Diana of Themyscira, princess of the amazons. I now bind you-"
"Bind me?" Diana interrupted, reaching back and grabbing her lasso. With a tug of her arm, the lasso uncurled itself from the pillar it was wrapped around. "With proof, not trust?"
Taking hold of the golden cord, she lept from the altar, landing on her horse as the end of the lasso slipped between Hades' fingers. Pulling on the reins and causing her steed to rear up, Diana turned the beast around.
"I won't be bound that way to any man, woman, or got."
Diana took off down the streets of the underworld, wading through the hordes of souls that began to rise from the ground.
"Do you know where you are?" Hades' voice emanated from around her. "You can't escape me."
"I don't care what you are. I know who I am, and I can't escape that."
A wall of white rose up in front of her, forming into a spiked tower to bloke Diana's progress.
"I will find the girl Zola, and I will-" The creatures were cut off as Diana continued on, undeterred by his words.
"-Find those I trust to protect her with her. And they will not go down without a fight."
"I will kill you."
"kill me, love me, what's the difference? You will try, and you probably will succeed, but it won't be easy. Trust me."
Out of nowhere, the three furies appeared, leaping onto Diana and tearing at her dress and horse.
"We warned you!" One screamed.
"There's no leaving father's realm without his release. You're trapped here for eternity." Another roared.
"Your life is over." The third one cried.
Together, they raced towards another wall of souls, far too tall for Diana's horse to jump.
"You're nothing but meat now."
"Meat?" Diana asked, punching one of the furies and dislodging her. "Meet an amazon."
"Well said."
Suddenly a massive silver blade arched around Diana, severing the furies from her and destroying the wall of souls, leaving Diana free to ride through.
"You're here?" Diana asked as she seemed to freely enter the silver soldier.
"How else was I supposed to not hold my peace?" Nathaniel asked with a smile. "Though I will admit, the dress is quite fetching."
"What are you doing here?" Diana asked again. "You should be with Zola?"
"Why?" Nathaniel asked her in return."
"Hermes is." Hephaestus supplied.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry, I assumed it was all of you."
"Again, why would I be with there?" Nathaniel asked. "And why has your lasso been twisted into a noose around your neck?"
"Your father didn't exactly trust me." Diana said.
"Of course." Nathaniel groaned. "I suppose I have even more reason to kill him now."
The warrior brought its weapons to bear, slashing across the souls of the underworld and splattering Hades' white architecture with blood and gore.
"This is my fight Nathaniel." Diana said, moving in front of him. "You shouldn't have come."
"And was I supposed to allow you to walk down the aisle on the arm of my father?" Nathaniel asked hotly.
"You were meant to trust me." She yelled back.
"I do trust you Diana, at least I'm trying to, but this situation wasn't about trust. You were shot! Do you mean to tell me that was all part of the plan as well?"
"I had it well in hand!"
"Why won't you let me help?"
"Did it occur to you that I don't need help brother?"
"No. No, the bullet wound in your chest was something of an indication that control had slipped through your fingers and perhaps some assistance was in order." He told Diana petulantly.
"I know what I am doing." Diana fired back.
"Ah, I see now." A voice echoed from all around them.
"SHUT UP!" both siblings yelled at the voice. However it was in vein. Nathaniel's concentration had been broken and his silver armour weakened. A river of blood flowed all around them, drowning and surrounding them.
"You just wanted to welcome our guests. I'm sorry Hephaestus, but there's been a change of plans. There will be no wedding, in it's stead, an execution."
A massive face formed from the blood river.
"Oh come off it Hades." Nathaniel yelled. "Do you really think this will hold me for long?"
Already Nathaniel's body was beginning to glow with power.
"Long enough boy." Hades' voice called out from all around.
"You would kill me my lord?" Diana asked. "You would condemn me, lord? Just for telling the truth?"
"Yes, my bride." Was the god of the dead's curt response. "I do."
The river of blood condensed, forming into a massive being, holding Diana by its tongue as it pulled Wonder Woman close and close to its mouth.
"You will never leave hell, Wonder Woman. You will live for eternity, being devoured by me. Over and over and-"
A massive armoured hand burst out of Hades' mouth. Behind him, the full form of Nathaniel's Susanoo held Diana in its fist, having punched through the back of Hades' head and freeing her.
Diana stood in Nathaniel's palm, staring up at her brother who was floating in the center of the greek warrior's helm.
"I do have to say, the thought of my father consuming my sister is deeply unpleasant, especially when you are in a wedding dress Diana." Nathaniel quipped, trying to give his sister a humorous smile
Diana was not having it.
"Put me down."
"As you wish Sister."
The palm lowered Diana to the ground before the silver behemoth faded away, leaving Nathaniel and Diana standing directly in front of each other.
"Brother, don't mistake me. I am grateful for your aid, but this is a battle that I must face on my own."
Nathaniel responded only with a bitter look, as if forced to eat something disgusting.
"Very well. Just... just be careful."
Diana finally offered him a smile.
"I promise."
"So you'll let her fight my son?" Hades' voice emerged from the horde. "You know she can't win."
"Winning is not always the goal." Diana stood before Hell.
"They why fight?" He asked.
"Because this battle, I will never lose."
"You lied to me."
"No I didn't. I do love you Hell. I love everyone."
"Heh." Nathaniel snorted in the background.
"That's ridiculous." Hell retorted, brandishing Eros' pistols.
"Maybe." Hephaestus said, standing beside Diana. "Certainly to someone incapable of it."
"Smith." Hades began. "Strife being here, I knew a wedding like this was something she couldn't miss. Powerless as she is she wishes vengeance on the amazons who have taken her power."
The goddess of discord and chaos came up behind Hades, glaring hatefully at Nathaniel, who simply waved kindly back.
"But you? I thought you agreed to come to this wedding, when the rest of our family declined, because you despise them even more than I."
"I..." The Smith searched for the right words. "Despise is a strong word. We, disappoint me."
"How so?" Hell asked.
"Because we are capable of so much better. We fight, and it's not because we love each other. But it should be."
"Oh please." Strife rolled her eyes with boredom.
"You're a sentimental fool. Is that way my sister threw you to the rocks?" Hades asked hotly.
"No uncle. It's because my mother couldn't love me."
"And Wonder Woman can't love me. Even with Eros' pistols?"
"Hades. I believe, I'm not sure but, you could fire them at anyone, and the results would be the same. You can't make anyone love you unless you love yourself."
"It's true." Hephaestus agreed. "No one loves himself more than Eros."
"Father?" Eros asked, offended.
"And I love you even more than that, my son." The smith playfully replied, a smirk forming on his face.
"So you love me, but you won't be my bride?" Hades asked.
"That's true."
"But you love me?"
"I can't believe the evil warmonger who nearly laid waste to all the world became such a sad-sack." Nathaniel muttered under his breath. "If all it took to make him this fragile was death, I'd have killed him years ago."
Not hearing Nathaniel's jab, Hades began to walk away from Diana.
"I do." Diana answered, reaching for Hades.
"No. Don't touch me, just go."
Strife scowled, walking up to Hell.
"What, no wedding? This isn't how this was meant to g-"
"GO!" Hades yelled, and in an instant Strife was gone.
"Where did she go?" Diana asked.
"Back to Olympus is my guess." Hephaestus said. "Hades invited her, and now he is sending her back to where she came from."
The god of the dead was already retreating back into his realm, dropping Eros' pistols on the ground. The Smith followed after his uncle, taking the gift strapped to his chest.
"Hell. I made this for you. Don't let it go to waste."
The group made their way back to the shores of the Styx together. As they neared Charon's ferry Diana turned to Hephaestus
"You said Hades sent Strife back to Olympus? Not Themyscira?" Diana asked. "If she came here it was probably from there."
"I'm unsure." The Smith said. "It could be either, in the end it doesn't matter, does it? You're brother is the one with a lock and key over her powers, and its unlikely that anyone from my family could wrestle it away from him. If they could they would have tried it by now."
"True." Diana said. "Nathaniel?"
Diana looked around at the shore, but could not find Nathaniel with her group.
"Where is he?" She asked Hephaestus.
The palace of Hades was a thing of wonder. Built from the souls of his subjects like everything else in his realm, Hades could control its appearance to reflect anything he wished.
Now that same palace was burning.
Massive silver warriors rampaged across the landscape, meeting resistance from Hades' own subjects but nevertheless they advanced. They locked together thier silver shields, marched forwards in synchonise, and as one they cut their way to the king of the Underworld's throne.
The doors to Hades' throneroom burst open, allowing Nathaniel to march right up to the king as he sat upon his seat.
"You look comfortable." Nathaniel said, eyeing the god.
Hades reclined on his throne. The former king of the Titans was torn to pieces, used to cover his son's seat like some kind of gaudy decoration. At his side, Persephone stood with her head bowed low. Blood dripped from her forearms where she had been cut, or perhaps where she had cut herself.
"I have nothing to fear, not from you." Hades said.
"Is that right?" Nathaniel asked. "I seem to recall fear in your eyes the last time we faced off."
"An old Hades." The god of the dead waved his former son off. "A simpler one. You may kill me, but you don't have the power to end my existance. I will reform, different yes, but in the end I will continue and one day you will stand before me and I will have you judged, just like everyone human who has ever lived, and all those who will come after you."
Nathaniel glared before he let out a sigh.
"You're right. I can't really kill you. Not in any way that will make it stick, but I can make sure that the next time you form, it will be better."
Nathaniel disappeared. Hades' head whipped from side to side, trying to find his child, before his head was removed from his body.
Persephone gasped and screamed into her hands as Hades' head rolled along the floor and stopped at her feet. Nathaniel pulled the body from the throne, throwing it to land at his wife's feet. The goddess of spring screamed again, looking at Nathaniel will fearful eyes.
"Don't worry." He said to her, smiling. "He'll come back, and he'll be different, he'll be better."
"B-but." Persephone stuttered. "How can you be sure?"
Nathaniel walked until he was right in front of his step-mother.
"I know things, my lady. I think a return to form is what is best here." He looked down at the headless god with something almost resembling pity.
"Look at him, so twisted and warped as people lost sight of what he truly was. That's all we are my lady, figments given form from belief and desires. I think this time Hades might return to what he was, and so will you."
"What?" Persephone asked.
She didn't get out another word as her head was removed like her once husband's. Her body collapsed on top of his, mixing their golden blood as Nathaneil watched. His eyes changed swiftly, from their normal forrest green into ringed purple.
"Outer Path." He intoned and watched as Hades and Persephone's life forces flickered from their forms.
"Maybe Diana wasn't entirely wrong about mercy." He mused. "I hope you two can enjoy this opportunity."
Turning away he left the two dead gods and found the souls of the underworld standing idle. His army had ceased their battle, dismissing most of their Susanoos but keeping a weary eyes on the world around them.
"Dispell. Our business here is done."
"Yes sir!" There was a collective chorus from the clones, who all immediately disappeared in clouds of smoke.
Taking a deep breath, Nathaniel began to walk towards the banks of the river styx where no doubt Diana and the rest of her entourage would be waiting.
When he arrived, He saw Diana waiting on the riverbank tapping her foot and looking expressly irritated. Nathaniel plastered his best smile on his face, and approached.
"Diana, wonderful, now that we're all here we can leave."
"Where were you?" She asked with narrowed eyes. "And do not lie to me, we promised no more lies."
Nathaniel pinched the bridge of his nose and let his smile drop, of course this wasn't going to be easy.
"It was a spot of personal business Diana, nothing to concern yourself with."
"I'll decide that." She replied, eyebrow raised. "Now Nathaniel, tell me the truth, or do I need to get my lasso?"
Nathaniel chuckled.
"The irony. Fine, I was off killing Hades again."
Diana glared.
"And what reason could you have for killing him again?"
"Really Diana? Is this whole debacle not reason enough? He shot you, almost killed you and then tried to force you into marriage by damn-near strangling you with your own lasso. I'd say it was reason enough. Speaking of which." He turned to glare at the Smith god. "Why do I get the feeling that you planned all this Smith."
"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about boy." Hephaestus replied. "Now hurry up, it won't be long before Hades returns, and I don't believe we'll be very welcome in his realm, what will killing him and all."
"You heard the man Diana." Nathaniel said cheerfully. "No time to dawdle let's get in that boat and tap our red ruby slippers."
Diana rolled her eyes.
"Green Lantern has used that joke on Superman a few times before and it's somehow even less amusing coming from you."
Nevertheless, she entered into the boat alongside the rest, taking the group out of the underworld and out into the realm of mortals.
Fun fact: William Moulton Marston, Who helped create Wonder Woman with his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston, was the inventor of of an early lie detector machine and so he decided to give Wonder Woman a lasso that made people tell the truth. I thought that was the coolest thing when I found out, so I thought I'd share it here.