"Are you sure he's what he claims to be?"
The first thing she had done as soon as Zeus had walked out of her office was calling Steve. And he didn't seem too inclined to go soft on him.
Diana pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Yes. He knew things… only a god could know. Only Zeus could know," she explained. "It must be him."
"Uhm… so you want to go to lunch with him?"
"Yes. I mean, no, I don't want to go to lunch with him, but it could be my last chance to have some answers. Do you mind?"
She could almost picture him shrugging and smiling. "No, of course not. Just… be careful. You sound quite upset, I don't want this guy to ruin your day completely."
The concern in his voice was genuine. "Don't worry about me, I killed the son, I think I can handle the father with no hostile means. I'll be fine."
"Alright. Just… text me your location when you get there. I'll be close, just… just in case something goes wrong."
Diana laughed. "Steve, you want to be my knight in shiny armor?"
"More like your pilot in a drenched German uniform. Though… I'm not a pilot anymore, I have no idea what happened to that uniform and I'm not drenched. Though I was, about an hour ago. Damn, I forgot how much you sweat when you go for a run!"
"Sounds fun. Still got issues with the polluted air?"
"I'm getting used to it. My throat still stings a little, but nothing a glass of water can't cure. Anyway, I'm here catching up with the history and the technicism of the European Union so I can be your spokesperson to them too, in case my job requires it. Just text if you need me, alright?"
"Will do. You stay home for now, I think I will manage on my own."
"I don't doubt it, Angel. Just… I'm here, remember that."
"Got it. Listen, I have some work to do before lunch break, I'll see you home. Love you."
"Love you too."
Once the call was closed, she placed the phone on her desk and went back to the paperwork, though struggling as she waded through the bureaucracy of handling ancient artifacts. Meeting Zeus was a dream she had given up ages ago. Seeing it actually fulfilled had rocked her world more than an earthquake and she was still reeling from it, but she had a job and she had to do it. Actually, it did wonders to get her back to a decent state of peace of mind, one that wouldn't have her clench her fingers into fists each time Zeus spoke because she wanted to throttle him.
By the time lunch break came, she felt more than able to sustain a civil conversation with him, despite the rage still lingering beneath her skin, like a ripple caused by a rock thrown into an otherwise calm lake. From the outside, she looked like her normal self, not one of her colleagues, not even her assistant, could detect her distress. But from the inside, she felt like a volcano, with the boiling magma ready to erupt if the pressure grew too much.
But, as with every obstacle she had encountered in her life, she bit the bullet, gathered her coat and purse and went to face even this enemy.
She found him just outside the Pyramide Du Louvre, wearing a thick black woolen coat with the lapels pulled up to ward off the cool breeze blowing in the city. Somehow, he looked less imposing than when he appeared in her office, his face showed his worry and his shoulders, that normally would be squared and wide, were sagging and he kept clenching his jaw.
He did look like he was afraid of her.
"Thank you, Diana," he said. "For this chance."
"If there's something I learned in the past century is that sometimes people deserve a second opportunity. I guess it's true even for some Gods."
He nodded. "Well, thanks anyway. Listen, it's been a long while since I've been here in Paris, do you know where we could…"
"There's a nice place just down that street. It's off most tourist routes, so we shouldn't be disturbed. Also, since you speak Ancient Greek, we definitely won't be disturbed."
"How's your mother?"
The deadpan question came right after they had placed their order to a young waiter. "Fine, I guess. I haven't seen her in a while."
"Despite the fact that she lead the Amazons against Steppenwolf's army?"
She sighed. "I know, but I was a little occupied elsewhere."
"I know, I saw it. We saw it."
Diana rolled her eyes. "And lending a hand wasn't even taken into consideration, uh?"
"We stopped meddling in mortals' affairs long ago, Diana. For their own sake. Look what happened the last time one of us did it."
He had a point. "Then how come you helped Steve, like a month ago?"
"Because he deserved it!" he exclaimed, with a smile. "And because you deserved it. Diana, listen to me and please trust me on this, I know I don't have the best backtrack of trustworthy deeds but I'm being sincere right now. We would have brought him back right away, back then in 1918, if his body hadn't vaporized. I spent a good couple of hours arguing with my brother, yelling and screaming like an obnoxious brat, to send him back, but he couldn't because there was no body to send his soul into."
"Why should I believe you?"
With a huff, he pulled his phone from the inside pocket of his jacket and dialed a number. "Hey… yes she's here. Do you mind telling her what happened… Yes, that night. Alright." He handed her the phone. "It's Hades."
"What?" she grabbed the phone. "Hello?"
"Hey Diana, it's probably your least favourite uncle speaking!"
Contrary to everything she had always thought about Hades, his voice was full of sass and fun, despite the slightly guttural tone. It caught her completely off guard and she had no words. "Oh… Hi, I guess."
"Kinda speechless, uh?" he joked. "Don't worry, I completely get it. Steve and Clark were too, when they discovered I actually own a pub in Metropolis. Anyway… what do you want to know? Shoot, I'm all ears."
Damn he sounded nothing like she thought she thought he would. Owning a bar must have changed him, someway.
"My…" She took a deep breath to steady herself. "My father said you wanted to give Steve a hand back in…"
"After Veld?" he asked. "Absolutely! Girl, you two were the golden couple, we were all rooting for you from the moment your rescued him! Your sister… Aphrodite I mean, she was oh so gleefully waiting for the moment you two would realize that the strange feeling in your stomachs wasn't indigestion but love, you have no idea. And then he blows up? Like that? Well excuse my French but fuck that we hadn't seen a love so true, pure and powerful ever since Narcissus discovered himself, we had to do something!
"Wait a second, did you just quote Hercules?" she gasped in the phone, while Zeus, on the other side of the table, laughed softly.
"What can I say, I love James Woods, I watched all his movies multiple times and believe it or not, I have a big soft spot for Disney so… yes, I quote their movies a lot. Anyway… yes, your dear father tried to bully me into pushing Steve's soul out of Underworld for a good two hours, with Steve actually witnessing the argument and trying to understand what we were saying because of course he doesn't speak what you call Indo-European. Long story short, I can't resurrect anyone if I don't have a body. And there wasn't a body left when Steve died so, nope, sorry, I tried and believe me, I screamed and yelled at Steve for years for not using that damn parachute behind his frigging seat, too bad he doesn't remember that because to him it didn't happen, now that your friend rigged time and brought him up here. Well, now."
"So what happened last month didn't come out of…"
"Pity? Absolutely not. We were all agreeing on giving you two a boost, now just as we did back then. It was only a matter of finding the right chance to do it. Diana, I know we Gods may not come in a good light, to you. And you have all the rights, we have done nothing good to you, all your life, and what we did with Steve may seem like it came out of pity, but it was gratitude for getting us rid of Ares and some sort of compensation, for what had been stolen from you, that night."
"But why wait so long, or a third party interjection?" she questioned him.
"My dear, we've been working on it for ages, from day one actually. Problem is, reincarnation takes a long time, because we needed to… ehm what's the term… engineer a person that would look like him, have the same character and other things, in order to make it work. It's not like moving some water from a container to another, it doesn't work like that. I wish it would, because that way, we would have sent Steve back in twenty years or something, but unfortunately, it takes a long while. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an incoming truck with more kegs of beer I can count and I have to unload it. Next time you're in town, come and have a pint, I'd love to meet you in person."
"I'll see what I can do. Do you need to talk to Zeus?"
"No, we're just fine. Give him a chance, dear. He may have issues keeping it in his pants, but deep down he's not a bad guy."
With a sigh, she closed the call and handed the phone back to Zeus. "Alright, now I have three versions of the story and they more or less coincide. I can say I believe you, on this matter."
"It's more than I could have asked. Is there anything else you want to know?"
"Oh well, there are tons of questions I would just love to have answered, first and foremost… why the hell did my mother never tell me the truth?"
"You have to ask your mother about it," he replied, now more calm than before.
"And you think I didn't?"
He groaned before he opened his mouth to speak, but in that moment the waiter arrived with their lunch. They thanked him in French, before reverting to Ancient Greek. "I can only offer you my side of the story. After the war with Ares, after I managed to hurt him bad enough to force him into a disastrous retreat, we decided to also get away from human affairs. Let's say we… we still did our job without being a constant presence among men. We sort of lived… boring immortal lives, doing activities we loved. But before that, your mother and I reached the conclusion that we needed a way to defend ourselves in case Ares came back. A weapon, so to speak. Someone he wouldn't know about."
"And that would be me, right?"
He chuckled. "Yes. Your mother desperately wanted a daughter, I ardently wanted a weapon, we both wanted Ares gone for good. We made a deal, we both got what we wanted."
"Then why lie to me? Everyone on Themyscira knew I was your daughter. Everyone! Why not tell me?"
"To protect you from Ares, I guess. Listen… Hippolyta loves you, her love runs deeper than you can imagine. She adores you and she truly longed to have you, before you came. She even allowed you to go back, even though the law forbids people leaving the Island to come back! Listen, I understand, alright? You feel betrayed and the fact that she never explained her reasoning must hurt even more, but trust me when I say that she loves you, and everything she did, she did out of love. She's the strongest Amazon I've ever met, but she's not perfect. We Gods are not perfect!"
"Well, neither am I so I think I'm allowed to be a little angry, about this," she snarled. She closed her eyes shut for a moment and tried to calm down a little bit. "I'm sorry… this is all so confusing. I never thought I would meet you and the events of the past month have been a little…"
"Messed up?" he proposed.
"You can say that."
Zeus sighed. "I knew I shouldn't have come. It's just…"
She raised a questioning eyebrow. "Just what?"
"It's just I wanted to meet you. To get to know you a little, meet the person beneath the Wonder Woman. Of the many children I have, you're the only one I had never met and… I was curious to see what kind of person you had become. And before you ask why I didn't come earlier, again, I was scared. I was scared to death. After what you did to Ares… I was scared you would do the same to me and let me tell you, I'm kind of attached to my life, I'd like to keep it."
That made her laugh. Sincerely. "Oh I think I reached my quota of dead gods when I killed Ares!" she replied between fits of laughter.
"And you scared everyone to death!" added Zeus. "Hera was terrified!"
"No. Freaking. Way."
He chuckled. "You're free not to believe me but trust me when I tell you she said something on the line Zeus, never EVER have another child with an Amazon, not if that's the result! You scared the crap out of her! Oh, by the way, Hephaestus sends his regards. Took him a while to actually confess he had offered his services, all those years ago. He wonders if you still like the gear he made, or if you need something stronger."
"Tell him I'm just fine, though the sword could do some sharpening. Standard whetstones don't work so good on Olympian steel. It still does its job well enough though."
He gave her a quick nod. "Duly noted. Now, tell me: what does Diana Prince do when she's not Wonder Woman or the most respected museum curator of the world?"
"You should have seen her, thirty seconds after she had gulped that shot, she was drunk. I mean, smashed! Completely gone! Never seen anyone get drunk so fast!" Diana was telling him about Lois' and her night out when Hades and Aphrodite had worked together to give Steve his immortality. "By the way, what did you put in that liquor?"
"Ambrosia mixed with what you would nowadays call whisky and then some mead. Thing is, ambrosia itself gets to the head quite fast so mix it with a solution that's 60% ethanol, I don't doubt they got drunk so fast. On an empty stomach? Girl, you were heading for a bad hangover!"
"Oh come on you know it takes me way more than that to get drunk!"
"Of course I know, you're my daughter not the offspring some kind of low-weight amateur. And your mother can hold her alcohol as well. I watched her drink many mighty warriors under the table, on multiple occasions."
Diana was stirring her coffee and she stopped mid turn of the spoon. "I beg your pardon?"
"You don't know? Oh, man… your mother was a heavy weight, let me tell you. I haven't seen her in a couple thousand years, maybe more, but damn she outdrank people like no one else. Dionysious loved her, I guess you could have called them best friends, by nowadays standards."
She leaned back on the chair and smiled to herself. "I guess now I have one more reason to go back to Themyscira. To ask her about her wild days."
"And wild they were. But… tell me. You two… how are you doing? I mean, from what I understood, Hippolyta never explained to you our reasoning. Do you ever speak about other stuff, when you go back?"
The concern in his voice sounded very sincere, she had to admit it. Even his face showed true worry, something she would never expect from him.
"I… I try. I mean, she speaks about everything else without a qualm. But when it comes to you, she doesn't want to talk about it. It's like she's ashamed of something."
Zeus nodded. "I see. Do you mind if I go and talk to her?"
"You're a grown God, she's a grown Amazon, you can do whatever you want. Just… be careful. She's a tad overprotective."
"I will, don't worry. Now… You've got to go back to work and believe it or not, I have an industrial empire to run. It's not like they can't work without me, but I like to supervise them as much as I can." He grabbed the wallet and handed the credit card to the waiter.
"So you truly are an entrepreneur!"
"Oh yes, switched from petrol to renewable energy about twenty years ago. Much more remunerative, you have no idea. Alright, Diana, it was a pleasure to meet you, finally. I won't impose anymore, if you don't wish so, but I beg you, don't shut us out. I know we made mistakes, big mistakes, but deep down, we care for each other. Don't trust the myths, we're a little better than that. Except for Poseidon. He's a grumpy old fucker that one, he's going to live up to your expectations, I tell you."
He slipped a folded piece of paper into her hands. "These are all our phone numbers, addresses and even e-mail addresses. We're scattered around the world but… call us, if you need anything. Even if it's just curiosity."
"I'll keep that in mind. Just… give me some time." She took a look at the list then folded it back before safely tucking it between the pages of her planner. "Too many things happening in too little time."
"I understand, and I don't blame you. Just call, if you need anything."
"Alright. Just one more thing, before we part ways. Why didn't you kill him, when you had the chance?"
He sighed and his shoulders sagged. He suddenly looked a lot smaller than he really was. "Diana… no matter what he did, Ares was my son. One day you and Steve will have children on your own and you'll understand what it means, why I couldn't kill him. Now go, before you're late for your work."
Later that evening, when Diana walked out of the Museum, she was surprised to find Steve standing by the Pyramide, non too far from where Zeus had been waiting for her with a smile and a huge bouquet of red roses.
"Wow!" she exclaimed when she finally reached him. "What do I owe the pleasure and the surprise?"
"I think that meeting your long-lost father who also happens to be a God deserves at least flowers and some company on the way home. So? How did it go? When you didn't text or call, I assumed it wasn't that bad."
She kissed him for a long moment, reveling in the sensation of warmth that traveled through her body and deep down in her soul. "You're right, it wasn't that bad. You can almost say it was a nice lunch. I even got to speak with my uncle."
"Uh, which one?"
She took the flowers from him and hooked her arm around his as they started walking towards home. "Hades. He sounded the complete opposite of what I thought."
"He's a funny guy, from what I remember."
"Exactly. He was… he even quoted a Disney movie that sort of made fun of him, can you believe it? Also, it seems like all the Gods were rooting for us, and that they were working on getting you back via reincarnation. And that he's been screaming at you a lot."
"Really?"
She nodded. "Seems like there was a parachute, behind your seat on that plane."
He shivered, beside her. "Really?"
"So he said. Anyway, I got most of the answers I really wanted, though we didn't have enough time to ask everything."
"I see. And tell me, how does he look like?"