"Tweet… tweet… tweet…" Raven snaps her eyes open at the sound coming from her bracelets, stirring her from her slumber, quickly getting herself awake, she gets dressed before calling the League.
"It's Raven, I've been called to Themyscira, anything to report?" She asks.
"Nope." Mr. Terrific replies, Raven sighs and quickly packs her Batgirl uniform into a bag before heading out of the cave.
"I need a ride to the station first, it could be anything." She says after emerging from the entrance behind the statue in Gotham's noon.
"Coming right up." Terrific replies and a few seconds later she is beamed up. "Want Bats and Diana to know?" He asks as she appears in the arrival hall.
"I would appreciate it." Raven says before storming off to the armory where her armor and sword is being kept, surprising Steel as she bursts in and begins changing attire, not caring if he got to see her in underwear or not.
"Where's the fire Raven?" He asks.
"I've been called to Themyscira, it could be Terra, but it could also be something else." Raven replies as she steps into the suit and begins strapping the pieces onto herself.
"Should we get the others?" Steel asks as he moves to help her tighten the straps on her back.
"No, not unless Hippolyta has requested the aid. But I will keep an open line." She replies as she finishes by putting on the belt with Shadowfury hanging in its scabbard. "Thanks."
"No problem, good luck." Steel says before she runs out of the room and back to the arrival hall, finding Diana waiting for her.
"You got the call?" Raven asks.
"No, but I am going anyway." Diana says firmly as they get onto the pads, getting thumbs up from Terrific before they both disappear.
"I don't like this." Diana says as they appear in the deserted harbor in the early afternoon. "I am going to check the palace." She says before flying off.
"Diana, wait!" Raven shouts after her, getting no reaction from her. "Great." She sighs before running after her on foot, quickly dropping the bag at her door before running towards the palace, meeting no one on the way. It is a small comfort to her that she does not hear any sounds of battle in the distance. Arriving at the palace square, she is met by two sights, the lack of half of the domed roof otherwise sitting over the throne room and the huge winged beast that is Hippolyta's war-mount; the griffon Talthybius, that looks up at her when she arrives. "Must have broken free." Raven thinks as she slows down, noting the beast is saddled and ready for war, with a lance and a bow and arrow secured to the harness on its back. "Easy big guy, I just have to get past you." She says as she begins strafing around it, making sure to keep her front towards it. The griffon is a temperamental beast at best of times, and Raven had heard tales of how Hippolyta personally had broken him, finding his fierce temperament to her liking. Cleaning his stall had been the most difficult part of the punishment Mala gave her. But the monster also begins to strafe in the same direction as her while they lock eyes, it even moves to block her path.
"Don't make me fight you." Raven warns as she gets her sword out, to her surprise the thing shakes its head at her before presenting its flank to her. That's when it hits her, a passage of text she had read with the others during her initial tour of Themyscira. "…not only is the mighty griffon fierce and temperamental, but it is intelligent enough to understand spoken words of all…"
"You want me to ride you?" She asks, getting a nodding head. "You know where the earth mover is?" She asks, wanting to confirm her fears, getting another nodding head a claw swiping at the palace. "Get me to the roof." Raven says as she mounts the beast, stifling the yelp that would have made itself heard as the monster takes off.
Talhybius circles the palace a few times, letting Raven see the insides through the hole, while her ears pick up bits of conversation. She can see one tall blond figure standing next to the throne, another with dark hair standing in front of it and a smaller figure sitting on it.
"Who would have thought controlling the mighty Wonder Woman could be so easy? Or the rest of her people?" Terra asks as she regards the straining Diana in front of her and the similarly straining Hippolyta next to her. "Oh please stop straining, you may be the strongest woman around, but I control the clay that makes up your body." She smirks. "Maybe you want to curse me now?" She asks and lets Diana regain control of her jaw muscles.
"Inbred swine! When I get my hands on you… GAK!" Diana shouts angrily before her tongue is pulled out of her mouth to its full length.
"Such language, I thought you were a princess?" Terra mocks. "Is this how you raised her Queenie?" She turns to Hippolyta who only bores holes in the Geomancer. "Ahh and too bad little Raven has run away, perhaps I will just have to take you all with me when I go?" She continues as she leans back in her seat with her hands behind her head. "You could be a great start to my own personal army, you need to start with showing me some respect." She says as Diana visibly trembles as her knees give way under her, dropping her to her knees before her back is forced forwards, making her forehead touch the ground. "That's better." A high-pitched whine is suddenly heard before a 'thunk' ends it. "HOLY!" Terra cries as she scrambles to seek cover behind the throne that now has an arrow lodged in it, an inch or two next to where her chest was a second ago. "I thought I got all of you people!" She shouts as she pokes her head out from behind the throne, quickly ducking back when another arrow pierces the throne. "OI! You could put someone's eye out with those!" She continues.
A shrill cry is heard, getting Terra to look out from behind the throne again, seeing the huge griffon swoop in through the hole in the roof, carrying a dark armored figure that instantly readies the bow again as the huge beast begins to circle the throne. Terra locks eyes with the rider for a brief second before having to move as an arrow is fired against her. "Damn Rae, you sure know how to make an entrance!" She yells as she takes cover on the other side of the throne.
"Leave them alone Terra, it's me you want!" Raven yells back, cursing her own aim.
"Yeah, but I was hoping to reduce you to a weeping wreck before that, you know, the person you really are!" Terra yells as she makes a break for it and hides behind Athena's statue. "Of course you had to go and spoil it all by becoming the hero of the hour in Gotham!"
"You murdered thousands just to get to me, while I had offered myself to you in New Mexico!" Raven shouts back as she takes careful aim at Terra's head as she pokes it out of the cover again.
"You weren't in the mood I want you in...YAOU!" Terra cries as an arrow makes a thin red line appear on her right cheek, while Raven curses some more under her breath, Antiope will be having a field day. "Right that does it!" Terra shouts before she has a part of the floor break apart under her, taking her to the air, letting more pieces of marble follow her into the sky. "You'll pay for that!" She snarls as she sends the fragments towards Talhybius, who is forced into an evasive maneuver to avoid them and Terra who flies past them and out of the building.
Raven has the beast turn around and follow Terra out, pursuing her across the skies of Themyscira that is slowly being covered by dark clouds. Raven tries not to think of the consequences as Terra tears random stones from buildings and streets before hurling them at her while she returns fire, hoping no one was getting hit by the flying stones. "Get me as close as possible." She says to Talhybius, who picks up speed, slowly closes the distance between him and the quarry.
"Oh no you don't, this is fun!" Terra yells as she notices the huge beast closing on her, making her rock swoop down to almost touch the cobbled streets, continuing the zigzagging course she has been keeping, while the griffon is forced to stay above the streets due to its wingspan. "WOW!" She cries and scrambles her pattern as an arrow lodges itself into her rock right in front of her left foot. "See how you like it!" She shouts over her shoulder as the street comes alive and blasts into the sky making Talhybius balk to the left, taking him and Raven out of sight as the street stones fly past. It takes a few seconds before Terra realizes that Raven isn't following her, coinciding with the purple haired sorceress and the griffon almost plowing her down as they reach the intersection with a wider road, forcing Terra to cling to her rock as she rockets into the sky.
"Enough of that!" Terra growls as she directs her rock to a specific destination, with Raven in pursuit. "Flying is for the birds!" Terra yells as she flies closely over the outer wall of the coliseum. Neither Raven nor Talhybius have a chance to react as they follow her closely, only for the upper stones of the building to suddenly rise up. Talhybius lets out a short cry of worry before he crashes into the stone slab, sending Raven flying out of the saddle and over the crushed rock and them both to the ground below. Raven lands hard on her back in the sand, bounces once before sliding to a halt with her face in the ground.
"You really should wear a seat belt." Terra's voice has Raven looks behind her, to see the Geomancer calmly float to the ground before jumping off her boulder. It is now that Raven first truly sees Terra, while her clothes; a blue cloak and black leotard, are torn and dirty, and the purple color in her hair is beginning to wash out and the artificial gray color she has applied to her skin, maybe ash, it does not hide the fact that Terra has gone to some degree to impersonate Raven, from a distance she would very much look like Raven, if Terra wasn't always so skinny.
Looking up at the seats, Raven realizes what Terra had been doing, the chase across the city was nothing more than an effort to buy time to allow the last Amazons to get seated, every single one of them, including Diana, the injured Cassandra and Hippolyta who take their seats in front of the throne. "Raven to League, do not, I repeat, do not come to Themyscira, she is in control of everyone here."
"That I am." Terra says while looking at her fingernails as Raven gets up to face her.
"Why the spectacle Terra?" Raven asks.
"Why do you ask?" Terra parrots. "Because I want to break you in front of an audience, I want them to see how truly pathetic you really are! Oh and don't think, these are the only ones watching, in fact, everyone is watching us right now."
"You don't have that kind of power, who is helping you?" Raven asks.
"Who indeed could lead someone here?" Raven tears her eyes from Terra and sends them to her throne where a cloud of black smoke is slowly solidifying into the huge shape of a man in blue armor.
"Ares!" Raven spits as he sits down on Hippolyta throne.
"And with the blessing of the God of War, the Champion of Earth has no peer." The deity's rumbling laughter fills the stadium.
"And now you die!" Terra howls.
Raven instinctively dives aside as the sand beneath her feet explodes, rolling to her feet she runs along the outer wall as more explosions erupt beneath her feet. Breaking from the path as Talhybius's body blocks the line of sight between her and Terra, instead Raven runs over him, using him as a springboard while pulling her sword free she leaps into the center of the arena, with the sword raised high.
The two lock eyes as Raven descends on the smirking Terra, a split second before Raven thinks she is about spilt Terra's skull Terra's hands whip out to clasp her palms together around the flat sides of Shadowfury, completely arresting the otherwise lethal blow.
"What?!" Raven asks in confusion as she lands, unable to wrest her sword from Terra, who keeps smirking.
"Surprised?" Terra asks. "I am Ares' chosen; did you think that did not come with a boon of sorts?" She asks, getting Raven to realize, that what she thought was artificial coloring of her skin is actually what appears to be a type of organic rock that covers most of Terra's body, leaving only small cracks of pink skin visible at her joints. "Now I am a lot stronger than you, let me show you." Terra says, before pushing the sword away from herself, opening Raven's midsection for the punch that sends her flying into the back wall with a crunch and Shadowfury out of her hands.
"Don't tell me that was all it took?" Terra mocks as she walks over calmly as Raven tries to get to her feet, noting that her kidney might have ruptured. "Come on Raven, where is that temper you once had so much trouble controlling?" She asks as she kicks Raven into the wall before grabbing her and smashes her back into the wall, cracking the stone behind her. "Where is it?" She continues as she repeatedly punches Raven in her stomach. "Show it to me!" Terra screams as she grabs hold of Raven's helmet and punches her in the face before hurling her into the center of the arena.
Raven tries to get to her feet again when a foot thunders into her back, forcing her back down. "See weak, even those freaky powers you have won't help you now." Terra says from above her. "But that was the fight I was hoping to get from you, and instead; this is what I get." Terra continues as she rolls Raven over with her foot. "Weak as ever, Witchy. I am not going to bother finishing you off, since there are so many others who can do that for me." She continues before kicking Raven halfway into the arena.
As Terra walks away from Raven's fallen form, some of the Amazons get out of their seats, some head out of the stadium but the majority jump into the arena and make their way to Raven, who has a blurry vision of those standing above her before the fists begin to rain down on her. She tries to fight back but her attacks are easily countered before her limbs are weighted down, letting the beatings continue. Raven loses her sense of time, but she is aware that her armor is stripped off her at some point, after this, the beatings really begin to hurt. The beatings continue till Terra's other order is completed, where the other amazons have mounted a log into the ground and placed firewood around the base and soaked it in oil.
"Ahh, is it not a wonderful sight?" Ares asks the two sitting in front of him, who is forced to watch the spectacle. "My minion will grant her the death bestowed on thousands of women accused of witchcraft." He says as Raven's limp form is dragged, face-down by her feet, to the log that has a pair of manacles secured to the top, before being secured to it, by her hands, leaving her dangling limply showing off her broken body.
Though the burning pain coursing through her blots out most of her thoughts, Raven is certain she is dying; her body is crushed, without a bone that has not been broken except perhaps her spine. She is also certain that many of her internal organs have also been ruptured, she can only watch bleary eyed as someone yanks her head up by her hair, seeing Terra's eyes and the madness swirling within them.
"Good, you are still with us, wouldn't want you to miss the big finale. Now I just want to say that you have been loads of fun Rae, even more so than the rest of those idiots, because you take yourself so seriously, nothing is ever out of order near you. And I have to say, I have enjoyed everything I have done to you, and I aim to do it again. I think I will bring your remains with me, so we can be together as I tear this world apart. Anyways, I will see you on the other side my best friend forever." Terra smirks before she lets go, only half her words have penetrated Raven's pained mind. She begins drifting in and out of consciousness rapidly, hearing voices and cries before everything goes completely white and she smells smoke.
"Where am I?" Raven asks as she gets up in the white world, noting she is dressed in her old white leotard and cloak and completely healed.
"Well, technically you are on the threshold between life and death." The voice of a young girl has Raven spin around in surprise, spotting the speaker, a girl about twelve years of age with blond pigtails and blue eye, dressed in a white dress emerge from the white, followed by a freckled ginger head at about twelve years of age in a white T-shirt and pants while clutching a white blanket in one hand and holding the hand of a young boy in a white jumper with the other.
"By Azar… Melvin! Tommy! Teether! Is that really you?!" Raven shouts teary eyed as she rushes the group, scooping them all up in a hug.
"Hi Waven." Tommy says as the trio hug her back as she sinks to her knees.
"But where's Bobby? Isn't he here as well?" Raven asks suddenly.
"Bobby is just part of my imagination silly, but I can make him if you want to." Melvin says and waves someone forward, the huge teddy bear now in shades and patches of white and gray appears as well and smiles at Raven.
"So this is it?" Raven asks as she waves at the bear. "How it all ends?"
"Well yeah, for us it was." Tommy says.
"But it's not for you." Melvin continues. "Big spooky man in a green cloak told us to come here and give you a message before it is too late. You have to overcome the block in your head before it is too late."
"It's already too late, isn't it?" Raven asks.
"Of course not, why else would we take you here?" Melvin asks. "You unconsciously made the block because you were afraid that when your powers came back, they would come back at an unexpected point in time and hurt someone, but you made it too strong."
"But how do I break it?" Raven asks.
"Feel Waven, you feel." Tommy says. "Wemember what Tewwa has done."
"But it's too late, I don't know if I could even survive the beating I just took." Raven counters.
"It is not too late, you'll be fine, you'll big man said, it was repayment for what you did for him." Melvin says. "Now you have to go, before it is too late."
"But… are you ok?" Raven asks as the tears continue to run.
"We are fine, we are here, everything is fine. Now you go make the world better." Melvin says as Bobby vanishes and the trio drifts out of Ravens arms.
"Go kick her butt Waven." Raven sees the trio wave at her as she holds her arms out towards them before she has the sensation of falling though a veil, dropping her into the real world, towards Themyscira far below her and the spectacle unfolding in the arena.
"Ares, I beg you! Don't make me do this!" Diana pleads as her body, under Terra's control, walks slowly towards Raven with a lit torch in hand.
"Athena, stop this madness!" Hippolyta hisses as she advances besides her daughter with a torch as well. Both of them are battling to keep the tears out of their eyes as they move closer.
"What's the matter Wondy? It's not like she is really one of you." Terra mocks as she walks right beside the two. "No, you are strong and proud of yourselves, she is a weakling and hates herself, she hates what she is."
"Now, now Diana, it's not like you haven't killed someone before." Ares chuckles.
"Let me do it painlessly!" Diana shouts as the two reach the pyre.
"No." Ares chuckles.
"Say your goodbyes." Terra says, still sporting the grin.
"It… It was an honor s… sister." Hippolyta manages as she begins to lower her torch.
"Raven… forgive me…" Diana mutters as her torch is also lowered.
Raven has a weird sense of being witness to a series of flashbacks after she crashes back into her body as the torches are slowly lowered. She sees faces and hears voices, of friends and colleagues, living people and dead. They are all snips of memories she has of them, but those that stand out the clearest are those belonging to the Titans who Terra murdered two years ago and that of Richard Grayson. She remembers them all, they way they were, how they met, what their favorite things were. But the dead suddenly turn from the happy smiling faces; to the decayed cadavers Raven had seen in the Watchtower morgue. Richard is no different, first she sees him as Robin, the Boy Wonder, then as Nightwing who evolves into Batman, standing proud and tall before the image is altered to the man she found half-dead in Arkham's shower room. All of these images are halted when Terra suddenly towers over Raven, smirking at her. It is as if her appearance is a switch to Raven, something explodes inside of her, it is white hot and growing, filling her being as she smells smoke and opens her eyes with a drawn out howl.
"Oh goodie, I thought she was already gone." Terra claps her hands together as Raven disappears in the oily smoke, while a howl come from within that turns into a scream.
"What kind of filth are you?" Hippolyta hisses as she is forced to watch.
"The kind that is destined to rule you barbarians." Terra replies. "You can be my royal toilet cleaner." She continues to pat Hippolyta's head as something snaps inside the fire.
"Unhand her Terra!" Terra snaps her head back to the fire right as a black shockwave explodes from within with enough force to make the coliseum walls groan and creak, causing the standing Amazons to fall on their backs, to watch as a figure walks out of the dying flames, wearing only her smoldering undergarments, her red-skinned body showing no signs of the wounds it had seconds ago. Terra, still standing is caught by the hatred coming from the four blazing red eyes staring at her.
"How did you…?!" Terra asks in confusion. "You were beaten!"
"And now I am re-powered. Or did Ares just forget to mention I didn't have access to my powers these last weeks?" Raven says as her armor returns to her, piece by piece and fuses to her body before she enters her final form in time to catch her sword as it flies to her. "Round Two!" Raven snarls before she takes off at a blistering speed towards her target.
Terra's control over the Amazons is broken as Raven smashes into her, and Diana wastes no time in heading directly for Ares. The stadium is rocked by two almost simultaneous crashes, of Ares and Terra being taken through the structure and into the city beyond.
"Move sisters! It's coming down!" Donna shouts as she can see how parts of the stadium is swaying back and forth before she and Cassandra rush to catch a pillar each near the throne that were falling over, saving those beneath them.
"What do you think?" Antiope asks Artemis, knowing what the other woman was thinking as they exit the stadium.
"Ares, Raven can take care of the other one, and it's about time we beat some sense into him." She says before the hunter nods and they run off.
Raven manages to carry Terra through several buildings before she gets them into the air and takes them into the jungle beyond, where she lets Terra tumble through several trees before she comes to a halt in a small clearing.
"Uhh… That all you got? I nearly felt that." Terra groans as she gets back on her feet as Raven flaps down from above. Raven's only response is to open fire with all four of her eyes, bathing the area in red light to the sound of Terra screaming in agony.
"Not quite." Raven says after stopping, leaving Terra to pant on the ground for a moment before she gets back on her feet. "Stay down Terra, it is over."
"Not even close. Come here!" Terra snaps before she runs head first at Raven who remains where she is, thinking that Terra would only harm herself by flinging herself at her. But to Raven's surprise Terra not only doesn't stop on impact, she keeps going, carrying her back through her own path, kicking the trees aside as if they weren't there before throwing Raven to the ground. "You don't get it!" Terra snaps as she brings her foot down on Raven's chest to the sound of a small boom and a tremor in the ground. "He made me a damn juggernaut! I can't be stopped!" She shouts as she raises her foot before bringing it down again, only to have Raven sink into the ground.
"Is that what you think he did?" Raven asks from the shadows while Terra turns around to locate her. "Good. Because you've had this coming!" She says as she suddenly rises out of Terra's own shadow to deliver a ringing upper cut to her jaw, but only gets the other woman to stumble back.
"Still don't get it… You can't beat me!" Terra says as they face each other once more. "Watch and learn!" She continues before launching herself at Raven once more, laying into her with many unskilled blows that does little to hide the actual power behind them and Raven is struggling to properly compensate for it, even the many arts she's learned over the last two years seems to do little to Terra, who just keeps coming. Precise blows that should have killed or crippled her are shrugged off as if they were nothing, and even those that seem to have an effect are quickly regenerated by the looks of it, leaving Raven to teleport behind Terra to get a few seconds of thought. "See…" Terra huffs. "As long as I keep moving, as long as you keep thinking, there's nothing you can do. But for old times sake." She says before the ground breaks apart beneath them and she sends the boulders at Raven, who simply blasts them all out of the air before they reach her.
"That's it." Raven realizes what Terra had just done and why she kept digging at her person and why Ares would agree with such a strategy. "You know, Ares came to me two years ago with the offer you took him up on?" She asks as Terra lunges at her again, this time getting met by a telekinetic wall that keeps her back, even if only temporarily.
"And you spat it back at him!" Terra snaps as she keeps pushing.
"Not exactly." Raven replies as Terra comes through the barrier, only for Raven to teleport again back to where Terra had stood only a moment ago. "He wanted a specific part of me, a part you have been constantly prodding since I came here. Just remember Terra, whatever happens now, is your's and Ares' doing. And what you did to the Titans, my friends, my kids and those I consider family, you will deserve every last bit of it."
"What the hell are you rambling about Rae?" Terra asks as Raven's face contorts and she begins clutching her head and groans as if in pain. Terra wastes no time and charges again and brings Raven to her knee with a heavy blow to the head. "HA!" Terra shouts victoriously as she brings down both of her hands, aiming them at Raven's exposed neck, but is at the last moment blocked by an arm and is pushed back as Raven gets back on her feet.
Terra jumps once more, only to get caught mid-flight by her arms, leaving her dangling off the ground as Raven seems to study her. It is only first then that Terra realizes that Raven looks slightly different, and that there was something in her eyes.
"Ter-ra?" Raven rumbles with an odd voice that seems to be for three people speaking at the same time and without her lips moving. "Suffer!" As her eyes pulse with red light and Terra suddenly realizes which parts of Raven Ares wanted; Rage, Hated and Madness and that they were currently in control of her.
They both hear the far off scream, but neither Diana or Ares pay it any heed as they struggle against each other.
"Haven't my people suffered enough because of you!" Diana snaps as she leads into another blistering combination of kicks, throws and punches that is mostly countered or absorbed by the God of War's unbreakable armor.
"Never!" Ares laughs. "I will never stop coming until you are all dead!"He continues as he lashes out with his axe and forces Diana to back away.
"Why?!" She asks. "It's been thousands of years since we were a threat to you!"
"You are a nation without war, intolerance and injustice! You will always be a threat to me!" Ares hisses before they go at each other again, resulting in another storm of blows being traded between them. Deep in her heart Diana knows it, and she knows she is far from it, but this is a battle she simply cannot win in this fashion. It was a lesson she had learned quickly after donning the Armor of Gods; walking with her gods and enjoying their blessings did not shield her from their wrath or make her their equal, it never did in the past, and it doesn't this day either as Ares strikes her a vicious blow across the temple. "You will always fail Diana." Ares rumbles as regains her sight, finding him leaning over her, resting the edge of his axe against her throat. "Peace will never last." He says as he puts his hand on the edge facing away from her, intending to push it down on her. One of the good things about being an Amazon however, is that there is no shortage of heroes were facing their own Gods is but yet another challenge.
"EEAARG!" Artemis' shout is heard only a split second before her knee crashes into the side of Ares' helmet before she lands on her feet, while he takes a step to the side, leaving enough room for Diana to get out from beneath him.
"Artemis!" Ares rumbles like an erupting volcano as he towers above the two.
"HA!" The red head shouts again as she swings her blade in a mighty arc, meant to take the War Gods head. But as it is countered it is turned into an attempt at a stab at the mail joints under the helmet and again the counter twists it into another attack. But with each of them, Artemis forces Ares back, step by step, until he reaches the tree line.
"Enough!" And just like that Ares turns the fight as he batters his way back into the clearing by sheer force, Artemis can't even block these attacks, only dodge and jump to avoid getting chopped in half by the blows that cleaves the ground and passes through the trees as if they were nothing.
"Not even close!" Diana shouts as she deflects the axe by striking the head, leaving impressions from her knuckles in the steel and saving Artemis from losing a leg. But it leaves her open to the back handed swing that sends her flying back again.
Diana only hears the 'thunk' from the ground before Ares lets loose a scream that seems to blur the world before she gets up to see him sitting on his knees, covering the right side of his helmet with his hands, with what is unmistakably an arrow lodged in his eye.
"Wait." She mutters to Artemis that's about to leap at him, not knowing if they genuinely managed to hurt the War God or if he was playing possum.
"Ahhh!…GRRR!" Ares hisses and groans with clenched teeth as he pulls out the arrow, takes one look at it before throwing it aside, then he looks at them and they realize that he just passed over the threshold of any kind of reason.
"MOVE!" Diana shouts before it erupts.
"RRRRAAAAHHH!" He roars as he launches himself at them like a wild animal, intent on ripping them apart with his bare hands. As the two part Ares heads after Diana and Artemis gets a chance to stop.
"Artemis, we keep him here. Wait for the signal then pull back, no questions." Antiope says behind her, getting a nod from Artemis before the hunter returns to the cover of the trees to find a new point to shoot from as Penelope emerges.
"Did you get lost?" Artemis teases the warrior, though she can see she is now wearing her spiked gloves and arm guards.
"Had to go get my gloves." Penelope grumbles as they head towards Ares who is trying to strangle Diana.
"Hands off!" Artemis shouts as she leaps into the air, doing a somersault in the space between the two combatants, tracing her blade into the gaps between that armor covering Ares' hands and arms. It doesn't pain him or even gets through the mail underneath, but it is enough to loosen his grip for the fraction of a second Diana needs to get free of his grip as Penelope drives her spiked knuckles into the mail under his left arm.
"You have to stay back, he is beyond reason." Diana says to the pair as Ares stumbles back because of Penelope's blow.
"Just the way we knew he always was." Penelope replies as moves forwards to challenge him again with a gesture while Artemis uses the time to explain the plan to Diana. "Come then monster, lets see how you bruise."
Ares lets loose a howl like a stung boar as he charges Penelope, who appears to be almost casually dodging his blows, while trying to make her own count, but all who know her knows she is extremely focused on just staying alive right now. But quickly realizes that she can't truly harm him, she leaps into the air and over Ares, as he charges her once more, and takes his helmet away as he passes under her. Leaving him open to the blow from Diana coming the other way, putting his back on the ground.
"HIYAAAA!" The others have just time enough to look up and see the shape of Io descend from above with a battle hammer raised over her head before she comes crashing down on Ares, striking him squarely on his chest plate resulting in a dramatic effect on the area. Penelope and Artemis are thrown back by the pressure-wave that pushes over several trees while Diana remains rooted thanks to her gifts. Under Ares' body the earth cracks and breaks, resulting in him ending in a small crater. But the most dramatic result is the hammer's effect on his otherwise indestructible armor; where the hammer's head is pushed an inch into it. As Io gets up and surveys the area and the effect of her weapon, she smiles. "Hmm, better than I thought. Uh oh." She says to herself as she notices Ares' boring eyes, making her conduct a quick withdraw to stand behind Diana, while the others get up.
"Impressive." Penelope mutters at the damage as Ares staggers to his feet as well while two small specks blink in the darkened sky above him, the Amazons know what they are and they pull back. The others aren't sure if the noise they hear is Ares speaking or the rumbling thunder from above, but at the same moment of the noise; Diana has struck Ares from the front, while Cassandra and Donna have thundered into his back, causing yet more damage to the surrounding area.
"One, minute!" Cassandra shouts as the wild melee erupts, as Ares flails around himself like a wild animal, striking at everything within reach, leaving the three Amazons few openings and forces them to keep each other out of his grasp, still they all receive blows while lightning begins to play across the clouds in the sky increasingly gaining their own glow.
Across the rooftops of Themyscira, Amazons stand chanting in a language they do not normally speak, with their arms spread out towards the sky, as if welcoming the return of an old friend. On the palace roof stands Philipus, chanting the words Magala taught her, while the old woman herself stands in the square before the palace. As the last syllable leaves the Amazons lips, Diana, Donna and Cassandra feel a tingle across their skins and vacate the fight with Ares immediately.
Ares himself doesn't even have the time to look up as the sky becomes unbearably bright as Philipus unleashes the energies she had collected from her sisters in the guise of a massive bolt of lightning. The effect is as swift as it is devastating, the immediate area is burnt to a crisp in the blink of an eye, the ground melts and the distinct smell of ozone can be detected across the island. And in the middle of it all, Ares looses all his senses in the white hot agony that's wracking his frame before everything goes dark. His last thought is yet another curse aimed at Athena for granting the Amazon mage the knowledge needed to summon her lightning.
"Thought he'd return to Areopagus." Cassandra notes as Io pokes Ares with a stick that singes with the heat still coming off his armor, as he lies motionless in the blackened hole.
"You don't think we actually killed him?" Antiope asks.
"It would take far more than that." Diana replies.
"So… what do we do with him?" Donna continues.
"I am not sure, but I hope my mother has an answer." Diana replies, knowing they couldn't allow him to recuperate here, but on such short notice, they had no prison to keep him in that would hold.
"We could just have his head." Artemis shrugs.
"Or we could get Raven to send him to a place he can't return from." Penelope mentions.
"Ohh… that would be fun, wouldn't it Terra?" The Amazons look up in surprise at the distorted voice coming from the jungle before Raven steps out of it's shadows, the others realize instantly from her appearance that things aren't right, like Terra noticed, Raven's features are slightly distorted, then there's the voice and for those who notices such things, she doesn't move as Raven does. But the most obvious sign of change is that Terra appears to have been fused to the front of Raven's armor, leaving most of her arms and legs sunk completely into Raven's own body.
"Raven." Diana says as her features harden before moving to intercept Raven. "Are you in there Sister?"
"Hmm, maybe." Raven smirks as she stops. "I could save you all a lot of trouble."
"This is an Amazon matter, and it will be handled by us." Diana replies. "Let the rest of you out and you may have your say."
Raven only smirks and leans over Diana before breathing in deeply. "One day Princess, one day." She says as she leans back before seemingly tending her abdominal muscles and ejects Terra from herself before he face changes back into the old shape. "Sorry, they tend to be that way if allowed the time." She says as she changes back into her own skin. "Is everyone ok?"
"Everyone is just fine. For now." Diana replies as she looks down on Terra with hard eyes.
Author's Notes: My apologies for the wait, but life has been a little more hectic than usually around here. And I felt I had to rewrite half of this chapter as I wasn't happy about how it originally turned out. Thank you for waiting and I hope you enjoyed it.
Next Chapter: Amazon Justice.