On the far side of the mountain from the city, where the mountain meets the ocean, the otherwise picturesque beaches of Paradise Island give way to an area littered with rocks and sharp cliffs. One cliff pushes it's way past all the other rocks and rises into the sky, creating a sheer drop into the foaming sea beneath it. Normally the Amazons avoid this place, as it has a sense of dread about it, as if this place had not been blessed with the good fortune of the rest of the island and that something wicked had taken root here.
In the dimming light of this day however, this place is now crowded, with every Amazon able to find a spot having taken a seat on the solid rocks and mountain slope. General Philipus had with the spectator turnout even felt the need to post guards to make sure no one was injured by trying to find seats on more risky ground and marking the perimeter with torches. And now, Queen Hippolyta was finally arriving with her delegation to pass sentence over the being sitting restrained with golden rope at the tip of the cliff, being greeted by cheers from the spectators.
"Are we certain this is a good idea?" Cassandra asks, getting a questioning look from Hippolyta. "I mean, aren't we just giving him what he wants?"
"In a way, but it is on our terms and he will not be a spectator for once." Hippolyta replies.
"And how long do we expect it to last?" The woman known as Clytemnestra, Hippolyta's foremost advisor on legal matters, continues.
"I am uncertain, some may be greater than him some might not be." Raven replies, having received the request from Hippolyta before they spoke about Terra, the only thing that bothered her was what his family felt about all of this, which was a concern amongst all of them.
"It will hold for as long as it will." Hippolyta replies as they halt before Magala and Philipus, who have been waiting for them at the foot of the cliff. "Anything?" Hippolyta asks.
"They are coming, Your Highness." Philipus replies, a little to Hippolyta's surprise that it was her saying it.
"Very well, best not to keep them waiting." Hippolyta replies, knowing that the Olympians enjoyed their spectacles, even if the Amazons weren't impressed by them any more. Philipus and Magala bow to her and stand aside and as expected, as soon as Hippolyta sets her foot on the cliff, a bolt of lightning strikes the path halfway up leaving several people standing where it struck.
After a second of judging the face of Zeus, Hippolyta lowers her head and kneels before the group of Olympians, lead by Zeus himself, accompanied by his wife Queen Hera, along with Athena, Aphrodite, Artemis, Hestia, Demeter, Dike and Nemesis as the deities. From above swoops down three women with feathered wings on their backs and clawed hands and feet and dressed in loose robes. The women's appearance sends a wave of mutterings through the Amazons, for the women are members of the Furies, terrible seekers of retribution against oath-breakers and guardians of Olympus itself.
"Amazons!" Zeus booms with a voice like thunder, echoing the mood Hippolyta could see on his features. "No judgement shall be passed upon an Olympian by mortals!"
Raven doesn't need to be an empath or to look up from her own place on the ground to feel the wave of anger coming from her sisters at the God-Kings words.
"It shall not be passed, not without the consent of Olympus." Athena adds, getting a wave of confusion to pass through the Amazons.
"Present your case and demand for punishment." Dike intones and Hippolyta looks up as she and the others rise.
"Gods, Goddess'. We Amazons have for millennia, ever since our creation, been hounded by the God of War and his schemes! We have suffered! We have failed! We have been punished! And because of him we are less than half the people we once were! It is way past time Ares paid for his crimes against us, do not deny us justice!" Hippolyta shouts for all to hear.
"Whenever it is justice or not is for us to decide." Zeus replies getting Hippolyta to clench her jaw to stop her from saying something she would regret.
"What had the Queen of the Amazons in mind of punishment?" Hera asks after she squeezes her husband's arm to calm him, while neither of them had any deep love for him, Ares was still their son.
"Exile. Exile to a place where he can do us no further harm." Hippolyta replies, Raven quickly has the sense of coming under scrutiny of the deities before they look to one another, clearly having a private conversation between them before they look to Nemesis and Dike. The green armored goddess remains blank to them while Dike looks to her scales that tilt to one side before she shakes her head.
"War is a needed part of the order of the world and of Olympus, indefinite exile is unacceptable." Athena says, conveying the result of their debate before they seem to continue. Leaving Aphrodite free to separate from them and floats down to Hippolyta.
"I understand it is a tall order to ask of you and your people, but I ask you look to your teachings, is there no place in your heart for forgiveness in this matter?" She asks.
"Goddess, you brought us into this world to combat Ares and his influence. We have always been hounded and tormented by him and his machinations. Because of him, we failed you. Because of him, we have lived in isolation for more years than there are stars in the sky at night. We stand on the edge of finally fulfilling the mission we failed, and achieving justice for all the lives lost and ruined because of him. The only pity I have… is that you now bar our path to bring peace to us all." Hippolyta replies.
"It is not that simple Hippolyta." Aphrodite sighs. "As your Raven will know, you cannot simply slay a god… not without a price." Raven gets a few questioning looks from the other Amazons. "Amazons, know this!" Aphrodite says out loud for all to hear. "A god cannot be slain! For a god is an idea buried in the minds of men! There will always be War as long as mankind exists to dream of it! Slay Ares and his executioner will only become Ares!"
"Goddess, we never intended to kill him." Diana adds. "We already knew the consequences of such actions."
"Yet you desire to send him to a place where he may never return from." Aphrodite continues. "Step forwards Raven." She orders and Raven calmly does as asked and stand besides Hippolyta. "Do you deny that this prison may be the end of him?"
"I have left precise instructions that his death is considered unacceptable." Raven replies. "He will remain there until we see fit to release him."
"There is more to this." Aphrodite replies flatly. "Tell us what will come to pass."
"He will be incarcerated, eventually he will break free and will have to be recaptured, he won't go quietly once cornered so a fight will erupt. He will eventually lose and be returned to his cell. Rinse, repeat." Raven replies equally as flat. "There are risks of injury of course. But once his time is up, he will be allowed to return to whatever hole he calls home."
"So, just incarceration?"Aphrodite says, clearly not believing it was all of it, Raven looks to Hippolyta for a moment getting a small nod.
"I never said he wouldn't have to crawl across the threshold of Olympus before he got there, but lets see?" Raven replies as she notices that the Gods seem to have reached some kind of conclusion, probably well aware of their conversation with Aphrodite.
"Amazons! Hear our verdict!" Dike shouts as she floats into the air. "Ares, son of Zeus, son of Hera, God of War has indeed engineered many of the catastrophes that have befallen you! But as the God of War, that is his purpose, his reason for being!" She continues getting the wave of anger to rise in the Amazons, fearing Ares would escape justice. "But captured and bound him you have, and justice is yours to seek! But if you will not slay him for his actions and you will not imprison him here, on this Earth, then Olympus must have a say; his exile will be no longer than 10 years within the prison you aim to send him to! For the Greater Order can bear his absence no more than that."
"And his jailer will be made to swear on the Blade of Nemesis, in the presence of Zeus and the Furies that his imprisonment will last not a moment longer!" Hera adds, her words make the Amazons understand that that judicial system even the Gods respected had turned against them and that they didn't like it, so would instead make sure they had the option of severe sanctions at their disposal.
"And we have another offer to make!" Hippolyta shouts back. "Ares will leave now, free, forgiven and without further repercussions for his vile deeds against us; if he swears upon the Blade of Nemesis, in the presence of Zeus and the Furies that he and his servants never return to our shores again!" The Gods are obviously caught off guard as they all quickly look to Dike and her scales that swing from side to side before stabilizing as balanced.
"The offer is… acceptable." Zeus rumbles, not failing to notice how the Five seems to be quite pleased about it all before he nods at Nemesis, who draws her long blade and floats down to Raven and Hippolyta, followed closely by the Furies.
"Swear your oath Demon." The goddess says in a firm and commanding tone as she points her blade at Raven.
Raven looks at the sword once before looking back up into Nemesis' masked and armored face before she transforms into her final form. "I will swear no oath on your blade or in their presence." She says while keeping Nemesis' gaze fixed with her own, getting some mutterings from the Amazons.
"Careful Raven…" Hippolyta whispers.
"I know what I am doing your Highness." Raven sends back.
"Hubris?" One of the Furies hisses.
"Before Nemesis herself?!" One of the others continues.
"Quiet." Nemesis rumbles to the pair. "You defy us?" She asks Raven.
"Not at all. I will simply not bind myself to anything as grave as yourself and your… pets." This gets an immediate red flash to appear in the eyes of the Furies. "Before I know if I need to or not. For Ares, God of War, has remained silent ever since he woke up ." The Furies hiss in anger at her.
"Hmm." Nemesis hums before she removes her sword. "You play a dangerous game Demon, bending words with Gods, but you are correct to be concerned."
"It is only a danger, Goddess, if one does not fully understand what one is doing." Raven replies calmly.
"She is aggravating." The third Fury mutters.
"Champion, stand down." Hippolyta orders, immediately getting Raven to break off her stare and takes a step back before lowing her head. "Goddess, shall we see what the guilty say?" Hippolyta continues before Nemesis or the Furies can make some kind of remark that would bring further tensions.
"Yes, we must." Nemesis agrees before she turns to follow Hippolyta up the cliff as the Gods float into the air while Dike heads up to Ares, the Goddess of Retribution is in turn followed by the Furies, then Raven along with General Philipus, Diana, Donna, Cassandra and finally Clytemnestra.
"Raven, what was that about?" Donna whispers to Raven as they walk.
"They are only here to intimidate me." Raven whispers back.
"Making enemies of the Furies is not a wise idea." Philipus adds.
"The fear they cause is one of the things they thrive on." Diana adds, having met some of the Furies before and resents them because of the life that was lost because of them. "They need to know if they ever come for us, then we will not cower before them."
"And they need to know that the things we hold dear will be defended should they chose to strike at them rather than at us." Raven finishes as Hippolyta and Nemesis reaches the summit.
"Champions, attend us." Hippolyta calls and Diana and Raven fly up to the small group where Hippollyta gestures for them to get Ares to stand.
"Something is not right, keep going." Raven transmits to her sisters as they have him standing, getting only a slight shift out of Hippolyta.
"What say you God of War? Will you take the offer granted you? Leave this place in peace and never return? Or choose exile beyond the light of the world?" Dike asks, giving no indication that she or any of the others have noticed anything was wrong.
Ares only growls and pulls against his minders. "Anything Raven?" Hippolyta sends.
"Answer us War God, your wounds were not sufficient enough to rob you of your silver tongue." Nemesis growls.
"I cannot sense anything… but this isn't the Lasso of Truth." Raven sends back. "General, quickly, who was the last to be alone with him?"
"Eh, ah… Philipus and Magala, had a few moments after he was secured here." The General sends back as Ares grunts some more and tries to pull away from Nemesis, who draws her blade again and points it at his throat.
"Refusal to answer your superiors is contempt Ares, do not tempt me!" Nemesis hisses but only gets a shaking head and another growl. "Enough!" She continues and raises her free hand in a fist while the Furies appear to smile.
"It's Philipus!" Raven sends, Diana reacts with the speed of lightning and tackles Nemesis to the ground, while Philipus suddenly has Artemis' blade resting against her throat, Antiope's arrow pointing at her back and several other weapons aimed at her.
"What's the meaning of this! Cease this at once!" Zeus bellows at the sudden action.
"She assaults a goddess!" One of the three Furies hisses at Diana that's straddling Nemesis, keeping her arms pinned to the ground. While Raven pulls Ares' helmet from his head, revealing the irate and frightened Philipus underneath it with a broken jaw.
"Stay back you lot!" Hippolyta snaps at the Furies as they almost seem to crawl towards Diana.
"Unhand me Champion, you action was just." Nemesis hisses at Diana after seeing Philipus who is being untied by Raven and Hippolyta.
"My apologies Goddess." Diana replies before she gets off, knowing that Nemesis was well aware of what it would have meant had she struck the Amazon.
"Once again we were nearly deceived." Athena hisses to the other Gods as it also dawns on them what it could have ended up with; Nemesis dead at the hands of the Furies and Ares' machinations and one Amazon condemned to death.
"Do with him as you wish." Zeus rumbles with barely suppressed fury before he and Hera disappears in a bolt of lightning followed shortly by a massive roar of thunder, telling of his fury.
"This I will not forget Furies!" Nemesis hisses at the trio with her blade now pointing at them. "Make no mistake, one misstep is all it takes and you will find out why Retribution is unstoppable and inevitable!" The Furies just smile before they laugh as they take off and disappear into the storm clouds.
"Sister, are you well?" Hippolyta asks as Philipus sits down on the ground after Raven had healed her jaw.
"No… No, I am not." Philipus sighs as she buries her head in her hands. While the Five floats down to confront Ares.
"Well played brother, you have just managed to collectively humiliate Olympus in front of an audience." Athena says as she is allowed to pass through the Amazons. "And change out of that." She orders as Ares still holds Philipus' form.
"Such a pity I couldn't replicate the precious Lasso of Truth." Ares chuckles.
"Deceit of Zeus, contempt of court, attempted deicide. You have made no small amount of new enemies this day." Hestia adds.
"One can never have too many Homemaker." Ares continues. "Where would War be without them?"
"One day, he will be nothing more than a memory." Nemesis rumbles as she, Diana, Hippolyta, Philipus and Raven join them. "Perhaps that day will be here sooner than later."
"Can't get here soon enough." Philipus growls as she is handed over to one of the guards, leaving her to throw a dagger glaze at Ares who just smiles back at her with her own face before she seems to shrink in a way.
"But for now. What is your choice?" Hippolyta asks, as angry as the others but knowing that they still had to do this as offered. Raven however snatches Philipus away from the guard and wrestles her into a headlock, getting another round of confusion to pass through the spectators.
"You really are something, aren't you. Change!" She rumbles into Philipus' ear.
"Again?!" The Goddess Artemis asks realizing Ares had just traded places with Philipus with a look.
"This entertains me, so no." Ares hisses back at Raven.
"Now." Raven orders before she sends a wave of power into him, getting a deep growl of pain out of him as she gets them up, where he manages to break free only to stumble forwards to meet Nemesis' fist that drops him on the ground.
"Stay down." The Goddess growls as she points her blade as his throat as Dike finally joins them.
"Continue your games Ares and your sentence will only be prolonged to appease your father." She says as the others noticing how her scales doesn't seem completely balanced any more, getting another growl out of Ares before he changes into his own armored form.
"Remove his armor, he will not need it." Athena orders and several Amazons immediately begin peeling the dark blue suit off of him, finding a golden rope pressed in under his chest armor.
"Hold on." Raven says and picks it up before Diana can pick it up herself, she rolls it between her fingers for a few seconds before noticing the smoke. "Yeah, it appears to be the one." She says before handing it to Diana, having feared it was another more malicious forgery.
"Stand." Nemesis growls as she hauls the now half-naked Ares to his feet by his neck. "Queen Hippolyta?" She asks and the Queen steps out in front of him.
"You have a choice Ares that will spare you your punishment. Leave this island and never return in any way or form, and you will be forgiven your past atrocities." Hippolyta says with venom in her voice, now more than ever regretting she had made this offer.
"Poor, foolish Amazon, I will endure whatever confinement you have in mind for me. And one day I will return here and see you all screaming, and dying as the tides of war washes you all away." Ares replies with a confident smirk as he leans over her.
"His choice is made." Dike says.
"Champion, prepare for his departure." Hippolyta orders, getting a nod from Raven before she flies up to the cliff to begin, sending a transmission to the Justice League just in case it set off their alarms. "Perhaps you will, one day. But until then, we will do all that we can to defy the likes of you; Enemy of Themyscira." She says to Ares as a black lightning bolt strikes the sea beneath the cliff and the smell of brimstone fills the air and the sea begins to churn.
"You have made another mistake this day Ares." Nemesis hisses in his ear. "Leaving this tiny spec of land would have been for the best." She continues before she and the other guards nudge him to get up the cliff as the ground shakes gently.
"Is that what I think it is?" Artemis the Hunter asks Athena as they follow behind the guards.
"An Infinity Weaver? Yes, it appears the Unmaker managed to catch it." Athena replies as a blast of air.
"What is an Infinity Weaver?" Cassandra asks as she and some of the others follow behind the Gods.
"The best way to explain it is to say it is a personification of an ever expanding universe." Athena replies. "They usually disappear well before a universe is considered lost, but it appears this one wasn't so lucky." She says as a huge rocky head that looks like that of a spider rises over the cliff. "But it appears the Unmaker has re-purposed it into a weapon of war." She says as Hexzakar opens its huge mouth revealing the molten interior and a small group of demons waiting. "This is actually only a tiny fragment of it, bringing it fully into this world would most likely crush the entire solar system."
"You have got to be joking." Ares huffs as he is pushed onto the cliff where Raven waits for him, meaning the group of eight female demons standing within the molten gullet.
"Oh not at all, they were all hand picked for you." Raven replies as she waves them over to her, making them all jump before they kneel before her. "Gundrun, make special note of this day and time. In ten years, exactly, he is to be released back into this world. Am I understood?"
"Yes Ma'am." Gundrun replies without looking up.
"Good, the rest of you remember it as well, and make certain he leaves when the time comes." Raven replies. "Have him secured."
"Aren't you going to introduce me to these charming ladies?" Ares asks with a smug tone as Nemesis and the Amazons step back to lets the red skinned demons get hold of him and starts wrapping him in chains.
"I am sure they will do this themselves, but for your thoughts; Gundrun here once wielded so much influence that her world was damaged beyond repair. Of course my father couldn't let such such talent go to waste as her world died of radiation poisoning. Gundrun, what was your title back then?" Raven explains.
"I was the Goddess of War, Mistress." The demon woman replies. "But now I am but the Commander of the Seventh Division."
"How charming, and I suppose your companions are of similar rank as myself." Ares notes getting only a chuckle from Gundrun.
"We have seen more impressive rhymers than you." She says before she turns to Raven and lowers her eyes after seeing the others finish. "With your permission Mistress."
"You may leave." Raven nods.
"Come then little god, lets see if you are more impressive on the field than what we see." She says as they begin shoving him towards Hexzakar before two of them grab hold of him and leaps into the burning mouth that closes after them and Hexzakar begins to sink back into the sea.
"Goddess. Your oath." Nemesis says as he holds her blade out again towards Raven, but this time with the pommel turned up.
"I swear he will be released in 10 years at the latest." Raven replies before she grabs the blade with her left hand and squeezes till she bleeds. "Your view changed, Goddess." She notes as she seals her wound while her blood seems to be sucked into the blade.
"It appears I owe you Amazons a debt. Had I struck, I would now be dead." She says as she removes her right gauntlet and grabs her own blade. "And should you one day need Retribution, summon me." She says as her own blood leaks onto her blade before she vanishes along with Dike.
"We will be in touch." Aphrodite says before the rest of them depart as well, leaving the Amazons alone. But a voice ring's in Raven's ears alone. "We will be watching."
Early next morning Terra is dragged from her cell and marched to the posts, where it finally seems to dawn on her what was about to happen to her, after her punishment has been read aloud by a scribe reading a piece of rolled up paper for the crowd to hear, getting the expected mutter about it being too little.
"You can't do this to me!" She shouts as three guards shove her into place and secures her. "Raven! Do something! This is inhuman!" She howls, not having failed to see the sorceress waiting for them when they arrived, still fully armed and armored.
"Inhuman? Leveling a city of millions and enslaving an entire island out of a hatred of a single person is inhuman." Raven replies dryly as Terra's blue cape is torn from her shoulders along with the leotard underneath, it hadn't gone them by that with Ares' defeat and exile, Terra's boon appeared to have been withdrawn and she had been returned to her normal skin coloration.
"What the hell is that for?" Terra asks as a guard appears in front of her with a wooden stick in her hand.
"Bite down and you might keep your teeth." The woman replies, Terra just looks even more shocked before the wood is shoved into her mouth, instinctively Terra bites down while her breathing becomes more labored and frantic. "She is prepared." The guard announces as she walks away. "Champion, would you care to count?" Behind Terra's back, Raven nods.
"One." Raven counts before the whip, wielded by one of the former Royal Guards, cracks and the piece of wood in Terra's mouth is spat out as she screams in pain. "Two…"
It takes over a quarter of an hour to complete Terra's punishment, Raven keeps counting at a set pace and the whip falls like clockwork afterwards, only stopping twice where Raven goes to make sure Terra was not about to die on them and twice to rouse her from unconsciousness. Terra, screams, begs and cries till the 32th strike where she resorts to weeping broken by the cries of pain that lasts until the end.
"She will live." Raven confirms after inspecting Terra's ruined back, now crisscrossed with red, bleeding wounds that's she has no intention of healing any more. The woman is still crying, while lying on her stomach on the ground after being released.
"Get her back to her cell." The captain in charge of Terra's guards grumbles after receiving the confirmation, and Terra sobs as she is dragged away by her elbows accompanied by the foul mouthed shouting from ill-pleased crowd, that didn't know the full extent of Hippolyta's judgement, yet.
Authors Notes: Had to rewrite most of this because of the changes to the previous chapter. Thank you for your patience; read, enjoy and review :)
Next Chapter: A demonstration.