Chapter 17:

– Titus –

"How the hell did things spiral so quickly?" I rubbed my hand through my hair, trying to keep it together. Everything went to shit real fast...

Power Girl floated over, and hugged me. "I told you, Titus. There's something seriously wrong with some universes. It's like some cosmic force just wants them to spiral to destruction. Everything might've seemed fine—maybe Superman and Batman could've worked things out—but then all this happened." She hesitated for a second, glancing at me nervously before finishing. "And now there's no way they'll ever fix things. Especially now that we found out Jonathan Kent is dead..."

I let out a heavy sigh. "I only knew Jonathan for a few hours, but he was a good guy. He didn't deserve to die."

"Um… what should we do now?" The voice came from the little boy nearby. Billy—Shazam, technically—had powered down as soon as we landed on this random island somewhere off the coast of Greece. He was just a ten-year-old kid again.

Power Girl glanced at her phone—some kind of Kryptonian tech that was supposedly untraceable. It was how we'd been keeping up with everything for the last few hours.

Superman had addressed the world–again, this time calling himself its "supreme ruler."

He wasn't alone. Wonder Woman and the rest of the Regime stood behind him stoically.

Batman and his allies were all declared terrorists. And that's not all. Superman wanted Shazam brought in as a traitor to the regime and had declared him a terrorist as well.

Billy didn't take the news well.

"He was my hero…" Billy said quietly, staring at the ground. "I was just trying to stop Wonder Woman. She was killing Nightwing. And none of that even mattered, 'cause…" He swallowed hard. "They said Nightwing's already dead…"

Yeah, none of us were expecting that to have happened. Wonder Woman had calmed down a lot when we left the Watchtower, I didn't think they would have just killed off Nightwing like that. That for sure meant that we weren't going to turn over a ten-year-old to them for torture or worse.

For now, Billy stayed powered down. No one except Batman's allies—and us—knew Shazam was just a kid.

"Should we try to lay low in Themyscira for a few days?" Raven spoke up. She'd been sitting cross-legged, her hands glowing faintly with her magic as she hovered slightly above the sand. "It might be our safest bet. They'll take in me and Power Girl since we're women, but I don't know about Titus or Billy."

"They'll have to let me stay," I said, shrugging. "I've got the blood of the gods. Sure, it's from a different dimension, but it still counts. As for Billy…"

I turned to look at him, and a grin spread across my face. I didn't even say anything yet, but he backed up a few steps, as if sensing my thoughts.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked, his voice suspicious. "Stop it. Seriously."

I turned to Raven with my idea…

…

"I hate you all so much…" Billy grumbled.

Or maybe I should say—Billina.

Raven had used her magic to put an illusion on him—nothing too extreme, just enough to make him look like a little girl. She'd also transformed his clothes into this plain, flowy dress that made him look, well, harmless.

I tried not to laugh too hard. It didn't work.

Power Girl didn't even bother hiding hers. "Hahahaha! You look so adorable, Billina!"

Billina shot us both a glare. "You know I can still turn into Shazam, right? I'll zap both of you."

"Not in a dress, you won't," Power Girl said, smirking.

"Don't you mean… Shazima?" I snickered.

"This is humiliating," he muttered, kicking at the sand. "You guys stink."

"Quit whining," Raven said. "It's only temporary. Unless you'd prefer to get captured and over to Superman…"

"No…" Billina mumbled.

…

We touched down right in front of Themyscira's palace.

Billy—sorry pfft, Billina—was still pouting, stuck in Power Girl's arms in a full-on princess carry. His face was bright red.

"Put me down already!" Billy snapped, kicking his legs uselessly. "I can walk, you know!"

Power Girl grinned and ignored him. "Nope. You're my cute little sidekick for now."

"I hate this," Billy muttered. "I hate all of you."

Before I could even roll my eyes at that, we ran into the welcoming committee. A dozen female Amazon guards appeared out of nowhere, their spears pointed directly at us. Their expressions were pure hostility—especially toward me. The leader of the guards stepped forward. "State your business, outsiders. Especially you."

"I am Titus, grandson of Zeus! I demand to see the Queen!"

The moment I said it, the guards froze. It was like I'd flipped a switch. They exchanged glances, then, one by one, dropped to their knees. The lead guard gave me a stiff nod and stood back up. "Follow me," she said, her voice way more respectful than before.

I smirked. "That's more like it."

Power Girl elbowed me as we walked. "Try not to let it go to your head, Your Majesty."

"Heh, just wait till you see how they treat me back on my own Earth," I bragged.

Raven hovered close to Billina as they followed.

It didn't take long to reach the throne room. The guards opened the massive doors, and I stepped inside first, expecting to see Hippolyta—the Queen of the Amazons. Instead, I stopped dead in my tracks.

Sitting on the throne wasn't Hippolyta at all. It was someone else. Someone I knew.

"Is this what they call déjà vu?" I asked myself out loud, my voice echoing through the throne room.

It was Hera. The goddess of marriage, queen of Olympus. She looked exactly the same, but there was something different about her here. I could feel it. The power coming off her was intense. In my world, Hera had lost most of her power when the gods were tricked. But here? She was whole.

…Not stronger than me, though.

"You… I can sense the blood of Zeus in you, but I can also tell you're not from here. What are you doing here, traveler?" Hera's voice was calm, but her golden eyes locked on me with an intensity that made it clear she didn't miss a thing.

"I wasn't planning on coming to this Earth," I admitted. "One of my enemies sent me here without me knowing." I stood tall and looked her right in the eye. "My name is Titus, son of Diana of Themyscira, prince of the Amazons on my Earth." I paused, glancing around the throne room. "I was looking for Hippolyta. Where is she?"

Hera's expression didn't change, but I caught the faintest flicker of disapproval in her tone. "She is currently in the dungeons where she belongs. Her daughter sent her a message earlier, and the Queen was willing to send out the armies of Themyscira into Man's World in order to support the regime of Superman. We gods do not support this unnatural new world order, of course, so I came down here to stop it. Poseidon has traveled to Atlantis to deal with the traitorous Aquaman."

"Well… that's something," Power Girl said, raising an eyebrow at me.

Hera's gaze shifted to my companions, studying each of them in turn. "Interesting… the cousin of Superman and the daughter of… that being… accompany you?" Her eyes narrowed slightly before landing on Billina. Her brow furrowed, and for the first time, she looked genuinely baffled. "What are you wearing, child!?" she asked.

Billina growled, pointing an accusing finger at me and Power Girl, who were failing miserably at holding back our laughter. "They made me dress like a girl because they said boys weren't allowed on Themyscira!"

Hera's regal demeanor cracked. She brought a hand to her face in a very un-goddess-like gesture of exasperation. "Child… you are the champion of the gods. You are blessed with all of our powers. Of course, you would be allowed on Themyscira regardless of your gender!"

Billina's glare at us could've melted steel.

I held up my hands, grinning playfully. "To be fair, none of us knew that."

Hera snapped her fingers, and the illusion Raven had placed over Billy vanished. His clothes shifted back to normal, and the dress was gone.

"Well… your group is amusing, if nothing else," Hera said dryly before straightening. Her regal presence returned, and her tone became more serious. "But let's move on to why you are here."

Power Girl stepped forward. "We need a place to lie low while we figure out what to do next. Things are… complicated out there."

Raven added, her voice calm but tinged with urgency, "I also need some time to lock onto Titus's dimensional coordinates. If I can figure it out, I should be able to send him back to his Earth."

I blinked, surprised. "You can do that?" I asked. "I didn't think you were capable of that kind of magic."

Raven's cheeks flushed slightly. "I… absorbed some of your… essence," she said, looking away. "I've been studying it in order to lock onto your dimensional signature."

Power Girl immediately wiggled her eyebrows at me, a grin spreading across her face. "Hope you didn't get Raven pregnant if she's absorbed some of your essence."

Raven's blush deepened, and Billy—back to his normal self—looked thoroughly confused.

From the throne, Hera let out a long, exasperated sigh. Her golden eyes glowed faintly as she declared, "This woman is not pregnant with your child."

I let out a relieved breath I hadn't realized I was holding. I'm not ready to be a dad! Hopefully, that's years away. Many, many years!

Hera continued. "You are free to stay on the island for now, but know this, the Kryptonian will not be pleased when he learns the gods have sabotaged BOTH of his potential armies from joining his cause. I expect there will be a confrontation soon." With that, she clapped her hands, and a pair of Amazon soldiers stepped forward. "Prepare rooms for our guests," Hera ordered. As the amazons moved to carry out her command, Hera turned her attention back to me. "You will follow me." She rose from her throne. Without waiting for a response, she began walking toward a pair of doors that led to one of the palace balconies.

I glanced at the others, shrugged, and followed her.

On the balcony overlooking the island of Themyscira, Hera spoke to me. "You have a lot of divine power flowing through you," she said, pointing at me. "But it doesn't feel very active. Why hasn't anyone taught you to use your divine powers? If your mother is the same type of musclehead in your world that she is here, then I'm obviously not surprised she can't teach you. But what about the gods in your world?"

I shrugged. "There's no one to really teach me."

Hera frowned. "Elaborate," she said firmly.

I sighed and started explaining. "The Zeus in my world told me about it. The New Gods and the 'Highfather' of New Genesis… they're not to be trusted. He planned to create a warrior… a champion of the light by combining the powers of gods from across the cosmos. But all he really did was use that ritual to steal power from all of the gods instead. The only reason he didn't kill them all afterward was because the stolen power would disappear if they died. The Olympian gods, and probably a lot of others, were left with only one percent of their original powers."

Hera's expression darkened. "That is… disturbing. I believe that the Highfather actually contacted Zeus in the past few years about this very idea, but it had to be delayed due to reasons I am now very thankful for," she said. "You have done us a great service by relaying this information, and I hope my counterpart in your world gets her powers back."

"Er… about that," I said, scratching the back of my head. "She kind of tried to kill me the first time we met. According to Zeus, all the stress of everything just got to her, and she pretty much snapped. She's actually in the dungeons right below us in my world."

Hera looked at me, her mouth slightly open in surprise. "Huh…" she finally said. "That is certainly ironic, I suppose. Well, I hope she takes the time to recover, then. We gods cannot get physically sick, but mental illnesses have been the downfall of many ancient beings." She paused, then waved her hand. "We're getting off topic. Since no one in your dimension can teach you to use your divine powers, I shall take it upon myself to teach you. Think of it as repayment for the warning you just gave us. And, we might be in need of your assistance in the fight to come against Superman."

That got my attention. "What about him?" I asked.

Hera's eyes narrowed. "He has gained the accursed power of one of those 'fear rings,' making him twice, possibly even three times more dangerous than he was before. Especially since he will now be immune to kryptonite as long as he is protected by the power of fear."

I didn't particularly want to have to fight Superman since this wasn't my world, and I pointed that out to Hera.

"You will not have a choice," Hera said simply. "Tell me, are you friends with the champion of the gods? The young child, Billy Batson?"

I nodded. "Yeah, he's a good kid, and it's been fun hanging out with him."

Hera nodded as well. "If you are friends with him, then I'd like to let you know that the Fates were absolutely baffled a few hours ago when the boy didn't die."

"What?" I blurted out. "Why would he have died?"

"He was supposed to be killed by Superman after defying him… or at least that's what the Fates told me. Instead, they were shocked when an 'interloper' that somehow doesn't have any threads of fate on him at all was able to alter the course of young Billy's destiny… for now, at least."

I felt like I knew where this was going. "Let me guess, you're going to tell me that fate isn't so easy to escape or something along those lines?" I asked her.

Hera nodded, a small smirk on her face. "You certainly are a clever one. That is correct. While Billy Batson escaped his current fate… it is only temporary. He is still destined to die at the hands of Superman. No matter what, the boy is eventually going to confront the Man of Steel."

I grimaced, not liking the sound of that. I was hoping that Billy would simply followed me back to my own world with Raven and Power Girl but now that I knew he was kind of a stubborn little shit, that wasn't going to happen.

– Hera –

"Fine," Titus told Hera, and she couldn't help but smirk.

She had given him a tiny white lie with her statement, partially laced with the truth as well. It was true that the Fates had said Billy Batson was supposed to die, but it wasn't true that he was still destined to. The Fates were baffled, in fact, that anyone Titus seemed to interact with for a prolonged period of time had their strings severed. Unfortunately, some people had much stronger and more stubborn strings than others, which had led the world to its current predicament—an alien god now ruling all humans through a regime of fear and terror.

"Excellent," Hera told Titus. "Who knows how much time we have, so why don't we start our lesson immediately?"

"Ok, that's fine with me. What should we—"

BOOM!

Titus was cut off when Hera pointed her palm at him and blasted him with a beam of pure golden energy. The force of the blast was so strong that it sent him flying clear out of the royal Amazon city. He ended up crashing into the plains, skidding to a halt in a cloud of dirt and grass.

Titus was covered in dirt and scowling at her when she teleported next to where he landed. But Hera was impressed. He didn't look harmed at all despite her just hitting him with half of her full power.

This handsome young warrior was going to be a monster. She was honestly kind of glad he wouldn't be sticking around once the daughter of Trigon figured out how to send him back to his Earth. At least he was a monster that was on their side for now, though.

"The first lesson will be learning to call upon the divine power inside you instantly and at will, like I just demonstrated," she said calmly but firmly. "As you saw, it can pack quite the punch, and there are many evil beings in existence that will cower when faced with the purifying powers of a god..."

XXX

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Link:

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Here is the list of Current Advanced Chapters:

The Fallen Gamer ch 308-312

The Titan 19

The Fox Hole 37

The Fox Hole 36

The Blood Queen 25

The Blood Queen 24

The Titan 18

The Fox Hole 35

The Fox Hole 34

The Blood Queen 23

The Fox Hole 33