Wonder Woman#24: "III: Day of Reckoning"

The Underworld was strange place to descend into. Gravity seemed to shift, a weight was lifted from the travellers’ physical bodies as they climbed down the craggy steps that lead deeper and deeper into the depths of Tartarus. The Phantom Stranger led, his hand glowing and guiding them down the winding way, whilst Wonder Woman was behind him, her senses heightened by the eerie silence that whispered from beneath them. Her lasso, gripped tightly in her right hand, granted her comfort, even if the winds that howled upwards on occasion caused her spine to shiver. But it wasn’t just the winds. It was the voices. The Phantom Stranger had warned her not to listen to the temptations.

“…We suffer, Wonder Woman…”

“…Help us…”

“…Save us…”

She blocked out the voices. She would not be deceived by the wraiths of the underworld, not when so much was at stake. Her mind cleared as she gripped the lasso. She knew that she would not, could not, be tricked by the falsehoods whispered.

“…Your mother misses you, Diana…”

“Ignore them, Wonder Woman,” nodded the Phantom Stranger. “They glean information from our selves, whisper things we want to hear, or things that will make us suffer.”

Diana nodded in acknowledgement, trying not to show emotion. Even if she knew that the Underworld was full of tricksters, it still… hurt. The words were sharp, like weapons. “How much farther?” she replied, changing the subject.

“Time is subjective now, Wonder Woman. We could have been down here for days, minutes, or hours. We press on for however long we must press on.”

They continued to climb down the labyrinthine passages, howls breaking the silence at times, but Wonder Woman held firm, her grip tight around her lasso. The golden power focused her, solidified her resolve.

“Help.”

“Did you hear that?” Wonder Woman spun around, ready for anything. It wasn’t like the shades’ voices. She could not ignore a cry for help, not down here. Not when her mission was one of rescue. “This way, Stranger--”

The Phantom Stranger nodded, and they came across a long passage, torch light glistening across the rocky alcoves leading toward a large door. Wonder Woman pushed open the massive doors, and was shocked by the sight that met her. “Gods.”

“Diana… Wonder Woman…” Persephone was chained by her ankle in a dark dank room, more dungeon than anything else. “Hades…”

“We know, Regal Persephone, but are you alright?” Wonder Woman grabbed the large chain, each link bigger than her fist, and pulled it free of it’s moorings in the wall. It came loose with an almighty crack, and the Phantom Stranger pulled the goddess up from the ground.

“I have you.” The Phantom Stranger steadied the dishevelled Goddess, who thanked him with a nod, but the Queen of the Underworld did not turn her gaze away from Wonder Woman.

“It’s not Hades, Diana, it’s not him.”

Diana nodded slowly in understanding. “I thought so. Do you know who it is?”

“I do not know, Diana, her voice… She is evil, purest evil, and she smears my husband's name…” Persephone sobbed, emotion overcoming her. “He wasn’t an evil man, Diana, he was, if anything, too human to be a god. He lusted for power and he was punished for his crimes… Hades can never return to this realm, the Eumenides made sure of that…”

“Stranger, take Persephone to her mother.”

“Diana, I cannot leave you here,” the Stranger’s voice echoed out into the hallways.

“You can do much more if you take Persephone away from this place. Get her to safety and I will continue forward.” Diana smiled, and placed her hand on the Phantom Stranger’s shoulder. “Go, please.”

The Phantom Stranger stared deep in the eyes of Wonder Woman for a good long time. He read deep inside her. He thought through every scenario. “I’m not going to dissuade you from this course of action, am I?”

“No, Stranger, you are not.”

“Good luck.” He turned, his cape swirling behind him, Persephone hoisted in his arms, and then ascended upwards. Diana, meanwhile, her grip on her lasso as tight as ever, descended into the pit.

She placed the puzzle pieces this day had thrown at her on the table in her head. Hades was not Hades. She had her suspicions, and had voiced them to Athena and Apollo. Someone with the power to possess Bruce. To animate the dead. Or to conjure the appearance of animating the dead… It was a mess of ideas and concepts, all so varied and far apart that she could not yet figure out what was going on. But she would find the truth…

…Tartarus looked different from her last experiences there. Where hallowed halls of rock once stood, debris was strewn everywhere. Doors were dented, walls in disrepair. Someone was not taking care of the realm of the dead. She continued onward, passing through corridors of stone, until she came across a room that held a strange white portrait across the other side of the chamber, the far wall covered in this perfect white rectangle.

She looked at it, her blue eyes moving over the strange object, examining every square inch of it. It was taller than her, nearly touching the ceiling, and three times as wide. She placed her hand upon it, and felt the canvas give a little. There was a tingle of electricity against her skin, and she withdrew her hand cautiously. “Strange…” She was about to turn to leave, when she heard something. Her heightened senses perked up, she listened intently, and then swore she could here some cursing at her. She looked at the rectangle of material once again, and felt the frame with her fingers. “Hello?” Nothing. She heard no reply. She then removed her tiara, and began to tear at the edges of the portrait, peeling back the canvas and revealing what was behind it. “Oh.”

“Wonder Woman?” Ares looked up from where he sat crossed legged, behind him, his armour piled up high. Behind the canvas was a tiny room, barely two metres by two metres, and Ares leapt up and pulled his sword from its hilt. “How dare you--”

“Lower your weapon, Ares,” replied Wonder Woman slowly, “it was not me who placed you here, wherever here is…”

“Then who?” Ares held his sword at her throat, his red eyes crackling with power. “Who dares entrap the King of the Dead and Lord of War?”

“I do not know, Ares, but if you lower your weapon I won’t have to waste time with you before finding out.”

Ares didn’t waver. Neither did Diana. They stared at each other, measuring each other up, and Diana was not going to sit down and let Ares intimidate her. “Lower your sword.”

Ares smiled. He flipped the sword so he was holding the blade and the handle was pointed at Diana. “So brave, Amazon.” He sheaved his weapon. “So, have you brought an army? Your pantheon of little heroes?”

“I am here alone, Ares. You can leave now too, if you so wish.” She teased him with a smile. “I will not think any less of you…”

Ares smiled again. “And forgo my revenge?” He closed his eyes, and his armour formed around his body. “I think not.”

Wonder Woman walked in front of Ares. He would not stab her in the back. His twisted honour would prevent that. He was at her flank, and when they came to the large golden doors that lead to the main hall of this realm of the dead, he placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to instinctively grab it and spin around. “Never touch me, Ares.”

“Respect your betters, Amazon. Still a bit touchy after that debacle all those months ago? I do hope you don’t hold it against me. You know how it is, I try and kill you, you save the day with a smile and a parable. But I didn’t want to open old wounds. That’ll be for after this is done. I want you to have this--” He placed his hand behind his back, behind his cape, and withdrew a large battle axe. “--We have no idea what is to be expected beyond those doors. I do not think it wise that you go in without any weapons.”

“I do not need weapons, Ares,” Diana pushed the weapon to the God of War’s chest. “That is your power, and you should use it” She placed her hand on the cold golden gates before her. “Beyond this door is your throne room?”

“Yes indeed, Amazon.” Ares stepped forward. “If you would allow me the honours?”

Diana stepped back, “Please do.”

“Whoever you are, you’re sitting on my throne!” Ares pointed his sword accusingly at the throne, his red eyes visibly throbbing between the slits in his helmet.

“Oh, the godling has escaped. What a shame. I wanted to hold off on killing you until I was done here, but I suppose your head on a pike above the Firepits will suffice.”

Diana’s eyes opened wide. “Hera preserve us. I thought you were dead…”

“Isn’t that the whole point of this exercise? Death means nothing to gods like me. Hmm. I assume that masquerading as your poor death-god has done its work, there is no longer any reason for me to wear that façade.” Granny Goodness rose out of the throne she had been sitting comfortably in, and the hordes of Parademons all around her snarled and snapped at the two newcomers. “Wonder Woman, face to face at last.”

“What is going on here, New God?” Wonder Woman stood tall and defiant, Ares was raring to fight, the dozens of Parademons prime targets for his blade. “Why are you here? Why have you moved against the pantheon I worship?”

“Power,” Granny took a step forward, the hordes of Parademons parting as she approached the newcomers, “is something I enjoy holding in the palm of my hand. Your ‘gods’, as they claim to be, squander their power.” She pointed at Ares. “You travel the world and spark little quarrels for land. Is that how a God should act? I don’t think so.”

Ares turned to Wonder Woman and shrugged. “I was bored.”

“For all their power, they’ve allowed themselves to stagnate in this world, and well, I couldn’t have that, could I?” Granny smiled. Ares scowled beneath his helmet, and Diana listened. Her heartbeat didn’t increase, she didn’t tense up. She listened. “So I came to this world, and I…” Granny paused, and looked at Ares, whose sword was now pointed at her jugular. “Am I boring you?”

“You’re very generous with this exposition, you ugly sow, but I would rather you shut up and left my realm. Before I cut your throat out from your neck and fed it to my guard dog.” Ares’ head tilted to the side. “Three heads are hard to feed.”

Granny pouted, “You rude little boy. You need to be taught manners.”

“And you--” Granny grabbed Ares’ sword, her hand bleeding at the sharpness of the blade, and yanked the God of War forward, headbutting him and then throwing him to the Parademons. He screamed in defiance as he was overwhelmed, his weapon slashing and tearing at the flesh of his attackers, but he was overwhelmed, Parademons swarming all over him, every one slain replaced by two more.

She slowly turned back to Wonder Woman. “Now, where was I with my education?"

“You came to Earth. Even after your defeat at the hands of a mere mortal when you last stood upon this world, you came back*”

{*Editors Note*: Granny Goodness was sent into a Doom Tube in the pages of Suicide Squad #7 by none other than Amanda Waller and Knockout! Check it out!}

“Your world is full of these false gods, Wonder Woman. It seems that the best thing to do was to come to this world and show it the error of its ways. Granny’s way is the best way, and if I have to prove that with the rod and the whip, I will…”

“If you try, New God, I will fight your rod and your whip tooth and nail, and I can promise you that you will not win that war. I think it best if you leave. Right. Now.”

“Heha. Funny. You make me laugh, Amazon.”

“Tell me, how did you bring Judson Caspian back to life? How did you control the Batman?”

“Oh, sleight of hand, dear child. If you pull a soul from the void, one clinging to any hope that it can still live even after it’s been torn from it’s mortal shell, then you can easily do so. I have seen wonders in my time and seeing the dead pulled to and from the mortal coil is just one of many wonders. It was a shame you had to convince him he had to be dead… He could have been very useful in the coming war…”

“There will be no war,” stated Diana simply.

Granny moved faster than anything Wonder Woman had ever faced before; her hand was around the Amazon’s neck before she could react. “War has already begun, Wonder Woman, and you can do nothing to stop it. Whatever balance was struck between life and death in this world has been tip, and the walls that divide the living and the dead are about to burst open. Your world will be in ruins, and New Apokolips will rise up from the ashes!!”

Her hand opened up, and Wonder Woman fell to the cold ground below. Diana’s neck was on fire with pain, the New God’s grip tighter than anything she had experienced before. “Then… I will stop you.” She rose up from the ground. “I will stop you, right here.”

Granny’s laugh bellowed out into the cavernous corridors of the underworld. “You? YOU? Ha! You make me laugh, Wonder Woman. You would have made a fine Female Fury if all that spirit had been torn from you. A fine Fury indeed. Shame!” She swatted Wonder Woman aside once more, the Amazon’s body crumpling over on impact with the wall of the throne room. Ares was still battling the thinning hordes of the Parademons. Diana took a breath. Then she stood. “This place is a curious one to be residing inside, Wonder Woman. I can feel the power here, untapped by that simpleton ‘god’.” Granny Goodness circled Diana, who was staring her straight in the eye. “Your senses here, they… grow.” She sniffed the air, large nostrils taking in the scent of the Underworld. “And I am aware that I am still a god, and you are nothing of the sort..” Granny smiled. “If you swear allegiance to me, as you rightly should, child, then I will not kill you.”

Wonder Woman shook her head slowly. “You know full and well I would never swear allegiance to one such as you.”

“Yet you would throw away your life for your Olympians! With their petty squabbles and feuds! What is the difference there, Diana? Honestly, tell me!”

“I do night fight for them, New God. I fight for the truth.”

Granny backhanded Diana across the throne room, into the swarming hordes of Parademons. It was a worthy distraction for the Amazon, who needed to catch her breath after that confrontation with the New God. Ares was fighting, laughing, slashing and tearing at the monsters in his midst. This was his element. His true element. War. “Enjoying yourself, Diana?”

Wonder Woman didn’t reply. This wasn’t the time for idle chatter. A word said is a breath wasted, and so she punched and she kicked, and in what could have been hours, Ares and Wonder Woman, side by side.

“I’m going to enjoy gutting you, New God,” Ares snarled, wiping down his blood stained axe with his cape. “So. Much.”

“Not today.” Granny brought a cylindrical device up from her belt, and clicked a button on the top of the object. Ares roared, and sprinted forward toward the New God, and then, in an explosion of black and white light, he was engulfed in a cylinder that suddenly snapped out of existence, leaving Diana and Goodness alone, in the dark. His axe rattled to the floor, and Diana looked at it for a moment, before looking back up at the New God.

“Where did you send him?!”

“Away. Out of our hair.”

“Leave this place now, New God. Leave this place and never come back. I have been patient, but my patience is wearing thin.”

“Make me.” Granny leaned over, and picked up Ares’ battle axe. “Perfectly balanced. They don’t make these on Apokolips.” Without a scream or cry, she dove for Wonder Woman, the axe singing--