Once they sensed the anomaly, all interest in "enjoying themselves" evaporated.
Following the blood connection, they quickly located the source: a tall, powerfully built young man whose sculpted physique could have been carved from marble—clear-eyed, gentle in manner. When the two women found him, he was walking back from the sea with a group of ordinary fishermen, hauling in the day's catch.
He was a demigod. Son of Zeus and Hippolyta. Diana's full-blooded younger brother. He was also a fisherman—one who had been fishing for thousands of years.
His name was Jason. Paradise Island forbade the presence of men, so he'd been taken away at birth and raised elsewhere, right up to the present day.
Demigod vitality kept him young. Privately, Thea thought his mental development hadn't even kept pace with his millennia of life—pathetic was the word that came to mind—but she held her tongue for Diana's sake.
The two women observed from concealment for three days. No tearful reunion materialized. Diana wasn't starved for affection, and growing up in the Greek Pantheon's sprawling family had taught her one clear lesson: sibling bonds among gods ran ice-cold. Genuine warmth was the exception, not the rule.
She was no longer the wide-eyed newcomer who'd first left the island. Years spent alongside Thea, Batman, and the rest had sharpened her instincts. Her first reaction wasn't emotion—it was suspicion. This had all the hallmarks of a trap designed specifically for her. Especially when she watched Jason beam with childlike joy over a good day's catch. Thousands of years alive, and he was still this guileless? Even stones would have gained sentience by now. Could anyone really be this naive?
Thea agreed that something was off. But she wasn't worried. The list of beings with both the capability and the motive was short, and the prime suspect—the one with the clearest connection to Diana—was obvious.
In the end, the fearless Thea was dragged out of hiding by Diana, and they tailed Jason's fishing boat on a midnight run. That's right—he didn't have a fishing permit, so he could only operate in secret.
"Why can't he use his powers? There's no way he's gone this many years without learning at least the basics." Diana was baffled. Then she noticed the peculiar expression on Thea's face. "You know, don't you? Tell me!"
Thea frowned. Facing Diana's unyielding stare, she had no choice but to answer. "Your brother carries heavy traces of temporal manipulation. Someone's been running long-term mind control on him. His memory is probably wiped every few decades, and he starts over from scratch."
"Who would be that cruel?!" Diana's teeth ground together.
Before Thea could elaborate, a massive vortex materialized above Jason's head.
It spiraled slowly, in no hurry, hovering directly over the young fisherman. The poor fool assumed he'd stumbled into some kind of natural disaster and fainted on the spot. The vortex didn't dissipate. It held position, rotating at a steady pace.
"Looks like an invitation. Shall we go in?" Diana might dominate their private sparring sessions—a matter of personality, plus Thea deliberately holding back—but in situations that actually mattered, she deferred to Thea's judgment.
Thea gave the vortex a languid glance. Her gaze pierced through layer after layer of barriers. She sighed. Pretending she hadn't seen it wasn't an option. The other party's intentions were murky, but a face-to-face meeting was inevitable sooner or later.
She nodded. Hand in hand, they stepped into the vortex.
A simple transport corridor—no threat to either of them. They crossed the boundary with effortless strides and emerged into a paradise of birdsong, blossoming flowers, and absolute serenity. Everything about this place declared that they had entered another world entirely.
"Is this the Sphere of the Gods?"
"Yes. The way Hell corresponds to Heaven, Apokolips to New Genesis, the Nightmare to the Dreaming—this is Skyland, the counterpart to the Underworld. The final resting place of the Old Gods who linger in slumber."
Thea despised this place. It clashed with her nature on a fundamental level. Every being here had used one trick or another to cling to existence beyond death's reach. One side stood for transcendence; the other for annihilation. The conflict between them was nearly irreconcilable. Several powerful auras stirred beneath the surface, and she knew that without some gesture of restraint, she'd be swarmed. Even if she could annihilate every last one of them, doing so would be pointless.
She cleared her throat. "Go back to sleep, everyone. I'm just passing through."
She oriented herself and headed northwest with Diana.
"Hmph. Quite the attitude..." Thea was already irritated. The fact that their host was still perched on his throne inside his temple, waiting for them to come to him, only made it worse. If she felt like it, she could unmake this entire realm with a single thought.
Diana squeezed her hand. Ancient Greek sculptures and colonnaded temples lined the path ahead. She knew exactly where they were—and exactly who was waiting.
"Just one meeting. Then we leave. Okay?" Her voice was softer than usual. A rare plea.
Thea couldn't refuse that. She sighed and followed.
Their host, at least, had the sense not to push her too far. Sensing her displeasure, he'd already stepped outside the temple to greet them.
Tall. Powerfully built. Bare-chested, a thick beard framing a face crowned with gold. His eyes held the surging fury of caged lightning. This was Zeus, King of the Greek Pantheon.
"My apologies. My body has grown too frail to venture far from the temple. If I've given offense, I ask your forgiveness." His tone was measured—neither servile nor proud.
Thea's internal response was a dry sure. Too frail to leave the temple? Then who had orchestrated everything on Earth? The God-King's prophecy. Diana's Blessings of the Six Gods. Athena's child. The Wizard Shazam's power. Easily two-thirds of the trials Thea had faced in her earlier years traced back to Zeus in one way or another. Can't leave the temple. Didn't know a thing. Who was he trying to fool?
But a flimsy excuse was better than none. At least it gave both sides a graceful exit.
Fine. If they were doing this dance, she could play along.
With a flick of her wrist, she produced the Wizard Shazam—now reduced to a witless husk. She'd been siphoning Zeus's power through him for years; with the original owner standing right there, holding onto him any longer would be poor form.
She pointed at the old man. "Ran into this poor fellow years ago. Felt sorry for him, so I've been looking after him ever since. His power signature seems remarkably similar to yours."
The sheer audacity of that explanation actually stunned Zeus for a moment. But the Wizard wasn't today's agenda. A champion, nothing more. He didn't care.
He matched her tone without missing a beat: such a pitiable old man, and with such a similar attribute—better to let him retire here in comfort.
Old debts swept neatly under the rug, they entered the temple. Thea was surprised to find Hera present—and even more surprised when Hera dropped into a deep formal bow.
Thea quickly helped her up. One of them was Diana's lover; the other was Diana's mother in the legal sense. On paper, the dynamic should have been a soap opera. In practice, the two women got along rather well. Friends, more or less.