Chapter 102: Calm Before the Storm
Cavern of Souls, River Styx
Greek Underworld
September 2006
The Cavern of Souls, a dark cavern in the realm of Hades where the souls of women who have died through acts of violence reside. For reasons unknown, once a woman dies due to an act of violence, her soul will turn into a streak of light and become part of the Cavern of Souls. This is where the goddesses Hestia, Aphrodite, Demeter, Athena, Artemis, and Hera convened for the creation of the Amazons, this is where the souls of the first generation of Amazons came from.
Within the Greek Underworld, a group similar to the previous one makes their way through the River Styx towards the Cavern of Souls. This group comes for the same purpose as the Greek goddesses originally did, to create a race of warrior women.
"How much longer?" asks the voice of Azula as the boat she and the group are in continues down the River Styx.
"We are here." answers the voice of Athena through the darkness of the Cavern as the boat reaches an opening that is illuminated by a brilliant white light. "Welcome to the Cavern of Souls." says Athena as they arrive in front of a tornado made of countless swirling white lights.
"There are so many." quietly observes Scáthach as the group leave the boat and make their way to a platform in front of the swirling lights.
"Indeed. It is unfortunate, but violence is a constant that has existed since the dawn of mankind and even before." says Athena as the group stops in front of the souls.
"How do we do this?" asks Azula as she looks towards Athena and Frigga, the only ones experienced in creating a new race out of the group of four.
"This is for you to learn yourselves as newly ascended goddesses, and while you may not officially have your domains yet, this can be done without that step." informs Frigga as she and Athena step back to let Azula and Scáthach work.
"Do you not wish to restart your Valkyries?" asks Scáthach as she looks at the woman who has been akin to a mentor and older sister through her new experiences as a goddess.
"No." answers Frigga with a shake of her head. "The purpose of my Valkyries was for them to guide the souls of warriors to Valhalla. With my pantheon gone, there is no purpose."
"Then you would not mind if I started my own?" asks Scáthach.
"I would be honored." answers Frigga with a smile.
"Alright, how do you want to do this?" asks Azula.
"Me? Are you not here for the same purpose?" questions Scáthach with a raised eyebrow.
"No. My Amazons are enough. I will simply have the others bless them on top of blessing them myself to empower them. I'm only here to observe and help if you need it." answers Azula with a shake of her head.
"Fair enough." responds Scáthach as she turns to face the countless souls.
Reaching out towards the souls, the first thing Scáthach notices is that she can feel what each of them can and see their history. She can see their dreams in life, their fears, their ambitions, and even the most insignificant pieces of knowledge such as their favorite colours. The second thing that she notices is that she feels what they felt in every moment of their life and even when they died. Despite having so much information forced into her mind, Scáthach finds that she has no problem with processing any of the information nor is she in danger of being overwhelmed by their feelings.
The first thing Scáthach does is sort the souls based on who would find no issue with living the life of a warrior. Those who would not be able to kill were separated with those who would. Then she reduced the number of that group even further by removing those who love killing. Afterwards she reduced the number of the group even further by removing those with any form of resentment in their heart that is not justified.
So caught up in her work, Scáthach did not realise that at some point during the process her eyes had begun to glow white while she levitated in the middle of the tornado of souls.
"Is this normal." asks Azula.
"No." answers Athena with a frown as she walks towards the tornado of souls
"Wait." says Frigga as she stops Athena's approach. "I don't believe that there is anything to worry about. She seems completely at home with the work that she's doing." she explains as she points towards Scáthach's calm face. "In fact, I would dare say that we have just found one of her domains as opposed to the ones she has inherited from Skadi." speculates Frigga with a slight smile on her face.
"Something related to death? How predictable." says Azula with a smirk.
"I don't think that she will be happy with this development." says Athena.
"She won't mind." rebukes Azula while Athena looks at her questioningly. "The only reason she hated her station in the Land of Shadows is because she was alone and isolated there. She also no longer felt human, nor could she claim to be a god even with her immortality, or even a monster. She was an anomaly that didn't belong anywhere, she had no purpose other than to keep the dead in line and had outlived anyone she cared about from her time as a Queen." explains Azula with a slight frown at the thought of living like that.
"Despite being opposites of another, you two seem to get along well. In fact, you all seem to get along very well with one another." observes Frigga.
"We're family." simply answers Azula with a smile on her face. "I'd burn the world if something happened to them, just like Scáthach would freeze it while Ambrosius would drown it. Although, with this new destruction power of his he just might destroy it as opposed to drowning it." says Azula nonchalantly.
"And Morgan?" asks Athena despite her instincts telling her that she may not want to know the answer to that question.
"Reality is her bitch. What do you think?" asks Azula with a grin that sends a chill down Frigga and Athena's spine as they silently promise themselves that crossing Morgan might be worse than crossing any of the others.
With that said, the conversation falls to a lull as the trio return their attention back to Scáthach who continues to thin out the candidates based on her criterias. Despite doing this however, the number of souls at her disposal has not seemed to lower at all. In fact, if one did not know any better they would say that the numbers have remained the same.
After a few more minutes Scáthach stops and the tornado of souls stops swirling along with her. With a flash of light, the souls that Scáthach has chosen appear in the form of what they looked like in the prime of their lives. Approaching the group of about eight thousand souls, Scáthach's mouth begins to move as she is speaking to them. Judging by the facial expressions of the souls however, it is easy to tell that she is in fact speaking to them and is inaudible to anybody else.
"What is she doing?" wonders Athena.
"Asking them whether or not they want to join her." casually answers Azula.
"How can you possibly tell?" asks Athena.
"Because that is who she is and how she functions." answers Azula while Frigga nods in agreement. She has come to know Scáthach well and can easily see her doing something of that nature.
As the group quietens down, they can see Scáthach's chosen women asking her questions while Scáthach answers them. Some seem satisfied with the answer they receive, while others seem unpleased or even angry. Some even seem to attempt to attack her and were promptly thrown back into the tornado of souls not chosen. This process continues for a few moments longer before a smile grows on Scáthach's face and the souls shoot out of the cavern after she makes a gesture with her hands.
Once the souls have left the cavern, Scáthach's eyes slowly lose their glow as she floats back down to the platform where Azula, Frigga and a curious Athena await her.
"Well?" asks Azula as Scáthach lands in front of her.
"Five thousand Valkyries." answers Scáthach with a smile.
"Impressive." says Frigga and Athena as they approach her. "Soon all preparations for the war will be complete."
"Hopefully they will be enough." says Scáthach as the thought of the incoming war wipes the smile from her face while Azula's face takes on a grim countenance. She does not have the best experience with wars and isn't too excited with the looming one.Regardless of how she feels however, she knows that for her family she will incinerate anyone to ashes.
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Island of Themyscira
September 2006
The Island of Themyscira, home of Wonder Woman and the Amazons that follow the Greek gods. Ever since the invasion from Tartarus, Themyscira has constantly been on alert in case such a scenario repeats itself. As such it is not strange to see off duty Amazons armed with a weapon or even wearing their armor. To many of the oldest Amazons this new habit is explained away as preparation for any incoming attack from a sorcerer like Felix Faust or Circe while the newer Amazons know that it is simply the lie they tell themselves to be able to sleep at night.
The truth of the matter is that the Amazons now live in fear. Fear of an attack, fear of the gods, and more importantly fear of Heracles. While they may denounce it as much as they want, the more self aware of the Amazons know that the son of Zeus' freedom has made fears and wounds that were deeply buried under layers of hate and sense of superiority of men have resurfaced. To those Amazons who accept that fact, the new status quo of Themyscira is unacceptable to them. This island that was once their salvation has now become their prison.
Only those authorised by Hippolyta are allowed to leave the island, and only princess Diana's royal guard are authorised to leave. Meanwhile, the Amazons living on Themyscira live in constant fear of Heracles coming to the island and once again having his way with them. While many try to be optimistic and believe that the gods would interfere this time, the majority of the Amazons do not believe so. The fact of the matter is that they are disillusioned with the Gods of Olympus and no longer place their trust in them, not even their patron goddesses. And while they still pray and give offerings to the gods, none of them do it out of love and simply carry on with these traditions in the hopes that it will appease the gods.
Currently inside of Hippolyta's throne room, the Queen of the Amazons convenes with her war council to relay their orders from Zeus himself.
"We are going to war with man's world." informs a tired Hippolyta, causing the room to explode into heated debates and cries of refusal.
Rather than control her generals, Hippolyta simply lets them protest while she collects herself. Despite being granted eternal youth by the patron goddesses of the Amazons, Hippolyta is beginning to feel the toll of her position and recent events take its hold on her even if it doesn't appear physically. From finding out that Zeus raped her, to the freedom of Heracles, and being under Hera's severe scrutiny, the past few years have not been kind to her or her people and this new order from Zeus himself is simply another nail in the coffin.
Raising her hand, Hippolyta quiets the room and sits there for a second, appreciating the brief silence.
"This has been ordered by Lord Zeus himself." she informs her war council, causing their already significant resentment towards Zeus to grow even more in their hearts. "Prepare our forces. We go to war in three months." she says as she dismisses her council to their duties while quietly ordering her guards to stand outside of the room.
As the generals leave the room, Hippolyta sits back in her chair, rests her eyes for a few minutes and allows herself a moment of weakness. Her position as queen has made her weary, and as much as she would love nothing more than relinquish her station, she cannot in good conscience place this heavy burden on any of her sisters let alone her daughter.
As Hippolyta takes the time to enjoy this calm, she fails to notice a figure materialise inside of her throne room before it is too late.
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Avalon Hill, Bludhaven
New Jersey
September 2006
Up on the rooftop of the Avalon Hill castle, Ambrosius can be found admiring the starry night sky along with Mordred, Jason, and Cassandra. Due to the chaotic nature of the past few months and the need to prepare for the incoming war, Ambrosius has not had time to simply sit and relax with his three children. Even though Brainiac was easily dealt with, he still had to help with the cleaning efforts and repairing the damage Brainiac did to the cities. He also had to coordinate his League in order to make sure that no piece of technology from Brainiac made it to the black market. Of course not every piece of technology was stopped, but the majority of it was apprehended.
"It's coming, isn't it?" wonders Mordred, shaking Ambrosius from his thoughts.
"What is?" asks Ambrosius.
"War." answers Cassandra as she looks up at him from her position on his lap.
"It is." answers Ambrosius with a sigh. Like the others, he isn't too thrilled about the incoming war.
Despite their best efforts to prepare, Ambrosius knows that there will be something that they overlooked or miscalculated. Nothing is certain other than the fact that there will be casualties on both sides and that humanity will unfortunately suffer as collateral. He isn't sure when exactly it began, but Ambrosius has found that he cares deeply for humanity and would protect from any outside forces.
"You're gonna win. Right old man?" asks Jason as he leans his head on Ambrosius' arm.
"As much as one can win a war." replies Ambrosius.
"What does that mean?" questions Jason.
"Nobody wins a war Jason." responds a somber Mordred as she remembers her time as a Knight of Camelot. "Everybody loses, it's just a matter of who loses the most." explains Mordred. "History books can talk all they want about this side winning or this side losing, but the truth is that if even one life is lost then you lost." she says. "But don't worry! Father will do his best so that the least amount of people dies and eventually everything will be ok!" exclaims Mordred with a grin as she pats his head and attempts to lift the dreary mood.
"War… is bad, but it's in-in-inevitable." says Cassandra as she looks up at Ambrosius for confirmation.
"Good job Cass." he congratulates her while ruffling her hair, causing her to give a slight smile while Jason gives her a high five and Mordred gives her a thumbs up.
Despite the looming threat of war, Ambrosius finds that, sitting here peacefully with his children, his mood cannot be soured. He knows that this is simply the calm before the storm, but regardless of that he also knows when the war comes, he will be ready.
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