[Caterpillar] Chapter 33 - Decree (Patreon)

After they took Wonder Woman from the Watchtower and returned to her apartment in New York, Kyuubi thought it would be good to let the two of them spend some time alone, as a couple, and decided to go visit Doctor Fate and ask for his advice.

Therefore, while Naruto was healing up Diana's bruised and battered body, Kyuubi landed with his and Naruto's spaceship at the outskirts of Salem, Massachusetts, in the woods, next to a stone tower.

It was a rather comical image when the large trapdoor of the spaceship opened but only a tiny nine-tailed fox cub stepped out of it. After doing 2 rounds, walking around the tower, and seeing no entrance, Kyuubi lost his patience and yelled:

"Fate! Oy, sorcerer!"

Shortly after the fox started hollering, a door of light in the shape of an ankh appeared in one of the stone walls of the tower and a rather good-looking woman looking like she was in her thirties came out. It was Inza, Doctor Fate's wife.

"Is Doctor Fate here? That's the address Naruto gave me."

The previous time when Naruto visited the sorcerer, it was only him and Wonder Woman. Kyuubi had been away, wandering on his own for several days. Now it was the first time he was seeing Doctor Fate's home.

Inza looked at the fox cub in curiosity. It was the first time she was seeing Kyuubi face-to-face. The nine-tailed demon fox was actually very infamous among the metahumans of Earth, much, much better known than Naruto whom most people thought of as just "Wonder Woman's boyfriend". In contrast, the bijuu was famous for how he curb-stomped the Justice Lords of the other dimension because it was seemingly his enormous size and his fire breath attack that defeated them.

Seeing the woman looking at him silently, Kyuubi said:

"I'm not going to attack him or anything like that. Fate knows me, we've met very often while he was curing Naruto's petrification. I have some questions that he may know the answer to."

'Let him in, Inza, he means no harm.' she heard her husband's voice in her mind.

"Very well then. Follow me," she told Kyuubi and turned around.

⁂

An arc of yellow-red light was left in his wake as he teleported out of the bedroom. An instant later, his body appeared right in front of Wonder Woman, in the doorway. A cloak of yellow-red chakra enveloped him as he entered directly into his bijuu mode, and a flaming Rasengan took shape in his hand in the blink of an eye.

But his target evaded his Rasengan like a phantom.

"Naruto!" Diana cried out to stop him.

Naturally, he was aware of his surroundings too. Though he missed his target, just as his flaming Rasengan was about to impact the floor, the sphere of fire was abruptly extinguished, disappearing into the palm of his hand. If he had not cancelled his technique, the top half of the skyscraper would have been blasted to smithereens, causing an untold number of casualties. But he held back because he did not want to endanger innocent bystanders.

Nonetheless, their uninvited guest kept his distance with a wary look on his face. He had definitely taken notice of how powerful that attack was, gaining a healthy dose of respect for such destructive magic.

"That's a rude way to greet someone." the Olympian God said eventually and patted off the non-existent dust on his clothes. "So this is the man my sister fancies? I must say this isn't a very good first impression."

Hermes looked like a handsome and well-built man in his late twenties. His attire consisted of an off-shoulder white robe, a winged and open-faced golden helmet, golden greaves on his feet, and a wide beige belt around his waist. Hanging from his other shoulder was a rather large pouch filled to the brim with scrolls. All in all, his appearance was exactly how a mortal would imagine the Herald of Gods to look like.

"Why are you here, Hermes? Has anything happened?" Wonder Woman asked as she stepped forth from behind Naruto's back.

Whenever the Amazon princess had met one of the Olympian gods in the past she had greeted them with a deep bow and respectful words. But, ever since her mother revealed the truth of her origins to her, she had lost her reverence to the gods. Nonetheless, Hermes was one of the gods that she still respected.

"I found out after thousands of years that I have a sister. Do I need a reason to come and see her?" Hermes joked and approached them. But he stopped to 6 feet in front of them when he saw Naruto prepare another sphere of 'magic' in his hand, this time filled with lightning.

The god dropped his shoulders in helplessness.

"I don't know what you heard about the gods, but we're not all trying to kill Diana, you know?" Hermes said to Naruto and then he turned his attention to Wonder Woman: "We all felt your divinity earlier this morning. Now, the entire Olympus is aware of your existence. And Hera... ...she is not happy, to say the least. When I left, the skies were shaking from her screams at Zeus. Zeus himself is not pleased with the situation either. Apparently, you weren't supposed to learn about your true heritage." Hermes continued to say but the Amazon cut him off and actually shouted at him:

"How is any of that my fault? He's the one who cheated on his wife! He's the one who raped my mother! Why should I care that he's not happy? For all I care, he should burn in the flames of Tartarus for eternity!"

Momentarily, Hermes was stunned. Had it been in the past when the Olympian Gods still roamed the Earth, Zeus' lightning would have struck Wonder Woman down for her blasphemy.

"Zeus is the King of Gods for a reason," he said seriously. "Many have tried to dethrone him before but none of them has ever succeeded. Do you know why? Because of his power. And might makes right. I came here today not just to see you. I also have a message from him too."

Then, he started to rummage through the scrolls in his pouch, looking for the right one. After a while, with an "aha!" sound, he found it. He tossed it to Diana but it was Naruto the one who snatched it before it could reach her. He was not taking any chances. For all he knew, that scroll could be a trap.

Wonder Woman glared at him for how overprotective he was being but he paid it no mind.

'Better safe than sorry.' he thought.

Unfurling the scroll, he tried to read it... ...only to realize that he could not understand the language. It was Ancient Greek. Furthermore, his translating device could not translate texts. Awkwardness ensued.

"Give it to me," Diana said in exasperation, not knowing whether to laugh or to cry at his antics.

Then, she started reading it out loud, in English:

"By decree of Zeus, Father of Olympus, it is so ordered: Diana of Themiscyra will travel to Tartarus and prove her loyalty by executing the traitor, Hades, and presenting his head to Olympus, in front of the Gods."

Turning towards Hermes, she said:

"So you're telling me to go to hell?"

Hermes shrugged his shoulders uncaringly.

"Hey, I'm just the messenger, don't get angry at me."

Diana tossed the scroll back to him.

"If they want to kill someone, they should do it themselves. I'm not anyone's henchman. Why should I care?"

"You mean other than the direct order from the gods?" Hermes replied.

"I've been exiled from Themyscira. I'm no longer serving the gods."

Seeing her unimpressed and indifferent face, the god said:

"Then maybe do it for the sake of your mother and your Amazon sisters?"

"You dare threaten-" Wonder Woman started to say angrily but Hermes quickly raised his hands to stop her from blowing up at him.

"Hold up! They haven't said anything about it yet. But you should know the myths very well. While not all of them are true, most of them are not too far off. If you defy the gods, maybe you and your-" he made a pause to find the right words "-violent boyfriend over here are strong enough to survive the repercussions. But what about your friends and the other people close to you? Specifically, what would you do if they decided to take their anger on your mother and the rest of the Amazons?"

Unlike most of the other Olympian Gods who had shut themselves off from the world and ignored the mortals in the lower plane of existence, Hermes and Athena were completely the opposite. In particular, as the God of Commerce and Thieves, very few other beings were as informed as Hermes was in regards to events that transpired not only on Earth but in the rest of the known Universe too. He knew that Diana's "violent boyfriend" annihilated a race together with his demonic fox so he did not underestimate him despite that he was just a 'mortal'.

Seeing Wonder Woman falling silent, Hermes added:

"This is an order from Zeus. You have to obey it. Though many years have passed, Zeus is still vigilant against the Titans and fears a potential uprising. Given your strength as a demigoddess and his mistreatment of your mother in the past, Zeus wants to make sure there won't be a repeat of what happened when Hades betrayed them. But if I were to give you a piece of advice, when you go to Tartarus, make sure you come back. I'd hate to see my new sister perish just like that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto asked with narrowed eyes.

"Putting aside the danger Hades himself poses and the dangers of fighting against the creatures of Tartarus, the fact is that the eyes of the gods can't see past the gates of Tartarus, into Hades' domain. Wouldn't that be the perfect place for-"

"For Hera to take action." Naruto completed his words.

Hermes nodded at him.

"Exactly. Now then, I would love to sit and chat more but I have completed my task so I shall not dilly-dally any more. Time is money. You take care of yourself, dear sister." Hermes said and waved his hand in goodbye before he vanished.

⁂

As the saying goes, when it rains, it pours. That's what Wonder Woman was feeling at that moment. It was as though she was in the middle of an agitated sea; wave after wave was coming and the storm seemed unending.

"What do you wanna do, Diana?" Naruto asked quietly.

The princess was sitting on the sofa, with her elbows on her knees and her face buried in her palms.

"I'll have to follow his orders," she said in a defeated voice.

"You don't have to do anything you do not want to. No one can force you to do anything. If nothing else, nobody will be able to harm you, your mother, or the Amazons as long as I'm standing here."

Diana shook her head.

"You don't understand. The gods don't need to act against them. They don't need to do anything. One simple thought of theirs is enough to snuff the life out of everyone."

Naruto looked at her in doubt. He had battled against a goddess before and he had learned quite a few things over the years about the gods of New Genesis and Apokolips too. None of them was capable of simply erasing people from existence with just a thought. He believed she was exaggerating.

As if to prove his thoughts wrong, she continued:

"Nowadays, the Amazons exist for the sole purpose of guarding the gates of Tartarus. But do you know how the Amazons came to be? How were they created?"

He did not know what to say.

"They are women who had died at the hands of men in their previous lives. The gods created bodies for them, sculpted from clay, gave them life, and blessed them with superhuman abilities. The gods don't need to attack and we can't do anything to protect them because if the gods just retrieve their blessings, the Amazons will simply die, reverting to clay. Their very existence depends on the gods. For thousands of years, I thought I was one of them too. That's the reason for my blind faith in the gods. That's also why the world came crashing down on me when I learned the truth."

A grave expression appeared on Naruto's face and he frowned.

"This whole situation is so twisted," he said.

There was nothing the Wonder Woman could do to protect the Amazons if the Gods decided to take action against them. And even if she and Naruto had the power to kill the gods, they could not do that either because the Amazons would die after that too. Wonder Woman really had no other choice but to obey Zeus' decree.

⁂

It was barely two hours after her injured and bruised body recovered that Wonder Woman started putting back her armour, preparing herself to go to battle again. A white and gold armour top, white skorts, golden over-knee greaves, golden pauldrons, and a white cloak covering her back and protecting her neck. She put her golden tiara back on her forehead and the protective wing ornaments framing her face too before she finally strapped her sword and her golden shield on her back.

She was not the only one getting ready. Similarly, Naruto also changed from his grey sweatpants and blue t-shirt into his black combat suit and his fur-collared black cloak.

Diana came in front of him and her blue eyes looked at his slit, red ones. Despite their fierce and demonic appearance, to her, his eyes spoke volumes of his feelings for her.

"Ever since we started living together I've only brought problems at home and now, I'm even dragging you with me to hell. I'm sorry."

That was not how she had imagined her winter holidays to be this year. She had expected the most beautiful end of the year in her very long life, spending her time together with the man she loved. She had wanted to go shopping together with him and even try to cook something together as a couple, in spite of her previous disastrous attempt. She had wanted to decorate the Christmas tree together with him, to go on walks and watch the Christmas lights on Christmas Eve and spend many more romantic moments with him. She had also been planning and hoping for them to have their first time together very soon and progress their relationship to the next level... ...But nothing seemed to go her way. Her superhero work was eating up most of her time every day and misfortune and new troubles popped up one after another. Her dreams turned out to be vastly different from reality. Involuntarily, her eyes became wet from frustration.

Letting out a shaky breath, she came to him and hugged him silently.

"It's okay. You don't need to say anything else," he told her and gently caressed the back of her head.

They stood like that, hugging for a few moments. Diana had an expression of unwillingness on her face when they parted and, despite the sombre mood, Naruto found himself smiling softly at her.

'To think that I would hold such a special place in someone's heart one day. Who would have thought?'

He could see how much his presence meant for Diana. Until then, besides Kyuubi who had always been by his side, he could not think of many people who had truly cared about him as a person.

'Even the old man and Ero-sennin cared for me only because I was Kurama's jinchuuriki or the child of the prophecy,' Naruto thought. 'Maybe Iruka cared for me? But then again, it's only after I graduated that we got closer and even then, we rarely ever spent any time together.'

Looking back at his childhood and his teen years, Naruto was beginning to realize just how lonely and starved for affection he had been until he met Diana. Objectively, his childhood and his teenage years had been like hell; mostly alone, ostracised and abused even by his own teammates, to say nothing about the rest of the people in his village. After that, he was hunted like an animal and spent years on the run from a terrorist organisation. Lastly, he ended up participating at the mere age of 16 in an apocalyptic world war.

Spending almost a century single-mindedly looking for a way to return to such a terrible place only served to prove how damaged he was as a person. But now that he was living in the bliss that came from being loved by someone and realized how sweet life could be, it was as if a veil was lifted from his eyes and he could finally see the unbiased truth in regards to his homeworld.

'Now, I wouldn't go back even if I could. Not without Diana.'

When he arrived at that conclusion in his mind, the feelings he held for the Amazon princess started burning even harder in his heart. He was unable to bear with the sudden urge of wanting to hold her. And he did just that, he embraced her again, his arms wrapping tightly around her back.

"I love you, Diana. I love you so much."

He was speaking from the depths of his heart and Diana herself sensed that. She cupped his scarred cheeks in her hands and then took his breath away with a kiss. Her arms came to embrace his neck and she pressed the back of his head to deepen their kiss even more. Their tongues met in a dance of love and passion and they lost themselves in the other's sweetness.

When they parted, they rested their foreheads on each other, their faces flushed and gasping for air. Still hugging, they continued to steal small pecks and quick kisses, unwilling to let that moment of passion end.

She was being forced to go to hell where she would most likely be assassinated and she had to fight against a god and kill it too. If that was not enough, except for Green Arrow who had stood up for her, everyone else, all her friends turned their backs on her. Even her oldest friends, Batman and Superman, men whom she had respected a lot, were condemning her and wanted nothing to do with her. Now, the entire world hated Wonder Woman. A murderer. But, as she lay in Naruto's arms, she thought:

'It doesn't matter.'

At that moment, she felt that even her friends' betrayal meant nothing as long as he loved her.