Inhuman // Cyborg

Chapter Thirty: Earth Abides

"You're not coming with me?" Harper asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I wouldn't be welcome." Victor said as if it were obvious. He gestured to himself, then to Harper in a failed attempt to help her understand. When it didn't work, Victor sighed and continued to speak. "As I said, men aren't typically allowed on Paradise Island."

"Yeah, but that was before this 'Bastion' guy was allowed in." Harper retorted. "Things change. I highly doubt that Diana would punish you for that."

Victor's gaze wavered to the ocean calmly rolling over the rocky landscape. He didn't want to offend Amazon tradition or law...but he had no desire to leave Harper's side either. After so many years tying to survive the passing of his heart, she had returned to him by some indescribable twist of fate. He knew it couldn't last...and that she was not his to keep, but in his blind relief he had chosen to dismiss any thought of her leaving. He could speak of it, and yet inside, he did not believe her imminent departure to be waiting at the end of this journey. Love is the emblem of eternity, after all; it confounds all notion of time; effaces all memory of a beginning, and all fear of an end.

"If you really want me there then I'll go, but if they throw me into the underworld it's your fault." Victor quipped, though he did seem rather uneasy about the idea of visiting Themyscira despite his agreement.

"I can live with that." Harper teased, and without anymore delay, she entered the boom tube.

Victor stayed put for a few further seconds and watched as the sun finally dipped beneath the distant hills. The explosion of colour against the distant horizon slowly dimmed, and Victor finally tore his eyes away. He hadn't yet asked Diana to return to the team. In fact, he'd asked everyone except for her. The reason was, quite simply, that he didn't want to travel to Themyscira and disrespect their customs. Then after all the rejections he just lost hope that she would ever agree.

With an uneasy feeling consuming him, Victor finally followed Harper through the boom tube. He stepped once, twice, thrice, and then his fourth step found only air. Victor fell from great heights, and crashed back into the ocean. He hadn't considered the fact that Diana could fly, and so may have given coordinates that didn't lay on ground level. After sinking for what felt like a small lifetime, passing by the vast emptiness of the ocean, he finally reached the bottom. Harper was already there with the suit of her mech folding it's arms with impatience.

"You know, I really wasn't hoping to be thrown back into the water." She commented, and behind her the small lights of her mech revealed a completely translucent fish...that is, except for its insides. It had glowing dots on either side of its body to help attract pray, but this was nothing unlike the things they had seen on the way to Atlantis. "How are we meant to know which way to go if we aren't on the surface?"

"I've scanned the area. There's an island just up ahead. It seems fairly standard, nothing that would suggest that it's Themyscira, but it's definitely a start."

Harper nodded and wasted no time marching through the restricting water. Each step took twice as long to take, and the occasional sea creature jumped out from the darkness, distracted by their lights, and swim toward them...or try to eat them. They had to switch the voltage to something a little higher, and more painful to the eyes of a creature that lived on the bottom of the ocean, to prevent this from happening again.

Finding land wasn't too difficult, but when they stepped onto the shoreline the island was anything but ordinary. It seemed to sparkle with mysterious magic. Birds flew overhead, but they weren't just birds, they were Phoenix's; with every strong flap of their wings a burst of fire coloured the sky. Every tree looked ancient, and yet still in the prime of their lives. The bark almost looked to be flowing with sorcery. From over the lush green hills appeared four muscular women, each carrying a sword in one hand, and a shield in the other.