Of Heracles, Theseus and Orpheus

"Well I'm glad to see you all are getting along," Diana chuckled.

Walt rubbed the back of his head with one hand while handing her the bag with other. "More or less. Sorry you had to take care of this."

She smiled. "Not a problem at all. I'm not scheduled to be 'on' tonight and I'm one of the ones on laundry duty today anyway." She was dressed casually now in jeans and a T-shirt with sneakers. Still she looked like a model. That's an Amazon princess for you.

Walt hearing that she wasn't on duty and wanting to thank her for going at least a little out of her way had an idea and gestured with a wave of his hand towards the bar. "If you're not on duty can I at least offer you a friendly drink in appreciation?"

Diana smiled. Definitely different but he did remind her of Bruce just a little bit. She nodded,"I can stay for a friendly drink. Thank you for offering." They went to the bar where Walt surprised her by pulling out a stool for her before stepping behind the bar. "How may I serve you?"

"I don't suppose there's any nectar and ambrosia?" She asked jokingly.

Walt looked thoughtful. "Food and drink of the Gods of Olympus? I didn't see any ambrosia but there might be nectar." He turned to start scanning the top shelf liquors. "I was drinking some of that Asgardian stuff earlier."

Diana raised her eyebrows in surprise. "And you're still on your feet? And you'd know ambrosia to look upon it? You're no ordinary mortal man."

Walt shrugged his shoulders. "Once upon a time I was... well..." he smirked."well I like to think I was but the truth is I was probably never 'ordinary'. I know I was strange and now I see that everyone is different so there goes any chances of being 'ordinary' right out the window."

Diana chuckled. "Well aren't you a delightfully truthful philosopher! I hadn't expected that. I didn't even need to tie you up!"

Walt laughed."Not this time at any rate. I've been a lot of places and seen too many things to not be philosophical about things from time to time. I try not to let it hold me back though." He stuck his tongue out and gave her a wink and she actually giggled.

"Alright, now I'm intrigued! I think I shall like this tale of yours so please tell me your story, won't you?"

Walt smiled but Diana felt it wasn't a happy smile. "Whether you like my story or not is up to you to judge. But to continue answering your original question I was one of the first to go through the portals to different worlds and dimensions and I was the first to be exceptionally successful in doing it time and again for extended periods of time."

"Really?!" Diana stared at this man who had just admited to being perhaps the greatest explorer never heard off. Did she need her lasso after all? No he just so casually and blatantly admitted to such a thing it had to be true. "What was that like?"

Walt started looking lower down for something that might tickle Diana's fancy. "Truthfully? It was thrilling, exciting and one of the biggest disappointments of my life."

"How so?"

"Well...aha! Maybe you'll like this? Themysciran brandy sound good?"

Diana smiled. "That sounds delightful! A taste of home."

Walter stood preparing two glasses. "There's a lot I can't talk about. More than simple contracts and NDAs bind me. But I'll tell what I can. Long before they went public with their findings and even before the technology was perfected and still experimental they were sending folks through their portals. Many of those early missions either just weren't 'successful' for one reason or another. Sometimes they'd lose whole teams and more often they'd come back with little to show for it. Either they were unprepared or unsuitable. They realised they needed "highly, skilled and motivated individuals of the utmost capability who can handle the greatest degree of challenges and adversity with success" but", he ser Dianas glass in front of her," the applicants also needed to be "ultimately expendable" and willing to accept that. Always a very, short list."

He lifted his glass and savored the bouquet and she did the same. He imagined the shores of Themyscira. "What shall we drink to?"

Diana smiled and held out her glass. "How about 'to new acquaintances and old adventures'?"

Walt smiled and touched his glass to hers. "To new acquaintances and old adventures."

They sipped their drinks in companionable silence for a moment. After sometime Diana caved first her curiosity compelling her tovget more of the story. "So you were saying you fit that unlikely list of qualifications at the time?"

Walter smiled a touch sadly. "I was exactly what they were looking for and more. Highly skilled and trained. A veteran of many battlefields. A survivalist with experience in the harshest environments. I had a deep appreciation for many of the cultures and the strangeness of the world's and places we'd be sent to and what I didnt know I was eager to learn thanks to my geeky tendencies." He paused to take another drink. "And I was ok with being expendable and most of all I was highly motivated by my goal. Much more so than my colleagues and contemporaries."

Diana shook her head. "I don't understand. How could you feel that way and still have a goal that motivated you so."

"You're very familiar with your legends right, Diana?"

"Of course I am!"

"Then you'll understand when I say to you that my adventures, my quests, aligned with those of Heracles, Theseus and Orpheus."

Diana understood quickly. She looked upon him with pity."I see. And I take it your quest was less than successful?"

Walt smiled ruefully. "Worse. Many were successful and proformed miracles for others but still ultimately fruitless for me."

Diana gasped. That was worse. "How many times?"

"Too many."

"And some were successful?"

"A surprising number were. It turned out I was quite the prodigy."

"But none of them worked for your specific case."

"Not a one."

Diana felt she knew what his answer would be, she felt she had a good sense of the man now, but she asked it anyway. "At some point you must have known so why did you keep trying over and over?"

"Because I had nothing else and there was always the chance the next time I just might not make it back to worry about it anymore. After awhile I realized that had become a vain hope too."

Now she knew what it was about him that reminded her of Bruce. This is what Bruce without crime to fight would look like. An impossible quest actually finished, not in a grave and it didn't bring any solace comfort or peace. Trying to find meaning in life while trying to remember how to just live it. It gave her some comfort that he didn't actually appear insane. Actually he seemed like he'd eventually be ok someday. They say acceptance is the most important step. Still...

Diana didn't know what to say. That was so much worse than any tragedy of old. It was unnecessarily cruel and unfair. Torturous even. A spiteful jest of the Gods. From all the many worlds, dimensions and realities. It would break almost any hero. It had done so to most others driving them to suicide and madness for making the attempt once. This man had done it again and again and again for who knows how many times and succeeded and yet always denied his prize? She reached out across the bar and took the hand of the most succesfully, tragic conquering hero of the underworld(s) she had ever heard of, or was likely to ever know, and said the only thing she could.

"I'm sorry."

Diana stayed and finished her drink. They'd talked about a few lighter subjects but when her glass was empty and she glanced at the laundry he offered to see her out and she'd accepted. She'd been nicer than most and more understanding than most as well. Which was what Walt had figured and why he told her when she'd insisted.

So his quest hadn't gone the way he or anyone else had wanted. He'd long ago realized that learning to live life again took refiguring out all over again everyday but he'd eventually get the hang of it someday.

*Meanwhile those girls are sure taking an awfully long shower* he thought. *What are they up to in there?*