Hey readers. Please enjoy my version of the story of Hades and Persephone! The are certainly a favourite pairing of mine, and have always wanted a crack at writing the tale. I will also endeavor to update frequently! Though I'm pretty busy, so please forgive me.

I hope you like ^_^. Let me know if you happen to see any spelling/grammar issues. Can only get better if I know about it!

Warning: This story is rated M.

Chapter 1

The air smelt rank. The fetid stench of burnt flesh and human waste, the coppery tang of blood, blending together and lingering thick in the air. It clung to his skin, lay heavy on his tongue.

Hades paused briefly at the mouth of the cave, his gaze drifting over the mangled and twisted bodies of mortals that littered the cavern. Men and women, unprotected and unused to bloodshed or torturous pain, had probably fled to find shelter and safety.

His father's confused lambs that got caught in the crossfire.

He would have felt surprise that there were any of them left in the burnt-out husk of Gaia if exhaustion hadn't ruined his ability to process.

'Looks like Menoetius' work,' a voice murmured by his elbow.

Hades didn't answer, didn't look down at the woman who hovered close to his elbow. His eyes felt too heavy to move away from the carnage.

Gods he was tired.

Gods he stank worse than the bodies.

Hecate sniffed the air, wrinkling her nose, 'They have been dead for months. I doubt Menoetius would return. You should rest.' She stepped forward without waiting for his response, the long skirts of her peplos hiding her feet. Still she looked as if she drifted an inch off the ground. Eerily smooth and mist-like was the Goddess of Magic, with her black hound slinking faithfully at her heels. She paused for a moment, squinting into darkness. She turned to look back up at him, 'The cave travels deep. We may get away from the smell.'

Hades nodded his head slightly in agreement, following her and Seirios as they started inside, trusting that she was correct about the Titan. Menoetius wasn't one to return to his mess. Neither were any of his brothers or sisters that were still above ground.

He was too exhausted to care who won the little spat in the cavern. It was destruction and the rash action of children. Poseidon had wanted to hunt down Menoetius without help, and the Titan and God would have once again scraped their bodies back together and slunk off to lick their wounds before their hunt begun anew. It was a dance between them that had continued for nine long years while Hades and his other siblings employed a number of daring tricks and fought in countless battles to capture and imprison most of the others.

Poseidon and Menoetius were infuriating…but irrelevant.

Darkness swallowed Hades, and his eyes struggled to adjust to the gloom. His hand rose to the side so he could run his fingers along the wall of stone, his gaze glued to the ethereal shine of Hecate as she made her way deeper into the cavern, her ridiculous white skin and hair almost glowing.

'Watch out for – ' Hecate whispered, just as Hades' head connected with a low hanging rock, his grunt of pain echoing through the cavern. 'Hanging stone,' she finished, stepping back towards him, her diminutive height unhindered by the ceiling of the cave that he stooped to avoid. 'Are you alright?'

'Mm fine,' he muttered through clenched teeth. What was another bruise?

Hecate brought both her hands close to her lips and whispered in a language Hades didn't recognise. He had only begun to understand the common tongue. Learning how to fight and survive from the day he was heaved from Kronos' stomach was more important than learning the endless and complex dribble the strange, pale Titaness, who insisted on dogging his every move, seemed to know.

She continued until a blue flame ignited from nothing, hovering in her open palms, crackling and lighting the cavern.

'Why didn't you do that earlier?' Hades grunted.

Hecate turned to him, violet eyes guilty, waving the blue ball of light away to drift by itself. 'Apologies. Sometimes I forget that you have been on Gaia for less than a second in comparison to me. One day, you will be able to see in the dark as aptly as in the day.' Her gaze flicked up, her white brows furrowing slightly as her now free hand lifted to touch his forehead. Her fingers came away bloody and she studied it, rubbing red between her thumb and forefinger, fascinated. 'And heal.'

Hades yawned.

'Or need sleep. New immortals are so complex.' She turned and walked, following an orb of blue further into the dark corridor, continuing until the smell of rot wasn't irritating, continuing until they found a place where Hades didn't have to stoop.

Hades stretched, cracking his neck as Hecate dropped to the sandy floor cross-legged, her fingers threading through Seirios' black coat as he lay next to her. She watched as Hades tugged pieces of stolen armour off his body until he was as bare as the day his brother freed him. Fingers tenderly poked at a deep cut surrounded by dark bruising up his ribs, wincing. Iapetus' spear had wildly swung and connected to his side. Hades didn't have lightning, or a long-range trident, or his Titaness' necromancy magics to distract her enemies with the dead. He had a blade and had to get in close.

Getting hit didn't hurt as much anymore. His body was lean from rough eating and constant movement, lacking any softness from when he was in his prison. But Iapetus was ruthless, and the strike, though misjudged, was strong, throwing him into a cliff face. He would have been skewered to the rock if Hecate hadn't moved him through the aether to safety.

'Can you make water as well as the fire?' he asked, wincing again as his fingers probed to check for anything broken.

Hecate shook her head. 'My magic isn't aligned to Gaia, Hades, and it isn't fire.' She pointed at the hovering, blue globe with a fond smile. 'It is the light of the moon, harnessed, intensified. A skill I enjoyed before the war.' Her eyes drifted down his torso. 'If anything green still grew on this scorched land, I would have been able to find something to help you heal quicker. Not scar as readily.'

Hades' fingers tripped over a raised, red line marring the other side of his abdomen, and then the white star on his left shoulder. Another encounter with Iapetus' spear and the worst pain he had ever known. It was strange to think of his body not scarring. He had seen Kronos heal, the stitching of his skin before his eyes. Hades' healing took infinitely longer and it left its mark. He knelt down to scoop up a handful of sand to rub across his skin to remove the blood, grime and sweat, careful to avoid his open wound.

He was distracted from his task when Seirios lifted his head, suddenly focussed towards the cave entrance. The sound of his low growl made Hades release his handful, lower the tangle of black hair from the back of his neck and reach for the hilt of his sword, while Hecate slowly climbed to her feet. The crunch of footsteps in sand reaching their ears as Hades moved into a position to swing if needed.

'Careful, boy,' a voice spoke before the woman stepped forward into the light. Long, thin, black hair was a tangle around her face, one arm outstretched in front of her thin body as she shuffled forward, the other drifting across the wall. 'I have no desire in destroying children this night.'

Hades didn't lower the blade, but swallowed a sigh of relief. His exhaustion was palpable, his body aching, relieved that he may not have to fight again so soon.

Additionally, he stopped his hand when he saw the state of the unwanted intruder's face. She had been brutally blinded, a wreckage of gore where her eyes should have been, blood a black smear down her cheeks.

'Hecate. Hiding away in the dark like the traitorous little rat you always were.' The woman acknowledged, gingerly pushed her hair from the ruin of her cheeks and tugging strands from the weeping cuts without wincing, a vain attempt of fixing her appearance before them. She turned her head towards the hound and Seirios immediately stopped growling, tail pinned between his legs, and dropping submissively by Hecate's skirts.

The woman straightened, hand not using the support of the wall, proud, tall, god-like.

Hecate swallowed, acknowledging the enemy Titaness, 'Theia.'