I Believed
Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
A/N: This idea just popped into my head as I was… reading I think? Well, anyway, I hope you enjoy it!
x.o.x.o.x.
Hades, Lord of the Dead and God of the Underworld, steps up to the River Styx after spending time in the upper world.
"Master. Welcome home," Charon, the ferryman, greets his master as he steps onto the rowboat.
"Thank you, Charon." The rest of the ride is silent until they reach the opposite riverbank and Hades steps out of the boat. "Thank you, Charon, for the ride."
"You are welcome, master," Charon replies before rowing away.
Hades turns, straightens, and looks at his home, his palace, for a few moments, drinking in the sight. He had missed it, despite the happiness he had felt for the first time in the upper world. Finally, he recovers himself and begins striding toward the door, intent on finding Persephone, his wife and queen.
x.o.x.o.x.
"Persephone? My dear, I'm home," Hades calls through the empty halls of the Underworld palace.
Silence answers him. No Spring Goddess or Queen of the Underworld appears. Hecate, however, a loyal subject of his, does. Her violet eyes show surprise that her master had returned. "Master! Lord Hades, you have returned," she says, bowing her head.
"I have, Hecate," Hades responds, smiling at the goddess.
"May I inquire as to what you were doing in the upper world, master?" Hecate asks carefully.
"I'm afraid that will remain my secret, Hecate," Hades replies, though not unkindly.
"As you wish, Lord Hades," Hecate answers respectfully.
Hades studies her for a moment. For some reason, she seemed… changed. Had he truly been gone that long? Or was it just his imagination? "It is winter, is it not?"
"It is, Lord Hades. In fact, winter began just a week ago," Hecate tells the Lord of the Dead, and if one studies her voice very carefully as she said that, they would detect an undertone of coldness that she never used with the God of the Underworld.
Knowing Hecate very well, as she had been one of his only companions for millennia before he kidnapped Persephone, Hades did detect the coldness. "Hecate, is something wrong?"
"No, not at all, Lord Hades."
"Are you quite sure?"
"Very sure."
Hades keeps looking at her suspiciously, but lets it slide for now. "Where is Queen Persephone, Hecate?"
Hecate purses her lips. "The Queen has strictly instructed me to let no one know of her location, I'm afraid, Lord Hades."
That is unusual of Persephone. "Hecate, I'm her husband and your king. Please tell me where my wife is."
"I am terribly sorry, Lord Hades, but my Queen gave very specific instructions as to her location at the present time," Hecate repeats.
"Surely she didn't mean me! She has never refused me since the third month of her arrival," Hades protests.
"You are mistaken, I'm afraid. Her Majesty Queen Persephone has given me most particular instructions on not allowing you to know her location."
"Fine. It is nice to see you again, Hecate. It's been far too long," Hades says, giving up for the time being. Hecate could be very stubborn at times, and she was unswervingly loyal to the Queen of the Underworld. He knows that she won't budge.
"Three months, wasn't it, Lord Hades?" Hecate inquires softly.
"It was," Hades clarifies.
"I hope you realize in what state your realm is in at the moment, Lord," Hecate says to him vaguely.
He looks at her, alarmed. "What is going on, Hecate?"
She refuses to answer. "I will not say. Thanatos will be thrilled to see you; why don't you go visit him?"
Hades decides to follow her advice and sets off to find Death.
x.o.x.o.x.
After a few pleasantries were exchanged between the Lord of the Dead and Death itself, Hades begins his badgering to find his queen.
"Thanatos, may I ask you where Queen Persephone is?"
"I'm afraid not, Master. She has given all of us strict instructions not to allow anyone to know where she is," Thanatos replies easily.
"It was great talking to you, and all that, but I will find my Queen. Good day, Thanatos."
"Good day, Master."
x.o.x.o.x.
The last place Hades checked were the Elysian Fields, where he knew Persephone enjoyed spending her time. But when he couldn't find her there, he slumped against a tree.
"Where are you, my Queen?" he asks the skies that do not hold Apollo's shining sun but is a bright blue all the same.
Their bedroom.
"I'm so stupid," Hades curses. "The most obvious place and I don't bother to check." With that, he hurries to their bedchambers.
x.o.x.o.x.
The bedchamber is dark, with only a candle flickering on the dresser, but Hades could make out the form of his wife, Queen Persephone, standing in front of the mirror, her back to him. He could not see her reflection as a result of the darkened chamber.
"My love, I see you have returned to the Underworld safely," Hades observes softly.
The queen does not answer.
"How were your six months with your mother? Our realm missed you dearly."
Still she remains silent.
"Our realm was not the only one that missed you," he murmurs, moving closer to embrace her from behind, but she whips around, her auburn hair flying.
Once her hair settles back down, she allows several more candles to appear, illuminating her face.
Her green eyes connect with his, and he gasps inwardly. The pain, the pure pain that is etched there almost breaks his heart. There is no happiness that used to shine perpetually from her eyes. There is no life that the Spring Goddess was known for. All that lay there is pain. Such a fierce pain that Hades cannot look away. But deep below the pain, Hades could make out something else. Something that had never been in his queen's eyes before, something that he had never seen along with the pain.
Betrayal. Betrayal is etched just as clearly in her eyes, though it isn't as glaring. Combined, the pain and betrayal is nearly too much for Hades.
"My Queen, my love, and my life… what is wrong?" he asks, trying to move forward, but she holds up a hand.
When she speaks, the first time that he hears her speak in six months, her voice is hoarse and devoid of the happiness that was there year round, regardless of being with her mother, Demeter, or with her love. "Did you call her that too? When you were together, when I was away… did you call her that too? 'My Queen'. 'My love'. 'My life'."
"Who?" Hades questions, though he knows perfectly well who Persephone was referring to.
The pain deepens in her eyes, and he is forced to avert his gaze. "Do not play dumb. Do you want to hurt me? Do you want to make me feel betrayal?" she whispers, hurt and betrayal laced in her voice that would shatter a less heartless person than Hades. "I was away for six months. I was fulfilling the pomegranate agreement. The agreement that bound me to this place forever. For the rest of my immortal existence." Her eyes manage to snag his again, and the pain had deepened further, boring into his black ones. "I thought I enjoyed it. I thought that I had the best of both worlds, the upper and the under, my mother and my… love."
She pauses there.
"Do you want the truth? I enjoy my time in the Underworld more than in the upper. I feel… accepted here, I feel like I have a role to play. And I do. I am the Queen." As she says this last sentence, her voice strengthens and grows louder, but then it weakens and grows softer again. "But you did not miss me. Our realm, a place, missed me more than you did. You were busy loving that woman, too busy to worry or even miss me. Have you forgotten who I am?"
She had turned back to face the mirror, staring with her eyes into those eyes that didn't seem like hers. Those eyes that held emotions that had never been there before, in all her millennia of living.
Now she turns back, drawn to her full height, and her green eyes blazing with fire under the hurt and betrayal that both the King and Queen of the Underworld knew would never leave. "I am Persephone, the Spring Goddess, daughter of Zeus and Demeter. But most importantly, I am Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. And no one will ever take that from me. Ever."
"Persephone, my love, my Queen-"
"Don't call me that. Don't call me those names," whispers Persephone, and Hades thought that it would have been better if she screamed it.
"Persephone, what exactly is wrong? I sired Adolf Hitler, and you didn't explode."
That just causes the pain to etch further into her eyes, making it more permanent. "You didn't love Adolf's mother. You love her. You love Maria di Angelo, and I pale in comparison. I know that if she were immortal, she would be in my place. She would be Queen of the Underworld. But I am the Queen of the Underworld, and I always will be. Do you remember our wedding night?"
Under other circumstances, she would have said 'my lord'.
"Do you remember what you said to me?"
At that moment, the very sentences he had uttered flash into both their minds.
I love you, Persephone. You are my only love, and you will forever be my only love. I swear upon the River Styx that I will never be faithless like my brothers. I swear I shall never have affairs with immortals or mortals alike. I have eyes only for you, my spring flower, and that's how it will be for eternity. I love you, my Persephone.
Persephone's lip curls. "You swore it upon the River Styx. Do you remember when the last time you said those three words to me?"
It had to be a few decades.
"You went back to her. You had two children with her. Bianca and Nico di Angelo. She had given you something that I will never be able to give you, goddess or not." Her green eyes bore further into his obsidian ones. "She gave you two powerful demigod children. She gave you the chance to be better than my father and Lord Poseidon. She gave you the chance to redeem the name of Hades. I cannot do any of those. I cannot bear you demigod children. I can only bear you immortal children, children that will live forever and cannot topple my father or Poseidon's demigod children. I cannot give you children that will redeem the demigod children of Hades. The only thing I can give you is my love. My pure love, the love Aphrodite herself told me that she envied."
Then she breaks the eye contact, whirling to face the mirror again. "I'm a goddess. I'm beautiful. But I can never compare to the great Maria di Angelo, can I? No, no I can't."
"My Queen-"
"Don't call me that," Persephone hisses, but as strong as she wished to make her voice, it wavered and was still laced by hurt and betrayal. "I am the Queen of the Underworld, not your queen." She pauses, and the room is enveloped by an awkward silence. "You told me that you loved me. You told me that you would never be faithless like your brothers, that you had eyes only for me. You swore upon the River Styx that you would have no affairs with mortals or immortals alike. You said that you would love me, and only me, for the rest of eternity. I have no tears. I have only pain. The worst part isn't that you broke your oath."
Again, silence.
After a few moments, she says very softly,
"The worst part is that I believed you, my lord."