Summary: A boy. A girl. And an open grave. Now, the boy is the hot-headed, temperamental, cranky god of the dead, Hades, and the girl is a sarcastic, cynical maiden by the name of Persephone. Some encounters are bound by destiny; this wasn't. The Fates hadn't foretold it. Because there's never been such a thing as love at first sight, or at second. There shouldn't even have been love…

Disclaimer: Nothing mine.

Since Disney took some MINOR liberties regarding "Hercules" – Hera as Hercules' mom, SERIOUSLY, Disney? Not to mention using the roman name instead of the Greek one…- I decided to take some liberties myself in order to present you this story.

Based on the movie but I'm taking some things from the animated series (barely) and the original myths as prompts. Probably subconscious influence from the Rick Riordan series.

Must confess I've been thinking of this story for years now. Hope you like.

I'm warning you now: there will be mentions to suicide, incest, rape (A.K.A. Zeus's Playgame book), violence, etc. I said I was basing on Greek Mythology, didn't I? So, what were you expecting? However, I'm still going to keep it T rated.

For now, anyway. If you think I should rise the Rating, please, tell me.

Hades: Untold.

Chapter One.

Gospel Truth

.

I… am Eleos, goddess of Fanfiction… Patron of the Plot, Guardian of the Tropes and Clichés, Basher of Mary Sue and Gary Stu, Master of the Deus Ex Machina…

…

Deal with it.

The muses were supposed to tell this story, but they are in the middle of a Civil War, since they happened to discover Apollo has been systematically and methodically dating all of them… At the same time. Therefore, they are currently unavailable, which means, you are stuck with me.

Don't worry, I promise you won't have to hear me singing. That wouldn't be nice for any of the involved… And I'm not gonna be appearing anywhere in this story; I'm only getting pay for narrating and my insurance doesn't cover that much.

So, let us commence our story.

Our beginning is far, far away in time. Eons ago. At the very beginning of everything.

Way before the gods, way before the Titans…

There was Chaos.

And Chaos reigned everything.

Because Chaos was everything.

Before the Cosmos was born, there was only Chaos, a swirling mass of darkness and possibility.

Because Chaos is not Destruction.

Chaos is Chance.

Chaos is Creation waiting to happen.

And, suddenly, it happened.

There was life.

The very first being to be born from Chaos, was Gaia, the Mother Earth. The second one, Uranus, the Sky.

The third one, Eros, the Love.

After came Erebus, the darkness; Nyx, the night; Tartarus, the Abyss…

But everything started with the Earth and the Sky; Gaia and Uranus were struck by Eros and fell in love. They got married.

But that didn't have a happy ending.

They had many children, being the first and most famous –or infamous, depending of your point of view- the Titans.

They were powerful beings; twelve deities of incredible strength, bigger than mountains; some might have thought they were kinda like gigantic brutes running amok.

The Titans.

Six Titans, six Titanesses to be precise.

As I said, they were the first ones, but there were more. Gaia and Uranus had several more children. And they were ugly, which didn't sit well with Uranus. He took his less nice-looking children, wrapped them with chains and trusted them into Tartarus, the Abyss, where he didn't have to see them.

For some reason, Gaia didn't like her children being treated like trash.

She convinced the Titans to reveal against their father and killed him. You might wonder how they could pull off the trick of killing an immortal: well, there are ways, and no, Uranus wasn't feed with some potion to steal his immortality.

The Titans, guided by the youngest one -the meanest, the smartest- Kronos, Master of Time, ambushed their father and cut him down into tiny little pieces with a scythe created by Gaia.

Uranus' blood and flesh fell to the earth and the seas as his cries reverberated through the Cosmos.

Kronos was crowned King of Everything. But a dark cloud prevented him from rejoicing in his new life.

Before his last breath, Uranus had pronounced a curse:

"Just as you have overthrown me, you shall fall by the hands of your child."

The new king ruled over the Cosmos in a time known as the Golden Age. And it wasn't irony.

The men from the Golden Age lived like gods; there were neither famine, nor sickness, without any sorrow, never growing old. It was an age of order and prosperity, with no need for rules or laws because people were all happy and nice; there was no need to hurt others because everyone had what they needed, though maybe not what they wanted, and they were fine with it.

Most certainly not a nasty place.

Even though every time the lords of the land –the Titans- walked across the earth, awakening earthquakes and volcanoes, the men form the Golden Age didn't complain about the mess. They had everything and anything they could wish for.

It certainly didn't look like the planet earth was down on its luck.

Kronos had everything to be happy.

But the fear was there, living in his heart.

You shall fall by the hands of your child.

Kronos couldn't enjoy his power while this words kept echoing in his head.

You shall fall by the hands of your child.

The curse tormented Kronos nonstop. Every waking moment, every single dream, everything revolved around Uranus' departing words.

You shall fall by the hands of your child.

Kronos' existence was reduced to a never-ending nightmare, always waiting, always remembering.

He could have had a vasectomy and lived happily ever after. But there weren't vasectomies back then. Only castration. Actually, Kronos invented it. First patient: daddy Uranus.

Freud would have had a picnic day with that family.

…

Freud would have had a picnic day with ANYONE from that Family Tree. Or gone insane. Actually, most of his theories are based in Greek Mythology. Ever heard about Oedipus?

Okay, so, Kronos lived under the shadow of his father curse, and what was his plan of action? Getting married to his sister Rhea.

Yep, Freudian. Check the summary; there was a warning about incest there.

Next step into the "Let's avoid Dad's curse" plan?

Having children.

I know it doesn't seem like a good plan. It actually seems to go in the opposite direction of what he wanted to accomplish by doing exactly what he was supposed NOT to do.

Definitely not a good plan.

But, you know… his dad had told him not to do it, so, he obviously had to do it.

And here's where Kronos got skilful: every time Rhea gave birth and presented the baby to him, he swallowed it. Whole.

…

Forget skilful and let's go with gross, cruel and plainly despicable.

It took Rhea a while to finally catch on with what was happening: five children actually.

Hestia, Hades, Demeter, Poseidon and Hera. All swallowed by their father.

And then, along came Zeus: child number six.

Rhea finally caught on and she successfully hide her last child, feeding her husband a stone instead.

How could Kronos mistake a rock for a baby? He wasn't particularly brilliant. Remember his plan to escape his father's curse? Getting married and having children?

Definitely not the brightest lightning in the thunderstorm.

Maybe it was something hereditary; I mean, Rhea was his sister and it took her witnessing how her husband ate their first five children to finally understand that it might not be a good idea to let him carry the baby.

And they had children together meaning there was a double chance at the n potency of them being sh-tupid…

Zeus grew hidden from his father until he became strong enough to oppose him.

He tricked Kronos into drinking a potion that made him regurgitated his children (let's go with regurgitate instead of vomiting).

The six gods fled, got weapons and allies and fought against Kronos.

Zeus hurled his thunderbolt.

He zapped.

He locked the Titans in a vault, trapping them.

And the gods won.

Zeus didn't stopped Chaos on its track, because – as we already see- Chaos is the disordered formless matter that existed before the ordered universe, which, according to some philosophers, still exist inside every single thing.

And he didn't do it on his own; his sibling are still sore of him taking all the credit for himself.

With the ascension of the gods to power, the Golden Age became to an end.

No more happy, easy, nice life for mankind; only the gods' will.

Zeus didn't tamed the globe; he was like a nasty five year-old with a new toy, ready to smash it to smithereens for the sake of it.

Destruction was brought by the gods themselves.

And they only brought more…

And that's the Gospel Truth.

Now the Cosmos was under new management, but it was necessary to sort things out.

There was the Cosmos, and three brothers. For some reason, the sisters weren't counted. Or maybe they just didn't care.

In any case, were the three brothers who presented before the Moirai, weavers of Fate, children of Night and Darkness.

Three brothers intended to share the Cosmos.

Sky, Sea, Underworld. Sharing dominion over the land.

The brothers drew lots to determine who will rule which realm; it should have been determined by luck.

But one makes their own luck.

That phrase was created just back then.

Two brothers presented gifts to the Moirai to ensure their share was good. The third one didn't.

It didn't occur to him… that his brothers would betray him.

After everything they had been through…

That the Moirai would fall so low as to accept bribery.

It didn't occur to him that Fate could be cheated.

The Sky for Zeus.

The Seas for Poseidon.

And Hades, the one who didn't try to bribe Destiny, got the Underworld.

And he never forgave his brothers for it…

So, Hades was stuck with running the Underworld, and he thought the dead were dull and uncouth. He was as mean as he was ruthless, but one must wonder, had he always been like that?

Actually, yeah. Spending your first centuries living in your father's stomach can do that to people. Surviving instinct and adaptability and whatnot.

Time continued, eons passed and Hades harboured his hatred.

He had a plan to shake things up.

He seized the time for his revenge.

Patiently he plotted. He measured his chances. He weighed up possibilities.

Finally, the Moirai presented him the time to act. But there could be a complication…

A complication named Hercules.

But that's a story you already know.

Let's check some facts you might've missed and filled some blank spaces, starting for what happened right after the children of Kronos overthrown the Titans and claimed the earth and going all the way until Hades

I know the Muses said everything worked out: on Mount Olympus life was neat, and smooth and sweet as Vermouth and whatnot, but you can't really believe that.

Or actually you can.

They are called Olympians because THEY LIVED in Mount Olympus.

If you lived in any other place you were royally screwed.

Zeus was far from being an angel -word that happens to have a Greek origin, from 'aggelos' meaning 'messenger' which would be better suited for Hermes… Though there is a goddess named Angelos who is a daughter of Zeus and Hera…

Ever heard about Prometheus? Well, the guy tried to be nice to human kind, gave them fire and progress… and Zeus punished him, tying him to a mountain and having a giant eagle coming every day to devour his liver. Though he apologized to Prometheus' brother; he sent him a beautiful wife named Pandora and a mystery box…

Yeah…

The Gospel Truth is… Zeus should also be the god of Jerks. Though that honour belongs to one of his and Hera's children: Ares. Literally, he is the god of War, Battlelust, Corage, Violence, Murder and Cannibalism.

Jerk.

Now, we all know Zeus married Hera, but she wasn't his first wife. Far from it.

First, the lord of the Sky married the Oceanid Metis, goddess of Prudence, Advise and Planning.

She wasn't good at her job.

She possessed the gift of Prophecy and foretold that their first born son would become greater than his father… Which hadn't fit well with Zeus; especially since Kronos' last words had been a cliché, warning him about his demise at one of his children's hands…

Wonder where he got the idea?

Zeus did the natural thing at this news; what any sensible and reasonable person would do in such situation and ate his wife. Even worse if you take into account Metis had helped him free his sibling and won the Titan War. And that she was pregnant with Zeus' child.

See? Jerk!

But don't worry; their child was fine: she gave Zeus the mother of headaches. Hephaestus -being the practical guy he was- broke Zeus' forehead opened with an axe and the child –Athena- was born. Though no one ever heard from Metis again.

Now second marriage!

This time Zeus married Themis, goddess of Divine Justice. They had several children together which were in care of giving order to the universe.

And it ended. Zeus didn't appreciate being father of several ugly and powerful children.

Boy, he did take after his dad and gramps…

Third marriage, Titaness Eurynome… Divorce.

Fourth marriage, Demeter, goddess of the Harvest, sister of Zeus (see the disclaimer: there's a caution about incest, and, anyway, it shouldn't surprise you since Zeus' parents were also brother and sister. And it's not like Demeter was the only and last female relative Zeus got an interest into. Just keep reading). The marriage didn't work out either, but you should keep it in mind; we'll get back to this in a moment.

Fifth marriage, Mnemosyne, goddess of Memory, mother of the Muses… and another failed marriage.

Do you see the pattern?

Well, it broke with Marriage number six.

Now, sixth wife, we got a winner! At least in the traditional denotation of the word (though certainly not in the connotation): Hera!

It wasn't a happy marriage. At all. Actually, it was particularly scary and bloody. A massacre. Literally, there were dead body. Because Zeus had a wandering eye and a list of girlfriends (some of them didn't know or didn't want to be his girlfriends, but who cares? Certainly, Zeus didn't and neither did Hera) as large as the Ancient Greece Phone Book… if there had been an Ancient Greece Phone Book, though they could have used Zeus' little black book as model since it had listed every single (and not single) woman in Greece… and some of the good-looking guys too.

Actually, Ancient Greece Phone Book could also be used to track Zeus' progeny; you couldn't open a page without finding one… or twelve dozens, nor could you throw a rock in a public plaza without hitting one.

Obviously, Hera didn't enjoy being cheated 24/7. Theirs wasn't an open marriage like Poseidon's was. But Hera was far from suffering in silence; she had a nick to find and… eliminate, her competition. She should have been the goddess of Mafia by the swift way she deal with those… aggravations. And their… investments.

Though she was the goddess of Marriage. Which should mean that Marriage is like the Mafia or the Mafia is like Marriage, or that both start with an 'M' and end with traitors, cheaters and a rather large body count…

Because Hera wasn't contempt with just obliterating Zeus' lovers; she also relished to punish their children for the sin of existing. And she went out of her way to make it happened.

For example, if there had been an illegitimate child by the name of Heracles (I know it sounds a little too much like Hercules, but it's just a coincidence, really. If you don't believe me, go search it on line), then she would probably belated his birth to prevent him from being king or something, drive him insane so he would murder his wife and children and have to pass a lot of dangerous nearly impossible tasks, Like a dozen of them.

Why didn't Zeus and Hera divorce since Zeus seemed to have a fine Divorce Lawyer in speed-dial? The answer is as simple as you can imagine: the goddess of Marriage having a divorce was bad publicity.

Rhea wasn't exactly pleased… She didn't like either her new son-in-law, or her new daughter-in-law. She correctly guessed that Hera would called her periodically to complain about her husband. And Zeus had completely lost mommy when he decided to emulate his father and devour his pregnant wife, Thetis.

That kinda hit a sore spot…

A really bad trip through Memory Lane… And remember that he did marry the goddess of Memory, even if it didn't work out.

Had Rhea known Zeus would turn out just like his father –even worst- she would had willingly cuddled him in bread and mustard and left him for some quality time with Daddy Kronos; keep Boulder, the Rock, paint a face on it, dressed it with bibs and baby clothes and play dolls.

She got to do what most moms do eventually: relinquished and get away from her nasty, ungrateful brats.

The fact that her children only called her to complain about each other, were too busy to visit or had made an habit of forgetting her birthday and Mother's Day (some exceptions) resolved in Rhea keeping her distance from those ungrateful bastards, children of Kronos, at least most of the time.

She mostly stayed away from Zeus and Hera; she couldn't stand them. She didn't have a problem with the others, except Demeter: she had a tendency to throw a tantrum every once in a while, complaining of how her sister had stolen her husband, not even once being grateful of Hera taking the bullet for her. Even though Zeus had married other women after dumping her and before marrying Hera.

Rhea was a mother after all (goddess of Motherhood, if you want precision) and as such, enjoyed greatly whenever her idiots messed it big time and she got the chance to give them an earful and looked at them in the eye with disapproval and shame.

They had many children, like Ares, god of War, and solid proof that incest has several negative consequences; especially if it's the second generation of interfamily marriage and the first one already proved to be lacking badly in the brain cells department, at making poor inferences like: "I'm bound to fall by my children's hand; I should have some of those so I can eat them and stop them from revealing", or "This is the fourth time he accidentally puts our baby in his mouth and swallow, I wished he was more careful!"

. Some other children of Zeus and Hera were Hebe, goddess of Youth; Eileithya, goddess of Childbirth; Hephaestus, god of Metallurgy and one of the Olympic Twelve, who was thrown away from Mount Olympus by Hera for not being cute and punish her in return by building a throne-prison, best Mother's day gift ever!. And some others.

There was also Herc.

Young Herc was made mortal, but since he did not drink the last drop of "Godliness Striping Solution: Your best choice to get rid of those pesky little children who are supposed to grow up and foiled your well planned scheme to seize the Cosmos" (Patent pending), he still retained his godlike strength. So thank his lucky star!

Before the horrible things that happened to him, and because of him, after the movie…

When baby Hercules was stolen and made into a mortal, Zeus and Hera were weeping all day long; it was annoying. Hera felt awful; she felt guilty, repeating constantly: "If I had been a better mother", "If I had paid him more attention", "If I had watched over him more carefully", "I should have stalked him day and night, watching him constantly, making sure he didn't scrap his knee or break his fingernail and keep track of him with a pair of opera-binoculars at his prom dance"… So she decided to be a better mother to her remaining children (in Hera's mind, being mortal was as good as being dead), but since only two were good enough to be amongst the ranks of the Olympian Twelve, and since Hephaestus was crimpled and in her book that was as bad as being mortal, she turned all her motherly affection to Ares.

Ares wasn't happy at all; all his half-brothers and sisters (meaning almost three quarters of the majestic Olympian Twelve. By the way: the word of the week is "Nepotism".) kept making fun of him, calling him stuff like "Mama's boy", "Cry-baby", "Namby-Pamby", "Pansy", "Nancy", "Softy" and "My Little Soldier", pinching his cheeks or telling Hera that he was going to precede a war without wearing a sweater.

All hell broke loose.

Zeus had other approach at grieving that implied having sex with Alcmene, Hercules' adoptive mother. Which happened to be his own grand-daughter.

Yeah…

Anyway, both of them had to watch their precious baby grow up from afar.

Though Hades' horrid plan was hatched before Herc cut his first tooth, the boy grew stronger every day and that's the gospel truth.

Since the pain of losing one of the children who he actually remember the name of was just too much to be forgotten after spending three days in a row with Alcmene, Zeus then turned to his sister, Demeter, goddess of the Harvest, for some consolation. If you remember, they had been married and Demeter was one of those who lack self-respect and has no problem to accept the jerk who dumped her without even looking back or worried if she was doing well, hoping that her love will magically show him the wrong path he's been wandering and make him a better person, who without a doubt would dump his wife and marry her instead, and take her away, riding a white stallion into the sunset…

When Zeus was done -or maybe he just saw another skirt, or a pair of skinny jeans- he dumped her.

Again.

No surprise.

For anyone but Demeter, that's it. She was about to unboxing a whole packet of surprises.

First off, she was pregnant.

Wasn't the first one; she already have had some children, including a minor goddess and a horse, both from Poseidon.

Yeah, her other brother.

Demeter was ecstatic. Certainly, Zeus would be too, and he would divorce Hera and remarried her and the three would live happily ever after…

Zeus would stop chasing mortals, and nymphs, other goddesses and his cup-bearer boy and focus solely on her.

At least, that was what she tried to believe, but not even she could fall for that. Zeus had never worried much about his children (had he, he would be searching for a way to retrieve Hercules' godlyhood; there were ways, Athena has tried it once, Demeter had too, and both of them would had success if people just kept their noses in their own damned business!).

But no, instead of doing anything to get his son back, Zeus had been goofing around, jumping from bed to bed, if he was using a bed at all.

Just as she was possessive with the fruits of the ground, she was extremely zealous over her very own offspring; both were hers, belonged to her…

And she was scared. Scared, that Zeus wouldn't care. Scared, of being dropped aside, once again, as if she hadn't matter at all from the beginning.

Terrified, of her sister's reaction.

She knew –everyone did- just what kind of actions Hera was capable of. The kind of revenge she inflicted over her husband's lovers and bastards. Both mortal and immortal.

The reason Maya had gone into hiding to give birth to Hermes…

The curse she had set on Leto, so Artemis and Apollo wouldn't been born…

How she had tricked Dionysus' mother so Zeus would killed her himself…

Before, anything else, Demeter set to visit the Moirai.

Because not even gods where above their design.

And yet, Zeus and Poseidon had already proven that Fate could be cheated.