It's always the same...

I sometimes wish that I could go back and change what happened. To find some way of making sure that it was one of the others that got this assignment for eternity. To make sure that I was not confined beneath the cold Earth.

I had very little to be angry about, to be honest. I was the lord of the dead, the god of the underworld. My power within this domain was absolute. And my powers even outside of it were substantial. I was not known as one of the Big Three for nothing. My powers were rivaled by few, and surpassed by none.

And yet there were those times. Those moments when I sat upon my throne, surrounded by my army, more vast than anything the mortal world had ever seen, and could not help but gaze through the centuries, the millenia. And wonder how it would be if I had not been given such a black realm.

I had seen so much in my thousands of years. The changes in the world, the events that shook humanity, and the comings and going of empires vast. I could remember the day that we were assigned our respective duties by fate, and first miserable years that I spent down here, cursing all fortune, that I could not hold power over the sky like my youngest brother, or even the vast oceans as my other brother.

Why should I be depressed so long? I was the god of the dead, one of the mightiest Olympians! Mortals trembled at the sound of my name, and I controlled some of the darkest and most powerful creatures that the world had ever been stepped upon by. My armies could be assembled, and one would never find the end of them, for their number increased by the minute.

And yet I sit upon my throne. And I sit alone...

Persephone was here, and I loved her very much. I may have forced her hand, but I did so out of earnest love. I remembered that she hated me with a passion at first, despite all my gifts and attention. I made it clear that I loved her. Eventually, after the episode of her eating of the seeds, she soon admitted that she had fallen for me at last. Life for me, despite it's constant gloom, had somewhat brightened now. She even forgave my occasional infidelities, my occasional taking of mortal woman. Including Maria...

The thought of her name sent a surge of agony into my heart, and though I made no such sign of my grief physically, her face still lingered behind my eyelids whenever I closed them. Even after all these decades, she still haunted me.

Haunted me...like a ghost? Ironic for the lord of the dead to be haunted...

But there was no other words to describe it. Her laugh still echoed in my ears. He voice, her soft Italian accent still whispered through my mind. And her face...oh, by all the things immortal...I could swear that I could feel tears still trying to form when I thought of her face, her eyes. I tried no to think of her when I was awake and performing my duties as a god, but when I slept, those eyes were looking at me, straight through me...and they glittered with love.

What had made her love me? I was not the Olympian many would think of when it came to being loving or merciful. But I had some of the fewest infidelities than many of the other male gods. In fact, I was the only one to maintain my word of the oath, an oath that is now twice broken, first by Zeus. And no I have heard from my furies that Poseidon had indeed violated the oath as well.

Those bastards...they have the gall, the audacity to say that I am a heartless god, and yet they are the only ones to trample on an oath they made upon the river Styx. I alone have kept my word, and I alone have maintained my honor.

I still remembered the pain of that day. When Maria had agreed to leave with me, but not without the children. She had just given me one last loving smile and left to retrieve something from her room in the hotel. And that was when he struck.

I sensed his bolt just seconds before it struck the building. I only had enough time to throw a shield with all my power over my two children. The Hotel was blasted to splinters, along with her...

I grit my teeth against the wave of emotional agony. It had been over sixty years since that day. And it still stabbed me each and every time I thought of her. At least I made sure her spirit was safely within Elysium, to be at peace for eternity. And my children by her were safe within the Lotus Casino, watched over by my furies. No harm would come to them there, even from the other gods. I know my brother would eliminate them if had a chance, and I would use all the power at my disposal to make sure that Zeus never laid a finger upon them.

And so here I was, sitting on my throne as always, the great Hades. I am the lord of the dead, and inside, I feel as dead as those I govern...

But let the other gods think that I am a cruel, heartless being. Let them and the mortals fear my name, and sneer at it as well. Let them call me cruel and brutal, but I know the truth. I know that my honor is there, and I keep my word, no matter what that may be. How do I know this...?

Because she said so. And not for even a second would I ever question Maria di Angelo...

One of my furies approached and informed me that the son of Poseidon was coming with several of his friends. Apparently they wanted to get the lightning bolt that I "supposedly" stole. I grumbled with annoyance, wiping Maria from my mind just before they entered the throne room.

Mortal heroes coming to demand something of me...

It's always the same...