Chapter 8: Rescues, Revelations and Lies

He swam under the water, following that black raven colored swirl of hair with a mix of red, which was all he could make out. Luckily he knew that the river couldn't be that deep, but still it seemed that the mer-demon had a speed in the water that even challenged his muscle strength. He couldn't let this girl die doing Hades' work. No matter what way he looked at it, it wasn't right. Finally they hit the bottom, and honestly he was lucky he had taken such a huge breathe of air before he leapt in the water, because he didn't think he'd even make it this far. The mer-demon cornered between a rock and the cavern like walls of the river, held the girl, and swung his tail like a weapon with its sharp scale like ends, that were more like sharp knives. He took out is sword, and it took a lot more energy to use it then up on land, as the water provided a well unneeded resistance. Hercules managed to cut the arm of the mer-demon, and instead of red blood, it leaked black blood…at least he guessed that's what it was. This caused the mer-demon to get angry, and dropped the girl from his sharp grasp to examine his arm. She floated down in the water, and Hercules dove to the floor, to catch her and began to swim upwards. He reached the top and lifted her up onto the grass before noticing the black shadow of the mer-demon now swimming around him. He gave Phil a warning look and went back into the water.
Moments he came back up holding the tail of a mer-demon in his hand.

"Kid I'm not going to ask." Phil said.

"Is she okay?"

"Uhm given she just fell in the water with the mer-demon….I doubt it." Phil replied unimpressed with Hercules' recent actions, flipping his hand up.

"Gah Phil do I have to do everything?"

"Look kid, do you think that she would have been happy with me giving her mouth to mouth resuscitation?"

Hercules looked at the girl. She had a pulse. He placed his lips on hers and started to try to put air in her lungs.
Suddenly she started to cough up water.

"Are you alright?"

She looked up to see Hercules above her. Good so muscle-boy did save her. Hades was not going to hear the end of his one.

"*Cough* Yea I think so." She looked over to see the tail of the mer-demon on the ground. Damn those stupid pointy scales. "You…?"

Hercules noticed she was staring at the tail. "Heh, heh. Yea well I kind of had to…"

"We'll lucky for you this is the last time you'll be saving me." She went to get up, but fell back down instantly.

"Are you okay?"

She looked down to see the stupid mer-demon had cut her ankle up with his scales.

"You're ankle? Here let me help you." Without any warning he lifted her up and brought her over to a log, not too far from the water's edge.

"Thanks." She said, "But really I have to go…"

He grabbed her hand. "You can't go on that ankle. Otherwise I may have to save you again." He hadn't meant it as flattery; he was serious.

She raised her eyebrow at him. "Look that was the last time you will be saving me. Okay?"

"How come every time I look you're getting in trouble over Hades?" He said grabbing his cape and ripping it off to wrap around her ankle.

"Look you should know of all people, a deals a deal. I…" She looked down. Her ankle was wrapped up now. "Wow, thanks." She thought to herself, "This is going to be easier than I thought."

"So what is this deal?"

"Ugh, if this will stop you from saving me I'll tell you…but this isn't the first time I've made a deal with Hades."

"What? Why would you make a deal with him twice?"

"If you really have to know…a long time ago, my brother got sick. Our parent's died when we were young. It was an illness, so basically there was no way of saving him. I prayed to all the gods of Olympus to help him but none answered. Finally I gave up. Until one day I prayed one last time; I didn't care who answered me. I didn't direct it. I basically said I'd do anything…that's when Hades answered. Basically I made a deal; he would save my brother if I did what he told me too; basically his soul for mine. He already was trying to plan out a way to destroy his brother. I was young then. I did everything that he told me too…until one day he told me he had recruited someone else. My brother was well on his way to recovery and I couldn't even spend time with him…that's when he came to my help one last time." Hercules watched as the black haired woman looked down with a look of shame in her eyes.

"Melaina, what is it?"

"Call me Mel." She looked up and smiled, before pulling out her shame face. "Here comes the kicker …" She thought to herself, inwardly smiling.

"He told me if I got rid of a certain boyfriend of his new recruit than I could be free…which meant that that I could be with my brother...because well he'd have her."

Hercules looked at her sympathetically. "Did you do it?"

"I think you know the answer to that one." She looked up at him, guilty and sad.

He thought for a minute. A girl that had her boyfriend stolen and worked for Hades? Oh, wait, it couldn't be…Meg? His eyes opened wide as he looked down at the girl that had been the start of Meg's carrier as Hades' hench-girl….Hades.