Ok peeps, same deal different story… I don't own Disney's Hercules (unfortunately) and the original 'Havoc' and 'Mayhem' belong to Quantum Witch and I am merely borrowing the names for this fic although the characters of Hecate's minions are completely my own along with Persephone and any other original characters and places that pop-up…

This story takes things from both the film and the series while it also contains some carrying themes from it's forerunner; Plight of Persephone… Little hint: if you haven't read it (or the short story G.W.I) then you might get confused later on..

And a little reminder… Disney twisted a lot of myths for their storylines so I have to do some minor tweaking of my own to make this work… so far, it's working and I'm delighted to bring you the sequel to P.o.P…

Daddy's Little Hellraiser

Chapter Twenty-One:For Queen and Underworld

Pain and Panic were down the docks of the Styx with their clipboards checking in the new arrivals. As his pink partner scribbled down the last details Panic turned to Charon.

'This year's been kinda light don'tcha think?'

'Oh yeh..' The skeletal boatman nodded. '-but you gotta bear in mind that it's only the start of season and when the Proserpina Plague kicks in this place will be jumpin' with 'em.'

'I suppose..' The green imp sounded thoughtfully.

The next second there was three harmonious and petrified girly shrieks and all three subterranean guys turned in the direction of the front entrance to the House of Hades. It took them a moment to realise that it had been the three Sirens that had screamed out.

'Heh, maybe they saw their own reflections in a mirror..' Pain said laughing.

'Yeh..' Panic chortled amused. '-either that or they've spotted another 'icky beastie'..' He air-quoted the words the nymph-girls used to describe insects, as like most girly-girls they had a phobia of anything that was small and bug-like.

Then they heard snarling noises and nervous girly whimpering which made them stop laughing and frown in confusion and concern, they might joke and laugh about those three air-headed Sirens but deep down the imps thought of them like sisters. Charon on the other hand picked up his oar before addressing the imps.

'Maybe you boys should go check that out..'

'Aren't you coming with us?' Pain automatically asked causing the skeletal boatman to snort into wheezing laughter.

'No.. remember, I just row the boat..' He then pushed off the docks and began rowing back up the Styx humming his favourite tune, which just so happened to be 'row, row, row your boat'. Pain and Panic watched him leave for a moment with surprised faces.

'Coward..' Panic snorted before both imps ditched their clipboards and scurried off to find out what was going on…

… at the same moment Hecate slipped into the Grove of Lethe. The witch looked around the silent eerie beauty of the grove which was tucked away in a large circular gully, secluded from the rest of the Underworld. With it's dreary trees, sinister bushes and innocently glowing night-blossoms this place was probably the most beautiful place in the dark and gloomy realm. Hecate glided noiselessly over the ground, her silvery eyes searching for the Queen of the Underworld. The witch soon found the pregnant goddess under a particularly dismal-looking willow tree. She then dropped down to her feet beside the Queen of the Underworld deliberately making a noise to attract her attention.

Persephone swivelled her blonde head around and her bright green eyes widened in shock at the sight of Hecate standing in her grove.

'What do you want..' The pregnant goddess sounded curling her lip in revulsion at Hecate. It wasn't a question, it was a statement expressing her displeasure at seeing the Goddess of Witchcraft in her territory. Persephone made a mental note to talk to Hades about security when he finally returned from his inspection of Tartarus.

'Hi..' Hecate said lightly, keeping her voice friendly. '-I was just looking for Hades, is he around?' She asked innocently causing Persephone to sigh heavily.

'No he's not..' She sounded stiffly. '-my husband is an extremely busy god unlike some-deities who clearly have too much time on their hands.' Hecate's smile faltered at Persephone's lofty tone, obviously this ignorant little goddess had forgotten just what it was that she did as a deity.

'Oh…' Hecate drawled in a low mock-sympathetic tone. 'That's too bad..' She flashed the young goddess a wide toothy leer which quickly vanished. '-for you!' She declared and twirled her torch with a flourish.

The expectant young queen could only give out a squeak of surprise as a long tendril of a strange sticky substance, almost like thick spider webs, issued from Hecate's glowing torch and wrapped Persephone up tight. The Queen of the Underworld who was now bound and gagged narrowed her eyes at the witch before her and she made several loud muffled angry noises towards Hecate.

The witch merely laughed in amusement.

'What's that?' She sounded in mock-misunderstanding. 'I can't understand you because you have a little..' She broke off gesturing to the goddess' gag. '-covering your mouth..' Persephone merely rolled her eyes wearily at this comment before making a brief angry grunt of disgust..

'Oh, shut up..' Hecate sounded irritably, whacking Persephone over the head with her flaming torch. The force of the blow instantly knocked the young Queen of the Underworld unconscious and the witch grinned evilly…

…as the imps rounded the corner to the corner they heard the angry squeal of Tele.

'Leave her alone you big brute..' The Siren ringleader spread her white feathery wings and swooped over the wolf who had been snapping at her sister Molpe and pulled him by the ears.

'Ack..' The wolf gasped in pain before shaking himself violently and the Siren was bucked off, Tele skidded into the black jagged wall with a sharp 'oof' of anguish. The wolf turned on the Siren who stood up gingerly and winced flexing her right wing tentatively. Realising quickly that she'd sprained it Tele then pressed herself flat against the wall looking worried as the winged wolf advanced. His twin brother meanwhile had managed to grab a hold of Raidne and was happily pulling feathers out of the terrified Siren's wings… Molpe seemed to be swivelling her head between her sisters scared and unsure about who she should to go and help first.

Pain and Panic snarled, instantly recognising Hecate's slobbering assistants and both imps grabbed a sharp stick each and held them out in front of them. They then picked their opponent, Pain locked onto Havoc who was plucking Raidne and Panic lanced Mayhem who had Tele cornered, then raising their sharp sticks both imps yelled out,

'Chaaaarge!' Then as both Havoc and Mayhem turned in surprise as both Pain and Panic shot forward yelling battle cries…

…meanwhile, deep in the depths of Tartarus…

'-and as you can see my lord the punishment has slowly whittled away his mind.' Kampe gestured to the lone man on his tiny island who was staring blankly like a zombie. The demon jailer snickered amused at his suffering before moving away from Tantalus, the mass of keys and set of handcuffs jangled as she moved.

Hades shuddered, Kampe was one of the few subordinates under his employ that really creeped him out. Although he had not hired her himself, she had been their since Cronos' rule, the demon had proved herself a worthy candidate to run Tartarus in his absence.

When they had been planning Cronos' downfall it had been Hades' mother Nyx who had suggested that her son seek out Kampe and convince her to release the Cyclopes, she thought that he was the best candidate to do this. Hades remembered first meeting Kampe very well, she'd freaked him out then too… but he had been a cocky arrogant teen with a motor-mouth so fast that he could charm even the most hard-nosed being into doing his bidding.

Kampe had always held Hades in high regard, she of course had heard of the youngest son of Nyx and Erebus through her own father the primeval Tartarus, this made them cousins and family was important to the demon jailer. The realm was like a subterranean version of Gaia, the whole realm was alive and like his daughter Tartarus revelled in the anguish of others but he and his daughter only wished to see those suffer who deserved it.

'Hey, that's great Kampe..' The fiery god quipped rubbing his hands together bringing himself back into the present. 'So.. how's Peirithous holdin' up..' A nasty leer spread over his full blue lips and a diabolical glint in his yellow eyes. Kampe turned and smirked at the god, amusement showed in her bright red irises.

'Why don't you come and see for yourself my liege..'

'With pleasure..' Hades drawled then laughed in the same soft cruel tone.

…back on the Underworld surface…

'Hey… ow… easy now..' Mayhem winced as Panic smacked him several times with the sharp stick hard and Tele scurried away fearfully from the battling minions over to her sister Molpe. The green imp merely looked peeved by the fact that the wolves were picking on the 'defenceless' girls.

At the same moment,

'Ouch… hey, that was my eye..' Havoc whined as Pain jabbed him with his sharp stick causing a terrified Raidne to dart over to her sisters. There was a glint of sadistic delight in the chubby pink imp's eyes as he continued to batter the wolf, clearly enjoying the pain he was inflicting.

Both wolves began snarling in deep throaty growls baring their incredibly sharp, yellowing canines. They lowered themselves into an attack position as though readying themselves to pounce. Neither imp flinched but kept a firm grip on their stick, readying themselves to defend the Sirens and their realm for both Hades and Persephone. Suddenly a firm female voice sounded from above them.

'Havoc, Mayhem..' All seven minions swivelled their heads upwards to see Hecate flying a broomstick and just below her suspended by those thin, but strong sticky spidery-web-things was an unconscious Persephone. '-stop messing around and just grab one of them!' All five of thee Underworld minions gasped at the sight of their captured queen.

Taking advantage the imps shock, the wolf brothers lunged and seized Molpe by an ankle each before spreading their wings and taking off with the screaming Siren in their teeth. Raidne and Tele both screamed out and tried to grab their sister but since both could no longer fly, they were unable to pursue the wolves who were now flying behind their mistress.

Pain and Panic both dropped their weapons and took off, chasing the wolves and Molpe, who was wriggling and trying to break free of her captors. However both Hecate and the wolves were far too fast for the imps and they quickly managed to pull away from them. Both Pain and Panic were forced to retire once the reached the docks of the Styx. After a few minutes both Raidne and Tele appeared beside them on the stone black jetty. The four minions could only watch helplessly as Hecate and her wolves disappeared with both Molpe and the pregnant Queen of the Underworld.

Hades was not going to happy when he came back from Tartarus..

When Persephone came to her head was pounding. Groaning slightly she tried to rub the back of her head before realising that she was strapped against a chair by those sticky binds. The pregnant Queen of the Underworld wrestled with the bindings that were holding her arms around the back of her chair but it was no use… clearly these were magical webs and with the baby asleep in her womb the goddess was powerless to break free. Giving up with a restricted sigh the goddess looked around her surroundings. She was inside some kind of cavern which was dusty and dimly lit by only a few dull yellowy torches. Persephone wrinkled her nose at the dirt… sure, her home was dark and gloomy too but at least it was clean.

The next second the Queen of the Underworld's pretty green eyes narrowed as Hecate appeared in the doorway. The pale-lilac goddess flashed Persephone a wide sharp-fanged smirk ad her silvery eyes narrowed in amusement as she strode over and ripped the gag from Persephone's mouth.

'Filthy witch!' The pregnant goddess snapped the moment her gag was off, she then spat on Hecate. The Goddess of Witchcraft's smirk vanished and she calmly wiped the glob of spit off of her cheek and sighed.

'I see your mother's manners didn't rub off onto you..'

'Why would I waste manners on the likes of you..' Persephone snorted with disgust eyeing the witch as though she was something revolting on her sandal. '-now let me out of these stupid things and I won't send your skinny butt down to Tartarus-'

'Ah-ah-ah-aah..' Hecate interrupted the goddess, waggling a finger in a reprimanding manner smirking amused again. '-we're not in the Underworld anymore Persephone, we're in the Nether-regions.. my realm. Which means that you hold no dominion over me..'

The Queen of the Underworld scowled at Hecate but knew she was right. Despite the Nether-regions being next-door to the Underworld it was not technically under Hades' rule and here, Hecate was free to do what she wanted without reprisal.

'What do you want Hecate..' Persephone sighed heavily, her green eyes looking at the witch with weary submission.

'Well, you might remember a while back..' Hecate sounded conversationally. '-you and I had a little conversation on the docks of the Styx..' Persephone looked nonplussed by this and blinked at the witch, as if she would bother remembering anything that Hecate had said.

'It was before you were married to Hades..' The Goddess of Witchcraft hinted helpfully and The Queen of the Underworld racked her brains before finally remembering what Hecate was on about. It had been when the witch was trying to ward Persephone off of the Lord of the Underworld.

'What about it..' Persephone raised one eyebrow suspiciously at the witch, wondering where she was going with this.

'Do you remember what it was that I said?' Hecate spoke in a heavily hinted voice. For a moment the pregnant goddess looked confused before it came flooding back to her:

'Hades is a jerk! He'll use you then ditch you when he's bored with you..' Hecate had hissed crossly.

'You don't know what your talking about..' Persephone had responded in a soft low voice.

'Oh please… you think he cares about you?' Hecate had snorted. 'He doesn't. the only thing Hades cares about is power.. If given the choice between you or the Underworld, he'd pick the Underworld… every time!'

In that moment Persephone suddenly knew what Hecate was planning to do.

'You wouldn't..' The pregnant goddess sounded crossly, now more than ever wishing that the baby would wake up so she could bust out of here.

'Heh, but I already have..' Hecate smirked a horrible leer at the Queen of the Underworld. '-you see, even as we speak one of your little Sirens is delivering my ultimatum to Hades..'

Little Notes:

Hey Peeps, as I promised on twitter this is one action-packed chapter and the title of the chap is taken from 'for Queen and country' which is often uttered by soldiers in battle, it seemed appropriate since the imps were trying to defend the Underworld.

The memory is taken directly from P.o.P, which gives you some sort of idea of how long this storyline has been in my head although only the speech is a direct quote.

Stay tuned to see how Hades reacts to this open challenge for his throne next time… and don't forget to review!

Lot's of Love… Ditzy X