Ok people, you know the score. I don't own Disney's Hercules (unfortunately) or any of it's characters or places I only own my Persephone and any other characters that I make up along the way so if you wanna use them please ask me.

Please review and be honest with me… my story is taking things from both the series and the film. And remember people, Disney twisted a lot of myths for their storylines so don't complain to me if you don't like my inaccuracies of events I may present you with…

thanks for your time…. DitzyMinx….

The Plight of Persephone

Chapter Twenty-Six: Oh No, not Another Hero!!

It had been five weeks since Hercules had taken down the manticore but he was still the only thing the newscrolls could go on about and his appearance at the Olympic Games had pushed his popularity up further, if that was possible… didn't they have any real news? Theseus scowled at the headline then snorted and threw his copy of the Greekly World News down on the ground with contempt…

The young King of Athens had once been a hero but his career had been cut short because of the death of his father Aigues. On the return from his defeat of the minotaur Theseus and his crew had been so busy celebrating the young prince's success that they had forgotten to change the black sails to white, as a result the old king had seen the sails then distraught with grief, believing that his son was dead, had thrown himself into the sea and drowned… the memory of his death still haunted Theseus two years after it had happened… if only he'd remembered to change the sails, then maybe his father would still be around today and he'd still be considered a hero, he'd be out there having the time of his life, just like Hercules… and he wouldn't have to put up with the annoying presence of Phil…

Theseus' eyes narrowed automatically at the thought of his former coach, the old satyr had always been such a nag. He had constantly ruined Theseus' good times with his stupid 'hero rules'. What was the point in being a hero if you had to follow a bunch of idiotic rules? Needless to say, this caused many arguments between the pair. Every opponent had been like a game to Theseus and he always went in with a barrel full of confidence, how he beat the guy wasn't important, as long as he beat him and his pride remained in tact he would sleep easy… well he would have if Phil hadn't been there going on about 'ethics over arrogance' and 'how fools rushed in without a battle plan'. It got boring listening to the old satyr's lectures and after much quarrelling Theseus was not sorry to see the back of him…

The summer season had officially started now but Theseus and his friend Peirithous, who was visiting from Lapith, couldn't help but notice the change in weather compared to previous years. Usually the summer brought warm breezes, seemingly endless days of sunshine with brief light showers which quenched the land. But this year… it seemed that summer was going to be late this year..

Instead of basking in the warm sunshine the two friends remained in the gazebo just outside the palace. This way if it rained, as screwed up seasons were prone to heavy showers, they would remain dry. Peirithous who was sitting opposite his best friend lifted his brows as Theseus snorted with contempt at the headline on the newscroll and tossed it to the ground. Curious to see what had irritated the young king Peirithous stretched forward and snatched up discarded roll of parchment. His sandy coloured eyebrows shot up further at the headline on the Greekly World News: Man of Might still Matchless: How will Hero Fall?

Peirithous smiled briefly at it then lowered the newscroll and turned to his best friend who was faced away pouting sulkily.

'Still pining for your hero days, huh?' Peirithous sounded slightly amused by Theseus' mood. The former hero turned back towards his friend and frowned.

'You don't understand…' He sighed heavily as his face relaxed and he snatched up a bunch of grapes. '-I hate this place.' Theseus glared momentarily at the small purple grape in his hand. Peirithous watched his friend wide-eyed, before he could think how to respond Theseus spoke again.

'I shouldn't be here. I should be-' He stood up and gestured wildly to the distant boundaries of his high garden wall. '-out there doing what Hercules is doing! Not stuck here running a country!!' Peirithous gazed at his friend.

'It's not fair!' Theseus scowled. 'One second you're the greatest man in the world…the next second-' His fingers squeezed the grape in between them, it's dark juice ran down his hand and landed in droplets on the tiled floor. '-your old man's dead and your stuck ruling a kingdom that you didn't even want!!' Suddenly the muscled youth dropped to his knees and bowed his head. 'I never wanted to be a king…' Finally Peirithous smiled at Theseus.

'I know… but if you hadn't become a king, we'd have never met.' He said soothingly as Theseus wiped his hands before lifting his head and peering at his friend.

'Yeh… you tried to rob me of my cows.' He finally responded smirking.

'Gotta keep you on your toes somehow…' Peirithous sniggered amused.

'Tell me.' The King of Athens tilted his head. 'Why didn't I punish you for that?'

'Because my father would have seen it as an act of war…' Peirithous smiled wickedly.

'Ahhh, yes…' Theseus mused then the smile returned. 'I remember now…' The King of Athens nodded slowly as the memories returned.

Theseus had not long taken his father's place as king when he found his cattle being raided and was determined to catch the robber red-handed… amazingly when the former hero finally caught the thief he discovered that it was a young prince named Peirithous. After spending the afternoon talking they learnt that they had a few things in common; Peirithoos too had a sense of adventure and had intended to go travelling when his schooling had ended… a year after the meeting, Peirithoos' father Ixion angered Zeus and been sent to Tartarus leaving his son with the throne. However unlike his new-found friend Theseus, the young prince of Lapith accepted his new role with ease saying that the adventures would come with being a king… so what could have started out badly between two large states of Greece actually resulted in Athens and Lapith becoming great allies.

'Whatta you say we drink to the good old days?' Peirithous smiled pouring them both a goblet of wine. 'When life was simple…' He raised his drink to his partner.

'Cheers.' Theseus smiled back taking his goblet and chinking it with Peirithoos and the two kings necked their drinks.

Considering how all of the upper world was relying on some sort of divine miracle on Demeter's part, it could be said that the Lord of the Underworld and his missus had also been having an interesting last five weeks. At first they'd both been a little nervous when they thought perhaps Zeus might come down and demand the return of Persephone, Hades may be the ruler of the Underworld but even he was powerless to ignore a Zeus decree, especially after his stunt with the Titans last year. However after two weeks of waiting nervously for some kind of retribution they dropped their guard, perhaps the other gods were actually fine with them being a couple. Of course they were basing this entire theory on the fact that nobody had come to visit them since Hermes had 'interrupted' them all those weeks ago and no news was good news… or at least, that's what Hades thought.

Persephone on the other hand seemed to be more concerned about her mother not visiting, it was not like Mrs Large and In-Charge not to shove her oar in her daughter's life. After sixty years of constant smothering from her mother Persephone found it hard to accept the idea of Demeter turning over a new leaf… it seemed too good to be true. She couldn't help but wonder if the Fates were leading them on, after all they'd messed up her life as much as Hades'. But then even if that was the case, they should enjoy the peace while they had it…

As the weeks progressed and things settled back to normal in the Underworld. As it was now officially summer the souls would be few and there would be long periods where the realm was quite literally, dead to the world. In this time Hades was usually found having a 'summer clean out' or browsing the latest torture catalogues for some inspiration, should… with any luck, a new recruit for Tartarus arrive. However, for once the torture mags remained unthumbed by the fiery god as he still had the Chair of Forgetfulness that Persephone had given him. After testing it out on the imps and then laughing at the frozen facial expressions of terror as they slowly became glued to the chair. Hades was itching to try out the chair for real but he didn't want just any idiots in the chair, oh no. it had to be someone special… luckily, the Fates had just the pair in mind.

Ask any god and they'll tell you, a pitcher of wine and a bad idea is a never a good thing. Even the almighty Zeus cringes when he thinks vaguely back to when Bacchus had first invented the stuff. He'd got completely wasted then for some reason jumped onto a table while waving a thunderbolt and proclaiming at the top of his voice,

'Hey everybody! Look what I can do!!' The Lord of Olympus had then stumbled, accidentally letting go of the bolt of lightning and it had sailed down to the surface blowing up Pompeii, instantly killing thousands. Most of the gods had gasped in horror at this, but not Hades. Instead he had cracked up with hysterics then waved his brother off.

'Hey Bolt Boy!! Ya sure know how to make the party go out with a bang!!' Unfortunately for Zeus, this was the best memory Hades had of any godly get together so he wasn't ever allowed to forget it.

It was also in the case of Theseus and Peirithous, that a pitcher of wine was present as they entered their particular ill-fated conversation.

'Aww…' Theseus slurred as he leaned into his friend. 'How come…' He tailed off trying to articulate his words, a challenge for any man when drunk. '-how come your not married?' Peirithous squinted at his friend then smiled a drunken little grin.

'I'll… letcha in on a little secret…' He tailed off swaying slightly before jabbing a finger and slumping back in his seat. 'I'm savin' maself..' He sounded rolling his head around to his friend. Theseus suddenly erupted into sniggers.

'Savin yourself…' He repeated amused. 'Why? Are all the Lapith women ugly?' Peirithous scowled as his friend continued to laugh.

'No…' He sounded defensively. '-there not ugly…' Peirithous paused and considered Theseus for a moment. 'is that why… your not married? Cause all Athenian women are ugly?' Theseus stopped laughing at this then shook his head…

'Nah, I haven't seen a girl I like yet.' He responded as Peirithous squinted at him.

'You're a beautiful man, y'know that…' He sounded finally and Theseus started sniggering again.

'Heh, if your comin' on to me Peirs.. I ain't interested.' He laughed harder at this and collapsed back into his seat.

'I'm serious man..' Peirithous sounded before sitting up slowly so he wouldn't feel dizzy. '-you're the best looking man I know… you deserve a wife as good-looking as yourself…'

'I know…' Theseus sighed. '-but nobody in my kingdom is worthy of being my queen.'

'Yeh… that's how I feel about Lapith women…' Peirithous agreed vaguely.

'We should go on a quest to find ourselves the best wives.' Theseus sounded slumping down onto the arm of his couch. He then scowled briefly before adding, '-but no mortal women…'

'Wait… what?' Peirithous blinked several times.

'You get with a mortal woman…' Theseus slurred firmly. '-and she leaves ya… she leaves ya when some god comes sniffing around.' He scowled to himself vaguely thinking of Adriane.

'No way, yes… hell yes!' Peirithous suddenly grinned moronically. 'Yeh, man… you're a freakin' genius…' Theseus who was now resting his head on the arm waved his hand vaguely in the air as though acknowledging his own greatness.

'I know…' He sounded faintly, muffled slightly by the couch.

'-we'll get immortal women…' Peirithoos sat up sobering with excitement at the plan. 'We should aim high! How about nymphs-'

'We can do better than nymphs!' Theseus' lifted his head up sounding scornful at the thought of having a nymph bride.

'Yeh, yeh… we can have goddesses… we're good-lookin' enough for them..' He paused thinking then a light seemed to go off in his head. Theseus peered bleary-eyed at his best friend for a long time as he gazed off slack-jawed and cloudy-eyed.

'What?' He sounded irritated by the silent treatment. 'What is it?' The King of Athens reached around then chucked a pillow at his best friend's head. 'Hello… earth to Peirs… drachma for your thought dude..' Peirithous snapped out of his trance and beamed at his best friend.

'You want the best looking girls in the cosmos right?' He grinned at Theseus who rolled his eyes.

'Well I sure don't want your grandma..' He responded sarcastically. Peirithous ignored this and carried on.

'Then let's get daughter's of Zeus!' He declared making Theseus grin widely.

'See.. That's what I'm talkin' about man!' He rubbed his hands together. 'Who'd ya have in mind?'

'Well…' Peirithoos smirked. 'I heard this one daughter got kidnapped…'

Little Notes:

Hey Everybody, I stayed up really late writing this for you so I'm gonna be knackered for work so please find it in your hearts to review.

Ahh, yes… those of you who know your myths probably saw this coming the second I mentioned the Chair of Forgetfulness in chap 24. This is one of my favourite Hades/Persephone myths but please don't flame me for ignoring the fact that these two were looking to replace their wives in the original myth… this is Disney peeps, they screwed up first…

Ok, I also mentioned in an earlier chapter that Zeus adopted Persephone as a daughter after her father died, I'm just fanning the belief in my story that… maybe mortals don't know that.

Take care peeps I'm off to bed now.. Lot's of Love Ditzy xXx