Ok peeps, same deal third story (and it's a good one!) ok, fifth if you want to get technical about it… I don't own Disney's Hercules (unfortunately) but Persephone, Thanatos and all the other original characters and places that pop-up belong to me…

This story takes things from both the film and the series while it also contains some carrying themes from it's forerunners; Plight of Persephone & Daddy's Little Hellraiser (plus a few things from both short stories too) so read them first…

Little hint: if you haven't read it's forerunners then you will get confused because some things that have happened in past fics are coming back in this fate-filled fic..

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…

enjoy x


BubblyButtons2me: Thanks hun! X

AngelOfDarkness1959: Lol, he's right where we left him… X

DakraixCresselia: Hmmm, why don't you feel sorry for Zeus? Err… maybe cause he's a jerk? Besides, you aren't meant to feel sorry for the villain of the story XP

Black Diamond07: I find Zeus in the film and series a little too false for my liking, in myth the real Zeus was never that attentive to his children, although the creators of Hercules got one thing right…. Out of his mortal children Herc was his favourite. As for Hera, she was always far too fluffy and although she had her stern points she was still far too soft, when writing Hera I solely use the episode Tiff on Olympus, it's the only episode which displays her closest to her real myth character.. X

DisneyPrincess: I agree, having no kids of my own makes these chapters very hard to write… I kind of have to go on instinct and how I suspect the characters would react to such a situation. It's difficult, hence why updates are not quite as quick as they usually are, I have had to write and rewrite parts just to make it believable. As for the souls that are trapped on the surface, unable to move because Thanatos hasn't chopped their life-lines.. They are actually meant to suggest that they are in a coma (having a sort of Outer Body Experience)… zombies are dead bodies who have been brought part-way back to life. X

Megacarrol: I actually had no plans to write other gods reactions until later but now that you mention Demeter I will have to write a little bit on her, she is very fond of her grandkids and after what happened with Persephone I doubt her reaction will be pretty. X

Princess Aaliyah: I don't want to give too much away but… yep, in fact, she might already be here, wink, wink, nudge.. As for a Christmas Special, me and Stay did speak briefly about it but nothing was planned so, sorry hun… maybe next year X

MusicLuver78901: Believe it or not I did not change that many details of the actual myth! If you look Sisyphus up on the net you'll see he did indeed exchange information on Zeus and the river god's daughter for a spring fountain… Zeus ordered Thanatos to take him to Tartarus and Sisyphus trapped Death in shackles putting a halt to souls dying.. I won't say the rest for now but I won't be changing too many details in the actual myth ;) X


The Importance of Thanatos

Chapter Twenty-Nine:A Subterranean Realm goes on Strike…

..Darkness..

..The walls? Are they creepin' in?..

Thanatos sighed heavily and shook his head wearily.

..Oy vey.. it's official, now I'm losin' it..

It seemed like he'd been stuck in this tiny closet for eternity, although it was probably more like three or four days… six tops. The white-skinned god couldn't be sure of the exact time as his tiny 'prison' was pitch black and therefore offered no clue to the actual time he'd been there. The closet was merely a tiny rectangular space, just enough room for Thanatos to stand up in but the godling chose to slouch down by the floor with his feet and back pressing against opposite walls… it gave him a false sense of space.

Upon finding himself trapped in this extremely confined area the first thing the white-skinned godling had done was dislocate both his shoulders, veering his manacled arms up over his head and around the front of his chest before popping each shoulder back into place with two sickening cracks. The godling winced as he did this, cursing under his breath because this was a far less painful thing to do in skeletal form… however, since he was shut in this fate-forsaken closet until further notice he didn't wish to burn out his energy.. That would be stupid.

Pain and Panic-style stupid.

..Pain and Panic?..

Thanatos felt a strange sensation inside him, inwardly groaning with an unhappy expression feeling another pang of longing for his underworld home… or maybe it was the weary sense of his dwindling powers due to lack of nourishment.

The white-skinned godling had not tasted ambrosia or nectar since he'd been imprisoned. For the first little while the godling had been getting hunger pangs but those had slowly ebbed as the godling slowly felt himself weakening. Thanatos stretched a white hand gingerly to his head and touched the dome of his bald white cranium tentatively.. He didn't even have enough energy to sustain his golden-flaming quiff. His head felt strangely cold without them now and when he tried to ignite he merely sparked a few times before giving up.

Thanatos knew that he had had a sinking feeling in his gut the day Zeus had ordered him to go and pick up this Sisyputz-guy, it was the same feeling he got whenever he could sense impending doom… he just hadn't realized it was his own doom he had sensed. To make his dire situation worse than it already was, there was only one key that unlocked the manacles that linked his wrists together and it was in Hades' possession… which meant that when his father finally tracked him down, he would be far from pleased to see him..

..Oy, there's that sinking feelin' again..

Movement from the other side of the closet brought Thanatos out of his fretful brooding on what his father would say if he could see him now.. The godling froze, listening intently to the muffled sounds coming from the throne room. Sisyphus had been hiding out in his palace ever since trapping the juvenile God of Death-in-training inside his closet. Since the mortal clearly was on Zeus' Hit List it wouldn't be long before Olympus realised that he was still on the surface. It was strange to Thanatos that the likes of Hermes hadn't been dispatched to check up on him, perhaps this 'Sisy-guy' wasn't as big a criminal as his dense uncle had made out.. Oh that would be just peachy… trapped by a royal scapegoat.. It would be just like his uncle Zeus to set him up like that. Thanatos didn't know whether or not to be relived or insulted that during the entire time he'd been trapped in the closet Sisyphus had barely acknowledged his presence. Except of course when he felt like gloating about 'beating death'..

On these rare moments of interaction Thanatos took malicious pleasure out of irritating the King of Corinth by carelessly pointing out that 'Death always gets his mark'. This was usually followed by silence as Sisyphus stormed off to sulk until he was ready to jeer at Thanatos again..

..It seemed that time was now as Sisyphus' voice rang out clearly from the other side of the door.

'Well, well… how is our little Prisoner of Death?' Sisyphus drawled in an amused tone causing Thanatos to roll his golden eyes and fold his arms with difficulty due to his handcuffs.

'Oh, ha-ha… that gets funnier every time I hear it..' The godling shot back sarcastically.

'Humph.' Sisyphus snorted unimpressed by Thanatos' response. 'You gods are all the same… you think that just because your immortal you can push us around..' He paused before adding, Thanatos didn't have to see a smirk as he could hear it forming on the mortal king's face through his voice. '-well I got news for you little god-' Sisyphus always accentuated the word 'little' as if he was using it to verbally jab Thanatos. '-I managed to push you around, didn't I?' He declared complete with a short burst of gleeful evil laughter to punctuate his point.

Once more Thanatos rolled his eyes wearily.

'Your proud of this, ain'tcha?' The white-skinned godling sneered disrespectfully back to thee mortal on the other side of the door..

'Whatta you mean, am I 'proud of this'?' Sisyphus glared at the closet door, slightly ticked off by the godling's response… did this dim-witted deity not grasp his situation. 'I have subdued Death itself!'

'Uhh, hate to break this to ya Sisyputz..' Thanatos had learnt very quickly that this name ticked Sisyphus off more than anything else. '-but, uh… no ya haven't, what you did was just lock a little kid in a closet..'

'Stop trying to demean my achievement!' Sisyphus snapped as his face tinged a frustrated pink. 'I have managed to do what no man before me has done..'

'Yeh..' Thanatos drawled lazily, sliding himself down further as his feet rose above his head. '-you've managed to not only annoy Zeus you've also inflamed my dad Hades and given him an excuse to get 'personal' with your punishment..' Thanatos clapped a slow mocking applause. 'Bra-voh..'

Sisyphus seethed irritably, this immortal boy was really pushing his buttons now.

'They can't touch me..' The mortal king smirked as he hissed the words viciously. '-as long as I have you..'

..Damn.. Thanatos cursed inwardly. Sisyphus had him there. The godling was silent for a few seconds as he thought of a comeback.

'It doesn't matter.' Thanatos shrugged him off casually then paused.. then slowly, a wide creepy leer twisted on his lips, his eyes narrowed sinisterly then he added in an eerily low voice. '-Death always finds a way..'


Persephone looked around her son's empty bedroom with a mournful gleam in her bright green eyes. His room was exactly the same as it had been when he'd left it to go and collect the newest prisoner for Tartarus. The blonde goddess couldn't remember the stupid mortal's name but since managing the realm of fire and brimstone was her husband's job it didn't matter… all that mattered to her was that thanks to Zeus and his stupid order her eldest baby was missing.

The Queen of the Underworld sighed before flopping down on her son's small bed, wincing at how firm it was. Thanatos preferred a firm bed, just like his father used to before she'd shown him the pleasures of a softer mattress. The goddess then noticed Mr Skelton, the small skeletal teddy was still sitting on the bed, just like it had always done since Hades had given it to him. Persephone picked up the small black and white toy and smiled gently at it, a single tear threatening to roll down her cheek.

She missed her son so much… the Underworld seemed so empty without him.

'Mom..' A cool girly voice sounded and instantly Persephone snapped out of her thoughts and turned her blonde head towards the doorway, seeing her pale blue-skinned seven year old daughter standing there. Melinoe's green eyes looked concerned as she gazed at her mother, the elder goddess then flicked the forming tear away demurely.

'Dad's back..' The way her daughter's words came out made Persephone kink a brow, her voice was anxious and tense rather than pleased. '-and he's just ordered an Underworld Lock Down.' The sombre glint in Melinoe's eyes and the seriousness of her tone was enough to tell Persephone her daughter was telling the truth… that and Melinoe was not one for jokes.

'What?' The Queen of the Underworld sounded in disbelief. She then bounced off of her son's bed and shot out of the bedroom as fast as her black-heeled feet would let her… something very serious must have happened on Olympus to make Hades cease all Underworld business. 'Ohh… I knew I should have gone with him.. what has Zeus done now?' Persephone frowned as she flew down the stairs to the throne room. Her pale blue daughter was right behind her, desperately wanting to know what the Tartarus was going on..


Hades slowly walked down the docks of the Styx, his face was set into a solemn and severe expression as his round golden eyes looked vacantly ahead. Inside the fiery god was still smarting from the revelation that Zeus had undermined his Underworld system once again. The Lord of the Dead and Head Honcho of the Underworld was so enraptured with his hatred towards Zeus and the vindictive pleasure he was going to take out of this subterranean industrial action that he did not acknowledge Charon, who was practically quivering nervously as his boss approached him. The skeletal boatman had always kept his nose clean… not that this was difficult as he didn't have one in the first place. He didn't know why there was no souls coming in to the Underworld, it was always Thanatos who took note of the new arrivals and the manner in which they died. But nobody had seen the boss' kid in nearly five days and how was he supposed to ferry souls if Thanatos didn't send him any?

Charon winced as Hades stretched out a hand towards him and the skeletal boatman coward away, covering his face with his bony hand as his fiery boss snapped his fingers. His eyes still cold and blank as the god was clearly still lost in thought as he turned away without so much as a backwards glance at the boatman. When Charon eventually pulled his hand from his hollow eye sockets, he realised that rather than smite him Hades had chained his long black gondola to the docks by a tight smoky chain. He'd been hunkered down..

Charon blinked in confusion.

In all his centuries of working the docks he'd never been hunkered down before. The boatman then shrugged before dropping his oar and slumping down onto the deck of the boat and whipped out his copy of the Greekly World News. Well, if he was hunkered down he might as well make the most of it..

The Lord of the Dead meanwhile continued down his path, following the path of the Styx around the House of Hades until he reached the lip where the river Styx split had formed the slight oxbow in which his skull palace was built on. Hades raised his arms, looking up into the vast black cavernous void above him before hesitating. He'd never resorted to closing off the Underworld from the surface before.. but then again, one of his own children had never gone missing before. The fiery god had considered asking the Fates where his son was, since they knew everything they would no doubt know. But the old crones would never tell him where Thanatos was, instead they would him some ridiculously snide little rhyme like: 'To give an answer means no lesson learned, you must search leaving no stone unturned..'

He wouldn't give the old bags the satisfaction of telling him something he knew already. It would be easier to just shut down the Underworld completely so he could search for Thanatos himself..

Hades sighed heavily, then almost reluctantly the god's blue flames brightened as his hands glowed blue. He frowned with concentration as this particular power was not one he had had to exercise since the Titan War and it had almost drained him then. The blue light from his fingers instantly spread, dancing through the caverns of the Underworld in spidery webs of pale blue light, bouncing off of the walls as they travelled to the entrances to the subterranean realm.

The entrance to the Underworld in the gloomy Temple of Necromancy began to grind slowly to a close with the noise of stone on stone. At exactly the same moment the entrance on the south-side of the Underworld, located in the Grove of Asphodels, began to close. With the two outer entrances shut the two inner entrances located on the two large meanders either side of the House of Hades grinded closed, sealing the Underworld tight shut. At this moment the pale blue webs of light vanished as Hades flames and palms returned to normal, his golden eyes instantly snapped open and a twisted leer twisted across his lips.

Now that the Underworld was completely sealed off from the upper realms Hades was free to go and search for his son…

…right after he briefed his wife on the situation.

Don't worry kiddo, Daddy's comin'..


'Wow…' Persephone gasped, sinking down slowly onto the two-seater throne after listening to her husband tell her what had happened on Olympus. She seemed somewhat blown away by this new revelation.

'Zeus was-?' The white-skinned goddess tried again to speak but her mind was still trying to take the truth in. 'Oh, wow..' She murmured awestruck again, her dainty hand touched her forehead lightly as she digested the truth, feeling her heart congeal with fresh anxiety over their missing son.

'I know..' Hades muttered gently, sympathizing with his wife. '-this is huge..'

'Ok, I think I'm missing something here..' Melinoe suddenly piped up causing both her parents to look around to her as if only just noticing she was there. She was such a quiet unassuming deity that she was often disregarded until she spoke. '-why don't we do personal vendettas?' Melinoe cocked her pale head causing her electric blue hair to swirl and snake as she looked curiously at her father. Hades sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with a bite of exasperation before he then lowered his hand and looked back to his daughter's curious gaze. It wasn't her fault she had asked such an obvious question, she was only a little girl who knew very little about want went on in her Underworld home. Hades knew that Melinoe missed her older brother, for the last four days the little goddess had moped around the Underworld home looking more forlorn than usual… she like them wanted her brother to come home.

'Because baby girl, that's Hermes' job.' Hades responded but this answer just seemed to confuse Melinoe further as her eyebrows rose higher up her brow.

'What your father means sweet-pea..' Persephone sounded in a slow voice, trying to explain it a bit better. '-is that the only time we ever get involved with the collection of a Tartarus-bound soul is when they've committed serious Crimes Against the Cosmos, y'know-' The blonde Queen of the Underworld twirled her wrist offhandedly as she gave her examples. '-like Prometheus, when he disobeyed Zeus' order and gave fire to the mortals or Typhon for when he tried to destroy all the gods-'

'Exactly.' Hades drawled, nodding his blue-flamed head in agreement with his wife and flashing his daughter a sharp-fanged smirk. 'We don't get involved for piffy little reasons like 'he-caught-me-cheating-on-my-wife-and-sold-me-out-for-a-fresh-water-spring', we're not here to pander to the whims of those self-absorbed schlubs.' The fiery god's flaming hair flickered to a nasty yellow shade as he simmered with anger at their situation.

'Settle down sweetie..' Persephone squeezed his fingers affectionately and her husband took a deep breath and sighed, his flames retuning slowly to their normal blue.

'I know, I'm cool, I'm fine..' Hades shrugged off his lapse in temper with a dismissive hum. '-it just burns my flames when Bolt Boy thinks he can flout Underworld Policy. These laws are there for a reason, y'know..'

'I know..' Persephone smiled sweetly at him, rubbing his fingers soothingly. '-they're there to protect us from being exploited.'

'Exploited?' Melinoe echoed sounding both astonished and sickened.

'We're second-class gods Meli..' Hades sounded darkly, his eyes narrowing with hatred at the thought of his 'biological' brother on Olympus. '-if Zeusy thought he could get away with it, he'd waltz right over us..' The fiery god paused as his knuckles clenched before he loosed his grip and pulled himself out of his sombre stupor. '-but I won't let that happen.' He finished sounding much more like his usual self.

'So what are we going to do about Thanatos?' Melinoe asked, wanting to steer the subject away from Olympus and back onto her brother before her father decided to spontaneously combust. Persephone blinked then turned to her husband, curious to know what he was thinking of doing now the Underworld was shut off from the upper realms.

'Well shnookums, now that daddy has officially shut down the Underworld, this frees him up to go out and look for Than on the surface.' Hades smirked a self-assured leer which flashed the wisdom-fangs at the back of his mouth.

'Can't we just ask the Fates to give us a hint?' Persephone immediately asked causing his wide smirk to drop into a solemn grimace.

'They won't help us.' The blue-flamed god sighed. '-ya know as well as I do Sephy that they'll jerk us around with idle chit-chat before spoutin' some infuriatingly pompous little verse like-' Hades pulled a surprisingly accurate version of Clotho's snide nasally voice. '-'No lesson's learned when the future's foretold, you must wait for events to unfold.'..'

'Urh..' Persephone sighed heavily, nodding wearily. '-I guess your right… I just thought that with Atropos being Than's mentor she might-'

'She won't.' Hades cut of her final words. 'Atropos may be Than's mentor but she has an agenda of her own, whatever she has planned for the kid I'm sure she will expect us to figure this one out ourselves..' Persephone hung her head feeling something like a small swoop in her stomach. She assumed it was probably just worry and she felt another tear threatening to trickle out of her eye. When she raised her head to her husband the goddess looked as though she would burst into tears at any moment.

'I just don't want you to go..' She whispered softly.

'Seph…' Hades sounded surprised and a little alarmed by her watery voice and weepy expression. '-I gotta go find our son, who else is gonna do it?' Persephone gave a sniff and flicked the tears from her lashes.

'I know that..' She sounded in the same upset tone. '-but my emotions are so sensitive and jumbled, I've lost a son… I don't think I could handle it if you went too..' The goddess then lent her blonde head on his shoulder and began to weep softly into his chiton. Hades blinked several times in shock at how quickly her emotional state had changed before sighing and wrapping his arms around her, stroking her blonde hair soothingly.

'Hey, hey… don't get yourself worked up my sweet.' He sighed in a low warm voice, jiggling her softly in an attempt to calm her down.

'Maybe dad doesn't have to go looking for Than..' Melinoe's cool soft voice interrupted their tender moment.

'Huh?' Hades sounded confused as his wife pulled her head from his shoulder, flashing her daughter confused and blood-shot eyes.

'What do you mean?' The goddess sounded in a soft faint tone.

'Duh.' Melinoe replied with a flippant wave of her pale blue fingers. 'Death has stopped right?' The little goddess suddenly smirked widely at her bemused parents and continued in a light-hearted tone. 'Now I don't know about you guys but I can think of one god who's gonna be pretty pissed when he finds out about this..'


Little Notes:

Hey peeps, this is the last post of 2011 so I'll say Happy New Year and good luck for 2012, I sincerely hope the doomsday rumours are false as I am going to become Auntie Ditzy this Feb! Having said that my New Year Plea to others is to review at least one story either by a relatively unknown/new writer or an understated story… one good deed deserves another, whatta you say guys? X

Sorry for the delay in updating, there is so much to consider that these chapters are taking a bit of time to write and I want them to be perfect when they are posted... I'd also like to take the time to thank my silent readers who some writers can forget about. Feedback and favourites are nice but without you guys popping in and out my status numbers would be lot lower… thanks guys!

Ok, now that the mush is out of the way, let's get back to the story…

Again more Zeus bashing, I think your used to it but I'm trying to paint a picture of how hard Underworld existence is and how easy it would have been for Zeus to push his weight around. After all, Hades tried to overthrow Zeus for a reason that Disney's Hercules didn't supply so I've been slowly adding more and more, by the time this fic is finished you'll all see the full picture of why Hades did what he did..

Melinoe is really starting to come out on her own here, I always imagined her to be a kind of subterranean Athena (without the virginal goddess bit) a sort of voice of reason and a calming influence in the Underworld. Out of all my characters she is the most likely to come off Mary-Sueish as her personality is fairly sombre and grim, I don't mean her to come out so two-dimensional but she has inherited Hades' more gloomy aspects and I will try to flesh her out some more later on.

Hmmm, I wonder when Than is gonna come outta the closet? Ha-ha-ha… get-it? LoL XD

Until next year!~!

Ditzy X

P.S. At some point in 2012 I will be writing a one-shot dedicated to all Thanatos' fans entitled: An Interview with Death. It will be Merv Griffin interviewing Thanatos so if any of you can think of questions that you would like Thanatos to answer please let me know by either review or p.m and Merv will ask your question! X