Opposing Forces

by SoundofInsurrection

Free of Hellsing control, Alucard leaves Seras & Walter in England to see to a potential threat in USA. What seems an easy mission quickly gets complicated by unknown motives of Iscariot and local vampire hierarchy. The Vampire King must reevaluate his plans as the fates of two innocent humans caught in the crossfire fall to him to save or let perish. Read 1st chap A/N for details

73. Chapter 72 The OG Cerberus Part 5

A/N: The OG Cerberus chapters are officially done with this monster sized conclusion. I'm taking a short breather from this bender of writing and editing, and then we'll be back to our regularly sized chapters and pacing. Despite the suck dominating most of the chapter, I hope readers appreciate it for what it is and enjoy the ending.

Chapter 72

The OG Cerberus- Part Five

The Dread Fenrir needed a minute to force himself into as deep of a detached mental state as he could manage. A state he could sense the King of Death had already shifted into, making himself all but a ghost in the shared awareness. Then the memory of when the careful plans went so terribly wrong manifested for them to view.

Cerberus was sitting on the bench in the solar, facing the chamber's doorway. He had a low current of calming energy being channeled to Kore in the room behind him. He could hear his nightingale's even breathing and heartbeat from being in a shallow sleep. She had agreed to his suggestion to get some rest while waiting out the remaining planned night of attack now that Apollon had been confirmed to be gone from the palace premises. His unsheathed ōdachi was resting against the warded marble wall next to the inside of the door so as to not be immediately seen if some innocent individual unexpectedly came to the door. The jet handle had dully glowing carmine and violet sigils carved down the entire length. The steel blade had a silver infused edge that was honed to a razor sharpness, bearing its own faintly glittering prismatic sigils down the length of it. The sheath was resting next to the eastern great sword, made of treated cedar, reinforced with bands of silver and black jade, and bearing its own dully glowing indigo sigils. Not that he'd be actually using the sword tonight if needed to confront Apollon, but it would serve as a momentary misdirection to make the hawk think the fight would follow the usual rules before unleashing the real attacks.

The Second Son of King Poseidon was keeping his active thoughts busy during this wait by maintaining a mental visualization of a complex Atlantean water clock counting down until when dawn would be breaking. It was three-quarters of the way there. When that visualization came to an end, it would be reset with a new timer to when it was time to serve Kore her lunch. When that one ended, the final time would be set for when the King and Queen were expected to return from his father's Kingdom. The official reason for the trip was to personally pick up the expensive orders on materials for Kore's Queen-worthy wedding regalia that Doris would be crafting into the finished outfit and ensuring the goods made it back to the Kingdom of Light securely, and offer their royal gratitude for the production being fulfilled as promised. Thanatos wasn't expected back from the Underworld Kingdom for another three days. It was his turn to be consulting with the King of Death on his sister's behalf for various fine details of the upcoming wedding festivities. The Shadow Prince and Void Dragon would end up putting the current preparations on an unexpected hold once the King and Queen of Olympus returned and Apollon and Zeus's treachery was exposed; receiving the message the Matron Dragon would be sending them and speeding their way here for the trials Queen Hera would be calling for.

The wait was interrupted by a knock on the door that couldn't be heard, but caused a noticeable ripple in the ward's lights to alert the occupants of the room that there was a visitor seeking entrance.

The War-Prince noticed that ripple and a ward immediately went up in his mind to protect it from intrusions as he calmly stood from his seat on the bench. By the time his full height was stretched out, he had in mind the complete layout of enchantments he'd be systematically springing as attacks or using in defense if the person on the other side was the enemy. His bare feet were silent to even his keen hearing as they met the marble floor. Soothing vibrations were still being sent to Kore so as not to wake her if this was only a servant or messenger who was ignoring the healer's orders for some reason they had deemed critical to do so.

Cerberus reached the door and opened it part way to view the visitor.

Crown Prince Apollon was on the other side; and his stance and aura were an unexpected presentation that forced the Head of Guard to momentarily stay his plan of attack because he needed to ascertain the explanation for it. Apollon was still dressed for the festivities that had been taking place- his knee length platinum hair was coiled into a rope like braid, and his glittering crown of golden laurel leaves and diamond sun bursts rest atop his head. His sunflower yellow, knee length chiton was held in place by a white leather belt that bore along its entire length amethyst irises with yellow topaz insets in the petals, and the front panels and shoulder folds were secured by matching golden flower pins.

Apollon's massive golden-brown wings were in a relaxed fold at his back, feathers decorated with gold and crystal dusts that had been attached with a delicate layer of adhesive. Refined hawkish features were set in a passive expression. His emotional aura was radiating out a mix that was two parts concern, one part inherent princely impatience at having to wait for the door to be answered. Golden flames in what would normally be the irises of eyes flickered sedately up and around his void-shadow pupils. That gaze was at the same height as the Head of Guard and meeting the latter's gaze passively.

In one of the Crown Prince's relaxed hands was his favorite gilded platinum lyre- an instrument adorned with engravings and tiny gemstones to make a design of topaz suns nestled in emerald laurel leaves, upswept ends formed into arrow heads and supporting the line of strings that glimmered opalescent with latent magic. His long lethally sharp claws bore their usual fitted golden caps to render the tips safely blunt when partaking in peace time activities, each cap etched with an iris blossom on the top side. His other hand was out in offering, gold-tipped claws holding the end of a finely crafted roll of lambskin parchment. A bleached parchment that was being purposefully held to display the wheat-colored wax seal that was a perfectly formed two inch circle. A seal that bore the clearly pressed stamp of a peacock resting atop a lotus blossom, with tail feathers fanned out and six stars in the eyes of the main fore-feathers.

The Crown Prince of Light's voice was a naturally near-hypnotic flow of bass tones, pitched to a discreet and mild whisper, explaining his presence without waiting for a greeting or questions asked. "I found myself unable to enjoy the festivities with the knowledge weighing on me that my beloved youngest sister was feeling ill and had an absence of company while we were carrying on with the celebrations. I decided to sacrifice my evening to make a speedy trip to Atlantis to ask the Matron Dragon if she was willing to overrule Iris's orders so that I might sit with Kore and play some relaxing melodies to aid her rest, or more joyful but still sedate ones when she's awake to help keep her pleasantly distracted. My parents were just sitting down to breakfast with your father and family when I arrived. I answered their concerned questions as best as I was able from what Iris had detailed and assured them there was no need to come rushing home with Adonis Cerberus and Iris providing such attentive medical care; I was simply concerned for Kore's personal comforts, especially the potential for her to fall into sadness from missing all the festivities. The Matron Dragon agreed with my concerns and sent Hebe to fetch her writing supplies; and while she enjoyed the breakfast tea, she wrote out your altered orders for Kore's convalescence so that you would be assured of its authority over Iris's strident, albeit well-meaning, academic opinion."

The Head of Guard's mind was racing with rational calculations as the Crown Prince spoke, and the fine hairs on the back of his neck were prickling with the sense of there being imminent danger. The War-Prince kept his expression perfectly stoic and, trying to buy time to decide how to proceed, accepted the Queen's sealed missive. The hawk's expression, stance, and aura maintained what they were as the parchment was taken, giving no hints of there being any malfeasance to this request for entrance. Mind still rapidly evaluating ways to deter the Crown Prince's attempt, Cerberus used the sharp claw of his forefinger to snap the seal.

The moment the wax cracked, a hidden magical energy was unleashed and traveled on a lightning like path through the Head of Guard's nervous system.

Apollon's aura remained the same, but a victorious smirk formed as the guard wolf found his physical form paralyzed, trapped in that physical state, and his magic bound within that physical form. He calmly pushed open the door further and started to step inside the room.

Cerberus had already cut the empathic connection to Kore, shifted his mind to bring up a panicked terror, and sent the empathic attack launching at the enemy to try making him flee the room.

Apollon's smirk sharpened as he finished entering the room and, as he ignored the next three empathic attacks of different varieties that were attempted by the War-Prince, he said with polite whisper unchanging for the deceptive benefit of any keen ears that may overhear, "Thank you, Adonis Cerberus, for the allowance. I promise not to cause any disruptions for my sister's rest this evening." The door closed softly, and his aura shifted to a malicious victorious amusement as golden-fire gaze turned to meet the guard's. His voice remained the same tone as he taunted, "You really believed I wouldn't eventually figure out some way to counter that empathic attack of yours, even if you've been sworn to my family for the last millennium? My dear sister, Eris, has been most helpful in aiding my experiments to develop a countering enchantment to such attacks. I've had the capability to block them since before you became My Sun's guard dog. I feel ripples against the enchantment, alerting me to the attempt, but whatever emotions you're trying to force on me are not even faint echoes to my senses. I wasn't sure how I may need to spring this new binding on you, but I had a feeling it might eventually be needed to cease your barking at your betters and wanted a special occasion to surprise you with it. Fortunate that I have spares of my parents' seals when they need missives handled they don't wish to personally oversee; wax is an accommodating medium for curses."

Both princes could hear Kore shifting in the next room, breathing becoming irregular as she started to waken from the lack of empathic vibrations to keep her sedated and picking up her eldest brother's voice.

Before she had chance to fully awaken, the Crown Prince made his follow up attack in a blur of nearly unparalleled supernatural speed. His favorite lyre was snapped in half over his knee, support string slashed in the middle. Deft flicks of throws sent each arrowhead edge flying to the top corners of the wall opposite the windows, imbedding halfway up the metal, and strings were just as swiftly wrapping around the Head of Guard's wrists. Faster than the span of a single beat of his racing heart, Cerberus found himself slammed against the warded wall and suspended four feet off the ground by his wrists. The noise of the impact jarred Kore fully awake and he could sense her confused fear already starting to form as she tried to reactively evaluate what woke her. His own mind was being self-wrestled into a detached state as he desperately tried to direct his magic to sense out the unfamiliar enchantment affecting him and making attempts to dismantle it, evaluating what effects those attempts had, and coming to the distressing realization that the initial attempts caused no discernable damage.

As the Atlantean War-Prince was making those internal struggles and there was the rustling sound of Kore starting to sit up in her bed, Apollon calmly took a step back, looked in her direction with an inquiring expression in place, and called over with near hypnotic tones pitched to passiveness. "My Sun, I have a question for you and, while I know you must be disoriented in this moment from waking, I am giving you an official order to answer without delay or evasion..." Her heartbeat became more frantic, and Cerberus could sense fear turning to panic. "...Did you have a vision last night of what was planned by father and I to take place this evening?"

Kore stuttered in panicked shock, clearly unable to form words as she was trying to make sense of what was happening.

The Crown Prince's expression and tone remained as they were as he prompted, "I realize you're in a disoriented state, beloved, but a simply yes or no will do. Did you have a vision last night of what was planned by father and I to take place this evening? Yes or no?"

The Oracle's multi-tonal voice was a discordant terrified whisper as she compulsively answered with a stutter to the word, "Yes."

Apollon heaved a sigh and gave a nod. "I reasoned as much. And yes or no, did Adonis Cerberus set in motion a plan to try averting what you saw?"

As the War-Prince glared down at the Crown Prince in defiance, mental state staying steady as he continued making relentless efforts to escape the curse, he sent Kore a direct empathic ripple of extreme warning and danger because he realized the general idea of what play the enemy intended.

Kore tried to stutter out a question, trying to delay answering as confusion and panic grew higher and she tried reasoning out what was happening.

The hawk cut her off, tones now carrying a hint of warning within the otherwise mild order. "Yes or no, Kore. Did Adonis Cerberus set in motion a plan to try averting what you saw?"

The Oracle stuttered out, "Yes, however..."

The Crown Prince again cut her off, tones passive once more. "Thank you, My Sun, for answering my questions. That was all I needed confirmed to proceed with dealing with matters. I sincerely apologize for what you are about to witness, but it is unavoidable now."

Golden flaming gaze went to the Head of Guard and the Crown Prince made a few gestures, sending a small burst of magic that reinforced the ward coursing through the Head of Guard's veins, then layered a secondary enchantment to rest over his skin. That secondary ward sizzled, sending shocks of searing pain into Cerberus's awareness as the sigils burned their way into the top several layers of skin.

Apollon said stoically, multi-tonal voice now directed to a single fused vibration, "Adonis Cerberus, by the preemptive granted authority of King Zeus, King of Life, Dragon of Fire and Air, and King of Olympus, and my own authority as the Crown Prince of Olympus, Lightbringer and Right Hand Enforcer of the King of Life's Will, I charge you with conspiracy to commit treason against the Kingdom of Olympus, with the unlawful aid of Adonis Thanatos, the Shadow Prince and Left Hand Enforcer of the King of Life's Will, at the seditious behest of King Hades, Dragon of Void and Earth, King of Death and the Underworld Kingdom..."

"Apollon?! What are you doing?!" Kore cried out in a higher discordant pitch. Sounds of her stumbling to get off her bed as she yelled in protest, "No! No, Apollon! Stop! No! No!"

Cerberus continued making his desperate systematic efforts to try releasing himself from the binding magic before this twisted façade of proceedings could reach their end.

The hawk ignored the Spring Princess's protests, issuing the charges. "...The counts of treason previously stood at conspiracy to undermine the authority of the King of Olympus, conspiracy to undermine the authority of the Crown Prince of Olympus, conspiracy to undermine the lawful courtship of the Crown Prince and Spring Princess, and conspiracy to destabilize the Kingdom of Olympus..."

Cerberus had a clear view of Kore reaching the doorway from where he was suspended. The Spring Princess hadn't stopped to grab proper clothing and was dressed only in a summer sleeping wrap of cotton with pink and green rosettes woven at the hems, pale arms and legs from mid-thigh down bare. Her long chestnut braids, currently bearing summer beads of topaz and emerald roses, flowed to the floor and dragged on the ground past current sight. Her golden eyes were filling with tears, panicked aura at unprecedented heights. Her gaze was on the Crown Prince as she tried protesting again, discordant voice stuttering on the words.

The Crown Prince kept his gaze resolutely on the War-Prince, vicious intent showing in the golden fires flickering brighter as he continued speaking without the slightest trace of hesitation. "...Significant enough evidence of these counts of treason was flaunted in public awareness during King Hades's unlawful proposal being put forth and you have been found guilty of the charges. A second count of all charges are now being made for your attempt to avert a diplomatic recourse being taken to rectify the crimes committed, and I am invoking my joint authority to find you guilty as charged."

The Spring Princess rushed forward at a blurring speed, and the hundreds of gold-set beads woven into the six feet of braids that flowed behind her like a train of a dress made an almost obscenely cheery tinkling music as they skittered over the marble floor. "Apollon! No! Stop this!" She grabbed tight hold of her brother's arm, delicate claws failing to do more than press against his skin because of the magic he had long since infused for his self protection. The Crown Prince heaved a sigh and flaming gaze turned down to meet hers with a more stoic expression as she said, "I beg you, do not do this!"

The hawk said with a pacifying pitch to his multi-tonal voice, "Kore, My Sun, it would be best for you to go wait in your bed chamber so you do not directly see this traitor being executed. I will send a servant to clean the mess once matters are fully resolved."

"No!" Kore refused with horror flaring within the panic. "The charges... This is... You are twisting what happened! This is wrong!"

The Crown Prince raised a platinum eyebrow, exasperated amusement starting to infiltrate the more neutral emotional aura he had been attempting to keep active. "Is that what this misbehaving hound has convinced you to think? I promise you, My Sun, the interpretation of events he has been feeding you is not where the truth resides. I know you are very fond of your guard dog, but he is a treacherous hound who has been conspiring as charged, and he needs to be dealt with before he causes any more trouble."

Kore glared up at him, little fires starting to form in the golden irises as defensive anger began to form alongside her panic and horror. Fangs flashed as the Spring Princess let out a brief draconic Soprano scream and blast of her emotions, the former causing the Crown Prince to flinch in pain from the pitch, but he couldn't quite pull free from her grasp.

Apollon's free hand connected with her cheek with a resounding smack, cutting off the vocal attack. He snapped out as she stared at him with indignant shock and anger for the strike, shaking his head that was clearly ringing from the sound, "Your feral attack dog's empathy tricks didn't work, and yours certainly won't this night. And if you dare another screech like that, you will find yourself being punished for the assault with more than just a slap."

"You would dare reprimand me for assault?" Kore retorted, but her fear could be felt creeping back swiftly enough with it coming to her awareness one of her few forms of self-defense was useless. "With what you are attempting tonight?! You cannot twist truth with me and expect me to be silent! Adonis Cerberus is innocent of the crimes you accuse him of and I will not allow you to murder him!"

"Is he?" the hawk asked with tones remaining sharp with rebuke. "I know you believe that, Kore, but I can assure you, there is much you have been unaware of, and your dog has been willfully twisting your interpretations of events to benefit himself."

Kore shook her head. "That's not true, Apollon! Stop lying! Stop this! What supposed proof do you have of these accusations?"

The Crown Prince said without hesitation, "The charges were, as stated, shamelessly self-evident in how proceedings were undertaken because the King of Death's hubris knows no bounds and he knows he is immune from death sentences and can easily afford financial damages being sought. Such confidence and selfishness made him careless in not making efforts at keeping hidden the parts our brother and your conspiring hound played to fulfill his goals of bringing you the covert offer of the proposal and allowing it to be heard..."

"That's not a seditious act!" Kore refuted. "It is a proposal that he had the right to offer. A proposal that Thanatos does not have the right to refuse on my behalf. Nor does Adonis Cerberus have right to refuse to let my brother speak with me. The offer was made quietly, yes, but it was only an offer. It was my choice to accept or refuse. I accepted, so it moved forward in official ways. There is no conspiracy there! It is a plain course of events!"

Apollon gave her a mildly irritated look, as one would give a stubborn child refusing to behave. "My Sun, do you truly expect me to believe you heard the King of Death had offered a marriage proposal and you leaped at the chance to say yes? Or did certain individuals in that room, and perhaps later our mother, exert influence to lead you to that answer?"

Kore glared up at him in indignant anger. "Giving me council is not the same as forcing me to give an answer. I can listen to advice and weigh it with my own understandings of situations and come to my own decisions."

"If the advisements are balanced and made with your best interests in mind, then that would be a fair point, beloved," the Crown Prince said with tone and expression not changing. "However, you have been given bad faith council that was heavily weighted to herd you into the decision you so rashly made, and now we find ourselves needing to fix that before this becomes an irrevocable disaster."

"Apollon, I know you are unhappy with what my decision was, but making such accusations..."

"Kore," Apollon interrupted, "Have you once stopped to ask yourself why Thanatos and Cerberus went about things in the way they have? What they stand to gain from it?"

"They are not trying to gain anything for themselves!" Kore protested vehemently. "Thanatos brought back the King of Death's proposal while seeing him for other matters because he felt it would be the best marriage for me! Something Adonis Cerberus and mother both agree with for their own differing but valid reasons! Are you planning to have mother charged with treason as well because she supported Hades's proposal?!"

"Father and I hope it will not come to that," The Crown Prince said dismissively. "If the lesser traitors are dealt with, that should be enough to convince mother to see the error of her decisions. For now, all you need know is that Thanatos and your dog have not been acting in your best interests as they claim. They are placing their interests before yours."

Kore shook her head in denial. "No! No, they are not! Stop lying, Apollon!"

The hawk sighed, made gestures that sent a few more bursts of magic at the Head of Guard to further reinforce the wards keeping him neutralized, though it was unneeded because the War-Prince had barely managed to make the internal one react and the external one in his skin and the lyre's wires remained untouched. Apollon turned his attention back to the Spring Princess. His hand gently went over one of hers, aura starting to radiate with disappointment and resolve, and pulling loose her grip. He said, tones returning to their near hypnotic natural state, "Kore, My Sun, I know they have you convinced otherwise at the moment, but I am not lying to you." He pried loose her other hand, and held both cradled between his own as he continued speaking. "You have been fortunate to live a very sheltered life, with all you could desire at your talented fingertips and never needing to worry about the atrocities that can lay outside Olympus or being exposed to specifics of the long, vicious history that has dominated the past. You have no idea what Hades is truly like, but father and I have been dealing with him for over seven millennia. I can promise you, what small unpleasantness that tonight will be is something born of love and a desire to protect you. It is nothing compared to the horrors and depravity that will await you if you become the Void Dragon's Queen, and you will be trapped in that infinitely more miserable situation for the rest of your existence."

Kore shook her head yet again. "No! That's not true! Thanatos, mother, and Adonis Cerberus would never agree to arrangements that would put me in danger! And King Hades is an honorable King who holds to his given word! He has promised to conduct himself with honor in all ways!"

Apollo gave her a patronizing smile, eyebrow raising again. "Kore, you should know by now what appearance a person gives to the outside world is not always what resides within them. Do you know what the King of Death is like behind warded doors? Do you know just how 'honorably' he treats his concubines? The things he does to them behind wards, with no one there to pass judgment on his actions? Why father was so insistent to have them removed from the palace before your arrival, and so frustrated when you ignored his vastly more experienced council for such matters?"

Kore's tears started falling faster as she said, "No, I do not know. I do not care what King Hades does with his concubines. That is between him and those women for what they enjoy together. I am not a concubine. I will be his Queen and wife and he will conduct himself accordingly."

Apollo made a chiming tsk-ing noise, shaking his head as pity slipped into his aura. "My honey-sweet, naïve Sun. I know you believe that to say it so assuredly, but that is not the truth of matters. The King of Death is very good at projecting the right image of himself as ages pass and views evolve, but I can assure you, he is the same primeval brute he has always been. His word to conduct himself with honor by only proceeding with interactions as you allow means very little when he will be trying every underhanded trick he has learned over more than seven thousand years to undermine your perceptions and mold you into submitting to the appetites he keeps behind closed doors. His concubines started off much the same as you, and you are going to end up just as they are, even if it takes him hundreds of years to accomplish his goals."

The present day King of Death had been keeping himself in a detached state this far; but he couldn't immediately suppress flickers of defensive fury in reaction to hearing The Hawk, a habitual wife and child stealing rapist who was about to commit such an attack on his wife, repeatedly try to twist decidedly personal details of such natures to try turning that wife against him. The repeated reminders that her father had always been harboring such intolerant views of alternative pleasures, and the slap his wife had been dealt, also wasn't helping his temper. He managed to suppress the reaction swiftly enough, reminding himself this was an event from the far distant past and he knew what his and his angel's relationship truly was like, but his stoic mindset was already feeling the strains. Daciana's flashbacks of the attack she had been through were only that- a few seconds of broken memories that he had accidentally caught glimpses of. This was bearing witness to much more and he was just as powerless to stop that reality from having taken place.

Kore shook her head, but all she could manage to definitively say was, "No. No, I will not end up as they are. I am not them."

"No, beloved, you are not them," the hawk said, expression intent. "They are different individuals, and so what you speak is truth. It is also truth that you will inevitably end up being treated as they are because the Void Dragon is devoid of love and cannot help but devour all the kindness and love and innocence from those who were unwary and allow themselves to get close and be entrapped by him." As the Spring Princess continued shaking her head, his multi-tonal voice took on a deeper hypnotic quality. "Yes, My Sun. Bright as you are, you may withstand his manipulations longer than others have, but he will still blot out your radiance, eat away at your spirit, and leave you a hollowed out husk like those concubines are. As indecent as it is to speak of such things in a gentle princess's presence, perhaps you should know some of the things that will be awaiting you behind closed doors."

That line of accusations hit a very sore spot in the Vampire King's psyche. Cerberus could hear a few fleeting echoes of similar words being said in English with a heavy Austrian accent and see a flicker of an image of the Van Helsing patriarch before Vlad was able to shove the memory back down. Defensive rage and denial became constant embers burning in the shared awareness.

"I am not a concubine," Kore stated again, voice becoming more discordant in tandem with her distress. She sharply pulled her hands from between his, fires flickering in her eyes again. "What Hades does with them is nothing that will be done with me. I do not want to know those details! I am not a concubine, and neither am I a child! Stop this, Apollon! You are still trying to twist this situation! You are trying to distract me from you twisting events to make false charges against Adonis Cerberus! I will not let you do this! This is wrong! This is all wrong! I beg you, stop this before you do something that cannot be undone!"

The Crown Prince reached out to stroke her cheek, and she pulled back with disgust flaring in her aura. He said with eyes narrowing a fraction, "My Sun..."

"Stop calling me that!" Kore demanded furiously. "If you held true love for me, you would not be doing these things this night!"

Apollon gave another sigh. "Kore, I am doing these things because I love you as deeply as I do. I cannot bear to watch you make such a grave error and be slowly destroyed for it."

"That will not happen! You will not harm Adonis Cerberus, I will not allow it, and you cannot stop my marriage from going forward! King Hades will keep his word with the intent he assured of and Adonis Cerberus will be there to make certain that is not strayed from!"

"Your dog is no match for the Void Dragon," Apollon said sharply, fires flickering brightly with a fierce anger both empaths could feel, causing the Spring Princess to shrink away. "Nor would he be inclined to aid you when the King of Death starts his corrupt influence because he is already Hades's obedient little hound. He will gladly watch the Void Dragon do to you the same things he would watch be done to the concubines. Having been such an obedient dog in helping deliver you into Hades's clutches, he will likely be given permission to do the same once Hades grows bored and decides he wants a turn to watch, just as with his concubines."

Cerberus was still fervently trying to dismantle the magic holding him captive. As Kore shook her head in denial and glanced his way, he sent ripples of emotions directly to her- a mix of assurance and his love for her, and then denial fused with fury for what was being said, and then returned to a flare of reassurance and love before turning his full attention back to trying to escape.

The Crown Prince couldn't sense the exchange, but he could clearly guess something unsaid had happened as Kore's gaze turned up to him with a defiance mirroring the War-Prince's and she said steadily, "I do not know what happened in privacy between Adonis Cerberus, King Hades, and those concubines so long ago, and it is of no concern to me. I know my Head of Guard has always done everything he can to uphold his oath to protect me and he would never allow any entity to harm me, no matter who they are. I will not let you twist truth into knots to try confusing me."

Apollon's burning gaze went to the struggling Head of Guard as he said with a deceptively calm voice, "It appears that your guard dog has done a thorough job of his own twistings of truth, and continues such subversions even without capability to growl out his lies. Which only reinforces why this must be dealt with as intended, before his treason causes deeper upsets for our family and Kingdom."

"No, Apollon!" Kore's voice slipped into an enraged, reverberating growl. "You are not executing my Head of Guard! If you try to, I swear..."

A blur of supernatural motion had the Crown Prince clapping a hand over the Oracle's mouth before she could make her oath. His voice was an even more furious growl as he snapped out, "Are you insane?! Do not dare to finish whatever reckless oath might have been about to come out of your mouth!"

The Spring Princess pulled away with a fang revealing snarl, still defiantly glaring up at him. "You are the one plagued with insanity if you believe I will simply allow you to harm Adonis Cerberus after how faithfully he has served his duties over all these years. If you try to execute my Head of Guard, I..."

The hand was back over her mouth, tighter this time and with gold-tipped claws indenting against her jaw. The other hand gripped the back of her slender neck, long fingers wrapping around and thumb claw nearly touching forefinger's, to keep her from pulling away. The hawk had leaned down to be just above her eye level and he gave an icy warning, "I realize you are upset, Kore, and that you are laboring under the poor perceptions those guilty of treason have gone to lengths to convince you of, but you will cease your attempts to make such oaths or you will find yourself also being punished for such reckless and disobedient behavior."

Kore's attempts to pull free stilled as she sensed the threat and fury in his aura flaring. Golden eyes returned to normal as she stared up at him with fear starting to break back through her defiant anger.

Apollon's expression became passive once more, in opposition to his emotional aura remaining steady in furious warning. He leaned further down and placed a gentle kiss to her forehead, and sighed as she tried to flinch away. He straightened his stance as he took a few breaths, the anger radiating off him died down, and disappointment infusing his aura could be sensed. He kept his restraining hold on the Oracle as he said quietly, voice returned to its almost entrancing patterns, "My beloved Sun, I am attempting to be as civilized as possible about these matters, but your treasonous dog has made that very difficult to do, and your misguided anger with me makes that even harder. I had no desire for things to be so upsetting this evening. I am quite certain that whatever you saw, it was not nearly this volatile, was it?"

The Spring Princess had new tears forming and she glared up at him without making attempt to give a nonverbal response.

"Kore, I'm not holding you tightly enough to prevent all head movement, so answer the question. Was what you saw at all like how tonight is now unfolding?"

She gave the faintest shake of her head, still glaring up at him as tears started making trails down her cheeks and colliding with the hand still clamped over her mouth.

"I have no desire for this to be so unpleasant, My Sun," the Hawk said, a sad downturn of lips forming. "I am truly sorry that your guard dog has behaved so poorly and pushed events in these ways." As Kore tried to shake her head in denial to that assertion, he continued his attempts at pacification. "Yes, beloved. My intent was to handle matters as quietly and gently as circumstances would allow. The one to blame for things becoming so unpleasant is strung up right over there," a nod of his head, gaze still meeting hers, "as he deserves to be."

Kore gave another shake of her head, tears falling faster as fear started to morph into terror.

"You can deny it all evening, Kore. It does not change that Adonis Cerberus's crimes are what they are, and his judgment has been decided."

The Oracle shook her head in disagreement, defiance creeping back into her gaze.

"My Sun, stop acting like a stubborn child and think like a rational lady for a few minutes," the Crown Prince said with an intentionally patronizing level of exasperation forming as he stared down at her. "That hound strung up is not one of us. He was willing to forsake his obligations to his own family, King, and Kingdom for a singular selfish reason. Do you truly think he will not sell out a family that is not his own? That he has such strong loyalties to our Kingdom? If he feels there's enough benefit to it, he will gladly run to the last King available to sell his services to, and leave our family even more shattered and defenseless than he left his own as the payment for such refuge."

Cerberus felt fury flashing up and cracking through his stoicism in response to not only the repeated warped accusations against his current conduct and character, but the even more warped supporting charge of supposedly having a lack of concern for what the consequences of that past decision might be.

He felt Kore's aura shift in response to sensing his fury, the change happening in mere seconds. Loving understanding and trust managed to push up just enough through her fluctuating fearful state to be sensed, trying to soothe his deeply stabbed honor by making it clear she knew such charges were false. Her refusal of such accusations was given physical expression to her brother with a shake of her head.

The Atlantean War-Prince managed to force back down his distracting rage, focusing instead on all the more fiercely trying to sense out the complex magic binding him so he could dismantle it, get free, and then make his enemy pay the ultimate price for every single harm, small and large, he was causing this evening. That hawk was going to be dead and plucked if his nightingale could keep the enemy distracted just long enough for him to get free.

"Kore," Apollon said with a hint of warning entering his voice. "Stop reactively shaking your head at me like a stubborn child and actually think about matters."

The Spring Princess kept still, but her glare remained and indignance was forming in response to being spoken to in such fashions.

"I know you do not want to hear it, My Sun, but your Head of Guard is not the loyal little puppy he pretends to be with you, and his actions today reinforce that. He has you convinced they are towards your protection, but that is not truth. He is being an obedient hound to Hades's will, in hopes of winning back his master's affections and being granted a place in the Underworld Court. What council he has given you in these matters is driven by that motivation. And what did he do when you gave him forewarning of how father and I planned to stop treasonous intents? He immediately set on a course to turn our family against one another."

Apollon's gaze went to the War-Prince as he said with a mocking smirk forming, "A conniving plan that almost slipped past me. I will give you due credit for being as stealthy a wolf as always..."

Cerberus's internal attempts to free himself became subdued and intentionally taking on the wrong magical emanations as the enemy's attention was directly on him. The Atlantean War-Prince sensed light brushes of magic against the enchantments to survey their state as the fires in the Olympian Crown Prince's eyes flared brighter; then the hawk's energy retreated to conserve his magical stamina for his pending violent purposes, and smug satisfaction filtered into his aura.

"...But you are without a pack of your own and still underestimate how well ours know one another and overestimate your perceived value. My father is as sick of your barking as I am and wants it put to an end, and your barking today has sealed your fate. The lie you directed Iris to tell was very convincing; I did not suspect anything this morning. When I came to check on My Sun out of genuine concern for her state of health, your façade as the dutiful guard dog was flawless. Then the festivities started, and I started to notice some oddities."

The hawk made a chiming tsk-ing noise again. "I do not believe Alcides was in on your little plot from how he conducted himself, but that is something I will need to dig into deeper later. When I had my boxing match with Ares, on the other hand, I knew why I was venting frustration. I couldn't help but notice he seemed to be doing the same, even if he was trying to keep it restrained. My mind came to the quick conclusion that, with the festivities being in his beloved daughter's honor, his pride was feeling particularly threatened at the prospect of losing his status as champion and so he became more aggressive to not have to face such an embarrassing loss. Then Artemis challenged me to the drinking contest. One of our favorite pastimes between games, but she seemed to be taking it a little more seriously than usual and there were fleeting glints in her eyes that I did not like. My mind came to the obvious conclusion that she knew me as well as I knew her, so she must be able to tell my mood was not its best. The lioness is always on watch to make sure the men in the family do not let their dragon tempers out, ruining the mood for the women and children. I did my best to try shifting into a more festive spirit to allay her concerns, but she still seemed almost imperceptibly wary."

Cerberus's experimental assaults on the internal ward went back to their real patterns, but he kept them to lower frequencies to avoid attracting notice if he decrypted the correct means to cause them damage.

"Involving Eros was a mistake. Your conspiracy and diversions became heavy handed at that point. Being nearly evenly matched as we are in the races, even in my mildly intoxicated state it seemed off to me that he would risk losing the lyre his mother gifted him at his last centennial birthday. Unless, of course, he for some reason thought there was no true risk in making the wager. I had two hundred laps around Olympus to sober up and consider matters from a more critical standpoint. To wonder why these beloved family members were acting strangely, what they might have in common, where the behavior might be traced back to. Suspicions began to form by the time I finished the race. I won despite my distracted state. Eros was grudging about his loss, but overall too sporting about it, which served as another suspicious behavior to add to the list.

"As I was resting and partaking in refreshments, I started noticing the occasional subtle glances they didn't realize I was noticing. I decided to get to the bottom of matters. Aphrodite has many skills, but she has small talent for sensing certain soul skills, especially when she's been drinking and distracted. It took the barest touches of my awareness to prompt her during our first dance. Thoughts flashed through her awareness before she could bury them, and I could sense she wasn't aware of me being behind it. I waited a few minutes, then gave another very careful nudge, and her awareness fed me a few more insights before it actively suppressed those thoughts. The thoughts were enough to ascertain there was a plot, the false framing to my father and my plans to strike the right cords with those particular family members to cloud their judgment, and that she had been your key agent to involving others.

"I am deeply disappointed in them, but I know that once they're given the true and complete explanations, they're going to be most apologetic for falling prey to your lies so easily. I considered how best to handle matters. The steward is a very loyal man. He wisely trusted me when I told him it was a matter of royal security that he add a draught I handed him to the wine and mead being served to my family, and to be certain to do it discreetly and in very specific measurements as a preventative from a danger I had been made aware of. I did not wish to cause alarm when it was such a simple remedy to avert, and I'd be taking my leave of the festivities to deal with the source of the problem directly. After a few servings, depending on their weight and tolerance it varied for just how many it took, they started to feel tired and staggered off to bed on their own. They're all deeply asleep right now, and will be remaining in that slumber until my parents return, I can inform my father of what needed to happen, and he can have a discussion with my mother. Then we will wake my siblings and have a family conversation about aiding treasonous dogs we made the foolish mistake of adopting, and them recklessly ignoring when that dog tries to bite the hand that feeds them."

Kore's fear was rapidly returning as she realized there were no reinforcements coming to their aid, despite Cerberus's attempts to send her reassuring and determined vibrations as he fought to get himself free. By the time the hawk was done speaking, gaze having returned to her, his hand was being bathed in a fresh round of tears.

Apollon sighed again, aura reflecting frustration and displeasure as he observed his sister's reaction. After several seconds of silence, he said, "I know this is unpleasant for you to consider, My Sun, but I need to protect our family from any and all threats. If I agree to execute your treasonous hound as swiftly and painlessly as possible for his crimes, will you cease trying to make whatever rash oath you were attempting to make?"

Kore didn't make any sign of agreement, but embers of fire flickered in her eyes.

"Beloved," the Crown Prince said with eyes narrowing a fraction to return her glare. "I am trying to show some measure of lenience, but you are trying my patience."

Kore tried to move her head to free her mouth, words muffled against his hand.

Apollon sighed and then said, "I will let you speak, but if you attempt to make whatever oath you intended, I will silence you with magic this time. Understood?"

Kore hesitated, then nodded because there was no promise being made with that question.

The hawk released her mouth, but the other hand stayed restraining the back of her neck. "What is it you want to say, My Sun?"

"I cannot agree to your offer because I know Adonis Cerberus is innocent of the crimes you accuse him of," Kore said quietly, discordance distinct in her multi-tonal voice with her increasing upset state.

"You believe he is innocent," the Crown Prince countered immediately. "As has been said, the evidence..."

"I know Adonis Cerberus is innocent," the Spring Princess reiterated, interrupting his words. "Adonis Cerberus has always tried to protect me to the best of his capabilities. He has only ever tried to look after my best interests to the best of his capabilities. He has not conspired in the ways you accuse him and he is no traitor. I will not speak an oath at this moment, but I will speak truth. I will not allow you to murder my Head of Guard for crimes he did not commit. You can try to subdue me. You might be able to rape me this night."

To that blunt statement, Apollon's aura flared with indignant anger and denial.

The Oracle kept speaking intently, golden flames burning in her eyes as her aura radiated out conviction, "You might be able to keep me from running for help for the next several hours until our parents return. That does not change the truth that you have no cause or authority to try executing me. You cannot kill a legitimate member of this family without calling a full court, and killing me is the only way to keep me from speaking what I interpret truth to be. Any actions you take this evening, I will be called on to give my interpretation of events when mother and father return from Atlantis in the afternoon. I will speak truth as I know it, and I know you will face our mother's wrath when she hears what an Oracle such as myself has to say, especially if you murder my Head of Guard. She will call a trial as law demands and you will be facing an inter-Kingdom assortment of judges. How do you think they will interpret matters, especially with me bearing witness? If you murder me to keep me from speaking my truth, without a proper trial to condemn me of some worthy crime and sanction an execution, you will be signing your own death sentence in the process. I know the Matron Dragon will see to that, no matter what our father has to say about it."

The hawk's aura was a bonfire of haughty disbelief and fury for such threats being made, and his hand around her neck tightened to the point her breathing was becoming partially impaired, but the Oracle continued to defiantly glare up at him.

The King of Death's embers of rage were becoming inflamed at the increasingly rough, unsolicited treatment of his angel, and it was difficult to smother it back down even with reminders this was only a memory, not events he could intervene on.

The Crown Prince was silent for the span of thirty heartbeats as he considered how to respond. His aura shifted to one of resolution, and his expression became icy as he warned, "Well then, my beloved, if that misguided interpretation of truth is one you are so committed to standing by, you are backing me into options for resolution that are going to be even more unpleasant than the ones I had decided on when I first entered this room. I am sorry things will need to resolve this way, but you are not leaving me much choice if things are to start being shifted back on course."

Kore didn't have the chance to ask what he meant. There was a blur of motion, and in the span of three of her rapid heartbeats the Spring Princess found her arms quite thoroughly bound to her torso, tied up by a latticework her own long braids, and placed in a sitting position on the solar's bench.

Apollon gave a sigh as his gaze went over his impromptu handiwork, and flickers of lust could be sensed entering his aura as his gaze lingered on her slender bare legs.

Sensing The Hawk's lust for his wife billowed the rage from embers to steadily flickering fires. The Void Dragon kept the thoughts walled up in a section of his awareness to keep them from The Wolf, but he was viciously contemplating all the many ways to torture The Hawk for such intents to keep his temper under control.

The Crown Prince of Light met the shocked golden gaze staring up at him, took a few breaths and returned his mental state to a staunch resolve, and then said with multi-tonal voice affecting amused reproof, "Not what I had in mind for this evening's events, and not my best work, but that should keep you from causing too much trouble or provoking a stricter form of punishment for such willful disobedience." His voice shifted to tones melding as one, and he continued speaking seriously. "You clearly are in need of a more shocking demonstration of the truths I am attempting to make clear to you this evening. You should know, My Sun, that I sincerely have no desire to expose a gentle soul such as you to such things. You are leaving me with no choice because this is the only way you might start to understand what it is that father and I are trying to protect you from."

Kore's gaze darted fearfully back and forth from her brother to Cerberus, who was unyielding in his silent efforts to break free from his magical captivity. His efforts were only just starting to cause more than passing ripples in the internal enchantment; his mind swiftly cycling through a pattern of interpreting effects from each attempt to dismantle the magic, calculating adjustments, and then trying again. As Kore's gaze settled back on her brother, the War-Prince's attention shifted just enough from his methodical work to let surface a blend of defiance and love and resolve, sending it out to his nightingale in silent message for her not to relent on her refusal to bend to the hawk's will out of concern for his well being. He could sense her concern and fear reach back at his energy, and he sent a stronger pulse of reassurance and defiance; a silent command for her to trust that he could withstand whatever the hawk might try.

"Apollon," the Spring Princess said carefully, voice shaking as her gaze stayed on him. "I do not know what you are intending to do, but I beg you, do not do it. This is not going to help matters between us. Harming Adonis Cerberus is not going to steer my views in the direction you want them. I beg you, do not do what violent acts may be in your thoughts right now."

The Crown Prince's aura was unwavering in its resolve, and his tones remained full of united command, "Kore, what I am about to do is not something I want to do. You say you do not care what sort of activities Hades has participated in with his concubines, but I have heard some rather disturbing tales slip out of the Underworld Palace, and so has father. And while it is not common knowledge, little tales of intrigue between the Void Dragon and this dog did find their way to our ears as well. You are not going to enjoy seeing these things tonight. I do them because I want you to imagine what it would be like to have to live with Hades's making subtle attempts to manipulate you into seeing them, and then bending you into agreeing to participate in them..."

Kore shook her head a few times and her gaze averted to the ground, rather than to her captive lover so as not to draw unwanted attention to him again. Her emotional aura shifted enough to get concerned inquiry to surface for his efforts.

"...Yes, My Sun. And I can make educated guesses to how some of those manipulations will proceed..."

Cerberus was still having difficulties making progress, but sent his nightingale a ripple of confident assurance to indicate that the magic was not outside his capabilities to dismantle. He felt anxiousness and relief in immediate response and sent back another flicker of reassurance before turning his active focus back to fluctuating his magic in different patterns to try chipping away at the enchantment.

Apollon was continuing his quiet verbal attacks on the Spring Princess's perceptions of the situation. "...His concubines will be on the palace premises, and they might 'accidentally' pass you in the hall while smelling of his freshly satiated desires. Or a fold of their dress will slip for just a few seconds and you will see some mild mark leftover from the last encounter, before it gets shifted back to place with a convincing show of embarrassment for the slip. Lots of small little incidents that build up reminders that you are not fulfilling your obligations and they are the ones sharing his bed. A few years from now, when you are still refusing to share yourself with him because you are not ready for such things and do not desire him, you will be taking a walk somewhere. Maybe you will be enjoying pleasant weather outside, or maybe you will be going down a corridor to reach a room where you plan to make one of your new art designs. Wherever you are going, you are going to 'accidentally' cross paths with them quietly but passionately coupling in some place that is not technically forbidden, but is still not as discreet as it could be. Your senses will pick up on the emotions and sounds before you see it, but that is all the indignity that will be intended to be dealt for that instance.

"The King of Death will be relentless in wearing down your dignity and autonomy, deftly dismissing your anger if expressed, making quiet comments that feed into feelings of unworthiness and misplaced guilt. He will wear you down until you give yourself to him in the 'honorable' ways obligated as his wife. He will behave himself and extend efforts to give you pleasure; he will put on a convincing show of being satisfied and pleased with your more innocent performances in the bed chambers, encouraging you to do so again with less reservations. For a short time. Then you will notice him growing dissatisfied, and his games have begun again. He will return to his concubines. After nights when you've refused to be more 'adventurous', that time with the concubines will be notably longer to send a signal of how dissatisfied he was. You're going to eventually come upon him with them again, under pretense once more of it being unfortunate timing, and this time, it will not be such a quiet or innocently proceeding coupling between them..."

Cerberus felt a shift in Kore's aura, self-conscious doubt and anxiety forming from the scenario the hawk was spinning. He sent her a flare of denial, disdain, and pointed accusation. When her gaze flickered to him for just a second in confusion to his meaning, he immediately gave a sharp glare at the Crown Prince and then returned his gaze forward with stoicism returned. Kore's gaze was back on the floor, but he felt disgusted understanding taking the place of the other emotions, indicating she received the wordless message that he knew the Crown Prince was making accusations that could be rightfully said of his own private behavior with lovers.

Vlad wasn't about to drag this memory viewing out longer than it already was taking, but he did briefly divert his rage enough to allow a grudging gratitude surface in his mind for The Wolf to sense for the repeated defenses he had tried to make on the absent King's behalf. Cerberus allowed a flare of acceptance and a sense of fiercely protective kinship to surface in response, but then went back to his needed state of stoicism to continue his grim duty of translating what was taking place.

"...Then he will orchestrate an elaborately planned satisfaction of one of his more violent appetites, one that will be unusually painful for a concubine to withstand. Wards or no in the room it happens within, such unpleasant behavior in your proximity sets off a vision for you. You cannot walk back down the other way of a hall to avoid watching; you cannot remain in another part of the palace or leave entirely for a quiet retreat for time to yourself. More precisely, you could do those things, but it will not matter where you physically are. You will be forced, many times over, to view just what depravities your 'honorable' husband desires, what acts he wishes you to eventually agree to partake in, until he eventually does the deed with the concubine and brings the vision to an end.

"The behavior will repeat, again, and again, and again, until you again agree to do something you had no desire to do just to placate him. Something small, hoping it will be enough concession. It will not be. He will push again, until you concede again. Then he pushes a little further, and you will again eventually cave to the demands. He will keep pushing until you are willing to give him whatever he wants, until you are just like his concubines. Even then, he will still have them there to play you off each other and have new depraved acts he thinks up being 'willingly' committed to in hopes it will keep his attention favorably on you. For when his favor is with another, they will be granted comforts and measures of superficial kindness, and you will be made to feel just how unneeded and worthless you truly are in his eyes. You will end up being his new Minthe, the Queen concubine."

Kore's gaze stayed on the floor through the verbal assault and her aura was radiating a chaotic maelstrom of furious denial, confusion, fear, and doubt. Cerberus could only make guesses to what she may be thinking, but he trusted those emotions were not directed at the wrong parties. His work on the internal ward was causing small unstable fluctuations in the magic as his own magic continued an unrelenting siege of a complicated mix of essences to simultaneously try dismantling its different aspects, fine tuning what that mix needed to be and how to apply it.

Apollon bent down and placed a claw beneath her chin, tipping her face up to meet his gaze. His aura radiated conviction as mesmerizing tones said quietly, "I know you have been told otherwise, My Sun, but that is without a doubt how things will take place. It is how the Void Dragon ensnares a deep seeded loyalty. With his closest advisers and generals, his concubines, and even your guard hound over there, who had the poor fortune to be repeatedly under the King of Death's corrupt forms of hospitality as a hostage of war. I will grant your faith in Cerberus some measure of weight that there is a chance your dog is so thoroughly ensnared he does not actively understand what he does, but he is acting as Hades's obedient hound in current matters. That treasonous behavior cannot continue or he will damage this family and endanger you."

Kore was silent as she gave considerations to those words. Her multi-tonal voice held a semblance of it's normal melodic quality as she said, "Adonis Cerberus has been loyal to our family and protecting our interests for nearly a thousand years. For two hundred and ninety-eight of those years, he has been devotedly protecting me as best as he is able." The Spring Princess ignored her elder brother's flares of anger and pressed forward her theoretical argument. "If you can concede there is a chance Adonis Cerberus's actions are not knowingly and willfully treasonous, then you have a responsibility to acknowledge that his millennium of unbroken faithful service has earned him the right to be given a chance at redemption; and you, as Crown Prince, and the rest of our royal family, have a responsibility to show mercy and aid a war prisoner from unseen damages he has been trying with honorable intents to mend without outside aid."

The hawk's anger became steadily abrasive as the Oracle deftly trapped him in his own logic. A growl rumbled in his throat as he swiftly stood and paced away, clearly meaning to regather his thoughts to make more careful arguments before he became further cornered.

Cerberus's attention had split again and he sent his nightingale a slightly longer stream of emotions than past ones, a mix of confidant reassurance, love, and profound grateful approval. Kore gave a concerned glance in his direction, but he could sense her relief at his silent encouragement that she had just secured his death sentence being revoked. Whatever the hawk may decide on, the War-Prince knew he could withstand it; then he'd be getting free and bringing down a righteous wrath onto the enemy.

He could see his nightingale was making similar calculations during the brief time their gazes met. As her gaze returned to the floor, her stormy aura of emotions began to be replaced by fearful acceptance and shaky resolve.

After a moment's thought to interpret that aura, the War-Prince realized Kore was trying to mentally prepare herself for withstanding the foreseen attack, to serve as the prolonged distraction he needed to get free. He sent an immediate wave of defiance and ferocious denial because that was not an acceptable option. Dismay and remorse formed in her aura to the rebuke, clearly at a loss for how else to try to protect someone who was meant to protect her as she was steadily running out of other stalling tactics.

To that, Cerberus extended out some of the conflicted remorse and vengeful fury he was trying to keep contained to maintain a clear head, making a silent promise he would be launching his attacks the moment he was able and apologizing for her ending up in a situation she should have never been placed in. She just needed to keep delaying the hawk as much as she could, without resorting to accepting being his next prey.

Kore didn't avert her gaze from the floor, Apollon was pacing back towards her, but he could sense flashes of intense possessiveness, trust, and forgiveness. He understood her rebuke and assurance as easily as she understood his offerings. Even with this night steadily morphing into a greater horror than her vision, she still wasn't blaming him for his failure to protect her. That incited an almost soul breaking amount of guilt and sense of unworthiness for having failed to prevent what was happening. Something he knew Kore could feel because she forced her emotions to become even more protective and her love for him was infusing it.

As his nightingale turned her gaze up to look at the hawk who had come to a stop in front of her, Cerberus shoved down the self-sabotaging emotions he was feeling. There would be time enough for that after. First things first- they needed to survive. He sent her a powerful flare of his love for her mixed with steely resolve and hope; offering what reassurance he could that whatever was coming, he would survive it, he would get free soon enough after to protect her as he had sworn he would, and then they would recover from this nightmare together.

Then the War-Prince enacted the tactical choice to pause his efforts on the enchantments and concentrate on pushing himself to the edge of a wholly detached state of mind, cutting off the emotional connection to his nightingale. The Olympian Crown Prince's attention was soon to be focused back on him. If he was sensed to be still resisting, that could be used to declare him willfully remaining 'treasonous' and execution would be happily reinstated. Hopefully, Kore would close her eyes to not witness whatever lesser punishment Apollon had decided on; and once the hawk started his attack, he'd push himself fully into the disconnected awareness to keep her senses from picking up on whatever pain was inflicted on his physical form. Once the attack was weathered out and he was no longer the primary target of scrutiny, he could return to his escape attempts and actively send out the numbing sedation to her to ease whatever emotional distress she ended up in.

The Second Son of Poseidon brought to mind a raging waterfall that resided far to the north of Olympus; and, in the space between heartbeats, his awareness formed a complex sensory illusion to take refuge in. The remembered feel of the frigid water beating down on his muscles and acting as a massage gifted from nature itself. The roaring sound of it that would fill his ears and drown out the rest of the material world. The smell of the waters that had their own unique nuances to their natural pureness from the location's influences; much like how the same prized grape seeds could go on to create different tasting wines because they had picked up subtle notes when planted in different soils. The seeming weightlessness of his physical form as it lazily floated in the pool of water beneath the waterfall. The sense of oneness with that primal element and the anticipatory knowledge that there would be peaceful release from mundane senses and consciousness when he shifted forms and allowed himself to be swallowed up by the waters for a time.

The present day Atlantean had been using the very same technique to achieve a Zen state of mental emptiness, with a different waterfall in Germany being the focal point in the privately conducted meditation. Unlike his past self, he knew what was coming. He had no idealistic hopes about how the night would end. With having that awareness and being unable to fully lose himself in his meditation because he needed to maintain this memory playing out so clearly, faint bits of distress and dread were starting to leak into his mind. By the time this memory had played out, his recent attachment to that particular German waterfall would be tainted for quite some time from associations to the memory. As he had in the past, however, Cerberus chose the location for his meditation for a strategic reason; he knew he could sacrifice each location for future usages without feeling greater conflict for the loss. He never used locations with deep personal ties when he knew something unsolicited and decidedly unpleasant was needing to be weathered through.

The King of Death could sense The Wolf's mental state starting to have strains and actively tried to get tighter reins on his fury because he instinctively interpreted the shift to indicate the worst of events must be about to start unfolding. He managed to suppress the rage back to embers as The Hawk started speaking, but he couldn't force himself completely back to stoicism.

The Crown Prince's expression was carefully arranged to one that was emotionless, but his aura held an intense perverse maliciousness to it. His multi-tonal voice was returned to an illusive hypnotic flow as he said, "My Sun, you certainly are making things far more difficult than they needed to be this night... I can concede your argument may have merits, and father and I did agree that matters should try to be handled with as few upsets to you as possible. That does not change that your dog still needs a punishment delivered for his misbehavior."

Kore stared up at him in silence for a short time, dread growing in her aura. When she could finally frame her thoughts, she asked with almost painful to hear discordant vibrations to her higher pitched voice, "What... What are you going to do to Adonis Cerberus?"

"Adonis Cerberus is going to be punished for sowing as much discord as he has. Then he is going to help make amends for some of his treasonous behavior by helping me give a small demonstration of what sort of troubles and deceit will await you if you were to stay committed to the poor advice you have been given to marry Hades. When we are finished and I have ensured Hades cannot take you as his bride, your misbehaving dog is going to be brought to the dungeon for holding. I am going to make up the counter enchantment for his blood ward and you are going to be a smart lady and drink it..."

Kore immediately shook her head to that demand. "I will not!"

A sharp, confident smirk twisted onto the hawk's lips as he said, "I am quite certain you will have changed your mind by then, beloved. When father enters negotiations with Hades for the broken marital arrangements, your disgraced former Head of Guard will be offered back to his master as part of the reparations, to be done with as Hades chooses. If Hades is as honorable as your dog thinks and he's convinced you of, then he will see to whatever 'unseen damages' the hound has being mended, as well as aiding his recovery from his punishment. We will find you a more appropriate Olympian Head of Guard to fill his position and then we will see what can be done about moving past this night's unpleasantness so that we have peace restored by the time our son is born so he is not plagued by an unhappy entrance to this world."

The Spring Princess shook her head again, renewed tears welling up. "I will not willingly mate with you, Apollon. If you try to force me to, it will be rape. You will not convince me to relieve Adonis Cerberus from his sworn duties. I beg you, stop this before events become too broken to be mended."

"We both know you are under compulsions to do whatever you can to try keeping arrangements with Hades moving forward," Apollon said assuredly. "You have also had the misfortune of being exposed to harmful influences from this misbehaving dog and our conspiring brother. I regret things must be handled in the coming fashions, My Sun. You may not be able to see it yet, but I am fixing what has already started to crack before it can be shattered entirely. It may take you some time to be willing to see the truth of matters, but you will come to forgive me. There will come a day when you thank me for doing what was necessary to protect you from the infinitely worse horror that would have been awaiting you."

Kore continued shaking her head, tears streaming down her face and splashing onto her lap. "Apollon, I beg you..."

"I know you do, beloved," the Crown Prince interrupted. "I expect to hear that many more times this night with how poisoned your opinions have been made and with the compulsions you are under. You can beg as much as your gentle heart demands of you, but these matters are decided on and enough time has been wasted already." The hawk's flaming gaze turned to the Head of Guard and he walked forward with a nonchalant stride.

Cerberus felt the hawk's awareness enter his mind, and the small part of his awareness he was keeping active could sense the sadistic anticipation all the more acutely as Apollon asked, "Does the treasonous hound have anything to say for himself before we begin your punishment?"

The War-Prince thought passively, "Princess Kore was speaking truth when she said I have only tried to protect her to the best of my capabilities. I can swear on my honor without hesitation or doubts that has been my motivation for every decision I've made for the last two-hundred and ninety-eight years. I acknowledge this night has become even more treacherous than the Spring Princess foresaw. I will accept whatever punishment may be dealt for that failure. I will never willingly relinquish my oath-bound duties as her Head of Guard, Lightbringer, so do what you feel is necessary if you truly believe my actions have been misguided and that my compulsions to protect her need be nullified."

The Crown Prince's blazing eyes narrowed on the strung up guard at that answer and his fury could be felt sparking. "You still don't believe your actions were the wrong choices."

Cerberus remained emotionless as he said, "My sole purpose for existing since I swore my oath to the Spring Princess is to protect her interests. You, who changed your crown to include representation of the leaves of the tree you buried a lover's remains under after she wished to leave you, and have committed other acts of punitive violence on lovers, are blind with hubris if you refuse to consider why there may be concerns for Princess Kore's safety if she married you."

Apollon's fury grew at that answer, smirk frozen on his face. "I have a right to deal justice when lovers break sworn commitments. Something Kore will never need worry about because our marriage vows will ensure she does not fall prey to such debasing ideas and flights of fancy. Such assurance of faithfulness and honesty in a wife was one of the reasons my mother made the effort to make Kore an Oracle, for which I am very grateful for. If there's some lesser infraction, discipline for it will be done in ways that will not cause lasting harm, but my wife will never need worry about greater unpleasant circumstances arising between us."

"A wife is not a child or hunting falcon or dog for you to discipline," the Atlantean War-Prince said with a sliver of defiance being allowed to surface. "Something you've failed to come to an understanding of over seven millennia."

The hawk began to slowly pull free the golden caps from his claws, one by one, as he said dismissively, "That is an ignorant and hypocritical sentiment coming from the pitiful dog who could not find some way to make his own marriage work and decided the best recourse was to shatter his family and leave his father's Kingdom more vulnerable to military attacks; and who is the obedient hound of Hades, a primitive brute who treats his lovers far more viciously on a regular basis than I have ever even considered. At least when I am displeased with my concubines, I give them a swift and merciful release from their obligations."

Cerberus's mental state shifted back to emptiness as he countered, "You only prove this humble Head of Guard's concern, Crown Prince. I loved my sister so selflessly that I was willing to forsake my titles and standing to free her of commitments to me and wished her nothing but the truest happiness when she married Nereus. I have had nothing but contentment in seeing that happiness last and having visits with my nieces as each is created, not burdened by thoughts of what if such a life was mine to have. What King Hades's does with his lovers is done with their consent and desire to take place. He has never once 'punished' or 'disciplined' them with violence or death when honest mistakes happen or requests are made to change those arrangements because he knows and respects they're sentient beings with emotions and free will and therefore have the capability to make mistakes or to desire evolutions to agreements. Something that you are apparently aware that I have personal experience of as a former willing bed partner, and so I can say to you without needing be discreet that I am absolutely certain of how the Void Dragon will conduct himself should he marry Kore. I know he will respect her desires and never cause her the harms you theorize. That contrasts in harsh light against with how you would violate Kore's free will and body tonight to try forcing her to stay here with you, to try trapping her into the marriage you desire, under the terms you desire, with no depths of concerns shown for her desires and rights.

"I am not guilty of treason, and that is supported by my blood oath putting forth compulsions that demand a specific course of action be taken to fulfill it. If you disagree with that cosmic interpretation of what my duties as Head of Guard were in this situation, take the complaint before both of your parents who bore full knowledge of my character and qualifications when they asked me to take the posting and direct the responsibility where it belongs on your father who specifically enacted the magic fused to my essence; or move forward with your plan to relieve me from my oath so that I am not bound to stand in the way of royal plans that were made in secret and without Kore's consent. I may view the situation differently once the blood oath is removed and my mind is entirely my own once more, but do not expect me in my current state to hold a guilty conscience for honoring my blood oath to the best of my understandings and capabilities. I will make no apologies for doing so. I also accept that I am subject to the decrees of the Olympian monarchy and you've declared a punishment be instated for my rigid adherence to my oath. So do as you will, Lightbringer, and do it with the knowledge that acceptance is the only concession you have the power to extract from me this night."

Apollon's smirk grew to a sanguine grin, fangs exposed. His back stayed to the Spring Princess as he walked over to a large planter to one side of the Atlantean. He said out loud with a passive voice, "Kore, My Sun; your Head of Guard remains defiant in refusing to concede he made the wrong choices, but accepts that a punishment is due for his behavior." He dropped the golden caps onto the top of the soil for safe keeping. "I strongly suggest, beloved, that you close your eyes, as this will become rather bloody and I do not wish for you to have it burned into your memory."

As Kore opened her mouth to argue, Cerberus shifted out of his detached state just enough to send her a potent push of emotions, of acceptance and submission. Her golden gaze went to him, terror growing at that silent warning to do as told. He gave her just as potent a wave of his unwavering love for her, and then another push of acceptance.

As the War-Prince cut off the connection to his nightingale, the Crown Prince turned her way with a serious expression in place and said with warning, "Kore, beloved." Terrified golden gaze went to him. "This will be unpleasant enough for you to sense. You are going to want to close your eyes so you are spared seeing what is happening."

The Spring Princess glanced to her lover. He kept his gaze straight forward. Kore's eyes squeezed closed, tears quick to work their way to the corners and continue falling.

Cerberus paused the memory to warn the King of Death, his rhapsodic multi-tonal mental voice's attempt at neutrality strained with anxiety, "You're going to want to brace yourself, Schwarze Sonne, for an incoming pain that is going to make the blood wards Van Helsing and our wife hit you with feel like a tickle."

Bafflement slipped into the Void Dragon's banked anger. "You can't possibly be serious in the scale."

"You're about to get a taste of what it's like to be on the receiving end of an attack that causes a permanent distortion to both physical form and soul, that can't be repaired over the ages, no matter what magic has been tried. And thanks to the soul distortion and its influences, even when going through deaths and being reborn into new bodies, those bodies end up failing to develop normally. So you be the judge if I'm exaggerating. And heads up, Apollo made it a soul-rend sandwich of a night, with his sick 'demonstration' starting between the attacks on me. Count yourself fucking fortunate that it's only the secondhand effects of a memory you'll be experiencing and you got the forewarnings I wasn't given."

"...I can give the assurance I will not attack you, but that dead man's switch might be needed after all. Give me a moment to warn Walter and make the attempt to brace myself."

"Ja."

When Cerberus could sense the King of Death's anger had been fully suppressed and he was once more like a ghost in the shared awareness, he restarted the memory and did what he could to force himself into his Zen state.

As the hawk turned to him, fang revealing grin returning, Cerberus spared the Lightbringer a fleeting defiant glance. Then the Atlantean deliberately closed his eyes and, as he heard the soft steps of his enemy striding back, he pushed himself as deeply into his waiting sensory illusion as possible. He was not only submerged in the waterfall and feeling it around him, but allowing himself to make the shift to become one with it and suspending all his mundane senses within that welcoming element spawned from the earliest primordial age of creation.

Some distant part of the War-Prince's awareness registered something causing pain to his physical form was happening, but he stayed deeply submerged in his mental illusion. He had no concept of time in that state, he would know when it was time to reform when that faint awareness of damage being done had ceased.

Then something wholly unprecedented in his existence's experiences happened. As though a lightning storm had struck water repeatedly and electrified the entire element, a series of rending pain that defied words penetrated his illusion, felt like it was sundering his very soul. His eyes flew open as he was abruptly torn back to reality; and his mind registered the excruciating sensation was originating from his throat, but was in truth lancing into his actual spirit. The hawk was directly in front of him, wings spread and hovering above the ground. His bonfire eyes were emitting a golden light that was almost blinding to look upon, there was a secondary light that was emanating from beneath Cerberus's line of sight from himself, and splatters of blood were bathing the Lightbringer's face and chest.

Cerberus felt the agonized scream try to make its way from his lungs, and die as soon as it reached his throat. His eyes involuntarily closed as a sickening wave of nausea and dizziness crashed in, adding another layer of disorientation to what was already being caused by the soul-deep pain, and he could feel the movement of air against the raw flesh in his open throat.

The scream that the Atlantean had been unable to issue found its way out from Kore as her empathy was hit with shockwaves of the pain he was experiencing. A high-pitched, mind ringing screaming that was wordless and continued for as long as she had breath to fuel the scream, and the next scream was following as soon as breath had been taken.

That scream found a simultaneous second outlet in the present and material world, as the Void Dragon's form reactively shattered into a shadowy mass and a ferocious, unearthly bellow of agony reverberated out, shaking the entire forest in a solid half kilometer radius and causing loose rocks and small boulders to come tumbling down the nearby face of the mountain.

The screaming is what kept the War-Prince conscious, but he couldn't manage to find senses enough to do anything but cling to consciousness. His active mind wanted to slip into unconsciousness to escape the pain, but some primal instinct was refusing to allow that because it felt like the hawk was trying to kill him and he needed to fight back. Except he couldn't fight. He couldn't stop the pain. He was trapped in his own physical form and all he could do was count his nightingale's screams as it felt like he was going to be torn out of existence.

It was midway through the fifth scream that the ethereal pain receded as suddenly as it began. The physical pain remained, but it felt far away and like a minor irritation compared to the previous agony inflicted.

Cerberus paused the memory and waited for the Black Sun to reform himself into a coherent state, and took that time to drive off his own mental anguish by diving back into his sensory illusion.

When Vlad finally retook physical form and his mind could actively form thoughts again, the homicidal rampaging state he was trying to keep back could be immediately sensed. It took a few minutes to get that instinct under tight enough control to not be in danger of succumbing to it.

Cerberus could sense the shift and pulled his awareness to a more active state. He said with shakily reestablished stoicism, "The twins informed me the Lightbringer has regained that ability in this life. It's one of the tactics he uses to keep control of the Elders if someone screws up but he doesn't want to completely destroy them because they're too useful."

"One way or other, I am going to annihilate him before he gets the chance to use it on anyone in the family again; I can promise you that."

"...Does that family officially include the good boy wolfy and the twins?"

"The twins can pick their tokens for having been subjected to his so called Court in this life, my wife is getting a new pair of earrings, my son is getting a new chalice, my daughter will be getting the necklace to have a new feminine touch for her mission uniform, and you'll be getting a replacement skin-leather blanket. The feathers can come from normal hawks, unless he manages to make his wings manifest by the next time we see him."

Relief rippled out from Cerberus. "I have missed my feathery blanket. Eros would probably love a snazzy new bone tie clip and matching cufflinks, and/or some new gut strings for his violin. Pan would be happy with some new guitar picks and bone accented piercings."

"I was thinking Pan might want a new switch with a bone inlaid handle."

"That would definitely put him over the moon. You're not claiming any tokens?"

"I'm going to have Hermes design me a new gun. Lightender is going to have his fangs as the centerpieces to the black diamond and ruby inlay on the grip."

Cerberus gave a weary chuckle. "Glad to see you're still setting the example for Junior Void Dragon on being metal as fuck."

"That won't ever change... Let's get the rest of this over with."

"Are you sure you're in enough control of the dragon rage?"

"As in control as I can be under the circumstances."

Cerberus quietly restarted the memory and went back to being in his own largely detached mental state to escape the anxiety churning in his consciousness.

There was a sixth scream from Kore as Cerberus felt pieces of his throat starting to swiftly mend itself. It somehow felt hollow. Some part of his soul felt hollow. He felt wrong, unbalanced, still torn somehow. It took every last bit of his shattered awareness to force himself to open his eyes, feeling a compulsion to try seeing his nightingale, to try giving her some comfort, though he had no concept in his hazy state of how he could.

He couldn't see her. The Lightbringer was still in front of him. His eyes were back to their duller flames and the sanguine grin was almost splitting his face as he observed his handiwork. When he spoke, his multi-tonal voice sounded to the Atlantean's disoriented senses like it was coming from underwater and far away, muffled and distorted. "There will be no more troublesome barking from you ever again. Be thankful I heeded My Sun's pleas to be merciful and only took the vocal cords. I could have taken your entire windpipe and left you with a permanent gaping hole that you'd spend the rest of eternity needing to keep covered with a protective guard and be feeding yourself mush through a funnel."

Kore didn't let out a seventh scream, but her hysterical sobs could be heard.

Apollon lazily lowered himself to the ground with a graceful flap of his wings and shifting of gravity around him. Cerberus could feel the pain in his throat leaving as what hadn't been permanently removed finished healing over. His gaze slowly shifted, tracking towards Kore. She was still tied up by her own long tresses and bent forward, pale as though suffering from blood loss, and looking about to fall off the bench as her entire body shook with sobs she was nearly choking on from the force of them wrenching out. The sight of her open agony dragged him into further awareness and he instinctively reached out with his empathy, sending her exhausted pulses of his desire to give her comfort and assurance that he was, relatively speaking, alright because he had survived what she had sensed.

The Crown Prince's wings were folding themselves neatly behind his back, and he gave a disdainful glance to the blood on his claws and staining the front of his yellow chiton. He heaved a sigh and a deft tug ripped the left panel free. He took his time wiping clean his claws with the ruined fabric. Then he casually walked to the little bubbling indoor fountain in the center of the room and dipped the cloth there to start cleaning off his face and chest.

Kore's eyes opened and her gaze swept across the floor before attempting to turn up to look at her lover. Something she saw below him, likely a pool of his blood and the discarded flesh that had been sliced out, caused her to gag.

Cerberus could feel the horror and queasiness overpowering the sympathetic echoes of pain she had been sensing and her terror. His shock was fading and his mind started to finally register the gruesome understanding of what had just been ripped out from him, and all that he had stolen from him with that loss.

Kore's gaze darted up to meet his as she sensed his almost panicked horror forming, and he could see her devastation mirroring his own. His beloved nightingale understood as deeply as he did that the hawk had stolen more than his ability to 'bark'. Her aura was a tempest of anguish and crushing remorse.

"Isn't that interesting?" Apollon's lilting voice was filled with sardonicism. "The mighty Adonis Cerberus is actually capable of crying; and it took so little a thing to make that happen."

Cerberus could only stare at his nightingale, mind still too dazed as it wrestled with the reality of what had happened for him to try mounting some sort of defiant response.

The Spring Princess's gaze went to the Lightbringer, however, aura shifting to a righteous fury and eyes blazing with their own fires. A snarl reverberated from her throat and then her voice rumbled out the start of one of the few curses she had been allowed to be taught.

A flash of movement and Apollon was next to her side, one hand over her mouth to stop the words, the other grabbing her shoulder and a lesser binding enchantment flashed over her like a second skin. He said sharply, "There will be none of that, beloved." As blazing golden gazes met, he added, "You are very lucky I understand your senses just went through an extremely unpleasant experience and you are in a shaken state, or you would be in a great deal of trouble for attempting to curse me."

Kore pulled her head back from the hand covering her mouth and snarled out at him, voice deep with draconic fury, "You are lucky you can move so fast, or I would gladly spend the rest of the night attempting to curse you for what you did, you heartless monster! How could you?!"

Anger flickered through the hawk's aura, and his voice was mocking as he asked, "You think I'm a heartless monster, despite granting your request to spare your dog's life and being so mild in delivering his punishment for his treasonous behavior? My innocent Sun, if this little incident is so upsetting for you, you would truly hate what would come from life in the Underworld and being Hades's Queen. I would give it a year before you're seeking your only possible escape through suicide."

"If I am somehow forced into marrying you, I know I will be seeking that escape much sooner than a year," Kore stated with conviction, disgust joining her fury.

Apollon's aura and golden eyes became enraged blazes in response to the Oracle's words. His voice was icy as he said, "Beloved... My patience for your vitriolic behavior is about as thin as a strand of silk and it would be most unwise for you to snap it."

As Kore went to issue another sharp retort, the hand that had been covering her mouth went around her neck, abruptly cutting off both words and air supply. After having seen and felt what the Lightbringer could do to the last person whose throat had been in his grasp, the Spring Princess's rage was almost immediately snuffed out with fear flooding in.

Apollon's gaze noted the change in her expression and his hand loosened its grip just enough to allow her to breathe. His voice remained icy as he said, "My Sun, whatever upset comment you had been about to make would have been a most unfortunate decision. I realize you have had an upsetting evening, but you are getting no more warnings about being careful with what you let slip through those beautiful lips of yours. No more high pitched screams. No more attempts at reckless oaths. No more inflammatory statements. I will silence you without hesitation if you show sign of being about to break those rules. Understood?"

Kore's gaze turned down as fear was once more morphing to terror. That terror reached through the daze Cerberus was in, shaking him back to what was happening.

"Beloved, I asked you if we have an understanding. Refusal to answer will be taken as you contemplating the next offensive behavior and I will silence you now to spare us both the trouble for the rest of the evening."

The pain the War-Prince had been in was entirely gone; but with as aware of himself as he was, he was acutely aware of the lingering sense of a sudden imbalance in his soul. Ignoring that loss was no small task, but he forced himself to focus back on what needed to be done. This night wasn't through and they needed to survive it. If they survived, there would be time to process things properly.

Kore was giving a small nod in response to Apollon's threat.

Cerberus split his awareness again. The larger active part went back to systematically fine tuning the right sort of attack needed to break away at the internal ward he was being bound by. Thankfully, despite the damage the Lightbringer had dealt him, he was still able to channel the large stores of personal energy he possessed and he put it to work with a renewed fervor behind his attempts to escape. The other part of his mind reached out his empathy to Kore, and he sent her a very low, steady stream of what strained assurance and resolve he was capable of maintaining and could slip past the enemy so close to her without being picked up by his enchantment.

The Crown Prince had taken a few steadying breaths and his anger was becoming more subdued. His voice returned to normal as he said, "Thank you, My Sun, for being reasonable. I really do not wish to need to keep saying it, but it is not my desire for this evening to continue spiraling into deeper levels of unpleasantness. Your misbehaving guard dog forced my hand, you have not made the situation any easier, and certain lessons need to be taught tonight so matters do not devolve any further than they already have."

Kore tried to speak, but she could only manage to stutter out a few words, "What... What are...", before the attempt faded off.

Apollon took a few more breaths and frustration was beginning to replace his remaining anger. His gaze glanced over her and both hands released her, allowing the barrier around her to fade. He walked back to the fountain, retrieved the discarded cloth, and began rinsing the mess of blood off it.

Kore's gaze darted to Cerberus as he increased the empathic reassurances that he was as recovered as could be managed. He summoned up his love for her to be sensed, trying to calm some of the fear that was still radiating so heavily off her. He could sense guilt and sorrow seeping in as she met his gaze and sensed that particular offering. A renewed pulse of that love was sent to her, this time fused with ferocious determination to protect her, to make it clear that the Lightbringer searing away his vocal capabilities hadn't changed his resolve to keep his promises to her.

Cerberus noticed from the periphery of his gaze that the hawk was wringing off the excess water from the cloth. He turned his gaze just off from his nightingale and let it become seemingly unfocused, simultaneously sending her a small flare of wariness to alert her. He greatly lowered the intensity of the empathic vibrations being sent to her as his attention turned almost entirely to trying to chip away at the enchantment that was once more giving small unstable fluctuations to his attempts.

Kore's gaze darted to the hawk, fear retaking its dominance in her aura, and then her gaze was back to being on the floor.

Apollon walked over quietly and crouched down next to Kore with a neutral expression on his face. She flinched as he started wiping her face clean of tears, but she stayed silent. When he was done, he pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead, causing her to give a distressed whimper. The hawk gave a sigh and the smooth side length of a sharp claw went beneath her chin to tip her face up to look at him. "My Sun," the Crown Prince's voice was once more near hypnotic as he spoke. "I know you are harboring a negative view of me in this moment. I will remind you that this is a side I have never had to show you before, that I wanted this evening to go in a far less unpleasant manner, and your treasonous dog pushed this situation to what it has become and I am only doing what is necessary to protect our family. You may not think so, but I know someday you will understand, forgive me, and life will return to its peaceful state."

"Apollon... No more. I beg you," Kore pleaded, voice breaking on each word. Her emotional aura shifted, panicked inquiry forming.

"I have already told you, beloved, that is one request I cannot grant you," Apollon said, aura shifting to reflect his determination; and flickers of lust could be sensed beneath it. As Kore shrank away from his touch, the hawk said with his tone unchanging from its deceptive placidity, "It's time for the next lesson to begin, My Sun, and this one is to indisputably show you the error of your views on both your dog and the Void Dragon."

Cerberus sensed the silent question from his nightingale and shifted his vibrations to her to include encouraging resolve alternating with a victorious wrathful anticipation. His assaults on the inner binding ward fused to him were beginning to erode its strength. He was familiar with the ward that was burned into his skin, he had seen it used before. Once the unfamiliar new ward was disintegrated, he'd be able to push that secondary binding magic out of his physical form. It would take time to force it out, like drawing venom from a wound, but he would be able to do it. If he started with the sigils on the backside of his body, the hawk wouldn't notice those dissolving and disappearing, and removing enough of those would eventually shatter the total ward's effects. He could finish pushing out the brands and allow his skin to heal once the enemy was dead. The enchantment on the lyre's strings would break easily once he had the ability to extend his energy outside of himself. He just needed to get those first two wards removed at a careful enough pace that the hawk couldn't passively sense the tampering, then he could bring this living nightmare to an end.

Kore's aura remained a fearful tempest, despite what reassurances her Atlantean lover could give her. She shook her head as tears once more began to form, addressing the hawk and trying to stall for more time, "Apollon, you do not need to do this..."

"Yes, My Sun, I do need to," the hawk interrupted the plea. "You need a taste of what Hades is capable of so you realize what father and I so desperately wish to protect you from. While I have certain soul skills to manipulate states of awareness, the Void Dragon can entirely dominate another's awareness and force his lusts on them. He can enact all manner of vile and violating acts on his lovers while they're in such a state of lustful frenzy, without them having the slightest chance to issue protests because they're so far from comprehension of what is happening. When he finally releases them from his grasp, they are left with the residual damages and pains he inflicted on them. Unpleasant as that is, his previous methodical corruptions of their perceptions have them so twisted up that they obediently submit to his degradations so they can have the escapism from their pitiful states when he takes over their awareness. If you become his Queen, the Void Dragon is going to systematically strip away everything you are, until you are exactly the same- a broken shell of the radiant soul you once were, begging him to hurt you so that you also have a fleeting pleasure to feel something that is not your agonizing awareness of how empty and forsaken your existence has become."

Cerberus brought the memory to a pause at the indicated signal of the King of Death, whose tempest of raging emotions were beginning to cloud the shared awareness.

"I realize you felt it necessary to show the whole of the memory, but I've seen enough to understand..."

"With all sincerely due respects, Schwarze Sonne, you really fucking haven't," The Fenrir rebuked fiercely, anger infiltrating his cognizant dread that had been building. "Not yet, anyway. There is more you absolutely need to witness to fully understand what lasting damages the Lightbringer is capable of causing and have plagued our existences. However miserable it may be for you to view, and I am profoundly sorry to insist you must because it makes me feel as fucking dirty as the hawk actually is to knowingly inflict such pain, it is nothing compared to the hellish reality of living with the repercussions that ensued from the events in this memory and the risks of them potentially repeating by some fashion in the future should an ignorant mistake be made.

"About the soonest you could rightfully be said to have enough of an understanding and Spark Notes could suffice to fill in the rest is when the second round of rending happens. Until then, you need to King the fuck up and learn exactly what sorts of threats our enemy is fully willing and capable of leveraging if given the motivation and slightest chance. Especially because Lucifer already has motivation, the resources he has, and all he needs is the chance; and he's been successful in making openings for those chances in the past. This isn't optional if you're to be properly equipped to protect our wife and family."

There was an extended silent stand off in the shared awareness, and then the Void Dragon's fury became diluted with resigned dread that closely mirrored The Wolf's. "Very well. Continue."

Kore's head shook again, eyes closing to escape the hawk's golden blazing gaze. "Apollon, if you hold any true love for me, you will not do this. I know you think you must, but I beg you..."

"I don't simply think it, beloved; I know you need to be saved from such torments," the Lightbringer said quietly, unfaltering in his resolve. "Even if that means personally inflicting a fleeting and lesser version on you so you have a taste of what is in store for you if you continue down this foolish path you have been herded on. You will come to the understanding that the Black Sun is the primitive, all consuming brute that he is; the absolute bane to everything your civilized, loving, bright soul is. You will understand just how critically different the Void Dragon, his loyal hound, and our traitorous brother are from myself and those in the family who love you as dearly as we do. Who have spent nearly three hundred years so carefully sheltering you and caring for your needs and desires to protect your gentle soul from awareness of such horrors. Why we would resort to such measures now to protect you from treacherous conspiracies. You may be angry with me for a time for what I do this night, but I am not going to take it deeply to heart. I know your gifts will work their way through the lies you have been blinded by and you will see the truth of matters soon enough. You will understand, you will forgive me, and you will be grateful for me having done what was necessary to preserve your radiance and our family."

Before the Spring Princess could attempt another plea, the Crown Prince stood and turned towards the captive Head of Guard. His voice was fused as one tone as he commanded, "Adonis Cerberus, it is time for you to start making amends for your treason and Princess Kore has need of your direct services."

Unmitigated confusion washed over Kore's aura. A confusion that momentarily struck the War-Prince into stillness of internal actions and thoughts; and then his quick mind started to piece together a horrified understanding of what the Lightbringer's intentions actually were for his so called lesson. Reactive, defensive wrath flared to full rampaging life as that understanding formed.

That rampaging fury was present in the shared awareness as Vlad's equally swift mind put together those intentions; and a reverberating inhuman snarl instinctively echoed out from his consciousness. Void shadows were surrounding his physical form, steadily becoming a fully obscuring shroud.

Cerberus kept the memory playing out, with shameful guilt filtering into the dread he couldn't keep contained with his awareness under the strains it was. His awareness was not only strained from keeping this memory so clearly surfaced and trying to contain his emotions, but also keeping keen and wary senses open for the slightest sign the King might decide to revoke his newly reestablished family status and misdirect the dragon wrath on him. Even with magical precautions in place, he'd only have a split second to disengage their awareness by force, another second or two to activate the dead man's switch, and then there'd be a potential death fight starting. He really didn't want to have to find out how that coin flip would go in a fight between them; no matter how it ended, they'd all be losing in different ways.

Even though it had failed to work before, the Atlantean sent wave after wave of ferocious empathic assaults filled with horrified denial at the Crown Prince of Olympus, desperately hoping one might break through and send the hawk flying out of the room.

Apollon ignored the attacks, protective enchantment still in place, and likewise ignored Kore staring up at him in shell-shocked incomprehension. He continued issuing his orders at a deliberately unhurried pace. "I realize you're not in the needed state of mind at the moment, hound, but I am ordering you to summon up the proper emotions to put the Spring Princess into a state of mindless, frenzied desire so that the mating that needs take place can be done with far less force and unpleasantness than it otherwise could be..."

Kore's eyes widened as the repulsive understanding crept in. Her mouth opened, but she couldn't find words to speak in her thunderstruck state.

"...Do as I order, and things can proceed with My Sun being treated gently, lovingly, and with all due concerns for a royal lady and maiden's comforts while still ensuring her compulsions do not interfere with the coupling. Should you decide to hold to your belief that Princess Kore is better served being wed to King Hades and therefore you choose to not comply with my order, you do so with the knowledge that you will not be stopping me from claiming my wife. Not only will you not stop me from claiming my wife, you will be knowingly and willfully making things exponentially more unpleasant for her.

"I will have no option but to proceed to treating her similar to a willful, wild mare who refuses to be easily domesticated. I will strip our disobedient lady of the wrap she's wearing, lift her up and pull off the cushion currently on the marble bench she's sitting on, untie her and bend her over that bench without any form of padding between her and it, and use her many gleaming braids to secure her into position. I will place the same secondary binding ward you are bearing onto Kore, branding that lovely skin of hers in such a way that her regeneration skills will need at least two weeks to recover from, so as to ensure that she cannot attempt any magical attacks while the coupling is taking place. I will put the same enchantment on her that I currently have on myself, to block your soul skills with emotions so that you cannot attempt to offer her any comfort. Then I am going to fuck both holes capable of fitting around my cock, as brutally and unyieldingly long as it takes to ride her into a deep enough state of physical and mental exhaustion that she no longer has the strength to put up much of a fight. I will not be holding back the majority of my strength while doing so and, with my physical stature being what it is, she is going to feel as though I am tearing her in half as I drive my full length into her without considerations for her comforts..."

The memory ceased being the sole thing viewable in the shared awareness. Cerberus started seeing fleeting flashes of images leaking out from the Void Dragon's rampaging thoughts. Images of the Hawk being tortured in all manner of heinous fashions, with a couple of Zeus and Eris, and there might have been a split second spotting of the Water Dragon. Apparently the King's form of mental discipline these nights wasn't attempts at some resonating form of Zen meditations. That explained the sustained, near nuclear rage level and was a bit concerning... But at least he wasn't seeing images of himself flicking past; so that was a tiny comfort to his own fraying mental state.

The Spring Princess was still staring, stark terror in her expression, washed out complexion, and aura as such threats were made.

Cerberus's attacks on the Crown Prince had ceased; mind becoming a cacophony of battling thoughts. There was righteous vengeful fury for the hawk threatening his nightingale with such barbaric behavior. There were many lines of concern for the harms such treatment could do to Kore. There was also a ghastly calculation being made that if he abandoned all caution in his escape attempts and threw his full strength at the binding magic, which would assuredly draw the hawk's notice, he would likely be murdered before he could break free; and even if by some unlikely mercy the Lightbringer was too focused on his attacks on Kore to notice the binding magic being cracked through and the Atlantean's personal magic flaring out from such forceful attempts, he still wouldn't be able to break free of the wards quickly enough to entirely stop his lover from being raped. It was only a matter of how violent was the assault going to be, and was he going to be alive by the end of it or die before he had a chance to put an end to it.

And to his expanding horror, despite his furious active denial of making such a concession, Cerberus could feel a powerful compulsion forming within his thoughts. He wasn't being given a true choice in matters; something Apollon well knew and was undoubtedly counting on. The Atlantean's personal honor code, morals, and desires didn't matter. The Head of Guard's sole purpose where the Princess was concerned was ensuring her protection in whatever manners he was capable of. Which meant that, unless the Crown Prince was only making a horrific bluff and backed down if refused to avoid shattering any chance of Kore forgiving him because he had treated her in such degrading fashions, he would have to bow to the first demand so as to spare his nightingale such brutal treatment and to allow himself the time needed to break free without drawing notice so he could successfully put an end to the assault.

Apollon's threats continued, blazing gaze focused solely on the Head of Guard, and his aura was remaining staunchly resolved and tinged with his currently restrained lusts. "...If she screams from the treatment, a collar will go around her neck with a similar branding effect to silence her. Then I will hold her jaw open with magic so she can't be a reactively misbehaving lady and bite me, shove my cock so deeply down her throat that she's unable to breath properly, and fuck her mouth until she's on the edge of losing consciousness. With her lung capacity, that will take close to four minutes and her jaw and throat are going to be decidedly sensitive from such treatment. When she reaches that point, I will withdraw and allow her to speak again, and then resume fucking her over that hard marble bench, repeating the oral punishment each time she makes any loud protest..."

Kore's body was shaking with her terror, and head was shaking in refusal to the scenario being spun. She started murmuring one word over and over- "No."

"...The entire time I am fucking Kore in such fashions, I will be retelling, in unfiltered details, stories of what the Void Dragon does to his lovers. Not just the less violent things such as the manacles and whippings comparable to what one might subject a prisoner to during interrogation. Things like the deep cuttings and allegedly 'decorative' stitchings he sews them back up with. The flayings and blood magic to piece them back together after. The hundreds of piercings or shards of gemstones imbedded in their flesh to turn them into bloody mosaics. The uses he puts large fishing hooks to. The elemental magics he channels to ravage them in a sundry of unpleasant ways that will take a great deal of time to list. However many truly torturous stories I can fit in as I'm physically exhausting her..."

It wasn't possible for more terror to radiate off Kore by this point; and were she human, her heart probably would have burst from the fevered staccato it was pounding at. However, a disgust could be felt swirling into the storm of terror in response to even those broad generalities being so casually mentioned.

With as distressed as he felt, and his awareness strained so thin, Cerberus couldn't fight off a compulsion. The Void Dragon was remaining in a seething, nuclear level, murderous rampage of a mental state that was almost miraculous for it being kept held in check. His physical form had dissolved away completely into shadows and was hovering a few feet off the ground. The War-Prince paused the memory and said, "I feel a compulsion to set the record straight before you potentially add the Furies to your insta-kill on sight list because Apollo is really fucking twisting this to terrify Kore as much as possible, and I know our wife will be upset if you not only go on a big rampage, but add our three most favorite ladies to the list."

The King of Death's furious voice had an echoing quality just shy of true draconic multi-tonal. "I was giving the benefit of the doubt that was the case from what I know of those three, but I am wondering how Apollo knew such specific information that should have been kept private."

"They, and I will grudgingly concede Minthe as well, were not gossiping or spreading defaming stories. This got cleared up for everyone's sakes when it was eventually brought up while Persephone and I were recovering. I remember the conversation and writing her notes to try bridging her understanding of things you four were trying to explain. Minthe was not present because she was deep in her sulk about you asking another woman to marry you, so she was being kept separate from our recently traumatized wife. Even though the ladies were your concubines and they were committed to sticking around forever with you as their primary lover because they enjoyed arrangements being what they were; if they took a passing interest in a guest and it wouldn't cause conflict with a jealous spouse or the like, or they wanted a repeating side lover for a while, they were allowed to have that fun so long as the extra was respectful of the ladies and played by house rules. If one of them ever wanted to leave, they were free to; the agreements between you were informal mutual courtesies and nothing was forcing them to remain your concubines.

"Things hadn't always been so persistently toxic with Olympus, and with Apollo in particular mention. While Apollo was trying to make it sound like information he picked up elsewhere, it was mostly things he personally heard centuries before I was even created while being one of those guests the ladies had a collective curiosity about. Some of the elemental techniques weren't the least bit secret because you had taught them to a few daimons who were capable, and those particular things weren't considered controversial by most daimons so there was no need to hide who developed a new sex trend. The stitching designs is a trend I happen to know Hermes had started. You quickly picked it up and perfected it with your powers being what they are, and you two continued to evolve it as new materials were invented and available to play with. Even if some of those kinks weren't generally taboo, they hadn't been appropriate for Persephone to hear before because her father insisted she be so sheltered; partially out of simple paternal concerns for her physical health as she was more delicate for a daimon and he didn't want her pressured into harmful activities, and partially to avoid problems with the husband he had planned for her. She was subsequently exceedingly tame in desires by the time she started having those urges and unfailingly had clear vibes of being turned off when overhearing even passing mention of mild things as female chatter among her sisters. So I was not going to push at her comfort zone or allow others to casually do so.

"Apollo, being the extreme narcissist that he is, does not like hearing about what experienced bed partners have previously done with other men. Particularly if it's something he can't do because of differing innate skills or magics, and therefore he can't even swallow his pride to learn something new and then make the attempt to compete. Your concubines didn't know that at the time and had tried to coax him into trying things outside his repertoire that he was confident in, whether it was partaking on either end or watching the ladies. He was maliciously pulling out twists to things they had tried fielding because he was holding a really old grudge that you five were pioneering masters of kinky artwork, especially because of how accommodating the ladies' different compositions were for different activities, and there was a list of things the King of Death could do for his lovers that Lucifer can't."

The Void Dragon still felt like he was near nuclear, but Cerberus could feel him coming back down a notch and there was an understanding and disdain flickering from his counterpart.

"Persephone had a hard time even comprehending the appeal for all the obvious underlying reasons, but the ladies were understanding and explanatory in polite ways. You let them do most of the talking so she could hear it straight from them that they were wholly and knowingly consenting and legitimately enjoyed the kink. They offered that if she ever wanted to watch, she'd sense for herself with her empathy what words had a hard time conveying. Much later, after things had already become personal between you and our wife, she got inquisitive enough on her own and took you and the Furies up on that standing offer. I know because I was right there at her side as her perpetual living safety blanket. She finally accepted it wasn't remotely what Apollo portrayed, even if it was outside of her current comfort zone. Nor was it comparable to what Apollo had done without her consent. It ended up being an entertaining evening once she got past her initial wariness to ask questions while you, Megaira, and Tisiphonê were giving an academic demonstration on Alêktô. She was a daimon who, among other qualities, had a divergent nervous system that registered most damage as variances of tickles and arousal. Bone damage was the only thing that actually registered as traditionally understood pain. It was both a boon and distraction for her when in battle, but made kinky things indisputably fun for all.

"Alêktô spent the entire time trying to keep from giggle fits and contain orgasmic reactions that would be disruptive for you three creating a very pretty stitching portrait of a colony of lace butterflies resting on flowers along her upper back and shoulders. You used your control over blood to keep her bleeding to a minimum while keeping the cuts open and stitches in place, the cuts themselves were shallow, and otherwise not exerting any supernatural influences that session. Alêktô's natural healing capabilities fully mended the cuts and pushed out the stitches by morning. Our wife became more curious and watched several less academic but still mild sessions when she'd decide she wanted to scratch that itch. Some of which included actual pain combining with pleasure for Tisiphonê and Megaira. I was an entirely willing volunteer to demonstrate what it's like for an empath to be on either end of things if they had the right partners. And I can remember a night where you were in the rare mood to let the tables be flipped and be subject to the ladies' mercies. Persephone was hilariously shocked to discover you had that occasional inclination. Then she sensed the emotions coming from you as things were playing out and understood why even the Void Dragon occasionally didn't want to be the one in control. And then she started getting decidedly aroused towards the end as your sexual tension was growing. After the session, you two excused yourselves to the royal bed chambers so she could be the one to help you burn off the emotions in non kinky ways. When our wife finally wrapped her head around things completely and trusted there was no hidden harmful agenda, she eventually got brave enough to admit she wanted to participate. Things progressed entirely at her speed, tailored for her realistic capabilities, comforts and preferences, and she finished morphing into the abiding and unrepentant kinkster she still is today, when she feels safe enough to let that side out.

"Alêktô became Persephone's favorite when she was in the mood to be more aggressively dominant with another lady because of how Alêktô's system worked and how enjoyable the vibes were for our empathic wife. Megaira was her favorite when she was in the mood for a lady to Damme her because of how skilled and careful Megaira was, and she always had the right vibes for Persephone to feel safe with her. Tisiphonê was her favorite outside of kink and the first she formed attachments to because Tisiphonê opened up about the well kept secret that the two of them had a similar past of unpleasant experiences before being under your direct protection, which had been a sincerely made attempt to drop some of her public persona and help Persephone feel less isolated. It took a while to form a mutual trust because Persephone was wary after Apollo and Minthe caused consecutive damages to her perceptions of the concubines, but once they bonded they were constantly pampering each other and it was endlessly adorable to see how they interacted when there was privacy. The other two ladies were grateful for the shift because they had the emotional independence of cats; indulging Tisiphonê's whims when you weren't present to do so, especially after Minthe earned herself the execution and wasn't there to drink up excess attention, could get tiring for them to deal with.

"So Apollo not only failed in every respect on that front, but is indirectly responsible for Persephone becoming an absolute kinkster that he was incapable of satisfying when he did get his hands back on her for a while. Before he backed her into that oath, she had been scathing of his seduction attempts, then dismissive of the attempts to punish her because using the soul-rend options was a line he wouldn't cross with her in particular. She was more rattled than she let on, but she refused to give him any satisfaction wherever it was possible to deny it. When we got her back, the ladies were supremely helpful with recovery that time around. On the rare occasions the incident was brought up for some unavoidable reason with others, Persephone made a point of somehow slipping in an unmistakably clear comment to the effect that Apollo had been inferior to her husbands and concubines in every way possible. Aside from the continuing sorrow of losing Athene for what would hopefully be an impermanent time, she was relieved and happy to be back home where she belonged and grateful beyond words to the entirety of her true family for refusing to give up on saving her from the Lightbringer and being strong enough to make the nearly impossible choice she couldn't bring herself to even consider making."

"...The clarifications are appreciated for what it is meant to be."

"Wunderbar."

"...Your father mentioned 'Athene' was the name given to my daughter by the Olympians; that announcing a child's name wasn't done until birth and my wife and I were robbed of making that announcement, so he didn't know the name we had chosen. You've also consistently referred to her oldest self as that, though you alternate between both names for my son."

"That'd be because Athene made the brainwashed choice to keep that name, even upon reaching acknowledged adulthood in her second life. Juniorette Void Dragon was still going by that name when she killed at least her brother, nephew, and myself. I've never harboured any desires to antagonize that little bombshell because I don't believe it would help matters to do so. However, she does have an unofficial name, and her originally planned name. Citizens of the Underworld and Hera's half of Olympus who weren't the immediate royal family, as well as humans who were friendly with our factions, refused to honor the name the Lightbringer selected. They took to referring to her as 'Melinoe'. Greek humans translated it as "Dark Minded". In our language is means something closer to "Dark Born"; a generic term that indicated a female was a born citizen of the Underworld, and "Melinos" was for males.

"Athene would verbally rage at being called that. Especially when humans took it a step further to depict her starkly as half snow white and half jet black to represent being half Persephone's and half yours, and made a point of ignoring the Olympian facade she embraced to instead relate her rarely used power over souls that was the inarguable gift of a child of the Void Dragon. She didn't like the uncomfortable reminders of who her rightful parents were, but she also couldn't justify killing entire swaths of populations for giving her a persistent nickname she didn't like. Just about all of us had a few we weren't fond of, but that's part of life, especially for daimons.

"Her originally planned name was 'Aerleaa'. Anglicized as A-e-r-l-e-a-a; and not to be confused with the name a half-breed had of 'Airlea', though the names have similar roots. Aerleaa in our language means "Ether's Grace". It had been our wife's idea. First born of hope that your daughter would be happy and well balanced from the carefully planned mix of traits you both were trying so hard to create her with, and later the equally fervent hope that the universe would finally bless the family with the child she kept seeing but even revised attempts were failing to bring forth."

"...I could spend the next ten thousand years torturing the Lightbringer on a daily basis, in every way I currently know and inventing new tortures just for him, and it still wouldn't be enough punishment for what he's put my wife and family through."

"Agreed; which was an appeal behind the idea of wiping him out of existence entirely and letting him eventually fade into ignoble forgotten history, while the rest of us eventually adjusted to new circumstances and carried on with life as best as we could over the millennia."

"Oh, I'm still going to spend a great deal of time torturing him to make sure all needed information is had so he doesn't somehow come back again. Then he's going to get that death beyond resurrection. Then I'm going to make liberal use of my new gun for dealing with other scum and enforcing some semblance of peace for the eventual new Kingdom for my family and our kind to have sanctuary within once more. And it's going to be a personal mission for history to be set straight on what a repugnant piece of filth he was, without violating certain aspects of my wife's privacy to do so. His identity won't be forgotten. It's going to serve as an unending worldwide lesson that can't ever be clouded by myths; a clear example of what is not tolerated and what will always happen when certain lines are willfully crossed, no matter who the offender is or how long it takes me to track them down and get my fangs in them."

"I've got zero complaints with that outlined plan, Schwarze Sonne."

Vlad was still in a state of wanting to commit wholesale slaughter. There were a great many targets tied to that old enemy who also deserved such deaths. Or those who may not be direct enemies, but also weren't neutral actors. And there was still simply a plague of generic repulsive entities that needed to be wiped off the face of the Earth. After nearly six hundred years of constantly combating such filth in this incarnation, nevermind the millennia previous that he couldn't remember but undoubtedly influenced his instincts, the idea of wiping the slate clean and starting fresh so his family was indisputably safe to live their lives however they desired without needing to constantly look over their shoulders was so very, very tempting.

"...Schwarze Sonne?" Cerberus asked tentatively because said Dragon King was remaining fully in his void state. "...Is it safe to restart this memory and be done with it?"

"Whether it starts now or half an hour from now, my rage is not going to be dampened any further than what it currently is, so let's get this over with."

"As you say, Schwarze Sonne."

A shift in awareness and Cerberus restarted the memory with Apollo being in the midst of his threats, trying to translate as dispassionately as possible for both of their sakes.

"...I expect it will take about two hours to break Kore because of how willful she can be, how deeply skewed you, Thanatos, and my mother have caused her opinions to be, and the compulsions she will be feeling to try fighting me off so she is honoring her mistaken commitment to the Void Dragon. Our gentle princess will be quite bruised and scratched from such treatment, there will be internal abrasions, she may be suffering from dislocated hips from the relentless pounding I will be putting her through, and she is going to be temporarily mentally and emotionally traumatized..."

Kore's gaze shifted to the War-Prince with confusion flickering across her features because she sensed a shift in his raging state, and his gaze had moved to stare unblinkingly at the wall across from him. Cerberus's tempestuous emotions were shifting from the muddied and fierce inner conflict they had been; focusing his full attention on sending her pulses of agonized guilt, fervent apology, pure abhorrence. And all of those intentional emanations had underlying vibrations that were just as clearly being sent- a compulsive primal lust that was, for the moment, being actively held back by an equally feral desperation for such lust to be kept smothered.

"...When she's finally too fatigued and pained to offer much resistance to fulfill the compulsions pushing at her, I will still have plenty of stamina to continue as needed. I will enter her awareness, take full control of it, force her into the lusty state needed, and fuck her again with full abandon as I create our first son. Sadly, with the limited time we have, I don't believe that even those best efforts will allow the child to be powerful enough to be rightfully designated as my Heir, but our son will still be worthy of our bloodline and be serving the honorable purpose of helping me break the King of Death's claims to My Sun and his mother."

A stricken understanding joined the chaos of the Spring Princess's terror and disgust, clearly realizing what warning her Head of Guard and lover was trying to give her. He was warning her what way his blood oath was pulling, that it was conflicting with what his previous plans and efforts had been, and that he had come to the extremely unwelcome calculation of how he needed to handle what was about to happen, but he was trying to fight that compulsion because he knew how harmful it would be to the both of them in personal ways.

"...I expect that by the time the process is done, it will be nearly the time my parents are due home. I will have just enough time to have you dragged down to the dungeons while I get my mate and I cleaned up. Kore is regrettably going to be needing to spend the first few weeks of her pregnancy having bedrest to recover from such a rough coupling, but it is still a decidedly small unpleasantness compared to the countless millennia of even worse treatment that would be awaiting her under the Void Dragon's claws and perverse lusts.

"My father will be made aware of how severely you damaged our attempt at a diplomatic recourse to matters, and I feel quite certain that he will revoke my merciful sentence granted and reinstate your death sentence with an addition of destroying your soul along with your physical body. My mother is likely going to need be sedated and subdued before father begins their discussion, but I am confident in his ability to keep her remembering her place to her King and her duties as a mother. We'll have the needed family discussion with my siblings for their deeply disloyal and shortsighted behavior, then proceed to dispensing with the legalities with Hades. Despite whatever contrary ideas you've fed Kore this day, I know that we will win in breaking his claims to her because of the case constructed for his conspiracies. In the small chance of a situation that the judges somehow make a grievous error in judgment, we're prepared to settle this the old fashioned, if more difficult and less civilized, way to protect this family from the Underworld's attempts to destabilize us and subsequently the greater Kingdom of Light..."

Cerberus could sense a conflict within his nightingale's aura, that she was trying to grapple her terror into submission and summon up some semblance of resolve to face what was going to happen. He could hear she was concentrating on her breathing and could tell she was trying to focus her thoughts as he had been trying to teach her to have better mastery of.

"...With that knowledge and warning given, and your orders being what they are, Adonis Cerberus, I am trusting that you will make the decision that is in Princess Kore's interests of wellbeing. I am trusting that she will understand you choosing to follow my order counts as your wordless recant of previous assertions made and that you are providing her with alternative council for consideration. I will give you one minute to consider your options, with a count every five seconds so there is no questions as to how much time you have. If by the end of that minute I am not smelling changes to Kore's current state that indicate you are doing as ordered, it will be an unspoken admittance that you refuse to do your duties as ordered, that you are in truth willfully treasonous, and that you are indeed capable of acting against her best interests despite your oath bound state being what it is. Matters will proceed as outlined for the less pleasant way to resolve the subversions and treasons that have been taking place; as unfortunate as it will be to have to subject Princess Kore to such treatment to shock her out of the poor perceptions she's been guided to and come to an understanding of what her fate truly will be like at the hands of the King of Death. The count starts..."

"Apollon," Kore interrupted, multi-tonal voice a quiet dissonance. "A count is not necessary."

Apollon hesitated, confusion and suspicion flitting through his aura as he turned towards her. "My Sun, if you are trying again to dissuade me from what needs be done..."

"No," Kore said clearly and carefully, meeting his gaze. "That is not what I intend."

A platinum eyebrow raised a fraction. "What is your intent then, beloved?"

The Spring Princess sighed heavily, aura shifting to a fluctuation between shaky resolve and fear. "My intent is to see these terrifying circumstances deescalate and be resolved in what least harmful manner may be achieved."

The hawk considered that statement, confusion remaining, but wary curiosity starting to edge out the suspicion. "How does My Sun mean for that to happen? To what ends?"

Kore took three slow breaths, regrouping her thoughts. When she spoke, the dissonance her voice was carrying had decreased a fraction. "A count is not needed because you have already clearly demonstrated the point that there are unarguable differences between you and Hades that I cannot turn a blind eye or deaf ears to. I was foolish and naïve to believe otherwise and you are correct that normally unthinkable options are necessary to correct this situation before it becomes irrevocably broken..."

Cerberus was still in a fierce wrestle to keep at bay the compulsion the hawk had incited, unable to bring himself to simply follow those demands and be a party to his nightingale being violated. Not without her giving some definitive signal that she knew he had no other choice and was not willingly betraying her in such loathsome ways. Those impulses had decreased a fraction with the hawk delaying his orders for the demand to be fulfilled; but they had by no means stopped flaring in his subconscious and trying to influence his actions. At Kore's words, however, the Atlantean's concentration was abruptly pulled into more direct focus on his lover and he sent her a disbelieving shock and questioning ripple of emotions. Resolving herself to trying to face a less violent form of rape to survive the night, or making some conscious effort to lessen the pending brutality, was one thing; flipping her decisions so suddenly was quite another. He didn't for one second believe that she had a drastic change of heart, but he wasn't sure how to interpret the truth of where her thoughts were.

Kore kept her gaze on the Crown Prince, but her aura of fear and resolve took on tones of possessiveness and love, and flickers of a unique sort of pleading. It was one the Head of Guard had felt far too many times from her; it was a need for understanding that was lacking, something that often surfaced when she was having difficulties saying what she wanted. "...So I need to tell you a few things. I am certain one of those things will make you quite angry in reaction, but I am hoping I can trust that you will continue trying to prove your intents with me are as you have repeatedly stated them to be and therefore you will contain your anger."

Apollon's aura was increasing in both confusion and suspicion, but a wary relief was joining those two emotions. "If you are already coming to such understandings despite the upsets you have been given, My Sun, and feel there are things I should know to help us bring things back on course, I can assure you that I will try to return the understandings, even if what you may say causes some passing anger."

Kore attempted to give the hawk a tremulous smile, but she couldn't manage to keep it in place for more than few seconds, and her gaze dropped as the corners of her lips did.

There was a mental signal from the King of Death for the memory to pause, and he immediately said when it did, voice remaining an echoing tempest of demonic fury, "You're clearly coming to some conclusion at this moment in the memory, but I am not following. I can roughly interpret what exchanges you and my wife have been making with your empathy, and I know her and her patterns of deceptive speech enough to recognize she's trying to fool Apollo for some specific reason, that she's not just scrabbling for delays. I'm apparently lacking enough context for her oldest self's mentality, however, because I can't reason why she's making this active move to inflame the Lightbringer's obsession because it is seemingly being validated, but then undermining the attempt almost immediately by bringing up whatever subject she intends that might make him angry. Even if she has faith in you to put the threat to an end before the attack is through and potential repercussions wouldn't be a concern, it would be much safer to stay passive or give you a brief command to do as demanded for her safety."

"Spark Notes answer- I realized that while I was tunnel visioned on trying to hold together the revised plan of 'get free, kill hawk, make sure my nightingale is safely recovering and doesn't subconsciously resent or fear me for the rest of our bonded existences', she was so terrified in part because she had noticed the big stone immediately ahead in the road that was about to upset that wobbling moving cart of a plan and send it careening down a steep path that swiftly led to me dying and her facing the brutal version Apollo threatened, if not worse."

"What was the stone?"

"Even if we complied under force of threats to try surviving long enough, territorial hawk was going to immediately notice with the first unimpeded thrust that the Spring Princess was no longer a 'maiden' as he still thought. He'd put together just as quickly who had deflowered her because I was literally the only person who had opportunity. And by the time he pulled out at lightning speed in his blinding fury, he'd have correctly concluded that it wasn't a meaningless one time thing because the normally meek princess had kept finding the courage to defy him and show her fangs to protect me. Unlike the King of Death who had grudgingly accepted the man she had wanted to marry remaining her Head of Guard without conditions attempting to be made to stop us from being lovers because that could then be rightly requested of said King and his concubines and condemn all of us to an eternity of resentful celibacy, the Lightbringer and his notorious jealous temper would be handling things in the aforementioned violent ways to remove the competition and then punish her for having been with someone else."

"That is a significant overlooked stone."

"Ja. As fucked as things are about to get, things would have been permanently FUBAR on most fronts if she hadn't made this play. It's been an extremely cold comfort over the ages."

Vlad considered that answer and then said, "I realize you feel I need to 'King the fuck up' to view this memory further, but I know my limitations. I can't witness my wife being subjected to much more abuse without my temper snapping completely. A summary will need to suffice so I understand enough about what took place with The Hawk."

After a few seconds, the memory was released as the War-Prince suppressed it down. There was a loaded silence as Cerberus debated how to give that briefing and both daimons tried to get tighter control on their respective emotions. Finally, he said, "Kore made a soft pitch to Apollo to break the news to him, drawing out his ego and desire to win her over. She carefully framed some of her willingness to listen to her mother's, Thanatos's, and my council to marry you and her now obvious fear of him as being influenced by things she had heard over the last three hundred years. Things in vague passing mention between him and siblings, or a subtle reproof from their parents, or a passing exchange overheard between one unnamed servant who was attracted to him and an older one who tried warning they felt it was unwise for the other to try getting his attention. Using his own reputation against him in a way that deflected responsibility from myself, Thanatos and her mother.

"It caused Apollo to turn some of his anger inward. He made assurances that he would never really harm her, she could never do something that would make him want to. Those things mentioned of his past were entirely different circumstances- lover spats that rumors had exaggerated, or those lesser lovers had deeply violated agreements, his trust, and his emotions, so he had enacted his rights to seek retribution for broken agreements and justice for the harms they had cruelly done to him. She never needed to worry about that because he knew a loving and understanding woman such as her would not act in such fashions and they'd be able to civilly handle even complicated emotional matters that may arise, just as they were right now. He promised his threats just now had been to back me into aiding things being done the gentle way and illustrate to her that her Head of Guard could have his oaths so easily turned on her by you if you wished to cause her harm in any number of fashions without ever personally laying a finger on her to do so, and he was sorry for frightening her so badly with his demonstration. He just wanted to protect her and open back up the ability for him to resume a polite courtship and have a family with his rightful wife he loved so much.

"After a few more back and forths like that, he asked her if she had thought her misunderstandings of how he might treat her once married because she had drawn confused parallels with those women who were so far beneath them both was what she had thought would make him angry to speak about. She meekly admitted it wasn't directly that, but that she had realized how 'impassioned' he could be. That accepting his courtship would come with permanent commitments that felt frightening to sign up for. That she knew he had desires she didn't feel capable of fulfilling. Apollo made some assurances that he was disappointed she hadn't come to him to discuss those concerns, but he wasn't angry and could understand why a sheltered princess like her would feel that way.

"The Spring Princess then shifted the conversation, not stating the real underlying reasons and letting him make assumptions. She said she was well aware of how sheltered she had been. How she had tried to make peace with some of her hidden feelings is what might make him angry. She had sought out the safest person to express personal thoughts to in regards to being unable to live up to certain intimidating and scary expectations. She knew I was bound by my oaths to protect her best interests and her senses could definitively tell her that I had never had anything but professional views to uphold those oaths. I had given her helpful council to try allaying her concerns, but it hadn't felt satisfactory enough. She had later started discreetly pressing at me to fulfill my obligations in ways that would help her be less sheltered, to have experience in matters she had been stunted in. Their mother knew about the feminine concerns her daughter had and the idea she had come up with to resolve some of them, and had indicated to both princess and guard that she felt it was acceptable to proceed with the less formal way of resolving matters. She was afraid he was going to once again misconstrue what she knew without doubt my unselfish motivations had been and punish me for trying my best to fulfill my duties as different complicated situations arose and I worked with what understandings I had been made aware of.

"The hawk was indeed livid to discover he would not be the one to be deflowering the Spring Princess. With the way she had already corralled him by directing the onus on him for his long history of sexual experiences and having such strict rules, however, he couldn't go completely flying off on one of his destructive jealous rampages over the theoretical concept that she had undertaken such a discreet solution to gain preemptive sexual experience that would allow her to live up to his demanding expectations when the expected commitments between them had been made. At least, he couldn't unless he wanted to prove he was exactly what his reputation indicated, her fears had been entirely justified, and he was going to shatter all the seeming progress he had made to luring her back and getting her to trust him enough to be so vulnerable and honest with him."

"...It's fortunate for the world my wife puts her powers of persuasion to peacekeeping uses because she'd be a near unstoppable tyrant if she was of a character like Apollo or Zeus."

Cerberus gave a brief edgy laugh to that observation. "Ja. And I would have gladly ended up in our Queen's harem of seduced enforcers for world domination if that was the case. That woman has been, and will always be, kryptonite to my attempts at honorable resolves. But in all seriousness, there were very good reasons behind our wife changing her name upon becoming the Underworld Queen. Not least of all as a trauma coping mechanism because the broad strokes of what happened to us that night had become public knowledge during Apollo's trial to secure his execution sentence. She wanted to send a clear message she was fully willing to go from gentle nightingale to undeniable Dragon Queen if someone needed to be disabused of the notion she might be a broken victim who couldn't defend herself.

"I did much the same, partially to directly spite Zeus because he refused to concede to reality. If he wanted to openly and relentlessly spread around Apollo's belief I was the treacherous lapdog of the King of Death, I'd show him just how fucking much I could be the Hound of Hades. You aided that effort in part because even an absolute Alpha like the Void Dragon needs a dedicated second to fill in while he's doing main Kingly duties of some kind. Hermes had been carrying all that weight, but my badass Atlantean self ended up being a perfect candidate to redistribute certain responsibilities to. There was a perpetual supply of schadenfreude for our royal ménages à trois in turning what had been meant as an insult into the legendary archetype of the most terrifying nightmare outsiders could come face to face with if they were stupid enough to think they could fuck around because you were occupied elsewhere."

"And that would not only enrage Zeus, but also be one of the things Poseidon is holding a grudge over."

"I really couldn't give less fucks about what my father thinks in regards to how things played out or continue to evolve. He created me in certain ways and for his aims, but I have that glorious thing called free will. I am under no obligations to play my father's keeper after he refused to give me and Doris the one thing we requested for ourselves after a few millennia of being perfectly dutiful children and we'd have kept serving the family interests after divorcing. Eventually the Water Dragon is going to have to concede to the same reality Zeus did for Artemis, Aphrodite, and other children of his. His original plans didn't go how he wanted and complications ensued, but he has had well over nine and a half millennia to get over it and make peace with reality.

"I can and will exercise my free will to preserve the identity and existence I've clawed out for myself because, despite some immensely fucked up things that have happened along the way to shatter some dreams and forced me to build new ones from the pieces, I have found genuine contentment with what's ended up being my place in life. Unless the Dragon of Water and Magic is willing to spend the rest of eternity sitting outside a magically constructed cage and devoting all his efforts towards reinforcing it to keep me contained, and never, ever makes a mistake that I can and will exploit to escape through- he ultimately can't do a fucking thing to stop me because he isn't allowed or willing to soul-rend The Fenrir. With my powers being what they are and how fucking good I've become at using them, and even without my very helpful Hound of Hades buffs- permanently ending my existence is the only way for anyone to keep me from being with my nightingale and protecting our family.

"Anything short of those two extreme options has officially become a temporary delay to me making my way back to Persephone and fulfilling my mission to the best of my capabilities. Even some human douchebag in charge of a nuclear arsenal blowing up Earth and there not being a convenient world to come back to, or when this world eventually burns itself out and becomes uninhabitable, will not stop me. There's trillions of planets in our galaxy, and over 200 billion other galaxies out there in the wider universe. It's a statistical certainty that there's plenty out there that are recognizably habitable, they just need to be located and reached. No matter how long it takes, I would navigate the greater void to get around space and sense out one that's suitably hospitable, undoubtedly with the supremely awesome Void Dragon and my helpful hounds' aids. If that seems to be taking too long, we settle on a likely starter planet, go back to the holding pen where everyone else is and grab the needed useful souls, lead them through to that planet and combine daimonic skills to systematically terraform that bitch.

"We would ferry everyone's souls to whatever ends up being our new planet and whatever supporting life there is and take a page out of the titanes' book of orchestrating some new physical form for us to reincarnate in. It's a gigantic understatement to say it would be a really weird change to get used to because we're so used to our current physical forms and environment, we'd be in hardcore scifi territory, but I'm sure we'd adapt and fine tune things until we were all happy again because our Team is just that fucking good at what we do and the extreme amount of time it would take is ultimately irrelevant for ageless daimons such as us. So until the inevitable day comes when the Water Dragon finally admits his defeat in our epic father-son battle of wills, the King of Creation can continue to live and die mad at me because he's powerless to defeat my unbreakable will and I will continue bathing my Crowned Wolfy soul in all the sweet, sweet schadenfreude he is so graciously providing me."

Cerberus could sense the King of Death's nuclear rage once more decreasing a level as he spoke.

Vlad's reverberating ethereal voice eventually said, "I am getting the distinct feeling you've already started planning those off-world provisions; that it wasn't just you making an off the cuff hyperbolic statement to punctuate your determination."

Cerberus gave a strained laugh and clear emotional ripple of guilty as charged admittance. "I haven't sent out the hounds because they're a finite resource more practically needed in the void layers around this world and in easy summoning range. However, I have memorized the locations of the closest 100 solar systems scientists theorize may be similar enough to ours, as well as the full chemical makeup of a basic multi-regional ecosystem, and knowledge of how biospheres are evolving in designs if we need to keep things contained because full terraforming is having complications. Ten hounds are acting as dedicated doomsday containers holding written plans for anything my memory might lapse on and need a reminder of from hopping between states, and four tons of seeds, nuts and bulbs I had the Matron Dragon help me requisition over the last half century to act as kickstarters for that side of things so there's some known flora to work with. Their void stomachs act as perfect stasis chambers to preserve quality. That supply includes my mother's and Hera's favorite teas, as well as She-Wolf's mint, tobacco, and coffee, and cacao and sugar cane for Junior Void Dragon and his wife's sweet fangs.

"Unfortunately, I don't have the capability to arrange a Noah's Ark. General mundane fauna and specific humanoid vessels for daimon souls will have to be formed from elemental scratch and forced guided evolution by a team of daimons with the right powers, and we cope with the results of however those theoretical experiments go. Hera vetoed with some good arguments against preemptively requisitioning more advanced resettling supplies because of how quickly tech is evolving and it would become obsolete, and therefore it would become conspicuous to maintain those efforts. I do, however, have a regularly updated list of roughly seventy hydroponic gardening, non-electrical tools and hardware, simple weapons, off grid compatible science lab equipment, metal manufacturing, wood processing, and glass factories or distributors to send teams of familiars out for a blitz wholesale gulp-grab if worldwide destruction is imminent and unavoidable. There's also a handful of large libraries, art supply stores, textiles and furniture warehouses, a table top gaming distributor warehouse, and a major sex toy and kink supply warehouse on the list for bare necessities of civilized living and morale maintenance for the first wave of daimons assigned to rebuild until independent production of materials is established on the new world; and four major galleries and five museums for basic Earth historical and cultural preservation. The human panic from my good doggos and other daimons' commandeered familiars breaking and entering all over would be a moot factor at that point."

"...I am not sure how to judge that level of preemptive apocalyptic planning right now, for both realistic feasibility in being carried out and what it says about you."

"I told you, Schwarze Sonne, I am The Most Dedicated Guard Hound In The Known History Of Existence and I've had way too much free time on my hands these last few centuries to overthink scenarios. Humans being so fucking numerous now, and inventing so many kinds of WMDs in the last century, has only served to exponentially exacerbate my wary guard wolf instincts. I was created to be the Water Dragon's Ultimate Atlantean General and I had you to study. And to a much lesser extent Zeus, but his tactics are usually less than ideal because the Fire Dragon takes almost everything to extremes. He is not a subtle King by any means and going scorched earth should be a last resort. Be that as it may, it's not in my nature to ignore potential catastrophes looming or to accept defeat; so I get Zen focused, make like water, and find the path to wiggle my way through to the desired goal. If the first path fails, I've usually got several contingency plans lined up. And I always make sure those plans protect those I'm responsible for as best as can be done. Might be I have to take the approach of personally being like a little stream taking eons to make a canyon everyone can then march through, but I'll keep going until the mission is accomplished or I'm neutralized. Those are the only two options, and neutralizing me isn't nearly as easy as it was before I became The Fenrir because I've had this long to perfect what I'm good at. Generally speaking, it was you or our wife being diplomatic counterbalances in your own ways because I slipped up and wasn't self-checking my Energizer Wolfy self, and I'm aware of my nature and know it's a good idea to heed those trusted outside reality checks."

"Speaking of reality checks, you have a briefing to finish so this parlay can come to an end."

"Ja, I know. Just trying to keep your Doomsday Clock from hitting Midnight."

"I figured that was remaining the intent, and it has helped with having breaks to reinforce my self-control, but I want this done with."

"As you say, Schwarze Sonne. I'll powerhouse through this then... From where I left off, Kore did her best to wrangle the hawk's temper so we'd both survive the night, and she obviously succeeded to an extent because I'm here and relating things. Unfortunately, Apollo has seven millennia or so experience on her. He didn't figure out her real motivations because he's so narcissistic and she played on that so well, but he wasn't going to just let it slide that I had been covertly having sex with the Spring Princess he wanted to claim, even if it was a supposedly professional arrangement at her request as a sex instructor and that effort would be one he'd be reaping the benefits from.

"The high stakes battle of words and will commenced over my fate, and ended in a draw and winnings being split down the middle. Apollo conceded that perhaps I was indeed not being intentionally treasonous and had been a dedicated guard dog that would be difficult to replace, but he wouldn't relent on the argument that I was an outsider whose views had caused complications and that would need intensive correcting if I was to remain in my post. Kore was careful to make no promises about what she would allow for that to be done, but signaled understanding for his perspective to placate him and secure my life.

"The Lighbringer announced that while most measures would need be longterm retraining, one was going to be implemented immediately and she and I needed to allow it without negotiations or argument as a gesture of good faith to her future husband. He wouldn't reveal what he was planning. Kore had no choice but to signal her understanding again, but asked him not to do something that would cause further complications for my duties, losing my capacity to verbally communicate would already be creating enough issues to find ways to circumvent. He told her that it wouldn't cause such complications. I told him via his telepathic questioning to do whatever he decided, I was not going to waver from my commitment to my oath for making my sole purpose in life to be protecting the princess I was charged to protect.

"Apollo had a renewed sadistic grin as he announced to Kore that her guard dog had given his consent. He gave the wards an extra boost of magic for good measure. Then without further delay or warning, he ripped the bottom half of my clothing off, slashed out my testicles and pulled out the connecting delivery track, and blasted away my ability to regenerate reproductive functions, rendering me eternally sterile. He charitably left me an otherwise working penis so I could piss without complicated solutions being needed to remain at my posted positions without making a mess, and my empty scrotum so it couldn't be said I was left completely and blatantly malformed..."

That blunt summary was causing a noticeable increase in rampage vibes from the King of Death.

Cerberus knew full well why. He hadn't just been given a mutilating punishment that was unjustified and had his dreams of having his own children irrevocably stolen. That soul-deep mutilation was why the Fenrir had been unable to offer aid for his joint spouses creating children of their own, despite having once been compatible for mating with a daimon of Persephone's composition.

"...Apollo immediately demanded upon finishing the job that I be a good Head of Guard and fulfill my obligation to make it easier for him to mate with Kore. Compulsions from my blood oath made that possible, despite the mental state I was in. Lucifer took the opportunity to be some extra levels of bastard while waiting for those compulsions to take full effect by untying Kore, who was in the midst of sobbing from horror and the pain of the empathic backlash of what had been done, stripping her naked, and retying her arms behind her back. He told her that seen as where her form was something she let me become so familiar with, she should provide a visual aid to help her guard dog reach the needed state. It made things more difficult because I was disgusted by the treatment, especially when he started groping her and she was struggling in vain to get away. Kore ordered between sobs for me to submit to the compulsions and properly focus on what my duties were.

"Apollo gloated like the sick fuck he is, telling Kore that he really deserved thanks from her for being merciful because, as she could clearly see, her dog could still get hard, even if I couldn't make use of my cock for reproduction; so if I wanted to remain a sexual tutor I could, but that would never again be a duty I'd be requested to fulfill with her. He further taunted by saying he felt he deserved additional thanks for finishing demonstrating a taste of how you could maliciously manipulate situations if she had ended up marrying you; look how far our attitudes and compliance had turned in a mere night, so just imagine what could be done over centuries.

"When the Lightbringer could smell my empathic influence was working on Kore and started feeling her energy slipping her conscious control as a result, he ordered me to stay where I was told like a good lustful dog and continue my job, then dragged her to her bedroom. He wasn't as brutal in starting his rape of her as threatened; but it was rough enough that, even with the state my empathy had her in, she was aware of it and cried out in complaint. I could hear him tell her he didn't need to be gentle because she didn't have maidenly concerns and could handle the first time between them being a strictly functional coupling for procreation; he'd make their wedding night far more sensual. Then he warned her about what was promised to happen if she made any further complaints and I could hear things becoming even rougher to punish her for the initial complaint.

"As soon as his attention had focused back on Kore, I had restarted my efforts to break the wards. Once they left the solar and he was obviously distracted by what he planned, I was able to put far more energy behind those efforts and had less concerns about keeping efforts on the secondary ward unnoticed. It took me twenty-seven minutes and nine seconds to do. That had been long enough for Apollo to force a roughly defined physical form and a small part of soul energy into creation.

"The Lightbringer sensed my magic snapping his lyre's strings. By the time he had sprung off Kore, I had the sword I intended to kill him with and a back up parrying blade manifested from solidified magic pulled straight from the ether and was bearing down on the bedroom. He had a limited version of his father's ability to manipulate dimensional spaces and pulled out his usual two silver edged swords. He put one to Kore's throat to stop me in my tracks. As he started issuing the order for me to disarm, however, I gave Kore a signal and she threw up a small protective barrier I had taught her a few decades earlier that managed to repel him and his blade away. A hybrid fight of blades and magic ensued with me first driving him away from Kore, faster than it would take me to detail all the blow by blows. Suffice it to say, most of the furniture in the bedroom and the solar ended up broken.

"My kill blade was able to pierce the barrier he had fused to himself, but it wasn't a kill hit because of how experienced of a fighter he is and he deflected the strike. The realization I could kill him, however, scared him and he started fighting all the more viciously. He got a few glancing blows on me. Like many daimons, I have the supernatural equivalent of a virulent allergy to silver, so it slowed me down. I managed to shatter one of his swords and get a more severe stab in on him. A few more blows blocked on either side and dueling magics were exchanged, and then he created a flash of light in my face to momentarily blind me. He went to stab me straight through the heart, but I could sense the incoming attack a few ways over even without sight and forced it aside enough that he only nicked it. Which was still a lethal injury for me thanks to the fucking silver, but not instantly fatal. My main blade stabbed him through the throat before he could make a follow up attack or pull his blade from my chest.

"Apollo teleported off the blade before I could fully push through the enchantment to finish him. He went to flee Kore's chambers because he was almost as fucked as I was and he wanted to summon guard reinforcements. In the second he was delayed at the door to open it, he got a thrown sword through the back, but my aim was off from how jacked I was and I missed his heart. I cast an enchantment to slow down the silver's effects, barred the door with another enchantment, then got Kore untied and wrapped in her blanket for the sake of her modesty and to move her. She was not in a good way from the rough rape, the forcible taking of some of her essence, and the unfinished impregnation unbalancing her state, and got out that I needed to get to you. I already had a similar thought because her siblings being in a drugged, likely magic infused, state might mean no major reinforcements for us, but also that there was no one in the city fast enough to keep up with me if I shifted forms. Not with Apollo being in critical condition and unable to personally pursue us. Shifting forms would also greatly help my triage enchantment buy me more time.

"So I gathered her up and sped as fast as I could manage a sustained pace for to reach the Olympian-Underworld border. I left the palace complex with quite the parade of Olympian guards and soldiers in my wake. Even though Apollo told them I had a standing death sentence for treason, they didn't dare take ranged shots or cast most magics because of the risk of seriously harming their King and Queen's youngest child with the known delicate constitution. Especially not one who was carrying a potential child of the Lightbringer if she could be safely retrieved and brought back in time, and if he could get patched up enough to give a quick and dirty finish for a minor spawn. I heard one of them shouting orders to others when we first exited out her window, which is how I know what his version was that I'm obviously paraphrasing. Kore kept renewing the protective enchantment I had taught her to help protect my rear side and the few guards who initially got relatively close got whammied with my nastier magics to decommission them because discretion and civilities were already out the fucking window alongside us. My first wave of aggressive magic efforts, plus the innate fear of the legendary OG Cerberus, and my mist state making it hard to know how injured I really was, quickly made the Olympians further wary in tactics because they questioned if Apollo had misjudged how badly he injured me. It was a notoriously dangerous idea to try to corner the Atlantean wolf when he's injured, and they could tell having a death sentence over my head meant I was not going to go down without taking as many as I could with me. Kore's other guards, who had been on standby in their quarters for the contingency of me being arrested, joined the fray as soon as they heard the racket start and realized shit had somehow gone down so badly. They were quickly overwhelmed from sheer number differences, but I could sense the team I had personally selected and trained fought until death against their fellow Olympians to intercept and help break up some of the onslaught rushing to reach me and the princess they were sworn to.

"I steadily put distance on the Olympian parade and darted my way along a course I knew to be scarce in potential recruitable Olympian fighters that the telepathic troops might try to alert for attempted interceptions. I blew past before those few were in range of alert by my pursuers, but they joined the chase. I thankfully made it close enough to the mid-southern part of the border that a group of your standard peace time patrolling guards noticed my unmistakable self rapidly approaching, one of them could sense I was seriously injured, and they could see that I had your promised wife wrapped up and with me because I shifted my mist form enough to put her on display.

"They set off a chain of telepathic alerts to reach you, then they asked me in the same way the ancient daimonic equivalent of 'what the fuck is happening' as they sped in to provide the assist. I told them Apollo tried to rape their future Queen with Zeus's permission in an unlawful attempt to stop the marriage, I had managed a partial intervention and critically injured the Lightbringer, but I was about to make the big visit to the void from the fight, her other guards were dead, Apollo had a standing death sentence on me for treason, the Shadow Prince and Matron Dragon had been accused of conspiring treason for aiding marriage arrangements, there were approximately 160 non dragon Olympian troops ten and a half minutes behind me with orders to force Kore back to finish the attack, and I needed the Underworld to take over her protection. They took both of us into protective custody and set off a telepathic chain that not only alerted you and the patrols being telegraphed through to that follow up explanation, but a secondary one that summoned every single one of the badasses who resided in scattered hamlets near the border as a diplomatic repellent from Olympian civilians encroaching too close, and those brawlers who could do so sent more notices that rippled out like a spiderweb from there. Your Kingdom was a well oiled living war machine and I was banking so hard on that to be an ironic boon to my efforts this time.

"The lighter armed and armored Olympian parade was greeted by a steadily growing Underworld wall of enraged brawler militia and soldiers who were armed to the fangs. Dragon Commander Pan had been a resident of that region and in charge of its patrols, so he was an early arrival and had them forming up. He switched to his 'You're So Fucked' voice, cranked the volume to the supernatural max with his power boosting it, and let out a warning. One that I could hear the clearly carrying echoes of from the hut we had been brought to six miles away, even with the fading state I was in. A warning that identified himself and stated that the Void Dragon and Herald of Death would be arriving in what translates as five minutes. The King of Life's Assassin was forty seconds behind them for arrival and in an unprecedented rampage state. Any Olympians in range of the King of Death's psychic sight upon his arrival were automatically declared guilty for conspiracy to rape and attack the Underworld's future Queen, attempting to abduct said royal lady seeking sanctuary, and attempting to kill the dragon who was her sworn guard lawfully defending her and also seeking sanctuary. The punishment under Underworld laws for such acts was death and soul-rending. The Void Dragon and Head Psychopomp would commence carrying out the sentence, and the Shadow Prince would aid executions if any were still standing on his arrival. Any attempt to further approach the border or make contact before the King's arrival was an opening act of war; Dragon Commander Pan and his troops had King's orders to take no captives. The war orders would stand until the King and Queen of Olympus answered a joint summons to discuss the crimes their Kingdom had committed."

"That was such sweet music to my dying ears because I knew that meant my nightingale was officially safe. The Olympian parade wisely decided to make a hasty abort to report back to Apollo their failure to retrieve Kore and that the Underworld dragons had so explicitly shut down chances of negotiations and threatened to forego all the usual rules of combat. Humans in settlements within the radius of Pan's bellow had no fucking clue was happening. Most of them didn't know more than major daimon names and a few commonly known daimonic phrases for polite acknowledgement when crossing paths with our kind during daily living or giving offerings in thanks for some sort of supernatural aid given. They knew Pan's unmistakable scary voice, though, recognized the titles mixed in, and dove for cover because they could tell their morning might be kicking off with serious daimon violence they were at risk of getting caught in the crossfire of.

"I was quite literally feeling the pull of the greater void when you arrived and my physical senses were gone. The last thing I had heard was my nightingale desperately ordering me not to die, she had not relieved me of my oath so I had to live. I was fighting the void's pull fang and claw to try following that order, even though I knew it was only delaying the inevitable. I can remember even after conscious thought was gone instinctively not wanting to leave her, especially not in the panicked and pained state my empathy could still sense she was in. Then I sensed your awareness enter my soul and grab hold; felt the barely contained rampage you were in and the pull of the void decreasing. Your voice was calm, though, as you told me you could sense I wasn't ready to stop serving, and fortune was with me that morning because you had promised that your Queen would have the worthy Head of Guard she had chosen to watch over her when she claimed her rightful throne.

"I was in no state for response; I didn't even properly register the words at the time. There was just confused relief flooding in because I instinctively understood that the one and only Black Sun was pulling me back from the void and that meant I was a safe wolfy. Things got even more fuzzy as I felt some of your power being released and the greater void pull ceased. When I came to physical awareness, I could taste dragon blood in my mouth that wasn't mine. I was being lifted onto a makeshift litter from the broken off tabletop of whoever lived there and tree branches secured under it by rope for handles. My stab injuries were mending; but my inner balances were in some really weird fluxes from the foreign essence being exacerbated by the fresh strains Apollo had caused, and I was still fatigued beyond previous experience from the roughly two hour mist dash that had been fueled by sheer determination to reach my goal destination. Thanatos was next to me and I had never been so fucking relieved to see his stony expression before, despite the rampage I could feel he was also in. He said he'd be personally ensuring I made it to the Underworld palace for recovery, Hermes was already on his way to Atlantis to inform my parents and the Matron Dragon of what treachery had been committed, and all Underworld fighters were in the process of being alerted and deployed to defend the borders should the treasonous Lightbringer try ordering any further attacks before matters were put to rights, so it was safe to get the rest I had earned.

"I could also hear Kore in the midst of saying it wasn't much time to process everything, but her instincts were screaming the entire way from Olympus that she had to hold her son together until we could reach you. She was trying to give him more energy, but she had no experience in manipulating her essence in such ways, and I couldn't speak or spare the time to stop to try scratching out rough instructions, and she could feel he was slowly slipping away despite her efforts. As I was being carried out of the hut, I heard you telling her you'd try to finish his creation if that was what she was certain she wanted and could tolerate the aid after what just happened, but you couldn't promise it would work because someone else had started the process and the already fragmenting form may reject your different essence trying to fuse with it and instead breakdown fully. Her visions might have been showing insights for a new child you two could make, not that this specific one could be saved. I caught her saying she was certain she didn't want this son to die before he even had a chance to live, he was innocent and deserved that chance, so even a risky attempt was better than not trying at all; then we were past my range of hearing.

"Less than a minute later, your shadow form was darting past for the palace at a much faster speed than the brawlers carrying me could move... It was a very long day and a half, but you obviously were successful in creating Eubuleus. By the time the Black Sun was done, your Heir's composition had far more power behind it than the Lightbringer would have been capable of giving on even his best uninterrupted try and ended up being about 42% from Persephone, 56% you, and 2% Apollo. That 2% ended up being the necessary essence to allow your energies to fuse with Kore's, but you had managed to overwhelm the baby's formation and systematically replace most of Apollo's hastily poured in essence so the baby would have as little of the Lightbringer in him as possible. Something Kore was grateful for, despite how much had to be pulled from her to manage it and maintain some level of balance, and how shattered she otherwise felt on just about every level."

The Fenrir's explanation finally came to its due end.

There was a prolonged loaded silence in the shared awareness as the King of Death processed everything he had been told.

Cerberus could sense the Void Dragon's seething rage staying at nearly exploding nuclear levels.

Vlad's voice was as frozen as the void itself when he eventually asked, "A point of clarification so there are no misunderstandings. Your father may not have been told in depth details of what happened that night and had been estranged for about a millennium at that point, but does he currently know you were Persephone's sworn guard and involved in what happened, were permanently mutilated while holding to your oaths, and nearly died while bringing her to me?"

"Ja, those particular points are no secret to him, even with strains of reincarnating a few times. My parents made multiple attempts to undo what the Lightbringer did after his execution was carried out, but they couldn't fix the distortions to rebuild and reattach what had been blasted away. My mother was devastated to have to concede I was stuck like this. And they ultimately couldn't help with your daughter's creation because the needed energy was a rarely forming mutation of certain essences fusing in just the right way that neither of my parents possessed on their own or had managed to make with any of my siblings. It was a statistical fluke for me to end up with it. Eros was put to work trying to discreetly find someone who had it, but no lesser daimons had it in their lines, and among dragons not even Eubuleus's son or Apollo's half-breeds had inherited it. Eubuleus tried to see if he could consciously pull at that energy once he knew what to look for to indicate if he could incorporate it in a donation to a child, but it was too critically fused to his composition in too sparse an amount and he temporarily fucked himself up with the experimental attempt.

"I had created our helpful hounds by then with blood infusions made possible by my Hound of Hades powers, so I tried experimenting with other new ways to pass on some of my essence. With Persephone taking a page from you and giving me a new hybrid boost, I managed to eventually create my first lycanthropic adopted children with part of my energy acting like a virus being injected into the humans, but couldn't get the needed essence to pull off and into one of my wolf-bite spawn through that method. Unlike my Hound of Hades powers, I've retained the ability to make lycanthropes because her type of Queenly energy made a more seamless fusion with some things already inherited from my mother and doesn't need renewals to maintain. That aside, upon failure in the target goal, I let you two Kings try to pull it directly from me in a pioneering supernatural genetic splicing project. The essence was too fragile and kept breaking down during attempted transfer, it wasn't even making it into Persephone, and each attempt would destabilize my already permanently damaged soul and take time to recover from.

"I was willing to be permanent sacrifice to try giving enough to finally give Persephone the daughter she was seeing, but there was an automatic overruling agreement each time I suggested it that it wasn't a line getting crossed. Even without personal ties factoring in and our wife not wanting a child bearing the knowledge of that sacrifice hanging over their birth, trading a definite Fenrir with several thousand years of experience and advanced developed powers for only a chance at a newborn was decided to be too risky a gamble with a potential martial payoff too long in coming. Not when the Kingdom already had its Crown Prince and his line, and it would ultimately be trading one auxillary royal family member for another with far less widely recognized authorities. Then there was the added fact we had long since known the crownless Lightbringer was reincarnated, free roaming Olympus territory, and rebuilding his reputation and influence as a supposedly reformed hawk. We had no idea what play Lucifer might someday make, but we didn't trust he had dropped all grudges and had real contentment with his new lot in life. It was just a question of what and when and how quickly could we wreck the existences of him and any accomplices when he tried something."

"Very well." The King of Death pulled his awareness from Cerberus's mind. Remaining in void-shadow form, he said to the collective members of the parlay with frigid echoing voice remaining, "Services from you three are accepted, without telepathic interrogation required of the twins, but Pan will be under Hermes' direct instruction. You four are to return to the villa and, with the exception of making a food stockpiling run as soon as stores open in the morning, you are to stay there and ensure the family remains safe. Hermes is the deciding voice to security matters, but will factor in any of The Wolf's advice in matters he has relevant knowledge of."

The Angel of Death beat The Fenrir to asking, "And just what will Your Majesty be doing?"

"I'm taking a quick trip back to the ocean. Poseidon and I are going to have a chat about his deceptions, and then the Water Dragon is getting conscripted to help me deal with Zeus and Apollo as a means to start paying his growing pile of debts."

"Schwarze Sonne," Cerberus said with a nervous glance going over the expanding shadowy mass and sensing increasing rampage vibes. "Whatever nuclear plan you're cooking up, it's not a wise idea, even with my father's soul to aid you."

"It's safer than waiting for the enemies to pull through more power and attack at an orchestrated advantage," the King of Death said assuredly. "I will deal with the aftermath mess when the enemies are eliminated and an inescapable point has been made about not threatening my family. You all have your orders, so get moving."

"Schwarze Sonne..."

"Don't make me repeat myself, Wolf." The Void Dragon's shadows deepened and echoes of the condemned souls he held began to echo forth from them in a tortured cacophony. His form shifted to dart away.

"Scheisse! Corgis!" The Fenrir exclaimed through his namesake, simultaneously pulling in an infusion of magic and shifting into mist form.

Luke and Jan started backing away at a human's quick jogging pace as the Atlantean zipped forward at full speed and collided with the King of Death's departing form.

The two Underworld monarchs went flying back, crashing through the partial stone wall at the entrance of the triangular cave. They were exiting the other side in the space between seconds.

Quicker than even the average vampire's eyes would be able to follow, the two incorporeal masses were fully locked together. Magically-fortified mist was making lightning-fast attempts to surround the shadowy form and drive it to the ground, and the void-shadows were just as swiftly making attempts to tear into that mist to break away and continue to its goal destination.

Walter's phone began ringing in the same moment he began turning to speed after the two combatants to try helping subdue the rampaging King. Some instinct flashed through his mind, telling him not to ignore the call, the timing was no coincidence. As the Dragon of Void and Earth's ferocious, reverberating snarl echoed through the woods and again made all the surrounding trees in a half kilometer radius tremble from the force, Walter was retrieving his phone from its pocket, checked the incoming number, and paused for about two seconds in a state of pure shock. Rationale had barely had time to interpret the instinct as perhaps his King's Oracle Queen had picked up something was going wrong with this parlay, or Cerberus had activated whatever magical dead man's switch he had to alert her.

It wasn't the Underworld Queen who was calling.

The Angel of Death answered the call and, listening to his instincts again, immediately hit the speaker phone button and turned the volume to the maximum.

Before Walter could even attempt a greeting, an unmistakable British accented and aged voice rang out in command, sternly but evenly, "King Hades! You will disengage from Cerberus this instant and check your rampage before you further damage one of my allies' Natural Parks or cause an international panic!"

Despite the unadulterated fury The King of Death was in, and despite that there was no magic tied to the command being issued, that very distinct and familiar voice snapping out his name cut through his current mental state enough to register he was being addressed and by who. By the time She had finished issuing Her command, the Void Dragon had come to a profoundly confused halt in his attacks, trying to reassess what was happening.

The mist-form broke away from the void-shadows as that attack came to a halt.

The void-shadows, while still in a near unmitigated rage, registered it was no longer under a counterattack. The shadow mass shrunk in on itself, forcing the souls that had been brought to the surface back to a deeper level of the inner void, and then instinctively flew over to where the voice came from. The void-shadows reformed into his Alucard guise, minus the glasses and hat, with a dazed expression as flaming gaze stared at the phone in near incomprehension to the fact he had heard what he just thought he heard.

Cerberus had reformed where he had been left on the other side of the cave, and his voice echoed from his namesake that was still across from Hermes. "Fucking told you I had a Hera."

The Matron Dragon said with dry humor, "Indeed. And it is a relief to see, Hades, that even if you are no longer bound to obey, you do still instinctively respect a Queen's commands."

Alucard blinked a few times, still struggling to regain a sense of just what in the unholiest of fucks just happened in the last twenty seconds.

As Cerberus cautiously started back through the cave at a normal human walking pace, his expression openly showed his relief as Hound-Cerberus said, "Thank you very much, Matron Dragon, for being so swift with the Queenly intervention."

"You are most welcome, Cerberus. I have had a tiring day and maintaining this scrying so late into the evening has been even more exhausting. However, it has proven to be a wise precaution and necessary expense to put myself through."

The King of Death's confused gaze darted between phone and Wolf, rationale still not quite restored enough to absorb the fact that he was absolutely hearing The Queen's voice and how it had come to happen.

"I'm most grateful for you making that effort, Matron Dragon, despite the strain it's incurring you to do so, especially with as long as this parlay has lasted."

"It may be the bare minimum aid circumstances allow me to offer, but I certainly owe it to my daughter to attempt to keep her husbands from causing harm to one another. I just as surely have a responsibility to keep Kings focusing their rampages where they belong and to when and how they are appropriate to be unleashed."

"As always, Matron Dragon, I am grateful for you being an eternally shining example of Queenly Excellence."

"Thank you, Cerberus." A hint of reproof entered Queen Hera's voice as she continued speaking. "I feel the need to say, however, that while I understand there's been need to punctuate certain statements, I am a little disappointed with just how frequently you have used coarse language this evening." Cerberus's expression immediately shifted to one of guilty repentance. "Furthermore, while there was an undeniable need to impress certain realities being what they are, and I do understand that you have selflessly made many harsh sacrifices for love of my daughter and are anxious to finally reunite with her without long interruptions to your time together, you were crossing the line into indecency and pettiness a few times this evening. It may have been slightly more acceptable to have the occasional slips like that when you were a War-Prince and General, but it is unbecoming of a Crowned Monarch. Especially when you knew your wife's own mother and another Queen was observing this parlay. Your time mingling among modern humans is showing far too much and you will correct it."

Cerberus's shoulders slumped a fraction to the reprimand, and his expression became sheepishly apologetic. "Apologies, Matron Dragon. I have been attempting to walk that narrow line of conducting my behavior to the standards expected while still doing as needed to achieve the targeted goals for this parlay, but I concede that I may have slipped a little too far back into the OG Cerberus mindset with lesser recent influences being allowed at those points in conversation because of personal emotions tied to the situation and it being my stubborn and memory-repressed Kingly husband needing to be kept in check."

"I think we can agree that I understand better than any other in existence how difficult that can be, Fenrir. I still expect you to make a stronger effort to stay on the proper side of that line for the remainder of this parlay and moving forward in the situation."

"Of course, Matron Dragon. Again, my heartfelt apologies."

"One more thing, Cerberus." The Queen's voice had a hint of humor returned to it.

"Yes, Matron Dragon?"

"You do make a perfectly adorable Squall. I think the outfit is even more striking on you without your hair and eye color being altered. I'm certain Persephone will appreciate you reviving your Mercenary Knight costume as much as I have."

Cerberus forced a cheeky grin to form as his posture perked up. "Thank you, Matron Dragon. I was sincerely hoping you'd approve of the choice."

"I did. Hermes?"

Walter blinked once in surprise to being so suddenly addressed, gaze leaving his King, who was still staring at the phone with an expression that was slowly shifting back to a stoic state. He asked hesitantly, "...Yes, Your Majesty?"

"I have three things I wish to say to you this evening. The first being that you have my gratitude for the excellent care you gave my daughter while she was recovering from her injuries."

"You're most welcome, Your Majesty," Walter said passively.

"The second is that while I understand your Underworld son has had the misfortune to have been raised in America, and the infinitely larger misfortune to have been pulled into Apollon's false Court and was subjected to manipulative brutalities that molded certain behaviors, I fully expect that you will in fact be making every effort to rehabilitate my grandson to as appropriate of behaviors as a dragon with Pan's nature can be expected to have. Not least of all, coming to some understanding of chivalry so as not to show such egregious disrespect to the women he encounters. Most especially to those within the family and his own mother, who has had more than enough misfortunes of her own."

Walter sighed as the aforementioned son did a full body cringe and gave a sheepish look up at the sky. "Understood and fully agreed, Your Majesty."

"Lastly, I wished to say that, while not needed for this evening, I do appreciate the Nazi Stompers you decided to wear tonight. They look even more impressive now that you're full grown and they are more practical than your usual footwear. As such, I hope the Herald of Death might take a Queen's advice and consider permanently reviving their place in your wardrobe."

Walter gave a brief chuckle tinged with embarrassment for the compliment. "Thank you, Your Majesty. I will take your fashion advice under sincere consideration as I am fond of them as well."

"Wonderful, Hermes. Pan?"

"I'm listening," Jan called over, then gave a nervous chuckle as the Angel of Death gave him a very sharp warning look to watch what came out of his mouth. "Um... Hi, Dragon Grandma... Nice to finally talk?"

"Circumstances, past transgressions, and pending disciplinary actions not withstanding, I want you to know I am relieved you and your brother were able to safely extricate yourselves from such a toxic environment. I am also happy you made the decision on your own to try making some form of amends in your own colorful way. It also has warmed my heart to know you chose to rejoin our family and have made what efforts you are able to provide support. Persephone did need extensive help of many kinds and you played your part as best as could be hoped for."

Jan gave another nervous chuckle and a halfhearted salute. "Yup. Of course, Dragon Grandma. And uh, full props on picking tonight's safe word and being so quick with that intervention because the scene got too heated."

There was an amused laugh from Queen Hera. "Well, we all know how much I adore the little mindless creatures for the companionship they provide. It seemed appropriate if either of my daughter's husbands slipped too far from what their primary role to her should be."

Jan gave an enthusiastic nod and fanged grin. "Like I said, Dragon Grandma, full props. You are the Original Ultimate Queen Damme and it is so fucking cool."

The Matron Dragon gave another passing laugh, but said more seriously, "Thank you, Pan. I hope I do not need to impress that I expect you to be giving your full effort to follow your father's instructions."

Yet another nervous chuckle and a grimace. "Nope. Message is already clear, Dragon Grandma. I'm all in for the old man's bootcamp to retain head and soul."

"I am truly heartened to hear that, Pan. Eros?"

"Yes, Exalted Grandmother?" Luke asked immediately.

"I want to inform you that, while it may have been belated in happening, I do appreciate that you recognized your errors and did what you could to protect yourself and your brother in such a dangerous situation. From what Cerberus has been reporting to me, and what I have witnessed this evening, I would also like to say that I appreciate how committed you have been to restoring yourself to being an exemplary example of the conduct I expect from the members of my Court."

Luke gave a humble nod and said in daimonic, "Thank you, Exalted Grandmother. It has been my honor to again serve our family."

Queen Hera replied in the same language, voice taking on a quietly rumbling and lilting multi-tonal quality, "That was a flawless effort for your current human throat limited capability, Eros. Well done."

Luke gave a less humble nod, smirk forming. "I say again, thank you, Exalted Grandmother."

Jan groaned and mumbled, "Big Bro really didn't need the encouragement to be even more of a kissass..." He cringed as he saw the renewed glare his old man leveled on him for the repeated language. "...Crap. Sorry, Dragon Grandma."

There was a passing laugh from the Matron Dragon that echoed with her draconic voice. When she spoke however, it was once more with her usual British Queen voice. "You're making progress already, so I suppose we can let that slip slide." Her voice returned to an impassive tone. "Hades, have you managed to overcome enough of the unpleasant shocks given throughout this evening to have regained a mental state that will allow us to briefly speak?"

The King of Death needed a few more seconds to evaluate his state of mind, then said with a carefully neutral tone, "As long as you're not planning to spring another decidedly unsettling series of shocks on me, Hera, I believe so."

"I have no such plans," Queen Hera reassured.

"Then we may speak, Your Majesty."

"I fully intended to express regret for certain decisions on my part being necessary when we were face to face because that would be the vastly more appropriate time to do so. I still intend to save certain discussions for when we have complete privacy to speak. That said, I do feel I should say this evening that I regret it was necessary to hide knowledge of our shared past from you for over seventy years and that you have had to come to so many discoveries in so short of time, causing such strain for the recovery you have been making. I have no harbored desire to see you relapse into such deeply unpleasant states and I wish there had been better ways to handle the situation we are all mired in."

Alucard affected a quiet sigh. "I realize you have tried to make the best decisions you can in an exceedingly complex situation. I also realize that my mental state is of sincere concern to you and you didn't wish to strain it while I have been in a contained rampage since my release. However, I am disappointed that you withheld knowledge of my wife from me, when such knowledge would have aided in easing my mental state. Particularly if the news had come from you and in a considerate manner. Being left so completely in the dark on matters has created complications and dangers that could have been avoided. Those are matters we will be discussing in detail once I've returned to London."

"I can concede it's possible I may have misjudged how the news might be received," the Matron Dragon said, voice a shade sterner. "My concerns were also for my youngest draconic child. I know just how deeply you care for Persephone's wellbeing and I am in no manner implying you would ever intentionally jeopardize it. However, I needed to be certain we could locate my daughter when she reincarnated, attempt to orchestrate some semblance of a stable childhood for Persephone that's outside of the public eye because of how delicate her gifts are to handle and modern times are the way they are, while also attempting to arrange circumstances to mentally prepare her for reuniting with her entire family and being capable of withstanding the ongoing turmoil.

"The original intent had been for my daughter to be reborn somewhere in Europe, where I have far more influence to orchestrate such delicate provisions as she needed. Even with being born into a family of Knights there, Thanatos would have had a much easier time keeping instinctive watch over her within one of those host families than he had with the Holy Commander's grotesque and zealous family. Agents and contacts of mine would have been able to discreetly maneuver themselves into contact with my children for their formative years, without their father being made aware of such influences. They would have ensured my children had a similar dual upbringing the current monarchy I'm embedded within presumably should have, of paying open acknowledgment to their father's religion so as not draw his rage towards them, but having a quiet training in proper spirituality and morals. When she was of a reasonable age and capability, you would have been made aware of things. You, Cerberus and I would have coordinated together for a reunion that would be under much calmer circumstances, then undertake the actions necessary when you and Persephone were ready to have your son returned to you.

"We have tried to corral your daughter's soul after her deaths to try having her born of her rightful mother as well, but because of her first influences, she doesn't naturally gravitate towards where the others do and impulsively flees from the hounds if they manage to locate her and try to shepherd her back. Even still, she always manages to find her way back into one of her parents' vicinities around when her mother is reborn. With how things have been for Persephone in this life, it's almost been a blessing in disguise that we've failed attempts with your daughter. She was quick enough to instinctually return so close to you this time, despite events of her last life, and you reclaimed her on your own. Which has been undeniably beneficial for your mental state and kept her from the influences her brother has been exposed to.

"As Cerberus has done his best to inform you, and as I am acknowledging, our plans for my daughter and grandson did not unfold as we had hoped. I believe as The Fenrir does, that Amphitrite did her best to accommodate our requests. However, her mistake created a cascade of considerable troubles that were difficult to try correcting. With just how vehemently you and have Zeus have been instinctually fighting, and Apollon being such a cause for concern, it seemed too dangerous to try making you aware of what was happening in those earlier days. We were concerned that, one way or other, she would end up feeling imprisoned and like a child bride being groomed, or dying again in the crossfire, or we would catalyze exactly the sort of alliance that Zeus and Apollon have now formed.

"Can you honestly suggest to me, Hades, what we might have done differently in a manner that would have avoided those concerns? How we could have kept a pre-teenaged or younger Persephone safe- physically, mentally, and emotionally- if a bold intervention was staged to extricate her from America or you suddenly took an interest in living there. Can you honestly lay out a plan of what you would have done with resources available ten or fifteen years ago against either Zeus or Apollon that would have not only been certain to deal with the threat they individually posed, but also not alert the other to what was motivating the changes in behavior and cause them to react in some unforeseeable fashion that could endanger your freedom to act or draw attention to your wife? Can you honestly tell me that it would have been beneficial for your mental state to know your wife was reincarnated but was only a young child and therefore you had to keep a distance for so long and with such dangers overhanging a potential reunion?

"If you can lay out a definitive plan you would have constructed at some point in time on how things could have been handled better for the interests of all involved, granting you all the knowledge you have now of the distant past but not omniscience of future events, with a realistic acknowledgment for the characters, states, and abilities of those who were involved for that point in time the plan would have been enacted, including yourself, I will hand my current throne to Charles and spend the rest of what days I have left in this incarnation scrubbing the palace toilets as penance for making avoidable critical failures as a mother and Queen."

Alucard snorted back a laugh. "Willingly handing the throne to Charles would be a critical failure as a Queen on its own."

"Precisely my point in making this wager. I fully plan to outlive him so the crown never touches his head."

The King of Death considered the challenge the Queen posed him for a minute. "I can think of several dozen ideas that may have mitigated an isolated factor or other better, maybe a few at once, including simply briefing me before I left for the US last month instead of allowing me to be blindsided; but I honestly cannot say that it might not have impacted other factors in ways that would make things worse than they are now. Without things I know now but couldn't have known at some point in time earlier, even if that past me had more time to try making the ideas form a fuller plan than I currently have time to consider out, I'm not fully confident in declaring my plans would have a definitively better outcome. Nor will it do our current situation any good for me to keep you on the phone all evening while I try to construct such a past plan I might have made and to then argue over hypotheticals of the past results it may have resulted in when that past can't be changed. So consider this my concession that the United Kingdom is safe from his incompetence, and your knees and shoulders are safe from such labor intensive servant work."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for remaining the gracious Voivode beyond peer and sparing the Kingdom such ravages of embarrassment and an old woman's health the troubles."

Vlad chuckled briefly and said, "You're welcome."

There was a quiet sigh from the Matron Dragon. "Are you feeling capable of proceeding with this situation in ways that won't necessitate further intervention?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"You will come to a decidedly civil peace arrangement with your and your wife's husband, Cerberus, who I am verifying to have fairly represented the history of events to the best of my own recovered memory's ability to confirm, that acknowledges his rightful standings in personal and hierarchy matters. The Fenrir is not subject to Hermes's orders. The reverse is true if the King of Death is not present. The Fenrir is not your subject to make nonnegotiable demands of. The Fenrir and Queen Persephone decide how to interact with one another, as was originally sworn upon between you three. Are we understood?"

The King of Death's hellfire eyes narrowed in an ominous glare at that set of demands.

"Do not dare to give me that look, Hades, even if I am not there for it to be directly leveled on."

Alucard sighed as his eyes closed for a few seconds; and when they opened, there was a more neutral expression.

"Thank you, Your Majesty. Now, whether you like it or not in this moment, you do have a second spouse and you at least need to uphold to the absolute basic of obligations to them, Persephone does have a second husband and he loves her just as much as you do, and he has just as much right to rebuild those ties as you have. You three made vows privately and then the Void Dragon himself hosted a royal soiree that was quite memorable for the culminating surprise announcement that the Underworld had gone from a single King to your royal ménages à trois and the resulting scandalized reactions it incited. Even if that had been privately decided for strategic reasons after unfortunate events, I can well remember that it did not stay an impersonal arrangement from memories I have of visits with one another. You three were not only a highly efficient and skilled monarchy, but wonderfully effective and respectful co-parents to my grandson. I later witnessed various quiet shows of affection that were appropriate while entertaining company between all three of you, and there were a few times of accidentally catching bits of your far less quiet privates displays of affections with my senses being what they were.

"You will need discuss with Cerberus just what those vows were if you wish to change past arrangements made because you no longer find them suitable; but until such time, your little triad is what it is and you were indisputably one of the willful architects of that reality. And while your fellow Kings and Amphitrite were quite scandalized, or felt different balances were being upset because you were taking a powerful spouse originally from each Kingdom and the other Kingdoms only had two long established Monarchs, I did not find it such an unthinkable solution because circumstances and complicated personal ties were what they were. In the present situation, I think it is even more fitting. If our family and subjects are ever to recover from everything that's happened, the best figureheads for that are the Underworld Monarchs working as a cohesive alliance that represents all three Kingdoms and the interests of all daimons and mixed lineage descendants."

"...Was that the original restoration plan?"

"Yes. What exactly did Poseidon tell you?"

"He was pitching three co-ruling Kings and was quite vague about where the Queens fit in. I knew he was angling somehow, but I didn't have enough memories to know motives and discern what that twist was, so I told him I'd consider things because I like a challenge, but I obviously had to deal with pressing matters first."

"Of course that would be his attempted play; pitch the Kings against the Queens and his own son and potentially let everyone drown again to try avoiding having to make concessions or putting in extra work to adapt to changes... Suffice it to say, Cerberus was also telling the truth that I am quite displeased with Poseidon right now. The Water Dragon was not thrilled to be pushed into agreeing to join the draconic equivalent of a supportive parliament consisting of the Queen-Mothers and King-Fathers to two of the members of the Triad. Our responsibility would be giving advice on how to frame laws being considered for the Kingdom, helping oversee those laws are being carried out among our citizens, and aiding the formation and maintenance of alliances to human governments. He also is not fond of the idea that it would require an unanimous agreement among the four parliament Dragons to overrule a decision the Triad has made because of how rarely the four of us can reach a unanimous consensus. Which is precisely the point. The Triad would already be providing checks on one another to come to the collectively agreed upon public decision announced, and that process needs to carry due weight and authority; but we'd have a mutually agreed upon and peaceful means to overrule a decision if it's somehow so egregiously wrong that we can all agree it is and have a counter decision worked out in detail to offer.

"Amphitrite agrees with that outline because she is of thought that substantial changes from the titanes' primitive and ultimately divisive designs are needed. As she has been in the void so long to fulfill the tasks there, she well knows she's disconnected from the current state of the living world. She is willing to trust those Monarchs who have a better understanding of how concerns have evolved to work out the details of our new system, take the support position so she can have the chance to reacclimmate herself properly, and once she's caught up she'll feel comfortable weighing in on matters if she feels there's room for refinement. Zeus has been on his record breaking rampage for both length of time and worldwide damage done. He has not earned a say in how the new system will form and he should consider himself fortunate he is even being granted the chance to redeem himself and be offered the advisory position.

"Therefore, unless members of the Triad eventually decide they've changed their minds now that they have full ability to make such considerations, it still remains a five to six agreement among relevant Monarchs to move forward with the plans. When I last spoke to Poseidon, I told him it was well past time for him to get with the modern age on a number of issues and, until he does, he's welcome to be like most ultra-conservative minority parties of a government, grousing in his corner about days long gone and only occasionally making a decent policy suggestion the rest then work out a practical application for."

"We clearly have a great deal left to discuss when I return to London."

"Indeed we do. So you will get at least one modernizing task underway of working out that decidedly civil peace agreement within the Triad you helped to create, and prove my faith in you three is so well placed. Is that understood, Hades?"

"If it pleases Her Majesty to know, we came to a basic understanding and preliminary agreement for the current state of our alliance while telepathically connected, even if it was not quite to your specifications."

"That is heartening to know," Queen Hera said with a small amount of happiness allowed to enter her voice. "Thank you both for setting such a fine example, despite how straining tonight has been. And you will be making certain that my daughter and four grandchildren continue to have a safe and quiet journey?"

"But of course," Alucard said with a wry smirk forming. "You're not including your son in that request?"

"I know Thanatos is perfectly capable of taking care of himself for the remainder of this trip and making peace with our family's reality being what it is. My eldest true born child has never failed to prove that he is most worthy as my rightfully designated Crown Prince and Heir. My concerns for Thanatos are for his current incarnation's survival through future conflicts with his still rampaging father and the treacherous usurper."

"Understood, Your Majesty."

"And when you arrive to London, you will be making it a priority to grant this old Queen the comfort of finally being able to lay eyes on the daughter and grandchildren she hasn't properly seen in twenty-seven miserably long centuries, yes?"

"Of course, Hera."

"Thank you, Hades."

"You're welcome, Your Majesty."

The Queen ended the phone call.

Alucard affected a sigh that blew his bangs from his eyes. Those fiery eyes turned to Cerberus. He conceded grudgingly, "That was an unexpected twist to your threats. Well played."

Cerberus gave a perfunctory wolfish grin. "I learned from the best."

Jan queried from the tree line, "So, uh, now that Big King D has decided not to unleash the apocalypse, are we still good to end this nature trip and get back to someplace with electrical outlets?"

The King of Death couldn't entirely suppress a snort of laughter. "Yes."

"Fucking thank you, Big King D," Jan exclaimed with relief.

Luke asked neutrally, "Are you two shadowing back?"

"Yes," Alucard said. "Cerberus obviously knows where to go. We'll easily keep pace with the truck you came in. When we arrive, neither of you are authorized to explain historical things to my wife. I will be heading a conversation that needs be done carefully tomorrow, after everyone's had some rest."

Jan gave a jaunty salute and Luke gave an acceding nod.

Cerberus led the twins and Hound-Cerberus back down the path as the King of Death had a telepathic discussion with his confidant during the wait.

Upon reaching the truck, The Fenrir told Luke, "Hound-Cerberus is getting shotgun."

Luke raised an eyebrow and asked with a hint of indignation, "Seriously? Just unsummon him."

"I have an arrival plan and it requires the Queen's best doggo having shotgun."

Luke gave an irritated sigh and climbed in the back seat of the cabin as Jan stowed his guitar and speaker in the bed.

As Jan went to climb in behind The Fenrir's seat, he noticed said demon had pulled out his iPod, exchanged it out with his that had been hooked up to the truck, and had a playlist waiting. He leaned over and gave a flick on the screen to scroll down the "Nightingale" playlist to see what the end list of road tunes was.

The English version of Oomph!'s "Crucified". Nightwish, "Nemo". Phil Collins, "I Don't Care Anymore". Eisbrecher, "Vergissmeinnicht". Apocalyptica, "Not Strong Enough". Dark Sarah, "For the Birds". A Disturbed double hitter of "You're Mine" and then "Indestructible". Oomph! again with "Supernova". Genesis, "Just A Job To Do". A third Disturbed song of "Deify". And then the last song he already knew about and was timed to be playing as they reached the villa.

Jan demanded with insatiable curiosity as he sat back in his seat, "Alright, seriously, Wolfman. It's fucking killing me and I gotta know before you start the tunes up. How many of the bands from your mood lists have at least one of your music addict wolf-bites as a member and acting as your mouthpiece?"

Cerberus gave a strained smirk as he climbed in, closed the door, and turned the key in the ignition. "I am not ruining the careful aliases and connections my well behaving puppies have worked so hard to build and jeopardizing my ability to personally curate my music supply." He started backing up the truck to get it turned around. "That answer isn't changing, no matter how many times you ask. All you're ever going to know is my wolfies have procured me a menagerie of trusted collaborators who unfailingly play by the rules. When I come knocking on their door with a production request for their next album, they know they're guaranteed to add a new hit or three that will boost visibility for their own work, with no strings attached to rake in the fame and cash for themselves. Keeping Papa Wölfe happy means everyone wins; so they know not to disappoint my confidence in the talented artists who caught my attention to make the songs as handed to them, to make sure the rest of that album meshes so it's not obvious some of it is someone else's work, and to keep their fucking mouths shut on where they really got the inspiration from so I stay the best kept secret in the Neue Deutsche Härte and greater Euro Symphonic Metal businesses."

"So... American bands like Disturbed are remaining a no?"

Cerberus nodded. "My wolfies are still not allowed to branch out past where I can easily reach them right now. But Draiman is one of the chillest humans you could ever meet and I am going to be legit upset the day I hear he's kicked over to the void and his savage tunes are at an end. I'll be at that memorial come hell or high water with lighter out to pay respects to that G."

Jan gave a frustrated grunt, but his voice was amused as he said, "Still so fucking jealous you've managed to squeak in meeting so many music legends."

The Fenrir gave a shrug, shifting gears and the truck started the bumpy course back down to the hiking path. "Even The OG Cerberus can only spend just so many centuries off the radar or deep undercover before needing a discreet outlet. And I fucking love the perk of VIP access waiting at the door when I shoot someone a message that I'm in the area and itching for a live music fix. It's going to be a ton of fun when I can finally safely bring Persephone out and make introductions or refreshers to our sneaky wolfies who have been waiting with undying curiosity for their legendary Mama Wölfe to make her return. They're are going to love hearing directly from her they've done their Queen proud by keeping the scene churning out tsunamis of evolving musical excellence on a reliable basis the last thirty years, how much she's appreciated the covert cleansing vibes, and how much she's looking forward to the next waves. But for now, Papa Wölfe has some primal soul-scream therapy to do; and I will do my best to keep it from actually effecting you two stuck behind me while I do."

Cerberus hit the play button and let blast the first of songs to start his much needed catharsis. He was going to powerhouse through his conflicted state so this nightmarish 110 week and two day separation from his nightingale could come to an end on the right notes. He was going to fully enjoy the sight of her being safely before him again and take comfort in the knowledge that she wasn't flitting off in a precarious unaware state after just a mere few hours or days together.

.

.

.

Mercedes had thoroughly enjoyed the spa and chance to pamper herself with the beauty products. Once that had killed quite some time, and her husband and Walter still hadn't returned with or without her friends, she asked her cousin and Seras if they wanted to tone down the defensive guard state a notch to watch a movie together. After a brief consideration, Pip had sighed and agreed maybe that was a good idea.

They were debating a third movie selection when Seras suddenly perked up and exclaimed, "Oh! Master and Walter are coming back! And your friends are with them!"

Mercedes broke into a grin at that news. "It's about time! How far away are they?"

"They'll be here in about four minutes," Seras reported cheerfully after gauging their speed.

Mercedes glanced to her cousin. "Smoke break while we wait outside?"

Pip gave an immediate nod to that suggestion. "Oui. I'm dying for a cigarette."

They split off to grab their packs. Mercedes had bought a carton of her favored brand as another gift to herself when she saw them being sold at a stand in Tenerife, despite the steep markup in price, so she didn't have to keep smoking her cousin's gross tasting Lucky Strikes.

Once outside, they lit up and Mercedes had herself a seat on the terrace's stairs. With the view they had from being on a higher slope, even the cousins could see a truck soon coming into view while it was a good distance off, speeding along the winding road.

Then the truck got close enough to hear music echoing through the evening air.

"...Discard regret, that in this debt
A better world is made..."

Mercedes instantly recognized the song. It was the song she had been listening to the morning of the Iscariot attack that Vin had referenced to boost her morale.

"...That children of a newer day might remember
And avoid our fate..."

That wasn't terribly surprising, given the circumstances they had last spoken. Vin had probably been listening to the song quite a bit the last month, wondering if that would be the last exchange they would have and if she had survived. But it was instantly striking a conflicted reaction for Mercedes because it brought both fierce gratitude for having survived as the song was meant to inspire, and fearful remembrance of the events happening when she last heard it.

"...Prepare for battle..."

Anderson had arrived outside her apartment, with his gun-toting squad preparing to storm her apartment.

"...And in the fury of this darkest hour
We will be your light..."

The hounds beginning their attack, and the shooting starting. The truck was heading up the last long slope before the villa, and Mercedes could sense Vin's energy. Her fellow empath's emotional state was amped up at the moment, and it was uniformly a fiercely protective aura radiating out and speeding its way towards her. Sensing that brought an instinctual relief, but the dark wave music was still pounding away and she wasn't having any success in suppressing the flashes of memories it was causing.

"...You've asked me for my sacrifice
And I am Winterborn.
Without denying, a faith in God
That I have never known..."

Mercedes flinched as she remembered the dying men's screams and the snarling outside her apartment becoming all the fiercer. The truck's lights were reflecting up the driveway. Vin's aura was shifting subtly, still fiercely protective, but there was an undercurrent of reassurance slipping through. He could undoubtedly sense her emotions as well, even if she was trying to keep them more contained.

"...I hear the angels call my name
And I am Winterborn..."

Anderson had started ordering the remaining soldiers to get moving... The truck pulled to a stop in front of the villa, and the intensely flaring emotions radiating out from the dark cabin were noticeably pulsing in time with the music. Despite that, Vin wasn't making any haste to leave the truck to greet her.

"...And in the fury of this darkest hour
I will be your light
A lifetime for this destiny
For I am Winterborn..."

Mercedes was rising to a stand, giving a confused look in her friends' direction as a vague tickling of intuition entered the back of her mind.

"...And in this moment... I will not run
It is my place to stand."

Vlad and Walter had materialized from the night air, about twenty feet to Mercedes' left, but she barely noticed their arrival because of what happened in the same moment.

The truck turned off, cutting the music. She had been about to take another drag off her cigarette, but it stopped at her lips because of the uncanny timing. That was the exact moment she had turned the music off to concentrate on the incoming soldiers, no time left for trying to keep herself psyched up.

Her intuition was shouting that was no coincidence... How in the name of the gods could Vin have known what the last lyrics she had heard was?!

The truck's driver side door swung open. Vin slowly exited the vehicle; and he looked both immediately recognizable and yet decidedly and supernaturally different, but the differences were also hauntingly familiar. He was wearing one of his cosplay outfits, of all things. Squall's informal every day outfit, complete with white fur lined bomber jacket and belts. His shaggy, wavy hair wasn't dark brown, like it had been dyed for the Con, though. Nor black, like she usually saw when he had the video cam on or she had last seen him in Germany. It was a perfect snowy white; as white as the furs he was wearing. And the eyes meeting her shocked gaze weren't a middle shade of deep blue like at the Con when he had contacts in for being in character, or dark brown the rest of the time. The irises were a uniform glowing red, like rings of coal heated until they were steadily smoldering red embers.

Minus the modern outfit, Mercedes had seen him looking all but identical to this before. In tiny flashes of visions when they had visited in person. She had thought at the time she had been catching glimpses of some ancestor of his, some insight into how her friend was who he was. An ancestor who had a dominant genetic code that passed both supernatural gifts and facial structure so distinctly down to Vin. Especially because of the little things Vin had occasionally let slip over the years that seemed to confirm her theory. The last few days, she had wondered if she had been seeing a past incarnation of his. That conclusion was now confirmed. His hair had been different lengths longer than it was now and had some grey in it, and some of his teeth had been distinctly elongated, but she had definitely been seeing the same person.

Vin closed the door, still meeting her gaze, and his black gloved right hand gave a single tap on the roof of the truck. A shadowy form darted out through the open window, and formed up to his left side. A form the priestess instantly recognized because it was unmistakably her longest serving hound, Cerberus.

The seer's gaze darted between the two. Confusion was deepening because she had no idea how the hell Cerberus was with Vin. Understanding was also dawning, however, on how Vin knew when to cut the music. And with that understanding, the confusion was partially being replaced by an answer. Vin wasn't just a fellow empath; he could also summon hell hounds. He could specifically summon the same hounds she did, not different ones like her husband summoned. Vin had somehow known through the hounds exactly what was happening.

The faintest smirk pulled Vin's lips as he sensed her understanding forming, and his aura shifted to a veritable bonfire of emotions. Emotions that fluctuated to all too familiar vibrations of an even fiercer protective aura she felt often enough from Cerberus, then very specific vibrations of concern when she was upset and needed company from her hounds, and then an unmistakable pure joy and adoration that her gigantic hellhound always had present when she summoned him after his early snarly summons had worked out his defensive behavior and he became familiar with her.

Vin hadn't just somehow known things through the hounds relaying it... He had been communicating through them with his control over them...

The leather and fur clad entity started to walk at a casual pace towards her, aura once more fiercely protective. His fluid movements brought to mind the carefully contained physical power of apex predator animals trying to seem less threatening.

And intuition flared again, causing the cigarette in Mercedes' hand to fall from slackening fingers. Memories of the fight against Anderson were flashing. Of just how fiercely the hounds had fought and how they moved when corporeal. How they had not only followed her orders, but had done so with almost perfect coordination to so many of their attacks. The timing of them arriving in different waves to take over when one needed to be replaced.

Athene showing at just the right moment to save her from Paladin Anderson's intended death strike, after she had followed Vin's advice in the most literal way of yelling at the Hierophant to go fuck himself because she'd fight him to the last breath. None of it was a coincidence. None of it had been chance or luck. Her guard dog friend had been behind all of that, answering her emergency request for aid beyond wildest hopes.

Vin stopped a pace in front of her, gaze having never broken from hers. She stared up at him in a chaotic state of confusion and understanding and more questions forming. His aura again shifted, radiating out reassurance and an undercurrent of mischievous amusement, smirk widening to a wolfish one she knew all too well. His left hand reached out and he gave a very gentle, deliberately paced, set of two knocks, a pause, then two more knocks on the top of her head.

A hysterical laugh slipped from the seer, intuition flashing to the Oomph! song, Labryinth, that had been coming to mind so frequently the last few days. Shaky words made their way out, tears forming. "Par les dieux... Apparently I really am deep in the Labyrinth. My not so perfect world really did get fucked and I haven't known who I am; but I've already answered that knock and let you in, and you've been trying to tell me which directions were the right ones to take." Her thoughts flashed on another song by the same band, the second one he had mentioned in his message the morning of the attack. She asked, needing the confirmation to her tentative conclusions, "I have no idea how you managed to do it from so far away, but when the chips were down, you really were around to protect me from Iscariot's Hooded Claw and keep the bad vampires from my door, weren't you? You couldn't be there in person, but you were there through the hounds?"

Her secret silent Mercenary Knight gave a single nod, encouraging vibes flickering noticeably but briefly through his aura as further confirmation she was on the right track of thought.

Another laugh escaped Mercedes as her mind struggled to see more clearly through the weird storm. One thing was certain, though. "Kara was right- You really are the best guard dog friend a girl could ask for." The priestess wrapped her arms around his warm torso in a tight hug, gratitude joining the mess of emotions swirling in her head. Vin's arms went around her to return the hug, aura once more pulsing with reassuring and protective vibes. As she gave a sniffle, trying to keep from having a complete meltdown from the newest weird twists, the all too familiar vibrations felt like they were wrapping around her like a blanket. He shifted and gave a gentle kiss to the top of her head, letting his lips stay there as his arms tightened a fraction.

"...Why would...? ...How did you...?" The seer stumbled over the questions, though she knew it was almost stupid to even attempt to ask because he wasn't going to be able to answer at the moment with his hands being occupied and unable to type or write an answer.

Then another surprise pounced on her. Because an answer came from next to them and below, in a soothing rhapsodic multi-tonal voice that was hauntingly and impossibly familiar. "'Child, for Heaven's sake'. You can be so frustratingly blind for an Oracle, She-Wolf..."

Mercedes pulled away enough to stare down at her hound in profound shock. A hound whose fang filled jaws continued to move, and the words spoken caused a shiver to go down her spine from the weird storm increasing to hearing that voice.

"...The answer will always be the same to any question starting with 'how' or 'why' I do anything in regards to you." The emotions from Vin made another shift, a love rising that was contradictory for being all at once ferocious and yet gentle, a sereneness from acceptance of it, yet an almost maddening frustration laced through. A love that flowed over her and wrapped around, creating a sensation that was almost akin to being caught in a hurricane of emotion. Except those outside emotions weren't seeping in to directly effect her personal emotional state, it was like being in the eye of a hurricane and seeing the waters whipping around while remaining relatively untouched.

Mercedes's golden-tinged gaze went up to meet the glowing ember gaze; shock deepening as she tried to process what she was sensing from him on both the obvious level for what had he hadn't allowed her to sense before, and trying to comprehend the supremely unnaturally precise way her fellow empath was projecting his emotions.

Vin's shoulders shook as a huff of almost laughter escaped his damaged throat. "It's because of my undying, death defying, love for you purging my soul and making my first, last, and only goal throughout existence to be ensuring your wellbeing." He glanced to the Vampire King and then back at the seer. Smirk broadened to a grin that revealed lengthy ivory canines and incisors that had been allowed to shift back to their natural state; causing flares of surprise as her gaze took note of them. "Thankfully, His Majesty and I renewed a very old understanding, so I can say that openly without worry of that particular envy hurting itself. Or me, for that matter."

At the reminder of her husband, Mercedes felt embarrassment and anxiety rush in and she finished pulling away, glancing in his direction. Oh... He was not happy at all... While she had been distracted by Vin's emotions immediately around her, her attention shifting caused her to realize she could pick up some emotions from that direction. The stoic state Vlad had reappeared in was cracking with bits of anger and territorial jealousy. And though his gaze attempted to remain passive as it met hers, that gaze was not the least bit foresty. The irises were entirely ablaze.

Mercedes felt guilt and anxiety ratcheting up another notch as she glanced at Vin and then back to her dragon of a husband. She meekly took a step back from the former as she gave the latter an apologetic look.

Then she heard questions being asked in French from behind her. "Mon Dieu! What the hell is actually happening right now?! Just who is this fanged albino giant?! Why are his hands on ma petite cousine without them already being torn off for it?! And how is that hell hound talking?!"

Vin glanced over the priestess's head, grin remaining, and he answered in French. "For the sake of everyone present, the simple answer for tonight is I am the original daimon known as Cerberus. Father of lycanthropes and creator of daimonic hounds. And while it hasn't been my job for my entire existence, I have been the eternally sworn guardian of Her Majesty, presently commonly known as Mercedes and wife of the King of Vampires, for a very long time..."

Mercedes was staring up at the entity speaking with deep shock filtering back in response to those words. Then there was the sound of one of Pip's pistols being cocked as shaky understanding and defensive fear sprung to life from the monster hunter. As she turned towards her cousin in a dazed state of disbelief, the daimon continued speaking in English with body language and aura not showing the least sign of concern for the threat from the mercenary captain.

"...Apparently my ancient reputation still proceeds me in certain circles. How nice. Be that as it may, The Dragon isn't going to rip my hands off because, as I said, we have an understanding when it comes to our Queen and her family and he's come to a renewed awareness of that as of this evening. And while it would be a waste of bullets to attempt to shoot me, Captain Bernadotte, it would also be mildly dangerous with your cousin where she is between us. So, if you don't mind, I'm going to temporarily confiscate these to ensure the Queen's safety..."

Faster than Mercedes could even see sign of how it happened, the gun was gone from Pippi's hand, as well as the rest of his weapons that had been strapped to him. Vin was to one side of her, holding the travel bag that had been inside and containing some of Pip's grenades. Except the bag was once again weighed down with what looked like the mercenary's entire arsenal.

Cerberus was still speaking through the hound without seeming to miss a beat, but now his aura was entirely radiating mischievous humor. "...When you've calmed down and remembered basic firearm safety, Captain, you can have your expensive bang bang and explodey toys back because you will eventually need them for our enemies."

Pip blinked rapidly, staring at his empty hand, then the demon, then his hand again.

Mercedes's gaze was similarly darting between 'Cerberus', then her husband, then back to her former lover, then back to Vlad.

Seras was sputtering in bafflement. Even with her decidedly above average Draculina senses and reflexes, that had happened at an unbelievably fast blur. She hadn't had time to even consider intercepting the demon as he was right next to her to disarm her fiancé, disappeared in the house, and then was a blur coming past her. And while Master or Walter could have done something about it, neither had made the slightest attempt.

Jan called from the truck, breaking the heavy relative silence, "Yo, Wolfman! You've had a chance to say hi to Mercy-cakes and the Captain can't go shooting things up, so we clear to stretch our legs?"

Cerberus gave a beckoning gesture without bothering to look over.

Jan climbed out in a hurry and gave a stretch. Then the energetic vampire was walking over as Luke was still making his way out of the back seat, saying with a big fanged grin, "Gotta say, Mercy-cakes, I'm not digging you as a blonde. You look way too much like a fried-out bougie rich bitch. Glad to see you're otherwise looking alright, besides the arm. Can I get a hug from my favorite guild bitch?" The last was said as he stopped next to her and the unmasked daimon, arms going out.

Mercedes gave an extremely edgy laugh as she stepped forward to give him the requested hug, relieved to have a mental breather of interacting with a friend who was looking and acting the same as always. "Heya, Jan. I'm not liking all the dye jobs either, and this one is a bit too close to ma mere's old favorite for my liking, but it is what it is at the moment. Glad to see you and Luke made it out of hillbilly hell alright." As they released each other from the brief greeting embrace, she asked, "And I thought I was your second favorite guild bitch?"

Jan gave a dismissive raspberry and said bluntly, "Val has been booted off the list completely after she ditched Team Anarch to go play footsies with the Camarilla and their Head Punkass Tremere. Fuck her, and fuck Kara and Bastion. Hell's Harem is officially under tighter membership pre-reqs."

Mercedes shook her head in exasperation, anxiety slipping in at the reminder not all their friends had come out on their side of the line. Golden-brown gaze went to the other brother a few steps away and she gave a smile. "Evening, Luke. Seems I wasn't the only one having a long week and keeping business to myself, hm?"

Luke gave a tight smirk and shook his head, setting his braided tail of hair to swaying. "Not by a long shot, but we'll have plenty of time for catching up and comparing notes." Hellfire gaze went to the house, then back to the seer. "How is Xander holding up with everything that's been happening?"

"Shit, knew I was forgetting to ask something!" Jan exclaimed. "Yeah, how is the little dude?"

Another stressed out laugh, then Mercedes said, "All things considered, he's just fine. He was kept asleep and out of the fight in Philly, has been quickly adjusting to different things he's been told, and is as much of a ball of excitable energy as always."

"That's a relief to hear," Luke said, tension in his posture and expression easing. "While we trusted His Majesty could handle things, we had been worried nonetheless for how much there was for a child to potentially reckon with."

Jan nodded and said, "Our exit plan obviously meant we had to cut some losses, but Wolfman let me pack all my accessories and games and the systems that don't have required internet connection. If anyone needs some stress killing gaming, or little dude starts going stir crazy from the new war time lifestyle, I've brought aaaall the good shit for us to play with."

Mercedes perked up at that news but asked with mild disbelief, glancing to the truck with its decidedly not overflowing covered bed. "You brought all your stuff?"

Jan gave a more animated nod and said with clear indignation, "You really think I'd leave my epic collection in hillbilly hell for some redneck to pawn off for meth money? Hell fucking no."

"...I've seen your collection. It would need a pair of big U-Hauls to move."

Jan said with a grinning nod to the wolf demon, "It's all sitting in a hound Cerb let me borrow for easy moving. Told him, when shit quiets down, if he gets bored or tight on cash, he should start a moving company with those doggos. They're so fucking useful."

Mercedes glanced between them, eyebrow raising.

Cerberus shrugged nonchalantly, but his mischievous aura and matching smirk belied the gesture. "Luke's library is also packed. I've got all my stuff as well, and it's not just media. I've brought lots of toys for everyone's tastes."

Mercedes couldn't restrain the nervous giggle-snort to that declaration. "I'm not sure I actually want to know what sort of arsenal you might have built up..."

Cerberus gave a considering bob of his head. "American gun nuts would cry tears of jealousy if they saw it. I also brought lots of helpful goodies for our premier enchantress to experiment with so she can hopefully provide the defensive buffs we need."

"...Wait, seriously?"

Cerberus's smirk became decidedly smug. "Ja. All sorts of goodies, including some I know you couldn't possible have worked with in this life. You might have trouble staying focused with all the options to play with, but I'm sure the Angel of Death will be able to politely keep you on task for projects."

Mercedes glanced from the daimon back to Vlad and Walter. "...Just how much am I apparently not remembering thanks to reincarnation amnesia? Which of you five is going to start explaining just how you all know one another and what's been going on behind my back on so many fronts?"

The King of Death gave a facsimile of sigh, having pushed himself back to stoicism by now. "Tomorrow afternoon Walter is taking our son out for lunch and to go see a movie. There is a serious family discussion that needs take place so we are all on the same page; but it is one that is not appropriate for a young child to potentially overhear the details of or be sensing multiple sources of reactive emotions. Different theories and suspicions I had were confirmed, for entities both friendly and hostile, and I was made aware of other pertinent details. Suffice it to say for tonight, Cerberus and I do indeed have an understanding and everyone currently gathered are those that can be trusted to be working towards the same primary goals for both immediate and long term survival."

The seer's gaze went between her husband and Walter, then back to 'Cerberus'.

The daimon's impish aura remained steady as the namesake hound said for him, "His Majesty is correct, She-Wolf. Explanations really should wait until tomorrow. But you can trust that we're all senior members of the guild, and we are the very best at what we do. As long as we keep our heads in the game and play our parts to the best of our skills, even if we've got an intense series of grinding boss battles to powerhouse through, our ultimately unbeatable team is going to make it through without any serious botches that we might not be able to recover from. And once we're done kicking ass and taking names, the guild will be collecting our winnings and enjoying the rights to gloat about being the indisputable forever reigning champions topping the worldwide leader board."