Third Chapter: I Will Try To Fix You
"When you try your best but you don't succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse
When the tears come streaming down your face
'Cause you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
What could it be worse?
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you"
- Coldplay: Fix You
Meg was required to meet her father in his private quarters and that was where she headed after talking with Hercules.
Surprisingly, her father was alone and without his advisor, Autolycus. Even though her father argued that he was his most trusted advisor, Meg had never liked nor trusted the man. There was something uncanny in the way his eyes seemed to follow her every step and it made her feel uneasy.
"You asked for me, father?" Meg simply asked. She decided not to push her luck and ask about the whereabouts of the king's advisor.
"Yes. I have been in contact with your future husband, the king of Sparta," the king simply required.
"Oh," Meg simply replied, feeling her heart dropping into her stomach.
"His seer will foretell when will be the most favorable date for your wedding. After we discover the date, we will start the preparations. You should start preparing as well, daughter," king simply offered, not noticing or not caring as unshed tears filled his daughter's eyes.
"But father…" Meg tried to argue, but he stopped her short.
"No buts. You know it is all set. We need this to reinforce our alliance with Sparta," her father replied back.
Meg sighed. Maybe there was nothing she could do for herself, but there was still something she could do for her people.
"Father, there is another issue that has been troubling me," Meg started timidly.
"I hope it's not connected to your impending marriage?" the king rubbed his temples with his fingers, already feeling the headache forming.
"No it's not. It's connected to the safety of our city-state," Meg quickly replied, guiding their conversation to safer matters.
"Continue," her father simply told, curious to see where this was going.
"There has been many monster attacks lately. Too many. Without the aid of Hercules, many lives would have been lost. It seems almost as if our city-state was purposefully targeted," Meg spoke out her suspicions, but much to her disdain, she noticed that the lizard-like advisor of her father had slipped into the room in the middle of her speech. Great. This was exactly what she needed.
"That is an absurd accusation!" The man exclaimed loudly.
The king simply rubbed his bearded chin, his mind already working on the problem pointed out by his daugther.
"Besides, the princess, as smart as she is for a woman, should not burden herself with such worries with her wedding closing on soon," Autolycus continued as he seemingly smiled at her, but she could hear the condescending tone in his voice. Meg had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at the man.
"Autolycus is right, you should not burden yourself with such worries. But I shall look into this matter. You may go now," her father dismissed her and Meg left him alone with Autolycus who circled around his throne like a wolf circling its prey.
She felt a chill running down her spine.
She did not notice how Autolycus' eyes would lingered on her form, his eyes fixed upon her retrieving form.
It was already night-time and Morpheus had started his work for the night. Most people in the city-state of Thebes were already asleep and even if the occasion was quite late, one lonely figure made his way away from the royal palace of Thebes, making his way to an isolated cave located just beneath the cliffs underneath the palace. The figure crept inside the cave, looking nervously around him.
"Oi, you took your sweet time coming here," A taller figure appeared just behind him, sounding already irritated.
"Forgive me, master. I came as soon as I could!" The man knelt before the figure, a god: the lord of the Dead.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, cut to the chase: is there anything new information concerning my number one enemy, Jerkules?" His flaming hair started burning in red-hot flames as he just thought about that annoying hero-wannabe.
"Ah yes, Hercules has started working for the king, training his soldiers, so he is quite occupied at the moment," The man, Autolycus, king's right hand and advisor, nervously explained to the god, who's patience was thinning out.
"Yes, we went through that the last time. What else?" Hades spat out, starting to lose his nerve.
"Well, it seems like Hercules has got a crush on king's eldest daughter, Megara. I have seen them talking alone and today, he was looking longingly directly at her," Autolycus explained nervously.
"Oh, the daughter you're after, eh? You were ready to sell your soul to me, if I gave you the one thing you wanted: the king's eldest daughter. And now Jerkules is in love with her as well?" Hades leered at the anxious man.
"What he wants doesn't matter! As long as I'll be the one who gets her in the end!" Autolycus replied angrily.
"Yes, yes, we made a deal and I keep my end of the bargain. If you help me bringing the royal house of Thebes down, the whole city-state will fall into chaos and we can crush Hercules at the same time!" Hades was just getting started as the wheels in his head started turning.
"Princess Megara also pointed out to the king that all this monster attacks happening at Thebes seem to be happening too conveniently at the same time. Now the king suspects something as well," Autolycus carried on, already wincing as he knew his master well enough to anticipate his reaction.
"WHAT! That little, UGH!" Hades' hair flamed out in his red-hot anger and instinctively Autolycus pulled away from him.
"Alright, alright, we're cool, we're cool," Hades muttered to himself as he composed himself.
"So seems like this little princess is one smart cookie. Maybe we could use her…" Hades knitted his fingers together, with a devious smile playing on his lips. He would use the little princess in his plot, even against her will or even her knowledge.
Now this should be fun.
Days and few weeks passed as Hercules tried his best to divide his time between his heroic duties in Thebes and training the would-be city-troopers. Even as he occasionally saw the eldest daughter of Creon, those moments were only fleeting and they never had much time for any other conversations then exchanging pleasantries in front of other people. Hercules wasn't even sure why he wished to see her so much: each day without seeing her seemed like torment and the days he saw her, even if for a moment, meant everything for him.
One day after his training session with the soldiers, king Creon had sent a servant to fetch Hercules to come and meet him. Hercules obediently followed the servant to the throne room, where the king was seated on his throne. Unfortunately for him, there was none of his daughters to be found even as he stole a glance around the room: he only met the piercing eyes of king Creon's advisor, Autolycus he recalled was his name. There was something unsettling in that man, something he did not like about him: the look in his eyes was almost sardonic, which Hercules found strange.
Hercules was shaken out his reverie as the servant who he had followed, cleared his throat and Hercules realized he was supposed to kneel before the king. The young hero did just that, lowering his gaze away from the king's eldest daughter.
"You may rise, young hero," king Creon told him and Hercules did as he was told anxiously. "So, how had the training with my soldiers started out?"
"Very well, Your Highness. Even though I think it will take at least several more weeks to complete the training. We are only getting started with it. Is that what you wished to talk about with me, your Highness?" Hercules asked, still glancing momentarily to the king's right side. For the up-coming weeks he had a reason to come here, a reason to see her, even if it was occasional.
"That is one of the reasons, yes. But there is another reason: I have heard some rumors," the king replied on a grave voice and Hercules swallowed anxiously. He was not talking about him and his daughter, right? They had been just talking to each other, admittedly without a chaperone, that much was true.
"Wh-what kind of rumors, your Highness?" Hercules had hard time at finding his voice as he felt his nerves getting the better of him.
"There have been more and more attacks of monsters in Thebes recently. One could almost think that it's intentional, would you?" The king pondered aloud and Hercules almost had an urge to sigh aloud from relief.
"Intentional, you say? I haven't thought about it that way. But there have been quite a lot happening lately," Hercules thought about it: there had been Hydra, the Nemean lion, a wild boar, the Medusa to name a few. No, all this monsters attacking all at once did not seem natural. Would someone really arrange all this? Who would do this and why?
"I wanted to ask you to keep an eye on things, to see if you can get into the bottom of things. If there is someone responsible for all of this, I would like to know. This is about the safety of my city-state, after all. Would you do that for me?" The king had gotten up and made his way to Hercules. He placed his hand on Hercules' shoulder to show his confidence on young hero.
"Of course I will, Your Highness," Hercules told him, bowing his head in respect.
"Good! If you find anything out, please report back at me," the king told him absent-mindedly, already making his way back to his throne.
"I will do that, Your Highness," Hercules told him, realizing that the meeting was coming to an end.
"Very well. You may go now," the king gestured towards the door, looking almost bored that they were still there.
Hercules resisted the urge to sigh as he exited the palace: so much for seeing her. He decided to take a short-cut through the palace gardens and go to the stables to fetch Pegasus and head back home: during these last few weeks, he had been getting well-acquainted with the surroundings of Cadmea.
As he was passing by the fountain where he had met Meg during his first visit to the palace, he noticed a familiar figure seated there once again. He could not believe his luck; part of him also wondered if he had unconsciously picked that exact route in case he would find her here? Nevertheless, he was happy to see her.
She, however, did not seem too happy, lost in her thought, a sad look in her eyes.
"Hi," Hercules simply greeted her, once again losing his ability to speak because of her beauty.
"Oh Gods, you startled me!" Meg jolted back, surprised by his sudden appearance.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to," Hercules apologized as he sat next to her.
"Who did you think I was?" He then asked, curious about her reaction.
"Oh, I was afraid you were Autolycus. That creep seems to follow me everywhere nowadays," Meg replied with a annoyed sigh and a roll of her eyes.
"Oh, I see. He does seem kind of a sketchy type. Wonder how he ended up being king's advisor?" Hercules wondered aloud.
" My father claims that Autolycus is the only person worthy of his trust. He appeared at our palace sometime after… After my mother died," Meg quietly finished, obviously struggling to find words.
"I'm sorry to hear that, if it's a hard topic to talk about, you don't have to explain," Hercules gently told her.
"I haven't really talked about this with anybody. But I want to tell you: my three brothers died when I was just a child. My mother, Eurydice, could not handle it and she killed herself. That is when everything changed, at least my father changed: he became distant and bitter, crippled by his own sorrow. He's been different ever since: sometimes I wonder if the part of my father that was able to feel things died along with my brothers and my mother. My grandmother Harmonia was there, but she had her hands full with my father. I was left to care for my two sisters and I was just a child myself," Meg whispered as tears threatened to fill her eyes.
"I'm so sorry Meg, You shouldn't have gone through that, none of your family should," Hercules replied as he tenderly with his thumb caught a lonely tear trekking down her cheek.
He had lost the opportunity to live with his birth-parents: but they still existed and maybe eventually some day, he would be reunited with them. But how did she feel, after losing her mother and her brothers at such a young age, only to be neglected by a distant father? He could even begin to imagine it.
"I was raised by my mortal parents and I cannot even visit my real parents as a half-mortal. But experience something such as you have: I cannot even imagine it," He softly replied to her.
"I used to be so lonely when I grew up. I had my sisters and my grandmother, but I couldn't show them how much all those things that had happened affected me. They were struggling themselves, we all were," she explained, the sad and distant look in her eyes.
"I use to be lonely too when I grew up: I felt that I was different, too different, compared to all the other children. Growing up wasn't easy for me either," Hercules revealed to her some of his most agonizing moments of his adolescence and she keenly listened. Somehow even the most painful moments he had bottled up inside of him and never talked about with anyone were easy to expose when she was listening.
At one point, he noticed it was already getting dark and he had no idea how long they (he) had been talking.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't burden you with all of these
"No, don't be sorry: it's never easy to talk about these kind of things. Besides, it's comforting to know that even the son of Zeus has experienced some sort of childhood traumas," Meg playfully jabbed and Hercules laughed back.
"Ha, I wonder if anyone can survive teenage years without getting those. Thanks Meg, I really enjoyed talking to you," he honestly told her, looking into her eyes.
"You don't have to thank me, it's good to have someone to talk to," Meg replied, a smile still playing on her lips.
He returned her smile, almost getting lost in her eyes.
"Well, I guess you should be going before your trainer files 'a missing hero' report," Meg quipped back and Hercules awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.
"You're right, Phil's probably already looking for me all around Thebes. I hope I'll see you soon again, Meg," Hercules enjoyed how her name rolled of his tongue.
"So do I," Meg simply told him, giving him a small smile as he waved his hand and took his course towards the stables with a goofy smile still playing on his lips.
Meg was left there sitting alone as she suddenly heard rustling from the fauna near her. She relaxed as she noticed her grandmother Harmonia gracefully approaching her.
"Grandmother…" she simply breathed out, relieved to find out she was none of her father's lackeys.
"Megara, dear, you're playing a dangerous game," her grandmother frowned at her as she sat next to her, to the same exact spot where Hercules had been seated only moments ago.
"I- I don't know what you mean," Meg told her, feeling uneasy because of the conversation.
"I saw you talking with that young hero. He seems like a nice young man, but you are promised to marry someone else, Megara," Harmonia took Meg's hand between her own hands.
"We were just talking," Meg replied with a frustrated sigh.
"I know you were, but if you're father would find out, I don't believe he would see agree with you. Do not worry: I won't tell him. Just be careful Meg, these kinds of situations are not inclined to end well," Harmonia warned her before getting back to her feet.
"Come now dear, we should join you father and your sisters for the meal," Harmonia told her and Meg got to her feet, heading back to palace with her grandmother.
Her grandmother's words, however, had left an uneasy feeling to her chest.
A/N: Nope, I'm still here: sorry for the longer break, I wasn't happy with the chapter and needed to fix some kinks. So I ended up re-writing the most of this chapter and submitting it at one go: hopefully the result seems okay to you.
So Hades has teamed up with the king's advisor: how do we feel about that? I need to confess that I was quite inspired by Wormstongue (the advisor of king Theoden) in Lord of the Rings while writing the characterization for Autolycus. I'm not gonna apologize for that because I'm a die-hard Tolkien/Lotr-fan, ha!
And I just wanted to point out that in this fic, Herc is still battling all those monsters sent out by Hades etc., but I'm gonna rewrite some of the stuff happening in the original movie. Some of the plot-line I already know, some of it is still a mystery: we just have to see where this goes.
And yes, I'm gonna soon post another chapter to my other fic 'All This And Olympus Too', but there are also some kinks I need to fix: hopefully the next chapter will be up some time during this week. Take care and thanks for reading! Much love!