For Hope I'd Give My Everything

"Oh how I wish

For soothing rain

All I wish is to dream again

My loving heart

Lost in the dark

For hope I'd give my everything."

- Nemo by Nightwish

When Meg turned and started to trace her steps back to the palace, her happiness over what had just happened with Hercules seemingly dissipated and for some reason, an uneasy feeling settled to the pit of her stomach.

She felt as if something was amiss, as if something bad was about to happen. She felt as if they wouldn't see each other for some time and she didn't like that feeling.

Meg stayed outside, forgetting her hurry and catching the form of Hercules disappearing to the sky, riding his winged stallion until she couldn't make out their outlines anymore. Meg treasured the sight, feeling as if she wouldn't see him for a while. Then she sighed once more and headed back to where she was supposed to be, back to the palace and heading straight back to her own quarters.

She had been there hardly for a moment, when her father came storming in, accompanied by two soldiers. Behind their backs, she could see Autolycus' form. The moment Meg's father walked in, she could tell that he was truly furious.

"What did I tell you about seeing that hero?" Her father spat out, mad with fury.

"I don't…" Meg started, but the king cut her short.

"Don't you dare lie to me! Autolycus has seen you with him, doing things I do not dare to speak aloud!" The king shouted back at her. Meg's heart dropped. How much exactly had that snake seen?

"And the worst part is, that someone has told king Aedes that his future bride has been seen fooling around with someone else! I received a letter from him, do you have any idea how humiliated I feel? Do you know how hard it will be for me to marry you off when you're already spoiled goods?" The king continued, circling her like a feral animal.

Meg felt her own temper rising. "I'm not some prized mare to be sold off! I do not even want to wed him!"

"You're not even worthy of that, you insolent little girl. So I wrote back to him, reassuring him that you are sill worthy of becoming his wife and that our alliance still stands. I asked him to come as soon as him can, so I expect him to start his journey here as soon as he receives my letter. We are not going to cancel the wedding, we're going to advance them," her father told her and she felt her stomach drop, acid bile rising into her mouth.

"Please father, I ask of you, I don't want to marry him…" Meg tried to plead, to reason, with her father.

"Silence! If you don't do as your king says, so you shall be treated that way. Take her," her father then told the two soldiers.

'Wait, what?' Meg felt terror rising as the two bulky men took her, dragging her away like a rag-doll. She wasn't sure what she was shouting, if she was cursing her father or promising to behave or what, but she screamed at him from the top of her lungs.

Her father was following them, calm as ever, and as usually, Autolycus was tailing the king like a dog following its tasty bone. The sight would have seem funny to Meg in any other circumstances. As the guards dragged her away, she saw their servants, her sisters, even her grandmother, staring a her with horror as the soldiers took her.

Her grandmother, queen-mother Harmonia, tried to stop her son and speak some sense into him: "Creon, you cannot be serious, you cannot do this!"

"Stay out of this, mother. This is none of your concern: this is between me and my daughter. I have to teach her some discipline," the king brushed her coldly aside and so the charade continued.

After they had headed outside, they took the direction to the south and she suddenly understood: they were taking her to the prison tower. If she was terrified before, now she was even more so. What kind of a king would put his own daughter to the prison?

When they reached the prisons, the guards simply pushed her into one of the cells and locked the door behind her. There were bare stone floors, no windows at all, only small tiny cracks in the walls and a small hatch on the door. Her father peered through the hatch, telling her with a nonchalant voice: "You will stay there until you know how to behave yourself and to follow orders given to you. In the end, you will learn to obey me and to behave as you are supposed to."

After that, the hatch was closed and Meg was left in the darkness.

Phil had noticed that the kid had changed after he had first visited king Creon's palace. It was hard to put his finger on it what it was exactly, but something had definitely changed.

That evening, the kid was practically floating in the air as he returned from the palace. He had a daze, love-struck look plastered all over his face. Not exactly what one would expect after a hard day of work.

"All right, spill the beans kid," Phil then huffed, crossing his hands on his chest as the kid waltzed inside the villa.

"I-, I'm not sure what you mean…" Hercules begun, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck.

"Come on, kid! I was not born yesterday, I know something is going on," Phil was getting annoyed with this charade. He was the kid's coach, if something was going on, he should be the first one to know it.

"I- I think I'm in love," Hercules then blurted out, happy to share the most amazing afternoon of his life with his coach, with his friend.

"I'm sorry but what?" This was not what Phil had been expecting, but then the things clicked in his brains.

"You mean that daughter of Creon's, what was the dame's name again?"

"Megara, her name is Megara," Hercules was insulted that Phil hadn't even bothered to learn her name. Even more so, Phil's attitude was not something he had expected either.

"Kid, you do remember that she's ought to be married off to that king, whoever he was?" Phil sighed.

"Yes, I remember. But she does not want that either!" Hercules was getting more and more frustrated with Phil's attitude.

"What she wants doesn't matter: she's a princess, she has to do what she's told to do!" Phil then replied, annoyed by the kid's sudden stubbornness.

"What she wants matters to me!" Hercules shouted back, mustering his willpower to not snap at his coach.

"This is not what I expected when you started that work at the palace," Phil rubbed his temples, dreading the beginning headache.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you Phil, but I'm not sorry for the way I feel for her. She's different from anyone I've ever met, there's something about her. And she feels the same way, she kissed me back…" After he had blurted the last part out, Hercules winced as he realized that it would have been better if he had kept the last part to himself.

"You KISSED her?! Kid, what were you thinking?" Phil could not believe his ears. What had gotten into his student?

"Well, I wasn't exactly thinking…" Hercules mumbled back quietly.

"The king could have your head for this! And mine as well! He could have both our heads in a spike! And for what? Because you went smooching his daughter!" Phil went on and on.

"You know what? I'm not sorry! What I feel for her is real, even if you don't get it!" Hercules snapped back, turning away and heading out. He really needed to work out to get all these emotions out of his system.

Left alone, Phil sighed as he sat down. He still tried to process what had just happened. That was not like the kid he had grown to know and care for. And he did feel kind of bad for getting all worked up like that. He did realize that it was not likely for Hercules to act like that if he wasn't serious with his emotions for this princess.

But nevertheless, they needed to have a serious discussion after they both had calmed down.

King was pacing anxiously in his private quarters. What had he done? He had put his own daughter in the prison and everybody in the palace knew about it. He could see it their faces, in the way they looked at him: they thought he was losing his mind and maybe he was? Who would do such a thing to his own child?

Megara had always been stubborn and unwilling to follow his orders, somehow this time he had completely lost his patience with her. He wanted her to respect him, he was her king after all, even if he was her father as well. What would people think of a king who couldn't keep his own daughter in line? How could he run a city-state then?

"I shouldn't have done that. Maybe I should let Megara out of the prison and apologize to her?" the king nervously rambled aloud.

"And what good would that do? She would keep seeing that young man behind your back. And people would inspect it as a sign of weakness." Autolycus replied, leisurely sipping wine from the goblet. He was sitting next to a table, calmly watching as the king paced back and forth.

"Well, what do they think about a king who puts his own daughter in prison?" the king pulled his graying hair in desperation.

"They think that he is a strict yet lawful king: a young woman is not allowed to see a man against her father's wishes, even if she is a princess. You made a right choice, your Highness," Autolycus got up and placed his hand on king's shoulder.

The king sighed.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe it was the right choice, even if it is a difficult one."

"The right choices are often difficult to make. Try to get some sleep, your Highness," Autolycus replied as he retrieved from his room. He would have to tell about this to Hades; he would more than thrilled.

Even without that dim-witted Autolycus, Hades had been keeping an eye out for events unfolding in the palace (like he could ever really count on that invertebrate).

The Wonderbrat had fallen for the pretty princess, which made her daddy furious. So furious, that the daddy dearest threw his little princess into the dungeon of the palace! Talk about daddy issues, thanks to his more than slightly complicated family relations, Hades knew all about those things. Well, luckily Hades did have some use for the pretty princess, in case she would be willing to cooperate. (And Hades would make sure to find a way to make her obey.)

Foolish mortals (and one even more foolish demigod) they were all playing their roles just according his plans. He felt Autolycus summoning him, the soundless bustle of his calls vibrating through every cell of his body. He didn't need Autolycus' information: instead, he needed to tell his minion of their next step.

Everything was going even better than he had anticipated.

-A/N: Whew, lots of things happening at the same time! Sorry for being absent for longer than I intended, I had this called 'life' going on (no, seriously I had lots of social events and trips happening and I also needed to think about the overall story-line. We're getting there, I think). Thank you so much for favorites, reviews and giving me some motivation to continue!

Shout-outs for Nutmeg: Aww, thanks! I so happy you liked it! Unfortunately, things are starting to go a bit sour... Let's still keep our spirits up!

And Spirit of the Earth: Thank you so much for your review! It made my day. Let's do our best to keep the fandom alive!