When Things Start Going Wrong

"I've been waiting for someone like you
But now you are slipping away
Why, why does fate make us suffer?
There's a curse between us, between me and you."

- What Have You Done by Within Temptations

Phil had been waiting for Hercules at the stadium for his student's work out for quite some time.

Phil could only guess why visiting the palace would take such a long time. But when Hercules finally came back, Phil forgot his already planned scolding as he had hard time recognizing his student. Hercules' appearance was wild, furious: something was very obviously wrong.

"Kid, what's wrong?" Phil hesitantly approached him.

"Meg is gone. Somebody has kidnapped her," Hercules told him, anger lacing his words.

"Oh. Well, that's unfortunate. Hope the king has someone trustworthy looking for her," Phil replied.

"He has now," Hercules sternly replied, then hurrying to gather his gear.

Phil remained taken by surprise, then he hurried after his student.

"Wait, wait, wait! I thought this chapter was going to end! You're still not going after her, are you? After all the crap king Creon and his people have given you? And that chick, did you forget she just disappeared on you?" Phil made sure, shaking his head with disbelief.

"Of course I remember all that. I'm not a complete idiot. But what did you expect, I can't let Meg down!" Hercules barked back.

"Look, I know you care about her, but princesses are political game-pieces, their own wants and needs do not matter," Phil then told Hercules, reminding him of something similar Meg had told him earlier on. Hercules bit back any angry reply that was already forming on his lips.

"Look kid, I know it's hard, but you've got to sit this one out," Phil tried to gain control of himself trying his best to comfort his student, but judging by the look on his face, had failed miserably.

"You just wish she wasn't involved so there wouldn't be anything to pull my attention away from this hero stuff," Hercules angrily blamed his trainer.

"Yeah, what about it? You've got enough on your plate as it is, you need no more distractions! And what do you expect will happen, you knew she's about to marry someone else! Obviously the king won't approve of you dallying with his daugther!" Phil pointed out, some edginess evident in his voice.

"I wasn't dallying with her, I love her!" Hercules shouted back.

"Well, she doesn't love you!" Phil finally lost his temper, shouting back at his student.

"SHUT UP!" Hercules cried out in red-hot anger, hurling his fist towards his trainer, his friend, who was catapulted to a piece of equipment with a loud thud.

Silence fell over the stadium. Hercules had never used his powers against any of his friends, he had never done anything like that before.

"Phil, I'm sorry…" Hercules started, but the satyr shook his head.

"If that's how you think and feel, then fine," Phil simply replied collecting himself.

"Wait! Where, where are you going?" Hercules asked as he saw his long-time friend walking away from the stadium and walking away from him.

"I'm hopping to the first barge, I'm going back home," Phil coldly told him.

"Fine, I don't-, don't need you!" Hercules yelled back at him, turning his back at him to finish collecting his gear.

"I thought you were going to be the all-time champ, not the all-time chump," Phil sadly whispered as he watched his protege receding away from him.

Angry Hercules vented his anger to piece of equipment, but his anger was starting to dissipate and regret was starting to re-place it. Why had he done such a thing to Phil? He had been so cautious of using his strength in a civilized manner: no matter what Phil had said about Meg, what he had done wasn't right. He was starting to have second-thoughts.

Before he had anymore time to contemplate on what had happened, a figure appeared before him.

"Geez Louise, what did that barbell ever do to you?" The figure, a deity, in fact, conversationally said to him. Hercules restrained the will to growl: he had no interest in engaging in the games of his divine relatives at the present moment, especially not when the relative in question was he's estranged and (eccentric) uncle who conveniently happened to the same person holding Meg as his prisoner.

"Name's Hades, Lord of the Dead, hi, how you're doin'?" he offered his hand to Hercules.

"So you're the one who took Meg. Let her go, NOW!" Hercules tried to grip the God's tunic, but he turned into smoke before he could do so.

"Ooh, careful! You might hurt someone! Wait, you already did!" Hades mockingly reminded him and Hercules felt shame coming over him as he remembered what he had just done to Phil.

"Well, your sweet Meg is really only part of a bigger picture, so to speak. I've got this venture, real estates if you will, but you seem to be constantly getting on my way," Hades carried on pleasantly.

"What do I have to do with you capturing her?" Hercules tried to pull away, not understanding how he could affect his uncle's affairs when they hardly knew each other.

"Well. A whole lot, it seems. You're quite interested in her well-being, aren't you?" Hades smiled maliciously and as he snapped his fingers, a figure of Meg appeared before Hercules.

"Meg!" he cried out, running towards her.

"Don't listen to him," Meg tried to talk to him, but she was gagged and before he could get to her, she disappeared and re-appeared farther away.

"Let her go!" Hercules felt his heart hammering in his chest: he never meant for Meg to get in the

harm's way. What if something would happen to her? He could never forgive himself. He had already let Phil down: he wouldn't do the same for Meg, that was for certain.

"Here's the trade off: you give up your strength for 24 for hours. Okay, let's say the next 24 hours, and Meg here is as free as a bird," Hades patted her hair and she gave him an annoyed look. Hercules wanted to do so much more to Hades then just that.

"We dance, we kiss, we schoomze, we go home happy, whadday say?" Hades rambled on, obviously trying to talk Hercules into accepting his offer.

"People will get hurt, won't they?" he understood more than better that his actions would eventually have consequences. But then again, how could he risk Meg getting hurt?

"Nah, there's that possibly with war, but what can I tell you? What do you own to these people? Isn't Meg, your little smoochie smoochie, more important?" Hades placed his hand on her cheeks, forcing her to look at him with her pleading eyes.

"Stop it!" Hercules shouted, fighting his natural instinct to simply charge at Hades.

"Isn't she?" Hades demanded his answer and true enough, he had to admit that she was.

"You'll have to swear she'll be safe from any harm," if he was gonna take this deal, he had to be sure it wasn't for nothing.

"Fine! Meg will be safe, otherwise you'll get your strength back. On fine print, boiler plate, bla bla bla," Hades offered his hand, ready to seal the deal.

"I really don't have time to bat this around, got plans for August. Going once, going twice –" he counted on, forcing Hercules into making a quick decision. He looked at Meg, who was frantically shaking her head.

"Okay," Hercules agreed and Hades rose his hand in victory.

"Yes! We're done. BAM!"

As Hades took Hercules' hand, the hero felt as not only his strength, but his whole life-force itself, was being sucked away. He felt dizzy, disoriented.

"You may feel kinda squesy, it's kinda natural. Maybe you should SIT DOWN!" Hades yelled as he quickly shot a large barbell towards Hercules. Now trapped between his normal workout gear and the ground, he truly realized what he had just done. Hades then gleefully told him: "Isn't being like everybody else just peachy?"

Hades then moved towards Meg, snapping his fingers and her restraints disappeared.

"Meg, babe, you're off the hook," He told her, playing with her hair. She sighed, looking forlorn.

"She's all yours no, dingus. Have fun with little miss head-strong and keep an eye on her. We don't need her causing any more trouble," Hades spat to Autolycus who had been monitoring the events at the other end of the stadium, almost concealed by the shadows.

"I will. Thank you master," Autolycus smiled in a self-assured manner.

Hades wanted to scoff: he felt almost sorry for the girl, leaving someone as smart as her with such a incompetent, dim-witted twit.

Well, whatever: he wouldn't have to worry about them anymore, he had enough on his hands at it was. He turned around, making his way to his chariot, pulled by two griffins. His two minions scurried after him, tripping over each other in their hurry.

"Meg, thank the Gods, I was so worried," Hercules started to make his way to her, taking in her disheveled state. He stopped short when he saw the way she looked at him.

"How could you do that? You gave your strength away, putting all of the city-state into danger!" Meg's voice hitched with desperation.

"I… I did it for you, because I care about you," Hercules tried to reason to her, but she shook her head.

"No, don't you see? Risking thousands of lives, because of me? If anything happens to the people of Thebes, I'll be blaming myself!" Meg shook her head frantically.

"So I'll leave you two lovers to your little romantic rendezvous, I got a whole cosmos waiting for me, with hey! My name on it," Hades announced, pleased with his handiwork as he harnessed his chariot towards the almost unveiled prison of Titans.

"No, that's not… No. Meg, what's wrong? You don't seem like yourself," Hercules pleaded as he moved closer to her, studying her appearance more closely now.

"Nothing is wrong. In fact, I haven't seen things this clearly in a long time. I just… I wish you hadn't run into any incorrect conclusions," Meg sighed and Hercules felt uneasy: what did she exactly mean by that?

"What do you mean?" Hercules than spoke out loud his thoughts, already fearing the answer.

"Hercules, we should have ended all of this much, much earlier on," Meg then replied, regret clouding her violet eyes.

"No," Hercules could not believe his ears: he had done all this for her and she was turning him down?

"I liked you, but I know my duty and I now know my place: no matter what happens, I will have to marry king Aedes. That is the only possible outcome of all this and you should accept it as well," Meg calmly replied.

"Meg, don't say things like that, I know you don't mean…" Hercules pleaded to her, but she simply shook her head.

"But I do mean them. I'm sorry, I really am. But you knew this would happen. We both did," Meg's voice was heavy with resolution.

"Meg, I'm sorry, I got you into trouble. But we can figure this out, I'm sure of," he sincerely told her, once again moving towards her, but she moved away, shaking her head.

"There's no 'we', which you are referring to. Never was," Meg coldly told him and he felt his heart sinking.

"What?" he asked, not believing his ears.

"That is what I wanted to tell you. I'm sorry if I led you to believe otherwise, but there is no 'us' and never will be. I will marry king Aedes just as I'm supposed to and you will forget about me," Meg

carried on further.

"No, you know that there really was something between us. We both felt it…" Hercules shook his head, not believing what he was hearing.

"I don't know whatever you felt, but I did not feel a thing for you," Meg told him, biting her back teeth together.

Unbelieving Hercules studied her, shaking his head in disbelief. He felt sadness, rage, betrayal, worse than anything else he had ever felt before. He had given up his greatest asset for her and she tossed him aside without even caring about it. How could she?

"You were right about one thing," he quietly told her.

"What was that?"

"I really did not know what kind of person you were," he gave her another look, a look of pure heartbreak and betrayl, before he turned around and exited arena, hurrying away from her.

The impact of what she had just said and done fell heavily upon her and her emotions got best of her. Meg fell down to her knees sobbing, not being able to fight the tears filling her eyes.

"That's our good girl. You did what you had to do," Autolycus cooed at her, running his fingers through her hair.

"Get away from me! Leave me alone," Meg pulled away from, loathing his touch.

"He hates you, you know? Well done, my dear," Autolycus whispered to her ear.

"Just leave me alone," Meg whispered, not needing any more reminders of what she had just done.

"No, I'll never leave you, my dearest," Autolycus responded, placing his hand on her shoulder and Meg felt a chill running down her spine.

-A/N: Okay, that was hard for all of us, I think. If you wondered on Meg's reaction, you might remember how Hades tried to use Meg's so-called sister and grandmother to manipulate her. That didn't work out, but it did make Meg think that she had been selfish and reconsider some things, and in the end, it made her act out in such manner. Poor Herc!

Sakura: Sorry for keeping you waiting, here's the next chapter!