Fighting For a Better Tomorrow

"A place between sleep and awake
End of innocence, unending masquerade
That's where I'll wait for you

Hold me near you
So close I sear you
Seeing, believing
Dreaming, decieving."

-Sleepwalker by Nightwish

Phil was slowly making his way to the harbor when something was wrong. The sudden terror and panic was going through the city like an electric shock: it was lacing the city-state's air like tension at summertime before a great thunderstrom.

From the information he was able to gather from various people, a Cyclops, a monster he had only heard of from the tales, had attacked the city of Thebes. The people were in a frenzy, trying desperately to escape from the beast. The monstrosity wreaked havoc in the city-state.

Phil was repeating inside his mind that this was no longer his problem: somebody else could take care of it, he would simply take a first barge from the harbor and take a straight course towards his home on the island of Idhra. There he could finally spent his days of retirement in solitude.

But somehow he simply knew deep down inside who would be the one taking care of this Cyclops problem: the kid, obviously. Phil's pride told him to turn away, but he really felt for the kid and no matter what the kid had done, Phil couldn't turn his back for him, not now when he obviously needed him the most.

So Phil abandoned his original plan, hurrying back to the direction of the city-centre of Thebes. The agonized screams of people told him that he was taking the right direction: the smoke filled the air, it was almost impossible to breath. He noticed how the whole sky had turned black, as inky black as night, only the flashing of occasional lightning bringing some brightness to the world. Phil feared the worst: wasn't Thebes the only place under attack, was the mount Olympus itself the main target?

As Phil tried his best to make haste, he passed a stable near that infamous stadium, where he and the kid had fought over that girl. He was trying his best not to ponder on that matter (he feared that thinking about that event would make him question why he was still hurrying to aid the kid), but something caught his attention: the sound of familiar whinnying. Phil peered inside and true enough, he found the winged companion of his pupil trapped there. The flying horse had been wrapped into ropes and as he tried his best to fight against his shackles, he only got even more entangled with them.

Phil approached the stallion slowly, trying his best to calm him down.

"It's okay boy, let's get you free," Phil muttered as he patted the horse's snout. Phil's mind was working overtime as he disentangled the knots: someone had been tampering with Pegasus and now both the kid and possibly Olympus itself were under attack. He only hoped that he had time to straighten things up with the kid.

After Pegasus was freed, Phil leaped into its back and even without giving him direct orders, the flying horse headed towards the giant monster, which was easy enough to spot from every angle and direction. Momentarily Phil wondered if Pegasus could sense his master's distress or did he simply assume that he would find Hercules at the heart of action? No matter the reason, their destination proved to be correct: Hercules was alone facing the great monster.

As Phil feared, it turned out that Hercules wasn't fighting like he used to, he wasn't using his head nor his strength. It almost seemed as if the kid had lost his strength as well as his will to fight.

He felt desperation creeping in. If Hercules would lose, all would be lost for Thebes and maybe for the whole Cosmos itself.

Even before she heard the people screaming, Meg knew something was wrong. There was dread hanging in the air. The unnatural stillness before something goes horribly wrong. The night had grown dark, much darker than it usually was.

Then she finally heard it: she could the screams of her people and she smelled the smoke in the air as well. Something truly had gone horribly wrong. All her fears were becoming very real.

"Alright, time to get back to the palace. Come now, my dear princess. Your father will be overjoyed as I present you back to him, without a scratch on that pretty face," Autolycus replied, inching closer to her.

Meg gathered herself from the dusty ground of the stadium. No. She did not have the luxury of collapsing and turning away from whatever was happening. If something was wrong, she would have to do something. She was responsible for this all in, so she had to do something right now.

"Where are you going?" Autolycus snapped as his gaze followed her, but she didn't bother to reply.

Hercules. He had left the stadium, where was he? She felt terrified: somehow she knew she would find him in the centre of all chaos, even if he had given his strength away for her. And in that case, he was in serious trouble.

No, she couldn't handle that, she already felt terrible for letting her guilt take over her as she had said all those horrible things at him. She needed to know he would be alright, she could never forgive herself if he wasn't.

Meg started running, ignoring Autolycus calling after her.

The masses of people were frantically running around in a blind panic. It took some effort for Meg to be able to gather enough information on what was happening.

A Cyclops was attacking the city and Hercules was fighting against it: obviously from what she had heard from various conversations, the fight wasn't going well for his side. Even more so, now the Titans were freed and attacking to mount Olympus and as Meg had been kidnapped, she had heard enough of Hades' plans to know he was the leader of this attack.

A cosmic takeover. Suddenly all her own problems started to seem mundane.

First of all, she needed to find Hercules.

She needed to make sure he would be alright.

If only she hadn't said all those careless, hurtful things to him: she felt guilty, angry at herself. Even if she had not acted in a manner proper for her position, she should have taken it all out on him. She was just as responsible, maybe even more responsible than him. And no matter what she had told him, she felt something for him and she herself wasn't ready to admit the depths of her own feelings. She couldn't let anything happen to him: she wouldn't.

She needed to make sure he was in the right headspace to win the fight against the gigantic Cyclops.

Then they needed figure out how to turn this situation around: she knew he had done wonders before and she was certain that he would be able to do so now as well, with his powers or not: if only he could keep his head leveled. But she trusted him.

She took her course to the nexus of the most commotion: she was certain, that Hercules had went to face the Cyclops even without his strength.

She could only hope that she would arrive there in time.

Phil had tried his best to guide his student, but all his attempts seemed to be in vain. From what he had gathered from his student, Hercules had indeed given up his strength in the exchange for the princess' safety. Something had gone sour between the two of them, that much Phil could tell from the information he had gathered from Hercules.

Suddenly he spotted a small figure, hurrying to their direction.

Finally he could make out her outline: it was that princess, Megara. What on Elysian fields could she want here?

His attention was violently pulled back to Hercules, who had been thrown around by the Cyclops like a rag-doll. Hercules groaned as he made impact with the ground: even with his superhuman stamina, he couldn't last much longer.

"What are you doing here?" Hercules huffed out as he made out the form of Megara.

"I heard you were in trouble, I was worried…" She started, but Hercules wouldn't let her carry on.

"I don't need your worry," he snapped back at her.

"It's not what you think, okay? I'm sorry about all those things I said, but I do care and much more than you know!" Meg snapped back, which left Hercules momentarily silent. Meg used the opportunity and continued speaking.

"Look, I know what I said was wrong, but this is all plan of Hades! His taking over mount Olympus, and he's only using the Cyclops to hold you up! This obviously has been his plan all along!" desperate Meg carried on. Phil groaned: this certainly confirmed all his suspicions.

"Look kid, if what she says is true, you are needed up there! This guy is a pushover, look at him!" Phil motioned with his hand towards the looming figure.

"Dreams are for rookies," Hercules breathed out, directing an accusing look towards Meg.

"No, no, no, no, no kid! Giving up is for rookies! And I came back, she came back, because we ain't quitting on you! I'm willing to go the distance, how about you?" Phil placed his hand on his student's jaw, looking deep in his eyes.

Somehow Phil's words woke some spark inside of Hercules and he attacked the great monster with new ferocity. He took a burning piece a wood, almost like a torch, pushing into the one, massive eye of the beast. With great yell, the monster let go of him and as he fell to the ground, he felt something beneath him. A cart and a rope.

'Work with what you got, kid.' Phil's old teaching came back to him and before he had even time to ponder upon it, he got up and enfolded the rope around the creature's legs.

The great monster lost its balance, collapsing off the cliff. Hercules hurried to the edge of the cliff, still not believing his stunt had paid off. He did not notice the almost soundless grinding of the stone as a pillar, disturbed by the impact of the monster hitting the ground below, started collapsing towards him.

Meg, however, did notice it.

"Hercules, look out!" Her panicked voice alarmed him, put before he had any time to react to it, he felt himself pushed aside. Then he heard of sound of something collapsing and the finality of the sound frightened him.

He rose to look at direction of the commotion and then he saw it: Meg was pinned to the ground by the massive amount of the stony pillar weighing her tiny form down.

'No. No, no, no, no, no. This can't be happening.' Hercules' mind tried to deny what had just happened, but at the same time, he heard himself calling for her desperately.

He was on his feet before he even realized he had gotten up, all his own injuries forgotten. He had to help her: he wanted to curse the deal he had made with Hades, for much it had help Meg to give up his strength for her.

Desperately he tried to pull the pillar away from her with all his strength but suddenly he felt strangest sensation, enveloping him and radiating around him. And then the pillar rose away from Meg easily.

'What?' his mind wondered momentarily, but then he tossed the pillar aside and rushed to Meg's side.

Meg had used her hand to push herself to her back: Hercules wanted to thank all the Gods for the miracle that she had actually survived the impact, but he could tell only by looking at her state that she was feeling much more pain than she was actually letting on.

"Oh Meg…" He breathed out as he collected her to his arms as gently as he could.

"Nice reflexes. You truly are a Wonderboy," Meg grinned at him weakly, repeating the same choice of words she had said to him the first time they had met. Hercules involuntarily chuckled, feeling even more worried for her condition after noticing her wincing from pain. She was feeling worse than she was letting on.

"Hades' deal is broken, he promised you I wouldn't get hurt," she than quietly reminded him the conditions of the deal he had stroke. The grim irony of the situation hit him: he had been ready to give up his strength for her, risking thousands or maybe millions of lives, because of her. Despite all that, she was still the one paying the price for his foolishness.

"Meg, wh-why did you? You didn't have to…" Once again he found himself struggling for words.

"People always do crazy things… When they're in love," she weakly smiled him.

"Oh Meg…" He simply breathed out. He felt his emotions overwhelming him: she responded to his feelings, she felt the same as he did! Whatever she had said before did not matter, all that mattered was getting her better. They needed to find her help: he could fix this, even if he made mistakes, he could always fix things! There had to be a way, his mind was rapidly going through every possibility.

"You haven't got much time, put you can still stop Hades," Meg quietly carried on and he was taken aback. No, why would he do that when she needed him more, he needed to help her, save her! Everything else could wait.

But of course the Cosmos itself couldn't wait, no matter what was happening to her. Suddenly he realized that it was his duty and it was what she wanted him to do: to make sure her people and all the people in Greece would be safe.

"I'll look after her kid," Phil quietly promised, pushing a rock for her to lay her head on. Hercules wanted to argue, to disagree, but instead, he found himself gently lowering her down to the ground.

"You'll be alright, I promise," Hercules solemnly told her, noticing the sadness of her smile. Before he had time to regret his decision, he rushed to Pegasus.

'I'll come back to you, Meg. I promise. I can fix this,' he silently vowed as he mounted Pegasus and the two of them took the direction of mount Olympus.

-A/N: So I thought really hard on the storyline and how much it will follow the original movieplot and how much it will differ. And there are some similarities and differences as well. For example, Meg does not go Phil, because they don't really know each other, do they? But I do think that no matter the differences, some events might turn out the same way as in the original movie, or what do you think?

So, there might be like two or three chapter left to this story, so we're inching towards the end here.

Reviewer shout-outs:

Mariana: Thank you, the newest chapter is now up!

Sakura: Don't worry, the new chapter is now up! Happy to hear that you're still enjoying this!