Facing the Impossible
"Now his love's a memory
A ghost in the fog
He sets the sails one last time
Saying farewell to the world."
- Islander by Nightwish
Alone Hercules approached the all too familiar opening, like a lonely, gaping mouth on the side of mountain: the passageway to the Underworld and to the realm of Hades.
Hercules had passed the same opening many times before, but he didn't give any thought to those memories, because he had more pressing matter on his mind. He needed to find Meg, he could not condemn her to this bleak fate. This might be the very final time he would pass this entrance, but even that did not matter to him, for anything beside returning Meg to the world of living seemed superficial, insignificant.
Hercules came to the river of Styx where the eternal ferryman Charon was waiting for him. Charon's mouth curled back, as if the skeletal figure was smiling.
"So, you're after the princess, I presume?" he drily noted.
"I need to reach her, I don't have time…" Hercules begun his angry rant, but stopped as Charon slowly shook his head.
"I'll take you part of the way, no need to persuade me into doing something. It's Cerberus you need to worry about. Hop in, then. Let's not keep the girl waiting for you," Charon replied and without a moment's hesitation, Hercules did as Charon requested.
On his younger years, Hercules had come across Charon during those years several times when he had visited the Underworld, because of a mission or another. He had done small favors for the ferryman of the Dead: maybe he wanted to repay those times now that Hercules himself needed help? Or then again, the ferryman had bone or two to pick with Hades, so he might have helped Hercules just to spite Hades.
When the small ferry reached the other side of the river, Hercules could already hear the tell-tale barking and the flapping of giant paws which shot tremors through the ground. Cerberus was somewhere near, even if he still couldn't see the guardian dog of the Underworld.
"This is as far as I can take you. Good luck, boy," Charon told him as he brought the ferry to a halt.
"Thanks," Hercules handed an obolos to the ferryman before he leapt to the solid ground. The ferryman turned his boat around, already slowly rowing back to the other side.
Hercules didn't need to trek in the darkness for long as he came across the massive guardian of the Underworld: furious beast of a dog with three heads. The creature was angrily growling at him and the stone walls of the cavern around them were vibrating with the sound.
However, Hercules himself was even angrier than the beast himself. Hercules took a firm grip of one of its pawns and hurled the beast around. The cave was now filled with it suffering yelps.
When Hercules let go of it, the giant dog stood before him in a resigned manner.
"Now, take me to your master," Hercules ordered and climbed to the beast's back. The creature started trekking down the maze-like passageways of the Underworld: Hercules knew that the path to Hades was supposed to be tricky to distract those foolish mortals, who wished to see the realm of the Dead, in the hopes of reuniting with their loved ones or bargaining with Hades. Luckily for Hercules, he was only half-mortal.
After what seemed only like a few blinks of an eye, Cerberus broke through a rocky wall and Hercules, still standing on his back, bursting into a large room, which was dominated by a throne of some sorts. The throne was designed especially for the lord of the realm, as Hades himself was seated on it. Hercules had interrupted Hades' angry tirade, it seemed that the deity was still pissed because his great plan had failed him, but the circumstances did not matter to Hercules: there was only one thing that did.
"Where's Meg!" Hercules demanded to know where she was, getting straight to the point.
"Look who's here: Wonderboy, you are too much," Hades mockingly replied as Hercules hurried down from the back of the now obedient beast. The cowering daemons of Hades were studying the exchange safely from underneath a charred table: one could only guess what had happened there.
"Let her go," Hercules growled at Hades as he took a hold of chiton's front.
"Get a grip," Hades suggested, obviously enjoying himself as he witnessed his adversary's distress.
"Come here, come here, let me show you around," Hades placed a way too friendly arm around his shoulder, leading him towards the river Styx.
"Well well, it's a small Underworld, after all," Hades noted as they witnessed Meg's soul, floating in the river, just before them.
"Meg!" Hercules shouted, reaching towards her, but as his hands touched the river, he felt a searing pain, burning away the strength of his arms.
"Tsk, tsk, musn't touch. Meg's running with a new crowd and not a lively one at that," Hades scolded him with a malicious smile on his face.
Hercules mind was working overtime: there had to be some way he could fix this. Meg hadn't done anything wrong, so why would she have to suffer and pay the price for his mistakes? There had to be something he could trade to Hades in order to save her. And then the thought stroke him: of course there was something Hades wanted even more than keeping Meg in the Underworld. He had wanted to get rid of him, right? Meg was the unfortunate casualty in their rivalry and he could use that to bargain with Hades.
"You like making deals: take me in Meg's place," Hercules offered, gesturing towards the river.
"Hphm, the son of my hated rival trapped forever in the river of Dead," Hades pondered aloud. His small companions had moved closer, and were safely hiding in the hem of his long chiton, obviously eager to see how the situation would unfold.
"Going once," Hercules lifted one finger, trying to pressure Hades into striking the deal.
"Is there a downside to this?" the deity of the Death pondered aloud, his mind working through every possible scenario he could come up with.
"Going twice," Hercules announced and Hades gestured frantically.
"Okay! Okay, okay! She goes, you stay!" Hades smiled wickedly as he pointed towards the river.
Without giving it a second thought, Hercules took a dive towards the murky green waters.
"Oh, one more thing: you're dead before you can get to her. That's not a problem, is it?" Hercules heard distantly Hades' mocking words as he made contact with the water. But he could not stop and think about them: the stream of the Dead was ever pulling Meg deeper and deeper. If he wanted to reach her, he would have to give it everything he got. There was not a moment to lose.
So he started swimming even if he felt that same, burning pain he had briefly witnessed before. But now it was filling his every limb as his body made contact with the water. He felt his strength, his life-force and even his lifetime ebbing away with each stroke he took. He felt himself getting weaker, slower and older by each passing moment, but it did not deter him. He still kept his gaze fixed on Meg's form and he kept going towards her, slower and slower by each moment.
She was just out of his reach when he felt that surely his time had come to its end: then suddenly, the pain went away. At the same moment, he got hold of her, taking her wispy form into his gentle arms. He started to make his way back to the shore, all the pain he had only felt moments ago was suddenly gone. He had not time to ponder upon the miracle, he just needed to get out of there and to reunite Meg's soul with her body: he could only pray that his unprecedented stunt would work out the way he wanted.
When Hercules reached the cliff, he started to slowly climb back up and as he made it to the top, he heard Hades' frantic voice: "Thi-this can't be happening, you would have to be a-"
"A God," his ever helpful minions offering the proper choice of words.
A God? So he had earned the position he had been working so hard for so long by saving the one he loved? So be it, it did explain the miracle that had just helped him in achieving the seemingly impossible feat.
The furious Hades was yelling in rage, but Hercules calmly walked pass him. He had no time for Hades' tirades, he had what he had came for and now he needed to make sure Meg would alright.
"Hercules, you can't do this to me, you can't!" Hades raged and Hercules could not control his instinctive reaction and he hit him straight to his face which crumbled with the impact of his fist.
"Fine, okay, well, I deserved that," Hercules heard Hades muttering behind his back.
"Herc, Herc, Herc, can we talk? You're dad, he's a fun guy, maybe you could put a word for him and he would blow this whole thing off?" Hades reached him once again and nervously babbled on, trying to reason with him. 'Which thing? Almost destroying the city of Thebes, taking over the Cosmos or getting the woman he loved killed in the process?' angry Hercules pondered as he gritted his teeth together.
"Meg! Meg, talk some sense into him! A little smooch?" Hades was no resorting to the soul of Meg, motionlessly laying on Hercules' arms, moving it around as if it was trying to give him a kiss.
The anger Hercules had somehow managed to keep under his control thus far boiled over and he saw from Hades' expression that the deity himself had already realized that dragging Meg into this had been a mistake. It was that mistake, which made Hercules patience finally snap.
Before Hercules even realized what he was doing, he had a feral sneer on his face and his right hook connected with Hades' jaw. Hades lost his balance because of the punch and he went flying down to river of Styx. Hercules heard his distant yelling, who he tried to reason with the angry souls of the Dead, put he kept moving forward.
He had a promise to keep.
-A/N: Whew, one more chapter to go, we're really close to the end now. Thank you all for reading and supporting this story!
Reviewer shout-outs:
- Disneylover12: Really happy you loved it, here's the next chapter!
- Guest: Here's the next chapter, kudos to you!
- Sakura: Thank you for your enthusiasm, here's the newest chapter!
- Bad Jimmy: Thank you, so happy to hear that! Hopefully you'll keep reading this 'til the end!