A Deal is Struck
A/N: I deeply apologize for the long wait, enjoy.
Disclaimer: First chapter
"The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?" -Edgar Allan Poe
Out of all the gods that just had to be flouncing around in the Underworld, it just had to be a happy, go-lucky goddess of springtime. You know what honestly made it so much worse, though? Kore looked positively terrifying when she threw her scythe, cutting off Pain and Panic from escaping.
The two hadn't expected any visitors to the Underworld- not even the shades. If anything, they were surprised to see that a whole wave of them had stirred, seeking such a compelling force that the imps, themselves, had to investigate. What they found was the very last thing they expected to see.
A pretty pink goddess of life, with incredibly bright magenta eyes, and that large pearly grin was shocking to say the least, but what made them go absolutely livid was when she had to casually give a line so similar to their former boss that the two imps fainted.
Now Kore had the unfortunate job to awaken the sleeping imps.
"Hello?" Kore lightly poked Pain with the butt of her scythe, his gelatinous body merely twitching, but the imp still remained unconscious.
"Um, you alive, bud?"
Getting no response, the goddess moved on to the other one. Yet when Kore repeated the same action to Panic, the teal imp's eyes shot open as he rocked into the air, screaming like a a maniacal murderess had caught him. Which in fact was not the case, but a pretty pink goddess was a close second.
The screaming woke up Pain, who looked the very opposite of Panic as he landed back on the ground.
"What's goin' on?" Pain asked lazily, his mind still in a daze after waking up from his little blackout. "Who're you?" He gazed quizzically at the amused goddess.
"Just told you…" Kore shrugged. "Then you passed out… You want me to start again?"
"Wait- you're the replacement?!" Panic shot an accusing finger at the goddess, mostly out of dumbfoundment.
"Well… Not yet," Kore admitted. "But I'm in the running for it," the goddess shrugged sheepishly, adding a small determined grin.
"Man, they gotta be really desperate if they're sending you," Pain snided, chuckling at his own jab.
Kore rolled her eyes. "Um, excuse me, but at least I want to take care of this place. I don't see you two clowns doing anything," she miffed, shooting them a crossed glare.
"Touché," Panic tried to quip for the sake of Pain, but was utterly failing. He felt like he had finally died and gone straight to Elysium, being greeted by this radiant creature. Truth be told, though he was awestruck by the goddess, she was absolutely entrancing like a moth to a flame. Maybe it was her status as a goddess of life?
Pain too was trying hard to keep up his own act, but was more curious as to why a goddess of life, of all things, found her way down here. He could practically smell it, the essence of life just oozed from her pretty pink aura, a stark contrast to the Underworld's morose and lifeless atmosphere. Yet he would admit, being such a close proximity to her almost made him, chipper- happy in a way.
Looking at his brother, Panic, he too saw the very same symptoms he was suffering. You know maybe just a little more now that he looked closely at the way the imp fluttered his eyelashes to test if he was awake.
Kore, on the other hand, failed to notice the awestruck expressions and kneeled down before them so she could better talk to them.
"Look, boys, whether you like it or not someone's gonna rule the Underworld while Hades is out for the count. Zeus is taking up candidates to see who gets the position, and if I don't get the job, it's gonna be Ares' demigods sons who now go by Phobos and Deimos, or Echidna."
"WHAT?!" The two imps cried in unison. "MA?!"
"Ma?" Kore repeated. "Wait, she's your mother?"
"YES!"
Pain and Panic gazed at each other and almost mentally they came to the same decision and nodded their head in agreement.
Not noticing this small interchange, Kore's shoulders sagged. "Oh… Ok… So I guess you're not gonna help me, huh?"
"Nonononono-" Panic shook his head vigorously.
"Who said anything about that?" Pain added. "She may be our Ma, but that doesn't mean we want her down here."
Kore nodded understandingly. Having an overbearing mother herself, she could see why these two wouldn't want their mom breathing down their necks.
"And Cerberus doesn't want to see mom either."
"Your brother, Cerberus? Who's that?" Kore curiously inquired, having absolutely no idea who this person was.
"The guard dog?" Panic hesitantly answered sheepishly.
"Oh, you have a dog!" Kore nodded in understanding, but quickly crinkled her brow in confusion when she realized the imps had a dog for a brother. "Um, okay that's a little odd- but hey a guard dog! I always wanted one of those!"
"Wait, what?" Pain's face now wore a bemused expression, he looked to his brother for some support.
"You don't know about Cerberus?" Panic pressed, after realizing what Pain was gesturing at. "Everyone knows about the fierce guard dog of the Underworld!"
"Well, noooooo… I don't really know a lot about this place- just that it's where the humans go when they die, but I also heard that Kronos was locked underneath here."
"And that's it?"
"Pretty much," Kore shrugged.
"Oh boy, does she got a lot to learn," Panic sighed, biting his claws nervously.
"Then teach me," Kore simply stated. "If I'm gonna rule this joint I have to know every little nook and cranny- you boys think you can do that for me?" Kore winked, melting the hearts of both imps as they literally became puddles of pink and teal blobs. "Well?" Her light, feminine voice stirred the imps' new liquified states.
"Yes! Anything, your most pulchritudinous!" Panic nodded excitedly, morphing back into his solid demon form.
"Hey, I was gonna say that!" Pain whined, following suit.
"Now, now boys, no need to fight," Kore covered her mouth, trying to suppress her giggling as she rose to her full height."You both can show me around."
Anyone that knew Pain and Panic on a managerial level would have been terribly surprised on how well they performed at the task at hand. It was like night and day with how attentive they were to their new "Lady" compared to how well they worked for Hades.
In the span of two hours, they had somehow covered a majority of the hotspots of the Underworld, sans the palace and Tartarus. From there they had shown her three of the five rivers of the Underworld. Pain and Panic had purposefully made sure that Kore had stayed as far away from the rivers Phlegethon and Cocytus, because-
One: the Phlegethon was where Hades was taking a belated swim, and Two: Minthe was the river nymph of the Cocytus, and they learned a long time ago that it was better if they made sure no one interacted with her because of her eccentric nature. Nymphs were not the kind of creatures suitable for the dreary land, and it was no surprise that she took an instant liking to Hades when her river became apart of the Underworld, seeking a way out.
And 3: both Pain and Panic had made a mental agreement that if Minthe learned about the job opening for the throne of the Underworld- she'd want in. Solely out of spite. Just to rub it in Hades' face that he was wrong about dumping her, and to keep the goddess of springtime out of her turf for she was extremely jealous of any such competition.
So with that in mind, the imps instead introduced Kore to the more receptive faces of Charon and Styx herself, but she was merely a river and refused to talk, much less reveal herself, but the two imps had explained she did like her rest, and to not take it as an insult.
It wasn't until after visiting Elysium that Kore had certainly opened her mind up more to being able to take care of this place. Though the eternal paradise was enough to make her a little homesick, she found that other parts of the Underworld wasn't as bad as she had previously thought.
Yes, it was in fact dreary, it's people only adding more to the effect, but overall it was something she could get used to, even come to love, had it not been that something kept nagging at her.
Though it was small, Kore could feel it at the edge of her mind, but once she concentrated on it- the thought flew farther and farther away from her reach. It was again in one of these instances that Kore hated her status as goddess of innocence, for believe it or not, her status as such had made thinking extremely difficult.
It was why she loved Ibid's company. It was like the small box her mind was trapped in was able to relish in it's full expanse, Athena definitely helped too, but still, the curse of innocence forever hung upon her, dragging her deeper and deeper into ignorance. A side effect her mother never foresaw when she assigned her daughter's role in the cosmos after she was born.
Maybe when I'm the goddess of here will it go away, Persephone mused.
"And here is where Cerberus used to be," Pain explained.
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Kore lifted her eyes and focused on her surroundings. After getting to meet Charon, the ferryman had been nice enough(and also because he didn't have any souls to ferry across for the past two months) to give her a scenic route of the Underworld, via the River Styx.
Pain and Panic had obviously decided to tag along since it took a little while for Charon to open up and socially interact with others.
Said boatman was really shy, the poor dear, especially considering how nervous he felt meeting such a drop-dead gorgeous thing like his future boss-lady.
Kore had tried to make conversation with him, but Charon had shook like a bag of bones- which ironically he kind of was.
A skeleton, just without the bag, the goddess had thought, but she quickly covered her mouth to hold in the silent giggles, trying her best to not offend the boatman. He was being quite the gentle-bones offering to give her a tour.
"Oh, where is he now?" Kore turned to her two tour guides, from her seating place at the back of the boat.
Charon rowed directly behind her and had decided to slow down so she could take in the full landscape.
"He was wandering around the Phlegethon, last time we che-" Panic started to explain, but a bony pink hand clamped over the teal imp's mouth.
"Ixnae on the Phlegethonae," Pain lightly hissed into Panic's pointed ear so Kore wouldn't be able to hear. "We want her as the new boss."
"Oops, sorry," Panic apologetically smiled at his brother.
"Wait, you said he's by the Phlegethon? Well let's go then! I want to meet our cute little puppy," Kore demanded, a wide excited smile etched itself on her face.
"But-but we'll have to walk!" Panic spoke up.
"Yeah and it's super far from here," Pain insisted, nodding his head better than any bobblehead.
"Oh, that's okay," the goddess waved away dismissively. "Momma didn't raise no lazy laburnum.* Plus I've got to say this is the creepiest part youse guys have shown me. Yeesh, skeleton hands- who was your decorator?"
Persephone in all honesty found the river to be the most frightening part of the Underworld she had come across. There was just something about the ominous atmosphere from the black stalactites that jutted from where the earth served as the sky, and the fog that drifted over the surface of the equally dark water. The only sound was the current of the river, a sound that had intensified ever since the souls stopped swimming around and had gone for more lively surroundings upstairs.
At least she wasn't alone, Persephone reminded herself. It was really her pleading that brought Pain and Panic to tag along, because for some reason they seemed afraid of the watery surface.
Turning to the boat man, the goddess twisted her body so she could see the ferry man. Giving the weary skeleton a sweet smile, despite her growing dread staying anchored in the Styx, Kore managed to stop her teeth from chattering as she spoke, "Hey, Charon you mind taking us back to shore?"
With one deep nod combined with a slight bow, Charon expertly turned the boat back to the mainland of the Underworld, giving Kore a full view of the Palace.
The skull-shaped palace was certainly something that took her breath away. It was certainly larger than she had expected. Something she hadn't noticed when she first entered the land of the dead, but now that she was coming in the way 99% of the visitors came through, she could suddenly see why it struck the hearts of mortals.
For one thing, it would be the first time mortals would ever see, much less be this close to a god's dwelling place, and this was coming from a goddess who had been there, done that at Olympus. Somehow it reminded her of Olympus in a way with the intricate buildings, but those buildings were somehow stacked on top of each other, expanding out in a mushroom-like shape, until they reached the highest point of the Underworld.
Whoever designed it certainly kept in mind of the location and had spared no expense in making it large enough to rival Olympus. Yet, unlike Olympus, it looked so empty. So- she hated to be using this term, but it was-
"It's so lifeless," Kore sighed, her brow crinkling in thought, schlumping forward so her elbows rested on her lap.
"Yeah," Pain agreed. "That's kind of the point. It's the Underworld."
"But why build such a huge place and house only one god? In Olympus every room is filled to the brim with gods, nymphs, and spirits. Am I going to live down here all alone?" Again? Kore almost said, but held it back at the last second.
"Hey, you'll have us," Panic reminded her, patting her knee sympathetically.
"And we can get more servants around here- ones that talk!" Pain added, shooting a glare at Charon who chose to ignore him.
Before she could voice her thoughts, Pain and Panic each grabbed one of her hands as Charon docked the boat.
"Oh, look we're here! Now c'mon, Cerberus is waiting."
Leading her out the boat, the imps flew all the while dragging the goddess behind them.
Kore didn't object, but she quickly turned her scythe into a bracelet around her right wrist, mostly because she knew the boys were doing all they could to be kind hosts, and were trying their darnedest to make sure she wouldn't change her mind.
Sighing inwardly, the goddess no longer needed the imps to hold her hands to drag her along and was able to free their hold on her and walked with them through an expansive empty bedrock.
Without meaning to, Persephone felt herself glow brighter and small little white and pale lilac flowers with six petals appeared wherever she stepped. The star-like flowers looked slightly on the grey side in the lighting, but a thin maroon stripe was placed at the middle of the petal, giving it some color.^
"Whoa, where're all these flowers coming from?" Panic swooped down and collected a few.
"They're kinda pretty," Pain plucked one himself and took a deep long sniff. "Oh and they smell good too. Hey, Kore you want some?"
"I just want to see the dog and then I'm leaving," the goddess explained. "I need to prepare for tomorrow."
"But it's not even evening yet," Panic reminded her. "Maybe X minutes after I-V."
"I know, but I haven't even come up with a- Oh my gosh you never told me it's a three-dead dog!" Kore squealed in delight as she took off straight toward the large hulking canine.
Pain and Panic quickly dashed after her, but kept a close distance to step in if the need arose.
"Hi there!" Kore waved shyly at the three-headed beast.
All three of the heads shared a bemused expression at the pink being before them. No stranger had ever come up to them with such an excited look in their eyes. It was always terror, fear, or hatred- never curiosity. She didn't even act like any of the gods, other than their master, whenever they encountered one.
Inching closer, with the slowness to rival a snail, all three heads sniffed the pretty pink goddess. Breathing in deeply to her flowery, sweet smell.
This seemed to put them at ease, so with a little bit of boldness, Kore reached out to the right head's snout, for he was the closest, and with her fingertips she lightly grazed his wet nose.
Righty, as she was dubbing him, flinched back in surprise, but very soon after the initial shock that she wasn't looking to harm him, allowed her to affectionately rub underneath his mouth.
Immediately, the other two heads became extremely jealous and had tried to receive the same treatment, and had shoved their heads in front of Kore's view.
"Oh, I won't forget you two," Kore smiled, her initial shyness long gone, and switched on over to the other two heads.
While Kore was preoccupied with the affection-deprived dog, the two imps were discussing their own plans.
"Hey, you think she's gonna figure out why Cerberus is here?" Panic turned to his brother, expectantly.
"Nah, don't you remember we told her that he was chained up in Tartarus- instead of taking a flush down the Phlegethon?"
"Oh, this is so going to work…" Panic chuckled with glee, but he frowned as another thought crossed his mind. "You think Kore's gonna win tomorrow?"
"Not alone she won't," Pain admitted. "But she's already made so many friends down here, we 'll make sure everybody helps out. Plus with that goddess of life essence she has goin' on, souls'll just flock to her."
"Ooo, forgot about that. Yeah, this'll so work… Unless, you know- Hades shows up and ruins everything."
"You mean if he comes back," Pain reminded him.
Panic's mouth from an 'o,' "You're gonna jinx us one of these days."
"You mean if I jinx us. Now, c'mon we gotta make sure, we leave here before anything happens."
"Who's a good boy- who's a good boy?" Kore cooed, scratching the belly of Cerberus as he laid on his back.
All three heads craned their necks to see the beautiful goddess that had stopped scratching their belly, and cocked their heads to the left, confused by the question.
"You! You're all my good boys!"
With a happy bark from all three heads, Kore felt herself slammed to the stone floor as Cerberus licked her. Imagine three- might I add gigantic tongues, just coating the thin goddess with their drool, showing her the highest form of affection they could give. But as suddenly as they had started, they stopped, and the three heads of Cerberus, made a whine in their throats as they cast a saddened look at the River Phlegethon.
Sitting up Kore wiped off the drool from her face, and slowly her glow warmed her up and dried herself off. "What are you looking at, boys?" The goddess patted the canine's foreleg in sympathy.
"Something in there, boys?" Kore looked down the cliff the two of them were situated on and peered into the glowing green river as it swirled like a vortex, to somewhere- who knew where?
"This is the Phlegethon, right? River of fire? Rightly named, I gotta say," Kore awed, inching to the very edge of the cliff, trying to take in the full sight.
All three heads peered over Kore's head, searching for their lost master.
"I wonder what would happen if a person got thrown down there?"
All three pairs of Cerberus' eyes locked with Kore, as a plan formed in the pea-sized brains of theirs.
"Makes you wonder what's at the other side, or if there's something other than souls down th-"
Sharing a look, one giant forepaw lifted and before they could process what would happen, Cerberus pushed the goddess over the edge.
"-Errrrrrrrrrrrr- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Wait, it that Kore?!" Panic's neck snapped towards the direction where he heard the scream. "IT IS!"
"OH MY GODS!" Pain and Panic shouted in unison, their claws practically tearing off their scalp in horror. Rushing towards the very cliff that they had stood on two months previously, the two imps stared, wide-eyed as the goddess they put all their hope in for a nicer master fell two hundred feet into the swirling vortex of the Phlegethon.
"Oh Erebus, somebody's got to save her… Panic you go in!"
"No!" Panic whined. "You do."
"No! You!"
"No, you!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Yea-huh!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Yea-huh!"
"Boys, a little help over here!" Shouted a familiar feminine voice from somewhere below them.
Over their bickering the two imps had failed to notice that Kore had somehow managed to latch onto a stalagmite by using her impressive swimming skills. Who knew that being friends with Naiads would eventually come in handy?
"Kore!" The two imps gasped in surprise and relief.
"I'm going to throw a rope! You have to catch it, okay?!" Kore commanded, and twirling her bracelet around the former scythe now turned into a rope.
"Since when does she have a rope?" Panic whispered to Pain.
The gelatinous pink imp shrugged, but couldn't say anything as said rope flew towards them.
Pain and Panic lunged for the end that was thrown at them. "We got it!"
"Oh, thank the gods," Kore mumbled under her breath, trying not to let her teeth chatter. She quickly tied her end of the rope around the stalagmite she was holding onto. Soon, using all the skills that making flower crowns could teach you- which was a lot, trust her- the rope became taut and she was able to make her escape.
But before she could start climbing, Kore briefly saw something from the corner of her eye.
A large grey shape was bobbing, trying its darnedest to get to the edge or to grab onto the stalagmite that was closer to it. That's when she saw a grey hand shoot out of the surface, only for the souls swimming around it to drag it back down.
Wait, it's a person!
"Hey, Kore you coming!" Pain's voice called down to her.
"I'll be up in a sec- there's somebody else down here!" She yelled back.
"Wait, Kore- NO!" The two imps screamed, their hearts thumping with fear unlike any they had ever experienced.
But the goddess could not hear them, for she had already dived back down into the river.
Just like when she had first dunked down into the water, Kore was surprised how awful she felt. Never in her time of existence had she felt something so horrible, like her very skin was disintegrating, it was as if she was on fire- and it actually hurt!
From above the cliff, Cerberus, Pain, and Panic watched as the earth around them shook, as if millions of voices were suddenly crying out. Everything that lived above the earth was experiencing something unlike they had ever felt- almost the same feeling that Kore was feeling.
"Wait, she's the goddess of life, right?"
"Uh-huh," Panic nodded.
"And Hades said it's hard for any living thing to survive in there, right?"
"Yup…" Panic nodded. Realization dawning on him. "Aw jeez… KORE GET OUT NOW! LITERALLY EVERYTHING'S GOING TO DIE!"
Unable to hear them because she was currently swimming towards the grey humanoid, Kore couldn't hear a thing, only the muffled cries of the very being she was trying to rescue.
Pushing through the pain, Kore swam harder, knowing as soon as she was out of here, she wouldn't feel like hundreds of daggers digging into her skin.
"Souls, please!" Her mind screamed. "Let him go!"
By sheer luck, all the souls that swam around her, turned to her, even the ones that were pushing back the god.
"Goddess of life," the voices of millions of souls rang through her head. "Return to your realm. Do you not hear the cries of the living? When you suffer- they suffer too."
"No. Not without him," Kore resolutely stated, ignoring the stabbing pain that was going through her brain as it started to shut down.
"Then do not blame us for the events that are to take place next, Persephone, Bringer of Destruction."
And without warning, she was suddenly holding the limp body of the grey god, and the souls were pushing her toward the stalagmite her rope was still tied to.
Persephone's blonde head burst through the surface. Gulping in deep breaths, the goddess situated the god's arms around her shoulders and untied the rope around the black stalagmite. Resorting to straddling the rock, Kore tied the rope around her right leg, and as soon as she was done, the pink-skinned goddess tugged the rope, signaling that she was ready to be lifted up.
With one arm securely wrapped around the grey god's hips, and the other clutching the rope, Kore eyed the god curiously as the two imps brought them back to the cliff.
He was bald, that was one thing that definitely stood out about him- didn't even have eyebrows, just wrinkles that showed his hooded eyes were always wide-open, or just that he was constantly stressed. Coupled with a small nose and a long and thin angular face, Kore searched her memories of faces trying to match up with his, but could find none. Now she was really starting to regret not being on Olympus as much as the other gods.
But he didn't look like the rest of the gods for that matter. All the gods, like herself, glowed with power, but him, he was completely aura-less, and worse he didn't even wear a color- it was just black robes covering his entire frame; which was another odd thing. Most gods loved flaunting off their broad shoulders and sculpted bodies, but him- that was not the case.
In truth he was unlike any god she had ever seen, but that only made him all the more interesting.
"Get out of the way, he's not moving!" Was the very first thing that rushed out of Kore's mouth as she wriggled herself out of the rope, not caring about her drenched clothing, her chattering teeth, or the massive migraine that was still prevalent.
Instead all her focus was on the mysterious god before her as she attempted to gently lay the unconscious god.
When Cerberus was about to spring onto the knocked out being's chest out of sheer excitement for the return of his master, Kore whipped her rope, changing it back into a scythe, and threw it as far as she could. With her godly strength that meant about two miles.
"Go fetch!"
With that taken care of, Kore refocused all her attention on the god. "C'mon," she placed a shivering hand upon his cheek, and was surprised to find warmth there. Patting both sides of his face, the goddess tried to awaken the god, but he was completely out.
"Please, wake up," she lightly whispered, her head now hovering over his chest looking for a heartbeat. It was there, but it was incredibly faint. He wasn't even breathing.
How long was he down there? Years? Decades? Centuries? What if he was down there for a millennia? Pushing these dark thoughts out of her head, Kore knew however long he was down there, she had to act fast if his body would recover- divine or not.
Though gods could survive a many number of environments and situations, it should be noted that they can indeed be harmed, even killed. Uranus, after all was murdered- so who's to say that gods couldn't die?
"Hey, Kore, you really shouldn-"
"Hush!" Kore cut him off abruptly, as a crazy idea flitted through her still recovering mind. "I think I have an idea, but I've never tried this before… Oh Asclepius I swear to Hera this better work."
Putting her two hands together, Persephone's fingertips started to glow a faint greenish color, but quickly the glow started to turn into something less ephemeral and took the form of plants. Without a second thought, the goddess of life slammed the essence into his heart, and was surprised as his eyes shot open, revealing large golden orbs. The hem of his toga seemed to become more smoky in appearance as tendrils of smoke started to unfurl, and some of them had reached out to Kore only for them to quickly disappear as he passed out again.
"Was that too hard?" Kore muttered in shock, her mouth wide open. Knowing she would receive no answer, the goddess checked again for his heart beat and found that it certainly beat more erratically and a bit louder than before(whoops), but he still wasn't breathing.
"Don't you need to unblock his windpipes?" Panic suddenly asked, receiving a quick punch to the belly from his brother.
"Oh, yeah, good idea, Panic," Kore gave a grateful smile to the imp before returning back to her work. But there was just one problem.
"Hey, I'm sorry in advance how this will look when you become conscious again," Kore lightly whispered into one of the god's ears as she applied compressions to his chest.
"Wait, what did-" Panic started, but immediately he stopped talking as all remnants of speech disappeared.
Pain stood beside him his eye twitching in disbelief, almost like the whole world was falling apart. This was never supposed to happen- my gods what has this world come to?!
For right in front of his eyes, the goddess of life Kore had planted her rosy lips onto Hades the lord of the dead's own pair and gave him the longest kiss he had ever seen a couple share.
Kore, though, kept supplying air into his lungs- but that wasn't the only thing that was passing through. Her very essence was flowing into the unconscious god. It was like having a star right in front of you as she started to glow, but as suddenly as it had begun, her aura immediately started to ebb, and Kore felt her vision start to darken. Before she knew what she was doing, she disconnected herself from the god's mouth and passed out from using all her energy to resurrect the god, falling limply over him.
But not before watching the once bald god's head burst into blue flames, and his golden eyes opening in shock, was she…?!
Seeing the slumbering goddess curled over his chest- the very same one he had vague memories of as she rescued him from his personal eternal torment, and the way she had placed her rose-colored lips on his(whoa!), the god didn't know whether to push her off of him, or let her rest.
His heart rapidly still beat- whether from the ordeal he just endured or because of the goddess who had rescued him, he couldn't tell at the moment. Whatever the reason, Hades was relieved, savoring the first moment in a long time that he was no longer trapped by his own people, but then again, if it wasn't for this beautiful babe getting him out, there wouldn't be a moment to savor.
Hades groaned as his personal moral code actually decided to function for once and carefully sat up, trying not to awaken the exhausted goddess. Positioning her carefully on the ground beside him, Hades didn't know what to do, but stare.
She was truly a sight to behold. From the long wavy blonde hair that reached past her hips, to the way her heart-shaped looked so peaceful, her willowy body that was curvy in all the right places moved slightly from her breathing, and those rosy pink lips? Oh gods he could still feel them on his own, and it felt really freaking good, despite how miserable he was feeling now that he was out of the Phlegethon.
Sure, he wasn't dripping wet anymore, and his hair was back- wow that felt damn good after how long…? Who knows, but who in the, excuse the pun, hell was dumb enough to fall into the same river he did and then decide it was a good idea to pull him out too?
It wasn't until Pain chose to announce their presence by faking a cough, that Hades realized he had an audience.
"YOU TWO!" Hades roared, and in a second his hands were in a death grip around both of his minion's necks. "Out of all the lousy minions I could'a got- did you really think-" his hands now illuminated into a fiery red as did the rest of his skin. "-I wouldn't hear you two bozos scheming?!"
It was at this point that Hades' was now engulfed in a column of flame as his rage exploded, and two piles of ash with a pair of eyeballs each was all that was left of his minions.
Still heaving the burning fire of his rage, Hades took deeper breaths to calm himself down as he realized that the blonde goddess was still out. "Okay, I'm steamed off now- so who's she?" The god pointed towards the faded pink-skinned goddess.
"That's Kore!" The two imps shouted, regenerating into their impish forms. Pain and Panic flitted over to the passed out goddess and were about to touch her, but Hades quickly stopped them.
"Wait, wait, wait, you two are not laying a finger on her." Hades snapped, but his face scrunched as he processed her name. "Kore?! As in Demter's kid- the little goddess innocence?! Oi, do I remember that day," the god rolled his eyes. "Gotta say, leave it to mommy to pick the worst position in the cosmos. I must'a been gone a long time if she's all grown up now."
"It's only been two months," Pain explained.
"That long, huh?" Hades cupped his chin in thought, pursing his lips. "So you still haven't explained why little miss Springtime is here."
"Oh, she's here to replace y-"
"So that's why you were showing her around! Trying to replace me, huh?! Schmooze up to her!" Hades snarled and grabbed Panic's ears.
"Wait, sir, she's sleeping!" Panic pleaded, pointing a desperate finger as the once still form of the goddess began to twitch, immediately silencing the god.
"Man, she don't look so good," Pain observed. "Wasn't she like bright pink now she kind of looks… duller."
"What?! She looks fine to me," Hades exclaimed a bit too defensively, earning strange looks form his workers. "Well, from this angle…"
From her position on the ground, Kore groaned as she tried to sit up and put a hand to her forehead. "Oh gods, I feel like that one time Artemis decided to spar me."
"Hey, you okay?" Hades appeared in front of her in a column of smoke, extending out a hand towards her.
"I think so," Kore muttered weakly, accepting his hand to lift herself up. Now that she stood up to her full height, Hades was surprised how tall she was compared to most goddesses, coming up to below his eyes.
"Oh, for Zeus' sake I got the worst taste in my mouth. Bleh."
Hades frowned, his eye twitching, "Oh, sorry weren't you the one who puckered up, trying to revive me or something?"
"Oh nonononono," Kore waved her hands dismissively, a light giggle escaping her mouth. "Not because of you, Flameo, you see-"
"Flameo?"
"Sorry," Kore smiled shyly, her glowing magenta eyes no longer locked with the god's. "I didn't know what else to call you."
"I'm- uh…" Hades hesitated, his eyes flitting over to where Pain and Panic were doing a bad attempt at charades, but suddenly an idea struck him. She was here to replace him, right? Which means, she didn't come down here to free him- ergo the Olympians still thought he was imprisoned.
Holy Hera, she wasn't even there when he tried to take over Olympus- he'd have remembered this babe.
Wait Olympus…
They wouldn't send this sweet summer child unless they needed an Underworld deity. Oh, he felt like kissing all three of the Fates with this stroke of luck- and here it was being served to him with the very goddess that had save him.
"I'm Eubulus… Yeah… god of good counsel," the newly named 'Eubulus' bowed.
"God of good counsel, huh?" Kore raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
"Mhm," Hades suddenly felt himself sweating.
"Well whaddya know," Kore shrugged, nodding understandingly. "No wonder Zeus is such an idiot. I bet he threw you down there, just so you could keep your mouth shut and make sure no one disobeyed Mr. Know-it-All."
Hades didn't know whether to leap for joy that he found one goddess that shared his views about his feelings toward his big bro, or because she bought the lie so easily. Goddess of innocence is definitely not stretching it.
"I'm Kore, by the way, the goddess of innocence," said goddess nervously tucked a strand of her wavy blonde hair behind her ear.
The flame-haired god snorted. "Gods- maiden? You kidding me? You've gotta have a better name than that, babe. Specially with your looks- got a boyfriend? Possible betrothed?"
"No… To both…" Kore bit her lip, a seed of dread that had been at the pit of her stomach started to grow. "But my friends calls me Persephone."
"Persephone it is," Hades smiled crookedly at her. "So what brings you down to the Underworld, Perse?"
Kore smiled. "Oh, I was only looking around…" she started to mumble, but the goddess could feel Athena shaking her head in disappointment. "… Actually, I'm here because I wanted to take a look at my future kingdom."
"Future?" Hades cocked an amused eyebrow. "Really? Isn't that- I don't know- Hades' job?"
"Well, yeah, but Hercules chained him in Tartarus, and the dead are running wild up on earth, so Zeus in all his wisdom, decided to appoint a new underworld deity, but," Persephone sighed. "I wasn't the only being who was interested. Echidna and Ares' two sons are looking to rule so there's gonna be a-"
"Echidna?! No way, does that overgrown lizard have what it takes to run a fully-fledged operation like this place. You can't eat your problems down here. Oh sorry- you were saying?" Hades gazed at her in such a strange way that it made Persephone's stomach churn.
"Oh, um there's gonna be a competition tomorrow…" Persephone exclaimed, her voice becoming a whisper as Hades' gaze never relented on it's intensity, but in effect, the god was standing as close as possible to her without touching her so he could hear her.
"Whoever collects the most souls gets to rule down here."
"Sounds simple enough," Hades snorted as an idea started to form in his brain. "Hell, I'll even make sure you win."
Persephone stared at him incredulously. "You will?! Really?!" She smiled widely, making her appear all the more radiant, despite how pale she was.
"Well, for a price," Hades smirked, his eyes scoping out her entire body before his golden orbs locked with hers once again.
"Oh…" Persephone's face fell slightly, hope still prevalent in her face. "I thought-"
"Whoa, whoa, babe- Persephone," he emphasized her name in a low voice as he started to tower over her. "You're entering the real world, babe. If you come down here- deals are everything. Look at Hades- he loved them- passed the time too, but hey, if it sweetens the deal for you, I'll make sure I won't leave your side and make sure you have what it takes to make you a fully-fledged Queen of the Dead."
"So you'll help me win and stick around to help me rule?" Persephone surmised.
"Yep," Hades nodded sincerely, circling around her, as if he wanted to inspect every inch of her. "You can't ask for any better deal than this, and trust me when what I say that what I want will be easy to get."
Persephone bit her in thought. "I don't know…"
"And if I swear by the River Styx?"
"Okay," Persephone placed her hands on her hips. "Only as long as you promise that I give you something that will not be out of the way for me- something that is not going to be hard to obtain like Olympus or a good night's sleep."
"I swear it, my sweet," Hades bowed lowly, and took her hand a placed a small peck on top of it.
"Then we have a deal." Persephone pulled her hand away and extended it out to meet Hades' and with one fell swoop, the deal was struck as their hands met, and a blue flame erupted from their clenched hands, forever sealing these two wayward souls together.
For better, or for worse.
A/N: *Laburnum is a type of tree grown in the Balkans that is known to be poisonous in every single part of the tree from flower to bark to its sap. It produces a golden flower which I thought was appropriate for the metaphor, considering who Persy is.
^Asphodel flowers are prominent and sacred flowers to Persy but in Victorian etiquette, it means regret, and I thought in this point in time, she would give the Asphodel Fields their rightful name.
Eubulus is one of the epithets of Hades, and means as mentioned, good-counselor. Fits, right?
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