Act III: Autumn

I did say a month.

Amy: Lol, I appreciate your feedback, and a happy belated birthday to you! I'm super glad you've enjoyed this fic thus far, I was going to post the previous chapter before I started school, but I somehow found a place with free Wifi to post it. I hope you are satisfied with the outcome of the chapter!

Bialy: You know you were always the most mysterious of my reviewers, but I finally know who you are! You wrote some Hercules fics on this site, right? I always wondered what happened to them, I apologize for never getting around to reading them, but I guess I'll have to find them on the subway walls;) Thanks for sticking around and for always making me smile with your fun reviews.

Writer'sTable: Thanks for understanding and for providing some wonderful reading material to get me in the mood. This chapter is for you.

Alright now that that's said… I am back from the very country Persy was trying to flee to. The irony is not lost on me but to be fair I had this fic outlined two years ago and I only found out five months ago about the study abroad trip. So it may have been a vacation but I still had to start school a whole month earlier and two days before my Fall classes started. I have been running on very little sleep and changing my internal clock is the worst.

Italy was wonderful and y'all are so sweet! Thanks for putting up with my limited Italian!

Although I have to say the weirdest part about this trip was seeing an old man in Venice wearing a Disney Hades t-shirt with his face and iconic "We dance, we kiss, we schmooze," quote. Suffice to say I took that as a sign and finished the last chapter the very same night.

Oh and special thanks to that Tumblr post hyping up this fic! Thanks The Ships You Fear!

Disclaimer: Chapter 1

"I've lost all ambition for worldly acclaim
I just want to be the one you love
And with your admission that you'd feel the same
I'll have reached the goal I'm dreaming of, believe me."

-I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire, by the Ink Spots

Persephone did not have a voice to scream as she fell. Her hand had reached out to where that crack in the ceiling had once been- to where Athena was reaching out to her, but the root she was holding onto snapped without warning and the earth swallowed her whole. Now fully immersed in the darkness, with nothing underneath her, the goddess continued to fall, steadily moving faster as was the nature of gravity's laws.

How long she fell she did not know. One second she felt nothing but the dampness of her clothes and the chilly atmosphere of the Underworld. The next, the sound of beating wings filled her ears and the crack of a whip. She felt herself connect with something solid and firm.

Persephone did not need Athena's intellect to figure out who had caught her. The goddess found her thigh was being supported by Hades' hand, pressing her hip into his chest while the rest of her body was schlumped precariously over his shoulder. He could not use both hands to hold her as the other was holding on tightly to the reins, but she could feel his smoldering eyes on her.

Persephone did not meet his gaze, nor did she try to wriggle out of his grasp, she kept her eyes on the world in front of her, pretending he did not exist. She would not make this easy for him in the slightest.

Hades regarded Persephone without uttering a single word. He hoped that she would react and show some signs of life, he'd take anything from her at this point, but the goddess in his arms did not stir. She was as immobile and as silent as a sepulcher, but far more brilliant. Persephone was like a fallen star in his hold, but there did not seem to be a single ounce of spirit inside of her. She was awake, that was for sure as he watched her rapidly blink her eyes on several instances; always making sure to never meet his lingering gaze.

Her eyes were dead. Those violet eyes which had only moments ago revealed the fire inside of her, her passion, her unbreakable will, now they were as emotionless as Charon, the stalwart ferryman of the dead.

Hades swallowed nervously, and felt a heavy groan well up inside of his chest. He thought of anything he could say to break the ice, but as had become the norm when he was around her- any and all words died in his throat. Against his better judgement, the lord of the dead commanded his chariot team to land despite how far away they were from his palace.

Yet the Styx was close by, a small thought reminded him. Charon would not breathe a word of what they would say should Persephone actually speak to him. Which was what he intended to do on the long ride back to his palace. He didn't want today going like this anymore, she deserved to be happy, and dammit, it would make him happy to see her smile again.

He missed her pleasant, sweet grins that made him forget about his troubles. Instead, she was in a sea of her own troubles, all thanks to him, and the thought made him inwardly slap himself.

Still being held in his one armed grasp, Hades allowed the reigns to drop from his hand and tried to reposition the goddess. Persephone seemed to be in her own world as he supported her with both his arms and did not acknowledge the change at first.

It was in this position, in the way she was being cradled that Persephone had no choice but to look up at him. There was once a time in her life she yearned for him to look at her the way he was looking at her now, with his large golden orbs focused solely on her. Was that worry? Sympathy? Compassion?

No, she brushed those thoughts away, he didn't care. It was always his way, his decision, their decision- never hers. She could never win no matter what she tried. Someone would always end up ruling over her. She knew that for certain now.

No blush painted her pale face as she coldly gazed into his own. He was stoic, but his eyes, his ever expressive eyes were pleading, a look that was becoming far more familiar than she was used to.

"Let me down," Persephone ordered with a small voice. She was having trouble speaking too, but not the same reason Hades was.

Hades stepped out of his chariot still carrying her close to him. Though the offer was tempting considering how her drenched peplos was seeping cold water into his own chiton, he knew the real reason for her request. "If you promise not to run," Hades cooly quipped.

"And where would I run to?" Persephone reminded him, gesturing wildly to the vast dark world that was all around her. No light, no grass, no trees, the land was barren and entirely composed of tenebrous stone that jutted out of the ground in odd angles and in terrifying shapes. Nothing like the woods she called home. Nothing like the world she just fell from.

They were in an area of the Underworld that was considerably far from his palace or any recognizable location. He had the home team advantage here if she tried to run, but it didn't hurt any less that she wanted to be away from him.

Hades sighed as his mind was suddenly made up and set her down gently, but his hands lingered on her, trying his best to warm her shivering form.

Thanks to her abrupt swim in the river, she was completely drenched in water from her peplos to her hair, which soaked in the most water as noted by her yellow hair being a few shades darker. With the chilly atmosphere of the Underworld, a land without sun, this area especially was adding to Persephone's discomfort as a wave of shivers awakened her godly powers.

That soft pale rose light emitting from her skin began to warm herself, though she was not pulsating as much heat as the god who was having trouble not keeping his hands off her. He had his hands digging into her shoulders, laying flush against her skin, trying his best to alleviate her discomfort by warming her up.

Persephone hurriedly pulled away from him the first moment she could, and stood a good distance away.

"I'm only trying to help," Hades pleaded, following close behind her.

Persephone abruptly turned around, forcing the god to freeze in place before he walked right into her. "Which part?!" She snapped with a small snarl forming on her sweet lips.

Hades staggered at the fury which she produced in a simple question. An uneasy chill swept through him as it was not just her words that were filled with rage, but all of her as she began to shake whether from her own emotions or her chilliness. He'd only seen her this angry once and experience taught him there was no escaping it. "Sweetness, listen-"

"Was it the part where I flat out denied your sham of a proposal only for you to turn around and go whoops your choice never mattered and chased me through the whole flaming forest?" Persephone cut him off as her hair began to subsequently glow into that river of light, swirling around her just like how her hair looked while she swam in the river. "Anapos is gone- Cyane is gone- Daphne…" Persephone's voice hitched in her throat as a strangled cry bubbled forth.

Persephone covered her face with her hands as she took an unsteady breath. The full impact of what had occurred finally began to process in her moment of rage, and as she stared poignantly at the lord of the dead, she began to restrain her feelings. Buried them deep inside of her, but not as deep as she wished, not as deep as her own self was buried in the earth.

"We're all gone…" Persephone mourned, her eyes returned to where the crack in the earth had been. To where the light had once seeped through.

Hades waisted no time to rush to her side. "Persephone, sweetheart, my lovely blushing-" he crooned in his charming lilt. Anything to try and lighten the mood, but nothing could erase the events that had allowed this meeting to begin.

"Don't," Persephone retorted, violently wringing out her peplos freeing some amounts of river water. Why she didn't just poof the water away was beyond her, but maybe it was because she wanted a reason not to look at him. "If you had anything important to say you would have said it before everything went-"

"Straight to here?" Hades suggested, earning a cross glare from the infuriated goddess. "Hey, it's just weird hearing someone else say it," the god admitted in a small, tight voice. "But, c'mon, it's not like I had time to explain myself. You saw all those gods waltzing around in the woods like nobody's business. Apollo, 'Thena showed up at the end there- which means fly guy might not be so far behind- and I got to get you to the temple on time, my sweet."

"There was time. You just wouldn't dare admit something so beneath you," Persephone seethed through gritted teeth.

"Look we have eternity starting tonight, so I don't think that matters anymore," Hades flippantly exclaimed, but one look at her face told him he had said the wrong thing.

For a second, Persephone stared bewilderedly at him, trying to rationale how a god so quick and clever in his words, a god who could twist anything in such a way to make the smartest rethink everything they ever knew and yet here he stood saying something that infuriated her to her very core. "Doesn't… Doesn't matter?!" Persephone stammered.

"That's not what I meant. Of course it matters- you matter- us- us matters," Hades floundered as his rising nervousness got the best of him. Damnit, he was usually so calm and collected, but Persephone's outrage towards him and his rising fear were getting the best of him. Plan Beta had been an extraordinary success; she was down in his kingdom, but after that everything was falling apart, and that was after he had torn open the earth.

Go figure.

"Then say it!" Persephone continued her shouting, advancing upon him while her hair became steadily brighter and her skin transfiguring more lilac by the second. "You owe me that much if you're going to force me into this! I lost two friends today- one because of you. The other I chose to save her and for what?" Persephone threw her hands into the air, sending sparks flying out of her fingertips.

Hades hesitated.

His flames seemed to grow smaller atop his head as if they were shrinking back in fear. Nervousness was beginning to creep up upon his form, but the god forced himself to stand straighter. No smirk, nor playful grin pulled at his gray lips. Hades became as serious and as stoic as a tomb as he gently took one of Persephone's hands and joined it with his own.

Persephone did not stop him, she didn't even try to take back her hand. She would never admit this, especially now in this situation, but she always loved how her hand would fit almost perfectly in his own. All their adventures began when he took her by the hand, the way they enveloped her in their warm and tender grasp. Others would compare his long hands like spiders in the way they were angled and moved, but they were perfect to her. Though his words could be twisted there were some things he could not hide, and his hands were almost as expressive as his eyes.

"Why, Hades?" Persephone asked again in a quiet voice devoid of all her previous rage. Unadulterated curiosity painted her wide doe-like eyes as they searched into his own.

He wanted her to be angry again. He didn't know why, but maybe it would have been easier for him to take it. To not feel that guilt well up inside of him like a magma flow waiting to creep out of the thin crust of the earth. He did not deserve this- did not deserve even to hold her hand as he did now, but he did so to make sure this was real- to see if she was real.

And she was.

Which meant whatever he had to say had to be real as well. No clever wordplay, no cunning tricks of the tongue, and no one was here to listen in. His fear of being vulnerable was being far outweighed by the prospect of him losing her.

"Even gods can do crazy things for love, my sweet," Hades brought her hand to his face, pressing her rough hand to his lips and gave it a small yet tender kiss. The hands of a goddess who worked far too much in the earth, plucking out weeds, and cutting and shearing grain. She was no queen, but he would make her one if she allowed him.

"So is that what you're calling it?" Persephone softly retorted, with doleful pangs echoing in her voice. "How you're going to justify all this?" She removed her hand from his and turned away from him.

Hades felt himself burn, but not in his usual fiery red. His hair flared a panicked shade of orange before he returned to his cool blue. "Seph, I love you," his voice almost hitched in his throat. "Isn't- isn't that the greatest cause of all or something? What launches a thousand ships- what people sell their souls for. Can't you see I did all that for you?"

"You speak from a heart that has long since decayed," Persephone huffed, earning a wince from Hades. The god was about to protest, but he felt Persephone's hand rise to his face as she began to caress it.

Hades stood transfixed as her thumb began to trace his cheekbones. The god closed his eyes allowing himself to immerse in the sensation of her hand on him.

"You could have said something earlier instead of making up a lie," Persephone's sweet voice brought him out of his silent reverie. "You're afraid, Hades, I know… I'm afraid too… About all of this- about what we could have been," she seemed to whisper as she removed her hand from his grasp.

Persephone sighed, a sad mournful thing that was far too fitting for the Underworld. "If you had asked me then in Egypt, I would have said yes and we would not be standing here. Athena put it into my mind you didn't want me the way I wanted…" she stopped herself from saying anything more. "And I couldn't stay. Not when I knew what would happen. But that was the decision I made, and anyone who even remotely cares about me should respect my 're just proving Athena right doing all this, and what if you're still lying to me? Tricking me like you always do. How do you expect me to trust the words of a god who has never stopped lying to me?"

"Then don't trust them, I can swear to you on Styx. Anything- I'll do anything, sweetness, just name your price," Hades pressed. "If it means you'll stay by my side, the price isn't that steep. Revenge on Zeus for abandoning you and your mother? Boom," he snapped his finger and thumb together. "Already working on something new. And Athena? Well, you don't want her taking something that could be yours so easily. You may be promised solely Elysium, but I will give you more, so much more you don't even have to ask it. Half of my kingdom. Do you know how many gods have come before you trying to take the Underworld from me? I will give it to you willingly."

Persephone watched the lord of the dead as he continued to beckon her toward him. He had offered everything he owned, all that he had accumulated since the beginning of time, and the promise to lay her enemies at her feet.

He was desperate, and yet he had not even offered the one thing she wanted from him. The only thing he could offer her that she would ever accept. "Not willingly, you're turning this into a deal just like you always do," Persephone dismissed the offer with a single shake of her head.

"That's what a proposal is, my sweet," Hades nervously grin.

Persephone made a small noise of incredulity at the back of her throat. "An empty one. You'd never surrender anything of value to me."

"Try me," Hades smirked.

"Oh please, your charm isn't what it used to be. You could've just dragged me to the altar like you should have already done if you weren't so caught up in having a heart for once, you, snake," Persephone icily retorted.

The slide was not lost to Hades as he began to ground his teeth in frustration. "You know what? Fine, you want out of this? Then just go," Hades grabbed Persephone's arm and dragged her to his chariot. "Take it," the god released his hold on her and handed her the reins.

"What?" Persephone became aghast as he lifted her up into the chariot, staring between the reins in her hands to the god who had given them to her.

"You heard me," he waved away dismissively. " This will get you there faster to wherever you want to go be it Egypt, that backwater city Rome- back to your mommy's house, I don't care, sweetness. You win," the god's voice was laced with vitriol and discontent the likes of which she could not believe it almost made her want to comfort him. She knew that tone well, had heard herself use it many a time, but the bitterness in his voice was far too ancient, far too ingrained. It would not surprise her in the slightest if this was just an accumulation of all the wrongs that had ever befallen him.

Was this going to be his breaking point?

"You're letting me go?" Persephone's heart momentarily lifted in her chest, but a strange pang echoed there too. It was almost hollow, oh gods, this was becoming agony. One part of her wanted to comfort him to give him solace and a small moment of peace, but another wanted so desperately to see him squirm for all the pain he had unwittingly caused.

"If you swear not to ever come crawling back," Hades indifferently exclaimed, refusing to even glance at her "I lay three choices at your feet, my sweet," he sickly lilted in his oily voice. "You can take the Underworld route to Egypt and you'll be safe from daddy's little gray-eyed harpy and ask Barker to take you to Rome. See what it's like being on your own- not being with your own kind for a couple centuries. Maybe when the Greeks go a'conquering your backwater village, you'll be a laughing stock and end up back where you started."

Persephone began to tremble both from rage and the unbidden tide of sorrow that began to flood inside her. Why had she pushed him? She knew what he would reveal his darker side when he was frustrated, but she was frustrated too. "Shut up," she muttered, tightly holding onto the reins that were still in her grasp.

"Or you can skip that messy step altogether and go straight back to your mommy," Hades continued. "Go on being her little helper, and pretend I was never in your life. Don't worry, you won't be the first just ask your dead beat dad about it," Hades spat.

Persephone's hair began to furiously glow a harsher yellow, the rage building inside of her made her spring into action and snapped the reins in her hands. The chariot team began to buck into motion, but Hades was quick as his arms became smoke and encircled around Persephone, bringing her into his embrace.

"Let me go!" Her glowing hair was the only thing that seemed to be able to harm his tendrils of smoke as she slapped them away.

Hades flinched back in pain, but did not let her go. "Oh I'm sorry, I can't believe you were going to leave before I told you the last choice." The smirk that was splayed on his face lacked any sort of humor; it was purely malicious and all it did was make Persephone squirm ever more in his grasp. "You can stay here, marry me, and you might actually live a happily ever after as the kids these days call it. Your mother, Athena, they can take a back seat to telling you what to do. Down here you'll call the shots to what you do. I just ask this one thing."

Persephone stopped her struggling as a wave of helplessness overtook her. A sob began to wreck her core, but she forced it down despite how much her body yearned to release her emotions. Not one tear fell, nor did a sound escape her lips. Her heart hurt, her chest heaved, and her eyes were flooded that she could not see out of them. Regret as deep as Tartarus burned inside of her. She wanted to start all over- to actually talk to him without the two of them screaming at each other. Deep down she always knew her choice to run away was reckless and lacked a proper plan for the long term future. Her recklessness coupled with her cowardice was something she had yet to overcome. Just like Hades did in this scenario but he was taking it far to the extreme. He was relentless and that same quality allowed his ruthlessness to shine through. A terrible combination, indeed.

"… You rigged the game, " Persephone whispered in a still, passionless voice, becoming placid and motionless in his embrace, so much so that Hades felt as if he held onto a corpse.

"You dealt the cards," Hades reminded her as he lifted her up, carrying her in his arms once again. He only did so not because she would run away, he told himself, but because she was missing a sandal and he had just noticed when he had stopped her from taking off in his chariot. A part of him felt guilty for probably being part of her losing her shoe, but then again he already felt guilty enough for everything else.

Persephone remained silent. Not once did she even protest as the lord of the dead began to make his way down to the river bend where Charon was patiently waiting in his boat.

The ferryman regarded Hades with a simple nod of his ancient skull, choosing to ignore the shining goddess he carried in his arms. Charon did not question his lord's decisions, he had carried his master across the river for millennia; now was no different. Whoever he wished to bring along was his business and his alone. Though he had met Persephone once quite recently when she came to take over the Underworld affairs, he would without question take his lord's side.

Positioning the boat closer to the bank, Charon gestured his bony arm in a slight bow to allow entrance as Hades stepped on board with his intended. He watched as the dread lord of the dead took his position at the front of the boat, and began to take note of the small debate in Hades' form as the god decided not to rest his arm on the mast of the boat as was his habit. Instead he continued to hold the shining Persephone, the owner of those dead violet eyes.

The boatman could not help overhearing the goddess murmur in her god's ear. "You're just like them…" Persephone bitterly wept. "I know you well enough by now that there were infinite ideas, but only one fit in your little world."

Charon felt himself shudder at the tone the goddess spoke to Hades. It was one filled with such animosity that he briefly wondered how his mercurial master kept his emotions so in check as the way he apathetically looked at her.

"You can't be mad forever, you'll see things my way when you calm down."

Strong Hades and awful Persephone, Charon thought with a frown. What a strange and unusual bride his lord had plucked from the earth.

The ferryman did not have long to think about the two when suddenly he felt the boat underneath him begin to rock. Were it not for his skill, the boat surely would have toppled over and sent all onboard to the shade-infested river. Something was getting the shades excited, and instinct told him it had to do with the shining passenger aboard his ferry.

Persephone scoffed. "Says the kettle to the pot."

Hades sighed, a low resigned sound that was beginning to be drowned out by the escalating moans of the dead. The glowing green shades in the river were stirring as Charon's ferry passed over them, a detail Hades was beginning to be privy to as well. "Hang on, something's rocking the boat, and we haven't even reached the honeymoon suite yet."

Persephone tore herself out of her thoughts and found her eyes wandering down to the translucent hands that began to breach the boat. She had ridden the ferry once before, but since that was before the souls had been returned to the Underworld, the river was once again full of them. Full of those poor lost souls that belonged not in the fiery pits of Tartarus nor the blissful fields of Elysium.

"What do they want?" She asked in a small voice. The question surprised her as much as Hades, and she was the one who had asked it.

"Peace, sweetness. It's what everything down here wants," Hades lugubriously noted.

Persephone's eyes became downcast and full of sympathy for the poor lost souls. Her eyes quickly glanced at Hades, but turned her vision away before he noticed her staring. "Yet the living hope to find peace in death."

"That's the funny thing about death, huh?" Hades inquired. "It never really is the end."

"Even if we wish it," Persephone added.

"Even if we wish it," he agreed. Hades positioned one arm in such a way where he could support Persephone with one as he raised his other arm to launch a fireball at the souls that were beginning to grab and tug at the hem of his chiton.

Right before he was about to release his flames, Persephone's hand was gently resting on his forearm. Hades blinked in surprise at her gesture and felt the flames forming in his hand begin to die at her mere touch.

"Please," she softly pleaded. "They've suffered enough." Her long glowing hair, as if by its own volition, reached out to the nearest shade's face and gently pressed a lock into its forehead. A strange sort of spell seemed to emanate into the shade as his eyes began to close and his hands which were once fastened onto Hades' chiton released their grip as he slid back into the river.

Hades lowered his offending arm and nodded his head, not even sparing a glance down to the shades as his focus was entirely focused on Persephone. "I guess they have."

Charon watched the scene in reverence. He may have questioned why his lord chose this woman, but now he began to understand and see what he saw in this fiery goddess. From the intrepid ingénue he had met only a week before there had arisen a merciful and sagacious goddess. She had come into her own at last even as they entered in the place where all hope was abandoned.

If she could stay his master's hand there would be nothing she could not do.

A/N: This chapter was originally going to be longer, but I felt like it worked well as its own, and I didn't want to rush the climax of this story considering what I have planned for the second half. It's not good to have too much going on in one chapter, and it's much easier to edit.

Unfortunately, y'all won't get that till late December. Sorry about that... But at least it'll be a good quality chapter and this chapter leaves a lot to let ponder over what I have planned next.

The last section of this chapter almost didn't make it until I began the editing process and made it on the fly. I didn't want the chapter to end with so much contention b/w Persy and Hades I just wanted them to be at a weird detente. Kind of like when couples can argue forever about something but then suddenly talk about something as mundane as the weather b/c even tho they're angry at the other, they still hold onto that hope that things will be okay some day, and gods of death discussing death is always my cup of tea.

While I'm gone I would love to hear your thoughts and reactions to this chapter! It's always so nice getting a review after a long day sitting in a lecture hall or waking up after I passed out on my computer while I tried to debug my code, or just any thing! If you leave a question in the review I'll try to answer it in a PM or whatever.

See y'all in winter!

As always please fav, follow, and review!