NOW HIRING

by Angel of Hunky-Doryness

Zeus finds himself in a pickle when he realizes exactly how much dedication Hades put into his job when the dead start wreaking havoc on earth with the god's absence. Left with no other choice, the thunder god must find a new underworld deity, or will Hades return just in time to stop the newest applicants? One of whom is willing to do anything to get away from her mother's shadow.

28. A Snake In the Courtroom

A Snake in the Courtroom

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A/N: Happy 3rd Berfday! Wow I've been doing this for three years, oof my how things have changed! I once again thank all my dear readers for sticking in through long hiatus after long hiatus, fav, following, and reviewing after so much! I certainly hope to finish this long before I hit the next birthday, but it's been a fun ride so far!

Sorry for the abrupt hiatus my dear readers, I just got finished with summer school and I hit kind of a writer's block soon after. At least this chapter was outlined before so I just had to write it, and I got caught up with finishing Like Young Gods which should be out soon after this chapter.

Disclaimer: Chapter 1

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Lady Macbeth: "Look like the innocent flower,

But be the serpent under't."

- Macbeth, Act I Scene V, William Shakespeare

---

Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus were not your ordinary shades. Seated high above in their shared bench, the three judges had their own single-file line forming far underneath them. Each shade that passed before them were judged by them based on their lives back when they were in their corruptible mortal states. They were the only three shades in the entirety of the Underworld that had actual power to wield, but that power had been generously donated by their resident lord of the dead when they first showed up at death's door.

Coming in with a lurid leer and quick charming words dripping off his tongue like honey, Hades came to them with a proposition of sorts, but hidden underneath those slippery, oily words was a resounding order. They had done the mortal world a great service, but now their talents were required even after their flames were extinguished. The small wisps of their formal lives clung onto them as they signed their afterlives away, somehow retaining their senses even in death. A gift very rarely shared by the denizens of the dead.

The job may have been arduous and never-ending, but there were many benefits. Private villas in the Isles of the Blessed, summer vacation thanks to the summer schlump, and most importantly, they were privy to every detail happening on the world above. A strange thing to crave, but when the afterlife dragged on, hearing gossip was a strange relief to their weary souls. Yet even with all those benefits, they could not escape the one thing that all employees had to deal with. Impromptu meetings with the boss.

There was no warning as Hades suddenly materialized in a column of fire accompanied by his bumbling minions, Pain and Panic. The god's arms were extended out wide and his smile somehow managed to be just as wide as he approached the raised dais from where the judges sat overlooking the dark courthouse.

The three judges shared a bewildered look as they all mentally wondered if they had somehow forgotten about a scheduled meeting, but judging by the cool, unsettling expression the god wore, it was not.

"Boys, boys, how ya been? How's the souls? Everything comin' out peachy now that we're back in business?" Hades' relaxed voice echoed in the chamber.

"Y-yes, of course," Aeacus sputtered, from where he sat in the center of the three. He almost added the 'my lord' part, but thankfully remembered to hold his tongue. Hades hated such formalities, and he along with his fellow judges had trouble breaking such habits from their previous lives. Even if they had no recollection of such things. "Nothing less than what you expect, sir."

"But," Minos' sharp voice cut through the still room, his heavy gaze coming down upon the round-faced Rhadamanthus. "We are having some difficulties reprocessing certain souls since someone failed to account that the souls they were processing were not even Greek."

"Please, Minos," Rhadamanthus released a wry laugh that wrinkled the many folds in his see-through face. "Your distaste of Asia Minor and all her inhabitants never fail to amaze me, you old halfwit."

Minos held his scepter up, as if ready to strike his fellow judge while Aeacus sat between the two of them with his head in his hands. "Why, you-"

"Hey, guys, guys," Hades skin began to flare a frustrated orange, stopping any action from taking place. He did not come in this early to tell off his bickering judges. Oi, that's what he gets for putting two brothers on the bench. "You wanna go out back and beat each other to death, sure go on ahead. See how well that works out for ya, but if I see another soul runnin' loose cuz they haven't been put back in the system I'll be throwing hands. Should those hands be throwin' flames at ya, well, you'll be the first to know, wontcha?"

Aeacus nervously watched the two brothers, Minos and Rhadamanthus, fidget underneath Hades' harsh gaze. Loudly clearing his throat to stifle the tension in the air, the ancient shade hid his discomfort well behind a forced grin. "Sir, forgive me for changing the issue, but may I be the first of my associates to extend congratulations to you on your recent nuptials-"

Rhadamanthus and Minos felt the equivalent of a punch in the gut as their petty squabbling made them forget their manners.

"Oh forgive us Lord Hades," Rhadamanthus quickly changed his tune as both him and his brother began to extol well wishes on the frustrated god. "What a splendid goddess you chose-"

"May your first born be a strong masculine child," Minos interjected, his voice rising above Aeacus and Rhadamanthus into a shout.

Hades began to pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration. He was this close from letting loose, but he didn't want to waste any more time than he needed to. His schedule was already maxed out, and that wasn't even accounting for the pretty goddess who was now taking up residence in hell of all places. "Yeah, whatever, look here, babes, let me level with ya."

The sound in the courtroom began to diminish in a heartbeat as the giant doors behind the god shut with a resounding slam, but not before all the shades who were in the courtroom were swept out as if a strong gust blew them out. The few torches lining the perimeter of the half-circular room began to extinguish one by one until Hades' flame was the only light in the vicinity.

"You're on thin flaming ice already for not holding to your duties while I was-" Hades paused trying to find the right word. "Let's call it indisposed, and I don't think I gotta tell ya how fast ice lasts down here," the god flared a dangerous red. "You three were the only guys around here who maintained some kind of order, but the second I was gone you were on island time acting like Five O'Clock was a state of being and not the time ya get off work. We got lots more souls than usual this season which means we, yeah that includes me, gotta jump through some hoops to make sure we get back to standard before the year ends. So I wanna see things getting back into full swing with no slip-ups."

The three judges felt their ghostly spines straighten all the more, their eyes widening in terror at their boss' sudden change in demeanor. Each of them, shared an uncomfortable look between the three of them as they collectively shook their heads like toddlers in a timeout chair. They knew Hades was never going to fire them, figuratively and literally, but he could make things vastly uncomfortable if he was so inclined.

"A consensus, hey I like that," Hades began to mellow down into a softer tone of yellow as his crooked grin returned once more. "So let's say we forget that egregious display and get right down to business, huh?"

The three judges apologies and thankfulness began to mingle together in a consensus of, "Yes, sir."

"Of course, sir."

"Alright, you three, you gotta 'nother thing coming, cuz I'm bringing in the new head honcho for Elysium today. The wife," he exclaimed with a heavy emphasis. No possession, no nothing as if there would never be anything that could come close to her. "Will be comin' to oversee how business should get done. Read me loud and clear, do ya? Great. Cuz if ya don't, the boys here," the god gestured to his beaming minions who stood with their chests proudly puffed out, "Will be reporting to me how well the little orientation goes."

But that pose was not held for long as the two imps processed what their boss just ordered. "Uh, your most unfairness," Panic nervously twittered. "Wouldn't it be better if you were the one who showed Miss Persephone how this works?"

Pain began to back his brother up by furiously shaking his head in agreement. "Yeah, boss, don't ya wanna spend more time with-"

Hades felt himself smoldering as he now became the focus of attention. Even the judges couldn't help but side eye their boss as they respectfully turned their heads towards Aeacus as if they were in a private meeting.

The god felt his throat constrict as he gulped heavily. Yeah, he wanted to, wanted to spend every second he could with her for just the chance to see her eyes alight with joy or to see her smile form into a smirk as she teased him to no end, tempting him like a siren with her song, but he wanted to give her space. How would he look trying to absorb every second of her time? She wanted independence so he'd back off. Things were already tense between them even after they reached a detente, and he didn't want to make their strained relationship all the more strained. "Look, I gotta million things to do and that's all before lunch," the flame-haired god lamely recused.

"But if she asks?"

Oi.

Hades felt himself inwardly groan at Panic's question. The last thing he wanted was to make a scene in front of his judges and give them something to gossip about later. "Course I will, what do ya take me for?" the god seethed in an exaggerated motion. They were getting smoked for this later, but for now he'd play it cool. "But hey that reminds me," the god's focus landed on the veiled pudgy judge that sat to the right of Aeacus.

"Rhadamanthus, babe, you'll be seeing and reporting to Persephone more thanks to that lordship gig your daddy got ya in Elysium. So make a lasting impression. I don't want her thinking I'm running a third-rate high school glee club, 'kay?"

Upon hearing his name slip off Hades' oily tongue, the gleeful Rhadamanthus sat all the straighter. "It would be an honor to serve."

"No funny business, got that?" Hades shot a scrutinizing glare at the judge in question. "Alright, before I go get Seph, that's Lady Persephone to you babes. I know youse guys got a schedule to keep, but under no circumstance will there be a Tartarus proceeding today. Kapiche? Purgatory and Paradise sure, but no sentencing or reprocessing Tartarus-bound souls today," Hades asserted with an oddly protective tone.

The god had spent the better part of the previous night drafting up a plan on how to get Persephone up to speed in running the Underworld and washing off the stink of fish, but Tartarus and its denizens were the last thing he wanted to show her in the first month. She was still pure in that regard, and being immediately exposed to every gory detail that some mortals have been up to did not leave much comfort in the god's heart. He remembered his own experience and the burden of knowledge that came with it.

Baby steps, he reminded himself.

If she was going to help run this place, she needed to be properly trained and prepared especially if she wanted to move forward with her reorganization of the souls idea.

He wasn't going to do it for her. It would be her first test as lady of the dead, and whether or not tell her if this was what she wanted to do. After all, he had told her loud and clear that if she wanted to she could still go wherever she wanted, he would not hold her back. If he woke up one day to find her gone, that's her choice. It was her life and the last thing he wanted was to force her into a job she did not want. He'd already done enough.

The three judges lowly bowed in agreement.

"They will be moved to a later date, I assure you, my lord," Minos promised.

Hades rolled his eyes. Even in death Minos was still a kiss-up. Small moments like these made him wonder if the former king still remembered his previous life. Eh, no amount of Lethe dousing could get him back at a blank slate. What a piece of work the kings of Crete were, sheesh!

"Great," Hades' lips were set in a thin smile, but mirth was not in his eyes. "Just show her the ropes, and if ya got time show her the records room while you're at it. If she's anything like me she'll absolutely love the filing system. And remember what I said," the god flatly warned, wagging his index finger in the air before it turned into a half-hearted wave. "Ciao, babes."

As soon as Hades and his minions disappeared in a swirl of smoke, all three judges fell back into the cushion of their seats, completely flabbergasted by the whole meeting.

Minos blearily turned to his companions. "So who's the goddess crazy enough to marry him again?"

---

Persephone had been up for the past three hours. No one had told her what time it was, nor had she bothered to ask. Even when she found Melinoe blearily eyeing her with a bewildered expression after she shook her bush awake, the lampade hadn't bothered to correct her on the time nor ask to leave her alone. Details like sleep never really bothered Persephone, but all she knew was that there was work to do and a mountain of ideas ahead of her.

That mountain being the thousands of charred, flopping fish that had rained down upon her like arrows during the battle of Thermopylae the night before. Now they weren't charred before Hades burned them, but became subsequently so when he exploded after being buried underneath them. Of course, there needed to be one more bizarre thing to occur before the Fates decided to call it a day, but at least no asphodels were damaged aside from being crushed by thousands of pounds of fish. Fireproof flowers, who knew right?

Now that she was able to assess the damage, there was no question about it that she needed to renovate the area and find something to do with the thousands of charred, rotting fish decorating the flattened plains. She could do nothing about the ones that fell into the river, but she could so something about the plains. Yet it also proved to be quite an Elysium-sent idea the more Persephone thought about the asphodel flowers that covered every square inch of the region and the poor quality of the soil.

In her previous work with rocky, grainy soil it was an absolute nightmare trying to grow anything without her trying to keep it alive. With this in mind, Persephone had a feeling the residual energy she had left in the soil had kept the asphodels alive for the past week, but there was no certainty how long that would hold it. So there was only one thing she could do.

Fertilize the soil herself.

"So, I guess this is the first time you're doing gardening, huh?" Persephone looked over to her tired companion from where she was situated, evening out her pile of collected fish onto the freshly dug up soil. The lampade in question was leaning against her rake with her hands atop it while her bone white face was pressed against her hands. "Melinoe, you okay there?"

The lampade in question wearily opened one eye as she released a dazed, "Hm?"

Persephone couldn't help releasing a small giggle, but quickly stifled it by covering her mouth with her hand. Stabbing her rake into the ground since there was not one tree on the fields to lean it against, Persephone made her way towards Melinoe, and thoughtfully gazed at the tired nymph. "Girls, I think we should take a break," Persephone announced to the lampades who were still awake.

I really need to give them names.

The remaining four lampades stopped their drudgehry and dropped their own rakes as they hungrily eyed the fish they were spreading across the fields. Wasting no time, each one began to pick up the charred, rotting fish and stuffed them whole into their mouths or chose to gleefully tear into the scaly flesh with their sharp teeth.

"Aw, that's terrifying," Persephone endearingly smiled before she bent down to Melinoe's level. "Hey," the goddess lightly touched the lampade's shoulder only for her to jerk awake.

"Yes?" Came out Melinoe's monotone voice.

"Y'know you don't have to help. I only woke you so you wouldn't feel left out," Persephone spoke in a soft voice so the other lampades couldn't eavesdrop.

"You really don't know how to work with minions do you, my lady?" Melinoe grumbled as both her eyes tore themselves open, her irises a harsh yellow against the black sclera of her eyes.

Persephone snorted at Melinoe's blunt scrutiny. None of her mother's nymphs were ever brutally honest with her, they were all so bubbly and sweet, never the confronting type. "To be fair I've always been someone else's minion."

"Hm," Melinoe nodded. Yes, she could see that become more defined in her mind as Persephone thought more about her mother. She'd never felt regret this strong before, at least not with any shade she'd seen so far.

"I'll work on it, don't worry, but I still appreciate you trying," Persephone offered the lampade a thankful grin, but Melinoe simply glared. "And you don't have to act sophisticated around me, lady is more of my mother's thing."

Melinoe blinked, but said nothing as she picked up her rake and stabbed its teeth into the mound of fish.

Persephone's lips began to form into a disgruntled, thin-lipped scowl as she watched Melinoe unsuccessfully use the rake she had given her. It made her antsy just watching someone who had clearly never used a gardening tool try their hand at it.

She couldn't count how many times she had to take a mortal aside and teach them how to properly use a plow, a sickle, a hoe! Her first time watching a mortal use a tool may have ended in bloodshed and probably led to their infection, and maybe led to their death, but since then she got anxiety watching the inexperienced try something she'd been doing since she could crawl.

"Hold on! Watch me, okay?" The goddess made a grab for her own rake and instead of slamming the prongs onto the pile of fish like Melinoe had done, she instead began to spread them out onto the ground with the flat, opposite side of the rake. "See? We use the teeth of the rake if we're trying to gather things up, but if we do that we'll accidentally pull the asphodels out of the soil. We don't want that, so we use the flat side."

Melinoe mutely nodded and began to pick up her rake again to demonstrate what she had learned only for her to still use the same intensity as before and slam the non-toothed side of the rake down upon her pile of fish, sending them flying across the fields.

Persephone inwardly groaned, trying not to voice her displeasure, resigning herself instead to pick up her own rake and continue her work. Maybe Melinoe wasn't cut out for gardening. The other four were a natural from what she'd seen, but that might be more due because of her influence on them. While the four were certainly less talkative than Melinoe, which wasn't saying much, they easily fit the bill on how nymphs were usually like topside; just a tad more malicious. Their eyes the color of the space between stars, black and pitiless, unlike Melinoe who somehow retained those striking golden rings that were her irises.

"You're lucky the shades out here don't like fish blood," Melinoe suddenly exclaimed, bringing Persephone out of her thoughts.

"What do you mean by that?" Persephone paused her raking to gaze at her suddenly chatty minion.

"If they drink the blood of something freshly killed it reanimates the dead for a little while," Melinoe tightly exclaimed as she once again slammed down the rake, continuing on in her drudgery.

"Reanimate?" Persephone felt her brows knit together as she imagined a soul returning to their rotting mortal coil. Seeing all the dried ligaments loosely attached to the bone, struggling just to move the slightest bit in their cadaverous state. "Reanimate how?"

"They regain their senses. It certainly worked for Tiresias," Melinoe dryly tutted.

"Huh, I think I'll remember that one," Persephone promised as she felt a sudden change in the air near her. The goddess barely had time to turn around when Hades fully materialized before her, emanating his usual smoky scent and the smell of something soothingly bitter.

A steaming mug was firmly held in Hades' right hand as he approached her. Persephone eyed the dark steaming liquid in the mug curiously. That seemed to be creating the earthy, bitter scent that reminded her of freshly dug-up soil after it had rained, Persephone focused on that more instead of meeting the eyes of her husband. Oh she was so going to have to get used to that.

All semblance she had this morning was soon being thrown off the balcony as she meekly waved at the god and noticed his gaze fixated quizzically at the rake in her hand. Persephone suddenly looked down at her own appearance and realized just how unkempt she looked.

Gaia's green earth I look like a mess!

Hades took a long drawl from his mug to hide his languid smile. You can take a goddess outta the farm, but ya couldn't take the farm outta the goddess. "Mornin', sweetness," the god side-eyed Melinoe warily as she slammed her rake down once again. "Didn't expect ya out here so early." Or taking up the landscaping department yourself.

"You have no idea," Persephone snorted. If it was early by Hades' standards then she had been up for a very long time, and judging by the delicious Ethiopian coffee bean smell that emanated from his cup, he was just starting out his morning. "But I just wanted to get the girls started before we went to the courts," Persephone briskly waved her hand.

"And do the work yourself, huh?" Hades dryly commented as his gaze once again landed on the rake in her hands.

Persephone felt her nostrils flare, reaching up to her bundled hair, the goddess undid the ribbon and out tumbled her hair from her updo. The transformation was immediate as her hair erupted into a bright light and soon the short grey work dress she was wearing changed into her tight black peplos. The rake disappeared only for the asymmetrical pronged diadem to appear nestled in her hair like it had always been there. Any awkwardness she felt previously quickly seeped out of her as she stood all the straighter in her attempt to mimic Hera in her reticent, regal stature as her irritation began to rise. "Don't start, it's been a peaceful morning before you showed up."

"You including Miss Doom and Gloom over there?" Hades hid his smirk with his mug as he took another sip before he gestured his thumb at the lampade as she continued to throw her small body into spreading the fish out onto the fields.

"She's doing her best," her magenta eyes shot him a glare, but her small thoughtful pout afterwards told him otherwise. "But maybe I'm putting her in the wrong field."

"Hey, at least she's in the fields of asphodel, so move her over one! Bada bing!" Hades wagged his finger knowingly while Persephone bemusedly looked around her trying to pinpoint the drum and cymbal she heard accompanying Hades' joke.

"Did you hear that?" Persephone blinked, more confused about the strange accompaniment than giving into her amusement.

"The lack of laughter? Yeah, you get used to it."

Persephone's face softened, releasing a tired sigh. "Oh Hades," the goddess shook her head in a tender sort of way. Then putting two fingers in her mouth, Persephone released a shrill whistle, garnering the attention of the lampades.

"Listen up girls, I'll be back later. Just keep doing what you're doing and uh-" Persephone rushed towards the nearest lampade who wasn't Melinoe; which just so happened to be the rose gold one. "Make sure Melinoe doesn't kill the flowers," she whispered into her pointed ear.

The lampade nodded understandingly, a raspy giggle escaping her throat that resonated in an odd sort of purr.

With a final assuring tap on the lampade's shoulder, Persephone spirited away and latched herself onto Hades' unsuspecting arm. "Alright, ready when you are, Sparky."

Hades felt himself jump as tiny white flames made their presence known on his shoulders, but the god quickly patted them down, pretending he was scratching his neck before Persephone noticed, but before he could do so he had to chuck his coffee mug behind him to empty up his hand. He could hide his attraction, but when she was this close, wrapping her arm around his, he felt himself drowning in the flowery scent that accompanied her wherever she went and it was certainly harder to contain himself from bursting into flames the longer she sweetly smiled up at him.

Without offering a reply, Hades transported them just outside the luminescent courthouse as hundreds if not thousands of souls were amassed into a line that extended as far as the shoreline where Charon dropped off the souls who had paid their admission fees.

"Hey, look at that we're here," Hades quickly muttered, his hand gesturing outward in a quick, careless manner.

Persephone had not expected a building to look so similar to the mortal's style. She was imagining something up more Hades' ally with his sharply cut, pointed angles and skeletal influence. Yet instead, it was an austere courthouse lined with monochromatic columns that were decorated with veins of white across the marble in unpredictable patterns. The columns were not overly crowded like some palaces or temples to show off the wealth of the financier; instead it was quite efficient. No doubt something Hades made sure that his architects kept into consideration when he overlooked the final design of the place.

Now what captured Persephone's attention the most was the colossal gates that extended out wide in an oddly foreboding manner. Usually closed doors had that quality about them, but the fact that these massive adamantium doors were welcoming to all who should travel across the River Styx was something else entirely. Here it was decided where a soul would spend their eternity, and here was their last chance of begging for forgiveness for past sins only for those pleas to fall on deft ears.

Here was the end.

"Wow, looks like Athens." Persephone noted as she felt Hades tug her gently forward. The only difference was the people trickling into the courthouse were dead and a mix of men, women, and children. Only old men ever entered such places, but here in that lone building that seemed to grow out from the ground; it was a welcome place to all. "Just less gaudy," she added without missing a beat. Yet her gaze was suddenly transfixed by the large blinking sign that hung underneath the main entrance that had a list of numbers so long she wondered if that was the number of souls that had passed through their gates.

"Yeah, Athens got all their idears from me. Draconian laws? All me, babe. I'd sue that schlub if he wasn't already dead," Hades grumbled.

Persephone giggled. "I'm pretty sure Athena helped too."

Hades rolled his eyes. "She likes to say that, but if that were the case they woulda named the laws after her."

"Because naming a city after her clearly wasn't enough," Persephone sarcastically quipped.

"Hey," Hades wagged his finger in the air in his moment of trying to prove a point. "That city's stuck in a perpetual state of drought all because of a flaming tree. So tell me who really won that stupid competition in the end." ^

"Hey, I taught her how to make that olive tree," Persephone defensively snapped, her glowing hair flaring to a dangerous intensity.

Hades stared at her, incredulity making his face look dopier than usual. "Come again?"

"What?" Persephone bit out. "She tutored me. It was the least I could do."

Shock made the god's flames still and shrink as he stared at the shining goddess in a new light. That uppity bird-brained actually cheated. Hades felt a crooked grin beginning to crawl on his face at the thought of Zeus' precious golden girl was down to his level, and yet his levity came crashing down as a new realization struck him. "Hold on, back up, sweetness, you mean to tell me Athens could'a been Persepolis?" *

Hades-town still sounded better to him, but he'd get the last laugh one day. **

At first, Persephone couldn't help but roll her eyes, writing off Hades' quip as him trying to sweet-talk her like always, but she stopped herself. "… Maybe," Persephone muttered unsure of herself the more she considered his words, but her loyalty won out the debate even if doubt still remained prevalent in her mind. "But who cares anyway, competitions just lead me to more trouble."

Hades' eyebrows lifted, his eyes rolling down to her own as a softer version of his usual smirks spread across his long face. "You say that like it's a bad thing, Seph."

Persephone chose to ignore this. "So are you dropping me off, or are you planning to stay with me?"

Hades felt himself hesitate as his mind was pulled out of his previous thoughts. He already knew he was planning to let her go on her own today, but that revelation made him reconsider his previous plans. In fact he really wanted to talk to her further about her supposed friendship with Athena, something didn't sit right with him, but he knew asking her while at the courthouse where she needed to be learning was the wrong time to approach her on the subject. Yet he didn't want to make her feel like she wasn't his top priority. Damn, they were married, why was he feeling like an idiot "… Only if you want me to."

Persephone looked up into Hades' face and took note of the debate going on in his eyes. Did he feel obligated out of their deal to be there for her? "I'll be fine, I have some insight to how courts work, anyway."

Hades' shoulders slightly fell at her refusal. Hey, less weight off his shoulders. "Well, don't get too cozy 'bout the idea of workin' alone. The boys are gonna shadow you today."

"Are you making sure the judges are nice to me?" Persephone sweetly grinned much to Hades' chagrin.

"Look, they're not exactly saints the whole lot of 'em," Hades admitted with irritation prevalent in his voice. "Mortals always got that gray area that makes 'em interesting, but the judges tend to get snippy about their whole mind-wipe clause I may've skimmed over when they signed up for the gig."

"You did what?!"

"Hey, c'mon, yeah I know I'm not exactly the kind a guy to lead ya down the path of righteousness, but," Hades sighed as he reminisced on the first few years of his reign. "The schlemiels were pretty up there in the hierarchy so I knew they'd pull some strings when they came across their schmoozing buddies when their time was up."

Persephone found herself begrudgingly agreeing to Hades' point. It's true, sentiments like that ran deep, and it wouldn't be fair if someone was given an undeserving sentence just because the judges hated their family or vice versa. It created quite the equitable system and it was created by Hades of all the gods! The irony that a sleazy god could be so fair was an idea that made Persephone's heart feel more at ease. "And here I thought it was just because you wanted 'em to forget they'd have you for a boss for eternity."

Hades snorted. "I think you're forgetting to use the word blessed, Seph. It's not just anyone who works for me."

Pain and Panic were just outside, waiting on the steps of the courthouse as Hades and Persephone made their way towards them. Clipboards and pens in claw, the two were trying their hardest on figuring out how many "J's" were in the word judgment, but their studious expression soon brightened at the sight of Persephone.

"Good morning your salaciousness," Pain exclaimed in an effort to not ignore their boss' presence before turning to Persephone. "And to you your most pulchritudinous!"

"We hope you had a pleasant night last night," Panic wore a large knowing grin, his eyebrows waggling at the shining goddess.

"Yeah, very pleasant," Pain echoed with that same matching grin his brother wore.

Persephone's face scrunched in confusion. They never asked her that on her first night in the Underworld. "I guess?"

Yet before Persephone could ponder the odd statement any longer, Hades hastily dragged her away, a deep-seated frown set into his long face, but just before the two of them disappeared through the giant gates, the god launched a fireball at his clueless imps.

Just hearing the pained screeches from his minions made his frown change into a crooked grin. "On second thought, let me introduce ya. The boys'll join us after they get their mind outta the Styx."

If the exterior had been any indication as to the appearance of the interior it caught Persephone off-guard on how massive the courtroom truly was. Bigger on the inside! There was not much in terms of architecture at first glance, but it was the shades that made up almost every square inch of the room that truly captured Persephone's gaze. She almost felt rude because her and Hades' mere presence made the shades part their path, but she couldn't help muttering a few polite apologies as they passed by them.

The shades themselves were all neatly lined up in a maze of bones that led into three separate queues. A large, reptilian fury with glowing red eyes manned each of these queues, separating the shades based on where they were from to make sure they went to the appropriate judge.

"Y'know I was throwing around the idea of a Fast-pass line a few centuries back, but mortals didn't particularly like the idea of finding out where they'd end up quicker. Something about delaying the inevitable or something…"

Persephone looked up to see past the sea of hundreds of thousands of shades and found her gaze met by the equally bewildered gazes of three shades that sat atop it all, staring down into the crowd as they began to part for the macabre couple. "Why? Does it usually take long to process a soul."

"Didn't you see the stand-by wait times outside the courthouse?"

Persephone stared at him with horror in her eyes. "That's what the blinking sign was for?"

"Uh, yeah," Hades bluntly replied. "I like to let the sentient shades know down to the millisecond how much time they've wasted for not buying into my Fast-pass idea."

Persephone felt an incredulous laugh bubbling out of her. Even if Hades was being spiteful, there was a comical element about all of it that made her wonder how much of his joking was really his vulnerability shining through. "I see someone's a little bitter about that."

"I don't what you're talking about. I am incredibly bitter about it," Hades quipped.

Then without any warning, Persephone felt smoke rise and encircle the both of them. In a wink, they were now at the very front of the court room, but instead of being on the courtroom floor, they were in the high risers of the court, specifically behind the long bench where the three judges were seated.

"Hey, guess who?" Hades announced, causing the judges in front of them to jump.

If it were possible for shades to trip over their nonexistent feet, they somehow managed to do so. Three figures ran out of their shared bench and began to genuflect in a way she had never seen before.

"My lady," their three voices rang together in a surprisingly practiced fashion despite the terror she could feel them radiating. She could not see their faces as they were still bowed, but there was some differences she could see the more she analyzed them.

"May I say Lord Hades, tales of your queen's beauty were sorely understated," Minos praised.

Kore would've been flushed and humble about the compliment, but Persephone's face became like stone. Her lifted eyebrow becoming rigid, hiding her emotions from the judges, except for the subtle look her and Hades shared for a split second. It was uncomfortable being complimented when they weren't even talking to her directly, and Hades looked to be just as annoyed by it as her. Irritation as nasty as a sun burn began to stew in side her, causing her already glowing hair to turn all the brighter; the only outward indication of her discontent.

Hades' fingers subtly slid across the arm she still had wrapped around his own, and it was then she understood. This guy was the one to watch out for.

"Why even her mere presence brightens our dismal courthouse," Rhadamanthus added, taking note of the rising yellow light in the courtroom.

If Persephone wasn't guarding already herself, she would've laughed at the pun. His humor was so unexpected, but it did tell her one thing: Though the shade was following the footsteps of Minos, he took it into a more humorous approach. Almost like he was mocking his counterpart. Was that a sign of some disagreement between the two?

"It is a great honor for you to grace us with your presence, Lady Persephone," the middle shade, and tallest finally lifted his head, revealing the gaunt face of an aged man with a neatly trimmed beard. "My name is Aeacus, and these are my associates, Rhadamanthus," he gestured to the veiled shade to his right. "And Minos."

While their state of dress was almost identical to formal robes of kings and other members of state, Rhadamanthus was much more corpulent compared to the other three, giving him the appearance of a jovial old man. Minos, on the other hand stood out from his associates based on the once proud golden crown that sat atop his curly hair and the lack of visible lines of age in his translucent face.

Releasing her hold on Hades, Persephone stepped forward to properly greet the three judges. "Please, the pleasure is all mine," Persephone exclaimed in an exaggerated version of her dulcet tone. "I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be here, so any wisdom you have to impart to me will be greatly appreciated."

"We are happy to assist in any department from judgment to the records room, or simply being an ear to listen to, my lady," Aeacus respectfully bowed along with his associates.

"Much obliged, but I'll mostly be watching today," Persephone twittered. "See youse guys in action so to speak. So please continue, I really don't want to be a bother."

Aeacus and his two companions solemnly nodded, but before they returned to their bench, they respectfully nodded in Hades' direction. "Never fear, sir, we will uphold our promise."

"See that you do," Hades coldly exclaimed, but warmth returned to his eyes when Persephone turned around to give her farewell. "So why the extra dosage of sweet, sweetness?" Hades shot the goddess a probing look.

Persephone fluttered her eyelashes in a manner quite unlike herself. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she innocently grinned, flashing her sharp canines up at him.

Hades felt his flames flare white for the briefest of seconds. "Hey, I'd like my judges to still be in one piece by the end of the day, 'kay?"

"Oh don't worry, I'll bare my teeth when I start changing certain Elysium entrances laws," she whispered so only Hades could hear. "But that shouldn't be until after I figure out the system."

"Well, if you're gonna try and crack the code and understand Underworld Bureaucracy, ya might wanna take notes." In a puff of smoke, two scrolls materialized in Hades' hand and a vial of ink in his other. "The boys clued me in on your note-taking habits so I didn't want ya to be scrambling around your first day. And hey, they're even me-proof," the god demonstrated by lighting his hand on fire.

"Oh…" Persephone took both items in her hands and pressed the scrolls to her chest. She could barely look him in the eyes, trying to find the right words to express her gratitude. "Thank you," and without thinking, the goddess stuck out her free right hand. "Partner?"

Hades stared at it in confusion for a moment before it dawned on him what the gesture was. "Hey, no problem," the god shook her hand amicably. "Now get to work. You're on Underworld time now, Seph."

"I could say the same to you, Sparky."

---

Not long after Hades left, Pain and Panic miserably made their way towards Persephone and ushered her to where Hades usually lounged when he came around to the courthouse. The area in question was a small little alcove with its own balcony and was situated on the same level where the judges sat, but while their station was in the middle, this alcove was farther along the curve in the half-moon room.

"Here we got your prime time seating, Mrs. Boss," Pain patted Hades' obsidian chair with his dark magenta claw.

"And over here," Panic stood atop the lip of the balcony that extended towards the chair, acting like a wide desk. "Is where Hades does his paperwork, your assiduousness."

"Thanks boys," Persephone set down her new scrolls and ink bottle, arranging her work area before she took a seat. "Oof what is it with Hades and no lumbar support?"

"Oh you know Hades, he'd sacrifice comfort to save a drachma any day," Pain twittered.

Persephone snorted. "Fair point," she unrolled one of the scrolls and set about to date and label the heading with a dark reed pen she summoned forth. Her gaze became thoughtful, taking in the voices of the three judges as they floated towards her.

That was a convenient detail about the courthouse that she hadn't noticed at first. Everything echoed in here from the occasional muffled moaning of the shades, and the slightest shuffling of the wings of the furies as they cleared souls onwards to their indicated lines.

Three lines, one for each judge. "So, why do the furies send certain souls to one judge and not just file them through?"

"Oh that's easy," Panic answered first. "We split the souls on where they come from."

"See Aeacus gets the souls from Europe while Rhadamanthus gets all the souls from Asia and Asia Minor," Pain added.

"Then what does Minos do? Africa?" Persephone asked, her gaze now taking in the stringent figure of the judge she was most wary of.

"Nah, North Africa is more of Osiris' terf," Panic whispered. "All Minos gets is the deciding vote, he's kinda the head of the three."

Persephone's face scrunched in bemusement. "I thought Aeacus played a bigger role? I mean look he's sitting in the middle isn't that supposed to mean something?"

Pain and Panic snickered along with each other. "He has to sit in the middle cuz Minos and Rhadamanthus hate each other," Pain explained with a sordid grin.

"Hate? What? Did the two of them get in a gripe over who got the bigger villa in Elysium?"

"Well, that too," Panic admitted after a slight pause. "I don't know if Hades told you or not, but the judges are all sons of Zeus," the imp twittered with thinly veiled disgust. Persephone wished she was surprised, but at this point she was not.

"Buuuuut, Minos and Rhadamanthus are the only two who share the same ma. Back when they were alive, Minos, who was the king of Crete at the time, voted Rhadamanthus off the island cuz he got too popular," Pain lifted his claws and gestured with air quotes.

"But their minds have been wiped. They can't remember their past even if they wanted to," Persephone skeptically pointed out.

"Some animosities are so strong they transcend lifetimes," Panic cryptically forewarned, his eyes narrowing and becoming distant as if they stared off into the infinite. "Oh and Lethe water, apparently," he added returning to his usual, jittery tone.

Persephone's mouth hung slightly ajar at Panic's monologue, wondering how the teal blue imp could be so much more wise than he let on. "Alrighty then, so, what did Minos do to get to be the head judge?"

Pain and Panic shared hesitant looks, just as puzzled by the question as Persephone. "We don't really know," they both said in unison.

"But I think he got the job cuz he got under Hades' skin," Pain whispered in a secretive, gossipy tone.

Persephone's eyebrows shot up in incredulity. "He put up with that?"

"Oh those were the decades when Hades was understaffed," Panic waved his claw, lost in his own memories. "When he was the only judge, executioner…Y'know he might've done Charon's job for a bit."

Persephone snorted at the image that appeared in her mind of a frustrated Hades shuffling shrieking shades onto a boat. "I guess he didn't like it ferry much."

"Yeah he was taking anybody!" Pain exuberantly exclaimed. "I mean how d'ya think that ol' witch Hecate got hired?"

Persephone felt her mood begin to turn sour at the mention of her godmother. "Who knows," the goddess quietly quipped, returning her attention to the three judges as a woman took the stand. How did the judges even see each shade's actions back in their mortal states? In fact where did the souls even go from here?

From her vantage point, she could see three archways of varying sizes that led to vastly different locations from the shining golden fields of Elysium, the sulfur pits of Tartarus and lastly the largest arch that was a drop-off that led straight into the River Styx. Persephone sat with this information in distaste. So the average souls were just dumped unceremoniously, huh? "Hey, isn't there paperwork attached to this or-"

"Panic, the records," Pain shouted, slapping his palms onto his forehead.

"Aw, man I knew we forgot something," the thin teal imp groaned. "We'll be right back, your accountableness."

Persephone shook her head more from fondness than anything. She honestly suspected something like this would occur, she just didn't know when. They tripped over themselves mostly because of Panic's nature, and with him being the brains, he often cornered himself into indecision to the point where Pain had to step in and make the less informed choice.

"Take your time, I don't mind."

Pain and Panic quickly scattered, leaving Persephone to her own thoughts. Alright, how did this work exactly? Was there a penance stare involved? Maybe if she put all her focus on the soul she would see for herself the soul's history.

Putting down her pen, Persephone decided to try just that. With her eyes locked onto the middle aged woman, Persephone tried to read her, to see if her memories would come rushing at her like waves on a beach.

Unbeknownst to Persephone, her hair began to glow all the brighter, the shining river of light flaring out some tendrils beginning to float in the air. She felt like she was caught in a river's current. The thrashing force of water that pushed onward, so indelicate, so powerful, but in those individual droplets she had to stand firm. If this was water she would be like a stone, resisting the pull of the current. At first she could barely distinguish anything, but the harder she reached, the more she forced herself to focus, she found her mind focusing on one of those drops of water.

Persephone felt cold, no Larissa was cold. Something so biting and cruel, she did not understand the sensation, but soon the feeling of that bitter chill was replaced by the burning of salt water in her throat as Larissa thrashed her hands in her attempt to keep herself afloat. No longer being able to bare the sensation, Persephone pulled herself out of the memory. Once the connection was broken all Persephone could do was gasp and sputter like she was just pulled out of the sea. The goddess began to shiver as if she was soaking wet, but she was still completely bone dry. Out of all the memories she had to see it had to be the woman's death? But why was that? The odds of that even happening were impossible unless of course that was the only memory the shade remembered.

From what Persephone had seen of the souls that were stuck in the River Styx, they were lost, disoriented, but most importantly they were unable to find rest. The transition from life to death always seemed difficult, but it was worse for their mental states trying to make sense of it all. Now what made the transition harder was the abruptness of it all, maybe that's where the souls went mad, Persephone jotted down. Like poor Larissa lost at sea in the middle of a storm.

"You alright there, Persephone?" Pain and Panic had returned without her notice, bringing with them a colossal column of scrolls that was threatening to fall over at the slightest gust of wind.

"Boys!" Persephone swallowed a deep breath of air, forcing her heart to calm down. "I'm fine, really, I was just trying out something."

"Whatever you say, Mrs. Boss," Pain crooned, flittering down with some scrolls from the top of the stack to Persephone.

"Thanks," Persephone reached to grab one such scroll, but paused noticing the squinting looks both of the imps were giving her. "Are youse guys, okay?"

"Oh everything's peachy, your lustrousness," Panic crooned, but Persephone could not ignore something was off.

"Lustrousness? That's a new- oh," Persephone grumbled under her breath, finally taking note of the radiant tendril of hair she was twirling in her hand; a quirk of hers she had been developing.

She knew those squinting and unfocused looks on the imp's faces; that was the very same look she always gave Apollo whenever she saw him. And to think as an earth goddess, she found it hard to put up with his solar aura. Pain and Panic, on the other hand were imps from the underworld, they weren't used to light period! Heck, even the denizens of dead avoided looking at her for the same reason. Maybe that was why none of the shades in the Asphodel Fields dared not to get close when they were out fertilizing the soil.

"Ugh, ugh, how about your most mercifulness? Forgivingness?" Panic supplied, trying to cover up for his error.

"Panic, please don't get your toga in a-" Persephone sighed, realizing the imps didn't wear clothes. "Look, I don't care about the titles. I just didn't realize how bright my hair gets." With a flick of her wrist the veil Melinoe had supplied her with materialized in her hand. She had worn it the night before, and hadn't thought about wearing it again, but maybe the lampade had given it to her for a reason.

"Oh you should see when you get mad," Pain snickered, earning a disgruntled glare from Persephone as she was fitting the veil on, making sure not to cover the crown of her head. "I'll shut up now."

"Attaboy," Persephone cooly grinned. "Now where were we?" She once again reached for the scroll Pain had handed to her.

---

What had transpired in the next several hours had dragged on for what felt like an eternity, but Persephone was more stubborn than she cared to admit and pushed through it. After Pain and Panic had supplied her with the records of each soul the judges were sentencing, things started to make more sense on how Hades went about judging souls.

At first, all she did was follow with each soul's record along with the judge's rulings, writing down notes now and then on their basis for morality like piety to the gods, humility, hospitality, not murdering and/or marrying your mother, but she had yet to encounter a soul headed to Tartarus for some reason. Though to be fair, barely a handful of souls qualified for Elysium, and those few had not even drawn a full-on consensus with the three judges.

Arguing between each other was fairly common from what Persephone noticed, but their toil was not without reason. It was tedious for her to decide whether or not someone qualified for Elysium, finding herself agreeing many times to one judge's points of contentions as to why the soul did not deserve to spend their afterlife in paradise, and even the counter points when they argued for the merit of the soul. She blamed her own forgiving nature for wanting to extend the greeting to everyone, but even she knew deep down not everyone deserved it.

It was in those hours Persephone wished some of the souls were given second chances. Were it not for specific circumstances some souls surely would have made Elysium, but human nature coupled with tragedy and abuses at the hands of their fellow man and the society they were apart of stopped them from achieving blissful paradise. But how was it even possible to give a soul another chance at life? It was the highest, most fundamental law of the Underworld to not allow a soul to return to life. And how would it even work if their body had long since become dust?

Persephone tried to push past these thoughts, but even she couldn't help her gaze wandering to the middle archway that led directly into the River Styx. All that pomp and circumstance just to be dumped like a newborn giraffe. She couldn't count how many times she began to bolster her courage to march to the judges and demand they change the portal to the Asphodel Fields, but every time without fail doubt clouded her mind like an overcast sky.

She didn't need to go around changing things; it was only her first day.

But what if she wasn't bold enough to try again tomorrow, or the day after that and so on? Stuck in a perpetual cycle of being ingrained with the idea that she'd never have the gumption to stand up? She was so used to being walked over, even with mortals she never had the respect like how her mother commanded. The only reason they respected her was because of her mother, and she was practically in that same boat only with Hades because he was her husband. Sure, it was different because the mortals perceived her as only her mother's assistant, but down here she had a recognizable seat of power as their new lady of the dead. Still, she did not want Hades to be the reason they respected her. It was why she kept the innocent flower persona to unbalance the judges should she ever get the courage to start enacting what she sought out to do. Poseidon, her mother, Athena, even Hades had fallen for that song and dance before. Better than seduction and she knew next to nothing about that particular strategy. She just got lucky once.

Oh, why do I keep going in circles? Persephone grumbled inwardly.

Now every time she walked herself into that same corner she tried to bury her thoughts along with her emotions with each new case that made her want to cry both from sympathy and boredom. Though that feeling began to subside the more the names and tragedies refused to relent. It made her feel more centered focusing on something other than her own insecurities. Trudging onward, Persephone dutifully signed each admitted or reprocessed soul into their new/old domain, and reading through each scroll that Pain or Panic handed to her, but not as thoroughly as she did in the first couple hours. So many bland lives began to blend together, situations repeated, consequences just the same. She began to see why Hades found the job so mundane and repetitive, but by the looks of things this was where most of the decisions were being made and required the most paperwork.

As Hades had explained to her last night, one of his main jobs was greeting the dead upon arrival, and from what he described, it was no picnic having to deal with the new shades and their crazed detachment to their new reality. She could see that more pronounced the more she searched the memories of random shades when she had a chance, and after only one exception who later turned out to be an Elysium-bound soul, all their memories pertained to their deaths. How Hades dealt with it she had no idea, but it was no wonder why he could be so patient.

Now, high above Persephone, the stack of scrolls began to dwindle and increase throughout her day, but she had not seen every single scroll in the stack like she thought. So far on five occasions, Pain and Panic encountered a Tartarus-bound soul that Hades had specifically ordered to avoid sentencing in front of Persephone. Each time this occurred, the judges would very subtly nod at the imps, warning them about the wicked soul's record they were about to hand to Persephone.

You see, the judges were taking turns with each other to look ahead a few souls to make sure that none of the shades that stood trial were Tartarus-bound. The Furies certainly helped with that little predicament, pulling the wicked soul aside to the very back of the line just to make sure they kept their promise to Hades. It was an unlikely alliance the two parties shared, but the fear of inciting their boss' anger was strong.

"I think we're almost at the end of your shift," Pain announced to his brother as the two of them sat atop the stack of remaining scrolls which was now below Persephone's eye level as she still sat hunched over her work.

"Wait, really?" Persephone gawked. Her lilac face peeked over the scroll she was reading, revealing the pen she held tightly between her teeth.

"We've been here for like XI hours," Panic noted.

Persephone nearly spat out her pen. "Oh, I didn't realize…" her voice faltered. Gaia's green earth, just when she was beginning to actually consider speaking to the Judges! It was not like she could wait for an intermission to speak to the judges, that would have made it so much easier for her, but when the courthouse was ran by the dead there was never any need for breaks.

"Yeah, don't worry, your anxiousness," Pain tried to sound comforting, taking Persephone's hesitance as distaste. He noticed her hair flickering underneath her veil, what was going on in her head? "Hades'll probably switch you over to filing and compiling reports for statistics of incoming dead tomorrow."

Persephone felt herself suddenly get very hot, an uncomfortable sensation that made her feel all the more nauseous the more she realized what had to be done. "Y'know," the goddess very suddenly stood up. "Your honors," her sharp, phlegmatic voice somehow managed to cut through the bustling courthouse into absolute silence as all eyes turned to her. Even Pain and Panic were just as astonished as the shades by her sudden change in demeanor and subconsciously stood all the straighter like they were being called by their mother.

"Yes, Lady Persephone?" Minos rose first, and languidly bowed to the goddess from across the room with an added flourish of his hand. His fellow judges soon followed suit as their voices began to echo the same request.

"It is to my understanding that judged souls are escorted to their designated lands, correct?" Persephone lured them in with an easy question. It made the speaker sound foolish, but it was a tactic Athena had referred to as baiting when she had taught her about the way Athenian law courts were structured.

"If our lady has not noticed," the former king of Crete started in an admonishing tone, "There are three archways below that send each soul to the lands of Elysium, Tartarus, and the River Styx."

Panic couldn't help it as his gaze shifted downward towards the aforementioned doorway. The drop off that led straight into the River Styx acted more like a diving board than anything as it was sandwiched between Elysium and Tartarus' doorways. His beady eyes merely glanced at it for the slightest of seconds quickly becoming bored of the sight of the uniform current of the underworld's most infamous river, but a motion as quick as an asp drew the angular teal imp's attention back to the central doorway.

Lifting an unsure claw, Panic tapped his brother's shoulder to garner his attention. "Ugh, Pain, you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"A river, your honor?" Persephone made her face become blank as if confused by the answer. "That's odd it doesn't really sound like a land…"

"What?" Pain turned his thick neck over his shoulder to peak at his brother only for the teal imp to thrust his arm out using his bony hand to point down below them. "Oh that's bad," Pain starkly mumbled under his breath.

"I'm afraid your lord husband has not told you much about the ways of the Underworld, my lady. Yes, it is a river we send to those who do not merit Elysium or Tartarus. Rest assured, Lady Persephone, I care not where they go, but only that we send them," the former king of Crete flatly illuminated as if bored by Persephone's intrusion to the flow of his tasks.

"Well then, if you'll allow me to pause your proceedings," y'know like I'm doing right now, Persephone added inwardly thanks to her growing anxiety. "I would like to change where those souls go."

Persephone began to hear a distinct rumbling coming from the judges, who seemed mortified by the idea. She couldn't blame them that much, it was like Minos said they had one job and one job only, they had no idea that she had already planned this out with Hades. Course she hadn't exactly told him she was going to do the merger with the Asphodel Fields today, but better now than having to comb the River for more souls.

"Psst, boys," Persephone whispered down to where she assumed the imps were, but she did so without tearing her attention away from the huddled judges. "How we doing?" When the goddess received no answer her head swiveled to her abandoned chair to find the imps were long gone. "Oh where'd you go?"

Persephone's eyes began to quickly scope the courtroom at first searching any hiding places in her balcony, checking behind Hades' throne and under the work desk. "Boys?" She harshly whispered in her search, poking her head above the ledge of the balcony. With this vantage point, Persephone's gaze was brought to the floor of the courtroom, and there right before her very eyes was Pain and Panic ruthlessly stomping on the transparent fingers of a soul who held on to the edge of the doorway that separated the River Styx and the courthouse. But whoever's fingers were attached to the soul, their large hands were attempting to swat away the blows the imps were delivering upon him.

Rising to her full height, Persephone glanced at the still arguing judges, and decided to investigate the imp's odd behavior. Peering over the courtroom floor, Persephone groaned at the absence of stairs. It wasn't very high up, maybe forty feet, but her tight dress prevented even the simplest physical activities. Now standing on Hades' throne, Persephone flicked her wrist and from the edge of the fence of the balcony, dark ivy began to sprout and wrap around the individual posts until they extended downwards, covering the wall with its black as night foliage. With a second flick, steps began to form from the dark ivy as Persephone descended down to the courtroom floor.

Walking in an even gait, tendrils of her hair began to extend from underneath her veil and reached out, wrapping around the two imp's waist before they even noticed Persephone's approach.

"Boys, stop screaming I'm not Hades," Persephone deadpanned, as the two of them fought against their restraints, twisting and even attempting to bite away her hair. "But what are you doing?!" She snapped in a disapproving manner. "You can't treat a defenseless soul like-"

"You don't understand!"

Whatever lecture Persephone was about to deliver fell short upon her tongue as the soul that had been attempting to escape the river was now pulling himself into the courthouse. An unsettling, psychotic cackle accompanied his rise as the gruesome sound began to fill the the courthouse, reverberating across in such a manner that filled the ears of every shade and Fury in the room no matter how far back they were.

Persephone held back the urge to roll her eyes. She had grown accustomed to the sobs of most souls, but hearing one emit this sort of crazed cacophony made the goddess wonder why she had dismissed the other side of the madness spectrum: delirium. "Alright, I'm going to have to calm him down. You two behave," Persephone released her hold on the imps as the same tendrils reached out to the unusually tall shade.

Pain and Panic plopped onto the dark marble ground and traded uneasy looks. It had been maybe two or three years since they had last seen the tall, dark, and well-dressed vizier from Agrabah.

"Do you think he remembers us?" Panic whispered.

Not one thing had changed about him since, not even his unsettling laugh that began to decrescendo into silence as his eyes scoped out the scene before him. For a brief second, Jafar's grin twitched into a subtle scowl as his gaze flittered over Pain and Panic, but continued on scoping the room until his eyes lastly settled on the shining goddess.

"Yup."

"My lady!" The voices of the three judges rang in unison, shouting at the now bewildered Persephone just as her glowing tendril of hair was mere inches from the shade's forehead.

Jafar raised a surprised eyebrow. "I know the lord of these lands, but I have never acquainted myself with his more lovely half," the former vizier deftly bowed in one fluid motion to the goddess who rigidly took half a step back when he tried to grab her hand and kiss it. "Or are you his successor? I've heard rumors of a change in the hierarchy, but you can fathom why gossip in this realm is quite lacking."

Persephone curiously eyed the soul who stood before her, his long mask-like face with Koh-lined eyes and a large hooked nose almost reminded her of a parrot's beak. His attire varied drastically from the style of Greeks with his long dark robes with tall shoulder pads and the turban that had a gem in the center, but the distinct style did not mean it wasn't high quality, they looked like it belonged on a statesman or a rich merchant. She had never come across a mortal who was taller than her, but here he was, and the way his eyes seemed to scope her made the goddess instantly on edge, but there was something else. His introduction. He was the first shade Persephone had ever encountered, besides the judges (but they were a special case), who had control of themselves and understood exactly what was going on.

He was sentient.

"We implore you to refrain from interacting with that shade," Aeacus begged in a voice that faltered the longer his ancient eyes bore into the peculiarly sentient eyes of the shade who met his gaze in an unflinching manner.

"He shall be dealt with accordingly." Minos added, his lips barely moving in the tight sneer he wore. "Furies, take him away."

The large scaly Furies flapped their bat wings and jumped in between Persephone and Jafar. They hissed down at the minuscule figure in front of them who merely regarded them with a passive look.

Persephone spared a glance up at the judges and felt something amiss. There was a reason why she needed the records of each soul and not the judges. The scrolls kept records, names, a list of every deed, the judges simply knew the heart of a soul just like a mother hen knew which one of her eggs were dead; all it took was a simple look without needing to crack it open.

He was a Tartarus-bound soul, wasn't he? The judges were so on edge it began to dawn on her the unlikely odds of the lack of appearances from a Tartarus-bound soul. Heck, good was harder to find than a wicked soul. But that still begged the question: Why was he floating around in the Styx?

"C'mon, your pulchritudinous," Pain and Panic flew up to Persephone and tugged at her arms to lead her back to the ivy staircase. "Let's leave security with the Furies."

But Persephone ignored their beckoning, instead watching in a sort of morbid fascination as the Furies lunged after the shade, successfully tackling him underneath their gigantic physique. Thinking the situation was dealt with, Persephone begrudgingly began to follow Pain and Panic towards the alcove, but call it instinct, Persephone sidestepped as the three Furies were suddenly flung off and into the sides of the courthouse stands, leaving sizable cracks in the marble from where they collided.

Persephone quickly turned around and found Jafar in the same stance she had seen previously, his arms crossed and his gaze unnervingly amused by the outcome of this.

Pain and Panic began to wheeze, though they weren't the only ones as the judges began to curse under their breaths in a dialect Persephone had not heard in a long time. In fact, she was pretty sure Rhadamanthus was losing it.

Sensing the lack of order and security in the room, the souls gathered in the bone maze began to fall into disorder, tearing away the ropes that kept them in their single-file lines, huddling together as they began to charge towards the three gates.

"Gaia's green earth!" Persephone cursed as the crowds of hundreds of souls began to run towards her. The souls were going to storm their way into Elysium if she didn't do something! On her first day, she caused a riot, gods, the last thing she wanted was to disappoint Hades and not continue her streak of making things go wrong.

"This is bad, bad, bad…" Panic vehemently began to shake his head at each utterance of 'bad'.

"Screw getting tortured, Hades will get us even worse if he walks in on this," Pain cried.

"Then go get him!" Persephone roared, breaking into a sprint towards the Elysium door.

"But what about-"

"Go! I've dealt with souls before!" Persephone shouted, her hands grasping at the edges of the Elysium doorway. That wasn't a total lie, but if she used the River Styx to sweep them away, she'd have to comb through even more souls down the line, and she didn't want to make more problems for herself.

The imps took off in an instant, leaving Persephone to deal with things on her own. Alright, no pressure, but she needed to close the portal now! Ugh, if Hades wasn't a cheapskate, he would've installed doors. But the more Persephone studied the edges of the doorway, one thing quickly became apparent to her. There were scratches in the stones and other painted hieroglyphics that made the arches portals. Magical symbols that explained how souls were transferred over to the different regions of the Underworld, and she knew of only one being in the entire cosmos who knew magic this ancient: Hecate.

"Oh no, no, no," Persephone began to mutter under her breath. Why hadn't she studied Hecate's book more?! Alright, alright, Persephone tried to calm herself down as the voices of the shade resonated all around her as the crowd continued to charge forward. That hieroglyph was the symbol of the soul, and that was safe passage, but what were the scratches in the clay?!

"Do you require some assistance?" Jafar's snake charmer soft voice whispered into her ear, reminding the goddess to his presence.

"No thanks," Persephone hissed her hands gliding over the cuts in the stone in an attempt to decipher their meaning.

"Then I presume you know all about Sumerian cuneiform, hm? Like this one here," his index finger extended out and repeatedly tapped one particular symbol to Persephone's right. "It draws power from the land."

Power, Persephone's eyes lit up. Well, if she struck the power source then there wouldn't be a portal anymore, but if I crush it, Persephone reasoned, she wouldn't be able to replicate it. With this in mind and the arms of the shades reaching out towards her, closing in every second, Persephone thrust her hand against the stone arch, and using all her godly strength yanked out the stone that contained the power symbol and with her other hand, pushed her fist in the empty hole to prevent the collapse of the arch. Almost immediately the image of the idyllic golden fields of Elysium shimmered away to reveal nothing but a solid stone wall.

Persephone couldn't afford to fixate though as transparent hands gripped at her veil, her hair, her arms in their attempt to rush into the now nonexistent portal. "GET BACK!" She roared with a ferocity she didn't even know she could muster.

Her command hung heavy in the air as the souls were slammed to the far side of the room with just her voice, shutting the colossal gates in the process. Their fear was prevalent in all of their faces. Not one dared to make a sound in the presence of the fiery goddess who stood with lilac flames erupting from the tips of her hair that were not hidden behind her long veil. Their silence made the grim atmosphere that much more menacing in the presence of their dread queen.

Persephone released a shaky breath she didn't know she was holding. Seeing the shades cowering before her made the goddess clutch her hand close to her chest in regret. Sure, the crowd was tempered for now, but at what cost? "I'm so sorry," Persephone whispered, shaking her head in dismay at her lack of control.

"In all my years traversing the seven deserts I have never seen such power."

Persephone stiffened at the sound of the shade who helped her identify the correct stone where he stood close to her. "That's gods for you… Thanks, for the help back there," Persephone lamely smiled, still reeling from her show of strength.

"Any aid I can offer to my queen is an honor in itself," the shade once again bowed in that exaggerated manner. "Now allow me to properly introduce myself: I am Jafar of Agrabah," the words rolled off his tongue in an accent she did not recognize.

"Uh… hi, Jafar… I'm Persephone," the goddess waved with the hand that currently wasn't wedged into an archway.

"A fitting name for a queen of the dead," Jafar noted. "But if memory serves me correct, you seemed to disregard my earlier question, so I shall reiterate it if it pleases you, of course."

The goddess scrunched her face at the shade's carefully worded lines. Replacing her hand back with the block of stone, Persephone attempted to figure out what was Jafar's deal? The boys and even the boys were terrified of him, and his show of force with the Furies was unlike anything she had ever seen. Before her eyes, Elysium's portal flickered back to life. "Alright, I don't mind. Shoot." Persephone outwardly shrugged, but on the inside she was on high alert.

"You are too generous, my queen," Jafar cooly smiled. " Now, are you Hades' queen?"

If Persephone had alarm bells going off before, then she was on DEFCON two. For a dead guy he was being awfully nosy. Great, now she had to play the sap to see what he was after. "Well, believe it or not-" I still can't believe it. "-But we just got married! Oh I didn't even know I was getting married until Hades showed up and snatched me from my woods, but that's in the past," Persephone giggled like one of her mother's nymphs after hearing a sultry romance story. "I can't believe he chose me, but here I am trying to learn the ropes of running this place and meeting such animated souls like yourself."

"What a tale," Jafar forced a smile. He had tried to do something along those lines, but the bratty princess that caught his eye was won over by a sniveling street rat, his sworn enemy even in death.

"I still get teary eyed just thinking about it," Persephone dabbed at a fake tear in her eye. "Your honors, I would absolutely adore someone putting the lines back together, and check on the Furies while you're at it. They haven't stirred yet, and I'm getting worried."

Minos coldly looked down upon the scene of the former vizier and his new dread queen. The judges had huddled underneath their shared bench in the commotion that Persephone caused and were only just starting to resurface. "She's a beautiful fool."

"You better make sure Hades doesn't hear you say such things," Rhadamanthus warned his brother.

"Look at you two gossiping like old hens. Our lady commands our assistance," Aeacus reminded his two companions.

Together the three of them levitated down to the courtroom floor and used the scepters given to them by Hades that marked their status as judges to fix up the place by reorganizing the lines.

Meanwhile, Persephone returned her attention to the middle doorway from where Jafar had climbed out of. Now if she could replicate those symbols she could easily transport the souls to the Asphodel Fields instead of just dumping them like flyers at a college campus. By inspecting Tartarus and Elysium's doors they both had the same markings except for one symbol which she guessed was what made their locations differ.

Jafar subtly attempted to slide his hand through the Elysium portal to see for himself the state of his soul, but found to his great discontent a burning sensation erupt in his hand like he just thrust it into a pot of boiling oil. He hid the grimace well while Persephone paid him no mind, her attention entirely absorbed with the strokes of her finger she inlaid to the stones in the archway.

Noticing her hand hovering over the last stone, Jafar decided this could work to his advantage. "Having trouble with the symbols, my lady?"

Persephone made a small noise in her throat. This was a whole new region, never been labeled until now, so what symbol could she possibly put for the Asphodel Fields? Oh wait, duh. "Oh just trying to figure out what symbol I should put for this portal," Persephone pouted, trying to keep up her facade. "I want to put them in a place where they're safe and isolated for the rest of eternity. Have any good ideas?"

"Several in fact," Jafar announced with an unexpected fervor. "But I know just the one," his large hand grabbed hers and made her trace out a palace.

Persephone went along with it despite the grimace that tugged at her face before she quickly hid it, but by touching her, every detail of his past came flooding into her with such a force that she felt like she was there in every moment. She watched how he tried to bamboozle a young thief, the diamond in the rough, fall in love with a spirited princess and how this same boy triumphed over Jafar with his own wit despite all the power the sorcerer possessed. She even heard musical moments enact the tale which spooked her at first, but they were just so catchy!

"Send them here," Jafar's grip on her was removed, and before them an image of a palace she had seen in his memories appeared in the portal. "And I assure you, they will form a true city of the dead. Even your husband, Hades, will be pleased by the conquering of a portion of the mortal plane."

He was a Tartarus-bound soul. If the movie of his life she just watched wasn't evidence enough, this most definitely was.

"You are such a helpful advisor Jafar," Persephone cooly exclaimed. "How can I ever repay you for your help?" If he wasn't such a misogynistic pig this would never have worked.

"Helping you, my lady, has helped me remember my former life, and the joys advising a monarch can bring, but I believe I cannot fully serve you unless you bring me back to life."

Persephone pretended to think about it for a moment. Alright, she had her fun. "That's a wonderful idea!" Persephone smoothed the stone with a swipe of her hands, breaking the connection. An asphodel flower began to grow out of the palm of her hand and pressed it into the stone. The lilac fields of Asphodel soon flickered into life and who else did she see but Melinoe waiting on the other side. "But, I already have an advisor," the goddess reached into the portal and pulled the bone white lampade into the courtroom.

Jafar faltered at the sudden change in Persephone's demeanor and the terrifying appearance of the nymph that just appeared. He saw his father in her, his mother, his traitorous parrot, himself in his djinn form reflected back in her face almost like- "I- I assure you, P-Persephone," the shade began to shudder under the scrutinizing gaze of Melinoe. "I can still help you!"

"Oh is something wrong?" Persephone coyly murmured. "Melinoe tends to have an effect on people, and souls it seems too, though I doubt you have much of one left," her eyes became like piercing Stygian ice.

"Wait, no- no! I have no intention of double-crossing you," Jafar began to writhe. "I can tell you anything you want- sorcery, alchemy-

Persephone felt a chill go up her spine. "I've learned not to trust the words of men like you and that's because I married one."

"Of course, your- your husband!" Jafar shouted with such ferocity even Melinoe jumped. "I know him! He gave me a chance long before you married. With my help you can usurp him-"

Persephone felt taken aback at this information. "You've talked to Hades?"

Jafar began to inflate with hope at Persephone's sudden curiosity. "Talked to him? My dear, I conspired with him."

Persephone flinched at his words. No, he was lying, she would've seen the memory of him with Hades. Unless she could only see his memories when he was alive… But what did it matter? The Hades of the past wasn't her's. Today, the one who was growing to be a better partner was. The god who listened to her, built her up and supported her interests- that was her Hades. The Hades Jafar spoke of was a god who was just as bitter and angry as the one she fished out of the Phlegethon.

"Together we attempted to take down the other's nemesis to prove who had the greater adversary. The street rat was," Jafar hurriedly added. "But Hades was cruel and sent me into the Styx for my failure of disposing of that clumsy hero. Now tell me, Persephone, I'm dying to know," the former vizier began to maniacally laugh, his words continued to spit out ever faster. "Did he ever accomplish what I could not? Did he lose his war for the throne of Olympus? All that effort wasted just to turn around and pluck a bride from the earth. What were you my dear? The consolation prize?" Jafar spat.

All Persephone saw was red as she tore off her veil and her hair swung at the shade, slamming him into the wall. "Shut up!"

Jafar's laughter was now that of pained agony. Were he alive he surely would've broken every bone in his body with the force of that impact, but he was still conscious, his will was intact. The shining goddess couldn't do anything about him, he could spin a tale to Hades and make himself partners with him again. But all his plans of revenge began to dissipate faster than rain in a desert.

"Hey, Melinoe, you mind telling me what this guy's greatest regret is?"

"With pleasure."

---

When Pain and Panic came racing through his office doors, barreling in in the middle of his meeting with the head of his Underworld security, Hades was just about ready to pummel them for leaving Persephone's side- the one job he gave them for the day. Yet the look of absolute terror on their faces made the god shut up and listen to their ridiculous tale. In a quick, rambling summary complete with erratic movements of their hands they somehow managed to explain that a riot was underway in the dullest place in the entirety of the Underworld. In a rare moment of leniency that was more due for Persephone's sake, the lord of the dead spared the rod and snapped himself into the courtroom alcove.

He was ready for anything, ready to quell the souls into subjugation, shield Persephone from attack, anything. "Seph, I'm he-" but the words fell flatly from his mouth as he could not utter a single word.

Persephone's face lit up in pleased astonishment at his sudden appearance down where she stood on the courtroom floor, but it was not her lovely appearance that made the god lose all semblance of himself, nor was it the placated crowd of shades that remained completely stone-still in a sleep-like state. No, all of Hades' words had been stolen by the sight of the black lamp that rested in her thin lilac hands.

"Hey, Hades," The shining goddess shot the god a mischievous, knowing smirk. Her shining, magenta eyes batting up at him in a flirtatious manner. "What took you?"

Panic began to clutch at his chest, and collapsed as all his worries seemed all for naught.

"Uh, sir?" Pain cautiously intoned. "Persephone's kind'a… terrifying."

Hades felt a slow crooked grin begin to etch into every corner of his long, hollow face. "I know."

---

^ Legend has it that Poseidon, so angered by the outcome of the competition between him and Athena, cursed the city making sure they never have enough water. To this very day, Athens still struggles trying to get enough water for her citizens.

* There is an ancient Persian city called Persepolis- it literally translates to City of the Persians. Who knows if there is any correlation between Persians or Persy, but it is a coincidence. B/c as we all know her name means she who brings destruction, and remember that Perseus also means to destroy. I have a small theory that to the Greeks (not trying to throw flames at the Persians but we all watched 300, we know these two groups hated each other) if they considered Persia- or Persians to be destroyers. so maybe it's plausible that they got part of her name or something similar, or maybe I need sleep, who knows, my dear reader, I've been wrong before.

** Hercules and the River Styx, you guys remember the day we all figured out why Hades didn't sing in the movie! But from what I hear, the Public Works production of Hercules gave him the song: It's a Cold Day in Hell, and I still can't find the complete version. All I have is Alan Menken slamming his fingers on the ivory keys as he dramatically belts out a choppy version of the song. It's on the tube, look it up folks!

I've been planning this since Al and Jaz's cameo way back when and if you haven't seen Hercules and the Arabian Nights in the Hercules tv show, do yourself the favor, it's hilarious, and will be discussed further as Hades' arc becomes more developed. Yeah I know I sidelined him in the chap a bit, but this is very much still Persy's story and Jaffy's one of the few beings who clicked with Hades, so it certainly creates more questions for Persy as she tries to solve the puzzle that is Hades.

I probably won't update this until after I post the final chapter to Like Young Gods, and if you haven't read it I highly recommend giving it a gander.

As always please fave, follow, and review!