A/N: Underworld AU
Chapter 5: Son of Hades Part I
Marco, son of Hades, lord of the underworld, was bored. His father had been dragged along on an, ugh, family bonding experience with his brothers Zeus and Poseidon for a week, leaving Marco with the oh so important and oh so tedious task of judging the souls of the dead. Each mortal soul who crossed the River Styx was to step through a wall of fire before the obsidian throne. If the fire consumed them, they were unworthy souls and it would be Marco's task to devise a punishment they would suffer in Tartarus for all eternity. If the fire failed to consume them and instead wrapped the soul in an aura, they were virtuous and would be worthy to live out their eternity on the isles of the blessed. If the fire neither consumed nor enveloped them, they were sent to the Fields of Asphodel where they would do… well admittedly nothing. The majority of mortals ended up here, not having done enough good to be rewarded but also not evil enough to deserve eternal torture. Along with devising punishments, the occupant of the obsidian throne could look at the record of a mortal's life and decide to overrule the will of the fire. His father had been known to do so on occasion, either on his own whim or at the request of one of the other Olympians. Many demigod heroes had been spared harsher fates because their godly parent had interceded with Hades on their behalf. His father was many things, including greedy. As lord of all that lay beneath the ground, Hades coveted gold and jewels and other precious minerals. A proper gift was always helpful in greasing the wheels of the afterlife.
To his credit, Marco was slightly more principled than that. But he was only 1,500, pretty much a teenager, and so was far more easily distracted. Still, he had processed about 6,237,426 souls before lunch today. Not a bad pace for a rookie. Marco was in the middle of reviewing the profile of the mortal standing in front of him, some guy called Daedalus and how building a labyrinth should count towards paradise because it counted as a public work, when a call of "Hey Marco!" tore him from his work. He was pleasantly surprised to see his longtime friend Tom Lucitor walk into the room. With purple skin, three eyes, and horns, Tom was one of the demons who lived in Tartarus torturing mortal souls. His father Dave had been one of Hades' top lieutenants and so Tom and Marco had been around each other from an early age. While Marco didn't really get a kick out of pain and suffering the way Tom seemed to relish in it, the two boys managed to get along well which Marco figured was a good thing since Tom would technically be his coworker/subordinate for the next 5,000 years or so until he qualified for his pension. Plus, he was fun to race hellfire chariots around the underworld with. You had to admire a demon with moves.
Marco reached out and gave a fist bump to his friend. "Hey Tom. How're things down in the pit?"
"Pretty good. Oh man you should've seen this new guy yesterday. He was a tanner before he died so we decided to flay his skin into boots! Every day it'll grow back and we'll make something new out of them. Look I'm wearing them now." Tom gestured down to his flesh colored shoes.
"Oh Zeus Tom c'mon don't show me that!" Marco gagged. "You know I hate seeing that stuff."
Tom chuckled and lounged on the arm of the throne, "Gotta practice my torturing everywhere Marco, even on you. Yep! I'd say I'm just about the best destroyer of mortal wills in all the underworld."
"Oh is that a fact dear?" A dry voice came up from behind both boys, causing them to nearly jump out of their skin.
Tom was the first to recover. "Janna honey! No I didn't mean…What I was trying to say was… uhhh Marco, little help here with the girlfriend would be appreciated. Buddy?" Marco didn't say anything however. Standing before them was Janna, another torturer in Tartarus, one of his father's furies. Unlike Tom, Janna actually looked remarkably human, if you discounted the black vulture wings protruding from her back and talons where her hands were supposed to be. She and Tom had been married for about 200 years or so and to hear Tom tell the story, he had practically been bullied into it. Marco could believe that, Janna terrified him. She had the uncanny ability to sneak up on just about any being, mortal or divine, unexpected. She was also an absolute master at psychological torture. Rumor had it a particularly bad centaur had been sent down to the pit a few decades back and had remained obstinate and crass even in the face of eternal torture. Janna had been called in and had discovered that the offending creature was particularly vain regarding the horse part of its body. Janna's solution had been to decapitate the thing, switch its human head into a horse's, and stick a horn on top just because! Whatever the creature's name had once been, it was now simply referred to as pony head. Supposedly the creature was still obnoxious so Janna sometimes used it as a torture device on particularly evil mortals. So, despite the fact that she technically served him, Marco wasn't about to go risking his neck for Tom. There were simply some prices too high even for bros.
Marco was broken out of his musings by Janna roughly grabbing Tom by the scruff of his neck and dragging him out of the room. "Why don't we go home and I can show you just how good at breaking and torturing I am?" Janna suggested. Tom immediately began to sweat ashes.
"Oh gee dear you know I'd normally just love~ that but Marco actually really needs help with today's cases and we were going to go hellhound chasing after? Isn't that right Marco?"
Janna was having none of it. "Marco looks like he's handling himself just fine. Isn't that right Lord Diaz?" Janna directed her piercing gaze at him now.
"Oh yeah! Absolutely fine! Totally good here! Don't need Tom at all and we definitely didn't have any plans later, he must be confused!"
Janna gave a small smirk. "Well, glad that's all settled. Now then back to the pit for us." She gave the smallest dip of her head to Marco, he was still the prince of the underworld after all, before exiting the throne room. The last sounds echoing out before the doors closed were Tom's already frantic wails of apology and screams of fear. Marco shook his head tiredly, guess his plans to go hellhound chasing with Tom really would need to be rescheduled. Oh well, back to work for him then. "Alright. Next shade please step through the fire of judgement, soul at the ready!" Marco grabbed the file off the top of his stack, casually thumbing through it and talking to himself out loud. "Let's see here. Star Butterfly, demigod child of Eclipsa, goddess of magic and River, king of the island of Mewni. Bribe…I mean generous donation to the Hades charitable fund, none. Age at time of death…" Marco trailed off for a moment. "16 years." Marco sighed deeply, he hated dealing with cases like this. The mortal world was a harsh place and many humans died young, even princesses. Fortunately, dying so young meant there was little chance of being sinful enough to be damned. Unfortunately, that also meant there was likely zero chance of paradise either. This fragile thing who had been alive barely more than a hundredth of Marco's life would likely be spending all eternity starting out at fields of emptiness. Marco was idly wondering why her mother hadn't simply paid for a better afterlife for her daughter when Star's soul went through the fire. To Marco's complete shock, the soul was slowly being consumed. "Damnation?!" He thought to himself. "This princess has barely had any time to live, what could she have possibly done to deserve this?" Marco began to frantically flip through Star's file trying to figure out what in Erebus was going on here.
"Ok let's see here. Blond hair and blue eyes, distinct heart marks on cheeks marking her as a child of Eclipsa, Wild Pegasus tamer, practiced vocalist, slayer of at least six giants and two chimeras. Gives charitably to the poor…that's it?! That can't be it!" By now Star's soul was mostly consumed, in a few seconds her shade would return to consciousness to be greeted by Tom or Janna or some other terrifying creature ready to torture her for eternity. Marco had only one chance to stop this. A deep blue aura gathered around his hand and he shouted "By right of the obsidian throne I suspend this soul's judgement until further notice!" Just like that, the young princesses' soul returned to its normal ethereal glow and reentered Star's body. With a gasp, Star looked around frightened.
"Where am I? What's going on here? Who are you?! Last thing I remember I was walking along the cliffs at the edge of Mewni and then nothing." She pointed a finger at Marco and tried to put on a royal tone even as she tried, and failed, to hide her trembling. "I am the princess Star Butterfly and I command you return my to the palace on Mewni at once!"
Seeing just how afraid the girl was, Marco bit back the retort in his throat, instead holding up his hands in a conciliatory gesture. "Look, I know this is a lot for you to take in but if you just calm down I can explain." Star paused for a moment and nodded at him. "Alright, good. So to try and answer your questions in order, you're in the underworld, your soul was about to be consumed by the fire of judgement which would've sentenced you to an eternity of torture but I've stopped that, at least for the moment. As for me, name's Marco, son of Hades, heir to the obsidian throne and future lord of the dead, yadda, yadda, titles, titles, you were a princess you should know how this goes."
"I'm…dead?" Star managed to get out, staring at her slightly translucent hand.
"Yep." Marco said matter of factly. "And like I said. This thing here," he slapped the scroll containing all of Star's deeds in life and information about her, "doesn't have anything in it about why you should be in Tartarus so would you mind telling me what you think you've done that might…" Marco trailed off, seeing that the young princess clearly wasn't paying attention to him. "Hey, you wake up there?"
Star continued to stare off into space. "I'm dead. I'm really dead."
"Yeah. Like I said, not a ton of time here so if you could just point me in the right direction here I can get on with my day." Marco didn't mean to come off as rude but he'd seen his share of mortal souls with unhappy endings and it frankly didn't phase him. Death was a natural part of the mortal world; he couldn't see why they would get so worked up over it. So when Star suddenly broke down into body wracking sobs and sank to the ground, Marco didn't know how to react. "Ummm… there there. It'll be alright." He said still standing a few feet away. Unsurprisingly this didn't work at all. Sighing, Marco went over to sit on the ground next to the princess and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Look. I know this must be a lot to take in. But I promise the underworld really isn't so bad of a place. Well most of it isn't anyway. What if I show you around a bit? We can talk about your mortal life and try and figure out what's going on here before the spell wears off." Marco had no idea why he was giving this girl so much of his attention and time. She was just another mortal after all. But something about her intrigued him and he was determined to get to the bottom of this.
Star meanwhile was slowly getting her breathing under control, comforted by the teenage god next to her. "Yeah…I think I would like that and… wait. What was that last bit about a spell?"
Marco awkwardly ran his hand through his hair. "Sooooo, the thing is anyone occupying the throne over there can suspend the judgement of a soul for further review. Dad can hold off on someone for weeks if he has to, but even with him out of the underworld I only have a fraction of his power so we've got maybe a little under 14 hours or so until it wears off."
"And what happens then?"
"Either I provide enough evidence from the throne that changes where the fire wanted to send your soul, or the fire's original decision is affirmed and you get sent to the pit of Tartarus for all eternity to be tortured in a manner befitting whatever crime sent you down there. So, you know, no pressure. That's why I keep asking if you can tell me whatever it is you did that was apparently so terrible."
Star looked downcast. "But…But I couldn't tell you. I don't remember doing anything bad. I've been good my whole life! Honest!"
Marco sighed, "Yeah, I was worried you were going to say that. Alright then, here's what's going to happen. For the next 13 hours I'm going to show you around the underworld and you are going to tell me about every last thing you can recall about your life. And together, maybe we can figure out how to fix this." He stood up and offered her his hand. "Deal?"
Star looked up at the young god and despite her situation felt a smile appear on her face. Grabbing his hand, she allowed him to pull her to her feet. "Deal."
Over the next few hours, Marco and Star traveled throughout the realm of Hades and talked. Marco showed Star the gladiatorial arena (which Star wanted to immediately join) and the flaming horse chariot arena (which Star wanted to join even more). They went to visit Cerberus at the mouth of the River Styx with Star remarking he was "such a cute puppy" and gave the giant three headed beast a belly rub while Marco muttered under his breath about what a lousy guard dog he was. Star meanwhile told Marco about her life growing up as a demigod and the princess of Mewni. She spoke of her two closest friends/handmaidens Jackie and Kelly, her father, King River, who had encouraged his little girl from a young age to race and hunt and fight like a true warrior! Of the heroes who had come seeking her hand whom she had turned away (evidently she had a crush on some musician named Oskar) and of her home. She talked endlessly about Mewni's vast fields of corn, a crop Marco had never heard of but evidently was served with practically every dish on the island, and about the forests she run in as a girl and the monsters she had fought. To Marco, who had lived his entire life in the underworld, it all sounded very strange. Nice, but strange. Still, by the time they reached the Fields of Asphodel, nothing that Star had told him sounded like anything bad. As they walked into the fields and among the dead, he tried a different track.
"And your mother?" He inquired? "Do you know her? Have you ever met her?"
Star's earlier jubilance at describing Mewni faded. "I…I've only met her once really. She came to my 5th birthday and conjured me a wreath of blue roses. I absolutely loved them, until the next day when father told me that in Mewni culture a crown of blue roses was to be placed only on the heads of the departed. I could never understand why she did that. I think I may have seen her one other time but…" She stopped walking suddenly and placed a hand on her head as if experiencing tremendous pain. "I'm sorry, my memory feels all fuzzy."
Marco nodded in understanding. "It's alright, a lot of mortals lose at least some of their memories when they come down here."
"Did you ever meet her?"
"Who?"
"My…My mother."
"Oh." Marco paused in his stroll as Star stood next to him with a mix of hope and trepidation in her crystal blue eyes. "No. sorry I haven't. Not many gods come down here. They don't like being around death. It reminds them of the fact that there are some things that can kill even immortals. I think they fear the concept of fading from this world the way mortals do, no matter how many thousands of years they live."
Star thought about that for a minute. "So how old are you anyway?"
"About 1,500 or so."
"WHAT?! But you look like you're my age!"
"Yeah, gods age much slower that mortals. My dad is over 10,000 but he probably wouldn't look much older than your dad from the way you've described him."
"By Zeus, I can't even imagine what 10,000 years ago would be like."
"If the stories my dad told me are anything to go bye, not good, especially not for mortals."
Star continued to look around the plain. "And how long have all these guys been hanging around?"
Marco shrugged nonchalantly, "Not sure. Feel free to ask them though."
"Wait they can talk?! Then why haven't they been interacting with us this whole time? Or even with each other?" Star exclaimed.
Marco sighed, "That's part of the nature of the Fields. It's not paradise or damnation, it's just nothingness. Some of these shades have been here for centuries with nothing to do but remember and wander an empty plain. After a while I guess talking just seems like a waste. After all, what could be new to talk about?"
Star got a determined look on her face and placed her hands on her hips. "Well that's just wrong! If they didn't do anything bad enough to be punished they shouldn't have to sit isolated for all eternity." With that she walked up to the nearest shade, arm outstretched and with a smile declared "Hi! I'm Star Butterfly from Mewni! Nice to meet you. What's your name?" The shade seemed slow to react at first, as if the old man was trying to remember how to talk. He slowly got out "My….My name is Arjax. I was a smith of Crete." Tears sprung up unbidden into his eyes. "It's been so long since I've spoken to another soul."
Star gave Arjax a small smile. "Tell me about your life Arjax, I want to hear all about it." It went on like this for some time and Marco couldn't believe it. Everywhere Star went she would walk up to random shades and strike up conversations with them, asking about their lives, their families, no topic was left untouched. Sometimes she would pull a random shade along with them for a little while before introducing them to yet another undead spirit and get the two of them talking. Before long there was more noise and chatter in Asphodel than Marco had ever heard. Star for her part looked the happiest he'd seen since he'd met her. A satisfied grin on her face and arms crossed over her chest, she looked out in contentment.
"How?" Marco asked in awe. "How did you do all this?"
Star turned to him. "We mortals don't just live on food and air. We crave relationships with one another, empathy, and stories. Someone just had to remind them what it meant to be alive is all."
Marco was silent for a good long moment. "I've made a decision." He declared.
Star turned to look at him, "A decision?"
"We still don't know why the fire tried to banish you to Tartarus, but I've seen enough at this point to know that no one as kind and good-natured as you could possibly deserve an eternity of torture. So we're going back to the throne room and I'm pleading your case from the obsidian throne."
"For the Fields of Asphodel?"
"No," Marco turned to look her in the eye, warm brown meeting sky blue, "for the isles of the blessed. You're a good person princess Butterfly, I think someone like you would fit right in in eternal paradise."
Star's eyes grew wide and sparkled and a heavy blush lit up her face. "Marco, you… you really mean it?" Marco nodded. "HUUGGSSSSSS!" Star launched herself at the young death god, wrapping her arms around him and squealing. Marco was at this point thoroughly embarrassed, coughing into his hand and lightly patting Star's back. Physical contact was so not his strong suit.
"Umm Star, could you maybe let go now?"
"Huh, oh right. Sorry Marco." Star released him. But kept her grin on, practically bouncing with energy. It was so infectious even Marco couldn't help but return the grin.
"Alright, we need to hurry back to the palace. I'm not sure how much time we have left but I can't imagine it's much." At that moment, Marco's hand started to glow blue and to his horror a small blue ball of light floated out of Star's chest, an orange flame slowly growing around it, consuming it.
"No! No no no no no!" Marco shouted.
Star was suddenly fearful. "Marco, what's going on?"
"The spell is wearing off, we have to get back and plead your case now before it's too late!" He made to grab Star's hand and pull her back towards the palace in the distance but before he made it more than a few steps she became intangible. Marco turned around. "Star?" Said princess was standing there, a sad smile on her face and tears running down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry it didn't work Marco. But thank you for believing in me. You're a good person. I never thought I'd treasure the day I died, but you made it worth remembering. Give Cerberus another belly rub for me okay?"
"No! Star hang on, I can fix this!" Marco lunged for her rapidly fading spirit, but his hands found only air. She was gone. "NOOOOOOOOOO!" Marco's cry was full of anguish and the ground cracked and roiled beneath him as the underworld responded to its prince's power. After a moment, a look of determination set in on Marco's face, eyes locked to the South where the darkness of the underworld seemed to get even deeper; Tartarus. Marco didn't know how, but he WOULD get Star's soul out of there. He was the son of Hades and if there was any being out there mortal or divine who could get her back, it was him. "Hang on Star, I'm coming."
Star awoke in pure darkness, disoriented. The sound of gentle breathing her only indication of anything? "Marco? Is that you? Are you there?" A flame suddenly illuminated the area in front of Star, but it wasn't Marco standing before her. Instead it was another teenage looking girl with raven black hair, wearing a pure black toga, and black wings protruding from her back.
"Hello little butterfly," she practically cooed. Welcome to my playground.
A/N: Alright so this is the longest story I've written so far and as you can tell from the title, there will absolutely be a Part II for this one. I had originally planned to do the whole story in one go but I didn't want to make it too long and have it get away from me even though I don't like writing cliffhangers. I'm curious about what you think will happen next. How did Star die? Can Marco rescue her from hell? Did you like my mini introduction of JanTom? Please comment and let me know and thank you everyone who has taken the time to favorite, follow, review, or even just read these stories. It really is the fuel that powers my writing. Part II probably won't be the immediate follow-up here, I think I'll switch over to something light-hearted first but keep an eye out! Until next time.