The next day, all those in the throne room were tense. Jason sat on his throne, his fist attempting to burrow itself into his forehead. Iolaus and Lilith stood with their arms folded across their chests watching Hercules as he paced across the stretch of the red carpet. No one dared attempt to communicate with him as he was in an incredibly foul mood. Ophistus and Balian stood arguing on the left side of the throne.

"He said only Hercules could go," Ophistus told the Captain calmly," Prince Jason swears that if we send the guards we'll be signing her death warrant."

Balian growled and poked the tutor in the chest.

"This is my daughter. If we do our job right, as the guard, we get her out unharmed."

Lilith moved over to the two of them.

"Look, Lucius doesn't want to kill Nerissa. At least...Hercules doesn't think so, right?"

Hercules looked up at them all. He glanced around before rubbing his temples.

"This is somehow tied to a plan to kill me," he told them.

Lilith glared at Iolaus.

"If Iolaus had been her date this never would have happened."

The entire room turned to glare at him. Iolaus scoffed at them and put his hands up.

"Oh, sure! Blame me. Like I was supposed to know this would happen. Typical."

Hercules waved a hand and started his pacing once again.

"No, it's completely my fault. I never told her about Lucius..."

Jason laughed sourly.

"Yeah, because I'm sure a great time in the past month came up to mention your mentally unstable half brother, Hercules. It isn't your fault."

Hercules walked up to the throne and slammed his fists into the arms of the throne. A few cracks appeared in the rock.

"Hey!" Jason protested.

"Not my fault? He wants me, Jason! You don't seem to understand where this can go. Why would he kidnap her? He thinks that the two of us are romantically involved. If you were some kind of psycho like Lucius, what might you do to the girl of the person you are trying to destroy? He wants me to get mad. There is no winning this situation except that I go alone and get her back."

Balian walked up to Hercules and stared him down.

"Forgive me if I don't trust the young man who got her into this mess."

The two continued to stare at each other until Jason got up with a sigh and separated them. Looking between the two of them he sighed.

"I'm going to let Hercules go on this one. We'll set up the guards a safe distance away but under no circumstances will anyone but Hercules go in unless there is reasonable belief that someone has been killed. Understood?"

Neither male said anything in reply, but it was obvious that they accepted this. Hercules surveyed Balian quickly with his eyes. As he turned to exit the room, he addressed Balian.

"If you acted this concerned in front of Nerissa, there could be more understanding between the two of you. But know this. If both she and I get away from Lucius alive, it is because your daughter is a strong warrior who I am honored to fight beside."

He didn't even bother looking back to see what reaction his words might have had on the Captain of the Guard.

Not so far away, Nerissa woke up with her body feeling like lead. Lifting her head, she prayed she was only having a horrible dream. She was in a cave with a lit fire in the middle of it. There was a metal cage off to her right and a wooden scaffolding stretching across that side of the cave. The left side had a rack of weapons from swords, to spears, to axes. Shaking her hands, she found her hands tied around a wooden pole. Her legs were also bound at the ankles.

"Oh, so glad you could join me here in reality."

Nerissa's head snapped in the direction of the voice. She was not pleased to see the man who had kidnapped her.

"Who in Hades are you?"

The man gave her a humoring smile.

"I'm slightly hurt that Hercules never mentioned me. I'm his half brother, Lucius. The rightful and greatest son of Zeus. Something I will be proving soon..."

Groaning, the girl stared at him.

"Please tell me this is a joke. You're going to kill me to bother Hercules? That is a bit of an infantile plan, don't you think?"

He laughed at her and moved over to where she was tied. Kneeling to her level, as she was sitting on the ground, he grabbed her chin and leaned close to her.

"How cute. You think you know my plan. No, dear, I will kill Hercules after making him suffer. See, just trying to kill him didn't work out. Nor did going after Jason or his mother. But this...this will be...very satisfying for me."

Nerissa's eyes narrowed as she pulled her face out of his grasp.

"How do you gather that?"

Lucius stood up and walked away from her and over to the cage.

"Because I am going to have him watch helplessly while his rather attractive girlfriend, you, suffer."

Her eyes flicked to the rack of weapons and back to Lucius. He noticed her expression before laughing long and loud. The girl scowled at his laughter as it irritated her.

"Oh, you think-? Haha!"

Nerissa could only raise an eyebrow as the man practically fell to the ground laughing for no good reason. Once he stopped, he moved back over to her.

"Oh, no. Not with those silly things. No. Those just give me options when it comes to killing Hercules. For you...I will make Hercules suffer by forcing him to watch while I have my way with you. Lucky for me...you're radiant."

He reached out to touch her face, but she snapped at his fingers like an angry animal. This only seemed to amuse him.

"Charming. You really are. Now excuse me while I wait for our honored guest to arrive."

Nerissa glared at him until he left the cave. Once he was gone she tried to get out of the ropes, but she only succeeded in getting rope burn. She refused to stop trying, though. She pleaded to any gods listening that her and Hercules would get out of this situation. She knew he would come alone. He cared too much about his friends to risk bringing others.

After an hour, she managed to make her right-hand small enough to almost squeeze through the rope. She just needed more time. But apparently, that wasn't going to happen. The sound of Lucius laughing had pulled her into consciousness. Looking up, she saw her captor dragging his half brother into the cave.

"Hercules?" she called out, questioningly.

Her eyes met his and she suddenly felt afraid. His lips were pressed together and his eyes had a steely coldness to them. He had allowed himself to be taken in, something Lucius had counted on. Nerissa's courage wavered, seeing her friend being tossed into the metal cage. Taking a deep breath, the girl started struggling with her wrist restraints before addressing Hercules.

"You shouldn't have come alone."

Lucius grinned gleefully and looked at his brother.

"She's right. But now you'll get to watch the fun."

Hercules glared at the man, his hands wrapping around two bars of the cage. He looked at Nerissa.

"Did he hurt you?"

She shook her head, looking down at her bound feet. She heard him move around the cage toward Lucius.

"Let her go now. I came alone like you asked. This is between me and you, Lucius."

Nerissa took a deep breath as Lucius came over to her. Grabbing her arm, he pulled her to a standing position before looking back over at Hercules.

"I'll let her go...when I'm finished with her."

"What do you mean by that?" Hercules asked, angrily," If you do anything to her-"

"What can you do from that cage?" his brother stated dismissively.

Grabbing Nerissa's face, Lucius pressed his lips to hers. The girl made an angry noise deep in throat. This caused him to grip her face even harder, making her let out a cry of pain. He took the opportunity to shove his tongue into her mouth. Hercules could only watch disgusted and horrified. Lucius suddenly snapped his head away from Nerissa.

"Stupid little-" he cursed.

Nerissa spit out as much saliva in her mouth as she could. It was all she could do to keep from throwing up. Hercules snickered from his cage.

"Didn't know she bites, did you?" he taunted.

Nerissa glared down at the evil male.

"I hope I drew blood."

Lucius snarled before clamping his hand around Nerissa's throat. She struggled against her restraints as she was lifted inches off the ground. In desperation, she kicked with her bound legs. She kicked her assailant hard enough in the thigh that he let her go. She crashed to the ground with a painful thud. Ignoring the pain in her side, she sucked in as much air as her lungs would take. Lucius stumbled away toward the rack of weapons. Grabbing a sword, he advanced on her once again. Nerissa's eyes widened, things not going as she had hoped.

"Hercules," she choked, fear tightening her throat," Help, please!"

Her friend pulled at the cage bars urgently. Lucius paid his brother no mind as he advanced on the girl. Nerissa yelped as Lucius swung the sword, cutting the ropes tying her legs. She tried to scramble away across the ground, but he lunged forward and held her down, his sword lying off to the side. Finally pulling her hands free of the bindings she had loosened, she tried to wrestle him away from her, but she was not a very good hand-to-hand fighter and she was much weaker. Lucius easily pinned her hands together and held them down with his left hand. Nerissa screamed angrily as he ripped her dress.

"That makes it easier," he growled, mostly to himself.

"No! Let go of me!"

Nerissa was astounded as he suddenly did let go of her. It took her a moment to figure out that Hercules had gotten the cage bars wide enough open for him to slip out and that it was him who had grabbed Lucius and flung him across the cave. Looking down at her, he took her hand and pulled her to her feet.

"You have to get out of here," he told her quickly," Balian and half of the guards from Corinth are waiting within a few yards from here."

Nerissa shook her head.

"I can't just leave you he-"

"Nerissa, get out of here."

She was taken aback by the rage he was holding back. Choosing not to upset him more, she ran to the cave entrance. Looking back, she found the two males fighting the way only demigods could. They were all over the place, from the scaffolding down to the opposite side of the cave. Turning around again, Nerissa stopped just outside the cave and whistled loudly. She was glad to see that her father got the hint as he and his guards came running out of the trees. Moving back into the cave, the boys did not notice as she slipped around the edge of the cave to the weapon rack. Pulling a sword carefully off its resting place, she waited for the boys to move back to the cave floor. She was not happy to see Hercules slammed into the ground with Lucius's hand around his throat. Running over, she kicked the psychopath's elbow inwards, breaking bones with a disturbing crack. Lucius screamed, releasing his brother.

"I've had enough of you strangling people," Nerissa said, darkly.

Kicking him over, she put a sword to his throat as Hercules got off the ground. Grabbing his brother, he painfully put the man's hands behind his back as Balian and his guards reached the cave. They waited as Nerissa walked up to Lucius and grabbed his face, making him look into her eyes.

"You will cause no more trouble and go peacefully to the Corinthian jail or else I'll ask a god to make your life miserable."

Lucius sniffed indignantly.

"Oh, really?"

"Really. Don't mess with a daughter of Aphrodite...trust me."

The male's face became confused, but he said nothing in response. Nerissa turned to her father and nodded. He motioned two guards to handcuff and take Lucius away. The rest of the guards filed out with Lucius while Balian went over to Nerissa and Hercules.

"You both are uninjured?" he asked.

Hercules rolled his eyes as Nerissa only nodded.

"Yes, Sir. Hercules did not give Lucius time to hurt me."

The Captain of the guard nodded to Hercules before moving toward the cave entrance.

"Well, let us get back to Corinth before a war breaks out and I'm not there."

As he left, Hercules sighed and looked at Nerissa.

"Why can't he just tell you that he is happy you are okay and that he was worried sick about you? He was ready to charge in here and-"

He stopped as Nerissa put a hand on his arm. She looked up at him pleadingly.

"Can we go?"

Unable to answer with words, he only nodded. There was something in her eyes that he couldn't figure out. Putting an arm around her shoulder, he led her out of the cave. They were silent the entire way back to Corinth.