5

THE jutting wrestling branches of the twisted trees above her head seemed to dance high above her, but Meg felt as if the trees themselves had souls and were bending down to catch her hair. She tried to breathe in the cool evening air and ignored the pain on her side as her cracked rib hurt. She listened intently for any sounds of her master as she weighed the pros and cons of turning back now. There was a part of her that wanted nothing more than to march towards Hercules' camp and beg Wonder Boy and Shorty the Goat to take her with them, no matter what. The deeper she went into the forest, Hades was nowhere in sight and Meg was sorely tempted to take her chance and return to Hercules. But her rational mind won out in the end.

Her brain was practically screaming at her that she had no idea where she was, she was in the middle of some gods-forsaken forest, likely miles from any civilization whatsoever. It was beginning to get cold, and she did not even have a cloak. Still, Meg forced herself not to turn back and kept walking forward, keeping her head held high and proud. A cold breeze ripped through the trees and Meg shivered, now truly hoping that Hades would come to her. She did not have to wait long as the sound of a crunching twig underfoot caused her to freeze in her tracks and she stifled the gasp that threatened to give away her surprise.

Alarmed, she turned around to face Hades, only to find the person who had come across her alone and lost in the woods was the furthest thing from the God the Underworld itself. Quite the opposite, as it so happened, she mused.

"Megara?" chirped a woman's voice.

Meg stared as she turned her head to find one of the most celestial-like creatures she had ever seen before, staring at her, leaning against a gnarled old tree trunk near the exit to the woods. The stranger who had come across her in the forest now had lovely blonde hair that curled in ringlets down past her shoulders, and a small childish face, beautiful in a way, and yet, there was something of her that Meg could not quite put her finger on but it made her uneasy. As if she were spying on her.

Her pink dress was of a similar fashion to the purple dress Meg currently wore, and yet Meg knew that the young woman before her was not a mortal, for her pale pink skin shimmered in the dark. Meg offered no immediate reply, trying to gauge who or what this creature was. She wondered if she was a goddess from Mount Olympus, come to spy on her or perhaps scold her, more likely, for aligning herself with the likes of Hades, albeit reluctantly.

Meg grimaced as the creature's bright sky-blue eyes which almost reminded her of Wonder Boy's eyes made a quick scan of her form, and her mouth pinched and turned down into a slight frown of concern.

She looked up and Meg tried to smile at this creature, but she could only manage a grimace. She wondered what was going through this goddess's mind as they looked at one another.

Probably what a disappointment to the mortal race I am, Meg thought bitterly to herself.

Once again cursing her panic, she tried to mold her features into a nervous smile, though she could feel her cheeks' reluctance to be molded so falsely as she gaped at her.

Meg nervously faced her, keeping her head inclined and her fingers clasped.

"I-I'm very sorry, I-I must have missed your name…?" Meg questioned.

The goddess's face flushed a deeper shade of maroon pink, and with a quick smile, she looked down.

"Persephone. I'm…Hades' wife. He sent me to fetch you to bring you back," she mumbled, sounding shy.

Meg's lips parted slightly in astonishment but kept her voice to herself. She managed to nod instead.

"Oh, I...I see..." Meg murmured, it was all she could think of to say. A heavy and uncomfortable silence fell between the goddess and the young mortal woman eternally bound to her and her husband, that stretched past the point of comfort. Meg grimaced as she swore she could feel the tension in the air, praying to the gods that this Persephone would view her favorably and that perhaps she might make a friend in this otherwise abysmal situation.

Gods only knew she could use someone on her side, for once. Meg breathed out a steadying breath and lifted her gaze to Hades' wife's eyes. Her eyes, bright sky blue like that of a fresh rainfall in the summer, were glinting, and Meg could detect no hint of malice or deceit in them, which relieved her. She let out a little breath she did not realize she had been holding and felt the tension in her shoulders dissipate completely. She did not know how or why, but her gut intuition was telling her that she could trust this goddess. Hades' wife or not, she could sense no ill intentions. Meg took a cautious step forward.

Meg clicked her tongue, breaking the awkward pause between them as she racked her brain for how best to divulge the truth to Hades' wife that she had failed in her first assignment given to her by her husband.

"I...I'm afraid I don't have very good news," she murmured, her voice sounding as small as a child and Meg found herself swallowing as she swore she saw a tightening of Persephone's jaw.

But what was that look? Hatred? Loathing. Jealousy?

Whatever it was, Meg was quick to decide that she did not like it. She nervously continued.

"The River Guardian won't be joining your husband's…cause. There was…an incident, i-it wasn't my fault, someone, ah, intervened," Meg blurted out and held her breath as she anxiously awaited Hades' wife's reaction, praying that it would be favorable, that she'd listen to her and hear out her reason.

But Persephone merely shook her head and smiled.

"I know. The Sisters of Fate have already foreseen it. I asked to come to fetch you. They told me as opposed to my husband. Hades can be quite the charmer…on the right moods, but my love does have a nasty temper, I'm afraid." Persephone sighed and shook her head in disappointment as she took a blonde curl in between her thumb and forefinger to twirl, a sad smile gracing her features as she looked up at Meg just then. "It seems I'm one of the few in our immortal lives who can keep him calm when he loses his temper." She huffed and tucked a curl of her hair back behind her ear and strode forward, moving to take Meg's hand. "Hades trusts you, Megara," Persephone stated simply and without any fanfare. "He—we—can't do this without your help. His brother Zeus does not belong on the throne. Too long has he mocked my husband and the work that he is trying to accomplish. We would rule Olympus better than Zeus has done in the last several centuries. It is time Olympus underwent a regime change. We don't want anybody to get hurt," she quietly explained, a troubled shadow crossing the goddess's angular face. "And for him to send you to persuade Nessus was a display of faith on his part. The Fates told me of Zeus's son."

Meg felt the blood drain from her face as she stared at Persephone in shock.

She felt her eyes become desperate as they searched the goddess's bright blue eyes for any hint of deceit or trickery, and could find none within them. Oh, gods help her. Wonder Boy, back there was…a son of Zeus?

"I-I had no idea," Meg whispered, horrified, mortified at how she'd behaved around him. She wondered if perhaps it would be appropriate to find and apologize to him and decided against it for now. In due time, perhaps there was ever a time she could sneak away if Hades' plan happened to take them to Thebes. She recovered quickly and looked back to Persephone, struck by something Persephone had said.

"What do you mean, a regime change? What is Hades planning to do? Is he going to overthrow Zeus?"

Persephone brought her gaze to Meg and the Queen's expression was as grim as a gravestone.

"I have no wish to face the gods and goddesses that I consider my friends and family in war, Megara," she spoke proudly. "But if they leave my husband with no other choice, if Zeus will not step down peacefully, then I am afraid that we might have no other choice but to use force. There is nothing currently standing in my husband's way, according to the Fates, save for one. Something his demonic little minions' Pain and Panic had forgotten about. Or should I say, someone? They were supposed to have turned him completely mortal," she emphasized, rolling her eyes to the sky and looking disgusted with this Pain and Panic, two creatures that Meg had yet to meet.

Meg was quick to decide that she did not want to meet them if it could be helped.

"Hercules?" Meg guessed, stiffening in defense. Her face flushed hot with anger and she clenched her fists at her side, digging her nails into the skin of her palms. "Your husband does not know him," she seethed at Persephone.

Her eyes widened as she began to nurse quite a bit of shock at where she had acquired the nerve to speak so boldly to a goddess and one with the power to ruin her life with just one call to her husband, but Meg did not care at the moment. Her only quest now was to defend him.

"What on earth is your husband planning to do to him? Is he going to kill him?" Meg surprised herself as she came to Hercules' defense, but this time, the growing fire seed of anger welling in the pit of her stomach threatened to overtake her self-control.

Persephone blinked owlishly at Meg, stepping back from her and lowering her head. She mentally kicked herself for overstepping her boundaries. But she didn't even know this mortal woman, not yet!

"You're right, Megara, he doesn't know him, but he is a threat to my husband's ambitions. I like you, Meg, and I'm hopeful that with you in my husband's service now, our Underworld won't be so lonely, I've longed for another woman to talk to, but you must understand, that Hades is my husband, and I stand by that which I love, and I love him, despite his...moods," she tried to appease. "Please forgive me. I did not mean to offend you or make any aspirations against him. I'm sorry that I have hurt you by making such a comment against Zeus's son. I do not know how you know him, but I simply cannot let anything stand in my husband's way. Zeus cannot be allowed to remain on the throne of Olympus." The goddess crinkled her nose in disgust and pulled a face of revulsion as she spat Zeus's name with no small measure of dislike and contempt.

Meg stared, hardly able to believe her ears.

But Persephone continued, either oblivious to Meg's shock or completely ignoring it.

"It has been too long, and nothing has changed. If we could leave the Underworld, then perhaps things will be better for both of us." Hades' wife proceeded to hold Meg in a gaze so fierce and unyielding that for a moment, Meg was struck speechless.

"Why?" she finally asked when she could manage to draw in a breath. "Why do you want to leave? What could be worth risking going to war with all of Mount Olympus over?" she asked.

Persephone lifted her gaze to Meg's and looked at the young mortal woman who had sold her soul to her husband. Hades' wife could see that Megara was trying her best to hide the hurt that was wounding her soul even now and gently came to rest a pale and perfect pink hand on the small swell on her belly.

Meg's eyes opened wide in disbelief while Hades' wife stroked the bump with a tender hand and a shy smile tugged her lips upward.

"I-I'm very happy for you," Meg stammered, her tongue feeling thick in her mouth as beads of sweat began to glitter on her hairline. She pressed her lips and then parted them once more to speak. "He…truly loves you, then? Even…despite, what he is?" she questioned, curious, as she tilted her head to the side. Her thoughts of her new master planning to usurp the gods on Mount Olympus were temporarily forgotten as she basked in the secret knowledge that the lord of the underworld was to be a father.

Persephone grew quiet. The color drained from her face and yet the tried to laugh her sadness away.

"He does. When he is with me, he is pure. Kind. He is good to me, and he will make a good father. Better than Zeus," she sneered. "Hercules' father thinks only of himself. Zeus has killed men and gods alike much better than him in a thousand lifetimes," she proclaimed. "The Underworld is no place for our children to grow," she sighed sadly. "Too dark, too gloomy, and too many dead. That is no place to raise our family. I want our children to see the sun, to live the lives they are destined for, the children of gods. They don't belong down here in the Realm of the Dead. Surely, you see that?" she asked, her words matter of fact, as she lifted her gaze and locked eyes with Meg.

"I...I understand," Meg admitted, her expression pained as she looked at Persephone.

The of the Underworld nodded, grateful for Meg's toleration, and continued speaking. "But I did not come here to discuss matters of my heart, or my husband's. I came for you," Persephone told her, fixing Meg with a pointed stare the young woman did not know what to make of at first. "Come. We must return. He will be waiting to hear of Nessus," she told her. "He won't be happy, but let me speak to him. He is my husband and just as much my responsibility as it is yours to please him."

Meg stammered and began nervously wringing her fingers together. "I…forgive me, i-it wasn't my fault, it was that—that Wonder Boy, Hercules," she replied, feeling self-conscious. She cringed as the words left her mouth.

She realized she sounded as Hercules had not fifteen minutes ago, stammering and tripping over her words. She blushed and offered a smile, though it came out looking more like a pained grimace.

"I know," Persephone told Meg in a calm and level-headed voice. "As I said, let me deal with him. I know his moods and how best to handle him when he…loses his temper." The lowered her eyes, suddenly bashful. Meg nervously followed the Queen's gaze to the ground and looked up in time to see the goddess outstretch a slender pale pink hand to her. Meg blinked in surprise and looked up, alarmed at her kindness. Persephone smiled and let out a soft, nervous chuckle. "I know that look. Despite what you think of my husband, he is not a monster. And nor am I," she added, shrugging, almost as if she thought herself an afterthought.

Meg was quick to appreciate and admire this goddess's humble nature. She was almost touched.

Persephone's shy smile widened. Encouraged, she took Meg's nervous smile as a good sign and continued. "If I could offer you some advice, Megara, perhaps when we return home, it's best to just tell him outright. You will eventually have to tell my husband the truth and knowing Hades and how he tends to react, prolonging things won't help," Persephone advised.

Meg's eyes widened and then she nodded her agreement. She saw no other choice available to her but to take her hand. Hesitantly, she slipped her hand into his and closed her eyes.

Within seconds, she felt a breeze tousle her bangs off her forehead as the of the Underworld whisked her away from the woods, and reluctantly, away from Wonder Boy and spirited her away to her new prison. When she recovered some courage, she peeked open an eye and found herself in some underground stone chamber of sorts.

Her first thought of the Underworld Persephone had brought her to was that it looked a little grotesque, almost exactly like the stories her parents had told her of the realm of the dead when she was a little girl.

Meg waited until her eyes had adjusted to the darkness before turning towards Persephone, though not before she spotted her master. Hades was standing on the other side of the chamber, silent and stone-faced as an owl, waiting for her report.

Persephone turned to look critically at the young mortal woman her husband had taken into his servitude.

She was eager to give her advice while there was still time. Unless she was called to Hades' side to calm him down, she did not know when she would get another chance to speak with her, and Persephone already decided that she liked this mortal woman who had called upon her husband's help a few years ago. She sighed.

"Megara, please listen to me carefully—"

"Just Meg, please," Meg interrupted. She thought she saw a kernel of annoyance flick to life behind Persephone's blue eyes, but the emotion was gone as quickly as it had come. Hades' wife offered her a curt nod of acknowledgment and continued speaking to Meg softly, all the while casting a skittish glance toward her husband.

"I don't know how much Hades has told you yet, but I hope you will listen to me if no one else. Do not speak negatively of my husband or his methods. The same goes for the way he runs things down here. You must learn to control your temper around him and be careful. Do you hear me?" she demanded, almost sounding angry with her.

"How long will it take me until my debt is forgiven, are you allowed to tell me that?" Meg asked, her gaze somber.

Persephone stared at her rather nebulously before she turned away. "I-I cannot say, Meg," the goddess replied with difficulty, twisting her head slightly to shoot her a pained look that Meg believed was truly genuinely hurt. "It depends on how well you perform. Perhaps a lifetime, but if you're successful in raising my husband's armies, perhaps it will take less time."

Meg nodded in understanding. She thought she was beginning to realize why Hades' wife had been so adamant that she behaved the way that Hades expected her to while she worked for him.

It wasn't just about angering Hades. It was also about making sure that she did not have to stay down here forever.

Hearing Hades angrily call for Meg to come, Persephone turned somberly to look at Meg once more.

"You will do well, I'm sure. If it gets too bad, I will come." She hesitated, and suddenly looked embarrassed, a darker pink blush settling over her pale pink cheeks as a thought came to her just then. "My love's voice, ah, carries, whenever he loses his temper. I'll know to come. Good luck. You should go to him, he doesn't like to be kept waiting very long," the goddess of spring muttered, to which Meg replied with a curt nod and a strained, tight smile.

Before heading towards where her master stood waiting for her, she turned to give Hades's wife one last look.

She did not know why this goddess had helped her, but all the same, she was grateful that she had.

"Thank you," Meg said, hoping her voice sounded genuine as she meant her words as she turned away.

Persephone smiled but then she huffed in defeat. "He's already cross with me for keeping him waiting so long. We should have been back at least five minutes ago," she bemoaned. "I'm so sorry to talk your ear off, Meg, but it feels nice to find someone who will listen, and I've longed for the company of another woman my age for Hades only knows how long," she told her, hesitantly.

Meg's eyes widened and then softened.

"Don't worry, the feeling is mutual. I'm just glad that I have someone to talk to."

Persephone smiled warmly. "Me too."

Meg turned away to take her to leave of the Underworld's Queen.

With each step forward towards Hades and away from his wife, Meg noticed with surprise that she was starting to feel nervous, something she had not anticipated, and that her hands were becoming clammy and shaky.

HADES sensed the prickling on the skin on the back of his neck as he turned to look towards his servant, approaching him timidly, and he secretly marveled at how this mortal woman, a brazen and loud thing, could be so timid at the sight of him. He hoped that she had a good enough reason to return to his realm alongside his empty-handed, or else the girl would be blessed with his fury, and when that happened, there was no stopping it.

"Megara, my little flower, my little ray of sunshine in this otherwise dark and gloomy place," he greeted as she hurried towards him. "I am in the mood for a burning if you do not give me a valid reason why you show up here with nothing to show for your so-called 'efforts.' What in the gods happened up top? I thought you were going to persuade the River Guardian to join my time and you come back to me with your tail tucked between your legs and River-Guardian-less," he growled, feeling his lips curl upward in a snarl and he bared his teeth at her. "Tell me."

The girl flinched and looked away. It took her a moment to find her voice.

"It wasn't my fault. Your horse's ass of a River Guardian made me an offer I had to refuse, and someone else got involved," Megara growled in a voice dripping with contempt and hatred.

Hades watched as she strode towards a stone slab that served as a makeshift table of sorts.

She looked around and noticed the map of Greece on the stone table. He saw her pick up a stone-carved figurine of one of the beats he was close to coercing into his servitude, a lovely specimen of a Gorgon.

Medusa.

Intrigued, Megara picked it up and examined the figurine, almost smiling at the craftsmanship she saw, but didn't. Whether or not she was probably awed or disgusted, Hades could not manage to pretend to care about her feelings.

"Who? Who is it? Who stopped you?" Hades bellowed loudly, his voice ringing in the caverns as Meg's news that her attempt to coerce the River Guardian into joining him had been thwarted by a man. The news seemed to produce in the Lord of the Dead a horrific fiery rage, the likes of which Meg had never seen before. She watched, terrified, as the flames of his hair began to turn orange and his yellow eyes shifted and began to change shape and color now.

Meg winced. "Lord, I don't—"

"Give me his wretched name!" Hades roared and everyone in the vicinity—even Meg—jumped at it.

"Alright, alright, Hercules, it was this Wonder Boy who calls himself Hercules!" Meg stuttered, having to shout to make herself heard over the god's savage growls and snarls as she threw up her arms in the air out of exasperation and a slight fear for her life. "He came onto me with this innocent farm boy routine after he beat Nessus to a pulp and ruined my best shot at persuading him for you, but I could see right through that little act in a Peloponnesian minute," she huffed, folding her arms across her chest and peeking at Hades out of the corner of her lowered gaze.

Hades stormed away from Meg and towards two small, cowering demonic-looking creatures that Meg had not noticed. She stared, wide-eyed at the strange-looking impish cretins as the lord of the underworld unleashed his wrath upon them as they cowered behind a heavy boulder that was larger than them.

"One job, I gave you one job, you were supposed to have taken care of my bastard brother's little brat as a baby, and need I remind you, Pain, Panic, that my wife and I are about to rearrange the cosmos here, we cannot afford any oversights and the one person who can ruin my plans is waltzing around in the WOODS?" he roared. Hades gave the creatures no time to react as he lunged for them with surprising speed and started to wring their necks, cutting off their precious air supply as the creatures gasped and pleaded for breath, sounding nearly hysterical.

Meg stepped forward with anger in her eyes as the little creatures shot her terrified looks, silently pleading with her for help.

"Let them go, unhand them, this mistake was mine and mine alone! Punish me if you must, Hades, but let them go, your little imps here had nothing to do with Nessus!" Meg snapped, though her frightened eyes looked to her left as she thought she saw Persephone approaching with a speed that could summon a deadly hurricane, Meg thought.

"HADES!"

A pair of delicate footsteps reached his ears and Hades was slow to recognize the angry cut that came from his beloved spring flower, his lovely wife. He turned to find his goddess glowering at him. Gods help him, but even in her rage, she was beautiful, and for a moment, it pulled Hades off his fury.

Persephone was glaring at him with those wintry blue eyes of hers that rendered the Lord of the Dead temporarily spellbound by how icy they were, such a perfect and deep shade of pure blue.

"Do as Meg said, my love, and let them go. This is more than enough, you have done more than enough, Hades. Stop this, this isn't you, I will not let you destroy yourself anymore like this, there is another way to put Zeus's son out of your—our—path," Persephone quietly seethed as she came to a halt and moved to stand in between Hades and Meg, leaving Hades' pale blue face almost stripped of color. "Enough ruckus has occurred needlessly today." She quirked a thin brow at Hades and folded her arms across her chest and jutted her hip out to the right.

A quirk of his beloved wife's whenever she was particularly angry or annoyed with him, which was thankfully rare.

Hades did not even feel it as he relinquished his vice grip around his minions' throats. Pain and Panic grunted and gasped as their lungs burned for air as the demon wretches scrambled to their feet and ran from their master.

Hades stared as his young wife stiffly instructed the creatures who had all but thrown themselves prostrate at her feet and were showering her with praise, grateful for Hades' wife's intervention on their unworthy behalves.

"Go. Leave."

Pain and Panic did not need to be told twice. Pain reached for Panic's hand and held it tightly as the two disappeared into thin air and vanished, as though the creatures had never been there in the first place at all.

After a moment, Hades finally recovered his voice.

"Pers, my love, this is an insult," he seethed. "You could see that I was disciplining those—those morons."

"No, Hades." His spoke in a tone that almost sent a chill prickling to life underneath his icy skin. "You were humiliating them, and you're scaring Meg."

Hades pursed his lips as a wave of unfamiliar shame washed over him like a tidal wave. He swallowed and did not remember how it was that Persephone moved to face him fully, coming to stand almost shoulder-to-shoulder with Meg. His wife's perfect face had gone stiff and all traces of warmth and softness were gone from her.

"There is always another way. Zeus's son could still be dealt with and out of our way and no one needs to get hurt, Hades, love," she scolded her husband as she narrowed her eyes in despair at the Lord of the Dead. "If you wish for me to remain here with you as your wife, then you will do this my way. If you want an immortal life with me, Hades, then find it." Persephone left her threat hanging in the air between them, and a heavy silence grew in the air and stretched past the point of comfort.

Hades' lungs threatened to turn to stone as shame rained down on him as he watched his wife begin to walk away, taking his black wretched heart and immortal soul with her as she did. He looked to the side to catch lovely Megara's quick aversion to meeting his gaze. It was then that Hades' eyes wandered and lingered, stuck on the figurine of his map and paperweights that his lovely Nutmeg still clutched in her hand. A truly wonderful idea came to him the longer he looked upon the figure of beautiful but deadly Medusa in Megara's hand.

"Fortunately for you, Megara, my little dove, we still have time to correct my imps' rather egregious oversight, and this time, there will be no foul-ups, do you understand?" Hades sneered, noticing the way the girl swallowed at hearing her name on his lips. He waited as she glanced down at the paperweight in her hand. He thought he saw the beginnings of understanding flicker through those eyes of hers, but prickly Meg was not allowing herself to believe it.

Meg looked up, and Hades noted how her expression was quite pained. "What? Where are we going now?" she asked in a flat voice that was dull and lifeless, a resigned sort of numb acceptance that this was to be her fate.

"To see an…old friend, Meggie," Hades muttered wearily, "though a little bit of my 'deadly' magic is required for this little surprise visit." Without giving Meg any time to react or ask what he meant by that, he snapped his fingers.

Meg let out a little cry as her vision began to blur and turn slightly green.

"What did you do to—" she started to ask, but he cut her off.

"Don't ask questions, Megara, my sweet, they are not becoming. Where we're going, doll, trust me, you're going to need it. She tends to turn mortals into stone, albeit on accident, but she has something that could prove useful in dealing with this little pest problem that I have, and besides, she owes me a favor," he growled, a shadow of anger flitting across his angular features.

Meg did not understand what was going on and could only nod, barely able to force out her thanks for whatever power he had just bestowed upon her now. Meg grimaced as Hades turned slowly towards her and once more offered her his outstretched hand for her to take.

There was a long moment of an awkward pause as Meg gingerly crept forward and dared to take his hand.

Finally, she summoned enough courage in her throat to ask a question of her new master. She was not sure she wanted to know the answer, but she knew that she had to get the question out.

"Will you at least tell me whom we're going to see?" she demanded angrily, finding it hard to maintain eye contact. Meg reached for Hades' outstretched hands with fingers she could no longer feel were attached to her hand given how cold it was in his Underworld.

As her slender fingers curled shakily around the god's hand, she heard her new master chortle before turning to look at her, while the dank air around them echoed just one word, but the one-word admission of whom they were paying an unexpected visit to sent a chill down Meg's spine just then.

"Medusa."