7
THE air of Thebes was almost bitter as the autumn leaves softly rode the breeze. The city rested peacefully through the early hours of the morning since Hercules, Phil, and Pegasus had arrived. Not a single voice or sound was heard aside from the swaying creaking of the trees that lined the city. The air carried with it the faint scent of rainfall.
The only soul awake at this early hour of the morning was the mighty Hercules himself. Even Phil and Pegasus were still sound asleep. The man had woken from a nightmare that he could not even begin to make sense of.
Meg's terrified face, twisted and contorted in pain, and looming over her with his icy-cold hand outstretched, a god, and a malicious-looking one judging by the state of his attire, clad in black and the shifty smile that tugged the edges of his mouth up in a smirk. Hercules simply could not get these horrific images out of his head, no matter how hard he tried. He wondered why Father and the other gods of Mount Olympus were forsaking him like this.
If this was another test. If it was, then it was their worst yet. In a stupor and not wanting to close his eyes and return to sleep, knowing what lay in wait for him the minute he did, he'd removed himself from their makeshift camp and had made it a habit to aimlessly wander the streets. The young man's expression was forlorn and almost miserable.
The silence around him was more than deafening. The calm wind that blew through the streets of Thebes ruffled his hair gently. Hercules' lips held a thin line that only seemed to deepen as the minutes passed.
Though he had met the young woman Meg for a few precious seconds at best, he was surprised at how she was already leaving quite the impression on him. In his mind, he had wanted more time to linger.
He wondered if the girl had made it home to her master, and he found himself praying to Father and beseeching any god who would listen to him that the man who owned her life would be merciful to her if he was angry.
He hoped he would see Meg again, very soon, somehow. The demigod stood in silence at the edge of the city for what felt like hours but the sun had not seemed to rise in the sky any further.
"If she'd stayed…" Hercules murmured, his voice trailing off as his brows furrowed into a frown.
A lump had formed in his throat as his breath caught in his throat. For some reason that he could not discern, it bothered him greatly that the beautiful Meg was a slave.
If she had stayed with him and Phil, he would have happily escorted her here to Thebes. She could have made a new life for herself, one not tied to a man who owned her and commanded her every move.
"No. She made her choice, and Meg chose to return. It was her call, not mine," Hercules growled the word through gritted teeth and shook his head almost violently as he dismissed the thought.
As the silence around him thickened, bitterness began to seep its way into the pit of the demigod's churning belly.
He mumbled a quick prayer to the gods under his breath that Meg would be safe, wherever she was, that the people of Thebes would have need of a hero and that he would be accepted here.
That it would be enough to earn the gods' respect. He flicked his gaze down towards a pristine white flower that had floated on the autumn breeze and had landed at the sole of one of his sandals.
With a sigh, Hercules knelt down to the small thing and gingerly picked it up with surprising tenderness, resting the little plant with its crumpled leaves in his calloused palm. He stared at the flower with thoughtful eyes, his thoughts once more drifting to Meg upon looking at the flower. Hercules closed his eyes and pressed the flower to his chest.
The memories of meeting her, and speaking with her for even just those few precious moments swirled around in his tired mind. Hercules was confused by this strange feeling that caused his chest to tighten and seep warmth all throughout his body whenever he would think of the young slave whose life he'd saved. He was skeptical of it at first, but he quickly came to understand that it was a good feeling and something he wanted to experience again.
He was utterly lost but something good came out of it. He hoped that Meg, if he ever saw her again, would consider him a friend to her. The memory of Meg's serene but haunted eyes drenched his memory.
There was a sadness lurking behind the young woman's lavender eyes, a sadness that he loathed to see. He wanted selfishly to be able to make the woman smile if it meant that she would smile at him, and because of him. He rose back to his tired feet, which were beginning to become sore from all the walking he had done, not wanting yet to return to the campsite. Hercules was not even aware that he still held the flower he'd found pressed close to his broad chest.
He glanced over the struggling city of Thebes for a moment, the beginnings of hope rearing its head in his chest that he could not ignore. He had a feeling that he would be seeing Meg again soon, and with that thought fueling him, for the first time since Meg had left, Hercules smiled as he walked back to their campsite.
MEG stared in horror and disbelief at the large boulder that was blocking the entrance to Medusa's Hydra's lair the young Gorgon had spoken of. She flicked her gaze towards her master to try to discern any identifiable emotion in her lord's yellow eyes. But there was nothing.
She felt her blood boil at the thought of Wonder Boy getting hurt by Medusa's...creature.
She did not even know what a Hydra looked like, but just the name sounded intimidating and imposing. It surely could mean nothing good. Though she had sworn off men since Prince Adonis had so cruelly abandoned her for another woman after she had given away her soul to save his life, there was something of Hercules that was almost contagious.
Meg could not take her gaze away from Hades' yellow eyes as the lord of the Underworld was surveying the sight that was sure to be Wonder Boy's downfall with an approving gaze. It wasn't even just their yellow color that was afflicting her so much.
However, it was what lay underneath them. The relative blankness of Hades' ice-cold stare that he seemed to have perfected over the course of his immortal life seemed just a cover for the tumultuous sea of emotion Meg just knew had to lay underneath. But she was ripped from her thoughts of her master when she heard her name and Hades' name being called and scuttling footsteps approaching them from behind. Meg spun around and found Hades' minions, Pain and Panic she thought their names were if her memory served her correctly.
That was what Persephone had called them, running towards them with eager looks on their demonic faces.
"Hades! Hades! He's here! Hercules is here, in Thebes! We can finally make this right!" The skinny purple whelp yelled in a desperate wheeze.
Meg felt the hope that had been blooming in her chest that Hercules would not be here slipping away and wilting.
"What? Where?" Meg asked and the short, stout fat purple creature pointed a long claw to his left.
Meg followed where the creature was pointing and if she squinted to see, she thought she could make out Wonder Boy's familiar muscular silhouette, heading toward the edge of the city.
Pain and Panic and even Hades watched Meg intently and waited for the mortal girl's response.
Meg bit down on her lip and took a dark curl in her finger to twirl as she thought about her role in Hades' scheme to get Hercules out of his way and cringed. She tried to ignore the burn of the god's gaze burning a hole in the back of her skull and when the silence and intensity became too much to bear, she turned towards Hades.
She found the Lord of the Underworld watching her expectantly with a hardened expression. It was almost as if he had anticipated she would resist. She felt the blood drain from her face as she realized what he intended for her.
"Oh, no. No, no, no, no, forget it, Hades, I'm not going out there, I don't care what you do to me if I refuse," Meg spoke, trying to sound brave, but even she could hear that her voice lacked the conviction to sell the argument she really wanted to make.
Pain and Panic darted behind Hades' billowing black robes and sniggered amongst themselves like the mischievous imps that they were as Hades slowly turned his gaze toward Meg and scowled.
"Meg, my darling, you say that as though you have a choice, my little nutmeg. Need I remind you, that you don't? Or have you already forgotten this situation that my wife and I find ourselves in concerns you too?" he questioned, quirking a brow at her.
Meg's expression was one of disbelief and she looked sick as she turned back to look toward Hercules.
Gods help her, but she was really going to actually have to do this. She had no choice available to her. Exhaling a frustrated sigh through her nose, Meg stomped her foot in a moment of anger, a temporary release of frustration, and looked away. She let her thoughts drift to Persephone's words from when his wife had found her wandering the forest.
She wasn't sure if she could fully trust the goddess at her word when she said there was a way that Zeus could step down from his place as ruler of Mount Olympus without the need for violence and bloodshed, but being smack-dab in the middle of Hades' scheme made her uneasy.
But such logic was not going to get through the pigheaded and stubborn god's mind, Meg realized with a heavy heart. She knew if she had any hope of wriggling her way out of this precarious position, a switch in tactics was in order.
She prayed Hades would be sympathetic to her plight. Just once.
"You don't understand, he..we...I can't!" Meg awkwardly began, hating herself for what she was about to say. "Oh, please don't make me do this, you—you didn't see the way that he looked at me. I don't think I can do this and I don't want to be a part of your little harebrained scheme anymore to get back at your brother, just because you have a grudge!" Meg snapped angrily.
She had been about to follow up her argument with the fact that Wonder Boy's eyes had been draped all over her earlier, but Hades angrily cut her off before she could say another word. Which she thought was a damn shame.
She thought for certain Hades might have let her off the hook if she had been able to bring up Wonder Boy's attraction to her, given how doting he was to his wife. Surely, he of all people would understand that she could not do this.
But Hades did not seem convinced. If anything, the god was only incensed by her hesitation and second doubts.
"Megara, honey, then you should have thought of that before you sold your soul to me."
Meg inwardly groaned, growing increasingly frustrated by her role in this. She suspected that however long she was to work for Hades that the lord of the dead would make it a point to bring this fact up whenever she did not want to fall in line with an order.
"You know why I did," she replied, indignant as he tilted his head to look at her, not liking the glint in his eyes.
"And your little boyfriend was dying, Meg, it was only a few flesh wounds. I did as you asked and saved his life, and what did your choice get you, hmm, my little nut, tell me," he continued, slinking towards her with a malevolent expression and a hardened gaze that spelled trouble.
But Meg purposefully ignored this in favor of continuing her argument.
"I made a mistake. One I won't make again," she growled through clenched teeth as she balled her hands into fists at her sides. She dug her nails into the skin of her palms.
It hurt, but the pain grounded her and reminded her of her new reality.
"How long are you going to hold it over my head, Lord?" she demanded.
"As long as I need to, Meg, my sweet," Hades purred by way of response as he came to stand in front of her. He reached out a hand and set an icy hand on her bare shoulder that made Meg shiver and recoils away.
Something of the way the lord of the dead was staring at her the way he was right now made Meg feel vulnerable and exposed, two things she had sworn never to be again following her heartbreak from her life going so horribly wrong right from the start.
She could already feel her eyes beginning to tear up. She could feel it, but Meg squeezed her eyes shut and refused to let them fall. She had only been working for Hades for a day or two at best now, but she suspected the lord of the dead manipulated those he dealt with all the time. She needed to stand her ground. But even so, the reminders of Hades' so-called 'charity' began to chip away at Meg's resolve, causing her to have doubts.
"Who took you in, Meggie, and stopped you from making a grave mistake?" he questioned, his voice solemn and serious as he looked her dead in the eye. "Who decided to look after you like a true friend would when you have no one?"
Meg hated herself as she answered in a small, meek voice that did not sound like hers. "You did."
Hades' smirk was enough to cause Meg's face to turn green.
She hated this yielding to him. Meg took a deep breath before pleading with Hades for more information.
"He won't be killed?" she questioned, worried, as she could not bring herself to look away from the god's listless eyes.
Hades, however, made it a point to deflect Meg's question and could not be bothered to give his servant a direct answer.
"No promises, babe, that's up to the Hydra. All you need to do is look pretty for him, bat those pretty lashes of yours at him, lure him here, and Medusa's little pet will take him out of the equation. I can't promise that he won't get hurt, Meg, my sweet, but I don't think the Hydra will kill him. He suffers a few bite wounds, maybe a missing limb or two, but as long as he's out of my way, if I can take Olympus from my bastard brother with no fuss, then no one needs to get hurt, as my wife so wishes it."
Meg furrowed her brows into a frown. She was quick to decide that she did not like the sudden edge to the Lord of the Underworld's voice. She sharply turned her head away, suddenly too timid to meet the god's gaze.
"Just be obedient, doll, and I promise, everything will go very smoothly for you. You might even be a free woman sooner than you expect."
Meg's eyes widened upon hearing the god's words. She started to look up, to back away, to flat out again refuse, only to feel the icy cold touch of Hades' hand winding around her throat just then and squeezing, hard. Not enough to cut off her precious air supply, but enough to enforce the intended message.
Behave, or else.
Meg decided she did not want to know what 'or else' meant.
Meg brought her hands up to try to pry his hand from around her neck, looking at the god without a hint of fear. She had been trained to mask panic with apathy the day her parents passed, and the way she did not give in to Hades' fear only seemed to spur his anger further. His blue fingers around her neck squeezed even harder.
Meg parted her lips to try to draw in a breath of air.
He wouldn't be serious, would he? He needs me, his wife has said so herself, Meg thought wildly to herself as she struggled.
"You will be obedient, won't you, my little nutmeg?" Hades' dark voice echoed in her ears.
Meg made no move to try to force his hand from around her neck and instead, she forced her body to relax and closed her eyes as if she welcomed Death himself like an old friend. Go ahead, do it, she tried to tell him in impossible telepathy.
The look she shot at him seemed to have penetrated his mind, at least, for his fingers loosened from her neck.
Meg staggered backward and turned her head to the side as she coughed, her lungs burning for the taste of fresh oxygen as she brought a hand to her throat, willing her heart to relax. Meg nodded, unable to speak at first for several minutes.
"Y-yes," she gasped out when she had finally managed to draw in a good breath of air strong enough to summon an answer in her throat. Hades' responding smirk nearly made Meg sick with dread until she tasted bile and she thought she'd be sick.
"Good, sweetheart. Very good." Hades glided backward slowly, almost seeming to float whenever he moved like this, as a strange serene calmness overtook the god's handsome and chiseled features.
Meg stayed rooted to her spot and as still and silent as an owl, even after he had relinquished his vice grip from her throat.
"I'm glad that you've come to see things my way, doll. Truly, I am. You do this for me, and if you actually succeed this time and Medusa's little Hydra has herself a bit of fun after a long sleep, I might shave a few years off your sentence," he proclaimed, almost sounding cheerful as he paraded his back to her. It was his way, Meg quickly realized, of terminating a conversation.
"If—If I do this for you, and if Medusa's pet...creature, puts Wonder Boy out of the equation and off your playing board, will you let me go, then?" Meg dared to have the audacity to ask, leaving her question hanging in the air between them before she quickly realized her question sounded ridiculous. "Will I be free?" she continued anyways when Hades did not answer her.
Hades did not turn to look back at her, but the god could sense the prickling of the mortal woman's skin and how the hairs on the back of her neck were standing upright on end as she waited in anticipation.
"I will take your request into consideration," he answered in a flat and listless voice. "Now go, Meggie, you're losing his trail."
Meg whirled around in alarm and saw with dismay that the Lord of the Underworld was right. Feeling her feet move as if by rote memory, Meg felt as though she had no control over her body as she twisted on her heels and began to lightly jog in the direction of the path that Wonder Boy was following. Only when she was certain that she had put enough distance between herself and her new master did she let out a shuddering breath she did not realize she had been holding. Fresh tears welled in her eyes and a wild frenzied emotion caused her chest to tighten and constrict at what unknown fate awaited the man who had saved her from Nessus. Up until this point, she had never truly been aware of the gods' natures and what they were capable of doing to mortals like her, even to their own kind.
When she was a little girl and her parents had told her stories of the gods, Hades in particular as Meg had always taken a keen interest in the macabre and morbid, her parents had done what they could to protect her from the truth of the lord of the underworld. Now, she knew.
She thought the beginnings of understanding were beginning to take root in her mind. Hades was the devil himself, and he owned her very soul, and she did not even know how to begin to get her soul back without someone, namely Wonder Boy, getting hurt. She had no other choice but to do whatever he commanded of her…or else…or else what?
Meg halted in her tracks and blinked owlishly at that thought. It took her a moment to calm her racing heart and when she did, without words or tears, Meg rushed to catch up to Hercules. Meg broke into a run, having to lift the skirts of her dress to avoid tripping over the hem as she struggled to catch up to Hercules through the beginnings of the morning crowd of Thebans as they emerged from their beds to signal the start of another day.
"Hercules!" she called, having to raise her voice over the chatter of the townsfolk to ensure she was heard. She did not even have to fake the warbling crack and dip in her voice that gave away the dismay she felt.
The dread in her tone was obvious as she rushed to catch Hercules before the demigod could disappear from her line of sight. Frantic, she jutted out her hand to tap the man on the shoulder.
Meg's expression was one of disbelief and dismay and she looked sick as Wonder Boy turned on his heels, stiffening under her touch and she found herself directly in the concerned and adoring gaze of Hercules himself. She shivered and ground her teeth as she could almost feel his eyes raking over her form.
Sure, Wonder Boy had been kind to her back in the forest and Meg knew that Hercules presented no threat.
In fact, Wonder Boy here would probably be more protective of her than anyone else she had in her life. But it was the fact that she suspected he was growing smitten with her, judging by the look on his face. At the very least, she had no interest in going through the prospect of opening up her heart again like she had with Adonis, only to have it and her soul be crushed when Hercules too would leave and prove himself just like every other man on this planet.
She cringed as she stood there still and lifeless as a statue. It took her a moment to find her voice as she was quite distracted by the way Wonder Boy was looking at her. Hercules was looking at her like she was a goddess herself and his only wish was that he be allowed to worship at her feet, which he did not know she would hate.
Hercules was looking as though his legs had turned to mush beneath him and his breaths seemed frozen in his lungs for it took Hercules a moment to find his voice. Hercules could only move when Phil annoyingly shoved him forward.
He felt the old Satyr's hands shove the back of his calves and he very nearly stumbled over himself.
"Aw, not this damsel again, kid, but best see what she wants, and while you're at it, Champ, close your mouth, you look like a fish," Phil whispered through gritted teeth. Hercules did so. He had thought he complied.
Finally, by a miracle of the gods themselves, Hercules managed to regain his voice again.
"M-Meg, I—I don't, i-it's good to see you again, I...I was hoping I would see you again, b-but what are you doing here?"
His voice held a slight stutter to it, likely from nervousness, and Meg simply stared in disbelief and dread at Wonder Boy. Meg was momentarily transfixed by his eyes. They were wary as they looked at her as Hercules waited for Meg to speak, and she could not stop staring into his eyes. They were so round and so blue and brimming with wonder.
She was surprised that the man seemed to exude an almost tender aura about him, which was odd for the son of a god and goddess. It was almost as if he had never been exposed to the evils and cruelty of the world, but he was about to if Hades had it his way. She hated that there was something within her that still harbored a twinge of caution towards Wonder Boy. She despised the feeling. Meg knew that it was her wariness talking from her memories of her time spent with Adonis, and how she thought she would marry the man one day, only for that dream to be shattered and never made a reality. She blinked and came back to herself as she heard Hercules call her name, sounding worried.
Her name sounded funny on his lips but not altogether unpleasant.
Meg grimaced as she shot a hand to her side and nearly doubled over in pain. Her cracked rib from where Nessus had handled her too roughly was going to take some time to heal, she realized.
But she straightened her gait before Hercules could dart forward to help her and spoke a little too quickly.
"My-my master and I, we live here in Thebes, b-but...there are two little boys, trapped under a—a boulder not far from here, I-I think their legs might be broken, please, Hercules, you-you have to help them, you're the only one strong enough to lift it!" she stammered, the lie leaving her lips easier than she thought, which surprised her, but she still hated herself for it.
She prayed that Wonder Boy would make it through this encounter with this Hydra, whatever a Hydra was. She wondered what on earth the lovely Medusa could have seen in such a creature as to keep it as a pet.
Her heart sank to the pit of her stomach as Hercules darted forward with a surprising speed that surprised her and even his trainer, she noticed out of the corner of her eye. Before she could protest or pull away, Hercules reached for her hand and gave the delicate appendage a squeeze. His expression was serious.
"Take me to them, please," he pleaded, but Meg had not expected the sudden touch between them to occur and she quickly pulled her hand back into herself.
The flustered slave glanced from Hercules and then to the ground, parting her lips to speak. "Th-This way," she murmured and turned on her heels to avoid looking into his concerned blue eyes that threatened to trap her there as she quickly led the way to the cave, where Hades' little devils had shapeshifted and disguised themselves as the boys.
True to form, the little whelps Pain and Panic were waiting for Hercules and the show they put on of being in pain was a convincing one. Their ear-piercing faux shrieks of pain split the air and it was all Meg could do not to cover her ears.
She watched in awe as Hercules darted forward and lifted the boulder off of them with ease, as though the hefty boulder weighed no more than say a quill would for writing.
Her mouth had fallen open longingly as she watched the way his thick strong arms worked as agilely as he could to toss the boulder to the side and free the 'boys', unknowing of the danger that he was in. She swallowed hard and shook her head to herself, trying to shake herself off her fantasy of Wonder Boy and the man's rippling pectorals.
She stood there, shaken, trying to force her lungs to calm. Hercules turned towards her, parting his lips as if he meant to speak to her, but before he could, a low hissing noise resonated from within the cave.
Stay in the cave, Hydra, whatever you are, please, please, please, stay in the cave, Meg prayed, feeling as though her prayers to whatever god above in Olympus might be listening to her were futile.
Don't come out here, please, she tried to will the creature to stay within the confines and safety of its cavern.
She cursed herself as a monstrous figure began to emerge from the mouth of the cave, and she stood motionless, too terrified to flee and too afraid to even breathe. Her eyes widened as she arched her neck.
She was not even aware of Hercules' trainer, Phil, she thought Shorty the Goat's name actually was, tugging on her hand and pulling her behind the same large boulder Hercules had just moved out of the way for cover.
Meg did not know what she had expected Medusa's precious pet Hydra to look like, but it certainly was not this.
What met her terrified eyes was a massive dragon-like creature with dark purple scaly skin. Its body was bulky and the tail a sharp whip of destruction as it stepped outside fully from the cave.
Her ears began to throb loudly with a horrible fatigued ringing sound, drowning out Hercules' shouts and the terrified screams of the crowd of Thebans from somewhere behind them in the distance.
The Hydra let out a shrill shriek that she swore made the ground beneath her feet rumble and crack in response, and she could only look on in horror as the monstrous Hydra descended upon Hercules, the massive serpent baring its fangs, unfazed by Hercules drawing his sword and trying to keep it now at bay.
Oh, gods….
Meg watched the Hydra descend on Wonder Boy swiftly, prepared to eat him and furious at being roused from its deep slumber.
….What have I done?
Tears spilled down her cheeks as she squeezed her eyes shut and her cracked rib suddenly hurt more than she could bear as a wave of crushing guilt washed over her like a tidal wave. She did not think she could bear to watch this, knowing she had just played a part in Wonder Boy's death, and after the man had been nothing but kind to her.
Her brain began to turn foggy, her chest began to constrict, and her lungs started to burn.
The sound of the Hydra screeching and Wonder Boy's trainer shouting commands at the boy met her ears, but Meg could scarcely pay attention. She suddenly felt light-headed.
Her ears buzzed and she saw spots. No one caught her as she fell, and the last thing she heard amongst the skirmish between Medusa's Hydra and Hercules was the sound of her own skull smacking against the ground.
Then, she slipped into sleep.