Chapter 10

The fight

First droplets of rain started falling from the sky as everyone waited for Hades to show up. Hercules had changed his ordinary clothes into a warrior armor gear, and he stood with crossed arms on the deck, facing the sea. He had the look of determination on his face, but his toes were wiggling restlessly in his sandals. Milo was telling a story about one of his professors in his university to him, gesturing with his hands along the story and trying to lighten up the mood.

Phil, on the other hand, looked nervous for the both of them: he was pacing back and forth on the ship and muttering to himself, almost angering Vitani who was getting tired of the restless atmosphere. She earned a warning look from Silver, though, so she took out her frustration on sharpening her claws.

Jim was growing annoyed too. First Sinbad had left, again, and now Hades was making them wait for an unnecessarily long time. To be honest, he wouldn't mind kicking the ass of the Lord of the Death himself; not after what he had done to him; but he figured letting an actual hero to do the job was probably for the best.

"All this trouble for a stupid map," he groaned and kicked a bucket that someone had left on the deck.

A thunder-like noise struck the sky and made a big crack appear in the air, making everyone jump out of their skins. Out of the crack stepped Hades, who was followed by Kida and Meg with shackles around their wrists linked to the chains the god was holding. They both looked fine, but Kida was grinding her teeth and staring at Hades with furious eyes. Meg didn't meet anyone's gaze, and her head was hanging low.

"Sorry if I'm a bit late! Had a lot of godly business to do, the Underworld to run… You know," he laughed. An umbrella was floating above him as he walked in the air and turned his head towards Hercules. "I got your message. It's quite rude to call me here on such short notice and with such temper, but I forgive you."

"So you accept the deal?" Hercules asked, slightly uncertain.

Hades' lips turned slowly up into a grin, and he nodded. "I accept it. If you win this fight, you'll get the girls and the map, I'll leave the cities alone, and blah blah blah… And if I win," he paused, "I'll get Thebes and you'll become my slave for the next hundred years. Sounds pretty fair to me. I bet Zeus won't be that pleased to hear about it, though. Ha!"

Milo gasped and looked at Hercules with wide eyes, and Phil shook his head, sighing 'oh what have you done, boy, what have you done'.

Jim furrowed his brow, not really understanding why the hero was willing to go that far to help a couple of strangers. A pirate would never do that. But maybe that's why he was a hero, after all.

"Good. Let's make this a fair fight, Hades! Come on down!" Hercules jumped off the ship into the waves, and Milo yelled what the heck he was doing, but then he took a look over the railing and saw that Hercules' powers made him float so that he could walk on the surface of the water like it was nothing. Milo cheered for him, and Hercules sent a shy smile over his shoulder.

"Oh no, the deal didn't say anything about me being the one to fight," Hades said. "I'm not a big fan of fighting in the territory of my dearest brothers. In fact, water is not really my thing at all."

"What?" Hercules' face fell.

The sea started moving, and Silver's ship swayed heavily when the water hit it. Jim had to hold on to the railing in order to not fall down, and he tried to see the cause of the movement while blinking the rain away from his eyes.

Something big rose up from the sea; a beautiful naked woman with dark features and red lips, but when she moved higher everyone saw that instead of legs the lower part of her body was twelve giant tentacles. Her mouth opened unnaturally wide to reveal three rows of huge, sharp teeth, and the deep, vibrating bellow she let out sounded like a mix of an alligator and a tiger, chilling everyone to the bone.

"Say hello to my newest friend Scylla! She came all the way from the Strait of Messina," Hades said with a grin.

Hercules took the sword in his hand, but it looked awfully small compared to his opponent.

"Remember your training, boy!" Phil shouted, but just the sight of the monster had drained the blood from his face.

Scylla roared again and dashed towards Hercules with her tentacles ready to strike and teeth ready to tear his flesh apart. Hercules jumped out of her way, but one of the powerful tentacles managed to hit him on his abdomen, sending him flying straight into the water. He sank under the surface for a second, but then his head popped up and he gasped for air, spitting the water out of his mouth. But before he had even recovered from the previous attack, Scylla made another one, trying to catch him.

"Dive!" Milo shouted, but Hercules was already underwater.

"Why is he having trouble with that tentacle lady? I thought he was a legendary hero," Jim asked him, still holding on to the railing.

"He's not himself… And that monster isn't just an ordinary monster. She's known to wreck

the ships passing by her in the Strait of Messina and eat the sailors on them," Milo explained while trying to spot Hercules in the water. He was nowhere to be seen.

"So she really is her," Jim muttered. "I've heard about her before, but I thought she was just a myth."

"Every myth is based on true stories."

Scylla growled when she couldn't find Hercules, but then the growl turned into a howl and the water turned red as Hercules popped up again, having cut one of the tentacles off with his sword. He quickly rose back up to the surface again, and Scylla let out a high-pitched screech before swinging her tentacles at him. Hercules tried to dive again, but Scylla grabbed him by his leg and swung him high in the air, slamming him into the water over and over again.

By the time she was done, Hercules' body had gone limp and he was hanging in Scylla's grip like a rag doll. He swung his sword weakly, but the monster just tossed him around, making the sword slip out of his hand and sink into the waves.

"Is that all you've got, Wonderboy? I have to say I was expecting this to be a little more entertaining," Hades sighed, not even trying to hide his yawn. "Finish him off, my dear Scylla."

Hercules closed his eyes in shame, and the last drop of confidence he had had faded into thin air. He took a deep breath, ready to face his horrifying fate.

"I won't let him give up!" Milo took his glasses off, grabbed a pile of rope laying next to him, and before Jim could stop him he jumped into the dark water, trying to do a swan dive but ending up to do a belly flop instead. He pretended not to hear Hercules' pleads for him to stay out of the fight as Scylla noticed a new pray to hunt and lunged forward.

"What is he doing? He doesn't even know how to fight! We must do something," Jim shouted to Silver over the rumble of the dark sky.

"If we try to help them while on this ship, Scylla will start targetin' us too," said Silver, shaking his head.

Jim couldn't believe his ears, although it shouldn't have been a surprise. "You care more about a ship than a person's life?"

"You know that's not what I meant. I'm just lookin' after my crew," Silver argued. "There's no need to make unnecessary sacrifices."

"Right. A pirate's logic," Jim muttered with a sneer. "Well, I'm going!"

"Wait!" Silver grabbed Jim's shoulder. "Don't go makin' hasty decisions. Let's see how this goes first."

"How do you think it'll go? Do you really think he could win against that monster?"

They both watched as Milo avoided the hit of Scylla's tentacles by diving, and when he came back to the surface he fiddled with the rope, clearly trying to do something, but Scylla didn't give him a moment of peace to let him finish. He was struggling to hold the rope, dodge the monster's attacks and keep his head up while the high waves washed over him. Hercules was trying to pry the tentacle holding him open, but his powers had been drained completely.

Silver let out a long sigh, taking his hand off of Jim's shoulder. "How could I let ya go on yer own?" He then shouted over his shoulder: "Vitani!"

The said woman lifted her head at the mention of her name, and came to them right away. "Captain?"

"Help Jimbo distract the monster while he saves those bloody idiots," Silver commanded.

Vitani nodded, sending a glance at Jim and jumping on the railing. Her balance was amazing considering the ship was swaying hard at this point and the everfalling rain made the wooden surface slippery, but Jim guessed being a lioness came with its upsides.

"Don't get in my way, boy," Vitani growled so low that only Jim could hear it, and then she jumped. Jim huffed, not sure if that was meant to be a threat or a friendly warning given accidentally with a murderous tone, but either way he jumped after her.

The freezing water knocked the breath out of him, and it took him a couple of seconds to recover from the shock and start moving his limbs to prevent them from going numb. Scylla had taken interest in the roaring and insults-shouting Vitani, and while the monster attacked her Jim swam to Milo, whose lips had gone blue.

"Need some help?" Jim asked, getting a mouthful of salt water into his system from that. The waves felt even bigger from down there, and he wasn't so sure about his swimming abilities anymore. Now that he thought about it, sailing in space seemed much safer. He wouldn't even mind a few supernovas and black holes at this point.

"Jim!" Milo coughed. "You- you shouldn't have come!"

"Too late for that now. The only way of getting away is defeating that enormous monster."

A huge wave washed over them, and for a second Jim had a horrifying thought of Milo drowning, but fortunately his head popped back up.

"I have a- a plan but I'm not sure if it'll work," Milo stuttered, teeth clattering. "We could try to tie Scylla's tentacles together with this rope so that she can't move anymore."

"Sounds like the best option we have," said Jim and took the other end of the rope, tying it to his belt to make it easier to swim. "You hold onto the rope while I dive under Scylla."

"But – "

"Let's go!"

They didn't have time to argue about who should do the diving part, so they just went with it. They swam closer to the monster, who was still distracted by Vitani, and Jim dived under water. He counted to three and opened his eyes, grimacing in pain because of the burning sensation caused by the salt water. He resisted the urge to close his eyes again, and soon the pain became tolerable. He couldn't see anything, though: only dark and blurry silhouettes of something that moved fast, which he guessed were the tentacles. What had he gotten himself into again? It would be impossible to navigate through them without getting hit by one of them.

Jim cursed his life, cursed the military, cursed his own stupid self, and most of all cursed Sinbad before he started swimming in the darkness unable to see anything. The quiet sea around him gave him a feeling of security; everything seemed so calm like there was nothing going on; but then a hard punch from a tentacle sent him spinning around in the water, and the last bit of oxygen escaped his lungs.

When he stopped spinning he realized he didn't know which way was up and which was down; which was forward and which was back. The water was heavy around him, and everything was just… dark. Panic clutched his chest as his lungs were screaming for air, and he knew he wouldn't last longer than a few seconds.

He did the only thing he could: he grabbed a hold of one of the tentacles that swung past him. Scylla reacted just as he had thought, raising her tentacle up in the surface in irritation, and Jim gasped desperately for air. Who knew breathing could be so much fun?

Scylla growled and tried to shake him off, and Jim voluntarily let go, flying into the water again. He couldn't sigh in relief, though, because he would have to dive again. And probably again. And maybe more. And he was already exhausted from having to fight against the waves to keep his head up.

A sudden noise of men shouting filled the air, making Jim raise his brows in confusion until he located the cause of it: Sinbad had come back with his crew, and their ship was heading straight towards Scylla with the harpoons out. Kida's ship was coming right behind them, commanded by Shang, but it seemed to stop purposefully a little bit further away.

Jim reacted quickly by untying the rope and swimming as fast as he could away from the monster, because once she realized she was the one losing, she would do anything to survive.

Sinbad's ship collided with Scylla, and the harpoons attached deep to her body and tentacles. The scream she let out was heartbreaking and terrifying at the same time, and she finally dropped Hercules. Milo started swimming towards him immediately, his face scrunched with worry.

"Don't worry, Hercules, I'm coming!" Milo reassured.

Scylla was bleeding badly, and the howling turned into small whimpers. She tried to move her tentacles with no result, because one of the harpoons had cut off the nervous system to most of them. Jim almost took pity on her and was going to ask someone to put her to rest, but then the monster roared and ripped herself off the harpoons, charging at the nearest person there was: Milo.

Milo had almost reached Hercules and didn't know what was happening until Hercules, body blue with bruises, used his last bit of powers to throw himself in front of him and let Scylla's icicle-like teeth sink into his shoulder. His muscles tensed as he held Scylla's head to prevent her from ripping a piece of him with her, and he grunted in pain when the teeth sank deeper.

Time seemed to stop around them, and even the waves had calmed down as if waiting for something.

A light started shining out of the wounds on Hercules' shoulder, and Scylla let go of him with a screech. The light spread to his whole body, and he rose up from the water as Scylla started sinking, not being able to hold herself up anymore. Jim protected his eyes with his hand, close to being blinded by the brightness, and he wasn't the only one.

Hades' eyes bulged out of his head as he stared at Hercules, squeezing the cocktail glass in his hand so hard it shattered.

"He… He got his powers back! My boy got his godly powers back!" Phil yelled and jumped around. "He became a true hero! I knew he would do it one day!"

Hercules' wounds started closing up, his bruises faded and his lips stretched into a big, goofy smile. He then landed back on the surface, lifting dumbfounded Milo up and holding him in his arms.

"Um, are you alright?" Hercules asked.

"Me? Fine? I've never been more fine in my life," Milo blurted, not being able to tear his eyes away from the shining hero.

"Uh, guys," Sinbad shouted from the bow of his ship, "I hate to break it to everyone, but the military ships are right on our ass!"

Hercules lifted his head as if remembering where he was and what had just happened, and with incredible speed he ran on the water to Silver's ship, put Milo to safety and turned to Hades, who was sweating fireballs and gnawing his teeth.

"Herc, my man, let's talk about this first," he tried to smile but was met with a glare from the hero. "Maybe I was the tiniest bit of unfair, but let's face it – you got your powers back because of me, right? Shouldn't I earn a small thanks for that at least?"

Hades backed as Hercules walked in the air with his fists clenched, but Kida, who was standing behind him in her shackles, kicked his back and forced him to stay where he was. Hercules grabbed him by his collar, pulling him closer only a few centimeters away from his face.

"We had a deal. You leave us alone, set Megara and Kida free, and give the map back. If I ever see your face again…" he tightened his grip, and he didn't even have to finish his sentence before Hades was nodding frantically.

The shackles tied around Meg and Kida's wrists were broken by the snap of Hades' fingers, but Kida wasn't ready to leave yet: she marched straight in front of Hades and slapped him. Hard.

"The map," she demanded, and Hades handed both of the halves to her with a sneer, muttering 'fine, fine, rob me blind, will you'.

"Can someone throw the ladder already?" Jim shouted next to Silver's ship. Vitani had climbed up by using her claws, but as Jim didn't possess such useful things, he had had to wait in the sea until someone noticed him.

A ladder was thrown to him immediately, and he was surprised to see how much his arms were shaking as he grabbed the first step of the ladder. It took him a lot of effort to haul himself up, and as he got to the last step he collapsed on the deck from exhaustion. Silver was on his side the next second, patting his shoulder sympathetically.

"Told ya you shouldn't have gone there," he said with a grin. There was a blink of worry in his eyes, though, but it faded away when Jim just groaned and told him to give him a break.

"Men, get ready to set sail! We're goin' back to the stars," Silver commanded, and everyone on the ship started running around.

Kida, Hercules and Meg got on Silver's ship too after dealing with Hades, and they were standing beside Pegasus and Phil. Phil was congratulating Hercules enthusiastically and telling him how proud he was, but there was still some sadness in Hercules' smile every time he looked at Milo in the corner of his eye. Kida noticed the glances Hercules was sending, and she crouched down to Phil and put her hand around his shoulders.

"Hey, before we leave, Meg and I would like to talk to you about something," she smiled, winking at Hercules over her shoulder before taking Phil away with them. Pegasus followed them, leaving Hercules and Milo alone.

When everyone had gone, Hercules scratched the back of his neck, blushing slightly as he started talking. "So, I… I guess you'll be leaving with them, huh?"

Milo pushed up his glasses, giving the hero a small smile. "I, uh… I- I'm not sure if the life of a pirate really suits me. And my research is still not complete. And I kind of left most of my stuff back to my hotel, so…"

"You did?" Hercules laughed with a nervous undertone. "Well, I mean, you're always welcome to my palace if you want to complete your research."

"You're not going back to Olympus to live with the other gods?"

"Nah, I think I'm good here. I will go to meet them, though, but I could take you with me. But only if you want to," the hero said, taking shyly Milo's hand in his hands.

"Of course he wants to," Kida answered, making both of them jump. "And don't you dare say otherwise."

"B-but I…"

"We'll come visit you after we've found the treasure," she grinned, patting Pegasus' white back. "You should go now unless you want to be taken by the military for interrogation."

Milo nodded hesitantly, and after giving her a long hug, he and the others got on Pegasus, waving everyone a goodbye. Pegasus spread out his wings, taking off into the sky, and soon they were gone. Meg comforted Kida by putting a hand on her shoulder, but they didn't have time to be sad about saying goodbye. The military ships could already be seen in the horizon, and it wouldn't take them long to reach them.

Kida's ship glided near Silver's ship, and the crew lowered the wooden bridge to make it easier for their captain to hop on.

"Welcome back, Captain," Shang greeted them as they stepped on the ship.

"Great to see you. Everything under control?" Kida asked as she stepped on her ship, looking around for any changes.

"Yes, Captain. We're ready to launch the ship," Shang answered, straightening his back. His eyes drifted to Meg standing behind Kida, and he raised his brows questioningly.

"Good," Kida smiled, not bothering to explain Meg's presence just yet.

After regaining some of his strength back, Jim started helping out at the preparations. He was double-checking the shrouds when he noticed Silver walking towards him, hands behind his back and the usual small smile on his face.

"Shouldn't ya be helpin' that Sinbad fella?" Silver asked.

"I think they can manage themselves," Jim answered, tightening one of the ropes.

Silver was quiet for a while, and then he said: "Did you two have a fight?"

"No," Jim said through gritted teeth.

"I see." Pause. "I think the rope is goin' to hold now."

Jim hadn't even noticed that he had tied the rope in at least a quadruple knot, so he let it go and turned to Silver. "You think?" He smiled, but then he let out a sigh. "They're going to do just fine on their own. It'll be a pain in the ass to launch the ship through those thunderclouds, though."

"If ya say so," Silver nodded. "The woman's crew is signalin' that they're ready. Now we'll just have to wait for Sinbad."

Sinbad's crew finished the preparations in no time, regardless of Silver's words, and Rat waved a brightly lit lantern from the crow's nest to tell they were ready. The military's ships were so close that they could easily fire the cannons at them, and Jim thought the only reason they didn't was because he was there and the cannons could hit him. He also knew that if they didn't leave immediately, the military would have no trouble with catching up with them after the exosphere since their ships' engines were much more powerful and designed to be used in space.

There was a strong blast of wind, and a massive whirlpool opened up between the pirates and the military to everyone's surprise. The thunderclouds separated above the pirates, moving away from them and revealing a peaceful sky. A lightning struck one of the military ships, and Jim tried to hide his grin. Hercules seemed to have talked to his father.

"Launch the ships!" Silver's voice rang out, powerful and commanding, and the ships' engines started roaring. They took off to the sky with everyone cheering and knowing that the sky was on their side.

A/N: Long time no see! I'm in my last year of upper secondary school, so I've been crazy busy with my finals. –sighs- I have too little time to write nowadays. This chapter was more action and Hercules-based than the others, but I wanted to keep Sinbad and Jim separated for some time before making them see each other again, so I hope you don't mind. I promise the next chapter is going to be all about them. :D But yay, we're finally going to space! I've been waiting to write about it since I started this fic.

phantom prince: Sorry, I'd like to add them, but I haven't watched the Hercules TV series.