Persephone and Hades existed in quiet, anticipatory bliss for a few months, in which time Orpheus managed to dismay the followers of Bacchus with his constant and never-ceasing devotion to his dead fiancé. The women of this particular tribe were monstrous, wild in their passions and their fury was unquenchable as he rejected them all as courteously as he knew how in his bottomless grief. They tore his head from his body and his corpse into tiny bloody pieces. His head was carried down the river whereupon his distraught mother and her sisters, the other Muses, discovered it still singing strange garbled notes from its mouth and laid his body to rest. Hades granted him passage to the Isle of the Blessed, where Orpheus's enticing music played through the doors and echoed throughout the Underworld as he found a final peace.

Persephone quietly continued her study of her abilities as an immortal and bore little in the way of competence. Hades watched on with a slight edge of growing panic. He didn't want her returning to Zeus's realm so vulnerable. Japetus's taunts snuck back into the back of his mind. If something were to happen to his wife or his unborn child, Hades considered that he could quite possibly lose his mind.

This revelation stunned the King of the Underworld. He wasn't the sort to grow strong attachments; he wasn't the sort to be frightened easily. Yet his wife's steady count until the day she could be reunited with her mother in the sun to discuss the baby was wearing at his patience and distracted him until one day he decided to voice his concerns to her.

He took Persephone in his arms and stroked her face tenderly, drawing her from her work.

"What's wrong?" she asked, her voice light and carefree. That becoming smile she always had just for him lit up her face.

Hades felt his mouth go dry.

"My love, I need to explain something to you," he told her, not able to meet her exquisite eyes. She touched his neck and urged him to relax with the softest pressure. He sighed.

"Come this way," he beckoned and Persephone followed with her arm in his, her expression bewildered but patient.

They walked out of the House of Hades and took a boat upriver. Persephone waited, silent in the knowledge that when he found the words Hades would explain himself.

Hades winced a little and bowed his head. She cradled him as they sat side by side in the boat and he lay against her chest and heard the steady thump of her heartbeat. It soothed him.

"I fear for you," he confessed. "And our child in the world above, love. Zeus becomes increasingly lax in his kingdom and there are horrors that run under the sun unchecked by the Lord of the Skies... I know you wish to spend time with your mother and I would never deny you your heart's desire. I would rather be in torment for eternity than cause you pain. But Persephone…"

"Hades…"

He held her hand with urgency. "I need you to comprehend this. I have never been so afraid before in my life, not since I was a child and cast into a prison with your mother. Demeter had every right to be with you. I am not disputing that. I am not disputing anything. But the thought of you in peril…"

"Hades." He heard her calm voice above and felt the vibration of her words through her chest. "I am not helpless. I will have Hecate and Hermes with me. My mother will take care of me, too. I won't let anything happen to our baby. Or to me."

Hades clenched his eyes tight shut.

"Come and see what I have done to defend your honour and tell me if my fears are well-founded," he urged her. "I fear the consequences of… If anything were to happen…"

Persephone lifted his head with her hands and pressed her lips to his, silencing him. He kissed her with a fervour he didn't knew he had, pouring his unspoken terror into her, ferociously loving her and terrified of the wrath he would unleash on a world where she had suffered.

She let him press against her with his urgency and responded to it, wrapping him in her arms, comforting him with her warmth. Eventually he drew away and held her gaze.

"Please," he begged and his cold dark eyes never left her own. "Please stay with me."

The boat knocked against the shoreline and Hades watched her try to find what he needed to show her. Her eyes ran over Theseus and his companion pinned to their table and didn't comprehend it. Her gaze found his again and she frowned in confusion.

He explained what had happened, how he had heard the drunken heroes and he watched her confusion leave.

"But I don't understand…" She gestured to the stupid men still morosely chained to their golden chairs. "What does this have to do with..?"

Hades clutched her closer. "If anything were to happen to you… Even if it were a minor incident… I could not help myself and would decimate the realm until my fears were assuaged."

Persephone ran a hand through his hair and he relished her touch. But she smiled away his concerns.

"Hades. There won't be a reason for your wrath. I will be fine."

"But how do you know that, for certain?" Hades pressed.

"My Lord! My Lady!"

A smaller boat pelted out of the gloom, interrupting their conversation. Hades stood. His dryad servant was shivering with terror and shock and paddled furiously to draw alongside their vessel.

"My Lord… The Fates…" The poor messenger was out of breath from the effort of speedily rowing out to meet his king. He wheezed, coughed and found his breath. "My Lord, the Fates request an urgent audience. They are in your Throne Room. I believe the news is grave."

Hades's eyes widened but he did not let the shock stop him. He took Persephone by the arm and they were enrapt in darkness. In a moment, they had left the boat far behind and stood before their thrones.

Hades made a short nod to the Moirae who, for the third time in recorded history, had left their room to address him directly. The matter had to be serious.

Lachesis, the middle sister, broke the silence.

"Thanatos is captured," she uttered.

"How?"

Hades was curt and to the point, every muscle in his body strained with tension. Every servant held their breath in the Throne Room. Death held captive?

Clotho continued.

"Zeus has let a mortal king, one Sisyphus of Corinth, to catch Thanatos as he carried out his duties."

Hades felt like swearing a mountain of curses but swallowed them all.

"The same king who has violated the sanctity of visitors and murdered those who begged shelter from him? The same man who plots against his neighbouring kingdoms with cunning and avarice and yet Zeus has not struck him down?"

Clotho nodded at the Lord of the Underworld's deductions. The three sisters stood, grey in their antiquity, waiting for the king to make a decision. They were powerless to cause new death while Thanatos remained bound and their tapestry could not continue.

All of life and death would be halted if Thanatos was not freed.

Hades's eyes sparkled with rage at his brother's incompetence.

"Is there any reason for Zeus not to act?" he demanded of the Fates.

They all shook their heads in perfect unison. Their complacency angered Hades further but he had always been one for swift and decisive action. He could deal with Zeus later.

"Hecate!" Hades barked out a call for the necromancer.

She spun into the visible spectrum barely a breath after Hades called for her and curtsied low to the Fates before attending to him.

"Control the Shades stuck at the gate," he commanded. "Guide those drifting between the realms and keep them from overwhelming us. Control the ghosts by whichever means you see fit."

She disappeared with a sparkle and a clash of metal jewellery, moving quickly. Hades barked out another command.

"Hermes!"

The messenger god crackled into existence at the foot of the thrones. He shot Persephone a frightened glance before he bowed low to the king. Persephone stood resolutely by her husband, silent and pale-faced.

"Why has Zeus not acted in his jurisdiction?" the Lord of the Dead demanded.

"I… Um…" Hermes fumbled for an explanation. "I mean, that is to say… I have no idea."

Hades cut him off with an abrupt gesture from his arm, as though flicking away his impatience.

"Get up there," Hades pointed furiously upwards, to Zeus's realm, where he was not permitted to interfere. "Drag Sisyphus's soul down here, along with the implement he has used to trap Thanatos. Now."

Hermes vanished without a sound, like the morning mist.

Hades dismissed his servants with another command and they filed out, almost running in their haste to escape proximity to Hades's displeasure. Persephone did not flinch, though. She laid a thoughtful hand over her belly and sat in her throne, lost in thought.

"What can capture Death?" she whispered to her husband.

Hades couldn't sit still; he paced up and down in front of their thrones.

"A number of items unfortunately can hinder or completely neutralise death. Most are contained high on Olympus and are inaccessible to mortals. Thanatos carries a number of items that can be used as tools to constrain or alter Death's passage and it is possible that…"

Hades stopped. Persephone could hear what had halted his musings; it was a high-pitched noise, coming closer. Hades composed himself and drew his blade, laying it over his knees as he sat atop his throne. The look on his face could have slaughtered whole nations or frozen lava.

A servant knocked and was allowed to enter.

"Hermes failed," the poor naiad reported. "The mortal has wounded him with Death's scythe. He is resting in one of our best rooms and Hecate is tending to him."

Hades didn't even blink.

"Leave us," was his quiet order.

Persephone stared at him, asking him with her eyes what on earth they could do. Her husband considered his sword and ran a single pale finger down its length.

"Ares," he muttered. "Lord of Warfare, listen closely to the whispers of my blade. Should this mortal king prevail and Thanatos is imprisoned, war will have no victor. There will be no glory, no deaths to tally amongst the heroes, no point at all to the struggle that gives you strength. Bring him to me, this silly mortal king, and I promise you eternal satisfaction."

Persephone felt something like an arrow's flight pass from Hades's hand and out into the darkness, a swift skim of air that was incredibly fast.

"Ares will find him?" she asked Hades.

Hades watched the reflections in his blade.

"If there is any god or goddess in the realms that can use combat to their advantage," Hades muttered. "It is he. As Zeus appears to be nonchalant, it is Ares with the most motivation to destroy this Sisyphus in the realm above."

"Will Hermes be okay?" she asked and a tiny bit of her tension crept into her tone. Hades tore his eyes away from his blade and confronted the pain in her face.

"Hecate has never failed," he promised her. He allowed her some comfort with the touch of his hand. "Have faith in her, love."

"I do," she reassured him.

Hades concentrated on keeping his temper in check, he was beyond furious at Zeus for putting him in this predicament. The line of the dead at the front of his realm would be halted; the judges would judge all souls and his entire kingdom would be brought to a standstill. Those dying in the realm above would be gushing from their injuries, lingering painfully in the world, longing for the end and unable to find it.

Anarchy.

There was a gush of sudden heat and an inferno entered through the doors of the Throne Room. It was red and roaring, hissing sparks in every direction and in the very centre loomed the massive, intimidating form of Ares. From one colossal hand, the God of War held something that looked like a sack. In the other, he had a man by one leg who was spinning slowly suspended by his grip.

Ares entered with the grace and stride of a true warrior. The fire sparked in his footsteps and in it could be heard the cries of conflict, insanity and bloodlust. He stopped and threw the man at the foot of Hades's throne. The sack he placed gently on the ground.

"Your captive, Uncle," Ares growled. "Thanatos is in here. I couldn't get him out."

Hades just pointed the tip of his sword at the sack and at once it began to writhe, pitching around like the ocean and all in the room heard the seams split wide. With an almighty howl Death arose, apocalyptic with rage and hate, raising his scythe high into the air. His face contorted underneath his hood until Hades glimpsed the snarl of teeth beneath it.

"Attend to your duties," he ordered Thanatos sternly. "I will deal with this."

For a second, it seemed certain that Thanatos would disobey and slaughter the mortal before the eyes of everyone. The hands raising the scythe did not stop their motion and the purest hatred pulsed through Thanatos from head to toe. But Hades knew Ares influence and a wind, a dark and consuming gust of wind blew through the room. It quietened Ares's flames and at once Thanatos could take a breath and see reason. The scythe hit the floor but did not strike Sisyphus. The mortal king clutched his head and curled in on himself like a baby, certain that he would be struck.

Death hissed.

"Go," Hades urged him softly. The two immortals faced each other and Hades watched Death obey. He stormed from the room, scythe over his shoulder, impatient to be finished.

Hades turned his attention to Ares.

"As I promised, so shall be," he assured the god. Ares understood himself to be dismissed and, looking a little disgruntled at the sudden wind from his uncle that had quenched the glow of fiery temper within Death, Ares vanished. The floor smouldered after he had gone.

Hades sat and once again laid his sword across his knees, contemplating the sad little figure curled up on his floor.

What shall be done about one who dares imprison Death?

Sisyphus was muttering.

"Please, Lord Hades. My wife did not bury my body and though Lord Ares did bring about my capture, I am not yet truly dead. My soul remains in Zeus's realm. I must return to be buried, die properly and then be subject to your ruling." The mortal king gathered himself and bowed. "I know the laws of the realms, my Lord."

"You know very little, it would seem," Persephone answered ahead of Hades. He fought a smirk at the dismay on Sisyphus's face as his wife degraded his honour.

"My Lady, I know enough to understand that I am not subject to you until my death," the man continued to argue. "Let me return to Zeus's realm and be buried with the proper rites. Then I shall attend to you."

"Thanatos is clearly keen to claim your soul and have you wander on the shores of the Styx forevermore," Persephone contemplated aloud. Hades wondered if their thoughts were leading down the same path and did not interrupt his wife. "Why would you wish to return to the world above, into Zeus's realm, for the wrath of Zeus himself?"

Sisyphus actually smirked. "I have avoided any of the wrath of Zeus, dear Queen. I am cleverer than that."

Far away, so very far that the edges of the realms overlapped, Hades and Persephone felt the clap of warning thunder. The all-knowing Father of the Heavens was aware of their conversation and knew he had just been insulted. Hades fought even harder to control a smile. Persephone leant forward to eye their prisoner.

"You believe yourself to have hoodwinked the Lord of the Skies, mortal?" Her tone was speculative, lulling, attempting to coax this egotistical little man to dare speak his mind.

The idiot did just that.

"I believe in this case, I have, my Lady." Sisyphus straightened and stood, bowing low to the thrones. "I wish for my rights to be upheld, Lord and Lady. Let me return and be buried."

Hades couldn't believe the mortal's stupidity. The second he stepped foot back in Zeus's realm, it was almost guaranteed he'd be flung back down into the pits of Tartarus faster than anyone could blink. Nobody directly insulted the Lord of Heaven and yet, why had Zeus not acted beforehand?

There must be a greater cause to his laxity, Hades rationalised. He is sending someone a message with this affair. But who?

He felt cold, deep down in the pit of his bones. The sense of foreboding that had been growing with his wife's imminent departure was strengthening inside of him. Could this be a message for him to start trusting Persephone with her decisions? Was this meant to be? Or was this a demonstration of how far Zeus would let events transpire before he acted, leaving Hades's wife at risk of dangers in his realm?

He resolved to have a discussion with his brother at the first available opportunity.

Persephone turned her head to her husband, deferring to his judgement. Hades slid his hand to the pommel of his sword. Best to let Zeus's obvious displeasure sort out this little mess and be done with it. It was his realm, his affair, his honour the mortal insulted.

"Then go," Hades ordered. "I will be seeing you shortly, I am certain of it. But Sisyphus, Thanatos will not be the one to collect you. I hear that Hermes is eager to deliver me a certain mortal soul and I have decided to allot this to him."

Sisyphus froze and his jaw dropped.

"But… But Hermes doesn't collect souls!" he protested. The dryads in the room surged forward and secured his arms in cuffs to escort him to the Gates of the Underworld. Hades caressed his blade one more time before it blinked out of existence.

"He can and will," Hades decreed. "Take his highness and return him to my brother's realm."

The order was obeyed. Sisyphus shuffled, almost punch-drunk from his shock and growing dismay, from the room.

Persephone snorted the instant he was gone.

"What an idiot," she sighed. "Is the sack Death's?"

Hades nodded. "He sometimes carries souls that try to escape in there. It is almost unbreakable."

"Almost." Persephone sounded satisfied. "We finally caught Zeus's attention, it seems." She stood from her throne and approached her husband, her delicate hands rested on his arm. "I understand what you were getting at now. But Hades, don't you see? We find a solution. We fix the problem. No matter what happens to me, or our children, we're strong enough to find a way out of it. We can make this work." She smiled at him. "Have faith, love."

Hades took her hands in his. White, bony and icy, they contrasted with her mocha complexion and the glow of her pregnancy. Her stroked her fingers.

"You always remain so focussed, so calm and you find the answer," she urged him. "You dealt with this. You can manage anything. I know we can do this and it is only for a short time. But I need my mother, Hades."

Hades's shut his eyes tightly and fought against his terror that he would regret trusting that she would be safe. "Let me speak with my brother before you go," he begged her. "I need to know for certain that you will return safely. I do a disservice to our child and to you by trusting blindly that you will be safe where I cannot save you."

Her face dropped to the level of his as she knelt awkwardly to meet his eyes. He pulled her close and then into his lap. He rested his chin on her shoulder and breathed in the delicious scent of her. He didn't know how to tell her how frightened he was or how much his brand new family meant to him.

"Okay," Persephone agreed easily, to soothe him. "It's going to be alright. You'll see."

They clutched each other close for a long time, long enough for Zeus to seize the impetuous Sisyphus as he stepped back into the sunshine and throw him into the grip of a furious Hermes. Hermes pierced the mortal man through the heart with his caduceus in an impressive feat of strength and flew slowly back to Tartarus, where Zeus had designed an impossible task for the stupid king. Sisyphus was doomed to push a stone forevermore up a hill to try and get it to the top, only to be foiled every single time as Zeus had willed the stone to roll itself back to the bottom when his hope reached its pinnacle.

Sisyphus pushed and pushed for all eternity.