The cleanup of the wounded took the rest of the night. By the end, Iolaus and Jason were passed out on a couple of chairs, Iolaus snoring loudly against Jason's shoulder, muttering under his breath. Lilith was in the back room helping Kora with the rest. Theseus had already headed back with Cheiron and the rest of the cadets. Classes were cancelled the next day, so there were no complaints about the four staying late at Kora's. Fiducius would just have to understand.

Hercules was just moving around the broken tables, rather easily, but his mind wandered to the events of the night. The girl was his foremost thought. Where would she have learned all those skills? It didn't seem natural for a girl of his age, roughly seventeen, to be that knowledgeable at fighting. Although he was well acquainted with the Amazons, especially Lilith, it didn't seem right. Her style was just so foreign. He just wished that he knew a little more about her. Glancing over at his two friends, he could count on them to have not given her a second thought, although that would probably not be the case in the morning. She did, after all, save their lives. Particularly Lilith's, for which he was eternally grateful.

Morning came without any sleep for the young demigod. He woke up his companions from their slumber and dragged them back to the academy with a heartfelt thank you from Kora as they left.

"She owes us big time," Lilith stated, yawning as they walked.

"Yeah," Iolaus added, "Do you think she could repay me by going on a date?" Jason punched him in the arm, making the former thief stumble in his exhaustion.

Lilith studied Hercules' silent form for a moment, then asked, "Did you get any sleep last night? Your eyes have bags under them that could carry an entire ocean."

"Yeah, Herc. You look a wreck," Jason added, concern showing on his face.

"Thanks, guys. It's nice to know that you'll always be honest..." Hercules said back, stifling a yawn.

"Okay, we know you better than that. What's going on with you?" Iolaus quiried, draping an arm around his friend's shoulder playfully. He knew him for too long to not know when something was up. Yet, even for Hercules, he was being pretty quiet.

Hercules thought a moment longer, then sighed, "Did any of you notice anything about the swords that the men were carrying?" They all shook their heads no. "On the hilt of each one there was crossed swords."

Jason sighed disgustingly. "Ares, no doubt."

"Yeah, but why trash a tavern?"

"To get at you, of course. Don't you remember? 'I'll get you one day little brother!'" Iolaus mimicked, laughing at his own joke. Jason punched him again.

"So Ares was after you again. It happens all the time. Nothing's new about it," Lilith commented coolly. "What I want to know is who that singer was last night. I mean, the singing was great and all, but did you see her shoot that arrow. She meant business."

"Yeah, and the look on her face when she shot the guy.... Creepy!" Iolaus said, shaking from a sudden chill.

"She's not just an archer, that's for sure," Hercules went on. "She gave me a few bruises when I went to talk to her before the brawl. I guess I surprised her because the next thing I knew was that I was eating dirt on the road." He smiled in spite of himself.

"You seemed to be doing fine at Kora's by the looks of you. I was wondering where all those bruises and that cut on your arm came from. Did she pull a knife on you?" Jason said.

"No, the cut was from Kora's, but everything else was her. I'm telling you, I've never seen anyone move so fast! And she did something to my neck, and after I felt like the whole earth was spinning. It was like being put through Cheiron's training sessions in less that a second. It was unreal," Hercules said, rubbing his ribs where he had landed on them.

Then Jason said, "You might want Cheiron to look at you once we get back."

"Sure."

They got back to the academy where Iolaus headed straight to the dining hall along with Lilith and Jason. Hercules excused himself to his sleeping room, saying that he was exhausted from the lack of sleep. Nobody complained and Hercules was left alone to make his way to the room. In truth, he felt a bit sick to the stomach, as though he had eaten nothing at all and had just run a mile. Although then again, he had just been fighting the night before and he had no sleep and hadn't touched food. With that comforting thought, he fell onto his bed and was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

"What do you think you were doing? You were not supposed to interfere! You promised me that you would not interfere with fate! Of all the stupid things that you could have done...."

A young woman paced around a clearing, clearly upset at the change in events. "How was I supposed to know that it was so important? I thought I was doing the right thing. I mean, the son of Zeus does live on to become a legend, so he does live on. How does saving the life of one girl change anything? Tell me!"

The eerie voice hissed. "It does matter because Lilith is supposed to die! Once she dies, Hercules goes into a rage, fueled some by Hera herself produced from her powers. Hercules is then supposed to kill or maim all the priests in the tavern, a couple other people as well in his rage, and then find Cheiron and kill him!" The bodiless voice grew louder and shriller. "He then calms down soon afterwards and is horrified at what he did! He then goes leaves the academy and starts on his adventures that make him famous! Is any of this getting through to you, child!"

The girl stopped pacing, a look of horror dawning on her face. "I...I didn't know..."

"I told you to read that book I gave you on ancient Hellas! I told you!"

"What must I do?"

"You. You are going to have to finish what the fates had intended..." the voice trailed off. Two small mews were heard a little ways off, sounding mournful, as though knowing what was coming next.

A disturbing silence filled the air, broken by the shattering conclusion. "I have to kill Lilith."

Hercules awoke in the middle of the night, feeling as though his head were about to burst. His mouth was so dry that is felt like sand. Raising himself on his elbow, he quickly found that he felt a bit weak, but that was probably from the splitting headache. Placing his feet on the floor, he slowly made his way out to the well and drew up some water. It felt good on his parched throat. Taking the cup of water back with him, he noticed black spots start to dance in front of his eyes. Waving them away, he made his way back to bed, vowing that he would eat something in the morning. He'd feel a lot stronger then. It served him right to have left himself in this condition anyway.

The next day, after breakfast, the gang headed off to Cheiron's morning drills. Iolaus noticed that his sparring buddy was looking a bit off colour that morning, so he took it easy, hoping that Cheiron would not notice. Must have been something he ate. Those oats and eggs were looking a bit odd this morning after all. Non-the-less, he was still worried about his tall friend. He didn't usually get sick. Must be that god blood in him.

After the drills, they went to Fidicius' class for yet another lesson on warfare and the code of honour of past heroes. The part about the heroes was at least interesting.

Hercules tried hard to concentrate on the lecture, but his eyes kept bothering him. That and his headache would not stop building up. His head was actually starting to gain an irritating faint ringing sound. He shook his head, but to no avail. Maybe he'd see Cheiron about some herbs after the lessons were over with. He noticed Iolaus and now Jason looking over at him, concern mirrored in their eyes. Hercules could make out Jason mouth 'Are you feeling okay?' Hercules just waved him off, mouthing back that he was fine. Shrugging, they went back to paying attention to the lecture.

The scrapping of chairs woke Hercules from his light doze, alarming him that he had been so close to falling asleep in class. Standing up after most of the class had left, he quickly caught up to Iolaus, Jason, Theseus, and Lilith, who were all moaning about how Fidicius could take even the interesting topics and make them boring. Hercules tried to focus in on their words, but found the ringing in his ears to increase to bloke out their voices. That and his vision was slowly decreasing.

Swaying slightly, he halted, watching his friends finally stop when they noticed that he was no longer following.

"Hey, Herc? You feeling okay? You look a little pale, buddy." Iolaus' words were lost to the ringing.

Blinking, Hercules said weakly, "I don't feel so good...." With that, he crumpled forward. Jason quickly caught the young demigod as he fell, lowering him to the ground carefully. He was out cold and shivering violently. Lilith took her hand and placed it on Hercules' forehead. It was burning up! She took her hand away, noticing the cold sweat still on it.

Lilith looked at Theseus. "Go get Cheiron! Quick!" She looked back at Hercules and heard Iolaus mutter, "It'll be okay buddy. Everything will be just fine...."