Chapter 2: A War on Two Fronts:
Beast's Castle – Bridge
8,023 Years Ago
"Is everyone in position?" Ephemer called out to his assembled army. They had tracked the Leopardos Foreteller's movements back to Ursus' headquarters at a castle in what will eventually be known as France. Eager to hit now before he could lead more troops to the warfront, Ephemer had organized a hit and run raid with the express goal of assassinating Ava's killer. Now two dozen Unchained stood in the shadow of what would eventually be called Beast's Castle doing one last run down of their equipment in preparation for their mission. Now, after a week of travel and planning, everything was finally ready.
Everyone in the group nodded their heads in agreement, and without any further noise, the strike team leaped over the gates and began scaling the bridge leading to the castle. Ephemer reached the top first, killing the two sentries standing guard at the gates leading to the courtyard before they even knew he was there. Skuld was the next one up, shaking her head in disgust at her friend's tactics.
"Was that really necessary?" she whispered as the rest of the strike team reached the bridge.
"They chose to steep themselves in Darkness," the silver haired leader of the Unchained retorted. "They deserve their fate." Skuld sighed in frustration but held her tongue as she and the rest of the unit ran along the walls of the courtyard until they found a defensible corner with the fewest guards. Ephemer took his own route, slitting the sentries' throats with his Keyblade in utter silence. His soldiers crossed the courtyard as he ran to the center and pushed the gargoyle statues into position. When the hidden door opened in the tower to the left of the stairs, the group stealthily raced towards it.
Ephemer lead his army through the hidden passage until they came to the balcony overlooking the castle ballroom. Down below, Aced and his lieutenants of the Ursus guild. They were discussing a recent attack by Anguis on one of their outposts. But from the sound of their conversation, Gula wasn't anywhere in the castle.
"Damn it. He's not here," Ephemer whispered to himself before turning to the rest of his strike team. "Alright everyone, here's the plan. We can still salvage this even if Gula's not here."
"So glad you could join us, traitor," Aced's voice called out from the ground, stopping the Unchained army cold.
Earth – The Playground
Now
"There are relics that predate the universe itself," Thor explained to the Earth military leaders assembled for the morning's briefing. "Ancient forces of infinite destruction. These Infinity Stones can only be brandished by beings of extraordinary strength, and were often used individually to mow down entire civilizations like wheat in a field. But tens of thousands of years ago, the very first Keyblade Master crafted a gauntlet that would allow a mere mortal to wield all six Stones as once." On the screen behind him, the video changed from footage of a titanic figure using the Power Stone to obliterate an entire planet to display ancient carvings that depicted a human being wielding a glove with six glowing gemstones inserted into it.
"So if these Unchained bastards have all six, they could wipe out the whole solar system," General Talbot surmised, speaking what every other military leader in the room was thinking.
"Without the Infinity Gauntlet, the damage to the universe the Unchained could do would be severe, but also limited in scope since they would have to have multiple people wielding the stones to keep using them," the new king of Asgard replied. "But our intelligence suggests that they are seeking the Gauntlet. With that, one Unchained could wield all the stones simultaneously. Whoever wields the gauntlet would have the power to reshape reality on a whim. Turn back time, teleport across the universe, track anyone from across space, mind control, incinerate anything or anyone, reshape reality… The powers of the Infinity Gauntlet would be enough to make its wielder a god."
"If these artifacts are so powerful, what chance do we have against them?" the general from Japan demanded.
"While the situation may sound bleak," Coulson explained as Thor took a step back to allow the deputy-director of S.H.I.E.L.D to speak. "We have two advantages. The Legion has all the stones but no gauntlet, while the Dark Elves have taken Draco to dig for the Gauntlet but don't have any of the stones. The two factions are going to go to war with each other to get what the other side has, so the chaos will be our perfect opportunity to grab everything from them and hurl it into the sun while they're all going for each other's throats. The representatives were slightly reassured, but everyone still looked nervous.
"Look," Coulson went on. "Things look bleak. I get that. We're dealing with an ancient army of immortal knights and a syndicate of would be conquerors. But we cannot simply roll over and wait for the end. It is our duty as human beings to protect this planet and that is what we're going to do. I'm not going to lie. We have the Daybreak Coalition, the Inhuman race, and the magical community on our side, but the odds are still stacked against us. But, if you'll forgive the Independence Day reference, we will not go quietly into the night. We will not let these people destroy us without a fight. Because if we can't protect Earth, you can be damn sure we'll at least avenge it."
With the mood lifted by Phil's rousing speech, the briefing ended and Gordon arrived to bring the military personnel back to their respective bases to begin planning on a coordinated strategy to combat the Unchained and the Hellfire Club. Thor was about to return to Asgard to help organize a battle party to help with the impending siege of Draco when Daisy Johnson came running into the room, out of breath and panting for air.
"The Hellfire Club remnants have been sighted in Greece," she gasped frantically.
Earth – Los Angeles
"Okay," Hades began. "As long as nobody does anything to attract attention, we should be fine." Enraged at his wife's demise, Hades had guided the Jolly Roger to Los Angeles in search of one of the auxiliary entrances to the Underworld in the hopes of bringing his wife back from the dead. Unfortunately, the Avengers had arrived to apprehend them and he and the members of the Hellfire Club still loyal to Maleficent. They had spent the last day attempting to get the heroes off their trail so that they could reach the entrance to the Underworld. He turned around to look forlornly at his wife's corpse. Frozen in stasis by a hastily cast Blizzaga spell, you'd hardly know she was dead were it not for the large gapping stab wound in her chest.
But when one was the lord of the Underworld, such wounds were easy to heal even without extensive use of Elixirs and Curaga potions. Hades turned and nodded to Diablo. He knew where the entrance was, but after the fiasco with yesterday's battle with the Avengers, he needed to be subtle about this. Malick's men and their remaining Leroys had proven to be anything but subtle, meaning that he was going to have to do this alone. He kneeled down to give his daughter a kiss, promising to bring her mother back. And with that, he picked up Maleficent's frozen body and teleported away in a puff of smoke.
He emerged on a hill behind the famous Hollywood sign. With a wave of his hand, he read the Ancient Greek inscription carved onto the back of the giant "H". But to his confusion, nothing happened. He stepped forward, thinking that he was just too far away from the sign. But as soon as he got within five feet, an invisible force blasted him backwards. Maleficent's frozen form clattered to the ground behind him as he frantically scrambled to his feet.
"I'm sorry for your loss," a young, nasally voice called out. Hades looked up to find the portal blocked by a lanky teenage boy clad in jeans and a baggy collared shirt leaning against the large metal letters. Hades grimaced. Great, he thought to himself. And here I was hoping to get this done without picking a fight with the Higher Planes. Behind Joshua, the portal flickered into existence every few seconds.
"Out of my way Kiryu," Hades snapped as he picked up Maleficent's body. The Greek god of the dead attempted to push past the angel and enter the Underworld, but to his surprise, a barrier crystalized into existence in front of him, cutting him off from the sign.
"I can understand the pain you're in right now," Joshua Kiryu replied. "But you can't bring her back."
"Of course I can," Hades snarled. "I'm the lord of the dead, I can do whatever I want." One thing that Hades never told Maleficent about his personal history is the role that the Reapers and the Higher Planes played in his origins. Kronos had been a low-ranking angel with delusions of grandeur, his power levels only just barely higher than a Producer. His children, born from mortal mothers out of wedlock, were taken and raised in isolation. Kronos used what power he had to turn Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades into pseudo-Reapers before they worked up the courage to overthrow him. When they killed their father, they were ignorant of their true place in the celestial hierarchy, thinking themselves to be gods as Kronos had raised them to believe. That idea lasted all of five minutes when a team of Reapers and Angels stormed their father's castle.
Hades, Zeus, and Poseidon were taken to the Higher Planes, where they were informed of where they really fit on the food chain. The angel in charge of the strike team offered them three choices for their futures. They could abdicated their powers and return to being mortals living out their lives. They could become leaders of the "Middle Ones," a vaguely defined term for entities who oversaw the maintenance and workings of the natural world and were more powerful than Producers but less powerful than Angels. Or they could try to continue their father's legacy and be executed. The three siblings chose the second option, and the rest was history.
There were three openings in the Middle Ones at the time: The Middle Ones in charge of overseeing the sky, sea, and afterlife were looking to choose successor, and there was only room for one applicant each. That was where the famous "drawing lots" scene of mythology came in. The three brothers had been given twenty-four hours to decide which path they each wanted to take, and after a few too many drinks, Zeus had suggested drawing straws. And that was how Hades had become the apprentice to Anubis, overseer of the Underworld.
"Not anymore," Joshua retorted, snapping Hades out of his reminiscing. "Don't you remember what Anubis told you while he was grooming you to take over the position? The shepherd of the dead cannot play favorites. Besides, Tethered worlds may mean that you've only been away from your post for a few years, but as far as Earth is concerned, the Underworld has been without an overseer for over two thousand years." Hades' eyes widened as comprehension dawned on him. Kiryu was telling him that because he'd ditched the Underworld to join up with the Hellfire Club, he'd been replaced. And Anubis had been quite clear on what happened to overseers of the afterlife who abandoned their post. His access to the Underworld had been cut off, his power levels hobbled, and his life expectancy entirely dependent on how long he could evade the celestial entities sent to hunt him down.
"No…" he whispered frantically, desperately hoping that he was only dreaming.
"I'm sorry, Hades," Joshua remarked, showing a rare moment of compassion for someone whose deeds at this point were so despicable. "I can understand being tired of the monotony of the job, but your actions are unacceptable. After you abandoned your office, the Higher Planes shuffled the job around to a few different people until they finally shoved it off to me a few weeks ago. Personally, I think that they did it as a punishment for all the times I've bent the rules in the Reaper's Game over the years, added to the fact that I tried to wipe Shibuya off the map… But I've been getting off track." The "teen" cleared his throat, his demeanor becoming more formal.
"Hades, by the power vested in me by the Higher Planes as overseer of the Underworld, I hereby declare you guilty of abandoning your post with malicious intent, and hereby sentence you to death." In a flash of light, Joshua's casual clothes were replaced by medieval plate armor, and the familiar form of Excalibur appeared in his hands. Grief-stricken, enraged, and refusing to let this man make an orphan of his daughter. His anger mounting, Hades raised his arms and released a veritable tornado of bright orange flames from his arms, his fiery hair creating a thirteen-mile-high column of fire in the sky as he lashed out at the former Composer of Shibuya.
When the tornado dissipated, the entire hillside was in flames. The Hollywood sign was reduced to a melting line of molten metal as ash rained and smoke billowed up into the sky. A single white feater floated to the ground above the remains of the sign, completely untouched by the smoke and fire around it, a clear sign that Joshua Kiryu had escaped the inferno unscathed. As Hades dropped to his knees in emotional agony and collected Maleficent's body, singed and stripped of its cryogenic preservation, but still intact, the telltale light of an Arc Reactor grew in the distance as Iron Man and the Avengers closed in on the leader of the Hellfire Loyalists.
Yes, Coulson quoting Iron Man's iconic "if we can't protect the earth" line from The Avengers was absolutely intentional.
The entrance to the Underworld being in L.A. is a shout out to the Percy Jackson series. Unlike in that series, where the entrances to Mount Olympus and the Underworld and such moves over time, the entrances to both are fixed in this universe, and the Underworld just has multiple entrances at different points on the globe (one entrance on each continent). Hades is simply using the L.A. entrance since it's closest to where Hook's ship landed. I decided to go with the Hollywood sign entrance from the movie adaptation (even though I enjoyed the first movie despite its flaws, the second one was terrible) since it would attract less attention than Hades carrying Maleficent's body through Los Angeles to DOA Records.
As for where Hades and the Greek pantheon from Hercules fit with in the celestial hierarchy of The World Ends With You, they're a few spaces above Reapers, but bellow Angels. Zeus and Hades' power levels are slightly above that of Composers and Producers depending on the individual. For instance, now that Joshua has replaced Hades as ruler of the Underworld, Joshua now outranks him. As for how this fits with Hades' Greek mythology esque backstory in The Xehanort War that he told Maleficent, my explanation is that he left out any mention of the whole plane system from TWEWY because he's forbidden from speaking of it, sort of like how the Producer isn't allowed to directly reveal himself to anyone on either side of the Reaper's Game. If Hades were to tell mortal that the Greek gods were not as high on the celestial hierarchy as everyone thinks they are, he'd be, in TV Tropes terms, Killed To Uphold The Masquerade.
I know nothing really happened in this chapter to move the story forward, but I just wanted to make it clear that Maleficent was absolutely, definitively, no-chance-of-ever-being-brought-back dead. Given that she's survived before in canon, I just felt the need to make it crystal clear in this story to avoid confusion or pointless speculation on if I'll change my mind. I'm not. I've got the next saga planned out to the very end and she's not coming back, as much as she is my favorite villain. On another note, virtual brownie points for whoever can spot the Hamilton reference in Hades and Joshua's confrontation. Josh using Excalibur is a reference to the Knights of the Cross from the Dresden Files by the way.