Princess Fantasy D X-2

A/N: I have never been inspired enough to write stories about any fanart before, until I saw the work of deviantart artist Skirtzzz, specifically her Final Fantasy Disney Dressphere series. With her blessing, this will be another part of a series of final scene rewrites, using the powers of the dresspheres to possibly change the script, or failing that, make the scene worthy of a Final Fantasy series. Replicating the feel for such an incredible franchise will be a challenge, but I swear I'll do my best!

If you haven't seen any of the movies or their endings, this could be a little spoilerific, but if you have or don't mind, hang on for the ride!

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.

Damsel of Darkness

The city of Thebes was shaking on its foundations as the gargantuan form of the Cyclops stomped through it, crushing structures and knocking over buildings like they were nothing more than clods of dirt. Terrified citizens fled to the ports in a desperate attempt to escape the madness, even as the sea roiled, the earth trembled, the skies churned and the monster's cruel laughter echoed through the skies like thunder.

The legendary hero Hercules would've faced him head-on, but a recent deal with the God Hades to save the life of his love, Megara, had drained him of all his divine strength. Still, he had valiantly ventured out to face the Cyclops, despite the fact there was literally nothing he could do.

And it showed as the Cyclops literally tossed him around like a child's toy.

"Flea!" the brute sneered, balancing the barely-standing man on his knee, before flicking him away with a single finger. The Cyclops laughed like a madman as Hercules crashed into a wall and collapsed to the ground, covered in bruises and literally looking more dead than alive. Still, he struggled to stand, to at least keep the monster's attention on him and not the city…

"Hercules!" suddenly came a yell, and the hero shakily raised his head to see, through tear-soaked eyes, the familiar white form of his steed Pegasus flying down, Meg herself on his back, and, in disbelief, the gruff, goat-legged form of his trainer, Philoctetes, sitting on the winged-horse's head.

"Phil…" he croaked, blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth.

"Come on, kid, come on! Fight back!" the satyr leapt off Pegasus's head and hurried to his pupil's side, wiping at his mouth with a cloth. "Come on, you can take this bum! This guy's a pushover! Look at him!"

"You were right all along, Phil…" groaned Hercules, literally at the end of his rope. "Dreams are for rookies…" He shot a bitter look at Megara, who almost felt her heart break at both the look, and his condition.

Meg shut her eyes bitterly, both not wanting to see Hercules's broken appearance, and for her outright betrayal of his trust. She had built up her relationship with Hercules at the behest of Hades himself, who literally held her soul in his hands, but when she found herself falling in love with him, he had used her to remove Hercules's strength. Right now, all she wanted to do was find some way – any way – to atone…

'But why do you wish to atone for something you have no control over?'

Meg's eyes flashed open, not expecting an actual answer from anywhere – then stared when she saw her surroundings. Everything, Thebes, Hercules, Phil, even the Cyclops, had completely disappeared, and all she could see was a clear night sky filled with stars.

'You are not the one who drained Hercules's strength, nor are you the one who made the decision to seek out his weakness,' the voice continued. 'All you are guilty of is being a pawn in a greater scheme. Why would that be a crime to atone for?'

"What's going on?" Meg was too confused to answer. "Who is there? Where am I?"

The night sky suddenly swirled like cloth in front of her and pulled back, revealing a jet-black background. Meg watched as the "night-sky cloth" took the form of a fluttering peplos studded with stars and constellations, sized for someone twice as tall as she was. Slowly, Meg looked up to see who was wearing the peplos.

Two eyes that shone like moonbeams looked right back at her.

Meg almost choked. She was looking into the eyes of a being nearly as old as time itself, with regal, glamorous features formed out of skin coloured in midnight blue, flowing hair a deep twilight purple, and the beauty that could only come from a God or a Goddess… or something more.

'We are currently having a conversation deep within your subconscious, where everything literally moves at the speed of thought,' answered the being in a resonant voice, bending down to bring her face close to Meg's, 'and as for who I am: I am Nyx, primordial deity of the Night. Now, back to my question: why would being a pawn be a crime that needs to be atoned for?'

Meg breathed in, trying to gather her thoughts. "R-right. Well, it doesn't matter whether I was a pawn or something bigger; the fact is that I had something to do with this madness in the first place, and I have to do everything I can to end it. For Hercules."

Nyx's moonlight gaze seemed to stare into her soul. 'But why? His lifestyle is a perilous one and to make yourself a part of it will invite only danger and death. Do you really feel that responsible for his well-being that you would throw yourself in harm's way for him?'

All Meg did was shrug with a weak smile. "People do crazy things when they're in love."

The deity was silent for a long moment, before swirling forward. 'Then that will have to be your motivation, to help preserve the balance of this world. Hades's actions have thrown the world out of balance, and it needs your aid to put it back.'

"What?" Meg was taken off guard. "What are you talking about? What do you need me for?"

'As elder deities, we are incapable of interfering with our descendents' conflicts; bestial as they are and as dire as the situation is. Your Hercules is powerful, but without his strength, he will never be able to stand against the Titans. Your soul was freed from Hades's grip at the advent of the deal that drains the hero's strength, but it also makes you the linchpin to the curse. If your body is harmed, resulting in your soul falling into the grasp of the Underworld once more, the deal will break and Hercules's might will be restored.'

Nyx traced her face with one finger. 'And we have the power to make that happen.'

Meg breathed in, daring to hope. "You can break the deal?"

'Not exactly,' the Embodiment of Night replied. 'As someone whose soul was once bound to the Lord of the Dead, you have the potential to assimilate a portion of our divine power, stemmed from the darkness of the night. This power is used to fuel deadly and destructive spells known as Arcana; however, using it will also pull your soul closer to the Underworld. But that itself is what will break the conditions of the deal, giving Hercules his strength back.'

The hopeful expression on Meg's face faltered. "So if I use this power, I break Hades's deal, but I also… die?"

'Only if you use too much of it too fast,' answered Nyx. 'The more Arcana you use, the more your soul is drawn to the Underworld; an overuse will pull your soul free of your body and haul it down to the River Acheron, and the rest is obvious. However, Arcana, if used skillfully, has the potential to bring even the Titans to their knees.'

The last part seemed to be lost on Meg, as she turned away, shaking her head. "I get freed from one deal from a God, only to be offered another one, to save the life of the one I love… and all it's going to cost is my soul… again…"

'Megara, I will not lie,' Nyx said grimly. 'Arcana is a deadly art, both for you and your foes. But if Hercules does not survive his fight against the Cyclops, the Gods will be forever chained and the world will be thrown back to the age of Cronus. Outright chaos. And even if he regains his strength and does survive, there is no guarantee that he will be able to rescue the Gods and vanquish the Titans. The safety of this world is too important to rest on chance. We cannot give our strength to anyone else; we need your help.'

When Meg was silent for more than a moment, Nyx reached out with one ultramarine hand and placed it on her shoulder. 'Darling, you told me you would do crazy things for the one you love, and you would do everything you could to end the madness he's in right now. We are offering you the power to stand at his side against his foes, keep him safe, and restore balance to the world, but we cannot force it on you.'

"I know," Meg answered softly, before turning and looking into Nyx's lunar eyes with resolve in her gaze. "I gave my life for love once; I can do it again."

Nyx smiled wanly. 'Thank you, Megara.' Turning her head to look up at the darkness around her, she called out, 'Erebus, she has agreed.'

All at once, the darkness pulled back like the night sky had before, revealing the city of Thebes around her, frozen in time, like Meg had not moved in the few moments that had passed. Then, the mass of raw darkness swirled and formed into a wraithlike cloak, worn by a regal man as tall as Nyx, with a curled beard and hair a dusky blue-grey, floating in the air like the shadow he was.

'Nyx, I can feel the Catastrophes' influences spreading beyond the reach of our shores,' he said in a majestic baritone. 'If they are not stopped, the world as we know it is finished, and the Age of Titans will have returned.'

'Then we cannot waste any more time,' Nyx nodded to Erebus. 'Let us begin.'

With that, the personification of Night joined hands with her husband, the embodiment of Darkness, before whirling down to envelop Meg within their embrace. As the two shadows formed a solid shell around her, cthonic magic began to seethe and swirl within them, bubbling up around her, flowing into her soul, infusing her with darkness – and changing her from the inside out.

"No, no, no, kid!" Phil answered frantically, not noticing what was happening a short distance away. "Giving up is for rookies! I came back because I'm not quitting on you! I'm willing to go the distance! What about you?"

The words struck a chord with Hercules, but he didn't have to answer or notice the shadows swirling around Meg either; the Cyclops's hand reached down and seized him, lifting him up towards the brute's grotesque face. With his hands pinned and his strength nonexistent, there seemed to be no way for him to escape his grip. It seemed that despite all of Phil's talk, he was doomed.

"Hahaha!" chortled the Cyclops in victory. "Me bite off head!"

"Skotádi!" suddenly came a female shout from far beneath him. Twelve jet-black orbs the size of boulders suddenly flew past Hercules and bludgeoned the Cyclops's flabby body before he knew what happened, staggering him. One in particular struck the giant right in his eye, causing him to bellow in agony and release Hercules, dropping him right into an abandoned cart.

"Meg?" Hercules pulled himself out of the cart and looked around. "What was… Meg?" he choked on his words when he saw what had happened to her. Phil and Pegasus turned around – and their jaws dropped to the floor.

Standing there before them was Megara, clutching her chest and breathing sharply, but her purple peplos had been replaced with something none of them had ever seen before. She was clad head-to-toe in metal armor colored a dark purple, articulated to allow for full movement, ridged and edged with spikes and etching, and emblazoned with bright red and cyan markings in intricate patterns. The only parts not covered with armor plating were her inner thighs, which instead were covered with scarlet wrappings and undergarments. Her long brown locks were tied back with a red band and a matching purple head-dress, and she was leaning on a massive greatsword only a head shorter than she was, sharpened on one side and the rounded top tapering off to resemble a short scythe.

"Holy Hera…" Phil managed to gasp out.

"Meg? What… where… when did you get that?" Hercules sputtered in confusion. Any more questions died in his throat when he suddenly felt energy surge into his body from nowhere and his body begin to glow brightly, filling him with a familiar feeling of power and… strength.

"Is this really the time for questions, Wonderboy?" panted Meg. "Or did you forget the overgrown lard-bucket over there?"

"I kill you!" moaned the brute, swinging around blindly, one hand clasped over his damaged eye. As one enormous foot loomed above them, Hercules reached out with two hands and caught the foot like the behemoth was nothing more than a small hay-bale, his superhuman might now restored. With a grunt of exertion, the restored hero heaved upwards, flinging the Cyclops off balance.

"Yeah baby!" Phil cheered, as Pegasus whinnied in delight. "Give him the Trojan Lariat!"

Gaining momentum with every moment, Hercules charged for a pile of collapsed rubble at full speed and used it as a ramp to leap into the air. His mighty leg muscles propelled him so high he flew right past the bloated giant's neck, whereupon he extended one arm and slammed it across said neck. The impact sent the teetering Cyclops stumbling blindly towards the towering cliff overlooking the ocean.

With a yell, the conquering hero threw all his godly strength into dragging his arm down, yanking the Cyclops off his feet. The giant landed on the lip of the cliff right on the small of his back, and momentum and gravity did the rest, sending him somersaulting clear over the edge, howling all the way. The entire city trembled on its foundations when the brute finally landed.

Hercules too landed on his hands and knees on the cliff edge, peering over to see the Cyclops's lifeless body broken on the many tidal rocks at the bottom of the cliff. Phil, Pegasus and Meg ran to his side.

"I said the Trojan Lariat, Herc, not the Cretan Clothesline," grumbled Phil in mock irritation.

Hercules gave a weak chuckle. "Never could get those two straight." With a deep breath, he stood up turned to face Meg. "Meg, what happened? Where did you get that armor? How did I get my strength back?"

"It was the Gods Nyx and Erebus," Meg said, "They told me they could grant me the power to break Hades's deal and stand up to the Titans. I couldn't just stand by and let you get killed without your strength."

"What?" sputtered Hercules, taken aback. "Meg, you can't! It's too dangerous for you to –"

"We don't have a choice, Wonderboy!" Meg replied firmly, "The world is on the verge of collapse and standing up to the Titans and Hades could be too dangerous even for you! I can't lose you; you need someone to watch your back. Besides," she smiled that familiar grin, "I'm a damsel, but I'm not in distress. I can handle this."

Hercules could only stare at the strong-willed woman. "But… but…"

Meg could only shake her head fondly. "Are you always this articulate?" she quipped, drawing an unwilling laugh from the young man. "Nyx and Erebus said this power could bring the Titans to their knees. We need this power if we're going to stop them, and we don't have much time."

Hercules stared at her, before looking at the forbidding shape of Mount Olympus off in the distance, lightning crackling around its cloud-hidden peak. He shut his eyes briefly for a moment, and then made his decision. "Just be careful up there. I can't lose you either."

Meg smiled. Phil chuckled from beside them. "Take 'em apart, kid. This is what you've trained for."

"I won't let you down, Phil," nodded Hercules. Taking Meg's hand, he pulled them onto the back of the nickering Pegasus. "Let's go, Pegasus!" he shouted, as the winged horse took to the air, carrying his passengers towards the fight of their lives.

The kingdom of Mount Olympus was a picture of defeat, as the defeated Gods were led through it in magically-forged chains, stripped of their weapons and their divine powers suppressed. They had put up a valiant defense, but caught off guard as they were, the four freed Titans, collectively known as the Catastrophes, had completely overwhelmed them.

Pain and Panic, flying over the Gods' heads, relentlessly heckled them to keep moving, while the Wind Titan, known as Stratos, the Eternal Storm, loomed over them menacingly. Nearby, the gargantuan two-headed Rock Titan named Lythos, the Walking Mountain, stood sentinel over the proceedings, while their brethren, the Ice Titan – Hydros, the Punishing Glacier – and the Lava Titan – Pyros, the Molten Inferno – completed the prison that would hold their greatest foe, Zeus, forever.

Riding in his gryphon-pulled chariot, Hades grinned as he watched the two giants of lava and ice imprison his brother in the slowly-forming basalt tomb. He had chosen his allies well; the Catastrophes were the embodiments of some of the worst disasters that the world could produce: earthquakes, blizzards, volcanoes, and tornadoes. As raw personifications of chaos, they each possessed immense destructive power, but lacked the intelligence and/or cunning that some of their other Titan brethren possessed, which made them perfect to control and command against the Gods.

"I swear to you Hades," Zeus snarled from his prison, even as the creeping layer of stone reached past his neck. "When I get out of here…" That was the last thing he said before the cooling lava completely covered his face.

"I'm the one giving orders now, bolt boy," sneered Hades, stepping off his chariot and sitting down on a new throne made of black clouds. "And I think I'm gonna like it here." Almost casually, he conjured a glassful of nectar and took a sip.

"Don't get too comfortable, Hades!"

Hades choked, spewed out a mouthful and spun around in sheer disbelief. Winging his way through the clouds was that featherduster of a nag Pegasus, carrying a fully restored Hercules on his back. Hades's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw Meg sitting behind him, wearing full armor and carrying the biggest blade he'd ever seen.

"Hercules!" called Apollo, hope rising to the other Gods' faces when they saw him swooping towards them.

As Pegasus flew closer to the ground, Hercules called to Meg, "You free the Gods! I've got to save my father!"

"Right!" With agility she never knew she had, Meg slipped off Pegasus's back, the giant blade Thysía raised over her head. With one downward cut, she shattered a length of chain, which in turn caused all the shackles binding the Gods to vanish in sparkles of light.

With a defiant yell, Ares leapt up and grabbed his sword and helm back from Pain, as Hermes snatched back his spectacles and caduceus from Panic. "Thanks Hercules! Your father's in that rock up on the plaza! Go get him out!" he shouted up to the hero soaring above them.

"Got it, Hermes!" Hercules called back and shot for the plaza, weaving around Lythos's clumsy swipe. Pyros and Hydros rose to intercept him as Stratos let out a howl and descended upon the Gods.

"I have to get to my forge!" Hephaestus shouted, bracing against the cyclone-force winds. "Zeus needs more thunderbolts!"

"And we need our weapons back!" Athena agreed, a plan already forming in her mind. Loudly, she barked war commands, "Alright, everyone who doesn't need weapons hold off the Titans as best you can! Everyone else, head for Hephaestus's forge and arm yourselves! Hades shall not win this battle!"

The Gods answered with a yell and scattered. While a large number of them followed Hephaestus towards a cloud structure, the rest, including Poseidon, Hermes, Ares, Demeter and Hera, made their stand even as Stratos, the Catastrophe that had scattered their ranks earlier that day, bore down on them. But this time, fuelled by determination, the Gods stood their ground against the storm.

With the chains no longer binding their powers, Hera erected barriers of bright pink magic that held back the massive funnel cloud, as Poseidon summoned his trident back to him and sent bolts of energy surging at the Wind Titan, blowing holes in his funnel-cloud body. Behind them, Hermes zipped around the two heads of the Rock Titan, his Talaria sandals buzzing, as the monolith vainly tried to swat him out of the air. At his giant feet, Ares was hacking away at his feet with his divinely-forged xiphos sword, as Demeter sprouted a literal forest in the cracks formed by the unrelenting strikes.

Letting out a whistling screech from the bursts of energy, Stratos raised a huge arm made of solid air and thrust it down at Hera's barrier, who winced as the blow left it spider-webbed in cracks. But as the living tornado brought his arm down again, Meg leapt out through the one-way barrier, her heavy armor carrying her through the gales, and intercepted it sword-first, with a shout of "Strangízo̱!" As the blade slashed through the giant immaterial limb, both glowed a bright blue before the entire tornado limb dissipated into a million wisps of cloud, and the remaining light was sucked back into the blade itself.

Meg landed deftly, feeling all the more refreshed despite the chaos around her. Stratos recoiled, snarling at the loss of his arm, but all too soon he was regrowing another one from his funnel-cloud body. Poseidon took the opportunity and released more blasts from his polearm to further try to dissipate the Titan's body, as Hera formed another barrier to further drive the storm back.

The Queen Goddess turned to look at Meg. "Child, that magic you were using, was that Arcana? Where did you receive this power?"

"From Nyx and Erebus," Meg answered, too focused on Stratos to comprehend who was talking to her. "Just a side-benefit for once having sold your soul to Hades."

Hera almost lost focus of her magic at that. "Dear, do you realize what you've signed yourself over to? If you keep using those powers you could possibly burn out your mortal shell!"

"I know," Meg replied, "but it's the least I can do for everything Hercules has done for me."

Hera was about to answer, when an explosion of rock and Hades's yell of rage and horror echoed from the plaza, as a burst of divine light signaled the release of Zeus. At the same time, a clarion yell filled the air as the remaining Gods poured out of Hephaestus's forge, armed to the teeth with new weapons.

As Artemis took over in showering Stratos with arrow shafts of silver light, Poseidon broke off to join Apollo in reinforcing Zeus. Torrents of seawater and flaming arrowheads drove back Pyros and Hydros, as Hephaestus stomped through the melee and pitched a freshly-forged set of thunderbolts up at his king.

From the top of the stone mound that was once his prison, Zeus deftly caught the javelins of solid lightning with a loud cackle. "Now, watch your old man work!" he boomed to his son who was standing beside him.

Lythos scattered the Gods that were hacking at his legs and turned around to see Zeus take aim right at him. All four of his eyes widened. "Uh-oh…"

A thunderclap roared out as Zeus executed an under-the-leg pitch, sending his entire handful of electricity streaking out as one solid mass of ball lightning. The individual bolts wouldn't have done much good against the Rock Titan's hide, but condensed together as they were, the resulting lightning strike completely obliterated one of Lythos's heads. The lightning in Zeus's other hand quickly followed, and Lythos's other head was reduced to more rubble.

With their greatest enemy freed, the Catastrophes were looking all the more uncertain of their chances. Lythos, Pyros and Hydros had backed up to Stratos's position and were slowly losing ground as the Gods advanced, forcing them towards the border of Olympus. Zeus and Hercules reached the spearhead, the former rearmed with a full quiver of thunderbolts.

Having gotten back into his gryphon-drawn chariot, Hades was flying over the battlefield, obviously incensed at how things were turning out, but most of all at the armored mortal woman, standing amongst the Gods with her sword drawn. "I already have one mortal lousing up my plans; I am not standing for two!" he growled to himself.

Swooping close, he started bellowing in the Titans' faces, "What is with you lot?! Don't tell me your time in that prison made you soft! You're the Catastrophes, the Masters of Disasters, the final creations of Kronos! Are you really going to let a bunch of half-baked, half-sized, half-siblings push you around?!"

Hermes couldn't help but overhear that statement. "I hope he realizes the irony…" he commented.

But ironic as his words were, they seemed to have the desired effect. Lythos's body cracked like an earthquake as two new heads carved themselves out of his torso, both scowling with new resolve. The clouds around Hydros started to snow spontaneously as the temperature dropped, though it was quickly counteracted by Pyros's molten body starting to bubble more furiously. Stratos's body started to pick up speed again, his red eyes glowing maliciously.

"Zeus…" they growled, "Destroy Zeus!"

"Now that's what I want to hear!" Hades shouted, his gryphon chariot flying out of the way with a screech. "Now get out there, get your titanic rears in gear, and kick some Olympian butt!" With a cacophony of roars, the four Catastrophes surged forward into battle, Pyros belching out a giant ball of molten rock.

"It seems the pit I put you all in last time wasn't deep enough," stated the King of the Gods, hefting a particularly large lightning shard. "I'll make sure to rectify that. But first… get the Tartarus off my mountain!" The lightning bolt was hurled through the air and obliterated the ball in mid-air, as the Gods responded with an all-out charge.

The two forces collided thunderously, both sides hammering the other with everything they had. Close-range fighters like Athena and Ares hacked and chopped away at Lythos and Hydros, the only two Titans with solid bodies to damage, while ranged fighters like the Sun and Moon Twins and magic-wielding Gods blasted away at Pyros's viscous form and Stratos's wind body.

But the Catastrophes, like the disasters they embodied, were relentless in their assault. For every blow the Gods landed, they shrugged it off and hit back with one that was twice as big and twice as ferocious. Poseidon's tidal waves were frozen in mid-air by Hydros's freezing breath, Demeter's massive overgrowths were all but incinerated in contact with Pyros's burning skin, and the tumultuous winds from Stratos's body kept blowing Apollo's and Artemis's arrows off course before they could detonate and tear apart his body. Even Zeus's devastating lightning strikes, although capable of blasting limbs and giant chunks off of the behemoths, refused to keep them down permanently.

Hercules evaded flying Gods as they were flung away by Lythos's monstrous fists, and leapt at the Rock Titan. He struck the craggy knee of the giant with a devastating axe-handle blow, fragmenting the joint and making the Titan bellow in pain. A kick from the Walking Mountain sent the demigod flying as well, and Lythos followed up by raising an arm and bringing it down like a gargantuan hammer. Hercules just managed to keep the fist away from him using his arms and legs, and his fingers dug into the stone as the strength of both superhuman beings strained furiously against each other.

"Skotádi!" shouted Meg, causing black orbs to materialize from her body, orbiting her for a moment, before they shot out through the air to crash into the Titans' bodies, tearing gaping wounds into their elemental forms. She staggered as the feeling of fatigue washed over her, but she gamely shook it off when she saw Hercules pushing against the Rock Titan for all he was worth, nearly an inch from being flattened into the ground.

Focusing energy into her blade until it took on a rippling black sheen, Meg raised Thysía, swung it over her head a few times, and yelled out, "Máv̱ro Ouranó!" As she slashed the air, four streams of blackness flew off of it and shrouded the Titans around their heads like storm clouds. The next moment, blobs of black energy started to drop from the clouds like meteors, and the energy actually started to corrode away at the bodies of the Catastrophes.

The Titans bellowed as their elemental forms were almost being dissolved by the dark energy. Lythos in particular groaned as the corrosion actually ate through the arm that was trying to squash Hercules into a pulp. Feeling the pressure suddenly lift, the superhuman demigod heaved with all his might, and not only did he manage to get back to his feet, but the sharp movement actually cracked the weakened part of the Rock Titan's arm and Hercules managed to pull the stone limb clear from its owner's body.

Lythos staggered back, both heads blinking in shock at his lost limb, but then they both looked over Herc's head and all four eyes fixed onto Meg's armoured form. Brainless as the Titans were, they still had enough sense of mind to recognize a larger threat when they saw one. "Crush the dark one!" Lythos bellowed, kicking Hercules aside and stomping towards Meg.

"Crush the dark one!" echoed the other Titans, brushing aside their other combatants and started making their way towards Meg. Hercules all but panicked when he realized that all of the Catastrophes' cataclysmic fury was directed on that one empowered mortal.

"NO!" he yelled, heaving the giant's severed stone arm in both hands and leaping after Lythos. With desperation and rage fueling his strength, he bludgeoned the Rock Titan right behind his stone knees with his own arm, sending the monolith crashing to the ground. Instantly, Hercules grabbed on to the Titan's foot and pulled with all his might, literally dragging the struggling mountain away from Meg. But there was nothing he could do to stop the Lava, Ice and Wind Titans from bearing down on the one he loved. "MEG! RUN!"

"Stop them!" boomed Zeus, hurling another lightning bolt that splattered Pyros's face into a thousand globules of lava. All too soon Pyros's face had regenerated with a roar, only to be blown up again by another elemental javelin. The King of the Gods hammered the Molten Inferno with strike after lightning strike, but all it did was hold the Catastrophe in place; all the while his brethren were advancing on Meg with the other Gods not able to slow their advance to the same degree.

"Blast! We're not going to beat it in time!" cursed Apollo, even as Hydro's refroze wounds that his solar arrows had caused for the fifth time in a row.

Meg looked up at the Punishing Glacier and the Eternal Storm bearing down on her, with her fear squashed under a layer of determined detachment. "Well, things can't get any worse right now," she muttered, her grip on her sword handle involuntarily tightening.

Stratos's whirling body reached her first, but Meg managed to roll out of the way in time, her black armor managing to keep her grounded as the funnel cloud roared past her. But the next moment, she was caught in the middle of a brutal blizzard as Hydros's freezing breath enveloped her.

Struggling against the chilling gale, she swung her blade down with a shout of "Varýti̱s!" An aura of shadowy light flared up around Thysía, and an orb with the same aura materialized around Hydros's head. The next moment, Hydros's skull of ice crashed to the ground, dragging the rest of the Titan with it. The Ice Titan's frozen bones fractured and creaked loudly as he vainly tried to raise his head, which had seemed to become 1000 times heavier than before.

But as Meg straightened up, she heard Hera's voice cry out, "Child, behind you!" before the howling from Stratos's tornado winds suddenly became deafening. Turning around, her blood ran cold when she saw the Wind Titan's towering form almost on top of her. Meg moved to dodge again, but found, to her horror, that Hydros's breath had frozen her lower body to the ground. Quickly, she brought Thysía down onto the ice and shattered it to escape, but not quickly enough…

An involuntary scream tore from Meg's lips as her body was engulfed by the funnel cloud, and the sheer force of the Eternal Storm finally overcame her armor's weight and pulled her off her feet straight into the vortex. Stratos's buffeting winds whipped her back and forth, tearing Thysía from her hands, tearing the breath from her lungs, and threatened to tear her limb from limb. She couldn't hear Hercules's anguished howl as he literally crushed one of Lythos's feet and ran for Stratos at full speed; all she knew that if she was going down, she wouldn't go down alone.

Hercules hadn't even made it halfway when, to his utmost dread, Meg's voice echoed from Stratos's interior, " Through darkness comes the light. Through sacrifice comes power. Through death comes triumph! O̱méga Télos!"

Instantly, Stratos's eyes turned sick and flashes of red and purple light appeared within his belly. With each flash, his twisting body convulsed in a different direction, as if explosions inside him were threatening to rip him apart at the seams. The convulsions grew more and more violent until finally, the Wind Titan's top half bulged like a balloon before it literally exploded in a torrent of energy, disintegrating into a million wisps of cloud and sending a black figure flying out from the midst and arcing through the air.

Hercules cleared the last few feet and caught Meg before she hit the ground, and his heart clenched with dismay when he saw her cracked armor and pale, disheveled state. But that feeling was quickly replaced by one thing… white-hot rage.

Only sparing a moment to lay her on the ground, Hercules lunged and grabbed Stratos's tail, tearing the slowly-reforming tornado off the ground as if he was a solid mass of rope. Roaring in near-blind anger, the demigod swung the Wind Titan every which way, slamming the Eternal Storm against the ground over and over again, his lashing forcing the winds to pick up speed.

The Gods scattered as Stratos's body was slammed against his brethren, the accelerating winds shearing off massive chunks of their bodies. One by one, Lythos, Hydros and Pyros were sucked into the Wind Titan's vortex, the regenerating funnel cloud encapsulating them within and ripping their elemental forms apart.

The enraged hero swung the Wind Titan over his head over and over again. Rock, ice and lava swirled together inside the cloud like a storm of biblical proportions. Faster and faster, Hercules whipped the blended Titans around, gaining speed and momentum with every passing second…

…until, with a final yell of exertion, Hercules released the funnel cloud and sent the Titans careening into the sky, through the stratosphere, and clear into space. As they vanished from view, all was silent for a brief moment, before a cataclysmic explosion ripped through the night and a blinding supernova lit up the sky. Scattered to the far corners of space, it was clear that the Catastrophes would never plague the world ever again.

The Gods watched the corona in the sky slowly fade away and started to cheer in victory, but they stopped when they saw Hades racing away in his chariot at top speed, screaming, "Thanks a ton, Wonderboy! But at least I got one swell consolation prize: a friend of yours who's dying to see me!"

"After him!" yelled Ares.

"With what?" pointed out Bacchus. "Our chariots were destroyed, remember?"

"Oh, never mind about him," said Aphrodite, her hair still picture-perfect even after the whole ordeal. "It's not like he has anything else to throw at us. Let him sulk away for now."

"But what did he mean by a friend who's dying?" asked Bacchus.

Athena cleared her throat, and gestured grimly over her shoulder. The three Gods looked, and fell silent when they saw Hercules on his knees next to the unmoving body of the young woman who had thrown herself wholeheartedly into war for the one she loved. Aphrodite sniffled at the sight.

"Meg… no… no…" Hercules uttered in disbelief, before he turned and ran to Apollo, gripping the front of his armor in his panic. "Apollo, you're the God of Healing, aren't you? Please, do something to save her! Anything!"

The purple-skinned God shook his head desolately. "Sorry, kid, but I don't have the power to reclaim the dead. And even if I did, whatever she did in there, it affected her soul, not her body. There's nothing I can do."

"Don't give me that!" Hercules shoved him away (and almost sent him flying if the God hadn't backed away in time) and ran to Hera, kneeling at her feet. "Mother, please, help her! I'm begging you, please do something!"

Hera's heart nearly broke at the sight. "Oh, I wish I could, my son, but her use of Arcana has sent her soul to the Underworld, where Hades is king. Even for a Goddess, all the magic in the world cannot affect what is another God's domain." She knelt down and hugged her son for the first time in 18 years. "For what she has done for us, if I could, I would."

Hercules all but broke down and fell into his mother's embrace, the mighty hero on the verge of losing his composure entirely. Zeus gently placed Meg's body on what little clouds there were left floating around, before placing a hand on Herc's shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Hercules. She will be honored in our halls for eternity. But I'm afraid, even for a God… there are things you just can't change."

For a moment there was silence. Then, slowly, Hercules removed himself from his parents' embrace and stood up, looking thunderous as one of his father's bolts. Slowly he walked towards an awaiting Pegasus, the Gods looking confused at his actions. But they were caught completely off guard by what he said next.

"Yes, I can."

"AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH!"

"WE WERE SO CLOSE!" screamed Hades in abject fury, sending a burst of hellfire across the room that near-incinerated all the tokens on his planning table and scorched the scalp off his two demonic minions, Pain and Panic. After his 18-year scheme had completely blown up in his face, he and his minions had no choice but to flee for the Underworld with their tails between their legs.

Needless to say, Hades was not happy when he got back.

"So close!" he fumed, storming through the smoking shambles of a throne room before sitting heavily on said throne. "We just tripped at the finish line – why? Because our little nutmeg had to go all noble–"

Just then, his tirade was cut off by his entire throne room starting to quake like the Rock Titan Lythos was approaching, before the front wall of the chamber (the nose of the skull formation) caved in, as the three slavering dog heads of Cerberus burst through. Riding on the middle head and holding both its ears like reins was the bane of his existence, the son of Zeus, his nephew – Hercules.

"Where's Meg?' he snarled.

"Well, look who's here!" Hades said, once again trying to protect his cool, cunning persona – despite the fact that the hero had literally threw the strongest forces he had to offer clear off the face of the earth moments earlier. "Wonderboy! You really are too much!"

Hercules wasn't taking any lip. As Cerberus sank to the ground, whimpering, he stormed right up to the god's face and hauled him up by his chiton. "Let. Her. Go."

"Get a grip," snorted Hades, pushing his hand away and stepping down from his throne. "Come here. Let me show you around." Without any other leads to where Meg was, Hercules had no choice but to follow.

After traversing a few hallways, they emerged into a huge chamber and onto a ledge overlooking a deep pit. Beneath them, at about an arm's length away, was a slow-swirling vortex that seemed to be made of glowing green water, but upon closer inspection, Hercules could see that the glowing was from millions of dead souls, floating through the liquid like driftwood in the ocean, moaning in a creepy, discordant symphony.

"Well, well, it's a small Underworld after all, huh?" chuckled Hades. "Ol' Pyriphlegethon is certainly a sight, ain't it?"

Hercules peered down into the brackish waters of the otherworldly river, and gasped when he saw Meg floating by. "Meg!" He reached down to try and scoop her up, only for his hands to be gripped with a terrible aching as soon as they entered the waters.

Gasping, he instantly pulled them out, to see they had aged almost four decades in the second they were submerged. However, they quickly returned to their natural youthful state.

"Ah, ah, ah, mustn't touch; the Underworld Rivers don't like the living very much!" Hades said with a toothy smirk. "It's a simple process: soul leaves body, soul flows down Acheron, into Styx, into here. Meg's running with a new crowd these days, and not a very lively one at that."

Hercules thought fast, knowing Hades would never agree to just let Meg go, then spoke up, "You like making deals. Take me in Meg's place."

This, Hades was not expecting. "Hmm," he mused, "the son of my hated rival trapped forever in a River of Death…"

"Going once!"

"…Is there a downside to this?"

"Going twice!"

"Okay, okay, okay!" Hades finally decided that such an opportunity was too good to pass up. "If you get her out – then she goes… and you stay."

With a curt nod to seal the deal, Herc turned and swan-dove off the ledge, splashing into the otherworldly water and swimming deep into its depths, ignoring the sudden burning in his limbs and Hades shouting from behind him, "Oh, you know what slipped my mind? You'll be dead before you get to her! That's not a problem, is it?"

Hercules swam through the miasma of souls towards the one shape he recognized as Meg's, but he moment his body hit the water, he could feel his strength and youth begin to drain out of him, as the deadly magic of Pyriphlegethon aged his body with every passing moment. His skin atrophied and withered, his hair lost its color, and his body felt like it would give out at any moment.

But still he swam on, not even thinking about the agony and strain, not noticing the many moaning souls of the deceased beginning to take notice, only thinking about reaching the soul who willingly threw herself into this abyss for him and his family.

Barely a skeleton at this point, Herc mustered the last dregs of his flagging strength and forced his ancient hand to reach out for Meg's own. Only a foot away… then six inches… three… one…

His hand finally closed on something that barely felt like it was there, and he pulled her soul close to him, almost feeling the final remnant of energy leave his body. The surface of the river seemed as far away as the stars, even though he had achieved his goal of reaching her…

But then, something inside him changed.

All at once, Hercules felt a seed of energy bloom inside his heart, and his body was instantly flooded with energy. The agony of Pyriphlegethon was now nothing more an a mere twinge. He felt revitalized, reborn, almost like he had achieved…

Apotheosis.

In his arms, Megara's astral eyes flickered.

From the ledge above the water level, the Lord of the Dead's eyes were growing progressively larger and more horrified with every second. From Pyriphlegethon's depths, a spark of light had appeared, growing brighter and bright until the entire cavern was shining gold. Then, all of a sudden, the light was snuffed out, and the surface of the river, normally glowing an eerie green, suddenly went pitch black, as if all the water in the river had suddenly turned to tar.

Before Hades could even make sense of what was going on, a section of the black water started to bubble and seethe as if it was molten lava, flickering with reds and oranges, while in its center, the same golden spark reappeared, now focused into a point that was shining like Apollo's sun.

Then, two hands reached out from the miasma and grasped the ledge.

Hades backed away in terror as Hercules pulled himself up and stepped out of the river, glimmering with the radiance that only the divine could ever achieve. But what had Hades in even more disbelief was that beside him was Meg's soul, fully garbed in her armor and colored an inky black as if made out of smoke.

"This… this is impossible!" Hades sputtered. "You… you can't be alive; you'd have to be a… a…"

"A God?!" squawked Pain and Panic.

Hades let out an anguished yell of seeing even his revenge go up in smoke as Hercules took the smoky Meg's hand and started walking with her towards the exit. "Hercules, stop! You can't do this to me; you can't –"

That was as far as he got before the God backhanded him so hard that his face completely caved in, the two not even breaking step. Meg let out a cynical chuckle. "And exactly why not, Hades? You said so yourself; he gets me out, I go, he stays. Only he can't stay here anymore; he's immortal. So, we both go, while you get zilch."

The God of Death could only sputter weakly until he managed to get his face back in shape. "Okay, okay, well, I deserved that. But hey, please, can we just talk? Your dad, he's a fun guy; maybe he'll blow this thing off?"

Both Hercules and Megara just turned to face him with a stony look.

Sensing how much danger he was in, Hades actually fell to his knees. "Look, I'm begging here, on my knees, see? I'm a schmuck, I know, I get it, but maybe you could put in a good word for me, get Zeus to lighten things… right…. Hey, Meg?" he actually turned to his former minion, "You know me, we go way back, right?"

Hercules, incensed by Hades's sheer gall to beg, let go of Meg's hand and hauled him to his feet by his neck. "Fine then, Hades. You want a good word with my father?" he said, his face still twisted in anger. One quick glance at Meg showed her she was in full agreement with what he was thinking.

Black eyes locked with blue ones. "THEN GET OUT OF OUR SIGHT!" Hercules roared, uppercutting Hades clear off the ledge and down screaming into Pyriphlegethon. He landed with a splash in the murky waters, and was instantly swarmed with hundreds of tortured souls, all recognizing him as the source of their torment.

"No, get away me! Don't touch me!" he barked, trying desperately to push them away. "Get your slimy souls off me!" But it was hopeless; even for a being of his power, he was soon overwhelmed and dragged towards the very bottom of the lake by the swarm of dead souls, screaming all the way down.

Pain and Panic peered fearfully over the edge into the river. "He's not going to be happy when he gets out of there!" chattered Panic.

"You mean, if he gets out of there," Pain corrected.

Panic blinked, before slowly smiling. "'If'. 'If' is good."

As Hercules and Megara exited the chamber, neither they, nor the two demons, noticed a pair of flickering shadows at the very top of the cavern, looking down on the proceedings. Slowly, two heads peered out from them, one male and one female, the latter looking incredibly forlorn.

'I know, Nyx,' Erebus whispered to his wife. 'I wish there was another option, but Hades's grudge against his family was too great. It needed to be purged.'

Nyx nodded sadly. 'It is sorrowful, indeed, but regrettably unavoidable. Still, a God cannot perish in those waters, but left in there too long and he will eventually be dragged into Tartarus. Should we send for the Furies?'

'I believe so. Now all we can do is hope Hades is strong enough to overcome this ordeal.' With that, the two beings and their shadows completely faded away.

As to what became of Hercules and Megara? When they returned to the gates of Olympus, Pegasus and Phil in tow, all the Gods were there to welcome and celebrate their victorious return. Zeus and Hera proudly declared that Hercules's selfless act to rescue Meg was the symbol of true heroism needed to restore his godhood, and opened the gates to Olympus to him at last.

Hercules initially wanted to change his mind, stating that even an immortal life would be empty without Meg, but Zeus put forth the proposal to the Gods, to give apotheosis to Meg for her pivotal role in the Second Titanomachy. The Gods were unanimous in their agreement, leaving it up to Meg to accept or decline.

Finally, after some thought, Meg agreed, on the condition that they not be pressured to stay on Mount Olympus, because, as she put things, "The world still needs a hero like Wonderboy, and even he can't protect the world by sitting up here all day." Although surprised, Zeus and Hera gladly agreed.

And so, as Pegasus carried the new hero, his love and partner, and his ever-present trainer back down to Earth, shining with their new divine glows, Zeus rearranged the stars in the sky, forming the shape of the greatest and strongest hero in Greek history, fulfilling his trainer's greatest dream…

… and beside it, the image of a woman who challenged the Titans themselves – and prevailed.

Well, it took two long months and one big reboot, but here it is, as much of a Greek Epic as I can make it! I'm really sorry for the delay!

By the way, if you want to know what happens to Hades after his dip in Pyriphlegethon, I recommend checking out the great fanfic by Quantum Witch titled Hope Springs Eternal. I read it before I started work on this chapter, and tried to at least make the continuity somewhat understandable if you do choose it as your headcanon.

And yes, I still hate writer's block. I don't know whether it's the lack of any reviews or interest, or something else…

Once again, I hope this chapter passes muster. This was a lot harder to write than I thought! I might go through it again a few times if I feel it needs perking up.

Skirtzzz, thank you so much for waiting again! I really hope you enjoy this installment and that it's worth the long wait!

If anyone's wondering about Meg's attack names, I admit I used the English/Greek Google Translate to get the following:

Her sword, Thysía – Sacrifice

Skotádi – Darkness

Strangízo̱ – Drain, leach

Máv̱ro Ouranó – Black Sky

Varýti̱s – Gravity, weight

O̱méga Télos – Omega End

Find Meg's dark knight costume, created by the talented DeviantArtist Skirtzzz here (scrap all the spaces)!:

skirtzzz . deviantart dotcom / art / Dark – Knight – Meg - 294189956

Review and Critique please; I'd really like to know someone's reading this! But please, no flaming!

Next Chapter: The Maritime Musician