I'm so sorry for the long delay! I had a terrible case of writer's block. But hopefully this chapter makes up for it. Enjoy!

When they appeared in the Underworld, Hades yanked his arm out of Hermes' grasp.

"The souls are this way," he muttered, rolling his eyes and rubbing his arm.

Hermes followed impatiently as Hades walked through the palace. When they reached the throne room, a young, dark-haired woman stood from where she knelt at a flower pot and looked at the two gods in surprise. "I didn't expect you back so soon. And Hermes, what are you doing here?"

Hades went to her and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close and kissing her temple. "Our war hero over here has been especially demanding."

She looked in confusion at Hermes, who was watching the couple with his lips pressed together in frustration. "Can I get you something?"

Hades shook his head, not sparing the messenger god a glance. "It's a matter of business."

Hermes tapped his foot edgily. "Can we get going, please? Every moment does count, you know."

Hades rolled his eyes. "Yes, oh great one, if you must." He disentangled himself from Persephone, who watched Hermes drag her husband out of the room before going back to her plants.

The three judges were surrounded by souls when Hermes and Hades located them. Hermes pushed through the souls, who stared at the back of the god in bewilderment. Hades followed, sighing heavily and ignoring the soft pleas of the dead that clung to his clothes as he passed.

The judges looked up as Hermes' shadow fell over their papers. "Hello, lord Hermes," Aiakos said pleasantly.

"I want to know if you've judged Lucy Harrison yet."

Rhadamanthys threaded his fingers together under his chin. "May I ask why, lord?"

Hermes ground his teeth together. "Because it's rather important to me."

"We're very busy. We have a lot of catching up to do." He gestured at the mass of souls, whose moans loudened at their mention. "They really pile up after wars, especially when we're called away."

Hermes leaned over the desk, putting his hand carefully over the papers. "Tell me where Lucy Harrison is, Rhys."

The judge stared at the god's fist in alarm. "You wouldn't. We need those. The entire balance of the universe would be in jeopardy."

"He's not exactly mentally stable right now," Hades interjected wearily. "Just tell him where she is, please."

Minos shrugged. "We don't know where she is." Hermes' hand tightened over the papers and the judge hurriedly added, "We really don't know! We haven't judged her yet."

Hermes' eyes widened and he dropped the papers, leaping over the crowd and calling out Lucy's name. The judges sat back heavily in relief. Hades rolled his eyes again. "Good luck," he told the judges and made his way back through the souls.

He found Hermes in the air, searching the dead. "Lucy! Lucy!" Hades repressed the urge to sigh again and grabbed one of his servants' sleeves. She looked up at him in fright.

"Yes, sir?"

"I need to find this girl as soon as possible." He projected an image of Lucy over his palm. The servant examined it and nodded.

"I'll look, sir."

"Quickly," Hades called after the woman. When he was certain that all was being done to get his nephew out of his domain as soon as possible, he returned to the palace and his wife for a short reprieve until the girl was found.

Hermes was still racing dizzily through the air when he heard Hades calling. "You, crazy god, get down here!"

He landed reluctantly. "What?"

Hades stared at him in incredulous irritation. "What do you mean, 'what'? Why else could I possibly be calling you down? And I thought you were supposed to be the smart one."

"You found her?" Hermes clutched his uncle's sleeve. "Where? Where is she?"

Hades pulled his arm from Hermes' grasp and started to turn away, disgruntledly smoothing his shirt. "Over there." He gestured to a cliff overlooking the river. A single dark shape was outlined against the background.

Hermes dashed over, but slowed hesitantly to a stop a distance away. The small figure faced away from him, humming softly and swaying slightly. He stepped forward slowly, fear rapidly increasing his heartbeat.

"Lucy?" The swaying stopped and the humming trailed off, but she didn't turn. His mouth suddenly dry, he swallowed hard and tried again. "Lucy?"

She spun around slowly, staring at him with wide eyes. She said nothing.

"Lucy?"

Her lips parted. "Hermes?" she asked tentatively.

He didn't dare to get his hopes up; most souls learned of the gods when they died and would have a similar reaction. It didn't mean anything. "Do…Do you remember me?"

Her brow creased and he felt weak with apprehension. Again, she took a long time to answer and with every second Hermes' nervousness doubled until he felt ready to explode or collapse.

Then she said quietly, "Why wouldn't I?" He laughed in relief, running forward and engulfing her in a hug. She pushed away and stared at him in confusion. "What are you doing down here?"

He buried his face in her hair, breathing in deeply. "I came to get you."

"How? I'm…I thought I was dead."

He clutched her tighter. "Yes, but I came to get you. You're coming back with me."

She pushed away again to look at him. "How?"

"Well flying, mostly." She frowned in disapproval at his joke and he sighed. "I got permission, okay? I did." He pulled her close again. "I need you back, Lucy."

She played anxiously with his collar. "It's allowed? I mean, you're not going to get in trouble?"

He shook his head. "Won't. You fulfilled the requirements."

"Requirements?" Her fidgeting hands froze and she looked up at him again in fear.

"There are rules about taking souls out of Hades," he said reluctantly.

"That's…that's why you asked if I remembered you?" He nodded. "Oh," she said faintly, gazing into the distance. "It's a good thing I did."

He laughed again, scooping her up. "Yeah. Come on, let's go." He carried her through the palace, where Persephone smiled at them and Lucy blushed, and out to the entrance to the Underworld. Lucy stared behind his shoulder at the dark palace.

"It was interesting there."

"There are more interesting places, Lucy," he said uneasily. "Places you can go while you're alive."

She smiled, touching his cheek. "I know. I'm just saying, it wasn't that bad."

It was for me, he thought, bundling her up and disappearing.

Artemis looked up sharply when Hermes and Lucy appeared in Hermes' suite. Her expression of consternation broke into pure relief. "Lucy!"

Out of the Underworld, the soul of the girl was slightly transparent and she peeked at her mortal body in morbid fascination. "That's…that's me," she said timidly.

Hermes nodded and kissed her forehead. "I've got to put you back in. This'll just take a minute. It might feel unnerving, so you might want to close your eyes—makes it easier." She obeyed and he knelt, carefully placing her soul into her body. Artemis hovered behind as he stroked the girl's cheek nervously. "Lucy?"

Everything was silent. Silent for too long. Hermes was just starting to panic, just about to look beseechingly at Artemis when a heartbeat stuttered to life. There was a frozen moment of wonder for the two gods. Then Lucy inhaled sharply and her eyes fluttered open. She looked up and Hermes beamed at her. She reached up in amazement and touched the tears gathering in the corner of his eye. "Are you crying? Why are you crying?"

His arms wrapped around her, pulling her to him. "You're back." He choked on a sob, stroking her hair. "You're back."

Artemis sat lightly on the edge of the bed and Lucy peered out at her through Hermes' embrace. "What…what happened?"

The goddess glanced at Hermes. He lifted Lucy and sat against the headboard with the girl in his lap, ignoring his sister's gaze. She sighed. "What all would you like to know?"

"Well, I don't really understand what happened. They never told me why they took me and I didn't get it when they talked to Hermes." She curled smaller in Hermes' lap. "Why did they want me?"

Artemis pressed her lips together. "They used you as a distraction as well as a catalyst. They published your pictures to inform the world that we existed. That was in order to leave us unprepared. Then they hid you so that we spent valuable time trying to find you instead of doing something else about the leak. And they controlled your body so that when we finally found you…" She looked at Hermes and Lucy followed her glance.

"What?"

Hermes' brows knit. "They used our relationship to distract me from the leak."

"How?" When Hermes didn't respond, she looked back at Artemis. "How?"

"They controlled your body, which means they could make 'you' say anything they wanted you to. In your case they believed that the most efficient way to distract Hermes from discovering the true plot was to make him believe that you were the one to betray us." Lucy's eyes widened. "They made it appear as if you were working for Hades the entire time. That your relationship with Hermes was merely so you could weaken our family, make it easier for him to overthrow us. That you never actually cared for him."

Lucy twisted in Hermes' lap and cupped his face, looking desperately into his eyes. "You know I'd never do that, right?" Tears fell down her cheeks. "I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't. I love you, Hermes, you know that, right?"

Artemis moved her gaze to the windows.

Hermes' answering smile was pained. "I do. I do, Lucy, it's okay, I know it wasn't you."

Her lips turned downward. "I'm so sorry." She hugged him, hiding her face in his shoulder. "I'm sorry," she mumbled against his skin. Lucy looked up suddenly. "Is that all I did? Is that..that's all?"

Artemis glanced back. "Well, you didn't do it of course, but yes. After that it was just a matter of finding your body and bringing you back here. And then Hermes disappeared and everything went to hell but you know that part."

"What happened after I…after the temple?"

"After you…sacrificed yourself, Hermes escaped and made it back here, just as you planned." Lucy nodded. "He found you and…" Her eyes flitted to Hermes, who just pressed his face to Lucy's hair. "Brought you back here. I watched you while he fought Hypnos." Artemis couldn't suppress the gleam in her eyes. "From what I heard, it was fascinating to watch. Hypnos is an able fighter, as were many of our opponents, and desperation is a strong motivator, but we still bested them. Quite an exhilarating battle, and our casualties weren't even that great, all things considered, it could have been a lot worse if you hadn't—" Lucy flinched and Hermes frowned at Artemis, who stopped talking.

"The point is," Hermes emphasized, "that we won and we're okay now. They'd cleaning up Olympus as we speak and sorting out the mess with the mortals. There's nothing to worry about anymore."

Lucy nodded, wiping her cheeks.

Artemis opened her mouth, then closed it. She frowned and tapped her fingers against her leg. "May I ask you something, Lucy?"

"Of course."

"When you escaped Hypnos, your appearance was…rather alarming. What did they do to you?"

The girl flinched. Hermes growled and Lucy took his hand, twining their fingers together. "I don't…I don't want to make you angry," she said weakly.

"Lucy, what did they do?"

She jumped at the menacing tone of his voice. "Don't…don't get mad." Then she squeezed his fingers and took a deep breath.

I do apologize for the length and quality of this chapter, both of which took a shocking downturn in comparison to its recent predecessors. But this is the best I got, at the moment.

Just a warning, I will be changing the rating from T to M for the next chapter. I do not suggest reading it if adult themes bother you.

Also, please check out the story's blog because my announcement is live and I would greatly appreciate applications.