A/N: This chapter has turned out to be long. I thought that splitting it into two different sections wouldn't have given either section the impact I wanted it to have. Thanks for bearing with me. I hope you enjoy this update!
14
THE devilish imps Pain and Panic carried a tray of food towards Hades and Persephone's private chambers while doing whatever they could not to drop it. They'd argued amongst themselves about not wasting too much of the fresh meat of their Lord's meals as Hades had no appetite and yet it was the Fates who had bid them take it to him.
The little devils opened the door too heavily, and it took their beady eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness of the room, only to find that their sight was greeted with the body of their Queen seeming to be sleeping peacefully, except they could not detect the rise and fall of the fair goddess's chest, which meant that he…she…she was…
Oh. Oh.
Pain and Panic stared with wide-eyed and terrified eyes that nearly threatened to bulge out of their sockets at Hades' wife, as though they thought just staring at her could magic her back to life, but of course, the imps possessed no such abilities.
Hades stood stiff and immobile as a statue, pale and even ghastlier looking than before. Grief had caused dark circles to form under his eyes, his cheekbones were hollow, and the closely cropped beard that dusted along his jaw would need tending to.
He would need to shave soon and his hair would need to be cut, as his thick blue hair was sticking up in tufts this way and that, Pain thought bitterly.
The imp remembered all too soon that his queen had used to take delight in doing it for her husband, but now, with Persephone dead, it would fall to him or to Panic to do it, he realized with a jolt.
Before he could ponder this further, it was Panic who broke the heavy silence between the servants and their master.
Hades did not turn to face them but instead kept his hands folded neatly behind his back, though the two imps could see their master digging his nails into the skin of his palms and causing his flesh to bleed.
"I-is she…?" Panic questioned, his voice holding a slight stutter to it, likely due to his nerves. Panic cast a sad gaze towards the Queen's lifeless form on their marriage bed and felt a wave of anger wash over him to see her like this.
"Of course she is, I'd have not brought her here if she wasn't, you imbecile," Hades growled, and just the reverberation of his voice made them tremble. "Do you know what made my wife truly beautiful?" Hades muttered, still not turning around to face his imps. Instead, he ran his hand through his thick wavy blue hair and let out a shuddering breath of angst, and sniffed as he blinked back bitter tears. "Per gave her love to someone like me, knowing the other gods on their high horses wouldn't approve. Her mother disapproves of our marriage and has not spoken to Persephone since we married. If she was able to love a devil as I've always known myself to be, imagine how she would have treated our child, what kind of mother she would have been. What Zeus stole from me, I cannot get back." His bottom lip quivered. "For this, there is no peace, there is no coming back from this."
Pain and Panic could only watch as Hades finally turned around, yet their master had only eyes for his wife on their marriage bed. Hades reached his queen's side in an instant and pressed his lips to his wife's with such tenderness that the imps had to look away, feeling as though they should not be here, as if they had no right to see it.
It felt as though the two of them were intruding upon a private moment of their master's, yet if it bothered Hades, the god gave off no indication as he pulled apart.
"Soon, Per," Hades whispered in a trembling voice, his hand beginning to badly shake as it went to the sword he wore around his belt. "Zeus will pay for what he's done to our family. Your pain will be paid for a thousand times over. I only wish that you could be there to watch." Hades' mouth was dry as he spoke and he licked his lips.
Ignoring Pain and Panic blustering as they pled with him to stay, he left the room. He could not get to Tartarus soon enough. Hades turned on his heels in a twist of his black robes, running his hand along the edges of his closely cropped beard, and felt his face freeze and his anger swell to dangerous proportions.
As he stood rooted to his spot outside their private chambers, Hades waited a moment to compose himself before he left to unleash the Titans from their hell of Tartarus. Zeus's boy would not escape from this unscathed and Zeus would beg him for mercy for the life of his son. But Hades would not grant Zeus mercy.
Instead, Hades would laugh and let the Titans destroy Mount Olympus, just as Zeus had destroyed his world when he'd killed his beautiful Persephone. His decision was made, his mind made up and there was no changing it, he fled, not even needing to picture in his mind where he wanted his magic to take him.
Tartarus.
Some would say that love made the heart grow fonder. But in the Lord of the Underworld's case, Hades' love for Persephone was an obsession and it only made the god's already black heart even darker.
Pain and Panic were left to tend to their master's wife's body to prepare the queen for a pyre worthy of the gods, to send her soul to Elysium where the beauty Persephone rightfully belonged.
The two imps clambered on top of their bed, gently, checking her.
Pain moved Persephone's arm to drape it over her stomach, preparing to dress her, and pulled his hand back in shock, not wanting to face what he had just discovered.
"Holy Hera…" he exploded violently, a myriad of curse words of the foulest language imaginable leaving Pain's lips under his breath in ragged gasps now that Hades was not here to hear him say such things, the shock of his discovery causing the demon to stagger backward off the bed.
Panic furrowed his brows and he looked towards their master's wife's corpse to see what it was that had his friend in such a state of agitation. Panic's gaze lingered on Persephone's chest and the demon swore he felt his heart creep its way up into his throat and stop, as the color drained from his face with the realization the moment he saw her chest begin to rise and fall, and watched as her body began to stir on the bed, and heard her let out a low moan.
Persephone was still alive.
MEG awoke to the sound of a crackling fire, the snapping of logs, and the murmuring of a hushed voice, it sounded like Wonder Boy, whispering to her. There was a horrible stinging discomfort on her cheek, just underneath her eye. She reached up a shaking hand to touch it, only for Wonder Boy to pull her hand away and quietly tell her in as firm a voice as he could muster up not to touch it. She sat up slowly, her vision coming back to her as her vision cleared and the objects in front of her began to take on the shapes of things she thought she recognized.
Her lungs beckoned for air, and she inhaled deeply to fill out as she looked at Hercules. Hercules was tending the fire, and his nanny goat Phil was over by Wonder Boy's winged horse, trying to coax him to eat his feed.
Meg was feeling utterly exhausted and would have liked to help Hercules, she presently felt too weak and exhausted to do so. She was feeling quite feverish, and she could barely keep her eyes open, let alone be of any help to him.
Meg stuck out her lower lip and bit down on it in a slight pout as she hugged the cloak that Wonder Boy had draped over her shivering shoulders as she waited patiently for Hercules to turn around and notice that she was awake.
She felt so cold, and she couldn't stop shivering. The shakes could have likely been caused by the fact that she was in shock from nearly having been burned to death, or perhaps it was due to the chilly autumnal air around them and she did not own a cloak. Meg furrowed her brows into a frown as she thought about how Hercules had looked at her earlier like she was such a disappointment to him when she felt compelled to protect him from the truth.
That her own master who'd nearly killed her was his uncle by blood.
The way he'd spoken to her before had suggested that Hercules thought she was foolish, and implied that Meg had no idea just how much danger she had been in. But that could not have been further from the truth.
Meg was all too aware of how close she had come to becoming a permanent part of Hades' Underworld, doomed to float aimlessly through the River Styx, forever.
The thought sent a violent chill down her spine, and she could not stop the surprised gasp from leaving her lips.
Meg looked up with a furtive, guilty look flashing across her face as Hercules heard the little noise she let out and was by her side in an instant. She flinched the moment Wonder Boy set a hand on her shoulder. She hoped the demigod didn't yell at her again. She'd done nothing wrong, the way she saw it all.
When Hades had bound her to the tree, he'd not been thinking clearly, too overcome with anger and rage towards his brother to likely know that what he was doing to her was wrong. At least, that's what Meg tried to tell herself.
But Hercules knelt in front of her now, looking at the young woman expectantly while he waited for her to speak before finally finding his voice. Thankfully, his voice was once softer and timid again.
"Y-you're awake," he breathed, still looking at her as though he could not quite believe that she was alive and well.
Neither can I, Meg thought as a sharp bitterness crept its way into the pit of her swooping stomach.
She blushed at the intensity of Wonder Boy's gaze as she propped herself up onto her elbow and surveyed the makeshift campsite that Hercules had brought her to through hazy eyes, pained and dry slightly from the smoke that still was lingering in the air from the fire. Meg noticed that his only protection from the chilly night air was his tunic and his armor. She glanced down and realized that he had shrugged off his thick navy-blue cloak and draped it across her body. Meg furrowed her brows and stared at Wonder Boy's cloak, confused as to why she had his cloak.
"This is your cloak, Hercules," she stared, peering down at the warm cloak that was draped over her shoulders. "Why am I…?" she started to question.
But Hercules answered before her question left her throat all the way, anticipating she'd ask him.
"Y-you were shivering," was all Hercules said to her with a light shrug of his shoulders towards her.
Meg stared, hardly daring to believe how selfless Wonder Boy was. He'd given up his cloak so that she would stay warm. He had done so much for her in such a short amount of time and had asked for so little of her in return.
"I—oh, well here, you must be freezing," she protested, looking at him with concern and immediately tried to give the garment back. But Hercules shook his head and refused to take it.
"I-I wasn't using it anyways, Meg. You keep it for now, warm yourself up," he told her, worried.
Meg shivered and wrapped his cloak tighter around herself, inhaling the slightly musky scent of the fabric but finding that it calmed whatever frayed nerves were within her prior.
"I…thank you, Hercules," Meg spoke in a small voice as she fumbled with his cloak with fumbling, shaky fingers.
She held her breath as the demigod knelt in front of her and pulled his cloak more securely around her shivering shoulders. Hercules looked her in the eyes and then rested his hand against her forehead and nearly hissed as he withdrew his hand back into himself. She was burning up with a fever.
"Something is wrong, Meg, you're sick!" Hercules exclaimed, the skin of his brow pulled taut and tight with worry and concern as a shimmering pressure began to build behind Wonder Boy's baby blue eyes.
"N-no, I-I'm fine, Hercules," Meg disagreed. "If I have one, I probably just need to sleep it off, I'm sure I'll be fine by tomorrow morning, Wonder Boy," she murmured in a voice that almost trembled as she continued to shiver.
"I'll build up this fire and you'll be warmer in no time," Hercules offered a quick smile that was obvious to her and to Phil who saw it from the other side of the campfire that his smile was strained as Hercules rose to his feet too quickly. Meg frowned, still not entirely convinced. "You'll be all right, Meg," Hercules spoke after a moment, glancing up from the fresh kindling he was gathering in his arms. "Just try to get some rest. I'm not going to let anything get to you."
Though she was still quite reasonably terrified at the hell Hades planned to unleash and knew that sooner or later, the truth would come out, and it better that Wonder Boy hear it from her rather than anyone else, Meg was too exhausted and sore to keep herself awake much longer.
She did not want to fall asleep, not when there was much left unsaid between the two of them and all that she wanted to say to Hercules planned out in her mind. But she supposed she could rest her eyes, if only for a moment.
She leaned her head back against the ground and reluctantly let her eyes close, her mind drifting to nearly happy fantasies of entertaining life with Hercules… Only to have them shatter at the sound of a snapping twig and the sound of a familiar voice calling her name. Meg's ears perked up at the sound of Medusa's shy voice reaching her ears and she instantly felt a rush of warmth flood through her as she turned, expecting to find her friend.
However, the moment she turned in the Gorgon's direction, she froze and stared, hardly daring to believe her eyes.
Meg rose to her feet, letting Hercules' cloak she had wrapped around her shoulders fall to her feet in a crumpled heap. She was not aware that she was now as pale as a ghost.
A myriad of emotions flickered to life in her eyes as she looked at the man clinging to Medusa's arm, the very man whom she had once thought she'd marry. Her lips parted with the shock of her disbelief.
Adonis was there, standing just inches in front of her. She was close enough that she could reach out and touch him if she wanted to do it now. He was real, and…something had happened.
He was blind. But…he had left her. Prince Adonis had ripped her heart out from her chest when he had left her for the other woman after she had bargained with Hades to save him. He'd left her alone with the anguish and pain of a broken heart, and after she had just lost both of her parents too. How could she ever forgive that?
Meg's bottom lip quivered before she came back to herself and angrily clenched her jaw to try to stop it.
She would not give him the satisfaction of even hearing her cry since something had happened to the handsome Prince to take his sight. Her face twisted and contorted into a pained grimace, and for a moment, Hercules thought she might be ill. He reached out a hand to steady her, but hesitated, unsure if Meg would even allow it.
"Meg?" he spoke, his voice filled with hope and fear.
Meg flicked her gaze away from the ghost of her past now standing in front of her and towards Hercules.
She flinched at the worry in Wonder Boy's eyes and could not manage to pretend to care how she was making him feel as she reluctantly shrugged out of his gentle grasp, wanting to put as much distance between herself and Adonis as possible. The look she shot both men pleaded with them not to follow her. Meg desperately shook her head to herself, trying to wring the image of Adonis from her mind, but he would leave her.
All Meg could think to do was to run away. Meg tried to turn her body to run away from the camp, but she could barely take one step forward. Stiffly, she forced herself to walk away.
Hercules itched to follow Meg, his need to protect her safe and overpowering any other thoughts and desires in his mind at the moment, but his legs had turned to stone beneath him.
He stood there, paralyzed by indecision and uncertainty as to who this man was in Meg's life, why Medusa had brought this man back, and could only stare after Meg, watching her go and taking his heart with her as she did.
He could only stare hopelessly as Meg tried to walk away from the seemingly blind man that Medusa had brought back, by the looks of him, wondering who he was to her.
But Meg barely made it ten paces towards the edge of the woods when she collapsed, the strength in her knees giving out beneath her, and she buried her head in her hands and began to openly sob.
Hercules watched in horror and anger as Meg lost control. He suddenly felt uncomfortable, as though he were bearing witness to something he had no right to see as if he were invading Meg's privacy.
For a moment, Hercules was frozen, and with painstaking slowness, turned towards the blind man who had caused such an unexpected and shocking reaction from Meg.
Frantically, Hercules rushed to Meg's side, only to be halted in his tracks to find that, for a blind man, the man Medusa was with moved with alarming speed and had knelt into a crouch by her side and was stretching a hand out to touch her shoulder as if he meant to give her comfort.
"Don't touch her!" Hercules heard himself shout in a voice that did not sound like his voice at all. A low growl was ripped from his lips as he lunged for the blinded stranger, vowing to himself that he would protect Meg from any further harm this night, and he aimed to prove to her that he was not like the man who had broken her heart.
The man could not steady his balance as Hercules pulled him roughly to his feet, shoving him backward away from Meg. His god-given strength propelling him back towards their campsite, he felt his anger nearly threaten to consume him.
As he angrily steered this man back towards their camp, he could feel Meg's eyes on her as he clenched his trembling hands into fists at his side, resisting the urge to lash out at this man out of anger. He wondered as he backed the blind man against the rough bark of a nearby tree what Meg was thinking of him now.
Was she looking at him in awe or disgust? Was he a hero to her or a bully, a zero, a worthless nobody not worthy of her time or her affection and dare he even hope it, someday, her love? A disgusting bully no doubt, by the way, he was behaving, but Hercules wanted to pretend he saw respect in Meg's eyes, and awe that he was helping save her.
The blind man seemed to understand that he was not in a good position to be right now. Yet, despite the obvious fret forming to life behind the man's clouded blue eyes, he managed to stand his ground and barely flinched as Hercules curled his hand around a fistful of the man's robes and shook him slightly, a wave of fierce protectiveness overcoming him just then as Hercules watched the man who could not see raise his chin slightly defiantly and glower in his general direction, a clouded look that had nothing to do with his blindness overcoming his features just then.
"Who are you and what are you doing here? What is it you want with Meg?" Hercules snarled at the man as a brand-new rage consumed him as he thought he heard Meg from somewhere behind him, she was now getting to her feet.
This time, the stranger did flinch as splinters of wood shattered to the left of his face, nearly slicing off his earlobe, and would have too if the man hadn't ducked.
"I don't suppose there's a chance I could talk this through with you? I don't mean Meg any harm," he stated slowly, not turning his head towards Hercules but instead keeping his face turned towards the left, where a good chunk of the tree was now missing. "I…I need to speak with her. Please, I-I've come such a long way." He paused. "But I can see that by coming here…I've done poor Meg more harm than good."
The abrupt bitterness in the man's voice was plain and unmistakable.
Upon hearing the man's last words, Hercules ground his teeth and felt his anger resurface with revived anger.
"What do you mean 'harm?' What have you done to her? Who are you to her?" Hercules angrily demanded.
A delicate hand gingerly touched his right shoulder, applying just enough pressure to coax him to look down to see who it was that was trying to pull his attention away from this stranger who had caused undue stress to Meg.
He turned his head and was shocked to find Meg staring at him, the burn mark under her cheek glistening with the coating of salve that Medusa had applied earlier. Her lavender eyes pleaded with him not to.
"Wonder Boy, stop. Please." Her breaths trembled as Meg shuddered with angst. "This isn't necessary. Don't. Adonis is my problem to deal with, not yours, let me handle him," Meg whispered, her plea leaving her lips.
Hercules felt the blood drain from his face as Meg spoke the name of the man who had broken her heart and hurt her all those years ago. Never before had another man's name sounded like a curse, until right now.
But what made this situation all the worse was the way this Adonis' name sounded on her lips.
Meg spoke her former love's name with such anguish that Hercules felt his anger pump a level and the urge to kill once more flood right through his veins. He curled his hands tightly into fists at his side to prevent himself from striking out at something in anger, the closest target would be, of course, this Prince Adonis.
"Wh-why are you here? H-how did you get…like this?" Meg whispered in such a quiet voice.
Despite not liking the look in Meg's eyes one bit, Hercules felt a surge of hope at hearing the anger in Meg's voice.
Perhaps there was a chance she'd not give in to this man's return so easily, and she held no love in her heart for him. Almost as soon as the thought flitted through his mind, Hercules felt his heart give a lurch as and stretched a trembling hand out to touch her former love's cheek, her fingertips ghosting near his eyes.
Hercules felt the blood drain from his face, wishing that it was his face for which she reached, not his.
"Bandits, evil soulless bastards, deserving of death, all of them, but they were never caught," Adonis grunted in a harsh voice, though the man's handsome tanned face grew wistful as he continued. "I—I looked for you, Meg, after….I woke. You were nowhere in the house or the city. I scoured Thebes for days and when I did not find you, I ventured outside the city. I would have scoured all of Greece, the whole world, even, if it meant that I could find you." His voice lowered to barely a whisper. "When they cornered me on the road, they took me for every last drachma I had. The bastards ruined any chance I might have had of finding you the moment they decided taking every last thing I owned wasn't enough and they blinded me to ensure I couldn't remember what they looked like. Even afterward, I searched for you for two years, Meg, before I finally gave up and had to give up the search. I only came looking for you now because I heard someone in Thebes say your name and something about you being with the hero of the town. I heard your name and thought, if it was you, then there was a chance that you would at least tell me why you left, not because I...held any hope that you might take me back, even if I could find you, Meg. I knew you would want that for me, a-at least I hope you would have," he sighed. Adonis exhaled a shaky breath and paused to catch his breath, running his hand through his dark hair. "Where in the hell did you go, Meg, tell me?" Adonis growled, sounding more hurt with Megara than angry as he clenched his jaw and ground his teeth.
Meg blushed and frowned at his comment, not understanding.
"Two years, Adonis? I...I was gone a week!" she stammered, her tongue suddenly feeling like heavy clay in her mouth and she thought the beginnings of understanding were starting to flit through her brain.
Hades had told her it had been a week, but...he could have been lying about her time in the Underworld.
He had sent her away shortly after promising to cure Adonis of his wounds, sending her to a centaurs' encampment to begin recruiting the foul beasts to his cause, promising her she would be gone no more than a week.
She had done as Hades had asked and had returned to Adonis' home to find his home barren and desolate as if he'd never been there. By a miracle, Meg somehow found her voice as she clamped a hand over her mouth in horror.
"O-oh, gods. Holy Hera, I-I can't believe...I was such a fool, Adonis. He...he lied to me, I..think. I…I bargained with a god to save your life when you came home from the war, Adonis, he told me I had been gone a week," she whispered, shamefaced as the truth finally left her lips in front of Hercules. "You were dying, I couldn't handle it, and I...I pleaded. One god heard me and offered to save you in exchange for my soul. There was a time when I would have given anything to have you back, but...you met someone else." She bit down on her lip and looked at Hercules.
Hercules felt as though Meg herself had gut-punched him. He staggered backward and suddenly had trouble meeting the young woman's gaze.
She had sold her soul to a god, but which god?
His heart very nearly faltered and stopped right there on the spot as what little color was left drained from his face, leaving the demigod as pale as a ghost. Hercules spun furiously on Adonis.
He stepped away from Meg and felt his hand instinctively drift to the hilt of his sword.
"What are you doing here? Did you come here to win her back, is that it?" he snarled, a harsh bark to his voice that made Meg, Phil, Medusa, and even Pegasus look up in alarm and shock, surprised by the sudden shift in the demigod's attitude. His tone was almost bordering on biting. Seething, even, Meg would go as far as to describe it.
Meg looked towards Prince Adonis, her brow furrowing in confusion as she looked at the man who once held her heart, the man she thought she'd marry one day.
When Adonis did not respond to Hercules, Meg tried again, this time in a much softer, subdued tone.
"Why now?" she asked, trying to keep her voice as level-headed as possible.
Adonis squirmed in front of her, suddenly looking more than uncomfortable as he reached up a hand to rub the back of his neck gingerly. His cheeks flushed pink as he spoke in a soft, timid voice. He awkwardly shifted his weight from one foot to the other and it took Adonis a moment to find his voice.
"I..I'd hoped that... you would come back with me willingly, Meg. That you would stay. After those bandits took my sight, thoughts of you, seeing your face in my mind, it was the only thing that kept me searching the two years that I did look, hearing your voice, finding you, was the only thing that kept me wanting to live. Yes, I-I did meet another woman who I thought I could have moved on with, but every time I heard her speak, I heard only you. It wasn't fair of me to do that to either one of us, and so I ended our friendship that did not even last long enough to turn into a courtship, Meg," Adonis spoke softly, and earnestly.
Standing protectively beside Meg, Hercules did not even feel his entire body shudder with angst a fierce protective rage for Meg. Before he could part his lips to speak, Meg stepped forward and immediately took offense to his tone. She straightened her posture incredulously and glowered at Adonis.
Though he could not see it, he felt the burn of Meg's angry gaze and it was enough to make him wince as he waited for whatever cutting remarks Meg had to give to him for his offense.
Meg stiffened and felt the edges of her mouth turn down into a frown and when she did, she winced in discomfort and immediately brought a hand to the burn mark underneath her eye.
She did not know if it would scar, but she was not sure how long she could tolerate this pain.
Meg curiously flicked her gaze towards Hercules, resting a hand on his muscular bicep and trying to give it a reassuring squeeze. She had to lean up onto her tiptoes to whisper into his ear.
"He will be gone soon, Wonder Boy," Meg reassured him, a shining pressure building to life behind her lavender eyes as she decided she did not like the jealous look in those big baby blue eyes of his.
She looked deeply into Hercules' eyes and his very soul was calmed by the depths of Meg's gaze.
Meg then flicked her gaze towards Medusa and silently nodded to the Gorgon, who returned her nod with a curt one of her own. The silent communication that was exchanged between the two friends was quite clear.
If Adonis so much as twitched a finger to either harm her or Hercules with the news that she was about to impart, then Meg would have no qualms with letting Medusa look him squarely in the eye and turn him into another prized stone statue for her humble grotto back home. Meg then shifted her gaze back to Adonis and glared, wishing that the man who'd once held her heart could now see the look of daggers she was trying to pin him with.
Somewhere deep within her, the old wound still screamed at Meg that if Adonis had truly loved her, he'd have not left her. He'd not stopped his searching for her. Part of her wanted to laugh in his face and there was even a little bit of her that wanted to allow Hercules to let loose his fury on Adonis.
But then it occurred to her, whatever Adonis's reasons for seeking her out now, or even the seeming misunderstanding of his leaving her, no longer mattered. It was the thought of Wonder Boy beside her that calmed her frayed nerves within her and in their place, a strange peace began to wallow in her soul.
When she spoke, she spoke with the reassurance of a young woman who knew she had what she wanted out of life.
She could understand regretfully that Adonis would be hurt for a while, and she would have to destroy the hope that seemed to have sustained him since his blindness, but she could already feel her heart was slowly going out to Wonder Boy beside her. She could think of little else besides the kiss he had given her earlier.
Even Hades' threats to unleash all hell on Greece did not seem as important as her desire to return to their kiss.
"I-I was a fool, Meg. I never should have stopped looking." Prince Adonis shook his head regretfully and ran a hand through his dark wavy hair in anguish, the other clutching onto the thick walking stick he used for support.
Meg was quiet for several long moments. She truly did not want to hurt Adonis, now that she had seen how much he had suffered, but she also knew she could not allow him to spend any more time in his life hoping for something that he would never have back. Adonis might have been her first love, but she hoped Hercules would be her last.
"Oh, Adonis…" she began softly, and then looked towards Hercules tenderly before continuing, reaching for his hand. "I…I mourned you when you…when you left, b-but I'm beginning to think that my master lied to me about how long I was gone after he saved you," she whispered, clenching her teeth as she spoke, her troubled expression echoing the pain in her words. "I-I don't know what we had back then. Maybe it was love, but the war never gave us the chance to find out for sure. Just as soon as I found you, you were taken from me. Twice. Time never has been on my side, has it?" Meg let out a cynical chuckle that was laced to the brim with bitter hurt as she squeezed Hercules' hand for support. "But uh…I want to be with Hercules, Adonis," Meg told him, holding Wonder Boy's shocked and affectionate gaze lovingly for a moment as he returned her growing affection. She felt her heart swell with hope as slowly, she turned back to face her former lover. "I-I'm glad that I was able to be a source of comfort to you after your…accident," she stammered awkwardly, trying to be kind to the Prince. "I truly wish you the best life." She did hope that for them and spoke the truth to him. "I'm sorry that you've come all this way to Thebes, Adonis." Meg looked sympathetically at Adonis and shook her head. "But there is nothing for you here."
Out of the corner of her gaze, she saw Adonis swallow down past a lump in his throat as he fought the tears he knew would overwhelm him later, once he was alone. Adonis could hear the affection in Meg's voice he had always hoped to hear reserved for him, now that he had found her, only to find it directed at someone else entirely.
"Then…there is no reason for me to be here, Meg," Adonis conceded, his entire body turning numb at the heartbreak that now washed over him like a tidal wave. "I-I just…need you to know that I…" He hesitated as he trailed off, his mind faltering with everything that would need to go left unsaid between them. "That I'm sorry, Meg. For all of it," he trailed off, unable to say more.
"I know, Adonis," Meg tried to comfort him, even as she leaned back against Wonder Boy's muscular chest and softly smiled to herself as she felt his calloused hands come to rest protectively on her shoulders.
Adonis suddenly felt like an intruder, intruding his way into Meg's life when he was not wanted.
"I-I should go" he stammered quietly, wishing he could see, wanting nothing more than to take one last longing look into Meg's piercing lavender eyes, but gods, he would have to be content to only see them in his dreams.
"Yes," she stammered.
Medusa spoke up shyly next and stepped forward, pulling Meg from her thoughts of what family she had left.
"I-I'll escort you back," Medusa offered, offering Adonis her arm in a moment of boldness that surprised everyone in the camp. Even Phil was looking at the young Gorgon with questioning beady black eyes.
Adonis made to follow Medusa, having been about to accept the offer of the lovely young Gorgon's outstretched arm, though stopped as he felt Hercules staring at him. He straightened his gait and inhaled deeply, wanting to make himself appear as the Prince that he wanted Meg to remember him by.
"Hercules, is it?" Adonis's voice rose with a begrudging sort of respect as he clutched onto his walking stick for support with one hand and stretched out the other for the demigod who had won his lover's heart.
Hercules hardened his gaze and narrowed his eyes in suspicion as he took a step in front of Adonis to face his nemesis. But the Prince's hand remained outstretched, waiting for him to take it, as a peace offering, a truce, of sorts.
"You're a lucky, lucky man. Treat her well," Adonis declared, just a hint of a threat at the edge of his voice that almost made Hercules bristle and bite out a warning of his own as he scrutinized the blind man in front of him a moment.
He'd been more than ready to pounce at the man who still seemed to hold feelings for Meg, but now, he thought he was starting to feel sorry for the man. Not only had he lost his sight, but also Meg's heart as well, and he would have to live the rest of his life without her at his side. Hercules reached out hesitantly and accepted Adonis's handshake, though admittedly shaking the hand of the man who'd once held Meg's heart was admittedly the last thing he wanted to touch, he felt the burn of her gaze and knew it was what she wanted.
His desire to earn Meg's love fueled his actions, and he forced himself to shove his feelings of jealousy that this Adonis had gotten to spend more time with Meg than he had to the pit of his stomach and shook the man's hand.
"I will, Adonis. I promise," was all he could say to this Prince.
He stepped back and pulled an arm around Meg's shoulder, gently pulling her close. She returned his affectionate gaze as if they were the only ones left in the world. After a long moment that ended too soon, Meg forced herself to tear her gaze away from Hercules' admiration of her, her cheeks blushing a bright pink as she did so.
"Goodbye, Adonis," she spoke formally, as Adonis lowered his head with as much respect as he could muster and began to leave quietly, accepting Medusa's arm, leaving without the prize he'd hoped to obtain.
Medusa nodded to Hercules and Meg, ensuring the man would not return.
Meg nodded as she snaked her arms around Hercules' neck, pulling him down slightly so that she could reach him. She was only half-hearing the Gorgon as Medusa began to lead Adonis away.
Meg could not recall the last time she'd felt so nervous around a man. Yet, confronting Adonis and coming to terms with her past, and being here with Wonder Boy now, made her finally realize that perhaps she could let herself fall in love with him. She could not recall either a time in her life when she felt more comfortable.
Spurred by the closeness they now shared as Hercules rested his forehead against hers and eager to show Wonder Boy how she felt, Meg cradled Hercules' face in his hands and pressed her lips to his in a kiss. Their kiss was sweet as his lips met hers, and Meg felt it all the way in her body as Wonder Boy's kiss tingled and burned.
It felt right. Not even Adonis had kissed her this way before when they had still been together.
She didn't want the kiss to end, and it didn't for the longest time. Then, finally, they were forced to separate and as Hercules' eyes opened, he looked as stunned as Meg felt, his eyes half-lidded.
She felt her smile begin to falter the longer she looked into Hercules' deep blue eyes and saw nothing but adoration and affection there. Maybe, even the beginnings of love. She hoped for that, but she was overcome with a wave of crushing guilt at the lying by omission she had taken part in by trying to protect her master from Zeus's wrath.
"I...I have to tell you something, but...I don't want you to worry about me, Wonder Boy, whatever happens, I-I want you to fight to keep yourself alive," Meg told Hercules softly, and she flinched as she felt his eyes burning a hole through her, but she continued.
For some reason, she felt as though she needed to ensure that no matter what, she—they—would be fine.
She shuddered at what the consequences of Hercules' attention being drawn away from the threat that loomed over their heads could mean. She exhaled a shaky breath and decided that now was the time to tell Hercules the truth about Hades. Down to the last detail. Meg turned her head away from Hercules.
It was coming down to time, the one thing she knew they did not have much of. Gods, but she didn't know if she could do this. This was not the way she had imagined telling Hercules the truth. But before she could so much as utter a word, a flash of something black darted towards her out of the corner of her gaze.
Her throat dried as she thought she recognized a brief flash of thick blue hair that tended to stick up in tufts this way and that when it wasn't on fire, that was. A sound snatched Meg from her senses and Hercules heard it too.
Wonder Boy sped with lightning-fast speed, pulling his dagger from the belt he wore around his waist, but Hercules was too late to stop the Lord of the Dead.
Meg heard the splitting of flesh and the ripping of the fabric of her dress—her own and entirely too late.
Her eyes widened in shock as they traveled up to Hades' handsome face, his eyes now turned purest black and his expression apathetic, down to the god's hand that gripped Hercules' hunting knife that was now buried deep into her left thigh. It wouldn't be long until the pain scattered to the rest of her body once the worst of her shock subsided.
"You had quick eyes to see me coming, Meg," Hades growled, his voice flat. "You should know why. I wish it did not have to be this way. I liked you when you called for me, and then you had to go noble on me by calling for Zeus."
Hades' voice dripped with hatred for Wonder Boy's father. She felt Hades' other icy cold hand embrace her shoulder as the god thrusted Hercules' weapon deeper into her leg, causing Meg to scream as tears trailed down her face.
"Why…?" Meg gasped out, her voice barely above a whisper as tears filled her eyes.
"Meg!" she could hear Hercules shout, his voice shaking with panic. Meg felt tears come to her eyes and she yelped as the strength in her legs gave out and she collapsed to her knees. She fumbled for the blade buried deep in her thigh and screamed, kicking out at the Lord of the Underworld as he swiftly and calmly approached.
She'd heard of people being able to do truly amazing things in times of peril, or the surges of adrenaline that was able to propel you forward when you otherwise thought yourself incapable, but she'd never truly understood what humans were capable of until that exact moment. Reaching forward, Meg smacked Hercules' hand away as she ripped at the knife, screams still leaving her mouth as she was able to slide the weapon from her thigh.
If she were not so high on adrenaline, she might have been amused at how surprisingly difficult pulling a blade from the body was. But this seemed stuck, permanently, into her body.
"No, Meg, don't pull it out!" she heard Hercules desperately shouting, but Meg ignored him, her pain too great.
It finally wrenched free, and she dropped it. Hercules was kneeling by her side within an instant, tears welling in his eyes that would soon be dripping down his cheeks, and the skin of his brow was pulled taut with worry.
"Meg!" Hercules cried, vexed near to the brink of hyperventilation as he wound his arms around her, trying to do what he could to protect her while being unwilling to leave her side. When the god in front of them opened his mouth to speak, the frostiness of his voice stuffed the chills down his throat just then to hear how cold he was.
"I've heard from the pathetic mortals of this city that their town's little Hydra problem was cleaved in two by Zeus's son Hercules. I've never met the boy, but my intuition is telling me that it's you," he snarled, hissing his words through his teeth.
"Who are you? What do you want with Meg? With me?" Hercules shouted, forcing himself to tear his gaze away from Meg's wounded leg, though he immediately took the cloak that Phil tossed to him and began to craft a makeshift tourniquet for Meg's leg to try to stop the bleeding.
Hercules glanced up at the god whom he had spotted spying on them earlier when the forest had burnt down.
His eyes widened as he realized that he could have been looking at an older version of himself if he were of the mind to grow a beard and had been born with light blue skin. The god in front of him who had just hurt Meg was handsome, yet it was the god's black eyes that caught Hercules' attention the most.
A smothering fathomless rage simmered just below their surface. This god, whoever he was that had a grudge against his family, if this deity was indeed Meg's master, his foundations were his fury and his pain. These were the eyes of a god who yielded to no one but himself. A god who was assertive and strong-willed. And he frightened him.
Hercules' knuckles turned white as he clenched them into fists at his side, and he was only half aware of Phil scurrying to Meg's side, the Satyr's face turning pale in turmoil as he looked upon the handsome bearded god in front of them and recognition flashed to life in Phil's eyes.
"Herc, Champ, that's Had—"
But the god held up a slender hand and cut off Phil from whatever the goat had been about to say next. Phil's concern and fear for his trainee were so great that the Satyr obliged and immediately clamped his mouth shut.
"Oh, good, it is you. I was hoping you were Meg's noble handsome hero, and I can see I was right in that regard."
The handsome blue-haired god had not smiled once.
His black eyes bore into Hercules' soul, burning with a passion to kill. From somewhere, they could hear Medusa and Adonis returning to the campsite, their terrified whispers filling the air, but Hercules did not let himself look.
"I should kill you right here and now as a favor to your bastard of a father that's my brother, boy, but with your help, we might have a chance to ally together, don't you think? Though there's no question in my mind to kill you here and now would be appropriate, considering what your father took from me. Unfortunately, I'm not as cruel or vulgar as Zeus is. Killing you would give me no satisfaction. I merely need you...out of my way. Oh, and since we're bound together by blood, Hercules…please. Call me Uncle."
Before Hercules could open his mouth to speak, time itself seemed to come to a standstill as the infamous Lord of the Dead stalked forward and struck Hercules' temple with the hilt of his sword, which sent Zeus's son down onto the ground right next to Meg, now nursing a broken nose, a pained grunt escaping from the back of his throat.
Meg swallowed as tears left her eyes as she floundered in her horrific failure. She was going to die, she was sure of it. She knew from the look in Hades' now soulless black eyes that it was over.
Meg had always thought that in the past it might be calming to know that it was the end and there was absolutely nothing you could do to stop it, but that was not the case. She was panicked, sad, and terrified.
She watched as Hades' angular jaw clenched, his beard barely masking the way his jaw locked in rage.
There was more emotion on his face than Meg had seen.
His hands were shaking, his lips curling into a snarl and Meg and Hercules could only watch in amazement. It was rage and confusion and hurt and anger on Hades' face, but it was there.
Visible on the Lord of the Dead's face, unmistakable emotion. Meg's lips parted in amazement, and for a fleeting second, she forgot the pain in her leg or the blood that was now ruining her dress.
She was just about to speak to Hades, to ask him what in the hell had happened, though before she could, Meg's eyes went wide just as the ground beneath them began to shake.
Meg looked up and immediately wished she hadn't.
A harrowing scream left her lips as she had to crane her neck up to see better. She stood in front of the largest leviathan creatures she had ever seen and knew without a shadow of a doubt what it was that they were looking at.
The Titans.