Perseus' fall to Tartarus was slow. And progressively, it got hellishly hotter. It was quite a boring trip after a while, but by the bones of his father it gave him quite literally, a hot minute, to think about what had transpired prior.

It all started with Hera, ever so needy. Always upset that her husband was a man whore, never able to keep the King of the Gods in their own bed. Quite frankly, Perseus found it pathetic and immensely ironic. The Queen of the Gods, the Goddess of Marriage, wife of a cheater! There was a higher power with a sense of humour, oh, for sure.

First Hera dreamt up a little plan of vengeance for her constant humiliation, brewing it slowly in her divine mind, the best possible way to hurt her husband. She was clever, with her method, she knew that Zeus favoured Athena. And so, she had her first recruit to try and sway to her point of view. Athena was a complicated goddess, in the sense she was not tempted solely by power. The matron of wisdom didn't strive to be the one in control, she was not interested in being the Queen of Olympus, she fashioned herself as the brains behind the throne. Which, admittingly, when she desired so, she was skilled at. Perseus sneered to himself, thinking about Athena's fickle loyalties. She cared not for who was the King, only that her position was secure. What she truly cared about, was losing her position of importance as Zeus' favourite to Artemis. Once she became disillusioned to Zeus' temporary attention and favouritism, the prospect of a Perseus-era kingship became evermore appealing to her.

Perseus was the only serious contender to the throne that actually wanted such a title, all of the divine world knew Poseidon had no interested in ruling both Olympus and Atlantis. A similar situation was found in Hades, he cared not for ruling the pantheon.

As such, Hera hardly needed to convince Perseus to join her cause. He was long disillusioned to the tyrannical reign of Zeus.

Swaying the Lord of Time to her cause, brought both Artemis to the cause in silent support. Artemis, Perseus sneered again.

Before he had time to ponder more about his family and council, well, ex-council, he sensed that the bottom of the tunnel was fast approaching. Infact, it was approaching so fast that Perseus was beginning to become worried he'd splatter on impact. His heart started beating rapidly.

Thud thud

2 kilometres

How the fuck do I work this one out?

Think, Perseus

Thud thud

1.5 kilometres

Surely I won't splatter on impact?

Fuck, I've been thrown in Tartarus. Who gives a shit if I splatter? My fucking family certainly doesn't…

Thud thud

1 kilometre

Wait, I'm the god of time..

Thud thud

500 metres

And then time came to an instant halt. The roaring of Tartarus instantly silenced, frozen in time.

"About time you worked that out, my friend." A soft feminine voice resounded around the cavern.

Perseus, now afloat in time, did a 360 yet saw no female in the vicinity. Thoroughly confused, he tentatively asked, "Who's there?"

Giggle

"Don't you remember me?" The same feminine voice said.

"You'd think that if I did, I wouldn't ask the question." Perseus replied, not without a hint of sarcasm.

More giggles

"Oh, I've missed your sarcasm. I'm your best friend, Shadow."

Perseus grunted, like a spark had lit in his brain, a memory long forgotten yet one he could still not access. The wisps of fire started to take form some 10 metres away from him, a dark red flame making up a vaguely humanoid female body floating mid air. It began walking towards Perseus slowly.

The girl started speaking, "Are you going to hold time indefinitely? That would be fucking boring, I like watching immortals treating each other like shit."

Perseus: "Fantastic, thanks, oh how I'm glad you get boundless joy out of my misery"

Her: "Oh, baby, it's not just your misery. I get a kick out of everything. I have to find enjoyment in somethiiiiiiing." She dragged the ending of the word in a sensual manner. Something about her was disconcertingly familiar to Perseus, he knew her but he was unaware of how. She certainly reminds him in no way with the Olympian gods whom shoved a knife in his back.

Her: "And, really, the last few millennia have been nothing but entertainment. I truly can't blame you for wanting some action."

Perseus: "I… have no idea who in Tartarus you are. Yet you're so familiar? And you know me? Explain this one to me.. 'Best Friend'."

She giggled softly again, taking on a more solid form, almost corporeal yet still distinctly flaming, "Perhaps you'll remember in time". She walked towards Perseus, but he didn't react, obviously feeling unthreatened by her. A hand reached out and caressed his cheek, surprisingly not scorching hot, more of a comforting flame, a kind and soft caress. "Shall we leave?"

Perseus: "Lets."

Linebreak

They had arrived and set up a small campfire in a forest in the region of Thessaloniki. Nothing grand, as Perseus insisted on not drawing the attention of his former family. The mysterious fire girl gave nothing away about herself, instead opting to try and cook game in various different ways. Of course, by different ways, we mean varying levels of absolutely scorched with her own flame. She seemed to enjoy it, though, and Perseus was content with his food, so he let her have her fun.

Not that he was even sure he could stop her, even if he was bothered by it. He was struggling with his moral compass at the moment, frankly.

Now that he had a moment alone in his thoughts, he no longer felt his connection to Olympus, which meant his throne had been destroyed. Probably done by Apollo. Perseus didn't feel a sense of loss though, not truly, the betrayal dominated his psyche at the present. He didn't understand how he got here, for his Father, Mother, his lover, and everyone else whom supposedly "supported" him to turn on him so rapidly…

Perseus: "I'm going for a walk."

Her: "I guess I'm coming too, then."

Perseus: "No, I want to be alone."

She pouted, as much as a semi, solid flame could. But Perseus had made his mind up, and started walking with no particular aim or destination in sight and mind.

It could've been minutes, hours, days, Perseus had no idea which one it was. But he eventually came upon a rock structure, and sat down and laid with his thoughts.
The stars were dull, he noted. He always had a connection with the cosmos, but on a more grand scale rather than a direct connection with domains and such. The sky was mourning for the loss of the time god. Perhaps his name would be scrubbed from all references in Olympus? What would be worse, he wondered. Death of the self or death of memory? No matter, Perseus decided he didn't want to be remembered by the world that turned its back on him.

He'd disappear, if his family couldn't live with their own choices and wished to scapegoat him for merely trying to help Hera's cause, without accepting any responsibility of their own… then they didn't deserve any thought from Perseus. They can think he is stuck in Tartarus, Chaos knows Tartarus doesn't communicate with the Olympians. Nor Hades. That is why the place is considered such an infernal Hell, in the field of punishment you are guaranteed to be overlooked by Hades, who is harsh but just. Tartarus is considered a similar dimension to the Abrahamic Hell, which is a major misconception because it is quite different. Tartarus himself does not usually interfere with the realm, as opposed to Lucifer.

Perseus closed his eyes

Artemis raised her hand. Perseus' heart sunk as the name that mattered to him most voted against him. He choked out a confused sound, like a kicked puppy.

None of them supported him when it mattered most. They all left him to reap the consequences of misplaced trust.
Especially when an arr-

A warm hand landed on his shoulder: "That's enough for now… you're destroying nature around you, Perseus".

It was her once more, who against his wishes found him. Or teleported to him? Only the heavens could guess what exactly she was. But he looked around at her beckoning and saw life was decaying, tree stumps were rotting, leaves were melting, rocks were crumbling, a few birds had fallen out of tree and rotted to the skeletons.

Perseus didn't remember his presence, no matter his emotions ever having such an impact.

The emotions of the last few hours begin to catch up to him, a depressing feeling of emptiness began to kindle inside of him, loneliness in spite of his previous affirmations that he would be fine without his family.

Perseus would never admit it, but in this moment he sunk into the ground, silently crying and shaking. The girl once more grabbed him by the shoulder and whispered, "It's alright… brother"

AUTHORS NOTE:

Sorry for the delay... I struggled to think about where to take this story and have been slowly writing this chapter to get a feel on where it would end up. I think my end goal and story progression is significantly different from when I started, but I like this new idea more. I think I may come back to this chapter down the line and revise it, but that's not a story for today.

TLDR: I'm back. I'm writing. Let's get them creative juices moving boyos. LFG. Oh yeah, this story is going to be infinitely darker than I planned.