It was now nearing the middle of autumn and already it was unseasonably cold. Nico had told Persie that Persephone was extending her time in the underworld, the acceptance and acknowledgement from the other gods lessening Hades' bitterness. Persie and Wally had been spending a great deal of time together, the longer they spent together, the more they appeared to just click. Persie hadn't invited him to properly meet her tiny family yet, she hadn't yet told him about her dual identity or even her heritage and in her line of work, life had the potential to be short.

In turn Wally hadn't given into his family's requests and brought Persie home either. He knew his cousin meant well but Bart had a habit of blurting out whatever flashed through his head and the twins were beginning to develop powers. He just had no idea how to tell Persie that he was a meta, that he was Blaze. Never before had he been in his situation. All of his close friends were in the 'business' with him and only the Bat's kept their identities close to the chest.

These thoughts were running through his mind as he and Persie walked hand in hand from their latest date, a surprisingly fun trip to the museum which had an exhibit on the Greek and Roman societies. Persie had laughed when she saw the exhibit and had murmured little comments about all the gods to him in undertones and they both had to stifle their giggles, under the disapproving eye of a tour guide.

"I had fun tonight." Persie said as they walked, squeezing their joined hands and nudging her shoulder. Thank you for taking me there. I was never really a fan of museums but, this was really fun."

Wally shrugged and kissed the top of her head. "No worries. Thought you might like it. How many dates have we been on now?" he asked, frowning in thought as he tried to count the many long and interesting dates they had been on.

Persie snorted. "Why? Trying to work out when sex would be on the table?"

"No." Wally said quickly, flushing slightly as she snickered. "I was just wondering...wondering if you would like to..." he trailed off, head tilting as some barely-audible noise met his ears.

Persie had frozen too, the smile falling off her face as they turned in unison to the alley they were passing and the pair of fiery red eyes shining like torches in the gloom. Wally pulled Persie back, or attempted to as the shorter dug her heels in and slipped her hand into her pocket, returning with a pen that Wally had seen her fiddling with but never use. "Wally." she murmured. "Get away from the alley." it shocked him for a moment how calm she sounded. But when the pen transformed into a three foot long bronze sword his brain froze.

"Sword." he croaked and Persie rolled her eyes.

"Oh, Hades. I had to get one who could see through the Mist."

Wally shook himself out of his shock and dashed to her side, not caring about using his speed. "I can help." he promised.

"Can you?" Persie asked, swinging her sword as the growls got louder. "You know what that is?" she indicated the approaching red eyes. "That's a hellhound."

Wally barely had time to retort before the beast was lunging, jaws snapping and drool dangling

from sharp jagged teeth. Matted fur stank and steamed in the cool air as Persie danced around the animal, slashing with her sword. He ran forward determined to help and when Persie saw him he knew she connected the dots but had no time to dwell on it because she twirled her finger in the air even as she got in a good slash on the creature's flank. Wally nodded in understanding and ran around the hound, faster and faster until he created a small tornado around the dog. He became aware of water joining his tornado and once he had built up enough of a spiral he jumped out of the way, just as that wicked sword swung through the air and delivered a killing blow to the hound, stabbing it straight through the heart. Instead of dropping heavily to the ground, the beast instead disintegrated, becoming a sickly yellow dust which spun through the air in the wake of the settling winds before sinking to the ground, leaving Persie and Wally to stare at each other with no idea what to say.