All in all, the fundraiser hadn't gone at all like he expected. Some parts of it weren't even that bad. Other parts had already made it to his top ten list of things that happened. Now it was all crashing down in a mad rush of chaos.

His ears were ringing so loudly with concern for Meg that he barely heard Phil shouting instructions at him. He was pretty sure she was ok. For now. Why hadn't she run with everyone else?

There could be half a dozen reasons, mostly stemming from a rebellious streak that he was beginning to recognize that made her do the opposite of anything someone told her to do. Normally, he'd have considered it hot. Right now, it distracted him from trading blows with the Minotaur.

With Theseus in the mix, it was a little easier to find moments for his distracted mind to distance himself from combat and retread the course of events that got Meg hurt. She'd come out of hiding right when the monster appeared, ignored the retreat of the rest of the guests, and stood right in plain view of the Minotaur while he launched a column at her. If not for the fact that Hercules had stopped it before it could hit her, there was no telling what would've happened. She'd still gotten rattled in the shelter of their former hiding place, but if only she'd stayed there…

"You won't have your vengeance. You're going back where you belong!" Theseus had a knack for keeping cool in situations that fired Hercules up. Then again, his girlfriend had evacuated immediately.

He couldn't let Meg die. If that meant he had to delay until someone could look at the nasty cut on her head, he'd do it. Any more than that, he wasn't sure he could pull off.

"We've trounced you twice already!" Hercules snarled at the Minotaur, angling himself between the beast and the niche Megara was recovering in. He wouldn't let the creature advance an inch past him in her direction. "You've got plenty of nerve showing up here when you know what's coming to you!"

"I'll never go back there!" The Minotaur released a smoldering puff of air from his nostrils. If Hercules wasn't hallucinating, there was smoke in his breath. "I've got a few new upgrades!" The beast's eyes lit up golden with inner flame.

Not good.

The Minotaur reared his head back, audibly dragging in deep breaths to prepare his attack. He'd soon blast fire through the banquet hall. Except that Hercules wouldn't let him.

Hercules rushed toward the monster, squatted down, then leaped straight upward with fist bared. He connected with the Minotaur's jaw, then grabbed him by the leg before he could hit the ceiling. "I'm starting to regret not killing you," he snarled at the beast.

He'd felt this same rage when the Minotaur's insistence on toppling every temple in Athens had almost killed Icarus. Now, that same vicoius determination to destroy the enemy before him filled his veins. Icarus had broken a bone, but the way Megara hit her head… he wasn't sure what to make of that.

"Try to maintain your composure," Theseus instructed.

"Don't let him make you do something clumsy! This whole place'll come down!" Phil added.

"I don't need anyone to tell me what to do!" Hercules snarled. Every sense honed to a fine point. He knew precisely what he would do to the Minotaur now that he had the experience behind him and the fire in his heart. He stood over the beast as he recovered from the last blow, pulling in short breaths to fuel his next breath attack. "You don't want to go back to the labyrinth? You're not going anywhere ever again!"

"Herc!" Both Theseus and Phil cried at once, but he was beyond listening.

The Minotaur puffed himself to full height. He aimed his glare, full of hatred, down at Hercules.

He gave back as good as he got. Hercules may not have fire powers, but he was done being merciful. With sword in hand, he hurled himself at the Minotaur and slashed him across his belly.

The monster's skin was tough. It resisted the path of Hercules's blade, but Hercules was tougher. He backed the slash with every ounce of vengeance. For the toppled temples, for Icarus, for his own ego at having to fight the same beast three times, and for Megara.

Fire burst from the monster's mouth and his belly. It lapped up around Hercules's sword, toward the hilt, but Hercules remained untroubled. He withdrew his blade and cut again. This time he plunged it up from the navel toward the Minotaur's heart.

"What're ya doin'?" Phil was hopping a circle behind him, and Pegasus whinnied from outside, where he'd been throughout the party.

"Make yourself useful and let Pegasus in," Hercules snarled to his trainer.

"Excuse me?"

"I need his help getting this thing out of here. Let Pegasus in." He clipped each word short with perfect annunciation, not sparing a second or taking his eyes off his prey.

Theseus leaped onto the Minotaur's back. He braced himself with one hand around a horn and wrapped a thick cord around the monster's throat. "That should stop any more fire from getting out!" he explained with a satisfied smirk.

"Thanks for the assist. Throw me the rope."

Theseus did so just in time for the Minotaur to shake him off. Despite his wounds, the monster was determined to keep fighting Hercules. So it would be to the death.

Fine. Hercules set his jaw and lowered his head. He might not have horns, but he was made of sterner stuff than this creature had accounted for.

He yanked the cord.

The Minotaur's body slammed down at the exact moment Theseus jabbed his sword through his back. A tremor ran through the floor, shaking loose some rubble from the roof.

"Meg!" Hercules rushed toward her hiding place, but there was no time to reach her before bits of the ceiling were crumbling down on top of it. His heart froze. The blood rushed to his toes. He thought he might collapse on the spot.

"Behind you!"

Hercules didn't take the time to determine whether the voice belonged to Phil or Theseus. White hot vengeance brought every fiber of his being to attention. In what felt like slow motion, he spun about to meet the Minotaur's charge with his fist. He cracked the beast's skull with his knuckles, but that wasn't enough.

He could leave no doubt that this creature would attack a fourth time. His sword slashed through the torso, but that wouldn't be enough. Hercules took hold of him by the horns, braced himself on one shoulder, and yanked the head free. It was there, dripping in his hand, the blood streaming from it, when clarity returned to Hercules's mind.

In one of the polished shields hung along the wall, Hercules saw himself, covered in blood, holding the head of his mangled foe, and wondered if he'd become a monster. He dropped the monster's head in disgust. "That's over," he said with a hollow voice.

Heroes weren't supposed to be disgusted with themselves, were they?

"Great job, Kid," Phil said, though he didn't seem to have much enthusiasm behind the praise.

"That took a lot out of you," Theseus said. "Let me check on our guests. You take a few minutes to yourself."

This was no time to think of himself. Hercules turned back to the last place he'd seen Meg. He tore through the rubble covering the entrance to the niche Megara was hiding in. She had to be suffocating in there! He tore through the curtain, which he'd noticed fell close to her, but when he dug deeper, he found nothing but rubble. The only sign she'd ever been there was a blood stain against the back wall and the floor, roughly outlining the point of impact she'd made with the wall and where she'd lain to recover.

There was no way she could've gotten up from that and walked away before the rest of the cave-in. But where was she?

"She was probably faking it, Kid." Phil pulled on his cape. "Used it to make her getaway."

Not the way she was lying there.

"Just stop…" Hercules snarled. "You might think you've figured her out, but you don't know anything about her. You missed your chance a long time ago." He got to his feet. She wasn't there. That must mean she was alive, right? But where had she gone? How had she gotten out of there when she was losing consciousness? He couldn't remember seeing her pick her way free of there, but the evidence didn't lie. She wasn't there. It was as if she'd simply vanished.

His mind was swimming with so many conflicting emotions that he couldn't even convince himself she was real. But she had been. Other people had interacted with her. She'd spent plenty of time upstairs with Galatea and Medusa. She'd helped take down two Gorgons today. She'd shredded Adonis's ego to ribbons. Then she'd taken him aside and… No, he couldn't think about that. He had to go looking for her.

"Good news." Theseus appeared behind him. "We've got plenty of donors now that they've seen what we did to our… mutual acquaintance. If you don't mind, we've got a few people to talk to, and then… Ah."

"No, I couldn't find her," Hercules got to his feet. "She'll turn up when she wants to.

"Are you sure?"

"Every time I meet her, she vanishes and reappears a while later. She'll find me. I'll have to apologize for the way our date went. I never got to dance with her."

Theseus set a hand on his shoulder. "You're a good friend, Hercules, and I promise you'll be a better boyfriend when you see her again. If I'm there, I'll tell her how you fought for her. I understand girls enjoy hearing things like that."

Hercules tried to laugh. "Thanks. But I wish she'd let me help her now. Where do you think she'd go?"

"My guess? A doctor. We can make a few inquiries in town before you return to Thebes. Maybe I can help her get home."

"She's tough. And clever. I think she'll make it there." Somehow, he'd have to make himself believe it. If Meg didn't want to be found, she wouldn't be.