Dear Wonder Boy,

I'm sorry it's taken me this long to write. There are no excuses, so here's the letter.

You were right about me. We're not so different. Both of us have tremendous burdens on us to please the gods. The difference is, while you are striving to achieve glory, I'm enslaved to the most evil being in the cosmos. I'm sorry. It'll never work. I always liked you.

Scrap.

Megara shredded her would-be letter and checked over her shoulder. Could Pain and Panic read?

They could certainly shop.

Start over.

She ought to be more formal. But all the letters he'd sent her in the past few weeks started with her nickname and nothing else. Funny how he'd decided on day one they were friends and never seemed to reconsider. She didn't deserve him.

Wonder Boy,

Your meteoric rise has been the only joy in my life. I know that you're unstoppable, even if there are those who doubt you. This world is full of shadows and tragedy. Get away while you can. You shine your light on us shadows, and remind us that we're not like you. Never be like us.

The higher you rise, the lower I sink.

Don't look back.

Meg.

She turned the letter over and closed her eyes. It was honest, she'd give herself that. It was also a transparent farewell. Hades would definitely send her after Hercules again. She couldn't say goodbye yet.

Start over.

Herc:

Been a while. Hope you remember you're the best thing in the entire cosmos and don't let anyone lie to you. They're all jealous. You're a shining beacon of every virtue. The gods have raised you up above us all to remind us where we fall short. One day, you'll live amongst the stars, looking down at this place. You're too good for us.

She stared down at the letter a while before deciding there was no erasing the oddly lovesick tone. It wouldn't matter after his birthday, but before then it might keep him going. Back to it, then.

Sometimes you may be tempted to reach lower to the wretched lost causes of the world. You may think you can save even us, though we're chained to our shadows and they will soon consume us. You can do anything, but not that.

This wouldn't do, either. She had to make it easier for her to show up when required, not put him on high alert.

One more time. If she couldn't get it right this time, she'd scrap the whole thing and never write to him as she'd promised. She was already erasing her work when the scent of brimstone shot through her sinuses as pungent as fresh-cut onions.

"I thought you said you weren't doing any side projects," Hades said.

"Call it a hobby. I'm trying to write some poetry."

"Poetry?" Hades hacked on the word. "Never took you for a post. That's too sentimental for you."

"Some poetry can be vicious. How do you think I keep up with you?"

"You don't. How does your poetry thing help me take over the world?"

"It doesn't. But it's your job to invent the schemes, I just run the errands. If you come up with a good idea, maybe I'll write a poem for you, too."

"I just have to find better monsters! There's nothing wrong with my plans, all my allies are incompetent!"

"Yeah, it's crazy isn't it? You just line them up, and Wonder Boy knocks them down. Got anymore friends in low places? Maybe Echidna wants to take a swing at him."

"He's beaten her up multiple times," Hades snarled. "She won't join up, she's too demoralized."

"The mother of all monsters is demoralized, but you're not? Why do you keep throwing all the same monsters at Hercules, anyway? He keeps getting better at fighting, and you're not seeing it. Wonder Boy won't fall to a monster he fought when he had less practice? You're running out of monsters."

And then what? She had gone over the scenario dozens of times before, but knew better than to say it aloud. Hades might get the Titans out of their hiding place. That was the first step.

But if he had no other army to add to the effort? The Olympians had already subdued the Titans. They'd only grown in power since the last encounter with them. If Megara were to wager anything, it would be that Hercules would singlehandedly eviscerate every one of Hades's allies while the other gods drank to his glory.

It wouldn't be a pretty outcome for her. There'd be no reason to keep her alive when there was no more war effort to recruit for.

"I'll think of something. And when I do, we're going topside. We're watching him again today. I hear he's going to get his handprints set in the concrete outside the theater today. I'm going to watch and explode crockery. You'll be there."

She'd see him again. That day!

"You look excited." Hades drew out every syllable so she'd register his suspicion.

"To get out of the place literally designed to drain the life out of mortals? Impossible. I could never get enough of this place."

"That's good! You know, because poetry is not getting you out of here." Before Megara could land another verbal blow, Hades disappeared in a choking cloud of smoke that made her gag.

Her eyes watered, her lungs burned, and she was sure it was all on purpose. Malaka, she hated him.

The blank page reappeared when the smoke cleared. It was the only connection to something good in the world. She'd try this one more time.

Wonder Boy,

Every time I see you, I'm reminded there's some good in the world. It's a hard reminder. I've always thought men were slime, and nobody's proven me wrong until you. Good people fade away, and suffer the worst of all fates. I'm not a good person, and I thought that might help me to evade the inevitable. Maybe I could be smart enough, or tough enough. I could make it so things wouldn't bother me, and then nothing could hurt me.

I need you to know I've been as honest as possible with you. You confused me in so many ways, but now I think I understand. The gods lost you, but now you're here as a beacon to remind all us lowlifes what goodness looks like. You're a star plucked from the heavens and forced to live among us, and you cast long shadows.

Jealousy is your worst enemy. It drives people insane to know how much better you are and how they can't bring you down. They always push you higher, and one day you'll leave us all behind.

I hope even if you forget most of your time here in the muddle of eternity, you sometimes think of me. I haven't given you much of myself. There's not much left. I've survived through many tragedies, but less of me has survived from one to the next. One day soon, there will be nothing left but memories. I hope for you they're good ones.

Meg

Before she could second-guess herself, she folded the letter up enough times it would fit into the wrappings around her breasts. Hades was many things, but he would never think to strip search her. The first chance she got, she'd break away and visit the cemetery. If these were her last words to Hercules, at least there was some finality to them. He might even understand.

She couldn't explain about being a Theban princess, or about how that legacy of trauma and sacrifice had engulfed her in its bloody tendrils. There was no escaping Fate. So she might as well laugh in its face as she went down.

It was less than an hour later that Hades set up a post in the ancient Theban mausoleums along the mountainside. He could sneer down at his nephew from this vantage point. Every time someone gave a speech about how great Hercules was, he'd pause to throw a fireball at a vase with Wonder Boy's face painted on it.

Ah, the impotent rage of those who still thought they could alter Fate. Megara had a lightness about her, now that she'd accepted it was almost over. She almost forgot she was damned. It was all too funny.

If he wasn't such an embarrassment, Hades might have tried that to Wonder Boy's face. But he was too great a coward, even though only one of them was immortal. Pathetic. The eventual outcome was inevitable: Hercules would fight. Hades would fail. Megara would die.

"Nice shootin', Rex," Megara drawled after Hades left off yet another fireball.

Hades ignored her. His megalomania was so out of control, all he could do was rant about Hercules. It was all stuff he'd said before. Megara tuned him out, until he finally noticed that Pain and Panic had been shopping at the Herc store that week.

Megara thought it was funny until Hades screamed about how he only had twenty four hours to take Hercules down. That thought stuck in her mind until it was washed away by another patented Hades freakout. He set himself on fire and blasted his fire and smoke at his minions with such force that the smoke caused an explosion out the side of the mountain.

She'd picked the right spot, on the opposite corner of a monumental sarcophagus. The worst of the blast missed her. The whole situation was so comical, she couldn't help but snicker. "Looks like your game's over," she teased the god as he cooled his temper. She flicked her ponytail right under his nose as she walked past him on the way to the ledge. "Wonder Boy's hitting every curve you throw at him."

It might be nice to get her own glimpse of Hercules, if they weren't too far. There he was, a bulky outline next to the more distinctive flying horse. He cut an excellent figure, even from a distance. Would she get a chance to see him up close again?

"Oh, yeah…" Hades chuckled.

Normally, Megara would've been more bothered by his tone, but she'd begun to focus in on the small details of Hercules. He'd risen from his kneeling position on the concrete, and had started putting on a show of throwing heavy weights around. He seemed to be having fun. Good for him. It was the day before his birthday, after all, wasn't it? He should get to do whatever he wanted. If only Phil would let him.

"Well, maybe I haven't been throwing the right…" Hades traced her outlines with his smoke, "curves at him. Meg, my sweet!"

Of all the indignities, why this?

"Don't even go there," she flicked a dismissive hand at him and left him at the ledge.

It would be cruel, unfair, and degrading to both of them for Hades to utilize Hercules's attraction to her against him. Of course, that was why he'd suddenly gotten so attached to the idea.

"See, he's gotta have a weakness, because everybody has a weakness. I mean, for Pandora, it was the box thing, and for the Trojans, hey, they bet on the wrong horse."

There was no getting away from the slimeball. She could pout, fold her arms, and walk away all she wanted. She was stuck on this godsforsaken mausoleum cliff with him.

Hades slunk an arm around her shoulders and leaned in close. "We simply need to find out Wonder Boy's!" How downright ghoulish.

She'd sooner kick a puppy.

Megara broke away. "I've done my part, get your little imps to do it!"

"They couldn't handle him as a baby. I need someone who can… handle him as a man." The tone made her sick. If Hades even knew what she and Hercules had been up to, it would be worse. For all he knew, Megara had no interest in Wonder Boy, or even considered him "the enemy." He should continue to believe that.

"Hey, I've sworn of manhandling," she reminded him.

"Well, you know that's good!" Hades manifested new smoke images, ones she'd seen before. "Because that's what got you into this jam in the first place, right?" The smoke flew across to her, picturing outlines of herself and him. She'd locked thoughts of him away for so long, the sudden cascade of memories left her in shock. "You sold your soul to me to save your boyfriend's life."

She was there, thrown back into a moment Hades had jammed down her throat so many times. Theron held her in his arms, whispering the well-practiced sweet words he'd ripped straight off the stage. Actors. She should have known better than to trust an actor when she became one. How many times had she rehearsed offstage with him, and seen how well he could deliver a line. She'd learned all the same lessons.

"And how does this creep thank you?" Hades asked as a smoke vixen strutted past. "By running off with some babe."

It was a dramatic retelling, but it got the point across. No matter how deep she buried the memory, Hades could exume it in a heartbeat. It had been the worst miscalculation she'd ever made. Her history as Theban royalty had been insufficient to remind her there was no way this would end well. She ought to have been prepared for this, taken her fun or kept her door closed. And yet, she'd let him destroy her.

The deaths of her mother, brothers, uncle, aunt and cousins hadn't been enough to reduce her to such a pathetic state. It was Theron, with his pretty words and his honeyed kisses, that wrecked her beyond all recognition. And now Hades wanted her to do exactly the same thing to the only person she knew didn't deserve it.

"He hurt ya real bad, didn't he, Meg?"

Megara brushed the smoke outline of herself still weeping so it dissipated. "Look, I've learned my lesson, OK?" Her voice wavered. She was losing her composure. Not in front of him.

"Which is exactly why I get a feeling you're gonna leap at my new offer." He clasped her shoulders in his spider fingers and leaned so close his smoke breath puffed against her cheek. "You bring me the key to bringing down Wonder Breath, and I give you the one thing you crave most in the entire cosmos."

He couldn't be serious.

Hades dropped a Hercules vase into her hands. It was as heavy as her guilt, but she stared down at it, refusing to let it drop from her hands.

Hades lifted a curl from its place hanging over her ear and whispered, "Your freedom."

Megara dropped the vase in shock.

It's one last job.

All the things that would stop if she could just get Hercules to admit one little detail about himself stretched out in a long list. Hades would fail anyway. No harm done. She could seduce Hercules, all right, she'd already done so twice. He'd tell her anything she wanted to know. She'd never expected a twist in her story, but she'd embrace it. Teiresias had said nothing about this.