Megara launched herself at Hercules with her arms up to embrace him. Nothing else she'd endured for the last—had it been hours? A day?— melted off her. She had mild awareness that a high-pitched squeal of delight was escaping her, and she did nothing to suppress it.
It didn't matter that she couldn't jump high enough on her own to reach him. Hercules caught her midair and lifted her the rest of the way. His smile illuminated the Underworld's gloom, but the tears remained in his eyes.
Those tears that Megara had been restraining broke free, but she didn't care. They'd deal with that later.
Hercules leaned back where he stood, holding Megara in the kiss and furthermore arching their bodies together as their kiss lingered.
As the only mortal partner of the embrace, Megara shifted her mouth to breathe.
"Go on," Hercules encouraged her, releasing her mouth to trace from her mouth across one blushing cheek and to the shell of her ear. It was no use breathing when he made her giggle and shake. "Theoi, I'm so relieved…" Hercules murmured into her ear. He moved her to sit atop the table with the crystal ball but kept his arms around her and held her in the arch of his body. "I knew that wasn't you up there," he said, stroking her hair. "I'm sorry it took me time to figure out how to reach you, but I knew Hecate was watching us, so I had to get around that somehow. I thought she'd move you or hurt you if she knew I was on my way to get you back."
"I don't care anymore. I just needed to know you didn't hate me. Medea's a terrible actress."
"Hey, that's a good thing. That's how I saw through her act so quickly. But it was a pretty good idea. Someone else might just make it work a little better than she did." He grinned with pride and nodded toward the crystal ball. "That's why I cast the god of theater to play me. Medea's supposed to be watching me, but she has no idea I'm all the way down here. Dionysus casually wanders around the Underworld often enough that it basically doesn't matter anymore."
"You must be swift to escape this place," Thanatos said. "She will not see the appeal to this reunion."
"You're right. Let's avoid saying her name, Wonder Boy. Using it too many times might summon her. This is her palace, after all."
"Where is she?" Hercules asked, rubbing her back.
"Refurbishing the Underworld. She left me here with my thoughts. I'm supposed to be moldering in depression until I break and do what she wants."
"Which is…?"
Megara nodded to the puppet theater. "I'm supposed to beg you to make Hecate queen. All she got me to do was shake you a bit and pluck your strings. That didn't even work."
"Ohh, it did. You made me trip on the way up here, and I heard your voice as if you were standing right next to me. Not that I'm complaining. If I'd really abandoned you like that, I'd deserve someone knocking sense into me."
Megara raised an eyebrow. "Maybe we should take this with us. See how accurate the puppet is. I could do a few interesting things with it."
Hercules coughed into his fist while a blush flared up. Then he turned a sly smile in her direction. "You know what? Maybe we should see if she'll make one of you so we can swap places pulling each other's strings."
"As happy as I am to have the privilege of witnessing this reunion, might I suggest you move it topside?" Thanatos asked, curling his large black wings over the couple like a shield. "I would rather you weren't intercepted and prevented from escaping."
"Do you think I can teleport out of here with her?" Hercules asked, gathering Megara against his chest bridal style.
Megara gratefully hooked an arm behind his neck and toyed with the pin that secured his cape to his armor. "We should try… and you can come right back if it doesn't work."
"I don't want to leave you for a second." Hercules's golden aura surrounded him, and he extended it to wrap around her as well. "I won't let anything or anyone separate us," he said, and she felt his words echo in her skin.
"I believe you," she whispered, entranced.
"Being away from you has been torture…" Hercules breathed. His desire was contagious. It made her groan when it passed through his aura to electrify her.
"Please make it last," Thanatos said. "Get thee hence while you can."
"I'm new to teleporting," Hercules responded. "Do you know for a fact she'll come with me, or do I need to leave her with you?"
"Don't leave me," Megara didn't care that she was begging. "That never ends well."
"I'm only making sure I don't drop you," Hercules reassured her with a kiss on her brow. "As far as H– our stalker– knows, I'm full speed to Lydia."
"She's bound to notice a missing hostage."
"She can notice if she wants." Hercules picked up the crystal ball and tossed it out the window. "Not that way, though. You want the weird me-puppet?"
"Better not risk it. Let's get out of here."
He closed his eyes. "I'm going to try and bring us to our room. Hold on."
Megara closed her eyes, too. Somehow, she found it in herself to put her faith in him to get her out of there.
It wasn't enough.
Hercules vanished, but that only sent Megara careening toward the floor.
Thanatos had to duck down and lift her back into her chair before she hit the ground. "Are you well?" he asked.
"No!" Megara gasped. "I'm supposed to be home right now!" her heart raced, and the edges of her vision blurred. "What if I can't ever get out of here?"
"A fair question to ask, isn't it, my dear?" Hecate sat in her seat across the table from her as if she'd never left. "That was a fine show, wouldn't you agree, Thanatos?"
The god of death covered Megara with his wings. "It's bad enough a living woman is amongst the dead, but to hold her hostage when she carries an Olympian child? Do you have any idea the ramifications for a being of that nature deprived of the land above?"
Megara clutched the edge of the table. "What ramifications?"
"Go and find someone dying to see if they care." Hecate waved a hand, and an unseen force threw Thanatos backward off the balcony and deep into the surrounding fields.
A barrier of blue light blocked off the overlook, and Megara turned back to Hecate for what came next. "Was it true what he said?"
"Oh, no, don't start worrying over nothing, dear. It'll only make you more likely to miscarry that mistake of yours." Hecate glanced with disappointment at the center of the table where her crystal ball had been. "Shame he found you so soon. I was hoping to avoid this."
"Avoid… what?"
"At this juncture, you have a short list of options, my dear. Of course, the one I'm most biased towards is that you become a witch and serve me with the powers I grant you. Once I ascend to become the Queen of the Underworld, I'll bestow my lesser titles on my followers. Now, Medea has already snagged the title Goddess of Witchcraft, but I'm willing to extend the title Goddess of Ghosts to you. After all, you've actually been a ghost! Wouldn't that be a delicious irony?"
"No, and I'm sick of playing games with you. Just send me home. The Olympians don't care about me, and you're just going to get Hercules back here any minute to tear this place down and you with it."
Hecate clicked her tongue. "I've blocked him from entering no less than fifteen times since he disappeared. I allowed him in when I thought he was Dionysus, but I have refused his entry to the Underworld. That's something I can do now, you know."
Megara heard a distant rumble, like an earthquake that rattled the Underworld itself.
"You see? He rages and storms like his father, but we are shielded down here. The longer the gods go without choosing a deity to rule the Underworld, the more powers devolve to me by default."
"Is this the part where I'm supposed to be impressed?"
"It would be, but I know you still need to learn. And you will. I've offered you a spot in my regime, which is more than Hades ever did. If all you do is resist, you'll never be more than a slave. You could be one of us, you know. Powerful. But you stay this way by choice. I don't understand. Haven't you been through enough to know the only way forward is with your own power?"
"Power that you give me on the condition of obedience is no power at all."
"Then earn more autonomy, and I won't need to order you around so much! You could be like Medea, actively participating in the coup to create our perfect regime!"
"Been there, done that, sank the team. You really don't want me for this business. I have this bad habit of following my heart."
"Yes… and unfortunately, you are whittling away your options… Under Zeus's sky, he will never grant you immortality. But I will—one day. When you've earned it, I will make you a goddess who can rival the pathetic sun-dwellers up there. First, however…" She rose from the table and floated to stand behind Megara, "it's time for a makeover."
"I look fine," Megara growled. There was a sound to her voice she'd never heard before. It was rough and bestial, not at all human.
It was then she noticed the hunger that was once quenched by her smuggled provisions. This hunger clawed deeper into her stomach than she could remember at any point in her life. It was more than a pang of human need. No… she had last felt this way when she burned in Hades's flames.
Something like the legs of a thousand tiny insects crawled across her skin while the fire raged within her. She fell out of her chair and crumpled to the floor, clutching her stomach. "You have to stop!" she cried, "this could hurt my–"
"Oh, you think I care about your whelp now?" Hecate hovered over her. "Well, don't worry. She will be useful to me. But first, we need to get your head right."
Something metal clasped around Megara's neck. Hecate yanked a chain now bound about her throat and slammed her backward into her chair. The chain wrapped around her to bind her entire body to the chair while Hecate smiled down at her.
"You were a little girl, once. You must have heard tales. Mormo. Lamia. Empousa. They would have teased you while you clutched your dollies that I might unleash those creatures into your room at night."
Megara glanced around the room, but no monsters had appeared. Yet. "Hades told me he wished you'd share them, but he banished them to Tartarus because you wouldn't."
"And they're still locked away until I become queen. That is… unless I could create a new one."
"You can't–" but she could. Hecate could do all sorts of things as long as Megara remained in her power.
The goddess did not bother to state the obvious, only smiled while Megara twitched helplessly in her chains. She'd never forgive herself for the way her lips twitched, refusing to release a scream. Her fingers twitched, then quaked.
Stop! She ordered herself over and over, but she no longer possessed the ability to command her own body.
Her fingers moved so quickly that she thought she saw them elongate. Blood burst from her fingertips, along with talons that would shame any of Zeus's favorite eagles.
"Convince Hercules to make me queen," Hecate whispered. "Do it now while you still can. Cry out to him. Force him to petition on my behalf. If you cannot, I will let you run about the wilderness. You better hope you never see him again, the way things are going for you."
Megara stretched her face into a snarl that stretched further than it should. She bared her teeth at the goddess and snapped. Something hot streamed down her chin, but it wasn't ichor from the goddess. Perhaps she ought to have felt some pain, but her whole being had gone so white hot that she couldn't focus on it.
The puppet theater was shaking so much that it looked as if the puppet himself was trying to fight his way off his strings.
Why was the world shaking?
"No?" Hecate clicked her tongue and wagged a finger in Megara's face– a dangerous gesture. "Then let me make something clear to you, Meggie: Should you die out there, I have an excellent retirement plan waiting for you in Tartarus. If your dimwitted hero wants to see you again, he's welcome to tear open those gates and release all my pets." She set a hand on both Megara's shoulders and bent to speak into her ear. "Before I forget, there's a reason I picked Omphale. She's always wanted a pet hero, and as a powerful witch, I've chosen to gift her one."
Megara strained, but her feet were not responding to her attempts to get leverage. One of them slid and slipped along the ground, and the other felt as if it had been encased in metal.
"It's a shame you refused to help me," Hecate said and moved away from Megara to hover atop the table. "Yes… I think you're my best work in centuries. I look forward to watching you work."
The ground shifted beneath Megara, toppling her chair and the puppet theater. She stared at the puppet.
"Afraid I can't stay to chat any longer," Hecate practically sang.
The chains around Megara uncoiled, but never left her neck.
"I've got an important meeting at the war room, and you? Well, I'm sure you're hungry."
The world began to fade from around Megara as it had too many times before. But she was faster than she'd been before. She reached out with one clawed hand and snatched the puppet off its strings.
When she opened her eyes again, she was in an unknown wilderness. She couldn't move, too exhausted and ungainly with her mismatched limbs. But she still had the puppet. She curled around it and held it to her chest. She'd figure the rest of it out some other time. For now, she closed her eyes.