The shock was slow to wear off.
Gods and mortals alike stared at the headless corpse of Queen Omphale and traced the blood trail out the window.
"She always said she'd scratch someone's eyes out for trying to steal her man," Megarion remarked. "Kind of thought that's what she'd do if she knew nothing was stopping her. Malaka. Guess it was a bad move telling her she was nothing but a monster."
"You had something to do with this!" Hecate snapped. "You must have told her to do that!"
"Who, me?" Megarion asked with a placid smile as if he'd witnessed a well-choreographed dance number instead of carnage. "You should keep this one, too. They're a matched set." Megarion tossed the Megara puppet to Hercules, which was when Hercules remembered he had arms that could move and catch things.
It was a bit late since the puppet bounced off him, and he had to catch it on the ricochet. Moving to catch the puppet brought to his attention how tight his armor had gotten all of a sudden.
With half his family standing within view of him, he hoped he could get that under control soon. He hadn't expected to enjoy watching Meg kill for him quite that much. It was probably a bad thing. He might even be ashamed of himself later.
"Traitor!" Hecate screamed.
"I was never allied to you. You messed with the House of Cadmus a few too many times. If you haven't noticed, we're gorgeous, clever, and make for fantastic actors. We choose our loyalties only once. For all the same reasons you wanted us to work for you, it's time you regretted making us your enemies."
"Yes! House of Cadmus!" Dionysus hooted with approval, and a little dance with his arms, and Thyrsus raised overhead.
"I propose we do away with Hecate altogether and banish her to Tartarus," Athena said. "All in favor?"
"You don't think we need her even a little?" Zeus asked. "Who will shepherd the witches and the ghosts?"
"I have a recommendation," Megarion said. "Give half her power to me, half of it to Meg. You know. For our pain and suffering."
"You couldn't handle an iota of my power!" Hecate fumed.
"Watch me," Megarion shot back. "My sister's on the goddess track. Why shouldn't I help out a bit?"
"I thought you were sick of sharing," Hecate said.
"Are you that stupid? Meg and I played you; just admit we're better tricksters than you and take your loss. Maybe in a few hundred years, we'll see you again and remind you what a colossal midwife you are."
"If you're going to do anything for Meg, ya better find her," Aphrodite remarked.
"Shouldn't be too hard," Hercules remarked. "She's not exactly… subtle."
Megarion nodded toward the puppet. "Use that thing if you need extra help. I'm not sure, but if Hecate loses her power completely, you should be able to use that to help free Meg."
"What… would I have to do?"
"He's too stupid to figure it out," Hecate scoffed.
"I don't think I'd say that to the guy who saw through most of your schemes," Hercules said. "Fix Meg, or I'll make you wish you were in Tartarus. Meg's given me some ideas."
Hecate's face twitched. "Fine. Find her. See if she'll ever touch you again after what just happened."
"Don't bother trying to make threats in your position," Hercules scoffed. "I'm over it." He stalked past Hecate to the window. "I won't bring Meg back here unless you ensure her safety. Hecate needs to be gone, and so does Medea. I don't care how you make it work. You're responsible for how we got this far, so you can help clean up after yourselves."
It was easy enough at first to follow Megara's trail out of the palace. She'd gone down the side of the rocky ridge the palace stood on, something she'd never have tried to scale as herself. The path led into the agora, where the citizens of Lydia's capital city cowered behind their shopfronts.
Before long, the whole country would know their queen had died. That would be a problem for another day. As a non-Lydian, Hercules would only have to care about that if Megara were held personally responsible for it.
Theoi… why couldn't he distract himself away from that improper sense of excitement? Megara was in danger, and he had to find her, but he kept thinking back on how she'd tackled Omphale and savaged her to death.
He'd learned a long time ago not to take pleasure in violence, and for the most part, he didn't. It was appropriate to take pride in a job well done, but it was wrong to replay that event and think of how amazing it had been, wasn't it? If he were fair to himself, he'd blocked out the screams, and all he could think of was how his wife had heard of how he'd be mistreated and taken action.
Maybe this was why heroes and damsels in distress had such a track record of getting together. He'd never experienced it from the other side before, at least not as far as he could remember at the moment when this event was so fresh in his mind.
He had to focus on the task at hand.
Where was she? How far could she get in that form?
A small cluster of kids were crouched by the side of the road, poking something with a stick. His current state of alarm drew him closer. Was it possible Meg was so exhausted she'd fallen over and allowed them to prod her with a stick?
The boys scattered from Hercules's shadow, leaving only the open-mouthed head of Omphale nestled in a gutter.
He had to choke down an inappropriate laugh.
Or was it appropriate? He wasn't sure. There wasn't a hero rule about it.
However, this left the problem that the blood trail came to an end here, and he wasn't sure how else to reach Meg.
A whistle from overhead signaled him to look up and find Pegasus twirling through the air toward him.
"Hey, buddy!" he called. "I'm going to follow this trail a while longer. Can you see if you catch sight of her from up there?"
Pegasus whistled again and flapped merrily on. Nothing like a bit of regicide to lighten the spirits.
Hercules wandered another street over, and there he found a fresh puddle of blood that nobody dared to approach. On one side of the puddle was a chaos of mismatched footprints that he'd come to expect, but the tracks on the other end of it had been made by a pair of sliding wobbly bare feet.
His heart leaped into his throat.
Meg was human again! But where was she?
The reasonable idea presented itself that she might be hiding because she felt too exposed to let passersby see her in the tatters of the clothes she'd been wearing as a monster. Maybe she'd find somewhere to clean herself up?
She must be somewhere… mostly naked… covered in the blood of their mutual vanquished enemy…
"Malaka!" he smacked himself across the face. He needed to focus on the important things! If Meg had just bled that much, and this was the second time in quick succession she'd bled profusely, she might be in dire straits!
At last, his mind and body oriented around something less humiliating.
Following those footsteps didn't bring him any closer to her, and they disappeared too soon. What he did find was a blood-smeared clothes vendor furiously trying to salvage his streetside wares.
"Are you here tracking the nightmare woman?" he asked at the sight of Hercules's armor and the sword at his side.
"Excuse me?"
"She was a creature out of children's nightmares! So hideous and mismatched and covered in the blood of slaughter! But then… she lay on the ground and convulsed… and suddenly, she was the most beautiful woman ever seen!"
Hercules grinned. "Yes, she is! Wait, you… you were looking…" Focus! He shook himself and tried to force some control on his thoughts. "Where did she go?"
The shopkeeper pointed down a dark alley. "No one dared approach her, lest she turn back into… that thing…"
"It's my personal promise to her and everyone else that she never will."
"She stole a cloak…" The shopkeeper's eyes wandered to the spot where Hercules was sure she'd stood. "She was practically naked… I don't think I'll ever forget the sight…"
"Try," Hercules said and found his voice an octave lower than he'd intended it to be. "How about you give me a dress for her, and I'll forget this conversation."
With a new dress over his arm, Hercules called for Pegasus. They'd have more luck searching for her from above, and she would need somewhere to lie down while he took her to safety.
But first… he'd have to find her.
He flew Pegasus to just above rooftop level and scoured the back alleys, calling her name.
Soon, she'd have to hear his voice and call back… She would, wouldn't she?