Megara knew what death felt like. It started with the dimming of her connection to her limbs and then the slipping away of any urgency on the matter. When first she'd laid down, she'd thought she was taking a nap. But there was a peace in knowing that she may never have to stand again.
This death would be softer than the last. Unlike the first time when she felt herself slipping, it was welcome. By now, the pain had faded, leaving only a deep sense of inescapable calm. She couldn't escape, but why should she want to? Yes, this was for the best. She would surrender to eternal sleep and find peace.
Here, she could sleep, even dream, in the greatest sense of comfort, distant from her worn-out body. It was useless to her now, after all. It had been battered and twisted and misused, and now all that was left was to discard it as old rubbish.
This should bother her, she knew, but she couldn't muster the essential vigor to do so. There was a reason if only she could remember what it was, that she ought to fight. It was an unwinnable fight, though, so why bother?
A light shone through her that had become familiar ever since it first shone into her darkness. It carried Hercules's voice, calling her name and begging her to return.
I need you, it said.
Well, as long as she was needed…
But how to comply? Her arms were so far away, her legs as well. She meant to answer him, but she felt as if she already drifted in the Styx, and that current was inescapable. It rocked her like a child, soothed by its rushing stream.
Stream… it reminded her of how much blood had flowed from her at her transformation– both ways. Her heart was slow and empty, and her limbs had gone cold.
But there was Hercules's warmth again, and when it reached her heart, she felt its beating harmonize with his. There was something different about the blood that flooded her veins this time as if it weren't her own. In place of what she'd lost, what flowed from her heart now filled her with some hint of Hercules's presence. Her eyes opened, and there he was, with his face full of concern.
With that, the world made sense again. This had to be him. Nobody could falsify the presence she felt around and within her. She'd missed him so much. He was willing to grant it to her.
She let Hercules carry her to Pegasus, who had a new dress draped over his back. Pegasus flapped his wings in greeting when he saw her, and Megara smiled back at him. "Were you helping look for me, Horsefeathers?"
Pegasus bobbed his head and then whistled toward the sky.
"Aren't you such a good friend?"
Pegasus danced in place.
"Yes, I think you're fantastic, too."
Hercules had no problem loading Megara onto Pegasus's back. "I want to make one quick stop if you don't mind. I want everyone to see you and know that I'm taking you home no matter what."
"Does everyone include Medea and Hecate?" Megara didn't ask if anyone had cleaned up the remains of Omphale. She was pretty sure they hadn't.
A shadow passed over Hercules's face. "Never mind. I'll send Hermes to handle the message. I'm keeping you all to myself from now on." He rested a hand against her cheek. "Get ready, okay? We're going home, and I don't want to startle you."
Megara squeezed her eyes shut. "Let's go to the baths… I need to get so much off of me." And put a lot in her, too, but she'd made him blush once already, and he needed a functioning mind to get them there.
"You got it."
The cool, clean scent of the baths made her sigh.
Pegasus seemed uneasy in these surroundings, but once Hercules lifted Megara off the stallion's back, he was free to leave.
"I'll give you a moment to yourself if you want," Hercules said, but his eyes told her he didn't want to let her out of his sight. Why should he be comfortable with separation after all that had happened?
"Stay with me," she told him, and a smile reached his eyes.
There was no way she could think of to ask at the moment, so she unwrapped the cloak from around herself and stepped into the water.
She wasn't watching for his response, but she heard it.
He yelped and then tried to swallow the sound as soon as he made it, and that only drew more attention to the fact he was struggling.
Megara checked him over her shoulder and found his eyes trailing up and down her body. "Something you missed?"
"Only everything…" He slumped to one side as if his upper body were an inanimate object supported by a pair of shaky pedestals.
"Then come help me out of this… All this blood is making my dress stick to my skin."
"Oh! Is… is that uncomfortable?" Hercules rushed to her side, and his hands hovered over her shoulders. He gulped. "Ah… so the top of your dress… it doesn't cover the shape of your… I mean, I can see…"
"Won't you enjoy it more when you can see everything?"
"Uh… I… yeah…" Hercules bit his lip and unpinned one shoulder, then the other. He held his breath before he slowly peeled the torn fabric from her skin.
Megara hissed through her teeth as the sticky blood had adhered the cloth to her skin, but it was good to be free of it. She wasn't clean, but she was closer to freedom now. She stretched her arms over her head and sighed. "You know, I never fully appreciated what it's like to have matching limbs."
"Mm…" Hercules probably meant to say something to that, but all he did was sigh as he gazed down at her blood-streaked body. "I dreamed of you while you were away, and I wasn't even sleeping. It was so rough doing things and imagining you and not crying."
"Let's fix that situation, shall we?" she un-knotted the girdle at her waist, and the skirt below it peeled off with it.
Hercules sucked in a breath as if anxious about making another sound that might make him seem ridiculous.
Megara smiled encouragement up at him. "Why don't you get that sweaty armor off? I bet it's starting to chafe."
"I… oh. Yeah, I…" Hercules blushed, then fumbled with the pins that would free him from his armor.
"Do you need help?" Megara reached around him and unbound his belt.
"Maybe I don't need help, but…"
Megara knelt before him, only a little dizzy as she did so that she could untie his sandals.
"Uh… Meg?" Hercules sounded anxious.
Megara rested her cheek on his thigh. "Problem?"
"Er… no?" he cleared his throat, and his voice deepened when next he spoke. "No, not a problem, I just…"
Megara slowly rose to her feet, balancing herself with an arm anchored about his waist.
His full body shuddered as she moved and made her smile.
"You worked so hard to find me," she whispered and kissed along his torso. "Thank you. You saved my life again." She slipped a hand past the waistband of his armor and slid it off him. "Come join me in the water."
Hercules wasted no time lifting her into his arms and carrying her into the water. "I don't know how you can always do this to me," he mumbled. "What is it that lets you bounce back from all the worst experiences just to tease me?"
Megara was too enchanted, gazing up at him to notice that there was a change in the water the moment he stepped in.
His red-gold aura kicked up ripples that crested with flickers of water that behaved much like sparks.
Megara noticed them when Hercules had walked deep enough into the water that he was soaked in it up to his waist, and it reached her back. "What's going on here?" she asked and cupped one hand in the water to catch it as it fell. It looked like normal water, but there was a charge to it she'd never felt without the direct contact of Hercules's aura. "Are you doing that on purpose?"
"No?" Hercules had stopped to stare at the water, and he retracted his aura self-consciously.
"Let's see what it does!" Megara scooped a new handful up and poured it out on her belly.
Where it made contact with the blood, it fizzled away as if it had boiled off, but her skin was unharmed by any such heat.
"How odd!" she exclaimed, and this time she spread more water over herself.
"I'm sorry?"
"No, no! This is exciting! I've never seen this happen before! Do you have a new power? We could bottle this stuff and run experiments!" Megara tipped herself out of his arms and freely threw herself into the bath and let this energized water envelop her entirely.
She rolled in the water, letting it spread its sparks across her skin. All exhaustion left her, and when she rose out of the water, she jumped to wrap her arms around his neck. "You are the greatest god of the pantheon!" she exclaimed with full, unironic enthusiasm. "I don't know if your father ever gave you a domain, but you can be the god of my heart. I think you already are."
At last, her words granted Hercules the impetus to respond. He wrapped his arms around her and captured a kiss. He dipped her so her hair sank into the water and it brushed her back. Then he pulled back with a grin of satisfaction. "I'll make you a goddess, Meg. And when we're together for eternity, I'll declare your domain, too. You can have all of me because you already do."