Blinding rage had seized Hercules by the throat at the sight of a boy harming his Meg. How many days in a row would someone raise a hand against her? How many times would he hear her scream or watch bruises form olive-dark against her skin? The boy was now forgotten.

Many of the onlookers who had originally watched him throw the door were gone now, fearful of the man who'd done it. Good. He didn't need distractions or anyone who could potentially get hurt if he weren't paying attention. He wasn't all that good at paying attention to anything but Meg at the moment.

Hercules crouched beside Megara, and he helped her sit, hearing a crackling noise as she hissed with pain.

"Yeah, well, I can handle it from here." She flinched away from him. "You're the one who needs the help! What do you think you're doing? Who are you?" she whispered through teeth gritted against the pain. "You're obviously not from here."

"Definitely not," he whispered back with a low chuckle. "We'll talk about it later. You're hurt. Let me help you."

Megara shied away from him. "Look, New Guy, I didn't want the other guy pawing at me, so don't you start, too!" Through the harshness in her voice, Hercules saw what was really driving her: fear.

Why should she be afraid of him? He was the one who'd come to save her. "Meg, I'm not some random new guy. I'm the man who loves you. I would do anything to protect you."

"Herc?" Her eyes widened with recognition. "Why did you...?"

"My father said I couldn't be with you because I'm a god, and you're a mortal. But he doesn't know where I am right now, and if he searched for me, he would only see a mortal boy with the girl he loves." He winked. "What he doesn't see, he can't control."

She gasped. "You're defying the will of your father?"

"To be with you. You're more important than he is or ever could be." He eased her to her feet, keeping her balanced against his side. "Can you walk?"

Her lips twitched, holding back a grimace of pain. The answer was no, but she wouldn't admit that.

"As long as we're cautious, I can be with you," he assured her, working his aura through her skin and into her bones.

"Cautious like hurling a guy so far your father probably saw him whizz past Olympus?"

Good. Her humor was back, along with the color in her face.

"Not my most calculated move. I just needed to get him away from you."

"Great job."

"I can go get him later and see if he apologizes."

"You seem to have forgotten how fragile mortals can be, Wonder Boy," Megara shook her head. "You think he's alive after you pulverized him? You're giving him a lot of undeserved credit."

He definitely hadn't considered that. "I thought... If he landed the right way, maybe it wouldn't be so bad."

"That's not how it works. He's as dead as Eteocles by now. You're... you're not planning a murder spree, are you?"

"What? No!"

Murder was a wicked thing to do, counter to his nature. Yet, it may be considered that he had perpetrated it twice now. Shame wrapped its ghostly fingers around his heart. Had he betrayed his telos?

What justice might his father mete out on him?

No. He'd already determined the righteousness of his first slaying. Though he'd perpetrated the second unawares, he was loath to regret anything he did in the service of Megara's safety.

"He would have harmed you worse than he did if I allowed him to," Hercules remarked. "Let someone argue with me. I'll never concede that his life outweighed your safety. Now... Let me see you move your leg."

She winced hesitantly, but he had her. Wherever the pain was, he flooded it with his aura until he'd driven away every shadow. She relaxed with a heavy sigh.

A few curious students peeked through the door.

"She'll be okay, I just have to get her to the asclepion," Hercules said, lifting Megara into his arms. "She fell down the stairs. We need someone to set her bones."

"Are you sure you didn't push her?" one of the skeptical Thebans questioned.

"It wasn't him," Megara said. "Theron did it, and then he ran off. I think he's probably racked with guilt right now. Maybe someone could check on him."

Hercules looked down at her, a little surprised that she'd come up with that so quickly.

"I'm not going after that guy; he can show up when he feels like it," said another student.

"He's a real creep," Megara said. He wanted to throw me in here and force me to date him by ruining me for other guys. "I have New Guy Alcides here to thank for saving me and for helping me put myself back together—with the help of Divine Asclepios, of course."

The Thebans had already lost interest. Their eyes glazed over, and they walked away with a chorus of "Yeah," "Okay," and "Whatever."

"Your people don't get fired up about all that much, do they?" Hercules mused.

"Self-preservation takes a lot of energy," Megara sighed. "Doesn't leave much left over for anyone or anything else."

"We're changing that," Hercules said with conviction. He carried her out into the sun and strode toward the stables complex where he'd left Pegasus. "In our new Thebes, the people will be optimistic and care for one another instead of treating them with indifference and cruelty." He set Megara down on the fence and whistled for Pegasus, who came trotting out of the shadows alongside a young spotted filly.

"Looks like both of you are hard at work finding a mate today," Megara observed and stretched one leg forward out of its slit. There was a moment when all he could think of was uncovering the other leg and then what hid between them, but Hercules brushed that away.

"I had a head start," Hercules said in a soft voice that he hoped would obscure what he'd been thinking. He didn't want to focus on thoughts like that. "Ready to go? I thought maybe we needed some distance from… all of this. We could have a picnic."

"Have you ever had a picnic before?"

"No? Never had someone to do it with. But I live on top of a mountain and in the sky. I see lots of people having fun eating outside, and I want to share that with you."

"Then that's what we'll do, but I don't see any supplies."

Hercules winked as he set her on Pegasus. "I know I'm in disguise right now, but I'm still a god. We'll have everything we need." He climbed on behind her and held her close with his arm across her body.

Megara covered her face with both hands as they flew into the air. One day, he hoped she'd be comfortable with flight but wouldn't push her to it.

He was the one to scout out a secluded hilltop shaded by a tree for their picnic and bring them down for a landing. "Are you doing all right?" he whispered.

"I uh… need to lie down." She staggered once she was on her own two feet and leaned against the tree. Then, she slowly crumpled against its trunk. "Flying makes me imagine what it'll be like when I die. Maybe I'll be like Theron and fall off of something."

"That won't happen," Hercules said firmly. He didn't want to imagine that, either.

"Well, it's going to happen somehow. Maybe I have that fear because it's my destiny."

"You have another destiny, Meg. I'm going to make you a goddess."

At first, he thought Megara would argue with him, but her confusion resolved into a broken cackle. She regretted not believing him, but she certainly did not.

"I mean it, Meg." Hercules caught her by the elbows and turned her toward him. "I won't let you die. I've lived without you before and can't do it again. This is it. You and me. I'm going to make sure nobody can hurt you again, and I'll give you everything you want."

Heat rose at the back of his neck, but then it flashed across his face. Why should he presume he had a right to her entire life? What if she didn't want to live with him forever?

"I…" he sighed. "I won't let you die, but… that doesn't mean you have to live with me. I just can't let the only person who's ever looked at me like a person die. I need to give you something worth as much as what you gave me."

Megara reached up to take his face between her hands. "You already have," she whispered. "Everything you feel for me is mine as well. Maybe that means something."

He couldn't hold back. He dipped low for a kiss and held her close. He'd never let Hades take her or Zeus deny her. She was the single most important being in the entire cosmos, and he would be with her forever.