This time would be her last time giving birth, either as a mortal or for eternity. Either way, she'd never have to feel this way again. While Hercules went into a frenzy invoking his relatives, Megara cleared her mind and remembered her priorities.
She'd made arrangements. Soon, she'd be unable to think of them anymore, so she had to communicate her wishes to Hercules. "Honey," she said softly, even though she had to repeat it a few times until he noticed. "Herc, I need you to listen."
Hercules was back with her seconds later, bundling her up in her dress again to preserve her modesty for as long as possible. "Go on, what do you need?"
"I think it's best if you make arrangements on behalf of our children. They'll need someone to act as a mother for them. Do you understand?"
Another contraction hit her, and Megara closed her eyes to breathe through it.
When she opened her eyes again, Hercules stared at her as if she were asking him to do the unthinkable. She'd expected that, but not the anger she saw there.
"No," he replied firmly.
"I'm only saying it because it's terrible for children to grow up without a mother if they don't have to."
"My children already have a mother. Don't even think about dying because you won't. From now on, we don't even say that word."
"You can't be in denial forever, Hercules."
"And you can't keep denying the possibility that you're going to be all right!" He seized her upper arms as if he were about to give her a good shake. "Meg. This is important. This is more important than anything else! You're going to live. We'll have our family together. This is the day everyone says you have the chance to become a goddess! We must focus on that as our future; don't think of the worst-case scenario for once in your life!"
Megara's mind whispered that this could be the last chance she ever had to see things one way or the other.
Small feet thudded on the floor outside, along with scrabbling claws. "Wait outside, Ambrosia," Harmonia instructed her hound.
"Be decent," Megara whispered to Hercules with only a minute to spare before Harmonia and Ambrosia were at the door.
Hercules wrapped himself hurriedly in a tunic and then called through the door, "Moni, Mama's having bad thoughts. Help me out!"
Seconds later, Harmonia burst through the door and raced into the room. "I knew it! I felt both of your scaredness from outside!"
"I'm going to do what Auntie Cassandra did earlier," Megara told Harmonia and reached for her hand. "You know how scared she was and how much it hurt for her. I'm afraid because this will be even more difficult since there are two babies instead of one, and these are demigods."
As she heard all these things add up, Harmonia's eyes widened. "Oh… oh…" Her mouth dropped open wider and wider every moment as she realized what was happening. "I'll meet my brothers today!"
"That's right," Megara smiled through the pain of a new contraction. "But I'm sorry you're seeing this happen again. I know it isn't easy for you."
"Not everything has to be easy; it's okay," Harmonia said, rubbing Megara's arm. "I can use my powers to help you; don't be scared."
Megara smiled. "I'm so proud to be the mortal surrounded by gods and that there are gods still inside me."
"Are they like me?" Harmonia asked, looking curiously at where her brothers were still concealed.
"I made a wish for them. I wished that they would be gods. Either they're immmortal already, or they will be soon." Her smile then was weak, but it was present. She would force it to remain present as long as Hercules and Harmonia needed to see it. "I have a big question, though, Moni. Would you want a new Mama if I couldn't be here?"
"Meg, you can't ask that question!" Hercules protested in horror. Now she had Harmonia rubbing her arm and Hercules holding her in both of his. "Don't even ask that; don't ask anyone that question! I'll never marry someone else. Just focus on living!"
"Yeah, Papa's right. We need you."
"I'm sorry…" She couldn't cry now. She couldn't allow herself to cry, or she would never get through this ordeal. "I need to plan for the worst, so I know what it is, and it isn't so scary…" She tensed as her whole body went through a contraction. Her heart was racinng with terror. It would only get worse from here on out.
She'd start to spew worse vulgarity than Cassandra when it got worse, and then she'd be the worst mother she'd ever been if she let Harmonia watch.
"Moni… you should go so you don't see me like that."
"Mama, you're silly," Harmonia replied. She leaned over and kissed her mother'ss belly. "I'm not leaving any of you."
"She's too much like the two of us. There's no use arguing with her," Hercules said. "She's going to be here, and there's nothing you can do about it. She's always screamed when you left the room for too long, Meg. There's no way she'll be happy when she doesn't find you anywhere and finds another woman claiming to be her mother."
"No, I won't," Harmonia said. "You can't trick me like that. I know who my mama is."
Megara huffed at the effort of not screaming. What else could she do? How could she avoid doing the worst to her entire family? "She shuddered violently and groaned both with the pain of physically opening up and from the mental openness of being surrounded by people who understood her too well to hide from.
"You don't have to pretend for either of us," Hercules assured her. "Please, Meg. Don't put yourself through the extra torture. You don't need that, be easy on yourself. What you're going through is already too much for one person; don't make it any worse."
Megara closed her eyes, leaned her head on Hercules's shoulder, and held Harmonia against her while the suffering intensified. "When will Rhea and Hera get back?" she asked. She had ulterior motives. They'd been the ones to relieve her pain before. They may do so again.
She needed that soon.
"They said they'd be here when you're further along," Hercules replied. "You'll be there soon, right? We've done this before. You did such a good job last time, and now you have practice! I know you're amazing, Meg. We can do this together."
"And this time, I can help!" Harmonia added. "I saw this before, too! I've seen more than Papa, right?" A smug gleam that Megara adored appeared in Harmmonia's eyes.
"Yes, you have, Moni. You are so impressive and special, aren't you?"
Harmonia giggled. "I am special!"
"Do we want to do this here?" Hercules asked. "Do you need to relax before this gets more intense?"
"I don't know whether that's possible. It hurts a lot so…"
"But if we can help you sleep, we can ensure you're stronger when you need to be."
She couldn't resist the pleading in Hercules's eyes. "Anything for you," she said honestly.
Hercules gave her a full-mouth kiss, rocking against her before he lowered her back onto the bed. "We'll be here for you, Meg. Stay with us."
Those words held her in a meditative tranquility state while Megara groaned through the next contractions. This time, Harmonia hugged her arm and pressed her face against Megara's shoulder, and Hercules curled his whole body around her, taking the weight of the twins on himself.
Between the two Olympians, Megara couldn't resist the golden warmth of their combined power. Despite it all, they lulled her into sleep, and she would never understand how.
When she woke, Rhea and Hera were standing over her and speaking softly amongst themselves.
"Shh, Mama is still trying to sleep," Harmonia scolded them.
Both Rhea and Hera gave her an amused look, neither offended by their descendant.
"She's waking," Rhea informed Harmonia. "This is a good time for her to be awake, little one. Trust us, we know what to do for her."
"We're getting the good fate, right?" Hercules asked. "She's going to live. She has to. She'll be a goddess."
"Do not rush anything," Hera said. "You've already taken much into your hands, son. It is time for you to release her into the hands of Fate."
"They cut her thread before. I don't trust them at all!"
"There is something higher even than them," Hera told him. "They do not randomly choose what to do. They are driven by a force stronger than any of us. That greater cosmic power will determine which possible fate we are about to experience."
Hercules clasped Megara's hand. "We can't lose her. Please do everything you can for her!"
"We shall," Rhea said softly. "Megara, we heard your wish. You will get what you deserve; trust in that."
"No matter how long it takes," Hercules added.
Megara snickered to herself. "Don't add onto that sentence for too long, or you could wait hundreds of years for me to be reborn."
"Sh, don't put thoughts like that into the aether!" Hercules begged and pressed her hand to his lips. "Don't make us think about that. It isn't right. We need to stay positive."
Despite the nap she'd taken, Megara was exhausted down to her bones. She didn't feel that she had the stamina to endure this ordeal, but she had to try. She had to give this her all. Sacrifice after sacrifice had left her depleted, but these loves she'd become part of needed her to sustain them. She couldn't abandon them. She'd need Fate to rip her away from them.
Tears fell from the effort of waiting out an even stronger contraction than before. She hadn't remembered them being so intense before, but perhaps that was because Hera and Rhea had blocked her awareness.
"We have to move her, dear," Hera said. "She needs the stool."
Hercules slipped an arm under Megara's legs and hoisted her into his arms.
It was then Megara recognized that the birthing stool was set up in their room with a basin under it to collect whatever fell out of her. This one had a pair of handles for her to grip onto, a welcome sight.
When she was settled into it, a mantle of finality draped over the event, one way or another, this life was ending. Either her body would die, or it would become immortal like her husband and daughter were. They waited for her to join them, caressing her hair and doting on her with little kisses to her cheeks, arms, and hair.
She couldn't leave her precious divine gingers, not for anything.
Every minute and hour stretched in a surreal twist that left her too dizzy to contemplate what came next.
The visions Hades had sent her played in her mind repeatedly. She could almost see herself in the Underworld, his eternal slave chained to a desk. Or even worse. What did he have planned for him right now that she had multiplied his original Hercules problem by so much?
Steadily, she recognized that she was losing so much blood that she was going numb in the fingers and toes. Her body was failing, shutting down, and kept present only by the power of two goddesses: her daughter and husband.
Four Olympian generations had come together for this moment. It had to be significant somehow. There was a difference this time. When the first child slipped free of her, a cold rattle went through her bones. It was so different from the sense of relief she got when Harmonia was born. This was… foreboding. Something dark was happening inside her, and the second child was not yet free. She had to release him before he suffered from whatever she was enduring.
"Have I done enough?" she whispered, despite the cries of her first son so close to her face. She couldn't raise her voice. "Did I forget anything?"
"Sh, Meg. You're doing great. You're halfway there. Just hold on a little longer. Look at our son! He has dark hair like you!"
The child was on her chest, but even so, she couldn't make out more than a blurry shape. A final cruelty of the grave, she assumed.
"I… I can't see him…"
"What?" Hercules leaned closer and rested a hand on the boy's back. She knew this only because she could recognize the golden color blotch.
"I can't see him… and I can't see your face…" It wasn't only because her eyes were so full of tears, but that wasn't helping.
"Can't see… are you going blind? Mother! Why is she going blind?"
"You have only one more choice to make," Hera said in a soft voice that drowned out everything else. "You wished upon that apple for your sons to become immortal. For that to happen, someone must pay Hades his due for losing two people from the grave. You can choose two souls and only two."
"Creon! Choose Creon!" Hercules exclaimed. "Let him go down while his grandsons get to live without him!"
"Hush, Hercules, you must let her choose. It must be two people. Who else will you choose, Megara?"
Was that choice already made? Did her father, loathsome as he was, deserve this?
Then again, who deserved to live more? Her son or her father? That answer became apparent as soon as she had formed the question.
"Me. Take my father and then me."
"No! No, you're not supposed to— why?" Hercules gripped her hair firmly at the base of her neck. "Stop! Change your mind! Take it back!"
"I'll try to return somehow and see you… I'll never forget you as long as I can hold onto any scrap of myself…"
There was no telling what Hades would do when he had power over her, but she'd rather be the one to suffer than either of her sons.
"Mama!" Harmonnia screamed in tandem with her brother.
Her body was already rattling like bones in the sea.
It was that final push, that final breath, that released her final child. She'd never live another mortal day to know them or see them grow, but they would be gods. She'd done her duty by them, and she'd minimized the cost to anyone but herself and a loathsome bitter man who could only better the world by leaving it.
There was no more strength in her to draw another breath, and somehow, though Hercules and Harmonia were on either side of her, begging her to try again, and her twin sons were both heavy and warm on her chest, she slipped deeper and deeper into darkness.