A day had not passed before Hercules stalked down to the Underworld. He knew Hades would be waiting, but he no longer cared what his uncle did to him. His children were safe with Rhea, and not even Hades would defy his mother.
The shadows of the Underworld were not as potent after the makeover. Hercules's golden aura reflected at him from a trillion crystalline surfaces. He would have paused to enjoy the scenery if it hadn't been for the circumstances.
He knelt by the bank of the River Styx, searching the spirits for any of them who might be his wife. He wouldn't let her drift away if he saw her again. He'd cast himself into the river and go wherever she went before he left her alone.
"At this point I'm not making it a big deal, just get in the boat." Charon had gotten a makeover as well. He no longer appeared so skeletal. He seemed like an old fisherman with a kindly expression.
Hercules checked over his shoulder at the poor abandoned souls whose families had not paid their way across. "Hold that thought." He strode through the crowd until he'd gathered every limp transparent form into his arms. "Now we'll go," he told Charon firmly.
Though he twisted his gnarled features into a grotesque frown, Charon put up no resistance.
On the opposite shore, Cerberus cowered away from him and bowed all three heads.
"Not this time," he told the dog as he passed.
At last, past the gates, Hercules released the spirits to wander Asphodel. They flew away like a flock of glass birds. The new Asphodel would be far more hospitable to them, or so he hoped.
"You're a bit behind schedule." His uncle was beside him.
Slowly, Hercules turned to face him, not letting any hint of fear register on his face. "Where's Meg?" he asked as calmly as possible.
"Always with the same question." Hades rolled his eyes.
"Always with the same problem!" Hercules snapped back. He grabbed his uncle by the cloak. "Where is she?"
"Easy, easy. Remember Hecate's old digs? They're unoccupied now, so–"
Hercules threw Hades back toward the river and stormed off. He could pummel his uncle any time he wanted. Both of them had forever.
On his journey across Asphodel, he heard the flapping of large feathery wings, and at first, he believed it was Pegasus. However, Thanatos joined him.
"I apologize for what I had to do," Thanatos said.
"If it weren't you, it would've been one of the other deaths. Thank you for making her last moments less painful than they could have been."
"My duties as psychopomp have never been particularly pleasant, but I hope you know… that was one of the most difficult deliveries."
"Will you show me where Meg is?"
Thanatos nodded.
At first sight of Hecate's erstwhile palace, it was evident that Hades had prepared it for Megara. She'd told him about her dreams where he'd coated the palace in porphyry and amethyst to meet her tastes. It must have been a ploy to sweeten the deal of working for him again.
"Meg!" he called. "I'm here! Where are you?"
"You'll have to get closer, I'm afraid," Thanatos sighed. "This isn't like last time. She doesn't have free roam of the palace."
Hercules's eyes widened. "She told me Hades wanted to give her a job and rank in the Underworld hierarchy."
"That was before she refused him multiple times," Thanatos replied. "Now it's become a spiteful punishment."
Rage boiled up in Hercules's chest. "Fine. I'll fix this then."
He saw the regretful sorrow on Thanatos's face but wouldn't let it get to him. He'd rescued Megara from this place before, and he'd do it again.
Within the palace, he found a throne behind a desk matching the description Megara had once given him. It was covered in papyri, but an unseen hand moved the pen that scribbled on it. That unseen hand wrote in Megara's handwriting.
Even as a god, Hercules could not see who worked that stylus. "Meg?" he asked, hoping she might show herself.
A shadow flickered inside the nearest crystal.
"Is that you?" he moved closer to the crystal, but the shadow shifted away before reaching it.
It moved to another crystal, and then a shadow filled another and another. There it was, spread amongst all the crystals in the chamber.
"Who are you?" the voice appeared from every direction. It was her voice, but it was lethargic and full of confusion.
He'd come this far and couldn't even see her face?
"Meg?" he rested a hand on the nearest crystal cluster. "It's me… it's Hercules…"
"Not to ruin the perfect moment or anything, but I think it's time you accepted the inevitable."
Hercules didn't turn to regard Hades's voice. "What did you do?"
"Eh, you know, a little dip in the Lethe is standard. Then I sent her here, and wouldn't ya know? She's blended into the scenery."
Some fragment of her consciousness was there. He couldn't leave her behind. Still… she didn't remember him.
"Don't worry, she'll be content here," Hades said, flinging his arm across Hercules's drooping shoulders. "She won't know anything else. But you know, she's exceptional at paperwork. So I think I'll keep her on. She's got eternal job security, eh? You should be happy for her, pursuing her career!"
"You… you destroyed her…" Hercules watched the light and shadows play on the geode surface around him. A wave of nausea spread through his entire body, and dizziness threatened to overcome him. "She's… gone…"
"Now yer catchin' on!" Hades swung Hercules around to face the exit. "I've never had to shatter a soul before, but the psyche is a fragile thing. I shoulda ground her into dust a long time ago, but hey! Live and learn, right? Not that she could do that anymore."
Hercules grabbed his uncle's hand, squeezed so hard he heard bones pop and turn to powder, then flipped the Lord of the Dead to the floor. He pressed down on his head with one foot while his uncle writhed and scrambled. "I've got an entire eternity to come down here and remind you of how despicable you are," he said in a low, steady voice. "You will never be safe. Every time I look at my children and think about how you've stolen their mother, my rage will grow. If you ever thought of yourself as a vengeful strategist, think again. You can't comprehend what I'll do now that you've taken the woman who held back my fury."
"Thanatos!" Hades gasped. "Get him off of me!"
Thanatos folded his wings behind himself. "I am a just god," he said. "I bring the wicked to punishment. My nature will not permit me to betray my purpose."
Hercules ground his foot down on his uncle's jaw until he felt it snap out of place. "I'm going to leave you now. It'll take you a while to heal from that. When you do, I'll return."
He hadn't expected to return on behalf of his aunt Demeter and her daughter Kore. He had sunk into the background of life to focus only on his children, but Demeter's desperate pleas roused him. He knew what losing someone to the Underworld was like, and she required an advocate.
He also needed a chance to repay Hades for what he had done.
Hercules accompanied Demeter and Dionysus to the Underworld. He didn't lead the way, lacking the drive to take initiative. He saw the palace that contained the remnants of his Megara in the distance. Should he go there again just to hear her voice?
While he was still deliberating, Kore ran out of Hades's palace and into her mother's arms. "He pulled me out of the field!" she shrieked. "You wouldn't believe it– are my friends okay? They were out there, too. Were they hurt?"
Hercules regarded his cousin with mounting rage. If anyone did this to Harmonia, he'd grind them into powder. It just happened that he was due to give his uncle a thrashing, anyway. "Hades!" he roared across Asphodel. "Get over here and answer for this!"
Hades appeared beyond arm's reach, arms folded with a smug smirk that only faltered slightly at the sight of Hercules. "Come to congratulate us on our honeymoon?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" Hercules looked between Hades and Kore, who was now weeping inconsolably in her mother's arms. "Did you actually marry him?" he asked her.
"I never gave you permission to marry her!" Demeter snapped at Hades. "I'm officially annulling this arrangement! You can't just kidnap a girl and make her your wife!"
"Actually," Hades extended a hand and a contract unrolled midair. "All that's required is that the woman in question resides at my palace for longer than three days and that the relationship is consummated."
"You didn't…" Dionysus gasped. "I never thought you had the equipment!"
Hercules turned his head to gag.
"Is it true, Kore?" Demeter asked, stroking her daughter's hair and then pulling back to see her face.
"It…" she hiccupped, then whispered, "Yes…"
Hercules's heart broke for his cousin, imagining the horror of being kidnapped and subjected to whatever his uncle was capable of. He rested what he hoped was a comforting hand on her back, then stepped in front of her. "I knew you were a despicable bag of filth, but I should've known you could sink even lower."
"Herc, babe, for once, it's not about you. Flattery will get you nowhere down here. Oh, yeah, and her name is Persephone now," Hades said. "Kore is so… juvenile. She's going to be a queen now! Isn't that great, Demeter? She's not a minor goddess anymore!"
"Don't give us that!" Hercules spat. "You worthless–"
"Oh! And I almost forgot this one more thing: you'll love it!" Hades moved around Hercules to aim the full force of his spite at Demeter. "She has to stay down here! She's eaten food from the fields of Asphodel!"
"I was so hungry…" Persephone said.
"You're making up rules now," Hercules said. "Meg ate down here, which wasn't part of her deal."
"Really? Do you think Meg's a worm connoisseur? Oh, sorry, was she? Sometimes, I forgot, but I'd usually let her topside to find something to eat. Geez, you think I wanted that–"
"Don't make me any angrier," Hercules growled. "I've already decided I'm going to make you regret this. You're only digging deeper if you can't shut your mouth."
"Come on! You're the one who's always talked about how important it is to have a wife! Why shouldn't I have the opportunity, just like you?"
"If you haven't noticed, I'm a widower," Hercules snarled. "You can have your wife when I see mine."
"You're really hung up on her, eh?" Malice stretched a smile across Hades's face. "Why not do what I did? Take initiative! You've got what? Thousands of girls across Greece who wanna jump into your bed? Pick one and get over it."
Hercules grabbed Hades around the throat. "You're going to agree to an amendment right now," he said in a low, patient voice. "I'll never leave until you think of a way to make this right. I'll destroy you each time you regenerate. I'll knock everything down, so you have to put it back together. I'll rip every monster in here apart until they cower at the merest sight of me. Let my cousin leave, or I swear to you, I'll stay down here to chaperone her, and you'll hate every second of it."
Hades's eyes bulged. He scrambled to move Hercules's hands off his stranglehold and finally decided to turn into smoke. "All right!" Hades said when he reappeared a bit further away. "Compromise. She ate six pomegranate seeds. She'll stay with me for six months and can go topside with you for the rest of the time."
Hercules checked over his shoulder. If it were Harmonia, he'd never accept any amount of time consigned to the same prison that had tormented her mother. He'd never surrender her to the nonexistent mercy of his uncle.
Demeter and Persephone whispered to one another. At length, Persephone turned with Demeter's hands on her shoulders. "Your terms are acceptable." She fixed her eyes on Hercules. "I'll never forget how you advocated for me, Uncle Hercules. Somehow, I'll repay you."
"A hero never accepts payment for an act of heroism," Hercules recited bitterly. "But thanks for the thought."
"I mean it," Persephone said. She seized his hand. "Neither of our lives will be the same again, but I will do whatever I can."
Dionysus aimed his thyrus at Hades. "We're leaving now, or I'll make you believe you're a squirrel."
"Fine, fine… but you'll be back, right Seph?"
Persephone looked away. "It's not your month. I don't have to talk to you."
Once they all emerged from the Underworld, Dionysus pulled him aside. "Promise you won't let anything like this happen to your kids, Herc. If minor deities aren't safe, neither are they."
"I promise… I'll give them the best life possible, even without Meg at my side."