Disclaimer: I do not own Disney characters, I do not own or represent Disney. I make no money off of this. The only think I get from it is embarrassment and exposing poor unsuspecting people to my obsession, stories and characters.

A/N: This is perhaps my first story that I have written. I've been in love with the show and movie ever since I was a kid and it really began my lifelong obsession with Myth. This story takes place a few years after the Movie, and makes heavy references to the show as well as history and other mythologies. It is very heavily influenced by the episode Twilight of The Gods, and so a lot of the scenery will take place in Germany.

Rated T for minor language and violence

Things have quieted down years later. Quite a few years later since… The incident. The incident of all incidents. Should it really be called an incident? The word Incident really seems to be downplaying what happened. What about Titan cataclysm? Would that work? No? Well anyways, time had passed since that cataclysmal event. Titans were taken care of, gods were punished, maybe redeemed, but this is not that kind of story.* This is a story of something completely different. This is a story about misunderstandings.

Just as Apollo began his journey across the sky it became routine for the no longer young Hercules to wake up at dawn break, jog a mile, and pick up the newspaper. He was always back just in time for when Meg woke up. He could not even shut the door quietly behind him before the sound of sandaled feet running towards him accompanied by a squeal of "Dad! Dad!" hit him followed by the sensation of a tiny body running into him from behind. The impact startled him more than any force his son Hyllus could throw at him.

"Woah, hey Hyllus, remember what I said about keeping it down while Mom is asleep?" He whispered and picked up the boy letting the kid drape himself over his shoulder. "Dad!" Hyllus quickly lowered his voice, "Dad, there's some bar-"

"I'm awake but it's the thought that counts." Meg spoke while leaning against the doorway holding a small krater of coffee in her hand and hair still showing signs of bed head.

He smiled weakly and sat Hyllus back down on to his feet. "Sorry." He stepped towards her leaning in to place a kiss on her but she stepped away.

"We got company." She nodded her head towards the other room with a smile.

He blinked, his blues eyes falling onto the door way and just hovering in the opening. Hercules recognized the hovering blue god before him, or at least he did. He almost mistook him for Hermes but it was the tiny beard on his chin and furs that gave it away. Hercules squinted at the familiar and near identical messenger. "Herm-?"

"Hermod."** The northern messenger finished, "Remember me? Of course you do! It's been a while!"

"Oh right! Hermod! From the Norse Pantheon! I remember now." Hercules slapped the side of his head. It had been more than a decade since he had put an end to the Ragnarok prophecy let alone the blue messenger god that looked nearly identical to Hermes. "What brings you here? Is everything okay? Should we get you anything?"

"No, no but thank you. I was just stopping by to deliver this invitation to Oktoberfest. Odin extended an invitation to Zeus and Hera this year and they suggested that maybe you and the family would enjoy the festivities. Odin also sends his belated congratulations on achieving your divinity-" He adjusted his glasses as Herc scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Although, it seems you are currently without it. Not a problem since the festivities will be held on Midgard in Munich.*** Not bad this time of year, and I hear it's really growing a marvelous art community. You really-"

"Thank you. Thank you for the invite." Meg cut off. Something did not feel right, not that she didn't trust the machinations of all powerful deities, well actually, she didn't trust the hidden machinations of all powerful deities. "And we really appreciate it but, you know Hyllos, here is about to start school soon, and-"

Herc gave her a confused look. Hyllus' school didn't start for a couple of weeks, and he couldn't see anything wrong with the very promising idea of a small vacation, and festival. "I thought school wasn't for another couple of weeks.."

"Yeah mom! It's not yet! I can go too!" Hyllus spoke up.

Meg bent down to grab his hand and pull him aside. "Oh kay, You remember what I said about conveniently jumping into the middle of adult conversation and how you really shouldn't do that? Also you need to pick up your room, I don't think you made your bed yet and I can tell you didn't brush your teeth." She looked up as Hyllus pulled away with a pout and trounced off to his room. Her worried purple eyes meeting her husband's. It was then he knew something was wrong, so he turned to Hermod.

"I, just got to speak with the missus, I'll be right back with an answer."

Hermond nodded to him, letting the demi-god break disappear into the kitchen.

"Okay, what is wrong? I can stay here if you like, but I really don't see anything wrong Meg. They're good people."

Meg sighed, looking up at him. Something felt off, like things could go wrong. "I know, I know. It's just that, you know, whenever you get called for these kinds of things, trouble rears it ugly head and you run off rushing to adventure."

"Meg, I'm a Hero."

"I know, and I don't have a problem with that, it's just that we have a kid now."

His shoulders dropped as he realized the weight of keeping not just her safe but their son as well. "Okay. You're right." He sighed and turned to let the blue God know, "I'll let him know, we got too much to take care of at the moment."

Meg frowned, seeing that perhaps Herc missed out on adventuring, and maybe she was being just a little paranoid. Before he could leave the room, she spoke up.

"You know, I don't really have a problem with you going."

He stopped, looking to her smiling face. "why don't you invite a friend, or the old goat. I can take Hyllos shopping, and maybe even make it a day to spend at your parent's house kind of thing."

'Are you sure?" He asked, a smile returning to his face, knowing that despite how she felt, she was willing to put forth an effort to make him happy. "I mean, you don't have to do this, I-"

She punched him playfully in the shoulder. "Go on, Wonderboy, go have your fun. Invite a couple of friends or even the old goat. Make it a guy's night if you want to."

"Are you sure?"

"Go! Go have fun you dork." She said pushing her husband towards the door.

Herc snorted through his nose, "Dork? Okay, I'll let Hermod know." Before he headed back into the living room, he turned back to her. "I love you."

Prior to the festival, Hercules could think of no one else to invite other than his long time friend Icarus, and Philitetes, although it took a little convincing for the old goat. He was not too keen on the snowy place, or the possibility of being stuck rhyming again but the promise of seeing the valkeries and a festival of drinking and eating was not to be passed up. It had been years since he had been to Germany, and this time it wasn't completely that cold. Snow had barely fallen. By barely fallen, that means there was about a foot of snow. So not bad at all!

When the three of them got off of Pegasus, they stood in the middle of town in awe. Well Not entirely awe, for you see, the town of Munich was possibly one of the largest Barbarian towns he had ever seen. Meaning that instead of about nine huts, there were possibly double that. As for a thriving art scene, it was a few stalls selling Kuckoo clocks, carvings of bears, and some musicians blowing away on horns.

Phil slapped his forehead and yelled, "It's just a dump again!"

"WOAH! They got the old world old school charm!" Icarus yells, clasping his head. "You probably haven't heard about it." He changes his voice and flicks his scarf around his neck, now donning a new persona, "It's really obscure."

"Oh, I didn't realize being out of date and rundown was obscure!" Phil yelled back, face reddening. His hand flourishes and lands on his chest, "Oh pardon me!"

"Well, I guess it's not so bad, it kind of have its charm." Herc says trying to calm his satyr mentor, but he was partially distracted as he dug through his satchel, pulling out a scroll. He would not have to work too hard to distract the old goat because a dozen damsels wearing dirndls daintily dawdled down towards the center square.

"Yeah, I see it now. This town really does have its charm." Phil rubbed his hands together while his tongue hung out. "Don't wait up for me boys! I'll join you later!" And in an instant, he was off trotting after the ladies.

"Wait! Phil!" Icarus yelled, waving his hands frantically but not giving chase, "You forgot your invite!"

Herc looks down to the scroll in his hands and compares it to the sun. "Well we have some time to wander around before joining my parents later on. We'll bump into him again. In the meantime, let's take a look around." And so the two of them wandered around the festivities, helping themselves to drinks, music and the sights. One of the sights led them towards a street filled with markets.

"Oh Herc! We need to stop there! I promised Dadalus that I'd bring back a souvenir!"

Icarus ran off excitedly down the street, which would not have been much of a problem for Herc to run after him except he felt a smaller hand on his shoulder .

"There you are! Herc babe I've been looking everywhere for you!"

The demigod whirled around expecting Hermod but instead found Hermes.

"Oh! Hermes! Sorry we were searching for where to meet you guys later, we just got a bit distracted."

Herc turned his head back to look for his friend but had managed to lose his friend already.

"Oh that's fine babe, the shindig isn't until later on tonight and you got time, if you got time, I got someone that would like to speak with you. It shouldn't take long."

Herc raised his eyebrows and looked over his shoulder again. He was sure Icarus was a grown man and quite frankly this town wasn't really all that big, he figured he could easily find him again. "Oh of course. I don't see right-"

One minute he was in the market place and the next he was by a cordoned off area standing before a large armored god standing between them and the stanchion that lead to the section reserved for the divine.

"We're just checking in to speak with Tyr and Balder, Heimdall.*" Hermes assured the all-seeing God.

Heimdall looked down to his list to mark them off, but in the meantime, Hercules' eyes spotted two younger deities, that looked not much older than thirteen. One was bright white with golden hair carrying a large sword while the other standing opposed to him had much darker tones of purple and black hair. He couldn't hear what was being said but it was enough to make the purple one storm off into a wall of shadows. Hercules frowned. Something felt worrying, and something about the exchange seemed way too familiar. The younger white god turned around to approach a much older one with one arm sitting at a table.

"Herc! C'mon let's go!"

He followed after the blue messenger towards a long table set up next to an open space with archery targets, weapons and shields lined the outside of it. The two gods looked up to them, the younger white one even waved with a week smile.

"Tyr, god of Wars and Balder young god of Heroes and light, I bring you Hero of Greece and son of Zeus, Hercules." Hermes winced as he heard something, someone with a long beard and penchant for zapping people with thunder bolts was calling him not too far away. "Oh! I'll be right back, I got to take this one!" And the blue god was gone before the three other males could blink.

Tyr stood up and held his hand out to shake Hercules' hand, "Pleased to formerly meet you. Thank you for meeting with us. Shame we hadn't met sooner. I would have loved to challenge you after you defeated Thor. " Tyr motioned to the younger white god, "Had to be training Balder here." He slapped a hand on Balder's shoulder, causing the teen to jolt forward a bit.

Hercules shook Tyr's hand, feeling a bit taken by this war god's courteous yet boisterous attitude. It was a real throw from the war gods at home, between the over sized god-child and the sister that goaded him on, Tyr's welcoming attitude came as a relief."Um, Thanks I guess, but honestly, it's rather embarrassing..." Try as he might, he could not repress the memories of literally trusting and being deceived by a trickster god that literally introduced himself as a trickster god.

"Eh, don't beat yourself up over it. Loki has pulled a fast one on everyone on Asgard." Tyr's voice lowered as glanced sideways, "It was only a matter of time before he moved on to some new victims anyways." Tyr straightened up, picking his cheeriness back up. "Well, he's locked away in Nifleheim,* being tortured forever now, so no need to worry about that now!"

Hercules laughed nervously and looking down to Balder who had his arms crossed and looked off to the side. The young god looked up at the demigod for a second, and the guilty was quickly replaced by a cheerful smile. Hercules instantly recognized that of a guilty child attempting to hide something. He wasn't here to bust the kid's chops though.

"Training huh?" Herc asked. "What kind of training? Is it for being the God of heroes?" It was a bit strange to him that a young god that had to be trained was already being declared a god of heroes.

Balder looked down to the side and smiled a bit, "Something like that."

Tyr rested his heavy stump of an arm on Balder's head, "About that! I understand you have since retired from the Hero-ing business, but Balder here, has been prophesied to be our god of heroes but he's been having a bit of problem-" And now all the charm that Tyr previously had began to wither away as he leaned into Herc, "He's got a bit of a flinching problem.. Even tries talking to his foes."

Balder's cheeks brightened into a warm glow as he pouted.

"Well, what's wrong with that?"

That question made Tyr stop and blink as his brain tried to determine whether Herc was joking or not. Balder peeked upwards at the demigod, the glow in his cheeks fading.

The awkward silence was broken up by the ground giving a small shake beneath their feet.

*I am of course referring to one of the many, many fictions of Hades and Persephone. In this fiction, Angel of Hunky-doryness has given me permission to use her characters and her world. If things are off, just consider it an AU that is a couple degrees to the upper left.

Hermod returns! He is known as Hemod the swift and later Hermod the brave for being brave enough to actually journey down to the underworld just for a favor.

Midgard was what the Norse referred to the land of human, and technically Oktober Fest didn't start all the way till the 1800s, but hey, Disney is already a mess of anachronisms anyways. Also the vikings appear to have had some form of harvest festival close to September that seems to also coincide with modern day Oktoberfest.

Tyr- One handed god of war, and justice.

Balder- God of light, mercy, peace, and beauty. It is impossible to hate him.

Heimdall- Basically the bouncer of the gods.

Nifleheim- sometimes said to be land of the dead, but at other times it is said to be on the surface and actually land of ice and mists. In the show, Nifleheim seems to have been on the surface.