Plight of Persephone

Ok people, you know the score, I do not own Hercules, Disney does and even though they have not issued plans for a live action redo, give it time. Everything else seems to be getting the treatment so I wouldn't be shocked if it happened. And since Disney aren't entertaining the idea of a remake, I decided I would. Don't worry, you do not need to have read any of my other stories to read this one and the original is NOT going anywhere, it stays here where it belongs.. I do own this version of Persephone and all other original characters and places that come up, permission and advice is always given to those who want to use them but do tell me if you use my characters so I may view and comment on your work.. Just like the original I will be basing this story around Greek myths and twisting them around just like Disney did, I will also be reworking some of the original plot lines.. Please review and let me know your thoughts.. Thank you for your time. Enjoy! X

Chapter One: Something Isn't Right Down Below

"Don't touch me! Get your slimy souls off me!" Hades splashed about in the fiery waters of the vortex as the numerous angry souls around him were making a grab for him, trying to drag him down with them..

"Urh! He isn't gonna be very happy when he gets out of there!" High, high above this scene Panic's long nose poked over the edge of the black stone cliff-edge and the anxious teal imp watched his lord and master wrestle against the angry souls swarming him.

"You mean if he gets outta there.." His pink partner shot back with a crafty look in his small yellow eyes and a sharp-toothed smirk twisted his features. His words made Panic give a start, a smirk of his own twisting this thin face.

"If... If is good.." The two then turned away from Hades' yelling and chuckled as they walked away...

It had been three months since any of the gods on the surface had heard anything from Hades and had it not been for the 'Titan incident' that was still fresh in there minds they might have cared more. At first Zeus had been furious with the Lord of the Dead for even daring to pull a stunt like that. He had originally intended some form of retribution but ever since learning about Hercules 'taking care' of his little brother and the fact that the grim god was keeping a low profile these days he decided against it. This was a decision that many of the other gods disagreed with him on, they wanted him punished, forced to fall in line with the rest of them as he certainly wouldn't be this lenient with any of them. So begrudgingly, The Lord of the Universe decreed that he would be banished from Olympus, forbidden to darken it's golden gates again. This seemed to quell their disgruntlement for the time being but it left a sour taste in Zeus' mouth. He had never forbidden a god from entering the cloudy realms before, this was the Home of the Gods, it was a god's birthright to be able to come here. He expected a fiery hissy-fit after sending the decree to Hades but the Ruler of the Underworld remained silent about it..

Perhaps Hades had finally learnt his lesson?

It was a long shot but still, the blue-flamed god had really just been crying out for attention, it must be very dull living in the Underworld. Zeus had always meant to visit but that realm was just so dark and creepy, then there was Hades who was so depressing and his hideous minions who were so stupid. He hated going down there so he always made excuses not to go. Besides nothing ever went wrong in the Underworld, Hades was a workaholic, he constantly was on the go and looking after his souls. He ran a tight ship, even when his business was low and he had time for another pointless scheme, the Underworld was in safe hands...

...Or so he thought, anyway.

"Urgh..." One dainty, tapered pearly-white finger dug into a small, pixie-like ear as Persephone screwed up her brow and tried to shake the soft, whispery voices from her head. The bright blonde bangs that framed her heart-shaped face flopped forward as her cherry lips that were twisted into a grimace of disgust. "Just go away... I dunno what you want from me.." She whined out in a pleading tone. In the last few months these whispery voices just randomly seemed to come and go, the voices were always so indistinct but they sounded like they wanted help. This didn't make sense to her as she was a minor goddess with no real purpose. Persephone appeared to be the only one that could hear them, her mother just waved her off when she had tried to ask her about it. The voices seemed to come straight out of the ground, they sounded so forlorn and lost, merely looking for some kind of assistance or guidance. They sounded almost like prayers and Persephone knew that prayers could only be heard by the God or Goddess they were intended for, but who would want to pray to her? She was nothing more than a simple nature goddess that had yet to escape from being under the green thumb of her mother and discover her divine purpose..

At this moment in time she had found herself a rare moment of peace in her own private grove, her personal refuge from the stifling grip of her mother. It was gloomy, dreary and dark, just the way she liked it. So gloomy in fact that no nymph or saytar dared to follow her inside as it gave off the impression of being a gateway to the Underworld. The trees were misshapen and crooked due to Persephone's love of unique and quirky designs and her dislike of the straight backed uniformed look. The misdirected branches blotted out the majority of the sun meaning it only glittered through the odd gap in her othwise covered canopy. The forestry floor of her grove was covered in plants of her own creation, their colours muted, ranging from deep blues and purples, deep burgundies and navy to light lavenders, greyish pinks, ghostly blues, whites and even blacks. The only real spots of colour were cherry reds that looked foreboding against the ashen greying of aged bark and young green foliage.

"Hey! I just came to share a little gossip with my best friend, though if ya really want me to leave you could just say so, I don't come here for rudeness, get enough of that on my travels.." The familiar snippy male drawl suddenly responded to her whine as if thinking it had been directed towards them. Immediately Persephone gave a start in fright, not expecting anyone to be there then lowered the finger that had been wriggling in her ear and whipped her blonde head around to see the blue-skinned Messenger God hovering in his usual white toga with golden hat and caduceus, his winged deep blue sandals fluttering excitedly. The young goddess exhaled in relief and smiled warmly.

"Hermes! No...Stay." She patted a mossy covered rock nearby that she knew was comfortable and just his size. "I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to..." Persephone tailed off feeling silly and smiling nervously. "Heh, something else.."

"Oooh! Sounds titillating girl, you got yourself yet another suitor?" Hermes quirked his brows, a playful smirk twisting his kindly round face. There always seemed to be an endless number of men both mortal and immortal that found themselves enraptured with Persephone's beauty. Unlike Aphrodite, who's beauty was well known and she worked it hard the white-skinned beauty before him shone with a kind of innocence and she was completely unaware of just how lovely she was.

"No.. Thank figs for that." The blonde goddess chuckled lightly, her hand gently grazing her ample bosom and her faint aura glimmering a ghostly-white in the shade of her weeping willow tree, it barely visible compared to Hermes' bright neon blue glow but still there. "Could you imagine my mother's face!"

"Oh-hoh! I don't need to, I've seen her mad.." Hermes did a light somersault in the air before fluttering down and settling down on the rock she had offered him.

"Hmh, that's right. You tried to flirt with me too when you first met me." Persephone's teased him, fluttering her eyelashes playfully as she peered through the curtain of pinky-grey flowered willow branches.

"Hey, hey... I thought you were a cute nymph, I didn't realise you just looked underage." The blue-skinned god gabbed with a sheepish grin. All gods stopped aging at certain points of their lives to fit in with what was laid out for them by the Fates. In Persephone's case: she had stopped aging in her mid teens and since her aura was still developing due to not having found her niche yet it was only understandable that he had mistakenly thought she was just another nymph he could flirt with. "Besides I don't blame Demeter for bein' protective then, you were justa kid but now your not she could back off a little." Hermes added twiddling his staff as he tried to placate her.

"I wish she would.." Persephone sighed heavily, her smile dipping as her shoulders sagged a little. "I'm never allowed to go anywhere exciting or meet anyone that she hasn't approved of first. I don't even like gong to Olympus, it's boring and overcrowded.. What kind of goddess am I?" She then propped her chin in her hand, rested her elbow on the knee of her short violet covered chiton and pouted sulkily. "At this rate I'll never find my purpose.."

"Sure you will and I bet it's gonna be something special." Hermes said encouragingly.

"Well it better not involve growing plants. My mother hates everything I come up with." Her big olive green eyes rolled expressively with disdain.

"To be fair babe, that night snare plant you came up with last time that creeps like a snake and throttles anything that crosses its path was kinda creepy." The Messenger God shuddered at the memory of the thick vine-like plant with thorns with deep green leathery leaves. "And Artemis didn't like the fact it went after her animals either."

"Urgh.. It was supposed to retreat from bright light, it's not my fault it was immune to moonlight!" Persephone huffed, folding her arms stubbornly across her chest looking put out.

"And it got you detained again. Hehe, you really know how to push the big man upstairs, I'll give you that babe." Hermes smiled sympathetically knowing how Demeter had caved to Zeus' recommendation that Persephone be detained back on Sicily after destroying her plant with his lightning, despite her mother's initial protests about it being an innocent mistake.

"When am I not?" The white-skinned goddess exhaled heavily, her arms loosening as her expression saddened. "I just don't feel like I fit in up here, every time I try to be myself I'm just told that it's wrong, that I have to be nice and just fall in line. What if I'm not the goddess they want me to be? Am I just gonna be stuck on this island forever?" Her words made Hermes flash her a sympathetic look. She had tried so hard to fit in with her mother's wishes and be a good girl and grow nice plants but he knew that the only thing 'nice' about Persephone's plants were that they were pleasing to the eye, many of them contained hidden poisons or barbs put there to catch unsuspecting victims out. Hermes had learnt that very early on in his friendship with Demeter's daughter that there was one thing that Persephone excelled at and it was hiding the truth. She, like her plants, were very different than the pretty face and sweet personality that she projected out to the rest of the world. Underneath the sweet facade was a fiery goddess who knew more than she had initially led others to believe, able to use her naive charms to convince others that this was what she was. She certainly had her mother believing that she was this sweet innocent little girl that could do no wrong.

"Nah, not forever babe, just until Zeus thinks you've learnt your lesson." He added in a chipper tone.

"Your not helping." Her ghost-like white aura brightened a little as her green eyes lanced him with a momentary dark look.

"Sorry hun, I would love to help ya out. You know I would but ya gotta figure this one out on your own." Hermes added in a soft voice before smiling. "But like I always say; What's life without a little risk? Carpe diem: As the cats over in Rome put it.."

"What are you babbling about now?" Persephone gave him a bemused look, not understanding his point.

"Seize the day babe." The tiny blue god said plainly as his winged sandals fluttered making him float upwards from the rock he had been perched on in her private grove. "If you want to go see the world then go see it, you don't have any responsibilities holding you back.. Well, not any pressing ones anyway."

"Nice idea Hermes but even if Zeus doesn't notice that I broke his curfew my mom sure will." Persephone raised her brows in some jest at the idea, she couldn't just get up and leave. Could she? The seed of doubt had firmly been planted now. It had never occurred to her to just get up and go before. After all, there were no physical barriers to actually stop her from going, her mother trusted her to stay here and so far she had not done anything to suggest she wasn't trustworthy.

"Hey, rules were made to be broken, that's all I'm saying. If you don't break the rules a few times how can you ever say you've lived?" The Messenger God replied lazily wondering why the idea of just getting up and going had never come to her before. She was a full-inchor goddess and she was an adult, she could go where she wanted whether Demeter liked it or not.

"I'll think about it." Persephone said in the tone of voice hinting that she was unsure if it was a good idea but not ruling it out completely.

"Ok then but remember, your purpose isn't gonna just come to you, you have to find it." Hermes replied looking away with a sly smirk knowing this would get to her. It worked too as the white skinned goddess frowned.

"Hmh, I thought you came to share some gossip not guide me through my sorry excuse of an existence?" Persephone quipped raising one neat light brown brow and immediately Hermes chuckled warmly.

"Well, if that's how you describe it babe, I kinda wanna do both." This made the permanently sixteen year old goddess lean over and punch his arm with a playful pout making the blue god wince in pain. "Ok, ok.. I'll ease up on the guidance, just take it easy. I'm sensitive y'know."

"Aww, poor baby.." Persephone teased flashing Hermes a wide smirk that almost reminded Hermes of Hades himself. "Should I do it again and see if you still have feeling in it.." She pretended to make another attempt and he darted back.

"No. Heh, you have a mean streak, y'know that?"

"So you like to tell me." She trilled brightly then straightened. "So what's the dirt?"

"Apollo has been makin' the moves on Daphne—" Hermes leaned in lowering his rose-tinted specs.

"Again?" Persephone blinked in disbelief knowing the little pink nymph with bright green hair was not interested in him. "Didn't you try to talk him out of it like I suggested?"

"I tried babe, you know what he's like." The little blue Messenger God replied in a despairing drawl. "Remember how long it took you to get rid of him when he was sniffing around you?"

"Don't remind me." Persephone grumbled with a shudder of revulsion, remembering a few years back when the buff purpled tanned god had been flirting with her at one of her mother's Cerealia Celebrations. She could still smell the reek of whatever over-perfumed aftershave he had been wearing and feel his warm breath on the back of her neck. He used his smoothest lines and had her pinned, caught like a rabbit in headlights and panicking in fear. Thankfully Ares had come to her rescue and liberated her before the over-zealous God of the Sun could attempt to stick his tongue down her throat. That had not stopped him from perusing her, claiming their meeting was destiny. He had sent her flowers and sonnets, wrote her songs, tried to woo her with pretty words but this only irritated her more. He had tried too hard to impress her and this only made her want him less, considering he governed the one thing she hated most in the world that was saying something. In the end she was forced to threaten him with her mother if he didn't back off. Amazingly, this worked. Her mother was one of the sweetest goddesses in the cosmos but when she was mad the seasons suffered for it and for this reason nobody wanted to be on her bad side, nobody wanted to theirworshipers to starve.

"Sorry Seph, well anyway, Daphne transformed herself into a laurel tree again." The tiny blue god rolled his dark eyes from behind his specs. "Only this time she beseeched your mother to keep her that way." Hermes continued and this made Persephone's green eyes widen.

"And of course my mom agreed, she'd do anything to help a nature spirit." The white-skinned goddess responded feeling a pang of pity for the forest nymph, it seemed that she too had had to seek her mother's assistance in ditching the creep. It was so unfair how nymphs and minor goddesses like her were always paying the price for lusty gods and their massive egos. Shaking her head roughly she then looked curiously to Hermes, her mind thinking about the disembodied whispers that had been bugging her for a number of weeks.

"Hey Hermes, how do you know when your getting a prayer?" Persephone's question was so out of the blue that the tiny blue god was actually speechless for a moment as his brain processed the question.

"Oh. Wow. Wasn't expecting that one." Hermes swiftly pulled himself together and threw her a suspicious look. "Wait. Why are you asking?"

"Just curious." She blinked her pretty green eyes flashing him her most innocent look and girliest smile.

"Well, prayers are kinda like whispers in your head, can be a little hard to hear them at first. Mine kinda faded in and out until I learnt the control, now I can filter out the spam." He suddenly broke off as if hearing an unseen voice then smirked widely. "Heh, speakin' of which, the big man upstairs is callin'. I gotta go. Your lucky you don't have to worry about being summoned or getting prayers just yet. Don't think too hard on it babe, just enjoy your freedom while you have it. Ciao Seph." He added cheerfully before shooting off in a neon blur out of the canopy of her private grove. A few small twigs and leaves fell to the ground after his departure but the young goddess barely noticed as she sighed heavily.

"Yeh. Lucky me.." She exhaled heavily looking glumly at the mossy grove ground.

...Down in the Underworld...

Things were quiet in the big basement. Far too quiet in fact. For the last three months the two imps under the employ of the Lord of the Dead had been waiting for their ruler to re-emerge and force them back to work. Unfortunately for them he had not shown up yet and as a result, things were slacking, tasks were not being done, the paperwork was mounting up and the two minions had no idea what they were supposed to be doing without their Lord and Master to guide them.

"I'm bored..." Panic whinged from his laid down position on the map of Greece. He had been lying there staring at the stalagmite ceiling for almost the entire day waiting for Hades to show up and punish them for their insolence and failing to assist in helping him out of the Vortex of Phlegethon.

"Me too.." Pain chipped in looking somewhat frustrated from his slouched position on Hades' stone throne. Ordinarily he would never have the gumption to sit here but after weeks of not seeing the Lord of the Dead he figured that he could push his luck in the hopes that this was what finally drew Hades out of hiding. The blue flamed god had absolutely forbidden them from sitting on his throne and he would never stand for this if he was around. "How long does it take to get out of the Phlegethon anyway? I thought he woulda come back by now."

"Who knows." Panic responded with a small thoughtful frown as his large round eyes narrowed. "We tried poking a stick down there but we couldn't find him."

"Hey, you remember what happened with Morpheus when he was under his own blanket and nobody could sleep?" Pain suddenly was hit with a thought that made him get up on his knees and peer over at his non-identical twin brother across the room. Panic merely turned his head listlessly around to look at his chubby pink skinned brother, not even bothering to sit up.

"Yeh, we had all those roosters in our search for Electron, I remember. What about it?" He asked with some curiosity, not understanding why it was being brought up now.

"You don't think that's what happened to Hades, do you?" Pain asked looking worried and this immediately made Panic sit up looking bemused and sceptical.

"Pain, Hades is not asleep under a blanket needing to be woken by Electrion." He drawled in a tone of jest but the pink imp shook his head making his mop of dark pink hair shake wildly.

"No, no.. Hades said that a god could succumb to the powers of his own domain and—"

"-It was almost impossible to revive them after that." Panic finished his sentence, his bug eyes widening in slight fear at the very thought. "Holy Nyx, I think your right." He immediately hopped off the table and began frantically pacing back and forth. "That would explain his long absence and why we haven't heard from him." He then stopped with his back to the throne and pulled on his long pointed ears whining in worry. "Whatta we gonna do? We have to get him back. If we don't and Zeus finds out he's gonna—"

SMACK!

"Get a grip Panic!" Pain snarled after materialising out of a pink shimmer and slapping his twin brother across the face. "We just have to go to the Fates and get them to tell us how to get Hades back, that's all. If we get the boss back Zeus won't ever have to know he was missing, right?"

"Right." Panic sighed feeling instantly more calm. "Let's go to their grotto."

"That's on the upper east side of the Underworld, right?" Pain said scratching head head trying to remember the location as he had always had difficulty committing facts to memory.

"Yeh, it's the level above the home of Hades' adoptive parents Nyx and Erebus." Panic replied smirking lightly and this made the chubby pink imp shudder.

"Eurgh! Erebus always gives me the willies." He uttered thinking of the ancient God of the Shadows and how he could just creep around making no noise and scare them without even trying to.

"Me too. But if we materialise over there we won't run into him." Panic quivered briefly trying not to think of the black shadowy god. His non-identical chubby pink twin brother nodded thinking this sounded like a solid plan and the two shimmered out into a poof of pink and green.

The Fates' grotto was located in a cave near to the surface world. This was so that should any mortal seek them out they could do so without trespassing too far into Hades's domain and not anger the temperamental fiery god, who was less than welcoming to visitors who were still alive and breathing. Despite their abode being more than spacious for the three old crones is was cramped and stuffy due to the Tapestry of Fate taking up nearly all the space.

"Well, look who finally showed up." Came the raspy voice of Clotho sounded drawing the yellow eyes of both Pain and Panic over to the three Fates crowded around the Tapestry of Fates. While the blue fate was throwing them a boney glare Atropos, the shortest lilac skinned fate with one eye socket exhaled.

"Late. I told you they would be." She added in a gravely voice, twiddling her scissors in her stubby fingers.

"Better late than never I suppose." Lachesis added as she twiddled with the threads on the tapestry, pausing to look around as she had their only eye in her left eye socket.

"We came because—" Pain began but was cut off by Clotho.

"Because Hades is stuck in the void between life and death and you want him back."

"We knew already." Atropos added casually as she pocketed her shears.

"So how do we get him back?" Panic asked curiously.

"We don't even know where he is." Pain added looking unsure. They had looked everywhere they could think of for him already with not a single flame in sight.

"You need a goddess who knows the cycle of life, only she will end your strife." Lachesis riffed as she returned to her work on the tapestry.

"You mean like Demeter?" The pink imp asked dimly as she was the only nature goddess he knew. This earned him a bonk on the head from Panic.

"Don't be stupid, why would Demeter wanna help us? We had her tied up with the rest of the gods when Hades took over Olympus, remember?" The skinny teal imp glared at his partner.

"You know someone else?" Pain argued back but this made Panic blink with the realisation that he did not.

"Um, can you ladies give us a hint on who can help us?" Panic turned to Atropos and Clotho. The two fates gave each other a withering look then reluctantly exhaled.

"On Sicily is the key to set Hades free, seek out the one called Persephone." Clotho said then sniffed back a spider that was trying to sneak out of her long nose.

"Persephone?" Pain scratched the mop of flopping burgundy hair between his horns in confusion.

"Never heard of her." Panic added with a shrug.

"Well, thanks anyway. Come on Panic we better go to Sicily and got get her." Pain grinned widely trying not to get too creeped out by the Fates that we're gazing at them through their hollow black eye socket. He gripped his skinnier partner and disappeared with him in tow into a pink shimmer.

"Shouldn't you have warned them about the shift in seasons if she stays down here too long?" Lachesis stopped in her work to scrutinise her shorter, older sister.

"Nah.." Atropos flicked her wrists dismissively. "They'll figure it out soon enough, trust me." There was a nasty smile twisting her withered looking lips.

Little Notes:

Hey guys, I hope you like the first chapter. As I stated in my blurb, this is a remake and is not connected to my original stories at all. So even though it's the same characters there you do not need to have read any of my other stories to follow this one. Now felt the right time to post this as September marks the 10 year anniversary of the original and since it was pretty popular I wanted to follow Disney's big trend of remaking their popular stuff..

As you may have noticed, Hades is absent from the beginning. Since I didn't do this in the original it felt necessary to go back and explore the consequences of Hades' absence thanks to Hercules smacking him into the Vortex of Phlegethon. This is not the official term for it, I think in the film it's just called the Vortex of fire but since in Greek myth the river of fire was called the Phlegethon river that's how I came to this name.

I would really love some opinions on this has been in development for some time now and I know that there are a few of you that will be happy they don't have to read my daunting story history here to understand this story. I have taken a hiatus from my other stories to focus on getting this one off the ground so the updates should be regular.. As always guys,

Stay tuned.

A~Teal