Title: Panta Rhei

Author: owlet

Rating: M

Disclaimer: The film "Hercules" belongs to Disney™. I'm only having fun and make no money with this.

A.N.: Cyber- Cookies to everyone who can tell me the names of the people tortured in Tartarus (I was lazy, didn't invent even one, they are all based in myth)

If you don't know what a Furby-Cluster is, google! I was in stitches when a friend of mine showed me...

Panta Rhei

by owlet

Chapter 5 – Back To The Land Down Under

"So, he's in Tartarus, isn't he?"

Pain nodded.

"Definitely, yeah. I really don't wanna think about what Hecate has in store for him," he said with a sympathetic cringe.

"But why do we care about him anyway?"

Meg rolled her eyes.

"Because we have to save the world? Besides, I'm the Boss-Lady, yes? Well, the Boss-Lady says we go and help him."

"Aw, damn. I like it here without him. Good food, easy money..."

"Pretending to be a sick little boy to get money is wrong, Panic," Meg said with a frown, "I only let you do that because we need a few coins for Charon."

"Yeah, he only rows the boat, doesn't care what happens to the world. At least we are doing something to save it," Pain growled.

"Hey," Panic chirped, "we're going to save the world! That would make us..."

"Heroes," the twosome finished unison grinning widely.

Panic rubbed his horns.

"I like that, I really like that. Everybody will be glad to see us, there'll be monuments..."

"And great banquets in our honour," Pain interjected.

"And Hades will owe us," Panic crowed happily, "he will be in our debt! That is just fabulous!"

"Yeah, right. So … I've never been to this part of the Underworld; what will await us there?"

"It'll be hot, then there are those guys with one hundred arms and fifty heads each."

Megara goggled at Panic.

"Fifty heads?"

"Yeah, very small ones. One of the Fates once said that they work like a Furby-Cluster, but I don't know what that is. But they always do that hint at the future without sayin' anything."

"And the Erynes. Horrible."

"Oh don't ever mess of those ladies. They will rip you apart. Literally."

"All right, all right; here's what we'll do... The two of you, can you go back without being noticed?"

"Sure. No big, but we can't find Hades without you, we need the connection of the Geas he put on you to lead us."

Meg rolled her eyes.

"That's why you're going to steal the helmet."

Panic clapped his hands excitedly.

"You'll be invisible! Yes!"

Pain and Panic morphed into something that closely resembled the shadows that inhabited the Underworld and went back down.

Meg waited for hours with a sinking feeling in her stomach. What if they got caught? What if...

"Tadaa!"

Meg shrieked, and then just shook her head as the creature that suddenly appeared before her (holding a certain helmet) split in two separate beings (two certain imps).

"We did it, Boss-Lady! We've got it," Pain shouted happily.

"Shush, or do you want Hecate to know," Megara hissed at the chubby little demon.

"Righto! You know, she didn't even move it! It was just where Hades left it..."

"...on the bottom of his wardrobe, with his socks stuffed into it..."

"Ugh, guys, I don't want to know."

Great, now she had to wear something on her head where Hades had kept his socks. Just great.

"Let's just get going, please. The sooner this whole mess is over the better."

The Underworld still looked the same. Megara had half expected some drastic changes since the change of management – but then again, it had only been a day. Pain and Panic were in their guise as spirits again and Meg was invisible. Charon accepted their money, no questions asked, and Cerberus sniffed air for a moment, but, recognizing their scent, settled back down.

The way to Tartarus was a dark, dank tunnel that twisted and wound like a psychotic snake. There were faces in the stone that seemed to scream in anguish, frozen in eternal torment; sometimes it seemed that they twitched and shifted in the light of the few guttering torches. The faces became more numerous as the trio went further down; the air became hotter, and was filled with the terrible stench of decay and burning flesh. Meg's breath became quick and laboured; her stomach heaved.

The tunnel widened into a hall, the high, vaulted ceiling lost in darkness. On the far end was a huge gate that showed terrible things, every torture and torment imaginable was depicted in great detail on it. A guard stood before it, Meg guessed that he (it?) was one of the creatures Pain and Panic had described. The torso was a wreathing mass of tentacles and claws; above this were too many heads to count in a few minutes, Meg decided to take the imps' word for their number being fifty.

"Let's try to get closer. Then we wait until someone enters or leaves and try to slip in. We couldn't open this gate by ourselves anyway," Meg quietly whispered to her companions.

Pain and Panic shifted into bugs and cautiously made their way to the gates, keeping close to the wall and out of the light of two basins filled with fire that stood on either side of the guard.

Meg's breath was loud in her ears, magnified by the helmet she was wearing (it smelled slightly sulfuric on the inside, an almost comforting smell in this place); her heart was thundering in a way that made her fear the terrible creature might hear her.

The guard shifted, and she froze, close to fainting in terror.

But the monster only scratched a few of its heads, and resumed staring at the entrance of the cave.

Meg let out a slow shuddering breath and continued on wobbly legs.

After what seemed like an eternity they had passed the guard and hovered close to the gates. Now they could only wait.

They were lucky, because a little while later the gate opened, and another one of those beings stepped out and talked to the guard. Meg used this opportunity, and slipped past the monsters into the infamous Tartarus, Pain and Panic doing the same. The gate closed behind them and they looked around.

A vast landscape of bare rock and fire, encircled by a burning river; the heat was almost unbearable. Pain and Panic shifted back into their real forms – nobody would give two imps a second glance down here. Meg grabbed hold of their tails to guide them as they couldn't see where she went.

"This way."

She could feel the Geas tugging at her, so she followed it's call to the left, bypassing a guy who rolled a terribly big rock up a hill, some women who tried to fill a well, water leaking out of their buckets, a man standing in knee-deep water that receded every time he tried to drink and lastly a man chained to the wall being whipped and slashed by one of the Erinyes.

Megara shuddered at these horrible sights.

At last they came to a door. A guard was posted nearby, a key dangling at his belt.

"Distract him somehow, I'll try to steal the key."

The imps did as ordered and walked up to the giant.

"Hey, this is new. Some poor guy in there? What did he do?"

"I'm not allowed to say. Personal prisoner of Hecate's though. You work here?"

"Yeah, we usually stir the brimstone in the melting-pot," Pain answered with a careless shrug.

"Tell me, could you do me a favour?" the guard said, shifting uncomfortably.

Pain and Panic looked at each other and shrugged.

"Sure. What?"

"Take over for a sec, I need to pee."

Meg blinked.

"Well, we're having our lunch break right now, you know, we actually wanted to grab a bite," Panic hedged nervously.

"Oh please do me this teensy favour, I really need to go..."

Pain sighed.

"You'll owe us."

"Yes, anything. Here's the key, in case Hecate wants to see him," the huge creature rumbled.

"All right," Panic said, took the key and watched the giant lumber off.

"We're lucky. He's not too bright right now, most of his heads are asleep," Pain mumbled and opened the door.

Hades was inside, all right, but Meg was startled at the sight of him. An iron ring was fastened around his neck, attached to a chain that was bolted to the wall. The flame that was his hair was extinguished, and he seemed duller somehow. He was sitting on a heap of straw and stared at his feet. Visible feet.

He was mortal.

"Boss," Panic whimpered.

Hades looked up.

"Pain, Panic," he whispered, "how did you find me?"

"That would be my fault," Meg answered for them and took off the helmet. "Try to get that collar off him, would you, boys?"

"Meg..."

Hades was interrupted by the imps who jumped him and started to tug at the iron ring.

It took a little while, but they got it off.

"Why," he finally asked her.

Megara sighed and handed him the helmet.

"Because there are worse things in this world than you. Hecate's one of them."

"Who would have thought? And here I assumed you'd be the last person to come to my rescue."

He sat the helmet down and opened the skull-shaped pin that held his Himation.

"Come, if I cover you with is while wearing the helmet, you'll be invisible too. Let's get out of here," Hades said, picking up his helmet again and putting it on his head.

Meg felt herself being enveloped by soft cloth which she could see through just fine. The former Lord of the Dead pulled her close and she awkwardly slipped an arm around his waist to steady herself.

"Am I gone," she asked and the imps nodded giving a thumbs-up to the place where they couldn't see her any more.

They waited for the Hundred-Armed-One to return, Panic gave him the key back (the giant was pathetically thankful) and they sat off.

Cautiously they made their way back to the gates, dodging the terrible guardians of the place that were blind to their presence. They left the realm of Tartarus the way they'd entered, waiting until the gates opened. The wait was longer this time; or maybe it just seemed that way to Meg, who was rather hot and uncomfortable under Hades' himation.

"So what exactly is the plan," Hades asked when they were well into the tunnel with the faces.

Meg shrugged.

"I don't really know. We didn't plan further than rescuing you; that was the only thing the fates were precise about," Meg answered.

"The fates?"

"Yes, they talked to me in a dream. Hecate is going to destroy the world, if we don't stop her. That's what I meant with her being worse than you. You only wanted to take over Zeus' place; she's planning to flood the world with an army of dead people and to destroy the gods."

Hades was silent for a while.

"I see," he said at last, pulling her a little closer; if it was for his comfort or hers, Meg couldn't tell.

"What does it feel like," Meg asked out of the blue.

"What do you mean?"

"Being mortal."

She heard Hades growl a little and half regretted her curiosity.

"It feels as if something is missing. This place was part of me as I was part of it; but I guess it's the flames I miss the most. And I feel myself withering and dying a little bit every moment I live, every time I draw breath. All in all not too comfortable."

"Oh."

"Quite," he said dryly.

Meg bit her lip. She needed something else to talk about and quick. It made her nervous to be this close to him for a prolonged time, she was ridiculously aware of the way his muscles shifted against the skin of her arm as he walked, his hand on her shoulder, the way he smelled (not too pleasant – but who would smell good fresh out of Tartarus).

"So, how are you going to regain your immortality? I don't think heroics will do the trick in your case," Meg wondered.

"Haven't the foggiest, this is quite unprecedented. But I'm sure you're right about the heroics."

The conversation died again at that point. Meg sighed in frustration. Usually it was impossible to shut him up; that fanged mouth of his could go a mile a minute, and Meg was sure that Hades loved the sound of his own voice. But right now, when she wanted him to be talkative, he dried up on her every few words. Damn. Maybe the whole humble-pie thing seriously put a cramp on his style.

Soon they had crossed the Asphodel Fields and Charon took them back across the river Styx. Cerberus gave a mournful whine as they passed him, but didn't bother them. Meg drew a sigh of relief when they left the cave that led to the surface and stepped out into the sun.

Ducking out under the himation she made a beeline for the little stream nearby and dived into it clothes and all, yelping at the cold, but not really caring; she just wanted to wash that horrible place off her skin. She yelped again as she felt two arms enfolding her from behind, pressing her against a firm body.

"Thank you, Meg," Hades murmured into her hair.

Megara wriggled out of his embrace, turned around and pushed him away.

"I didn't do it for you," she grumbled.

Hades just shrugged.

"Thank you anyway. Time was kind of distorted in my cell; I feel as if I'd been in there for a thousand years."

"Well, it was about a day," Meg said wading out of the water to where Pain and Panic had fixed a makeshift camp near the niche they'd spent their first night out of the Underworld in. She dug a new chiton out of her back and went behind some bushes to change, laying her old one out in the grass to dry.

"So what do we do now," Hades asked her as he joined them.

Meg shrugged.

"Stop Hecate and get your divinity back. But we can't do it alone; we need help."

Hades' jaw dropped.

"Oh no. No, no, no! Not Wonder-Breath!"

Megara sighed and shot him a baleful look.

"Believe me, I'm about as thrilled as you are,"