A Disney's Hercules fan-sequel in which Hades' kingdom is in danger, an immortal witch wants control, the Fates predict a miracle and Hades falls flaming-head-over-smoking-heels in love. The usual stuff of myth.
A take on the classic myth of Hades and Persephone by Quantum Witch. Persephone is chafing under her mother's control, evil no longer excites Hades, and Cupid's got it in his head to set these two up. Throw in some bumbling minions, a witch queen determined to get revenge on Hades, and Hades' dead first wife and you've got one hell of a tale
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The story has also been illustrated by the author herself.
It has a character page which is currently under construction.
This fanfic includes examples of:
- Adaptational Consent: In the original myth Hades kidnapped Persephone to make her his bride, making their relationship dubiously consensual at best (though their marriage was comparatively more stable than many of the other gods'). Here, their relationship is portrayed as completely consensual (Hades actually holds back at first out of concern Persephone is too young and inexperienced, with she actively pursuing him); Hecate's claim that Persephone was abducted and raped is Malicious Slander.
- Adaptational Jerkass: A sort of roundabout example—the story brings back Zeus' philandering from mythology and he's generally unsympathetic to his brother's grief over his first wife's death.
- Affectionate Nickname: Demeter calls her daughter Kore, and Persephone's nymph friends call her Melanthe meaning "dark flower".
- All of the Other Reindeer: After they get out of Kronos' stomach, Hades' youngest brother Zeus decides that since he's the leader and he saved them, he becomes the King of Olympus and gets all the love and glory, while Hades is ostracized by his fellow gods and is considered by them to be the resident Butt-Monkey. This is eventually deconstructed, as the other gods realize that Hades isn't evil, but that external circumstances drove him to villainy.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: One of the things that draws Persephone to Hades is how "dangerous" he is.
- Animal Motifs: The Fates get a subtle example—Clotho's described as having a voice like "a squawking raven", Lachesis gets a voice like "a gravelly vulture" and Atropos' is described as like "a raspy old owl".
- Babies Ever After: The end of the story has a reveal that Persephone is pregnant.
- Technically not yet. They've just been told it's possible to conceive, which wasn't possible originally.
- Badass Boast:
- "If the Fates want us to stay together, it will happen. They've taken it this far, and I swear I'll kick their *sses if this is the end."
- Batman Gambit: Hecate's plan after Hades falls for Persephone is to convince the other gods that he kidnapped and raped her, so they'll be so angry they'll kill Hades, thus allowing her to take up his position.
- Hades later pulls one of his own in the climax... realizing his influence over fire, he allows Hecate's demon-hounds to rip him apart and eat him, so he can regenerate first into fire and then to his normal form, thus killing them.
- Beast and Beauty: Beautiful Persephone and Hades, who is a bit scary-looking, though she's very attracted to him. Also their personalities- Hades is gruff, brooding, sarcastic, and has a bad temper. Persephone is very sweet, kind, and gentle.
- Big Bad: Hecate, who's after Hades' throne as ruler of the Underworld.
- Big Damn Heroes: Twice.
- Hades does this for Persephone when she's about to drink a potion that will make her mortal and free her from her mother's and the other gods' influences.
- Rhea, mother of the six main gods, does this a chapter later, convincing Zeus and the others to let Hades and Persephone be happy and to reveal they're related more than they thought.
- Big "NO!": Hades lets out an epic one when he comes to stop Persephone from drinking the aforementioned potion.
- Body Language: Rhodope, Persephone's water-nymph best friend, can only communicate with squeaks and squeals, but Persephone can understand her by reading her body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice.
- Brain Bleach: Hermes needs some after walking (flying?) in on Hades and Persephone being intimate.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Arguably Persephone. While she is generally a very nice person, she makes passive aggressive, rude remarks to Demeter's face and at times acts like Demeter, who is admittedly suffocating, is abusive.
- Character Witness: Rhodope for Hades and Persephone and then Hermes as well as a result of seeing it with his own eyes... unfortunately for him.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl
- The Chessmaster: Hades has still got it, but so does Hecate.
- Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive: Subverted in that when Hades finally steeples his fingers, he's doing this before his revelation that he and Persephone are legally married, not because he's lying.
- Cruel Mercy: Hades and Persephone decide not to kill Hecate, but instead take away her immortality, demon-servants and most of her magic. They then send her away, telling her she can redeem herself to get it back if she wants to.
- Cruel to Be Kind:
- After being expelled from Kronus' stomach, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus all drew lots to see who'd rule what. Hades points out that originally he'd look a lot more like his brothers and that his time in Kronus had changed his appearance. Persephone posits that Hades ended up absorbing whatever it was that allowed Kronus to control the Underworld while in his belly which meant he would HAVE to rule whether he wanted to or not… and Zeus realized this and so had Rhea make lots so he would at least FEEL as if he had some choice in the matter.
- Styx is such a Shipper on Deck for Hades/Persephone that she went on strike to ensure they got together.note
- Cute Ghost Girl: Leuke returns in chapter 12 to counsel Hades.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Hades' whole backstory. Guy saw his father violently rape his own mother, then swallowed both him and his brother Poseidon where they had lived in his stomach for years. After they get out of Kronos' stomach, his youngest brother Zeus decides that he's the leader since he saved them and grows up to become King of Olympus and gets all the love and glory, while Hades is ostracized by his fellow gods and is considered by them to be the resident Butt-Monkey (the opening scene in the movie is a good example of why he perceives himself as an outsider - even Poseidon doesn't hold him in high regard). Not only this, when he was younger and exploring the Underworld, he came across Kokytus, a waterfall in his domain. Being curious and being King, he tasted the water as he missed Olympus, but loses his Power Glow - thus explaining why he does not glow unlike the other gods. On top of that, the only love he had known died tragically, forcing him to contemplate suicide. This long Trauma Conga Line ultimately drove him to evil.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Zigzagged. Hades isn't evil and the Underworld is not necessarily a horrible place (or it wouldn't be if he wasn't neglecting his duties), but creepy-looking Hecate and her Hellhounds are.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Even when Persephone is fully clothed, this happens to Hades.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He's not evil anymore, but Hades says that even when he was, he would never have forced himself on anyone. (It's why he never tried anything with Megara, and part of why he's horrified to hear that the gods think he raped Persephone.)
- Everybody Hates Hades: Invoked and gradually inverted; the whole fic is about turning Hades from his demonized Disney self to his more sympathetic classic self.
- Played straight with Hecate, although this was intentional on the author's part due to the original story lacking a major antagonist (not to mention the fact that Hecate was a villain in the TV series too).
- Explicit Content: Though the sex-scenes aren't written horribly explicitly, they're actually quite tasteful.
- Fertile Feet: Persephone, notably when in the Elysian Fields.
- Freudian Excuse: considering the especially horrible childhood Hades had, it's not surprise he turned out the way he is.
- God Couple: The central plot is how Persephone (the goddess of spring) and Hades (the god of the underworld) fell in love, Disney musical style. It also features a few other god couples, such as Hera and Zeus, and Hephaestus and Aphrodite. Apollo tries to become this with Persephone, but she's unimpressed.
- Green Thumb: Persephone most notably, but of course so is Demeter.
- Happily Married: Hades and Persephone, but for longer than they thought...
- Hellhound: Hecate's demon-dogs, Mayhem and Havoc.
- Heroic Blue Screen of Death: Hades goes through a few, most comically when he realizes Persephone is his neice.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs/Oh, My Gods!
- I Cant Believe A Guylike You Would Notice Me: Technically, Hades notices her first, but this is basically his reaction after Persephone notices him.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: Hecate makes everyone think Hades did this towards Persephone, as part of her Batman Gambit.
- Ingenue: Persephone is actually called this directly in song, though she matures through the story.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Persephone has very beautiful ones.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Leuke is overjoyed that Persephone is pursing Hades and shoots down every argument he has for the contrary. When he brings up age, she reminds him that while her tree had been around for awhile, her active consciousness wasn't.
- Jailbait Taboo: Hades is very attracted to 15-year-old Persephone, but holds off till she's willing and of age.
- Love at First Sight
- Love Makes You Evil: Humans chopped down his nymph wife's tree, thus killing her. After a horrible childhood and loneliness in his young adult age this makes him totally snap.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Persephone's love and innocence changes brooding Hades for the better.
- Manipulative Bastard: The Fates changed one word in their prophecy about Hercules. Instead of If Hercules fights, it should have been WHEN. The entire point was the get Hades to turn him mortal, so he'd grow to adulthood in 18 years instead of...however long it takes for baby gods to grow into adults and be ready to fight Hades on the fated day.
- Hecate is this, as she manipulates Demeter, Apollo and the gods into thinking that Hades kidnapped Persephone, when in reality, Persephone voluntarily went along with Hades.
- May–December Romance: Hades is physically and mentally 50, Persephone is just shy of 16. (But it's okay, because the gods made the age of consent 14.)
- Ms. Exposition: Oh, Leuke, who, for whatever reason, crawls into Hades' lap to exposit her little heart out.
- Oh, Crap!: Several—notably when Hades finds out Zeus knows he arranged Hercules's kidnapping, and Hecate upon being stripped of her magic and immortality.
- Pet the Dog: Hades tends to do this in the story.
- Power Glows: It is notable that unlike the other Gods, Hades doesn't glow. This is because when he was younger and exploring the Underworld, he'd come across Kokytus, a waterfall in his domain. Being curious and being King, he tasted the water. His heavenly glow has been gone ever since. And when his wife died, Hades tried to drown himself in that same waterfall. He eventually gets it back thanks to Persephone.
- Precision F-Strike/Cluster F-Bomb: Hades.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "I...am...a GODDESS!"
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Having witnessed his own father raping his mother at a young age, Hades vowed he would die before he forced himself on anyone.
- Really Gets Around: Zeus. Demeter even says he has "enough illegitimate children to start an army and take over Persia".
- Second Love: Persephone was the second girl Hades fell in love with. The first was a tree-nymph named Leuke, who was killed when her tree was knocked down during a storm, then chopped into pieces.
- Sex Equals Love
- Shout-Out
- Shown Their Work: The author spent years doing research on Greek mythos (and more!) to prepare for this story. She does admit to changing a few details for creativity's sake, though.
- Shipper on Deck: Cupid, Erebos, Nyx, the Fates, Pain, Aiakos, Rhadamanthys Charon, Styx and Leuke all ship Hades/Persephone.
- Soul Power: As the God of Death and thus Souls, Hades actually has this power. Indeed, his attachment to Leuke and her attachment to him gives the dryad a soul.
- The Sociopath: Kronos. Abused his own wife and children, and showed no remorse throughout this. Even Hades called him a wacko for this reason.
- Squick: In-universe, the gods' reaction (but mostly Hera's) upon discovering they're all related. Averted by Hestia, who knew all along.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Cupid begins to realize that there's more to Hades than he originally thought, contemplating what his personal feelings may have been and why he ended up that way.
- Those Two Guys: Pain and Panic naturally, also Aiakos and Rhadamanthys.
- Time Skip: The final chapter.
- Vain Sorceress: Hecate
- Values Dissonance: In-universe example; both the fact that Hades has fallen for his neice and their significant age-gap are brushed off by Persephone and Leuke, who say that they're gods, not mortals, therefore the same rules don't apply.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Hades is more creepy-looking than ugly, but Persephone is clearly the more beautiful one.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Persephone states that Hades wasn't monstrous from the start, but that external events such as an abusive childhood, the loss of his wife, losing his godly glow and being regularly shunned by his fellow gods slowly drove him to become what he is today.
- The Vamp: Hecate attempts to seduce Hades in her introduction chapter. It fails spectacularly.
- Villain Song: Hecate has one in her Establishing Character Moment. Of course, this being a fanfic, we can only read the lyrics.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Pain and Panic, natch.
- What Does She See in Him?: When seeing Persephone for the first time, Pain and Panic's jaws drop. A ravishing redhead goddess willingly came with Hades, who is more creepy than anything? Both are wondering how did that happen?
- Yandere: Hecate.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Persephone tells Hades this over and thankfully he eventually believes her.
