Petals and Ash: Sub-Chapter

    Olympus: Before Hades Damnation

    Our bodies remained rigid and our breathes reside only in our lungs as this soldier and I had taken the like of Gargoyles, never letting our eyes peer away from the glittering gates of gold that embraced Gods and Goddess’ alike with open arms… Or, in the least, they had.

    “No!” I cried out to the lifeless force that shredded any hope I had in returning to my dwellings. “This is impossible!” Fumbling to gain the cold metal bars in my hands, I did only what I knew a powerless refugee had been capable of; rattling the gates in hope that they would open wide at my strength. Of course my attempts had been for not and hardly worth my lacking energy while the lock remained sealed off from the outside world to which my companion and I had unfortunately been stranded to.

    “There has to be some misunderstanding! I’m Lord and General Hades!” I boomed for all the land to hear.

    “I hate to be a bearer of bad news,” he started under his breath before settling at the edge of a step, shunning away Mount Olympus with his back and fiddling his thumbs between his knees, “...but you no longer belong to the land of precious metals and miraculous power as you had once before. Face your facts, Hades,” he groaned before a callous sigh escaped the pit of his lungs. “You're now just as much an orphan as I.”

    Retreating my pitiful and desperate attempts of gaining custody to the life I have always known, to be brought back into the world I had, I allot my hands to slither away from the bars only before curling them into my leather-bound palm as a seething rage, doused in fire, coiled itself into the marrow of my industrial bones. I lock my gaze to the back of my “saviors” neck as a falcon would take sight of its wounded prey. My imagination ran wild with a cold shiver of great pleasure at my phantom hand clasping the base of his throat and watch what little of his pathetic life was left drain from his shell of skin.

    “Who are you?” I raged, slowly letting my footsteps come closer to my target, silently giving him a final chance to explain what kind of predicament it was that he put us through. “… And what have you done?”

    “You certainly are quick to assume the worst,” he laughs without humor, not taking his eyes away from the hands he entertained himself with as they were now gently caressing the soreness of his wrist due to excessive wear and tear of his armor.

    “You’ve declined my offer of gaining what it is I deserve to know by means of civil approach,” I growled, striking his neck with the stealth and prowess of a python, I let my hand replicate the fantasy of cutting the breath from his lungs with just my grip, seizing his attention with force as I bring his face to fear mine. I would be lying if I had confessed I did not admire and take a great deal of pride towards the helpless and frightened demeanor that was present in his features once I had him dangling before me, desperate to obtain a breath and footing from the ground beneath him. “Now you have given me no choice but to take advantage of our lack of witnesses who would claim your death was by my hands!”

    “H-Hades p-lea-sssss!” he gasped, wriggling to get free while his hands clawed with vigor in an endeavor to release the one around his wind pipe.

    “Who…” I seethed, tightening my grip, “are you?!”

    Grunting and sucking in as much oxygen as my grip would allow, his fight refused to cease as it, if possible, became stronger and vigilant.

    Tossing him aside with a force that sent him flying into the mountain surrounding us, I watched his useless bag of bones fall into a pitiful heap of heaving breaths while his rough hands immediately sought to soothe the bruising caused by my merciless grip. If he had been a mere mortal or your classic Earthly man, the blow to his spine alone would have killed him instantly… unfortunately, the persistent rise and fall of his lungs and pulsating heart continued to sustain life.

    “You will answer me if I have to revive your body from the ashes of death… I swear to the Gods it will be the last thing you ever do!” I hissed, storming over to him only to be welcomed with an attack to my gut with his lead strength heel.

    “’Nd I,” he rasped, holding his throat with a quivering hand, adjusting minutely with attentive eyes following my every step. Slowly sitting up with the boulder behind him as an aid, he makes a weak attempt to stand as the sound of clattering iron gave way to his dwindling strength. “I-I will… n-ver s-stop fi-fighting f-r my life…”

    “You’re going to regret ever pulling me from Earth, young man,” I spat, unsheathing the sword at my right hip to point directly at his jumping Adam’s apple at the center of his throat.

    “If we’re to fight,” he hisses with a guttural tone, unsheathing his own Hephaestus designed weapon… only to toss it away as though it’s purposes were meant for surrendering. “then fight me like a man and put down your weapons.”

    Narrowing my eyes at the savage who challenged my masculinity, I reluctantly oblige to his coercing taunt. “If you would only supply my questions with answers, there would be no need to take your life.”

    “I’ve never been the sharing type, boy’o,” he slurs proudly with a tooth-bearing grin, ripping the leather from his hands finger tip by finger tip to egg on the battle of strength I’m certain to squander just by observing his desperate effort to climb to his feet. The reality to support his efficiency of throwing the first punch –or any punch for that matter- was dismal if at all present.

    “I am a God,” I remind him with confidence I glared down at his final attempt. “You will never win against my strength and immortality. You will fall an you will fail, of this I am certain.”

    Shaking pathetically before my eyes, alas he pulls himself up to lean against the boulder he had recently fallen victim to. Wincing, he rests his spine against it but not before he can lock his silver-rich eyes with mine. “So… So quick to forget… who I am, are you?”

    “What is that supposed to me?”

    Never letting the grin escape his mouth, he continues to soothe his neck with one hand while the other affirms the lungs behind his rib cage were still providing him air… all while his gaze never shifts from mine.

    I could no longer retain the beast inside as my hand claimed his throat once again, shoving his skull into the hard rock with a delicious sound of crumbling stone. “Don’t play games with me, you brat! Now who are you?!”

    Groaning and hissing at the pain of my abrupt assault, he otherwise remained silent.

    “You were the one to suggest that we fight like men,” I growled under my breath against his ear, fusing his spine into the mountain. “Perhaps you’re nothing more than a cowardice little boy caught up in child’s game of make-believe.”

    Rattling his breath, he attempts to rip my hands away from his jugular. “H-Hade-“

    “And not only have you taken on the disguise of a man, but you seem to have claimed my name as your own!”

    Suddenly, taking in the oxygen he was oh-so greedy for, I was abruptly amazed at his ambush of strength as the force of his shove against my shoulder sent me just as far as I had hurdled him not more than a moment ago.

    “Ch-Char…on,” he breathes as the pants of his pleading lungs cut through the silence. Resting against the mountain with an air of pride, he glares down at me relishing in his minor defeat. “R-Royal Gu-ard… 1^st Ranking O-officer o-of General S-security.”

    Gliding my wrist against the bottom of my lip to catch the spittle that unintentionally escaped my open orifice, I am immediately distracted by the bolt of lightning etched into the top corner of his breast plate: The Crest of Zeus.

    “I was…” wincing, he holds his chest anxiously before his other quivering hand pressed against the rock to guide his form in a towering display of his confidence, slowly making his way towards me. “Y-You trained me… h-harder th-than any other… soldier in your g-guard. You granted your trust… to no other but me; to protect your brothers.”

    “You’ll find the doubt I carry has yet to subside,” I scoff with a hint of amusement, pushing myself to stand tall before the man who dared test my memory. “The man I had given custody towards the Elders is none other than my own nephew, Ares; son of Zeus. My lieutenant. While I admit to having underestimated your strength, you do not classify as a general to any-”

    But before I could resume denying all patriarch he had towards the kingdom and our Elders including myself, Charon pulverized my stance with a gauntlet for a leg that swept behind the vulnerable niche behind my knees, forcing my vision to take in the starlit sky that blinked with numerous balls of light. It wasn’t long before my sight was filled with the unapologetic gaze that belonged to no one other than my opponent.

    “My advice to you,” he sighed with weariness as a smirk grew in the corners of his mouth, jamming his foot into the center of my chest whilst shoving the chainmill into my chest, leaning closer into my vision, “…would be removing that name amongst various others… from the list of members you claim… worthy of your trust.”

    “And I suppose you expect me to in turn replace their name with yours at the peak of all Olympus?” I coughed, yanking his knee away from my chest and returning the uncomfortable stance against his own rib cage in one fell swoop.

    “You sound as though I should… de-declare myself insane,” he chortles, shaking in the efforts to gain superiority and dominance in our ‘dance.’ “As if… I haven’t a single idear of what I’m talking about.”

    “You should and you don’t,” I hissed.

    He only laughs a throaty chortle that imitated the expression swimming in his eyes. This Charon was -without a single doubt- a man of far-fetched fantasies and wild narcissism. “Well then, my Lord,” he sneered with dripping humor, “tickle the ribs of my fancy and tell me where is this lieutenant of yours you speak so highly of? Is he the one who plead for your innocence in your absence? Was this famed figure the one that came running for your life when all legal hands favored the act of ending it?”

    “My brothers would never plead such allegations-“

    “-And all for what?” he continued, letting all humor that once was thick and evident exchange suddenly with heated rage and cynicism as his form slithers out from under my pin that was weakening with every flinch of doubt he planted in my mind and soul. “The silly fault in your heart that cries for the lass who is spawn of your putrid and foul excuse for a younger brother.”

    “If your wish for death were so great, you need not speak so much,” I threatened, finding my grip once again that sought to bury his shoulders deep into the soil. “I’ll be more than giddy to end it.”

    “Then take my life,” he challenged, releasing all restriction and protest against my grip as he only encouraged the threat by replacing one of the palms I have been crushing against his shoulder to the bony Adam’s apple of his neck. “But let the words I speak be the only syllables that grant truth through-out this Godforsaken kingdom.”

    “If they will be your last words, chose them wisely.”

    As a growl escapes into a heavy sigh, his shimmering silver eyes gained all authority of my attention. “While your contract bound my security and allegiance to your brother, Zeus, my loyalty has and always will remain with you, Hades. You can scold my mistakes, point out a flaw I’ve granted in this ridiculous attempt to save your life, but Hell is awfully lonely without a friend.”