A Heart For Death

Oraios Greek Verse

Summary: Persephone is the cold hearted queen of the underworld. That is what the other gods believe because of Zeus. Due to certain evil acts against mortals, she becomes chained to the underworld and unable to leave. After her punishment is finally laxed she's able to mingle among mortals again, and when she meets the god of spring Hades both of their worlds get turned upside down.

Author's Note: There will be noticeable differences between this and what is the original Greek verse. This story is most suitable for those sixteen and older. Reader discretion is advised.

Book One: "A Heart For Death"

Part One

"We have looked the other way before sister."

"Then do it once more!"

"Too many times before! We simply cannot continue to do so every time you lose control of yourself!"

"I refuse to be seen as the enemy in this situation."

"You are the enemy Persephone! You're the goddess of the underworld, not death itself. You cannot just commit these acts of wrath and kill mortals at your every whim! There are consequences for it."

"It was not on a whim! It has never been on a whim! They are to blame, so why must I be the one who suffers?!"

"They are not the ones with a history of manslaughter because they lost their temper! Last time it was half of the human population Persephone. Half. I'm afraid you are far too volatile to be among the mortals again."

"What? You...you can't mean that. Poseidon?"

"Zeus does bring up a good point. I mean...you do tend to fly off the handle pretty often, and you're not really nice about it either. I hate to say it, but you take a lot after Kronos."

As soon as the words left his lips Zeus elbowed him rather hard, and Poseidon responded in kind. "Oww! Holy mother of Gaia that fucking hurt! You practically broke my arm!"

"I told you not to make that comment."

"So you practically break my damn arm?!"

When Zeus gestured Poseidon back to Persephone, Poseidon's face fell considerably. Her fingers curled tightly into her palms and her shoulders began to tremble. She bit into her lower lip with enough force to break the skin.

"Hey, Perse, y-you know I didn't really mean it like that..."

Persephone spun on a heel, putting her back to her brothers. "Do what you will, then let me know what my punishment is when you finish." What started off as a quick walk turned into a sprint which became a run for her life out of the otherwise empty ivory marble courtroom. As the door slammed shut behind her Zeus sighed, rubbing the back of his head.

"You're an idiot sometimes," he told Poseidon while crossing his arms. "How could you honestly tell her that she takes so much after the monster who swallowed both of you whole? Don't you think you should be more supportive?"

"Wait, me?! You were the one willing to punish her and I'm supposed to be more supportive?!"

"I'm not the one who told her she's just like Kronos."

"That was pretty harsh of you Poseidon." Hera spoke up from the double entry doorway. Her left arm lifted along the doorframe above her head, her slender body dressed in a skin tight glittering gold mermaid gown that pressed her large breasts firmly against each other, creating a deep cleavage. "I never took you for the type to be that cruel."

"I-I didn't mean to come off as cruel! I just thought-"

"No you didn't." Zeus corrected him.

Poseidon groaned with his palm pressed to his face. "I meant to! Doesn't that count for something?"

"Not even in Tartarus little guppy," Hera answered.

"Don't call me guppy! I'm the king of the sea, dammit!"

"Then how about acting like one?" Zeus teased him with Hera standing beside him.

After growling under his breath the god of the sea scoffed. "Let's just get back to the business at hand. What are we going to do about Perse? We can't just exile her to Tartarus."

Zeus sighed in contemplation. "As bad as her actions were, even I can't bring myself to do that to her. Still, she must learn that there are repricusions for when she throws tantrums like that. It took a long time for the number of prayers and offerings to return to normal when she took out half of the human populace, and we let that go."

"Have you ever even asked Persephone why she lost control of herself?" Hera asked while leaning against Zeus.

He quickly gave a firm shake of his head. "There is no reason to obliterate half of the mortal race." Hera sighed in disappointment. "Of course you'd say that," she muttered under her breath.

"So Zeus, what's the verdict?" Poseidon ran a hand through his honey highlighted auburn hair.

Zeus stayed silent for a few moments of thought. "We cannot afford to be gentle with her or she will not learn. I believe the Binding Chains of Fates curse would be most suitable."

Both Poseidon and Hera exchanged a knowing glance with each other. "How long do you think it'll be before you have the curse lifted?" Poseidon probed.

"That depends on Persephone. Once she learns to control her temper tantrums then the curse will be lifted."

Hera and Poseidon exchanged another knowing look with each other. They knew they would not be seeing Persephone again for quite a while...

###

The Binding Chains of Fates curse bestowed the cursed individual with glistening golden chains that latched onto their neck, wrists, ankles, and waist. While otherwise invisible, the chains can illuminate the darkest parts of Tartarus when the one cursed tries to leave the area they are bound to, and the brighter they glow they more pain they cause. No amount of screaming or struggling could reduce the pain, and the further away the one who is cursed moves away from their bound location the more intense the pain becomes until it is truly unbearable.

For eighteen hundred years the curse had kept Persephone grounded to the underworld alone with only very rare visits from her family. She had her companion Cerberus, her three headed puppy who helped her maintain her sanity in her blackened deafening loneliness. Since Cerberus was her only company as well as the underworld guardian she began to collect cats to help lead lost souls to the underworld for her.

Wearing a black velvet slender dress with a modest sweetheart collar that subtly curled around her hips and legs and detached three quarter sleeves, Persephone stood on a black cliff that overlooked the pits of hell where the souls were led. The only that able to draw her attention away from her work was the bellowing booming bark from Cerberus at her front door.

"Let them in," she grumbled, sliding her feather pen behind her left ear. She half wondered if it Zeus or Poseidon wanting to make more comments about how much like their father she was, or Thanatos trying to win her over again.

"Perse! Would you please tell Cerberus to stop doing this every damn time I come to visit you?!" Yelled Zeus as he stormed toward her with three puppy jaws locked onto his right shin. "He left scars last time!"

Persephone shrugged at him. "He doesn't like you." She leaned down to pick up the three headed pup who happily released the shin in order to shower her with affectionate licks. "Good boy," she cooed at the pup with what was still a solemn expression.

Zeus' brows scrunched together rather unhappily. "I will take that dog away so fast."

All three heads glared and growled at the king of the gods. "I hope you never wonder why he doesn't like you when you make comments like that." She let Cerberus jump down from her arms before she crossed them. "What do you want Zeus? Neither of your kids have an event or birthday, and I'm not bringing a dead soul back to life for you again."

He tried to suppress an irritable growl while tightly crossing his arms over his dark blue tuxedo. He cleared his throat. "I only did that once," he muttered. "So...I noticed that it's been about six hundred years or so since your last tantrum."

"They're not tantrums, but sure, continue."

He sucked in a deep breath. "Well, it has been a while, and I wanted to say that I'm proud of you."

She stared at him rather blankly for a few long seconds. "Good bye Zeus."

"I wasn't finished."

"Don't let Cerberus bite your ass on the way out."

"I said I wasn't finished, dammit!" Zeus thundered.

"Then tell me what you want or leave! I'm not exactly the type who has frequent company, or did you forget about that when you cursed me to never leave the underworld?!"

"Fates dammit Persephone! I'm trying to give you good news!"

"You wouldn't know good news even if it had a huge bust and slapped you across the face begging you to sleep with it," Persephone grumbled in irritation.

"Urgh..." Zeus pressed his large palm to his face. "I came here to tell you that the curse will be laxed. You can move outside the underworld now."

"Laxed?" The back of her jaw began to clench. "Laxed, but not removed."

He shook his head. "Not yet, no. You've done well for a while, and if you prove that you can remain stable around the mortals then it will be completely lifted."

"Get out Zeus." Her lips barely moved, yet her tone was so cold her breath became a white frozen cloud.

Zeus' left brow lifted in confusion. "Why are you so upset? This is good news Persephone."

SShe immediately turned away from him. "I said get out, and I meant what I said. Now leave."

"Dammit Persephone, there's no pleasing you! I thought you'd learned a lesson by now and would be rather happy about the laxed punishment, or do you just not care anymore? Is that it?"

"I don't care?!" Persephone yelled into the darkness ahead of her that swallowed the echoes. Her hands balled into tight trembling fists at her sides. "You...you...you clueless thunder juggling dickhead!"

"Watch it Persephone," growled Zeus with a piercing glare into the back of her head.

"How could you say that I don't care when you're the one who never cared?!"

"You're not making any sense! You're my sister, of course I care!"

"No you don't! If you cared then you wouldn't have cursed me here to begin with! You never cared! Now get out! I don't want your company right now."

Upset and a little hurt, Zeus sighed quietly and turned to leave her alone as she requested. Cerberus chased and barked after him until the god disappeared. Once at home inside his three story porcelain white mansion like domain, he practically ripped off his tuxedo jacket and thre it over the back of a large leather couch with a heavy sigh.

"Daddy!"

From down the hall around the corner ran a toddler who looked to be of no more than eight years old. With the young boy's arms lifted above his head he eagerly ran toward Zeus who welcomed the boy with equally open arms, lifting him into the air with a spin. "Hey Herakles! How's my big guy?"

Herakles smiled widely in response, "So how did it go with Persephone?" Zeus looked up at Hera and sighed, setting Herakles on his feet. "Why don't you go play with your big sister Hebe while mommy and daddy have a talk?"

While Herakles gave a nod and ran off to play, Zeus rubbed the back of his neck. "Not great. I thought she would be happy about the laxed punishment, but..." He took a deep breath. "It just ended up pissing her off."

"I'm not surprised." Hera crossed her arms under her chest, wearing a white dress with a sweetheart collar, detached sleeves, and a slit running down her left leg from her hip. "I figured she wouldn't be very happy about it."

"And how would you know that?"

"Because I'm a woman. I also have common sense."

Zeus' left eye twitched a bit and Hera chuckled with a disappointed shake of her head. "Everyone knows your relationship with Persephone is highly strained. It is the least kept secret in Olympus."

"And that's my fault?"

"Good Gaia, you are as dense as Poseidon."

"What the hell is this; push Zeus' buttons day?"

"How can you blame her? She didn't even get a fair trial; you just sentenced her to an indefinite time of being cursed, and left her alone in the underworld for over eighteen hundred years without even getting her side of what happened, and you don't think any of that is your fault in the slightest?"

"Why are you taking her side? I did what I had to in order to fix things. She had ten outbursts in the last millennia alone. She's done enough damage to wipe out humanity three times over, which forces us into a recession until the numbers go back to normal and we no longer have to struggle. Would you rather have all of Olympus struggle for centuries because she can't keep herself under control?"

You never once even asked her why she lost control!"

"It doesn't matter why! There was no war, no famine, no plague; there was...no...reason!"

"How can you say that about your own sister?!" Hera demanded, her tone growing in volume and rage.

"I know she's my sister, but she can't just get away with everything!"

"Fates dammit Zeus! You're really pissing me off with your double standard way of treating her over how you treat everyone else! Fix it!!"

"How the hell do you expect me to do that?!"

"Mend your relationship with her!"

"How?!"

"Figure it out! If you don't, then so help me Zeus you will never bust another nut nor fondle another breast for the rest of your immortal life!"

"Y...you wouldn't..." the mighty Zeus stuttered.

"Are you sure that's a theory you're willing to risk?" Hera asked, purposely pressing her breasts together in a rather sexual manner. "You know I know how to prevent you from ever getting off again, and that I have plenty of things to do to keep me busy besides fucking you."

Zeus gulped a little apprehensively at the thought.

"If you ever want to get off with anyone ever again, you'll fix it." Hera declare glaring daggers at him.

"H-how would you even be able to do that?!"

"I'm the queen of the gods Zeus. I have my ways that not even you never knew about. Now then, are you sure you still want to test your little theory, or are you finally going to grow up and mend some bridges?"

Zeus sighed in defeat with slumped shoulders. "Fine, I'll go talk to Perse and see if we can maybe clear things up."

"The strike will continue until everything is cleared. There will not be a maybe involved."

"Fuck me," Zeus muttered in exasperation.

"Oh you've got a long while before that happens again. This isn't going to be easy or fast, so good luck." Hera waived him off with a knowing smile.

"I hate everything," Zeus grumbled as he trudged back out the front door.