"Do you have any idea where she could be?" Damari asked anxiously, tapping his foot repeatedly on the floor as Hades paced back and forth behind him; his wife having gone to tend to her dying friend's needs.

"No, young sailor, but I do know the whereabouts of one of her daughters." The winged goddess replied, standing in the shadows so as not to reveal her face in the large hall.

Inhaling slowly, Damari nodded and struggled to contain his frustration. "Which daughter, Iris?"

"Rhode, daughter of Poseidon and wife of Helios."

Chewing on the bottom of his lip, Damari snapped his fingers and looked back at the goddess who was willing to serve as their messenger.

"Is there any way that we could transport her here?"

Hades moved next to Iris and put an arm lightly on her shoulder, ignoring Damari's question and speaking to her instead. "It is all right to bring her, but please make haste, we do not know how much time she has left till the Fates decide."

Iris bowed low, the gentle sweep of her magnificent wings creating a small breeze of wind as she lifted into the air.

"I shall tell her what has happened and perhaps she may alert Amphitrite of what has occurred. If not, she will have to complete the task herself if you are to have any hope."

"I'd do anything to save Alena." Damari uttered as the goddess rose higher, "Please just convince Rhode to come, more than just one life is at stake here."

"That's a load of rubbish filled nonsense." Jesenia sighed, rolling her eyes lazily as she blew tiny hairs out of her face.

Oh what I wouldn't do to rip the hair out of her miserable little head, Damari thought, smothering the desire to harm her and instead looking at a rather annoyed looking Minos who was busy sharpening the point of his already honed blade.

"Aren't you going to do something with her?"

Minos lifted his gaze briefly to Damari before looking at Jesenia and smirking. "Oh, this one will be dealing with something real fiery, real soon. Believe me, we just thought she'd like to see someone special before her imminent demis- I mean departure." he coughed, his inconspicuous laughter making his shoulders shake.

"Very funny." Jesenia sneered, pulling at the adamantine bindings on her wrists before sighing and tugging at them again in angst. "I have an idea, how about we allow the undesirable miscreant of a siren die and we all forget this ever happened and go about our business as it was."

"Fat chance, sweetheart." Minos chuckled, his fingers now trailing over the blade in playful thought. "Now, how about you stop struggling against one of the most durable metals known to the gods and quite your whining. I have to listen to Thanatos all of the time so there is only so much one can take every century."

"I heard that."

Minos threw his hands into the air, his dramatics not going unnoticed by his brother whose jaded gaze met Minos' with uninhibited rage.

"Oh lighten up, brother," Minos bantered, throwing an arm around Thanatos stiff and tall frame, " you'd think someone had died with the way you act all the time."

Hades pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a puff of air before walking over to Minos and smacking him in the back of the head.

"Do learn to kindly shut up when you aren't needed, Minos."

Looking over at Damari, Minos shrugged and rubbed the back of his skull with a frown. "My apologies, but honestly, you're all acting like a bunch of nymphs who've been chased down by the wrong satyr, and I would know. So, I suggest putting all your bothersome acts together and actually helping the siren before she does die on death's threshold."

His small joke caused another laugh to burst out of him while it earned him a malice filled silence from Thanatos until he turned away to head out of the hall.

Damari stared at Hades briefly before heading in the same direction as Thanatos, preparing to turn down the hall towards the room Alena was being kept in when he looked back quickly.

"How long should it take Iris and Rhode to get here?"

Raising his head, Hades froze in place before responding. "If Iris already knows where Rhode is than she should be here within a few minutes, but I wouldn't guarantee Alena's life being spared, young man. Death does not take kindly to those who try to cheat him."

"Which Death are we talking about?" Damari replied, staring after where Thanatos had disappeared. "Because I do not think it would be of Thanatos' nature to take one who still deserves a chance at life.

"And whose decision is that, if I might ask?" Hades intervened, "For some, I believe, they would think quite the opposite of your friend."

The word made Damari's throat grow parched, an unwelcome air surrounding it that made him want to show and even shout to the world that Alena was everything but a friend to him, and that he had been nothing except a miserable and nervous fool in telling her he loved her.

"She is your wife's friend too. How do you think your wife will feel that you allowed her best friend to die?"

"My wife understands her terms here!" Hades shouted, his human form shuddering as his eyes grew dark and hellish flames burned in their depths. "If she had the endurance of the flowers she so carefully tends to I wouldn't have chosen her as my spouse. She is different, and that is what makes her strong enough to let go of those who cannot linger on."

Damari shook his head in exhaustion, defeat causing his shoulders to bend under the pressure as he made his way out of the hall, no longer feeling the need to hold his own in a fight he knew he couldn't win.

Ignoring the feel of the cool stone against his bare feet, Damari rounded the corner in the darkened hallway to reach the quiet room that Persephone had moved Alena to, insisting that allowing her to bleed out would only make her condition worse.

He stepped into the doorway to find a candle lit on a small stand next to Persephone, strange looking bandages littered across the surface as well as a container holding a dark, sludge-like balm.

A quiet moan came from beneath the covers as Persephone rose from her seat and moved closer to the mattress, her hand reaching out to grab ahold of Alena's weak and paler one.

Her skin had turned sallow while her once healthy black hair lay in tangles, sweat falling from her brow as her breathing became even more shallow with each intake.

Persephone turned around at the sound of Damari moving closer into the room, her eyes brimming with sadness.

"How is she looking?" Damari whispered, walking around the frame to sit next to Klari who had situated herself on the opposite side of the bed next to her sister.

"Not good."

Dabbing a wet cloth across Alena's forehead, Persephone tried to make her as comfortable as possible.

"The bullet passed straight through her." she remarked quietly, bringing the blanket up under Alena's chin. "It didn't nick any of her major organs, however, the amount of blood she's already lost is making her more susceptible to a possible fever, and if she does contract one it makes her chances of survival even less likely."

"How do you know it didn't hurt her further?" Damari rumbled, bending down so that he was at her eye level. "She could be in more danger without us even knowing."

"I know. I'm her best friend, not to mention after living in the Underworld for over five centuries I have learned quite a few more tricks than you, sailor, so I suggest you not tempt me to use one of them on you and your overpowering ego."

Klari looked over at Damari before she rose to her feet, her eyes clouded over with worry as she stepped over to Persephone.

"When will I have to return, Milady?"

Persephone gave Klari a quick sweep of her eyes, realizing she was a shade from the Elysian Fields as she chose her words carefully.

"You can spend her last hours with her, if I am correct, despite her wrongs, she will be granted a life in Elysium due to the tragedies she has endured."

Damari's eyes flickered up at Persephone's tight response. "What tragedies?"

Her fingers wove themselves together as she regarded him closely, contemplating whether she should speak or not.

Seeing the concern displayed on his face, she cleared her throat. "My mother.. she.. she had ways of picking her guards.. ways that went under the radar of many of the gods.. even Zeus himself."

"What were her methods?"

Persephone visibly flinched. "She would steal the maidens away from their families with the aid of Poseidon's Nereids, kidnapping them from the coasts and wiping their memories of all family contact. That's when the torture started."

"What kind of torture?" Damari whispered, staring Persephone down. "How could you allow such a thing to happen?"

"My mother isn't one to be trifled with," Persephone spat, nose flaring, "as I am sure Alena already knows. I have heard of that terrible day through other gods, but it is not what I speak of now. Instead, it was a cruel process that Mother would make in order to see whether she had a durable guard at hand, one that wouldn't be swayed easily when confronted with pain."

"You still haven't answered my question."

Her glare silenced him as he focused on putting as much strength as he could into Alena without draining himself too much, listening quietly if only to hear of what his Alena had suffered so that he could make Demeter pay in the end.

"She would have the candidates put through intense training to the point of unbearable exhaustion. No food or water was given until they were able to complete their training and even then they were measly scraps. Some did not make it, they were broken and that was what my mother wished to sort out, anyone that wasn't worthy. However, one of the maidens was taken by mistake. Klari Cali wasn't meant to be taken, she was too kind and too gentle for my mother's tasks and if she had survived the training, she was to be returned."

"Wait a moment." Damari intervened, holding his hand up to halt her. "Do you mean to say that the only reason Klari died, the reason that Alena blames herself for not being able to protect her little sister, was because your mother kidnapped the wrong person?"

"Yes," she uttered quietly, "that is exactly what I'm saying. You see, Alena traded herself for her sister's freedom, but she wasn't told of her sister's death until she arrived and by then... Mother thought it best to input her instead into the program."

"So she didn't remember she had come for her sister then?"

Persephone's wince couldn't be hidden even if she wanted to. "She didn't remember she even had a sister, let alone a family."

"You do realize how sadistic and twisted that is don't you?" he asserted, his eyes pinched together as he tried to think of any way not to allow his anger to detonate.

"Yes, but--"

"Your Majesty!"

A short and blaring voice called from the hall, revealing a middle aged shade that stood in the doorway with his hands worrying at the hem of his time worn shirt.

Closing her eyes briefly before opening them again with a fake smile on her face, Persephone turned to the man.

"Yes? What is it?"

"The healer is here, she said she must hurry because there isn't much time."

Persephone nodded her head and looked towards the bed where Alena's breathing had grown more labored.

"Bring her in."

The man bowed. "Right away, Your Majesty."

Damari continued to stare at Alena as her head started to jerk, once to the right and then back to her previous position, a low moan erupting from her throat as she began to thrash back and forth.

"Klari.." she called out, her hand swiveling out of Damari's grip as she was caught in the throws of a night terror.

"Move aside, you buffoons!" An obnoxiously loud voice called out just as Rhode burst through the door, her hair in tendrils around her face as she hurried into the room with a bag in hand.

"I swear, there is never room for good security these days. You really ought to look into those men outside, Persephone, because they do not know how to treat a proper woman."

Damari pushed back from the chair as Rhode took his place, slamming her bag on the table and smoothing her fingers over Alena's perspiration covered forehead; removing a bowl of water similar to that found in Amphitrite's castle along with the same box she had used in Damari and Alena's bonding ceremony.

"What're you doing?" Damari asked, peering over Rhode's shoulder as she removed a long and thorny stemmed rose, its pristinely kept petals shining brightly in the darkness that shrouded the Underworld's murky interior.

"Saving the love of your life, Damari, so if you would be so kind, I'd appreciate it if you left."

"Left?"

Rhode's eyes shot up to his before looking back down to the work at hand. "Did I stutter? I have a woman to save here and I don't need a bumbling moron getting in the way of my miracle working! So go home and save yourself the worry."

Damari's jaw dropped at Rhode as the bond in his wrist twisted in agony, drawing a hiss from his mouth as he watched as the rose petals were carefully plucked from the flower and placed into the water, taking on a shimmering gold as they touched the surface.

"Go home?"

"I'm starting to think you have horrible hearing." Rhode replied, taking out a crystal rod and using it to mix the contents of the bowl meticulously.

"I'm not going home." Damari stated, crossing his arms defiantly. "If you think I'm just going to abandon Alena like this, you thought wrong, because I'm not leaving her side without making sure she's okay."

"I thought you'd say that." Rhode answered, dipping one of the bandages in the mysterious solution and pulling back the blankets wrapped around Alena's sweaty form so that she could place the dressings on the bullet wound.

Scoffing, Damari looked over at Persephone and then back to Rhode. "Exactly, so I'm not leaving."

"Oh, yes you are."

He lifted an eyebrow in challenge. "Oh really?"

A light laugh escaped Rhode. "Yes, in fact I've already made arrangements for you to return home as soon as possible."

"I'd like to see you try."

Alena let out a whimper as the bindings came in contact with her skin, making her struggle to squirm away from the offensive material.

"You're hurting her!" Damari roared, seizing Rhode's hand swiftly and none too harshly.

"This is exactly what I'm talking about." she sighed. "Men, I tell you," she declared with another laugh, looking at someone behind Damari's shoulder, "it probably has to do with the raging testosterone, always a major factor to them being egomaniacs. Now, if you'd please?"

A hand clamped down on Damari's shoulder before he could say a word, causing him to turn around and stare up into the tall, lithe physique that was Thanatos.

"What do you think you're doing?" Damari howled, the angel of death's fingers digging deeper into his shoulder at his words. "You can't do this! She needs me!"

"Or maybe you need her, Damari." Rhode spoke calmly, eyeing him skeptically while moving closer to Alena. "Did you ever think about that?"

His silence was answer enough as Thanatos clamped his iron-like hold on Damari's other shoulder. "I'd hold tight."

The last look Damari had of Alena was her small and fragile frame being swallowed up by the pain over taking every muscle in her body until a pitiful cry issued from her throat.

But as he felt himself being lifted from the floor and away from her quaking form he heard himself saying the three words that he thought he would never utter in his lifetime.

"I love you."

~*~*~*~*~