Author Games: Ragnarok

Finals Entries: Persephone

The Fates had given her time to think. But all the time in the world would not be enough for the Persephone's to come to an agreement.

They were in the same body again, the Fates had rejoined them as soon as the moon goddess was defeated. That had taken some readjusting to get used to again. They had become used to being their own person, to having their own control and independent thoughts. Now they were the same person again. The separation between Queen and Springtime was now indiscernible to anyone but themselves.

The body of Persephone stood perfectly still, her eyes resting on the golden scarab in her hand. Inside her mind, a war raged on.

"Of course I'm the one who'll use the wish!" Queen snarled.

"No!" Springtime shouted back. "You hold no love for the mortals. If you have the power, you'll destroy everything!"

"And make the Underworld the most powerful realm, making Hades the most powerful god, and in turn, me the most powerful goddess." Queen answered, Spring could almost see her shrugging her shoulders. "I'm the only reason we survived. This shouldn't even be an argument."

"Well it is, Queenie. I won't let you destroy the earth. What about the innocents? And our mother's realm? If you destroy the earth, if she can't grow flowers, she'll vanish."

"Fine. She never held any love for me anyway. To her I was only a shadowy reminder of Hades' claims on her precious daughter." Queen's voice was bitter. "Yes, let her vanish. Let them all vanish. And let you vanish as well... I'll use the scarab to erase your part of us. Persephone will forever more be the Queen of the Underworld. The goddess of spring will be a memory soon forgotten by the people of earth."

Their body shivered and a tear fell.

"Queenie, stop, this isn't like you. You've always been the strongest of us, fine, but you're not dark like this. You're not evil. Let me have the scarab. Let me do good with the world. Let me-"

"Oh yes, you'll do good, won't you? You'll cover the earth in flowers and butterflies and joy. Put smiles on all the little children's faces, won't you? Or worse, you'll make it so mother and Hades get along so that we don't have to split our time between them anymore."

"And what's wrong with that?" Springtime wailed. "Why would that be a bad thing? What do you have against happiness?"

"Pardon us," One of the Fates spoke in a hushed voice as the three of them entered the room. "We can't help but notice your dilemma. We have come to offer you a solution."

"What could you do? We can't both be happy," Persephone snapped- clearly Queen was in control at the moment.

One of the Fates stepped forward. "We could show you both futures- the future the Spring Goddess chose, and the future the Queen Goddess chose. You can see them both and decide."

"Alright, fine, if only so Springtime will shut up. We accept your offer." Persephone answered. And then her eyes closed and a vision appeared before her eyes.