The Shadow of a Hero

Chapter 18 (last chapter)

Almost instantly I recognize where my dream has taken me, D.O.A. Recording Studios. I used this entrance to the underworld before, but I don't think I've every seen someone I'm close to sitting in one of the chairs. Will sits there, watching the rest of the dead with wide eyes. I want to drag him back to the world of the living with me. To bad the doors of death are closed, I can't save him like I did with Hazel. Besides, when I try to reach out to him my hand passes right through him. I don't think he can even see me. Charon strides through me to further prove how powerless I am in this dream.

"William Solace?" Charon clarifies in his usual bored tone.

"That's me," Will tells the ferry man, his foot tapping a mile a minute.

"Come with me," Caron commands.

Will quickly gets to his feet before realizing  something might be off. "Wait, don't I have to pay a toll or something." Charon rolls his eyes and walks away. Will, the idiot, chases after him to the elevator.

"An exertion has been made since you're a friend of the prince," Charon answers while pausing to open the lift doors.  Will stutters to a stop.

"Prince? You mean Nico?" Will gives a small laugh. "He doesn't think he has any friends." Charon hums and I aware he looks right at me. He ushers will and other waiting spirits in to elevator to the underworld. At the last moment, I join them. 

Unlike the one to Olympus, this ride isn't overly long. By the time the lift shutters to a stop, Charon's expensive, handmade, Italian suit has transformed into the dark billowing robes of the ferryman of the dead. The souls have also changed to fit in with the grim atmosphere. Will's tan skin and golden locks are faded. I never expected a son of Apollo to look so drab, so faded, so dead.

The crowd of specters follow Charon to his boat, but something keeps me from going any farther. "Only the dead are meant to sail on the River Styx, and despite the odds, you're still very much alive," the voice of a goddess reminds me. Though which one is it and what are they doing here?  I hesitate to answer the figure shrouded by the fog and continue to stare at the retreating boat with Will in it. For half a second I think Will looks back, almost like he can see me, but it's gone to soon for it to be anything more than my imagination.

"It's been done before, the living crosses the river more than you would think," I correct the goddess. "I'm sure you know that Lady Hecate." I take a guess. The mist covering her parts to reveal her carrying her two torches. She shrugs in agreement. 

"Do you know why I'm here?" She changes the subject. 

"You're the goddess of witchcraft, ghosts and necromancy. This is your domain too," I rattle off.

"Very good, not many people remember that I have ties to the underworld too, but that's not why I'm talking to you on the banks of the Styx. I'm here because I'm indebted to you," she explains. Wait what?

"Sorry, what?" I can't help blurting out.

"You recently saved my daughter, and I'm sure you'll continue to help her in the future."

"I don't understand. Who did I save? Why would they need my help?" None of this makes sense.

"You'll see," she tells me with a smirk. She crosses her arms over her chest and flashes away before I can figure out more.

I have to squeeze my eyes shut to avoid being over whelmed by her power. When I open them I'm laying on my bed in the Hades cabin.

For awhile I just lay there trying to order me thoughts. The battle against Ultron is finished, but not I have a funeral to plan. I guess I should do that. Even though I know I need to get up, my body refuses to obey. When I finally get it to do what I want it aches all over. Just making to the door is a challenge. Though when I do make it I'm not expecting a zombie bunny to come through my open cabin door.