God's Reborn

Chapter seven: The Underworld

Ash opened his eyes and saw nothing but absolute darkness stood up looked around still nothing, he walked and called for help but no one called back, he walked for what seemed like forever eventually he sat down to rest but then he heard a whisper calling to him, the voice sounded familiar and rejuvenated with energy he dashed with all the might and fury he could muster towards it the more he ran the lighter it became as if h was getting closer to a fire suddenly he came out at the edge of a cliff directly below was a black sea and he could bearly make out a small boat and a path leading to it he started towards but stopped looking at his hand, he had turned back into his fat teenage self no longer was he a tall fit God but a mortal once more. He fell to the ground and cried for a few minutes thinking that he is helpless and he doesn't know where he is, but he thought to himself "I was Hades the body doesn't make the God, I'm still the same person. I wish Kayle and Danny were here" he stood up whipped away the tears and said out loud "they won't come to help me I have to get to them" so he took the path all the way down to the beach and saw on the sand a ferry and next to it an old man in a cloak standing there looking at him.
-Ash "excuse me sir I want to get home can you help me?"
the man said nothing he just pointed out to sea
-Ash "can you take me there?"
the man held out his hand and whispered
-Ferryman "two drachma"
-Ash "I don't have two drachma" the man put his hand back under his cloak "can you at least tell me where I am?"
-Ferryman "hell"
-Ash "you mean I'm in the underworld?" the Ferryman nodded "does that mean I'm dead?" the Ferryman nodded again.
Ash sat on the ground and got upset then sad, then angry but the ferryman just watched he had seen all before all too many times
-Ash "so what now?" the ferryman ignored him "ok I get it because I don't have money then I don't exist to you, well guess what that's my whole bloody life. Allways to poor for anything I didn't exist as far as anyone was concerned. Yeah but at least I had a family then and when they left I had the best friends in the world one might say they were Gods and so was I"
-Ferryman "what is your name?" Ash stood up and was about to say his real name but then he remembered where he was, he was home.
-Ash "I am Hades king of the underworld and you will take across this sea whatever it called"
The ferryman got on the ferry and reached out his arm towards ash and said
-Ferryman "Its called the river Styx and we have been waiting for your return my king" Ash took his hand and then they set off into the river.
The river turned from black to deep purple then to fire red then cave appeared from out of nowhere they went inside, it was dimly lit with green light of which you could not see the source, it became very narrow at one point but then they came to the end there was a great big iron gate with a small patch of land in front of it the Ferryman let Ash off the there.
-Ferryman "my lord before I leave you there is someone else who has missed you a lot" the Ferryman whistled and after a few moments of silence the whole cave rocked as a creature came out of the shadows it was enormous it had three sets of bright red eyes and it was a.. a... a dog with three heads that ran towards Ash he held his palm out hoping that he knew who the dog was, the beast stopped and smelt his palm with all three of its heads and it let out a howl and sat down all the of its heads panting with joy and licking Ash all over. He was right this dog was indeed Cerberus the three-headed dog that guarded the underworld, Hade's pet. Ash turned and thanked the Ferryman as he left.
-Ferryman "just remember my king danger is coming"
Ash was slightly frightened by this but he stocked Cerberus and then Cerberus opened the gate for him by barking at it and Ash pressed on.
He came out on what seemed to be a valley filled with flowers and in the distance, a castle h walked towards it and in no time he was there in front of a golden gate trying to get in
-Ash "hello, is anyone there?" he thought he would try name dropping again "open up it's me Hades King of the underworld" and the gates opened he quite proud of himself.
he walked inside and into the castle into a large marble room filled with nothing. It was completely empty apart from two thrones one large one and one small one, he went and sat on the big one a looked around the room and he waited and waited.
Soon he got fed up and started talking to himself "come on Ash you've come this far" as he said this a voice came from behind him "indeed you have my king" Ash jumped to his feet and looked behind him to see a beautiful red headed woman wearing nothing at all ash turned red turned back and covered his eyes and said.
-Ash "I'm so sorry I didn't mean to.." the woman laughed and
said "it's perfectly fine after all we are married or at least we were. I'll put on something more appropriate" Ash turned and she was now wearing a silver robe.
-Ash "who are you and why am I here?"
-"I am Persephone you wife, I guess you lost your memory. As for why you are here before you died you told death to bring you back here in case you were reborn"
-Ash "why?"
-Persephone "you will stay here for three days then you will come back to life with all of your powers restored, but you would have only been gone a few minutes for your brothers"
-Ash "that's a relief"
-Persephone "come with me" Ash followed her to a small room behind the thrones it was really small extremely small.
-Persephone "to Tartarus" then the room started going down it was a lift or elevator as some prefer to call it. And down they went.
After a short time, they reached Taterus a cold and dark place with rocks that looked like they were made out of cooled magma.
-Ash "so this is Tartarus? I thought it be a bit more fire and lave than this"
-Persephone "it was until the Titans escaped"
-Ash "all of them?"
-Persephone "all but one" they walked for a bit until they reached something that seemed like a prison cell.
-Persephone "hello Oceanus" out of the darkness came Oceanus he seemed thirsty and hungry.
-Oceanus "dam you Olympians, the world will be ours again"
-Ash "tell me where the others are"
-Death "he will never tell you" Ash looked behind him to see the very man who sent him there. He was about to punch him until Persephone stopped him.
-Death "I understand you're mad but they were your orders after all"
-Ash "what are you doing here"
-Death "HAHAHA my job master" Death clearly mocking Ash and he was not happy about that. "it seems that this titan was cursed, cursed to forget everything as soon as he returned here so even if you wanted to get information out of him you couldn't"
-Ash "fantastic, now what do we do?"
-Death "don't look at me, I'm only supposed to bring them here" Ash was starting to think until death interrupted his thought "of course you could look for the memory"
-Ash "what do you mean?"
-Persephone "yes what a great idea Death" Death smiled. He may not look it but he is always in control of a situation, he is very clever never play with Death you will lose.
-Ash "what do you mean look for the memory? He is not a computer" Death laughed at the joke but Persephone seemed lost since she did not know what a computer was.
-Persephone "anyway, a memory is a part of one's soul it cannot be destroyed only stored somewhere, in a soul stone"
-Ash "whats.. erm.. that?"
-Death "a soul stone is a gem that can hold the soul of an animal or person even parts of it. I use one to bring soul down here or take away bad memories from people. By smashing the stone you unleash whatever was in there"
-Ash "cool so where is his soul stone?"
-Death "now that he can tell us" Death gave Oceanus a deadly grin that sent shivers down his spine
-Death "give me one day I'll tell you where it is"

Ash and Persephone went back to Hade's castle to have dinner. There was a huge roasted pig with lamb chops, salads, cakes, all the food you can possibly imagine. Ash was digging in until he noticed Persephone at the other end of the long table, she seemed upset. He thought for a second "what would Danny do?" he lifted his chair and went and sat next to her, she seemed surprised
-Ash "what's wrong?" Persephone blushed
-Persephone "nothing, it's just well. You weren't what I was expecting"
-Ash "well sorry that I" before he could finish she interrupted him
-Persephone "oh no I meant in a good way" she seemed shocked at one point and started panting "IM so sorry interrupted you I didn't know what I was thinking" she fell on her knees in front of him facing the ground. Ash did not know what to do so he patted her on the head, she was shacking.
-Ash "there, there now it's alright I mean sometimes when I'm in a hurry I interrupt people too everyone does it" Persephone looked up confused and sat back down in her chair.
-Persephone "you didn't yell?"
-Ash "was I supposed too?"
-Persephone "no it's just that every time I step out of line you... yell" Ash realized the horrible truth about his previous self.
-Ash "oh dear no I would never"
Persephone smiled with a joy she hadn't felt in years and said "then you truly have changed" she started to cry "do you remember how we met?" Ash shook his head.
-Persephone "A long time ago I was walking in a field, it was a beautiful day it became better when a tall handsome God came to me and offerd me a pomegranet. I had never seen or tasted one before to i cut it and ate it. But little did I know it was cursed locking me here in the underworld forever with him and my life bacame worse. But you brother Zeus made a deal with you to let me go every spring to the flowers and crops and bloom so the people can eat, because Demeter my mother was Goddess of the harvest and she wouldn't let anything grow unless Zeus made you return me to the surface"
Ash with tears in his eyes looked at her and said.
-Ash "look I'm not that man anymore literally if you want I will break the course and let you go forever"
Persephone put her hand on his face and stroked his chubby cheek
-Persephone "until this war is over the world need me here. You will be up there fighting the Titans and I will look after the underworld until you return, my king" then she passionately kissed him.
-Death "Ah lovely I see you two have kissed and made up, as much as I love rom-coms we must pause I've found the soul stone"
-Ash "where is it?"
-Death "it's in the one place you would never think to look"
-Ash "please just tell me"
-Death "it's in my pocket" Ash jumped to him and said excitedly "REALLY?!"
-Death "no, but if you shut up I'll tell you. It's at the top of Mount Everest"
-Ash "right let's go then"
-Death "not so fast the deal was that had to stay here three days and then you will return to Mount Olympus"
-Ash "Death we have no time for this"
-Death "ARGH FINE, but tomorrow morning that torturing really took it out of me"
Ash noticed that Death was covered in blood
-Ash "wait a minute did you?..." Death realizing that he should have washed up and have been more careful with his words rushed towards the door and said as fast he could.
-Death "tomorrow morning then have a nice night with the Misses, good night" and slammed the door behind him. Ash turned to say something to Persephone along the lines of "can you believe him?" but as turned she had disappeared. He looked around and saw her on the top of the staircase robe half way down signaling him to come upstairs with her. Ash panicked and didn't know what to say but his mouth said it for him.
-Ash "I'm just going to finish off the cheesecake" Persephone's face turned bitter as she pulled her robe up and went upstairs. Ash sat down and started eating the cheesecake and start4ed talking to himself.
-Ash "I'll finish the cheesecake? I'll finish the cheesecake? I could have said anything but I said I'll finish the cheesecake. Wow, married life is a drag"