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bellamyroselia · 3 years

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Who could replace Hades as the new big bad? Overly long essay

Like pretty much everyone else in this fandom, I love Hades. Guy’s your typical pure evil villain with a personality larger than life itself and he’s having so much fun with it that it’s contagious. Every time he pops up, I’m delighted to see him. It’s so fun to see him do his shtick and have the time of his life with it, which also makes beating him feel so great. After all the crap he has put the main cast through, it’s so satisfying to blast him into the face because for a moment that confidence finally breaks and once it's all over, people cheer because they don’t have to live in horrible fear for a while at least. This characterization is mostly rooted on the sheer fear factor Hades had in the eyes of ancient people - even in civilizations which have rather chipper afterlife people tended to prefer living over dying, and this of course meant that they were absolutely terrified of the Underworld deities. Hades was mostly addressed by epithets in texts because people thought that if they called him by his name, they were drawing his attention and the last thing a sane person wants is the attention of an powerful god who has power over the dead. So if a god has this level of appeal, be it positive or negative, you may not even need excessive amount of mythological content to create a frame for a character!

This being said, I don’t believe his chances of coming back are as the big bad of a next game are high - that is unless we have to wait another 15-20 years to get a new game, but I’d like to be more hopeful than that. So if he isn’t coming back, who could possibly replace him as the new big bad of Kid Icarus? It’s not like the writers could ever run out of source material because there’s so many monsters to deal with and every god is more or less morally grey, meaning that there’s many possibilities for new bad guys regardless of the scale.

This took a lot longer than I originally expected and I’m sorry for that - there’s no worse idea than to jump into a rabbit hole and bringing a shovel with you because things will quickly spiral out of control into new interesting directions. The more info I gathered, the more interested I was on looking more into it and sometimes it even spiraled out of mythology into history and philosophy. If you’re interested on some specific reasons for why this took so long, here’s few: myths are long and there’s many different versions of them, epics are even longer, Peloponnese people couldn’t be bothered to write their own things down so I had to look what travelers wrote down, it takes Plato way too long to get into the point, Herodotus never gets into the point, someone translated the term metic as resident alien of all things which I thought was the funniest thing ever and Ludovisi Ares is really pretty.

This is the point where I give the obligatory warnings, so here - since I'm discussing mythology here, it's inevitable that there's some talk about violence and death. I'm not going to linger on the gruesome details, but know that it's there. At couple points this will spiral into a full-on history lesson because I thought that understanding the historical context was important regarding the topic I was discussing. Also this is a one long essay - and by long, I mean really, really long. If you want to read it all at one sitting, prepare some time for yourself. But with that all out of the way, let’s jump straight into the discussion on who could be the next possible big bad, shall we?

I’m limiting this mostly to the main 12 Olympians with the addition of some other big names to keep things simple - while some smaller mythological figures such as Arachne or Arke would work fantastically as villains, they don’t have that recognition or presentation the more well known characters have. We’re trying to speculate who could fill Hades’ shoes as the new main bad guy here after all, not who we could add on the list of great yet less significant antagonists like Medusa, Pandora and Thanatos. I’m excluding Zeus, Athena, Hephaestus and Demeter from this list for rather obvious reasons - Zeus because the the guy seems to be MIA for good so Palutena could rule the place, Athena and Hephaestus because Palutena and Dyntos practically are them and Demeter because Viridi pretty much is Mycenaean Demeter on steroids in a package way too small to contain all that anger within. I also don’t think her relationship with Pit and Palutena will change drastically, so she’s sitting comfortably on her friendenemy-zone.

As for already existing characters, I don’t think anyone of them could snatch the title of the big bad. Viridi is off the competition for already mentioned reasons and I don’t see anyone from Forces of Nature defecting to become the new main villain. Pyrrhon is either gone for good or went back to whatever is this world’s equivalent of Egypt to lick his wounds, so I don’t think he’s coming back anytime soon - and if he’s coming, I don’t think he’s coming back as a main bad guy since he really wasn’t one to begin with. Thanatos’ only major mythological appearance is the myth of Sisyphus capturing death which doesn’t exactly strike confidence on his abilities in general and if that version of Thanatos couldn’t do his job correctly when meeting one guy too stubborn to die, do you really think that I believe our Thanatos has any chances of becoming the new big bad? Bringing back Medusa would be beating a dead horse at this point unless they really twist the formula and I don’t think that’s going to happen, so Medusa is off the competition. Pandora wasn’t all that big of a threat to begin with, so if she comes back she most likely stays that way. So it’s definitely going to be a new character, but who could it be?

As for who for sure can’t replace Hades as the new main bad, it’s Hestia. She probably has the lowest chance of any big Greek god to even appear in a possible future Kid Icarus game simply because there’s next to no material of her and that’s for a good reason. She was the goddess of hearth, domesticity, family, home and state. Most of these were and still are considered private, so that explains why there’s very little material of Hestia actually doing anything - we don’t write epic poetry about cleaning the house, making a macaroni casserole for dinner or going to bathroom and so didn’t the ancient people. With Hestia, you’re dealing with the bare bones of a character because she’s so passive and non-confrontational figure. It would be hard to make her a central figure in any kind of plot, especially for a one centered around action, so she’s out.

Hermes is also a figure I don’t think would work as a big bad or as an antagonist in general and I don’t really have any concrete reasons for why I think so. I just feel that he would be unfit for the role. He’s a trickster who started his shenanigans on the day he was born and the rest is mythology - by cunning escapades and underdog tactics he became the messenger of gods and from that point onward he kept collecting even more jobs such as becoming the god of merchants, shepherds and thieves, being a psychopomp, guiding dreams and helping heroes whenever he felt like it. He has a lot of going on but he’s always regarded as someone who knows all the tricks and isn’t afraid to use them, not all bad for a guy whose name was derived from a word meaning a pile of rocks.

As for why I think Hermes would make an terrible antagonist is mostly because of his status as the god of thieves and how it’s pretty much the easiest way to turn him into an antagonist. The thing here is that I just can’t stand antagonists whose main thing is that they’re amazing thieves and/or tricksters in games. While I think they can be enjoyable in other forms of media if they’re written on a smart way, in games this is almost never the case because gameplay and story don’t always match perfectly and writers need to use cheap tactics to make the character work - and by cheap I mean either A.I stands for artificial incompetence and the character is simply bad at being a thief/trickster despite all the characters and lore saying otherwise or that the game just starts cheating against the player to make them feel dumb even though they did nothing wrong. Thieves and tricksters are just really hard to balance in a game when it’s not the player character doing the deceiving. That perfect sweet spot for a great character is too goddamn tiny and if the thief/trickster isn’t exactly in there, you have an annoying character either because they’re incompetent at their job or because computer is a cheating bastard. So while there’s many enjoyable antagonists who share traits with Hermes, combine them all into a one character with the problems I already mentioned and most of the time you have a figure everybody hates due to how infuriating they’re to deal with. We’re trying to make people interested of going on and seeing what happens next here, not trying to annoy them to the point where they can just drop the game and never pick it up again. As for another reason I don’t think Hermes would work all that well as an antagonist is because his whole shtick is that despite his incredible powers, he still manages to be an underdog. Needless to say, the way underdogs are represented in media is vastly different from the way major antagonists are and while it can work, it’s hard to pull off. And of course there’s the thing of Hermes being portrayed almost always as a positive figure in myths, meaning that I and many others have a hard time imagining him as a bad guy. At his most evil we imagine Hermes doing stuff such as saying to his nephew that grandpa equals target practice, not anything that could threaten the world. Though if Hermes is included into the cast of a future game, I can image him having a theme that sounds similar to the BW rival theme for some reason. It has that I’m a one chipper fella but I’m also extremely busy right now so goodbye for a moment, see you soon-energy in it that I associate with Hermes.

As for what kind of role Hermes could be playing, he could work rather well as a quick cameo like Poseidon was in KI:U, where he offers help in some form. If one wants to go deeper into it, he could possibly run some service since he was the god of merchants and trade as well - though if one want to involve the fact of him being the god of thieves in addition to previously mentioned things, make him an occasional scammer because that’s what one would expect from a trickster. Or have him as a boss in a training gauntlet. Works either way.

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If Artemis was introduced into the series, I don’t think she would be antagonistic. I can totally see her having a cold personality and her being bit of a hard person to deal with, but I don’t see her being actively malicious character - only example of Artemis being overly cruel towards figures KI-characters seem to be based on would be her sending the Calydonian boar to cause chaos in Calydon. It’s interesting if you believe Magnus and Gaol are at least partially inspired by Meleager and Atalanta like I do, but I don’t think it’s enough to make Artemis an antagonist, much less the main villain so she’s off the competition. Not to say she isn't wrathful, I looked into it and her wrath far outnumbers her blessings, though it's rather messy at times and some of them even can't co-exist the ones about Orion and Callisto definitely can't but her wrath is divorced from the main KI-cast. You'd have to create new characters to excuse it and KI already has a rather large cast, so I don't think it would be all that wise to create new characters just for the sake of goddess cursing them for a plot line that's resolved in couple chapters. Maybe she’s just a cameo or possibly a boss in a training gauntlet.

Apollo would be an antagonist. I just don’t see any other way how he could be introduced into the series. He has potential to be a charismatic, funny and mostly harmless antagonist who isn’t there to cause any trouble, he just really hates Pit and only Pit. But why would he hate Pit? It’s not like the mythological Apollo dislikes Icarus or Perseus and that’s indeed true, but there’s one more thing. For a god who we associate with a celestial body mostly made out of hydrogen and helium, Apollo has extremely high levels of sodium chloride within him - which is to say that he has been salty starting from the moment Hermes robbed him that one time and that lake of salt inside him has only become larger ever since. That salt is directed at people he dislikes and while he doesn’t dislike Icarus or Perseus because he never met either of them, guess who he does dislike? Angel-like gods, or just Eros to be more specific.

The story goes that Apollo’s enormous ego took the better of him one day and so he started to mock his nephew for what he thought was mediocre use of the bow and arrow. Insulted Eros decided that Apollo had officially lost his uncle-license which led him to curse Apollo to have the worst love life imaginable, starting with Daphne. And as we all know Cupid is Roman version of Eros and Pit is named after Cupid, so this was hatred made in heaven and it would be disappointing to not use the opportunity when it has been given to us on a golden platter. And you don’t even have to come up with an detailed and intriguing story to explain why Apollo hates him - something could’ve very well happened during the three years Pit’s consciousness was in that ring. His body may have ruined Apollo’s chances to hit it off with people because it was destroying their cities or something similar. Or just leave it as a noodle incident that’s referenced multiple times, everyone wonders what the heck actually happened but only Apollo knows, refusing to tell the story because he just assumes that everyone already knows it and they’re just messing with him by pretending to not know. Either way, Apollo should be an antagonist if he’s featured in a sequel. Not a villain, definitely not the big bad but fun antagonist to deal with.

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This is something that most of you probably already know or at least you would know if you’ve actually read something other than Ovid’s Metamorphoses, or as I like to call it Jaded man screams at Emperor Augustus because apparently telling the Roman citizens to go all out on every monument the prude ever built clearly wasn’t enough, please tell me you have but Medusa isn’t an only child. She’s in fact one of Phorcys and Ceto’s seven children, both of them being somewhat monstrous primordial ocean deities - Phorcys has been described as a merman with red skin and crab claws, Ceto’s name in the other hand just literally means sea monster. Besides Medusa and the two other gorgons Stheno and Euryale, the list of their children includes the graeae sisters, serpentine dragon Ladon and Echidna, which is quite a lot of snake monsters for two deities who themselves don’t have any snake traits. There’s a lot of potential in this group but ideas of any of them becoming the new big bad end up falling apart because just like Medusa, they’re all rather bland characters like you’d expect from a mythological monster. They’re less like characters and more like plot devices that the hero needs to deal with. The only two members of this family besides Medusa who actually get to do something of importance are Ladon and Echidna and even those acts aren’t all that interesting. Echidna gets to have her many monstrous children with Typhon and then she’s apparently is killed by Argus, Hera’s servant-giant while sleeping on a cave just like her sister. Ladon guarded the garden of Hesperides which was well known for its golden apples and he doesn’t get to die with much dignity either, since Heracles just shoots him in the back and literally the next day other Argonauts find nymphs looking at his still twitching body. Alternatively Heracles just tricks Titan Atlas to do all the apple picking, which leaves Ladon alive.

Possibly one of the biggest problems writers have to deal with is setting. Ladon is very strictly tied into the garden setting and Echidna was cave dweller who never left her home, so writers would have to come with rather specific situations for them to appear. Of course if one wants to be lazy, Underworld could possibly serve as their home. It could very well house caves big enough to house a snake monster and Greek Underworld does have Elysium, which is basically Paradise and it could very well also function as a garden. But honestly even with the right setting, I don’t think either of them would make all that interesting big bads. They would definitely work fantastically as large-scale villains, but they don’t really have that much intimidation factor all things considered - you can blame Argus and Heracles for that.

But I’m not done with this family yet as there’s one character connected to them who’s probably the most feared monster of all Greco-Roman mythology and that’s Typhon, Echidna’s mate. He’s essentially an ancient Greek equivalent of a kaiju, more a destructive force of nature than a monster and everyone fears him - and by everyone, I mean everyone. There’s couple of versions of what happens but the most popular one goes that when the gods saw him, their first instinct was to shapeshift into animals and flee into Egypt. Those who did stay behind such as Hades were said to cover in fear in their homes while Typhon ravaged the land. Zeus tried to fight him but when he went for the kill, Typhon caught him and cut off his sinews, then threw him into a cave under the watch of another snake monster Delphyne. This didn’t stop Hermes and Pan from getting the sinews back and saving Zeus, and once his strength has been restored he and Typhon fought once again. Zeus eventually wearied Typhon down and then either casted him down into Tartarus or dropped a mountain on top of him, that being Mount Etna.

He could work very well as a big bad, problem here are just how high the stakes need to be for him to work. He’d had to be the ultimate villain if that was the case, the stakes need to be higher than they were with Hades. And considering how Hades was pretty much your typical pure evil villain causing chaos, what separates Typhon from him? Just some more chaos and no wisecracking dialogue because everyone is too scared to talk? He comes off as way too similar to Hades without all the fun personality. Maybe if KI:U became a KI:U-trilogy he could work as the ultimate big bad of the last game, but I got to say no otherwise. The bar for making him work is already sky-high due to how destructive he is and we don’t want to repeat the plot of Uprising here. So while he definitely can work, maybe save him for later.

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Hera and Poseidon both have potential to be serious antagonistic forces, but I don’t think they have it to be main villains. Hera simply fits the bill because most of the times she’s the antagonistic force actively trying to make people’s lives worse, all because she can’t direct her anger at correct people. Some times she’s just blatantly evil, like how she imprisoned her own daughter Eileithyia or you may better know her as Lucina to prevent the birth of Artemis and Apollo or how she tricked her pregnant great-granddaughter into disintegrating herself Semele is her great-granddaughter by the way. As for examples of Hera being wrathful which don’t involve Zeus being horny, she was said to be the one who sent Sphinx to Thebes, no reason given why or if there’s one, I couldn’t find it. Works either way.

Because she might as well be the personification of divine wrath, it’s pretty easy to see why one would think she would make a great villain. However that wrath also gives us a big problem, it being that her evil escapades are mostly rooted on anger and spite - while wrath is a good driving force for a villain, it needs more to work. With Hades, he does evil things for fun and is having a blast while doing it. Hera on the other hand just rages and most of the times it’s because of Zeus, who seems to be out of the picture. She’s not there to have fun and when you add her general lack of charisma on the top, you don’t end up with the most endearing character. While wrath can serve as a character motivation, it can become stale very quickly and this means that unless the story regarding villainy her is short (as in solved in 1-3 chapters) it starts to feel like dragging. I overall think that Hera does have very low chances to appear in general, but if she does appear as an antagonist she should preferably be a minor one in the same way Viridi was. You know the meme of what makes villain a supervillain and the answer is presentation? Hera doesn’t have that presentation. Writers can certainly just give her that which is what they did with Hades whose mythological counterpart was more or less a basement dweller, but why go trough all that trouble when there’s so many better candidates to work with?

On to Poseidon, who’s an important figure in the founding myth of Athens - it’s honestly quite odd how it’s never mentioned in any shape or form in KI:U despite Palutena being based on Athena. But then again, considering how much “care” this series put on the names of its cities and towns, this being ignored doesn’t really surprise me even if it does disappoint. He was a really big deal during the Mycenaean period, besides being the god of ocean he was also seen as the head god and the ruler of the Underworld. Then the Late Bronze Age collapse happened and Poseidon was nerfed in the lack of better words - during the Dark Age, Zeus became the new head god and Hades popped seemingly out of nowhere, taking over Poseidon’s role as the god ruling the Underworld. On the other news Poseidon’s antagonistic potential is somewhat dwarfed by the fact that most of his escapades involve banging and they don’t really feature any figures the main cast of KI seem to be based on. It’s annoying because he does so much but because it’s mostly banging people and either helping or bullying very specific heroes, it’s just not something that’s all that relevant in the context of KI. But there’s couple myths and stories that would make him an easy bad guy, first one is that of Atlantis - and we’re going to jump straight to the source material because on it’s core, it’s technically just another tale of Athena and Poseidon having a conflict. Fish people under the sea is fun as well, but by using the source directly it gives us the most potential.

So Plato tells in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias that when Athenian statesman Solon visited Egypt, he found some interesting records about certain events during 10th millennium BCE and translated them into Greek. Only thing here that’s true is Solon visiting Egypt, everything else was made up Plato - if you need more proof, know that 10th millennium BCE was during the stone age for context, Britain wasn’t sharing a land border with just France, but also with Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and Denmark during this time. It was that far into the past. As for the actual story, it begins by gods choosing lots of land for themselves and Poseidon chooses Atlantis. He then falls in love with a mortal woman Cleito, builds her a luxurious home, they have five sets of twin boys together and once the kids have all grown up, they divide Atlantis into ten parts and so is born ten different lineages of kings. But by each generation the kings become more and more human, meaning that it’s much more easier for their wealthy lifestyle to hit them in the head - compare that to Athenians in the story, who’re not tempted by luxuries and have quite Spartan lifestyle interestingly enough. This wealthy lifestyle of the Atlanteans quickly leads into colonialism and war mongering, leading into them trying to take over the Mediterranean but they’re are stopped by Athens because naval warfare was the only type of warfare Athenians actually excelled at. Zeus eventually looks down to see what the heck is going on and then tells Poseidon to do something because this racket is technically speaking all his fault. Poseidon agrees, causes an earthquake and then sweeps Atlantis under his rug, that being the ocean. So Atlantis is pretty much an antithesis of a perfect society, a concept that’s discussed more in Republic and the lesson here is that being consumed by hubris in the search of luxury leads to ruin - but since we’re not here for philosophy lessons, let’s forget all of that and think what kind of plot one could craft out of this mess.

Island nation in search of wealth is a good set-up for some action, so I don’t think there’s much that needs changing. Have Atlanteans attack some cities which alerts Palutena and that leads Pit into a mission in which he tries to tell Poseidon what’s going on. After 2-5 chapters of war against Atlanteans, Poseidon deals with the problem either willingly or by force - whether he just destroys the place or makes Atlanteans full on aquatic folk who can’t survive on land meaning that they have to give up the conquest is up to writers. It’s honestly quite refreshing to have the original tale working so well, because usually everything related to Atlantis in media is so divorced from what Plato told. Sure, a submerged city full of fish people could still work but by using the original tale as base we get a story with clear beginning and end which makes perfect sense in context of KI. Or maybe have the a plotline inspired by the original story first and then later have something related to the submerged city with the fish people. Best of both worlds, amazing!

Also orichalcum, the metal Atlanteans were said to have aplenty, is pretty much just copper. Reddish metal and only gold is more valuable than it, it couldn't be anything else but copper. The term even translates into mountain copper! So why is it never portrayed as copper in fiction?

Besides Atlantis, Poseidon has couple other myths I’d like to talk about too. The first one has him and Apollo losing their divine authority for a while and as punishment they have to serve Trojan king Laomedon father of king Priam and grandfather of Hector among some others if you’re wondering. The king makes them to build the legendary walls of Troy and he promises them great rewards, but once he doesn’t deliver them Apollo sends the plague upon Troy and then Poseidon sends a sea monster to terrorize the place Heracles kills it if you’re wondering. There’s also certain another situation which I’ve actually already talked about on a different post and how with little shaking it could work nicely on a future game - what I said was that Pit should do something Poseidon is going to hate to the point that the god is screaming for his head and that he wants to settle things on court.

The myth I used as reference was that of the supposed first trial in history, in which Ares kills Poseidon’s son Halirrhothius for assaulting his daughter and Poseidon loses his marbles over it. The gods gathered on Areopagus which is a real place in Athens, fun fact and I’ve heard two versions of how the trial goes. In the first version everyone agrees that Ares’ actions were justified and in the second one gods side with Poseidon, but goddesses side with Ares and since there was more goddesses present than gods, their words mattered more. Either way, Poseidon loses the trial and Ares gets away scot-free.

Were a future KI-game do their own twist with this myth, Pit would obviously take the role of Ares. Besides the fact that we’re trying to make Poseidon more antagonistic, Pit just being on a situation similar as Ares makes sense thematically speaking and I’m going to talk more about this later since it’s rather interesting. As for why the trial happens in the first place, it could very well be over anything. Maybe mix it with the one where Poseidon sends a sea monster to terrorize Troy just replace Troy with some unimportant city as this series always does and he’s so attached to it that seeing it getting slayed deeply saddens and angers him. You don’t even need to get rid of the idea that it was over a girl, even if the motive for killing the monster is changed along with what kind of relationship the girl could possibly have with the main cast. This is something I’ll get back into later because there’s in fact one other character who I’d like to talk about and how their most cruel and personal form of villainy happens to bound to a certain girl.

So back to Hera and Poseidon. There’s definitely potential for them to be antagonistic, but I’d say they would work much better as arc villains rather than as the main bad guy. There’s only so many things you can do with characters whose actions are rooted on anger or wrath, especially when they don’t have all that striking personalities.

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As for someone who could well work as the big bad, Dionysus is the first serious candidate. It’s partially due to how inconsistent his characterization has been, which I guess is something one should expect from a figure who has been around since the Mycenaean times and who happens to be the god of insanity, vegetation, orchards, fruit, grape-harvest, winemaking and wine. Does this sound like someone you’d expect to be a member of Forces of Nature? Because it sure does for me and I’d honestly be surprised if he wasn’t one if he was introduced to the franchise.

Symbolism behind Dionysus’ birth is pretty neat, my favorite version of it is the one written down by Diodorus of Sicily in Bibliotheca Historica and in that one Demeter is his mother. It starts the usual way in which the poor kid is killed shortly after his birth by Titans and Demeter comes back just in time to gather his remains to allow his rebirth shortly after. It references the harvest process and wine making - the god wine is born from the union of rain and earth just any plant is, he’s torn apart and boiled alive symbolizing the harvesting and wine-making process, his remains represent the fallen bare vines which become fertilizer for the earth and lastly wine itself is supposed symbolize the now reborn Dionysus. All of the versions of his birth myth do have this symbolism to a certain degree but I’d say this version has it the strongest because unlike his other the mother candidates, Demeter is a nature goddess first and foremost and also the goddess of agriculture.

This next point is somewhat tied to the previous one which is that he actually has valid reasons for his absence, that being his meanderings. Long story short - Hera’s angry over the fact that he exists, she injects him with madness and he wanders around like a madman for a while, then Rhea cures said madness and tells him to go on a journey so he could teach people how to make wine. So he goes and wanders around the world with the exception of Britain and Ethiopia for some reason teaching people the art of winemaking and does some other things in the meanwhile, such as apparently founding a city it’s told that on his campaign Alexander the Great came across a city that was supposedly founded by Dionysus. And this is a fun fact, apparently Dionysus’ popularity exploding around late 4th century BCE can be directly linked into Alexander, which is pretty neat. Once he comes back home he firmly establishes his place as a god and then he starts doing shenanigans much more familiar to us, such as giving king Midas his golden touch and marrying Ariadne.

So why do I think Dionysus is the first real contender for a possible new big bad? Well, do you know what’s the first thing he did once he came back to Greece? According to Bacchae, he brainwashed a city to worship him, caused an earthquake, set a palace on fire, gleefully watched when his worshipers teared a man into pieces and then turned some other people into serpents. Now that’s an entrance Viridi would be proud of!

Besides this, there’s also two similar stories in which Dionysus meets some pirates and they both show him as an unhinged god. They capture him and in the first one Dionysus shapeshifts into a lion and unleashes a bear against his captors, causing the scared pirates to abandon the ship and then Dionysus turns them into dolphins. In the other one he turns the mast and oars into snakes, fills the ship with ivy and the sound of flutes to make the pirates go mad and once again when they abandon the ship, Dionysus turns them into dolphins. The tale of him giving Midas his golden touch could also count as him being antagonistic since the act gives Midas nothing but suffering. So while he is much more friendly towards humans than your average god, Dionysus definitely has an antagonistic flare deep inside him and a place in the Forces of Nature and you can’t change my mind.

If Dionysus was a major antagonist or the big bad, I could see the plot going a lot like this - he comes home, causes some racket because he feels neglected, Viridi is happy about all of this and tries to control it while keeping him on this state of mind because who wants a happy party guy when you can have a chaotic deity, for a while she can do it but not for long before things snowball out of control and he becomes an unhinged god dead set on causing chaos. As for how he’s defeated, I can’t really come up with anything concrete on a fly but I don’t think Dionysus would be defeated the same way Hades was. And while he has the personality and presentation needed for a main antagonist, I just can’t see him as a pure evil villain like Hades was. He’s very much redeemable in my eyes and as for what happens to him after his defeat, I could see it leading to him mellowing down kind of like how Greek wine was watered down before it was used for anything - he’s still part of Forces of Nature and perfectly capable of doing all the same stuff he did as a major antagonist, but he would prefer partying with humans over destroying them. Viridi probably isn’t going to be all too happy about this, but it’s not like she’s going to be all that angry about it either.

Also fun fact at the end - in Dionysiaca, Ariadne laments if Eros and Anteros hate her because she had amazing dream about a wedding, only for Theseus to piss off and abandon her on Naxos. But as we all know, she would soon meet Dionysus who she does end up marrying so hey, the dream just wasn’t about the guy she thought she would marry. So if Dionysus isn’t going to be the big bad and the arc devoted to his villainy is relatively short, this could very well be used as a blueprint for a funny side story. Ariadne lamenting about Eros and Anteros would give Pit and Dark Pit valid reasons to be there.

This is not a joke, by the way. The part of Underworld which wasn't either Elysium or Tartarus was commonly referred as "the House of Hades" in ancient texts.

As for someone else who could also work quite well as the big bad, that would be Persephone. You all know the drill with her - Hades takes her, Demeter panics and goes to search her, she causes the Mediterranean summer on the meanwhile and does a thing which looks awful without context Demeter sets a baby on fire which is supposed to make him immortal if you’re wondering, everyone else decides that enough is enough because endless Mediterranean summer is a nightmare, they beg for Hades to give her back and he does that but not before the pomegranate trick. Demeter causes Mediterranean winter to come, the trouble is solved, we have a nice functional couple in our hands and they continue to appear together when Underworld is relevant to the plot - which surprisingly isn’t all that often as only Adonis, Heracles, Theseus who loses his arse and friend in the process, Orpheus who loses his wife and will to live in the process, Odysseys, Psyche and Aeneas managed to go to Underworld and back. That’s not really all that much all things considered.

And before anyone says anything about seasons here - Mediterranean climate is a thing and it’s best known for its hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters. One of these is much more preferable for plant life and in this case, it’s not summer. The more you know.

While there’s not much material of her when compared some other people in this list, I’d say there’s enough to create a frame for a character. In both Theogony and Iliad Persephone is described as dreaded and in Odyssey Odysseus assumes Persephone is the one sending ghosts to torture him while he’s visiting the Underworld. Just like Hades she has her fair share of vague epithets like Despoina (mistress) and Kore (maiden), presumably for the same reason as to avoid getting her attention. And while the etymology behind her actual name is rather muddied, the popular theories are that it means something in the vain of to destroy, to bring/cause death and she who brings destruction. And people have the gall to say she isn’t scary!

With this info and Hades’ characterization from KI:U in mind, you could very easily create a powerful pure evil villain who’s not going to be happy to learn what happened to her husband. As for why I believe she would be pure evil instead of redeemable one like Dionysus, it’s simply so she and Hades would match on their villainy. Considering how the big thing about Hades and Persephone is that they genuinely love each other to the point of possessiveness Pirithous and Minthe learned it the hard way, it would be weird if they hadn’t rubbed on each other during the time they were together. There’s an amazing chance for drama here and it would be dumb to ignore it when it has been given to us on a golden platter. And besides, unholy matrimonies are quite fun in fiction. Villains too have something they love.

As for attempts of villainy that don’t revolve around her being antsy at Pit about Hades, we interestingly need to look at the list of those she granted favors rather than those that had to deal with her wrath - or just one of them in particular, Psyche. As I’ve already mentioned she was one of those mortals who managed to go to Underworld and back and to make things better, she went to Underworld specifically so she could speak to Persephone. Persephone greets her with a nice cushion to sit on and a banquet, which Psyche declines because it’s a trap this is practically just the pomegranate trick on a larger scale. She tells why she came into the Underworld in the first place and Persephone fulfills her request, which is to say that she gives Psyche boxed death.

Coming to Underworld to speak to Persephone in particular definitely gives Psyche an edge compared to others when it comes to exploring Persephone’s potential villainy. But just why is Psyche such a big deal when compared to someone else like Orpheus, Adonis or Aeneas? Well, Psyche just happens to be the girl who would become the goddess of soul, a job that isn’t currently filled by anyone in KI-universe which Hades has kindly illustrated to us in KI:U by eating and repurposing souls for his own purposes. She’s also Eros’ wife with the addition of being the mother of his daughter and as we all know at this point, Pit is mostly inspired by Eros. While Persephone just being angry about her husband’s treatment makes a perfectly fine motivation, why not use the chance when it has been represented to us on a golden platter? Because while KI has a large cast of characters, most them are quite divorced from one another when it comes to their mythological counterparts interacting with each other. This subverts it since Persephone actually gets to interact with someone important to the figure Pit’s inspired of, which is more than almost anyone else in this list can say. The opportunity is there and there’s an open position for a new god, so why not take it?

Also if Persephone is going to be in a future game, I say I’m going to be so disappointed if there's not at least one pun about her epithet Kore. Like imagine if she was introduced on a chapter called Lost Kore or something similar and then the characters would just continue on making bad puns, annoying her. Wouldn’t be too out of line when it comes to this series humor.

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I know what I’m going to say next is probably going to be controversial, but anyway - if Ares ever makes an appearance, I don’t think he would be a bad guy and this is mostly due to how Pit has been characterized. I know that may sound weird at first but trust me, I do actually have a point with this.

So let’s start with something that may seem completely unrelated at first, these being a history lesson and some talk about over-demonization. We honestly don’t know much about how some city states worshiped gods and what specific versions of the myths they had because some people just couldn’t be bothered to write things down. Besides it being extremely annoying for me, this is also probably where the misconception of all of ancient Greece being either like Athens or Sparta came from, which just is completely false. However what is correct is that city states didn’t really like one another all that much and often engaged on stupid wars with each other, only uniting when there was a much bigger threat looming on the horizon - and with war comes propaganda and when only some people write things down, we’re usually left with really one-sided information when it comes to both good and bad. For one example of this coming off as hilariously hypocritical to me is Athena being worshiped under the epithet Areia in Athens. Areia is very obviously derived from Ares and means warlike, but Athenians had their heads so far in their arses that they came up with a reasoning that this version of the epithet is actually derived from areô or areskô, meaning to propriate or atone for. It’s most likely just some crap Athenians came up with to excuse the worship of Athena Areia, which I just can’t help but find pathetically funny - you can only blame your own propaganda for this, guys.

Historically speaking Ares most likely originates from Thrace since besides his popularity in there Herodotus notes in Histories that only gods from Olympian Pantheon that Thracians worshiped were Ares, Artemis and Dionysus, a really odd trio if I have to say so myself, it’s also said to be his birthplace in the myths. His name can be found on Linear B scripts, a writing system that goes as far back as 1450 BCE and which disappeared during the Late Bronze Age collapse around 1100 BCE. This informs us that he was part of the Mycenaean Pantheon in some way, most likely even then as a war god - it also informs us that he predates gods such as Apollo, Hades and Aphrodite who just don’t exist in Mycenaean texts at least in any recognizable forms. As for Ares during the Archaic, Classical and Hellenic period, especially when it came to places that weren’t either Athens/Attica or Sparta, I had to mostly rely on travelers who wrote things they saw down because some people just didn’t bother to write their own stuff down. Pausanias’ Description of Greece was especially helpful with the research, but what must be remembered is that he lived during 2nd century CE and that he was an outsider to these cultural aspects so how old some of this stuff here is and what the exact context behind it was, I don’t know and neither do others at least currently, one sure can hope so we know more in the future. Then again past is another country so maybe I'm setting my hopes way too high. When given anything in Linear A, people channel their best "I never learned how to read!"-impression.

As for how Ares’ Roman counterpart Mars came to be, it’s mostly due to syncretization. He probably was originally an agricultural god who was later associated with warfare once the Roman Republic started expanding. It’s possible that he was syncretized with an Etruscan deity called Maris, who was usually portrayed as a young boy whose caregiver was Menrva, a goddess who was later identified with Athena and Minerva. While this isn’t an universally agreed take, it’s still pretty interesting in context of Kid Icarus even if it wasn’t intentional or in the case of the take, true. Once Romans started to interact with Greek settlers from Magna Graecia Mars was syncretized with Ares, giving us the Roman god that looks familiar to us. One notable thing to keep in mind is that most of those Greek settlers in Magna Graecia originated from Peloponnese and what I’ve managed to find, they held Ares on much more higher regard than those originating from Attica did.

Okay, now when that has been cleaned out of the way, let’s go to the slightly more interesting stuff which is cult titles and epithets. Just like any other god he has his fair share of both, some examples include Teichesipletes (stormer of cities/walls), Hippius (horseman, of the horses), Theritas (beastly/brutish), Enyalius (warlike), Obrimus (strong/mighty), Thurus (violent/furious), Chrysopelex (of the golden helm) and Chalcocorustes (armed with bronze). I’m using Latin spelling of these to make things easier for myself if you’re wondering. But there’s two titles I specifically want to talk about, both them originating from Arcadia around Tegea because apparently all the cool stuff happens in Arcadia.

Interestingly also in Tegea there was a temple of Athena under epithet Alea. Pausanias tells that her priest there was a boy who held the title until he reached puberty, meaning that her priest was a child. Now this has nothing to do with Ares, but it’s pretty interesting when thinking of Pit. It’s not exactly same for sure, but could this mean that he would leave Palutena if he ever grew up?

The first one is Gynaecothoenas, meaning “Feasted by women” - and no need to worry, it’s nowhere near as sexual as it sounds. The story goes that Tegeteans were at war with Sparta and what decided the victory was an ambush by Tegetean women. Because of this, they offered Ares a sacrifice and celebrated the victory alone. The king of the Spartans at the time was said to be Charilaus, meaning that this victory must have happened around early-to-mid 8th century BCE, making this rather old cult title by the time Pausanias was writing. If only the research for everything else here could’ve been as easy as this.

The other and much more interesting title was Aphneius, meaning “Abundant” and under this title he was worshiped as the giver of food or abundance. The story behind this title goes that Ares fell in love with Tegetean princess Aerope and they had a child together, but she died during childbirth. Ares, doing his damndest to keep his son alive, managed to find a way for the baby to still have milk. Once he grew up, his son Aeropus then managed to do the thing that’s near impossible for a demigod, which is to live a normal life as the lord of Tegea. Now this would make a great character backstory…

… What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, history lesson is over! Finally! Now into the fun stuff, which is Pit’s characterization. It’s pretty common knowledge at this point that that Pit’s inspirations are Icarus, Perseus and Eros but when it comes to his characterization, Eros definitely takes the cake as the main inspiration. He is a fully realized character with multiple myths under his wing, unlike Icarus or Perseus.

Starting with Icarus, he isn’t even a character but a plot device. He’s a tool for Daedalus’ character development and that’s where his importance ends. He’s a miniscule part on a much larger narrative in which the most important part is the Minotaur, as it drives the plot for everything else in it. Icarus’ death serves to drive Daedalus’ character to the point which eventually leads into him killing Minos. He exists for a metaphor that pop-culture has blown out to be way more important than it originally was and that’s it.

As for Perseus… The guy is just really bland. While all the other heroes have their flaws like hubris and wrath, Perseus doesn’t really have any flaws. He doesn’t have that many achievements in either bravery or stupidity due to his method of dealing with things being the quickest way possible. This makes all of his battles extremely boring and because he’s one of the first demigod heroes in the mythological timeline, he doesn’t even get to interact with anyone who could be interesting. How many of you even know that he’s supposed be the founding hero of Mycenae? Not many, I’m sure about that. The most interesting thing about the guy his that he’s an ancestor to people such as Tyndareus, Alcheme, Heracles, Penelope and Telemachus but this doesn’t save him from being any less boring. He's that famous ancestor nobody gives a damn, so to speak. Pit certainly doesn’t get any part of his personality from a plot device or a blank of wood, only a literary reference and an antagonist.

Also can I quickly rant about the Angels in art vs. Angels in Bible meme because I hate it? For some reason most of times when people show art of these supposed angels, they aren’t even showing biblical angels but Erotes/Amores or Nike/Victoria instead. Erotes/Amores and Nike/Victoria are winged Greco-Roman gods, not biblical angels and using art of them proves absolutely nothing. Also you may have forgotten that there’s in fact hierarchy of angels and not all of them look identical. In Christian faith angelic hierarchy is composed of three orders, there being nine different kinds of angels - Seraphim, Cherubim, Ophanim/Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels and Angels. Seraphim and Cherubim do indeed look terrifying and so do Ophanim, but Thrones are just bizarre because apparently they’re elderly carrying God’s throne, whatever that means also I’ve seen people use Ophanim and Thrones interchangeably which just makes the whole deal even bigger of a mess. And then there’s Dominions, who’re just really pretty winged people, proving that the idea of all biblical angels looking terrifying is completely false. I couldn’t find what Virtues looked like, but if they’re anything like Powers, Principalities, Archangels and Angels they’re most likely pretty winged humanoids. So yeah, surprising amount of biblical angels are indeed just pretty winged humanoids and only the highest order of them is clearly inhuman - so if you ever wondered why so many angels in art actually featuring Biblical angels have them looking so humanlike, now you know! It's not the highest rank's job to interact with the human world. Though in modern language, the term angel is simply used as an umbrella term which refers into a winged humanoid being regardless of which religion they originated from - so by using this as a frame, it would indeed make Erotes/Amores and Nike/Victoria angels along with some other winged gods such as Eos and Iris. This would also make Iris’ twin sister Arke a fallen angel because as punishment for siding with the Titans during Titanomachy, she was casted into Tartarus and her wings were ripped off so she could never escape from there. And then much later her wings are given as a wedding gift to Achilles’ parents, my god! You could actually a craft a plot out of this, hmmm. When it comes Pit and Dark Pit, I do think they’re angels only on this broad, modern way definition due to them being mostly inspired by the Greco-Roman Erotes/Amores and it’s possible that they’re only referred as angels because not only is the term Erotes/Amores is strictly associated with Aphrodite and only Aphrodite, it's also much more specialized term than just "angel". There has also been cases in art featuring multiple Nikes, but Nike's special role as the goddess of victory still prevents its use as a broad term. So I believe that in the case of KI, angel is just an useful umbrella term and nothing more.

So Pit’s mostly an Eros-expy when it comes to his personality and attributes, so what makes him so special when compared to many other Eros-expies in media? It’s actually a surprisingly small thing, but boy does it make a difference - on a thematic sense, Pit’s a total daddy’s boy and in this case the dad would be Ares. Most of the Eros-expies you see in media are completely divorced from anything related to Ares despite the guy being Eros’ dad but not in Kid Icarus, where we have a very blatant Eros-expy whose connections to his main mythological inspiration come almost exclusively from Ares. Just why is Pit doing Nike’s job? Because Nike happens to be Ares’ daughter according to some sources, like in the Homeric hymn dedicated to him. Why’s he a soldier in an army? Because Ares was a soldier and in some parts of Greece he was seen as a model of a perfect one who’s resilient and has physical strength that isn’t matched by anyone else. Apparently in Sparta they even had a statue of shacked Ares, supposedly as an attempt to keep the martial spirit and victory in Sparta I don’t know about you but for me this sounds like a very bad move, as if they were asking for the god’s wrath. Then again Athenians did the same thing with wingless Nike, so I guess it was fine in some twisted way. Why does Dark Pit exist? Because would you know it, there’s myth in which Ares and Aphrodite spot lonely little Eros and decide to create Anteros to be his brother, their only differences being hair, wings and weapons of choice Anteros has longer hair, plumed butterfly wings, golden club and lead arrows when compared to Eros' golden bow + both golden and lead arrows. Why does Magnus possibly being based on Meleager matter? Because would you know it, the dude’s sometimes a son of Ares. Why did he spend three years trapped inside a ring? It could parallel the tale of Ares and the giants, in which he spent a lunar year trapped inside a jar. Why does a dog help him during that section? It could still very well be reference Ares and the giants as Hermes and Artemis came to save him and one of Artemis’ sacred animals is a dog and Hermes is the god guard dogs. Also one of Ares’ sacred animals is dog as well, meaning that it could reference this as well. Honestly if Pit ends up having a divine parent and it’s not Ares, I call bullcrap.

So now when that has been made clear, what can writers do with Ares? Well if you take the myth of Poseidon wanting to settle things on court and give it to Pit, you end up losing one of his three major myths in which he’s wrathful towards someone odd I know, you’d probably expect a god of war to be much more wrathful but no, he’s not. The two ones that are left don’t really give all that great material either because in the first one, the target is Adonis and whether it even was Ares’ wrath that killed him is left open - in some versions it’s Artemis who wants him dead because she’s angry at Aphrodite for causing the situation which lead to the death of her hunter Hippolytus, sometimes it’s Apollo who still hasn’t forgiven Aphrodite for blinding his son Erymanthus, occasionally it’s Persephone of all people because she’s angry at Adonis for wanting so spend time with Aphrodite and at times it’s just an accident this all makes me think it was an elaborate coup. There’s always a reason for a divine being to be angry at Aphrodite because she just can’t help but cause trouble whenever she can. When it comes to the second one, it’s honestly pretty odd because not only does Ares forgive the man who originally was the target of his wrath, it illustrates how good of a parent he is on Olympian standards not that it’s a high bar but anyway - even better than the lady whose favorite boytoy he is, and she’s well known for being an overprotective parent.

The myth starts with this lad called Cadmus, who founds the city of Thebes, becomes its king and then kills a dragon residing on a nearby spring. Ares is furious about this since the dragon was sacred to him and apparently it’s sometimes his son, don't know how that works and as punishment, Cadmus has to serve Ares for eight years he got it easy when compared to Adonis and Halirrhothius. Once that service is over, Cadmus marries one of the two daughters of Ares and Aphrodite, this being Harmonia, the goddess of harmony. However not everything is all sunshine and rainbows because Hephaestus is still salty about how his marriage with Aphrodite went south and once he hears about a wedding, he prepares two gifts for the bride - first one was a beautiful necklace that could keep its wearer eternally youthful and the other one was a luxurious robe. But there was a catch, since both of these objects were cursed to bring bad luck to those who owned them. The bad luck eventually took its take on Cadmus’ mental state and one day he remarked that if gods fancied those serpents so much, maybe his life would be so much better as one. Gods fulfill this wish, he’s turned into a serpent and once Harmonia notices what has happened, she wishes the same. At one point Dionysus comes to the city, trashes the place and then gives them a propechy of this happening. Either way, Ares comes down to get the unlucky couple and then scoots them to safety in paradise-like Elysium, where they get to reside from now on.

You may already be familiar with this myth to a certain degree because Pokemon B/W could technically count as an adaptation of it. N is of course the most obvious parallel due to him getting his second name from Harmonia and Ghetsis takes a role comparable to Hephaestus. It all becomes even funnier because Harmonia hits some characteristics associated with yin - she’s passive, feminine figure who represents harmony which can only exist due to lack of action, an idea. It gains even more hilarity points thanks to existence of Adrestia, Harmonia’s sister and the goddess of revolt - she’s pretty much yang to Harmonia’s yin and to make things even more hilarious, she was often portrayed as a beautiful winged maiden. Now who would expect the goddess of revolt to be a lovely winged lady and the goddess of harmony to be at least momentarily a serpent?

While this is indeed an interesting myth, I don’t think it would make all great material for future KI-game, at least on its current form. The cast of KI doesn’t really get to interact with humans on a personal level, which is something this myth largely relies on. Honestly, I think the best way it could be referenced in game would be just Pit going to Elysium and meeting Harmonia still trapped on a draconic form. Considering the way Hades had been characterized in KI:U, it wouldn’t surprise me if he had just kept trapped Harmonia as a pet lizard in his garden. Maybe say something on the vain of him eating the husband’s soul or using it for something else to explain why she’s there all by herself. And if you want to make fun of the fact that the fourth wall might as well not exist, throw Adrestia in Elysium as well as a dragon as a nod to Pokemon. “The Twin Dragonesses of Elysium” sounds like it would make a very cool boss fight.

So a wrath or blessing, Ares gives us not much to work with either of those at least when it comes to him actually doing stuff - but that doesn’t mean we’re left with nothing because there’s three myths that I’ve glossed over quickly that could give us something, one just for comedy and two others actual plot. As for the one that’s just for comedy, it’s the one in which Sisyphus captures Thanatos. Ares is actually the one to save Thanatos from the tough situation since after it has continued for a month, he bursts into Sisyphus’ house, frees Thanatos and drags Sisyphus’ spirit to the Underworld… Only for him to come up with a sad story, which leads into Persephone letting him go only for it to backfire. Ares then disappears from the story, but it ends up with Sisyphus doing P.E for eternity in Tartarus once he dies for real as you all already know. This is pretty funny if a bit morbid myth, so it could be really easy to use it as a comedy goldmine if Ares ever interacted with Thanatos. Maybe have Thanatos trying to act like they’re friends, only for Ares to become more and more frustrated the longer Thanatos continues. Maybe once he mentions some of his escapades involving Pit, Ares finally decides that enough is enough and shows to Thanatos that mortals don’t call him by the name Thurus for nothing.

To the myths you could get some serious plot out of, the first one is very predictably the one in which he earns the title Aphneius. It just has everything a great character backstory needs on its original form, meaning that it could easily be inserted on the game with minimal changes and it could still work fantastically. It has a romance between a god and a mortal which ends up on a tragedy during a moment that was supposed to be joyous not because of any divine whim or I guess it could’ve been Aphrodite being salty because she has a habit of releasing her wrath upon Ares’ loved ones or relatives, usually grandchildren such as Hippolytus, but I think it would’ve been written down had the story actually said it was Aphrodite behind Aerope’s death, but because of something beyond their control. And instead of taking his frustrations on the baby like so many fathers in these stories do, he instead does everything to keep him alive and so Aeropus grows up to be fine ruler, if an unremarkable demigod. A writer could easily use Aeropus as a base for an interesting heroic character… And I guess you can already see where this is going. I already said that Ares would make the most sense as Pit’s divine parent if he indeed has one, so this would make an excellent backstory if that was the case.

I could see the timeline going something like this if this was true - Ares meets KI-universe’s equivalent of Aerope, the two have an adorable romance and are expecting a kid but something goes horribly wrong and Aerope dies, instead of letting Aerope’s family to take care of the kid Ares takes the baby with him because who knows what they would do to a winged baby so many myths have families abandoning their kids for dumber reasons than this so why wouldn’t he take the kid with him + this dude had 3-6 winged kids, one all by himself, so he definitely is the one hogging all the wing genes instead of Aphrodite, he tries single parenting but it’s hard when certain goddess is constantly shooting stinkeyes and paralyzing glares at his direction and it leads into him asking help from Palutena because a winged kid wouldn’t look too out of place among her angel minions. Considering how Palutena and Poseidon were capable of having a conversation in KI:U without any horrible atrocities being committed, I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to imagine her relationship with Ares being along your typical sibling-relationship rather than what Atheanians wrote down Ares and Athena were actually worshiped together in the town of Olympia under titles Hippius and Hippias, fun fact. You could also see it as a favor inspired by how Menrva took care of Maris. Anyway, this deal goes swimmingly for a while until the events of a certain other myth take place, which makes Palutena the sole caregiver of Pit - some unspecified amount of time later que the events of the original Kid Icarus and onward.

Fanfic time over, now to the other myth which could explain Ares’ absence - it’s the one about him and the giants. Long story short, there’s these two giants called Ephialtes (derived from the word meaning nightmare) and Otus (either derived from the word meaning insatiate, doom or horned owl) who’re sons of Poseidon because of course they are, goddammit Poseidon and a mortal woman Iphimedeia, they’re also called by the name Aloadae. They were planning to storm into Olympus to kidnap some wives for themselves, Otus wanting Artemis and Ephialtes wanting Hera what great choices, you complete imbeciles, absolutely amazing. So one day Olympians are surprised to find these two giants piling up mountains on top one another and as expected, there’s a big fight between them because no one comes to the Olympian home turf without facing the consequences. Once the two giants finally leave, the Olympians notice that someone is missing, that being Ares. Ephialtes and Otus probably realized way too late that kidnapping the god of war wasn’t the brightest idea and because letting him go wasn’t an option, they locked him inside bronze jar of which he tried to break out without success. It took around a lunar year for the giants stepmother to rat this out to Hermes, who went to save Ares with Artemis. While she distracted the giants and made them throw their spears at each other, Hermes lockpicked Ares out of the jar and so the three returned to Olympus.

So how could this myth be used while crafting a plot for a future game? I’d say it depends on whether writers want to use Ares as a full-blown good guy from the start or as an antagonist at first - and while I do still believe that Ares wouldn’t be a bad guy on his own free will, who said he’s going to burst out of that jar with that free will still intact? It’s not like we haven’t seen brainwashed antagonists in the series before, Gaol was a one.

So if we have Ares as an antagonist who’s brainwashed and crazy, how could the possible plot be handled? I could see it starting with the two giants resurfacing for something trivial but because they’re being destructive, it catches the attention of Palutena who sends Pit down to deal with them. The giants are dealt with in 1-3 chapters and one way or another Pit finds a large jar and breaks it, releasing the crazed Ares. Neither side recognizes each other and there’s possibly a boss fight which ends with Ares leaving and him becoming a wandering antagonist who causes racket when someone angers him. He most likely isn’t connected to any other antagonist or the main villain, but I could see them trying to recruit him without any success. As for how he was brainwashed in the first place, it could be the Aloadae wanting to get some use out of their prisoner and they decided to make him into an indestructible living weapon either to themselves or someone else - maybe it even was commissioned by the big bad because who wouldn’t want an powerful living weapon who’s loyal to you and only you. Either way it proves fruitless as Pit frees Ares from the mind control and slowly but surely he starts to establish himself as a good guy and an ally to Pit and Palutena.

This would actually go pretty well along with a certain another thing about Ares, that being helmet and symbolism connected to it - you see, mythological Ares was often portrayed to have something I like to call Meta Knight-syndrome. He was said to be a beautiful man with a lovely face, apparently much more prettier than any other male Olympian which could possibly explain why he’s Aphrodite’s favorite boytoy and he wasn’t particularly proud of it - just what kind of self-respecting enemy would take you seriously if you have a face of an angel? But that didn’t stop people from drawing or sculpting him without a helmet, and the result were indeed pretty my goodness is Ludovisi Ares a one beautiful sculpture. Just considering how the art we see of Ares can be categorized into him either with or without a helmet, writers could easily craft a narrative out of this - while wearing a helmet he’s under mind control and once freed he fights helmetless, allowing player to see him as who he really is. Helmet obscuring the face equals bad guy and once it cracks, we can have a very confused ally who cries over the fact that his baby is a big boy now, cries some more because there’s two of them now, may or may not join us to missions if there’s a two-player mode for story or just help with training and also maybe cracks dad jokes few times because humor is a valid coping mechanism. This all kind of reminds me how one other popular trend relating to Ares in art was to have him disarmed with young Eros playing with his armor. Cute!

Somewhat relating to the idea of Ares starting as a brainwashed antagonist turned ally once the helmet is smashed, I could see him having two different themes which illustrate the different natures of him. First one should be something brooding and terrifying, maybe something similar to Gustav Holst’s Mars, the Bringer of War which a really great piece of classical music that has inspired composers all around the world, even at Nintendo. If you haven’t heard it, you certainly have heard at least one song inspired by it metal genre can thank its existence on Mars, no kidding. As for the other theme, I think it should be a warm, calm and welcoming one with a hint of sadness, a complete opposite of the battle theme when it comes to the first expression. I’ve been recently listening a lot of TSFH and Hans Zimmer so if I had to say what kind of energy I’d want this possible theme to have, I’d probably say something between TSFH’s Friendship To Last from the demonstration album Nemesis, Final Days of Rome from album Unleashed and Now we are free from Gladiator. They all have this bittersweet yet beautiful feeling in them I love. Maybe there’s a shared leitmotif or something between the two themes connecting them into each other. Thurus and Aphneius were both titles for the same god after all, even if they were about wildly different aspects of him.

So just like with Apollo, I think there’s only one way to bring Ares into the franchise and in this case it would be making him Pit’s dad. It just makes way too much sense to me considering how Pit has been characterized that it would be odd if there wasn’t any connection between the two. And there’s even couple out-of-universe reasons why I don’t believe he would be the bad guy, the first and most notable being that the names Ares and Mars are already associated with morally righteous characters or at least characters we’re supposed to root for in Nintendo games. Sakurai certainly knows this, Marth has been in Super Smash Bros since Melee as a playable character and his name just blatantly is Mars in Japanese and his English name is just the Japanese way of saying Mars. You don’t bastardize the face of another franchise in your own one, especially if you’re both exclusives to the same company and the other franchise is much more bigger and important than yours is.

Since it would be hard to introduce Ares into the franchise, I would be completely fine with him not being featured in next game at all even though I would find it extremely disappointing. But if you’re not going to have him, at least have a reference to him in form of a weapon like Blade of Ares or Blade of Mars because would you know it, the legendary sword of Attila was also known as the sword of Mars. We’re probably never going to get actual swords in KI but blade has been used as a synonym for them, so there being a blade with said name could work just fine. That or finally add spear and shield combo into the game. But if you want to use the character who would work as the big bad the best into their fullest, maybe it would be a good idea to have Ares as well... All roads may lead to Rome, but not to the arms of Genetrix in this case.

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Call me crazy, but I think that Aphrodite would make the perfect big bad. Does she have that charisma and personality comparable to Hades? Yes she does, and unlike him she had all that in real life - one of her titles was Pandemos, quite literally meaning “of the people”. This made her extremely popular among people regardless who they were or where they lived, and how can you blame them since there’s not many people whom things such as beauty, love and sex don’t matter in some shape or form. Only Olympian who really matched her when it came to popularity was Zeus, but considering how he was the king of all gods it was to be expected that he’d outrank her on the popularity board. She was the most popular goddess in Greece by a longshot and that was also true for Venus in Rome, even if Mars took the place as the second most popular god after Jupiter. Due to her being the mother of Roman founding hero Aeneas, she was viewed as the mother of all Rome and it was used by people as a way to climb up the political ladder. The Julio-Claudian dynasty claimed to descend from her through Aeneas and it didn’t stop there - you can actually trace the ancestry of multiple mythological European figures all the way back to her! Some notable examples of this include Bladud/Blaiddyd, Leir of Britain, Goneril, Regan, Cordelia of Britain and supposedly even king Arthur himself last one is a bit iffy, but all the others are concrete, Aphrodite just flat out is their ancestor through Aeneas. She definitely has the charisma and presentation needed for a big bad because you simply couldn’t be able to pull of any of the previously mentioned things without them and if she could do it in real life, who says she couldn’t do it in a fictional world?

Pretty much only thing about Aphrodite that stays constant is her popularity because in the myths, her characterization is wildly inconsistent - I guess that something one should expect from a goddess who rules over matters such as beauty and love, two things one can never truly understand. However with that being said, there’s trends that stay with her regardless her ever-changing personality. She’s technically speaking an outsider to the Olympian family tree as her most popular and possibly the oldest one as well birth story has her as the motherless child of Ouranos, emerging fully formed from seafoam. Hestia, Hades, Demeter, Poseidon, Hera and Zeus form the first generation of Olympians and Ares, Athena, Hephaestus, Artemis, Apollo, Hermes and Dionysus are principal members of the second generation. By adding Eileithyia, Persephone and Hebe into the mix you get the main Olympian family, making Aphrodite feel like even more of an outsider. She only starts to fit among the family when the third generation is added and speaking of said generation, part of it forms her attendants. The two most important ones are her sons Eros and Anteros, love and love requited, whom she let’s to do pretty much all they want as long as they stay loyal to her. However once that loyalty shifts, she can be quite cruel towards them which is illustrated in the myth of Eros and Psyche quite well - and I’m going to let Aphrodite herself to do all the talking, so here’s a quote from from Apuleius’ The Golden Ass:

‘This is a fine state of affairs, just what one would expect from a child of mine, from a decent man like you! First of all you trampled underfoot the instructions of your mother--or I should say your employer--and you refused to humble my personal enemy with a vile love-liaison; and then, mark you, a mere boy of tender years, you hugged her close in your wanton, stunted embraces! You wanted me to have to cope with my enemy as a daughter-in-law! You take too much for granted, you good-for-nothing, loathsome seducer! You think of yourself as my only noble heir, and you imagine that I'm now too old to bear another. Just realize that I'll get another son, one far better than you. In fact I'll rub your nose in it further. I'll adopt one of my young slaves, and make him a present of these wings and torches of yours, the bow and arrows, and all the rest of my paraphernalia which I did not entrust to you to be misused like this. None of the cost of kitting you out came from your father's estate.’

Let’s file that under yikes. She’s saying this to her injured child and it’s about a girl he loves more than anything but she can’t stand her. And it’s not like Aphrodite dislikes her for any valid reasons, it’s all because Psyche is pretty and Aphrodite took it as a personal attack. This temperament is a stable with her, be the fuss she causes either positive or negative. It goes well in the line of the idea that she was never a child and was born fully formed, as it’s pretty hard to learn those important childhood life lessons as an adult. And do you want to know the best part about this mess? After this massive rant she’s confronted by Hera and Demeter, two goddesses who in all intents and purposes should understand what she’s feeling right now and guess what they do? They call Aphrodite a hypocrite in her face because that’s exactly what she is. Why is she so angry at her child for growing up and experiencing romantic love for the first time when she spends most of her time either being in love or making others fall in love?

Let’s leave the sad lovers behind for a while and talk about Aphrodite in some other myths. There’s not many myths about her that don’t feature romance or sex in some form, but those few are usually about her competitive nature. There’s a myth about Hermes and Aphrodite participating on funeral games yes, this was a real tradition organized by Apollo and she won, her prize being a zither which she later gave to Paris. There’s also a myth about her and Athena having a weaving competition which ended on her losing miserably because as one might expect, challenging the goddess of weaving into a weaving competition couldn’t possibly end well. But since these kind of myths are about things out of her assignments, there isn’t many of them. Most of them are about her helping people with their relationship problems, some examples could be her giving Galatea life on Pygmalion’s wishes and gifting Hippomenes the three golden apples so he could win the race for Atalanta’s heart. But it’s also really easy to earn her anger, some notable immortals who were victims of her wrath are the titan goddess of dawn Eos (she didn’t want to share Ares so she cursed Eos to feel uncontrollable desire towards a new man every day), the titan god of sun Helios (he ratted out her relationship with Ares so she cursed him to forget everyone he ever loved romantically and then made him fall in love with princess Leucothoe - it ends badly and that’s how we got heliotropes), the muse Calliope (Aphrodite saw Zeus asking her help for covering the whole deal about who gets to keep Adonis as a personal attack and so she cursed her son Orpheus to have a horrible death in the hands of Dionysus’ worshipers - interestingly enough this has nothing to do with the fact that Calliope did also sleep with Ares or that she married Oeagrus who’s sometimes said to be Ares’ son, which would make Orpheus his grandson), a minor ocean deity Nerites (he refused to follow her into the land so she turned him into a shrimp) and Pan (Aphrodite and this handsome lad Acheilus had a beauty competition and Pan was the judge - he said Acheilus was prettier so Aphrodite turned the poor lad into into a hideous shark-creature and then cursed Pan to be hopelessly in love with the nymph Echo, the very same Echo who had her eyes on Narcissus). It could even be said that her blessings aren’t going to last for long and by using Hippomenes as an example once again, we learn that in one version of the story she turned him into a lion all because he didn’t pay his respects back to her soon enough. Guileful Aphrodite indeed.

Due to her temperament and general lack of caring about the consequences of her actions, Aphrodite has earned the ire of many gods - just look no further than Adonis, there’s four possible culprits who could’ve caused his death. Because of their contradictory natures, she’s often portrayed as not getting along with Hestia, Athena and Artemis and while there’s not much material for Hestia there’s multiple myths of Aphrodite causing unpleasant situations for Artemis and her hunters, Hippolytus being the shining example of this. The judgement of Paris establishes her relationship with Hera and Athena as a rocky one and the Trojan war has them full-on enemies on opposite sides, Athena even telling the Greek Diomedes during the war that he should avoid fighting literally any god with the exception of Aphrodite - it leads into him throwing a spear at Aphrodite, piercing her wrist and this leads into Aphrodite cursing Diomedes in return. Also in some records such as Cypria Helen’s mother is stated to be the goddess Nemesis, so add her into the list of gods Aphrodite has angered so it turns out the goddess who truly was Nemesis’ enemy was never the one from Blue Sea Star but rather the one who represented Morning Star, how ironic. Her relationship with the male Olympians are a bit better but not always, in fact she has no meaningful one with Apollo at all. Her marriage with Hephaestus was an unhappy one and only after they divorced were they both allowed to be happy, Hephaestus by marrying Aglaea and having a family with her and Aphrodite by continuing her many affairs without any worries. She did scorn Zeus when he tried to get it on with her, but otherwise there’s not much either good or bad blood between them. Besides Ares, Aphrodite did find both Poseidon and Dionysus handsome and had affairs with them, but it’s unclear if they resulted any children - Rhodos has Telchine Halia and Amphitrite as her other mother candidates, Peitho is almost always said to be a child of Tethys and Oceanus instead, the Charites were more often said to be children of Zeus and Oceanid Eurynome rather than Aphrodite’s and Priapus just has no parents set in stone because no telling was seemingly more popular than others. The birth myth of Hermaphroditus starts with Aphrodite telling Hermes to piss off because he doesn’t come even close to her standards, so he asks little help from Zeus to get what he wants and therefore I can’t imagine them having a positive relationship because of this. And after reading so many myths in which Aphrodite targets Ares’ grandkids for whatever reasons, I’m starting to think that he should start running away and quickly. Maybe she really did kill Aerope.

Now returning to the love story with a happy ending which has the most famous victim of Aphrodite’s wrath, Eros and Psyche. It begins in a town with no name given oh, so this isn’t completely baseless in KI where princess Psyche (meaning either soul or breath of life) is having trouble socializing - the people have declared that she’s as if not more beautiful than Aphrodite and they have started worshiping her, denying normal human interaction from her. This obviously pisses off Aphrodite because it has been established that she has the self-control skills comparable to a toddler and so she orders her son Eros to make Psyche to fall in love with something hideous. While he agrees to do the deed, once he sees the beautiful Psyche he can’t help but to fall in love with her and then he chooses to defy his mother, crafting a plan on what to do next. In the meanwhile the loneliness is making Psyche miserable and that doesn’t go unnoticed by her parents, so they go to visit the oracle of Apollo for help. Considering how Apollo is still very much salty at Eros for cursing him to have the worst love life imaginable, his words aren’t all that comforting (another quote from The Golden Ass):

‘Adorn this girl, O king, for wedlock dread, and set her on a lofty mountain-rock. Renounce all hope that one of mortal stock can be your son-in-law, for she shall wed a fierce, barbaric, snake-like monster. He, flitting on wings aloft, makes all things smart, plaguing each moving thing with torch and dart. Why, Jupiter himself must fearful be. The other gods for him their terror show, and rivers shudder, and the dark realms below.’

She and her parents are obviously horrified by this, but they do as they were told to and Psyche is left alone on a cliffside where the god of west wind Zephyrus picks her up. He brings her into a lovely meadow where she takes a refreshing nap and after she wakes up, she sees a beautiful palace and goes in. She’s charmed by the looks of the place and then a disembodied voice tells her that she will be provided by many invisible servants while living in there. Once night falls she’s nervous to meet her husband, but after the first meeting she starts looking forward on their nights together. This continues for quite some time, but in the meanwhile Psyche’s family is starting to get worried about her and she’s in return worrying about them. Eros promises that her sisters can come to visit, but also tells her that she shouldn’t listen them if they sound jealous. Psyche agrees and Eros gets Zephyrus to scoot the sisters down to visit, but as expected the sisters get jealous really quickly and start to make her worry if what the oracle told about her husband was indeed true - what finally broke the camels back was the sisters suggesting that he’s planning to kill her and their unborn child. So when the next night falls, she has prepared herself a lamp and dagger to see if her husband really is a monster - once she draws the lamp near and sees that he’s in fact Eros himself, she’s awestruck and accidentally stabs herself with one of his arrows, making her fall for him even harder. But while admiring him some oil spills from the lamp on Eros, causing him to wake up and leave. Earlier in the story Psyche had said that she’d much rather die than throw this marriage away and she’s willing to live by that statement, so she goes to search Eros and atonement - meanwhile Aphrodite is beating her son in the head by talking how horrible child he is for daring to fall in love and then she imprisons him Genetrix knows nothing in this case. Hera and Demeter call her a hypocrite, which doesn’t ease her anger in the slightest.

Psyche eventually finds her way into a temple of Aphrodite and she calls her two servants to beat the poor girl to make herself feel better. After having a good laugh over Psyche’s suffering, she gives her another beating herself and then dumbs different kinds of grains on the ground, saying that she should sort them by night if she ever wants to see Eros again. Sometimes prompted by him, ants nearby take pity on Psyche and help her - predictably Aphrodite isn’t all too happy about this and she comes up with a much more deadlier task. By morning she tells her that she should get some golden fleece from the sheep living on a grove across nearby river. This disheartens Psyche because she knows gathering the fleas directly is a suicide mission, but she’s consulted by local river deity who tells her how the sheep behave and that instead of approaching the sheep at all she should just collect fleas caught on foliage. She does as was told and Aphrodite becomes even more enraged, telling her to go gather water from river Styx. While she finds her way to Styx without much hassle, she’s overwhelmed by the hopelessness of the situation - luckily for her everyone has come to the conclusion that Aphrodite is being horrible and Zeus sends one of his eagles to help Psyche to get the water.

At this point Aphrodite’s patience is running thin and she gives Psyche a box, tells her to go into Underworld to get a part of Persephone’s beauty and come back with it because this whole deal of torturing her little daughter-in-law has been so hard for her and she needs to look good while going to the divine theatre. After being consulted by a tower on how to actually get into the Underworld without dying, she does as was told and and it doesn’t take long for her to be greeted by Persephone. After refusing to fall into an obvious trap, Psyche told her why she was visiting her and Persephone agreed to help her without hassle - but after returning into the mortal world, Psyche’s curiosity took the better of her and she wanted to see that beauty herself. Turns out it was Stygian sleep fancy words for boxed death and Psyche drops on the ground like a rock, but at this point Eros has escaped his imprisonment goes straight to her. He draws the sleep back into the box, gently pricks her with an arrow to wake her up, the two have a heartfelt reunion and Eros brings Psyche to Olympus, asking Zeus if the two can now get properly married. Everyone agrees, Zeus tells Aphrodite to stfu and they give Psyche ambrosia, making her the goddess of soul. The two have a glorious wedding and some time after it Psyche gives birth to their daughter, either named Hedone or Volupta(s) depends if it’s a Greek or Roman telling the story, the personification of pleasure, joy and delight. I personally prefer the name Volupta, it rhymes much more nicer with rest of the family.

And since we’re at here, that gorgeous painting by John William Waterhouse that everyone thinks has Pandora wearing a pink dress? It’s actually Psyche opening the deathly beauty box. Don’t believe me? Just check Psyche opening the golden box and you see who’s right. He however did create an equally pretty painting about Pandora though.

So now when the story time finally over, what can we do with all of this info? Well, it does tell how perfect of an antagonist Aphrodite makes for an Eros-expy. She has power over him and isn’t afraid of abusing it when she feels betrayed. Compare this to the tales of Icarus and Perseus which really don’t have a main antagonists - Icarus has no personal stakes in the story because he’s a plot device rather than a character and from Daedalus’ point of view, the main antagonist is Minos but mythology doesn’t really treat him as all that horrible person. After he died he became one of the judges of the Underworld and probably sent Daedalus to Tartarus once he died, which illustrates a one seriously big missed opportunity which should’ve been used if Icarus truly was that important inspiration for Pit. Instead it just makes it even more clear how irrelevant Icarus and the narrative about the Minotaur are to KI. As for Perseus, I already talked about how Medusa is a mcguffin while alive and the other ones aren’t much better. Polydectes, Phineus and Acrisius are all dealt with so quickly that they don’t really matter - his only fight that isn’t solved by a handwave is against Cetus and it’s just a sea monster sent to kill Andromeda by Poseidon. Poseidon’s antagonistic potential is a topic I’ve already discussed and the already mentioned possible fusion of the myths of Poseidon sending a sea monster to harass Troy and Ares’ trial covers the idea of Pit saving a girl from a sea monster which is bit funny because in the former one, oracle tells that king Laomedon should let it eat his daughter Hesione to get rid of the monster, so that doesn’t really add anything new here. But with Aphrodite as the big bad it could be rather easy to craft two different but overlapping plotlines, one with a main goal and the other with a personal one. Aphrodite always was Eros’ biggest personal antagonist who treated him as a trophy child and didn’t take it well when he stepped out of the line - how dare her little doll grow up, behave like a man and then decide that he wants to move on to build a family of his own, which now takes the priority over her? Him choosing Psyche over his mother is his defining myth, with the addition of it being the myth in which he finally gains the respect of the other gods. Besides having its message about heart and soul being capable feeling and creating joy while together, it also functions as a coming of age story for its main couple - and when those stories have an antagonist, things tend get really personal.

So going back to those possible two plotlines and goals, what could they possibly be about? I’d say that the main plot line shouldn’t really be based on any myth but instead it should take advantage of her popularity among ancient people, more so when it comes to Venus and Rome. Even as a city, Rome was massive - by the time of 1st century CE it had reached the population of million people, being the first city in history to do that. And this was only the capital of the empire! Rome wasn’t build in a day indeed. Venus wasn’t worshiped by the thousands, her popularity was in the millions during this time period. That’s a lot of power for one goddess and as we all know, too much power can easily hit one in the head - especially when remembering that we’re dealing with a Pantheon composed entirely of manchildren. Give Aphrodite an empire that looks up to her, doesn’t do anything without a last world from her and you’re set with a supervillain who has it all from power to personality. In this case, the reason why Aphrodite should be stopped is that she’s a conqueror who rules by fear, saying that if she was ever abandoned she would curse them and take away all the blessings she has ever granted, leading her empire to ruin. If you want to make her feel even more villainous, don’t even give her an army of her own like Hades and Viridi had but make her use the people of the empire she rules over. There’s nothing more evil than using people who look up to you for protection for your own selfish goals. What those selfish goals may be, writers can be creative with them - maybe she wants to be viewed as the supreme goddess above everyone else, maybe she wants everyone to worship her and isn’t afraid to use extreme measures to get what she wants, maybe she wants to wipe out everyone who could be a threat to her, everything goes. Considering her role on the judgement of Paris, her causing a war or chaos for selfish reasons isn’t out of character. But whatever her reasons may be, there’s going to sparks in the air and fights of massive proportions. Ares may be Pit’s father but Aphrodite definitely isn’t his mother, so she’s not going to show him any sympathy or kindness if he gets in the way of her plans.

This would be the plotline that’s more on the background and focused on Aphrodite’s relationships with Palutena, possibly Ares and the other gods, the main goal is their goal. It’s why they want her defeated. If Palutena is anything like Athena, she can’t get along with her and she understands that allowing Aphrodite to do whatever she wants will have catastrophic consequences even if she herself couldn’t care less about those. If Ares was featured on a future game along with Aphrodite, their relationship would probably be focused on how they feel betrayed by each other. The myth of her cursing Eos illustrates how she sees their relationship open only from her end so she’s very likely still angry at him for leaving her, be it for Aerope or something else entirely. If you want to go with the depressing idea of her being the one who ordered Aloadae to kidnap him, she probably feels even more betrayed because even under mind control he didn’t come back to her like she had anticipated. And if it’s indeed her favorite ex-boytoy’s son with some other lady who has been foiling her plans, her blood quite possibly starts to boil. Ares’ feelings of betrayal would likely stem from Aphrodite trying to kill his child for no other reason than sheer pettiness, along with orchestrating his kidnapping and torture just so she could get her boytoy back. Other gods probably want her stopped for similar reasons as Palutena, maybe with some selfishness rippled in - the consequences of her actions are hurting them and because she doesn’t care, something must be done to stop her. For example, Viridi could possibly oppose Aphrodite because she doesn’t care about how she’s hurting nature on her attempts to viewed as the supreme goddess. Not to say that Pit doesn’t also care about this goal since he’s an empathetic youngster, but I think that the more personal plotline should be his and it’s goal his main motivator during the story.

As for the plotline with the more personal goal, the myth of Eros and Psyche makes the perfect outline for it. Aphrodite is already the main antagonist of the tale, so there’s no need for any massive changes when it comes to her jealousy and want to dispose Psyche. The tasks she gives to her could also be mostly unchanged, if adjusted with something that makes gameplay more immersive assuming we would get to play as her like we got to play as Dark Pit in chapter 22 in KI:U. However what needs to changed is Aphrodite’s relationship with Pit, how he and Psyche first meet and how their relationship is evolves from that point onward since following the myth to a T isn’t an option in this case. I could see Pit and Psyche’s first meeting being a result of Aphrodite’s wrath manifesting on a relatively harmless way, meaning that she already knows about this new, pretty princess that challenges her status as the supreme goddess and she’s not having any of it. As for how her wrath could manifest, it could be a your garden-variety monster attack in the first chapter disguised as someone else’s troops so no one would suspect it was her behind it. The sheer weirdness of it could catch Palutena’s attention so she sends Pit down to investigate it and to get rid of the monsters. While getting rid of them, he meets Psyche in one way or another - maybe she’s trying to escape from them or she’s trying to fight against them, either way Pit comes to her aid and they befriend each other. Maybe she’s featured on a few following chapters as minor character doing something on the background, giving them more possibilities to interact and become better friends - in these chapters Apollo could possibly be introduced along with reintroducing Poseidon, to foreshadow the roles they would play later on. What side plots would these chapters have, it could anything - maybe Pit meets Ares for the first time at this point of the story, but he’s not freed from mind control just yet.

At this point Aphrodite could be getting more angrier but she doesn’t want to out herself as the main villain yet, so she crafts a plan that would eventually lead into Poseidon hating Pit into the point of him wanting to take things into the court. Maybe she tricks Poseidon and Apollo into becoming mad at Psyche’s home city for whatever reason, like how they got angry at Troy in mythology proper. If this was the case, I think that she would keep Poseidon in the dark while letting Apollo fully know what’s going on - if Poseidon doesn’t know the true reason why Aphrodite wanted his sea monster to terrorize the city and why it was killed, he would be much more enraged when it happens. I’ve already established reasons as for why Apollo would dislike Pit, so he probably wouldn’t really need any prompting to cause Pit suffering since he’d still want some payback from that embarrassing noodle incident. So Poseidon sends his sea monster to terrorize the coastline and once citizens start asking help from the gods, Apollo lets the hate flow through him and offers nothing useful - instead he tells them to take the Hesione/Andromeda-approach and let it eat someone to calm it down oh look, it’s a reference to Perseus that’s not about Medusa for once, nice. In this case, it would be Psyche and Pit’s of course not going to let his friend die so he goes to save her, be it with or without Palutena’s approval. In my head I did imagine this as a chapter that would work amazingly with multiplayer, starting with Pit and Dark Pit distracting the monster, then Pit freeing Psyche and them setting out to kill the monster before it causes more harm. Player 2 would have to deal with changing characters on the fly but if Pittoo and Psyche had similar weapons, I don’t think it would be too distracting since they’d be playable on different parts of the chapter. But once the monster has finally been defeated, the joy is cut short by Poseidon interrupting and wanting vengeance for what happened to his monster, ending the chapter. The plot would immediately catch on the next one and what I could see happening on this chapter is that Pit’s taken into the court by Poseidon and he’s not allowed to have anyone defending him, but Dark Pit and Psyche go into his defense anyway Pittoo being the playable character. After a long and treacherous journey they find they way to the divine courthouse and tell their point of view on the events, which gives Pit the sympathy of the court and he gets away scot-free. Poseidon and Apollo may face on consequences at this point and they may even rat Aphrodite out on a subtle way, but the main group doesn’t catch it.

The following few chapters would be breathers before the plot kicks in again, Aphrodite ousting herself as the big bad in one way or another. Maybe she has sent her troops to attack some place, possibly in search for Ares since he would make a great ally on this brainwashed state. Much to her dismay he declines her offers, he and Pit fight and the helmet is smashed, but Palutena recalls Pit before anything can come out of it. The fight continues for couple following chapters, Palutena and Aphrodite are gradually getting more and more mad at each other and maybe she comes down to face Pit herself because the little brat getting on her way is starting to be really annoying now this would make a pretty cool unwinnable boss fight, but Ares comes just in time save him - que silent, cold anger between them, confusion from Pit and Palutena’s end with some extremely awkward reunions and explanations.

What could follow from here is another set more lighter chapters focused less on Aphrodite’s plans to become the supreme goddess and more of the cast getting to know each other better - Palutena and Ares reconnecting, Ares trying to form a meaningful relationship with Pit and Dark Pit, Pit and Psyche becoming better friends, etc etc. Not to say Aphrodite has given up on her plans - she’s still doing things on the background, but it’s implied that what little chaos she currently causes is serving as distraction to hide her bigger plans. Persephone could possibly be introduced at this point of the story, making it clear that she knows about the events of KI:U and that she’s going to get her payback on what happened to Hades in one way or another, possibly drop an implication that she’s working together with Aphrodite. But since everything good comes to an end and so do the breather episodes, plot would go on with Aphrodite kidnapping Pit and getting Persephone to throw him into some dark part of the Underworld, maybe even to Tartarus. And now we get into the fun part of the myth, Psyche’s four tasks!

I could see the plot separating into two directions from here on, first one being Pit’s great prison escape from wherever Persephone threw him into and the second one being the titular four tasks. The prison escape is more focused on traversing the Underworld and Pit trying get out of there while Persephone throws all kinds of obstacles at him - maybe it ends with a ghost gauntlet, since Odyssey illustrated that she can summon ghosts. Arke would make a pretty great boss fight here as well, since she could be classified as a fallen angel. Maybe her motive for going after Pit is to get his wings for herself as a mean to escape, since her own ones were ripped off as punishment for siding with the Titans. But since Pit’s a brave boy, this isn’t enough to stop him and he eventually finds his way out so there could be reunion and a final battle against Persephone.

While Pit’s great prison break is going on, Aphrodite makes an empty promise to rest of the cast that she can give Pit back, with some conditions - but just like in the myth, all she actually wants is Psyche’s death so the danger factor is amped up to eleven. I honestly don’t know how the one about sorting grains could be handled I guess it could work as a puzzle chapter, but the rest work rather well without massive changes. The one about gathering te golden fleas could now take a more direct approach, the one about getting Styx’s water is now missing the helpful eagle and the Underworld trip is largely same with the exception of Persephone not being cooperative. This would be the point where the two plotlines merge together and they take Persephone down together before leaving from the Underworld. Psyche falling for Stygian sleep in this version is up to debate, I say it could work either way. It mostly depends on when she’s going to wake up - if it’s too early it might as well not matter, if it’s after the final battle I’d say that’s too late.

As one might expect Pit’s escape makes Aphrodite furious and she challenges him into a one final battle - that brat has stolen her favorite boytoy from her, satisfaction of getting rid of the annoying princess and also her chances to become the supreme goddess way too many times, she has reached her third-act breakdown and at this point she has nothing left to lose anymore. Ares isn’t going to come back to her, Psyche is not going to die and the people under her empire have started to become less dependent of her, the last thing she can do is get rid the troublesome kid that brought her into this situation. Of course Pit ends up winning, sending the goddess to Aether to hang with Hades where they can now together sulk over the fact that they got defeated by an angel. Pit triumphantly returns to Skyworld where Palutena and others have been waiting, there’s a joyful reunion between all of them and if one wants to follow the original myth at this point, Psyche could gain divinity or immortality for her bravery for standing against Aphrodite as a mere mortal. People have become immortals for dumber reasons in Greco-Roman mythology, so at least Psyche doesn’t become immortal merely because one god thought she was pretty. Have some little banter at the end between the cast and then credits can finally roll in.

When thinking of some nice bonus content, maybe there could be a secret ending player can unlock after beating all the chapters on a certain difficulty, which confirms that everyone is doing well. If we have to deal with another long hiatus that could last for decade or two or eternity, best the game can offer is closure. Pit doesn’t have to a married man with a daughter, but at least show that he’s doing well and ready for a new adventure or that he has had many of those under his belt at this point. All one can do is hope at this point that there will be a new adventure or a happy ending that ties all the loose ends together. Praise Volupta, maybe one day dreams can come true.

______

Welp, this turned out to be much more longer and heavier than I originally expected! If nothing else, that would make an interesting fanfic. Anyway, I think I made my point clear - Aphrodite has everything a big bad needs from power to personality and motives to harass the already existing KI-cast. Even if you don’t want to go with the ideas I came up with, there’s so many myths to use and modify in which she could fill the role of the main villain. And just because there’s heavy themes it doesn’t mean it has to be without humor - I mean, there’s a lot of heavy implications in KI:U yet the game still manages to be a comedy gold mine despite those heavy implications. Writers just need to know when to be serious and when levity is needed, good pacing is something that every great story needs. For some reason I could definitely see there being a gag in which Pandora has regained her true form, only for Aphrodite to snatch it away because Pandora was living on borrowed beauty anyway and she’d like to have it back.

Though I must say that I’m proud of all of these plot bunnies I came up with. It was a fun journey to me to research, overthink, adapt and mix myths while trying to imagine who could be the next possible big bad and what the plotline relating to their villainy could be. And I came out wiser from it, so I really can’t be angry over it even if it took so me so much longer than I originally planned. I never thought that me wanting to write about a Nintendo game would make me read this much about history and philosophy yet here I am. Also now when I’m thinking of it, that last one would tie a lot of threads nicely together if they had a plotline like it on a future game - Poseidon gets to be an antagonist, Apollo gets to be an antagonist, Persephone gets to be an antagonist and Aphrodite gets to be the villain. It’s so nice when things work out this well together! Dionysus is left out though, but I guess it’s not all that bad because having too many antagonists would make the plot feel overly complicated.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my thoughts of who could replace Hades as the big bad. You can’t change my mind on Aphrodite being the best possible candidate but if you disagree with me, who do you think it could be? I’m always open for discussion so feel free to talk with me. Now there’s only one question remaining on my head - if a future Kid Icarus game had Arachne, would she be a jorōgumo?

#kid icarus #kid icarus uprising #ki #kiu #pit #dark pit #palutena #viridi #tagging them all since they're relevant at certain points #and all of them expect pittoo are featured in my doodles in some way so there's that as well #does this count as a doodle dump?#bella draws #bella writes #overly long essay #mythology typical violence tw

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lilacmoon83 · 4 years

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Finding You Always

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Chapter 213: Worlds Collide, Pt 2

"So nice of you to finally join us," Agent Green said shortly.

"I'd say sorry to keep you waiting...but I'm not sorry," David retorted, as he pulled out a chair for his wife and then took his seat next to her.

"Wow Mom...that dress is hot," Emma commented. Snow smiled.

"Thanks sweetie...you look gorgeous too," Snow replied, admiring her daughter's curve hugging red dress.

"This is an FBI briefing...we don't have time for mother-daughter bonding hour," Agent Green interjected.

"Check your attitude, Agent Green," the Major warned to the seething agent.

"Fine...as you know, Mr. Clayton is expected at tonight's event next door for the debut of Ancient Wonders exhibit at the Museum of Natural History," she explained.

"This exhibit has some highly sought after artifacts, including Olmec terracotta statues, jade masks that are said to be of Mayan origin, and even an ancient Incan quipu, just newly discovered," she said, showing them a few slides.

"That's probably what they're after," Eva commented, which received attention from the entire table.

"How do you know that?" Agent Dorsey asked, narrowing his gaze.

"I mean, the Major mentioned that Natalie Zearing and her mother have been looking for Cibola or El Dorado for years. I did a little reading and an ancient newly discovered quipu might be a clue to its location," she said.

"You're the one that can read minds, right?" he asked suspiciously.

"I explained to Agent Green earlier that I don't read minds. I just read people really well and I help Belle with the research when it's needed usually," Eva replied sternly.

"She's right...is there anything else you'd like to know about the items in question and which ones we're certain they're after? Because we've already done the research while we were waiting," Belle chimed in. David smirked.

"Still think my family members need badges to do this work?" he asked smugly.

"Whatever...and yes, we think she's after the quipu for sure," Dorsey snapped.

"And one good thing about the lot of you being here is that you'll be a huge distraction and they may let their guard down," he added.

"Except that he won't," Xander interjected.

"He's right...if Junior is some kind of heir apparent to Clayton's legacy, then he knows everything about his history and us. He probably holds Snow and I personally responsible for his father's death too," David agreed.

"If he's as arrogant as his father, he'll take over the entire place in some grand display once he sees us," Snow said.

"Why would he do that? Why would he blow years of cover? And how does he expect to do something like that in a room full of cops, FBI agents, and apparently freaking magic?" Agent Green questioned.

"I don't know...but the last time we underestimated his father, we spent a year of our lives in captivity," David said.

"He's right...in my time working for Clayton, he always eluded to the fact that he had sired an heir and he was being raised to take over. I assumed he meant Cecily, but I think I was wrong about that. Clayton would favor a male heir," Xander replied.

"Chauvinist till the end," Emma commented.

"We need to be ready for anything. We may have magic, but Clayton always had ways around that, either with his own stolen magic or technology," Snow reminded them. David nodded.

"She's right...we need all your agents to be alert and ready to clear civilians from the event if things get out of hand," he said.

"This isn't what our Intel is telling us," Dorsey interjected.

"These two always come to these events and then disappear with valuable artifacts to hold their own black market auctions. Why should we think tonight is any different than the last event?" he asked.

"Because we're here now and Junior is probably chomping at the bit for revenge. Plus, he'd love to somehow capture us and force his way into the United Realms. Most of his father's collection is there in our museum," David answered.

"I don't like any of this...it's not what we've planned for," Agent Green lamented.

"If you're applying all your FBI training to this situation, dearie, then you'll be woefully unprepared," Rumple interjected.

"Because nothing can prepare you for dealing with someone of John Clayton's bloodline. He managed to get even me to underestimate him...which means he was careful over his considerable years to avoid any previous Dark Ones," he added.

"Then it's settled. David...you and your people have the lead on this. The rest of us are providing back up," the Major said.

"Whether you like it or not," she added, as the meeting concluded and they prepared to venture to the museum next door for the big event.

~*~

Johnny sighed, as his men roughed up the poor, unfortunate man that he currently had a dispute with.

"This is grotesque. Can you just end this already," Natalie complained, as he finished his drink.

"You never did have the stomach for this part of the business," he teased, as he approached and his men sat the bound man back in his chair.

"Oh Sykes...you were so loyal to my father for years. It is truly a shame that you betrayed my family so thoroughly," Johnny said.

"I didn't want to! But that woman...she killed Cecily right in front of me! I had no choice!" Billy Sykes pleaded.

"Oh, you had a choice...she would have never gained full use of my father's entire operation without your help," Johnny responded.

"She was going to kill me!" he insisted.

"No...you had all the answers. So she persuaded you instead. I know...that penthouse apartment you're living in is a nice step up from the hole in the wall you found yourself in when you were working for my sister," he said.

"Your father took care of me...but she treated me like trash!" Sykes hissed.

"Yes...and in revenge, you gave away the keys to my father's Kingdom!" he roared.

"And to the damned government!" he growled in rage.

"I...I can help get it all back! I know everything about her operation!" he claimed.

"No need...your services are no longer needed, Mr. Sykes," he said, as the fear on the other man's face was evident.

"String him up," Johnny ordered, as Billy began to plead for his life. But those pleas fell on deaf ears and Natalie groaned, before turning away.

"Why can't you just shoot him and make it quick," she complained.

"Traitors don't get a quick end, my love," he admonished, as the doors to the warehouse swung open, catching them by surprise. They had concealed this large warehouse, which was their headquarters in Boston, with his father's cloaking technology. If someone had breached it, then they definitely were in possession of magic. Johnny pulled his gun.

"Step no further, whoever you are. This gun does not shoot bullets, but rather a magic nullifying shock wave," he warned. The man put his hands up and smirked.

"Easy there, Mr. Clayton. I mean you no harm...in fact, I am here to offer my services," he said. Johnny looked at him skeptically.

"I know you...you're Fagin, the notorious loan shark and gang leader," Johnny said. The man chuckled.

"Correct...until two days ago, I was Fagin, the notorious loan shark and gang leader. I was once just a lowly pickpocket, until I climbed my way to the top of the crime food chain," he said, as he helped himself to a drink, completely un-bothered by the hanging dead man in the room.

"Boss...you want us to toss this guy?" one of his men asked.

"Not yet," Johnny said, intrigued by this man.

"So...until two days ago, you were Fagin. To whom and I speaking to now?" he questioned curiously. The man smirked and his hand came alive with fire, as he lit a cigar that he magicked into his other hand.

"I have many names. The Devil, Lucifer, Satan...but I prefer Mephisto," he said.

"But Mephisto was killed during the battle by the Charmings...or so the story goes," Johnny said with an impressed tone.

"One such as me does not just die...I merely needed a new host once my old body was destroyed. I found one and while he's not as physically imposing as I would like, he is a powerful gang leader and loan shark, with a network of crime and resources at his fingertips," Fagin replied. Johnny smirked.

"And you want to help me?" Johnny asked skeptically.

"Think about it...with me helping, not only do you get your revenge on the Charmings, but you can easily take over the world...including the United Realms," he tempted

"And all I have to do is sell my soul to you, right?" he asked. Mephisto smirked.

"Normally yes...but I'll settle for your men for now. I know you have enough of your father's tricks up your sleeve that you don't need my power," he replied. Johnny shrugged.

"Have at them," Johnny said, offering his subordinate's lives to the creature, much to Natalie's horror. Once their transformation was complete, Mephisto smirked.

"Now...it's time discuss this evening's events," he said.

~*~

James and Aphrodite appeared in the middle of town square, in Underbrooke, with Hermes.

"You have exactly seventy-two hours, no more, and then I have to retrieve you whether you have your answers or not," Hermes warned.

"I'm getting the feeling that you think this is a bad idea," Aphrodite mentioned and the other Goddess sighed.

"You're my friend and to someone that travels as much as me...I don't have many others," Hermes said.

"You think that whatever is being hidden from me is going to hurt me," she surmised.

"Yes...and I don't want that," Hermes admonished.

"I know and I love you for that. But I have to know, especially if James might be in danger just by being with me," she lamented.

"You are everything to me...I will be with you, no matter what," he promised.

"I know...but I need to know why I have so many holes in my memories," she insisted. Hermes nodded.

"Just be prepared. What you find out...you may not like," she warned, as she disappeared. Aphrodite looked at her husband, as he looked around.

"Are you sure you're okay? Coming back here has to be hard," she mentioned. He gave her a tiny smile and kissed her hair.

"It's weird, but I'm here for you and it's not like I'm staying this time," he replied.

"Well, well...aren't you a sight for sore eyes, dahling," a voice cooed and he rolled his eyes, as they turned to find Cruella De Vil there, still wearing one of her favorite fur coats.

"I guess I should have expected you'd still be here, since moving on from here would mean going to a not so great place," James retorted.

"Oh, don't tell me you've gone soft. You were so much fun when you were bad, like me," Cruella said, as she noticed the woman on his arm and laughed.

"She looks familiar, expect the hair," she teased.

"She's my wife...Aphrodite," James snapped.

"You really did go the hero path. You must be the one that gave the Charmings their pretty little cup," Cruella replied.

"I am and we have no time for you," Aphrodite said.

"Owe!" James exclaimed, as she pinched him.

"Oh...you are alive. How interesting," she mentioned. Aphrodite summoned a glowing orange ball of magic in her palm.

"Touch him again and I'll personally ask Nyx to administer final judgement to you, unfinished business or not," she threatened. Cruella smirked.

"No need to get your pretty panties in a twist, blondie. I liked him better when he was a bad boy anyway, though I'll always be here dahling if you ever tire of Ms. goody good here," she said, as she walked off.

"Well…I guess the diner is a good place to start," she mentioned.

"Hang on," he replied, as he pulled her back and into his arms, before kissing her passionately.

"You're the only woman I've been with that I truly love," he promised. She smiled shyly.

"I know," she said, taking comfort in that. She leaned her head against his arm, as they made their way to the diner and entered. They looked around and James locked eyes with George, as he sat in a booth. George looked shocked to him and the Goddess as they approached. To his credit, he didn't run and knew it was time to pay his penance.

~*~

"This is insane...we're just people," Leo complained, as they pushed through the horde of reporters and camera people at the entrance to the museum.

"Not to them. It's only been a few days since the world was introduced to your family. They aren't going away anytime soon, especially since your family that is getting their dying newspapers and dwindling social media numbers a flood of new life. Which means stories about your family are making them millions every minute," the Major said.

"And I hate everything in that sentence," Emma quipped. Patricia smiled.

"I know, but just think about the criminals you'll soon be helping to take down. Clayton's network runs deep and dismantling it will be no easy task. But a lot of bad people will end up in jail as a result," she replied.

"Let's hope so, because that's the only way any of this is worth the effort," Regina said, as they made it into the museum.

"Agent Donovan...I'm Lyle Moore, the museum curator," a man said, as he introduced himself.

"Mr. Moore...I have agents posted throughout the museum. With any luck, things will go smoothly tonight," Patricia said.

"I do not like my museum being used for some operation and if any of these priceless artifacts are damaged, I will hold you personally responsible," he replied.

"Mr. Moore...without our presence here, these priceless artifacts will most certainly be stolen. We're here to prevent that," she assured.

"Besides, the museum hasn't had press like this in years and you can thank them for that," she said, referring to Snow and David. He still didn't look happy and stalked away.

"We just make friends everywhere we go," Snow said sarcastically, making him chuckle, as he kissed her hair.

"I'm guessing those are the big finds on display," he said, referring to the items in the center of the atrium.

"Yes...the Olmec terracotta statues. They predate even the Mayan, Incan, and Aztec cultures," Patricia explained.

"A jade mask, which are rare, but have been found before. However, this one is completely in tact and nearly completely untouched. It's worth millions on its own," she continued.

"And finally a previously undiscovered quipu," she said.

"The knots and strings are a language, right?" Snow asked.

"Yes, an ancient Incan language that only a handful of people in the world can still translate," Patricia replied.

"Do they have a usual go to? Surely they've had them translated before," David said. She nodded.

"Yes, but the professor that they have paid in the past died recently. They'll be in the market for someone new. I have the names out already to agents in the field to monitor any activity with those individuals," Patricia said.

"Wait...didn't Eva take an ancient languages course with Rose a few years ago?" David asked.

"She did...but I don't know if it covered quipus, honey," Snow replied.

"It did cover them, but it's really difficult to learn. I only know the basics," Eva said, as they looked at her in surprise.

"You can read quipus?" the Major asked.

"Not entirely. I only learned the basics of the language. One with that many knots is wildly complicated," Eva replied.

"Still…I'd rather people not know that, especially the wrong people," David said protectively. She smiled.

"Don't worry Daddy…I'll be fine," Eva assured him, as the curator brought the room to attention and began his speech.

"Charming...that's him," Snow whispered, as she spotted him across the room, in a tux, with a blonde woman on his arm. The same woman that the Major had named as Natalie Zearing, the daughter of an apparent investor. He didn't turn around all the way, but instead pulled her close and looked at him out of the corner of his eye.

"Do you think they see us?" Snow whispered.

"Oh I'm sure of it," David replied.

~*~

"You were right…" Natalie said, as she sipped at her champagne. He scoffed.

"Of course I was...my father was obsessed with them. He bred me to know everything about them," Johnny replied. She smirked.

"And they know you...clearly. The fairest one of them all is trying to act like she's not looking over here," she joked. He smirked.

"I recognize that other man too...I think," she mentioned.

"Oh yes...Xander, my father's right hand, until he betrayed him," Johnny replied.

"I think my mother knew him too," she mentioned. He smirked.

"Oh, your mother knew him quite well," he confirmed. She looked at him.

"Funny...she never mentioned him to me at all," she said, but he said nothing to that.

"So...what's the plan?" she asked. He smirked.

"I am going to introduce myself," Johnny said.

~*~

"James...you're here…" he uttered and the younger man noted the sadness in his voice.

"Don't worry...we're both alive," he replied and though he was very good at hiding his emotions, the relief at that was apparent, as a bit of the tension in his shoulders disappeared.

"But you aren't anymore and imagine our surprise when an autopsy was done and it was discovered that in your last moments, you had all your faculties," James said.

"Yes...and imagine my surprise when I learned you were alive. I thought I'd have a chance to...see you again. That died when I was murdered or so I thought," George replied. But he shook his head.

"I'm not here for you. I'm here, because we know that Blue killed you. I want to know why and I want to know what it has to do with my wife's past," James demanded to know. The disgraced King looked at the blonde next to him and then back at his son.

"Not here...it's too busy," he said.

"Fine...then let's take a walk, but you're going to talk," James replied, as he took Aphrodite's hand.

"Don't worry...I'm more than ready to get this off my chest," he agreed, as they made their way out of the diner and began to walk toward the park. It was nothing like home, of course, as nothing could grow there. The red sky was also unsettling and she hated that her beloved had spent more than thirty years in this place.

"Okay...no one else is around so talk," James said.

"Who revived you? Was it you, Goddess?" George asked curiously.

"No…I do not have that power, but Zeus does. He granted Ruth a second chance to be with David and Robert. But she selflessly gave up that chance for James," Aphrodite answered.

"Is that what you were told?" George asked.

"Are you calling my mother a liar?" James asked sharply.

"No, of course not...but when Zeus is involved, there is always more to the story," George replied.

"In fact, when he died and came here, he would have most assuredly learned of what the Blue Fairy and I did. I'm surprised he has not appeared and thrown me into a fiery pit yet," he confessed.

"I doubt Zeus has any unfinished business...he would have moved on to Elysian," Aphrodite claimed. The King smirked.

"Oh no, my dear...he has plenty of unfinished business, just like I do. I'm ready to face it, despite the eternal hell awaiting me once I unburden my soul," he said. Smoke engulfed the three of them at that and they reappeared in Nyx' Throne room. The Goddess sat in her Throne, but said nothing, as a portal from Elysian appeared and Zeus stepped through it.

"Zeus…" Aphrodite uttered and the emotion on his face almost seemed foreign. He rarely had ever shown her any emotion, other than frustration and mild annoyance when she frequently disobeyed him.

"I have listed your grievances, King George and they have been heard. It is quite a list," Nyx stated. The King opened his mouth to speak, but Zeus raised his hand and the King began to choke.

"Zeus...stop! We need answers from him!" Aphrodite cried.

"The answers you seek will only hurt you...as they have hurt me. It is a burden you should not bear," he claimed.

"That's my decision!" she snapped. Zeus closed his eyes for a moment and then nodded, before releasing his hold on George.

"You will tell your part of the story, but they must know all of it and for that...we must start at the beginning," he said, as the portal of Elysian opened again and a beautiful woman with golden hair stepped through it.

"From the beginning? You mean when I arose from the sea foam?" she asked.

"You were not born full grown from the sea foam...you were born a baby like any other person," the woman said.

"Who are you?" Aphrodite asked, as James squeezed her hand, for somehow, they already knew the answer.

"She is Dione, my first wife...the only woman I ever loved," Zeus confessed.

"And your mother," he confessed, stunning her.

"If you're my father...then why hide from me?" she demanded to know tearfully.

"For your protection, my sweet daughter," Dione interjected. Aphrodite shook her head.

"I don't understand any of this," she sniffed, as James put his arms around her and kissed her hair.

"But you will and once Prince James knows of his past...he has the power to unlock all your memories," Dione said.

"Me?" James asked.

"You are her true love," Dione replied.

"Are...are you saying that the Horned King was right? Am I cursed?" Aphrodite asked.

"It's quite complicated...but in a way, yes," Zeus replied, as he looked at the disgraced King.

"Wait...my past? I know my past," James interjected.

"No...you don't," George said, as he pulled an item from his pocket and James gasped.

"That's a charm...from my mother's bracelet. From my adopted mother's bracelet," he said. He nodded.

"It's an ancient protection charm. You pulled it off her bracelet when you were two, but instead of being upset or having it reattached, she made a pin out of it and insisted you wear it always," George said.

"I know...I thought it was lost in battle," he said sternly.

"No...we took it and used the charm's enchanted nature to absorb your memories," George explained.

"Memories of what?" James asked impatiently, as George placed the charm in his hand and his eyes widened, as the memories consumed him.

~*~

Seven Years Before the First Dark Curse

Prince James expertly dueled his father's most skilled Knights in the palace courtyard. They were relentless, but the Prince was well trained and had far surpassed his teachers, which he proved when he defeated them all in the duel.

"I daresay, Your Highness, that I have nothing left to teach you," the lead Knight said.

"Very true and no offense, but I'm done spending my birthday here with all of you," James replied, as blotted the sweat from his forehead with a cloth.

"Ah yes...your twenty-first birthday. I'm sure the King will soon be choosing a bride for you," the Knight said.

"Well, then he will be sorely disappointed. Marriage should be about true love, not a business transaction," he said.

"And while Queen Serafina's sentiments about marriage are whimsical, Highness, you know as well as I do that a royal must marry for the good of his Kingdom," the Knight said, as James tossed the cloth away.

"You mean for gold. Father has emptied the royal coffers and I'm expected to get us out of this mess," he said bitterly.

"That is the life of a royal. Your life is not your own," the Knight reminded.

"We'll see," James said, as he went up to his chambers to wash up. As he entered, he closed the door and smiled when he felt a pair of arms go around his waist.

"Did I keep you waiting long?" he asked. She smiled, as he turned to face her and kissed her tenderly.

"No…I was watching you spar," she replied.

"That had to be boring," he commented.

"Not at all...I find it very interesting," she purred, as he kissed her passionately again.

"I need to clean up...maybe there's somewhere better to do that?" he asked. She grinned and they disappeared in a puff of orange smoke, before reappearing by a secluded lake, not far from Mount Olympus. Their kisses became feverish and clothes were pulled away desperately, before they waded into the water. He held her flush against him, as he kissed her passionately all over, her lips, her throat, and her breasts.

"James…" she pleaded, as she wrapped her legs around him and he kissed her again before sliding inside her. They made love in the water, passionately and desperately, starved for the pure pleasure that came with their coupling. She collapsed against him amidst a powerful climax and he came not far behind her. They held each other in the water for several long moments, before they proceeded to dry off and make camp for the night. Later, as they cuddled together, beneath thick blankets, on the heels of another bout of lovemaking, he finally spoke.

"I'm going to leave…" he said.

"James...are you sure? That Throne is your birthright," she replied.

"And I want no part of it if it means I can't marry you," he said.

"If gold is what he wants, I can magic him enough for a lifetime," she said.

"If only it was just that. But it's more about power for him. He has his sights set on Midas' Kingdom. He wants a merger, which means me eventually being forced to marry Princess Abigail," he replied. A spark of possessiveness moved through her at that and perhaps a tiny bit of jealousy. The thought of him being with another woman made her want to rage. But he would be forced to produce an heir, even if he continued to carry on with her on in the shadows.

"I won't do that to you...I won't have my true love as my mistress. I will have you as my only," he said, surprising her.

"Reading my mind again?" she teased.

"It's all over your face. You hate Abigail and you don't even know her," he teased back.

"I don't hate her...it's not like it would be her choice either, I'm sure. I would like to turn your father into a snail though," she said. He laughed heartily.

"Go for it...he's barely a father," he replied.

"Where will we go?" she asked.

"Anywhere...you're a Goddess. But if you really can pull it off, then we should leave this realm. My father is sore loser. He'll never stop hunting us," he replied.

"Hermes told me about a place...there's no magic there and it is very different. But she said it's peaceful. There are no royals or Kingdoms. Just people living their lives freely," she said. He smiled.

"Sounds too good to be true, but I'm certainly all for it," he replied. She smiled and kissed him, as they got dressed.

"I have to go to her Temple to summon her, but I'm ready when you are," she said. He nodded.

"I'll be here when you get back," he said, as he kissed her passionately and she disappeared. James heard a noise and unsheathed his sword.

"Show yourself!" he called into the darkness and was shocked to see his father and his lead Knight emerge.

"Hello son…" George said.

"How did you find me?" James demanded to know.

"I've had Knight Rivers tracking you and the Goddess on your excursions for months," George revealed.

"I'm not an unreasonable man. I wouldn't have cared if you kept her as a mistress. But you will not marry her, nor will you abandon your duty to your Kingdom," George said.

"I love her...what we have is far deeper than physical," James growled.

"Love is a poison...and I cannot risk the future of my Kingdom on love," George replied.

"You won't stop me," James challenged, but he was hit with a wave of blue fairy dust and fell unconscious to the ground, as the Blue Fairy emerged from the sky and became full sized.

"Are you sure this will work?" George questioned. She nodded.

"When he awakens, not only will all his memory of her be purged, he'll be easily malleable into whatever you want him to be," Blue said.

"Good...we may make a strong King out of him yet, once I beat all the love and good out of him," George said, as he looked at the head fairy, who was supposed to stand for good and love.

"And the Goddess?" he asked.

"Don't worry...she'll be dealt with as well. This isn't the first time I've destroyed her and it won't be the last," Blue replied. He looked curious at that.

"Why do you hate her?" he questioned and Blue glared at him.

"That's my business," Blue said, as she disappeared.

"Take him back to the castle. His reconditioning begins when he awakens. With true love purged from his soul...he'll be the ruthless King that we need someday," George said, as his lead Knight lifted the Prince onto his horse.

~*~

Blue reappeared in the Temple of Hermes and saw Aphrodite laying unconscious at Hera's feet.

"We have but a small window. Zeus and Hermes left the realm on an urgent matter, but I doubt they will be gone for long," Hera said.

"If Zeus finds out that the two of us and King George are directly responsible for destroying her true love once again, he'll make us wish for death," Blue warned. Hera smirked.

"He doesn't even know she was with him again. He has been too preoccupied with his own conquests lately and has left her to her own devices. He'll regret that," Hera said.

"We know why I hate her...but why do you?" Blue asked.

"You know why. Zeus never loved me or any of his conquests. Only Dione had his heart and therefore his precious spawn he had with her. I am always in the shadow of her beauty and goodness," Hera said.

"And if I will never have true love with her father...then she will never have true love with hers, no matter how many times Zeus brings him back," she added. Blue smirked.

"As long as she's in pain...that's all I care about. After what she did to me...I will make sure her immortality is spent in loneliness and pain," Blue said.

"We make a good team, as always," Hera agreed, as she poofed the water from the river Leche that she had acquired from Hades and forced it down the blonde's throat.

"Hermes will be back soon...we must go," Hera said, as they disappeared.

~*~

Hours Later

Zeus was fuming once again, for when he returned to Hermes temple, they had found Aphrodite unconscious. Athena had determined that water from the river Leche was administered to her, but they had no culprit. He had the usual suspects in mind, but he could not make accusations without proof; something he was sure the perpetrators were counting on.

"And you're sure they were together again?" Zeus questioned.

"I'm sure...I saw them," Athena replied.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded to know.

"You've been a little occupied lately," she snapped in return and he scoffed.

"I am never too busy for my beloved gift...the only thing I have left of my Dione," he confessed.

"I know what people, Gods and mortals alike, think of me. And my daughter always pays for my sins and the hatred against me," he said.

"But no more," he continued.

"You are going to purge those facts from every book in this realm and every memory," he declared.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Athena asked.

"It is in her best interest. Having me as a father brings her nothing but pain and when her true love dies again, as we know he will thanks to the curse, he will not be reborn this time," Zeus decreed.

"What!? Why would you do that to her!?" Athena cried.

"I cannot keep seeing her lose her true love! Even if her memory of him has been wiped away each time, the pain is still there in the fiber of her being. I cannot keep seeing her suffer," he said.

"And soon...she will have new charges. It's almost time. She will focus all her energy on them and perhaps they will not be utter failures like the Dragon King and Queen were," he added.

"Evil has had six hundred unhindered years to fester with none to stand for love and justice. Perhaps the only way to free her of this burden is to allow her true love to die so she can nurture and protect her charges this time from all they are facing," he said.

"They are coming into quite a challenging time," Athena agreed.

"But are you sure letting her true love stay dead is really the answer?" she asked.

"Yes...it's as I said. I cannot keep seeing her go through this and if I ever get the proof I need, I will go after the culprits. They will suffer," he promised. Athena nodded, as she cast a glance at her sleeping half-sister. She had always been Olympus' greatest light and had endured more pain than anyone should, mortal or immortal. If this spared her some of that pain, then she knew that was what they needed to do.

"And you're sure she'll never remember her entire past?" Athena asked.

"Not unless we allow it," Zeus replied. She nodded.

"Then it will be done," Athena confirmed.

~*~

James came out of the trance with a start and looked at her, remembering their past.

"You mean...everything I did. All the bad things…" he uttered.

"Was because I erased your memories of her...and it darkened your soul," George said, as his son punched him in the face. He stumbled back, but James grabbed him by the collar and moved him toward the river of lost souls.

"James!" Aphrodite called, cutting through his rage. His chest heaved, as he tried to get control of his anger. He released the evil King and turned back to her.

"If I give her true love's kiss, now that I know, will it return all her memories?" he asked. Zeus and Dione nodded.

"Yes...all of them and more that you must know as well. What you just remembered is only the tip of everything," Zeus replied.

"Will it cause her pain?" James asked tearfully.

"Immense pain...but also great joy. And with her curse broken, perhaps there will be no more pain," Dione revealed.

"James…" Aphrodite murmured, as he took her in his arms and kissed her passionately. A wave of pure rainbow light erupted from their kiss and her eyes widened in shock, as they were both plunged into a river of memories…

~*~

Fandral dismounted his horse and Zorro arrived shortly behind him.

"Anything?" he asked.

"Afraid not...but she is a fairy. She knows how to hide," Zorro replied. He sighed and his lead Knight clapped him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry...we shall find her. I imagine when Snow and David return and learn of what has occurred, they will deal with her permanently," he said. Fandral nodded.

"I'm sure you're right. Send out the second shift patrol and I will see you in the morning," Fandral said, as he went inside and found his beloved Rose in her library, on her ladder putting a book away.

"You're back...did you find her?" she asked, as he helped her down.

"I'm afraid not," he replied, as he kissed her tenderly.

"Well, you'll get her...I have faith," she said, before kissing him again.

"What's this?" he asked, noticing the book she had set aside.

"Answers...at least I think they might be. I know Aphrodite went to the Underworld to find her answers from the source, but I thought maybe we could have Tink use her magic to translate this book. If we know more about Blue and her history with Aphrodite, maybe it will help us find her," Rose said.

"It certainly couldn't hurt," he agreed.

"Good...because we're taking the kids to the diner and meeting her and Neal there," she mentioned. He chuckled and kissed her again.

"Sounds perfect, my angel," he said.

~*~

"What is this?" Leo asked, as he and Emma browsed the food table.

"I don't know...but it looks nasty," Emma complained.

"All of this does...where's the real food?" she asked.

"Well, there is shrimp. That's a plus," he said, as they both ate one.

"True...but I can't fill my empty stomach with just shrimp," she replied.

"Mom...what is this?" Leo asked.

"Well, if I had to guess, it's probably Escargot," she replied, as she stood beside them while David got them more champagne. Leo wrinkled his nose.

"You mean like snails?" he asked in disgust. She chuckled.

"Yes sweetheart...this is kind of a fancy party. They're not going to have diner fare," she replied.

"Well, they don't know what they're missing. I'll take Granny's any day over this crap," Leo complained.

"Right…Killian told me I didn't need my emergency pack of pop-tarts. Trust me, he's never going to hear the end of it," Emma said.

"Hey...we have magic here. We can just magic some," Leo replied. Emma smirked.

"Forget the pop-tarts. I'm going to magic a pizza," she said.

"No…" Snow admonished.

"You two could learn to expand your palette a bit," she teased.

"We will when Dad does...he won't eat Escargot either," Leo pointed out.

"He's right about that," David agreed, as he returned with her champagne.

"Face it Snow...your husband and children eat like ten-year-olds," Regina quipped.

"Please, you prefer pizza and shooting zombies over this kind of party any day," Leo quipped back and she smirked.

"Touche…" she agreed.

"Speaking of parties...this one is about to get less lame I think," Xander mentioned, as they saw Natalie and Johnny approach Summer, JJ, Eva, and Bobby, who were looking at the artifacts on display.

"Oh he is far too close to my babies…" Snow said, as David put his arm around her waist.

"Easy...let's not spook him. Come on," he said, as they approached. Leo, Emma, and Xander followed. The time for confrontation had come.

"Wow…" JJ said, as he examined the quipu as close as he could through the glass container around it.

"It's hard to believe that those knots and strings are a language," he mentioned.

"It truly is...I always found this stuff the most interesting in the history courses I took," Eva agreed.

"It's even more interesting in person," a woman said, as Eva turned to find the woman they had identified as Natalie Zearing. But it was the man next to her that gave her the creeps. She could see Clayton in him and realized he had the same smug smile as his evil father.

"You would know," Bobby commented and she smirked in amusement.

"Wow...that's actually refreshing. Don't hold back, kid," she commented. Johnny chuckled.

"That tactlessness is a famous Charming trait," he mentioned.

"So is defeating evil," Summer added.

"She's right," Snow agreed, as she and Charming arrived. Johnny smirked.

"Xander...long time no see. I was just a wee lad the last time I saw you. About the same age your son was when you abandoned him I think," he jabbed. Xander tried to advance on him for that, but Leo held him back.

"Easy Gramps...that's what he wants," Leo warned. His smirk widened.

"The truest loves...what an honor it is to finally meet face to face. I know your legacy well," he said.

"No doubt...your father had a sick obsession with us," David retorted. Johnny smirked again.

"Oh, the obsession part is true, but it goes far beyond just the two of you," he said.

"We know...it's the chalice he was obsessed with and I have a feeling you're the same," Snow replied. He shrugged.

"I only want what was promised to me. My legacy...which was stolen by that woman," he said, pointing at the Major.

"We don't like the way she went about any of that either, but you are not a victim in this. We know what you've both done and that collection that is your so called legacy? Your father stole it all. Thankfully, we gave it back to the people and it's in a museum where it belongs, just like these items are," David said.

"Wow...you really take that hero thing to a new level," Natalie replied.

"Just keep your sticky fingers off the artifacts and we won't have a problem," David retorted. Johnny smirked again.

"Oh…I'm afraid we can't do that," he said, as the room erupted in chaos when fire burst forth from the floor, sending the entire atrium into hysteria.

"It can't be...he's dead," Leo said, as he recognized the fiery horror that had just erupted around them.

"Only my previous host body is dead, Charming Junior, but my essence will always live on. I have chosen a new host," Mephisto said, as he emerged from the flames. But they didn't back down and they stood between this monster and the innocent people around them. JJ's eyes widened, as he saw a stream of fire coming at him, but was relieved when he safely found himself in a bubble.

"Thanks…" he said in relief.

"This is going to get messy...let's get people out of here," Eva suggested, as they started helping Robin and Belle do exactly that.

"The best thing about this new host is that he is known as Fagin and he came with a criminal network and a gang," Mephisto said, as several heavily armed men stormed into the museum and fired their guns into the ceiling, sending screaming people looking for a way out. Rumple quickly took care of that though and all their weapons disappeared, shocking them. The goons managed though, finding whatever objects they could to use as weapons. Emma and Leo stepped into subdue them and keep them from hurting others.

Johnny took the opportunity to smash the glass on the exhibits, allowing he and Natalie to grab the priceless artifacts, before making a run for it.

"Go...you two need to stop them! We'll handle Mephisto and his goons!" Regina called. Snow and David nodded, as Xander followed them and they gave chase...

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littlemisskookie · 7 years

Text

Artemis

Greek Gods Prologue Poseidon Aphrodite Ares Artemis Interlude Hades Hermes Zeus Ship: Princess!Reader | Peasant!Hoseok Description: He was but a stable boy, and you were a princess in search of a friend. Little did you know what would last forever- and what wouldn’t. Warnings: Death, Intercourse, Possessiveness, Oral, Petting, Light Angst, Slight Violence, Fluff Word Count: 12,456 A/N: It took me wayyyy longer to write this than I expected. Sorry for the wait!

Believe it or not, long ago money didn't give you freedom. Long ago, it gave you restraints. The higher you were on the social ladder, the less freedom you were permitted. The more strings were tied to your wrists, making you dance as though you stood on hot coals. You wouldn't be permitted to do so much as glance the wrong way. It was the price to pay for the luxurious life, you suppose. Being the princess of the kingdom, and all.

You and your younger sister were the heiresses to the kingdom, being permitted to rule despite the fact you were female. You were the elder one, already destined to have the throne. And because of it, you were bred to rule. You were made to be responsible, elegant, and dignified. You were taught how to be logical and to know extensive information on politics as well as local kingdoms and languages.

But sadly enough, your entire life, you found it all... well, boring.

You were seventeen, already being stuffed into corsets. You were allowed to have a half hour break, and you decided going horseback riding would be a good way to pass the time. Though your ladies in waiting frowned at the thought, you insisted that if you had to spend another minute in that stuffy palace, you'd drown yourself in the pudding that would be served for dessert.

Though that really wouldn't be a bad way to go, really.

Still, though you really did want to go alone, you weren't permitted to. You were a princess, after all, and who knew when the palace would come under attack. But none of the ladies in waiting thought it would be proper to ride a horse by themselves, and eventually, you were forced to ride alongside a stable boy. You didn't mind that too much. You simply hoped he wouldn't fret over you too much like other servants. And he was cute, which was a bonus. About your age.

He was on a horse slightly larger than your own, his own horse a jet black color. Yours was closer to a buttercup color. You were thankful he hadn't insisted on you gripping onto his waist and riding the same horse.

"Why do you ride your horse like that? It's far more unstable," he pointed out, noting how both of your legs were swung over the same side.

You looked down, noting how your ankles were crossed. "Well, it's the only way I was taught to ride. I mean, women can only ride horses like this. If I sat like you, it'd be considered unladylike."

"Your Highness, no one else is here but us. I'd feel more comfortable if you rode it securely," he mentions, looking around. True. The two of you were on a trail in the small patch of woods behind the palace. You glanced at him warily, still unsure. "I promise I won't tell. I'm just a stable boy anyways, they wouldn't care what I was to say."

"Fair enough," you say, struggling to hike your leg over the other side of the horse, though your heavy skirt prevented you from doing it easily. You looked at him, raising your brows to see if you did it correctly. He smiled, nodding.

"That's better," he said. "It's much better to ride that way. You're less likely to fall off that way."

You felt pride swell in your chest from his praise, glad that he was satisfied. The two of you continued along the trial. "Say... what's your name?"

"Hoseok," he says, eyes looking up to how the sunlight burst through the small crevices between the leaves and branches. "I'm the stable boy, but they say once I hit eighteen I'll begin training to be a hunter."

"That's nice," you say. "My name's Diana... In case you'd like to know."

He looks at you with alarm, eyes wide. "Your Highness, I wouldn't be permitted to be on a first name basis."

"Why? You told me yours, why can't you call me by my own?" you counter.

"It's not proper," Hoseok excused. "I mean... you're allowed to call me whatever you wish, but if I did the same to you? I don't think Your Majesties would take too kindly to that. My opportunity to become a hunter may be taken away."

You hummed. "Well, what about this. You and I go horseback riding- you'll accompany me for protection of course. And during these breaks you forget I'm a princess, and I'll forget you're a stable boy... Maybe we can be like two normal teenagers for those few minutes."

"You realize that could get us in trouble, though, right?" he asked, eyes scanning your own as though to see if it were some sort of trick.

You smirked at him, "What's life without a little risk? Besides, it'll stay just between you and me. I think it'd keep me from going insane to have a friend- even if it's just for half an hour. I'd like to forget about ruling a kingdom and spend time just being me."

"You've got a deal then... Diana," Hoseok says, a small smile tugging at his lips. Your name sounded so foreign on his lips. "Who would I be to deny that request?"

"Not a servant, but a friend," you say, reaching over to pat his hand on the reins. "Besides, you're pretty cute."

His cheeks burned with that statement, and you sensed that you had gone too far. You coughed awkwardly, going forward as your horse trotted along the trail.

"God, it's stuffy in this dress," you murmur, finding yourself profusely sweating.

"Why do they have you guys wear those? Not even the servant girls wear things like that," Hoseok asks, eyeing the thick fabric.

"To make it harder for us to run away," you sigh.

"Maybe you could wear something lighter underneath when we go horseback riding, and take off the dress and put it back on when we're done," Hoseok suggests.

"That's actually a good idea!" you remark. "Though I doubt I have anything light. Everything's either expensive, poofy, or horrendous."

"I'm sure you'll be able to find something," Hoseok says, shrugging. He looks back, "You know, I think we ought to turn back now. You need to be inside at this time."

"Alright, that's fine," you say, tugging on the reins to steer the horse. "Can we do this again? Tomorrow? Same time?"

"Sure," Hoseok says. The two of you trotted down the path, and you tried your best to hide the smile on your face by the time you got back to the others. Your glee was hard to mask as Hoseok took your hand and helped you hop off, though you noticed a few dirty glances from your ladies in waiting, and noted that you should swing your legs back to the 'proper' way once you were to return next time.

Still, you couldn't help but sneak glances to the stable boy as he brought the horses back to their stables. Even as the ladies brushed your poofy skirt and fretted over your hair, you found your mind on other matters. It lasted for the rest of the day, even as the tutor swatted your wrist, and your parents gave you questioning stares during dinner.

But you were stuck in a daydream, so eager for your next meeting with the stable boy.

"Part of me thought you weren't going to show up or agree to this," you said, your horse trotting closer to his. You felt elated. The night before you started to have anxious feelings, feeling nervous about your next meeting with the boy.

"Well, I see no reason to refuse," Hoseok smiled warmly, letting you take the lead on the trail. "To betray your trust would be treason."

"And don't you forget it," you teased, giddy as the two of you disappeared out of sight. You hiked your leg over the other side and started bunching your skirt up on either side to raise it up to your thighs. "I couldn't find any pants or anything- so the best I could do was this nightgown."

You quickly undo it, thankful that you had insisted on wearing the underdress beneath the poofy skirt. You still had your corset on over it, but it'd have to do, despite how odd it seemed. Still, the silk of the nightgown with the tight tug of the corset was a relief compared to the layers and layers of fabric that you typically wore. You stuffed it in the small purse attached to the saddle, making sure it wouldn't slip out and fall to the floor.

You glanced up at Hoseok, whose eyes were glued to your figure. You looked down, your cheeks turning crimson. "It doesn't look too ridiculous, does it?" you asked, worried. You certainly didn't want to look like some sort of joker.

"What?" his head snapped up, his cheeks burning. "No, no, it looks fine. Trust me."

"Oh, good," you sigh, letting your horse trot along. The two of you began to talk about simple things. You asked about his duties, and most of the chores he had to do. He said he was rather good with animals, most notably dogs, and horses. He asked you about the sort of things you got to learn, and you told him about the plots of your favorite books as well as the different countries and kingdoms you were allied with. He seemed to enjoy the stories mostly, and you made a note to read more in order to entertain him more. He told you a bit about what else he would learn if he got the opportunity to become the hunter's apprentice, and you shared about some of the gossip the ladies would tell you.

And that was the beginning of your friendship with your precious little stable boy.

"Some of the ladies have told me that you've been spending an awfully long time with one of the stable boys," your mother, the queen notes during one of your tutoring sessions. You glance up at her. It had been months since you began riding with Hoseok, and never before had anyone decided to speak to you about it.

"I wouldn't say I've been spending a terrible amount of time with him," you note, flipping one of the pages of the books you were studying. "Only half an hour with him during my break."

"I do hope it's not keeping you away from your studies," she says, her voice stony and calculated.

"No, mother," you sigh. "He simply talks to me and protects me in case someone were to attack. He isn't a distraction."

The door opens, and you see your father, the king, step inside. "Ah, Diana! Dear," he says, kissing your mother's cheek. "How are your studies going, dear?"

"Fine," you say, thankful for your father's intrusion. He was probably with your little sister.

"We were simply talking about that stable boy she's been spending time with. You know, who I mentioned to you last night," your mother informs him.

"Ah, yes! Do tell me a bit about that," the king asks, turning to you.

"Well, we simply talk. We go horseback riding with each other, and he's there for protection," you say, trying not to say anything that might result in you or Hoseok getting in trouble.

"Does he know how to protect you?" your father quirks a brow.

"Well, he may start training soon to become a hunter. Then he'd learn knife skills and archery and that sort. That is if he gets the position," you say.

"Well, we'll have him promoted immediately! No way I'll have the future queen in danger," the king smiles. You find yourself grinning. Hoseok would be elated to hear this news!

"Now, dear," your mother clears her throat, interrupting the joyous moment. "While your father and I don't exactly have any... arguments, against you being friends with a servant. I mean, even your father has befriended some knights, and I myself my ladies, it is rather odd for you to become friends with someone so low on the social ladder..."

"I know, mother," you sigh. "But please don't take this away from me. It's nice to see another perspective on things. The ladies can be so frugal at times, and everyone here seems to have a mask, too afraid of not seeming perfect. It's nice to have a break."

She purses her lips, looking through your eyes as though trying to see whether or not you were insulting her as well. "Well... I suppose we can permit it. Your father will see to it that he gets elevated to the hunter's apprentice, and we will permit the two of you to spend an hour away from your duties together. But I do want you to keep in mind, Diana, that you are a princess, and he is a mere pauper."

You wince at her words, and your father reaches behind you, massaging your tense shoulders.

"Don't look so glum, darling. You knew things like this would happen. With your future and potential, you're bound to leave people behind. That's why we're permitting you to make a friend, though I think we both know this won't last long," your father says.

"I know," you say quietly. "I just don't want to think of it like that, I guess."

Your father smiles warmly, stepping away to your mother's side. "We're glad you understand, dear."

"Could I at least get some riding clothes?" you request. Your mother gives you a horrified look, and you hastily try to reword your question. "I mean- I don't want to get my dresses dirty. No one will see anyway, so it won't be scandalous. I just need something easier to move in. Horseback riding is hard in a stuffy dress."

Your father laughed, his hand on your mom's stiff shoulder. "Would you look at that, dear? Instead of a queen, we're raising a king!" He laughed boisterously, though your mother didn't seem nearly as amused. "Very well, then! We'll get you a cape and some trousers. The two of you will be like brothers, I'm sure. Perhaps you'll learn a thing or two about your subjects for your future rule."

"Diana!" Hoseok called, his smile bright. Your horse trotted closer, and your smile was equally as bright. Five years had passed since you first befriended the boy, and you dared to say you were in love with him. Though you could never reveal your feelings towards him. As much as the two of you liked to pretend you were normal, even you knew this couldn't last much longer. At least, not until your coronation. But you'd appreciate the moments you had left with your true love.

You were dressed in a customary cape of a velvety red, one your father suggested and your mother reluctantly agreed to. Your pants were perhaps your favorite part of your entire closet.

Hoseok looked as dashing as ever. Age had treated him kindly, and instead of the scrawny stable boy, he had become a well built young man. The two of you were twenty-two by now, and each getting closer and closer to your impending fates, though you both knew it would tear the two of you apart. He had begun his training to become a hunter and was already incredibly skilled. He was the right-hand man to the headhunter, and rumor had it that some of the hunters were even starting training to become assassins or spies of some sort. While you doubted it, you knew if it were true Hoseok would be in that special group. After all, he was easily the most skilled of them all.

"Hey, Hobi," you say, reaching over to ruffle his hair. He smiled warmly at you, and you felt those familiar butterflies in your stomach. However, you had mastered the art of keeping your heart on your cheek, and so Hoseok was none the wiser. Ironic, since you started this friendship with the hopes of being able to be yourself, and yet you were hiding your feelings from the person who meant the most to you.

"Hey yourself," he chuckles, flipping the hood of your cape up and over your face, making you stoop over. "Guess what I brought."

"What?" you asked, swiping the hood off your head. You saw the quiver on his back, filled with arrows, accompanied by his bow. Your eyes lit up, and you beamed happily at him. "You mean-?"

"You're already pretty good at throwing knives," Hoseok chuckles as his horse enters the small clearing the two of you usually hung out at. "I figured you'd be prepared for this."

"Finally, I shall learn from the master!" you boasted, your voice haughty as you teased him. Hoseok was well known for his archery, and it was his best skill. He was even claimed as the most skilled archer in the kingdom. He had finally agreed, after you begging practically forever, to teach you how to throw knives. That was months ago, however, though you always took the opportunity to brush up on your skills.

In the clearing where the two of you typically lounged was a target. You had one of the knights give it to you, after copious flattery and decided to bring it here once Hoseok reluctantly decided to teach you some of the things he knew. You weren't amazing at it, and a long shot from Hoseok, who had mastered that skill as well, but you were fairly decent. In return for those lessons, you had taught him to read. Though he still preferred for you to read aloud to him, when you'd rest your head in his lap or vice versa, and you'd read your favorite stories or things you thought he'd be interested in. You preferred the action and fast-paced novels, and he preferred the ones that involved elements of horror or deeper psychological understanding. You suspected he still kept it a secret that he knew how to read, but you didn't say a word. You didn't know why he'd hide it since it was a rather useful skill.

Some nights the two of you would just lay in the grass, talking or complaining about your days, playing with each other's hair and telling jokes. Other days you'd be practicing together, as he'd help your aim, and the two of you would jump and cheer once you'd make the occasional bullseye.

The target was worn and had many marks and holes in it, but you didn't want to ask for another. Maybe you were oddly sentimental, but when it came to your beloved Hoseok, you wanted to hold onto what little you could while you still had the chance.

Soon enough Hoseok was pulling you into position, your right hand drawn back, and the left on the bow. You held the arrow in position, though noticed how it veered to the side. Hoseok chuckled, placing the stick back where it belonged. He stood behind you, his nimble fingers placed over yours as he fixed your posture.

"You're too stiff," he murmured, lips brushing yours as he helped your aim, having it where the point of the arrow was centered with the middle of the target. "Probably from balancing books on your head."

"Shut up," you rolled your eyes, your cheeks burning.

"As you wish, Your Highness," he chuckled.

You stiffened even more, wanting to turn and scold him properly. But with how close your bodies were at the moment, and the fact you were holding onto a weapon, that wasn't exactly easy. "I told you not to call me that."

"I know," he laughed, and you could practically feel him smiling as he pressed his cheek against the side of your head, trying to relax your posture. "I just want you to call you that before I have to address you as Your Majesty."

Your shoulders drooped at the reminder. You didn't like to talk about the future with him. It wasn't exactly something you enjoyed. Hoseok was the present, and that was all you really wanted to focus on.

"There we go, let go of those tense shoulders," he says. "You have to be relaxed. If you're too tense, it doesn't help. You won't be able to aim well, and your vision gets blurry. You need to remain one with the arrow, and let it soar through the air as you wish you could. Let it be your wings and-" he tugged your wrist back, and you let go of the arrow, letting it spin in mid-air and land in the middle of the target. Bullseye. "-you will learn to fly."

"I wouldn't have been able to do that without you," you say.

"No one would've. You should've seen when I first did it," Hoseok said as he stepped back, a fond smile on his face as he recounted the memory. "I think I shot it over the palace."

You snorted, laughing at the thought of someone as golden as Hoseok messing up at something. "Mhm, sure you did," you say with disbelief.

"You think I'd lie?" Hoseok questions, laughing.

"No, you're too good for that," you snicker, rolling your eyes. You pull another one of the arrows from the quiver on the ground, though it took a lot of difficulty from the unexpected weight. You drew your bow back, placing the arrow where you needed to, and let it fly... to the tree.

"Well, you'll learn," Hoseok smiled, admiring your frustrated expression.

"Mhm," you hum. "Now, are you just going to stand there and stare or are you going to teach me, Hobi?"

The entire palace was buzzing. Servants whispered to each other, and everyone was bustling around, preparing food or rooms and everything they could think of. You weren't sure what the fuss was about, but suspected it had something to do with you. More eyes seemed to be on you and your ladies in waiting than usual, and though you pestered your gossipy girls to tell you what was the news that had everyone excited, they told you they weren't permitted to spill.

You were to find out eventually, though, when your parents called you to the throne room. You dismissed your ladies in waiting, as you were permitted to do when in the presence of your parents. That and knights lined the walls, waiting for the chance to impale any intruder.

"You called me?" you say, curtseying before them.

Your mother was positively beaming, her pearly whites gleaming at you all the way from her throne. "Our dearest Diana, we have exciting news for you."

"Oh? What is it?" you ask, waiting for the information you had been absolutely dying to know all day.

"It appears that one of our greatest allies- well, one of the neighboring kingdoms we have been wishing to become allies with because they would be a great asset to us... has sent us a suitor," your father proudly announced.

The blood drained from your face, and you looked at him with an expression of absolute shock. "A... Could you please repeat that?"

"The nearby prince is coming here tonight! And he plans to ask for your hand in marriage," your mother confirmed. "Aren't you excited?"

"I... I see," you say. "Maybe I'll be more excited when I see him."

"You shall be! Word is he's very handsome. We wouldn't want our future queen settling for any less," your father joked. "My, this must be very exciting for you. You'll finally be wed!"

"Our little girl is growing up so fast," your mother agreed.

Too fast.

True. It was considered a bit late for you to be getting married, and this wasn't the first suitor you had. But time and time again you had insisted you were too young, or that the guy wasn't very compatible with you, or simply that the alliance didn't seem to be worth it when something better could come along. But based on your parents' shining faces, you knew this was a request- no, a command- from one of the bigger kingdoms that even rivaled your own. The two kingdoms were very close to each other in size, and word had it they had access to products your kingdom never even dreamed of.

You needed this.

Would you be so selfish to deny your kingdom this?

You didn't know. You needed Hosoek. Hurriedly you excused yourself, running to your bedroom chambers to the ladies in waiting, who asked about your reaction to the prince arriving tonight. You wanted to bite at them how he could drown in a river for all you cared, but you knew that would be inappropriate. Instead, you simply smile and say how excited you were before insisting they change you out fo your daily attire and instead in your playthings, which they liked to call the pants.

Before long you were in the clearing, five minutes early. You tied your horse to the small post, letting it stay there as you marched around the clearing. You were so frustrated, your cape flying behind you and flapping furiously. You kicked at the target, which refused to budge. You let out a cry, wanting to rip out your hair.

Finally, you heard the golden footsteps of another horse and saw Hoseok enter the clearing. He hopped off the horse, guiding it near your own to tie it to the post. He looked at you somberly, and both of you had downcast expressions.

You rubbed your arm, suddenly feeling silent as he stepped in front of you. Both of you were adults. You knew this was bound to happen.

Then why did it feel so fucking horrible? You didn't even know if he felt the same way about you.

"Hey..." you mumble, unsure what else to say.

"Hey," he says softly. He tilts your chin up, making your eyes meet his.

You didn't know what he planned to do, and for a moment the two of you are just scanning each other's faces, trying to search for any sign, answer- anything.

You move his hand away, taking a few steps back. "I guess you already know, huh?"

"The entire palace knows," he says. "I wouldn't be surprised if the kingdom did as well."

"Figures I'm the last one to know," you snort, shaking your head as you let out a bitter laugh. "I... I've prepared and I've been groomed for this moment, for this opportunity, for my kingdom... I can't really be selfish, can I?"

"I suppose you can't," Hoseok mumbled.

"Hobi..." you say softly. "I think our days are numbered."

"They always were," he answers.

"Well, if they are, then I do want to tell you something. Before I'm married, before I'm queen, before I'm not allowed to do or say what I want anymore," you sigh. Why are your hands shaking? "I love you. You've been my best friend through these years, someone who knows me better than I know myself, someone who I can forget to keep appearances with. Who I don't have to hold a mask up in front of, except when it comes to my feelings. But I want our last moments to be completely honest with each other, even if it's for better or worse."

Hoseok is silent for a few moments. "Diana... I'm just a hunter. When you first met me I was a mere stable boy."

"This isn't about a princess and a pauper," you argue. "This is about a boy and a girl... And I don't care who I am, or who you are. I know that because no matter what, if you were a king or a scoundrel, I'd love you the same."

Hoseok holds your hands in his, letting his thumbs brush over the top of them tenderly. "You know... it's scary, loving you."

"And it's bittersweet loving you," you say, tears pricking the corners of your eyes. You bring his hands up to your face, letting him wipe away the tears. "But it was worth it. It is worth it."

"You know it can't last forever," he says quietly, trying to be realistic.

"This will," you say, placing his hand over your heart, letting him feel the beats and pumps beneath his palm. It belonged to him. Each and every beat. "But we won't."

He was silent, closing his eyes as he felt each and every beat of your heart. He stepped closer, hands sliding down your arms to your hands, and the two of you shared your very first, tender kiss. It tasted like salt, however, from the tears.

The suitor was handsome enough, you supposed. His name was Sehun. He was exactly the type of royal you'd expect. Impeccable posture, chiseled features, stony features.

The only problem was that he wasn't Hoseok.

You found it hard to figure out what your suitor was trying to say to you, however, from the fact you were still staring at your gloved hand, knowing beneath the silk fabric was a small cut on the side of your ring finger, on your left hand, in the shape of an arrow. What was even better was the fact that it matched Hoseok's, who you knew had the same shape.

"Your Highness." Your head snaps up, seeing how Sehun was staring at you, his expression amused from the fact you weren't paying attention during dinner. You glanced at your sister, a mere teenager, who was so entranced by Sehun's beauty she wasn't even looking your way. You wished she were the older sister, honestly. That way you could quietly run away with what was once your stable boy.

"I asking what was your favorite kind of gemstone," he repeated, taking a bite of his meal. "You know, for your ring. I want you to have the best."

"Oh, yes," you cleared your throat. He never officially proposed to you, but the pompous bastard knew he was too good to get on one knee, dare he get stains on those priceless pants of his. He knew he had it in the bag anyway, and you were in no position to say no.

"Moonstone," you say. It reminded you of an inside joke between you and Hoseok, how he was the Sun and you were his moon. It was made after you read him a story about how the Sun died every night to let the moon breathe. Suddenly the joke wasn't so funny anymore.

"Is that a moonstone?" Sehun asked you. "I thought you'd suggest something along the lines of... perhaps a diamond? Or ruby?"

"Is there a problem with a moonstone? Surely that wouldn't be too hard for you to find," you challenge, narrowing your eyes carefully at the man.

"No... that should be no problem at all," Sehun said, eyeing you carefully. Your family gave you uncomfortable glances, but you felt glad, almost as though you had won this round. But even you knew that in the end, he would win the war.

Night had fallen, and you had managed to escape in the dead of night, past various guards or servants who roamed the halls. You knew the route like the back of your hand, and you were confident you'd be able to navigate the routes with your eyes closed. You managed to step into the clearing, walking along the trail, holding nothing but a lantern.

You and Hoseok always had to meet like this. You needed all the time you could get. And even from the glances in the halls should you cross each other's path, you both wouldn't be permitted to so much as brush fingertips unless you wanted to risk someone catching on.

So you agreed to meet here, at night. In the small clearing that acted as your safe haven. Nothing kept you warm from the night air except your cloak, which you hugged to your body. Your underdress provided little coverage. Your lover was already waiting for you, as always.

He was silent as you swept into his arms, fists clutching tightly to his shirt as you dove into his embrace. You stood there for a moment, feeling each other's breath as you pressed against one another, gripping onto the feeling. The feeling of true warmth, of having human contact, of having each other. You liked to hug on as tightly as you could, afraid that if you let go, you'd find out he wasn't real.

You stepped away, creating some distance, though your arms were still clutched onto the other. His eyes drifted to the gem on your finger, covering the cut you had branded into each other's skin. It glittered in the moonlight, and Hoseok sucked in a breath.

"I guess this means it's official," he mumbled, taking your hand in his as he admired the ring.

"He had one of the servant girls bring it to me, saying he got it. He might as well have thrown it at me and said 'here'," you scoff, pulling your hand away. You look down at it, trying to hide it. "You know I'm your bride, truly."

"I know," he says bitterly. "I know..."

"Hobi," you gulp. "Make love to me."

It wasn't like the two of you hadn't done it. During your little affair, you wanted to truly be his, inside and out. And so some of the days you met here at the clearing, Hoseok would sweep you into his arms and make you his own. You couldn't imagine doing it with anyone else. The last one to two months with him were the happiest of your life.

Hoseok didn't protest, sweeping you in his arms once again to lay you down on a blanket he had draped near the target. It was customary for the two of you to have to lay this here. After all, grass stains on your clothes would look suspicious. And you did not want to fuck on the grass, by any means.

You undid your cloak, letting it fall from your shoulders as you brought your lips to his. You always enjoyed kissing Hoseok. His lips would be both precise, yet ravenous, a combination that would've been difficult to comprehend had you not experienced it first hand. His hands were gentle, yet the calluses and rough skin provided the friction you needed to have shivers run down your spine. His hands slid up your nightdress, sliding down your undergarments to massage your heat.

You mewled at the feeling, his hands massaging you, cupping your sex. His fingers ran along your folds, and soon enough he was shimmying down your form, pressing his lips to your other pair as he began to eat you out.

You squirmed and panted as he did so, clutching onto the blanket beneath you, letting the fabric curl between your fingers. You didn't even realize he was done preparing you until his lips were back to yours, and you tasted yourself on his tongue.

His hands pressed beneath your lower back, lifting your hips up to his as he yanked the waistband of his trousers down. He aligned himself to your entrance, pushing himself slowly and letting you adjust. He leaned over you, deepening himself before settling over you.

"You can move," you confirm, holding onto his shoulders, your head leaning back onto the ground. He starts slow, steady thrusts, burying his nose into the crook of your neck. You close your eyes at the blissful feeling, so full, so complete. You loved how his pelvis rubbed into your clit, the angle having it rub against you.

You hugged him closer, feeling his sweaty skin against your own, and the grunts that echoed in your ears. You squeezed your eyes shut, wanting to remember this for the rest of your life.

Your nails raked down his back, and you felt how he let out a low hiss against your skin at the feeling.

"Mine," he grunted with each thrust, the word said each time his skin slapped against your own. "Only mine. Mine, mine, mine."

"Yours," you promised, screwing your eyes shut as his thrusts got harder.

"Will he fuck you like this? Will he love you the same way I do?" he asked you, picking up the pace of his rhythmic hips.

"No," you answered. "Never."

"You'll think of me when you say your vows. You'll think of me when you spend your wedding night together. You'll think of me each time you're forced to be with him," Hoseok promised. His thrusts were getting sloppier. You could tell he was getting worked up, thinking of you with another man.

You placed your hands on his cheeks, making him stare you in the eye. "Look at me," you said, the command soft in comparison to the regal barks you'd often give. "I want to remember this for the rest of my days."

Hoseok did, his gaze locked with yours as he came undone, spilling white ropes and letting them paint your walls. You loved that look that spread across his face, the pure bliss. The moment when his forehead would shine and his lips would part as he tilted his head back. He never looked more breathtaking.

"I love you," he said, whispering the words, as though he were admitting the fact more so to himself than he was to you.

He collapsed against you, and you held him in your arms, both of you breathing heavily. That'd be the last time you held your precious peasant boy in your arms.

"Father!" you cried out, running to his side. "What's the meaning of this?"

"Don't speak to me in that tone of voice, young lady," he said in a hushed tone, his face practically purple with anger. You withered away, scared of the anger that resided in his voice. "I had to keep someone quiet about your little affair. What do you think would happen if word got out? To the kingdom? To Sehun?"

"My lord," you say, lips quivering. "He's my best friend."

"And your lover as well," he replied solemnly. "Which is why he must be promptly executed."

"Please, no, father!" you pleaded, grabbing onto his sleeve. "You can't be serious, he doesn't deserve this. Punish me instead!"

"This is your punishment," he answered, yanking his arm away from your clutches as he stomped off. You didn't know that a servant had caught the two of you sneaking off in the dead of night, and had the nerve to connect the dots and spill to your father in exchange for money. You knew the king, however, and surely the person would be executed. There was no reason for him to kill Hoseok other than to teach you a lesson.

Still, the love of your life was in the dungeons, bound and chained for treason or something along those lines, and you were forced to keep quiet, lest you risk the engagement that had already been arranged.

You watched from afar, staring out of the window with tears cascading down your stony face. Your mother had her hand on your shoulder, watching solemnly as the figure walked up the steps, closer and closer to the noose, a bag placed over his head.

You weren't the only one grieving over the execution of Hoseok. He was friendly towards all and extremely talented. Apparently, he was rather close to his mentor, the lead hunter, because the very day his execution was announced, the man had resigned and left the kingdom.

"Do you see this, Diana?" your mother asked. You looked away, not wanting to watch as they placed the noose around his neck, tightening it. Your mother grabbed onto your chin with one gloved hand, forcing you to look at the scene.

It happened quicker than you thought it would. The floor gave out beneath the figure, and soon he was dangling there, as though he were a mere banner hanging along the ceiling. Your lips quivered, a lump in your throat, and you couldn't respond properly to your mother. Instead, you slumped over, covering your face with your hands as you wept bitterly.

Your mother traced circles with her thumb over your shoulder. "This is what happens when a ruler makes mistakes."

"She'll be sick for a few days," the doctor informed. "The potion brewed by the witch should have her bedridden for about a week. By the end, she will have no recollection at all of the man. Should work, considering we got a strand of his hair and the witch was more than compliant with selling the product."

"That's good," the king spoke, his voice stony. In the other room, they could faintly hear the sound of you vomiting. Your father gave the doctor a questioning look. "Is that one of the side effects of this... amnesiac potion?"

"No... as it turns out, your daughter is... she was carrying a child," the doctor admits, staring at the shocked expressions of your parents. "Don't worry, I've gotten it taken care of. She was only a month or two, so it won't show. No one has to know, and there will be absolute discretion from everyone involved."

"Good," the queen sighed, relieved. "When will her... morning sickness pass?"

"By the time the potion has finished wiping away all memories of the man," the doctor said. "The baby is already dead, but I'd rather not discuss those extra details about those matters. It'd be rather disturbing to go into specifics."

"We understand," your father said, eyes glancing to the other room, knowing slowly, with each passing second, your life was being stolen.

You felt as though something was missing in your life. You remembered your studies and your family, and you remembered your engagement. But you didn't remember why you got that cloak that still hung over your closet like a sore thumb, or about that strange scar on your finger, hidden beneath the moonstone ring. You felt incomplete, and you didn't feel as though you knew who you were. There were just major blanks in your life where there were supposed to be memories.

You felt vacant.

Well, almost. You could still feel disgusted. This disgust, in particular, was hard to mask when it came to your fiance, Sehun. You didn't know what it was about him. He was handsome and was good at keeping on that respectful mask. But it felt off. It felt wrong each time his lips pressed against your skin, and it felt wrong each time he called you by your name.

It didn't feel right. And you hated him for it.

The two of you were spending quality couple's time together, and the entire time you couldn't help but glare at him and sneer at each word. But each time he looked your way, you'd give him a bitter smile, and nod along to whatever nonsense was spewing from his lips.

"You seem more... distant, these past few weeks," Sehun notes, turning to you. "Has something happened?"

"What could've happened?" you falsely smile, batting your lashes at the man. God, you hoped his dick was the size of an ant. That way you could taunt him relentlessly, or at least mutter, 'Is it in yet?' when you lost your virginity to him.

"Is it perhaps the execution? Though from what I know, it was simply a hunter who had committed treason," Sehun chuckles.

You stand still, cocking your head at him in confusion. "What execution?" You didn't particularly care or know of executions, at least not on palace grounds. There hadn't been one recently.

Sehun turned to stare at you, and a smirk flashed across his face. "Ah... I see," he says, laughing quietly to himself. "You don't have to act dumb around me, princess. I'm your future husband, after all."

Yeah, don't remind me.

"Of course, love," you spat bitterly, the words like fire as it rolled off your tongue. "Why would I lie to you?"

"You don't have to pretend you like me, Your Highness. Not right now," Sehun says. He turns to you, locking eyes. You feel cold, and your body freezes over the moment your gazes lock. "You never liked me since day one... have you?"

"That'd be silly, you haven't done anything to me," you retort, trying to seem unaffected by his words.

"Fair enough, but you women find reasons to be angry at things that haven't even taken place," Sehun points out, and the statement makes the blood rush to your face in fury. You avoid seeming too hot-headed, though.

Sehun stepped closer, his confidence and smugness practically oozing from his pores. "But know this, Your Highness..."

You step back, and there's but an inch between the two of you. "I am to rule this kingdom- with or without you. If you so much as refuse to comply, I could have your sister killed to make sure you obey. Or perhaps I'd kill you instead, and marry your sister to inherit the throne. She may work easier since she seems to be so adoring of me. But I think you should have your fair chance. I mean, who wouldn't prefer the prettier sister? The other's but a child anyway."

He leaned back, leaving you stiff. He raised his finger to his lips, a playful smile on his lips. "Don't disappoint me, princess- and choose wisely. There's an easy way or two hard ways. And in each way, you'd lose."

With that he took your hand in yours, continuing the walk through the garden as though he hadn't just threatened your life and your sister's. You were cold and stiff, unable to respond to his warning. But what were you to say without angering him?

You knew this wasn't a negotiable situation.

There would always be a dance before the wedding. An odd tradition, true, but it was held before the actual wedding would take place. Where women in their massive ballgowns would prance about the room, hiding flirtatiously behind their fans, while men chased them about the room, often on the tips of their toes.

You were dancing with your husband to be- a man you were frightened of. He was graceful in his threats and his dancing, his steps as precise as his thinking. You wore a stony face the entire evening, despite the fact this was supposed to be a joyous occasion.

Everyone was drinking and laughing around you, and yet the ring on your finger held more weight than you could bear. There was far more pain than you'd expect, simply looking at the white lace dress you wore and the roses that lined the walls. This wasn't what you wanted. And this wasn't who you wanted either.

The world was spinning around you, so you thought that perhaps twirling around in the arms of the bastard who was about to pull the strings of your life. You thought to yourself when a good time would be to murder him. Perhaps on your honeymoon, you'd stab him with his own sword, and frame it for an assassination by a hired spy.

No, that wouldn't be an option.

Didn't mean you wouldn't be able to fantasize about it, though.

As you imagined different ways of murdering your husband to be as he dipped you, the glass of the windows shattered, and in jumped men in dark cloaks, descending from ropes. Their hoods covered their faces, and they yanked out their swords and knives, taking guests hostage or fighting against the knights who were already rushing to the rescue.

Sehun dropped you, rushing to fight the bastards who were attacking his future kingdom. You fell to the floor but scrambled up, gathering as much of the layers of ruffles and fabrics to your room, stripping down as quickly as you could as you rummaged through your closet, hearing the screams of mass murder being committed downstairs.

Trousers. When did you have these? You quickly yanked them on, putting on whatever blouse you could find, and tying the red cape around your neck, yanking it over your head as you began to descend down the stairs and out of the palace, doing your best to dodge the swinging weaponry or prying hands. You were so close when suddenly a figure ran into you, sweeping you into their arms as they ran out of the palace. Their hand was clasped over your hand, and you screamed and kicked to no avail. Soon enough they were dragging you far away, into the woods. It wasn't the nice patch of trees like the ones you had behind the palace. Instead, this was the one that held rumored witches who captured young women to make them their slaves.

"Diana, Diana it's m- OW!" the figure screamed as you bit down harshly on his hand, making him jump back. You stomped on his foot and kicked him int he groin, yanking the dagger that was on the side of his hip.

"Don't come any closer!" you say, despite the fact you were so surprised by your instincts. Perhaps it was the adrenaline or quick thinking that had your reflexes react this way.

"Glad to see you remembered training," he muttered, shaking the bitten hand as he pushed down his hood, revealing his face. He was rather handsome- but that didn't matter right now, did it? "Partly regret teaching you self-defense, though."

He took another step forward, and you held the knife out in front of you, backing away. "Stay back!" you warned again. "I'm not afraid to hurt you..."

"Diana..." he says quietly. "Don't you recognize me?"

"Recognize you?" you scoff. "You're an intruder! A criminal! Stay back!" You slashed the knife through the air, your eyes wide and frantic. You turned to run, but he hooked an arm around your waist, catching you by surprise. You drop the dagger, kicking to where he lets go of your waist, instead yanking on your cape. You untie it, freeing yourself from his grip as you grab the dagger, running as quickly as you could.

He calls after you, but you run so quickly through the woods, the adrenaline pumping through your veins. You needed help, you needed to get to safety, you needed-

Soon enough you're being hung upside down, your foot dangling from a rope. It appeared you had been caught in a trap that you hadn't kept an eye out for, and now ended up being hung up as though you were the latest kill. You had dropped the dagger and felt the blood rush down to your face.

Fuck, fuck, fuck-

You yelped, a woman appearing before you. Her hair was wild, scraggly, with twigs poking out from it. Her teeth were yellow, and her eyes gave you such a deep, crazed expression, you had no doubt in your mind she was a witch.

"My my, not what I was expecting to catch," she notes, humming to herself as she walks around your dangling form.

"Please, ma'am, let me go, I have to-" you begin to plead.

"Ah, ah," she shakes her finger, picking up the dagger. "One of those witch hunters, hm? Surprised they're starting to make girls do the job. What an age we live in, hm?"

"What? No, please-"

"Now, I can't just let you go. You may try to kill me," she ponders aloud. "But it'd be such a pain to kill such a pretty young face." She pats your cheek, and you feel yourself swing slightly to the side. Your ankle feels as though it's on fire from how tight the rope was. It felt as though your ankle would be cut in half, and your foot would fall off. "Maybe you'll be my pet."

Your eyes widened, and soon enough you heard footsteps. The witch snapped her fingers, and you felt yourself shrinking, though your ankle was still tightly bound by the rope. You hadn't realized, but the witch had turned you into a rabbit.

The man from before ran past, looking to the witch. He walked around a tree, and immediately a quiver full of arrows appeared on his back, and a bow in his hand. You wondered to yourself how much magic took place in these woods because that was certainly something no man could do.

"Have you seen a girl here? A young lady?" he questioned, gripping the red cloak that was draped over his arm.

"I am but a poor old woman, trying to catch dinner," the witch pleaded, stooping over to make herself seem weak and helpless. "Do not harm me, sire."

He lowered his bow, giving her a questioning look. "I have no wish to harm you, nor anyone else this night. I simply wish to find the girl."

"Is she your wife, perhaps?" the witch asked, glancing back at you as you wriggled around in the trap. You scampered your small feet, trying to catch the attention of the archer.

"No, but something close to it, I suspect," he sighs. "I'll leave now. If you get any word about her whereabouts, try and find me. I won't stop until I find her." With that, he walks around the tree again, the quiver and bow disappearing, and he's on the run again.

The witch smiles, looking back up at you before snapping her fingers again, and you find yourself falling to the floor, pain bursting into your limbs from the fall. "Seems like you've got an admirer," she laughs. You curse yourself, wishing that you had simply stayed with the man instead. Perhaps you'd be safer there than you were here with the witch.

But you'd have plenty of time to lament over mistakes.

The witch apparently ran an inn where she'd catch unsuspecting victims. A small cottage in the woods for weary travelers, with cozy beds and a beautiful inn keeper's daughter, which you played the role of. As it turns out, you couldn't leave the house unless the witch was to die, and you didn't know how to kill her, especially since her eye always seemed to be on you.

Still, you supposed luring in those poor victims was worth it. They'd gossip and you'd easily learn new information as you led them to their death traps- though you didn't really enjoy that last part. You learned that your sister was killed in the attack, which had been lead by rebels who had opposed the engagement of you and Sehun. Apparently, the alliance between the two kingdoms would be disastrous for some, especially since some were afraid of the merging of the two kingdoms, or of Sehun simply ruling in your place.

Little did they knew exactly how correct that last part was.

With your sister dead, you were the last remaining heir, though still the original, for the throne. Your mother had been killed, and your father was sick with grief. You had been reported as missing, and if you weren't to be discovered six months after your disappearance, Sehun would ultimately claim the throne, because you had no other heirs. Or maybe your father wanted to fuck everything up further that way.

You wouldn't say you were satisfied by the life you now led in comparison since you were still being controlled, and a lot of your life still seemed rather empty or vacant, but you had accepted it. There was no way you'd be able to return to the palace to stop Sehun, and even if you killed the witch, how would you get to the palace from here?

There was one particular night where a strangely familiar man walked into your inn, searching for a room. Granted, you later learned the witch had poor eyesight, but you yourself were able to recognize the man. It was the very one who attempted to kidnap you the night the palace was attacked.

You felt your heart beat a bit faster as you stared at him, wondering why he looked so familiar. Not just because you had seen his face before, but instead something different. He wore the same cloak that you did, the bright red looking just right against his honey skin. Something looked odd, seeing him wear it though.

You didn't want the witch to catch on, though. Any time one of the customers seemed to recognize you or anything of the sort, you'd be transformed into some helpless animal until the victim was eventually killed by the witch herself. She had to keep a practically infinite human supply for her potions, which she'd sell to doctors or other witches in the market.

It wasn't until the man had entered his room that you were able to speak to him. You pressed your lips against your finger the moment you locked gazes.

"You need to get out of here," you whispered urgently. "You'll die here."

"Is this where you've been the entire time?" he asked, eyes wide. "I've been searching for you for months, Diana!"

"How do you know my name?" you asked him. Your mind flashed to the vacant slots of memory, and you wondered if you'd ever get them filled. "Do you... know me? I mean, did I know you, before?"

"I... do you really not recognize me?" he whispered to you, his face showing some disappointment.

You frowned. "Who are you?"

"Hoseok," he said, reaching out as though to touch you... but he lowers his arms before he does.

You repeat the name, the word rolling off your tongue easily. It tastes as sweet as sugar, and you're met with flashes and glimpses of a previous life, the curtain sliding to the side partially. "The... the stable boy?"

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "You and I were... friends. But your father ordered me to be executed."

"What? Why?" you say with alarm. "How are you still alive?"

"I'll tell you why when you get your memories back," Hoseok says. "But my old mentor switched places with me and let me escape. He was a kind fellow, and may God have mercy on his soul..."

"Well, as much as I'd love to chat, we've got to get you out of here," you say urgently, eyes looking back to the door. "If she finds out we know each other, that could be the end for you. You're lucky she didn't recognize you."

"Why don't you come along?"

"I'm cursed. I can't leave the house until she's dead. Some sort of enchantment," you say. "Go on without me. If we were really friends, I wouldn't want you getting killed because of me."

"No, I lost you before, I can't risk it again," he sighed. "I'll kill her- I'll help you. But you're going to have to put in some effort..."

"Slave girl!" the witch barked, seated at the dining table. "Have you drawn the bath for our guest? I want to have him nice and cooked for the new potion I'm preparing."

"Yes, ma'am," you mumbled, plating her usual soup in front of her. She sniffed it, a face of disdain being made.

She sneered, "You added too many spices this time."

"I'm sorry- I'd make another, but that's the last we've got left. It'd take me two hours to make another batch," you lied.

She huffed in annoyance, bringing the spoon up to her withered lips to begin eating. "It tastes terrible," she notes, though continues to eat it. You feel how tense your body is, and you wait for her to drop dead.

And then her spoon dropped to the floor, and she was shaking. "What have you done?" she shrieked, pointing to you. You immediately dropped to the floor, dodging her spell.

"Hoseok, now!" you shrieked, the man bursting from behind the door, bow and arrow in hand as he aimed at the witch. He fired in the air, and she flicked it to the side, letting it embed in the wall instead. Her body shook violently.

You weren't sure which potion you had put in her soup, but from how she was reacting, you knew it couldn't be good. She fired another spell at you, and you ducked beneath the table, soon crawling along the floor to get away, seeing the arrows and spells fly in midair.

You reached onto the kitchen countertop, grabbing onto the first thing you could find and throwing it at your captor. She had been distracted by the arrows Hoseok was firing at her, and by the time she noticed the knife being hurled at her, it had driven its way into her skull, right between her eyes.

You recalled a brief memory. You were standing in front of a target, Hoseok's arm lining your own as he helped your posture, a knife in your hand. You could practically smell the sweet sap from the trees, and the colors of midday were bright, giving it a heavenly sort of feel. Hoseok smelled like musk and comfort, and his body pressed against yours felt as though it were the very place where you belonged.

You threw the knife, fingers letting go of the handle as it landed on the target. It didn't hit the center, and you let out a sigh of disappointment.

Hoseok gave you a small smile, rubbing your shoulder. "Hey, that's still pretty good. You'll get better with practice."

And then the memory was over.

She slumped back against the wall, and the air was still, everyone deathly still as they stared at the body.

"Is she dead?" you questioned, voice quiet.

"Only one way to find out," Hoseok mumbled. You locked eyes, and soon enough you were running to the porch of the cottage, scrambling down the steps until you were at the last step. Your foot hovered above the grass, knowing that each time you tried this before, you were unable to.

You let out a laugh of disbelief as your foot landed on the grass, and you danced about, feeling elated by the feeling of being free.

Hoseok smiled, leaning against the doorframe. "I knew you still had it in you. That's your best shot yet," he pointed out.

Hoseok stepped behind you, undoing the cape from his own shoulders to wrap it around your own shoulders. "This is yours," he says. It feels right to wear it again, and not in a time of fear or chaos. Something feels so right being with this man, though he was still very much a stranger, it felt as though he was the opposite.

And the two of you walked away from that cottage, running away into the woods, unsure of what to do next. You didn't care, as long as you were with him.

You spent several days with Hoseok, and during that entire time, he filled you in on the gaps of your mind. You remembered him being your best friend, and you remembered your little stable boy. You remembered growing up together, and reading to him, and teaching him how to read and write. You remembered how he taught you certain skills, such as throwing knives and shooting a bow and arrow.

You remembered having a crush on him.

Still, there was a certain aspect that he didn't seem to fill you in on, and the very memories that were still left blank, surrounding the beginning of your engagement to Sehun.

You were only able to question him about it on one particular evening, when the two of you were by the fire, roasting his latest catch of a rabbit.

"Hoseok... what do you know about this?" you ask, holding up your left hand.

"Your engagement ring?" he questioned. "I thought the only memories you lost were the ones of me. The ring has nothing to do with our friendship."

"No, I mean this," you say, twisting the ring up to reveal the small arrow scar that was wrapped around your ring finger. "I... I think there's something you're still not telling me. About us."

Hoseok looked at you and instinctively covered his own hand. You grabbed for it, looking at his ring finger in the light of the fire. The very same arrow was wrapped around his finger. His slender hand slipped from your own, and he stared blankly into the fire, not wanting to meet your eyes.

"We were lovers, weren't we?" you questioned. "I never did love Sehun... even I know that. But I remember loving you..."

"What does it matter anyway? There was no way you'd remember it all, and even if you did, I was still a pauper and you were a princess," he says darkly.

"But that doesn't matter now. I'm not a princess anymore, and you're not some stable boy. We can stay here and be together," you insist, taking his hand. "I might not remember each and every little thing, but over time, I've been getting back memories of us. But I do know that I never feel quite myself except when I'm with you."

"So you expect to stay in the woods here for the rest of your life? When months before you were in a castle and engaged to a handsome prince?" Hoseok asked you.

"I could care less about the prince. He can keep the lavish lifestyle. I'm no longer a princess, you know that."

"Being with me doesn't change who you are. No matter who you marry or what life you choose to live, you'll always be a princess. And this isn't the life you're meant to live, Diana. I know that. You're meant to be a ruler, and the kingdom can't be put in the hands of that bastard," Hoseok says.

You were quiet. "There are people who are searching for me, the lost princess, without even knowing what my face looks like. How would I be able to get back to the palace and stop him?"

"I can help you. If your father knows you're alive and well, you'd be able to save the kingdom." He places his hand on your shoulder, pulling you close. "There are people who depend on you, Diana. The subjects won't be treated kindly under his rule, you know that. They can't depend on him. You were born to do this. You don't know how he'd treat people who aren't even his own."

There was silence for a few moments, and you let out a sigh, knowing he was right. "He threatened me when he saw I was unhappy with the engagement. Said he'd kill me and marry my sister, or perhaps just kill my sister instead. Now he'd get the crown either way."

"We can't let a man like that have the crown," Hoseok told you. His fingers intertwined with your own, and he pressed a chaste kiss against the side of your head. "And I want you to know that no matter what, you'll always be my princess. I love you. Even if it has to be from afar."

There was a small memory that flashed before your eyes. A memory of when the two of you confessed your love to each other, the day Sehun first came to the palace, knowing he had already won your hand.

Tears slipped down your face at the memory, and you squeezed his hand, turning his head to have his lips meet yours. It felt so much like the first kiss, still tasting the salt of your tears. You pulled back, pressing your forehead against his own. "Alright. For you, my love, I'll do anything."

Now, to take back what was rightfully yours.

There was another party going on. To celebrate the news of Sehun officially inheriting the crown, knowing his coronation would be held a few weeks later. It reminded you of the night the palace was attacked, and there was a certain sense of irony that you were going to be on the other side, going in.

You were dressed in the finest dress you could find, though it was hardly anything compared you your old, lavish dresses. But the mask covering your face was what sold the deal as you slipped through the hallways and into the ballroom, and you fell into the step of the dance.

Your father looked far older than the last time you saw him, though perhaps it was because the grief and illness had gotten to him. He looked like such an old man now, instead of the strong, regal king you once knew. You danced with the guests, unsure of where Hoseok was.

You were surprised to see Sehun before the throne, beside your father, dressed as though he already ruled the place. You loathed him, especially the smug grin on his face, the very same one he wore when he threatened you.

"May I have your attention," he said, his voice booming over the music and into the crowd. The music and dancing stopped, and everyone looked to the future king. "Due to the fact that Princess Diana is dead, we shall hold a ceremony for her funeral, and have her in memory. In her place, I shall rule. I promise to make her proud as I inherit the crown."

The crowd cheered, clapping politely as he raised his hands up, egging the crowd on more.

"Proud my ass," you shouted. People parted, gasping as you ripped the mask off your face, staring up at him. "You steal my crown and threaten my life. I wouldn't be surprised if you took advantage of the attack to kill my own sister simply to steal the crown. You've threatened my own life before in order to get what you want, but I won't let my kingdom fall into the hands of a conniving schemer like you."

His eyes were wide as he stared at you, and your father stood, leaning on his staff with a shaky hand. "Diana?" he whispered, his voice as frail as he.

"It is I, Princess Diana, future ruler of this kingdom," you said, stepping closer to the steps to the throne. Your father has a weary smile on his face, elated to see that you truly were alive. "I've been kidnapped and forced to serve a witch- but overcame even that to stop you."

"Over my dead body," Sehun sneered, drawing his sword from its sheath. He ran down the steps to get closer to you, and people ran and departed from your form, screaming though it was only one man with a sword.

"That can be arranged," you smirked. You feel Hoseok step behind you, his warm presence giving you the confidence boost you needed as he placed a bow and arrow in your hands. You drew it back into position, and his hands were firm over yours, breath steady against your neck.

"Are you ready to win back your destiny?" Hoseok whispered in your ear.

You smiled, the tip of the arrow on the center of your target. "I was born ready." With that, you let go of the arrow, letting it be your wings so that you may finally fly.

"Hoseok, I'm glad you came," you say, rising from your throne. It had been about a month since you killed the traitor who wanted to steal the kingdom, and though your father had died a few days after your coronation, you were sure you were making him proud with how you ruled the kingdom. "We've got important matters to discuss."

"Of course, Your Majesty," Hoseok said. You were glad you had gotten all of your memories back, reversing the effects of the potion you had apparently been fed long ago. His bow was held tightly in his hand, and the quiver was firm on his back. You weren't sure what he was up to nowadays, but anytime you needed him, he was there.

You stepped down the steps of the throne room, gliding gracefully. It was odd, each time you walked up and down the steps, the very same ones where you killed a man. "Hobi... I have a present for you."

You're in his arms, and soon enough you pull of a ring from your finger. It was as golden as the sun, and was the perfect counterpart to the moonstone that glowed next to your arrow scar, though you refused to place another ring above that again. You hold it out in front of Hosoek, offering it to him.

"Would you do me the honor of ruling the kingdom beside me, as both my husband and king?" you ask him, your smile bright as you stared at your one true love.

He smiles brightly, taking your hands in his own, and curling your fingers around the ring, closing it in a fist. "I'm afraid I'll have to decline, Your Majesty."

Your smile falls, and you wear an expression of shock. "What?"

He looks at you sweetly. "This life isn't meant for me, but it's destined for you. But I don't think it's something I could do. I enjoy my life in the woods, living by my bow and arrow, caring for animals and having them by my side. I realized something about myself that I don't think anyone would be able to comprehend, but it made me realize what kind of life I was meant to lead. I love you more than you can imagine, but I realized something about both of us. Do you remember what you said to me when we first started to fall?"

You were silent, and he pushes your hand away. "We both knew the feelings would last forever, but we wouldn't."

He steps back, wearing that same smile as he walked away. You stared at his back as he walked away from your proposal, from a life with you, from you in general. You wondered what sort of epiphany he had to deny the life most would dream of. You held the ring close, not letting a single tear drop from your eyes. Your eyes weren't even watering, even though you knew that this would be the last time you'd see your beloved Hobi.

You wore a smile on your face and knew deep down, this was a happy ending. Both of you fulfilled the destinies you were meant to have, and the chapter of your rise to the crown was over, as well as your chapter with Hoseok.

You knew deep down that even though the two of you wouldn't be together, you'd be happy. And so would he. You knew that from the assured smile he gave you.

And because of that, you had no reason to cry, even as you held the ring close to your heart, forever remembering the memory of your first love.

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