If you aren't already aware of it, all the fanfics on this site are re-hashes of some old stories that I wrote back in 1999. I was only fourteen years old when I originally wrote them, so a lot has been altered, thrown-out and re-invented for the revamp, but I'm still partial to these little, old tales, which brought me so much fun as a teen. For anyone who's interested in reading a little of what went before, here's "the story so far".
Back in the good ol' days when I was still at school and just fourteen years of age, I was going through somethingof a "Herculean" fad, where after-schools consisted of watching Hercules - the TV Show whilst eating my tea, and sketching sessions more often than not meant resulted in a drawing pad full of Hades. It was during this phase of mine that I decided to delve a little deeper into the world of Greek Mythology, upon which the film and TV show were based. Roman and Greek myths had always interested me, and it seemed like as good a time as ever to re-educate myself. In my wonderings through the bookshelves of my local library (we're talking about a time when having access to the internet was a real rarity), I discovered that there had actually been a goddess of the Underworld called Persephone, and this sent my creative juices into overdrive. Thoughts naturally began to creep into my head of what this goddess would be like if she was in Disney's Hercules, especially since she'd be the spouse of my all-time favourite God - the hot-headed Hades.
So my little sister and I embarked upon a mini-adventure of creating a Disney-fied persona for this Underworld goddess, and some stories to go with her. But it wasn't just through writing that we were going to bring Persephone to life - since we were both amateur artists, it she was to come alive through our drawings, as well.
Since I claimed all things Hades as my territory, it was my sister who took the lead in the designing of Persephone. In fact, the essence of my sister's drawings still exist in my design today. My sister's Seph had grey skin and pink hair, which was edged with a row of flames. Looking back and this design, I felt that, though the flames would make her the perfect "other half" of Hades, they were just too much of a coincidental feature, and I also couldn't really justify it in terms of genetic inheritance of the gods. My re-invented Seph therefore lost the fiery hair straight away, and her skin is now pink rather than grey, since she is a goddess of the corn and lives above the Underworld for part of her year. Her design still fluctuates even today, but TRP's rendition of her (which can be seen HERE) is almost certainly the definitive one.
Once we had Persephone designed and ready to go, it wasn't long until the first fanfic materialised. I wrote most of the story myself, with a little input from my sister, and it was ultimately titled "Sibling Rivalry". It told the story of Hades' return about three years after the film, which involved his re-acquaintance with a goddess named Persephone, who was more than an old flame of his. The story explained that Persephone and Hades, like both Hera and Zeus, and Poseidon and Amphitrite, had been betrothed when they were very young and had been expected to marry. Hades's parents had been Cronus and Rhea, whilst Persephone's were Bacchus and Demeter. Hades and Seph had thus pretty much grown up together and been fast friends, until a huge argument during their teen years had seriously torn the fabric of their relationship and resulted in a split. Persephone had disappeared on something of a self-imposed exile whilst Hades had taken charge of his Underworld alone, and remained there as its undisputed ruler until Hercules cast him down his own Well of Souls.
With Hades gone, the Underworld was left pretty much unattended, and Zeus knew he had to act. Recalling Persephone to Olympus from wherever it was she had been, he granted her full charge of the Underworld in Hades' absence, and Persephone then took her place as the new ruler of Tartarus. Three years passed before Hades managed to clamber out of his treacherous whirlpool, and his disgruntled humour was only worsened when he discovered that Persephone, his old fiancée, was at the Underworld's helm. Despite his rage, Persephone refused to leave her position in Tartarus, so Hades had no choice but to resort to the extreme and apply to the Olympians for help in returning the Underworld to him. The mood at Mount Olympus proved to be just as sour, though, for Poseidon was at Zeus' throat with the oldest sibling gripe in his book - why had Zeus received the position of ruler of the gods, once their father had been overthrown, rather than him? Drawn into this quarrel without hesitation, Hades decided to add his own fuel to the fire before all three of them stormed off, promising of war on the others.
As the war erupted, Persephone opted to stick with Hades, whilst Hercules, Megara, Phil and Pegasus all teamed up once again to try and prevent such a devastating conflict from taking hold.
In the end, the war is silenced and with a celebration of Hercules' 21st birthday upon Olympus helps to heal old wounds. It is here that Persephone and Hades pretty much make-up, but, despite their growing feelings for one-another, they remained an unmarried couple. The story was very basic, but cute and good fun, and all of it was illustrated with little cartoons and binded together in a booklet by my lil sister and I.
But it didn't end there... there was still a lot more potential left in this Hades-Persephone coupling.
~I dedicated this story to my granddad, "Bud", who unfortunately passed away in 1995~
Of course, the next thing that must spring to one's mind when the general "getting together" is over with is Hades and Persephone having a baby. Aww. I think my lil sister had a bit of input with the next fanfic, too, though I generally took the reigns again when it came to writing it. After a bit of debate, we decided to give the Underworld duo a baby girl called "Calamity". It's quite a cruel name, really, but it just seem to fit the character, and she evolved to fit the name very well. I took on the duty of designing little "Cal'", and she was without a doubt a pure mix of Hades and Seph. Her story was called "New Child, Old Foe".
Persephone became quite hesitant in this story and kept her pregnancy secret from her mother, and even the rest of Olympus. She gives birth to the baby in the Underworld, and Hades is very much the proud dad. It is Hermes who eventually discovers the child's existence, when he makes a trip down to see Hades about some "Cerberus escape", and the news travels fast back up topside! Though Demeter is at first dismayed, being a staunch Hades-hater, Zeus is conversely overwhelmed to hear of this, and insists that his brother bring the child up to Olympus for all to see.
Demeter turns schemer in this plot, however. Furious that a blood link now exists between herself and Hades, she makes a deal with the crafty witch Hecate, who offers to rid her of Hades and possibly his offspring, too.
In line with his brother's wishes, Hades soon prepares to take Persephone and his daughter to Olympus - but it is then that the the trouble begins. Ambushed before they've even left Tartarus by Hecate's two wolves, Hades is knocked out cold, whilst Persephone escapes with her daughter and makes a report to Mount Olympus of what has happened.
Hades has since been captured by Hecate, and is imprisoned within Hephaestos' volcano by immortally-restraining chains. Taunted by Hecate's wolves, who are charged with guarding him, Hades falls into a foul mood , and his confidence is shaken as he is threatened with his very life. Hecate now holds within her possession some of that deadly concoction which Hades had once used against Hercules - the potion that takes an immortal's immortality away from them. Hecate gloats that she will use this concoctionon him and kill him forever, before she then finally takes over his Underworld.
Meanwhile, Persephone is being comforted upon Olympus, and has a big falling out with her mom, whilst the gods discuss whether or not Hades should be sought out. Hera, Bacchus and Zeus all eventually come to the agreement that he must be found, and a search begins.
Fortunately for Hades, Hecate made more than a wild blunder when she decided to imprison him within the cone of Hephaestos' volcano. The Forge God finds Hades and, with his many tools, manages to release him from his chains. When Hecate next returns, a huge battle begins!
The battle reads as a confusing bit of mumbo-jumbo, and it is clearly written by the mad Hades fan that I was, for I gave his cause a lot of sympathy as he nearly sacrifices himself in order to save Persephone, who comes to his aid in the heat of battle (Hecate combines herself with her wolves, and becomes an almighty, tri-headed monster, and also merges with the deadly potion, using it as venom against both deities). And all the time during this fight, Demeter is left to care for Calamity (unwillingly) in the Underworld, which makes for an amusing scenario.
Hades does come through in the end, earning the further devotion of his fiancée and becoming something of an anti-hero. It's all very sickly-sweet, but it was still fun and inventive.
You're wrong to think it ended there. Further discussions with my younger sister lead to yet another new character materialising: child number two, named Polydegmon.
Polydegmon's story was the first to be totally written by my younger sister, and, if I remember correctly, it was called "The Troubles of Persephone". It was more a tale about Persephone mischief making than anything, but I don't have a copy of this story to look back at. Zeus knows what my lil sister did with it. I doubt that she kept it, to be honest.
As far as I can remember, the story was set a couple of years after Calamity's birth, and Persephone had given birth to her and Hades' second child, this time a boy. But Seph and Hades were going through a rough spot in their lives and were getting at each other's throats. Persephone thus made the decision to pack up and leave for a while, taking her newborn son with her. Hades was then left with Calamity in the Underworld, alone.
In more an act of fun than anything, Seph began to date Apollo (remember, her and Hades, though still betrothed, are not married) and enjoyed seeing how Hades became envious and reacted. I really cannot remember what happened, but I know that Hades somehow humiliated himself when Seph was with Apollo. The Sun God, however, seemed to take everything quite lightly. There was a scene where Polydegmon accidentally set fire to Aphrodite's hair, which was very much to Seph's amusement, and was very funny.
In the end, Seph returned to Hades and confessed that she'd missed him. Hades, in turn, was glad to have her back and was pleased to see his young son again. The pair did have one final spat at the end of the tale, though, just to show that nothing had changed much in the dynamics between them!
Before I called it quits with Hercules for a while, I contributed one more written story to our collection. This one was basically an overview of the saga so far, which was told by Hades himself, and proved to be an enjoyable write. Starting with his birth, Hades talked the reader through his betrothal to Seph, his problems with his brothers, his plot to overtake Olympus, his reunion with Persephone and beyond...
After all this was done, I then began to look back at the Hades-Seph story series, and tried to think of how I could have done it all differently. I then wrote a few little "alternate" stories in comic-strip form, and drew two "episodes" intended to be seen in the same format as the Hercules TV Show. The first was called "The Daughter of Demeter" and the second, which was concerned with a review of Hades' life from Seph's perspective, was called "The Secrets of Hades".
This comic provided me with a lot of the basis for my "modern" story of the same name, and was a take on the original Hades-Persephone myth, where she was stolen by Hades down to the Underworld. Totally unrelated to my previous fanfics, this stand-alone was just another attempt at placing Persephone into the Disney Herc' timeline.
Starting with Zeus and teen-Herc talking, Zeus announced the approach of the Harvest Festival, and invited his son to celebrate with them on Cloud Nine. As per usual, down in the Underworld, Hades was none too keen on attending the festival, but had little choice. This Harvest Festival was to prove an important one for Demeter, goddess of the harvest, for she was finally to introduce her daughter Persephone into the Pantheon. She had high hopes that her daughter would meet a "nice god" at the party with whom she could later be paired up with, and then leave the Isle of Sicily, where she had grown up, and live her own life. It would be fair to call Demeter more than your average overprotective mother.
Whilst Hercules mixed in with the other deities at the celebration, Hades was taken aback by the sight of Persephone, and immediately fell for her. Zeus dared his brother to talk to the young goddess, and Hades, naturally, wasn't one to turn down a dare - so he did. Though there relationship hardly got off to a great start, Persephone was intrigued by this striking Lord of the Dead, but it was Hades who took things to the extreme and decided to kidnap her.
The party soon ended and Seph returned to Sicily for the next day. From there, however, she was soon abducted by the Underworld Lord, and taken back to his palace! He then set out to prove to her that he truly loved her and, through a bizarre combination of fun activities, including a light-hearted swim in the Pool of Prickly Heat, and a session of waterskiing with the Furies, he did. Demeter in the meantime had been searching desperately for her lost daughter, and Hercules soon volunteered his services and decided to check on his old nemesis, Hades, in the Underworld. He was only too right in his assumptions and soon discovered Persephone.
In the end, Demeter came to claim her daughter from the Lord of the Dead, and threatened him with punishment from Zeus. Seph, however, had realised that Hades wasn't such a bad guy - he loved her, and she was becoming very fond of him too. As her mother dragged her away, she asked to return to Hades to give him something. Demeter took it as though her daughter were going to rebuke Hades, and let her go for a moment, but when Persephone returned, she just told Hades how she felt before she kissed him goodbye!
Though Hades didn't 'get the girl' in this version, the story played well in terms of continuity with the film and TV show, since Hades remains solo through both. It does give rise to more possible romantic ventures for Hades in the time after the film, though. ;)
This comic, unlike the last, was written to fit in with my other fanfics. Set after the film, but before Hades' return to power, Persephone is introduced to an adult Hercules and his wife, Megara whilst out catching a roaming soul in the upper world. The three make friends and have something of a flashback chat, where they discuss the one thing they have in common - Hades. This episode would kinda work like the "Herc Yearbook" episode of the TV Show.
Persephone started off by talking about Hades as a boy, relating some tales that her mother had told her about the Lord of the Dead as a boy. She painted a picture of Hades' childhood as having been one where he, and sometimes his brothers, got into many sticky situations! She then reminisced about her friendship with him, and explained that she was, in fact, betrothed to him, but their failling out had ruled out any possibility of their getting married. She had loved him, but their broken relationship was just too badly fractured to mend.
Megara took centre-stage next and talked about her association with the Lord of the Shades, revealing in full how she had sold her soul to save her former boyfriend. Hercules, in contrast, refused to talk much about his association with the Lord of the Dead at all, his hatred for him was still so great.
Seph ended the "episode" by thanking the two for talking to her, and was glad to count them as friends. Only at the end were her true feelings for the Lord of the Dead properly revealed, however, as she mulled over a few final memories of Hades, and of the good times they had had together.
Well, that about wraps it up for my spell of fanfic history. I hope you've enjoyed having a look at my past fanfics and can see some of its relevance to my modern ones. The modern tales are building up their own history as I speak, mind you, since they started life in 2002 and are even now being revamped and re-written for the Hercules film's tenth anniversary.
This page last edited 6th September 2006.