• Music of a grand piano; a string quintet; a team of trombones, trumpets, an alto clarinet, a cello as well as Persephone's footsteps echoed throughout the halls of the once-abandoned castle. An overwhelming aroma of different foods the world over, spices, flavors, peppers, and other delights filled Persephone's, as well as Hades's nose. "Well? Come on in, Hades! I'm not going to have fun al by myself, now am I?" Persephone giggled as Hades shyly walked in. I KNOW I'm going to have a good time...... I wonder if Hades knows how to dance~....

    If Hades's heart ran a race against a cheetah, a jackrabbit, a jackhammer, and the world's fastest car.......Winner: Hades. "Um....sure, Seph......" He answered, trying to keep himself from confessing too early. The clicking of Hades's boots could be heard at the end of the marble/checkerboard-floored, pillared hall as he walked over to where Seph stood, waiting for him, both of their stomachs whining when the aroma stampeded to their noses.

    MEANWHILE...

    "Eat this, Panic: Who's the guitar hero now, huh?? See? 324,984; beat that!" Pain jeered as he faced off against Panic, who was on an obvious losing streak, on Guitar Hero to the song Yellow by Coldplay. Awww, man! What happened to me? I used to beat Pain's butt at this; now look at me! I've gotta get my game back..... Plus, Pain and I have been acting pretty weird around each other lately. Eh, I bet it'll pass sooner or later, I guess..... As chords played, something shocking happened: They both had beaten each other's high scores. The two had switched into Sudden Death Mode; the song was Beat It by MJ, and Pain's heart was racing even faster than Hades's! Man, she's catching up to me by, like, what, 1200 points!??! I gotta focus...... The dust cleared. It was over. One person was standing......and it wasn't Pain. "Yay! I won! Come on, Pain, get up!" Panic said, holding out her hand for her best friend to take. "Alright...." He groaned, taking ahold of her offered hand. Well.....there's always next time....... Pain thought as they went into the maze of roses in the back of the palace.

    WE'RE HERE....

    The couple sat and ate their fill; Persephone had a few helpings of fillet mignon, a plate of Greek salad, two glasses of red wine, and for dessert, she had a share of a three-layered chocolate cake; white chocolate on the bottom, milk chocolate stood in the middle, and dark chocolate standing out on the top of the confection with dabs of whipped cream; Persephone's sweet tooth took over from there. As for Hades, his plates consisted of chicken salad, smoked salmon, and for dessert, he mimicked Persephone's.

    "I've been here a few times myself, so, I want to show you some of the things that seems to make this castle special." Hades said as he helped Persephone out of her seat and led her to a hidden corridors; nothing was safe from the darkness that swallowed every inch in front of the couple's noses. "What's so special? I can't even see past the torches on the sides, and even they aren't lit." Seph noted.

    Somewhere, an invisible being chuckled. "Hmph, foolish Seph. You think you can just waltz in and practically STEAL the Lord of the Dead from me?? I should be with him, not you, ya ditz. I knew from the minute I saw you, you were nothiing but a know-it-all perfectionalist; always smarter, always prettier, always nicer, always stronger, always faster, always EVERYTHING! But now, I have your own MOTHER on my side. It isn't fair; you were always nice to everyone and everything. You were loved...... What about me? Well, that's gonna change....."

    Hades merely chuckled, sending the baritone of his voice into a bass. "I can fix that~." I never knew Hades had such a laugh like that. It's so....different from the laughs I've heard from others..... I should get him to laugh more often., Persephone thought with a light blush on her milk chocolate complexion. With a flick of a pale and slightly calloused finger, the hall was no longer a hall. The walls as well as the ceiling was absolutely covered in mirrors, and each mirror held an image of a type of legend.....all except one, which covered the back of the now glass-covered cherry wood door. "Oh....my.......goodness..." Was all that Persephone could manage to release from her scarlet painted lips. There, at the end of the mirrored, checkerboarded marble floor was an old enemy of Persephone's. "I didn't see that coming. Wait a minute.....how in Tartarus did she get here??!?" Hades wondered aloud, obviously a bit confused and more than a bit upset that his date had been ruined.

    Menthe stepped out of the mirror along with a tall, masked, and hooded figure trailing behind her like a shadow. "Hi, Sephie~. Who's your boyfriend? Oooh, he's pretty cute~. Mind if I take him off your hands?" She cooed and crowed. Menthe might've been one of the most liked and one of the most beautiful of the nymphs, but if the reader would've seen her features at that moment, her usually pale lips were pulled into a distorted sneer, her vibrant green eyes were now darkest green, almost black and were now narrowed and slit-like; her slender, pale shoulders were now tense. She, at that moment, looked absolutely nothing like a nymph.

    An alarm went off in Hades's brain. Uh-oh! This isn't going too well; my date's ruined beyond compare, two strangers messed everything up, and now there might be some sort of fight, but there's one problem: I can't hit a woman! I'm doomed!! Well, I might as well find out who these two are.... "Hey there, cutie~!" Menthe flirted unsuccessfully with a false blush as Hades jumped back and shuddered in response. Persephone to the rescue! "Ahem..... Menthe? That's my husband you're flirting with, and with rather unfruitful results, I might add." Persephone partially fibbed while Menthe, Hades, and the hooded stranger stood shocked into silence. Husband, she said? With a growl, Menthe hissed, "I. Don't. Think. So....Persephone." She hissed in a snakeish voice, dragging out Seph's name with venom-laced abandon.

    Persephone made the first move with a punch to the diaphragm. While Menthe was down, Hades and Persephone tried to get ou of Dodge but couldn't; the hooded stranger now blocked their path back along with a distorted voice. "I'm afraid I can't let you two go just yet...." "And why's that?!" The couple retorted angrily due to the fact that they were now trapped. "She paid me, that's why." The stranger said flatly as the two facepalmed themselves. Little did they know that.....Menthe was up. She attacked Persephone with a heel to the back of the neck, whereas Persephone responded with a sneak attack by her and the stranger. In less than a minute, Menthe was down and out of the count. "It's high time that I should reveal myself to the two of you." The stranger said, the black and gold-trimmed cloak as well as the gray hood and black and silver-trimmed mask falling to the floor in a messy heap of silk and brocade. A femenine voice could be heard more clearly through the chocolate curls that surrounded her face and matched her skin as well as sea green eyes that stood out against the simple cotton black dress she wore.

    "M.....M-Mother?" Persephone gasped in surprise. "Menthe was plotting on harming you, Kore. She had been spying on you and had let envy and jealousy consume her; she tricked me into assisting her. However, in the Upperworld, things aren't going so well." "How?" Hades questioned. Demeter responded sheepishly, "Heh heh heh heh heh, well, let's just say I've been missing you a lot lately, Kore...." She sighed with a faint blush on her face, embarassed. She raised a slender hand and an image as clear as day appeared. The image held snow, frost, frozen lakes and other bodies of water, plants and flowers already brown and wilted as well as ice-encrusted. Persephone and Hades were transfixed in shock and awe at the sight.

    "You, my daughter are allowed 20 more weeks in the Underworld with Hades. At the end of that time, you are to fix the world of mortals at my side. However, to make it more interesting...." At this, she pulled Persephone aside and whispered, "You have be married to Hades within those twenty weeks. So, I hope you two future newlyweds have fun~." She chuckled as she vanished within the flutter of an eyelash while Persephone stood in a slightly happy daze. Hades walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder; "What happened? What did she say??" He asked in a bit of a frantic tone. "M-M-Married..... We h-have t-t-to get.......married....." Seph murmured softly before falling in a manner unbefitting a goddess and fainting in the strong and pale arms of Hades. I have to get married? To Persephone??!? Well......This has GOT tol be the weirdest yet most INCREDIBLE day ever. I can't believe it..... I'm going to get married to the one woman I've fallen in love since the day of her birth......I'm dreaming, aren't I?