my favourite thing about you is your smell

you smell like

earth

herbs

gardens

a little more

human than the rest of us

 - Rupi Kaur

~~

Alex stands on a balcony, midnight cloak wrapped tight around her shoulders, doing everything to stop the chill from the Underworld biting at her neck and arms. She can see Cerberus at the entrance gates, big and foreboding and nothing like the sweetheart she knows he is, staring down at the dead marching to be judged. Harpies leer at the unending stream, cackling and chanting about what they will do to the sinners, those who place themselves over others. Alex’s eyes wander over the line, past the sorting gates, past the rivers which border her realm, past the Garden of Heroes, bright and gold and warm, a candle in a dimension of darkness.

Dimension of darkness, for fucks sake Alex. Alex half-scoffs, and Gertrude shifts on Alex’s collarbone, grumbling as she wakes up. Alex presses a hand to the serpent’s head, soothing, calming, and Gertrude falls back asleep, a green-gold scaled collar, dangerous and sharp and currently dreaming of mice. While she strokes Gertrude, fingers running along the tiger-like markings, Alex’s eyes wander back to the Underworld. The Garden of Heroes immediately calls her back, and she watches as Patroclus climbs a tree. He slips and falls, but Achilles catches him just in time. They laugh, but she can’t hear them, which is a good thing. Three headed dogs and magical semi-robotic snakes aren’t the best replacement for people.

There’s a movement in the bushes by the boundary of the garden, not the Garden of Heroes, but a separate garden, populated with the essence of dead plants, plants which weren’t watered enough, or were watered too much, or got too much sun, or not enough, or were eaten by bugs, and so on and so forth. The deep crimson shrub which serves as a boundary marker quivers and shakes, and Alex’s frown deepens as a hand shoots out from it.

The hand isn’t pale with death, from this distance it doesn’t look pale at all. The nails on this hand, with long, strong fingers, are painted a deep green, and the hand is followed by an elbow, which is followed by a forearm, which is followed by a shoulder connected to the cutest girl Alex has ever seen in the Underworld, dressed in absolutely filthy black pants and a black shirt, like the spies Winn jokes about.

The woman pulls her hair back into a ponytail, and smiles.

Shit fuck , Alex thinks, before walking back inside with a swirl of her cloak.

~~~

When the last of the Titans are cast into Tartarus, as well as the Danver sisters’ traitor father, the three Champions of the New World, Kara, Alex and Clark, draw straws for the realms.

Kara, capable of flight and a beacon of light and hope, fits well into the skies, hair as blonde and smile as warm as the sun James pulls.

Clark, raised among humans and still partially in love with the lush green earth and the people that inhabit it, adores the sea, and tentatively flirts with every human who comes across him.

It is no surprise then that Alex, with no blood family living, and incapable of flight or invincibility, a God with no powers, is left with the Underworld, the Guardian of Tartarus.

Kara’s smile fades as she realises what that means. “Wait, Alex, hang on-” She starts, but Clark rests his hand on her shoulder, and shakes his head. Alex wants to thank him, but she thinks her voice may break.

She swallows, and smiles the most unconvincing smile in history. “It’s okay. I’ll be fine. It’s not like you can’t visit, anyway.” Alex brushes a lock of hair away from Kara’s face, ignoring the fact that Kara’s eyes are beginning to water. “And I have to wait a bit anyway, the Underworld is still getting cleaned up after the battle.”

Kara nods a shaky nod, and takes a deep breath. “Okay. Okay.” She reaches out for Alex, but her hand drops and she walks away, shoulders visibly shaking.

“Go after her.” Alex says to Clark, who looks at her funny. “Me being there will make her feel even worse. Make sure she’s okay.” Clark nods, and follows Kara out of the hall everyone was gathered in. Most of the crowd is still here, and Alex slips out the door as the rest of the Gods are chosen. She walks with purpose, with poise, a destination firmly in her mind. A left, two rights, a flight of stairs and a final left later, and she’s in the armoury, picking out black armbands and silver-detailed pieces which she’ll modify later in the forge, if she has the time, but they’ll do just fine the way they are. She’s about to leave when she sees a long, thin staff, silver and black like the rest of the things she’s picked out, which looks like - for lack of better description - a cross between a wizard’s staff and a giant, ornamental hairpin. The base of the staff is sharp, sharp enough to kill if there’s enough force behind it, and the top, which stands at the same height Alex does, is twisted into a spherical cage, where an opal-like ball rests. It’s gorgeous, and Alex grabs it.

When she does, the crystal lights up for a second, and the staff shifts a little. Nothing too drastic, no height changes or extra magic items, just enough that a few divots form to fit Alex’s fingers.

She wonders if this was made for her, if the staff knew this would come.

~~

Alex walks into her office three days after The Mysterious Woman Incident and finds Susan Vasquez, Horseman of Death, sitting on her desk flipping through the day’s List of the Dead. “Hey, Boss.” She says without looking up, and Alex huffs.

“I have a secretary for a reason.” She replies.

“Pam doesn’t stand a chance against me. My boobs are too great.” The book is slammed shut, and Gertrude hisses from her place on the staff at the sound. “Sorry, honey.” The Horseman gets off the desk, straightens their cloak, and turns to Alex. “There’s an intruder.”

Alex walks around to her desk, places her staff into the strategically placed floor divot, and sits down. “I know.” Her head is pounding, maybe it’s all the dead people - somehow people get more annoying after death.

“Wait, you know? What are you gonna do about it? You can’t just have people wandering around!” Alex looks at Susan and waits. “What? What di- Oh, okay, ha ha, people wandering around the Underworld, you’re so funny, you piece of shit.” Alex snickers, and Susan rolls her eyes and her sleeves. “You know, when you asked me to choose between eternal torment-”

“You were going to tend to fields for eternity.”

“Do I look like a fucking gardener to you? Anyway, when you asked me to choose between eternal torment or being a law-upholding badass who occasionally does paperwork and babysits the Underworld, I thought that would mean keeping people who don’t belong here out!”

Alex picks up the List of the Dead, and flicks to the next hour’s entry. “She’ll die soon, all mortals who sneak in do.”

Susan shakes her head. “Alex, I don’t know who she is, but she isn’t mortal.” At that, Alex looks up. “If she was mortal, I wouldn’t be here. You know me, I don’t do stupid shit like that.”

Alex smiles. “I know. Look, I’ll do something about it, okay? If I need any help, I’ll call you first.”

Susan nods, and goes to leave. She stops at the ornate doors, and looks back. “Why did you offer me this job, anyway?”

“Remember when I gave you the opportunity for revenge? When I let you-”

“Go back to the human world to beat up the guy who killed me. What about it?”

Alex sets down her book, and meets her eyes. “You killed him so gracefully, and so neatly, I thought that you had gotten lost in the feeling of revenge. Instead of that, you were perfectly happy to follow my orders after his death. I knew you would listen to me, and I knew I could trust you.”

Susan goes a bit red, and smiles and bats her eyelids. “You sure know how to compliment a girl.”

Alex groans, “Don’t get me started on that part of my life. Honestly, how hard is it for a lesbian to find a cute girl? I literally see every human being who walked the Earth!”

Susan opens the door. “Maybe you’re looking in the wrong place, Boss.” She shuts the door behind her, and Alex can hear Pam laughing through the door. It seems to make her headache worse, and Alex throws the List of the Dead at the wall.

It doesn’t make it better.

~~

Alex is about to leave the Palace Of The Gods when Winn and Lena sprint to catch her at the door, a crate-like box in Winn’s arms. “Alex! Wait!” Lena calls, and she watches as the two catch up to her, Winn almost comically later than Lena.

“We- oh shitfuck- We ma- Oh man my lungs, fuck how does this still happen? I’m a god- shitfuck hang on.” Winn puts the box down, and takes long, deep breaths.

“Listen, I know you’re gonna miss me, but dying isn’t the only way to visit.” Alex deadpans, and Lena laughs. Winn doesn’t find the joke as funny, and just glares at her.

“Stop deflecting, we got you something.” They say, kneeling down and fiddling at a few clasps on the box.

“Well, made, kind of. It can get a bit lonely down there, and we can’t visit all the time, so we kind of brought you a pet.” Lena clarifies, and Alex’s eyebrows jump towards her forehead a Winn pulls out a snake.

“A snake.” Alex says as Winn holds her out, giving one last check. His fingers mainly brush over her tail, but they dart near her head and over her underbelly.

Winn nods, “Alrighty, her prosthesis is good to go-”

Alex frowns, “Prosthesis? Why does the snake have a prosthesis?”

“I found her half-dead while I was pulling the moon, and brought her to Winn to see if we could give her something to help her survive, you know? And they managed to fix up her tail and her damaged internal organs with some metal replacements, with J’onn’s help, and she was always hanging around your armour, so we thought we would give her to you.” Lena explains, and Alex reaches for the snake. She’s long and thin, with the gold prosthesis blending in almost seamlessly with the rest of her body.

“She’s gorgeous.” Alex says, and the snake - Gertrude, Alex thinks, she looks like a Gertrude - slides along Alex’s palm and down her arm, tail curled around her wrist to stop her from sliding off. “Hi, Gertrude.” Alex says, brushing a free hand against her. Gertrude flicks her tongue out at Alex’s fingers, and Alex barely notices Winn and Lena smile at each other as she falls headfirst in love with Gertrude. “Thank you so much.” She looks at the pair of them, and yelps as Winn hugs her tight. Her arm shoots into the air so that Gertrude doesn’t get crushed, and Alex can feel Gertrude tighten around her arm at the movement.

“I’ll come see you as many times as I can.” Winn says, and Alex nods into his hair, pretending that she isn’t a little teary. Winn steps back, and Lena comes in for a hug as well, but much more gently.

Lena squeezes once and says nothing, which Alex half-prefers. When she steps back, Lena’s eyes are glistening, and that makes it worse. “I’ll see you around.” Alex says, reaching down to pick up her travel bag - everything else had been sent over prior - with her free hand. “Winter solstice, yeah?” The pair nod, and wave as she walks through the gates and through the portal to the Underworld.

~~

It’s been a week since Alex saw that mysterious woman crawl out from under her bushes, and Alex finds her again, this time attempting to sneak into the Garden Of Heroes, which Alex had just left. “I can see you.” Alex says, and the woman straightens up from behind the shrubbery.

“Well, um, hi.” The woman says, trying her best to appear sorry about being caught.

“I know you’ve been here for a week. I’m honestly surprised that you’ve managed to avoid Cerberus for so long.” At the half-compliment, the woman blushes, and Alex has to swallow down the butterflies. “What’s your name?”

“Maggie. I’m Maggie.” Huh. Alex was half-expecting something dramatic and extravagant, but it seems to suit her better than anything Alex can think of. “Just Maggie.” Well. That’s intriguing.

“Well, Just Maggie, can I at least know why you’re playing hide and seek with dead people?” Alex asks, and Maggie’s half-smile, which had been slowly widening during their conversation, drops.

“My parents.” The gate into the Garden creaks, and Alex can see long-dead heroes watching their conversation. Time to move this somewhere more private.

“Say no more.” Alex says, walking down the path. She turns back to look at Maggie. “You coming?”

“Coming where?” Maggie asks, but she follows anyway.

“To my place, of course.” Maggie doesn’t seem to notice that the dead are parting as they walk, and certainly doesn’t notice them bow as she passes.

“Where’s your place?”  Alex lifts one hand and points to the foreboding shadow of her home. Maggie gasps, “You’re fucking Death.”

"I'll have you know that Death and I are just friends." Alex jokes back, and Maggie splutters into a laugh.

"Oh my gods, that's the best thing I've ever heard." The laugh trails off, but the smile stays. "So, what do I call you then? You don't look like a fan of the whole 'Mistress of Death' thing."

Alex smiles. “Call me Alex.”

~~

Maggie stays with Alex for all of twelve Earth hours before Susan bursts into her office again. “It’d be nice if you knocked.” Alex says, and Susan ignores her comment.

“When I said ‘do something about the non-mortal running around the Underworld’ I didn’t mean adopt her! What the fuck Alex!?” She yells, and Gertrude hisses at the sudden jump in volume.

“I’m not adopting her. She just needs a place to stay until whatever is happening with her parents ends. Is that too hard for you to understand?” Alex looks at Susan, who huffs.

“I just don’t think that this is a good idea.” Alex raises an eyebrow, and goes back to noting the Book of the Dead

“You don’t think anything is a good idea.” Susan huffs and snatches Alex’s pen out of her hands. “Hey!”

“Listen to me. I really don’t think this is a good idea. We have no idea who she is, she won’t tell you anything about her past or who her family is, and we don’t know what she can do. What if she tries to kill you?” Susan rants, and Alex sighs.

“I’m pretty sure that if she wanted me dead, she would have tried to kill me already. Why don’t you feel good about this? I’m just trying to be nice.”

“So was I when I gave a room to the guy who ended up killing me.” Susan counters, and Alex gets up and walks around her desk. She wasn’t going to get any work done, not anymore. And she could see Susan’s fingers curling and uncurling.

“I am not human, and I am not alone. I have you, and Amelia, and Bolin, and Rich, and all the Heroes in the Garden, and I have Gertrude and Cerberus. I will be fine.” Alex rests her hands on Susan’s shoulders, and holds her close. “I’ll be fine.”

Susan sighs, and leans on Alex. “I’m just concerned about this one. Something seems off about this whole thing.”

Alex strokes her hair, and presses a kiss to her part. “Thank you for looking out for me.”

“Thank you for not making fun of me for being worried.” They squeeze each other tightly, once, before letting go. “Gods, that feels better.”

Alex smiles, before smacking her on the shoulder. “Knock next time! And stop harassing your girlfriend into sneaking you into my office.”

Susan feigns innocence. “I haven’t been sneaking into your office, what are you talking about.”

Alex points to her pen rack, “You’re the only left handed asshole I know. Stop moving my shit around and maybe I won’t tell you off.” Susan sticks her tongue out as she leaves. Alex watches her turn the corner, and reaches over the desk to grab her jacket. She’s not really in the mood for paperwork anymore. Maybe she’ll check up on Maggie. It’s not like Alex has a pen to do her work with anyway. Why did her Horseman have to be a serial pen snatcher?

She wanders the corridors, turns left, a few rights, up a few flights of stairs and finds Maggie cross-legged on a plush bench in the library. There’s a stack of about fifteen books next to her right knee, and she’s nose deep in a thick volume Alex recognises as A Guide to Carnivorous Plants . She knocks on one of the wooden desks scattered around the room. Maggie starts, before looking up and smiling.

“Hey.” Alex smiles back, and Maggie rests the book on her knees.

“Hey, what’s up?” Alex sits down on the bench opposite her, and crosses her legs. Their feet almost touch from where they're dangling off the edge of the plush velvet cushion.

“I just needed a break from paperwork, that’s all.” Alex rubs at her face, wincing as her head begins to pound. “Everything starts swimming after a while. What are you reading?”

Maggie starts again, like she’s forgotten about the book. “Oh, shit, is this okay?”

Alex nods. “It’s fine, really. They’re meant to be read, and even I can’t read all of these on my own.” She tilts her head, and double-checks the label. Yep, Carnivorous Plants . “So, why carnivorous plants?” She skims the titles of rest of the pile, and almost all of them are about plants. All, aside from one. The book on the very bottom is jet black, the binding glittering under the light. Alex immediately recognises it; it’s her own personal journal of the events of the Great War - not the numerous Mortal ones which go under that name, but the Godly one, where she and her sister and her cousin defended the universe from their father.

“I don’t know if you know this, but my parents are in charge of Spring.” Maggie says, and everything seems to make sense. The fact that the shrubbery, which usually is the source of all the gossip in the Underworld, has been silent. The fact that everything tastes a little bit sweeter. The fact that Maggie's name didn't come up in the giant magic book which names every God.

“That explains a lot.” Alex replies, and Maggie sighs.

“You’ve met them?”

Alex nods. “They don’t like me.”

“They don’t like anyone.” Maggie snaps the book shut, thumbs pressed between the pages. Shit, change the subject, change the subject.

“So, uh, plants?” Alex prompts, and Maggie relaxes. The book unfolds, and Alex can see diagrams of a venus flytrap.

“I never got the hang of flowers, or even useful things like fruit and vegetables, or even weeds! So, I thought maybe I’d be able to make these.” Maggie points to the Venus flytrap, and drags her finger over the curve of the jaws.

Alex looks around the room, and spots the empty pot of soil tucked away in the corner behind the fantasy section. It had originally held an orchid, but the plant had withered and died like the rest of them. Bingo . Alex gets up and grabs the pot, grunting a bit at the weight of it, then sits back down and places it between them. “Okay. Try it.”

“What.”

Alex waves her hand at the pot. “Try it. I, personally, cannot grow a thing, so you’re already doing it better than I am.”

Maggie stares at her for a few seconds, before looking back down at the pot. “Okay then, here we go.” Maggie holds her hands over the pot, and takes a deep breath. She wiggles her fingers, and Alex stifles a giggle which turns into a gasp as a green stem shoots out of the soil. It grows and grows, the tip flattening out into an oval, and unfolding with a flourish into a venus flytrap. When it stops, it’s about a hand length high. “I did it.”

“You did it.”

Maggie squealed, hands flying to her face in joy, “I did it! I’ve never done it before!” Alex watches her laugh and talk to the little plant, and smiles, heart suddenly very warm.

~~

Alex knows something’s wrong when the trickle of dead humans becomes a never-ending stream, with no signs of slowing down. The List of the Dead becomes thicker every day, and soon the Underworld is flooded, the sudden influx of souls overwhelming the skeleton crew. Something has to be done.

Alex had never called a summit before, but had attended plenty over the past few thousand years. Hopefully this means that everyone will listen when she calls. She recites the enchantment, and waits no longer than an hour for everyone to arrive, the latecomer being Winn, who’s hair is still smouldering.

“What the goddamn hell is happening in the mortal realm?” Alex asks, and nobody meets her eyes. “Anyone? Does anybody want to explain why my realm is being overwhelmed by souls who have died years before they were meant to? Anybody want to explain why I have child soldiers and widows and orphans screaming every damn night? Anyone!?”

“There’s a war.” Cat says, living up to her mantle of God of Truth. “There’s a war and we can’t do shit about it, Alex, we have no God of Healing or God of War.” Her lips thin into a half-frown.

“Nobody thought it’d be a good idea to tell me this beforehand, seeing as everyone who dies in this war ends up here?” Alex looks at Kara, who looks away. “God dammit. Alright, we can’t do shit because there’s no God of Healing or God of War, right?”

“Basically.” James says from where he leans on the wall, arms crossed.

“Fine. Someone call Susan, she has to babysit the Underworld.” Alex grabs her cloak and a traveling bag. She throws the bag on her back and pulls the cloak over herself, immediately transforming into a child, a little girl no older than twelve.

“Wait, where are you going?” Clark asks, confused.

“I’m finding the Gods who can help us.” Alex walks out the door and towards the Gate.

Her first human form, the little girl with hair in braids, is immediately shot dead.

Her second human form, a man with the strength of an ox, starves in a barn, chained to the wall.

Her third form, however, is grabbed by a woman missing chunks of her dark hair and led to a camp with survivors. The woman leads her to another woman - sisters, she thinks, they have the same nose, same stern jaw and same right hook - who gives her food and clean clothes and bandages a nasty cut on the bottom of Alex’s foot. “I’m Lois, my sister Lucy found you. What’s your name?”

Alex swallows the gulp of chicken soup. “I’m Alex.” Lois smiles at the unconventional name, and wraps a blanket around her shoulders.

“Well, Alex, you’re going to fit right in.”

When Alex’s foot is healed - fast for a mortal, but purposely slowed down from the instantaneous healing Gods have - Lucy shows her around the camp, and asks where she would fit best. Alex remembers her staff, and sparring with Kara, and joins the ranks of their little army immediately.

This little army, made up of a variety of people who shouldn’t be fighting, who are too soft for war and too kind for brutality to this scale, is sharp and fast and makes Alex almost think that they actually might stand a chance.

They do not.

When the hordes of enemies arrive, the army crumbles, and Alex is the only one left to witness them kill Lucy, then Lois, then herself. Alex falls behind them in the line to the Underworld, and grabs their hands. “Listen, I need to talk to you about something.”

“Alex”, Lucy pulls her forward, “It’s ok, I know you took that apple for Chloe.”

“It’s not that!” Alex yells. “I’m not named after the God of the Underworld, I am the God of the Underworld!” She throws off her cloak, and the layers of transformation vanish in a swirl of colour. She stands in front of them, glorious in a black dress that fades into the ground, and Lucy’s eyes widen.

“Motherfucker.” Lois whispers, and Alex immediately knows she’s made the right choice.

“I, Alex, God of the Underworld, need your help.”

“Honey, why do you need our help?” Lois asks, and Alex pulls them aside to explain, glad that they’re still their usual selves. Who else would call the God of the Underworld ‘honey’?

“This war needs to end, but we have no God of War, and no God of Healing to incite healing. You two have been chosen to fulfil those roles.” She explains, and Lucy punches Lois in the shoulder out of shock. She grabs their hands and pulls them towards the castle, ignoring the fact that Rich Hartmann, the Horseman of War, is cackling above them. She leads them through the castle into a courtyard decorated with crystals which glow with a soft silver light.

“Mind if I ask why us?” Lucy asks as Alex throws ceremonial robes at them from a hidden compartment in the floor.

“Put those on. The God of War is meant to be brave, strong, a warrior. The God of Healing is meant to be kind, selfless, a true source of peace. You both fit that description.” Alex answers, before reciting the summoning enchantment.

“And how exactly do we become gods? Last I checked that doesn’t happen to mortals.” Lois says, tying the robe shut.

“It happened to me.” Alex answers, before turning at the sound of Winn cursing.

“I had my hand in a furnace! A furnace, Alex!” Said hand is black with soot, and leaves a faint trail of dust as he waves it around. “What is so important that I had to leave my furnace!?”

“I found the gods who can stop the war.” She deadpans, and Winn stops.

“Oh. Cool.” They say, rubbing the back of their neck with their soot-covered hand. “Are the others coming?”

“I goddamn hope so, or I’m gonna kick their asses.” Alex threatens, and Lena walks in, cracking her knuckles.

“Who’s getting their asses kicked?” She asks.

“Everyone who isn’t here in the next thirty seconds.” Lena nods at that, and then notices the pair of soon-to-be-immortals by the ageing tree in the centre of the courtyard.

“Who are they?” She points one moon-pale finger at them, and Alex grabs her by the shoulder.

“Lois and Lucy Lane, our God of Healing and God of Victory, respectively.” Lois gives a little wave, and Lena nods. There’s a flash, and Kara, James and Clark walk in. Well, it’s good enough. “Guys, gals, nonbinary pals”, Alex winks at Winn, who grins, “I present to you Lois, our God of Healing, and Lucy, our God of Victory. It took me three tries to find them do not make me go back out there.”

“They’re great! Hi! I’m Clark!” Clark steps forward and shakes their hands, and spends a little too long shaking hands with Lois. Alex rolls her eyes; It’s bad enough seeing Kara and Lena all over each other. Clark in love is going to be a PDA nightmare .

“Yay, introductions. Kara, you have the spell?” Alex non-subtly drags Clark away from the sisters, and plants him firmly by her side, one hand gripping his wrist a little tighter than usual.

“I managed to shorten it. This war will end in exactly thirty seven minutes.” She said, smiling. She lifted her hands, and Kara raises her hands, and recites the incantation. The air around them begins to crackle with lightning, and the sisters began to glow a soft gold light. The lighting and gold light disappeared with a crack, and Winn began to applaud.

“Congratulations, ladies! You’re gods!”

~~

Alex’s bedroom is ridiculously lush, with throw pillows and fluffy blankets everywhere, most of which are in a pile against the window which overlooks everything. That particular pile is Alex’s comfort pile, where she buries herself in blankets and pillows and stops being Alexandra Danvers, God of the Underworld, Harbinger of Death for a few minutes, or an hour if she’s lucky.

Six weeks after Maggie said yes to staying with her, Alex finds herself in the pile, reading through the journal on the Great War. Not for nostalgic reasons, but for reference on Maggie’s parents. There’s little mention of the Gods of Spring, which is unsurprising as they were reluctant to help during the battle, only to show up at the end and demand a title for giving minimal aid.

Assholes.

She keeps flicking, past her own notes and into Winn’s section. There’s nothing on them, so she keeps flicking, through Kara’s and Lena’s and Lucy’s and Lois’ and halfway through Clark’s before she finds anything. His notes on them are brief, and someone - James, most likely, judging by the handwriting - has left little notes in the margins.

‘The Gods of Spring are fucking assholes ’ is the most prominent note, written in all caps along the border of the paragraph detailing Clark’s attempts to determine the work that must be done for the mortal realm. James is right, Alex discovers, as the paragraph reeks of disdain for the family, and rightfully so, as the Gods of Spring seem hell bent on doing absolutely nothing for the mortals who worship them.

In the words of James, fucking assholes.

She keeps reading, and her eyes are drawn to another note in the margins;

What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck who put them in charge?????????????

Alex skims through the paragraph, and her eyebrows jump in shock. “What the fuck?” She whispers. Her thumb skims over the offending lines;

The God of Harvest and the God of Seedlings are manipulative bastards, but there is nobody else who can do what they do, and unfortunately they are well aware that nobody else can do what they do. They want me to ‘prove my loyalty’ to them by marrying their daughter, Maggie, an idea which makes me want to throw up.

Alex slams the book shut and throws it. It bounces off the window, and Alex watches it fall onto the carpet. It seems to mock her, so Alex throws an embroidered cushion, but that bounces off the book and hits the window. Its tasseled corner rests just above Tartarus, and Alex’s eyes unfortunately wander to the crevice.

She can almost feel her father from here, even though she knows he’s thousands of kilometers below the surface, in enough pieces to make a mosaic depicting his death. Normally, wind howls over the crevice, loud enough to sound like whistling from Alex’s room.

But now?

It’s silent.

Something’s wrong.

Alex gets up from her pile of comfort, and swings the window open. There is a whistling, but it’s quiet, more focused. Something moves just under her line of sight, and she looks down. There’s shrubs, a few trees green with li-

Those trees are meant to be dead. Alex takes a closer look, and gasps. Maggie is walking towards Tartarus, without her usual long-legged gait and relaxed shoulders.

Jeremiah Danvers is luring her in.

On instinct, Alex throws out her hand as she leaps out the window, bracing for the feeling of her armour slamming into position, ready for war. Her staff hits her hand, the orb at the top bright with white light, and she breaks into a sprint when she hits the ground. Maggie’s far ahead, but not so far that she can’t catch up. Her feet pound a heavy rhythm against the not-so-dead earth, and she can see in the corner of her eye the Horsemen responding to the distress beacon.

Alex is getting closer. The howling is terrifying, sharp and destructive and pushing her back but she has to keep going, she has to, or Maggie’s going to die.

Twenty steps away, and Alex can hear her birth father’s lies, promises to resurrect her mother and give her Olympus if she kneels at his feet. She thinks of J’onn, who’s done a better job as a parental figure in a week than what her father did in her lifetime. Alex hears him roar. Her cape whips in the wind, the howling blasts using it to try to rip her staff from her grasp.

Fifteen steps away, and the wind snaps off a tree branch which almost pierces her stomach.

Ten steps away, and Maggie’s coat ties whip at her fingertips.

Three steps later, and Maggie’s hair is in her face.

Two steps.

One.

Alex’s hands curl around her shoulder and she’s immediately thrown into a vision which she knows is a lie. Both she and Maggie stop, Maggie from the pull and Alex from shock.

They’re no longer in the Underworld, but in the gardens outside Olympus. It’s vivid green, so green that Alex’s eyes ache. Birds twitter, trees rustle with the breeze, and laughter sounds from behind an orchard.

“Maggie, this isn’t real.” Alex says, but Maggie ignores her and walks towards the orchard. Alex’s hand slips off her shoulder. The sudden change in scenery - from the living green to the dead reddish-black of the Underworld - is startling, but Alex immediately jumps back into action and leaps towards Maggie. Her fingers curl around Maggie’s shoulders.

In the dream, Maggie’s moved further than Alex thought, and she’s on the other side of the orchard, and can see a group of people gathered. Music floats through the air, and one of the figures, dressed in a lemon-print sundress, turns to face them.

Alex somehow remembers to hold on through the shock, because that’s her.

Alex - the real Alex - stares right at Dream!Alex, who’s holding a pomegranate and wearing a lemon-print sundress like she’s a thirty-year old berry farmer who sells at a farmer’s market, smiling at Maggie with something warm in her eyes which makes Alex very nervous.

“There you are!” Dream!Alex smiles, walking towards them - towards Maggie. “Your parents and I were getting worried.”

So that’s what Jeremiah is promising her; Accepting parents and a friend.

You know that means something different , the little voice inside her head tsks, but Alex ignores it to instead punch Dream!Alex in the face. Like all illusions, she just flickers and disappears, and Maggie blinks in confusion as Alex stares at her.

“What just happened?” Maggie whispers, and Alex looks her right in the eyes.

“This isn’t real, Maggie.” She squeezes her shoulders, trying to communicate that this is all a dream, a honeypot to drown her in. “It’s all fake, you need to wake up.”

“It’s all fake?” She blinks a few times, and the misty haze in her eyes vanishes. “Oh. It is.” Her face falls, and Alex’s heart aches with guilt.

“You need to wake up.” Alex says, and Maggie’s hand reaches up to grab hers. She squeezes, once, and nods.

“It’s all fake?”

Aside from me. “Yes.”

“So, nothing here will mean anything?” Alex nods. “Good.” Maggie’s hands fly to the nape of Alex’s neck and drag her down into a kiss.

A part of Alex screams in shock. A part of her screams because screaming seems like a good idea.

The majority of her, however, does what any woman would do when being made out with by the god of their dreams; one of Alex’s hands flies to Maggie’s face, and the other into her thick hair, and Alex kisses right back.

God.

God.

Fuck.

It’s too much. It’s too goddamn much. The fake sun is too warm and the fake breeze is too soft and all of this seems kind-of real and then it clicks.

This isn’t just a honeytrap for Maggie - it’s one for her, too.

She’s so foolish to think that her father wouldn’t try his hardest to get to her - the weakest, the smallest, the most human and breakable and useless-

Alex rips out of Maggie’s grasp, and the illusion shatters into ash. The air is thick and foggy, and the crevice of Tartarus nips at Alex’s heels. Ash flutters in the air, and the ground begins to quake. Alex, with her staff buried deep within the ground, does not fall. Maggie, still dreary with the illusion, still shaken from the kiss, trips and falls into Tartarus.

“No!” Alex yells, arm outstretched and staff, solid and stable in her palm, halfway through a spell, but Maggie tumbles either way.

Maggie looks at her as she falls, almost in slow motion, eyes wide and arm reaching, just too short to make it, and Alex can hear her father - actually hear him, not in the way his spirit haunts every waking moment - laugh. Black tendrils of mist curl around Maggie, and Alex makes a terrible decision.

She jumps in right after.

As all things do, time seems to slow down even further. Adrenaline courses through Alex’s veins as her fingertips brush Maggie’s, then Alex somehow, somehow , reaches just enough that her fingers can wrap solidly around Maggie’s wrist.

“I’ve got you.” She says, but Maggie says nothing, eyes on the colossal shadow above them. Dear Gods, don’t be Jeremaiah, don’t be Jeremaiah , Alex thinks, and a soft ‘boof’ answers her question as her whole body jolts. She looks up, grip still tight around Maggie’s arm, and grins.

Two of Cerberus’ heads, Left and Centre, have latched on to either corner of her cape, whilst Right half-smiles down at her.

“Hey Cerberus.” Right lets out a soft ‘boof’ in reply, and Cerberus walks backwards, pulling the pair up from the chasm. As soon as they’re both lying flat on the ground, Alex passes out.

~~~~~

Alex wakes up a week after the Tartarus Incident, to her Horsemen crowding around her and freaking the fuck out. Gertrude curls around her arm the second she wakes up, and Amelia starts on a rant about ‘Stupid fucking reckless gods of the underworld, who do you think you are!?”

Maggie hasn’t moved. She’s not dead - Alex checks that herself, scours the Underworld for her soul, but it’s still in her heart, she’s still alive - but there’s something wrong. Her heart beats, her chest rises and falls, but she doesn’t wake.

It takes a day for Alex to know she is far out of her area of expertise, so she calls in a favour.

~~~~~

Lois Lane arrives to the Underworld in a flash of green and a whiff of freshly cut grass, with centuries of medical knowledge at her fingertips and a woman with a heart of steel on the verge of panic.

“Tell me everything.” Lois says as she crushes herbs, and Alex nods, blurting out everything in one long, run on sentence. She talks about finding her in the bushes, Maggie’s family, Tartarus, her father, the illusion.

“She kissed me.” Alex says, and Lois drops a handful of leaves.

“What.”

“She kissed me. And I kissed back.” Alex rubs at her face, and her shoulders begin to shake. “Do you think that’s why she’s not waking up? Because I kissed her?” Alex's fingers clench and unclench, and her eyes begin to glaze over with unshed tears. 

Lois rests her hand on Alex’s knee. “I think that’s why she’s still here.” She pats her knee once, before turning back to her spells. She flicks through the book, and finds the perfect spell. She reads through the ingredients, mentally checking them off as she goes. Belladonna, check. Lacewing, check. One golden apple, fuck.

How the fuck was Lois going to get a Golden Apple to the underworld?

Lois looks up at Alex, and sighs. She’s asleep, leaning on the bed with her crossed arms as a pillow. Silently, Lois gets up and leaves, shutting the door behind her.

Immediately, the Horsemen swarm around her. “What’s going on? Good news or bad news?”

“The good news is I have the spell, and most of the ingredients.”

The four of them sigh in relief, but Susan catches on first. “Most of the ingredients?”

“The bad news is that the spell needs a golden apple.”

“Motherfucker!”

~~~~~

Winn is finishing the final engravings on a harp for Cat’s 5000th Godling Anniversary when a slip of paper materialises in front of his face. He catches it artfully, and unfolds it with one hand.

Winn. Alex is in over her head. I need you to do me a favour. Meet me by the Gates.

Shit.

Shit shit shit shit shit.

They throw their tools down and runs out the door, grabbing their cloak on reflex. He buttons the clasp as they run, pushing past nymphs and dryads who are used to his rushing about, thank the Gods. They push through the last of the buildings and sprints the distance between the alcove and the Gates to Olympus. As he gets closer, they can see Lois standing there, flipping a coin over and over in her hands.

“Hey!” He calls, and she turns. She visibly relaxes and crosses the last stretch of land to finish by their side.

“Winn, thank the Gods. I need your help.” She says.

“What’s wrong with Alex, is she okay?” Lois pulls a face, and explains everything. Maggie showing up out of nowhere, Tartarus, Jeremiah gaining strength. “What do you need me to do?” He asks, and Lois sighs.

“I need you to steal a Golden Apple from Maggie’s parents.” She says, watching their face. Their nose crinkles as he thinks, then he nods.

“Sure. How soon do you need it?”

Lois blinks in mild shock. She knew he was going to say yes, but was expecting them to complain about it. “Um. As soon as possible would be great.”

He nods, then finger guns out of the conversation and heads towards the Garden. “I’ll be right back.” They call, and Lois starts. He’s going to get it now?

She watches as he walks through the gates, and prays to whoever listens to Gods that this all turns out okay.

Winn sneaks past the nymphs and dryads taking care of trees which are probably older than him, and makes their way to the centre hedge maze where the Tree of Life resides. The glow of the apples shine over the green wall, and Winn says a quick prayer to the Universe before entering.

The path to the centre is ingrained into their brain, and he closes his eyes as he walks just in case he starts second-guessing himself. Two lefts, a right, a long diagonal path, a right, a left, a swooping path that seems like a circle but isn’t, and a final left and he’s reached the tree.

The little courtyard is empty, the seats abandoned and the Tree alone. It stands at least ten times his size, the leaves the same vivid gold as the fruit it bears. Most of the large, ripe apples hang from the highest branches, but there are a few stragglers on the bottom. Most importantly, there’s one apple about half a meter above Winn’s head.

Winn takes a deep breath, squats, and jumps.

His fingers skim the apple, and he lands firmly on the ground. They try again, and again, and again. When he lands the fourth time, he looks at the tree, and frowns. The branch is shaking, but not because he touched it.

“Listen to me.” Winn says, “You know Maggie? The daughter of the Gods of Spring?” The tree’s leaves rustle in response, and Winn takes that as a good sign to continue. “Well, her parents tried to hurt her, so she ran away, and now she’s really hurt.” The tree stills unnaturally. “I need a Golden Apple to heal her.”

There’s a silence, and the tree bends almost in half, so that Winn can reach the most perfect apple they’ve ever seen. It’s perfectly round, unblemished, and shines like a gold ingot. It shimmers in his hands as he sneaks it into his coat, and the tree immediately stands to attention.

“Thank you.” He says, before walking back through the hedge maze, through the orchard and towards Lois, who’s bouncing with impatience. “Hey Lois, ready to get going?” they call, and she jumps in shock.

“You’re done?” She asks, and they nod.

“Yeah. Let’s go see Alex.” Lois wraps one arm around his shoulders, and they walk through the Gates together.

~~~~~

Unfortunately for Winn, he’s not as sneaky as he thinks he is, so, two days after Maggie wakes up from the spell, and three days after Alex saw Maggie last, Maggie’s parents enter the Underworld.

The ground beneath their feet shatters with weeds and undergrowth, and souls yet to be sorted flee in terror at the sight, hiding behind Cerberus, who howls and barks and yips at the pair as they march towards Alex’s palace.

Bolin, the Horseman of Famine, darts past them to warn Alex, who’s hiding in her office. With Maggie bedbound, it’s almost impossible for her to have to deal with the fact that the reason Maggie didn’t die from Jeremiah's curse is True Love’s Kiss when she’s in her office like a hermit.

He bursts through the door, and she immediately dives under the desk. “Alex I love you but you gotta deal with your own shit. Maggie’s parents are outside!” He yells, and her head appears from behind the desk.

“Why?” She hisses, and Bolin decides to drag her out from under the table instead of answering. He can hear yelling in the corridor, Susan loud and boisterous and distracting, Maggie’s demon mother howling louder than Cerberus outside.

“Because Winn isn’t the God of sneaking around for a damn reason.” He says, and she groans. “Get up and defend your girlfriend.”

Alex flushes red. “She’s not my girlfriend.” Whether I want her to be is another story entirely.

Bolin helps her up. “That’s not going to stop her parents from breaking everything in sight. Go!” She straightens her clothes, takes a deep breath, and walks out the door. Bolin sticks his head out into the hallway, and watches in awe and basic human fear as wind rushes around Alex, making her imposing in front of the bramble wall of terror that is Maggie’s parents. There’s yelling and cursing and thorns rip through the carpet as her parents howl and scream in anger.

As Alex summons every speck of power into an almost-banishment curse, Bolin slinks down the hall, turns the corner, then sprints to Maggie’s room. The door’s ajar, so he doesn’t stop running until he’s actually inside the room, which causes him to skid across the floor, trip over a decorative throw pillow and hit the ground nose-first. Maggie bursts into laughter so hard that she doesn’t make any noise, and Susan just sighs.

“I’m not getting you help.” She says, immediately reaching for her glass of water on a black side-table. Maggie’s got her own food, smuggled from Olympus, on a gold table to her right. For some reason that sends a pang of pain through Bolin’s heart.

She doesn’t belong here, no matter how many times you throw her parents out. No matter how many excuses you give, reasons you make, she will always have to leave.

“I don’t need help.” Bolin says as he gets up, “I need a vacation and a boyfriend.” Maggie smiles as Susan throws a different decorative throw pillow - this one with an anatomically accurate embroidered heart - at his head.

“Mourn the fact that Rich isn’t interested somewhere else, asshole.” Susan replies, before turning to Maggie. “How are you feeling, Bambi?”

“I fall over one time.” Maggie mutters, “I’m good. Just tired, that’s all.”

The Horsemen nod. A curse like that would knock out a God for a month. Maggie’s quick recovery - including the fact that she’s not a Named God, with no worshippers who leave gifts at the altar and provide enough life and energy to heal from even the worst wounds - was a welcome surprise.

A thought, a feeling, niggles at the back of Bolin’s mind, and as a vase goes flying past the open door in Alex’s show of power, he laughs and jokes and doesn’t say a word when the decorative vase on the table starts to fill with greenery.

~~~

Maggie’s parents try a different form of attack, and approach Cat Grant - The God of Truth, the one everyone goes to in a crisis, because when there's something not quite right and you can't figure out why you know you can trust her - with a ‘deal’, promising to return the book she’d been hunting for if she convinced Alex to let Maggie go.

Cat looks at the book one final time, and agrees. She’s not going to get it back. Before she leaves, she grabs a single bound volume, small in size and violet in colour. She tucks this into one pocket and walks towards the Gates just as James, golden with the last rays of daylight, lands. The chariot disintegrates as soon as his feet touch the ground, and the gold sparks make him look like he’s just climbed out of a romantic comedy. Asshole.

Cat has an idea. Well, another idea, really, but there’s no limit to how many plans you can have.

“James.” She says, smiling sweetly. He nods, dusting the last shards of sunlight off of his clothes. “I’m going to see Alex, want to come with me?”

His eyes widen, and he smiles. “This is about her not-girlfriend, right? Give me five minutes, Winn’s been haggling me to take them down there. You wouldn’t happen to know where he is, would you?” Cat shakes her head, and he sighs, before cupping his hands around his mouth. “The God of Lies is cuter than the Sun God!” He yells, and listens.

“WHAT WAS THAT YOU PUNK ASS BITCH!?” echoes from the forge.

“There they are.” James says. “I’ll be right back.” He walks off, and comes back a few minutes later with a red-faced Winn.

“You’re a goddamn traitor, I can’t believe you said that, of all things! I’m really mad at you, no cuddles for you, mister.” They curse, a speck of coal dust on the tip of their nose, which James brushes off with the tip of his finger. Winn flushes red. “You’re still in trouble!”

“You two ready?” She asks, and the pair nod. Cat pretends to not notice Winn’s fingers curling around James’ as they walk through the gates and are portalled to the Gates of the Underworld.

Winn lets out a slow whistle. “I really like these gates. Can I keep these gates?”

“No, Winn.” James sighs, before jolting as Winn drags him over to Cerberus, whose’ heads perk up at the sight of the pair.

“Cerberus! Hello, pretty boy!” Winn beams, and Cat stifles laughter behind a hand as Winn attempts to pat three heads with two hands. James, after a few minutes, decides to help, and scratches Centre behind the ears. It’s cute, but also serves as a great distraction, because Cat’s not one to confront with an audience. She slips through the gate, and walks past the line of souls towards the castle. Susan’s the one sorting today, and she’s ruthless, with no time for false pleas and lies from those who did terrible things when they were alive, but is kind and takes time with the children, those who died traumatically, and those who left people behind - which, yes, is most people, but there’s some who left behind their soulmate, and Susan always treats them best.

The castle doors swing open as she climbs the steps, and the howling winds from Tartarus whip at her clothes, trying to rip the journal she’s carrying out of her grip. She flips the bird in the vague direction of the cavern, and the wind stops for a second. She runs up the last few steps, and slams the door behind her.

Bolin is there, curled up on a lounge made of gold, flipping through a book as the soul of a cat lounges on his lap. He looks up at the sound of the door, smiles, then looks back down. “Alex is on the balcony connected to her office, if you’re going to lecture her for keeping Maggie here.”

Cat shakes her head, and pulls out the diary. “I’m not going to.” He looks up again, eyebrows furrowed with confusion, then gasps. She grins, and slips it back into place.

“Oh my god you’re gonna do the thing.” He whispers, eyes wide with awe. “Tell me how it goes.” He says, and she nods as she walks down the hallway. Her eyes are always drawn the the long tapestry that tells the story of how Alex ended up here, and she can’t help but hesitate at the depiction of Alex landing the killing blow to her father.

She was still human, then, and yet the thought of dying didn’t scare her, unlike everyone else. She, the true warrior embraced the thought of death and did not think of the personal consequences of what she was about to do. She stares at Alex’s face, the anger and rage deep in those eyes, the fact that Cat knew they were hiding grief, and fear, and shock, and sighs.

Cat may not be able to bring Alex’s mother back, but she can do this.

Alex’s office is at the end of the corridor, where the hall splits into two and branches off through the castle, behind an old oak door protected by a gold phoenix - another one of Winn’s creations, another apology. Cat knocks on the door, and it swings open softly.

The desk in the middle of the room is unoccupied, papers and books stacked neatly to one side, a nearly-empty pen holder in one corner. The books in the bookshelf behind are undisturbed, and the drapes at the far end flutter in the Tartarus wind, Alex disappearing and reappearing as the silk twists and twirls.

“I know what you’re going to say, Kara, and I don’t need to hear it.” Alex says, not turning around. “I already know that this is a goddamn disaster, I know I got too close to this, I know that I should have let her go before I started to care, but I can’t! I can’t just turn her away when I know that the second she gets out of here her parents are going to marry her off to the highest bidder, like she’s some animal for sale at a farm auction. I, I just can’t.” There’s silence, and Alex breathes in. “Just, get on with yelling at me already.”

“Who says I’m yelling?” Cat replies, and Alex jumps.

“You’re not Kara.” She says, and Cat steps into the room, shutting the door behind her.

“No, I’m not.” Cat walks towards Alex, who looks away, eyes focusing somewhere on Tartarus. Her shoulders are tight, eyes hollow, and Cat finally gets it. “You don’t need to say anything.”

“Isn’t that the point of Kara sending the one God I can’t lie to?”

“Kara didn’t send me. Maggie’s parents tried to blackmail me into manipulating you into letting her get married off.” Alex’s eyes widen, and Cat smiles. “It didn’t work.”

“So, why are you here then?” Alex asks, and Cat tugs the book out from under her coat. Alex’s eyes widen even more.

Cat holds it out to her. “Put your hand on the cover.”

“Nope, I already ranted, can’t you just leave it at that?”

“You ranted, not all of that was truth.”

“It was truth enough!” Alex’s shoulders tighten as she turns away, and then they begin to shake. “It has to be enough.”

“If you really think it’s enough, then tell me, and I’ll walk away. But if I walk away, I won’t be able to lie for you. I know you mean well, Alex, but I can’t find a loophole big enough to squeeze all your issues through.” Yeah, that one hurt, but it seemed to be enough, because Alex spun around, eyes finally alive.

“My issues? Holy fuck, Cat, there’s a whole damn encyclopaedia on my issues! I’m well aware that this whole situation is fucked up, that the only reason we met is because she’s escaping an emotionally abusive home where she’s nothing more than a piece of meat, but fuck, Cat! Really need to mention it? Really need to bring up the fact that every time I think of her my lungs hand in their resignation forms or every time I see plants my heart does the goddamn fucking macarena? Or the fact that every time Bolin or Susan or Rich or Amelia tell me to go talk to her-”

“You haven’t talked to her?”

“You fucking deal with the fact that our fucking dream kiss saved her life. I honestly think I’m about to die myself every time I hear it because I care so fucking much. I can’t handle it, Cat, I really can’t handle it. God of Death me says listen to my head but my head is saying listen to my heart and my heart is yelling in A sharp.”

Cat blinks twice. “Wow. I didn’t even need to use the book as a distraction.”

Alex stops, and tilts her head in confusion. “The book’s a distraction?”

Cat nods. “People in my vicinity can’t lie. I use the book to make sure they don’t move.”

“Wait, you’ve been punking us all this time?” Alex asks, half in awe and half in shock.

“You may be ancient, but I’m still older than you.” She smiles, waves and walks out of the office.

“Three decades doesn’t mean shit when we’re older than the sun!” She calls, and Cat laughs loud enough to hear as she walks down the corridor. Bolin is still in his spot, but he’s joined by five ghost cats, each in various positions on his body.

“I assume you heard the yelling.” One of the cats on Bolin’s lap slowly blinks up at Cat, black eyes sparkling.

“Oh yeah. She really needed someone to kick her ass into gear, so thanks for that.” He says, leisurely turning a page.

“You’d think she’d be too old for a gay panic, huh?”

~~

It takes Alex a few minutes after Cat leaves to steel herself. Deep breaths in, out, in, out, in, out. Cat’s right, of course; She needs to talk to Maggie.

Easier said than done.

Susan’s outside sorting souls today, so Alex knows that she won’t have to hear anything from her about this whole dilemma. Bolin’s talking to Cat near the entrance - Bolin’s laugh is bouncing off the walls and through the open door - and Rich is helping Amelia sort out the library’s new additions. Maggie would be alone.

Alex isn’t sure if that’s better or worse.

She takes one final deep breath, and leaves her office, leaving Gertrude, her staff and her armour behind.

This is a conversation between Alex and Maggie, not Death and the Daughter of Spring.

Alex walks down the numerous hallways to get to Maggie’s room, but stops when the doorway is in sight. There’s grass and flowers and life leading out of the room and down the hallway. She follows the path, up staircases and through rooms she doesn’t use anymore and finds herself in one of the abandoned towers, the one that overlooks the Garden of Heroes.

The greenery is thick, so thick Alex can barely breathe with the perfume from the flowers around her, moss covering the steps and the walls and she almost slips when a vine wraps around her waist and catches her. She pats it once, and it unfurls and slinks back into the ground.

This would be cool if Alex isn’t emotionally shitting herself.

She makes it up the final steps, heart racing and eyes wide as she steps over what remains of the door and into a greenhouse.

There’s a whole ecosystem in here, trees instead of support beams and wildflowers growing out of the floorboards and Maggie-

Holy shit, Maggie.

She’s in the centre of the room, surrounded by greenery so thick that Alex can’t tell where she ends and the greenery begins. Her hair is decorated with wisteria, mistletoe and strawberry flowers and when she turns to face Alex they rustle and shake with life.

“You can come in.” She says, and Alex walks in, almost on autopilot. “I heard the yelling.” Alex winces, and Maggie looks away.

There’s silence, aside from the rustling of the greenery and the soft breathing from them both.

“I’m sorry.” Alex says.

“For what?” Maggie’s eyes are down on a tiny venus flytrap in her palm.

“For-” For what, Alex? For kissing her? For not talking to her? For being so incapable of basic social interaction that she resorts to growing plants in an abandoned tower? “For… fuck, Maggie, I don’t know.”

“Want me to go first?” She asks, and Alex nods. “Okay. Thank you.” Alex’s eyes widen in shock.

“Thank you?”

“Yes. Thank you. Thank you for taking me in, no questions asked. Thank you for risking your life for me when Jeremiah got too close. Thank you for scaring my parents off. Thank you for saving my life.”

“I didn’t save your life.” Alex says hurriedly, and Maggie laughs once.

“I’m pretty sure you did. Amelia explained it to me - True Love’s Kiss stops all spells.”

“Oh. I didn’t know you knew.”

More silence. A dandelion shoots out from between Maggie’s fingers.

“Do you regret it? The kiss?” She asks, poking the yellow head.

Alex swallows around the lump in her throat. “No. I don’t. It saved your life.”

“Do you regret it being me?” Alex flinches at how blunt she is, and Maggie’s eyes dart to the movement of her shoulders shaking. “Do you? Would you prefer a God who actually had control of their powers? One who did something useful, like drag the sun across the sky?”

“Bringing life is useful. Creating life is amazing . You just can’t do it here - it’ll kill you. You’ll choke without sunlight - there’s no way you’ll be able to survive here.” Alex wants to reach out and touch her, hold her , but there’s a part of her that screams that the second her does Maggie will wither and die like everything else.

Maggie laughs an empty laugh. “Can’t stay with my parents, can’t stay in Olympus, can’t stay in the Underworld. Maybe the mortal realm has a vacancy.”

“I don’t- I’m not kicking you out. I’m telling you to leave and never come back because, fuck, Maggie, I want you to stay, okay? I’m a terrible person because I want you to stay, I want you to stay forever and tell me bad jokes and make dandelions grow out of nothing.” Maggie gets up, eyes wide and hands shaking just a little. “I want to fix the Garden of Heroes with you and play fetch with Cerberus with you and curl up in front of a fire and feel as warm on the outside as you make me feel on the inside because Maggie, holy fuck Maggie, you make me feel alive. ” Alex’s eyes are a little blurry, and as she blinks everything into focus Maggie’s hands reach for her face. Alex’s eyes close as one work-roughened hand lands on her cheek, thumb brushing her face.

“Why does it take us both almost dying to have a conversation?” Maggie asks, and Alex laughs a wet laugh, pressing her face deeper into the hand against her face.

“Because emotional balance and security aren’t on the list of things prospective gods need to function as deities of the human race.” Maggie laughs a real laugh, and a smile wraps around her face as Alex presses their foreheads together. The greenery around them rustles with excitement.

~~

Maggie’s parents discover Cat’s deception.

The world suffers for it.

~~

Alex is standing at the Gates of the Underworld when the first rush of undead appear. Men, women, children, starved to skin and bones, moaning about dead crops and empty streams and a chill when there should have been sun.

She knows what has happened. Maggie’s parents have made an ultimatum - the whole damn universe for Maggie - and Alex can’t choose. Her head is screaming to think of those who worship them, that if they all die out there’ll be nobody to continue their memory, and the God too will eventually fade.

But her heart - her stupid fucking heart, selfish and brutal and incapable of understanding that the job comes with sacrifice - won’t let Maggie go.

Alex half-wishes that she could exist like the Seelie Queen from her mother’s stories - heart in a jar, emotionless and truly neutral, like Death. Cerberus whines at the cluster of children - at least two hundred, maybe more, all stick thin and staring wide-eyed at the vastness of the Underworld - and she makes her decision. Her heart is screaming as she turns and walks towards the castle, but, like the day her mother died, she ignores it.

Maggie has to leave.

As she walks, shards of light shoot down from Olympus, and out of the corner of her eye Alex can see James, Lena, Winn and Lucy amongst the crowd, and hears Winn’s shocked yell as the doors swing open, blasting Alex with the smell of the florals which have taken over.

Moss cushions her feet on the path she walks, getting thicker the closer she get’s to thei- to Maggie’s room. Ivy shoots along the walls, striping the marble with soft white flowers that make Alex’s eyes hurt, and dandelions mark the area around the door.

Alex can’t go in.

She wants to, but she so desperately can’t and it makes her want to scream and curl in a ball and rip out her heart at the same time and it kind of feels like the world is swallowing her whole and by the Gods she can’t breathe, like somebody’s got their hands wrapped around her lungs and are squeezing to the rapid beating of her heart and now her eyes are starting to hurt and everything’s blurry but she can still make out the vague shape of Maggie, Daughter of Spring and the sob claws out of her throat with talons that rival the Harpies, sharp and pointed and dripping with Alex’s blood because there is no way in the vastness of the universe that she would be okay after the emotional mauling that is Maggie’s parents and their bastard ultimatum.

“Hey, hey, Alex, sweetheart, breathe with me, come on.” Maggie’s voice cuts through the panic, and Alex’s hands still - when did they start shaking - as Maggie’s wrap around hers. “Talk to me, what’s going on?”

Alex chokes on the words. “Your parents are holding the mortal realm hostage. They’re- they’re not letting anything grow.” Alec hiccups.”Everyone’s starving- children, Maggie, they’re skin and bones and it’s all my fault because I’m too selfish and wouldn’t let you go-“

Maggie’s fingers fly to her hair as she pulls Alex closer, and Alex’s sobs bounce off the greenery as Maggie comforts her, and thinks. Alex’s fingers claw at Maggie’s clothes, ripping little holes in the fabric because Alex doesn’t want to let go but she has to, she has to. For the sake of the whole universe, she has to let go.

Maggie lets go first. She pulls away when Alex’s sobs become sniffles, and tugs Alex’s fingers away one by one, brushing over them like they’re made of the finest China, and aren’t capable of swinging a sword and destroying millions. The tenderness makes Alex want to sob again, but she holds on just a little bit, doesn’t sob again when Maggie tucks her hair behind her ears and presses a few kisses to her forehead. She doesn’t sob when Maggie gets up, towering above Alex, who’s curled deep into the greenery.

She almost sobs, however, when Maggie walks away without another word.

~~

Maggie’s parents have forgotten what it means to have a child and raise them to be like you.

~~

Kara is in the ‘throne room’ - more of a glorified dining room, really, with a giant table and twenty-odd chairs, mismatched but still cohesive - when an explosion of green and silver appears in the middle of the room. It’s a summons, obviously, but those are colours that she’s never seen before. Alex is silver and black, Clark is green and blue, Lena white and gold.

This is a new god.

Who the fuck is making new Gods?

Kara walks towards the orb, which smells vaguely of peppermint, and pokes it with one finger. A rush of green and silver light wraps around her, and a fierce wind whips at her clothes. The peppermint scent claws at her face, Kara screams, and the silver-green light dissipates.

She’s in the Underworld.

More specifically, she’s in Alex’s own throne room, a room which truly lives up to the name. Tall ceilings catch the multicolour light from stained glass windows, and the table which sits in the middle is covered in the same green which choked Kara.

At the head of the table is Maggie, Daughter of Spring, with an empty pot, a knife, a spoon, and a plate in front of her. There’s a whistling to Kara’s right, and her eyes fly to another green-silver ball, which grows and grows then vanishes, revealing Lena.

The pair look at each other, then look around the room as more Gods appear, all in a semi-circle at one end of the room; Even Mon-el, the God of lies, is here. The last to appear in twin balls of energy, directly opposite Maggie, are her parents. Their fingers are covered in dirt and there’s a look of madness in their eyes. It would make Kara shiver if her brain didn’t helpfully remind her that she can summon lightning at whim.

“What the hell is goin- Maggie? Dear?” Her father says. Maggie holds her hand over the pot. Something thick and green shoots out of the pot, twisting and turning above them until a fully fledged tree with round purple-red fruit the size of a baseball dangling off of various branches.

“A little bird told me that you’re holding the Mortal realm hostage.” She said, as one perfect fruit wiggled and fell onto the plate. Lena looked at Kara, eyes wide.  “I’d like to make a trade.”

“A trade?” Maggie’s mother spat. “You have nothing we want!”

“I do.” Maggie said, slicing cleanly through the fruit. She took one half, and smacked the outside hard. Twelve perfect seeds fell out and clattered onto the plate beside the other half. “This, Mother, is a pomegranate, grown within the Underworld from soil collected from the chasm of Tartarus. By ancient law, it is Undead food. And, as all present know, if somebody eats Undead food, they are to stay in the Underworld for eternity.”

A sharp intake of breath from Kara’s left. She looks, and it’s Alex, hair a mess and eyes red and looking nothing like the God she is. She looks like Alex, like Alex before the whole immortality thing, before their father’s deal with a demon, before all of this.

“Return the Spring to the Mortal realm, or I start eating.” Maggie says, and the room is flooded with her ultimatum.

“You must be joking!” Her father yells. In reply, Maggie plucks one seed from the plate and places it on her tongue. She smiles as best as she can with her tongue poking out, then swallows the seed.

“Maggie! Stop this at once!” Her mother yells, and Maggie picks up two seeds and swallows them.

“Return Spring to the Moral realm, and then I’ll stop.” She says, gathering three seeds in her hand.

“Maggie.” Alex says, voice soft enough that it makes Kara’s heart break but loud enough for everyone to hear. Her mouth opens and closes a few times, the words she wants to say tangled between her teeth and her emotions.

“It’s ok, Alex.” Maggie says, before swallowing the three she has in her hand. “Six out of twelve, Mother. What would that make it, six months out of the year I stay here, in the Underworld? I can keep going.”

Her parents look at each other, eyes wide, before nodding. There’s a rush of spearmint - sharper and colder than Maggie’s magic - and Kara feels rather than sees Spring returning to the Mortal realm. “It is done, now, please, stop this and come home.”

Maggie stands, proud and tall and as glorious as any God. “The orchard stopped being my home when you attempted to use me as something to trade for Olympian support. I am a daughter of Spring, but I am not your daughter.”

James, next to Lena, tilts his head to the right, and smiles. “I see it.” He says, a little loudly, and everyone looks at him. “I mean, I see the whole Daughter of Spring, I can feel it, but you’re like me and Winn, no godly parents.”

“What does that mean?” Alex asks.

“Her powers have to be coming from somewhere, but that somewhere isn’t from her parents. I think it’s her. The trees, the greenery everywhere, that’s all Maggie. She’s a God now. A fully fledged God.” Alex’s hands fly to her face, and Maggie grins as, outside, Cerberus howls.

~~~

It is the Autumn Solstice - one of two days of the year where there is the same amount of day and night - and Maggie has just closed her floristry shop for the last day of the season. She spends every summer in the Mortal realm, watching over the Mortals, worming her way through their society as a neighbour and a friend and protecting them in case the Gods of Spring have any ideas about attempting another Great Frost.

The last of the flowers are in their pots, and her few employees - teenagers, mostly, all with their own stories and own battles and Maggie has been making sure they all get special places in the Afterlife for their kindness - are divvying up the flowers equally.

One woman, Mina - an Iranian girl whose trademark is a brightly coloured hijab - holds out a few violets. “Take these to your wife, yeah?” She says, and Maggie smiles. Mina is the only one who knows the truth - born with the Sight, she’s the best person to talk to about her secret life- and the cheeky glint in her eye makes Maggie laugh.

“Alex will love them. Thanks, Mina.” Mina gently gives them to her, before pushing her out the door.

“Go! You’ll miss your train and then you’ll have to wait ages to see her, go!” She says, referencing the Sunset Gateway at the local park. “Tell her I said hi!” Mina waves until Maggie turns the corner, and her enthusiasm warms Maggie until she gets to the park. There’s nobody there, but it’s not derelict, the play equipment is vibrant yellow and red and blue and there’s a faint circle between two 157,423 year old trees - the dirt from planting them is still in the pockets of her clothes - which Maggie steps through.

She likes to think that she can surprise Alex with her arrival, even though there’s only two days where Maggie can arrive or depart, but the Gates of the Underworld always explode with wildflowers when she arrives. Today, it's Susan at the Gate, and she and the crowd of dead souls cheer as she walks in. Cerberus presses their faces into hers, and she scratches them all behind the ears.

“Alex is in the Garden of Heroes!” Susan calls, and Maggie waves in reply before walking towards the Garden. Souls dance around her, asking about friends and family and people left behind. Mina’s great-grandmother, Homa, is there, and Maggie tells her about Mina getting the degree she wanted. Homa beams with joy.

As she gets closer to the Garden, the crowd peels off, giving her time alone with Alex, their first time alone in six months, since the Spring solstice, when the gate opens again for only a day. The Garden is as green as Maggie remembers, and the gates swing open as she approaches. Achilles is sitting in a tree, and he waves and points to the vague direction of the orchard. “She’s been waiting for you.”

“Really?”

“Uh, yeah, dumbass. Go get your girl!” Maggie snickers as she walks, dandelions marking the path, and gasps softly as she turns the corner to see Alex sitting on a blanket at the entrance to the orchard, with a basket in the middle of the blanket.

“Hey, babe.” Maggie says, and Alex jolts. She spins around, and rushes to get up.

“Oh my gods, Maggie, I missed you so much.” Alex squeezes her tight, and Maggie laughs.

“I missed you too.” Maggie presses her face into Alex’s hair, before pulling back and kissing her wife. Alex tastes like pomegranates, and the feeling of Alex's fingers in her hair makes all the waiting worth it.

They pull away when their lungs feel like they're dying, and Alex’s eyes slowly open. “Welcome home, Maggie.”