Work Text:
FADE IN:
EXT: MOUNTAIN - EARLY OLYMPIAN ERA, DAWN
Against a mountain, a Titan-sized being, PROMETHEUS, is bound with chains, facing the rising sun. His expression is calm but otherwise unreadable. On the right side of his torso, a new scar has knitted itself closed over multiple older scars.
Something catches Prometheus' eye. He raises a hand to shield out the sun and look up. An eagle is coming.
Prometheus, despite himself, swallows nervously.
CLOSE UP ON EAGLE
The eagle spots Prometheus, and flies downwards, quite slow and relaxed, as it knows he can't run. It's done this enough times already to have learned this.
Suddenly, something pierces the eagle's eye, and the eagle tumbles out of the sky. It crashes on the ground far below, in the middle of a meadow next to the mountain.
CUT TO:
EXT: MEADOW NEXT TO THE MOUNTAIN
SINGLE SHOT - CRASHED EAGLE
The eagle lies still next to a fully grown cypress tree. Even prone, the eagle is as tall as the tree, a monstrous bird created for a monstrous task: to tear out and eat the liver of a Titan every day.
The end of a long-handled weapon is sticking out of the bird's eye. A blue hand, stout and strong, yanks it out; we see the weapon is a bident.
SINGLE SHOT - HADES
We see Hades observing his bident for damage (there is none). He is dressed in black armor, riding a black warhorse. He still looks younger than he does in the modern era, and his long hair is tied back.
Hades turns his attention to the enormous eagle, and raises a hand. The eagle's body is consumed by shadowy flames that flicker with tongues of pink, blue, purple.
Hades then turns and rides towards the enormous form of Prometheus chained to the mountain in the distance.
CUT TO:
EXT: MOUNTAIN
Prometheus looks at Hades arriving over a small hill on his warhorse, and smiles, though it isn't an entirely happy one.
PROMETHEUS
(calling out to Hades, still a little distance away)
Aidoneus. You shouldn't have come here.
Prometheus suddenly closes his eyes; when he opens them, they briefly shine with green light. A vision, for he is the god of foresight, even in punishment.
Hades and his warhorse arrive at Prometheus' feet, and begin carefully finding a path up the mountain slope, to see eye to eye with the Titan. The god of the dead looks like a small toy warrior next to his friend.
PROMETHEUS
(a little sad, watching Hades guide his horse carefully up beside him)
So the mortals call you Hades now. Synonymous with the threshhold to the Underworld. Which name do you prefer to use?
At this point, Hades finally arrives at Prometheus' shoulder, and looks up to him.
HADES
(hesitant)
I don't want to lose my previous name. But... it feels wrong now. I wish it did not. Is this the power of how the mortals shape us?
PROMETHEUS
I'm afraid so. But we never lose our birth names unless we choose to. Perhaps one day "Aidoneus" will sound right to you again. Mortals are fickle, after all.
Hades gets off his horse, and starts to prod with his bident at the rings where Prometheus' chains are attached.
PROMETHEUS
(sadly amused)
Have you come to rescue me?
HADES
(preoccupied with inspecting the chain anchor)
I can't leave you here.
PROMETHEUS
(grumbles a hmmm)
Have you thought this through yet?
HADES
(stops prodding and looks up, expression determined)
... no.
PROMETHEUS
(chuckles deeply, rumbling)
Well, your frankness has not been changed by becoming the Underworld's King.
HADES
(starts to realize what he's done, and rubs his neck nervously)
I let Zeus decide your punishment. I thought he was going to be reasonable... I've tried to negotiate with him, but I have nothing to give him. He said that... he has no use for the Underworld's dark voids of nothingness.
PROMETHEUS
(mutters to himself)
That being will bring us all to ruin millenia hence.
(to Hades)
This isn't your fault, you know. You did not put those words in your brother's mouth, and neither did you wield his power to condemn me.
HADES
(pause as he collects himself)
But I failed to stop him.
PROMETHEUS
(gently)
Listen to me. You don't have the ability to stop him now. Don't get yourself hurt on a useless quest. I don't want that happening to my little god.
HADES
(looking up desperately)
But...
PROMETHEUS
(gentle but firmly)
I am the god of foresight. I know of the price you paid to become King. Where would you take me, even if you could undo my chains?
HADES
(confused)
We could flee. To other lands. Another pantheon might take us in.
Prometheus hmms to himself, realizing that Hades doesn't yet know the extent of what he paid to Erebos.
PROMETHEUS
Sit down, little god. Let me tell you what happens next.
Hades reluctantly sits on a rock next to Prometheus' face.
PROMETHEUS
(closes eyes, then opens them, and his eyes glow emerald briefly)
Zeus will know you killed his eagle. But stay here with me, and let him come to find us. I will tell him that I convinced you to free me, and that you eventually saw through me and decided to guard me until he came. He will be upset but he still thinks of you and Poseidon as innocent children, not kings equal to himself. And you will leave me here, because you know that you must.
HADES
(frustrated)
I only know that because you told me.
PROMETHEUS
(teasing but serious)
Excuse me, who is the god of foresight here? Are you?
HADES
(sighs)
Please go on.
PROMETHEUS
I know this is difficult but: worry not for me, little god. In the future, someone will break my chains, and I will flee this place and be safe from Zeus' wrath.
HADES
Tell me who it is. Tell me who rescues you. I will try to help this being reach you.
PROMETHEUS
No. I'm sorry. Things don't work out if I tell you what I don't see myself telling you. Also, common sense. There are wheels within wheels you have no idea of, little god, and until you are in a much better bargaining position, you will be ground beneath them.
HADES
(determined)
I will do my best to develop and expand the Underworld, take it to heights such as has never been seen by any gods before. I will strengthen my domain so much that Olympus will become completely dependent, and then I can force Zeus' hand and--
PROMETHEUS
It's not that simple, little god. And that is all I can say. Wait here, and then return to the Underworld as I told you. Live the rest of your life without anchoring yourself to my fate. I assure you, I'm in control of it, despite what you might see. Thirteen years seem long to you still, but they are the blink of an eye to me.
HADES
(accusatory, but not harshly so)
You're lying about the last part. I can tell. It's not very hard when your lips and brows are bigger than my head.
PROMETHEUS
(grins, amused, then serious)
Perhaps. But have you ever known me to be wrong in the long run?
HADES
(hangs his head, defeated)
No.
PROMETHEUS
I'll make it up to you now. One warning, and one prophecy. Deal?
HADES
(bitterly)
Do I have a choice?
Hades looks away, then looks up at Prometheus again.
HADES
(resigned)
Please tell me, then.
PROMETHEUS
The warning first. Ask yourself, who among us can foretell the future? Who are our oracles? Where are they, what has happened? Who is responsible for what happened to them?
HADES
(thinks about this, then suddenly realizes)
Metis is gone. You are... here, trapped. The Fates already don't disclose anything to anyone willingly. Hera, however, still has visions... unless she is in danger?
PROMETHEUS
It's merely a warning; you won't be able to do anything about what happens next. Just know what resources you will and won't have available. And now, the prophecy: what was taken from you, will be paid back in full.
HADES
Your prophecy is extremely vague and unhelpful.
PROMETHEUS
(grins)
What prophecies are not, little god?
HADES
(thoughtful)
I think you mean I'll be successful at creating a much better bargaining position with Zeus.
PROMETHEUS
(hmmmmms)
You know prophecies, little god. Take care you don't get yourself trapped by them.
Prometheus notices someone in the distance, though neither we nor Hades can see them yet.
PROMETHEUS
The King of the Gods is coming. Stay quiet, and let me speak. Little god, you were never good at lying.
Just then, Zeus arrives over the hilltop from the direction of the rising sun, looking furious, flying over to where Prometheus and Hades are.
OVER BLACK
PROMETHEUS (V.O.)
How cruel yet kind was Erebos? For you are fated for true love, though fated also to loneliness in turns.
FADE OUT