Chapter Text
Thanks to entire life of training given to him by the world’s most famous vigilante, Dick doesn’t immediately start flailing when he realizes he’s floating in a body of water. Looking straight up reveals nothing but an unnatural darkness. Besides the sound of water flowing, Dick can hear the melancholic sound of someone singing to a string instrument. The air is stale which reminds of the few times he’s been imprisoned in small, damp places. Turning his head slightly to one side shows him nothing but a two-colored horizon of black and red. To the other side, Dick sees a very flashy hallway of sorts.
Slowly, Dick turns around so he can swim to where there are smooth steps to get him out of this “red water” river. Okay, Dick knows it’s blood but he’s going to keep calling it “red water” for the time being until he’s ready to process whatever mess he’s in. He quickly finds his footing and walks up the steps.
He doesn’t feel hurt anywhere and a quick pat of his body reveals his Nightwing suit is in perfect condition. He has his escrima safely attached to his back but that seems to be all of his equipment. He’s not wearing a mask.
Torches light up the hallway. There are expensive-looking sculptures all around, petals falling from above, plush drapes hanging all over the wall. Then there are those green balls of gas that float around and make a really creepy echoey kind of noise. The floor is shiny and it has really complicated designs; Dick almost feels bad dripping “water” on it as he moves forward even though he has absolutely no idea where he is. He walks forward, ignoring the way the green wisps seem to turn to him and pretending the music doesn’t give him the jeebies. He feels like he’s one of those dumb extras in low-tier Halloween movies that’s going to get offed by the villain while the movie protagonist screams their head off. He doesn’t like it. Off to the side is a chaise with a large blanket bundled on top of it.
No wait, there’s a being under the blanket. It’s a weird looking person with gray skin and amazing white curls. Then, from black smoke, another being appears right in front of the first one. The newcomer almost looks like a grim reaper but with more style.
“Thanatos! Did you find him?” The person in the chaise asks.
“Hypnos!” Thanatos says practically at the same time. “Why have you not made mention of the living mortal that has entered the House of Hades?”
(Dick doesn’t know what to make of the giant scythe this Thanatos guy is carrying but he really doubts it’s just there for show.)
That Hypnos guy messes around with his robes as if he’s looking for something. “Well, it’s not like the mortal appears in the registry or anything. Look, he doesn’t even have a file! All I get is Zagreus—”
Both of them look at each other and Dick catches the exact moment they both start to panic.
“Master Hades!” Hypnos yells as Thanatos gasps out “Mother!”
(The music stops. Dick’s watched enough movies to recognize a record scratch moment when he hears one.)
A beautiful woman in purple appears out of thin air, a deep frown on her face. “What is it child, did you find him?”
Then, this giant beast of man appears out nowhere. Dick steps back because, while everyone else seems taller than he is, that giant towers over him. The villains of his world don’t have anything on this guy. “What is the meaning of this?”
“Master Hades…” Hypnos says. He sound like he wants to start hyperventilating. He gives Hades the scroll.
Dick quickly looks for an escape but the only way out is back through the river of “red water”; that’s not an option since he doesn’t know where that leads to.
Hades reads it-then he turns his full glare to Dick.
Dick thinks he’s two seconds away from getting skewered but the woman in purple glides closer to him. She speaks in a very soothing tone of voice that only exacerbates Dick’s nervousness.
“Where do you hail from, mortal?” the woman asks.
Dick chokes a bit before he can respond. “G-Gotham. I’m from, was from Gotham. I mean, I live in Bludhaven but I guess Gotham is where I was raised.”
“Identify yourself, mortal,” Thanatos says.
“Dick. Richard Grayson but I go by Dick.” Dick almost wants to throw some finger guns but misses the opportunity to do so.
He looks away and suddenly sees a whole crowd ogling him.
“Nyx,” Hades says, turning to the woman in purple. “Inform Chaos of this. Thanatos, to Persephone. Find this Gotham. Achilles, guard the mortal. Everyone else, back to your stations.”
Everyone starts disappearing in different color puffs of smoke except one guy who almost looks like one of the green wisps but with more discernible features. Dick’s first instinct is to go on defensive but he goes with his second instinct to wave in greeting.
“Well met, lad.” The man says. “I am Achilles. Servant to Master Hades. Please accompany me so we’re not standing here, interrupting Master Hypno’s future work.”
Dick marvels out how soothing Achilles’ voices is. He follows the ghost-man down the hallway and into another parallel hallway. They pass three-headed Clifford the Big Red Dog whom stares at Dick with a ferocious glint that doesn’t subside until they’re out of sight. They get to a beautifully decorated nook. It’s got vases and a plush looking carpet and this ostentatious looking mirror that probably out-prices anything in the mansion. It matches perfectly with the rest of the decor.
“Prince Zagreus decorated this for me.” Achilles says pointing to his little area. “He has a good heart, that boy. His disappearance has caused quite a panic not only for us here in the Underworld but for the gods of Olympus as well.”
“Huh,” Dick says. He knows quite a bit about the Greek Parthenon, from what he’s learned from Donna. He’s also pretty familiar with the myths from how often they’re modernized in movies and television shows.
He arrives to the heartbreaking conclusion that he is dead…
He’s dead and it sucks because he can’t even remember how he died. Such bad luck!
“Hey,” Dick says, trying not too think to hard about his death or else he’ll get sad. “Explain something to me. Why was everyone freaking out earlier?”
“Ah, are you not familiar with the circumstances that brought you to the Underworld?”
“No…”
“Hmmm. I will have to inform Master Hades of this. But let me explain what I can. You see, Prince Zagreus-the only son of Master Hades, disappeared on his way home. Shortly after, the Gods of the realm started losing control of their powers. This has caused uncountable disasters in the world above. The world is dying and no has been able to do anything to stop it.”
“Is it because Zagreus disappeared or is his disappearance one of the consequences of whatever is going on?”
“That is the golden question, isn’t it? No one, not even the Gods that rule us mortals, have the slightest about what’s causing all these tragedies.”
“Well, I use to be pretty good solving mysteries. I'll try to help if you guys want. Let’s just go over the information we have then. The Prince disappears and the world goes to shit. Is he like the God of Life or Earth or something.”
“No, no. His powers, or, the lack of them being available, would not have caused this. There are bigger powers in play.”
“Okay, so how what do we know about his disappearance?”
“Well, we know he was fighting his way through the House of Styx but was defeated there. Charon, you know of him-good-brought him back to the House but the Prince never got out of the river. He should be here. The gods should be able to sense him but no one can find him. He is neither in this realm, nor Olympus, nor with the mortals.”
Dick can’t help but frown. That’s not a lot to go on. True, he’s had cases with even less evidence that that but he still had help from his family and friends, not to mention the ability to gather clues by going to the site of the incident. But he’s stuck in the Underworld and he has none of his normal tools. He thinks he should still try…if he can make some sort of connection and bring back this Zagreus…maybe the gods will bring him back to life. He knows there are a few myths where something like that happened.
“The world as we know it is falling apart, lad. Olympus is in disarray, the mortals are dying at an abnormally high rate, here in the Underworld we can feel the powers that hold this place together waning. It’s madness.” Achilles says.
“Maybe we should look into the how he disappeared. It could give us clues as to where he is. I do have some experience solving crimes; I’d love to help but can I even leave this place? How does it work now that I’m dead?”
“You’re not dead.”
Dick frowns. “What do you mean I’m not dead? You said this is Hades’ world, right? Where the dead of ancient Greece go? Although what I’m doing in Greece I don’t know. Would’ve assumed I’d end in Valhalla because I’m a fighter and all.”
Achilles stares at him in confusion. “Look at yourself. Do you think you are dead like the rest of us?”
Dick looks at his fingers. He clenches them and unclenches them. He looks at his feet and legs, moves a bit, puts his hand in his hair. “Eh, I don’t feel any different…”
Achilles smiles. Slowly, he makes to put his hand on Dick’s shoulder but hovers just before touching, as if asking permission. He waits and then gently lowers his hand. Dick sees him do it but he doesn’t feel anything when Achilles curls his finger as if squeezing. It gives credence to the ‘not dead’ thing but Dick’s still not entirely sure.
“Oh…is that why Thanatos called me a ‘living mortal’ or whatever?” Dick asks.
"Yes," Achilles looks away. “We are being summoned.”
They go back to the main hallway. Hades is at the giant desk, looming over Thanatos and Nyx and a bunch of other strangers Dick is seeing for the first time. Achilles points to a woman with blue skin and a gnarly necklace and says: “Mistress Megaera.” He then points to a woman with short blonde hair and says: “Mistress Persephone and birth mother of Zagreus.”
Dick almost freezes when he sees a snake (just the head, no body) floating in the back, almost hiding behind Hypnos.
“That’s Mistress Dusa, do try not to stare.” Achilles whispers.
Dick looks away.
They arrive at the desk just in time to watch Hades slam his palm on his desk and yell “That’s enough!”
“No,” Nyx says. “The Fates and Chaos agree, we can bring Zagreus back but we have to return the Mortal child. You must allow him to get to the surface.”
“No one can leave this domain!” Hades yells.
Dick wonders if he’s going to slam the table again. He looks petulant enough to do so.
“The world as we know it depends on this,” Nyx says not looking in the least bit afraid. “Do not let your stubbornness and pride be the thing to destroy that which you cherish. Or must you be taught this lesson again?”
“I grow tired of your constant insubordination, Nyx.”
“Not even for Zagreus?” Persephone asks as she steps forward. “You will force me to lose my child again?”
“Persephone,” Hades says, sounding like a heartbroken lover and not the hard-ass from before. Dick would laugh but he gets the feeling that would call the wrong kind of attention to himself.
“Not to mention that it will stop everything else that’s gone wrong, Master.” Thanatos says.
“He’s mortal,” Hades says, “he will fail like his betters did before him.”
“But Charon can just ferry him to the surface,” Persephone says. “I will pay the gold myself if that’s the problem!”
“Will that suffice?” Megaera asks Nyx.
Nyx nods once, “From what Chaos can determine, it should be sufficient to bring them both to the one point both our world’s share. Hermes has made contact with someone from the mortal child’s side. The agreement is to trade their son for ours. Chaos believes once both of them are where they belong, we can go back to restoring our world.”
“Bah! As if any of those fools in their laurels can be trusted!” Hades says almost sounding like a petulant child.
“Hades!” Persephone says loudly.
Dick gets the impression she’s the true ruler of the Underworld when Hades sags like a deflating balloon. Whooooosh! It reminds him of Bruce when Alfred scolds him for being wrong, the way he loses it when he realizes he isn’t going to win whatever discussion they have, just all willpower gone thanks to a stronger force in the universe. It’s funny.
“Thanatos,” Hades says and that’s all he needs to because the next thing he knows, Dick’s being dragged away. He can barely form a thought by the time he finds himself in a dark room. He doesn’t even have a chance to look around before someone puts a heavy pouch on the palm of his hand.
“Give it Charon, lad.” Dick hears Achilles says, “stay on the barge and don’t touch anything.”
Dick is just about to ask what a barge is when someone pushes him through a dark doorway. Down he goes and Dick doesn’t stick the landing at all. Franky, he's embarrassed by the way he falls on his knees but fortunately, there's no one to witness it. Dick’s a true believer of the didn't-see-didn't-happen philosophy. It's all good.
This new room is dark. It’s like a tiny boardwalk. To his left he spots a boat with some creepy dude in long robes holding onto a paddle. There a bunch of those green wisps floating around but not much else that Dick can see. He can’t make it to the boat from where he is so after dusting himself off, he walks a bit to the little pier where his ride is. At least Dick thinks that’s his ride.
The creepy dude looks like a flesh-eating zombie; Dick wishes he had someone else to take him to his destination.
“Charon?” Dick asks as he stands on the ledge.
The creepy dude groans. It sounds really bad but he doesn’t rush to Dick to get to his brain; that's a good enough sign for him. Dick gives him the pouch then carefully steps in the boat. He doesn’t want to fall in that tiny space between ledge and vessel.
Suddenly, his world goes black and Dick absolutely panics.
“This is oar-some!” Dick says in poor attempt to calm down. “Just dandy. Here in the dark. Rowing oar boat.”
Charoan groans again.
Dick can feel boat rocking in the water. He’s sweating now but not so much from the fear but because it’s hot as a furnace in this place. It's bad...it's like being stuck next to a fire pit bad. Or more like, being tied to a pole and having someone light a pyre at your feet kind of bad.
“For this being parad-ice, I was expecting it be colder,” Dick says. It’s not his best but he’s starting to feel breathless and weak; he needs a distraction.
Charon groans a third time and whether it’s in agreement or to scold him, Dick doesn’t know but he appreciates the recognition all the same.
“Do you know what the sea hearse-” Dick starts but he has to cut himself off because his vision blurs. He can’t see! Shit! He can’t breath! His lungs don’t work and no amount of exhaling will make them start working again. He grabs his chest and his head because something is tearing at him as if trying to rip his very skin off. He screams and he screams because it's unbearable! It hurts! It hurts terribly! The pain sweeps through every inch of his body and he continues screaming because there's nothing else he can do! Help! He needs help!
He falls to his side. He doesn’t hit the floor of the boat…Nope! He’s back at the beginning, painless and floating in the “red water” river by the base of the marble steps with all the creepy gods and the not-so-scary ghosts. The pain is all gone and he feels relatively fine despite what he had felt second ago. It's weird that he doesn't even feel residual pain nor does he feel soreness or aches. He doubts it's the "red water" that's healing him but then again, this is supposedly the Underworld. There legit could be powers he doesn't understand here. Regardless, Dick is not comfortable floating in the river so he pulls himself out. The music is still playing and the green ghosts are still milling about.
Nothing seems to have changed.