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Zagreus was dying. What else was new?
Every time he tried to escape his father's House he died and ended up right back in front of the smug giant's desk. Oh sure, his father would rage and berate him, but Zagreus could hear the pleased undercurrent in his father's voice. The pride he took in knowing he could still beat his son at their game. Zagreus had heard other fathers wanted more for their children than they had, but Hades relished in Zagreus being kept down with him in the dark and bitter depths.
That walk to his father's desk waited for him again, and Zagreus could endure it, but why did dying have to be so painful this time?
He dragged his failing body across the disgusting floor of one of the satyr's chambers by one arm. The other was clutched tight to his chest, splattered with Gigantic Vermin poison and blistering from a Bother's bomb. His skin burned, his veins burned. The poison spread through his body towards the heart he wasn't sure he had.
Zagreus' vision flickered black on the edges. The curing fountain shimmered its gold-green light through the well of tears coming unbidden from the pain. From the failure. He had come so close. Only Cerberus, turned against him by his father, left to pass. And this stupid maze full of the most vile monsters keeping him from the surface. Reminding him, no matter how he tried to fight, he was just another creature of the Underworld.
His knuckles knocked hard against the curing fountain, not realizing he had closed the distance. With fumbling hands he pulled himself up until he was draped over the fountain. He tried to turn his head to take a sip of the curing waters, but he couldn't. No part of his body moved at his command. The poison had spread too far. He was at death's door, and it hurt. Gods it hurt.
Hands, not his own, dipped into the fountain pool. Slender gray fingers cupped a mouthful and brought it to Zagreus' lips. It spilled over him, dribbling off his chin, but a few drops fell onto his tongue, as slimy and foul as everything else in this accursed place.
But it stopped the hurting. The poison in his veins subsided and his burning skin cooled. Another mouthful of curing water cupped in those gods-sent hands came to his lips and Zagreus looked up at his savior.
"Than..."
Cured from the poison killing him but still weak, he couldn't even muster the strength to wipe his dripping face. Thanatos stared down at him as put together and regal as ever. And angry. A flash of light made Zagreus look to Thanatos' outstretched hand where a Centaur Heart had appeared. Thanatos bent down to grip Zagreus' shoulder and pressed that bit of life into Zagreus' chest.
Zagreus groaned, grateful to be pulled back from the brink. He tried to lean into Thanatos' hand, but he had already pulled back.
Zagreus looked down at his own hands, steadied but still bearing the scrapes and bruises of his fight to get this far. "What chances do you give me to make it out?" Zagreus asked, his tone casual, and dismissive, and desperate all at once.
Thanatos crossed his arms, looking straight ahead instead of down at Zagreus. "You picked the right tunnel. There is something dead and festering at the end."
Zagreus never had to breathe, being a god and all, but he let out a breath all the same. "Thanks, Than," he said. "I know you don't approve."
"I don't."
With Thanatos pointedly not looking at him, Zagreus clambered back to his feet with a groan. "She's my mother. I have to find...whatever I will find."
"Whatever you find that's better than here, or us," Thanatos replied with scorn.
"Us?" Zagreus said rounding on Thanatos. "I didn't know there was still an 'us' when I've barely seen you in months."
"Tch." Thanatos grit his teeth. "I've been here, Zag. I'll always be here. Not all of us can leave this House."
Zagreus picked up his sword, choking down the words he wanted to spit back in Thanatos face. The hurt he felt. Zagreus may have been the one to say he was escaping but it was Thanatos who disappeared first.
A hand touched his shoulder. It brushed his neck the way they might have once touched, when times were different.
Thanatos quietly said, "And if you die again, I'll be there too."
"You will?" Zagreus turned back to Thanatos, but he had vanished, leaving only a few sparks of green light falling over Zagreus. "Goodbye, Than," he said to the open air. "Don't be offended if I say I hope I don't see you for a very long time, alright?"
Weak but holding on to newfound hope, Zagreus shouldered his sword and walked into the next chamber.