Returning to the Underworld was much different now that Kurt was… dead. Which was actually a really hard concept to wrap his mind around. He didn't feel dead, necessarily. And the whole being killed thing had been so sudden and painless that it hadn't really sunk in yet. Maybe once he had a few days to process (or, more likely, a few minutes in the Field of Punishment) this would all start to feel real. He didn't think he'd regret it though, even though he was already terrified of what was about to happen to him.

Maybe asking the King of Malakas to punish him instead of Blaine was a bit… rash, but he didn't regret it. Blaine really didn't deserve what Zeus was going to do to him, especially since he'd only done it to help Kurt. And more than that… the gods might not think much of mortal lives, but he did. Any personal feelings he had about Blaine aside, other people still needed Apollo. Demeter might be able to ensure that crops still grew without sunlight, and they might give that particular job to someone else. But what about healing? He'd spent most of his life resentful that the gods hadn't done anything to help his mother, could he really be part of the cause for more people like him being created?

That and, realistically, Zeus would have killed him anyway. At least this way one of them got away.

The path that Hades was leading him down was unfamiliar to him, though he was shocked at the amount of light he could see. During his last visit, everything was so dimly lit that he could just barely make out details, and now it was just as bright as the forest outside had been. There still wasn't any plant life that he could see, but now the air had tiny flecks of light floating around everything, giving off some light and looking… incredibly eerie. He realized that he could see them now because he was actually dead and felt himself beginning to panic.

“What's going to happen to me?” Kurt managed to ask, dreading the answer.

“Haven't decided yet,” Hades answered, sounding unconcerned about… everything. It must be nice to be the person in charge of thinking up punishments rather than receiving them.

Not wanting to think too much about what was in store for him, Kurt didn't ask any more questions, and Hades didn't offer up any kind of conversation. They walked in silence, along a (thankfully) quiet riverbank for some time. Kurt wasn't sure which river it was, but he was glad that there weren't souls trapped in it and calling out to him, not sure if he could take much more ominous mood setting.

Eventually Hades found a small and mostly broken down bridge, hidden from view enough that Kurt assumed people who didn't know where it was would never find it. He was almost afraid to cross it, but the glare that Hades sent him when he hesitated for too long was much worse, so he followed. Thankfully, the bridge was much sturdier than it looked. “Don't fall in,” Hades warned him. “You'd forget to get out.”

Not entirely sure what that meant, Kurt didn't say anything, but kept following. The route they'd taken had bypassed the judgment line that Cerberus had watched over, and in the distance Kurt could see the outline of the three headed dog snapping at souls that weren't moving where he wanted. In front of them were… people. Standing around, doing close to nothing, as far as he could see.

“The Meadows of Asphodel,” Hades said, gesturing grandly. “If you weren't Apollo's little lover, you probably would've ended up here.”

“Soulmate, not lover,” Kurt corrected absently. He wondered if his mother was in there, or if she'd made it into Elysium.

Hades stopped walking and stared at him, long enough for Kurt to feel like his skin was crawling. “You're his soulmate but not his lover?”

Now his skin was crawling and his face was red. Lovely. “We didn't… get that far. We were sort of busy trying to get here. I didn't even know soulmates existed until… two days ago.”

Hades groaned loudly, “Oh Rhea curse him. I can't do this.” Kurt stared at him blankly. “I have to send you to the Fields of Punishment, you understand. Zeus will show up to check soon. But I actually cannot do that to Apollo, and frankly anything that upsets Zeus is wonderful for me.”

“I don't understand.”

Hades laughed, the sound echoing oddly through the otherwise silent meadows behind them. “Do you know that the Olympians hate me? I'm one of the most powerful among them, and they won't even let me on their precious mountain if it's not a special occasion.”

“I'm sorry?”

“Do you know what your soulmate does? He comes in here, a lot more often than is really necessary—”

“He told me he only broke in once,” Kurt interrupted.

“He lied. Well… technically he only broke something to get in here once. But he and Poseidon spend a good chunk of their spare time sneaking into this gods damned place to wreck havoc on my kingdom. Want to know why?”

“Because they're bored?” Kurt guessed, feeling out of his depth. He did hope that Hades had a point.

“Because I'm bored. Persephone is only allowed here for a few months at a time, Hecate is horrible company, and there's only so many times I can play fetch with Cerberus.” He sighed. “Persephone actually put them up to it. Devious woman claimed that she'd forgotten some important item and couldn't go back for it, begged Apollo to go get it for her. The idiot didn't even realize it was a set up.”

“She sent him into a trap?”

“No, of course not. He got what she wanted, returned it, Demeter never had to know. What Apollo didn't know was that the thing he'd stolen was mine. So I stole it back, along with his quiver just to teach him a lesson.”

“So he retaliated.”

“Yes. For decades we've been doing this. Around the third time he got Poseidon's help as well. And it's the most excitement I get down here while my wife is being held hostage by her blasted mother.”

“Is that why you don't block them out? Blaine said he'd been using the same secret tunnel for years and you hadn't noticed yet.”

“Yes, actually. Thanatos is my best friend, and he's so busy we hardly see each other. But you stupid mortals don't do anything but die, and he has to babysit you. So Poseidon and Apollo provide entertainment, so long as they think it's inconvenient for me.” He paused thoughtfully. “Of course, you are missing out. Your soulmate can do remarkable things with his hips.”

Kurt cringed, and Hades laughed at him. “You're going to hate me forever, do you know that? I'm about to do something nice for you, for Apollo's sake, but the two of us? We're going to hate each other forever.”

Without bothering to explain what he was talking about, Hades started walking towards the sound of screaming, and Kurt reluctantly followed. The Fields of Punishment were… loud, obviously. And much darker than the other parts of the Underworld Kurt had seen. They walked past a man who was staked to the ground as vultures ate into his stomach. He screamed at Hades as he walked past, but the god didn't even spare him a glance as he continued on his way.

He eventually stopped in front of the weirdest thing Kurt had seen since he'd died. A group of people, in the center of the Fields of Punishment, sitting in a circle and talking calmly. “Hades! How nice of you to visit,” someone called, actually looking somewhat pleased to see him. A few others echoed the greeting, though one looked weary.

“Are you letting one of us go, or is Zeus going to visit?”

“Neither, I'm bringing you a new friend.” He pulled Kurt in front of him, shoving him towards the group. “He's Apollo's, nobody touch him.”

“Apollo sent a lover here?” a woman asked, eyeing Kurt curiously. “I thought he was fairly nice to his cast offs.”

“Turns them into plants,” a man agreed.

“Zeus sent him,” Sebastian interrupted. “I don't care about the details, but I'm sure he'll tell you.”

The assembled group seemed to accept this, smiling at him and making room for him in their circle. Kurt blinked several times in confusion. Hades pushed on his shoulders until he sat down, though Kurt was starting to think he was dreaming. “Zeus will be here soon to check on him, so I'll send someone to set up a place for him tomorrow.” The group groaned loudly causing Hades to smirk before disappearing in a cloud of black mist.

 He was told, over the next few days that he was in a very special and top secret part of the Underworld. The people surrounding him were people that had either had an affair with Zeus, or were the spouse of someone who was, that ended badly. Hades, not one to listen to the rambling orders of a brother he hated, had set up a special section where they could live in relative peace unless Zeus was visiting. That was the downside. To make it seem like Hades was one to listen to the rambling orders of his brother, and to save them a lot of pain in the meantime, they were forced to look like they were being tortured every few months.

It wasn't that bad, they assured Kurt. For the most part it didn't hurt at all, mostly being illusions, they just had to scream like it was, or in the cases of mental torture cry a lot. From the looks of him, that's what Kurt would end up doing. The upside was that it didn't take very long for Zeus to forget about them. When Hades felt that their group was getting too big, and when Zeus had stopped checking on someone for quite some time, he'd let them leave.

They didn't know where they left to, just that they didn't see them again. Most of them assumed they'd be moved to Asphodel, though a couple held out hope for Elysium. It would amuse their king, they argued, to put people Zeus specifically ordered to be tortured into Elysium.

They asked for Kurt's story, but he refused to tell them. He wasn't entirely sure that this wasn't a trick, but they seemed to accept that. Apparently it was a common reaction. They were right about Zeus visiting, however. A few days (he assumed it was days, anyway. Time was difficult to judge where they were) after he'd arrived, Hades sent a message to “get into position”. A few inappropriate jokes later, and they all went to their designated places of “torture”.

Kurt's was a small rock he had to sit on, with his arms connected the ground by a long length of chain, though there was nothing else around. He could see the rest of group, most of them still laughing at each other as they chained themselves to different structures, and some making conversation with various monsters that'd arrived to “torture” them.  

Nobody approached Kurt. He was quickly becoming terrified that Hades had forgot about him and Zeus was going to realize that this whole thing was a joke and force him to be actually tortured. Maybe even send Apollo into Tartarus on the grounds that this whole thing had been a set up.

Instead, his dad appeared. For a moment Kurt was so excited to see him that he forgot about the circumstances and tried to hug him. His chains held him, however, and he wasn't able to move. He looked down at them, trying to remember how to undo them, but when he looked up he froze. Blaine was standing next to his father.

Blaine couldn't be here. If he set foot in the Underworld for another fifteen years, Burt would be sent to… here. Seeming to sense his panic, the ghostly form of his father laughed, but the sound was wrong. It sounded more like… Sebastian.

“Relax, kid, this will only last a few minutes before my brother loses interest and leaves.”

“Sebas—?”

“Don't use that name,” Burt's form said. “Do not, under any circumstances, use any of the names that Apollo told you while you're here. You have to call me Hades and him,” he pointed at the stationary form of Blaine, “Apollo. Nobody else can know those names, especially Zeus.”

Kurt nodded his understanding, and this time Apollo's ghost spoke. “These forms are going to yell abuse at you until Zeus leaves. Ignore them. Cover your ears, even. If you can't force yourself to cry, then cover your face and fake it. But whatever happens, you need to remember that it's not them.”

Hades talked to him for a few minutes, random stories about Hephaestus and Aphrodite arguing about Ares, news from Persephone about Demeter, and was halfway through a joke that Hypnos had told him, when a crash sounded in the distance and the surrounding inmates flinched. “Showtime!” someone yelled.

The postures of the two ghosts changed, and they started speaking in their own voices. Kurt was so thrown for a minute he could only stare. It was actually like his dad and Blaine were there, except… neither of them would ever say those things to him. In fact, it was like Hades went out of his way to make everything the two said the complete opposite of what they would have if they were real. It was almost funny.

Until he saw Zeus walking towards him, Hades at his side, and he buried his face in his hands and pretended to sob.  Zeus stood in front of him, inspecting his wellbeing. He asked Hades questions about his father, asking who he was and how Hades found him. Kurt was actually impressed at the bored way Hades lied. Apparently, he found out who Burt was through a drink made out of poisonous plants from Hecate that he'd forced Kurt to drink. The drink gave him access to Kurt's memories until he found the people it would hurt most for Kurt to see, and conjured up ghosts of them to eternally torment him.

“And the bruises?” Zeus asked. Kurt was confused until he looked down at his arms and noticed the assortment of discolored skin and cuts all over them that were not there a few minutes ago.

“The ghosts get bored of just yelling at him,” Hades said, as though the answer was obvious. “They beat him, sometimes. You should hear the screams then! His voice gets so high pitched it actually hurts my head to listen.”

Zeus stayed to admire the view for a few minutes before he left.

~

Several months passed and nothing of note really happened. At least, Kurt was pretty sure it was a few months. He still wasn't very good at keeping track of time in the Underworld. Some of the other people in his group said they could keep track of days by when Tityos's liver regenerated, but when there wasn't much difference between days, there was no real reason to count them. A few new people had shown up and been introduced to the group, all sent there by Zeus, but fewer had been allowed to leave.

 Zeus still showed up fairly regularly to check the progress of his discarded lovers, though he never seemed to notice when some were missing. Kurt had asked the group about it, and one of them, a woman who was next in line to leave, said that Hades had once explained it as Zeus not realizing how many people he punished. So as big as the group was, it didn't occur to him that people would be leaving because he didn't send that many people there in the first place.

He'd shared his story, by that point. He was a point of fascination among the newer members simply because his story was different if only because it was Apollo who'd fallen in love with him rather than Zeus. The other gods didn't send former lovers to be Punished.

Of course, trying to break into the Underworld to save his father and meeting half of the Olympians on the way was a bit more exciting to hear about than what they went through, he supposed. Half of the time his story was told it was by someone else, and it was always a lot more eventful than how he remembered it. When there was nothing else to do, over exaggerating old stories just made sense.

Hades rarely visited in person. He showed up to escort new members and to take older ones away, but most of his contact with them happened via messenger, usually a ghost. So it was always exciting when he did grace them with his presence, if only because he provided new gossip.

He was visiting today, with no one on his arm, and no promises to take someone away. Kurt didn't mind too much. Zeus was still showing far too much interest in him for him to leave, though the god couldn't always remember his name.

Persephone, Hades told them, had just left again and the palace was horribly quiet without her there to yell at him for everything. His voice was so fond that a few members of the group teased him for going soft in his old age.

“You should have heard her last week!” Hades said, his laugh sounding strange considering where they were. “Poseidon had flooded her entire garden! I thought she was goin—”

“Poseidon was here?” Kurt interrupted, causing everyone to stare at him. Nobody ever interrupted Hades, if only because annoying him would make him leave and take away their source of entertainment.

“By himself, Kurt,” Hades answered, with an eye roll. “Apollo isn't really speaking to me at the moment.”

“Poseidon isn't allowed here though. Apollo promised that they'd stay away!”

Hades gave him a sympathetic look, which was still the weirdest part of the Underworld. “There was a time limit on that.”

“Fifteen years, I know but—”

“Kurt, you've been down here for seventeen now. They respected their end of the deal, your father's safe.”

Kurt stared blankly at him, not able to make that information sink in. Seventeen years? It barely felt like a year had passed. He sat in silence, not able to hear process what Hades said as he finished his story.

The next day, everyone crowded around to listen to Kurt tell them, for what must have been the hundredth time, all the stories he remembered about Apollo and Poseidon sneaking into the Underworld.

~

Zeus left, once again not even bothering to glance in Kurt's direction. He hadn't asked about him, looked at him, remembered him for several visits now. Kurt wasn't sure how he felt about that.

If Zeus was forgetting about him, there was a chance he could leave soon. He had been here longer than anyone else in the sad little group, and a few people who had left hadn't arrived until after him. It should be his turn soon.

But if Zeus had forgot about him… it meant that nobody had reminded him. Had Apollo forgiven his father for sending Kurt to the Fields of Punishment? Or was Zeus so used to the other gods being angry with him that he no longer tried to keep track of why?

Sometimes he hoped Zeus would visit just so he could stare at the ghostly form of Apollo and hear his voice. The words didn't matter. These days, he spouted random gibberish because Zeus didn't get close enough to listen anyway.

The stories Hades told them about people breaking in to inflict minor to moderate property damage started to include Apollo again. Kurt tried to ignore the looks the other souls sent him when he asked, again, if he was okay.

Hades never did answer him.

~

Something was going on in the mortal world that had the gods stressed. Hades rarely visited, and Zeus hadn't sent another person to their group in what had to have been years.

On the rare occasion that Hades did visit, he looked different. The shape of his face changing, his posture different, his voice deeper. The aura that surrounded him flickered wildly even when he seemed to be calm. The last person to join their group had mistakenly called him “Pluto”, before they corrected her.

Apollo hadn't pranked the palace in some time, and apparently had a falling out with Poseidon. The last they had heard, a god named Neptune had assisted them, but Hades hadn't stayed long enough to answer their questions. Sometimes when they spoke to him, he acted like he didn't understand what they were staying.

~

“Kurt, hurry up.”

Kurt looked up in surprise. Hades, for the first time in what had to have been years, looked like Hades. His aura was calm, his face wasn't shifting, and he was focusing on them. He jumped to his feet, quickly running to where the King of the Underworld was waiting impatiently.

“We don't have much time,” Hades said, quickly walking away as Kurt tried to keep up. It was hard enough to keep up with Hades when he wasn't eight feet tall. “They're closing in on us, and I don't know who I'll be soon.”

“What does that mean?” Kurt asked, but Hades didn't answer him, just kept muttering about there not being enough time.

They came to a stop on the bridge Kurt remembered from so long ago, still hidden from view and still looking like it would fall apart at any moment. “You're going to forget,” Hades told him seriously. “But all of us are forgetting too, so it doesn't matter. You just have to focus.”

“Focus on what?” Kurt asked in exasperation. “You're not making sense.”

“Think about Blaine,” Hades told him seriously. It took Kurt a moment to place the name, it'd been so long since he was allowed to use it. Before he could ask any questions, Hades pushed him into the water.

He was right, of course. Kurt did forget.