::Hermes sobbed endlessly in the lonely dark ruins of Zeus' temple, his heartwrenching sounds echoing around him. His face was still buried in his hands while he cried, but if he had his head up he would have noticed a pale orange light begining to fill the surrounding area. The light continued to get brighter and a gentle warmth seemed to emanate from it. Hermes noticed the brightness through his fingers and he slowly pulled his hands from his tear stained face. He blinked and a small smile tugged at his lips. It was Zeus! All was not lost after all.

"Hermes, what are you doing down there? You and Megan aren't due back to Greece for a few more days," the thundering voice of Zeus echoed throughout the ruins, but the comments made by him caused Hermes to furrow his brow in confusion.

The little messenger wiped his face and looked up to the brightest part of the light and shook his head. "M-megan? Like, who's that, man?"

"Why, Hermes, don't tell me that you left your eldest daughter behind in Avalon again? You did that a few decades ago, I thought you learned your lesson."

Hermes gasped, "Daughter! Man, I ain't got a daughter! Quit messing around! I just have one kid and that's Seth, you know that!" By now, Hermes was beside himself with anger and frustration. He wished Zeus was here in solid form so he could whap the dude right in the head with his Caduceus for saying such crazy things. Daughter indeed.

The blue God grabbed his Caduceus and flew up to the light and hovered there, scowling. "Listen, man, like, I've been through enough with finding these temples ruined, to my dragon pals being gone and it's all because of that nutty gizmo Hades gave me. Don't be messing more with my already confused head by saying stuff about a kid I don't have!"

"Hades?!" Zeus exclaimed, his voice full of obvious concern. "Hermes, now you got me confused. I think you better get up here immediately and explain to me what is going on."

"Explain WHAT?? Man, I don't know what is going on myself so how can I possibly tell you?" Hermes began to shake by now, his nerves were shot and he was feeling himself getting closer to that fine line that divides sanity from being nutty. He clutched his staff tightly and growled to himself about the whole world being messed up and Hades having to pay for this madness.

The orange light then flickered slightly and the whole temple began to ripple and dissolve and before he knew it, Hermes was in Zeus' elaborate home. He glanced around and sighed slightly seeing that things were at least still in one piece up here and just as clean and perfect as ever. He turned to Zeus and smiled nervously, "Well, like, this is the only thing that looks normal around here. Thanks, man!"

Zeus didn't answer and that made him fidget slightly in the spot he was hovering. The large God leaned forward, stroking his white beard, his eyebrows lowered. "Hmmm...interesting. You don't have your goatee anymore. When did you have time to shave on Avalon?"

Hermes flew back slightly, absently feeling his chin and began to feel his aggitation return. "Like, I TOLD you I don't know what you're talking about! The last thing I remember was being up in a tree trying to carry on some nutty plan Hades hatched to get rid of Hercules and the box malfuntioned and I ended up in this nutty time where nothing makes sense and everything that I dig is gone."

Zeus then narrowed his eyes, his own anger begining to boil. "A plot to do away with my son, eh? Hermes, I'm surprised at you. Obviously that plan never worked because my boy lived to be a ripe old age," he said sternly.

Hermes shuddered and sweat once more appeared on his brow, "Oh man, I don't know. I don't know anything anymore. I just know I don't feel very good," he whispered and felt his stomach fluttering as if he swallowed a hundred butterflies.

Feeling confused as well, but not wanting his messenger to pass out, Zeus created a small cloud from the air and shoved it towards the blue deity and watched him as he literally collapsed on the cloud, turning over onto his back. Zeus then created a bottle of wine and a goblet and handed them both to Hermes. "Here, drink something and calm yourself. You owe me alot of explinations and to do so rationally you have to calm down."

Hermes inhaled deeply and for a moment pondered on just guzzling deeply from the bottle to get himself good and drunk and get away from all this chaos, but a past promise he made to Megara quickly erased that thought and instead he poured himself a gobletful and sipped the red liquid slowly. Hermes closed his eyes and sighed as the wine began to warm and calm his frazzled body.

Zeus kept a careful eye on him and seeing his messenger begin to relax was when he poured himself a drink and leaned back against his throne waiting for the explination. The messenger slowly and carefully chose his words and began his tale of Hades approaching him with the silver box and his wicked plan to send Hercules into another time. He told him of the mishap of dropping the box and thinking it malfunctioned he picked it up and got zapped here. He then continued on with the ruined temples and the dragons being gone in China right up to the incident in England.

Zeus couldn't believe what he was hearing and it was clear to him now that this Hermes was not the one that was supposed to be in Avalon although the being hovering in front of him IS Hermes. It should have been obvious from the start, but something like this was something he never had to deal with before. He crinkled his brow and shook his head. He was ashamed by the fact that Hermes was actually going to partake in a plot against Hercules, but at the same time he pitied the poor messenger. He knew how intimidated Hermes could be at times, but it hurt him that his friend would actually try to bring harm to the demi-god.

Zeus exhaled loudly and closed his eyes. Part of him wanted to punish the little blue messenger for what he did, but he just couldn't bring himself to do so since nothing ever happened to Hercules and escpecially since this Hermes didn't belong here in this time. However, he knew he had to get Hermes back to his own time otherwise the present would be disrupted severely. Cronos wasn't in the best of moods the last century and neither was Hades, but then again, when were they ever in a good mood?

By now it was late evening and Hermes was yawning as the days events began to catch up with him, but he refused to let sleep overcome him. He reached for the bottle of wine and poured himself another goblet full and emptied it quickly in hopes to stay awake. "So, like, ahhhh, how far into the future am I?" he asked, his voice slightly quavering.

Taking a breath, Zeus replied softly, "Seth just celebrated his thousandth birthday a few centuries ago."

The goblet Hermes was holding slipped from his fingers and went crashing to the floor. He paled and felt weak again and was thankful that he was sitting on a cloud otherwise he was certain he would have followed the glass to the floor. "A th-thousand! Oh man..." he trailed off and rubbed the back of his neck. No wonder everything on Earth was such a mess!

He then looked up and was about to ask about who this Megan chick is, but Zeus held up a hand to shush him. Zeus motioned for Hermes to hide behind the throne and whispered, "Someone is coming, you can't be seen."

Hermes was confused as to why, but wasn't about to ask questions. He gathered up his Caduceus and forced his weary body to fly around the throne and hover behind it. He frowned hearing his wings flapping and knew that wasn't good so he reluctantly landed on the floor and gripped his staff tightly in both hands. He waited and strained his ears trying to figure out who might be coming, but all he heard were the heavy footfalls of boots on the palace floor.

"My Lord, Lizzy and I are flying to the dragon realm. Shall I bring anything back?" an unfamiliar and deep voice asked.

"Hmmm...well, just the usual dragon glass for Hephaestus will be fine."

"As you wish my Lord. Oh, and like when my daddy-o returns, please inform him that I found his missing lyric sheets."

Zeus chuckled heartily and replied, "I will do just that, Seth, good flying to you and your dragon, Lizzy."

Behind the throne Hermes had to cover his mouth with one hand to silence the gasp that wanted to escape him. Seth! Carefully, he peeked around the throne just in time to see his son leaving the room. From what Hermes could gather, Seth was slightly taller then Megara and his dark purple hair was shoulder length. He was slender and walked with confidence. The little messenger smiled proudly. Seth was absolutely gorgeous and so noble and polite. Hermes stepped out from behind the throne and watched as his son disappeared from the room, shutting the door behind him.

Zeus put a hand on Hermes' shoulder and said gently, "Yes, Hermes, that was indeed your son. He's a fine lad and takes after you quite a bit. In fact, all your children are joys to have around here. Such manners and morals, you proved to be a wonderful father not to mention that Megara is a fine mother."

Hermes blinked behind his purple lensed glasses and looked up at Zeus. "All my children? Like, h-how many do I have?"

Zeus stroked his beard in one hand and pondered that for a moment. "Let's see, there's Seth and Megan, Bethany, Jarvis...hmmm, well, their names escape me for the moment, but needless-to-say, you have three daughters and seven sons. You and Meg have been quite busy these last thousand years." He chuckled and patted Hermes on the shoulder.

However, Hermes was too baffled to move. Ten children! Man, and to think we had trouble deciding on wanting just one, he thought to himself and gave Zeus a crooked grin. The huge God couldn't help but laugh at the messenger's expression and that made Hermes squirm all the more. How he wanted to see them and mostly his dear Megara. Gathering himself up, he flew up to Zeus' height and hovered in front of him. "So, ah, like, when can I see them?" he asked, confident that Zeus would let him.

"You just don't get it do you?" Zeus said between clenched teeth, finally losing his patience. He reached forward and grabbed Hermes by his toga and pulled him closer. "You cannot see your family! If they see you it'll mess up the harmony of time, but you are already messing things up by simply being here anyway. If you weren't so bent on getting rid of my son you would be home right now with your own family and working on giving Seth a baby sister, but no, you had to go meddling with things you don't understand and worse yet, dealing with Hades! Hermes, I'm surprised at you. Hercules always said such nice things about you and when he found out you were married to Megara, he still continued to speak kindly of you. I don't understand why my boy irks you like he does, but hopefully now with what happened you'll try to get along with him when you go home."

Hermes squirmed in Zeus' grasp and arched his dark blue eyebrows, "So, does this mean you can get me home?"

Aggitated, Zeus shoved the messenger away and began to rub his temples. "Hermes in order for me to even attempt to get you home I need the metal box that Hades gave you in order for Cronos to either repair it or figure out how you got here in the first place."

Hermes waved his hand and produced the little silver box that brought him to this nutty future and handed it anxiously to his Lord. "Here, man, I had enough of this thing. Now, can we go see Cronos?"

Zeus stood and took the box from Hermes' trembling blue hand and shook his head. "I'm afraid it's not that simple. Cronos will no doubt fix it and get you out of here and back home because he knows how dangerous it is for you to be here. However, he and the Fates took a small vacation since the mortals don't really worry about them, or any of us for that matter. I don't know when he'll be back around, but I just hope he doesn't come too late, but I'll send word out quickly to him. You should be punished for what you have done as well and since you cannot stay up here anyway I am sending you to stay with Hades in his Underworld until you can go home."

Hermes' eyes widened and he flew backwards away from Zeus, "Hades! N-no way, man! That's one cat I don't wanna deal with anymore. It's his fault I'm here!"

Zeus snatched Hermes by his Caduceus and yanked him back to him once more. "It is NOT Hades fault you're here, you nut! If you kept a good head on your shoulders and told him to split and leave you alone you wouldn't be in this mess. You agreed to help him and you agreed to get rid of Hercules, so this is more your fault then anything else."

The little God flinched from both Zeus' anger and tone of voice. In fact, Zeus was getting so angry the sky outside began to flicker with lightning and thunder began to rumble making Zeus' ire all the more fearsome. Hermes swallowed hard and tried a smile. "Uhhh, temporary nutty?"

"Nutty indeed. I'm sorry, Hermes," he let the flighty messenger god and sat back against his throne with a sigh. "I am just so disappointed in you. You are always so happy and laid back, I honestly never thought you'd try to intentionally harm someone. What were you thinking? Did you honestly think I wouldn't find out if that plan worked?"

Hermes' shoulders drooped and he shrugged. He had no answers to why he attempted to get rid of Hercules. He messed up big time and now he was going to pay for it big time. It was bad enough that he wasn't allowed to be seen by his own wife and son, not to mention the other nine children Zeus claimed he had, but to spend his time down in the Underworld was not something that helped his mood at all. Not knowing what else to say, he just whispered to himself, "I want to see my wife."

Zeus raised an eyebrow as he faintly heard Hermes' request. "Your wife? Hermes, if she sees you now it'll make her crazy because her husband isn't due back for a few days and he also has a goatee. You also don't know anything about your future children and that will upset her. So, you can't see her, Hermes."

The little God felt more deflated with each word and nodded grimly. To be denied staying with his friends here while Zeus hunted down Cronos so he could send the little messenger home was one thing, but to not even be allowed to see his own wife? He sighed heavily and closed his eyes wishing he could take all of this back and that he never even spoke to Hades. Well, surely when he would get back to his own time he will never allow something like this to happen again and he will definately not make deals with Hades anymore either.

Zeus stood and made his way to Hermes and put his hand on his shoulder. "I promise you that I'll get Cronos to get you home to your own time as quickly as I can. It shouldn't be that long and you'll be back with your wife in no time, but for now it has to be this way. Do you honestly think I like the idea of sending my messenger to stay with Hades? You could just think of it as a small punishment for what you have done, but regardless, you have to go. You can't stay here and there's no place on Earth now that will welcome you with open arms. So much has changed, Hermes, so much you just wouldn't understand."

"It looks disgusting down there," he replied sourly. "What good could a world be without dragons and so full of buildings and stuff?"

"The dragons and other beings headed towards Avalon where the wizards there helped them get their own realms and space. A few creatures remain in the modern world, but they hide very well. As for you not liking it now, that's to be understandable, but your future self loves the music humans modified and he especially loves drive-in movies."

Hermes arched an eyebrow, "Drive-in what?"

Zeus chuckled and smiled gently at him, "Don't worry, Hermes, you'll know about that in due time, but as for now, let's get you off to the Underworld before someone else walks in here and sees you."

"No! Like, wait, I don't wanna go now, I mean..."

"Think of it, Hermes, the faster I look for Cronos, the faster you can go home."

Hermes blinked behind his purple lensed glasses and sighed knowing Zeus was right and more then anything he wanted to go home as quickly as possible. He yearned for his wife and hoped that she wasn't too worried in his absense. With another sigh, Hermes nodded to Zeus that he was ready to go and with a flash of lightning and a loud clap of thunder, both he and Zeus disappeared, their destination, the Underworld.::