"H-how?" Anaera asked. "You left! You abandoned me, never to return to Earth!"

"I'm still gone. We're not on Earth. I was going to ask you how you got here," Hades responded in the voice she had always known: deep, flat, emotionless - dead.

"Inconsequential," the Officiator answered his question from over Anaera's shoulder. Anaera started. When had the Being moved around her? Now, the Officiator gripped Anae's upper arms, propelling her forward, and speaking, "The point is that she is here, and that you can begin your rehabilitation by saving your relationship with your daughter. You will apologize to her and help her, because she needs you now more than ever. Will you be there for her, for once?"

Anaera could feel the power of the Officiator's gaze sweep over her to pierce her father. Who was this Being? Her power felt illusively familiar, but also unutterably alien. Actually, it felt a bit like Gaea. There was the same timelessness, vibrancy, and loosely held power. But this Being was not Gaea. This Being's power had a slightly different flavor. There was also something different about her nature: it was a superbly ordered mind ruling over a chaotic essence.

"I am one of Gaea's sisters, Child," a Voice spoke in Anaera's mind. "I embody a world far away. My sister asked me to help her, and since I've found a use for you, I am inclined to do so. As for your father and his Brethren, I reshape them. They came to my world, and I perceived their value, beneath the immaturity of millennia. Gaea really messed up with these kids, so I feel my duty to straighten them out. Once they are finally grown up, they can help me to rule over my Creation, as no new-born gods would be able to do."

The thoughts pushed rapidly into Anaera's brain and ordered themselves as quickly. In a second, she understood, at some level, what was happening here. She could even get a faint image in her mind of this world, and how it would be when Gaea's sister put sentient life upon it. In the meantime, the Being was laying the foundations, making certain to avoid all her sister's mistakes.

"But, I gave her power when she was a child," Hades was saying in response to the Officiator's injunction. "She is old enough to help herself."

Anaera could feel the emotion under those words, somehow. His words seemed callous, but she could understand the struggle he hid beneath the surface - his desperate attempt at self-justification to assuage his guilt. He had had this debate with himself before, and with Persephone. He had done everything he could, hadn't he? He had given her freedom of the Underworld, to come and visit him. He had tried to shelter her from pain and to give her power to stand alone. He had gotten the best sort of protection for her when he went away. What more could he have done?

"But I needed you, Daddy!" Anaera answered him. "Why did you leave me alone on Earth? Why did you think things on the moon were so much better, so much grander, so much more worth your power?" An old pain swept through her and she looked at everyone in the room. "All of you left Earth for a kingdom that is DUST now!" Tears stung her eyes. "Why?" She focused on her father again. "Who up there was more important than your own daughter?"

For once in his long lifetime, Hades looked ashamed and unable to speak.

It was Zeus who answered, "We were selfish, all of us. Hades did not make the decision alone, nor did he overwhelmingly approve it. Most of us decided we should focus on what we considered the better part of what we ruled, and Hades was pressured into joining us."

Hades looked at his brother. "You need not make excuses for me, Brother. I could have said no, but I was weak, and I wanted out of the Underworld." He turned to Anaera. "So I abandoned you, telling myself that you could not possibly need me anymore, especially if I got you a Guardian.

"I'm sorry, Nae-nae."

Hades tentatively opened his arms, and Anaera walked into them. They hugged, both of them crying, and the whole room sighed.

"Now, let's see about that help," the Being said, sounding remotely pleased. Everyone turned to her as she snapped her fingers and made a strange "person" appear. "Now, Anaera is involved in a powerful battle, and she needs more power, and power that doesn't eat at her soul to use." Hades winced at this. "This thing you see before you is a sorcerer from another world who thought he could come along and taint mine! His gods granted him great power, but he chose to use that power for evil. It is time he was punished, while those powers are put to better use. Hades, you will help your daughter use her powers to drain, and take over, his."

Anaera looked down at the huddled figure. She was supposed to kill him and take his powers? Was he truly evil?

"I think a little knowledge is needed here," a new voice chimed in. Anaera looked up to see Athena moving around some chairs to join her. "See for yourself what he is," the goddess said cryptically.

Her meaning became clear as Anaera felt the mind of the sorcerer. Here was a mind and spirit so utterly befouled that there could be no redemption beyond death. Anaera shuddered with revulsion, and Athena withdrew the touch of her power.

"Alright," Anaera breathed.

"I will help you, Daughter," Hades said.

"And I!" called a voice of sunshine, and Persephone waltzed into the room. She came up and kissed her stepdaughter on the cheek and took one of her hands.

Hades nodded and took Anaera's unclaimed hand. He guided it in gripping the hilt, and drawing the sword from out of her heart. Then, he guided Anaera in the motion of plunging the blade into the sorcerer's heart.

The power rushing into her was phenomenal! It was also different. With her father and stepmother merging their spirits with hers for a moment, the experience was entirely different. She was draining his magic instead of his life energy. She felt her mind changing to encompass and harness this new power, and she felt her family's strength helping and leading her.

She felt a small kiss on her forehead.

Then, she felt nothing at all, as she fell into deep, dreamless sleep.