Fanfic: This Way to Home
So here I am again (are you getting sick of me yet?) with yet another one-shot. I have to admit that I actually started the story last year for Round 5 but never got further than the first few paragraphs so here it is finally completed now. I hope you enjoy it
Title: This Way to Home
Author: Yassandra
Fandom: Atlantis
Pairing/characters: Jason, Pythagoras & Hercules
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Not mine. BBC and Urban Myth Films own them.
Word count: approx 5289
Summary: Everyone needs rescuing now and then - even heroes.
AN: This story been written for Round 6 of Bingo on the Hurt/Comfort LJ community, to incorporate my wild card prompt - for which I have chosen the prompt 'dungeon'.
"It might be your job to save all of Atlantis, but it seems it's our job to save you. So just you remember who the real heroes are…"
(Hercules - A New Dawn Part 2)
"Come on!" Pythagoras had never sounded more frantic to Hercules' ears.
He looked down mildly at the hand grasping the edge of his sleeve and trying to tug him along. Pythagoras let the hand fall with a huff of air.
"Hercules we need to move! We need to find him now!"
"Just let me get my breath back first," Hercules panted, still breathless from the sprint through the streets that his young friend had dragged him on.
"But we don't have time!" Pythagoras all but wailed. "Who knows what they could be doing to him!"
Hercules rolled his eyes.
"That boy has been nothing but trouble from the moment he arrived," he huffed.
"How can you say that?" Pythagoras protested. "Jason has saved our lives more times than I care to think about."
"True," Hercules agreed, allowing himself to be pulled along again, "but he does seem to have a talent for getting himself into scrapes. Take now for instance. We could all be safe at home in Atlantis enjoying a nice drink in the tavern... but no, he has to go and drop everything for the blasted Princess, runs off to Pathmos without so much as a by your leave to either one of us and goes and gets himself arrested."
"I'm not sure that Ariadne had anyone else to turn to," Pythagoras began.
"Ah but we don't know that do we? We don't even know what she asked him to do. I mean he didn't even stick around long enough to let us know what he was planning. Just upped and left leaving that note."
"At least he told us where he'd gone this time," Pythagoras pointed out reasonably, "and it was my decision to follow Jason to Pathmos. You did not have to come."
"Of course I was going to come," Hercules grunted in exasperation. "Who knows what sort of trouble you might have got into without me here."
Pythagoras rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to point out that generally any trouble he might get into was caused by the bulky wrestler.
"After all if we're going to get killed we may as well get killed together," Hercules continued. "All I'm saying is that it might have been nice if Jason had given us a bit of warning."
Pythagoras wanted to defend their ridiculously heroic housemate - as he always did - but really this time Hercules was right. If Jason had actually bothered to tell them what he was doing instead of running off to Pathmos alone they might have been able to come up with some sort of plan that wouldn't have ended with him being arrested and held in what amounted to a dungeon. Pythagoras bit his lip. Was it really too much to ask for Jason to go one week without risking his life doing something impossible or insane just because someone looked pathetically at him?
As they neared the Palace walls the two friends slowed. As in Atlantis the gaol cells were in a sort of dungeon area below the Palace. Pythagoras was almost insanely grateful for the fact that this Palace seemed to have a similar floor plan to the one at home. At least it meant they had some chance of planning a gaol break. As it was he and Hercules had spent the last three days gathering information to try to free their friend.
The situation was not good. Jason was being held for unspecified crimes against the crown. The rumour mill had it that a trial would be held as soon as a confession had been obtained and that the guards were going all out to get that confession. As it was now four days since Jason had been arrested (the day before Pythagoras and Hercules had arrived in the city) his friends were left with the uncomfortable feeling that time was rapidly running out.
"It should be just around the next corner," Pythagoras muttered.
In the course of their information gathering Hercules had got one of the guards drunk and learned from the man that there was a side door to the dungeon, one that very few people knew about - including the other guards. This one had found it by accident and used it regularly to visit his woman at times when he was supposed to be on duty. Hercules had hurried to tell Pythagoras (at least he had hurried as soon as he had sobered up) and all their plans had been based upon using this little door to gain entrance.
Now they were here. They hid themselves in a little dark alleyway and waited. The door was half hidden by overgrown shrubbery and guards marched past it on patrol, never even seeming aware of its presence. Their timing would have to be perfect if they wanted to break in and get Jason out. By Pythagoras' reckoning they would have the length of time it took the guards to patrol the Palace perimeter. He had stood and watched them for some time yesterday and had counted it off in his head. Now he began that mental count as the current batch of guards matched past the door.
As Hercules stated to dart forwards however Pythagoras grabbed hold of him, stopping him in his tracks.
"Come on," the big man growled.
"Wait," Pythagoras responded in a whisper.
"I thought you said we needed to hurry," Hercules protested.
"We do," Pythagoras answered, "but there are six guards in a patrol and only five have gone past."
Hercules swore quietly. They really didn't need this delay. Eventually though the errant guard appeared, seemingly in no hurry to catch up with the rest of the patrol. Near the entrance to the alleyway he stopped and started to adjust the strap on his sandal. Both Hercules and Pythagoras held their breath. All it would take would be for the guard to look sideways and they would be spotted, and what possible reason could they have for lurking here? At the very least it would mean that they had to postpone their rescue attempt - and what might happen to Jason in that time?
Finally the guard moved on. Pythagoras was eternally grateful that city guards everywhere seemed to be spectacularly unobservant; picked for their large stature rather than their brains.
Hurrying across the street to the small door with Hercules in tow, he pushed carefully on the small door. It did not open. He swore.
"Here let me try," Hercules grunted, elbowing him out of the way.
Pythagoras gave a little squeak of protest although the logical part of him did have to concede that if brute strength was required Hercules would have far more luck than him.
The grating sound that the door made as the lock gave way made both friends look around nervously. If someone had heard the noise and decided to come and investigate they were sunk. As it was, after a few tense moments, the two men looked at each other and made their way inside.
The corridor that they found themselves in was unlit, dark and dank. Here in the underbelly of the Palace there were no windows - they were unnecessary, Pythagoras supposed; the grimmer the conditions for the prisoners held here, the more likely they were to confess to their crimes - and you hardly needed much light for torture.
"Come on," Hercules hissed again.
As they hurried forwards, Pythagoras' mental clock continued to tick down, every second that passed bringing them closer to disaster - to capture. The cells they passed were empty. Like Atlantis justice in Pathmos tended to be swift (and in many cases fatal) so prisoners were not often left to linger here. The fact that Jason was still being held and had not yet been sent for judgement spoke volumes for how much his captors desired a confession. It left Pythagoras both relieved and worried - relieved that his friend was at least still alive and worried about the condition they would find him in.
Rounding a corner their luck finally ran out. There ahead of them was a guard. The guard's eyes opened wide in surprise at seeing strangers in the prison who were clearly not prisoners themselves and his mouth opened in a startled 'o'. In the moment that he took to process what he was seeing Hercules was on him, swinging sharply with the butt of his sword and catching the guard with a terrific blow to the temple. The guard dropped like a puppet with its strings cut. Hercules leant over and assessed him clinically, before giving him an extra rap on the head with his sword hilt and stooping to rifle the pouch at the man's waist.
"What did you hit him again for?" Pythagoras asked.
"I wanted to make sure he stayed asleep until we're well away from here," Hercules answered laconically, continuing his casual rifling of the guard's clothes. "Ah here we are."
He stood up with a ring holding two large keys in his hand.
"This should make opening the cell doors easier," he said.
Pythagoras nodded.
"We must hurry," he said urgently, darting on ahead and leaving Hercules to lumber in his wake.
Ahead of them was another cell. The presence of a guttering torch in a sconce on the wall outside indicating that this cell at least was occupied. Pythagoras darted over and peered through the bars into the unlit space beyond.
"Jason," he breathed.
His younger dark haired friend was hanging, suspended by his wrists from the ceiling of the cell, toes barely brushing the floor, metal manacles biting into the fragile skin at his wrists, his head lolling forwards on his bare chest. Pythagoras could not really tell what condition his friend was in in the darkness. They needed to get him free and out of here to a place of safety where the mathematician might assess his injuries properly.
"Jason," he called more loudly; urgently.
If Jason heard him he gave no indication. Pythagoras bit his lip and looked behind him. Where was Hercules? The burly wrestler knew that time was of the essence here and yet he was nowhere in sight. Pythagoras turned back and looked at the lock on the door in frustration.
With the keys Hercules had found they should be able to get in quickly. The original plan had actually been to use the big man's unnatural strength to break the lock but the keys would be a much better and quicker option. Now though both Hercules and the keys were missing, leaving Pythagoras with no immediate way of opening the cell as precious seconds ticked by.
Eventually (after what was in reality mere seconds but felt like hours to Pythagoras) Hercules lumbered urgently into view.
"Where have you been?" Pythagoras hissed in irritation. "I have found Jason but we need to get this door open."
"Spotted a side chamber," Hercules grunted. "Jason's things were in there and I thought he might need them if we're going to escape properly." He had Jason's breastplate, sandals, tunic and sword shoved haphazardly under one arm.
Without another word the burly wrestler shoved the young genius out of the way and inserted the key into the lock. Within moments they were at their other friend's side.
As Hercules grabbed a torch from outside and thrust it into the holder on the wall of the little cell, Pythagoras got his first good look at Jason. It was not a reassuring sight. Lines of dried blood marked the site of a series of cuts across his grubby chest, varying in depths from shallow (almost superficial) to one particularly nasty gaping wound just below his collarbone - the edges ragged and barely pulled together, the skin surrounding it inflamed and reddened - that seemed deeper than anything Pythagoras would have wanted to see. Here and there dark bruising was showing through the layer of grime and sweat that seemed to cover Jason.
What worried Pythagoras more though was that his friend had yet to raise his head or show any awareness of the presence of other people in the cell.
"Jason," he called again a little more loudly than before.
Encouraged by the soft groan that his friend emitted at the sound of his voice, Pythagoras reached out and gently placed one hand on Jason's chest over his heart, feeling the steady beat beneath with some relief. The gentle touch seemed to encourage Jason towards consciousness even more and painfully slowly he raised his head to blink at Pythagoras with unfocussed eyes.
"Pythagoras," he muttered hoarsely with a smile that seemed wholly incongruous to their surroundings or his own position. "I knew you'd come."
"That's because you're an idiot," Hercules groused from behind Pythagoras' shoulder. "And we're idiots too for coming to rescue your sorry behind!"
Pythagoras caught hold of Jason's chin and peered at his friend's face, taking in the bloody contusion at the temple that ran up into Jason's hairline, the slightly unfocussed eyes, the cut that ran across the bridge of his nose, the dried blood that crusted around his nostrils and the split that ran through his lower lip with the seasoned eyes of a medical practitioner. He breathed a sigh of relief. Whilst Jason might possibly be slightly concussed there didn't seem to be anything here that Pythagoras would not be able to fix given a little time and the right surroundings.
He turned his attention to the shackles suspending his friend from the ceiling, wincing at the raw and bloody wounds that poked out from beneath the metal.
"How long have you been chained like this?" he asked.
Jason looked at him blankly for a moment before it seemed to filter through his brain that Pythagoras was addressing him.
"Not sure," he slurred. "I've sort of lost track of time."
Pythagoras grimaced. From the appearance of the wounds at Jason's wrists he had to assume that it was a couple of days at least. That meant that getting him down was not going to be pretty. Overstretched and strained muscles would scream as they moved back into their usual places and after so long suspended it seemed unlikely that Jason would be capable of independent movement; of helping in his own escape. Pythagoras suspected that in fact he would have some difficulty even moving his arms after the abuse his shoulders had suffered.
"Get ready to catch him," the mathematician muttered to Hercules.
He waited until Hercules had put down his small bundle of Jason's clothes and stepped into position before taking the keys off his burly friend and turning his attention back to the manacles.
"Are you ready?" Pythagoras asked with a quick glance over his shoulder at Hercules.
His older friend gave a curt, tight nod. Pythagoras took a deep breath and carefully undid the cuffs on Jason's wrists, trying to keep the metal from biting in anymore and inflicting further damage to his younger friend's wrists.
As expected once he had been freed from the cuffs Jason dropped like a stone, caught by the waiting Hercules and lowered to the floor. The half-strangled yowl he gave as his body, trapped into immobility for days, was forced into movement was something that Pythagoras did not think he would forget in a hurry. He silently sympathised with his friend, knowing that every inch of him would be screaming with pain right now, but also knowing that they had to start moving quickly if they were to have any chance of escaping before the patrol completed their circuit of the Palace perimeter and realised that the secret door was not secret at all and was in fact open.
The young genius bit his lip as he looked down at his two friends. Hercules had sunk to the floor with their friend and was now looking between Jason and Pythagoras with worried eyes. Pythagoras crouched down and started gently tapping his younger friend's face.
"Come on," he encouraged. "You need to open your eyes. We need to get out of here before the guards come back."
"Just give me a minute," Jason mumbled with his eyes still closed.
Pythagoras gnawed on his lip, his eyes brimming with sympathy.
"I do not think I can," he answered softly. "I am sorry but we must move."
Jason slowly blinked his eyes open.
"Alright," he said, beginning to make feeble attempts to rise.
Hercules rolled his eyes and pushed his dark haired friend into a sitting position.
"Right," he said gruffly. "Get this on and we'll get out of here." He pulled Jason's tunic over his head and slipped his belt and breastplate into place as Pythagoras set about getting Jason's sandals on.
Without waiting for further agreement Hercules dragged Jason up into a stand, draping one of his friend's arms around his neck and slipping his own arm around the brunette's waist, trying all the time to ignore the quiet moans of pain that were coming from his friend. He frowned at how incapable Jason felt right now, his head lowered as he tried to regain control of himself and his body heavy and awkward against the burly wrestler's hip.
Further precious seconds ticked by before the three of them were ready to move. Finally they began the short journey away from the cells towards the secret entrance they had sneaked in through. Pythagoras could not help but chafe at the slowness of their pace, fearing discovery at every turn, yet he realised that there was no real option at the moment.
At first Jason was uncoordinated and awkward, his feet almost dragging as he bounced semi-responsively against Hercules' hip. With every moment that passed, however, he seemed to gain strength and capability and by the time they were at the door he was more or less moving independently - albeit with Hercules' hand hovering protectively close to his back, ready to swoop in with support if his friend should falter. Jason's ability to push aside any physical issues - the speed with which he seemed to recover from infirmity - always amazed both his friends.
"We have to hurry," Pythagoras said urgently, his hand already on the door. "The patrol will be coming back around the corner at any moment." He peered around the doorframe and drew his head back in with a sigh of relief. "They are not yet in sight," he said. "If we hurry we should be able to get back into the alleyway before we are spotted."
He looked speculatively at Jason who, despite the fact that he was moving under his own steam, still looked a little shaky and mentally assessed his friend's ability to run if the situation demanded it. Assessment made he exchanged a long look with Hercules, their long friendship meaning that he didn't need words to communicate his intentions.
Hercules nodded curtly and dragged Jason's arm back across his shoulders. Before Jason could do more than yelp Pythagoras had moved in on his other side and ducked under his other arm. Now that he was touching his friend he could feel the faint tremors that were running through Jason's body and could almost sense the groans that Jason was trying to supress.
"Right," Pythagoras muttered decisively. "When I say go, go." He peered out into the street again. "Go!" he commanded.
Half dragging Jason between them they darted across into the dark alleyway opposite. Having made sure that both his friends were out of sight in the deep shadows, Pythagoras raced back across the street and yanked the door shut, making sure that the shrubbery that had half hidden it from view appeared undisturbed, darting back into the alleyway and crouching near the entrance, peering tensely at the street. If his calculations were correct the patrol should be appearing any… minute… now!
Right on queue the guards rounded the corner and began to march down the street towards the alley where Pythagoras waited tensely in the shadows. One wrong move and they would spot him. After long, anxious moments the patrol marched on past, continuing their interminable circuits of the Palace perimeter, never even sparing a glance for the door that the young genius and his friends had used to escape the cells. Pythagoras breathed again and moved further into the alleyway to where his two friends waited for him.
"They went right on past," he said softly as he drew close.
"Thank the Gods," Hercules answered. "We have a chance of getting out of this mess then."
"Indeed," Pythagoras murmured.
He crouched down next to his friends. Jason was sitting against the wall of one of the buildings that lined the alley, his eyes closed, breathing with deliberate slowness. As Pythagoras watched he ran his tongue delicately over his cracked lips, clearly trying to get some moisture back into them. How long he had been without food and water was anyone's guess.
With a frown the mathematician unslung the water skin he was carrying on a strap that ran crosswise over his chest and reached into his belt pouch for a rag. With care he unstoppered the skin and poured enough water onto the rag to wet it. The he turned towards Jason.
"You need to drink," he said decisively, holding the open neck to his friend's lips.
Jason took an experimental sip then, as the cool liquid began to soothe his parched throat, started to gulp down mouthfuls.
"Slowly!" Pythagoras admonished, pulling the water skin away from his friend. "It will do none of us any good for you to make yourself sick by drinking too fast."
Jason glared at him but didn't bother objecting in any other way. Pythagoras handed the water skin to Hercules and set about wiping some of the dried blood off his younger friend's face with the wet rag he was holding.
"We don't have time for this," Hercules hissed. "You said we needed to hurry."
"The guards have only just gone past Hercules," Pythagoras pointed out patiently. "We have time to get clear before they come back… and it will be much easier to leave the city with no questions asked if he does not look as though he has just come from a torture chamber." He nodded towards Jason.
"So what is the plan?" Jason asked tiredly. In spite of Pythagoras' ministrations he still looked moderately awful.
Pythagoras removed his cloak and slipped it over his friend's head.
"We removed our supplies to a cave on the shore this morning," he said softly. "The easiest way there will be via the Eastern Gate. As long as your escape from the cells is not noticed too quickly we should be able to slip through largely unheeded. I have watched the guards on the gate for the last two days and they take little notice of who is entering and leaving the city unless there is something suspicious about them. If we simply slip through in the middle of the crowd then I believe that they will not pay us any attention." He smiled at his friend.
Jason nodded.
"Alright," he said. "Let's get moving then."
The short journey towards the Eastern Gate was achieved with relative ease. The further they got from the Palace the more Pythagoras felt himself relaxing. No-one appeared to have raised an alarm yet and it appeared that Jason's departure from the cells had not yet been noticed. Finally nearing the city gates they halted.
"You two wait here," Hercules ordered, dragging his friends into a small passageway between two houses. "I'll check that the coast is clear."
As they waited for the big man to return, Pythagoras sat down and leaned against the wall, feeling the stress of the last few days finally catching up with him and leaving him feeling exhausted. Alongside him Jason sank gratefully down to the ground, wincing as he tried to roll his shoulders.
"Are you alright?" Pythagoras asked.
Jason grimaced.
"Bit sore," he admitted. "My shoulders are kind of seizing up. I think they're going to be a bit stiff."
"More than a little I would imagine," Pythagoras replied mildly. "I suspect that the muscles all across your shoulders and upper back are at the very least strained. Once we are well away from the city and I have leisure I would very much like to assess the damage if I may. At the very least I believe I may have a herbal remedy which will prevent you from stiffening up any further. I suspect that you are going to need to refrain from any strenuous activity over the next few days to give yourself the chance to heal properly, otherwise you will risk putting yourself out of action for weeks."
Jason grimaced again, which turned to a wince as a spasm of pain shot through his left shoulder making the gash below his collarbone throb painfully.
"I am serious Jason," Pythagoras said firmly. "Depending on how badly your shoulders are already damaged you could risk permanent injury if you try to do too much too soon."
Hercules bustled back into the passage before Jason could respond.
"Right," he said. "There shouldn't be too much problem with getting out as long as no-one recognises him." He pointed at Jason. "They're not bothering to check anyone to be honest."
"How likely is it that the guards on the gate will know what you look like?" Pythagoras asked.
Jason considered it for a moment.
"Not too likely I wouldn't think," he replied. "I didn't really have all that much contact with anyone before I was arrested and afterwards it was only the guards in the cells."
"Which raises a couple of questions," Pythagoras said with a raised eyebrow. "What were you doing to get yourself arrested? And come to that why did you come to Pathmos in the first place?"
Jason looked a little sheepish.
"I was helping Ariadne," he muttered.
"Yes I understood that part," Pythagoras replied. "It was something of a surprise to come home from the library expecting nothing more than supper and an evening of beetle racing at the tavern with Hercules, and to find out instead that you had run off to Pathmos and left a note that merely stated where you had gone and that you were doing something for the Princess. It did not, however, tell me what you were doing or why. Perhaps if you had bothered to stop and explain Ariadne's request to us this whole situation could have been avoided."
"It was a one man job," Jason answered defensively. "Besides, I didn't want to get you guys involved in case anything went wrong."
Hercules snorted.
"And that worked out so well didn't it?" he grumbled. "Haven't you worked out by now that when you go off on these fools' errands we'll end up following you just to stop him worrying?" He pointed at Pythagoras. "What was it this time? What did you have to do to prove to her that you love her? Sooner or later you're going to have to face the fact that you can never be together because you are not of royal blood… and if you think otherwise you're a bigger fool than I thought. The King has banned you from seeing her… and you were lucky he was feeling benevolent and didn't arrest you on the spot for daring to have feelings for his daughter."
"Ariadne didn't have anyone else she could turn to," Jason protested. "With her father unwell - even with Pasiphae in exile - there really wasn't anyone she could turn to. She needed to get a message to someone in the Palace here in Pathmos without anyone knowing. She needed someone that she could trust to deliver it for her."
Hercules shook his head wearily.
"And what was this message?" he demanded. "What was so important that she would risk your life for it?"
"I don't know," Jason answered hotly. "It was a sealed letter and I wasn't about to break Ariadne's trust by opening it and reading it. She said that it needed to get to a specific member of the court in Pathmos and that the safety of Atlantis depended on it. I wasn't about to let her down."
"So what happened?" Pythagoras asked. "Something clearly went wrong after all."
"Who said anything went wrong?" Jason said.
Pythagoras gave him an incredulous look.
"We followed you here as soon as I found your note," he said, "only to find that you had been arrested on the day that you arrived. You have been held in the cells for the last four days and the guards have clearly not been gentle. I think it is more than safe to say that something went wrong."
"I managed to break into the Palace and deliver the message easily enough," Jason answered. "Knowing the layout of the Palace in Atlantis helped. I mean there are some fundamental differences but it at least gave me a rough idea of where things should be."
"So what happened?" Hercules asked.
"As it turns out the King is even more paranoid than Minos," Jason admitted, "and how was I supposed to know that he had guests visiting and that there were a lot more guards than usual?" He looked even more sheepish. "I was caught trying to escape and they decided I must be an assassin. They didn't seem to know what to do with me after that. I don't think they liked to execute me until I told them who I was working for and since I'm not actually an assassin I couldn't really tell them what they wanted to hear."
Pythagoras restrained himself manfully from the sudden urge to smack his friend around the head.
"Sometimes Jason you are such an idiot," he said with asperity. "Next time talk to us beforehand and we can hopefully come up with a plan that does not involve you ending up in a dungeon being tortured!"
"There won't be a next time," Jason muttered. "I'm sorry if I worried you guys."
Pythagoras gave him an incredulous and fond look.
"Of course there will be a next time," he said. "You can no more restrain yourself from jumping in to help someone that you believe needs it than I can stop my interest in triangles or Hercules can stop telling tall tales. I know and understand this. Just try not to do anything too foolish that we cannot help you with."
Jason looked at his hands.
"Sorry," he murmured.
"We need to get going," Hercules growled. "We've waited here long enough. Sooner or later they're going to spot that you're not in the cells and I for one would rather be well outside the city when that happens."
He stood up and reached down to grasp a handful of Jason's tunic, using it to help him lift his friend to his feet, frowning with some sympathy at the little moans that Jason couldn't help uttering. Once Jason was fully on his feet, Hercules let go but did not quite step out of catching range just in case he was needed. The adrenaline of their escape was beginning to wear off all of them now and the burly wrestler had no intention of allowing the injured member of their party to fall.
"Ready to move?" he asked.
"Yeah," Jason answered. He looked between his two friends gratefully. "Thanks for coming for me," he added seriously.
"Any time," Hercules answered. "You might be an idiot but you're our idiot. We've been through too much together and I've got too used to having you around to leave you somewhere like this."
"Thanks," Jason said again. He looked up at the sky and smiled. "Let's go home," he said.
Title: This Way to Home
Author: Yassandra
Fandom: Atlantis
Pairing/characters: Jason, Pythagoras & Hercules
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Not mine. BBC and Urban Myth Films own them.
Word count: approx 5289
Summary: Everyone needs rescuing now and then - even heroes.
AN: This story been written for Round 6 of Bingo on the Hurt/Comfort LJ community, to incorporate my wild card prompt - for which I have chosen the prompt 'dungeon'.
"It might be your job to save all of Atlantis, but it seems it's our job to save you. So just you remember who the real heroes are…"
(Hercules - A New Dawn Part 2)
"Come on!" Pythagoras had never sounded more frantic to Hercules' ears.
He looked down mildly at the hand grasping the edge of his sleeve and trying to tug him along. Pythagoras let the hand fall with a huff of air.
"Hercules we need to move! We need to find him now!"
"Just let me get my breath back first," Hercules panted, still breathless from the sprint through the streets that his young friend had dragged him on.
"But we don't have time!" Pythagoras all but wailed. "Who knows what they could be doing to him!"
Hercules rolled his eyes.
"That boy has been nothing but trouble from the moment he arrived," he huffed.
"How can you say that?" Pythagoras protested. "Jason has saved our lives more times than I care to think about."
"True," Hercules agreed, allowing himself to be pulled along again, "but he does seem to have a talent for getting himself into scrapes. Take now for instance. We could all be safe at home in Atlantis enjoying a nice drink in the tavern... but no, he has to go and drop everything for the blasted Princess, runs off to Pathmos without so much as a by your leave to either one of us and goes and gets himself arrested."
"I'm not sure that Ariadne had anyone else to turn to," Pythagoras began.
"Ah but we don't know that do we? We don't even know what she asked him to do. I mean he didn't even stick around long enough to let us know what he was planning. Just upped and left leaving that note."
"At least he told us where he'd gone this time," Pythagoras pointed out reasonably, "and it was my decision to follow Jason to Pathmos. You did not have to come."
"Of course I was going to come," Hercules grunted in exasperation. "Who knows what sort of trouble you might have got into without me here."
Pythagoras rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to point out that generally any trouble he might get into was caused by the bulky wrestler.
"After all if we're going to get killed we may as well get killed together," Hercules continued. "All I'm saying is that it might have been nice if Jason had given us a bit of warning."
Pythagoras wanted to defend their ridiculously heroic housemate - as he always did - but really this time Hercules was right. If Jason had actually bothered to tell them what he was doing instead of running off to Pathmos alone they might have been able to come up with some sort of plan that wouldn't have ended with him being arrested and held in what amounted to a dungeon. Pythagoras bit his lip. Was it really too much to ask for Jason to go one week without risking his life doing something impossible or insane just because someone looked pathetically at him?
As they neared the Palace walls the two friends slowed. As in Atlantis the gaol cells were in a sort of dungeon area below the Palace. Pythagoras was almost insanely grateful for the fact that this Palace seemed to have a similar floor plan to the one at home. At least it meant they had some chance of planning a gaol break. As it was he and Hercules had spent the last three days gathering information to try to free their friend.
The situation was not good. Jason was being held for unspecified crimes against the crown. The rumour mill had it that a trial would be held as soon as a confession had been obtained and that the guards were going all out to get that confession. As it was now four days since Jason had been arrested (the day before Pythagoras and Hercules had arrived in the city) his friends were left with the uncomfortable feeling that time was rapidly running out.
"It should be just around the next corner," Pythagoras muttered.
In the course of their information gathering Hercules had got one of the guards drunk and learned from the man that there was a side door to the dungeon, one that very few people knew about - including the other guards. This one had found it by accident and used it regularly to visit his woman at times when he was supposed to be on duty. Hercules had hurried to tell Pythagoras (at least he had hurried as soon as he had sobered up) and all their plans had been based upon using this little door to gain entrance.
Now they were here. They hid themselves in a little dark alleyway and waited. The door was half hidden by overgrown shrubbery and guards marched past it on patrol, never even seeming aware of its presence. Their timing would have to be perfect if they wanted to break in and get Jason out. By Pythagoras' reckoning they would have the length of time it took the guards to patrol the Palace perimeter. He had stood and watched them for some time yesterday and had counted it off in his head. Now he began that mental count as the current batch of guards matched past the door.
As Hercules stated to dart forwards however Pythagoras grabbed hold of him, stopping him in his tracks.
"Come on," the big man growled.
"Wait," Pythagoras responded in a whisper.
"I thought you said we needed to hurry," Hercules protested.
"We do," Pythagoras answered, "but there are six guards in a patrol and only five have gone past."
Hercules swore quietly. They really didn't need this delay. Eventually though the errant guard appeared, seemingly in no hurry to catch up with the rest of the patrol. Near the entrance to the alleyway he stopped and started to adjust the strap on his sandal. Both Hercules and Pythagoras held their breath. All it would take would be for the guard to look sideways and they would be spotted, and what possible reason could they have for lurking here? At the very least it would mean that they had to postpone their rescue attempt - and what might happen to Jason in that time?
Finally the guard moved on. Pythagoras was eternally grateful that city guards everywhere seemed to be spectacularly unobservant; picked for their large stature rather than their brains.
Hurrying across the street to the small door with Hercules in tow, he pushed carefully on the small door. It did not open. He swore.
"Here let me try," Hercules grunted, elbowing him out of the way.
Pythagoras gave a little squeak of protest although the logical part of him did have to concede that if brute strength was required Hercules would have far more luck than him.
The grating sound that the door made as the lock gave way made both friends look around nervously. If someone had heard the noise and decided to come and investigate they were sunk. As it was, after a few tense moments, the two men looked at each other and made their way inside.
The corridor that they found themselves in was unlit, dark and dank. Here in the underbelly of the Palace there were no windows - they were unnecessary, Pythagoras supposed; the grimmer the conditions for the prisoners held here, the more likely they were to confess to their crimes - and you hardly needed much light for torture.
"Come on," Hercules hissed again.
As they hurried forwards, Pythagoras' mental clock continued to tick down, every second that passed bringing them closer to disaster - to capture. The cells they passed were empty. Like Atlantis justice in Pathmos tended to be swift (and in many cases fatal) so prisoners were not often left to linger here. The fact that Jason was still being held and had not yet been sent for judgement spoke volumes for how much his captors desired a confession. It left Pythagoras both relieved and worried - relieved that his friend was at least still alive and worried about the condition they would find him in.
Rounding a corner their luck finally ran out. There ahead of them was a guard. The guard's eyes opened wide in surprise at seeing strangers in the prison who were clearly not prisoners themselves and his mouth opened in a startled 'o'. In the moment that he took to process what he was seeing Hercules was on him, swinging sharply with the butt of his sword and catching the guard with a terrific blow to the temple. The guard dropped like a puppet with its strings cut. Hercules leant over and assessed him clinically, before giving him an extra rap on the head with his sword hilt and stooping to rifle the pouch at the man's waist.
"What did you hit him again for?" Pythagoras asked.
"I wanted to make sure he stayed asleep until we're well away from here," Hercules answered laconically, continuing his casual rifling of the guard's clothes. "Ah here we are."
He stood up with a ring holding two large keys in his hand.
"This should make opening the cell doors easier," he said.
Pythagoras nodded.
"We must hurry," he said urgently, darting on ahead and leaving Hercules to lumber in his wake.
Ahead of them was another cell. The presence of a guttering torch in a sconce on the wall outside indicating that this cell at least was occupied. Pythagoras darted over and peered through the bars into the unlit space beyond.
"Jason," he breathed.
His younger dark haired friend was hanging, suspended by his wrists from the ceiling of the cell, toes barely brushing the floor, metal manacles biting into the fragile skin at his wrists, his head lolling forwards on his bare chest. Pythagoras could not really tell what condition his friend was in in the darkness. They needed to get him free and out of here to a place of safety where the mathematician might assess his injuries properly.
"Jason," he called more loudly; urgently.
If Jason heard him he gave no indication. Pythagoras bit his lip and looked behind him. Where was Hercules? The burly wrestler knew that time was of the essence here and yet he was nowhere in sight. Pythagoras turned back and looked at the lock on the door in frustration.
With the keys Hercules had found they should be able to get in quickly. The original plan had actually been to use the big man's unnatural strength to break the lock but the keys would be a much better and quicker option. Now though both Hercules and the keys were missing, leaving Pythagoras with no immediate way of opening the cell as precious seconds ticked by.
Eventually (after what was in reality mere seconds but felt like hours to Pythagoras) Hercules lumbered urgently into view.
"Where have you been?" Pythagoras hissed in irritation. "I have found Jason but we need to get this door open."
"Spotted a side chamber," Hercules grunted. "Jason's things were in there and I thought he might need them if we're going to escape properly." He had Jason's breastplate, sandals, tunic and sword shoved haphazardly under one arm.
Without another word the burly wrestler shoved the young genius out of the way and inserted the key into the lock. Within moments they were at their other friend's side.
As Hercules grabbed a torch from outside and thrust it into the holder on the wall of the little cell, Pythagoras got his first good look at Jason. It was not a reassuring sight. Lines of dried blood marked the site of a series of cuts across his grubby chest, varying in depths from shallow (almost superficial) to one particularly nasty gaping wound just below his collarbone - the edges ragged and barely pulled together, the skin surrounding it inflamed and reddened - that seemed deeper than anything Pythagoras would have wanted to see. Here and there dark bruising was showing through the layer of grime and sweat that seemed to cover Jason.
What worried Pythagoras more though was that his friend had yet to raise his head or show any awareness of the presence of other people in the cell.
"Jason," he called again a little more loudly than before.
Encouraged by the soft groan that his friend emitted at the sound of his voice, Pythagoras reached out and gently placed one hand on Jason's chest over his heart, feeling the steady beat beneath with some relief. The gentle touch seemed to encourage Jason towards consciousness even more and painfully slowly he raised his head to blink at Pythagoras with unfocussed eyes.
"Pythagoras," he muttered hoarsely with a smile that seemed wholly incongruous to their surroundings or his own position. "I knew you'd come."
"That's because you're an idiot," Hercules groused from behind Pythagoras' shoulder. "And we're idiots too for coming to rescue your sorry behind!"
Pythagoras caught hold of Jason's chin and peered at his friend's face, taking in the bloody contusion at the temple that ran up into Jason's hairline, the slightly unfocussed eyes, the cut that ran across the bridge of his nose, the dried blood that crusted around his nostrils and the split that ran through his lower lip with the seasoned eyes of a medical practitioner. He breathed a sigh of relief. Whilst Jason might possibly be slightly concussed there didn't seem to be anything here that Pythagoras would not be able to fix given a little time and the right surroundings.
He turned his attention to the shackles suspending his friend from the ceiling, wincing at the raw and bloody wounds that poked out from beneath the metal.
"How long have you been chained like this?" he asked.
Jason looked at him blankly for a moment before it seemed to filter through his brain that Pythagoras was addressing him.
"Not sure," he slurred. "I've sort of lost track of time."
Pythagoras grimaced. From the appearance of the wounds at Jason's wrists he had to assume that it was a couple of days at least. That meant that getting him down was not going to be pretty. Overstretched and strained muscles would scream as they moved back into their usual places and after so long suspended it seemed unlikely that Jason would be capable of independent movement; of helping in his own escape. Pythagoras suspected that in fact he would have some difficulty even moving his arms after the abuse his shoulders had suffered.
"Get ready to catch him," the mathematician muttered to Hercules.
He waited until Hercules had put down his small bundle of Jason's clothes and stepped into position before taking the keys off his burly friend and turning his attention back to the manacles.
"Are you ready?" Pythagoras asked with a quick glance over his shoulder at Hercules.
His older friend gave a curt, tight nod. Pythagoras took a deep breath and carefully undid the cuffs on Jason's wrists, trying to keep the metal from biting in anymore and inflicting further damage to his younger friend's wrists.
As expected once he had been freed from the cuffs Jason dropped like a stone, caught by the waiting Hercules and lowered to the floor. The half-strangled yowl he gave as his body, trapped into immobility for days, was forced into movement was something that Pythagoras did not think he would forget in a hurry. He silently sympathised with his friend, knowing that every inch of him would be screaming with pain right now, but also knowing that they had to start moving quickly if they were to have any chance of escaping before the patrol completed their circuit of the Palace perimeter and realised that the secret door was not secret at all and was in fact open.
The young genius bit his lip as he looked down at his two friends. Hercules had sunk to the floor with their friend and was now looking between Jason and Pythagoras with worried eyes. Pythagoras crouched down and started gently tapping his younger friend's face.
"Come on," he encouraged. "You need to open your eyes. We need to get out of here before the guards come back."
"Just give me a minute," Jason mumbled with his eyes still closed.
Pythagoras gnawed on his lip, his eyes brimming with sympathy.
"I do not think I can," he answered softly. "I am sorry but we must move."
Jason slowly blinked his eyes open.
"Alright," he said, beginning to make feeble attempts to rise.
Hercules rolled his eyes and pushed his dark haired friend into a sitting position.
"Right," he said gruffly. "Get this on and we'll get out of here." He pulled Jason's tunic over his head and slipped his belt and breastplate into place as Pythagoras set about getting Jason's sandals on.
Without waiting for further agreement Hercules dragged Jason up into a stand, draping one of his friend's arms around his neck and slipping his own arm around the brunette's waist, trying all the time to ignore the quiet moans of pain that were coming from his friend. He frowned at how incapable Jason felt right now, his head lowered as he tried to regain control of himself and his body heavy and awkward against the burly wrestler's hip.
Further precious seconds ticked by before the three of them were ready to move. Finally they began the short journey away from the cells towards the secret entrance they had sneaked in through. Pythagoras could not help but chafe at the slowness of their pace, fearing discovery at every turn, yet he realised that there was no real option at the moment.
At first Jason was uncoordinated and awkward, his feet almost dragging as he bounced semi-responsively against Hercules' hip. With every moment that passed, however, he seemed to gain strength and capability and by the time they were at the door he was more or less moving independently - albeit with Hercules' hand hovering protectively close to his back, ready to swoop in with support if his friend should falter. Jason's ability to push aside any physical issues - the speed with which he seemed to recover from infirmity - always amazed both his friends.
"We have to hurry," Pythagoras said urgently, his hand already on the door. "The patrol will be coming back around the corner at any moment." He peered around the doorframe and drew his head back in with a sigh of relief. "They are not yet in sight," he said. "If we hurry we should be able to get back into the alleyway before we are spotted."
He looked speculatively at Jason who, despite the fact that he was moving under his own steam, still looked a little shaky and mentally assessed his friend's ability to run if the situation demanded it. Assessment made he exchanged a long look with Hercules, their long friendship meaning that he didn't need words to communicate his intentions.
Hercules nodded curtly and dragged Jason's arm back across his shoulders. Before Jason could do more than yelp Pythagoras had moved in on his other side and ducked under his other arm. Now that he was touching his friend he could feel the faint tremors that were running through Jason's body and could almost sense the groans that Jason was trying to supress.
"Right," Pythagoras muttered decisively. "When I say go, go." He peered out into the street again. "Go!" he commanded.
Half dragging Jason between them they darted across into the dark alleyway opposite. Having made sure that both his friends were out of sight in the deep shadows, Pythagoras raced back across the street and yanked the door shut, making sure that the shrubbery that had half hidden it from view appeared undisturbed, darting back into the alleyway and crouching near the entrance, peering tensely at the street. If his calculations were correct the patrol should be appearing any… minute… now!
Right on queue the guards rounded the corner and began to march down the street towards the alley where Pythagoras waited tensely in the shadows. One wrong move and they would spot him. After long, anxious moments the patrol marched on past, continuing their interminable circuits of the Palace perimeter, never even sparing a glance for the door that the young genius and his friends had used to escape the cells. Pythagoras breathed again and moved further into the alleyway to where his two friends waited for him.
"They went right on past," he said softly as he drew close.
"Thank the Gods," Hercules answered. "We have a chance of getting out of this mess then."
"Indeed," Pythagoras murmured.
He crouched down next to his friends. Jason was sitting against the wall of one of the buildings that lined the alley, his eyes closed, breathing with deliberate slowness. As Pythagoras watched he ran his tongue delicately over his cracked lips, clearly trying to get some moisture back into them. How long he had been without food and water was anyone's guess.
With a frown the mathematician unslung the water skin he was carrying on a strap that ran crosswise over his chest and reached into his belt pouch for a rag. With care he unstoppered the skin and poured enough water onto the rag to wet it. The he turned towards Jason.
"You need to drink," he said decisively, holding the open neck to his friend's lips.
Jason took an experimental sip then, as the cool liquid began to soothe his parched throat, started to gulp down mouthfuls.
"Slowly!" Pythagoras admonished, pulling the water skin away from his friend. "It will do none of us any good for you to make yourself sick by drinking too fast."
Jason glared at him but didn't bother objecting in any other way. Pythagoras handed the water skin to Hercules and set about wiping some of the dried blood off his younger friend's face with the wet rag he was holding.
"We don't have time for this," Hercules hissed. "You said we needed to hurry."
"The guards have only just gone past Hercules," Pythagoras pointed out patiently. "We have time to get clear before they come back… and it will be much easier to leave the city with no questions asked if he does not look as though he has just come from a torture chamber." He nodded towards Jason.
"So what is the plan?" Jason asked tiredly. In spite of Pythagoras' ministrations he still looked moderately awful.
Pythagoras removed his cloak and slipped it over his friend's head.
"We removed our supplies to a cave on the shore this morning," he said softly. "The easiest way there will be via the Eastern Gate. As long as your escape from the cells is not noticed too quickly we should be able to slip through largely unheeded. I have watched the guards on the gate for the last two days and they take little notice of who is entering and leaving the city unless there is something suspicious about them. If we simply slip through in the middle of the crowd then I believe that they will not pay us any attention." He smiled at his friend.
Jason nodded.
"Alright," he said. "Let's get moving then."
The short journey towards the Eastern Gate was achieved with relative ease. The further they got from the Palace the more Pythagoras felt himself relaxing. No-one appeared to have raised an alarm yet and it appeared that Jason's departure from the cells had not yet been noticed. Finally nearing the city gates they halted.
"You two wait here," Hercules ordered, dragging his friends into a small passageway between two houses. "I'll check that the coast is clear."
As they waited for the big man to return, Pythagoras sat down and leaned against the wall, feeling the stress of the last few days finally catching up with him and leaving him feeling exhausted. Alongside him Jason sank gratefully down to the ground, wincing as he tried to roll his shoulders.
"Are you alright?" Pythagoras asked.
Jason grimaced.
"Bit sore," he admitted. "My shoulders are kind of seizing up. I think they're going to be a bit stiff."
"More than a little I would imagine," Pythagoras replied mildly. "I suspect that the muscles all across your shoulders and upper back are at the very least strained. Once we are well away from the city and I have leisure I would very much like to assess the damage if I may. At the very least I believe I may have a herbal remedy which will prevent you from stiffening up any further. I suspect that you are going to need to refrain from any strenuous activity over the next few days to give yourself the chance to heal properly, otherwise you will risk putting yourself out of action for weeks."
Jason grimaced again, which turned to a wince as a spasm of pain shot through his left shoulder making the gash below his collarbone throb painfully.
"I am serious Jason," Pythagoras said firmly. "Depending on how badly your shoulders are already damaged you could risk permanent injury if you try to do too much too soon."
Hercules bustled back into the passage before Jason could respond.
"Right," he said. "There shouldn't be too much problem with getting out as long as no-one recognises him." He pointed at Jason. "They're not bothering to check anyone to be honest."
"How likely is it that the guards on the gate will know what you look like?" Pythagoras asked.
Jason considered it for a moment.
"Not too likely I wouldn't think," he replied. "I didn't really have all that much contact with anyone before I was arrested and afterwards it was only the guards in the cells."
"Which raises a couple of questions," Pythagoras said with a raised eyebrow. "What were you doing to get yourself arrested? And come to that why did you come to Pathmos in the first place?"
Jason looked a little sheepish.
"I was helping Ariadne," he muttered.
"Yes I understood that part," Pythagoras replied. "It was something of a surprise to come home from the library expecting nothing more than supper and an evening of beetle racing at the tavern with Hercules, and to find out instead that you had run off to Pathmos and left a note that merely stated where you had gone and that you were doing something for the Princess. It did not, however, tell me what you were doing or why. Perhaps if you had bothered to stop and explain Ariadne's request to us this whole situation could have been avoided."
"It was a one man job," Jason answered defensively. "Besides, I didn't want to get you guys involved in case anything went wrong."
Hercules snorted.
"And that worked out so well didn't it?" he grumbled. "Haven't you worked out by now that when you go off on these fools' errands we'll end up following you just to stop him worrying?" He pointed at Pythagoras. "What was it this time? What did you have to do to prove to her that you love her? Sooner or later you're going to have to face the fact that you can never be together because you are not of royal blood… and if you think otherwise you're a bigger fool than I thought. The King has banned you from seeing her… and you were lucky he was feeling benevolent and didn't arrest you on the spot for daring to have feelings for his daughter."
"Ariadne didn't have anyone else she could turn to," Jason protested. "With her father unwell - even with Pasiphae in exile - there really wasn't anyone she could turn to. She needed to get a message to someone in the Palace here in Pathmos without anyone knowing. She needed someone that she could trust to deliver it for her."
Hercules shook his head wearily.
"And what was this message?" he demanded. "What was so important that she would risk your life for it?"
"I don't know," Jason answered hotly. "It was a sealed letter and I wasn't about to break Ariadne's trust by opening it and reading it. She said that it needed to get to a specific member of the court in Pathmos and that the safety of Atlantis depended on it. I wasn't about to let her down."
"So what happened?" Pythagoras asked. "Something clearly went wrong after all."
"Who said anything went wrong?" Jason said.
Pythagoras gave him an incredulous look.
"We followed you here as soon as I found your note," he said, "only to find that you had been arrested on the day that you arrived. You have been held in the cells for the last four days and the guards have clearly not been gentle. I think it is more than safe to say that something went wrong."
"I managed to break into the Palace and deliver the message easily enough," Jason answered. "Knowing the layout of the Palace in Atlantis helped. I mean there are some fundamental differences but it at least gave me a rough idea of where things should be."
"So what happened?" Hercules asked.
"As it turns out the King is even more paranoid than Minos," Jason admitted, "and how was I supposed to know that he had guests visiting and that there were a lot more guards than usual?" He looked even more sheepish. "I was caught trying to escape and they decided I must be an assassin. They didn't seem to know what to do with me after that. I don't think they liked to execute me until I told them who I was working for and since I'm not actually an assassin I couldn't really tell them what they wanted to hear."
Pythagoras restrained himself manfully from the sudden urge to smack his friend around the head.
"Sometimes Jason you are such an idiot," he said with asperity. "Next time talk to us beforehand and we can hopefully come up with a plan that does not involve you ending up in a dungeon being tortured!"
"There won't be a next time," Jason muttered. "I'm sorry if I worried you guys."
Pythagoras gave him an incredulous and fond look.
"Of course there will be a next time," he said. "You can no more restrain yourself from jumping in to help someone that you believe needs it than I can stop my interest in triangles or Hercules can stop telling tall tales. I know and understand this. Just try not to do anything too foolish that we cannot help you with."
Jason looked at his hands.
"Sorry," he murmured.
"We need to get going," Hercules growled. "We've waited here long enough. Sooner or later they're going to spot that you're not in the cells and I for one would rather be well outside the city when that happens."
He stood up and reached down to grasp a handful of Jason's tunic, using it to help him lift his friend to his feet, frowning with some sympathy at the little moans that Jason couldn't help uttering. Once Jason was fully on his feet, Hercules let go but did not quite step out of catching range just in case he was needed. The adrenaline of their escape was beginning to wear off all of them now and the burly wrestler had no intention of allowing the injured member of their party to fall.
"Ready to move?" he asked.
"Yeah," Jason answered. He looked between his two friends gratefully. "Thanks for coming for me," he added seriously.
"Any time," Hercules answered. "You might be an idiot but you're our idiot. We've been through too much together and I've got too used to having you around to leave you somewhere like this."
"Thanks," Jason said again. He looked up at the sky and smiled. "Let's go home," he said.