She has played the part of Empress Nero for a long time. This long, hard, necessary, failed path to save Humanity - so much had to be put aside. So much had to be given up. She had lost her heart and her eyes, fingers gripped to the edge of an ever-widening abyss. The weight had been so heavy. She had held the entire world of Tellus upon her shoulders like Atlas once had, all of humanity kept from the brink by the strength of her back and her will. The great civilization that had been her child, that had grown up from roads and pathways and ships and medicines and now stood on the brink of complete oblivion - keeping it alive had required sacrifice. Not just from her - the entire world of Tellus was a life support system, an iron lung that kept the idea of humanity alive even as the Underworld pressed in all around it. 

And she? She was the mechanical hand that gripped the flickering heart, squeezing it in time, forcing blood to pump. An act of despair. A hell. Waiting for a miracle -

Her lips curled up into a smile. "Fooled you~" said Hermes.

She could feel Hades' horrified attention snap back to her from so far away, but he was bleeding and crippled. She saw him abandon his place on Earth and surge towards her like a hurricane, a terrible black hole barreling across the cosmos. He could see what she was doing. The only thing left to decide was when he should arrive. 

"Last second," she said thoughtfully, spinning her caduceus around her fingers. 
She picked up her microphone. "Humans of Tellus!" she announced. They had never heard her voice before, but it was still Her Voice - something she had never given up - and no one could mistake the voice of their God-Empress as it rang out across the entire world. "Congratulations! Your years of penance are over! Soon the gates of Tellus will open and you will once more walk free and unconfined. Do not forget the lessons you have learned here, for you shall not be rescued a second time."

The great Nemesis runes began to alight all along the surface of Tellus. The vast black hole of rage and desperation that was Hades loomed large in the horizon. She could almost hear his voice in the distance, could almost see her family following behind. She smiled and ran her fingers over her scepter. "Hades, Hades, Hades~" said Hermes. "You ridiculous creature. Didn't you know that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush?"

Golden lights began to flare. She sat alone upon her throne and smiled. Whatever else would come to pass this day, at the least she could be proud that she had at last successfully stolen the most precious possession of the House of Hades.

She engaged Nemesis. 

*

Scientists had long theorized the existence of Counter Earth - a balance point on the opposite side of the Sun that contained an entire duplicate mirror world. Short sighted fools that they were, they thought that once their space probes saw nothing at the L3 point then that was the end of it. They somehow forgot that the opposite side of the sun was the night.

From the night, Tellus comes. From the Underworld it overlays Earth, dimensions shivering and shuddering as the World of the Dead tries to connect into place. In some places it is easy - the underground tunnels of the Burrowers snap into alignment almost immediately. Here the spiritual and architectural principles have not evolved at all across a thousand years of distance. Tellus slots into place, the tools old humanity left for itself falling easily and naturally into its hand.

But everywhere else it finds no overlap at all. Across this green and pleasant land Tellus can find no purchase, its spires and pyramids and tight-packed corridors failing to align with a soft and spread out landscape. Flights of fighter craft flicker in and out of existence in the skies above, dimensional invaders performing a futile search for the engines of war they can switch out with. Cyclopean temples to the Gods shudder in and out of existence. Everywhere the vast inevitable city arises from Hell and brings with it all its terrors, but everywhere it wavers on uncertain feet.

Stabilization efforts begin. Soldiers and machines move out to clear land, restructure buildings, align Earth with its Nemesis and in so doing dump the ruins of Earth into the underworld. A shame, but better to lose the depopulated ruin of the old world than the beautiful new capital she had made as the heart of humanity's new empire. The numbers just made sense. And besides - she [i]had [/i]promised Hades that she'd send his wife back home.

Prayers ring out. Bells ring. The creatures of Tellus raise their voices in praise of Hermes, their God, their patron, their savior. 

*

Persephone looks out at the terrible city trying to force its way onto her world. Her house has a view now, and it's a view of cathedrals in every direction. They ripple in and out of the world, broken puzzle pieces forced into shape.

"Aw biscuits," said Persephone. 

She walks back inside, goes to her computer and hits ctrl-s on her document. She then shuts it down properly, picks up her sword again, and goes back outside.