Hercules didn’t stop stepping forward. He needed to protect, wanted to protect his master. The vine controlling him however had other plans. It trilled quietly and the behemoth reached out and took another step. It didn’t matter if the one who summoned them, who created them was injured. It was too late. They were already here. One plant was all that was needed to spread.

Cama coughed and wheezed slightly as he tried to regain his breath now that he was being held in a hold. “It’s too late. Once they have a host it’s impossible to withdraw them.” he struggled slightly, wishing he was bigger instead of easily being held by the fool behind him. “Even if I could stop it why would I? I have captured a god! Think of the knowledge his body holds! The autopsy alone could change the way we channel magic!”

Hercules took another step this time onto the blade that the doctor had dropped. Each step closed the distance. “I can’t even imagine what secrets lie under the skin.” the doctor said eyeing the flickering green flesh. “To think I would have died in a cell. No, I fully intend to continue this. You won’t kill me and he won’t stop until the vine finishes burrowing and after I reveal his secrets to my benefactors I’ll have enough funding and research subjects to prove my theories.”

The doctor struggled and tried to pull himself free. “Now release me!” A bloodied hand reached out to the pair of them. Hercules would stop this, the vine would stop this.

His suspicions were immediately confirmed. Dr. Cama’s spite was palpable, but not as much as the lumbering Hercules still making his way over. “I never said I’d kill you,” Rex said. “You are not worth a stain on my soul. Nevertheless, you will be held accountable for your actions.” Rex did not bother hiding the disgust in his voice.

“You will not escape, you abomination.”

Rex turned his attention to Hercules, who was nearly upon him. Only the plant’s lousy puppetry and clear lack of practice in controlling a mobile, bipedal host was giving Rex breathing room. He considered Cama’s words and his own abilities, and then he began speaking rapidly.

”Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet….”

Baseball-sized fireballs began appearing on the floor in front of Rex, a new one appearing with each iteration of his spell.

”....Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet…”

Each ball hovered somewhere between an inch and a foot off the ground, some were only a foot or two away from Rex, others ranged a couple yards away, almost to Hercules, and they started spreading out, as new fireballs began creating a floating floor of fire and light between Hercules and the others.

Dr. Cama gasped in pain and surprise. “You…you’re magic…too,” he managed to say. Then he started to slumped as the pressure Rex had been applying to his throat cut off his airways long enough to push him into a loss of consciousness.

Rex started backpedaling. ”Thy word is a lamp unto my feet….”

Balls of fire burst into existence before the host and the parasite. The plant trilled slightly in fear, not sure what to do at first. The host decided before them and took another step forward. His hand still outstretched.

What was left in control of the ancient Greek god saw a master being attacked by another. A former master. Memories came flooding back to him how he stumbled into the room after one former master brutally slayed a current of his. Hercules had released the former master after he tried to subjugate the god into destroying a village after someone had crossed him.

It was the very pettiness that caused Hercules to sever their contract and break their bond. It pained Hercules to do so but this senseless attack on his friend and current master hurt him more. The god’s mouth hung ajar and mutterings flooded out. Some of them made little sense it was a long dead language after all and even those who knew the words would take some time trying to understand it.

The words then turned to Latin, ”You are my master no longer. You are not worthy to lift mankind. I will always curse your name.” what words were understandable the god did not know for he was reliving a memory. A nightmare.

The plant trilled and turned upright as Hercules stumbled forward into the first ball of fire between them. At once his pant leg burst into flames upon contact of the floating ball of orange. It was clear Hercules felt little most of his pain receptors had been turned off by the plant that was burrowing into him. Burrowing so deep at points the roots burst from the surface. Those same roots were currently catching fire along with Hercules’s pants.

The plant shrieked as Hercules stumbled forward into the next ball of fire and then next. Clearly no longer in control of it’s host.

Rex’s back hit a cabinet and momentary panic flashed across his face. Hercules kept advancing. The balls of flames were doing nothing. Unlike before, the fire did not discourage the plant’s advance.

Fire licked and leapt up Hercules’s body, spreading from cloth fiber to plant fire. Still, he lumbered forward. “Madre de Dios…” Rex breathed. Then Hercules began to speak.

Rex frowned as he dissected the Latin. What did that mean? Did he have time to puzzle that out?

He did not. He’d seen Hercules’s strength and Rex knew he needed to keep the man’s hands off him at all costs.

He stopped his litany of fire-creation and juked to the side, yanking Cama’s unconscious body with him violently around a gurney. There was only one other door in the room, but Rex wasn’t going to bet on it being accessible. He got a gurney between them and Hercules, scooped Cama into a fireman’s carry, and then bolted for the door, allowing the useless fireballs to wink out behind him.

The shrieking drowned out the other words that Hercules muttered, most of them included the words ‘sorry’ and ‘forgive me’. Living such a long life he had many regrets. Even if he chose not to think of them that way but to have picked him and let him live? That was one of Hercules’s greatest failures as a god and protector of mankind.

When he got to the center of the room he stopped, the plant continued to wail as the flames rose higher on the pants and now skin of the Olympian. The tendrils that once burrowed deep into the body retracted further up the body trying to escape the flames to no avail. When a root met the flames it only added fuel.

Tears flowed freely watching Rex leave with Dr. Cama. They weren’t who Hercules saw for he was still immersed in a nightmare. He stopped moving, ignoring the flames that consumed him and dropped to his knees with a loud thud. He was dying. It was taking too long to heal.

He was tired, feeling the fatigue of the day. Not knowing he was actually dying, being burnt alive, experimented on and hosting a large floral parasite was a lot and the toll it would take on his masters... the god had a moment of clarity. His eyes glowed green momentarily as he recognized his situation for the first time since he had been abducted. It was enough.

The flames around him started to blink out of existence, setting the scene for the god. He too would for a time blink out of existence. The god started to grow brighter green washed over the room as he closed his eyes fading from this realm for now. It would be too much on his masters. They didn’t have enough power to heal him fully. It wasn’t fair to them.

Latin turned back to English as he spoke, ”Forgive me!” before the fading out of this realm of existence. The god would return for this wasn’t the end. No, he had strong masters here. He was needed.

Without the host the plant dropped to the floor wriggling in agony as the flames had nothing but the plant to consume.