The promptness of the reply made Hades blink, but the response didn't surprise him. Organization and better soul guidance were already Hades' top priorities. He'd been hoping for something a little more specific, but confirmation was still nice. He didn't need it, but it was nice. The middle part, however, affected Hades in a different way.
She'd sugarcoated it, but Hades still heard what she actually said. 'We don't want a king. We don't need a king. But maybe if you don't prove to be entirely useless, and it's not too much of an inconvenience, and it doesn't interfere with our prior plans, we may deign ourselves to do something for the realm on occasion maybe. So long as it isn't your idea, and we already want to.'
He was sure this sounded perfectly lovely to her. How could it not? Add a magic tree that grants wishes, a black horse, and mothers who actually cared about their offspring and you'd have a perfect universe. A king who takes responsibility for everything and makes it all pretty, who no one has to follow. Do anything you want and still saddle him with the consequences and the blame. What a wonderful idea. All pros, no cons. Hades hoped she'd passed on some kind of poison when she'd grabbed him. Or that she really had a weapon somewhere and was just trying to lure him into a corner somewhere. Otherwise they were both bound to be a bit disappointed, and she had much farther to fall. She shouldn't have saved him. That was stupid.
“Look,” Hades said, “this whole place is a mess. A complete, barely functional mess. It has always had a king, it just never had one who gave it the time of day. The Titan who ruled everything before did not allow you all to do anything you wanted because he had great faith in your self sufficiency. He let you do anything you wanted because it didn't matter to him what you did. As long as you stayed down here like good little underworldlings, he didn't care if you burned the place to the ground. He saw the Underworld as a convenient trash heap useful for disposing of good people like my uncles just so he wouldn't have to look at them. Locking away things he didn't want to deal with was something this Titan was exceptionally good at, and this place served as a great enabler. I'm sure he loved it for that alone.” It was a good thing he must have loved it too, because now they'd disposed of him the same way. The others would get to be far away and gradually forget that this Titan still existed. That they hadn't really killed him, and couldn't. Hades would get to know he was close by forever. Hades would know exactly how many feet were in between them and hear the pounding whenever he closed his eyes.
“But he's not the king anymore, I am,” Hades said, “And there will be change, whether they are wanted or not. I do not care about being liked. I don't care about being respected. I've never had those things before and I've gotten by just fine. I will fix the damage he's done. I will organize everything he didn't. I will do what it takes to make this place as good for the dead and deities here as possible because this is the lot I have been given.” He paused.
“I'm willing to listen to other opinions, and will try to only make changes for the better. But do not think for one second that I'm going to back down if I think something is important. If anyone thinks their “independence” is more important, that's fine. They can challenge me. I'm used to fighting for everything. I've had to fight for the air I breathe. What's one more in the long run?” If they wanted to dig in their heels, that was fine. Hades could be just as stubborn. He knew plenty of ways to remove a person's heels. If they thought they could do a better job than him, they were welcome to challenge him for the crown. Hades knew he'd win. He only had one thing left. He'd always have the most and the least to lose. And even if he were wrong, even if he lost, he'd win because that would at least be a sign that they were more suited than he was. Hades could find some peace in that. He'd never had that before. If she wanted something else, she shouldn't have saved him.