Dead King's Lament

**(We open up in Sparta, long before Helia was born. We see a young man with light orange hair and brown eyes repeatedly slamming his head into the mirror.)**

**Menelaus:** *GYAAAAAAAAH I CAN'T DO IT!*

**Myrine:** Prince Menelaus, it would do you no good to crack open your skull the day of your wedding.

**Menelaus:** But I can't do this! H-Helen...she's the most amazing, intelligent, pure-hearted woman in the world! And I'm some weakling who spends too much time in the library!

**(Myrine sighs and puts a hand on his shoulder.)**

**Myrine:** Milord, please. She must be in love with you, why else would she accept your proposal? I believe her choice of words were..."soulmates"? "Red string of fate"?

**Menelaus:** *\*blushes\** W-well, I...

**Myrine:** Please, just calm yourself. Helen is just as in love with you as you are in her. Everything will turn out for the best.

**(She turns to leave, but then turns back around.)**

**Myrine:** And I couldn't help but notice...despite the fact that she is the most beautiful woman in the world, you never called her beautiful when bringing up her best qualities. Why is that?

**Menelaus:** Well...she's beautiful, of course, but...that's not all there is to her.

**(Myrine half smiles.)**

**Myrine:** I suppose the rest of Greece is just too dense to see that.

**(The camera cuts to their wedding and a montage of clips show them being happy together and that they truly love each other. And it shows their coronation, but soon their marriage became a partnership rather than love like before as he becomes more hardened from stress and desire for greatness, making Helen unhappy. The camera then cuts to them meeting Paris, Prince of Troy. Helen is shown immediately being smitten by him and runs away with him. The camera cuts to Menelaus angrily banging his fists on the table.)**

**Menelaus:** GONE?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S GONE?!

**Minister:** According to witnesses, she went with Paris.

**Menelaus:** PARIS?! CALL IN MY WAR COUNCIL AND MY BROTHERS! We're going to get her back.

**(The camera cuts to the war and how the once sweet prince slowly decends down to a king hell best on victory at any cost. A montage shows the war in its various stages and Paris's death as well as Troy's destruction. The camera cuts to Helen arriving back in Sparta with an infant daughter in her arms.)**

**Menelaus:** Helen! Helen!

**(He grabs her and pulls her into a hug, crying. He then sees the baby and pulls away.)**

**Menelaus:** Is she-

**Helen:** She is Elena. My daughter.

**Menelaus:** Elena...?

**(He stares at the infant, not sure how to feel. Elena giggles and grabs his nose. His smile fades as he looks at her eyes, the same grey eyes that Paris had. Anger and hatred took over his mind, this is Paris's child the man he hated.)**

**Menelaus:** Come with me.

**(He leads Helen to a hidden room within the Palace walls. With a small window and chains.)**

**Menelaus:** Keep her here. I don't want a little half-ling present in my Kingdom.

**Helen of Troy:** What?! Why?!

**Menelaus:** She's the spawn of Paris. And you're my wife, the prize from my conquest. You will never disobey me ever again.

**(Helen sighs and reluctantly does so. One year later they have another child, Helia. But Menelaus wasn't the same, he has become more obsessive and militaristic. Becoming more ruthless and cruel in the process. The camera cuts to a frustrated Menelaus storming to the hidden room where a 6 year old Elena is applying ointment to her arm and face from an earlier beating. He pulls her up by the collar and glares at her. As before he beats her, she was his punching bag. The camera then cuts to an 8 year old Elena being dragged back to the palace after something shameful happened.)**

**Menelaus:** You thought you could get away that easily?! HAH!

**Helen of Troy:** I believe we may have another purpose for her now that she's been tarnished. Wouldn't you agree dear?

**(Elena's eyes widen in shock. The camera cuts to her being presented as 'entertainment' for Menelaus's guests at his victory parties. The camera cuts to a 10 year old Elena with a bulging abdomen cowering in the corner.)**

**Elena Troy:** PLEASE! NO! THIS IS YOUR CHILD!

**Menelaus:** If it's from Paris's spawn it's not mine.

**(The camera cuts and shows Elena losing her children over and over again along with 'entertaining' guests. And all of the torment and pain she endured. One day Menelaus let's her out.)**

**Elena Troy:** What?!

**Menelaus:** You're going to Ever After High. Don't be a bigger disgrace than what you already are.

**(The camera cuts to Elena defeating him in Victory is Ours. He returns to Sparta alongside Helen and Helia. A few months later he is in a meeting room being bombarded by the press on his attempt to wipe out Trojans and his abuse to Elena. He stumbles into the sitting room angrily and he sees Helia and Helen gasping over a letter from Andronika Trojan about Elena's pregnancy and the unborn child's gender, a girl. The camera then cuts to Menelaus and Helen leaving Sparta. Helen hugs Helia before they leave by boat, leaving Helia as Queen. The camera cuts to them receiving invitations to Helia and Myles's wedding.)**

**Helen of Troy:** Why aren't you going?! She's your daughter!

**Menelaus:** I can't show my face there ever again especially since I lost to that half-ling. You can go, you are her mother after all.

**(The camera then cuts to the events of Reunion after Menelaus's attempt to murder Elena. He looks at Helen sadly as she finally decides to leave him to start over in New Troy. The camera cuts to him sitting on the street side near his secret hideout revealing that all of the previous scenes were his flashbacks.)**

**Menelaus:** ...I...I was...Aaaah...

**(He puts his face in his hands.)**

**Menelaus:** What kind of fool am I...

**(Slowly, he takes a parchment and a quill and starts writing something. The camera cuts to New Troy, where a servant scurries up to Elena and Helen.)**

**Servant:** A message, Your Majesties.

**(He hands them a piece of parchment, and they look at it. It's stained with tears, and only has three words: *I was wrong.* Elena looks at Helen who tears up a little. Helen replies to the message with only 5 words "I forgive you. Love, Helen". The camera cuts to Menelaus receiving the message he smiles and tears up a little. He looks up at the rising sun in the distance as the screen fades black.)**