AN: Alright, finally got one more chapter in! My hope was to get this in before Christmas, but I've been busy with activities and work. So I had to take some more time then I thought.

Also, Chapter 2 was altered to help fix some of the plot holes that I accidentally wrote in when I first began writing this. Hopefully they're fixed with those edits.

Reviews are always appreciated. Thanks again for the support and happy holidays and a happy new year to all of you!

-Symbiotic

Chapter 4-Resolve

Mount Olympus

Hera held the tablet in her hands throughout the whole press conference. She watched intently as her brother and husband was espoused as great by the executives of the Yankees and listened even more intently at each question that was asked by the reporters in the room. She held onto their words tightly with her attention, focusing on them as if she was holding onto Mount Olympus with her bare hands. The other gods looked on at Hera as she watched the press conference, glancing at the screen themselves to see what their king was being asked by the reporters. Hermes was the only one who did not pay much attention to the press conference. He had personally gone through many of these already with Zeus when his father had chosen to become an athlete, and cared little for the gossip tabloid questions being asked. Instead, he focused on his stepmother and queen, waiting to hear some kind of reaction out of her.

"Mother," Hermes said. He hovered around his mother in the air, standing in front of her while the other gods leaned over her from behind. "Are you alright?"

When the press conference ended, Hera handed the tablet back to Hermes and stood in silence, hanging her head low. "How long?" she asked. Her tone was solemn but quiet, as if she was hoping for an immediate answer. "How long have you known this, Apollo?"

"For about twenty years, my queen," Apollo said.

"And did the others know to?" Hera asked. Her voice remained as solemn and quiet as it was before, barely getting above a whisper. Apollo, afraid of what would happen if he did not be forthcoming with his queen, answered with only one word.

"Yes, they did. Pretty much all of us on Olympus knew but you."

Hera stepped away from the other gods for a moment and began to walk away from the poplar tree. She walked about ten feed away before she stopped herself and started pacing back and forth, holding her hands behind her back and letting her robe drag behind her in the grass. The other gods watched patiently in silence. None of them wanted to speak as Hera paced about, clearly sensing that something was beginning to build up inside of her. For a few minutes Hera paced back and forth, then stopped and hung her head again, taking up the same solemn, near whisper tone she had before. "Why?" she asked.

"Why what, my queen?" Hermes asked. He fluttered around his stepmother's head, slipping the tablet back into his messenger bag. "What is wrong?"

Hera did not say a word at first, only trembled as she clenched her first, gnashed her teeth, and turned to face the other gods. Her breathing was deep and labored, her chest and shoulders rising and falling as if a volcano was ready to explode. The other gods attempted to step back, but before they could, Hera began to shout in the manner that only a queen of the gods could shout, and froze all of them in their tracks.

"Why did none of you tell me this?" she screamed. "Why did all of you choose to hide him from me?"

"Sister, please calm down," Demeter begged. She reached out to touch her sister, but Hera promptly slapped her hands away. "This all may be a bit overwhelming right now but you must be calm. Getting angry won't do anything right now."

"Overwhelming?" Hera said. "Ha! Of course its overwhelming to learn all of this. It's overwhelming to learn that my siblings, children, and even my step children hid something like the identity and whereabouts of my husband from me like a bunch of rats. So no, Demeter, I will not be calm right now, thank you very much."

"Mother," Hermes said. "You must understand for a moment what father had chosen to do and what the stakes were for him when he left you.."

"Don't you 'mother' me, Hermes," Hera ordered. The messenger god stopped hovering and planted himself on the ground. "And what is this about stakes? What is that supposed to mean?"

"He means that we feared for our king's life," Apollo said. "That's what he means."

The words made Hera gasp. She directed herself at Apollo, aiming her gaze at the patron of truth. "Are you saying that I would've tried to hurt Zeus, Apollo?"

"I wouldn't put it past you," Apollo said. He stood up from his spot under the poplar tree. "It never took much for anyone to earn your wrath. Without his immortality and his lightning bolt my father would stand no chance against you. I couldn't risk taking the chance that you might try to kill him and send him to Tartarus."

Hera did issue any retort to Apollo's claim. She stormed over to the younger god while Apollo put up his hands to defend himself. As she moved, the garden began to shake, a sign that Hera's rage was spilling over into her control of the elements, obscuring her control over her powers and making her damage their surroundings as she moved toward her stepson. Apollo stood firm, ready to fight his stepmother and queen. As the two drew closer, both reached out to strike each other with their hands, but were unable to do so. Hades, the lord of the dead, had stepped between them and held both of their hands high up in the air.

"Enough!" he shouted. "I may be king of the underworld and I may care little for what goes on up here on this stupid mountain that Zeus and the rest of you choose to call home, but I am certainly not going to let you two settle this matter in a fashion that involves violence."

"He withheld the truth from me, Hades," Hera stated. "As queen of Olympus, I demand that you let me go so I can punish him!" Hades pulled her arm up higher and tightened his grip. "What is the meaning of this, Hades?"

"He may be overreacting," Hades began. "But to be fair, Hera, he's right. Zeus may be an annoying, fickle, and unreasonable ruler who rests purely on the laurels of some power that he got from some one eyed freaks, but he is our brother and he is Apollo's father. You of all people do not forget that it was Zeus who freed us from the belly of our father and led us to victory over the Titans to avenge the crimes they had committed against us. And you know that it was Zeus who raised Apollo to be the god that he is today. You also assuredly remember that it was Zeus, not anyone else, who was responsible for elevating you to the level of our queen and giving you the political power you wield today. And whether you want to admit it or not, you can be just wrathful and cruel as he is sometimes, Hera. And I was not about to let you hurt him when he was at his most vulnerable."

Hera dangled in Hades grasp silently. She did not utter a word to the lord of the dead, choosing instead to let his words sink into her mind and heart. While she was silent, Apollo took time to thank his uncle.

"Thank you Uncle Hades for seeing things as I saw them," Apollo said. "I hope she understands why my father's identity must be kept from a mad bitch like her." Hades tightened his grasp on Apollo's arm and picked the younger god up to where his obsidian eyes met Apollo's golden ones.

"Just because we agree with each other does not mean that you get to talk to my sister that way," Hades hissed. "If you so much as look at her with even a tiny bit of disrespect, I'll show you a pit of Tartarus full of hundred handers ready to tear you to shreds. You got that, Apollo?"

Apollo nodded quickly in his uncle's grasp, trembling at the promise of punishment that the lord of the undead had for him. Hades dropped both of the gods and stepped back, letting Hera collect herself and stand at her feet. Each of the other gods waited for her to speak.

"I understand," she began. "I understand everything now."

"You do?" Hermes said. "Well that's great because.."

"I understand that all of you think I'm a crazy bitch!" Hera shouted. The other gods stepped back, ready to face the onslaught that their queen might direct at them. But instead of any beatings or physical punishment, Hera stood still. Instead of throwing her fists at any of the gods, she instead opened them and pressed her hands against her face. And instead of shouting and storming toward, Hera began to cry and sit down on the grass.

"I was so wrong about all of you," she sobbed. "I thought we were more then just partners working to oversee the lives of mortals and be there when they need us the most, even when they abandoned us and have left us in the shadow of our former glory. I thought we were all a family and that we didn't keep secrets because we trusted each other. But now I see that I was wrong. All I am to each and every one of you is just some sort of tempest who doesn't even deserve to know what happened to her husband because you think I'm going to hurt him."

"Mother," Hermes said. He reached out to touch her shoulder and she backed away

"None of you even stopped to think how I feel about Zeus," she cried. She pointed a finger at herself through the sobbing, standing up to face the other gods. "You never stopped to wonder why I never tried to smite him. You never even questioned why it might be that whenever he would sleep with another woman that I chose to direct my wrath upon his lovers instead of him?" She continued to cry, the tears streaming down her face and staining her cheeks. "Well I'll tell you why, it's because I love Zeus. He is my husband and my brother and I will never stop loving him. Even when he forsakes me for women other then myself, and even when he forced his way into my life in a manner that I don't think any of you deserve to know!"

The other gods stood in silence, not wanting to speak a word so as to prevent their queen from incurring any wrath upon them. None of them moved to comfort Hera. They remained frozen as their queen continued to sob in her hands, her tears creating dark spots on the ground of her sacred grove. Eventually, when no one chose to say a word, Hera left the other gods in her garden, retreating into her private chamber to be alone and collect herself in the face of the revelation she experienced today.

Hermes stood in silence, his jaw open at what had just occurred before him. He said nothing until Apollo went to speak. "Clearly that did not go the way you planned," the prophetic god spoke.

"No thanks to you," Hermes shot back. He lifted off the ground and shot over to the other god. "Of course you had to be the one to say that we feared her smiting Zeus! Of course you had to be that god, Apollo."

"I was merely telling her the truth, Hermes," Apollo retorted.

"Telling the truth didn't mean making her feel like a bitch!" Hermes hissed. "Did any of you realize I needed her help to get Zeus back into Olympus? I don't have the authority to bestow godhood upon him, no matter how much I may want to just do it myself. I need Hera, and all of you just ruined my chances."

At that moment his cell phone began to ring and he reached into his messenger bag. Zeus was calling him and Hermes reluctantly answered. "Yes, father," Hermes said. He listened closely, keeping the other gods in silence. "You like the new place? Good good." He let his father talk further. "No, she doesn't know. Hey, Apollo, Demeter, and even Hades are here. Would you like to say hello?" Hermes paused. "Too busy? Ah okay. See you tonight then at your new place? Alright, love you dad, goodbye." Hermes hung up his cell phone and turned to the other gods.

"What is father up to?" Apollo asked.

"He just moved into his new apartment in New York," Hermes said. "He wants me to meet him there."

"Are you going now?"

"Yeah," Hermes said. "I need to get out of here and think of a new plan. There has to be some other way to get her on my side, but I need to be alone to think about it."

Hermes began to fly away from Mount Olympus but Hades stopped him, reaching in to grab him by the edge of his robe.

"Hermes," Hades began. "I understand you're upset with what just happened, and I understand what's at stake here. If you want to do this with Hera's help, you need to talk to her by yourself."

"I can't do that," Hermes said. "I'm the one who gave Zeus his cover."

"I don't think she really cares about that anymore," Hades said. "Come back to Olympus after you help Zeus. Talk to her one on one and explain everything. Be honest, be sincere, and leave out no details. If you do that, I'm certain that she'll at least consider helping you."

"You sure about that, Uncle Hades?"

"I'm absolutely certain. Believe me, my sister loves very little more then sincerity."

Hermes nodded his head in agreement, not taking very long to think about what he needed to do. As he flew away from Mount Olympus to help Zeus, Hermes knew what had to be done. When he returned later that day, he would be the one who would explain to Hera why he needed her help to return Zeus to Olympus.

New York City, New York
Upper East Side

Jason Turner rested his fingers on the keyboard keys, letting his index fingers come to rest on the ledges of the plastic buttons of his Macbook Pro. He tapped the keys gently, pressing them to force them to make a noise but not hard enough to trigger their signal sending mechanism . No letters or symbols appeared on the document when he pressed the keys, just faint "clicks" from the sound of the keys brushing against the metal housing they were placed in. His apartment otherwise remained silent sans a few creaks from the chair he was sitting in and the thump of the pipes overhead.

Jason reached for a bag of sunflower seeds and pulled out a hand full of the roasted seeds. He shoved them in his mouth, placing all but one seed in his left cheek. The one he did not he held on the right side of his face. With years of practice, he had gotten to the point where he could crush a seed's shell casing without crushing the nutritious seed inside of it. Once he crushed the shell in his molars, he snaked the seed out with his tongue, chewed on it with his teeth, and then spit out the shell into an empty water bottle. He had several of these water bottles scattered around his work desk, each one filled with the saliva caked sunflower seed shells.

As he crushed the seeds out of their shells and spit the shells into a water bottle, Jason listened to his recording of the press conference. He continued to drum on the keys, hoping to generate some kind of inspiration from hearing the questions and answers from the Flash Olympios for yet another time, one of what seemed like thousands of times he was listening to the questions while looking up statistics and trying to answer emails from many of his fellow baseball pundits. And yet nothing came to him. He was not sure what to make of anything that was said at the press conference, or how to view Flash's statistics. It was nothing more then a case of writer's block.

He picked up the phone and decided to call Joel. The elder journalist answered after only one ring of his phone.

"What is it, kid?" Joel asked.

"You know what it is," Jason said. He rolled his eyes and spit another sunflower seed shell into the water bottle.

"Can't figure out shit for Grantland?"

"Yeah. I can't figure out shit, Joel. It's like nothing is coming to me."

"What are you trying to write exactly, kid?"

"Off season predictions regarding major signings," Jason stated. He spit more sunflower seeds into the plastic bottle and went up to his fridge. "It's supposed to be predicting how many wins some of these major off season acquisitions can provide to their team."

"What are you using that WAR, park factor, batting average mumbo jumbo?" Joel asked.

"Of course, Joel," Jason said. He reached into his fridge and pulled out a can of Monster Energy drink, opening it and taking a long gulp of it. "That's what I do. I was hired to do advanced predictions and analysis". He looked over at his microwave clock and saw it was close to 11:30 at night. He sighed at the time. He had not intended to be up this late to write what he thought would be an easy piece for the Grantland website.

"Advanced analysis doesn't have to be all about the numbers, kid," Joel stated. Jason chugged his Monster energy drink quickly. "There's a lot more to it then just all this statistical analysis insanity."

"But it's cutting edge, Joel."

"Cutting edge, schmutting edge, Kid," Joel stated on the other end. "Kid, I was around when Reggie Jackson came to the Yankees. I covered that whole episode. And let me tell you, it wasn't any metrics that made the Reggie signing special. It was all in the pizzazz factor."

"And his power?" Jason added. "Had to be some of it."

"It was all pizzazz, Kid," Joel said. "He was the straw that stirred the drink. He gave that team the winning edge with a little bit of pop. Okay, maybe a whole lot of pop. But he gave the team a winning edge. That's all you got to think about, how does Flash give them a winning edge?"

"A winning edge," Jason said. Jason let the words sink in for a minute before drinking the last of his energy drink. "I think I get it now. Thanks Joel." He hung up the phone and got back to his laptop. He felt a sense of electricity shooting from his fingers, a desire to transmit knowledge and creativity from his mind upon the keys, and he did just that.

Four Days Later
Mount Olympus

Hera had not emerged from her chamber since the encounter with the other gods in her garden. She had locked herself inside and refused to come out, choosing instead to sob in a manner so loud and with such emotion that rain was pouring from the heavens down upon Greece and flooding parts of it. Her cries were so loud and so distraught that they reached the bowels of the underworld, being so wretched that even Hades and his decrepit ferryman, Charon, had to cover up their ears to not hear her wailing. The storm she created was so great that Poseidon was forced to do double time to ensure the safety of the sailors, using his own elemental power to mitigate Hera's storm. Under normal circumstances, he could usually match the storms that Zeus caused out of wrath. But he could tell that this storm that Hera created was not created out of wrath, but of a boundless sorrow. And since sorrow knew no bounds, Poseidon was forced to use nearly all of his strength to ensure it did not wipe out every ship roaming the oceans of the world.

Hermes had promised to talk to Hera after he returned from New York City, but he did not return as immediately as he thought he would and many of the other gods believed that he would not be returning anytime soon. Instead, the goddesses all convened to talk discuss how to best talk to Hera. The gathered outside of the main door to Hera's chamber and convened, trying to best plan on who would speak to Hera first and who would say what when what questions were brought up.

"I don't even know if I'm qualified to speak on this matter," Artemis said. She held her bow at her side. "Hera and I, while on amicable terms, don't usually speak unless its important. She usually lets me be and I let her be, so I don't know much of her personal life as of late."

"This is true, Artemis," Hestia said. "But we think that another voice would be helpful. I mean, Gaea knows Demeter has exhausted her welcome with Hera for a time."

"Hestia!" Demeter exclaimed.

"Well it's true," Hestia said. "You were the only goddess to charge into the garden at Hermes suggestion." Demeter folded her arms and furrowed her brow. The agrarian goddess could be overbearing, but not for a lack of caring. "Look, we just need a different approach.."

"Should I find Hera a lover of her own?" Aphrodite suggested. She fiddled with her blonde hair. "I mean I know many a man who would love to be with Hera. She fits the perfect bill of a cougar.."

"Are you insane?" Athena hissed. "We're trying to help her, not get her a sex partner!"

"Well shoot," Aphrodite said. "I was just trying to help, Athena."

"You're right," Athena sighed. "I'm sorry, I know you want to help Aphrodite, but that is not the kind of way Hera should be helped."

"Well what are we going to do?" Aphrodite asked. "I haven't been able to get my beauty sleep in days with all that wailing."

"I'll take care of it," a male voice said. The goddess turned around to find Hermes fluttering down the hall toward Hera's chamber, glancing up at the walls while he sent some text messages on his phone. When he took his place next to the goddesses, he slipped his phone in his chamber. "Sorry I'm late, ladies. There was some turbulence on the way home."

"No doubt caused by our queen," Persephone stated.

"Turbulence shouldn't be enough to make you take four day to return, Hermes," Hestia said. "What really.."

"Okay, okay," Hermes said. "It was your brother, alright, Aunt Hestia? He insisted that we shop somewhere other then Ikea for his apartment furnishings."

"Okay.." Hestia said slowly. She did not know if she should believe her nephew or not. Hermes spoke up too quickly for her to say anything else about the matter.

"How long has she been in there?" Hermes asked.

"Four days and counting," Athena said. "It doesn't look good."

"If she keeps this up things could get ugly," Artemis said. "Poseidon is working double time to make sure the earth isn't flooded by her right now."

"Well isn't that nice of him," Hermes said sarcastically.

"What could have possibly caused her to act like this, Hermes?" Artemis. asked. "Hera never acts like this when she cries."

"Why don't you ask your golden boy of a brother sometime, Artemis," Hermes said. He grimaced at the thought of what had happened earlier that week and did not want to give Artemis the details. "That's all I have to say about that." Hermes sighed and went to open the door, only to be stopped by Hestia and Demeter. "Please let me go in there."

"We can't let you do this alone, Hermes," Hestia said. "She is our sister as much as she is your stepmother."

"No," Hermes said. He turned to face the goddesses, making sure to direct his attention at each one of them. "You don't understand. I created this charade for Zeus to live under. I am the one who has to tell her what is going on. As much as each of you know of the cover up, none of you can possibly explain to Hera what needs to be done here."

"If that is true, Hermes, then I suppose it is best up to you to do this," Athena said. "But we will stand by. Won't we, my sisters, my aunts?"

"Of course," Hestia said. "We'll all be here if you need us."

Hermes smiled at his aunts and the other goddesses and nodded in affirmation, then turned to the large oak doors that closed off Hera and Zeus's chamber. With a hefty swallow in this throat and a sweaty grasp of the handles, Hermes cracked open the doors to the chamber and slipped inside. Once in, he shut the door ever so slightly, attempting to be quiet enough to sneak in without disturbing Hera. For Hermes, this was normally easy enough. Being the patron of thieves meant he knew a few things regarding stealthy entrances, and this was no exception. What he feared was telling Hera the truth. Being the god of thieves, Hermes was far more willing to lie to Hera then he was to tell her the truth. But as Uncle Hades had explained to him, only hearing the truth directly from him would get Hera to stop crying. Hermes inhaled heavily and began to hover into the room, exhaling as he flew along. He feared for every bone in his immortal being as he went to tell her the truth, even when he knew it was the right thing to do.