Spiteful Arguments

In the privacy of Zeus' office on the topmost floor of Suez Holdings Tower in downtown Portland, tension was present in the air as the Big Three had all their eyes fixed on the broadcasting news on the screen of the plasma television. They were doing so because they had received some alarming information from Hestia a while ago, regarding something that was happening in the small Maine town of Heatherton – Persephone's town.

"My name is Lisa Simone, and I'm reporting live from the town of Heatherton on what might be the strangest events to ever occur in the state of Maine. According to reports from local residents, the nature of the town had suddenly seemed to mysteriously die, as can be seen of the park behind me, where the grasses are no longer green and are instead grey, and the flowers have all withered and dried out. This was not the case the day before, nor has it ever occurred in the past. It seemed as though that some kind of draught has occurred, although the causes of it still remain unknown and uncertain."

At that, Zeus suddenly picked up the television remote and immediately switched off the television, before throwing it to the floor in a fit of frustration and banging his palms hard upon the wooden surface of his desk.

"I cannot believe this…" he seethed under his breath as his face turned thunderous with rage. "I absolutely cannot believe this. She is actually doing that again. Again. What a blast from the past. To be honest, I would not even be surprised if suddenly that town goes into an eternal winter because of her."

As he listened in silence to his younger brother's rants, Poseidon's green eyes slid over to Hades, who was still blankly looking at the plasma television screen, never having left his gaze on it. Even though he was looking from his side-view, Poseidon could almost feel the worry that would be clear in his older brother's pitch black eyes, no doubt wondering how this news would affect Persephone. In the meanwhile, Poseidon was also worrying about the well-being of his younger sister's disastrous state of mind. He knew very well of how dangerous and volatile Demeter could be once she was in utmost distress and anguish, so he could not fight that nagging feeling that it would only be a matter of time until trouble really prevailed.

"Well, Hades?" Zeus suddenly questioned out loud, his voice strained with frustration. "What are you going to do now? Like I said; a blast from the past. You steal Persephone and Demeter starts to mess up nature. And six tiny pomegranate seeds will not be enough to placate her this time."

Hades finally turned away from the screen to look at Zeus with a narrowed glare. Poseidon could feel the tension that was starting to build up between his two brothers, and he knew how dangerous it would be if the conflict would start to go out of hand.

But nonetheless, Zeus still continued to rant on, agitation growing even more within him with each word he spoke.

"This is absolutely ridiculous, big brother. I understand that you are very, very concerned over Persephone's well-being and you do not want her to be hurt by the difficult truths of her current situation, for you saw it fit as your duty as her husband that you take care of her current state of mind. But it is still absolutely ridiculous that, until now, you have not made it a point to tell her straight to her face. How long exactly did you think you can keep it from her? Have you ever even thought to yourself about how terrible it would be if you didn't tell her what she needed to know? It's already clear to me that you are not being as truthful as you would promise her!"

Suddenly, Hades stood up to his tall and formidable height, his hands clenching into tight fists at his sides and his pitch black eyes seemingly burning like a midnight inferno as he continued to glare hotly at Zeus. "You complain of truth?" he questioned incredulously. "Ha! You're one to talk! Are you still blind as to how you treat your own wife?!"

Now that would definitely strike a chord in Zeus, for everyone in the room knew how much he hated it when the topic of Hera were to be brought up, especially because of his strained marriage to her because of her love for their eldest brother.

Zeus turned even more thunderous that there could possibly be a storm brewing within him with lightning sparking in his aura. True enough, Poseidon could feel a surge of power rising in the air between his two brothers; that of Zeus, and the other of Hades. Alarmed, he quickly got out from his chair and stepped in between the two of them, putting his hands out to act as a warning for both of them to not take any step closer to each other.

"Enough!" Poseidon exclaimed angrily. "Do you two seriously want to have this sort of argument now? We have even more pressing matters, such as what Demeter is doing at this moment! It could be Heatherton now, but who knows? It could be the world tomorrow!"

Standing where he was but keeping his glare on Hades, Zeus snorted, "I don't see why I should be worried about it. Besides, it is all Hades' doing."

"Shut your mouth, Zeus," Hades seethed in warning, the fire in his eyes growing tenfold.

Zeus chuckled then, as though he had just heard an amusing joke. But instead of his laughter being one of actual amusement, it sounded more cynical and taunting, as though he had an evil plan up his sleeve.

"Oh, I will not shut my mouth, brother," he sneered, his eyes full of spite and anger. "Especially when I think that I should be telling Persephone the entire truth now."

After taking a shower and relaxing in my bedroom for a little while after the fun time I had with the others, I decided to head downstairs and explore the rest of the mansion. I haven't really been acquainted with the place except for the kitchen, the living area, the backyard and my own bedroom, so I thought that it was probably best that I go on a little adventure.

However, the very second I had reached the first level, I was suddenly curious with the sounds of hustling and bustling outside at the courtyard. The door was open, so I did not hesitate to slip out to see what it was that was going on.

I immediately saw several trucks that were parked in front of the house, each with a handful of men transporting something from inside the cargo containers into a building nearby the house. Judging by the decorations and tables and chairs that were being moved from the containers into the building, I could immediately figure out that the building had to be the event hall, and it was still being set up for the formal tomorrow.

Curious as I was at that moment, I made my way to the event hall.

It was really busy when I stepped inside, even when it was already nine-thirty at night. I took in the interior of the big event hall – it was so big that, even with the tables and chairs that were still being arranged nearly majority of the room, there was still more than enough space for a dance floor and a concerto band setup. The theme was mainly a creamy white colour, with nice touches of gold and silver to add some extravagance. I had to admit that the interior looked so amazing and gorgeously done that I spent a while to myself just roaming around and admiring every aspects of the refurbished hall.

"Excuse me, miss?" a voice suddenly said to me, making me turn around to see a mousy young woman standing next to me, wringing her hands shakily as she looked at me nervously. "I really am not sure of who to ask… but I need some help with the floral decorations… I can't find Mrs Suez anywhere, but I am sure she would have my head if I don't know how to do it in the first place… Would you be kind enough as to help me?"

Seeing the look of desperation and helplessness in the girl's eyes was what made me pity her, while also feeling slightly annoyed at the fact that Hera would be so cruel to scold her. I knew that I shouldn't be doing this, but I couldn't refuse the girl the help she so clearly needed. So without hesitation, I gave her my best smile as I replied, "I'd love to help you. Just give me some flowers and I'll see what I can do!"

As a smile of relief formed on her lips, and she then led me to near the long and tall dais at the head of the hall, where all the floral decorations – bouquets on pedestals – have been arranged. The first thing I noticed was that there were an array of bouquets of beautiful and sweet-smelling flowers that added natural colors to the rich themes of the event hall decorations and filled the air with its natural perfumes.

It really was a nice touch, but there was just one problem I noticed…

"It's so organized…"

It was true, what I remarked. The bouquets were arranged according to types and colors, so that it would be easy to identify what colored flower each individual one was made of. While I applaud whoever made this arrangement – no doubt Hera, since she called the shots around here – for their neat and organized manner, I could not applaud for making it seem so… boring.

"It's really not so attractive for the flowers to be arranged in such a way," I told the girl as I eyed each and every bouquet with critically. "I think it would be better if all the bouquets were made up of different flowers with different colors. That way, it would make them seem even more colorful, and even more free and natural in a way. And also, don't restrict them to just this part of the hall. Spread them out evenly throughout, so that the other parts won't seem so sparse whereas the head of the dais seemed too overgrown. Besides, the scent of the flowers' perfumes is too strongly wafting here, so it's best for it to surround the other air so that the whole room would smell equally sweet."

The girl had been listening very attentively to me as I spoke my mind, all while eyeing the floral arrangements very carefully. She looked uncertain, but no doubt she was really thinking my opinions through with utmost consideration; as though she was contemplating to herself.

To give her a push to see how good my idea was, I said to her, "Think about it. In places where natural growth is predominant, flowers are very widespread and they are not arranged so according to what type of flower they are and what color they are. The flowers are mixed and unsegregated, and the mixture of their colors and smells help to really improve the ambience. So let's try to give that same improved ambience to this event hall. It would certainly do the trick."

"True… And it is very impressive of you…" the girl remarked quietly. "But are you sure about this, miss?"

With a knowing smirk, I replied, "Trust me. I'm a florist."

And so, an hour and a half later, the girl and I had already rearranged all the bouquets to be made of different colored flowers each, and then placing the pedestals at strategic points of the event hall, making each of them not too near nor too far from the other bouquet.

After doing so, it was clear that there had been improvement. The hall looked even more colorful all around instead of just around the dais, and the perfumes was wafting evenly throughout the air. Some of the worker men who were arranging the tables and chairs had even commented that it looked much more better than it had initially been decorated, and I couldn't help but beam in pride that my hard work had paid off.

That was… until Hera came back.

"What the hell is this?!" she exclaimed out loud in outrage as she glared at the suddenly changed and spread-out pedestals of bouquets. And then, turning on the girl beside me, she stomped towards her while also shouting, "I told you that the flowers are supposed to be placed at the dais, and how am I supposed to get them be nicely color-coded now that you've gone and mixed them up?! Are you really so incompetent?!"

Fear was already growing in the girl's eyes as she cowered helplessly from the approaching wrathful Hera. But instead of letting her get into even bigger trouble with the mad woman, I stepped in front of the girl, acting as some form of barrier to protect her. Hera's angry honey eyes then shifted from her to me, and I could see how noticeably it deepened into even further anger.

"It wasn't her fault, Hera," I told her firmly, keeping my arms spread to further enforce the girl's protection. "I was the one who did it. Besides, it's been nothing but an improvement. A lot of them here have agreed! It's nothing that bad!"

Hearing that, she seemed to have gained much more venom as her anger grew. "I should have known that it was you. You always know how to stick your ass into everybody else's business and cause trouble," she spat at me harshly. "Can you just do me a favor and get out of my sight?! Seeing you just make me absolutely sick!"

Hera then turned on her heels – her tall stiletto heels – and stomped out of the event hall, leaving me to be silenced in shock and be stared at by the people who were still around in the building. But instead of feeling shame and embarrassment of getting some unpleasant treatment and some unwanted attentions, I could only feel anger building up within me. It felt like fire; a fire that felt so hot and wrathful, that I had a feeling I could burn down this event hall if I willed it to. It was a good thing that I had to restrain myself from doing so, because of the mortals that were around me.

But that restraint was not enough to stop me from following after Hera, fiercely determined to give her a piece of my mind.

"What is your problem?!" I shouted at her angrily, rushing towards her with absolute haste. We were quite a distance away from the event hall, which meant that nobody could hear or see us from there. "It's not as if I had set the whole place on fire, right?! Being angry about the way the flowers are being arranged? That is ridiculous!"

Hera did not even spare me a glance over her shoulder as she continued walking towards the house, but that did not stop her from responding with absolute scorn, "I will not answer to those who are foolishly rude to their superiors, foolish girl. In fact, it's even more ridiculous if anybody were to want to be with such a rude fool like you."

I could feel the fire that had ignited within me start to burn tenfold, even engulfing me right from the inside, spreading throughout the ichor in my veins and making my golden blood boil with rage. I could feel literally feel venom coating my tongue as I thought of every possible grave insult I could shoot back at her.

As such, one did.

"Well, Hades is with me instead of you."

Suddenly, her stride stopped very abruptly, and I did too when I knew that I had managed to strike a chord in her. I could feel a smile building up on my lips in prideful victory, but it disappeared soon after when she turned around abruptly to face me, the look on her face one of absolutely anger and outrage. In a seething mutter that really gave way to the amount of anger that she was holding back, she told me menacingly, "Take. That. Back."

But despite the fact that I could feel anxiety rise up within me as I could feel her anger stagnating the air around us, I did not back down and simply replied back, "Why should I, Hera? It is the truth. He is my husband. I don't see any point as to why I should not speak the truth."

"Insolent girl," she seethed even more, taking a step closer to me dangerously. "You wouldn't even be with him if he hadn't notice you in the first place."

"Oh, but he did, didn't he?" I continued to sneer, folding my arms across my chest and giving her a smirk to show her that I was not intimidated by her at all.

I could practically hear Hera's teeth grinding against each other in scorn, and I could see that her fingernails were nearly close to puncturing the palm of her hands because it was being clenched very tightly into shaking fists. The heat from her anger that she was radiating could be felt in the air, and I could almost feel the prickles of her power on my skin.

Taking another dangerous step forward, she snarled, "I would have gained his love first if you hadn't been born. I could have led a happy life if he had taken me as his bride instead of you. I would have a chance to gain his heart if it weren't for the fact that he was so disgustingly devoted to you."

That only helped to cause my own fire of anger to grow, red hot and seethingly furious with even more venom coating my tongue. "Hades doesn't love you like you want him to," I said to her adamantly, the tone of my voice practically dripping with venom. "He only loves you as his sister, but nothing more. But you can't blame me for that just because I am his wife."

All of a sudden, Hera was suddenly in my face, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"He loved me before he even loved you! You stole from me my right to him! It's not fair! It's not fair that you should have a faithful husband while I am stuck with a philandering asshole! I am the Goddess of Marriage, and I should have the right to be with someone as faithful as my older brother! But no! He had to go and love you instead! You, a nobody! A nobody who does not deserve him at all!"

It was right at that moment was Hera suddenly thrust away from me and being pinned against the nearby wall of the mansion by many – suddenly living – long tendrils of root that had shot up from below the ground and had been aimed right-away to attack her and hold her hostage. She yelled in shock at first, immediately squirming to try and wriggle out of her new confinements, but she was silenced effectively when I controlled the root tendrils to tighten around her in warning.

"One; I don't like it when people shout at my face. I have no need to go deaf from your irritating screaming," I seethed to her as I took steps closer to her. "Two; don't' you dare say that about me and Hades. What is between he and I is absolutely none of your business, understand?"

Pushing angry thoughts aside, I was amazed to realize that I was actually overpowering the great Olympian Queen at this moment. From the myths I have read, Hera was known to be a powerful and cruel being who would not hesitate to bring torture upon those who anger her, and it was already clear to me that I have crossed the line. But however, I didn't care, for I felt that my own anger could equal to hers, and I just did not want her to overpower me so easily.

Despite the look of shock on her face, it quickly went back to rage and hate as she glared daggers at me. She struggled to get out, even commanding that I let her go this instant unless I wanted to truly face her wrath. I, however, was unmoved by her threats, and found myself staying strong as I kept her pinned against the wall.

"You don't deserve Hades," she suddenly spat.

Just before I could really bring the pain she so badly deserved onto her, she still continued on, her voice growing with more malice with each word she said.

"You don't deserve Hades because you are such a burden to him. If you hadn't been stolen away, he wouldn't have left us Olympians for so long a time just to search for you. And now that you're back with only half your memories regained, it's even more difficult for him because he has to worry for you while also worrying for himself. But he has to put you first before him because you are so weak and vulnerable. He suffers for your sake."

All of a sudden, I could feel my racing heart – it was racing due to the adrenaline drive I had from the anger within me – starting to slow down as my mind absorbed her words into thought. Right now, it wasn't the insults she was giving me that was on my mind. No, it was what she said about Hades that really got me. It sent me into a stilled state of sub-consciousness as I contemplated over her words, thinking of how much it, in some way, did affect me terribly, mostly in an aching feeling in my heart and a lump of guilt to form in my throat.

But before I could really delve further into those intruding thoughts, Hera suddenly exclaimed, "Besides, he's probably only brought you back out of convenience. It would have been much of a trouble if we didn't have an Earth goddess at hand when the time we finally went back to Olympus would come. It wouldn't take long now. Just a few more days."

"What?" I questioned in alarm at her strange words, breaking out entirely out of my daze. "What do you mean? Olympus? A few days?"

Seeing the look on my face was what made Hera laughing so cynically that I could feel the restraints I had on her starting to loosen as I felt a stab of fear jab at my heart. I did not take my eyes of the older goddess, instead holding her gaze in time for her to answer.

"You're just like your mother; so clueless to the truth of what is to happen," she sneered maliciously. "And speaking of your mother; I bet you don't actually know of what she's doing to your hometown, do you? It's like the whole 'abduction' fiasco all over again!"

"What exactly is going on?!" I finally demanded to know, frustration and fear still continuing to grow and gnaw at my heart. "What is Demeter doing to Heatherton?!"

With the cruel smile still on her lips, Hera replied with eerie calmness, "She mourns for you."

Author's Note:

Hey guys! I'm back! But I am not feeling good... Right now, I have a bothersome flu that won't let me stop sniffling and crying. I'm just hoping that it won't turn into something worse, like a fever. I really need to get back to work on writing out the future chapters!

Anyway, there is definitely some tension growing between Hades and Zeus, but even more so between for Persephone and Hera. Looks like the great King and Queen of the Gods are really pushing the King and Queen of the Underworld to their outermost limits, and I have to say that it is definitely not a good idea!

Judging by what she did to Hera, it is obvious that Persephone was currently more powerful at that moment. But would that sudden urge of power brace her for what she is about to find out?

Answering reviews

Kata Cthonia : Thank you so much for your compliments, Kata! And thank you for your insights to Demeter's situation. But unfortunately, it might be a little long while until any sweetness comes to our hero and heroine...

Guest #1 : Thank you for loving this story. And I really do have to agree with you about Demeter.

gracefish21 : Thanks again for another 'soo good!' Demeter is ridiculous, and we shall see what happens to Hades and Persephone now.

Harrylover11 (:D) : What can I say? I was born this way (Bp)

Guest #2 : Demeter was being selfish for not thinking about her grandchildren when she stole their mother away from them. She may have had her reasons, but it still wasn't right to separate children from their mother.

Guest #3 : Thanks!

Guest #4 : Thanks

NannaLou : Thank you for loving Divine Reborn. And Melindia really is a sheltered child under her mother's care, since she was raised by her and the closest to her. But it probably is due to the small town environment she was raised in. Thanks for your support!

HisLittleFlame666 : Thank you very much for your lovely compliments! I'm just happy to know that people like to read my stories. Lots of love as well xx

Brimo (:D) : Welcome back, Brimo! Hopefully school's treating you fine, and I wish you all the best for the new semester! Hera is being ignorant of the fact of what she had done to Hades and Persephone in CotU (which will be mentioned in the story soon when she needs a gentle reminder!), but I do agree with you when you say 'Who wouldn't want a husband like Hades?' (I know I would!) And yes, luckily her tension with Artemis is gone, and they are back to being the sisters and best friends that they once were!

Anyway guys, let's just hope that this little sickness I have won't stop me from updating on Monday, so that we can read about what exactly Persephone will discover, which may lead to more shocking revelations that would change everything for her once again!

So thanks for reading, and do stay tuned for the next update (which is hopefully on Monday!) Please do review!

Muse of Fanfiction