A Heavenly Marriage

A/N: Thanks as always to the lovely embez002! I definitely agree! Demeter is too often villainized and though it can be funny painting her as the MIL from hell, her character is not one that is affiliated with ill intent. And like I've hinted at before. The myths don't make it seem like the incident was kept hush hush and it's only until after she finds out where she is that she actively stops growing things and making sure the earth stays dead.

Disclaimer: Chapter 1

"Like a heartbeat drives you mad,

In the stillness of remembering what you had,

And what you lost."

Dreams by Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac

The Olympus mountaintop began to roar and rumble as a storm began to stir within its pearly gates. The once soft yellows and pinks of the clouds were overwhelmingly overtaken by the dark, thick heaviness that broiled with wild unrelenting lightning and rain as the palace began to shake and mimic the foul moods of both the king and queen of the heavens.

"Zeus, how could you?!" Hera rounded upon her husband, her aura shining brighter and more powerful than the bolts of lightning that shook the palace and all the surrounding temples and monuments down to their very cornerstones.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Zeus dismissed. His mood still black and volatile after the heated storm that Demeter had left the meeting, sowing anger and strife among his family.

"Do not feign innocence with me! How could you lie to our sister's face like that?!" Hera leveled her gaze at her husband with all the vehemence she had been holding back for weeks.

"I took care of Hades, didn't I?"

"By making an enemy of another?!" Hera shrieked in a tone Zeus had not heard since the Titanomachy. "Zeus, half of the council already knew where Persephone is and they kept their mouths shut for you! You swore to me after I blessed their marriage that you would tell Demeter!"

"I was waiting for a good time-"

"What do you mean a good time?!" Hera cut him off.

"I was going to wait until- well…"

"You didn't think it over, did you?!" Hera drew back and stared at her husband with contempt.

"I most certainly did!" His voice boomed across the mountain top. "Demeter likes children, doesn't she? And Hades he's never had children, has he?" Zeus suddenly began to triumphantly grin at his own strategy. "So, what better way to announce where she ran off to then with-

"And had it ever occurred to you that maybe there's a reason Hades never had children?"

"Well, I don't mean to belittle our brooding baby brother, but he never was the most approachable god." Zeus began to ponder with a clandestine grin, "And he never did join Poseidon and I whenever- "

Hera stewed as she felt the very heat of her rage seep out of every pore of her skin. "Zeus," she warningly called his name.

"But you should be happy now," Zeus claimed, ignoring the storm clouds around them, metaphorically and physically. "Demeter knows the truth and the cosmos is back in order again."

"I wouldn't say that," Hera lifted a skeptical brow.

"Oh right, that business with Tantalus. Don't remind me," Zeus seethed as thunder began to rumble all around them.

"No," Hera tightly exclaimed. "Demeter is still an issue, darling."

"So, she got a little upset," Zeus dismissed. Grabbing a vine full of plump dark grapes on a neighboring bowl, he began to tear into them almost absentmindedly, leaving the vine bare and thin. "She'll get over it soon enough."

"Declaring secession is not something that's thrown around carelessly, husband," Hera snatched the bowl of fruits away from his reaching hand. "She practically threw divorce papers at us! Think of the scandal-"

"She didn't swear on Styx," Zeus cast a bolt down to earth. "It is an empty promise that will resolve itself once her anger passes. Rage, though powerful, leaves a being weakened."

"But an empty promise can evolve to something greater than vengeance," Hera snatched the fruit bowl before Zeus could reach for something else. "So, what will happen then? The earth left to die?"

"The earth was full of plants before our time. Demeter did not make them grow, she simply taught the mortals how to till and harvest the land eons ago. They can last a couple of decades without her support."

Hera felt her moment of rage was quelling the longer the conversation dragged, but she held it hard and fast now more so because of her husband prodding her frustrations. "So that's it then? You won't help set Demeter's heart at ease?"

"Hera, you saw her!" Zeus continued to toss bolt after bolt after bolt to the earth as rain howled and pounded the earth relentlessly. "Nothing can be done while she's wrapped up with Persephone. All she needs is a distraction and she'll be back to performing her duties like normal."

"Well, you certainly have this all figured out, don't you?!"

"Of course, I do!" Zeus thundered. "I wouldn't be where I am if I didn't know how to lead. I have kept peace both on earth and in the Pantheon ever since my youth and I will continue to do so until the end of time!"

"And do you think the Pantheon is happy with your decisions?! You and I both know things haven't been the same since the coup! I mean look at us? One day the Titans are on our front doorstep, and the next, the dead are taking residence on earth?! The pantheon is losing confidence in us- in you!"

"How could they not trust me?!" Zeus spat with a proud vigor as he watched the land below get doused in his rain. "I have faithfully led them ever since I dethroned Kronos eons ago!"

"But you didn't do it alone!" Hera tried to hold Zeus' gaze, but his eyes were everywhere but on her. "For years you've gone on with the idea that you did that yourself, but we fought with you! How many enemies fell from my hand? From your brother's hands? Every step of the way we supported you to lead us, and now, what? The mortal world is in disarray without your lead!"

"Always blaming me? And what about you! Am I the only one at fault then?!" Zeus shot back. "You want to blame me? You're right there with me!"

Hera sucked in a breath, steadying herself. "We've neglected our duties, I won't deny that," she shook her head. "But we've been blinded for so long and in our negligence the Fates tried to teach us a lesson by taking our son away! Our son!" She roared like a lioness. "You swore to me when I became pregnant with Hercules that you would change- that you wouldn't be like this anymore-"

"Like what?!"

"Don't make me say it!" Hera spat.

"What, Hera?" Zeus pressed. "Do you still blame me for Hercules? I did what I could- we did what we could, and now he is the greatest marvel the world has ever known, save for his one weak-"

"Do you know how much anguish I suffered that day? To know my son was stolen as we slept not far from where we kept him?!" Hera's voice began warble as the semblance of a sob began to tear itself out of her. "We are lords over the cosmos and still tragedy befell us!"

Zeus turned to face his wife as she resisted the urge to cry. His heart wrenched at the memory of her cries, and of the nights she stayed up watching their son from the mountaintop yearning to hold him every time he wept or suffered or even smiled. All that time was stolen from her. He too shouldered the burden knowing he had failed to protect both of them from this pain and misfortune.

Seeing his strong, powerful wife reduced to a weeping shallow shell of his regal queen pained him far more than she would ever know. The weeks that passed when Hercules had disappeared was anguish to them both, but for her sake he remained strong. He was the level-headed one, organizing search parties, taking the guise of mortals and listening in on the gossip, or even personally searching for him. And finally, after weeks of searching, Hermes had found the boy.

Hera had roared with vigor- with relief sweeter than any nectar. Hope had lit every feature of her magnificent form, but that peace was short-lived. Hermes had come bringing good news alright, but there was bad news too.

Their son, the child that signified the rekindling of their long troublesome marriage, was mortal.

How he longed to tear the Fates apart for the cruel fate they had placed on his youngest son, but the hags had warned him that anyone who tried to meddle with their plans would suffer a fate worse than the one they already had.

Zeus had resigned himself to their ruling, but not without some form of resentment that he harbored to this very day. Not so much for how Hercules had turned out, but how Hera was left raked over the coals and if her tears before signified anything, once the news broke, she had become more desperate and haunted for the anguish of knowing she would outlive her son by eons should he remain in his corruptible mortal state.

He had tried with her, but perhaps there was more of his father in him than he would ever know.

"Hera," Zeus approached his wife and attempted to reach out to her, but she was not ready to weep out of her own self-pity.

"That should've been the moment we realized our reign was beginning to crumble," Hera sharply sucked in a breath. "But then it was our brother. Then when he was gone the gates of the Underworld unleashed upon the earth, and now- what comes next?!"

"You want to blame the actions of that traitor on me?!" Zeus bristled.

"YES!" Hera cried. "How many eons did he plot to bring back the very enemies he helped lock away?! Where did we start going wrong?! When did Hades stop seeing us as kin?!"

Zeus began to bristle at the fresh wound Hera was picking away. "Don't bring up his name anymore! I have heard enough of him and that pesky little goddess. Let them rot away for all I care," he thundered as lightning continued to flash behind him.

Hera quieted as she watched her husband brood far away from her reach, cursing the name of his brother and his new wife.

The Fates were indeed cruel. A second tragedy- a betrayal to hit so close to home, and the irony too was deliciously cruel. They were called traitors when they first escaped Kronos' wrath when Zeus freed them so long ago and chose to fight their father for control of the cosmos. Now once again, one of the original six had become a traitor- the traitor's traitor.

But for Zeus, he never would've imagined that one of his brothers would stab him in the back, twisting the blade enough to leave the wound to fester in the king's heart.

That infection was the dissension in the Pantheon, the voices who whispered of the oncoming downfall of Zeus like the Oracle to Oedipus Rex. All this time, the Fates were warning the king and queen in their own indecipherable prophecies and the tragedies they spun to wake up the rulers of the cosmos from their riches and luxuries.

In truth, the Fates' strategy had won at last. Zeus had not been the same since the betrayal, since they watched the Titans scale their mountain home and take them hostage, but to have seen the very same look of terror on Zeus' mighty face just like when they were young. It was enough to make the hardened heart of the queen hurt. Only she knew how much the Titanomachy affected her husband.

How could it not? All of her siblings shared some form of anguish after the war. It's just everyone dealt with it in their own ways. Hestia in her new family that seemed to grow day-by-day, Demeter in her daughter and the fields of the earth, Poseidon with the wild and restless seas along with the nereid that drove him wild, and Hades?

Hera had always assumed it was his burdensome job, but now after everything, she knew that wasn't true anymore. All those eons how he bided his time and his bitterness ready to take over.

But Zeus had her.

Years of helping him through that trauma was one she did out of love and duty, and in his freedom, he learned to find goodness in the world too. His desire and need for peace drove him to find a way to forget all that had befallen him. Maybe that's why he kept that boyish attitude that border-lined outright naivety or his proud demeanor that led to many a petty squabbling over flouting his power in order to recoup from his lack of a childhood.

He didn't want to remember.

She too wanted to forget everything about the war and especially of being rocked and tossed about in the foul prison of Kronos' stomach, but it was one that brought her to the man she loved most. He was the first thing she saw as she emerged from the maw of Kronos and fell into his arms as the rest of their siblings were released. The first god, the first burst of gold, and her first sense of security as he cradled her against his chest; the first time since her birth that she had been held.

Quietly, Hera made her way towards her husband, but her voice was still as striking as the bolts of lightning that continued to light up the darkened skies. "There are rumors."

"There have always been rumors," Zeus dismissed, tossing another lightning bolt down to earth.

"And look where that led us," Hera quietly reminded.

Zeus remained silent. For once he accepted the gentle hand that Hera rested upon his shoulder.

"Zeus, there are whispers in the pantheon of another uprising." Hera felt her husband stiffen at her words, but she held him in an embrace to keep him from walking away again. "But if we choose to act, we can silence them by keeping our allies and being prepared."

"Bah, another uprising," Zeus dismissed his wife's claims. "No one could be as conniving and ruthless as that- that traitor. Not with my children, anyhow."

Hera couldn't help but note there was something Zeus was not registering. He was so unwilling to believe there was a possibility of another uprising despite the dissension that rocked the court since Hades had nearly toppled them, but that was when it struck her. There was a recurring theme here and, finally, the goddess understood her husband's reasoning, but did he?

Hera inwardly sighed. "And how did Kronos fall?" She marched away and grabbed a chalice situated on a small little table and filled it with nectar. "How did Ouranos before him fall?"

"I am not wicked, nor bloodthirsty," Zeus adamantly affirmed. "Strict, impatient, volatile, but not cruel. They have no reason to usurp me."

"At least again?" Hera reminded him.

The thunder began to rumble and crash at her words as Zeus brooded in his anger. "Maybe if my queen played the part better, we wouldn't be in such a state."

"I never wanted to be queen- I just wanted your love," Hera hissed.

And now I don't want that either.

"Yes, you do," Zeus snapped. "It's why you've stayed after all these eons to lord over others and rule the skies. Being queen comes with its perks doesn't it?"

"And it's always good to be king, isn't it?" Hera sardonically echoed.

"I've had enough of this," Zeus made a move past her, but Hera was already one step ahead of him, blocking the giant god from escaping.

"You still care for Hades!" Hera shouted, her blue eyes flashing alongside the bolts of lightning. "Don't lie to me, it's why you would choose his side over Demeter. She can forgive, Hades would never."

Zeus, the proud king of the gods, never wavered his enthusiasm in the slightest, bursting with confidence and fervor that motivated everyone around him. There was no question why he had fallen into leadership with his energy alone. However, only in his private moments, whenever there was no longer any eyes, did the king allow himself to take a breath and sag under the weight of the cosmos rather like Atlas and his burden.

"I don't know!" His defeated sigh made Hera feel her sharp tongue loosen like a bow string being released without firing an arrow. "I don't know anymore. I - I can't lose him again that's all I know!"

There it was, Hera stared in wide eyed wonder. Pity was not a feeling she was familiar with in giving to her husband, but at this moment she could not help it. How she wished he could always express his feelings like this, instead of being forced out like puss from an infected wound, but such was the stubbornness of her proud husband.

"Maybe if I had been there for him. Maybe if I hadn't been so distracted I would've noticed he wasn't happy. Surely, I would've done something if I'd known!"

Hera remained silent. After eons of being married to the god who rarely took notice of her with each passing day, the queen of the gods found to her own great surprise a strange sort of kindred spirit with her youngest brother. She knew exactly how he felt because the words her husband was spouting now were what he had said to her a number of times when his own shortcomings in their marriage had come into light. Yes, Zeus had tamed the globe in his youth, but when peace and prosperity reign for so long, idleness can make any noble heart detached.

"No, Zeus," Hera made her way to the doors of their bedroom and swung them open with an exaggerated flourish. Storm clouds still painted the Olympus mountain top with the colors of slate and stone, reminding Hera of the bleak world far down below them. "You wouldn't have."

I don't know, I like Hera too much to not delve into her character and flesh her out more, and I wanted to see if I could have a scene with one of the unhappiest marriages in literature. Even Zeus' character too is a complicated one that I can't help but love. At the beginning of his life he is the hero with a good heart who somehow manages to defeat the great evil, but so was Kronos at one point. Kronos killed his father for locking away Gaia's monstrous children due to her influence just like Rhea had influenced Zeus'. They have the same origin story, terrifying I know, and even Zeus began to try and stop having a child that would be greater than him- hence Athena and why he stayed clear of Thetis. He's avoiding the self-fulfilling prophecy becoming his father, but being a bit more careful to not have a progeny greater than him.

Why? Maybe he recognized that he knew he was becoming his father too, and darn if that isn't compelling, I don't know what is.

Anyway we'll be back in the underworld very soon. I'm trying shorter chapters, but we'll see how long that lasts ;)

As always lmk what you think!