A/N: The timespan of the flashbacks within this last chapter would cover the myth about the cuckoo with Zeus/Hera... but since I've already told a version of that (The First Time), it jumps past that point. I should have made it clear that I was continuing this, so sorry about that, but this IS the last chapter! Enjoy.
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"Little sister," Poseidon sang drunkenly, roping his arm around Hera's shoulders and pulling her into his barrel-chest, heedless of her pushes. "We've missed you! Where do you keep nipping off to?"
"Away," she gritted out. "And it wouldn't be 'away' at all if I told everyone, would it?"
"I suppose not," he pouted laughingly. "But I would suggest you craft another plan of escape, because it makes our Zeus very cranky indeed!"
Hestia gasped and Demeter shook her head emphatically at Poseidon, knowing this to be a subject that Hera would not joke about. Unsurprisingly, Hera shoved her oblivious brother off of her in a temper, her cheeks pink with annoyance.
"Perhaps I don't care what makes Zeus angry, when he inflicts the rest of us with his misery!" she declared hotly, too pressed to realize how her voice carried. When the room fell silent, she knew.
She felt a large hand wrap around her upper arm, loosely enough that she could turn to see who had attached himself to her, though she was already sure of the culprit.
"Zeus…" Poseidon said, now sounding completely sober and what's more, worried; but he needn't have been for her sake. Hera didn't care, in actuality. She was almost entirely emboldened after the words came out of her mouth—she wouldn't have cared if Zeus decided to strike her on the spot!
He didn't, of course. His eyes flickered briefly to Poseidon, before meeting hers again. "It's fine," he assured his brother. He bent slightly into Hera's space, not letting go of her arm. He inhaled her scent quite obviously before he spoke, taking a moment like he was at an oasis in the desert.
"And where have you been?"
"I cannot say, my lord," Hera said. "'lest you find yourself there at some future date…"
"Rest assured that I will, regardless of whether or not you tell me."
Poseidon chuckled very quietly, and it didn't draw the attention of either of them, but Demeter elbowed him for it.
"As a favor," Hera lifted her arm to tug it away, but didn't otherwise move away from him in a show of weakness, "I'd ask that you do not…"
"And you're uncertain of my favor?" Zeus said, and his was the voice that was carrying. He meant to make clear what was always obvious: he wanted her for a wife and she was putting him off. A quarter of Olympus thought she was full of good sense; three quarters thought she was out of her mind. "I left you alone, as requested, did I not?"
"For a time, you did," Hera agreed, because two could play at this game. "And then I received a message through my foster parents, informing me that I had been summoned to Mount Olympus. For what, I couldn't know…"
"Hmmm…" Zeus murmured. "What indeed? And your failure to make your presence known to your King was an oversight, I'm sure."
"Of course," Hera answered with a sweet tilt of her head, "and were such an oversight to …lower me in your favor, it would be understandable."
Most immortals begged for the King to pay them notice; Hera begged for the opposite. From the corner of her eye, she caught the fond smiles of her sisters and knew that they didn't take the situation seriously. She had fallen into his trap: bantered with him, willing to tangle with him in a way that disarmed the rest of her siblings. It was foolish, and he was encouraged. He was closer, if possible. He breathed in every inch of her space and it felt highly improper, even if no one could tell why.
"You know nothing lowers you in my eyes," he said mildly. "Not even your biting remarks. 'The rest of us' are inflicted with misery, darling girl? Or just you?"
She blinked. Of all things, she hadn't expected him to do anything but angrily deny her words. He had gone through some pains to be a good and fair ruler, and here she was, loudly and disrespectfully castigating him. "Perhaps just me," she admitted to him. She looked and sounded almost a child, so misled was she by his reaction. His nearness was no boon to her wit, either…
"Then I believe we should reach an accord?"
She saw no way to argue with his request, but she briefly wished that Hades was there to intervene. He was the only god that might have—her oldest and most serious brother—Poseidon wouldn't touch it. Zeus calmly lifted his eyes to his assembled siblings and slid his hand down her arm to grasp hers, warm and anticipatory. "Please excuse us."
"I—" she said automatically, looking at them as well, begging them for an out. Hestia and Demeter smiled in that way they did when they wanted Hera to behave, despite her vocal reservations. Poseidon lifted his hands in surrender, seeing that Zeus meant her no harm and that he was likely just to press his suit with Hera …again.
She was to find no rescue from that corner, clearly. Zeus led her away, and she refrained from running in the other direction. She did have her dignity, after all…
When they were gone, Poseidon snorted. "My, she gets away with it all, doesn't she? Poor girl. Big brother Hades might have rescued her, though what she's to be rescued from, I don't know. Our King's desperation for her makes him look a kitten. I'd almost chance a takeover with him so beguiled."
"Zeus was meant to rule," Hestia said sagely. "Our Olympian reign is meant to be a change for the better—no unnecessary strife, Poseidon. We were all agreed."
"I know it," Poseidon said, with one raised eyebrow. "Still …it's a bit pathetic."
"And you'll likely be alone for the rest of your life if that's how you approach your romantic affairs," Demeter noted.
Poseidon eyed her rudely. Besides Zeus and Hera, they were the most embattled pair of siblings, their outlooks as different as land and sea. "I intend to have my fun, Sister. Unlike some of us, who whelp a brat and disappear to the far reaches of the grain fields…" Demeter rolled her eyes, refusing to be vexed by him. "But I assure you that I will never stoop and cringe for the affection of any goddess, no matter her power."
Demeter raised her eyebrows. "You would think that power has something to do with this."
"And you would be naïve enough to think it doesn't! Between the two of them, they could lay waste to all the world!"
"Not everyone finds that a turn-on, forgive us all." Demeter flipped her long braid over her shoulder to accentuate the point.
Poseidon's eyes twinkled and he inclined his head sarcastically. "I'm happy to have met your expectations."
"Any woman who crosses your path is to be pitied."
Hestia ignored their continuing squabble, looking toward the entryway where Zeus and Hera had departed… their union was inevitable. It was also frightening in its scope. And both parts of it were tempestuous …how could such a union bring stability to the world?
Hestia didn't know how, she only knew that it would. And all the things that moved against it, including Hera's objections, would eventually fall away.
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"Please eat," Hades implored her.
Kore sat very still in the high-back chair, her posture stiff. She now understood how she had come to be in the Underworld—that she was in the Underworld! And she knew why…
Her mother had told her about such things.
Her mother…
…had no idea where she was. It had been months now.
Kore had been provided every comfort except the ability to assuage her mother's fears and to reunite with her. She had refused to eat and troubled to sleep. It was nothing for herself, but the idea that Demeter would miss her was haunting her every waking moment.
She drew back, startled, when the King traced a gentle finger down her cheek. "Please, look at me."
She knew what she would see in his eyes. Love. She may have known very little about many things, but she knew it without knowing how… The King of the Dead had somehow fallen in love with her, a goddess of minor consequence, through just a glimpse, before he brought her to his kingdom.
She shrank away from him, unable to reconcile the things she knew in her heart with what should have been…
She should have never come to be here. These affections were confusing, because they made no sense to her. He had been courting her every inclination toward him, being bizarrely patient for someone who had gone to the trouble of abducting her.
"I can't, my lord, please…"
"Please, what?" Hades asked, eager for any glimpse into her desires, leaning closer. The scent of him was lovelier to her than anything else—so horribly attractive to her. It was just one of the things that didn't make sense since she had come to be in his realm. "I would give anything…" he swore.
Tears filled her eyes. "I don't understand this!"
She didn't want to tell him this, but who else was she to tell? Though she had been there long enough, he was the master of this world. Every being answered to him!
But with her, he was so vulnerable, so open with how he felt… Unwillingly, she felt comfortable around him. It would be easy to tell him anything—but she didn't know why.
"Why did you take me?" she asked, not for the first time. Hades slumped a little, looking tired, looking for all the universe as if he only wanted to give her an answer that would suffice. He had yet to find one.
"My mother must be beside herself," she fretted to him.
"I know," he agreed miserably. Demeter was his sister as much as she was Kore's mother. "But I didn't see another way, at the time, I had lost all reason …and she wouldn't let me near you, she wouldn't let anyone near you besides her attendants."
"So then why take me? Why go through the trouble?!"
"Don't you understand?" Hades sounded almost amazed. "You will be my Queen."
Kore turned toward him—something she had not done once since her abduction—every line of her face grieved. "But how could you know such a thing?! Please, my lord, explain this to me!"
"I can't explain this! I—" Hades broke off and laughed in self-deprecation. "Gods save me, I finally understand some part of Zeus …I was so arrogant to believe that I could never be him, and here I am!"
"My father?" Kore said dumbly. It was nothing more than an intellectual exercise—Zeus had never been a part of her life, but she knew who he was. She had seen him sometimes, and she couldn't believe that he would ever bring her harm. "What does he have to do with this?"
"Truly, nothing…" Hades answered distantly. "Just …ancient memories."
"About what?" Kore felt her frustration mounting. "I beg you, please make me understand!"
She wouldn't look Hades fully in the face, but she could feel his distress increase at her own. He shifted, finally rising to his feet and pacing close behind her. "I have never been in love."
Nor have I…
"Until now, I have never understood the madness that one could feel …and then I saw you that day."
She absorbed his every word, his every inflection. It made her tremble, but not for the reasons she might have supposed.
"Forgive me, my love…" he sounded on the verge of weeping, but held fast against it. "I never intended you a moment of pain or confusion. I was not prepared to see you, nor was I prepared to know what I did about your destiny and mine. I didn't know…"
"I know," Kore said softly. Unbidden, her hand reach behind, finding his and stopping his movement. "I believe you."
The strangeness of all of this had been frightening her… but it was frightening, because something felt so right about their nearness. She couldn't understand and perhaps he couldn't explain …but she was falling into it all the same.
"Then also believe this," Hades said. His voice sounded stronger, and she wondered if it was her touch that had given it to him. "I knew from the moment I laid eyes on you, that you were my Queen." He knelt before her, and she met his eyes for the first time since he had entered the room—their dark, liquid beauty. "My Persephone."
Her mouth ran dry.
Persephone.
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"Demeter has missed yet another meeting," Zeus said, gritting his teeth as the other Olympians finished filing out. "She still refuses to relent."
There had been many other problems to come and go in the ensuing months, but this had become a chronic issue without any sight of resolution. It saturated every conference among them, but couldn't be discussed for a solution. The only solution, it was becoming obvious, was Kore's safe return… or some notion of where she was.
The room was now empty, but Hera, who had predictably remained behind with Zeus, rubbed her silk-clad arms in self-comfort. Neither hers nor Hestia's efforts had an effect any longer with their sister. She was beyond inconsolable; she was deranged with grief.
"There's more of a problem than that—Kore is Spring itself," Hera said, merely reciting the pertinent problems in order to help them both think. "Demeter would have difficulty bringing the earth to bloom without her."
Zeus sighed. This must all come to an end, then. It had gone on far too long. He had known that the girl could not be kept within Hades' realm forever, but it still felt far too fast. His brother had never asked a favor of him before, and he hoped that Hades had managed to claim his queen in the given time.
He was certain he wouldn't hear the end of this soon…
If anyone was to take the brunt of the blame, it should be Hades!
Hera's head suddenly craned to the side, as if she was eavesdropping on someone ...but there was no one else in the room. Zeus stilled, watching her.
She mouthed something quietly, and he couldn't catch it. "What is it?"
"Persephone…"
"What?"
She blinked. "There was a chill that day…"
"What day?"
"The day Kore disappeared, Demeter told me that some of her attendants had felt a chill, but they knew nothing else. And time had passed strangely …we haven't searched everywhere, Zeus!"
He took her hands, shaking them once to call her attention more to himself. "What do you mean?"
"The Underworld—coldness, time—they're principles of that place! How have we not thought of that?!"
His stomach dropped in apprehension as soon as the word "Underworld" was out of his wife's mouth. He was silent as she continued, picking up speed in her revelations.
"But Hades would know if Kore was within the Underworld, and he has reported nothing thus far—no sign of anyone who didn't belong being kept within, I don't know how it could escape his notice. But in any case, we should instruct him on this—"
"Hera."
"No—Zeus, I just felt something before: a goddess coming into some transition of fate, and it felt so far away. It must be Kore!"
"That doesn't mean she is in the Underworld!"
"It means that it's possible!" she shot back, hardly listening to him now that she had come upon the idea. She came to her feet, her hands slipping from Zeus' now-slack grip. "I cannot believe we hadn't thought of this before… she hadn't perished, she wasn't anywhere on earth… but still, I don't understand how Hades—"
"Hera, STOP."
His hands had re-tightened on her arms and Hera's gaze refocused on her husband, looking with some confusion because underneath layers of his calm and regal demeanor, she could have sworn she recognized panic.
"What?"
"These connections must be… imagined! How can you be certain that of all this, from a chill?"
"It's not just—"
"Why on earth would the girl be in the Underworld?" he blustered. He knew that this saga must come to an end—that is was at an end. But still, he didn't see why he had to deal with his wife personally when it was really on Hades' head.
Hera frowned, standing placidly in his arms while she noted his overreaction and his too-loud voice. She looked up at him carefully. If he had any opportunity to fool his wife, he believed it had passed.
He decided that it would be a relief for her to know, the very moment when she grasped the key of the mystery. Her eyes lit with sudden inspiration.
"Persephone, Bringer of Death."
After all these centuries, her show of power was still enticing to him. He brushed the hair against her cheek aside and nodded. It was finished then.
"Hades," she breathed. "What has he done?"
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"I won't bite," Zeus said, marking the space Hera was putting between them.
Hera rolled her eyes. "I know you far too well to believe that."
"Fine, I won't bite unless you beg it." He gave her the most courtly, proper bow she had ever seen. "I am your slave."
"You are no one's slave," Hera answered scornfully. "You PRETEND, and think that I will buy your goods like any of the others. But you are the King, and no one can ever change that. No amount of pretend can ever change that."
"You're right," Zeus conceded immediately. "And because I'm King, I can give you everything you'd ever desire."
"Because love and fidelity are the virtues of kings, Zeus? Or you think I'm so shallow that something else would matter?"
He couldn't bear the distance she kept, so he moved toward her and touched her upturned face, tracing her cheek and feeling like he could breathe again once he did. "No! I know what matters to you," he insisted. "You know that I know you, and I don't care how you insult me or how you see through all of my actions. I still love you like I will never love another. You have no equal in my eyes."
"Your words are always pretty, my lord." She didn't move away from him.
"But you still don't trust in your power over me?" He felt a boldness in his ability to read her mind that transcended her talent for making him feel like a fool. "I love you." He dipped his head and pressed a sweet kiss to the hollow of her neck. The tension was ready to boil him alive; every inch of her possessed some attraction to him, he wanted to sink in and live within her. "I love you," he continuously murmured as he worshipped her with kisses. She didn't react but to slow her breathing and stretch her arms around him as far as they would go. She couldn't reach around his entire form, due to his size. But she tried to hold onto all of him, and that intoxicated him more. He pushed against her and she lifted her head to give him access with a sigh.
After a long moment, he drew back to his full height and her eyes fluttered open. He teased her lips with one finger, on the knife-edge of control. "Neither of us may go on like this, my love. Punish me all that you like, but you would doom the both of us."
"We were already doomed," she whispered. "By some design of fate…"
"By fate, you are mine," he swore, ignoring her pessimistic talk. He hugged her, tucked her into his body where she fit. "And I am yours."
He could have ripped his own heart out and offered it to her. She still wouldn't have taken it.
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Persephone held the pomegranate in her hand, her eyes red: red from crying, red from the power of the fruit, red because it was the bloom of life and death… blood… her…
I am the Queen of the Dead. I am Persephone. I am Persephone…
She heard distant, mournful, victorious song as her teeth closed around the seeds and the juice broke free.
She felt free. Spring and Death joining into some incomprehensible, tantalizing dance.
And Hades could not look away.
When she became Persephone, she perceived it all differently: she saw light and darkness, she saw life and death. She saw Hades for the wonder that he was. She saw the depth of his goodness, and she forgave him. She gave herself over without a second thought. She became his wife, as easily as falling asleep.
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"Zeus!" his wife cried, "What were you thinking?!"
"I was thinking, that the only way to establish order was to let Hades take the girl. What would we have had otherwise? Demeter's staunch refusal, fruitless arguments among the Council, and to what end, Hera? Kore has a greater calling—you have felt it!"
"Our sister has been distraught, worse! She's been inflicting humanity with the depth of her sorrow, Zeus, and you began it!"
"I—" he sputtered. "Hades, our brother, concocted this plot! Yet, you're content, as always, to make this my responsibility!"
"Well, then why did you listen to him?!" Hera challenged, walking one end of the table to the other. "You had the chance to make him see sense, and what did you do!"
"There was no sense!" Zeus roared, staying her movement. "You didn't see him that day!"
"Well, I've seen Demeter," Hera buried her head in her hands. "They will have a quarrel the likes of which we have never witnessed. How will they get past it? How will we control them?!"
"Hades will not fight with Demeter," Zeus said wearily. "He knows what he's done. And he will relinquish her once it's over."
"What will be over?" Hera said. "You mean, she'll have eaten the fruit and will have no choice but to stay with him!"
"If you're so worried, go see her for yourself and see if she wants to go back to the life she had," Zeus responded with unimaginable amount of confidence for someone who hadn't seen the goddess in question. "Hades won't keep Demeter from her daughter, he just wanted his Queen! And you should support him in this, given that's your responsibility—to ensure goddesses come into their own power!"
"Among other things," Hera reminded him. "Hades took her both out from under my protection and Demeter's! That isn't a small thing!"
"He was crazed," Zeus said, remembering shaking hands and empty eyes. "You couldn't possibly understand what was driving him."
"But you understand," Hera scoffed. "Which is why he went to you. Tell me, did you give him permission to deflower your daughter?"
It was a step too far, as she often tread with him. Before he knew it, he had moved directly in front of her so she was forced to a halt. "ENOUGH! Before you think to speak so crudely, I should remind you that I do know what it is like to be driven to madness by being denied my Queen! If I saved my brother from that bottomless pit of agony and SHE fulfilled her destiny, then how have I acted so horribly?!"
Hera was stunned into silence, blinking up at him like his outburst was nowhere in the realm of what she thought it would be. And when Zeus realized that he had revealed so much, he stepped away from her and the new information she possessed.
"'Bottomless pit of agony'."
His vulnerability embarrassed him, which meant that his wall of defensiveness sprang up. "You were already aware of that, my lady."
"You never put it quite like that," she said. He couldn't tell whether she was annoyed or touched. "So that's how Hades got you to agree to this …this insanity? Emotional manipulation."
"He didn't manipulate me!" Zeus retorted angrily. "As a King, it was the wiser choice!"
"Whether it was or not, Demeter isn't going to forgive this," Hera fussed. "You need to put an end to this immediately, and let her know her daughter is safe. If Hades did not secure Kore, so be it. This has gone on long enough."
"I'll send for Hermes," Zeus surrendered.
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Hera had surrendered.
That's what it felt like—a surrender after a long war. All of Olympus paid her deference, and she was showered with attention and favor. It was different than before, when she felt their eyes on her. She was no longer the ethereal maiden who slipped from the clutches of them all. To them, she was already Queen. She was already the wife of the most powerful being in the universe, by right.
"These are your halls, darling," her eldest sister said as she playfully arranged her hair. Of course, Hestia needn't have condescended to do such a thing, but petting her younger sister seemed to bring her happiness, so Hera let her. "No one can ever command you within them now. Isn't that magnificent?"
"Almost no one…" Hera murmured, clasping her hands in her lap.
"Ah, but Zeus adores you!" Hestia laughed. "He wouldn't deny you anything, and so in a way, no one is above you."
That may have been true at times, but Hera knew there was a selfishness in Zeus' love. There was in hers as well, so she didn't think on it. She was always at his side now, and Zeus remained as besotted as ever. In fact, Hera unwillingly began to believe that it would always be this way between them. She did love him. She saw how perfectly they complemented each other.
She was dreadfully afraid that he could take it from her...
...until she realized that he was afraid that she would do the same. Their connection was such that they couldn't withdraw—and they couldn't go back either. Their union was solidified, and even through all turmoil, devastation, and fight, it was inseverable.
He put the crown on her head, she bore his children. She was the goddess of marriage and women and everything that connected them in their union. He loved her far more than he loved her sons. He angered her and she angered him …and still, they were complete.
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Demeter staggered backward when she set eyes on her daughter. "What did he do to you?" she gasped, before lurching forward and assuring herself that it was real. "What did he do, my daughter? Tell me!"
Persephone smiled. There was a sagacity in her eyes that hadn't been there before, she knew more—she had known terribly beauty and the thrill of darkness. She was not only Spring any longer.
"He made me his Queen, Mother."
It was so strange, to be grieved for her mother and yet overwhelmed with the inescapable joy that filled her now. She met Hera's eyes behind her mother and they shared an unexpected moment of kinship that caused the Queen of the gods to slightly smile, her eyes brightening. Persephone closed her eyes and breathed in the warm air, the other half of her.
"I am complete."