Last time...

"I just…I don't want you thinking I'm something more than I am. I'm not holy. I have never heard a prayer, despite the twins very obvious devotion to Loki." Hera explained. "When a domain is given, it is supposed to be understood that you are an authority on that thing, meaning that you're someone people go to for advice and the like. You're like a really super powered tutor, a teacher's aide, or an advisor. You serve the people, not the other way around. The Accounts have mostly forgotten this."

The wand made a sharp turn, almost back in the direction they'd left, when Hera sees it.

"This place mean anything to you?" Hera wondered.

"It's the place Dad takes us to sometimes." Matt answered, looking at it more closely. "He said it's likely the closest he's ever going to get to heaven. Why?"

"Because this is where your mother is."

Chapter 89

"Matt."

"What's wrong?" Matt demanded, rearing to go. "Why are we not going in there?"

He turned around, only to see Hera staring at the building with a frozen sort of panic on her face.

"Hera?" This time he called out more hesitantly.

"You've been to this place since the accident, right?" Hera wondered. Matt nodded, though he wondered if she could see it where she wasn't looking at him. "You ever see any magical people go in there?"

"All the time." Matt nodded. "Why?"

A grimace overtook her features, and suddenly he realized why she was so stressed out.

"What'd they tell you?" He wondered. "Those people you used to live with, I mean."

"They would go sometimes, and I always wondered what it was all about, you know? So I asked them one day; one of the few times I ever really asked them anything once it was made clear 'Don't ask questions' was a particular rule only meant for me." Hera replied, barely speaking above a whisper, still only looking at the cathedral. "They told me I'd burst into flames for even looking at a place like this, that it wasn't meant for freaks like me. I didn't know they meant wixen at the time, that they were talking about magic. I don't know why I still cling to things they told me…You're telling me you've seen magicals go in there, and not burst into flames? Like they're normal?"

"Hera…What even…" Matt struggled to even comprehend what Hera was telling him; that there were parents or relatives that would even…

"I know. I know they lied to me, because they didn't want me to go with them." Hera acknowledged ruefully. "I know that now, but…It's still in my head."

"You won't burst into flames."

"I know, but we really shouldn't go in there." Hera continued, and Matt would have objected had she not continued. "Matt, there's only so many reasons why she'd be in there right now. Either she's seeking sanctuary, or she works and lives there. Now, who do you know that lives and works in a cathedral?"

Matt's brain halts, full stop.

"Wait, you think…you think my dad corrupted a nun?" He silently chuckled. She looked at him with incredulity. "I've already had the sex talk with dad, Hera."

"You're ten!"

"So? When did you get the talk?" Matt countered, only to watch her grimace. "Ah. Asshole relatives. Right then. Up to me, I suppose. Okay, well, when two people love each other very much-"

"Matthew Murdock, you are not about to give me the sex talk!" Hera hissed, completely embarrassed, scandalized; looking at him with disbelief before making to rub above her eyebrows. "I read all the biological stuff so I wouldn't have to ask the Dursleys, not that they were going to tell me anyway, and there's a school nurse that I asked any other questions I had. If that wasn't enough, I have a last life of a god for the mechanics."

"Well then, lady god, wanna tell me what we're doing just standing out here?" Matt asked, still chuckling at his friend.

"We could go back to Tony's, and then come back in the morning." Hera offered. "Maybe a bit of sleep might give us perspective."

"Or?" Matt asked, his arms crossed, as he tapped his foot.

"Or I could get us in, and we can go cathedral crawling for your mother." She added, giving him a withering glare. "Whatever you're expecting, Matt-"

"I know, I know, but…"

She looked at him, seeming to weigh the pros and cons of what he was asking, and then she nodded. "Alright then."

…

Breaking into a cathedral was surprisingly easier than Hera thought it should be. There was no extra security that she could sense, magical or otherwise. The door opened up with a simple wandless nonverbal unlocking spell, though it also caused quite the crack of sound upon its opening. She hadn't thought to muffle the sound of the door, and there was nothing for it now. Both froze at the sound, before scurrying inside, hoping that the closed door would persuade any who checked not to look too closely.

"You know, as a future lawyer, I should think this would be something you'd frown on…" Hera commented, as she covered them both up in the Invisibility cloak. "You know, breaking and entering, for a start."

"I could be a private detective, you know." Matt pointed out. "They do this all the time, right?"

"Uh…Maybe? I dunno." Hera shrugged. "Anyway, hold up your section. I need to cast the spell again."

He did, allowing her to do as she'd stated, and the two were off again.

"How do you think this is going to go, Matt?" Hera asked, as they walked in the direction the wand pointed in. "Even if things were to go smoothly, we just broke into a church in the middle of the night to confront someone. I can't imagine that going well."

"Hera…"

"Hello? Is someone there?"

Both children froze.

"I heard voices. I know someone's there." … "Do you need help?"

Two people coming upon them fast, and Hera realized she'd have to make a decision; but then the wand twitched again.

"Are either of you Margaret?" She called out, not taking the cloak off of either of them; keeping Matt behind her even so.

When they rounded the corner, Hera got her answer; even though the woman had been about to respond. She could see Matt's features plainly. She removed the Invisibility Cloak from herself, though Matt stayed under, and she held his hand beneath the fabric. It wouldn't do to lose an emotionally charged person with an invisibility cloak for a cover. Both the man and the woman gasped when they saw her, blue as she still was, but otherwise did not react.

"Are you Margaret?" Hera asked again. "Margaret Grace?"

"I…I am." The woman, and Hera had been right about her; full nun outfit and everything.

"I have someone here who wishes to speak with you." Hera informed her, before looking back to where she knew Matt to be. "Do you still wish to do this?"

Matt's response was to take off the cloak, eyes only for the woman standing there. "Mom?"

…

While Paul should have been asleep some time ago, he'd agreed to do a last sweep of the grounds with Maggie, and now he found himself sitting with a young teenage girl who looked like she had far too many troubles for one so young. Her eyes hadn't left the boy, her body tense as if prepared to leap into action at a moments notice. He didn't know what her relation was to Maggie's son, but he admired her dedication. Very few people would break into a church/orphanage in order to help a boy find his mother. There was something to her tension though that made him wonder if it was only worry for the boy.

"This isn't going to end well, is it?" The young girl surmised, not looking at him.

"That depends on how he wishes it to go." Paul pointed out, earning him a glare. "Would you like to talk while you wait for him?"

"I'm a bit busy trying not to panic that I haven't burst into flames yet." She snorted, turning her gaze back to her charge.

Burst into flames? Why would she…

"It's what my relatives told me." She answered. "They said it's why I couldn't go to church with them; that freaks like me get burned alive just for walking through the doors, or even just looking at the building. So, forgive me for being a little preoccupied and choosing to focus on my reason for being here."

"You tracked down your friend's mother to a church/orphanage, and then broke into it just so that he could meet her, even though you still believe you're going to burst into flames just sitting there?" Paul wondered, reeling slightly from what she'd said. "You're a good friend, Child."

"Hera."

"Hera then." Paul nodded. At least he had a name. "Why did your parents think-"

"Not my parents. My relatives. Parents died when I was a little over a year old. Was sent to live with relatives. Guess they didn't like being saddled with a kid that wasn't theirs, but they kept me anyway." She stated.

"Well, if it helps, you're obviously not going to burst into flames." Paul hoped to assure her, and then tried for humor. "I don't even see any smoke or anything."

She snorted. "You saw a red eyed child with blue skin, and somehow didn't think demon. So, kudos to you, I guess."

A few more moments go by, and both can see the conversation between mother and son is not going well.

"Watch this." The girl said, talking out of the side of her face; though she makes it a point to look to him, the child, and back again. So Paul kept one eye on mother and son, while paying attention to the girl next to him. "So, how does blasphemy work for your religion?"

Of all the questions he'd expected…

"Well, generally speaking, it's not something one is supposed to do." Paul counseled with a patient but slightly exasperated sigh.

"Pish posh. The validity of a religion is largely based on how creative one can get with its blasphemy. For instance, if you follow the Norse Pantheon, you could swear by Odin's bloody eye socket. Grecian Pantheon would have by Zeus' diseased ridden…Well, you get the picture. So, what is it for yours?" She inquired, looking far more amused than anyone should at this. "There's quite a few gods in your pantheon, though not as many as some."

His mind stopped for a moment at that.

"We only believe in one God; the God." He gently corrected.

"Then I have questions about this 'Holy trinity' thing the Dursleys yelled at me about. There's the father, the son, and the holy ghost. That sounds like multiple entities, and yet the same, so…more Hindu…sort of? They have a wildly intriguing and confusing pantheon as well." Hera rambled with a thoughtful expression.

It is at this time that Paul noted the boy's shoulders shaking in silent laughter, and realized he could hear them from where he was…That's why she was doing this.

"Then there are the disciples, I think? Not sure how they'd fit into things. Then there's Mary, and Joseph, and all them. I got the barest descriptions of who they're all supposed to be. The only thing lacking is a weird unexplainable birth…Oh, no, you all have that too. It's just a virgin birth, and not something ultra weird like right outta Zeus' forehead." She continued to ramble, then clapped her hands together. "So, blasphemy! How about Mary's bloody bloomers? No? God's blinding buttocks? (that one got a snort) That one's a keeper. I should think of a few more. I'll let you know what I come up with."

Any time the young boy looked like he was getting agitated or close to tears, Hera would utter some new blaspheme she'd come up with on the fly. Though Paul had played the stern priest, he was pretty sure she saw through that, as there had been one or two he'd had to cough to hide his surprised laughter in. It wouldn't last forever, he knew. Margaret's body language was of one trying to get the other to understand, but the boy's was of one who'd been backed into a wall not wanting to accept defeat. Considering how anguished the child looked, it wouldn't be long before things deteriorated further.

"Damn it." Hera swore, as the boy pushed himself away from the conversation with Margaret and ran off.

"Hail Mary." Paul stated, before he'd really thought about it. By this point, it was a running joke in the orphanage that if a child cursed in front of him, Hail Mary's would be said.

"Why? Do you think she'll be able to help?" Hera asked, distracted, already leaving. "I've got to go. It was nice meeting you. Sorry for breaking in."

She vanished before his eyes, and he's left stunned as he looked to Margaret.

"What happened?"

"Matt!" Hera called out, having appeared just ahead of where he'd been running. He ran full tilt into her. "Shite, Matt, are you okay? That had to hurt."

Instead of an answer, all she got was tears, which promptly sent Hera into panic mode as she rapidly checked him over for injuries.

"Sh-She doesn't want…She doesn't want to come home with me!" Matt cried. Hera froze. Not physical pain then. This was something she couldn't fix. "I tried everything; telling her about my life, how hard things have been, how lonely Dad was…Nothing worked! Why doesn't she love me?!"

He burst into tears again, and all Hera could do was wrap her arms around him while inwardly panicking about what to do.

"Oh, Matt, she does." She finally said, which made him pull away with the beginnings of an objection on his lips. "What did she actually tell you?"

"She thought…She thought she'd angered God, that she didn't think she'd be a good mother to me, that she almost hurt me when I was a baby. I don't understand what post-partum depression is. Why can't she just come home?" Matt cried, nearly crumpling in her arms again. This time, she held him out so that he had to look at her, which seemed to confuse him.

"As far as I understand it, pregnancy is like having a cocktail of hormones running through you non-stop for months on end. When it's over, and the child has been born,…all those hormones are suddenly gone. It's like going into shock, except it doesn't always go away. Women can lose memories, start feeling anxious, paranoid. They can start deteriorating mentally. It's…It's a lot, Matt." Hera stated, hoping he would understand. "She loves you, and I know that because of what you just said."

He tried to leave, but Hera held him there, and he glared at her.

"She just told you she was worried she wouldn't be a good mother to you, that she almost hurt you when you were a baby. She left so that she wouldn't hurt you like that again, and more than likely she won't go home with you because she's afraid she'll do exactly that. And yeah, it hurts emotionally to know that she can't be what you need, but she does love you." Hera insisted, tears in her eyes as she hoped he understood. "Can you imagine how much it hurts to know that you love someone, and realize that that love isn't enough? That you aren't what's best for them? That's what she went through, Matt."

"I just…I just want my mom." Matt cried. Hera pulled him back to her, and he practically melted into the hug. Sometime later, he sniffled. "Can we go? I don't wanna be here anymore."

While Tony would have loved to stay down in the lab with his new knowledge, he knew that he couldn't do that right now. Hera was out with Matt, and while he had Jarvis looking out for them, he knew that wasn't a guarantee. He left for the living room, not surprised when he found that they hadn't come back yet. Just in case, he got some more hot chocolate started. It kept his hands busy while he tried not to tempt himself back down to the lab.

"Sir-"

Hera and Matt were suddenly in the living room, arms around each other as Matt cried.

"I got it, Jarvis." Tony stated, before going to check on the kids. "Come on, you two, I have hot chocolate ready. Whatever happened, we can talk about it over delicious hot chocolate and have terribly cheesy Christmas movies play in the background. What do you say? Interested?"