Eight years ago, after the Zeus and Hera Familia failed to kill the Black Dragon.

"…" Hera stares at the walls of her home. She picks up a bottle of wine. "Glug!! Glug!! Glug!! Glug!!"

She finished it and tossed it in the corner.

Shatter!!!

"…" She grabs another and repeats the process.

She does this-

Shatter!!!

Over-

Shatter!!!

And over-

Shatter!!!

And over and over again for over a week. The only time she moved was when she ran out of drinks and went to the cellar.

Down in that dark cellar, Hera continued to drink away her pain.

"Hera?" said Hephaestus, coming down.

Shatter!!!

"What do you want, Hephaestus?" Hera said, masked in the darkness.

"…Look um, we had a Denatus and well…um-"

"They can shove it up their fucking ass. Leave me alone. Glug!! Glug!!"

"Hmm…look I know we are not close friends or anything, but you can’t keep drinking yourself into a stupor day in and day out."

"Why can’t I?" She turned to her and even in the darkness, her ruby eyes cut through it but they had a cloudiness to them. "All my precious children are dead."

"Malion, Alfia, and even some of your-"

"You call them alive?" She gets up with a bit of a struggle. "They are DEAD. Their spirits are so broken they languish in towns and cities hollow." She walks like a drunkard straight out of a tavern. "Their vigor of life is gone." She stepped out into the dim light. Her clothes were stained with wine, tears, dirt, and wrinkly. Her once golden hair that was like strands of sunlight was now like strands of melted cheese, and her flawless skin was now in a layer of sweat and grim. "As is mine."

Seeing Hera in this state both greatly saddened Hephaestus and aggravated her. She was not the Hera that she knew before she married Zeus, Hephaestus remembers vividly how talented she was. No matter what she did, she managed to make it on her own. Her creations were elegant and refined, and her cooking was delicious. Her sculpting was magnificent. Her brewing gave Dionysus a run for his money. She even once beat Hermes in a race, using her knowledge of heaven to take the quickest path. She was even kinder than Hestia, more generous than Demeter, and more loving than Aphrodite. Hell, she even showed she was more than a match for both Ares and Athena in their game of war; she was more cutthroat than Thanatos, more cunning than Eris, and more talented than even Apollo and Hermes put together.

She was, in everyone’s opinion, the god of gods, a god so damn near perfect it was envious. The only things that made her less perfect were her pride and stubbornness, which the gods begrudgingly accepted as she earned that right.

Unfortunately, it would be that pride and stubbornness that would bite her in the end.

One day in heaven, she was different.

"Hey, Hera! Do you wanna make a-"

"No, leave me alone." She glared at Hephaestus at her deformed eye.

"O-okay…u-um see ya!"

Her eyes, once filled with benevolence, were now filled with a cold fury.

The next day, it was announced she and Zeus were married.

No one knew exactly how this came to be, but only Eris figured it out.

"Wahahah!! You wish to know??" said the short, black-haired goddess. "Well, go fuck yourself! Don’t come to me wanting to know when you all ignored me!! Now leave my domain before I spill the tea on all of you heathenistic cucks!!"

Hera, from then on, was a different person. Her whole life revolved around keeping Zeus from any other woman.

Back to Hera and Hephaestus.

"Get up!" Hephaestus said sternly. "Where has that damn pride gone?!? Zeus left a week ago! And you're still here drinking!!"

"…" She looked at her drink and took one more drink. "Let me grieve…I am tired of having responsibilities and high expectations. I just want to drink for all my children whom I failed. "

"You didn’t fail them! They survived, even now! Zeus lost everyone!"

"I thought I told you all my children are as dead as those Pallums on the streets."

"Tsk!" She walked up to her and grabbed her tightly. "Enough with this!! The Hera I know wouldn’t be this brittle!! You'd clean yourself up, put on your best dress, and walk forward with a dam stride as if you owned the street!! So get-gak!! "

Hera grabbed Hera's mouth tightly.

"Do. Not." Her eyes lost their cloudiness and gained a terrifying level of sharpness. "Touch. Me. Amphigýeis."

"!?" Hephaestus had garnered her anger. Amphigýeis was a name the gods used to poke fun at her eye. It has never been uttered during all of her time in Gekai. "I-I-I’m so-"

"Sorry? You are telling me!!!" She shouted in her face as Hephaestus shrank down in fear. "To get over my fucking children!!! Who are either dead or fucking mentally broken!!! Miach or Dian Cecht are not the goddam gods of mental fucking health!!! Every! Fucking! None of these gods have any idea what I'm going through!!! Do you think you know how I feel? No you fucking don’t!! All you fucking do is go to your forge and hammer away!! That is why Aphrodite cheated on you with Ares of all fucking gods!! If you had spent less time working and more time on her, you would still be together!!!"

Hephaestus was nearly crying from Hera's hitting a particularly sore spot for her, but she resolved herself and gathered all her courage and coolness to level herself. Their positions in heaven no longer applied in Gekai, Hephaestus built her empire. When one thinks of buying any equipment, they think of her product.

"I…I know you are emotional and-"

"Emotional?" She pushed her back. "I fucking hate that word. I find it demeans and invalidates my words. Like I lost my damn mind! Let me tell you this: my feelings are FUCKING VALID!!!" She turned and punched the wall. "VALID!! VALID!!!!"

THUD!! THUD!! THUD!! THUD!! THUD!!

And punched-

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

THUD!! THUD!! THUD!! THUD!! THUD!!

And punched-

"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

THUD!! THUD!! THUD!! THUD!! THUD!!

"AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

And punched some more.

THUD!! THUD!! THUD!! THUD!! THUD!!

"Huff!! Huff!! Huff!!"

Until she runs out of energy, and she flops to the ground with her fists bloody.

"Hic!! Hic!! Hic!! My feelings are valid…They're valid…They're valid…Nephele, Malion, Jason, Hic!! Lamy, Rana, Hic!! Hic!! Dip, Sias, Chelo, Pas, Eileyia." She said softly the name of the children she had lost as tears came down her face. "I could have done more. I could have prepared them more... I’m so….tired." She said it ever so softly and deprived of life.

Looking at Hera in this state, Hephaestus knew Hera had finally cracked. She felt pity and sympathy for the once golden goddess of Olympus.

Hephaestus bends down and holds her tightly. She says nothing, letting Hera cry out her heartbreak, her grief.

"I’m here…I’m here…"

Hephaestus remained by her side until she was ready. From there she helped Hera pack all of the stuff in her Familia home.

Before she left she paid Freya one last visit.

Once that was done Hera walked away with only a bag of clothes and a knife. She was never seen again.

This was the once and only time she showed her vulnerability to another person.

NotOriginal

So a while back I talked about the prototype for this story. In it the main goddess I had for the MC was Eris. She was probably the character I loved to write the most. I would compare her to the Gympie Gympie plant, if your know, you know.