Chapter Text
Hera
She could not believe Zeus would cast her from Olympus. He had always cheated on her, and after the last time, she had just snapped. She had slapped him and called off her marriage with him in front of all the Olympians.
She had not expected Zeus to return the hit with a hit, and she could not believe it, but he had called their marriage off.
By ancient laws, the bond of marriage could be broken by mutual consent.
She had felt their marital bond being broken, but what shocked her was the following action taken against her by Zeus.
She had been stripped of her immortality and cast on earth as a mortal. She knew that there was no going back to Olympus; she had tried everything; she tried to teleport, but her powers were gone, and when she tried to go to Olympus through the Empire State Building, she was not even granted entrance.
They had picked her and thrown her out of the premises of the building like a... Like a miscreant, and that in front of mortals.
She felt as if she had never been more humiliated in her life. Everybody laughed at her when Zeus went on having children with the mortals, making her no better than a laughingstock.
Because they were immortals, the humiliation was long-lived; she had been forced to exact revenge on children on the very children she had sworn to help and protect.
She punched the ground. She had been hungry for the past eight days; she had realized that she was considered nothing but a crazy woman by the mortals.
She could not just demand things from them. She had been thrown out of two cafés and from half a dozen convenience stores. It had been humiliating and humbling the mortals; they had threatened to call the police on her if she showed her face again in their stores.
She sobbed quietly in her hands; she did not know what to do without her powers. She was on the streets in threadbare clothes, half-starving and begging from mortals. She could not believe what she was doing, but here she was. Oh, how far she had fallen.
“You there, dearie... would like some food? “a feminine voice asked.
She looked up and saw the face of a young woman no older than twenty-five, but she had gray streaks in her hair.
She sniffled her nose and wiped her nose with her ragged clothes.
“Oh, dear, your eyes are swollen”, the kindly woman said
“Please… Some food”, she croaked.
She was handed some biscuits and a warm cup of coffee. She ate the biscuits and drank the coffee within minutes.
Then she looked up, seeing the kind woman look at her.
“Come with me, dear, I think I will have some clothes that may fit you”, the kind woman said
She got up, but her feet wobbled, and she almost fell, but she managed to balance herself at
the very last moment, and stumbled behind the women.
She followed her, but soon they were apart from everyone and entering what looked like an abandoned area.
“Where are we going?”, she asked.
“We are going to a place where you can repent for your sins, Hera “, the woman said
She stopped. She had not told her about herself at all, and she was in Jersey City, no longer in New York.
“What are you talking about? “, she asked, her voice quivering.
“What am I talking about?" the woman snarled. “I am talking about the things you did to the children of Zeus; what did you do to Heracles? Ah, yes, you made his life utter misery. What did you do to Leto, who was carrying Zeus’s children? You cursed her and made her labor last for years, you have tormented so many people, Hera, it is time you paid for them”, the women said
The no longer kindly women were changing. Instead of a mouth, she had two tusks, some kind of bat wings, and more so.
She did not wait to see the women fully transform; she simply ran as fast as her feet could carry her.
** Smack**
All the air from her chest was suddenly knocked out, and she went skidding down the road. A car had just hit her.
Then there was a roar of pure fury from behind. But she no longer held enough strength to get up; the skin on her hands and arms had been literally ripped. This was her end; now she was going to hell, perhaps fields of punishments for all the pain she had inflicted on the children of Zeus and mortals.
The car pulled up beside her, and another woman stepped out of it.
But she was different; she had a concerned look on her face. She picked her up in her arms and turned her over.
She moaned in pain.
The women, seeing her state, started crying and repeatedly saying.
“I am sorry.”
But the women were pulled out of her stupor when she saw the monster, which had nearly trapped Hera, come into view.
She looked at her again, then picked her up and put her in the backseat of the car.
Her savior had just barely gotten into her driving seat when the monster reared herself up in position to strike, and just as her savior accelerated her car, the monster struck, ripping apart the trunk's lid.
She closed her eyes as she fell unconscious.
Percy Jackson
He had been kicked out of another school.
It seemed like his bad luck had no end. He was not bad in any subjects per se, but he got angry quickly. He hated bullies, and he stood up to them. This year, just like many others, he had stood up to them and ended up in a violent struggle.
But what bullies were good at was that they could act and become victims just as quickly as they were bullies just an instant before.
He had the bad luck of being caught punching Richmond, the school bully, and was immediately expelled.
Now he was walking his way back home with a letter from the principal stating that he had been kicked out of school for having violent tendencies, and due to the school's zero tolerance towards violence, he had been kicked out of school.
Now, no government-funded school was going to take him in. He had been expelled from his past five schools.
He pressed his lips together.
What would his mother think about him? She had to deal with Gabe, the garbage breath, and had been working overtime already, and with what was left out from her free time, she prepared for college.
Her dreams would be shattered, and he would be the one to cause it; at least Gabe the Garbage provided a roof.
Now, she would have to give up her free time to earn extra money to pay for a private school. Or perhaps she won’t… no, he couldn’t think like that for his kind mom.
If nothing happened, then he would need to face Gabe’s taunts for the rest of his time home.
He kicked a stone, but it did nothing but hurt his toes.
He clenched his teeth and swore to control his temper better.
He hoped that his mother would not have much problem finding him a new school. He had excelled in Latin and Greek; perhaps it could help. He didn't know.