She Smiles: Hera & Typhon
Title: She Smiles
Prompt: child of mine
Characters: Hera & Typhon
Genre: Horror
Rating: PG.
It had been petty, Hera admitted it. But how many times could a woman be spited and not fight back? How many times could she remain passive, not striking at the source of her rage?
She had fled for a year. He had tolerated this, because he knew where she was, and the prophets assured him she would return. What choice had she?
But she had done it. Even after she saw how horrible her creation was, even after she wanted to die of the pain of childbirth, even after she abandoned it, the sense of smug satisfactation remained.
And even after the gods fought him, even after she was thrown by her son, she still hoped he would win.
Because the truth has always been, Hera hates her husband. She hates Olympus, she hates the gods, even her children, she despises the place. There is nothing she would not do to see it fall, including bring about a monster. Including destroying the world. She was raped and unfairly force into this, and if her means of exit are unfair, so be it.
She’d waited for centuries for this. Typhon and Kronos, at once. Wickedly, the goddess smiled in delight. Her soul had never been this dark.
And they would hate her, when they were all cast down into Tartarus, and she would go with him. But at least she would not try to regather herself and rebel. She would die.
Because nothing can last forever, and that is all she has to comfort herself. Hera is not fool enough to hope that Zeus will give up, until he is ended, and she is not fool enough to hope that he can be ended without her death as well. She is not strong enough to rebel on her own, and the other gods lack the spine.
And that’s why she hates heroes. They carry the cycle along, prolong her agony. She wants to die- eternity, like this?
So that is why, when Hera eyes her creation, her most beloved son, that she smiles a wicked, lovely smile. I might die today. The thought gladdens her, uplifts her.
And that’s why she sends the statue.
And that’s why she hates Percy and Annabeth, because they saved her life.
And that’s why she screams when Typhon is defeated.
Because, he is her child, the Death-bringer, the Apocalypse. Her only hope, her loved one, her monster. Her good dog.
And Hera faced him calmly, head on, eyes abright with a fey kind of joy.
Favorite son, don’t let me down.
He did, of course, but still she loved her only truly begotten monster.