chapter 27

"so? what will it be?"

However as stated before Hera was no damsel, she grabbed Zeus's arm with both her hands and use her new arm to punch Zeus on the side, specifically his ribs and sent  him crashing on to the nearby walls of the corridor and once again relieving him of his arm. The attack had sent him through several walls and the shock wave from each time he hit a wall was a signal to everyone in the palace that a fight was happening.

Hermes did not waste any time and immediately appeared before Hera and attacked her with a punch to the jaw, the punch was swift and fast sending hera staggering back a couple of meters and one of her teeth had flew out of her mouth, his punch was quite powerful thanks to his speed. Unfortunately for Hermes he suddenly found himself unable to move a single muscle after his attack, his body became rigid as stone and heavy as a mountain.

"Wh-"

He could not finish his words as her immediately received a series of punches, the first in the stomach that was followed  by two punch to the face  and the an upper cut to the jaw that sent him up in the air before he received a devastating kick to his torso and was sent tumbling across the floor with no way of stopping.

"laying your hands on the queen is forbidden by law"

Themis emphasized as she watched Hermes's body slid across the ground and only stopping due to a wall that was at the end of the hallway, as the one who reins over the concept of law if she herself determines an act to be unlawfully anyone who partook in that act will be unable top move an inch until she determines a worthy punishment for the crime, unfortunately it only works on those of equal or lower power as such she can't use her power on Zeus, it also doesn't help that she is not a fighter. During the Titanomachy she did not fight but instead chose to be allies with Zeus but of course that didn't mean she couldn't throw a punch.

Having took out Hermes, Themis turned to look at the queen who's body was now engulfed entirely by lightning as her body floated a few centimeters off the ground. The lightning crackled and sparked as it bounced between Hera's body and the walls, Themis ducked to the side evading a stray bolt of lightning that nearly struck her.

 Looking at the queen it seemed she was in some type of trance. Hera could feel  the power filling up her very being, there was an electric sensation that tickled her mind drowning it with a feeling of power, she felt unstoppable, invincible and damn near omnipotent, with such power at her fingertips Zeus was a mere fly she could crush in less than an instant, he was a bug, no. less than a bug, a germ.

"My lady?"

"I know how you feel"

Themis snapped her neck turning to look at Zeus who had finally returned, both his arms were missing  but he didn't look any worse for wear, aside from a few scratches on his face the God king looked absolutely unaffected by the fact that he lost his arm not only that but there was lightning coming out of the shoulders where his arms should be. Almost as if remembering something Themis quickly turned her back and ran straight down the corridor making a turn and returning where she previously was which were Athena's chambers, with Athena being weakened right now she wouldn't stand a chance against Zeus and Hera looked to be at least holding her own.

"It's intoxicating right, that feeling of omnipotence that clouds your mind and makes you feel invincible but…"

Ignoring Themis completely He spoke to Hera who  had suddenly snapped out of her trance like state and conjured four bolts of lightning however Zeus looked unconcerned infact he waited for her to throw the bolts at him and she did just that  unfortunately  however rather than strike Zeus and blow him away, instead the bolts struck his body only to get absorbed by him.

"… did you really think you could use my very own power against me?"

"what??? What's happening? What are you doing?"

It was here that Hera suddenly dropped to the floor, her feet touching the ground once again and not only that but the lightning that had covered her body was now being absorbed by Zeus, the electric feeling that tickled her mind disappeared and all the power she had was sucked right out of her causing her to drop to her knees. While this was happening to her, Zeus had  walked closer to her and the lightning had now replaced his arms as he now had lightning constructs as his arms.

He grabbed her by the head and had her look up at him while her head was at the same height as his groin, a simple  smile was plastered across his face.

"remember when you used to pleasure me like this?  You were always so eager"

Looking at her face, he was suddenly struck by a sense of affection or rather not affection but lust, His wife was always beautiful he loved her, he always did its just her that doesn't love him anymore, he wanted to take her right here and now and show her just how much he loves her, pour out his lust on to her after all lust equals love.

"By my name you're beautiful"

Unfortunately his adoration for her was ruined as she suddenly struck him with a punch to the leg however Zeus endure it despite it being powerful enough to break his legs, he then as payback gave her an equally powerful knee kick to the face cracking her skull and rattling her consciousness completely knocking her out.

"I'm gonna need her to give my arms back"

Unfortunately, even if he does cut off the arms she took they  aren't his anymore and he won't be able to use them, only Hera can give them back. He slung her over his shoulders before speaking to Leto.

"Leto, I expect you at my chambers once this is over, and don't worry I'll tell the Enforcers not to hurt Apollo once they found him"

"Yes my king and thank you"

It was at this moment that the castle guards suddenly appeared once everything had settled down, which was exactly what they were supposed do, they all weak compared to some of the Olympians as such their job is to simply be cannon fodder during war times and are not to interfere during battles between any of the 12 infact their orders are to sit and wait until the battle is over and come arrest the loser or anyone Zeus says to arrest.

"great, all of you follow me"

With Hera over his shoulders he then told the guards to follow him as he went towards Athena's  chambers, which was where he figured Themis had gone to probably warn Athena that whatever they were planning has been found out. Athena was the type of Goddess who didn't mince her words  and always spoke her thoughts as such to some degree he appreciated her brutal honesty  however in light of what he knows now he wonders if she just always hated him hence why she was brutally honest.

'hmm is this about her mother?'

He  questioned as he  walked towards her chambers, if this truly was about her mother then it's a shame that he might have to send his favorite daughter to  Tartarus because he is not going to spend his time trying to talk her out of it.

With the guards following behind him  it didn't take long before he arrived to the room  that is  where Athena sleeps, the room was very minimalistic in decoration without any notable furniture aside from the bed a mirror on the wall beside the bed and various weapons such axes, swords and hammers, Athena was a adept at using various types of weapons  with her favorite being the spear, with the guards waiting outside he entered only to find Themis was the only one in the room with a look of confusion on her face.

"before I have the guards take you in,  where's Athena?"

Themis shook her head to indicate she didn't know, which struck Zeus as Odd, He was certain there was a time lap between him fighting and defeating Hera and Themis arriving here that should have given her more than enough time to escape if she arrived with Athena already gone so why not escape, not that she could have but still.

"are you lying to me?"

"no my king"

"Then why did you not escape? you had plenty of time"

"Because there would be no point in me doing so"

"I see"

…..

Back at Aphrodite's palace both She and Hephaestus had remained seated on their seat as Hephaestus held her close, it has been more than a couple of minutes since Hera and the others left and the couple has remained silent ever since the threw left. Aphrodite felt like she needed to speak about what she was supposed to say before she was interrupted by the sudden arrival of Athena however she also wanted to talk about what Hera had proposed and she didn't know which was more important.

Hephaestus on the other hand was considering the various pros and cons regarding the various possible rulers of Olympus if Zeus is dethroned. Out of all of them he believed Hestia and Hades to be the best choices however Hestia is definitely not going to take the throne no matter what happens and Hades might be  content with ruling the underworld, maybe Poseidon would make a better king than Zeus though Hephaestus doesn't know a lot about him, he seems to be the quiet type.

"so you said you wanted to renovate?"

He asked, honestly changing the topic to something trivial or less stressful  should help him in  a way.

"Are you going to help Hera dethrone Zeus?"

And it seemed Aphrodite was going to make him think about it, she had stared up at him with a questioning gaze and he couldn't help but find it adorable how her cheek was squished against his bicep.

"what do you think? Should I?"

"I don't know, they came to ask for your help. What I think shouldn't matter"

"then why did it Matter what I think when you wanted to renovate"

"this and that are different, you can't compare"

With an eye roll he  got up from the chair  and walked around the room  looking at the decorations  and paintings on the wall, his eyes glanced at the hall that lead to her room which was also filled with art and heads of various beasts mounted on the wall, he spotted a few he recognized, the Pegasus, a manticore and a griffin.

"speaking of renovating  how about we do it right now?"

He suggested, he personally thought the heads of monsters on the wall looked cool but that was just his former mortal standards thinking, well technically for Aphrodite to have put them on the wall she must have thought they looked good at some point in time.

"Aren't there  more serious things at stake right now?  Why worry about renovating my home?"

While it would be helpful for him to assist her in  her renovating her home, she  feels that it's a bit too abrupt and out of place considering the circumstances not only that but this  isn't the only time he seemed to  dismiss  an important issue he did it earlier when they came back from the meeting.

"I mean it something  you want isn't it? And  as your husband it is my job to make sure you get it"

He reasoned and caused Aphrodite to ponder about his reasoning a bit more than she should, was it his job to  do that and if it was what is her job? Thinking about it she has never put that much thought into what a relationship should be and how it should work, maybe Persephone would know considering she's the only person that seems to have a good relationship at least that she knows of.

"Is it your job? Doesn't that mean you're just my servant?"

"there's a difference between getting paid to do something and doing it because you like the person you're doing it for"

"what's the  difference and  are you saying that you like me?"

A small smile appeared her on her face as she asked, a feeling of anxiousness lay in her stomach as she waited for his answers to both her questions.

"The difference is I'm doing it because I like you and as a servant I'm only doing it because it benefits me in the long run otherwise I wouldn't be doing it and yes I do like you"

Hephaestus avoided a bit of eyes contact with her as he felt somewhat bashful saying that last bit of his sentence of course Aphrodite Also turned her gaze towards her feet to hide her rosy cheeks and bashful smile.

"Well… I like you as well Hephaestus"

"Ah…"

Hephaestus found himself feeling a sensation on his chest once he heard her words, hearing Her outright say that she liked him was not unexpected but he didn't think he would appreciate those words so much, while he did think of  Athena as  a friend whether or not they liked each other was never a topic of conversation and his own parents have never really loved him to begin with, so this wa probably his first time hearing those words out of someone it felt… he couldn't quite put the feeling into words so settled for the simplest word.

'It felt good'

While Hephaestus felt all warm and fuzzy inside, Aphrodite felt disgusted with herself, how could she say that? Not only that Hephaestus deserved better than her, a dirty whore like her doesn't deserve him, but at the same time she didn't want to  give him  up, she wanted him, she wanted him to be with her, she wanted to stay with him.

'No you don't deserve him stop it'.

The  two of  them had remained silent for a full minute before Aphrodite broke the silence, uttering words that caused Hephaestus to stagger back in shock.

"Hephaestus I think we  should get a divorce "

....

A/N: this was an unexpected cliff hanger even for me, sometimes the story just writes itself and it's like Goddamm this is not what I planned.

where are you guys from??

I'm from south Africa btw