imagine an au where instead of MC’s mother dying in that protest to keep HERA open….. Zeus and the other gods discover she has Hera’s potential
but Zeus knows she has a family- a husband, two children. it would go against so much to take her away from that, it would go against Hera’s very being.
he would do anything to get his wife back.
so he offers her a choice.
either she can allow Hera to awaken in her, and leave her family behind, leave everything she’s worked for, everyone she’s loved….
or she can give up her daughter to the gods, and she’ll be allowed to live out the rest of her days with her husband and son. and when the time comes that she dies a human death, the potential would pass to MC, and she would become Hera- and in the meantime, the gods would be prepping her for it.
there’s no question what she would choose, if it really came to it. she would never give her daughter to the gods. but that doesn’t mean she’ll take this sitting down! she fights for all she’s worth, with Aphrodite and Hades backing her up alongside a few minor gods.
Zeus forces an answer out of her, makes her choose
and she chooses to lose herself
she’s given enough time to write letters to those she needs to say goodbye to, explain why she has to go. she doesn’t want them to hate her, or the gods, despite it all. she softens the blow for her kids. she tells them that she loves them dearly.
and Hera awakens soon after.
Josh has stayed far away from anything to do with the gods, he’s moved on and made himself a name on the cooking scene.
but MC still wants to work for HERA. (it was kept open, at her mother’s request, before she died). she wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps, wants to do what her mother set out to do. she wants to be just like her. she wants to feel close to her again.
it takes a lot of time and training and hard work, but she becomes a field agent, with no aura to her name. she’s still in the artifacts department, working directly under Alex. they fall in love somewhere along the way, but it takes longer when the guilt of being unable to do anything to save MC’s mother threatens to push Alex away from her.
they talk it out, eventually, and it’s rough, but it had to happen at some point.
then there’s the day Deukalion attacks.
it happens later than normal here- he had to search out Hera’s overflow artifact, which was lost to even the goddess herself.
he finds it, and he threatens to crush not only hers, but Aphrodite’s Heart, too. they’re the strongest of gods, with most influence over humans
and the other is all that’s left of MC’s
so the two of them, Alex and MC, they do whatever it takes to defeat the half-titan before he crushes the artifacts completely.
MC has some kind of kinship with him- after all, Zeus took her mother, the same as he took Deukalion’s wife, his family. it makes it both easier and harder to detain him
they do it, when he attacks Olympus directly after flooding the city
Alex takes the Heart, pulsing weakly with fading power, and goes to give it to their mother
MC, on the other hand, waits. she can’t touch the artifacts herself, so she watches instead, as gods around the room come to collect what is theirs.
her heart stops on the last one to approach,
and she’s met by a face she hasn’t seen in over a decade
she freezes completely, throat closing around any words that try to escape, only managing to choke out one small, little syllable, sounding just as terrified and anguished as she did the day that letter was passed to her
it’s so quiet that she doubts anyone would even be able to hear it, but the goddess looks her in the eye almost immediately after, and she steps past her artifact, closer to MC
MC can’t bring herself to do anything but stare as Hera, looking exactly like her mother did the last time she saw her, approaches her and, after a bit of hesitation, pulls her into a hug
her arms wrap around the goddess almost on instinct, and the tears that were being held back by something break free
in her ear, the goddess whispers,
“i’m sorry for your mother. i would give her back if i could… she loved you so much.”
and any anger or hate she might have felt for Hera over the years dissipates. she can hear the truth in the goddess’ voice, and she simply takes this moment to pretend she’s really hugging her mother, one more time
it’s the closure she’s been searching for for years, it’s the final crack in her heart being filled back in at long last.
Hera holds onto her for as long as she likes, until MC has cried herself dry and she starts regaining her composure, pulling away from the goddess.
“thank you,” she’ll say, even though it still hurts. it always will, she thinks, but pains like that aren’t uncommon in life.
Alex will be by her side after the hug ends, and she’ll grab onto their hand with her own, holding it tight, almost painfully so, though they don’t mind it.
MC leaves, still holding onto Alex, and she looks back to see Hera one more time
after so long, it feels like she can really breathe again
