“No,” Echoed through my mind as I was kneeling on the ground in front of Zeus himself, tears forming in my eyes. With each “No” it continues to grow louder and louder until I can barely hear Zeus say, “ My dear, you broke another rule today… You brought this mortal here without my permission. One more rule break and I will have to throw you into a cell downstairs, no mirrors to talk to your ‘precious’ Média” with air quotations. That was one thing Zeus never knew about when Athena turned me and inadvertently Média, we gained the ability to speak to each other telepathically so it would not matter, mirror or not I could still talk with her. Then the echoes of the “No” came back even louder, I could feel my heart racing with a pounding headache and my vision starting to go black. Then a flash of an orange and yellow glow, accompanied by the faint smell of burning flesh and faint feeling of searing pain everywhere.
After a couple of moments my hearing slowly faded as everything went black. When my vision started coming back I could see Média and Hera leaning over me trying to get me to respond to them. I looked past Hera’s shoulder to see Zeus with a half worried, half accomplished and possibly smug look on his face. It made me want to tear that look off his face so he could never adorn it again.
“ Medusa, are you alright my dear, please respond,” Hera said with a shaky voice and eyes full of worry. I don't know why but at that moment I felt like I should call her mom. “ Yeah I'm fine mom,” I said as I was standing up, still confused about the flash of glowing colors that I saw. Hera looked at me in shock. ‘Shit’ I thought, I just called her mom without thinking about it. All of a sudden Hera engulfed me in a big hug, mumbling something about me being back?
“How dare you call her mom, you have not earned the right to call her that,” Zeus said while shamefully pointing at me with anger fixed on his face. Hera started glaring daggers at Zeus and I could not help but slightly giggle at that. Zeus became enraged that I thought that this was funny, but before he could do anything Hera pulled me and Média out into the hallway.
“Medusa, have you ever wondered why we have mortal counterparts? Or why you felt compelled to call me mom?” Hera asked, I knew the reason why we have counterparts but the one thing that she said did not make sense was the way she asked the last question as if she knew I felt called to do so before.
“ I do know how we have mortal counterparts. It is because of the universe it just gave us them and as for your other question I have no idea,” I responded to Hera not really sure what she is getting at. “ First of all we just tell you guys that as the reason we have the counterparts because the real reason would be one of the biggest scandals in our Greek pantheon ever. You Know how Zeus has problems with cheating right?” Hera asked, Média and I just shook our heads yes in response before she continued to say, “ Well he kind of made a mistake and cheated on me with one of his demigod children, and that child had more children and here we are now,” Hera paused while both Média and I are just staring at her wide eyed and shocked.
“ Well, aren't you going to explain how I feel compelled to call you mom?” I asked, feeling like all this time I have been lied to, I want to know what they were lying to me about now. “Ήρα!” I could hear Zeus call Hera’s Greek name. “ I will explain another time. I just suggest you run home fast. I don't think it would be wise to stay any longer. I will answer your question in time or maybe you will find out for yourself.” Hera said with a smile before starting to run back to where Zeus is.
