The garden had never looked better. Every variant of color shined like nowhere else on Earth or Mount Olympus. Plants from all different terrains harmonized together to form a majestic world behind the palace. In the past, this had been Demeter's favorite place, where she would hide from the pressures of godhood, of the terror over watching the Olympians slowly lose ground to the vampires. This was the one place she'd ever felt safe.

But that had been before, back when her dearest, only child had been alive.

It'd been ten years since the vampires had overwhelmed Persephone as she'd traveled from the Underworld to Mount Olympus. She'd put up a valiant fight and had managed to kill five of them before she'd succumbed. Athena had advised Demeter to take pride in her daughter's last moments, yet the image her niece's words had crafted had only enraged Demeter more. If not for Ares and Hermes, Demeter may have ripped Athena's flesh from her face.

Anger had filled Demeter for the first year after her loss. She'd leveled half of Mount Olympus before Zeus had thrown her to Earth in hopes she'd calm down or met her daughter's same fate. He hadn't cared which (though Demeter knew he'd leaned slightly toward the latter outcome).

On Earth, Demeter had devastated many mortals by wiping out their crops. Where she remained too long, droughts had happened. Disease and misery had followed in her wake. When nymphs and other wood sprites would try to talk sense into the goddess, she'd rip their hearts out of their chests more often than not.

Before she'd had it happened, Demeter would have laughed at the thought that Hades would be the one to pull her from the brink of insanity. Yet, her oldest brother had come to her rescue when everyone else had abandoned her in her darkest moment. He'd found her outside of a small village in South America where she'd stood and surveyed the torn bodies of the poor mortals who'd tried to chase her away. No emotion had overcome her at the life she'd ended, and she remembered thinking they were luckier than most.

When Demeter had finally sensed Hades, she'd thought he'd come to either plead with her to stop or to kill her before her rampage got out of control. He'd done neither. Without warning, he'd gathered her in his arms and held tight.

Demeter had struggled, landed punch after punch, and had screamed about Persephone's untimely end being his fault, but her brother had refused to let her go. After all her pent-up venom had extinguished, she'd collapsed against him. Together, they'd cried and mourned the loss of the goddess they'd loved equally, even if they'd both put her between them more times than was fair.

Since then, Demeter had lost the ability to feel anything, even anger. She spent her days wandering, unable to string together two thoughts most times. Over the years, those that had once visited her regularly had grown bored of her listlessness. Even Hestia had lost her patience and only came by on the anniversary of Persephone's death to spend the day when Demeter allowed her emotions to flow.

Demeter never said it, but she wondered if Zeus sent Hestia to ensure Demeter didn't go on another rampage.

Though she took no pleasure in her garden, Demeter spent many hours in it. Persephone had loved it so, and, though she knew it wasn't true, she believed a bit of her daughter remained in the flowers she'd delighted in.

On this day, Demeter had decided she'd visit the lilikoi, the flower Persephone had adored most before she'd passed. Why Demeter chose to go to that part of the garden, she didn't know. Demeter hadn't in years. Seeing the almost hand-shaped flowers in their rainbow of colors always threatened to stir her emotions, and Demeter preferred to forget she had any.

Despite trying to convince herself away, Demeter found herself before the lilikoi. She didn't look at them too long, just enough to ensure that the nymphs were still taking care of them. While she might do better without the constant reminder of her daughter so close, Demeter wouldn't let the flower go.

As soon as she finished the inspection, Demeter turned to leave but paused. Through the other vegetation that grew around the lilikoi, she'd thought she'd spotted a sandaled foot. Had one of her nymphs fallen? Could one have snuck their lover into the garden and decided to have some fun here since the chance of discovery was so small?

"Hello?" Demeter called.

The foot slid under a bush, out of sight.

"I already know you're there. It's best to answer me. Are you hurt? I can help you."

No reply.

"If you're fooling around, I won't be upset. Just speak, please."

Nothing.

Demeter sighed and charged forward. She pushed aside bushes and flowers and came upon a small clearing just big enough for the crouched figure in the middle of it. The figure jumped, and almost fell over the little bundle at its feet.

"What are you doing?" Demeter asked.

The figure straightened and allowed Demeter to see her upturned face. A tendril of surprise wrapped around Demeter. Why would she be hiding out in her garden?

"What are you doing?" Demeter repeated.

"I..." Artemis pushed her sweat-soaked auburn curls behind her ears. "I, uh..."

The bundle at Demeter's and Artemis' feet moved and made a cooing noise.

"What's this?"

Demeter bent and picked up the bundle and noted how Artemis stiffened. She didn't comment, though, as she unwrapped the dark cloth around the bundle. Whatever the fabric hid wiggled the more material was removed, and Demeter thought it might be some sort of feline. Maybe a canine, since Artemis liked them more than most gods.

Was this a present? If so, why? Demeter hadn't seen Artemis in years, let alone spoken to her. Even before Persephone's death and Demeter's murderous reaction, the Huntress and Goddess of Agriculture hadn't had much reason to interact.

The cloth fell away to reveal a newborn baby, maybe a week old. She had smooth, luminescent skin like Artemis. When she opened her eyes, Demeter noted the baby and her niece shared the same deep brown eyes.

Shock smacked into Demeter, and she almost dropped the baby. She caught herself before she harmed the child.

"I...Is she yours?" Demeter asked as she tore her gaze away from the beautiful baby to her niece.

Artemis had paled. "You won't tell, will you?"

Demeter shook her head. "I swear on the River Styx."

Relief flooded color back into Artemis' cheeks. "Thank you."

"Is she...for me?"

Artemis' thin lips quirked into a small smile. "I knew you'd want her."

Happiness, so sharp and unfamiliar it stung, coursed through Demeter, and tears filled her eyes. She cradled the child close to her chest. "T-thank you."

Artemis nodded. "I hope—I need to go."

Without another word, the Huntress fled the garden.

The older goddess forgot all about her niece as she studied the precious newborn in her arms. She was much smaller than Persephone had been, and no child would ever be as gorgeous as her daughter, but this newborn was one of prettiest Demeter had ever seen. How anyone could give her up, she couldn't imagine.

Demeter stepped out of the bushes to the stone path that would take her anywhere in the garden or back to her palace. She angled herself toward her home. The child needed proper clothes, and Demeter just wanted to curl up with her on her bed for hours. She'd already started humming the song she used to sing to lull Persephone to sing—her motherly intuition had jumpstarted on its own.

Holding this new child brought forth Demeter's agony over Persephone's death, but it didn't strike her as hard as it would have in the past. She couldn't afford to let it overtake her. The newborn needed her to be as coherent as possible.

As she walked toward her palace, Demeter decided to name the child Bella, a term of endearment she'd heard years ago in Italy when she'd risked a brief visit. She thought it fit the newborn perfectly.

"Hello, Bella," Demeter said and ran a finger over the child's soft skin. Bella gazed back at her. "Aren't you—"

"My Lady?" a voice said from behind Demeter.

Before Demeter contemplated her next action, she turned to face the nymph who'd spoken. "Yes?"

"I wanted to know—" The nymph's eyes widened as she noticed Bella. "Is that a baby?"

Demeter realized her mistake in letting the nymph see Bella but couldn't lie now. "Yes."

In a flash, the nymph raced away.

Demeter sighed and followed at a decent pace. She knew where the nymph was headed and should have known this would happen. Did she honestly think she was going to be able to keep Bella a secret until she reached godhood?

Demeter let herself into Zeus' throne room. It gladdened her that only her snitching nymph and the God King were present. She didn't want a larger audience to witness the terrible scene to come.

Zeus' flame-blue eyes regarded his sister as she approached her throne. His full lips pulled back in an ugly sneer as he spotted Bella. "So, it's true?"

Demeter stopped just beyond Zeus' reach. He could still strike her down with a lightning bolt if she wished, but she hoped he wouldn't want to damage his precious floor.

"Yes, I have a child."

"Who's is it?"

Demeter remained silent.

Zeus looked at the nymph. "Did you see who delivered this child?"

The nymph swallowed hard. "N-no, my King. My Lady was all alone in her garden when I discovered her and the child."

Zeus returned his attention to Demeter. "Name the parents."

"She's mine," Demeter said, her voice respectable but firm.

The God King glared at his sister for a long moment, then shrugged. "No matter. Give her over, and we'll forget this."

Demeter tightened her hold on Bella. "No."

Defying her brother was an insane act, but she couldn't let him kill the child. She'd never agreed with Zeus' decision to ban all new god children in hopes to preserve the gods' power, but she'd never thought much about it until now. In the past, she'd had Persephone, and she hadn't wanted any other children.

Zeus frowned. "Why care? She can't be worth much if her own parents didn't want to take responsibility for her."

"You will not harm her!"

Zeus' square, handsome face darkened. "Give her to me."

"No."

The nymph pulled on her dress. "M-my Lady, p-please. Do it, and we'll g-go home."

Both gods ignored the nymph as they stared each other down. From the way Zeus quickly looked back and forth between Demeter and Bella, Demeter knew he considered zapping the baby out of her arms. But he couldn't without killing Demeter, and Demeter was mostly sure her brother wouldn't do that. Over the centuries, many gods had fallen to the vampires, and Zeus couldn't afford to lose anymore.

But Zeus could be as unhinged as their father had been toward the end of his life. Maybe this would be a time he ignored good sense and acted on pure emotion.

The tension in the room lasted for close to an hour. Bella started to fuss, and the nymph looked close to collapsing. Neither god made a movement, though.

Finally, Zeus dropped his gaze from Demeter's eyes to her chin. "If you insist on keeping her, you can't stay on Mount Olympus."

"You'd banish us to Earth?"

"That's the consequence."

Demeter straightened her shoulders. "Fine. We'll return after she enters godhood."

"You do realize what this means, don't you? You'll have no protection, your powers will be extremely limited, you won't—"

"I know, Zeus, and I'm still going. Bella needs me."

Demeter turned on her heel, kissed Bella's forehead, and left her home.

A/N: So I can't believe it but I'm finally updating this story. How many years has it been? Well, it's going to be a huge update. I'm rewriting the entire story. Some parts from the original will remain but a lot of it will be different. Don't worry, I think it'll still be great.

I'm going to aim to update every Sunday. I've been doing well with my other stories, so I'm sure I will. I'll keep you guys updated if my plans change, though.

Okay. So, I hope you guys enjoy.