His hammer stopped mid-air when he heard her crying in the middle of the night.

There was a dry thunderstorm outside, and the clanging of his tool couldn't stop her faint sobs from reaching him. Then again, Hephaestus already had a feeling that something wasn't quite right when he'd heard the first rumble of thunder.

Yesterday, he had heard from Hermes that the king and queen had been quarreling. These fights were nothing new and would eventually die down the next day, and it did when morning came. Mt. Olympus had been peaceful throughout the day, until dusk fell and it became quiet, too quiet, and that's when the thunderstorm began to brew.

He knew this wasn't an ordinary weather and there could only be one reason: Zeus was angry—furious even, and from the cries itself meant he did something to Hera.

Leaving his unfinished work, he headed towards the entrance of the forge. He put his hooded scarf and cloak on before leaving his sanctuary to delve into the thunderstorm and towards the source of the cries.

There was no rain as he traveled the high paths of the mountain; only the strong winds and occasional lightning strikes were what he needed to worry about. But as he got nearer and the faint sobs became clearer, nothing could've stopped him then and it only made him more determined to reach her.

He arrived at a cliff and hurriedly went to the edge, and a few meters below he saw a hanging golden cell where the sobbing goddess was confined. At that moment, a lightning almost struck the jail cell, missing it only a few inches, which made its prisoner cry in fear.

The blacksmith quickly went towards the nearby pulley where the cell was attached and began cranking the wheel as fast as he could to avoid another incoming strike.

When the cell was lifted, its occupant was surprised to see him. "Hephaestus?"

The said god couldn't answer as he heard the threatening rumble of an incoming lightning. Racing against it, he immediately conjured his hammer and smashed the lock to open the cell. He then quickly pulled Hera away from it, and within seconds, a lightning struck where he had once stood.

Hephaestus thanked Chaos he got to her on time, but then he felt the goddess kneel to the ground and he too knelt before her. "Mother, are you hurt?"

"No, no...I'm fine," Hera answered, though her weak voice and the look on her face said otherwise. "His lightning didn't hurt me."

The god gritted his teeth.

So it was Zeus all along.

He saw her shivering so he quickly unclasped his cloak and put it on her to warm her from the cold winds. He then asked, "What happened?"

"I...It was my fault," the goddess admitted, as she wrapped the cloak tighter around her. "I made Zeus fall asleep so I could send a storm after Heracles while he sailed back home...No one is to blame but me."

The blacksmith wasn't surprised. Heracles was one of the king's favorite children, while also being the queen's current bane of existence. The demigod was the cause of all the recent fights between the couple; though this was due to Hera's continuous persecution of him for the sole reason of being another bastard of Zeus. It didn't help either when the mother, Alcmene, had decided to name her son after the goddess to appease her, which only fueled the latter's anger.

"Does he often treat you like this?" Hephaestus asked, even though he already knew the answer as he looked at those tear stained eyes.

Hera didn't answer, and instead, she turned her gaze towards the golden cell she had been imprisoned in just minutes ago and was lost in thought. Then, as if coming to a realization, she returned her attention to him and said, "You shouldn't have come. He'll be furious."

"I cannot sit by while he treats you like this." The god held both of her hands and squeezed them in comfort. "Hide from him until his wrath has subsided. Go to lord Hades; you'll be safe with him."

"No! He's going to hurt you!" She stood up while pulling him along; her eyes were now filled with worry for the blacksmith. "You don't know Zeus like I do. If he learns you've helped me, he won't be forgiving."

Hephaestus shook his head. "I don't care. What matters is that you're safe from harm."

Safe from him.

He looked at her intently, and in a firm voice, he said, "I won't let this happen to you again."

For a moment, Hera's worries were gone, and warmth and comfort washed over her as she looked at Hephaestus, her only child that came for her, and whom she once had failed. "Hephaestus...I—" She didn't have time to finish when she suddenly heard footsteps from a distance and turned her attention towards the forest. "He's coming! We need to leave!"

"No, you'll go." The god began pulling her to the path he had taken to get there. "I've already sent word to your handmaidens to ready your chariot. I'll give you time to escape."

The goddess tried to stop him as she pleaded, "No Hephaestus, no! He's going to kill you!"

"He won't."

He can only hurt me through you.

Hephaestus lightly pushed her towards the path and said, "Go!"

Hera looked at him with worry, having second thoughts if she should stay and protect him, but those eyes told her he wanted nothing more than for her to be far away from that place, knowing that she would be safe from harm. Grasping her son's cloak, she turned away and started running down the path without looking back, while praying—pleading to Chaos to keep her child safe.

The blacksmith watched her until she was lost in sight, as he too prayed to the highest deity above for the goddess to get to safety. When he heard someone's arrival, he turned to see the king looking directly at the unoccupied cell with an eerily calm look on his face.

Without bothering to look at him, Zeus asked, "Where is she?"

"I told her to hide," he answered. "And if I were her, I wouldn't come back."

"She had sent a storm over Heracles's ship," the older god said, before finally looking at him. "Does she not deserve the same punishment?"

"I don't condone what she'd done, but to hang her in a narrow cell while your lightning strikes every minute, isn't that too cruel?"

"There was no harm done. I only intended to warn her."

Hephaestus's hands tightened into fists as he felt his anger slowly starting to rise. He wondered how Hera could still stay with him through all these years of deceit and callousness. Sure she wasn't perfect, far from it, and others even agreed she deserved the punishments she'd gotten for all those women and children of Zeus she'd tormented.

He himself was a result of her own jealousy. She had conceived him alone out of spite of the king's favorite daughter, Athena; but when he had been born with that scarred face, she'd abandoned him on the same night. He had held a grudge on her, but in the end he learned to forgive.

And now, he couldn't—wouldn't stand by and watch while the goddess hung in her golden cell like a caged bird, as if she were being displayed for all of Olympus to see.

He then remembered this wasn't the only time Zeus had confined her, and he recalled the tale he had learned of when he had finally returned to this mountain.

"Is that what you also did last time?" The older god narrowed his eyes at him, which urged him to continue. "You've done this before. You've hung her when she and the other gods revolted against you. If I was only there, I wouldn't have let you touch her."

"You know nothing. She instigated a rebellion, thus committing treason—"

"They all committed treason!" he cut him off. "But you chose to punish her and only her. Poseidon, Ares, Apollo, Artemis, even your favorite child, Athena—they all rallied against you, but you chose to forgive them so quickly, while the queen—your own wife—you hanged her like a criminal!"

"And she was a criminal!"

"The same as them!"

He suddenly heard a sharp, loud crack of thunder, and Hephaestus knew he hit a nerve. It seemed that the memory was still a bitter wound for the king, especially when he had been subdued not once but now twice by the queen. But that didn't matter to him, and only focused in having his attention towards him so he could give Hera more time to escape.

But Zeus knew he was wasting time and said, "I have no time for this. You'll receive punishment along with your mother when I return with her."

Hephaestus watched as Zeus began heading towards the path the goddess had taken. Without a second thought, he made a wall of fire burst forth from the ground, blocking his way. The older god calmly turned to face him, and he almost shuddered in fear with how cold those eyes were, but nonetheless, he stood his ground and returned his glare.

"Put out your flames, Hephaestus," the king spoke with a tone of warning. "Or you will regret this."

"I will," he answered in an unwavering voice. "If you swear you will never hurt her again."

Suddenly, Zeus sent a blast of lightning towards him but he managed to dodge it. The older god was now furious at him, and if things were only different, he wouldn't have angered him so, let alone face the king of the gods in a fight.

He was no warrior, but a worker, with only his flames and tools for him to use. But if it meant giving Hera more time to escape this mountain, and get to the Underworld where Zeus couldn't touch her, then he would die trying in facing this god.

Hephaestus dodged a blast sent his way and avoided another within seconds. Luck, unfortunately, wasn't on his side as the older god clearly had the higher ground. The sky, wind, and lightning—he was in his territory. He couldn't even conjure a single flame when those lightning strikes kept on coming, so the only thing he could do was to avoid them for as long as he could.

Zeus may be livid but not enough to try and kill him. If he wanted to, he would've done so on the first strike. This continued a few more times until a bolt landed in front of him, making him fly back and stumbling towards the edge of the cliff. He groaned in pain from the fall, but then tried to push himself off the ground when he noticed the older god walking towards him.

The king looked down at him and warned him, "You dare defy me again, and I won't be merciful."

After what he had been through just now, the blacksmith almost snorted at his statement.

Merciful my ass.

This time, Zeus spoke in a commanding voice, "I order you again, Hephaestus. Put out your flames."

The said god glanced at the wall of fire still blocking the path and thought that Zeus could have put them out himself, but he didn't.

He hurt his pride.

With all his remaining strength, Hephaestus stood up and faced him. He could feel the wind blowing stronger and stepped back a bit, before remembering he was at the edge of the cliff and knew it was a long way down.

Still, that didn't deter him and looked at the older god defiantly. Then, in a firm voice, he answered him, "As long as you hurt her, never."

Zeus narrowed his eyes at him. "Then so be it."

The strong winds blasted him off the cliff, and he fell.

He didn't know what would become of him as he fell down, but he had already accepted his fate when he chose to defy the king of the gods. He closed his eyes and prayed to Chaos to watch over the goddess. For whatever may happen to him he didn't care, and what only mattered was his mother.

After what felt like hours, Hephaestus crashed on the ground. He felt agonizing pain in every inch of his body before losing conscious.

He was found later by some men from a nearby town and took pity on his state, especially his broken left leg bleeding with ichor. One of them realized who he was and so he and his companions brought the unconscious god to the cave where he had once lived.

When they arrived, Thetis and Eurynome were already waiting for them as they were informed ahead. Thetis felt weak as the men approached with the unconscious god and her friend had to hold her to steady her. Upon seeing Hephaestus whom she had raised as her own child, bruised and with a broken leg, her tears fell instantly and she held his face with both of her hands.

"Oh Hephaestus! My Hephaestus! Look at what they've done to you!" cried the nereid. "We shouldn't have let him go, Eury! We shouldn't have let him return to that mountain!"

"This isn't the time to be blaming ourselves," said Eurynome to her wailing friend. "I've already sent a message to Asclepius. He'll know what to do."

The god of medicine came swiftly as he could to attend to Hephaestus. Though the bruises weren't a problem for him, his left leg—ashamed he was—he could not mend it.

Thetis wept for the blacksmith's loss, while Eurynome could do nothing but comfort her friend while watching despondently over the resting god.

When Hephaestus finally regained conscious, the first thing that came to his mind was Hera, who he hoped was safe in the Underworld. He'd been glad to see his adoptive family, but when he learned of his unfortunate news, he felt lost and sorrow for his paralyzed leg.

Though as days passed, he'd come to terms with it and even thought of building himself a prosthetic limb. But one thing that was still plaguing his mind was the goddess, whom he hadn't gotten word from ever since they departed that night. He only hoped Zeus hadn't gotten to her and prayed every day for her safety and well-being, and that's what only mattered.

Because his leg could be replaced, he could walk again like before, but his mother...

"Hephaestus."

The blacksmith looked up to see standing by the door was the goddess who he'd been thinking of for the past few days. Seeing her well and with no sign of harm—with the exception of her face filled with fret—already lifted his own worries. "Mother."

"I've heard from Hades," Hera spoke hesitantly as she walked towards the bed, clutching the blacksmith's cloak wrapped around her. "...Is it true?"

He didn't answer and shifted his eyes towards his lower left leg, which had once served its purpose.

The goddess gasped at the sight and knelt by the bed as she suddenly felt weak. The guilt she had been carrying ever since she left Hephaestus on that cliff had grown when she heard the the news of his fall, and now seeing him in this state, she couldn't even bare to look at him and blamed no one but herself.

"This is all my fault...I shouldn't have left you. I've failed you once when you were but a baby, and now this..." She then took his hand with both of her own. "I can only ask for your forgiveness, and I understand if you won't. I do not deserve it...let alone to be your own mother."

"Since the day I was born, I have and will always be your son," Hephaestus spoke softly, before gently brushing back her loose strands of hair. "And there's nothing to forgive, mother."

"Oh Hephaestus!" Hera cried as tears began falling from her eyes. "You are too kind, my son! You are too kind! You do not deserve any of this!"

"It's alright, mother. Everything will be alright," Hephaestus comforted her while she wept onto the sheets, and a soft, warm smile showed on his lips, which was rare for him ever since he returned to Olympus. "Now that you're safe..."

Nothing else mattered.

Reviews are much appreciated.