I welcome reviews and constructive criticism as it's my first fic! Enjoy!
Fanfic URL (My main site and more updates!): https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14544815/1/Re-Herakles
............................................................................
Alcides, or Herakles to some.
Glory of the Gods.
The apex of demigods in Greek myth, and arguably one of the most recognizable heroes across every age of man.
From children barely steady on their feet to elders with one foot in Hades, the tale of the Glory of Hera has been carved clean through humanity's collective memory.
A child of Zeus, born powerful, born doomed; a mortal who endured grief after grief until only twelve impossible Labors remained between him and redemption for a crime he never truly committed...
...Unless the crime was simply being unable to outrun the madness Hera slipped into his mind like poison breathed directly into the ear.
He died, ascended, became divine, stood among the Olympians, and fought Titans and Giants alike.
O mighty, O radiant…Glory of Hera.
How dare they call her that.
This is not that story.
Not even close.
Because in this life… she is my sister.
And more importantly—yeah, I'll say it again—fuck Fate.
............
It was warm.
Too warm.
My hands pressed against something slimy, slick, and pulsing with heat.
The kind of feeling that should send a full-body shiver of disgust through anyone with a functioning sense of self-preservation, like accidentally grabbing a half-liquefied cucumber left to rot in the summer sun.
But instead, I felt… comforted.
I blinked. Darkness. A reddish glow seeped through the fleshy membrane around me, like a lantern trying to burn through layers of wet leather.
Something soft stayed curled against my side, and I instinctively wrapped an arm around it—or her—as she pressed closer.
I just knew. Despite having no memories to call my own.
Then my brain caught up.
Wait. What?
I turned my head. Or I think I did. Hard to tell with the thick, syrupy liquid suspending me.
I wasn't breathing, had no real need to. I floated weightless in a viscous, womb-like ocean, and the shape beside me shifted again, nuzzling into my neck.
Human. Definitely human. Probably. I hope so. Pretty please.
My hand slid through what felt like hair. Soft. Silky. Familiar in a way that made no sense.
Her eyes opened first.
Two golden pupils burned in the darkness like twin suns piercing the void. And reflected back in those lights…my own fiery, slit crimson eyes.
Eyes that should not have existed on a newborn. Or any newborn for that matter. Eyes that held too much.
I didn't know her. And yet I knew her with the kind of certainty biology can't explain.
Imprinting, oxytocin flooding the system, the instinctive recognition of a twin soul—my mind ran through every scientific metaphor available, but none of them were strong enough.
She was the lighthouse in my darkness. The missing half I never knew I was missing.
My arm lifted on its own and brushed her cheek. The sensation was surreal. So damn vivid it felt unreal.
Maybe I was high. Maybe some lunatic had shoved me into an isolation tank spiked with next-gen edibles. Or was I high right before this amnesia-induced imprisonment?
I tried to focus on her face.
That was when something ruptured in my skull, as if someone had set off a cannonball in my head.
Agony swallowed the world.
A torrent of visions, not dreams, not memories, but possibilities crashed into me.
Futures braided with pasts, timelines grinding like tectonic plates across the core of my being.
Worlds burning. Titans descending. Twelve impossible tasks on a path paved in blood. A tragic end. A glorious one. A catastrophic one.
Too many at once.
I heard a voice. Or was it my own mind trying to retain some form of governance?
A past where a world fell, and from the cosmos they descend.
A future the world desires, 12 labors and a tragic end.
A burning fire, great wars, and where history shall bend.
I screamed, and the womb screamed with me.
The fleshy walls convulsed in violent waves, and the two of us were thrust out, ejected into blinding, unbearable light.
"My lady! They are twins! Praise the gods—two healthy babes, with hair and teeth already grown!"
The palace wetnurse's voice cracked with reverence as she bathed our tiny bodies in warm, herb-scented water. Petals floated on the surface like an improvised offering.
My sister howled bloody murder, fists clenched, refusing to release my arm. I, on the other hand, was dead to the world.
Well, almost.
Mostly unconscious but still breathing.
Apparently, that terrified everyone until someone realized I wasn't dying. The wetnurses certainly nearly scared the life out of me when they started crying in relief.
I thought it was our job to do the crying.
In my defense, I was just…exhausted. From existing. Hey, the migraine was legendary.
Anyways.
I cracked open one eyelid with my immense ironclad willpower.
The woman who birthed us lay slumped against silk-draped pillows, her raven-black hair plastered to her sweat-drenched skin.
Her green eyes, sharp despite the fatigue, never left us, drinking in every detail with a love that felt ancient and raw.
Blood soaked the sheets beneath her, but she refused to lie back down despite the palace maid's pleading, as she watched over us like a mother hen.
A man stepped forward. Curly brown hair, deep blue eyes, the bearing of someone accustomed to ruling with a single gesture. And gesture he did.
Raising a hand, he silenced the room instantly.
"The girl shall be named Alcides." His voice boomed, smooth and thunder-inflected.
Not metaphorically, as actual thunder rolled across the sky, rattling the palace walls.
"And the boy… he shall be Alkios, crown prince of Mycenae."
The torches lining the chamber flared upward in unison, white-hot tongues of flame reaching for the ceiling.
No one understood what that meant.
Not yet.
But a legend—two legends, had just been born into the world.
And the gods were already watching.