The Death of Time

...Heals all Wounds

In an isolated cabin, deep in the heart of humanity......

Hades could feel the descendant approaching and wondered how much of a fight he would have on his hands. If this Ananke is truly your descendant, expect him to be quarrelsome, opinionated, lazy and a little evil. Chronos laughed, the sound echoing in the recesses of Hade’s mind.  There were once many of this kind of progeny; those who carried his own blood, or those of his Olympian brethren. But that was from before Persephone and Hades hadn't fathered any children in centuries. So his bloodline had thinned, almost completely bred back to mortal normalicy.

There had been a few requirements that Chronos had insisted on for the descendant that he was going to possess. Because his body was lashed in placed against the Heart of Time, Chronos' mind had by necessity developed a way to oversee the Flow of Time. Sometimes events started to occur a little too quickly or lag behind somehow. Times when Destiny needed a little help. He was the Keeper and he took pride in being able to handle anything his imprisonment forced upon him. But he'd been unable to search out whatever was harming his Heart this time and it infuriated him that he had to go to anyone for assistance. Thankfully he expected to simply dominate the weak mind of whatever far distant relation was going to play slave to his intellect. They'd likely have no memory of the events and thankfully he didn't care a whit if they had to be discarded.

"You seem to forget that you're the one that tried to kill me and my brothers, not the other way around." Hades chided his father gently. He could almost feel the man's answering snarl in the timbre of his voice. I was cursed into action and you all know it! The more I tried to warn you all, the worst my behaviour became. Chronos angered quickly.

Hades flinched at the fury in the Time Keeper's voice, feeling the pain of it lash him like a whip. "I'm here now aren't I? I can't undo what has been done so this is what you're stuck with. Beating me will serve no purpose. Now I think you might want to wait while I warm this Ananke up to the idea." He felt the air around him still almost perceptibly as Chronos settled and contained himself.

The timing was excellent as the door to the small cabin opened and Hades was given his first surprise of the night. Chronos had found a resonation in the blood line that told him here was the candidate they needed. With the resonation came a name and a location but Hades and the equally stunned Chronos had never even suspected that the one they needed would be a female. None of the Olympian descendants had turned out ugly or plain. The woman he openly admired was exotic, a mixed ancestry that left her high cheekboned and stunning. Due to his own, special gifts, Hades was able to feel death lingering around her and he knew the reason she was a broken woman. His father remained oblivious, still stunned and furious that it was a woman he'd possess.

The look in the woman's eyes was disturbing because she didn't look the least bit stunned to see him waiting there for her. She was startled for a second, and then he saw the calm acceptance of it in her eyes. He had never seen anything like it in a human before and he could help but smirk at her. She seemed to not be the least bit uncomfortable unclasping her heavy backpack and shucking her warm outer layers without saying a thing. Hades admired her athletic figure as she stripped off the bulky layers of clothes and equipment that had kept her alive in her ascent.

When she had finally stripped down to the leggings she wore and a tank top, Ananke put her hands on her hips and looked at the man not subtly check her out. "Let me guess, you're Hades." her voice was calm, lacking in emotion and judgement, as if she had said something as basic as 'human's need to breathe air'.

To say that her comment was met with stunned silence would have been an understatement. Hades stared at her in horrified shock and he could feel Chronos actually start to regard this woman with a slightly less overwhelming amount of disgust. "What did you just say?" Hades demanded, finally realizing that she was going to stay quiet until he responded. This woman's patience seemed unnatural and left both Hades and Chronos feeling unnerved.