The Death of Time

Make the most of...

Twisting over the Void...

Announcing that the Father of Time is physically dying alongside the Heart of Time, Ananke expected blind panic. However, only Herald looked at her as if he had any understanding of what she meant, Hades looked vaguely amused and Chronos just felt a bit shocked. Of course he didn't believe it, he was an immortal creature, neither Chronos nor Hades would appreciate the act of dying because they believed it never would really happen. Hell if the myths were true, it wouldn't even be the first time Chronos has died! In the myths, he was a Titan who ate his children until his wife Rhea helped kill him in return. And here Ananke thought her failed marriage had been bad. But the experience of the vision Chronos has witnessed with Ananke was sinking in past his immediate self defence of denial; the sensation of dying finally becoming undeniable to Chronos, even guarded in Ananke's body, however far away they were.

As a rescue worker and a survivor, Ananke had become intimately familiar with the five stages of grieving: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. She knew that they occured in no chronological order, but she truely expected Chronos to become hung up on denial or anger. It seemed to be in his nature to over react or nor react at all. What she hadn't expected was to feel Chronos test the veracity of the vision, realize it was true that he was dying, and slid into an immediate panic. His anger would burn them both where their souls overlapped, the edges already charred by the friction their dissonant souls caused. His panic was like a poison though, stealing through her veins and sapping the strength and energy from her body. Her chest shuddered as her heart reace jumped into galloping, her lungs gasping for air as if any physical response she had now could help save Chronos. Her body was only reacting to the overwhemling emotional state, ignoring even the overriding command of Ananke's mind as Chronos lost his grip on reasoning in his fear of permanent death. To Hades and Herald watching over her body, they could see the emotional struggle in the fine sheen of sweat beading on Ananke's dusky skin, the whites as her eyes rolled back in their sockets. It would appear to be nothing more than a mild panic attack to anyone who didn't know, but to the two immortals watching, they were astonished at this human woman's ability to contain it from spilling over; Chronos was known to be volatile and powerful.

Inside her mind Ananke wrapped her awareness around the screaming panic that had engulfed Chronos. She couldn't calm him, contain it or even channel the overwhelming fear away. He was an immortal creature just realizing that his body was dying; there was no reasoning with his reaction. So she swallowed the both of them into a memory. It was the only thing that she could think of to do that might help. Humans spend their entire lives knowing that one day they will die, and other than a brief period labeled childhood, no human believes that they are invincible. He was about to get a crash course in accepting mortality from a woman who had had her own shoved in her face every day.

Ananke knew the memory the moment they entered it and even though there were so many more painful memories, it still hurt like having her heart stabbed by a needle. Not enough to kill her but it made her bleed deep inside. Like in her vision, Ananke was aware of herself and the black man next to her, haunting and handsome and shaking. Chronos, still reeling from his realization that he was not better than Death was here with her and she took a moment to view him as he viewed himself. Any distraction was better than looking at the memory she had thrown them into, but she had to draw Chronos into the memory and that meant witnessing with him, even when she would rather walk away from all her memories. But she could guide him through the steps of grief and death with her experiences and so it happened without her consent.

Like watching a movie on a screen, Ananke could see herself, tied in securely against a rock wall that was maybe eight feet off of the ground. She was at the top of the short span and next to her was a boyishly good looking man. They were close enough together that it was clear to any witness that there was a growing romance between them, evidenced in the way their hands lingered close to each other and any necessary contact was more caress than simple touch.