The Death of Time

...is meaningless yet it is all that exists

Balanced between Primal Cause and Pervasive Entropy...

The crowds parting around them had no clue that there were two immortals, a disembodied voice and a broken woman passing through their midst. Herald and Hades supported Ananke carefully on either side, seeming to be nothing more than friends helping their shorter female friend through the massive crowds of people. They weren't the only ones to do so and thus avoided attracting any attention to their strange little group.

At another time in her life, Ananke would have fought tooth and nail to stand on her own, without anyone helping her move forward. But along with her normal emotional sense, she had long ago lost track of what her pride and ego felt like and so she allowed these immortal men to help carry her slight weight to less populated areas. Part of it was the sudden exhaustion that came with exposing some of her more emotionally gruelling moments to Chronos, especially since he was about as compassionate as a wet sponge, but part of it was that Ananke coouldn't help but feel the history of the streets they moved down. Her connection to the Father of Time and the men who had lived when these streets were walked by gladiators and generals overlapped the regular sight of tourists, students and vendors all milling about and shouting at each other.

The statues that were marble, stone and crumbling to dust before eyes that carelessly watched in the modern world danced as living myths inside Ananke's mind. I can't... she muttered internally, trying to seperate out what was real and what was just memory from Chronos. They were still too interwoven, pieces of Time taken out of context and shuffled in with memories that didn't belong. Weak minded fool...your memories will resonate as true. What your eyes see will be limited to the mortal plane. Ignore everything else as is the wont of your kind and soon it'll fade... Chronos chided inside her mind, not in the least bit sympathetic as he tried to quell the spill over.

Bad enough that this human woman was aware of things she had no right to be. Worse that he had to submit to her control when he should be wearing her weak form and commanding it. But it would be beyond possible for him to tolerate this situation if this human child was able to dig through his memories without him chaperoning the experience. There were things inside that no mortal mind could cope with. And he had spent enough time ragingly insane to not want a repeat of that experience. However, even though he was loath to do anything to assist the mortal woman who's mind he wanted to overthrow, he knew that this moment was not the right one for his conquering her. It would merely send them both spiralling down into a screaming void of maddness and there was a job to do with a finite ending. Time itself was dying, his body along with it and neither was supposed to be open to the ravages of mortality. When the woman who's body he shared gave no response to his insults, it spiked his anger but a part of him was gently amused. There were not many that could withstand the constant insults and pain he lathered them with. The boundaries between his mind and her weaker one were burned and battered, but holding and her complete dismissal of pride made it difficult for him to wear her down. It had been such a long time since Chronos had actually had a real challenge that his patience for the obstacles was sorely untested. You are becoming tired and useless old man. Your children were right to depose you. Do your duty and keep all of Time from ending, your ego and arrogance is astounding. Chronos insulted himself, the self loathing never far from the surface of his thoughts despite the assumption many had that he was narcissistic.

"Ananke are you feeling more capable or should we stop for you to recover?" Herald asked, his grip on Ananke's arm not dropping away even as the crowds thinned. His other hand had raised to his face, thumb stroking across the planes of his jaw, his cheek and his lips as the immortal ambassador marvelled at his returned sensation.

Hades had dropped his grip on her arm as the contact made his blood hum, excited to be close to someone that held a remnant of his bloodline, the power that was mostly dormant inside her calling out to be claimed. It would be a long while before the hibernated power of this woman awoke properly though and there was still the irony of Time before that moment came to pass. She remained unaware of it, as did the god inside her mind. He could see the struggle for control under the surface of the woman they escorted, their footfalls passing through one of the great historic cities this version of the world had to offer. For a creature like Hades, and those whom belonged to one pantheon or another, they had a seperate layer that overlapped the mortal world. Mount Olympus had always been reputed to be above the world, and yet it sat nestled in the heart of a modern city should they go to Greece to see it. For now, Rome was where they needed to be, the first of those few willing to aid Chronos was housed here.