The Death of Time

Make the most of...

“Now your brain is going to scream all kinds of instincts at you, telling you to flail about and try to grab on to something. Resist that instinct or you might hurt yourself more than this wall and the fall could.” The Ananke of memory spoke. "You are strapped in and not going to hit the ground, but your body knows that it's not going to live forever but at the moment your brain still thinks it has a choice in the matter. What you're learning now is how to let your body fall until the cord can catch you. Try to keep your body limber and ready to react to the pull of the safety rope, it's gonig to swing you in towards the wall and that's where you're gonig to get hurt."

"You make it sound like me getting injured is a sure thing Ana." the blonde man smirked, bringing fingertips up to brush loose hairs away from Ananke's cheek. He was still denying that any damage could happen to him, but all mortal men learn that no one denies death forever.

Ananke smiled in the memory, her face becoming beautiful in her happiness. "Because it is Andru. Don't worry, I can always kiss it better." she offered with a wink, and then shoved the man off of the wall perch.

Andru bellowed out his alarm but the Ananke and Chronos standing silent witness left that memory behind, pulled into one a little more relevant to Chronos's panic. The first time Ananke faced the liklihood of death. This time she wasn't perched on a low wall, laughing and safely strapped in. Instead, Ananke was on the side of a dusty mountain, sweat pouring off of her bronze skin as she held a man to the wall who was phsycially larger than she was, but who was entirely under her control. Hanging from around her waits was the snapped safety cord that had been holding them both from a very far fall to their death.

"We're gonna die. We're gonna die. I don't want to die. I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO DIE!" the man hysterically sobbed, as if his anger was useful and his fingers scrabbled at the crumbling rock face or scratched painful lines over Ananke's body. He wasn't meaning to hurt her but his fear and anger  were overwhelming and Ananke had no time to spare to calm him."Then we'll die but I plan to face it with a little dignity and a lot of fighting so KEEP STILL." Ananke hissed, her face so much more emotional and mobile in the memory.

The Ananke that stood witness to her own memories was the calm of the emotional storm once again, the fear she had felt at the time swirling around their mute witness. It was that fear that caused the first crack in Chronos' panic, resonating with the immediate sense of overwhelming horror he was feeling. It's hard to feel entirely alone in an experience when you can FEEL that someone else has gone through the same thing. Maybe not the exact same cause of the fear, but that fear itself was their first real shared connection. Proof that although Ananke and Chronos were all but polar opposites, there were some things that crossed over for all living creatures.

But in the memory, Ananke had no clue she would survive and yet she continued to do what she had to do anyways. 'nake and Chronos watched as she held them both on the tiny ledge and settled anchors into cracks on the wall, strapping the man in so that even if she were to fall, others could rescue him. They could both hear the memory of Ananke's internal dialogue. How she was bargaining with her body to keep going, to keep them both alive and she would take a long vacation. Her hands were bloody and shook as she climbed back up the crumbling rock face to try and reset the safety lines, managing that feat just in time for grip she had on the wall to disintegrate under her fingers. The Ananke in the memory fell, her scream loud and full of the same fear Chronos was saturated with, but in her case the rope caught and she swung rapidly towards the wall. The memory faded as the Ananke on the mountain face saved herself from crashing by bounding against the wall with her feet and rappelling back down to her rescued man.

When the next memory started, Ananke did try to jerk herself out of it, unwilling to experience the memory again for any reason, especially not for Chronos. He had done nothing to indear himself to her and encourage her to endure this horrible memory and yet his presence in her mind and his blind panic held her pinned in place.