Past a milestone but still a ways to go…
Ananke felt her attention drift as she let Chronos take control of their shared body. In a strange way it no longer felt like her own body, or at least not her body alone. She’d gotten used to the feeling of having the Father of Time in her head with her, so it felt absurdly natural to have him guide them around. She could even feel the sense of satisfaction he was trying to hide at having control for a change, something he’d never gotten used to being without even without a corporeal form. And yet Ananke realized that his attitude had a lot less arrogance than it had when their strange partnership had started.
Maybe once you and I have saved all of Time itself, you can take a regular vacation. Chronos suggested to the mortal as he felt her mind slump into the grey haze of real exhaustion. He was having a hard time remembering that this remarkable woman was merely mortal and required a few more necessities than his own kind. Namely sustenance and sleep.
Take in a little light sight seeing? Check out the local tourist spots. Ananke replied lightly.
Chronos felt his internal smile stretch the lips on Ananke’s face and it felt oddly shaped to him. He raised the feminine hand that was in no way dainty to touch the smile on their face. It was a truly hair raising experience for a male mind, accustomed to a male physiology to touch lips that were undeniably a woman’s when he is expecting to feel his own.
I suspect that I will enjoy you humour as it scrapes off the rust and gets used again. The Titan teased in a friendly manner.
Where are we going to next godling? Ananke ignored his comment.
“Do you have a suggestion for us at the moment Herald?” Chronos asked, looking at the immortal man, as put on end by hearing a female voice as he had been by finding her lips wearing his smile.
“I suggest we take the vessel somewhere until she’s fully recovered from this latest ordeal God of Time.” Herald adapted to the situation far more quickly than the god himself had, albeit that was what had made Herald the perfect Pantheon Ambassador in the first place. He was neigh unshakeable, at least until Ananke had arrived. And that mortal, Chronos knew now, was capable of unsettling everything.
It’s not so bad right now. Ananke countered internally. Chronos let her feel his disbelief and kept her comment alone.
I hate to take his side but I really do think you need to sleep, eat and definitely shower. You were able to go for a bit of a swim, but you still smell quite pungently.
I stink? Oh whatever shall you do with your poor, sensitive nose. Oh wait, MY poor sensitive nose.
“It’s definitely time to get her rested, she’s trying to be funny.” Chronos alerted Herald. The Time God was shielding Ananke from as much of her bodily pain as possible, but he knew she was still echoing the hurt.
“Allow me to assist you. The assembled Gods of this Pantheon are currently in a remarkable amount of disarray at this turn of events and your body is healed of wounds but still weak. Let’s not tempt Fate with another serious injury.” Herald suggested, but still waited for Chronos to nod Ananke’s head affirmative before he muscled the smaller frame of Ananke upright.
Her arm was looped over his shoulder and even Chronos couldn’t keep the sudden flare of pain from bleeding through to ‘nake’s awareness.
Well then, I think I’m glad you’re the one dealing with the majority of that pain. I have a good threshold and can operate even with injury but I am not sure my discipline would be strong enough to handle moving on my own right now. Ananke confessed without shame.
It will dissipate. Chronos promised but both mortal and Titan God can feel it will take time, which was sadly ironic given that Time was what they didn’t have the luxury for any longer. Chronos felt it the moment Ananke succumbed to the rest needed to recover. He felt suddenly as if her were transporting fragile cargo, almost more focused on not waking the mortal’s mind than he was in where the immortal Ambassador was guiding him and her body. When he felt an echo of alarm from the slumbering ‘nake, he didn’t hesitate to follow it down to where her mind was.
Ananke wasn’t quite dreaming or remembering but an odd combination of the two. Dreamembering. It was a painful dream and an even more agonizing memory and ‘nake wanted to pull herself out of it but had no energy left for the struggle. I am here with you, you are not facing this torment alone. Chronos’ voice warned her and Ananke could suddenly see him standing next to her, his incorporeal mind projecting the familiar form of his body to stand with her. It felt strange to recognize someone she’d never actually met face to face.
In front of them, Andru rushes to the bottom of the stairs, nake and hovering over the collapsed form of Ananke, who was heavily pregnant and grotesquely twisted at the bottom of the stairs. The Ananke of memory is still breathing, but there was an ashen tint to her normally dark skin that gave Chronos chills even though he knew the outcome.
I remember this moment. Andru was screaming for her to call 911 and there was something wrong with my breathing. I couldn’t feel anything, not even pain. And I was so scared because I couldn’t feel Aeon. Ananke sounded calm despite the moment they were watching.
Standing next to her, Chronos felt the familiar chill of where her emotions had be numb and void. It had left a permanent change in the mortal woman. She was free again to feel things but the Titan suspected that she would always remain somehow removed from the full force of them. It would condemn her amongst her own kind; they wouldn’t understand the strength and brilliance of her, and would shy away, label her as weird or broken. But Chronos had seen what she was capable of and knew that she was just MORE, something more than just a mortal woman could be.
The memory jumped time in the way often found in dreams. Ananke is wheeled into the hospital, people and monitors everywhere. Concern and despair so thick in the air that Chronos could paint with it if he chose, doctors and nurses shouting things about blood pressure, heart rate and natal statistics. None sounded good and Chronos knew what was going to happen next. He could already see Thanatos standing watch, unseen to mortal eye. But the God of Time knew the chthonic God would fall to Ananke’s unique charm because it had all happened before. Instead of following the Death God, Ananke and Chronos bore silent witness to what happened elsewhere while the doctors tried to stabilize the woman and her unborn Aeon. All of Ananke’s team rushed into the waiting area, called together over worry for one of their own. And even though it was a past event, Chronos felt himself greatly desiring to hurt Andru in severe, permanent ways.
One of the paramedics that had arrived to help Ananke at her home was hanging back, talking to a pair of people Chronos recognized as ‘nake’s parents. After she had said her peace, the paramedic walked away, fading from the scene. The short, delicate and dark woman that was Ananke’s mother had tears streaming down her face as she marched up to Andru and slapped him hard across the face, then turned and slapped the woman he’d been sleeping with. “This is all your fault!” Ananke’s mother sobbed, everyone startled and alarmed by her assault and outburst.
“She fell down the stairs…” Andru tried to defend.
“Oh don’t you dare! Don’t you dare try to play innocent. I know Andru. I know about you and your little whore. Ananke came home to find you in bed with another woman. Not just any other woman but a teammate! You all knew.” The mother turned her wrath on the rest of the room. “This has been going on for two months now. You all knew.” The anger was breaking as more tears fell down her cheeks, the sobs breaking the flow of her words. “We did too. But no one told her. I was just so worried…that kind of stress would hurt the baby and my ‘nake was already having such a hard time with the pregnancy…” now the words stopped as ‘nake’s mother sobbed into her husband’s arms. The others all bore expressions of guilty grief as they waited for news on Ananke and Aeon. All while Thanatos watched the room.
I’d had two miscarriages already. And so many health issues that the doctors wanted me monitored at all times. I just so badly wanted a baby that I didn’t care if I had to stay in bed for nine months straight to keep her. So when I finally did make it so close to delivery, all I cared about was Aeon. Ananke calmly explained to Chronos.
He found her words amazing, not for the calmness but the fact that in them he knew she had somehow forgiving Andru for his betrayals. He does not deserve your forgiveness Ananke. You did nothing wrong. Considering how much risk was involved in your condition, it was only smart to focus on your health. He was your husband, it was his duty to stand with you and support you, even if it meant months of being second on your list. He should never had sought attention in the arms of another. The very fact that Ananke could even for a moment think that any of this was her fault made the God of Time seethe with anger. A righteous anger on her behalf, and even his own because despite the practices of the younger Pantheon now, he had never once betrayed his own wife even when she had tortured him and bent him to her will through Magic. This mortal man who had hurt so many through his selfish actions deserved none of the forgiveness Ananke offered him.
Chronos, don’t you see? Ananke gripped his hand to take his complete attention. The forgiveness is mine to give. I will not be burdened with anger towards him because I simply do not care about him at all anymore. He gets what he deserves from me; absolutely nothing. Not a single bother, not a moments consideration. I mourn the death of my daughter, not the end of my broken marriage. Or even the loss of those I’d once considered family. Her gaze takes in more than just her parents whom had hidden the affair, to incorporate the rescue team whom had allowed it to occur in the first place. She’d lost everyone she’d ever truly cared about in one day. And it still hadn’t been enough to end her. Chronos was reminded of the practice of Kintsugi. When the Japanese mend broken objects they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold, because they believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful. That was Ananke, so much more than anyone had ever considered, stronger and more beautiful for surviving everything she had, all while somehow impossibly retaining the ability to be compassionate and forgiving. Chronos could think of no better person to work with while tasked with trying to save Time itself. So he hugged her, while the dreamscape was playing through Ananke’s confrontation with the God of Death, the God of Time held her close.
There is something special about you mortal. Is all Chronos says and Ananke simply seems to accept the compliment and the affection.
That would explain how I’m able to tolerate you so well. She eventually replied and Chronos could feel her smile in the words.
Let us leave your memories behind. Have you even wondered what Helen of Troy actually looked like? I can show you how the modern societal expectations of her beauty are far off the reality. And the Father of Time simply led Ananke out of her memories and into one of his own. Neither one of them noticed that Thanatos was watching them and not the Ananke of memory.