Those barely existing filaments of alien thought had cocooned Ananke and Chronos both, not restricting them but instead holding them close and drawing them out of ‘nake’s flesh. The body lived on even as the minds wearing it were pulled free, an unknown entity summoning the pair. 
                              
For Ananke one moment felt the heaviness and weight of her body pressing all around her awareness, around even the vast personality of the Father of Time, and the next moment they were free. Despite her drive to succeed, it was oddly liberating for a moment to be without finite limits. But once that loss of self really sank in, Ananke felt growing concern for her fleshy aspects.
                              
This is what existence is like for me. Someone or something has slipped us out of a living body. Chronos spoke and Ananke was actually hearing his words instead of feeling them in her mind.
                              
When Ananke could see Chronos’ projection of himself inside her mind, she’d always assumed it was how he viewed himself. But the aspect next to her was identical to the image of him in her mind, so ‘nake was made aware that Chronos truly viewed himself as he was with no arrogant posturing or improving of flaws. She wondered if he was aware that his mind saw his body as perfect except for the gaping wounds where Ananke suspected that the tendrils of time burrowed into his flesh. As she was unable to see how her own mind projected and presented itself, it was too likely that he did not know and she would not tell him. He deserved at least the illusion of freedom.
                              
What do you know that has the power to do this? Ananke asked, instinctively navigating closer to the Time God. It would not do to be separated now of all times, for ‘nake had no clue how to affect the world as a wisp of thought.
                              
I will call the force a someone, as your concept of existence is limited. Chronos tried to explain, and Ananke could see his frustration burn around him even though she only felt the barest singe of its intensity. As I am an embodiment of Time along with its prisoner and protector, there are those whom serve other such primal forces. I believe we are being pulled apart by Adi Parashakti. The Great Divine Mother. Things must be truly dire for her to intervene directly like this. His words cut off and Ananke could not help but feel an ominous weight to the things he did not say.
                              
Should I be concerned? ‘nake would face whatever it was that could unsettle even a Time god, though she knew she would be far outclassed, this was the task she’d agreed upon. 
                              
Very. Adi Parashakti is to this Pantheon what Gaea is to mine. The all mother for lack of a more comprehensive term. My particular brand of power will have no combat with hers, as I suspect she exists outside of the realm of time. Chronos hovered close to Ananke as their minds were swept through unfathomable scenery, a passage through the Veil to the Hindi Pantheon. A strange place for a Green fallen Titan to find himself.
                              
I’m so glad you’re being comforting right now. It’s not like I’m nervous or anything. Ananke’s re-emerging humour seems to have a dry edge to it.Is there any soothing explanation as to why this is happening without the rest of myself present?
                              
“Avatāra.”  The word is rumbling yet whispered around them. “Svāgata Avatāra. Svāgata.”
                              
I have the odd sense that the disembodied voice is trying to communicate with us. Can you translate what it’s saying? Ananke queried. 
                              
Chronos held as still as a projected thought can before reaching for Ananke’s hand. To the mortal woman’s sense his grip felt real and warm. A headache inducing thought as she currently had no hand to hold nor skin to feel. 
                              
“Welcome Avatar. Welcome god flesh.” The voice continued in foreign tongue but now ‘nake could hear the echo of meaning.
                              
For Chronos, the sense of touching another was almost more alien than it had been for Herald. If they’d still been bound to Ananke’s body, he would have had to allow her access to his mind before the translation started. There would have been the awkward taking down of mental defences and then that awful sense of pressure and movement as more of this mortal woman infiltrated his mind. But this wasn’t the same experience at all. She held his hand and the cool weight of her grip was soothing. It demanded nothing, took nothing and cost nothing at all. He even knew that once he let her hand go, she would continue to understand Adi Parakshakti’s words if not the complete vastness of their meaning. Chronos held on because her grip offered a comfort he never expected to experience again, a sense that even though he was nebulous consciousness cut adrift from his own physical form, there was still a tie to the world. Albeit one that could cut him loose at any moment. The Father of Time also wished to keep the mortal close because he understood the many layers of the word Avatāra, layers a human would never detect. Adi Parashakti had separated them thusly for a reason and Chronos was not assuming that it was a benevolent act. Not when his entirety of existence had been one long, painful lesson about expecting the worse.
                              
We have been stolen from ourselves to serve some purpose of theirs. Remember that when they start making demands. You have the power to say no. Chronos reminded his human counterpart. Ananke simply squeezed his hand tighter in response.
                              
Around them more voices were heard, an indistinct muttering that overlapped and wove into each other until all meanings were lost. There was an incomprehensible whole or nothing at all. Chronos recalled a mention of this phenomenon before, and it was always unsettling to realize he was being confronted with a fragment of Brahman. The infinite manifestation of the universe was even too complex for a flawed god like the fallen Titan to grasp completely. Chronos clutched at Ananke’s shoulders with his hands, gripping the mortal woman into a protective embrace and the Father of Time still knew it wouldn’t be safe for either of them. 
                              
The Trimurti spoke, three voices in unison. “We have need of Kalki.”
                              
The Tridevi added to the statement, their three voices a beat apart so that god and mortal had to listen closely to determine content. “The age of Kali Yurga must end.”
                              
Chronos. Don’t leave me. Ananke knew he’d hear her silent plea even as these other voices would not.
                              
I will not willingly go. Was the best promise Chronos could make. Because if these entities were truly determined to separate them, then Chronos knew he could use all of his Power and still not stop it from happening. He was ephemeral now and had spent epochs as such a creature, overlapping Time to also exist in a physical form, but these gods, demons and goddesses of the Hindi Pantheon came into existence as they were now. They were only bound to flesh when they chose to be incarnated as an avatar. Like he had bound himself to Ananke, this Pantheon had many of their own Vessels. In fact, a memory prodded Chronos until he pulled forward why the phrase Kali Yurga sounded familiar. Many cultures had their own prophecy for the end of the world. Mortals are obsessed with the Apocalypse. But only because their sovereign Pantheon are all committed to their own end of times. 
                              
But this Pantheon WANTED the end, while his own and the Norse had fought against it. Their concept of Time was a spiral of cycles and ages. A Yurga was a stage of time and the Kali Yurga was the age of the demon Kali. For them, they were already living in the closest version of Tartarus as this Pantheon reached. An end, any change at all, would be a benefit to them. Chronos feared for the safety of his mortal. He now knew which of the gods and goddesses were speaking to them. And that did not bode well for even his continued existence let alone hers. 
                              
Brahma paired with Saraswati, and Vishnu with Lakshmi were terribly powerful but not the source of his dread. Chronos understood the basics of their reasoning. No, it was the realization that Shiva and Shakati were working with them that offered untold panic. The creator, pur knowledge, the protector and prosperity were in league with the destroyer and cosmic energy. Total chaos is the only logical conclusion. His Ananke wouldn’t survive the confrontation, and Chronos was fairly certain she knew it the moment he had the thought himself.
                              
Don’t leave me. He parroted the request back to her.
                              
I will not willingly go. She mirrored back.