The Death of Time

In an isolated cabin, deep in the heart of humanity......

Hades could feel the descendant approaching and wondered how much of a fight he would have on his hands. If this Ananke is truly your descendant, expect him to be quarrelsome, opinionated, lazy and a little evil. Chronos laughed, the sound echoing in the recesses of Hade’s mind.  There were once many of this kind of progeny; those who carried his own blood, or those of his Olympian brethren. But that was from before Persephone and Hades hadn't fathered any children in centuries. So his bloodline had thinned, almost completely bred back to mortal normalicy.

There had been a few requirements that Chronos had insisted on for the descendant that he was going to possess. Because his body was lashed in placed against the Heart of Time, Chronos' mind had by necessity developed a way to oversee the Flow of Time. Sometimes events started to occur a little too quickly or lag behind somehow. Times when Destiny needed a little help. He was the Keeper and he took pride in being able to handle anything his imprisonment forced upon him. But he'd been unable to search out whatever was harming his Heart this time and it infuriated him that he had to go to anyone for assistance. Thankfully he expected to simply dominate the weak mind of whatever far distant relation was going to play slave to his intellect. They'd likely have no memory of the events and thankfully he didn't care a whit if they had to be discarded.

"You seem to forget that you're the one that tried to kill me and my brothers, not the other way around." Hades chided his father gently. He could almost feel the man's answering snarl in the timbre of his voice. I was cursed into action and you all know it! The more I tried to warn you all, the worst my behaviour became. Chronos angered quickly.

Hades flinched at the fury in the Time Keeper's voice, feeling the pain of it lash him like a whip. "I'm here now aren't I? I can't undo what has been done so this is what you're stuck with. Beating me will serve no purpose. Now I think you might want to wait while I warm this Ananke up to the idea." He felt the air around him still almost perceptibly as Chronos settled and contained himself.

The timing was excellent as the door to the small cabin opened and Hades was given his first surprise of the night. Chronos had found a resonation in the blood line that told him here was the candidate they needed. With the resonation came a name and a location but Hades and the equally stunned Chronos had never even suspected that the one they needed would be a female. None of the Olympian descendants had turned out ugly or plain. The woman he openly admired was exotic, a mixed ancestry that left her high cheekboned and stunning. Due to his own, special gifts, Hades was able to feel death lingering around her and he knew the reason she was a broken woman. His father remained oblivious, still stunned and furious that it was a woman he'd possess.

The look in the woman's eyes was disturbing because she didn't look the least bit stunned to see him waiting there for her. She was startled for a second, and then he saw the calm acceptance of it in her eyes. He had never seen anything like it in a human before and he could help but smirk at her. She seemed to not be the least bit uncomfortable unclasping her heavy backpack and shucking her warm outer layers without saying a thing. Hades admired her athletic figure as she stripped off the bulky layers of clothes and equipment that had kept her alive in her ascent.

When she had finally stripped down to the leggings she wore and a tank top, Ananke put her hands on her hips and looked at the man not subtly check her out. "Let me guess, you're Hades." her voice was calm, lacking in emotion and judgement, as if she had said something as basic as 'human's need to breathe air'.

To say that her comment was met with stunned silence would have been an understatement. Hades stared at her in horrified shock and he could feel Chronos actually start to regard this woman with a slightly less overwhelming amount of disgust. "What did you just say?" Hades demanded, finally realizing that she was going to stay quiet until he responded. This woman's patience seemed unnatural and left both Hades and Chronos feeling unnerved.

The woman didn't smile, didn't sigh, didn't do any of the things Hades would have expected a woman to do when she was confronted with a strange man in her isolated cabin, far from help. He had been prepared for a lot of things, but having the descendant turn up female and ready for him was not something that occured to him. "You're Hades. I just want to know where the other one is." she crossed her arms over her chest. The move wasn't because she was uncomfortable or cold, but instead because Hades had been checking out her cleavage again.

"Other...one?" Hades asked, stalling. He could feel Chronos' indignant anger and tried not to flinch as it burned inside his mind.

"Yes, that Chronos fellow. I know that if you're here, he's near by too. So where is he?" the woman demanded and Hades actually sat down in his shock. Unfortunately for him, he was the only one shocked into silence, Chronos decided to speak up.

"I am no mere fellow you pathetic mortal." Chronos rumbled, ursurping Hade's mouth to speak through.

The woman in front of him just calmly blinked, no reaction on her face as an entirely different voice spoke through Hades' mouth. There was no sign externally of the dual personalities wearing one flesh, Hades being one of the few to not simply be overwhelemed by Chronos, but internally Chronos and Hades were struggling to assert dominance of the flesh. It was completely unsettling for both men to be confronted by someone who seemed to have an infinite amount of patience as she watched them, waiting for some kid of explanation.

Anyone else would have been screaming and running for the literal hills, but Ananke just.... felt nothing. She hadn't felt a single thing properly since the 'accident', and she knew that she should be afraid, but she felt nothing. She was a little hungry and would like to take a shower, but seeing a strangely handsome man in her cabin, speaking to her with two entirely different voices ellicited a sense of boredom from her, nothing more. 'nake wondered for a moment if she'd finally stepped off the deep-end and gone insane, but she really couldn't care. Other than the still pressing need to keep moving, she had no goals, nothing to hurry towards. Part of her calm was the broken state her emotions had been in for most of the year, but a part of it was the assurance she had from the vision. This man in front of her wasn't quite the stranger he should have been, she knew that somehow, her vision had been warning her of what was to come. He/They needed something that only she could provide, and it was up to her whether or not it happened.

"I am Hades, yes. Although you cannot see him, Chronos is here with us as well." Hades managed to say through his clenched teeth, finally pushing Chronos back. The soul that wore the flesh was always more rooted in and could eventually succeed, if they had the endurance to. The woman in front of him raised her eyebrow, the most facial expression he'd seen yet.

"Alright. I'm Ananke. Would you like a cup of tea?" she asked calmly, turning her back to the man and seeming to accept without question that there was an invisible man in the room.

"You really are a remarkable woman." Hades said outloud, making Ananke freeze and look back at him, for a moment her face was a little less empty than it had been though even Hades couldn't recognize the emotion.

"At least you know your place." Chronos barked out while Hades tried to figure out the woman's angle. Hades wanted to smack his own forehead for his father's comment, but the woman just ignored it and made tea like she offered.

"For a man with no body, you do an awful lot of big talking. I think it's called the Napoleon complex." Ananke remarked calmly from the kitchen.

"Napoleon was actually rather tall. The misconception came into place because he selected his guards to all be over six feet tall, making him look disproportionately short." Chronos rebuked and Hades thought for a second he caught Ananke's lip twitch. He hated being in the backseat of his own body, but it was critical that these two be able to work together, and frankly this had been the least offensive thing his father had said yet.

"True but neither Oedopis nor Electra actually ever existed and we still have complexes named after them, so at least Napoleon's was only a misunderstanding and not an outright lie." Ananke replied conversationally while she brought out two mugs of tea. She set one down close to Hades and sat on the same small couch he'd perched on.

Hades smiled softly, thinking that maybe this wouldn't be so terribly hard to do. Ananke was the descendant the bloodline needed and so far she had been able to take Chronos'.... unique personality in stride. Now he just needed a way to get the conversation headed in the direction he wanted so they could both warm up to the idea. Of course, Hades' plans hinged on Chronos behaving himself and that was apparently just too much to ask.

"I need to make use of your body." Chronos stated boldly and this time Hades did face palm.