The Death of Time

When the reflection is a stranger…

Ananke was sitting in a first class seat, on her way to Greece and not entirely certain of what exactly was going to happen once they landed. In the pod seat next to her was the pleasantly smiling Herald and in a little pod of his own across the aisle was Hades. Only Chronos wasn’t free to actively enjoy the luxury of the flight and it was his constant bemoaning of the unfairness of it all that drove Ananke to call her therapist, just to have something else to listen to than a grown man’s whining.

She’d spent the bulk of her life being more than comfortably well off, and after her year of wandering, she had long grown accustomed to calling Dr. Callan from 30,000 feet up or even once from a submersible phone. Routine was the only thing that still anchored Ananke to the social world she once belonged to and it was Pavlolv's theory that kept her going through the paces. Ananke shook her head as once again Chronos simmered with anger at something he either overheard in her head, or over something on the plane they rode. For an eons old godling, he was far more mercurial than she had ever guessed an ancient, experienced being to be, though looking back on the myths and legends she'd learned in highschool this kind of behaviour was something she could have anticipated.

Your pathetic tomes and teachers could not have prepared you to even GUESS at what I am really like. I find it insulting that you even try to compare me to those pale, pitiful shades the myths present. Chronos grouse as the phone rang and clicked through. You're remembered and honoured, how arrogant do you have to be that that is not enough for you? Ananke shot back as Dr. Callan's office picked up the line. A hold, transfer and tone click later and 'nake was on the phone with her therapist.

"So where are we today Ananke?" Dr. Callan asked, voice smooth and soothing. Inside her mind Chronos was the exact opposite, painfully pushing on the boundaries between his mind and Ananke's. You're wasting your time on the phone with this mortal.

"Today we are on a flight to Greece. I am sitting between two immortals and with a voice in my head claiming to be a third one." she admitted calmly, seeing Herald watching her with an amused glimmer in his eyes. For a man who had given up so much and had so many responsibilities, he was far happier than most would assume him to be. I am not 'claiming' to be an Immortal you disrespectful whore, I AM god and once King. Chronos raged and Ananke did something that truely infuriated him; she ignored him.

Dr. Callan was laughing on the other side of the phone, thinking that Ananke's confession was just a jest. "Are they at least easy on the eyes Ananke?" Dr. Callan asked jokingly, playing along because normally 'nake showed no signs of having a sense of humour anymore.

"Relatively. Though obviously I cannot judge the incorporeal one. He has a wonderful oration voice but tends to dramatic tempertantrums far too frequently." Ananke described the men she was surrounded by while Chronos continued to swear sulfuriously at her. She was actually growing accustomed to the pain his anger caused them both and just accepted the reality of it. There wasn't much she could do otherwise, it didn't take very much to set the Father of Time off.

Dr. Callan made a weird sound that didn't translate well over the planephone, but Ananke recognized it as a throat clearing. Onto the interrogation time then. "So tell me what's really happening inside your mind Ananke."

Ananke hesitated for a fraction of a second. Here was her chance to confess that she really was insane; that there was a voice inside her mind that caused her pain, tried to control her and was making her do things that she had no clue of in advance. Pretty much a textbook case of schizophrenia and yet 'nake held her tongue. With a sense of shock, she realized that she wanted to keep the journey going, even if it was just inside her mind. The trauma that had driven her from her old life was still painful and fresh, still too hard for her to confront head on and this was another distraction for her to distance herself from it, to keep herself safe from the pain.

"I have no plans this time. Nothing plotted out in advance. I did not even know my destination until I was in the airport." Ananke said instead, sticking to the truth and just omitting a few details. Like the fact that Hades, the Greek god of the Underworld was her guide and Herald, an immortal was her travelling companion. Or that Chronos was the man in her head and he really had emotional issues to deal with.

"Does it scare you, to be heading out without the safety net of planning?" Dr. Callan asked, unaware of the many other more pertinent questions to ask. I have emotional issues? Chronos demanded, aware of some of her internal monologue but not all of it. Just what applied to him it seemed. You have a huge gaping black hole where your emotional self should be. YOU'RE the one who's broken inside not me. Don't pu- Enough. Ananke shut the god off inside her head, shoving him back into the corner she allowed him. He already knew she could bounce him out, and things like this certainly did not make having him inside her head any easier, but it was quite a lot harder to hold two conversations at once when one was internal and one external and both happening at the same time.

"I'm not scared, no. A little uncomfortable to be working with a team I know nothing about and seem to clash with though." Ananke said outloud, sounding as distracted as she felt. Her stomach once again demanded fuel, burning nearly twice as much to sustain two souls in one body.

"It's been a while since you were in a situation to connect with a team." Dr. Callan pointed out carefully. They were starting to tread on the topics that made Ananke cold for hours after her sessions. Her last team had had just lost her trust but had broken it so completely that Ananke had never really recovered. Dr. Callan had probed the edges of the issue over the last year but still Ananke felt herself retreating from the danger zone.

"It's not a team so much as a temporary solution." Ananke quickly retorted, unaware that Chronos was leaking out of his 'cage' and back into the spaces he normally took up as Ananke emotionally retreated.

Dr. Callan sighed, already knowing that today would not be the day a breakthrough was made. "Why not start with trying to find some common ground between yourself and your... colleages then? I think it's a good thing that you're willing to take the risk and try to reconnect with others. Eventually you will regain your ability to have a close relationship with others." the encouraging words made the corner of Ananke's mouth twitch a little. Close? If we were any more intimate I'd have to urinate sitting down. Which I already have to do thanks to your body so that's possibly a poor analogy. Chronos offered in jest, the lack of animosity actually making Ananke suspicious. What she was unaware of was the fact that he had felt the 'emotionless void' that was inside Ananke echo out some of the pain she buried inside. And even if he had no respect for her and couldn't stand to be subservient to a woman, while inside her body, he had to respect the fact that she had the burden on her heart and carried on anyways. He had bourne his own share of pain and it was never something to mock.

Ananke rubbed at her face and forehead, rubbing her thumb between her brows to try and tease the tension headache brewing. She was under strain from 'sharing' with Chronos, but the headache was mostly from the pressure of flying in an airplane. Hades and Herald were both watching her now but she ignored them, trying to listen to the suggestions from her therapist. Dr. Callan always insisted that Ananke could call at anytime, for any reason, but 'nake rarely ever took the therapist up on the offer. It just felt too much like self mutilation to keep picking at the emotional scab.

"I think I'll do what you suggest. Thanks for listening Doc." Ananke cut the doctor off mid sentence and hung up without saying goodbye. It was rude but the pulse in her head was throbbing and she used both hands to try and massage her temples.

Something's not right. Chronos stated and even though Ananke could see the other two immortals speaking to her, she couldn't hear them. Her hearing was filled with a strange ringing sound and she felt faint and fuzzy, like she was about to pass out. Instead she felt the tension leave her body and fell into a vision. This was the first time it had ever hurt like that and 'nake only had a brief second to wonder if it was Chronos' presence that made it much worse than normal.

Ananke was standing in a massive metal structure. It looked like the metal had grown out of the ground like vines and had been shaped into the building form by hand, over millenia. The air around her was heavy and thick and there was this low pitched, heavy bass throb that sounded regularily. Pain hit her in the gut like a gunshot and she dropped to her knees with a hoarse yell.

The sound echoed into the vast chamber she stood in and then silence swallowed all sound, as if it was hunting down the intruder. 'nake stilled, feeling a threat loom closer and when a pair of hands touched her shoulder she spun and drove her fist into the attacker's stomach. A handsome black man oofed out his air and stumbled a few steps back. Ananke regained her feet, moving cautiously away from the man while he gasped and tried to get air to speak. The room around them groaned out a strange sound and the handsome man's face twisted in a snarl of rage. Ananke didn't wait around after that, she broke into a run, not used to being an active player in the visions.

Behind her she heard the sounds of pursuit and he called out her name in a terribly familiar voice, but she bolted away regardless, an irrational panic starting to bleed into her chest. Her fleet feet took her to the far end of the chamber where she saw something grow larger as she approached. From the far side, it looked like a box and was unintimidating. As she approached it, Ananke unconsciously slowed down to gawk. Thankfully the man chasing her slowed as well and didn't try to touch her again, seeming to realize the potential for it to go very bad.

The box was a lot more complicated than it seemed from afar. It was a large metal and glass container holding... something she couldn't identify. There were these metal veins leading from the thing in the box to the thing on the box. It wasn't until the man that had chased her reached out to gently touch it that she realized it was a body. The veins burrowed under the man's skin and he was the exact same shade of steel grey, his humanity stripped away by duty. And as she watched the man caress the captive, she realized this was the Heart of Time and Chronos' body. So the blackman standing next to her had to be Chronos' as well, but as his body would be if it worked.

Before she could say anything of her discovery, Chronos pulled his hand away from the Heart and his physical self, and the hand was coated in blood. "I'm dying." he said, voice shocked, awed and a little relieved.

Ananke opened her eyes with a large gasp in of air and startled Herlad and Hades both. Inside her mind Chronos was keening with the knowledge that his body was dying along with the Heartm his grief somehow not painful to Ananke even though she bore her own. "We have a problem." her voice was layered with Chronos' when she spoke but as she shook her head to clear the last of the vision, she felt them settle back into seperate pieces. "Your father's body is dying along with Time." she announced and saw the god of the Dead grow pale.