Atlas and Lapetus succeeded in their task. A clamour rose from my subjects and my family members that didn't know. Kronos had gone mad was what they said. Kronos is becoming like his father they whispered. I acted as if those words were inexistent.

 

I called back all the troops of Othrys from their different campaigns outside of my kingdom. I threw myself into learning sorceries to strengthen my armies.

 

With the help of a Titaness of the third generation, Hecate, I devised a spell that caused the strength of the Ecatoncheires and Cyclops to seep away from them.

 

 

 

I knew that I was acting like a creature on the verge of annihilation but the life inside Rhea was growing minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day.

 

The halls of my castle felt colder and less lively. I could hear from the mountain where my castle was the voices and whispers of my subjects both mortal and immortal.

 

 

The young Titans thought I didn't know but I knew of their anger, of their words face to what they saw as an injustice.

 

It angered me and made me want to strike them down. U would have if he didn't know that it would hurt my siblings even if they would accept it and if it didn't remind me of what Ouranos would have done.

 

They didn't understand that the comfort they were born in, the opulence and the freedom they benefitted from just by coming into the world was something that my siblings and I bled and fought for the mere possibility of such things.

 

They didn't know what it was like to cower away in the dark, in the entrails of the earth because you were scared.

 

They didn't know what it was like to have an uncaring parent who would only feel joy towards you when you suffered.

 

They didn't know what it was like to be broken, confronted by your end and still fight with the unlimited strength coming from despair.

 

 

They could complain to their parents but their parents, the elder Titans and my siblings would never truly respect them, or listen to their words because they had done nothing to deserve everything they were born with.

 

 

I needed to distance myself away from everything before I made an error, before I did another thing that I would regret.

 

I walked toward one of the terraces of Othrys. On my way, servants opened a way before me doing everything to not touch me, to evade me as if a touch would be enough to turn them nought.

 

I took a deep breath and with a flex of my will found myself away from Gaia in the cold and dark body of Khaos.

 

I dug deep inside into the inheritance I received from my mother at my birth, over my dominion over the earth and nature. I extended my right arm, palm turned toward nothing.

 

In the beginning, nothing happened until rocks exploded from my palm like a geyser. They continued to flow under my will forming a gigantic sphere bigger than the moon.

 

With my other hand, I called upon the other side of his inheritance. Whether I wanted it or not, I was the son of the primordial god of the sky and that meant that I had inherited much from my Primordial father.

 

I used the power inherited from my father and put pressure on one of the components of air until it turned liquid. I brought for another gas and did the same before finally putting a gaseous outer layer.

 

 

I closed my eyes. He released all my anger, my sadness, all of my doubts and despair into the emptiness around me. When I opened them, I found myself now in a sphere at least ten times the diameter of Gaia.

 

 

I was in a tempest. I would have probably been shredded to nothing if I wasn't a Titan. The planetoid he had created was adorned by a ring.

 

I had created an abominable replica of Gaia too big, too harsh and too different yet I felt at peace in my creation. My examination of the planet was stopped by a voice, something that should have been impossible because I had been alone seconds ago.

 

 

I turned towards the owner of the voice. It was her. It was the cause of all the fears and joys within my heart. It was Rhea.

 

 

"Can we please talk?" she asked me.

 

I wanted to find an excuse not to but a look into her eyes crumbled into nothing my will. She presented her hand to me waiting for me to grab it.

 

 

I grabbed it and we disappeared away from the planet I had created to what seemed to be Selene body but I could still feel Gaia too far away from us for it to be true.

 

 

I turned toward Rhea "I saw what you made but it felt so big and empty, so alone so I made numerous Selene-like replicas around it".

 

She laid down on her back on the ground. "It feels comfortable, try it Kronos".

 

A sigh escaped me but I capitulated and laid down. We could see from where we were the creation of Kronos in its entirety. "What will you name it?"

 

 

 

"The planetoid?"

 

"Uh-hu" Rhea confirmed.

 

"I don't know to be honest. It was an unexpected action that I didn't expect to take." I spoke softly.

 

"What you created…it reeks of despair Kronos. I can feel it as if it was mine. I don't understand things most beings do. I don't know when it is appropriate to be sad or happy. I can't feel as much as mortals and immortals yet I feel like, no I know that something is wrong."

 

"Rhea," I breathed. "It is complicated".

 

"I don't care Kronos! I told you, promised you that day between the stars that I will always love you, that nothing you will do would change it. But how can I help when you don't want me to?"

 

"The truth is that I'm scared Rhea. I still remember your words yet I still worry. Koios and Phoebe read the future and in it saw the end of Othrys, my end Rhea" I told her softly.

 

"No, no it is wrong! There must be something wrong with their viewing. Not now." All of a sudden, the deity stopped panicking "Where was I" Rhea asked me. "Where was I in that accursed future."

 

"You weren't there" I replied to her. Rhea looked as if I had slapped her. She probably wasn't there either because my future children found a way to beat her or because Rhea abandoned me.

 

"It's not your fault," I told her trying to reassure her. "You can't always be there."

 

"You're wrong Kronos," she said. Molten-golden stars fell from her left eye and scalded her skin.

 

I put my hand on her cheek and wiped away the tear with one of my fingers. It burnt through my skin but my hand remained on Rhea's face.

 

 

 

"I promised you that I would always be there but Ananke's cruelty is unmatched" Rhea spoke. Her head was turned downward not meeting his gaze anymore.

 

"Rhea, Look at me, please" I begged her.

 

"There is something important I need to tell you. I love you. I love you, Rhea. I rarely say it but I want you to know that. I want you to know that everything I do is because of my siblings and you. I make errors, and mistakes and even Ananke is against me but it's ok. As long as you never forget everything I love you and as long as you're with me, I'll be fine. May I kiss you?" I asked her.

 

 

"As if you needed to ask," she answered and I kissed her.

 

One thing that would never change was that I was a coward. I was at my core someone whom fear clung to, someone who represented the passing of time yet was scared of it. Maybe things could have been different. Maybe I could have taken actions that would produce another result. In the end, it didn't matter because no one escaped Ananke and its threads.

 

*scene*

 

Not a long time after our talk in the void of Khaos, Rhea gave birth to a child, to a newborn deity in her father's domain. She came to Othrys immediately after to present the child to my siblings and me as it was proper. A child who was the beginning of our doom. I wasn't alone when Rhea came to present me the newborn. Hyperion, Phoebe and Koios were at my side. They knew too of the danger the child presented. My grip tightened over my scythe. I couldn't decide whether it was fortunate or unfortunate that they were there.

 

 

"Our child Kronos" Rhea told me while giving me the baby wrapped in bundles of silk and gold. My first thought holding her was that she was warm but not in a scalding way. It felt recomforting like a respite. Living flames flickered in and out of existence around the newborn. The newborn deity was a girl. She had inherited my dark hair and golden eyes. She didn't look ugly like most newborns did in nature. She looked like a finely sculpted doll. Unlike mine whose eyes looked cold, hers looked warm. I could see intelligence in the eyes of the infant deity. She would probably grow quickly as many deities did instead of staying a baby for a long time like most non-divine children did.

 

I had in his hands one of the if not the future cause of the destruction of everything I held dear. I had planned to slay the child with my scythe the first time he saw them.

 

It would be so easy. It would be the logical thing to do. One slash and the future of Othrys would be assured. One slash and my family would remain whole.

 

He I feel the heavy gaze of the other Uranides on me waiting for me to do what was necessary. In the future, I would reflect on that moment. One slash and Othrys would have remained. Alas, I had always been a fool and looking into the eyes of the child, my child, I failed to do what should have been done.

 

My fear was to become like my father and in ensuring the contrary of my progenitor, I ensured my fall.

 

I turned toward Rhea "Did you name her?" I asked her softly.

 

Rhea shook her head in a negative gesture "I didn't. I had ideas but I wanted you, her father to name her".

 

I looked at the fire in the eyes of my daughter, at the warmth she made me feel inside. "Hestia," I finally said. "She will be named Hestia so that her fire may create warmth and solace in those around her who need it."

 

 

I wished that by choosing this name, Hestia's flames never become ones of destruction, flames that would never render Othrys to ashes and dust.

 

 

I kept my focus on my child and tried to think about a future I knew i could never have.