Descendants of war | Stray Kids AU fanfiction

Prometheus's page: the curse of time

Jisung's narrative

How did Prometheus have a kid? Wasn't he punished for eternity? How do I exist? Why do I exist? Why am I here?

I exist because Zeus had come to the conclusion that my father's punishment wouldn't change a thing. He demanded for my father to have a descent to whom he would eventually pass the burden of his shame and failure. That's me.

Hesione is my mother. A water nymph. Dear to my father and a loving nurturing figure. But she's not a mother to me. She's a nanny, a guardian, a tree from where I bloomed. Not a mother. Hesione was not ready to have a child. She turned to the ocean as soon as I was old enough to feed myself.

She left me in front of my father and forced me to watch the prey birds eating his liver daily. He didn't flinch. He looked at me with a sad smile and assured me he was going to be okay. Until I grew sick of it. Until I caught one eagle between my small hands and snapped his neck. The blood covered my hands as I stared blankly at my work.

"Oh, son..."

"I saved you!" I brought the dead bird closer to him.

"You just enraged Zeus. He'll send two tomorrow."

"It's not fair!"

"Nothing is fair, son. Except for death. And we can't even enjoy that as titans. We'll live in misery and pain forever. That little bird you just killed means nothing next to an eternity of pain."

I was too young to understand what he meant. And I didn't until I slowly realized that everything was moving. Everything. The trees were dying, new ones were growing, the ocean was raising, the weather was changing and new heroes were making a name for themselves. I was still in the same place, breaking the necks of the eagles sent by Zeus.

My father looked the same, I looked a bit older, but nothing changed. I lost count of time, I lost the brief mental image of my mother that I held in my memory. Nothing made sense. I grew intrigued of the death itself. How it worked, how were people chosen, what was after it. I wanted to know how it felt. If it was liberating as my father said. If it was painfully horrifying.

"You're a titan, Jisung. You can go to the Underworld and explore if that's what you desire. I don't want you to sit here and stain your hands with blood until the end of time. However, I shall ask for a favour. Do not forget me, son. The body doesn't age, but the mind does. Do not forget who your father is and what did he fight for."

"I'll return to you, father! I promise!"

I looked up at him and swore to find my way back to him after I achieved what I intended.

I spent a thousand years in the Underworld. I've seen everything. I watched the empires fall and the evil rise. I was called in front of Hades to swear on my life I would never disturb the peace he created underneath.

And I met Yuqi. My first friend. A little girl who could manipulate her age, could battle time and play with death. But she couldn't kill me. She tried. Over and over again.

"What's going on?" I asked one day when I spotted a whole army marching along the Styx river.

"Fallen soldiers. The Trojan War shows no mercy." Yuqi explained.
"My father's been busy with all these deaths."

"Are you saying that humans did this to each other?"

"With the Gods' aid, of course! That's all they care about! War."

"Humans are so fragile. Why would they fight knowing they could die so easily?"

"Because they know how to live life."

And then it hit me. Maybe I could learn from them how to live. How to win against time. Humans were limited by time. Few of them could reach 80 years old, not to mention 100. Yet they were reckless, curious and adventurous. I could observe them and learn. I had to get to Earth.

And so I did. I promised Yuqi to return constantly and began my journey on Earth, disguised as a human.

I wandered the Earth with no purpose and no feeling of time. Everything was moving even faster around me. One blink of an eye and a house was taken down and a new one built on top of it.

If in the Underworld the time stayed frozen and in the Olympus everything moved painfully slow, on Earth every second mattered.

Yet I was still outside of time. I was just a spectator. Unable to blend with them and feel the sweet release of death.

However, something happened. I met the son of Ares, the grandson of my enemy, and he wasted no time before attacking me. It became a routine. A never-ending fight since none of us would cowardly admit defeat.

And a strong feeling bloomed inside me.

Was I too reckless around him? Did I need to guard my heart too? But I felt alive each time I was with him. Each morning I found myself eager to see him again. The time moved so slow as my thoughts roamed on his presence and so fast when I was next to him. Was I finally feeling the passing of time as a mortal would? I wanted my moments with him to last forever and my moments without him to pass by like a rushing carriage.

And with him I learned that everyone can be a victim of time.

When his father gave him an ultimatum, to choose between being a fully God or a forest Nymph, he sealed both our fates. I had to pick as well.

Mortality or loneliness.

Both sounded so cruel without Minho by my side...