HADES: Resurrection

Chapter Three - The End, Part One

ChapterThree – The End ~ Part One

Dark clouds gathered above Mt Olympus, as if the sky itself knew what was to come and was sick at heart about it. It is perhaps appropriate that it was on a hot and thundery day that Rhea went into labour with her fourth child; the child whose birth would change everything.

Though her personal entourage of frantic angels gathered around her as she felt the first contractions, Rhea had other things on her mind than labour. She had known for a long time that this happy occasion would be marred by a tragedy born of necessity; that she could not keep her baby, or watch him grow up.

But, when it was over and she looked exhaustedly into Zeus' pure violet blue eyes for the first time, she knew that she was doing the right thing. His pale skin and his platinum blond tufts were the very image of his father.

If that much was true...

'The oracle may have been right about you so far,' his mother whispered to him, 'but I cannot and will not believe that you, my helpless little son, are any kind of threat. I trust you, my love. I trust you with our future, because in securing yours, I am giving up my own.'

Rhea stroked his impossibly soft cheek,and the baby wrapped his tiny digits around her finger. Tortured tears fell from her eyes to her son's newborn face, but her resolve was hard and fast, and she looked up to her faithful attendants.

'Take him to Crete with no detours along the way; Amalthea is waiting to receive him.' She lowered her voice. 'And you all know not to breathe a word of this to my husband, don't you?'

The angels nodded grimly and did as instructed. Many were crying for their beloved mistress.

As her baby was bundled up and taken from her arms, Rhea felt a part of her soul break loose and die. 'Please,'she whispered, 'take good care of my little Zeus.'

*

In the gardens of the castle, where the news of the newest royal sibling's arrival had not yet reached, Demeter and Poseidon stared each other down in the bitingly cold late afternoon air.

'I am not your possession,' Demeter said, her face uncharacteristically darkened with anger. Thunder rolled around her, but did not drown out her clear, firm voice. 'You cannot tell me where I can and can't be, and who I should or shouldn't be with!'

'I'm only looking out for you,' said Poseidon, his hands clenching into fists of exasperation. 'Isn't that what a man should do for the woman he loves? Being down on earth with humans all the time is wrong. It can only end in tragedy. You're supposed to be up here with us.'

'With you, you mean.'

'Yes! Is that so bloody strange, that I ask you to be by my side?'

Hades, in the middle, turned his head from one to the other as though watching an awful game of catch-the-ball.

'Whoever said I had to be by your side all the given hours of the day? I shouldn't have to justify my actions to you, Poseidon! This is my life!'

'I thought it was our life? Or don't you love me anymore?' 

Demeter gulped, her face flaming, but whether it was with humiliation or rage was unclear. As though remembering his presence, she turned to Hades. 'Go inside,little one.' 

'You stay right there!' said Poseidon, as his brother began to back away. 

'You want him to hear us arguing?'