Zeus, in his guise as Jupiter, led his father to the waterfall below the Lasithi Plateau. "This is where I came out," he claimed, "I'm certain Prometheus knows the box is missing by now, but no one saw me disappear into this passage from the stronghold above. You should still have the advantage of surprise."
Prometheus's army had started to falter after Kronos dealt a few devastating blows with his new powers, but they had dug in on the slopes between him and the stronghold. The earthworks they'd erected prevented him from striking them all down with a gesture, and the steel-armed archers in the stronghold above prevented him (or any of his Titans) from striking from the air. Right now, Kronos's troops were trying to plow through the battle-line the old-fashioned way, fighting uphill to the stronghold, but Typhon and Echidna were leading the defending troops, and they were killing Kronos's soldiers in droves. He might be able to take down the two abominations, but it would be a great deal easier if he had the box and the key - with both, he could simply trap their Legacies and kill their hosts.
"Prometheus is still in his stronghold?" Kronos asked.
"He was when I left," Zeus said, "coordinating something in his map room. And... well... we know he doesn't fly..."
"These caves, will they take long to navigate?" the titan king asked.
"I can probably get you up to the palace by not much past high noon," Zeus said, "Depends on how cautious you are when it comes to crawling about in the dark."
"Let's go then," Kronos nodded.
The two titans passed through the waterfall and followed the rocks that ran alongside the small subterranean stream inside. Eventually, the rock trail wound away from the stream, and spiraled up into the dark, finally reaching a seemingly impassable wall. Zeus briefly transformed into an eagle to fly up to a hidden ledge in the darkness, and Kronos followed on his bat-like wings. The ledge marked the beginning of a long narrow tunnel that sloped upward, driving deep into the mountain. It was claustrophobic to say the least.
They finally exited the tunnel into what looked like a modestly sized chamber with various tunnels leading off in all directions, high and low - without a guide, Kronos would have had no idea which direction led to the stronghold. Zeus was leading him to the correct passage when the ambush came. A deep rumbling in the earth and a spike in the cavern's temperature announced Prometheus's arrival. The passage behind them caved in, cutting off all retreat.
"TRAITOR!" Kronos shouted. He turned and directed a bolt of lightning at 'Jupiter' but the titan shrugged it off as if it were nothing. "What... how is that..."
Zeus struck him hard against the jaw with one of his powerful fists, and grabbed Pandora's Box before retreating back.
"Toss me the key!" Zeus shouted into the dark, "I can take him now!"
Prometheus hesitated - what if Zeus couldn't handle Kronos in hand-to-hand? Or what if he fumbled the box and trapped Prometheus instead? How much did he really now about him?
"Toss me the box," Prometheus countered as he emerged into the chamber on a pillar of glowing red rock, "You pin him, and I'll capture him."
Zeus growled and began assaulting Kronos viciously, but even without the advantage of his powers, Kronos was a formidable enemy. Kronos shrank away his wings and increased the size and strength of the talons on his hands and feet. He enlarged his jaws and filled them with razor sharp teeth, and the small horns on his forehead grew and curved backward. He attacked Zeus ferociously, trying to bite him, claw him, or gore him. Zeus was resilient enough to survive the assault, but it was painful, and if Kronos got leverage on him, he might be able to do some real damage.
Kronos managed to strike Zeus hard enough in the head that the younger titan dropped the box, but when Kronos reached for the falling box, Zeus grabbed his father's monstrous wrist with one hand, and then braced it against the back of his other arm. Using his forearm as a fulcrum, Zeus twisted Kronos around and flung him face-first into a stone column, shattering it. Zeus kicked Kronos in the back of the knee, dropping him as he pulled his enemy's arm back and behind his back. With a powerful charge, Zeus rammed Kronos head-first through three more columns and took him to the ground.
"Do it!" Zeus shouted as Prometheus scrambled for the box, "Now!"
Kronos's body began to irradiate its black lightning. The air filled with the necrotic energy.
"It's no good, Kronos," Prometheus said, "These rocks were millions of years old when our ancestors came to this world, and they'll last millions of years after even we're dead."
Kronos growled, "Tell me, Prometheus, rocks may last forever, but how about caves?"
The energy built around Kronos, Zeus's hair began to change color, and Prometheus himself felt Mbomxolodur actively working to stave off his own aging. Water trickled from above, followed by dust, and finally by stalactites - Kronos was releasing enough energy to erode the cave, advancing its growth and decay by hundreds of thousands of years in a matter of seconds. If he'd done this above ground, the results for Crete would have been devastating.
Prometheus snapped the key into the box, but just as he got close to Kronos the titan king unleashed a bolt of ordinary lightning that knocked his enemy flat, sending the device clattering across the cavern floor.
As debris rained down from the cavern ceiling, space warped and Pandora and Macaria stepped through, shouting about the box and the key. Prometheus had no idea, at this point, whose side those two were on, if anyone's, so he dove for the device before they could reach it.
Kronos used his shape-shifting powers to stretch one of his arms just enough to grab Prometheus's ankle, stopping him short. He used his other arm to push hard off the ground, and then swung Prometheus around like a club, knocking Zeus away. Macaria snatched up the box, but when she didn't throw it to him, Kronos grabbed it and jolted the woman with a lightning bolt that tossed her back through the air.
Kronos wheeled about on Pandora and tried to open the box, only to discover that - somehow - the key was no longer in the lock. Pandora rolled it through her fingers casually with a smile. When Kronos demanded it, she flipped the coin into the air. Kronos lunged to grab it, but left himself open doing so.
Zeus body-slammed Kronos into another column, and then threw himself down on the titan king, putting all of his force behind one elbow. Kronos dropped the box again and landed on a cluster of sharp stalactites. While most of them crumbled under his body, one tore through his scrotum, ripping his testicles from his body.
Kronos screamed in anguish and began emanating more pulses of dark energy, but Zeus held him down with one knee, shouting for the box and key. Prometheus grabbed the box and tossed it to the younger titan, and after a moments delay, Pandora tossed him the key. Zeus locked the components together, held the box down next to Kronos's screaming face, and then opened it. The Legacy Kronos had stolen from one of Tartarus's prisoners was drawn from his body and funneled into the box.
Satisfied that the the box had done its job, Prometheus shouted for Zeus to finish Kronos. The titan's power was greatly reduced, and he was badly injured, but he was still dangerous, both as a warrior and as a leader. Instead, Zeus rolled off of Kronos and kicked his father at Prometheus, forcing his ally to deal with the flailing, panicked, castrated titan king.
Macaria shook her head, she was confused, disoriented - had the shock from Kronos done that, or... she didn't hear Morgania's voice in her head, but when she saw Zeus standing back holding the box, she did remember the conversation about the boxed A.I.s being damaged. She lunged for the box, trying to prevent the man from making a terrible mistake, but Zeus reacted as if she were attacking him. He grabbed her by the face, threw her to the ground, and stomped on her.
Pandora had used the momentary distraction while she had the coin to extract Morgania from Macaria, as planned, but then she'd had no choice but to give Zeus the coin lest Kronos kill everyone. Now Zeus was about to ruin Morgania's plan by gambling on whatever might randomly pop out of the box for him.
"Stop!" Pandora cried, holding up the small vessel with Morgania in it, "This is what you want! The Legacies in the box are damaged! This is pure, the real deal!"
Zeus looked at her like she was crazy to think he would fall for what had to be an obvious trick, and snapped the box open. Pandora started to move to intervene, but realized that there was little she could do - In these confined quarters, any spell she knew powerful enough to stop the man would likely cost her her own life. Morgania hadn't wanted any more of the potentially damaged A.I.s to be released, but Pandora hadn't lasted as long as she had by sacrificing her self whenever things turned south.
Whatever injury Kronos's powers had inflicted on Zeus was quickly undone by whichever Legacy had crawled out of the box and into his body. Except for his hair, which remained pure white, Zeus's body was fully restored to its former glory. Lightning crackled around his fists as he stashed the box in his satchel. He charged a bolt, prepared to dispatch Prometheus with his newly enhanced powers, but Pandora shouted out to warn her friend's lover.
To Zeus's annoyance, Prometheus twisted Kronos around to shield himself from the shock. When Prometheus fully realized he'd been betrayed, he created an iron gauntlet around one fist, superheated it, and smashed it through Kronos's back. The armored hand erupted from the titan's sternum like a new volcano, splattering burning blood and smoking rib bones.
Prometheus and Zeus charged at each other, hammering each other with blows - fire and lightning locked in battle. Zeus quickly realized that while he could hurt Prometheus with his lightning, his enemy could hurt him a great deal more with the arsenal of iron weapons he was producing from thin air. Zeus tried to back out of the fight, but Prometheus managed to skewer Zeus through the shoulder with a simple iron sword; it burned like nothing Zeus had ever experienced, but he reached up, grabbed the blade, and released a torrent of electricity through the conductive iron as he pulled it out.
Prometheus tumbled away in pain, but the master of fire quickly regained his feet and raised his hands, as if lifting something with great effort. The cavern shook and the floor split, hot steam breaking into the room as lava began to rise through the cracks. Zeus saw Pandora open a portal away from the place, and decided it was best to withdrawn from the fight while he was ahead. He ran and tackled the woman as she passed through the portal. Both disappeared leaving Prometheus alone with Macaria and Kronos's bodies in the crumbling cavern.
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