Prometheus used his powers to slide through the rocks as he debated whether to declare the battle a victory or a defeat. Kronos was dead, but Zeus had betrayed him the second the deed had been done. It seemed now that the seemingly endless cycle of war had turned once again, and he would be at war with Zeus now instead of Kronos. Fortunately, Zeus seemed more reasonable than Kronos - negotiation might still be a viable recourse - and even if it wasn't, Zeus's storm powers would be much less of a threat to Prometheus's human army than Kronos's withering necrotic powers, and an army is one thing Prometheus had that Zeus didn't.
Or at least, that was what he thought.
When Prometheus burst from the rocks above he had to blink several times to restore his vision in the midday sun. At first, all he could see was a strange sort of fertile desolation. The blackened fields of charred lumber had been completely consumed by trees and bushes of every sort, as if two hundred years had passed. The stronghold above him had disintegrated, as if centuries had passed without maintenance, and the mountainside leading to the stronghold was covered in white stones. Prometheus listened for a moment and heard not but the wind in the new trees. He didn't hear any soldiers fighting or even milling about. Prometheus began to walk up to the ruined stronghold across the field of white rock, but as his vision adjusted to the bright light, he realize he wasn't walking across rocks, but bleached bones. Prometheus stopped and surveyed his surroundings - the boneyard stretched from the stronghold down into the woods below.
"Typhon!" Prometheus shouted, "Echidna?!"
When Prometheus had seen Kronos struggle with the earthen barricades and trenches his human soldiers had dug into, he'd assumed that the cave below the plateau would effectively contain Kronos's powers. Apparently, there was a limit - a large amount of the necrotic power had managed to escape into the valley. All the humans who'd been battling in the valley - thousands of men and women fighting for Prometheus or for Kronos - had all withered and died, reduced to dust alongside their iron weapons.
Prometheus collapsed to his knees. His first thought was that he had failed Hekate, but after several moments of cathartic screaming he decided that he owed it to her to press on and see how far the damage extended.
Prometheus staggered down the road towards Knossos. The explosion of necrotic energy had traveled miles from the valley, reducing villages to archaeological curiosities marked by weathered foundation blocks and shattered pottery. The wilderness and roads alike were littered with the bones of men and animals. Prometheus wondered what had happened to all of the Titans, and then he noticed how gravely weakened he was - not from the direct effects of Kronos's spell, but from the loss of his human followers. Even the lower status titans likely moved away from the uninhabited region in search of living people to parasiticize.
However, Prometheus's heart sank more and more, the closer he got to Knossos without any sign of animal life. His despair became so great that he was elated to hear the sounds of battle. He broke into a run, the fastest he could manage, and crested a hill to the east of Knossos.
The shanty town outside of Knossos was gone, wiped out by Kronos's decay, and much of Knossos itself had clearly been weakened by that same force. What was left of the city was disintegrating as Prometheus watched - a massive battle among the titans had consumed the city - the earth quaked and lightning rained from the sky, as strange creatures brawled in the streets.
Prometheus approached the city cautiously, not sure what the sides were, if there were any sides at all. There were dead titans everywhere, killed by a variety of forces and in different states of decay. It looked as if the city had been under siege for months, not days, prompting Prometheus to wonder how long it had actually taken him to regain control of the mountain after Zeus and Pandora had fled from the cavern. He'd assumed it was a matter of minutes, but Kronos's attack had rattled his sense of time, and he'd been underground, out of sight of the sun and stars... was it possible he'd been slow in his escape? Could months, even years have gone by since he'd fought Kronos and Zeus?
A shimmer of light preceded a familiar voice, "Hello Prometheus."
The titan turned to see Pandora standing in the shelter of a partially collapsed wall. He darted over to her, "What's going on? What happened after you left me in that cave?"
"Zeus forced me to release his siblings so that he could make them Legacy Bearers."
"All of them?" Prometheus asked.
Pandora nodded, "And Zeus has released more Legacy Bearers from Tartarus since then."
"I failed them..." Prometheus fell back against the wall and slid down.
"Hekate and Morgania?"
"Hekate and Lemania."
Pandora looked at him with genuine pity - she didn't know who Lemania was, but she had known Hekate well enough to see the tragedy. It might seem petty to shed a tear for the two titans, considering how much loss and pain the people of Crete as a whole had endured, but it was difficult not to. So much happiness the two of them could have had... it made it all the more terrible for it all to end up this way.
"How long was I in that cave?" Prometheus asked her, "How long did it take me to dig myself out?"
Pandora looked at him with obvious shock, "You don't remember?"
"What? How long? No."
"You didn't dig your way out Prometheus. Zeus wanted your Legacy, so he sent Hades to drag you out of the rubble. He found you in the pod that Amalthea had used to raise Zeus."
"What I..." Dissonant flashes started to compose themselves in his mind - it had taken every ounce of power Prometheus had to stop the cavern's collapse from turning into a devastating eruption. He'd succeeded at averting disaster, but had still been trapped in the dwindling cave. He'd run, trying to make it to the stronghold's secret passage, but had instead ended up in the portion of the cave Zeus had sheltered in for decades. Not wanting to die of suffocation or starvation, Prometheus had taken a risk - he'd activated the suspended animation pod and climbed in.
"But... why do I remember digging my way out, and then walking for days through the wilderness and... Oh. Oh, I see. That's rather macabre, isn't it?"
"I'm sorry Prometheus," Pandora said, "I did what I could. Zeus didn't believe me when I told him the box might damage the A.I.s held within it, but it was very important to him he be able to control who he gave the Legacy of Mbomxolodur to, so I was able to convince him to store your A.I. in a separate vessel." Pandora snapped her fingers and a small capsule appeared, with a key slot similar to the box.
"You had one of those in the cave too...?" Prometheus said.
"Yes, for Morgania. She was the one controlling Macaria's body. When I saw an opportunity, I palmed the key and used it to trap Morgania while you and Zeus were occupied with Kronos - Zeus has no idea what happened to her - as far as he knows, Morgania died when Macaria stabbed Hekate in the back."
"So Zeus has my Legacy now," Prometheus said.
"Yes, he's planning to give it to his future son. Of course, given the nature of Mbomxolodur, his son will have no recollection of any of his successors, including you."
Prometheus chuckled, "Wow, I literally saw that coming and completely didn't understand what I was looking at. What about the others?"
"Zeus defeated Typhon and Echidna the day we left you, but he knew there would be other adversaries to defeat, and he eventually turned to Tartarus for allies - first his siblings, and then anyone he could justify releasing. Those who submitted to him were freed to join his army, those who didn't, went into the box to be gifted out when Zeus feels it's necessary. Morgania will remain in separate storage until I can find a proper host for her," Pandora said.
"Why? What even is the point anymore?"
"This hellscape that you see around you? This isn't a nightmare. This is Crete after Kronos lost control of his powers during that fight in the cave. His necrotic energy traveled through the earth, out into the surrounding countryside, poisoning everything. Half the island's human population withered and died, along with all of the wildlife and livestock in the affected area. The trees grew, but every other plant initially died thanks to the soil being sterilized by his his corruption."
"Yeah, that's kind of my point, Pandora. If it weren't for your rebellion..."
"My rebellion?!" Pandora screamed, "Our rebellion, was to prevent all of this," Pandora said, "And what you see now will happen again unless someone like Morgania takes control."
Prometheus chuckled, "So we're both trapped in vicious cycles, but you just don't see what side of it you're on."
"I'm sorry Prometheus," Pandora said.
"You don't owe me an apology," Prometheus said, "I'm as guilty as anyone."
"No," Pandora said, "I mean... when I convinced Zeus to spare your life and keep you in the pod, it was so that you and Hekate could be together again..."
"If you wanted us to be together again, you should have left me to die," Prometheus said.
Pandora shook her head, "No, Prometheus, when Morgania took Macaria's body, she forced her to save Hekate by bringing her back to Tartarus and putting her in a pod."
"What?" Prometheus jumped to his feet, "Hekate's alive? She's still alive?! Where is she?!"
"Still sleeping, three feet to your right in the real world," Pandora said sadly, "I was going to link your pods so that you could be together, but Zeus insisted you have a different 'cellmate'."
Prometheus began rattling off every variation on the 'log out' or 'wake up' commands he could think of, but none of them worked, "Pandora, please, let us out!"
"I can't Prometheus, I'm sorry. Not today," Pandora disappeared in a shimmer, leaving Prometheus alone in the virtual ruins of Knossos.
Well, not entirely alone; a giant black bird descended from the sky above him, shrouded in darkness.
"You!" it cawed "They took my child from me, because of you!"
Prometheus tried to run, or even to turn away from the savage beak descending on him, but he suddenly found that his hands and feet were chained, pinning him against his back to a rock.
Nyx split open his abdomen and began pulling out his liver, eating it piece-by-piece, as Prometheus sobbed, "I was just trying to do the right thing..."
~ The gods' stories continue in Divine Retribution. ~
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