Kronos (Book One)

Abandoned

His sky-blue eyes can't believe what he's seeing. Megara playing with their children right in front of him. Ophites and Therimachus run and hug his tree trunk legs.

"Father! You're back!"

Heracles is stunned as he can feel their arms. His hands brushing through their blonde heads feels real to him.

"Boys?", his eyes almost well up.

"Dad! Therimachus and I were arguing about something. How strong are you? I told him that you could lift a mountain with both hands."

"He's way stronger than that. Dad can hold the world on his shoulders."

Megara stands up with a laugh. "They have been arguing like that, husband. I'm glad you're here."

Her angelic voice throws him off guard. She jumps up and he catches her. He gazes into her amber eyes.

"Is everything alright?"

"It is now. I will protect you this time."

"Nothing can hurt us since you're the strongest man I know. No one can beat you, dad", Ophites tells him.

"Dinner's almost ready, my love. Let's sit down and eat."

He carries them over and sits his wife down. His kids run to their seats. He goes to sit down, but he hears something that turns on his battle instincts. He gets his club out to his family's fear.

"Stay behind me!"

Three shadowy figures burst through the door. It then came to him what he was going to end up doing. The club falls with a heavy thud as he walks towards the figures.

"I will not repeat my mistakes! This isn't real. You are all....."

The three figures form into one large shadow which suddenly appears right behind his loved ones. He is frozen in place as he can't stop the figure from killing his family. He tries to move but can't.

"Stop it! Leave them alone! I'm what you want!", he pleads.

The figure throws his sons and embers flare out. Megara is paralyzed by fear.

"Get out, Meg! I won't let him kill you too!"

He raises his divine energy to unfreeze himself, but it was no use. The shadows on the wall depict the horrible action while her blood decorates the wall. Heracles is crying out for him to stop; the figure finally listens. The dark paralysis leaves him to face the horror.

He sees himself with the lion armor on.

"This can't be real. Megara. Boys", the shadow's voice breaks into tears.

The mighty hero wakes up in a sweat. His hands tremble as a reminder of the great crime he committed. He goes right to the bucket of water and applies soap to clean the imaginary blood off his hands. Scrubbing them past the point of rawness. 

Even after completing the 12 impossible tasks and receiving atonement, that tragic night continues to haunt him. Opening the cabinet doors, he takes out a toy horse with a soldier on it. He holds it close to his heart and hums a lullaby that Megara would always sing to their kids. The memory of that makes him cry himself to sleep.

---

Nov 4th, 10am

Beep, beep. 

Takashi wakes up from his watch alarm. He remembers what Artemis did to wake him up, so he smacks his face to prepare for anything. Right after opening the flap of his tent, he rolls out of it. He expected Artemis to be right there with a bucket of cold water, but she isn't there; she's leaning against a tree.

"Good reflexes. You should always act like that", she tells him.

Helena stirs up from her tent while Echo wakes up slowly from being knocked out.