2 The Birth of a God

Rhea never felt so happy as she caressed her stomach, she the queen of the titans was pregnant with her first child, she could already sense him or her forming in her womb, she couldn't wait to meet them, to hold them in her arms, though there were sometimes where she felt her child seemingly disappear she nearly fell in the pits of despair, only for them reappear when she was close to it. As if they were playing a game, it was thanks to these infuriating moments that she had decided on a name.

Though not everything was good, Cronos was in an exceptionally bad mood after returning from the oracle of Delphi, his mood worsened, even more, when she announced to him that she was pregnant with their first child. She didn't know what was happening, she had asked both her siblings and her mother for answers, but they didn't know what was going in his mind.

But she guessed it didn't matter in the end, they would be a happy family, their child would be the prince of princes, and they would live happily in the gaze of their mother and father. If only she had known back then she would have taken her child and left Greece.

~~~~~~~~

"There Rhea, it is nearly done" Leto reassured Rhea as her aunt continued to scream in pain. The birth of her nephew was proving to be a difficult one, particularly because of the constant roaring of thunder and the sound of the earth splitting open. The skies and the earth were in complete chaos, but Leto that they weren't enraged, after all, she knew how those two concepts looked like when they became angered.

She still had nightmares of the great war against the sky.

But now all she wanted to do was to help her sister deliver her child upon the world. And then both of them heard the sound of a baby crying, Leto looked at her nephew and was momentarily shocked by what she was seeing. "Con-Congratulations Rhea it is a boy"

Rhea looked at her completely tired, but her mind was still sharp, and she noticed her sister's tone of speech and that made her worried "Sister please give me my son" Leto wrapped the little prince in a black cover before she handed him to his mother. Rhea looked at him, at her son, and was shocked, because the child was beautiful even if he was just recently born, he was sure to steal the heart of many maidens when he grew up.

Her son opened his eyes, eyes of pure amber looked back at her, little hands reached and started playing with her hair. Rhea felt an unknown warm feeling right at that moment. "Leto I-I feel strange for some reason" Leto looked at her with a warm smile "That is probably your motherly feelings showing themselves"

"Oh, I see" Rhea looked back at her son who continued to play with her hair, and smiled. She couldn't wait to show him how the world looked, the world that would bow to him at every step he took for he was the prince of princes, son of the king and queen of the titans, his life would be perfect. Oh if only she had known.

"Is it done" The voice of Atlas is heard as both women see him peeking through the door, Leto nodded, and he entered the room and looked at the tiny thing in his queen's armies "He is so... small"

"Well we didn't have birthings in our true forms for a very good reason Atlas"

Atlas groaned "You are never letting that go are you?" Leto simply smirked at him which made him groan again. Rhea giggled at their actions before she turned serious and put on her best royal tone. "Atlas is there a reason you are here?" Atlas stopped talking with his cousin and turned back at her "Yes my queen, the king has ordered bring both you and your child to him"

"Oh, well then let's go to the throne room then" She started to get up, carefully, of course, she didn't want to hurt her child, the benefits of being a titan being seen as she didn't experience any of after-effects of childbirth.

"Actually" Atlas hesitated before speaking "The king wants to meet both in the grand balcony"

"Why?" Rhea was confused the grand balcony was where the titans in their human forms conversed with their family who was in their true forms, it was built using a natural passage in Othrys. Cronos all but stated that he wanted to meet them in his true form.

"I do not know my queen" And he truly didn't know it, the request came out of nowhere, he guessed it was just the king being eccentric. If Atlas had known maybe he could have changed something, but he didn't, and so he led his queen to the location that would change them forever.

"Oh and, forgive for asking but does he have a name?"

"He does, his name is Hades"

~~~~~~~~

Many titans had gathered in the grand balcony, both in their true and human forms, but none drew more gazes than the king himself Cronos, none of them knew why he had gathered them all here, after all, they only came because of the birth of the child of the royal couple. Another thing was that Cronos was silent, he was always bombastic and charismatic, so him being silent was an interesting sight.

Then the Queen of The Titans arrived, accompanied by the Cronos chief commander Atlas and one of Coeides Leto, all eyes were immediately drawn to the black bundle she carried in her arms. But while the gaze of the majority of the titans was one of curiosity for those who didn't have children or silent warmth of those that did, unseen by all Cronos gaze gained a coldness not seen since the great war against the sky.

Rhea stepped forward and presented the newborn to his father, Cronos grabbed the newborn with surprising gentleness to a being of his size, he looked at his son and seems to be inspecting him. And then he did something that would forever be remembered in the annals of history. Cronos swallowed his son.

The first to react was Rhea who screamed in despair, and then many more react with either shock or anger.

And upon his realm Destiny for the first time in his existence felt curiosity as the name and lines of the oldest son were erased. Destiny would not interfere to correct this as he felt that this was meant to be, a being that Fate and Destiny could not see, how curious this meant that his actions would forever be his own and new pages would be forged, all by his very own actions. Destiny of the endless felt excited by the feeling of the unknown.