A quick note: I am going to use a Lithuanian as the old tongue, I will be using google translate shamelessly.
[June 28th 2016]

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Hideaway

As Kronos rose from his bent position, all his wait pressing down upon his scythe, he couldn't help but to notice how hyper-aware all his senses had become. He could hear each and every one of his heart beats thundering in his ears, his breath coming out in rapid bursts of air, his vision had focused in on any and every surrounding detail, he could see all the stones on the earth, each and every stitch in his chiton. Kronos knew it was the adrenalin being pumped around his body but… he had never felt so good. He was on a high that he never wanted to end.

Looking around the scene before his, Kronos couldn't help but to feel an odd sense of achievement and pride bubble up in his chest. A laugh pulled itself from his throat, call it relief, hysteria or, even, madness if you so wish.

Kronos clenched and un-clenched his hand that was free from his scythe, feeling stronger than he ever had. Feeling that if he so wished it even the most stubborn of immortals would kneel before him -bend to his will. Oh and that feeling, that feeling wasn't one he was willing to give up anytime soon.

Scanning his eyes over the valley, Kronos caught sight of Krios, Hyperion and Koios all smiling like idiots and punching each other on the shoulder. Kronos watched them for a minute until Hyperion punched Koios and knocked him over, a brawl breaking out between them. Looking away from them, he allowed his eyes to seek out Percy and Iapetus. When he found them, he nearly looked pass them. He was so used to the two of them being easy to find when they were together, one of them usually letting loose a booming laugh as a result of a not-so-appropriate-joke one had told the other. However, this time, they were so quiet and sullen that he almost passed them off as one of the many shadows in the valley. It was Percy's piercing green eyes that caused him to look again. They pierced through the darkness like stars in the night sky.

Hefting his scythe over his shoulder, Kronos strode steadily over towards his brothers. As he approached, Kronos was able to take in some details he had not seen in his earlier assessment. Like the way that Percy's shoulders were tensed, his fists clenched so hard at his sides, Kronos could see inchor dripping from between his fingers. Percy's normally tan skin was so pale that Kronos was sure he could see some of Percy's veins through it and his lips, Percy's lips that had always curved into that crooked smile Kronos had always seen on Percy's face since his earliest memories of him was absent. His lips were now pressed into a thin line, the look on Percy's face could only be described a vacant.

Kronos felt dread twist his stomach.

As he got closer, Kronos saw Iapetus awkwardly place a hand on one of Percy's shoulders, his shoulders un-tensed momentarily and then re-tensed once again. Iapetus' face scrunched up in disappointment, his face released all tension and his lips moved with words that Kronos couldn't hear. He saw Percy's lips tilt downwards in concern. Kronos was close enough for him to hear what they were saying, he heard Percy's now monotone voice said,

"...isn't safe to be here much longer, Nyx says that they were close."

It was then that Kronos stood beside them, Percy nodded in acknowledgement. Kronos tried not to wince; it just felt so wrong to be treated coldly by Percy and not be greeted with the normal, 'Hey, kid,' or 'Hello bud'. This was a side of Percy he had never seen before.

Just as he was about to ask what was wrong, Kronos felt the last bit of his adrenalin fades the shadows began to shift. Kronos saw Percy draw out a sword that Kronos had never seen before, the engraving on the side was written in jerky writing and read Animarum, meaning souls. Iapetus drew his spear that Kronos would hate to be at the receiving end of, he had seen Iapetus sharpen his weapon one too many times to be comfortable around it.

Following the twins' lead, Kronos gripped his scythe as tight as he possibly could, shifting his feet into a ready stance. He spared a glance over at his remaining siblings, they too had drawn their weapons and were posed ready for a fight.

Kronos turned to look at the end of the valley where his siblings' attentions were focused. He could feel adrenalin once again flowing through his body, his heart was thumping loudly in his ears blocking out the suffocating silence of the valley. Staring ahead, Kronos could see the shadows shift and coil, the already dark valley becoming darker, all light being snuffed out. And there, marching in front of must have been the being that Percy had spoken of earlier. He was tall, short black hair covered his head, his sterling coloured eyes got darker until grey blended with the black of his pupil, he was not pale yet he could not be described as tanned. The man wore a dark purple chiton under a cloak that seemed to be made from the shadows, billowing behind him. In his hands he held two maces, the round spiked metal that were attached to chains dragged along the floor making him look all the more menacing.

Kronos could hear Percy's intake of breath and his muttered 'no'. He watched as Percy looked at his twin, "Nyx never said that he'd actually… no." Iapetus nodded, looking solemn, like someone had signed their death warrants.

"He wouldn't normally come personally; he'd usually send his servants. This is just odd."

Percy hummed, his expression never changed. "We can't fight him unprepared." Kronos felt his face slacken in disbelief. Not fight? Why not? They could beat him; they beat his father.

"No," Kronos argued. "We are not cowards! We can fight him and win!" His hands tensed unconsciously around the handle of his scythe, his face twisting in a look of annoyance.

"Perhaps…" Iapetus spoke. Kronos felt his lips tilt upwards, finally someone was seeing it his way.

"No," Percy interrupted and Kronos scowled again. "we cannot beat him if we fight by his terms. He is darkness and I don't know if you noticed but there is a lot of darkness here right now!" Glancing around Kronos knew that Percy was right, they were surrounded by shadows being produced by the night sky above them. Kronos could feel goose bumps lining his arms, he could see Erebus slowly creeping closer, the shadows that trailed behind him lashing out at the surrounding air. Gulping in-audibly, Kronos knew his pride wouldn't let him back down.

"No," he denied a hint of desperation in his voice. "we will fight!"

"For Chaos' sake Kronos! Even the idiots have fled! Where are they now?" Looking behind him, Kronos could see that the area where his remaining siblings once stood had long since been abandoned. Yet he refused to back down.

"No." He spoke, his voice steady. Marching past Iapetus and Percy, Kronos didn't see the nod they shared but soon found himself pinned between the two of them. He struggled, finding himself unable to move he continued to strain against their hold.

Kronos felt realisation sink in a moment too late, he felt the odd feeling of teleportation sink though his skin and to his bones, tingling with the power that was rippling throughout his body.

As soon as Kronos' feet hit the floor he broke free from his brothers' grasps, vanishing his scythe he turned on them. "How dare you! How dare you, we could have beaten him!" Percy let out a sound which sounded like something between a wheeze and a laugh, his face remaining impassive the whole time, Iapetus let out a booming laugh.

"You didn't have a chance, Krow."

"Don't call me Krow," He spat in distain and then he smirked. "Petus."

Iapetus scowled and Percy let out another wheeze laugh -which sounded nothing like his normal bark-like boom. Percy span on his heel and merely said, "Come."

Following Percy, Kronos took a moment to take in his surroundings, the sky was bright and the sun was shining, which was odd, Kronos could have sworn that it was night time a moment ago. Grass as tall as Kronos' waist swayed gently in a wind he couldn't feel, flowers of every colour were in bloom in every direction. Kronos stared in awe as they entered the woods.

Trees so tall that he couldn't see the tops off leaned over him, large green leaves fanned outwards, blocking out the sun but still allowing light from the sun to fettle through the gaps. The beams of light shimmered, pieces of dust and pollen that floated through the air danced in between the beams. Shadows that didn't look much like any shadow Kronos had ever seen stretched across the floor, to Kronos they resembled black sand, continuously shifting and twirling. Yet, Kronos could feel no sand between the open toes of his sandals nor could he see any mounds of sand gathering at the base of the tree. Wherever they were it was like no place he had ever been before.

Ahead of him, Percy weaved in and out of the trees like he knew their positioning like the back of his hand -Kronos wondered how true that actually was. Behind Percy, followed Iapetus who clumsily stumbled along behind him, it was clear that Iapetus was familiar with the path yet he was not familiar enough with it in order to not walk into overhanging branches and trip over roots that jutted out from the earth. And then there was Kronos, who walked into anything that got in the way, completely unaware of where they actually were or are heading. He might as well have been walking to a battle completely blind.

Following his brothers, Kronos' attention was once again drawn to the shadows. The longer he stared at them, the more the swirling and the twirling looked deliberate, until he was able to make out figures. Kronos stopped and stared at one, the more he looked the more details he could see. The figure was definitely titan-shaped. Features became clearer, it's skin lightened, the dark sand-like substance finally lifted from the ground and became even more titan shaped. Kronos stumbled back; unable to remove his eyes from the figure. A face began to form, golden hair like his own sprouted from its head, bow-like lips followed, then a nose. Kronos' eyes were immediately drawn to where the eyes should form, he stared at the empty area, the blank space began to twist and make room for-

A hand that was placed on his shoulder broke the soon-to-be eye contact with the odd titan-shaped thing. He looked up to see Percy, his face still blank.

"They're kad galėtų būti," Percy explained, his voice was softer compared to how he spoke earlier. "It means 'the could be' in old tongue, it's not advisable to look at them for too long as they begin to take your appearance. The eyes are always the last to form and if they do it becomes extremely difficult to rid of them." Kronos nodded and stared determinately at Percy's tan face to avoid looking at the 'kad galėtų būti' as Percy called them. Looking over Percy's shoulder he finally noticed that Iapetus was no longer with them.

"Where is…?" He knew he didn't need to finish his question as Percy would understand.

"He's gone home, an emergency arose. Come follow me, we're nearly there."

Kronos took the hand that Percy had offered him and let himself be pulled to his feet. Percy released his arm and continued walking, Kronos made sure to stay several paces behind him and not move his eyes from Percy's back.

Soon he noticed that the woods seemed to become less dense, more light laid ahead of them. This continue until they emerged in a clearing, a small compared to most, home stood proud in the middle of it. Symbols and words that Kronos could not read were carved into its surface. Percy reached the door and Kronos lengthened his stride to keep up. The door swung open and Kronos saw Percy tackled by a blur of a white dress and blonde hair. Without thinking, Kronos went to summon his scythe but stopped when he saw Percy wrap his arms around what Kronos had dubbed as 'the blur' and buried his face in its neck. He stopped, confused.

"I felt… he… he…" The female- Kronos thought it was rather rude calling her 'the blur'- broke down in Percy's arms and Kronos felt extremely uncomfortable. Percy looked up and seemingly noticed for the first time that Kronos was, indeed, still there.

Detangling himself from the woman but not breaking contact, Percy waved at Kronos over his shoulder to follow him. They came to a stop in the main room, all looking at each other. The woman and Percy finally broke contact. She coughed and elbowed Percy in the stomach, he didn't even finch and Kronos had the feeling that this happened a lot.

Percy seemingly came to a realisation. "Oh!" he exclaimed. "Right, Hemera this is Kronos my brother and Kronos this is Hemera my…um…other half?" The second statement came out as more of a question and the woman -Hemera, he told himself- laughed and whipped her puffy, red eyes. Kronos saw Percy smile a little for the first time since the events that took place just that afternoon.

That afternoon… Chaos, that felt like decades ago now. And yet it only took place that afternoon. Kronos felt the room spin a little, exhaustion finally catching up with him as the remaining pieces of adrenaline trickled out of his system. He stumbled forwards and felt Percy place one of his warm calloused hand on his shoulder. He fell forwards, no longer able to support himself, into Percy's arms. Feeling weightlessness, Kronos vaguely realised that he had been lifted over Percy's shoulder and was being carried to another room. Before he fell unconscious as another wave of exhaustion hit him, Kronos heard Percy speak,

"I hope you like it here… you'll be here a while… need to hide you from Erebus…"

Kronos' back hit a soft surface and the last thing he heard was; "miego." And he slept.

[June 30th 2016]
[Edited: N/A]

September 5th 2016: I intended to upload this yesterday but my internet went down. Sorry for the delay.

September 3rd 2016: Apologies for the long wait, I was waiting for my Beta to get back to me but I have finally decided to just update it. if you spot any mistakes please point them out to me as I am no longer able to use Word.
100 reviews guys and gals! Good work! Let's see if we can keep this up!

Inperiosus: I really can't wait to write that part, I like making Kronos unsure of himself at times, it's fun. These'll definitely be one of these times because… flirting.

ChronoSeth: I like you already. He is fighting his fatal flaw by allowing his dad to be killed. Here is more.

Wade98: Thank you and wouldn't you like to know?

Armageddon: Thank you.

'til next time,
-Jess