Chapter 2: Bonds in the Depths

“Once a wise man told me, ‘Family don’t end in blood.’ But it doesn’t start there, either ... Family cares about you. Not what you can do for them. Family is there for the good, bad, all of it. They got your back, even when it hurts. That’s family.”

-- Dean Winchester (as portrayed by Jensen Ackles), Supernatural, Season 10, Episode 17: “Inside Man” (2015), written by Andrew Dabb and Robert Berens, copyright © Warner Bros. Television.

Back on the island of the Earth Primordial, Gaia summoned mountains of rock to attack Zeus.

Without concern or hesitation, Zeus ran forward to dodge the ones that came at him the quickest and threw bolts of power at the rest.

Even as he felt confident in his own might, the earth beneath him became mud and quicksand, trying to swallow him whole. Zeus, the Lightning-Bearer, would never allow himself to be defeated by such a simple distraction.

Thunder and lightning encompassed his body. Thus, the earth beneath him hardened, so as to not swallow up the younger combatant. Further still, this act separated the earth from their ruler and propelled him into the heavens.

Zeus saw Gaia on the ground. He stared blankly at his grandmother, wondering what she might be planning next. What he found was that she was smiling up at him in pride. That made no sense to the Prince of Olympus.

From her physical gestures to her approving face, the Earth Primordial seemed to be encouraging him to win. However, that made no sense. She always threw everything she had at him to push him to do better.

Regardless of her intentions, he did not need her permission. He was Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Victory was his to have as a right, and he would not be denied; not because his grandmother doted on him, but because he reached out and gripped it from existence to make it belong to him.

Gaia saw how long he was in the heavens and decided to act. Pillars of earth, roots, and trees formed from her island at her whim. She motioned with her hand for them to launch themselves towards the target that was slowly coming down. They complied with their creator and sprang forth at incredible velocities.

While still in the air, Zeus made the clouds fire weak bolts of lightning at his body until it finally coated his skin in a thin, but effective, layer of thunderous defense. He flew back towards her with increasing rapidity. The power over the shocking magic that surrounded him stopped the defenses of Gaia from inhibiting him.

They exploded on mere contact with his protective measures. As well they should; after all, the roots, stone, and metals from the earth were nothing to him.

Zeus should have landed with an exploding boom, but instead, using his skillful control and might, he landed gracefully before Gaia. She began to enclose herself in rock and tree. When she had, he shot forward and touched his grandmother on her stomach.

“I win,” Zeus said, with a laugh.

“You do,” Gaia said with a smile. “You have done very well.”

Gaia kissed Zeus on the forehead. He blinked in confusion at the affection. While this had been a training exercise, the fondness was a token that he had not had expected at all.

His grandmother had taken no notice of her grandson’s puzzlement. She went right on with her business.

“Come now, Zeus. We need to discuss the future.”

Within the belly of Cronos, Poseidon and Hades sat across from one another as they had so many times before.

“Thank you for taking it easy on me the other day,” Poseidon said with a soft smile. He let out a small sniff of laughter. “You could have killed me.”

“You are my only company,” Hades said with blunt pragmatism. “I will not kill you.”

Poseidon stared at Hades. Bewilderment crossed the younger brother’s face.

“Thanks? I guess.”

A mild pause sprouted between them. The elder brother of Hades fidgeted uncomfortably at the question form of the gratitude. For his sensibilities, while no one had formally given him the gift of manners or courtesy, he felt a reciprocation of kindness was necessary. As he had said, Poseidon was his only company.

“Thank you for not using the acid on me,” Hades said.

When his face hit the light, Poseidon could properly see the blue-ish gray tinge to Hades’ skin from being in Cronos’ belly for so long. There were scars and unhealed gashes all along the elder brother’s body from the acid and atmospheric dangers of Cronos. Poseidon was careful not to recoil, but it was clear that he worried and felt empathy for his brother’s unsightly alteration.

“I would never do that to you. You’re family,” Poseidon said.

“That sentiment is sweet, but unnecessary.”

Poseidon sighed at his brother’s monotone. While he was certainly polite, Hades could grate on his younger brother; however, Poseidon understood the sensibility of Hades’ notion that they were all they had in their prison.

“I guess that is better than when you kept repeating ‘Blood and Darkness’ when I got here.”

“I have been here all my life,” Hades pointed out.

This made Poseidon laugh inwardly. His brother, as well as his sentiments, may have rubbed Poseidon the wrong way at times, but there was genuine happiness to be had simply by reveling in their relation as brothers, and that should be known.

“So have I, but even I know that family matters.”

For Hades, that idea was absolutely absurd. They did live in darkness, and they survived off of the blood and meat of the animals that had fallen within. As such, a single query was left on his lips.

“Why?”

“Why else would our father eat us? Because he fears family. And if he fears it, someone out there must love family.”

“So what? Because father ate us, our mother will free us?”

“Or maybe a brother?”

Hades recoiled and rolled his eyes.

“No! Not this again!”

If he had heard the idea once, he had heard it a thousand times. Annoyance drenched the two sentences as all of his disciplined self-control had fled his body when he had heard his brother.

“Yes!” Poseidon exclaimed with excitement. “This again! I’m telling you! We must have a sibling out there!”

“Based on a rock?” Hades asked, both skeptical and nettled.

“A magic rock!” Poseidon said, picking up the stone that had fallen into their father’s belly so long ago. He did not need to be as powerful as he was to see the lingering magic emanating from the stone. “Come on! Our mother could have enchanted it to look like a baby so he would swallow it.”

“Maybe!” Hades retorted back in frustration.

Hades had a mind built for the moment when backed by references and logical examples of the past. Poseidon was all too willing to have an optimistic belief without such rationale. It was Hades’ duty as the older and wiser brother to remind Poseidon of reality.

“But father being tricked by a rock seems unlikely,” Hades said.

“Then why was there a blanket? And I think pieces of a baby bed.”

“A crib,” Hades said.

“How would you know that’s the name?” Poseidon asked.

“I just do,” Hades said, unsure of how he knew what a crib was. “Maybe insight is a power of us divine beings.”