Prologue: The Burdens We Carry

You can move a mountain
You can break rocksThe Script, Hall of Fame (2012)

It had been difficult to devise a method of holding Atlas. He could not be kept unconscious forever. Zeus thought long and hard about the proposition. WIth Metis’ help, there was one place he could go.

Zeus teleported both he and Atlas’ unconscious form to the one of the highest mountains in the land. There were five pillars between the mountain and the sky.

The King of the gods recognized the irony. After Ouranos’ betrayal of the Fates, the Earth was separated from the Sky by pillars created by the Titans. And now, he would change how the heavens and the earth worked.

For the first time since ascending to the throne, Zeus felt he was coming into his own. It was not simply a title or where he sat. Finally, he was grasping the cosmos firmly without restraint.

Kicking the Titan, Zeus watched the powerful being struggling awake.

“What? Where am I?” Atlas asked, looking left to right.

Though he could not help relishing his victory, the youngest son of Cronos could not wait. Atlas was arguably more powerful than Crius.

“Heads up,” Zeus said mockingly as he knocked over one of the pillars.

Atlas looked up to see the celestial body that was the sky falling upon him. With quick reflexes, he reached up and felt the very weight of the sky in his hands. One by one, Zeus knocked over pillar after pillar to further the strain on the indomitable being.

Atlas grunted at the exertion. Never before had he felt such a tremendously unfathomable force over him, but still, he persevered.

“Oh ... Very good, Atlas. You are strong,” Zeus remarked offhandedly. “Then again, we both knew that. You were always the strongest being on the battlefield. Stronger than Poseidon, stronger than me. I admit it.”

Zeus paced in front of the son of Iapetus. An arrogant smile was spread on the king’s face. There was nothing to fear from the broken, lesser being.

“I had to think long and hard about where to put you. Olympus knows that your brother wouldn’t help me figure out where to put you. And while I am not as smart as Metis, I know that putting you with the Titans in Tartarus would be foolish. If anyone could break out of there, it would be you. And come on! I learned from the war. We can’t put everything in one place. You could all break out and it’s another war. While I enjoyed fighting you and my father’s forces, I had no intention of doing that over and over again.”

Zeus snapped his fingers, pointing up at the unsteady sky. “That’s why when I remembered that by freeing the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires the sky almost fell down and crushed everyone. I knew there must have been something my father did to save everyone. He might have been a real asshole, but my father enjoyed being king.”

Zeus shrugged but never lost his smile.

“I mean ... if we can’t be honest about the good in our enemies, aren’t we just deceiving ourselves?”

Atlas grunted under the weight of the infinite. A grimace morphed into a glare. “Get to your point!”

“Do I need to?” Zeus taunted. Upon seeing that Atlas would not rise to the bait because he was physically unable to, the lightning lord went on. “Point is, Atlas, there’s no cage that can hold you, so I had to get creative. Should you have the strength or the wherewithal to leave, the sky will crush the earth and all the lands will perish.”

“Good! Then, I’ll drop it and destroy you and everyone else!” Atlas roared in anger.