Rhea lay on her side, body trembling, eyes dull as the cries of a newborn echoed through the stone chamber.
Her fifth child—Hades—had just been born.
The divine warmth of life still clung to the infant when Kronos appeared, towering and cold.
He extended a hand without hesitation.
"Give him to me."
Rhea blinked slowly. Her fingers clutched the swaddled child to her chest.
"He's barely opened his eyes…"
Kronos' expression darkened.
"That potential… That divine power. I can feel it radiating from him. Another god born to challenge me."
He stepped closer.
"You know what must be done."
A brief flicker of resistance passed through Rhea.
She clutched Hades tighter—but her limbs were weak, her spirit worn thin by the memories of Hestia, Demeter, and Hera.
She looked into her husband's eyes and saw no love—only fear masked in cruel purpose.
Kronos took Hades from her arms.
The moment he left, her hollow gaze broke.
"AAAHHHHHH!"
She screamed and slammed her fists into the bedding, again and again.
Tears poured from her eyes, not in grief, but in helpless rage.
"Hades… Just wait, my child,"
she whispered.
"My firstborn is coming. I know it. I feel it."
She stood and clenched her trembling fists.
"And you, Kronos… You keep getting me pregnant, feeding your own doom. You make companions for the one who'll destroy you. You are your own ruin."
Her voice was hoarse, but resolute.
Then silence.
Rhea's golden eyes hardened with a dangerous clarity.
She no longer looked like a broken mother, but like a Titaness with a plan—sorrowful, yes, but prepared.
***
Far away, in the secret realm Gaia had created, Aetherion trained.
Sweat clung to his body, his chest rising and falling with deep breaths.
He stood beneath a tree that shimmered under starlight, the moon above him glowing brighter with every moment of focus.
He closed his eyes, trying to summon it—the power that danced just outside his reach.
"Divine Form…"
he whispered.
The stars responded faintly. The moon pulsed. The air shifted.
But the form did not come.
He opened his eyes and sighed, shaking his head.
"Still too far…"
He had made progress.
Among his domains—Earth, Nature, Life, Stars, and Moon—the Moon was the one he had made most processes with.
His training with Gaia had sharpened his control over each, but divine form required mastery, transformation, spiritual alignment.
"I've barely mastered the life domain,"
he muttered, frustrated.
"But the moon… I'm close."
Aetherion could feel.
He was close to achieving the divine for the moon domain.
All that he needed now was to practice harder and achieve it, so he could go and save his mother and siblings.
***
Later, he sat beside Gaia near a quiet spring. Her expression was thoughtful, as it often was when she chose to speak of weighty matters.
"You know,"
she began,
"you were never meant to exist."
Aetherion blinked.
"Aren't you being a bit too cruel here."
He asked a bit of a dumbfounded of what she said.
Gaia smiled softly.
"I'm being serious here. You're not in any prophecy, Aetherion. You weren't part of Uranus' curse on Kronos."
She looked toward the sky, the stars reflecting in her eyes.
"I've never understood how. One day, you were simply… within her womb. Rhea, my daughter, wasn't supposed to give birth to a Titan only gods"
Aetherion looked at his reflection in the water.
"So… what does that mean, really?"
"A wild variable,"
Gaia said, her voice low.
"Even Ananke might not know what to make of you."
"Ananke?"
"The Primordial of Destiny. I haven't spoken with her since I took you in. Perhaps I will, in time."
Aetherion sat back.
"So I'm not part of the prophecy. Not even a footnote in it."
Gaia placed a hand on his shoulder.
"That may be true. But you're no less important, Aetherion. You may not be a thread in destiny's weave—but sometimes, the threads that don't belong are the ones that change the pattern entirely."
Aetherion said nothing.
But inside, something stirred.
Resolve.
And the quiet, growing light of the moon reflected in his silver eyes.
He stood up and started to walk in the same direction he came.
Gaia looked at the directions he was headed to and had a knowing smile plastered on her.
"Going to train?"
She asked in an amused tone, already knowing the answer to the question.
After all she knew Aetherion quite well, she practically raised him.
So she could tell when he is fired up.
"Yeah… since I'm not part of the string of destiny. I'm free to do whatever I want?"
"Hmm, indeed."
Gaia said a smile plastered on her beautiful face.
Aetherion lips started to raise and a wild smile appeared, with his eyes full of resolve.
He felt happy.
happy that no destiny was set upon him.
Happy that he didn't have to be forced upon some role.
When he was a human in his former life he remembered that prophecy was a big part of the Greek myth.
Like the story of Achilles, where his mother feared the prophecy that her son would be killed young.
So trying to trick destiny and alter fate, she dipped her son Achilles down the river of Styx.
Where he received an indestructible and immortal body.
Except for the heel the mother held, so she could dipped him.
Which he later will die from in Trojan war from a poison arrow.
Because of that, Aetherion was worried that even if he tried to save his mother or gather allies.
He wouldn't achieve it and everything would go horribly wrong, because he wasn't the child destined to defeat Kronos.
That role goes to Zeus.
The fated king of gods and ruler of the sky.
But after hearing what Gaia said.
the threads that don't belong are the ones that change the pattern entirely.
Now he received confirmation.
That he could indeed change things, and was free to act however he wanted.
So he had made a decision.
He was going to achieve divine form for the moon, as soon as possible.
And then, he was going to ask Gaia for help in contacting his mother so that they could make a plan.