Centaurian Ch. 09

Zeus looked at Hephaestus who held his left arm and he read his shirt. "Who are you? You're not Hephaestus."

He ignored the question, and asked Ronan, "What now?"

Ronan manifested a set of handcuffs and proceeded to cuff him. "Zeus, I'm placing you under arrest for the abduction of Liam Phillips. The only right you have is the right to tell me what you've done with him."

"I might tell you if you tortured me, but you're too weak to do it."

Ronan drew close to Zeus's ear. "I've already done something far worse to you." He then turned and placed his hand on the golden door of Zeus's temple behind him. He gave the entire building its own time-field and proceeded to reconfigure the inside.

Upon opening the door, the spacious columned room with the reflecting pool and the giant marble statue of Zeus, which had sat at the far end, Ronan replaced with a classy Art Deco interior of a police station in bronzes, silvers, coppers, and various grays, lit by overhead and sconce lighting that used time-spheres for bulbs.

"I'm impressed," said Colt.

"I've seen a similar interior before," said Ronan, "but I can't remember where. It was probably a movie."

"It would look better in gold," said Zeus.

"Oh, what would you know?" asked Hephaestus. "When I redesigned Olympus, they wouldn't let me do anything interesting. They all wanted gold and marble, marble and gold. Ugh... what a bore."

Zeus looked up into his face and his brows drew together. "You are Hephaestus?"

"That's right," he said, "no thanks to you. Ronan removed and reversed your curse."

The interview room off to the left held a plain ebony wood table and chairs reminiscent of interrogation rooms of ages past with a single pendant light above it. Hephaestus shoved Zeus into the single chair on one side, and Ronan attached the links in the cuffs to the clip built into the tabletop.

"We have only two other chairs," said Ronan. "Hephaestus, may Colt sit on your knee?"

Colt whispered to his father, "Not subtle, are you?"

Ronan took a seat. "I've seen how you both look at each other."

"As long as I have a knee, Colt will always have somewhere to sit"—Hephaestus patted his right leg—"providing he promises not to keep his hands to himself."

Colt turned his gaze upon his father with a smirky smile.

"You're welcome," said Ronan, watching his son—baseball in hand—settle onto the leg Hephaestus offered him.

Ronan manifested a small clear dish that held a thin layer of Ambrosia. He gave it a sniff. "Mmm...I've made this one extra pungent," he said to Zeus. "Would you like a whiff?" He waved it under Zeus's nose, and when he smelled it, his head followed the dish as Ronan passed it before him. With a gentle hand, he laid the dish on the table just out of Zeus's reach.

"You can manifest Ambrosia," said Zeus.

"I've manifested quite a lot. I'm surprised you've just learned of it."

"I wasn't always watching you."

"Apparently so," Ronan said. "Do you know why you're here?"

"Because I did to you what you just did to me. I took from you what you love most."

"In an immediate sense, yes, but in the broader scope, no, that's not why you're here. Care to give it another guess?"

He kept eye contact with Ronan but turned his head a little. "Because I attacked the ship."

"It makes sense that you would expect me to act out of vengeance, but no, that's not the reason either."

"Prometheus wants my throne," he said with a little smile. "That's it, isn't it? He wanted revenge after I punished him for giving fire to the humans."

Ronan shook his head. "Prometheus doesn't want it, but you hadn't punished Prometheus, you tortured him, just as you have many others over the centuries. That is why you are here."

"So, all this is because I punished them like gods and not as mortals. Should I have incarcerated them in a place that would make them worse criminals by the time they leave? Or would you rather I sent them to bed without supper or put them in time-out for an hour?"

Ronan said, "I understand that gods would require a different sort of punishment from a mortal, but torture isn't punishment."

"It is for a god," he said. "I punished Prometheus with pain longer than I had anyone else, and it only lasted seventy-nine years."

"Oh...only seventy-nine..."

"You continue to look at this from a limited mortal perspective," said Zeus. "For an immortal being, a billion years is nothing."

"That's where you're wrong, it is something when you willfully go out of your way to hurt someone, and everyone has their psychological breaking point, even gods."

"Of course, they do," he said, "how do you think I know when they've had enough? I should never have taken Chiron's offer; Prometheus was still defiant."

"Then you admit you only tortured any of them to break them."

"That's the purpose of punishment!" yelled Zeus.

"There's a difference between giving a penalty for an infraction and subjecting them to cruelty. When you tortured someone, your efforts had not intended to do anything but destroy their agency, to supplant their will for yours, and don't tell me you don't see a difference. When Hera, Athena, Apollo, and Poseidon tried to overthrow you for your tyranny, you hung Hera by her hands from the sky using golden chains with anvils attached to her feet and you forced her to stare into the abyss."

"That only lasted four days."

"I don't care how long it lasted, it's torture! And I know you know the difference because you only punished Apollo and Poseidon. You took away their power and made them work for King Laomedon for wages for a while. So, you do know the difference. Why would you use torture if you know another way?"

"My divine will is sovereign."

"That might still play well in the nosebleed section where they can't see what you are, but those of us who sit near the orchestra will not accept that. To us, you're an obvious tyrant. That's what has started all this, and why you're here." Ronan's eyes stared upon his quarry. "Did you enjoy torturing them?"

"Again, what you call torture," said Zeus, "I call punishment, and I never punished them for my enjoyment."

"Wow," said Colt, "you spoke around that question so smoothly one would think you were a politician."

"Indeed," said Ronan, "Just because you hadn't 'punished' them for your enjoyment wouldn't mean that you hadn't enjoyed it."

"So, what if I did?" he asked. "I'm King of the Gods. I do as I please."

"You mean were King of the Gods and did as you pleased," said Hephaestus. "All that's in the past now."

"Things would have been far worse without me," said Zeus. "They needed a heavy hand. You don't know what they were like."

"They reflected your leadership," said Ronan. "You hadn't brought out the best in them, they just followed your awful example. Not that I can fully blame you for that. After all, your example swallowed your siblings."

Ronan noticed a twitch in Zeus's left eye.

"Would you like another sniff of Ambrosia?" asked Ronan. "He lifted the dish and waved it under Zeus's nose again. Unable to stop himself, he inhaled its scent, and the twitch of his left eye happened again.

"What will you do with me?" asked Zeus.

"You've accepted that I have more power than you?"

"You can take away my power, and you can manifest Ambrosia. None of the gods can do that, so what are you?"

"I'm unsure what I am, specifically," he said, "but I can tell you what I was not. I was not a threat to you until you believed the lie about how I would dethrone you, and you made me a threat to you by your own actions. So, you turned a lie into a prophecy, and you ensured it was fulfilled."

Zeus stared at the table in thought.

"This isn't the first time that's happened though. Our father Cronus did the same thing. Uranus told him one of his children would dethrone him, and only by his belief in its truth had he acted in a way that ensured it came true. If our father were an amazing parent, loving, good, and kind. You all would have loved him so much that the thought of overthrowing him would have been unthinkable, but he just couldn't do that. Evil begets evil, but that cycle ends with me."

When the twitch in Zeus's eye became more pronounced, Ronan waved the Ambrosia under Zeus's nose again.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm helping your captive find her way out of your head."

His eyes went wide. "No!"

Ronan yelled into Zeus's face. "Métis, if you can hear me, exit through his sinus."

Zeus could feel the fly inside his head moving around, and the moment he sensed her in his sinus, he began to sniff hard like he had a head cold. Ronan manifested a feather and began tickling Zeus's nose with it. It had reached the point he couldn't control it, he inhaled twice, and his face contorted into a grimace while trying to hold it in.

"Give it up, Zeus. Not even you have the power to overcome the compulsion to sneeze."

Zeus squeezed his eyes shut and with the force strong enough to strain his vocal cords, he violently convulsed, blowing Métis from his head. They could hear the buzzing wings of the fly as she soared around the room. Ronan held out the dish of Ambrosia in his palm. The fly went right to it and began drinking. "Once you've had enough to transform yourself, I will heal you. I promise you'll feel better in no time."

With a hoarse voice, Zeus said, "I will have her loyalty no matter what I may have done. She loves me."

"Ha!" said Ronan. "You wish..."

"How long was she in there?" asked Colt.

"Thousands of years," said Hephaestus. "Since the end of the Titanomachy."

Ronan set the dish onto the floor, and within a minute Métis had drunk enough to transform back into herself. It happened slowly and with struggle. Zeus held her captive in a confined space the whole time, and only Ronan's removal of Zeus's power allowed her to break free. As she transformed, she couldn't manifest herself some clothes, she stretched and had trouble standing upright, but once she had, she turned, saw Ronan, and began to cry from relief. As Ronan hugged her, she wrapped her arms around him. After he healed her of her aches and pains, he gave her some power and manifested her some clothing, a snowy white chiton like the one Hera wore. She kissed Ronan on the cheek, thanked him, and walked over to the table where Zeus sat, his hands manacled to the table. She reared back with her right hand and slapped Zeus hard enough to have knocked out most anyone else's teeth.

"You bastard!" she yelled into his face. "How dare you betray me! And to think I loved you. I can't kill you, but you are dead to me!" She turned to Ronan. "It's a good thing you can stop Time, he took Liam to the underworld. He wanted to drop him into Tartarus, but Hades stopped him. Zeus was so angry over it that he immediately teleported to Mount Etna and released Typhon from the underground chamber. He will come to Olympus and destroy everything."

"Typhon is already here. I froze him in Time."

Zeus tipped his head back in indignation. "I figured if I can't have Olympus, then no one will."

"Why hadn't you taken him to Tartarus?" asked Ronan.

"I tried, but Etna was as close as I could get him. That's how dangerous he is. I wish I had known you could stop Time. I doubt you could win if you fought him in a fair fight as I had. Using your ability to stop Time is cowardly and cheating."

"Oh!" He sat across from Zeus again. "I guess I'll have to fight him now, just to prove to you my bravery because I so value your opinion." He shook his head and laughed. "You're pathetic. I can't imagine why any of the gods support you, but you have given me my answer to what I will do with you. If your throne means so much to you, I insist that you keep it." He leaned in close. "You wanted Typhon to destroy Olympus, but he only destroyed your palace and thrones before I stopped him, so I will leave you to reign as king for all eternity from the remnants of Typhon's rampage. I will ensure that future generations remember you as nothing more than Zeus, the Mad Tyrant King of Olympus, and a prime example of the follies of cruelty, unkindness, and greed. But not to worry, your wife Hera will be right here with you. I wouldn't want to separate you when it's clear you deserve each other." He froze Zeus in Time, stood, and turned to his companions to make plans.

Hephaestus would return Colt to the ship, and Métis had requested that she see her daughter Athena, so Hephaestus would take her to the secret house.

Once Ronan took care of the Typhon problem, he turned all of Olympus into a unique kind of cage. He couldn't allow any of them to hurt people or start a civil war. So, he did the only thing he could do, given the circumstances. Apart from Zeus, all the other gods on Olympus would keep their power, but it would only have any effect within the shield he placed around the entire complex atop Mount Olympus. Among all the gods, only Zeus could break The Great Seal preventing anyone from teleporting away from Olympus. And with Zeus's power gone, he couldn't break the seal or teleport himself away. Ronan hadn't exactly imprisoned them though, not even Zeus. They had three choices. They could stay and keep their power. They could evolve, and if so, they could send word to Ronan, at which point, they would talk about it. Or they could just choose to walk out, but in choosing to pass through the fully restored gate, they chose to pay the price for their freedom. The shield would absorb their power, and they would find themselves on Earth to live out the remainder of their days as a human. Once Ronan restored the natural flow of Time, he gave them the news of their situation, and they were not happy, making many empty threats. Afterward, Ronan left them to contemplate their lives there as he journeyed to the underworld on his own.

Unlike with Olympus, one doesn't teleport to the underworld without an open invitation. Just as the rites for the dead had structure and customs, Hades had structure and customs in his realm, and he took those things seriously. Hades could be a stickler on formality. Ronan felt that by Hades having saved Liam, he owed it to him to honor his traditions, and enter through the front door as any respectful visitor should. Of all the gods, he wanted to keep on the good side of Hades most.

On his path to the underworld, he crossed the divine terminator to the dark side of the realm, the side influenced by many deities like Nyx—the primordial goddess of the night but presided over in whole by Hades himself. Before the darkness, however, came the twilight.

Lost in thought, Ronan repeatedly tossed the baseball he carried as he strolled the pathway in the growing darkness. He caught it label-side up, displaying the word TYPHON.

He had followed a trail to the edge of a meadow where he reached darkness and the first of five rivers. On the River Acheron, he found an ancient dock lit by a single lantern hanging from a rusted pole. The darkness and the glowing mist upon the flowing water obscured its opposite shore. Not wishing to lose the ball in the water below, he tightened his grip on it and took a few cautious steps onto the dock and waited for the ferryman. Two lights approached from the mist, and once its origin came into view, he saw some sort of black punt boat. The prow and stern of the ship had curves made to hold lanterns for the punter to see.

Many human authors have described the man who propelled it as generally silent, ugly, and filthy, sometimes wearing a dark cloak with a conical cap, or something a bit more distinguished, but Ronan only saw a slender naked man in his thirties with long dark hair kept in a ponytail. He hadn't an ounce of fat on him, but otherwise, he looked clean and healthy.

When the man came within earshot he said, "Hello, Ronan."

When the boat reached the dock, he asked the man, "You are Charon?"

"That's right. I'm Charon, son of Nyx."

"It's good to meet you." Ronan studied him for a moment. "Forgive me, but you look nothing like any description I've ever heard."

"That's because not everything in the underworld is as it seems. How I look depends on who I'm picking up. Some people deserve the honor of an armored warrior, or a dashing young man in a nice suit to ferry them, but for others, I'm nothing more than a hideous man in greasy rags. It's all part of the service, and I always give them what they know they deserve."

"And I deserve...?"

Charon held out his hand to help him aboard. "The truth. Are you ready?"

"Should I not pay you?"

His mouth tightened, brows lowered, and he shook his head. "Nah, that's just for the tourists."

Ronan laughed as he climbed aboard and settled himself on the opposite side from Charon to balance the boat. "I would never have thought you would have a sense of humor."

"I usually never get a chance to express any humor." He pushed off from the dock with his punting stick. "Most people I ferry are so morose with all that dread and fear, but I suppose, Acheron isn't the 'river of woe' for nothing."

"How far can you take me?" Ronan watched as the glowing mist surrounded them.

"I know a shortcut to Hades's palace, but we still must pass through the Styx, and I guarantee she will stop us. The Goddess Styx has remained a staunch supporter of Zeus since the Titanomachy, and I've never known her to keep quiet."

"Anything important I should know about her?"

"Avoid flattery. She hates that. She hates a lot of things, actually, but then she is the personification of hatred, so that follows." He thought for a moment. "Ahh... Oh! Kratos was her son, so there's that too."

Ronan palmed his face. "Oh, shit..."

"She has a respect for strength of will. That's why she has stood by Zeus. I have heard how you are, Ronan. You're a good and kind man. Personally, I find that a pleasant change for someone as powerful as you, but she might have a different opinion."

"I appreciate the warning."

They traveled a fair distance, but made a turn, following a narrow and shallow passage through the thickets which barely fit the width of the boat, and Ronan could tell Charon had difficulty punting when the boat's bottom scraped the bed of his shortcut. Ronan concentrated and holding his hands out he lifted the boat a few inches to allow it to skim the surface, and Charon easily punted them through the channel.

"Thank you," he said. "I wasn't sure we would make it."

"Not a problem," said Ronan. "I wouldn't want you to damage your boat just to help me."

With a lift of his brows, he gave a tiny jerk of his head as he punted along. "You really are unique, aren't you?"

When they reached the mouth of the channel, the River Styx lay before them, Charon punted into the flowing water, and the moment he had, the boat moved far faster than his punt could account for, and Charon nearly fell from his vessel. An unseen hand dragged the boat counterclockwise in an arc, causing them to go around and around in an ever-tightening spiral. When they reached the middle of the developing whirlpool, the boat turned on its center axis upon a column of water as the rapid swirl around them receded to reveal a ten-foot trough, isolating them from the rest of the river.

Ronan forced the boat to stop spinning, and over the sound of the rushing water that swirled around them, Ronan yelled out, "Styx! Show yourself!"—she seemed disinclined—"Don't think you have me trapped here. I can leave whenever I like. I'm merely allowing you the chance to speak to me, so if you have something to say, say it now. Otherwise, I'm leaving!"

The rapidly moving trough shallowed enough for a nude woman who emerged from it to walk upon the water around the boat with her head the height of Ronan's, meeting him eye to eye. It was Styx, the Oceanid, goddess, nymph, daughter of the Titan Oceanus, the personification of hatred, and oath protector. Not ordinary by any means, her aqua-colored skin glowed brightly in the dim light from the lanterns of the boat, and her eyes fixed upon Ronan with an evil, contemptuous glare that might have killed any mortal man. A meticulous braid of hair, the color of the bluish depths Ronan had witnessed in the ocean, circled her head like a garland. He might have thought her beautiful, if not for the hostile expression marring her features. She said nothing for almost a minute as she strode around the boat.