Centaurian - Chapter 7
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Synopis: When an unusual man comes into the protection of Officer Liam Phillips, Liam doesn't know what he's in for. His world gets broadened and turned upside down in this adventure of love, sex, gods, a one-quarter equine, and a vacation he will never forget.
Centaurian, By Rick Haydn Horst
Chapter 7
Among humans, the occasional dethroning of a monarch has happened repeatedly for as long as monarchs have existed, and whether they happen by murder, forced abdication, civil war, or military coup, the removal of a monarch is usually a messy business, depending on the strength of the opposition. In the case of divine royals, the Greek gods have had a line of rulers, but one might consider only three of them real kings, and the stories from ancient humans of how the first two lost their thrones are---to put it mildly---bizarre.
According to the stories, Uranus, the first king, despised his children and kept them inside their mother Gaia (Earth) and wouldn't allow their birth. Gaia called upon her unborn---fully formed---children to seek vengeance on their father, so Cronus used the adamantine sickle given to him by his mother while still in the womb and castrated his father Uranus when he came to lie with Gaia and tossed his testicles into the ocean, which allowed the Titans to be born, and Cronus assumed the throne.
In retaliation, Uranus placed a curse upon his son Cronus so that one of his children would dethrone him. To prevent this, Cronus swallowed his children when they were born. Rhea, the mother of Cronus's fully divine children, hid her youngest son Zeus at birth to prevent Cronus from swallowing him. The goddess Metis mixed wine and mustard for the adult Zeus to feed Cronus which caused him to vomit up his---now fully formed---children. Afterward, there came the rebellion and the war, resulting in the removal of Cronus from the throne in favor of Zeus, the god of the sky.
Zeus reigned as King-of-the-Gods for many millennia. He withstood prophecies as well as rebellious children and siblings who attempted to overthrow him, so he had a proven mastery of his extensive powers, and he used them to intimidate until he had no opposition to his supremacy. For millennia, he had the luxury of considering his throne secure, but then came Ronan the Centaurian and Prometheus's prescient vision.
Without witnessing it, he wouldn't believe Ronan had as much or more power than himself. Apart from his capacity to vaporize a god and his immunity to Zeus's attempt to remove his power, the Centaurian had demonstrated no ability he found noteworthy. Ronan's claims of fearing these much talked about but unseen powers, might prove nothing more than an attempt to conceal a profound inadequacy, so Zeus wanted certainty over how much danger he presented.
He knew from lifelong experience; one should never reveal personal desires to an enemy. He found it better to simply take a thing---usually by force---to avoid anyone manipulating him over it. In Ronan telling Zeus what he wanted, it revealed his weaknesses. To Zeus's mind, if Ronan wanted his peace, he should simply go after Zeus and destroy him, taking his peace by force with the strength of his power, just as Zeus tried to remove Ronan as a threat the moment he learned of his dethroning.
Figuring to test the Centaurian, he made a careful selection of asteroids. He hadn't wanted to utterly devastate the ship by sending one too large. He sought a more tactical strike, so the Centaurian would either rise to the occasion or prove himself impotent.
The smaller meteors made of a two-inch shard of metal struck the superstructure from behind. The seismic-like event that had shaken the vessel down to its keel, however, came from above, a strategically aimed meteor the size of an anvil whose supersonic speed, odd shape, and composition allowed it to rip through the steel ship like a bullet through a tin can.
Ronan had raced up the staircase in search of Liam where he met the captain in the process of evacuation. The engine had stopped, the general alarm had sounded, and smoke began pouring through the hatchway from the bowels of the ship as men ran onto the deck in panic.
The moment the captain used the word meteor, Ronan knew Zeus had caused it, and if the meteors alone hadn't proven his villainy, he also stripped them of their only means of escape by taking their lifeboats.
It came down to Ronan doing or men dying, and he would need the power he feared. He stood paralyzed for a moment upon the staircase, knowing that to act upon one need would delay acting upon others, perhaps with deadly consequences. The ship had just begun sinking beneath the water, the engine room had men trapped, he could hear calls for help from above and below him, crewmen raced past them on the staircase in urgency, and he still hadn't seen Liam.
"Are you just going to stand there?" asked the captain. "You wanted to help people, so help them!"
The situation had Ronan pulled too many directions and pushed too far. His second and triple guessing himself caused a lapse in his ability to think or decide, and in an unreasonable fit of momentary madness, he squinted his eyes, clenched his fists, and with a voice erupting from deep inside him, he shook as he cried, "STOP!"
Faster than he could blink, Ronan thought he had gone completely blind, coupled to a silence so profound it would have driven most anyone insane. He felt no vibration, no sensation of temperature, or even direction. As though disconnected from his body, he felt nothing. He tried to touch whatever lay before him in the darkness, but he found himself trapped as though he had petrified in Medusa's gaze and with a growing sense of terror, he thought, "What have I done?"
The answer came from someone else inside his head, a deep masculine voice that would have resonated in a man's chest. "You've gotten yourself into a pickle. That's what you've done." The man chuckled to himself in amusement.
Ronan hadn't recognized the voice. With Chiron and his former human self fully combined, it could be neither as individuals. It sounded like no one he knew.
"It's true," said the man in his measured, casual tone, "you and I have never met."
"You can hear my thoughts?" asked Ronan in his mind.
"Yes, but only here," he said. "This is my domain. Do you know where you are?
"No, where?"
The man was enjoying this. "That's right, you're nowhere."
"Nowhere? How can I be nowhere?"
"I suspect most people wonder how they came to be nowhere, especially when in the middle of it; with its popularity, one might think to find a tourist attraction. However, unlike other people's experiences, you have willed yourself to the most nowhere of all nowheres. I come here when I need some time to myself---which sounds funny for me to say.
"I've never been here with anyone before, and I now realize that I know nothing of the future here. Having no knowledge of what you will say next is fascinating. So, welcome to my nowhere."
"Who are you?"
"I am one of the two oldest beings in this universe and the only other person capable of coming here. Except, when I come here, I avoid the pickle you're in."
"And what precisely is this pickle?"
"You willed everything to stop, so it stopped...except your mind, probably as a defense mechanism...and me, of course, because I can live both in and outside of time."
"You're Chronos, the god of time."
"Only to the gods who aren't my close friends, my children, and my ex-wife Ananke (the goddess of necessity and inevitability. I'm proud to say that she and I fucked this universe into existence, and it came to be at the birth of our son Chaos. You may know that event as The Big Bang). For everyone else, what they call me, depends on who they are. You know, humans too often confuse me with your Titan father, Cronus. That's why they mistakenly depict me as carrying a scythe---he was a god of the harvest---but I've no need for such an implement and talk about insulting... Cronus swallowed his own children for goodness's sake! No one wants to get mistaken for THAT monster."
"Hadn't you created the Chronosian blade for Aquila to kill me?"
"No, I created the blade because Zeus told me to. He never makes requests of anyone except to his brothers and Athena his favorite daughter. To everyone else, he makes demands, and we must comply. So, I apologize that I had to create it, but I already knew it would cause you no danger. It's a shame about Felix Raposo. He was a magnificent young man. I also mourn his loss. His destruction should never have happened, but I could not say the same of that garish and horrid Kakia. Good riddance."
"Well, if Zeus ordered you to make the blade, I understand. So, why can't I move?"
"All movement requires time, so by stopping time, you eliminated the possibility of space. Except for myself, apart from your mind, you have locked your physical self and the entire universe---to its farthest reaches and from the highest point on Olympus to the deepest pit of Tartarus, everything, down to the last quark---into a state not unlike a solid block of concrete."
"I hadn't meant to do that," said Ronan.
"Well, you have."
"I hope you're not angry with me over it; it was an accident, and unfortunately, it has me stuck. Could you get me out of this?"
The man gave a deep chuckle. "Oh no...no, I couldn't do that," he said. "It would deprive you of the opportunity to learn to use your abilities. You do want to learn, right?"
"I do," said Ronan in hesitation, "but...I have a fear of the power within me."
"And just why is that?"
"Well---for one example---because getting stuck in time is apparently a thing, but the power is too much. Everyone keeps telling me that I have more power than anyone else, and someone just today said that I could be virtually omnipotent. And I happen to know that virtual omnipotence is as close to true omnipotence that anyone can logically get. Why would anyone want that much power?"
"For you, that's a sensible, if naive, question," said Chronos, "and the answer is easy---they want control. Someone will always have more power than others but combine that with an overzealous willingness to wield it for their own benefit, and typically, they rule. Unfortunately, when someone threatens their reign, they make the most dangerous of enemies. They will do anything to maintain their control. I see both a lesson there and a warning, don't you?"
"Message received," said Ronan. "I had no idea about this power when I agreed to take Henri's place, and I get why he couldn't tell me about it, but it appears Prometheus intended that I should be the final Stallion, so I guess the question is, why me?"
"With that question, you've asked the right god. Prometheus has prescience and a knowingness of future events, but I am the god of Time. I have an intrinsic connection to the timeline with the knowledge of all events. So, let me ask you, just before Henri passed the eternal flame to you, what did he say?"
"Remember to keep the love in your heart and the image in your mind," said Ronan.
"Well, surely you comprehend the importance of the image, it's part of your appearance, but Henri hadn't told you to `hold the love in your heart' just to express some flowery sentiment. Henri and Prometheus chose you, due to your loving nature because almost anyone can acquire knowledge and experience, but someone either has a loving nature or they haven't. And the fact that you agreed to replace Henri demonstrated bravery and a willingness to commit. Holding the love in your heart---which you did---has kept you a fundamentally loving person during your transition. You couldn't let that love go now even if you wanted to, and while people too often view love as a weak emotion, it has aspects that many people rarely consider.
"Kratos never made idle threats, and him threatening the people you care for and love made you understandably angry. He pushed you into a corner to force you to fight him---and make no mistake, he would have fought to the death. He intended to kill someone that night, but you had no obligation, so you simply destroyed him, and no one who knew Kratos could reasonably blame you. It seems to slip the mind of many people that Love isn't always kind and gentle. Sometimes it's fiercely protective, but that's okay, sometimes it needs to be. So, why you? Search inside yourself, Ronan, you know why they chose you, and you've known it all along, you just have difficulty believing it."
"Sometimes it puzzles me why I care so much," he said.
"It's a result of your experiences as Chiron, and especially as a human, which you knew were best forgotten. I have nothing further to say on that topic."
"I knew I would forget my past, so I must agree with that."
"It's fortuitous that you should wind up here, you have the chance to learn to wield your power, and with that, I will help you. You need it to dethrone Zeus. Besides, if you will muck about in my domain, I insist that you know what you're doing. But don't worry, now that you've stopped time, you have an eternity to learn this, but I suspect it won't take that long. The movement of matter and energy requires Time, so if you want to move, you must separate your material self from it with a time-field. Your mind is still functioning, so already, you create a field there as a means of self-preservation, just expand it."
"What does a time-field look like?"
"Your body should fill with a white light and in its glow, you expose everything your light touches---or you touch physically---to the time-field. It unlocks the matter around you, so you can move."
Ronan concentrated, but nothing happened. "I'm using my imagination, but it's not working."
"If imagination alone made things manifest, your every thought would require extreme caution. Manifesting requires intentionality, and this is no different than manifesting your wings. But whether you manifest internally or externally, you create, and to create is to act with intention."
"Why does external manifesting seem harder? What's the trick?"
"The trick is deciding it isn't harder," he said. "If you have trouble with that, we will be here a while. Some people might call this a watershed moment for you and this `nowhere' the perfect proving ground. I will help you as best I can, and together, we will fix this. Zeus deserves no satisfaction from his actions here, and you will discover that he has caused more damage than you realize."
"Is Liam okay?"
"Blood has splattered the wall of the room in which you will find him."
"No!" In Ronan's need to reach Liam, he focused, and from his body emerged a light, and it grew brighter as it expanded. He began to feel his limbs again, and his eyes could see the wall of the staircase and the captain who remained temporally locked beside him.
At the top of the stairs, on the floor that held the room he shared with Liam, he could see a figure that glowed with an eerie light like his own, that together, illuminated the staircase. The shirtless, ruggedly handsome Chronos had the size of an enormous bear with huge, rounded muscles with enormous pecs like his own, and while his abdominals remained visible, they hadn't appeared deeply chiseled. He had some slight graying in the dark hair on his head, his beard, and profuse body hair. He wore black-leather boots and a wide belt of the same material. His beefy thighs packed a pair of faded blue jeans, and Ronan noted the thick horizontal bulge in his pants that lay far across his hip.
Chronos spoke with his lips, warning Ronan in a deep rumble, "Don't touch the captain. I must caution you against touching anyone accidentally. The light of your time-field affects them superficially, but to touch them for only a moment would cause them an unpleasant, rapid temporal disruption."
"We can talk to one another?"
"The light of our time-field unlocks the air around us. As the light dims farther away from us, the speed of time slows to a gradual stop, but while our lights mingle, it creates a shared pocket of time that will carry sound." He waved Ronan up the staircase.
Due to his sizable body, Ronan had difficulty skirting around the captain on the staircase without touching him.
Once he reached the top of the stairs, Ronan said to him, "Am I reading into it, or do you and I have things in common?"
Chronos smiled. "I haven't always had this appearance, just the last thirty years, and I intend to keep it, but we have much in common. You, Liam, and I should talk one day,"--- he raked his eyes over Ronan's body---"and you are one fine-looking Stallion." He jerked his head toward the hallway. "Liam's this way."
Ronan hurried down the hall and reached for the door handle to his cabin.
"Not there, he's in this one." Chronos opened the door to Emma's cabin, and Ronan hadn't expected what he found.
The room held four people, and Ronan discovered someone hurt but not Liam. The blood splatter on the wall came from William. As he stood packing a bag, a small shard-like metallic meteor pierced the outer wall. It left a ragged and oddly shaped, golf-ball-sized hole. It matched the one through William's belly and the hole through the interior wall to the corridor where the meteorite lay embedded in a metal stud on the opposite side.
William lay on the floor between Liam and Emma, who apparently had teleported herself there before Ronan had stopped time. Their features had frozen in a look of horror and concern, but from the angle of Emma's head and the position of her mouth, she was---most likely---calling for Ronan's help. The other person in the room, Ronan never wanted to see again, the winged figure of Thanatos.
"I told him not to mess with my friends and loved ones," said Ronan.
"I will ask you to temper your anger at Death," said Chronos, "no one likes to see him due to what his presence could mean, but he has not caused this. He came to fulfill his purpose. It's not personal."
Ronan thought about it for a moment and nodded. "You're right. I will keep that in mind."
"I would like you to look at this scene. What do you see?"
Ronan looked around and at the people. "William isn't dead. His eyes are open, his face shows he's in pain, and Emma is still calling for help."
"Good. Also, Death heads toward William, not moving away, so this is great timing. Once Death has someone, we would have difficulty bringing them back, and if they were in the underworld, it would be impossible to bring them back without Hades agreeing to it, and he would insist that we pay a heavy price."
"Could Emma not heal him?"
"Emma is Dolos, and his powers are bound to his nature of deception, lies, and trickery. He has made an amazing evolution over the millennia and found a means to help others by getting around his limitations through plotting, but he isn't a powerful god, and he hasn't the time to circumvent his nature. For now, he can barely think. He just knows he loves William and cannot bear the thought of losing him."
"What does William want?"
"Not to die, obviously. He is a good man who admires you and trusts that you will save him. When the captain asked you to leave the ship, he stood up for you. He wishes he could remain with the three of you when you leave, and Emma wants him to. He loves Emma, but that's a problem because he thinks she is the goddess Erastis, the lover. He would dearly love to be with her forever, but he knows that cannot happen because he's just a mortal, and helping people like him is what she does. He thinks she will move on to someone else, leaving him just another man in her past."
"I see," said Ronan. "Can I just heal William, or should I just rewind time and undo everything Zeus has done here in one go?"
"You could do either," said Chronos, "but this event is part of the timeline, and changing time comes with consequences. Every event has ripple effects, some might perceive them as positive or negative, depending. As things stand, the gods will know this event has happened, and they would expect you to save everyone, so no one needs to die. Fortunately, while Zeus sent four other meteors this size, the others had near misses. If you change time, Zeus will not get the level of negative attention his actions deserve than if you let it happen and save everyone, along with the ship."
"Why is that necessary?"
"Because Olympus has gods not so sure about you and your abilities, and some that, surprisingly, have yet to see Zeus for what he is. He has acted without provocation which gives you support and not enemies willing to stand up to some interloper dethroning their king."
"That's rather political. I had no idea the gods had any interest in such things."
"Only when it suits our purpose, and in this instance, it suits yours."
"Wouldn't that allow people to suffer, even just for a short while, for the sake of expediency? I would prefer to eliminate all suffering."
"The desire to eliminate all suffering appeals to you," said Chronos, "and that you want to end it says wonderful things about your character, but not all suffering is bad. Often, it causes growth and change. The problem is chronic suffering for the sake of suffering. You are welcome to end that; it serves no good purpose. But to take away all suffering would be extremely bad for everyone."
"Why?"
"Because the tapestry of the world is woven with many threads. You would find three of extreme importance---consequences, compassion, and empathy. Without suffering, consequences have no teeth. And compassion and empathy help to draw people together. They only exist because of various degrees of suffering. So, while you could reduce suffering without an issue, to eliminate it entirely would pick apart the threads that hold the world together, and it weakens the cloth."
"Okay. I get it." Ronan thought for a few minutes and an idea occurred to him. "I like William, and if he wants to join us, he's welcome, but this incident has demonstrated to me that if he remains with us, he can't stay mortal. If he changes his mind later, I can undo it, but for now, he will need this.
"In being partly my son, Aquila has a spark from my eternal flame that has not only made him immortal, but he's also impervious to injury, otherwise he would never have survived the hotel's destruction. I will give William more than just a spark, with a strength of body and even greater strength of character."
Ronan removed his shirt, placed his open palm onto his chest, and concentrated on precisely what he wanted as an intensely bright fire leaked from beneath his palm. Ronan pulled his hand up and drew his thumb and forefinger together pulling a delicate web of fiery embering from his skin, and from within him, he drew a tiny sphere of golden light the size of a pea.
Ronan turned to Chronos. "I think I'm getting the hang of this."
"Well done. Do you know how to administer it?"
"I imagine that I would place it into the wound. Is there anything you would recommend?"
Chronos smiled a little and looked kindly upon Ronan. "You are so different from Zeus. You hadn't taken it personally when I said to you what I had about Thanatos, you listened, and now you seek advice. It's refreshing to see someone with your power not have violent outbursts, pretend to know everything, or seek to control others through fear."
"That's because I'm an adult. I hear Zeus likes torturing people, has he ever tortured you?"
"Indirectly," he said. "You have no idea what living under Zeus is like, especially for me. Many of the others have experienced Zeus's torture at one time or another---which is terrible---and they know a lot he has done, but they couldn't stop him and must accept that. As the god of Time, I know everything he has done and all he would do...all of it. And knowing is a burden because---unlike everyone else---I could stop him. So often, I have contemplated giving in to the temptation of going back in time to undo Zeus. I've wanted to on many occasions. He has harmed so many people."
"What stopped you?"
"If I did that, you wouldn't exist. I had to remind myself repeatedly that we had to endure Zeus, so everyone would have the benefit of your presence."
They stood staring at one another for a moment. What an astonishing, disturbing, and humbling thing to hear. Ronan had no idea what to say to him, and Chronos hadn't expected him to.
"William is in the last few seconds of life," Chronos told him, "so when you place it into his wound, be cautious not to touch him. Afterward, hover over the wound with your hands and focus your time-field there to get the healing process started by illuminating it like sunshine. It will only heal so far for now, but it will be enough to stabilize him and keep him alive to allow it to complete its work when you restart Time."
Ronan did so, and William's tissues knitted back together in a glow of embering that began to spread throughout his body but stopped when the light could no longer penetrate his skin.
The four other small meteorites had only left holes in the superstructure. The larger metallic meteorite, reminiscent of an anvil, had pierced the base of the superstructure and passed through several floors of the substructure. It shot through the engine room, through the double-walled hull, and then began its long drop to the ocean floor.
The door to the engine room had sealed itself as a safety measure, but the meteor's entry point in the ceiling would allow the room's air and smoke from the engine to rush out as the room rapidly filled with seawater and as the other floors above were compromised by that hole, they would also fill with water and within a couple of hours, it would send the ship plummeting to the bottom.
"If we open the door," said Chronos. "Our time-fields would cause the water inside the field to unlock and run out."
"Are the men inside still alive, and if so, are they injured?"
"It's two men you know, Gustav Lauterborn and Garit Bruckhauser. Fortunately, they have just minor injuries."
"Good," said Ronan. "I want to temporally undo this to a point before the meteor strikes the ship."
"We have made changes elsewhere, so you must isolate this from it, but you lack the expertise."
"You and I move about in a pocket of time, right?"
"Right."
"Well, if we can do that, why don't I manifest a bubble of time that encompasses the trajectory of the meteor and reverse it? I could include the engine room and the damage that it made as it tore through the ship."
"That sounds workable, but it's not that simple. Currently, the ship has sunk to the same degree that the water has entered the engine room, so a bit of the ship has filled the void. There is no pocket of empty space in the ocean for the water to flow to. Without time there, the water outside the ship is like concrete. It's a matter of hydraulic pressure, the water wouldn't evacuate the room."
"So, I would..."
"You would have to lift the entire ship, along with several other simultaneous actions, but I can think of simpler alternatives."
Ronan began inspecting the door to discover how the locking mechanism functioned. "How deep is the water in the room?"
"It's a fairly sizable room, but it flooded quickly, so when time stopped it had only reached their knees."
He turned to Chronos. "Okay, I probably should just restart time and lift the ship, have we anything else I should accomplish while time has stopped?"
"Before you continue this train of thought, there's something I should tell you. I hadn't wanted to distract you from learning here; for the moment, there isn't a rush."
"What's wrong?"
"This morning, you spoke to Poseidon on the bow of the ship, and he had to flee when Death arrived. Death suspected you had spoken to someone in secret. He has keen eyesight and saw you emerge from a cloaking field, and he noted the discoloration on the deck from a puddle of seawater, and the vanishing trail of footprints from someone's bare feet leaving the scene, so he had no difficulty guessing to whom they belonged."
"And he told Zeus."
"He told him he would do what he could. Remember?"
Ronan closed his eyes in silent frustration. "Shit. Is he...?"
Chronos nodded a little. "Zeus has prepared to torture him for information."
"Where can I find him?"
"Olympus has a temple to Zeus, and out front, he has placed a duplicate of the Brazen Bull of Phalaris with Poseidon inside it. He had yet to light a fire beneath it, but he says he will if Poseidon refuses to tell him what he wants to know."
"Poseidon should just tell him then."
"Based on what he would say, if he told the truth, he would light the fire beneath it anyway for betraying him."
"Can I go there with time stopped?"
"No. Teleportation requires Time, and one can reach Olympus no other way."
"Then I should take care of everything aboard ship now." He considered it for a moment. "I think I have an idea, but I must go to the bridge." He mounted the stairs at a trot to reach the top floor with Chronos close behind.
"What will you do?" asked Chronos.
"Well, if I have as much power as people have insisted, then let me put that to the test. Our presence aboard this ship has caused trouble for the captain and crew, making them behind schedule with a damaged ship. And although the captain has asked us to leave, I refuse to abandon them near the middle of the Atlantic in this condition." They came to the flight of stairs where the captain stood locked in time, and they used caution to pass him without making contact. As they continued upward Ronan asked, "Have you any action that you would forbid me?"
Chronos smiled a little. "I appreciate your desire to respect me and my domain. I know you would only do what you must, so I would forbid nothing, but if by some circumstance you must change the past, I ask that you consult me first. Alterations to the timeline can have drastic consequences, and I can give you a picture of those beforehand."
"I agree to that. My plan requires unlocking the entire ship but not the people. Do you know who Robert Baden-Powell is?"
"Founder of the Boy Scouts, I believe," said Chronos.
"Exactly. One thing he said was, `Try and leave this world a little better than you found it,' which easily translates into leaving the places you visit in better condition than when you arrived. If this works, I have decided to take that on as a philosophy. Which reminds me, I made a mess in the ocean when I chucked things off the ship, I need to clean that up when I have spare time."
"Commendable," said Chronos, "but you also injected extra heat into the ocean when you boiled it, and into the atmosphere when you destroyed Kratos. That's not good."
"Thank you for pointing that out, I will take care of that when I clean up my mess."
"And you killed several fish," he added.
"Okay! I get the picture."
"Just trying to help," he said as they entered the bridge.
Ronan's light began to intensify as he moved to the instrument panel and laid his palms onto the console before him. While intending to leave the people time-locked, he sent out a wave that began an illumination on, in, and throughout every part of the ship, creating a pocket of time that encompassed the entire vessel, including all that its light could touch, namely the air and water around it.
"Poseidon told me I would find using my power deceptively simple, and he was right."
"Do you still fear it?" Chronos asked.
"Yes, and I think I now know the real reason why."
"Why?"
They gazed out the windows to watch the ship emerging in a bright glow that, in the distance, faded to the vast, black, timeless nowhere beyond.
"I fear that I will grow to like it too much," said Ronan.
"Why is that a problem?"
"Because power corrupts."
"Oh, I see, so if power corrupts then anyone on the verge of omnipotence should turn into the most corrupt being in the universe, is that it?"
"Something like that, yeah. Take Zeus for example, he's powerful---and not nearly omnipotent---but look at him."
Chronos rolled his eyes a bit and shook his head. "You are not Zeus. Beneath the power itself, you are entirely two different beings, not remotely similar."
"Poseidon said Zeus's evil had grown over time," said Ronan. "Wouldn't that mean it could happen to me too?"
"Zeus has always lacked what you have. He hasn't a clue how to love anyone, and he has never had the benefit of a protector."
At the mention, Ronan's brows drew together. "You mean Liam?"
"Did you think perhaps your need of his protection extended little beyond him picking you up and carrying you into his home?"
Ronan turned toward the window his mind trying to work it out.
"Kratos's jibes at Liam protecting you stemmed from his ignorance. The god of brute strength could not comprehend the more subtle aspects of what it means to protect someone. Liam is---forever and always---essential to you, not in defending you from anything external but protecting you from yourself. Liam is your policeman; he is your compass; he is your `someone to answer to'. And you will because you love one another, and you would never want to disappoint him. So, do you want to ensure that you never become evil?" Ronan turned his head, and Chronos held his complete attention. "With every decision, always keep in mind his love for you and his favorable opinion. Because losing him can happen."
Ronan leaned forward with his hands on the glowing console before him, he hung his head, and from his lips came that not quite laugh, not quite cry of a relief that allowed his body to relax which melted into amusement and gratitude. "Prometheus really is a genius, isn't he?"
"Yes, but he can't take all the credit for this," said Chronos. "Most of the other Stallions successfully avoided being found by anyone during their initial dormancy period, and typically, they remained alone throughout their lives not fully connecting with anyone, but Zeus ensured that Rosine ran across Henri in Toulouse. She took him in, and something odd happened. He became emotionally attached to her upon awakening, almost if by compulsion. Prometheus hadn't wanted you to spend eternity alone, so he searched the entire world and found Liam on the little island of Key Biscayne. Prometheus wouldn't want you to think he had manipulated you both into a relationship. He simply anticipated several of your needs and fulfilled them, as best he could, by playing matchmaker."
"But Henri left Rosine after he got her pregnant," said Ronan.
"Henri was afraid. He had believed that having children could not happen and should not have happened. He felt he had betrayed his duty to carry the eternal flame, and that his remaining would expose his agelessness. He had not left her with ease. But also, you must remember the dangerous and superstitious era in which it happened."
"Someone would likely have tried to burn him at the stake or something, I suppose."
"His never aging would have caught up with him," said Chronos, "and it would have been bad."
"Was Aquila's birth supposed to happen?"
"In temporal logic, every event automatically falls under the umbrella of `supposed to happen', including changes to the timeline which are not really changes at all."
"But how can-"
"Don't ask me to explain that because I couldn't. Language is an inadequate means of communicating the complexities of Time. We should get on with your plan."
"Very well, if you say so," said Ronan. "I have a question. Would moving the ship harm the others here?
"Although they remain internally time-locked," said Chronos, "they are---essentially---little islands of stopped time cut off from the rest while surrounded by the ship's time-field, and you can safely move them."
Ronan held out his upward-facing palms at waist height. "In that case, I will lift the ship, make all the repairs, give them some new lifeboats, and while I can't teleport the entire ship, I can still move it to an empty patch of the Mediterranean just off the coast of Genoa. That would more than make up for lost time and save them a significant amount of fuel."
"Have you thought of using your imagination and doing a little more than just repairing the ship?"
"Like what?"
"Ooh,"---Chronos shrugged a little and his eyes skimmed the ship for a moment---"like giving it an upgrade, perhaps..."
Ronan's brows rose as he glanced around. "Hmm...I could use the practice."
With Time stopped, Ronan took the opportunity to hone his abilities to the point he could manifest his will with relative ease. His most significant challenge came from broadening his imagination far enough to effectively utilize his power.
He renewed the entire ship as though it were brand new, and during that, he found many items the crew had attempted to seal out the corrosive effects of the sea with multiple layers of paint, giving them an unsightly appearance, so he took it upon himself to change its metals to a titanium alloy that wouldn't corrode. He had wanted to change the entire ship's metals to titanium, but the designers had built the ship with the weight of steel in mind and changing it to a lighter metal would require altering the ballast, so that would mean restructuring the ship. Not having the necessary expertise in such matters, he felt it best not to tamper with that.
Moving the ship took little effort, and he made a gentle landing with it in an arm of the Mediterranean called the Ligurian Sea, a third of a mile off the coast of Genoa, ensuring the ship hadn't lain in the pathway of any oncoming vessels.
With all that accomplished, he had just a few things left before he restarted Time.
"I want to thank you for your assistance," Ronan said to Chronos. "Without you, I might have been stuck for an eternity."
Chronos smiled. "I doubt it," he said. "Eternity is a long time. Eventually, you would have thought of something, but you're welcome. This has been my privilege. So, what's next on your agenda?"
"Before I restart time," said Ronan, "I need to speak with Liam."
"Right. I will meet Liam on the timeline, so I cannot meet him now."
"I was about to ask you for some privacy."
"Ahh! So, that's how it happened. Not a problem." He held out his hand, and Ronan took it. "I want us to be great friends, and please, know that you can count on me."
"I appreciate that Chronos, I can never thank you enough for what you've done here."
"Well, perhaps you can help me. And why don't you and the others call me Angus."
"Angus?" Ronan asked in disbelief.
He nodded. "I own and live in the Barlow Building in Los Angeles. It holds three successful gay clubs---two public, one private. I have a dance club called BEEF, a strip club called BEEF STRIPS, and in my home there, I have a members and invited-guests-only sex club and bar called BEEF & CHILL So far, the club has fourteen permanent members. I have a blast at my clubs, and I have even been known to strip at Beef Strips for special gatherings and charity events, so nearly everyone has seen me naked, and unlike during my marriage, my bed is never lonely. The humans know me by the legal name, Angus Barlow, but the guys at the clubs like to call me Steakhouse."
"Steakhouse?"
Angus unbuckled his belt, unbuttoned, and unzipped his pants. Reaching inside he pulled out the cause of his bulge. Even soft, it hung heavily off him like a hairless forearm atop a sack filled with two unenhanced goose eggs, and each one could fill a man's palm.
"I get it now," said Ronan. "What an appetizing hunk of meat and potatoes you have there."
"Why, thank you. You, Liam, and the others may drop by as my special guests anytime."
"I appreciate the invitation. The place sounds amazing, and I would love to see it. So, you suggested that I might help you. In what way do you need help?"
You and I never have this initial discussion on the timeline, so it must happen here. I would normally have a reticence to reveal the future to anyone, but I will on this matter since it's already evident. You need to know what's coming on this topic. Your cum is Ambrosia, but that's not the only way you can make it. Unlike anyone else, the source of your power is so strong, stable, and pure that you can create Ambrosia at will, and that will be important to the gods in the future."
"Why is that?"
"Our supply of Ambrosia has dwindled, but the usual flow of it to Olympus will soon cease. It would arrive there every day, and today, we received about one-tenth less than before. Our having it every day has never been more than a decadence, but we have received it daily, so we must drink it, or it goes to waste. We couldn't store it like wine; old Ambrosia isn't good."
"If you're connected to the timeline and know all events," said Ronan, "then you know where Ambrosia comes from."
"That's right, I do. I refuse to say from where, except that no other planet has Ambrosia. It's a substance that accumulates over a twenty-four-hour period, and it has a short lifespan of only twenty-four hours after we receive it, and the following day more arrives."
"And you're saying that, over time, it has begun accumulating less and less."
"Yes. So, you see, our need for you is twofold."
"Who else has noticed it dwindles?"
"I don't know what everyone thinks---or suspects and keeps to themselves. For that, I can only surmise' based on the evidence from the timeline. I only know' those things said and done. That it dwindles would create a stir, and no one has spoken of it, so, for the moment, I think it's just me, and now you."
"Okay, then I have two questions. How long before the supply to Olympus stops? And how much do the gods actually need?"
"According to the timeline, the source will dwindle until it stops by the end of next year, but our access to it ceases well before then for reasons I cannot say. As for how much we truly need, Ambrosia is powerful. If we made a specific feast day once a year and everyone had some, we would be fine."
"Would they eat nothing in between?" asked Ronan.
"Oh no, we manifest food when we get hungry, and we eat all sorts of things, but we cannot manifest Ambrosia."
"I'm glad you've told me. So, how does this apply to my helping you?"
Angus smiled. "For a long time, Zeus had made an edict against giving mortals Ambrosia. Not all mortals are worthy of immortality. I hope that you will be more trusting. I have an inner circle of friends that are very much like Liam and William. I would like for them to have it, and if you could send me a wooden firkin cask of Ambrosia on a prearranged date every year, I would be most appreciative."
"Would you agree to let me meet them first?"
"Yes, please do," said Angus. "They work during the week, so any Saturday night you like would be perfect."
"Let me meet them, and I will decide then."
"That's most fair and gracious of you. While you're with Liam, I will transport myself to Genoa to look around, but call me if you need me. And by the way, just so we're clear, I am here for you even if you must say no when you meet my friends. Okay?"
"Okay."
As Angus left the CS Fritz Himmel for the continent, Ronan returned to Emma's cabin, and the four people in the room hadn't moved but the space around them reflected the pristine condition of the ship that the captain and crew would soon discover.
He squatted to look carefully at Liam. Fortunately, at the moment that time stopped, he had lifted his hand from William, so Ronan could unlock him without unlocking them both, but how to go about that without causing him a fright seemed important, but maybe unavoidable.
From Liam's perspective, he had knelt beside William before Emma arrived, and from his training, he thought to apply pressure to the wound, but as the odd-shaped projectile had tumbled and tore into his body, it left a golf ball-sized hole, and Liam could see through it to the rapidly pooling blood on the floor and pushing on the wound would likely have done nothing more than cause William more pain. They both called for help, but mid-blink everything had altered. Liam saw that the lighting of the room had changed with everything around him glowing except Emma and William who had frozen in place.
"Liam," said Ronan who stood just behind him to the left.
He turned his head, smiled to see him, and stood. "Hey! Why does everything look strange? What's happening?"
"I have stopped Time, but everything that you see glowing is generating a time-field."
"Holy shit... You can stop Time?" Liam spied a figure with folded black wings at the side of his vision that startled him. "Death."
"He had come for William, but he will walk away empty-handed."
"So, the gods stop when Time stops?"
"Apparently so, but only Chronos and I can do it, and I'm uncertain that the others know it happens. I doubt they even notice it. I stopped Time many hours ago, and a lot has happened since then. We have much to talk about, but first..." Ronan guided Liam into their cabin across the hall, took him into his arms, and kissed him for several minutes.
Liam pulled back. "Oh, I need you."
"Right now?"
"Absolutely." He began to undress.
With raised brows, Ronan made a momentary tip of his head. "Why not?" He removed his shirt. "We have time."
Liam began kissing him again.
Ronan pulled back. "There's something I should tell you about the Ambrosia."
He shook his head and got onto his knees before him. "Later." When he pulled down Ronan's shorts, he shoved his rapidly hardening cock into his mouth and began sucking him.
"Ooh...I love you," said Ronan.
As Liam's lips caressed the head, he ran his tongue along the foreskin and frenulum before taking more into his mouth. It reached the entrance to his throat but having so often practiced on his ten-inch ex-boyfriend caused him to lose his reflex, and even with the thickness, he slid several more inches into his face. He wished he could disengage from the practical necessity of breathing, a wish that most anyone who found comfort in accommodating an appendage as magnificent as Ronan's would make at every opportunity. Just slide it in, and leave it there, like the perfect garage for a vehicle as fast and sexy as a Lamborghini, as classy as a Rolls, and long like a super stretched limousine. Ronan reoriented his cock with a downward curve to make an easier slide into Liam's throat as he fucked his face. Retreating to his mouth with every other stroke had allowed Liam to breathe as he raced to his orgasm. Just before it started, Ronan pulled back until Liam held his Centaurian cock like he was jacking a fire hose into his mouth with the flared tip of a smooth bore nozzle trapped between his lips. With a determined, machine-like efficiency, Liam gulped and guzzled the massive gouts of Ronan's delicious Ambrosia. It pumped out the end for ten minutes, fifteen minutes, the twenty-minute mark had come and gone, but still, Ronan stood there with his eyes closed enjoying the sensations, his feet planted on the floor, his legs locked into position as his upper body swayed with Liam jacking his giant meat into his mouth and chugging his liquid gift.
As they hit their new record of thirty minutes, Liam tapped Ronan's leg, his eyes flew open, and he immediately stopped the flow. With concern, he helped Liam lay upon the bed with his head and shoulders elevated by pillows, and his belly stood out like he had swallowed a watermelon.
"Are you okay?" Ronan asked.
"I'm feeling strange."
"I'm not surprised, but I probably should tell you what Poseidon told me. He said all this Ambrosia is likely to cause you to achieve godhood. I suspect he means that you'll become a demigod, and I think that's what you feel about to happen."
"What will that do?"
"I've watched you grow taller, stronger, and more handsome, so I suspect this will complete that transformation, but in my opinion, it's not enough. Chiron was a demigod, and he could still sustain an injury. You are my partner, my protector, and the one whom I love above all others. I want to give you the same invulnerability that I gave William when I healed him, but also more. For now, you need time to absorb this, and as we wait, let me tell you all that's happened the last few hours."
As the Ambrosia absorbed into Liam's body, Ronan conveyed all he had done with Time stopped and all the information he had acquired. He told him about Chronos (Angus), the dwindling Ambrosia, Zeus readying to torture Poseidon, all the practice he had renewing the ship, saving William, and how the time fields worked, but he also informed him fully of what it meant to be his protector, and for Liam, it lifted an enormous weight.
Liam needed Ronan to have an obvious need of him. Ronan's love meant more to him than he could say, but he needed more than to live as the object of Ronan's affection or as an ornament for him or as Kratos might have put it---useless for anything more than an ass for Ronan to mount. Kratos's words had made a deep cut into Liam's confidence, making him question whether anyone as powerful as Ronan really needed a protector. He never wanted to struggle with finding some use or relevancy to Ronan's existence, but in the light of the current information, he had a vital function and a responsibility greater than he could have imagined, one that made him irreplaceable. He had never been irreplaceable for anything, and it gave him a feeling inside that his career as a police officer couldn't touch in a billion years.
When Ronan began to tell him his thoughts about Aquila, the power in Liam's body had reached critical mass and the light emanating from him began to brighten causing him to strain to hold back the pain he felt all over his body.
"Are you okay?"
Unable to get comfortable, Liam squirmed as the light intensified. "I hurt." He began to moan, and his breathing became irregular. "I'm a little scared."
"I'm right here," said Ronan who held his hand.
His moaning turned into a long continuous wail as his light grew so bright it made Ronan squint. He partially lifted Liam from the bed and hugged him. "Hold onto me," he said to him, "you're going to be okay."
Liam tried for a minute but fell limp, having fainted from the pain, and although Ronan couldn't see inside the brilliance of the light, he could feel Liam continuing to breathe as his body grew bigger. The growth continued for several minutes as Ronan held him, and when the light faded, he smiled when Liam wrapped his arms around him again.
"How do you feel?"
"I feel glad it's over," Liam whispered, his forehead on Ronan's shoulder, he took a couple of deep breaths. "The pain is nearly gone." He pulled back to look Ronan in the face.
"Your eyes!"
"What? Are they blue again?"
Ronan shook his head. "They're like mine, the color of cognac...which, now that I think about it, is the color of concentrated Ambrosia."
"That makes sense, actually." He kissed Ronan. "Let's check the damage."
Standing from the bed, Liam felt heavier and bigger, but he had also gained more height. Originally, he stood six feet tall and had grown nearly an inch the previous few doses of Ambrosia, but he stood six feet four, and his musculature had increased to demigod proportions, but he couldn't match Ronan who had far surpassed anything remotely human. But for as much as his height and muscles had a drastic change, his greatest change had more subtlety. He had a godlike handsomeness on par with Poseidon. Except, unlike Poseidon, Liam still carried the extra eleven inches of cock gifted to him by Emma which, when added to what he already had, dangled well below his knees before, but with the added height, came to just below his knees.
"A slight improvement," said Liam gazing down at it.
"Is it too much, really?" asked Ronan.
"If it would make you happy, I would have a cock that hung to my feet, but I couldn't walk about with that much. This gets in the way as it is."
Ronan placed his hand onto Liam's chest. "I think I have the solution. There's something I need to give you. I wouldn't want anyone injuring you, especially just to get to me, so I will give you some protection, and with that, a few other things."
"Will this hurt me?"
"Not this time."
Ronan released a burst of energy into Liam that spread throughout his body. It happened with such intensity his eyes widened as his mouth dropped open from taking in a rapid breath with several orgasmic spasms as his cock hosed a stream of ejaculate that coated his feet.
"There..." Ronan smiled, staring at the string of cum hanging from the head of Liam's cock. "That's better than pain, isn't it?"
"I loved it! Do it again!"
Ronan laughed as he bent down to catch the string of cum on his finger. Tipping his head back he dropped it into his mouth. He then kissed Liam. "Maybe later. I've just given you an invulnerability like mine, the ability to heal people (I figure that could come in handy for us when we finally get back to the task of helping people), and now, not only can you change your junk at will, but also, you can help others with theirs. I know you liked the idea when Emma told you about doing that."
"That's thoughtful of you. Thank you." Liam kissed him. "So, I'm a demigod now?"
"A gifted and immortal demigod. William is like Aquila; they both carry the spark that makes them invulnerable, as well as immortal. I also gave William superhuman strength, so he's stronger than the strongest human being, but as a demigod charged up with a couple of kegs of Ambrosia, you're stronger."
"You mentioned Aquila before my transformation. What about him?"
"He wanted to meet us at the train station in Milan where we would transfer to the overnight train, but I have placed us within a few minutes of Genoa, and we're several days early. We need to find him, so I can bring him to us. It's just easier than him flying here. And although I can find anyone who carries a spark from me, I couldn't teleport to their exact location just to the general area. However, once I restart time, I will be busy."
"I see. So, what about Emma, William, and Death over there?"
"I would unlock Emma to talk privately, but she's touching William, and that would unlock him as well, so it will have to wait. I want to ask her if she would like to leave Dolos behind and become Erastis. I wouldn't want to discuss that with her in front of William for obvious reasons."
"He should be told the truth."
"I agree, but that's not our secret to tell."
Ronan donned his cream-colored, square-necked tank top with the midnight-blue reinforcement around the arms and neck, bedecked with CENTAURIAN across his chest, but when he held up his shorts, he had to reconsider them. "I have no problem with these for the ship or some resort, but I need these in pants." He put them on and stared at the hem on the legs for a moment. He concentrated, and in a fiery embering, they extended down to his ankle. "That's better."
"I'm impressed," said Liam, "and you said you weren't a designer." He held up his clothing. "Could you help me with these, they won't fit."
Ronan took Liam's shorts, shook them a bit, and a line of embering changed them into a pair of pants like his own. He did the same with the shirt, but rather than Centaurian across the chest, he left it blank, and Liam noted it.
He shrugged. "Think of something, and I'll put it there."
"You make all this look so easy." He stuck a foot into a pant leg and began to dress. "So, have you considered having a team with these our uniforms?"
"What would you think of that?"
"I think it would solve some problems," said Liam. "You couldn't always stop Time whenever you get overwhelmed in an attempt to do everything yourself."
"I can think of circumstances where stopping Time wouldn't help much. My Time field would negate its effect on things around me, but my helping people also extends to setting a good example, which couldn't happen if I stop Time as I have here."
They crossed the hallway as Ronan asked, "You know what to tell the captain, right?"
"Yes."
"I may be gone a little while. Ask Emma to find Aquila and get his exact location. When I return, hopefully, the ship will no longer be in danger, and the captain will have docked."
"So, you will go ahead and dethrone Zeus?"
"If I have the opportunity, but I will definitely save Poseidon."
Liam kissed Ronan. "I love you."
Ronan smiled. "Okay, I admit, that's nice to hear. And you know I love you."
Liam returned to William's side where Ronan found him. "Good luck."
Ronan moved in front of Death to block his path. "Thanks, I'll need it. Are you ready?"
"Let's do this."
Ronan held his left hand out, so Death wouldn't walk into him. He held his right hand up, his fingers at the ready. He concentrated on what he wanted, and with intention, he snapped his fingers.
Immediately, the glow of everything around them vanished, light poured through the cabin window, William's wound continued to heal as he received Ronan's spark and gifts. Death walked into Ronan's hand. And with a look of astonishment, he gazed up at Ronan's stern and unamused face. Only two words escaped the Centaurian's lips, "Off-limits."
Thanatos backed up a little, staring at Ronan for a moment. He gave a curt nod, but turned and left, vanishing into nothingness.
It relieved Ronan to find William breathing normally again, and Emma hugging him.
"I must go," Ronan told them. "Emma, should I concentrate on anything specific to teleport to Olympus?"
"You're going to Olympus?" she asked.
"Zeus is about to torture Poseidon."
"Concentrate on Zeus, and it will take you to Olympus."
Ronan's brows shifted both incredulous and repulsed as he tipped his head.
"It's narcissistic, I know," she said.
"Ronan," said William, "thank you. I knew I could count on you."
He nodded. "I'll be back when I can." He concentrated on Zeus, walked forward a few paces, and faded into nothingness.