I suddenly don't feel the urge to blink. Or to move out of the way as I watch the next moments in singular frames of light that gave way to clashing swords, arms ripping out of the soil below, and reckoning. Reckoning like the clash of space and time, the entire world capsizing beneath the weight of the gods. If there was an end... This is what I would picture it to be. A clean sheet creeps over the floor, the very air turning frigid from the impact of the dry ice. Severed limbs creep back into life, reattaching themselves or twitching on the ground. Thunder trembles across the land, oceans heeding to the call of a hand, and the sharp tang of... metal.

Like the taste of blood in your mouth. One that had you searching for a wound, your tongue running over your bruised lip as you wipe at the tears forming in your eyes--helpless. A spectator turned participant, spinning circles to capture everything at once. The chaos is nothing like I could've ever imagined.

I thought that I was prepared for a moment like this. But now... Whatever mock war they were fighting when I was still alive was child's play. This...

Apollo cuts off the sun, thick black mist cutting off all vision as someone near me screams. Lightning absolutely cuts through bodies, coming so close to me that I can see the way it tears through flesh and bone, scorching before completely severing limbs off. I hold witness to the stone, spreading from the pupils of beings to their entire bodies like viruses, poses of warriors clawing at their faces forever immortalized in a fossilized form. Fire consumes and water drowns, corpses dropping like flies--from above and below.

Yet, a wide berth was given to me.

No one wanted to die on the site of the prophecy. Alone, even in death. I am nothing but an observer, craning my neck to see past the mountains of armor and corpses.

Ares is fearless. Courageous and unfaltering, trading hits with Cronus. Regeneration produces another arm to replace the god's slice, and Cronus is blasted back with a concentrated blow of red. Red energy, red... some sort of red force that I've seen before. Not quite flame, not quite mist. Tangible and searing, it left deep grooves in the Titan's dark skin. The god dodges a heavy blow, the now-enlarged Titan clearing out the entire shoreline with a single swipe.

Dust picks up, just as Ares emerges, both swords plunging into Cronus's neck. I see him flip his grip in milliseconds, balancing perfectly on the handles as he scores a cut that sends some sort of foul ink bursting out. Tartarus has not been kind to them. The Titan shrinks, fighting free of Ares's grip before disappearing completely.

My god gives chase.

"Childish, aren't they?" A voice. I turn, trying to locate the speaker. Like whispers, spreading all around me, layered upon years and years of memories. Like... Like the first time I touched the End of Days. "Speak, Mia." And like a gift, I drew a breath. Then another. And another.

From the novelty, my lungs formed. Then my rib cage, like the structural support of a mother holding me up. Then my blood, warm and adrenaline filled, then my heart. Then my skin, my thoughts, and my mouth. Speak, it declared.

Sob, I declared.

Everything gives out as I collapse, tears blurring my vision as my knees slam into the ground. I scream, elbows staking into the gravel, bending as my hands gripped at my hair. My body contracts, drawing myself closer together, smaller and smaller. I pull against my roots, the pain the only thing keeping me sane. Saliva is thick in my mouth, tears mixing with sweat, my breathing so loud in my head.

My eyes fell wide open, burning with each blink as a buzzing sound coursed through me. I sobbed, wailing as the world around me turned white. It was changing. No... I was moving. I was being moved somewhere else. "No, no! Bring me back—" I gasp, coughing through my pleads. I straighten up, stumbling to my feet as everything around me brightens to a single shade. The ground is no longer sandy, instead, it's smooth and artificial-looking. "Bring me back!"

I shriek, hysterical as my voice bounces back and off of whatever limitations this place had. I claw at my face, turning to and fro, my boots leaving marks against the pristine floor. "Rhea chose you?" The voices, layered over and over again. Behind me.

I spin around.

A darker shade than the Titans, they were completely void colored. Eyes of alabaster white inspected me, long lashes lowering with evaluations. There was something so still about them, even though they drifted in the air through some levitating ability. They lift their arms, muscles rippling against the fabric of what seems to be the literal cosmos around their hips.

I swallow hard. Long limbed and tall, hair tucked against their skull. The being in front of me... "Who are you?" I whispered.

"Chaos."

Chaos? As in... My eyes widened, hand dropping to my side as the being peered at me. As in the beginning. The start of all creation, the infinite nothingness that used to make up the world. The void, the abyss, the infinities of absolute space. The genesis. The origin. "Why am I here?" My voice trembles, squeaking slightly at the syllables. This...

Oh my god.

They tip their head, and when they speak again, their mouth does not move. "Where are you?"

"What?" I echo, my voice sounding faint. They step toward me, stopping merely a few feet away before peering at me. A hand swipes at a tear on my cheek, phasing in and out before speaking once more. I'm afraid to move away as the large being tilts its head at me.

"The gods were never meant to rule the humans." Chaos moves slowly, sitting on the smooth white floor. I swallow hard, the thick phylum sticking in my throat. I join them rigidly, looking down at my arms. The markings were still there, glowing faintly like paint on my skin.

"What... what do you mean?"

"I've always liked the humans better." I sniffle, wiping at the tears. "There is always a reason behind why things work. The fact that a god's blood was able to heal you. The way that no god is able to use the full extent of their power around even a single human. Gods have guided you through each moment of life, serving humans with their gifts."

From birth... The raising of the sun. The seasons, the oceans, the farm lands. The afterlife. And that was why they chose to fight in a place that was isolated. It was why I was able to kill Eris, why they only seemed to truly fight after I died.

"Human life is a precious thing. The shortness of it is what makes it truly enviable. Do you hate these gods for what they've done to you?" I shake my head slowly, feeling like I was a toddler throwing a temper tantrum and someone was sent to sort out my emotions. "Would you want to take revenge on the gods?"

"I just want to see him again." I swallowed, testing the waters of Chao's patience. There was no doubt that this was their realm, their complete domain. Hell, this place could literally be them. "Can... Can you help me with that?" Please. Please, please. If there was one thing that I knew, it was that they were strong. Unbelievably powerful. They could probably remedy every flaw to existence without batting an eye, but... probably knew that it did no good to do so.

"You will meet the god of war again." I shake my head. I already know about Ares's plans for after the war, to find me in the Underworld and spent time with me there. That wasn't enough. I wanted to be selfish. I wanted the world.

The living, breathing world outside of the Styx.

"I don't want to see him in the afterlife—I want to go back to the way things were." My fingers tremble lightly as the air seems to thicken, slightly suffocating. The markings glow fainter.

"You are not alive." I know. I know. It was so glaringly obvious, from the pain, from the... from this. Of course I wasn't alive— "But you are not dead." What? I wait, watching the being before me. I look around, my mouth moving without sound escaping, unable to find the words appropriate for how desperate I was for them to, for the sake of my literal health, explain.

"Can you please stop—" I take a breath, my heart beating a bit too fast in my chest. "Please go on, I need you to elaborate."

"You are existing, Mia. Your human consciousness was stripped away from you the second you combined the two books." Chaos lifts their hand and the markings on my skin blaze bright, making me gasp. What are they— "You fused with the books. You are no longer mortal, Mia. You lost that part of you." No longer mortal? Then that means that I can go back. I can go back right?!

"Why am I here?! I have to go back, if I'm still alive—existing, whatever—send me back! You heard what Ares said," I push myself to my feet, whipping my head back and forth looking for an exit. "He's going to the Time Pools. He'll stay there for... I might not even see him if he decides to stay there for decades, bring me back, Chaos, please!" I fall to my knees, the unmoving figure in front of me merely watching. Observing. Spectating my pleading.

They were just like the gods themselves. They all found some fascination in watching the weaker being struggle.

"You have not learned what it means to be immortal yet. The power that you hold is great enough to be deadly. You are the books, Mia. You are possibly the deadliest being that inhabits Gaia." All this power and I'm still... useless. This is no different from being human. Being stuck.

"I am not a god, Chaos—"

"That is exactly why. Immortals are not common, especially ones with this much power. You are not bound by the rules of gods, nor the sanctions. You have already tried to conjure the equivalent to an ice age upon my domain several times with your wavering emotions." Chaos taps their fingers against each other. Meticulous. Ice age. I didn't... I didn't mean to do anything. "Tell me about... sorrow and I will grant one of your wishes." A wish?

The sudden jolt in conversation makes me back up slightly, pressing my lips together. Sorrow? "It's-It's..." Sorrow. "It's like having nothing to say. To anyone. Even your closest friends. But you desperately want someone to understand, even if it were just one person. It's dull and hollow, and it's like feeling lonely when you're in a crowded room." Chaos tips their head, now to the other side. "Does that... make sense?" No reaction.

A book falls out of thin air and I recoil, heart thundering in my chest as I shove myself away. The book of Atlas—There was a third copy? What is— "The journal you wanted. By the God of War." I freeze, before scrambling back to pick it up. The journal, of...

I flip open to the first page.

'Mia Williams will be the death of me. She shakes whenever she sees me, can barely hold eye contact, and can't stand the sight of blood. Is she sincerely going to be the cause of my downfall?

-A'

I flip, holding the journal gently and dearly in my hands. I cut through days, weeks, running my eyes over each small block of writing. This is the journal that spans over the moment that he meets me. In fact, it started with our first meeting, at my apartment. I've spent nights reading about his past. Now...

This is our past.

'Bad guys. She wants to be the bad guys. How perfect can someone be?'

'If she were defeat, may I never know victory again.'

'When Zeus gave her a choice, I was terrified. To think that I could lose her, lose everything if she had taken his deal. I wanted her to stay. More than anything, I wanted her to choose me.'

'I believe that if I spend a few more centuries with her, I might be able to begin forgiving life for making hers so short.'

I press my trembling lips together reaching to flip, but the book slides out of my grasp and flips to the middle of the journal, on a blank page. I watch, as letters began to appear on the page. It writes out the full date. Then, it pauses.

'The war will end. The fighting will stop. But the world will always be tilted off of its axis.'

The writing stops.

"They are still fighting. These are his thoughts." I can barely hear Chaos as the next words are etched into life.

'Mia only exists in my memories. Everything that I've ever wanted is gone.'

"How can I fix this?" I whisper. "If I'm immortal, I can go back right?"

"You need more training first. You aren't stable enough to go back into the impressionable world." Chaos's response makes me clench my teeth together.

'The Time Pools don't seem all too bad anymore.

-A'

"Please let me go back. I promise I won't mess anything up, I swear." Chaos watches me for a moment. Then, another. I see a slick flickering in their eyes, almost as if they were scanning me.

"He has killed two Titans for you. Started a civil war amongst the Olympians." I nodded, pressing my lips together. The being looks down at the journal. "You took upon the books of Atlas for him." Chaos rises to their feet. What do they intent to go with this? Every new sentence they said to me was as unpredictable as the last, but this one... It seemed positive. An illuminated triangle forms over their face, glowing down at me. Basking me in the same darkness as the color of their skin. It was an odd feeling, cool and like the sensation of pins and needles. "I'll bind the abilities of the books until you learn to harness them. They'll slowly unravel over time, but it'll get you back." It'll get me back. It'll... It'll get me back. They'll help me.

"Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you—"

"It's been two weeks since you bonded with the books." My jaw drops.

"What?!"

"Time works differently in different dimensions. They war is finishing up, I'll send you to Ares." My mouth moves again to thank Chaos, but the world is spinning and I squeeze my eyes shut. I can hear my heartbeat pound in my chest, spelling out the seconds until I get to see him—My feet touch solid ground and sink a few inches.

I'm back.

I open my eyes and the sound of a crow makes me turn and take in the scenery. Large, thick trees stretching toward the murky sky. A sloshing river with dead fish studding the sandy bank runs next to me. I can't see past the fog, stretching across miles as I squint my eyes. The air is humid and wet, like a thunderstorm had just passed by. There's rustling in the underbrush and I turn, brow furrowed. Where... Where am I?

I look up at the sky. I squint through the leaves of the trees, looking for an indication of whether it was day or night beside the gloom that seemed to cling to me. The sky was completely empty, besides its murky black-brown color. I flinch, head whipping back and forth to confirm my thoughts. The trees don't move. The fog is completely stagnant. The river... The water isn't moving. The sound of water felt identical, the tones of ripples repeating over and over again in my ears. Lightning appears against my fingertips, just as a crow lands by the riverbank to peck at a dead fish.

Its gills flexes, just as the crow caws.

The dimension where time doesn't exist at all.

The Time Pools.

- - - 

hiii all! Thank u so much for reading! remember to vote on this chapter and share if you liked it!!

ooo... did u think that mia was gone forever?

how do u feel ab her new identity as an immortal? how do u think ares will react?

what do you think about chaos? do you trust them? 

ares's journals when he met mia!! so cuteee

and... she was too late. now theyre both in the time pools... how do u think ares will react if they meet again?

again, thank u so much for sticking around for so long!! i appreciate all of u so much!!