Chapter Text
Once upon a time- thousands of years ago really- there was a god whose name was Thanatos. Now Thanatos had four older brothers named Charon, Apate, Eris, and his own twin Hypnos who was born a month earlier than him. Not excluding his two older sisters Geras and Nemesis who teased him relentlessly about wearing all black clothes but Apate and Eris harangued him for wearing black eye shadow, black guy liner, and even black mascara. Worst of all, or at least he thought was Charon chiding him for always having his fingernails long as a girl’s and at that, painted black as their mother’s hair. Then there was a whole other can of worms for him - having Hypnos parroting everything that he said in a high falsetto voice whenever he tried to talk at the dinner table. “So why bother talking at all?” he reasoned semi-miserably to himself. His mother was there to cheer him up when Eris and Apate had tried him up for a week to know his place in the family was the baby, a fact that he resented being made fun of so often by his siblings for something he had absolutely no control over. For all of his high school years, he was an outcast because of how he dressed and because he worked hard in every subject to aim for an A. From the first day of his senior year, Hades requested that he, Thanatos, was wanted for a job interview for an internship at Underworld Management where his oldest brother Charon had trained for years to the next boatman for Underworld Management as the other one had retired. So Thanatos went to Hades but ended up getting lost trying to find Hades’ throne room, admittedly Hades’ palace was a complete labyrinth. Instead he ran into Persephone, Hades’ wife, who didn’t have any children of her own yet decided to adopt him as sort of son. He shrugged his shoulders and said “Okay…ah….you wouldn’t happen to know where the throne room is?” he asked weakly. “Of course, are you the new grim reaper?” she asked, smiling like his mother would have done if she were here. He nodded, and then she led him through a creepy-looking archway where two skeleton guards stood on opposite sides to the doorway. He took a deep breath, then walked in – hoping that Hades wasn’t angry at him his very first day. Hades merely glared at his wife, then asked” So this is the guy they give to me for work?” “Sorry…I got lost.” he admitted, sheepishly looking at the throne room’s shining floor which had just been polished a day ago. A guy with a long, purplish black ponytail stepped out from the left side of the throne and cleared his throat softly then said” My name is Alecto and I’ll be helping you.” Alecto’s eyes were a glowing, deep maroon color that flashed with both amusement and kindness. Thus, a great friendship was born between the guy and him all in a single week. “I wish you were my only brother,” Thanatos murmured to Alecto who was detangling his ear buds for the umpteenth time.
One day during his sixth hundredth year of work, Thanatos noticed that Charon was allowed to take off a few days a month to be with his wife Eleanor and his son Independence who was his own age. Likewise Hypnos had managed to marry Pasithea with the help of both Hera and Aphrodite in order to trick Zeus again. Hypnos was playing catch with his three kids – Morpheus, Phobetor, Phantasos who laughing right along with Orchid, Eris and Lydia’s daughter. Orchid, who was quite nice to him, called out “Hey come on over, Uncle T!” He shook his head no- then he said” that he would love to but he had to go get Sisyphus and bring him to the fields of Punishment according to Zeus and then Hades who needed to talk with him about who knows what.” Orchid merely shrugged, giving him a sad but sympathetic smile before she kissed him on the cheek goodbye then ran over to Phantasos.
“Hey,” said a familiar voice as Alecto’s hands went over his eyes, he turns his head and cocks it sideways at Alecto, who was his only guy friend here in the Underworld Inc. where their boss Hades told them who to kill and who to torture. He walked in step with Alecto while trying to think of a way to ask Hades for a day off. Not a week or a month – just one day off to relax and talk with Erebus, his dad, about how much he loved him then eat warm sugar cookies and drink warm milk that Nyx, his mom, fixed for him when he was little and had gotten hurt normally because of Apate and Eris. Alecto cleared his throat to bring him back to the doorway that led to Hades’ office. So they walked up the stairs that led into Hades’ house together when they heard Persephone screaming at Hades to give Thanatos a chance to find someone to love and come home to after a long day at work. Hades yelled back that Thanatos had a job to do and it was to catch Sisyphus! Alecto looked at him; he looked right back at Alecto and sighed. Steeling himself, he said “Excuse me – Persephone – Hades, you needed to speak with me about something, sir?” Persephone merely glared daggers at Hades for about a minute then smiled at him with motherly concern clearly expressed on her youthful-looking face. Hades snarled “Just go do your stupid jobs – both of you!” Thanatos did an about face and out walked out serenely, knowing full well that Sisyphus might help him out.
Sisyphus was waiting for him; casually leaning against the garden wall of his palace, sipping freshly squeezed grape juice from a plain silver cup. Thanatos cleared his throat the said “Can I ask a favor of you?” Sisyphus replied “What does this favor involve?” Thanatos retorted “All you have to do is tie me up and you walk away free for a few years to maybe even a decade or two.” So Sisyphus tied up Thanatos who willingly agreeable and even gave Sisyphus his own chains to tie himself up. What they never realized was that Sisyphus’ niece Janice had far more sinister plans for Thanatos. Sisyphus’ teenage-looking niece, Janice, had a plan that involved drugging Thanatos in order to shame the Gods for centuries to come. Now something to know about Janice was the daughter of a succubus and was one herself but she did know what plants would make her infamous and immortal as Thanatos’ wife. For Hecate, Circe, and Aphrodite had trained and taught these things to her which she would use to her advantage. She mixed warm milk with a drop of a sleeping drought and six drops of serial love potion , then walked up to Thanatos who was parched and gladly downed the milk in two gulps. He lay down on the soft bed of moss, and then she kissed him, making him fall asleep in her arms. She thought evilly to herself that he’s dead to the world and I will become his wife. After an hour, she got up then covered him with a blanket but took his golden necklace with the jade stone and put it on herself – sealing Thanatos’ terrible fate. His fate for sleeping with her, a young girl, was to be a loner for the rest of his life unless he married her. By taking the necklace that had belonged to him, she would prove that he was the father of her child – to say that he had given her this token of his love which would help plead her case to the Olympians later. She fled to Calypso and told her that she was in trouble because she was going to have a baby and that the father who wanted to kill her and the baby because he didn’t have the decency to marry her. However, Calypso had called Hera and Hestia after hearing Janice’s version of how her child had been conceived to demand a conference held by herself on Olympus to bring justice to poor Janice and her unborn child. Hera called a conference for all of goddesses to come to Olympus, where something important needed to be discussed. Hera, Aphrodite, Astraea, Demeter, Hestia, Leto and Orchid, Leto’s significant other were waiting for Calypso and this mysterious person who had a special child. Athena asked “What type of special does Calypso even mean?” while Astraea was furious at the father of the said child who had tried to weasel his way out of marrying the poor girl. Persephone was alarmed that this had even happened when Demeter, her mother, began fusing about Persephone not having any more kids yet other than Melinoe. Then Hades, Zeus, and Poseidon walked in, looking grouchier than what was normal even for them. Suddenly Calypso and a mother gracefully walked across to where Astraea was still venting about the father of the child. “Sorry that our first meeting is uncomfortable,” the female vampire purred in a wind chime-sounding voice, “But seeing as the father of my unborn child would have slaughtered both of us nearly two weeks ago when my uncle Sisyphus tied him up.” “Who is the child’s father?” asked Leto softly, showing empathy for the poor vampire woman because she knew how the system worked – the guys get away but the girls are left behind with a kid or two. “Wait a minute, there’s only one person who’s currently tied up at Sisyphus’ place…no….you don’t mean…oh,” Aphrodite voice trailed off, leaving everyone dumbfounded. Hades looked shocked, Poseidon looked confused, and Zeus looked as though he had been slapped upside the head with a snow shovel at the vampire who had said that she was carrying Thanatos’ child. Janice, merely glowing with pregnancy, smiling sadly at them. Alecto walked in, his head down because he’s reading something strange. Janice said rather coldly “So you honestly thought I wouldn’t be traumatized and hurt if he ran off after he swore his love to me and gave me a certain pretty golden necklace with the jade stone that belonged to him… and him trying to kill me even though I’m carrying his own child?” “That’s enough! How dare you even suggest that Thanatos would do that… how dare you disparage his name,” Alecto snarled at Janice who was starting to cry. Cassandra rushed out of nowhere to her side when Janice started screaming “No – he tried to kill me and his own unborn child!” Calypso stared at her then Janice tearfully said “So he left me because he didn’t want me to become his wife after how he said he loved being with me – but then he found out about the baby so he tried to…” then the tears were running down her face.
Cassandra hissed out in the Oracle’s voice to Janice
You, the mother will die, the child shall live
The child will be free of the chains, the child are to be the king of ice
But you will die on his fifteenth birthday, trying to protect the child
Rome and Greece will fall by his hand, he is the first born child of Death
With a drop of blood, he will bring back the dead children of the gods and mortals alike
Janice collapsed, Calypso glared at Cassandra who had just predicted the death of this strange vampire. Janice left to go to the temple of Lethe where she summoned