Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Myth gets things wrong all the time, they are just one big game of telephone played from generation to generation. So while there might be some grain of truth in them they can’t be a trusted source of information.

When Kronos and his siblings cut up their Uranus, their father placed a curse on his youngest child since he was the one to start the rebellion and the one that would take up the now empty throne. It was a curse that would lead Kronos to paranoia and madness making sure that this new age wouldn’t last. Right before he was killed for good, Uranus wished the same fate upon his children.

The siblings were all worried about the curse at first but as time went on and the curse never activated it was all but forgotten. Kronos brought the world into a golden age and things couldn’t have been better. With all of the work of setting up his kingdom and establishing his rule was over Kronos wanted to start building a family. He married Rhea and soon welcomed his first child into the world. Hestia was a wonderful child but as much as Kronos loved being a father he could feel the curse his father laid upon him whisper how some day his sweet daughter would doom him to the same fate as Uranus.

Kronos fought the curse as long as he could because he loved his family and didn’t want to hurt them but the whispers didn’t go away. They only got louder and louder until they were no longer whispers but yells telling him that he had to kill his child or else she would kill him. He didn’t want to kill his child but he could no longer fight against the voices, sooner or later they would over take his will and his sweet little Hestia would be gone. So he swallowed her whole, it was the only solution that Kronos could come up with to keep his child safe and quiet the voices in his head. Hestia would be safe in his stomach and she would pose no threat to him, giving the curse nothing to work with setting him free from the voices that haunted him.

Rhea didn’t blame him, she blamed the curse their father inflicted for the death of her first child and thought that died with Hestia having done it’s job. Kronos never did get around to telling his wife that Hestia was still alive, he knew that she would want to free their daughter and he could allow that until he knew that he wasn’t going to be a danger to her. After years of mourning Rhea was reading to have a child again and they quickly gifted their second child, Demeter who had a love for agriculture.

At first Kronos loved the fact that his daughter liked his domain and had many daddy daughter days where he would just take her out into the fields and teach her everything that she wanted to know. But then the whipsters started. This time they spoke about how Demeter would replace him, that she was trying to steal his domain from right under his nose. Again Kronos fought against the whispers and again he swallowed a child to save them from getting hurt by his hand. Again Rhea thought she lost a daughter and she threw herself in finding a cure so she wouldn’t lose yet another child.

After finding a cure Kronos was ready to release his daughters from his stomach. He was no longer a danger to them but something stopped him. He had to be sure that he was really cured before he risked letting them free, he didn’t want to risk them getting hurt. Rhea wanted another child and Kronos decided that this child would be a test if he was whisper free than he would know that he was free from the curse. Rhea only got to spend three days with her youngest child before her husband swallowed her. This time it wasn’t the curse that whispered to Kronos but his own mind. He could see that his youngest daughter would be queen some day and that made him afraid. If she was queen what would happen to her sisters, she was the youngest and their for the last in line. What would happen to him and Rhea? So Kronos swallowed his youngest daughter to protect the rest of the family. But that made Kronos wonder if the early whispers were really the curse or some kind of visions.

Rhea didn’t have a curse to blame Hera’s death on, Kronos was cured, eating their youngest daughter was his choice alone, not one born from their fathers cures. Once she realized that all the love she had for her husband turned to hate. They start fighting and fighting until one day the fighting turned physical, each giving as much as they got until one of their siblings separated them. Unbeknownst to either of them some of their ichor landed on one of Rhea's forgotten hair pins that lied on the floor. Hades was born not from love but from the fight that signaled the death of parents' marriage.

Hades was thought to be a child of a servant and was left alone for the most part, he had no idea who his parents were and they had no idea that he existed. He learned to survive in the castle by himself until he was noticed by the king and queen. As soon as they saw him they recognized him as their child and as much as Rhea tried to protect Hades she failed and he too ended up in his father stomach.

Kronos had become even more paranoid and truly thought his children were out to kill him. He filled his stomach up with acid, turning the once safe spot into a deadly prison hoping to kill his children before they could kill him. Hades took it upon himself to protect his sisters, he might have been the youngest but he had the most strength seeing that he was just recently swallowed. He held his sisters above the acid, sacrificing himself to keep them safe.

Rhea refused to be in the same with Kronos most of the time, she would only allow it if it was to ruin their kingdom. As much as she hated it she was still the Queen and she had a job to do that required working with Kronos. Kronos had mistakenly taken a drink from Rhea’s cup and that was enough for Poseidon to be born. He was different from his other siblings, he was born with too knowing eyes, too sharp teeth, and face full of rage. Poseidon was born knowing that his father was the enemy and attacked the second he was born. It was useless of course, a new born god was powerless against a fully grown titin and Poseidon was swallowed just like the rest of his siblings. But Poseidon didn’t go down easy, he fought every second of the way down his father's throat. He fought long enough that the screams for help from his siblings could finally make their way out of their father and be heard by their mother for the first time.

Rhea now knew that her children were alive and vowed to save them. She would do anything in her power to make sure her kids could see the light of day again. If this ended with Kronos getting the Uranus treatment that would just be a plus. If her children didn’t make their revenge as blood as Rhea thought was deserved she would gladly rectify that when she got her own revenge.

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Rhea planned and made allies, seeking those who have grown tired of living under a paranoid king and would welcome a change of the throne. She went to her sister Phoebe for a prophecy, knowing that once one was spoken the future would be locked in place and there would be no going back. Things would be forced to happen one way or another regardless of if Rhea’s plans were discovered and she was killed. The prophecy Rhea was given was both wonderful and terrible, Kronos would be dealt with, her children set free but in order for that to happen she would need to have another child with him. One child to be hidden away until he was old enough to fight for himself and the siblings he hasn’t met yet. 

The only way Rhea could guarantee a child would be born was if she slept with Kronos. This was too important to hope that her youngest child would be born like his brothers plus it would be harder to plan around a miracle birth. You could never be sure how and when such a thing would occur and everything had to be planned perfectly to avoid as much blood shed as possible. The prophecy might state that her child would be free and Kronos defeated but it never said what state he kids would be in when everything was said and done, they could live to defeat their father only to die right after. Rhea wanted everything planned as much as it could be to avoid such a fate. 

For all that Rhea hated Kronos he still loved her and was still trying to win her back. All she had to do was pretend that it was working and let things happen naturally. Soon enough she was carrying a child and it was time to put some of her plans into action. She had one of her allies cause on issue one she could fix. Rhea would go to do her duties as Queen, giving her the ability to hide the fact she was pregnant from Kronos. Only after she had recovered from giving birth would she go back, claiming that the issue took longer than expected but was dealt with. 

Zeus would be raised by Rhea’s allies with her popping in when she could manage and when the time was right, Zeus would free his siblings and the war would start. It would be a long war that would lead to many losses on both sides but it would be worth it. Anything that would free her children would be worth it to Rhea.

Zeus was raised knowing that he would start a war by freeing his siblings from his father. He was told all about how Kronos and why he had to be defeated. Rhea did her best to tell Zeus about his siblings but he got the most information from dreams. Zeus would dream about his siblings in their fathers stomach, he would see how they suffered but also how much they loved each other. He watched as Poseidon and Hades fought over who would hold the rest of them up above the acid that was slowly eating its way through them. Both of them wanted to be the one hurt to save their siblings from the pain. His sisters would chime in occasionally not wanting their brothers to be the only ones to suffer but they have been in their longest and just didn’t have the strength required to do so any more. As it was Hades was barely able to hold them up anymore and just unwilling to hand over the burden because Poseidon was still healing from the fight he put up before being eaten. Sooner than later Poseidon would take over Hades' job and who knows if he would be healed by them. 

The only good thing about Zeus' dreams is that is allowed to talk to his siblings, they could always see and hear him when he dreamed about them. After he made himself known they would stop any argument they had over who should be taking care of how and move into more pleasant talks. It was nice as it was terrible. Zeus got a chance to know and come to love his siblings, but he also had to watch them suffer, knowing that the only reason they weren’t free yet is because he wasn’t strong enough yet. Zeus threw his all into training because he didn’t want to watch his siblings suffer anyone then he had too.