Campe."
Zeus struggled for a moment to look away from her. When he settled his eyes back on Cronus, he asked, "Why have you sent these things after us? Why is Typhon abducting our transfer signals?"
Cronus pulled on the front of his jacket and said, "First things first, son." Zeus squirmed in his seat. "I have questions for you."
The white-haired man sighed. "Go."
Cronus crossed his arms over his chest and said, "You've been spreading propaganda in Tiberia's territories for some years now."
Zeus nodded. "Guilty."
"I know you're guilty," Cronus said, "I want to know your aims."
Zeus didn't hesitate. He spoke quickly and matter-of-factly. "To inspire rebellion. The people from the Expansion deserve their freedom. Freedom from Tiberian and Titan rule."
"Ah," Cronus said.
"In no other nation on Larsa is there such a disparity between the wealthy and the poor. The power exerted by the ruling classes is a direct …"
"Enough," the Titan said, waving his hands. He sighed and then asked, "Arms smuggling?"
Zeus shook his head. "That we haven't done."
"Maybe, maybe." Cronus raised a finger and placed it on his chin. "But what about Ares? We know he has met with insurrectionist elements in several nations."
"'Met with,'" Zeus answered. "Nothing more."
Cronus took in a breath through his teeth, "I don't know that I believe you."
"Believe what you wish. I'm speaking the truth."
Cronus slid off the desk and stepped toward Zeus. He leaned forward and said, softly, "What about us?"
Zeus narrowed his eyes. "'Us?'"
"Not you and me. The Titans."
"What about you?"
Cronus barked, "Why do you hate us?"
Zeus didn't respond in kind. He blinked slowly and said, "Were I more childish, I would say, 'You first.'"
Cronus straightened and looked at the wall. An ancient Tiberian sword and shield hung there. Finally, Cronus nodded and said, "Fair. That's fair." He stepped away and said, "It wasn't about you, at first. Wait, wait." He leaned over and said, "You have a backup body or two, right? A cloned flesh vessel waiting for you in a tub somewhere in Attica?"
Zeus nodded.
Cronus smiled and said, "So did we. When we escaped the torture chambers of Baraz Bio Medical, we left our backup bodies behind. But what did that bitch Karin Baraz do?"
Zeus' eyes scanned as he thought. Then he nodded once. "She awakened your backups."
"Yes."
"As individuals."
"Yes!" Cronus made a fist and leaned forward. "Doesn't that strike you as frakked up? Knowing that your own clones are out there, living lives they weren't supposed to?"
"It is," Zeus thought, "bizarre to contemplate."
"How would you react if Leto and Metis were to awaken your clones now?"
Zeus didn't flinch at Cronus' naming of his colleagues. "Current circumstances aside?" Typhon chuckled and Zeus continued, "I'd be confused, at the very least."
"Yes." Cronus clasped his hands behind his back and said, "And then those failsafes, those people who aren't supposed to be people in the first place, started having children." Zeus nodded. "We were told, repeatedly, as we were cut and prodded that we Psilons were the pinnacle of humanity's efforts to perfect itself. Why would perfect beings dilute their code by having children?"
Zeus squinted, "'Dilute?' Children do not weaken the parents." Cronus smiled and Zeus tilted his head, "Not in the manner you say."
"True, but that is what we told ourselves, though." He sniffed once and continued, "Did you know that they sterilized us?"
Zeus said nothing. He quickly shook his head side to side.
"They did. After years of testing, they gave us the freedom to live communally, but they took away our most basic personal freedoms. We couldn't have children. Once we fled, it was a race to duplicate ourselves again not only so we could transfer to younger bodies but so we could have children." He chuckled and almost mumbled, "Of course, once that was accomplished, we were spread out. Too busy to consider starting families. Not friendly enough with each other to broach the subject."
"And you couldn't procreate with humans," Zeus added.
"Found that out, did you? Yes." Cronus leaned forward again and said, "I'll go to the middle of the 'choke. It was more about what came later. We spied on you. We watched you like eagles. And there was something there that enraged me more than … I could have imagined." Zeus turned his head, waiting for the answer. "Love."
Zeus' eyebrows lifted.
Cronus nodded and stood. "It's taken me a long time to admit it, but that's the benefit of being immortal." He walked toward a nearby sofa and said, "I saw the way Karin Baraz treated the Psilon clones she awakened. I saw the way she treated you." He shook his head. "There was no small amount of envy behind my actions." His eyes glistened and he backed away a little. "If we had been treated the same, if maybe we could have had children ... Maybe everything would be different." He shook his head. "I just don't know."
Zeus blinked and took a deep breath. He crossed his legs and said, "Well. That was a century ago. Why continue the hostilities?"
Cronus wobbled his head and said, "When I was in exile, I kept my eye on the world. I saw you, on the news, talking about me. Talking about the Titans. It was fallow time for hatred against the Titans. Open rebellion in the Expansion nations had died down. You," he pointed a finger, "stirred the stew."
Zeus clenched his jaw and lifted his chin. "Yes," he said, softly.
"Now, let me ask again. What about us?"
He hesitated as he prepared his answer. He had thought of this conversation for years. He had planned phrases and biting remarks for the last few weeks as the plan was put in place. Zeus decided to speak plainly, "For all our lives, we saw the Titans in the news and on the Matrix. You were cruel tyrants. Oppressors of freedom. The puppets of the Caesar. Worse than that … you dirtied our memories. Our cherished memories of our parents. Our Cronus. Our Rhea. Our Tethys and Iapetus and Oceanus. These were people we loved and held dear."
Cronus nodded. "I see."
"First you took them away from us and then, for decades, you took away all that we had left of them, our own warm memories and feelings." Zeus felt himself become choked up but he swallowed it and decided not to continue.
"I wasn't evil." Cronus spoke softly and his eyes stared off to the side. "I wasn't a tyrant. Alabor, the generals, … they made me that. I had to … become that." He shook his head, "I think it was the same for many of the other Titans."
Zeus didn't respond at first. He ran his eyes over a light-colored swirl in the stone floor and said, barely above a whisper, "That doesn't change anything. It doesn't change how we felt."
Cronus took a step closer to Zeus and said, "So. What do we do now?"
Zeus licked his lips and cleared his throat. With a nod over his shoulder toward Typhon, he said, "Call them off."
Cronus nodded. "Done. Stop your propaganda campaigns. All of your efforts against the Titans."
Zeus looked down and drew in a deep breath. "If you release the signals and data of my five colleagues."
Cronus winced. "I don't know." He shrugged and said, "I feel the need to keep them. For insurance, you understand."
According to all of the Olympians' preparations, it was time for 'Plan B.' Zeus, however, felt selfish. A warm weight descended on his chest and he asked, "Free my wife. My brothers. Keep Hestia and Demeter."
Cronus leaned against the corner of his desk again and folded his arms in his lap. He thought for a moment and then said, "But they're the most valuable. To you." He shrugged and looked across the room at Typhon and Campe. "I really shouldn't."
Plan B it is, Zeus thought.
The two giants across the room laughed and Cronus chuckled. With a single flourish, Zeus leapt from his chair and kicke
d Cronus' leg out from under him. He stumbled off the corner of the desk, catching himself with his right arm. Zeus stepped next to him and grabbed his thick black hair. With a jerk, Zeus smashed Cronus' mouth into the stone surface and let him fall to the floor.
He leapt over the desk and pulled the sword from the wall. When he turned, he expected to see Typhon and Campe coming toward him. Instead, they were just ambling across the room, but Cronus was closest. He was standing rigidly and had a handgun pointed right in Zeus' face.
Cronus wiped his arm across his mouth, leaving a trail of red up his black sleeve. Gingerly, he pinched a couple of his teeth and tested their wiggle. He licked them and glared at Zeus, whose fingers now slowly released the blade, allowing it to clatter to the floor.
Cronus shook his head and said, "You disappoint me." He smirked a little and added, "Son." Zeus' shoulders sank and Cronus pulled the trigger.
The pain was brief, but then there was the familiar snap of electricity across him as he awakened. He felt the exhaustion of a new body and then the sensation of floating in thick wetness flooded his mind. Zeus sat up in the pod and wiped the gel from his face while someone else opened the lid.
"It frakking worked!" Hermes yelled. "The bug worked!"
Zeus reached up to the edge and tried to pull himself upright, but he slipped. "Help me."
Hermes was startled and reached in. Zeus managed to sit on top of the small built-in seat. As Hermes wiped the gel from his hands on his worksuit, Bia brought a towel to him. Zeus nodded and took it, wiping his face.
"Frak me," Hades said.
Zeus looked over at him and beamed. The other pods
Lords of Kobol - Prelude: Of Gods and Titans Page 62
