PRISONER OF TIME

Just before Athena got imprisoned by the pantheon, Michael said to her, 'It doesn't count if you are already planning your defeat. You promised to fight for us. Don't give up now.' She still remembered his words on these lonely days and nights, which bled into each other.

She never knew what loneliness was until then; these walls trapped her more than steel and stones. Powerless, prisoner to her wants, needs, and desires. Cursed with the knowledge of what she wanted, but unable to do anything to get it or free herself. Her existence was reduced to images playing on her mind like a loop; glory, war, victory, love. Now she was nothing but a memory to a scant few. A better punishment could not have been crafted.

The archangel came in that night unexpectedly. On a wretched Sunday evening when all she had done was cry and feel sorry for herself. Pathetic really, for a goddess of war who was now a has been. Her eyes drank him in greedily, his tousled dark hair, rippling muscles, and sapphire eyes sparkling in the night. She wanted to touch him, taste him, but most of all, keep him for longer than a night.

They circled each other warily, like wolves who had just met and were trying not to trespass on each other's territory. Looking into each other's eyes as they stepped closer.

'Aren't you going to say hello?' She asked.

'In a moment,' he replied, 'I am still looking at you.'

'Why?' She threw back. 'Certainly took you long enough to visit again.'

 'How have you been?' He asked.

 'I have nothing new to say.' She replied.

 Michael looked at her, quiet. His eyes lighting as they stared at her luminous skin, visible through her frothy white light shift. Breasts pressing against the fabric, the curve of her hips prominent, her long wavy red hair trailing around her waist.

'Aren't you going to kiss your love, hello?' She asked.

 'If I start, I will not stop.' He said.

 'And so what?' She asked.

  Michael stalked her, step by step. She backed away until his body was touching hers and caging her against the wall. He wrapped his arms around her, pressing his lips lightly against hers. She kissed him deeply, tongue sliding into his mouth. He slid his arms along her sides while pulling her in by her waist, fusing his body to hers. Feeling her with his six senses. Tasting her, inhaling her, touching her, watching her, listening to her, knowing her. His soul soaring. Losing himself in her, lost without her.

 'How is my girl doing?' He asked.

 'Empty, hollow. Missing you.' She replied.

 He looked into her eyes. 'You know there is nothing for me, but you Athena.'

He held her close and turned her around, cradling her close and looking together into the mirror. 'What do you see?'

 'Everything. Nothing. All I see is you. You are everything.' She said.

 'Wrong,' he whispered. 'There is nothing without Us. I fucking missed you'.

 'Finally.' She said. Then broke down into tears.

 He turned her around, pulling her into his chest. Holding her to him, stroking her hair. 'Let it out, love, let it out.'

 'I missed you so damn much. Moreover, you came here with your walls high up. I feel locked out. I feel alone.' She said.

 He stroked her hair slowly. 'No walls that others don't make me put up. You have the only key, use it. I shouldn't be here right now; I came in to make sure you were ok and just to inhale you.'

 'Don't ever withhold your love from me. Kiss me like the world is on fire, and we don't fucking care.' She said.

 He stroked her hair tenderly, eyes scanning over her face. 'Understand one thing. This addiction will kill me. I am just trying to postpone death.'

She whispered, 'I can't breathe without you.'

 He tilted his head, looking at her, into her. 'I am the air you breathe.'

 She whispered. 'You are.'

 He lifted her up and carried her to the bed, laying her on her back. Hovering over her. His wings spread out, white and beautiful. He crawled on top of her, kissing her softly, fingers trailing over her face delicately. His heart flowing into her. She kissed him back lovingly, tasting his steadfast devotion. She felt his heart with its steady beats and gave him hers, which was beating erratically. She held his face to hers, lost in his spell.

 He opened his eyes to drink in every ray of light, bouncing off his woman's exquisite body.

 She looked back, absorbing every emotion on his face: the stars, the moon, all paling in comparison to this fierce archangel. The look of pained desire on his face made him beautiful in an otherworldly way.

 'I have never loved like this before.' He said.

 'Ever?' She asked.

 'Ever.' He said.

'How have we lived without each other for centuries? I can't take the agony.' She said.

 'We have never been apart, in our hearts.' He replied.

 'I have never loved this way either,' she sighed.

 'No human has,' he responded.

 'We are not human. We never were.' She said.

 He held her close, 'If I asked you to stay just like this, with me, would you?'

Athena thought about all the centuries Michael and she had to hide their love and all their lives. Each time the angels or the pantheon tore them apart. Wherever they were, they found their way to each other; his heart pulled her like no other. She knew that eventually, the pull would be the end of her.

'I love you for following me throughout time. For coming here to my prison to visit me. For letting me find me and be me.' She said.

'I worship you, my goddess,' he whispered.

She held onto him as the light filtered through the small window. Her heart sinking as the light illuminated his features. His dark brows furrowing as the responsibility of protecting the world settled on his weary shoulders. They stared into each other's eyes, and he blazed with a fiery light before fading from her cell. The birds were chirping, and yet all she heard was the absence of her Michael.

It had started centuries ago when the heathens almost wiped out the earth with another apocalypse. The gods of Olympus and the angels formed an uneasy truce. It was unprecedented since they disagreed on fundamentally everything, especially the rights of who the humans got to worship. All supernatural beings got their energy from the humans who worshipped them. This divided them most assuredly because not one of the groups believed that there was enough belief to go around. The only reason the truce was able to last however tenuously, was that both parties didn't want Hades to take over the earth.

The centuries of battle meant that as the goddess of war, Athena spent tons of time with Michael, the archangel and Chief angel of war. They were both intense and passionate, fierce and focused. There was one thing that made them weak, something neither could have anticipated.

The centuries of responsibility had left them lonely and weary. Athena provided a shared responsibility for the peace, and for Michael, this was a new kind of heaven. For Athena, here was someone who understood her pressures, her choices, and her disillusionment with wars. There was no one more uniquely placed to understand that even war Goddesses got weary. She had started yearning for something more. There had to be more to existence than war, power struggles and treachery.

It was during one of the nights of long strategy sessions that they first discovered they liked each other. Athena was at the long table, peering at the map, contemplating how best to distribute their troops over the continents. She was so absorbed, she didn't notice when Michael walked in. He stared at her, blinking as his eyes took in the bright light around her. Michael had never noticed before how much she shone. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He cleared his throat. She was startled and jumped a little.

He spoke, 'Im sorry. Didn't mean to intrude.'

She sighed, 'It's ok. I'm just trying to do the maths.' As an afterthought, she added, 'Do you want me to put on the lights?'

He smiled, 'It's actually really bright in here. You glow.'

She scoffed, 'That's an exaggeration, Michael.'

He said, 'Hardly. You have this aura, Athena. I have never seen you brighter than you look tonight.'

She looked at him, and their eyes met and held, looking into each other for what felt like a long moment. She broke the gaze after a while, 'I have to leave.' As she brushed by him on the way out, he pulled her against him and gave her the most passionate fierce kiss she had ever known. She held onto his shirt, her knees suddenly weak. Tasting him, feeling his quiet strength and force of will as he held her like the only thing that mattered.

That was their first night together, forever burned into her memories. He was everything that has been missing for centuries, and now the only thing she craved. She moved with a new awareness of Michael, her body awakened to his touch, his gaze and his needs. And Michael found every conceivable excuse to be near her. They had the same shifts and had long nights of strategy discussions sequestered away. He wanted to know everything about her, and she wanted to know all about him.

On one of these nights, Athena asked him, 'what happens after?'

He looked at her and said, 'Well, you go back to Olympus, and I to heaven. We make time for a long-distance relationship. Same as anyone.'

She told him, 'You really think the council will stand for this?'

He answered, 'We can hide it. I am not giving you up, not now that I have just found you.'

She spoke softly, 'The council is made up of the most powerful supernatural beings, we wouldn't stand a fighting chance.'

He said, 'I will take our odds. We are their best war generals. A strategy is what we do best.'

For the rest of that night, he stroked her back and lost himself in her soft touch and embrace. He surrendered himself to her for there was no one he wanted more.

Like any couple, of course, they bickered, like the time he said she was all talk and no action. That sparked a fierce fight. Athena said, 'you really think I got to be the goddess of strategy by no action? I just choose when it is actually worth taking action.' Michael learnt quickly never to criticise her in front of the other representatives who were planning for the war. She could be quite fierce.

They waged war starting in Tasmania, a stronghold for the heathens. With massive deployment from the gods and angels, the fight was fast and devastating for the heathens.

They suffered a massive loss of numbers, and with the defeat of the strongholds, the war over the rest of the earth was swift and decisive. The heathens surrendered, and Hades was confined to the underworld. With the war ended, Athena and Michael now knew that they needed to prepare for the biggest battle of their lives. The fight to be together.

She came back to herself in her cell slowly. The feeling had faded in her limbs, but she could move them a little, which let her know she had been out for a few hours. These spells lasted hours or sometimes days. These memories always transported her so vivid and emotional in nature. She ached from the loss of them. She missed Michael and needed him more.

The Council had retaliated against her for doing what no goddess dared in millennia, for creating a new race. She remembered how it started innocently enough, her desire to have a tangible result of their love. She thought the council rules were archaic after all, what harm could come from two lovers having a child? She never dreamed it would lead to this eternal punishment.

Locked away in her prison, she had time to think over and over and relieve their story. It wasn't just the good and the bad, the mistakes that had brought her into this mess. She was repeatedly in that place where all she cared about was being a mom, and she had wanted to share that with Michael. Every time she experienced the passion in their story and the fact that she felt that they had known each other for a lifetime and they were meant to be. She wanted him more than anything. And that want had cost her the thing she treasured most before that, her freedom.

It's not something that she ever foresaw losing, and she didn't know how to live without it. But this was her reality now. She thought back. To the time after the war with heaven. Where she had gone?

They had painstakingly planned out how to carry on their affair. Athena disguised herself as a mortal woman and went to Athens, a place that was always dear to her. She bought a lovely house overlooking the lake and there Michael came to see her time and time again. They went on walks just like any couple, and this was a first for her because Athena had never had a simple relationship where she could be herself. She found freedom when no one recognized her where she could be selfish and just enjoy the love of the man that she loved.

She listened to music that was popular then. She went dancing and discovered she was quite good at it. Sometimes she snuck into her temple and was able to see those that were really devoted and those that just came as routine. It was good to be anonymous. To move around without any expectations or anyone accosting her for her attention. She could choose for once how to spend her time.

The other gods from Olympus started noticing her absence, but she made up excuses saying that she was helping the needy somewhere or recruiting handmaidens or just exploring the Earth because it had been a while since she was there. Michael and Athena were so careful, they knew that the stakes were high. She told no one and hoped that no one discovered who they were. But of course, it was hard to keep things from the Council.

Hermes followed her one day, and she noticed him right before she got to Athens. She pretended like she was going somewhere else and just went walking in the forest. Athena reached a tall tree and magically cut it down, then started collecting bark. When he came upon her and asked what she was doing, she simply said she was looking for wood to make a new bow. Athena said she had heard the trees in this forest were really good for making exceptional bows and she wanted to see if that was true.

He didn't believe her, but there wasn't much he could say about it. After that, she took extra care to be really careful while moving because she knew that it was only a matter of time before someone else followed her.

She was especially careful of Hermes, he was not known for his discretion at all. She knew the stakes were high. She had to protect herself and Michael at any cost.

It was around this time that they decided that they wanted to get serious about each other. Well more committed than just sneaking around despite the Council. They wanted to be together forever. The question was, how could they do this when the Council watched everything? They talked late into the night one day, and she said, 'You know what Michael? I want a daughter. '

He looked at her and said, 'I thought that goddesses couldn't procreate anymore?'

She replied, 'We can if we really want to. It has been happening less lately.'

She continued, 'But I know this more than I know anything in the world, I want to. I want a child with you.'

He asked, 'Is it even possible? I'm an angel, and you're a goddess.'

She replied, 'Anything is possible, especially for supernatural beings. Why do you think the Council made the rule about not creating children between two different species? It's because they knew that the child would be unstoppable.'

She watched him and said, 'It's worth the risk for me. Is it for you?' That was the beginning of the fight for what she wanted more than anything, a lifetime together.

She came back to herself in her cell. Her muscles were tingling so she knew she hadn’t been out long this time. It was dark and storming. She thought of the rainy nights she and Michael had shared and a tear slipped down her eye. She had no idea if she would ever leave that jail cell. But she would do it all over again because the days with Michael had been the best of her life. She cradled herself to sleep and awaited his next visit.