V Pan and Hades, a mirror of Shadows

Hades Pan was always aware of Hades, his darkness, his silence, and the cruelty that ruled the Underworld. He had heard the whispers from Olympus, the urgent meetings, the refusals. Hades would come to the mountain to request favors, dominion, justice, and each time, Zeus would deny him. In those fleeting visits, Pan and Hades met. Their encounters were brief, but powerful, and soon, they grew contemptuous of one another. Each saw in the other a reflection: cruelty, bitterness, and ancient sorrow. They did not hate because they were different. They hated because they were the same. Both carried grief that had hardened into wrath. Both had once known innocence. And though they inflicted pain upon mortals with no remorse, each harbored a buried kindness, the ghost of who they might have been. Pan quietly hopes that Zeus will one day destroy Hades, to rid him of this shadow that walks beside his heart. But Hades still endures, and perhaps he always will. They avoid one another now. Their meetings only deepen the ache. But deep in the Underworld, Hades waits with cold patience. He dreams of the day Pan will enter his domain, where time slows and cruelty is unending. He imagines tortures only the forgotten gods know. But the Fates have not allowed this. Not yet.