“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”.

Thanatos immediately dropped to the ground, his head began to spin as the souls that surrounded the angel began to dissipate immediately.

Thanatos dropped to the floor as he drifted off to sleep.

He woke up in a field of flowers, pretty as they may be but they lacked the color, completely black and white like a 1950s tv. He looked down at himself, he was no longer bruised and the chains on his hands completely missing.

“I don’t deserve this.. father, I’ll do better just… don’t punish me”.

Thanatos saw a small figure in the distance, a child sitting under a tree, the only thing in the place had any sign of color a darkish green tree with pink flowers under it, right where the boy was sitting. The boy’s hand held a single whote blossom as it withered away in his hands, the winds had blown the petals away.

Thanatos walked towards the small boy, as the child stared at himself with his large round eyes.

“Forgive me”. Thanatos mumbled, his footsteps weren’t confident but unsure and hesitant to even step forwards. “I didn’t mean to intrude, I’ll go if you want me to”.

The kid didn’t respond instead he just stared at Thanatos, unblinking. Thanatos was immediately taken aback by the child’s stare so much that he stepped on a single flower immediately killing it.

“I’m so sorry, I swear, I didn’t mean to, just please don’t punish me”.

Thanatos got onto his knees and begged to the child, the child didn’t care about a single flower, instead he picked up another one, the gray flower immediately changed colors, turning a bright shade of pink the moment he touched it.

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The child began to hum a soft melody.

“Twinkle Twinkle little star”.

His face began to shift grotesquely, his flesh began to shift around, turning into a familiar face to Thanatos, the boy was a spotting image of himself like he was staring at a mirror.

“I’m sorry I killed the flower, I promise to you I apologize deeply, I’ll do anything”.

Thanatos’ eyes were erratic and his hands were shaking, his voice was trembling.

The child tilted their head, their expression unreadable. “Why are you here?” they asked, their voice light, almost teasing.

“I… I don’t know…” Thanatos admitted, his head bowed low. His fingers dug into the gray rocks beneath him as his fingernails tore off as a golden blood began to ooze from his hands. “I’m sorry… I killed the flower”.

The whispers around him grew louder, twisting into cruel words that sliced through his fragile composure.

“Worthless…”

“Burden…”

“Useless piece of dogshit”

Thanatos winced, his hands trembling. “P-please… Please, I’ll be better,” he stammered, his voice cracking. “I’ll follow orders. I… I’ll do whatever you ask…”

The child stood, their small frame casting an impossibly long shadow over Thanatos. They held out the white blossom, placing it gently in his shaking hands.

“You keep begging,” the child said softly, their voice devoid of malice, yet their words cut deep. “You keep asking what others want from you. But do you even know what you want?”

Thanatos shook his head violently, his face pressed against the ground. “I… I don’t have the right to want anything… I’m… I’m just here to obey…”

The child crouched in front of him, their expression softening, though their eyes remained piercing. “You’ve carried so much, haven’t you?” they whispered. “All that pain, all that guilt. You keep running, keep kneeling, but… where does it lead?”

The gray world began to crumble. The flowers turned to ash, the horizon folding in on itself. Thanatos clutched the white blossom tightly, tears streaming down his face.

“I-I don’t… I don’t know…” he whispered, his voice barely audible.

The child smiled faintly, their form beginning to dissolve with the dream. “Maybe it’s time to stop running,” they said. “Maybe it’s time to let go.”

He woke up in a pool of his own golden ichor surrounded by exact copies of himself laying on the floor lifeless.

The angel stood there panting, as destroyed planets and stars surrounded the both of them.

“You, you have the power to copy my abilities and invert them, nullifying my power like a sound being canceled out by its inverse, then I’ll just amplify it”.

Shadow daggers rose from the ground, weapons that held souls in them, making the tips even sharper, the daggers flew towards the angel, the angel mirrored the same flurry of daggers as the daggers clashed. At the second the daggers had clashed, the dagger instantly became larger crushing the angel’s shadow daggers like glass.

The angel bled out, the red blood on his black skin as his color began to fade as it collapsed to the ground.