An Equal and Opposite Reaction 2
By ShamenkaOnce they rematerialised at their destination, they finally knew for sure that their arrival in that world had gone unnoticed. The panic that set in amongst the Gods at the sight of Ares and Hercules materialising together rather amused the War Gods.
"Like, Hi! See, we're kinda lost, an' while I know this isn't our world an' all, but I was wonderin' if'n' we might prevail upon your hospitality and rest up before we try to head for home?" Ares smiled, sweetly, almost a full blown simper, then his eyes locked onto this worlds Zeus. "Daddy!" he ran forward and hugged the startled God "You're alive!" Hercules walked slowly forward, knowing what Ares was up to through their link. Muddying the waters, diverting attention, and a good measure of just having a bit of fun at Zeus' expense.
"He's not our 'daddy' lover, you know this to be true!" The disdain he got into the word 'daddy' would have done Ares proud, he felt the warmth of his lovers approval flow through him, and smiled. The smile was the cherry on top. The Gods before them did indeed take him to be the dominant God in their pairing.
"I take it your Zeus, your 'daddy' is dead? And this upsets you?" Zeus stood, gently peeling Ares off him, but not quite releasing him from his touch, he kept a warm hand on the visiting Ares' bare arm.
"Well, yes, he is dead, and Ary always was his favourite. No wonder, he's so beautiful!" Hercules took his lover away from Zeus' touch, and kissed him, passionately. He had worried about being able to do this in public, but felt the very real need to stake his claim on Ares' affections. Ares kissed him right back.
Then they got their first shock.
"I agree whole heartedly, my late son, Ares, was so very beautiful too. I miss him so much! Come sit, tell us how we can help you." Zeus fell back into his throne, slumped deep in a shroud of misery.
"Your son is dead? How, why?" Ares asked, sounding so sorry for this Zeus' loss.
"It was four years ago. I still don't know exactly what happened, guess I never will, but my brother Poseidon brought his sword to me and told me of his death. He had tried to assist him, but had been too late. All that was left of my son was his sword and his earring." Zeus touched his throat, and Ares saw that this Zeus was actually wearing his Ares' earring on a chain around his neck.
Did Zeus genuinely think his Ares was dead? The question flowed back and forth between them, over their link.
"That is so sad! It breaks my heart. I'm so glad you loved your son. I couldn't stand it if you had never loved your son. Oh, that would have been so bad, to have lost your son, and never to have told him you loved him while he lived. Can't Hades bring him back for you? Hades is King of the Underworld isn't he?" Ares was almost in tears, and Zeus took comfort for this caring image of his son. And wished, for the millionth time, that he had told his son that he had loved him while he was alive.
"He is, but he doesn't have Ares' soul. Ares died outside our territorial domain. We don't know who has him. That was why Don couldn't help him, he had little or no power to call on. I don't blame Don, but ... he, Don, still does!" Zeus' face was down cast, as were all those of the Gods and Goddesses around them. Hercules felt the response Ares got from scanning their emotions, several of them knew that this was not true, any of it, some of them believed everything Zeus had said was true. Some of them delighted in Zeus' misery, a grieving God being so much easier to control than an angry God, some of them wished they had the power to prove Poseidon wrong.
Hercules looked around the assembly and met and held the eyes of Cupid and Strife, that world's Ares' oldest sons. When he noticed they were standing together, he continued to look at them both, then smiled, slowly, slyly.
Cupid and Strife grinned right back.
"That is so, so sad!" Ares wiped a tear from his eye and held Zeus' hand with his tear wet hand. Zeus looked at their hands locked together, and felt a shock of love run through him.
Poseidon materialised before the throne and looked as contrite as he possibly could. Through the power inherent in a Gods tears, Zeus saw his brother's soul through the eyes of the visiting Love God, for it was so obvious that that was what this Ares was. Through that vision he saw that Poseidon was lying to him. Not why, not what about, not even what he would achieve by lying to him. Yet he now knew his brother was ass deep in some lie or another.
"Don, what brings you here today?" Zeus asked, his voice shaking slightly, it could have been grief, which many assumed it was, but Ares and Hercules both knew it was the beginning of a soul deep rage.
"I felt the appearance of Ares and Hercules in our main hall here, I came to be with you brother." Poseidon took Zeus' other hand and as he did so Ares let go of the hand he was holding. Zeus noticed, he noticed to that the visiting Ares looked at his lover, his Hercules, and Hercules just held out his hand to his lover. Ares crossed to Hercules' side and snuggled in close to his side.
"Oh, that was so nice of you Don." Zeus looked at his hand, the one being held by Poseidon. It felt remote, as if ... he felt Poseidon slowly pulling his emotions away from their visitors. Manipulating him... what had he missed? What had he let them get away with? Who, aside from Poseidon, was involved? Had Poseidon killed his beloved son? Why was he lying to himself, he had never loved Ares, never! Never? He broke his brother's hold on him and stood up, away from Poseidon. "We must find space for our guests. " He called Hera to his side. "Hera, my Queen, these visitors from another world require our help and shelter, do we have halls they might use as their own?"
Hera looked at the Ares and Hercules that stood before her, so very obviously together. This version of her youngest child so very obviously a Love God, and this version of her hated stepson, a War God. The sweet irony of it appealed to her, the sight of a copy of her son grieved her.
"Of course we do. Come with me, I'll see to your comforts." Hera walked to the visiting Gods and smiled at them, the smile showed signs of stress around the edges but they saw it for the valiant attempt it was, at being a gracious hostess.
"Thank you mamma!" Hercules stepped forward and kissed the Queen of the Gods' cheek.
"Mamma?" Hera quizzed.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I take it you didn't raise this worlds Hercules, if this world has a Hercules that is? After all who better to raise a child than the Goddess of Childbirth. See my mortal cow of a mother abandoned me. You found me, fed me, raised me, loved me. I am your son, in this world as in my own, dear sweet Mother Goddess, I am your son to do as you need." Hercules was so careful to word his decree as need, not want or command. He could only be held to do that which Hera really needed to improve her relationships with others.
"Oh, my!" Hera looked at her alternate stepson, and wished she had taken their Hercules in when she had had the opportunity. She smiled at him, and for the first time in his life Hercules saw the beautiful Goddess as she truly was, the ultimate mother. "Come, this way boys, I will see you settled." She cupped each God's cheek with a hand. "To have my son once more alive and in my home, and now two sons. Come, eat, rest, and we shall talk, later, we shall talk till Helios comes by again." She smiled, a watery, tear filled smile, as she led them out of the hall. Zeus looked at their retreating backs and stepped away from his brother.
"Wait, Hera, I shall join you in your meal. This assembly is dismissed. Go, everyone, ready yourselves for tonight's official reception for our guests. Dismissed." And Zeus crossed to his wife and their visitors.
Poseidon looked at their retreating backs and wondered just how he could invite himself into that private lunch. Into his thoughts a voice intruded, reminding him he was still under observation.
"So Uncle Don, what do you think of our visitors? Nothing like dad or Uncle Herc, are they?" Don looked up, into Cupid's eyes and saw a sadness there that he still believed to be genuine. "I mean, my dad a Love God? Could you imagine it? I still miss him Uncle, when will that pain fade? When will his death stop hurting me?"
Poseidon smiled, it might have been taken as a sign of his sympathy with his young nephew, but could also be seen as him only showing his contempt for his nephew, if you knew the truth. Cupid knew the truth, he just didn't let on he knew! He also knew his life was about to be set on it's heals in some big way, a way that would ultimately let him bring his father home, where he belonged.
"In time the pain will fade. Remember him as you knew him, a loving father, a devoted father to you and your brothers and sister." Cupid could feel the usual feeling of compulsion that accompanied one of Poseidon's lies, yet he was so sure that with these new Gods around they would start to get some truth to come out, at last. He had seen it in the strange Hercules' eyes.
"Thank you Uncle!" Cupid smiled shyly and crossed to stand beside his brother and lover, Strife. "Come on Strife, let's go eat!" And the two junior Gods left together.
In the end, Poseidon was left alone in the throne room, and he sat down once more. This time he chose his brother's throne, trying it out for size. He dismissed the arrival of these new Gods amongst them, if anything he saw them as a boon, they were distracting the Gods in a way he never imagined possible. If the whole Pantheon clamoured to be close to those two idiots, then let them, he could and would work harder and faster behind their backs than he ever thought possible before.
He sent his thoughts out, located his niece and transferred himself to her location. As always, she was sitting in the throne room of the Spartan Temple raised in honour of her wisdom, now it was extended to praise her elevation to the position of War Goddess.
"Athena, I do hope you are coming to Olympus today. We have important visitors amongst us, and an official reception in their honour this evening." He sat beside his niece and waited for her response.
"Why should I bother?" Her voice was colder than ice, he shifted nervously in his seat as she stared at him, her eyes boring into his very soul. "How could it be Ares and Hercules? They .. Ares can't leave that ugly castle without dying for his troubles and his devoted, loving Hercules loves him too much to ever leave his side!" Her words dripped with vitriol and burned his mind with their power filled bitterness.
"This is an alternate world's Ares and Hercules. You ought to come see this pair, Ares is their Love God, your brother, the love sick simpering fool and his bastard War God lover."
"Hercules, a War God?" She laughed so coldly, so bitterly that Poseidon stood up and moved away from her, trying his best to hide his fear of her, from her, or so he hoped. "He has neither the brains, nor the stomach for the job. A whole world of sickening wimps? Well, I will come and look them over, you never know, once I have this world in my power, I might need a new challenge." She laughed again and Poseidon shivered again, much as he craved the power his niece offered, he was so very much aware that she was less than sane.
"Till this evening then Athena, good day!" And before she could respond, if she were indeed going to respond, he left for his own hall and some peace and quiet in which to think.
**
In the chambers assigned to them, Ares and Hercules prepared to face a barrage of questions from this worlds Zeus and Hera. They already knew so much more than they did before, some things even this world's Ares and Hercules didn't know. That Zeus and Hera believed their only son to be dead, for one. That many of the Gods knew that this was false, but did nothing about it for another. That some feared to do anything about it for a third! That was the worst for Ares, he had never seen his family running this scared, outside of the Dahok debacle.
They had begged a brief respite to 'settle in' they had said, and had been granted a brief period to make themselves at home before the 'lunch' would begin. That in itself was something Hercules was amazed at, the amount of time the Gods actually spent eating? They had only just had breakfast, and now they were facing lunch too?
"*It's mostly a boredom thing, and a good manners thing. It's polite to not conspire against your fellow Gods while actually eating with them. That and mother and father always did love to eat, it's not as if they'll get fat, now is it?*" Ares smiled, it still looked so strange to his lover, seeing Ares' beardless face, but no more so than his own now bearded face probably looked strange to Ares. As his lover smiled, his voice filled Hercules' mind, through the link they could converse with absolute secrecy. In that Olympus it might prove essential that secrecy.
"*Do we tell them what we know?*" Again, the question was not spoken, but thought to Ares and the 'Love God' shook his head smiling sensually at Hercules, as if teasing an echoing smile from a reluctant lover.
"*No, we wait and see what's really going on around here, have a word with Strife and Cupid, if we can.*" That was thought too, no use risking their cover, not that Ares actually believed they were being observed, but centuries of caution always won out where his family were concerned, which ever world they were from. Just more so on this one.
"While we have time, can I entice you to try out the bed?" Hercules lay down and opened his vest, looking up at his lover, letting the fire he felt for his brother show in his eyes. His words finally spoken out loud, and Ares' answer just as vocal.
"You can entice me anywhere lover, anywhere, anytime and do with me what you will!" Ares' voice kept the light almost simper they both knew Ares, God of Love, spoke with. The effect of that tone, and the absolute wanton expression on the clean shaven face above him, almost had Hercules straining out of his pants.
"Come here!" He commanded, not entirely playing at being the Sovereign. He felt that powerful, especially in contrast to the compliant, willing Ares he was presented with. He reached up and drew him down to lie on him. "Kiss me!" He demanded, pulling Ares down to touch lips to lips, not really waiting for any sign of Ares' compliance.
Ares kissed him, and knew a little momentary shiver of fear towards his brother. The persona was seemingly taking over the person.
"*Herc?*" He asked, slightly quizzically, through the link.
That brought the hero up short. He knew he was playing, but he had forgotten to show Ares that he was just playing his role. That oversight had caused Ares fear, for that the hero was angry with himself.
"*Love me? Please?*" He asked back through the link, this time giving Ares every opportunity to back off, if he so wished.
"Oh, Herc!" Ares purred out loud and kissed his lover, deeply. Sure now that they both knew it was a game. "Do you really want to take me before lunch? You naughty, naughty God?" He sat up, straddling Hercules' waist and disposed of their clothes. With a thought he prepared himself, and Hercules' painfully erect penis. "Shall I ride you, my fine stallion?" and Ares lowered himself onto his brother, moulding their souls once more together.
Ares set a slow pace, Hercules tried to speed things up, all that that achieved was Ares rising almost all the way off Hercules' cock. The new War God swore every time Ares did that particular move, but he learned, he learned well that Ares was setting the pace with this encounter. Finally he lay back and let Ares fuck himself on his cock, following his brother's pace with ease.
Fingernails scraped over Hercules' nipples, making him cry out in surprise. He knew his place, he paid attention, closer attention to his lover and his needs. He slid one hand around from Ares' amazingly delicate hips and pressed the flat of his hand down over his brothers equally erect penis. He used the pressure from his hand against his own belly to supply the friction that Ares was so obviously craving. At each upward motion Ares almost pulled his own cock away from that delicious pressure and with the following downward stroke Ares was both impaled and squeezed, again.
The link flooded with Ares' feelings of fullness, of belonging and Hercules' feelings of desire, love and possession.
Hercules began to buck, upwards, deeper into Ares with every one of the War God's downward strokes. The power of their bodies coming together brought a fleeting glimmer of pain and a profound look of pleasure to Ares' face. A look that Hercules would never let anyone else see, ever again. This was his lover, and only he would know this body, this way. He vowed it, he meant it, he would always keep his word!
"Ares, Ares, Ares!" He chanted his brother's name over and over as if in prayer, then through their link Ares realised it was a prayer. A form of worship from a believer to a God.
"I love you!" Ares declared, screaming his benediction as he sped up the friction. Faster, deeper, harder. "Love me!" It was not an entreaty, but a command.
"I do!" As the returned wave of absolute belief flooded into Hercules through their link, the newest God came in almost painful spurts, deep into his brothers body, the feeling of his own hot seed filling Ares, and the mirrored feelings of being filled by it, shot through the link and bounced back and forth getting further intensified as Ares came, all over Hercules' chest and neck.
Ares rose up, on to his knees and off Hercules' deflating cock, he collapsed to the one side of his God and began to draw almost idle pictures on Hercules' chest with his semen. When he had pushed it around a bit he lifted a small blob of cum on his finger tip and licked it, then repeated the action, only this time he presented it to Hercules. The newest God fell on the pro-offered morsel and devoured it, as if it was the first meal he had been shown since the dawn of time.
Moving down, Ares drew a finger tip around Hercules' now deflated cock and drew away a finger tip of Hercules' cum. He licked that finger clean, and repeated it yet again. After that first taste of his own seed Hercules rolled his lover over and began to lick him clean, from the bottom up!
Ares screamed and laughed and giggled as he was tickled by that teasing bearded face and the tickling tongue that tortured his well fucked butt. Once his brother was satisfied that Ares was clean enough he rolled him back over and rooted through that soft carpet of chest hair, and the thicker mat of pubic hair, and cleaned him up more.
Tears of laughter and pleasure rolled freely down Ares' face and fell on Hercules' cheek. Suddenly the link flared and magnified, almost painfully. Hercules saw the love Ares had for him so clearly, as clear as if it were a living, breathing being in the room with them. The shock made him roll away, sitting up on his knees, looking with profound joy at his lover.
"*What was that?*" he whispered through their link.
"*The truth, a Gods tears shows the truth to the one on whom they fall.*" Ares whispered back. Their link slowly returning to it's normal depth of perception.
"Oh fuck, Ares, I understand all too well!" Hercules spoke aloud and pictured in his mind his lover touching Zeus, wiping a tear away with their linked hands.
"I'm glad." Ares whispered back, also aloud. "Take me to the bath and wash me, I'm afraid you've melted my bones lover!" Ares raised his arms, pleading for his brother's assistance.
"Sweet Arry, let me!" Hercules picked him up, carried him to the vast bathing chamber and threw his brother into the deep, hot, foaming water. The splash was loud, the scream louder, the laugh that accompanied them louder still!
Once they were settled in the tub, Hercules moved to cuddle into his lover's body and whispered softly into his ear.
"Now would you care to explain why you were so loud and so God damn sexy in there?" Hercules nodded towards their bedroom and grinned at Ares. "Not that I mind, really, but I get the distinct feeling you're up to something?"
"I released a great deal of orgasmic energy, every God on Olympus would have felt that burst and know that I am a 'Love God', and that I am very much yours. You don't get rivals hitting on me, we're rather trite on that subject. If I'm that involved with a dominant deity, like a War God, no one will try to 'pick up' the 'poor weak Love God'. See, most of them never figured out that Love Gods just ain't all that weak, ya know?" Ares giggled quietly, and washed himself, distancing himself physically from Hercules. He enjoyed his uninterrupted view of his brother washing himself.
Before they really felt up to it, they had to get dressed and ready themselves for their 'lunch' with this world's Zeus and Hera. This would be an easier meeting, now Ares had demonstrated to the Pantheon that he was what he claimed to be, but the effort of such an action had almost exhausted the War God. He just hoped his desire to be supported by Hercules' body mass was seen as the act of a sexually replete lover.
To Ares' delight the meal was so basic, Ambrosia and Nectar. Zeus' favourite forms of nourishment but it meant there was a ready source of an energy recharge for him and Hercules. Then he got another idea, and shared it with Hercules. An image of this world's Ares and Hercules eating some of that Ambrosia. So used to having the powers of a God, powers that he had been born with, he forgot about that one constant source of Godhood, open to any mortal lucky enough or brave enough to find it.
And there it was, courtesy of that world's Ares' own father. The father that genuinely thought his son was dead.
That would be the first thing to uncover, the truth as to why Poseidon had lied to Zeus. It was obvious to Ares that this world's version of his uncle was in league with this world's version of his sister Athena. Although in his experience of both relatives neither was really capable of this level, and consistency, of deceit. It seemed to Ares, and echoed through the link by Hercules, that there had to be a hidden third player, or possibly more, in this world's scheme of things.
As they ate, in a companionable silence, their hosts observed these loving versions of the their sons, youngest members of that extended family that were the Olympian Gods. Zeus wished even more deeply that he had been a better father to his own sons. He could see what a beautiful, loving child he would have had if he had been the kind of father that could have said something as simple as 'I love you' to Ares. How he envied this pairs father, and their mother too. He could see that envy mirrored in Hera's eyes, she still wept for their son, now she also mourned for the son she had never raised!
Hercules watched Hera watching him and his beloved Ares, he saw the past replay itself in her eyes, and saw too the grief and lost wishes that withered her soul. He fervently wished his off the cuff lie would never be discovered, and better yet, that he could simply unsay it. Sympathy for Hera? What other wonders would this world show him?
Then he got his next shock.
"If it's not too painful, please, tell me how your daddy died?" Zeus asked Ares, holding the faux Love God's gaze all the while.
Ares just stared at him, his mind racing, his eyes never wavering from the King of that world's God's face. Hercules rushed to his brother's rescue. Filling in where Ares' mind had drawn a blank. It startled Hercules to realise that Ares did not actually lie by habit. He might exaggerate, omit information, give a true fact his own twist, but he just didn't lie. It was a startling fact about his God. He had always cast him as a liar and a cheat but he didn't lie. Mortals did. Even other Gods lied, but Ares didn't, couldn't. He was the one who had said their Zeus was dead. All Ares had said was 'you're alive' no more than a twist on the truth!
"A foreign God called Dahok, he tried to take over from us. We managed to defeat him in the end, Gods and mortals working together, but by the end of it among the many casualties was our father." Hercules drew Ares to his chest, turning his eyes away from Zeus and Hera in case they should see his lie in his brother's eyes. It also helped fix the idea that they were definitely a loving couple in their 'adoptive' parents eyes.
"Oh, I've never heard about any God by that name. If I do, do I run and hide or tackle him?" Zeus tried to smile a reassuring grin at the two visiting Gods.
"Tackle him, joint action should have been put into motion long before we got around to it." Hercules showed the topic as dropped by kissing Ares, gently and tenderly. "Hush love." He whispered, as he cuddled his lover close to him. He felt a rush of dizziness as his lies echoed around their link, but that feeling quickly disappeared as he told himself, and Ares, just how necessary those lies were.
He posed the question to Ares, through their link, as to why he didn't tell proper lies. He got flooded by a blinding light. Confused by that response he set things aside until he could talk to Ares later. For now he concentrated on their hosts.
And their very real grief at their Ares' death.
"Tell me about your world's Hercules then? Where is he, what is he?" Hercules let Ares go so his brother could sit up if he wished, and he faced their hosts to hear what answer they would give to his own question.
"I don't really know. He's gone, he might be as dead as Ares, or maybe just in far distant lands adventuring. I remember looking for him, to tell him Ares was dead. I don't recall telling him though, he seemed to know, he, yes, he said Ares was gone and we needed to chose a new God of War. He suggested Athena, she has such great wisdom and I agreed. She was given Ares' sword and now Hercules too is gone from our lives. And I can't help but wonder if I did the right thing, made the right choice..." Zeus stopped talking to think about his past choices, and again about his missing sons. One dead, one simply gone from their lands. A noise startled him out of his reverie and he looked up to see their visiting Ares get to his feet.
Ares yawned, showing great fatigue. Hercules now knew to look for the grain of truth and saw exactly how much his lover was exaggerating. It was not by much either.
"Oh, do forgive me. I'm dreadfully sorry, I suddenly feel so very tired. Would you object if I retired to bed for a couple of hours? Our travels here have sapped my strength to a deeper level than I previously thought." Ares stood and stretched his body, easing tired muscles and joints. Giving a great show of his well muscled body to the elder Gods watching him, and to his lover.
"Certainly, till later then?" Zeus stood up and helped Hera to her feet. He looked at the remnants of their meal and decided to leave it, if his 'should be' son was so tired then he might need what was left of their Ambrosia to restore his energy levels. Hesitantly they moved closer to Ares, and consequently closer to Hercules who now stood almost at his lover's side, but one step closer to Zeus and Hera, in front of Ares, guarding him almost.
Without any hesitation Ares took that one step closer to them, that meant he could embrace them both, a second later he was joined by Hercules. He flooded their link with the knowledge of just how proud he was of the hero, over coming his natural hatred in order to hug Hera of all Goddess'.
"A sweet rest, boys." Hera reached up and kissed their cheeks, then lead her husband out of their room.
Once alone Hercules turned to his lover and through the link asked his most burning question, once more.
"*Why don't you lie?*" The answer he received was undeniably true, but shocked him to the very core of his being.
"*I can't lie, Zeus made it so I can never tell another God, Demi God, even some mortals, an out and out lie. Not that I ever did, that's more Hermes' bag than mine.*"
"Bed, to sleep, I am somewhat fatigued, and we even have some Ambrosia to play with later!" Ares laughed, and yawned again, a more natural one this time.
"If my Ares wishes to sleep, then we sleep." Hercules whispered in his brother's ear.
Ares just smiled at him.
**
As Ares slept, their earlier activities obviously tiring him more than they suspected, and the weight of this world's passions draining him, it was little surprise to Hercules. He lay back, holding his naked brother in his arms, resting Ares' head against his chest and shoulder, the free hand idly stroking the side of Ares' head.
It triggered a cascade of memories, of a time when as a much younger man and still a student at the academy. So long ago, so far away. Ares had held him like this as he waited for Hercules to die. Had stroked his face and hair just like this ...
He was so lost in his memories that he never noticed he had hurt Ares, drawing blood from his brother's scalp as he pulled hard on the long, dark hair, with his newly awakened God strength.
"What is it? What have I done now?" Ares pushed away from Hercules and struggled to sit up and shake the fog of sleep from his mind. His eyes were unfocused with exhaustion, but even so they still registered Hercules' intent to hurt him, and showed his fear and confusion.
Hercules just sat there, suddenly realising he had hurt his lover, and no mere childish emotional outburst, this time he had made his lover bleed!
"A memory." Hercules said, yet that was not what he wanted his mouth to say, he had tried to say sorry, but somehow failed.
"Oh!" Ares linked to Hercules' memory and did not recognise it. "It wasn't me. Any more than that time you were attacked while fishing with Iolaus and Jason." Ares showed Hercules what he had been doing that day. It amazed the newest War God just how easily Ares could pick out one day in a life time as long as his.
The memory Ares had to share disgusted him however. It was little wonder Ares could pick that day out of his memories, he had spent it and many either side of it unconscious, courtesy of another of Zeus' beatings. And all Ares had done was not be Hercules. Not be the son Zeus really wanted to sit at his right hand in council, even though he was not, and had never wanted to be, a God.
As Ares relived that attack Hercules felt every shock as Zeus' rage filled blasts rocked his defenceless son's body. Ares could never shut the screams that reviled him out of his conscious or unconscious mind. In consequence of Ares' inability to block out the sounds of their father's hatred, they mixed with the old emotions Hercules had held for Ares until they became one emotion.
Hatred.
Ares had no escape from the hatred he gathered from everyone that encountered him. A perspective not given to most people, to see the hurt they had inflicted on others.
"I'm sorry!" Hercules pleaded as Ares rose, clothed, from their bed.
"I know." He looked at his brother, his lover, and saw his own blood smearing Hercules' hand. "But I'm ..." Ares couldn't articulate what he desperately needed to say. Again that white hot flash of light and pain filled the link. "You frighten me!" He finally whispered and left their bedroom and Hercules just sitting there. Looking at those few bloodied strands of hair that might have just cost him the greatest love of his life. The ex-hero cast his mind back over Ares' words, and sadly realised that Ares had tried to protect him from his fear of him. He had tried to lie, and his desire to protect Hercules had caused him even more pain. Was that all he could do for Ares? Hurt him?
"Ares." He whispered. Beyond pain, beyond grieving for what possibly lay dead in his hands. "My Ares." He whispered again.
Finally he wept.
Later, Hercules couldn't say how much later, Ares returned. He crossed the room in quick, jittery little steps that said so much more about the God's mental state than mere words ever could. Still dressed as the God of Love, Ares was so beautiful Hercules simply couldn't take his eyes off his brother's face as he approached their bed.
"I felt you crying. I felt your pain. I won't leave you, I can't help but be terrified of these feelings. I've never felt them before." Ares looked at his lover, tilting his head over to one side, thinking of something. Hercules watched the random thoughts chase over Ares' face. He simply couldn't have expected his lover's next entreaty. "Lie to me." Ares begged as he sat down on the bed beside Hercules.
"What?" Hercules needed clarification, had his brother just declared his feelings and asked him to lie to him? Was this some sort of new game in their twisted history? Yet somehow Hercules felt Ares had a bigger agenda than mearly hear Hercules tell lies.
"Lie to me, I want to see what happens when you lie to me!" Ares kneeled up, facing his brother.
"I like your green hair, it matches your blue dress perfectly!" Hercules watched to see the results, if any, of his lie on Ares.
Ares looked at his brother, at his soul. Through their link he watched the bright light flare and knew it was from him, not Hercules. It was his response to strong emotion, truth or a lie. If they were to survive this, he had to do something. He had to conquer that light before it drowned them. He had to learn how to deal with these emotions, to learn all those coping strategies that others seemed to have learned as children at their parents knees.
"Again, tell me another one!" He urged.
"Apples need their shoes renewed every three months!" The hero watched once more and felt the light lessen, slightly. He too realised that that light came from Ares' soul, not his. He knew too that that flash of light hid an equally strong flash of pain, and he couldn't shield him from it.
"Again!" Ares' eyes reflected his determination to beat this cures, this injunction, this ignorance. He would fight all odds to ensure their love survived, even if it were himself he had to battle.
"Iolaus died a virgin!" Hercules said that one so straight faced that Ares laughed, showing the dimples in his cheeks. The most beautiful sight in all of the world should anyone ever bother to ask the hero. It was also the most encouraging sign Hercules had ever seen, Ares was winning his internal battle.
"Again!"
"Xena is my mother!"
"Again!"
"You look so perfect, pregnant with my child!" Hercules didn't know fully where it was all going but as Ares relaxed, laughing, Hercules found cause to be encouraged, and rejoiced as the light faded with each silly lie.
"Again!"
"Babies grow on trees!"
"You are the most beautiful woman I've ever met!" Ares managed, but by the end of it he was gasping for breath, bathed in sweat. Finally Hercules realised what lengths Ares was going to in order to break the hold their father had over him. He was learning to lie. And if he could handle lies then he could more easily handle the truth, all of it!
No relationship could handle the absolute truth all the time. No mater if they were both Gods or not. Encouraged, Hercules kept up his barrage of suitably sill lies, making them more and more outrageous.
"Pigs make the best War horses." Hercules relaxed into his lies, only just able to stop himself from laughing.
"You are four foot tall." Ares' head was throbbing with the effort but he would see this through.
"I like the dress you are wearing!"
"I love to drink from your full, smooth breasts." Ares showed little sign of pain.
"I am your wife!"
"I am pregnant with your child!" Ares looked at Hercules, there was no sign on Ares' face of the pain he had previously experienced.
"Ares?" He quizzed this time.
"I have never been loved before. Ever." And Hercules knew that that was the absolute truth, and that that was what frightened Ares so much. As much as lies had been denied him as a shield, love had also been denied to Ares, especially as a refuge.
"I will always love you. Sometimes I'm not going to like you, but I'll never stop loving you." Ares knew that this too was the absolute truth. And he could almost accept it. "You will believe me, in time you will, you'll see. But Ares, if you've never been loved before, how come you have so many children?"
"Because, I'm pretty to look at, I'm good in bed. At least as far as our sisters go. As for the mortals, they all thought I was someone else. Someone they loved and, for that moment, I could pretend it was me they really loved, not the real person I was pretending to be." Ares' voice trembled slightly, he was scared, showing his deepest insecurities to anyone had simply never been on his game plan. Let alone needing to share them with Hercules of all people.
It was possibly the hardest thing Hercules had ever listened to, save the sound of the fireballs that heralded deaths of his family. That any being could live as long as Ares had, without ever knowing they were loved, not once.
"Not even as a child?" Hercules had to believe there were redeeming values to even the Gods, there just had to be. There had to be something sweet, something loving in Ares' life, their simply had to be!
"Did you ever read Herodotus?" Hercules nodded. "Well, all that stuff in book two, about how I grew up alone, in Egypt, was true. I never knew I was a God till I was in my early twenties, and I lived those years the hard way. And, once I knew, well, I was taken home and put to work as God of War. It's like I said, I was born knowing this stuff, I just didn't know what it all meant. Egypt has it's own Gods, so it didn't need me, but I, sure as Hades farts, knew how sordid human life was, and I'd had enough of it. I was just so fucking glad to be out of that existence, I never questioned why I'd been sent there like that, not once." Then he thought for a moment. "Not right away, but later I did question it. Just that I didn't like the answer." That memory was locked from Hercules for the moment. Whatever it was, the hero recognised it for the true pain it was and left it alone; for now.
Hercules continued to stare at Ares, even when he finally stopped talking. He wondered how many more shocks he would have to face as regards his brother's life? Then he wondered how he could make their father pay for all the pain Ares had had to suffer. Finally, he had a thought that left him almost speechless with fury. Ares had been a foreign child, alone on Egyptian streets for how long?
"In Egypt ..." He snarled. "Were you ....did anyone make you ...?" He was almost beyond articulating his question, rage, revulsion and a desire for revenge flooded his mind.
Ares just looked at him, he knew what he meant, knew too that there was nothing he could do about those that had ..damaged him, raped him, used him both as a child and a young man. There was no way he could deny Hercules the truth, there was no way he could face reliving those memories, nor avoid them either.
"That's how I found out I wasn't a normal man. I didn't die when I should have. It's over, it's the past." Ares tried to sound as if he meant it, every word of it. It was over, it was the past, yet it wasn't over, it still haunted him, it would never be in the past until he knew why he had been singled out for those horrors.
"Anyone ever tries anything like that with you again ... I'll kill them, with my bare hands!" The hero looked at his brother and knew Ares knew his vow was true.
"I'm tired!" Ares said, letting Herc feel his exhaustion.
"Then come here and sleep, where I can protect you." Hercules could indeed feel Ares' genuine exhaustion, and it changed the feelings he was experiencing, from a rage desperate for revenge, to a desire to shelter and comfort.
Ares curled up and fell asleep once more. This time they both fell asleep, until the time arrived for them to get ready for the evening reception.
Hercules woke first and once more enjoyed the simple pleasure of watching his brother sleep. He looked so peaceful, so relaxed. Silently he vowed, to his own heart, that he would always guard his lover's rest. Ares stretched out, just has he had that first morning on the road, hands and feet curling at the ends of ramrod straight arms and legs, purring deep in his throat as he rolled over to Hercules' side of their bed.
"Hi!" Hercules smiled as Ares opened his eyes, slowly bringing his lover's face into focus.
"Hi yourself! It's time to get ready I suppose." Ares lay on his back, not making any move to actually get upright and ready.
"Sadly, it surely is..." Hercules let his words be drowned, as he took Ares' lips in a slow, gentle kiss.
Ares' hands dragged torturously slowly up Hercules' back, until he cupped his brothers head, holding him close. He let all the built up passions he was storing up burst free into that kiss.
And Hercules knew that his beloved was truly a Love God.
He looked at Ares with new understanding.
"You could be Cupid and, just as easily, he could be you, I'm right, aren't I?"
"Same coin, not really even flip sides of it, just rolled in a different direction." Ares looked at Hercules and smiled, showing his white teeth in a big, wide open smile, letting his lover see how much he loved him. Seeing Hercules' eyes cloud over with an almost black jealousy. "What is it?" His smile faltered, he wandered what he had done now? He had only been sleeping.
"Holy shit Ares, I'm sorry!" Hercules' face paled as the blood drained from it. "I wanted, so bad I could taste it, to keep you here, in this bed, away from all of them. Mortal, immortal, Demi-Gods and Gods. The rage just filled me, then you looked so worried and it all faded again." Hercules looked at the worried face of his lover. "I am truly a War God, aren't I? Maybe even more so than you. I'm mirroring, even clearer than you ever did, the passions of mortals. Jealousy, rage, hate, love, devotion, honour, it's all us, them ... whichever!" Then he realised something else. "You always were the most human of the Gods, and I decried you for our failings!"
"And you finally know me. ME! Oh damn it, how long have I waited for someone who would, who could, know me!" Ares fell back on the bed and Hercules did see, and know, his brother, every sexy line of him. The knowledge that only he would know Ares like this brought a big smile to his face.
"I know you, and will know only you for ever, and you, me!" Hercules lifted Ares' head for one last passionate kiss.
"As you wish, me and you, for each other, for ever!" Ares agreed with Hercules' declaration for their combined futures.
"And isn't THAT gonna piss 'daddy dearest' right off?" Hercules got off the bed and offered a hand to assist his lover. The tension that was rising again was relieved when Ares burst out in an almost uncontrollably fit of the giggles. "Now what?!" Hercules tried for exasperated but lost the thread as he found Ares' laughter contagious.
"You're claiming me, forever, giving yourself to my defence forever, right?" He waited as Hercules nodded, saw his lover getting angry at the thought of their love being laughed at. "Here I lie, on your bed, dressed all in white no less, I just wondered if that made me, Ares, the ultimate War bride?" Then Ares could contain it no longer and he laughed till the tears rolled down his cheeks.
Hercules too was laughing, crying, uncontrollable fits of laughter giving him a much needed release. He pulled Ares up, off the bed and into his arms, both Gods sobered immediately their tear streaked cheeks touched and they finally realise that their commitment was totally binding, and they didn't fear it. As they looked at each other their breathing became ragged and strained, passion growing, again.
"Let's get going, I've got a jealous lover who wants to watch me circulate around the good and the Godly." Ares whispered in Hercules' ear.
"Your jealous lover doesn't need the audience, he'd watch you any time, any place." Hercules stroked his hands up Ares' leather clad buttocks and pulled their bodies into alignment.
"I do believe abstinence is good for you. Down boy!" Ares pulled his hands away and stepped free from that not unwelcome prison.
"Who told you that rubbish?" Hercules asked, almost snapping, well in character as a War God.
"My baby bro!" Ares twirled away from his baby brother and walked towards the door. "Come on, I want to create an entrance. Not just zap in like any old God. I wanna be announced, as your consort!" Ares offered his hand to his lover, stretching out his left arm, twisting it so he could sight along his arm, the back of his hand and directly into Hercules' heart.
"Tease!" His brother accused.
Ares shrugged, an action that seemingly required him to rotate on his hips, wriggle his shoulders and flick his hair out his eyes.
"That's as maybe, but who am I gonna come home with?" He whispered, licking his lips with long, slow, sensual strokes of his pink tongue. As he watched Ares' tongue dance over his lips, Hercules felt his pants get almost uncomfortably tight.
"And don't you forget it!" Ares' own War God demanded. He took his lover's proffered hand and lead the way out their bedroom door towards the reception in their honour.
Once outside the great feasting hall, Ares pulled Hercules to a standstill and leaned in to whisper in his ear.
"Iolaus died a virgin?" Ares suddenly recalled Hercules' most outrageous lie from earlier, and practised saying such a falsehood. This would be a big test for his new found skill. Facing these copies of his family ... and lying to them! "Boy will he be annoyed when he gets back from where ever he's gone! So what do you want me to bring you when I visit you in Elyssia!" He laughed so freely when Hercules made to swipe a hand at his butt, only to catch it and rubbed it against the bulge in his pants. For his part, Hercules almost came where he stood.
Taking great ragged breaths, they calmed themselves down, grinning and laughing together.
They approached the doors and the great lumps of copper bound oak swung effortlessly out of their way. Apollo was behind the door acting as host for the occasion, so like Zeus, to unconsciously leave his duties to his children. Ares could not help but feel rejected, again, it was just another rejection in a long, long list of similar rejections Zeus had gifted to him. Hercules could not help but feel angered at that slight. He stepped forwards to announce them to Apollo.
"Hercules, God of War, and my consort, Ares, my own God of Eternal Love - so hands off golden boy!" He snarled at this image of his oldest brother and was amazed at how cathartic a good snarl could be. That, and the look of absolute terror that flooded Apollo's face would live in his memory for a very long time!
Apollo blinked at Hercules and Ares, taking in the way Ares was smiling at Hercules, with a look of almost total hero worship on his face. This Love God was certainly deeply in love with his War God. He stepped back a pace into the main hall and turned to face the assembled deities.
"Father, Gods, Goddesses, your attention please. Please make welcome Hercules, God of War, and his consort, Ares, God of Love!" He inclined his head towards their visitors, and Ares prompted Hercules through their link to walk forward and keep his body between the assembled Gods and himself.
"*Why?*" Hercules thought back at his consort.
"*Because, my love, it means that you don't trust them with me, that you want to protect me. It rather stakes your claim in a 'school kids at play' kind of a way. Hey, I never said we Gods were grown ups.*" Then Ares did the conversation maths in his head, he proved to Hercules that, as regards emotional development, a God grows one year for every century lived, which made him just about fifteen. The momentary look of shock that flooded Hercules' face was taken as a reaction to a possible challenge for his lover's hand .. and the rest of him too! The Gods all took one step away from Hercules and Ares. Ares encouraged his lover to relax, by promising he was only joking about the 'growth rate' of Gods.
Finally, Ares was 'permitted' to step out from behind his Big Bad God of War and smile at the assembled Gods.
"Hi!" He beamed at the Gods and scratched Hercules behind the ear. "Don't mind Pooky, he gets a bit possessive now and again. Hey, he's my Pooky and if I don't mind, you don't havta mind either!" Hercules knew this was his War God at his side, yet he would swear he was listening to the voice of that other Ares from the first alternative world they had encountered.
"Don't call me 'Pooky' I will not remind you!" Hercules filled the link with such dire warnings, that Ares felt it incumbent on him to remind his lover that he was supposed to be a Love God, and anyway, he should see Dite and Heph before he passed any more directives. This just made Hercules' face reflect a true feeling of revulsion at the mental image.
"All right then, you BeeBee-Gow, you!" And Ares giggled, simpered, rubbed his crotch over Hercules' hip and fully entered the room.
"BeeBee-Gow?" Hercules mumbled, figured it out and mumbled some more. "I actually think I prefer Pooky!"
"Daddy, mummy!" Ares moved to Zeus and Hera's sides as soon as he saw them. He hugged them both and looked at the whole sea of faces, each and every one of them staring unashamedly at Ares, the Love God. And that included Cupid and Strife. They knew that this Ares was not their father; but the physical resemblance was so profound, they couldn't help themselves from watching, and loving, every minute of their grandparents blushes.
"Ares, well rested I hope, after your nap?" Zeus asked, patting this loving Ares' arm.
"Very much so!" Ares smiled again, noted to his lover that his facial muscles were gonna cramp out on him, from smiling so sweetly all the time. He received laughter but no support through the link.
"You look refreshed, doesn't he Hera?" Zeus passed this loving God on to his wife, and saw her great need to have her son by her side reflected, yet again, in her face. She had never once smiled in genuine pleasure since the day they had heard of Ares' death. It didn't matter to her that her son had died saving Greece from some obscure God. Just that he had died, alone, outside their sphere of influence and was lost to her. Now this new version of her son stood before her and smiled at her, kissed her, called her mummy! Her own son had never had cause to speak so fondly of his mother.
"Ares, Hercules, my sons, come meet everyone. Dite, Hephaestus, Artemis..." The list wound on until it reached Poseidon and Athena, ..."Poseidon, Athena..." And Ares saw that familiar taint. A blemish he was so familiar with. This dispassionate War Goddess was touched by the hand of Dahok, as was her ally, Poseidon. Yet, as he looked around, he could see that no one else was aware of this taint, nor were they wearing such a mark on their souls.
Ares saw the suspicious look he got in response to his no doubt shocked facial expression, he looked out the corner of his eyes over his faux sister's shoulders and saw this worlds Strife.
Exactly the same as his dead nephew. Exactly the same! His dead son? And he never knew it? His son?
Hercules was aware of all Ares' thoughts, he could feel the grief as he did indeed prepare to mourn the death of a son he never knew to be his.
The new War God crossed to his lover's side and gently touched his shoulder.
"Tell him!" He entreated. On two levels, he was encouraging his lover to face the truth of Strife's parentage, even though this was not their Strife, and encouraging him to let these sons of his twin know he knew their father was safe, looked after and eating like a God once more. If not actually a God again yet.
Athena followed Ares' line of sight and saw her nephews, relief that the look was not directed at her herself flooded through her, and that flood of relief left her even more open to the visiting War Gods examination.
"Strife, Cupid, come here!" She ordered flatly, even her voice was totally devoid of inflection, of passion, of personality.
"Yes Aunt!" Two voices chorused as one and they crossed to the group looking so intently at them.
"Hello." Cupid smiled at this fellow Love God and held out a hand in greeting.
"Cupid!" Ares declared his delight in seeing him and hugged his twin's son close.
"Hi!" Strife chipped in.
"Oh Gods, Strife!" And Ares held him so close, a single tear shed for his loss. A tear that touched Strife's cheek. And Strife knew. Sure, this was not his father, but this was no Love God either. This was a War God, as powerful as his own father had been, and he knew his father. Had recently been with him.
"Ares?" His voice questioned the visiting God on so many levels. Giving him the chance to explain what he wanted, as much as he wanted, and he knew that this God knew what and how he knew these truths.
"My own sweet Strife died, before I even got to know he was my son. I grieved for him as my lost nephew, then had to start all over again once I knew I had lost a son. I don't know what I would have done if it wasn't for my BeeBee!"
Hercules took his cue and entered the scene.
"Ary, my little Love Bunny, don't cry, don't distress yourself." He took his genuinely upset lover into his own arms and hugged him, then kissed him. It was another public statement of his possession.
"He was my son, damn it! And I never knew!" He whispered his impotent rage into Hercules' shoulder.
"When we get back we'll go visiting, together, okay?" Hercules hoped his voice sounded reassuring, he was suddenly hit by an overwhelming jealousy of Ares' children. Ares was not fooled however.
"I know." He said and looked up into his lover's face, just a fraction too long before he stood away from all physical contact. That was when he noticed the embrace Cupid was giving the now distressed Strife.
"Does this world have a Psyche?" He asked, quite bluntly.
"Who?" Cupid quizzed.
"Oh, thank the Fates!" He was so relieved it was comical. He actually danced Hercules round in a circle, he was so happy!
"What? Who?" Cupid looked up at his father's twin and met two smiling faces.
"*Did she chase you too then?*" Hercules asked through the link.
"*Damn right she did. I had to hide out from her on the mortal plane for six months*" Ares told him, just as he was answering the spoken question.
"My Cupid married an ex mortal called Psyche, and she went through the Pantheon, or at least she tried to. Started about three months after their son was born." Ares looked at this Cupid and suddenly missed his grandson. "Your dad wouldn't have had any grandchildren would he?"
"Well, yeah, he has .. had, a granddaughter, she's called Joy." Cupid enjoyed the surprised look on this visiting Love God: his lover leaned over, whispered in his ear, this War God. "You should see Strife pregnant, it's a vision!" Strife whispered again. "Sorry Ares, I forgot, I simply forgot. You just got through telling us too!" Cupid reached for this image of his father, only to touch empty air.
Ares was gone.
Hercules right behind him.
They were outside the hall, on a beautiful patio area, surrounded by the sweetest, most delicate blossoms, and Ares was raging. Silently. Hercules watched and learned something new, yet again, about the God he loved. He could bottle up anger and rage better than he could. As he stood there he watched Ares swallow his rage down, fighting to keep the simpering Love God persona intact.
"Ares?" He finally ventured, his voice quivering at his inability to help his lover.
"I am so tired of crying!" Ares shouted, turning to look at his lover, a local force field separating them from the crown inside. "I can not remember a time in my life that I cried this much .. not since I was sixteen, or there abouts anyway!" Ares tired to laugh but failed. He knew Hercules could pick out what had caused that sixteen year old Ares to cry, direct from his memories.
"What's wrong? Is it me?" Hercules had to know. He had the idea that his own uncontrolled emotions were causing Ares problems.
"No, for once it isn't you, honest. I guess it's this place, I have to do something with all the energy, passion, power, call it what you will. It all has to go somewhere and I have to expend it somehow and it's magnifying each and every emotion I feel, especially the negative ones." He looked at his lover. "Come here!" He indicated his preferred spot by wiggling his fingers at his lover. "I want you .. well that goes without saying, but I want you to help me instigate a little mayhem here. I want to corner Athena in an orgy before she slips away. Did you feel the stench of Dahok on her?"
"I did, and a whole lot more you'll have to decipher for me later, but for now, what do you want me to do? Kiss her or take you?" The expression on his face spoke volumes as to which solution he wanted Ares to choose.
"Ohh, Herc!" Ares hissed at that last image as it invaded his brain, and his cock, right about the same time.
"I want you to be right beside me when I push out some of this energy. I'm winging it here, I know how to start riots, but this is a new one for me. So, stay close and if a riot does break out, pretend you started it, be jealous or something will ya? Strife and Cupid both know who and what I am, but I don't think they'll say a thing to anyone." Ares rubbed himself against Hercules' hip, enjoying the feel of his hard cock, wrapped in leather, trapped between them.
"As you wish, but you can always practice on me first, start a raging orgy right here with me." Hercules took Ares' left hand and put it against his hard cock. Ares' eyes lit up, the joy and delight were almost all the reward Hercules needed. He took his final reward from Ares' lips. "Let's go start your inaugural orgy!" He whispered as he released his lovers lips.
"Hmm, okay, uh I'm beginning to see some merit in your plan too!"
Hercules laughed, took him into his arms and they were suddenly transported into the thick of the reception in their honour.
"But I see more merit in your plan. Do what you think you must." And Hercules retook Ares in a punishing kiss, rubbing their bodies together, building the pressure of passion between them. He didn't stop until he knew Ares could not physically hold one more iota of energy within him, and it exploded outwards in a powerful pulse of sexual energy.
As they broke apart Ares was once more in total control of his own emotions, and a full scale orgy was in place all around them. They looked at the Gods and Goddesses as they settled in for a long round of loving, and identified Athena and Poseidon, they were standing, looking lost and confused until Athena's face screwed up in abject pain and fury, right before they zapped out of there. Not before a marker had been put on them by Ares however.
The taint of Dahok had intensified, but right after the pulse of energy Ares had released, it had faded and intensified again.
Could sex be a weapon against this God? Ares looked around him at the couplings taking place. This wasn't random sex he had achieved, this was bonded loving couples, all of them renewing their avowed love with their lovers ...
Love was the weapon he should have been using all along?
Ares was somewhat abashed at the concept, Hercules just pulled him into rest against that broad chest of his and held his lover close.
"Do you think we might try this at home sometime?" He asked, and felt the shudders as Ares laughed in response.
"Too right we will! It's too powerful a weapon not to use it against certain people!"
"Did you notice how it affected Athena?"
"Yeah, we can fight back! Let's find Cupid and Strife and get moving!" Ares stepped lightly amongst the loving couples at his feet and finally found the two Gods he was coming to think of as his step sons. He touched them, taking back a little of the energy he had infused them with. "Could you two boys stop it and come visit with Hercy an' me?" Ares kept his voice light and loving, just as a Love God should be. The level of command in that voice was just what these two young Gods expected from their father. They obeyed without hesitation.
"Lead on dad!" Cupid pulled himself free from the spell and pulled Strife along with him. "Where you wanna go?"
"My room, then to see someone about some pink jelly!" Ares pulled both younger Gods with him as they all zapped out and back to Ares and Hercules' quarters.
There on the table sat the four goblets, filled with lumps of Ambrosia
"Ares, you are one sneaky bastard! I am, and always have been, damn proud to be your son!" Strife placed a hand over his heart and bowed his head in Ares' direction.
"I wish your counterpart in our world could say as much!" Ares handed a goblet of precious Ambrosia to the young God.
"Speaking as the only expert in being Strife around here, I feel pretty sure he thought as much about being your nephew. Maybe even more so, after all there's less need for uncle and nephew to get along as there is father and son!"
Ares just stood there and looked at Strife, the face was identical, the same twinkle of omnipresent mischief shone in the same eyes, a smile twitched in the same corner of the same lips as his own Strife.
"Thank you." Ares whispered. Strife shared a look with the God who was about to return his father to Godhood and smiled.
"You are welcome. Shall we go create Gods and chaos?" Strife picked up a second goblet and handed it to his lover. Cupid held it close and mischief shone from his eyes too.
Hercules picked up the other two goblets and handed one to Ares.
"I think the time to start fighting back has arrived, shall we go my love?" Even he showed his delight in this particular brand of mischief.
Ares, the very epitome of a Love God, looked darkly over the rim of his goblet and grinned. The other three Gods felt the temperature in that room rise suddenly as they took in the delight in his face.
"Let's move this little party and start having some real fun!" All four Gods vanished from Olympus, no one watched them go, no one watched where they went. No one was able to!
Then they were back in that warm friendly kitchen, face to face with the mortal Ares and Hercules.
"Surprise!" Ares sing songed and placed his goblet on the table, followed by three other such vessels.
The mortal Ares looked at this gift before him, then at his lover, then at their benefactors and his sons. He smiled, it widened to a grin, then a silent chuckle, and a gasped giggle, finally it rounded out into a full blown belly laugh and as he straightened up to his full height, wiping the tears from his face he looked around the room, meeting each and every pair of eyes there.
"He's back!" Gabrielle sing songed, then she too laughed. Pretty soon everyone was giving into the release of hysterical laughter. The noise faded as they all came down to reality at the same time.
"And this time Ares, you won't have to fight alone!" His Hercules avowed, holding his lovers cheek in a tenderly cupped hand.
"Too right he won't!" Joxer announced.
"Yeah!" Echoed Iolaus.
"And us!" Gabrielle and Draco responded.
"Do we have enough snacks here for everyone?" Strife asked, his voice filled with laughter.
"More than enough, but only if people want it!" Ares looked around at his suddenly sober audience. "I've seen the mess that can result from mortals attaining Godhood they really didn't have the wherewithal to handle. Think about it, if you want it, you got it. But, please do think about it, ok?" One by one the mortals present nodded, just once, as each affirmed their understanding and their commitment, to aid their Ares in whatever capacity they could.
"So be it!" Ares, the visiting War God, indicated the goblets and they subdivided into six equal portions.
The mortals pick up their goblets and ate.
Ares and Hercules stood beside Cupid and Strife and watched the transformations take place. Six new Gods, well, they all thought, five new Gods and a Goddess, not bad for a nights work.
"Now, do we all go back to Olympus and break the good news, or what?" The visiting Hercules asked his lover.
"We need to get Ares re-installed as the sitting God of War, now that he's had the Ambrosia he is a God, we just have to get Zeus to recreate the sword of power. Right now, he's feeling regret and a deep sense of loss over his Ares, so it might be easier to get him to co-operate, on the other hand there's Athena and co!" Ares looked at the newly created Gods before him. "Granted there's no greater place to train Gods than Olympus. But we do have several experienced Gods here that could deal with the basic training. It's a choice you lot will have to make for yourselves. Come on Herc, let's leave them to their deliberations and go have a bath." Ares smiled quite wantonly at his brother and elicited a lascivious grin from him in response.
"I'm all for that but why don't you want to join in this discussion?" It was yet another aspect of Ares that was surprising Hercules. He had never thought that Ares would leave such an important debate, just for the dubious delights of a bath!
"This isn't our world, these aren't our Gods we're talking about. This Ares and the others know how the rest of the Pantheon will react to an invasion of five new Gods, as well as an apparently reincarnated Ares, better than we would. So, as I said, let's leave them to their deliberations and go bathe!" It made perfect sense and Hercules felt a shiver of delight knowing Ares had thought of what was right for this world, before what would show him in the best light.
"Oh!" There really wasn't much that Hercules could say in response to his brother's logical assessment of the situation. "Well, let's bathe then!" He sauntered out the warm kitchen, heading for the God powered bathroom they had been in the night before.
"Give's a shout when you've reached an answer?" Ares smiled at his counterpart and followed his lover out the room. Once out of that welcoming kitchen he set up a soundproof barrier around the bathroom, only a direct communication from their Ares, either in person or a thought directly aimed at them, would reach them, and not a sound would escape back to the kitchen to distract the debaters.
**
Zeus sat alone in his study, he had been there for hours, ever since he had awoken that morning in fact, and as he looked out at the sky he knew it was getting into evening. His thoughts had been going round and round in his mind all day. Every aspect of his relationship with Ares had been taken out and looked at. All his thoughts continued to come back to that image of Ares, snuggled close to Hercules, far out of his reach on that other world. The King of the Gods wished Ares would look at him with the same gentle affection he had shared with his brother. Yet, before he could even try to set his relationship with Ares to rights, he would first have to find out just what he wanted from any relationship with Ares.
Did he love him? Did he know him? Did he trust him? Did he want him by his side?
Questions he had no real answers for. Questions that bread more questions. Questions he simply didn't want to ask himself, or ever be asked by another. Yet, questions he really had to answer if he wanted to move on from the crippling feelings currently haunting him. But move on to where?
Did he love Ares?
Zeus remembered his son's birth, he remembered taking him, and Eris, into the assembly hall when they were scant minutes old and presenting them to the rest of the family. As the faces of the Gods and Goddesses present loomed over the babies Eris had cried. Not his Ares, he had lain in his arms and looked up at all the faces as they passed before him. He remembered the waves of fear that rolled off little Eris, and the calm certainty of safety that came from Ares. Even as a new born babe he had been sure of his safety in his father's arms.
At that point, as a new born, he had loved him, that was unquestionable. He had loved them both, but was so especially proud of Ares.
When had that love changed?
Things had first gone wrong while Ares was still a young child; he had grown to resent Ares. He was the youngest son, his only other children with Hera, Hebe and Io had been daughters. He remembered thinking about it; Ares was his youngest son from his wife. The only Godly mother of his children that he had married. That made Ares the legitimate heir, and like him, the youngest son of the ruling God, like he had been himself, and his own father had been before him.
Then he remembered his failed attempt to kill Ares. Remembered? It was not the kind of thing that he could forget. Ares had been three years old, growing up with an exacting knowledge of what it meant to be a mortal. No miraculous growth to adulthood, his destiny couldn't allow that. If he were to command mortals he had to live and grow as a mortal would. Even so, Ares had been a happy child, never complaining, never demanding instant maturity. Never demanding the protection that adulthood would grant the young God.
He could die like a mortal!
Zeus could remember the precise moment he had had that little thought. Sitting in that same study, looking out the same window, thinking more or less the same thoughts; but to differing ends. He had slaughtered a golden hind, the he drained it of every morsel of blood he could get from it's still twitching corpse. He had intended to stab Ares through the heart with a poisoned dagger. He had sat there and thought about the act for a day and a night, the dagger resting in his hand, the blood going ripe with exposure to the air.
In his mind he could feel the effort he had made into getting upright, into crossing the study floor. Of ascending the great stair case with it's cold, blackened walls and walking the length of the corridor before him. He had counted off the doors as he always had to, to reach Ares' bedroom door. At that time of night, Ares would be in his bed, asleep. Hugged up against his cuddle toy, his Oossa. Where he had come across that name for his teddy bear no one knew, Oossa went everywhere with Ares, his son had dragged him around with him by one much abused arm. Zeus remembered the feel of the door handle as he turned it and pushed the door open, dagger clutched tight before him. He had stepped into that quiet, dark little bedroom, crossed the space to his youngest son's bed, lifted his arm and struck down and stabbed that poisoned blade into Oossa.
Other than the bear, the bed was empty.
He had searched Olympus, then Greece, for years he looked for Ares and Hera and never found them. His wife had taken their son out of the country and had left him, living on the streets of Papremis in Egypt. Oh, she had been clever, very clever. He had found her, but never their son, not until he became an adult and was moved back to Olympus once his mother deemed him safe from further attack.
Did he love him?
He was so very glad that that bed had been empty. That his wife had been wise enough to realise what he had been going through. That his son had been taken and put somewhere he was safe from his own father.
Zeus got up and crossed his study to open a secret cupboard, he reached in and withdrew Oossa. He had preserved the bloodstain, keeping it still on the bear's fur, the hole crudely sewn, obvious, reminding him of what he had done. He hugged that bear and remembered what the Hall of Time showed him; all that his beautiful, dark son had suffered in Egypt. In all the centuries since Ares' return to him, it was his dearest secret, that he would take that little bear into that Hall and relive all his actions had forced his son to live through. The rapes, the beatings, the stabbings. All the horrors that his three year old son had been left to face alone, due to his own cowardly attempt on his life. He remembered that smiling little boy, his dark eyes always lit with a smile, his hair, always an unruly mess, and then, on his return the haunted, pain filled eyes that would follow him around any room they shared, the fear that slowly faded into hate.
Did he love him?
Yes! Passionately! But he didn't deserve him.
Did he know him?
That was so easy to answer. No, he didn't know his son. Ares wouldn't let him close enough to get to know him. He would get annoyed by his overtures of friendship and understanding constantly being ignored and rejected by Ares, and so he would hit out! Oh, he would always have some stupid excuse and would then badger Ares into accepting his apology. He had tried time after time to get to know Ares. Ares refused him each and every time.
Remembering those rapes, and other horrors he had witnessed in the Hall of Time, it was little wonder he was excluded from Ares' life, they were a direct result of his stupid, pointless, attempt on his son's life.
He didn't know Ares, and Ares had such a clear cut image of him, a father that was more than willing to kill him. He didn't know if Ares knew about that first attack, the one that had come from his father, but he knew that his father was in some way responsible for all those others.
It answered his next question.
Did he trust him?
Yes, he knew that Ares was always talking about taking over from him as King of the Gods, and he knew it was all talk. His position was not really of any great interest to Ares, he'd much rather rule the mortal world. He was obviously driven by much of what had happened to him as a young child. He'd prefer revenge against the mortal world than taking over from his father in the ivory tower that would isolate him from that very world he would dominate.
He trusted Ares, but Ares didn't trust him. He had no call to!
Did he want him by his side?
That was a firm yes! He had retreated from his baby son's room with that stabbed bear and locked himself away in his room for days on end. His was the hand that had crudely stitched the gaping hole, and set that bear on his bed, waiting for the time his son would be returned to him. It hadn't been to kill him that he had spent so long searching for him. It had been to beg his forgiveness, but once he had returned and had been presented to the Hall of Time, Zeus discovered all that he could never ask his son to forgive him for.
He wanted him by his side to protect him, but all the guilt got between them and they would fight, misunderstand each other. Never getting beyond that armed neutrality with each other. He did indeed need his War God son by his side, only it was not for reflected power, or even protection, it was for his sanity. What tortures was Ares facing, coping with, with two worlds to control? How could he keep him safe when he didn't know where he was?
Did he truly believe his reasoning? That he loved and wanted his child with him? Then why had he hurt him, beat him, tortured him?
It was all so much easier than telling him the truth!
As he looked at his other children and their continuous petty squabbles he also thought about Ares' quiet company. When he had to be with his father Ares was almost always quiet, if it was important to his field of influence he didn't talk about it, and idle gossip seemed to amuse him only, he didn't ever seem to actively take part in it.
That had been his nephew's job. The only other God to have shown such an instinctual grasp of the requirements inherent in the position of a War God. He had had an instinctual link to the powers and passions that his uncle Ares had control over. Just not the same experience, thankfully. Ares had never let his nephew anywhere near the mortal world, not until he was old enough, and strong enough to protect himself. Exercising his powers, his War powers with such an instinctual grasp.
As if born to it?
Born to the role of a War God?
Stuffing Oossa back in his hidy-hole, he ran to the Hall of Time and excluded everyone that might come by. He looked at his grandson's life. Starting with his death, he tracked that spark of life right back to the start. He had to move the whole room outside normal time it took so long, so far back, but he finally found out that the suspicions that had driven him there, were well founded.
He discovered too that Eris had never told Ares the truth. And Ares had never questioned her about it. Almost as if he expected to be lied to. After all. It was all he had ever known from any of them! They had all lied to him, almost constantly, he simply didn't expect to hear the truth, ever.
Strife knew Ares' job because Strife was his son. The only other God that had ever appeared in his line that truly understood the passions of mortals, and he was dead! Just when his father had greatest need of him, and why was he dead? Oh Callisto had killed him, that was true enough, but he had refused to grant him a new life even if Hades would release his soul. Knowing Hades' soft spot for Ares, had he given his son permission to make the request then his uncle Hades would have capitulated. Would have grumbled but, certainly, but would then secretly watch Ares' happiness and smile.
A sudden thought struck Zeus, like one of his own thunder bolts. That his brother loved his son as more than his nephew. Did Hades have desires on his son? If Ares turned to him for comfort, would he let his uncle into his bed? Into his heart, where his father should be?
Zeus concluded that he was being ridiculous. Seeing enemies where none truly existed. First things first. He had to see Hades about Strife, they needed him to take the pressure off his father's shoulders. And that decided, it left only one more question, should he tell Strife who he was? Ares' son?
He decided to leave that one, as he had left so many other difficult choices where Ares was concerned, but this time he vowed that he would deal with each and every one of those accumulated issues, once Ares and Hercules were safely returned once more.
Mind made up, he went to see Hades. That was where he received his next surprise. Once he materialised in Hades' palace in the Underworld he was greeted by none other than Strife.
"Hi Gramps, Uncle Hades said you'd be around soon, he also said to tell you he'll be here as soon as he can." Strife acted as host for his absent uncle and showed his grandfather to a comfortable room, where he could wait in peace. Strife returned soon after with a platter of choice morsels and a jug of Hades' finest wine.
"Thank you child. Has Hades also told you of Ares' disappearance?" Zeus held onto Strife's arm, just above the wrist and made the dead God sit beside him. Not letting go of his grandson while he spoke to him.
"Unk's missing? Is he injured, what?" Strife clearly displayed his love and anxiety for his uncle. That was all Strife saw Ares as, his very favourite uncle. He pulled against his grandfather's grasp, Zeus had to let his arm go, rather that than hurt the half dead, half alive child of his child.
"He and Hercules have been trapped on one of those troublesome alternate worlds, one with no active sitting War God." He waited to see Strife's reaction to that information, and was not disappointed when Strife instinctually summed up the problem.
"Shit, it'll link to Unk then, that'd be a heavy load of shit to carry. Is he still linked to our world?" Zeus nodded, enjoying watching his grandson think the problem through. "And he's linked to that world?" Again Zeus nodded. "Damn, if he can't bleed off the excess power it'll kill him, especially if that other world has been missing a God of War for some time."
"I believe it's four years." Zeus said.
"Oh, fuck, an' I'm not up their to help, an' I don' suppose mom's developed any talent for power management since I died?" This time Zeus shook his head. "Does Unk have his sword with him?"
"Yes he does, and I believe he and Hercules have formed some form of link between them, seems Hercules is helping him deal with the excess passions..." He left things vague, inferring a sexual connection that he suspected would indeed result from such close proximity and shared power.
"Uncle Hercules is strong enough to cope, but what effect is it having on our world? I would suspect that there are more than a few Warlords willing to take advantage of Ares' absence to try and expand their sphere of influence, beyond that which Ares permits them." Strife had taken to pacing up and down before his grandfather's chair.
"That's why Zeus wants you back Strife, he needs someone that can fill in for Ares!" The cold hard facts were presented by Hades as he materialised in the room.
"And once Unk gets back, what? I'm dead again? Might as well save myself the hassle and stay here." Strife trusted his Uncle Hades' assessment of Zeus' motives on face value, another trait he shared with his father. Yet another child Zeus had let down, yet another bridge he had tomend.
"No Strife, if Hades is willing to give you up to me, I want you back permanently." Zeus smiled at the sudden halt to Strife's pacing, and the look of shock on Hades' face too was worth every second of being in this dark, depressing place. "After all Hercules' friend Iolaus has been in and out of here so often he almost has a return ticket with Charon!"
Strife couldn't help it, he laughed, a high pitched giggle so reminiscent in Zeus' mind of his father. Again he wondered how they had all missed the similarities between father and son.
"Well Hades?" Zeus looked at his brother, and saw the exact same look on his face, as he watched Strife, that it usually wore when the he was watching Ares. Zeus got up and crossed to his brother's side and put his next question directly into Hades' mind, hiding it from Strife. "*You know who Strife's father is, don't you?*" His brother's voice filled his mind.
"*Yes, all lives are known to me on their ending, and before you ask, no, I haven't told him, yet, as far as I know Ares doesn't know yet. Once he knows, Strife will be told, it's only fair.*"
"If you have valid need of him, you can have him, but I will miss his help looking after the place for me." Hades spoke that aloud.
"He can relieve a lot of the pressure from Ares by dealing with our world's War energies, and I know that Ares has missed him." Zeus looked at Strife and saw the joy that that news brought to him.
"He actually missed me?" He was more excited by that than his imminent return to life and his War duties.
"He has, it's true, but you know Ares, he'd never say, never ask for a favour. Maybe it was the fates that put them wherever it is that they went to!" Hades shrugged and smiled, honestly wondering what other miracles Ares' disappearance might bring. He had never expected Zeus, of all Gods, to turn around and ask for the return of Ares' son, whether Ares knew he was or not.
"Yeah, I know Ares alright!" Again Strife giggled. "An' if I can help, just say the words an' I'm outa here, an' doin' what I can, where I can..." He smiled, hopefully at Hades and his grandfather.
Zeus shared a long look with his brother and before Strife could fully figure out what they were doing he was alive and in his grandfather's study, and on his knees as the build up of power that Ares was simply not managing to take, where ever he was, hit him.
"Shit!" Strife swore, opened himself to the raw power and then laughed as he felt the old familiar passions filling him with Godly energy.
Even Zeus could feel the effect Strife was having on the world, it was calming, as if it had been waiting for the other boot to drop, then suddenly realise it had nothing to worry about anyway.
"What happened to my Olympian temple?" Strife asked. The mundanity of the question took Zeus by surprise, he had to think about the answer to that one.
"Oh, someone took it over ... Ah, Cupid, yeah, it was Cupid!" Zeus looked at Strife for a response and saw a very confused grandson before him.
"I thought he and Psyche had a big temple of their own?"
"They do, but it's a good job he never married her in a proper Olympian ceremony, he left her ... she's got their temple until we decide what's to happen to her."
"So I'm back, I'm bad, I'm ready to rock and I'm homeless?" Strife asked in his sing song tone.
"Erm, basically, yes. Unless your temple is big enough for two, you'll be living here with me and your grandmother." Zeus saw the look of horror at that idea that Strife just couldn't hide.
"There's always mom's place.... see you later gramps!" And with that Strife was gone, no doubt out to spread the news that he was back, and filling in for Ares.
Zeus sat back down in the chair he had been sitting in before, he summonsed Oossa to him and explained at length to the bear all that he had found out and done that day. If Ares ever got his bear back he'd get a lifetimes details of his father's feelings about him and his achievements.
It was perhaps Zeus' biggest conceit, if he couldn't talk to his son, he'd talk to his son's bear instead, a toy he had had as a comfort far longer than his Ares ever did.
Bitterly, he wondered for the millionth time, what comfort did Ares ever have?
Finally, though, he had an answer, Ares had Strife. Thinking about his young grandson made even Zeus smile, things would be getting lively once more. Even more so when they could get Ares back.
**
Ares followed Hercules into the bathroom and found his lover already naked and in the bath, it was a vision that definitely made him smile. He removed his own garments and slid into the hot, welcoming water.
"Now try telling me this wasn't a good idea!" Ares moved to his lover's side and took him in his arms, nuzzling his neck.
"I never doubted you for a moment." Hercules sighed as he relaxed into that blissful contact.. They were sharing the feeling, the emotion, the contact, each was the kisser and the kissed. It was the most erotic sensation either of them had ever encountered. As Hercules leaned back for more kisses, he felt Ares' erection pressing against his butt cheeks, it made him groan deep in his throat. "You got something there, for me?"
Ares' warm, soft chuckle filled him as his lover rubbed that promise of passion to come against him. An arm sneaked around to scratch gently at Hercules' tangle of thick hair that surrounded his cock. Hercules squirmed closer to his brother, increasing the pressure against him, groaning his need into Ares' neck, as best he could from that angle.
"I want you in me. You started an orgy before my very eyes and took me away from it before we could join in, so you'd better be ready to make up for it now!" The hero rubbed himself over Ares' body, revelling in the feel of hard muscles beneath him. He turned to face his brother, that fact eliciting a little shiver of desire from him. This wasn't an anonymous lover, this was his brother, and they loved each other.
Ares knew the moment the thought entered Hercules' mind, and he shivered too, knowing that his happiness was dependent on his own brother, that he had never known a love like theirs ever. He pulled Hercules towards him, rubbing their erections together, sharing slow, open mouthed kisses. Melding their tongues together until they could not separate the sensations in their own minds.
Hercules threw his head back, giving Ares perfect access to the column of his throat. His lover didn't disappoint him, he trailed little bites and kisses all down that bronzed neck until he rested his face in against the point where neck and shoulder joined. The newest War God ploughed his fingers into his brother's hair and lifted that dark, beautiful face back up to his and kissed him again. This time it was Hercules who went exploring the body before him.
Ares was so lost to the joy he was living, that the first tickle of a change in the energies around them went totally unnoticed. The feel of Hercules' hands on his body drove all other thoughts from his mind, only their love existed. Clever, loving hands stroked him till he was so painfully erect he thought he might instantly combust. Not that his own hands and body were still, he had Hercules whimpering in his need for his brother to possess him.
"Please, now, now, now ..." Hercules groaned out his incessant need. Sparing only seconds to talk before claiming Ares' mouth once more, wanting and demanding more kisses, and returning them in full.
"Now....." Ares whispered, unable to raise any power in his voice.
Hercules turned and braced himself against the edge of the bath, lifting himself into the ideal position, preparing himself with a thought.
"Ares!" He pleaded, and was rewarded by the welcome fullness of Ares taking him, slowly, savouring every little change in the pressures of Hercules' body around him. Sharing the feeling of possessing and being possessed with his lover.
Ares reached around his beloved's body and stroked him in time with their joined thrusts, one of his lover's hands joined him, helping him stroke. Building the desire, the need. Groans that might be the pain filled cries of a battlefield or the love hungry moans of lovers too long separated filled that echoing room and rebounded to them, sounding like another set of lovers as desperate and eager for fulfilment as they were.
The second change in the pressures in the power they were sharing flickered at the very edge of awareness, but neither could see it for what it was, they were lost in each other, neither Ares, nor Hercules existed, just this one being with two hearts that loved so totally.
Thrusting into what felt like his own body, his own heart, stroking what might have been his own flesh, Ares felt the tightening in his body that heralded his orgasm. So to did Hercules.
"Faster, faster, harder, more!" Hercules pushed the pace up a little, pulling his brother to their climax, deep with in their body. The pressure become relentless as they pumped their bodies into one flesh. All Hercules was aware of was his need to feel more, to have more, to give more.
Ares bit hard onto Hercules' neck and together they rode that pain and came as one being in them, on them, for them, with them .... Their joint release almost painful, as two dark heads rolled back and two strained voices cried out the same scream in their release.
The third, and greatest, change in the powers feeding relentlessly into them was noticed. It caused Ares to pass out, pulling him free of Hercules' body. Hercules could feel that, that half of him that was Ares pass out into a dark oblivion, he felt too the pain that had wracked Ares' mind in one blinding flash, causing him to scream his fear. Yet, due to their soundproofed shield, no one could hear his cry of agony as the mind he shared with his brother was ripped in two. One blissfully at rest, the other screaming in it's agony.
"Ares!" he cried, thinking in his heart that he could be heard on the moon, his voice little more than a whisper.
He sat and cradled his brother's unconscious body until he felt the first stirrings of awareness from the back recesses of Ares' mind. So relieved that his lover was awake, and alive, and still a part of him.
"What happened?" He asked Ares once his brother was more awake and aware of his surroundings. The look of confusion and worry on Ares' face almost bringing him to tears. "Are you all right? Do you need anything?"
Ares looked up into Hercules' worried face and smiled, it was the most gentle expression the hero had ever seen on his brother's face, and it was all for him, and him alone. That he could generate such a reflection of love from his brother caused him to convulsively pull Ares closer still to his body, determined to hold him tight as long as he needed it.
"Don't you feel it?" Ares asked, his voice slightly shaky.
"Feel what? I felt you pass out, the pain, the fear .. my fear ..show me what you felt." Hercules' voice caught as he described his fear to his lover.
"This!" The joy in Ares voice brought a smile to Hercules' face, shaky but a smile none the less.
"What does it mean?" Hercules now knew the pressures from their own world were easing, then he realised, possibly from Ares' own memories, possibly just his new insight into what his brother truly did for their world. "Is someone else taking our worlds energies?"
"Ah ha!" Ares muttered, smiling fit to burst, unable to sit at peace he bounced around that warm, comfortable bath. "We need a fire, with flames, we need to talk to Heph. I gotta talk to Heph and Dite. Shit, damn yeah, I need to talk to Dite. She'll help, she will, I know she will!" Ares fretted as he pulled himself out of the bath, still walking in tight little circles.
Hercules climbed to the side of the bath and stood there with his lover, stopping his movements with a light touch of his hand against his chest.
"What is it? What's happened, what do you think has happened?" Hercules met his brother's quicksilver glance as those ecstatic eyes danced all over his face and body.
"There was only ever one other God that could use the War energies anywhere near as well as I can, only one other God that could channel that power." He grinned, such a delighted look, his joy then triggered a flash of understanding in Hercules.
"Strife?" He asked, needing no real confirmation, but Ares nodded anyway. "Our son is alive once more!" Hercules closed his eyes, pressing back the tears of joy that echoed the delight his felt in Ares' soul.
"Our son?" Ares asked, slightly wary.
"Ours, I will never let you go, and so what children are yours I will accept as mine, and what children might be mine..." Ares caught on and finished speaking for him.
"Will be mine also! Yes! Yes, our son is alive again. And this time, I'm gonna tell him who, and what he is, and know him as my son, if he'll accept me." That thought caused Ares to shudder.
"He'll never reject you! He'll understand, you'll see, if need be we'll make him understand." Looking at his trembling brother, knowing it was only slightly because their skin was cooling down, he dressed them both in long flowing robes in a blood red silk. "Let's see to that fire." Then he thought about something, and stroked a finger down the side of Ares' smooth beardless cheek. "You want to look more like you before we talk to them?"
Ares grinned at his lover, pulling that full bottom lip tight between his perfectly white teeth and smiling so wide his dimples showed clearly in his clean shaven cheeks.
"Why? Don't you love my baby smooth face?" He then tried to pout but was laughing far too much to pull it off.
"Well, yes I do, it's just that they'll have me up on charges of child molesting. You look so young, and of all impossibilities, so innocent like that ..." Hercules bent his head slightly and took possession of those smiling lips. Their kiss rapidly deepened as hands and bodies fell back into their perfect atunement.
"Let's get this conversation started, then pick up right here, where we've left off, okay?" Ares asked and in a flash was once more the bearded War God Hercules loved so much. To compliment him, Hercules lost his beard.
"Now we look like ourselves, let's talk to the family." Hercules extended his powers and created a fire, in a brassier, with dancing flames and a wonderful smell of pine and sandalwood. "And if dad is there? Then what?" He waited for Ares to think about that for a moment, but Ares formed his answer almost at once.
"Then I have to thank him, Strife could only come back with his permission. For once he has done me a favour and maybe doesn't even know it! Wouldn't that piss him right off?" Ares grinned then giggled at the answering agreement from Hercules' mind.
"Sit down Ares!" Hercules created one very wide seat for them, he had no trouble with the idea of letting his family know he was happily in love with his brother, and through their link he knew Ares didn't mind them knowing, so long as they didn't try and take Hercules away from him.
Ares looked into the flame, Hercules let his mind read and follow every step of the process as Ares linked to Hephaestus, through the Fire God's forge.
"Heph? You wanna talk to us Heph?" Ares teased his brother, knowing his voice would carry to where ever Hephaestus was in that subterranean forge of his. The image of that forge formed so clearly in Hercules' mind, he could hear the flames, feel the heat, smell the hot metal ... and so could Ares!
They looked at each other, all those years of blacksmithing, Hercules was a God, created in War's image, but in Fire's shadow too! And through their link Ares had access to those hidden skills too.
Straining to hear any sounds from Hephaestus' forge they called him together.
"Heph!"
That got his attention, the lame Fire God crossed to the forge flame from his private chambers.
"I hear you, I hear you!" He mumbled ready to form a politer response in flames when he realised that they had heard him. Two sets of eyes danced with mischief at his grumbling entrance.
"You can hear me? Both of you?" He asked for clarification.
"Yes we can. Saves messing about with the flames, doesn't it?" Ares asked, so evidently very happy, so evidently 'with' Hercules that Hephaestus smiled, looked over his shoulder and shouted back the way he had just come.
"Dite, come see, you were right!" Then he turned a smiling face back to his brother and his brother's brother. "You both look well, and happy. How are things going your side of the void?" Then, before he stopped speaking the Goddess of Love was by his side looking at her brothers.
"You're ..HOT DAMN!" she squealed at them.
As a response Hercules put his left arm around Ares' shoulders and with his right hand he tilted his brother's face to his and kissed him, slowly, gently and with a world of passion in that gentle kiss. And Ares kissed him right back, his right arm encircling Hercules' waist and his left hand reaching to cup Hercules' cheek, that hand shook as he reached for his lover's face. Then the kiss ended and they both turned back to the flame.
"I'm happy." Ares said, so simple a statement but Hercules felt the hidden power behind that gentle confession, as did Aphrodite, that much was obvious. Even though Hephaestus had to tell her what Ares had said. She sniffed away tears as they threatened to trip her up.
"Oh, Ar .." She whispered and leaned into her husband for loving support.
"Strife's alive!" Ares changed the subject, with neither flare nor subtlety, but effectively. He now had their undivided attention. Again Hephaestus repeated Ares' words to his wife.
"You could feel that, from there?" Dite asked.
"Yes, could you summon him for me? Please Dite, this is important!" Ares leaned forwards and Hercules' hand slipped onto his shoulder and squeezed.
"Please Dite, we need to speak to him." Hercules asked, knowing it was not just Ares' eagerness to see the returned Godling he was feeling.
Hephaestus touched his wife, letting her hear what was being said through the flames, it was much easier than relaying every comment, and this looked like it was going to be important. Once he had changed her to his requirements he let her settle her new talent in place free from his intrusive touch. Once settled, she smiled at Heph, at Ares and at Herc.
She closed her eyes and called the newly returned to life God to her side.
"You called Aunty dearest?" A so achingly familiar voice called out, not quite sarcastic, but not far from it.
"Strife!" Two voices called out of the flames from Hephaestus' forge. Strife walked over to stand between his aunt and uncle and looked into the flames to see Ares and Hercules.
"I can hear them!" He said to no one in particular.
Ares looked at Hercules, Hercules blushed and they both laughed.
"Would someone like to tell me what's so funny?" Strife asked, not in anger, he had too strong a survival sense to ever get cross with his uncle Ares.
"As far as I can figure it out, you can hear us, and us you because your powers are such a close copy of your father's you might as well be the same God!" Hercules told him, and enjoyed the confused look that crossed Strife's face, but he regretted his cryptic words when the confusion gave way to an ages old pain. Ares took a deep breath and carried on where Hercules had left off.
"Strife, son, you are a War God and War Gods can do just about anything!" Ares smiled at Strife, a genuine smile that reached his eyes and would light the firmament if it could be harnessed to the sky.
"Son?" Strife asked, his voice shaking, not sure Ares was actually saying what he thought he was saying. Not daring to believe such a dream could come true, especially for him.
"Yeah, I only just found out. And after I had mourned the death of my favourite nephew, I had to start all over again when I found out it was my son that was dead. And a few minutes ago I felt your return to life and you taking up some of the energies from there."
"I've been back a couple of hours, that's some delay." Then Strife realised what his 'father' had really said. " You felt my return and straight away you .. you called for me?" His voice shook and Dite put a hand on his shoulder.
"Of course I did, you're my son and have the right to know that." Hercules nudged Ares and Strife watched his father laugh at some unspoken comment his worst enemy made to him. Then to the newly returned God's complete surprise Ares bent his head away from Hercules as the hero leaned over and kissed his father's neck.
"Ares?" His voice squeaked as he tried to fathom every new piece of information out.
"We are in love Strife. We are linked, soul deep, and we share everything, including our families. The joy I felt from Ares when he realised you were alive again it was ..." Hercules sniffed up, wiped a tear away and looked directly at his step son. "You are to stay safe, alive and in one piece, because if you don't you'll answer to me, got that?"
"I think so uncle Hercules." Strife's answer was subdued, he was evidently struggling with his own emotions.
"And you don't have to bother with the uncle Hercules either. I'm committed to your father Strife, kinda makes you my son too, I'd happily settle for dad, if need be I'll settle for just Hercules." Ares looked at his brother, the love he felt filling him threatened to swamp him.
"And Strife?" Ares waited till he once more had Strife's undivided attention. "See to the happenings on the northern borders, those damn Celts are massing again, or at least were when I was drawn here." He saw the slight droop of Strife's shoulders that telegraphed his disappointment at just getting instructions from the God he now knew was his father. "And Strife?" This time he asked that question much in a much gentler tone of voice, Strife looked up again. "You take care of yourself, I want to see you when we get back, and in one piece, okay?"
"Okay, un..dad." He tried out the new title for Ares and found that he liked it. It felt good, he felt good, complete for the first time since his birth, he felt like a complete person, with a father, a mother, a step father, a whole family. Strife sniffed, wiped his eyes and just looked at his dad ... his two dads sitting there, looking at him, looking proud, looking like a family that he was part of.
Dite took him into her arms, smiled over her shoulder at her brothers and lead the emotional young God away. As they left the area Ares and Hercules could hear her calling for Cupid.
"He'll be fine, we'll look after him. So how's it going there? Any progress in getting things sorted?" Hephaestus settled his weight onto his good hip and seemed set for a long talk with them.
"Hmm, some, we got Ambrosia for their Ares and friends. They're out in the kitchen deciding if they want to go to this places Olympus. This worlds Athena and Poseidon have been tainted by Dahok. I'm not going to leave them to fight that sickness alone. I'm having to masquerade as that coward, Ares, God of Love!" And Ares lost the beard. "And Herc's being Hercules, Big Bad God of War." Hercules gained his beard back again.
Hephaestus drew in a sharp breath.
"Oh, an' that's another thing. Herc's a God now, a War God!" Hercules released a tiny lightening bolt onto the tip of his brother's nose.
"There's nothing like subtlety and that was nothing like it!" Hercules grinned at the shocked Fire God. "It's not a secret, is it Ares?" He looked at his love for confirmation of his statement.
"Not unless you want it to be. It's harder to undo a Godhood if everyone knows you for that, the worship has to be diverted and stuff ...and it's entirely up to you."
"You said to Strife that our Northern borders are under attack from the Celts, didn't you?" Hercules asked.
"Well, yes, they almost always are, and the Eastern side from the Persians, don't even mention the west and the Romans! What of it?"
"I can do that. Be a God of War, in a defensive role, if that's all right?"
"Herc, I love you!" Ares threw his arms around his lover and held on tight.
A cough from the flames reminded them that they were not alone. Looking up they saw Hephaestus and beside him stood their father.
"My boys? Things have changed a lot since we last talked." He said, simply. "Have you seen Strife yet?"
"Yes father, thank you for his return. Is it permanent?" Ares' voice has harsh, almost stilted in talking with his father.
"Yes, I know the pain it would cause you, if he were to die again." And something about the way he spoke triggered realisation in both Ares and Hercules, it was Hercules however that got his voice back first.
"You know don't you?" He challenged.
"Know what Hercules?"
"You know that Strife is Ares' son! And you never told either of them?" Hercules was incredulous at the apparent calculated cruelty to Ares.
"I know, I have known now for, oh, six hours. As soon as I knew, I got him back, Ares needs him, we need him, you need him." Zeus didn't raise his voice, he spoke a little above a whisper. Head dropped against his chest.
"Thank you for bringing him back, and for letting me tell him." Ares was trembling, his fear for his son, alone there with his father, his father that had tried to murder him all those centuries ago. And he suspected that Zeus didn't know that he knew, that he would be curious to see why he had been abandoned in that hell that was his childhood. That he too would go to the Hall of Time and look.
The sudden meeting of eyes and each God knew what the other knew.
Zeus tried desperately hard to say something, but the words just wouldn't form. Ares just sat there, holding onto his lover and looked right back at his father, not willing to say anything more. Hercules could read the relevant memories and couldn't bring himself to say anything more to his father, ever.
"Hephaestus, tell Hera all about Strife, his grandmother should know too!" Hercules asked the Fire God.
"Will do! And you two take care, we'll look out for Strife don't worry... Dite's mothering him even as we speak. Think she's got the poor lad ready to scream!" Hephaestus looked over his shoulder, back towards his private chambers. "She's got Cupid there, they're gonna stick with him till he gets back on his feet properly." Hephaestus laughed. "Strife's moaning about Cupid calling him baby bro! Says last time he was alive he was, at least, an only child! But he's laughing, he'll be fine ..." The flame flickered as he lost concentration.
"Bye Heph, give him, them, my love, and Ares' too, we'll be home just as soon as we can." And the flame flickered and died.
As their connection to their own world faded Ares sat still and brooded about his son, alone with his father. Then he chided himself, Strife was being cared for by Aphrodite and Hephaestus and no doubt Ares' other children will be getting in on the act. Of course there was always Strife's own mother, but she had never figured too large in the young God's life. Not as a mother any way.
"He'll be fine!" Hercules hugged his lover close, kissed the cheek nearest to him and felt the muscles twitch into a smile beneath his lips. "That's better. You're so damn sexy when you smile!" Hercules whispered into the ear closest to him then returned to kissing the same cheek. This time it made Ares laugh. Which had been his intention all along.
"Sexy?" He quizzed. "And here I always thought, you thought I was evil and sneaky when I smiled." He turned to let Hercules see he was amused, he was being funny. He knew that Hercules knew, through their link, but they had to also recognise the visual clues to mood too.
"Damn, my secret is out! All that hot air was to convince myself you weren't the sexiest God around!" Hercules shrugged and smiled. Relaxing into their silly conversation when the other Ares burst in on them. In a state of great unrest. Only to be followed by the other Hercules then the others, and all shouting as one.
"So, made up your minds yet?" Ares smiled sweetly as he waited for the other Ares to respond. That world's Ares stood there and glared at him, then smiled at the sarcasm.
"I take it this lot would argue just as much on your world as they do here?" And he shrugged, created his own seat and sat down. His action was followed by seven other flashes of power and more seats crowded into the bathroom.
"Ah ha." Ares smiled and cuddled into his brothers side even closer. "So what have you decided?"
"That I want to return to Olympus, I want to see my other children. I need to see them!" Ares, newly returned God of the Greek Pantheon, soon to be renamed God of War, sat there and demanded to go see his children. Not take counsel from his most trusted warlords, or discuss battle plans with his mother and father. He wanted his children, and that surprised the brand new War God, Hercules, and delighted him too! That his beloved could care that much for his family, told him so much, that he was right to love him, to trust him with his heart.
All the time he had spent thinking about what Ares said he had failed to fully notice the dissenting voices screaming their own ideas at him.
"No, he's gotta go see the others." Strife said. Once everyone looked at him he continued. "See 'Thena took a benny at Deim and fireballed him, he's been in Clepi's place for a month, she did that much damaged." As he spoke Cupid had leaned over and taken his brother's hand and held it tight.
"Yeah, she did. A complete Banzia Banana Boogie!" he looked not at his lover but at their father.
"A what? Benny? Banzia what?" Hercules asked that world's Hercules, and both heroes looked blankly at each other then at Strife and Cupid.
"The speech patterns are quite dissimilar but I'd say a Benny was a period of less that proper control over one's temper and the other was like Xena with a hangover telling a temple band to play quietly!" Ares answered before they could degenerate into semantics and lose their track entirely. If that world's Cupid and Strife were anything like his, they'd spend the next six hours explaining what they meant, what their explanation meant, the explanation's explanation, and they'd still not have given over any important or relevant information at the end of it.
His Hercules pictured Xena, then the band, and finally, her supposed action against the said noisy band. He was too busy giggling to be bothered by the argument raging around them as to whether they should go to Olympus or not.
"So, War God, what do you and your brother think we should do?" That world's Hercules asked Ares, getting Hercules' attention along the way with his snapping tone.
"If Athena's there I'd say, stay away, but if she isn't there, then go for it. Just don't fanfare it. Return quietly. And to Zeus and Hera first." His Ares said.
"What the fuck would he want with them? Those bastards have done nothing to he..." Hercules was interrupted by the War God, Hercules.
"They think their son is dead. There are tears in Hera's eyes that never seem to dry up. Zeus is in a fog, he's losing control over the Gods, which is what Dahok, the actual villain here, wants. If Dahok creates an effective power vacuum then his puppet Athena can move in, then once she has outlived her usefulness, she'll be killed and Dahok will take over entirely. Been there, done that, not impressed!" Hercules glared at the rest of that bathrooms occupants. Of all the ludicrous places to discuss the future of this world, Ares' private bathroom ranked high on any list of such places.
"Who's Dahok?" Ares asked?
"The God that killed his Iolaus. Shit, he's here?" Iolaus turned to face the War God, Hercules and his eyes showed his sympathy for the grieving hero.
"Yes, Athena and Poseidon both show his evil mark on them. If he's had four years head start then we're gonna have to work like crazy to catch up." Hercules replied to the image of his dead friend.
"Well you'd better start talking, I think there's a damn sight more than that, that we need to know about this Dahok." Ares, newly recreated God sat back and waited for information. If he was returning to his duties he wanted all the information relevant to his newest threat. This was no longer about just getting his sword back, this was about saving his world, his family, his friends.
Ares and Hercules told them all about their encounters, both separately and together with no omissions. It took until dawn to cover all aspects of dealing with their worlds Dahok. The questions, the demands for clarification, the going over and over each and every detail of their fights. That Athena broke free when Ares had started the orgy on Olympus, the love angle that was his latest theory. Hercules confirmed that, with his recounting of the final battle between him and Dahok for Iolaus' soul. That it was his and Iolaus' love that defeated Dahok and released Iolaus' spirit into the light.
By the time they were finished talking, and every one of the new Gods realised that they were infact not really tired, it was time to take Ares home. It was decided that they would go to Olympus with Ares in the centre of the group. If any one of them saw, or detected, something untoward they would leave again, with Ares never having shown himself to anyone on Olympus.
Ares, God of War, still projecting himself as the God of Love sent his conscious mind ahead of the group. He could sense no one in the assembly hall. It was safe then to take Ares that far.
They transferred. One second they were in Ares' kitchen, the next they were standing in the assembly hall of Ares' familial home. With no one there to witness his home coming, and consequently no one to run away from, Ares stepped out the circle of his friends and looked around that room. For the first time in four years he stood in his family home and would rather have just his family in the warm, friendly kitchen they had all shared for those years of enforced exile.
At the end of the room a door slowly opened and a figure shambled in. Rubbing a weary hand over his face, hiding his own eyes from the group he didn't realise were there, Zeus opened, entered and closed the door.
"Good morning father, long time no see." Ares whispered. He might have well shouted, the effect was dramatic. Zeus looked up and saw their visitor the Love God standing shoulder to shoulder with his son. His Ares. A love God stood there before him with a War God. His son. His Ares.
"HERA!!!!" Zeus bellowed, every God in that room felt the shout ricochet through them physically and mentally as his cry for his wife went out to the rest of Olympus.
As he finished his cry he stepped forwards, stood staring at Ares for a second, then ran to his son and took the shocked and startled God into a tight embrace.
"Oh son, you're real, you're alive! How? How did he find you?" Then as his father held him Ares found out the truth, that as a single tear touched his cheek he became aware that his father actually did love him. His grief was real.
Hera arrived. One second she wasn't there, then she was. Staring at her husband and their son. She ran to them and took both of them in her arms.
"Ares, how, why, where have you been?" She too shed a tear for her returned from the dead son. Her grief touched him and he finally embraced his parents. For the first time in his life he took both parents into his arms and offered them genuine comfort there. If he had learned anything in his four year exile it was how to love, unconditionally.
"I wasn't dead, I was mortal and a prisoner. Until our visiting Ares brought us Ambrosia we were trapped." He tried to step back from his parents but they just wouldn't let him. As he tried to move they held on tighter.
"We?" Zeus asked, looking over Ares' shoulder and seeing the rest of the group which included the visiting Ares and Hercules and his Hercules too. "Hercules? Were you holding Ares prisoner?" Before Hercules could respond Hera moved forward to her husband's bastard son and looked at him. As she approached him he tried to brave it out, but he did tremble, just ever so slightly.
"No, I was not holding him prisoner. I'm ..." He was interrupted by Hera.
"You're different Hercules. There is more than just being a God here." She turned back to look at her beautiful son and saw the look in his eyes as he tried to gauge what his mother wanted with his... "You and Ares. You're more or less married aren't you?" She turned back to Hercules. Watching his every reaction to her observation.
"Yes. How could you tell?" Hercules moved towards her, just so he could be closer to his lover. "Ares?" he held out his arm and begged his lover for his comfort, for his support.
Ares pushed away from his startled father and passed his mother as he went to Hercules, taking him in his arms and kissing him before either of his parents could speak. As she watched her son and he whom her son would wed sharing such a passionate kiss, she wiped her eyes yet again, this time from joy, not sorrow.
"Damn it you two, I am the Goddess of Faithful Marriage after all. And it would be an honour and a privilege to hear your vows, should you ever decide to make them." There, she had welcomed her husband's bastard son into her home, her family. She could forgive Hercules his birth, it wasn't his fault she finally realised. Zeus though, was another thing entirely. Then she laughed at the look of shock on their faces. When they both blushed she turned away from them to look at the rest of their group. Cupid and Strife watched their father and his lover with such warmth in their eyes. The visiting Ares and Hercules were standing off to one side watching their counterparts. They looked rather envious of Ares' welcome, then she recalled, Ares and Hercules' father was dead, no wonder they wished they could go home to his arms. She looked at her boys, her Hercules, her Ares and smiled at both of them. Then she turned back and walked to their visitors, these boys who had delivered her her greatest happiness.
"Oh, I'm sorry. It must be so painful, to see Ares with his father, when yours is dead." She put her arms around each God and hugged into them.
"Hera, I lied. Twice." Ares put her arm from his waist and looked at her. He dropped the image he had worn in her company. "I'm a War God, not a Love God. And my daddy did die, in my heart when I was three, but my 'Father' still lives." He watched as the information was digested by this version of Hera before him. "This is your son, that much is undeniably true."
"Your father tried to kill you too?" She asked. "Your mother took you away from here?" She asked another question before waiting for an answer. "To Egypt?" Her voice showed such hope that she would be wrong.
"Yes, yes and yes. Your son too?"
Hera nodded, unable to speak, she held onto this Ares, able to comfort him where she had always been rejected by her own son.
Zeus looked at his son and saw that he too knew of his crime against his son when he had only been three years old.
"I'm sorry son, truly sorry. I looked for you, for years, but your mother hid you so well. I felt this... like a hand, release my heart when my hand fell to your bed with that dagger in it. I couldn't believe what I had tried to do. I don't know why I really wanted to do it. It was like someone else's thoughts in my head." He looked at his son as the dark God thought about all his father had said.
Before he could speak his twin from that other world moved forward, curious.
"What did it feel like? Show me?" He touched his faux father's face where his tears were still wet. He relived that day with this version of his father. The day that he decided to kill his young son. As the whole day ran at Godly speed through Zeus' mind, a memory so worn, so often withdrawn and lived through, so honestly regretted that he envied this version of himself that his father did regret his actions. Another divergence from his world? Another touch of something, oh, so familiar!
As he broke away from that world's Zeus he was lost in his own thoughts. What had been his own father's motivation for that attack? He stood frozen. Unconnected to any reality, this one or his own.
His Hercules watched him as he failed to cope with what ever he had discovered while linked to that world's Zeus. He looked into Ares' mind, wondering what could have affected his powerful brother to that extent. He was totally unprepared for what he found out.
That Dahok had driven this Zeus to try and take this world's Ares' life.
Could the same possibly be true of their own father?
"Ares?" He whispered, taking his brother in his arms. As he rested his head against his lover's he felt the beginnings of an immense and powerful rage. That Zeus, the so called King of the Gods, would give in to the quiet, weak, whisperings of such a creature as Dahok and try and kill him for no reason! Hercules did not try and stop that rage, in fact he fed that anger and felt its mirror growing in himself.
This time it was personal, really personal. It was bad enough when Iolaus sacrificed himself for his lover, and then he had to fight for Iolaus' soul. This time he knew that Dahok had been plotting for Ares' death for a thousand years or more.
What was it about Ares that Dahok feared so much?
"What's wrong?" That world's Ares finally asked.
"Your death was asked for by Dahok, and your father did his best to give him what he desired!" Ares snarled. Then he turned to his own anchor. "What about our father? What if he wouldn't fight for me either?"
"Then we deal with that when we get the chance. But he failed, just as this Dahok/Zeus combination failed. How many more Ares' have been threatened, or worse, killed by this combination?" Hercules asked. He and his brother both came up with the idea simultaneously. As one they called for a scrying mirror and sent though it enough power to contact the only other Ares they had ever met. The real Ares, God of Love.
"Oh, long time no see boys!" He smiled, flicking his hair and realised there were two sets of Ares and Hercules. "Oh my, twins and twins! To what do I owe this ..pleasure?" The way he said that one word held a world of sexual joy in it.
"We need to talk to you, about your childhood. Were you attacked by Zeus at any time?" The Ares that had met the Love God before asked.
"Why do you ask, it was so long ago and he was ever so sorry!" Ares giggled, obviously remembering something about that time.
"It's important, tell me what happened?" Ares suppressed the urge to shudder, the fact that he seemed always to be the target for Zeus' hatred was getting to him. Why him? What was it about the presence of Ares in a world that drove Dahok to such ends?
"I was three years old when mamma found out Zeus intended to kill me. So she went to our beautiful Queen and Dite kicked seven levels of Tartarus out of him. Then she took me into her household and raised me as her son. While she did that mamma was allowed to punish Zeus any way she chose." Ares laughed, a light, joyous sound, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. "She made him impotent, and he remained that way for a couple of centuries!" Then he dissolved into helpless peels of laughter.
His audience watched him as he so obviously relived those memories. Finally he sobered up and tried valiantly to keep his face straight, but failed miserably.
"They changed my destiny to save me. I was supposed to be a fighter, not a lover, but hey, I'm good at my job, either way. Look do you mind if I get ready while we talk?" He didn't wait for their compliance, he just stripped off his vest and started rubbing oil into his body until it gleamed. "I gotta get ready for the Areodisia, it is my biggest festival of the year and I never like to cheat on the preparations for it." He removed his pants and stood naked before them, totally uncaring if they watched his naked form or not.
"But I will say this much for their change in plans, it didn't do my little Cupie any favours. After he failed to get me and they changed my destiny they had to have someone be what I should have been. If you see what I mean. Cupie was never destined to be a War God, it kinda changed him too much, ya' know?" He rubbed more oil into his legs until each long, muscular limb glowed, and he himself stood erect at all that tactile sensation. "Oh, down boy!" He said, taking himself in hand, despite his audience and began to oh so slowly stroke himself.
"Did you never think about changing roles with him. Once Zeus was no longer able to touch either of you?" Hercules asked, in all his dealings with this God he had to admit he preferred his Ares' to be true to their own destiny, to be War Gods.
"I did, I even said as much to old Dite drawers, but she gave me such a row!" Eyes wide, half gazed and head shaking from side to side, he was the very epitome of a Love God. With a thought he replenished the oils on his hands. This would be the first of so many orgasms he would have that day, he didn't want to start the festival with friction burns just because his visitors insisted on talking. Then the Love God had an idea. At the point of climax he withdrew from that release and sat upright.
"Cupid!?" He called out to his damaged son.
"What do you want now!" A dark snarl preceded the arrival of Cupid, God of War. Then they saw him for the first time. This War God that should never have been. He was tall, muscular, dark haired, and the audience watching his arrival speculated that he would no doubt be green eyed ... but he was wingless. As he moved one set of War Gods didn't recognise him as anything important, but for his parallel world viewers they knew that this God had been duplicated in this guise, if not this form. He was Caesar.
"*Caesar?*" The name echoed between them. It was Ares who came up with the answer. "*He should have been a Love God, he became a War god. Duel natured he had to be two people on our world. And if the War aspect is imposed then that is transitory, ergo a mortal.*"
"*And Ares?*" Hercules asked.
"*Timor?*" Ares suggested, much to Hercules' amusement. A broad grin lit his face, for a second or two.
Cupid wore tight, form fitting black leather that pulled and moved with every flex of his powerful shoulders. As he was standing with his back towards the mirror the audience couldn't see his face but they could clearly hear the snarl it wore in his voice.
"Don't tell me, let me guess, you can't remember how to have sex. It's been five minutes and that's too long for your poor love fucked mind to hold on to the details!" He walked up to the naked, cowering Love God and slapped him. "So, why did you waste my time?" And then he slapped him again.
Ares, God of Love fought hard to not cower right away from his son, he had his idea, the other Ares' kinda agreed with him. It was up to him to put things to rights. He held out his hands and summonsed that which was his, and that which should have been his. Before a very startled Cupid both emblems of Love and War appeared in his hands. For at that moment Cupid ceased to be a War God or indeed even a Love God. He stood mutely before his father who was both.
"Ares! What are you doing? No one God can be both!" A voice screamed from behind Cupid and he spun round to look at the mirror and saw two Ares' and two Hercules' and they were all War Gods. Then his eyes, which were indeed green, fell on the white winged version of himself. And he knew, this was a Love God, his true destiny was before him, all he had to do was choose. If he could.
He turned back and saw that for all his fondness for sex and love, his father was indeed no fool. He too was neither, he just stood there, holding two emblems of power. Slowly, Ares put one down, his own emblem as a Love God and held aloft the sword that should have been his. He opened his mind and soul to the knowledge that he had always held hidden away. And Ares, God of War stood before them.
Ares, God of War and a complete blood innocent. The pain and conflict in his face so very evident, and he was willing to do this for his son. For his part, Cupid picked up the forgotten Love Emblem and it was as if he came alive for the first time. His body shimmered and twisted and he changed shape. His vest ripped forcibly from his body as two wings appeared, for the first time ever, judging by the shocked look on his and Ares' faces.
Not the snowy white wings of Cupid who had only ever been a Love God, not an inky black that might be expected of a War God, but a golden colour. Bright, shining in the light of an Olympian morning.
Cupid looked at the mortal world from this view point and saw things so differently than he ever had before, he looked at his father, the God who had offered him this new life and saw him as he really ought to have been, and as he now was. For the first time in such a very, very long time he saw and thought with a clarity long denied him.
It would be his choice, his pick of duties, his task to alter his father's life and destiny one more time, or not.
Looking at his father he saw the strength with in him for the first time, and the conflict that this change would bring to him. He was unprepared for the life of a War God, like he too was unprepared for the life of a Love God, but together ...
Could they amalgamate the duties, for a while at least? Each be both till they knew what they wanted to do? Cupid knew only too well what little he knew of their powers and duties. He had been so lost in the blood and the death. He turned to fully face the mirror and the audience of Gods there.
"Can we duplicate these emblems and both be both. Share the duties as it were?" He didn't know if these Gods knew anymore than he did, but, they were his only source of help in this, the most important question he had ever been asked. Did he want to be a Love God or a War God?
The Gods watching put their heads together, Zeus and Hera too, Cupid had not seen them there at first. He wondered what Hera was doing there, a music Goddess? Hadn't she refused Zeus after that incident that changed all their futures? Obviously it was in their world only. As he speculated idly about these Gods from other worlds they had finished their quick discussion.
"Yes, the emblems can be duplicated. Only if each God in question fully wishes to share their powers and duties with the other. I take it you want to share your duties and powers with your father and that Ares would wish to share his with you?" Zeus spoke gently. For he, and his fellow Gods had realised that Ares was still standing, rigid, unmoved since he took up the powers of a War God.
As if aware he was being spoken about he turned slowly to face the mirror.
"Man, is this a heavy rush!" He whispered. Then he giggled. "I got a question." He announced at any who would listen and answer him.
"What question, dad?" His son asked, for the first time in his entire life his voice sounded gentle, concerned for another.
"How do you kill someone? I mean, emotionally do it?" Ares looked at his son and shrugged. Cupid just looked back at him, thinking his own thoughts before he finally answered.
"Practice." He replied. Then he asked his own question. "So how do you have sex with so many people you never met before?"
"Lie back and think of Olympus?" His father suggested, waggling his eyebrows for effect and thinking about all that energy he received from the act of sex.
Cupid giggled, he laughed, for the first time in many hundreds of years Cupid just let rip with amusement, he laughed until tears rolled freely down his cheeks.
"Do you want to share these roles?" he finally gasped out, around painfully abused abdominal muscles.
"Okay with me, but I want you to eventually be all that you should have been, okay?" He didn't give his son a deadline, and Cupid noticed.
"Eventually!" He agreed. They both then held both emblems and when the light they created from their powers faded they each held two emblems.
"Now get yourself oiled up baby boy, we got a great party to go to!" Ares put aside both War and Love and was his son's father, getting him ready for his first day of his new job. With an idle flick of the wrist he banished the mirror, but not with out a good bye and a thank you to his counterparts. For their part they just watched their mirror turn into just that, and left them wondering what had happened.
The resident Ares turned to his counterpart.
"Can you imagine that Ares' first battle?" Both War Gods doubled up with laughter.
"I can just see it, Cupid standing there, livid, saying 'Dad, they're supposed ta' fight, not fuck!' damn, but that's so funny!" Ares replied.
***
As he walked the corridors of Olympus Zeus touched nothing, looked at nothing, thought of only one thing, one being, one of his two missing son's. He thought about his dark and dangerous son, his Ares. Thought about what life would have been like if he had never done it, had never given in to that voice. Those twisted, evil, insidious whisperings. From the moment Ares had been born and declared to the Pantheon, that whisper had been with him. His constant companion. Telling him, instructing him in how to kill his son.
Everywhere Zeus walked, Hera followed him. Her own guilt over their son keeping her there, echoing his steps, his thoughts, his grief. This was her husband, she had avowed her fidelity to him, as he had to her. Not that it was a vow that ever kept and held the King of the Gods, yet it did her. She remembered the day their marriage had ended. That omnipresent voice that had followed her. From the moment Ares had taken his first breath free of her body. Telling her to get her son away from there. Take him far away. Leave him, abandon him, desert him, lose him, banish him.
Save him.
All those pleading, nagging words over and over and finally she had given in and had taken him to Egypt, and left him there to that myriad of unknown horrors he had had to face. To her eternal shame she still didn't know, she would not, no, she could not go to the Hall of Time and watch her baby live through whatever it was that had robbed the light from his soul. Whatever it was she herself had abandoned him to.
Finally she noticed that Zeus' random ramblings had brought them to the very room she had for so long avoided. True to his habit of long centuries, Zeus took out his least favourite memories and replayed them yet again. Finally showing Hera what they had done to their Ares, between them.
"You should step in all the way. You carry as much guilt about this as I do!" He turned to his invisible wife and sighed, deeply. "Did you think you could hide from me? Like this?"
Hera took solid form and found herself unable to look away as her child begged to die. She watched as he was sold on the open market. She finally knew each and every horror he had lived through. She finally knew that the last act that had destroyed his willingness to grant her the benefit of doubt had been her own rejection of him when he had asked to know her!
At that point Ares, God of Olympus was reborn as Ares, God of War. If she had only opened her arms and welcomed him home, he could have been anything! And she had shut that chance away from him forever, just as surely as she had shut the gates of her temple to him.
If Zeus had never tried to kill him, then she would never have taken him away, if he had grown up on Olympus ... What would his life have been?
"We failed him. More assuredly than we ever failed any other being in all this world's history. Of all the people to betray, we had to betray our son!" Zeus' voice was, as always when visiting these memories, tight with shame, guilt, grief ... tears he should have shed for his son when he first thought about killing him.
"Did he never know any comfort? Any security?" Hera asked, her voice barely audible.
"I wish I could say yes. Wish more than you might imagine that I could show you a nice memory from his life." Zeus turned to her again, having found it almost impossible to look away from that horror for too long.
"What do you mean from his life? Surely, Aphrodite .."
"Least of all her!" Those memories played out too. The Goddess of Love coldly choosing the father of her children, to make them beautiful, to make them strong, powerful. To keep that beauty for herself. Nothing about love, just a clever Goddess knowing how to lie to the God she had selected. To make him feel he was wanted, to make him love her.
"And so desperate for love he believed her?" She asked.
"Look at his eyes, Hera, look at them! He knows he's being lied to. He just doesn't care. That is our legacy to him, he doesn't know he needs love, can't see himself as being worthy of love. Hate is his tool of trade, his shelter from hurt, the coin he trades in - the only coin he knows. That was our gift to him!"
"What can we do? How can we help him?" Hera asked, her voice trembling with her rage at that reflection of her 'mother love' and the poisonous effects it had had on her youngest son. As her voice faded on its final echo around that Hall, so too did their desire to break the growing silence.
They stood there, in silence, each thinking about their own guilt, their reasons for their actions. Voices filled the Hall of Time, whispering poison, whispering advice. Entreating death, life, lies, hurts. Voices both God and Goddess felt they should know. Voices from outside, voices from other Gods, other worlds, other times and places.
Voices from other wars!
When realisation finally dawned in their hearts, they both knew who had manipulated them. Yet, neither could see why the knowledge had been hidden. Nor what Dahok or the light had hoped to gain from the destruction of their son!
"Does Ares know who, what he's up against? That Dahok continues to plot against him?" Hera asked, huddling into her husband's side for warmth in that suddenly cold world.
"I don't know but he will, we will tell him, show him." Zeus condensed their discoveries into a small cube of darker than black time and space and lifted it effortlessly in his hand. "We shall go to him. No more waiting for him to come to us!" Determination radiated from the King of the Gods. "I want that fucker tracked to his real lair, and I want to destroy the bastard myself!"
For her part, Hera did not doubt him. It had been a long, long time since Zeus' anger had been raised in defence of their son. She did not know where this would lead but swore to ride out this particular storm to the very end. No matter what!
Breakfast in the other world saw two Ares, Gods of War and two Hercules, War Gods, sitting with what remained of that world's Pantheon. Questions bombarded them from all sides. Where had Ares been? How trapped? Was he sure leaving would have killed him? What was Dahok? Where did he come from?
As the resident Ares was getting ready to kill several of his relatives, he was saved from such drastic action by a spatial vortex opening. The Gods backed off, all except the visiting Ares and his lover Hercules. They stood their ground, shoulder to shoulder, wondering who was coming through and from where?
The sight of their father and Ares' mother stepping out that vortex shocked both Gods. Neither was able to move from their position separating their hosts from their uninvited guests. Knowing that this was his real parents Ares found his voice first.
"What do you want here?" He snarled.
"To talk to you son, to give you the explanations we should have given you a long time ago, if we had had the wit to find them out then." Zeus held out his hand and Ares recognised a data cube from the Hall of Time.
"What do you want me to do with that?" Ares demanded, pointing at the cube that sat in Zeus' outstretched hand.
"Watch it. Please!" Zeus pleaded.
"What is it?" Hercules asked, placing a possessive arm around Ares as he leaned over, examining the object their father held out to them.
"It's a data cube Hercules. It records images from the Hall of Time. It shows why we did as we did all those years ago. Why all those hurts and betrayals happened. Who and what drove each of us to fear and mistrust the other. The lies, the twisted power Dahok and.." Hera didn't finish her plea as Ares snatched the cube and ran from the room, followed by a fearful Hercules and then by that world's Ares, Hercules, Zeus and Hera. Not to be left behind Zeus and Hera tried to follow, only to be stopped by that world's Cupid and Strife.
"Where do you think you're going?" Cupid challenged the newly arrived deities.
"It's our history, our sons, our shame." Hera whispered. The Love God before her had to agree and stepped aside, leading them to the Hall of Time by the shortest route available. They arrived just as the others went in.
With so many people crowded into such a tiny space there wasn't much room to move around, so every God and Goddess there stood isolated in their own little area of space and watched the data the visiting Zeus had brought to the visiting Ares.
The voices constantly whispering, the drip, drip, dripping of those suggestions that no father should ever hold in his heart. They all saw as that cancer slowly spread until it possessed all of Zeus' waking thoughts and sleeping dreams.
They heard the continuous pleading to steal Ares away from his home, his father, those that would stand by and watch that same father kill his son. Watched as Hera, never a popular member of the Pantheon, became more and more isolated, until the only solace she had was the quiet, omnipresent voice urging her to run, run, run as far and as fast as she could! Run with her son if she were to save his life.
Dahok and the light. The light and Dahok. It all revolved around and around in the host Zeus' mind. Something was so painfully familiar, and not just that voice. He too remembered it from his son's childhood. Those beautiful three years that he had relived ever since he was told his son was dead and lost to them. Something about Ares. Something about his gloriously sweet voice that he had heard over and over ....
"Oh my." He whispered. "Everyone, other than our visiting Zeus and Hera and of course you my dear, out!" He held onto his wife's hand and waited until the room emptied.
"What is it?" His visiting self asked.
Outside two Ares' strained to hear around the room's shields and with both of them working together those excluded from that private audience heard as if they were present still, sharing the images of horror with both sets of Godly rulers.
Zeus, the host, looked at Zeus, the visitor, and took a deep and steadying breath, it only just worked.
"I know who Dahok is!" He felt the intrusion of those rascals, Ares and Ares, and added more layers to the shields. This was one confession he had to share with only those present before the children could be told.
"Who, for our sons sakes, who?" Zeus begged.
"What did Ares call you when he was learning to talk?" Zeus asked.
Zeus and Zeus looked at each other. The visiting Hera spoke for her husband.
"Daddy King." She replied.
"Yes, that was what he meant, but how did he say it?" Her host asked.
"Da-ak .... " She froze. "Oh sweet Gaia......." She realised, they all realised. Dahok, Dahak, Da-ak was once a God called Zeus, a God who had once upon a time had a son called Ares. One he would normally have called his little Lightening Bolt. A son he had killed! "Oh little Lightning Bolt, what did he do to you?" She whispered.
Knowing the light, knowing the dark.
She wept.
Both Hera's wept as both Zeus' realised that any end to the ravages of that Dahok would have to come from them. This was neither Ares' battle, this was their battle. One they should have fought all those years ago. This time they couldn't let their sons down, for there would never be another chance to get things right.
The shields went down and two weeping Goddess' were lead out of that Hall, passed their two betrayed sons. Not one of the four spoke. As they exited into Olympus' main area the others watched them go and slipped into that room, replaying what had just happened.
Only to find those moments were not there. Zeus had taken them outside time, and so outside the reach of the Hall of Time. The only clue a frozen in time image of a two year old Ares reaching up towards his laughing father. Both had their mouths open, as if caught mid speech.
Slowly they followed their parents, hoping to discover what had gone on in that room out of time!
The newly restored War God, Ares, led the way to his father's study, set in a different location from the visiting Zeus' study. Luck was with them, they found their quarry first try. As they entered the quiet study, each Ares looked at both Zeus' and were, for the first time, unable to spot which was their father, which was the other's. Such an air of despondency hung over both sets of parents.
"What exactly are you all doing here?" the resident Ares asked. His visiting twin moved over to stand with his matching Hercules; separating them from the group of resident Gods, as if trying to make things easier for their hosts and their friends.
"I kinda' second that question. Mothers, Fathers, if you would be so kind as to tell us what in Tartarus is going on here? Why did you have to come here? Why couldn't you just leave me, us, either of us, alone for once?" The visiting God of War asked, now easily recognising his own parents - he could see it in their eyes - which set were his twisted parents and which were his twin's remorseful parents.
As soon as the visiting Ares knew which set of parents were his, so too, did his lover, Hercules. Their link showed him what to look for as distinguishing features. Then the link showed him the resident Zeus and Hera as genuinely eager to make peace with their son, even if he would never love them. That was something they simply would not expect.
"We figured it all out son. Dahok, the light, what we did to you as a child, and later.." Their father, for it was their father, not the resident Zeus that spoke to the displaced Ares and Hercules, somehow, he too, recognised his own sons. It was almost as if they were tied together with an unbreakable cord made of hate and lies and pain, all braided together until it formed a veritable Gordian knot between them.
"What you did to him!" It was the displaced Hercules that was the first to react to that
calm confession from Zeus. His hate bubbled inside his heart, memories from Ares' own mind fed his rage. Fed his desire to avenge his brother against their father, ready to fight their father for him. "Your son was taken to Egypt, sold as a slave. Forced, against his will to ... to ... to perform unspeakable acts. To be raped, to be abused to be .." Ares stopped him. With a gentle hand to his lover's arm, Ares halted Hercules' ranting.As his lover touched him, Hercules became still.
"Herc. Enough, just stop it right there, ok?" Ares slowly removed his hand and stepped slightly away from the still blazingly angry Hercules. Letting him rage internally, but holding him back from attacking their father. Not for Zeus' sake, but because he knew, with such a sharp certainty, that his Hercules would bitterly regret any action he took while angry.
"Our two worlds were even closer than we realised!" The host Ares pointed out, which fed the rage his own beloved Hercules was experiencing.
"You mean that... that ... shit... happened to you too?" The resident Hercules demanded of his Ares, and of the visiting Ares that he understood just what their counterparts were saying.
"Yes, but .." The resident Ares was cut off by a loud bellow of rage coming from his Hercules as the truth of Ares' childhood was revealed to him.
"What but!?" His Hercules demanded. "There is no but, only yes and no! Did our father abandon you in Egypt?"
"No," The host Ares said quietly, hoping to diffuse the situation, but his mother seemed driven to see even that plan fail.
"His ... no, 'your' father didn't abandon him. I did," she announced. "What his father did was try and kill him ... that's why I took him away. The voice of the light told me to run away. There was a limit to the places I could run!" She confessed. She was saddened to know that the same fate had befallen her counterpart and the counterpart of her Ares too.
The visiting Hera slowly nodded her head, in a sad, mute agreement with her hostess.
"This just goes on getting better and better! So you know all about your Ares' horror ridden childhood?" The resident Hercules asked his visiting counterpart.
"Yes, we're linked soul deep. What Ares knows, I know and so on." The visiting Hercules looked at his lover, even through the smile Ares gave him, he could see his brother was getting angrier than ever, and could see too, that it was not the past that was angering him, it was the present! "What's wrong Ares?" he asked as gently as he could, wanting more than anything else to soothe the hurts his brother had lived through - not wishing to add to them.
"Could I say something before all you and your twins here destroy this world between you? HUH?!" The visiting Ares flicked his head forward slightly to emphasise just how angry he was. As each God in that room looked at the visiting God of War, Ares got into his full stride, anger radiating from him like a powerful light.
"What is it son?" The newly arrived Zeus asked, trying to build a bridge between him and his displaced son.
"And you, just cut all this 'son' crap. I don't believe it, or you, okay? Never have, never will." The displaced Ares looked at both his parents. As he stood in the middle of the room, he was joined by his counterpart and they stood, shoulder to shoulder against the joined forces of both their lovers and families. "Okay, I admit that as a child I was raped, more than once. Okay?"
"Same for me!" his host twin agreed.
"So far, the two worlds are the same. I was sold and worked as a construction slave for the building of a couple of temples for the idiot Egyptian Pharaohs. Still okay thus far?" He looked at his twin, the host Ares, not the others in the room. He knew his harsh tone was hurting his Hercules, but he had worked it all out - knew what needed to be said, finally knew what worth lay in his past. It was his realisation and his revelation to make. Somehow he simply knew the resident Ares wouldn't stand in his way as he made his understanding known.
"Same here." his counterpart agreed again. He felt that the visiting Ares had an idea of the direction they had to go in. It was his first day back as a God and he had no desire to face such a hurdle himself. Unsure of what his visiting self would say, but willing to make a very educated guess as to what truths would be revealed. Could he trust himself like this? He realised too, if he could trust his Hercules with his heart, then he could surely trust himself with his soul! He nodded for the visiting Ares to continue.
"When I tried to get out of that shit, when I realised I was a God, I tried to talk to Hera." The visiting Ares looked to his twin, as the host Ares nodded, he continued. "Mother dearest rejected me out of hand." Another nod "I, of course, returned with an army and made her look at me!"
"Me too."
"I was about twenty if I remember correctly!" The visiting Ares thought for a moment, then looked at his host twin for confirmation.
"More than twenty, less than twenty five!" He shrugged, unable to put a definite figure on it, himself.
"About that, yeah, so at no more than twenty five, I ascended to Olympus as God of War. We ascended to our respective Olympus' as Gods of War, okay so far?" The visiting Ares growled.
A mute round of heads nodded, one after the other, all silent, waiting to discover where the visiting Ares was leading them. Where ever it was the resident Ares was agreeing with that visiting God every step of the way.
"And ever since then both Zeus and Hera have tried to blow hot and cold, but that doesn't matter. None of it matters, I don't let any of it matter!" The visiting Ares shouted, looking at every pair of eyes in that room. "And do you want to know why it doesn't matter?" he quizzed, still with his voice raised.
More mute nods, as the Gods present waited, knowing they would understand
something about both Ares by the end of this that they had never understood before, perhaps something no one had known, or understood."Well, all those rapes happened to me, to us, in excess of fourteen hundred years ago. I got over it. It didn't take a week, a month, a year even. I had no one to help me with it, no one who would share the load. Were those rapes my fault? Could I have prevented them? If I had been allowed to be a proper God, would I have been safe from them? All these questions swimming round and round in my head until they all fit into place." Such a beautiful smile broke up the visiting Ares' face. He indulged himself with a moments very private thought before continuing, and a look of absolute realisation flooded the host War God's face.
Finally he too knew, knew why, and it was so beautiful, so simple. He stepped back and let his visiting twin continue.
"See, one day I woke up, and knew those memories, those questions, they would never bother me again. It took me more than fourteen hundred years, but, I now know that they will never bother me again!" He looked at his Hercules, the hero who had had been willing to fight their father for him. "I realised that if all those attacks had never happened, had I grown up as a happy, loved God, I would be him, Ares, God of Love and my eldest son would be insane." Again, the visiting Ares paused and looked directly at the host world's Cupid, wishing that his son was there too.
"He would never have survived if he had been forced to face the horrors that I had survived, because that was my fate. I could never control human rage, anger, war, any of those dark, horrifying emotions if I didn't understand them. I was born knowing this shit! But I had to fit it into my own life, my own experience. If not, the next opportunity for the world to have a God of War would have been Cupid and he is just not suitable. He was born, knowing, understanding Love and sexual passions, twisting him to fit into MY job is just not an option, okay?" He looked at them all once more, slowly, starting with that world's Cupid and working his way back round in the opposite direction from before.
As the visiting Ares looked at him, Cupid glanced briefly back at him, but then looked long and hard at his own father. He could see his sire's whole hearted agreement with every word that their visitor was saying. His father also accepted his fate, just to save him. Much as he had always loved Ares, now he felt as if he were finally understanding him too.
While his Ares looked around, the visiting Hercules could feel the sincerity flowing through their link. Ares was telling the truth, he had accepted his role, his lot,
his life. In fact his Ares had finally accepted it all that very morning, just because he himself would have fought for him. Hercules was amazed that no one, in all of Ares' long life, had ever loved him, had ever shown that volatile God that he was as worthy of love as any other being. Shaking his head at the stupidity of the world, Hercules let all his love for Ares show in his eyes, his face, his body as well as their link. All of him dedicated to his beautiful brother, his lover.Finally, the visiting Ares looked at his lover. They let their love flow through the link and Ares opened his arms to his lover. Hercules did not hesitate. He moved into
those protective arms and kissed Ares to within an inch of their respective lives!Their embrace was ended by the sound of Joxer's alarmed cry from directly behind them. As they turned they saw the dark, ominous glow as two Gods began to form. Once the portal was opened Athena and Poseidon stepped through and ended face to face with two Ares and two Hercules, all War Gods.
"Guess you were lying then, a Love God indeed!" Athena looked past them all, not meeting the eyes of any of those four War Gods
"Me, lie?" Ares, the resident Ares, whispered, then transformed himself into the image of the Love God he had seen earlier. "I am all passion, all emotion, all feeling, and if that isn't a good thumbnail description of Love then what is?" He smiled, titling his head forwards and to one side as he grinned. "After all, Love conquers all!" And Ares giggled.
"I do do that!" Ares, the visiting Ares, also transformed. "The bit with the head tilting!" He titled his head and grinned, the very epitome of a naughty boy, caught doing things he had been told not to.
"Cupie does that too!" Strife pointed to his lover and squealed in delight as Cupid looked at him from beneath his glowering eyebrows. The smirk just wouldn't leave the Love God's face long enough for him to really appear cross.
The visiting Hercules caught the flash of inspiration as it crossed his lover's mind, beating Athena and Poseidon by simply surrounding them with love, or rather, Love Gods.
"I can do the Love God bit too!" Hercules transformed himself into a Love God version, complete with white leathers. He looked at his lover and remembered the kiss that had been interrupted. The heat they generated between them. The desire that fired his soul for his brother.
Ares could not help but respond to that fire in their link. He almost orgasmed on the spot. Taking huge, ragged, deep breaths he turned to fully face Hercules.
"Oh, lover, again!" He bent his knees slightly, beseeching Hercules to fire him with that passion again. Straightening up, he advanced on his lover, looking all the while at him.
"Ooh baby, get him!" The resident Ares pushed his energy towards his visiting counterpart, and didn't bother trying to aim around the two angry Deities in the centre of the loose circle of Gods. Athena and Poseidon convulsed as the wave of love hit them.
Finally the others present caught on. They began to push out feelings of love and joy at the visiting Ares and his lover. Even the visiting Zeus and Hera found themselves giving up much more than a thousand years of love for their son.
As the focus for all that emotion the God of War felt more powerful than he had ever felt before. Energy crackled from his finger tips and he glowed, so bright it hurt to look straight at him.
"What a feeling, what a rush!" Ares, laughed, he looked at Hercules and halved the power between him and his lover, opening his mind to him at the same time.
They faced each other, lifted their hands to touch each other and the power crackled faster, stronger, gaining so much more energy before they turned as one being and released all that love in one go, directly at Athena and Poseidon. Taking one God each, they focus all that love directly into their souls.
The hate twisted within them, trying to hide from the blinding light and strength of that love energy. As they recoiled in pain and fear the visiting Gods did not let up their relentless pursuit of them and that alien hate. They chased it to the very core of their beings. Doing battle on the field of their hearts, they met and vanquished that enemy.
A cold, black light surrounded the two fallen Gods as they lay crumpled under the onslaught from Ares and Hercules. Even at that point the visiting Gods did not give up, they did not pull back the power they were feeding into the empty vessels that were Dahok's puppets. Knowing what they were seeing, the other Gods present kept feeding them the power so they could keep up the pressure on the two Gods they were focusing on.
The newly created Gods were beginning to fail in their strength, and sought out each other physically, contact with their lovers seemed to release a reserve of energy, of emotion that they didn't think they possessed.
As Dahok took form, Zeus and Zeus took up positions at cardinal points with each other and their wives. All the pain and hurt this being had caused, how ever many Zeus', Hera's or Ares', would stop now!
Athena and Poseidon were flat out on the floor, crying, curled up on themselves. While they lay there they were unaware of being dragged away from the light that was slowly coalescing into Dahok. An image the visiting Ares and Hercules recognised right away.
"Vraxis!" They cried out with one voice, naming the God before them.
"What was he offered? Or did you just take that poor mortal's life too?" The visiting Zeus asked, then he too placed that face. "Him, you created that fool of a God just to die for your evil schemes?"
"Who is this 'Vraxis' that your boys speak of?" The host Zeus asked.
"A dead God, he challenged my son Ares, after chasing my son Hercules. My boys defeated him and in his stupidity he chose suicide rather than retreat. As if he had any chance against my boys, but, when he died he took Ares' temple with him, sending Ares and Hercules here. The rest, as the saying goes, is history."
"This beast would have killed my child? Our children?" The visiting Hera demanded clarification of her husband.
"Yes, he did." Zeus told her simply, and honestly.
"Then I know what he needs!" She informed the group, looking around at the other Gods present, Hera's eyes finally fell on Gabrielle. "Child, come here." She asked, more than demanded. Gabrielle approached her.
"Yes, Lady Hera?"
"Take my place, as a wife and mother, in this link, I'm going to have words with that, that, miscreant!" She gave up her post to Gabrielle.
"A wife, yes, but a mother?" The Bardic Goddess asked.
"Well, yes, as of a day or two ago. Don't worry, you and they are safe enough. Just don't let Dahok move!" Hera saw the delighted shock in the new Goddess' eyes and felt that thrill of new life echoing in her own soul, looking over to her counter part she saw the reflection of that joy there too.
The resident Hera looked at those remaining and spied Strife, and saw her opportunity to assist her counterpart.
"Strife, my sweet, help me here." She smiled at her grandson as he approached her.
"How can Strife help?" The visiting Hera asked her host self.
"He too has known the joys of motherhood, he and Cupid gave me a wonderful great-granddaughter, she is as named, a 'Joy'!" Hera gave up her post to her grandson and joined her 'sister' in confronting Dahok.
"Now, what was it you wanted to say to him?" Hera asked her visiting counterpart once she had joined her in the middle of the link, facing Dahok.
"I think he should be sent home, if not actually killed. After all he is far too dangerous to be allowed free roam throughout all our worlds and those we do not yet know about." She met her 'sister' and they stood shoulder to shoulder and reached out to touch the entity that was Vraxis/Dahok.
"Zeus, show yourself!" They both commanded.
"You know?" The voice and image flickered and Vraxis faded to be replaced by a face they both knew, only too well.
"Why Zeus? Why Ares?" The resident Hera asked.
"Why your son, why ours?" The visiting Hera asked.
"Leave me alone!" The insane Zeus screamed and struggled against the bonds of family that held him still.
"No!" the visiting Hera screamed back at him. " I had to watch all the hurt, use, and abuse my child had to suffer, and couldn't lift a finger to help him. All because you did what to your son?"
"I have spent the last four years thinking my son was dead, and lost to me for ever! Why? Because you did what to your son?" The resident Hera screamed at him.
"Why should I tell you?" The third version of Zeus replied. He smiled, slowly, thinking that he could wait them out, they couldn't hold him captive for ever.
"Because we will find out one way or another, don't think we won't. Hades has no tortures worse than a mother could devise to avenge her children. And we will be avenged!" The resident Hera drew her counterpart away from the Primal Zeus.
Once far enough away from their prey they conversed so quietly that no one heard them, once satisfied the recrossed to their target, never letting his face drop from their sights.
Touching the Primal Zeus, the visiting Hera projected the images she was drawing from him into the air for all to see.
The slow ascension, as Zeus climbed that painfully familiar staircase, the casual walk down the long, long hall way, the slow reaching out for the door handle. Quietly, they saw him cross into his son's room, walk up to that bed and lift the knife. He paused for a final look at that blade as it dripped its poison onto his sleeping child. The little boy, asleep with his beloved cuddle toy, rolled over towards his daddy, as if he knew, even in his sleep, that daddy was there.
Then the blade fell and that poison filled the child's body.
"Mamma!" The three year old Ares cried out. His pain and fear so obvious to those listening and watching the story unfold.
As Ares died, his soul was collected from his body by Hades himself.
"Brother, what have you done?" He lifted the lifeless corpse as well as the light that was his nephew's soul. "Let me take him, I can save him yet!" Hades prepared to take the body from that room.
Finally Hera arrived, frantic, bereft, she had lost touch with one of her children, arriving in that room she saw her brother with her dead son and her husband raising his hand to Hades.
"Wha.." Before she could ask what was going on Zeus incinerated both the body of their son, and the precious globe that held his soul. It vanished in a bright burst of white light.
"Zeus killed Ares!" Hades told his sister, and lead her from the room. "We need to call a conclave of the Gods. They have to be told about this." As they left the room the white light refilled the room before it faded again.
"I know you are still alive, you little shit, I'll find you and kill you!" Tracing the light, as best he could in his insane state, that Zeus found many, many worlds all with a Zeus and an Ares.
His crusade had begun.
Reaching forward, the host Hera took the chain that she knew would hang around this Zeus' neck, as it hung around every Zeus' neck. She took his emblem of power and threw it far away from him. For the first time in eternity, Zeus was a mortal. A mortal in the land of the Gods, he could cause no trouble, indeed, he could not escape from them.
"Lock him up!" She whispered, turning not to her husband or her son, but to her counterpart. Reliving their own memories of that day, and its consequences.
Together, they wept.
In the back ground they heard the shout of delight as Draco finally managed to touch his wife and rejoice in the news of her pregnancy. That joy in a new life, in new lives, did much to soothe their ravaged nerves.
Later, once the Primal Zeus was safely locked away, a mortal, a prisoner in the Olympian dungeons, the host Ares and Hercules were conferring with their visiting counterparts.
"So, do they kill him or what? I'd bet good money on their killing him, knowing them. Act first, think later!" The Host Ares was lying on the visiting Ares' bed, hands clasped behind his head, ankles crossed, the very image of a relaxed deity.
"I don't think killing him will solve the real trouble. That Primal world, it never had a War God, or if it did, it never had an Ares. Me an' Herc know full well what a world with no Ares, God of War was like, I shudder to think what a world without an Ares at all would be like!" The visiting Ares stood before his own lover and shared the picture his imagination was conjuring up for him.
Hercules took his lover in his arms and held him loosely, enjoying the feel of his brother's skin under his hands.
"I get the distinct feeling you have a suggestion though." He observed, his words were rewarded with a brief hug.
"Yes, and I also know full well you won't like it." Ares smiled, drawing the suspicious attention of two Hercules and the indulgent smile of the resident Ares.
"I think I see where you might be going with this." The resident Ares swung himself off the bed and stood up, crossing the room until he stood face to face with his own lover, over the top of the visiting pair's hug.
"If he's going where I think he's going, he's going alone. I don't want you to go with him!" The resident Hercules said.
"Me either!" His counterpart agreed.
"So where do you think I'm going?" The visiting Ares asked, the smile not fading, but intensifying.
"That Primal world, to try and sort out their problems?" His own Hercules told him.
"Well, no, not really, but I think getting whomever survives, if anyone, to come here and witness their Zeus' failure and mortality, whether he's killed or not, he'll not live long as a mortal, too many of them will want to see him dead!" He took a breath, let go of Hercules and started to pace around the room. "No, this is what I really thought you'd flip at, I think the only way to finally destroy that Zeus is to forgive our own fathers. Make our peace with our fathers and mothers and do it in front of him. But, we are going to have to believe it ourselves, before he will. That was what I thou.." His lover interrupted him.
"What!" He screamed. "After only just learning what he's made you suffer all these centuries, you want me to kiss and make up? Say, there, there, there, it doesn't matter? Are you insane?"
"No, he's not, you should know that, what, with your link. I have to agree with him though. He said forgive, he didn't say forget." The resident Ares looked from one visitor to the other as they silently communicated with each other.
"Neat trick, wish we could do that!" His own Hercules pointed out as he too watched their guests. "But, I'm with other Herc on this one too. No way am I going to forgive and no way would I ever forget!"
The visiting Ares turned away from the desperate look in his lover's eyes and turned to face their hosts, making eye contact with them, one after the other.
"Think about it. All our troubles with Zeus, and therefore with Hera, stem from that Primal Zeus killing his Ares as a child. If not for them, we would have had a substantially different life, and you all saw what that life cost the other Cupid? That too was as a direct result of his interference in that world. How many others has he damaged? Somewhere there is a world, at least one, in which he never appeared to that places Zeus. And we were raised as possibly a Love God, or just as likely a War God with no real control over the passions we were dealing with. Either way, it'll be darker than level nine in Tartarus. We have a lot to thank that Primal sick bastard for. Our son's well being for one, our understanding of our powers for another." He looked at each of the three Gods in that room with him.
Slowly, each set of angry eyes fell as they realised that he was right. If not for that Primal Zeus, slipping the cogs of sanity, then they would not be the Gods they were, not be the lovers they were, might not even be alive, possibly!
"You want to forgive Primal nutcase or just your own nutcase of a father?" The resident Hercules asked.
Looking at him, the visiting Ares wondered at the basic differences between them all, his world, his Hercules, this world and this world's Hercules. This one was a tad less caring of the rest of the world than his was. Those four years watching his brother dying by inches before him, unable to help him, no doubt.
"I think both actually. It's like you two, me an' Herc. Out there is a world where they've possibly faced and defeated Dahok, never knowing who he is, never getting together either. Where we're always at loggerheads, and Hercules always get the support of their father. Out there, there are all the worlds you can imagine, each one a reaction to the others. All different, yet, all basically the same. And for that diversification, we gotta thank Primal old goat, he made them all, each and every blessed one of us!" Visiting Ares paused for thought, wondering how to persuade his companions that he knew what he was doing, and that he wasn't insane.
"You fought your Dahok, separately, we didn't even know who to fight! You two never got it together until you came here, we've been together for years. Yeah, I see your point, and for what it's worth, I agree with you!" The resident Ares touched the visiting Ares on the upper arm, when his flesh came into contact with the other Ares' skin, he joined that deep link Ares and Hercules shared. As he gasped, his own lover touched him, lending his support where it was needed, if it was needed, and he too was drawn in to that link.
"Oh shit, we're going to do this, aren't we?" He asked, knowing what his answers were going to be before they were spoken.
"Yes, 'fraid so, has to be done!" The visiting Ares gave the answer from the rest of the link a voice. The other two agreed with him.
"When we going to go make happy then?" Hercules asked the visiting pair, they seemed to be controlling so much of his life of late. But, they had brought an end to his Ares' exile, an end to his slow death, an end to his suffering. He turned and looked at his Ares, his lover, his brother, his life. With out that mad, Primal Zeus he would have nothing, no one, possibly not even his own life. After all, if things had been happier between Hera and Zeus, then the King of the Gods, probably all the Kings of all the Gods, wouldn't have felt compelled to have had affairs. "I love you!" He spoke only to his own lover, yet his feeling encompassed all of them.
"Could we do this later, after we've had a little time to rest and relax?" The counterpart to that Hercules asked. The resident Hercules, though, caught the drift of his counterpart's thoughts and feelings. They reflected his so strongly.
"Yeah, like hours later, Zeus is locked up, he's not going anywhere." He grinned at the visiting Ares, then leered at him and his Hercules, before turning his desires on his own lover.
"Fine, after lunch then?" His Ares asked the visiting one, who was finally recovering from the mental images assailing his mind. He was the least familiar with being loved, being desired he understood, but actually being loved was still so new to him. The resident Ares took pity on the visiting Ares' confusion. He hugged him, very briefly, the feeling of holding himself, intimately, like that making them both shudder and laugh nervously.
"Okay, later, but let's get it done today, the quicker it's done the quicker your world starts to recover!" Not needing to add that it would make their return to their own world happen all the quicker too. He crossed to the door and held it open, even though he know both Gods didn't need to exit that way, it just felt right.
"Till later then." And Ares and Hercules left their guests to their rest and relaxation.
Alone once more, the visiting Ares and Hercules stood there, looking at each other, grinning like maniacs as the link from the other two faded, rapidly, and their own link flared into full life. Hercules held his hand out for Ares to take it and allowed himself to be lead to the bed.
"I want you." He whispered.
"I know!" Ares laughed, softly, in response to the shocked expression Hercules showed at his answer. Ares pushed Hercules down onto the bed and followed him.
"And I want you!" Ares whispered.
The laugh that rumbled free from Hercules' throat would have done Ares proud, had it been him! They looked at each other, then, as one being, they closed in for the first kiss. That in itself triggered a landslide of desire, as they sought to touch, and hold, and caress, as much as they possibly could. Removing their clothing with twin thoughts of need.
"Fuck me, I want you to fuck me!" Hercules groan, raggedly, between animalistic kisses.
"Whatever you want." Ares whispered right back.
With neither the time, nor desire, for finesse, Hercules used his God powers to prepare himself, his need that powerful.
"Now, damn it!"
Ares chuckled, a deep throaty rumble, as he prepared to thrust into his brother's body.
"Fine!" he murmured.
Slowing down his desires, holding back in case he hurt him, Ares entered Hercules' body. As the feelings of being possessed and possessing filed the link they both stopped their brutal approach to their joining and relaxed into a loving experience.
Hercules drew his fingernails down Ares' spine, causing him to arch away, growling his pleasure at the sensation. Dropping his head forward again, Ares drew his teeth across the base of Herc's neck, below his left ear, then did the same on the other side.
"Love me?" Hercules whispered.
"Damn right I do, now shut up and let's fuck!" Ares grinned like a maniac, like a God possessed, and Hercules laughed, causing his body to constrict around its beloved invader.
Ares rocked in and out of his lover's body, slowly, faster, slowly, always changing pace, always keeping them from climaxing. Kissing, touching where he could, even lifting them both free of the bed for long seconds of free floating, until he managed to turn them and land, under Hercules, letting his brother ride him, to set the pace.
The hero rode his brother as if he were some wild, black maned stallion. Images of bare back riding, of the wind caressing his naked flesh, of power beneath him, all his to do as he wished with.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" He began to chant as he climbed finally to the climax he desired, that he needed.
Ares never said a word, he found himself unable to form images or sounds, his mind and soul were locked onto the sight of Hercules as he reached completion. Knowing that it was he who drove his brother to that wild place, driving himself right along with him, brought him to the very brink of his own climax.
As Hercules came, he drew Ares' orgasm with him, as Hercules physically crashed down from those great heights of emotion and sensation, he fell to one side with his brother still holding him. Neither able to speak, neither able to form a coherent image through the link either; so they contented themselves with smiles and slowly stroking, gently touching each other till they fell asleep.
Once awake, they faced their last hurdle before going home. The meeting with all three Zeus', one of whom was most definitely insane. As they waited to go into the audience chamber and face their fathers, neither Hercules could honestly say they were happy at that solution. Neither of Ares could honestly blame them. Yet, it had to be done, it brought a veil of completion around them. Such a sense of closure that neither War God had ever experienced before.
"Ares?" the resident Ares nudged his visiting twin with his elbow as they sat side by side awaiting their cue to enter.
"Yeah? What?" The visitor asked, jolted out of his reverie. He had been thinking of ways to say what he knew had to be said, to his father, to all the Zeus' present in that hall.
"Would you think ill of me if I said I would rather talk to my father after you have spoken to yours, even after you've left. I've been so out of the loop, for so long, that... shit, you ever done the fear focus' the mind speech?"
"Frequently, I take it your mind is so focused, so damn sharp that it's cut itself and has gone for a lie down to recover?" The visiting Ares smiled, a calm, friendly smile, understanding his twin so perfectly.
"And some.." The resident Ares agreed with a laugh.
"Seems perfectly understandable to me. I'm not looking forward to ... well, to baring my soul like this, yet again, myself, but we must. Ok, I'll speak first, but I'm not going until it is all sorted out, deal?" He offered his resident twin his hand.
Ares and Ares shook hands, sealing their pack.
"You may come in and make your petition to the Kings Zeus!" The resident Apollo opened the big door and bid them enter.
Crossing to his own brother, the visiting Ares took his lover's hand and raised it to his lips, gently kissing his fingers.
"Herc?" He queried, as he lowered that kissed hand, slightly.
"Yeah?" A slightly mesmerised hero asked his lover, never looking away from his brother's eyes.
"You do know, don't you, that I can only do this because of you, and what you've given me. And, I only do this for you and our children .. our sons Cupid, Strife, Deimos, Phobus... all our children, okay?" And Ares smiled at Hercules, quite possibly the most peaceful smile he would ever see on his lover's face.
"Fuck!" The hero ran out of well crafted words and finer feelings, falling back, as everyone does, on pure raw emotion. One epithet, and it told Ares so much about just how much Hercules did love him. He followed Ares into that hall, almost blindly.
Ares looked at the assembled Gods, three Zeus', one in chains, three Hera's, one in widow's black, even her hair was black, three Hades', one in the gold robes of the King of the Gods. Two Cupids and two Strifes ... his oldest sons were there, somehow that made everything easier for him. He squeezed his brother's hand and bid him to stand with their sons. The visiting Hercules smiled at their Cupid and Strife as he crossed to stand beside them. Once there, he kissed both Gods on their cheeks, getting an indulgent smile from Cupid and a stunned blush from Strife. Together they turned and listened to what Ares had to say.
"I know what your Zeus has tried to do, in each and every universe he has encountered." He looked at the 'other' visiting Gods. "I also know what he has done in your world." This time he held the eyes of the Primal Hera. "What pain it must cost you to come here, and listen to what we have to say. And, finally, because of so much that has happened, I can finally, and honestly, say that I am sorry to have to put you through this torture." The Primal Hera nodded at his understanding, wiping away the tears that she couldn't help but shed, as she watched this vibrantly alive, mature version of her beloved son.
Ares turned away from her, slowly, letting her regain her composure, get her emotions back under control, instead he turned to his own mother.
"And you, mother, I finally understand so very much about you. Watching what happened to me as a child, couldn't have been easy. When I thought that my Strife was in danger, from my own father, just hours after his return to life... oh, yes, I understand.. what it would have been like, that fear stretching years, not hours." He smiled at her, the first genuine smile he had ever gifted to her. As she raised a hand, as if to capture that smile forever, he turned away, reluctance showing clearly in his body language. He moved on to his sons and his lover.
"Strife, Cupid, I might never say this again, so listen closely now, I love you both, and your brothers and sisters. There, I bet you never knew your father could love, or even understood love. Well, I do! And it's all his fault!" He pointed to Hercules and grinned, looking so obviously in love, and so very innocent. "You both mean a lot to me, and there's something I always wanted to do, but never knew I could, and mean it." He stepped forward, gathering his boys to him, he kissed them both. "Just remember, everything I do, everything I say here, is for you, you mean that much to me."
Finally, he turned to his own father. As Zeus watched his son, taking his own boys in his arms, he longed for just such a chance with him, he doubted it would ever happen.
"And you father, what about you?" He saw the doubt, and the sorrow, in his father's eyes. "When I was three years old, that Zeus, the one we have called the Primal Zeus, talked you into doing something so evil, so life changing. Not just for you. But for me, oh yes, sure, fuck, it changed everything. Didn't it?" Zeus nodded, unable to produce a single sound, let alone beg forgiveness. "And... and, do you know what the upshot of all that scheming and bad drama was?" He nodded his head, as if encouraging his father to speak, but Zeus could still say nothing. "No? I'll tell you. Because you tried to kill me, I ended up, on the streets of a shit ridden Egyptian city, at the mercy of any ass-fucker that came along." He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, trying to squeeze out the visions of that life that swam before him. Finally, he looked once more at his father, and saw his father's silent tears.
"The best thing was this, that you saved my son's sanity, our world, and in failing, my destiny." Ares paused again, and smiled, enjoying the confusion on his father's face. "Yeah, you saved Cupid from having to become the God of War, I've seen what that duty would do to my son, first hand! I fully understand the emotions inherent in mortal life, because I have lived them. All of them!" He stepped forward, closer to Zeus, and Zeus had nowhere to move away to, to escape his son's advance. "You know, I never thought I'd hear myself saying this, ever! I have wasted so much of my life, hating you, for saving me, and worse still, never realising that you saved my life, my world, ultimately, my son's life. Father, thank you. Without you, I would either be a War God that couldn't understand War, which would not be good, or a Love God, who didn't understand love, also, not good. Granted, you didn't want to fail, but because you did, and who knows, maybe you secretly did want to fail. Who knows indeed! But, you did, and life moved on. I was God of War, Cupid was God of Love, where he should be." Ares turned, briefly, and smiled once more to his Cupid.
"How can you thank me for trying to kill you? Kill, my precious child?" Zeus' mind drifted back, as it did so often, to that night. Glad, as always, that he had failed. "I was so happy to have failed, when I realised what I had tried to do... I couldn't understand why I did it. You shouldn't be thanking me, I should be begging you for forgiveness... not that it would ever be possible.." Zeus was left speechless as two arms came around him, two arms he had dreamed of, all his son's long, long life.
"Dad, shut the fuck up, and be forgiven, ok?" Ares laughed. A happy laugh. "Without the shit, I'd not have Hercules and for that, I could never thank you enough. Hey, if you and mother had lived happily ever after.. Herc'd never have been born, now would he?"
"No!" Zeus started to laugh, a release of centuries old tensions dissolved in that first wave of laughter. "Oh, son ... I love you; someday, I hope, maybe you could love me too!"
"Someday, I probably will." Ares would not lie in front of that Primal Zeus.
"No, no, no, no, no, no....." The Primal form of his father raged against his bonds, trying to deny what he saw happening before him. "Kill him, kill him, kill him.." He begged his dopelganger.
"Why?" The visiting Hera asked.
"He will displace you as King!" Zeus pleaded with the other Zeus.
"Of course he will, you idiot, he's my heir, my only legitimate son!" Then Zeus thought for a moment. "Sorry, Hercules.."
"No problem dad, but the first person that suggests I'll be the Queen of the Gods, gets their head to play with, okay?" Hercules shrugged as his audience laughed, somewhat hysterically, grateful for the release.
As the laughter grew, and the childishness of the nature of that laughter also grew, it drew one more attendee to that gathering. Silent, quiet, hiding out of sight, even to the Gods.
"So, are you trying to tell us you will marry Ares?" Hera asked, actually touching Hercules' cheek, stroking his face.
"I would, if he wanted me to." The hero admitted, looking from his lover's mother, to his lover.
"You'd have to call Hera mother, you know that, don't you." Ares pointed out, no longer grinning.
"And we get to call you mother, if we want to!" Cupid pointed out. His brother nudged him in the ribs, and turned to their father and Hercules.
"And you have to tuck us up, in bed, when we're ill. Mom."
"I can do that!" Hercules turned to the Mischief God and pulled his clothing straighter, smoothed out his hair, wiped an imaginary smote from his cheek. Unable to contain himself Strife laughed harder than ever.
"Dad's, ya' gotta love you two, ya' know!" And the resurrected God hugged the hero.
The extra presence in that room drew closer to the gathering. Taking such warmth from those so obviously happy beings.
"So, does this mean a yes or a no? I'm just a poor little War God, I lost the thread here, way back." Ares joined the hug from the other side.
"I thought it was clear, dear, your brother will marry you, you silly boy!" His mother stroked Ares' shoulders.
Everything stopped as the War Gods looked at each other, realising their destinies were now closer linked than ever before.
Unable to see what was going on, the extra being flashed into existence.
"What's happening?" A young, childish voice asked from directly behind the group of Gods. They turned around as one being to face the newcomer. A lot of those present recognised the newcomer before them.
"Ares?" His mother whispered, stepping forward.
"Mama?" The newly arrived God turned to the Goddess he had not seen in millennia, but had never forgotten.
"I killed you!" Primal Zeus screamed.
With out bothering to answer, the God that was the Light to Zeus' Darkness, laughed at him.
"I'm a God!" He finally told his near apoplectic father.
"Look, let's just take Zeus and Ares and go home!" The Primal Hades spoke up.
"Yes, please." Hera begged, kneeling down to her son's side. Her son who had been killed as a three year old child, and had remained a three year old child, hiding in the light from the darkness of his father's madness.
"Okay." The child agreed, holding his arms up to his mother, seeking her comfort and love. And getting it.
"I want to go home too!" The visiting Ares said to his father and mother. "I want to go home now!" He turned to the resident Ares. "Do you have anything to add?"
"Go home Ares, be happy!" And that world took a lurch. Their War Gods were once more in tune with their world, with their reality, all six of them. He grinned at the visiting Ares and Hercules.
"Yeah, come on, Ares, you found this world's Ares, stopped the war, and put the world to rights. You've done all you said you wanted to do before you took us home." Hercules clasped Ares' shoulder, smiling as he titled his head to see his lover better.
"But, Ares, his Zeus.."
"Dad, I forgive you all that shit. Like he said, " Ares pointed to the visiting Ares. "All, of it. Same here okay?"
"Yes, son, I know, took me years, but I finally found out the biggest secret in this world." That world's Zeus replied.
"What's that then?" The resident Ares asked.
"That I love you, son, very much. It almost drove me insane, thinking you were dead, alone in an underworld somewhere, out there, in the world where I couldn't find you." Zeus shrugged, a little embarrassed by his disclosure, yet, a lot happier that he had finally made it.
"Well, I'm here, and I'm back in business, and staying put, okay?"
"Let's see our guests off home, then you can tell us all about the last four years over dinner." Zeus put a friendly arm around his son's shoulders, making the visiting Zeus jealous, and the Primal Zeus angrier.
***
After they had all told the story, of that other world, many, many times, Ares took Hercules to his home temple on Olympus. The God of War was hoping for some privacy, just him and his lover, time to share, to make love, to bathe, to relax and play. On arrival, he found Strife and Bliss running up and down the corridors, screaming, playing a game Ares couldn't even begin to figure out.
"Strife!" He yelled.
"Yeah, Unc.. mean dad!" Strife skidded to a halt, with Bliss crashing into his back, knocking him into his father, who in turn hit into Hercules.
"What are you doing here?" Ares demanded, pulling himself upright and, with reluctance, from Hercules' arms.
"Baby sitting, Cupid's working.. he's got all his weaponry in my old temple. Well, it's only right, seeing as I was dead when he left Psyche and he needed someplace to stash his stuff. So, since I wasn't too busy, I said, I'd watch Bliss for him. So, here he is.." Strife looked up from his nephew's antics to see the dark rage building in his father. An old instinctive fear of angering Ares took over and Strife's mouth ran on on auto pilot.
"I needed someplace to stay.. you weren't here, an' I couldn't stay with Hera an' Zeus.. an' as for Dite, I'm sorry, nice Aunty an' all, but yeuch! All that pink!" Strife shuddered. Ares just stood there, dumbfounded, the image of Strife in Dite's home temple, and all that pink.
He couldn't help it, he began to laugh, he roared with delight, the image of Strife living with Dite, the only Goddess to drive Strife as mad as he drove everyone else.
"I took the east wing.. I'll go there now, with Bliss an' keep outa' your hair, ok?" Strife shuffled off, backwards, propelling his nephew backwards too.
"Welcome home, Hercules. Welcome to the madness that is my life!" Ares turned to his lover.
"You, one of your, our, many children, and hopefully, one of many more grandchildren. Hey, welcome to family life Ares. Isn't it just great?" Hercules pushed Ares ahead of him, towards the west wing, and the rooms he clearly saw through their link. "Will you get a move on? That bed looks like it's begging to be fucked on!"
"You say the sweetest things!" Ares grumbled, good naturedly. In the background they could hear Strife starting up the noisy game with Bliss again.
"My life was so neat, tidy, quite, organised... and lonely, once upon a time" Ares smiled at his lover.
"Stop waxing lyrical and take me to bed before I explode!" The hero demanded.
Ares laughed, in the end, it was the only logical thing to do.
Once Ares and Hercules finally fell into a deep, sexually replete sleep, a third entity joined them on their bed. A freshly washed, neatly mended Oossa sat at the foot of the bed, waiting to tell all his secrets.
If Ares would listen to them.
The End
