Fanfiction

Ares

"What do we really leave behind when we go, besides memories in the minds of those we inside the minds of those we encounter?"

Those words circled around his dark head as he stood staring down into the small well of blood that encircled his throne within his temple.

Those where the words she had last said to him, when she was here not so long ago. Her skin had been grey from blood loss, her eyes tired and filled with tears and her body dealing with the stress of her loss. She had been angry when she said them, generally that was how she expressed emotion, but something was not like usual.

She had experienced great loss before, more so than any mortal had a right to but Ares had never seen her as shaken as she had been that night.

Perhaps, this was the moment he had been expecting for years. Perhaps this loss was so great it had finally broken her.

Ares didn't know how he felt about that.

He continued to stare down into constantly churning river of blood.

It amused him vaguely that he didn't even know how this pool refilled, just that when less people died under traits associated with him then it would recede.

He had never seen the bottom.

There was a small anxiety, shared by his siblings and children who worked within the Temple of War, at what would happen if the well ever did dry up. Would it be the end of them and their kind, whatever their kind really were?

Ares hummed low. Xena's words circled in the background of his head, leaving unanswered questions of personal, moral and Divine magnitude.

"What stupid nonsense are you spitting?" Ares shouted back at her, he took a menacing step towards her. where the dead bodies of his priests lay at her feet.

Xena counter stepped, more by instinct than from fear.

Because she didn't fear him, not really anyway. Not like everyone else did, mortal or Divine. Ares assumed this was what drew him to her. Her sheer disregard of societal structures mixed with a stubborn confidence that didn't even shake in the face of her God's.

Some would call it bravery…Other's would curse her as ignorant. But she wasn't that. She seen things and acted anyway. Perhaps that was the definition of stupidity.

Ares didn't know.

"Who cares what you leave behind?" He took another angered step towards her, his fists clenched, and his teeth bared to strike her, but he didn't know if that was the intention if he did reach her.

Xena bared her own teeth, straightening up and springing across the floor to meet him. She ducked under a defensive strike he aimed at her, coming up under his arm and right in front of his face. "You cannot say that, if you die…you leave Legacy. People will remember who you were. You're a God!" She hissed, grabbing him roughly by the neck of his jerkin and walking him backwards.

He let her.

"You cannot possibly understand what it feels like to know everything you ever were will disappear in the blink of an eye. How could you?" She growled, pushing him until the backs of his legs met his throne, forcing him to sit. She stood back, her lips trembling slightly as they were pressed together.

Suddenly, looking at her, Ares felt the fool. "Must you come here and trash my temple, killing my priests, every time you miss your lover?"

Xena's eyes snapped to him, they were filled with anger, hate and…sadness.

"He's dead, Xena. How many times do I have to explain that I can't bring him back? It's not in my – "

"Hades then! Convince him too!"

"I can't! After that shit you pulled in the Underworld, what makes you think he will even judge your soul let alone give you one from his collection?" Ares snapped, the blue energy of his powers moving through his body and sparking at where his hands clenched the skull armrests of his throne.

Xena narrowed her eyes at him and stepped backwards to eye him up. "You lot pretend you are these great beings…these creatures of power that should be worshipped." A tear ran down her face. "But not one good thing that has ever happened to me can be traced back to your kind. Not one…Honestly, you are all more like demons that never grew up."

"Careful…" Ares growled low, she had surpassed blasphemy and was treading dangerous ground.

"Or what? You will kill me, Ares? Like you have ever been good at that before. Not even when it would have been a kindness to do so!"

"Do not test me Xena, you will find that the idea of what you assume I am does not meet the reality!"

Xena laughed. "Oh please, don't get me excited if you can't pay out!"

Ares stood sharply, quickly covering the space between them and grabbing Xena by the throat. She had moved to fight him, but he had easily batted it off. He held her leaning over the pool of blood, watching her face as it grew red. Then she smiled at him…and her game became clear.

Ares released his hold, casting her over the pool to roll on the dark stones at the other side of the temple. "You bitch…" He whispered to himself as he ran the trembling hand that had held her through his hair.

Xena stood up slowly, turning to meet him as she wiped a bit of blood of a scratch below her eye.

"If you want to die so badly, find other means. I won't be part of your suicide plot!" Ares shouted. Something inside him felt like a knife had been plunged in.

Xena wavered a moment staring at him before she turned to leave. Stopping for a moment by the door to say. "Like I said, don't make promises you can't keep."

And then she was gone.

Not completely gone because he could always sense where she was in the world but that didn't subtract from how lonely he felt in the moments after her absence.

This was unnatural that a mortal would have such power over him. Whatever this power even was.

So now he stood, contemplating her words, his feelings, and a much grander question. He had never thought much about his own death before but a combination of Xena and the news that broke on Olympus recently had pushed this to the forefront of his mind.

What would he leave behind when he was gone?

And where do the God's even go when they die, clearly not the underworld?