A/N: Another old piece resurrected from the dusty corners of my computer. Enjoy!
ACHILLES WITH IRON HEELS
Have you ever wondered what it's like to become suddenly invincible? You're thinking sure, right -- a breastplate so tough that a sword slides harmlessly off it, or a bow so taut that your arrows find their target from leagues away. You think that's invincibility? Try this: forget armour, forget shields. Now every blade that comes near you is made of air and the arrows are mist. A massive sword comes rushing at your neck so fast you can't even scream, then just keeps on going, out the other side. There is no sword, no arrow, nothing that can touch you. You're invincible! Get it? Nothing, nothing can touch you.
That's the catch.
You live a few millennia as a god, you get pretty damn sure of yourself. But always in the back of your mind is a little fear: what if? Just a little tiny fear, mind you, you're not even thinking about it, just going about your business, but it's there all right. There's always the Abyss of Tartarus to remind you to toe the line. And the Fates, they're good for that, too, always spinning their little gold threads. So they're gold instead of the mortals' woolen threads, but hey, gold breaks too. Just ask Pan. Even a god is never invincible, not truly, everyone has their Achilles' heel if you know where to look.
Everyone except me. See, I lost mine.
All the old threats are still around, never fear: Tartarus, mortality, death, yada yada... There's more than one way to skin a god. No doubt there's still a few god-killing daggers left lying about, and if not, well, Grandpa Cronus had more than one rib. A good stab and you're toast; trust me, I've seen it.
The old threats are there, but truth is, I've stopped noticing. A couple of years as a mortal was all it took to get used to the idea of dying, even becoming a god again couldn't change that. No, fear of death hasn't been my weakness for a long time. I had a better weakness. And she was real good with a sword.
I never knew I'd been invincible until she came along, and then it was too late: she'd touched me. Nothing could ever touch me so I fought her, and she fought me, and when we kissed we drew blood. Not each other's, never that. Our own. They say blood runs hottest when love is involved. Maybe it wasn't love -- but there was a damn lot of blood, and I was no longer invincible. After that it was easy. You think it was some big sacrifice, giving up my powers for her, godhood, immortality, war? A sacrifice would've been an eternity with her blood on the marble. A god would've chosen Olympus, but gods are invincible, so I wasn't a god.
Don't believe me? I don't blame you. You mortals are always striving for that little bit of godhood, immortality, invincibility... But what would you do with it if you got it? What good is immortality if there's no one to touch you? There's no thrill in a battle if you're armed in steel against a bunch of snotty villagers; life's a battle, immortality is a war. You need battles, you need a challenge! What's the use of a sword if no one can match you?
She did match me. The only one to do that for me, to me -- she was my match, my thrill of battle, my weakness. I've lived for a thousand years, but I all I remember is her.
I know she's dead.
I know it with every invincible part of me, with skin and heart and ribcage, I remember it every time I make a fireball in my invincible fist and it doesn't burn me. It can't hurt me, I'm unbreakable, I'm stone. Listen to my heartbeat, steady as rock. I can crush you in my fist, I can destroy Olympus, the sky, earth, grass, everything, I can set the world on fire and breathe the ashes... But I can't bring her back.
That's what it means to be invincible.