Prologue

In the ancient legends of the planet Chikyuusei a story is told of a woman who's beauty was surpassed by none.  Her name was Helen, and she was the daughter of the queen of Sparta.  Helen's life was full of adventure, romance, and war.  This was all brought out by the decision of one lowly Shepard, who in reality was a prince of Troy.  Gods and Goddesses took sides in the ten-year war that would determine the future of all, and now it was about to happen again. 

Everyone on Chikyuusei knew the tale of Helen of Troy, but no one believed it anymore.  All that was about to change as an old argument between three of Olympus's Goddesses arose again, and this time things were going to end differently.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Mount Olympus was unusually silent considering Eris, goddess of discord, was present.  In fact, the silence was driving Eris to the brink of insanity, and there was absolutely no one around to stir up trouble with.  That was until the bored goddess spotted the pouting Aphrodite.  "Dearest Aphrodite," the goddess of discord cooed in the sweetest voice she could manage, "what on Olympus is troubling you so?"        

The goddess of love turned to meet the eyes of her lover's twin sister; surely Eris would take pity on her.  "It's Ares…" she pouted poking her lower lip out for emphasis. 

"So, what has my fool of a brother done to you now?" the lesser goddess asked in the most sincere voice she could muster.

"He won't tell me anything about his work with the wars between the mortals," Aphrodite sulked.  "He talks to Athena all the time about it, but he can't so much as tell me which side he's on."

Eris knew that Aphrodite, being the goddess of love, not war, didn't give a damn about the wars between the mortals unless one of her children or someone she was interested in were involved.  The goddess of discord had found the remedy to her boredom.  "Oh, he's spending a great deal of time with Athena, is he?  That really doesn't surprise me…..  She's all he's talked about lately….."

That flustered the goddess of love a great deal.  Why would her lover have anything to say about Athena?  "What has Ares been saying?"

"Well, I don't really listen to it anymore, but I do remember him saying something about her knowing a good deal more about warfare than someone…..  It started with an A, but who was it?  Apollo…..  No, that's not right…..  Artemis maybe….. That can't be it either…..  It mush have been you my dear…..  You're the only other one he talks about."

"Me?  Why would Ares insult me?  No one insults me…..  I'm the fairest goddess…..  You know that; your apple went to me…..  Paris decided that long ago….."

Eris had gotten the foolish goddess to fall right into her hands.  "Yes, Paris did decide that and you created that great big war between the Greeks and the Trojans for Ares to fight, but Athena has taken to bragging about who won that war…"

"Oh she has?  Well…  It isn't my fault that Helen was already married!  She can blame Hera for that!"

"Blame Hera for what?" a female voice asked behind the conversing goddesses.  There were very few people who the voice could belong to considering only gods and goddesses were allowed on Mount Olympus.  The voice obviously belonged to a goddess, and that narrowed down the numbers by quite a few.  Since Persephone was with her husband in the underworld, Demeter was mourning the absence of her daughter's presence, Artemis found herself above talking to the promiscuous goddess since the whole Orion incident, and Athena was still angry about the Apple of Discord it could only be one goddess. 

"Good day Hera…  Eris and I were just having a little chat about the Trojan War and the roles you and Athena played in it."

"Yes, well I still maintain that I should have received the apple.  The boy-judge was just too much like my husband for his own good, and he paid dearly for that, didn't he?"

"No, you're wrong," another voice interrupted.  "The apple should have gone to me.  I am the best of all worlds: intelligence, strength, beauty…"

"Wrong Athena," a male voice cut in from somewhere in the shadows, "I think Aphrodite has you bested in the beauty category…" It was Ares, of course, coming to his lover's rescue.  The tall god stepped out and smirked at his lover, "I bet she'd beat you in the area of se-"

"Ares!  She's a married woman!  Have you no respect for her husband at all?" Hera screeched at the shocked god of war. 

"Mother?  I didn't see you there…  Are you well?" he asked in an attempt to switch the conversation to another topic.  He did not want his mother interrogating him about his relationship with Aphrodite.  The many children that had appeared every so often were incriminating enough.

"Oh shove it Ares.  There isn't a god on this mountain that doesn't know about your nightly excursions to Aphrodite's chambers," Eris mocked. 

Aphrodite sent a coy smile to her lover, "So Ares…  You'd be a good judge…  Who of the three of us is the fairest?"

"Oh not this again!  I'm not the judge for this one.  I, for no reason, would purposely sick my mother, the goddess of intelligent happenings, and my- uh… goddess of love on myself.  Eris can be the judge, but not me!"

"What's the big deal about her?" Aphrodite asked flipping her blonde hair towards Athena.  "What could she possibly do to you?"

"I like my intelligence intact thank you very much," he replied.  "Why don't I find you a judge?"

"We tried that last time, and the fool made the wrong decision," Hera complained.

"I can help you find a judge," a voice called.  A tiny old woman dressed in black floated through the air on a crystal ball that was almost her size.  She was Baba, the fourth sister of The Fates.  "I have the perfect guy…" The crystal ball floated in front of them, and the image of a young man with flame shaped hair was seen from the depths of the crystal.  "His name is Vegeta.  He's the prince of a distant planet.  He's an arrogant little bastard, but he'd be a perfect judge."

"Well done old woman.  Now they can bring their wrath down upon some mortal from another planet instead of me," the god of war congratulated. 

"I told those old biddies that I could see the future just as well as they could."

"Let's go," Aphrodite said with a flip of her blonde hair and a snap of her fingers she disappeared in a shimmering pink cloud.  Athena disappeared in the midst of blue sparks right behind the goddess of love.  As Hera was about to disappear, but before she did she quickly winked at the tiny old woman dresses in black.  With a flash of lavender colored light she was gone.

Eris chuckled wickedly to herself; chaos had returned to Mount Olympus once again.