A/N: Greetings Earthlings! It is I, Hannah! That one chick that has writing A.D.D. Seriously, I need to work on a chapter for my Roswell fic after I'm done with this one. I'm also sorry it took a while for me to update; school and research for upcoming chapters and such. Love y'all! Reviews make me smile?
She does not understand how he could have come to be here, her thoughts shattered like glass on the ground around her. She felt vaguely comforted, knowing that he was there but she would never tell him so and he would never expect her to. Wobbling on already unsteady legs she felt herself pitch forward and seemed to fall straight into his arms.
Ares took a knee on the battlefield with his warrior tucked safely into the crook of his arm, staring down at her with undisguised panic in his eyes. The ugly mask of rage his face had once been contorted into would forever be tattooed in her last memories of him, and maybe this was sick to admit but it was something she would recall fondly in the afterlife. In that moment she had seen a brief glimmer of protectiveness, that same glimmer that had meant the destruction of both gods and men for her.
"I don't think I'll be making it off of the battlefield today," Her voice was cracked and dry, a desert taking up residence in her mouth and on her tongue. She tried to smile but it hurt so badly even to breathe that she just wanted to slip away into the ether but the look in his eyes was just enough to strengthen her fraying tether to the world.
"Shut up," His voice was gruff, his grip tightening around her as he listened briefly to the sound of some other God's war, "you women are always so dramatic."
Gabrielle felt a rising tide of dread welling up from the very core of her being, eyes widening as she touched the skin above where her heart was hidden. Something is very wrong, here… She felt so helpless; she had known that this would be the end result of this battle and that they were doing this for all of those poor souls trapped by Yodoshi. Xena had felt the full weight of her final responsibility and knew that she had wanted to accomplish this task by herself.
I'll do whatever it takes…I'll see you again, Xena.
Blood trickled from the side of her mouth, the bitter tang of copper welling in her throat as she lay there staring up into his eyes. "I never thought it would be you."
I am war, destruction, and slaughter, he began to think of an old mantra, as if it might steady the very mortal shaking of his hands as he brushed the raven hair from her beautiful, bloody face, I am impulse, aggression, and rage. He was going to take her home and he could fix this, he had to fix this. He was a god damned God after all and there were still enough of them left and if he had to go to the others…he would do it.
So lost in his train of desperate thought he barely caught the next words to escape her lips, they were so uncannily soft he barely felt the whisper of her breath. "But I'm glad it was you, Ares…"
Surprise ignited the fires behind his eyes as he slid an arm beneath her legs and stood up, her weight nothing. He could have been carrying only a notion of her for all he knew and as he tried to phase out of this god awful place a clattering energy burst through his own like a spear.
"What the he—"
A man in dramatic black and red regalia flanked by two desiccated corpse bodyguards had appeared before them, their master staring directly at Hades with a shark's grin splitting his black lips. "Now I know you weren't trying to take my prize from me, Ares…that's not very honorable of you at all."
"I'm anything but honorable at this point, Yen-Lo-Wang. I have every intention of getting out of here with her." His words were anything but calm and collected, his face twisted yet again in a mask of hatred. They were only wasting his time and he had not much of it left, he could feel her fading faster and faster.
"She belongs to me, I'm afraid. Yodoshi named the terms and your little princess accepted them, she is dying on MY soil, not yours." A clawed finger curled around his pointed beard as the God of Death regarded the other deity, not quite sure if he was willing to believe what he saw in the face and aura of this once careless and conniving Greek.
"Her soul is mine, it's all in the contract…I bet your little toady didn't manage to get it in writing."
"That's not good enough; I need something to bring home to the wife and kids. I don't understand why you're having so much trouble understanding this…your brother could have explained it to you. She dies here and her soul will be taken to my Hell where it justly belongs."
Through all this bickering Xena listened quietly enough, rather annoyed even in her fuzzy state. Trust Ares to bicker over her with another while she lay there silently dying. How predictable.
"How about I sweeten the pot for you, Yen-Lo? Wouldn't it be far more impressive and enticing to take a God? I would relinquish myself into your unmerciful hands and accept whatever torments your sick little mind could present me with." Frustration flickered in Ares' dark eyes but he showed no signs of faltering and his body language made it inescapably clear to the other that he was not joking in the slightest.
"You would take her place?" Yen-Lo-Wang demanded, incredulous, "You would rather be imprisoned in my Hells instead of this silly little mortal woman?! She has no more significance to this world than a flea does on the ass of a monkey!"
Blue eyes opened wide in the shadowy shelter of his embrace. She was beginning to struggle, albeit weakly, murmuring over and over again that this was not what she wanted. Not how it was supposed to be at all but Ares ignored her and spoke the next three words with the most simplicity and sincerity she might have ever heard him utter:
"I love her."
This admission was a surprise but Yen-Lo-Wang did not allow it to register on his face as he considered Ares' proposition very carefully. This deity was no better than a man and he was entering into this of his own free will or so it appeared, it would certainly impress the others that he would no doubt have to answer to. If he called off Yodoshi and Ares' godhood was exchanged for Xena's life well…there were so many interesting venues to take this on.
It was getting awfully crowded in Aphrodite's temple as her remaining family members and a few odd demi-gods gathered around the pool of water in the very center of the petal-laden floor. The blonde goddess was now pacing, absent-mindedly clicking her long, immaculate finger nails together, "He can't do this! Can he? Athena…he really can't…what are YOU going to do about this? I told him to go to her, not sell his soul to that nasty little scuzz ball!"
The Goddess of Wisdom and War inclined her head slightly, as though listening to some voice that the others could not hear over the high-pitched tantrum that was currently taking place. Piercing eyes watched the sadness that rippled over his face, resignation and love in them. "Do we indeed have souls? Does he? Ares has always been ruled by lust rather than love and perhaps he is playing a game that we know nothing of. "
Athena did not truly believe all of what she had said, eyes sliding sideways to avoid those of the others that were now centered upon her, "The rules are different from land to land, he is on foreign soil and must abide by their rules. If he chooses to give himself up for Xena who are we to intercede? He nearly destroyed us all for her…"
Turning away from the pool of water the goddess smiled and murmured, "Who knew he would finally destroy himself?"
"I accept."
Ares' gaze ascended, resignation and a gathering sense of dread gathering at the very core of him. The protests coming from his arms falling on death ears as the two men that were not men stared at each other, contemplating the magnitude of what was about to occur.
"Heal her. Now."
