Xena, Gabrielle and the Doctor were at a tavern in the village. The other villagers regarded them with suspicion and gave them a wide berth. They had all seen the group's confrontation with the two gods and thought he must be suicidal That made it easier for the Doctor to give Xena and Gabrielle the low-down on their new enemy. Gabrielle had picked up a stick from the wreck of the abandoned stall and was fashioning another staff as they spoke.

"Sontarans are designed to fight, both physically and mentally," the Doctor said, "but this one's different, far more humanoid than its predecessors."

"What do its predecessors look like?" Gabrielle asked.

The Doctor explained, "Well, normally, they are quite short and stocky. Their heads are a distinguishing feature. I say heads but they're more like domes. No necks, you see."

"So why is this one so different?" asked Xena.

"There was a Sontaran ship that crashed not far from here," the Doctor said. "My best guess is that the crash damaged the cloning unit in the vessel and switched off the limiter."

"Limiter?" Gabrielle asked, puzzled.

"The cloning unit needs a limiter so that the Sontaran clones don't become too human," the Doctor explained. "you see, they only want certain parts of the human to form their race. I'm talking about muscle, cunning, ruthlessness. They don't want all the attributes of a human being, otherwise they would have to deal with love, mercy and conscience. Sontarans don't want that."

Xena leant forward. "Then we have to find a way to get rid of the Sontaran God. He's strong but there's only one of him…"

The Doctor shook his head. "Xena, if the ship did clone Ares, it means his DNA…" he stopped for a second, remembering this was Ancient Greece and not the 21st Century. He continued, "the ship knows how to make more copies of Ares," he said, choosing his words carefully."

"We have to find that ship before Ares finds the power," Gabrielle said, hurriedly.

"It's not Ares I'm worried about," the Doctor said.

"Why, Doctor?" Xena asked, concerned.

"You see, Sontarans are all inbued with a hatred of any life that isn't Sontaran. You might say it's their birth rite," the doctor said, "now, if you inject those feelings into the body of a god, a WAR god, no less…"

"He'd be unstoppable," Xena finished.

"He will be looking to cement his immortality, first and foremost." The Doctor said.

"So he'd want to find Ambrosia?" asked Xena.

"Yes," the Doctor replied, "after that, he could have enough power to generate 100 gods of war."

"Oh gods," Gabrielle whispered, horrified at the thought. "So what can we do?" she asked.

"We have to get Ares on our side," the Doctor said, sternly.

Ares had taken Mars back to his temple to work out their strategy.

"We could have a lot of fun with these mortals!" Ares said, excitedly. "We could pit two armies against each other, you on one side, me on the other, and watch them all wipe themselves out!"

Mars sniggered, putting his hand to his face. He was shaking his head.

"Problem?" Ares asked, challengingly.

"Nope, nothing," Mars said, smiling, "That's the best you can come up with, huh?"

Ares paused. He wasn't used to being questioned, but he didn't mind too much. He was talking to himself, after all.

"Got a better idea?" he asked.

"Yeah, how 'bout we cut out the middle men, and take this world ourselves?" Mars said, "We have more than enough power to cut down armies between us."

Ares stopped him. "No, these warriors worship me, us, and we need their worship if we want to survive."

"What are you, a man or A GOD!" Mars bellowed as he punched one of the walls of the temple, knocking it down. "We don't need them. They are inferior and deserve to be destroyed!"

"KNOW YOUR PLACE, MARS," Ares shouted back, "YOU ARE NOT THE GOD OF WAR! I AM!"

Mars laughed. "God of War? You're not fit to be the god of SPORT!"

Ares was filled with rage. He threw a bolt of energy at the clone, enough to kill 20 mortals. Mars merely caught the energy ball and added his own power to the orb.

"You are inferior," Mars said, a grim smile on his face, "this world is mine!"

He threw the ball of light at Ares. The blast knocked Ares to the ground. He barely had enough power to fight back, so with his last ounce of energy, he teleported away from the temple.

Mars laughed, "That's it! Run! The real war god has arrived!"