Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable. – Jen
On Asgard Hela sat in the throne room surrounded by broken pieces of the ceiling that depicted the family which she'd just destroyed, Skurge standing below her. "Alright I'm gonna stop you there," Hela cut him off and Skurge frowned confused, she had just asked him to tell her about himself then stopped him? "Tell me about the girl, the princess."
Skurge sighed but did as asked, "Well for a long while no one really heard from her, see she was banished to Midgard and I was ordered not to open up the gates to her. Last any of us heard she had fallen in love with a mortal."
"Then that explains it." Hela muttered, then scoffed, "What a waste of potential."
"Yeah, and she used to be this all powerful Phoenix." Skurge added with a shrug and Hela was suddenly intrigued.
"Used to be?" the Goddess of Death echoed. "Not anymore."
"Well no one's really seen it for a while."
Hela hummed resting her head in her hand for a moment, "As daughters of Odin she and I are more alike than she probably realizes, we've had to work twice as hard to prove ourselves and by birth we have rights that are ours to claim." She stood as she got an idea, "Skurge we need her."
"I don't see that happening." Skurge pointed out but Hela ignored him.
"Yes," she said nodding, "The girl can be useful, if her powers are limitless as you imply then she can be to me what I was for Odin." Hela said nodding as her mind was already made up, she would get Aphrodite to join her side, whether her little sister liked it or not.
On Sakaar in Ares' room Aphrodite sighed but figured that she didn't have many other options and approached the table he set out.
"I'm surprised," she said sitting down, "Talking to each other was never something we did well, or often." She added.
"You're telling me," Ares said taking his seat as well then he sighed glancing at the table then back up at his ex, "Ro, please put the knife back."
Aphrodite bit her lip and heaved out a breath before pulling the knife that she had snagged from the table from underneath her leg, but she didn't put it back just yet. "You know I often thought what I would do if I saw you again." She told him honestly, "Given that my brothers didn't get to you first, I wondered if I could kill you, or if I would forget everything and just take you back." She dropped the knife of the table, "But now that you're here, I don't know what to think, I don't what to feel."
"Want to know what I feel?" he questioned as he began eating, encouraging her to do the same with a wave of his fork and she nodded. "Relief. Knowing that you're still alive is something I didn't know I needed. I regretted leaving you Ro, I truly did."
"Then why did you?"
"Aphrodite I can't live without a war. I literally cannot," he emphasized then pointed to her. "But you, you were always so good, so filled with love and surrounded by it. I couldn't take that away from you, dragging you behind me to fight a different war every single day. I couldn't do that to you."
"Shouldn't that have been my choice?" she asked softly wondering when exactly he began so thoughtful and insightful, that wasn't the Ares she knew a time ago.
"Would you have made it?"
Aphrodite sighed, "I always thought that you're appetite for violence made you stronger, I can see now that it's made you weak. The man I knew and loved had a purpose. What's yours now? Being the right-hand man to that lunatic, how'd you even end up here?"
"Same as you I guess." He said with a self-depreciating laugh in his voice, "I was lost, I had lost real bad. My army, my friends I guess they were that too. That's the thing about Sakaar, Grandmaster takes in things or people that are lost, gives them a place. I was lucky enough to move up in his ranks, you know he'll say he loves all his people the same but we all know that's not true."
"There was a time when I did love you, that's gone now. I thought that your namesake was your curse, I know now that it's not. You can't love, that's your true curse. I'm going to go back to someone that can do that and so much more, someone that still has his soul."
"Maybe that is my curse," he said with a shrug accepting it as a very real possibility then he smiled at it was genuine his familiar sharp canines peeking out from over his lip. "But I'm happy for you, that's all I ever wanted for you. And I'd really like it, if we could be friends."
"Funny enough I don't think we ever actually were," Aphrodite joked and they both nodded, when they first met and informed of their arranged marriage that was the end of it. There was no transition from friends to lovers to a real relationship, just one of the many reasons why they wouldn't have worked out. With that in mind Aphrodite twirled her pointer finger in the air and on it appeared the engagement ring that Ares had given her all those years ago she stared at the two rings on her hand comparing them before extending her hand in his direction, "Friends?"
Ares nodded reaching out to slide the ring from her pointer finger. "Friends."
They continued their dinner with idle conversation that wasn't anywhere near as heavy as the conversation that they'd started out with, but it was something that needed to happen. Surprisingly Ares was very interested in her life of earth and all the friends she'd made while she was there. Unsurprisingly other than asking for his name and how they'd made, he didn't ask her much about Steve. They may be on the verge of a friendship for now, but they were exes and no one ever wants to hear about their ex's new relationship, no matter how happy they were for said ex.
Then came a new problem night had fallen all around Sakaar and she was still in Ares' bedroom.
"Just take the bed Ro," he said like it was a simple solution.
"I can't, I feel like I'm invading your space enough as it is." Aphrodite argued. "I can just go find Loki, and other accommodations."
"That's probably not a good idea." Ares pointed out already setting himself up a palette of the floor next to the bed, "You two may have gained the Grandmaster's favour with your little performance, but not his trust just yet. I don't think he'd take too kindly to you wandering about alone at night."
She sighed and gestured lamely to the palette he'd set up, "I can sleep on the floor."
He scoffed lowering himself down, "My mother would rise from her ashes just to smack me if I even considered letting that happen." He joked before leveling her with a look, "Just take the bed, and sleep."
"Fine." She finally relented crawling into the large bed and settling down on one side.
A few days later Ares and Aphrodite were back in the room which seemed to always be holding a gathering of some sort, music coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once.
"Why does nothing on this planet make any sense?" Aphrodite complained lowly as they sat at a high table and were almost immediately presented with drinks.
"Takes some getting used to, the one thing on this planet that makes sense is that nothing makes sense."
"I don't plan on staying long enough to get used to it."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I'm leaving this planet, Asgard needs me. And Loki too if he bothers to show his face anytime soon." She added sitting up so she could scan the crowd to see if she could spot her brother's greasy head of black hair.
"No one leaves this planet." Ares said and Aphrodite snapped her attention to him.
"What do you mean no one leaves?"
"The Grandmaster controls everything about this place, the only way out is through him or so I've been told. Either that or you defeat his champion, which so far hasn't worked out for anyone."
As if he had been summoned the Grandmaster suddenly swept into the room with a flourish, greeting his subjects happily before making his was to his chair in the center of the room.
"Tell me what you know about him." Aphrodite said absorbing the information she'd just been given while nodding to the Grandmaster.
"It's pretty simple when you think about it." Ares began, "He's old as sin and about twice as powerful, likes to be the center of attention."
"Yeah, no I got all that." Aphrodite said nodding, all that she already knew. "What I mean is, this place," she went onto explain. "How did he come to rule it, how did he become the Grandmaster?"
"He just was." Ares attempted to explain and Aphrodite responded by giving him a look. "Alright Sakaar didn't always exist. For a long while it was just a galactic trash pile in space."
"And it still is." she pointed out and they both laughed.
"Thing is every planet has to start with one, one person that was thrown out her first. Someone had to have started this whole thing that was him."
"He built this place to be exactly what he wanted," Aphrodite summarized.
"And he keeps the power on the planet by," Ares trailed off waiting for her to connect the dots and finish, which she did.
"Controlling the Contest of Champions."
"Very good." Ares praised.
"He reminds me of a man I met, not too long ago. They call him the Collector." Aphrodite explained and was about to go on when they were interrupted by the very brother she had been searching for moments ago.
"There you are." Loki said. "I've been looking everywhere for you."
"Yes I can see you've been quite frantic." She said looking him over in his obviously new clothes just off-green and a cape that was a deep blue on the outside but a familiar yellow on the inside. Given to him by the Grandmaster no doubt, though she could hardly be one to talk being presented earlier with a new set of clothes from the ancient that were better suited to Sakaar.
"Why are you with him?" Loki practically hissed the last word as he ignored her jab instead focusing on the man on the chair behind her who raised his glass in a friendly greeting, which he ignored turning his attention back to his sister.
"It's alright Loki, we've worked things out." She said gently glancing over her shoulder, "Still working things out."
"So that means I can't stab him." Loki said in a voice that could have been a whisper for anyone that cared at all about respecting the other person who was sitting literally inches away, but Loki could give less of a damn.
"I'd prefer if you didn't." Aphrodite said and Loki literally almost pouted at being robbed the opportunity to stab someone who in his eyes was well deserving, however he would respect his sister's wishes. "I believe you were entertaining," she said while pointing over his shoulder to the small group that Loki was obviously just with, given the fact that they were so intently watching their interactions.
Loki glanced over his shoulder at his admired before turning back with a sigh, "Alright," he said reaching up to pull Aphrodite closer to press a kiss too her forehead, "But I'll be watching." He said mostly as a warning to Ares.
"I'm sure you will." Aphrodite answered patting his chest and urging him to re-join his admirers.
"Glad to know he's still just as fond of me as he was before." Ares said highly amused taking a sip from his drink.
Aphrodite huffed. "Believe me that was him being nice, he'd still stab you given half the chance."
"You two have been here for a few weeks, I'm surprised he hasn't." Ares said jokingly and offhandedly but was shocked when Aphrodite choked on her drink.
"Weeks?" She repeated in shock nodding gratefully when he reached over to pat her back dislodging any remaining alcohol from her windpipe.
"Yeah," he responded unsurely. "Time is different here too." He added.
"I don't believe this," she muttered mostly to herself, "Where's 142? The scrapper that brought us here?"
"Probably out boozing or picking up more scraps. Maybe both."
"Well I need to talk to her," Aphrodite said already starting to think up a plan, "The Grandmaster seems to trust her, maybe she can help me find a way off this planet. I'll steal her ship if I have to."
Ares nearly laughed at that, "That's probably not going to happen, she hardly lets anyone do repairs on her ship, so I seriously doubt it's going to be easy to steal it from her. You Asgardians are stubborn like that."
"She's Asgardian?" Aphrodite nearly screeched her mouth dropping open ignoring his last comment.
Ares nodded, then nodded again. "You were right we do need to talk more." Aphrodite's brow furrowed then she nodded and they both burst into quiet laughter.
Ares stared at her for a long moment and pondered just how exactly they ended up here, not here in Sakaar, but this exact moment. How his now official ex-fiancée went from wanting to flat out kill him just a few days earlier, to real conversations between them to an actual friendship, or at the very least something that was resembling one, one that he was enjoying. Some part of his brain whispered that two people who were once engaged to be married probably shouldn't embark on such a relationship, even if it was meant to be purely platonic, but they both knew that they could be and were far better friends than they would be married.
But still there was the other part of his brain that recognized that Aphrodite was his fiancée a time ago, and the way his body reacted to hers would take time to control. And that's what he blamed on what happened next.
His body acted without his permission surging forward before he had a chance to think about it or stop himself, reaching out with his hand to cup the back of her neck and bring her lips on top of hers.
The kiss was familiar yet distinctly foreign at the same time and was over just as quickly as it had started, Aphrodite pulled away so fast one might have thought that he had burned her. Then she slapped him, his head whipped to one side and he felt his teeth cut the inside of his cheek.
"Ares, what-" she stammered whipping her mouth and standing. "Why?"
"Ro, I'm sorry." He said scrambling up as well making to move forward but stopped when she moved back inside. "I just – I don't know. I-"
"Don't," she cut him off raising a hand to silence him and he did. "Just don't." she repeated before turning and making her way through the crowd all of whom were oblivious to what had just happened. Save for one, a pair of green eyes boring at him from across the room and oh if looks could kill, he'd be beyond six feet under.
"I thought you would have left." Ares said after chasing Aphrodite down back to his room to find her seated on one of the window seats, staring out at the trash piles beyond the palace they were in. the sky still opening and closing randomly spitting out what one could only assume was garbage.
"I don't have the codes to any of the other rooms." She responded absently staring out the window for another beat before turning to face him, hurt and betrayal shining in her eyes. "What were you thinking Ares?"
"I wasn't." he answered honestly. Slumping down in the chair next to her keeping a respectable distance between them. "It's just so easy to be with you again, it felt like old times. I felt normal."
"Ares listen to me, and listen well." She said sternly prompting him to turn and face her seeing that her expression matched the tone of her voice. "Whatever we had, it's over. And it's not coming back."
"I know," he said nodding, "And I'm sorry."
"I'll forgive your momentary lapse in judgement," she told him with a smile that turned into a smirk, "But if you try that again, I'll kill you before Loki gets the chance."
"I understand and I swear I won't touch you again unless you ask."
"I won't." she said instantly.
"I know," he responded, what he said was out of reflex more than anything. "But I think there's something downstairs you should see."
"Thor!" Aphrodite gasped throwing herself between he and Loki wrapping her arms around the man in the chair, Ares hung back for now already having to deal with one Odinson out for his blood he didn't want a second. "You're alive," she breathed out pulling back and pressing her forehead against his.
"You're alive," he responded sinking with relief. "And you're not in a chair either."
"No I'm not in a chair. Why are you in a chair?"
"I don't know, get me out of this chair."
"We can't," Loki cut in. "We've made friends with his man, he's called the Grandmaster." Loki explained.
"He's mad." Thor exclaimed and both his siblings nodded at that not arguing in the least.
"Yeah, he's crazy," Aphrodite nodded, "But we've gained his favour, the Bifrost brought us here weeks ago."
"Weeks?" Thor repeated in shock. "I just got here."
"What are we whispering about?" Another voice cut in and Aphrodite jumped not having realized that the Grandmaster was so close. "Time works real different around these parts, on any other world, I'd be like millions of years old," the Grandmaster continued, "But here on Sakaar-" he trailed off only to glance at Loki and wink which drew confused looks from both Thor and Aphrodite, Loki turned to them clearly to offer up some sort of explanation but was unable to. "In any case, you two know this," he turned to Thor "You call yourself Lord of Thunder?"
"God of Thunder," Thor nearly shouted as he corrected the man.
Loki shook his head, "I've never met this man in my life."
"He's our brother." Aphrodite said to the Grandmaster who was looking back and forth between the three of them
"Adopted," Loki corrected pointing to himself.
"Is he any kind of a fighter?" Grandmaster questioned clearly not wanting to delve too deep into their family dynamics.
Thor chuckled. "Why don't you take this thing off my neck and I'll show you."
The Grandmaster seemed amused by that, "Now listen to that. He's threatening me. Hey, Sparkles, here's the deal. If you wanna get back to Ass-place, Assberg..."
"Asgard," Thor corrected with a growl.
"Any contender who defeats my champion," the man continued ignoring Thor's outburst. "Their freedom they shall win."
"Fine," Thor huffed, "Then point me in the direction of whoever's ass I have to kick."
The Grandmaster smiled and all but sang, "Now that's what I call a contender!" he said before picking up a kind of remote and aiming it at Thor's chair. "Direction would be this way, Lord."
Thor cried out as his chair began to trail behind the Grandmaster, calling back for his siblings, and Aphrodite made to go after him but Loki held her back and whispered to her.
"We wait until nightfall."
BrittStar1199: Girl sexual tension between exes is up there with some of the best. To be honest I had so much fun writing them in this chapter that I even felt like I was cheating on Steve and Aphrodite with them. Feel free to imagine Ares as whomever you'd like, I have an actor in mind as I wrote him, but like with Aphrodite it's completely open to interpretation. As for Ares in Infinity War, we'll have to wait and see.
Ivana bocanegra: My dear, darling you don't have to worry about that, Ares will definitely not be coming in between our favourite couple, like Aphrodite pointed out in this chapter, there's only one man for her and he's waiting for her on earth.
RedPlanetGalaxy: Thank you, thank you.
Love. Fiction. 2018: Thanks.
And now we get back to our regularly scheduled Ragnarok, these last two chapters were a nice little respite but we've got to get back to business folks. What do you think should happen in the Arena when they see Hulk for the first time? Should Aphrodite confront the Valkyrie about being an Asgardian, and how do you think she'll react to finding out that she is a Valkyrie? And of course the final confrontation with Hela seen as she'd taken an interest in Aphrodite?
As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future. Leave me a review too, as you can see I'll be answering/responding to the ones can. So feel free to say or ask me anything.