A/N T/W for violence

Sorry for this being short and kind of sucky, I've been dreading this chapter so hopefully it's not too terrible...

Chapter thirty-five

They ate in silence.

Oppressiveness pervaded the air as the strange family ate.

Dawn was too afraid to say anything encase she accidentally spilled that she knew who Emma would be going up against and Regina didn't open her mouth because she knew she would end up begging the blonde not to compete. She didn't want to be the one to tell her wife that she couldn't do something, but at the same time, she really didn't want to lose someone who meant so much to her to a pointless cause.

Emma's entire body was tense. She was frankly surprised that she was managing to keep down any of the porridge that she slowly placing into her mouth. She'd spent the past couple days continuing her training, but her mind had been back in New York, back on that Ferris wheel where she was allowed to kiss her wife with nothing else weighing on her mind. But she knew that even if she didn't compete now she would still have so many other things to deal with. The fact that her parents hated who she was married to, that she could one day be called upon to rule over the White Kingdom when she would quite literally do anything else and finally, the fact that she was married to someone who would outlive her. Regina seemed happy now, but would her death be similar to Persephone's abandonment of her?

The blonde blew out a breath when she realised that her mind had wondered again and she forced herself to look up and give Regina a weak smile, which was quickly returned.

The silence passed on for another couple seconds and Dawn finally decided that she couldn't take it anymore.

She placed her spoon down and smiled weakly at the princess.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

Emma bit the inside of her cheek and tried to locate the correct emotion, it was somewhere between giddiness and anxiety and neither quite described what she was feeling. She knew that there was no way that she wouldn't be competing but at the same time she just wanted it to be over.

"Nervous," she replied after a moment of contemplation.

Dawn nodded and spared a look at her mother who was remaining conspicuously silent with a tightened law. she couldn't help but think that the woman wouldn't be quite so successful in holding her tongue if she knew that Ares was hours away from fighting his wife. When she fought her mother had tried everything to stop her and that was without the god of war partaking.

"If you've finished your breakfast, princess, I could help you get ready?" Dawn asked.

Emma frowned at the demi-goddess, she sounded more nervous than she felt. She decided that she was just concerned for her step-mother and nodded.

"That would be nice, thank you." the princess replied and stood from the table, as she passed Regina she leaned down to place a reassuring kiss to her cheek.

Regina smiled for a second until her wife and daughter had left the room.

Since they'd returned from New York they had been noticeably more affectionate. It wasn't like they held hands and made out at every opportunity, but neither of them were really afraid to show how they felt about each other, even if they had yet to say it out loud.

The goddess just hoped that she wouldn't miss her chance to tell her verbally because of a pointless tournament.

She just wished that Emma didn't have to be so stubbornly Charming.

The sound of the chanting crowd was intoxicating but it also brought her back to her first week in the Underworld. Back when everything was new to her and she had absolutely no interest in spending time with her new wife. Looking back, she knew that she was basically a child then and she couldn't help but think that she had learned more in the last few months than she had in her twenty-one years in the White Palace.

She made it through the first three rounds without issue and she actually smiled as she easily took down those who had been deemed heroic enough for Elysium, she didn't often realise it but apparently she really was a natural at swordplay, something she probably didn't notice because she trained with a goddess and her daughter.

The spirit fell to the ground and disappeared (she had been assured that they simply re-appeared in the stands after a few moments) and she looked up to the three seats that she'd been sparing glances towards at every chance.

Regina looked to be a mix between pissed off and worried and Emma couldn't help but notice that she kept sparing looks over to Zelena and Neal, one of whom looked unbelievably smug.

"Amazing," the commentator called, "this new competitor truly stands a chance of taking the championship."

Emma smiled up at the disembodied voice and turned around at the sound of the moving gate that she had come to know meant that there was another opponent to face.

She knew that this was the last round and she wasn't entirely sure what she should expect, she figured that her final opponent would be intimidating, but what she didn't expect was that he would be familiar.

Her giddiness morphed fully into anxiety as she realised just why he looked so familiar, but that wasn't possible, there was no way that he could be who she thought he was. She looked up to Regina who had her eyebrows drawn tightly together as if she was taking in the sight before her and it was hard to tell from the distance, but she was sure that the shock fell away after a second and fire burned in her eyes.

Hades stood from her seat as if she was going to protest, but she was quickly pulled down by her daughter who whispered something into her ear.

Emma swallowed hard and began walking towards the blond man who was smirking at her as he dragged his sword limply along at his side. It was painfully obvious that he was in no way intimidated by the princess and Emma couldn't help but feel a little pissed off by that fact. She'd made it to the last round so he could at least show her a tiny bit of respect.

"Ladies and gentleman," the commentator called with a certain amount of awe in his voice, "we are truly honoured by the presence of Ares!"

The crowd erupted into applause and Emma just hoped that she wasn't paling.

She knew that she'd had a lot of training over the last few months but defeating the god of war seemed a bit of a stretch even for the most optimistic person across all realms, especially when he looked almost exactly like one of the people who she would never even consider hurting.

The man walked over to her so that they were close enough to talk and he made no attempt to raise his blade, he appeared to be simply inspecting the princess.

He tilted his head and laughed, "I'm sure your father would have a heart attack if he could see you competing in this flagrant display of narcism, especially when you're the only competitor capable of actually dying. Seems rather moronic to me."

Emma swallowed hard and asked, "what do you know of my father?"

"I know him to be brave to the point where it's almost unwarranted, do you honestly believe that any mortal can truly be as naturally talented in swordplay as you and your father with no divine interference?" Ares laughed, "it's not often that I get to meet one of my grandchildren and I have to say that I'm not very impressed."

The princess paled significantly at this and began shaking her head. Now that she knew that godly positions were titles rather than names, she wasn't too worried by the possibility that she may be related to Regina, though she did make a mental note to ask her wife if she was in any way related to Ares. What she was more worried about was the fact that she could be more than mortal.

"No…my grandfather died when my father was young, his name was…"

"James?" Ares shot back with that smirk that made Emma's blood boil.

Emma stared at him blankly for a moment, she tried to think of a reason why he would possibly lie about this but nothing came to mind. What would be the point in telling her that she was part god? Other than the possibility that he was trying to distract her during their fight? But honestly, why would the god of war need to distract a princess who had only touched a blade for the first time a few months ago. Plus there was the fact that the resemblance between him and her father was undeniable now.

The blonde looked over to Regina again who looked more than anxious that she couldn't hear what was going on and she tried to send her a reassuring smile, but it came out more strained than anything else.

She turned back the the god and raised her blade, even though every fibre of her being was screaming that she needed to run away from her grandfather, there was no way that she was going to be a coward in front of him while he was smirking like that.

"There's that unwarranted bravery again," the god laughed as he raised his own blade, though it was obvious that he was far from putting any effort into it.

Emma swinged her blade first, which he easily dodged and spun around to sliced at her. She just about moved out of the way, but the blade sliced through her left arm and she released her sword that she was no longer holding it in two hands as she hissed in pain.

Ares laughed and shook his head, "I suppose you are a cut above most mortals, they would be dead by now."

Emma blew out a breath of frustration but didn't say anything as she simply waited. Ares lunged forward and she parried the strike and stepped to the side as he stepped forward. With his back now to her, she sliced at his shoulder and he fell to his knee.

James brought his hand to rest on his bleeding shoulder and moved his hand to look at the drops of blood covering his hand. The princess couldn't help but laugh at just how confused he looked by the sight.

He tightened his grip on the handle of his sword and made short work of raising to his feet. Before Emma could react, her sword was flying out of her hand and she felt the tip of Ares's blade ram into her stomach. Her eyes widened as he pushed it in deeper.

She knew that the only reason that she was still standing was because James had his free arm around her shoulder as he whispered in to his ear, "just like every other mortal."

He released her and she crumpled to the ground, just about managing to keep her eyes open.

All of the spirits in the stands began to file out after the commentator announced Ares to be the winner, none of them seemingly noticing that his opponent was not disappearing and re-appearing.

The princess felt her breaths come out ragged and she closed her eyes until she felt a hand rested on her cheek.

She managed to crack her eyes open, though she could now feel blood running down the side of her mouth, and she allowed herself to smile at the goddess before.

"Regina," she coughed.

Hades shook her head, "don't speak," she whispered, frantically looking for something that she could do, but her body seemed incapable of reacting to the many possibilities before her. If she allowed her soul to remain in her body, she knew that the natural balance would require another to be sent to the Underworld in its place, which she was something she was sure her wife would never be okay with.

"I love…" Emma began, but the final word didn't come out as her eyes forcibly closed and her head lolled to the side.

Regina started shaking her head as if it would make this go away, but the scream that was about to come out of her mouth was interrupted by the sound of slow clapping.

She looked over her shoulder to see Zelena clapping as she walked over to stand by Ares, with Neal trailing not far behind.

"Truly impressive," Zelena called, "Neal bet that she wouldn't last a minute, I bet thirty seconds, I suppose she proved us both wrong."

Regina shot to her feet and fireballs instantly ignited in both of her hands.

A/N Reviews would be appreciated