Chapter 2: God Of War
"Amazon." Ares called out, watching as the woman who would've been his wife in another lifetime broke a machine gun in half.
Diana of Themiscyra turned around. "What are you doing here?"
Ares smiled. "Come to admire your work. It is not every day that an Amazon so flagrantly breaks their own code."
Diana grimaced. "I am not breaking the code. Words will settle this conflict but first they must see that the way they are handling things is not the right way."
Ares laughed and gestured to the bodies of soldiers, who bore the Eritrean Flag on their uniforms, lay. "And what of those men? Were they casualties of war or something else?"
"I did not kill them." Diana snapped back. "They were dead before I got here."
Ares grinned knowing how it would frustrate her. "Of course they were."
"What do you want?!" Diana demanded, moving away from him and forcing the remaining Eritreans to surrender. Ares felt his strength begin to fade.
"I have to see why there is such a lack of conflict. It took me some time to realise but it was you, you and the Kryptonian." Ares said. He hated the Kryptonian, the man had taken Diana's love and affection from him just like the human had. Except it had not been too hard to twist the human's mind, the Kryptonian's was harder to break.
Diana turned back to him, a grin on her face. "So you are scared. Scared that what Kal and I are doing will end the very thing you feed off."
Ares saw no point in denying it so he merely shrugged. "I am the God of War, if there is no war, I am nothing."
That made the woman grin even more and he felt something stir within him, though he pushed it down. It would not do for that emotion to come up again. "Ares, God of War terrified of becoming something else. If there is no war, what will you become the God of? Ponies?" Diana laughed and Ares felt his temper rise.
"Have a care how you speak, Amazon." Ares said moving forward.
Diana did not flinch, instead the Amazon merely held her ground and raised her chin to look at him. "What are you going to do, God of War? Superman and I are going to break you and reduce you to nothingness. You will never be able to corrupt humankind ever again when we are done."
"You love him, don't you?" Ares asked matter of factly though he dreaded the answer.
"I respect him, he is the greatest person I have ever met." Diana said.
"But you love him. That is why you are so fanatical about him." Ares said.
"He is pure of heart and has a will of steel. He will be the best thing to happen to this planet and to mankind." Diana said.
"You are so sure of that. But how do you know he will not reject you?" Ares asked.
Diana raised an eyebrow at him. "What are you implying, Ares?"
Oh so there is doubt there then. Ares thought gleefully to himself and said. "I am merely stating a possibility, Amazon. Superman had a woman who was a great many things, and you are none of those things. How do you know that he will stand by you? Already the methods he has used have been yours, and they are causing consternation within him." Ares could sense the doubt radiating off the Amazon just as he could off of her friend, the Kryptonian.
"He is a good man, and a just one. He will do the right thing. Lois was an incredible woman." Diana said.
"Admit it, Amazon." Ares whispered. "You want him to love you, you want to replace Lois Lane in his affections and you want him to forget her. You have wanted it for a long time."
The Amazon's face scrunched up into anger then. "I will not let you get into my head, Ares. You are trying to confuse me. I will not let you. Begone from here."
Ares laughed. "Oh you Amazons, you are so easy to rile up. I am merely stating the truth, we both know it."
The Amazon snapped then and she moved toward him, until she was staring right at him. "We will ensure that you never come back to life. We shall remove all conflict within this world and thus make sure that you die."
Ares felt his own temper grow. "You are playing a dangerous game, Amazon. I do not think you know just how dangerous it is." He grabbed her arm then and tightened his grip.
"Let me go." Diana said.
"No." Ares said. His rage was beginning to colour his vision and his thoughts. This impudent child thought she could mock him and get away with it? Absolutely not. He had brought down his father, the mighty Zeus and then restored him. He would decide whether this child got to live or not. He drew his sword.
"Ares, what are you doing?" Diana demanded she sounded scared, and he revelled in it.
"Finishing something I started a long time ago." Ares raised his sword, but before he could strike he felt a searing pain in his hand, and then he realised he did not have a hand anymore. He let go of Diana and turned around, before he could say anything he was hurtling into the ground.
"You shouldn't have done that, Ares." Kal El said.
"Ah, Superman. I was wondering when you were going to appear." Ares said, he pushed at Kal El and made the man move back slightly.
He slowly got up and shook himself off. He was without one hand but that wasn't going to stop him. He moved to Diana and grabbed her hand again, placing the thing he needed to inside her skin and then he said. "I can still kill you with one hand, Amazon."
The Amazon punched him with her free hand and sent him hurtling into the ground again. Clearly he was getting weaker. "You will do nothing of the sort, Ares." Diana said as she stood over him. "In fact, I think it's time we said goodbye to you." She drew her sword, and raised it, Ares braced himself for what was to come. And then when he felt it bury itself inside himself he screamed and did what he needed to do to convince them of his passing. He closed his eyes then.
And woke sometime later in the place between worlds. He turned and there he found Iris, with blonde hair and green eyes. "Did you, do it?" The Goddess asked.
"I did." Ares said. "Lost a hand for it as well."
"Good. Your father will be in touch when he needs you, return to your realm." Iris said, turning and disappearing in a puff of smoke.
Ares huffed to himself and said aloud. "This better be worth it, father. Otherwise I will kill you again."