Chapter 193
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Note: This version of Ares was from "Hercules: the legendary journeys" and "Xena: warrior princess."
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The battle was bloody. Lenin's army was winning, until John Galt used Crassus' tactics. He agreed to a temporary ceasefire, allowing both sides the opportunity to retrieve their wounded. Once Lenin's forces went to retrieve their wounded, they were bombed by Galt's army. Lenin and John Brown had little choice but to flew. Only a small group of volunteers, led by Chief, stayed behind to go to the sanctuary, make sure their wounded were okay. They found their wounded slaughtered, and soon met the same fate. It soon became clear to John Brown that whatever humanity Galt once had was gone now. If they had any chance of winning this war they would have to use more ruthless tactics.
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Galt savored this victory. He visited a version of Las Vegas, met his new friend Randall Flagg. This was the place that Galt wanted as a model for his kingdom. A place where everyone would be free to gamble, do drugs, and have sex without the burdens of government intervention. The elite would rise to the top, the rest would be stuck in poverty. That suited Galt just fine. Right now Galt was in Flagg's penthouse with his mistress Dagney. Flagg was here as well, along with his respective lovers Rita and Julie. In his world Flagg had chosen a woman named Nadine as his queen, but she took her own life rather than give birth to Flagg's child. Nadine had wound up in this Hell, but not as Flagg's queen. She was occassionally his lover, desperate enough to do anything for food. But Julie and Rita were competing to be Flagg's queen. Julie was a bit of a sadist, enjoyed tormenting the mentally ill. Rita had been a spoiled woman in life. She survived the plague but couldn't handle the hardships of the new world, so she commited suicide. Now, here they all were, in Hell, watching russian roulette in tv. The host, Katie, was from the slouching towards Bethlehem world. She had participated in televised russian roulette. Katie was actually the first person in the show's history to put the gun to her head and pull the trigger. At the time, the producers cheated by using an empty gun and having only five players, everyone survived. But the show got even worse as they had six players, if the first five were empty the last one was expected to die. Now, Katie was the host, and expected to do this if the first five survived. Tonight however, one of the other players died. They were all desperate enough to earn money, for either food or gambling. Flagg wondered if Katie was cheating to survive. If she was, he was going to have to make her one of his mistresses.
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John Milton famously wrote "The mind is it's own place and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven." These words described Ares pretty well. He had been the god of war in ancient Greece. He wasn't the most popular amongst the mortals, they only worshipped him when they were at war. When Athens and Sparta were at war both sides would sacrifice puppies to Ares to ensure victory. Thus Ares kept wars going, started others outright, all to get these mortals to worship and praise him. There was one downside to that strategy, if the mortals wiped themselves out completely, there would be noone left to worship the gods. Thus, at times, Ares had to be rational enough to keep his wars somewhat limited. Mortals were after all a limited resource. But here, in what others considered to be Hell, they could fight indefinitely, and be brought back to keep fighting. Here there were temles to Ares, they were once again performing human sacrifices in a desperate bid for Ares favor. In his own world Ares had outgrown human sacrifice, but here, he was a kid at heart. Ares had come to an understanding with the vengeance demon D'Hoffryn. D'Hoffryn allied with Lenin and John Brown, Ares allied with John Galt. When soldiers died after a big battle, Ares and D'Hoffry would use their respective influence to get them out of the torture chamber. Thus this class war between Galt and Lenin could go on forever. Or so he thought.
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John Galt and Randall Flagg were both familiar with Ares, but they were a little suprised that he came to their penthouse. The three men left their women alone while they went to talk business.
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Flagg: What can I do for you my friend?
Ares: I thought you should know, I got most of your soldiers out of the torture chamber.
Galt: Most?
Ares: Yeah, those slaves you used as gladiators, and cannon fodder. Normally I respect that tactic. But some refused to fight at all. Others, I heard that two of your gladiators refused to fight and instead took their own lives.
Galt: What about them?
Ares: They weren't in the torture chamber. Best I can tell, they actually made it into Heaven.
Flagg: This is bad. If word gets around that refusing to fight is a ticket to Heaven...
Ares: There is some good news. I've spoken with D'Hoffryn. He says that some of Lenin's dead weren't there either.
Galt: Yes, apparently this God who decides our fates, he favors virtues like charity, mercy, putting others ahead of oneself. Thus perhaps socialists would be more likely to get into Heaven.
Flagg: You're not thinking of switching sides are you?
Galt: And serve others, some invisible spirit, for all eternity? I'd rather take what I can for myself in Hell. Still, we need more soldiers. Perhaps forcing slaves to fight wasn't the best idea. We can keep people in poverty, show that those who fight for us get better treatment.
Ares: How about a bonus for those who massacre the enemy?
Galt: Makes sense. If we want to hold on to our own power, we cannot tolerate mercy or compassion.