XIV.

The War God FINALLY Has His Revenge (Ares)

Ares continued to stare at his doppelganger who was currently rubbing his head in pain from Enyo's heabutt. He looked at the chained Olympians and locked eyes with his father, the god he had sucker punched in the face all those months ago. Thankfully, the guy didn't look ridiculously pissed at him anymore either which was a surprise.

"YOU! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!" the Ares doppelganger yelled at him.

"You know me, when do I ever stick to a plan?" Ares answered and flourished his sword.

"Let me try and see what your plan was. Impersonate me, poorly by the way, to get back to Olympus by grovelling and begging the Big Guy to forgive me then hold a lavish party where you spiked the nectar and ambrosia with Ekhidnades's posion. Am I in the ballpark?" Ares continued. The doppelganger sneered viciously at him. Not quite as good as me, Ares thought.

"It was easy. A tactic I have done before. I was to eliminate these morons while Ekhidnades tore you to shreds!" the doppelganger said.

"See, now that's interesting. Why would Leonidas want to kill his own father?" Ares asked. A few of the other gods exchanged glances with each other due to Ares's demeanor in this type of situation. Usually, he'd already killed the person talking to him like this.

"Maybe it's because he's pissed that his own father let him die!"

"Because some son of a bitch betrayed him at Thermopylae!" Ares shouted back

"It doesn't matter, I'll kill you myself!" the doppelganger roared and charged at Ares with his own sword. Ares parried the strike and punched the doppelganger in the face. The doppelganger's magical disguise failed. A man now stood before Ares. A man he knew quite well. A man he had dreamed of killing ever since the Battle of Thermopylae. A man with a sunken and hollow face, bags under his eyes and a bit of an underbite. The man's hair was still just as dirty as it was thousands of years ago when a man named Athenades had informed Sparta of the death of this man. It was Ephialtes. The man who had betrayed Leonidas to the Persians at Thermopylae.

"YOU!" Ares screamed. He could feel his rage returning to him now. For years, YEARS, he had dreamed of killing this man with his bare hands in revenge but someone else had gotten to him originally. That was about to change now.

"Yes Ares. Me. You think Typhon resurrected Leonidas to kill you? Are you really that dense? He tricked you, you moron," Ephialtes taunted. Ares was so angry that he was shaking. His eyes were bulging and, in the light of the Hall, you could potentially say they were burning with fury. He was more pissed than he was when Zeus originally blamed him for Athens. Speaking of Zeus, he was currently looking quite frightened along with Enyo.

"YOU. KILLED. MY SON. I WILL TEAR YOU IN HALF" Ares snarled at him and charged. This time Ephialtes used his sword to parry Ares's strike. He was much faster than he ought to be, which was surprising. Ephialtes retaliated with his own vicious strikes. Ares was only just able to block the strikes out of sheer luck. Ephialtes retreated a few steps, threw his head back and laughed.

"You thought it was going to be easy to kill me? You have no powers, former War God! Typhon imbued me with some of his own magic so I could impersonate you. It gave me a few new abilities of my own. Such as being able to defend myself from someone as useless as you. Why did you come back anyway? They don't want you back. They never cared about you. How long did those giants keep you in that jar? 13 months?"

"SHUT UP!" Ares roared and grabbed Ephialtes by his shirt. Ephialtes wriggled free and even managed to kick Ares in the face while continuing to laugh uproariously.

"You're unloved by them. Your own parents hate you. Your siblings hate you. You think Aphrodite really loves you? Please. She's the damn Goddess of Love idiot, who doesn't she love these days?" he said while dodging Ares feeble attempts to slice him in half. Ares managed to get a second to glance at the other Olympians. Ephialtes had a point to an extent. How many times did they call him a failure? A nuisance? Just generally unpleasant to be around? Countless. Ares had just been about to give up before he remembered Enyo was still among them. She loved him and he knew it. She told him just the other day. She had spent the past few months searching all over the Earth for him. If he wasn't going to rip Ephialtes in half for himself, he was going to do it for her. Because he knew she'd do the same for him. With that happy thought in mind, Ares didn't give up but rather held his own against the empowered Ephialtes. They exchanged blows in front of the Olympians for several minutes (while they continued to wretch every so often). Both combatants had been able to get blows in on each other. Ephialtes now sported 2 black eyes and Ares had been slashed along his bare chest and arms a few times.

"I'll leave you alive for Ekhidnades. He wants to kill your sister in front of you. Shame really. She's pretty ho-" WHAM! Ares punched Ephialtes in the face just about as hard as he had punched Zeus. He even felt bones break. Ephialtes screamed in pain and clutched his now bleeding nose with his free hand. More minutes passed before Ares and Ephialtes entered a blade lock.

"You can't kill me moron. Only the Greek God of War will be able to do that but uh oh, she's currently poisoned and bound in chains isn't she?" Ephialtes taunted.

"I, Enyo, the Greek God of War, relinquish my title to my older brother Ares. Does the Olympian council agree with my nomination?" Enyo suddenly said.

"Yes," the others answered. Even Zeus. Ares suddenly felt a sense of immense power overtake him as he stood in front of Ephialtes. He felt incredible, like he could summon a skeleton army of former soldiers to rip Ephialtes apart, or summon thousands of different blades to impale the little bastard. Ares was the God of War once more. He felt Ephialtes's fear before it was on full display to everyone. It was probably because his eyes had ignited with fire once again. Ares smiled maliciously at Ephialtes.

"Uh oh, now he's standing right in front of you. And you betrayed his son to invaders didn't you? Then evaded his gaze for the following 10 years only to get killed for something completely unrelated. This time, the War God found you. And he's not happy," Ares said. Ares effortlessly pushed Ephialtes away from him and he flew back a few yards...right into Ares who had teleported behind him. Ares was even dressed in his old biker attire as well. Ephialtes fell to the floor and scrambled away in Athena's direction. Ares had forgotten what it was like to feel this powerful and able to terrify a mortal man with just his presence.

"Athena, help me please! He's going to kill me!" he yelled at her. Athena, however, was looking at Ares and she nodded once. Ares summoned his favorite spear (something he missed doing for several months) and hurled it right at Ephialtes. Dammit. It was going to go wide but Athena closed her eyes and moved her hand sideways as if he was guiding his spear. The spear struck it's target, the back of Ephialtes's leg and out through his knee. Ephialtes yelled in agony and tried to remove the spear from his leg but it was too late because Ares appeared in front of him and lifted him off the ground by the neck with one hand. With his other hand, he summoned Leonidas's sword.

"Useless am I? Who are you to call ANYONE useless when you thought that the invaders would reward you for betraying your own country. You were weak, pathetic and just wanted powerful friends. You don't symbolize bravery. The Greeks used to call you 'nightmare' afterwards because of what you did. You symbolize treachery and weakness," Ares growled and started to squeeze Ephialtes's throat. Ephialtes reached his hand out toward the Olympians. Ares followed his hand and saw that he was reaching out toward Zeus and Hera. Neither the King or Queen of the Gods had any sympathy for Ephialtes. Instead Hera nodded at Ares and Zeus followed suit. Ephialtes seemed to realize what that meant when he saw Ares's face light up with pleasure.

"NO! NO! NOOOOOOOO! GAK!" Ares plunged Leonidas's sword into Ephialtes's chest and twisted it. Ephialtes screamed in sheer agony but Ares was not done. See, Ares wasn't kidding when he told Ephialtes that he was going to tear him in half. He did so. Just like when he had killed Halirrhothius, it was easy. Like tearing a piece of paper…or a poor girl's tapestry in two. Ephialtes's final scream echoed through the Hall for several seconds before it ceased. It was over. Ares had finally gotten revenge for Leonidas. Ares threw the 2 halves of Ephialtes into Hestia's fire. He thought he heard Hestia make some kind of noise of disgust but Ephialtes's body burned regardless. Ares wiped his hands, summoned a large 2 handed sword, stuck it in the ground and leaned up against it while facing the Olympians. He waited for several seconds before a couple of them said "Thanks"

"There it is," Ares said and made to remove some of the chains on the few that thanked him. Enyo and Aphrodite were first though, both of which threw themselves at him when they were free.

"What happened?" Ares asked Enyo.

"Well Athena was about to fetch you from the Camp but we were informed that you had just arrived in the Hall for some kind of party you were throwing for Pops. We knew that didn't sound like you so we decided to check it out. Sure enough, there was a party with food so I decided to have a bit before I talked to you about this whole thing. It was when we all started to hurl Ephialtes came into view disguised as you. He started rattling off the same stuff you did a few months ago and we all thought it was you...until I saw you pressing a sword against the window. Orange is a good color on you. So I decided to test the fake you with something only you would know, he failed and I head butted him in the face," Enyo explained while Aphrodite kissed his cheek. Now that he got a good look at them, Ares could tell that they would be out of commission for a few more hours. Apollo could probably fix them. Ares asked him about that when he freed him and Artemis.

"Oh yeah, I'm gonna need a few hours though. That was just about as much poison as you had in your system. Remember how long that took?"

"Right, thanks Sunny Boy," Ares said as he turned to Athena and his parents. Athena rubbed her wrists after being free and Hera had even given Ares a hug before regaining her former demeanor.

"Did you help me?" Ares asked Athena.

"That's 2 you owe me now," she responded and even gave him a rare smile.

"Boy, I should be pissed at you for what you did...but even I can see what a good deed was sometimes" Zeus said and patted Ares on the shoulder.

"Thanks Pops," Ares said.

"WAR GOD! THE TIME HAS COME!" a booming voice suddenly said, shaking the entire Hall. Ares recognized this voice. It was him. His time was finally up. Thankfully he was able to make sure his family was safe.

"YOU MAY HAVE KILLED OUR BACK UP PLAN, BUT HALF OF IT STILL WORKED. THE OLYMPIANS ARE WEAKENED AND YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE LEFT. I AM WAITING AT THE SITE OF YOUR GREATEST FAILURE! YOU HAVE AN HOUR BEFORE I LEVEL THE ENTIRE COUNTRY AND THEN OLYMPUS ITSELF! COME AND DIE WAR GOD!" the voice of Ekhidnades boomed again.

"Who was that?" Artemis asked Athena.

"Someone Ares has fought before. See his scars?" Athena answered. Ares himself was staring at Hestia's fire, having a silent argument with himself about what he was about to do. The others looked at Ares and studied his face. How could someone do that to an Olympian god? Unfortunately for Ares, Enyo could tell what was happening inside of Ares's mind.

"No. You are not going without me," she said adamantly before hurling again.

"He said I have an hour before he kills us all," Ares responded in a monotone voice. "I have to,"

"So...so you're just going to go kill youself?!" Hera shouted at him.

"OH DON'T ACT LIKE YOU ALL CARE NOW!" Ares shouted back. "EPHIALTES HAD A POINT. YOU HAVE ALL HATED ME FOR LITERAL CENTURIES! I ONLY CAME BACK TO SAVE E, YOU KNOW, THE PERSON THAT ACTUALLY CARED ABOUT ME FOR MY ENTIRE EXISTENCE"

"I DO TO-" Aphrodite began.

"LIAR! DID YOU FORGET ABOUT WHAT I TOLD YOU IN PHOENIX?!" Ares shot back.

"I SAVED YOU AND ENYO FROM THIS GIANT'S POISON BEFORE, REMEMBER?! I EVEN SAVED YOU FROM CERTAIN DEATH A FEW DAYS AGO. THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME?!" Apollo shouted.

"AND I SAVED YOU FROM BASICALLY KILLING YOURSELF WHEN TYPHON SHOWED UP THE FIRST TIME!" Athena added just as loudly.

"I DIDN'T SPEND CLOSE TO 8 MONTHS LOOKING ALL OVER FOR YOU JUST FOR YOU TO KILL YOURSELF! WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE YOU? I WAS THERE LAST TIME TOO! HE WILL ANNIHILATE YOU IF YOU GO ALONE!" Enyo yelled, grabbing Ares by the collar of his leather duster. This would be pretty intimidating if Enyo didn't have a greenish tinge in her face. A few of the others started to make protests as well but Zeus had made himself heard

"Ares," he said. It was the first time in forever that he had called Ares by his name rather than boy. "Why don't we rally the demigod-"

"I KNEW YOU WERE GOING TO SAY THAT! YOU WANT TO HAVE SOMEONE ELSE DO IT! WE ARE GODS DAMMIT! WHY DO WE NEED TO HAVE OUR KIDS DO OUR DIRTY WORK?!" Ares shouted at him. He almost punched him in the face again but didn't because he saw that Zeus wasn't angry...but rather worried.

"Alright. You seem to know what this foe is actually like. You call the shots but you are not going alone," Zeus said calmly...for the first time in Ares's memory. Ares took a moment to process what was just said. Zeus and the others had a point. Even though they insulted him at every chance they got and generally said he was a nuisance, he was still their family too. Ares had defended Olympus alongside the others many times and most of the time they valued his ferocity whenever it was needed. He had battled Typhon across the US and killed the returning giants along with the rest of Gaia's forces with them (and his Roman son, Frank) but this was his fight. Like he told himself before he got to Olympus, the only person that was going to die in this fight would be him. He was going to face his death like a true Spartan. Like Lysadner...like Leonidas. Ares made his choice.

"Alright, fine. You win, father. All of you need to swear on the River Styx that you will follow my orders to the letter. Is that clear?" he said to the others. They all nodded and Enyo pulled out one of her swords before hurling again.

"Great. First order, don't follow me. You are to stay here and not engage Ekhidnades," Ares said

"WHAT?!" Enyo yelled. Many others started yelling indignantly as well.

"You heard me E. I'm not letting him hurt you again. Stay here. Athena, Artemis hold them back," he said, turning to Athena and Artemis. Athena grabbed Enyo and Artemis grabbed Aphrodite. Both goddesses had tried to run forward to stop Ares.

"BIG BROTHER NO! HE'S GOING TO KILL YOU! PLEASE!" Enyo was yelling and struggling to free herself from Athena. Athena looked just as upset along with Artemis.

"Wh-what is the site of your greatest failure?" Zeus asked, holding Hera back. Hera too had been trying to stop Ares from what he was about to do.

"Thermopylae," Ares answered and changed his form to that of his depiction in the video game Smite. Many of the others gasped. They knew he really was about to make one final stand against Ekhidnades. Enyo was not happy. She managed to free herself from Athena and grabbed Ares's shoulders.

"NO! I AM NOT LOSING YOU AGAIN! YOU PROMISED ME YOU WOULDN'T LEAVE!" She yelled in his face while tears ran down her own. Ares calmly removed her arms from himself.

"I also promised myself after the first time that I wouldn't let him hurt you again. This is the only way. The minor gods and demigods would be killed instantly. This is my battle E. If I die, rip him in half for me," he told her and pushed her back towards the others. "Someone help Athena hold her. My order of not following me still stands." Hermes and Poseidon assisted Athena in holding Enyo back. It proved to be quite the undertaking as she was pleading with such intensity that her hurling sessions became more and more frequent.

"Apollo, my final order. Heal them," Ares said. Apollo nodded. Ares took out his sword and slashed it in the air, opening a portal to Thermopylae. He took one last look around the Hall of Gods, unsure if he was ever going to come back. His eyes fell upon his little twin sister, now on her knees yelling "NO!" over and over and sobbing uncontrollably and reaching her arms out towards him.

"Goodbye E. Take care of Aphrodite for me," he told her and stepped through the portal.