XVII. Final.

Aftermath (Ares)

Ares awoke wrapped in very comfortable blankets. That was confusing. The last thing he remembered was falling to the ground at Thermopylae and passing out due to pain. Pain which he no longer had now. Ares examined his arms. No more poisoned scratch marks. He felt the sides of his ribs and those wounds too had been healed. He noticed that he had no shirt on either. Reluctantly he looked down at his stomach to see that the wound had been healed but a vertical scar was now stretched across his chiseled abs.

"Great...bastard gave me another one...with my own damn sword no less" Ares muttered to himself as he ran his fingers up and down the scar.

"Ah, there he is." a voice off to his right said. Ares recognized that voice. It was Paeon. Ares must be in his office. The last time he was here was many months ago before his outburst towards the others for his centennial physical. And of course there was the time he came here for aid after Diomedes injured him. He turned and sure enough, Paeon was sitting in a chair reading some type of chart like he usually did nowadays. Paeon put the chart down, adjusted his glasses and spoke.

"How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Ares retorted quickly. Paeon arched an eyebrow.

"Right. You get impaled with your own godly weapon and nearly die and the best you can say is 'fine'? No one else is here. I made sure of that. I didn't want little sisters or girlfriends pestering me while I healed you," Paeon said. Ares scowled. Mainly because he realized that he had no pants on either. Sure, half of the gods liked to remain naked but Ares liked his biker look. He had no problems with certain goddesses (or god) if they had decided to go naked for the day.

"What happened?" he asked, rubbing his eyes. "How did I get here?"

"Thanatos. He retrieved you from Thermopylae. You never made him swear not to follow you so he retrieved you and brought you to me. Good thing too. You nearly died for real. I don't know what those undead Spartans gave you but it was not effective," Paeon explained. "Your injuries were far more severe than when you came to me during the Trojan War. That only required one dose. These injuries required multiple. Ekhidnades's poison is really powerful and nasty stuff it seems but we don't need to worry about that anymore."

"Cause I killed the absolute shit out of the bastard. Serves him right. Framing me...driving me to leave E and Aphrodite and say a lot of stuff towards Athena and Pops…" Ares said...out loud. Paeon grinned.

"Oh my, dost mine ears deceive me? Does the bloodthirsty God of War feel a little sorry for what he had said and done to his Olympian companions?" he said slyly. Ares threw his pillow at him.

"Either way, my work here is done. I hear the others are still in the Hall of Gods waiting for you. You are indeed free to go," Paeon said and went back to his chart.

"Thanks Paeon. Really." Ares said earnestly and got out of the bed and put his pants on. Paeon recoiled at Ares's hospitality.

"Uh...well… you are most welcome Ares," Paeon answered, a bit flustered. Ares guessed that he didn't expect any kind of thanks from him.

"I would make haste to the Hall. Your sisters are quite antsy." Paeon added. Ares registered the plural form of "sister" as he put on a red Hawaiian shirt. There was a tag that said "To Stud Muffin" with a lipstick kiss mark on it so he decided to humor Aphrodite and wear it.

"Sisters? You mean sister right? Like just Enyo?" he asked, lacing up his boots and putting on his sunglasses.

"I did not stutter. Good luck Ares," Paeon said and bid Ares good day with a nod of his head.

Ares made his way towards the Hall of Gods after leaving Paeon's office. He spent the entire time figuring out what he was going to say to everyone about his actions for the past couple of months. A few minor gods and one or 2 of the Muses had waved to him while he passed. Apparently word of Ares's duel with Ekhidnades had gotten around. Made sense. Enyo wasn't exactly quiet whenever she was upset and Ares had basically gone to kill himself. He still couldn't believe that he was even alive right now. In one day, he had avenged the death of Leonidas and killed his mortal enemy. Hard to believe that this time last week, Enyo had punched him in the face and shared a pizza with him in Washington state. But now here he was, the Greek God of War once more. He intended to keep it that way for as long as he existed. Regardless of how angry the others made him. He had Aphrodite, the most gorgeous goddess on Olympus and his little sister to help him pull pranks on the others. Ares arrived outside the Hall of Gods within a few minutes. He could hear the others talking inside as the door was ajar. They were mainly voicing their concerns about whether or not Ares was going to live or die. He spotted Enyo off to the side with her head against Eris's shoulder. Aphrodite was caressing Ares's throne lovingly as if doing so would help Paeon heal him. Ares quietly pushed the door open a little more and edged inside. The others hadn't heard him and he went to go examine the window that he had broken a little over an hour ago. Yep, that was definitely coming out of his paycheck. He'd only been looking at the broken window for about a minute or so before he heard his nickname being yelled by the god he had screamed at and punched in the face.

"B-B...BOY!" Zeus shouted startling everyone in the Hall. Ares turned to see Zeus pointing at him and the others staring in his direction with looks of absolute shock on their faces. Ares made a "it's me" kind of gesture before someone that smelled like olives had thrown herself at him.

"Don't you ever...EVER do something like that again!" Athena half yelled and half sobbed into his shoulder.

"Uh...Athena...what's with this display of emotion?" Ares asked apprehensively.

"I told you. YOU. ARE. MY BROTHER," she said, clasping his face in her hands. "Plus I need a rematch in Axis vs. Allies." Athena smiled at him.

"You're on!" Ares answered and clapped Athena on the back. Sure he'd be pissed at her for some dumb reason in about a few days or hours but that didn't matter right now.

"Nice job Spartan," she added before being thrown to the side by Enyo who didn't bother to hide her emotions on seeing him either. She clutched Ares so tightly that Ares thought she was drunk again and...stuff was going to happen or that he was just about to be strangled to death. Ares could barely hear what she was saying through her tears but he caught phrases like "my big brother's ok" and "I love him so much."

"Love you too E," Ares whispered into her ear. "I'll stay with you this time. You can count on it." Enyo looked into his face and she could tell he meant it and she pecked him on the cheek. The other gods had embraced Ares as well which was surprising even to him. Hera, through tears, also told him to never do what he did again. Apollo, Poseidon and Hermes clapped him on the back but Hephaetus was the one that surprised him the most.

"Hey brother," he said into Ares's ear. Hephaestus, as usual, smelled like grease and oil but Ares ignored that. "You want her? We don't have to tell mother. I've been seeing her spa friends for a couple decades now anyway. That Tunnel of Love trap in Denver has been there since like the 80s I think." Ares looked from Hephaestus to Aphrodite, who had fainted minutes ago when Zeus yelled "Boy", trying to comprehend what he was hearing.

"Um...you're letting me be with Aphrodite...like for real? As if you'll stop trying to find new ways to trap us?" Ares asked.

"Well yes and no. Gotta keep that going so mother doesn't know about the new arrangement," Hephaestus said. Ares pondered the offer for a moment.

"Deal. Thanks brother," Ares said and shook Hephaestus's greasy hand. He took the first opportunity he got to wipe the grease off on Athena's robe (Athena rolled her eyes but still looked amused regardless). Hephaestus walked away looking very pleased that he didn't have to deal with Aphrodite anymore and then Aphrodite herself walked over with an odd look on her face.

"Uh...right. I'm a moron. A dumbass. A clown. A complete idiot for fighting that guy by myself. Do I need to go on?" Ares said to her as she reached him and grabbed his face in a vice like grip.

"Never. Do. That. To me. AGAIN!" she said before embracing him tightly and began to rattle off the other stuff she was planning to do with him later. Ares needed to chug some ice cold nectar to calm down after hearing all of those fun activities. Zeus walked over to him next.

"Ares, son, about what happened…"

"I know. What kind of apology do you want this time? Opera again?" Ares asked and folded his arms.

"No. You saved Athens and Olympus. I came to thank you. Despite everything you've done and said, you are still my son and I am going to forgive you," Zeus said and held out his hand. Ares shook it. He had regretted this immediately as Zeus sent an electrical current through Ares's body as a joke. He laughed jovially as Ares fixed his hair and picked up his fallen sunglasses.

"Real funny Pops" Ares said but gave Zeus a slight smile. He got one in return.

Ares's triumphant return to Olympus was the subject of the news for the following weeks. He gave some interviews explaining where he had hidden and how he was able to kill the giant Ekhidnades. He even paid a visit to Hades to thank him for helping him open a portal to Chaos.

"Anytime nephew, I'll see you in December. I just recalled yet another humorous story about your father," Hades told him.

"Outstanding," Ares answered before returning to Olympus. Ares even ventured to Camp Half Blood to tell his children that the threat of Ekhidnades was eliminated and that they were free to leave the camp on quests again.

"Will you help us on our quests dad?" one of the campers asked.

"If you show me that you are a fierce warrior, I shall assist," Ares answered before teleporting away. Afterwards, he met Eris and Enyo in the courtyard of his fortress. Apparently Enyo had noticed the new addition he had added just the other day. Enyo was on her knees while Eris patted her shoulder. Enyo was standing in front of a statue much like the one of Ares and Leonidas except this one was of Enyo and Lysander. The stone Lysander was standing on part of a ship's bow while Enyo stood behind him with one of her swords raised and her mouth open in a war cry. Enyo heard Ares approach and threw herself at him again.

"Thank you big brother," she said shakily and gave him a peck on the cheek.

"Anytime E. Anytime," he answered and ruffled her hair. Soon after, Ares decided to visit Phoenix again along with Aphrodite. He had told her that he had a good idea for a date so she had accompanied him. When they got there, Ares began to look up and down the street as if he was looking for someone.

"Ares, who are you looking for?" Aphrodite asked as Ares spotted who he was looking for and snapped his fingers.

"Come on!" he exclaimed. Minutes later, he pulled up to the blue and red haired women holding hands and sitting on a bench near the street in a brand new car.

"Richter?!" they both shouted at Ares as he got out of the car along with Aphrodite, who was disguised as a beautiful German supermodel. She winked at the 2 women on the bench and both of them sighed wistfully.

"Carla, Sophie." Ares said in his old German accent. Aphrodite giggled at him but she herself didn't speak.

"Who's uh...who's your friend," Carla said, looking Aphrodite up and down.

"My girlfriend. Things are much better now that I got my old job back. I was in the area and remembered how much you 2 helped me when I initially arrived back here. You gave me aid and 20 bucks to get home. Never forgot. I must ask. Which one of you can drive?" Ares asked them. Sophie raised her hand. Ares threw the car keys at her and she caught them. It took her a moment before she registered what Ares meant.

"Wh-what?!" she yelled. Carla looked just as shocked. Aphrodite was too. That was good news for Ares.

"Not kidding. It's yours. Paid off and everything. Enjoy," he said. Carla and Sophie thanked Ares and gave him a hug before they got into their new car and drove off giggling like young children.

"Dad?" another voice said. Ares turned to see Clarisse standing nearby. She looked a bit grumpy.

"Ah yes. You. What's this I hear about you saying I threaten to destroy Athens every 5 minutes? Come here. There's a toilet with your name on it!" Ares walked over and picked up Clarisse but gave her a noogie instead. Clarisse looked even more grumpy now.

"How come those strangers get a car from you? What do you mean they helped you when you crashed?" Clarisse asked.

"Long story. Will tell ya later. Graduate with good grades and we'll see about the car." Ares answered. Clarisse gave him a hopeful smile and walked off toward her college campus.

"So...anymore stops to make before I get to have you all to myself?" Aphrodite asked him and brushed the nape of his neck with her finger.

"Not to my knowledge...wait, I wanted to go sharpen my spears though," Ares began before Aphrodite kissed him tenderly. "But that can wait," he added as they broke apart after several seconds.

"Yes, yes it can," Aphrodite answered and the pair of them teleported away to their next destination.

"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him."

― G.K. Chesterton