The True Gods Chapter 9
Disclaimer I do not own any of the characters mentioned only the plot.
"Blah" speaking
"Blah" thinking
"Blah" mind speak
Jack woke up with a strange feeling in his head. It didn't hurt, however it felt like someone had reached into his head and casually re-sorted all his thoughts and memories to their liking. It took him a few moments before he realized that was basically what had happened, and Ares had also decided to add a little more info too.
"Man!" Jack thought, "First the Ancients and now the Theos?"
Jack stopped suddenly, realizing he had never even heard of the Theos – 'Until now,' he thought, then he shook his head. 'When did my life get so weird that stuff like this became normal?'
"What is with people always downloading their knowledge into my head? Is there a sign on my head that says 'storage bin - please send useless information here'?"
Jack groaned. Oh well, if he started talking in Ancient Greek all he would have to do is find Daniel, at least Greek was a language he knew Daniel spoke. Jack decided that it was probably a good idea to stop thinking about this now, or he was pretty sure he would get a huge headache.
He soon realized that the floor he was laying on was surprisingly soft. Further examination revealed that he wasn't actually on the floor at all, but was lying on a large bed with black silk covers and a black canopy surrounding it. He thought that he had been here before - but then realized that no, it was Ares who had been here before, that was Ares' memory, just as this was Ares' bed, and wasn't that just a bit creepy?
He decided to go out and walk around. He didn't feel very comfortable knowing that Ares had put him to sleep on his own bed when Jack knew – courtesy of Ares' instant download -there were plenty of guest rooms. He glanced at the bed again. He also now knew that Ares would not think twice about taking a member of the same sex to bed, and add on top of that he had checked Jack out quite thoroughly…
'Yeah,' Jack thought, 'A breath of fresh air would do me a world of good right now.'
Jack quickly exited the bedchamber, intent on finding his way outside; luckily one of the slight advantages of his newfound knowledge was that he was quickly able to find the exit through the main temple entrance. He walked out of the temple, and stopped dead. 'Big' was his first thought as stared out over the landscape. He quickly pushed that thought out of his head - there were more important things to concentrate on right now. First, get away from Ares temple, and second, find the rest of his team. Concentrating, he soon realized that while he knew that the rest of SG1 was somewhere on Olympus, he didn't know their exact locations.
Thinking about it, he figured that he had only gotten a very small part of Ares' knowledge and memories. He knew his way around Olympus, and he knew what had happened to the Theos around the time of the Goa'uld occupation; he did not, however, know any of Ares' actual memories of things like battle, or growing up. The only personal memories he had, in fact, been given, were of a few romantic conquests of Ares', and also some sparring matches against the other Theos. He got the distinct impression that Ares was trying to impress him, which sort of confused him - he was pretty sure it was Daniel whom Ares had been checking out, not him; not that he'd let Ares touch Daniel anyway, but still…it was slightly confusing to him.
Looking around Jack noticed that he had wandered quite a way away from Ares' temple. He spotted a small temple close by, which was about a third of the size of Ares'. Opening the doors and looking around at the various pieces of weapons and torture devices he immediately realized that he had wandered into the temple of Strife, the God of Mischief (and nephew of Ares).
Upon walking further into the temple he was drawn to a sword lying on a nearby table. Picking it up and swinging it around Jack realized that he actually knew how to use it. He grinned, moved into the centre of the temple, and started swinging it around in his hands. He found himself moving gracefully around the central area of the temple - apparently Ares also had also given him the knowledge needed to fight with a sword. Glancing around he suddenly realized that he could choose any weapon in the temple and wield it with the same almost instinctual expertise. His grin grew larger - what better place to get into some mischief than Strife's temple?
Ares glanced at Teal'c, smiled, and flashed them into a large arena. It was empty of course, but all Ares had to do was close his eyes and he could hear the roars of the crowds that had filled it when the battles of old had been fought in it. He felt a great sorrow that it was empty now - some of his favorite memories were based in this arena, and it saddened him that it was now all part of a very distant past. He smiled grimly…he would give almost anything to have it like that again.
Ares looked at Teal'c. "This is the main arena here on Olympus. Only a handful of mortals ever battled in it, and even now, when the stands are empty of spectators, you should be honored."
Teal'c gave a short bow to Ares. "Indeed, I am most honored."
Ares than proceeded to materialize two wooden staffs - they were made of oak and had designs carved into the smooth polished wood. He inspected the staffs carefully, and after making sure they were up to his expectations he gave one to the Teal'c. With another simple hand gesture he marked a circle, with a diameter of two and a half metres.
"The rules are thus…" he said, stepping to the edge of the circle and gesturing for Teal'c to step to the opposite edge.
"The moment we enter the circle the battle begins, the battle ends when one of us either steps out of the circle or is knocked unconscious."
Teal'c bowed once more to Ares and placed his staff in the ready position.
"Let us begin," he stated, stepping into the circle. Ares raised his staff into the ready position, gave a quick nod back, and also stepped into the circle.
Ares quickly swung his staff around, aiming for Teal'c lower legs, and Teal'c blocked with the bottom part of his staff. He quickly countered with a blow to Ares' head, which was also blocked. Glancing at each other they both nodded before moving to strike - they knew not to hold back.
They began exchanging blows back and forth and while Ares was the most likely to win, it quickly became obvious that he would not have an easy victory. Teal'c was carefully studying Ares throughout the battle. He was pleased to note that even though both he and Ares knew Ares was the superior warrior, he was not insulting him by holding back. He was enthusiastically throwing himself in to the fight – his first in a very long time - and Teal'c could see the shear joy of battle was in him, and it spoke to the Jaffa, lending credit to the theory that this indeed was the god of war. It also spurred the Teal'c to new heights in his fighting. Indeed, as they battled back and forth around the circle Teal'c realized that there had never been a moment in his life – not even when he had been fighting for that life - when he had fought better than how he was fighting right now. The thrill of the battle was in him as never before.
Ares ducked low under a blow aimed for his head, at the same time bringing up his staff to attempt to land a blow to the Jaffa's mid section. His shot was blocked swiftly. Ares felt glorious. It had been a long time since he had had a fight of any kind, and even longer again since he had had one like this.
Teal'c had earned his respect – he had never fought a mortal with such skill and strength. He was almost reeling with all the energy the Jaffa was sending him. He knew he was not fighting as well as he had before the Goa'uld came, but then again two thousand years of constant sleep would do that to you. The Jaffa was an incredible warrior who could have easily beaten some of Ares' top warlords.
He was also very impressed with the fact that even though the Jaffa knew he would lose he was determined that he would go down fighting. Ares knew a lot of warriors who when fighting against a god, especially the god of war, would give-up and fight half-heartedly. He had often suspected that some did this to avoid being too badly injured, since losing early meant they would be hit less times. Not this warrior though. This one fought with Ares and made him properly earn his victory. He smiled - he would have it no other way.
The fight went on with both warriors, god and mortal, giving it their all - attacking, feinting, and blocking; each trying to find an opening, each trying to get in the blow that would end the fight. They had both been hit numerous times, although Teal'c had the more serious injuries of the two. He had blood running down his face and three of his ribs were broken so far. Finally Ares decided to end it - he waited for the right moment, and he managed to hit Teal'c hard on his left side, knocking his staff out of the way, he quickly planted the end of his own staff on the ground, used it for leverage to swing his body around, and kicked Teal'c hard in the chest, knocking him out of the circle.
Teal'c fell to the ground with a pained groan - that last kick had broken another rib and it suddenly seemed much harder to breath for the Jaffa. He lay there a few moments before trying to get to his feet, but did not even get his upper body off the ground before Ares appeared above him, pushing him back down.
"Wait - before you get up let me heal your injuries," he said. He then placed his hands on Teal'c's chest, took a deep breath and concentrated. Teal'c soon felt his ribs snap back into place and the pain lessened, then disappeared altogether. Teal'c slowly got up, and Ares stood next to him. The Jaffa turned to Ares.
"Thank you," he said, bowing once more. "You are indeed a great warrior, I do not know if you are a god, but you certainly come from a great species that has much honour."
Ares smiled at him.
"And you Teal'c have also shown you are a mighty warrior. When I first saw you I thought you were my enemy but now I believe you to be someone I would be honoured to call an ally…or maybe something more?"
He looked at Teal'c giving him a questioning glance.
"To what are you referring?" asked Teal'c, raising his eyebrow.
"I am one of the ruling Gods of Olympus, head of the house of War. All other Gods of War are my assistants, but the Gods do not only have gods as assistants…some of us also have mortals. The corpses you saw in the room you first saw me were all the high Priest or Priestesses of the various Gods whom the Goa'uld locked in to prove that they were not afraid of us."
Here he paused and drew himself up straight.
"Teal'c former first prime of Apophis and ally of the Tau'ri, I hereby formally offer you the position of High Priest Of Ares God Of War, head of the house of War…do you accept?"
The end of Chapter 9 and my longest chapter yet please, please give me feedback I am currently having a extremely difficult time getting my idea's down on paper and really need help any suggestions would be most welcome.
kahless21
I'm glad you like it so much it is very cool to have a fan
Tempus1Thank you for the suggestions they are very helpful and I'm trying to improve my writing a lot.
Quick-demonThank you very much and about your friend maybe you can give him a crash course in Stargate?