Chapter 66

"You can't let this happen!" she roared, still not believing that those two treacherous bastards were actually going to get away with making her look like a fool.

"There's nothing I can do." he simply stated, absently dismissing his daughter.

"You're the King of the Gods, of course there is something you can do! There must be some way to break the bond that they have!

"Well…there isn't! Nothing can break a bond between a God and their Chosen."

"Except death… and after she…" she was abruptly cut off by her father's assertive voice before she could finish that thought.

"Let it go, Athena!" Zeus bellowed out to the naïve Goddess, "The girl is under Ares' protection and if you harm her, then he has the right to retaliate against you and he did make it clear that with this strange attachment that he has for her, he will stop at nothing until he has your immortal blood on his hands."

So…there was nothing that she could do to change what the Fates had made and she needed to accept that. By foolishly going after that mortal woman, she was only going to condemn herself to death because Zeus knew that if Athena were to cause the girl even the slightest harm, then Ares would end up asking for her head on a silver platter and there would be nothing that he could do to stop him. The King of the Gods would have to watch his own daughter die by the hands of his barbaric son and something told him that Ares would also love to make a display of it and it would be gruesome. That was something Zeus didn't want to happen, especially not to his favorite daughter but there was really nothing that he could do to prevent the War God from exacting his revenge if she dared to cross that line.

"Move on… this one mortal whore can't be worth this much fuss over and if she's thrown in her lot with Ares, then she's as good as dead any way." he strictly told her, leaving in a burst of white light, not wanting to hear any more on the matter.

The Goddess of Wisdom just huffed out an aggravated breath and then made a fireball appear in her hand and tossed it aimlessly and it collided into a nearby pillar. This was completely ridiculous ! That traitorous harpy was actually going to get away with turning her back on her! After everything that the Goddess had done for her over the years this was how she repaid her?! To think that she had actually been so kind as to have given Xena a chance to realize her mistake only made Athena more upset with what had just happened.

She could have killed her right there in her throne room, ended her pathetic life before she ever knew what was going to happen but no, she had granted her leniency for her actions against her and the end result was that adulterous slut siding with her deranged brother. It was like the little bitch had just slapped her right across the face and the thought only made the furious Goddess launch another fireball in the direction of the helpless pillar. If those cutthroats would have just done their job right then she wouldn't have been forced to deal with this pesky problem. How hard was it to kill one woman anyway?

She couldn't help the bitter laugh that soon followed that thought. Now it would be even harder with Xena's newly acquired title. She was practically off limits now, a minor setback yes, but one that wasn't entirely impossible to overcome. With that, Athena huffed out another frustrated breath at that not so pleasing idea, that robbed her of getting the satisfaction of carving that double-crossing whore up like a fish herself.

So that was what had persuaded her to the War God's side, the thought of becoming his Chosen. If Xena had only played her cards right then she could have been her Chosen but apparently the temptation of some completely carnal sex with the promise of a much greater reward to follow if she allowed Ares to soil her was an offer that was too much to resist for her petty mortal mind. Athena had no doubt that Ares had been scheming Xena all this time and for what, just so he could fuck her brains out whenever he wanted to?

It must have been some amazing sex though because that whore actually had the audacity to defend him to her. A low growl formed in her throat at that memory, followed by a snarky snort with the way they both were protecting the other with a fierce passion. It appeared that those two certainly deserved each other and another fireball formed in her hand and she launched it across the room, making the marble pillar shatter into a million pieces.

"So I take it things didn't exactly go as planned?" came a not so pleased voice from behind her- given the destruction that she was inflicting then it had definitely failed to go in her favor.

"What do you want now, Apollo?" she stingily barked out.

"Just checking to see how things went… I guess it is safe to say that Ares managed to sneak his way out of this one too…. What a surprise…"

"He made Xena his Chosen…." Athena hissed out, causing a completely flabbergasted look to come across Apollo's face.

He had definitely not been expecting that and this new found information was a bit alarming to him as well with what that meant exactly. Just when did that happen anyway? Never in a million years would Apollo have thought that Ares would do something like that. He had certainly gone centuries without one and it seemed that the one time he did decide to get one, the War God made precisely his future wife tethered to him for eternity?! What a sneaky bastard he was and that was something he certainly didn't want for his Xena.

"So what's the new plan?" he murmured, trying to remain unaffected from the news she had just told him, he didn't want to give himself up too early.

Athena wanted her dead but Apollo wanted her alive, he couldn't very well marry someone who was taking a little trip down to the Underworld to spend some quality time with Uncle Hades. That was surely going to put a damper on the honeymoon and fucking her in Tartarus was not the ideal situation in his opinion.

"I'm not sure yet, but I'll think of something…" she whispered out, more to herself than for the Sun God to hear, "…. She will pay…"

"Have you given any thought to the fact that there is more than one way to cause some serious harm?" Apollo innocently offered up, seeing this as his chance to at least stay within the loop of what she had planned to do next.

"I'm under the impression that you seem to have some strange interest in all this." Athena questioningly stated, looking towards her brother for the first time since he arrived.

"Like I mentioned before, I want to see this happen and sometimes you have to strike at the heart first, make it suffer a little before you can really reap the seeds that you've sowed." he mischievously specified, a wicked gleam forming in his eyes at the thought that he had roaming through his head.

"Why, Apollo, it would seem that you have something in mind." her curiosity was peaked big time by his statement and she was very interested in hearing what it was that he had to say this time. He just might be useful after all.

"That I do." was his devilish reply and he couldn't help the vindictive smile that began to form on his face as his little plan started to work its way into motion.

It wasn't long before Apollo began to inform Athena all about the ideal situation on how to inflict that much deserved pain within the hearts of both Ares and Xena.

Xxxxxx

At about the same time, in another part of Greece, our completely livid War God was vainly trying to calm himself down from that sneaky little bitch's strategy to try and snatch Xena away from him. Did she actually think that it would have just been that simple? That by running to daddy would have just made him back down without a second thought?! She was completely out of her mind if she thought that he was ever going to bow down to that wretched old man!

The Goddess was trying to take his Warrior Princess away from him and she was someone that he was not willing to part with that easily. Xena was his and it was about time that Athena and anyone else who wished to try and pry his darling Princess from his grasp had to understand that- and he had every intention in helping them do it.

"Lord Ares, is there…" before the priestess could get out the rest of her sentence, she was suddenly viciously slapped across the face.

"I don't want to be disturbed!" he thundered out, turning his malicious gaze towards the foolish priestess who definitely should have known better by now.

She immediately shrank back from him, trying to make herself invisible as she hastily made her way out of his throne room. That felt amazingly calming to Ares and he let loose a fireball and then another and soon proceeded to destroy his throne room. The other priests and priestesses that had unwisely decided to stay after his little announcement soon made their way towards the door, narrowly missed by the stray energy balls that were flying all around them.

This felt indeed good and exactly what he needed to get that conniving banshee off of his mind. She could try but she was only going to fail miserably and when she slipped, he would be there waiting for her. As he sent a fireball into an intricate display of swords that was lining a far wall, a malevolent smile began to form on his face at the thought of himself gutting that prissy Goddess like a pig. It was going to be so sweet and he was going to love every moment of it.

By this point, the room was a complete mess. Everything was either blown up or destroyed beyond recognition and one would have thought that a small battle had taken place within the room with how unrecognizable it really was. To the War God though, he was just getting started and it was no time like the present to redecorate this damn room and he continued his destruction of his own temple.

"Ares…?" came a voice in the distance but in his rage, it did not bare meaning to the War God and he continued with his mayhem, blasting his own throne into a thousand pieces without a second thought. .

A few seconds later though, right after he had blown up his altar table, there was a small touch on his shoulder, a feeling that he knew so very well and the sensation of it had made his skin tingle with a pleasurable responsiveness from where this person had touched him. In the mist of his anger though, it took him longer to process what had just happened and putting the two dots together between that voice and touch as an energy ball began to form in his hand.

"I said I didn't want to be disturbed!" he snarled out and before the person could even think about reacting to what he was going to do, Ares abruptly turned around and hit the person square in the chest with the sphere.

The impact of the violent blow sent them flying away from him, hitting a pillar rather sickeningly as their frail body collided into it. The sound of it brought an unusual sick smile to his face and Ares stood there breathing heavily after his attack and he even felt extremely better after it. That was exactly what he should have done from the start, cause a little damage and chaos among some unfortunate mortal fools. Though now that he had a little taste, he wasn't quite done with the one who had poorly decided to put themselves in harm's way and he was going to enjoy what he was now going to do to them.

A malicious grin slowly began to lighten up his face of the pain he was now going to inflict on them, this was going to be so much fun, and he slowly turned his eyes to the one who had so graciously offered themselves up to him. As he scanned the ruined area of his throne room, his auburn eyes soon landed on the person in question as they attempted to slowly pick themselves up from the floor before just collapsing onto it. At first, it took him a moment to realize it, but then suddenly, it was like someone had just ripped his heart out of his chest when he caught sight of that familiar armor and raven hair.

"No…"