AN: It's been forever! Like this story's been thrown in a jar and gathering dust in the corner! :P Sorry about that! I also had a slight writer's block with how to proceed and how to write certain people's reactions to events in the story. I know where it's going, I was just worried about how to get there, if that makes sense.

Read on and hopefully enjoy! :D

LW

LW

LW

Ares knew not how long he was in the jar.

He could hear the muddled sounds of the world going on outside, but nothing clear. Warped singing of the morning birds and the strange rustling of the brushes sounded different and warbled, he felt like he was in another dimension.

Then came the hunger.

His stomach growled constantly and his throat tightened from the stale air and lack of water. His infamous blood lust had stilled during this time, but not because he didn't have any anger. On the contrary, he had more than enough anger inside.

However, his body was too fatigued to completely feel it.

Some hours, he would dream of Aphrodite's red hair and those playful brown eyes. Other times, he could almost feel her soft touch along his arms and face, and her lips, those red mulberry lips of hers that could seduce and enchant even he, the god of war...

Gods, he missed tasting those lips.

He didn't want to think about her lovemaking. The thought of her was agony enough.

"Nmm..."

He rolled onto his side in attempt to keep out of the sludge as much as possible. Said sludge at the bottom of the jar was better left a mystery as to what made the mess. All he could see was blackness, though the view was the same whether he kept his eyes opened or not. His foot moved a little, running into a solid mass. He had taken off his armor ages ago, not being able to sleep with the hard metal on him.

If he wasn't so tired, he'd feel humiliated about it.

War should never be forced to remove his armor.

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He couldn't tell if it was day or night when he heard it.

Voices.

He roused himself from unconsciousness, trying to wake up enough to hear what was being said. However, his senses had been long dulled out and he only heard sounds, not words. The voices raised in volume and he heard an angered roar.

Then, the ground shook.

His jar tipped on its side, making Leon grunt as he was laid flat on his back. A rattling of chains and squeaks sounded and then suddenly, it came.

Light.

White, bright, burning light.

He growled low in his throat as he tightly shut his eyes. Some hands touched his shoulder and he feebly jerked away from them. He recognized his sister's voice as she scolded him- only hearing the tone of voice and not the words- before she grabbed his arm. Someone else grabbed his other arm and together, the two helped Ares out of the jar.

Sora he hoped. But the hands on his left arm were not like silk.

Sora, he dreamed as he lost consciousness.

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Mumbled words and echo-y sounds reached his ears.

He was on his back, but not the jar's walls. The feather mattress beneath his hands was definitely not the jar. I'm free. He rumbled out a rusty chuckle. Finally, I am free!

"Leon?" a soft voice murmured by his bedside.

His amusement was cut short. He willed his eyes to open. "So...phie."

His sister smiled and then offered him an earthen cup. "The herbs in this will help."

He took it and slowly drank it, handing it back when it was empty. Sophie wordlessly took it and placed it on the wooden table next to the bed. She rung a wet rag and then placed it on his forehead.

"How long was I..." he trailed off, not knowing how to word his previous situation without it being a wound to his pride.

"Thirteen months, give or take a few days."

"Who helped you?" he asked.

She looked at her brother, thinking about why he would ask her that. "Hermes."

He inwardly sighed and closed his eyes.

"Sora knows," Sophie quietly said as she stood up. "I wouldn't expect her to come any time soon."

Leon did not respond to that. Sophie left to hunt for food.

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It was a little under a month when Leon felt it.

There was an immortal nearby.

He had been walking through the woods around Sophie's hideaway when his instincts went off. He looked around and a flash of red caught his eye. He stepped forward to see it, but it darted behind a tree. His eyes narrowed and he waited for her to step out.

A moment later, and half her form came into his view.

"Hello," she murmured.

"Sora," was his curt response.

Her fingers picked at the bark a little and then she looked back at him. "Are you healing properly?"

He crossed his arms over his chest. "I always heal, unlike that husband of yours."

Her mouth thinned at his tone. When she had seen how sunken his cheeks still were, even after weeks of recuperating, her heart had softened. Immortals they were, but they thirsted and hungered like anyone else. The only difference was that they had to suffer through the pains long after the time a mortal would have died. Somehow, she couldn't picture him being in such a state. He was strength and brawn, fight and steel. His current state made her want to touch his face.

But now with his curt tone, it reminded her of what had kept her away.

"I should not have come," she mumbled under her breath before she turned away from him and walked.

She wasn't too surprised to feel his hand around her upper arm, nor was she alarmed by the fact that she had not heard his approach. She tried to wretch her arm out of his grip, knowing that her physical strength was nothing to his, even in his weakened state.

"Where were you?" he demanded as he continued to grip her arm.

"At home with my daughter," she bit out. "Now release me."

His grip stayed, but it did not tighten. "You could have brought her with you."

She tittered, though it was a humorless sound. "Yes, and perhaps the giants could have watched over her as I dutifully stayed by your bedside every night." Her eyes glinted with steel as she added, "or rather in your bed; for what other use am I to you besides that?"

"You know better," he lowly murmured, his eyes relaxing a little from their glare.

Her eyes watered for a second and then she looked away. "...I thought I did."

His grip loosened, but she stayed where she was.

"Why?" she whispered, her face back towards him, though by how miserable she looked, he'd prefer she didn't look at him right now. "Adonis didn't deserve to die."

He looked at her trembling lips and her woeful eyes. Why she asked him?

Because he knew how much Adonis meant to her.

Back then, when they were not on good terms, back when she was pregnant and he was angry and alone, he gave into the urge to see her. Silently, he followed her from her home in Lemnos to some woods near a city-state where the mortals lived. As he followed her, he noted that she was following another.

Adonis, the handsome mortal.

Ares had heard that they had been involved in the past, but he had not feared the mortal. He was confident that Aphrodite will only turn to him for pleasure and company. And she had when he had gotten her attention.

He was the only lover of hers.

Or at least, had been.

Ares watched as she sent a white dove in Adonis's direction and the handsome man smiled as the dove's head nuzzled him affectionately before moving once again. Adonis then walked in the direction that the dove was now flying in and the white bird led him to its mistress in a clearing with soft earth and grass.

She stood with her arms stretched out and Adonis came.

"You're back," Ares had heard Adonis murmur into her hair as they embraced.

"Yes," she whispered, a smile on her face. "I am."

When the two caressed the other's face and Adonis laid a hand on her pregnant belly, Ares felt the hot coals of fury.

"The child will be beautiful," Adonis said. "Having you as a mother."

"Thank you," she laughed and then it subsided the longer she looked upon him. Her hand went into his soft hair and his hand drifted away from her belly to her back. "You always were caring..."

"And you are always magnificent."

They stayed together for a few moments more and then they parted.

But it was not the only time they saw each other. Ares knew; he followed her again and again, making sure to keep enough distance to not alert his presence to her. Since she was not a fighter, her senses were not as sharp in this regard.

The fourth meeting he witnessed had been their last.

The couple kissed and kissed, mouths and hands moving as if desperate for the other. Ares backed away from the scene, having gotten enough. His eyes were dark and his mind was keen on violence.

Ares had to deal with Aphrodite being given to another. Then, just when he thought he had her, he found out she was carrying a child with no idea who the father was, meaning that Hephaestus laid with her some nights when they were not together. He could barely handle the idea of having to share her with such a weakling. His only consolation had been that Ken could not fulfill her the way he could.

If Ken could, Sora would have no reason to come to him.

The situation now with Adonis, though...it was different.

Ares knew it, his instincts screaming at him.

"Something had to be done," he darkly murmured. "I had no choice."

She gaped at him in disbelief. "No choice?" She pulled her arm away and he allowed it. "There is always a choice, Leon!"

Leon shook his head. "You would have stayed with him. You were angry with me and had no reason to continue the affair." He turned his head to the side, looking at the trees around. "I could not...would not stand by and let it happen."

She looked as if she were one of the Furies, her teeth clenched and her hands fisted. Her form shook as she attempted to reign it in, and slowly, he watched from the corner of his eye as the fight drained out of her.

As he looked at her, she thought about when Ares showed up after the birth of Harmonia, sending a basket of her favorite fruits. She had been mourning for so long, when he finally showed she was desperate for some sort of affection. So when he tasted the mango from her lips, her passion for him had rekindled and she latched onto him, wanting something to erase the loss of Adonis.

"There was no one like him," she softly murmured. Her fingers idly touched the string bracelet Adonis had made for her, a tiny red seashell dangling from it. "He was my heart," her voice quivered, her hand subconsciously going to the left side of her chest. "And you killed it out of pure selfishness."

He stood in silence. She was not surprised.

She hardly expected him to have a solution to this.

He blankly watched as tears fell from her eyes and landed on the ground. When she motioned her hand over her body, he did nothing to prevent her from transporting herself somewhere else.

He knew he had nothing to offer.

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From a distance, Eris watched as the god of war took out his frustrations on a nearby tree.

All that simmering anger and no proper outlet. She tutted to herself, shaking her head in mock sympathy.

"You'll get your fight," she promised, "whether you want it or not."

LW

Many months passed by.

Sora only noticed the passage of time because her child was growing up. The speed of aging differed from god to god when a god was born out of a womb. Some children stay young for longer periods of time based on their desire to be that way. Others are impatient to become adult sized and grow up faster than they needed to.

In the case of Harmonia, she was neither slow or fast, now the equivalent age of a three year old. Those that grew fast only stayed in this state for a day or so. Harmonia's growth had been a little rapid, but then it stabilized at the three year old age.

"She wants to run to the deer herself," Sophie had jokingly told Sora one day when she was visiting.

Sora smiled as her little pearl wobbled over to the wild birds. Harmonia's desire to walk seemed to have spurred the sudden growth. My darling wants to explore. Her curiosity in nature was undoubtedly nurtured by Artemis.

"Aphrodite," Hephaestus called out from the house. "We need to go."

"Yes," she replied, walking over to Harmonia and picking the child up.

Harmonia's eyes took in the golden earrings and softly "ooed" at the way the sun reflected off of it.

"Mama wears sunbeams!"

Sora's mood cheered a little. She hasn't been in the best of moods as of late. The wedding reception on Mount Olympus was the last thing she wanted to do. She couldn't even recall who was getting married.

"You have a sunbeam here," Sora lifted up Harmonia's little hand, a golden bangle around her small wrist.

"Like mama!"

Sora's smile faded a little, her daughter's grey eyes beaming up at her.

Like your father, she thought.

LW

The wedding ceremony had been a blur to Sora.

It wasn't until the banquet that she had come to.

She had been walking across the way to her friends when she saw something golden roll before her and then stopped. Curious, she noted that it was a golden apple with something written on it. She tilted her head and read:

'To the fairest.'

She laughed and then bent over to pick it up, only to see two other hands doing the same thing.

One hand belonged to Hera and the other...

"Athena?" Sora curiously asked.

Her friend looked up at her. "The apple rolled close to me," she said as an explanation.

Hera snorted under her breath, but it was not silent at all. "My dear, I think fighting has addled your brain. " Athena's sharp blue eyes narrowed on Hera. "It says, 'To the fairest,' not 'the most masculine.'"

Sora would have laughed at the affronted look on her friend's face if the apple didn't have her attention.

"I believe it is for me," Sora confidently said.

"Do not mistaken why you had multiple suitors," Hera breezily replied, "Beauty is not the only reason why men come."

Sora gasped. Athena shook her head.

"This argument is getting us nowhere," Athena said, "we need an unbiased judge."

As they thought of whom, a whisper of a name came from the apple, though the ladies had not noticed the strangeness.

"Paris," they said at once.

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AN: And the "Golden Apple of Discord" is here! Let the chaos begin - as if it hasn't already started!