Chapter 44

The heavy doors to the dining hall swung open on their hinges with the groaning of ages. Three men stepped forward into the room resting their helmets under their arms as they did so.

Alecta stood in front of them, the tableful of people behind her and a little to the left; everyone from the table staring in disbelief at what was taking place.

"Gentlemen, welcome." Alecta spoke to the men, turning to them, a hint of a smile on her face.

Without a word all three men dropped to one knee, bowing out of respect.

"What do you need, m'lady?" the first man spoke.

"First, please rise. Nobody has bowed to me in centuries. Things aren't the same as they once were. Secondly, lunch is being served, and I'm sure that after your travels you will be quite hungry. Come, eat, we will talk of many things; but we will do so on a full stomach."

Each man bowed his head just once more before standing to his full height. Alecta rushed forward and took their helmets from them and, with help began to remove their armor and set it aside, so they could be more comfortable while they ate; each man was left clothed in a basic tunic which covered all the necessary areas quite well. Upon getting their armor off, Alecta walked over to one of the men and they smiled at each other before she embraced him in the best imitation of a bear hug she was able to give.

"What did you bring me my friend?" she asked the man as she hugged him to her.

"I have brought elephants, more than you could ever hope to count." He smiled down to her. "I know you loved them so."

"I have brought you my skills as a commander….' The second man spoke up.

"And I have brought you my infantry, 10,000 strong." The third pitched in.

After releasing the first man from her tight grasp, Alecta stepped back and bowed to them slightly, smiling wistfully as she did so.

"In that case, we may stand a chance after all. Come the food is ready; you must eat, and then get yourselves ready. And we must talk."

The three men began to sit around the table, when Alecta remembered her manners.

"I apologize, one moment; I nearly forgot to introduce everyone to our guests.' She smiled as Selim looked at her a grin on his face. "Ladies and gentlemen, our guests for our time here at the palace…..three wise men. The 'great commander', Alexander….haha, that rhymed. The scourge of God, my dear friend Atila. And last, but certainly not least, king of the 'Immortals', Hydarnes. Boys, these are my newer friends. Aaron, Dave, Spencer, Emily, JJ, Garcia, and Morgan; that young man there is Jack, and the other one, sitting by JJ is her son, Henry. Will, sitting to the other side of Henry is JJ's husband."

"Um…..?"

"Yes, Emily. You're quite right. Alexander The Great and Atila The Hun. If we are to stand any chances at all, we were going to have to call on the best."

"And Hydarnes?"

"My lady…."

"Reid…." Alecta smiled at him.

"Hydarnes was….is…. the commander of the 'Immortals'. They were the Persian Infantry; their numbers never dropped below 10,000. It was said that anytime one of them was killed or fell in battle, that another member immediately stepped in to take their place. It's not known how large their numbers actually were, but 10,000 is the given estimation. It is mainly because of them that the Spartans were defeated at Thermopylae."

Hydarnes bowed his head to the young man, 'Tis good to see that not everyone has forgotten our efforts."

"I became interested in some of the ancient war-fare as a child. I read a lot of books about the subject when I had trouble sleeping." The last word was spoken slowly as if Spencer was suddenly remembering something, and he turned to look at Alecta. "You were trying to tell me of this all back then weren't you?"

Alecta smirked at Spencer, 'Mostly, yes."

"If I can ask a question,' Will chimed in.

"Go on, yes."

"It's been on my mind for some time now; if there are so many of you, then how have you been able to hide in plain sight?"

Alecta took a drink from a silver cup, almost smiling at the taste that she surely would recognize. "That is actually a good question Will. Have you ever been doing a spot of research and come across the name of a person and noticed that sometimes either a birth year or death year and any information surrounding that might be missing? Or sometimes, there might be birth/death information but it seems sketchy. For instance if the death information is 100% accurate, you've double and triple checked to be sure; but the birth information might seem a bit off, like if the birth year given seems like it would make the person 150 years old at the time of death…..That's usually one of us. Often times the birth year quoted is wrong, not for the reasons that are obvious to your kind, meaning that the person would have been too old at the time of death for it to be feasible. But that the birth year is actually unknown, that the person has outlived all others who might know. And this is IF any of this information is given. How many times have you run across the situation in research Dr. Reid, where someone from centuries ago is said to have died for one reason or the other, but there is no known death information ot tell you why or when? That is one of ours. As for how we can manage to do that and stay hidden away from your kind, we do our business in private. Like right now for instance. There is this situation that we are in; the undead are alive once more, and we find ourselves here on the brink of destruction and how many other people in the world do you think know of this? We don't announce our business to the world Master Will.

As much as we don't always get along, as much as my opponent and I may despise each other, we keep our business quiet. Do you know how many people would hunt us otherwise?

I myself spent a good portion of the Dark Ages in a convent….." Seeing the gleam in Selim's eyes, "Don't look so smug. The Dark Ages were a terrible time for our kind, you know that as well as anyone."

"Well yes, but I have a hard time picturing you of all people in a convent. You just don't seem the type. You remember back during the days of the Empire?..."

"Oh dear, were you there that time that she…' Atila was about to offer up his own fabled recollection.

"Yes, I remember the days of the old Empire in stunning detail, you don't have to regale me or the others with stories of my past exploits, thank you very much."

"It's no wonder that you couldn't be found. You were hiding in the one place none of us would ever have expected to look."

"Really, Selim? Am I that bad?"

"It's just that most convents have a vow of silence. You don't know the meaning of the word. And you've never been big on chastity if memory serves me correctly."

"Well stuff your memory. It was the Dark Ages, superstitions were running rampant. Our kind was being hunted on a daily basis. We lost a great many friends during that time. Where else was I going to go? Knowing my story of origin it seemed as though the safest place for me was in one of the boss' houses, among his followers. And I'm still here, so shut it."

Atila couldn't resist. "Do you still do that thing with your….?"

"Try me and find out." Alecta arched an eyebrow.

"She challenged you old man. What are you going to do?" Alexander almost laughed.

"For the time being I am going to have to assume that she does."

Alexander actually made a clucking sound like a chicken.

"Look man, the last time she got her hands on me….."

Alecta began snickering as she tilted her cup to her lips to drink, 'I almost broke you. Scourge of God. Nonsense."

"But God we had fun, didn't we."

"There were moments…."

"M'lady, I am actually quite surprised that you would call me." Hydarnes stated.

"Why would you be surprised about that?"

"Well, just that the last time we met, we were…..on opposite sides. You were doing your dead level best to save the Spartans, and I was doing the best I could to annihilate them."

"And you succeeded, eventually. And I wasn't happy about that. But, that was 2,000 years ago, at least. Things are different now. The enemy of my enemy and all that blather…..We have some similar problems that have arisen. And I figured we could just help each other to wipe them out once and for all. It will take less time; you and the others will be able to get back to your eternal rest quicker this way.

I may have hated you for what you did to the Spartans that day, but it was war, and you were merely following orders. As long as you fight for me and help me achieve the goals that I am after at this time, we can call it even. All will be forgiven as far as I'm concerned."

"Then let it be so. I don't care to fight with others of my kind if it can be stopped. There are too few of us left these days."

"Yes, the world used to be a bigger place then." Atila ruminated over his drink.

"No, it's still the same, just less in it for us." Alecta said wistfully as she placed her cup back on the table.

"What do you mean by that?" Reid asked.

"I'll show you. But first, eat. You will need your strength. And do let there be music, to lighten the mood a bit."

The Sultan clapped his hands and the musicians were lead into the dining hall to sit and play. Everyone began to eat; they were quite hungry and everything was so delicious. The music was upbeat and made the whole room want to laugh and have a good time.

"Oh, I believe I know this tune." Hydarnes said, jumping up from his seat, 'Care for a dance m'lady?" he leaned over to take Alecta's hand.

"I don't think that would be the best of ideas. It was never just 'dancing' with us, was it? And things are different now. I'm with someone else."

"Nearly 2,000 years have passed, I should have expected change. A man can dream though right?"

"I haven't heard that song in so long. Sometimes I get it stuck in my head. Until the last few months or so, I couldn't think at all where it had come from."

"Why, what happened?"

"I asked to become one of their kind."

"Why?"

"Because being a Neolithic Goddess of war was just too main stream."

"This is true."

"Anyway, eat what you can, you have plans to make. I will go clear the deck for you."

Hotch found he wasn't quite as hungry as he once was; he'd eaten nearly half of his food anyway, so he was really done. He thought he'd learn more by following her to wherever she was going.

"Lex, what do you mean by clearing the deck exactly? And what were they talking about in there?"

"Clearing the deck….uh, the map…the big map on the floor like the one in the other palace, castle, whatever…."

"What were they talking about? And don't try any of the tricks of avoidance that you usually employ to try to lose me in the conversation."

"There are some things that you don't need or truly want answers to Aaron my dear."

"You were with…..were they lovers?"

"You want to know?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure you really want to know?"

"Lex."

"Yes! They were lovers; do you want to know how many I've had? I am 8,000 years old, do you even know how many men I've kept all this time; your life is waaay too short for that, and I don't have the time…."

"Make time."

"You can't be serious. Look out there in the Strait, into the sea, those ships aren't rubber duckies in Jack's or Henry's bathwater. They're real ships with real cannons, real men waiting to tear out your throat and mine if they get the chance. Those creatures are coming after us and things are going to hell so damn fast….and you want me to tell them to wait just a few hours so you can be a priest and I can be a sinner, and we can hash all of these things out in the wash? That's just great."

With that she turned an continued on her way into the wing of the palace that contained the armory and anything that dealt with war, including the large map she had spoken of. The look on her face would have made you think of a vicious thunder cloud that gathers right before a tornado or a hurricane in this instance. She never slowed down, just left Hotch to keep up with her the best way he could. He knew she was furious with him and in some way she had every right to be. Hotch could not for the life of himself imagine why it would bother him that she had any sort of romantic involvement with any or all three of those men when it happened nearly 2,000 years ago. He was really being childish and he knew it, but he couldn't help himself.

Hotch finally made it into the room with the large map inlaid on the floor. By the time he had gotten there Alecta was moving some of the larger pieces out of the way and placing others where they were needed to have them in correct positions. He jumped right in helping her with some of things that were a little too heavy for her to lift alone.

She sat down in an old leather chair, worn but still intact, behind an old desk of the Ottoman style; she began leafing through some of the papers there, writing things down as she went.

"Hmmm. Let's see. There's, what six ships out there…couple hundred men altogether. We need some heavy artillery around the battlements to keep them where they belong. I have a man that can lead their efforts. Now, if I only had some reliable information as to what they were planning for the land battle…."

"Lex I am sorry. I've been acting like a jerk. I don't know why I have, but I have. And I'm sorry."

"You're right you have been acting like a jerk. What happened between me and the men in there happened centuries ago. For that matter, I haven't been 'romantically' involved with one of your kind in quite some time, at least three, if not four generations. I thought I had lost my infamous attachment to your people. I worried there for a moment. I understand quite clearly why you were behaving like a 2 year old. But I haven't got the time to explain it now.

And, where are my damned spies?! Really, it shouldn't be this hard to get a little information."

"Coming, coming…" they heard a voice entering the room before they saw anything. "Sorry to have kept you."

"Oh, Gabriel…I didn't know it would be you. Sorry for getting impatient there. What do you have?"

"It's quite alright m'lady, I'll let it slide." He winked at her quickly. "What I have learned so far….You will need more than what Hydarnes and his 'Immortals' have brought with them."

"They have no less than 10,000 men."

"Yes, and from what I have learned is those Persians alone are outnumbered 6 to 1."

Alecta had begun pacing when Gabriel started speaking and now she kicked one of the models that had rested on the large map, launching it halfway across the room.

"Damn it! What am I to do? I scrounge up 10,000 infantry, he comes up with 60,000. Who the hell is really spear-heading this? It can't all be down to a damned vampire. I don't give a shit if he's 600 years old or not. I know he's evil and birds of a feather flock together. But damn!"

"He has at least 200 hundred that are like him, if you get my drift."

"You have got to be shitting me. Well do we know who is really behind this?"

"Not currently, but I have men on it. They have been told to report directly back to me immediately. And there are horsemen. He has horsemen."

"Of course he does. Good thing that I have a few of my own."

"Thousands of horsemen…..how many do you have?"

"Gabriel, really a pissing contest? Besides, Atila has brought elephants. It's ever so much harder to bring down one of them than a simple horse.

There isn't a drink in all the world strong enough to wipe today out of existence is there?"

"You would know about it if there was."

"You trying to call me a lush old man?"

"If the shoe fits as they say…."

"Alright, go, finish collecting data, find out everything that you can and let me or the Sultan know immediately."

"Of course m'lady." Gabriel turned and vanished as suddenly as he came.

"What now?" Hotch asked.

Alecta was on the verge of answering him when Ares popped into the room.

"What the hell do you want now?"

"Somebody's panties are in a knot….or are you even wearing any?"

"Ares!"

"Fine, I really only came to gloat. Looks like I chose the winning side. We out number you 6 to 1 in infantry alone. And from what I can tell you don't have a single horseman. And nobody on the sea...I suppose I'd be cranky too, you know if I was on the side that was facing certain death."

"You're right about a lot that you just said. I'll give you that. We are severely outnumbered. Yes, we are."

"And here you are, trapped in human form. Isn't that a bitch?"

"You have no idea. But make no mistake….once I'm out of this form all bets are off. There will be nothing that can stop me, there isn't a damn thing that your people have that can come close to me on the battle field."

"That's only IF you are able to be released from your bones. And there aren't many around that are stupid enough to do so; and of those that are that ignorant, not many know how. But I do wish you and yours luck. You're going to need it this time."

With that Ares exited just as quickly as he arrived.

"Oh! I hate him! I don't know what I ever saw in that bastard. Come Aaron, we need to go and we need to go now."

"Where to?"

"Well first we need to speak to Mehmed and let him know what we have learned. Then there are a few churches that we need to…um…visit. And I have to find someone that can and will get me out of these bones."

"How, exactly is that supposed to happen? What do they have to do to release you from your bones?"

"It's quite simple really. All they have to do is kill me."

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Post AN: First things first; THANK YOU to the people who have been adding me or my stories to your favorites list, and for the few reviews that I have gotten. I've been lucky so far and gotten nothing but awesome reviews from everybody that has chosen to do so; so that's been great. I think I've gotten pretty lucky with my reviewers so far; even if you've been anonymous or under 'guest' you've been super nice to me, so thank you.

Next….had to wrap it up there or it stood the chance of being a super long chapter, and it's already verging on 3,500 words….

Not sure yet what I am going to update next; I usually go by whatever is on loop in my mind….like sometimes I will get scenarios from this story in my head for days on end, or one of my other stories….although I have had a weird hang up on the poem about the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere lately….Jenny Crum….that might lead to something entirely different, away from FF, not sure about that though, could just be a whim.

Now I have the lovely task of trying to figure out which story to work on next….yay me!

Love you people.