(Some history will be changed in this fic)
Everyone feels fear, no matter how brave they are or how well prepared they are, there is always a lingering feeling of dread a warrior feels as he goes into battle. Maybe they will never see their family again, never be able to do something they always wanted to, or never get to say something they had always wanted to say. No matter the battle, the time, or place each side will always feel the cold embrace fear.
Stories have been told of a dark, menacing figure that appears at major parts of history and leaves his victim in agonizing fear right before they are struck down. This figure is the embodiment of fear, a being whose origins are known to a select few and who will not hesitate in his duty. To bring fear to those who he deems worthy.
1190 B.C. Troy.
The Trojans valiantly stood outside their gates, waiting for the outcome on the battle before them. Paris had challenged Menalaus to a duel for the right to be with the beautiful Helen. As of now, Paris was going to be slaughtered. The young Prince had little to no battle experience and would be crushed by the superiorly trained Menalaus. The Prince struck at the King and his blade was parried away. The kings spun around and slashed a deep gash in the Prince's thigh causing his to fall. The king them strikes him in the face leaving the Prince with a bloody nose as he looks up into the sky dazed. He sees crows that circle above him waiting for the kill. He looks back down to find the blade beside his neck ready to take his head off. He looks back up at the king only to find the king is not there. Rather there stands a warrior wearing midnight black Greek armor. His helmet obscures his face and a shadow is cast over his face as well, making it impossible to tell who this man is. Menalaus lies next to the warrior his head severed from his body. The Greek army prepares for battle as the Kings brother, Agamemnon, is enraged by his brother's demise. He charges towards the Trojan line uncaring of the archers that prepare to rain death upon him and his enemies.
Paris looks up at the warrior in front of him with grateful eyes. "Thank you, brave warrior, your braveness will be honored when we defeat these Greeks."
The warrior turns around and faces the Prince. "I did not come to save you, but rather to punish you for what you have done. You have dishonored this man, and his house. You have stolen his wife, and you shall pay." He pulls out a traditional Greek blade, only it is as black as his armor. When he pulls out his blade everything around them seems to stop. The Greek army freezes mid charge, the Trojan arrows about to rain death upon their enemies stop. The only two left moving are the mysterious warrior and Paris, although he is frozen with fear of the man in front of him.
Paris begins to sob. "P-please no. H-Helen, I l-love her. And s-she loves me. Don't, don't do this please."
The figure positions his sword directly in front of Paris's chest. "You should've left her in Greece, and you would've lived to tell the tale of fair Helen. You could've saved the lives of your love and your people. But because of your greed, everything you love will fall." He plunges his sword into Paris's chest piercing his heart.
But Paris does not die. Rather his eyes turn black and he is stricken with horrible nightmares. First, he sees a warrior in bronze armor kill his brother Hector. He sees his body disfigured and he sees he father come to the warrior to retrieve his sons remains. The warrior refuses him and calls for the guards. He is taken to Agamemnon to be killed. Agamemnon wields the Sword of Troy, the one Paris had just lost in his battle, and plunges it into the chest of the old king. Killing him. Next, he sees the city of Troy fall. The walls that have stood for centuries crumble to dust. The buildings burn, the men are killed, the women are raped, and the children are thrown of roofs. The great Troy is no more. And lastly, he sees what horrifies him the most. Helen is brought before a group of Greek soldier. She is stripped of her clothes and the men beat her. Then the men mercilessly gang rape her until she is hardly conscious. Then once the men are done with her; her head is taken from her body and staked on the walls of the palace for all the people to see as Troy burns.
Paris's eyes return to normal as he lets out a blood curdling scream and screams on until his throat is coated with blood and he coughs it up in loads. Then, the young Prince wails no more and he falls face first into the dirt, dead. Each army stops in their tracks as they see the figure that just did unspeakable acts to the Prince of Troy.
Agamemnon breaks the silence and he yells to his troops. "The warrior is with us. He has slain the Prince and he shall aid us in our fight." As he turns around the face the Trojan army he is met by the mysterious warrior directly in his face.
The warrior glares at the king with hatred in his eyes. "You do not decide who I fight for, only I do. Not even the gods can control me." He also plunges his blade into the gut of the Greek king and the king doubles over in pain. His eyes also glaze over in pain as he experiences a nightmare. He sees a world where he is not remembered, even one generation from now the name Agamemnon is not remembered. The only names that are remembered from this war are Odysseus, Hector, Helen, Paris, and greatest of all Achilles. The king returns to the world and starts muttering incoherent phrases as he falls to the ground slowly bleeding out.
As the king bleeds out the warrior faces the Greek army and yells at them. "Fear me, for I am your death! I am Phobos Damnos, named after the gods of fear and terror! I am the instrument of your nightmares and you will all fear me." As soon as he finishes he carves a path of destruction through the Greeks lines. The Trojans follow him and drive the Greek army back.
Stories will be told about the mysterious warrior of fear who aided the Trojan army in defeating the Greeks. Troy does not fall, the Greeks are defeated, Achilles lives out the rest of his life in Troy with Briseis, and Helen goes on to become the Queen of Troy. She is always filled with rage for the one that killed her love Paris. She searches for him until she dies but is unable to find him. Agamemnon is remembered, but not how he had always wanted. Instead of being Agamemnon the Conqueror, he is Agamemnon the Weak, as he died on the battlefield without a fight early in the war, leading to the defeat of the Greek Army.
480 B.C. Thermopylae
Blood stained the ground. There was not a single part of the ground that had not been drenched in it. Bodies were strewn all across the ground along with weapons and armor pieces. But past those bodies there was a small group of soldiers that were bunched together with their shields raised. With their shields raised they formed a sort of shell to cover all of the men so as no arrow could pierce their defenses. Encircling them was a horde of soldiers ready to go in for the kill as soon as they were given the order. A lone warrior stood out from the shell of shields. This man was known as Leonidas, King of Sparta. The men behind him were part of the finest fighting force the world had ever seen, The Spartans. Made of iron will and steely muscle. No one could match them in combat. Yet here they stood, at the mercy of the Persians. One of their own had betrayed them when Leonidas had refused to let him fight alongside them. Ephialtes. He had betrayed all of Sparta, just so that he could get his revenge on the King and receive what he had thought to be innumerable pleasures. He was wrong. The Persians only found him in the morning muttering mad phrases about a demon cloaked in darkness, and that the demon was coming for them. But the Persians simply ignored his warning and killed the mutated human to ease his suffering. How they should've heeded his warnings.
"Leonidas, I only ask that you and your men lay down your arms. You would be warlord of all of Greece and your men would be spared. They would have the finest homes and servants. They would live like kings. I only ask that you kneel to me and swear your loyalty to me." Xerxes, the self-proclaimed God-King headed Leonidas.
Leonidas thought of it for a moment, he had to admit the proposition was tempting. He cared deeply for his men and each on that had fallen on his watch he had grieved for in solidarity. Leonidas continued to ponder for a moment and had made his decision. He dropped his spear and began to kneel on the ground. As soon as he began to move the world around him became much darker. Everything seemed to stop in time. The vultures encircling above them waiting for their easy meal had stopped mid-flight. The soft breeze had stopped, yet he could still see some of the men's long hair waving in the breeze, yet they were also frozen in place.
"You would surrender yourself to this false-god, dishonor all of Sparta, give up all of Greece oh King?"
Leonidas looked to his right to see a warrior clad much the same as his fellow Spartans, yet different as well. The warrior wore the traditional Spartan armor, except it was entirely midnight black. Then warrior's shield was also very unique. On its face held a circle with and arrow cutting strait upward through the circle. And on his chest armor was an infinity symbol that was not quite completed with the end about ¾ of the way complete with an arrow head at the end of the line. Leonidas instantly knew who this warrior was. He was Phobos Deimos, son of Ares, the god of Fear and Terror. Leonidas's blood chilled for one of the few moment in his life.
"My Lord, why have you come here?" Leonidas asked nervously. He was in the presence of a god that could turn him mad at a moment's notice.
Phobos Deimos simply chuckled before turning to the king. "First, good King. I am not a god, nor a demigod. Your people have long confused me with the sons of Ares. I am not them, and they do not appreciate it when we are mistaken for one another." Even through the frozen time loud thunder boomed overhead making Leonidas flinch. "Ah, can it you pansy little bitch, before I come up the and whip your asses."
"Then what are you? You say you are not a God, nor a Demigod, yet you hold fantastic power."
"I am an… entity you could say. I exist only when I am needed or when I am called by those that are worthy. You did not call me but one of your men did. He knew you were about to kneel and could not bear to see his king fall to an undeserving swine like him." He pointed to Xerxes.
"So you came to me to stop me, but why? Surely you can see that these men have suffered, and all I want to do alleviate their suffering. I want them to see their families again, I want to see my family again. What is so wrong with that?"
Phobos simply stared at the King for a moment before he struck him. The King fell to his knees and spit out blood. Phobos pointed his spear at his throat. The man before him was writhing in anger. "How dare you! You think you know what is best for these men! Only they do! They would rather die a thousand deaths and end in Tartarus itself before they would kneel to another ruler than you! Each one of these men would've struck out at the Persians and slaughter them if you had sworn your loyalty to Xerxes! There is no sweeter death to them than to die on the battlefields, shields clutched in their cold, dead hands! Fallen beside their brothers! And you! You would deny them that! I will not allow it!" His voice only grew with each sentence. He would show the truth of what would happen to the King and to Greece had he surrendered. He pulled his spear away and lifted Leonidas up and showed him the future that his actions would cause.
Leonidas could only watch in horror as Greek cities were burned to the ground, the citizens slaughtered and the ones who survived where forced into the chains of slavery. Forced to work for their masters the Persians. He saw his wife leave him in disgust and hatred for not dying honorably in battle. And finally, he saw Sparta, bright and gleaming Sparta. Yet on the top tower there was something that shouldn't have been there. His own head was speared through a pole with many other bodies strewn across the ground, all clad in Spartan armor. The throne room was shown, and there sat a Persian. A foreigner sitting atop his throne.
The vision finally stopped. Phobos looked at the shocked face of Leonidas. "That is the future of Greece, slavery. And yes, Sparta would live on, for a time. But then Xerces deemed the Spartans too dangerous to be kept alive. So he had them all murdered, yourself included, and had you replaced by one of his own men. This is why I have come."
Leonidas's face morphed into pure rage. He picked up his spear and stood in front of Phobos. "And if I refuse his order?"
Behind his helmet Phobos' face drew a grin. "You and all of these brave Spartans would fall, yet inspired by your brave sacrifice all of Greece would unite. They would drive out the Persians and they would never again threaten Greece. You and your men would go down in history as legends, fighting to the last man to protect your homeland. Many generations would pass and stories, poems, and songs would still be written about The Last Stand of the 300."
Leonidas stood proudly, the kingly visage had returned. "Them we shall fall, for the glory of Greece."
"Very well" Phobos simply melted into the shadows and the world returned back to normal before Leonidas took a final breath before he let out a furious war cry. He lunged forward and threw his spear with all of his might towards Xerxes. The spear flew straight and true and the spear impaled the god-king in the gut before he collapsed to the ground, dead.
"Some god-king." Leonidas said before a giant shadow grew over top of him. He looked up to find arrows blocking out the sun coming straight for his men. He looked back to his men that remained and beckoned them forward with a bang of his shield. "Come Spartans, tonight we dine in the Underworld. But we won't go down without a fight. If any man dies with a clean sword, may he be cursed to eternal damnation in Tartarus!"
The men roared in approval and charged forward to face the horde of Persians that were still in shock of their dead king. They were not at all prepared for their fate, and were soon cut down.
And so, the brave 300 slaughtered their way through the Persian army, giving no quarter. This was until they could not find and more Persians. They were all either dead or were running to their boats to flee the wrath of the warriors.
So in the end Leonidas got his wish, his men would see their families again, and he his wife.