Divinity: Chapter forty

Aurea took Gaia to the royal chambers to get some rest; Gaia felt again that dizziness and held on the door.

"Your Majesty…" Aurea said worried.

"I'm fine Aurea…I'm just tired" Gaia said.

"I must tell the King to go and get the doctor" Aurea was about to leave when Gaia took her arm.

"Please…don't"

"Your Majesty! You are not feeling well…" Aurea said worried.

"It's nothing, I'm just tired" Gaia insisted.

Obelix came in a few minutes later. "I'll watch her, if I see she feels unwell again I'll let you know"

Aurea nodded and left the room leaving the new queen and priest alone.

She was deeply asleep, her skin was pale, she was sick. Obelix was worried that the gods had decided to take her life earlier than they expected. "But if it was that, if the god of the underworld was the one to take her soul with him, why Hades hadn't showed up yet?" he thought.

"No…" he shook his head, dismissing the horrifying idea.

Outside the palace gates a man in a golden armor appeared, the guards at the gate saw him and one of them came close.

"Who are you and what do you want?" the guard asked.

Ares didn't answer.

"I said…who are you and what…" he was interrupted by Ares's hand in his throat, a few seconds later the soldier passed out and the god of war threw him a few feet away on the ground.

In that instant Gaia's eyes fluttered open. "No…" she whispered.

Sitting in the bed, she put her hand in her heart; Obelix saw her and went to sit next to her.

"What's wrong?" he asked worried.

"No…" she said again, her hands started to shake.

"Little Goddess, what's wrong?" he tried to hold her still.

"He's here" she said.

Obelix remembered his thoughts and panicked. "Who? Who's here?" he asked.

"He came to bring destruction" she said.

"Who?" the priest asked again. "Who is here?"

"Ares…" she turned to look at the priest.

Obelix's eyes widened in shock.

Ares did the same with the other soldiers guarding the gate of the palace and walked in with no problem; he walked until he reached the main court and stood still looking up. He closed his eyes and tried to contact Gaia with his mind.

"Come out, now" he said.

Gaia's eyes widened.

"What's going on?" Obelix asked.

"He wants to see me" she said.

"I know you can hear me Gaia, come out now if you don't want any more humans get hurt while I wait for you to come" he threatened.

Gaia stood up quickly "I have to go"

"No! don't go!" Obelix pleaded.

"I have to go…if I don't, he'll hurt everyone. I must not allow that, I just made a promise" she said.

"But what about King Eros…think about him" the priest tried to reason with her.

"That's exactly why I'm going…I don't want him to hurt Eros or my new family" she said.

She started to walk towards the door when the dizziness came but this time her vision black out for a second. Her condition was getting worse, still she kept walking.

"I won't leave you alone" Obelix said.

Gaia was heading to the main court when she saw Eros with a worried expression. "Go to our chambers and stay there, there's a mysterious soldier hurting the guards. He must be Isra's new plan" he said.

"No…" she managed to say.

"What?" Eros asked confused.

"He's not Isra's new plan… he's Ares and he's coming for me" Gaia said, her voice almost a whisper; she was feeling worse by every minute is passed.

"No!" Eros held her arm. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"To see him"

"Have you lost your mind? You're not feeling well and still you're going to see him? I don't want you to get hurt!" he said franticly.

"If I don't…he will kill you all. One thing is that he came for me…but other totally different is if I go with him" she finally said and let herself go.

Gaia tried not to faint on her way to the main court, once she was there she saw him standing in the middle of the garden.

"I knew you could still hear me" Ares said.

She tried to stay still. "What do you want Ares?" she asked.

Ares smiled. "What? No hugs for me this time?

Odell and Narella appeared there a few minutes later followed by Leonidas, Eros and Obelix.

"What is this? You're new mortal family?" he asked.

"As a matter of fact yes, they're my new family" she said coldly.

"I can't believe it…everything she said it's true"

"Why are you here Ares?" Gaia asked again.

"Ares…?" Leonidas said to Eros "That Ares?" Eros nodded.

"Why are you here?, leave her alone!" Odell asked to the man in golden armour.

"Silence you pitiful human!" he was about to send a blast of energy at them when Gaia put herself in the middle.

"What are you doing?"

"Stop this Ares…leave them out of this…it is me who you want and I'm standing right here"

"You got married, I was told" his gray eyes showed hurt.

"Who told you that?" Gaia asked wide eyed.

"Does it matter? You're still famous up there" he said.

"I don't see why" Gaia said.

"Is that your mortal prince?"

"Mortal…?" Narella asked.

"Why are you here Ares?" she asked again.

"To do what I should have done a long time ago…" he said.

"And what is that?"

"To take you back with me" Ares took hold of Gaia's arm, but she was too weak to try to free herself from his grip.

"Ares! Leave her alone!" Obelix said getting closer to them.

"You priest…I thought I killed you back there in her shrine" Ares said.

"Who are you and why are you trying to take Gaia with you?" asked Narella to him.

Ares laughed. "They don't know who you are!" he stared at Gaia.

"Ares…" she tried to speak.

"You sacrificed yourself for that human and they don't know who you are?" Ares said again.

"What are you talking about?" Odell asked the man.

Ares laughed louder. "Unbelievable…how could you take all this Gaia?"

"I did it for love. All I did was for love. For the love I feel for him!" she said.

Ares eyes went dark with rage. "Silence!" he threw her a few feet away.

"If you are not mine…then you won't be any other man's wife!" Ares started to summon his power, a strong amber colored energy started to flow through his whole body.

"Ares…stop…please…I don't want to fight you" Gaia said, her voice was week.

"Fight me? You are just a simple mortal, with no power" Ares laughed, he took his sword and raised it up high above her head.

She closed her eyes and felt a strong energy come within her, a very familiar warm energy. When she opened her eyes she summoned that energy flowing blocking the god of war's attack.

She stood up and let that golden aura fill her again like before.

"Mutatis mutandis *(to change what it has to be changed)" she said softly, a strong energy started to flow from her. Covering her from head to toe.

Ares eyes widened. "That cannot be true…" he said.

Gaia's dress changed into a thin shimmery dress, a sword appeared next to her.

"I said I didn't want to fight you…but you gave me no choice" she said.

"How can…" Ares was shocked.

"I am still the carrier of the Golden Crystal Ares…so that makes me still the Guardian of Earth" she said.

Narella, Odell and Amadis who appeared a few minutes later were shocked by what they were witnessing.

"I can't believe it…" Ares said.

Gaia took position, her right hand holding a golden sword that seemed to be made from the sun.

Ares started to fight, his sword moving to one side and the other, Gaia missed all his strikes, when he was about to hit her she ran passed him and jumped.

"Diffingere! (change)" she said making like if she was going to break the sword with her knees but instead the sword turned into two small blades, once she transformed the sword she hit Ares on his back, stumbling him.

Ares regained his balance and went to strike her again, but her energy was so strong that he couldn't even touch a single hair of hers.

"I shall destroy you then…" Ares said angry.

"Remember who taught me how to fight…" she said before missing another strike. But even for Gaia to miss any blow from the god of war was surprising for her, he was clearly more prepared to fight with a sword than her.

"It's the end" he said extending his palm and sending her a blast of energy.

Gaia stood in his opposite direction doing the same "Strenti!(strength) " she yelled and blocked his flowing energy.

When the blow ended, Ares tried to run towards her to hit her again with a blast of energy when Gaia started running again to his direction, a few feet away from him she bent and turned, making him trip and fall with her leg. Once he was on the ground she placed her golden sword on his throat.

"It's over Ares…leave us alone" she said coldly.

Ares stood still under the blade, he smiled and he looked to another direction making her turn to see what he was focusing. This was Ares chance to move the blade out of his throat and grabbed her by her neck with a strong grip.

He lifted her with one hand in the air; her small fragile hands were trying to free herself from his grip. She was losing consciousness.

"I always loved you Goddess of Earth…why did you have to fall for a mortal?" his eyes were full of fury and sadness.

Her air was cutting short, she was soon going to faint and die. Her golden eyes started to tear.

"Don't look at me like that!" he said.

"I said stop it!"

Her eyes stared at him with sadness.

"Stop it!" he summoned his energy again to attack her when a blast of golden energy from her hit him straight in his stomach, releasing her.

His burnt body lay there still on the ground, but she knew he wasn't dead.

"I once loved you Ares…but I was childish and stupid. I believed you were going to change someday…instead you broke my heart so many times…you gods think you can do it all, I was once one of you…and never had the love I was looking for until I met him. I love him and he loves me back, and if I had to live all over in order to be with him, I would do it in a blink of an eye!" she said.

Ares stood slowly.

"You won't live forever..." he said.

"I don't care…" she responded.

"Hades will come and rip the soul off your body…with me you had your last chance to be back who you were" he said again.

"I don't need to be back who I was...because I don't want to see you ever again…what you did was unforgivable…you destroyed everything I had and almost killed my friend, you obeyed my father's orders and tried to kill me first…and just because you couldn't find me you expressed your anger with Obelix…" she said.

"Gaia…" he breathed.

"Leave me alone Ares…forget I once existed, just like they did" she said.

Ares's gray eyes watched her with regret and sadness, he lost her the day he obeyed her father's orders. It was his fault.

"May the gods have mercy on you…" he said.

"No…Ares, may the gods have mercy on you…"she said.

"At least tell them who you really are…so they don't treat you like if you were like one of them!" he said before disappearing.

Gaia stood there with her sword on her hand, she turned and saw her family safe and smiled.

"Thank goodness you're safe" in a sudden motion, the golden energy disappeared as well the sword returning her to her old dress.

The dizziness came back, this time taking her last drop of energy and fainted.

A/N: Here you go Monday's chapter, you probably thought yesterday's update was today's but no. I just wanted to surprise you. Thank you for the reviews and opinions, as always means a lot :) Enjoy.

I do not own sm, just the plot, story and some of the characters.