I see them gather about the podium, the blushing bride and winged groom grinning like a couple of dull idiots. I sit back, and just watch. My subjugates are not here to flank me, again I'm alone. I am blessed with a few hard glances from my heavenly siblings. Athena's gazes are the harshest, her utter distaste for me obvious in her very composure. I wonder if she knows what it is to be me?

Zeus looked to the happy couple, and I felt like being sick.

"And Cupid, God of Love, son of the great Aphrodite, do you claim Psyche as your wife, your chosen, the one to bear your children and soothe your brow in times of dire?"

Cupid beamed at Psyche, and nodded, "Oh I do."

I rolled my eyes.

"Psyche - mortal child blessed to be a part of the heavens - do you accept Cupid's claim to you, and do you claim him also as your husband, sire to your future children, lover to you, and the one you shall care for always?"

"I do!" the girl exclaimed.

"Then by your vows, you are now joined forever and always as man and wife."

A roar burst out among the Olympians, my inane sister blubbering like an old fish wife. She embraced her son, and her new daughter, and with the splashing about of wine by Dionysus, the party began. And I was to go back to my dark domain, shunned by Olympus yet again. Was. Of course the Fates wouldn't make my life that easy would they?

"Hey Ar you old dog!" came that curled, youthful and somewhat dull voice, "Where you splitting to?"

I turned with a sigh at Aphrodite. "Home. I don't think there's much more I need to see here..."

"See, no!" Aphrodite said, wrapping an arm around mine and yanking me towards the merriment, "Do - yes - EVERYTHING!"

I sighed, "You know what it's like when I mix with the family!"

"Oh bah!" she waved a hand, "If anyone says anything I'll tell 'em to shut up! We stuck together during that time on earth - we'll stick together now! Kay?"

I met her earnest gaze and pursed my lips, "Yeah okay."

"Come on - sit next to me and get a nymph on your lap! We might have an orgy later!"

"An orgy with the folks," I said dryly, "Oh yay."

Xena pouted as she paced about. She tapped the side of her head in thought, her lips tight, hissing coming from her lips. Suddenly, she glared at her friends who were perched on a log, watching her pace like a maniac. She sighed, stepping forward.

"Are you sure you didn't see it?"

Gabrielle sighed, rolling her eyes, "No Xena, I didn't."

Her eyes flashed to Joxer, who lifted his hands and shook them, "Look I didn't touch it!!"

Xena growled, "It was just sitting there in my scabbard! I can't lose it! I've had it for years!!"

Gabrielle frowned, seeing the loss in her friend's eyes. "You think someone could have hung from a tree and taken it?"

Xena narrowed her eyes, "I would have felt it..."

"Oh yeah," she nodded, "I guess so."

Joxer snapped his fingers, "Maybe a God took it!"

Xena looked at him flatly. "What for?"

"I dunno - Gods are always doing stupid things like that - maybe for some magic?"

The warrioress sighed, loss wracking her. The sword signified her redemption, it was her friend in her return to good. And now it was gone. She felt like sobbing - she never would in front of Gabrielle and Joxer. It wouldn't do to look weak in front of them. Sighing, she grabbed Joxer's sword from his scabbard.

"Hey!"

Xena eyed him, "I need some sort of defence on the road..."

Gabrielle stood. "What - Xena what are you doing?"

"I'm going to get my sword back," Xena said, "Even if I have to comb that road back and forth for two days! If that doesn't work, I'll put the pinch on every petty thief and peddler till I find it!"

Glaring at them, she took her pointing finger back, and dove into the undergrowth of the forest.

"But XENA!" Gabrielle cried, "WHAT ABOUT ARGO?"

"TAKE CARE OF HER!" the voice cried back. And darkness engulfed the warrior.

She swung and wove through the darkness, finding the road they arrived on quickly. Looking up to the sky, she saw it was dappled with clouds that hung with the Gods, high in the air. They were thin and small, the stars creeping through their gauzy haze like jewels. Some were red, some where white. Most twinkled a proud blue, changing colour on a whim but always returning to the same electric hue. Sighing, Xena gazed down the road, the round plate of the moon hidden behind the towering trees of the remote forest. The trodden down road soaked in light, some leaves reflecting it back. From what she could see, no length of worn but tenderly cared for metal lay on the ground. She felt yet another sigh leave her as she started down the road in a brisk run.

I took a swig of wine. To my left, Aphrodite made out with a young lithe prodigy of Apollo - a nymph from the western part of Minoa. Her moans and giggles filled my ears. To my right, Athena was sprawled at her chair, a flat expression on her face that spoke volumes. She was having as much fun as I was. She stank like a rotting vineyard though, the many glasses of wine and olives she'd consumed on her breath. She took another swig of wine, glaring at me with contempt.

"So, Ares," she said, her voice drawled out to a slow crawl, "You kill any innocent people lately?"

"No," I said with a thin smirk, "I have minions to do that sort of thing for me."

"Oh of course!" Athena nodded, "Your kind of scum doesn't bother to look into the face of their victims..."

I sighed, knowing this was coming. I was sick of this. She was a Goddess of War too - honourablewar. What was honourable war - how in Tartarus was it any different to what I did? A killing was a killing. Though I curbed that thought as I was starting to sound like Xena's little friend Gabrielle. I groaned. I wonder what they were up to. Before I could look...

"Hey Ar - I am talking to you!"

I looked to Athena, "Listen, I know what you're like when you're drunk. I'm not up for a debate tonight..."

"Oh of course not!" Athena laughed, "That would mean using your brains!!"

Cupid looked up from the head of the table, hearing the dissent, and frowned.

"Ares - what are you doing?"

I rose a brow, "Excuse me?"

"He's being a pig again," Athena said, pointing at me, a little drunkenly too, "He's bragging about killing people without looking into their faces!"

My jaw dropped, and I put my hands up in innocence, "You asked!!"

Cupid gritted his teeth, "I want this event to be a peaceful one!! Whenever we have a party here on Olympus you always throw a spanner in the works with your behaviour!!"

I rolled my eyes, patience ending. I stood, glaring at Cupid with an acid death that would have made Hades shudder.

"I'm sick of being this family's punching gourd!! I do my job - like the rest of you!!"

"And boy do you do it well!" Athena snickered into her amphora of wine. Apollo chuckled.

Cupid seethed however, "It's not like you try to keep a balance, do you? You just throw a war in where there isn't one..."

I rolled my eyes, sighing, "I do what I have to - if the humans want to fight - that's their decision. I'm just there to provide the gusto and the spirit! I mean, come on! Someone's gotta egg them on!"

Athena spluttered, "That's what I do! You spread evil, you make people argue! You even ruin wedding parties!"

I grit my teeth and glared at my audience of roaring and cheering family, "Yeah! I'm a bad egg! All my lot are! Don't you idiots realise you'd be screwed without me?!"

Cupid pursed his lips, "Somehow, I don't think so..."

I didn't let him say anything more. We'd had this argument before. Once I even took a leave ofabsence and abstained from my duties just to show them what for. Of course they begged for me to return. This was the same old game that would always be played. Good against evil. Right against wrong. What the half-wits didn't realise that in our bantering we made life what it was - a great wash of grey where no one was good, and no one was bad. They just were. Glancing to my ever protective sister Aphrodite, who was still busy with the nymph and oblivious to everything around her, I threw the veil of the ether over me, transporting away to my dark realm.

The echoing drops of dew fell from the ceiling, creating a rhythm that seemed to count the aeons that I'd been through this ritual. Family gets together for a feast, a marriage, a birthday, an anniversary, and I would be the target of their bitching and moaning.

"Oh look what Ares did to the King of Mycenae!"
"Oh that coward Ares couldn't even kick Xena's ass!"
"Remember when that idiot son of mine got stuck in the vase at Troy?"

I growled, the humiliation eating at me. Why did it bother me so much? I knew I shouldn't let it, I should have been used to it. I hated them, they hated me. But - I needed them. And they needed me. It was a Tartarus made real.

Perhaps a few things weren't so bad. Sometimes Aphrodite acted like she almost cared, and it was a spot of goodness in my life I could tolerate. The other spot - I frowned.

Striding to a pool of water in the cave-like dwelling in my realm, I gazed into it. Before me congealed the lone figure of a woman in the soft moonlight. Her raven hair flowed about her strong features like a river kissing the sandy banks of it's course. As she glanced up to the sky - perhaps for direction - her eyes glinted that crystalline blue that I could never forget and never have. Those pools were to the brim with loss. My poor protégé... tears ran down her features. It was rare to see her cry. It wasn't an open sobbing. It looked to be a rogue tear she hadn't meant to let fall. My heart pounded in my chest. How many times had I looked in on her like this? Too many. Too many for an old fool like me. I felt the remnants of smile at my lips, and perhaps, to complete a totally disastrous night, I figured I could help her find what she was looking for.

Joxer lay on his pelt next to the fire, counting the fine scars on his arm in the firelight as Gabrielle skinned a carrot for the dinner she was preparing. She only had some roots and carrot, and Xena had caught a couple of fish with her before she noticed her sword missing. Boiled fruit and fish. Well, she had more interesting meals, but campers couldn't be choosers. She looked at Joxer by the faint light, frowning.

"What are you doing Joxer?"

"Remembering," he said, as if not realising who was asking him. After he jerked a moment, he glanced to her and stuttered, "Ah - counting um - er- scars..."

"Oh," Gabrielle frowned a little, "Okay..."

"I wonder how Xena's going," he muttered to no one in particular.

"Wandering up a road in a murderous state," Gabrielle said darkly, "I wish she would have stayed till sun up."

"Someone might have run off with it by then," Joxer said, "You heard her."

The bard nodded vaguely. "I guess so."

Silence passed a moment. Joxer gazed at the scars. Most of them were self-inflicted. One recent bruise on his arm was not done by him though. For some strange reason he almost treasured it as he did its source. Of course, he didn't relish annoying Gabrielle. In fact it hurt him to think he did it so easily. He never tried. The proof seemed to leer up at him with purplish pride on his creamy forearm, and he ran his thumb over it forlornly. Why did she have to pinch so hard? The bruise complained at the pressure of the running thumb with a twinge of dull ache. He sighed. It felt very much like his heart. Joxer glanced up to the blonde woman with him, her long strawberry locks glinting in the orange light.

"Hey - Gabby?"

"Gabrielle," she corrected, "What is it Joxer?"

"Can I read one of your scrolls?"

She looked up from the carrot and rose a brow with a dark glare, "What - why?"

Joxer shrugged, "Ww- well I just - I feel like reading some of your stuff - it's good, I like reading it."

The woman sighed, and shrugging, she turned and grabbed her satchel, passing it to Joxer with a deft toss.

"Thanks!" he grinned. Gabrielle smiled softly, shrugging once more before continuing with her chopping.

I took my time watching her stride down the road with that twist of agony in her eyes. Not that I enjoyed it, rather that she knew I was there, as she always knew, and would get agitated by my presence. Better getting some reaction out of her than none at all. I sighed - she was truly beautiful. Her devotion to good - a bane to me yes, but somehow it drew me to her more vigourously that I ever had been before. I frowned as she span about, glaring at the air behind her - me.

"Will you stop that?!" she hissed.

Chuckling I left invisibility behind me as I stepped forward, a long amused sigh heralding my coherence of form. The twist of agony turned to a fire of contempt. It excited me wonderfully, knowing I could herald such a change in her. Such a passion - even if it meant she wanted to shove a Hind's Blood dagger through my chest.

"What a perfect end to the day," she sighed, "Come to make it worse?"

I shook my head, "Better in fact."

"Why would you want to do that?" Xena said, propping a hand on her hip.

"Well, it's just such a nice and selfless act - it'll piss a lot of people off - including you."

"How?"

I grinned, stepping forward and speaking to her in that lusty tone that I knew drove her mad, "Tell me Xena, if I were suddenly good to you - helped you - it'd make hating me with all your heart that tiny bit harder wouldn't it?"

She narrowed her eyes, "Don't flatter yourself!"

At that I disappeared. I sped around the area with a speed uncountable. It was there by a fire, a petty thief curled around it, mumbling in his sleep about bounties. I took it soundlessly, and in an instant I was back in front of a running Xena. She jumped back, kicking me hard in the stomach. I fell backwards from sheer surprise - I really wasn't expecting it. Her sword clanged to the ground, and with a gasp she was silent.

Rubbing my behind as I got up, I smiled as she clutched the sword like a lifeline.

"My sword," she whispered, tears welling in her eyes, but being wiped by her before they had a chance to fall. She wouldn't be weak - no not in front of me. She narrowed her eyes again. "Okay so what do I owe you? Some debt, some little errand? Cause you're not going to get it!"

"Well, of course not," I said, folding my arms, "That'd be because I don't want anything from you."

Xena cocked her head, sliding her sword back into its hilt. "You been smacked about by a happy-fairy or something?"

"Well, I wouldn't call her a happy-fairy," I said, "More like the Goddess of Honourable War."

"Athena laid into you huh?" Xena leered, "Poor baby!"

Aaah, that contempt again. I sighed as she turned back towards wherst she came, and matched her step. I pulled her arm.

"Slow down," I said.

"Why?"

I shrugged, "Because I want to walk you back to camp."

Xena twitched as all comprehending failed. She examined my eyes, trying to figure what was going on in my head. If she only knew.

Conclusion >>>