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Trial of Ares
By Ares’ Chosen
It was a dark and cloudy night, four figures could be seen walking into a tavern full of low-life’s. One of the four went to the bar and ordered some food and drinks while the other three went and sat down.
“Xena, tell me again what we are doing here” Ares asked.
“Ares, the other Gods won’t believe us when we speak, saying that it was Athena that masterminded Discord into doing everything…”
The dark god interrupted again, “That still doesn’t explain why we are here”
A fourth person joined them at the table.
“Drinks are on the way, can’t wait for the food my stomach is growling!”
Xena rose an eyebrow “Talus, your almost as bad as Gabrielle, anyway as I was saying. The gods will expect us to plan our case up on Olympus, which is where we live now. That means people can eavesdrop on us, they won’t expect us to be here discussing it”
A lady started walking from the bar to where the four sat. Her clothes were dirty, the food was disgusting and the drinking cups had mould on them.
“Here ya are missus, ya drinks. That’ll be 6 dinars”
Xena nodded to Gabrielle.
“Excuse me, you have got to be joking…6 dinars…for what, this? I could get twice this much food for say 3 dinars”
The bar lady scowled “You gives me 5 dinars then!”
“Three!”
“Four!”
“Two”
“Missus, ya give me 3 dinars”
“Deal!”
The bar lady went away to attend more customers.
Gabrielle reached into the bag she had with her and pulled out a scroll and quill.
“O.K Ares we need to prepare your case, tell me what you know!”
Ares grumbled but preceded to tell the bard what he knew “O.K Blondie, I know Discord had the Hinds Blood and also a cure for it and Athena told me and you that she was going to steal the Gods Lives threads and that she had killed the Fates, that about sums it up”
“Alright, we can work with this. If Athena is as cocky as the bards say she is she will probably represent herself”
“No!” Ares interjected. Three faces swiveled around to face him.
“It’ll be worse that Athena, she’ll be working with Apollo”
Gabrielle blanched, “They will be working together”
“Yes!”
Talus examined the notes Gabrielle had taken down then remembered some of the tales he had heard of the gods. “Gabrielle is right Athena is known for her cockiness and so is Apollo, if she really is guilty then she will try to trick the jury by saying things about your past. Therefore, we need to know some things about your history Ares”
Xena’s eyes were downcast for a moment “The good and the bad, Ares”
“Alright, I’ll talk but what you will hear has only ever been spoken by immortals”
~~~~~()~~~~~
Athena sat in the scrolls archive on Mount Olympus, her fingers and mind simultaneously looking though all the scrolls for something ‘I will find something so deep so incriminating that will ensure Ares is forever gone from Olympus and that Xena won’t ever love him. Discord, well Discord if she gets caught in the middle of this, well too bad. The whole of Olympus wants her gone. Well its their just deserts!’
~~~~()~~~~~
Three days later the court of Olympus was in session. Presiding over them were the Furies, Alecto was judge. Xena nudged Ares “Look quickly tell me whose in the jury!”
“um, O.Kay. Poseidon, Artemis, Hephaestus, Hestia, Aphrodite, Demeter…oh no”
Xena looked Ares “What’s wrong?”
Ares looked back at Xena “It’s the rest of the jury, Nyx, Cronus, Atlas, Aether, Uranus and Rhea. The problem is that they are very old Gods and Titans, some of which had a grudge against Zeus, or the Gods and some of which have a huge grudge against me…like Atlas.”
Xena nudged Ares’ shoulder “I heard about that one…tut-tut”
Scowling Ares faced her “That’s not funny. If I’m found guilty of something I didn’t commit. I will be killed.”
Sighing Xena looked at Ares “You won’t be found guilty, I’m sure that…”
A loud sound was heard that echoed in the room.
“Today in the court of Olympus the case is the defendant Ares King of the Gods and God of War against the prosecutor Athena Goddess of Wisdom, Warfare and Weaving and Apollo God of Music, Arts and the light. Prosecution you may begin” Alecto finished speaking.
Athena stood up “Thankyou, As you know the case here against my half-brother is that he killed the fates. Today we will prove he is guilty. Ares and Gabrielle were the only two people in the room, with weapons and with the fates blood all over them when the rest of the gods including us arrived on the scene. I would like to call the Goddess Gabrielle, Amazon Queen and Bard to the stand”.
Xena caught Gabrielle’s hand “Good luck”
Smiling back at her warrior friend she said “I’ll be fine Xena, thankyou”
Once seated Athena started firing questions at the bard.
“You believe in peace through love and friendship, correct?”
Gabrielle nodded, she had a feeling of where this was going “Yes, that’s correct”
“Alright, have you ever killed anyone before the Fates…Yes or No”
Gabrielle glared at Athena, who returned the glare with a smirk.
Green eyes cast down to the floor “Yes I have, but it was…”
“OBJECTION!” was cried out from Talus, Xena and Ares.
Alecto looked at the three “Go ahead”
Talus spoke “Gabrielle killed in self-defence because her friend was about to be murdered. It was to save her friend. However it was later realized that it was an act to get Gabrielle to lose her blood innocence to bring Dahak into the world”
Athena paced for a few moments. “You say that you didn’t kill the fates yet both of you were covered in blood! Explain!”
This time it was Gabrielle who smirked. “We covered ourselves in blood so that it would appear that we murdered them, when in reality it was some-one else”
Athena smiled coldly at her “Gabrielle, who was it”
Green eyes looked to sapphire blue eyes for support and when she saw it there she screamed only two words “YOU, ATHENA!”
A huge gasp went around the room. Athena looked to Alecto “No further questions”
Talus stood up “May I cross-examine the witness, please”
Alecto looked down at the new god “No! Let Gabrielle rest from questions. Bring up your next witness”
The Queen of the Gods stood up and walked down to where Gabrielle previously sat. Gabrielle walked behind her.
“Xena, you say that once you had died your life-thread was cut and burnt is this true”
“Yes”
From the prosecution came a protest “OBJECTION”
Alecto nodded.
Athena stood up “Perhaps Xena got it confused, of what the afterlife starts like, or is like”
Xena looked directly at Athena. “I’ve died before and that’s never happened. Hades can account for me being dead and in the Underworld…and visiting”
Alecto looked towards Hades “Is this true”
Hades nodded.
Alecto bought down the hammer “This court will reconvene tomorrow at noon”. She bought the hammer down again and disappeared.
~~~~~()~~~~~
Later that night as the moon rose higher near the peak of Mount Olympus the home of the gods. Two gods, Xena and Ares could be found lying in each others arms, the only light in the room coming from a window nearby, the whole room was lit in moonlight.
“Hey Ares, how are you!”
With a smirk the dark god answered “Much better”
Their lips met briefly in a kiss. Ares moved his arms so that Xena lay on top of him and that he was half sat up.
“Xena, tomorrow I think we should call Discord and Athena to the stand. Discord killed my parents and Athena killed the fates” Ares sighed and started to stroke Xena’s hair.
“I agree, question Discord but let Athena think we aren’t going to question her”
“O.K, Xena. But right now why don’t we forget about this damn trial…I’m sure there are other things to talk about…or do”. Xena rose an eyebrow to Ares’ last statement.
“Well, I don’t know Ares…we could talk about the weather!”.
Laughing Ares tilted Xena’s head back so that he could look into her eyes. Xena let her head be tilted, Ares looked down at his love. Her neck looked like white marble where the moonlight caressed her skin. Still laughing slightly Ares bent his head and captured Xena’ lips with his own. He slowly sat up more with Xena on top of him also sitting up more, their kiss continued. Ares slowly broke the kiss and grinned before disappearing. Xena confused looked around the room. Until she felt a tap on her right shoulder. Turning to her right, she saw Ares dressed in a suit holding his hand out, wearing nothing but a sheet she took hold of his hand. Ares quickly pulled her out of the bed. She was about to grab the sheet when she realised she was dressed in a scarlet coloured silk dress. Cocking her head slightly she asked her love “What’s going on?”
Ares smiled “Nothing that you need to worry about, care to dance. I went to the future a while ago and found a composer named Johann Strauss. His waltzes are legendary and very beautiful” With a click of his fingers music could be heard playing in the room from an unknown source.
Ares bowed down and caught Xena’s hand and kissed it and bought her into the centre of the room where they began to dance. Ares taught her how to waltz and soon the two lovers were dancing all over the room.
“This is beautiful Ares, I thought Gods weren’t allowed to go into the future”
Ares smirked “You forget I’m king now and you’re my queen. I thought you might want something different. Besides I’ve decreed you can visit the future but your not allowed to change things for yourself plus you can’t use your godly powers either. Anyway, I know you like waltzes”
Xena smiled in response to his answer “Yes, you’re the king and I’m your queen, here I have something for you” Xena let go of Ares’ hand and walked over to a little cabinet beside their bed.
“Do you remember this?” In her hand she held his old pendant. Ares gasped “It was you that took it!”
Xena smirked “Well, after you made me insane with the Furies for all that time and tried to make me kill Mama. I decided to take your pendant, but of course all that’s behind us now!”
Ares tried to look angry “You took my pendant, you made me have to get another outfit. You know that you will have to be punished for that”
Xena caught onto Ares’ game “Oh dear. I’m so sorry, please don’t punish me!”
Ares merely gave an evil grin “Your punishment Xena, well I wonder what I could do to you. By the time the moon has passed over the second peak of Mount Olympus, for the first time in your life you will be begging in front of me, Ares, king of the Gods”
Xena looked up at her dark god “I don’t think so!”
Ares looked down at his queen “I have many skills”. With that Ares picked Xena and placed her down on the bed and proceeded to administer his punishment.
~~~~~()~~~~~
Sunrise had been and gone and the dark god watched his princess sleep “Perhaps, I punished her too much,…mmm no! She’s not going to be very happy today” he spoke aloud.
Xena stirred and woke up from her slumber to find Ares smiling at her grinning. Suddenly Xena remembered what Ares said. Promptly she threw a pillow at him “Ares, I can’t believe it. I begged in front of you! I’ll never live it down! It was worth it I guess, though” If Ares’ smile could get any bigger it was now.
“Come on Ares, lets go. We have a trial to attend”. Ares stood up and clapped his hands in mock glee “Oh, goody!”
~~~~~()~~~~~
Xena and Ares met Gabrielle and Talus in the courtroom. Gabrielle looked at the couple and nudged Talus’ arm “I think some people need more hours in the night!” Talus just smiled at his love’s remark.
Alecto bought down the hammer. “Today’s session is now in order. Gabrielle who will you be calling to the stand?” Gabrielle looked to Xena who whispered Discord’s name to her.
The Goddess stood up “I, Gabrielle ask to question the goddess Discord”
“Objection” came from the other side of the room. Apollo was standing up with Athena “Alecto, I see no reason why Discord should be up on the stand” commented Apollo.
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