Summary: Suffering of one God leads to Justice coming for all.
Notes: As I have read in three sources older than Edith Hamilton that Ares is War, Wisdom, and Justice, I used that here. Apollo does carry God of Judgment, that's in several books. He's the most overworked and likely abused God on that mountain. As for Strife and Eris' depiction, watch Young Hercules. They were nothing more than backstabbing, back biting leeches. I used that depiction for this story; sorry if people don't like facing the truth of Strife's character but this is what he is canonically. This is an Ares story despite it starting with Apollo. I need the first scene to trigger the maturity.
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He lay in his temple, in the large bed, weeping.
He hurt so much from father's last visit that he just needed to cry for awhile. Just for a little bit before he had to put his mask back on and pretend he was happy and shiny and all the other things that went with his titles. Just for a little bit before father came back to visit him again.
As he lay in bed, looking at the sky light, he wondered if he should hate Ares for leaving him in this hell. After all, if Ares had considered him as important as their sisters, he might not be in this mess.
Sighing, he shook his head no. No, he didn't hate Ares; no he couldn't spit on him. He knew it wasn't Ares fault. Ares never knew that he wasn't mentally mature when he took the others away from Zeus. Ares was a boy himself in some ways despite having fought all his battles and he didn't understand that only his form had grown to adulthood in minutes. Of course, Artie lied about maturity on herself. She had grown up closer to normal because Hades had still hunted then; he still had the title God of the Hunt at that time, so Artie had a childhood.
But not him.
Never him.
There had been no God of Healing, no God of Music, no God of Light, Truth, or any of the hundred other things he carried title to so he never had a childhood. Well, he did, because forced maturity or not, his mind was still a child's, but he didn't get to play like his siblings and there was no one to save him when Zeus visited his bedroom.
And now? Now it was too late. Now he suffered nightly his father's sick desires, he suffered silently, and did not shed a single tear. Now. Even if someone tried to save him, they'd have a hell of a fight on their hands.
Everyone thought Zeus' favorite toy was Ganymede. He'd hate to burst that bubble so he never said otherwise but he knew who the favorite toy was: himself. And Zeus played rougher with him every nigh of late. So rough sometimes that getting out of bed was agony some mornings. But he always did get up. As soon as the alarm rang, he got up and kept going.
He heard the door to the room open and he cringed, knowing who it was. Night had fallen. He'd skipped dinner . . . again.
"Here's my pretty song bird," Zeus' sickeningly sweet voice crooned as hands touched him, stroking his body all over, "My most beautiful son. You know it's your fault I'm here every night. Mother couldn't give me a wife so beautiful but she gave me a son? I just have to take that and make it mine. Make you mine, sweet Apollo . . . mine."
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" . . . Mine!"
"Apollo!" Ares shouted, sitting bolt upright in bed. Heart hammering in his chest, he felt sick as understanding dawned about what he'd just seen.
"Damn, damn, damn!" The War God shouted as he attacked his walls in a fury, "Uranus Damn you, Zeus! Uranus and every titan in existence damn you!"
"Unc?" he heard his nephew Strife call him and suddenly a tumbler clicked and something became very clear to him.
"Don't touch me right now, Strife," Ares growled, "I will not have this rage taken away! You and your mother will not blind me again!"
"What are you talking about, Unc?" Strife asked sounding so innocent, but oh, Ares knew he wasn't, and he hadn't been innocent since the first time he and his mother tried to take War for themselves.
"Don't touch me!" Ares roared, and even Eris backed off.
"Ares?" Heph called, flashing in, "Ares, what's caused this rage brother?"
"Eris and Strife," Ares snarled, "My 'dear' sister and her son and their manipulations of me, turning me against my family, against everyone but the real evil in it. You knew, didn't you, Eris? You knew he was a child inside!"
"Who?" Heph asked as Lust, Strife's sister flashed in.
"Apollo," Ares spoke in a low, cold voice, "They had me so twisted up, assuming the houses were all against me, that I never saw what happened to him, never even noticed he didn't leave Zeus' throne room with us that day I took everyone else. They knew, Heph. Damn it, they knew and they left him there! They let 'Me' leave him there!"
"Ma?" Lust spoke, and the look on her face, in her eyes, showed pain, as if she already knew the truth.
"S-So what if we did?" Eris demanded, "So what if we left him one toy? It got him off all of our backs!"
"Besides, Unc," Strife began, "It's only Apollo. Really, who cares about the blond bastard?"
"I care," Ares growled, stalking over to them and blasting them both into a wall, "I'm the thrice blessed Defender of this mountain and one of those I should defend is suffering such Gods Be Damned torture and you don't think I should care?!"
"Dad?" Cupid spoke, seeing the temple walls beginning to shake, "Dad, calm down. Don't blow the temple roof. We can't help him if you nova the place and we all get buried for a month."
Ares snarled and walked away, stiffly pacing the room before he threw his head back and released a furious scream that echoed around the mountain and around the mortal plain: A scream of fury, a scream of rage, a scream of loathing and hate and vengeance. A scream of a soul and a mind ripping itself apart and growing from what he just learned. Yes, Gods matured. And sometimes that maturity came easy as it had for Athena and Artemis and others. But sometimes . . . sometimes that maturity came with fury and destruction and a screaming maelstrom of rage.
"Oh," Heph began as he saw what Ares looked like once the scream ended. Oh, physically, he looked the same but his power . . . his power increased ten thousand fold.
"My," Lust continued as she sensed things flying back to her uncle, things Athena held that she shouldn't have ever touched and only when Ares matured would he be able to take them by force.
"Gods," Cupid choked, staring at his father as he should have always been. His name meant bright light and Cupid saw now he was. His power shone out in ways not even Apollo could.
"War," Aphrodite whispered as Ares picked his changed in ways sword up ff the floor where he'd dropped it when he screamed and put it in the new sheath.
"Wisdom," Heph said next as a silver circlet appeared, holding his long black hair out of his face."
"Justice," Hera choked, seeing the double edge to the sword now and the ring that would be a brand if he ever needed it to.
"You two will face Justice once the God of Judgment is well," Ares' voice rumbled at his sister and nephew, "May he be more forgiving than I will be if he commands you pay the entire toll."
"Uncle Ares," Lust questioned timidly, "Who is the God of Judgment?"
"The God they allowed to come to such great harm, Lust," Ares told her as he headed for the door of his temple, "The only God who sees all on earth and Olympus and knows all. T he only God who cannot lie and that no one can lie in the presence of."
"You mean," Cupid began.
"Apollo," Hephaestus stated, "Ares, what will you do now?"
"I will bring Justice to Zeus," Ares answered, "And those he allowed to abuse things, "And I will restore to the throne the true King of the Gods."
"But Zeus is the king of the Gods," Cupid spoke.
"No," Ares answered, "He is not."
"Then who is?" Strife demanded. Ares pinned him with a look that silenced him before he turned to the gathered family. He smirked in his trademark way and flashed out, one word echoing in his wake. The word that answered the question Strife asked the word that would nail Zeus' coffin shut . . .
Hades.
The Temple of Light shook as Ares approached, rage high, fury streaming out of him, and throwing Justice ahead of him.
Zeus sat on the floor cradling his favored daughters Athena and Artemis as they had run to him when their power decreased suddenly.
He knew why.
He heard that scream, he felt Ares mature and his power, all that should have been his, return to him, and he knew what it meant.
He remembered Hades' final prophecy before he gutted him, about what would happen when Justice returned to Olympus, and he knew he could do nothing to stop it. And Ares, God of Justice, now approached the home of his favorite toy.
The door opened before the God of Justice and Zeus knew the reason: Justice and Intellect went together, as much as War and Destruction. For over a thousand years, he and his daughter and grandson did their utmost to stop those two powers joining in anyway and now all the plans fell in shambles.
"Father, what's happening?" Athena asked as Ares entered, radiating more power than she could ever hope to contain.
"Something I tried to stop," Zeus told her, "Something that means the end of your monopoly on power."
"Power that was never hers, father," Apollo spoke. His voice sounded wet, his lips bleeding and broken, but they all knew he never spoke an untruth.
"Silence!" Zeus screamed and threw lightening at him. Apollo screamed as the blast hit.
"I said," Zeus began, but he never finished as power slammed into him with Ares' fist accompanying it.
"I don't think so," Ares growled in his face, "He is no longer yours. Justice and Judgment go together, Zeus. If I am Justice, I can call my partner to me now. And 'nothing' you can do can stop it."
He walked to the bed Apollo lay on, bleeding from many injuries, and carefully lifted him. Athena ran at him but he struck her to the floor with one hand.
"You are not the Goddess you used to be, Athena," Ares warned, "Crossing me now will get you a major hurt. Zeus cannot protect you from Justice or Judgment. He cannot protect any of you anymore. Not even his precious Hercules."
"Hercules isn't a God!" Zeus screamed.
"He's half God," Ares retuned, "And he is one you have allowed to abuse and maim and kill to his heart's content. Just like your other bastards Xena and Gabrielle. Yes, Zeus I know who they are. I'm looking into the fool, too because you seem to like you lemmings in one group. Tell me, Zeus, did Eris lie to me about you raping her? Was that another lie to turn me against the others? Did the two of you plan Strife to distract me from the one that truly needed my help? Is that why Eris named him Strife; because he sowed strife into this family? I suppose once the God of Judgment is back on his feet we'll find out, won't we."
He carried Apollo out of the temple then, leaving Artemis, Athena, and Zeus sitting in shock. Never had they expected Ares to do what he just did. The power . . . the power at his fingertips had never been seen before in any but the God Zeus used mercilessly for more than a thousand years.
Athena, furious about losing her power and superiority, could do nothing.
Artemis, enraged about how special Apollo was, felt even more so now. Apollo wasn't weak like she thought; his compassion made him even stronger and now that Ares had taken Judgment to go with Justice.
"This is not fair!" She screamed. They both looked at Zeus, demanding he do something, and he looked away. He looked away because he knew, clear as anything that not even he was above Justice or Judgment. That's why he'd spent o much time putting them at each other's throats or abusing them.
Now, he'd lost control of Truth and Judgment, now, Ares had become Justice and Wisdom.
Now . . . he was in trouble.
Back in the Hall of War, Ares laid Apollo in bed and tended to his injuries. He growled because he was no healer but he suddenly knew where he could get one. He knew, had always known, that Zeus killing Apollo's son had no purpose but to inflict pain. It was 'Unjust' and therefore, as God of Justice, he could set it right.
"Hades," Ares called. The God of the Dead appeared immediately, looking at Ares as Justice curiously.
"What do you want, Lord of Justice?" Hades asked.
"To see an injustice made just," Ares told him, "It is known to all that killing Asclepius had no point but to hurt his father, Zeus had no right to stop a healer from doing his job. I want the Injustice corrected. I want him back and, as Justice, so I can command."
"And so it shall be done," Hades answered, looking to an archway in the temple where the young man appeared.
"DAD!" the young man shouted, seeing Apollo in the state he was in, "Damn him to Tartarus!"
"You know how this happened?" Ares asked.
"Why do you think he killed me?" Ace replied, "Oh, he claimed it was about that mortal but it wasn't. In truth it was because I healed my father from what he did to him every night."
"Were there ever children?" Ares asked, almost afraid.
"No, by the Grace of Pan," Ace answered, "There were never children. But the person he killed me for healing wasn't the mortal, it was my father."
"Is there no end to his violations and insidious, destructive, disgusting cruelties?" Hades growled as Ace began to heal his father.
"There will be soon," Ares answered, "Once my balance is up and about, Justice and Judgment will return to the Pantheon and all atrocities will be paid in full."
"Do you think Aphrodite tried to stop this, too?" Hades asked, as he watched Ares and Ace tend Apollo, "She is the one who keeps throwing in the mortal fool at you and trying to set you up."
"Perhaps," Ares nodded, "Perhaps she did. Or perhaps she did not wish to be held accountable to what she's done to Heph all their marriage, what she made me help her do to him. As long as I was broken and needy, she had a toy. With him at my side, I need nothing she offers."
"With you at his, no one will be able to use him ever again," Ace spoke, "For anything."
"Who else and what else have they done?" Ares asked his nephew.
"Well, knowing dad can't lie," Ace told him, "They often corner him and ask him personal questions that he has to answer and they know it'll be the truth and then they mock him or make fun of him for them. Mostly it was Aunt The and Aunt Artie but sometimes Hermes helped, Strife and your sister often, Psyche, Aphrodite . . . Demeter almost always. Oddly though, not Heph or Hades, or Hear or Auntie Hess or Dionysus/Bacchus."
"Hear's a bitch but even she wouldn't torture him like that," Ares remarked, "Auntie Hess loves everyone. Dionysus adores Apollo, so does Bacchus, Hades isn't a cruel man and Heph is too kind and Zeus' polar opposite to be that nasty."
"Will they stand behind dad?" Ace asked.
"Justice and Judgment need no one to stand behind their decisions, Ace," Hades told him, "They are apart from political machinations, apart from swaying and bribes, they are, simply, elemental forces that cannot be ordered or controlled by anyone. They are simply, that which they are."
"So . . . not even the Council can stop their work?" Ace asked.
"Not even them, young man," Hades told him, "They are above the Council, near to Pan on the ranking of power."
Ace whistled but it was Lust who spoke and summed up both their thoughts on the matter in a clear and concise way:
"Holy Shit."
Apollo woke in a warm bed. It surprised him because Zeus had a way of making his temple very cold no matter what he did or how the fires burned. Of course this dream would be better than his last one if he were dreaming. His son was dead, after all. No way could Ace have healed him
"How do you feel?" Ares' voice rumbled. He turned and looked at his brother . . . his balance, he knew, and sighed.
"Better," he answered, "I thought Ace touched me and healed me but that can't be right . . . Zeus . . . killed him."
"An Injustice that I set to rights, my beloved," Ares told him as he tended him, "Ace is back. I had the power to undo what Zeus did so I ordered it so."
"Just like that?" Apollo asked him, "No payment from me?"
"Never again a payment from you," Ares told him, "You are Judgment to my Justice, Day to my Night, Intellect to my Wisdom, Music to my Dance, Destruction to my War, Plague to my Bloodshed, Healing to my Peace, Truth to my Deception, the Archer to my Mercenary, and the New Beginning to my Gathering of the Slain. You are my Balance, Apollo, my partner, my perfect compliment. And we have much work to do once you are well."
"What do we have to do?" he asked as he sat up and reached for his clothes.
"Oh, let's see, figure out how Zeus managed to screw things over, figure out if Eris lied about the rape that made Strife, pass Judgment everyone who's done wrong to anyone beyond small things that are part of life, and Enact Justice accordingly."
"Do we get lunch breaks in there?" Apollo asked. Ares started to reply smartly before he realized Apollo was serious.
"Of course we do," he told him, conjuring food, "We get as much time as we need. But, and this will be mean of me, you are the God of Judgment. Who do you think we need to deal with first?"
"Zeus," Apollo answered immediately, "I heard him tell Artie and The he kept us apart because he feared us: Pan's Bastard and Hades' son."
"I'm Hades son," Ares spoke, "But Pan's Bastard? I don't think I . . . you?"
Apollo nodded.
"It's why Gaia hated me so much," Apollo told him, "I am everything of my father and nothing of my mother. I am all that Pan had. All that Gaia wanted him to give you, I had from birth. She punished me because she wanted me broken. She wanted you to be both Justice and Judgment."
"Unfortunately for her," Ares told him, "That's not how life works. I need you to balance me. I need you to help me live and remember that I can't just do as I wish, no matter who I am. That's why you Judge. You're the more levelheaded of us. I decide the sentences and we, together, carry them out. You're also Consideration to my Impulsiveness."
Apollo ate while Ares talked things out to himself. It seemed he knew all of this but until he had Apollo with him he could not rationalize it.
"So," Apollo said after he finished his food and Ares finished his monologue, "To Work?"
"To Work," Ares nodded.
"Docket number 1," Apollo told him with a grin, "Zeus, Usurper of the Gods . . ."
Zeus railed the entire way to the High Hall. He demanded to know, as Hermes dragged him in, who dared to chain him, who dared take his symbol of Power, and who dared to treat him as a criminal.
When he stood in the center of the room, surrounded by his subjects, he found himself looking up at the dais above him, where his throne used to sit, and he saw who dared: Ares and Apollo stood together, looking down on him and the level of contempt in their eyes made him feel small. Then, he saw the young man that stood next to Apollo with Eris' daughter, the child Dionysus called for, and he felt rage.
"He's dead!" Zeus screamed, "Who dared defy my edict?!"
"An injustice," Ares spoke calmly, glaring down on him, "One it pleased me greatly to set to rights. Ace healed his father so we could deal with you before you could try any more nasty surprises."
"And what have you contrived to try me for?" Zeus asked, knowing they were not acting as War and Sun right now, rather it was Justice and Judgment that looked down on the hall.
"Usurpation of the Throne of Olympus," Ares told him, "Rape and Assault of the God of Judgment, Theft of Power that you then gave to those who were never intended to have it, possible rape of your daughter Eris, and possible rape of your other daughters. Of course those three, I'd wager lay with you for power . . . The list goes on, Zeus, former king of the Gods. You have kept couples separated that should be together, given Godheads that serve no purpose, all in a bid to keep your favored in power. And they, too, will answer for what they have done. I do so wonder, Zeus, what Xena and her friends will say when faced with you, their father."
He paled, wondering how Ares had discovered that and then realized he hadn't. Apollo had.
"I will hear the evidence," Apollo spoke now as he stepped forward and Ares stepped back. It almost looked rehearsed, that move, but all present knew the move merely came from the fact that they were true Soul Mates. They balanced and complimented each other perfectly.
Zeus opened his mouth to speak and found himself gagged.
"I will hear it without your excuses, Zeus," Apollo barked, "For Judgment cares not for your excuses; only your actions and your true motivations behind them."
He found himself forced to sit as Apollo and Ares continued to stand, simply looking at him.
"Bring forth the Mirror of the Hall of Time," Ares called.
The mirror appeared, summoned by Ace and Lust who also seemed to be Soul Mates.
"Show the first crime," Apollo commanded of the mirror, "Show me the Evidence that has allowed this trial to happen."
And the mirror played. His birth first, because his father was the Elder God. Artemis stood by her mother as he came into the world. He never cried they all noticed, and as his hand touched the earth, flowers bloomed. In the background, they saw the Ancient God known as Pan watching over the boy. And he grew into boy and then man as they watched. He grew in body but not in mind or spirit. Thy all understood the crime: he had been a child in an adult role, an adult form, and since Pan, they could see, was chained, nothing could be done to stop it.
"Two crimes have shown there," Ares spoke, "Two crimes in one act. You bound the Earth God which is why Demeter is Goddess of Earth when she should not be. You put Apollo in the sky despite that he, as we saw, was intended for his Father's House. Pan gave him the name that you knew to be the harbinger of your doom, Apollo: the Destroyer."
"The Binding of Pan is Unjust, Ares," Apollo told him, "Do act accordingly to correct that? And to correct another who has what she should not."
"Done," Ares spoke and his eyes flared only not Blue Light, this time, rather, the power manifested in Gold.
"Thank you," Apollo told him, "Show the next crime."
The mirror began to play other images then, Ares' birth this time. Hades lay gutted on the floor and Zeus wore a crown that did not fit him. He stole this child, too. Only this one matured slowly. One day at a time."
"Who is Ares' other parent, Zeus?" Apollo demanded he tell, "I know it is not Hear. You gutted Hades to remove Ares."
". . . Methos," Zeus spat, unable to lie to the God of Truth, "His 'father' is Methos. The Original Lord of Death. The All Father."
"And my mother?" Apollo asked, "Who really gave birth to me because that was not Leto."
". . . Themis," the Sky God snarled, "The Ancient Hag of Justice and Prophecy and Pan made you just to spite me."
"I'll say a prayer to her later," Apollo told him, "In thanks. Next crime, Ares? And, by the way, Ace, can you heal Hades, please? Now that I know he's not with Persephone maybe I can fine Methos for him."
"Sure, Dad," Ac spoke, healing Ares, "Has anyone but me noticed each crime seems to reveal two?"
"Zeus never does anything the normal way," Apollo told him, "He thinks bigger is always better so why not in the crimes he's committed, too? Next?"
The mirror ilt up again. It showed three goddesses going to Zeus, offering to help in his plans to keep Apollo and Ares apart. Two because they craved the power, one because she ahted everything good and light. Athena, Artemis, and Eris. Each became pregnant, more than once, but only one child grew up on Olympus. Of the other two, the children were born but beyond that, nothing.
"Why keep an annoyance, Zeus?" Apollo asked, and the God of Truth power hit the entire court, "Why not the children of the other two and Eris' other children? What about them did you find displeasing or wrong for your plans?"
"Athena's son was born a fool," Zeus spat, "A fool and one so full of bitterness, even at birth, because he was minor, would always be minor. Apparently the power I gave them did not transfer to their offspring."
"Strife was born the same way," Ares remarked, "What about that one did you not like?"
"Strife is controllable," Zeus told them, "The Boy's bitterness and self hatred would transfer to hating all those not like him. All those who outshone him and sparked his jealousy. I couldn't have that. Even I wouldn't be so stupid to release such a wellspring of hatred into this mountain. If I had allowed him to stay, you see, he would have been God of Petty Jealousies and nothing more, ever. A weak God which showed me his mother was weak, too."
"You gave her your shield because you knew she was weak," Apollo told him, "That shield that no longer protects her. For it was striped by Hades once his title was returned. His 'true' title. Where are the other children?"
"Artemis' sons were too strong, they were uncontrollable for their intelligence. Apollo does not remember that I did not get her pregnant with the two I lost. He did. One is named Giles, the other is named Wesley. His son by Athena is a great teacher, well, sons. One is a werewolf, one is a doctor of something called Neogenics. The daughter I beget from Artemis was, like Athena's son, weak and worthless. Minor and only able to hold small powers. Like Strife."
"The names of the other children, Old Man?" Apollo demanded as he prepared for the mirror to show him the other crimes he suspected.
"Xander Harris," Zeus snarled, "Is the Petty one, "Willow Rosenberg is the weak one. The ones of Apollo by Athena are named Remus Lupin and Curt Connors. There is one other Apollo fathered by Aphrodite, another Healer, beauty and strong, named Carlisle. Perhaps one other by Artemis, a hunter born named Whistler. I could not use any of his own blood, for they all reflected him and I could not use the ones I fathered on the other two girls because they were too weak. But Strife, he was perfect for what I needed. Weaker even than the others, he was weak enough to mold. He'd been perfect and so gained his mother's approval."
"What should his Godhead have truly been, Zeus?" Apollo ordered, "For all the children born had time to be born. All of them were needed and yet you threw them away, all but the one who you gave the wrong Godhead too for he has no worshippers because Mischief is not something that is separate from Thieves and Liars and that's why he hates Hermes."
"Minor Annoyances," Zeus sneered, "Minor to Janus. The bitter one shold have been God of Lazy Fools for what he became."
"I have no doubt your placement of him helped influence that," Apollo barked back, sick of hearing how this God casually spoke of living beings of this own family as trash, "Show the last crime."
And the mirror played again, this time revealing two things Apollo suspected for some time and that shocked and horrified the other gods: Zeus was both Dahok and Eli's God of Light. Zeus intended to destroy them all.
After that finished playing, all the other Gods stared looking sick and horrified. The thoughts of 'Oh, Dear Cronos' ran through nearly ever mind present.
"I need say nothing here," Apollo told him, "Bar that you are Guilty. And my Judgment upon you be that you lose all your power, except your little rain power, and kicked back down to the Junior God you are. Ares?"
"Our Justice Be Done," Ares spoke, pointing his hand with the ring at Zeus.
Zeus screamed as his power was stripped from him. No, they all realized, not 'his' power, stolen power. And that power returned to the one it had been stolen from: Hades.
"Bind Demeter," Apollo spoke, "And the others. I will see to them tomorrow. I am weary now and so must we rest."
Saying that, they vanished in a flare of light, leaving many bewildered and the rest eager for what would happen next.
And that group included the recently freed Pan . . .
Cupid sat in his Poppa Heph's Forge watching his step father work. He knew his mother was in trouble right now, as were Strife and Eris and Hera and a lot of others. And he knew his Father would be the one to pass Justice on them. Bliss sat by his side, playing with a small hammer and some metal and as Cupid watched, he saw Bliss was making something.
"Poppa Heph?" he called. Heph turned, put his hammer down, and walked over, looking down at Bliss as he kept working, "How can he do this? He's not of you . . . oh, shit."
Heph touched Bliss' chin and turned his face up. Bliss smiled and offered what he'd made: a ring. A ring, Cupid realized, that would match his father's. A ring for Judgment.
"Thank you, Little One," Heph said as he took the ring and added the seal of the Forge to it. He then sent it to Ares to give Apollo.
"Did Bliss make Dad's, too?" Cupid asked.
"He made Ares' yes," Heph told him, and Cupid realized he'd differentiated between his dad and Ares.
"Ares isn't my father, is he?" Cupid asked.
"Ares raised you," Heph told him, "Ares took care of you and did all the things a father does with his son, so yes, in that sense Ares is your father and I won't interfere with that."
"Let me rephrase that," Cupid began, "Ares isn't the one my male genetic material came from, is he?"
"No," Heph answered, "In that sense, he's not. And he suspects Aphrodite lied to him about it to hurt me more. Ares isn't at fault for any of this mess, Cupid. And I don't hate him for it at all. Being recognized as his allowed you safety from Zeus that I couldn't give you. But, as it's becoming clear with Bliss that I am your biological father, I suppose we'll have to deal with this, too. What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Everything," Cupid told him as Bliss began playing with another piece of metal, "Why do I feel incomplete? Why did Zeus do what he did to Apollo? Why is all of that messed up?"
"To answer why you feel incomplete," Heph told him, "I have to explain why Strife was able to be made Lieutenant of War despite not having any ties to War."
"Okay," Cupid said as he sat down in one of the always warm chairs here. He'd always felt safe here, really, comfortable and like he belonged. Bliss continued to hammer on the metal, making who knew what. He seemed to work mostly in rings though.
"To give the tie to war, and since Dite had mixed Ares' blood with your first Ambrosia, they took part of you away and put it in Strife. I don't think Dite knows that, though. She's always been jealous of her children. Apollo's son by her must have been something frightening for her to agree to send him away."
"He likely had more beauty," Cupid told his . . . father, accepting the word and finding it fit perfectly, "Mom hates anyone whose beauty rivals or surpasses her own. She's jealousy, too but so many people forget that. Why don't I have any of your power in me?"
"You do," Heph told him, "It's just blocked. I'm sure if you ask Apollo and Ares they'd unblock it for you. Denying a child who they are or should be is injustice."
"Does that mean what they did to Strife was unjust?" Cupid asked.
Heph sighed then.
"In part," he nodded, "It was. But, and you have to remember, Strife was told everything and agreed to it. From taking your power to manipulating Ares, he willfully and complicity helped. He wanted more power than he was due for who he was, he wanted to make sure Justice and Judgment did not rise, he wanted all of that because it f they did it meant he would be knocked down to what he was supposed to be and not what Zeus and his mother gave him the power to pretend to be."
"So, he really is as minor as Ares and Apollo said he was?" Cupid asked as Bliss continued to work. He'd finished anther ring and gone on to the next.
"Indeed," Heph answered, "Because what his supposed Godhead is belongs to Hermes and children don't have time for the things Zeus said were powering him. Not in this day and age. I have a terrible feeling Zeus linked him to one of those banished children to feed him even more power. Although the odds are he was linked to one of Zeus' own because any of those belonging to Apollo would blast him with their power. Even lost as they've been, they'd have power to spare."
"Why didn't they try for Ares?" Cupid asked.
"Because Apollo was the one who was a child in ways," Heph answered, "And he was already broken being separated from his natural home. Ares grew up hard and strong as Justice must be harsh and cold at times. Judgment must have compassion but Justice must be hard and uncompromising."
"I see," Cupid said, looking at his son, "Who are those rings for, Blissy?"
"Giles, Wessy, Ca'Lisle, Whis'er, Cur', an' Weemus," Bliss told him, "I's makin' some for Wiwwo an' Xanner, too. I fink they's more but me can't teww. Me not a big God yet."
"Can you see family in fire, Heph?" Cupid asked.
An eloquent nod answered him yes.
"How does Bliss know what will suit each person?" Cupid asked him.
"A good craftsman will know their people and what will and won't suit. Your mother originally wanted you to have a dart gun but I knew that wouldn't suit you so I made you a bow. Bliss seems to have inherited that. I think he makes rings because rings are easier to wear where those kids are than say a sword or a dagger or a lightening bolt would be."
"Would you teach him?" Cupid asked, "Because what Zeus gave him normally falls under my power. It's like he wants all the pure kids crippled so no one notices how weak his others are."
"He's my grandson, Cupid," Heph answered as he picked Bliss up, "Of course I'll teach him. But some things I won't until he's big enough to hold the bigger hammer."
"Right," Cupid nodded, "Can we stay here tonight? Mom keeps trying to talk to me. She wants me to beg clemency for Strife and them but after what they did to Dad . . . Ares . . . and Uncle Pol . . ."
"Dad works, Cupid," Heph told him, "In your heart he always will be and I'm not bothered by that."
"Can I have two dads?" Cupid asked.
Heph nodded again so Cupid hugged him.
"Good, dad," Cupid told him, "Because we shouldn't ignore any part of our loving family. No matter what."
Heph nodded and then led them to a set of rooms that looked like they'd never been used.
"I kept these in case you ever wanted to know," Heph told him, "You and Bliss are welcome here as long as you want."
"Thanks, dad," Cupid told him, leading Bliss to the bed, "I think I'll conjure some pants, too. I'm tired of mom dressing me like a woman or a brothel star."
Heph nodded and went back to his forge. What he'd worked on before Cupid came down were cuffs that would restrain all those who'd be judged by the end of this. He knew, on some level, that Apollo would not want to call Death on them so Heph wanted to make him an alternative.
"I hope these help ease your burden, Apollo," Heph told him as he sent them to him and Ares with notes on what they did and which each one was for, "I pray this helps you not have to call Death for anyone."
"They will, Heph," Ares spoke from the shadows, "Thanks. Pol wanted another option. And about Cupid? You'll be proud of him. Any father would."
And then Ares flashed away home as he and Apollo decided who the next to be judged would be: Athena.
The next day, evening actually, as it took time to set the trials up, Athena cursed them all as Hermes dragged her in. He looked gleeful about it as he dumped her on the floor. She snarled at him, raise her hand to hit him, and then found her hand broken on his shoulder.
"Apparently you have forgotten you no longer have protections amping or boosting your pathetic power. Nor do you have the stolen things. You are, in effect, weak and powerless compared to the other powers here, Athena."
"I am Zeus' Favored!" She screamed.
"Zeus is no longer in power, Athena," Apollo's voice echoed as he and Ares appeared, "And your protections no longer exist. You are on trial for many things, theft for one, lying to your worshippers for another. Abuse, rape, murder, likely, have you been charged with. And it is my job to say Guilty or innocent and to decide the penalty. Ares will tell me if it is 'Just' and 'Fair' or if it needs more or less. Bring the Mirror that shows Athena's crimes, Herm. Let it play for me."
Hermes grinned and did as his brother bade him. Athena had no friends here and that meant she had no sympathy, either.
The mirror lit up at a wave of Apollo's hand and the crimes played for the entire audience to see. The first thing they saw was a child she threw away. A child that obviously belonged to her. One that did not belong to any God here.
"Why did you throw that one away, Athena?" Ares asked, "I can sense she was a product of a true rape, not by any Olympian, but still, why throw her away?"
"Her Godhood," she spoke, snarling the truth, hatred dripping from the world, "Goddess of False Vanity and Pride. A fool!"
"Did she have a name?" Ares asked, and as all of your children bar the ones by Pol seem to be fools, why did it shock you?"
"Buffy," she growled, nastily, "Elizabeth Summers but she took the name 'Buffy'. A stupid name for a stupid girl."
"I see," Ares spoke, "So instead of showing pride in your children, you threw them away because they weren't smart as you pretended to be. How typically Zeus of you."
"My children should have been smart!" She screamed, "I am Zeus' favored! I am powerful! I rule over everyone!"
"You wish," Apollo spoke, "Next crime."
And it played. She claimed virginity, forever, and the mirror showed her sexual appetite. Excluding what she did to Apollo because it had already been seen.
"Heavy on the kink there, aren't you, Athena?" Apollo asked, "Guilty of lying then, as well. Next?"
And the next crime showed her torturing the man she had sex with to death, so he could never tell. She removed tongues on a lot of them.
"Guilty of torture, too," Apollo remarked, "We know you're guilty of theft. Guilty of rape, abuse . . . murder I see . . .Guilty of all. Ares? My sentence is servitude. More or less?"
"More," Ares spoke, "Servicing me she harmed, pleasure them until they've died. Of natural causes."
"Our Justice," Apollo spoke as she screamed.
"Be done," Ares finished.
Cupid approached the temple that Ares confined Strife and Eris to until it was time for their trials. He needed to see Strife. He left Bliss with his father, Heph, and came to see Strife himself.
He needed answers. And he needed them now.
"You can see him," Ares had told him before he left to help Apollo with some problem or other, "But he does not leave that temple, do you understand? Until his true Godhead is restored, he cannot be near any God's power source. Until we undo whatever they did to make him able to absorb energy form other houses."
"You don't think he was complicit in that?"
"I've never met a one day old that could say yes or no to anything like that," Ares told him, "He was only complicit in things after he hit the age of maturity. Before that it was done to him."
"Dad Heph said . . ."
"Yes," Ares told him, "I know. He knows only what we know so far and what we know is that Strife did agree, but only after he realized he would never be as strong as say you or Lust or Dionysus."
"I don't care how strong he would or wouldn't be," Cupid said, upset.
"I know that, Cupid," Ares told him, "But Eris had harped about power since the day he was born and how only with power could you have anything like love."
And now, after his horror at that passed, he stood at the door of the temple and raised his hand, making it open. He knew why Ares put them here: it was Strife's home, he'd grown up here, in the Halls of War.
"What do you want?" Eris sneered as he walked in.
"Not you, that's for damn sure," Cupid told her, "I came to see Strife."
"I thought your daddy hated us both," Eris snapped.
"Nope, neither dad nor Ares hate you. They're really pissed about now but they don't hate you. Even Pol doesn't hate you. He's irritated as hell, pissed beyond belief, but he doesn't hate you. He hurts for what you did but . . . again, no hatred. Can I see Strife now?"
"You're the Prince's son," she barked and called for Strife, "Have fun talking."
Strife looked up as Cupid joined him on the couch.
"Dad said I could come see you," Cupid told him, "I have questions about things even if I don't think you'll answer but I have to ask them, see?"
"You changed out of the kilt," Strife remarked.
"Tired of looking like a porn star," Cupid returned, "Can I ask the question or not?"
"Sure, fine," Strife said, "Ask away."
"You told me your mom beat you a lot, right?" Cupid asked. Strife nodded.
"And it hurt you a lot, and you dind't like it?"
"Yeah, so?" Strife asked him.
"Why did you think it was okay to do that to Uncle Pol if you ahted it?" Cupid asked. And there Strife froze for a minute before falling back on the answer his mother always gave.
'Apollo's a bastard of Zeus'," he told Cupid, "He deserves hurt."
"Strife," Cupid began, "Much as I love you I think you're forgetting something."
"Like what?" Strife asked him.
"You're a bastard of Zeus', too," Cupid gently reminded him, "So that doesn't play. I love you Strife, nothing is changing that so I know it's true, but I need to understand why. Why did you do this? What did he ever do to you?"
"Nothing," Strife told Cupid, "He didn't do anything to me at all. Ma said he had to be punished for defyin' Zeus and all them so I helped."
"Yeah, I see that," Cupid sighed, "But, Strife, you always told me that you felt 'wrong'. Like what power you had wasn't yours. Did you ever wonder why?"
"No," Strife answered, and he knew he answered honestly because the God of Truth touched this temple but in a way he looked happy to say it at last, "Ma told me it wasn't important, ya know? But, thinkin' now, I should have known somethin' was wrong. No power ever settled right in me. What am I supposed to be, Cupid? No one will tell me cause they think I can't handle it."
"Annoyances," Cupid told him after a minor pause, "Like, nothing going right, tripping and falling into everything around, stumbling into ant hills, all of those, so, annoyances. Zeus told us at his trial, when he told us about the other kids. Uncle Pol and dad forced him to admit all the truths. Including . . . including what my mom did to Uncle Pol and that she threw a kid away, too."
"Yeah," Strife told him, "Your mom has a mean dark side, she's vicious jealousy, envy, greed, part of hatred, crazy obsession . . . all of that. Scares me, Cupe."
"Ares and Pol will take care of that, too," Cupid spoke quietly.
"You and Ares have a fight?" Strife asked, "Usually he's dad."
"He still is sometimes," Cupid told him, "But I need to get to know my real father.:
"Isn't Ares your father?" Strife asked.
'In that he raised me," Cupid spoke, "But the man who made me is my mom's actual husband."
Uncle Heph?" Strife squeaked and Cupid nodded.
"I left Bliss with him, for safety," Cupid told him, "Everything will work out, Strife. Justice and Judgment are back and I know you didn't want them here but . . . well . . . I think, we all know . . . we need them here."
"Yeah," he grudgingly admitted, "Yeah, we do. So . . . what happens now?"
"Dad and Uncle Pol fix your Godhood and then we figure out the rest as we go along," Cupid told him, "I mean, dad said you'll have to pay fo what you did to Uncle Pol but . . . well . . I don't think it'll be as long a sentence as your mom's is liable to be."
"Not long at all," Ares' voice came as he walked towards Strife, "Just . . . painful. Apollo said Strife needed to feel the pain he inflicted. It only needs to be done once unless he forgets the lesson, and Apollo, to spare him all of the pain his mother helped cause everyone, is going to let him feel his own pain. And it will begin now and end at sunset tomorrow."
Strife cried out then and Cupiid started to reach for him but Ares stopped him.
"You cannot help in this, Cupid," Ares told him, "I allowed you two to talk before but this he must face on his own. Go home. I'll let you come back once it's done. That is the other half of the punishment; no one can be with him. He must suffer alone . . . just as Apollo did."
He wanted to fight but Ares was stronger so Cupid found himself back in his temple, locked in so he couldn't try to go to Strife. He knew why it had to happen, but it hurt him a lot to know Strife suffered and he couldn't help.
"I'm sorry," Ares whispered as he left the temple of Love, "But you cannot help him this time . . ."
"Hey, Pol," Ares spoke, returning to the Hall of Light while Strife paid his price, "What are you looking at?"
"Other children," Apollo answered as he sighed, "Particularly mine by Eris. This one, a man known as Jason Blood. Yes, I was aware."
"Ace told me there were no children," Ares told him.
"By Zeus," Apollo told him, "You asked Ace, after you talked about what happened to me by 'Zeus' if there were any children. Ace said 'No, by the Grace of Pan'. And there were none by Zeus so that was true. You never asked him about anyone else."
"I see," Ares nodded, "What about this one has you attention?"
"His nature is more dual than the others because Eris and I are diametrically opposed. When Zeus forced me to lay with the other two . . . three, I should say, the similarities were enough to balance the kids. But not Jason."
"Explain," Ares said as Apollo pointed at the mirror that stood against the wall.
"Etrigan," Apollo spoke, and the mirror played a tale that stunned Ares.
"That poor boy," Ares whispered as they saw what happened, "And this is a result of the damage Zeus did?"
"Yes," Apollo answered, "It is. Jason thinks he's bound to a demon because his dual nature acted to save him from a poison."
"How could his Godhood have been activated?" Ares asked, "How could he be immortal?"
"Zeus' own law," Apollo answered as he turned his attention to another mirror showing Strife as he paid for what he'd been complicit in, "No God can harm another by their actions. He originally made that law in fear of us but when we act as our titles we aren't one god."
"We aren't any god," Ares told him, "We are the Primal of Justice and Judgment, the Power that is the Check and Balance. And so we act. How is he doing?"
"He's been weeping for lat few hours," Apollo told him, "Don't worry, Ares, I won't let his mind break. He matters too much to yours and Heph's son."
"You knew?" Ares asked.
"I knew Aphrodite lied, yes," Apollo answered, "But I didn't know who his father was until you did. I had too much pain to look then. He couldn't ask for a better father than Heph, though."
"No," Ares agreed, "He couldn't. Do you think he and Strife will make it?"
"That depends on how strong Strife is," Apollo told him, "It's not Cupid who needs to care for Strife. Strife needs to do that. And Cupid cannot be suckered into it by Dite or anyone else again."
"I understand," Ares agreed, "Too many people have pitied Strife in his life and he's played us all. Do you think Strife will grow once we give him the correct Godhead?"
"Yes," Apollo told him, "I do. I also think, after the kids by Zeus and our sisters/cousins answer for what they've done they will grow up too. But it won't be easy and it won't be fast. For anyone hurt by this."
"You consider them all victims?" Ares asked.
"I do," Apollo told him, "As much victims as Strife. But, what they have chosen to do is what they will answer for. Even you and I had trials to reach our full Godhead. They will, as well. And to find the counter to the one they have by birth."
"You've already decided the trials?" Ares asked.
"No," Apollo answered, "Like Strife I have to see them in their Godhead's By Birth to know the trials to find the balance and test the worthiness to continue to have it. I need to see them. Then, I will know. Strife was tire don mischief but as we know Mischief was never his, he has to retest. What he endures now is part of that test. How he comes out will determine the next test."
"Harder or easier?" Ares asked.
"None of the Council had easy trials, Ares," Apollo told him, "Zeus gave no trials to the other three because he knew they weren't true Council. But those of us who are, we all had hard tests and so will he and every other child. Perhaps some trials of life have been a test but for some, no."
"Your Jason endures, has endured, for a long time."
"Yes," Apollo said, "Branded something he was not by an old man's foolishness, he has lived and struggled and fought a battle that did not need fighting. I think I'd like him with Bacchus or Janus, they both understand living with two natures."
"What about the other kids? Looked at them yet?"
"Still sorting my own," Apollo told him, "But what I see of Zeus' . . . they will be difficult."
"Why?"
""Look for yourself," Apollo told him, "But not now. We have to prepare for tomorrow."
"Who's on the block?" Ares asked.
"Tomorrow? Double Header. Hear . . . and Gaea."
"Oh," Ares sighed, "Fun."
"Like an untreated sore tooth," Apollo said, "But it's part of our job. So, to dinner, to bed, and then, in the morning, to work."
In the morning, the two goddesses stood before the court. Both knew why Justice and Judgment called them, both knew it would be a test of Apollo's mercy and compassion as to what would happen, and both knew if Ares did not agree, he could make the sentences worse. He would tell Apollo if he would be too harsh, yes, but he would also say when Apollo acted too lenient and he would correct it. That made him the more dangerous person to cross.
"Court will come to order," Ares commanded from his [place on dais. Everyone went silent, the hushed whispers about who stood in judgment stopping as soon as Ares spoke.
"Hear, Goddess of Marriage and Childbirth and Defender of Scorned Women, Gaia, Mother of The World, know ye why you stand before me today?"
"We . . . suspect," Hear said, noticing that Strife sat by Cupid, huddled and shaking but Cupid did not coddle him. Cupid made him sit up on his own power.
"Tell me what you think the charge is, Goddess of Childbirth," Apollo said, "Tell me why you think I have called you to judge."
"That I allowed Zeus to break his bonds," she spoke. And Apollo laughed.
"No, Hear, that has nothing to do with this. You are here, the both of you, because of the torment you allowed and in most cases helped him and others to heap on many of the children here."
"Wat children have we harmed?" Gaia asked.
"Me for one," he barked, with a harsh laugh, "Ares, Cupid, Strife, Bliss, Hephaestus, Hermes . . . there are many, including your own eldest son Pan. Tell me oh, mother, what could I, barely an hour old when Python attacked Leto and Artemis, have possibly done to make you hate me? Your precious Hear sicked that little monster on Leto after Zeus raped her. That is a betrayal of Hear's Godhead, defender of scorned and abused women my ass. Every woman Zeus laid with that produced a child was raped. She didn't defend them, though; she tortured them because of what Zeus did to them. I ask that title be stripped, Ares, as she has not honored it, it is not just she have it."
"Done," Ares spoke, "What else, Judge?"
"She has not punished unfaithful wives so I say she is not Goddess of Marriage, either. She has also abused children here. Me, you, anyone that wasn't what she wanted, I'd have to say about everyone."
"What should her Godhead have been, Apollo?" Ares asked him, "You have to know or you wouldn't be picking apart how badly she failed at all of the ones he claimed for herself."
"Like Zeus and Demeter, It's minor," Apollo told him, "She should have been a Goddess of birds and beasts, those that fly and those that graze. But not those that hunt. Her nature be far too weak and tender for that."
"And Gaia?" Ares asked him as he took what Hear should not have had and replaced it with what Heph gave him for her. She seemed almost relieved to have those weights off. They ill fit her, after all.
"What kind of a loving mother of all abuses and overloads children, Ares?" Apollo asked, "What kind of loving mother would allow a rapist to exist unless she wanted him to do it so she could have targets to vent her rag e and Uranus out on? What kind of loving mother seeks to destroy her male children because they have proven stronger than her precious abusing girls? The only female of that stock that was not petty and vicious was Hestia. My sentence is thus, Ares, Gaia will become a Spirit guardian but Pan will take over as Nature. As it should be Lady Sky and Father Earth, together, forever in harmony and balance. A balance you have let slip in your ire at the face that your girls were too weak to break the boys that held power. You wanted Justice and Judgment to be Athena and Artemis. That's why you helped Zeus suppress me so much by giving me so much work and so many jobs. You allowed Zeus to give the wrong Godheads to people or useless ones, you allowed him to lose children and you allowed him to give that which was not theirs to those who could never use or understand it. Every year on Solstice, grandmother, you will know the pain you have caused you will feel every child you ever allowed to come to harm's pain, until you truly regret and come to repent what you did. So is my Sentence."
"So it is done," Ares spoke and both screamed as Apollo's sentence on Hear about the pain matched Gaia's, "Pol, before we judge others, I think we need o do something about the Major Gods who do nothing."
"Talk to me, Ares," Apollo spoke as he refused to let anyone leave the room, "What do you mean by that?"
"Aphrodite, I learned through the Hall of Time, should control ALL emotions, 'Not' just Love, but House of Emotion, she refuses to take care of anything but Love because Love is 'fun'. Hermes should be in charge of Thieves, Liars, Pranksters, and Charlatans, yet he's not. Only thieves and Liars. Half his Godhead is missing as half of Cupid's was. The Council has people on it that should not be and ones who should be are spat on and vilified. That injustice screams at me and I wish to fix it before we proceed. I also want Cupid's true father acknowledged and given all due honor as it is thanks to his line that we have the one who forges for the New Children once we find them."
"So we honor Hephaestus as Father of the Craft and his Grandson who will make part of the House of Craftsmen: Bliss. As for the other, Who does belong on the Council, Ares, and who does not? I have been so exhausted that I cannot remember clearly much."
"Just as they wished it," Are told him, "Janus belongs on the Council, Bacchus and Lust both belong on the Council, Hermes, Heph, me, you, Dite, Hestia, Hades, Poseidon, and Pan."
"And the Thirteenth Vote, Ares?" Apollo asked, "To prevent a tie?"
"Dionysus," Ares answered as he pointed at Bacchus and separated the two, "Another crime to be laid at Zeus' feet, another injustice I am correcting."
"So shall it be," Apollo spoke as he felt tired, "We will reorganize tomorrow, I am . . . weary or this."
"We need the children," Ares sighed realizing what was draining Apollo, "Cupid, you and Strife are going to have to start doing double duty. If you want major god respect, you're going to learn Major God work."
"What's that entail, Ares?" Strife asked him.
"Finding two of Apollo's sons," Ares answered, "I want you to find definitely the one named Carlisle, his name means Strong in the Light, he can handle the sun chariot and the light aspects. And then we need either Curt or Remus for intellect. If they have families or lovers bring them, too, but we need them. I'd suggest seeking some of there others but until Apollo is ready to deal with the kids by Zeus and his daughters we can't risk that. Go! Heph, can you handle the fire warmth today?"
"Sure, Ares," Heph nodded. Pan already turned to head for Delphi while Dionysus turned towards the Muses and pushed them to do their jobs. He would be able to do it for awhile but he didn't know for how long. Ace headed for the Healing hall while Lust and Bacchus picked up Archery and new Beginnings for the time being. They had no idea what to do about Plagues or Sudden Death yet. They just hoped they could find someone soon . . .
After sending Cupid and Strife out on their quest to find three which Ares knew would turn into seeking them all, they turned to the next trial: Aphrodite.
She stood before them, dressed in her most seductive, and Ares looked at Apollo and sighed.
"I know, Ares," Apollo told him, "I know. She never did like hearing the word no. That's probably why she helped Zeus and the others with me."
"On to business?" Ares asked with a growl.
"To business," Apollo answered, "I already have her sentence in mind."
"Ooh, you must have thought this one out because you look absolutely gleeful about it, love."
"Let's just say I have very little tolerance for people who claim they are responsible but then shirk raising their kids and doing their jobs," Apollo told him, "Her sentence won't be a stripping of power."
"Ouch," Ares whispered as they stepped out on to the dais where they looked down on those who came for Judgment were brought.
"Aphrodite, Demeter, Artemis, Eris," Apollo spoke, "I don't think I need say much in your cases but the mirrors will play regardless. Demeter you are guilty of ditching your duty on a God that you spat on calling him weak. If Dionysus is weak, then why can he manage your jobs plus his own? If Bacchus is so disgusting, why do you rely on him to do the fertility part of being an earth deity? The answer is that they are not the weak ones, you are."
"How dare you?" she snarled, "I am a daughter of Cronos and Rhea!"
"And about as weak as your brother Zeus and your sister Hera," Ares barked back at her, "You have delighted in making the lives of everyone on this mountain miserable, and thrown tantrums, because your daughter did what children have been doing for eons: She grew up. That stupid, ridiculous hold you had is over now. Pan is now Nature and Seasons again. Therefore that thing about Persephone having to leave those she chose is hereby undone. Another injustice Zeus allowed."
"What do you mean 'ones she chose'? She's married to my bastard brother Hades!"
"If he be a bastard, so be you," Apollo spoke, "For your parents are the same. And they are not married. She is married to Thanatos and with Celeste as well. Hades does not do blood kin. But, your sentence shall be carried out now, Demeter, No longer Goddess of anything on your own; you will work under Pan for the rest of eternity. AND Zeus won't be biding him again for you so, if I were you, I'd get your nose out of the air and into the dirt where it belongs, Earth Deity."
She screamed as Ares brought Justice on her, screamed in denial as her symbols of Power were taken and replaced with only a small ring that Heph said would mark her house and nothing more.
After Hermes took her from the room, they turned attention to Artemis who stood glaring up at the two who had what she and Athena wanted most: Power over all and Authority to make things what they wished.
"You, dear Artemis," Apollo growled, "You have much to answer for. I do not count what you did to me because the world needed a true born hunter but for all those girls you damned by destroying the male hunt aspect in Slayers, replacing it with Spawn of Dahok's soul, Hope, wasn't that her name? No wonder they die so fast. I wonder how many counts of Murder and Betrayal of Duty that is? You have made the weak strong in appearance and the strong weak by undermining things like nature, you have murdered men for daring to look on you bathing despite that you chose to bathe where people would see, you have tortured people for crimes they did not commit as that sacred animal of yours was sick and dying anyhow. I have no sympathy for you, Artemis, for what you have done has sickened even my heart and we all know how hard 'that' particular feat is to achieve."
"You didn't use the mirrors for us," she sneered, "What's wrong, Pretty Polly? Nothing shows there?"
"Plenty would," he told her, "And I would use it if you hadn't bragged about all the things you've done in your life. You are the reason that I do not need the mirrors, Artemis. Guilty by your own words."
"You don't have the guts to punish me," She growled.
"On the contrary, my dear, like Athena you will be stripped of your power and made to serve those you wronged in the underworld for a term of three hundred years. One century for every life you ended, you see, and when you come back from that, you will serve in the House of Emotion. You will serve part of Love there, and you will be physical love."
"NO!" She screamed.
"Why not, Artie dear?" Ares asked, "You always brag to Judge that you're so passionate and it's a pity he can never have true passion, after all."
"No," she screamed again, "No, you can't do this! I'm you elder, Apollo!"
"If he were Zeus' son that might make a dent," Ares told her, "But he's not. He's Pan's Faun. And means he outranks you. And so I say, Our Justice," he began.
"NOOOOOOOO!" She wailed.
"Be Done," Apollo finished.
After Hades took her to the Underworld, Ares and Apollo turned their attention to the other two who swallowed, knowing if Apollo did that to the one who had been raised his sister, they had no chance of leniency with him.
"Your turn," Ares said to them, and his smile . . .
Was ominous.
"Now, for you two," Ares growled.
"N-now, now, Ares," Eris began, "Really brother, calm down. This . . . It was for the good of everyone."
"If that were true, you would not have hidden anything you did. You used Apollo as a toy, a punching bag, and a whore, and you used me as a weapon against most of the family, and you lied to me. The Hall of Time revealed such things to me as would make you cringe. Of course they should make you afraid, too."
"Why?" She asked.
"Because I dislike being lied to, sister dear, and you have provoked me and lied to me enough for ten life times."
"What did I lie to you about?" Eris demanded.
"Strife," Ares told her and she paled.
""I was raped!" She yelled.
"Yes and no," Ares responded, "Yes in that you were barely a child then, no in that you seduced him. That was a very fine line you danced but you knew I would detect it as rape. Pity for you the Hall of Time of showed me the whole story. After you turned up pregnant you and Zeus decided to keep him, hoping he would reflect house of Aggression but sadly, even you are not true aggression, you, like Strife, belong in Janus' house. Discord, Chaos, Annoyances, all belong to Janus. Zeus played a dangerous game and he came up the loser. And because he came up the loser, so too did everyone who was complicit in his deeds."
"Why isn't Strife on trial?" she demanded, "He agreed!"
"He already paid," Apollo answered coldly, "He paid for what he did to me and what he did to Cupid in a way I wouldn't even consider offering you because ig would be too easy for you. You enjoy the pain you inflict after all. You are as much a masochist as you are a sadist."
"WHAT?!" She screamed.
"Indeed," Ares told her, smiling in an unpleasant way, "And unlike you and Dite, Strife actually survived what he suffered for what he did. You may not be so lucky. Judge?"
"Guilty," Apollo's voice rolled. It always echoed when he spoke as Judgment.
"Your sentence, Judge?" Ares asked.
"She made me a whore and you a toy, let her be Janus'," His voice echoed again, "More?"
"More," Ares said, noting that Apollo still had trouble with his gentle side in judging, "I sentence her to the taste of ashes for her food. I sentence her to know the pain the child she threw away endured."
"Our Justice," Apollo whispered.
"Be Done!" Ares thundered.
Eris vanished at a wave of her true House head's hand and Aphrodite stepped forward, trying to make the floor hers and take control.
"That won't work, Dite," Ares told her, "You are not in control here and you will not be able to influence Judge or I except to tell us, dressed like that, that you really are a whore."
His words acted like a slap but he did not take them back or apologize. Aphrodite had used people for centuries using her looks and whiles to trap and hurt. No more.
"Why am I in trouble?" She asked, "I went to Apollo to give him pleasure."
"Because you threw the baby away," Apollo growled at her, "And I do not understand why."
"You can't figure it out, God of Knowledge? Really? Are you sure you're smart?"
"Smarter than you," Apollo told her, "I wouldn't have just admitted it before the whole court."
She opened her mouth to say something then snapped it shut realizing he spoke the truth.
"I'm not going to tell you why I got rid of him," she said, "Not unless you make it worth my while."
"He doesn't need to," Cupid spoke up as he and Strife entered the hall, "The baby's name told us everything and explains your reasons or at least one of them."
"What is his name?" Apollo asked.
"Carlisle Cullen," Strife said, "Cupid said Carlisle means 'Strong in the Light', like you. But Cullen? Cullen means 'Beautiful' or 'Handsome'. Aunt Aphrodite can't take anyone being fairer of face than her, especially not a male she can't bed."
"I see," Apollo said, "And I suspect the other reason."
"What reason?" She asked, belligerently.
"You've never raised a child of your own," Ares spoke, "I raised all of ours. If Apollo wasn't able to raise him for you so you didn't have to work, I have no doubt you'd toss him away. Can you two find him? He's one of the ones I asked for, isn't he?"
"We know where he is because he's Cupid's half brother," Strife told Ares, "But we don't want to bring anyone up here until you get the mess straightened out and we don't think you want that either."
"No," Ares agreed, "We don't. Judge, you told me you had a punishment for Aphrodite. Do you still want to keep it?"
"Yes," he answered, "I do."
"Then speak it," Ares told him.
"Aphrodite, Titaness, Daughter of Cronus, born of his castrated manhood named Goddess of passions and all strong emotions, you have shirked your duty since you began and that will not continue. You are now Goddess of ALL Strong Emotions, All Powerful Feelings . . . Except Love. Love will go to your son Cupid."
"But how can I be Goddess of Beauty?"
"You aren't," Ares told her, "Because beauty, true beauty, isn't the face you show. You are not beautiful, Aphrodite. You are cold and nasty inside, vicious and cruel, vindictive, petty and spiteful, and so you are no longer Goddess of Beauty, Tartarus, you don't know what true Beauty is."
"True Beauty goes with light," Apollo spoke, "And with light there is Darkness. Carlisle will be Light and Beauty. He will decide who carries what in that house."
"Our Justice," Ares spoke before she could try protesting again.
"Be Done," Apollo finished in a quietly dark voice.
Are we ready to reorganize the Council?" Ares asked Apollo from the Dais later that day. Apollo nodded, knowing the sooner this was done the sooner they could find the children and bring them home.
And he did mean 'all' of them.
"This won't be pretty, you know," Ares told him, "Athena and Artemis still sit on the council despite punishment."
"Not for long they won't," Apollo growled as they headed for the Council hall. This part had to be done on this level as it involved Hades as much as the others.
"Are you ready, boys?" Hades asked as they entered.
"Is everyone we wanted here?" Apollo replied.
"Yes," Hades told him, "Everyone you wanted is here. What, may I ask, do you plan on doing?"
"Reorganizing," Ares told him, "Now that we know who should be doing what and what Zeus allowed to go wrong we plan to fix it."
"When do you want to deal with the heroes?"
"After we find the full godly children," Ares answered, "We want them to realize that children of Zeus or not, we don't need them. And we surely won't tolerate them."
"You said Joxer and his brothers are full Olympians," Hades remarked, "Do you know what they should have been?"
Jace belongs with Dionysus in Theatre," Apollo answered, "Jett belongs in Janus for Murder, and Joxer is Delusion and Manipulation. Zeus' son by Athena is also in Delusion. I've checked to have some idea what we're dealing with."
"Why do you say he's Deluded?" Ares asked.
"Because he thinks himself a soldier when he has not had the training to earn the title," Apollo answered, "And he thinks he's the Gods' Gift to women when he's barely a court Jester. Mostly because unlike good Jesters, his jokes are always cruel and always aimed at others. He is jealous of people but Deludes himself into thinking they wish they could be him, and he's petty. This could have to do with the age he is in the time he's in but I've seen other children, younger than him, who don't behave like he does so I really can't say. I can say he will be one of the more difficult ones to deal with because of his preconceived notions and his assumptions about a race we created to b a human population control. We'll see though."
"Does he have any good qualities?" Ares asked.
"He's Loyal but only to those he thinks are worthy which is not a good Soldier's behavior. You back all your team from what I've seen of you, Ares. I would say the Loyalty he has is Kid Loyalty to your friends and no one else despite that you need others to make the world go 'round but then, this is from what little I've seen between all the trials and reorganizing."
"Yes," Ares agreed, "And we need to get on with the reorganizing so we can fix the other mess Zeus and the girls left us."
"Indeed," Apollo said as they entered the Council hall, "Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen."
Everyone turned and stared.
"It's time for reorganization before we bring up the new children."
"What reorganization?" Athena demanded.
"Who rules what house. By the way, you're off the Council. You aren't Wisdom and you aren't War. Ares is both of those. You're gone. Artemis is gone, too. Hades is Hunt and King but King is just a title here. Hunt is part of him and he will be such again. Zeus is gone, he's nothing, minor to nature which is Pan now. Hera is gone, again, she is under Pan. So is Demeter."
"You just knocked out five of the Council!" Athena roared.
"Don't get your girdle in a knot, we're going to replace them," Ares told her, "Aphrodite is henceforth all Emotion bar Love which belongs to Cupid, Hephaestus is Crafts of all kinds, I am War, Wisdom, and Justice, Apollo is still all tat he was in overseeing but once his kids come home some duties will be delegated to them, Poseidon is Still Oceans and Seas and they are big enough to require he be his own house as Pan is more Earth and Sky, Hades is Hunt as well as Humanity and Life, Death, Wealth, and Rebirth, Hermes is now Thieves, Liars, Charlatans, Jokers, and Magicians, Janus is Chaos, Murder, Discord, Confusion, and Annoyances and those who are Dual Natured. Pan is Nature, Earth, Sky and All as that is what his name means. Hestia is Matronly Arts, Fire, Baking, and Cooking. Lust is Blood Lust and Supernatural Creatures. Bacchus is Debauchery and Sex. Dionysus is now Theatre and one of the Major Earth Gods of Fertility as are Bacchus and Lust with Pan over all. That is the Council as it stands now."
"Our Will be Done," Hades and Pan agreed.
Hestia nodded and then Hades looked at Cupid and Strife.
"Find the children," he said, "And Bring them home."
"All of them?" Strife asked.
"All of them," Hades confirmed, "But start with Pol's if you can. Not out of favoritism, before you say a word, Aphrodite, but because he needs the help."
In a flash, they vanished, going to find the lost children as Hades, their King, commanded
"So, why do you think Hades asked us to work together?" Strife asked Cupid as they searched.
"Because he thinks we cans till make things work," Cupid answered, "You passed your test for keeping your Godhead. Apollo was impressed because that pain would have killed anyone else likely."
"I helped inflict it," Strife told him, "I figured I should take what I dished out. Uncle Apollo never deserved it and I never should have helped do it. I got that while I laid on the floor screaming from what he suffered. Even second hand it felt like someone murdered me a million times over."
"He's tough," Cupid remarked as they looked, "He didn't have an option to be anything else with everything that landed on him. I guess in some ways he's why the mountain is still standing."
"Yeah," Strife agreed, "God of Everything is our Uncle Pol. Why does Ares want these kids?"
"He wants Pol's kids because they can take some of the weight off of him," Cupid answered, "Carlisle means Strong in the Light so Ares thinks he can help with the sun or truth or something like that. From what I understand Curt, Remus, Giles, and Wesley are all smart so intellect or different aspects of that. I don't know. I know Whistler is a hunter type person, though.
"And no one on the mountain can do any of that?"
"I don't know, Strife, "I think Ares wants them in case no one on the mountain can do any of that. I think Ares said they need to restructure and reassign things to how they should be. I don't know what that means for the rest of us, Strife, but Ares isn't pleased about a lot of people who've had jobs they've shirked on. My mom especially."
"Your mom?" Strife asked.
"Dad said she should be in charge of all emotion, not just love," Cupid explained, "That means me and Harmonia, and all the others are all missing pieces."
"Does it mean we're in the wrong houses?" Strife asked.
"Likely," Cupid answered while they sorted through the hall of time, "Come on, where are you guys? We need you."
"Maybe it ain't about what we need," Strife said, quietly, "Maybe it's about them. We're looking for individuals but Ares said they might have families. Maybe we can't find them because we aren't looking the right way."
"How should we look?" Cupid asked.
"Look for families or lovers," Strife suggested, "Ares said, for instance, by my mother there's a kid named Jason Blood. How would we find him if we don't know what his power is?"
"Look for his thoughts?" Cupid suggested.
"won't work," Strife told him, "Godly or demi-godly thoughts don't register to anyone but the God of Mental healing, again, Uncle Apollo."
"So . . . how?" Cupid asked.
"Look for people who think about them."
"You know, that makes entirely too much sense. Should we start with that one?"
"Might as well," Strife remarked.
As they began, they searched for Jason Blood, then they searched for a Jason Blood that had two separate faces, then they searched for all the people who knew a Jason Blood who had two faces that had lived a long time. They almost thought they failed when an Ankh opened beneath them.
"Why is Ra calling us?" Strife yelped as they fell.
"Hades if I know," Cupid yelped back as they landed hard on the stone floor of a room.
"WHO DARES INVADE THE THOUGHTS OF DR. FATE?"
"Oh . . ."
"Crud."
"Uh, really, oops?" Cupid stammered as they faced the man with the gold helmet and the blue and gold clothes.
"Who are you?" the man asked them after releasing them from magic that actually held them.
"I'm Cupid and this is Strife," Cupid told him, "We're looking for Jason Blood."
"And why do you seek Sir Jason?" the man called Fate asked.
"His father, Apollo, needs him," Strife told him, "I know you probably don't believe us but . . ."
The man laughed, hard, as he looked at them.
"Don't believe you?" he asked, "Why on earth would you think that?"
"'Cause you're human?" Cupid asked.
"I wear the Helmet of Nabu, and the Amulet of Anubis," he said, "I am a mage so powerful I caught two Junior Gods in a trap, an you think I don't believe you?"
"Wait, you're Nabu's champion?" Strife asked.
"Indeed I am," he said, "And may I just say invading my mind wasn't the smartest thing in the world to do but I suppose better me than Hal or Arthur."
"Sorry about that," Cupid said, "Strife thought maybe if we looked for people who knew Jason we could find him faster than just looking for him. His dad needs a break; he needs help so Hades asked us to come find all of Apollo's kids."
"I see," Fate told them, "I've called Jason. He should be here soon with Justin. I should warn you, Etrigan goes nowhere without his Shining Knight so you'll need to account that in your travel plans."
They nodded and waited as a moment later a column of flame appeared and out of it walked two men. One had red hair with a white streak, the other had blond hair and carried a sword.
"Fate?" the Red Head asked.
"These people seek you, Jason. Your father Apollo needs you. I have already looked in the Orb, they speak the truth."
"I want Justin and Fate," the man told them, "They are as much a part of me and all magic, as Apollo is."
"You don't question?" Strife asked.
"If Fate says you tell the truth then you tell the truth," Jason answered, "He called for us as soon as he looked at you so I came. If you need us, we shold go. I'll call Arthur for your Uncle Poseidon, too."
"Already done," Fate told him, "Hal is with him so they're on the way with Billy. I think Captain Marvel would do well to meet the Gods who Blessed him."
"Yeah," Jason said, "He would. Where first? More kids or to your place?"
"Our place," Cupid told him, "Your group is big and Hades said to being those you consider yours. Is there anyone else?"
"Maybe Booster Gold," Jason told him, "The boy survived Adolph Hitler. He could use a break from jeers about where they assumed he comes from and his apparent attitude."
"Get him, then," Cupid said as others appeared in a green flash, "Hades will kick my ass if we leave anyone that matters to you behind."
Fate pointed and an Ankh appeared. A young man stepped out of it, looking confused but he shrugged and walked over to where the group was.
"Where're we going, Doc?" he asked Fate.
'Olympus," Strife answered, "Jason Blood said you're a friend of his and you matter to him so we're taking you. Everybody ready?"
"Yes," Jason spoke for them, "We are. Let's go."
Cupid nodded and he and Strife concentrated together to move them from one place to the next. The appeared back in the main hall as the new Council prepared for their first meeting.
'Sorry, dad," Cupid spoke, "Jason had a big group he calls his family. This is Jason Blood, Justin, Hal, Arthur, Booster Gold and Someone called Captain Marvel. The guy in the Helmet is . . ."
"Fate," Ares spoke, "I see Nabu finally chose a successor. What was your name?"
"I no longer remember," Fate told him, "For to do so would drive me insane with wishing to be that man again."
"Wait, he took your mortal life?" Hades asked. Fate shrugged.
"When did you last take that helmet off for more than meals or sleep, Fate?" Ares asked him. He seemed to consider before shaking his head.
"You don't remember, do you?"
"No," Fate admitted after a minute of silence, "I do not. It has been . . . years, I should think. Why can I be here?"
"Because I began lines when I lived in Egypt," Ares told him, "If I'm right, you are direct of one of them. Can I take the helmet off?"
Fate nodded and allowed Ares to remove it. Ares shook his head at how tired Fate looked and had him taken to a temple to rest. Once that was done, and the others settled, Cupid and Strife left to find the other children and Ares looked at Hades.
"Note to self," he began, "Kick Nabu's ass up around his ears!"
They tracked Remus Lupin down next.
Strife suggested they find Curt Connors and Carlisle next but they were both in America and Remus, of course, had to be in England so he got bumped to the top of the list. That and they thought he was a werewolf so his life was pretty much shit.
Cupid and Strife knew better though.
He may have been a werewolf but that wouldn't matter because one of the titles his father carried was Lyceios which meant, of course, 'Wolfish', so they knew, almost certainly, what aspect of his father's duties he would help with and they dared these humans to spit on Remus in his father's presence. Apollo had a nasty habit of cursing people who harmed what was his in any way, shape, or form.
Looking around this world, Cupid almost hoped someone was stupid enough to do it.
"This is the house?" Strife asked. Cupid nodded as they walked up to the door and knocked.
Inside, they heard shouts of confusion and dismay and it occurred to them this house was supposedly hidden.
"Guess to mortal eyes, it is hidden," Strife said as the door opened.
"Can I help . . . Lord Cupid!"
"Yes," Cupid told the old man, "We're looking for someone . . . special."
"Oh, do come in, I know just who you seek."
"Do you really?" they asked, following him.
"Of course," the old man said, "There can be only one you would seek and he's this way."
He led them to a boy of about fourteen or fifteen and they looked at each other.
"This, Lords, is Harry Potter, the most special person in the magical world."
"This one, maybe," Strife remarked, "But not in any other, especially not the world of Olympus."
"What do you mean?" the man asked.
"He doesn't 'ping' right," Cupid told him, "He doesn't have the right . . . Animal . . . sense to him."
"Animal sense?" he asked, "What 'Animal Sense'?"
"The person we're looking for has a 'wolfish' sort of life. It would figure that though, seeing as his father's name is Lyceios which means 'wolfish'."
"Harry is the savior of the Wizarding World," the old man said, "Surely he is worthy of your blessings?"
"We aren't here to give blessings," Strife told him as he leaned against Cupid, "We're here to find a lost Godling and that boy ain't it."
"He's Harry Potter, the only one the Gods should be interested in!" the old man nearly shouted.
"We're interested in one who is of our blood right now," Cupid told him, "After we get everyone we're looking for settled, we'll come back to your little world and look at your little boy, now where is the man you call a werewolf?"
"He's not available," the old man said, and it was clear he lied.
"Then who is that on the steps dressed in mostly rags?" Cupid asked, "Did anyone ever tell you that lying to a God is a stupid thing to do? Especially lying to the son of Ares, God of War, Wisdom and Justice and especially lying 'about' the Son of Apollo, God of Judgment?"
"Remus is not the son of a God!" The man thundered, "Harry is!"
"Not any of Greece," Strife told him, "And honestly, he don't ping 'divine' at all. He pings more 'inbred with a shot of new' to us."
"How 'dare' you?"
"Tell the truth? Easily," Cupid told him, "Uncle Apollo needs his children, we asked nicely for the sake and in the interest of 'polite' but we don't have to ask at all. We can reveal the person with just a toss of Touchable Sunshine as my son Bliss calls it."
"And what will that do?" the man asked as Strife brought everyone in the house at present time to him.
"Reveal any of Apollo's line," Cupid answered as he took a handful of the dust and blew it on the people ranged before him.
"Bingo," Strife said, looking at the man in the shabby clothes, "You were right, Cupe, that's our boy. Let's get him to his dad and his brother Jason. They can help him with stuff."
"I can't leave them," the man answered, pointing at the boy the old man tired to claim was a god, the man with black hair, and about everyone else in the house.
"Yeah, fine, them too," Cupid sighed, "But if anyone gives you shit on Olympus they're going to get it. If not from your father, then from mine."
"What will your father do?" the man asked, and it was obvious that he wasn't well.
"My father is Ares, god of War. But he's also Wisdom and Justice to your father's Intellect and Judgment. This world doesn’t want to see them in those roles. They'll thrash it, but good, but this group, personally, my dad will flay alive if they upset you and I take it back, first stop for you is your brother Ascelepius. Ace won't be happy at how ill you are. Ready?"
"The dust is wrong," the old man tried, "It must be Harry, it must!"
He ranted all through the transport to Olympus and Cupid knew, instinctively, they needed to duck on appearance. So he and Strife pushed everyone but the old man down and he met the hard side of Hades' fist.
"Do not 'dare' compare that lucky little child to the Host of Mount Olympus," Hades spoke, "The Dust that Cupid threw did not lie; the man who is ill is of Line of Apollo. ACE!"
The younger Healing God appeared and went to the man in the shabby clothes immediately.
"dad's gonna be brassed," Ace warned Hades as he took shabby man out of the room, "Put them in one of the guest temples for now, Bacchus and Lust have an idea how to help this one until the time or taking Ambrosia comes."
"Of course," Hades answered, "Cupid, Strife, who will you seek next?"
"Curt," Cupid told him, "Carlisle has an okay life, but Curt, we sense some grief and some healing from so we need to go see what's the what with him."
"Of course," Hades spoke as he saw Ares leading the people in robes out, "Hopefully Remus will be better when we get back. That is the name he still has, yes?"
"Yes," Strife told them all, "Remus Lupin. He has some stupid human middle name but Gods don't use those so it won't matter. Come on, Cupe, let's go find us an eight foot lizard."
"Let's," Cupid spoke as he kissed Strife before they flashed out, "Janus has a way to help 'him', too."
Curt had had a hellish time of late. That was the first thing Cupid noticed when they went to the place that had the strongest vibes of grief. That wasn't a thought, Hades explained when he asked why finding Curt was easier than Jason or Remus. Grief was an emotion, a powerful one, and sensing it would be easy for a God of the House of Emotions.
In other words, he was learning on the fly the duties and powers of his house and those powers were helping them in this mission Hades, Ares, and Apollo had given them.
"Looks like he nearly ended his own life," Strife remarked, "Ain't sure why."
"His wife and son died, Strife," Cupid told him, "I know you don't connect well with emotions but Gods, have a little compassion. I know dad taught you at least that."
"I learned it," he answered, "I just ain't ever had any use for it. Humans live and die, he'd have lost them anyhow."
"And dad wonders why I sometimes doubt us," Cupid told him, "These kids have all grown up mortal in the mortal world. And Mortal Feelings apply even to us and should apply more so. We are supposed to feel 'more' than mortals, Strife, not less. We're supposed to care more about pains, we're supposed to feel more hurt when someone we're supposed to help and care for dies. Tartarus, no wonder Deimos said you were an unfeeling brat. His family died, gone, no longer here, and he watched it happen. If you can't understand or feel an ounce of compassion for that, go back to Olympus and I'll deal with it myself!"
"Cupid, Cupid wait," Strife called as he started to walk away, "Cupid, I'm sorry!"
"Be sorrier," Cupid told him, "We're Gods, Strife, Junior or not, we are Gods, we are made up of human feelings and thoughts, they give us power, if you don't get that, maybe you aren't really one of us!"
"Perhaps his power lies in misery, pain, and non-feeling," a voice spoke. They both turned and stared as the man they came to find stood watching them. Next to him sat a young man in a wheel chair.
"You saw us?"
"Hardly blind," he answered, "What do you need with me?"
"How did you know we needed you?"
"You spoke of the deaths of my family," he answered, "My tragedy. And by the way, Cupid, is it? Annoyances are often the feelings of the self centered and ego-centric. At least those that dwell on them most and so get the most frustrated by them because they assume annoyances are out to get them. The self centered and ego-centric cannot feel for others because they are full only of themselves."
"So you're saying Strife as control of Annoyances would be powered mostly by people that are that full of themselves because they get the most irritated by annoyances and think everything is about sabotaging them?"
"As good as Curt said if not quite as eloquent," the young man spoke, "What do you need of him?"
"Us, personally, nothing," Cupid explained, 'But Apollo, his father, needs his aid in things. I'm not sure what he'd been in because he's smart but he's also a truth seer. He knew we were there, he knew what we are, he knew what Strife was without being told."
"Indeed," the young man answered, "He has often told me a good teacher can tell looking at an listening to a student, briefly who they are, what their strengths are, and how best to each them. He's about the best teacher on the campus he works on."
"Alistair makes more of me than I am," Curt said.
"You make less of yourself than you should," Alistair retorted, "Now, let's see about what they need you for and get you where you need to be."
"Not without you," Curt answered, "You are my heart, my strength and my will. I go nowhere without you."
"Ares said all that matter to them," Cupid said to Strife as they each touched one of them and flashed tot he mountain.
"Cupid?" Hades' voice came.
"Curt and Alistair," Cupid told him, "What's wrong with Uncle Don?"
"Atlantis is going to be sunk lower than it already has," Ares spoke, "He found out what they did to his heir and great grandson."
"Oooh, boy," Strife gulped, "How are the other guests?"
"The old man is still in denial about Remus, Dr. Fate is still asleep, the shrill woman is still whining that we should care about her precious Harry before any of our own kids, and I think Apollo is about to curse them all into quiet."
"Maybe you should do that, dad," Cupid said as Curt looked around the temple, "By the way, he's really perceptive so be straight with him. He knew what Strife's power was and he explained to me why Strife doesn't seem to care about anyone's feelings but his own."
"Ouch," Ares hissed, "I'm sure he'll be good at whatever he does for Pol then. Speaking of . . . ACE! One of your brothers has a friend that needs some help!"
"Temple, Uncle Ares," a voice called back, "I've got Remus downs till, too!"
"This way, gentlemen," Ares spoke, leading the two out, "Cupid? Carlisle or Whistler next."
"We can go for a twofer," Strife remarked.
"Whatever," Ares answered, "Once we get all of Pol's kids up here and situated we'll have to deal with the other brats Zeus and the girls spread around."
"Uncle Pol's not really sure about them, is he?" Cupid asked.
"None of us are," Ares replied, "But they are blood of Olympus. Still, they'll have to do tests about being made full Gods and not just staying godlings so, if they're bad enough, we might get lucky and they'll fail."
"We can only hope, right?" Cupid asked, "Still you said they'd all be minor regardless. Okay, going, Strife? Where's Carlisle?"
"In a place that's always cloudy," Strife answered, "He's got his daddy's glow . . ."
Strife, stop antagonizing them," Cupid called out a warning, "I mean it, stop it!"
"We shouldn't have to ask," Strife growled, "He's our blood, he belongs to our family!"
"Will you stop being so damned self centered and listen to yourself?!" Cupid asked, "You draw power form those people, you should be more than them, though! You said we'd have to account their families, why is this different? Why so agitated about him but none of the others?!"
"I'm the only one related directly to you," the man spoke, and that stopped them all in their tracks, everyone from Strife raising his hand to the big one grabbing Strife's throat, everyone froze.
"Father," the boy with copper hair, asked, "Are you all right? You froze when you saw them, just like you did when Aro came the last time."
"I'm fine, Edward," he answered, "Perhaps a bit shaken, maybe tired, but fine, nonetheless. I don't think they came to hurt me."
"No, sir," Cupid told him, "We came because your father, your real father, Apollo needs your help."
"Tell me," he said, "I need to know what you need of me if I am to help you."
"Apollo, your real dad," Cupid told him, "Needs some major help. He's overworked and exhausted and he's got too many things to do so he never manages to get everything done and . . ."
"Breathe," Carlisle spoke, his voice calm as he always was, "Breathe before you give yourself a stroke, god or not. What, precisely, does he need me to do and can my children come?"
"I don't know exactly what you'll do," Cupid told him, "But yes, your childer can come."
"Children," Carlisle corrected him, "They are my children. I don't care what the rest of the vampire world says, they all spit on me so I find no reason to use their archaic terms."
"Okay," Strife spoke, shocked at the man's attitude, "But the Goddess who made Vampires said . . ."
"Do I look like I care what some goddess who never even bothered to check on her kids said?" Carlisle asked, "I will come and I will help my father, beyond that? We'll see. And if she tries to take my kids, you'll have a fight on your hands that the Volturi already lost. Get me? I am sick and tired of other vampires thinking they can bully my family around because they have age or this bull or that. I don't care who the vampire doing it is, I will fight."
"Okay," Cupid winced, "We should go then. Before you rip us apart. And the way you spark, brother, I have no doubt you could do it."
"We may be blood," Carlisle growled, "But we'll see about brothers. In my life, I have learned one thing: the only ones I can count on are the family I made for myself. I'll give my aid to my real father, yes, but as you and I share a mother but she did not care to come, we'll see about what I give her or hers."
Again Cupid flinched, knowing his mother would have much to answer for from this son. He almost said something before a little girl walked over to Carlisle and slipped her tiny hand into his. He turned and looked down at her the cold look left his face.
"Yes, Ness," he answered something they couldn't hear, "We're going to visit Grandpa's daddy. As for my mommy? Well, as I gather she's the one who threw me away, I have no care to see her. We should go now, yes."
She nodded and he looked at his family and nodded so they all approached the two warily, keeping him secure in the center of their group, away from the touch of his half brother and the one who'd picked a fight with them.
'Everyone hold hands," Cupid said, sighing. A mess his mother made this time. He knew, somehow, that Hades would not be pleased. At all.
Arriving on the mountain after Cupid and Strife managed o flash the large group there, they stared at Ares glaring at Aphrodite.
"I wonder how many years he'll take to forgive you," Ares spat at her.
"You should ask how long it'll take before he feels anything but pity for her," Edward spoke, "Father doesn't really care about her, one way or the other. He came to help our grandfather. He has compassion and wisdom, sure, but even his limit's been reached about this woman."
"How do you know anything about her?" Ares asked.
"Those two think too loud," Edward responded, "They think so loud it gave Jazzy and I both headaches. I read everything they had to show about this and I shared it with Father. She disgusts even him and he doesn't care about her at all. Where is the parent he was asked to come help."
"But you're mine," Aphrodite whined, reaching for Carlisle. He turned and caught ehr wrist, squeezing it tightly until they nearly heard things pop.
"I am not yours," Carlisle hissed in her face, "You threw me away. I belong to Apollo, no matter what you may think or want. Good day to you."
He turned his back on her and his face to Ares fully and asked where he and his family should go. Ares chuckled and led them away while Aphrodite beseeched Hades to make him hers.
"It's too late for that, Dite," Hades told her, "Far, far too late. When you threw him away, you severed all ties. And now? Now he's his own man and what he has chosen, even while living a semi mortal life for a vampire, is his Father's House. Lust, I would not advise trying to talk to him about Vampire Laws and Etiquette. He has no use for those, either."
She froze, watching as Hades sighed at what he saw in the mirror he watched.
"He has no use for any of it at all . . ."
New York at night wasn't a comforting place, even for gods. Strife and Cupid wandered, seeking the man called 'Whistler' as the trains screeched along tracks and echoed, clickity-clack loud and echoing through alleys and poor areas.
"If he's so damned good at this," Strife muttered, "Why does he live in such places?"
"Because he knows his prey, Strife," Cupid sighed, "Lust went over this with us before we left remember? Whistler hunts the vampires that break every single law she ever made. And they always hunt the poor and those that no one misses. Or they lure people into their clubs and make a feast out of them while they bathe in the blood of the poor. If we want to find Whistler, we need to look where the monsters that he hunts have their hunting grounds."
"Why can't we just call all of these kids?" Strife asked, and Cupid now understood, thanks to Curt, that as Annoyance, anything that he considered an annoyance would make him irritable and apparently having to look for these kids annoyed him.
"Because we're not Major Gods," Cupid sighed, "And the New Council is still getting used to their duties and responsibilities."
"Why couldn't we have borrowed another of Polly's brats to help us, then? Ares said the kids have a sense of each other."
"Gee," Cupid growled a bit irritated himself, "Let's see. Alistair's legs, despite Ace healing them, are still screaming in pain so Curt won't leave him. Carlisle is still getting used to the fact that people think he's special, Jason is learning the truth about himself, and Remus is still ill. Who could come that doesn't have things and people of their own happening? We kept saying we wanted to have a serious job, and this is about as serious as it gets right now."
"Look out!" Strife yelled suddenly as he saw something come out of the shadows at them. Cupid took them both to the air then, argument immediately forgotten, as what attacked tried to jump for them.
Another one hit them from a nearby roof and they landed hard on the ground. Cursing, they tried to fight but the ones attacking were legion and Cupid knew, good as they were, their fireballs couldn't hit all of these things. Apollo could stop them, all he'd have to do is power flare, but Apollo wasn't here. This was their job and their bickering landed them in the current mess.
"Shit!" He growled as one started to lean in to bite Strife.
Then, he heard it. They all heard it: a whistling noise echoed through the alley right before the things began to die.
Ashes soon surrounded them as the monsters, Cupid didn't even come close to considering them the children of Strife's sister, lay dead before them all.
"You wanted me," the man spoke as he pulled Strife to his feet, "You should've just asked someone at the soup kitchen where I live."
"You eat at a soup kitchen?" Strife asked, almost outraged.
"Sometimes," the man they had a feeling was Whistler said, "Most of the time, though, I just help serve the food there or visit the men I served with who didn't manage to come home from Vietnam who do live there."
"How'd you know we wanted you?" Cupid asked, shocked still that he'd killed them all.
"The drunk guy you looked through like he wasn't there heard you," the man answered, "He knows me and what I hunt. He sent word through the alleys and streets that you two sought me for something or other but he figured I better be contacted before you two got bitten. Likely wouldn't have killed no 'Godly Type' as another friend called you, but it could've hurt and if you wanted me for something I don't want you getting hurt in the search. Come on, we'll go back to my place so I can pack and bring what I think I may need."
"What makes you think anything you bring could do anything to us?" Strife challenged.
"You two gotta be total opposites so I guess that opposites attracting is true," Whistler told Cupid, "I know they'll work because your scrawny ass just got taken down by a half blood, born vampire who ain't got no power. I figure if my weapons take them down, my weapons'll take 'you' down, too; at least, temporarily."
Cupid sighed and nodded.
"Forgive him," Cupid told Whistler, "He just got his true Godhead and he's being the same kind of ass that powers him right now. Hades said it'll take time for him to use the power instead of the power using him."
"Good thing you have eternity," Whistler spoke as he led them into the back of an old movie theatre, "Blade, Felicia, Michael, we need to pack to go on a trip."
"Where?" a big, dark skinned man asked as he put his hands possessively on Whistler's shoulders.
"Ask my half pseudo-cousin and his lover there," Whistler told him, "I just know the faster we get them out of this city, the faster we protect them from being vampire chow."
"You go, Whistler," Felicia, a blond woman said, "Someone needs to stay and keep the monsters in line."
"You know, Cupid," Strife said as he thought about what attacked them, "Not only is Lust gonna be brassed at those rule breakers, Bacchus is gonna go nova."
"Indeed he will," Cupid remarked as they each touched two people, "Don't worry about the monsters, Bacchus will curb them for now."
"All right," Whistler agreed, picking up a bag of things. Blade, Felicia and Michael each had one, too, "Let's go then."
"On to Olympus," Cupid spoke and then they all flashed away.
Appearing in the Council Hall, they all ducked as Lust pitched a table across the room.
"Lust?" Strife asked.
"I am going to go visit Volturra and rip them apart!" She screamed in rage, "And then I'll move on to those so called Pure Blood lines! The Council of Turned Children does better than they do!"
"Make them the full rulers, then," Whistler told her, with a sigh, "Don't touch my leg."
"Maybe your dad or your brother will," she answered, knowing if a vampire did it, he wouldn't trust one he didn't know, "Unc? Should we take him to his brothers?"
Ares nodded and then pulled Cupid and Strife aside, "The next place you go, the two we want are there, but so are all the other ones. Be very careful how you word things. Almost all of Zeus' kids by those harlots are melodramatic children."
"Gotcha Unc," Strife told him as he and Cupid flashed out, "This oughta be fun."
A library.
The two they wanted worked in the library of a high school.
Cupid and Strife watched for a time, seeing the two men they needed, watching them but heads and they noticed the boy that belonged to Zeus and Athena and the girl who belonged to Zeus and Artemis seemed to make the bickering between the brothers worse.
The girl it seemed knew she manipulated people very well, the boy seemed to know he could cause arguments by sparking jealousy in people who didn't know him as well as the kids who grew up with him did.
His pathetic act made people ignore he could cause anything and he used it to malicious intent.
"Well," Cupid said as they appeared before the two men tore each other apart, "You two certainly 'argue' like brothers if nothing else."
"What?" the elder one stammered as he dropped his book in shock, "Who are you?"
The younger one caught the book and carefully handed it back. It seemed once something distracted them from the fighting, they stopped bickering.
"We're your cousins," Strife told them, "And your dad, your 'real' dad, needs the both of you."
"Both of . . . what?" the younger man asked.
"You're both the sons of Apollo, full brothers, too, and may your mother rot in tartarus for all time, and your father needs you."
"What about the children?" the older man, Giles, Cupid suspected, asked.
"One," he said, "They aren't children. If they're post puberty the word adult, young or not, applies to them. Two, these three belong to the usurper and his whores. If you two, like us, are junior gods, those three are so minor it's not funny. But, Hades said to bring all whoa re yours so her sister and mother and the true Slayer, too."
"Got her," Strife said, "What about the messed up Bacchai?"
"Him, too," Cupid said, "Lust is gonna blow at the bitches who messed him . . . what?"
"Excuse me," the blond who belonged to Athena and Zeus-in-another-form, "What do you mean, 'minor'? I am Buffy, The Vampire Slayer, I am 'NOT' Minor!"
"One, you died," Cupid told her, "Another was called. You aren't 'the' Slayer any more. You are 'a' Slayer and so weaker than 'The Slayer', Faith, her name is. Two, you are minor compared to these two. You are the child of a rapist/murder and a rapist/usurper. They are the sons of the God of Light, Truth, Archery, Arts, Intellect, Philosophy, Healing, Order, New Beginnings, and Judgment, among other things. They outrank you. The only one of you who has a known Godhead, minor thought they be, is that joke."
"What is it?" the red head demanded, and her tone carried a snide undertone.
"My idiot brother," Strife spoke, "Is God of Petty Jealousies, Dishonorable Behaviors, and Delusions. Uncle Pol said about the only things he's got going for him are his Idiot Courage and his elementary school level Loyalty. There's a third one but it's bordering on the edge of black side because it's not stubbornness at this point, it's willful blindness and ignorance. Cupid?"
"We've got them all," he said, "Let's go."
"But," the red head stuttered as they flashed out . . .
. . . Appearing on Mount Olympus a moment later, they all stared.
"Wesley!" Giles yelled suddenly as the younger man staggered clutching his head.
"'POL!" Cupid called, panic lacing his voice.
Apollo appeared a moment later and the instant his hand touched Wesley, the younger man's pain stopped.
"Add the Council of Watchers to the list of people we're going to obliterate," he growled, "They knew who 'both' of these boys were and after losing control of Giles, they beat this one until he broke. Take him to the Hall of Light. I'll have to work on him for awhile to heal all the damage."
"Will he heal?" Giles asked.
"Yes," Apollo answered, "In time, he will heal. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to tend your brother Remus and Alistair."
"Alistair?" Giles asked.
"Your Brother Curt's lover," Apollo answered, "Remus likely in the Scroll Room so I'll drop his draught off and head to Wesley and Alistair. Cupid, Strife, I need one more thing for you."
"Sure, Unc, what?" Strife asked.
"Go to the mortal plain and find the Heroes," Apollo told them, "Mark where they are but do not engage them. Three of them will be on trial in three days."
"Okay," Strife breathed, "You're not going to play nice, are you?"
"Not at all, Strife," Apollo told him, "Not at all."
A/N:
Curt declined his Brother Ace's offer to fix his arm, at first. Alistair talked to him for a while, about that, though, and he soon accepted it.
Remus took over the scroll room, reading through everything Apollo just couldn't get to. Jason worked on the oracular pool, with Dr. Fate who offered his services at the Oracle of Delphi. Whistler took on archery and some hunting because he did that well. Carlisle took on the duties of Light, Arts, and Healing while Curt handled teaching. And Giles and Wesley handled Intellect and Order. New beginnings Apollo himself still held domain over although Carlisle could have balanced that. Actually, any of the boys could have because they had all had those New Beginnings. But, still, they got to know each other while working but still looked after their own groups.
On the third day, though, excitement began humming again as one by one, three 'heroes' found themselves dragged into the Temple of Judgment and Justice.
While Cupid and Strife gathered those heroes, they discovered that only three remained because the brothers did not have ambrosia and so died, the same as Iolaus did. Hades said they would have to be reborn so they would have to wait until their names came up on the list.
Strife said that was unfair because those three were Olympians but Hades said that was life. Even Gods had to wait their turn. His being brought back early only happened because Dionysus called for Lust at the same time.
"But they're ours!" Strife whined.
"And had they had ambrosia I could validly change this," Hades told him, "But they did not die by injustice. Moe than likely they died by Joxer's stupidity, but that's not injustice, that's life."
"Where are they on the list?" Cupid asked.
"Nowhere near the top," Hades answered, "And don't even try to play with the list, Strife, they will have to wait their turn. The same as everyone else."
"Why?" Strife whined, and Hades knew he whined because Joxer would equal the biggest annoyance around.
"Because they died mortal," Hades answered, "That is why. Now, Apollo, Ares, have you finished reviewing evidence on those three?"
"Yes," Apollo told him, "We have. And we are ready."
"Excellent," Hades told him, "Let's go then. Separate or together?"
"Separate," Ares told him, "Wisdom says they need separate trials."
"Who first?" Apollo asked, trusting Ares' wisdom.
"The so called bard," Ares answered, "She has 'much' to answer for."
"Why did Zeus give those three apples but not the other three?" Cupid asked his father.
"Because he had a use for them," Ares told him, "The other three were nothing to him because he already had his fool puppet in Strife. That and twins and triplets tend to be for each other in all things. He'd never be able to control them because he never managed equal attention for anyone."
"Who's the mother?" Hades asked him, as he had been as busy as others; he hadn't been able to look at the genealogy.
"Sadly enough," Ares told him, "Eris. They are strife's brothers in full. That's also why he's upset that he can't have them back when Cupid has his full brother with him."
"And there is nothing I can do about that," Hades groaned, "Zeus never gave them ambrosia and their first food was mortal. They lived mortal and died mortal. When the names come up I will see them reborn as soon as I can."
"All right," Ares agreed, "On to the Bard's trial?"
"Hardly a bard," Apollo growled as he watched Curt pick at a tune on a piano that Alistair made for him, Apollo told him he could have just conjured it but his pseudo son-in-law shook his head and said he liked to build. Apollo shook his own head and left him to it.
As they entered the Judging hall, they saw the three heroes arguing about what brought them here. After all, the Gods had ignored them, by Zeus' edict, for centuries.
"Zeus edicts no longer protect his bastards," Hades spoke, "As Zeus is not longer in power. You three are here to be tried for your crimes against your family your people, and anyone else you've hurt or damaged along the way. Before you spout about your Way, Gabrielle, Zeus is your 'God of the Light' as well as the father of your daughter. What is one, is also the other."
"No," she gasped in that irritating manner.
"Oh, yes," Hades grinned, "He's also your father. Now, excuse me, I will take my place in the Gallery."
"You aren't judging us?" Hercules demanded.
"No," Hades answered, "It's not for the King to do that. That duty belongs to Ares and Apollo, Justice and Judgment. And before you try anything? All of you have been bound from any gifts Zeus gave you without tests for worthiness. You will be tried separately, but you will witness each other's trials. Punishment, you can't help each other. Until alter. If he's merciful."
"Ares can't be merciful," Herc growled.
"Actually, he can," Hestia answered, "But regardless, it's not Ares you need to be worried about. Judgment, Apollo, has been Harsh with certain crimes. Better hope you haven't committed any of that vein."
"First up," Apollo spoke in Judgment's echo, "Gabrielle of Potedia . . ."
"You have no right to try me," she spoke arrogantly, "I follow the Way."
The laughter of those around her made her flush with indignant rage.
"What's so funny? Afraid a real loving God?"
"The fact that you find that God loving when he's not."
"He is!" She cried, "He's a God of Light and Love!"
"No, he's not," Ares spoke, laughter under his words, "He wouldn't know Love if it bit him on the ass. Your precious One God is no one else but your father, Zeus. And I do mean father in the literal sense of the . . . Pol?"
"It wasn't just Goddesses," Apollo choked.
"Who else?" Ares asked, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"Them," he whispered the answer, "All three. Hercules couldn't break me as he could others . . . But that's not the issue. Tell her who else Zeus masqueraded as. The one she had sex with and had a child with."
"What?!" Gabrielle shrieked, "No, you're wrong! Zeus is NOT my father! He is not My God of Light and he didn't masquerade as Dahok! He didn't, he didn't, he didn't!"
"He is, he was, and he did," Ares spoke, calmly, 'You sound like a baby throwing a tantrum right now, you do realize? Pol? Do we have the Mirrors for her?"
"Indeed we do, Ares," Apollo growled, "Indeed we do. Play the murders she committed, too. I want the Court to see 'all' of her crimes."
She stood, haughty and arrogant, smirking at the scenes where she killed people for declining to worship her God, pleased with herself, apparently, that she killed all those people.
"You know, a God that commands you kill those who don't believe in him isn't a very loving or good God, Gabrielle," Ares spoke, "Never in all our years have we permitted that. Even if Zeus didn't masquerade as that God, he's still barbaric and a savage. Not to mention cruel and evil. Who commands the slaughter of children? Who would dare do that? Certainly not this family. Nor any other pantheon. Your God would have a word even if he hadn't been Zeus."
"Oh yeah, and what would that be, Blood-Drinker?"
"That's Bacchus, actually," Ares told her, "Or Lust. And the word, Gabrielle? Look up 'Evil' in your book of words. It's there. That fits your God. Pol? Your verdict?"
"Guilty," Apollo spoke, "Guilty of incest, Guilty of murder, Guilty of slaying her own child. Guilty of everything."
"And your sentence?" Hades asked.
"Strip her of immortality, then banish her to the mortal plain to live in destitution and poverty," Apollo spoke, "I want her to live as low as the sewer rats. I want her to know the true meaning of 'Forsaken'."
"Our Justice," Ares spoke.
"Be done," Apollo finished.
Her shriek of impotent rage, which turned into a wail mid flash, brought no sympathy from anyone.
"Father," Xena began, looking at Ares, pleading.
"I'm not your father, Xena," Ares told her, "You and Gabrielle are sisters. So, I suppose that makes your relationship Incest as well as your relationship with Hercules. Your trial won't be pretty, Xena. At all."
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Finding him was easy, Cupid thought as Strife got knocked across the room for the fifth time when he tried to approach Carlisle, but getting to speak to him was hard.
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*Dishonorable Behaviors include Lying, malicious cruelty, racism/hatred, prejudice, bigotry, hypocrisy, and cheating. If good outweighs bad, he is weak compared to the other Gods.
Three days passed in quiet as the brothers, the children of Apollo, got to know each other.
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