TITLE: The Pathos of Joxer
SERIES: No. One off.
AUTHOR: Scorpio (
scorpiofic@aol.com)
ARCHIVE: Joxerotica, Strife_lust, Nesting Place, CKoS, JLA, AJCS
FANDOM: Xena Warrior Princess
PAIRING: Ares/Joxer
RATING: R (adult situations)
NOTES: Another "explain the triplets" fic.
DISCLAIMER: Ren Pics & Flat Earth Prod. Not me, pity that.
SUMMARY: After making a startling discovery, Ares explains
things to Xena.
The Pathos of Joxer
By Scorpio
"Alright Ares, we're alone. Now talk! Just what in Tartarus do you
think you're doing with Joxer! Is this some twisted ploy to get me
to come back to you?"
Ares' expression was an odd mixture of deep aching sadness and
hurt anger. Part of him wanted to be offended at being accused of
using Joxer...not to mention the insinuation that he'd *ever* hurt
him. But his daughter didn't know the truth, few did.
The lies had originally been put into place to protect the boys and
it had been so long ago that many forgot they weren't the truth.
Now Xena needed to know. The compulsion he'd laid on her to
protect Joxer had to stay in place, but she didn't have to try and
defend him from the House of War.
Sighing, he waved his hand and a table with some food and wine
appeared. Two comfortable chairs shimmered into existence a
second later.
"Xena...put the sword down and join me. I'm famished and I
promise to tell you everything while I eat."
His raven haired daughter glared at him mistrustfully for a long
moment, then nodded. She sat down on the far side of the table and
tried not to appear as uncomfortable as she felt. Ares paused a
moment and then sat as well. He poured himself a goblet of wine.
Staring into its depths, he began to tell her the truth.
"Joxer is in no danger from me, Xena. Zeus' law would protect him
even if I didn't care for him anyway."
Xena's expression became confused for a second, but her scowl
never left her lips.
"What do you mean, "Zeus' Law" protects Joxer from you. I don't
understand."
Ares nodded and picked up his fork. Instead of eating, however, he
toyed with his food.
"I know. That's because you aren't aware of the fact that Joxer is a
God of Olympus. No one is, it's one of our secrets."
Xena pushed back in her chair violently, both hands slamming
down to grip the table until her knuckles turned white.
"What?!"
Ares merely nodded, his face appearing to be more tired and weary
than anything else.
"He is one of a set of triplets born to my twin sister Eris. You
know her as the Goddess of Discord."
Xena shook her head in denial.
"No. Discord has only one son. Strife."
Ares smirked at her in disdain for a brief moment, but then it faded
away, leaving only sadness behind.
"Actually, Strife is one of the triplets. Strife also isn't his real
name, it's a nick-name Cupid gave him when the boys were young.
It stuck. The Triplets are Jetticles, Joxxious, and Jopanis."
Confusion washed over Xena's face and she gave off waves of
suspicion...but also a sliver of belief.
"You see, the reason that no one has ever mentioned who Strife's
father really is, is because Eris doesn't know. When she and I were
younger, right after Cupid was born, there was a terrible fight on
Olympus between most of the Goddesses. Aphrodite and Eris on
one side...and the rest on the other. Apparently, their crime was to
be too close to me. Afterwards, Eris ran away to sulk. She never
came back."
Ares sighed again and took a deep drink of his wine. This was the
hardest part of this story...and he hadn't had to tell it in a long long
time.
"Eventually, after several months, I convinced my parents to let me
go out into the world and try and find her. It took a while, but I did.
I wish I had gotten to her sooner, maybe things would have turned
out differently.
In any case, I found her in Germania. She was being held captive
by that land's Gods in some sort of restraints that muted her powers
in much the same way that Hephestus' chains do. She had been
held for months by them as a form of amusement. I barely
recognized her. She had been repeatedly beaten and raped...she
was also heavily pregnant with one of the God's children.
I freed her and brought her home. After leaving her in the care of
my mother and my nephew Asclepius', I returned to Germania with
the Host of Olympus with me. Few of our enemy were able to
escape our wrath.
But that wasn't the end of it. My twin was forever changed by that
experience. She wasn't always so ruthless and uncaring as she is
now. And worse, Discord's children were...damaged by the torture
she suffered during the early and mid parts of her pregnancy. Each
one is...insane, broken in some way."
Ares paused for more wine. Xena's face was a mixture of
fascination with the story and sympathetic pain for his sister and
her children. When she spoke, her voice was rough and quiet.
"How? In what way are they...broken?"
Ares shrugged slightly and gazed back into his wine.
"Each one is a bit different. The one everyone calls Joxer, your
friend? His real name is Joxxious. Aphrodite took him in with her
and Cupid as a baby. He's the one who was damaged most
physically.
The torture Eris suffered ruined many things, but the most obvious
is Joxer's eyes. He is blind in one eye and the other is blurred. That
interferes with how he sees spatially. In other words, he can't tell
how far away from him anything is. That's why he seems so
clumsy.
His brain damage doesn't end there...he also has a very short
memory. He simply can't hold things in his head...unless it
rhymes. You might get irritated with the dumb little songs that he's
always singing, but it took us a long time to find a way to teach
him anything.
And that is the saddest thing of all, because he's really very smart.
If you present him with a problem and let him work at it, he'll
always solve it. But next week, he won't even remember the
problem existed...if you didn't let him write up a little jingle to
sing about it."
Xena gave him a sharp look. Then it shifted into instant
understanding.
"That would explain his fascination with Gabrielle. She's always
writing stories and such. She's big on rhymes."
Ares smirked and nodded.
Suddenly Xena frowned in confusion and then she glared at Ares.
Snarling, she pointed at him accusingly.
"You're lying Ares. Joxer told me he had three brothers, but he
never mentioned Strife...only Jett and *Jace*. Where is Jace in
your little story, huh?"
Ares sighed softly.
"Xena...Jett and Jace are the same person. Jetticles. He has a spilt
personality. One is really quite harmless, if a bit too flamboyant for
my tastes...but the other is psychotic in a way that gives *me* the
shivers sometimes."
Xena's glared melted slightly.
"Split personality?"
Ares nodded and took another sip of wine.
"Yes. That's why his Godly powers were blocked. If he would just
*stay* Jace all the time, he'd get them back and he would be
assigned to work for Dite. Probably as the God of Kinky Sex, but
still...Zeus won't risk Jetticles having that kind of power with the
assassin alter-ego loose in his head."
Xena nodded and made a vague gesture in the air.
"That's actually comforting. But what about Joxer? I've never seen
him use any God powers."
Ares looked infinitely sad.
"Yes you have. You just don't realize it. Most of them are just
blocked off, like Jetticles.
It's that thing with his eyes. He can't tell how far away something
is. For him, the whole world look flat, like a painting or something.
Just as that makes him clumsy with his body, it's the same with his
powers. He accidentally destroyed an entire village once. He cried
hysterically for three weeks straight afterwards.
So now the only powers he has are non-offensive. He literally
*can't* hurt a living being...at his own request.
Jopanis, the God you know as Strife, is the only one who has full
use of his powers...and he's not very tightly wrapped in the head
either."
Xena seemed to think over this for a while and then looked up at
her father's face. Her voice was a whisper.
"What are their titles? Joxxious and Jetticles, I mean."
Ares smiled. A genuine smile, the first since his daughter had
caught him and Joxer in a compromising position.
"Jetticles is, appropriately enough, the God of Insanity. Joxxious is
the God of Redemption. He's also my Consort and has been for
years. When you left my service to redeem yourself, I was
hurt...angry. You're my daughter, I wanted you to serve me. But
Joxxious felt that it was right...first you served me and now you
serve *him*. Because of who you are and how much you mean to
me, he decided to travel with you personally."
Xena's eyes were wide in shock and she didn't say anything. Ares
wondered if he should tell her the rest. After a brief internal
struggle, he decided to confess.
"I think you ought to know something else. I was against Joxer
going out into the world to travel with you. Not because of *you*,
but because with his powers limited, he *can* be hurt. And he's
slow to heal. So...I placed a compulsion on you so that you would
instinctively protect him, no matter how much he had irked you."
Xena's gaze became sharp again and Ares saw her take a deep
breath, mostly likely to yell at him. He cut her off.
"Look. I won't apologize for that. And as long as Jox wants to
travel with you, it stays."
Glancing around, Ares realized it was getting late. They had been
in his Thracian Temple for a long while, just talking.
"I have to go Xena. You think about what I told you. Besides, I
have a warm Consort waiting in bed for me."
And with one last sad smile, Ares disappeared.
END: The Pathos of Joxer
=note= I only wrote this to get the evil plot-bunnies to leave me alone to
work on my series (I've got four that I'm juggling) and as such, I won't
follow up with this. However, I want to invite anyone who's interested to
play with this AU. Tell me about the triplets and Cupid playing together as
kids. Tell how Joxxious became Ares Consort. Tell me about Jox and the
village. Tell me anything really. ::grins::