Blind Fury

Ares didn’t seek out Eden, and he wasn’t surprised when she didn’t show up at his temple for three weeks. Although he didn’t understand why she was so upset about the ambrosia, he did respect that she was mad and had decided to give her some time to ‘cool off’. He needed the time to think anyway.

He had thought long and hard about their relationship and how it had changed over the years. Perhaps Eden wasn’t as close to him as he had thought. Perhaps she viewed his little gift of eternal life as selfish or impulsive. Maybe he should have asked her if she wanted it first. But what did it matter now? What’s done is done, and she’d have to deal with it.

She traipsed into the throne room with her head held high, and told him that they needed to talk.

“What, you’re not even going to say hello first? You’ve been gone for over three weeks – no word – no nothing, and now you return and just start making demands?” he said as he looked at her from his throne, one leg swinging over the armrest.

Eden rolled her eyes. “Hello, Ares. We need to talk,” she repeated.

Ares stood and walked up to her, staring her in the eyes the entire time. When he reached her, his expression softened and he encircled his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug.

He sighed, “Ah, Eden. I’ve missed you so much. I was beginning to wonder if you’d ever return.”

She pushed herself out of his embrace, turned and started pacing. “Yes, well, I wasn’t sure if I was going to, either. I was pretty mad, you know. Still am.”

“Yes, that’s quite obvious. But the reason for your anger is not. Are you going to tell me why you got so upset, now?”

Eden turned around and looked at him. Her eyes were misty and sorrowful. “Ares, I know you thought that you were doing me a favor, but honestly, it was the last thing I ever wanted. I don’t want to live forever.”

“Why not?” He rushed over to her and took her by the shoulders. “Eden, we can be together for all time now! Doesn’t that make you happy? We’ll never lose each other again,” he rationalized.

She squirmed away from him again. “NO. No it doesn’t. How could you?” The tears in her eyes slowly ran down her cheeks now. “How could you deny me of my family this way? Now I’ll never be able to see then again. For all eternity. How could you do this to me?” she cried.

The revelation hit Ares like one of Hercules’ punches. “Your family? Zeus! I never even thought about your family…”

“No, you didn’t! You never do,” she spat.

“Eden, I’mry. ry. I’m so sorry that…”

She laughed. “HA! What good is an apology? Being sorry doesn’t turn me back, does it?” She hesitated, waiting for him to answer. “Well, does it?” she barked.

Ares turned his head and looked at the floor. “You’re right. It doesn’t. Nothing can,” he said matter-of-factly. “So where do we go from here, Eden?”

“I don’t think we should see each other for a while. Since we are both going to be occupying this earth for a very long time, a break might do us some good.”

Ares, not pleased about her answer, but had expected it nonetheless, simpered. “Where will you go?”

“Well, that depends on where you send me, Ares. You offered to make me a general, right? Is that offer still open?”

“Of course it is.”

“Fine, then put me in charge of your furthest lying troops. Someplace isolated, where your presence isn’t required as much.” The contempt she felt towards him had creped into her voice. It seemed to stab the war god where it hurt the most – in his heart.

Ares quickly smothered the pain with anger and coldness. “Fine,” he said with an attitude that matched hers. “The region that lies along the central coastline in Apollonia is always in constant threat. I have an army stationed there to protect it. I rarely need to stop there. My men seem to have it covered. I’ll put you in charge there. Is that good enough?”

“It will have to do,” she responded.


****************

Weeks passed, and then months. Eden threw herself into commanding the army, making them the most brutal and successful bunch Ares had in a while. She trained and practiced the men, until they could perform their moves in their sleep. She’d picked fights with approaching ships, just for fun, and sunk all of them nearly every time. She became reckless in battle, not caring if she were stabbed or beaten, since the wounds would heal up almost as fast as she received them. She had even taken on a few ‘extra-curricular’ activities for Rome. Caesar had hired her to assassinate a few more of the diplomats that had been giving him a hard time.

Years passed and she hardly saw Ares. When she did, it was only in passing. They never spent any time together any more. Both had taken numerous other lovers and lived separate lives. Eden assumed that perhaps Ares had finally given up on them and would leave her alone. Only when she had bedded Caesar, did the war god finally approach her.

He appeared in the emperor’s bedchambers right in the middle of the ‘act’ and startled them both.

“What in Tartarus do you two think you’re doing?” he yelled, glaring at the couple.

Eden rolled off of Caesar and casually lay next to him, not bothering to cover her nakedness. Fear, however, racked Caesar’s entire body. He grabbed the sheet to cover himself, as if it were some kind of shield against the powers of an angry god.

“M, m, my Lord . . .” he stuttered.

Ares pointed at the door. “OUT,” he told him. Caesar didn’t respond right away and just looked confused. “NOW!” he commanded.

The emperor scurried away, tripping over the large sheet he had wrapped around him as he ran for the exit. Ares laughed at him and then turned back to Eden and shook his head.

“Tsk, tsk. What am I going to do with you, Eden? I thought that, perhaps, I could leave you alone and you’d be satisfied commanding my army, but it seems that I was wrong.” He sat down in a chair next to the bed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “What are you doing with Caesar?”

Eden didn’t bother to look at him, instead focusing her attention on the fingernails of one hand. “I was board, okay? We were just having a little fun. What’s it to you, anyway?” she said smartly.

Ares stood quickly, grabbing the hand she was examining to get her full attention. “I will NOT have you corrupting Rome, you hear me? I have Caesar right where I want him to be and I’m not going to allow you to screw that up.” He released her hand and began to pace the floor slowly.

“It was one thing for Caesar to go around me and hire you to off a few troublemakers. That, I could overlook since they needed to be dealt with anyway. However, since you started sleeping with him, he’s gotten cockier, thinks he doesn’t need me as much. That – I will not tolerate.”

Eden had gone back to examining her fingernails again. She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

Ares used his powers to lift her up from the bed and hold her back against the wall behind her. “I’m dead serious, Eden.”

She started to laugh. “So what? You can’t kill me! What are you gonna do if I don’t stop?”

Suddenly she was transported to an abyss of swirling blackness, falling and falling, but never reaching the bottom. Ares left her there for a few moments and then brought her back to Caesar’s bedchambers. She looked up at him with shocked, wide eyes.

“That, my sweet, was The Eternal Pit of Darkness. It’s nothing compared to some of the other places Zeus invented to hold troublemaking immortals. There is also The Eternal Pit of Fire, The Eternal Pit of Torture, of...”

“Okay, okay. I get the picture. I won’t see Caesar any more.” She stood and dressed. Ares watched silently. When she was done, she turned to him and asked if he would send her back to Apollonia. He nodded.

Before she disappeared, he heard her say, “You could have just asked me nicely, you know.”


********************

Needless to say, Eden was more than angry at the god’s interference in her life once again. She paced the floor of her command center, throwing objects around, overturning the table in the center of tent, as her closest aide looked on.

“Just what right does he think he has, telling me what to do like that? Threatening me? The bastard! I’ve got a mind to go back to Rome – just to piss him off.”

“I don’t think that would be a good idea, General. He is the God of War. You don’t want him to get even angrier, do you?”

Eden stopped and looked at her assistant and shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe I do. All I know is that the jerk needs to have a lesson taught to him. Someone needs to stand up to him.”

“Like who, my Lady? No one can match his powers and strength, except another god, that is.”

A light bulb went on in Eden’s head. “Another god, yes! Lycos, you’re a genius!” she praised and then abruptly left the tent, hollering back that he was in command until she returned.

Lycos stood there looking at the empty space where she had just been. “Oh-oh. Someone is going to be upset with me,” he said aloud to himself.


******************

Eden did return to Rome, only this time she went to see Brutus, Caesar’s closest aide. Eden knew that Brutus found her attractive from how he’d always flirt with her during her recent visits with the emperor. She had an idea, and needed Brutus to fill in the gaps of information she lacked.

She easily finagled what she needed out of him with promises of wild times and hot sex. He was putty in her dainty little hands, and after a few glasses of wine, he babbled like a baby. Once she had what she needed, she left him, high and dry.

Brutus had confirmed that Ares had asked Caesar to keep something safe for him, and away from his dear brother, Hercules. While Eden had been in Africa, Hercules’ twin showed up in Greece, sporting a rather unique pendant around his neck. Rumor was that the pendant was filled with the blood of a hind – one of the only things capable of killing a true god. Apparently, Ares got a hold of the pendant and quickly whisked it off to Rome to hide it from Hercules. Both Hercules. She didn’t quite know the entire story about how there was two Hercules, nor did she really care. The only thing that interested her at the moment was the fact that there really was a pendant filled with the deadly red liquid.

Later that night, Eden broke into the palace and stole the pendant. It had helped that she had been there before and knew right where Caesar might have kept it. She easily slipped in and back out again, like a cat prowling for his dinner. She had been so slick, that no one would even realize that it was missing.