Earth Healer

Title: Earth Healer (2/?)
Author: Fableweaver ( on AJCS )
Rating: NC-17
Fandom: Xena: Warrior Princess/ Hercules: Legendary Journeys
Pairing: Ares/Joxer, Cupid/Strife, Xena/Iolaus/Auto, Jace/Jett, OC/OC, OC/Joxer/OC
Disclaimer: Not mine. Everything belongs to Ren Pics. ;-;
Warning: Joxer abuse, serious angst, mentioned rape, graphic sex

Author’s Note: I’m so glad you all actually like the detailed descriptions, mostly I get people telling me to leave it all out. ^-^’ Anyway, I’m not sure how many installments this will be, but I will finish it. Eventually. X.x’’ Thank you all so much for the positive feedback!


Installment II


When Rem got him back to the caves, they ran swiftly along corridors of stalagmites and cold, stonewalls. When they reached the haven chambers, Joxer sighed slightly in relief that Gaea was still there. Rem settled down beside his brother and noticed the room was bigger than the workroom, and was designed for more than one sick person. Two beds were settled against the far wall, and two huge cauldrons were filled with water over fires with a natural vent over them drawing the smoke up and out of the room. A tiny waterfall poured from a large hole in the wall, down into a bottomless pit of sorts below it in the ground; cracks in the ceiling let fresh, cool air was fill the cavern space.

A large table much like that in the workroom was settled against the wall beside the beds, chests of clothing, linens and tools were underneath it. He also noticed the natural shelving that had various items in them, one particular shelf had a medium chest in it with complicated locks on it, from the slight glow and the vague nectar scent, Rem guessed it was Ambrosia.

Joxer rushed to the washbasin and washed his hands before throwing on his apron and tying it behind his back. He rolled up his sleeves as he made his way to Ares’ bedside and where Gaea stood tending to her godly grandson.

“How bad is it?” Joxer asked softly, gently caressing sweat-soaked locks off the bronze-skinned man’s forehead.

“He’ll die if we can’t break the curse on him,” Gaea told him solemnly.

“What kind of curse?” Joxer asked, a bad feeling settling in his gut.

“A non-healing curse.” Gaea said simply, looking at the ceiling.

“Gods,” Joxer breathed.

He knew that if they couldn’t break the curse than when ever they healed Ares, the wounds would come back doubly worse than the last time, until the god was simply no more. Joxer sighed heavily and closed his eyes thinking.

“Is the curse designed only for Ares, Mother?” Joxer asked eyes still closed.

“Yes,” Gaea replied, looking wearily at her little one.

“Then, our only choice is for me to draw the curse into me, then have you destroy it there. It would be easier and less dangerous than if we were to go into Ares and try to break it.” Joxer said, opening his eyes to glance at Gaea’s stricken face.

“But you know that if you should fail…”

“Yes, Mother, I know.”

“Alright then, little one. When I place my hands on your shoulders, begin to take the curse.” Gaea said softly, settling her self behind him as he sat on a stool beside the bed rubbing his hands together.

Joxer nodded, then breathed in deeply, exhaling deeply, then repeating the process a few times to ground himself, then reached out to allow his hands to hover over Ares’ heart.

The soft green flames of magic licked across his skin, pulsing with silver swirls as the flames grew brighter. Cupping his hands as if holding water he allowed the magic to pool there then began to allow the magic to trickle through his fingers down into Ares’ chest and into his body. Slowly Joxer’s hands placed themselves on Ares’ skin, Joxer’s consciousness following the flames to the source of the curse; gnarled, twisted, dripping black vines of hate and malice that were surrounding the god of War’s heart. Joxer was so repulsed by the evil in the magic before him he almost drew back, but the fear of losing Ares was stronger.

Reaching through the swirling malicious hands and thorns that tried to stay his movements, he grabbed hold of the roots of the curse; pushing tendrils of his own magic deep inside the god’s heart to pull out all traces of the curse. Malevolent twists of the magic reached out for him, and Joxer absorbed the grasps, pulling the curse into him as he pulled it away from its victim. He pushed healing magic deep into Ares to heal all his ailments, making sure that he had left no traces of the curse in Ares as he pulled back from the body it was in. He pulled the dark flames within himself, and gave a brief look to Gaea before the blackness claimed his consciousness.

Ares jerked awake with a gasp, sitting up sharply with a wince and a groan as the sore, tenderness of muscles, bone and skin healing seeped into awareness. The faint trickling sensation of magic in his blood, he knew to be Earth healing magic, the sharp smells of herbs and exotic oils told him what was under the bandages that he was covered in. He looked around the space noting the fact he was in a healer’s domain still, then looked to the body in the bed beside him. He recognized the figure as the male healer that had been taking care of him earlier. As Ares was wondering why the man was in his own healing bed, Gaea came into the chamber and walked over to them.

“Ah, so you have awoken Res. Good. How do you feel?” She asked, briefly touching his cheek and forehead in a caress of sorts before turning to the man in the bed next to Ares’.

“Sore, but I’ll live Grandmother.” Ares replied gruffly.

“Good. You’ll be sore for a while I would imagine, one doesn’t have the Earth Healer taking curses for them everyday you know.” Gaea chuckled, looking over at Joxer and hiding the sneaky grin curling her lips.

Ares stared slightly slack jawed at his grandmother for a moment before shutting his mouth with an audible click and sliding his wide-eyed gaze to the form in the bed beside him.

“What kind of curse was it and who put it on me?” Ares asked.

“A curse designed for rotting away a little more every time we healed you, it was specifically for you. And Zeus placed it on you.” Gaea told him with serious eyes.

“Ah, shit.” Ares sighed, looking over at the healer.

“Will he be alright?” he asked suddenly, and bit his lip as his own stupid curiosity.

“He’ll be fine,” Ares cursed himself for his sigh of relief, “He just needs a lot of rest, good food and not to do any really major healing magic for a while. See instead of just pulling the curse out like we’d planned, Joxer decided to heal everything while he was coming out. Foolish, but effective judging by the zippy way you’re healing.” Gaea sighed softly.

Then two forms came scrambling in, twin teen boys by the looks of it. They stood on the other side of Joxer bed and slipped arm around each other. They both had rather wild white hair pulled back into a low ponytail, one had the most startlingly bright cerulean eyes and the other had the bright colour of jade. They had almond brown skin and were wearing simple breeches and tunics, running around barefoot. What Ares noticed was that they had wolves’ tails and ears, he blinked, and then remembered the large wolves from before.

“Ah, Rem and Rom, you’re back. Joxer should wake soon and I need you two to take care of him and Ares now alright?” Gaea told the young boys, whom Ares guessed couldn’t be a day over sixteen.

“Yes, Grandmamma Gaea. We’ll take care of them.” They assured her in unison, grinning wickedly.

“Now boys, remember, he wont be up to that for a little while. So don’t strain him to badly until then, alright?” Gaea told them, looking at them in a knowing, grandmother way.

The green-eyed wolf-boy blushed scarlet and ducked his head while the blue-eyed wolf-twin just grinned cheekily.

“Behave.” Was all she said before vanishing.

Ares wondered what he was in for when the two boys looked at each other and grinned.

Joxer woke up with a groan, sitting up and clutching his head.

“Did anyone get the number on that chariot? And does anyone know how many horses actually ran me over? It feels like hundreds.” Joxer moaned eyes tightly shut.

He heard three soft snickers and felt a vial pressed under his nose. He grabbed it, sniffed quickly before gratefully downing the horrid tasting stuff in one gulp.

“Gods, I need to find a way to make that stuff taste better.” Joxer grumbled as he threw off his blankets and swung his legs over the side of the bed.

He ignored his body’s protest at the movement and stood, stretching and listening to the satisfying pops down his spine. His eyes snapped open when he felt cool air touching his body in places that should be covered.

“Okay, next question. Why am I naked?” Joxer couldn’t help the faint flush colouring his cheeks as he moved to the other side of the room to get clean breeches and a clean tunic.

Oblivious of the three appreciative stares at his naked backside, he bent down to grab a tunic. When he heard a whistle he jerked up startled and spun to realize there were three people in the chambers with him.

“Ah, Rom? Rem? You have human forms?” he asked when he saw familiar eyes and the wolf tails and ears.

“Yup.” Rem said happily, his tail flicking back and forth contentedly.

“So is there a reason you are all watching me get dressed?” Joxer asked as he pulled on his breeches and laced them up, arching an eyebrow at the twin’s pouting looks.

He pulled the tunic over his head and pulled his hair back into a ponytail to keep it out of his face. He then shooed the twins to sit on his recently vacated bed then began to check Ares’ wounds and vital signs.

“Well, you seem to be healing up rather well. That’s good, when you’re strong enough I’ll be able to give you ambrosia and let you go. That should be in a day or so.” Joxer smiled lightly then looked around with a slightly put upon look.

“You two and Gaea make a mess when your healing people, you know that?” Joxer gave the twins a sideways glance before rolling up his sleeves and going thinking about how he was going to clean up.

He stripped the linens from his own bed and gathered various healing linens that had been piled into a corner and then dropped them into the basket by the door to be taken down to the river and washed. He went to his work table and hung up his apron on the peg in the stone beside the table then set about righting bottles, storing ones away and setting empty ones aside for reuse or refilling. He washed various utensils in a basin of hot water and then set them out to dry before placing them back on their racks or in their boxes.

He put fresh linens on the bed he vacated then moved Ares to it, striping Ares’ bed and throwing the linens with others. Then he grabbed a broom and began sweeping the cold stone floors, he swept the dust into the little pit that surrounded the fire.

“I have to go wash these linens, watch over him.” Joxer told the twins then picked up the basket and headed out of the caves and down the rocky steep to the roaring river, following it a little ways until he came to the place the river split into a calmer stream. He pulled a soapstone he made from his pocket, one he’d grabbed on the way out, and set about separating the linens and washing them. Once they were washed he laid them over the bramble bushes and hung them over low limbs of trees to dry.

“I wonder what really happened to him,” Joxer murmured to himself, “I’ve never seen anything that could do that on this earth, it had to be a god. But the only gods really out for Ares would be…every one of them. Except: Eris, Strife, Cupid, ‘Dite and obviously Grandmother. Well that narrows it down a bit.” Joxer muttered sarcastically.

“So you’re the healer who actually has the balls to heal Ares after Zeus punished him, hmm?” a woman’s voice came from behind him causing him to jump with a rather unmanly squeak and fall into the stream.

“Ah, and you are?” Joxer asked pushing wet tendrils of hair from his eyes and looking up at the woman before him.

She was tall with severe features and long hair pulled into a rather uncomfortable looking braid. She wore simple, conservative robes and had the crest of Intelligence on her belt. A sword hung at her waist and two scrolls were tucked into the crook of her left arm, the other hand was on her cocked hip; her dark, intense eyes were staring him down and sizing him up.

“Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, War Stratagem, and Valor. Ares’ younger sister.” Athena told him in her monotonous voice.

“Um, nice to meet you Lady Goddess, how may I help you?” Joxer asked not moving from his position in the water. He began to quietly and untraceably gather energy from the stones and water swirling around his hands.

“I want you to tell me where Ares is.” Athena told him.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that Lady, I have no idea where he is.” Joxer lied, a sinking feeling settling in his gut like a leaded weight.

“Liar.” Was the cool fact and then a sword came down just as his shield went up.

The clang of metal against magic sounded through the suddenly abnormally silent area.

“Ah, so you’re the vaunted Earth Healer of great grandmother’s?” She sneered and he nodded, slowly rising to his feet more steady in the swirling and loose eddies of water and pebble than she was on the flat ground.

“Well see if the healer can fight then.” She said a snarl marring her rather cold beauty.

He felt his magic rise up and change, shifting around until it fit: flooding out and swamping her, stopping Athena dead in her tracks with her arms and blade frozen above her head. Her dark eyes wide with a real fear and absolute recognition.

“I am more than the ‘vaunted Healer of the Earth’ as you say Lady, I am a God. A Titan. And you will obey your elders.” Joxer’s voice had become layered and strange – metallic, woody and rich and very like the earth he protected.

A silver line shot from his forehead to hers and in a flash of blinding white light they found themselves with a reversed role – she sprawled on the ground with him towering over her.

“You should be dead! There was no way you could’ve survived!” Athena gasped.

“I am Peace, I am Retribution and Justice, and I am the Earth on which you lay. I will never die. Now go run back to your gaudy palace and tell daddy that grandfather is very angry. Do not come looking for Ares again, girl, or you will live to regret it.” Joxer told her in his calm unwavering voice, then he dismissingly flicked his wrist and she vanished in a shimmer of silver sparks.

Then the power vanished leaving Joxer trembling on his knees beside his wet and soiled laundry. He looked down at the Earth with a betrayed look then slowly moved back to his task, his mind staunchly refusing to accept what had just happened.


He didn’t see the dark eyes watching him with awe or the twin guardians behind the god watching them both with sad, lonely eyes.


TBC