[hr][color=ed1c24][sup][h1]
[center][img]https://tvguide1.cbsistatic.com/i/2017/11/21/db7f6686-0e36-426b-b151-6a0041412e46/ben-walking-away.gif[/img][/center]
[b][center][color=ed1c24]ARES[/color][/center][/b]
[/h1][/sup][/color][indent][sub][COLOR=ed1c24][I]SEATTLE UNIVERSITY[/I][/COLOR][/sub][/indent][indent][sup][right][COLOR=ed1c24][b]GOD OF WAR[/b][/color][/right][/sup][/indent][hr][color=gray]Ares saw the pink mist coming and knew what it meant. There was no defense against it. Yet as it encroached upon him he did not take it willingly. The glare he cast towards Aphrodite. He knew she disapproved of everything he was doing today. She disapproved of everything he did in the last century. No, he should understand. He wasn’t the best lover, the best father. But something else gnawed at him as well. Nothing he did was a surprise. He knew he was predictable. Once she loved his intensity. The fire that burned within him, which he tried to stifle out now. Now that love seemed to have vanished. Then finally the pink mist absorbed him.

[indent][i]Memories were summoned in flashes. Sending him mentally tumbling down into a pit. With bursts of light coming from all sides. There was little to hold on to. Everything was fleeting. Sounds and voices faded. The only thing he could sense was the musk of fresh sweat. Finally he hit the water. Plunging deep into the unknown. Above him there was only light but his body sank deeper, and deeper. Until a hand plunged into the water from above, joined by a voice as clear as day: “Let me help you.”[/i][/indent]

The god of war rose from his trance-like state. Only a second had passed but it had felt like an hour. He wanted to be angry at Aphrodite. How dare she use her power on him like that!? But he couldn’t. Something else was rising up. Trouble. Doubt. Danger. Instead of raging he let his head fall forward, looking down on the carpet as his stomach roiled over. Quite soon though, his body took control of itself again. Especially when the ever poorly timed Hermes rose from his slumber. The indignation… Ares felt his blood boil again. Even more so when Loki dared to open his damned mouth. If his mother wasn’t holding his hand on her should, he would’ve punched either or both in the face. But Hathor was still right. His mother needed him now more than ever.

When the Morrigan then spoke, Ares did feel a moment of elation. He was right. The so-called war goddess had no important information. Only vague talk about threats of fate. A concept Ares never believed in. A warrior, when he picks up the blade or the gun, decides his own fate. With every step he takes. With every choice he makes. He decides it long before he sets a foot on a battlefield, during the training. Warriors forge their own fate. But Ares’ sense of triumph quickly vanished when the Morrigan admitted she hadn’t found his body yet. When his mother beckoned him closer, he did so. Hera’s whispers calmed his heart immediately. In truth Ares knew what he was. A hound. To be given a mission. It was why he never had a desire to dethrone Hades at the top of the empire his uncle had built. Now he was given his goal and like a hound he would find his brother’s body. Right on time, the stranger who turned out to be Poseidon knelt beside Hera. Tangling his fingers with hers. Ares in turned offered a slight squeeze on her shoulder, signaling that he heard her loud and clear. Then he released her and walked out of the room. In his breast, the rage and hatred for all save a handful, that would’ve exploded in the room was aimed now. Turned into pure focus and determination. The other ties, the other problems, the emotions that had overwhelmed him before. They all faded away. He would deal with them later.[/color]