The Aftermath

by Shamenka

Fandom: Hercules

Rating: PG

Summary: Is Ares dead after an interlude of madness...with Joxer

Disclaimer: I make no money from this work of fiction. These are not my guys, not my show. A word of warning though, this is a harrowing tale, not for the squeemish...I'd say read and enjoy, but that's not quite the right word.


The Aftermath
by Shamenka

As the last echo of the final scream died somewhere at the back of the cave Hercules stood up, away from the cold shelter of the wall against which he had been sitting. He forced himself upright by will alone. By will alone he walked towards the back of the cave complex and whatever horror awaited him there. His path was shown to him in the quiet sobbing that filled his heart with dread. It was not mere fear that held him in its thrall, but a soul crushing despair that here there had been nothing he could do.

As he entered the cavern it was like life erupting into a charnel house. The sudden assault of light against his eyes hurting his body almost as much as the sight before him hurt his soul. Huddled against the freezing cold wall was Joxer, his friend, his companion, however self-imposed, of more than a few adventures. One of life's true innocents. Eyes locked on the only other occupant of the cavern. Face devoid of life.

"Joxer?" The soul weary hero was surprised to find his voice steady if not strong. His heart going out to this young warrior, the things he had learned in his silent vigil would remain for now, as silent.

"It's all right, I'm all right, now. Oh, Gods, what have I done?" The sound of his quiet almost crying echoed and re-echoed around the cavern until it came back at the two of them as a banshee screech, mocking them.

"Let's get you out of here!" Hercules offered his friend his arm to help the shaking would be warrior to his feet. He was almost sick as his hand came away from the encounter slick with blood and semen.

"What about..." Joxer could not even think about saying that name. The name he rejoiced in saying almost every day of his life.

"I'll take care of it. Let's get you out of here first, okay?" Turning his back against the broken form in the cave the bronzed hero led the shaking shell of Joxer the Mighty back out into the light, where he belonged.

They walked past the great well where the Hydra had appeared, attacking them all, but wounding Joxer. Poisoning him with its bite. Corrupting his spirit as it corrupted his flesh. Neither man able to look at the pit that now was the creatures grave.

It had been a nightmare scenario right from the start. From the first moment one of the local villagers had said 'Hydra' Hercules had been uneasy. Not that he had never faced one before. On the contrary, he had faced and defeated several Hydra before but this one was different. This one was more than the normal Hydra. its bite had been sought after many times. Quite deliberately, many Warlords had sought out this creature to try to survive its bite. For with its wound came the power and strength of Kronos himself. All the power of all the Gods in one mortal mind.

As far as Hercules knew, Joxer was the only one ever to have come out the other side, whole of mind and body. At least he hoped he would be whole.

And that was due entirely to the sacrifice of one person. Some one he had never thought of as able to make that kind of offering.

"Father!" Hercules let the one word form a prayer. Begging his father's indulgence one more time.

"What is wrong son? What has happened here?" Zeus materialised in the passageway and sniffed the stale, stagnant air. Reeking of death and the sweet smell of blood. He turned to look directly into his mortal son's face. "I smell blood on you, both of you!" The sudden swing from concern to anger almost caught his mortal son unaware, almost, but not quite.

"One of Kronos' Hydra happened!" Hercules knew the guilt his father carried, feeling responsible for the failings of his own parents. Even the Gods were not free from the sins of their father.

"Whose blood is it?" Zeus would not, indeed, could not let himself be turned from this question. "Answer me boy, whose blood is it!" He held onto Hercules' shoulder, closing his grip until even the demigod was forced to gasp.

"Ares!" Joxer had finally found the courage to name his victim.

Zeus just stared at him. He knew of Joxer the Mighty, had met him a few times. He knew what this silly little mortal meant to his volatile son. Now here he was telling him what? That his son had been killed by his grandfather's Hydra? Or worse.

Suddenly Joxer slumped in Hercules' arms, almost pulling the stronger man to the floor of the passage with him. His grief took form in sound and screamed for release.

"Hercules! What has happened to Ares? Was..." A cold fear grasped the King of the Gods heart. Two possible outcomes, neither of them good: if Ares had been bitten by the Hydra, then he would be dead or if Joxer had been bitten by the Hydra and come out the other side of the madness then....Ares could still be dead. Or at very least wish that he were.

"It bit Joxer, he.." He was interrupted by his father's groan of pain.

"Where is he? Where have you left his body?" Had Zeus been mortal he would have surely felt something die in him. Some small spark of the flame that was his love for this mortal son. Who had left his brother's body behind as he comforted this murdering mortal. Had he been mortal this was a slight to his brother he would never be able to forgive Hercules for. Had he been mortal... For the first time in many years tears welled up in his eyes for his beautiful, volatile, mischievous, brilliant...neglected and unloved son.

"A cavern, back there. He arrived just as Joxer was bitten. He killed the Hydra. Just like that, dead. He used his sword, HIS sword for the defence of Joxer. He told me to get everyone else out of there. He said only he could help Joxer now. He said..." Hercules was talking to no one. His father was running down the passage. His pain, clear for all to hear as his voice echoed.

"ARES!"

Hercules knew his father had found his brother as he heard the incoherent guttural scream rip from the elder God's throat. Tightening his grip on Joxer's arm he propelled the defeated mortal out into the real world and his own conscience.

Outside a thousand questions waited. Easier to face than the one question the caves beggared an answer of him. Had he walked away from his brother's corpse?

Daylight blinded them.

Questions confused them.

"What happened? Are you all right? Where's Ares?" That question gave a last burst of the demon strength to Joxer and he finally broke free of Hercules' grasp to head back into the caves. Pulling him back and down Hercules held him tight until the tears began to fall. No more of the madness of earlier this was a broken man facing a Tartarus of his own making.

Iolaus found himself unable to look away, a fine sheen of cold sweat suddenly covering him from head to foot. Finally, he looked at his other companions. The villagers just wanted reassurance the monster was dead. Xena looked shocked. Gabrielle looked relieved. Relieved? The very idea of celebrating the death of the War God curdled his gut.

"Ares, Herc. What happened to Ares? Is he ..." He shrugged, unable to think the word, let alone say it. For all the pain and suffering Ares had brought the world he had probably saved it from several million times more. All mortal aggression had to go somewhere. And Ares had been that somewhere for a thousand years or more.

"I don't know. I had to get Joxer out of there. I... I didn't even look!" Finally Hercules' own tears fell. Shame, guilt, horror.

Loss.

Most people there would not understand it, but he could not face the idea that worst of all he had left his brother to die, alone and cold in that cave. All alone, in pain, pain beyond his reckoning and alone...

Hercules ran for the cave mouth, closely followed by Iolaus and Xena. But he was by far too fast for them to catch up with him. It was as if Hermes had lent him wings. His guilt and grief propelled him full speed back along that dark passageway to the bright cavern he knew held his answers.

The dark forced his pursuers to slow down allowing Hercules to maintain his lead. But almost together they erupted into the now quiet chamber.

Zeus had gone. And he had taken Ares' body with him. Alive or dead, his brother was beyond his reach.

The sight and smell of all that blood...and...the musk of male sex.

"What happened in here?" Even though she was damn sure she knew, she had to have confirmation. Xena turned the stunned demigod to face her.

"After you all got out I came back in. I made it as far as the end of that passage. I thought, I don't know what I thought. Ares might need my help, something. But I was too late. Joxer had already started attacking Ares. So I sat out there and listened to my brother being killed, being beaten, being r..." He couldn't finish, his gut finally had had enough, he turned to the wall of the cave and threw up. Spasm after spasm his stomach convulsed with the effects of that last sight of his brother's body replaying in his mind.

Finally, he calmed down to finish his narrative.

"I listened to him dying. All too aware that for the first time in my life I could do nothing to help. Too aware of the danger to me from that power in Joxer. Unable to lift a finger to help him. How do I defend myself? Say, its just Ares, that its not like its Iolaus or Xena? Pretend the noise is something else? That it isn't my brother being raped, over and over again? I waited until his last scream faded from the cavern before I went in." Hercules got to his feet and crossed over to the spot his brother had died. Had he died? He collapsed into the rapidly drying puddle of his brother's blood.

"I let Joxer kill him."

"Are you so sure he is dead?" Xena's harsh voice brought him partially out of his stupor.

"You didn't see him. All that blood and...mess." The demigod looked up at his one time lover.

"Don't count him out until you see his funeral pyre! You degrade him, counting him out too quickly. If he were dead he'd still be here, wouldn't he?" She looked, finally, at the dark stain the hero was kneeling in. Trying to shock Hercules beyond the grasp of his self imposed despair.

"No, I called my father as I was getting Joxer out. I couldn't even do that for Ares while he was in here..." Hercules forced himself to his feet. "Did either of you know that Ares and Joxer are, were lovers?" He looked from one shocked face to the other. "Neither did I until I heard him plead with Joxer to expend all that power loving him like he had just three nights before. He burned up all that demon power as it was pounded into him. Joxer could have ruled the world, but Ares took all that malignant power into himself, physically and spiritually. And it killed him!"

"If they were lovers then Joxer's going to be in a seriously bad way. Do you think he'll try something stupid?" Iolaus looked from one friend to the other.

"Well, he's raped his lover and for all I know, slit his throat, what do you think?" Hercules couldn't decided whether to leave his brother's death site or go to his living friend and give what support he could there.

"Does that make Joxer the new God of War?" Xena cast her glance back in the direction of their damaged friend. As if trying to see Joxer and Gabrielle, imagining what was happening. Almost seeing his torment through all the rock standing between them.

"I don't know!" The grief stricken hero pleaded with his companions, silently, looking for a direction.

"Herc? Maybe we should get back there before he does do something stupid. Or becomes God of War, in his state, he's too unstable to be that powerful. At least until he can get a handle on his pain." The blond hunter saw that this time direct action was called for. Iolaus turned away and chose the living over the dead. It was the hardest action he had ever taken, to deliberately walk away from his hurting friend.

Slowly, one hesitant step after the other, Hercules followed. Xena brought up the rear. Better to watch her former lovers walk out of that grave. Easier to give up her own tears for he who had been her God for so long. Her solace in her violent days, her lover, her support. And now he had saved her life once more. This time at the cost of his?

"Ares. Please live." For the first time in years she voluntarily prayed to him, for him.

Finally out of the cave and once more in the bright sunshine again the trio of saddened warriors looked for Joxer and Gabrielle who had waited for them. The villagers had left when they realised that if a God had died in the battle to save their community there might be repercussions from the other deities. From hiding in their hovels for fear of the Hydra they had made the lateral move to hiding in the same hovels for fear of their Gods.

"Is he?" The bards voice caught on her question.

"I don't know" The sound of defeat in Hercules' voice forced Joxer to action, to make some sort of attempt at comfort for his friend.

"He's not dead. My hands are empty, I don't have his sword. They're as empty as me. I love him, but after what I did to him, he'll never want to see me again. I'll be lucky if he lets me live. I'll be luckier yet if he kills me. I deserve to die. For what I've done I deserve to die" He started to spin around, looking to the sky as if he'd find an answer there. "Kill me now, Gods! Kill me now!!" He screamed out his demands.

He got no reply.

Collapsing to his knees he bowed his head in defeat.

There was nothing his companions could say, no comfort they could offer. It was too soon for the truth to help him, to realise he could not help his actions. Time alone would do that. Time or someone who loved him. If he lived. If he could still love him.

No one saw the light flash behind them. No one saw the pain in the War God's eyes as he watched his lover crumble under the weight of his supposed guilt.

Nor did they see the love in the face of the King of the Gods as he looked at his son and basked in his compassion.

"But I don't want you dead." Ares' voice was little more than a whisper.

"Ares!?" Joxer shot to his feet and pushed passed his stunned friends to face his hurt lover. "Why don't you want me dead? I deserve to be dead!"

"Why? It wasn't you, it was the Hydra poison." Aware of all the eager faces looking at him, but not caring what they saw. "Come here." He held his arms open and took the trembling form of Joxer into his embrace.

"Forgiveness, Ares? Not really your style!" The bard, who had not faced the possible loss of this God nor knew what he really was forgiving sneered at him.

"Shut up Gabrielle." Her companion looked as if she would do her friend harm should she say one more word.

Ares just looked at her, devoid of expression, then turned his gaze on his lover and let him see his forgiveness. Together they disappeared. Leaving their audience and the King of the Gods looking at spot they had stood in.

"Ares forgives him?" This time it came from Xena, but was just a question. Not an accusation.

Zeus took a deep breath, and let it out in a rush. Mortals! He wished they would understand these things, just once.

"No matter what else he is, Ares is a God. Near total omniscience, near total omnipotence. His capacity for vengeance is as great as his capacity for forgiveness. Just a lot better exercised." Then he too faded.

For once, Hercules found himself happy that his brother had survived. Moved to pray for the first time in his life to his brother, he gave his words to the world.

"Ares, be happy."

Looking to his companions he raised his smile and bid them join him.

"Shall we go see if that village has an inn? I'm famished." He walked away, leaving them to follow him, or not. Their choice.


END