Ares needs to be a God again but needs help to become one. This story is in several parts. Please be patient while I work on it.

Part 3 is G rated.

This is definitely a Gabrielle/Ares pairing.

I don’t own any of the characters in this story. I just borrowed them for awhile. I would like to thank Chelsea of ‘Chelsea’s World of Gabrielle’ for all her invaluable help and encouragement while I have been writing this story. Thanks Chels!

***This story takes place 2 years after "Motherhood"

PART 3

She was nowhere in sight when he came around the bend in the road. ‘She couldn’t have gone far. Where is she?’ He knew she could take care of herself, but he wasn’t thinking straight. For the first time in his life, fear, real uncontrollable fear had taken over. "GABRIELLE! WHERE ARE YOU!" He boomed from the top of his voice. He kept walking and looking into the woods on either side of the road when he heard the familiar sounds of a fight. He ran into the forest where the sounds where coming from and saw what was happening. Eight men surrounded Gabrielle. Six of them were of normal size but the other two looked more like mountains with legs. The mountains had yet to actively join the fight. She had already knocked out three of them and was fighting two of the remaining men at the same time. They were poor fighters at best. Probably farmers who thought the bandit’s way of life was easier. He could tell that she didn’t actually want to hurt them by the way she was fighting. He found this amusing. She could have easily caused them serious injury or killed them but even when she was in the middle of fight, she cared about the people she was fighting. She had just knocked out another one of them when the last normal sized man decided to join the fight. He sneered a comment at her that made Ares want to cut him into little pieces. Gabrielle just smiled at him. Her smile enraged him and he charged. She disarmed him and knocked him out with one very graceful blow. Turning, she saw an opportunity to kick the stuffing out of the other man she had been fighting. So she kicked him in the stomach and took his breath away. He fell to the ground gasping for air. He was done fighting for a while.

Ares was impressed. He knew she was a good fighter and had learned a lot from Xena, he just wasn’t expecting her to be that fluid and graceful in her moves.

One of the mountains then turned to the other, "she can’t take both of us, let’s get her!" He charged in to fight but the other one didn’t move. He decided that it was better not to move when he felt a sword point in his back and heard Ares’ whispered warning not to move. It took Gabrielle a few minutes to disarm him and bring the mountain down, but she did. She had him on his knees with one of her sais pointed at his left eye.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now!" She really wasn’t going to kill him, but he didn’t know that. She was just furious and wanted to teach him a lesson.

He looked like he was about to beg for his life when he closed his eyes as his face turned beet red. Gabrielle looked down and saw the puddle forming around his knees and the wetness soaking the front of his pants. Disgusted she stated, "go back to where ever you came from and never do this again." She then turned to the other mountain. At Ares’ prompting the mountain turned sideways and showed her why he didn’t attack. "Go home, both of you and take these with you." She indicated the unconscious men that littered the ground.

Pushing and prodding the semi-conscious men in front of them, the mountains and their gang left. Gabrielle and Ares watched them go and Ares started to laugh. Gabrielle was furious at having been caught by them and thought he was laughing at her for the same reason. Without thought, she turned toward him and let one of her sais loose. It imbedded itself in the ground right between his feet. He stopped laughing and looked at the sai, then at her. She glared at him, grabbed her gear and left.

‘Why am I always on one extreme or the other with him? He can be so…ARES sometimes!’ She then heard him coming up behind her but she didn't turn around and look. Suddenly, he was at her shoulder.

"I’m going hunting. Find a place to camp for the night and I will find you." He stated it very calmly and very coldly. He was mad, really mad at her. She looked at his back as he headed into the woods and saw her sai tucked into his belt.

She walked for about another hour before making camp. While she was setting up camp she found some herbs she knew would calm her down. She collected the herbs, refilled her water skin from a near by pond and started the fire. She had just added the herbs to the boiling water when he entered camp carrying a rabbit and a bird. Neither had been dressed yet.

"I didn’t skin the rabbit because I thought you might want the pelt. After you skin it, give it back to me and I’ll cook it.

"Thanks" she took the rabbit from him and started skinning it. ‘That was nice of him. I didn’t think he even noticed what I was doing.’ When she had skinned the rabbit, she didn’t give it back to him. Instead, she started it cooking. Then she staked out the pelt, just as before and started to tan it. With that done she turned her attention to preparing the bird. "Do you want to keep the feathers for any reason?" she asked. He said he didn’t so she cleared a spot in the fire and dug out a depression that was larger than the bird. She laid some hot coals in the depression, placed the un-plucked bird in it and covered it with dirt and more of the coals. He looked at her. "It will be ready for breakfast." She stirred the brew she was making and decided that it was ready. She filled her cup with the brew and sipped it. She was right; the warmth of it and the herbs helped to calm her down. She held the cup out to Ares. He looked at the herbs floating in the cup and declined the offer wearing a slightly grossed out statement.

He had been looking at the map as she prepared dinner. "Do you realize that we are already inside the map’s perimeter? Have been for about a day. I wonder when the first trap will show up." They didn’t know it but the first trap had already been working on them.

During dinner she asked why he had laughed after the fight.

"You handled yourself better than I ever imagined you could. I was impressed with your skills and very happy you weren’t hurt. Why did you throw your sai at me?"

She answered sheepishly. "I was mad at myself for getting caught by them. I thought you were laughing at me for the same reason."

"How did you get caught and what did they want?" He was afraid they might have tried to rape her. If they had, he vowed to get his Godhood back no matter what and hunt them down. They wouldn’t survive the encounter.

"That big one I fought at the end, he just grabbed me and pulled me into the woods. I guess I was a little distracted and didn’t hear him until he grabbed me. All they wanted was my money and whatever else I was carrying. They could have had it if they had asked. They didn’t ask so I fought."

"They didn’t try to force you to…" he couldn’t finish the question.

"If they had, they would now be dead."

Ares was so relieved that he let it show on his face. He wasn’t surprised that she would give away everything she had if someone asked her for it. It was just one of the many things he liked and respected about her.

"Um…Ares? Can I have my sai back? Please?

"Promise not to throw it at me again?"

"Absolutely not" she said with a huge smile on her face. He smiled back and threw the sai into the ground right between her feet. It was the first time they had joked with each other since the journey had begun and it made them both feel more at ease. It also opened up different avenues of discussion for them. They talked most of the night away, laughing and relearning about each other. He told her what he had gone through when he lost his immortality. She told him about being dead and hinted at what paradise was like. During the course of the night, they moved next to each other because the night had grown chill. Finally they decided it was time to sleep. They lay down to sleep curled in each other’s arms. They slept well.

Gabrielle woke when a cool wind hit her back. She realized two things instantly. First: she was alone in camp. And second: it looked like it was going to rain. The latter didn’t bother her that much, though she wasn’t looking forward to getting wet and cold, but Ares not being there worried her a little. "Ares?" No answer. The fire was going well so he was around someplace. ‘He’ll be back when he’s ready.’ She pulled the blanket around her and thought about last night. She had had fun and enjoyed sleeping in his arms. She knew he had fun last night as well and was glad he still had his sense of humor. Would it change anything? That was the question of the day.

Ares was only a little ways off and heard her call for him but he didn’t answer her. He had been leaning up against a tree just watching the sunrise. He was so unnerved by last night. It has felt so right being with her. Making her laugh. Sleeping with her in his arms had felt like being home. He was so happy last night. How had he let this get so far?

Gabrielle went looking for him when he didn’t return to camp. She had been up about half an hour already and had begun to worry. She saw him just as she passed some trees. He was leaning against a tree in a clearing and was looking at nothing. She thought of letting him have some more time to himself but changed her mind when she saw him shake his head and hit the tree with his wounded hand. That set up a line of curses that a sailor would have been proud of.

He sat down on the grass and started to unwrap the bandage to inspect the damage when she slowly walked up behind him. He heard her approach but just continued to look at his hand. He nearly melted into a puddle when she wrapped her arms around his neck from behind and just held him. "What’s wrong?" She quietly asked.

"Talking with you last night was great and it made me feel really good to laugh." He just felt it was the right time. "I love you and I don’t know what will happen when I’m the God of War again. This love thing is new to me and a great big bother." She just held him a little tighter. She knew something had been bothering him and he needed to get it off his chest. If he was ready to talk about it, she was ready to listen. When he felt her arms tighten around him, he continued: "Half the time I feel like Tartarus closed in around me and the other half I think I’m walking in the ‘Fields’. I just don’t understand how I can feel both things. Sometimes I even feel them at the same time."

"Ares, tell me something. You told me last night about what you physically went through when you gave up your immortality for me and Eve." She kissed his cheek. "Thank you for that by the way. But tell me what else you felt. What did your heart feel like?"

"I was so happy you would be alright." He gave her hand a squeeze. "But after, when you and Xena and Eve had left, I felt empty and" he hesitated for a moment "small. It felt like Zeus had hit me with a lightening bolt and left a hole in me. It felt like it was eating me from the inside. Like I would never be whole again."

"Is that hole still there?" She moved to sit next to him.

"A little I guess. I realized later what it was that had left me; it was the violence and hate. You know, for a while I tried to get it back. I was with that warlord I told you about. But the more carnage he caused the less I wanted to be around him. I thought that if I were around all the violence it would fill that emptiness. But it never did. Actually, I think being there made it worse."

"What’s filling it now?" She asked.

"Something but I am not sure what it is. Do you remember that village I told you about? The one I helped right after I left the warlord? When that whole thing was over, I felt something start to fill it. Just a tiny little bit and I wasn’t sure if I liked what I felt, but it was better than the emptiness. The more I did to help people the more the hole was filled. It’s still not entirely full. The closest it comes to being full is when I’m with you. Did you know that as you helped Xena to change, you were helping to change me? I didn’t realize it until just now but the more time I spent around you, the more I respected you and then loved you. Just like Xena, I didn’t have a choice. You have that affect on people and Gods. Then all I really wanted to do was have you with me and to make you happy. I guess I didn’t do that." He snorted. "I’m not making much sense am I?" he asked when she didn’t say anything.

"Emotions aren’t supposed to make sense. If they did, I wouldn’t be in love with you. Falling for you is not exactly what I had planned for myself." She smirked. "And, no, you sure didn’t make me happy. In fact, you sucked at making me happy. You made me miserable more times that not."

"Hey now, be nice. Gabs, when did you start loving me?" Ares asked. "Was it when we were on Olympus?" Maybe it wasn’t love she felt for him. Maybe it was just gratitude. He had to know for sure.

"No, it was before then. I’m not really sure exactly when." She chuckled as she remembered something. "Do you remember when you became mortal because of that enchanted scroll I had? You made me laugh so often. I liked that person. But after that, you were always trying something on us. Trying to get Xena back. That God, I didn’t like at all. Manipulative bastard that he was, I would even say that I hated him."

He looked so hurt at her words she wanted to take them back. "Sorry." Was all she said.

"Don’t be. I deserved that for all times I did do something to you two. What am I supposed to do with all these emotions? Sometimes I feel like I could explode with how much they hurt."

"Ares, it’s what we do with those emotions that make us who we are. Here and now I am in love with a man that I will probably lose in a few days because he may become the God of War. I know it will hurt. It hurts already. And I know the hurt will just get worse. It will be worse than anything I’ve been through before but that didn’t stop me from loving you. And believe me, I tried my best not to fall in love because I knew what it would feel like if I did lose you. I didn’t want to go through that again. But as bad as that pain is going to be, I know that it’s worth it to be in love. That’s what my feelings are telling me, so that’s who I am. I’m the person who’s in love with you."

"Is it really worth it? I have loved you for a long time, Gabrielle. When you died in Rome, I died too. It was the worst experience of my life at the time. And considering how long I have lived, that says a lot."

"You have loved me that long? Wow. Why didn’t…. Never mind."

"Why didn’t I ever tell you? Is that what you were going to ask?"

"Yea, but I know the answer. I wouldn’t have believed you then. I would have thought that you were trying to use me again to get to Xena. Like you did all the other times. Like I thought you were doing yesterday."

"Gabrielle, when Eli brought you back, I did try to tell you. But if I just came out and said ‘Gabrielle, I love you. Be with me forever’ would you have believed me? I couldn’t believe it myself. How could I have convinced you?" He cringed internally. He didn’t know how she would react to the mention of Eli.

She looked sad at the thought of Eli. Then thoughtful as she thought of something he said. Forever? She thought. But she asked, "when did you try?"

"Remember your horse, Prostatis? I wanted to give you something special that you would treasure. I was so happy you were alive. I also thought that he would help get you back to Greece faster. I wanted you back where I was more in control of what might happen to you. And remember when I joined you and Xena together in one body to fight Mavican? I asked you then to join me. Not to mention all the times I tried to help you and Xena when Eve was a baby. Those were just my ways of trying to tell you."

She was having trouble believing this whole conversation so she grabbed onto the one thing that did make sense. "Prostatis was from you? I always thought he might have been from a God. I kind of suspected it was you. But like you said, I couldn’t and wouldn’t believe it. He was a great horse, thank you. What happened to him when you put us on ice?"

"I took him back to Olympus to live out his life. I wanted something that was yours. I guess it made me feel like you were still close." He started to look uncomfortable again.

"Don’t hide from your feelings. You will only make yourself miserable and then you will turn into that bastard you were before. I think I could handle loosing you to the God of War if I knew you wouldn’t be the bastard you were before. But from what you have told me, I think you need that dark side just like Xena did. Remember when she brought the charkams of light and dark together? She had to have her dark side back to be in balance, to be who she was supposed to be. Just as you were created to be the God of War you need the darkness that comes with war. You have to be what you were created to be and you have to be in balance." She paused. "From what I see right now, the person who is sitting here won’t let the darker side of himself take over. I think he will be able to keep it together. But I want you to know that I will always love you the way you are right now and I will probably continue to love you even if I have to fight against the God of War, because that’s also who I am."

They sat in silence for a long time. He so wanted to assure her that he wouldn’t change; that the old God of War would never come back. He just couldn’t make that promise to her, yet.

She took his wounded hand and looked at it. She heaved a melodramatic sigh "You hurt it again. Come on. Let’s get back to camp so I can bandage you up AGAIN, and we can get some breakfast. That bird should be more that done by now." She jumped up then took his good hand to help him stand. He pulled her close and gave her a tender kiss.

"Thank you. How’d you get so smart anyway?"

"Just lucky I guess" was her answer.

She smiled as she led the way back to camp her hand in his. "I’m the lucky one," he said.

She came back with "yea, I think you’re right". Then she hustled ahead of him back to camp as his laughter followed her.

She re-bandaged his hand and they had breakfast even though it was closer to mid-day. When the clean up was done they studied the map and started off. It was a new direction for them emotionally and each wondered what was going to happen.

The sky was still overcast but the day seemed to be brighter for some reason. Someone was smiling on them. As she turned from her mirror of images, she said to the air: "Totally cool, Ar. It’s about time you told her. You’re right bro; you are lucky to have her. I hope you don’t screw this up." She tapped he fingers on her dressing table in worried agitation.

That day they passed through a village and bought some food so they wouldn’t have to hunt. That night, they made love again. It was sweeter than the first time because they both knew how the other felt.

"Well, wasn’t that nice of Zeus? He was actually kind of clever with that inscription. I think he’s talking about one of the traps. What do you think it means?" Ares asked.

"I think I want to write it down and study it before making any conclusions about it. It’s cryptic but not what I would expect from Zeus." When she was done, "which way do we go from here?"

Ares took the map out and looked. "According to the map, there is a lake about a day’s walk in this direction." He pointed in the direction they had been traveling. "I think we should head that direction and then follow the shore to the mountains. Good plan?" He asked.

"Works for me. I’m ready." And they headed out to meet whatever else awaited them.