This is my response to my first picture challenge.

 

Disclaimer:  They aren’t mine and they aren’t likely to be in the near future.

 

Archive:  If you really want it. You might want to keep the matching picture with it though.

 

 

The Connection

 

 

Ares appeared on Mount Olympus below the Hall of the Gods. He started cursing when Gabrielle immediately appeared beside him.

 

“Go away!” Ares growled.

 

“I would love to! One can only assume though that you have a death wish. Seeing as I have to be within twenty feet of you in any direction, and I can’t be any further than that without probably killing you and definitely disbursing my spirit across the world. However as I have no death wish, you will forgive me if I stay by your side.” Gabrielle said sarcastically in an extremely sweet voice.

 

“The least you can do is stay out of my head!” Ares snapped at her.

 

“I’m trying to! This is new to me too. I’m trying to stay out of your head just as much as you are trying to stay out of mine.  Don’t even think about trying to fry me again. You’ll only wind up hurting yourself.” Gabrielle said guessing his intentions more from his body language than their strange mental rapport.

 

Ares huffed in frustration as he turned and took several steps away. Ares started to mutter more curses. They had found out almost immediately that lightning and fireballs only tickled her, but to him it felt like he was being hit by ten times the amount of power he had used.

 

“Why did you come here anyway? Nice view, but I doubt that’s why you came.” Gabrielle asked as she looked at the view from the mountain.

 

“We’re here because this is one of my favorite thinking spots. I came here to think of some way to get us out of this!” Ares shouted.

 

“We know the way out of it. It’s only temporary, Xena will fulfill Zeus’ conditions and he will have the Fates undo whatever it is they did. I will get my body back and you will get your privacy back. You shouldn’t be this upset about it. If anything this should just be a test of your patience. You are being bothered way too much by this situation.” Gabrielle knew from both her intuition and their bond that she was on the right track.

 

“You are the most irritatingly optimistic, nice, and chatty person I know of. “ Ares said with disgust. ”All the things that I most loathe in the world, and they are all now attached to me as closely as they can be attached. I reserve the right to be as irritated as I want to be by your presence.” Ares went on the attack trying to turn aside her line of thought.

 

“No.” Gabrielle said absently as she stared intently at Ares. The more she stared the more he seemed to withdraw into himself. “Besides, we already covered that as not being the reason you are so upset.”

 

“You aren’t acting right. You consider me the enemy. You should be trying to find out everything you can about me to learn what my weaknesses are. Instead you are trying to keep our minds separate just as much as I am.” Gabrielle’s brow furrowed as she tried to follow the thought to its conclusion.

 

“It’s as if… as if… you have a secret! That’s it isn’t it? You have a secret you don’t want anybody to find out. It’s not just some plan either. You could come up with a new plan easily. This is something so personal to you that you can’t stand the thought of anybody finding out. Much less someone you dislike as much as you dislike me.” Ares only answer to her was in the tightening of his shoulders.

 

Gabrielle looked down at the clouds flowing around their legs as she thought. She looked quite substantial until she accidentally moved one of her limbs through something solid. She looked up to see Ares staring into the distance with a frown on his face.

 

“Ares.” She called to get his attention. He turned around to face her. She looked into his eyes the entire time she spoke.

 

“Ares I give you my solemn word that if I find out your secret while we share this bond I will never speak of it. I will lock it away as deeply inside me as you have locked it away inside you. Will you accept my word?

 

Ares stared into her eyes for a moment and saw the sincerity there before he reached out his mind to touch hers. “I accept your word.”  The tension on the strange bond the Fates had forged eased immediately. Curiously it became much easier to keep their minds separate after they stopped fighting the connection.

 

Ares turned and with Gabrielle beside him he took one last look into the surrounding clouds before they disappeared and returned to his temple.

 

 

 

The End