Ares stood from smoothing the dirt over the graves, and dusted his hands together. Next to him, Aphrodite gave a little sniffle. When she spoke, her voice sounded thin in the vast silence that had claimed Olympus of late. "You're gonna grunge up your pants, bro. Don't wipe your hands there."
     The leather-clad God of War shot a glare at his sister. "I'm NOT wiping my hands."
     "Oh suuuure. Ar, you're leaving major scuffs! That's gonna-"
     "Aw, for crying out loud, it's not like I can't still zap 'em clean!"
     "Can you?" Silence fell between them. She sounded honestly uncertain, and it inspired doubt in him for a second, too.
     Then he shook his head. "Look, I might've lost my immortality, but not my Godhood. I can still clean my own pants."
     The Love Goddess pouted, tears in the corner of her eyes. "Okay. I was just trying to..." She paused to sniffle again, and was unable to continue as the tears started to pour. Ares looked uncomfortable, but slung an arm around her shoulder. She wept against him for a moment, clinging to his chest, and he finally put his other arm around her and patted her on the back. "We shouldn't fight," she sobbed, still burying her face against his vest. "Not now."
     "I know," he answered, smoothing her back. They fell silent again, holding each other, and when she pulled away she had cleaned up and looked as if nothing had happened.
     She looked down at the graves, most of which were in memorial only, not the actual burial sites of their family. "I can't believe it came to this," she said quietly.
     "Yeah," Ares said absently. There was a part of his mind now that was always contemplating his own mortality, and this funeral wasn't helping any.
     Silence hung between them, waiting for either one to break it, swollen with unspoken words. Finally, Aphrodite knelt, kissed her fingers, and lay her hand to the newly-turned earth. A rosy glow spread from them for a moment, as if the earth were being warmed, then faded. She stood up again, took a breath, and looked at Ares. "So. I guess that's it."
     "I'll catch up with you," he told her. She didn't speak, but he could tell from her face that she understood. In a flash, she disappeared.
     He stood for a few moments, and just let the silence envelop him again, as various thoughts flitted rapidly through his mind. Finally he just crossed his arms and shook his head. "Look at all of you," he said, and chuckled darkly. "Look what you got, after it's all said and done. You were so big and strong, huh? The Gods of Olympus. Nothing can stop us, nothing should be allowed to. So big, so strong. So scared.
     "And stupid," he added, pacing before the graves. "I mean, c'mon. You knew what an amazing woman she is. You knew she'd gone up against us hundreds of times, and we never once were able to beat her." He snorted. "But then I guess you figured it was just me. 'Oh, Ares messed up again.' It can't just be that Xena is smart, nah, it's gotta be that I'm just not good enough. You know, I always hated that."
     He slowed down, directed a glare at the marker over Athena's grave, and frowned. "If you'd just listened - trusted that I actually might've known what I was talking about..." He was abnormally fidgety, it seemed. Ares was a god who wasn't known for excessive movements, yet now he couldn't stay in one position. He uncrossed his arms and ran a hand through his hair, almost in exasperation. "If you'd just left her alone, we'd have been fine. But nope. Now you're dead. And me - look at me! Big, mighty Ares, as mortal as the woman he loves!"
     The words hung in the air, as he sank to his knees and contemplated the situation. "And you know, the saddest part is that we did it to ourselves. All the harm we ever did... in the end, it was to us, not to them." A perverse admiration filled him even now, as he thought of Xena. She was responsible for the death of most of his family, for the fall of the Gods of Olympus, and for his eventual death.
     What a woman.
     "She does it to you, you know. There's something about her that just demands action- you can't be passive around her. You can't just sit and wait for her to come to you, you have to go get her. You can't wait for her and her kid to die - you have to run at 'em like an idiot and get yourself decapitated." He chuckled, patting Discord's grave. "I still don't know what you were trying to prove." Giving a long sigh, he muttered, "I guess that's what it is. She does it to us, somehow, but all she really does is make us to it to ourselves."
     He pursed his lips, and knelt in silence. Time passed around him, and he was for once painfully aware of it. He was dying, of a disease which every mortal was born with. Yet the silence lingered, as he paid his final respects in words that could never be spoken aloud.
     They'd argued, they'd fought, they'd double-crossed each other numerous times. He himself had been responsible for trying to bring about their downfall at least once. But - maybe it was the mortality thing, he hated that - he was actually going to miss them.
     Brushing his fingers over the graves one final time, he took a breath. "Well, kids... Since it fell into my lot, that I should rise and you should not..." He stood, dusting his hands together, and murmured, "Goodnight, and joy be to you all."
     Aphrodite materialized next to him on his path away from the graves. "You're all muddied up, Ar. You should see your knees."
     "Let it go, sis."
     "'Kay." She slid her arm around his waist, and he put his across her shoulders and held her as they left their family behind.

© 2000 by Xebbie