Drawn Together

Within the gloomy, slightly dark stone temple walls was a trio going about the same old mundane routine that they did day after day for eternity.… one weaved… one measured… and one cut. That's how they worked, it was their duty after all, maintaining the loom and deciding when and for how long someone would live or die.

Then one day, it happened… a small deep crimson thread appeared, the next in line to be woven through the loom and become a part of a destiny that was still yet to be defined or so the determined thread thought as it stubbornly reached out to the threesome, refusing to be ignored any longer. For a moment, everything seemed to have come to a halt the instant the presence associated with that string had finally registered with them.

The minute it happened was not a surprise for them though, they had seen this day coming for a very long time. The thread had come along several times before, being woven closely to another but never joining completely with that one and it was in this lifetime when it was supposed to happen. Nothing was said between the trio however, just a simple, small subtle eye contact was made between them all because they already knew what was in store and the restless strand was picked up and swiftly guided to its destination and fate.

Once it was put into the right spot, the tiny thread began to slowly entwine itself around another thicker, dark florescent blue one. It was microscopic compared to the other, it wasn't as long or as thick since this threads life was just beginning and the blue one had been thriving for quite some time already and the red one was barely noticeable against it.

That did not discourage our tiny tenacious crimson strand though, nor did the power that was radiating from its new host make it want to seek out a safer more easier thread to combine with and so it dug and merged itself within it with a fierce determination no matter what. It carefully sought out its path through it, wisely circling and digging itself further along the blue one until it was firmly imbedded in and around it that it was nearly impossible to have extracted the tiny thread from the other as they began to wrap around each other more intricately until it seemed as if they were one.

As if nothing had even happened, they continued with their work as the two threads slowly faded back within the loom, ever moving and growing with each other while their unknown destiny was about to unfold as the trio went about their business.

One weaving… one measuring… and one cutting…

"… So it begins…"

Xxxxxx

This was just all so strange, something was calling to him, drawing him somewhere that just didn't make any sense at all. There was just nothing here, nothing of relative interest anyway, just your average pitiful looking rundown little hovel of a town. He could feel it intensely though, the sensation of it had been flowing through his body for quite a few months now and rather recently it was becoming stronger. The irksome sensation had been digging itself a nice little home within him and he didn't appreciate it making residents there without his consent.

He tried several times to ignore it, really not knowing how to deal with it and at the beginning it was only a small nonessential feeling that had suddenly hit him. It was easier to forget about it back then, it wasn't as strong before but as time went on, it grew and grew and grew, festering within him. He was finding it reasonably annoying because it had just suddenly come out of nowhere and it was nearly impossible to get rid of it no matter what he did.

For nine months, nine long aggravating months it had been driving him out of his mind every single day. Sometimes he thought that he was truly going insane because it was just a feeling that brought no sort of destination with it to know what was causing it. Nothing, absolutely nothing every single time it flared up within him and sometimes it would frighteningly rouse him out of his slumber as if something significant had all of a sudden happened.

It was a pathetic display actually, him abruptly getting out of bed strangely panicked, fuming and ready to tear every single person limb from limb from the sensation when he had no idea where to even go or why it even affected him to such an extent to actually get that type of reaction out of him in the first place.

He quickly pushed that Gods awful memory from his mind just as fast as it had decided to form, not wanting to relive that cringe worthy moment once again. It wasn't one of his finer moments, and he took a minute to just look around at the remnants of this crappy town for the hundredth time since he had arrived several hours ago. It was late at night, virtually a ghost town at this time if not for the few drunkards that were wandering their way around and poorly trying to find which house was theirs after wasting themselves the whole day at the local tavern.

Surprisingly though, he had eyed each and every one of them menacingly when they came across his path as if they were an actual threat of some sort to him. An unusual reaction considering that they were drunk out of their minds to even notice that he was standing there to begin with, barely being able to walk as they stumbled over their own feet. At least someone was enjoying themselves, which was more than he could say for himself as he just huffed out another annoyed breath. Why was he even standing in this spot anyway?

It just didn't make any sense, over the last several days the strange feeling had been getting stronger than usual and then, for the first time in months, it had finally given him a location. This was certainly not what he had been expecting, well, he really didn't know what to expect but it surely wasn't this, not even close. The thought just made him run his hands against his face frustratingly, he really needed to lay off of Bacchus' wine, it seemed like it was finally messing with his head.

After rubbing the palms of his hands against his face for several more minutes, hoping that he could just wipe away the terrible scene that he had before him, as to have been expected it didn't work and he gazed upon the house once again. It was just a stupid little house that merely had a single light burning in one room, which only made him want to burn the damn place down to the ground. All this time and this was what he came to find, a tragic shack that brought no answers for him as to what had been the force behind this dreadful feeling that had been irritating him for months. Just a thousand more questions really, all of which didn't look like they were going to be answered either.

Now that he had his answer though, if one could even call that an answer really, which in case anyone was wondering, it wasn't, it still puzzled him greatly that he had still yet to leave. There was nothing here but yet, he was rooted to where he stood and although he wanted to leave, something was preventing him from doing so, compelling him to stay. It was all so infuriating and he just crossed his arms across his chest, huffing out an exasperated breath while he continued to wait until this feeling decided that it was time for him to finally leave like he wanted to.

It was simply ridiculous really, this sensation was really starting to rub him the wrong way and the moment he figured out how to go about banishing it from his being completely, it just couldn't be soon enough really. Then, suddenly, his body stiffened more when it appeared that the bothersome sensation had seemed scared, his jaw clenching from the feeling and not really knowing what to do about it as it coursed through his body.

Meanwhile, lurking just a few feet away, that was exactly how Strife had found him. Standing in some unknown town that he thought he knew the name of but now it seemed to have slipped his mind of what it might have been. Why did towns have to have different names anyway? They all looked pretty much the same to him… some dirt… a few houses here and there… maybe a tree if they were lucky and trying to remember every single one was just about impossible. There were just so many and some he wasn't even sure he could actually pronounce; which he wasn't even sure how anyone could recollect all that nonsense anyway. Just gibberish if you asked him and something that was just a waste of time really.

Why couldn't they just keep it simple? Tylissos, Abdera, Cythera, Imbros, Thessaly, Ithaca… Really?! Those were like a total nightmare to try and remember and it should have been something simpler. Something that spoke volumes to those pathetic mortals that dwelled in them, something along the lines like… like… Strifens! Now that was a name he could certainly get behind.

It was simple, fairly easy to remember and it had a nice ring to it that just flowed off of the tongue so pleasantly too. Who wouldn't want to live in a place like Strifens?! I mean, come on, what could have possibly been better than that, really? Exactly, there wasn't anything that would have been better, and he was very pleased with himself for thinking of such a genius solution to Greece's terrible problem.

Now, don't let it confuse you with that other cheap, knock off town that had stolen his brilliant idea with a similar sounding name. What was it called again…? Athims… Arthens... or perhaps was it Athemis? No, no, that didn't sound right to him, only proving his point more and it was just another reason why his marvelous plan should take effect immediately and then this nasty little problem would be no more.

After fantasizing about his millions of worshippers in the hundreds of Strifens across Greece for the better part of an hour, Strife finally remembered why he had come to begin with and his pleased smirk began to fall as he eyed the War God nervously. He studied his uncle carefully for a few seconds, not really sure what he was doing and finding the whole thing quite confusing. He had shifted his eyes from Ares to the house a few times, wondering what it was that was holding his attention like that. This was unusual and he wasn't really sure if he should interrupt him or not, it usually didn't end well for him when he did, and he was hesitant to disturb him now.

He cautiously made his way closer to the War God, stopping when he was right next to him. Once again, he looked to the house, then to his uncle, then to the house again and then back to his uncle. He seemed so tense to him, lost in some type of deep thought possibly, maybe he already knew? But that was impossible, he wasn't even there, and it had taken Strife all this time to find him and if Ares did know then he was pretty sure that this town wouldn't still be standing. It wasn't exactly good news that he had come with after all and somehow he just knew that this was going to turn out to being all his fault. As if him, Strife, could have so recklessly done something so careless. Ok, ok, ok… maybe in a tiny way it actually was his fault because he had tried to embellish the plan his uncle had told him a little from what it was originally.

He wanted to put his own spin on it and make his uncle proud with the brilliant way he was able to command his army. That had been the goal at the beginning though and he was certain that it would have worked out flawlessly but then, things just started to take a turn for the worst and… let's just say that a few squadrons of his army were now happily on a ferry boat on their way to Tartarus. He nervously began to chew on his nails at that thought, this was not good, and he knew it and he already knew how much pain he was going to be in, and he was hoping to delay the inevitable as much as possible.

Consequently, he once again turned his attention towards the house in a last attempt to postpone the War God's wrath, studying it way harder than he should have really as if the conclusion was suddenly going to come to him. It really didn't look like anyone was occupying it in anyway, except maybe for that candle that seemed to be burning away there. For a moment, he thought he saw a shadow move within and he squinted a bit as if that was magically going to reveal the mystery that was held within and in the end it turned out to be the flame flickering from the wind.

After another quick shadow or maybe it was the wind again playing tricks on him, he wasn't really sure which, Strife was starting to get bored with the whole thing. All this waiting and nothing happening was making him want to just leave and delay the not so pleasant news he had for his uncle for another time when he wasn't so occupied. His curiosity was getting the better of him though and now he really wanted to know what was so amazing with this shabby little house before he left. Maybe he could take a quick peek, solve this bewildering puzzle and he slowly started to make his way closer.

The moment he had even moved an inch in the house's direction, Ares' eyes had maliciously turned his way and followed each foolish stride. Those few small steps that he took only seemed to make the War God's glare turn more menacing and then before he knew it, Strife was suddenly skidding across the dirt violently in the opposite direction. While he was hopelessly spitting out the outrageous amount of dirt that he had managed to get a mouthful of, he was just as quickly being pulled up and then being dangled viciously in the air while Ares held him by the throat brutally.

"What did I do?" he sheepishly asked, not sure what he had done wrong to get that type of reaction out of him.

He didn't get a response right away though, just that intimidating glare that he knew all too well and he gulped fearfully, only to choke on it the following second with how unbelievably tight Ares' grip around his throat was. This was just great; he hadn't even told him the news yet and he was already on his bad side. Why couldn't the odds for once go in his favor? He was a dead God and he knew it and he could only hope that he would be able to make it out in one piece.

"What do you want?!" Ares growled out, tightening his grip a little more while Strife started to struggle a small amount.

Before he could get his answer, suddenly there was this tiny, piercing cry that had broken the nights silence and the War God was immediately drawn to the noise and his head cocked towards the sound that had come from behind him. A life force had developed within him and it had spread like a wildfire throughout every inch of his body and he quickly tried to shake it from his system.

Strife on the other hand was completely confused with what had just happened, what in Tartarus was that?! He had never heard such a thing before and now he was a little jumpy on what it could be. It seemed like it had come from the house, just what the heck was living in there?! To think that he could have possibly gotten killed by whatever it was that dwelled inside of it only made him tremble a little. No wonder Ares had been here, it was probably some horrendous creature of some sort that he was secretly keeping hidden from the rest of Olympus.

This must have been some type of new scheme that he was conjuring up and no one would surely look in some measly town for it. What a great hiding spot he thought to himself. Quite genius really, hidden right where they would least expect the War God to place something. He was now rather eager to be included in his uncles' new plan. What would Ares do without him, really? He was after all a vital person to his cause and, well, he didn't want to brag too much about it, but his uncles' plans went much smoother when he was involved directly in them. This minor setback with the War God's army being the one exception of course, that wasn't entirely his fault anyway. Discord was supposed to be helping too but she conveniently wasn't around.

"Is that some vicious monster you have hidden away in there?" he uneasily asked, gulping nervously the following second and hoping that he hadn't just given his uncle an idea and he wasn't going to end up being monster bait.

"Don't be such an idiot!" Ares scolded, trying to shake the urge he now had to go to the presence that had finally come to him from that feeling that had been bothering him for months the moment that sound had reached his ears.

He tried to push it from his mind, now things made even less sense to him then before because he knew exactly what had made that sound and that was something he didn't deal with and it was completely crazy to think that was what had been gnawing at him all this time. This must have been some type of twisted joke; someone was going to end up in a lot of pain once he found out who was behind it. But the constant wailing was influencing him in a way that it really shouldn't be. It was beginning to make him a little uneasy and the fact that it even mattered was disturbing him greatly.

"Does it ever shut up?" Strife asked irritated, the noise was starting to annoy him, and the insistent crying was torture enough by itself and he covered his ears to try and block the bothersome sound out.

In response, Ares' grip only seemed to tighten at his words and the underling swiftly tried to loosen his hold around his neck. He just couldn't catch a break; this was going to be a long night indeed.

"What do you want, Strife?" he asked him again, already losing his patience with him and at this point he didn't have any left to spare.

"Well…" he wasn't really sure how to say it and he tried to delay it as much as possible, "… you know, that um… battle you told me to keep an eye on?"

At the way the War God's head had snapped back to him only made Strife tremble out of fear. He should have stuck to the plan and now he was in for it. How was he ever going to make this up to him, his one big break to prove himself and he had completely blown it.

"Go on." Ares dangerously encouraged, already dreading his answer, the little weasel did something, he just knew it and he was certain that now he had been set back with what he had originally planned.

"You see… um… that battle… kinda… uh… cost you about more than half of your army." he quickly rushed to tell him, immediately closing his eyes as soon as the words had left his mouth and covering his face with his hands, preparing himself for the pain that he was going to receive.

But surprisingly, he felt nothing, and he slowly opened his eyes, peeking through his fingers just to see that Ares seemed rather stunned with the news. It didn't last long though and soon he could see the anger that was now starting to form in his auburn eyes while his grip became dangerously tighter.

"What?!" the War God shouted out, slamming his pathetic nephew against the nearest wall.

"I can explain!" he quickly said, hoping that he could somehow get himself out of his current situation.

He attempted to do just that for the better part of an hour, desperately clinging to the hope that he would be fortunate enough and that Ares would take some sort of pity on him. What Strife didn't take into account though was that the constant crying from the newborn infant was his best ally at that moment. Throughout his explanation, those wails were unsettling the War God more and more and he was more focused on them then he was on hearing what it was that he had to say. Why hadn't the child stop crying already? Normally, he couldn't care less but he suddenly had the completely baffling need to soothe them.

Somewhere between the details of how his army had been led to their slaughter and the poor attempt of how they would have succeeded if they had only stuck to the slightly altered plan, Ares was being pulled continuously towards the infant. Its tiny presence was something that refused to be ignored no matter how hard he tried to block it out and it had a strong hold over him. She, it was indeed a girl, seemed absolutely terrified and it only made him want to ease whatever it was that was causing her fears. He wasn't sure how it had happened, but suddenly it seemed like they had connected somehow, and he was inside of her tiny panicky mind.

Her little worries had quickly become his and he was now seeing the frightening world through her terrified eyes. All these new and strange things that she was seeing for the first time were scaring her greatly. These people that she didn't know were huddled all around her, desperately trying to soothe her but having no effect and their alarming proximity were only terrifying her even more while she tried hopelessly to get herself free from their grasp.

Without even given it much thought, Ares let his presence seep through the connection that they were sharing momentarily and the moment she had felt it, her tiny cries had soon started to die down. He could see the way her eyes were now wildly looking around the room, almost as if she was trying to seek him out.

She seemed more alert while she desperately tried to locate him, her cheeks stained with more tears as they lightly flowed down her face. She squirmed some more within the arms of the one who held her, urgently, but clumsily looking around. Her bottom lip started to quiver a small amount, her vain search coming up empty every time while new tears threatened to fall. If she could just find out where he was than she felt like everything was going to be ok.

A small whimper made its way out of her throat as she aimlessly reached her little arms out, very much wanting to make contact and it took everything that he had not to just appear before her and do just that. Little sniffles still escaped from her mouth as the sensation of the War God's presence was slowly calming her and it brought her a sense of protection. For the first time since she came into this strange place, the tiny infant felt safe and she warmly cuddled herself within the bassinet that she was placed in.

"Hush now my little one… No one will harm you… You're safe…" he whispered inside of her mind and her puffy little eyes slowly began to close from his soothing voice, a tiny yawn escaping from her mouth while happily falling into her slumber knowing that he was there and she was safe.

Ares was a little confused that he had even done that to begin with and was even more shocked that the infant had responded to it. This had certainly turned out to be one heck of a strange night. Once the newborn baby girl had drifted off into her peaceful slumber, the connection between them had abruptly been broken and the fierce Olympian suddenly got knocked out of the trance he seemed to have fallen in with someone grabbing a hold of him roughly.

He came to find Strife, who must have been suicidal all of a sudden, and he had viciously grabbed the edges of the War God's vest in some type of attempt to get his pathetic point across about something that had to do with renaming the lands across Greece. Realizing what it was that he had just done, his nephew had let out a nervous laughter and then began to softly smooth back down his vest until it was neatly in place once again. He had managed to dodge a fireball with the way the War God had seemed rather distracted about something just a few moments ago and he might have just screwed it up by doing that and he timidly started to straighten out his uncles clothes.

The underling fearfully adjusted Ares' sword belt and then started to dust off his vest before he had viciously slapped his hands away. The War God slowly backed him up to the wall behind him and the panic in Strife immediately spiked for his stupid mistake. When was he ever going to learn not to interrupt him when his mind was elsewhere? Ares just shook his head at his reaction, he was just such a pathetic excuse for a God.

"Don't think for one minute that you are not going to pay dearly for this." he threateningly growled out, making sure that he got his point across as he lightly started to wrap his hand around his neck, "You disobeyed my orders."

The frightened God merely shook his head lightly, he was still a little relieved that Ares was going to wait to issue out that punishment. He usually didn't do that, and he was thanking whatever it was that had distracted him a little while ago to have managed to actually do that. Whatever it was, it must have still been on his mind and he was not going to look this gifted horse in the mouth.

"Good… Now get out of my sight!"

He shoved him roughly against the wall and Strife quickly vanished from the area, leaving Ares alone once again outside of the now quiet house. The War God turned his focus to it for a moment, he could still feel the small presence, it was peaceful now because the infants mind was lost within Morpheus' elaborate realm that was meant just for her. It still didn't make any sense to him though, but now that he did have some type of an answer to this puzzle, he could finally expel it from his system. It was more like child's play really, something that an all too jealous Discord would have conjured up to get back at him for their last trice. She was going to pay for that though. Making him waste his time and valuable soldiers that he couldn't have afforded to lose this night.

That didn't stop his eyes from staring into the now dark window where he felt the tiny girl child to be. There was a small part of him that wanted to see who she was, and he took a slight, unconscious step towards the house. Before he knew it, he had covered more than half of the ground separating him from the child and right when he had almost reached his destination, he realized what he was doing and then stopped. Again, he seemed to have succumbed to the effects of this tiny presence and somehow it had lured him here by the help of his soon to be dead underling. But he was not going to let this small child have some type of control over him. Even now he began to feel the pull beginning to fade. Not wanting to dwell on this any longer than he had already done, Ares soon vanished from the town, leaving Amphipolis and the tiny presence behind once and for all.

He had more pressing matters to deal with then some insignificant child's life. It was time he taught those two atrocious underlings of his just who was in charge.