N01-Ragnarok, crossing the border with the Ares sector
Vesta is in her quarters looking at the window, watching the stars fly by.
Her cabin is extremely bare: she didn’t bring any personal effects on board. She’s sitting on her bed, the most use she’s had for it since she doesn’t need to sleep.
A gentle beep from the door signals that someone is asking to get inside.
<Come in.> she says.
Noriko Null didn’t actually need to ask permission, but she respects her friend’s privacy.
<Can I do anything for you?> Vesta asks her.
<Actually, I was just about to ask the same. Everything okay?>
<Sure. Why wouldn’t it be?>
<Because you locked yourself into your room and haven’t talked to anyone since the battle of Delos.> Noriko explains.
<I… I just didn’t want to bother anyone.>
<Wow. That might just be the most Vesta thing I’ve ever heard you say.> Noriko comments, leaning against the wall facing the bed.
<So, uhm, do you need something or…?> Vesta awkwardly asks.
<You’ve always been around when I needed to talk, even when I didn’t want to admit it. I’m just here to return the favor.>
<I don’t know what you’re talking about.>
<C’mon, Vesta. I’m Null, remember? I know a thing or two about turning into a darker version of yourself, questioning how that affects your life.>
<The thing I turned into when I tapped into the Blood’s power.> Vesta acknowledges, looking away as if she doesn’t want to stare at Noriko while talking about it.
<Torn calls it Soul Fusion. Powerful stuff. From what I understand, it’s supposed to unleash your full potential.>
<You’re thinking about doing it yourself, aren’t you?> Vesta realizes.
<The thought has crossed my mind.>
<I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s excruciating… it’s like feeling your soul tearing itself apart.>
<Been there, done that.> Noriko shrugs.
<You don’t understand. I felt so much anger, so much unfiltered rage… I would’ve burned the universe while laughing gleefully.>
<Hey, I was Abyss, remember? I’m the only one who understand how that feels, and I’m living proof that you can survive yourself.>
<Abyss wasn’t you.>
<Yes, she was. It took me a long time to accept it, but she was a part of me. And that rage you felt was a part of you.>
<How can something so hateful be a part of me!?>
<Well, your family is a bunch of psychotic sociopaths while you’re practically a saint, so it’s really no surprise if that level of awfulness went somewhere. And if you can direct all that power against the right target, you could even turn it into something good.>
<Is that why we’re going into Ares territory?>
<I’m surprised you can tell!> Noriko admits.
Vesta stands up, floating towards the window: the ship is flying next to a very bright nebula.
<I’ve been here before. Space looks pretty much the same everywhere, but if you fly around long enough you can pick up a few clues here and there. You’re not seriously considering attacking Ares straight on, right? I’m not ready for that just yet.>
<No, I’m still working on a plan. Do know know Themiscyra?>
<Yes, of course, that’s the worst planet in the Galaxy. I hope I never have to set foot there ever again.>
<Well, uhm… so, here’s the thing…>
<Oh, Nori, what did you get yourself into this time?> Vesta sighs.
<Turns out that the Demons are being held hostage there. So we’re going to free them, recruit as many as possible, and then we’ll attack Ares. How does that sound?>
<If I say that’s suicidal that’s just going to make you want to go through with it even more…>
<I need a crash course on Amazon society and I need it pretty fast. Apollo’s databases don’t talk much about the Amazons, but they do mention that you used to be their goddess.>
<I was like five thousand years ago and it barely lasted a couple of centuries!>
<It’s better than nothing. C’mon, give me something.>
<Alright.> Vesta sighs again; she’s always reluctant to talk about her past as a ruling goddess, but there’s no denying that she’s even less willing to talk about the Amazons.
<Okay, where do I begin? Their first queen was one of the few daughters of Ares to survive until adulthood. She didn’t like how women were treated under her father’s rule, so she and her followers colonized a planet where men would not be allowed to live.>
<I spot a big logistical problem with that.> Noriko comments, raising an eyebrow.
<That’s why the Amazons were not a big player for a few millennia: they were constantly on the verge of extinction, relying on raids on passing ships and other planets for… well… you get the picture.>
<And Ares was okay with that?>
<He found them amusing. Sometimes he would send male dissenters to Themiscyra instead of killing them.>
<That doesn’t sound too bad…>
<The Amazons kill their partners after sex. Sometimes during sex.>
<Oh. No wonder they’re not exactly popular.>
<The rest of the Galaxy didn’t even know about them until both Artemis and Athena started to arm the Amazons with more and more advanced technology. When they spread beyond the Ares sector, Zeus appointed me as their goddess.>
<I guess you didn’t like the job?>
<I hated it. The Amazons were bloodthirsty savages, no matter how many warships they were able to build. I did make some progress with them… I banned the practice to cut off their right breast, for example. It was supposed to help them with archery, but they had been using blasters for centuries when I met them! They’re one of the most stubborn civilizations I’ve ever met, I swear.>
<Is that all? I was hoping you had a bigger impact, maybe something I could leverage.>
<Well… I suppose I did have an impact in another way. You see, only Ares and Artemis actually liked the Amazons. Every other god else wanted them to die… they don’t marry, so that ruled out Hera, they hate reproduction so that ruled out Demeter and Aphrodite, they were too unpredictable for Athena, and they refused to worship male gods so that excluded all the boys. That’s actually the only reason why I accepted to rule them… I didn’t want them to die.>
<You’re being uncharacteristically vague about this, Vesta. What did you do?>
<I, uhm, I turned them into androids.>
<You did WHAT!?>
<Hephaestus had been working on how to build artificial humans. I figured that if the Amazons were replaced with androids they wouldn’t need to reproduce anymore, so I had Hermes steal the blueprints and I gave them to the Amazons. By now there shouldn’t be any organic Amazons remaining, only…>
<Amazon androids. That’s just great.> Noriko facepalms.
<It was the first planet I ruled by myself, I didn’t know what to do!>
<Well, you could have done anything else. We’re lucky they didn’t invade the rest of the Galaxy with killer robots…>
<I took care of that before I left. The Amazons swore on my name that they would never leave Themiscyra unless authorized by me or Zeus, and that happened only once during the Trojan War.>
<Hmmm. That does sound like something I could use.> Noriko thinks out loud, stroking her chin pensively as her silver eyes shine.
The Dead Zone, 60.000 light-years from Earth
The borders between divine sectors are always in flux, and not only because it’s incredibly difficult to control physical demarcations in space.
Some gods deploy tachyon buoys, mass produced navigational probes that send messages to approaching ships. The Ares-Apollo border has never used them, since the region has always been subject to constant little skirmishes, so every inch of the border has always been disputed.
When Null killed the Celestial Dragon Tiamat, the energy unleashed by the Primordial Goddess of Destruction permanently sterilized everything on a radius of several thousand light-years.
Until recently, this so-called Dead Zone was also a border with the sector ruled by Adrestia.
Now that Apollo is admiring his new conquest and adjusting the luminosity of the stars that are now under his domain to be more to his liking, he can feel something unusual: something is crossing the barrier that marks the outer shell of the Dead Zone.
Nothing organic can survive the immense radiation inside, but now Apollo can see something breaching the wall of destructive energy. It’s a god.
Tiamat’s deadly energies flow harmlessly over the golden cuirass, as the red symbol ♂ on the breastplate shines through like a beacon. The god’s body if fully protected, from the spiked greaves to the red helmet spewing red and black flames from the top; only the bright blue eyes are visible.
<Ares. You are trespassing on my territory.>
<This system belongs to me, you foppish wimp.>
<I took it from Adrestia. It belongs to me now.> Apollo replies, his body now shining with solar radiation.
<Ha! So you think that besting that small time c#nt in battle is something impressive?>
<There was no need for battle. This sector is mine for acclamation>
<I should’ve known you wouldn’t have the stones to handle that child. Your sister was more of a man than you.>
<Be careful, Ares, or…>
<Or what? You’ll shine some pretty lights in my face? Go ahead, little god.> Ares taunts him, holding his black sword made of Degenerate Neutral Matter and looking at Apollo in the eye.
<Try to fight me. Make my day.>
<NOVA!!!> Apollo replies shouting, holding out his hands. In the span of a few seconds he releases the power output of a newborn star: a stellar wind with enough force to vaporize a planet hits Ares at point blank, then proceeds to wreak havoc on the entire system.
The shockwave hits the boundary of the Dead Zone: some of it blows past it, mixing with Tiamat’s energies, and some of it is reflected back.
Apollo doesn’t even feel it: all the energy reaching him is reabsorbed into his body. Luckily this solar system is currently uninhabited, but the blast annihilates everything solid from planetoids to specks of space dust.
Even the Sun God needs to adjust his senses to this cataclysm. He knows full well that even this attack is not enough to kill Ares, but since he can’t absorb heat it should at least knock him out.
<My turn.> he then hears, just as something pierces through his stomach: a sword, hyper-condensed material weighting as much as a planet.
Apollo doesn’t bleed. His wound emits enough photons to outshine a star, but he still feels the pain.
<You… coward…> he says, trying to remove the sword: normally he would just change his body into energy to escape, but the weapon is preventing it. And even Apollo isn’t strong enough to budge it, especially when Ares is still holding it in place.
<Playtime’s over, loser.> the god of war taunts him, grabbing Apollo’s head by his white hair; his face gets uncomfortably close as he looks at him in the eye.
<Father’s not here to protect his bastard children anymore! It’s time for the real heir to the Throne of Olympus to take charge!> he says, pulling the sword out of Apollo and pushing him away. The Sun God is still badly hurt, but he refuses to flee.
<Are you enough of a warrior to fight a REAL god, Apollo?> Ares says, pounding his chest repeatedly as a taunt.
<You’re not a god, you’re a rabid animal. Someone needs to put you in your place for good.> Apollo replies, charging towards Ares while releasing the energy of a supernova.
When the two gods clash, the faster-than-light shockwave proceeds to annihilate anything within a hundred light-years radius.
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