Ancient Greece

The young woman stumbled into the temple, her hand wrapped protectively around her slightly protruding stomach as she feel to her knees.

Hera help her she had nowhere to turn to, nowhere else to seek help.

They would kill her if they found her. He would kill her. She'd seen that look in his eyes, the deep sense of betrayal mingled with fury and outrage.

No one did what she had done and survived.

No one betrayed a God and lived.

It was only plain dumb luck mingled with whatever was left over from the protection spell he had placed her under back when things had been good between them had kept her alive to this point.

Her luck couldn't hold out forever.

Soon she would be facing Hades himself and her own personal damnation.

She closed her eyes and prayed again. Hera help me. Please help me.

A flash of blinding light and a caustic voice that made looking up impossible and flinching incredibly easy.

"Why?" The voice was imperious. "After all that you have done, you dare to ask for my help. Why should I help you? Better that I should turn you over to him than to help you."

She wasn't going to cry. Not now. There would be all of eternity for tears when this was done.

"I beg for your help as a woman..." A pause as she gathered her courage. "And as a mother."

Hera stopped. "A mother? You are not a mother unless...." Fury erupted in the temple. "You lie."

She stepped forward. "You know that I do not. I was once your priestess before I was ever his. I cannot lie. Not to you, not here."

"A child...." Hera breathed softly.

"His child."

Hera took in the form in front of her. She was the goddess of woman and childbirth, she could not turn her back now. Hera shook her head. "He will kill you."

"I know. He won't believe that the child is his. Or if he does he will take it and make it's life....."

Hera stopped her. "I know what he is capable of." This child, his child, it was a part of her too. Half god, half mortal. The mortal was right, as angry as he was right now he would either kill the child outright or raise it to be some twisted version of its natural self.

There were enough insane gods and demigods running around without adding more to the list.

She looked at the mortal in front of her and her voice softened. "You will not survive the birth." She knew that the child lay in the wrong position even now.

The mortal nodded. "That is why I need you to protect my child after.....when I cannot."

Hera's mind was racing. "Hiding a child from a god will not be easy, hiding one from him will almost be impossible." Hera's face brightened. "Unless..." She turned back to the mortal. "What you will need to do will not be easy."

"I will do what I need to do to keep my child safe."

Hera nodded "Then come, there is no time to lose."

And with a flash of white light the temple was empty.

Port Charles

Present Day

The Bluff Overlooking the River

Emily Quartermaine sat quietly, her legs tucked in front of her as she watched the sun slowly fade into the night.

How had her life gotten this messed up? It was like there was something out there conspiring against her, preventing her from being happy. Emily Quartermaine was forbidden from finding happiness.

What should have been the best summer ever had turned out to be the worst. She should be happy. She should be ecstatic. Lucky was alive. The four musketeers were back together again. Instead things were falling apart all over for her. She and Juan were over and it was as much her fault as his. She hadn't trusted him when it counted. Of course he hadn't been particularly trustworthy either but that was besides the point. She was supposed to love Juan and be with him for the rest of her life. It wasn't suppose to fall apart like this, not like this. Not without either of them putting up much of a struggle to save something that had once seemed so precious.

Then there was the whole fiasco with Ted. And being blackmailed by Gia. Gia who had caused her to wake up in the middle of the night in terror that someone would find out about Ted and they would all be arrested. Gia's blackmail had caused her agony.

Not that anyone seemed to remember that. Instead of being angry with Gia for what she had done, she was supposed to feel grateful to her. And she hadn't missed the glances between Gia and Nikolas either. Or those between Lucky and Liz. She should be grateful that everything was working out for those two. She should be happy that Nikolas was finding someone who could take his mind off his feelings for Liz. But she wasn't. Instead she was jealous. What she couldn't figure out was whether or not she was jealous of Gia because of Nik or jealous of Liz because of Lucky or just jealous in general that they had someone and she didn't.

What a miserable summer. And the fall didn't look much better. AJ was still drunk. Edward was still overbearing. Jason was still missing. The worst part was that she still had to face her senior year while all of the other musketeers were off living their happy lives.

God Emily Quartermaine you sure are on some kind of pity trip, she thought morosely. Still she supposed she was entitled every once in a while. Most of the time she managed to keep it together and no one knew how hurt she really was, how easily bruised her sense of self was. When others were around she was too busy playing the role they assigned her to let her true self shine through.

It was only at times like this, when she was alone, that allowed her real feelings to come through. She'd cry a little now, but in a few minutes she'd pick herself up and go on with her life pretending that nothing serious was wrong.

Because if she admitted how truly screwed up her life was than she would want no need to get high to cope and she absolutely refused to go there again.

So here she was watching the sunset and moping instead.

All she really wanted was a place to belong and someone to belong to, something she hadn't had since her mother died.

She sighed and was about to get up to head back to the VW bug she had gotten for her 16th birthday last year when she a flash of white light stopped her.

Actually, it wasn't the white light that stopped her but the figure that emerged from it. A tall dark man dressed in black leather with eyes as fierce as a hawk's.

Emily took a step back. This was crazy, men didn't appear out of nowhere. She'd finally let living in the Quartermaine house drive her nuts.

"Don't be afraid." The voice tried to be gentle but Emily got the distinct feeling that gentle wasn't something that this man did easily.

"Who are you?"

"I am Ares. I am your father. And I have come to take you home."

Before Emily could say or do anything, not that she was capable of saying or doing anything, there was another flash of white light and they were both gone.

A few minutes ago Lucky had made his way to the bluff in the hopes of catching Emily alone for a few minutes. He had noticed her depression and he wanted to talk to her, to reassure her that everything was going to be okay.

He arrived just in time to see her disappear.

The Gods Must Be Crazy Part Two

She was going to be sick, Emily thought as soon as it became clear that she was once again capable of rational thought and the world appeared in front of her once again.

Of course it became apparent very fast that this wasn't her world. Not by a long shot.

The appearance of Grecian columns and marble walls made her wish that she hadn't spent her 9th grade World History class either stoned or trying to cope with one Quartermaine disaster after another.

She had a feeling that whatever it was she would have learned in that class would come in pretty handy right about now.

She took a deep breath as she looked around. Oh yeah. This was a temple all right. Not one of the RUINS of temples that she had visited once or twice when she and Monica had taken their jaunt across Italy years earlier. Oh no. This temple wasn't abandoned if the fire burning on the alter or the rich tapestry, some of which even Stefan Cassadine would have envied, were any kind of indication. In fact this temple looked....decidedly lived in.

She shuddered. She really was going to have to speak to Cook about experimenting with new and different kinds of spices.

Okay Em, this is your stand moment of unreality. You've had them before. Remember when Dorman was killed. Or after you tried to fly off the roof. All you need to do is close your eyes and focus and when you open them again all you'll have to deal with is best friends that come back from the dead and the normal PC craziness.

She opened them again and found herself staring straight into the eyes of that man.

Okay, wishing this moment away wasn't going to work. Time to start dealing.

She took a step back. "Who are you?"

The man ignored her question almost as if she hadn't asked it. "Are you okay?" He looked at her consideringly. "You look a little pale."

Emily shot him a scornful glance. "Of course I'm pale you idiot. Why shouldn't I be pale- after all one moment I'm watching the sunset and contemplating my normal screwed up life and the next I'm some place where the concept of warmth in decorating obviously never gained much ground? Pale? Here I am trying to hold onto my sanity and you're worried about whether or not I've gotten enough sun?"

The man grinned. "You are definitely my daughter."

"Okay back up a moment. I hate to disillusion you, but you are not my father. Not that I'm saying you wouldn't make a great father or anything even with the leather fetish, I'm just saying you are not my father. My father is Alan Quartermaine, you know chief of staff at General Hospital. Or maybe this week Monica is the chief of staff. I don't know, I used to try to keep up on that kind of stuff but it changes so often that I've just about given up and..." She stopped. "Okay I'm rambling. I'll stop."

"Alan Quartermaine is not your father."

"All right, technically you're right. But considering I barely knew my real father because he died when I was three...."

"Thomas Bowen was not your father either."

Emily shook her head. "No way. You must be confusing me for someone else. A

Cassadine maybe because they're always changing parents or siblings and stuff like that. I mean take Nikolas...one day Stefan is his father and the next Stavros and the next...well between the two of us I wouldn't be surprised if Luke turns out to be his father...." She stopped again. "Okay this time the rambling stops."

"I make you nervous."

"Of course you make me nervous. I mean you blink or something like that and the world disappears and then...." She eyed him narrowly. "You aren't exactly Walter Cronkite. Or even my old teddy bear." She shivered slightly muttering under her breath. "I really wish Mr. Bear was here now."

She blinked as the teddy bear, which had been sitting on top of her bed, suddenly appeared in her arms.

She flinched. "I really wish you hadn't done that."

"You wanted the ...what did you call it- teddy bear, did you not?"

"Yeah but I really didn't need concrete proof that any of this was real and not just a figment of my imagination...." Emily took another deep breath. "Okay tell me again who you are."

"I am Ares, god of war. And I am your father."

"Right. I thought that was what you said." Another deep breath, she was never going to take shallow breaths again. Ever. "I guess the being a god thing would explain the temple and the whole beam me up Scotty without transporters thing....but how can you be my dad."

Ares smiled. He'd been afraid that she would be a weak, helpless thing. He should have known better. "You were adopted."

"I know that. I was there...."

"No, before that." Ares gestured and a chaise lounge appeared behind them. "After five years of trying almost anything available to get pregnant, Paige Bowen had been told that she could not have children. She and her husband were devastated. Paige became depressed, almost suicidal. One day she found a child, a newborn infant on her doorstep. She took it as a sign from God." Ares shrugged. "She was almost right. They were afraid to turn the baby into the authorities. Paige had be been hospitalized the month before for depression and they were sure the authorities would not let them keep the baby. Thomas Bowen was a parole officer, he knew where to get forged documents from and he had a few favors to call in. Days after they found the baby, Thomas and Paige Bowen, along with their newborn daughter Emily, moved to a small remote town in Arizona." Ares finished the story that Hera had told him softly as he watched his daughter's reactions.

Emily sat there stunned and loss. Her mother, her real mother, had lied to her. She had grown used to the Quartermaines lying to her but to know that Paige lied to her...

"She didn't really. Or at least not consciously." Ares offered, unsure of why he felt the need to comfort this child of his. He had never felt the need to comfort any of his other children, God or demigod. "I think Paige convinced herself that you were really her child and in time the truth of your arrival, was simply forgotten."

Emily stared at him in shock. "You can read my mind."

Ares nodded uneasily.

"Oh great, it's bad enough having to deal with Monica and Alan reading my diary but a father who can read my mind...." Emily sighed. "I think my teenage years just got a little more difficult and that is saying a lot."

"Then you believe that I am your father?"

"I guess I have no choices, do I?"

Ares looked at her consideringly. "You sound sad?" None of his other children had ever been sad to be his.

"I'm not. I mean I'm sure that you're a great dad and Christmas will definitely be interesting now it's just that..." Emily stood up and walked over to stare at one of the tapestries, gently fingering it. "It's just that all of these years I've taken refuge in the fact that Quartermaines might be crazy but at least my real parents were normal and now..." She shook her head again as if to clear her thoughts. "Never mind. Look, you've given me a lot to think about and that's what I would really like to do is just think for a while so if you don't mind zapping me back home I would really appreciate it."

"I can't."

"Can't what? You're a god, right? I didn't think the word can't is in your vocabulary."

Ares nodded. "All right. I won't send you home. It's too dangerous."

"Look, the Quartermaines yell a lot but basically that's all they do. Port Charles is perfectly safe." He stared at her. "Okay, almost perfectly safe. Well at least moderately safe."

"It's not that. Look, if you were just a regular demigod it would be one thing but...."

"Wait. A what?"

"A demigod. Someone who is half god and half mortal."

"So my real real mother wasn't a Goddess...." Emily almost smiled at the forbidding God. "Slumming, were you?"

"I wasn't slumming and" He stopped at her look. "That is not important. The important thing is that as a demigod you have certain powers and..."

"Powers? Like Mighty Morphin Power Ranger Powers?" At Ares puzzled look, Emily shrugged. "Forget it. What exactly do you mean by powers? Can I do the zap and you're there thing?"

"No, those powers belong only to full gods. Your power is somewhat different. Demigods take on an aspect of their parentage. I am the God of War, therefore your power is related to me.

"Or goody, I'm the Goddess of Police Conflicts?" At his further puzzled look, Emily shook her head yet again. "You really need cable man. History Channel. CNN. Nickelodeon. Something."

"Anyway, your power is the ability to stop things from working."

Emily burst out laughing almost hysterically. "Oh my God," she punctuated each word with gasps of air. "I'm the goddess of dysfunctionality?"

Ares stared at her. "It really is a wonderful power. One thought from you and a car will break down or a train run off a track or...."

"I get the point and you don't have to worry. I have no plans to stop anything so can I please go home now?"

"There's more."

"There's always more." Emily complained. "Whatever it is can it wait. I think I'm coming down with a migraine and since I'm pretty sure there are no medicine cabinets around here and I'm almost sure there are no bathrooms around here I really just want to go home and ...."

"You haven't told her yet, have you daddy dearest?" A voice broke into their conversation. "Don't you think my newest little sister deserves to know that some power crazed half-demon wants to use her body as a vessel for the kind of power that can destroy Olympus?"

It was the wings, Emily decided later that did it. She could handle the fact that the man in front of her was drop dead gorgeous, almost radiant, but she had a little trouble coping when she realized that he had a pair of beautiful white wings not ATTACHED to his back but GROWING out of his back.

So she did the only thing she could under the circumstances.

She fainted.

Back on earth

Lucky pounded on the door to Nikolas's cottage frantically. "Nik! Nik! Open up!"

A few minutes later, Nikolas opened up.

"Lucky? What's wrong?"

"It's Emily. She disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Nikolas reached for his cell phone. "Hang on I'll call my uncle and have his security people check the airport and buses. You and I will check all the places she might have gone. You should probably call Sonny and see...."

"No, wait you don't get it. She didn't disappear. SHE DISAPPEARED."

Nikolas looked at his half brother in confusion. "Lucky what do you mean...."

"I mean she disappeared. You know in thin air, one minute she was there and the next she was gone. Blink. Poof. No Emily."

"Lucky calm down. People don't disappear. I mean sure sometimes one's grandmother gets a little carried away and locks them in a mental hospital but people, or at least most people, don't disappear." Mentally Nikolas was already making plans to check Lucky in the psych wing at GH, something they probably should have done the minute they suspected he was brainwashed. Maybe he could find a good deprogrammer listed in the yellow pages.....

Lucky clenched his jaw, something he was really getting good at since his return to Port Charles. "I know what I saw. Emily disappeared. Only she wasn't alone, there was this guy with her. Tall, dark, all dressed in this weird leather that looked like some kind of ancient armor and..."

Nikolas's eyes lit up. "Wait a minute." He headed over to the bookshelf and drew out an old and musty text. Laying it carefully on the table, he flipped through the pages.

"What is that book?"

"It's a book of ancient Greek legends and myths."

Lucky looked at the illustrations. "They don't look like the guys in togas we studied in school."

"They aren't. The images of the ancient gods that you are familiar are based on the imagination of some 19th century writer. This book is older than that, I think it dates to late 17th century, before the myths of ancient Greece were anglicized."

"So tell me why looking at a book of gods that never really existed is going to help us find out why and how Emily disappeared." Lucky asked impatiently.

"I had this tutor," Nikolas spoke as if Lucky hadn't. "He used to make me study everything there was to know about Greek history, especially the ancient myths and legends."

b

"Uhh Nik, Emily gone remember. Must find Emily. Come on." And they think I'm brainwashed, Lucky scowled.

"Here it is." Nikolas opened it up to a page towards the back. "Check that out."

Lucky stared. "That's him. That's who took Emily." He stared at Nikolas in shock "This is crazy. Ares. The god of war kidnapped Emily. He doesn't exist. He isn't real."

"I know, even for Port Charles this weird."

"And something tells me its about to get even weirder."

To be continued.

Olympus

Ares scowled at Cupid as he looked at his daughter's prone form. "I don't supposed you could have tried to be a bit more tactful." A fan materialized in his hand and he began waving it back and forth. "I would have imagined that whole debaucle with Psyche would have taught you to be careful of what you say."

Cupid bit into the apple he was holding as his wings moved gently. "No way Old Man. God of love here, not tact. Besides she had to know sooner or later, right." He took another bite. "Besides aren't you the one whose always going on and on about how the direct approach is the best approach."

"Ten thousand years of lectures and you decide to start listening to me now?"

"Better late than never Old Man."

Ares thundered. "And would you please stop calling me Old Man?"

"Oh come on unc," A new voice whined as another figure entered the temple. Strife smiled wickedly. "You have to admit that Old Man is a lot better than that valley girl stuff he was sprouting a few years ago. I swear if I had had to listen to him tell me how things were totally tubular and completely awesome one more time I would have been tempted to pluck every one of those little feathers out one by one myself."

"And it's so good to see you too cuz," Cupid picked up a pile of grapes. "Remind me to tell Hades that its always better if the dead remain dead."

"Please, if the dead remained dead what would happen to that soap opera you watch almost every day."

"I don't watch it." Cupid defended

himself against his darker cousin. "I tape it and then fast forward through most of it." He stuck out his tongue. "At least I don't spend my days playing those stupid video games."

Strife grinned unrepetently. "What else is there for the God of Mischief to do?"

"Last time I checked you were having a lot of fun with those presidential elections."

"You mean like making sure the mike was on that everyone thought was off." Strife took the grapes out of Cupid's grasp and began to down them one by one. "That's child's play. Besides with Gore and Bush as the candidates they don't really need me around to create trouble." He looked down at the young girl stretched out on the chaise lounge. "So, this is my new little cousin."

"Back off Strife." Ares snarled. "The last thing she needs is you hanging around."

"Uncle you wound me. After all of these centuries I would have thought we bonded better than that." An usually solemn look crossed his face. "Besides if what grandfather told me is true, she's going to need all of us."

Whatever reply Ares was going to make to that statement was lost as Emily began to stir.

"Emily?" Ares' voice was surprisingly gentle and both Cupid and Strife stared at the god of war in surprise. "Wake up. We need you to wake up."

"Just as long as you promise me that my clothes are on and there is no dead body next to me," Emily muttered as she opened her eyes. She looked around the temple and blinked. "It wasn't a dream."

"Nope. A nightmare maybe, but not a dream." Strife spoke up, earning himself yet another glare from Ares.

Emily stared straight at the younger god with the pale skin, dark hair, and outfit that you might buy at a leather bondage shop and shook her head. "Didn't anyone tell you that Goth is out this year?"

Strife looked momentarily afronted and Cupid smirked. Strife again stuck his tongue out at the god of love and was about to say something devastatingly witty when Ares waved his hand and both Cupid and Strife found their mouths zippered and their bodies frozen. Literally.

Emily giggled. "You have to show me how to do that." She thought of trying that trick on her grandfather and smiled shyly. "Please."

Ares found himself returning that smile. "There is a lot more that I hope to show you." He paused. "Although you will have to be patient, I have never had a daughter before."

"That's okay," Emily sat up. "Because I've never had a god of war for a father before."

Emily looked up at the two younger gods frozen in ice.

"Who are they?" She pointed to Cupid. "Is he...who I think he is?"

Ares nodded. "Probably."

Emily stared at the younger god in awe. Even encased in solid ice he was cuter than the cutest Backstreet Boy. "I thought he was supposed to be a little cherub with a bow and arrow."

Ares laughed. "Not quite."

"And who is he?" She pointed to the other one.

"Strife, god of Mischief."

"God of Mischief? I bet he knows Carly. Come to think of it, he probably knows half of Port Charles on a first name basis." She touched the ice softly. "Are they my family?"

Ares hesitated, how do you explain the complicated family tree of Mt. Olympus to a human? Or in this case a demigod. "All of the gods are related to one degree or another. Cupid is my...son which makes him your half brother. Strife is my nephew and thus your cousin." He paused. "Such as they are."

With a wave of his hand, Cupid and Strife were free from the ice and unzipped.

Both younger Gods glared at Ares, but neither spoke as Emily looked up at them.

"I don't get it. How....I mean who..."

"Coherent little thing isn't she?" Strife muttered to Cupid who nodded. Emily stared at the two men. She remembered what Ares had told her earlier and had a sudden thought. Grinning, she concentrated on Strife.

And the god of mischief suddenly found himself unable to speak. Not one sound came out of his vocal cords. Nothing except a raspy and decidedly pathetic noise.

Cupid stared at his father as Strife tried

to get his voice to work. "What was that for?"

"It wasn't him." Emily grinned. "It was me." She leaned over and casually picked up a grape from the platter on the alter. "All I had to do was concentrate and his vocal cords no longer work. This is great, I can't wait to try this power of mine out back in Port Charles. Grandfather starts to lecture me- boom no vocal cords. Or maybe AJ's Jag can break down. Or Alan's computer. Or better yet, the computer system at the high school. Or maybe the plumbing." She stopped when she realized that all three immortals were staring at her. She sighed heavily. "Don't tell me....all of this has to remain a secret and no one can ever know about who my father really is so know trying to make the disfunctional town of Port Charles anymore disfunctional than it already is. If that was even possible I mean."

Ares nodded. "No mortal can know the truth about who you are. Not today. Once when the Gods were more readily accepted and believed in it would have been possible to be open about your heritage but now...."

"People would be more likely to think that I'm even more of a freak than they already think me." Emily finished sadly.

Cupid frowned. As much as he had teased her, there was something about the young girl that was somehow bringing out his own protective instincts. "You're not a freak."

"Maybe not, but let's not pretend that I'm anything close to normal either. I mean even before" she waved her hand to indicate the temple "this, everything was screwed up." She shivered slightly, for a moment lost in memories. "The kids at school, they say things you know. They don't think I hear, but I do. Especially this one cheerleader Madison....."

Cupid made a mental note to track down this Madison and shoot her an arrow that would cause her to fall in love with a pig. Naw, pigs were too cute. A wild boar. That would work.....

He looked up when he realized that Emily had stopped.

Ares shook his head. "You are welcome to stay here with me on Olympus."

Cupid's eyes widened, maybe Ares was getting soft in his old age. He flinched as the God of War glared at him. Then again maybe not.

Emily smiled. "I can't stay. As much as I sometimes hate my life, it's not that bad all of the time. I....I love the Quartermaines I guess as much as they drive me crazy. Especially grandmother. And then there's Lucky. I just got him back as a friend a few months ago. And Nikolas although I don't know if you'd call us friends but I...I'd miss him. I'd miss them all." She looked at him. "But I can come visit. I mean you can come get me and do that flashy thing and bring me back here for a visit. Or you can come see me in Port Charles. We have Cassadines and mob bosses and cooporate raiders I don't think anyone would notice a God of War."

Ares looked sad. "It's not that simple." He sat next to Emily on the divan. "I don't know if you can go back."

Emily looked at Ares and noted the solemn demeanor of the other two Gods. Even Strife was silent and considering that Emily's affects on his vocal chords had worn off, that was saying something.

"There is someone who if they knew about you would use to get to me. To destroy me."

"How? You're a god right. What can hurt a god?"

"Not much. But there are ways." Ares shrugged. "Gods can be killed."

Strife paled.

"And reborn." Ares continued. "If that was all there is I would take my chances but this is....worse."

"Tell me."

"A long time ago, the Gods made an enemy of a mortal named Kyn'an. He was a sorcerer, a master of the darkest of the dark arts. He had conquered the living flame and had more power than any other in the mortal realm, but that wasn't enough for him. He was determined to be immortal, to be a God. One day he used his magik to enter Olympus and he stole Ambrosia, the food from which Gods receive their immortality. He became immortal that day. But he was also discovered by Zeus and imprisoned in tomb of solid rock for eternity."

"Why didn't Zeus just kill him?"

Ares shrugged. "Your grandfather likes to grandstand."

"Oh great another one."

Ares continued. "Unfortunately the time locked away just made Kyn'an stronger and as could have been predicted, one day he escaped. Where he went, no one knew but around 17 years ago rumours of Kyn'an began to resurface."

"17 years ago.....that would have been..."

"When you were born. I know. This next part is difficult to explain. You see Kyn'an knew that he could not defeat the Gods but he had come up with a way where he would not need to defeat the Gods. He would simply make sure that they never existed."

"How?"

"He would use you."

"Me?"

Ares nodded. "You see little one, for Kyn'an's plan to work he needs to go back to the beginning of time to stop the Gods from being created. Only mortal things, and Kyn'an was once mortal, can not move through time's barriers without being destroyed. Each mortal belongs to their own time and their own place. For Kyn'an to go back in his own body to a time and a place that was not his own would be suicidal. What he needs is a body that is not tied to a specific time or place. A mortal, or in your case a half-mortal, who was born outside of time and outside of space."

Emily shook her head. "I don't get it."

"When your mother, your real mother, discovered that she was pregnant she believed that I would kill her and with her her unborn child. She had betrayed me you see and taken another lover."

"Would you have killed her?"

Ares grimaced. "Probably. I was ....considerably more hot headed in those days. Anyway your mother knew that her child was mine and not her other lover's so she went to Hera for protection. My mother has little tolerance for infidelity, due I believe to my father's liking for it, and I think she would have not sheltered your mother if it were not for the fact that your mother was once Hera's priestess and some vestige of that old loyalty still remained. Plus Hera is the goddess of childbirth and she would not have wanted an innocent child hurt. So she decided to hide your mother from me in the only place where she knew that I would not, could not, find her. She took your mother out of time itself. And when you were born, Hera took you into the future and left you where she knew you would be loved and protected."

"And my real mother."

"Died in childbirth. Many woman did in those days. Too many."

"So because I was born out of time...."

"You belong to no specific time which

means that your body at least could move through time."

"And this Kyn'an could take over my body and use it to travel back through time and make sure..."

"That the Gods of Olympus never existed." Banked violence burned in Ares' eyes. "And there is reason to believe that a God or Goddess may be helping Kyn'an, seeing the mage as a way to eliminate the competition so to speak."

Emily shivered and Strife found himself reaching up to place an arm around her shoulder. "Don't worry cuz. Nothing will happen to you."

Emily wasn't listening. Instead she stared at Ares. "You have to kill me don't you?"

The temple shook with the God of War's anger. "No one is going to hurt you."

"But it's the only way. I mean it's

okay..."

Emily found her lips zipped just a Strife and Cupid's had been earlier.

"You will never talk that way again. We are going to find Kyn'an and we are going to kill the bastard." Ares glared at his newly found daughter. "Do you understand me?"

Emily nodded slowly and the zipper disappeared.

Ares anger mellowed slightly as he continued to consider the problem at hand. "In the mean time, since we are not sure which of the Gods might be helping Kyn'an and it's not safe for you to stay here, it might be best if you returned home to Port Charles."

"But," Ares waved and Cupid and Strife found themselves dressed in normal street clothes, no leather, no feathers, no nothing... "Not alone."

Cupid stared at Ares in horror as comprehension dawned.

"You don't mean."

"That's exactly what I mean." Ares glowered at the two younger Gods. "Emily will return to Port Charles and the two of you," he pointed at Strife and Cupid "will go with her to protect her."

Emily could almost taste the impending doom. Who, she wondered, was going to protect Port Charles from Cupid and Strife?

Next chapter:

Lucky and Nikolas want some answers from Emily as the Gods of Love and Mischief arrive in Port Charles.