"Wakey wakey, mother dearest!" Ares heard the familiar tingling voice calling her name, her eyes felt heavy, but she fought against the sleep and tried to wake up.

"Come onnn, mama! We are losing a party!" The voice exclaimed again, the owner being a very beautiful woman with long ginger hair that fell in waves to her waist.

Her soft hand took Ares's calloused one as she traced small circles on it, her eyes the color of a starless night, a deep charcoal color that seemed to reflect a dark auburn color whenever the light collided against it.

Her plump lips were painted a deep red, forming a very familiar smirk as she leaned down beside the goddess of war, putting her chin on the warrior's chest while she placed the hand of the older woman on her hair, waiting for the long waited caress gesture that her mom always did to her.

"She'll wake up soon, babe, let's go back, I wasn't finished with you yet" a deep voice muttered, his words made the girl's smirk widen, her eyes sparkling with mischief when she felt the goddess twitching under her.

"Why don't you leave, Apollo? I'm not sure mama will like your presence once she wakes up" the young ginger teased, knowing that the god of the sun would just be enough to fire up her mom.

"I won't appreciate her presence either, but I'm not leaving without you" the blonde man rolled his golden eyes in annoyance, walking closer to the duo who were laying over a silky red bed.

He raised his hand to place it on her arm, only to have a hand wrapped around his neck and a pointy object right on his back, which he was certain that would go straight through his heart in a matter of seconds.

There stood two pair of eyes, like red carnelian gemstones, glaring at him. The goddess of war had stood on a sitting position with her hand wrapped tightly around the god's neck while her daughter had conjured a small dagger which was coated in poison, courtesy of her godmother Persephone, right on his back.

"Mania told you to leave, so why am I still seeing you here?" Ares snarled, tightening her hold on him.

"Don't touch me with your filthy hands!" Apollo hissed, curving his lips in a snarl as he glared at his older sister in disgust.

"I will tell you only one more time, take your hands off my daughter or I'll Cut. Them. Off" Ares hissed, her nails piercing his perfect skin, making the golden blood flow throw the five small moon cuts.

Apollo reluctantly released Mania's arm, scoffing when he heard the teasingly giggle of the daughter of war. A glare making it's way to his sculpted face, showing his hurt ego, before he disappeared from the place.

Daughter and mother shared a look, a loud laughter falling from their plump lips as Mania threw herself on Ares' lap, hugging her close to herself while she hid her head on the warrior's neck.

The goddess of war smiled at the familiarity of her acts, Mania had always been very affectionate with her mother, she was certainly a mommy's girl, many people had died just by looking at the young beauty in the wrong way.

"I was worried about you, mama" Mania mumbled, tightening her hold around Ares' waist. Ares rocked her back and forth, just like she did when Mania was a child, passing her hands softly on her long vibrant red locks.

"I'm okay now, Nia... you don't have to worry about me, sugar cube" Ares' honeyed tone had immediately changed from the hard cold one, showing a different side of herself.

"It's not okay, mama! You were unconscious for days! What if you hadn't woken up? Godmother was almost going crazy trying to find the medicinal herbs to heal you" Mania spoke softly, hot tears trailing down her chin and falling on the goddess' shoulder, making Ares stiffen.

"Days?" The ginger whispered quietly, slowly standing up from the bed while placing Mania back on the ground.

Her blood red irises lowered to her wounded legs and she summoned a golden dagger, thrusting it inside the open wounds in quick movements, not even flinching at the pain.

A smirk formed on her lips when she saw how the wounds started to heal immediately, making Mania look at her with a dumbfounded expression.

"I told you I was fine, I wasn't healing because my body wasn't understanding that the wounds were caused by a weapon, when I cut myself with my own dagger, it immediately noticed the material and started to close by itself" Ares explained, winking at the younger ginger whom was looking at her with shiny eyes and a childish smile on her face.

"Can I do it too? Can I, mama?" Mania asked excitedly, running to catch up with her mother, who was already leaving the room.

"How about we try it when I get back, sugar cube?" Ares proposed, putting some black pants, a black tank top and a long leather coat over it.

They finally entered the weapons room with dark smiles on their faces, it was definitely their favorite place in the palace.

Ares looked around with a cautious look, her eyes spotting the red and gold urumi, a weapon that seemed to be a combination of a sword and a whip, it was one of the hardest to master, even children of the goddess would take around 10 years of practice to be able to fight with one, but it was certainly one of the most dangerous weapons on that room.

Ares took it from its holder, carefully putting it around her waist since its flexibility allowed the weapon to be used as a belt and turned to Mania, who was twirling a dagger in the air.

"You're taking urumi? Aww I wanted to see you fighting with it" Nia whined, pouting at the amused look her mother was giving.

"Ah ah ah, don't give me that look, you're staying with Persephone until I come back, I already have to watch over two big boys, can't have another one running in the fire line.

Mania nodded reluctantly, looking over her shoulder at her godmother, who was already smiling widely at her.

"Bunny! You're finally up! Gave us quite the scare, appearing covered in blood and suddenly collapsing on my garden" Persephone scolded, putting her hands on her waist.

"Ah yes, sorry for bleeding on your flowers, I was trying to paint the white roses red" Ares said in a mocking tone, making Persephone glare at her, twirling a lock of her black hair as a root erupted from the floor and wrapped itself around Ares' foot, pulling the goddess upside down.

Mania's laughter could be heard around the palace when she saw her mother suspended by the root with a very angry look on her face.

"If I were you, I'd start running" Ares hissed, sending one of her daggers towards the root and twirling in the air to land on her feet.

The goddess and her daughter squealed and started to run away, giggling like two children around the halls of the underworld and Ares could swear that their light illuminated even the darkest of the souls of that hell.

The smile on her face, however, was quickly wiped out when she felt a sharp pain on her chest, her eyes widened, before a furious snarl left her lips and she disappeared from the underworld.

Whatever it was that he said, she felt Nik's pain, she felt his heart shattering in pieces, she felt every single piece she had glued back together breaking once again and he would pay for this. After a thousand years, Mikael would finally be in her collection of slaves, who would ever imagine that Mikael would be her little bitch?