((Immediately follows Call to Arms.))

Traveling by god was not something that came naturally to anyone born on the mortal plane. Ayden didn't have time to be surprised by the sudden disappearance around her of everything familiar. She only just acknowledged that she was being taken somewhere before her stomach attempted to turn itself inside out in protest at the violence of this method of travel. Thus, when Ares deposited her, she was pale, quick to crouch down and drop her head between her knees. She'd rather show this kind of weakness than faint in front of him. "What the hell?"

"On the contrary, there is nothing hellish about this place," he told her, chivalrous enough to offer her a hand to pull her to her feet. They were definitely no longer at Stanford, but were standing in the middle of a deep forest, birds chirping in the trees high above them. The place had a primordial feel to it, though it did, in fact, exist in her own time in a different part of the world. A warm breeze stirred the trees, ferns and moss and grasses softening the ground beneath her feet.

More in control of her own stomach than any normal college girl had a right to be, Ayden gratefully accepted the hand offered to her as she pushed herself to her feet, looking around. The place was beautiful, yes, but it was also nowhere near home. "What did you do with Sam and Hope?" she asked, her head snapping around to level a warning look on the Olympian before her.

"Nothing," he replied. "They are where we left them, safe and sound. It is you and I who have traveled afar. What do you think of this place?" he asked, spreading his arms. "It's lovely, isn't it' Peaceful." Who would have thought the God of War was at all interested in peace"

Despite her reservations, Ayden was inclined to trust him, after a moment of making sure she wasn't just trusting his word because he was cute. There was a strong sense of honor radiating off him, though she was pretty sure he could be ruthless if he chose to be. He was War. Conceding to his appreciation of the forest around them, she turned to take a better look herself, taking a chance as her exposed back faced him, closing her eyes to breathe in the heavy, timeless air of the place. She found herself smiling as she opened her eyes once again, understanding a little of why he might like such a place. "It's beautiful," she agreed softly. "Where are we?"

"The Amazon," he replied. "The most beautiful place on Earth." A small frown appeared on his face. "You should have seen it before it was tainted by man." There was a hint of malice in his voice at his statement. "There are some who believe mankind to be a scourge upon the Earth." He said nothing more, waiting for her reaction, as if he was testing her.

She turned to face him, one brow raised as she met the challenge head on. "Without mankind, you and yours would have no purpose and no meaning," she pointed out. "You can't have war without people to fight it." She shrugged, her hands falling to the hem of her sweater to raise it up and over her head, not needing the warm layer in the heavy, dew-filled heat of the Amazon forest. "For what it's worth, though ....I think it's disgusting what we've allowed to happen to the Earth, and I'm not the only one. It might be too late, but a lot of people feel the responsibility for the damage we've caused over the centuries."

His eyes tracked the removal of her sweater, raking over her form now that she had revealed more of the womanly curves that had laid hidden beneath that covering. He had not taken a mortal lover in many centuries, and he could not deny she was both attractive and tempting, but first things first. "Tell me more of this trouble you are having with the Fates," he told her.

She frowned thoughtfully, tying her sweater about her hips as she considered where to start, forcing her mind onto the whole point of this discussion rather than inward musings on particularly fine triceps and biceps, and a cocky smirk she wanted to bite, just to see what would happen. "Well, I would say it's complicated, but I figure you're a god, you can follow time travel," she shrugged, moving to sit herself down on the moss-grown curve of a tree that had long since fallen. "This could take a while."

"Your companions are not of this time. They do not belong here," he pointed out, admitting that he knew something of time travel, though it was not something that he had ever made use of. "I have time," he said, choosing to remain standing, though he took an easy lean against a nearby tree, crossing his arms against his chest, silently giving her his leave to continue.

She studied him for a moment, some part of her knowing that to lie would be to lose any chance of having him ally himself with them at all. Still, it was a lot to risk sharing with someone who hadn't picked sides yet. "They're my brother's children," she said with a low sigh. "And they came back to deal with the Fates before the Fates destroy their family, and any hope of a ceasefire between Zeus and Poseidon." She cleared her throat and began to speak, trying to explain as best she could the future as it had been told to her by Sam and Hope, the plan that Hades no doubt already had in place for the event of his death, the decision to hunt the Fates here and now ....and the vision she had received only a couple of hours before detailing her death, and the deaths of people she loved dearly.

By the time she was done, Ayden felt stretched, as though she had shared a part of herself, finally raising her eyes to meet those of Ares as he watched her. The only thing she hadn't told him was the news she had only recently been given herself - that, somehow, he was a part of the family the children had come back to save. "So there it is," she said finally, scratching at the edge of the bandage on her arm. "You're our first port of call, the first name that they came up with. No harm in trying, right?"

He listened closely and carefully to her story, moved by the passion with which she told it and that which she felt for her loved ones. "That is all I am to you then" Your first port of call. And if I say no, you will call on someone else. Athena, perhaps?" he asked, digging deeper. He could sense that there was more to her story than she was saying, but he could only guess what it might be.

"Well, uh ....well, no, it's not all," she admitted, suddenly feeling very awkward, exposed and vulnerable beneath his gaze. She'd never had an instant attraction to anyone, and even when Sam and Hope had shared that little tidbit of information about why they should call Ares, she'd been wary of believing them. But here and now, alone with the Olympian, she thought she could see the why, if not the how. "Uh ....well ..." Biting her lip, she tore her eyes away from his, her hands fidgeting restlessly together between her knees as she fixed her gaze onto the forest floor. "Apparently, in the time Sam and Hope came from, we ....you and me, that is ....we're, uh ..." She cleared her throat, took a deep breath, and let it come out in a rush, her cheeks lighting up with a vibrant blush. "We're lovers."

He wasn't as skilled a lover as Apollo or Eros or even Zeus. He was a warrior, but deep inside that warrior's heart was a need and a desire to be loved and cherished just as any other being, mortal or immortal, and though there was no certainty that any affection would grow between them in the years to come, the seed had been planted. He kissed her with the same passion with which he fought his battles, sensing the desire that kiss awakened in her and pleased that she reacted favorably to his show of affection. He did not wish to force himself on her or to make things unpleasant, but he would see to it that she kept her word, just as he would keep his.

She was breathless, shaking, by the time he drew back from her, clinging to him as she felt her knees buckle a little. Powerful though that kiss had been, Ayden had enough pride not to want Ares to know for a fact that he had a kiss that could knock her on her *ss. It seemed to take an age for her to open her eyes, a little wild, a little astonished, and covering it all, the unmistakeable glint of desire. No, it wasn't love at first sight, but Ares had found the chink in her armor with ease. She had never wanted anyone, and never been desired by anyone. It was the perfect beginning. "Goodness," she managed after a long moment of simply gazing up at him. "If I wasn't on a schedule, I'd ask you to do that again."

Her reaction didn't surprise him overly much. It was hard for a mortal woman to resist the charms of an Olympian, especially when he was the son of Zeus and he knew what he wanted. He slid an arm around her waist, in part to hold her up and in part to pull her closer. He was close enough that she could see him very clearly and recognize the smoky, dark desire reflected in his own eyes. He had put his mark on her with that kiss, invisible though it was to mortals. It marked her as belonging to him, and would advertise that fact to anyone who was capable of seeing it.

It seemed to take a long moment to realize that she was still staring up at him, her hand curled to the crook of his neck and shoulder. It wasn't just the kiss clouding her mind now; it was the closeness, the confident loop of his arm about her waist, the look in his eyes, the way she felt just being that close to him. It was all a part of the spell a god could cast over a mortal, and it must have been a test, too. Would she lose herself to that spell, or would she retain her focus" The stray thought of her nephew and niece crossed her mind, and Ayden actually jumped, startling herself out of her dreamy-eyed adoration of the man holding her close. Clearing her throat, she blushed vividly once more, her hand slipping from his neck to his chest. "Uh ....so what happens now?" she asked, trying to claw back a little dignity from wherever it had disappeared to.

Even for a god, he seemed a little lost in the moment himself. He had just given her his favor and that same favor could both protect her and put her in danger, if the wrong parties were to find out. It was something neither would be able to keep secret for long, but there was a bonus. "Now I take you back. All you need do is call me, and I will come, wherever you are." And with that said, she found herself almost instantaneously transported back to the lecture room, where Hope and Sam were still waiting. But Ares had either disappeared or was no longer visible to their mortal eyes.

This time, the sense of dislocation wasn't quite so bad, but Ayden still ended up stumbling forward and falling heavily onto her knees without him there to hold her up. She couldn't have said how long she was gone for, but she'd been delivered back exactly where she had left.

Hope sprang up from where she had been lounging, hurrying to help the other woman to her feet, calling for her brother. "Sam, she's back!"

Sam didn't look like he'd taken Ayden's disappearance quite as casually as his sister. He'd been pacing back and forth ever since she'd left, worried that he'd made the wrong decision. He spun around at Hope's exclamation to find Hope helping Ayden to her feet, where she'd reappeared as if out of nowhere. "Where the hell have you been?" he asked as he started toward them both.

"Uh ....the Amazon, apparently," Ayden told him, surprisingly calm given the events of the past hour or so. She shivered in the cool air of the lecture hall, untucking her sweater from her waist to pull it on over her head. "You could have warned me about him, you know."

"The Amazon!" Sam echoed, clearly as surprised to hear it as Ayden was to have found herself there. "The hell were you doing there?" he continued, clearly upset, his calm exterior shattered by her sudden disappearance. "Warn you....About what?" he asked, somewhat annoyed with her question. He'd given her a choice, and she'd agreed to call on Ares, rather than ask Dean for help. "What happened?" he asked, a little calmer, his curiosity overcoming his annoyance.

"Apparently he wanted to talk in private," Ayden said with a shrug, hoping like hell she wasn't still wearing those ridiculous puppy-love eyes she was certain she'd had on when Ares had transported her. "Never mind." She shook her head briefly. "He's in. When we need him, I just have to call."

Hope's brow rose as she glanced at her brother. As fond as she was of the God of War, she did know he wouldn't just have agreed like that without expecting something in return. The question was, what had Ayden agreed to"

"What happened, Ayden?" Sam pressed her further as he came to a halt in front of her. She had changed somehow, it seemed, in only the matter of a few minutes. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were brighter than he'd ever seen them - in this time, anyway. He narrowed his eyes as he leaned in to take a closer look at her, pushing her hair away from her face as though he might find some evidence of what had transpired between them. "You didn't just talk, did you?"

Looking up at the young man who was going to be born in just a few months' time, Ayden found herself in the unenviable position of having to choose between telling the truth, or telling most of the truth. "His method of sealing the deal was not what I expected, that's all," she told Sam, not wanting to share exactly what she had agreed to. Not yet. "I was expecting blood, I got a kiss. And-and he's quite good at it."

Hope snickered behind Sam. Quite good was mild compared with some of the things she'd heard the Ayden of the future come out with to describe Ares' kisses.

Sam did not challenge this information. In fact, after taking a moment to let it sink in, a wide smile crossed his face. "He kissed you?" he echoed. Who would have predicted that the God of War could be tamed by a mere mortal's kiss" But then, Ayden was no mere mortal - she was a Winchester, the daughter of John and the sister of Sam and Dean. She came from a long line of hunters, of warriors who waged battle against the evil and darkness that plagued the world. Who better to take as a lover" There was no one more worthy than her. He laughed in relief, knowing if she was in, that was half the battle, and who was to say it hadn't happened this way the first time?

"Laugh it up, kiddo." Ayden poked him in the stomach for the smile, though she had a feeling she was getting off lightly if the choked snickering from his little sister was anything to go by. "Anyway, we have a god on board," she said then, straightening up. "So now we need to find a Fate and make a plan. And I gotta lock this place up before the librarian comes by and finds us locked inside."

"No..." Sam countered, with that grin so like his father's still plastered on his face. "Now we need to get some breakfast. I think better on a full stomach." Part one of their plan had been a success. They had an Olympian God on board - the God of War, no less - but Sam had a feeling in his gut that Ares had been the easy part and that the worst was yet to come.

"I'm with him," Hope offered up, her grin a perfect match for her brother's. "Breakfast and call Dad so he doesn't freak out at the whole we haven't called thing."

Ayden glanced between them, unable to keep a straight face under those matching grins. She sighed, rolling her eyes as her own lips parted in a smile. "Fine, we'll eat first," she conceded, shooing them toward the steps up to the door. "And you can tell me all about Ares. I've got a feeling I'm gonna need to know."

"Sounds like a plan," Sam agreed, flashing a knowing grin at his sister. Whether Ayden knew it or not, he was pretty sure they'd just played matchmaker for his aunt and a Greek God. What his father had to say about it was another story, but Sam knew from experience that he'd come around to accepting Ares eventually, just as everyone else had.

"Okay, then. Out!" Regaining a little control of the situation, Ayden shooed the pair of them out of the lecture hall, pausing as she turned the lights off to look down at the floor space, her mind on the bargain she had made, the unexpected kiss that had sweetened the deal. It didn't matter, not yet. What mattered right now was winning this round and safe-guarding the future for Sam and Hope, and their little brother. She could do that. She just couldn't help hoping that Dean never found out.

((Let's hope Dean appreciates what his little sister just did for their family! :grin: Not that she's going to mind for long, right' Humungus thanks to the God of War and company!))