"Ancients Among Us part i" by Gabrielle ´Ali´ Miles

     The girl sat on the top of the temple, the moonlight reflecting off her hair. Young, modern, she looked quite out of place among the ruins of the ancient Polis. Of course, Athens was a busy night spot, a place where many of the tourists and townies never slept. The city bustled beneath her, going almost un-noticed. Her eyes were turned heavenward, watching the sky intently, not seeming to hear the ethereal figure walking up behind her. He was muscular, tanned, with fiery red hair and hard, chisled features. The girl glanced over her shoulder briefly, letting a sigh escape her lightly parted lips.
"Lovely night, isn't it, Ares?" He nodded, kneeling behind her and placing a hand on her shoulder lightly. His expression was one of concern, which seemed to humor the girl even as she turned her attention again towards the heavens.
"Perhaps you should not be here, Athena.. One can never tell who might visit the ruins at night. And it would look odd, a young woman perched atop a great temple of Athena..." She smiled, a little sadly, and rested her cheek against the back of his hand. The only-slightly-older man sat, then, pulling her up onto his lap and letting her lean against him, toying with the obsidian strands of short hair falling around her face, cut short for the first time in millenia.

     "It would, wouldn't it? I don't look the part anymore, you know. And the foolish guards would probably try to throw me out, take me off my own place of worship...No one even leaves small things anymore. Towards the end, there were still trinkets, small things left in honour of a dying religion. Now, the tourists come and try to remove pieces of the crumbling stone, or pocket one of the figurines left. Disgraceful, Ares...disgraceful." He simply nodded, wrapping his arms around her slender form as she sighed. "I have turned myself into what everyone else can handle seeing. No longer the regal, hardened Goddess that the first Greeks knew, but a teenager, practically. I cut my long hair, dyed it as black as Serene's night. I got the modern piercings after I changed my features...What else can I do, Ares? I don't want to be like this...I don't want the world to be like this!" Tears trickled from her dark eyes, glistening against her cheeks in the pale glow of the moon.
"Your plane will be leaving soon, Athena...And we must go before anyone notices us here. It would not be a pleasant thing to explain to the guards why we perch atop an ancient temple. And a worse thing to have to explain how we got up here...But...We will stay a little longer. America isn't your favorite, I know. But it is safe, there, where you are unknown. We will be fine, Athena...The world cannot deny us forever...If only Zeus would return, from wherever he may have gone. They would believe then, 'Thena. They would have no other choice..." He shook his head and laid it against hers gently, cradling her in his arms tenderly. "Even Aphrodite has changed. No one would recognize her, now...Even I had trouble. The world cannot be changed all at once, dear. It is the way things have to be."

     Athena nodded again, closing her eyes against the steady flow of tears. "I wish things were as easy as you make them seem, Ares. It is hard to....wait. Wait, and endlessly so, it seems. I almost believe that Hermes was right. I can almost believe that the Christian God exiled our Zeus...But that cannot be, because we are still here. Without worshippers, and without power...but here." Ares nodded, letting his fiery aura wrap around them both as she spoke, remaining silent. The two began to fade, her words growing more and more quiet as they did so, her last little more than a whisper. The night watchman approached the ruins of the Temple quietly, shining his flashlight up to the roof, where the remnants of the crest were. An olive branch and and owl were the only things that looked back at him, and he shook his head lightly, returning to the guardhouse a few moments later. Another man sat in a tilted back chair, reading a magazine.
"Still hearing things, Frank?"
"I'm NOT hearing things! There were people up there!"
"Did you SEE any people, Frank?"
"...No. But they were there. I could hear them talking, and something triggered the sensor."
"Anything can trigger that sensor, Frank. You know that. Pretty soon, you're gonna start telling me that the old Gods themselves have come to visit. Wouldn't that be a picture, Frank? Athena, in all her ancient glory, sitting up on the top of that old piece of rock? Get yourself some coffee, man, and maybe you'll stop dreaming up things to occupy your time."

     Ares glanced over at the sleeping girl beside him, a smile playing at his lips. She could look modern, that was for certain. The way her short, dark hair fell into her eyes, the gentle rise and fall of her chest with the deep breaths of sleep...All this made her look young, innocent. The plane would land in an hour, but she could sleep until then. He knew she did not want to return to New York. There were no temples there, nothing to remind her of her home. No one there payed any mind at all to her love of Greek art, the way her studio apartment was decorated. It had taken quite a bit to fashion the Fifth Avenue studio the way she wanted it: to look like an airy Grecian temple. The land-lord had nearly had a fit when he saw it, columns and draperies all about, and such rich fabric. He had charged double the first month's rent, for fear that they would abandon when the decorator's bill came in. They had stayed, though, the girl living there and her male-friend (he suspected that they were lovers, something humorous to Ares) visiting often, to check up on her. The girl was an artist, he was told, aspiring and studying law in her spare time, and the pudgy man bought it...Even a child could tell that Athena was far too..."punk" to be a lawyer, but the man still fell for it. Another thing laughable in Ares' eyes.

     A movement out the window caught his eye, and he turned his head slightly, to look out onto the wing of the jet. Hermes crouched there, his hair unruffled by the wind. Ares smirked. So like his messanger-friend to keep his hair in place. Making sure that the hired flight attendant was nowhere to be seen, Ares slid out of his seat, and moved to the door of the plane. The blonde adolescent stepped inside a second later, grinning like an idiot.
     "Hi, Ares! Headed back to the States, are you? I'll make a note to tell Aphrodite. She's worried sick about you and Athena...although I don't know why. She said to tell you that Eros should be visiting, soon, to make sure everything's alright with you two..." Ares rolled his eyes and moved back a few seats, to talk to Hermes. The hyper, jabbering boy followed him without hesitation, still talking. "Nice jet. I don't know how you managed to pull off the company you did. Forge Enterprises is an international phenomenon, says the Times. I don't see what's so great about a company springing up overnight, amassing a huge fortune, and never really having a purpose...Well...Okay, so maybe I do."
     "I've told you before, Jeffrey. Forge is a stock company. We hire lots of shiney people to handle lots of large accounts...People buy stocks, we do all the real work for them. Some people call us 'stock-brokers'. Engrave that in your mind, boy, so you can hush about it to me. And tell Aphrodite we're doing fine. Athena was homesick, so we vistited Athens and Sparta for the weekend. Nothing huge." Hermes, who fell into the use of more modern names, nodded. Athena was the only one who had chosen to keep her name, save for Selene. Everyone else's were far too Greek, and would stand out. "Now then. Sit, and you can fly back to the city with us." 'Jeffrey slid into the seat on the other side of Athena, laying his boyish head against her shoulder and dropping off himself a few moments later. Ares smiled again and procured a drink, staring out into the breaking dawn. Half an hour until they landed, and he still hadn't woken Athena. She would be upset with him, he knew, for letting her sleep through take-off, or for bringing her on the jet at all. She had been asleep in his arms when they boarded, taken from the hotel without being woken. He could not let her talk him into staying another week in Greece, which she would surely do if awake. He worried for Athena more than the others. She was more homesick, more prone to depression.

     Aphrodite had taken Rebecca as her name, and lived comfortably in France, the mistress of a millionaire. Demeter, Kayla now, had started an herbal company, and also lived comfortably. Hades, William, was a corporate executive in an overseas company. Hermes spent most of his time in NYC, playing the part of Athena's adopted brother. Hephestaus worked for Forge, as did one or two others. Apollo still lived in Greece, there to look out for the temples and such. He did not take an active part in society, but remained on Olympus, a godly hermit.