A/N: Because I am trying to get into Ishtar's mind, I'm going to tell the story in his point of view. We already know how I felt for Elpis when she was betrayed by her brother and how hard she struggled to actually get to Pride but what about her brother and how he felt when he had to stab her? Let's find out.
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His mind could never rest. No matter how hard he tried to calm himself, Ishtar was never able to find some inner peace. It made sense, he was the god of war after all. His entire being was driven by the need for fresh bloodshed. His entire being was driven by the urge to make others sacrifice their lives for his sake. He couldn't find peace, he wasn't supposed to understand the concept of peace, except he did. His little sister, the adored goddess of Hope, put Ishtar at ease. Ever since she was born, she always knew how to keep him grounded and make him care about his surroundings. He surprised himself spending more and more time with his sister outside of the battlefields, but as she was growing up, Elpis became even more distant and he became too caught up with the numerous wars led by humanity to actually notice the change. He couldn't have seen it coming.
Words came out that she was involved with a SIN. The simple idea of it made him puke. He blamed Ayasha for not knowing sooner that Elpis had met Pride and for not having stopped it while it was still very recent. Elpis was young and gullible. She would have been easy to reason with before she started to spend so much time with the sin but fate decided differently and now his precious little sister was in love with a filthy creature. Ishtar couldn't understand how, of all people, she could decide to give herself to the natural enemies of their pantheon. Pride was nothing but a weapon created by Hades to help him overthrow Olympus and by extension prevent other pantheons from stopping him if he ever felt power hungry. It felt like a betrayal for Ishtar who couldn't find some sleep. Ayasha worked on him, exciting his anger towards his sister and his disgust at her for falling in love with their enemy. The goddess of knowledge kept on talking to him about their sister, stressing Isthar about finding a more permanent solution if he didn't want Ayasha to be stripped off of her godly powers and cast out because he couldn't decide on what to do with Elpis.
He had a lot on his mind. He tried to reason with himself. He couldn't kill his beloved sister, no matter how hard he tried to rationalize it. She was a good soul. She was innocent. She was kind and she was loving. Elpis brought him peace and he realized that he didn't want to live another day without a little bit of peace. So what could he do? He first tried to convince Elpis that she mistook her feelings for Pride with Love. There couldn't be any love between her and the SIN. There couldn't be anything built with him because Pride was unable to feel this. He tried to talk her out of this relationship, introduce her to other gods even because he believed that she deserved better suitors but she always refused because she didn't connect with any of them and mostly because she was desperately in love with Pride. The Sin was making efforts. He tolerated Earth, he tolerated his time with her, he was satisfied and seemingly happy whenever she was near. She believed that she brought him the peace he deserved to have and the hope that his plans would end up working but did she? Wasn't it smoke she blew all over her? Ishtar was driven crazy by her resolve not to see anyone else and keep hurting herself in the process with a creature that didn't deserve her. The God of War tried his very best, but given how stubborn Elpis was and how stressful Ayasha was, he made up his mind. He would punish his sister since she didn't want to be reasoned with.
Could he kill her? Could he sincerely kill her? Ishtar was tormented by the idea of killing his own sister. Ayasha provided him with the Dagger of Fate, in hopes that her brother would actually do as she wanted him to. He was oblivious to her actual need of getting rid of the favorite goddess to their parents. The All-Father had a soft spot for his last daughter and the two of them bonded more than he ever did with any of his other children. She was the one who got involved with an enemy and yet Ayasha was the one to blame and the one he wanted to cast out if she couldn't bring Elpis back to her senses. Ishtar never minded that their father liked Elpis more, but he believed Ayasha and didn't know she had a hidden agenda. All he knew was that she was in pain to see Elpis give into the sin and he wanted to appease his sister and punish Elpis for betraying his family. He invited his sister over his private quarters, in hopes that she would be reasoned with and he wouldn't need to stab her but it was proven futile.
He couldn't reason with her. Elpis' heart was filled with stupid love and clouded her judgment. Couldn't she see that Pride wasn't good for her? Couldn't she see that Pride would cause her doom and the doom of her people? She seemed to be oblivious and went on and on about how much she loved him and how she thought she was impacting on his life. Ishtar was very hot-tempered, so at some point, he couldn't take any more of her rambles and grabbed her by the neck. He saw the incomprehension in her eyes, the confusion and the fear that crept within her at a very high speed. Ishtar never laid a finger on her, never was violent even on the battlefield when covered with blood and drunk with power and death. He never ever threatened her so to see him towering her with his large frame, a hand tightly holding a fistful of pink locks and a very dark glare on his face was enough for her to fret. Her light shone brighter than usual as she was trying to appease him thinking that maybe it simply was a consequence of a battlefield he recently had been on but it wasn't. It didn't work. He was determined to punish her because she put too many lives in jeopardy with her cheap romance. He was angry at his sister for letting him down and forcing him to hurt her. He was angry at himself for not being able to help her out of this situation. She pleaded and begged and even tried to bargain to prevent him from doing something stupid but he didn't listen. He grabbed the dagger, despite her crying even harder and plunged it into her rib cage. Once, twice, he deliberately stabbed her but avoided any place that would have made it lethal. She tried to resist and push him away but he held onto the knife and started to chant a curse.
« Instead of killing you, I would curse you Elpis. You will have to live inside of those humans you cared so much about. Every time they would die, you would be forced to be reborn in another one over and over and over again. Nobody would remember you but me and Ayasha. Everyone would forget about you, including your Sin. »
« Ishtar.... » She mumbled in shock as she fell to her knees. He fell with you and cradled her head with his bloody hands. Her golden orbs were glowing brightly as she felt life escaping from her body. The betrayal destroyed her heart but she could see and feel how sorry he actually was and how much he wished it never happened. She knew it couldn't just be his doing and read his mind to keep in mind who she should go after once she would find a way to return.
« Please forgive me Elpis. Forgive me. » He begged at her while he kept on cradling her but she quietly moved her hands up to his neck and gave him one last embrace before whispering to his ear.
« I will never forgive you Ishtar. Never you hear me? Pray that I don't get out of the prison you're sending me because when I do, I will avenge myself and you will suffer the most. You and Ayasha. I will come back. Pride will find me again. Your days are numbered. »
She whispered before she used the last remnants of her strength to teleport herself back to the underworld so she could say goodbye to her beloved. Once she did, Isthar blankly looked at the empty spot in between his arms and cried to himself, feeling horrible about what happened to his sister and about the departing words they exchanged between themselves.
(TBC)
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