Respect and Honor (A 300 fanfic)

A Return Unwelcomed

It's been twelve years since Pleistarchus stood in front of the city gates of Sparta. He smiled, breathing in the air of his home. Holding his shield in one hand and his spear with his helmet on top in the other, he walks through the gates and heads home.

Pleistarchus walks through the city streets to find no one there. He stops to look around and he sees people looking through curtains or hiding in the shadows.

"Why are you hiding?" He asks out loud.

When he saw the people duck their heads and got no reply he just kept on walking. Pleistarchus approaches his childhood home to see that his mother nor father were there to greet him.

"Must be at war." He thought. "But the last news of war I heard was twelve years ago when my father took his 300 to fight against Xerxes."

He walks inside. "Mother?" He yells. "Father? Is anybody home?"

He stands in the middle of the vast hall in the King's home to hear the quiet sound of a man crying. Pleistarchus follows the sound through narrow halls and sees one of the familiar Spartans in Leonidas' 300 sitting on his parent's bed holding his mother's necklace in his hands and a ragged and bloody cloth covering his eye.

"Dilios? Why are you here? Did we win the war?" Pleistarchus asks, his tone confused. He then looks out a window and sees a headstone with his mother's name Gorgo carved into it.

Dilios looked up to see the son of Leonidas standing in the doorway. Tears flooded his face as he gently placed Gorgo's necklace on the bed and hugged the young Spartan.

"I thou-" Dilios started, "I thought you were dead."

"Why would I be dead and what happened to my mother?!"

"You haven't heard?"

"Heard what Dilios? What's going on?" He asked angrily. "Why are my people hiding from me?"

Dilios looks at the young man and places a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Let me start from the beginning. As you know the fallen king took the party of 300 To stand against the will of the God-King Xerxes and his Hordes of men and beasts from all corners of his empire."

"I remember it clear as day." Pleistarchus followed.

Dilios sighs a heavy sigh. "Well, your father heard a tempting offer from the God-King and took it."

"What offer?"

"To kneel to him and Xerxes would make him war lord of all of Greece. That is why your mother is dead. Once she heard news she...she...took her life."

Pleistarchus' face turned red with rage and threw his spear at the wall. Dilios tried to give the Spartan a hug but was pushed away.

"Why aren't you with my father?"

"Because, I wouldn't allow myself to surrender or bow to an enemy king and I didn't hold my tongue. I called him a coward and he tackled me while he gouged my eye with his thumb."

"Knowing my father, he wouldn't let someone who disrespected him get away with a punishment as unsevere as that."

"I saved his life in battle once, so he told me I had twenty four hours to run and that his debt was paid."

Tears poured down Pleistarchus' face. "And this has been going on for twelve years?"

"Yes, Leonidas sent Stelios, Astinos, and a few others to recruit the rest of the army and new Spartans who just completed their training."

"And?" Pleistarchus asked.

"And if you refused, you were killed."

"I did meet two Spartans along the way who were covered in blood. They told me to run, but I just thought they fought a group of muggers or something, but I just kept on walking"

"I have been in hiding all this time building a secret rebel force to take down Leonidas and Xerxes."

"Then why are you here crying over my mother's necklace and not with your army thinking of a strategic battle plan?" Pleistarchus asked holding his sword up to Dilios' neck.

"All I have been waiting for is a sign from the gods...and the fact that you're standing here in front of me is proof that the gods answered my prayers."

Pleistarchus dropped the sword and sat on the bed. Not knowing what to do, he puts his face in his hands.

"You are going to fight with me aren't you?" Dilios asked. "Or are you going to join your father?"

Pleistarchus looks at Dilios with an expression of pure and utter disgust.

"I didn't train myself in the tradition of our people for twelve years just to throw it all away." He answered. "I will fight with you, but if the chance to kill my father comes...I want to be the one to drive my blade through his cowardly heart."

Dilios gives a fatherly smile towards the young man. "Well...my king. What do we do now."

"Send messengers to the Spartan training camps," he started. "And send word to the Spartans in hiding to send word saying that if they encounter any recruiters to say yes, kill them and to come here."

"But my lord, the location of the camps are kept in total secrecy from anyone who is not the Oracle or Leonidas himself."

Pleistarchus gave a devious smile. "Then let's take a trip to see the Ephors and the Oracle."

Dilios returned the devious smile and took the bloody cloth off of his face revealing his destroyed eye.

"Yes my lord...I've always hated the Ephors."