By the gods! That was--that was . . . BEAUTIFUL! I LOVED it! (Forgive the excessive caps, I can't help it.) You are a genius. You have to be. Such a wonderful storyline and clever imagery. I especially loved the dreams/flashbacks and how you employed quotes from the episodes. I have never a fic that has brought me closer to tears or made me laugh so hard. Iolaus is my ALL-TIME favorite H:LJ character and you have done him honorable justice.

Thank you SO much for this story.

Keep writing,
~Dream Painter*

There are different levels of quality in fanfiction you find on-line. They range from hastily put together unbelievable poorly written ideas to this, what you've written was amazing. It read like it could really be a book and I could see it in my head as if it could really be an episode in the series that I miss so much. All the characters seemed true to themselves, but especially Hercules and Iolaus, you wrote them and their bond flawlessly. I loved every moment of reading this story, you put everything together so well, with wonderful description..and I loved the quotes from teh actual series seperating each part. Great addition. Great job! I applaud you, it's so hard to find someone who writes fanfiction this well. :)

*Scarab looks speechless*
Okay, get this: it’s four in the morning, I can barely keep my eyes open and can’t type properly and why? Because I could not for the life of me tear my eyes away from this story! Though I never clearly followed the series, I saw it several times, enjoyed it, and cried when they killed Iolaus. And I DO remember the "Iolaus, this--this isn't right. You're dead." "Well, I was hoping you wouldn't notice." Bit.
You have a brilliant mix of drama, symbolism and occasionally you’ve even fitted some humour in there.
The battle scenes were occasionally hard going, but wars have a tendency to be that way in fiction and the conversations between Iolaus and Hercules kind of lightened that up. You perhaps could have broken it up into several chapters instead of one large one. It would make it easier to comment.
And that all the constructive criticism I can muster. Fantastic story. Congrats.