Violence Disclaimer: Please this is XENA we are talking about…NOT some meek little girl. YES there is violence! There is some sort of but not REALLY explicit torture scenes, but if you get disturbed very easily, I guess you should go get another story to read! It is about as much as when Xena went through the gauntlet…that is if you saw that episode.
Sex/Subtext: Sex? Well nothing very graphic, maybe a hint. Wait… a LOT of hints… or maybe a ‘little’ more then hints, but nothing *terribly* explicit. Subtext…*Shudders violently* I personally HATE the irritating blonde and I am proud of it! I am the president of my IHG club (I hate Gabrielle) and will bash her at EVERY opportunity…so BEWARE!
Warning: This story is an Ares/Xena story. If for some odd reason you do not like this idea LEAVE! I don’t want you to read my story anyway!
Dedications: I am dedicating my first story to Deleen, Lasca, Illy, SR, G.O.M, Eris, My dear rotten nut, Tareena, Liz, GA, Jo, and to everyone else at the Ares and Xena Shippers club for their continuous encouragement and support with me on this! You guys are the BEST!
Discord's Wrath
By Kat
Part One
"If I may ask, what is enough, my dark goddess?" He asked timidly, she frightened him, but he was eager serve, and wanted to figure out what was wrong with his goddess. He wanted to fix it, fervent to prove his worth.
Discord paced with fury around the command tent of her new group of bandits while screeching, "HE pays more attention to HER, than to me, or his duty! He is always looking in on HER and doesn’t pay anymore attention to ME!"
Darien was becoming increasingly fearful of his goddess. She had a nasty tendency to slaughter her followers when enraged. He cowered back a little, but managed to ask weakly, "Who, my dark goddess?"
"His little princess, XENA!" she sneered with disgust, still pacing the tent with vigor. She had transported herself to his palace on Olympus last night for some fun, but he had waved her off without a second glance, saying he had more pressing matters to attend to. That is when she looked over at his mirror to the mortal realm and he saw HER! Discord abruptly demanded to know why SHE was more important. Reminding him that Xena wasn’t following Ares anymore and had made it clear not to want anything to do with him on numerous occasions, that she HATED him. Ares had visibly flinched at the last comment, brutally grabbed her by the arm and advised her in a deadly voice to stay AWAY from Xena and than proceeded to roughly crush her hands until she screamed loudly in pain. Discord had than weakly agreed that she would not harm Xena. Ares had given her one last venomous glare, but than harshly let her go. Discord had left hastily not in any desire to make him any further enraged.
"Xena?" Darien asked meekly, "The Warrior Princess?" He had had plans to destroy whatever it was who would incense his dark goddess so much, but XENA? She was a legend, chosen of Ares, Destroyer of Nations, and an exceptional military strategist.
But, he couldn’t help but think, she is a WOMAN, there is no way she can be as good as the stories say. She would be terrified of a man like me, and if she is as beautiful as the stories say, as well as the other stories, maybe they could have some fun. His spirits brightened considerably at that prospect. He would be the one to take down the mighty Warrior Princess, make her submit to his will, and this would certainly make his dark goddess pleased and she might even promote me, and give me a bigger army. Yes, this would be an excellent idea, he thought to himself. Darien took a deep breath; "I will kill her for you, my dark goddess." He pledged.
"You can’t," She snapped, "I’m not allowed to harm…." She stopped her ceaseless pacing abruptly, and than smiled maliciously, "But YOU are…"
**********
"I can’t wait to see Ephiny, I wonder how she has been. When do you think we will be at the Amazon's, Xena?" Gabrielle looked over at her silent companion who was attentive and alert to her surroundings. That alone was not unusual except by the degree, she was definitely more wary than usual, although it was extremely hard to tell. You could only tell by her stunning, baby blue eyes, which were darting back and forth relentlessly into their surroundings, looking for anything sinister. Gabrielle noticed none of this however and said extremely annoyed, "Xena, have you heard a word I’ve said?" Silence, "Xena!"
"Yes Gabrielle." She sensed a group of people, warriors, following them for a while, a candle mark perhaps. She was trying to determine how many there were, and how to keep Gabrielle safe. Sure, she knew how to use her staff, but she wasn’t skilled enough yet to fight against a small army.
"You aren’t listening to me!" She complained. Why did she always do that! It’s not like she had other things to do. I mean I understand it when she has something important on her mind, but there isn’t anything. It’s been quiet all week, a nice change, but Xena just doesn’t know how to rest. It wouldn’t kill her to relax every one in awhile. Suddenly there were numerous faint whistling sounds from the surrounding woods. Xena instantly raced to cover Gabrielle with her own body, forcing Gabrielle to roughly crash into the hard dirt with an audible grown of discomfort as an abundant of arrows came darting through the air. Surprisingly most didn’t hit their aim, but a few arrows did, embedding themselves in Xena’s thigh and shoulder.
The bandits, seeing that there attack failed to destroy their intended target, they all came out of the bushes welding an array of weapons, all with a murderous intent. Their weapons were crusty though, and by the ignorant way the majority of the bandits were holding them, Xena concluded that they were crudely trained.
Xena leaped up and unsheathed her sword, running to meet the thirty bandits. With her recent injuries she was slightly handicapped, but chose to shut off the pain until she had time to clean the wounds properly. Twenty-five went after Xena and the remaining five went after Gabrielle. By this time Gabrielle had also had gotten up and was joining the fight with her Amazon quarterstaff.
Discord was watching her men fight from a hill, invisible to all mortals, and became furious when she realized that Xena was actually winning, having already killed 10 of the twenty-five who were trying to kill her, and not slowing down much at all. Discord in a blazing fury, hit Xena with a lightning bolt. Xena is thrown into a big oak tree by the force of the lightning bolt, writhing in the extreme pain caused by the bolt and impact and losing her way to unconsciousness from the incredible pain. Gabrielle fights hard with her staff, but is quickly disarmed and knocked out with the butt end of a sword powerfully by one of the bandits. Seeing she hit her mark, Discord smiled a spiteful smile and faded away with a dark smile on her face full of satisfaction. Xena would suffer, and Ares will forget he ever met Xena, and I will be first, NOT second. Ares will realize his infinite oversight. I am much more exceptional than SHE is. These were the thoughts that ran through Discord’s mind.
Another one of the bandits turned to their leader and asked, "Darien, what should we do with the blond?" Gesturing with a lazy finger in the direction of Gabrielle.
Darien briefly considered and decided that he didn’t have any orders towards the blonde girl, "Leave her, we have accomplished our goal." He warily looked in the direction of the Warrior Princess who was lying on the dirt ground, lying unmoving. He had been overwhelmed by her extraordinary swordsmanship and knew that his goddess had interceded in order to obtain her goal, without Discords divine intervention, he wasn’t so sure that he would have come out so successful. She had killed over a third of his men alone. But, he couldn’t help but add; she is still a WOMAN. It is inconceivable that she would have come out triumphant against 30 men in a fight. It was just not possible.
He looked her over once more and his wary look turned leering. The stories said she was gorgeous, but none did her any justice. She was easily more dazzling than his dark goddess who in his mind, yesterday could never had compared with ANY mortal. Darien looked her over slowly and shamelessly. He thought, with any luck, the legends about her sexual expertise were an understatement as well. He grinned, well I will soon find out.
**********
Things were exceeding what he initially planned. This bloodbath was turning out to be much bloodier than he had had originally anticipated. There was blood and carnage everywhere. Remains scattered the earth, and it did not look like it was going to cease anytime soon. Ares was enjoying himself immensely; the war looked like it would carry on for at least a couple of days.
**********
Xena awoke to the sounds of two warriors talking from just outside the tent. She could tell she was bound by some iron bindings and knew she could probably escape from them if given some time to try. She carefully felt each restraint, looking to see how far she could move in each direction. Her hands were tied tightly by some iron handcuffs and her feet chained, also to the wall, with some iron shackles. Xena could tell that they were specifically made to hold her.
That took away some of Xena’s unwavering confidence that she could escape. Xena did not lose all of her confidence though. After all she has been in an innumerable amount of unfortunate circumstances worse than this. Xena strained to hear what the warriors were talking about so anxiously, maybe she would hear something that might help her out of her present, rather unlucky situation.
"Darien said that we are supposed to torture her." One of them said, he was very frightened. All warriors hear of the legendary Warrior Princess, chosen of Ares, Destroyer of Nations, who conquered half of Greece. Some just couldn’t believe ANYONE could do what the legends say she has done, others just thought that a WOMAN couldn’t be at all skilled in the arts of war, and the last group knew or believed she was real. He was among the third group, and having seen the devastation she could cause first hand, he had to admit that he was terrified of her. Going within ten feet of her was not high on his list of priorities. In his mind, it was suicidal and an invitation for death.
The other warrior was a lot cockier. He saw her go flying into that huge oak tree. She was as good as the stories say, she was good, but she couldn’t beat ME on her best day, he thought. Although why we have orders to torture such an exquisite body, that was not revealed to him. "Such a shame to ruin such a magnificent body." He said regretfully. He had hoped that he might be able to make some of his most recent fantasies become real, but he knew he couldn’t disobey Darien. He was very close to being promoted to second-in-command and knew that his success on his latest command would be the crucial moment in which Darien would base his decision upon. He had wanted this status ever since he joined Darien last year and he thought he deserved it. He had loyally served Darien since he joined and never failed to do what was asked of him, in his mind, there was no one better.
"I guess so." The fist warrior responded uncertainly. He had not been looking that much of her physical appearance, more concerned with the current state of his health. "Darien wants it to happen in a few candle marks. Something about needing to please someone."
The second warrior responded, "Alright, let’s first go get the tools we will need to do this."
Xena sighed heavily. She was in for a LONG day, and she knew it would be far away from pleasant. Why did they want her though? She knew there was an infinite amount of people who would love to see her dead or in pain, but Xena had a very good memory and she could not recall a Darien. Although it is still very liable he had still suffered the wrath of the Destroyer of Nations and wanted revenge. Or maybe it was just another warlord who wanted to be the one to defeat the mighty warrior princess.
She tried to test the bonds again, but this time trying to break free from them and an extreme amount of pain shot through her body, especially in her back. Xena quickly stopped trying to move and tried to figure out where she attained the wound. Abruptly she remembered. She was hit with a…with a lightning bolt…what? Only the gods have the ability to make lightning bolts! It’s not like Ares…he would rather see her fight till on side won and would send his elite warriors, hoping to see an awesome battle. Ares would not cut the battle short by hitting her with a lightning bolt. He wouldn’t do anything that hasty. If it wasn’t Ares than who was it? Which god has she angered lately? She asked herself. Xena hadn’t infuriated any of the gods since last moon; they would have taken action sooner than that. The are impatient in extracting revenge.
The bandits didn’t have any markings to show their god. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see, Xena concluded. In the mean time, I’ll just have to wait until I can think of a way to escape this predicament. Even though I’ll be in for a quite painful evening, which is assuming it’s the afternoon outside, Xena thought, I will need my rest and eventually after a prolonged amount of time in time Xena fell into a restless sleep. Xena awoke with a harsh jolt. She immediately attempted to go directly into battle stance, but was reminded in a flash of intense pain that she was still chained up very securely. She knew that no matter how hard she pulled at the chains, they would not give. She had tested each restraint before she let herself drift to sleep extensively and knew she could not yank them out of the wall even with the amazing amount of strength she possessed.
Quickly taking in her surroundings, Xena saw five warriors. Three of them had hard leather whips. The other two had staffs. All of them were looking notably smug and arrogant. Xena knew immediately what if was that woke her up…and what those weapons were for. She instantly tensed and braced herself for the long and PAINFUL candle marks she knew doubtlessly awaited her.
The warrior who just struck her with his whip was obviously the leader of the camp. All of his followers looked at him for direction. He was a little unsure of himself, Xena noted, he was very arrogant, but not used to the position of torturer. There was a feeling of ignorance that she noticed in the way he held his whip. He held it just a little too tightly and very unskilled. It was obvious to her skilled eyes that he was not experienced with the whip.
So this was Darien, she thought. I don’t recognize him, but that doesn’t mean much. After all, there must be a countless number of people I tormented and don't know about. She unconsciously sighed; there will always be a numberless amount of people who has suffered severely by my hands.
Darien didn’t seem to WANT to hurt her, but he also didn’t seem protesting about hurting her either. There were no mockery or thirst for revenge. He did not say a word to her, no taunts or mocking words. Just silence…and pain.
Another warrior punched her in her gut while the first one struck her once again with the coarse leather whip. Xena let out a soft groan from the staggering pain, but would not allow her tormentors the satisfaction they would doubtlessly get if they saw the agony she was in.
Xena tensed her whole body again as she saw a third warrior advanced with his staff. He hit her with several rapid blows to her body. The first warrior, Darien struck her again with his whip, and again, and again. Their captive gritted her teeth and carefully kept her stoic face, devoid of any emotion. She knew that the torture was just beginning, but also knew that she had endured much worse agony and that it was just a matter of living through all of it. She was too proud to show a weakness such as pain, and that, in effect, gave her more. She gritted her teeth; the torture was going to be drawn-out, of that she was certain.
**********
Gabrielle moaned pitifully in pain as she awoke with an enormous swelling on her forehead. There were a couple of things she noticed as she reluctantly opened her eyes. The first was that the sun was shining brightly and was directly over her. The second was that she was resting upon the hard dirt ground along with a collection of pebbles and rocks. The last thing Gabrielle noticed was that her companion was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly everything from the day before came rushing back to her instantaneously. She remembered the arrows, the bandits, Xena fighting them, Xena getting hit with something, her fighting, a flash of pain, and than… complete blackness.
She jumped up quickly and looked around franticly, WHERE was Xena? Than it hit her all at once. They must have taken her somewhere, but where! Gabrielle realized that she needed help finding Xena and once finding her, rescuing her. That is, she couldn’t help but think Xena isn’t dead already. Gabrielle gulped audibly at the last thought. She CAN’T be dead, Gabrielle thought trying to convince her self, and after all we are talking about Xena.
Gabrielle went to go pick up her quarterstaff which was on the other side of the clearing and determinedly headed off in the direction where she knew she could find help.
She was forcefully stopped when she walked right into a couple of large holes in the hard, dirt ground. Falling with a high pitched shriek and landed on her face. She groaned loudly in pain she picked herself up again and heading in her initial objective, this time she remembered to look at where she was walking.
**********
The battle was awash in blood; two very powerful armies were ferocious and unrelenting in their fighting. There were innumerable dead corpses, which were strewn across the heated battlefield. Invisible to all mortal eyes, surveying the blood stained landscape from a far off hill with a broad smile was the God of War.
Ares was taking pleasure in this war as well as the blood shed. He paused suddenly remembering a similar war like this one, but only notably different for him in one way. The time before one of the armies being lead into battle was by none other than *his* Warrior Princess. That was how he thought of her, as his, even though she continuously denied him. Xena had been magnificent; Ares sighed as he remembered. She had been everything to him… and she still was. Now even more so than before.
Although he would never admit it to himself, Ares actually desired who Xena was now more than the Xena she was before. He had formerly only allowed himself to value Xena as a warrior, too scared to think that that his feelings could be any deeper. He had pulled back, the new feelings he was experiencing every single time he saw her, when she said his name, when she smiled at him… the feelings were just so intense and new that he became panicky and drew back. He always watched in on her though, not one day went by when he didn’t look in on his chosen, but it was now from afar, only talking to her when it was necessary to a special battle or plan that he had.
Things went on like that for many years until his annoying, moronic half-wit, half-breed, half-brother decided to intervene and take away the only thing in his life, the ONLY person in his desolate life, which meant ANYTHING to him at all. He was extremely jealous of his brother when he found out that the ONLY person in the world that mattered had slept with HIM. He had wrecked his temple in a blind rage; no one dared to approach him for over moon to try and figure out what was wrong. None of the priestesses or even other Gods would attempt to reason with him in his fury. No one knew what was wrong except for perhaps his sister, the Goddess of Love, but she said nothing if she did know.
After a few moons full of madness Ares had finally calmed down enough to attempt reason. Ares came to the conclusion that his princess would come back to him. He really couldn’t believe that she would REALLY prefer helping innocents and stopping wars with an irritating blond peasant who wanted to become a BARD as opposed to doing what she did before… with HIM. As the months came slowly by Ares had to face the unpleasant truth…she wasn’t planning on coming back at all. So he had framed her for murder, disguised himself as her father, and caused so many other tricks and manipulations… but in the end all with the same intent, to have her come back… back to him. She was different, she still loved a good fight and everything about battle, had that same fire in her eyes, but she had changed. At first Ares was angry with that and blamed it on his half-breed half brother, but as time went by he admitted that actually wanted Xena more because of the change. Ares sighed heavily as he thought of his lost Warrior Princess, he hadn’t talked to her or seen her in over a moon, and he made up his mind to see her right when this war was finished. Satisfied with that Ares turned his attention once more on the battle.
**********
As Xena slowly gained consciousness there were a few things that she noticed first. The first was that she hurt… a LOT, she winced painfully. She had the two arrows from her thigh and shoulder before, twisted and than wrenched out the previous night, she had several whip lashes on her back that gave her a huge ache all over her body. There were purple and black bruises and marks all over left by the staffs, she had a few broken ribs and she new that she was missing a few of the injuries also sense she could not examine them closely.
The second thing she noticed was that she didn’t know where Gabrielle was. Xena frowned with concern but knew that Gabrielle hadn’t been taken with her or the bandits would have used that the day before to further provoke her. She probably went to go get help… either way there was nothing better I could do than escape, find her and see her myself, Xena concluded. But that brought her to the other big problem, HOW to escape? She was completely tied up before and now she had her wounds that hindered her even more.
She cursed softly in aggravation, this was a BIG mess and Discord is behind it. Xena had overheard several of the bandits talking about their Goddess and how they needed to please her. All of the other Goddesses had much higher quality warriors than was sent after her and none of them would interfere by throwing a lightning bolt at her. That was another thing that made no sense, Ares just about controlled everything that Discord did and Ares would NEVER do anything like this, it just wasn’t his style. He didn’t want Xena to be tortured or killed, far from that, what he did want… that abruptly stopped her thoughts, what he did want she wasn’t quite sure.
At times she thought that he actually had feelings for her but than almost directly after she was sure that it was all just in her head and all he wanted from her was for her to conquer the world and to lead the ultimate battle. It was very complicated, but would be so much easier if she didn’t have any feelings for him. If Xena were honest with herself she would admit that she DID have feelings for him. It was not love, she would not allow herself to feel anything like that towards him, but it could very easily be if she let herself. Xena was not honest with her self though and made sure she never put up any appearance in front of him other than pure hatred and disdain, after all he was her enemy right? A dangerous enemy and NOTHING more than that... she had NO feelings for him.
Suddenly she looked up sharply. Two of the bandits from the torture session the night before came in through the dark blue tent. Xena quickly closed her eyes and pretended to still be unconscious, this was her chance and with her wounds she wanted every advantage she could that she could get.
The two bandits slowly moved forward and the first bandit who was more cocky and arrogant, but still was a higher-ranking officer smirked, “She’s still unconscious, not much of a Warrior Princess.”
His partner looked her over, “Darien wants her brought to his tent.” Even beaten so badly she still retained an almost divine quality that made her seem godly and superior. He would never admit it but he had accumulated a huge amount of respect for her in just the two days. The stories did not exaggerate, if anything they fell short in all areas, in her battle skill, endurance for pain, beauty and his leader also was very impressed with her and he wanted to find out if the rest of the stories were true as well. Even after a long torture session she was still beautiful, he didn’t think he could name any other woman who he could say that about…it really was no wonder why the God of War would choose her as his chosen.
The first bandit shrugged, “Well than let’s take her to Darien.” They both moved forward and he removed the various chains that tied her down. Just as he leaned down to pick her up and carry her to Darien when Xena delivered an unexpected kick to his midsection that knocked the air out of him and sent him hard into the ground. Xena made a rapid kick to the other guard’s face that knocked him out.
Xena gasped in pain, this was going to be very difficult. By this time the first guard picked himself off the ground and threw a dagger at her head that she just narrowly dodged landing in a wooden crossbar behind her. When she looked back at her attacker he had drawn his sword and looked determined not to be so easily knocked around again. Xena took in a quick breath, if she wanted to escape she didn’t have energy to spare toying around with him as she normally might do. Without looking away from the bandit, Xena wrenched the dagger free of the wood and threw it with lethal accuracy at him. It embedded itself easily in his heart. After letting out a weak cry of pain he was silent, falling with a thud on the ground on his former companion on his way to the Underworld to meet his fate.
**********
Discord looked at the scene with growing ire. This was NOT what was supposed to happen. Xena was supposed to be DEAD, but, she thought, while she may not be dead she was still too damaged to escape. The Goddess decided to see how things would unfold. She smiled a malicious smile, this would actually be more of more amusement than just watching her be slaughtered.
**********
She was tired, alone, and HUNGRY when she finally reached the Amazon border. Gabrielle sighed utterly exhausted, she hadn’t eaten anything except for some water from the stream, and a few nuts and berries since the day before and it was taking its toll on the young bard who viewed eating as a favorite activity. She never ceased to amaze all with her unbelievable talent for eating anything and everything, how she was not fat was a mystery. The bard was not skilled in catching fish, or rabbits like her tall, dark, and dangerous warrior companion that was in serious trouble at the moment. She smiled slightly despite the situation, what else was new? The young Bard had long ago determined that Xena was the biggest attraction for trouble in the entire known world, there was never a day that went by with her stoic companion where it was even close to quiet and trouble free. Gabrielle heard a bird and turned to see where it was.
Without warning several Amazons landed gracefully and silently on the ground in front of her, all wearing an intimidating Amazon mask and very revealing leather clothing. They were each fully equipped with an assortment of weapons. She mostly saw swords, daggers, bows, arrows, and some with an Amazon war staff, not unlike the one Gabrielle possessed although with less design. There was one Amazon who stood in front of the others. Gabrielle jumped in surprise and immediately assumed the position for the Amazon peace signal. They had nearly scared her to Tartarous.
Each of the awe-inspiring women sheathed their swords and slowly bowed to Gabrielle. After a few moments the Amazon in the front slowly arose standing back up. She pulled back her mask revealing a beautiful woman with blond curls. Her mask was different than the others identifying her specifically as the Queen of the Amazons. Gabrielle who was still blushing from the previous display squealed loudly and shrieked, “EPHINY! It is SO good to see you again!” All earlier signs of fatigue were nonexistent as she ran to give her friend a big hug.
Ephiny laughed and enthusiastically returned the hug. The other Amazons also had risen by this point and were looking at their queen with quite a bit of shock. It just wasn’t natural for any Amazon queen to act like that, Amazon queens did not hug, squeal or be caught by surprise. EVEN if it was by her sister Amazons. Amazon queens were strong, silent, skilled, and always alert. They each quickly exchanged a look and than once again returned their attention to their queen with interest, but still with a flawless posture, and with perfect silence while in the presence of their queen, like every Amazon were taught to do from very young.
“It’s great to see you too Gabrielle I am glad you made it! Where is Xena?” Ephiny finished the question that all present were thinking. Xena always came with Gabrielle when they came, she was her champion and although Xena denied it, she was an Amazon. ‘The perfect Amazon’ is what many of the Amazons called her. Many even wished that it were Xena who had been the queen instead of some untrained village girl who wouldn’t even kill. At first everyone was in an outrage when they found out that a BARD was going to become their Amazon queen, but many had accepted it with time while even a few began to be happy that she was their leader. The fact that Gabrielle was never there also caused much dissention in the village. How could their queen, even one many had strong diversion for be out in danger without the protection of an honor guard every single day?
Gabrielle’s face noticeably dimmed, “There is trouble Ephiny, Xena…well Xena was taken prisoner.” Everyone let out a slight gasp. Gabrielle continued softly, “I need your help Eph. I need to find her soon; I don’t know what’s happened or if she’s alive. I don’t know what do.” She looked at Ephiny with a pleading look, “Help me find her Eph, I NEED to find her soon. She could be dead or tortured or even…” Gabrielle stopped suddenly, and everyone present cringed, they all knew what she was about to say and it made most of them very angry. Xena was Gabrielle’s champion and she had saved the Amazons more times than anyone would like to admit.
Ephiny also had cringed, Xena had personally helped her and she owed her life to Xena, but Ephiny also had to think of her Amazons first as always. The village had just suffered a disease that had killed many of her fellow sisters and put even more in bed sick, it was expected that they would be fine in a few weeks. Her Amazons could not afford to go to war against a strong army over anyone other than their queen right now. Even if the person saved the Amazons on many different occasions. “We will send scouts our looking for her Gabrielle.” Ephiny assured the pleading bard, but than her face took on a downhearted look, “But Gabrielle there is something I need to know. How big is the army? You know what happened to many people of our tribe, we just can not afford to fight a big army right now.”
The beautiful regent cringed slightly from the dejected look on her queens’ face and when she heard the calls from her sister Amazons saying that they would fight to get Xena back, they could defeat an army, after all they were AMAZONS. Ephiny silenced them with a quick glare reminding them of the situation and of their rank. They were in the presence of their Amazon queen and the queen’s regent and this was not acceptable behavior. Her look silenced them almost immediately.
“The army had about 30 people, but they didn’t seem to be expertly trained. They were targeting Xena, but didn’t seem to want to kill her just to capture her.” Gabrielle said, she knew what her Amazons had gone through in the past few months, but in her mind all of that paled in comparison to the thought of losing her best friend for life. The warrior and bard often argued, but Gabrielle still thought of her dark companion as her home. Xena always would be if the bard had her way.
Ephiny let out a sigh of relief, 30 they could handle. There was only one problem, where was Xena and who took her? Gabrielle answered her silent question by saying, “I think it might be Ares, you all know how obsessed he is with getting her back, and the warriors did seem to look like his too.”
“Tara!” The regent called to one of her fellow Amazon sisters, “Where is the nearest temple dedicated to the God of War?”
**********
Xena faltered slightly, the pain was so intense. After finding her weapons and her armor without causing an alarm she was heading towards the stable to get Argo. She had been grazing when they were ambushed, but Xena knew that Argo would have came once she found out that her mistress had been knocked unconscious.
A small trail of blood was being lead wherever Xena went from her various wounds and she knew it was only a matter of time before someone would see her. Her present condition was making it very hard for her to find her way around without making any sound. Finally she was at the stables, and she saw her beloved horse, Argo!
She went on instant alert, scanning the area with her eyes, her sword and chackram at the ready and in battle stance. There were a few guards coming her way, and Xena unconsciously cringed, this was not going to be the quiet escape she was hoping for.
**********
“Um my queen, if you don’t mind me asking, what exactly are we doing here?” A young thin and blond haired Amazon named Letha asked timidly. She had just been promoted to honor guard and was exceedingly nervous for many reasons. One of the main reasons was being trusted with one of the most important positions for an Amazon, protecting her queen. Another significant reason was that she had the feeling that her queen was going to do something that might anger the God of War. As an Amazon she was brave and afraid of almost nothing, but to anger one of the most powerful Gods? That was insanity!
The bard looked over at Letha and smiled slightly, her eyes than narrowed with determination; “I am going to talk to ask him what he did with Xena.” They were in front of the rest of the group consisting of 3 Amazons, their queen and Solori who was second-in-command to Ephiny who was directly after the queen in the Amazon power structure. Ephiny had stayed back at the village. The Amazons could not let both their queen and regent go somewhere without an abundance of preparation and protection.
Letha gulped, this was not good. There was nothing she could do because after all, Gabrielle was her queen and as an Amazon, she must protect her and follow her every order. Even when it came to the some of the most important decisions for the Amazon tribe it was often only their queen who decided the proper course of action which would most protect all the tribe and its overall well being.
The tribe came to the temple half a candle mark latter and each Amazon including the bard looked at the inside of the temple in slight awe. There was an assortment of weapons lining the walls and an altar with several offerings in the center. Suddenly a few of the priestesses came at them with rapid steps and a brown haired priestess who was the obvious leader demanded hotly in Gabrielle’s direction, “WHAT are you doing! This is the inner sanctum of Lord Ares temple and I will NOT have some harlots disturb his temple!”
All the Amazons flushed with anger, who was this whore telling THEM that they were harlots when she spent her life waiting for her Lord hoping he will decide that he wanted her for a screw. They also were enraged that they would dare speak to their Amazon queen in such a way. Each Amazon except for Gabrielle pulled out their weapons intending to defend their tribe and queens honor.
The priestesses each unsheathed their own swords, but they were unevenly matched. There were 5 Amazons all together and 4 priestesses. Although each priestess of Ares was extensively trained so were the Amazons. Solori who was the main person in charge of her queens safety stepped in front of her effectively cutting her off from the fight that was sure to ensue.
Without Gabrielle in the fight it was 1 to 1 and it seemed like it was going to last for quite awhile. Gabrielle looked at the proceedings with distress, they were HER amazons and she would not let any one of them die if she could do anything about it. The bard looked at the statue behind her, a battle in his temple would obviously be the ultimate offering for the God of War, but it wouldn’t be enough to get his attention if he was far away. After all a battle in the middle of his temple was not actually that rare.
Gabrielle needed to do something, anything to get his attention; she picked up the statue, a replica of Ares himself and threw it into the wall. It shattered with a deafening crash. Each warrior stopped fighting momentarily turning to see what had happened, The Amazons looked on with some dread. This would surely bring the God of Wars wrath upon them now! The priestesses cringed and than their anger rose again, this was NOT acceptable! Just as they were about to start their battle anew they halted as they saw a dazzling ball of blue light near the marble altar in the front revealing a furious God of War.
Each present gasped in shock not just because of his sudden appearance but also because of the rage you could see in his very demeanor. Than immediately after that the 4 priestesses rushed forward and bowed before their Lord. The brown haired leader declared, “It was those harlots my Lord! They came in here and would not leave, and than SHE,” The priestess pointed accusingly at the bard, “Broke your precious statue!”
Ares had stopped listening to Vanora as soon as he followed the direction her finger was pointing at. His eyes narrowed and if it was possible his features darkened even more. There was the irritating blonde that had in part stealing away the only thing in his entire existence that gave it meaning. He quickly scanned the group once again searching to see his Warrior Princess although he knew that she would not be among them. He could never NOT notice her first. She had an unmistakable presence full of confidence, strength, beauty, and gracefulness, which pulled in every eye that was lucky enough to be in her presence. He once again with a sense of disappointment moved his eyes back to the irritating blonde.
Gabrielle swallowed…hard under the ruthless eyes of the War God, but as she remembered the reason she was here she gathered up what courage she had and she demanded, “What have you done with Xena!” Her words however came out more like a terrified squeak than a demand.
Ares blinked his eyes momentarily in surprise. That was not what he was expecting to hear from her. The surprise was quickly drowned out by a sense of dread as her words finally really sunk in. If the blonde was worried about Xena than she must be in trouble. With a growl he said in a tone that commanded obedience, “EVERYONE OUT NOW! Except for the irritating blonde.”
The priestesses quickly scurried out of the room not in any desire to suffer his wrath for they have seen what happened to others that made his angry and they were not in a hurry to be the newest addition to that rather long list.
The Amazons quickly went into battle stance at the last command, they could not leave their queen, and after all they were Amazons! They were quickly stopped by their queen as she ordered, “Leave.” The 4 Amazons looked ready to protest, but knew that as the queen Gabrielle could tell them to do anything and they would have to obey. With one last look of distrust at the God they slowly left the inner sanctum of the temple. Gabrielle cringed as the door shut and she took several steps back away from the angry War God.
She gulped as she heard him speak, “What are you talking about mortal?” He would not speak to her with anything but what he felt, just because she traveled with Xena did not make her special. He paused slightly in thought, actually it just made him even more angry at the irritating blonde, SHE was with Xena when he was not and she was a big part of why things are still that way.
Gabrielle gathered her nerve and repeated her demand from before, “What have you done with Xena!” The bard knew Xena would go through far more than a God to get her back, it was time she tried the same.
“Where is she!” Ares demanded. He ignored her question from before, after all, she held no importance to him. He did not need to tell her anything, especially when his princess was in danger.
The blonde bard was losing some of her nervousness, “What do you mean where is she! You had her taken!”
Ares glared angrily at the bard. But inside he had a gnawing inside him telling him that things were NOT right, something had happened to his princess. Every second he stood there he felt the gnawing rapidly increasing. What could have happened to her? Not again, he had already lost her once. If he allowed himself to think logically he would have known that she was not dead, the last time she died it was like he had been stabbed in the heart and he were mortal. He also had feeling of emptiness that had griped his whole being, shaking him to the core.
But Ares did not have a clear head, he demanded, “What happened!?!?!?” Gabrielle gulped, but told him that some soldiers had taken Xena, for some reason she didn’t think that he was behind her best friends capture anymore.
As the news finally sunk in he threw a lightning bolt at a statue of a great warrior, shattering it into bits with a loud crash. He than disappeared in a brilliant ball of blue light which slowly fading into nothing.
**********
She ached all over and her entire body screamed in agony, she was riding Argo as an extremely fast rate that was sending jolts of pure pain shaking her to her very core. She had killed many bandits but now she was in an even worse condition. The dark warrior gritted her teeth in determination.
Suddenly she felt a pain she had experienced just the other day, a lightning bolt. This one was lower in power but still caused her to go flying 50 feet. This time she did not crash into a tree, but on the dirt. Only her fierce persistence kept her awake, she painfully rose to standing position with her sword at the ready. Twenty warriors instantly surrounded her and she bit her lip. These were terrible odds of that she knew. But she would never allow herself to go down without a fight.
Xena began fighting for what seemed like forever, fighting what seemed like a hundred men and killing what seemed like 50. She only fought for about 5 minutes, she was fighting only 20 men and she had only killed 3 of them.
The sword was getting heavier, and harder to carry, just as it was getting more and more impossible to fight. She was losing her strength and it was taking more time to take down her opponents. The pain was immeasurable, her agony so great. Suddenly death and Tartarous was looking like a preferable option. A sword was coming directly at her throat and she could find no strength to block the lethal blow. Xena closed her eyes, so this was it. This was how she was going to die. During an escape plan, wounds EVERYWHERE on her body she could think of, battling against 20 men. She would soon be taking a trip to the Underworld with one major difference. This time it would be permanent though and there would be no Ambrosia to revive her. She mentally counted the time left 3…2…1…WHAT? There was no contact, no finishing blow. Nothing at all.
The sight Xena opened her eyes to was unexpected to say the least. “What?” Xena said in surprise. Everything was frozen, she took a few steps back from the blade that was too close to her neck for comfort, less than centimeters from it’s mark. As she tried to turn around to see what caused this, although she had a pretty good idea of what, or more specifically WHO caused this. A wave of pain suddenly washed over her. Now that she wasn’t fighting, the pain, everything she felt was at its back to its undivided strength.
She stumbled at first trying to stay up and conscious but her attempts were in vain as she soon found out and eventually she saw complete black. Just as she was falling a dark male in black leather appeared in a dazzling display of blue light. He caught her gently before she hit the hard dirt. With one last look of concern at Xena who was now in his arms having lost consciousness. They left in a ball of blue light. Once gone everything unfroze leaving several angry and puzzled soldiers behind.
Part Two
Two figures appeared out of the air in the center of a dark bedroom. They were in The Halls of War. Ares looked gave one concerned glance at his unconscious Warrior Princess. She would die soon if he did not do anything about it. Placing her gently on his bed on the black silk sheets as carefully as he could trying not to disturb her many wounds as much as possible. He took in a deep long, but shaky breath. Ares thought trying to convince himself, he could do this he was the God of War it would be no problem, it was not a big deal. But he knew differently though, if he failed than she would no longer be alive. If she died there would be nothing he could do to revive her, he wouldn’t ever see her again. Hades didn’t allow Ares to the Fields, something about his presence disturbing the happy people. Ares had rolled his eyes when his uncle told him that, they were DEAD MORTALS, they meant nothing, except for his Warrior Princess. Ares knew that that the fields are where his princess would go, she could never be anywhere else.
Ares looked at her again and took another deep breath. He was very tense. He touched her shoulder closest to him slightly and he willed with all of the power, will, and strength he possessed, and some of it will he did not know he had, that Xena’s wounds were healed. Since he was a War God he really had a lot more practice inflicting wounds rather than healing them. Ares didn’t even think that there was a time before this where he was trying to actually SAVE someone from dying, and if there was they were far less severe and life threatening. Or as important to him as this was. At first he thought his powers weren’t working and he panicked slightly and whispered franticly, “Come on, please let this work.” Suddenly, very slowly he began to see her wounds closing and healing.
After healing only her most serious wounds as well as the permanent ones (anymore of that would have completely drained him) he collapsed heavily on the bed next to Xena, but careful to not fall on top of her. He couldn’t remember any time in his immortal existence where he had been so utterly exhausted. He groaned softly, but still a soft, sweet smile graced his beautiful features.
Although completely exhausted he was still happy. He had saved his princess, which a few minutes ago seemed not possible, and that was all that mattered. She would go on living, at least for now. He frowned slightly, he knew she would not live a long life, she was a warrior. No matter how skilled she was or how many times she escaped and cheated her fate, or how many times he intervened or called on favors, she could not do it forever. Ares deepened his frown when he thought of life without his warrior. He had been through it once when she crashed into the tree to save a little girl. Those had been the most terrible and wretched days of his entire existence. He winced as he remembered. No, he could not go through that again, but how could he stop the inevitable? The only way was to convince her somehow to become a Goddess, or at least immortal so that he would never have to experience that pain again. This was why the Gods were not supposed to fall in love with mortals.
A soft sigh escaped his lips as he looked at his beautiful Warrior Princess. Xena did not love him. She could never love him. She hated him with her entire being. Although with all the stunts he had pulled in the past in was not very difficult for him to see why. He had been very stupid and he knew that he had hurt her emotionally as well as mentally, but he wanted her back and wasn’t very good at expressing his feelings to anyone. He wasn’t even used to FEELING those feelings. It was all brand-new, like a wild chariot ride that was completely out of control going over bumps, hills, falls, ups and downs that was very frightening for the usually in control War God.
He looked on at his princess who lay next to him. Ares pulled the black blanket gently over her and after a brief moment of hesitation, he leaned in slightly and gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead. Gazing at his chosen Ares eventually allowed himself to fall into the hands of Morpheus.
**********
“Gabrielle, please calm down and eat something!” Ephiny half ordered and half pleaded towards her stubborn queen, “You haven’t eaten all day and our Amazons went out and got a whole extra dear when they heard that you were in the village. You can’t let a whole deer go to waste now can you? Especially since they went out of their way to get it for you.” Ephiny teased the bard. It was a common never ending source of amusement that the Gabrielle could eat enough for a small army and never seemed to tire of food. Instead of getting a reaction other than the worry that was deeply etched on the bards expressive face like she hoped, she got what she had been receiving all day from her previous, also unsuccessful attempts. She glared quickly at the regent and once again resumed her pacing of the royal hut.
Ephiny tried again to get her friend to eat something. “Gabrielle we are trying everything in our power to find Xena, but it will take some time. In the mean time we have our best scouts out looking for her and you should rest and eat. Do you really think you will do any good to her as you are right now?”
That stopped her pacing, “Your right Eph, it’s just that I feel like I should be helping you know? I mean whenever I am in trouble it’s always her to the rescue to save me yet again and I feel like I should be doing the same in return.”
“I know Gabrielle, and you will help. But right now the best thing to do is to take care of yourself.” Ephiny smiled. Maybe her queen would listen to her for once.
**********
NOOOOOOOOO! Her whole being screamed NO! NO! NO! NO! This *CAN’T* be happening! Xena was locked up in the same chains as the ones during her torture session not so long ago. Images hit her in a tidal wave and as she re-lived the attack of Cortese, her brother’s death, and Caesar. All of them dark moments and figures from her past. She struggled as the scene in front of her changed to a beautiful field in the springtime. In the center was Gabrielle and Cyrene all talking together eating at a picnic, Xena smiled, she hadn’t seen them in ages! It did not seem odd to her that her chains had disappeared and that she was in a dress, completely unhurt.
Suddenly Xena gasped though. Right behind them she saw a dark figure, Xena was about to call out to her mother and her best friend but she was unable to speak, the figure moved forward very stealthily and with a malicious laugh killed them with a gleaming sword. Finally regaining her speech she screamed, “NO! STOP!”
Ares awoke as he *Sensed* more than heard her struggle. In an instant he was up in a flash. Xena was having a nightmare. She began to thrash and scream loudly, yelling, “NO! STOP!” The God of War frowned slightly at that, she was probably having a nightmare, even worse because of the many wounds inflicted on her. Before she could hurt herself and open up her wounds further, Ares gently, but firmly wrapped his arms around her and made sure her arms were unable to move at all.
At his touch Xena first tensed up. After a few moments, as if she could tell who it was she loosened her body, melding perfectly to his, slowly stopping her struggles. The dark God became very angry with the people who he knew caused this. He vowed silently that he would personally track down and punish the people responsible for Xena’s pain especially the godling that was behind the entire scheme. He would not let what she had done go unpunished, far from it. He was looking forward to the moment when he could extract his merciless punishment on Discord for her insolence and blatant disobedience. Especially because this almost caused the demise of the one person in his immortal existence, mortal or not, which had ever meant anything to him at all.
After a few minutes Ares smiled slightly with pleasure as he allowed himself to relax a little, if felt so good to feel her this close to him. He hadn’t done this in such a long time, and even then it was only once or twice. With the smile still on his handsome features, Ares and his Warrior Princess slowly drifted off into a peaceful sleep which was very rare for both the raven haired woman and Olympian beside her who had his strong arms around her in a protective position.
**********
A marble statue broke and shattered into thousands of pieces as Discord continued to wreck havoc among her bedroom. Nothing was going according to plan, *nothing! * Xena was still alive, and with Ares, who was falling all over himself to save his precious princess! Xena who should have been easily killed had instead killed a couple handfuls of Discord’s warriors half dead.
She threw another fire bolt, this time it hit the wall creating a large hole threw it. Ares was mad at her now and was definitely going to seek revenge. This meant she would have to hide, Ares was one of the most powerful Gods on Olympus, and it was not possible that she, a Godling would come out victorious.
Why should she have to go through this? Discord demanded herself angrily, she was a GODDESS and all she did was try to kill a *mortal! * Discord inwardly seethed, this was all her fault! First she came in and took her place as first in the God of Wars mind, than she wouldn’t just die, and now she will be the reason Ares is extremely pissed off at her right now. In anger the dark Goddess threw another fire bolt. This one hit another statue. By the end of her tantrum the room was a complete wreck.
**********
The God of War had been watching over her for the past two days. Xena had still not woken up and continued to have terrible nightmares, which Ares was there immediately after they started to calm her down. He had to admit to himself that it made him feel good to be able to have that privilege of taking care of her, but he still felt a sense of hopelessness, there was nothing he could do now.
He would have much rather had her back awake, to see her stunning baby blues that could be as soft and gentle as the smoothest silk one second, and as cold and unfeeling like ice the next. Many a man had run away in fear when she gave what her best friend called, “The Look.” The Look contained a complete and utter desire to KILL. When you looked into her eyes you would not find a single emotion other than that sharp desire to slaughter, there was no compassion, no gentleness, she was a predator and would not back down from anyone. When you looked into her eyes you had the distinct feeling that she was something that you could not touch, that you would never understand, something that you could not beat, no matter how skilled you were. She was a force of nature and would not be stopped by anything.
Other’s had fallen a different way, falling all over themselves by her eyes alone and even more still by her rare dazzling smile that melted the hearts of all that had the good fortune to witness it. She could make men fall at their knees with just a few words and a flash of her perfect teeth. Xena had the smoothest most amazing silky voice that could be so seductive. The most astonishing thing was that most of the time she was completely unaware of the havoc she caused upon men all over, leaving many broken hearts in her trail. Many said that she was just as dangerous on the heart as she was with a sword. The God of War, who had lost his heart to the incredible woman, readily agreed to that statement as he gazed at the dark complex woman who still slept on. His eyes held an unconcealed look of deep admiration, respect, adoration, and most of all, although he would deny it himself, complete love.
His features slowly darkened as he remembered there was a reason she was not awake and why he could not see her incredible eyes. The reason was Discord, Ares inwardly seethed, her jealously had come up in conversations before but she had never acted upon it, mainly due to his explicit threats and warnings he gave her if she did even *think* of harming Xena. Obviously she had ignored him. Ares knew that she was probably hiding right now and he was not in the mood to go on a wild goose chaise to find her when there were others that would be much quicker to find. The dark War God smiled a malicious smile, he had not killed anyone for days and seeing his princess in her present state was causing much built up tension in his body. He needed a release and what better release than to hurt the direct cause of his chosen’s pain, indirectly the main cause of his pain? There was none.
Ares frowned slightly, he had not left Xena’s side since he had brought her there, but it was highly unlikely she would wake up within the next candle mark. He still had a sense of unease about leaving her alone even for the shortest of times. After ordering one of his priestesses to take care of her and NOT leave the room even for a second, he left with one last look at Xena in a ball of blue light intent on making her torturers suffer ten times the amount that she had.
**********
A familiar figure dressed in black leather appeared in the room also occupied by Xena and a priestess of Ares. He had just spent a few candle marks torturing the men who had made his warrior suffer. Right now they were in Tartarous, he had made sure of that, in their own misery which would last for an eternity. After telling the priestess to go, he smiled a smile that was full of satisfaction. He had heard them scream for mercy, cry like children, plead, threaten, and beg, but still he did not stop. They had done the same thing to his chosen, which made him even angrier. She did not do any of those things.
Each of the men who participated in the torture or tried to stop him had suffered greatly for their mistake. Ares smiled when he remembered. It had felt very good to hurt the objects of his love’s pain. He had gotten out a lot of tension that he had been building up. Like he always says, ‘Nothing lets out tension better then a decent spot of violence.’ Or it went something along those lines, either way he was right.
After checking her wounds and making sure Xena was as comfortable as he could get her Ares once again fell into a deep sleep
**********
Xena woke up slowly, groaning softly. Once she opened her eyes she quickly took in her surroundings and when she was done she had a whole lot more questions than answers. Her mind was working over-time with the confusion whirling around in her head. The most significant of the questions were; what was she doing lying down next to Ares in the same bed? Why was she in the Halls of War? Why were her wounds healed? Why did he save her? What was she still doing alive? What would he want in return? How long had she been here? What happened? And last but not least, what was she going to do *now*?
As if to complicate matters even more Ares slowly stirred. The raven-haired warrior winced slightly, this was not good. But then again she did need some answers or she was going to drive herself to insanity. When Ares opened his eyes he was met with the most beautiful sight he could imagine, Xena was awake! Although she tried her best to keep a completely blank expression even though she was feeling so much at one time, gratitude, that same attraction she’s had for him that drove her insane, distrust, physical hurt, worry for Gabrielle. Where *was* she? Ares could see that she was utterly confused. Why wouldn’t she be though, he thought. After all waking up in a bed with someone you hated, after expecting to greet Hades could create quite a bit of confusion in even the most confident of people. But he was SO glad she was awake and could only say softly, “You’re awake.”
Xena just nodded, she didn’t know what to say so instead gave him a look that clearly showed her confusion. Ares was pretty much in the same position so he suggested, “Let me look at your wounds.”
This turned out to be a *very* bad idea because their close proximity just added to their growing tension. He chose to do the less serious wounds first, mainly because they were on her arm. The unease between the two warriors stopped Ares from checking the wound she had on the inside of her upper, right thigh, they already had enough problems. Feeling a need to ease the strain he decided to fill her in on what she had missed in her unconscious state, “I froze the soldiers, took you back here and healed your most serious wounds so you would live. I would have healed you completely, but as you know I have a bit more practice inflicting damage to the body than healing them.” They both shared a small smirk at that.
Xena finally asked, “How long have I been here?” She was still very confused but had the feeling that Ares genuinely wanted to save her, no strings attached, but why was that? He was her enemy, a dangerous one who was not supposed to go out of his way to save her. He must just want her back as his warrior, but still that did not make sense. *Nothing* made sense right now!
“Three days.” He responded slowly still cleaning the wound and adding a new bandage. The wounds would be completely gone with her incredible healing within a few days. He knew Xena better then anyone else, even better then that irritating blonde friend of hers. They had a bond that was incredibly unique. He knew she was unsure of what to do, he was too, but he wanted to have her back. This time it was different though, he didn’t want her as his conqueror, but as his Goddess. Seeing her so close to death for the second time had left a scar on his soul, which before he ever met Xena would have been sure he did not possess. He knew he would never survive if she was permanently out of his life and there was only one solution to that, but he did not want to force her to live with him. He wanted her to *want* to be with him on her own. He sighed softly, he just didn’t think it was very likely with the continuous pain he has caused her, even if it was to get have her back.
Xena’s eyes had widened slightly, three days? Ares had taken care of her for three days? Maybe he *did* care. NO, she mentally scolded herself; she would not go down that road. It was bumpy, painful, and always had a dead end. So, she asked herself, what was she going to do now?
Her thoughts were put to a sudden halt, as she finally became aware of how perfectly close Ares was to her. She inhaled quickly as several quick fantasies played through her mind unintentionally. Xena felt herself blush slightly and quickly made sure that her face was not in his line of vision “Sorry.” Ares said genuinely sorry, he thought he had hurt her while cleaning her various wounds as she had inhaled and jerked away. She almost laughed at that, almost. She had completely forgot that he was cleaning her injuries, so utterly focused on each and every delicious detail of his closeness but was grateful he did not notice her blush, or her intake of breathe for what it was.
His thoughts were firmly on his magnificent princess. He knew he was taking quite a bit longer than was necessary to clean a few wounds, but she said nothing. In fact she didn’t even seem to really notice. The feel of her skin, the smell of her hair, the aura that always surrounds her was intoxicating and overloading his senses. A small part of Ares had to laugh a little at himself. He, the big bad ass God of War was in complete emotional torture just by being near a woman, any woman. But the larger part that knew Xena, and knew how special and utterly unique she was, thought he was lucky that he had held up so well.
He did not think he could last more of this without making a complete fool out of himself so he knew he had to get far away from her. “These few are finished. I’ll have one of my priestesses clean and dress your other wounds. You can have them bring you food. I have a war in Persia that needs my attention. So my princess it saddens me to say I have to leave. I will be back in a few candle marks, if you need anything just call.” He finished softly, looking deeply into her eyes. He might have tried to seduce her but did not. Mainly because she was still very confused, there would be time to try and win her back later, when he could be sure that she really did want him. He gently took her hand and gave it a soft kiss. With one last look at her he disappeared in a flash of blue light.
After looking for a few moments at the spot where Ares left, Xena slowly got up and opened a beautiful oak closet full of clothing that fit her perfectly, clinging to her every curve. Xena smiled slightly, he must have gotten them all from her closet she had in her old room. She knew some of them were new because she didn’t recognize them. Xena and Ares had never had shared a room together or made love. Ares had pulled back quickly just before they would have reached that stage in both of there rather brief but unforgettable relationship. She frowned slightly. It had been unforgettable for her anyway. Ares seemed to not care one way or another, and as much as she didn’t want to admit it, especially since every year since then, when he had left it had cut her very deeply.
That had always confused Xena, if he was just using her, which was what she had always figured, WHY would he do so *before* they had done it and not directly after. Ares had showed explicit interest in Xena in that area on many occasions. Xena did not have any insecurity about her body or her sexual prowess. After all she had many years to build up her self esteem in that particular area and was pretty sure that Ares drawing back had nothing to do with the fact he didn’t WANT her body, what made her shaky was the idea that he didn’t want *her*. This again brought her back to her original question, why would he stop before and not after if he really had no feelings for her like she had tried to convince herself over the years. She had come very close to believing it too, until now.
He was acting very strange, and *very* silent. Not that Ares was anything like Gabrielle, but he was never as quiet as he was today. She might have asked him what was wrong except for the fact that she was so wrapped up in her thoughts, her rather intriguing thoughts to say anything. She didn’t even want to attempt to talk. Who knows what she might say with her thoughts veering off in *that* direction!
Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard her stomach growl loudly. Xena smiled, she had completely forgotten about food! Xena’s smile grew wider as she thought about her best friend, she would *never* forget about that! After quickly changing into a beautiful light blue dress that brought out her stunning baby blue eyes even more then they were already, she went to find some food to soothe her growling stomach.
As Xena was looking around she noticed that SO much had changed since she was there last, remodeling, new additions, things had been taken out, almost *everything* changed. After walking around Xena soon saw a young priestess she instantly recognized from her many visits before, “Thea?!?!”
Thea turned quickly after stopping dead in her tracks as she heard the unmistakable voice and gave a loud and delighted squeal, “Xena! Wow you are finally awake. Everyone here has been really worried about you, especially a certain tall, dark, and dangerous guy we both know!” She finished with a big grin. She had fiery red hair, dark green eyes, many freckles, and always a big smile that made you want to like her. Thea was short and not really a warrior. She had never even learned how to hold any type of weapon, which was highly rare for any priestess of The God of War.
Xena had found her when she was little as a warlord, alone and hungry. Somehow the young priestess had managed to get past Xena’s cold, hard exterior and she had felt a need to find her a home without war, where she would be able to eat and have a roof over her head. Xena had convinced Ares to give her a job as one of his priestesses and she has served at his temple faithfully since. While Thea was not beautiful like Xena, she had this friendly aura around her that made you want to smile or laugh. There were *very* few people who had a dislike for the cheerful woman.
The Warrior Princess was no exception, she gave her one of her rare all-teeth smiles and said, “It is so good to see you! I haven’t seen you in what, five years? You look great!”
“Five years sounds about right to me. And you look just how I last saw you, awe inspiringly beautiful, which of course makes me, as usual, fiercely jealous!” She said with a wide good-natured grin and than added with a smirk, “So what have you and the big bad and SEXY God of War been doing hmmm?”
Xena had to laugh slightly, Thea never did stop until she got an answer, “Nothing Thea, he just checked some of my wounds and left to over-see a battle.” When Thea gave Xena a disbelieving look Xena persisted, “We didn’t do *anything *, besides he is my enemy Thea, we wont do anything later either.”
The priestess smirked slightly, “Yeah sure, *enemies *, that’s what you two are. That’s not how it seems when he talks about you which is ALL the time.”
Her last comment took Xena aback. Ares talked about her? It was probably just about her battles she decided, “Thea, we are enemies, nothing more, nothing less. The only thing different from that is the fact that he wants me on his side, and will do anything it takes to do that, there is no me and Ares.”
Thea raised an eyebrow and said, “Xena you can’t be serious! Ares is totally in love with you, it’s so apparent. Just like you know you are in love with him.”
Xena bit her lip slightly, could Thea be right? Could Ares really have feelings for her? Maybe…maybe she could give him a chance. NO! She thought a second after. That thought was a lot louder than the one before it. She will not go through what she has been again, especially since Ares didn’t even seem interested in her at all just a few moments ago. Thea was right about one thing though, Xena was still in love with Ares, and as much as she tried not to, Xena had the feeling that these feelings would never go away.
With a soft voice that conveyed her sadness at her words Xena said, “No Thea, me and Ares will never be a “couple” or anything like that.”
Thea looked ready to protest but when she saw the look in Xena’s eyes she knew now was not the time to convince her that what she said was true. Maybe, she couldn’t help but add in her head; maybe she could convince Ares that she loved *him *. Purposefully changing the subject Xena said, “So do you want to join me for lunch? We have a lot of catching up to do!”
Thea gave her a big smile and agreed, “You’re right, I hear you’ve been causing LOTS of trouble lately…as usual, and I want you to tell me about it!” They both headed down the wide halls of the Halls of War.
**********
While watching over the war he had been distracted away from, Ares was trying to sort out his feelings and thoughts. He had figured Xena was completely over him and *hated* him, but earlier she didn’t seem to hold the large amount of disdain that seemed to be in everyone of their conversations since she had left him, that had been one of the worst days of his entire existence.
He sighed heavily, would he *ever* understand her? A small smile graced his features as he realized that he didn’t *want* to ever completely understand her. That was one of the many things that fascinated him about her. He would never know her completely, even though he was the one single person alive to know her the best. Sometimes even better then she knows herself. He knew that to be true the other way as well.
Well…he needed some advice and dreaded going to the only person who could help him. With a large sigh he closed his eyes and disappeared through the ether. Maybe then he would know what to do.
After talking and catching up with her long time friend for awhile and finally eating something after about four days Xena decided to get herself re-familiar with the place. She had come upon a new training ground, several new quarters, a new bathing chambers, and that was just part of the place. She had only explored a quarter of the Halls of War since she had last been there.
Just as Xena was about to stop for the day and try to find the room she had been brought to, her eyes spotted new door. This door was large, like most of the other doors there, but what peaked Xena’s interest was the way the door was separated from the other doors and seemed to stand alone. This door was also very different in design.
With her curiosity on high, she moved with slow steps towards the door and tried to open it, only to find that this door was firmly locked. Xena bit her lip, none of the other doors were locked and she was probably not supposed to go inside. But she was now extremely curious as to what would be inside and dead set on entering. After all, one always does go after what is forbidden. The room seemed to call to her softy and draw her towards it, telling her to find out what it held inside.
**********
He appeared in a flash of light in a temple of Aphrodite. Ares grimaced as he looked around and saw, pink, pink, pink and pinker. He quickly told himself *Just do what you came to do and ignore everything else. *
Aphrodite had looked up from one of her priests who she had been flirting with when her brother dropped in. A look of curiosity overcame her gorgeous features, Ares usually tried to stay as far away from her temples as possible as a general rule, much like the one she had towards his dreary temples. I mean all that black, blood, and weapons? EWWWW! Besides, the totally depressing vibes in there could flatten my beautiful hair! What would a Goddess of Love be without perfect hair? None at all! “Hey bro. What’s up?”
“I need to talk to you,” He looked pointedly at the priest, “alone.”
Aphrodite just shrugged and then ordered her priest, “Okay scram,” but than added directly after with a flirtatious smile, “We’ll talk later.” The priest blushed a deep red and then practically ran out of the room. Aphrodite laughed once the priest left and then turned to her squirming brother, “So what’s the problem?”
Ares almost just left through the ether but willed himself to stay. This was the only way to find out what he should do so he said it really quickly before he lost his nerve, “ Umm…sis, what exactly should a person do if he is completely in love with this other person and he thinks she might hate him?” There! He thought, he said it.
Aphrodite arched a perfect eyebrow, so Ares was finally admitting to himself that he was in love with Xena. This could be a MAJOR victory for the Goddess of Love. “Xena doesn’t hate you bro, she’s is like, totally in love with you too!”
He protested “I never said it was me or Xena…and what do you mean she loves me? She HATES me.”
“Bro it’s totally obvious you love her, and trust me doesn’t hate you. I am the Goddess of Love, I know these things.”
Ares gave her a disbelieving look but said, “Alright thanks sis,” He had a lot to think about, maybe he had a better shot with his princess than he thought.
**********
She looked back up the halls to see if there were any priestess wandering around than might see her. After finding none Xena used her extraordinary strength she had and kicked the door open with a big thud. She winced slightly and gave another quick look to see if anyone had seen her. No one had.
Quickly walking inside she then shut the door as softly as possible behind her. She really didn’t think she was supposed to be in this room, but something about it had her intrigued, she couldn’t put her finger on it.
Finally looking at the room she found something that almost made her heart stop, as it was it skipped a few beats. There in front on her were statues, murals, weavings, weapons, and so much more. That on it's own was not what caused the mighty Warrior Princess, bloodthirsty Destroyer of Nations to stop dead in shock.
Each statue, mural, weaving, and piece of art was focused solely on *Her *, or of Xena with Ares. Xena stood still, much like one of the statues of her in the room, for about 10 minutes. Once she had enough control over herself, Xena had hundreds of questions going through her mind. WHY would he do this? When did he do this? If it was before she had left him then why was it still there and locked up?
Xena looked around once more. The room looked to be in excellent condition and everything was recently polished. Nothing had cobwebs or dust. The room looked like Ares thrown room in the way that both looked to be perfectly kept.
The raven-haired warrior sucked on her upper lip softly. She had finally convinced herself after some long painful years that Ares cared nothing for her, she was just a warlord that he wanted to conquer the world with, but all today things seemed just the opposite. These statues and works of art were all of her, but she was surprised to see that only half of them had her in battle, the other half showed the more gentle side of Xena, rarely seen. They had her laughing or smiling. Thea had said that he *loved* her, did he?
After remembering she really wasn’t supposed to be in there. Xena quickly turned around, she didn’t want to be caught by a priestess, or worse, by Ares. Instead of what she had planned she ended up walking straight into something hard. Xena winced slightly as she realized it was not something, it was *someone *. With a guilty look in her eyes, Xena reluctantly looked up at Ares.
What surprised Xena was that Ares did not seem mad like she thought he might be. He said with amusement, “As usual you can’t stay out of any place you aren’t supposed to be.” Looking at her face he smirked, she looked just like a kid who was caught doing something they have been told not to a thousand times. When it was apparent Xena didn’t have anything to respond he continued, his voice still holding his previous amusement, “I started having them made about eight years ago, what do you think?”
Talking to his sister actually did help, if not in the way he expected. He wanted her back, but this time it was in an emotional way, not as a warrior leading his battles as he had convinced himself before. After all it did not really matter who she fought *for* as long as she still did. He would still see her incredible victories, ones that she really shouldn’t have won but did. Not because she was lucky, but because of her amazing skill in just about everything. There was *very* little his princess could not do.
Xena was nothing if not shocked. All right so he wasn’t mad, that was good. She was at a loss for words. He started having them made about a year after he pulled back from their relationship. *This* was just confusing the Tartarous out of her. It was annoying her too, Xena liked to be in control and lately she had been feeling anything *but* in control. Ares was also acting a lot more like his usual arrogant, cocky self, which was one thing she was glad for. She smirked lightly, she never would have thought she would have been *glad* about this, but the quiet, unsure Ares was really just another problem before, among the many she already had whirling through her head.
Forcing herself to meet his gorgeous face Xena asked, ignoring his question, she had no clue what to respond to *that* right now! “ How was the war?”
Ares grinned broadly, clearly showing Xena that he knew perfectly that she was uncomfortable with his previous questioning but he allowed it to slide…for now, “It was great, blood, destruction, and gore.”
“And we both know how much you do love all those things.” Xena responded rolling her eyes slightly.
The God of War just raised an eyebrow at her response and took a few steps closer, leaning in towards her, bringing him about two hand-span’s away from Xena’s lips. He looked deeply into her eyes, “You and I both Xena. You know you love it all just as much as I do. It calls to you, the excitement, the bloodlust, and the heat of battle. It’s in your blood, demanding you to work its will. You can’t deny it.”
Xena’s heart raced, from his words or his closeness, she wasn’t sure which. Probably both she grudgingly admitted to herself. To ensure she didn’t do anything *really* stupid she took a few steps back while responding, “That may be true Ares. You’re right, I love battle and everything about it, but that doesn’t mean that I will ever do what I did before.”
Ares smiled slightly, so he was getting to her. He took a few steps forward, bringing him even closer then before. What she had said was more than he expected, “Of course not my princess.” He had added the last part in solely to annoy her, which was always fun.
Xena sighed with exasperation. He could be so infuriating sometimes! “I guess I really should be leaving soon, I need to find Gabrielle.”
A quick pang of sadness filled his heart, he didn’t want her to leave, “Your wounds aren’t completely healed and you haven’t picked up a sword in days. Wait a few more days and let me help you regain your strength.”
When she looked into his eyes she was surprised to see that he actually looked unhappy that she was going to leave, “I need to get back to Gabrielle, she doesn’t know what happened to me and I need to find her.”
Ah, *her* again, well he could help her with that, “The irritating blonde is at the Amazons and I can go and tell her where you are. You really shouldn’t be moving around after not using a sword until you are back to your usual self.”
Xena considered silently, she really SHOULDN’T be up to her ‘normal’ activities yet, he was right. There was just too much that could go wrong that she really couldn’t chance with her best friend along to protect. She would stay a few days and than go back to Gabrielle, “Alright, I’ll stay a few days until I have completely recovered and then I’ll go back to *Gabrielle *.” She purposely stressed her friend’s name so that maybe he’d learn it.
A look of relieve passed through Ares eyes, this would be the perfect time to maybe get Xena back like he had planned. He nodded slightly and then says with a small sigh, “I better go tell the blonde where you are.” And with a quick change of conversation he then comments leeringly while looking her over from head to toe, *very* slowly and with an abundance of attention, making Xena flush unconsciously, “By the way Xena I like the dress.” Before Xena had time to give a response he was gone in a flash of blue.
Xena couldn’t help but smile slightly after he left. Yep, Ares was back to his usual confidant, never faltering, and arrogant, seductive, sexy self. Her smile turned wicked as played with a few of her favorite fantasies in her mind.
She halted herself very quickly once she realized what she was doing. She can’t let him get to her, not this time and she was NOT staying longer because she actually wanted to be around him. She really wasn’t. Sighing, Xena thought to herself, you sound a lot more like you are trying to convince yourself more then stating a fact.
Well, she sighed there really was nothing left to do except maybe try out the waterfall Thea had commented about. It might do well in relaxing her sore, tense muscles. And, a voice in the back of her mind added with a smirk, maybe cool you off a little.
**********
“Ephiny we can not do NOTHING!” The bard said loudly, she had once again begun pacing the floors of the royal hut.
The exasperated woman responded, for what seemed like the millionth time that candle mark, “Our Amazons are doing the best they can, they wont be back until tomorrow morning. Until than, the best thing you can do is rest yourself my queen. I will be back, right now I am going to check on the tribe.” Ephiny than walked of the room. Ares was invisible to all mortals as he watched the blond pacing back and forth. This would be fun, he thought with anticipation, especially since she thought he was the one to order her captured. Now he really was the one who had her.
He appeared in a beautiful flash of blue right in front of the Amazon Queen’s path. He smirked as she gave out a yelp of surprise. She screeched loudly, “You bastard! Where is Xena? What have you done with her?”
“Xena is currently with me right now and she asked me to tell you that she is perfectly safe. She also wanted to make sure that you do not leave the Amazons.” The look on her face made it almost impossible for him to hold down his laughter. He left before she could finally regain her speech. He needed to check on the war he had ignored while concentrating on Xena. Zeus was no doubt already mad as it is.
**********
She had been sent out to the farthest and most remote part of the Amazon Territory for a week as punishment. She only had her horse, some water, no food, and some weapons, and a few other necessities. It was about two days on horse and four walking to get back to the Amazonia from where she was. Dasha still had four more days until she would start riding back. Dasha groaned loudly, she was hungry, thirsty, exhausted, and most of all, ALONE. She didn’t do anything all that bad; just got into a fight with some other girl everyone believed over her because she was a suck up even though it was really the witch herself who started the whole thing to begin with… as usual.
Electra was a bitch; it was as simple as that. What constantly amazed Dasha was how much everyone seemed to flock around her, mimicking everything she did or didn’t do. The only people who believed Dasha were her two best friends. They also knew how evil Electra really was having also been on the receiving end of it, unlike the adults and everyone else as it seems. Sighing with annoyance, Electra didn’t get any punishment. SHE got pity from everyone while most also gave Dasha heated looks full of disdain.
Stopping quickly as she heard a faint noise from far away, Dasha decided to inspect it further. Once there she was left gaping. Right in front of her was a large army and by the look at the banner it seemed to belong to the bloodthirsty group of bandits they had been having trouble with. From what she knew they wanted the Amazons to sell as slaves, whores, and for their own personal amusement. They must be trying to come up behind their city.
Her heart started racing wildly, her whole tribe was in danger! She needed to tell them at once so they could form a defense. In spite of herself she was a little excited, she had always wanted to be in a war, after all she *was* an Amazon!
Dasha quickly tried to make a count of things they would certainly need to know like how many there were, their layout, where exactly did she see them and so on. Right after she immediately hopped on her horse and gave it a kick, the horse seemed to sense the urgency of the situation and began racing through the dense forest with a scared but determined rider on his back.
**********
Ares reached out with his senses and found much to his surprise, that she was at the waterfall not far from the Halls of War. He appeared there and saw the most awe-inspiring sight that caused his jaw to drop slightly. There was *his * princess in all her nude glory, under the crashing waterfall. The water reached to her waist, leaving her upper body completely unclothed. Ares found his mouth was dry, and he couldn’t speak.
Suddenly Xena got a tingly feeling that was seductive, dangerous, and exciting all at the same time. It was what always alerted her to Ares presence. Her heart immediately quickened and she turned so that she saw him. Sure enough, he was there with his eyes so completely on her that she felt herself flush a little.
Swiftly she swam to the shore and she stopped where the water covered her to her neck. “So how did it go with Gabrielle?” She had been a little worried on how her friend would take the fact that she was staying with *Ares * of all people voluntarily.
He swallowed… *Hard *, she had absolutely no idea what she was doing to him! He needed to snap out of it before he did something really stupid, “Oh the blonde, I think she took it rather well.” He finally said with a smirk.
Xena just rolled her eyes, which meant that she was going to be in for it when she finally did leave to go see her. She was not looking forward to it at all. Although she *Could * have told him to look away, she didn’t, she was not known for modesty.
Quickly Xena got out of the water and proceeded to towel herself off and oblivious to the fact that Ares was staring at her with lust filled eyes.
When she discarded her towel in order to reach for her clothes she was dismayed to find that Ares had his foot on her dress stopping her from picking it up. She turned her now annoyed gaze to Ares she was surprised to find the hungry look that she did.
Unbidden feelings and thoughts suddenly filled her mind but she managed to growl, “Ar-es.”
With unconcealed desire his eyes continued to slowly rove her entire shapely figure seemingly having not heard her warning, but than a sexy smile overtook his features as he noted admiringly with a raised eyebrow, still not bothering to avert his eyes in the least, “You certainly heal well.” And she had, her skin looked as smooth as silk which Ares desperately wanted to touch. Not a trace could be seen left of the injuries she had before, although a lot of it did have to do with the God of War.
Scowling she said warningly, “Ares get off my clothes now before I make you.” Ares grinned and finally looked at her eyes which her extremely annoyed. His eyes conveyed that he was perfectly willing to let her make him. When she gave him another scathing look he reluctantly moved his foot back
She quickly got dressed in a beautiful short summer dress. She noticed the look Ares gave when she was done. It held a strong sense of disappointment and his lips formed into a boyish pout. While resisting the urge to either slap him for what he did or kissing him for being so unbelievably cute, Ares waves his hand and an assortment of food appeared and was laid out on a blanket, “You haven’t eaten since yesterday, you must be starved.” In answer to her unspoken question.
Xena wondered how it was possible to be so incredibly infuriated with someone one second and then the next feel the exact opposite the very next. With a slightly exasperated look she agrees. While they ate Xena looked up at Ares to ask him the question that has been in the back of her mind for a while, “Ares, where is Argo?”
He smiled slightly at her love for her war-horse. “I had Thea put her in the stables when I brought you here.”
They spent the rest of the afternoon talking, odd for both the warriors but together it just seemed… right.
**********
They were going to attack in four days. Melanctono had been waiting for this for a while. The Amazons would be a perfect addition to his slave trade. They were priced very high and even more if they were beautiful as most Amazons were. It would have been a shame to waste their beauty on harlots like them if he wasn’t making any profit out of it.
He had help from the Goddess Discord, she gave him an additional 400 men to his 200. She really wanted that village to be taken, why he did not know. Either way he was making an excellent profit no matter the reason.
But he was, and he expected to make a fortune off this as well as some good entertainment. He licked his lips slightly. The few Amazons he did see were exotically attractive. Turning back to his troops behind him he never did give a thought to the possibility they could *lose *. After all, what could a bunch of good-looking whores do to him and his army?
**********
Two figures appeared in the Halls of War. Turning to his companion, who was completely unfazed by his chosen traveling method, he gave a slightly leering look and said, “Why don’t you get more… comfortable while I go and check in with Thea quickly.” After rolling her eyes slightly she nodded and in a flash of blue he was gone.
She then went and opened the closet once again. After looking around for a little bit she concluded that Ares must have forgotten about nightgowns or something to sleep in. What she wore wouldn’t do and all the other clothing in there were dresses.
With a mischievous look in her eyes she went and opened another closet and picked out one of Ares shirts, it was made of black silk. Xena quickly changed into the shirt and began to brush her hair thoroughly. As she did she finally allowed herself to think over the various events that happened since she was with Ares.
He was taking every chance there was to flirt with her, much to Xena’s inward pleasure. Although she put up an annoyed front when he had blatantly ogled her at the waterfall she had to admit that she had *enjoyed * it! More than just enjoyed, if she was to be completely honest to herself. And when he didn’t let her get to her clothes she had felt a jolt of excitement that she only really felt when she was around Ares.
While not ready to open herself up to Ares, that is if she ever *could* she was beginning to think that maybe Ares did care about her. Still, she could not soon forget the last time she felt like this, she wasn’t sure if she really ever would.
Did all of this mean Ares *loved* her, like her long-time friend Thea says he does? Or that he just wanted to get her in bed? Was this all some hidden manipulation to get her back? Were things going to stay this way once she left or would they go back to the way it were before? Did any of this mean anything or would he just forget?
All these questions and more that she didn’t have the answers to. All Questions resembled a fierce tornado, flying around in all of her thoughts. She would like to believe that he *did* care about her, that he *did* want her, that he *did* love her. But a voice, a strong, loud voice that remembered the many different betrayals she suffered and the incredible pain she went through because of them. That voice screamed for her to leave. One cannot be hurt by something that isn’t there. She stopped brushing her hair as soon as she felt the familiar presence of the God of her thoughts materializing in the space behind her.
**********
He found Thea walking to her room for the night. When she saw him she slightly bowed her head in respect and said, “Lord Ares.” She than gave him a brief but detailed report of the happenings and so on. When done with that she asked with concern, “How is Xena? I would have asked her myself, but you know how she is. Just a few days ago she was on the brink of death and even though you told me you healed most of the wounds, there was just so much you could heal for her.”
“She is perfectly healed, there isn’t a trace of the wounds she had before.” He assured her. It was good to have someone that cared for Xena.
He soon realized the mistake in his wording when she gave him a raised eyebrow, “So how exactly did you find this out? Xena doesn’t usually let people take care of her wounds, and even then it can take a while.” The look she gave said that she thought she knew *exactly* how he came upon that information.
Shaking his head slightly, she had a one tracked mind! Hers was almost as bad as his own mind, wait, *no one's* mind is that bad! He couldn’t help the grin that appeared on his face as he thought about how he did figure out that particular information, but he quickly tried to suppress it when he noticed that it would only confirm her suspicions. “Sorry to disappoint you Thea but no, we did not make love. She just sort of… let me look at her wounds.” The sexy grin was back on his face again when he finished his sentence.
Then a sadder undertone came into his voice as he said, “She hates me Thea. Sure right now she’s being nice to me and all. It is only because she feels some sort of obligation to due to the fact I saved her life. When she leaves it will all go back to the way it was.” He couldn’t mask the sorrow that it gave him to say that. That day had been one of the most amazing days of his life and surprisingly, war didn’t have any factor in it at all.
Thea shook her head slightly; boy was this some couple! Each thinking the other didn’t care about each other. When in truth, they were completely in love. A lot of it had to do with the past though, and with their personalities. Both were too proud to put themselves on the line. Flirting was one thing but opening your heart that much was too much for both of the strong and stubborn warriors. She wanted to do something about it, they both helped her SO much and she thought it was only fair that she gave something back. That and the fact she always thought that Ares and Xena were perfect for each other.
With a soft voice Thea said trying to convince him of the truth, “Ares she doesn’t hate you, I talked to her earlier this morning and she had the same look on her face as you. You guys are totally in love but think the other person doesn’t care.”
“I wish I could believe that Thea… I really do.” And than his wall was back up on his face and he disappeared through the ether.
**********
When he materialized in his room he found Xena brushing her raven hair. She stopped when she sensed his unmistakable presence and put the brush beside her on the floor. Gracefully she stood and faced the handsome War God.
Ares is once again struck with lust as he looks at her, his silk shirt was *very* short on her, stopping at the upper thigh. His eyes unconsciously went to her long, tanned legs. Only *she* could do this to him! Any other woman he would have not even gave a second glance to… but not her. Her beauty surpassed all others, goddesses and mortals alike. She was perfect, flawless inside and out. He knew that he *wanted* her in a way he had never needed anyone before. He wanted her completely in mind, body, and spirit and did not think he could settle for just two of the three.
Usually he could just tell women to do what he wanted and they would fall all over themselves to do so. He knew that would not be the case with his warrior, it would take a lot more than that. He couldn’t force her into what he wanted either, she would never forgive him and he would have lost the slim chance he had now. He had broken through the thick wall of hatred though. Something he didn’t think was possible before, which was a start. But not nearly all of what he wanted… what he needed. He wanted to touch her, feel her, and taste her. He wanted to possess her in a way that she had never experienced before. He wanted her to feel the same way he did whenever he was around. He wanted to make her his Goddess, his queen, and together they would rule for an eternity.
His lustful look was, once again sending a flood of excitement through her. She *wanted* him… but she couldn’t give into that desire. That same voice in the back of her mind still told her to run, to leave as quickly as she could. Nothing good could come from this.
Ignoring both voices in her head Xena raised an eyebrow and asked, “Are you just going to keep staring at me all night or are you going to do something else?”
With a sly smile Ares responded, “Well that all depends. Does the something else involve me making love to you until you cry my name out in ecstasy?”
Xena immediately flushed and this time Ares was perfectly aware of it. He grinned wider at her obvious discomfort. It was not often that you caught the Warrior Princess off-guard like that. She said only half warningly, “Ar-es!”
Completely neglecting her warning with the movements of a predator stalking its prey he moved forward seductively. Xena moved backward matching his steps until she felt the hard wall against her back. Damn! She was stuck, he got close enough for her to feel his breath on her face and he put his hands on both sides of her so she couldn’t move. She felt his hard body against her own, melding perfectly to hers, as if they were made to be together. He leaned down slowly so he was whispering in her ear, “Come on Xena, tell me you don’t think about it… about us? Tell me that you feel nothing for me.”
Looking into his eyes that were hard with their intensity, she knew she couldn’t say it. She had thought about them together more times than she’d like to admit. And she sure as Tartarous felt something for the dark war god. It was electrifying and all absorbing, invading every one of her thoughts. So she stayed silent, still staring into his eyes, saying nothing, what could she say?
Her silence said it all and Ares breathed a small sigh of relieve, so she did have some feelings for him. How strong, was yet to be determined. Purposefully changing the subject to an easier one for both of them he commented, looking at her wearing *his* shirt. “For the second time today you seem to have gone into an area that is supposed to be off limits… normally I would be inclined to punish someone for doing that just once.” He had moved his hands from their positions on the wall and stepped back a few steps giving her some room.
Xena had finally regained her composure and noticed the change of subject for what it was a way to go back to the easier form of teasing and flirting. After giving him a brief look of gratitude she responded with a smirk, “What are you going to do? Scold me? Besides… it’s not my fault you completely forgot about any nightgowns while you did the closet.”
With a mischievous look, Ares said, “I can do a lot more than scold… and who said I ‘forgot’ about your clothing? I sort of thought we’d be doing something that really didn’t require any type of clothing…” Before he could say another word he had to dodge a pillow that was being flung at him with expert skill. Once safely out of the way he let out a chuckle and than made a tsking sound, “Temper, temper. You really need to work on tha…” Ares never got to finish his sentence as he found himself trying to dodge another pillow being hurled at him with perfect accuracy.
That turned out to be the beginning of an enormous pillow fight. By the end of the fight there were broken pillows and scattered feathers all over the room. They laid together on the bed in a peaceful silence and eventually they both lost their way into the arms of Morpheus.
**********
Panting heavily Dasha gave a quick look of relieve. There it was! She could see the beginning of Amazon territory just ahead! She had made a journey that was supposed to take two days in one. Her whole body was aching and her horse was no doubt even more exhausted then its rider. Just a little bit farther, she thought franticly as the two raced through the dense forest at an extraordinary speed.
Once in Amazon land she called out a special birdcall to the Amazons she knew were in the surrounding trees. Immediately she heard the same piercing cry high, throughout the forest. It continued down the forest, soon everyone would be assembled for an emergency at the access to the village. Urging her horse just a little faster. Soon she would be there and they could plan a defense, soon she could rest her exhausted muscles.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity she rushed through the gates to see the whole village waiting for her, they had heard the emergency call. Dasha ignored them however, and dismounted from her horse hastily. Directing her full attention on her queen and regent she blurted out, “There is an army about a three days march behind our village! I saw them and they had the banner of Melanctono!” Everyone in attendance gasped but she went on finishing in a rush, “They had about 600 men and were in the area I just came back from.”
At first a few people didn’t believe her, she was a problem child after all. But the look of fear and need to do SOMETHING on her face took away the doubts. The look was real. There was real fear and real urgency in her face. They needed to do something quick.
Each person looked shocked, but Ephiny soon recovered. After all, they had been expecting an attack before but they thought it was going to be against *much* smaller numbers. They only had 400 in their tribe who could fight. This was going to be a lot more difficult than everyone thought… and a lot more blood was going to be spilled.
Gabrielle was standing next to Ephiny it shock, she had always wanted to do something without Xena in charge and suddenly here it was and now she didn’t want it. Sure Ephiny would help her a lot but it was the queen who had the final command. It would be *her* to lead them to battle against slave traders. She felt a strong need to protect them, but at the same time she was scared. She didn’t know if she was strong enough to order an attack that would *kill* people. It went against everything she believed in.
Solori ordered everyone to their be quiet, there was too much noise. Instantly Amazons were sent to see if the threat of the army was true and how close they were, and one to tell the Centaurs to be expecting the children of the village soon. The village was in a disorder as everyone rushed to plan a course of defense. It never entered anyone’s mind that they *wouldn’t* fight, they were Amazons and would not let some asshole sell their sisters as slaves or whores.
**********
They had been practicing all morning right next to the waterfall Ares found Xena at the day before and the weather was far from sunny… it actually was really gray and rain threatened to begin falling at any moment. Ares had gone lightly at first but when she quickly won he began increasing the level until they were fighting with their all. Xena knew she was quite a bit weaker then usual and if she didn’t do something soon she’d automatically lose just because as a God, he had more stamina, but before she could try anything she found herself pinned on the ground with his hard body pressed against her.
He didn’t move in the slightest but said, “You seem to be not back to your usual standard but with a few days training on your own you will be.” Ares was enjoying the closeness of their bodies immensely and began to idly play with her silky hair.
Xena nodded slightly, but then when she noticed he hadn’t moved at all to get off her she tried to push him off. His weight and strength had her pinned completely though and she only succeeded in bringing them even closer together. Finally giving up she growled with warning, “Ares get off of me”
He just looked at her with amusement and then whispered smoothly in her ear, “You know that’s not what you want Xena.” She responded with a glare and with a heavy sigh, he slowly got up off of her. Her nerves were on edge, how could he ALWAYS do that to her? No one else could but him, with a look or sentence could send her body all tingly and her mind insane.
Once they were both standing Xena looked at herself and then at Ares. She finally said with annoyance, “That’s what I hate about Gods, you never build up a sweat.” Ares just grinned widely and then said suggestively, “I’ll help you build up a sweat anytime you want princess.”
“Stop with the innuendo asshole!” She exclaimed although she knew she really didn’t want him to stop. She enjoyed it *Way* too much!
His lips formed a pout, “But innuendo is so much fun… besides, you like it.” “No,” She protested, “I don’t” He just gave her a devilish smile in return that made her pulse race.
Suddenly the air grew darker above their heads and it began to rain over the two warriors. Xena cursed loudly, her leathers were getting completely wet! Ares raised an eyebrow at her use of Greek. As a God, all he had to do was wave his hand and his clothes would be good as new so he did not share the same concern she did. He said tauntingly, “Now, now Xena, what have I said about that temper of yours?”
Her look instantly turned mischievous and a dangerous glint could be seen in her eyes. Noticing the look that was always followed with some sort of trickery, and it was he who was almost always at the end of it, Ares demeanor changed to an uneasy one. They were both thoroughly drenched by now and the ground was equally soaked… and also *Very* muddy. With lightning quick speed, Xena took Ares legs out from under him forcing him to fall ungracefully onto the saturated earth.
Once she did that she slowly backed away while laughing, he was *Not* going to be a happy God of War. Xena also knew that he wouldn’t just let her get away with something like *That! * Growling Ares got up causing Xena to break out into another loud laugh. His entire body and clothing was covered with mud making him appear as some kind of type of swamp monster.
Ares wasn’t mad… far from it but he couldn’t let even *her* get away with something like that without being ‘punished’. He moved forward to a rapidly retreating warrior. He gave her a dangerous smile and then she once again found herself on the ground. Only this time she was lying in a pile of mud and with an entirely muddy God of War standing in front of her with a smirk on his face. She groaned loudly and when he put out a hand to help her up she grasped it… and with what she had left of her strength she yanked his arm forward.
He landed with a small oomph, but after a moment he tried to grab for her. She quickly maneuvered herself out of the way and pinned *him* this time. He didn’t struggle or try to get her off though like she did, instead he just grinned and said seductively, “I always wanted to mud wrestle with you Xena…” This was the beginning to another fight, only this one with mud… and in the pouring rains.
**********
Things were turning out much worse then she could have even imagined. Not only was Xena not in Tartarous where she belonged, she was with *Ares* HER Ares and it looked liked they were closer then ever from what she knew. When she talked to the priestesses in disguise… she had to go in disguise because Ares was looking for her, she heard that Ares saved her life and healed her… healed her! Ares had never healed anyone in his entire existence! Then she found out that Her plan had been to take Xena out of Ares life and attention, leaving her right there to receive it like she deserved. DAMN!
In a rage she hurled a dagger, it landed in the opposite wall among other, similarly thrown weapons. As she looked around she saw the result of her tantrums. Broken chairs, statues, weapons, and glass littered the floor. She could also see spilt wine next to shattered wine bottles as well as a few dead corpses- another result of her fury. Why was nothing turning out right?
Well she had another idea… she had given a slave trader 170 men and ordered him to continue his plans against the Amazon harlots. Soon everything would be fixed.
Discord had left specific orders with Melanctono that the blond must die, no matter the cost of men or trouble to him. Her best friend would die alone by the slave traders, leaving Xena devastated with no one to turn to. Discord had heard how Xena was when Gabrielle died, only to be revived moments later by Xena. If Gabrielle died this time she might even take her own life… it was what Discord was counting on.
**********
A feeling of complete dread was creeping in on all of the young bard’s thoughts as she stood at night just outside of view from the Amazons. How could she order an attack? She had never killed a human in her life and couldn’t imagine EVER doing so. There was a reason for her chosen weaponry- she didn’t kill with it. Gabrielle knew she would have to order the attack since she was their queen. Ephiny had made it clear that there was no way out of this one as much as she herself would love to save the bard from this.
All Gabrielle could think was where is Xena? She knew that Xena would never falter if she were there, never show any concern about the outcome- supremely confident that they would come out victorious. Xena could come up with an excellent plan that would defeat the slave traders and she could lead them! Gabrielle didn’t care about proving her independence anymore, all she wanted was for Xena to come and make things better like she always did. But… she *wasn’t* there, she was with *Ares* of all people! Gabrielle didn’t trust Ares at all, he was always trying to get her to come back to him and he held some type of force over Xena that she didn’t quite understand. She was sure that Xena knew of the force too but noticed it much less. Her best friend had deep feelings for the War God- of that she was sure. She wasn’t so sure what those feelings were, only that they were there.
Ares was another puzzle. At times he looked like he would care less what happened to Xena- that she was only a favorite toy he wanted back. But at others he looked like he LOVED Xena, that he really did care about her. Shaking her head Gabrielle thought, How could the God of War possibly love?
A cold gust of air brought Gabrielle out of her wandering thoughts. She had a war she had to fight for her Amazons and she needed to get back to Ephiny. Before turning around to go back to her Amazons, Gabrielle spoke softly into the dark night sky, “Help me Xena.”
**********
They were now both now devoid of the mud, which had covered them both only moments before, from head to toe as they appeared in the Halls of War laughing. It was a scene that neither would have ever dreamed would have happened. Their little ‘mud wresting’ as Ares had put it had brought out the playful side of both the normally quite stoic warriors… much like the pillow fight only the night before. It constantly amazed both just how one of their conversations could go from playful, light, and teasing to intense, exciting, and HOT with just one sentence or just a look. They could ignite something in the other that no one could, or would ever come close to doing.
Xena, seeing that she was completely dry and in nothing but a tight cream-colored shift… tight cream-colored *revealing* shift, not that Xena really paid any attention to that. She quickly noticed that her leathers on the floor in a corner also entirely dry and clean. She then looked up at the God of War, knowing how much that helped her and how out of character it was for Ares to do anyone a favor. “Umm, thanks,” She said hesitantly, all of a sudden needing to thank him. He smirked knowingly and gave her a small nod in response. Better then anyone else he knew how hard it was for his princess to thank anyone for anything. It was much like the same problem he had in that area.
Ares finally decided to bring up a question that had been on his mind for days, and little did he know it, on Xena’s as well, “Well m’dear how much longer do you think you will be gracing me with your presence?” He finished lightly, trying not to show his nervousness at her answer. These past two days had meant a lot to him, more then he could have ever thought that they would.
Some moments he even started to think that maybe they could be friends if nothing else. These were the moments when he was sad, depressed, and had pretty much thrown away the hope that it would actually be something more then ‘friends’. After everything he had done to her and the people she loved friends was more then what he deserved. More then what he thought he could have had a few days ago. But most moments he wanted… *needed* to have her back.
The moments he was feeling depressed were coming more and more often as she continued to seem utterly disinterested in him. As he was thinking this something his slightly ditzy sister said rang in his troubled mind, “Xena doesn’t hate you bro, she’s is like, totally in love with you too!” And what Thea had so desperately tried to convince him, “Ares she doesn’t hate you, I talked to her earlier this morning and she had the same look on her face as you. You guys are totally in love but think the other person doesn’t care.” Internally sighing, Ares reached a decision. If Xena could tell how unsure he really was then it was no wonder she wasn’t swooning for him, not that Xena ever did *swoon* but that really wasn’t the point. He needed to seduce his princess, make her as crazy for him as he was for her. Even if he only partially succeeded that would be enough, for he knew perfectly well just how much *he* desired HER. This brought him back to the present, waiting for her answer silently; taking special care to make sure it seemed as if it really wasn’t that important to him.
“I need to leave in the morning.” She said finally, she knew it was the best thing, but a part of her didn’t want this to end. These past to days had meant so much to her, she never ever thought she would have a pillow or mud fight, eat a picnic, or actually really *enjoy* spending time with the God of War. But at the same time, most of her just wanted to get away from the feelings inside her. At first she could almost control what she was feeling- but now every second around him was like fuel for the fire. She was finding it harder and harder to resist his seemingly magnetic pull.
So he had a lot shorter a time then he thought sadly. But then he decided that there was no better time to step up his seduction of *his* Warrior Princess then now. He took a slow step towards the raven-haired warrior, moving so that there was barely any space between them. He said softly looking directly into her eyes, “Tomorrow morning?” Without waiting for a response he moved even closer, their lips only a millimeter apart. He could feel both of their hearts racing, even as a God he could not control the thunderous speed of his heart. Their bodies seemingly melded together. “I’ll miss you,” he breathed huskily, and then with all the passion and desire he felt for the magnificent beauty, he kissed her.
Xena found herself returning the kiss with just as much passion and intensity. This was what she had been yearning for, this closeness she could find nowhere else. Her hands unconsciously moved up his hard body and then pulled him even closer to her. She felt as though the flame she had been so desperately trying to keep in check had gained control, growing into a raging fire. All reason ceased to exist in that moment, her thoughts only interested in every detail of the dark War God.
They thoroughly explored each other’s mouth possessively, hungrily, only pausing briefly when Xena absolutely needed air. So much emotion was shared as their tongues clashed, more then they could ever tell with words. Their hands roamed one another feverishly. Ares was surprised at the enthusiastic response he received, expecting something of quite the opposite nature. This was what he always wanted- his princess in his arms.
The only thing separating them was his black leathers and her thin shift that clung tightly to every curve in her hard, gorgeous body, much to Ares great pleasure. But still he wanted the material gone; he yearned for skin contact. With the same idea in mind Xena stepped back quickly only to impatiently take of his vest and cast it off to the side. Quickly, appreciatively, she looked at his hard stomach and bared chest with the desire and lust. His skin was smooth like marble. Ares just began to take off her scant clothing when there was a loud knock on bedchamber door.
He groaned loudly, as did she. His hormones, body and mind all told him- screamed at him to forget about the person. Listening to these, he leaned in again to once again capture her lips. *Knock* *Knock* This time the sound was a whole lot louder and he closed his eyes in frustration, the moment he had been waiting for since… forever had come and someone had to interrupt it. He yelled loudly, basically saying for the person to get lost before whoever they were became a pile of ashes. At first he thought the person had sense and left because there was silence but just at that moment he heard a small voice of one of his priests, the voice was frightened and shaky, “I-I’m so-sorry my lord bu-but I got some news th-that might be of im-importance. So-some Amazons are in the temple with news f-for the Warrior Princess.”
Xena’s head had shot up as she heard the word ‘Amazons’. Was Gabrielle okay? What happened? Quickly she yelled that they would be out in a minute while pulling the straps of her shift back on her shoulders. Once done, she hastily put her leathers on as well, ignoring her weaponry in her haste to receive the information.
Groaning once he heard his priest he sighed in frustration and watched as Xena had pulled away and clothed herself completely. He thought furiously ‘The irritating blonde doesn’t even have to *be* there to ruin everything!’ He was aching from desire and watched as Xena- fully clothed, turned to look at him.
Her impatient gaze instantly turned sympathetic as she looked at the lust and disappointment that shone so clearly in his eyes. With a quick scan she noticed his raging hard-on and felt her self also ache from lack of fulfillment. Once again thinking of Gabrielle she quickly threw Ares his vest and urged him to, “Hurry.” Again sighing, he put his vest back on and headed towards the door. He was smoothly intercepted when his princess stepped in front of him. Before he could say a word she pulled him to her and gave him a kiss that left him breathless *even* being a God! Before pulling away she whispered in a throaty voice, “We’ll finish this later, okay?”
Some of the frustration left his eyes and he responded with a husky, “Count on it princess.” After sharing one last look filled with hunger, they went to find out what information was ‘of importance.’
When the two warriors entered the thrown room their eyes immediately set on two women who were clearly Amazons. One was a tall brunette, with eyes the color of chocolate, she held the bearing of an accomplished warrior. The other Amazon seemed younger, less experienced- with hazel eyes and curly dirty-blonde hair. Both stood at perfect attention.
Immediately Pyrena’s attention focused on the renowned Warrior Princess whom looked even more impressive than the stories said. With her impressive height surpassing hers by at least a hand, and her elegant warrior garb she even had the usually reserved Pyrena was awestruck. When an impatient look covered the face of the Warrior Princess. Pyrena understood that one of them needed to talk… and quickly. Unfortunately she the Amazon had just allowed her gaze to rest upon the gorgeous God of War, still looking rather annoyed at the interruption earlier, and Pyrena found it difficult to remember why they were there in the first place. She had seen stunningly handsome men in her life but without any hesitation whatsoever would put him at the very top of that list.
Luckily for Pyrena her lighter companion Denise promptly explained their presence before the lethal pair, “Queen Gabrielle-,” Ares couldn’t help a smirk at the title, thinking that the Fates must have a sense of humor. “- Has sent Pyrena and I, Denise to tell you of an army marching upon Amozonia late in the afternoon tomorrow. Our Queen and the regent both request your presence.” Denise finished, bowing her head slightly in respect. She had always admired Xena along with the rest of her Amazon sisters. There were many stories told of the Warrior Princess in Amazonia, most of them gotten from the Amazon bard. She was always begged for stories from the littler kids and adults alike. In truth some might say that the older Amazons enjoyed the stories just as much, if not more then the children.
Ares was torn between two very different feelings. One of which was the upset feeling he got whenever he thought about his Princess leaving. He really felt that they where actually getting somewhere… not to mention the recent memory of Xena’s voice, heavy with lust, and promise stirred his arousal once again. The other feeling was one that increased the speed of his immortal blood further. He knew that Xena would never allow the pesky blonde to lead a battle. It was this very reason his Princess… as the Amazon Queen’s Champion, would have to take her place- in front of the army, where she belonged. And although he wouldmuch rather have finished their previous activities, he knew he would enjoy this as well.
Although reluctant to leave the God of War, Xena was becoming increasingly anxious about her friend. Gabrielle was probably completely lost as to what to do. She knew nothing about leading an army into battle. Xena was just thankful that Ephiny was there as well as Solori and Epion. The most distressing thing about the whole situation for her was that she was looking forward to leading the battle and could not suppress the dangerous glint in her eyes as well as a feral edge to her smile.
Part Three
Three women warriors and a beautiful Palamino horse appeared on the outskirts of Amazon territory. Looking up into the sky Xena noted that they only had about three more candlemarks before they were without light- that left them just enough time to get to the village and find out everything she could about this approaching army. Pyrena and Denise looked around and at each other in astonishment. One minute they were in the Halls of War, about two days away by foot, and the next, they were in the lush forest they knew so well and adored. Xena smirked slightly at their reactions remembering her first time traveling through the ether.
They did not have far to walk before Xena became aware of a presence in the surroundings, soon to be joined with more. Xena quickly decided that she would make the first move, preferring that to being followed for another few candlemarks or so. She raised her hands together above her head in the Amazon signal of peace. Pyrena and Denise looked at her in confusion, but their silent question was quickly answered when about five Amazons came down from the trees overhead forming a circle around them, without so much as a sound being heard, except of course by the Warrior Princess.
Each Amazon swiftly took off their Amazon masks and Xena recognized one of them immediately, being Epion, the village Weapons Master. Epion lived for the day that she would beat Xena at ANYTHING! She utterly admired Xena but sometimes both of the Warriors competitiveness streaks would start a conflict that only Gabrielle could put an end to. Giving Xena a big grin Epion stepped forward and grasped forearms with Xena in a customary warrior’s greeting. “I’m so glad you’re here, we were beginning to worry about you, especially our Queen. I believe she will run down the Royal Hut’s floor with her pacing if she hasn’t already.” Epion said with a broad smile. Then she added in a more somber tone “We’re really glad you could make it, we really could use your help with this Warlord… we’re expecting them late tomorrow in the afternoon.”
Xena’s first response was to give a dazzling smile that made most of the Amazons wish (and not for the first time) that the infamous Warrior Princess preferred women to men. But at the mention of Gabrielle and then the approaching army, Xena’s demeanor took on a worried look, “Where is she? Was she injured when she came in?” She had been angry at herself earlier for not remembering about her blonde friend for so long and then hearing that they were in trouble… and she had been spending all of this time with *Ares* of all people, her supposed enemy. And if spending time with him wasn’t enough she almost made love with him! The dark beauty couldn't suppress a sigh. Well now wasn’t the time for guilt, she reminded herself, I’ll just have to deal thinks the way they are. But unbidden thoughts of the God of War still lingered…
The Princess of War and her Amazon companions walked on, most in a tense anticipation of the upcoming battle. Ephiny had gotten Xena alone long enough to voice her concerns regarding the young Queens state of mind, “I’m worried about her… as the Amazon Queen she is expected to give the final order to attack, approve warplans, and ultimately lead the attack. I’m afraid she will not be able to do this, and if she does I fear for the effect it would have on her. I would gladly take the position myself but I only hold the place of Queen in her absence,” The blonde regent paused briefly and then proceeded after a moments hesitation, “But as the Queen’s Champion you could take her place with as little upset as possible.”
Xena smirked slightly. She knew it was coming and had even planned it that way herself. It did nothing to still her doubts however; it had been a while since she had led her last battle. The warrior could not help but think, ‘Ares must be pleased’, and then immediately after she got angry with herself for even caring what the War God thought. Out of his seductive presence she was finding it easier to think clearly and she could not understand what had gotten into her mind so that she would have slept with him! She knew without a doubt that she would not have halted their activities if it hadn’t been for the priest. She made a resolve not to allow herself into that type of a situation again.
Upon entering the active atmosphere of the Amazon village Xena found all eyes followed her movements as she made her way towards the Royal Hut with strong, confident steps. Whispers could be heard throughout the village which the warrior ignored, so intent was she on seeing her best friend.
She passed two of the royal guard easily as she entered and her gaze was immediately captured by the pacing figure in the center of the hut. “Xena!?” It was voiced as both a statement and a question at the same time. Not a couple seconds later did Xena find herself being squeezed so hard it was a struggle to breathe, “I’m so glad you’re back! I’ve missed you so much! I’ve been so worried!” Gabrielle spoke breathlessly and then suddenly remembered her run in with the God of War. Xena could see her emerald eyes darken as a furious glint entered them looking extremely unnatural on the sometimes painfully cheerful bard. The Amazon Queen demanded, “What were you doing with Ares?!?!”
The shorter woman had given up her crushing hug and now stood with her hands on her hips, “How could you be with him of all people- of all the Gods! Don’t you remember all his tricks to try and get you back into his clutches?”
The Warrior Princess had remained quiet during the young woman's enthusiastic greeting and rant and although she knew she should say something she really did not know what to say. She knew what she should say, what she was expected to say, but for some odd reason she could not place, she felt a strange desire to defend the irresistible God of War, “He saved my life Gabrielle!”
“He’s probably the reason you were in danger in the first place!” Gabrielle retorted.
“No,” Xena denied quickly, “it was all Discord’s doing, he had nothing to do with it.”
“Discord? Why would she want you dead?” The bard questioned, “I mean I know she doesn’t really like you all that much but she works for Ares. I knew this was one of his manipulations to get you back!”
“You’re wrong,” Xena protested fiercely, “Discord has always hated me as long as I can remember.”
“Why though,” was Gabrielle's bewildered response.
The Princess of War hesitated slightly and then plunged ahead, “She hates me because she’s jealous.”
“Jealous? But she is a Goddess… why would she b-“ A look of comprehension settled over her face, “Ares. She’s jealous of you because he wants you to lead his army again.”
Her words were harsh and Xena once again felt the same unexplainable desire to defend the God of War and to convince them both that it wasn’t his desire for her to be his Warrior Queen, “It’s more then that.”
“Really? Oh right, how can we forget his lifelong goal to get you into his bed?” She said angrily and with more then a twinge of jealously in her voice.
How can I argue that? After all, isn’t that exactly what I’ve been telling myself all these years? That he’s a manipulative bastard who only wants me as his Warrior Queen? And yet I want- Gods what do I want?
Gabrielle was not finished with her tirade; “All it is is lust Xena. You can’t possibly believe it’s anymore than that!” The bard looked furious and yet there was a hint of desperation, which lingered on the edge of her words. She didn’t trust Ares one bit- especially since it seemed that Xena didn’t hate him quite as much as she should. She had heard well-known stories about Ares and his chosen and didn’t like what she heard one bit.
Xena looked rather defeated, the bard was voicing the very doubts that had been running rampant through her mind and aloud each seemed to take hold more firmly. Not to mention that Xena knew that she should not be anymore than Ares’ enemy, “It doesn’t matter Gabrielle… what he feels doesn’t change anything…”
Had the Amazon Queen looked harder at Xena’s demeanor she would have noticed the reluctancy in which each word was spoken and the lack of firmness each held. She noticed none of this however as they were the words she wanted to hear and now somewhat satisfied the bard preceded to tell Xena all about the approaching army. “His name is Melanctono, and he’s arriving around tomorrow afternoon… he outnumbers us by 200… we only have 400 who are able to fight.”
Xena took in the numbers with the details easily and began doing a mental calculation of who had the best advantage. While the having two hundred less warriors on their side wasn’t great news it hardly mattered since they were in Amazon territory. Amazons could shoot down opponents like flies. She knew that the quality of the Amazon’s training also needed to be put in consideration. Each Amazon was trained from childhood with at least one weapon. Many were trained with more than that- especially if it was their decision to become a warrior. Xena also knew that it was most likely that each Amazon was probably worth 3 of this warlord’s men. Melanctono was it? The name hardly sounded familiar which in itself was rare. Xena prided herself knowing various warlords and she personally knew many of them from her days as a warlord.
The warrior passed reassurances onto Gabrielle telling her that the advantage was theirs. The bard felt very optimistic at once- not only were they on Amazon territory, but Xena somehow forgot to add herself to the list of advantages they held. The Amazon Queen knew that Xena was the best person they could possibly find to help them. She was sad though… she knew that no matter how much of an advantage they held, against 600 men they were sure to lose many Amazon sisters. Xena’s voice suddenly broke through her thoughts, “Gabrielle, why don’t you go to bed. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow and you’ll need all the strength you can get.”
“Where will you be?” The Amazon Queen was quick to question. She really didn’t like the idea of letting Xena out of her sight so soon after she had been gone for so long. Besides just because she was the Warrior Princess didn't mean that she didn’t need rest as well. The Gods only knew what time Xena would go to sleep if she didn’t have anyone there to force her.
I am going to help Ephiny and see what the situation is. Probably work on the strategy and defense.”
Immediately protesting the bard began, “But you need your sleep too… and I should probably be there.”
“Go to bed,” Xena stated firmly, “They need you to well rested and I need to go over their plans.”
The Amazon Queen finally agreed through a yawn, “But only if you come to sleep too in a few candlemarks.”
**********
Two figures stood in the command tent while the slightly shorter and intimidating man spoke, “We should be there without delay.” The tent was relatively large in size and of a royal blue. It was by far the most luxurious of all the tents and yet it was not too impressive for Melanctono was not yet extremely wealthy. This of course made him all the more eager to be victorious in the battle at hand.
“Excellent, now leave me,” the taller man responded carelessly. His subordinate nodded in compliance and swiftly left the tent now feeling any particular desire to stay with his commander any longer then strictly necessary. Melanctono looked down once more at the map displaying the Amazon Territory- another gift from his goddess. His face slowly was replaced with a look of triumph. He could already taste his victory a day from his goal. Not only would he sell the Amazon’s off for a good fortune, but he would also be able to obtain a few for himself and his men. He also knew his men were just as eager as he was, for they had been traveling tirelessly for weeks and this would be a much-needed reprieve as well as more then appropriate compensation for their efforts. Melanctono had noticed slight dissention in the ranks lately and they could not have come upon their goal at a better time. “You’re mine,” he breathed triumphantly, his eyes devouring the map.
“Don’t get too cocky,” A harsh voice cut in to his thoughts roughly and then continued, “Amazon’s are not easily defeated.”
His look of conquest did not diminish completely as he looked upon his superior. “Surely you don’t mean to say that their women forces could possibly even begin to compete with ours? They are savages.”
This however, was not the right thing to say. This was soon confirmed when Discord’s coolly reprimanding voice rapidly turned deathly cold, “Savages though they may be, and while my forces should be more then a match for those Amazon wences you can’t look upon this battle lightly.” She then continued harsher still her nostrils flaring slightly, “You will do well to remember just who is in command here Melanctono.”
As if the warrior just remembered whom he was speaking, or perhaps he was remembering that she could disinigrate him within a second- whatever the reason Melanctono’s countance became one of submissiveness as he bowed his head slightly, “My Goddess… I could never forget to whom protects and aids me as well as provides me with battles.”
“And the Amazons?” His superior’s voice lost a fraction of its coldness but she would not let his arrogance get in the way of obtaining her God. Ares was within her grasp and this fool would certainly not be the reason she failed.
Melanctono continued in his deferential bearing, “The Amazons will be defeated by tomorrow.”
Discord’s eyes took on an even harder edge, “And the blonde? The wenches queen?”
His answer was one that finally fazed her temper. “Their queen will be in the permanent company of Hades tomorrow even if it takes the entire 600 men to complete the task.”
“See to it that you remember,” Discord finally said, and with nothing else work related to say her countenance took on a seductive edge as she made her way in front of her warlord. Trailing a long finger with black nail polish down his chest she purred, “So what else do you have for me?”
**********
Up in the Halls of Mount Olymus, Athena was utilizing all of her persuasive skill to convince her august father of her least favorite brother’s recent misdeeds. Generally this was not a particularly difficult task as he favored his daughter, the goddess of wisdom above the multitude of others, right next to his favorite son, the demi-god Hercules. The God of Thunder also detested his somewhat malicious son beyond all of his offspring. The goddess pleaded her case, “Ares has gone too far this time and he should be punished! His army completely destroyed one of my facvorite temples.”
“Athena,” The potent Zeus replied, “What do you propose I do?” He had been listening to the goddess rant interminably about her beloved temple and wanted to end this meeting as soon as possible. He was in the midst of deducing the princess of Coren and was eager to continue with his affair. The deceptive God was confident that the princess had last her resistance the night before, but most unfortunately he had been forced to cut his conquest short before Hera might witness such an encounter and turn the princess into something less enchanting. Consequently God had less patience for such mundane matters and convincing the King of the Gods to deal out harsher punishements.
The goddess could not help the malevent grin that formed on her features as she answered, “Ares needs a lesson in humility father,” she began. Once she saw that the venerable God was inclining his head slightly in agreement she let her brothers sentence fall with the utmost relish.
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