Summer Fan Fiction: #1

Future Mistakes, Past Solutions

By: Summer

Disclaimer: As much as I'd love to, Ares, Xena, Gabrielle and the Gods are not mine. They belong to Renaissance (is that how you spell it) Pictures. No copyright infringment was intended in the making of this story. However, Arius, Priestess Sumeria, Damonius and the Immortal twins are MINE! MINE! MINE!!!!!!! I don't make cash from my stories so don't sue me please!

Rating: PG13.

Names: Priestess Sumeria is named after me, Damonius is named after a friend. That's it.

Sex: Please! I'm an eleven year old school girl in Grade 6! Of course not. If you think there is, it's your own imagination!

Violence: Duh! Xena:Warrior Princess is not Xena:Warrior Princess without violence!

Profanity: No! No! NO!!!!!!!!!!

Slash: GOD NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love disclaimer: There's bit's and pieces to the story about Ares and Xena together: if you're against that - go to another story but there's not much in it anyway so it shouldn't bother you.

Dedication: I'd like to dedicate this to my friend Nikki (Priestess Nicolia) who loves Xena as much as I do, Damien - who let me use his name as the high priest and my parents for putting up with my one month of work on the computer to make this story!

Authors Notes: 'Arius' and the twins were completely my imagination. They are not mentioned in Greek Mythology. The gods as teenagers and their personality was my own creation too. Most things in the past did happen in myths- I've been studying Greek Mythology since I was seven. The story takes place after the Dahak fiasco but before Ares' next no-no. Xena and Gabrielle has forgiven him but his family hasn't. Enough said- let's get to the Story already!!!! Enjoy my first fan-fic!

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PART 1
Chapter 1

Aphrodite walked into Ares' main temple- the House of War. She walked down the many corridors in Ares temple until she found a certain room. She knocked twice and a priestess who was wearing a light blue chiton (an ancient Greek dress), a golden girdle and golden jewelry opened the door. Her shoulder length brown hair was pinned up in an elaborate braid. Ares' familiar Seal of War was embroidered on the dress. She looked like she was a teenager. She must be the high priestess Aphrodite thought.

"Lord Ares is unavailable at the moment as he is in the middle of a meeting with all the other war gods. We are sorry for the inconvenience," The priestess explained to her.

"Hey babe. I've got big news for Ares and need a chatting session with tall, dark and handsome. Who are you anyway?" asked Aphrodite.

"I am the high priestess, Sumeria. And you must be Aphrodite. I shall go and ask Ares if he wishes to speak to you," and the priestess turned and went into the chamber.

Ares sat with a bunch of leather-clad gods at a large table. A huge map of the known world was placed on the table and held on to the table by a dagger at each corner. The room was filled with candles and incense burners. It looked so beautiful that you'd never think that it could be a meeting place for the Immortal Warlords. These gods looked amazingly like Ares in style and clothes and they all had identical ambitions. The gods were quarrelling over a big war that they all lost because of Xena's cunning and manipulation. And Ares was getting the blame- after all; it's his chosen one.

"Hey!! It's not my fault Xena managed to get us to attack each other!!! Leave her alone too! She's way better than you guys in fighting skills and strength- in fact, she's equivalent to all you guys put together! Now shut up! We have work to do!" Ares yelled out over everyone. Calming down, Ares added "Now we have that under control, let's start our reports." Priestess Sumeria stood beside Ares waiting for him to give her permission to speak.

A quill appeared in Ares' hand and with it, he pointed to Greece on the map and spoke about the situation in his territory. When he'd finished he gave Priestess Summer permission to speak and she said "Aphrodite requests immediate audience with you," which immediately sprang a choir of cat calls and whistles from the other war gods. Ares rolled his eyes and exited the room.

"It's about time Ares! Being in a meeting with those animals- your warrior chums is no excuse!" Aphrodite exclaimed and flashed a smile.

"I'm kinda busy in there with those 'animals' so gimme the news quickly!" Ares said quickly and looked over his shoulders to make sure that the men in the other room weren't trying to rip each other apart.

"Zeus is outraged with you about the Dahak gig. He's not impressed. His self-control is completely out of whack. He wants you to come now to collect your punishment. Naughty Ares!!" said Aphrodite, pushing a perfectly curled golden lock of hair behind her ear.

"Oh joy!" Ares mumbled and disappeared in a wisp of white smoke and Aphrodite joined him.

Chapter 2.

Zeus sat on a huge throne waiting for Ares on Mt. Olympus. The other gods were there too on smaller thrones along the wall, wearing white garments like togas, tunics and chitons. The meeting room was certainly a beautiful sight. The white walls were decked with intricate tapestries, the windows let in tidal waves of light and everywhere was a glint of gold.

Zeus' expression on his face made it obvious that he meant business. Even through his form as a kindly old man, his stern look was practically glowing with his power and anger. Silence filled the room, probably because the gods were worried what Zeus would do. They'd all been told off before but no one had done anything as terrible as Ares. They'd also seen Ares get angry when he's bossed around and Ares doesn't take it lightly. Everyone was certain that sparks would literally fly.

Hera, who was sitting beside Zeus was looking worried too. Ares is my only son. Zeus is sure to harm him, especially after what he did, but it wasn't so bad. Even though his obsession with battle is horrible and he's inheriting his fathers arrogance, I must reason with Zeus thought Hera.

She gently stroked Zeus' tensely clenched arm. Here goes nothing she thought to herself. "Zeus, you must control your temper with Ares. I know that Ares did a terrible thing, betraying us in favor of Dahak in order to become King of all Immortals- but remember that he's immortal too and the way he acts, he's still just a child- OUR child to be precise- and only acts this way because of his nature and position as God of War. Please, promise you won't hurt him." said Hera soothingly, being as manipulative as she could (Ares and his mummy have a lot in common) and stared into his brown eyes with her pale blue ones, hoping that Zeus would calm down.

Zeus thought for a moment and turned away from her stare. Hera withdrew her hand. Zeus muttered quietly without turning to look her in the eyes: "I can't promise that. How can you support such a traitor, my queen?"

"Yes, he is my son, but I set certain rules and I expect those rules to be obeyed!!!" He finished raising his voice. Hera flashed a sorrowful and empty look at Zeus and gave up.

Suddenly, in the middle of the room, a wisp of smoke twirled gracefully in the air and formed into Ares in his black leather outfit with his sword strapped to his side. Any talk in the room immediately stopped. Silence. Ares started looking around and playing with his feet, impatiently waiting for Zeus to blow up is a gush of rage. But Zeus didn't. Instead, he waited for Ares to make the first move. Ares uncomfortably gazed at Zeus. What is he thinking? Ares wondered.

Finally, Zeus rose from his throne and walked towards his son. He stopped two paces away from Ares and stared into his deep, brown eyes. They're like mine he thought. "Ares," Zeus whispered. Ares could tell that Zeus didn't need a reply- it was more like a word to say that he'd finally come. Slowly, Zeus circled around Ares without taking his eyes off him. Ares suddenly realized that he must be looking scared as Tartarus in front of all of the other Immortals and quickly shook away all his fear and tilted his head higher.

"You know what you've done, don't you, Ares," Zeus said quietly after completing his circle.

"Yeah, I know."

"And you know the penalty for betraying the gods, don't you?"

"Yeah I know that too."

"So why'd you do it?"

"Because I wanted to be more than just a God. I wanted to be more than just someone only useful once a decade. So I concocted a plan to team up with Hope, sire a new race of Immortals, use the power of Dahak to destroy you all and hopefully the new gods will look up to me instead of Dahak so I'd overthrow him like you did to your father, kill the others and I'd be King of the Gods. It ended up being much more difficult than I'd anticipated. I'd destroy you all was because none of you, other then Aphrodite, and very vaguely Hera, ever liked me at all. Never! You all have hated me just because of my position as the God of War, which isn't my fault. Under all of this black leather and tough talk, I am still that guy I used to be before the revolution against the Titans. I'm sick of it and if I wasn't a God and if Xena wasn't here, I would have killed myself a long time ago."

"Wait, wait, wait, back up," Zeus questioned, very confused, "Are you saying that Xena is the only thing that you stay alive for?"

"Yes!" Ares yelled. "I've confessed!! Are you all happy now?! And I'd appreciate it if you'd all leave her alone."

"Moving on down the line- your punishment," Zeus said quickly.

"Oh Great! This'll be fabulous!" Ares muttered sarcastically.

"Immortals, Gods and Goddesses! As you know, we have called this assembly to decide the punishment of the God of War, the King of Battles, the Immortal Warlord- Ares. He has been found guilty of all charges. Anyone with idea's, raise your hand." The Furies announced.

Athena, the goddess of warfare, wisdom and weaving (and Ares greatest-rival/half-sister) sat on a throne in the middle of her uncle, Hades, and her huntress half sister, Artemis. Athena wore a purple chiton with her perfect hair in an intricately woven plait, which reached, down to her waist (underneath the helmet she always wore). A smile spread across her face. Athena had been waiting for this moment her entire (immortal) life - Ares' final judgment - and she was going to make it as cruel and horrible as she could. Athena raised her hand and declared, "Almighty Zeus, I have a few ideas. We could permanently expel Ares from Olympus, or suspend his immortality for life, or give him a torture for eternity like Prometheus -" Athena pulled out a VERY long scroll concealed in the folds of her dress and started reading from it.

Everyone got BORED! Ares had to sit down on the floor to stop himself from falling over in fatigue. Aphrodite started painting her nails, Morpheus fell asleep, Apollo started painting a picture, Artemis tried to amuse herself by practicing archery, Dionysus started drinking wine...., and only Zeus was listening intently. After a while, Athena stopped.

" -Or we could even bring back Arius." Athena finished. She sat down in triumph. The mention of the word "Arius" got everyone�s attention. Ares was horrified and jumped to his feet. He slowly tried to back away from everyone. "You can't do that! You all know what he did to us- it was even worse than what I did! What about the curse? The prophecy?" Ares stammered and looked at Zeus, hoping he wouldn't even think about bringing Arius into the world- but to his dismay, Zeus was grinning.

"Ares is right!" Aphrodite got up and said. " You can't bring that geeky-loserish-guy back on our turf! He would destroy mankind, and eventually us too!"

"Thank-you for your point of view, Aphrodite. Now sit down. Who in here cares like Tartarus about mortals?" Zeus asked. Everyone faced Ares and grew silent." Who has a current love spurn on a mortal?" Besides Zeus Hera thought and glared at her husband. Quickly Zeus tried to avoid her stare and continued. "Who hates Arius the most? What about the person who thinks day and night about a certain mortal, the well-being of the world and has his power and position revolve around what happens on earth?" Zeus inquired. Ares said barely above a whisper "Me?" "I object!" Aphrodite yelled, but in vain.

"Exactly Ares. I've decided your punishment- You will lose your immortality, be suspended from Olympus and we will send Arius into the world- therefore we won't have to do the rest- Arius can do it for us! And what will he do? Being identical to you, except his eyes, he will go to your beloved Xena, woo her into loving him, betray and kill her and all her little mates and - as the prophecy says - he will bring about the Apocalypse, the Armageddon, the Revelation, he will bring about the destruction of humanity- and you won't be Immortal to live through it!!!"

"What!!!!!!!!!! You can't do that!!!! Are you insane!!!!" Ares screamed out at the top of his voice. Athena smiled in satisfaction. To silence Ares, Zeus sent a thunderbolt straight into the middle of his chest which Ares couldn't reflect and it sent him flying over to the other side of the hall, hitting the wall, making Ares fall on the floor. Zeus waved up two armed guards who grabbed Ares and pinned him to the wall. Ares face glowed with hatred for his father and half-sister as Hephaestus chained him properly to the wall with his chains. The two guards disappeared as quickly as they came.

Zeus stood up and walked up to Ares. He put his hand under Ares' chin and forced Ares to look at him. "You will lose your immortality in 24 hours. Until then, make the most of your godhood. Arius will be released very soon!" He sneered. Zeus pushed Ares to the ground and walked back to his throne. "You're dismissed!" He said and disappeared. The chains that bound Ares disappeared.

Ares breathed heavily and looked at all the gods and goddesses. One by one they all de-materialized into thin air except Aphrodite who raced towards him. " Ares are you OK? Zeus was so harsh!" She asked, concerned. Ares tuned away from her as if he had lost the biggest battle in the universe when he had the advantage. "Aphrodite," he whispered "why have you been so kind to me over the centuries? Why have you always been there for me? Why are you the only one who sticks up for me when all the other gods don't? I don't deserve that type of treatment. I'm just an insignificant loser who spends his time fussing over 'who slaughters whom'."

"Ares you listening to me! You are needed to complete the world! You are the God of War, thousands of men look up to you and you have many people who love you. Me, Hera, Rhea, and most importantly, Xena. People need you, Ares. I stand up for you because I care about you. So stand up for yourself with pride, like you would have done a few hours ago. Let's see the warrior inside you!" Aphrodite said sternly.

"Alright!" Ares said, defeated, "I will! First I have to warn Xena urgently about Arius and what's happened." Ares and Aphrodite shimmered away into a wisp of smoke in unison.

Chapter 3

"Xena! Can we stop and camp here for the night? It's damn hot and we've been walking all day! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!" Gabrielle whined. Gabrielle was barely walking straight and relying on her trusty staff to support her weight. Xena on the other hand was on top of Argo - Xena's beautiful cream and white mare - and was perfectly alert, getting very annoyed with Gabrielle's whining.

"We're in a beautiful area, and all you can think about is your legs? Besides, we should be getting very close to Mycenae and we can stay there," Xena said flatly," or of course if that doesn't appeal to you I could throw you in that river over there." Gabrielle immediately stopped whining.

"Xena, you've been acting strange lately- Oh, I get it. You're getting dreamy over your tall, dark and damn-handsome ex-employer/boyfriend/co-commander of your big evil army you used to have, aren't you? You are aren't you! I can see it in your eyes! Good thing he loves you too, ey?" Gabrielle said teasingly, changing the subject.

Xena rolled her eyes and admitted " Yes! I am! Are you happy now? We're - we're just going to take it slow."

"So are you two officially together?" Gabrielle asked.

"No, not quite. Now leave me and Ares alone please! Stop whining about walking too. As I said - look around!"

Xena was right about the landscape- it was a beautiful place with lots of trees, a refreshing cool breeze, a bright glow of sunlight.... and a bunch of men running towards them with swords.

"OK, Gabby. We have work to do!" Xena mumbled and flipped off of her horse before drawing her sword. Gabrielle ran to her side wielding her staff and together Xena and Gabrielle ran in and performed some serious kicking of ass. Very soon, the men were all down. Xena walked slowly over to one of them, who was wearing a black and blue robe and sandals with a scabbard strapped to his side, and did her famous pressure points to his neck. She noticed the Seal of War tattooed on his arm.

"I've cut of the flow of blood to your brain. You'll be dead in thirty seconds. Who are you, who are you working for, what do you want with us and why? TALK!!!!" Xena asked the guy in her arms as if she does it everyday.

"A-A-Ares sent us t-to bring you to his tem-temple t-to help him. It-it's an emergency. I-I'm his high priest, Damonius. We thought you might n-not come b-by wi-will so we at-attacked," the guy answered stuttering from Xena's pinch.

Xena released her grip and let the priest go. "How do we know it's not a trick set by someone else?" she questioned.

"No one has the Seal of War on their arms except Ares, his priests and his armies. Lord Ares told me that he has high honor and respect to you and to remind you of the fact he's never lied to either of you, that he would never harm the Warrior Princess who is his chosen one and that you owe him a favor," said the priest who was holding his neck and judging by the look on his face he was terrified.

"What happened? Is he in trouble?" Xena asked the priest, very concerned.

"You could say that. He actually hasn't told us what happened. All he's said is something about some guy named 'Arius'," Damonius replied.

"Well, Ares temple wasn't exactly on my itinerary, but OK. Does Ares have a temple in Mycenae?" Xena asked.

"Oh, he has temples everywhere. There's bound to be one there." Damonious replied.

"Alright, to the temple we go!" Gabrielle said and she took Argo's reins off Xena while Xena mounted Argo.

"Be swift. It's urgent!!!" yelled Damonius and waved as the two women sped away.

Chapter 4.

The two women finally got to Mycenae and went straight to Ares' temple. They burst through the heavy, stone doors and ran to the main hall. They found Ares casually sitting on his throne, one leg over an armrest, writing on a scroll. He jumped up, flung the scroll away and quickly walked over to them.

�Xena! Gabrielle! How are you?" Ares asked and quickly embraced the pair. "The real question is 'How are you?� What's happened? Are you alright?" Xena threw questions at Ares.

"Unfortunately, it's not just me in trouble, it's you two as well and the entire human race!" Ares answered.

"Well I'll need some info before I can help you Ares. Your priest told me it had to do with someone named 'Arius'," Xena stated.

Ares flinched slightly at the mention of the name 'Arius' "Okay, get ready for the story," Ares smiled one of his irresistible smiles and he waved up two BIG cushions for Xena and Gabrielle to sit on. "Here it goes."

"Long ago, even before our revolution against the Titans, all of what are now the twelve Olympian gods - Me, Aphrodite, Athena, mum, dad, Poseidon, Hades, Dionysus, Hermes, Artemis, Apollo and Hephaestus - and several of the other lesser-ranked gods were all born with a twin who had a name remarkably similar to their twin, like Poseidonis, Aphrodesia, Athene, Zaeus, Herene ect. and mine was Arius.

Arius and I were identical twins, except that his eyes, like all of that set of twins, were hazel or green(hazel for gods, green for goddesses) while all of us had either brown or blue eyes (brown for gods, blue for goddesses). The other difference between us was that compared to him, I was actually the good, sweet, innocent one! In fact, I was a perfect little angel until I hit thirteen. Arius, on the other hand was the evil one- when I say evil, I mean evil! If you guys think I'm a bad-boy figure, Arius was twenty times worse than me in the present with more anger all the time than me after a defeat! He had an insane lust for power and an ego the size of the known world! And that's bad.

'Anyway, Arius and I were ALWAYS fighting against each other for some reason. We were so competitive and jealous of each other that if one of us jumped of a cliff, the other would jump too and try to jump higher than the other did and reach the bottom of the cliff first! We knew that the Titan revolution would be very soon and we trained up hard.

'The first hundred years of my life were spent competing against each other to win the title of the 'God of War' when the Titan war was over. I was jealous of Arius because he was so.... charismatic, sneaky and manipulative which was something I hadn't mastered and he had tons of god friends, especially the twins from other culture's god's who were his allies while all mine were Greek; Arius was jealous of me because I was born with most of my warlord skills when he had to learn from scratch, I had mum and dad's favor instead of him, and all these girls seemed to think I was wonderful and handsome - I never really figured out why.

'Anyway, the Titan war was at hand and we were betrayed by every single twin! They all fought on the Titan's side! So our odds of winning were terrible - all the Greek gods (except Hestia, Aphrodite and the Fates), who's powers hadn't developed yet against our twins and 57 giants. About 10 to 1 were the odds of winning now. But that didn't mean that we couldn't kick their giant backsides to Tartarus! Amazingly we won the war, probably because we all pitched in to our tactics and we worked together.

'The surviving Titans, except Hyperion, and Prometheus who helped us (and later created man), were banished to Tartarus and the twins got tortured by us ourselves. We put our voices and our images into a huge dark world where we put our twins and they were driven insane by their hatred for us, and they are still there today. Apollo predicted in a prophecy that if one of the twins were released back into our world, they would bring about the end of our world and all humanity. Then, twelve of the main gods (including me) chose Mt. Olympus as our official home and we were named Olympians.

'Now we get to the important part. The Dahak thing got me in one Tartarus of a lot of trouble today. I'm the main god who likes mortals and I got a huge punishment. Tomorrow at six in the morning, I will lose my godhood and immortality, Arius will be released and he will destroy you in every way possible which affects me too, as I'll be losing my chosen and the one I truly... never mind, and then he will fulfill the prophecy of destroying the world and humanity, killing me as well. So as you see I'm in a bit of trouble. I don't know when Arius is released but it will be very soon," Ares paused.

Ares stopped nervously pacing as he was before and sat on the throne with his head in his hands. " I don't know what to do. From one silly little plot I thought up, I've destroyed the world, all it's inhabitants and lost my immortality! It's all my fault!" Ares murmured.

"Oh yeah, you need to take precautions with me from now. Whenever you see me get a good look at my eyes and if I act slightly suspicious and I get really demanding especially about kissing and bossing people around, slap me, OK? Because it could be Arius or even Zeus. I mean it," Ares added.

"So...... what are we going to do?" Gabrielle asked.

"I have no idea, but we have to do it quickly before I lose my power," Ares answered.

"I've got it!" Xena exclaimed. " You can send one of us back in time to stop Arius from being born like Hope and Callisto tried to do to Hercules!"

"If you're suggesting killing my mother, I won't be here either remember? But going back in time sounds good. You will have the power to go wherever you want in the past, but you have to be careful what you change as it can affect things you don't want changed." Ares stated.

"Well that sounds good to me," Xena said. "When do we begin time traveling?"

"You need to rest first because it takes a lot of your energy to move in time. I'll have to bring you back to when I was a teenager as your starting point. But I'm warning you, I know what I was like and I was arrogant, self-centered, ill-tempered, very stubborn but amazingly powerful; I've lost a lot of my power since then. If there was nothing in it for me, I wouldn't help anyone. Don't laugh at me for saying stupid teenager-ish stuff because we all did. So... you get the picture. I won't know who you are and I'll take a lot of convincing. I'm going to have to send you back in your teenage body, about fourteen years old," Ares informed them.

"Hey, warrior people! Where do I fit into this plan?" Gabrielle asked, interrupting Xena and Ares.

"Gabrielle, I can't take you with me. It's too dangerous," Xena replied.

"Yeah, besides, I can't take two people at once through time. That's King-Of-The-Gods stuff. Unless I took Gabrielle's soul from her body and put it in Xena's, which could work I guess but it'll be hard to do and I mightn't be able to put your soul back into your body. You'd be able to see things through Xena's eyes literally and speak to Xena but that's it. Are you willing to take the risk?" Ares added.

"Yes, I'll risk it. Will time go on while we're gone?" Gabrielle asked.

"No. Time will stand still while you're away. Xena you should get some rest now to get ready for tomorrow. I'll wake you up early to send you to the past. You can sleep in my room; I've got a lot of work to do tonight so I probably won't be going to bed. Gabrielle, You can have the room next to mine. Goodnight!" Ares said and disappeared.

Chapter 5

"Goodnight Gabrielle!" said Xena as she took Gabrielle down the many corridors to the bedroom chambers.

Of course, Xena knew where everything was because she had spent two years living in the Halls of War (Ares main temple where he usually stayed, along with Discord, Strife, Phobos and Deimos) before she met Gabrielle, and all of Ares temples are duplicated up to every detail. Xena walked into Ares room. An amazingly large amount of memories swept back to her. She remembered all of the times Ares had helped her bandage her wounds here, when he had given her the Chakram here on this bed, When they'd get bored and start playing parchment, razors, boulder, and when they'd just lie there in each others arms and just talk about the future..... every detail of life from being 17 to 27 years old. Xena shrugged all of these thoughts away for a while and went to a small chest of drawers and randomly pulled out a long, black silk nightgown, knowing that it was all her stuff that Ares kept, and hopped into the bed. Funny how everything here is so familiar. It's almost as if this is more my home than Amphipolis. Even Ares' black silk sheets feel familiar. I wish I could stay here forever Xena thought before blowing out a few of Ares' many many candles around the room and let Morpheus take her away.

"Hey! Where am I?" Xena said startled. She was sitting on a tiny island with her sheets. How on earth did I get here? Suddenly Xena felt that strange feeling. "Ares come out! Help me! Where am I?" She yelled, but she didn't get Ares - she got someone else materialize in front of her. He wore a white garment with Golden edges and had black curly hair and a long beard and he had brown eyes brown eyes. He looked about 34.

"Greetings, my sweet," he said to her. Funny, Ares always calls me something like that, but this is not Ares Xena thought.

"My, my, my you are beautiful. I live in the heavens and yet I've never seen such majesty as I see before me," he said.

"Flattery doesn't help you. I'm Xena. You are a god?" Xena asked.

"Yes, I'm a god. I am the King of the Gods and yet you've enslaved me," He answered. By the Gods! It all makes sense now! Zeus is here in a younger form! "Zeus, what are you doing here? Why have you come? What do you want with me?" Xena asked quickly, rather swiftly. Suddenly, an amazing sensation fell over her making her come VERY close to him. "Lie with me," he whispered. He must have some sort of charm on me- I can't move away. By the Gods, he must want me in his next affair! Thought Xena.

"Zeus, I'm sorry but I love another," She heard herself say as she pulled away from his firm grasp. Zeus looked shocked, then upset and finally angry. "You would deny me, the King of the Gods, for some mere mortal?" Zeus said and his tone of voice grew harsher and held Xena even tighter.

"Actually, Zeus, he's not a mortal," Xena answered smart-alecly.

"WHO!!"His voice boomed.

"Oh he's tall, dark, handsome, strong, powerful, Immortal, cunning, funny..."

"WHO!!"

"Why should I tell you?"

"Because if you don't, I'll kill you and then I'll find out which one of my subjects you love and kill him too!"

"Promise not to get angry or harm him in any way?"

"I swear by the Styx,"

"Ares,"

"WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Zeus yelled

"You vowed not to get angry!"

"I'm not angry! I'm furious!"

"Well blowing up at women is no way to get what you want!"

"I'll give you time to reconsider," Zeus said, calming down.

Suddenly, he disappeared and Xena was back in bed. Ares was beside her asleep but had jumped up to see what had happened. It was pitch black in the room and Xena couldn't see anything. It must have been about one in the morning.

"Xena! By the Gods, are you OK? You screamed! I thought you'd hurt yourself or something," Ares went on in that way for a while. "I-I'm alright. I just had a bad dream-I must sound like a five year old child!" She joked. Ares held her tightly in his strong arms.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" He asked in a concerned way.

She put her arms around him and pressed herself up to him and said, "Zeus came to me in a younger form, about 34, in a dream, and he had some sort of charm on me to come closer. He wanted me to be in his next affair and I-I turned him down because-because I love you, and he got very unhappy. You must be careful around him," Xena warned him.

Ares clenched his knuckles but soon calmed down. He looked her in the eye and kissed her. The kiss rapidly grew. Suddenly, they both whirled around as another Ares slowly opened the door and waved his hand to turn light the candles. The two Ares' yelled "Arius!" at each other and Xena was startled as Tartarus as the Ares in bed got up and raced towards the Ares at the door and they both started trying to tear each other apart.

Xena jumped up and yelled "ENOUGH!!!" Xena kicked one away from the other and slapped the other one away too. Gabrielle ran in, hearing the commotion that was going on.

She was startled too as two Ares' got up, rubbing their faces and stomachs. Then another Ares materialized into the middle of the room and shouted, "Stop it! What's going on here? My sweet, are you OK?"

"No I'm not alright. All three of you- get up against the wall. Gabrielle, help me out here. I'm going to ask you guy�s questions so I know who's who. Keep score," Xena yelled. The three Ares' went up against the wall. They were almost exactly the same except one looked dead tired which was the Ares at the door, one wore Ares' ordinary leathers minus his vest and boots who was the Ares in bed and the other was acting strangely superior.

"Question one: When did Ares first meet me face to face?" said Xena and the tired one said "16", the one without a vest said "30" and the superior one said "around 20ish". "Gabrielle, it was that one - 16. Then ask them some question about me you'd think Ares knows" instructed Xena.

"Question two: With what did Ares give the Chakram to Xena?" Gabrielle asked.

"Beats me"

"A black pearled necklace"

"Um, how should I remember that?"

"Gabrielle, 2 for the tired one. A black pearled necklace. Question 3: What happened to my sandals when Ares and I stormed a village named Garymudes?" Xena asked.

"They fell off?"

"The buckle broke?"

"They were covered in mud"

"Gabrielle, 3 for the same Ares. The buckle broke. Question 4. How much did Ares say he loved me a few months ago?"

"I can't remember"

"My dreams come true when I'm with you. I love you more than life itself.

"I said that!!!!!"

"Gabrielle I think you know the answer. 4 for the same Ares. Last Question: What was one of the things Ares say to me that he'd done while being mortal for the first time?"

"I'd been to jail"

"I was nearly shishkabobbed over razor sharp spikes,"

"I haven't been mortal before"

"Again Gabrielle you know the answer. That is Ares!" Xena exclaimed. Ares held her firmly before letting her go. She looked into his eyes. "That's Ares alright. Who are these imposters then?"

"This is my brother Arius who was in your bed and the other guy is Zeus," Ares explained.

Xena slapped Arius hard. "Nice to meet you! That was for deceiving me," She smiled. Then she walked over to Zeus and slapped him hard. "That's for haunting my dreams trying to get me to love you and deceiving me," She said. Both of them disappeared. Then she turned back to Ares and kissed him. "That was my apology for kissing your brother and also just to let you know that I love you," Xena finshed. Ares gave her his most irresistible smile.

"I'll leave you lovebirds alone. I'm going to bed," Gabrielle yawned before walking out. Ares used telekinesis to close the doors and they both went to sleep.

Ares woke up at five in the morning and woke up Xena and Gabrielle for breakfast. Then they got dressed and got ready for Ares' ritual. They were in Ares bedroom again and Ares clicked up a high table. Xena and Gabrielle climbed onto the table and lay down. Ares waved up an urn and wet a rag with it's contents and wiped Gabrielle's forehead and hands. Then he put the rag down and dipped his fingers in the urn and wiped his face with his hands. Then he held out his hands above Gabrielle and shots of light emerged from his fingertips, making Gabrielle glow. A blue cloud of smoke exited Gabrielle's body and entered Xena's body. Ares was exhausted from the ritual. He breathed heavily and said quietly, "You're ready."

Arius suddenly appeared and sent a lightning bolt to Ares' chest, which he couldn't reflect. Ares was thrown over to the other side of the room. Arius had the advantage and advanced on Ares while he was still down. Xena (with Gabrielle's soul inside) flipped over to the rescue. Arius wasn't as good in combat as Ares was and Xena was beating him. Ares slowly got up and checked his powers out. They were fading rapidly because it was close to six in the morning.

Xena soon started to tire and Arius was winning. But she put both hands up to show she'd lost her weapons. She was only pretending of course, but Arius didn't know that. She winked at Ares and walked seductively over to Arius. She cast him the smile she always used in these situations and pulled Arius really close.

"I surrender myself. You can either kill me or keep me as your own to do whatever you want with me. Choose wisely, my King, my Lord, My husband if you wish it so. I'll always be there," Xena said before holding him in her arms - completely flirting.

Meanwhile Ares had gotten up, gotten his strength back and was behind Xena (seething with jealousy, not that he showed it). How dare he take advantage of my chosen like that thought Ares. Arius broke the embrace and stared into Xena's beautiful azure eyes.

"Who are you Xena? Someone I can trust?" He asked stroking the straps of Xena's blue chiton. The two straps came down and Xena pushed herself hard against Arius' chest.

"Of course," She replied "I pledge myself to you. I'm yours now." She knew Ares wouldn't have liked her saying that to Arius; she had made that same pledge to Ares years ago. Xena continued to keep Arius busy. Then Ares held up his hand and sent her back in time.

Time stopped. Xena watched all sorts of these slides of events through history. Ares voice echoed through her mind "Xena be strong. You are entering rough times in history. You must have the bravery and courage to handle it. Good luck. You'll need it. I can hold Arius back but I won't be able to defeat him in the ten minutes I have left of my Godhood and I haven't got Hind's Blood to use. If you can't defeat him then, bring teenage Ares back with you to help me stop Arius. Hurry!"

PART 2

Chapter 6:

Xena looked around. She was no longer in Ares temple but outside a huge cr�me coloured building nestled in the Greek Mountains. Trees were everywhere you looked. Helios' flaming chariot in the sky - the sun - shone brighter than ever before. Off to Xena's left, there was a beautiful long river filled with perfectly clear water shining like a billion little crystals. The water flowed north before falling down into a valley close to the building, emerging into a waterfall.

"Xena, are we there yet?" Gabrielle asked. It startled Xena for a moment but soon remembered that Gabrielle was sharing Xena's teenage body. "Yes, Gabrielle," she whispered. "Let's go check out this building. Ares said we should meet his teenage form when we start traveling." Xena advanced on the building. Suddenly a huge beat of a drum echoed through the what-was silent air. By instinct, Xena flipped onto a high branch in a tree close to the huge stone doors of the building. A few seconds later the door burst open and out came a whole bunch of teenagers roughly aged between 13 to 18. Their screams of delight as they raced out of the doors was deafening. When they got out of the building they formed into little groups. The first one was a bunch of girls in tight pink and purple chitons with curly hair, giggling away and gossiping about what they found out that day.

"So how's things going with you and Ares, Aphrodite?" Xena heard one of them say.

"Oh for Chronos sake! No, we're not dating, Demeter, and we never have! YET!! You know that Ares' girlfriend was killed by his mother and he's not dating anyone. Although he's just SO cute, he's my half brother and it makes it very difficult to actually think of us together, but if we weren't so closely related, we'd already be going out! I'd make sure of that!" young Aphrodite exclaimed and they all had a little giggle among themselves.

"So! Who cares he's your half brother! Zeus and Hera are full brother and sister and they're married!" young Artemis said out loud between girly little giggles.

"Yeah Aphrodite! You should ask him out," young Thetis (the will-be female ruler of the sea and its nymphs) added.

"Yeah! You two would make the best couple ever! The most good-looking girl born with the most good-looking guy ever!" young Artemis exclaimed.

"I don't see how you guys could like him?" young Athena stated.

"Just because you two hate each other and are arch-rivals doesn't mean we can't like him. I on the other hand have a severe lust on him - like MOST of us here," young Discord said matter-of-factly. "You better ask him Aphrodite, and quickly, because if you don't, I will!" young Discord finished and they all kept on giggling away.

"I'll think about it!" Aphrodite exclaimed.

The next group of girls weren't very chattery. They all wore dark coloured chitons and walked around with unhappy faces. All I could here them say was stuff like: "Those b*#tchy twins of ours think they are SO good. Who do they think they are? We'll show them soon enough, won't we girls?"

Then a bunch of boys started walking out. These guys where nothing like the giggling girls Xena saw earlier. These guys included Apollo, Hephaestus, Dionysus, Morpheus, Hades, and the list went on - and most importantly, Ares. They were all wearing different stuff, like tunics and some just wore ordinary pants and some type of shirt, and their colours were all of the colours you could think of. "Those girls were right! Check out Ares!" Gabrielle breathed.

"Oh stop it! Keep your thoughts to yourself about my guy thank-you!" Xena scolded. .

Ares was wearing black leather (biggest surprise in history!!!) and it looked quite different to what he usually wore. He had the same black boots, LONG black leather pants with criss cross stitching down the side and a black leather shirt. He had short black curly hair, a lighter tan, no sword strapped to his side and was about 6 inches shorter than Xena knew him to be; he'd be about Xena's height at her usual age when he was a teenager. He looked about 16 years old- Ares was in his 18 year old form when she'd first met him.

Anyway these boys were yelling out war-cries and making a big noise (boys will be boys!). They stopped there for a while, taking off their sandals, doing push-ups, disposing of anything uneaten at lunch, washing their feet in the river, splashing each other with mud, telling each other dirty jokes etc.

"Chronos, I am so glad to be out of school. It's so boring - school sucks!" Ares remarked, getting up from his push-up position to take off his boots.

"Yeah!" Hades agreed. "The Academy of Celestial and Immortal Power is almost as bad as having someone steal your tunic while bathing at the baths. Who did that to me yesterday anyway?"

Dionysus and Ares bit their lips trying not to laugh but they were unsuccessful. They both blew up in laughter. Between laughing, Dionysus admitted, " Ares and I couldn't help it. We were getting into the baths next and I noticed how shabby my tunic was, so Ares pinched yours and gave it to me to wear - I'm actually wearing it now under my clothes!!!!!" Ares and Dionysus screamed in laughter and gave each other a high five.

"Let's change the subject, shall we dudes?" Apollo considered. "Anyone learnt any new stuff lately?"

Ares grabbed two daggers concealed in the folds of his shirt and threw them at Apollo, pinning him to the tree by the top of his tunic. "You could say that!" Ares exclaimed, satisfied with his throw.

"This is boring. Let's do something else," Apollo suggested, freeing himself from the daggers.

"Hey, if you don't like what we do, don't hang around us. You more of an enemy to me and if you screw up once, you're out. Understand?" Ares asked with an angry glint in his eye. Apollo nodded and decided to be quiet.

"Any good-looking chics around nagging you?" Morpheus asked the group.

"Why do you want to know?" Hephaestus asked back, looking up from his activity - washing his feet.

"Discord dumped me today! And I don't like staying single long!" Morpheus replied, grinning.

"HEY! Spare a thought for me! I watched my mother, Hera, kill my last girlfriend!" Ares yelled. "That was cruel, stabbing my Serene in the dining hall like that in front of my eyes," Ares sighed. "Anyway, I'm over her now. It's been a year. I think I can handle another girlfriend now," grinned Ares "not that I've forgiven mumsy - I don't think I will as long as I live! Revenge is sweet, my friends, very sweet!" he said, stretching his arms.

"You haven't been dating for a year!?" Dionysus asked, with almost a horrified look on his face.

"Well yeah... You got a problem with that?" Ares said menacingly.

"No!"

"Good!"

"I can't believe I haven't even got telekinesis as one of my powers! It's one of the most basic powers in the universe!" Hades pouted.

"I haven't mastered telepathy, and I'm getting so annoyed!!!!" Dionysus said and then imitated Hades pouting. Everyone roared with laughter.

"Hephaestus, can you teach me to forge my own weapons? That sounds so cool!" Ares said, going through his bag trying to find something. Soon he found it - an ivory comb- and started fixing up his hair.

"Maybe later Ares. Why are you so obsessed with battles? You've never even seen one!" Hephaestus asked.

"So? I know enough about them, and they sound really cool! I mean, guys slashing each other apart isn't quite that interesting, but leading an army, organizing tactics, financing battles and building ships, it's awesome! When we get our positions, I�d want to be the God of War, or celebration; I love parties!" Ares remarked and stroked his hand through his hair, making a few curls fall over his ear, which he quickly perfected again with the comb. " I'm a wild child- a rebel without a clue; I need a good party to lighten things up," He finished when he was satisfied that his hair was in perfect place.

"I am in desperate need of a chariot for tonight - can I borrow someone�s?� Hades asked.

"What do ya want a chariot for... you can teleport!?" Hephaestus asked.

"Well, chariots are cooler, more dangerous - and they pick up girls!" Hades replied and flashed a grin.

"WILL YOU GUYS STOP TALKING ABOUT GIRLS! YOU'RE DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!!!" shouted Ares. Calming down, he added, "You can't use mine. I'm already ticked off because Athena stole my idea for the chariot. Anyway, I'm racing tonight. Anyway, I gotta get home- I'm drowning in paperwork I have to finish."

"Wait!" Xena heard herself say. She flipped out of the tree in front of Ares and his startled Immortal friends.

"Who are you!" Ares yelled, whipping out a dagger from the folds in his shirt, placing it at her neck.

"I need to come with you, it's urgent. I'll explain later, " She assured him quickly. A bunch of catcalls rang out. Both Ares and Xena rolled their eyes.

"I've never seen you around before. What element do you watch over as a goddess? Who are your Immortal parents?" Ares asked puzzled, withdrawing his dagger. He circled around her.

"I'm not a goddess at all!" Xena replied. " I'm mortal - a human being."

"Um, Apollo. Look that up for me. Give me a full report on 'mortals'. What in Tartarus are they?" Ares ordered. Apollo immediately began looking through a huge book. "There's not listing for mortals. According to this book, they are non-existent!" Apollo reported.

"You must be a goddess! You look exactly like us...except female of course," Hades accused.

"This will be difficult to explain, but mortals will be created soon by Prometheus, and I'm from the future - in about a million years time will be my lifetime," Xena tried to reason to the gods but her story only brought laughter.

"Babe, I think you need psychological treatment!" Dionysus yelled and even more laughter sprang up.

"STOP IT!!! I'M SERIOUS!! Ares, I'll prove it to you, but I have to go with you! There's danger here!" Xena screamed out above the laughter.

"Alright, already, don't go crazy. You can come with me." Ares agreed, defeated. He grabbed his stuff and clutched her hand. "Let's go." They disappeared in an elaborate wisp of smoke.

"Show off!" muttered Morpheus

Chapter 6.

They materialized in a little garden behind another big building at the top of the biggest mountain in the range. This is Mt Olympus! I've never been here before! No mortal ever has! No mortal exists yet either! thought Xena as she looked around. It was a beautiful spot with trees surrounding the area and so many flowers you couldn't begin to count them. In the middle of the garden was a big display of rocks.

"So, how are you going to convince that you are a 'time traveler'?" Ares asked, sitting on a big, flat rock. Xena did the same and said " I can tell you all about the most personal parts of your life so far and what's to come." Ares looked at her disbelievingly. "I know you better than you know yourself. You told me everything about you, in the future, of course," she added. Ares still wasn't interested.

"You were scared of the dark until you were 7, you used to steal ambrosia from the cupboards in the kitchen, you have in your possession the Adamantine Sickle that Zeus used to overthrow your grandfather, Chronos. Aphrodite, Hera and Rhea are the only gods who truly understand you underneath your pride. You are the secret guardian of the sacred Greek flame - you have the task to make sure that it doesn't burn out. You have a birthmark on your shoulder blade and an ink mark engraved into the skin around your left arm in the shape of a jagged lightning bolt, and I know that you are still not over Serene, your last girlfriend and you never will - you'll move on but her death will haunt you for the rest of your Immortal life," Xena blurted out loudly.

Ares was staring at Xena, blinking. He was shocked. "I can't believe it! How did you find out those things!?" he asked curiously, breathing heavily.

"I'm from the future and your future self told me himself! I'm actually using your future power to even be here! I'm here to protect you from a powerful evil in the future! You must believe me!" Xena pleaded.

"Alright I believe you. What's the danger?" Ares asked. "Arius and the twins," Xena murmured. At that Ares started laughing." Arius! Ha! I can keep him under control! He's no harm to me!" Ares exclaimed.

"You don't have him under control as much as you'd like to. Even now as we speak, Arius and the twins are plotting against you and the proper gods. They are getting ready to betray you all in a huge battle that will cover the entire world. I can't tell you exactly what will happen because I wasn't there but you and your family, excluding the twins, will win. For treachery, the twins will be tortured for what everyone thinks is eternity, but it's not. You will do a terrible thing in the future, and you will have a terrible punishment. You'll lose your Immortality and Godhood, Arius will be released, he'll release the twins, he will destroy the world, all humanity -- mortals like me -- and you will die too at the end. It hasn't actually happened in the future yet, Arius hasn't destroyed the world yet, your future self will lose his godhood within ten minutes of me coming back, and I have to protect you in some way from the future, either we have to kill Arius, try to change your bad deed so the punishment won't be so huge, or bring you to the future to help your future self to stop Arius." Xena explained.

She paused to let Ares soak in the information. "Xena, I can't just kill my brother. He's an innocent man, like the rest of us. I may want to be a War God, but killing a family member just because I suddenly need to is not good. I don't kill for fun! I won't kill until you prove to me that he's evil. I also don't like the idea of changing things in the future because I have no idea how it changes history, So I'll go back with you, but I must learn how to use my powers first at the Academy - I can't believe I said that!" He said quietly.

"I understand," Xena whispered. "Then study hard! When do you finish your learning at this academy?" she asked.

"In about a month. I still have things that I must know before I can become powerful enough to help you," he answered.

"According to your future self, You are already powerful - more powerful than he! I must warn you - in the future, never squander your powers or strength. I shall return in a month and we can go," She finished.

"I'll see you in a month, then," He said and gave her another of those grins that melts people. "Thank-you. I'll do the best I can," He added and gave her a quick hug before disappearing.

"Gabrielle? Are you there?" Xena whispered.

"Of course I'm here! It's not like I can go anywhere!" Gabrielle answered in Xena's mind.

"Do you get the plan?"

"Yep! Sounds easy - let Ares graduate, bring him to future, kill Arius with both Ares', Send back young Ares - easy!"

And with that, Xena thought "a month - a month - a month, " and Xena disappeared.

Neither Ares nor Xena ever noticed Arius behind the tree.

"Xena......."

Chapter 7

"Xena - a woman from the future," Arius reported.

He was inside the big building and in a secret room. All of the twins were there. Arius was kneeling in front of two large thrones on which Herene (twin of Hera) and Zaeus (twin of Zeus) sat.

"She came to Ares and told him that I was going to kill him in the future and she was sent to protect him. They were talking about killing me either here or in the future," Arius finished.

"So Ares is going to kill you is he? This is an outrage that Ares would plot against you! We will wage war on Ares and his set of twins. We can help the Titans! The Titans have got a grudge against them so they can be our allies! What's even better is that most of the gods are more like demi-gods - they can die, but it's hard work. Ares is like this! You can kill him tomorrow as a token to the gods of our bitter hatred against them!" Zaeus yelled.

The twins yelled "Yeah!!!!!" and they celebrated.

ONE MONTH LATER.

Xena appeared out of a vortex in front of the academy again. The familiar beat of a drum echoed through the mountains and a bunch of teenagers walked out again - ready for war. All of the teens were wearing black leather (even the giggly little girls she saw last time) and were armed with swords and crossbows and spears and bows - you name it.

"What happened? What's going on?" Xena asked young Hades.

"We are starting the war against the Titans. We don't have much hope in winning - the twins have betrayed us and murdered our most skilled warrior in the process," he answered solemnly, and continued down the steps of the academy.

The most skilled warrior! Oh Zeus, no! Thought Xena. "Xena! Who is their most skilled warrior? It-It can't be Ares, can it? It could be Arius- I mean, Ares said he was jealous of him." Gabrielle stuttered. "Excuse me, Aphrodite. Who was murdered?" Xena asked quickly. She already knew the answer, but just to make sure, she needed to know formally.

"Sweet-cheeks, you must have been under a rock for the last month to not know! Our twins - Arius in particular - has set up coups around everywhere, military stuff is like, totally everywhere, and - and - when they declared war against us, they murdered Ares! He was the only one with military knowledge and knows how to make battle plans. We are doomed!" Aphrodite answered in the middle of crying. She pulled a pink handkerchief out of her armor to blow her nose and continued to march with the rest of her family and friends.

Xena ran behind a tree. "Gabrielle, did you hear that? Ares is dead which changes all history - Greece will be a Roman Province, I won't be a warrior, I won't meet you, everything has changed!!!" Xena thought to Gabrielle. "We must go back to the month we saw Ares and stay with him at all times for the next month until he gets his powers straightened out so we can go back and stop Arius." "Alright, let's go!" Gabrielle said quickly. One month back, one month back, one month back

Chapter 7

Xena suddenly arrived back at the garden in the same place. Ares was just about to leave.

"Wait! I've changed my mind. I'm going to stay with you for a month," Xena blurted out in one breath.

"Alright, come with me. I've got to go to training. You can watch if you like," Ares said holding her hand. Then they disappeared in a ray of light.

They soon came to a big grassy area surrounded by a tall wooden fence. In the middle of the compound, there was a stake with a lot of incisions made by swords, there was a great big obstacle course at the back, two armed men clad in warrior gear in a big circle of sand and one tall man in a short, blue tunic standing in the middle with the stake holding a big thing of weapons.

"You're late Ares. What took you so long?" The tall man said quietly.

"I had - very delicate business to attend to. Now let's move, I have tons to do at home." Ares answered quickly and reached for his uniform. As soon as he touched the cloth, it was on him. It was a light, linen tunic with a dagger at his side.

Xena sat in the corner near a bunch of weapons.

Ares went through all of the obstacles with his mentor by his side all the way, showing and helping with anything needed. It was one hell of a course. It had daggers that fly around the place, ladders, ropes, branches, walls, tiny spaces to crawl through and other perilous stuff. Once he'd been through once, he had to try to do it in about one minute - and he succeeded after a few tries. Next he went to the stake and he warmed up for the next exercise by striking it with his sword while going walking around the wood.

Next he went to the two men in the ring and practiced one on one combat with the two men. These men were Immortal beings, which could not be hurt. They had no mind of their own - Ares mentor made them do whatever he wanted them to do and they could only fight. Xena thought this was quite interesting watching Ares being taught new tactics and committed a few to memory. Soon that was finished and he grabbed a few weapons and practiced using them against targets on the fence. His last weapon was a bow, but he hadn't any arrows so he walked over to the fence to look for them. Xena suddenly felt a chill up her spine. It was the same one as she usually felt whenever Ares was around her and not visible. Ares was visible at the moment so she couldn't be sensing him. Older Ares couldn't be here so it must be.....

Arius was high in a tree a fair distance away with a bow and Ares' arrows. He positioned an arrow with a red blood tip into the bow and let it fly. "Ares, LOOK OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Xena screamed. Ares heard it, did a backwards roll which ended him up facing the other way, caught the arrow and with the other hand sent a blazing fire ball at the tree which Arius was in, but it was too late. Arius disappeared in a wisp of smoke like the other gods do before the ball could hit him. Ares breathed heavily. Ares would have been killed had I not been here! Xena thought. Ares mentor looked stunned.

"Good job! You've been practicing! You're actually getting some good out of your academy!" he exclaimed, trying to brighten the scene, but in vain.

Ares examined the arrow. They were his own familiar arrows with the red tipped feathers on the back and the cold, Steel-of-Hephaestus arrow point. He looked carefully at the blood. "It's Hind's Blood," he murmured after feeling the blood and smelling it. "Artemis won't be pleased when she finds out that he killed one of her deer to assassinate me. I can't believe Arius would do that! My twin brother! None of us on Olympus would do that. You're right Xena - he is evil. I will definitely come with you now. As soon as I'm ready," He finished, sounding upset.

He took her hand and disappeared.

Chapter 8

They appeared at the big house again, where the big garden was situated. It was already nighttime and the stars were almost out. He walked her inside and took her down a few hallways, beautifully decorated with pottery, tapestries, marble, gold etc.

"This is my area of the palace. You can stay here for as long as you like. My room is over there with the gold inlayed door. If you ever need me, I'll be there. You can go where-ever you want while your here," He said as they walked down the corridors to Ares' chambers.

"Thank-you," Xena said happily and began to walk into a room but stopped herself. "May I have a look at your room? I hope I don't sound snoopy but I just want to see how your room is compared to the room I'm used to," she asked, putting a smile on her face.

"Sure," he answered and led her to the room with the gold inlayed door. He pulled a key from his boot, turned the key and opened the door. Ares room was radically different. All the furniture were cut from different wood, the furniture were in different places, the rugs were different, a skylight let light shine through, and the big full length mirror in Ares' room was beside the wardrobe instead of close to the door. The only thing the same as in the future was Ares' stained-glass doors which led out to the balcony and Ares' bed with its silk black and red sheets and pillowslips.

"Wow!" Xena murmured as she walked in. "It's very different."

"Yeah?" he asked. "Perhaps it will look different when I renovate it in a few months."

A deathly silence filled the room. Xena broke it. "Well I guess I'll go to bed. It's been a big day."

"Good night. I'll be here if you need me, doing homework," he said softly.

Xena walked out and Ares used telekinesis to close the door behind her.

Xena slowly walked into her own room. It was beautiful. It was decorated a lot like the rest of the palace but with its own character as well. She walked over to the wardrobe and picked out a long, black silk nightgown with blue rims. Then she took a brush and stroked it through her long black hair. This room also had a balcony with a stained-glass door so she went through and looked at the stars. Soon she was suddenly over-powered by her fatigue and climbed into bed. After a few minutes she fell asleep and let Morpheus take her.

In the morning she woke up and Ares was sitting in a chair beside her. "Morning Xena! I was wondering when you'd wake up," he said softly. "Breakfast is ready and it's time to get up and get things done." Xena rubbed her eyes and sat up properly. She put a few pillows behind her head and started eating breakfast, which was on the table beside the bed.

"We're having a big party tonight at the academy. You know, lot's of food, music, and I was wondering if you were interested in joining us," he asked, standing up and opening the balcony doors to let in some light. "Sure, I'd love to," she replied and got out of bed.

Xena walked over to the wardrobe rubbing her eyes and looked through the clothes inside. She pulled out a dark blue chiton with silver jewelry to match. Ares immediately turned around and went on about the party. He used to do that when I lived at the Halls of War Xena remembered and quickly pulled on the chiton. Then Ares tuned around and helped her put on her jewelry while she did her hair. With that done, they disappeared and ended up at the academy.

"Sorry Xena, but I gotta go to the academy. That's the worst thing about school. You can do whatever you wish while you're here. I'll give you the power of teleportation for today so you can explore the place, okay?" Ares asked glumly.

"Sure. I'll see you tonight at the academy," Xena smiled and teleported away. Ares turned and walked up the stairs into the academy.

Xena reappeared in her room. Xena decided to become accustomed to the room and talk to Gabrielle for a while. Xena looked around. She knew all about the magical stuff Ares kept in the room... except for that thingamabob over there. She walked slowly over to it. It was a small, stone bowl filled with perfectly clear water. It rested on a very small pillar carved with intricate designs - mainly depicting the overthrow of Chronos. She stared at her reflection in the water. How did it work?

Frustrated, Xena gave up and looked away. I wonder how Ares is doing at the Academy she thought. Suddenly there was a hiss and bubbling from the water. She looked over at the bowl and watched in fascination as an image began to appear in the ripples of the water. The picture was of Ares and his friends that she'd seen just yesterday in seats writing things down and playing with small objects. It zoomed in on Ares and Dionysus. They were whispering in each other�s ears as if they were working on a top-secret conspiracy. Dionysus finished speaking in Ares' ear and grinned. Ares grinned back and nodded approvingly. Then they closed their eyes and held each other�s hands. Something appeared in their hands but it was difficult to see because they hid it so well. Ares held it by himself now and Dionysus withdrew his hand. Apollo was sitting beside Ares and Morpheus who were both studying hard. Dionysus gave Ares a thumbs-up and picked up his scroll and quill.

"Hey Apollo! Dude man! I need a bit-a-help on this here test!" Dionysus lively said, squeezing his way between Morpheus and Apollo.

Apollo was a bit hesitant on helping them on anything mainly because Ares and Dionysus were the top practical jokers on Mt. Olympus so he needed a bit of convincing. The picture returned to Ares. He peeped into his hand, which revealed a baby toad. While Apollo was distracted by Dionysus, Ares pounced on Apollo, stuffed the toad down the top of his tunic and jumped back into his seat as quick as lightning. Apollo shrieked and jumped about trying to get out the toad out. Ares and Dionysus roared with laughter at the sight and were joined by the rest of the Gods and Goddesses. The centaur Chiron who was their teacher sent Ares and Dionysus to Zeus to be told off. The pair of troublemakers dawdled out of the room.

Xena smiled. Ares was exactly the way she thought he would be - a cunning trickster and renowned trouble maker with his best friend Dionysus as his side-kick. Xena tuned away from the bowl and slowly walked over to her bed to lie down. Suddenly she had pang of homesickness. Usually, Ares would always turn up whenever she was alone. He had a strange talent of knowing exactly when she was in solitude, and she had a talent of sensing him watching her.

Xena got up and did a few exercises before exploring Ares's portion of the palace for the library. Soon she found and looked few a couple of manuscripts, but to her amusement she also found "Ares's Chronicles". Xena chuckled and opened the first page. These were obviously written by Ares himself and they actually proved to be an interesting read. It was all about his life through his eyes - every detail. It was like a journal. Ares had already written a part on her entrance beside the waterfall and his near-death experience he would have been through had it not been for Xena. Xena was touched. I must read the rest of his journal after I go back to the future and save Ares and defeat Arius and save the world and get Gabrielle out of my body into her own and .... well, when I have time she thought to herself.

Xena also read other manuscripts written by Ares, and she saw a side of him she'd never seen before: Ares had actually written poetry (although he clearly marked on the first page that he was bored when he wrote it) and it was the most romantic stuff she'd ever read in her life. It almost brought tears to her eyes. She'd never thought of Ares as a literary, romantic writer. I bet Ares gets his pick-up lines from these! She joked to herself and rolled the scroll back up. Xena was glad that Ares had sent her back in time - if he hadn't she would never have seen this side of Ares. Xena stayed in the library for so long she read half of all of the manuscripts in the library! She stopped herself by telling herself to save some for the next 28 days of staying with Ares. She had spent all day there and night was beginning to fall. Time to get ready for tonight Xena thought and smiled.

Chapter 9

"I failed in my attempt to assassinate Ares," Arius reported to Zaeus and Herene in the secret room. "The girl was with him and she warned him. I thought she had gone but she hasn't. She's decided to stay with him to protect him."

"Well, she can't be with him every minute of the day, can she? What about tonight? You can get it over and done with after the party," suggested Herene.

"She might be going with him," Arius explained.

"Well, we'll just have to find a way to kill him or just forget about him and start the war anyway," Zaeus smiled.

Meanwhile Xena was in Ares' portion of the palace in her room, getting organized for the night's party. Xena didn't know why but she felt like rolling Ares flat tonight. She was going to look so stunning that even her reflection would compliment her. It seemed so silly to her but she just had a feeling that she should look good. First, Xena got undressed and had a nice looooooooong bath with lots of hot water and soap. It felt so refreshing, all of the water rushing over her. She wanted to stay there forever but she couldn't so she got out and dried herself. Then she combed out her hair and laid out her dress on the bed. Beautiful she thought to herself and smiled in satisfaction. She knew this party was not going to be formal so she went right through her wardrobe to find something suitable - she had found these cool red tops with matching skirts and a beautiful pair of jeweled sandals. She found herself a golden hip-girdle and did up her hair in a Greek fashion. She looked in the mirror. I look fantastic! She flattered herself. Ares will be here any moment... but she spoke too soon. Ares zoomed up at that instant.

To her delight, he was breathless. "You look beautiful," he finally said.

"Thank-you, shall we go?" she asked with a smile.

Ares suddenly snapped out of his dreamscape and smiled back. "Sure - let's move!" He laughed mischievously. They took each other�s hand and disappeared.

Xena and Ares appeared at the academy. It looked spectacular at night. The whole building was illuminated with little shining lights. The moonlight shone over the river and the soft crashing of the waterfall filled the air.

"Well let's go!" They said together.

That night was fantastic. As Ares had said, there was lot's of food, dancing, ALOT of lights and overall, the night had turned out really well. It was the most fun she'd ever had since ages. Arius had showed up, and was uncomfortably quiet in the corner as if he were a spy, taking notes on them. Xena made sure to never leave Ares alone. Other than that, they had a great time.

That night, Ares and Xena were lying under the stars, talking. They had all sorts of things to talk about- what Xena's life was like, stuff Ares did around the place, what Ares and Xena will look like in the future, what happens between them in the future, how to stop Arius.....the list went on.

"So what does Gabrielle look like, Xena? Xena?" Ares continued the conversation. Ares was lying down with Xena up next to him resting her head on his chest. "Xena?" he repeated. Ares looked down to see that Xena had fallen asleep. Ares smiled. She's so beautiful. I hope we are still close in the future he thought. Ares held his arms around her waist, closed his eyes and made he and Xena disappear. They reappeared on Xena's bed. Ares gently slid out from underneath her, pulled her blanket over her and gently kissed her on the forehead. Then he disappeared and materialized in his own room where he got undressed and drowsily crawled into bed.

Two weeks had past and to Xena and Ares each day was perfect bliss. Everything had gone so smoothly and they'd had so much fun, they didn't want to leave each other. And they didn't separate so it was impossible for Arius to get close to Ares. But then IT happened. What is IT, you ask-The Titan War. The twins had gotten impatient so they declared war- and the odds weren't too friendly. Xena and Ares' moment of paradise was over. Ares was always busy, making up battle plans and getting things organized, that he never seemed to be free from it. Xena watched every move Ares (and Athena) made very carefully. Unfortunately, their hatred was making everything difficult because they were always arguing. Xena learnt a great deal from Ares and he learnt a great deal from her about many different things (to do with tactics). This was Ares' first proper experience in a war so he decided to try and make his plan as flawless as he could (he also wanted to impress his parents and his rival, Athena, but that's a different part of the story in itself). They decided to fight around Mt Olympus where they had an advantage of high altitude and close reinforcements.

Everyone except Aphrodite, Hestia and the Fates came to do battle. Hephaestus spent forever making the finest weapons possible to use against the opponent. Ares gave everyone positions and led the Immortal army. Ares forbid Xena to fight because it was too dangerous, but he gave her a very good spot to watch from - a cloud. Ares rallied up the army, and (although this is not relevant to the story) the Immortal army looked really cool in their armor - especially Ares. Ares was in full battle armor with a golden armor plate, boots, a red cloak/cape, helmet and a big sword strapped to his side (Ares never wore anything like that to any battle she'd seen him in, but man it looked good!).

Soon the opposing army was in sight and everyone got ready to strike. The opposing army was... well let's say TALL!!! The Immortals were against 57 several-hundred-foot-high giant Titans and their own twins, who were mainly on horses (the Immortals were on horses too). It did not look good. The enemy was led by Arius. The two commanders, Ares and Arius rode out on their horses from the middle of their Immortal armies and drew their swords and held them up simultaneously. The other Immortals did the same.

Arius yelled at the top of his voice "CHARGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" as he lowered his sword. Everyone on Arius' side ran forward up the mountain. Ares kept his line while the enemy charged forward. Ares waited until they were half way up the mountain before the whole first line of his army of Immortals ducked and the second line let arrows fly down at the Titans and twins. The first and second line took turns in sending fireballs, lightning bolts, spears and arrows down at the opponent, trying to force the enemy down the mountain. Then another group of Immortals charged down the mountain in chariots, on horses, on foot, and every other war-transportation possible. The battle proved to be interesting. In what only felt like a few hours, the day was over and the two sides went back to their camps for the night.

"What a day! We succeeded in sending Arius and the others back. Victory is in the palm of my hands!" Ares recounted to Xena as she fixed up an enormous slash on his arm he received in battle.

Xena knew most of it, being there watching the whole fight, and Ares knew she was watching too, not that it stopped him from excitedly telling me every detail of the day. He was immensely happy with the day�s success. He was acting like...like... an excited teenager! War excited his every nerve in his body - he hadn't changed much from in the future.

"The day turned out perfect, didn't it Xe - OUCH! Except that!" he yelled.

"Sorry," Xena said softly. She wringed out a wet cloth from a bowl of slightly red water and wiped away the blood from the wound.

"This is the worst thing about war - getting wounded. How was I supposed to know that that certain Titan had the Dagger of Helios with him?!?!" he clenched his teeth.

"Well don't get too happy about this war, it's not over yet...." Xena warned quietly.

Chapter 10

To Ares' dismay, the next day was a disaster. His rebel reinforcement had broken through and a bunch of Titans had went and burned down some buildings on Mt. Olympus. Ares and his family suffered from wounds beyond their healing so they needed Xena to help with the medical care. Things were looking grim. The next day got even worse. The Titans were winning now. Although they were down to 39 Titans, they still had the advantage.

Xena was in her room when Hermes, Winged Messenger of the Gods, appeared. Hermes was quite a sight. He had a golden tan, a small loincloth, a pair of sandals with wings and golden glitter strewn through his light brown hair. Hermes had two scrolls in his hand.

"Greetings Xena. I am Hermes, The Immortal Messenger, and come with terrible news about the war,"

Hermes stated, bowing. He handed the scrolls to her. One was from Ares and one was from Hera. The first one said:

To Xena. HELP!!!!!!!! I'm trapped! I was fighting against the Titans when the two Titans defeated me. They managed to capture me and they are keeping me in a brass bottle so I can't escape! I need desperate help. They will surely kill me if I don't. They plan to use me as "Insurance" against my army.
Again I say "HELP!!!"
From Ares.
(P.S hurry! It's very uncomfortable in here!)

The second said :

To Xena.
Oh this battle is awful! We are running out of supplies, we don't know what to do because Ares has been captured (and we don't know where they're keeping him either!) and we won't be capable of defeating the Titans without him. Please help us! Ares said that you are an excellent Commander and fighter. Lead our Army while he is gone. With you, we can send troops to save Ares and keep our line together at the same time. Athena can't do it because she isn't knowledgeable of keeping an army under control (plus she's wounded and ill).
PLEASE! I beg of you! Ares is my only son and we can't do this without him!
From Hera. "By the Gods!" Xena exclaimed after reading the two letters. "Hermes, tell Ares I'll be there soon and tell Hera that I accept her plea." Xena ordered to Hermes. He bowed once again and disappeared. Xena quickly dressed into her leathers, grabbed a sword and raced out to fight.

She ran to the front where Hera and Zeus were. Zeus held the reins of a horse for her to use. Xena picked up a bunch of weapons and started leading the army. Slowly but surely, the Titans began to be pushed back.

Once Xena was satisfied that they were going well, Xena sent a troop commanded by herself to perform a daring raid through the Titan's camp. The Titans were caught by the element of surprise by Ares/Xena's hostile forces. Soon they found the brass bottle and Zeus smashed it. Out came Ares in the form of smoke and slowly materialized into his usual self.

"Thank you! It's such a relief to be free from that bottle again. I trust you have taken good care of my army, Xena?" Ares exclaimed, stretching his limbs.

"Of course, Ares!" Xena smiled.

"Brilliant!" he laughed.

"Let's go. It's late and I think we've done enough kicking of Titanic butt today!" Xena joked.

That night, Xena and Ares were in Ares' room, making silly, offensive jokes and bad puns about the Titans and celebrating their victory. Laughing away, they finally sat down about an hour later in exhaustion.

"What a night! We've gone to a party, jumped around like idiots, made ourselves drunk, jumped around like idiots again, gone to another party.... It's fabulous! I haven't celebrated like tonight since I was 5, although at 5 I didn't go out drinking at parties with some girl my age from the future!" Ares laughed. Xena agreed quickly and they both lied down on the bed.

"Look at this place - we've completely trashed it! It'll take months to clean up this mess!!" Xena sighed. "No it won't," Ares whispered and waved his hand. The whole room was spotless in two seconds.

"Oh yeah, I forgot I was with a god!" Xena smiled. Ares gave 'that smile he does' back.

"Xena, are all mortals as beautiful, charming, funny, witty, smart and attractive as you?!?!" he asked.

"Some are. Thank you by the way. You flatter me, and you do it in the future too!!!!!" Xena answered.

Xena and Ares gazed into each other�s eyes, trying to figure out what the other was thinking at that moment. Slowly they met in a long, looooong kiss. When it broke, Ares said quietly,

"It's very late. I think I should go. Goodnight Xena," and moved off the bed. Xena grabbed his arm and said, "Stay with me," Ares thought for a while and said "Okay," barely above a whisper.

Xena got up and moved over to the wardrobe and pulled out the black silk nightgown she wore the other night to bed and slipped it on while Ares took off all of his armor and his boots etc. Then they both climbed into bed.

In the morning, Xena found herself in bed alone. Slightly disappointed, she sat up and rubbed the side of her head. Ares' side of the bed was already made and on the blanket was a note rolled up and held together with a ribbon. Xena opened it and it said: Xena,
Good morning! I trust you slept well. I deeply regret that I can't be with you this morning but as general of our army, I have a duty to attend to in our battle. You looked so peaceful sleeping that I decided not to wake you up. There's food on the table as usual and armor on the chair. When you're ready, come and join me. I need as much help as possible. Feel free to watch what's going on by looking in the mirror and think about the battle.
I must leave now - responsibilities as the soon-to-be God of War are never complete! Ares.
(P.S Last night was FANTASTIC don't you agree!)

Ares used to do that all the time when Xena worked for Ares - leave early in the morning to go to a battle, leave breakfast on the table and invite her to come and help him. Xena smiled and got out of bed. She got dressed, opened the stained-glass doors, ate breakfast, checked on the army and disappeared in a shower of gold.

Xena reappeared by Ares' side. Xena mounted a horse and drew her sword. Ares slew a Titan and turned to her. "Morning Xena! You obviously got my message!" Ares exclaimed. The pair looked around the battlefield. So far, the Olympian gods had knocked the Titans back to the bottom of Mt. Olympus and were winning.

Ares' great-grandma and granddad, Gaia and Uranus, were desperately trying to help the Titans (the Titans were their children, for Chronus' sake!) by sending natural disasters all over Greece and the rest of the world. They even sunk three continents out of the ten continents in the world at that time just to create some cataclysmic waves to Greece! They created all of Greece's islands, the isthmus and Greece's jagged coastline in this way.

Now only 20 Titans lived - two of them were the Immortal's allies, so 18 were still opposing them. Six Immortal traitor-twins so far were kept in the newly created torture-realm - unfortunately Arius wasn't one of them, but he would soon.

The next day, the Titans were down to 1 enemy Titan - Typhon, and all of the traitor-twins were kept in the torture realm. This Titan, Typhon, was the leader of the Titans. He hadn't been fighting in the war because he was going to be the GRAND-FINALE, if you know what I mean. He was the Tallest of the Titans - to get the picture, stars got tangled in his hair, the deepest seas only reached his ankles, and compared to him, Mt. Olympus was as tall as the distance between his fingertips to his wrist! So basically this was one Tartarus of a large creature!!!!!!!!!! He was powerful too - so powerful that his powers rivaled Zeus' and all of the Olympians besides Zeus would have to flee to the other side of the world or they would surely perish, Immortal or not. The gods retreated for the night to get ready for the voyage.

"Dad, I must protest about this! You alone without any help against that thing out there! Why don't we stay and back you up? It's majorly unfair!" Ares tried to reason with Zeus. Zeus was walking down the hallways of the palace grabbing the weapons he needed while Ares slightly trailed behind him trying to knock some sense into his father. Xena quietly dawdled behind Ares.

"I will succeed in defeating him Ares, don't worry!" Zeus yelled irritatedly and slammed on a helmet.

"Dad, don't be stubborn and arrogant! You know you need help! I don't care what you say - I'm staying and helping you!"

"NO! I forbid it!" Zeus' voice boomed and echoed through the palace. "Ares, I need the Adamantine Sickle to slay Typhon. Can I have it back please?" Zeus finished, getting back to what he was doing.

"Not unless you let me stay," Ares said quietly.

"Ares! Your pride is going to get me killed!" Zeus yelled angrily. In a few seconds, Zeus calmed down. He held Ares' shoulders and stared at Ares' eyes.

"Ares, I'm doing this for your own good. If I do die, which I won't, you will take the position, as King of the Gods and Athena will be Queen if your mother is killed. No matter what happens over the centuries, you will always be my heir- I swear by the Styx. If you come and die at Typhon's hands, I will lose my heir and will never forgive myself. If we both die, the other gods in our family will be thrown into civil war trying to claim the throne of Olympus. I don't want to lose my son and heir to a war against our relatives. Promise me you won't follow me. Ares, you must promise me," Zeus said firmly, just above a whisper.

Xena was touched by Zeus' speech. I wish future Ares could've seen that and remembered it. A tear streaked Ares and Zeus' faces. They gave each other a long hug. Ares broke the embrace and a circular-curved short sword appeared in Ares' hands. The Adamantine Sickle shone like the sun. "Dad, I can't let you die. I need you here. I'm only 15 years old. You can have the Adamantine Sickle-" Ares held out the sword "-but either way, I am going to help you, whether you like it or not," he finished.

Zeus thought for a minute. Slowly, Zeus nodded is head and took the sword. "Okay, but you will be invisible while fighting him so you are not harmed. That's not a request - it's an order," Zeus said firmly. Ares agreed. Zeus disappeared.

"That was so sweet of you, doing that," Xena smiled. Ares smiled back.

"It was my duty to do that. I couldn't let him die," he said staring into space. He quickly snapped out of it. "We will have to go forward in time now - before I have to leave to fight Typhon. I have finished my training and it's been a month." Xena agreed and they disappeared in a blaze of fire.

They reappeared in Ares' room. He quickly got out some armor and got dressed. As soon as he was finished, Zeus came in. "Ares, I'm sorry. Your mother, Hera, has been wounded. The other gods and goddesses need your help to heal her and make sure she's safe. You must stay here, for the sake of your mother," He reported. For a split second, Ares was dismayed but quickly agreed. He couldn't risk his mother as well as his father. Zeus disappeared.

When Ares was properly armed and ready to go, Ares and Xena got ready to go time travelling. "Xena, before you go, I'll have to take back the powers I gave you and I want to give you something else in its place, just as a thank-you for helping me," Ares said and a beautiful necklace of amethyst, crystal and sapphire appeared in his hands.

"By the Gods!" Xena exclaimed. "It's beautiful! Thank-you very much!" She finished, putting the necklace over her head. Ares smiled. Then the pair held hands and Xena sent them forward in time.

Chapter 11

Xena returned to her ordinary body who was being held by Arius. Young Ares appeared beside his older self and Gabrielle's soul returned to her body, coughing. "Hey man! Howya doing?!" the Ares pair said to each other laughing.

They gave each other a hi-five and sent fireballs and lightning bolts at Arius' back. Xena kicked him hard sending him flying backwards into young and old Ares. They all fell over in a heap but Ares x2 repositioned himself x2 so they were on top of Arius, pinning him down. A huge fight scene takes place between Ares x2, Xena and Gabrielle (now up and totally kicking ass with her fighting staff) vs. Arius.

Ares x2 were winning the fight and the fight went on for eight minutes. Ares no.1# (older) was starting to weaken in strength from his growing lack of powers. Ares x2 were trying to desperately keep Arius down but he was very strong. Gabrielle suddenly screamed "Xena! Catch!!!" And threw a blood-tipped dagger at Xena. Xena caught it and realized that the dagger was the Hind's Blood Dagger and without thinking, she pounced and brutally stabbed Arius in the chest. Arius suddenly stopped struggling. Ares x2 got off him and Ares no.2# (younger) checked Arius' pulse.

"He's dead," he said quietly. Ares x2 breathed heavily after their struggle to keep him down. Thunder suddenly began to roll, letting all know that an Immortal has died.

Zeus appeared. Strangely enough, he was grinning. "Ares, Ares, Xena and Gabrielle. Congratulations! Arius is dead and the world has been saved thanks to you. Ares, I've decided to let you off the hook. Aphrodite and your mother talked me into it - I know that I was harsh but I was angry. You get to keep your godhood and immortality, Xena and her friends will be safe and the world won't end. But you're still grounded, young man!!! For a month to be precise. No wars, no campaigns, no going out late at night to go swimming or racing with Dionysus, and if you miss another meeting with the other War Gods you get grounded for another month! You understand, Ares?"

Ares groaned. "Yes dad," he mumbled and looked down at the floor. "That's the last time I team up with evil incarnate!!!" He joked. Zeus chuckled and turned to younger Ares. "Hey!! How are ya buddy?!" He said, messing up Young Ares' hair. "Hey, hey, hey! Stop it. I finally got my hair the way I like it! Don't screw up three hours of combing! I want it to stay like this for eternity!" Ares (young) laughed.

"We noticed you liked that hairstyle while we were in the past!" Gabrielle joked. "Gabrielle, just out of curiosity, how didja get the Hind's Blood Dagger?" Ares (older) asked. "Well I wasn't around too much while Xena was in the past. Instead I did my own time-traveling and I took it off Callisto. I knew it would come in handy!" Gabrielle explained.

"Well I guess I'll be needing to go now," Ares (younger) mumbled glumly. "I wish I could be with you on your voyage, Ares," Xena stated. "Ask big guy here-" he said referring to his older self," - he'll be able to tell you exactly what happened to me because he is me!" He smiled.

"Xena, it was wonderful meeting you, your friend Gabrielle and my older self. I'm actually thankful that Arius came because he let me meet you. You saved me back then too. Thank-you. Now I must take my leave," Ares (young) said quietly. He gave Xena a kiss on the cheek and turned to his older self. "Great meeting you, me. I'll miss me," He smiled. They both shook each other�s hand. "I'll miss me too me!" Older Ares grinned and they both practically fell over laughing at their joke. Xena and Gabrielle couldn't help but smile.

"I'll put you in the care of my father. He will take you home where you belong. Do as fantastic on the voyage as I did!" Ares (older) said. Zeus held his (young) son's hand and they disappeared in an elaborate twist of lightning and fire.

"So Xena, tell me everything that happened. I'll get my priestesses. It's not all the time they get to hear a story. What did you see?" Ares asked as they walked over to the great big pillows Xena and Gabrielle had only technically sat on the day before. Some food appeared beside the pillows. The priestesses came in and seated themselves.

"Well it started when-" Xena began.

"Wait! Let me get a fresh scroll!" Gabrielle interrupted. Everyone laughed.

"It all started when....."

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