What Can Happen in a Day
By Ares' Chosen (Rebecca)
DISCLAIMER: I do not and never will (drat!) own any of the characters from X:WP or HTLJ. I’m not making any money from this yadda, yadda, yadda and I never will so don’t even bother suing me. If you want to use this story on your page just write and ask me! I most likely will say yes! This story contains unintentional spoilers for many episodes (you won’t spot the episodes). However it happens after Fallen Angel but there is no Immaculate Conception. The only episode that has major spoilers that I didn’t realise at the time of writing is You are There (Sixth Season). That’s it! Also the character of Nariole is mine.
Please take the time to write me a quick E-mail, with what you thought of the story. Or any ideas you may have for it.
Ares’ Chosen (Rebecca) ares_92@hotmail.com
Xena was in a daze; she was standing in a town hall, in a pool of blood. Around her were the fresh remains of her small group of good friends. Everyone she had ever known had just been killed. Gabrielle, Joxer, her Mum, Autolycus, Ephiny, Iolaus, Iphicles: King of Corinth and even Hercules who’d been tortured before he was killed. He had been caught in the chains of Hephaestus and then given the hinds blood via a sword through his heart, which killed him.
They had booked the town hall to celebrate Xena’s birthday. "Great way to have your birthday" she stammered out loud as she collapsed in shock onto the blood stained floor. She was still in shock and her whole body was shaking from the ordeal. The soldiers that had just killed her friends and family were immortal, that had been discovered after running them through with swords noticing that nothing had happened to them, no blood, no pain; there were too many soldiers for them to fight. They could only of belonged to Ares, the God of War, she thought. It was a strange army of soldiers, Xena didn’t even know they were an army. But she was still to numb from the shock to think properly of why Ares would do this to her. There were not really any reasons that she could think of, none that would really cause Ares to do something like this. She decided to go find him, to see if he knew who did this to her, and why!
But as she was walking out of the temple shaking and crying she noticed that one of the soldiers had left his sword behind. She picked up the sword and noticed that it had Ares’ symbol on it. She couldn’t believe that Ares really was behind this. The sword had Hind’s blood on it! He wants me back so much that he got my family and friends slaughtered. That bastard, I will KILL him. Racked with grief she walked slowly out of the temple, determined to find and hurt Ares as much as she could, for what he did to her!
After deciding on her strategy, she started to think that maybe it wasn’t Ares that did it at all, it must have been somebody else for she hadn’t felt his presence, during the incident, and she knew that if he was behind this, he would of attended the massacre. She thought… after a few minutes she realized there was only one other person who could have done this! Discord. She knew that Discord hated her immensely, because of the affection Ares held for herself. Discord would be with Ares in his temple. The temple wasn’t too far away. So she set off, in quick haste in spite of her deep wounds so that she could find her and kill her
~~~~~()~~~~~
Back at Ares’ temple, Discord watched Xena for another hour, through a god mirror, picking up the shattered pieces of her life. Not realizing that Xena knew that she had done it! She was watching with great satisfaction, when she realized that she would have to think of something to tell Ares, an excuse to why she put a spell on the best men he had to make them temporally immortal. Also, why she had given them the Hind’s blood to put on their swords and lastly why she had gone back in time to get the hinds blood and then sent them out to do damage to Xena and her friends! "Oh, well" she thought,"He doesn’t need to know who you did it to!"
There was a shower of almost purple smoke, and then Ares appeared in the midst of it. He was wearing his usual leather attire that accentuated not only his muscles, but the power of who he was. Ares casually walked over to Discord (who quickly popped the magic ball) sat down in his magnificent black throne, eyed her up and down and spoke to her "So Discord, my lovely lady. What have we been up to today?" very calmly.
"Oh, you know the usual stuff" she replied.
"No, I don’t know!"
"Must you know everything I do! Don’t you trust me?"
"No…"
Discord took a deep breath and said "I had some fun today with the mortals".
Ares sensing she was hiding something, got up out of his chair, walked behind her and gently turned her around to face him. "Well… Are you going to tell me what you did or are you going to leave me in suspense?"
Discord hastily took a few paces back and shakily spoke "I had your best warriors kill some people and they kind of…." She stopped dead in her tracks for at the entrance to the temple stood Xena. She was a bloody mess because of the fighting. Xena was cold and wet from the rain and her heart felt as warm as ice. Blood was gushing from her deep wounds and tears that were not to be seen were now streaming rapidly down her face and her sword was covered in Hind’s blood that was aimed directly at Discord.
Ares turned around and saw Xena standing there in the state she was, and just watched in shock. He couldn’t think of what to say to her, however he looked at Xena and saw that she was looking at Discord with great hatred and contempt. He quickly put two and two together and roughly guessed that Discord had got them to kill someone dear to his Xena.
He looked again at Discord for a long time before he spoke. When he did speak, his voice was in shock and it was low and dangerous "Discord, who did you tell them to kill?" before, Discord could answer.
Xena spoke "She told them to kill my Mother, Iolaus, Iphicles, Autolycus, Ephiny … Hercules and …" she paused before she continued "Gabrielle". With that she sounded her battle cry and ran with her sword towards Discord, Ares stopped her. She looked up at him and saw the fire and anger that he was well known for being directed at Discord.
Discord went to disappear, but couldn’t in time. "Why, in Tartaurus did you do that?" he roared at her. He shot fire towards Discord, which she dodged. "You think, just because you’re a goddess you can mess with anyone’s lives? I don’t think so, you may have powers, but they are nothing compared to mine. Besides you killed everyone that Xena my chosen, held dear. You killed MY half-brother. You will be punished for this. Get out of my sight, I never want to see you again for the rest of your immortal life."
Just before she vanished in shear fear for her life she spoke to Ares in a gloating tone "You know Ares, when Zeus eventually finds out what happened, everyone in Olympus will think you did it and well…you will be ridden of from the world. You fell straight into my plan. No-one’s going to believe you!!! Oh, and Xena. That atonement kick you’ve been on for the past five years won’t make up for the damage and millions of lives you ended when you thought it was their rightful time. Now that all your friends are dead, you can understand the bitter hatred that so many people carry for you. This is how they feel Xena! Enjoy it, by the way I really did enjoy the floor show earlier!!!" With that, Discord disappeared from the room.
~~~~~()~~~~~
Ares took Xena’s sword and chakram away and asked if she would like a bath. Xena nodded. Ares gently held her hand still unsure of how to act, but Xena gripped his hand as if she never wanted to let go. Xena spoke "Ares, you are the only person I have left in my life, please don’t leave me too!"
Ares looked into her eyes and noted that she was searching for a friend. He spoke in a voice that she had never heard before. It was full of …happiness "I would feel honored if you stayed with me for as long as you liked.” Xena accepted. Ares then spoke again "Here is no good for you to stay, there are so many bad memories here, let me take you to my temple in Thrace. You can stay there. There won’t be any bad memories there!"
Within moments they were standing in a beautiful room with fresh flowers and a bath with rose petals floating in it. A four poster bed with black and gold satin sheets was in the room. A table and some chairs were also present. A faint gold light entered the room from somewhere that Xena couldn’t find. She had always known that Ares would be kind to her. But this for some unknown reason caused her to cry.
Ares walked over and held her. She felt the warmth and sincerity of his touch and found comfort in it. However, Ares realized that he still had feelings for her. But he was feeling a new emotion. He wasn’t doing this out of love, he was doing because he wanted her to trust him. Ares lifted up Xena’s hand from his shoulder and gently asked her "Would you like to have a bath?"
Xena nodded ever so slightly, still badly traumatized from the deaths. Ares carried her over to the bath and turned around while she shakily undressed and lowered herself into the bath.
It was then Ares saw the intensity of the wounds. He asked her if she would like him to heal her wounds. Once again Xena nodded, she felt the wounds disappear. Xena went to speak but stopped, instead she went into the middle of the bath and then spoke to Ares in a voice which had lost all the meaning to live "Ares, come in the bath with me, take me, you know you want to…I want to. Let me give you…my forgiveness for many things…please…I need you, I need to feel you, I want you."
Ares was torn between showing Xena his love and risking everything or by knowing that he’d be taking advantage of her and that he’d never be able to forgive himself. After making up his mind he gently declined the offer to get in the bath with her, but instead washed her back. Xena had been stabbed in the back and there was blood all over her hair and back still even after she had been healed. Ares gently washed her back and accidentally startled Xena by speaking his thoughts out loud. Why did Discord do that! She knows that I care for you, she knows I don’t like seeing you hurt. But she can’t accept it. Why must she torment me so? It’s not fair!
Xena herself was crying, but had heard Ares’ muttering so she had stopped crying over the death of her friends to listen to him speak. Ares really must care about me she thought. She got out of the bath, Ares turned around so that she had time to look decent.
Once Xena was dressed in a deep blue silk gown, Ares once again carried her, over to the bed. He led her down and gently folded the silk sheets over her, when she called to him "Ares, Don’t leave me alone! Stay with me please." With that she sat upright and flung her arms around him and held on to him as if clinging on for dear life.
Ares was shocked at first and realized that she really did view him as her only ‘friend’ in the world at the moment. Once again, he lay her down onto the bed and she beckoned him to stay with her, throughout the night he held Xena during her nightmares and tortured dreams and looked at her through deep brown chocolate eyes that held only love and adoration for her while she slept.
~~~~~()~~~~~
Persephone came running into her husband’s chamber in a bath of cold sweat. Her husband Hades God of the Underworld was still asleep. "Hades, please wake up … something truly horrible has happened"
Hades groggily awoke and saw the look on her face and bolted upright in shock. He had never seen her like this before, something on her face was wrong. Hades calmed Persephone down and asked him to tell him what’s wrong. But all Persephone managed to say was "New arrivals…Hercules … " The rest of what she was saying was incoherent. She collapsed on the bed. Hades had only heard one word that she had said and that was "Hercules". He got dressed and took himself off with shear dread of what he was going to see.
The God of the Underworld went to greet the new arrivals; he had the duty of deciding where everyone went. Whether they went to the Elysian Fields or to eternal damnation. This morning however had a difference to it. There was only one boatload of people there. And when he saw who was in it, he himself almost passed out.
"By the Gods, Hercules…Hercules, what are you doing here?" he stammered out. He had noticed that Hercules was dead (for Hercules had entered his realm before alive) and that his companions who were Hercules friends, were also deceased. He looked straight into Hercules eyes and asked who had done this.
Hercules looked back at him and with a sinister smile said "I don’t know…perhaps someone WITH AN ASSOCIATION WITH WAR!!! I’m guessing Ares perhaps…"
Hades thought for a minute, it didn’t seem like the kind of thing Ares would do, it wasn’t his style. Besides, Ares would know that he would face the wrath of all the Gods by killing Hercules…everyone knew Ares has always had it in for him…it’s just that it doesn’t seem like him to do this! Hades spoke "You are all coming with me to see Zeus, NOW! I want to know why this has happened" Hades with a thought transferred them all up to Mount Olympus, with shame showing in his posture.
~~~~()~~~~
Xena woke up and looked around, when she saw that she was in Ares’ fortress she burst into tears. Ares who had been awake watching her all night, asked her what was wrong, but before the last word had gotten out of his mouth. She turned to him and said something to him that struck fear in his immortal heart. "Ares, my world is gone, I don’t deserve to live. If I hadn’t of been locked in the backroom of the hall after I’d been hurt, then I could of saved my friends or have of died trying. I have killed hundreds of people in my life. Why couldn’t I of died with them. Ares, if something ever happens to me, erase your mind of me. You will always have a place in my heart, don’t forget that…I’m going to leave today. I will never look back nor forward, there is nothing for me, in this life… in my life left worth living for". With that she got out of the bed and got dressed into a black dress with a low neck line. She then sat down at the table and just looked at the food. She pushed it all off the table.
Ares looked at Xena, not even knowing how to approach her. All that was going to change in an instance however. Xena rose from the table and looked out the window that looked over the mountains. With one swift movement she broke the glass and jumped through the window. Before Ares could do anything to stop her. Ares raced over to the window but it was too late. She was falling and there was nothing in his godly powers he could do to save her. Ares watched on in horror as she fell to her death. He heard two voices screaming one was Xena’ and the other was…his. He quickly gathered his strength and transported himself directly underneath where Xena was falling. As he looked up he could see a figure of never-ending flowing black fall straight into his strong, secure arms. Ares audibly gasped in relief, he turned Xena’ face towards him so he could ask her if she was alright. When he noticed a red feather near her neck. Now fearing the worst Ares transported her back to his bed chambers, laid her down on the bed and turned her over. Ares looked Xena over and mourned. Ares the God of War, defender and heir of Olympus started to shed tears for the very first time in his entire immortal existence. Ares bent over and lifted his Warrior Princess into his strong, protective arms and held her as closely to himself as he could. During through all, he shed clear hot tears that were stinging his eyes closed. Together they were then as one, while Ares bathed them both in a sea of love.
~~~~()~~~~
"ZEUS" a voice roared out to him.
Zeus awoke from his slumber and went to the throne room from where the voice came from. "Hades, what are you doing…" He stopped he looked at the group of people surrounding him and saw his son Hercules there. Zeus blinked, realization hit him knowing that Hercules was dead. His son was dead, and there was nothing he could do about. "ARES" Zeus summoned his son the God of War, he assumed that he had done this. The whole of Mount Olympus shook with the intensity and anger in his voice.
Ares took his time in appearing, the power emanating from him was awesome. As Zeus looked at his son, he felt hatred fly around the room, his son had seemed to have lost his only bit of humanity. Zeus looked down onto the floor where his son now laid. "GET UP" he roared at him, thinking it was a staged acting attempt. Ares picked himself up off the floor, holding his tears away he did not want to shed them infront of his father, nor anyone else. Xena was the only person he would cry infront, and looked into his father’s eyes with the purest hatred. As Zeus looked back into his eyes he knew that something had broken inside of him, he had become pure evil. There was something about him that was wrong, he was grieving!
Zeus was about to speak to Ares, when Ares roughly pushed him aside and strode over to where Hercules was and he uttered two words to him, once again speaking with no humanity in his voice "Xena’s dead."
With that, Zeus decided that he should call the 12 Olympians together not only them, but every single God/Demi- god, he did so. In a matter of moments, the throne room was littered with sparkles from the Gods arrivals.
Zeus spoke "Hercules has been killed, someone in THIS ROOM did this to him. I will find out who and when I do they will be KILLED. Personally by me! Each one of you TODAY are going to come before me and I will search each and every one of you till I find the one with his murder in his mind. Even if you didn’t commit it yourself you still have to have gotten the Hind’s blood and instigated the chain of events. As you know, the Hind’s blood is one of the only ways to kill a God or a Demi-god. You plotted the plan, perfected it then carried it out. Who wants to be first?"
At the back of the hall a couple voices took up the chant of saying "ARES, ARES" The chant grew louder and louder till most of Mount Olympus was saying it.
Zeus roared, everyone fell silent.
Athena rose from her chair and spoke to Zeus "Everyone, here knows that Ares has always had it in for Hercules and striking at Xena’ party would be the best way not only to destroy Hercules, but to gain Xena back on his side. Because of all the grief she would be carrying. To summarize Ares would of won for he would get Xena back and the world would be rid of Hercules, thus Xena would be the Destroyer of Nations again. Of course he killed him, he has the prime motive. Why check his mind when he obviously is guilty." She sat back down; the chant started up again.
Zeus got up from his throne and commanded for silence to come about. "Even though he is the God of War and even though he always has had it in for his half-brother. He is by no means exempt from this ‘procedure’" Zeus called Ares forward and everyone watched Ares as he got up shakily from his throne and walked towards Zeus. Just before he reached his father he turned around to the rest Olympus and spoke with the pure hatred still shining through his voice "Boy, have I got a surprise for you all!" He glared at everyone then continued to walk before Zeus. He knelt down and Zeus proceeded to look into his mind to see if he was the one guilty of committing the crime.
As he looked he saw something he didn’t expect; Ares hadn’t committed the crime. He came out of his mind and looked down at the rest of the Gods who were expecting a sentence of "Guilty" to come out of his mouth. Instead all the Gods gasped in disbelief when a sentence of "Not Guilty" came from his mouth.
"That’s right, you heard me. Ares is NOT guilty! Whose next?" No one volunteered. Zeus looked at Athena and spoke to her. "Since you are the goddess of Wisdom it should be you who check their minds for you have the greatest power of the mind, second to mine. Besides you would be a fair judge"
Athena thanked Zeus and then went round the table of the 12 Olympians, she went to Hera then Aphrodite and so on. Till she finished the table. She walked to Zeus’ throne and spoke "The 12 Olympian Gods are not guilty of this crime, it was someone else in this room."
Ares then spoke "Try Discord, I’m sure you’ll find something interesting there"
Everyone’s eyes fell on Discord who felt her life slipping away from herself, in fear of life. However, unknown to everyone (including Ares) she held a tiny dagger in the inside of her hand which was covered in Hind’s blood. Zeus looked at Discord and called her up towards him. She walked up to Zeus and knelt before him and waited till he had placed his fingers on her temples to start to probe her mind. Then she opened her palm and using the knife made a slash on his right arm. He looked down in horror and felt himself dying. The Hind’s blood had entered him and now he would die. The other God’s looked on in horror as he died before them.
~~~~~()~~~~~
Ares watched as Discord killed his father, he started thinking "She killed my father! Hang on, if Zeus is dead I take the throne. I’m his first son! That conniving bachae! Thinking she can get me by killing my father. No way, I will damn her to Tartarus before she knows what even hit her! Discord will PAY not for Zeus but for Xena…Xena, I loved you" Ares stood up from his throne and walked round to where Discord was, he looked at her and then with one swift movement threw her to the other side of the room where Hades, Athena and Apollo restrained her. Ares continued his walk towards Zeus’ throne. Which was at the head of the table. The rest of the Gods already knew he was the heir of the throne so they didn’t stop him. Ares placed a hand on the top of the throne and Zeus’ throne disappeared and Ares’ throne reappeared in its place. He sat down in his ‘new’ throne and addressed the Gods "As you know, I am the heir to the throne. You all know the tradition of which you must follow now". Each of the remaining 10 Olympians (minus himself) all stood up and bowed towards Ares and spoke simultaneously "Ares, God of War, with the powers of Olympus we accept you as King of the Gods"
There was a sound of thunder roaring and the whole of Mount Olympus shook. The heavens shook and the earth shook. All mortals looked up towards the sky knowing that a powerful god had died and that one had risen to take its place. But which one it was they didn’t know.
~~~~~()~~~~~
Ares then received his power as King of the Gods, it was devastatingly powerful. Ares spoke "I am still a God of War but I am now also king of the Gods and as my first duty… Hercules and his friends shall be bought back to life" (It’s impossible to bring back a full god back to life, especially after being killed with Hind’s blood) With that, he restored their lives to them while Hades looked on in surprise. Ares sent them down back to earth. "This meeting of the Gods is dismissed, all may leave except Hades, Discord and Athena.”
"Hades, bring Xena back and re-unite her with her friends, I’ll be great debt I know. But she deserves it, besides I…love her. You may go now."
Hades didn’t leave he slowly opened his mouth to speak to Ares "Ares, I’m afraid that I’m not able to bring Xena back. Both the Fates and the Furies would not allow it. They let you bring back Hercules and his friends because a God had killed a half-god, I’m so sorry!" With that Hades disappeared down back to Tartarus to look after his wife.
Meanwhile, back on Olympus Ares was addressing Athena "I told you I didn’t do it, but you wouldn’t believe me. I’m not going to punish you but let this be a… a warning. You may go now"
Athena paused and spoke "Brother, I have always held hatred in my heart for you and the fact that your being king does not change that! Don’t do anything foolish for if you do, I’ll be the first one on your back. Remember I’m watching you." She then left the hall.
Discord started to retreat when she and Ares were the only ones left in the room. "Discord, I am very angry at you, however because of your actions I’m now King of the Gods… You will still be punished as greatly. Do not leave Olympus at all, you will be punished before the end of the day. So I would advise you that now is the time you should say goodbye to whatever friends you do have. I’m surprised you have any at all!" With that Discord left the throne room.
~~~~~()~~~~~
Hades had returned to the underworld to discover Xena waiting there for him down there. He started to explain to her what had happened up on Olympus and she immediately asked to see Ares. Hades advised her that it wasn’t a good idea. But she persisted so he gave in. In a twinkling of an eye. Xena stood in the throne room with Hades at her side.
"Excuse me, Ares but you have a visitor" Hades said and as quickly as those words came out of his mouth he just as quickly disappeared from the throne room. Ares slowly turned around not expecting to see Xena standing before him.
~~~~~()~~~~~
Ares looked at Xena in complete shock. Nothing could have of prepared him for this. He started to speak to her "Xena…Xena, my precious, my princess. Why did you do that to me? Do you know what you did to me? I’ll show you what, you mean a LOT to me. More that you will EVER know!" With a flick of his wrist a projection appeared on one of the walls in the vast hall. Ares made Xena watch what had happened to him as she fell to when he caught her and took him back to his chambers and his emotions and reactions to it afterwards. She stood there in utter shock, watching him mourn and cry over her.
Xena went to speak to Ares, when she suddenly started to feel strange. Ares was watching her carefully. He didn’t want anything else to happen to his princess. "Ares, I feel strange. I’ve died before but this hasn’t happened before. Help me!!!"
He watched her then began to realize that her spirit was disappearing as if it were being erased! He spoke urgently to her "Xena, your spirit is being erased, I’m pretty sure I know whose done this. But if I’m not able to save you, um… there are two things I want you to know!. One I will always love you although we have had our differences, and the second thing is that I will never have another chosen. You were my best and last. Nobody could be as good as you. And the thought of losing you is…tearing…me apart" With that he walked over to her and passionately kissed her on the lips.
When they finished he pulled back and Xena spoke "Ares, there is no time left to save me" her voice growing fainter and her spirit was getting clearer "Ares, Despite our differences. I have loved and hated you at times …I have always loved you no matter what…I still do. My time is up, you can’t save me. I know I won’t exist for much longer, but please be good and remember what I told you, this morning, do what I said! Please!!! For both our sakes. Oh, take care of yourself and make sure that Discord gets her moneys worth" she managed to raise a small grin "I love you" As soon as she had finished saying those few words her spirit vanished and she was no more. She didn’t exist anywhere anymore. And his heart ached badly, for what was no longer existed.
Ares sank down to his knees in the vast hall of Olympus and screamed a primal scream of loss that echoed around both the mortal and immortal world. War loved…and Xena loved me…War. He continued to sit there rocking backwards and forwards like a child.
~~~~~()~~~~~
Hercules sat round the campfire with Iolaus and Gabrielle. The others had gone back to their villages or had moved on, all of them carrying in their hearts the sadness of Xena’s passing. On the fire was some fish cooking, but none of the felt like eating. Gabrielle starting crying "She’s really gone, no she can’t be! She’ll find a way back to us! She HAS to. Oh why did she jump to her death!" Gabrielle was sobbing louder now. Iolaus tried to comfort her but to no avail as he started to cry to.
Once they had been returned to earth from Mt Olympus, Hades had come and told them what had happened to Xena. How she had jumped to her death and that Ares couldn’t bring her back. They had all stood in shock, except for Hercules who already knew that she had died.
Back round the campfire Hercules watched as Iolaus tried to comfort Gabrielle. He started to think as he stared at the fire for a while and then spoke. His voice hoarse with tears "Iolaus, Gabrielle I’ve been thinking. I’m going to go to Hades to allow us to see Xena to say goodbye to her. I think it would help us. If not you then me" Iolaus and Gabrielle looked at the Demi-god and nodded. All three of them racked in grief. Hercules still couldn’t believe that Discord had slain his father Zeus and that she had contributed to Xena killing herself with grief for her friends.
The next morning a group of three could be seen heading down the path towards the entrance of The Underworld.