By Ephiny4
Disclaimer: I Don't Own any of the Characters.
Xena missed Gabrielle a lot but having Ephiny around was a treat. Finally, some one Xena could really talk to. Ephiny was much more of a confidant then Gabrielle becuase she was a warrior. It was great having her around..... Almost great.... You see every time she looked at Ephiny she felt gulity.... the guilt gave her nightmares... Nightmares like the one she was having right now........
Xena galloped in on Argo yelling her war cry blood lust and anger in eyes. She flipped over some amazons and landed right in front of Ephiny. After demanding Gabrielle, Ephiny reached out to touch her friend. Xena hit her extended arm with such force that it sent her screaming to the ground....
That move was played over and over again until she woke up in a cold sweat. 'I hit her!' Xena thought.'I wasn't even mad at her and I hit her!' Just then she felt it...... He was there. Xena left the campsite not wanting to wake Ephiny who was still asleep right beside her.
"What do want?" Xena asked when she was far enough away.
"I heard you scream." he said appearing.
"Scream?!? I didn't scream!"
"Yeah, you did." That's when he got the look so he decieded to let her win this one.
"I know what's been bugging you."
"Oh?"
"You're feeling guilty about hurting your little friend."
"What do you know about it?"
''Oh believe me.... I know a great deal about hurting someone you love." He said stepping closer to her. "It makes you hate yourself.... You'd do ANYTHING to take it back."
"Why do I get the feeling we aren't talking about me anymore?" she asked meeting him half way. There was no space between them now.
"Xena, I'm so sorry... I... I love you."
"No you don't."
"Yeah, I do." Before she could say anything he kissed her and (much to his surprise) she kissed him back. Just then there was a scream.
"Xena!" It was Ephiny. Xena broke the kiss and ran toward the campsite with Ares right behind her. When they got there they saw Ephiny completely out of breath, holding her sword, with her arm cut open. Xena ran up to her friend to inspect her arm.
"What happened."
"Some of Ares' men attacked me, caught me off guard. One of 'em damn near killed me! They said something about needing to get us out of the way so they could attack the amazons. Are you ok? You seem..... flushed."
"Let me get back to you on that." she said pulling Ares aside.
"Wow! Xena, um, I know this looks kinda bad but..."
"KINDA bad.... No sorry, this looks a lot worse then kinda bad. This looks really bad.... No,no this looks unbelievably bad..... no, no."
"I get the point. Look I told my warlord to stay away from the amazons."
"Why should I believe you?"
"You know how much the amazons mean to Artemis, the punishment for hurting them is mortality! Besides I love you."
"No...no."
"Xena c'mon you gotta believe me this time. Please." Xena just looked at him with tears in her eyes and walked away.
______________________________________________________________________
"Hey Ephiny." she said as she returned to the campsite, tears still in her eyes.
"Hey girl, what's wrong."
"Ehh, it's nothin'."
"Nothin'." she asked raising an eyebrow.
"Guy stuff."
"Mushy stuff."
"Don't hold it against me."
"Gotta...... Whoa! You and Ares?"
"Oh please, you're starting to sound like Gabrielle with all this girl talk crap."
"Off the record."
"Off the record?"
"Yeah"
"What would you say." Xena began sitting down next to Ephiny. "If I told you I fell for the enemy." Ephiny pretended to be in deep thought.
"I'd say Hercules is gonna freak!"
"Ya, think?" They laughed.
"Well, all I know is that everyone deserves to be with the one they love. And no matter what you can never HATE someone you love. Whether it be romantic.... or sisterly love."
"You're not an amazon queen you're a mind reader!" Again they laughed.
"Thanks. Night girlfriend."
"Night girlfriend."
"DISCORD!!!!" Ares shouted entering the Halls of War.
"Hey. You know you're in REAL deep trouble."
"Yeah, thanks to you.... You told the Marious to attack Ephiny and the amazons!"
"I don't know what you're talking about." she bluffed.
"Yeah, you do." Just then Zues appreared.
"Ares! Don't talk! You've gone too far this time. You're apear in front of the council but first I want you to suffer a little."
"Zeus, I didn't........"
"Silence!!!!!" Before Ares could say anything else he found himself.... mortal in the middle of the woods.
Despite all trouble this whole thing caused Ares the girls defeated Marious easily (or so they thought). It took half the time to do it because Xena didn't have to look over her shoulder every two seconds cause Gabrielle couldn't take care of herself.
"So, where to next?" Ephiny asked in a particularly good mood.
"Cornith? There's always SOMETHING going on there."
"Works for me." Just then they heard fighting. Of course neither one of them ever passes up a fight so quickly they ran towards the action. That's when they saw it. A very mortal Ares fight 5 warriors- 5 very good warriors.
Ephiny and Xena jumped in and soon all the warriors were out! That's when Xena saw a large wound on Ares' head.
"Let me take a look at that." Xena said examining it. "What happened?"
"Zeus didn't believe me either. He took my sword, gave Discord my resposiblites, and I ended up here, with a very large head ache."
"Discord?" Ephiny asked. "That's not good."
"What do you mean?" Xena asked.
"Well, she's hated the amazons for years. Could mean trouble for us."
"Discord hates the amazons? It was her who attacked Ephiny?"
"Now you believe me?" Ares asked sounding annoyed.
"I'm sorry." Xena said with sorrow in her eyes. They just stood there for a whie starring at each other.
"Hello, yeah, hi. When you two are through with your little love connection we've gotta get going."
"She reminds me of the bard." Ares whispered to Xena.
"Ooh don't let her hear you say that!"
Marious looked around, his army was completely whipped out. Damn that Xena to tartursus. At least he had tricked them into thinking he was dead. With the help of Discord Marious rebuilt his army and set a trap, for Ares or Ephiny Which ever came first!
Xena and Ephiny were walking into camp with dinner while Ares was building the fire. Ephiny then handed her fish over to Xena.
"Here, I think I'll go for a walk, give you two a chance to 'talk.'" She said.
"No you won't! You can't leave me alone with him You know what will happen!"
"Ohh, you bet your sweet life I do!" She smiled and walked away. Xena sat down across from Ares and started cooking the fish in silence. Finally Xena broke the ice.
"So, this mortal thing, is it permanent or..."
"No. Only until the 'o mighty council' decides to deal with it." Xena nodded.
"Why does Discord hate the amazons so much? Some family problem with Artemis?"
"Good guess but no. She actually is jealous of you."
"Jealous? What Ooh, Ooh, yeah never mind! I get it." Ares laughed, she was cute when she was slow.
"So you know WHY she's jealous?" he asked getting up and sitting next to her.
"Yeah I have a pretty good idea." They started kissing, they were just about to take it one step further, but wouldn't you know it
"Xena!" Ephiny screamed.
"She IS like the bard!" Ares said, very frustrated. The couple ran after Ephiny and arrived just in time to see her loaded on a horse. Soon they were out of sight.
Xena paced nervously around the campsite.
"This This is NOT good!" She said uneasily as she packed up.
"Hey, hey calm down!" Ares said as he grabbed her arm and pulled her up so they were standing face to face. "Hey come on this isn't you!" Xena looked at him and put her arms around him, they stayed like that a few minutes longer and then left to bring Ephiny back.
Ephiny was thrown down in front of the warlord.
"So THIS is the renowned Ephiny! Well, honey, sorry to have to do this to you but my little plan wouldn't work if you and Xena were still around!"
"What makes you think Xena will take this lying down? She'll come for me!"
"It's amazing that you trust someone SO much, especially after this person just attacked you! I that a friend?" Ephiny suddenly got very protective, got up, and punch Marious in the face, HARD!
"That does it!" Marious shouted. "Take her away!" Just then his men approached Ephiny.
"If Xe can do this I can do this!" Ephiny said under her breath. Two men attacked her who she took out with jumping front kicks and they went flying! As the rest of the men came at her she took them out with her dominating Amazon fighting moves.
"Why wasn't I fighting like this before?" Ephiny said under her breath as she threw dagger into a guy who charging at her. It was down to Ephiny and Marious. They circled each other for a minute.
"What's the matter Marious? Afraid a girl's gonna beat you up?" Ephiny taunted. This got Marious REALLY mad and he attacked her. The fight went on for some time until he got the better of her! She was now on the ground, he was standing above her with his sword raised. Ephiny looked at him with terror in her eyes just as he was going to bring the sword down the sound of Xena's war cry filled the air as her chakrum cut the sword in half. She flipped in front of her friend with her sword drown.
"My girl!" She said. "NO ONE hurts my girl!" She attacked Marious and the fight moved away form Ephiny who couldn't move.
"Hey!" Ares said coming up to her. "Lets get you outta here!" Ares said helping her to stand and helped her to move away from the fight. Ares turned around to see Xena killed Marious.
"That's my girl!" He said softly. Just then a warrior that Ephiny missed came out of no where and got ready to shoot Xena with a bow and arrow.
"Xena watch out!" Ares shouted. She didn't have enough time to react, Ares pushed Xena out of the way and the arrow hit his arm and he fell to the ground.
"ARES!" Xena shouted. She threw her chakrum at him, killing him.
After carefully looking it over she realized it was poisoned! She wasn't sure what to do but she knew she had to make Ares a god again, as soon as possible.
Ephiny and Xena had set up camp and Xena was dabbing a damp cloth on Ares' head.
"How is he?" Ephiny asked from across the fire.
"Not good." Xena said as she rang water out of the cloth. Ephiny looked at her friend, she looked Scared Lost Lonely.
"He said something about a council!" Xena said suddenly. "That's it! That's what I have to do!"
"What?"
"Maybe if I speak for him at the council or whatever they'll give him his godhood back then he won't be able to die! Watch over him." She said to Ephiny as she left the campsite. Ares woke up a few minutes later.
"Hey!" Ephiny smiled at him.
"Hey." He replied weakly.
"Umm, can I ask you a question without you completely loosing it?"
"You can try." He joked.
"Yeah." Ephiny laughed. "Umm, why? Why did you take that arrow for her?"
Ares gave a weak laugh.
"Because I love her."
"Can war really love?"
"What brought this on?"
"Xena feels something for you, I know that. I just had to make sure you weren't just stringing her on, this was the first chance I got."
"Well, you are the protective one aren't you?" Ares said, not exactly in a friendly way.
"I'm not the one who flew in front of an arrow!" She quipped back.
"Look, I'm NOT trying to suggest that you would ever hurt her"
"GOOD! Because I never would!"
"Look! Xena is one of the most important things in my life AND many of sister's. I don't want her love for you turning her into what she used to be! I would DIE before I'd let that happen!"
"So would I!" Ephiny's eyes widen as she looked him and his serious, confidant eyes. "Friends?" He stuck out his arm.
"Friends." Ephiny said rather quietly still in shock. They clasped fore arms and Ares went back to sleep as Ephiny gazed into the fire.
Xena was in the middle of the woods. "Okay!" Xena said talking to herself. "Who would help me? Hera? Ooh, no- she would help Hercules' friend/ex girl friend! Apollo! No- Hercules! Zeus! No I'm not aloud to talk to him! Damn you Hercules! Umm" Xena thought for a minute longer. "Aphrodite!" She shouted.
"Hey girlfriend! How's it shaken?" Aphrodite asked with her hands on her hips, give the Warrior Princess a HUGE, friendly smile.
"Ares has been poisoned!" Xena said not wanted to waste any time. Aphrodite gasped as she put her hands over her mouth.
"ARES! Ooh, my poor bro! Well, what do you want ME to do?"
"What's this Council that he was talking about?"
"Oh! That's kinda like your judge and jury Ya know, court? We were actually just about to talk about his case. It doesn't look good!"
"That's the only way he'll live! Take me there! Let me speak for him!" Aphrodite looked into her friend's eyes, they were the eyes of a woman in love.
"Come on, girlfriend. Let's go." Aphrodite extended her hand to her friend. She took it and they disappeared.
Xena and Aphrodite appeared on Mt. Olympus' courtroom.
"Aphrodite!" Zeus exclaimed. "You are NOT allowed to bring MORTALS to Olympus!"
"Why not?" Hera asked. "YOU do all the time!" Zeus bowed his head as the other gods laughed.
"Alright! Since its Xena, I'm SURE we can make an exception. Is there something you wanted Xena?"
"I heard you have Ares on trial." Xena said.
"Yes we do. We were just about to announce a verdict."
"I want to speak for him!" The gods all started whispering to each other at once, "Why would XENA speak for ARES?"
"Alright! Speak your mind child."
"Ares is dieing! The only way he will live is if he gets his godhood back!" Again the gods started whispering to each other.
"How does THAT concern US my child?" Artemis asked Xena.
"First off, Ephiny is your child, Gabrielle is your child, I am NOT your child! I am the one who SAVES your children cause you are too caught up in yourself to care!" Xena snapped at her, not too happy with her at the moment. Needless to say Artemis shut up.
"Look," Xena said soothingly to Artemis, regretting what she said. "I know that the mere IDEA of ANYONE hurting the Amazons scares you! I have a hard time admitting it, but it scares me too. Which is why I KNOW that Ares isn't behind it!"
"What does how YOU feel effect Ares?" Artemis asked on the verge of tears.
"Ares knows everything there is to know about me. Boy, that's a scary thought." She added as an afterthought. "Anyway, Ares would never do anything if he thought it would ruin his chances to get his 'priced warlord back!'" 'Ooh, I hope they bought that' Xena thought, KNOWING that he didn't care about the warlord thing anymore.
"OH Warrior Babe that is sooooooo way NOT true! And you know it!!" Aphrodite yelled as she jumped out of her chair, she realized what Xena meant as soon as she was done.
"Aphrodite!" Xena growled, giving her 'the look.'
"Ha!" Aphrodite laughed nervously. "Ignore the blond!" She sat down and shut up.
"Xena, what makes you think that Ares would make a decision based around YOUR happiness? And what makes you so sure that you can trust him?" Zeus asked.
"Three reasons." Xena said. "One, DISCORD has ALWAYS hated the amazons, does Ares? NO! Two, he said he didn't do it! And three�" Xena REALLY didn't want to admit this but she knew she had to if she was going to save Ares.
"Three?" Zeus asked, curious to what she was going to say. Xena swallowed hard.
"I LOVE HIM!" She blurted out. "He loves me!"
"War is NOT capable of love!" Zeus said very matter-of-factly.
"How would YOU know?" Xena spat at him feeling the urge to get protective.
"He was shot by a poisoned arrow, that's why he's dieing. The arrow was headed towards ME and he threw himself in front of it." Xena said lowering her head slightly feeling responsible. "If that's not enough proof, ask her!" Xena said motioning with her head towards Aphrodite.
"Well?" Zeus asked.
"Ex squeeze me, Warrior Babe." She said walking up to her. "Take a seat, my turn to talk." Xena smiled at her friend and sat in Aphrodite's throne.
"It's love!" Aphrodite said. "Plain and simple. You want proof, I got proof! When Xe was in Callisto's body she didn't have to help Ares. The night before I went to her and offered to change her back myself, she said that she had to help Ares. Ares is a part of her, he makes up who she is. Now, you've ALL seen him, do you honestly think that he could be that obsessed over a warlord? Because it sounds to me like what he wants is the woman." Aphrodite looked at Xena who gave her a smile. "Daddy." Aphrodite continued.
"Look at her. Look at Xena. The best warrior I've met, the world's GREATEST hero, and YES she beats Hercules on that one!" She added knowing that her father would stand up for his son.
"She came here to BEG that you spare Ares' life. Not ask, not demand, BEG! She doesn't worship us, and she has just about as much respect for us as Hercules does. Does that tell you NOTHING?"
"Xena!" Zeus said. "You really believe that Ares is innocent?" Xena nodded.
"And you believe that his love is true?"
"I know it is." Xena answered.
"Come, bring this back to Ares." Zeus said pulling out Ares' sword. Xena smiled, walked up to Zeus and took the sword.
"I admire you for this my child." Hera said.
"Thanks!" Xena smiled at her. Xena then walked down to Aphrodite who squealed as the Warrior Princess pulled her into a tight hug.
"THANK YOU!" She whispered.
"Anything for you Warrior Babe, anything for you." She said stroking her friends' hair. "Come on now, I just hope we aren't too late!"
Aphrodite and Xena appeared at the campsite. Ares was asleep and Ephiny was sitting next to him, watching him. She looked up as soon as they entered.
"Xena!" She ran up to her friend and hugged her.
"Hey Eph."
"Ya get it?" Ephiny asked pulling out of the hug.
"I got it!" Xena walked over to Ares and brushed his cheek with her hand. He slowly woke up.
"Hey big guy." She said.
"Xena."
"I got something here for you." She smiled and out the sword in his hand. As she did so the power of immortality went from the sword to Ares and he was once again a God, but most importantly, he was alive! The two looked at each other for a minute. Then Aphrodite started to talk once she saw the looks in their eyes.
"Umm, I got to go I got a� Hair appointment! See ya!" She disappeared.
"Yeah!" Ephiny said. "And I have to� Yeah." She walked away from the campsite giving them privacy. Ares stood up and looked Xena in the eye.
"You didn't have to do this!" He said.
"Yes I did!"
"Greater Good? A life for a life?"
"No! Some things rank higher than the greater good."
"Like what?"
"Like this." Xena kissed him and he transported them to his palace on Olympus. Xena returned the next morning to Ephiny and their campsite, anxious for the next time she would see him.
TBC