Three weeks later
~*~
Xena smiled, this was perfect, Ivaia was within hearing distance, and Gabrielle was willing to go along with the plan. Gabrielle asked quickly, attempting to pretend she was telling a story. "Xena, have you really been spending all that time with Ares?"
Xena answered, making sure she didn't sound rushed. "Sometimes I go and check up on my army, but mostly I go and see Ares. We practice all types of maneuvers. Ares is having some more weapons made just for my army, isn't that sweet? We do other stuff though, like talking, and starting wars, and well... you know what I mean. Of course sometimes I visit Aphrodite, she's nice most of the time, that is unless Bliss is there, he's always breaking things and driving Aphrodite crazy!"
Gabrielle stopped faking being interested and started listening for real. "What else do you do on Mt. Olympus?"
Xena said, with a slight shrug of her shoulders, "I mostly just visit with Aphrodite, Ares, Hera, and Hermes, they are fun most of the time. Of course there are times when I see Athena, Discord, Strife, or Zeus, those are the worst days, those gods are rather insane."
Gabrielle and Xena heard a sharp intake of breath, then someone running away. Xena smiled triumphantly and said, "We'll wait five minutes, then go back home,"
Gabrielle nodded and smiled, this was the first trick that she had ever played on anyone, and despite herself she felt pretty good about it. 'Maybe Xena has a small point about being a 'bad girl'.' Was Gabrielle's last thought before they turned to head back to Cyrene's.
Cyrene looked at Ivaia wide eyed and disbelieving. "She said what?"
Ivaia answered "Xena said..."
Cyrene interrupted, not really wanting to hear such outrageousness again, "You're kidding, right?"
Ivaia shook her head 'no'. Just then Cyrene saw Xena and Gabrielle come in, and asked quickly, wanting an answer so she didn't have to fret. "Xena, honey, your sister said that she heard you and Gabrielle talking about some things a few minutes ago, is what Ivaia says true?"
Xena smiled innocently and asked "Whatever do you mean, mum? I was discussing weather to change my room, or not… Actually I want to talk to you about it too, mum."
Gabrielle smiled as prettily as she could and nodded, hoping Cyrene wouldn't see her for the fake she felt like.
Cyrene smiled, she trusted Gabrielle if not her daughters, and said. "I knew that couldn't be true. Xena you do whatever you want to with your room, after all it IS your room." Turning to Ivaia she rebuked her youngest daughter, "As for you young lady, I am very, VERY, disappointed. You have never lied to me before! I just wish I knew what brought it on!"
Ivaia complained quietly, as good girls never raised their voices, "But, mommy, I didn't..."
Cyrene frowned sternly "Don't you 'but mommy' me! Now go to your room, we will discuss this later!"
Ivaia nodded, the tears in her eyes threatening to over flow, and then she fled to her room.
Xena shakily sat down in her room, traveling in the aether as much as she had been lately made her slightly dizzy. Ares appeared seconds after Xena and, seeing her; he frowned and asked, "Are you okay, princess?"
Xena nodded, careful not to admit weakness, "I'm just a little dizzy from all the aether traveling, that's all. Why didn't you tell me, before we left Olympus, that you wanted me to lead the largest army in history, and why are they scattered all over the place?"
Ares leaned against a wall, with his arms crossed over his powerfully built chest. He nonchalantly shrugged and said "Because, Xena, they are waiting for you to finish playing around here, just tell your mother, then we can start the real training."
Xena stated angry that Ares was trying to push her into this, granted the whole thing had been her idea, but still. "I'll tell my mother, when I'm ready, you can just wait. Now that I know where my armies are, and who their commanders are, I am in no hurry. See you AFTER I finish 'playing around' here, bye, bye."
Ares was also angry by now. She had played with him for weeks, at first giving in, then driving him insane with want and always pulling back. He didn't know how much more he could take but he didn't want to force her into anything. Ares finally managed to gruffly say, "Fine, when you are done here you can start your armies training, until then we have no more business to discuss."
Xena smiled as Ares prepared to leave; she was in complete control, a position that she loved to be in. Especially when it concerned the now very frustrated God of War. Xena smiled and said to herself "The army here is trained well enough, they know better then to disobey me, a couple of hard examples took care of that, and they are sure a big enough part of my army to easily take Corinth - again - this should be fun!"
She laughed as the God of War suppressed a smirk and disappeared.
Xena, Destroyer of Nations took Corinth 'for Ares' two weeks later, while Hercules was away. Hercules was now planning revenge; he had the perfect idea, but first he had to be sure that Xena really was bad again, and not being used.
~*~
Xena woke up and looked around, she didn't recognize anything, she was in a strange room, chained to the bed, and nobody else was around 'Damn,'
On closer inspection the room was decorated in a homely fashion, it almost looked like... 'Damn... Damn... Damn! It can't be, oh gods, it is!'
Xena frowned and leaned back, still thinking 'I wonder, should I call Ares? I mean it's not my fault that I've been stuck in his stupid feud with Hercules. No, no, I am Xena, the Warrior Princess, the Destroyer of Nations! I do not need help from anyone. Now, let's see, how to escape? I can get out of these chains fairly easily, wonder why Hercules wasn't more thorough? There, that's better, now let's see about that door....'
Walking over to the door, Xena turned the handle, silently noting 'Locked, nothing is easy, is it?'
Xena kicked open the door, stopping it before it hit the wall with her fast reflexes. Xena then snuck out of the house, which was easy seeing as everyone was asleep, and she was careful not to wake anyone.
Xena looked in the stables for Argo, who she got ready to go, and then she headed towards Amphipolis.
Xena arrived back at Amphipolis mid morning to a light drizzle; Hercules had put her in her friend's house, which was in the town next to Amphipolis.
However easy as the escape had been, Xena was still in a rotten mood, several raiding parties that felt it was their duty to 'help' a woman that was traveling alone had not helped her mood.
As a matter of fact by the time Xena reached Amphipolis she was so mad, that it was dangerous to be in her line of sight.
Xena walked into her mother's tavern wet and unhappy. When she walked in Ivaia scowled at her from across the room, which worsened Xena's mood still. Gabrielle gave her a disapproving look, assuming that Xena had spent the time that she was gone training her army or something equally unappealing. Cyrene went back to her work as she absently asked. "How was your day honey?"
Xena screamed "HOW WAS MY DAY? HOW WAS MY DAY? WELL LET'S SEE, I WAS CAPTURED BY HERCULES, BECAUSE HE HAS A FEUD WITH ARES, I HAD TO ESCAPE THERE, THEN RIDE ALL THE WAY HERE, WHILE BEATING UP ALL THE WARLORDS AND THIEF'S THAT ARE ON THE ROAD. NOW I GET HERE, AND ALL I GET IS 'HOW WAS YOUR DAY'?"
Cyrene looked up at the pacing warrior, who was steaming. Cyrene tried to be calm, not liking people upset in her vicinity, and being as reassuring as she could Cyrene said "I'm sorry that you had a bad day, honey, but try not to worry, everything will work out."
Xena mumbled something; all they caught of barely audible statement was "Sorry you had a bad.... honey, my a.... what... they think I am a... child?"
Xena continued mumbling similar statements as she marched away, throwing everything that she passed across the room, Xena continued up the stairs and into her room with the same actions.
Xena in an attempt to cool off her temper was sitting on her bed focusing on all the nice things Gabrielle, and her mother had done for her. Xena had taken off her armor and her leathers to let them dry, and was in only her shift. She said to herself "Gabrielle didn't even check to see if I was alright, neither did mum, and Ivaia is not even mentionable!"
Ares appeared reclining on the bed behind her and said smoothly "You know Xena, you really shouldn't bottle up that anger, let it out…" To himself he thought 'Oh please let it out,' and he smiled wickedly.
Xena looked up, her eyes a mix of disbelieving and playing, "Excuse me?"
Ares repeated in the same sexy tone "You should let that anger out..."
Xena shook her head in a laughing manner "Oh that is rich Ares. You really have some nerve to try that line on me now, what in Tartarus do you want anyway? I renewed my vow, we have rekindled our relationship, I'm leading your army, and Hercules is going to get some very nasty surprises in the near future."
Ares frowned, Xena was madder then Tartarus on a very bad day, and she was going to direct that anger at anyone that came near her, he really didn't want to be that someone. "Xena, sweet, I was only suggesting that you relax some. You're right, I have everything that I want, you." He paused to let his words calm her and then continued, "Now, what I meant was you should let that anger out...let me finish.... and seeing as randomly lashing out at people isn't going to do that, I thought that you could come to Mt. Olympus and… Well you know there are other ways to release all the tension that's been built up."
Xena took a deep breath, his smooth, rich voice calming her almost immediately. She focused on what Ares had said and answered, "You're right, I need to let out this pent up energy, let's go,"
Ares smiled, he was pleased with himself now. Maybe finally he would be able to release his tension too. With that thought he, took Xena's hand and they disappeared.
Ivaia reconsidered her thoughts of revenge on Xena, she had just thrown most of the downstairs furniture and broken about twenty things, in the span of walking up the stairs! Ivaia, Gabrielle, and Cyrene were still trying to clean up the mess after thirty minutes. Xena had caused the mess itself in only three minutes.
Cyrene frowned as she saw her favorite Vase smashed into a million pieces, "I am going to have a little talk with Xena. I won't have this happening in my house, again."
Gabrielle did not know that Xena had left, so she didn't try to stop Cyrene, as her promise would have required her to.
A few minutes after Cyrene had gone up the stairs Gabrielle and Ivaia heard a scream; they raced up the stairs and asked, "What's wrong?"
Cyrene looked around Xena's room, and then slowly backed out. Ivaia repeated their question "What's wrong, mommy?"
Cyrene turned around; she looked quite distraught, as she said, "Xena's not in her room..."
Ivaia giggled and said, hoping that Xena was hiding and would get in trouble "That's ridiculous, mommy, where else could Xena be?"
Gabrielle twirled a lock of her hair nervously; she wondered 'How am I going to calm everyone down?' deciding the best action was an excuse she said, "Maybe Xena left to try to calm down?"
Ivaia looked at Gabrielle as if she was stupid, then said "Yeah? Then why would Xena sneak out?"
Gabrielle made a face at Ivaia, which was returned, then said to Cyrene "For as long as I have known Xena, she has liked to go out by herself when she's mad. Xena probably snuck out so we wouldn't bother her..."
Cyrene frowned but accepted this, as she did not like the idea of worrying about where her eldest daughter was.
About an hour or so later, Xena came down the stairs from her room, the only person that was in the tavern was Gabrielle, and said "Gabrielle, I'm going for a little... trip. I was wondering if you could tell mother that I had to go see a friend... say... Illy?"
Gabrielle scowled, having outgrown the idea that Xena was just going through a phase, and said. "You just told her, Xena!"
Xena gasped as Cyrene and Ivaia popped up from behind the bar. Ivaia was grinning from ear to ear, but Cyrene just ran over to Xena and said "What's wrong, honey. Why are you sneaking out? Gabrielle told me that you have been sneaking out a lot lately,"
Xena turned to Gabrielle an evil smile crossing her face. She took a deep breath before saying "Really? And if I was sneaking out to go somewhere, don't you think that I could do that without anyone knowing? So I told Gabrielle I was going for a walk, or trip, and I went. That hardly counts as sneaking out, right, mum?"
Xena changed her smile to a completely innocent one, then turned away from Gabrielle and looked at Cyrene with pleading eyes. Cyrene smiled at Xena and said "Of course you could, honey, and you're right, that doesn't count as sneaking out, but where were you just now?"
Xena thought a second, and then said, the excuse coming to her effortlessly "Oh, well, I felt bad about the whole mess, and I decided to go for a walk to try to cool down."
Cyrene said a smile gracing her lips now that everything could be considered fine. "And do you feel better now, honey? You look better,"
Xena nodded, thinking to herself 'Oh I feel MUCH better now…' then to Cyrene she said "I'm sorry I messed up the place, if you want I'll help you fix everything?"
Cyrene said in a decided tone, which left no room for arguments, "You will do no such thing, Xena. Now, go up to your room, and get some rest, AND no sneaking out!"
Xena said, "Yes, mum." And did as she was told, glad to have adverted disaster.
Gabrielle stomped around in her room, 'This is awful, Xena knows I purposely told on her, and Cyrene proved to be as weak as water!'
Sitting down on her bed with a large sigh the bard continued her thoughts out loud. "This is not good, no, not good at all! I'll have to side with someone else that agrees with me. The only person who that could be is Ivaia, and she can't help at all, oh well."
Gabrielle paused to breathe and then said "Maybe Xena won't be too mad, after all I HAD to tell for her own good." She then went downstairs to help Ivaia, and Cyrene with dinner.
Xena had to stifle a laugh; she hadn't done anything bad within risk of being caught by her mother in years. Suddenly Ivaia called up in a strange singsong voice, "Xe-na, yo-u have a vi-si-tor, hurry down sis-ter"
Xena frowned "Great, I have to go downstairs and Ivaia is acting strange!"
Ares groaned and nibbled on Xena's ear, "Let's go to Olympus, forget about some visitor..."
Xena pushed Ares away, and said, "No, I have to go down and see who it is or else someone will come up to see where I've been, and I'll get into trouble again. We can go to Olympus later I promise." She smiled sweetly.
Ares knew he could deny her nothing, but he could still joke with her. "Who would have thought, the mighty Destroyer of Nations, being held by her mothers rules!"
Xena got up with a huff, trying not to laugh, so he followed Xena around her room a couple of times, trying to distract her.
Finally Xena gave him a serious look that said 'stop playing around, I mean it!' then Ares stopped, collected the various scrolls that had their war plans on them and disappeared in flashes of blue light.
Xena sighed; they had been in the middle of a very important war plan and she didn't appreciate being called away from it. 'Better go, and see who's here,' Xena thought, then she went downstairs.
Gabrielle felt like squealing like a baby, she was so happy, Hercules was the first sane person she'd met that could actually help her with Xena, and he was handsome too!!
Cyrene smiled politely; she felt that this was a man that you were always polite around. He was extremely nice, commenting kindly about her house, and offering to help with anything she wanted, all in all, Cyrene had been more then pleased when she found out that Hercules was there to see Xena!
Ivaia felt like she was in a dream, this Hercules was sooo dreamy; Ivaia hardly dared believe that he was really there. Of course he was there to see Xena, Ivaia wilted a bit at that, she was starting to get extremely jealous of Xena.
Hercules watched Xena walk down the stairs; she had a graceful air, as always, but looked like she hadn't a care in the world.
Xena put her hand over her mouth to cover a yawn, as she coolly descended the stairs. Xena hadn't been sure of who was there, and had wanted appear as if it didn't matter, because it REALLY didn't matter to her.
Hercules smiled warmly and walked over to Xena, to give her a hug, he really wanted to do much more then just hug her, but Xena had always been upset easily when there were to many people around.
Xena sidestepped Hercules, as if a hug from him would be a death warrant, and casually said "Hercules, nice to see you again. Whatever are you doing here?"
Hercules smiled even more, Xena was really fit to be a queen, rather then a warrior.
Cyrene looked sternly at her daughter, silently begging her to be more polite.
Hercules didn't want Xena to get into trouble, so he immediately said "It's great to see you again, Xena, I was beginning to think that we'd never meet again!"
Xena smiled as sweetly as she could, "That would have been wonderful, Hercules, but as you can see the plan went somewhat wrong."
Hercules frowned "Please, call me Herc, like you used too. And it wasn't a plan, Xena, it was a cruel twist of fate, so I decided to make my own fate, and come and see you for a visit."
Xena laughed cruelly, "Like I used too? Hercules, we've only seen each other a couple of times." Dismissing him she turned to the women in the room, "Mum, Gabrielle, Ivaia, why don't you get Hercules some tea, and snacks? I'd help, but, as you know mum, I'm no good in the kitchen."
The last part wasn't entirely true, Xena could cook if she wanted to but she had just never felt inclined to do mundane things such as housework. It was easier to pretend that she couldn't cook.
Cyrene blushed, and said "Of course, why didn't I think of it sooner? You must be famished, Herc, why don't you sit down here, we'll be back as soon as we can. Come along Gabby, Ivaia, let's go fix something to eat!"
When they had left, Xena said, annoyance creeping into her voice. "Drop the 'I'm visiting a friend' act and tell me why you really came to see me? Was it to check up on me, to see if the rumors were true? Or did you come because you're afraid Ares has done something to me?"
Hercules frowned again, Xena wasn't being nice at all, "Xena, I came to.... well.... there have been certain rumors that you are leading an army again, that you've joined... Ares!" he spat his brother's name out.
Xena smiled, but her eyes remained like stone, as she said "Oh, that, well, to answer your questions. Ares did not do anything to me. I don't need you checking up on me. I am feeling great. Yes it's my army, got a problem with that?" Her tone broached no debate.
Hercules said quickly trying to appease the warrior in front of him. "Umm... no, Xena I don't have a problem with that. But if you don't mind me asking, why are you leading an army again?"
Xena snarled, "Because I feel like it."
Hercules thought a second then said "But how can you just have an army waiting for you when you feel like leading it?"
Xena laughed slightly "I have friends in high places…"
Hercules looked confused "What?"
Xena looked bored with the conversation, and stated "I'm leaving, I have an.... umm.... important business appointment that I'm late for."
Hercules pleaded, not wanting the beautiful warrior to leave just yet. "Xena, please, just stay for a second longer..."
Xena rolled her eyes, anger flashing in blue orbs. "Fine!"
Hercules smiled "Good. Now, just for the sake of asking, have you joined Ares?"
Xena said, finally sick of that question. "No I didn't join Ares, why does everyone keep asking that anyway? No, I didn't join Ares, for your information I have REJOINED him."
Hercules said "Xena-------"
Herc couldn't get the rest out. His features displayed all the shock that his massive body was feeling.
Xena continued as though she had not been interrupted. "Yes it's really me. Oh I forgot, you really shouldn't have come here, I'm on Ares' side, and you are his biggest enemy. Say hi to your wife for me, Herc, I'm sure she'll be glad to see you, and hear about all the girlfriends you've had since she died. "
Xena had carefully pulled out her boot dagger while she was talking, and now threw it at Hercules' neck. It hit it's mark with a 'thud' Hercules wasn't quite dead, but he would be in a matter of minutes, and in the meantime he couldn't do anything.
Xena shrugged her shoulders "Like I said, I'm late for an appointment, I don't like being late."
Xena turned to leave, the sunlight streaming in from the window making her golden skin gleam.