Lissia's Xena/Ares Fan Fiction
Chapter 1:
I’m sitting with several people on either side of me. They want to know how I became the Battling Bard of Potideaea. How can I tell them my story? It isn’t just my story, it’s Xena’s story too. She’s gone now. The pain is still so fresh in my mind. “Miss Gabrielle, please, tell us the story. We want to know,” a little girl begs. I nod, “Alright. Where to begin? I guess the beginning. This goes back a ways, about six years. I was just a little girl then, in Potidaea. I was engaged to be married to Perdicus, I man I thought was going nowhere. I wanted adventure. I craved adventure. As it turned out, I was made for adventure.”
“Draco’s men came and stole women from our village, I was one of them. I don’t know what would have happened to us if we hadn’t been saved by Xena. I hate to even think what might have happened. But, Xena came and she fought of Draco’s men. Now, don’t think I was just standing there waiting for someone else to save me, no no, I was fighting back. I had no clue what I was doing, but I hoped my few punches would help. I probably looked ridiculous. Believe it or not, I had never hit anyone before that fateful day. Xena escorted us back to our village and cleaned herself up. My father recognized her and asked her to leave before more trouble came. My father wasn’t very fond of her. I was quite taken by the idea or travel and adventure. I wanted to be just like her. She wouldn’t have me though. She left and later that night I did too. I followed her to her home town of Amphipolis. Unfortunately, on the way, I met quite a large obstacle, a Cyclops. My weapon was my mouth, I told him I was after Xena and planned to kill her. I promised to bring him back a piece if he let me go. He believed me, he was a fool. Later, in Amphipolis, Xena battled Draco and won. I continued following her, until finally she gave on making me leave and told I could come with her. And that is where my adventures began.”
“In the following year, things changed a lot for me. I met a nice warlord and was captured by Morpheus’ priest. They wanted me to loose my blood innocence and become his bride. That didn’t work out, thanks to Xena and my creativity. I battled Titans and saved Prometheus. I also became and Amazon Princess. I attempted to save Tierias who was then the Princess, but she died anyway. Before she could die though, she passed on her right of caste to me. Xena helped me stop the war between the Amazons and the Centaurs that day. I also learned how to protect myself with a staff. Xena wouldn’t teach me how to kill. When you kill everything changes. I didn’t understand that until it was too late. The worst thing happened later though. I almost lost Xena. She was hit my a poisoned dart. I had to keep up an act as her to hold of an army. It was quite a test of my skill. Especially sense her horse, Argo, and I didn’t quite get along. Then, Xena and I battled Callisto and put her in jail. I met Joxer that same day. I was happy to say that my fighting skills were much better than his. By the end, we were friends though. He was just a lost soul who needed exceptance. My friend Ephiny gave birth to a centaur son, though her husband was dead and she was an amazon, she took care of her child. It helped start a new relationship between the Amazons and the Centaurs. And there ends my first year with Xena.”
Chapter 2:
Of course, that brought us nowhere near where I was now. The memories were helping me. I even laughed a few times in spite of myself. I could just see Xena shaking her head at the way I was telling these stories. “The next year I got to spend time with the Centaurs as Xena fought an old enemy, Dagnine. I met her son, Solon, then. He didn’t know who Xena truly was, to him she was the women that had killed his family. I tried to explain things to him without telling him who his mother was, that was Xena’s job. It was very difficult. I later helped Xena battle giants, dryads, and baccheae. My challenge was just coming up though. Callisto escaped from prison. I had recently made a decision to marry Perdicus and give up my traveling with Xena. It wasn’t to be though. Callisto murdered him, I wanted her blood for it. Instead she sunk in quicksand, she was gone. In one battle, I almost lost Xena and I guess, I really did lose her for awhile. She was struck and was dying. I traveled to a healer from her past. I was too late, Xena was gone. I decided to take her body back to Amphipolis to be buried next to her brother, but I never made it. The Amazons stopped me to let me rest and recover my strength. Odd things were at work during those few days. Xena’s spirit had entered Autoylucus’ body and was searching for a way back to us. She needed Ambrosia and as all know, in that time, the Amazons knew where it was. It took allot of convincing, but I finally saw Xena in his body and committed myself to helping them. After a fight with Valaska, a fellow Amazon, we got the Ambrosia and Xena was alive. But Valaska too had the Ambrosia and was now immortal. We needed Callisto who had escaped from Tartarus and gotten to the golden apples of the tree of life. I had to team up with the one person in all the world that I had a desire to kill. Things worked out and Callisto and Valaska fell into a lava pit. I could only hope it would hold them. I had a few trips across the ocean where I learned that my stomach doesn’t agree with boats. I also learned that pressure points can deaden the taste buds to the point where raw squid tastes good. I saw a dark side of Xena as we fought the Horde and it honestly scared me. Even that worked out. Then Cupid’s son Bliss stepped into our lives with his father’s arrows. I was in love with Joxer and Draco was in love with me. I still don’t remember exactly how Xena worked it out, but Cupid took the spell off us all...Except Draco who was turning more or less to the good side of the talisman. It had been two years now, sense I’d left home and my life had drastically changed. I knew hate and I knew love. But I didn’t know what was going to happen next and how it was going to shatter my life.”
Chapter 3:
Our next battle was against Ares and the Furies as they attacked Xena and drove her mad. Thanks to my knowledge of facts and Xena’s cunning we won that battle as well. Of course, a few lies were told, but the Furies left Xena alone. Ares on the other did not. And if we would have listened to him, my life wouldn’t be what it is now. Xena and I went to Brittaina to battle Caesar. I met a man named Kraftstar. I guess I don’t have good taste in men, he turned out to be a daemon of Dahok. I was tricked into losing my blood innocence and Xena was right, when you kill everything changes. And for me it was the worst, Dahok had implanted his spawn within me. I gave birth to a small little girl, Hope, and was convinced she was good. I even compared her to Hercules. Xena knew the truth though, I should have listened to her. Instead I lied to her, telling her I had thrown my own daughter off a cliff when in fact I had sent her safely riding down the river. Xena was keeping a secret from me though too, when we took a trip to Chin, a trip that I wasn’t supposed to follow her on, she killed a young ruler after I asked her to spare him. I found this out much too late though. I had a nice time wondering around with an enchanted scroll, Joxer, Minya, Aphrodite and Ares who were both now mortal thanks to my scroll. It was quite an interesting few days. I’ll never live down the three naked me’s Joxer accidentally created. Or the barbarians I sent to a cave. Or the fight Xena had to have with fish. Or my bonding with Ares. As a mortal he actually isn’t that bad. We went to visit the Amazons and Solon. Ephiney had heard of Hope and was there to comfort me. In a matter of hours, Callisto was released from the lava pit and Hope was back. And soon after that, Hope had killed Solon, I had killed Hope, Callisto was once again trapped in a cave and there was a wedge between me and Xena. A wedge that caused us to fall over a waterfall and into the land of Illusia. In this land, everyone sang, it brought me and Xena back together, it saved us. Our secrets were told that day. I had already come clean about saving Hope when she was a baby, but Xena was still keeping things from me. She told me she had killed the man in Chin and she told Solon she was his mother. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever witnessed. I envied them those few moments of good bye. Little did I know, I would see my daughter again, only this time full grown. She appeared, back from the dead thanks to her father. Once again I was faced with hard decisions. If Xena killed Hope, Xena would die because of a deal Ares made with the Fates. Ares impregnated my daughter who now looked identical to me and was bringing people to a mass sacrifice that would bring Dahok into this world. To save the world and Xena, I through myself and Hope into a lava pit that was in the back of the temple. As far as everyone knew, we were both dead. They were wrong. Ares saved us, Hope after all was caring his child and I sold him my soul.”
Chapter 4:
“Xena went searching for me in the Amazon land of the dead and was tortured by Alti with a vision of us be nailed to crosses. Xena was then convinced I was alive and returned to Greece to search for me. Trying to find me, she herself got confirmation that I was alive from Ares. She sold him her soul in exchange for mine and the chance for us to finish this life out together. She hid the contract from him though as she figured out that I was alive and that he didn’t have me. I had been released already, he had no real use for me except as a bargaining chip. Xena went to my home town with Joxer. They found me, or who they thought was me. In actual it was Hope who was protecting her son, the first of the seven destroyers. I showed up later in the woods where Xena and I decided that Hope and her son must be killed. This time for good. As it worked out, we tricked Destroyer into killing Hope and Xena struck down Destroyer himself. Once again, I watched as my daughter died. This time she stayed dead though. On a search for spirituality we went to India where I met Eli and followed his way of love. I gave up fighting, including protecting myself with the staff. I went as far as preaching his way of love to all around me. Xena wasn’t impressed. She followed the way of the warrior. For awhile it was questionable on whether it was going to work out between us, things did and we moved on. I never did get her to try my yoga and meditation although it would have greatly helped her nerves. I later tried to turn my scrolls into a play, which failed although it helped Minya discover that she was a thespian at heart and not a warrior princess. That woman always was confused it seemed, always wanting to be something she wasn’t. Caesar and Brutus were staring there march across Greece against Pompeii. We were with the Amazons, brought there by Amarice and informed that the Romans had killed Ephiney. I was Queen and I had to lead my people to war, something I didn’t believe in. Xena helped keep me from involving myself in the battle though I still had to lead my people. Xena killed Pompeii and though Brutus had been the one to kill Ephiney I released him back to Caesar. I sent a peace offer with him, Caesar wasn’t interested though. He wanted Xena as it turned out, wanted her dead so that she couldn’t stand in his way of conquering all the known world. The man was always far too ambitious for his own good. Callisto was back, she escaped from Hell, a far worse place than Tartarus. She still wanted revenge on Xena as she always had from the beginning. She was teaming up with Caesar. As Xena went to Rome to kill Caesar, Amarice and I went to catch up with Eli who was preaching in these areas. We along with his followers were captured by Brutus. We were promised not to be harmed, but I didn’t believe it. Amarice and I had our disagreements during this time. She believed the answer was at the end of a sword, she was so young, so full of life. Caesar was planning on having Brutus murdered and placing himself on the thrown. Xena found out about these plans though, and informed Brutus who informed the other senators. They over powered Casesar and killed him. But it was too late for us. Xena had come to my rescue. Everyone escaped except her. Callisto struck her spine with the chakram which broke in half. I ran to my friend’s defense as Romans ran to finish her off. I killed all who got in my way. But I was out numbered and we were dragged into prison to await of crucification. I had left the way of love, I was following the way of friendship now. The pain Xena and I experienced as nails were driven into a hands and feet was extreme. When the crosses we were nailed to were put straight up, the force of the impact was horrible. it ripped at out skin. Soon we were both gone, dead, but together. We were on our way to a much better place: Heaven.”
Chapter 5:
“As Xena and I sat, awaiting the help of Angles to get up into Heaven, we were attacked by daemons and I was dragged into Hell. There I became one of them. Xena was up in Heaven, there she met Michael and became an archangel. She came after me. I was saved, but Xena gave up the light inside her to save Callisto from the pain in her soul. Callisto was redeemed, but Xena was trapped. She led the daemons against those of us in Heaven. Before Xena and I fell to our doom in a fight against each other, Eli resurrected us. We were alive again thanks to him and a little help from Callisto. But, something was wrong with Xena, she couldn’t remember fighting, she was an innocent. I, on the other hand, was breaking the news to Eli that his way wasn’t for me and that I had to follow my own path. Amarice had rescued Xena’s chakram from the Romans, though it was in two separate pieces. We met a god named Kall, who wanted Xena to retrieve the chakram of light which had the power to kill a god. Ares wanted her for the same reason. Xena escaped there hold, but soon found herself I the temple of the chakrams. She placed hers on the alter and it was restored. Then, she retrieved the light chakram and joined it with hers, the dark one, to make them whole, return her memory, and deminish the power it help to destroy gods. Xena and I were back. Xena had a new chakram and I had learned to use sias. I had found my true path. In the next town we visited, Xena found out she was pregnant, tough she’d never been with a man. I found it all very suspicious and tried with all my might to figure out this mystery. Soon we traveled to the Amazons because of a premonition Xena had. She thought her unborn child was going to die. Truth be told, Alti was trying to use the child to reenter our realm. Amarice and I bonded and she told me the truth that she wasn’t an Amazon, but wanted to belong to them. When Xena and I had battled Alti and were headed back to Chin, Amarice stayed behind, to learn from the Amazons and become a member of the tribe. In Chin we helped Lao Ma’s daughter battle her sister. The two looked the same to me, I honestly had problems telling the two apart. I was quite happy to return to Greece, especially sense we then discovered the truth of her child’s father. Oddly enough it was Callisto. She was being recreated so to speak, given another chance at life, at least her spirit was. During this time, Ares seemed to come onto me a bit. He must be the most confusing god I’ve ever met. The gods believed that Xena’s child would bring about the twilight of the gods. They wanted it destroyed. They were afraid. And that fear worked towards there undoing. As Xena went to tell her mother the news, we ran into a town in trouble. Draco was after a Lyre and me...Still. The Lyre stayed in that little town and Cyrene stopped trying to hook Xena up with every guy she saw. And I eventually got over the head ache the hole thing caused. Not a moment too soon. It was getting close to the time for Xena to have her child and we were on the run from Zeus. Xena traveled into the underworld, were Ares told her he loved her and she helped Solon into the Elysian fields. He had insisted on being in Tartarus because he wasn’t with his mother. The boy was quite confused. Hercules was battling Zeus as Xena was giving birth. As Zeus died, Xena’s child took it’s first breath of air. It was amazing. Xena was leaning against a tree, sweat falling down her face and in my arms laid a wailing new born girl. Quickly I covered the child and handed her to her mother who was doing very well. I could related to the power of motherhood, I experienced it once too. The child was named Eve. Zeus was defeated, but the gods still wanted her dead. Joxer and I finally got to come to terms with our relationship. I loved him, just not the way he wanted me to. Almost losing him made me see that, he was one of the closest friends I had ever had. Our next quest was to go to Amphipolis to show Eve to her grandmother. We led Athena’s army there where they blocked us in. Ares tried to cut a deal with Xena to save the child, but she would have to give him one of his own. It looked to be our only way, but both Xena and I knew that would mean giving up the future. We tricked Ares and just as she was running out of foreplay, the battle against Athena began. I led the attack as was planned. It was almost my death, Athena was going to have her lead lady kill me to get Xena to give up Eve. but Xena came out with a bundle in her arms, all in black. Athena was going to kill Eve, but Ares got in her way. The people of Amphipolis and I fought against Athena’s army, Ares was against Athena herself, and Xena fought Athena’s chosen. The battle ended when Xena killed Athena’s chosen, who also happened to be Athena’s lover. Xena worried me when she admitted that while she was with Ares she had felt something. There was always something between them, although I could never say exactly what. I was then committed to the idea of giving Eve my Right of Caste. to do this, I had to take my place as the Amazon Queen. Returning to the village, we discovered that Amarice had been killed and the Amazons wanted revenge. It turns out she had gotten up there in rank a bit sense we had left her. I relieved a lot of the Amazon past as did Xena. My morals were tested though when they told me that the way for me to have Eve admitted was the baptize her in blood. I couldn’t do it and Xena showed us another way, the right way through the past. Water was used and it was bright happy ceremony instead of dark and violent. Eve was an Amazon. We were still on the run from the gods though, they still wanted Eve dead. We tricked them, it seemed we were getting good at that. We gave Eve to a friend without the gods figuring it out. They thought she was right by me in the wagon. As the gods through the burning wagon over the side of a cliff, I swallowed Death’s Tears to give the illusion that I was dead. To make it look even more real, Xena swallowed them as well, later after she searched the ruins and found me and Eve supposedly dead. The gods fell for it. But something happened we hadn’t expected. Ares put Xena and me in a tomb of ice that slowed the tears effects. For twenty five years we laid in ice. Everyone thought we were all dead and the gods went back to doing things as normal. But we emerged from the ice and headed off to Rome to find Eve. We found her or what she had become: Livia the Bitch of Rome. We also ran into Joxer who had grown old and married Meg producing children, including Virgil who was quite attractive and nothing at all like his father. Later Joxer gave his life to save me from Livia. I was heart broken to lose such a good friend. Virgil wanted blood. Xena decided that she would have to kill her daughter. As we fought against Romans, Xena battled her daughter, finally in the last minute asking Eli to save her. Eli was dead, yes, thanks to Ares, but his spirit came and showed Eve the light. She was no longer Livia, she was Eve, our little girl. By now the gods were back in the game, wanting her dead and us with her if that’s how it had to be. I was possessed by the Furies and tried to kill Eve. Xena stopped me by tossing her chakram at my head. She never misses, but the damage to Eve had already been done. Eve turning towards the light and being baptized though had given Xena and interesting gift: she could kill gods as long as Eve lived. On Olympus, both Eve and I died, as Xena fought Athena. The future was almost lost. But Ares gave up his immortality to save us, to bring us back from the dead and in effect save Xena from Athena. All because he had a thing for her. It was love, or the closest thing he could get to it. The gods were stopped, we were all fine, and Xena and I truly did have our daughter back.”
Chapter 6:
“Eve still had her enemies though and Xena and I still needed to find out what had become of our families. What we found was horrible. The Amazons were battling Ares who was after Ambrosia. As it turns out, Eve had led the Romans against them and deminished there numbers to near none. Ares because possessed by the Furies who drove him to kill Xena. And after they thought he had, they left his mind and were then killed by Xena’s chakram as the gloated over their supposed victory. Eve and I were on the way to save Xena. After getting the water out of her lungs and warming her body up, she was fine and able to catch the chakram before it hit me and Eve. We headed towards Amphipolis and found it to be a ghost town. Xena was able to make her peace there and Eve met her grandmother in spirit form. We went to Potedaea where I found it also quite run down. I found Lila in out old home and she told me that a slaver had stolen her daughter, killed her husband, and our parents. I wanted blood, hate consumed my heart and almost got me killed. Xena saved me from myself. And in the process we were able to save my niece and return her to my sister. Warlords had by then, discovered that Ares was mortal and were out for his blood. Xena and I were to the rescue yet again. We took him to a nice farm house where Xena had spent her summers with the grandparents and set him up as a farmer. I must say watching the god of war chase chickens and run from a dog had to be the funniest thing ever. Xena says I got very personal with Ares while I was asleep. She said that I tended to move and grab things in my sleep. I don’t know what she was ever talking about. He decided to stay on the farm after Xena bribed him with the possibility of her coming by to visit. Soon, Xena had to restore Ares and Aphrodite to Olympus, so the world would have balance. Without love being there, everyone wasn’t able to love others. And we couldn’t send love there without war to balance it out. Xena gave up an opportunity to become a god that day. Ares offered it to her, but she wasn’t interested. I was more than thankful. once again, we went to the Amazons were I assumed control for a time. We straightened things out with them and Eve and helped them keep the Amazon nation together as a new evil of sorts tried to destroy them. And then, Xena and I were off to Jappa to right a wrong she had committed years ago. She died there and I was convinced I would bring her back. I should have known when we got there that she was preparing me for her death. She was asking me to do what I thought was right. She was following me. And then, she taught me the pinch. I taught I was losing her then, but I wasn’t. She died in battle, full of arrows and then her head was removed. I rescued her body using everything she had taught me over the years. I had planned to being her back, but I couldn’t. She wouldn’t let me. She had died and fought after death to redeem souls that she had doomed to torment. If she were to come back now, they would suffer for eternity. I had lost her, this time for good.”
“Now, I am here, brining the news to her daughter and the friends we had left here in Greece. That is my story of how I came to be who I am now.” I look into the crowd, most are crying. The young girl who had begged me to tell her the story was curled up in my lap, tears rolling down her face onto my chest. I sat and remembered and cried.
The End
I’m sitting with several people on either side of me. They want to know how I became the Battling Bard of Potideaea. How can I tell them my story? It isn’t just my story, it’s Xena’s story too. She’s gone now. The pain is still so fresh in my mind. “Miss Gabrielle, please, tell us the story. We want to know,” a little girl begs. I nod, “Alright. Where to begin? I guess the beginning. This goes back a ways, about six years. I was just a little girl then, in Potidaea. I was engaged to be married to Perdicus, I man I thought was going nowhere. I wanted adventure. I craved adventure. As it turned out, I was made for adventure.”
“Draco’s men came and stole women from our village, I was one of them. I don’t know what would have happened to us if we hadn’t been saved by Xena. I hate to even think what might have happened. But, Xena came and she fought of Draco’s men. Now, don’t think I was just standing there waiting for someone else to save me, no no, I was fighting back. I had no clue what I was doing, but I hoped my few punches would help. I probably looked ridiculous. Believe it or not, I had never hit anyone before that fateful day. Xena escorted us back to our village and cleaned herself up. My father recognized her and asked her to leave before more trouble came. My father wasn’t very fond of her. I was quite taken by the idea or travel and adventure. I wanted to be just like her. She wouldn’t have me though. She left and later that night I did too. I followed her to her home town of Amphipolis. Unfortunately, on the way, I met quite a large obstacle, a Cyclops. My weapon was my mouth, I told him I was after Xena and planned to kill her. I promised to bring him back a piece if he let me go. He believed me, he was a fool. Later, in Amphipolis, Xena battled Draco and won. I continued following her, until finally she gave on making me leave and told I could come with her. And that is where my adventures began.”
“In the following year, things changed a lot for me. I met a nice warlord and was captured by Morpheus’ priest. They wanted me to loose my blood innocence and become his bride. That didn’t work out, thanks to Xena and my creativity. I battled Titans and saved Prometheus. I also became and Amazon Princess. I attempted to save Tierias who was then the Princess, but she died anyway. Before she could die though, she passed on her right of caste to me. Xena helped me stop the war between the Amazons and the Centaurs that day. I also learned how to protect myself with a staff. Xena wouldn’t teach me how to kill. When you kill everything changes. I didn’t understand that until it was too late. The worst thing happened later though. I almost lost Xena. She was hit my a poisoned dart. I had to keep up an act as her to hold of an army. It was quite a test of my skill. Especially sense her horse, Argo, and I didn’t quite get along. Then, Xena and I battled Callisto and put her in jail. I met Joxer that same day. I was happy to say that my fighting skills were much better than his. By the end, we were friends though. He was just a lost soul who needed exceptance. My friend Ephiny gave birth to a centaur son, though her husband was dead and she was an amazon, she took care of her child. It helped start a new relationship between the Amazons and the Centaurs. And there ends my first year with Xena.”
Chapter 2:
Of course, that brought us nowhere near where I was now. The memories were helping me. I even laughed a few times in spite of myself. I could just see Xena shaking her head at the way I was telling these stories. “The next year I got to spend time with the Centaurs as Xena fought an old enemy, Dagnine. I met her son, Solon, then. He didn’t know who Xena truly was, to him she was the women that had killed his family. I tried to explain things to him without telling him who his mother was, that was Xena’s job. It was very difficult. I later helped Xena battle giants, dryads, and baccheae. My challenge was just coming up though. Callisto escaped from prison. I had recently made a decision to marry Perdicus and give up my traveling with Xena. It wasn’t to be though. Callisto murdered him, I wanted her blood for it. Instead she sunk in quicksand, she was gone. In one battle, I almost lost Xena and I guess, I really did lose her for awhile. She was struck and was dying. I traveled to a healer from her past. I was too late, Xena was gone. I decided to take her body back to Amphipolis to be buried next to her brother, but I never made it. The Amazons stopped me to let me rest and recover my strength. Odd things were at work during those few days. Xena’s spirit had entered Autoylucus’ body and was searching for a way back to us. She needed Ambrosia and as all know, in that time, the Amazons knew where it was. It took allot of convincing, but I finally saw Xena in his body and committed myself to helping them. After a fight with Valaska, a fellow Amazon, we got the Ambrosia and Xena was alive. But Valaska too had the Ambrosia and was now immortal. We needed Callisto who had escaped from Tartarus and gotten to the golden apples of the tree of life. I had to team up with the one person in all the world that I had a desire to kill. Things worked out and Callisto and Valaska fell into a lava pit. I could only hope it would hold them. I had a few trips across the ocean where I learned that my stomach doesn’t agree with boats. I also learned that pressure points can deaden the taste buds to the point where raw squid tastes good. I saw a dark side of Xena as we fought the Horde and it honestly scared me. Even that worked out. Then Cupid’s son Bliss stepped into our lives with his father’s arrows. I was in love with Joxer and Draco was in love with me. I still don’t remember exactly how Xena worked it out, but Cupid took the spell off us all...Except Draco who was turning more or less to the good side of the talisman. It had been two years now, sense I’d left home and my life had drastically changed. I knew hate and I knew love. But I didn’t know what was going to happen next and how it was going to shatter my life.”
Chapter 3:
Our next battle was against Ares and the Furies as they attacked Xena and drove her mad. Thanks to my knowledge of facts and Xena’s cunning we won that battle as well. Of course, a few lies were told, but the Furies left Xena alone. Ares on the other did not. And if we would have listened to him, my life wouldn’t be what it is now. Xena and I went to Brittaina to battle Caesar. I met a man named Kraftstar. I guess I don’t have good taste in men, he turned out to be a daemon of Dahok. I was tricked into losing my blood innocence and Xena was right, when you kill everything changes. And for me it was the worst, Dahok had implanted his spawn within me. I gave birth to a small little girl, Hope, and was convinced she was good. I even compared her to Hercules. Xena knew the truth though, I should have listened to her. Instead I lied to her, telling her I had thrown my own daughter off a cliff when in fact I had sent her safely riding down the river. Xena was keeping a secret from me though too, when we took a trip to Chin, a trip that I wasn’t supposed to follow her on, she killed a young ruler after I asked her to spare him. I found this out much too late though. I had a nice time wondering around with an enchanted scroll, Joxer, Minya, Aphrodite and Ares who were both now mortal thanks to my scroll. It was quite an interesting few days. I’ll never live down the three naked me’s Joxer accidentally created. Or the barbarians I sent to a cave. Or the fight Xena had to have with fish. Or my bonding with Ares. As a mortal he actually isn’t that bad. We went to visit the Amazons and Solon. Ephiney had heard of Hope and was there to comfort me. In a matter of hours, Callisto was released from the lava pit and Hope was back. And soon after that, Hope had killed Solon, I had killed Hope, Callisto was once again trapped in a cave and there was a wedge between me and Xena. A wedge that caused us to fall over a waterfall and into the land of Illusia. In this land, everyone sang, it brought me and Xena back together, it saved us. Our secrets were told that day. I had already come clean about saving Hope when she was a baby, but Xena was still keeping things from me. She told me she had killed the man in Chin and she told Solon she was his mother. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever witnessed. I envied them those few moments of good bye. Little did I know, I would see my daughter again, only this time full grown. She appeared, back from the dead thanks to her father. Once again I was faced with hard decisions. If Xena killed Hope, Xena would die because of a deal Ares made with the Fates. Ares impregnated my daughter who now looked identical to me and was bringing people to a mass sacrifice that would bring Dahok into this world. To save the world and Xena, I through myself and Hope into a lava pit that was in the back of the temple. As far as everyone knew, we were both dead. They were wrong. Ares saved us, Hope after all was caring his child and I sold him my soul.”
Chapter 4:
“Xena went searching for me in the Amazon land of the dead and was tortured by Alti with a vision of us be nailed to crosses. Xena was then convinced I was alive and returned to Greece to search for me. Trying to find me, she herself got confirmation that I was alive from Ares. She sold him her soul in exchange for mine and the chance for us to finish this life out together. She hid the contract from him though as she figured out that I was alive and that he didn’t have me. I had been released already, he had no real use for me except as a bargaining chip. Xena went to my home town with Joxer. They found me, or who they thought was me. In actual it was Hope who was protecting her son, the first of the seven destroyers. I showed up later in the woods where Xena and I decided that Hope and her son must be killed. This time for good. As it worked out, we tricked Destroyer into killing Hope and Xena struck down Destroyer himself. Once again, I watched as my daughter died. This time she stayed dead though. On a search for spirituality we went to India where I met Eli and followed his way of love. I gave up fighting, including protecting myself with the staff. I went as far as preaching his way of love to all around me. Xena wasn’t impressed. She followed the way of the warrior. For awhile it was questionable on whether it was going to work out between us, things did and we moved on. I never did get her to try my yoga and meditation although it would have greatly helped her nerves. I later tried to turn my scrolls into a play, which failed although it helped Minya discover that she was a thespian at heart and not a warrior princess. That woman always was confused it seemed, always wanting to be something she wasn’t. Caesar and Brutus were staring there march across Greece against Pompeii. We were with the Amazons, brought there by Amarice and informed that the Romans had killed Ephiney. I was Queen and I had to lead my people to war, something I didn’t believe in. Xena helped keep me from involving myself in the battle though I still had to lead my people. Xena killed Pompeii and though Brutus had been the one to kill Ephiney I released him back to Caesar. I sent a peace offer with him, Caesar wasn’t interested though. He wanted Xena as it turned out, wanted her dead so that she couldn’t stand in his way of conquering all the known world. The man was always far too ambitious for his own good. Callisto was back, she escaped from Hell, a far worse place than Tartarus. She still wanted revenge on Xena as she always had from the beginning. She was teaming up with Caesar. As Xena went to Rome to kill Caesar, Amarice and I went to catch up with Eli who was preaching in these areas. We along with his followers were captured by Brutus. We were promised not to be harmed, but I didn’t believe it. Amarice and I had our disagreements during this time. She believed the answer was at the end of a sword, she was so young, so full of life. Caesar was planning on having Brutus murdered and placing himself on the thrown. Xena found out about these plans though, and informed Brutus who informed the other senators. They over powered Casesar and killed him. But it was too late for us. Xena had come to my rescue. Everyone escaped except her. Callisto struck her spine with the chakram which broke in half. I ran to my friend’s defense as Romans ran to finish her off. I killed all who got in my way. But I was out numbered and we were dragged into prison to await of crucification. I had left the way of love, I was following the way of friendship now. The pain Xena and I experienced as nails were driven into a hands and feet was extreme. When the crosses we were nailed to were put straight up, the force of the impact was horrible. it ripped at out skin. Soon we were both gone, dead, but together. We were on our way to a much better place: Heaven.”
Chapter 5:
“As Xena and I sat, awaiting the help of Angles to get up into Heaven, we were attacked by daemons and I was dragged into Hell. There I became one of them. Xena was up in Heaven, there she met Michael and became an archangel. She came after me. I was saved, but Xena gave up the light inside her to save Callisto from the pain in her soul. Callisto was redeemed, but Xena was trapped. She led the daemons against those of us in Heaven. Before Xena and I fell to our doom in a fight against each other, Eli resurrected us. We were alive again thanks to him and a little help from Callisto. But, something was wrong with Xena, she couldn’t remember fighting, she was an innocent. I, on the other hand, was breaking the news to Eli that his way wasn’t for me and that I had to follow my own path. Amarice had rescued Xena’s chakram from the Romans, though it was in two separate pieces. We met a god named Kall, who wanted Xena to retrieve the chakram of light which had the power to kill a god. Ares wanted her for the same reason. Xena escaped there hold, but soon found herself I the temple of the chakrams. She placed hers on the alter and it was restored. Then, she retrieved the light chakram and joined it with hers, the dark one, to make them whole, return her memory, and deminish the power it help to destroy gods. Xena and I were back. Xena had a new chakram and I had learned to use sias. I had found my true path. In the next town we visited, Xena found out she was pregnant, tough she’d never been with a man. I found it all very suspicious and tried with all my might to figure out this mystery. Soon we traveled to the Amazons because of a premonition Xena had. She thought her unborn child was going to die. Truth be told, Alti was trying to use the child to reenter our realm. Amarice and I bonded and she told me the truth that she wasn’t an Amazon, but wanted to belong to them. When Xena and I had battled Alti and were headed back to Chin, Amarice stayed behind, to learn from the Amazons and become a member of the tribe. In Chin we helped Lao Ma’s daughter battle her sister. The two looked the same to me, I honestly had problems telling the two apart. I was quite happy to return to Greece, especially sense we then discovered the truth of her child’s father. Oddly enough it was Callisto. She was being recreated so to speak, given another chance at life, at least her spirit was. During this time, Ares seemed to come onto me a bit. He must be the most confusing god I’ve ever met. The gods believed that Xena’s child would bring about the twilight of the gods. They wanted it destroyed. They were afraid. And that fear worked towards there undoing. As Xena went to tell her mother the news, we ran into a town in trouble. Draco was after a Lyre and me...Still. The Lyre stayed in that little town and Cyrene stopped trying to hook Xena up with every guy she saw. And I eventually got over the head ache the hole thing caused. Not a moment too soon. It was getting close to the time for Xena to have her child and we were on the run from Zeus. Xena traveled into the underworld, were Ares told her he loved her and she helped Solon into the Elysian fields. He had insisted on being in Tartarus because he wasn’t with his mother. The boy was quite confused. Hercules was battling Zeus as Xena was giving birth. As Zeus died, Xena’s child took it’s first breath of air. It was amazing. Xena was leaning against a tree, sweat falling down her face and in my arms laid a wailing new born girl. Quickly I covered the child and handed her to her mother who was doing very well. I could related to the power of motherhood, I experienced it once too. The child was named Eve. Zeus was defeated, but the gods still wanted her dead. Joxer and I finally got to come to terms with our relationship. I loved him, just not the way he wanted me to. Almost losing him made me see that, he was one of the closest friends I had ever had. Our next quest was to go to Amphipolis to show Eve to her grandmother. We led Athena’s army there where they blocked us in. Ares tried to cut a deal with Xena to save the child, but she would have to give him one of his own. It looked to be our only way, but both Xena and I knew that would mean giving up the future. We tricked Ares and just as she was running out of foreplay, the battle against Athena began. I led the attack as was planned. It was almost my death, Athena was going to have her lead lady kill me to get Xena to give up Eve. but Xena came out with a bundle in her arms, all in black. Athena was going to kill Eve, but Ares got in her way. The people of Amphipolis and I fought against Athena’s army, Ares was against Athena herself, and Xena fought Athena’s chosen. The battle ended when Xena killed Athena’s chosen, who also happened to be Athena’s lover. Xena worried me when she admitted that while she was with Ares she had felt something. There was always something between them, although I could never say exactly what. I was then committed to the idea of giving Eve my Right of Caste. to do this, I had to take my place as the Amazon Queen. Returning to the village, we discovered that Amarice had been killed and the Amazons wanted revenge. It turns out she had gotten up there in rank a bit sense we had left her. I relieved a lot of the Amazon past as did Xena. My morals were tested though when they told me that the way for me to have Eve admitted was the baptize her in blood. I couldn’t do it and Xena showed us another way, the right way through the past. Water was used and it was bright happy ceremony instead of dark and violent. Eve was an Amazon. We were still on the run from the gods though, they still wanted Eve dead. We tricked them, it seemed we were getting good at that. We gave Eve to a friend without the gods figuring it out. They thought she was right by me in the wagon. As the gods through the burning wagon over the side of a cliff, I swallowed Death’s Tears to give the illusion that I was dead. To make it look even more real, Xena swallowed them as well, later after she searched the ruins and found me and Eve supposedly dead. The gods fell for it. But something happened we hadn’t expected. Ares put Xena and me in a tomb of ice that slowed the tears effects. For twenty five years we laid in ice. Everyone thought we were all dead and the gods went back to doing things as normal. But we emerged from the ice and headed off to Rome to find Eve. We found her or what she had become: Livia the Bitch of Rome. We also ran into Joxer who had grown old and married Meg producing children, including Virgil who was quite attractive and nothing at all like his father. Later Joxer gave his life to save me from Livia. I was heart broken to lose such a good friend. Virgil wanted blood. Xena decided that she would have to kill her daughter. As we fought against Romans, Xena battled her daughter, finally in the last minute asking Eli to save her. Eli was dead, yes, thanks to Ares, but his spirit came and showed Eve the light. She was no longer Livia, she was Eve, our little girl. By now the gods were back in the game, wanting her dead and us with her if that’s how it had to be. I was possessed by the Furies and tried to kill Eve. Xena stopped me by tossing her chakram at my head. She never misses, but the damage to Eve had already been done. Eve turning towards the light and being baptized though had given Xena and interesting gift: she could kill gods as long as Eve lived. On Olympus, both Eve and I died, as Xena fought Athena. The future was almost lost. But Ares gave up his immortality to save us, to bring us back from the dead and in effect save Xena from Athena. All because he had a thing for her. It was love, or the closest thing he could get to it. The gods were stopped, we were all fine, and Xena and I truly did have our daughter back.”
Chapter 6:
“Eve still had her enemies though and Xena and I still needed to find out what had become of our families. What we found was horrible. The Amazons were battling Ares who was after Ambrosia. As it turns out, Eve had led the Romans against them and deminished there numbers to near none. Ares because possessed by the Furies who drove him to kill Xena. And after they thought he had, they left his mind and were then killed by Xena’s chakram as the gloated over their supposed victory. Eve and I were on the way to save Xena. After getting the water out of her lungs and warming her body up, she was fine and able to catch the chakram before it hit me and Eve. We headed towards Amphipolis and found it to be a ghost town. Xena was able to make her peace there and Eve met her grandmother in spirit form. We went to Potedaea where I found it also quite run down. I found Lila in out old home and she told me that a slaver had stolen her daughter, killed her husband, and our parents. I wanted blood, hate consumed my heart and almost got me killed. Xena saved me from myself. And in the process we were able to save my niece and return her to my sister. Warlords had by then, discovered that Ares was mortal and were out for his blood. Xena and I were to the rescue yet again. We took him to a nice farm house where Xena had spent her summers with the grandparents and set him up as a farmer. I must say watching the god of war chase chickens and run from a dog had to be the funniest thing ever. Xena says I got very personal with Ares while I was asleep. She said that I tended to move and grab things in my sleep. I don’t know what she was ever talking about. He decided to stay on the farm after Xena bribed him with the possibility of her coming by to visit. Soon, Xena had to restore Ares and Aphrodite to Olympus, so the world would have balance. Without love being there, everyone wasn’t able to love others. And we couldn’t send love there without war to balance it out. Xena gave up an opportunity to become a god that day. Ares offered it to her, but she wasn’t interested. I was more than thankful. once again, we went to the Amazons were I assumed control for a time. We straightened things out with them and Eve and helped them keep the Amazon nation together as a new evil of sorts tried to destroy them. And then, Xena and I were off to Jappa to right a wrong she had committed years ago. She died there and I was convinced I would bring her back. I should have known when we got there that she was preparing me for her death. She was asking me to do what I thought was right. She was following me. And then, she taught me the pinch. I taught I was losing her then, but I wasn’t. She died in battle, full of arrows and then her head was removed. I rescued her body using everything she had taught me over the years. I had planned to being her back, but I couldn’t. She wouldn’t let me. She had died and fought after death to redeem souls that she had doomed to torment. If she were to come back now, they would suffer for eternity. I had lost her, this time for good.”
“Now, I am here, brining the news to her daughter and the friends we had left here in Greece. That is my story of how I came to be who I am now.” I look into the crowd, most are crying. The young girl who had begged me to tell her the story was curled up in my lap, tears rolling down her face onto my chest. I sat and remembered and cried.
The End