Disclaimer: I don´t own the series Xena or anything related to it.

Darkness in the Light

In the beginning, there was nothing, no stars, no space, no matter, no time,

only the force that had and gave the potential for both, creation and destruction, the entity that would many eons later be known as the One God, with his dual natures, the Light and the Darkness.

It was the Light that spoke the word that brought the first spark of creation while the Darkness was meant to supply the necessary element of change.

And so the Darkness leashed out at the Light and it started an eternal, never ending war.

Their conflict gave birth to the cosmos-like it was later called by humanity- stars, galaxies, entire dimensions and plains of reality came into existence. All that existed and all that ever would consisted in the same parts of their being and their consciousness spanned the universe.

Countless millions of years later however, something new emerged, life, and finally intelligent creations that could think and feel for themselves and who were able to recognize the forces that had brought them into existence came into view from the muddy nothingness of the Universe.

The Darkness was constantly watching the events and it influenced them, just like it had been doing since the beginning of time. It quietly reached out to the new beings, to the specific parts of himself that lived inside their very cores and began to draw them on his path.

One being in particular caught his interest- a member of the race of Angels who lived in the realm of light. This being was the Archangel Azasiel, who would be later known is history as Mephistopheles.

With the darkness in him awakened, Azasiel pursued many others of his kind to follow his goals. He skillfully misled them, telling them that he believed the Angels to be the greatest form of life in existence, that they should be the rulers of all the other "inferior" species and that they should worship the Darkness instead of his opposite foe. Consequently, he led a rebellion and started a bloody battle against his brethren and his Creator himself.

The Darkness saw what was happening and, behold, that proved to be the perfect opportunity for him to spread his influence over the entire universe, over every single element of reality. Many worlds perished under his power, star systems burned in his wake. In several cases, some of the worlds were sterilized by the Light itself, because it deemed them corrupted beyond help.

This however, could be considered in a way just another resonant victory of the Darkness, given that he had thus managed to force his opponent to compromise his own nature, and, to some degree to actually become him.

This was also the moment when the created beings started to give him various names, just like he had known from the beginning they would do.

Angra Manyu, the Spirit of Destruction, The Dark God, Ahriman, the Shatterer of Worlds, Dahak, these were only some of them.

After a war that lasted for countless millennia, Azasiel, now Mephistopheles and his followers were finally defeated by the Light and it's armies; their takeover attempt failed.

The good news was that they had been banished to the outskirts of his own realm of darkness, that came to be called Hell. The dark power of the dimension that was enfolding them gradually transformed them into ruthless monsters, giving them new demonic forms and so that they were now completely his.

The war had gone on for billions of years and it continued...

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The Darkness was watching the latest events taking place on a blue planet in one of the many galaxies of the physical universe.

This particular world had already caught his interest before some time ago.

One particular thing that draw his attention was that besides the plain, regular mortals inhabiting the realm, there were also different breeds of older beings, evolved breeds of descendants of the earliest creations who had come to embody the various phenomena of the worlds, the Gods, as they liked to call themselves.

They had divided the land of their planet into different territories for them to rule and use as they pleased. The most powerful of these groups at that time were the ones named the Titans. Along with the others, they were ruling the mortal people of their world and presented themselves to them as the sole and absolute masters of all creation, a thought that they quickly came to embrace themselves.

Darkness grinned. He was at the same time angered and bemused about the creature's insolence.

In his opinion, there was but a slight difference between them and the mortals they looked down to so much. Didn't they know that every living being was a representation of the universe, that him and his counterpart's presence lived in each and every one of them?

He decided not to destroy them though, for he saw potential in this world, a lot of potential, and so he reached out with the intention to bring out the darkness in this world and bring it under his control. This meant of course both the mortal humans and the beings who were claiming to rule them. And so began a line of battles between himself, the Titans and the other gods.

He had only one weakness, if it could even be called that. In the form of pure darkness he couldn't physically exist in an universe that had been initially built up out of his opponent's power and his combined, but he could control all elements, influence all living beings and directly manipulate the reality they had forged. His only limitation was the power of his opponent, the only one that could cancel his own out.

He thus began to recruit heralds and disciples on this planet and started to manifest himself in different ways. Many of the "Gods" were destroyed, great areas were devastated, and in the end their world was lying in ruins and the human race that they thought was theirs to do as they pleased with, was almost entirely wiped out.

Nevertheless, the Titans had somehow gained the knowledge to create a weapon against him, a crystal that allowed them to focus the power of his ancient enemy and direct it against him. This weakened him enough that they were able to remove his presence from their world and send it back beyond the brink of their universe.

Shortly after, the weakened Titans were themselves overthrown by another group of Gods who took advantage of the situation, and who began ruling in their place and rebuilt their realm. This group was calling themselves the Olympians.

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In the meantime, the Darkness kept concentrating it´s efforts on winning over this world. It had become one of his personal favorites. He had realized the full potential of the place, but so did his enemy the Light.

Both of them had created a child with a human to serve as their representative. But while his own had been removed from the physical plane some time ago, the other was still walking the world.

In his latest and most successful attempt, Darkness had however succeeded to merge body and soul with a mortal, a victory that allowed him to exist temporally in the physical realm and to directly incline the balance in his favor. The one who had become his incarnation in this world was no other then the hero Iolaus, the partner and best friend of the half-god Hercules, a perfectly accurate choice in more ways than one.

The demi-god had however turned out to be one of the most dangerous opponents he had ever faced on the blue planet.

After a long, exhausting fight, a group of fighters led by him with the help of the Light, managed to separate them and force him out of Iolaus. His physical form was completely destroyed in the process. But that didn't mean he had failed though, for countless Gods had been slain, many souls drawn to his path, chaos and destruction had been sown.

This world was ripe for the fall, and both he and the Light were aware of it.

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What really managed to attract his attention was a new promising conflict though.

The Olympians, the most powerful of the pantheons of Gods who had managed to stay alive, had been destroyed, killed by another being who had caught his interest some human years before that.

This one had already played a great role in the history of events of her world for the last decades, serving both Darkness and Light, depending on the context. Maybe more the dark, given the ramification of her latest actions. A very versatile mortal, that was for sure.

Just days earlier he had watched Mephistopheles' new attempted invasion on Earth and his death by the hands of the same woman. The way in which she then seduced and manipulated the Archangel Lucifer to take her place in Hell, was a work of art, he had to admit it.

Ironically, in many ways it was a process of change and improvement through destruction, completely in the sense of the Darkness.

Mephistopheles had failed. He placed himself in his limitless arrogance, directly before Xena´s sword and lost his position and his life because of his own shortcomings. Then he was replaced with somebody who showed a bit more promise as the leader of the dark legions.

He kept following the events for awhile longer. This two- he admitted- Xena and her partner Gabrielle- the same Gabrielle that was also the mother of his daughter Hope- were always good to make an impact, even if they themselves could practically never fully realize the tremendous consequences of their actions.

Now, around one and a half year later, the human warrior Xena was dead. But her spirit was still present on Earth, following the path of her friend whose soul was connected to hers.

She did have the chance to come back to life, but decided to stay dead for the sake of the souls of 40.000 people who she had once accidentally killed and who as she thought, could only be at peace if the person who had caused their demise would die as well.

Darkness couldn't help laughing at the irony…

Now, she was trapped on Earth as a wandering spirit.

Yes, Xena´s latest actions deserved at least his attention, in more than one way.

He concentrated a small part of his nearly infinite consciousness and reached out.

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Earth, somewhere above the Indian Ocean

Xena, who was now a bodiless ghost, was looking at Gabrielle who was standing on the deck of the ship and in her own turn watching out at the sea.

For some reason, she realized, she had not moved on to any sort of afterlife yet and it wasn´t looking as if she wouldn't be able to do that anytime soon. Her spirit was still chained to Earth.

She could only guess that she would stay there as long as Gabrielle was still alive. It wasn´t an ideal situation, but it could be worse, she thought. At least she wasn´t about to be sent to Hell again. There were worse things she could imagine than being there watching Gabrielle live her life.

She was fully aware of how much anguish her decision to stay dead has cost her friend. But it was for the best, at the end of the day, she didn't really have a choice.

She could only hope that it was enough.

During her earthly life she had done terrible things and had caused a lot of sorrow, too many innocent people…..She had to pay for them all and laying down her life to make up for it was the least she could do.

Some day, she hoped, Gabrielle would understand.

But deep down, somehow she had the distinct feeling that the universe was laughing at her.

Suddenly, right out of nowhere, something in her surroundings changed.

She felt something, something drawing on her, some invisible force that was pulling on her spirit form.

Then she noticed that the landscape around her had started to change. She was not longer on the ship that brought Gabrielle back to the west, but somewhere in the middle of a seemingly endless wasteland of rocks.

"Those are noble feelings, Xena." she heard a voice that seemed to be coming from all around her at the same time.

"Too bad they're just empty words though…." the voice continued, "It's such a pity that the ideals that you proclaim with such conviction, you disregard them as soon as the need arises."

"Show yourself," Xena called out.

Before her, a shadow like figure that became more and more defined began to form.

"So you think that the universe is laughing at you… That is ironic, because it is," the voice said.

The figure now resembled a man in a black cloak. His face was visible, a face that she recognized all too well.

"Iolaus?" she asked.

"Not quite," he answered, "at least not anymore, but this was my appearance the last time I walked your world, so I found it fitting for our meeting."

"Dahak," she said, realization coming over her in waves of anger.

"Yes, that is one of my many names," he told her.

Xena lunged forward and attacked the `man´ before her, but of course her fists went through Iolaus' body as if through thin air.

"And what exactly are you hoping to achieve with that?" he asked her. "Even if you had your body, it should be quite clear to you by now that your attacks are pointless."

She realized that she was not able to do anything.

"What do you want?" she exclaimed furiously.

"I have been watching you Xena, for some time now," the Iolaus manifestation said to her. "And now, when your mortal existence had come to an end, I have decided that after all these years it would be proper to finally talk to you in person."

"So you abducted my spirit for a nice little chat with an old enemy?" she asked sarcastically.

"Enemy? Don´t fool yourself. You Xena, have never been my enemy. My enemies are people who can control their rage, not the other way around. No, I am in fact here to congratulate you for your unexpected successes and your latest achievements. The destruction of the Olympian Gods for instance had been one of the last obstacles in establishing my dominion over this world."

Xena began to fully understand in what kind of situation she was. She was helpless. If Dahak wanted, he could just abandon her here like Ares did it years ago to Mavican. But she refused to back down from the creature who was ultimately responsible for Solans death.

"Great words from someone who knew defeat years ago," she responded. "Aren´t you angry that I, a simple mortal, achieved something that you couldn´t?"

"Xena, Xena, you are right that Hercules and his allies stopped my approach in the conquest of your world temporally 28 years ago and that my physical form was destroyed in the process. But you see, only because I was stopped at the last moment at the brink of complete world domination doesn't mean that I was, as you call it, defeated. My plans had merely been set back.

In fact, I didn't lose anything except for the advantage I had back then." he said, all that in a perfect imitation of Iolaus gesticulation and mimic, so that if Xena hadn't known better, she would have thought she was actually talking to her old friend.

"As for your comment about the Olympians, you are right, I didn´t manage to destroy them. I guess that was partly because I was too busy completely obliterating the Sumerian and Assyrian Gods, the Celtic Druids and to bring the North Gods at the brink of their end. But even so, I guess I could have still killed the Olympians if they hadn´t decided to run away."

"Okay, you've made your point. You wiped out entire pantheons while I've only decimated one," Xena replied. "I can not imagine that you have brought me here just to gloat.

You know something? It won´t help you. Even if you killed more gods than anybody else, it was another god who took over and not you," she claimed.

Then something unexpected happened… the being before her started to laugh. The voice once again seemed to come from all directions and was echoing from all around her.

"I see you still fail to understand," he said, "since that night in Britannia you have not managed to do anything that didn´t play directly into my hands."

Notes-Mythological background:

In the persian, zoroastrian (named after the prophet Zoroaster/Zarathustra) mythology, Ahriman also called Angra Manyu (destructive spirit) was the counterpart of Ahura Mazda, the God of creation and light. Their exact interpretation varies a bit in the different variations of the religion. The main role they plaid however was the same.

"Ahriman was the god of evil and darkness in Persian mythology and in Zoroastrianism, a religion that attracted a large following in Persia around 600 B. C. Often called Druj ("the Lie"), Ahriman was the force behind anger, greed, envy, and other negative and harmful emotions. He also brought chaos , death, disease, and other ills into the world."

"In the dualistic beliefs of early Zoroastrianism, good and evil fought for control of the world—Ahura Mazda from the heavens and Ahriman from the underworld. The two forces were evenly matched, and each in turn gained supremacy. Ahura Mazda represented fire, sunlight, and life. Ahriman was the lord of darkness and death. Zoroastrians later came to view Ahura Mazda as the supreme ruler who would one day achieve final victory over Ahriman."

Ahriman - Myth Encyclopedia

He is often said to be the original version of Satan and the source for the idea of the one in Christianity and Islam.

Another demon from this mythology is called Ahzi Dahaka (represented as a three headed Dragon)

The god Dahak in the series Xena and Hercules is obviously based on this two deities. Given the role that he plays and his presentation, he seems to be nearly entirely a fictionalized version of Ahriman with another name.

He is described as, "The impulse to destroy", that exists in every element and every living being, "The blind force behind every evil will" and as one of the primary forces of the world, the counterpart of the God of Light. That implies that he is the driving force behind both Hell and the destructive powers in the universe itself.

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The term "Shatterer of Worlds", that I have also used, is not taken from Xena and Hercules or the real mythology, but from Robert E. Howard´s Conan stories and the Hyborian Age, where I took a few inspirations from.

"Great Ahriman was also known as the Lord of Destruction, The Shatterer of Worlds; and was considered a god so evil and terrifying that even the priests of Set had to aid in his banishment. They seemed to fear his return so greatly that all of the temples and sanctuaries of Ahriman were utterly destroyed, every gate through which the unspeakable god might return pulverized and then laid under dread curse."

Conan Wiki

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Both "Ahriman" and Dahak are obviously interpretations of the real world god Ahriman, with very similar back-stories.

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The idea for Mephistopheles angelic name was taken from parts of jewish mythology. Here the leader of the fallen Angels is in different part called either Samael or Azazel and decided for the second name. (I have changed it into Azaziel.)

In Christianity the leader of the fallen angels was later identified with the name Lucifer, who was originally the one of a roman god.

"Xena" had however already established that Mephistopheles and Lucifer were different characters and that Lucifer was not the original leader of the rebelling angels.

So I have interpreted this as Lucifer not being another name for Azazel/Semael, but as him being his successor.