Days of tomorrow

It was a long, a very long, time ago, even by my standards.

My story began ages ago, in ancient Greece, the land that had been the heart of the realm that I and my family once ruled.

Since the beginning of history, the world known as Earth had been overseen, guided and to a great part, controlled by a large number of various powerful immortal beings, made out of spirit and energy, the Gods.

These beings came to embody and represent different forces of nature, which they commanded and coordinated all over the world. They were separated into different groups and races, the so called Pantheons. These groups divided the Earth between themselves and so, they created their own territories, their realms.

They let the mortals of their respective realms worship them as the highest powers of their world and their rightful Lords and they draw their strength from their worship.

The truth was however a bit different. They needed them. While the mortals often looked to them for guidance and protection, the nasty truth was that their Gods were far more dependent on them, than it was the other way around, given that most of the different Pantheons needed the mortal's faith to sustain their own power.

There were exceptions of course, like the Northern Gods from Asgard or the Egyptians, but the most of them needed their masses of followers to stay like they were.

Yet the mortals didn't knew this. They had no idea how helpless their gods would actually be without them. And so they continued to accept them as their absolute rulers, some out of actual belief, others out of fear.

In their arrogance however, the Gods started to gradually forget one thing: they were neither the creators nor the masters of the universe….Someone else was responsible of that…

These ancient powers had always existed and they had always been there in the background.

One of them had once attacked my ancestors in the Age of the Titans, long before my own kind even took over. It was a war that ended with the complete devastation of the Earth and nearly caused the disappearance of the immortal beings.

But this battle soon became a legend and was forgotten.

For thousands of years, the ancient original powers, the One Gods, had barely been heard of, aside from a few small groups of mortals who had decided to follow them instead of the pantheons.

None of us perceived them as threat. The only hint were a number of doomsday prophecies that existed in the different realms. One of them was the so called Twilight of the Gods.

But none of us truly believed in them. We continued to do with the world whatever we wanted.

We thought we were ruling the Cosmos, but in truth it was them all along.

Then, finally, the old forces decided to return and the gods began to die.

It was a war they had lost before it even started.

xxx

I should know all this perfectly well, because I was one of them.

My name is Ares and once I was known as the God of War of the Olympian Pantheon.

But that was a long time ago.

Now, nobody worships me anymore, nobody has for thousands of years. Barely anybody these days even knows that I exist.

But to be honest, this suits me just fine. You can do interesting things when nobody is aware of your presence.

My power of course is not longer what it had once been, by far not. So I live now amongst the mortals, pretending to be one of them.

xxx

I still remember how my own Pantheon came to its end.

Zeus, Hera, Athena, Hades and the others, they were all long gone. They were gone when my real story had barely begun, the most of them dead by Xena´s hand or in Zeus case by Hercules.

This was just how things were. Our great reign was long over.

We were not the only ones, the Sumerian Gods, the Egyptian, the Assyrian, they were also gone.

In the end, I finally got what I had yearned for…. I became King of Olympus, with Aphrodite as my Queen. But it was an Olympus that was but the mere shadow of its former self, a home that was slowly falling apart.

We may have been in charge, but aside from some minor deities, there wasn´t really anybody left beside us and the majority of our mortal followers had already stopped believing in us at that point, their numbers getting smaller and smaller with every year.

We were king and queen of nothing. Then, a short time later, the metaphysical borders of the ancient realms of the gods began crashing down. The boundaries that had until then kept the gods from using their powers outside of their own territory, had vanished.

Then the afterlife-dimension we had created, the Tartarus and the Elysian Fields, ceased to exist. Countless millions of souls were sent to other realms.

The rule of my family ended….But life continued.

xxx

My story truly started after our last fight against Dahak and the mad god Assur.

It was the beginning of a new age.

A new religion took over, based on the teachings of a man who many thought was the Son of Light, Hope´s counterpart, born six months earlier in the same year.

I don´t know that for sure, because when Christianity- that seemed to have swallowed the entire infamous Eli cult that had a similar message- first spread over the continent, I had been indisposed for a long time.

Fully responsible for that, was a woman who had always played an important part in my life, one way or the other.

But this was thousands of years ago.

I am far older now, even older than my father had been the day he died.

It is the year 2699 CE by the new human calendar, and things have changed, far more than I had ever thought possible.

The human race is not longer bound to Earth. They have by now settled on several other planets in space. They have even met alien species, who originated from other worlds.

A few of these races are in fact old acquaintances, like the Asgardian Gods and the Egyptian Gods, who were wise enough to leave Earth ages ago.

Over the time, the mortals have developed such an advanced technology that gave them abilities that rivaled even those of my own kind, back in their time. The humanity of today is able not only to fly, but to send ships through time and space; they have weapons that can send lasers or energy blasts at their opponents, they can clone people and replace organs and body parts, they can create artificial intelligences.

Within longer periods, they are even able to terraform and essentially `create´, entire words.

All that while, my own powers had been waning even more over the centuries. It was strange sometimes, seeing and treating mortals not as subjects but as equals. But after all what I have seen I would be a fool not to admit that it is justified.

And the fool was a role I played all to often in the past, much too often for my taste.

Over the course of the centuries, I had watched and seen the world change. Some of the things I have seen have managed to astonish even me, out of all people…

But in fact, I've spent the greatest part of this time locked up and imprisoned.

xxxxxxx

The year 43 AD

She was standing right behind him. He could feel her presence, even if he had not been able to hear her until just now.

She was just as good as she had always been.

It was a strange meeting place, he had to admit that, but she had wanted to see him.

"Xena," he greeted her.

"Ares," she responded.

They were standing inside a crypt.

He was there to attend the burial of one of his Warlords. Some time ago that wouldn´t have been a great thing and he would not have bothered to come in person. But now, as his Pantheon had basically collapsed and his worshippers were running away in masses to new religions, he needed to show presence and entertain the few ones who were still loyal to him.

Both, him and Xena, were waiting in the half-light for the other to say something.

She didn't look visibly older than she had been eleven years ago, when she had returned from the dead by Dahak´s `grace´, neither had Gabrielle or Eve. Or Hope for that matter -but he had known about her being an immortal right from the start.

Maybe the theory he had heard about those three having been extended their lifespan for centuries wasn´t so far off after all. Well, for him it was only a good thing, having the chance to have his favorite group of girls around for longer.

Ares turned around, facing her. He knew she wouldn´t be happy about what he was going to do.

The woman before him had been many things to him during those last decades, ally, enemy, companion, friend, threat to his existence, lover. However, somehow he could no longer imagine how his life would be without her, or even the Bard, Eve, Livia, or whoever she decided she was this week, and Gabrielle´s `little girl´.

"I know what you are planning Ares," Xena told him.

He knew exactly what she was talking about. During those last years he and Aphrodite had been watching their godly powers diminishing more and more as the numbers of their followers became smaller and smaller. And slowly they became truly scared. Would this be their end? Or would they just be reduced to pathetic, powerless beings, helpless against anyone who hated them?

But during that time he also realized one thing, despite his lack of followers, the presence of war and battle was still restoring his powers, at least to some extent.

It was over ten years ago that the borders between the realms crashed. While his powers were now far lower as they had originally been, at least now he was able to use them everywhere on the planet, even at places that originally belonged to other Pantheons. So in the end, the entire Twilight of the Gods might have at least one good aspect about it. For him, it was also a chance.

He could now spread war further than ever before and he would.

He could bring the Roman Empire to collapse, he could urge the countries they had conquered to raise up and rip both the Romans and each other to pieces. Egypt or Britannia for example would be all too eager to rebel, he could turn the powers of the West and the East against each other, the Greeks against the rests of the Persian Empire, once again, why not? India against Chin, maybe. Both would have been out of his reach before, but now...

He would throw the continent and the entire planet into the greatest war the world had ever seen. And all that carefully staged, to restore himself to his former glory and simply to survive, he silently told himself.

"I'll do what I have to do Xena," he said to her.

"On the cost of how many lives?" she wanted to know.

"Do you really want to know?" he responded, "as many as necessary."

"You can not do that," she told him.

"I can not do that?" he asked angrily. "Look at me, I am the God of War and I am slowly dying, all thanks to you."

"You don´t know that," Xena replied.

"I know enough. Me, Aphrodite, Cupid and Hermes, we are all what is left of our kind because of you. You've slaughtered the others. And now we are getting weaker with every month. In a few years, we will be helpless, at everyone's mercy and you know all too well how many people hate us. I am doing what I have to do to ensure our survival and if it costs the lives of a few million mortals, so be it."

"This is your last word? she asked him.

"Yes."

"So you are still the same old Ares, even after everything that happened."

"Don´t come me like that Xena. You have no right to criticize me, not after having killed all the others. You have no right."

"And since when did you start to care about them? You've tried to kill them yourself more than once if I remember it correctly."

"Since I 've started to realize what it means to lose your family," he told her. "You should know that as well."

"Okay," she said, lowering her head.

"You won´t try to stop me?" he asked.

"What would I be able to do?" she questioned.

"Xena," he whispered, "...I wish it didn´t have to be like this...you know what you mean to me."

"I know," she answered, "this won´t change anything between us."

She slowly moved closer to him and moved her arms around him. Then she kissed him.

He was surprised… He had never thought she would do that after everything she had found out. But maybe she realized that it wasn´t personal, not meant against her.

Then he felt the sting in his back.

She had stabbed him, he realized, she had caught him off guard like this and stabbed a dagger in his back. Moments later, he felt the pain all over his body, a slow, immobilizing pain. He was not longer able to move a limb.

He knew this effect…Hope´s blood, that's what it was- not enough to kill a god, but enough to completely disable him. Slowly, he felt the last of his strength being drawn from him.

"I am sorry Ares," Xena told him, "but like you said, I do what I have to do." she said while she laid him into the still open sarcophagus behind them.

xxx

A few minutes later, Xena stepped outside the crypt where she was greeted by another figure.

"Have you done it?" Gabrielle asked her. She looked nearly exactly as she did when they met for the first time, all those years ago. Even her hair, that she had worn short for a few years, was long again, like that of her daughter Hope, since the time Xena had last returned to life.

"Yes," Xena replied. "I wish I didn´t have to, though."

"So do I. Believe me, Ares had grown on me over the years. But we couldn´t let that happen."

"I know. Come on, we have to seal this crypt," Xena told her.

xxxxxxx

I spent nearly two thousand years trapped in that crypt. It wasn´t until the late 20. century when I was finally released.

At one point, I made an attempt for freedom during the time known as the 2. World War, but unfortunately, one descendent of Xena was around to stop me. Still it was in a strange way, a good feeling to see her. The younger one was a mirror image of her ancestor.

It wasn´t until a few decades later when I was finally free for good.

I finally returned…. to a new world.

xxxxxxx

2.667 years earlier, Ancient Greece

It was six months ago, six months since Xena had returned to life, since their last confrontation with Dahak, since Lucifer had become his vessel, since they had stopped Assur.

Since then, they spent most of the time traveling over the land, without clear aim or destination, ocasionally helping people against various threats. Their small group consisted currently of Xena, Gabrielle and their two daughters, Eve and Hope.

Gabrielle´s and Dahak´s daughter had sided with them over her father during their last confrontation, admittedly to everyone's surprise. So far, Hope had been peaceful and loyal to them. But sometimes, Xena just couldn´t help fighting down her distrust.

It was quite ironic, she knew, since she didn´t have a problem with the presence of her own daughter Eve who had killed thousands of times as many people. She remembered all too well Dahak´s accusations of hypocrisy against her. But that didn´t change anything about her feelings. Maybe she would come to terms with Hope sooner or later.

During the half year since their last great battle, they met once again with Hercules and Iolaus after they had made their visit to their hometown as they had planned. Like they had thought, barely anybody they had known was still around.

Their old friend Jason had died. His grave was next to the one of Hercules' mother. A few months later they met up again with Xena, Gabrielle and the others like they had planned.

Hercules and Hope surprisingly seemed to get along with each other quite well, maybe because of some similarities in their background. Xena remembered that Gabrielle had compared them with each other all those years ago.

The two Olympians visited them as well.

Xena, Gabrielle, Hercules, Iolaus, Aphrodite, Eve, even Ares and Hope, their last mission and the things they had gone through had somehow welded them together as a group.

They all spent several days and nights together until they went their separate ways once again, at least for the time being.

At the moment, Xena and the others were on their way to a village that- according to the latest news- was being terrorized by a warlord.