I do not own Xena, if I did, Ares army would have shown up before Xena asked for help the first time during the seige.
"I love you, Xena." A kiss, a sword sliding into a sheathe of ice, and then a vow. "The gods chased you out of fear. Fear of irrelevance, losing power, death. Now they think they're safe, the prophesy averted. But now they have something new to fear. War. And I promise them those fears. I will render them irrelevant. I will rip their power from their grasp. I will bring them death. I will tear Olympus down, and then keep going. All the gods across the planet shall die."
Ares sealed the cave and left, teleporting to Olympus. When he arrived, a celebration was being held for the defeat of the twighlight prophecy. He began marching towards Athena, the Fates appeared. "Gods of Olympus, we have a new prophecy."
Athena asked, "Sister Fates, what prophecy do you have for us."
"War shall kill all gods, only the Trickster, the Cherub, the Half-rotted, The Goddess of Love, the Guard, the Dead Gods, and the Sun Goddess will survive War long enough for the Heart of War to awaken from her slumber. The blood of the fates marks the end."
"Good to know." Ares was behind the fates and he swung his sword before anyone could react. The heads of the Fates rolled on the floor. Athena jumped into action, beginning a sword fight with Ares as many of the other gods waited for the battle to play out. The battle raged for some minutes, until Ares disarmed Athena, grabbed her throat, impaled her upon his sword, and stuck her to the throne of Olympus.
TThe gods stared in open shock as Ares defeated Athena. He turned around and declared, in a voice that reminded Hades of the shades in the Asphodel Fields. "I, Ares, God of War, do hearbye declare war on the Gods." He ripped out his sword and decapitated Athena. Taking her head, he left Olympus, teleported to Athens, right outside of her temple, conjured a pike, and planted her head on it. Ares cried "I have slain Athena! I will slay all the gods. Those who wish retribution upon those vain creatures join with me, Ares, or fall with your gods."
Over the next twenty five years, Ares hunted the gods down. His power grew until even the united forces of Horus, Poseidon and Odin fell. The Titans were released in a last ditch effort to stop his madness, and he swatted them like flies. Now, Hades leads the handful of gods that remain in a struggle to survive. Only Aphrodite, Bliss, Loki, Anubis, Hela Half-alive, Amaterasu, and his wife Persephone have survived. They flee across the earth, hiding in caves and the like from Ares. They end up on Mount Etna, finding a cave covered in ice. They take refuge inside, but Aphrodite sees the sword and chakram in ice.
"Uncle Hades, I think we're in the wrong place." The goddess states, frightened.
Hades goes over to her, "What do you... By Zeus. Xena's Tomb." The god of the dead walked to the coffin, passing his hand over the ice as the other gods came to see the tomb. He paused. "She's not dead." He whispered. "Didn't you here me, she's not dead. We need to get this ice off her." Loki and Amaterasu hurried over to melt the ice.
Then Xena woke up.
"Hades." She said, shivering.
"Shh. Go back to sleep for now." The god of the dead forced the warrior princess to sleep.
When Xena woke up again, she was with Gabrielle, though still in the ice cave. She looked around until she saw the exhausted group of gods. "Ah, Xena, you're awake." Hades said upon noticing her movement.
"Hades, where are we." Xena demanded.
"For the past twenty five years, this place has been your tomb. Now wake the bard, we want to know how you came back to life." He replied.
Xena turned to Gabrielle. "Wake up, Gabrielle wake up."
"Hmmm, Xena? Ohhh, I'm up" the ever elequent bard replied. She looked around, jumping up when she saw Hades. "Where are we, what happened Xena?"
Hades smiled, "As I said, for the past twenty five years this place has been your tomb, though now it appears to be the sight of your resurrection. And my mind keeps going back to when you kidnapped my sister. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but what you took in front of Ares wasn't poison, it was the tears of death. You faked your death!"
Xena, seeing no point in lying, simply nodded.
"Then maybe we should correct that mistake and make you dead for sure this time!" Came Aphrodite's voice, full of spite.
"Aphrodite." Hades said in warning.
"Don't 'Aphrodite' me, Hades! My son is dead, my husband is dead, we are the only gods on this planet other than Ares, who has killed the rest and hunts us night and day! Why? Because this woman decided not to tell my brother that she was only going to fake her death!" She screamed, waking up Bliss, who was still a baby. "Oh, baby, I'm sorry I yelled, shh shh." She wondered off with Bliss in her arms.
Hades turned to the stunned pair of mortals. "Well, you heard the gist of it. The gods in this cave are the last gods on the earth. Ares has hunted us down to eight."
Gabrielle asked, "Why?"
Xena answered, "Because the gods drove me to death."
"Right you are Xena. But you're not dead, which means we don't have to die either." He sat down, "I'll cut to the chase, we want you to go to Ares, tell him what happened, and convince him to spare our lives."
"And if I don't?"
"Nothing." He said.
"Nothing?" Xena gave him a look. "You're telling me that if I tell Ares where you are hiding, you won't try anything."
Hades sighed, "To be honest, we'd be dead before we could do anything. Ares power has grown far beyond anything we ever imagined. I watched him swat the Titans like bugs, the massacres of so many Pantheons has occurred in a mere 25 years."
Xena and Gabrielle looks upon the gods, at Aphrodite weeping silently with Bliss, and they know what they must do. "Where is he." Xena said.
"Amphipolas, the temple there has become the center of his worship. We're on Mount Etna."