A Promise Kept

by Joan1

Sorry it took so long! Here's the next part in my series. Things get a little more complicated.

A/N: Okay, here's the next part! Sorry it took so long-I was trying to figure out where to take this, plus trying to keep up with schoolwork, plus three hour rehearsals for the school play every night. I'm so busy! Anyways, thanks for being patient. Also, before I said that Eve's eyes were blue. Thank you to Alex for pointing out that they were brown. I corrected that in this part.

Disclaimer: Eve/Livia, the Elijans, etc., do not belong to me, and I'm not making any money off of this.

A Promise Kept

by Joan

Quietly, I crept through the woods. If Livia spotted me, I was dead. She'd killed so many. Sure, she looked innocent at the moment. But who was to say she didn't have a dagger concealed somewhere?

I was just behind them now. Even to this day, I don't know how I got that far without being caught. I was there, I had a sword, I was ready to do what I had promised. And like I said, I don't know how I made it. All I know is what happened next.

An old woman's head suddenly jerked up. She saw me with my sword drawn behind Livia, and her eyes widened. "No!" she cried. "You can't!"

Very suddenly, I found myself pinned against a tree. I struggled for a moment before I sensed their grip on my arms. It was gentle, but firm. They weren't trying to hurt me, they were only trying to protect themselves. To stop me from killing a murderer. Why?

And even more suddenly than this, I found myself looking into the dark brown eyes of Livia.

"Let me go!!" I struggled against the two women holding me. "I have to!"

"You have to what?" Now it was a man speaking. I couldn't tell which one he was under all the hoods and rags the group was wearing.

"I have to kill her!" Again, I fought to escape. "I have to kill Livia!"

There was an indrawn breat from the group. Livia's face paled.

"You can't kill her!" one of the women holding me said, almost like she was scolding a child. "She's not Livia."

"Of course she is!" I insisted. "She destroyed my life. She locked me away in someplace she thought I'd never be able to escape. But I did. Thought you were too smart for me, didn't you? But you weren't. Instead, I was too smart for you. And now, for what you did to me, you die. And you deserve it!"

Instead of smirking like I thought she would, Livia paled. She looked like she was going to be sick.

"Put your sword down," she whispered. "I need to talk to you."

"How do I know you're not going to pull a dagger and stab me while I'm defenseless?" I retorted, still trying to get loose.

"She doesn't carry a weapon," the old woman who's spotted me put in. "We've traveled with her for months, and she's never done a thing."

I don't know what made me do it. I must have been insane at the time. The months in the cells must have dulled my judgement.

I dropped the sword and walked off into the woods with her.

When we were several yards away from the others, she stopped and turned to face me. "My name is not Livia," she whispered desparately. "My name is Eve."

"And why should I believe you?" I sneered. I wasn't going to believe that. This was a waste of time. I should just go back, pick up my sword, and ram it through her dark heart.

But I stayed.

"I don't deny that I was. I did things.....horrible things....." She drew in a shaky breath. "But I'm not Livia anymore."

Again, I shook my head. "I don't believe you."

"Please. Listen. I was Livia. But then I.....I met....." She trailed off.

"You met who?" I snapped. I didn't have time for this. I had to..........

Oh, well. I could listen, right?

"I met my mother."

I shrugged. Lots of people lost their mothers only to find them later on. With the number of drunken men and whores running around, who knew exactly who her mother was?

"My mother is Xena."

That caught my attention. My heart stopped. I couldn't breathe.

Xena.

Livia had fought Xena in the arena the day I was captured. It seemed like ages ago. But I could still remember every detail. It was a match to the death. But Xena.....

"My Gods," I whispered. "You're telling the truth. That's why she let you live!"

Livia nodded and took a deep breath again. "I didn't want to believe her. Kind of like how you don't want to belive me," she added with a smile. "I thought that I was perfect the way I was- I didn't need anyone or anything. But then Xena came along. And just when I was about to kill her for messing up my life, she called on Eli for help. I don't know why. I hated Eli back then, so if she was faithful to him, it just sealed her fate. I was all set to kill her, and then, it happened."

"What happened?" I asked, then froze. I hadn't meant to speak. I still hated her. But why did I feel my resolve to kill her slowly crumbling?

"A light hit us, right when I was holding her own chakram to her neck. I saw this woman.....she had on a white dress, and long golden hair........an angel, I guess. But she showed me. She showed me that Xena loved me, and that everything I'd been doing was wrong.

"Now they.." Here she stopped, and gestured back at the people she'd been with. "They call me their Messenger. I don't believe they could, not after what I did to them. I asked the old woman Natasha why I was the God of Eli had chosen me. And she just said, 'Because he saw you, lonely and lost after what you did. He knew you could help other lonely, lost people.'"

She bent over to look at me closer. "You have to believe me. I've learned the hard way that you are nothing unless you let go of the rage in your heart and open up to the people around you. I am sorry from the bottom of my soul for what I did to you. You didn't deserve that."

She was silent. Again, I begain to speak without thinking about what I was saying.

"It was torture in that jail cell. Before that, you were my idol. After that, I just wanted to kill you. But here......now....I can't do it. I don't think I ever could."

I stared her straight in the eyes and whispered, "But I still don't trust you. and I still can't forgive you."

"Eve! Are you coming?" the woman who she had called Natasha called.

She turned her pleading gaze on me then. "Stay with Eli's followers for awhile, please. Maybe they'll help you see more than what you are right now about life."

Why not?

I'd already decided that I wasn't going to go home. So why shouldn't I travel with them? For some reason, I believed the woman who'd said my former idol didn't carry a weapon anymore. Besides, I'd have adventures. See the world.

"Allright." I forced a smile at Livia....no, Eve.......I didn't know who to call her.

Eve. If I upset her, I didn't want to think about what she'd do.

"I swore I would find you again," I said to her as we walked back to the others. "I said to myself when I ran out of the arena that I'd find you and find out why Xena didn't kill you."

She laughed. "You sure did that. By the way, what's your name?"

The way she was acting was so easy and friendly it threw me. "Natika," I stammered. "My name is Natika."

"I'm Eve."

I looked at her. "You already said that," I reminded her.

"I know. But a new begining never hurts."

For a second, I thought. I'd promised to find her again, find out her secret. I'd done that. But what about my other promise, the one to kill her? I didn't know. I didn't know if that was one promise I'd be better off keeping or not.

But I'd give this a chance.

And if she could change, so could I.