Author: LLN Fandom: Xena/Hercules Pairing: Ares/Joxer, Xena/Gabrielle...others as the come.
Spoilers: All of Seasons of Xena up to When Fates Collide.
Disclaimer: Don't own'em. Univeral Studios does.
Summery: When Ares tries to change Xena's fate, he ends up changing his own...
Ares stood in front of the Tapestry of Life thinking it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen and the most ugly as well. As the three weavers of it watched him warily he reached out and touched a familiar thread. It was the thread of the one he was obsessed with, a thread that was and indescribable blue...
'Just like the color of her eyes...' the god thought. He wondered how and when everything had gone to Tartarus. Everything it seemed began and ended with her. The one he had helped shape into the perfect warlord, she who had been the Destroyer of Nations! It was because of him, she gained the skills to become the Killer of Gods...but that hadn't been the reason...no, Livia, Bitch of Rome...Eve, Messenger of Eli...whatever she wanted to call herself was the reason...Still she wasn't the cause. No, the cause lay with someone else...
Ares moved his hand along the thread until he came to the spot where it began to entwine with another thread, this one an orange almost red in color...the cause was...Gabrielle.
In the great length of his long life, the War god had few regrets. Gabrielle was one of them. He had greatly underestimated the young blonde woman but he could say he knew Gabrielle well in a way after all they shared the same weakness. How he had overlooked her potential he couldn't say...but maybe...there was a way...
A great plan began to form at a startling pace. But there was something he needed...the Cronos Stone...it had the power he needed for his plan even if it meant breaking one of the oldest laws of the gods...after all with most of the gods dead. Who was going to enforce it?
With that Ares left the Fates to their spinning. Never noticing the shadow of the shade that was sneaking it's way into the Cave.
Two Years Before Xena And Gabrielle Are Supposed To Meet.
Ares stumbled disoriented by the power of the Cronos Stone. It had been easier to get it then he had thought it would. Because Zeus would never actually let Hercules really destroy something so powerful he just let the bastard think he had. Zeus had actually hidden it away. But Ares had found it after going to the Hall of Time and watching where Zeus had hidden it. He had flashed into his temple in Thrace for two reasons. One his younger self was half way across Greece at the moment. The other was the god, whose help he needed for his plan to work. Ares took a deep breath and waited for the nausea to stop. Time travel came with motion sickness it seemed. When his stomach settled he then transported himself to the temple of the god whose help he needed.
He walked through the temple of the one god who was his true equal and opposite.
The God of Peace.
When he reached the audience chamber of the temple, he saw the god lightly touching the top of the altar. It was white marble that had sliver running through it. Ares softly said the god's name, causing the god in question to swing around to face Ares, automatically forming a fireball in his hand at the sound of the God of War's voice.
"Who are you?" The God of Peace growled, "I know for a fact Ares is in Sparta putting down an uprising..." the god trailed of as Ares held up is both his hands in an 'I mean no harm' gesture.
"And I am, or perhaps I should say my younger self is..."
"Younger self?" The Peace God muttered.
"I come from the future," Ares said slowly walking toward the god who still hadn't put out the fireball.
The God of Peace shook his head, "That's not possible! It's against Zeus's laws."
Ares raised an eyebrow, "Since when have I cared about Zeus's laws? Except that which I can break and get away with. Besides it's kind of hard to enforce said laws when you're dead."
If the other god still had any doubts about who Ares claimed to be that convinced him.
'Still even Ares wouldn't break the Time Travel law unless there was a good reason,' Thought the Peace God. "So, what happened?"
Ares sighed, "It would take to long to tell you..." he looked away then back as he held out a hand, "It would be quicker and easier to show you." It was a gamble thought Ares. Most gods after they learned to shield their minds never let anyone in.
The Peace God glared, "I don't trust you."
"And so you shouldn't..." Ares said knowing how badly he had treated this kindhearted god, knowing how he had wrong him so many times in their existence, "But you know me, you know I wouldn't be here if it wasn't important. Just this once? Please!"
Ares tone of voice caused the other god's eyes to widen at the pleading tone. The God sighed then, "If this turns out to be some sort of trick of yours I'll make sure you won't have even the little peace you do have..."
Ares flinched slightly at the threat, as the other god put out the fireball he had been holding, but nodded in understanding and respect at the god's gall. He stood inches away from the other god now; bring up both of his hand to the god's head. Ares brought their foreheads together until they touched and closed his eyes as he let the memories of the events that were yet to come...
Xena walking the gauntlet as her warriors beat her for her seeming betrayal
Xena saving a young blonde woman...Gabrielle...from slavers
Xena fighting the white-blonde warlord Callisto
Loosing his sword and becoming mortal
Caesar's armies marching on Britannia
Gabrielle wrapped in fire as a foreign god Dahok raped her
Callisto becoming a god
Casllisto killing Strife with the hind's blood dagger
Gabrielle giving birth to Dahok's spawn...who she named Hope
Xena's son, Solan...killed by Hope
Xena and Gabrielle turning their backs to each other at their dead children's funeral pyres
The Songs of Illiusa
Ares deal with Dahok...Hope looking like Gabrielle
Gabrielle sacrificing herself by throwing her and Hope into a lava pit in order to save Xena
Xena fighting Alti on the spirit plans
Gabrielle's return
India and meeting Eli...the begin of the end
The two women fighting Roman soldiers with the Amazons
Caesar's assassin...the crucifixion of Xena and Gabrielle
Becoming Arch Angels...fighting a dead demon Callisto in hell
Xena finding out she's pregnant
Xena killing some of the gods
Hercules killing Zeus in order to save Xena's child
Xena giving birth
Xena's plan with Death's Tears
The two women waking in the ice cavern
Livia, Bitch of Rome...Livia killing...
Eve, Messenger of Eli...praying
Athena avenging the death of the god's by trying to kill Eve
Ares healing Gabrielle and Eve and loosing his godhood in doing so
Xena entering the ring of fire where a sleeping Gabrielle lay...waking her with the soul-mate's kiss
A now mortal Ares on the run from his ex-followers...living on a farm with Xena and Gabrielle
Aphrodite's madness and grief in Caligula's court...Ares becoming a god again
Ares standing in front of the Tapestry of Life
At the other god's gasp, Ares opened his eyes and dropped his hand pulling away from the other god, he leaned against the alter. Looking into the wide brown eyes of the other god said, "So Joxer, do you think you might want to put off your vacation with your brothers for a while?"
Joxer, the God of Peace could only blink at the War God and nod.
Julius Caesar smirks at the woman he betrayed, "Goodbye Xena." Then to a nearby infantry soldier he told him to, "Break her legs." On the beach Xena hung on a cross, where she spit at her tormenter.
Stop. Back it up! A male voice said. The scene with Xena and Caesar on the beach begins to run backward in triple time. It comes to stop in the cabin of the ship Xena once owned. Xena is dressed in a red gauzy dress, wearing her long dark hair up. Caesar is sitting on her bed.
Now. There. Let's take a look at that.
Xena walks towards him slowly, "Why don't you and I work together?"
"You want to help me conquer the world?" Caesar asks. Xena shrugs making the dress show her assets.
"Why not?" Xena crawled across the bed to him, "We'd make an unstoppable team," she reached out and caressed his face gently, "I'd love to join forces with you."
Caesar looked tempted by this, "Some enemies are...harder...than others."
Xena smirks and in a seductive growl, "Oh, I'm counting on it."
Stop. The scene freezes, Much better.
Caesar looks way from the Fate-o-vision screen. He is standing in front of the Loom Of Time, the thing that weaves the Tapestry of Life. He ponders softly, "How ironic, isn't it? How a single choice can change the path of ones destiny." He looks way from the loom over to where the three Fates are sitting in the corner...all chained up with nowhere to go.
"Had I not betrayed Xena I'd still be ruling Rome," Caesar muses to them, then frowns. "Instead I get stabbed in the back by my good friend, Brutus, " The frown turns into a sneer, "while Xena gets to ride off into the sunset with her girlfriend. Hardly a fitting end to Julius Caesar."
It was with that sentence that even the Fates knew what Caesar was thinking of doing. His motives for what he was about to do had nothing to do with any sort of love he may harbor for Xena...but the love of himself. Caesar's dream, his self-proclaimed destiny to conquer the world.
"You can't change your fate..."Clotho said to him.
"...once it has been chosen..."Said Lachesis.
"Unchain us now and except your destiny." Said Atropos.
Caesar walks towards them holding a single strand of thread he had taken from the loom, it glowed a beautiful blue color. In an oddly romantic thought Caesar thought it resembled the color of Xena's eyes, "Let me let you...about my destiny. With Hades out of the picture, Underworld security has become somewhat ...let's say...lax..." He holds up the thread to the light as if looking at a piece of film, "What brings to this defining Xena moment...Mysterious...Romanic...Good lighting..." He then holds up a pair of scissors and as he snips the strand of thread in two the Fates flinch. He then replaces the strand into the loom. He watched as it began to reweave itself into the Tapestry of Life.
The Fates look horrified at this turn of events.
"Tampering with the loom...will alter the very fabric of life..."
"...Changing not only your destiny..."
"...But that of countless others."
Caesar looks down at himself. He is still wearing the white blood stained robe he had been assassinated in. He looks back at the Fates, "Oh, I'm counting on it." He smirks at them. As he begins to feel his new destiny take hold of him.
"So, this Gabrielle must never meet Xena," Joxer said as Ares nodded, "I'll appear to her and offer to make her a priestess. She can still be a bard that way..." Joxer frowned, "I don't think anyone could stop that."
Ares eyes widened, "Really? Cause I was thinking those scrolls of her's..." Ares trailed off when Joxer said his name warningly. He sighed, "Fine. Just as long as she learns to hate violence and wants nothing to do with warriors."
Joxer nodded, "I'll do everything..." he cut himself off suddenly as he looked at the entrance of his temple then back to Ares, "You should go now."
Ares blinked at the dismissal, "Why?"
"He's coming, I guess he found out about my plan..." Joxer whispered.
"Who?" Ares asked confused.
Joxer turned sad eyes onto the War god, "You are..."
Ares closed his eyes and tried not to groan as he remembered. How Joxer was the only one able to out plan him. And Ares younger self was known for his temper...He opened his eyes and reached out and caressed the Peace God's cheek with the back of his hand.
The other god almost leaned into the caress as Ares said his name but he shook his head, "Go, I can handle him. I have for centuries as you well know."
"Jox..."
"No! Go." Joxer smiled then it was the first real one Ares had ever received from the Peace God in a long time, "We can talk again. In the future..."
Ares nodded and smiled at Joxer. The feeling of hope filling him and peace soothing him then he flashed away in a shower of blue-white sparks.
Joxer sighed and wondered what he should do with this new knowledge, he turned and barely seeing the fireball as he was slammed into a pillar making the temple shake.
The God Of War had entered the building...
When Ares appeared back in his own time he found himself somewhere, where he didn't expect to be...In Rome...Standing next to an emperor...that had taken a lot of planning to arrange his assassination.
Caesar glanced at the War god and wondered why he was here but his attention was soon turned on the woman on horseback. A gladiator's helmet masked all her features but her bright blue eyes. She was dressed in tight black pants and boots wearing a black tunic decorated with gold medallions. The soldiers in the courtyard drew their weapons but the woman blew past them on the horse knocking them down. She then drew a bow and fired an arrow at Caesar. Brutus, who was standing next to him, is looking abit nervous. Caesar just smiles as the arrow narrowly misses his head and embeds itself into the wall behind him.
The rider's horse locks it's fore legs and somersaults over the horse's head with a war cry that Ares is familiar with...and lands on the bottom of the steps Caesar is standing on. She walks up the stairs and takes off her helmet. Ares hisses out a breath, she like Caesar ignored the War god, " My emperor..." she purred out.
Caesar smiles, there is a slight look of disbelief that his plan really was working, "My emperoress..." he said back not even trying to contain the joy in his voice.
Ares watched as Xena broke into a full smile but noted there was something almost sinister in the normally beautiful expression.
This was not what Ares had planned...Not at all.