The Family Tree
Xena had just saved Eve once again, this time from the amazons. They wanted her to die for her past crimes against them. Ares was of course impressed since he was the one leading the amazons down a path of vengeance and Xena managed to get them to see the error of their ways.
Xena and Gabrielle were saying goodbye to Eve. Eve had just told them that she was going to head east to spread Eli's message. Xena hugged her daughter.
"Thank you for giving me life so many times. I love you mother." Eve said.
"I love you too." Xena replied. They finally let each other go. "Why don't we walk with you a ways."
"No. I need to do this on my own. Goodbye." Eve walked away.
"Stay out of trouble!" Xena yelled. Her heart was broken. She had two children and never actually got to be a mother and she hardly spent any time with Eve since she got her back. Now she was leaving...
Xena was standing there watching her Evey walk away when suddenly blue light surrounded her.
"Xena?" Gabrielle had no clue as to what was going on.
The next thing Xena knew, she was standing in a big bedroom. There were things she had never seen before. She didn't know how she had gotten to this place. Her first thought was Ares, however, there were two young girls standing in front of her and an even younger boy sitting on the bed.
"Where am I?" Xena asked.
"You are in the future. It's March 2013 and you're in America, Hollywood, California to be exact but America didn't exist yet in your time so just know you're not in Greece anymore." The oldest girl said. She had curly black hair, piercing blue eyes, high cheek bones, golden colored skin like Eva Longoria and stood at about five foot nine.
"Why am here? How did I get here?"
"Well... This might be hard to believe but we're like your umpteenth great grandchildren. We brought you here because there's this discrepancy in our family tree that I thought maybe only you could explain. Some might say this discrepancy isn't that important to bring you here-" The oldest started explaining.
"That would be me." The younger girl said. She had light brown straight hair and brown eyes..
"But I do think it's important. I have to write a paper on our family history and it doesn't completely make sense. I also want it to be accurate for the future of our family... But anyway, I'm Legacy. This is my younger sister, Xena. She was obviously named after you and that's our brother, Legend." The oldest girl said.
"So how old are you three?" Xena asked.
"I'm nineteen, Xena's fifteen and Legend is thirteen."
"You can call me by my middle, Isabella since we have the same name."
"This is weird." Xena said.
"You think?" Legend said sarcastically. He had curly brown hair and brown eyes.
"So where's this family tree? What's this discrepancy that only I can help you with?"
Legacy went over to her computer desk and picked up an old scroll and handed it to Xena. Legacy couldn't understand why her family was still using the old thing instead of putting on a new sheet of paper or better yet putting in digital form.
"We were trying to figure out who Eve's father was. We thought that maybe if we got hold of some more of Gabrielle's scrolls which we actually call 'The Xena Scrolls' that maybe it would tell us somewhere but we can't get them. Gabrielle's descendants has the majority of the scrolls and they're holding on to them tightly because they're planning to make books, TV shows, movies, all types of stuff to make money off them." Legacy said.
"What's a TV show or a movie?" Xena asked.
"Oh that's right. You didn't have those. Well they're stories you can watch on that big rectangle thing hanging on my wall kind of like a play. It's called a television." Legacy explained.
"Oh... well the scrolls wouldn't tell you who Eve's father is anyway because Eve doesn't have a father."
"How is that possible?" Legacy asked.
"It's kind of hard to explain. I had an enemy named Callisto. Callisto died and Gabrielle and I died some time later. Gabrielle was pulled down to hell. I went to save her with some other angels but while I was there I felt sorry for Callisto so I traded my soul for hers which sent her to heaven. I got stuck in hell. But I was able to save Gabrielle. Anyway, Gabrielle and I were brought back to life, yes brought back to life. Soon after, I found out I was pregnant. Come to find out angel Callisto had given me this child from heaven then she was reborn into Eve, crazy I know but it happened."
"Oh... well I didn't expect that answer. That explains the discrepancy in our DNA as well. Doctors could never make sense of it. It looks like no one else but this explains a lot. Our family on your side could never understand how our family became witches." Legacy said.
"Witches?" Xena questioned.
"Yeah, good witches. That's how we were able to bring you here. Maybe the strange occurrence of the missing xy chromosomes and maybe other factors made our DNA so special that we developed these special abilities over time." Legacy said.
"Uh... I suppose? Or maybe powers were just given to this family for no more reason than you were meant to do good with it." Xena said.
"Or both... but I'm glad we understand why our DNA's all jacked up." Legacy laughed.
"So you said, Gabrielle's family is keeping the scrolls to make money from them?"
"Yeah they're total asses- I mean jerks. They won't even let us see them. Our great grandmother Melinda was friends with a descendant of Gabrielle and they're kids grew up together but somewhere along the way they had a big falling out. We have a couple of her scrolls but most of what we have are actually scrolls of Joxer." Legacy explained.
Xena finally looked at the family tree.
"I actually had two brothers. They're names were Torres and Lycius. I had a son before Eve, his name was Solan."
"Really? No one knew that. I'll add them to the tree." Legacy said.
"Good. I wouldn't want them to be forgotten... Wait a minute, Eve married Joxer's son Virgil?" Xena asked utterly surprised.
"Yeah! You seem so surprised." Legacy said.
"I am, considering that Eve killed Joxer.
"What?" All three siblings exclaimed.
"Yeah but she changed... I guess he found it in his heart to forgive her... then love her." Xena noticed something she hadn't paid attention to before. "I'm going to die soon."
"What?" Legacy asked.
"It says that my date of death is two months after the time I came from."
"Why did you give her that you idiot, you know it's bad to know the future before it happens?" Isabella said.
"Do you know how I die?"
"That's something we actually do know but I shouldn't tell you." Legacy said.
"Tell me!" Xena demanded.
"You sacrifice yourself for some trapped souls or something like that. There was a way to bring you back but you didn't want to because if you didn't the souls you saved would suffer. It happens in China somewhere. That's closest we have to the facts." Legacy said.
"Does Gabrielle die too?"
"No. She lives a long time." Legacy replied.
"Good."
"If you don't mind me asking, how did you die the first time?" Isabella asked.
"Caesar crucified us."
"You mean as in Julius Caesar?" Isabella asked.
"People actually remember him, huh? Yeah, that's the one."
"So Legacy, you got your dumb information about the family tree. Can we send her back now?" Legend asked.
"Don't be rude, Legend. The answer is no. The return spell doesn't work for twenty-four hours."
"You have got to be kidding me. Did you think this through before you brought Lege and I into this? Mom and dad are going to come home and we are going to be in so much trouble." Isabella said.
"It'll be fine." Legacy replied.
"If something happens to her before we can get her back it could mess up the entire future." Isabella said.
"Nothing's going to happ-" Legacy started before running to her bathroom to throw up.
"Gosh!" Isabella exclaimed.
A few minutes later Legacy came back into her room and sat next to Legend on her bed.
"Are you alright?" Xena asked.
"Yeah... just a bug." Legacy replied.
"Don't listen to her. She's pregnant." Isabella said.
"Shut up!" Legacy yelled.
"She acts as if she ignores it, it'll go away." Isabella said.
"It doesn't quite work that way. So are you?" Xena asked. Legacy just nodded.
"She's afraid of what our parents will say and they can't stand her boyfriend. She's in college and this would totally put a damper on our music career." Isabella said.
"It's not so bad... I was about your age when I had my son." Xena said.
"When you were about my age you were also leading armies to war. Times have changed." Legacy said.
"I'm just saying, I think they'll understand." Xena sat next to Legacy.
"I don't know, I don't even understand. How could I be so stupid? I'm making my life hard. It'll be harder to finish school and our music career will have to be put on hold. Isabella and I, along with a cousin, we sing together in a group and were just starting to take the next step. Our mother is a famous singer and so was our grandmother who was actually from your side of the family. Paparazzi is going to have a field day with this..."
"Is your mother from my side of the family too?"
"No, our father is. He can really sing too but he didn't want to follow in his mother's footsteps, he decided to be a doctor. I guess you would call it a healer but you'd be amazed at what they can do now compared to your time. I'm pretty sure a lot will amaze you about this time... Well you're going to be here for a while. You hungry?"
"Yeah I am."
"What would you like to eat?"
"I don't know, surprise me. I've had a lot of surprises today, what's one more?"
Legacy went over to an intercom and pressed a button. "Dave, could you guys whip up our favorite dishes please?"
"Yes, miss Legacy." The chef said.
"Thanks! The chef is on it." Legacy said.
"You have chefs?" Xena looked around the room again. "What are you, royalty?"
"No, just successful. Our mother is a famous singer, father is one of the best surgeons in the world and our grandparents were very successful as well. Let's go downstairs."
"What if mom and dad come back?" Legend asked.
"They won't be back for hours and if they find out I'll take the blame, OK?" Legacy replied.
"Why don't you just tell them I'm a friend?" Xena asked.
"They won't believe that. Our great grandmother Melinda looked just like you. Besides, you look like an ancient warrior anyway. I didn't know a warrior woman could look sexy and kick butt at the same time."
Legacy, Isabella and Xena went downstairs to the living room while Legend went to his room. They lived in a beautiful mansion. Xena was amazed by the house and everything it.
Legacy turned the TV on. Xena was surprised by the machine. The Terminator was on and it was a scene where he was shooting.
"What's that thing he's using?" Xena asked.
"It's called a gun. You thought you were bad with a sword and chakrum, a bad guy today could cause twice as much damage." Legacy replied.
Xena noticed the pictures on the coffee table and picked up two of them. One was a lot older than the other. The oldest one was a picture of a woman that looked like Xena, and an African American man and a little girl. In the other picture it looked like that little girl but as an adult with a Mexican man and two children.
"Who are these people?" Xena asked.
"The woman that looks like you is our great grandmother Melinda and our great grandfather with our grandmother. The other picture is our grandmother when she's older, our grandfather, our aunt and our father as children." Legacy explained.
"Attractive family we have." Xena said.
"Well of course... we got it from you." Legacy said.
"Things sure our different in this time." Xena put the pictures back on the table. "How far along are you?" Xena was curious.
"About two and a half months."
"You might want to tell your parents sooner than later."
"Yeah... I know." Legacy's cell phone rung.
"What's that?" Xena asked.
"It's a phone. You can talk to anyone in the world on it." Isabella replied.
"Nooo." Xena replied in disbelief.
"Hello... Who is this... Look bimbo, if you call my phone again and I will shove YOUR phone down your throat and break those badly manicured fingers! If you have a problem with Corydon, take it up with Corydon. Comprende? Because if you mess with me, you will just get hurt. Believe me I'm stronger than I look and you don't want to test me." Legacy hung up the phone. "The nerve. I do not have time for nonsense."
"Looks like you've inherited more than my blues eyes and ability to sing. Guess you got my temper too."
"Yeah and your ability to kick ass. She does not want to mess with me, especially about something stupid. Do I look like I'm going to sit here and argue over a man to you? If I do, I didn't get the memo." The doorbell rung and Legacy went to answer it. "Corydon, what are you doing? I told you never to come here. My daddy would kill you."
"Your daddy isn't here." Corydon replied. He had raven colored hair, hazel eyes, was six feet tall and had the body of a god.
"That's not the point and tell your groupies to leave me alone. I don't have time BS. I'm not going to fight over you or any other man and sorry but why is your dad here? Hi."
"He just decided to tag along. Can we come in?" Corydon asked.
"No. I have company."
Corydon's father walked in anyway and Corydon followed.
"Excuse you. Cory, are you kidding me?" Legacy was so pissed. How rude? They went into the living room. Xena and Isabella were in the middle of sharing a laugh.
"Well, well, well." Corydon's father said.
Xena turned around. "Ares."
"Ares?" Legacy and Isabella repeated in unison.
"You mean like the god of war?" Isabella asked.
"That's the one." Xena said.
Legacy began to breath heavily and rapidly. She had one hand on her stomach and the other on her chest. She sat down.
"I'm carrying the grandchild of the god of war. Oh no, my baby's going to be a little terror. Dad always said my rebellious bad ass ways would catch up to me. I can't breath."
Isabella ran to Legacy's side to try and calm her down.
"What are you doing here?" Xena asked.
"Oh come on Xena, you know our bond. I sensed you the minute the little witches summoned you." Ares said.
"You knew we were witches?" Legacy asked.
"Yeah." Corydon said.
"I don't believe this." Legacy said.
"I also knew that you were the descendants of Xena then I told my son here." Ares said.
"What do you want with my family Ares?" Xena asked.
"To be honest, there wasn't much they could do for me until I met them and realized the power they possessed because your little fatherless child. Then Cory fell for Legacy and when I met her I realized how much she reminded me of you. She even kind of looks like a little spicy Latin version of you. My son has good taste. I figured we could get her on our side, her giving my son an heir was just icing on the cake. He'll be the most powerful being to ever live. No one worships me anymore. They worship one God now but I'm going to take over. Now you're back." Ares explained.
"Don't get excited, it's only for twenty-four hours but before I go, do you really think I'm going to let you wreak havoc on this world? I should've killed you when I had the chance."
"But you didn't. You love me."
"No I don't."
"Yes you do. You said so. You said you loved me but I was bad for you."
"Your word against mine."
"You don't have to admit it but you're still my wife for eternity."
"Still your word against mine."
"Actually, there was a document found that stated that you two were married. We have it. We just thought it was a fake." Isabella said.
"It wasn't me then."
The jigs up Xena.
"There are no witnesses that can prove otherwise now."
Legacy went over to Corydon.
"I thought you loved me, Cory. You used me." Legacy said.
"I do love you. I always have, always will." Corydon, replied.
"Whatever." Legacy used her power to fling Corydon into the wall.
"You little brat." Ares said lifting his hand to throw Legacy across the room but she beat him to it. Ares went flying and hit his head.
"Ahhh!" Ares screamed in pain then felt the back of his head. There was blood on his hand when he looked at it. "How?"
"You have the power to kill gods too." Xena said.
"Really? I guess you should've minded your business Ares. Maybe you could've lived another century or so." Legacy said. "Xena, could I borrow your sword?" Xena handed the sword to her. Legacy twirled it around like she was an experienced swordsman. "War is over." The sword suddenly flew out of Legacy's hand and into Corydon's.
"I'm not going to let you kill my father." Corydon said.
"Well his head is already bleeding out. I'm just speeding up the process." Legacy telekinetically sent the sword into Ares' chest.
"Noooo!" Corydon ran to Ares' side. "You bitch!"
"You two were using me and my baby for your own sick pleasures and goals to have war take over the world and I'm the bitch?"
"I love you!" Corydon exclaimed.
"If you loved me, you would've let me choose."
"You were choosing!"
Ares' eyes finally closed.
"Dad!" Corydon cried.
Legacy and Isabella looked at Xena who had a tear falling from her right eye.
"You did love him, didn't you?" Legacy asked.
"Like I said, he was bad for me." Xena said then pulled her sword out.
"Dinner is ser-" The started before the scene hit her and she screamed.
"Uh oh." Isabella said. "What is here you do not see, all you view is a beautiful scene." She quickly came up with a spell. The maid forgot what she just saw and could only see Xena, Legacy and Isabella standing there.
"Dinner is served, madams." The maid said.
"We'll be there in a little while." Legacy said and the maid walked away.
"What are you going to do with his body?" Isabella asked. Legacy and Isabella looked at Xena.
"I don't know. In our time we just left them there but you can't very well leave him in your house." Xena said.
"Well this is a problem." Legacy said.
"Just send us to our home. I'll give him the proper burial." Corydon said.
"As you wish... Get these two out of our home and send them back to their own." Legacy said then Corydon and Ares disappeared. The parents then walked in.
"Uh oh." Isabella said.
"What is going on here?" Adam, their father asked. He also had brown curly hair and brown eyes, very handsome man.
"Nothing now." Legacy said.
"Start talking!" Adam commanded.
"This would be Xena, our ancestor and well see... come to find out you were right about Cory and his father was Ares. They showed up and because of our powers we could kill Ares and that's what I did. That explains the blood over there and a couple things are broken because I had to throw them across the room a couple times."
"You're kidding me." Adam said. The sight was irritating him so he waved his hand and made the room look clean again. "You brought her here from the past? You know how dangerous that is? Ugh! And Ares was..." He threw his hands in the air.
"Sorry daddy." Legacy said.
"I'm sorry for all this Xena." Adam said.
"It's fine. I never really got to be a mother and I won't get to be a grandmother. It's nice to see what becomes of my family."
"I'm Adam and this is my wife Melody."
"Hi." Melody said. She looked a little like Scarlet Johanson.
"Dinner is ready. We should eat." Legacy said.
"Where's Legend?" Adam asked.
"He's in his room." Isabella replied.
Adam called Legend down and they all had dinner. The whole time Xena had been here, there was something familiar about Legend. He felt it too. It hit both of them at the same time. Xena saw Solan in Legend, it was him reincarnated.
"Solan?"
"Mother?"
They got up to hug each other.
"What's going on?" Melody asked.
"...My son was reincarnated into yours."
"Souls aren't always reborn into the same family but this time I was. I'm going to go back to normal in a moment but I just want to say that I love you and we'll meet again in the after life then again in reincarnated lives."
"I love you too." Xena said then let go. Solan went back to normal as Legend.
"Well, dinner was delicious." Legacy said.
"Indeed it was... You and I are going to have to have a talk later." Adam said.
"What are you going to do, ground me?" Legacy asked, sarcastically. Xena elbowed her.
"Maybe I can't ground you but I can take away those credit cards." Adam said.
"Daddy!"
"Oh. No sarcasm about that, huh?" Adam laughed and walked out of the room. The rest of the family followed.
"My mouth always gets me in trouble." Legacy said.
"Do you want to tell them you're pregnant while you have some moral support?"
"I guess that would be best. They're already angry. Might as well get it all done at once like a band-aid."
Xena and Legacy walked into the living room where Adam and Melody were. Xena and Legacy sat across from them. Isabella and Legend went upstairs.
"What is it?" Adam asked suspiciously.
"I love you." Legacy said.
"What's wrong?" Melody asked.
"OK... I'm... pregnant."
"Pregnant?" Melody asked.
"With the grandchild of Ares? Oh hell no!" Adam exclaimed.
"I know it's bad. I hope this baby isn't."
"Your baby won't be bad because he has Ares' blood. He'll be like anyone else but with more power." Xena said.
"Are you sure?" Legacy asked.
"Positive."
"Cory was bad." Legacy said.
"Not because he was Ares' child but because he was raised by Ares. He could change with him out of his life, that is if he doesn't take the path of vengeance and if he doesn't you may be able to save him. I know you don't think he loves you but I think he was telling the truth about that. He showed his love the best way he could from what he learned from Ares."
"How do you know?"
"Think about it, I died how many decades, centuries ago and Ares still came looking for me, still wanted me to be his queen? Eve could've been the end of him and technically she still was but he still was going to help me save her, of course he wanted me to give him a baby in exchange but anyway, he was still going to do it."
"I get your point."
"I can't believe you're pregnant. I'm so disappointed. I'm sorry, I just need some air." Melody said then went outside.
Adam just stared at Legacy for about a minute then finally looked away and looked at Xena.
"You know, you two kind of look alike." Adam finally said.
"That's all you have to say?" Legacy asked.
"What do you want me to say, CeCe? I'm pissed off like hell but can't do anything about it. I'm going to be a grandfather, you're going to be a mother. We'll deal with it."
The next day, they said their goodbyes to Xena.
"I'm sorry you didn't get a chance to be a mom. You would've been a good one." Legacy said.
"Thanks... you remind me so much of me. I wouldn't be surprised if you were one of my reincarnated souls."
"Nooo, you think?"
"Probably not, if so I'm sure Ares would have wanted you for himself rather than his son. He would've realized it."
"Ew... It's crazy how genetics, your environment and your soul's journey all determine the person you will become."
"Gives you something to think about... Well, the legacy is left in your hands." Xena hugged Legacy then everyone else.
"You'll return to the moment you were taken. I'd feel a lot more comfortable erasing your memory of this but I won't. Just don't tell anyone and continue as you were." Adam said.
"I got it." Xena said.
Legacy, Isabella and Legend said the spell to send Xena back sense they were the ones who brought her.
Xena returned next to Gabrielle.
"What happened?" Gabrielle asked.
"How long was I gone?" Xena asked.
"About a second, a light appeared, you disappeared, the light reappeared you were back. Weird."
"Yeah... Weird." Xena smiled to herself.