A small note: It's nothing major but I've made a slight spelling mistake, the town where Xena's mother lives where Martha has been taken is called Amphipolis. I have been calling it Ampholis in previous chapters, a simple mistake. I'll take more care to listen for town names next time lol

An audience with the King

As the days passed, Xena and Gabrielle made the immediate decision to help Martha whilst uncovering the reason for which Martha had been dragged thousands of years into her past. Martha found the entire situation all very daunting but she was glad two complete strangers were giving up the time to help her, not to mention the risks that might be involved. Maybe they were like the Doctor? The two women, not even knowing people but still being brave enough to jump in and help with no second thoughts. Martha had regained all her strength pretty much straight away but chose to remain in the room that Xena had placed her in, the mother who she had yet to learn the name of popped into the room occasionally but always displayed a look of displeasure when her and Martha established eye contact, it made Martha feel extremely uneasy but the mothers daughter and her friend didn't have to help.

"How are you?" Gabrielle said, Martha suddenly returned to reality from a day dream. The day had finally come for Gabrielle and Xena to head off for the meeting and now she and Martha were stood in front of Cyrene's house, waiting by Argo who had been loaded up with all their belongings.

"Now you be careful." Cyrene said as she followed her daughter out of the house.

"I'll be fine mom." Xena sighed, typical mother always well mothering her.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure she behaves." Gabrielle laughed as she ran her fingers through her hair.

"I know you will." The older woman smiled, shooting a cautious look towards Martha who felt out of place and was keeping quiet. A twinge filled Martha's stomach, her mother used to treat the Doctor the same way Xena's mother was treating her. Like they were going to drag their daughters into some crazy dangerous situation, she missed her mother. She had barely been gone but a terrifying possibility remained at the back of her mind that she would never see her mother, father, Tish, Leo and her fiancée again. Did Xena or Gabrielle have brothers and sisters? She never thought to ask.

"Come on, lets get out of her quick. Before she starts molly coddling me." Xena said in a hushed tone, as her mother watched on waving. Gabrielle laughed and Martha smiled as the started walking down the track on their way out of Amphipolis.

"I'm so sorry for burdening you like this." Martha said suddenly, her face filled with an apologetic expression.

"Don't be silly, its what we do." Gabrielle answered.

"She's right." Xena nodded.

"I know but your supposed to be meeting your friends, when I meet my friends I prefer a nice relaxing time having a laugh and getting drunk. Not having people materialise from a space and time rift causing a distraction." Martha said.

"If we didn't want to help you then we wouldn't." Xena said simply, Martha nodded in appreciation.

"Now lets get a move on, if we are quick then we should get to the temple before sundown." Gabrielle added.

Hercules groaned impatiently, he and Iolaus had arrived at the temple quite some time ago and there will still no sign of Xena and Gabrielle yet they were the ones who were supposed to have a horse. Hercules and Iolaus had run for most of the distance and walked for the rest, Iolaus was sitting on a pink chair with pink velvet pillows looking around cautiously.

"How's my favourite brother doing." A voice suddenly said, the speaker being invisible. Iolaus covered his face whilst Hercules laughed, a pink shower of lights and flowers then appeared in the temple as Aphrodite the Goddess of Love materialised into the room. She let out an excited squeal and rushed to hug the half God, Hercules opened his arms and reached out to embrace her.

"It's good to see you." Hercules said gently squeezing the blonde, before releasing her from his brotherly grasp.

"How are you Curly?" Aphrodite said with a beam turning to face Iolaus, he removed his hands from his face and forced a smile.

"I'm fine." He said begrudgingly, now Iolaus didn't want to be misinterpreted. He did like his best pals Goddess of a sister, but he was just waiting for her to cause a problem and hope for them to fix it.

"So sis, what brings you to this neck of the woods?" Hercules asked.

"Oh I just wanted to check how my little bro was doing? Besides this is my temple after all." Aphrodite said as an inquisitive expression appeared on her face.

"Rumour has it that you are meeting Xena and the bard." She added.

"So what if I am?" Hercules said, curious as to why his sister was asking.

"Hmmm interesting, so are you and her planning to you know… do the dirty." Aphrodite giggled.

"Of course not, me and Xena are just friends. Anything we might have done is in the past only." Hercules said in a matter of fact tone.

"Oh…" Aphrodite said sounding slightly disappointed.

"How about you and Gabby Curly?" the Goddess almost snapped.

"No… of course not… well… No… don't be silly." Iolaus said, the question taking him completely by surprise.

"Yeah right." Aphrodite smiled wickedly as she spoke.

"So whats new sis?" Hercules said awkwardly, trying to change the subject.

"Oh you know the usual, carrying out my Godly duties. Being a good wife to my Hephy." Aphrodite said with a light sigh.

"How's Zeus?" Hercules asked.

"Same old, same old. Having his affairs, Hera finding out and being furious. Blah, blah, blah." Aphrodite said in a careless tone.

"The others?" Hercules continued, he never particular cared for a majority of his family members. But it never hurt keeping tabs on what they were upto, especially if what they were upto concerned Hercules and any other innocent mortals.

"Are you snooping little bro?" the beauty asked.

"Who me? Of course, you can't be too careful. Especially with brothers, sisters, step-mothers and cousins like ours." Hercules spoke.

"Like I need to tell you what they are upto, you can probably guess." Aphrodite said rolling her eyes, Hercules laughed and then turned around. To his shock he almost collided with none over than his father Zeus! Hercules eyes widened as he almost jumped out of his skin.

"Thanks for the warning." Hercules said breathlessly.

"Daddy!" Aphrodite squealed.

"Oh I'm only a fan of appearing using light shows when I'm making grand entrances." Zeus spoke in a soft yet commanding tone.

"To what do we owe the honour." Hercules said finally calming down.

"Yeah you don't usually come down from Olympus unless its for big business, that or when you are visiting one of your lovers." Aphrodite said in a careless tone, Zeus gave her a slight stare. Causing a nervous look to appear on his daughters face, making her regret being so careless with her words. Iolaus just looked on from where he was sat with great awe lining his face, he'd met the great King of the Gods before but it was still a grand sight laying eyes on him.

"Ares is upto something." Zeus said simply.

"Whats new." Hercules scoffed.

"Forgive me, something is going on that Ares knows about. But no one is sure what it is, we are only aware because of whispers around Mount Olympus." Zeus added.

"Whispers?" the half mortal son asked.

"Discord and Deimos, they aren't sharing with the rest of us but something is going on. I overheard them speaking in one of the chambers, I didn't hear much except Ares' name popped up." Aphrodite quickly said, a light bulb seemed to switch on in her mind.

"So? You're the King father, force tweedle dumb and tweedle dee to spill the beans." Hercules suggested.

"Its not as simple as that, Deimos isn't clever but Discord is cunning. She will deny any knowledge and threaten Deimos to do the same." The age old King spoke.

"So what? You want me to find out whats going on, well no I cant. Iolaus and I are meeting Xena and Gabrielle today and we want a nice relaxing catch up." The muscle-bound hunk said.

"Don't worry about finding out my son, all I ask is that you keep your ear to the ground. There is more chance of mortals finding out than the Gods up on Olympus, do this for me son." Zeus said.

"Okay I'll do it."

"Oh your great." Aphrodite ran into her brother's arms and hugged him gently.

"Come my daughter, Hercules and his friend are expecting people. We wont keep them any longer." Zeus spoke, Aphrodite nodded and then smiled at both Hercules and Iolaus before grabbing her fathers hand. The King and his Princess then disappeared in a shower of sparkles.

"Oh now he decides to use the light show." Hercules in an annoyed tone, Iolaus then looked towards the doorway after hearing the sound of a horse outside.

"Herc they're here." Iolaus said in an excited tone before rushing off to greet his friends, a small twinge of excitement filled Hercules stomach before he decided to run after him.

"We're here." Xena said happily.

"You'll like Hercules and Iolaus, they're great guys." Gabrielle said enthusiastically, Xena nodded as Martha smiled.

"They'll help you as well." Xena added.

"I really appreciate this." Martha said thankfully.

"You're a very polite girl, most people just expect our help." Gabrielle laughed.

"I only hope that I can find my friend before I go back, it wouldn't sit well with my seniors if I just left her here." Martha said in a worried tone.

"It will all be fine now just relax, at least meet Hercules and let us have a good old gossip before you work yourself up." Xena smiled.

"Of course." Martha said, guilt filled her stomach, Xena and Gabrielle then looked at the temple doors and beamed their best as two strapping men came rushing through to greet them.

"Fancy seeing you here." Xena joked as the two men came to a half in front of them, Xena first hugged Hercules whilst Iolaus hugged Gabrielle. They then swapped and whilst Xena hugged Iolaus, Gabrielle hugged Hercules. Martha remained near Argo, standing awkwardly like she didn't belong.

"I'd like you to meet someone." Xena said, Hercules and Iolaus both looked confused until they saw the dark haired beauty wearing strange clothes, standing by Xena's beloved horse. They then watched Xena beckoned and the girl walked forwards.

"This is Martha." Gabrielle made the introduction.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Martha smiled, Iolaus stepped forwards and shook Martha's hand. Hercules however just remained where he was standing, looking at Martha in awe.

'By the Gods, she's beautiful'

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, I'm Iolaus and this is Hercules." Iolaus said, Hercules suddenly came to his senses and stepped forwards.

"Very nice to meet you." Hercules said taking Martha's hand gently.

"Lets go inside, we need to explain a few things." Xena suggested, the rest of them complied and started making their way towards the temple. With Hercules shooting glances at Martha, Xena picked up on this and felt slight twinges of jealousy.

'Pull yourself together'