another twist and good luck ;) let me know what you all think so far!
Chapter 9
Xena rode into another small village outside of Corinth. Luckily the village was close and it was also intact which meant her older self did not destroy this place, but why not? If she was as evil as she claimed to be why leave this alone? Or perhaps there was a certain tie she had with Corinth? Xena had no idea what was going to happen when she came face to face with her warlord self and she had no set plan yet. First thing first, she will help Gabrielle and then come up with a plan from there.
She hopped off her horse and noticed a lot of people gawking at her. She realized that these civilians were able to recognize her face but yet her adult version of herself could not seem to pinpoint who she really was, which was odd, or maybe she saw someone different? Or maybe she was in so much self denial that she completely lost her innocence.
She walked up to a man sitting outside of his tavern it looked like, cleaning cups and bowls in a large bucket of water. "Excuse me sir..." she spoke softly and he lifted his head for a brief moment and his eyes enlarged at the sight of her. Deciding to ignore his apparent gaping eyes, she remained calm.
"I need some medicine. My friend is hurt. Do you know where I can find a healer around here?"
He dropped the bowl into the bucket of water and stood slowly, taking a good look at her familiar face. "You look like the warlord Xena," he observed. He then took another look at her body and frowned confusedly. "Yet you are just a child. Are you related to the bitch?" he pulled out a dagger from his belt and she gasped, stepping away cautiously.
"I...have no idea who you are talking about. I don't know who Xena is," she said, trying her best to protect herself. Peering back, she saw Gabrielle struggling to get off the litter. "Please, I just need some medicine for my friend. I am not here to cause trouble."
The man saw the fear in the girl's eyes and therefore lowered the weapon. It was obvious this young traveler was no threat and neither was her blonde friend either. "Go past the inn over there," he pointed north of his home, "you will find a healer by the name of Izak. He can help your friend."
She smiled, "thank you." She quickly grabbed the horse by its reins and pulled Gabrielle along in the litter.
Following the man's instructions she found a small hut and a young man inside, scurrying about. She turned to Gabrielle. "I'll be right back."
Gabrielle sighed. "Yeah sure, I'll just be here...don't mind me." She grumbled and winced at her aching shoulder.
Xena smirked and stepped inside the small hut. The young man was running around holding a beaker in one hand and a vial in the other. He looked like a mess and like he hadn't slept in days. This must be the crazy person in the village she gathered. She went ahead and knocked on the wall and alarmed the young man. He nearly dropped his vial and beaker of liquids.
"Are you Izak?" she asked.
"Who wants to know?" he eyed her suspiciously.
"I was told to come here. My friend needs medicine for a shoulder wound. A man down the road said that you could...help?" her eyes wandered around the small hut and it looked incredibly disorganized, just like this young man.
He sighed and set down the glass vial and beaker then wiped his dirty hands on his pants. "Alright, let's go take a look then." He marched outside and saw Gabrielle on the litter. He knelt down and took a good look at her wound. "This is a pretty gnarly wound, miss. Who did this to you?"
Xena held her breath and Gabrielle shot her a weak smile. "I was...attacked by some men while traveling on the road."
Izak nodded and touched the fresh blood. "Those men must have had a pretty hefty sword. This a deep wound. I can help you." He lifted her up with ease and wrapped her arm around his neck, leading her inside his hut. He glanced over at Xena and lifted an eyebrow. She shied away and avoided gaze.
Inside the hut he lay Gabrielle onto a table after he cleared it with a swipe of his hand. "You're lucky that the warlord Xena didn't come to this village otherwise you'd be out of luck." He began mixing herbs into a bowl and crushing it with his fingers and his own spit. Xena cringed and turned to Gabrielle, worried for her safety and hers as well.
"Say, you kind of look like her." He said and Xena's face paled.
"Yeah well, I've never seen her before so I don't know what she looks like," she said and Gabrielle's eyes widened and turned to Izak. She immediately noticed the suspicion on his face.
"I saw her once when I was traveling through Delphi picking up some supplies to bring back home. She is a looker that's for sure. Such a shame that beauty be wasted, right?" he chuckled and Xena put on a false smile. He grabbed the poultice he made and walked over to Gabrielle. "Alright, let's see what I can do for you."
Xena panicked and leered over the healer, watching his every move. "I...I don't have any money to pay you."
He shrugged, "have you got anything else?"
"Well, no..." she said meekly.
He spotted the chakram on her belt loop. "What about that thing?" he asked.
She gasped and gripped the chakram. "No! I can't give this to you. I –I need it."
"How 'bout that horse? I could use one for my next supply run." He offered and slathered Gabrielle's wound with the herbs and she bit her tongue, fighting back the pain.
Xena frowned, "I need that horse!"
Gabrielle put up her free arm. "Let him have the horse. We can find another one," she suggested and Xena grumbled and crossed her arms.
Hercules and Iolaus left the Halls of War and steered clear of Caesar and his army. They were hiding in the brush in the forest they were just in. Luckily, Caesar and his army had gone into a different direction searching for Gabrielle and Xena, though he was leading nowhere, little did he know.
"Hebe!" Hercules shouted in the middle of the forest. "I need to talk to you!"
The goddess appeared leaning on a tree. "What do you want, Hercules? Haven't you embarrassed me enough for today? Thanks to you, Ares has the Kronos Stone and I didn't even get my hands on it for a second!" she growled.
He sighed. "Listen, Ares took Xena and Gabrielle through a time portal. I need you to find him. I know you gods can pass through time easily."
She cackled. "It isn't that easy! If Ares has the Kronos Stone he has the ultimate power to walk through any time period he wants. No doubt he has his mortal warrior with him." She sighed dramatically.
"You need to get the stone from him, Hebe. I know how much you want it," he cast a smug grin. He hoped that she was stupid enough to go along with the good ole enticing trick. It worked on lesser gods more than it would for Ares. He was too smart for that.
She frowned and walked forward, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. "And then what? I help your friend turn back into her normal self?"
"That's the idea, but then you can keep the stone for yourself. Don't let Ares touch it. We both know that he will use it for his own selfish needs. Can I trust you to get the stone from him and keep it in a safe place?" he asked, hoping she would relent.
She hummed quietly and smiled. "And you won't try and take it from me will you, little brother?"
"Not as long as you keep your promise to keep it from Ares. The stone is all yours."
Iolaus gasped. "Herc, you can't do that!"
"Sure I can," he whispered. "So, what do you say Hebe? Will you help us get the stone back from Ares or what? You're not going to allow him to have access to all that power will you?"
Hebe huffed and folded her arms. "I suppose I could do this for you but I will want a favor in return in the near future," she said and Hercules nodded, agreeing to her terms. "I will go alone to retrieve the stone. You will stay here with your short friend. I'll get it don't you worry your pretty little head."
"And what if Discord gets in the way?" Iolaus asked and Hebe's eyes burned and turned bright white. Her anger was showing. "Oh...well, I mean...she might want to take it from you..."
She snarled. "Discord!" she screamed to the sky and both of them covered their ears. In a matter of seconds she calmed herself and her eyes returned to their normal state. She gave them a warm endearing smile. "I will make sure she does not get in my way. Tootles, boys." She disappeared from the area and Iolaus breathed a sigh of relief.
"Your family really is something else," he commented.
Hercules sighed. "Don't I know it. Let's just hope she gets the stone from Ares and maybe we can fix this mess. I hope Xena and Gabrielle are not in harm's way."
"You should have seen her –my...face, Gabrielle. She didn't recognize me. I mean, I didn't recognize myself," the teenager groaned. "This is too confusing."
Together they traveled on foot to hopefully run into the warlord's army. She couldn't have gone too far and would have to stop for camp eventually. Athens was a bit far from Corinth and surely the army would have to resupply soon. Gabrielle and Xena always stopped for camp during long journeys, so hopefully, Xena would have stopped by now and camped somewhere in a barren area.
"Listen, this version of you is so delusional. She can't see what is right from wrong. She will kill anything in her way. I have often wondered what the dark side of...you would be like and now that I've seen it, I hope I never see it again."
Xena nodded. "Me too. I need to stop myself. Maybe if I can change my ways now then –"
"No!" Gabrielle grabbed the teen's arm. "We aren't screwing with time more than we already have. If you do anything to yourself in this time period who knows what will happen ten years from now."
Xena scoffed. "So that's it? We just stand by and let my older self destroy countless cities and kill people?! Gabrielle, I can't believe you. I know I haven't really known for you that long but I know that you know that this is wrong. We can't let her...me, do this. It's wrong and you know it!"
The bard sighed and kept walking ahead of Xena. "I know but we don't have time to mess with this version of you. We could destroy your future, Xena. I don't think you understand that. I like you the way you are. If we alter your past then we alter the future too and I don't think 'warlord Xena' will change just because you want her to. She takes no prisoners. You saw what she did back in Corinth."
"I could try..." Xena muttered.
Gabrielle smiled faintly. "I know you want to fix your past, Xena. I wish you could too then maybe you wouldn't be so..." she trailed off, not wishing to finish that sentence.
The teen frowned. "So what?" she asked and the bard remained quiet. "What is it Gabrielle?"
"You've always told me that you could never forgive yourself for the things you've done in your past. Even after all the years we spent together, you can't and won't forgive yourself and sometimes it eats away at you. It...hurts me to see you like that."
The moment she said that she felt a weight lifted off her shoulders. Truly, she never realized how much Xena's guilt weighed on her as much as it did. Possibly more on her than on Xena at times. She so badly wanted Xena to forgive herself and move on, but now that she was able to lay eyes on Xena's dark persona, she realized that Xena was far too gone at this point in her life. She was not worthy of forgiveness now but in the future –the Xena she knew and loved –was not here. She was lost somewhere in this teenage body of hers.
Xena now was more aware of what kind of pain she inflicted on so many people. She wanted to that change that. "And so you would rather I suffer in my future than fix my mess now? This is my chance, Gabrielle! I can redeem myself!"
Gabrielle frowned. "I like you the way you are, Xena. Well...you know what I mean. We can't go in and correct yourself right now. We need to turn you back to your normal self."
"So you don't want me to redeem myself? You'd rather I remain in a state of guilt?" said the teenage Xena.
It was strange for Gabrielle to hear such words come from her friend's mouth, even if her friend was trapped in a younger body. She seemed more self aware of what was wrong and what was right. Not everything that Xena did was right but at least she learned from her mistakes along the way. Gabrielle didn't know what to do. She suddenly felt selfish for wanting to keep Xena the way she had known her these past few years. She wanted Xena to realize that she could forgive herself for her wrong doings, but she didn't want it to be like this. She longed for Xena to come to this realization all on her own, not through some meddling in a lost dimension.
"I know you mean well and I know that you want to fix your adult self, Xena, but I don't want to risk altering time. We are playing a game that we cannot control. And if we alter time more than we already have then I'm afraid...I might lose you in the future and I can't allow that to happen." She finally said and the teenager nodded.
"I wish I could just...tell myself that life will be different in the future," Xena sighed.
They walked through a large area filled with trees. Xena spotted several tents and smiled, eager to invade the camp. "This must be it, Gabrielle! This is her camp. We should go in and find her tent."
Gabrielle pulled Xena back roughly. "No, we can't just waltz in there. We will be arrested and possibly killed." She looked down at her wounded shoulder. She didn't want to receive another wound, especially one that could potentially kill her.
"I can go in the camp. I can be very stealthy," Xena wriggled her eyebrows and the bard rolled her eyes. "You are hurt. I can do this! Come on..."
The blonde groaned and then nodded. "Alright but be careful and don't let anyone see you." She said and Xena grinned deviously then began walking off. "Hey!" she called out and Xena turned her head. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to tell myself that Ares can't be trusted. Hopefully, she will listen to me. If not...I'll make another escape."
Gabrielle frowned, "what do you mean another escape?"
Xena sheepishly smiled. "She's already seen me..."
"What?!"
"Well...it was kind of an accident," Xena shrugged her shoulders. "Wait here! I won't be long!" she ran off while Gabrielle crept behind a few trees to hide and overlook the large camp.
Inside the commander's tent, Xena stripped herself of her silver breastplate and tossed it onto a pile of blankets. She sighed and untied the gauntlets around her wrists and felt a presence inside her tent. She swiftly turned around, grabbing her sword.
Ares smirked and held up his hands defensively. Xena lowered her sword and threw it onto the pillows beside her armor. "You really did a number on Corinth. I didn't think you had it in you to do that."
She scoffed, "and why is that? You expected less?" she cast a devious smile and tossed her gauntlets on the floor.
"You...exceeded my expectations," he bit his bottom lip, staring at her body wrapped in her black sleeveless blouse and form-fitting pants. He sauntered towards her and touched her long wild hair. Her hair slid through his fingers and he sniffed her ember scented locks.
Xena raised an eyebrow and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I will attack Athens next."
He grinned, "ambitious. Athens is a large city. As long as I am by your side I will make sure that you achieve...all your goals," his voice sultry and ringing in her ears. She leaned upward and grabbed his cheeks, squeezing his face in between her fingers.
"All of my goals?" she teased and widened her wild eyes. Slowly, the war god nodded his head and she snickered. She let go of his face and lowered herself to the floor, laying on the pile of blankets and pillows. "We can start achieving one of those goals right now," she sprawled her arms across the pillows, inviting him in to her domain.
A wicked smile crossed the god's lips and he pressed his body against hers. He pinned her arms to the pillows and kissed her bare neck gingerly. Lolling her head backward, she smiled from ear to ear as he made his way down to her sternum and unlaced her bodice.
The teenage Xena cut a hole into the commander's tent and she crawled inside to avoid the guards posted outside. She saw Ares on top of her adult self, coddling her, kissing her and groping her. Her entire body was on fire seeing him on her, treating her as if she were his lover. Maybe in another time. She growled and stood up then ran over to Ares.
She jumped on top of him and wrapped her arm around his neck, choking him. "Get off you bastard!" she snarled and bit his ear.
He snarled and stood. She wrapped her legs around his torso, refusing to let go. Warlord Xena's eyes widened and she scooted away as Ares was trying get the teenager off of him. She grabbed her sword and hopped to her feet.
"You again!" the warlord snarled.
Ares grabbed the teen's arm and flung her across the tent. She landed on a stack of weapons and moaned loudly. Lifting her head she saw her older self marching right at her. She was grabbed by the arm and hoisted up.
Ares rubbed his ear and then glanced over at Xena holding..."You!" he yelled and pushed the warlord Xena away. "What are you doing here?! I thought I got rid of you!"
The teenager smirked. "Looks like you didn't finish the spell, Ares," she hissed.
"What is going on?" the older Xena asked. "Who is this?"
"Go on, Ares, tell her," the teenager smugly smiled and placed her hands on her narrow hips. "Tell her that I'm really from the future. Tell her that I'm actually her and you changed my adult self into a child! Tell her!" she growled and shoved him backward.
The warlord lowered her sword and gawked at the war god. "This girl is me?"
"I've been trying to tell you!" the teen cried. "You wouldn't listen," she took a step forward and evil Xena took a cautious step back. "Please, I know you can recognize me now." She smiled softly and evil Xena's eyes widened with fear. "You can't keep listening to Ares. He is destroying you. You have to believe me. I know who you are, who you really are and I think you do too."
The commander kept backing away and lifted her blade. "Don't come any closer or I'll kill you!"
"You would kill yourself? For what? For him?" the teen eyed the furious war god. "I know this must be very strange for you but I am you and that blonde you stabbed back there is your friend. She loves and cares about you. I just want to help you...please."
"I will slice you into a million pieces!" Xena snarled.
Ares smirked and crossed his arms. "This is more amusing than I thought."
"Shut up, Ares!" the teenager snapped and the god blinked rapidly at her ferocity.
"This is ridiculous. You expect me to believe that you are me," the elder Xena proclaimed.
"It's true! And it's all his fault! He wanted to use me for his own game. He wanted my dark side to rise to the surface." The teen sighed and saw she was getting nowhere. "You were able to turn away from the darkness and fight for good and Ares didn't like that. I am telling you the truth."
The warlord laughed and pointed the blade at her younger self's throat. "You tell a good tale. You should be a storyteller."
"Enough of this chitchat!" Ares grabbed the teenage Xena. "I am getting rid of you."
"No!" the teen snarled and the commander lifted an eyebrow at the struggling girl. "Solan! Your son! He dies! Years from now you will meet him again and he won't know who you are! He will never know who you really are! Where I come from he is dead!"
Evil Xena's eyes widened and she lowered her blade, gaping at the teenager. Ares felt like he was losing his grasp on her at that very moment. She could topple cities and kill people as if they were ants behind her boot, but the mention of her only son was the key that kept her from embracing true darkness.
"Don't listen to her!" he yelled. "She's lying!"
"I am not! Let go of me you pervert!" she elbowed him in the face and he staggered backwards. She ran to her elder self and gripped her arms. The commander stiffened and gazed down into the girl's eyes. "I know you believe me. I can see it in your eyes. You're in denial but you believe me." She smiled faintly and the commander's upper lip quivered in disgust, almost. "You're not all that bad. You can change and sooner than you think. I promise you that it's worth it if you try..."
Hebe's loud child-like laughter filled the tent and both 'Xenas' eyes wandered around, looking for the laughing goddess. She finally made herself visible to the mortal eye and she stared at her brother. "Oh Ares! You are an idiot!" she frowned. "You didn't reverse my spell and now you have two warrior babes! Look at them. One evil and one still a few years shy of womanhood. This is so pathetic."
"You didn't say anything about a spell reversal!" he hissed.
The goddess shrugged a nonchalant shoulder. "You didn't give me a chance. You took the stone for yourself! Give it to me!" she reached into his pocket and pulled out the beaming Kronos Stone. Her eyes grew in excitement. She could feel the power radiating from the small yet so powerful tool.
The commander's guards rushed inside the tent and threw Gabrielle onto the floor. "Commander, we found an intruder." Telis said and then saw a young girl and two people inside of the tent. "What is going on here?" he unsheathed his sword, ready to attack.
"Oh please," Hebe rolled her eyes and with a wave of her hand the two guards flew out of the tent, screaming. "Now, where were we?" she smiled, cuddling the stone close to her chest.
"Hebe, the stone is mine!" Ares growled and reached for the stone and she turned around.
"Not anymore! You are irresponsible with it!"
Evil Xena frowned at the blonde crouched down on the floor. She pushed the teen aside and stormed over to Gabrielle and grabbed her by the hair. "I thought I killed you..." she hissed and Gabrielle grimaced.
The teenager ran and jumped in between Gabrielle and the warlord. "Stop!" she wrapped her arm around Gabrielle. "She is your friend! I swear! If you kill her you will be trapped in this cycle of hatred forever!"
Evil Xena's eyes softened as she stared at her younger self –a person that she had left behind many years ago. The innocence she once had that was long forgotten. Now she was reminded of what and who she used to be. She stared at the blonde beneath her and frowned sadly. She retracted her sword and Ares snarled.
"Don't do this Xena!" he grabbed her arm and she snatched herself away.
"I don't know exactly what is going on Ares but you better fix it," she hissed and pointed the blade at his chest.
Gabrielle smiled."Thank you," she whispered and the teenager nodded.
Eyeing Hebe, cuddling the stone to her chest, little Xena raised her eyebrow. In the midst of the argument she left Gabrielle's side and charged right for the youth goddess. She snatched the stone from her hands and Hebe gasped.
"You brat!"
Xena held onto the stone and it burned her flesh. She felt her body changing and dropped to her knees, shutting her eyes. Ares turned and Gabrielle slowly got to her feet. "No!" Ares cried out and saw Xena disappear right before his eyes with the stone in her possession as well.
