General Ving

"Hey how is he?" Xena asked the healer. Drake was resting and he had some color back in his cheeks now the war had been raging for quite sometime and they hadn't been able to air lift him back to Dragon City.

"I'm quite fine," Drake answered for the healer without opening his eyes. "I'll be fit for battle in another few days, the healer just filled me in earlier." Xena went over to him and sat down.

"You will not be heading into battle soon, your weak."

"I'm not weak," Drake told her trying to sound offended.

"Don't even try and sound offended you know I didn't mean it like that. Your still sick whether you like it or not and there's nothing you can do about it. Accept your battle wound, because you're heading back to Dragon City soon enough."

"No, I must fight in the war."

"Not if your chances of dying have increased, I say when to let you back in this war and its not soon."

"If I don't fight..."

"The people will not think less of you, the advantage to having a warrior for a wife is that a monarch will always be in battle lessening the chance of you dying." Drake sighed.

"I won't fight, but I am staying, compromise with me." Xena sighed.

"Fine, you help out around camp, I better not catch you near a battle field." Drake nodded as she kissed his forehead. She helped him walk around camp and visit all the men who had poisoned alongside him. All the men told him they would be ready to fight again in no time, but Xena told them they wouldn't be use unless things got desperate or they were deemed healed completely.

"Are you sure about this?" Gabrielle asked. The war was still raging after a year.

"Yes, we can't keep going like this, we've barely recovered from the last war from Ubel, I've called for a one on one fight between Caesar and I. Loser's army leaves peacefully, but I plan on slaughtering the lot of them if I win."

"Xena..."

"No, Gabrielle you and I both know this war won't be over, but we can at least get rid of one of two leaders. General Ving won't stop just because Caesar's dead, so we're taking the opportunity to slaughter part of their army." Gabrielle sighed and nodded.

"I know, Gods war is so Gods there's really no way to describe war when a place you love is truly being destroyed. I have to admit I'll never get over you, but I was actually thinking of trying to move on, have a family, in this place we all call home."

"I know Gabrielle, I wanted to spend more time with my children and finally know my husband again. I gotta be honest sometimes we feel like we don't know each other, because of all this separation. I don't even think I know Eve as well as I should anymore. I've missed so much time." Xena sighed as she picked up her sword.

"Put me in as your second." Xena nodded. Daphne and Emily walked in.

"You two are my third and fourth." They nodded dressed for battle. The other ladies waited outside along with the rest of her personal guard. Drake walked in. "Leave us please." They all left out.

"You shouldn't have to do this," Drake told her angry. He thought he should be taking the challenge, and not his wife, he didn't know if he could keep it together long enough to finish the war despite his children.

"I know, but there will always be war, we have to accept that. Besides this isn't one of those battles that will end the war, this just merely a chance for both sides to take out one leader and slaughter the remaining fighters on the field."

"It should be me."

"No," Xena told him as he pulled her into his arms. Her arms wrapped around his neck. "I'll be fine, but promise me something."

"Anything for you," Drake told her.

"Don't die, promise me that you will try your hardest to be the man you are now, well not right now, but you know what I mean. Eve, Melody, and Llyr need you as well as your people. Teach and guide them, and when Eve is old enough to take the throne than I release you from your promise and you can join me in whatever the afterlife is here." Drake sighed.

"Xena, I don't know if I have the strength to live without you."

"The strength you need is in the eyes of your daughters and son, Drake, if I die don't leave them like me. Think of them at all times, if you truly love me, you'll do what I'm asking for their sake. It would make me happy knowing that you would not purposely leave them." Drake sighed and nodded.

"Only if you make me the same promise."

"I do, I promise."

"I promise than too." He kissed her. Xena broke their kiss.

"Besides I'm too stubborn to die anyway remember." Drake nodded memorizing her face again. He kissed her forehead, and than her nose and watched the cute way she wrinkled her nose because it left a ticklish sensation. Before he kissed her lips again, they were interrupted by Gabrielle announcing it was time.

"I love you," They whispered to each other.

"Come back to me."

"Always," Xena told him as he kissed her hand before walking out with her. He lifted her onto her horse, it was more a display of love and that he was regaining his strength. Xena bent down before they were about to leave and whispered in his ear.

"Tell the children I love them."

"No, you'll tell them yourself." Xena squeezed his hand. They both knew there was always a chance, but she understood that he would only do that when she did die, but he made no promise to just accept she might die, he would hold tight to his hope. They rode off with a small army of women, men, and amazons. Xena's ladies rode on either side of her and Gabrielle in a V formation. Ephiny, Solari, and a wounded Eponin rode behind them. Behind all of them army marched. In these particular battles Caesar only brought a legion, Xena brought two. Plus the other three covering all the angles from which they could be attacked. Caesar had already put his men in place and a battle raged as they spoke between the legions.

"Xena, we meet again," Caesar spoke as they met in the middle with several guards around them.

"Caesar, still chasing destiny, I see."

"It is my destiny to conquer the world imagine my surprise when the Great General Ving came to me with this information and power beyond my wildest dreams."

"I'm sure."

"And it was even better knowing you couldn't stand in my way for awhile, but here you are now, and your standing in the way of me gaining yet another kingdom to be conquered."

"You won't ruin my second home." He laughed.

"You're no match for me, you can't win."

"The old me couldn't win, before I was driven by my hate for you, but now I fight for my people and my children, so that they can live long healthy lives. We will never stop fighting, until you are driven out of our world." Cheers went up from behind her, letting Caesar know that until they took their last breath they would all be a threat.

"Say what you will Xena, but nothing will stop me from achieving my destiny, not even you."

"You're a fool if you think Ving will let you rule supreme. He'll kill you Caesar and you'll never see it coming."

"Ving takes orders from me, he doesn't give them."

"Whatever you say, now I believe we have a fight to proceed with, one on one, Gabrielle will be my second."

"Lieutenant, you're my second," Caesar told him getting off his horse. Xena got down as well. Daphne took Xena's horse and the back up leaving her and Gabrielle standing in the middle with Caesar and his Lieutenant. Gabrielle took a step back as did the lieutenant as they began to circle each other. Caesar attacked and the sound of their swords filled the air ringing back to both camps. The fight raged for hours with neither of them making any headway. Eventually their swords shattered on impact with each other.

"You broke her sword," Ares stated in disbelief. Hercules also looked on shocked. At Drake's request they went back to watch over Xena having been defending the land elsewhere for awhile. Xena dropped the handle of her sword and swung hitting him in the jaw with a nice left hook that Hercules admired. Cheers went up as the skies darkened threatening a storm as if it were angry that a war still raged beneath it. Xena was finally gaining the upper hand when General Ving appeared.

"Xena I think I have something you want." Xena's heart nearly stopped at the sight of general Ving holding a struggling Eve.

"How did you get into Sultry?" Xena demanded to know after kicking Caesar in the throat and walking away as he caught his breath and fault to his feet. General Ving laughed.

"I have my ways of getting any where undetected. Imagine my surprise finding the crown princess had escaped her guard." He laughed again. "Well she's mine now and you'll have to find us if you ever want to see your precious daughter again." He disappeared just as her soldiers reached his position. Xena screamed with rage and turned running Caesar through, but she didn't kill him.

"Where did that bastard take my daughter?" She pushed him off her sword and he fell to the ground defeated and he knew it.

"I'll never tell you anything, you bitch." He slit his own throat with a dagger. Xena was turning red as she began to smoke until her entire body was on fire before turning to ice and than purple and back to fire again. Her eyes glowed and she looked at the Roman soldiers. She opened her mouth to speak and to everyone's surprise a bright light showed up just as Drake rode onto the scene with her grandmother who had noticed Eve's disappearance. They watch as all the Roman soldiers screamed only to find themselves wearing chains Their eyes glowed purple. They took a knee bowing to her. She didn't say anything as they all turned and marched back to camp.

"Double the guard on Llyr and Melody now!" Her voiced boomed and men and women from Sultry hurried to do her bidding.

"What's going on with her?" Ares asked. He had never seen Xena like this.

"She's done the impossible and tapped into her full powers before being crowned in a ceremony," The Queen told her. "She is a Queen."

"Okay, but is she going to be normal again?" Hercules asked curiously.

"Yes, when she gets her daughter back," She told them. Xena turned to Drake and he nodded as he got off his horse and as he walked to her he began to glow green. His hair was red showing that he was very angry. Soon he looked just as abnormal as Xena.

"Xena what now?" Ephiny asked.

"We march on Greece just like he wants," Xena told her creating a portal. "Its time he found out what he's up against. Power up." Everyone nodded. The Amazons watched, not all of them had powers and the ones who did, didn't know if they could achieve the height of power that the others did.

"If you don't have powers, I don't recommend coming, but protecting the home front. And if you do have powers Lady Agnes will show you how to achieve what we have if only for a little while if you must fight. But that's only if you had your powers for over a month." They nodded. "Let's move." Xena mounted her horse and went through the portal followed by Drake.