Chapter 12

Xena, Gabrielle and Hope were doing their best to fight off the couple of monsters.

They had just reached the last house that was being attacked by two of the creatures and what they found was a bloodbath. Everybody who had lived there had been slaughtered. All they saw were the torn apart bodies and the blood, splattered on the walls, and additionally, the two beasts- their heads were still bowed over some of the scattered remains of their victims and...eating.

Xena instantly attacked them with her typical loud battle cry. She threw her Chakram that was however deflected by the scale-armor of one of the creatures. As the same being was spitting it´s acid at her a few moments later, she managed to dodge, but the hit came far closer than she would have liked.

Behind her, a part of the house was being destroyed by the vicious substance.

Next to her, Hope threw the other beast with a telekinetic push against the next wall.

"Let us get out of here," Xena told the others, "we need more room to fight them."

At her words, their group started to retreat.

xxx

Meanwhile, in the other streets of the town, Ares and Iolaus, together with a few local men, were hunting for the last of the three creatures. The monster was cunningly trying to avoid them in the dark. Despite that, the War God could sense his presence and the fact that it was pitch black was also no problem for him.

He quickly realized that the beast was closing up to Xena´s position. They would have to hurry up.

xxx

The two creatures had followed them outside, just as they had hoped. Xena, Gabrielle and Hope were now trying to surround their opponents and attack them from two sides at once. The beasts were incredible resistant. With regular weapons like swords, it was very hard to do even slight damage to their rock hard scale-armor, though. To that came that they had to a great part of demonic heritage and their physical strength was literally super-natural.

Ares had truly not exaggerated, they were living weapons.

Their greatest asset so far was Hope´s telekinesis. It had helped to keep them at distance, but even her power had gradually failed to cause any real damage. The globes of fire that she had thrown at their enemies had so far only left some superficial scorch marks.

Moments later, they heard a noise, a growl coming from the street behind them. They realized that the third creature had appeared. Now they were the ones who were being surrounded.

And then, right in the nick of time, Ares and Iolaus arrived. The two had been tracking the last creature down, just like they had agreed upon before the fight had started. Their chances were now looking much better.

One of the beasts jumped forward and attacked them instantly. Xena and Gabrielle were able to avoid its claws, but the man next to her was cut down. His face, his chest and his shoulder were torn apart. Both, the Warrior Princess and the Bard, could now see the mutilated body, while still laying most of their concentration on the dangerous enemies around them. They knew, if they had only been a bit slower, this could have easily been them.

Ares threw a ball of energy at the creature closest to him. It left a visible burn mark on its scaled form, but that was about everything. He let out an angry hiss. If only he had his old powers now, this fight would be already over. At the same time, Iolaus parried an attack of the enemy with his sword.

Another one of the villagers with them was hit. One of the beasts suddenly leaped forward and caught him with its jaws and bit deep into the body of the struggling and screaming man. A few moments later, his voice died down and his body went limp as the creature crushed his bones.

Then however the being was struck. Ares was not the only one with powers and not the only one who was thinking about their limits. Hope for her part had enough. She decided to go all out. Her usual attacks had not brought much, so she chose to try something new. She knew her powers had still more potential that she had never explored before. It had especially been during her time with Caine and the other immortal warriors of her father, that she started to train her abilities to new limits and to use them in new creative ways.

That was exactly what she was doing now. Instead of using her telekinesis in the usual way, to just move objects, she did something else. She concentrated her power on a single, relativ small point, on the scale-armor of the creature next to her, the same that had just killed the villager.

The beast let out a terrible howl of pain and rage as the first of the scales of its metal-hard outer skin were beginning to break under her concentrated strength and its dark colored blood started to flow. As her powers had broken a large part of its protective armor on the left side of the being was destroyed so it caused a large injury; she finally stopped her assault. Instead, Hope used her telekinesis to push the creature to the ground and immobilize it for a few moments.

"Xena, now! " she shouted at the warrior.

The Warrior Princess reacted instantly. She ran forward and thrust her sword right through the shattered part of the scale-armor into the creature's chest. With another terrible growl, the monster finally died.

Through her mental connection with her servants, Adrianna saw everything that had happened and it angered her to no end that she had lost yet another valuable soldier. She had reached nearly everything that she wanted here, so she decided let them retreat.

But then, she was met with another surprise. Two more figures came out of the dark. Through the eyes of her minions, she recognized them. One was the female demon they had formed an alliance with and the other was...Hercules...that was impossible. The half-god had not returned with the others, she knew this.

At this point, while the creatures were distracted by the two newcomers, Ares used the chance for another attack. He had seen what Hope had done and it gave him an idea. The God focused, he gathered his remaining strength. Instead of normal attacks, he concentrated all his power into one single wave of energy that he send against his opponent.

This creature too screamed in helpless rage. Its entire body was embraced by blinding light as Ares attacked it. A few seconds later, it was over. The War-God was at the limit of his strength.

When the assault stopped, the monster was still standing there, but its armored skin seemed to be badly damaged and to some parts even molten by the energy. Ares bowed down, holding his own knees to support himself. He was shaking a bit and it was obvious just how tired he was.

"This is your chance, Hercules," he said to his brother.

The half-god made a giant leap to attack, which the beast was trying to avoid, but much like Hope earlier, their ally Sin was using her own telekinesis to hold it back. Hercules rammed a sword directly down into the neck of the creature and nearly severed its head. As its body sank down, the third creature was about to attack the weakened Ares, but the half-god reacted very quickly and tried to stop it.

When Hercules' blade clashed with the claws of the monster, he was able to avert the attack to some degree and probably save the War God´s life. But a second strike of its razor sharp claws hit his side and caused a bleeding wound. The beasts were able to kill gods, they all remembered what he had told them.

Then suddenly, the creature was caught by another telekinetic attack, this time once again from Hope. She too was now looking tired and worn out. As a result, it flew nearly twelve meters through the air and crashed into the walls of one of the houses, before it braced itself up and retreated into the night.

In some distance to them, in another part of the town, Adrianna´s anger now knew no bounds.

"It worked exactly as planned," Xena said to the others.

"Not exactly," Gabrielle commented, looking at the dead men and the wounded Ares.

"It was clear that there could be some losses," Xena replied. "We couldn´t have prevented that. Given the circumstances it went as well as we could hoped for. Your plan was good," she said to the demon Sin.

"Shielding Hercules' presence from her worked well, she was convinced that he had left us, but it did cost me a great part of my strength," she responded.

"There is only one of these monsters left now and it is weakened," Xena told them.

"So are we," Ares remarked.

"She is here," Hope suddenly spoke up, it was clear to all of them who she meant, "very close. She must have come here along with her servants. She is not longer shielding herself now."

"Why would she do that?" Gabrielle asked.

"She is using her mental powers now, to a very high level. She can not do both."

"But why, if she knows that you can find her then?"

"Where is she?" Xena demanded to know. She sounded distracted. It was clear that a suspicion was rising inside her.

"There." Hope pointed in the direction where she felt the presence of the other dark child.

"Eve," Xena said after a few moments, visibly alarmed. "We have to go."

She nodded quickly to Hercules, who replied her gesture.

Xena, Gabrielle and Hope began to run. The wounded Ares followed them in a slower pace. Only Hercules and Iolaus staid behind.

xxxxxx

It didn´t take long for them to reach their destination. What they saw was exactly what Xena had feared and hoped not to find.

A very young dark haired woman was walking casually through the shadowed street, barely lighted by the flicker of a few torches. Next to her, floating in the air, was Eve, struggling slightly against the telekinetic grip. As they came closer, Xena realized that she was looking into her own face.

They saw how a few of the townspeople, who were fleeing in fear from the monsters were running across her, obviously not really fully realizing in their panic who was standing before them. She casually snapped a woman´s neck with not more than a thought. Seeing what happened, a man drew a weapon against her, but he was thrown backwards by another telekinetic push.

"You! " Xena hissed as she recognized the dark child that she had so far only seen in her dreams.

She, Gabrielle and Hope were now standing in front of their real enemy. Next to them, Sin suddenly appeared a few moments later. Ares was only a few meters behind them. They would have their opponent cornered, if it were not for the fact that Eve was in her hand.

"Mother...I.." she tried to speak, while hanging in the air, but she struggled for her words and she found it impossible to continue. It seemed that the invisible grip barely let her breath and so forced her to stay silent for the most part.

"Xena," the `girl´ greeted her, "it is nice to meet you in person, this time. As you see, I have already introduced myself to your daughter."

"Let her go," Xena ordered. Her voice was cold and angry.

"You know Xena, this is all because of you," she replied. "If only you had been a bit more responsive to the encouragements I have send you in your dreams, this would not have been necessary."

"I said let her go," Xena warned her. The girl just smiled in return.

"If you come any closer, I will break her neck, just like the last one," she said.

Behind her, they saw the last remaining of the creatures coming out of the dark.

"I am angry with you, you know," she told them, "very angry. In the future Ares and Hercules ruined everything for me and now it seems that you want to do the same thing again here. You have already killed nearly all my servants! ."

"You are the ones who attacked us in the first place," Gabrielle answered. "Your servants are killing innocent people."

"I can not allow you find the nest," she replied with a grin. "The next generation will be born and then you will be destroyed. These `innocent people´, do you really care about these insects? You should´t worry, their fate is to die anyway and they will when my servants spread over this world. You could have also been a part of it, sister," she said to Hope, "but sadly you have refused."

Hope didn´t respond. She was trying to concentrate her powers, but she was too exhausted from the last fight. This moment she had no chance in a one on one confrontation, so she had to rely on the help of the others for now.

"Your father doesn´t agree with your plans," Sin addressed her instead.

"And that is why he sent you here right? He will see reason later, when he sees the empire that I will build up," she retorted.

The demon Sin formed a globe of fire in her hand, ready to attack.

"Remember, if you move, she dies," Adrianna reminded her.

"Stop," Gabrielle was trying to hold her back, "we can not attack. She will hurt Eve."

"And why should I care?" she asked coldly.

Xena turned around to them, but at the same time kept an eye on their enemy.

"I won´t let you endanger my daughter," she said to their demon ally.

"One life," she stated, " in return of…. how many do you think she will kill if she escapes? You have heard what she is planning."

"I have to admit, she has a point," Adrianna responded with a grin. "I am not Hope, you know. I have no Gabrielle to soften me up and fill my head with useless ideals," she said, looking at both, the Bard and her daughter. "No, I am from your blood," addressing Xena again, "and I was raised alone for the cause, I was born to conquer the stars. Your `friends´ have taken all that from me, so I will take everything else I can take instead and I will destroy everyone and everything that stands in my way. Your daughter will be the first from the long line of coming victims if you continue to cross me."

She raised her hand and Eve started to struggle more in her grip.

For a short moment, Gabrielle seemed to rush toward them, before Xena stopped her.

"Stay back," she told her.

But Sin didn´t listen and stepped forward. She was ready to throw the fireball, while Eve was still struggling for her life.

Xena now turned fully around, pointed her sword at her instead of Adrianna.

"I said nobody will put the life of my daughter at risk."

"The life of your daughter is all what is standing between us and the safety of the world," the demon replied, "and besides, you know as well as I do that Eve is a monster herself. The only reason why she is not raiding villages and killing people right now is that `Eli´s God´ has played with her mind. Maybe it is for the best if she dies as long as she is still innocent, don´t you think?"

"Shut up you bitch," Xena yelled.

"Well, well, it seems like the alliance is starting to show some cracks," Adrianna commented.

"Can't you see? She is playing you against each other," Ares said to them. "We have to stand together in this."

"Oh, these words are rich, especially coming from you, after the way you have helped us in our own time," she remarked.

"Ares, what is she talking about?" Gabrielle asked him sharply.

"I see, has he not told you the truth? Has he not told you that it was he who had started the war in the future? Father only took advantage of the situation he had already created. Hundreds of millions had been killed, entire worlds laid waste to, all in a conflict he had begun in the first place." she laughed.

Ares felt both Xena and Gabrielle glaring at him.

"And that is not everything," she continued. "Has he told you that it was you, Xena, who had originally imprisoned him in a tomb and that for nearly 2000 years? And all that in order to stop him from threatening this world with war. Father´s followers were the ones who freed him, because he knew perfectly well that it was only a question of time until he did something like that and play directly into our hands. And of course like a good little dog, when the time was right, that was exactly what he did."

Xena, Gabrielle and Hope were all completely sure that they had never seen the God of War so embarrassed, uneasy or ashamed like he was that very moment.

"I...I am sorry," that was all that he said.

"You could have told us this earlier," Xena accused him.

"Would it have changed anything? Would this have made things easier?" he asked.

"No, but it would have been a start, a sign of trust," Gabrielle said, "but I guess that was just too much asked for."

"So much for the mutual trust," Adrianna mocked them. "I think I will leave now. We both know that you will never be trying to stop me if it endangers the life of your `precious´ daughter, Xena."

She was laughing while she walked backwards, with Eve still before them, hanging in the air. They could still hear her laughter as she vanished into the night. The last creature followed her in a short distance, protecting its mistress.

Then suddenly, as soon as she was gone, Eve fell to the ground in front of them. She was breathing heavily, but otherwise she seemed to be okay.

"Eve?" Xena asked with obvious worry.

"Mother," she replied grimly.

Xena reached down to her and offered her a hand to help her up, but she just shrugged it aside. She stood up by herself. Her face looked as if it was made out of stone.

"Eve, is everything alright?" Xena asked her, still visible distraught.

After a few moments, her daughter's demeanor changed. She turned around and looked at Xena with her usual calm expression.

"It is okay mother," she answered, "I was just...angry."

xxxxxxx

One day later

The vicious attack from the day before had left deep scars in the town of Potidaea. Over twenty people had been killed by the latest count.

Xena and Ares were now standing side by side, with Gabrielle and Hope a few meters away from them, just like Lila and Sarah. They were all attending the funeral for the losses of this town. Eve had also been invited, but she excused herself. It was clear to them that she was not well.

Next to them, in some distance, the other people of the town were standing. Many of them had lost family and friends.

"You have been keeping a few nasty secrets Ares," Xena pointed out.

"I know," he replied. "You have to understand, I truly thought that telling you would made things worse. I needed your help to stop them and I needed it quickly. Telling you the whole truth would have only made you distrust me."

"I admit you have a point here," she agreed reluctantly. "That doesn´t mean I like it, I don´t like it at all," she made clear. "Ares," she looked at him, "is that all that you have been keeping from us? Is there anything else?"

"You know I can not give just give you too much information about the future, it would be too dangerous. There are things I just can not tell you," he responded.