*** This chapter is dedicated to you, Shay. Thank you so much for your support and kind words****

By the time the Warrior Princess finished her brain racking story, every possible emotion had washed over Gabrielle's previously numbed with shock senses, but despite her most sedulous efforts, she simply failed to understand how in the world could Xena accept her faith with such surprising and inconceivable submission.

She had expected to see at least the pale shade of some carefully hidden- but still very much present- soul splitting sufferance engraved on her face, but no…on the contrary, she appeared to be remarkably relaxed and resigned….Maybe a bit more tense than she usually was while performing her daily "catch the bad guys " routine , but resigned-a word the meaning of which she would have never believed to have the chance to associate it to the Warrior Princess' inflexible character.

"Aren't you going to say something?" Xena finally dared to ask when the Bard's silence became literally unbearable.

A completely disarming shrug was all the reaction she got for the following minute-a whole minute of pure torture that she could have sworn it was bound to last until the end of eternity and back.

"I don't know what to say…." the Bard finally whispered , avoiding her concerned friend's inquisitive gaze…"I mean….what is there to be said? You've got it all figured out….It doesn't matter what I think….It won't change anything…"

"That's not true….Your opinion matters to me…." the Warrior interrupted, covering Gabrielle's hand with her own.

When their eyes met though, the Warrior Princess was definitely not prepared to deal with the message they were so contemptuously conveying, for while her light blue moons were filled with unspoken regret and unconfessed terror, Gabrielle's forest green ones held neither compassion nor comprehension what so ever for the delicate situation her friend was in….They were simply cold…..lifeless, even….

"Why would you even want to keep this child…?" she started, withdrawing her hand from Xena's tender grasp. " …After what happened to Solan and Hope…Did you even consider the possibility that this pregnancy might be….."

"Don't even go there!" Xena warned, frowning at the still unuttered idea. " My child has nothing to do with Hope, so leave Dahok out of this!"

"You don't know that!" the explosion followed without delay. " Have you ever heard of this One God before..? …cause I'm dead sure I haven't, and I 'm a Bard Xena! By Zeus himself I think I've read every possible legend regarding creation! "

"We're just human Gabrielle, we can't know everything!"

"You mean I don't know everything…..It's ok you can say it, I don't mind! It's not like this would be the first time you refuse to give me credit for….anything…"

"What?" the Warrior Princess snapped, but judging by her voice she was rather exhausted than angry.

"Never mind….this isn't about me, anyway…." Gabrielle snorted, she herself tired of having the same conversation over and over again….."But this whole situation Xena…..it doesn't sound right to me…..Why you?...Doesn't it make you wonder….? And Ares offering to be the father of your child, to protect you both from his own siblings…."

"Are you actually blaming Ares for this?!"

"He obviously has something to do with it ! He was the one who told you about the baby in the first place! For crying out loud, maybe you're not even pregnant!"

The room echoed with her scream, but for some odd reason, her interlocutor's reaction was by far situated at the opposite level of intensity. Nevertheless, as to make up for the offensively placid reaction, a smug little smile found it's way on Xena's lips the instant the Bard's theory crumbled into tiny bits and pieces under the effect of the devastating piece of information that was launched like a torpedo straight to her already torn apart heart.

"You might want to contradict Aphrodite on that one!"

Gabrielle blinked repeatedly while her brain was still working on deciphering her friend's message, as if coping with the present reality was the hardest thing she was asked to do.

"Did she confirm his…"

"Yes" the Warrior Princes intervened, her suddenly stiff body posture and those explicitly arched eyebrows acting as the perfectly suggestive echo of her concise but overly powerful statement.

Gabrielle turned around and walked towards the table where she poured herself a glass of wine. She rarely felt the need to drink, but for the love of Gaia, that was one of those moments in which intoxicating her every cell with alcohol seemed like the only way out….

"Do you want one?" she questioned in a low, absent voice, without actually expecting a response, as if she were actually talking to herself. The deliciously aromatic liquid glided down her throat soon after, as if it had been water.

Xena just shook her head lightly, unable to speak….She would have needed more than a glass to forget…..Certainly more than a bottle, too…..

And then, right out of nowhere, while pouring herself a second glass, the horrific suggestion popped out of the Bard's dry, quenchless mouth.

"You could get rid of it, you know….."

"Are you out of your freaking mind?!"

The protest was incredibly vehement if one cared to consider her own previously failed attempt earlier that day….

"It would solve all your problems…Things would go back to normal and you will no longer be part of some demented God's game….."

Xena took in a deep breath….The Bard had no idea just how tempting her words were…

"For the last time….this is not about Ares…"

"Could you bet your life on it? "

The question contained nothing more nothing less than the cruel, bluntly exposed truth.

"Could you, Xena?" Gabrielle pushed, placing the glass back on the table only to fill it again.

The Warrior Princess threw her a puzzled gaze, slightly startled by the sudden calmness in her friend's voice and definitely taken aback by her unnatural urge to get wasted. .

" You might wanna take it easy on that. ...All of Ares' wine comes from Bacchus' personal cellars…...It's pretty hard stuff….Your head will hurt for days…"

The Bard simply rolled her eyes at her and kept talking while intentionally taking another sip.

"Ok…let's assume…let's just assume for one moment that I'm wrong. That he has nothing to do with your pregnancy, that he has no tricks up his sleeve -as he so elegantly put it….What about the rest of the unanswered questions? Who's this One God guy? Is he evil? Is he good? Why would he choose you out of all mortals to carry his child? What does the hidden agenda say? Face it Xena, all you have thus far, is Ares' side of an extremely tangled and hard to believe story!"

"Are you trying to tell me that both him and Dite are lying?! "

" We're talking about Ares here! It's not like this would be a first to him! How many times haven't you told me about his schemes , his manipulation , about all the shows he'd staged just to get you back? Maybe this is just another one of his plots! Gods know I can't find a better explanation for this!"

"How about Dite? Care to explain that?"

"Maybe he lied to her too. Maybe he …got you pregnant without you knowing it….."

"Well that would certainly turn him into the world's most famous magician!" Xena shouted at her, the overly sarcastic comeback only managing to make her doubt her own words.

Gabrielle hesitated only a second before offering a reply.

"You know what I mean…."

"He wouldn't do that to me…."

There was no conviction into those words, Not any more.

"Not even if the stakes are high enough…..?"

And then there was silence….

XXX

Up on Olympus, the King of the Gods was pensively following some live quality action mirrored into the crystal image of a widely opened portal, an expression of unfathomable pride and utter satisfaction beaming on his eternally perfect visage.

" Keeping an eye on your Favorite Son?" the War God hissed with spite while a disgusted grimace rushed to fill in the rest of his unspoken thoughts on the subject.

" A parent's gotta do what a parent's gotta do….And Hercules can take care of himself. He doesn't need my protection. I was just observing..." the strikingly cordial reply came to grate even more on the Olympian's nerves along with that trademark, defying gaze that he hated so much. .

"Yeah. Still... given the fact that you're all about parenthood and ultimate fairness…"

"Why are you here Ares?" the King demanded to know, closing the portal.

"I'm not sure yet….But I do know that you'll clear that up for me soon enough….."

Zeus parted his lips to talk, but the line that he had in mind wasn't precisely amongst the ones that his Olympian Son might have wanted to hear.

That's probably the reason why, before he even got the chance to voice it, Ares' now detached tonality was already covering his.

" Does the name " Messenger of Peace " ring a bell for you?"