Xena had shared some of the blood with a few of her best soldiers and Ares had been able to tell the soldiers precisely the paths to take to successfully climb up Mount Olympus.

While the soldiers started their ascent, Ares brought Xena, Cyrene, and Solan into the throne room. Cyrene and Solan were placed behind the throne. They were gagged and their hands and feet were bound. All they were able to do was watch the scene unfold from a relatively safe position.

The queen of the gods was the only one that was there at the moment.

"What's this?" Hera asked coolly as she rose from the throne.

"We just came for a little visit," Xena said. "Your grandchild will be born any day now. You wouldn't want to miss that."

She looked at Xena in disgust. "I don't consider children born of dalliances with mortals to be of any relation to me." She looked over at Ares. "Have you seen your father?"

"I don't think you'll be seeing him anytime soon, at least not in this world," Xena said, answering for him.

"I don't know how, but you killed my husband," Hera gasped accusingly at Xena.

"No, that honor belongs to your son," she said as she sliced through an unsuspecting Hera. Hera screamed in rage and pain before the life passed from her.

The scream would alert the other gods. Ares suddenly felt a wave of cold panic sweep over him. This wasn't playing out quite like he had imagined. He hadn't been thrilled with killing his father but if he hadn't, something could have happened to Xena and their child. This murder was simply cold-blooded and more bodies were about to litter the floor.

"Let's retreat," he said. "We'll think of another way to gain control of Mount Olympus. We're bound to throw things off balance if we start killing off all the gods."

He was standing so close to her and still staring at his dead mother that he didn't see Xena's next move. She cut him across the ribs with her sword. He fell to the floor, feeling pain for the first time in his life. It was agonizing. He didn't know how mortals lived with it. A veteran soldier may have been able to get up and keep fighting despite the bleeding wound, but he was no veteran with pain. He looked at his own hand that had been pressed against the cut, not quite believing that the familiar red substance known as blood came from his own body. She hadn't meant to kill him. If she had, she would have struck in a more vital place or finished him off while he was down, but she had meant to incapacitate him during the battle and she had succeeded. A group of gods entered the throne room.

He watched helplessly as she sliced through Strife and killed him. She was taking care of the easy ones first, the ones who hadn't had much battle experience. The boy was a halfwit, but he had always tried. He had a fondness for his nephew. He had a fondness for Aphrodite. He was glad that she was nowhere to be seen. Forget fondness. He felt love for them. Once he had come to the realization that he loved Xena, it was like something in him was starting to break and his love could be extended to the family that loved him like a spreading disease. He wished that he had come to this realization before the battle had started. He could have stopped her. He was as much at fault as Xena for all the deaths that were about to take place if not more so.

She was gloriously beautiful. He couldn't deny that. Her dark hair was flying, there was a look of fury on her face, and her sword movements were swift and graceful even though she was heavy with child. It was taking her longer now, but still the gods were falling: Hades, Hephaestus, Discord, Deimos.

Artemis had been in the corner shooting arrows all this time and Xena had caught them all, although a couple of them had been a close call. Artemis had talent with a bow and arrow, but she was no match for Xena and her sword. Xena advanced and Artemis didn't last very long.

For the first time in his existence, the sight of war was making him nauseous. War had always been about faceless mortals fighting each other to advance a cause and the cause didn't matter to him as long as there were people fighting. He didn't care if innocent people were slaughtered on the way. Now he saw the faces of the people who were being slaughtered, family members, and he didn't enjoy it the way he usually did.

He would always be the god of war. That much he knew, but he would never again take it lightly or think of it only as a game. War was real, war was horrific, and war should be fought for a better reason than he and Xena wanting to rule the world. He was wrong. Their attitudes had been wrong and that alone was a new concept to him. He couldn't ever remember admitting that he was wrong about anything.

Athena was the last of the godly opponents in the throne room and the last to arrive, but he had a feeling that Xena didn't have her army anymore, not that she would care. The other gods lay dead on the floor or had long ago left Olympus to hide.

"I see you have hind's blood like some of your soldiers did, how clever, and even cleverer to provide that distraction with your army. That way you wouldn't have to battle all the gods at once. I let them climb up most of the way. Then they were too exhausted to be of any use with their deadly weapons, but you didn't mean for them to kill I suppose. I'm afraid your luck has run out though."

"And I'm afraid there's no such thing as luck anymore," Xena taunted back. "The god of luck is dead."

"That's too bad because you'll need it," she said, bringing her sword crashing into Xena's.

This fight went longer than the others. Xena had met her match in Athena. Athena managed to cut Xena's arm, a rare occasion for Xena these days. The cut only seemed to fuel Xena's passion and she fought even harder. Athena didn't have a chance. At last, Xena stabbed her through her abdomen.

"You could have killed her from where you are with a simple blast. You had plenty of opportunities," Athena said to Ares viciously as blood trickled down the corner of her mouth.

"I'm sorry, but I have a thing for her and she's carrying my child," he answered and he really was sorry.

He watched as his sister crawled slowly across the floor leaving a trail of blood as if she was desperately trying to get somewhere. Xena could have put Athena out of her misery instead of watching the struggle, but she seemed to be enjoying the display. Athena barely made it into the other room, only her feet were still showing, and then her feet turned over, signaling her death.

They had won Mount Olympus and Ares knew what the term hollow victory meant.