~ Chapter Thirty Seven ~

The Bitter End

"Oh Xena... you never change." Callisto stated laughing, easily deflecting one of Xena's next energy balls, a curious expression embedded on her face, still intrigued by the fact that a worthless mortal was actually able to master such a type of rarely seen and experienced power.

"So predictable, always treating little Gabrielle as if she were still a child, as if her soul wasn't as black and filthy as ours. She has changed you know, it's as plain as me killing you the moment your body starts to get tired, inevitably consumed by those huge amounts of indispensable energy you've recklessly started to spread all over the place; can't pretend forever that she hasn't and that she's as pure and virtuous as the day you first met her." The Goddess added, indisputably invigorated by the shadow of guilt and sorrow mirrored faintly inside her enemy's turquoise irides.

"Awe! I'm sorry!" She kept teasing, happy her words were successfully stinging the Warrior Princess' heart. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings Xena, you know, it's not like you've ever hurt mine!"

"Have I ever told you how much I admire your technique, doll?" Ares couldn't help whispering enchantingly inside her ear.

"Yes, but I do enjoy hearing it. It makes me feel all fuzzy inside." The Psycho retorted glancing the War God hungrily, her lips twisted into a sneaky, unscrupulous smile meant to imply something sufficiently dirty as to make Ares himself shiver at the thought of putting it into practice.

"Yeah!" He simply exclaimed, ecstatically envisioning the scene.

For but a few seconds the Warrior Princess contemplated the sight of the two weasels standing before her, their unveiled display sending a surge of nausea straight to her stomach while realisation hit faster than one of Zeus' lightning bolts; her life with the Bard unfolding various scenarios in which a great deal of compassion and forgiveness were clearly involved, proving to be more than just the dark shadows Callisto had colourfully described, each picture exhibiting time again the resilient person Gabrielle had come to be.

"You're right. Gabrielle has changed..." She bluntly concurred, confirming the truth of passage with half a smirk,"into something we're not, and that bugs you doesn't it?"

"Alright Xena, since my experience with you tells me that you're not exactly the type of person known for coping properly with reality, I won't push this any further, you'll just deny it and refuse to take responsibility for every single heinous crime from your miserable past anyway, so, just keep telling yourself that and maybe you'll get to believe it one day. Though we both know the truth don't we?" Callisto retorted in an extremely suspicious manner, on the lowest tone she was capable of, dangerously cajoling one might add while gradually taking a few steps in the Warrior's Princess direction, almost dragging her feet as to increase the suspense of her next move, her eyes never leaving the ones of her adversary, visibly pondering various strategies of attack in that sick, devilish mind of hers.

Further behind her, almost biting his nails in expectation, Ares' heart suddenly started drumming loudly underneath his leather vest, his own worked up brain making dozens of plans to get himself and his Chosen out of the damned ruins if by any chance Xena got ahold of the wrong end of the stick, without blowing his cover.

They still needed time for Aphrodite to get the irritating Bard to safety and for him to talk to Xena and explain everything, so that they could start engineering a flawless enough conspiracy in order to bring the Dark God and his Bitch servant down.

Whatever the blonde Loony thought or guessed, it was all but pure speculation. She had no real proof to accuse him of having already betrayed her and Dahak and very much to their luck and pleasant surprise, the bloody God's interference had been minimal thus far.

Whatever the reason for him to keep at bay from all the action when his main interests were on the verge of becoming history, was way beyond Ares, but he was nonetheless smart enough to know that too much silence meant that bad times were waiting for them straight ahead.

Dahak was up to something, he could smell it, and Xena could too, he was sure of it; something was terribly wrong with this picture. Callisto was playing it way too safe for her rambling, chaotic style. It was like she was waiting for something to happen. For some kind of signal. It was a trap!

"How does it feel Xena? How does it feel to know you're the prey and there's no way out of this crumbling ruin? Not alive anyway. You could run of course, but your pride gets in the way. Besides, it wouldn't do any good since you do have to kill me don't you? Are you scared Xena? I sincerely hope you made your farewell to Gabrielle 'cause you won't be seeing her for awhile. By the way, since I do regret causing her such pain when I killed her husband I'll make sure she gets another in return! I know Dahak's looking for a wife and since you won't be around to make him happy, I guess Gabrielle should do. They are family after all. I bet they'd be perfect together with five destroyers running around. She'll thank me later." Callisto ranted, her voice echoing throughout the room like broken music and starting with the first word that slithered out of her mouth, everything sounded so sick and demented that Ares himself got the shivers listening to her psychotic soliloquy.

The sheer joy in which she explicitly emphasised each key word from every single hatefully spat phrase, made him feel almost glad that all that nefarious darkness and fury that she had been gathering and holding tight inside her bedraggled soul across the ages wasn't directed towards his unscrupulous person.

He'd known the woman for some time now and yes, they had shared some pretty wild experiences together, but he could still fairly say that despite the glint of familiarity that inevitably connected them on account of their destructive, malicious nature, he just couldn't stop marvelling at the fact that contrary to her sometimes funny and pleasant in a twisted sense of the word side, when it came to Xena she genuinely resembled the essence of evil incarnate.

It had always amazed him to see that when only hearing her enemy's name, it was like no gleam of humanity was left in that empty carcass that she was indifferently wearing. It was like nothing else mattered during those moments, but one thing alone; Revenge.

She would have made the perfect Goddess of War. A little too impulsive and unbalanced maybe, but she definitely had what it took for a job well done. Cruelty, decisiveness and a sharp, screwed mind to go with them.

Even that very second, while walking apparently detached and brassed off, arms falling dead beat across her body, gazing thoughtfully at a stiff and scornful Warrior Princess staring at her, fire in her eyes, waiting for all Tartarus to break loose, Callisto had everything planned to the finest detail, leaving no possibility uncovered.

She couldn't wait to wipe that jubilant cocksure smirk from Xena's face, who could instinctively tell that the Psycho was seconds from doing her worst, completely aware of her pointless game, her clenched jaw and unusual calmness giving away the upcoming flash style offensive that she had been mentally perfecting, craftily attempting to distract her attention in the meantime, maybe even irritating her hard enough with her comments to somehow drive her into acting foolish enough as to give her a fatal opening to take advantage of.

Since that was far form happening though, Xena's obnoxious smug letting her know that she was wasting her time, the impatient Goddess decided to simply drop any strategic thought she had been stumbling upon inside that busy mind of hers and just neutralise her opponent with what she liked to call the 'Ash Wave,' an energetic influx, so powerful that it could annihilate an entire city from the face of the Earth, with a speed that rivalled Zeus' most dreadful weapon.

"Nighty night Xena. I wish I could say it was nice meeting you, but I can't."

"Yeah!" Yelled a supportive War God located but inches away from her, rushing closer so that he could give his Chosen a helping hand if he felt she needed it. "Let's get mad!"

And there it was... the most spectacular supernatural confrontation of all centuries and millennia he had ever witnessed during all his immortal existence.

It was hard to say from where the Warrior Princess still had the inner resources to beat back the crazed Blonde's attack, but she did succeed in doing it perfectly, her one of a kind cerulean moons radically transforming their nuance into what appeared to be an almost translucent shade of beryl, resembling nothing but the vivid colour that had mesmerised the Lord of Battles years ago on that bloody field, stealing his heart and will bit by bit ever since; her increased irides projecting now an almost frightening, hypnotising light ready to melt everything in its path, starting with air molecules and ending with the rest of the carved marble objects from the room.

Her elastic body had just turned under his own astonished look into the unprecedented source of a tremendous river of energy that had just clashed with Callisto's own deadly stream, creating such staggering visual effects that Ares almost wanted to laugh at the previous idea bugging him instants ago about his own Chosen needing his help.

"Who's my girl? Who's my girl? You are! You are!" He shouted again, relieved that he didn't have to collect his Princess' ashes from the ground any time soon, and luckily for him, the Psycho was way too busy channelling the hard to control energetic influx leaving her form to pay any attention to his stupid comments, or it would have been Xena looking at his pile of ashes instead.

"You may have immortality Callisto, but you will never know oblivion." Though she'd never been one to back down in the middle of combat, the spectacular show of fireworks they were currently witnessing illuminating the temple like only a torch to the darkness could, the sharp effects of the Goddess' energy bursts were gradually beginning to take their toll, sapping little by little Xena's aching body, forcing her to discreetly play defensive.

"I didn't come here to kill you either, I came to save you!" The words left in all sincerity, loud enough for the God of War to catch, a subtle hint letting him know the real reasoning behind her actions.

"To save me?" Callisto's life threatening look suddenly stopped on the Warrior Princess' serious visage, too stricken by her opponent's unpredictable statement to even process it's meaning for a few seconds.

"I didn't realise I needed to be saved Xena." She started, the demons of pride and disbelief already starting to find their way to her hurt, haunted soul.

"So what does the glorious Warrior Princess want to save me from? Evil? Dahak? A life of torture and misery? Myself maybe? Oooooh Xena, so generous, so compassionate, so... smart! I can't help but admire your strong will and sharp mind, you know! But do you honestly believe that playing a card like that could somehow soften my rocky heart and bring tears of joy and peace to my eyes? Do you really think me that naive as to consider for one, just one second the fact that I could simply forgive and move on, maybe even give you a warm hug and a pat on the back after having butchered my family and my spirit along with it, just because your dirty conscience still keeps you awake at night, after all this time? Nice try Xena, but I don't want to be saved. I kinda' like it this way, hatred fuelling my every immortal cell, poisoning even the last drop of blood rushing throughout my veins. It makes me stronger, it magically erases all weaknesses. So, hate to break it to you girlfriend but, I'm not interested!" The Psycho ended her long speech inhaling deeply, levelling the ragged breaths that still overpowered her lungs after the last minutes of confrontation.

"Hey!" Ares chipped in abruptly, apparently mocking his Chosen's noble intentions.

"That's not fair! I need to be saved too! My greatest wish these days is to finally feel for once all lovey-dovey inside and no one seems to care about my burning desires or peace of mind! I am a sensitive guy after all. Callisto, it's your call, but I must tell ya' if I were you, I would jump at the chance of leaving my soul's welfare in Eli's main protector's blessed hands. You might just... discover the Light!" He uttered bursting into laughter, almost chocking on those last words, casually contemplating Xena's extremely irritated face and the Goddess' overly disgusted figure.

"Who knows?" He kept on rambling while jerkily wiping the tears flowing down his cheeks like rivers after a long, massive rain.

"Maybe I'll even get to see you fighting for the Greater Good, saving smelly villagers and blasting some bad guy's asses here and there, roaming up and down the countryside with your new best friends; the blabbering Bard, the legendary Warrior Princess and... the horse. I bet the Wannabe Warrior would fall for you sooner or later. He has this never-ending obsession with skinny blondes, and well... you kinda' meet his high standards. Plus, you'll get to fight Gabrielle for his attention! Is that a treat or what?"

Although highly tensed and absolutely pissed about the whole damned situation, the temptation to direct an equally assertive message towards her God's cocky persona was too hard to resist, since after all, he had always been one to enjoy a challenge, and the opening line for any response to cut down his towering ego was the perfect excuse.

"I dunno' Ares, love and pink aren't really your strong suit, but I'm sure Aphrodite could find you a pretty dress to go with that outfit if saving your sensitive side meant you'd swap war just to discover the light?"

Xena was now holding his gaze with that of the moon and stars, silently acknowledging the clever diversion he'd pulled to prevent Callisto's main attention from frying anyone to a crisp.

"Yeah, I bet 'that' would certainly help me score some extra points with you; being impossibly cute and all, with my behind showing from a transparent fuschia baby doll dress and some incandescent ring of pure light hanging loose around my head, shining like the sun in the small hours of the morning to complete the picture. I could even add a pair of wings into the mix, just for you baby, it'd make an irresistible package I should point out. But then again, if the inevitable were to somehow happen, Callisto here, would be smashing her head against the walls in jealousy, right sugar?" The God added casting a bemused glance straight at the blonde's exasperated figure.

"And you know how much I hate hurting a woman's delicate feelings, being myself so emotional and highly impressive." Ares retorted with a sneer, somehow displeased with his Chosen's vitriolic comment, neurotically realising that while he was doing his best to help her, distracting the Psycho's attention for a few moments and consequently allowing his exhausted Princess to catch her breath before that crazed maniac was all over her again, this time determined to cremate her body before actually giving her the chance to a fair, human type of fight, in which Xena could have had a final hand at the very end of it, his dark beauty was making a fool out of him, deliberately casting him in a bad light in front of his so called girlfriend, humiliating him in her own originally perfected, caustic style.

"Unless you want to keep feeding me some other heartbreaking stories about the salvation of the soul, that is, you kinda' left me wondering, just how are you planning to rescue me Xena? Tell me." The Goddess asked hesitantly, obviously a little stirred by her enemy's unbelievably Sci-Fi idea but still maintaining the most ironic tone she was capable of.

"You're a Goddess Callisto, wouldn't want to bore you to death now would I?" Returned Xena's playfully calm response, her deriding tonality nonetheless always conveying with it that mysteriously seductive and entrancingly dreamy sonance.

She didn't miss serving Ares a proper response either, emphasising the last section of that sentence.

"Trust me Ares. As far as irresistibility comes, if a halo of pure light were hanging any lower around your head, I'd be the first one choking you with it."

As soon as lines ended, she instantly recognised the irony in which Callisto found imagining that violent scenario, every menacing intention slightly captured in time, picturing herself strangling the irritating existence out of the War God, before suddenly snapping back into reality, all hellbent on the echos finally entering her twisted brain.

This time the War God didn't say anything, he just displayed a disapproving smirk, his day-to day cockiness never leaving his face despite the fact that he had just been wickedly targeted and trashed by the two not very fun to deal with ladies, discreetly letting Xena know that it was high time for her to change the tune and bring in that soppy bedtime story she was eager to bewitch Callisto with, and that seemed to be the right key to prevent the situation from getting out of hand again, calling a false truce that was meant to give her enough life span as to save the day and make everybody happy.

In the meantime, curiously enough, his mind also suddenly drifted to the irritating Blonde that his sister had unexpectedly popped out of the temple several minutes ago, and he couldn't restrain from wondering what she was doing right then.

"Probably driving Dite crazy. Crossing people's brows, it's her favourite sport after all." He thought chuckling softly, imagining a frantic, monstrously irking Bard screaming like crazy a thousand words per second at the Love Goddess babysitting her, or falling apart, completely heartbroken and more desperate than a brain washed Hestian Virgin that had just betrayed her sacred vow and her patron Goddess by letting some awful looking soldier do her behind some bushes.

"I bet she's probably sitting on a rock by now though, crying her eyes out while helplessly looking daggers at my poor air-headed sister, trying her best to soften her heart and convince her to bring her back here, telling her in one thousand different ways that Xena needs her and that she couldn't live with herself if something happened to her friend. Absolutely touching!" And that wasn't very far from the truth of course. When it was about the art of reading people's minds, Ares was the ultimate master.

He instantly snapped out of it though when a huge, flash energy ball almost struck Xena down at an impressive speedrate and definitely with impressive effect, taking both the War God and his Chosen by surprise, Xena barely managing to dodge it during the very last moment, her mind maybe a little bit too cut up into the theatrical play she was craftily staging along with her silent accomplice who's heart had just stopped for a few seconds as his eyes were intensively following the directional path of Callisto's deadly weapon.

"What's wrong Xena? Can't handle a little improvisation? You might be getting too old for this, you know. You're starting to slip and that was as rare as the blabbering Bard shutting up for a whole day, back when we used to see each other more often." The Goddess stung, surprised in fact that her enemy had succeed to miraculously averted that quick blast, aware that the speed with which the Warrior Princess had reacted and relying on her instincts alone was actually quite mind blowing.

"Well, can't exactly say I've traded up on the mortality chain lately, but what can you do? Somehow being a whack jobbed Goddess didn't look quite as appealing as the brochure said it would be... can't imagine why?" Xena's struggling comments broke out of the box, escorted by an illustriously smug simper.

A savage howl of rage and frustration along with a suggestive scowl answered the Warrior Princess' question though, while also offering a clear enough hint about the fact that the Psycho didn't quite appreciate her adversary's way of portraying her uniquely manifested character, in her own opinion, her tameless nature having as indisputable and only cause Xena's past cruel actions, mercilessly directed against her and her long gone family.

Consequently, words being now a burden no longer necessary, the maddened Goddess left aside any smart line that momentarily forced her blocked by rage mind to think and to come up with some nasty reply that she could have surely and effectively thrust straight into Xena's pride, her venomous tongue being as equally sharp as the one of War's Chosen, deciding nonetheless in the end, that it was much more comfortable to simply restart her overpowering offensive against the one person that she wanted to extract and exterminate her gene even from human memory if she could.

And this time, to what Xena obviously considered as being the most unpleasant and unwished surprise she had stumbled upon for some while now, the destructive Goddess' powers were no longer as mild and fun to beat off as during her previous attack since after the first ten seconds, the Warrior Princess was seriously considering her second options, and she usually hated second options, they were never as well planned as the initial one and they always used to imply the unwanted presence of some strings.

But steps away, noticing the barely concealed panic creeping gradually inside her eyes, Ares couldn't help suppressing a cocky smile. He knew that expression on her face far too well. She was backed into a corner and in desperate need for his help, but she was too damn proud to ask so she was struggling with herself terribly invoking all kinds of reasons, more or less ridiculous, not to.

Instantly, he felt the urge of teasing her but he was smarter than that. It was hardly the right moment to do it, so instead he just let it go, figuring that he would have all the time in the world to remind her later on, and focused his attention on channelling his energy inside her visibly exhausted body, just like Dahak was apparently channelling his own dark influxes into the Goddess' seemingly invincible form.

"No strings Princess," he whispered seductively inside her mind, "but you can thank me later, though." He added humorously, obnoxiously raising one eyebrow while directing some pretty wanton glances towards that hot looking body of hers.

He stopped nonetheless the moment he saw that distinct trademark frown that she had become famous for, imprinted above her splendid set of blues that had curiously made him lose any trace of control starting with the minute he saw them til present day.

And but one wink later, just as he had expected it, right beneath that steely gaze that his love was mercilessly displaying, he could already see the faint shade of a smile sagaciously blooming, one that he knew stood for gratitude, relief, complicity and love all together. He simply adored that fatal combination that he had only found in her across the eons.

Satisfied with her reaction, he didn't say anything else. He just smiled back, a discreet smile that his Princess alone could read and decode. He loved her tremendously and he would have died before allowing anything to happen to her, especially in his presence. She was his world and she knew it.

Their one on one connection was suddenly broken off though when, totally unexpectedly, the Goddess' already smashing powers increased beyond human or Godly understanding, sending all over Ares' body the weirdest sensation he had ever experienced, as if life itself was being sucked out of him.

"Xe... something's happening."

"Bro'?" Aphrodite's voice invaded in a flash his dazzled mind.

"Dite?... sis' you got to..."

"Ar what's going on? I can't hear you! Are you okay? Ares?"

And, the following dreamlike image the War God saw, well the next thing both he and Xena saw actually, before being totally overwhelmed by the dizzy sensation that an incredibly intense, blinding light was causing their weakened bodies to feel, were each other's pleading eyes, blue ones fervidly staring at a brown mirror where a truth that she had always tried to deny was glistening like diamond drops on it's surface.

Watching the brightness slowly fading from his life long Love's eyes in some weird, senseless slow motion type of manner, the mighty War God's mind was instantly taken over by a panic attack that unavoidably planted right in front of his usually nonexistent or too frozen to ever react consciousness, a horrific, unacceptable possibility that made his skin crawl and the hair on the back of his nape curl instantaneously, his entire being paralysed by one dreadful thought that had never crossed his twisted genius before, his hidden agenda having almost always been too focused on the, 'got to get my Princess back' idea, too much wrapped into the brainstorming process of how to scheme that possibility to life to ever think that some external event would physically push her out of his reach for good.

And now, the unthinkable was suddenly happening, she was drifting away from him all over again, but this time it felt strangely different somehow... that rare look that he hadn't seen in her eyes but on very scattered occasions, a unique gaze that could infallibly make him wanna' stop the hands of time and just stand there motionless, watching that clearly displayed expression of adoration and deep longing washing her blue irides, he wasn't expecting this, any of it.

"So beautiful, my Princess." He whispered lowly to himself, a warm smile playfully stretching towards the corners of his lips, wiping away the peerless bitterness that was already threatening to overwhelm what was still left of his soul during those infinite milliseconds, an obviously relieved figure softening his features as if having confessed a long kept secret that had been grinding down his heart for years. "So stunningly beautiful."