By the time the bewildered Love Goddess managed to puff the stubbornly struggling Gabrielle to one of her pinkish temples, Ares had already materialized with his still sobbing Warrior Princess just steps away from a large, comfortable sofa , inside a place that by all appearances looked to be at least a few centuries old….A very uncommon hideout, one might add, the interior of which held nothing of his particularly gloomy but eccentric style….

If on the outside the structure would have given right about anyone the impression of some kind of medieval, unbreakable fortress, it's sky pointed, massive stone walls offering no actual possibility of breaking in - a reality strongly underlined by the absence of any visible gates that might have allowed such foolish idea to even cross someone's mind – on the inside, any mortal would have marveled at the unmatchable richness ostentatiously displayed in even the last corner of the structure.

Way too overwhelmed with grief as she was, the War God's raven Princess failed miserably to notice -at least right away- the lively painted frescos, the intricate silver patterns and golden flowers embellishing those immense granite rocks forming the walls, as well as the soft, vibrant blue Persian carpets decorating the room, or the silken pillows scattered about everywhere in some sort of Oriental fashion meant to charm the eye and relax the troubled spirit of any living and breathing soul.

Despite the fact that it was mid day, and despite that quite a surprisingly generous quantity of sunlight had managed to penetrate through the thick foliage of the trees shadowing the enormous window literally sculpted into the fortress wall, a couple of yellowish candles were proudly exposing their enchanting, dancing flames from the hands of seven cooper statues, brazenly envisaging half naked or nude maidens, all of them symbolically standing for the seven virtues of War.

A long, guilty stare directed towards one of them, and the God unconsciously let out a beastly groan….What in Tartarus was he thinking when he left the interior design in Aphrodite's "innocent" hands? . A deep sigh rushed to complete the picture …One particular statue, skillfully placed in the right corner of the room- where there was always a lot of light- owned a pair of unbelievably beautiful breasts…-and the girl's face looked strikingly similar to Xena's…-a curled hair Xena, but Xena nonetheless….

He shifted his gaze angrily, silently cursing his Sister's name for the nerve racking balls she had to make fun of him- It didn't take him too long to realize the obvious: she must have played changing the statue's original features during the last time they had met there for an orgiastic fuck they had been planning for weeks…Considering that he was just burning to satiate his maddening sexual appetite at the time, as expected, the sculpture's supernatural transformation was the last thing able to catch his eye …As a matter of fact, the distracted God had been way too busy enjoying himself as to waist any precious time with looking elsewhere than in between his horny Sister's legs..

….It was the very beginning of his relationship with the Warrior Princess and Dite was as jealous as a rabid Bacahe of all the attention the newcomer had started to receive from her own, personal Studdmuffin…...A distant past, yes, but it sure looked like it's menacing shadow was still lingering there...

With a firm shake of his head, the pondering God chased that whirl of uncalled for memories away…A subtle sign of his hand and the statue seemed to magically come to life for an instant or two, carefully covering the royal lineament of her symmetrical visage with her forearm, as if she were sheltering her eyes from the disturbing effects of an implacable dust storm.

Despite the hard to repress urge to leave that totally inappropriate location and head towards the more welcoming Halls of War instead- where he knew there was no need to constantly stare over his shoulder for any unexpected surprises that might emotionally hurt his overly vulnerable Princess- he hesitantly decided at the last minute that it was better to avoid the damn place after all...It just hid behind it's cold, dark walls way too many unpleasant memories for her to deal with that very then….

Two more steps, and, with infinite care- as if she were a fragile, injured child- he placed her down on the edge of the sofa, still unable to annihilate –not even partially- the new dose of utter terror infiltrating into his bones at the sight of her covered in tears cheeks…

The handsome Olympian suddenly found himself back to square one again: he had no clue about what to do, how to react and definitely what in the world to say to the agonizing woman standing just inches away from him so that he could somehow dissolve that gigantic shade of pain from embowering her soul any more…With Xena things were never easy...but this time...this time the situation smelled horribly hopeless...The mere idea could make his skin crawl...

He gulped noisily as the back of his hand reached in a reluctant gesture towards her face to wipe it's watery surface…

Biting his lips nervously was all he could do once she subtly turned her head away though, closing her eyes at the contact, explicitly rejecting his comforting caress….

"I wish there was something I could say, something I could do….Xe…." he murmured beneath his breath, and the moment the words rolled off his tongue he could swear he genuinely felt that endless precipice splitting his soul in half, widening even more…

"You've done more than enough, thanks…." she snorted contemptuously, looking him dead in the eye, the harshness of her gaze drilling him with such an impressive quantity of hate gathered behind their whirling beryl surface that for a minute there, he was flabbergasted.

"What have you done to me?" her shaky, highly afflicted voice soon released even the last ounce of it's wrath, making the God tremble at the awareness of it's meaning.

"What do you mean…?" he inquired on a suspiciously calm note, doing his best to tactfully avoid the five degree tornado that was about to unleash it's deadly force upon him.

"Oh, you know what I mean…." the answer came on an even lower tone this time, while the tip of her fingers pressed hard on her throbbing temples. "My memory….what have you done, Ares?"

Her jaw tensed but at the same time her eyes spoke of so much accumulated pain and slashing despair that the God found it impossible to fabricate a lie …any lie...

"I did the only thing I could do… There was no other way , Xena, trust me…."

"The only thing you could do?! You demented Bastard! You had a choice! I had a choice! And as I well recall it, I asked you to stay out of it and just leave me alone! But you couldn't do that could you? As always, it had to be your way or no way!"

"Leave you alone?! Do you hear yourself talking right now?! Are you crazy?! " he snapped almost instantly, the fire rising inside him melting away with remarkable easiness the previous numbness that had been enslaving everything up to his reason.

Nonetheless, he immediately came to regret his volcanic reaction , the apocalyptic sight of two more tears gliding down her cheeks, shaking him up worse than an earthquake.

"Xena….." he continued, the dominant impulse of just screaming his own excruciating pain and frustration out like a lunatic, growing more and more intense with each passing minute, in spite of the fact that his voice sounded considerably milder now…

"…you weren't…well… You were not yourself, remember?"

"Of course I was not myself I had just lost our daughter, how in Hades could I have been myself?! But that's not an excuse for having acted behind my back like that, Ares! You had no right! It was my decision to make, not yours….! It was my life ! "

"There was not only Xaria's memory to deal with, Honey, and we both know it….There was no way you could have handled that…Those memories were eating you alive….And you were certainly not capable of making decisions during those dreadful moments, Tartarus, you were hardly breathing….You weren't eating, you weren't sleeping anymore..." he trailed off, pretty much aware of the fact that going there was definitely not healthy for…..

She swiftly pushed him away with a savage growl, forcing her muscles to find the needed strength to react, and, as if possessed by the unholy spirit of some foreign, pagan deity, she rose from the sofa with the speed of a silver bullet, heading for the door, eyes completely blurred by the tears that refused with unusual obstinacy to stop from soaking her pale cheeks and those faintly bleeding lips….

Each new image belonging to that terrifying day seemed to be so flawlessly preserved inside her brain, each detail so violently vivid that she could literally feel her temples on the verge of exploding from the unbearable tension building inside them….Those sick, mocking laughters echoing throughout each corner of her rattled mind, the vision of those razor sharp blades ceaselessly carving her inside out….the smell of fresh blood invading her nostrils as her unborn child was being ruthlessly cut out of her and chopped into pieces….the screams, the helplessness...

And then, there was the grotesque image of two black hound dogs fighting each other over devouring the baby's tiny remains...That unfortunate detail still made her stomach twist unnaturally in disgust…

...Unlike the previous time though, Ares was no longer taken aback by the brutality of her reaction, and, before she knew it, he had already pulled her back, his iron like arms trapping her in an unbreakable embrace, thus forcing her to keep put….He didn't have to exaggerate with the effort of that gesture either, cause, as soon as his lips brushed against her sparkling, silky hair, tightening his hold on her even more, she broke down in a new wave of tears and heartbreaking wails, her legs giving way under her again, thus betraying her initial intention….

He simply crumbled on the floor along with her, watching her restlessly as she buried her forehead deep into his chest, looking for safety ….

"I killed her, Ares….I killed our daughter….." she finally muttered in between sobs, instinctively covering her face with her hands as if trying to shelter herself somehow from that endless stream of memories torturing her slipping mind….

"Shh….don't talk like that Princess…Don't….I should have been there….It's all my fault….I should have been by your side, protecting you both….."

His teeth were clenched and his nostrils were flared with rage….self rage…

As if she hadn't even heard him, she preferred to ignore the confession of his self inflicted guilt and thus continued speaking , the cruel poison of maternal remorse flowing through her veins, towards her heart, under the sneaky form of some indirect, divine punishment for her thoughtless crime….

"You told me not to leave the Halls of War…I didn't listen….I didn't listen...…."

At that point, Ares could only wish that somehow, from somewhere, one of Zeus' lightening bolts would just make an appearance and strike him into oblivion for the rest of eternity...That broken voice...he had heard it before, right after Xaria's death...It was killing him...

" You should have let me die back then…I wish I were dead…."