Unholy Matrimony 34

There had been no time for a honeymoon. Soon after the Fates had bound Xena and Ares together in holy matrimony, the newlyweds had headed to the war room to start planning for the battle they knew was at their doorsteps. Ares had implored Gaia to join them but she had chided him, telling him that she would not pick favorites among the children of Zeus. She told him that she had only been moved to aid him because of his love for the unborn child and for the woman who carried it. The ancient goddess vowed to again remove herself from the realm of man and gods and return to her shadowy existence deep in the core of the Earth where their petty quarrels were of no consequence to her.

When Gaia took her exit, the Fates followed suit citing their mandate to also remain impartial in any conflict between the gods. Ares knew there was no use in even trying to sway them. They hadn't lifted a hand to save weren't likely to assist him. He doubted they would have even sanctioned his marriage to Xena had Gaia, herself, not demanded it.

Ares spread a blank parchment across the table and secured the corners with heavy iron skulls. "So what do we know? Who are the players," he asked.

"Well, Apollo is clearly looking to finish you. At least he thinks you are on death's door, we have a slight edge there," Xena leaned over the war table with Ares, their arms brushing against each other.

"Over half of Olympus was lining up on his side," Aphrodite chimed in from her seat next to Gabrielle on the other side of the table.

"What about Amphitrite, the sea denizens and Demeter, Persephone, and the keepers of the Dead?" Ares asked, hopeful that he had at least a few allies among his own pantheon.

"Unclear if word got to them yet. I'm sure Hermes is already making the rounds. I got out of there as soon as I could. I wouldn't even be here if it weren't for. . ." Aphrodite looked at Gabrielle. "I thought you were dead, Ares, and I thought Xena should know, and I was worried about what would become of Gabrielle."

Gabrielle smiled at the goddess and reached her hand across the space between them and gave Aphrodite's hand a gentle squeeze.

"Right. We can assume Odin and his lot are still against the monotheists but it's anyone's guess as to whether they will align themselves with us or Apollo," Ares brow furrowed as he continued, "and that brings us to Eve."

"Eve, what does she have to do with it?" Xena asked.

"It was her killing Proteus that set this whole thing in motion," Ares answered. "When I was stowing you away in that little realm I created, I had Proteus take my form and go to a meeting of pantheons. The goal was to secret you away while their attention was turned elsewhere. But, Eve showed up out of nowhere, she shouldn't have been able to cross the veil between worlds. Somehow, she did. She killed Proteus. All hell broke loose, and now Apollo and half of Olympus think I am plotting with you both to finish off the Twilight."

"I'm not going to fight my daughter, Ares."

"Even if it means your own life? And the life of our child?" Ares subconsciously looked down to Xena's belly.

"Eve wouldn't kill me. We already know this, she's tried and failed before," Xena reminded him of her face off with Eve when her daughter still considered herself Livia.

"Things are different now," Ares looked into her eyes. "You're not just her mother now. You're a goddess and carrying a god within you. You are a threat to her god's monotheistic worldview."

"Eli wasn't like that. He would never ask for someone to kill in his god's name," Gabrielle protested.

"Maybe not," Xena answered, "But Michael isn't above it. Gabrielle, Ares may be right. It was, after all, that god who gave me the power to kill the Olympians. He gambled that they wouldn't be able to leave well enough alone. And they came at me, just like he wanted, leaving me no choice but to defend myself. Michael himself has expressed displeasure that I didn't finish the job. Who's to say that's not what they've wrangled Eve into now?"

Ares grabbed a quill and dabbed the end in an ink jar. He drew three columns and in the first listed, Eve and Apollo. He skipped the second and then looked up at Aphrodite. "Are you with us or are you hightailing it out of here?"

"I'm not a fighter, you know this." Aphrodite's eyes threatened tears.

"There are other ways you can assist," Xena wasn't going to let her walk. They needed all the help they could get now.

"How?" The spot between the goddess's eyebrows had knotted up. It wasn't a look Xena was accustomed to seeing on the normally carefree goddess. In their long history, she'd only see that look of genuine worry a handful of times.

"You can bring other gods over to our side. The other pantheons are invested in this too, right?"

Xena asked. 'You must friends in the other pantheons who could be coaxed to our side."

"Xena you can't be serious about building an army of gods to fight Eve!" Gabrielle stood up. "I won't be a part of that."

"Give us the room." Xena called to the other gods.

Ares looked at Xena. They didn't have time to discuss whether or not they were going to battle someone who had already tried to kill him once today. But he knew there was no sense in arguing with Xena when she had that look in her eye. "Dite, let's go. I'm gonna give you a list of other gods to reach out to."

When they were alone. Gabrielle's voice dropped to a whisper. "You're different. You haven't been a goddess for a day and you're already contemplating destroying everything your daughter holds dear."

"Gabrielle, you heard Ares. She attacked Proteus unprovoked, thinking he was Ares. Why would she just decide to kill Ares? And how did she cross the veil between mortal and immortal worlds? Think about it. She had to have had help."

"You think Michael is behind this?"

"Maybe."

"Then let's stop him. You have to talk to Eve."

"I will."

"Well, you're a goddess now, can't you just go wherever she is? Get to the bottom of this?"

Xena nodded. "I'll try." She mentally searched through the aether for Eve. She kept coming up empty. Sadness gripped her. "I might be too late, Gabrielle. I can't locate her at all."

A flash of yellow light lit up the main hall. Xena held up a hand to Gabrielle. "Stay here." And with a thought Xena transported herself into the other room. Ares and Aphrodite stood in the center of the room. Floating just off the ground on his winged feet, was Hermes. When he saw Xena flash into the room, his lips cocked up into a half-grin. "Ahh, the woman, or should I say goddess, who has caused this dust up. Xena, a pleasure. Now straight to business. Apollo says you are to turn yourselves in or face annihilation." Hermes turned his eyes to Aphrodite. "He doesn't know you are complicit, Aphrodite. So, if you leave now, I won't mention that I saw you here. You will owe me, of course, but we can work something out," Hermes twirled a curl of her blonde hair.

Aphrodite gave Ares and Xena an apologetic look and disappeared into the void.

"Dammit, Dite," Ares growled.

"She's smart. And if you are, you'll do as he says," Hermes warned. "He's already pulled all of the Council to his side except Hestia, and she's on the fence. She doubted him when he returned saying that Xena was now a goddess. But I'm pretty sure when she sees the truth for herself, she'll come to the same conclusion the rest of them have."

"We turn ourselves in and he's going to kill us anyway, He already tried to kill me," Ares reminded.

"Yes, and you are looking remarkably well despite that nasty wound. Xena, you must be quite the healer. It's a shame your goddesshood is fated to be so short."

"The only thing that is going to be short is Apollo's usurpation. Tell him not to get too comfortable on my throne," Xena snarled.

"Predictable to the end," Hermes shook his head. "Oh well, consider yourselves duly warned." Hermes tossed a scroll onto the long table in the center of the hall. "You have until sunset and then he is going to unleash all the powers of Olympus against you."

"He has no power here. This is the Halls of War!"

"You can't hide in here forever, Ares." Hermes smiled. He was enjoying himself far too much for Xena's liking.

"No one's hiding," Xena moved next to Ares.

"Well Eve is. Where is your spawn, Xena? Hiding your little weapon somewhere in here no doubt." Hermes looked around the room for any sign that there was a fourth party. When he saw a shadow bounce off the wall in the war room. He grinned to himself. He had the information he had really come for.

The fact that the gods didn't know where Eve was either gave Xena hope. Maybe Eve wasn't dead after all, maybe she was just somewhere under her god's protection, the way that the Halls of War protected Ares from aggression from other gods. "You better hope you don't find her."

"So you admit that you are in this with her?"

"I never said that," Xena responded. "I'm just saying if she's out for Olympian blood, I'd keep my wings tucked in real tight, flyboy."

Hermes' looked back to the war room expecting Eve to pop out and make a play at his life. "You're outnumbered, Xena."

"Yeah, been there, done that. Ask Athena how that worked out," Xena hissed. "And this time, I'm a goddess."

Hermes' smile fell from his face as all his bravado evaporated. Without another word, he disappeared.

AXAXAXAXAXAXAX

When Eve regained consciousness, she found herself tucked away in a dark crevice of a cave. Light from an opening a few meters ahead of her caused orange light to bounce off of the helmet that lay on the ground near her feet. Eve sat up, rubbed her head, trying to rub away the pounding in her temples. Her muscles ached like she'd fallen off a horse but she quickly remembered her goal and a new determination surged within her. She reached for the helmet and found under it a dagger similar in design to the one Michael had given her to kill Ares. Eve picked it up and when she stood, she tucked it securely between her sash and dress. Moving toward the opening where the light was coming in, Eve put the helmet back on her head. Crossing the veil she found herself to not be in a cave at all but in one of the corridors of the Underworld. She thought she might be near where she had earlier encountered Cerberus but she didn't hear the telltale sign of his chains rattling. Eve rounded one corner through the maze of the Underworld. At each turn she navigated her way through miserable souls trapped by their own devices. Finally, after another fifteen minutes of letting the helmet guide her she came to a corridor that came to an end at a large double door that ran floor to ceiling. Eve could feel that her mission lay on the other side of the doors. She stood stock still and took three deep breaths, then whispered a silent prayer that she was doing the right thing. A breath behind her ear whispered, "this is the Truth, you are the Light, I am the Way." Eve nodded, took another deep breath and made her way toward the doors. As she did, she heard screams of both jubilation and intense agony fill the hallways behind her. But she couldn't worry about them, her task was clear. When she reached the double doors a commotion behind her forced her attention. The three headed dog barreled toward her, snarling, it's chains whipping in the air. Before it reached her, one of the beings with the hundred eyes that she had unleashed from the door in the sky, tore into the dog, ripping its sinewy muscles with its gnashing teeth. The hundred-eyed one smiled a wicked smile as Cerberus' blood dripped down its chin. Eve watched the display with something akin to motherly pride. When the monster had had its fill it turned to Eve and bowed before bounding off, back down the corridor to hunt for more prey. "This is the Truth," Eve repeated as she pushed open the doors.

The chamber she found was lush and opulent, a far cry from the tortures outside its walls. It was clearly a boudoir fit for a god. A great golden table sported a large bowl with perfectly ripened fruits. A decanter of wine sat beside the bowl and two jeweled goblets. At the back of the room was a large dais where sat an empty throne. Behind the throne to the right and to the left were two doorways. Eve let the helmet pick, it took her to the left. The hallway she found was short and it ended at another pair of doors. Eve pushed on them and they opened inward.

Demeter stood behind her daughter running a brush through her daughter's long hair. She looked up at Eve as if she had been expecting her. Persephone's hand went to the hilt of a short sword she wore at her waist.

"I suppose you are here to give us some sort of ultimatum?" Demeter asked, as cool as a mountain morning.

"The dead are not your charges. For too long you've kept them in limbo. Tortured some who have yet to be judged. Rewarded some who were undeserving. The dead belong to the Lord my God."

"The Greek dead belong to us. It was promised to Chronos." Persephone spoke up.

Eve wasn't sure where her words were coming from, or how she knew the things she did but continued to speak. "Chronos reneged on the deal. The Lord has given your lot long enough to make good on the bargain, yet you continue to act as if you are true Gods when you know there is only one. Only one who has the right to their eternal souls."

"So what? You expect us to just turn them over to you?"

"You've drawn power from their misery and their joy for the last time."

"We are gods, we have to sustain our power somehow. What would you have us do?"

"There is only one thing yet for you to do. Submit to the Lord, relinquish your godhoo and the throne of the Underworld or die."

"I was a goddess for thousands of years before your mother squirted you out of that mortal quim of hers, you can tell your god to piss off," Demeter threw the brush at Eve and in mid-flight it turned into an arced blade. Eve dodged but the blade clipped off the top of her left ear. Instinctively, Eve reached up and touched the wound. She brought her fingers in front of her face and smiled at the blood she found there.

"Have it your way," Eve screamed in a way that she hadn't since she'd called herself Livia. And as she let that dark power fill her once again, she knew that God had used Ares all along. He'd been preparing her for work that her mother would never have been able to finish. A flurry of devotion whipped her soul into a frenzy and with dizzying speed, she slaughtered the two goddesses before either could make to run.

Eve took a minute to admire her handiwork before heading back out into the main hall. Two down, many more to go. Eve cleaned her blade off on the hem of Persephone's dress. She looked at the sword at the dead goddess' side. The one that had been so useless against the power of the Lord. Eve picked it up, eyed the Olympian symbology that decorated the guard. She tossed it into the fireplace. "Pagan filth." Eve watched as the fire grew and consumed the blade by some magic. It was a sign that her work here was complete.

When she returned to the main entry hall of Persephone's Underworld quarters, Eve found Michael leaning against the golden table eating one of the apples from the bowl.

"Well now, that took you no time at all. The Lord is pleased. Now, we will put the rightful Lord of the Dead in place here." Michael snapped his fingers and Lucifer appeared in all of his red-leather skinned glory.

"What do you want now, Michael?" The devil asked.

"New real estate. God knows you'll put it to good use."

Lucifer looked at Michael in agitation. He already hated the job and now they were making more demands. A shuffle behind him caused him to turn. At the sight of Eve, fury ripped through Lucifer and he made a beeline for Eve.

"Uh, uh, uh, she's the Lord's special. His chosen one. You don't want to do that. You think you have it rough now."

Lucifer stopped short but his eyes burned with hell fire at Eve.

"Now, Eve, you and I need to go topside." Michael extended his hand.

Eve glared back at Lucifer, almost daring him to defy their god. When he chose obedience over his own will, Eve felt mixed emotions of pride and disappointment. "I'm but the Lord's servant," Eve said to Michael and reached to take his hand.

With another warning look at Lucifer, Michael vanished himself and Eve out of the newest annex of Hell.