Chapter 6

Gabrielle and Hope, who had just arrived, were watching the ongoing fight between two gods - two gods of different Pantheons.

One of them was clearly a younger Ares - not in the sense that he was physically younger of course since he didn´t age, but an earlier version of him - the other, was a woman they didn´t know.

How often did were gods from different Pantheons were directly fighting each other anyway? Gabrielle and Hope asked themselves.

It happened from time to time. But then it were smaller personal disputes and not large battles with both sides being backed up by entire armies.

Hope however was starting to get a suspicion where they possibly were.

"There had been a time once when gods were actually fighting like this," she stated. "You have actually heard about it before as well. You remember Assur."

Of course Gabrielle did remember this. The mad God had nearly destroyed reality in an attempt to usurp both the God of Light and Dahak by becoming a vessel for both their powers.

But that was not the beginning of the God Assur´s role in history, by far not.

Like Zeus, Ra or Odin, Assur had once been the King of one of the world´s larger Pantheons - the Assyrian Gods.

xxx

Like many others in history, the Assyrians were a warmongering and conquering Empire. Known as maybe the worst that had ever existed. Their mortal rulers subjugated their neighbors, piled up the skulls of defeated enemies to present them to the masses, promised terrible and sadistic punishments to everyone who resisted them and ruled with an iron-fist.

All that under the guidance of Assur and their other gods, who were equally war-like and cruel and revelled in the conquests and atrocities of their mortal followers.

This by itself was sadly not really anything new, even if they might have been more extreme than others.

Every Pantheon had at very least one official Wargod and also other gods who sometimes pushed the Mortals to fight each other out of different reasons. The Olympians especially were known to often toy with the lives of the Mortal under them like they were mere toys.

In opposite to others however, Assur´s and his compatriot´s ambitions went even far further.

Since the different groups of gods had first manifested themselves from the Chaos and divided the territories of this world between them, their powers were bound to their Realms, that in turn were depending on the faith of their followers.

That meant of course logically, if the Mortals living in the Realm of one Pantheon ever conquered a large part of the territory of another and converted the population, either by force or by convincing, it could significantly weaken that gods and even led to the fall of an entire Pantheon.

Unless the gods in question interferred and fought back in person, but that could eventually lead to world-wide destruction. Potentially worse than even the Titan-Wars or the Sint Flood.

So for a very long time, there had been a kind of agreement. All Pantheons made an commitment that, if the Mortals worshipping one of them ever conquered territory of another one, their mortal followers would let the natives keep their faiths.

This went well for a while. Until the Assyrian Gods broke the agreement.

What followed was a huge war in that not just Mortals but also gods fought each other directly, until the Olympians, the Sumerian and the Egyptian Gods finally allied and defeated them.

xxx

"But that was centuries before either of us was even born," Gabrielle said. "And that means something since we both have become immortal," she commented with some bitterness.

Yes - they had become immortal or at least close to and live by now for nearly 200 years. They had seen entire generations come and go and remained. In opposite to Hope´s, who as a Demi-god had been born immortal from the beginning, Gabrielle´s, Eve´s and Xena´s quasy-immortality was not a natural part of who they were.

The war between the Assyrian Gods and the other Pantheons however should have been at least 500 years back.

"Yes - it had been centuries ago... and we have just been send through time," Hope reminded her.

"And I think we have ended up somewhere in the era of the War of the Gods."

xxx

In Gabrielle´s and Eve´s case an accidental side-effect of Ares once sacrificing his godhood to save hers and Eve´s lives... an accident.

And in Xena´s case it had been part of the deal she had made with Dahak to bring her back after her death in Jappa. Who had claimed that he had wanted her as an agent to deal with supernatural rogue-elements in the mortal world.

Quite ironically things like the time-displaced Callisto now.

A duty that Xena back then had only halfway accepted. But since she did accept the part about coming back to life, to a great part to protect Gabrielle from the insane God Assur, she had to live with the consequences afterwards. One of them a very long lifespan.

In all their cases their immortality could be considered nothing but a curse... a curse that had kept them alive in this world for nearly two centuries now and that they were trying to get rid of.

That had been the main reason they had contacted Nicolaus originally. They had hoped that the Saint with his connection to God could helpe them find a way to end it nd become normal again.

But all that was hardly important for their situation right now.

xxx

"What should we do?" Gabrielle asked.

She had just been told that there was a good chance that they were send several centuries to the past.

"Mother - are you forgetting who I am?" Hope replied. "I am pretty sure that I can get us back to our time on my own," she assured her.

Yes - of course. Hope´s power had actually grown even stronger over the years, just like her control over them.

"But we don´t know where Xena and Eve have been send to," Gabrielle pointed out.

"That is why it was a stupid idea to jump through the portal in the first place," Hope retorted. "I am also not sure if we should return right away. Not before we know where Xena and Eve are... And especially not from this place here," she stated.

"Why not?" Gabrielle questioned the last part.

Hope was actually looking dejected. Something that was quite unusual for her.

She sighed.

"Because the gods of this time could detect it if I formed another portal here right now. Either Ares or even worse - the Assyrians. Of course we would already be gone by the point they arrive at this place. But we would still risk to interrupt the timeflow and change the past," Hope explained.

Of course. It was only now that Gabrielle really fully realized this. Admittedly, she had still been shocked from what just had happened.

"And if we are truly five or six-hundred years back, then even the slightest change of events here could completely change things in our time," Gabrielle said. "You are right."

"Exactly," Hope replied. "In the best case we should move in some distance away and leave this time without anyone even noticing we were here."

"I fear this will not be possible," a voice was heard from behind them, a voice that seemed to be coming out of thin air.

They both turned around and saw with dread how a figure suddenly materialized behind them - another god. Another one they had not met before.

And it was a very powerful one, Hope could sense. Possibly rivalling Poseidon or Hades.

"This is a very interesting story you just talked about," the god said. "I am sure Lady Ninlil and even Lord Assur himself would really like to see you."

So much for leaving quietly before anybody even noticed they were here, Gabrielle and Hope both thought.

"Who are you?" Gabrielle asked.

"You have courage for a Mortal, even one blessed by a god, to talk to me like that," the god replied. "Or maybe it is the presence of your friend here that makes you so brave," he said looking at Hope. "By your looks it is clear that you two are related."

"Like my mother asked, who are you?"

"Very well - I am Nergal - God of the Assyrian Underworld," the stranger introduced himself.

xxx

Down beneath them in the valley, the younger Ares was still fighting the goddess, who by his comment they assumed was Lady Ninil, without a clear winner.

The two deities threw energy-globes at each other, exchanged punches that could tear down townwalls with one strike

Their duel was suddenly interupted however when more gods arrived, from both sides.

Next to Ares, Athena and Apollo and on the other three more gods Gabrielle and Hope had never seen before.

The three Olympians exchanged a short look. The enemy had the advantage in nummers.

Four against three was not much of a difference. But the advance right here was not that important anyway and they were at the borderline between their Realms, closer to the Assyrian territory than their own.

Fighting this group of gods right here was simply not worth the risk, Athena decided.

"Let us retreat," she said, "for now."

She made a gesture to their assembled mortal soldiers and the army following the Greek Gods begann draw back.

"Yes," Ares responded darkly, "for now."

They would come back better prepared.

With that the three Olympians teleported away.

The troops serving the Assyrian Gods however were crying out in triumph as they saw both the enemy warriors and even their gods retreat.

For Gabrielle and Hope however all this played litte role. It was just one battle of a war that ended long before their own time. A war that they knew the Olympians and their allies were meant to win in the end.

Unless of course their own presence here screwed things up.

The gods who had introduced himself as Nergal now teleported them and they appeared right next to the four other Assyrian Gods.

Hope could have probably resisted the teleportation, but what was the point? They had already been caught. If they escaped and the Assyrians turned this entire area upside-down trying to find them, it might only make things worse. She would hold back her full power for now and wait for a better opportunity.

"Where have you been?" the goddess who had been fighting Ares asked Nergal annoyed. "With you we could have completely crushed those Olympians and destroyed their armies."

"I am sorry Lady Ninlil," he replied, "but I have just been occupied finding these interloppers here."

As they took a look at the `interloppers´ however, even the four gods were surprised. One was a mortal women, even if they sensed a strange anomaly on her. Some kind of divine essense. But very low. The other one however was some kind of deity they had never seen before.

But the two looked exactly the same.

"What?" the goddess named Ninlil said.

"She claims that the other one is her mother," Nergal explained, pointing at Hope.

"I see," Ninlil stated, "so the mistress of an unknown god - who had spawned him a daughter right in her own image. How interesting. He must really like you. I can sense that he even extended your life."

Gabrielle frowned at the last statement. Of course someone could come to a conclusion like that, if he saw her and Hope.

"And both of you were wandering around at the border of our territory - why?"

Gabrielle and Hope were actually on a loss for words. Even if they decided to tell the truth, there was no way she would believe it.

"You will have time to tell us everything later," Ninlil said confidently, "after we return home."

xxxxxxx

At another time - time of Young Hercules

Xena, Eve and Calisto were in a quite similar situation like Gabrielle and Hope. Only that they had already figured out where and when they had arrived.

Decades before their own time, when Hercules was still a young man.

"We have to get back home mother," Eve said.

"Yes," Xena replied quietly.

"Just speak for yourself," Callisto said. "I actually don´t care in what time we are lost. I just want you to keep your word and kill me."

"I have already told you that I lost my ability to kill gods when we came here, right?" Xena stated. "So it would be in your interest too if we returned."

"Yes - I think that might actually be a reason to go back," Callisto said casually. "You will kill me again, right? And this time for real?"

"But how can we get back?" Eve questioned.

"The easiest way to travel through time would be the Cronos Stone," Xena replied. "Hercules and Iolaus had once told me how they had used it a few times before. But I am not sure where the stone could be in this time."

"In this time the Olympians are still alive. Maybe we could ask one of them for help. This time´s Aphrodite maybe. She was always mostly trustworthy."

"Not exactly a fitting thing to say for the Messenger of Eli, isn´t it?" Xena commented.

"I have not really been carrying this title for a long time," Eve responded. "I still believe. But I like to think that I am a person who makes her choices more on pragmatical thinking now. Instead of blindly trusting in any religion."

Or maybe that was only what she would have liked to think, Eve thought. Was it not just that her faith had been too badly damaged. Not her faith in God or even Eli, but in herself.

xxx

Even after all this time she could not completely rid herself of the fear: was all it would take some deity changing something inside her head to turn her back into a rampaging murderer? And did she even deserve any credit for any good she was doing if it was ultimately not by her own choice.

She asked herself if her mother and Gabrielle knew how much she was still doubting herself sometimes.

xxx

Eve sighed.

"To be honest, if I were confident that we would get any reply from Heaven, it would be my first choice now, she said. "But by what I know in this times contact with the humans inside the other god´s territory, especially the Olympians, was rare. The Light and Dahak were both mostly concentrating on other Realms and Angels barely visited the world. But I will try to pray anyway," she stated.

"Do that," Xena said. "You are still partly the off-spring of an Angel. There is stil a chance that Heaven will answer you, even if it it just because someone up there is curious where you came from."

Eve nodded.

While Callisto was just looking at them with her twisted smile once again.

"Praying you say? Very interesting. Who would have thought?" She giggled.

"Do you have a problem with it?" Eve asked.

"No - I am just asking myself how someone like me could be reborn into someone like you."

xxxxxxx

At the same time somewhere else, the Halfgod Hercules was travelling on one of the many roads that connected the different city-states of Greece with each other.

The young hero was currently hunting for the whereabouts of a dangerous enemy he had met some time ago.

At this moment however his walk was interrupted as he heard the typical sounds of a fight close by.

Hercules left the road and run into the direction where he heard the sound.

What he found a few moments later however was at the same time exactly what he expected and completely surprised him.

It was a young woman being attacked by a group of a half dozen armed warriors. She had red hair and Hercules admitted that she wasvery beautiful.

What was completely unexpected however was the fact that the woman was not only holding herself against the fighters - she was actually throwing fireballs at them, ripped the sword out of one´s hands, from ten meters distance, and mentally lifted up small rocks and threw them at them.

What was she - goddess, some kind of sorceress?

Still - it were six warriors who were attacking a single woman. On the other hand, she was clearly not normal. Maybe she was some kind of threat?

The woman finally hit one of the man with her fireballs and his body literally exploded with one last short scream.

The woman looked at them confidently. She smiled. He was here.

The warriors had their backs turned to Hercules and not noticed him yet.

"Just retreat and leave me alone," she said loud. "I don´t want to have to kill all of you."

The remaining five warriors exchanged a short insecure glance with each other. It was clear that they were afraid of her for their lives and would prefer to be somewhere else. But their fear of the gods was obviously greater.

"We can not do that," the leader finally replied. "The gods have declared your existance a threat. You need to be eliminated."

If there was one thing good about the warriors in service of the Olympians, she thought... they always found a way to say something to make themselves look bad.

This was the last bit of `convincing´ that Hercules needed.

"Excuse me," he said, addressing the leader, "but I will not let you kill someone just because the gods consider her existence a threat."

"We can not do that. Zeus and Athene had decreed this woman must die."

"Oh really? Do you even know who she is and why?" Hercules asked.

"No, but..."

Hercules grabbed the man and lifted him up in the air with one hand.

They realized that they were facing not one but two superhumans.

"How about you just leave?"

"Who are you?" the man asked.

"Hercules," he replied, "Son of Zeus."

At this point he and the other warriors had enough and run off.

"Thank you for your help," the woman said to him. "You said your name is Hercules - Son of Zeus?"

"Yes - even if I don´t exactly think the last part is an achievement," he said. "Who are you?"

"My name is Veila - I am a halfgod like you," Hope said to him with a smile.

Only that this Hope was not the same as the one with Gabrielle. This one was still on the side of Dahak and she was still dangerous.

After her accidental physical death at the hand of the Destroyer, she had send her own essence back into this time. She had targeted Hercules at a time when he was young and vulnerable.

As expected, some of the Olympians had send a few of their warriors after her, as soon as they sensed a divine intruder inside their territory, what gave her an ideal opportunity to have Hercules sweep in and `rescue´ her.

It was now the perfect chance to get close to him. He would either be turned to her father Dahak or die.

xxx

All that were things that were meant to happen.

In his own past, Hercules had faced Hope without ever finding out who she and her mysterious `father´ truly were until years later.

The presence of Xena, Eve and Callisto in this time, only a few miles away from them, however was not.

Author´s Note: The God Assur and his backstory played a major role in the story Light in the Darkness.