Title: Dragons of Hope

Title: Dragons of Hope

Author: Smenzer

Rating: PG

Pairing: Ares/Gabrielle

Archive: Yes, please. Let me know if you take it, OK?

Teaser: This is Part 8 of Dragons of Despair

Disclaimer: The characters are not mine. They belong to Studios USA or

Whoever owns the Rights to Xena: Warrior Princess. This is just for fun.

"I can't believe it!" Xena hissed at no one in particular. She stomped around Ares' mountain top temple and banged her fist on a stone wall. "How could she be a dragon all this time and she never told me? Why could she tell HIM and not me? It's not fair!"

Hercules sighed. He saw Xena was going to be a problem. "Look, maybe Gabrielle is exactly what Ares needs. She'll straighten him out, keep him in line. Just have a little trust in her."

"And what was that wisecrack of me not taking care of Gabrielle? I always take care of her! It's all I ever do!" Xena scowled as she thought about it. "Yeah. That's right. That's all I ever do. I always got to be running and saving her butt from some monster or something. She doesn't have enough sense to keep herself out of trouble. She even creates trouble! She was the cause of all this Dahok trouble, not me!"

"Xena! How can you say that? She's your best friend!" Hercules stared at her, his mouth hanging open in shock. He glanced at Iolaus, who appeared equally shocked. "Gabrielle was raped by Dahok! How can you say it's her fault?"

"Well, it is!" Xena insisted as she glared angrily at the puddle of dragon saliva on the floor. Her face twisted up in disgust and she waved her hand in front of her face. The saliva had the awful stink of sulfur. "She should have known better than to go inside a strange temple to an unknown God! She had no business being in there! Besides, with her being a dragon now, I don't know if I want to hang around her anymore. Look at this mess she made on the floor. Yuck! I'm not going to be cleaning up dragon slobber. Let Ares deal with it."

"What? I don't believe this!" Hercules shook his head and watched Xena storm out of the room. The big hero quickly followed her. Iolaus trailed along silently behind the two. "Xena, you're being unreasonable! I thought Gabrielle was the most important thing in your life! How can you do this?"

"Easy. I just am." Xena pushed open the temple door and hurried outside into the cold. "And she better behave or else I might be forced to do something....bloody. You know the reputation dragons have. Especially red ones. They're evil."

"It's Gabrielle! She's not evil!" Hercules yelled at the Warrior Princess's retreating back. He shook his head and went back inside, closing the heavy temple doors. He glanced at Iolaus sadly. "That's just great. Now I have to go tell Gabrielle her best friend just walked out on her. She'll be crushed."

"Yeah," Iolaus agreed glumly. "But that's Xena for you. There's not much you can do once she gets an idea stuck in her head."

"Don't remind me." Hercules walked back into the big room. "ARES!"

The War God appeared in a flash of blue light. Gabrielle was with him. "You rang, little brother?" Ares was unknowingly standing in the puddle of dragon slobber. He wrinkled his nose at the strong odor of sulfur and glanced down. Seeing the puddle, he waved his hand and it vanished. "I guess dragons are high maintenance, not that I mind."

"Yeah." Hercules took a deep breath and let it out. "Xena left. Seems she's angry and can't accept the recent changes. She even made a threat against Gabrielle, of all things! I can't believe she'd just throw a friendship away over this! It's so stupid!"

"She's jealous." Ares stated as he pulled Gabrielle close to him. She rested her head against his broad chest and sniffled. She couldn't believe Xena would leave her because of this. Did she really hate dragons so much? "Don't worry, my sweet, I won't leave you."

Gabrielle straightened up and wiped her eyes. It hurted to know that Xena, her best friend, had actually threatened to kill her. After she had given up so much for their friendship and in the end it had meant nothing to the Warrior Princess. Xena's heart was as cold as ice! "It's OK, Hercules. Maybe I'm better off without Xena anyway. I figured out the only reason she kept me around was to cook and clean for her. Xena hates to do either one. She'd rather eat Joxer's cooking than cook something herself. Well, I'm tired of walking behind her horse for miles and miles while she rides! I'm tired of mending her torn leather. Heck, if I even look at her weapons she screams at me! I guess she wasn't really a good friend to begin with. She never really wanted me around. But I needed her to protect me, but I guess that's over."

"Well, I hate to see a friendship break up over something like this." Hercules said. "Maybe she's just shocked. I know I certainly was!"

"Yeah! Me too!" Iolaus said as he looked wide-eyed at Gabrielle. "I mean, when you're a dragon you're so big! And I mean BIG! Whoa! Who ever would have thought? Boy, you really fooled me! But I'm glad we're friends. I wouldn't want you mad at me!"

"Enough of chitchat. We have strategy to plan." Ares told them. The four huddled together in a little group and listened to what Gabrielle told them. She explained she had already placed powerful spells on Ares' temple so Dahok couldn't spy on them. Nor could he break in. It turned out that Dahok wasn't entirely in this world - that's why he was appearing as a column of fire. But he had created a small rip in the material that separates the various Planes of existence. This tiny rip had allowed part of his essence to slip through. He needed a lot more before he could physically appear. Since he was an evil demon, he needed lots of bloody sacrifices. That's what Hope had been doing before she had stopped her evil forever. Now it was time to stop Dahok himself.

"The trick is to choose where we will fight him." Gabrielle explained to her friends. "We will summon him and fight him in a location of our choosing. It will be carefully warded with powerful spells that should hopefully render him powerless and stop him from escaping. It's best to use a strong room that can contain him in case he does manage to break my spells."

They quickly searched for a suitable room. Ares had the perfect spot: a very large room made by Hephaestus. Before he had used it to keep some of his more powerful and very large pets. It was big enough to hold the dragon easily and had room for her to maneuver. Of course, she wouldn't be able to fly in here but that wouldn't matter. This would be an all-out last battle.

Gabrielle added her powerful spells to the room's walls, floor, ceiling and door. She explained to the others that once they went inside and closed the door, only she would be able to open it. If by some chance Dahok killed her, they would be trapped in the room. They all said they understood and if that Dahok is powerful enough to kill the dragon, well, they were dead anyway. She was their only hope.

Hours passed as Gabrielle weaved her spells on the room. She put them on in layers, carefully adding them to the weaker wards of Hephaestus and Ares. When she was done, the room looked the same, as the wards were invisible. Her magic, added to that of the two Olympian Gods, made the room indestructible. Not even the most powerful earthquake could damage it.

Then Gabrielle flew them to her secret treasure cave. It was high on the top of a snow covered mountain. This was her lair before she had lost her powers and was forced to change into a human. It was as she had left it years ago. Her lair was protected by the same powerful warding spells as she had placed on the room in Ares' temple. Inside, Gabrielle carefully examined her gleaming mountain of treasure. She instantly counted every single item with a spell and was pleased to discover not one coin was missing.

"WOW!" Iolaus stared in shock at the huge towering pile of treasure. He saw countless gold coins and sparkling gems. Sword hilts, covered in priceless jewels, stuck haphazardly out of the pile. He also saw pieces of armor, like gauntlets and breastplates. Plus there were other items, too. Spears, helms, long rods, and many things Iolaus did not recognize. There was many jewelry pieces, too, like rings, necklaces, bracelets and head pieces. The variety of items in the never-ending treasure pile was amazing.

Gabrielle quickly searched through the pile and found what she wanted. It appeared to the others as if she knew exactly where each item she wanted was in the haphazard mess - and she did! What should have taken days to find took only a half hour. She handed Ares, Hercules and Iolaus enchanted Demon Slaying swords, explaining the swords were especially created to kill demons. Each sword was a perfect specimen of its kind. Ares and Hercules received two-handed swords that were six feet long and weighed fifteen pounds. They tried the swords out in a mock battle with each other, easy swinging the immense weapons around. Iolaus received a long sword that weighed only four pounds and was three and a half feet long. Except for the varying sizes and weights, the three swords looked alike. Each sported a silver blade. The silver hilt had the snarling head of a demon on the end, complete with horns, large ears and dripping fangs. A set of rare bloodstones were used as the blazing eyes. When light hit the bloodstones, they glowed fiercely with an inner fire.

Next she gave them magic Rings of Protection. They each received two rings. The first ring was expertly carved from pure gold in the shape of a dragon. When they slipped the ring on, the dragon's body curled tightly around their fingers. Perfect red rubies gleamed as the dragon's eyes as it held its sinuous tale in its mouth. This ring would protect them from all fire-based attacks. And it would be needed. Gabrielle had explained that Dahok was a type of demon called a Pit Fiend. These were the most dreaded type of demons and often had lesser demons working for them, as they were the most powerful and feared. They loved fire and used it as their weapon of choice.

The second ring was a general type of Protection Ring. It was used for stuff like swords, spears, claws, punches and other normal, non-magical attacks. They could still be injured while wearing the ring, but the injuries would be smaller and not so serious as without the ring. And weaker attacks might not damage them at all. This ring was also made from solid gold and was designed like overlapping scales. A six-sided diamond sparkled in the center.

Gabrielle chewed on her bottom lip for a moment while she thought. She knew she was forgetting something. But what? "Oh! You guys better wear some armor, too. A Pit Fiend's claws are very poisonous. A single small scratch will kill you."

Iolaus stopped feinting with his new sword and frowned. "But I thought Dahok is just a column of fire. How can he scratch us with claws?"

"When I summon him, he will be flesh and bone." Gabrielle explained to Iolaus as she pulled something out of the pile. It was a shiny breastplate, one designed for a man. "See, I can't kill him as he currently is. I might be able to banish him to his own Plane and seal the rip he made, but he would just come back. Since he made a rip between the Planes once, he could do it again. The only way to defeat him is to slay him. That's why the conjuring room has so many glyphs on it. Even if we're all killed, Dahok will be trapped for all eternity in the room."

Iolaus grimaced and a shiver traveled through his body. "A demon in the flesh, huh? Gee, Herc, why do we get all the juicy assignments? Like fighting a Pit Fiend is something I dreamed of as a boy."

"Well, Iolaus, I guess we're just lucky." Hercules picked up the breast plate and saw it was big enough for him. He normally didn't wear any armor besides his gauntlets, but perhaps in this case he better. He didn't want to end up dead if Dahok got close enough to claw him. The plan was for Gabrielle to attack Dahok in dragon form from a safe distance. They would only step in if needed.

Ares' eyes gleamed as he took in Gabrielle's hoard from her mysterious homeworld. He had never seen so many enchanted items and artifacts in one place before. Sure his brother Hephaestus had some stuff, but nothing like this! This was truly amazing! He wanted to search through the entire hoard and ask her about each weapon he found. He gingerly picked up a brass rod about three feet long that was as thick as his thumb and had ivory leaves carved into its surface. He had never seen anything like it before and wandered what it was for. It was too delicate to be a club or any other type of striking weapon. Yet he sensed it was not purely ornamental either. He could feel power and energy humming inside it with his Godly senses. He searched the nearest section of the pile with his eyes and saw other rods similar to this one but with different designs on them. "Say, what are these things?"

Gabrielle glanced at what Ares held. "That's a magical wand. Normally wizards use them, but as a God you could use one." Gabrielle dug through the pile and soon pulled out a different wand, one that had lightning bolts racing down its sides. "Here, use this one. Lightning is strong against Pit Fiends. So is acid. Unfortunately, my breath weapon will be harmless against it, as they are one of the only creatures immune to dragon fire."

"Oh, that's just great!" Iolaus frowned as he swung his arm downward. "The bad guy is immune to our dragon's best weapon!"

"I'm sure everything will work out just fine Iolaus." Hercules reassured his friend.

After the guys had their breast plates on and Gabrielle had collected a few more lightning and acid wands, they flew back to Ares' mountain top temple. Inside the warded room, Gabrielle drew a complicated pattern on the floor using a special substance she had gotten from her cave. She ordered the guys to stay back along the wall while she was doing this. Each straight line and curve had to be perfect. If she made a single tiny mistake in the design, Dahok would be able to escape from the pattern. The design acted like a trap. Once he was summoned in the center of the design, he would not be allowed to leave without her permission - that is, if the design was drawn perfectly.

Finally she stepped back and examined the pattern carefully. It was on one side of the room, the corner farthest from the door. When she was satisfied it was OK, she transformed into the dragon. She locked the door and the three men gathered near her, their silver Demon Slaying swords drawn. Gabrielle performed the summoning spell, inserting Dahok's name in the appropriate locations.

Iolaus clutched his new sword tightly. He gulped as a red mist appeared in the center of the geometric drawing on the floor. The mist gathered together and a faint humanoid form could be seen. It solidified more and the remaining red fog settled around the Pit Fiend's twisted feet.

Dahok stood before them in the flesh.

To be continued....