Authors' Notes: Hello hello! I'm back from Hiatus, and LOOK! A brand new chapter! I've been working on it bit by bit every time I've had a chance and here it finally is! Hope you like it!

Disclaimr: Not mine. Short but sweet, huh?

Enjoy! And sorry took so long! Hope you haven't abandoned me yet!
The next morning, Xena, Ares, Gabrielle, and a grumbling Hercules trudged down to the tavern to eat a little after dawn. Ares still winced a little when he walked or sat or bumped into something, but he was healing, thank the gods. Hercules glared at him from time to time and Ares just stood a little more protective over Xena.

As they sat at one of the side tables, Ares kept looking sideways to a man a little ways away. He wore a dark cloak that covered him from head to toe. Continue sword hung at his waist.

"Ares? Who is that?" Xena asked him as he once again looked to his right.

"I'm not sure, but I think he was one of my old commanders, Mihalis. He's an old friend." Hercules snorted.

"Friend? You? You don't HAVE friends, Ares." Ares scowled at him, but then he stood up and walked over to the man. The three friends watched as he said something to the man, and then.to Hercules' surprise, the man stood up, laughing and hugged Ares, patting him fondly on the back.

"Lord Ares! My, I haven't seen you for a long time, what brings you to these parts?"

"Mihalis, have I missed you! You were my best commander, never should have left, you know."

The two walked back to the table, and introductions were made all around. It turns out Mihalis served Ares for a long time in his armies before he got old and retired.

"Not that I'm not quick with the sword still." Mihalis chuckled. He seemed a nice, funny man, and Hercules wondered how someone who worked for Ares could be like that. "And you must be Xena, eh?" Xena smiled,

"Yes, I am."

"Yeah, Ares used to talk about you all the time. A little annoying, really. He was right, you are the gorgeous one."

The story was told to Mihalis, and he frowned. "Rouge eh? I think I know who you're talking about." He sighed, "Ares, I think Rogue was a goddess." Three pairs of eyebrows shot up. "I heard of a legend. Long ago, when Zeus first overthrew Cronus, there was a goddess, named Rogue. Now, she worked for Cronus, thinking to double-cross Zeus and bring him down, but Zeus found her out. He banished her from Olympus, from Greece, actually and stripped her of her powers. I don't know how she survived this long. My guess is that she made an alliance with the Dark One you talked about, very early on, and she finally brought him back. But he's not the real problem, no he was never strong, and as you can see, you were able to defeat him quiet quickly. Rogue is the real problem. She was a cunning goddess, and a powerful one in her own way, even though she was only a minor goddess. She has connections. Or had, at least, I don't know now."

Mihalis folded his hands on the table and pushed his hood down revealing black peppered hair and deep blue eyes. "We're going to need Ares a god again to defeat her. I think we need to have a little chat with your father there, Ares."

"I doubt that he's going to hear you out, Mihalis," Hercules interrupted. Mihalis winked,

"Oh, I think he will, I'm a great friend of Zeus too."

Eyebrows went up and Hercules scowled.

~[***]~

They stood in the temple of Zeus, surrounded by lavish surroundings as Mihalis called out to the god of gods. Zeus appeared, in a flurry of wrinkles, looking slightly annoyed when he saw Ares. Mihalis put up a hand before either of them could say anything and Zeus seemed to calm down a little.

"Mihalis! My old friend, how are you? What are you doing here?" He chuckled. Xena raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. Looks like Mihalis had many friends.

Mihalis calmly told Zeus their story, and watched as his frown got bigger. Zeus turned to Ares, his arms crossed,

"Ares, why didn't you tell me about this?"

"This is my problem, I can handle it, I don't need to run to my little 'daddy' everytime." Ares growled back.

"This isn't just your problem, Ares. This concerns all the other Olympians. Rogue is a threat to all of us."

"A threat? A threat? Oh please. She has no powers. The only thing she had was some measly shape-shifting thing from her weakling of a god, who we KILLED! She's probably still chained up at my temple."

"Well, Why don't you go check?"

"Because you took away my godhood!"

Zeus sighed, deciding, then gave up.

"Fine, I'll give you your powers back." Ares grinned as the power flowed through him. He glowed golden of a minute and he was transformed back into the god of War. Ares flexed his muscles and arched his back.

"Yeah! I'm back!" Xena tugged at his arm,

"Then let's go and check up, and you better not get to high on that high horse of yours." Ares took Xena's hand who took Gabrielle's who took Hercules'.

"Uh-uh, he's not coming with us." Ares pointed a finger at Hercules. Hercules scowled, which he does a lot in this story.

"Yes he is, Ares." Xena said,

"But whyyyy?" he whined,

"Because I said so." Ares pouted, and Xena just glared.

"Fine, but only cause you say so, Princess."

In a flurry of sparkles, the four of them dissapered. Zeus shook his head, and after a moment, he dissapered also leaving only a dusting of gold behind.

~[***]~

Rogue was still chained up. She crouched on the floor and growled as she saw the little group come up. Ares kneeled down,

"Having fun?" She jerked at the chains, trying to lunge at the god and roared. "Whoah, come down. You're a viscous one. On better terms, I would have invited you into my armies." Xena rolled her eyes. Same old Ares.

"Come on, Ares." Ares turned to Xena and grinned,

"What's the matter princess? Getting jealous?" she rolled her eyes again. (AN: a lot of people seem to be doing that in this story, eh?) Finally he stood up and walked up and out with Xena. ~[***]~

Xena was tired, so she went to bed early. (AN: cause that would be the sensible thing to do...I'll shut up now.) In her room, she smiled and snuggled under the fur covers. Aah, after months of sleeping on the GROUND, it was nice to finally lay on silk sheets. She slowly drifted in and out of wakefulness. Sometime, she heard a priestess come into the room and blow out the torches, leaving the only the moon for light.

Down in the basement, in chains, Rogue howled. Her humanity was slowly slipping away. She hated being in chains. She had been tugging and pulling at them all night, and all though the chains were unbreakable.the walls of the temple weren't. With a muffled grunt, she tugged one more time, and the chains came loose from the wall. She breathed a sigh of relief, and stretched like a cat. Wrapping the chains around her hands so they wouldn't drag, she slowly crept out.

Opening a door to one of the rooms upstairs, she grinned evilly. The weapons room. She didn't have much time, so she grabbed the nearest dagger next to her. Walking though the hallway and past the doors, she closed her eyes. She could sense Xena. She was to the left, right, left again, through winding hallways, here, here was the door. The door didn't creak as she opened it and found the great warrior princess, sleeping and vulnerable. Gripping the knife tightly in her right hand, she crept closer and closer to the sleeping form..

To be continued!!!!!