Chapter 76

She was running herself ragged, it was doing irreversible disastrous things to her physical appearance. She scrutinized her reflection in the mirror, sighing exasperated at what she was seeing as she looked over her features with the most attentive detail. Then she saw it, the smallest, almost undetectable signs of dark circles were beginning to form under her eyes. She shrieked out in horror, her fingers lightly touching against the blemishes, wondering what it was that she could have possibly done to have enraged the Fates to this extent to have cursed her with such a cruel punishment. Her of all people!

For crying out loud she was trying to help! The Love Goddess had been searching for the Warrior Babe nonstop for a little over a week. A hunt, one might add, that was costing her a great deal of sleep deprivation, she did not just not self-care over anyone. Her usual twelve-hour beauty sleep and another two-hour self-care routine was severely cut short to the extent that it did not even reach mid-day yet before she set out on her quest again and again. A search that was made way more harder and nearly impossible with the way Ares had hidden her so well. Aphrodite could not sense Xena anywhere even though she looked and looked and looked. She knew her brother's flame was definitely out there with the mayhem she was causing up on Olympus, but word always got back so slowly that by the time she arrived the warrior had already moved on and conveniently no one ever knew which way she went.

Every time the Goddess of Love attempted to use her powers to feel for the Warrior Babe's essence all she would find was the War God instead and she knew exactly where her brother was. Bound and shackled up on Olympus, hence the urgency to find his heart's desire in the first place. She knew what the other Gods were planning and with Ares confined to the side lines she did not think the Warrior Princess stood a chance against their father. And she was not one for tragic love stories, even more so when it involved her brother.

Where was it, where was it, where was it… she was driving herself mad and attempting to calm herself, the Goddess of Love inhaled deeply as she once again continued with her desperate search, steadying herself as she reached out into the cosmos for the faintest hint of Xena that she could find. After several tense moments, the Goddess let out an infuriated breath, once again only coming into contact with the essence of war and frustratingly sent out pink streams of light in the opposite direction, destroying something in the process as it crumbled to the ground. For the love of Gaia, she could not find the Warrior Babe to save her Godly ass.

She rubbed her fingers against her temples, trying anxiously to ease the suffering that she was going through. This was a lot of stress she was putting herself under, more than she had ever remembered having to undergo before. She lazily rubbed her hands against her face as she slowly turned around to survey what damage she caused to her temple and her eyes grew wide at what she had done, and she hastily rushed over to the debris.

Sweet Gaia, she had blown up a statue of herself and she could not stop the prickling of tears in her eyes as she knelt, tenderly reaching out to touch the ruins, she began to weep over the desecrated pieces of herself. This was the real icing on the cake for the Love Goddess, now her temple laid in ruins, she was tired, stressed out and she could not do the simplest thing to help her brother out by being able to find his flame. This warrior way of life was not for her, she could not for the life of her understand how mortals did this day in and day out. She would need at least two months to recover from all the stress this was causing her.

But then, as she sat wallowing, trying to piece together the fragments of her shattered body, gently wiping away her tears as she sniffled over the massacre that was in front of her, she felt it and the smallest thread of hope began to fill her. Oh, thank Gaia, that tiny shimmering spark of the Warrior Babe reaching out to her. It was faint but it was there nonetheless, what the Goddess of Love should have been searching for all along. She chastised herself for not having picked up on it sooner, it certainly would have saved her a lot of headaches over the course of this past week.

She got to her feet with renewed energy, quickly wiping the dust from the rubble off of her clothing. With one final once over glance in the mirror, she was not about to be caught looking like an uncontrollable banshee, and satisfied with her appearance, the Love Goddess swiftly disappeared from her chambers in a shower of pink light and rose petals.

XXXXXXXXXXX

The lightning flashed and boomed over head for days, it was unusual, but all of her men were thinking the same thing… the Gods were angry. But not just any God, the King of the Gods, Zeus. Only he had such a power to control the lightning and her men grew weary at the thought wondering what it was that had angered the Olympian to such an extent.

The Warrior Princess on the other hand just sneered up at the sky, what her men saw as a display of anger she saw as a show of power. An intimidation tactic on the Olympians' part and as if to reinforce that notion, another flash of lightning streaked across the sky, followed quickly by a loud boom of thunder that cracked across the Grecian skyline. The ground rumbled from the intensity of it and Xena's grip tightened around the deadly dagger that hung at her side. It only confirmed what she suspected for several days now; Zeus was now a contender. It did not change her plans by any means, if he had a death wish also, then she would gladly grant him his request. She did not have any qualms about it and given how the God of War had yet to make a reappearance in her encampment, she was pretty certain that he had a hand in that as well.

It would seem that the Goddess of Wisdom could not manage things on her own and had to get another divine deity involved. Only Zeus would have had the means and the power to have kept the War God locked up. It was the only logical explanation as to why he had stayed away for this long and the Warrior Princess knew that it was not in the best condition that he was in either. Sometimes late at night, she could swear she could feel Ares, a daunting dread that would grow within her chest. He was anxious from what she could tell, it was a very intense sensation, and she was not entirely sure if she was right about the feeling.

That was another thing she figured the light show was about, Zeus imposing his hold over the War God. Ares was a very powerful Olympian after all and it would not be so easy to contain him, not unless there were other forces at play. She had her suspicions about what that could be as well. In the next instant though, her musings were interrupted by a shower of unwanted pink lights revealing the scantily clad Goddess of Love as she stretched out on the Warrior Princess' furs, making herself right at home. She certainly was not the God she wanted but the Fates loved to play their cruel games and the hand that they have been dealing her lately only cemented it and she groaned inwardly at her new companion. This was the last thing she needed, favorite sister or not Xena was certain Ares would not mind if she kicked her out on her Godly butt.

"There you are.", the Love Goddess happily greeted, relief filling her at finally finding the Warrior Babe as she made herself more comfortable against the fur rugs. These were soft, she definitely needed to know where she had gotten them from, and she snuggled against them firmly as she sighed out contented.

"I don't have time for you.", Xena quickly snapped out, not liking the way Aphrodite was making herself at home and hoping that would be more than enough to get the Goddess out of her hair, but she was not that lucky.

"Is that anyway to greet someone who can help you?" Aphrodite cheerfully asked her while here eyes took in the rest of her surroundings and not being surprised in the least by the state of her companion's tent, dark and gloomy just like a certain someone, before letting her eyes fall upon her brother's flame and then to the deadly dagger that had everyone in an uproar before quickly glancing back up to meet her eyes.

The motion did not go unnoticed by the Warrior Princess, and she slowly gripped the hilt of the blade, giving the Goddess a warning look that clearly told her not to even try it. She did not consider Aphrodite a real threat, but she also did not think the ditsy Goddess was that dumb either. But given everything that had been going on, she could not be too careful, even with the harmless Love Goddess.

"Help?", Xena asked in surprise, thinking that the Goddess must have utterly lost her mind, "Forgive me if I don't see how you can help me. If I need tips on how to braid my hair, then I'll know who to call.", she had to be blunt with this one, otherwise she would never be able to get her to leave.

"I'm serious Xena…" the Love Goddess said more sternly this time, not liking how she just dismissed her without even hearing her out, she had a lot at stake in this too, "… I can help."

As the words left her lips another earsplitting boom of thunder roared across the sky to signify just what the Warrior Princess was up against. However, Aphrodite was shocked that in the following seconds the Warrior Babe had rolled her eyes at the sound, as if she were growing bored with all the theatrics.

"It was hard enough to track you down as it was after Ares hid you…", the Goddess started rambling, making sure to materialize more luscious pink pillows where she was laying before being interrupted.

"Hid me?", she was not really asking the Love Goddess for clarification, more talking out loud to herself at the notion. Why would he hide her, did he not think she could handle things? Had she not proven that she could?

"Yes, it was why it took me so long to find you. Ares hid your essence, a real nuisance by the way. My guess after that little stunt Athena pulled and…", the words were out of Aphrodite's mouth before she fully registered what she had said, and she regretted them immediately.

"Stunt?!", the Warrior Princess asked heatedly, pinning the Love Goddess with a look that had her instantly rethinking her very existence, "Is that what you call cold blooded murder?"

"Xena I'm sorry…" the Goddess rushed to say, throwing her hands up defensively as she chastised herself for such foolishness, "… I didn't mean it like that."

"Then how did you mean it?", she harshly asked her, causing the Goddess to shrink back in freight at her menacing tone.

"I'm sorry about Lyceus…", Aphrodite sadly told her, she could just imagine the pain she was going through, "… I cannot begin to imagine what it feels like to watch someone you love die like that and not being able to stop it. If you want to talk about it, I'm here."

At the mention of his name and that horrible day, thanks to the Love Goddess' less than careful choice of words, the images flashed within the Warrior Princess' mind. His confusion, the plea in his eyes as they locked with her own across the field, the shock from when he realized what had happened as that sword cruelly took him away from her. The blood that covered her hands as she tried to stop the bleeding even though she knew she was fighting a losing battle.

"How did you find me?", Xena quickly asked, needing to change the subject as she tried to shake the images from her head, she was not having this conversation with her.

"What do you mean?", the Love Goddess asked, not following her new line of questioning.

"You said Ares hid my essence…", she clarified for her, growing more frustrated with how easily the Goddess got distracted, "… so how did you, out of everyone else find me?"

"Your love of course.", Aphrodite merrily giggled out as if it were not the most obvious thing and as if she herself had not spent over a week trying to track her down, "You can hide a lot of things, but you cannot hide that… not from me. One just has to know where to look."

The Warrior Princess just scoffed out an annoyed breath at her reasoning before subtly rolling her eyes at her completely ludicrous answer. But it was true, Aphrodite could feel the way Xena's heart hummed for the War God and do not think for one second that the Love Goddess did not pick up on it when she had first mentioned her brother's name. The Warrior Babe just tried to bury it underneath her rage and anger, but it was there. Delicately calling out to anyone who would listen, and boy was she listening. The Warrior Babe wanted her War God back; she just was not willing to let anyone else know that.

"We need to get Ares out of there.", Aphrodite told her, taking delight in the way Xena's heart fluttered again at the mention of her brother, "But my guess is that is what they want you to do."

"I'm sure Ares can…", but her words were quickly cut off by the Love Goddess.

"No, you don't understand Xena. It is one thing for Zeus to have bound him with Hephaestus' chains…", the Goddess solemnly told her, seeing as her words registered with Xena at the extent of his imprisonment as her own hands unconsciously rubbed against her own wrists at the terrifying thought, "… it's another thing to get the Furies involved."

"The Furies?" Xena questioned, her eyes snapping to the Love Goddess at her words as the thought raced through her mind at just what the War God was experiencing.

The Furies were a nasty trio, used by the Olympians to wreak havoc on humanity for their own personal entertainment as the unfortunate mortal they chose slowly slipped into madness. She had never heard of them being used on a God before, let alone on one of their own Gods. And given Ares' extremely long life, they had a lot of material to torment him with.

"He's living in his own personal Tartarus.", the thought sent a shiver down Aphrodite's spine, and she ran her hands down her bare arms to dispel the horrid notion, "The chains are rendering him powerless, only making the Furies hold over him that much stronger."

"Zeus can't hold him like that forever.", the Warrior Princess said without any doubt in the War Gods ability to take care of himself, "He'll get free."

"At what cost?", Aphrodite softly said to her, not liking that the price for her brother's freedom could possibly end up destroying Ares in the process, "They want you and he's never going to give you up."

The Goddess of Love could feel the torment that the Furies were making the War God endure. It's what made her search for Xena that much more crucial. There was only one thing that could invoke such an emotion out of Ares and that thing was standing right in front of her. She was not sure what it was exactly that they were making him see but she would bet her Godhood that it had everything to do with the Warrior Babe. That's one of the things that they did, they took your deepest fears and made them a reality inside your head. Twisted them to their own benefit until their prey was nothing more than a raving lunatic. How those effects worked on a God she was not so certain, but she could guess they would have cataclysmic consequences. Especially if her father and her sister got what they wanted.

"I don't know what Zeus and Athena have planned exactly and I know you're rather good with a sword warrior babe, but you can die Xena. I can't let that happen, please give me the dagger. It's not worth your life.", the Love Goddess told her pleadingly, hoping that maybe she could end this before things got ugly, she was not sure if she could endure eternity with that type of pain.

"I don't plan to die.", she told her confidently as she took the dagger from her hip and examined it as a cunning grin started to form on her face, "And as for the dagger, it is not going anywhere."

Xena let her eyes roam to the Love Goddess as the wheels of her plan started to slowly take shape. Perhaps Aphrodite might be useful after all, if the Goddess could do her part, then the scales would be tipped in her favor.

The Goddess of Love on the other hand could not understand how the Warrior Princess was being so calm throughout all of this. Her nonchalant attitude towards everything was driving her insane to the point that she wanted to pull her hair out. She basically had the biggest of the baddest Olympian all but breathing down her neck and she was acting like this was no big deal. As if she herself was not mortal, the type of arrogance that Aphrodite was sure would certainly end her life.

"Stop overthinking so much Aphrodite. You're going to give yourself wrinkles.", Xena stated, making sure to jolt the Goddess a little with her statement and not being able to suppress the satisfied smile that graced her lips with the way the Love Goddess touched against her face at the thought, "You said you were here to help, well I have just the thing for you to do."

The Goddess was almost regretting her words with the devious smile that was now lighting up the Warrior Princess' face as she came to sit beside her. Something told her that she was not going to like whatever it was that the Warrior Babe wanted her to do. But if it meant getting the Stud Muffin out of his current torment then she would do it. He had saved her neck on countless occasions, and she was not going to leave him there to rot.