Title: The Newcomer

Rating: PG-13ish
Pairing: Xena/Ares
Summary: After turning 17, Ava, Xena's cousin (distant of course), is confused about what to do with her life and goes to the Goddess of Warfare and Wisdom for advice. Little does she know that she has caught the attention of a specific god, Athena's son.
Status of fic: WIP
Author's Notes/Disclaimer:Xena, Ares, Gabrielle, and anyone else who sounds familiar to the Xena or Hercules series are property of MCA, Universal, and Renaissance Pictures. No copyright infringement was intended in the writing of this fan fiction. Takes place in towards the end of the second season and beginning of the third, somewhere in between, after The Dirty Half Dozen.

Sorry it took do long to update but i was swamped with things to do. Well, here's the next chapter and hope you guys enjoy it.

Chapter 6:

Lucius paced around his tent. He would give Xena and her little friend sometime before he attacked them. Lucius' quest to become the greatest, fiercest warlord would have to wait for a few days while the warrior princess and her friend waited in anticipation for the attack.

"Sir, the men are ready to attack at dawn," a soldier interrupted Lucius' thoughts.

"We wait for a few more days; Xena is no fool. She probably has the area secured and is ready for our attack. If we wait long enough we might catch her off guard and be able to capture her pathetic friend and well, from there we'll work on it," Lucius said as he let out a malicious grin.

Ares stared at the young God in front of him with a mocking grin and then let a burst of mocking laughter out. He had to hand it to the God of Vengeance; it was a plan, but it could always use improvement.

The way he had found out that the God was up to something was simply because he had noticed Alecto acting a bit strange and he questioned her; Alecto, longing for Ares' attention, ended up telling him. Once he knew that Julian was up to something, he asked Alecto not to tell the rest of the Furies or anyone else, and sure enough she disappeared with joy, feeling proud of her accomplishment of getting a few minutes of the God of War's attention. Ares knew that what Alecto had told him was not exactly the entire plan because that was one thing the God of War had taught his nephew, never to lay out the entire plan out to anyone else. However, after telling the young God that he knew he was planning something and it would do him no good for he would figure it out, Julian told him what it was he wanted and planned.

"You know Julian, if your mother, my dear sister," he said sarcastically. "Were to ever find out what you were planning on doing, I would never hear the end of it."

"Well, considering that you have been a huge participant in my upbringing, I could see why and I am still planning on continuing it," the young god replied.

Ares started to walk around the hall and look at the murals on the walls not really paying much notice to them. He was thinking about his nephew's plan.

"If I were you, I'd rethink about telling Alecto anymore of your future plans. She's very eager to please me and will divulge anything to get my attention," Ares said and turned just in time to see Julian's expression turn rather dark.

Julian glared at his uncle. "Actually, I can see that every female—mortal and immortal—seems to give you their attention and want it back…all except one," Julian then let out a smirk.

"Well, thanks to a certain brother of mine, your beloved uncle," Ares added with contempt. "—Hercules—I have had my setbacks. Not to worry, I have a way of getting on with my plots; however, being that this discussion has to do with you, I'll get to my point: you are going to have to drop this plan of yours," Ares said getting back on the reason as why he was there in the first place.

"What do you propose I do then? Let her go on without avenging her family's death? She went to my mother for a pep talk not to pledge herself as a new attendant. " Julian said getting infuriated with his uncle's interference of his mastermind scheme. He then got up from where he had been sitting and started on with his justification to continue his plot, "News flash: I'm the God of Vengeance."

Ares smirked at his nephew and said, "Calm down now. This girl went to your mother for advice, which would be the very reason why she would be upset if she found out what you plan to do. I don't think you'd like to get on your mother's bad side would you? That's all I'm trying to say; think about it."

With that Ares turned to leave; he thought it better to leave Julian with his current thoughts. However, little did the God of War know that his nephew was not about to let this opportunity pass him by. The younger god had heard from a certain family member—Discord to be exact—that Ares had a current Warlord, Lucius, who was during some serious damage to villages and according to Discord, this warlord was on a mission to get rid of Ares' precious Warrior Princess to take the place of the "greatest and fiercest" warrior.

"There are many ways that this certain vengeance scheme can benefit…both of us," Julian spoke before Ares had disappeared completely. He then saw his uncle begin to turn and it was then that Julian knew he had caught his attention; Julian smirked.

"Oh, this ought to be good; please enlighten me," Ares said with a hint of mockery and turned to face the younger god. He knew his nephew was now up to something and wondered why exactly he had even thought that this certain god should be trusted to leave matters alone, after all he was much like himself.

"The way I see it, we both want something. You: your warrior princess back while on the other hand I want this young mortal girl to take her vengeance," Julian paused and smirked before he continued, knowing he was getting to the infamous God of War. "Now, I know you might be wondering why exactly I even care about this. Well first off, I had a perfect plan for the young mortal and as the God of Vengeance it would make sense for me to take pride in what I do and second, well when I put my mind to something...well you know it's very difficult for me to let go of the idea."

Ares was quite frustrated with his nephew now, "Yeah, but what does any of this have to do with Xena?"

Julian smirked once more and began to inform the God of War of the new plan that had formed in his head.

After taking a bath, Xena went back to her campsite with a rabbit she had caught for her and Gabrielle's dinner. She found Gabrielle writing in another of her scrolls. When she saw her friend coming back from her trip to the stream, she looked up.

"So, I guess we're having rabbit tonight," Gabrielle said merrily.

"Yeah, thought you might be tired of eating trout so often," Xena said as she started to cook the rabbit. "I see you went to pick wood for us."

"Yeah, I thought that I might as well do something to help around since you seem so tired."

"Thanks. So what are you writing about this time?" Xena asked.

Gabrielle looked down at her scrolls, "Well, at the time I'm not so sure what exactly to write about. Maybe I should write about how we're stuck here and from there I'll figure something else."

"I have been thinking of a plan to try to get us out of this forest without being caught by Lucius and his men; however, I 'm still thinking of other options," Xena said without lifting her eyes from the rabbit that was cooking.

"I think there's a reason for his army waiting and not attacking at an instant."

Xena finally looked up, "I'm thinking the same thing."

"Same shift as yesterday night?" Gabrielle asked but noticed that her friend looked very exhausted. "You know what, maybe you should sleep first and then I'll wake you," Gabrielle said smiling.

"Alright." Xena went to lie on her bedroll and before Gabrielle knew it, Xena had fallen sound asleep.

Gabrielle glanced at the sleeping form of her friend and then looked up at the sky wondering why they were even in this situation.

Miles far away from Greece, in a temple that belonged to Athena, which had been built by a few Greek followers that had migrated to Hispania, lay a girl sleeping in a slumber of dreams that consisted with the task she had been asked to perform by the Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare. Little did she know that the task she had been asked to perform would not turn out the way she kept imagining it to be.

Well, hope you enjoyed it and hopefully, i'll be able to update soon. Sorry if it was out of character and weird; it has been a while since i last wrote. Feedback really appreciated.