A strong gust of wind suddenly blew around her as Athena, Discord, Deimos and Hades then materialized before her.
"Tell me Xena, how does it feel to know that you'll be dead in a matter of minutes?" Athena pronounced, her arrogant smile appeared painted on her face as she stood tall among the four gods.
Xena did not reply instead she stared at the 'immortals' as if they were prey.
"So where is the child?" This time it was Discord who spoke.
"None of your damn business" Xena answered through clenched teeth.
"It doesn't matter whether you tell us or not, cause after we're done with you we'll find where you hid her"
"That's only if I don't kill you first" Xena replied in a warning tone.
"Ha, good luck with that" Discord snickered as she and Deimos drew their swords and rushed towards the warrior princess.
Xena only smirked as she swiftly moved out of the way and severed a small rope, which was hanging beside a tree. Without any warning three arrows shot out from above the same tree and embedded themselves into Deimos' chest.
The god gasped as he looked down to find blood dripping from him. Disbelief was written all over his face, and though his mouth began moving it seemed no words could come out. And with a loud thump he fell dead to the ground.
The others were momentarily frozen from shock.
"But how?" Was all Discord said before she felt a blade slicing through the flesh of her lower back. The goddess released a shrinking scream as the pain ran through her body. Immediately afterwards she felt a knee connecting with her stomach and her arm being pulled back and popped out of it's socket.
"Hope you didn't think I was going to kill you quickly. Oh no, it's going to be slow and painful" Xena whispered in her ear.
"Discord!" Hades yelled when he saw the goddess fall to her knees. Forming fireballs with his hands the god threw them at Xena. Who just laughed as she flipped out of the way and leaped towards the two panic faced deities.
"Miss me" She said landing beside Hades. With a thrust she drove her sword into his side and watched as he crumpled to the ground.
Fear could be seen in Athena's eyes and for a second it seemed as if she was trembling.
"Guess who's next?" Xena taunted.
And as Xena slowly made her way towards the goddess, Artemis and Hephaestus then appeared. And with them returned the cockiness and arrogance in Athena's features.
"Looks like your out numbered again" She said to Xena.
"It won't change the out come, you all will still end up dead" Xena replied.
Artemis and Hephaestus stood baffled by the scene before them. Deimos and Hades lie dead and Discord was groaning in agony. Snapping out of her temporary shock, Artemis quickly pulled out 2 arrows and shot them at the warrior princess.
Xena jumped out of the way missing the arrows by a split second. Tossing her chakram in the air, she watched with amusement as the gods ducked and weaved as they tried to avoid the sharp edge of the steel disk. Xena waited a moment before coming up behind Hephaestus and severing his head from his neck with one rapid swing. Artemis was about to lunge for the warrior princess when she felt the edge of the chakram connecting with the flesh of her arm.
Ignoring Artemis, Xena turned her attention to Athena, and in a few quick steps she had made her way to the deity of wisdom. And as Xena neared Athena she began swinging wildly at her, as if the goddess was merely a piece of meat and she the butcher. Athena blocked all of Xena's attempts but not without some difficulty, and she soon found herself being forced back.
Xena continued to hack at Athena until she saw an opportunity, which she gladly took. She lunged at the deity once more but this time when Athena jumped back to avoid the sword's blade she unknowingly set off a trap.
Xena suddenly dashed to the side leaving a confused looking Athena behind. A swooping sound was all the goddess heard as she turned around to see a large log hurtling towards her, but by then it was too late. Athena was thrown into the adjacent tree as a result of the impact. She fell to the ground like a rag doll, but was still alive.
When Artemis witnessed this she attempted to rush to Athena, but in doing so she had once again let her guard down. For a second time Xena's chakram connected with her body this time leaving a large gash at her side.
The warrior princess walked out of the bushes with a triumphant smirk on her face. She was contemplating whether the finish off Athena or Artemis first when she heard a groaning sound. She turned to found Discord still lying on the ground barely conscience.
She went and kneeled down beside the goddess. Once Discord saw Xena's face a look of fear came over her.
"No, have mercy" The dreadful goddess plead.
"Like the mercy you showed Gabrielle" Xena replied, as her face darkened. "Say hello to the others for me" Xena then plunged her sword into the goddess.
Discord screamed as she felt not only the pain rip through her body but also her very existence coming to an end. With the last ounce of strength she had Discord yelled out. "He was the one who saved them", hoping that Athena would understand.
Athena and Artemis watched as Discord joined the others. They knew it was pointless to continue the fight and so the two remaining goddesses vanished hoping to regroup.
Yanking her blood covered sword from within Discord Xena swiftly caught her chakram from the air. Xena herself was also covered with blood none of which were her own. She stared at her blood stained hands a moment before leaving and returning to the cold, damp cave. Her feeling of victory turned into sorrow as the thrill of battle had worn off.
She now stood beside the body of her fallen friend. Tears began falling from her eyes because she could fell herself falling back into the darkness. And it seemed that all the things she and Gabrielle had fought for were starting to vanish before her.
Meanwhile Ares stood in the chamber of one of his temples with Eve, waiting for the battle to end. Both he and Xena saw it fit that Eve was as far away as possible from the fight, that way she would be out of harm's reach.
The god had begun pacing back and forth, even though he wasn't present at the battle he could still feel the heat and intensity of the combat. A strange feeling then came over him and he knew it was over. He waited a few minutes before opening a small portal. An image of Xena appeared, she was kneeling down next to Gabrielle's body. He could see that Xena's body was trembling from held in sobs.
"She's still grieving" He said to himself.
Eve then began to whimper as she tried in vein to reach for her mother through the image.
"Hey what's wrong?" Ares asked, as he tried to calm the restless child.
Then as if she had understood what he had said Eve cried out "Mama".
"You're crying because she's sad" He realized. "I know what you mean, I don't like it when she's unhappy either"
Eve's whimpers suddenly stopped and she looked at him with her tear filled sapphire eyes as if begging him to grant her wish.
He looked back at her and understood. "Don't worry she won't be sad anymore, I promise" And with that it seemed the god had sealed his fate.
Xena sat immobilized on the cold, hard ground. Her raven hair was in disarray with the long black strands practically covering her face. Blood still stained her skin, and her weapons lie on the ground beside her.
Suddenly she looked up, something wasn't right she could feel it. Someone else was there within the cave. The warrior shot up with her sword in hand. Her eyes roamed around the cavern as if looking for the invisible intruder.
"Who are you?" She asked in a threatening tone.
"It's just me" Came a familiar voice. Aphrodite then appeared with her hands raised in a surrendering gesture. The goddess was unusually dressed in all black, and there was not a trace of pink on her body.
However Xena still didn't lower her weapon.
"I've been here with her the whole time, I just want to help" The goddess said hoping Xena would believe her.
Slowly Xena lowered her sword and turned away from Aphrodite.
The goddess walked pass her and kneeled down beside her lost friend.
For a few minutes there was only silence between them.
"I'm sorry, I wish there could have been another way" As Xena spoke her voice was soft and low. She understood why the usually lively deity was now dressed in all black.
"It's alright, I understand why you had to do it… There was no other way" And that was all the love goddess would say about the matter. Her attention turned to Gabrielle. "When they told me she was gone, I didn't believe them" She said looking at the bard's lifeless body. "She didn't deserve to die, not like this" Tears began rolling down the goddess' face.
"I need your help" Xena now stood behind her.
Aphrodite wiped the tears from her eyes before getting up then she simply nodded in response.
"I need you to bring me to Mt. Olympus, maybe I can get Athena to change her mind"
"And what are you going to do? Killer her if she doesn't agree?"
"I have to at least try" Xena replied almost pleading.
Aphrodite thought for a moment before answering. "Okay" She then took a hold of Xena's arm and within moments they had vanished.
And just a minute later so did Gabrielle's body.