Phoenix Risings: Necro-Gate: Part 2 Epilogue
An attachment to the Phoenixverse.
By Silent Bob Foley
It had been a very long and tiring six weeks for the members of the gang, slowly each had begun to realise that they had really made it through the hell that had been Ninedinna's domain.
Unknown to most of them as they relaxed and started to loosen up, the entire group were watched from the shadows by a scantily clad but heartbreakingly attractive blonde haired beauty.
None of the group had noticed her appearance in the room or her hiding in the shadows. She was capable of secluding herself from all but Godly senses--making sure that few if any in the room could see her or even sense her presence. She was physically there her powers could make most glance over her without acknowledging her existence.
A single voice spoke out, followed by another until each of them started to talk about their time on other planets and meeting those thought to be ancient or mythological. She watched them as one by one they started talking and laughing, some crying and in some cases snuggling up to their companions,
The smiles on their faces and the obvious closeness pulled at a few of her heartstrings- as the goddess of love she had a lot of them.
What had been lost in time and mythology is that Aphrodite herself is very much in tune with the love between people and sometimes she can feel it to her very soul, as a god she did actually have a soul but unlike many in her family hers was almost human in its capability to feel. She had to learn the hard way in Outwold while seeking for the Astral Rod.
Turning from them, she felt something she hadn't felt in almost five millennia as a single tear fell from her eye. Slowly she touched her face and felt the tears of a goddess…something most Olympians are incapable of and something that enemies of the gods would kill for.
She tried to edge away knowing any teleportation would alert several of them to her very presence something she didn't want, she chided herself for appearing in her mortal corporeal form and tried to escape from the room.
"Have you ever felt alone in a room full of people." Asked a voice from behind her, shocked she spun round coming face to face with one of Hercules mortal friends, the young man named Xander she knew, one of those to which her powers were all but useless as his own heart was as capable as her magic.
"Xander…"
"Come with me Aphrodite. We need to talk."
She was surprise to find her self-following him almost stunned into obedience by his actions and the command in his voice, the goddess of love felt her arm taken by a forceful but gentle hand, and guided to a chair outside on a balcony. She sat down with Xander in front of her.
She pressed her palms to her eyes attempting to remove the evidence of the tears, but even so, the red rims of her eyes put pain to that. They did not in the slightest way detract from her beauty, the redness of her cheeks made her look prettier and it was something she didn't realise.
"You gonna be ok?"
"Yeah, Sweetcheeks. Of course. I'll be fine. I am a goddess after all. Why wouldn't I be?"
His face turned incredulous at that, looking at him, she could sense the loneliness that had been his life for so long, his eyes showing her the truth of who he was and that he didn't believe a word she said.
"I asked you if you had ever felt alone for a reason. From what I know of the Greek gods and tales from Hercules, it's a busy place and a large family surrounding you, you may all be different but you're family."
"What's this got to…" Aphrodite began.
"I'm getting there. You need to listen to this, I'm no god, but I do understand how you feel."
Aphrodite snorted and stood up to walk off.
"Wait please." his grasp on her arm regained its purchase.
"Let go of me, X-babe. You never put your hands on me. I'm a goddess."
"You can get out if you want, Aphrodite. Use your power to get away from me. I've seen your powers. Use them."
"If you don't let me go, I will."
"No you won't." Xander paused and looked directly into the goddess' eyes, "Because you know I'm right. Please just listen to me and then you can go."
Aphrodite stopped struggling against the mortal boy…man, she knew that she could have removed him with a thought. But hadn't something in his voice had stayed her hand, a true note of peace and friendship, not the normal lust and lies that a man would pit against a woman, but a pure request to listen.
She sat back down and awaited his speech; the sooner she could get away the better. She had important things to do, her mind told her things to make her believe that she didn't want help…not after being alone so long.
"Twelve years ago, I started school. I was around a lot of people all the time. We all got along pretty well, but as we got older, things changed. Friends became enemies, and the few you got close to were your life, but sometimes, just sometimes, even they seemed to leave you out."
Aphrodite shifted in her seat as she listened.
"One of my oldest enemies is a girl called Cordelia Chase. I know you know who she is. I've seen her true face. Not the Queen C style one, but Cordelia- the real girl. I'm the only person who has ever seen that face- and I see it in you now."
"You don't know what you talk about! I have plenty of people that have been friends with me! I'm never alone. Now if you will excuse me I'm going home."
As she prepared to leave, his rejoinder penetrated the haze of teleportation, and as she left it echoed in her head. An echo that would ring throughout her soul…for a very, very long time.
"Believe in your heart, because nothing else is as true to you."
Hercules' Home.
Midnight
The entire Scrappy Gang plus the few allies that are still with them, all crashed out on the floor, beds, sofas etc. However, there was a single exception. Xander Harris sat outside on the balcony looking up at the stars. He wasn't surprised when he heard a shift of fabric behind him and a meek voice ask him something.
"Help me."
He turned to see Aphrodite, beautiful Olympian goddess of love, nigh immortal, as well as practically invulnerable and powerful beyond all humankind looking like a frightened girl.
He stared at her in surprise at her appearance. However, her blond hair was flopped against her face and her clothes looked a little bedraggled. Removing his coat he wrapped it around her shoulders. She didn't need it to keep warm but for both sides it seemed like the right thing to do.
She had obviously been crying again- her defences were low and the sniffling told Xander all he wanted to know.
"Tell me the rest." She asked him.
And he did.
He told her of the abandonment of his parents after the death of his sister- the fact they no longer cared for him hit home with Aphrodite in many ways, the almost loss of his friends over the years and the death of Jesse. His best friend made her realise so much about the fragility of human life. More so than the time she had spent with Joxer and Gabrielle had shown her.
The more she talked, the more she let go her tears. They soon began straining Xander's shirt and her own blonde locks as they ran down her face. Xander pulled the beautiful goddess closer and rocked her gently as she spilled the pain and anger in her very soul out for the first time in her long existence, and for the first time allowing her to really feel… Human!
She told Xander about how she had been brought up only to be one person and that she had no choice about what she was going to do. Aphrodite told him about how she had felt her own heart break only once and sworn never to let anyone close enough to do that again. How she had seen real love replaced by pleasures of the flesh and, how she hated that she could do nothing to stop the decline in people's love for each other.
Lastly, she told him of all the things she had tried to do and, how many had gone wrong when attempted- and the fact that all she had tried to do was help. However it had taken the recovery of one of the truly great loves she had witnessed to help her live again
Her life had shown her that like some humans, she had been alone and few had ever cared for her, this young human littler, more than a young human and powerless at that, had made her feel like she belonged. Made her feel safe and wanted--the feelings she had only felt from two others- Hephy and her friend, Joxer.
"Were all looking for the few people we can really care about. I'm lucky to have found most of mine in such a small amount of time, sometimes I do feel alone. Aphrodite, we are never always with people we love, but you have to remember some of us are always there for those we care for. You have Hercules, Hephaestus, and now…me. You don't need to ever feel alone again."
"No. She doesn't. We'll make sure of that." A voice peeped up from the doorway. Dite's head shot up from the comforting place on Xander's shoulder where she had shed her tears. Through her blurred eyes, she saw a lanky dark haired figure approach them.
"Joxer?"
"Hello, Aphrodite."
"What are you doing out here…" She tried once again to remove the evidence of tears from her eyes, she failed as Joxer approached. He had long been the shoulder for Gabrielle, Meg, and her girls and recently a few others much like his newfound friend Alexander had been for the women he knew.
He had long been sensitive to the troubles his friends had had and knew the signs of distress better than most, and Aphrodite was no different.
Moving away from the doorframe so their conversation didn't disturb their groggy compatriots in the other room, he approached the tired looking Xander and the trembling 'Dite and babbled out an almost apology.
"I heard voices so I came outside, I didn't mean to interrupt but I heard what you both said." He sat down opposite the two of them.
"I'm pretty sure the two of you know my past and my own family troubles…my triplet brothers, my father, my mother, we weren't close. The only real family and friends I've ever had were Xena and Gabrielle. I had sometimes friends like Herc, Auto and Salmonius but I was alone a lot of my life and I wouldn't wish that on anyone." He paused and took a deep breath.
"I almost lost the one person I truly loved because I never did anything about it, I lost my friends and my family, my time and my life to that loneliness. I won't let anyone else take that route."
Standing up, he then sat down next to Aphrodite and took her soft and delicate hand in his own rough ones.
"You've only ever tried to help me Aphrodite. Sometimes, well sometimes, it went awry, sometimes things got embarrassing. Like the three naked Gabrielles." She got a small soft laugh from Aphrodite making her spirits lift a little more,
"I know you never meant me harm. You are too much like your brother Hercules to try that, you are a good person Aphrodite, and I swear on my honour you will never be alone as long as I'm around."
"Why are you two doing this? You have your families here, your friends and now your true loved ones." Xander's head popped up at that nugget of information but let her continue. "I'm just a goddess one of a hundred gods that are no longer needed and rarely thought of."
"No. Dite, you're not one of a hundred, you are one in a million and one of a kind. You are Aphrodite--my friend, and we don't need you to be anything else." Joxer said from his heart.
That was the last straw for Aphrodite, untold millennia of self-doubt, loss and pain slammed out of her in waves of tears, clutching her to his chest. Joxer took Aphrodite and sat her down, he looked her in the eyes and she sat he crouched in front of her two sets of shining eyes staring at each other.
"You never have to turn your face from me. I am still yours to command as it has always been." He dropped to one knee and bowed his head to her in true warrior fashion.
One again the blonde goddess let her tears flow and grasped around the neck of her friend Joxer, the first true friend she had ever had and now one of two people that were willing to allow her to be who she really was, and not who she was thought to be both by history and by her family.
Xander left the two of them at it, or at least tried to, as he moved his hand was grabbed by the tearful blonde goddess and pulled into her arms replacing Joxer from inside her embrace.
"Thank you both, I wish I'd had people like you so long ago."
"You needed a friend Aphrodite, now you have two."
"Damn right." Responded Joxer.
The rest of the night was spent with the three of them talking and looking at the stars. Aphrodite had never felt safer or more at peace in her life- she was finally at a place she could call home.
Early next morning, the three of them cramped and looking a little on the scruffy side entered the main rooms of the apartment. The two white knights walked on when they noticed Aphrodite stay where she was, she looked apprehensive about returning to the room the others were staying in.
"What's wrong?" Asked Xander
"What if the rest of them don't want me around I couldn't no, I wouldn't get in the way. Herc might accept me around but the others might not."
"If they don't trust you then they will trust us. You more than proven your worth us. We need you to trust us- you have started, please allow us to help you with this."
With a little hesitation, she nodded and walked forward with the two dark haired men, heading in through the doors they saw the rest of the Scrappy's eyes widened at their appearance and the appearance of the beautiful Blonde between them. Gabrielle's eyes widened but she kept her mouth closed as she didn't want to give the game away quite yet.
"Guys this is a friend of mine, I met a few weeks ago when I was looking for Buffy."
Damn Xander close but not the truth. thought Joxer
"Tim helped her himself a few days ago, a darkness was after her we both helped her away from it. She's had a bit of a bad time last day or so you think you girls could help her?"
An amused and secret smile radiated from Dite. A smile that lifted the hearts of all in the room for no apparent reason.
Another blonde got up from her chair and approached the older woman, she put her hand out to shake the other woman's. The blonde' girls smile was genuine and friendly as she felt nothing but good vibes and friendliness from the goddess.
"Hi I'm Buffy. It's nice to meet you."
"Hi I'm,… Alex… Alexandra." She said looking at her saviour.
"Nice to meet you. Come on. We'll find something for you to wear and get you cleaned up Ok?" Both blondes smiled at each other as Buffy led the way. Faith followed and introduced herself.
This left the three men: Joxer, Herc, and Xander together with Gabrielle.
Herc was the first to speak up. "What happened?"
Xander and Joxer just shrugged.
"It's kinda private Herc. Needless to say she needed to hear something and we made sure she did. She'll be fine now."
"Just be careful, guys. She's the goddess of love. It wouldn't be too good to let her effect you that way.
Joxer responded, "I do love her though." Gabrielle looked about ready to burst into tears (or a homicidal rage). She was calmed down by Joxer taking her hand and looking into her eyes. "But like a family member. Hey Herc, do you mind sharing your sister with another brother?"
"Not at all Joxer, I think she'd be happy with that." Herc smiled at the lanky warrior. "Be good to have a real family again."
"Yeah, with a family like this, who needs enemies?" Mumbled Gabrielle before she received a cushion to the head from Xander.
"Who indeed?" Smirked Xander.
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The End