Warrior Princess or Slayer?

Chapter Fourteen

"So, what do you say?" Buffy asked. "Send me back?"

Ares had a troubled look on his face.

"So, no one worships us in the future? When did that happen?"

"I really can't say since I don't know how far in my past I am. But from what I gathered from my friends before I came here, I am guessing it's about 2000 years, which is just about the time it more or less started."

"You wouldn't happen to know WHERE it started, would you? Or WHO?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but if I was in my correct time, I could find out for you."

"So if I send you back to where you came from, you'd make sure I got the information."

"Sure."

"And just how are you planning on doing that?"

"Well, I have to admit, it's something we'd have to figure out."

"I see."

Ares got a condescending smile on his face.

"I don't want you to think that I don't trust you, or anything, but I don't trust you."

"Well, what if you send me home just out of the goodness of your heart?"

Ares looked at Xena. "She DOES know who I am, doesn't she?"

"She knows. She just doesn't KNOW you."

Ares thought for a few moments.

"I'll tell you what. I'll send you home if Xena agrees to join me and to lead the most magnificent army ever created."

"Well, Buffy," Xena said. "It looks like you'll be traveling with us after all."

"I tried," Ares said. "If you can convince her, my offer still stands."

And he disappeared in a flash of light.

"You didn't REALLY think he would send you home, did you?" Gabrielle asked.

"No, but it was worth a shot."

"So what did you think of the god of war?"

"To tell you the truth, I was kind of disappointed. I figured he'd be twice, maybe three times as big as he is. And more – godly."

"Maybe that why people stopped believing in him," Gabrielle surmised.

"I think we should be moving on," Xena said. "We ought be in Amazon lands by midday tomorrow."

As they started out, Gabrielle once again walked beside Buffy and Xena and Argo brought up the rear.

"What was that you said about getting your powers after another Slayer died?"

"That's the way it works – one dies and another is Chosen to take up the fight."

"So, who died when you became one?"

"I have no idea. And I never wanted to know. No one knows who the next one will be. That's the job of the Council of Watchers. When a Watcher tells them his Slayer has died -- was killed, they have the resources to find the new one."

"But why only one? And are they always female?"

"That's the way it was set up, only one Slayer at a time. And don't ask me why. I don't think even the Watchers know. And as far as Slayers only being female, again, no one knows. Maybe it's because we have a higher tolerance for pain."

"Not me. I hate pain!"

"I'm not exactly in love with it, either, but it comes with the job."

Gabrielle moved the sleeve on Buffy's left arm to look at the cut.

"That's amazing. I WILL be healed by nightfall."

Buffy turned back to look at Xena.

"What about your injuries, Xena? How fast do they heal up?"

"Pretty fast, but not as fast as yours. You must get a lot of wounds to have to heal up so quickly."

"Slayers get their share of them. We're out almost every night, patrolling, looking for vamps, fighting demons."

"So if you're here," Gabrielle said, "then there's no one where you come from to kill them?"

"Well, there IS another Slayer, but she's . . . not . . . she's not really into the whole Slayer mystique. She's kind of a rogue."

"Didn't you just say there's only one Slayer alive at a time?" Xena had that suspicious tone back in her voice.

"There's only SUPPOSED to be one, but I died. I drowned. But Xander, one of my best friends, gave me mouth to mouth resuscitation and brought me back to life."

"Mouth to mouth what?"

"He closed off my nose and breathed air into my lungs through my mouth until I came back. But I was dead just long enough that another Slayer was called."

"And she didn't want to be one?" Gabrielle asked.

"Oh, no, she loved being a Slayer. Her name was Kendra. And she was good! Good moves, fast, tough, strong. But she was killed by a female vampire named Drusilla. And it was the next Slayer, named Faith, who went rogue."

"I get the feeling Slayers don't live very long."

Buffy turned back to Xena.

"We don't. We're usually called in our early to mid-teens, and it's rare for a Slayer to live to see her 21st birthday."

"How old are you?"

"I'm 21."

Gabrielle felt a chill go through her, and decided she had heard enough about Slayers for the time being.

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