Really curious what you all think about this turn of events. Let me know!

Enjoy guys!

Chapter 5: Jappa's mission matters

"Xena!" Ares whispered her name like a prayer. Relief washed in waves over him when he saw his princess move her eyelids and her head slightly towards his voice, now her blue moons looking back at him. Finally!

"Xena!" Her name fell from his lips, hope and enthusiasm in his voice.

She moaned a little before whispering his name back. He immediately took her limp hand from the bed next to him into his and kissed her palm slowly and gently, over and over again.

"Don't talk Xe!"

Xena moved her hand from his towards his face, caressing his cheek. Was she dreaming? Was Ares here with her? How? She wasn't sure…She closed her eyes again to the attempt to recompose herself. Where was she first of all? What happened? Her mind was racing trying to find an answer to all those questions but the only reply was a bad migraine.

Ares's palm covered her hand on his face, kissing her backhand again, never letting go of holding her hand as if he did she would disappear.

"Ares!" She needed answers and more than that to know if he was real. Her big blue moons rested on his face, taking him in. It was comforting to know that she was not alone, that he was here.

"Yes Sweet! Are you in pain? Do you need anything?" He began fussing about it.

Pain…she was uncertain. Her head felt heavy, just like her body, so damn difficult to move too but pain was maybe too much to describe her condition.

Ares let her hand back on the bed while he moved to check her forehead for any sign that she may not be cured, but fortunately everything appeared to be alright.

"How…" She tried to find some answers.

"I'm here!" He quickly replied, caressing her black strands that were resting on the white sheets.

"What happened?"

"Don't you worry! You are safe now." He added quickly.

Safe? The word ringed a bell…Jappa, Akemi…she was supposed to be dead…Her mission…Did she fail? Or was she really dead and this was just part of her imagination?

"Jappa…" she uttered slowly, letting her mind to travel there.

"Forget that god's forsaken land."

The anger and raw pain in his voice took her by surprise and brought her back to reality. She was alive alright and somewhere else.

"Where am I?" She finally asked, trying to stand in a sitting position.

"Home." He only said but the pain at the thought that he almost lost her, was still there in his voice, lingering.

She lifted her eyebrow in her characteristic manner and that put a small smile on Ares's face because that little gesture meant that she was back to being herself.

"I mean…my home." He explained. "Olympus!"

"Olympus?" Her eyes widened and just as fast she was up in one instant.

"Hey!" Just as quick Ares was near her helping her keep her unsteady balance.

She was still a little pale, her hair falling like a cascade on her shoulders, her big blue eyes piercing his chocolate ones and he was bound to keep his breath at how beautiful she was even right now, when death almost took her…she looked like sunrise on a bright new day.

"Oh…" One hand moved towards her head and the other on his shoulder not expecting to be dizzy.

"Did it pass?" he asked with a little concern in his voice.

"I was probably too quick!" A small smile appeared on her face and he just basked in it but just for a short moment cause soon reality forced itself into his life, like it always happened. It was like destiny refused to give him a happy ending.

"You said Olympus…but how?" She was very confused.

"Don't you remember?" He probed carefully.

"Sure not."

He nudged her to sit down on the bed again and she complied ready to listen to him. Ares took a place near her and started talking.

"I don't know all the details but I just found myself called by the irritating blonde, she was desperate like never before…When I saw her I just knew that you were in danger and…"

"No…" She realized where he was getting at. He intervened, he saved her. For a fragment of time her heart warmed up thinking about it but then it all crashed on her…because of his interference those poor souls were doomed and she failed them once again.

"No…" Tears formed in her eyes. She shook her head in denial getting up from the bed again.

"What?" He asked confused.

"You don't understand Ares…I was where I wanted to be."

"What are you saying?"

"I…" She remembered everything now…The last thing that she saw was a sword directed towards her and from then on it was a blank sheet.

"Speaking of, didn't you say you were planning to left Greece for Egypt? Why where you in Jappa?" He tried to ask with detachment in his voice but the ache and agony that he felt since that moment that she told him about it slipped back into his mind and heart, bringing back the sour taste into his mouth.

This question popped many times in his head since he saved her, trying to understand why would she lie to him…but no answer came. The answers were kept by her.

"It was a mission in Jappa…it came unexpected." Xena tried to shrug the question off.

"What kind of a mission?" He was now standing tall in front of her.

"You know, the usual stuff…"

Ares's eyes narrowed at her but he let it drop…for now.

"Are you hungry?"

"No…but I want to go back."

"Back?" Was she really serious? He was sure as hell he won't move one single finger to bring her back to fucking Jappa. As far as he was concerned, Gabrielle should be the one to move her ass back in Greece- that if she didn't already- if she wants to see her friend, cause Xena wasn't going to leave this place anytime soon even if she may think something else.

"Yes…I promised those peoples my help and they will be getting it." Xena added sure of what she wanted.

"Sorry to disappoint you Sweet but in your condition you can't travel. You almost died." He tried to deliver the news to her on a calm tone wanting her to understand why he was behaving like that and giving her orders. She needed to rest for some days.

"I can take on some ether travelling and I feel fine now, thank you."

He was surprised a little, first because she was kind of wanting his service which was unusual but understandable being on Olympus and all. Did she really thought he will just comply and set her on Japanese ground to have her risk her life again for those petty mortals? She was dead wrong.

"Who said I will bring you there?"

"Well…you don't need to come, just send me…"

She looked at her not quite believing what he was hearing. Was she delusional? He wanted to yell at her. Couldn't she just stay put for once, couldn't she just see what this did to him, that he can't lose her.

"Well…it's…you took me, you bring me back. That's how it works Ares!" She clarified.

"Not a chance in Tartarus!" He raised his voice feeling that he will burst if this chatting kept going the wrong way.

"Ares!" she advertised.

"Don't! I almost lost you today. I won't let you…"

"It's my choice do to how I please with my life. You have no right." She started to lose the little patience she had with him until now.

"I may not, but you are here now, in my place, in my home…you do as I say!" The tone of his voice didn't let confusions about the fact that he won't cooperate at all.

"And what? You are going to imprison me here?"

"If you are so kin on making it back to your friend…yes" he responded sure of himself and his desires.

"Gabrielle!" Her friend name rolled over her lips, her mind thinking for the first time since she woke up at her. She didn't know either about her sacrifice, she was for sure worried …Now more than ever she needed to go back.

"Gabrielle can wait." Ares added on a more pliant voice. "Why weren't you with her by the way?"

Xena's big blue eyes lifted towards him. She didn't want to tell him why.

"The blonde never leaves your side, always sticking around but just for that small amount of time she founds herself on another battlefield. Strange, isn't it?" He tempered his voice. He was doing a great effort to not let things go the wrong way. To contain himself.

"No, Gabrielle…she grew up very much in this past years. You saw it yourself. She had her part in the mission and I had mine."

He started moving in the room, still talking and trying to get the truth out of her.

"Yes, but why send her on a full battle to fight alone and fight who? There wasn't one single person in that forest apart from her. The battle was on another place…" and saying that, pieces of the story started to fall back in place.

"You…you…Xena…" he started to laugh manically, pain filling his lungs, tears starting to gather in his eyes thinking about the reasons of why she would do such a thing.

"You send her there, knowing she would be safe…" he spit the words out as poison. "…and you deliberately let yourself all alone…one warrior against thousands…Are you insane? Nobody can do that alone…the outcome…" He paced furiously towards her, gripping her arms painfully, making her look at him.

"It was something that I needed to do…alone." She looked straight into his eyes and she saw perfectly the moment when he flinched, when he realized what her mission really was.

"It was a fucking suicide mission."

He let go of her as if burnt, finding very hard to believe she would do that…ever.

"I didn't have a choice…souls are trapped there…souls that didn't find their peace…People that died because of me." She tried to explain and make him understand.

"The blonde didn't know either." He scoffed. "She would have talked you out of it. Of course…now I understand."

"I couldn't beat a soul eater without being one."

"I don't fucking care about lost souls." He urged the words out.

"But I do…" By now she tried to explain it to him but it was a lost battle, he won't ever understand.

"I needed to save them…still do, it's…"

"The right thing to do?" He mocked her, ending her phrase with her words. "No…you are staying here." He commanded, letting no space for debate.

"Ares…don't do this…I'm serious."

"Me too…dead serious…You just want to go back to finish your lunatic job…to die. I ain't gonna let you…not now, not ever."

"What? I…"

With a simple flick of his hand she was just as fast back asleep. Her limp body fell in his arms and he gently put her body back on the bed. She looked serene, her vital signs back in full force. He felt miserable thinking about doing this but seeing how set she was on killing herself he didn't saw another option then do what he promised himself and her, he won't ever, that it will always be her choice…He would have wanted for it to be her decision as anything else was, but this time things were different. He was going to protect her even against her will with the biggest risk of them all: finally having her hate him for good and with reason too. He was sure she won't forgive him this time so easily, if ever.

He quickly made a golden apple appear in his hand. He had one, the one that Xena herself gave it to him, how he regained his immortality again…He made a deal with the North God and he received that one apple, leaving with the promise to never go back in that land again.

Anyway he took the juice from it and approached the bed again.

"I'm sorry that it had come to this Xena…but between you hating me and you being alive, I chose your life…always. I love you!"

With those last words he brought the liquid to her lips, making her drink it all.