"Do you really need to kill every last man?" Ares asked Xenia after one particularly bloody battle. "For not giving over all of their crops."
"Is the God of War telling me that I shouldn't be warring?" she said it lightly, but there was a hard edge to her voice as well. There often was these days.
"No, of course not." He didn't point out that she had done the very same thing that she had considered inexcusable in the Slavs. "I'm only saying was it necessary?"
"They didn't surrender as I asked. Rebellion can't be tolerated. Are you gong soft?"
"No," he said through gritted teeth. "I'm thinking that children grow up to resent their father's killer, and I wouldn't trust the widows and mothers not to want your head on a silver platter either."
"Let them try," she said, brushing that thought away with the foolishness of youth. "Nothing I can't handle."
"Empires that give a little consideration to the people they take over don't last as long. Do you think the Romans conquered only because they had good battle strategies and extreme brutality? They let the people keep their gods and their customs. They didn't completely roll over them."
"I am not the Roman Empire," she said and then she patted his chest patronizingly, announcing the conversation over by turning her back on him.
She was overconfident, heartless, and so authoritative that she wouldn't listen to anyone but herself, not even to a god. He'd loved those things about her. Still did, but he missed the Xena who considered others and wasn't too proud to take advice even though half the time she still did as she pleased.
He almost thought about seeking out Gabrielle's reincarnation himself to help change her from her course, but then she looked at him with those eyes of hers that told him to follow her into her tent to expend some after-battle energy and he was lost, drowning in their depths.
Pleasure and pain rolled into one. That's how it was with them. And he supposed that was how it always would be.
sss
He knew the minute his temple was desecrated with an unholy presence and he appeared there at once.
"Come to worship me?" Ares asked sarcastically.
"That'll be the day. Actually I heard about your latest protégée."
He glowered at the overly muscled half god who had unfortunately inherited an unnaturally long life, but Ares spoke glibly as if his presence didn't irritate him beyond belief. "Good to know her fame is spreading. Do I know how to pick them or do I know how to pick them?"
"You can imagine my surprise to hear her name was Xenia," Hercules said,
"a dark-haired warrioress with striking blue eyes."
"What are you implying? That would fit the description of any number of women."
"Normally I'd agree except for reports of her terrifying battle cry and her unrivaled skill with a chakram. Still going to deny she's not a reincarnation of Xena?"
"I never denied anything. What is your point?"
A true worshiper started to come in and Ares slammed the door shut from where he stood.
"Impressive," he said sarcastically, folding his arms. "Are your refound powers worth darkening her soul again?"
They were thoughts he'd thought himself, but they stung even more coming from his self-righteous half brother. "What are you going to do about it? Teach her to see the error of her ways and then sleep with her before you go off again on your never-ending heroic quest?"
"I guess so except the second part is optional."
He knew he was goading him to test how strong this renewed worship was making him, but that didn't mean it didn't work. He answered his rage and came at him fists flying.
Ares didn't consider himself a brawler and fighting based on strength alone was pretty futile as they were evenly matched in that regard, but there were times when fist hitting flesh was pretty satisfying.
He refused to use his powers. They were still on the weak side. He only had one active temple, and there wasn't exactly a line waiting outside the door. He had to reserve them for the right time.
"I grow tired of you," he snarled at last after the temple looked a little worse for the wear due to the fighting.
"Strange, I was just about to say the same thing about you," Hercules said.
"Funny thing about the passing of time as I'm sure you're learning, you can get all your ducks in a row and think things are going to be exactly as they were in another time or place, but they never are."
"That's almost philosophical of you."
"I'm just giving you a heads up. You'll not find an easy time of it this go-around." He teleported back to Xena's encampment miles away. Eventually Hercules would find his way there, but history wasn't going to repeat itself in this way if he had anything to say about it.
