Chapter 43
Athena sat upon her golden throne pondering the information she had just received. How could she have been so oblivious to her brother's advances towards Xena? Why hadn't she ever mentioned anything before? She should have known something was up, Ares had been sniffing around her months ago, and she should have known he wouldn't give up that easily. He was like a dog with a bone once he set his sights on something and this time, that something happened to be Xena. From the moment she saw the way he looked at her warrior from that battle against him all those months ago, she could hear the wheels turning in his head. He probably already had a nice plan worked out between him and her warrior to somehow weaken her defenses. But at the same time she found it hard to believe that Xena had so willingly given in to the War God's deception.
At the sound of footfalls, she looked up to see Xena walk into the throne room.
"Athena..." Xena slowly made her way further into the throne room, "I was told you wanted to see me?"
The Goddess regarded her warrior for a moment, still not wanting to believe all that she had just heard. Maybe it was just a rumor after all, with all those women around, everything was possible.
"It has been brought to my attention that my brother has been a constant pest to you." she said, gauging her for a moment to see what her reaction would be at her words before she continued, "Why haven't you informed me of this? I've could have put a stop to it long ago."
This was definitely not what Xena was expecting when they told her Athena wanted to see her. She was confused at the fact that the Goddess didn't come to her herself like it normally happened, that she had to get word like she was lower in rank. She wondered why she was questioning her about Apollo now, she hadn't seen him in months. Not since Ares had beaten him to within an inch of his immortal life.
"Athena, I assure you it has been some time since Apollo has even tried..." she was quickly cut off by the Goddess' questioning response.
"Apollo?" she asked in shock, cocking her head to the side as she thought about that option for a moment, "I'd rather much preferred it was him."
Xena appeared even more confused at her statement, and seeing the look on her warrior's face Athena continued, "No Xena, I'm not talking about Apollo. I'm talking about Ares and how he has been constantly putting himself in your presence."
Xena really had no idea how to respond to this. She knew Ares and Athena held no affection towards one another- on the contrary- and she could understand why not telling her about Ares and his visits, she might have angered the Goddess. She didn't know where this was going but had a feeling that things were not about to end well for her.
"Have nothing to say on the matter, do we?" a part of Athena was hoping that the information she had received was wrong and her top warrior wasn't in cohorts with Ares. Seeing that Xena wasn't denying though, only confirmed it, "It disappoints me to know that you have been so easily corrupted by the likes of him." she said in a disapproving tone.
Corrupted... Xena thought to herself, what was she talking about? "Athena that's not what's happening..." she tried to defend herself but was once again silenced by the Goddess before her.
"Not happening?" Athena questioned surprised, "Xena, are you trying to tell me that Ares hasn't been meeting with you, training you and the two of you haven't been going over battle plans together to plot against me?" she said in a condescending tone.
Xena couldn't deny it and thought that in a way he has been doing exactly all those things and more but he wasn't corrupting her and they certainly weren't plotting against her. The Goddess had been barely even mentioned if at all on his visits as he was only interested in gaining her allegiance. Plus, she wasn't stupid she knew how to handle Ares. With those thoughts in mind, Xena now started to wonder how Athena had came to know about her time with the War God. No one had really been there when he was around for those scenarios that she was talking about.
"Athena I know how to deal with Ares." she said sternly trying to convince the Goddess.
The Goddess of Wisdom, seeing how blind the naïve warrior was at Ares' attempts to lead her down the path of destruction, tried to open her eyes to get her to see who he really was. The last thing she wanted was to lose her to none other than that conniving bastard.
"Ares will only use you to spite me. He will string you along and once he has had his fill with you, he will toss you aside and move on to the next person that has the unfortunate chance of catching his attention. He knows I don't want him near my warriors so if he can get one to belong to him to foil my plans..." this time it was Xena who dared interrupt her.
"I don't belong to anyone!" she said with a bit of anger that she would even suggest that she did belong to Ares, even though everything inside of her was screaming that she wanted to be his and the pendant she was wearing laid heavy against her chest as the words left her mouth.
"Yes, he's always around but we are not planning anything against you." she explained, and her words were true because she knew from the moment the War God had presented himself to her he wanted nothing more than to turn her into a fierce warrior and show her what Athena had not and those plans didn't involve in any way his sister. He only wanted to teach her…
Athena couldn't help but chuckle at Xena's attempts to actually defend her manipulative brother to her in this situation. She had no idea that he was using her and she obviously didn't have a clue about how his mind worked.
"All Ares does is plan against me Xena. If he were to let's say… woo one of my warriors to his side it would be a huge win in his eyes."
"Ares is not wooing me anywhere!" she said firmly, hardly believing that Athena thought she was really that blind, that unable to pick up on when she was being deceived. The War God and herself might have shared a few heated moments together but he had never lied to her of what his true intentions were from, the start. He was completely truthful with her from the moment he first offered for her to join him. She had never detected any deceit in his words and he had proven his willingness to understand her behavior with the few times she had pushed him away.
"Oh, isn't he, now?" she said with a smirk, "Well, was he not, quite successfully I might add, about to defile you last night? Weren't the two of you ready to fuck each other, in my own temple of all places? " she said the last part with an under tone of anger.
Xena was caught off guard at that last statement, she now knew how the Goddess had come to find out about Ares, though she wasn't entirely surprised. But that was not something she was going to discuss with Athena, not when she wasn't quite sure what was really happening between them herself. She kept her gaze locked with the Goddess', she knew that what she almost did with Ares in Athena's temple was a betrayal in her eyes. She knew very well that they would have both given in to each other had they not been interrupted no matter where they were. The fact that it had been in her temple though was what made it worse.
"He has enough priestesses for that. I'm warning you Xena, stay away from him." she said with a bit of concern, "I'm afraid I can't over look your indiscretion." she said regretfully, "You are to report to Astra and head to Vironas and help rebuild the town from a recent raid."
Xena's eyes grew wider at her orders. "Athena surely my skills are more useful elsewhere then cleaning up a town. As the General of your warriors I can't abandon my duties."
"With your latest actions I've removed you from that position." her voice was flat, "Until I can trust you again, you will be under the command of Astra."
"Astra?!" Xena got instantly angrier as she spat the name out, "Athena this is a mistake and a waste of my time and yours."
The Goddess did not like at all that Xena had dared think she knew better than her what to do and the blunt disrespect she was now showing as if she was something more than the pathetic mortal that she was, was starting to irritate her. She had let it go at the beginning of their conversation out of the years of loyalty she had shown before but she needed to be reminded of who was the one that was the God and who was the one that needed to obey.
"As the patron Goddess that you serve you will obey my orders!" she said firmly, "Ares might have filled your head with these silly notions and from what I've gathered he lets you do as you please, but I am not him and you will do as you are told!"
Xena flinched at her words, she had never liked being told what to do. She stared at Athena with a stony gaze, refusing to give her any type of answer.
The Goddess could clearly see the rage that was forming behind her eyes and thought that she had seen that same look in someone else before but couldn't really place where she had seen it. She knew she had to tame her warrior from the freedom that another had coaxed her into. "Until you can prove your loyalties again you will report to Astra."
Xena said nothing and kept her jaw clenched, for she didn't trust what she might say at this point. She turned away from Athena and proceeded to leave the temple.
"Oh, and Xena?" Athena called out to her and she stopped in her tracks and turned her head to the side to acknowledge her, "Do stay away from Ares."
She gave no reply and continued to walk out of the temple.
Athena watched her go and knew regrettably that her warrior was now a lost cause. Ares had gotten his hooks into her and they were in too deep for her to try and get them out. She might have rethought that notion if Xena had shown any type of sign that she was indeed being led astray. But no, she had actually tried to defend the God of War and his actions to her as if she was the one who didn't know how Ares' sick mind worked. And the fact that Xena couldn't even tell that Ares was slowly trying to tarnish her, told the Goddess how strong the War God's hold over her was. No, she needed to show the others that with treachery there were consequences to their actions and no matter what their position was within her ranks, no one was above punishment. Although her penalty was going to be a little more extreme than it should have, she was not going to let Ares finish coaxing Xena over to him. She would sooner kill her then allow her brother to make a fool of her by sweet talking her warrior away. She heard the foot falls of another as they now approached her throne.
"Was that her?" a man asked.
"Yes, I will deliver her to you after mid day." Athena responded as she continued to stare down the corridor that Xena had just went down.
"What is it you would like for us to do with her once you do?" he questioned.
"You can do whatever you wish with her. She is no longer under my protection and is of no concern to me. All I ask is that you make her suffer in the worse way possible for having betrayed me." Athena spat, leaving the man there as she vanished from her temple.
The dark man just smiled ominously as he began to think of all the ways in which he could do just that. He had caught a brief glimpse of her before she left and he knew him and his men were going to have a lot of fun with her. Oh yes, he would make her suffer alright and by the time they were done with her she would be nothing more than a used up whore.