Chapter 9

Young Hercules Era

The Hercules of this time was still standing, both literally and metaphorically, between Veila and the group of strangers.

Until he made his decision.

At the same time however the choice was also being made for him.

"Hercules," Hope/Veila said, she was sounding somewhat dejected and distant at the first moment, "if this is your decision..."

She took the same fireball she had just formed in her hand to attack Xena and the others and now aimed it at him instead.

"... then I have no other choice," she stated.

"Hercules!" Xena called out a warning.

But he had already seen it.

He moved aside and the fireball hit one of the trees close by instead and setting it aflame.

Then he moved nearly by pure instinct... and stabbed her.

Hope looked down at Hercules sword stuck in her chest.

"Y-you-... I will not die. I will never..." she said quietly, before she sank down lifelessly.

Callisto followed by throwing an energy-globe right at Hope´s unmoving body and burning it down to ash.

"Just to make sure," she commented flippantly.

She was actually right, Xena and Eve knew. As much as this seemed to be overkill, it was not. And not even this would take Hope down for good. Her already immortal physical body might have actually been able to regenerate the stab-wound alone.

Not that it made a difference in the long run. Hope would `survive´ either way.

Everybody was looking wordlessly for a few moments at the scene for a few moments. Hercules starring down at the remains of hs companion for the last few weeks, who he had been coming closer and closer to.

Xena and Eve knew exactly what was about to happen.

As Hope´s supernatural essence rose up from the remains and reformed itself into a vaquely humanoid shape.

This was the other side of Hope´s existence. An incorporal, practically indestructible, godly spectre. This was the way she had come back being poisoned by Gabrielle and burned on the funeral pyre all these years ago and after being stabbed by the Destroyer.

And so would she be back now. For the moment however the incorporal being was only floating in the air motionless, seemingly starring back at them, before it disappeared, leaving them for the time being.

The real question however was: What now?

One thing was clear, this here was not meant to have happened, none of this.

xxxx

As Hope, their Hope, had admitted to them a long time ago, her confrontation with Hercules was meant to play out when they had arrived at the temple that was the final destination of their trip together.

She and the older Hercules had together explained the entire story to them all, after Hope had brought it up to him.

But instead it took now place right here, far too early.

And Hope would return to the future afterwards, to stay in bodiless form for a while and reform herself around 27 years after her `death´ in Potidaia.

Now it was questionable if she would ever do that or if she would just reform her body here in the past to come back for them.

xxxx

They had accidentally changed the past, they all realized.

What would that mean for their time? This incident could uproot the entire future like they knew it if Hope did not return like she was meant to.

Maybe with the help of Callisto and maybe some of the other gods they could turn the events back to how they were meant to be - maybe?

"Who exactly are you people?" the Young Hercules asked them. His voice showed a mixture of regret and conviction about what he had just done. But he was clearly holding himself together.

And they also still had a version of Hope running loose here in the past. A Hope who was still their enemy.

"My name is Xena," she replied.

There was no real point in hiding the truth anymore right now, she decided.

The events had already gone off-track and they might need this Hercules help to repair them.

"This are Eve and Callisto." She pointed at them. "And we are from the future."

The young Hercules looked at them for a few moments wordlessly. It was not clear if he actually believed them. Or if he even considered it.

"You realize this is a bit hard to swallow, even for me?" he said. "Can you proof it?"

"It is actually not the first time," Callisto said. "I was the one who has tried to kill your mother before you were born - you know," she said. "And the girl you just stabbed was the one who had send me in the first place."

She said this as if there was nothing wrong about it at all.

Xena and Eve both instantly turned their faces to her.

If they hadn´t already known that Callisto was crazy they would have no doubt now.

Truly a way to start a relationship, Xena told herself sarcastically.

And Eve thought something in pretty similar lines.

"But they send your old friend Iolaus after me through time and he saved her," Callisto mentioned.

Hercules hesitated. This actually matched what his mother had told him about that incident. It however also caused him to get into an more defensive stance and lift his sword lightly.

"Of course I have switched sides and we are all friends now," Callisto continued without giving it any mind. "Or something like that," she said as she noticed Xena and Eve glaring at her.

"What?" she asked them. "He actually does believe us now, right?" she said.

Yes, he did. Callisto´s knowledge about that events actually seemed to have convinced him. But...

"But that does not mean that he trusts us," Xena replied.

"We are not your enemies Hercules," Eve said to him. "Well - maybe Callisto has been. But she is under control right now."

"Besides - I am a god," Callisto pointed out. "Do you really think if I still wanted to harm you, I would just be standing here and talk to you?"

"Probably not," Hercules admitted. "Alright - I will listen to what you three have to say."

xxx

What they feared was actually true. The already damaged structure of time and space had been interrupted and needed to be repaired if they ever wanted to return home.

Either they - or their own time´s Gabrielle and Hope, who were still far further in the past.

xxxxxxx

War of the Gods Era

Hope and Gabrielle were after their `audience´ brought to a large luxerious room. A room with expensive and elegant looking furniture, including two large and similar elegant and expensive looking beds, which Gabrielle´s eyes were stuck on for more than a few moments.

The reason for that however was not the room, but the reason why they were brought here in the first place. And what was obviously meant to happen on this two beds.

"I still can not believe that he wants us both to..." Gabrielle said.

"Actually this here is not so off from his point of view," Hope stated. "After all I am an immensily powerful halfgod and you are an immortal woman who had already given birth to an immensily powerful halfgod." She pointed with her hand to herself as she said the last part.

"So objectively seen we are both ideal concubines for a god. On the first look at least," Hope continued. "And that we are mother and daughter should only be an unimportant detail in this matter to a god like him.

And our `old friend´ Assur is not only a god, but the king of an entire Pantheon, who is more than used to getting everything that he wants. Why should he not want us both if he thinks he can have us both?"

And not just any Pantheon, they both knew, but the one that had been arrogant enough to declare war on all the others and tried to conquer them they both knew. But their was no reason to point this out loud right now."

Gabrielle frowned.

"Or maybe he is secretly someone who is actually getting of on the idea," she said. "Aside from old stories we don´t really know much about him before he went completely mad and tried to destroy the universe."

"Possible," Hope replied matter of factly. "But for our situation it makes very little difference," she stated.

"Of course doing it with me could likely end up with the birth of a new Destroyer. But he has no way to know that."

"Given how dangerous your Destroyers are," Gabrielle replied, "he would probably intentionally try to breed a few to use them in his war against the other Pantheons."

"Yes, he would," Hope stated grimly, clearly not liking the idea. "Not that I would ever give him any chance to."

"I know what you mean," Gabrielle responded. "The idea that he could actually... that it has to be that madman of all people." She remembered the (even more) deranged and genocidal Assur they had met in the future. "The thought alone makes my skin crawl."

"We would probably not even be the only concubines in this palace," Hope suggested. "By the stories I heard about the old palaces of Assyria, there were always a number of women around to `serve the king´."

"That does not exactly makes me feel better," Gabrielle stated. "By the way, Assur´s Queen seems to really hate the idea of having us around though."

She remembered the expression on the goddess face. Was this like with Hera and Zeus, she thought. Her King was going after other women and she was attacking them over it?

"That is probably - at least partly - because in opposite to some random mortal woman, we are actually a threat to her position," Hope replied earnestly. "Don´t worry, I will deal with it if that goddess tries to do anything to us."

"It should not really matter anyway, right?" Gabrielle stated. "I mean we can leave here anytime we want, right? We can leave here anytime. You can move through time and we know now in which period we are. So you can just bring us back right now, without Assur or his Queen ever making a move on us. And then we can find Xena and Eve and get everything back to normal right?"

She truly wanted to get away from this crazy place here.

"It is not that easy," Hope replied. "Yes - we know are at some point during the war with the Assyrian Gods. But that war was decades long. We have no idea when exactly we arrived. Before I risk another jump though time, I want to have at very least something like an exact date.

I don´t want to risk to arrive 50 years too far or too early and damage the timeline even more," she stated. "We don´t even know if the damage Cupid´s actions have caused are completely repaired."

"I understand," Gabrielle said drily.

She knew Hope was right, even if she hated the idea of staying here any second longer.

"And we have to avoid changing too much in this time either. So keeping a low profile is it," Gabrielle repeated what they had already discussed before. "We are just two refugees from another Realms who came to this country by coincidence. And were brought here."

"Yes exactly," Hope said. "Do not worry mother. They don´t know the full extend of my power. In the moment someone makes a threatening move on us, we will be out of here. Maybe not to another time, but at least far away from this wretched palace."

"Okay," Gabrielle replied.

Hope had been deadly serious during the entire conversation.

But now suddenly a thin smile appeared on her face.

"You know," she said, "part of the problem is that we are simply sooo incredible attractive." She now talked in an melodramatic and obviously exaggerated tone.

"You know how glad I am that my appearance is the same as yours mother? It means that we both are the most beautiful woman of all times after all. With men, women and gods falling for us left and right."

Hope lifted her hand and laid it on her own face in a haughty looking gesture.

Then she moved her hips and wiggled her entire body in a lazsively looking way. But she did it so exaggerated and obviously over the top that it was more than clear she was joking.

Gabrielle could not help at her halfgod daughter´s antics and broke out into laughter.

"Okay - okay, that is enough. If you wanted to cheer me up, you have done it. Just stop," she said, still chuckling.

But then after a few seconds, she turned serious again.

And so did Hope.

"Like I said, as soon as I know the exact year we are in, we are out of here and back to the future," she repeated.