Chapter 11

And once again they were waiting - this time for the two Olympians to continue with their work.

"We have found something," Ares had just told them. "It is written here, the way to open a gateway between the dimensions. It is a ritual, not too complicated actually, but it will still need some time to study."

There was only one problem… One being from their makeshift group, they truly had no intention to take along with them.

"Ares," Xena1 said to him, "we can not take that creature back with us."

"Oh... you have no choice," Chaos announced in a voice that actually sounded as if she was singing.

Of course she had heard every single word. They were standing too close to each other to even hope they would get the chance to talk in secret.

"Do you think I don´t know that?" he answered. "You will just have to trust us."

"Trusting you two?" Xena3 questioned. "Who had ever thought that it would come down to this in the end?" she remarked sarcastically.

"Like she said, you have no choice," Discord replied.

Chaos, overhearing this as well, started to laugh once again.

"This is just fantastic," she stated. "All the friction between you, the deep relationships, the differences, and yet the will to cooperate, to work together for a common goal…. You are so interesting, far more exciting than the townspeople had been."

"Is that all this is to you, a source of entertainment?" Gabrielle1 asked her.

"Everything? Everything, you say? You talk as if there is actually anything more important than that in the universe. Little human, you just don´t understand."

"What do I not understand?" she asked with visible anger.

"Do you really want to know? Look…" Chaos answered and pointed to their left. Gabrielle followed her movement and saw Callisto and Sarah. "Look at them," she told her. "They are from one of the other many versions of the world you came from. One of your worst enemies, your husband's killer and your own niece. Or maybe she is not truly yours, right? After all, they all here are only doubles from other worlds.

Can you see their conflicting feelings about this situation? Their complex relationship to each other? It is exquisite. And not only them, but everyone here.

And not only here, but in all the worlds out there, in the entire universes. Countless completely different living beings and even countless different variations of the same beings, all of them in conflict, and all this diversity, all this…. well….chaos. It is paradise out there, all the possibilities…Do you actually think I would bring the end of the world? Even I could not destroy all that, even if I wanted. Not anymore, the physical world has grown too much by now. I will only...shake it up a bit."

"You will still cause more than enough horrid damage," Xena1 said. "Countless people will die if you do something similar in our world."

"Living beings die all the time. The only real questions are who, when and under which circumstances, now that's what makes it interesting," she responded.

"Interesting?" Xena repeated, "and you wonder why we don´t want you to come with us?"

"No, I understand your reasoning perfectly well," she answered. "Everything you see around you is part of the challenge, you know? I am excited to see what trick you will use in order to try to stop me. So Ares, Discord, don´t let me wait," she called over to them.

"We'll do our best," Ares replied sardonically.

Chaos only grinned once again and walked a bit further away from them

"Crazy bitch," Ares stated quietly.

"Well, she is your ancestor," Xena1 reminded him, "by four generations I think."

"I always had my problems with the family," he replied.

"I see," Xena commented.

"So you expect us to just sit around here and let you two do whatever crosses your sick minds?" Xena3 asked him.

"Yes I do, because like she said, you just have no choice. At least we have a plan. Can you say the same thing?"

She didn´t respond.

"I understand that you have some problems trusting us, given your past with my double," Ares said. "But you have no other choice in this case."

"Yes, but as I remember normally it was you who were responsible for most of this problems, either with the family or with them," Discord remarked.

"Not every time," he defended himself.

"Only most of the time, right? ," she stated smugly.

Both Xenas couldn´t really help the grin that started to form on their faces.

xxx

Meanwhile, Chaos had found another person to talk to.

"I see you are doing it again," she addressed Delilah, "standing around, doing nothing. But you seem somehow...different. Is it what the others have said?" she wanted to know.

"What do you want?" the female Destroyer asked her in an irritated voice.

"You are interesting, very much actually. You know, I can feel Darkness present inside you. How is he being called now, Dahak, was it? Tell me, how is he?

Oh I remember the old time. When it had only been Light, Darness and finally me in the universe. Light was always creating things and either he or me were always busy breaking them. Those were good times."

"I have never truly spoken to my grandfather," Delilah responded. "I don´t know much about him or the God of Light."

"Oh yes, I forgot…You were brought up as a tool for your other family members and their allies, right? No need to actually tell you anything about your heritage."

Delilah growled. This reminded her all too much of her previous conversation with Perdicas and Gabrielle.

"The question is, what will you do now?" Chaos asked her. "Yes, that truly is the question. I am really looking out for the answer."

xxxxxxx

They had done it.

A few hours later when Ares and Discord were finally ready to begin the ritual.

They had found it carefully written on one of the many pages of the Necronomicon, placed between descriptions of unholy magical formulas so terrifying and dangerous that no mortal or immortal in their right mind would consider using them, terrifying tales about creatures from unknown realms, techniques to summon demons and use mortal beings as their vessels and other nightmares.

"We've just found what we have been looking for," Ares let the others know. "….a way to get back to our worlds. This ritual here will open a gateway between the dimensions and open the paths back to our worlds." He said, pointing to the opened pages of the book that he had placed on a large rock.

"The ritual is not very complicated," Discord- who stepped next to him- added. "We only need a little something from all of you- a few drops of blood. The blood-sacrifice is part of the ritual. Actually we will only have to spill it once. But since we want to travel back to our different worlds we need more, one sample of blood for every world we want to reach."

"Is that all it takes?" Sarah asked.

"Well, and we need to recite an ancient formula from the book," she answered.

"Right, and then we will only need to establish into which of the universes you will bring me," Chaos interrupted them. "You know…. I will do you a small favor. I will leave this choice up to you," she said with a satisfied smirk.

"What?" Gabrielle1 called out. "You don´t really expect us to..."

"Oh yes I expect you to...I expect you to choose yourselves which of your worlds to sacrifice to me. It will be more than fascinating to see you taking such a decision on your own.

She began to laugh, while the others were looking at her angrily.

"You can start thinking about it, by the way…." she stated.

xxx

They were all standing next to each other. None of them seemed to know what to do.

"What now?" Callisto asked them.

Her question was answered by grim silence.

"This is madness," Gabrielle1 exclaimed. "Whatever dimension we choose, that world will end up devastated."

"We can't really choose anything," Xena1 said. "But if we don´t, she will just do it for us. She knows that, but she put us into this impossible situation for her own amusement."

"Maybe..." Xena3 spoke up, "...given that we have no choice, maybe we should send her to my world. It is already a disaster area ruled by a manical god anyway."

"You can not really mean that," Gabrielle1 called out. "Even if your world is in a terrible state, there are still countless innocent people living there."

"You are right, of course," she replied. "I am a horrible person…. I know that."

"You have gone through terrible things," the Bard reminded her.

"That were my fault in the first place," she responded.

"As much as I enjoy the sight of Xena hating herself," Callisto interrupted them, "I think we have greater worries right now."

"She is right," Xena1 told them. "But that doesn´t bring us any closer to a solution."

"A small part of me nearly wishes we could bring her to my world," Perdicas said. "It would be a real lesson for our so called `rulers´."

"But everyone else there would suffer as well because of it," Gabrielle2 pointed out this time.

"I know," he replied. "That is the reason we can not really do it. Even if she destroyed Ares and his Queens, she would not stop there."

"We have to think of something else," Gabrielle1 said.

"Leave it to us," Ares told them. "Let us perform the ritual. I think we might have come up with a pretty good idea about what to do."

"But..."

"Leave it to us," Ares said a bit more forcefully. "We know what we' re doing."

There was something about the tone of his voice. He didn´t seem like the Ares they knew from the past. At least not right now. Something about him told them that he truly meant it. Besides, what else was left for them to do?

"If you say so, I guess we we'll just have to trust you, this time," Xena1 stated.

"Plus, just like Discord said, we have no other choice," the other Xena answered.

"Nice that you see it like that," he commented. Then let us begin now."

xxx

They were doing it. This was a decision they had made.

Now however they had to deal with the one that was really important. The question where to send her to.

All of them, with the exception of Chaos and their two prisoners Eve and Delilah, were standing in a circle, and each and every one of them had offered some of their blood, hoping for the ritual to work.

By what they had red, it shouldn't matter if the one who gave it was mortal or immortal. But just to be sure, they preferred the one of normal humans.

They were just about to begin. They could only hope that their current trust in Ares and Discord was not misplaced. Before they could fully start the ritual, though, they were interrupted.

"Wait," none other than Eve called out. "Listen to me. Chaos, I want to make you an offer."

The others saw now that she had freed herself from her shackles. No wonder – she was who she was after all- Xena´s daughter. In spite of that, unarmed, as she was, she wasn't really a threat against anyone else present.

At least not alone. But she wasn´t alone. That was the problem. There was also Delilah and she was the only one there, besides Chaos herself, who had access to all of her powers. She definitely was a threat, even by herself.

"Oh really? A surprise, I see," Chaos remarked. "I am listening."

"Help me defeat them and leave the Necronomicon to me," she said, "and in exchange, I will offer you my world."

"No," Perdicas shouted horrified.

"You can not do that," Gabrielle1 exclaimed.

"With the help of the Necronomicon we can conquer other worlds," Eve stated, not really seeming to care about the consequences of what she was just suggesting.

Xena1 could barely believe what she was hearing. This was another unpleasant reminder to her of just how evil Eve could be if things came down to it, not only this one but her own Eve as well. How bad she had actually been before she was changed.

"You have awoken my curiosity," Chaos told her. "I will wait and see if you can really deliver up on what you promise."

"Delilah," Eve addressed her, "Help me. Kill them all," she pointed at the others, "and then let us return home, together with our new ally Chaos," she ordered.

But to their boundless surprise they all saw that the Destroyer was just standing there, refusing to move from the place. She looked as if she was in deep thought.

"No," she finally answered a few moments later.

"What? What are you saying?" the daughter of `Queen´ Xena asked her in anger and sheer surprise.

"I won´t do what you say," Delilah repeated.

Eve could not believe what she was hearing. This was their chance, finally. They could achieve what they had come there for. Okay, there was a price. They would have to give up their current empire, let Chaos have it. But if the power of the Necronomicon was as great as Ares and her mother had claimed, they could easily conquer a new one. With their own powers and with the book, they would be invincible, masters of entire worlds.

And now...just when this was finally a tangible situation, this...this Destroyer was resisting her, this `thing´ that was bred by them as nothing but a weapon.

"What do you think you are doing?" she shouted at her. "I gave you an order. You are a Destroyer. You have to obey me, to fulfill your mission. That is what you were made for."

"Yes, created only to serve your purposes, to fulfill your wishes and follow every whim. That is exactly the point."

"What did they tell you?" Eve asked, looking at Gabrielle and Perdicas.

"Nothing that I didn´t already know" she answered.

"You traitor!" she growled.

"Says the one who had been using me from the day I was born" Delilah replied.

Not far from where they were, Chaos broke out into laughter. Soon enough, Eve realized that in fact she was laughing at her.

"So this is what your promises are worth…" Chaos commented. "It seems you don´t have much luck here."

Never before in her life had she ever felt this humiliated. But given the situation she was in, she swallowed it down. This was too much of a chance to let it slip through her fingers. So in the end, she actually had to act friendly with this disloyal Destroyer.

"Delilah," she said instead, "I know things have not been ideal in the past. We should have shown you our appreciation more. You were extremely important to our plans after all. I realize that now. Help me and I can guaranty that everything will be better. Your parents will be proud of you and you can choose as a reward whatever you wish."

"Too late," Delilah responded. "My mother was the only one of you who had ever treated me with even an inch of respect. But in the long run, it is not enough...not when the rest of you treated me as nothing but a tool.

And by the way, it is not hard for me to see that you are lying Eve."

It was at this moment the tyrannical Queen lost her demeanor and with that her façade.

"Respect," she yelled, "you want respect?! You are nothing but a tool and when all this is over, I will personally make sure to turn you to ashes! You deserve nothing but…"

She never came to end this sentence, as she was suddenly cut off and let out a stifled cry. Then, they all realized that a blade was sticking out of her chest as she was stabbed through her back.

"You will do nothing," Xena3, who was standing right behind her and was holding the sword. It was the last that she heard before Eve´s body sank to the ground.

"You've killed her," Gabrielle1 stated in shock.

"She was not my daughter," Xena replied.

"One Queen less to plague my world," Perdicas simply commented. He had no compassion left anymore when it came to these four.

"She was unarmed, defenseless," Xena1 said to her in an accusing tone.

"Like Hope you mean? Like Ming Tien? Like Callisto when she was sinking into the quick-sand?" she mentioned with a side-glance to the version of her who was standing close to them "Don´t act as if you haven't done something like this before. She was worse than either of them. I don´t have a Eve where I come from, so I don´t share your sentimentality towards her."

"You can spare this argument for later," Ares interrupted them. "We still have another matter to deal with first."

"That's correct." Chaos spoke up, reminding them. "I am still waiting for your choice. What world have you decided to bring me to?"

"You will see very soon," the War-God told her. "We are beginning the ritual now."

Once again, they all formed the circle. Both Xenas, Perdicas and Sarah were all cutting themselves and spilled a few drops of blood unto the stony ground where Ares and Discord were preparing the ritual.

Ares held his sword directly over one of them, on the blood. Then he turned back towards Chaos.

"I have chosen the blood-sacrifice of one of them," he said, "just as you wanted. Do you want to know where you will be sent?" he asked her.

"Why not let it be a surprise? " she replied.

"Just the answer I expected from you," he responded. "No let us prepare your journey."

He pointed the sword into her direction. Despite his barely present powers he could feel the portal between the worlds beginning to open.

A few moments later they could all see it, as it started to form right behind Chaos' physical incarnation.