Chapter 12

He was pointing his sword at her, stained with blood and it began. The door between the worlds had opened and the blood was the tracer that could safely lead her to the realm where she was being sent to, amongst the countless dimensions of that universe.

All around her, the power was starting to build up.

Behind them, a glowing circle had formed on the ground as the ritual started, right where the others had assembled around it, shining in a strange greenish light.

The portal had formed. For a few moments, Chaos stood before it in glee, awaiting to be transported to a new world. Then however, she suddenly saw that something was wrong. The ritual was not what she had been promised.

"What have you done?" she shouted at Ares and Discord.

She tried to break free from the portal that was about to swallow her. But it was already too late. Not even Chaos, with all her power could gather enough strength as to free herself before it draw her in.

One second later, she was gone. The rest of the group stared blankly at the empty spot where she had been standing for awhile longer, a bit unable to believe that they had made it so easily.

"Is it over? just like that? " Gabrielle1 asked.

"Hopefully," Ares replied.

"Where is she now? What have you done?" Xena3 wanted to know now. The distrust against the two Olympians that she had gotten so used to during the last decades was still present in her voice. Now however, it was mixed with a new openness.

"She has not been sent where she wanted to, so much was clear, but where then? I have done what you asked for and I trusted you, but now, I want an explanation," she bluntly told them.

"We have just performed the ritual," Discord answered, "however not exactly in the way she had expected us to." she grinned. "We have already found the instructions for it in the book some time ago. All we needed was a bit of preparation for what we have been planning."

"If you have not sent her to one of our worlds, where is she?" Callisto questioned.

"Remember the creatures that came for us, the one that I attacked?" Ares responded this time. "That was the reason we used my sword in the ritual. Its blood was still on the blade. Chaos seemed to have overseen or forgotten this."

A smile formed now on his face, that mirrored Discord´s.

"This being was a creature that existed between the realms. So instead of one of our worlds, we sent her in a place even deeper in the void between realities."

"That is all," Sarah asked surprised, "a simple trick?"

"Let me tell you something, a little secret if you want to call it that. We gods have a weakness. We are often so used to dealing with world-affecting matters, that we sometimes have the habit of overseeing small details."

A few of them were now turning to the Destroyer Delilah, who was still standing next to them, and had just decided to turn against her masters.

"You have made the right decision," Perdicas told her.

"If you think so…" she replied. "I have no idea what to do from now on, though. Serving my father and the Queens was all I have ever known."

"I know…." Perdicas told her, "…but there has to be something else we can find for you. Maybe we can contact Aphrodite. I have heard that she is really not happy about what her brother is doing. With her by our side we could find a safe place. After what happened here they will hunt us down, I'm sure. Together we have a better chance." he offered her.

"If you say so," she answered.

"Now that Eve is dead and you are not longer on their side and if you are willing to, at least with Aphrodite´s help, maybe we can even do something against Ares and the Queens." he pointed out.

"Do you really think so?" she asked. "Doing something against them, fighting them. Do you think that is possible?"

"Yes, maybe," he said actually very unsure. "It is not as if we actually have a choice. They will not simply let you or me leave. For us, it is either fighting or hiding."

"I know," she answered. "You are right. I don´t exactly like the idea of fighting my parents, but it is true; they will come after me anyway. And Xena will want revenge for Eve, on anyone she can blame, not matter if we were the one responsible for her death or not."

"Excuse me, as reassuring as this conversation is, we still have other worries," Xena1 interrupted them. "What we have done here will hardly stop Chaos," she reminded them. "She will be back."

"Yes, but at that time we will already have returned to our worlds." Discord responded.

"Then let us continue. We are from five different worlds. That means we have to open five portals to return us all to the places we came from," Xena1 stated.

"No," Callisto spoke up, "that is not quite right. Because I will not return to my home-world."

"What are you saying?" Sarah asked.

"I will not go back to our world, at least not now. Ares, I want you to send me to the same place as Perdicas and Delilah."

"What?" even the War-God now said in quite a bit surprise.

"As they have just admitted themselves, they need help and I can give them that."

"You want to help us?" Perdicas asked.

"Yes I do. I might not longer have the power of a full god, but I am still an immortal warrior and as it looks like, you can use all the support you can get. And by the way, there is not much left for me in my world.

For nearly three decades I have been in the service of the gods and to be honest, I would be glad to get away from them and their manipulations. No offense," she told Ares and Discord.

"None taken," he replied, "I know perfectly well how we can be."

"Do you want to help him because you feel guilty about having killed him? " Gabrielle1 inquired, pointing to Perdicas.

"Maybe that is a small part of it," Callisto admitted. "But it is definitely not all of it. I am mainly doing it because there, I might truly be able to make a difference."

"If you are going, I'm coming with you," Sarah stated.

"No, that is far too dangerous and besides, there is no guaranty that we would ever come back."

Her young partner stayed silent for a few moments before she responded.

"It doesn't matter," she answered. "I will go with you anyway. Am I your partner or not? You know as well as I do, there is not much for me left in our world either. Most of my family was killed while they were trying to rescue me. I barely know anyone else. I have never even met my aunt, at least the version from our reality. I am not even sure if she is still alive.

All that is left is my mother..." she said, and she immediately noticed that Callisto wanted to say something, but she wouldn't let her, not right here. It was her who had something to say now.

"...and if you are honest," she continued, "I barely see her either. I knew exactly what I got myself into when I followed you, Callisto. Don´t try to drive me away now."

"It seems she is taking quite after you," Ares commented while looking at Gabrielle1.

"I guess he is right," Xena1 remarked.

"If you say so." the Bard said with a grin.

"That means we have to perform the ritual one time less." Xena stated.

"Make that two times less. I will come as well," Xena3 told them.

"You?!" Perdicas questioned.

"It seems we both had the same idea," Callisto commented.

"You may not have much left in your world, but for me, there is nothing. There is nothing left anymore that I can do to help in my reality. It drifted just too far off." And it was her fault. This was the thought she didn´t voice loud. Nothing could bring her off of that conviction, no matter what the two Gabrielles were telling her.

"There, I will be at least able to do something to help, to make up for my mistakes. And if my bitch-counterpart wants revenge for her murderous brat, she can come to me." she said with a side-glance to her present other self, who in her opinion was far too lenient with Eve.

"Don´t tell me you think an exact double of one of the Queens isn´t useful," she addressed Perdicas. "With us together, we might even be able to bring them down."

"It certainly would be," he admitted.

"If you all go to this reality I want to come with you as well," Gabrielle2 said. "Xena, the one I know is dead. I was her partner- and now it is suddenly all over. But just like you, I could still help them. And who knows, maybe we two will work together quite well."

"You...you want me as your partner? " she asked in surprise, "after what you have heard about me?"

"You are not too different from the Xena I have known, not really," she responded. "You only made more mistakes."

"You would have kept me from making them in the first place, if your other self had been there." she stated. "If I hadn´t gone too far with her."

"Stop blaming yourself for everything," Gabrielle asked of her.

"Stop making excuses for me," she gave back.

Both of them looked at each other and their faces turned into a grin.

"Great, yet another volunteer." Callisto remarked.

"The same thing goes for you, Gabrielle," Xena1 reminded her, "there might be no way back."

"I am aware of that," Gabrielle2 answered.

"You could take the Necronomicon with you," Gabrielle1 pointed out.

"No, these tyrants, your other selves, wanted the book. That was the only reason Eve and Delilah were even here. We won´t bring it into their world." Callisto answered. "Take it into yours and then bury it in a place where nobody will find it. Or even better, find a way to throw it back into space where it actually belongs."

"If that is your decision…" Xena1 answered, "…all of yours," she stated, "…we will go along with it. But there is not much time. We have to perform the next ritual before Chaos finds us again. So if that is truly your choice, it is a final one."

"At least we will only have to perform the ritual twice now," Ares resumed. "By the way, if you are that smart, maybe you could figure out to just copy the page with the ritual from the book. That should only take a few minutes after all. I am sure at least one of your two Bards has something to write, right?"

They all looked at each other dumbfounded a bit embarrassed that they hadn't come up with that idea themselves.

"Then let us do it," he said.

It took them only another few minutes before they starte performing the ritual once again. This time they were using a blood-sacrifice they had taken from Perdicas.

Ares was holding another blade in his hand, a dagger that Callisto had been carrying and he pointed it at the assembled group. A few moments later, it was over.

The gateway between the realms was created and sent them away. Only Ares, Xena, Discord and Gabrielle were left.

"Okay, that was it," the War-God declared.

"Have they made it?" Gabrielle asked.

"They should have. The ritual was executed exactly as described."

"Then let us continue and get home as well, as quickly as possible," Xena told them.

He nodded and began to speak the formulas from the dark book again, one last time.

While he spoke, they felt the energy building up around them and in the end they saw how the vortex appeared and swallowed them all.

xxx

A few seconds later they found their concentration again and looked around. They were no longer at the same place like a few moments before. But they all recognized this area instantly.

They were standing at the side of the same road they had travelled on before, the one that was leading towards the cursed town and with that out of their world.

"Are we back, in our reality?" Xena asked.

Ares was asking himself the same question. He reached out into this realm, with super-natural senses that were now finally working once again, to make sure that this was the correct world.

"Yes we are," he confirmed.

Xena and Gabrielle drew each other into a friendly hook as they heard this.

"This is the only thing left." Ares said as he lifted the book that he was holding in his hands.

"We will take it to a safe place," Discord stated.

"And we will gladly help you," Gabrielle told them. "This means it is over right? I mean without the book, Chaos has no way into our world," she asked.

"She is still out there, waiting, as she has done for ages," he answered. "The cult also still exists, but without the book they are only a minor threat. It is Chaos herself who is truly dangerous. But she has not returned for many thousands of years, so without the book there is no reason to think that she will now or anywhere in the next time."

At least that was what he hoped.

xxxxxxx

In another world, the second group, consisting of another Xena and Gabrielle, Callisto, Sarah, Perdicas and Delilah had by now had also realized that they had arrived at the right destination.

"We are back," Perdicas said. In opposite to Xena in the other world, he didn't sound particularly thrilled about it.

"Things here will be different," Xena3, who was standing right next to him, told him, "I promise."

xxx

Not too far away from them, a formless, not audible or perceptible laughing was haling through the empty air.

"So things will be different, huh? Things will be different…. Yes they will be different, indeed…..Of course they will."

Once again, Chaos was taking physical - human - shape. She carefully looked around at this new world, the one that she had chosen.

They thought they had won. They had underestimated her. Of course she had expected the ritual to be manipulated from the very beginning; she had known that they had been planning to trick her. It was only the question of how that she was curious about. And they didn't disappoint, at least not in this part.

It was a quite a simple, but yet ingenious trick. They truly never failed to amuse her. How could they believe that they had actually defeated her so easily? She just had to smile at it.

They just didn´t understand her, not completely, not the mortals and not even the Olympians beside them.

Yes, they showed a few small glimpses of understanding, just enough to goat her, to offer her a small bit of entertainment when it came to trick her to fall for their plans, but in the end they failed to completely grasp what she truly was. Or maybe at least a few of them might have truly understood but had no way to actually deal with her. It made no difference.

It had never been about any concrete plans for conquest or even about bringing down the other gods. Things like that were in the best case a means to the end.

It was just about the question of this or that, what decision would lead to which outcome and how it would affect the world around them?

In the end it would all led to desolation, entropy anyway. It was the ultimate outcome. She knew this. It was her own very nature and the one of the universe; it was the gift she was bringing to all what existed.

In the end, everything would fall to dust. The question was only how and what was the most interesting way to reach that outcome? This was everything that truly mattered to her, this endless beautiful circle of destruction and recreation. She would watch over it and help it keep going, until some day, who knows, even the universe itself might collapse.

It had been easy so far. The moment the portal had been formed, she dissolved her physical form. She had been transported away, just as the two Olympians had planned. But in her true form, she could move between the layers of the void between realities in the blink of an eye.

It was only the physical world that she had been cut off from, until now. She had returned to the place of the ritual and followed them, unseen, undetected. It was simply not in her mood to let them see her.

The only question was which of the two worlds they had headed for, would be? They wouldn´t made the choice for her, as she had seen, since they didn´t want to give her access to their worlds at all. So in the end, she ended by making the decision herself.

She chose this one, the reality where the beings known as Ares, Xena, Gabrielle and Hope were ruling as feared tyrants. She chose it simply because she found it a bit more interesting than the other one.

Now that she was here, she planned on doing what she always did. She would stay and watch this world slowly falling apart, like every world did. And while doing that, she would do a few things to help it, to speed the process up.

"Now let us begin another game," she said to everyone and nobody at the same time, as she was looked down at the landscape of the Earth she had just stepped foot on.

This is the last of the regular chapters. I am however also posting an epilogue that was finished at the same time.