***THANK YOU GIRLS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT AND CONSTANT REVIEWS, IT MEANS A LOT TO ME. YOU SURE MAKE ME WANNA WRITE MORE :) ***

…The moment I entered the vortex, I suddenly heard her, that yearning voice piercing the thick veils of several dimensions before finally reaching my ears…

"Aressss…"

I uselessly tried to change my destination and head back to Thebes instead, but to no avail….The damn aether did the thinking for me, and soon, I was trapped there, just steps away from her demonically beautiful form…

For awhile, I was physically unable to utter one sound…She didn't say anything either, we just stood there, looking at each other, analyzing each and every line engraved on the other's visage, those few steps separating us, only amplifying even more the sexual tension rising undeniably between us…The frustration of wanting so much to leave every thought aside and just slam her against a wall and devour that sinful body until the morning light, but at the same time, the choking awareness that she was but a pale image of what I really lusted for, was killing me ….

Just like I had anticipated it, there was pain in her eyes….Pain and confusion. I visibly flinched at the awareness that I had been the reason of that consuming agony….

I parted my lips to say something, but I didn't really know what was there to talk about…Was I to tell her that I was so obsessed with her that I couldn't breathe without her and at the same time I was so paranoid that I couldn't even get myself to touch her anymore?

To sum it up, maybe I shouldn't have returned that night, in the first place. As I was ready to leave , my eyes unwillingly glided down from her surreal blue moons to her luscious lips….Needless to say, my senses went ballistic and all my Spartan self control along with all previous doubts and torment crumbled the second I noticed the blood dripping from them….It only took a blink for my brain to pull the alarm...This was as hard for her as it was for me…She had been fighting with herself not to call me, but she eventually did….She wanted me there…..She desperately wanted me there...Not everything was lost...

As I took two more steps in her direction, my entire body turned rigid at that paralyzing wave of electricity that hit me full force as the distance between us gradually diminished, the tension filling the air turning now almost physical, almost palpable…

Next thing I knew, I was pulling that blanket off her, savagely kissing every little inch of her skin as if the world itself was about to end during the very following hours…For the rest of the night, I couldn't even tell what I was doing anymore. I was oblivious to anything except the unique perfume of her skin and the celestial symphony of the moans escaping her throat, my mind so clouded with ecstasy, that, once I was inside her, I could no longer tell if it was in pleasure or pain she was screaming…

XXX

"Xe….are you ok?! What happened?" Dite exclaimed terrified, her eyes widened in shock, once she materialized in the throne room.

"Shhh….Not so loud….Take me somewhere we can talk…"

In less than a blink, they were in one of Aphrodite's temples.

Without saying one more word, with trembling hands, the Love Goddess gently pushed Xena's dark blue nightgown off her.

She gasped at the sight. The Warrior Princess' body was covered in bites and bruises from head to toe... Blood was still dripping from the corner of her lower lip….

"Did he do this to you?"

"I'm fine….Just make some of them go away….." she pleaded, gazing away, obviously uncomfortable with the whole situation.

"Fine? Xe you look everything but fine ….Are there any internal wounds?" she questioned, staring persistently at her womb.

"I guess….."

"Lie down…." she ordered, that traumatized expression still present on her eternally unchanged, porcelain visage.

As yellow, healing sparkles began spreading over her friend's still form, the Love Goddess's eyes never left her face….

" How did this happen Xe? Talk to me…Did he dare fo..."

Xena stopped her before ending her line…

"No. It wasn't like that…."

"What was it like, then? Was he drunk or something?"

"No." Xena's apparently calm reply quickly came, but Dite could easily tell that her voice was rather weak and tired...

" What do you mean no ? How do you explain these bruises? Xena this is definitely not ok….."

"I wanted it…."

The Goddess was stunned. If she wasn't the most opened minded person in the universe when it came to any type of sex practices, than no one was, but that was too much, even for her….

" I wanted to see if he still cared about me…I had my doubts..."

For a couple of moments, the Goddess was silent. She couldn't believe what she was hearing…

"If he cared about you? Seriously Xe? ….My brother doesn't care about you! He's obsessed with you! He literally has a mental problem when it comes to you…You can't play around like that with the control you allow him to have over you. You're only mortal Xena, and he's a God! We don't feel things the way you do…..Our any experience is infinitely more intense than yours….How could you be so reckless? "

"As I was saying, I'm fine!" the Warrior Princess vehemently protested, defensively pushing the Goddess' hand away and slowly getting off the bed she had been lying on " Let's get to the point….did you talk to her? How did it go? "

Aphrodite frowned a bit, displeased with her reaction, but offered her a response nonetheless.

"Yes, everything happened just like you predicted it. I took her to Athens. So….care to share that story with me now? …..You do owe me an explanation…. "

There was a long heavy silence before the Warrior Princess spoke, carefully choosing her every word when she finally decided to share that information with the overly chatty Love Goddess.

"Can I trust you?"

"Like doooh….I'm here, aren't I?!"

" Ares was planning to exterminate the entire Amazon nation, so I'm trying to redirect all his military forces towards achieving a different goal."

The Goddess just cast her an inquisitive glance.

"A surprise attack on Athens…."

Her jaw instantly dropped to the ground.

"Athens?! You're joking, right?" she questioned, just to naturally continue her line when she noticed Xena's blank stare. "You're not joking. Xena….do you have any idea what you've gotten yourself into? If Athena finds out about this, a full scale war would be unavoidable. "

"I'm counting on that…. …."

"How can you say that? Thousands of innocents will perish for nothing…." she reproached in a scandalized tone.

"Not necessarily…..I won't let things get that far…."

" You can't possibly control this….You're playing with fire! "

"I just need to buy some time…Training Ares's soldiers for a couple of days should be more than enough for the Amazons to come to terms with the concept of working together and choosing a Queen….Just a few more days for Marga to convince the other tribes to join her…."

"Like that's ever going to happen!" she laughed, quickly dismissing the possibility.

"Well, Fates know they won't get a second chance. If they want to live they'll do it, and fast…."

"Listen, Xe…ok, so let's assume that a good enough diversion might work for awhile I guess, but given Bro's long lasting obsession with those totally masculine and repulsive creatures, I don't know…..I strongly doubt that your efforts would do the trick….If he's indeed so determined to squash them, the mere union of the tribes wouldn't keep him back from going against them later, quite the contrary….You know him…the bigger the challenge, the greater the excitement…. "

"They will at least have a fighting chance, Dite…Plus…..If everything goes according to plan, Gabrielle will surely ask Athena for help….At least half of his army will be decimated long before he gets the chance to approach the city gates….."

"I thought you wanted a safe place for Gabby….."

"I do…as long as she's inside the city walls, everything will be just fine….."

"Are you sure that this is the right thing to do? I mean she is an Amazon Queen too- only Gaia knows why she had punished herself in such horrible way-…she would surely want to be there, fighting by those primitive monkeys' side. "

Xena couldn't help rolling her eyes at that comment, despite the fact the Love Goddess' jealousy was rather amusing.

"That's precisely why I want her as far away from the battle as possible... Once Ares realizes that I have been lying to him all along, all Tartarus will break loose….And that's where you come in...I'll let you in on all the details when time comes."

"Have you been deceiving him all this time?….."

She gave back a barely perceptible nod, guilt written all over her features.

" ….And that ever so tragic story I've heard about your friends and the Hoard?"

Xena gulped noisily.

"That much of the story is true…and those savages did pay….I killed their every child…."

"By all Gods Xena…..Does Gabs know?"

"Not everything….And neither does Ares…..I only told them what they needed to know..."

" You do realize that what you're planning to do, qualifies in his eyes as the ultimate betrayal….right?"

She shuddered at the thought.

" I'm well aware of that, yes….."

"Xena…he's going to kill you…."

" Everybody dies, Dite….."

"How about Gabrielle? He's gonna skin her alive!…..He's going to kill everyone you love just to get back at you! …."

"No he's not and you're going to make sure of that…"

"He already knows that Gabby's in Athens…."

"What? Why did you tell him?! "

"I didn't …..I didn't I swear. He followed my trail through the aether….."

"Damn it Aphrodite!….Just keep an eye on her these days, ok? And don't let her leave the city, no matter what. That will save her life…."

"….Xe….." the Goddess interrupted, skilfully avoiding the Warrior Princess eyes by childishly playing with one of her golden tresses.

"Yes?"

" Honey, maybe you should reconsider your plan. If you go through with this, Gabby is never going to forgive you….The Amazon nation is her responsibility …Not trusting her with protecting them, plus all the other lies would built a wall so high between you two that ….."

Her sad voice trailed off…

"I'm not expecting her to….."

"I have a really bad feeling about this….." she murmured, in one last attempt to convince the Warrior Princess to give up on her suicidal mission.

"Trust me….If there were any other way, I wouldn't be doing this right now…..Can you take me back to the fortress? ….Ares will be waking up soon…."

"Promise me you'll be careful Xe..."

"...I promise...…And Dite, not a word to Gabrielle about any of this...and I mean it. Not a word Dite"

***THANK YOU GIRLS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT AND CONSTANT REVIEWS, IT MEANS A LOT TO ME. YOU SURE MAKE ME WANNA WRITE MORE :)***