Chapter 58: I made my decision

Xena POV

That tone...Dite was never so serious and that made me feel a bit worried while trying to guess what the reason behind that attitude might have been.

"Just let me put him to sleep..." I answered, doing my best to stall, but she snapped her fingers once and in a less than a second, Adam was asleep.

"It's done...Now take a seat..." she said, and there was nothing else left to do except for finding a chair and taking a seat.

"You must be wondering why it is me the one who gave your child back and not my brother..."

My eyes never left her face...She was boiling mad…so rare to see Aphrodite in that state.

"Maybe you want to ask me if he's alright?"

"I don't want to talk about him." I answered as if the subject held no interest to me but I could feel that something must have gone wrong judging by her aggressive behavior.

"Ohh but you do! HE IS NOT..." she yelled. "Why can't you see?...He almost killed his son and that all because he loves you..."

"What?!" I exclaimed in shock, casting a panicked look at our peacefully sleeping son. I couldn't even think about it…

"Well yes, Xena. This whole situation is eating him alive."

"What happened?"

"Now that was the Furies' hands, they drove him crazy. Athena must have convinced them somehow." I was almost certain about the Furies, it saddened me so much to hear that he was suffering at their hands, after all I knew very well how they liked to operate. "She was extremely furious about what happened at the council and she surely wanted revenge on my brother and she would have won too if I wouldn't have stopped my brother on time. Why are you so hard on him?"

"Wait a moment...You lost me..."

"Didn't he tell you?"

"What?"

"Eve...she is safe."

"H…How?" I was speechless for some good seconds.

"He told me he would talk to you...After we are done here, I need to have a serious talk with him too. If you two can't see eye to eye, I must force you…you know.

At my confused expression, she added:

"Ok...I'll explain it..."

She calmed down and I listened carefully to her.

"Ares never lied to you...I mean he did… in the past, not now..."

"He is a God again Dite so..." I began furiously.

"Shut up a little bit and just listen." she commanded.

"He is a God because of me and...When he thought you dead he left devastated. That day...well… Athena put a bounty on his head…"

"I know…"

"Good… and well he got drunk that day, really drunk…too drunk to fight a dozen man...If I wouldn't have come on time...he...he..."

A tear escaped her eye...

"You two are so lucky that I have perfect timing with certain things…I forced him to eat ambrosia and do you want to know what he said…That he was happy...happy that he would get to see you again...My heart broke."

She looked accusingly at me.

"And when he realized that he wasn't dead and what I've done...he didn't want to see me again, that's why you found him wondering in the forest in the first place...He didn't use his powers because he didn't want to accept an eternity without you...and then he was afraid to tell you because of your reaction but he knew he had to do it soon…"

"I..." I didn't know what to say…

"He saved Eve...he forsook his rightful crown too...Hades is now the King of Olympus..."

"Hades?"

My eyes widened so much that I thought they would pop out from my orbit.

"Ares named our uncle in his place thinking that maybe he would have a chance with you so he didn't want a crown in his way…It was always you Xena...always…I'm the Goddess of Love and I've never...and I mean never thought that he could do that...From his childhood he dreamt of becoming the supreme god one day...to follow in our father's footsteps…He fought for that throne with all his might and he just let it go...because of you...for you!"

I was speechless, of course.

"And Eve...How comes…"

"He is just smart...Oh by Zeus himself I thought that that meeting would never end. But everything ended well after all."

She smiled.

"He used the Fates to convince the gods that Eve wasn't dangerous and he succeeded."

"And where is he now?"

"I left him in the Halls of War drained...Those bitches..."

"I expected to be the Furies but I thought that only..." I was angry at me now too for not listening.

"….that only mortals can be attacked by them? Yeah, that is true but with a bit of help from a powerful god as Athena, I guess anything is possible..."

"And how will Athena cope with..."

"Athena is punished not to use her powers for the time being and Discord is on vacation, exiled for what she did to you…And my brother did all of this...for you again..."

"Dite..."

"Look...I won't tell you what to do…I can't, I mean I can but it wouldn't work cause you always do what you want anyway so…but just consider it...He didn't do you any wrong all this time...Just give him one more chance…Adam and Eve deserve a father too."

"What have I done...?"

"Xena you can..."

"No…you don't know...I said I didn't want to see him again and I meant it…He thinks that me and Hercules are going to..."

"I know..."

She smiled again, her all knowing smile...

"But that's a lie so..."

She got up from her place and I stood up too.

"I will leave now...I want to see him...So think about what I said...You two deserve to be happy …Well enough talking, I'll just leave, ok?"

She wanted to vanish but I gripped her arm.

"Dite wait...I made my decision...Take me to him please!"

She grinned widely and we vanished in the next second.