Prevention

By

Lady Razeli

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Xena and Hercules...you know the drill.

Chapter One

"Damn its hot in the south," Janice Covington commented. Melinda walked silently off the plane nervously adjusting her glasses. It had been dumb inviting Janice to discover what they could make of themselves outside of their father's shadow especially when she was her father. The truth was Xena had never died merely reinvented herself as a descendant occasionally becoming a male descendant like before.

"Welcome back Dr. Pappas," Her driver Bomani greeted.

"Thank you Bomani, Bomani this is Dr. Janice Covington my new friend." Janice nodded to him before getting into the Rolls Royce limousine. Melinda pointed out all the sights in South Carolina they passed in Columbia until they got to her white mansion.

"You sure have a lot of Muslims working for you."

"They're Jewish," Melinda told her. "They escaped those awful Nazis only Bomani is Muslim and several others. They work for their money so that it's not charity."

"So they came to work for you?"

"I was in Germany when the Nazis came to power. I stayed until they made it clear what they were doing." Janice pulled a gun on her.

"I don't care if you are a descendant of Xena are you league with those bastards?" Janice asked seriously. Melinda looked alarmed and shook her head.

"No, haven't you ever heard of the Foucault Pendulum it opened last year. I was working on that. I was also working on top secret business concerning original artifacts from Imperial Germany." Janice put her gun away as two guards opened the door Janice was sitting near. She got out and noticed that Melinda's guards carried guns so unlike the delicate woman she had known. Melinda exited the limousine. Her guards she noticed were like Bomani from Egypt. They walked up the gravel path to the steps.

"I usually reside in England, but ever since I came back from Germany I've been here with my father and the people I saved," Melinda told her. She introduced her to her English housekeeper after she fired the one she had kept while playing her own father. She didn't need someone to recognize her.

"So how long you here for?" Janice asked.

"Just until the war is over, I even get to take over for my daddy and earn some money. London's getting bombed and I suppose my home is being used to house the children in the countryside."

"Oh oh dear the cayut has gotten into the cayut nip again," Melinda said seeing the wasted cat nip on the floor. "Jesus, Mrs. Sutherland get up this cayut nip."

"So where do I sleep in this big house?"

"Oh right I was fixin' ta take you up there right now." They went up the grand staircase and Janice was shown to a huge room.

"Make yourself comfortable I have to make some calls everythang in this house is a complete mess." The house was spotless in Janice's opinion as she rolled her eyes. Melinda walked down the hall with a more confident stride known to Xena and down the stairs as she took off her hat and glasses. She went into her office and picked up the phone dialing a number.

"Yes, get me Dr. Joel Hanson tell him its Dr. Melinda Pappas." Dr. Joel Hanson was Hercules in reality, he had, had a hand in helping her trap Ares, and he'd be pleased to know that the place had been destroyed well in a normal case.

"Well?" He asked.

"We got the scrolls, my chakram, but Ares was still awakened. I managed to keep him trapped, but he was still out of the coffin. Gabrielle's descendant Janice, blew it up so that oughta keep him busy for a while considering she may have given him a chance to free himself without my help in fifty years or so."

"At least that buys the world another fifty years and time to rid the world of Hitler, who knows what he'll do with a man like him."

"A lot from the way he was ranting."

"Yep that's Ares for you. So have you told Janice yet."

"No, no I don't think she needs to know, at best she knows she's Gabrielle's descendant, but that's it. How's London, I hear it's quite loud this time of year." He chuckled at her joke.

"Very funny, but no its horrible so many people dying, I've at least managed to cart a couple hundred children to the country estate where they're being taken care of going to school in the small town nearby."

"Great the place will be a mess when we return with a couple hundred there."

"I imagine so."

"We need to make plans for in fifty years and adjust from there."

"That's fine, I'll be out there, I want to view the scrolls too its been a long time since I've seen them. Plus they'll go great in the Museum." Xena nodded as she spoke.

"Yes, they'll go beautifully there."

"Melinda?" Janice asked entering her office.

"Yes, Janice?" She asked turning around.

"The scrolls are gone."

"Gone?" Melinda asked. "Whadda you mean gone?"

"They're gone that damn Jack Lymon got the scrolls. He switched our bags!"

"No!" Melinda was angry, but she calmed herself, she had an image to keep up. She got back on the phone. "The scrolls are gone, but don't worry we'll find them."

"Who was that?" Janice asked now suspicious of Melinda.

"That was my partner in London. I was fixin' ta talk to you about showcasing the scrolls at our museum over lunch. But now we gotta find Jack."

"You know for someone living in her Daddy's shadow you sure do got a lot of stuff going for you."

"Yes, well I never said I hadn't ventured out before while he was still alive. Besides I'm mistaken for him all the time when no one has seen me yet. Cigar, they're Cuban?"

"Yeah, so what's going on you didn't strike me as the type to smoke Cubans."

"You forget what world we work in Janice," Melinda told her as she put back on her glasses and picked up her lighter.

"There's something really weird going on with you."

"That's your view, I want to see if he got off with the chakram too."

"We left that in the tomb."

"No, it was in my hand," Melinda told her. They left the office and went through the bags until they found the chakram pieces in separate bags. Like a magnate the connected together. The force knocked them back into opposite walls.

"Well that solved that problem," Xena whispered holding up her whole chakram.

"Are you Xena again?"

"Yeah, but you may as well keep calling me Mel, I'm not going anywhere this time that's for sure." Janice nodded.

"How aware are you of her life?"

"Very," Xena answered looking at her. "How did she talk?" Janice did her imitation of her accent.

"Oh yeah you're a descendant of Gabrielle's."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing at all."

"No, you certainly meant something about that, so spill."

"Oh look at the time weren't we going to have lunch?" Xena stood up and headed for the dining room as if everything was normal.

"Don't you dare try to change the subject Melinda!"