" You've killed them?!"

Her voice was trembling and her mind simply refused to accept the fact that her impenetrable vision of reality was bleeding failure. For obvious reasons, her brain had blocked any harmful information that could have at least implied the possibility that all the hard work, all the reinforced lessons proved to be in the end a complete loss of time- or in other words, the rightful equal of a big, fat zero.

"Gabrielle! They've just slaughtered an entire village- women and children included! Did you expect me to pat them on the back or something?"

"That's so typical of you to say!"

"For crying out loud! They were murderers!"

"They were teenagers, Xena!" Gabrielle exploded in revolt and repulsion, pointing towards a bunch of scattered body parts situated but a couple of feet away from them.

" …Teenagers! Most of them probably didn't know what they were doing! They didn't deserve to die like that…..They deserved a fair trial! ….A second chance! They should have been treated like human beings!" "

An abruptly exhaled breath followed by a scandalized glare cast in the direction of the unjustifiably sympathetic Bard, was somehow meant to anticipate the violent outburst that was about to come.

"Those were not human beings, those were animals! A hoard of savages just like their parents!... Beasts that have nothing in common with neither civilization nor basic emotions! Look at that little girl's body! She was brutally raped and mutilated before they finally put her to death! They had her chained to that tree for days! If they hadn't killed her she would have died of internal bleeding in but a matter of hours! What does that tell you, huh? 'Still think that they didn't know what they were doing…. ? And you have the nerve to defend their cause?! Are you kidding me?! These people were my friends! They should thank the Fates from wherever in Tartarus they are that I was generous enough as to offer them a quick death !"

"You call that a quick death? You cut them to pieces! I could hear their screams from the other side of the forest! "

"Well they sure deserved worse!" the Warrior Princess grunted through clenched teeth, tightening the grip on her still dripping with claret, sword.

"That was not for you to decide Xena! They should have been brought to justice!"

"Justice?!" the sharpness of the question cut her lips like a knife, and for a moment there, as the air left her lungs, she strangely felt as if her head was on the verge of exploding.

"There's no justice for scums like them!" she continued, almost choking on her own maddening rage. " They don't even understand the idea of justice!...As for their carved bodies – or whatever's left of them- they might just serve as a warning for the rest of their tribe! I think their reduced brains could actually get this type of message! It's the only means of communication they care to tolerate, anyway!...You can deny it as long as you want to, but sometimes violence is the only answer Gabrielle! With some creatures words are useless!"

Hardly had Xena finished her little speech, that the still shaken up Bard was already rushing to spit back some venom, and despite of the fact that one could easily count on the fingers of one hand the number of words she had chosen to shame the Warrior with, what really managed to cause some damage, was the faint allusion to her nightmarish past.

"Right! You should know!"

The echo of that theatrically uttered line was resonant and it's effects devastating, creating a crater as deep as the pits of Tartarus inside Xena's barely pounding heart.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she inquired, trying not to sound too irritated, but failing miserably in her attempt to keep that nasty frown away from her forehead.

"It means that I've been preaching peace and forgiveness in vain all this time, without having anyone to listen to a word I've said! It means that you were given a second chance even when you didn't deserve it, Xena! You were a monster but no one hacked you to pieces!"

The Warrior Princess' eyes widened in disbelief, just to narrow in the form of a menacing, evil line, the following second. Nevertheless, when she did answer, her tone was in complete accordance with the disturbingly obvious self conceitedness flashing on the surface of her blurry eyes.

"That's only because everyone who dared try it, left this world prematurely! And just for the record, I've never ordered tortures and mutilations! I've never killed women and children! I was fighting for very different goals!"

Her voice was steely but the slight tremor in the corner of her mouth as well as her clenched jaw was more than enough for Gabrielle to know that she had hit a nerve.

"Yeah! You were fighting for the glory of Ares! I have to hand it to you Xena, that's a

particularly soul lifting goal! "

" Fuck Ares! …."

That was obviously the last drop. The Warrior Princess was officially fuming. Right out of nowhere, her previously grave but calm tone had turned into ear splitting screams.

"You just couldn't help it, could you? You just had to bring him up for discussion! "

"Well given the fact that you owe him that much as to wanna slaughter fifty unarmed kids, just because he asked you to….what else is there to say Xena?!"

"What are you talking about?! All he did was tell me about the attack! He knew my friends were here, he knew how important these people were for me! As for the weapons, the only reason for which these psychotic blood-drinkers had none, is that they broke them while trying to chop the bones of their victims! Have you gone blind ? Take a look around you! It's full of swords, axes and maces everywhere!"

Pretending to have missed the end of her friend's line, the battling Bard focused the remaining of her energy to sling some more mud at the War God's indisputably questionable reputation.

"Oh yeah? Well if he cared that much, why didn't he tell you sooner, when you could have still done something to prevent this…..this bloodbath? "

"He didn't know! "

"Right! And you believe him?!"

"YES I BELIVE HIM!"

"Hmmmm…." Gabrielle snorted loudly, shaking her head in utter amazement. Her face expressed much more than shock though…. There was something macabre about hearing Xena take Ares' side on….on….pretty much anything.

"What?" the Warrior princess demanded to know- with such deliberate ferocity that would have made right about anyone feel cold droplets of sweat trickling down their back.

"….Come on! How can you still trust him? After everything he's done to you!...To us! Does he have you that brainwashed? "

"He was telling the truth!"

"Yeah, and I'm Helen of Troy!"

"You know what ? " Xena finally concluded, her entire body convulsing with the overwhelming urge to strangle the Blonde Pacifist before her. "I don't need to justify my actions to anyone! I only did what I thought was right, so live with it or don't, ok?!"

The Bard wanted to answer, and she did. The only problem was that by the time the air got polluted with her words, there was no one present to decode their meaning any more, cause Xena had already turned her back on her and was heading for the forest.

"That's right, walk away! It's easier than facing the truth, you know!" a frustrated Gabrielle yelled behind her, growling angrily at the sound of that unnaturally harsh silence that followed…..

She might have overreacted, but she sure wasn't ready to admit it.

XXX

"Troubles in the Elysian Fields? "

As always, his voice was as soft as velvet but the content of his words was pure acid dressed up in dark, tasty chocolate.

"What are you doing here? " she barked, her temples pounding like crazy in spite of the cool evening air.

"Oh nothing much….just smelling the roses…."

"Well I see no roses here, so why don't you move your godly ass somewhere else ?"

It was rather a mordant order than a sarcastically playful interrogation. The God couldn't help feeling excited over it. He cracked a smile at her as he closed in the distance between them.

"You were the one who called my name…."

His eyes never left the mesmerizing azure shade of her irides. They were absolutely spectacular…so vivid, so full of life despite her obvious sorrow.

"Between calling your name and cursing your name there's a huge difference, Ares!"

He laughed this time….She was the only mortal who could get that kind of reaction out of him….

"I don't know about that; as a matter of fact, with you it's pretty much the same thing … Anyway….You did say my name….I'm here…"

"I've always wondered why I never felt the stringent need to have a dog…" she mumbled in the same ironic note as before, shifting her gaze towards the horizon the following second.

"Ouch! That was nasty…" he joked, feigning a mock-sad face just for effect. "So….what's the matter? Did you and Goldie Locks have a fight?"

"Eavesdropping again? Don't you have anything better to do all day long?"

"Better than keeping an eye on my Princess, you mean? Neahhh!"

"I'm not your Princess ! And it so happens that I have a name!"

She was playing defensive- Ares quickly realized, wincing in distaste at the lethal poison expertly injected in her every word. Still, he didn't appear neither impressed nor intimidated by the flaming hostility she was keen on displaying, on the contrary, when he finally took a seat on the uncomfortably cold grass behind her, his arms immediately snaked around her waist, pulling her closer to him.

She didn't flinch a muscle to resist him…..The strange thing was that he didn't seem at all surprised by her lack of reaction.

"She couldn't possibly understand, Xena…" he whispered lowly against her ear, his lips brushing in the process the flawless, bronze surface of her left cheek. "Her eyes and yours didn't see the same things back there in that village, for where she only saw dead bodies, you saw forever lost friends…."

The Warrior Princess listened but didn't reply. She only turned her head away, as if refusing the touch of his lips, a gesture that didn't affect the Olympian's intentions in any way, since his mouth simply focused on the crock of her neck instead….

Despite her best judgment, and ignoring all the explosive warnings that her past experiences with him began to send, she leaned into the warmth of his comforting embrace, shutting everything off for an indefinite period of time, resetting her overwhelmed body to only respond to the effect of his painfully tender yet passionate kisses.

The instant his hand began it's gradual descent towards her inner thigh though, she covered it with her own. He instantly got the message and put an end to his bitterly sweet ministrations.

A chaste kiss on top of her head let her know that he was well aware that when it came to their relationship, any type of idiotic behavior such as pressuring her when it was clearly not the case, was bound to end badly….at least for him…..

" She did lose some very dear friends across the years, Ares….She knows suffering when she sees it…."

"I'm not saying she didn't…..But you two share very opposite backgrounds, Darling. The way your hearts translate the idea of pain is very different….Don't expect too much from her when it comes to open- mindedness. She might be a bard, but let's face it: not even the most creative of spirits could accurately describe the horrors you've witnessed and lived during the past decade….."

Despite that vicious stab of pain tearing her soul apart, Xena was right about to protest, when a disturbingly accusing voice made her stomach twist into a geometrical shape impossible to reproduce.

"This is what I was talking about, Xena!….Brainwashed! "

Once more, the Warrior Princess was silent. When her lips finally parted, her words-barely audible- were addressed to Ares alone.

"Can you take me away from here?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes…"

…Then came a sigh, but in less than a blink they were gone. Gabrielle burst into tears almost instantly. Nothing made sense any more. From sunrise to sunset, the entire world had turned upside down.