Back to the Past Part One
By Kechuwa
Shanyn propped her feet up on the rail of the porch and lowered her shades. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the temperature was well around eighty with a nice breeze. She closed her eyes and let the soft jazz music filter out of the stereo and calm her nerves. She occasionally sipped the glass of lemonade, but did little else besides bask in the sun’s glow.
Sometime later, she wasn’t sure when, she was awakened by the sound of someone gently knocking on her door. Shanyn looked at her watch. It was around eight thirty at night, and the temperature had taken a large dip, causing her to retreat inside with Goosebumps. She answered the door to find her best friend, Devin Deroe, carrying two bags from a movie rental place down the street.
"Are you ready for our little movie night?" She asked, stepping inside and closing the door behind her with her derriere.
"But of course. What movies did you rent this time?"
Devin set the bags down on the kitchen table and pulled the movies out one by one.
""Well, there’s our favorite, "Dogma", and "Forces Of Nature". Also, I got "Good Will Hunting. I figured we could have a Ben Affleck and Matt Damon movie marathon."
"Ah. So, what’s in the second bag?" Shanyn asked.
"I know how much you absolutely hate to pollute your body, that you spend so much time on," she rolled her eyes at the "SO" part, "but I got candy, popcorn, and soda. Diet for you."
"Thanks. And, you know, I don’t spend that much time on my body."
"Honey, you’d think you were training for the Olympics the way you work out."
"Shut up. Let’s just watch the movies."
They watched Dogma because it was the absolute best movie, then started on Good Will Hunting, but by the time they reached Forces of Nature the candy, popcorn, and soda was gone, and Shanyn felt herself nodding off. Devin nudged her.
"Hey, you’re not falling asleep on me now, are you?" She asked. Shanyn groaned.
"Of course not." She closed her eyes again and rested her head on a pillow.
"Hey, that’s alright. Lenny’s probably wondering where I am anyway." Devin and Lenny had been married for four years and had a baby girl. Lenny was a nice guy, but he wasn’t all that smart. He moved his mouth when he read the comics, but he had a great personality. Devin wasn’t really into brains though; she was more into stamina and packaging. She had simple goals, and wanted a down-to-earth life. Shanyn, on the other hand, was always waiting for Aladdin to come and sweep her away on his magic carpet.
Shanyn rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and saw Devin to the door. She locked up and then crawled into bed and fell quickly asleep. Sometime later, however, her slumber was interrupted by the sound of an intruder.
She heard her lamp in the living room being knocked over, and the sound of a man swearing and saying "ow" after the lamp hit the ground and shattered into a million pieces. She slowly reached under her mattress and grabbed the knife she kept hidden there for cases just like this. She reached over and turned on the light on the stand next to her bed so she could see out of the pitch dark.
Light entered the room and she saw the figure of a man entering the bedroom, looking very confused. He was shielding his eyes from the light. The man wore a black outfit that looked like a Halloween costume. He had dark hair that curled up in front and an earring dangling in his left ear.
"Who the Hell are you, and what the HELL are you doing in my apartment?" Shanyn yelled, standing in front of him with the knife inches from his throat.
When he heard her speak, he pulled his hand away from his eyes, and stopped squinting obviously accustomed to the light. He saw the knife and raised his hands, doing a half smile as he did so.
"Hey, come on now. You don’t really want to kill me." He said. She jerked the knife forwards, causing him to step back so his throat wouldn’t be cut.
"I want some answers. Why are you in my apartment?" Her voice was dangerously low and she was glaring at him.
His eyes flickered form her face, to the knife, to her face, and as he was staring into her eyes, he surprised her and disarmed her of the knife. He pointed it at her, causing her to raise her hands in surrender. Carefully, she inched around him causing them to walk in a slow, small circle, and she ended up on the other side of him. She backed up to a small nightstand she had leaning against the wall, and reached into the drawer with out him noticing.
"Please," she said, fake fear in her voice, "please don’t kill me or rape me. I-I’ll do whatever you want."
She rummaged her hand around in the drawer while she talked until she found what she was looking for. Quickly, she drew the gun out of the drawer and aimed it at him. She stepped back so she was out of range of the knife, the gun still aimed at him. He looked at the weapon, confused.
"What the hell is that?" He asked.
"It’s a gun, you idiot! And if you don’t tell me what you’re doing here right now, I’ll shoot your fucking head off!" She was shouting, and shaking the gun ever so slightly to emphasize her point.
The man didn’t understand what she meant when she said it was a gun, but he did understand the "blow your fucking head off" part.
He dropped the knife, then lunged out and tried for the gun. She shot a round off, but his hand knocked hers, causing the shot to go into his left hand, not anywhere near where she had aimed, his chest. He knocked the gun out of her hands and forced her back into a corner. They stood like that for a breath, and then he grabbed her and threw her onto the bed. She hit her head on the board, so she couldn’t get up in a hurry. The man was swearing using words such as "Hades" and "Apollo" ever so often, and cradling his shot hand. Shanyn sat up and watched him for a few moments. He finally stopped swearing and looked at her.
"Why the Hell did you do that? And how?" He shouted.
"What do you mean, how?" She hollered back. "I shot you." He looked at her with a blank expression on his face. "With a gun." Still the blank expression. "You mean to tell me you don’t know what a gun is."
"No, I don’t know what a gun is." Blood poured out of his hand onto her carpet. She stood and grabbed his hand, leading him into the kitchen. He was saying "ow, ow ow" the entire way, because she grabbed the wound a little roughly.
"Oh, quit being such a baby." She said. Shanyn put his hand in the sink and ran cold faucet water over it to clear away the blood. "Look at that, I barely nicked you." There was a large cut near the edge of his hand where the bullet had grazed the skin. "It’s probably in my wall." She poured soap on the wound to disinfect it. He howled in pain. "Served you right, trying to rob me. I should have just shot you again and let you wander out on the streets until you bled to death."
He pulled his hand away once she washed all of the soap off.
"I wasn’t robbing you." He said.
"Then what were you doing here? You accidentally broke into my house?" She reached under the sink to get the medical tape to wrap up the wound. She got it out and pulled his arm back so she could wrap it up.
"I don’t know how I got here. I don’t even know where "here" is. What year is it?" She looked up at him questioningly.
"Two thousand, AD" He looked at her questioningly.
"Why? Who are you?" She finished bandaging his hand and sat on a barstool, but still ready to spring up and fight or run, preferably fight.
"Ares, God of War." She laughed.
"God? Wait…you think you’re an old, Greek God?"
"Wait, I THINK I’m an OLD Greek God? I am a god."
"You belong in an Asylum. I want you out of my apartment." She said, standing and walking towards the door to show him out. She opened the door and looked back at the location he had been at, but he wasn’t there. He was back in the doorway of her bedroom, examining the gun. She groaned and closed the door, then walked over to him.
"Hey, careful with that. You might shoot yourself." She said, taking the gun away from him. "Come on, whoever you are…"
"I am Ares. I told you that."
"For one thing, you couldn’t be Ares. The Olympian Gods stopped ruling thousands of years ago. And another thing…you’re not Ares. There’s no way."
"If I prove to you that I am Ares, will you help me?" She thought there was no way he would be able to prove it, so she agreed.
Ares backed away from her and put his hands in front of him. Energy began building up at his fingertips into a large, ever-moving ball. With the flick of his wrist, the ball of energy went flying across the room and blew a large hole in Shanyn’s bedroom wall. She rushed over to it.
"Hey! I expect you to pay for that." She said, examining the whole. There were no jagged edges, and she could see no objects on the other side. Whatever had destroyed her wall had simply disappeared. She looked back at him and he had an "I-told-you-so" look on his face.
"Okay, I believe you. Just, do it again."
He summoned his energy, but he could not make a stable ball. He looked at his cut to the failed attempt at the energy ball.
"Oh no."
"What?" Shanyn asked, standing a little straighter, wondering what was going on.
"It’s gone." He looked to her.
"What is?"
"My power. My immortality. My…God Hood." He sat on the edge of her bed. She could see his eyes, and they told her he had many thoughts on his mind.
She moved to site beside him. She trusted that he was a God, but she did not know if his motives were of good nature or not, so she was careful.
"How is that possible?" He was quiet for a moment or so before answering. Then he nodded and his features ever so slightly twisted in silent rage.
"A trick. A cruel trick by the Gods." He said.
"The Olympian Gods…they no longer exist." She whispered it under her breath, but he still heard. He looked at her.
"What?"
"N-Nothing. How do you regain your power?"
"Wait, what do you mean the Gods no longer exist?" She stood and paced in front of him a little, his eyes locked onto her.
"Well…" she had to carefully choose her words. "I’m not exactly sure how this happened, but the Olympian Gods stopped ruling thousands of years ago. Now people believe in Jesus, Buddha, or another God, and sometimes none at all." She looked at him, and he seemed to be studying the ground carefully, probably in shock and taking in the unexpected information.
Shanyn went to again site beside him.
"Can you return to your time?" She asked.
"I don’t know. I have no idea why I was sent here in the first place." She waited a few moments before asking her next question.
"You said that if you proved you were a god, then I would have to help you. What do you need?"
He thought about that for a moment.
"I have nothing in the world, this world, your world. I don’t understand it. I mean, what is this?" He gestured to the room, and all of the appliances and conveniences it held.
"You mean you want help finding a way to live here?"
"And… help finding a way back home." She thought it over. He looked so innocent, so helpless, and without a guiding hand he would never make it in the world that was strange and new to him.
"Of course I will help you." She said. He seemed relieved. "Do you have any idea of where to start looking for the way to get you home?"
"None. There probably isn’t one…I just need to get settled into this new world." She nodded understanding.
"Is there anything I can get you? Food, water, anything?"
"Some food would be nice. I haven’t eaten in…centuries." She walked into the kitchen and poured a bowl of minestrone soup into a bowl and nuked it for a few minutes. While she did so, Shanyn kept thinking about…there was a God in her bedroom. The idea was ludicrous. She looked back into the small room and saw Ares examining lamps, bureaus, the bed, anything he saw. She chuckled as she watched him hit the buttons on the television and see what they did. When he got to the power button and the television flicked on, he scurried back into a fighting position.
"It’s a television." Shanyn said, walking up to it. Jerry Springer was on. "It’s like…It’s like a bunch of different plays that are out into this little box and made smaller."
He lowered his hands and watched with curiosity as two women brutally attacked one another. The dark hared one oddly reminded him of Xena, the way she kept springing back into the fight.
There came a loud noise from the kitchen, a beep, and Shanyn left to go pull the soup out. Ares followed her into the kitchen. She set the large bowl on the kitchen table and sat him down in the chair so he could eat. He scarfed it down while Shanyn watched, thinking even though this was a primitive God, he still had more manners than some of the men she had dated. He didn’t…slurp his food or talk with his mouth open. He was…polite, she thought, although she had only known him a matter of minutes.
When he finished eating, she washed the bowl out and put it in the dishwasher while he watched her work. She turned her back on him to rinse out the sink, and when she turned around again he was looking around the apartment in awe.
"You mortals have amounted to this…surely there must have been help from a God." He said.
"There might have been, but there’s no way of knowing. It certainly isn’t any history book that tells of a God inventing electricity."
"Electricity?"
"It’s…never mind. You’ll find out soon enough."
Shanyn yawned and blinked away the sleep that was creeping up on her again. Ares went back to her bedroom to watch the television some more. Shanyn laughed and followed him into the bedroom.
"Typical male." She said to herself. "A whole new world of wonder, and he sits and watches T.V."
She sighed and joined him on the bed. After a moment, she reached onto her nightstand and grabbed the controller.
"If you want to change to a different sho" she stopped herself. "Play, I mean, just hit these buttons." She handed it to him and he examined it, nodding in amazement. He returned his attention to the television and watched the advertisements for a little while. Shanyn crawled under the covers, and after a while saw little goose bumps appear on his fine skin.
"If you’re cold, feel free to get under the blankets." She said. He smiled and got under the covers.
Shanyn tried her best to keep her eyes open, but they closed sometime during Star Trek.
What a strange new world this was, Ares thought. His usual arrogance had been stripped away with his God hood, leaving room for a whole new layer of emotions. Ares was scared. Scared that he would never be able to return home, and would be stuck in this new time and place forever. Well, not forever. His mortality had left him.
Ares sat and watched the television; a show called Star Trek. It was a strange play, and acted out very well. Had other forms of life from different planets actually been discovered, or was it purely fiction? Ares leaned down to ask the woman, but found she was asleep. So he let her be and continued to watch the show.
The sound of a police siren made Shanyn bolt awake, as the sound always did. But within a moment, she discovered the origin of the sound came from a commercial. She looked down at the man who had just entered her life, and saw he was asleep. She smiled, then reached across him to grab the controller so she could turn off the television. The sun was beginning to rise, so she figured she could fit in a morning run. She grabbed the controller and was about to hit the power switch when she heard someone whisper "Ares." The sound came from the television. Shanyn looked up and saw the man who was lying in her bed also on the television screen. She shook him awake.
Ares sat up right away and looked around his surroundings, a look of confusion on his face until realization trickled in. His eyes fell on the television, and he saw her. The woman who he had loved since the first day he had seen her.
"Xena." Shanyn whispered. Ares looked at her, astonished.
"How did you know?" He asked. She looked at him.
"I…I don’t know. The name just entered my head." She returned her attention to the screen. Memories returned. Memories of…roaming the countryside…destroying towns, saving people…killing. She shook her head and lowered it. Ares’ attention was fully on the screen.
"Oh my…" He trailed off. Shanyn returned her attention to the screen and watched for a few moments. Ares and the woman named Xena were on a couch. They were kissing, and she kept saying things to stop him kissing her. All of a sudden there was an explosion and the wall behind them exploded in. A woman came running up carrying a child, looking stunned. (Do you know what episode it is? E-mail me if you do!)
"I remember this." Ares said.
"Me too." Shanyn whispered to herself. Ares didn’t hear her. He was too caught up in watching the screen.
They watched in wonder as a battle occurred, and Shanyn hit the power just as Ares disappeared for the last time that day so he would not know the temple had been purposefully destroyed.
She scurried off of the bed and to the front room. She started lacing up her running shoes. Ares walked out to her and asked what she was doing.
"Going for a little run. I should be back in about ten minutes. Will you be okay till then?"
He looked at her strangely, wondering at what caused her to want to do this so suddenly, and then he nodded. She went out the front door ad took off immediately, running for all she was worth.
She was not running because she needed the exercise. She was running because of the memories that flooded her mind. Memories of another person’s life, although it seemed like her own. Why?
She ran around the block twice and when she was finished she still had not sorted out her problem and was still in the dark to this whole mystery of the God Of War. Why had he shown up in her house? And what was with these memories of another woman from another time?
She decided to return to her apartment in case Ares decided to get into mischief. When she walked in, he was sitting on the bed, doing nothing but looking out the window at the lake. He heard the door shut and looked at her, as if coming out of a trance.
"I’ve been thinking about this whole thing…why you’re here, how you got here, and…other things," she didn’t think it important for him to know about the memories from the warrior princess named Xena at this point, "and I have an idea of how to start figuring this entire thing out. My best friend is a scientist. We can start by talking to her."
He nodded and looked out the window again. She walked up to him after kicking off his shoes, and saw that he was watching the boat traffic.
"What’s out there?" He asked. Shanyn turned around and looked at him. He was curious about that outside world, but that world was dangerous. She didn’t know if she should take him out there. After thinking it over, she decided,
"Do you want to see?" She asked. His eyes brightened up, like a kid hearing he can go to the circus. She laughed then abruptly stopped. "I think first you need a change of clothes. If you go out there in the…outfit you’re wearing now, you’ll draw unwanted attention."
Even as she said this, her brain was telling her, "he’ll draw unwanted attention anyway, with his beautiful eyes, and that body…" Memories of him flooded to her mind, overwhelming her. The memories were all of him. Passion, love… hate, and…War. Shanyn swayed as she saw in her mind Ares and her locked in deadly combat. The picture quickly flashed to them in an intimate embrace, and the rapid change caused her to fall over.
Ares caught her before she hit and stood her up again. They were nose to nose, hip to hip, and staring into each other’s eyes. He had his hands around her waist, holding her up, and she had one hand splayed across his chest. Neither of them spoke for a moment, as they each thought their own thoughts. Pictures of the same embrace they were sharing, only between Ares and the warrior princess constantly interrupted Shanyn’s thoughts.
"Are you all right?" He finally asked. She shook the memories away and broke the embrace, pushing herself away.
"Yes, of course. I’m fine. Let me just call my friend so we can get you some new clothes." She said, walking to the phone. She dialed in Devin’s number.
"Hello?" Devin answered.
"Yo, it’s me. Um, I have a bit of a problem."
"Did you get it stuck again?"
"No no, this is a problem with…A god."
"Pardon me? Are you telling me you got beef with Buddha?"
"Just bring over the largest shirt you can find that Lenny owns. I’ll explain when you get here."
Lenny was captain of the football team, but was still a little smaller than Ares. His largest shirt could possible fit Ares. And as for pants…Those tight leather ones would do just fine.
She hung up the phone and walked back to Ares, who was sitting on the couch. She sat next to him.
"My friend should be over in a couple of minutes. She’s bringing a shirt, and we can go shopping for more clothes for you." She said.
He nodded, but was staring off into space, not really paying attention.
"What’s wrong?"
He turned and faced her.
"My sword…is gone. The sword of the God Of War holds his God Hood. My sword is left in my time. I’m not going to be a God again until I can return home, and that’s not going to happen probably." He looked down at the ground. She felt his pain, and put a comforting arm on his shoulder.
A memory flashed back. A memory of Ares. He was not the weak spirited thing in front of her. He was…arrogant, and strong willed. With a taste for blood. She looked at the man on her couch, and saw who could be a completely different person. He was weak. No longer solid, no longer the Ares she knew. The Ares she had fought beside. The Ares she loved.
More than anything in her entire life, she wanted him to turn back into the old Ares. She needed that Ares, to know that he was there and would take her in. To know that he loved her and would always have a passion for her.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. She answered it, and found a very pissed off Devin looking at her. She was holding up a large white shirt.
"This had better be good Girlie." She said, coming inside. Shanyn closed the door behind her.
"Oh, it is."
"You said you had a problem with a God?" She said, walking into the living room. At the sight of Ares on the couch, she dropped the shirt along with her jaw and purse.
"Devin, meet the problem."
She stared at the gorgeous guy on the couch for a moment, then turned to Shanyn and narrowed her eyes.
"This has nothing to do with a God, does it?" She asked. Ares stood.
"Actually this has everything to do with a God. Me."
"And who are you?"
"Ares, God of War." Shanyn said. "And don’t give me that "oh-my-god-you-are-so-gullible" look. He proved it to me."
She explained the problem to Devin, Ares putting in little comments here and there, and was silent at the end, waiting for Devin to think this thing through. Finally, she spoke.
"Whoa." She said. "Um, I have no idea what to think. I mean, it’s not every day that a God is sent to the future, so it’s not like we’re prepared for this kind of thing or anything. Um, geez, I need to sit down."
"Breathe." Ares said, arms crossed, patience running out.
"Just go put this on and we’ll get out of here." Shanyn said, tossing him the shirt. She turned her attention to Devin and when she looked up again Ares was exposed from the waist up. He was changing his shirt, at least. She felt her mouth drop open and more flashbacks. They were all of passion with him and others, but he was the best. There was danger when she was with him, more so than when she was with anyone else. He could change his mood at anytime and with the snap of his fingers she could be dead. It was the danger that excited her. It was also the danger that kept her running, and the running kept him on his toes.
Devin looked up and saw him changing. She looked back down and repeated over and over. "I’m a married woman, I’m a married woman." She ended up looking again anyway. "You are so lucky." She said to Shanyn.
Shanyn looked at her oddly, but Devin’s attention was focused on Ares. He finished changing and tried to move around in the shirt.
"It feels weird." He said.
"Well then take it off." Devin said.
"No! Let’s just go. You’ll get used to it." Shanyn said. She looked sharply at Devin who shrugged and gave her a "who me?" look.
Shanyn looked down at her watch. "Oh, shit, I have to be to work in an hour. I’ll go with you guys for half an hour, then I’ll have to run down to the station. I can trust that you two will be alright until then, right?" Devin grabbed his arm in both hands and held it affectionately. Ares looked pained.
"Of course. You know, you could probably go to work now and just get back early." Devin said. Ares pleaded with his eyes, "no, no, don’t leave me alone with this lunatic."
But getting home early did appeal to Shanyn. Missing rush hour traffic, both ways, appealed to her.
"Okay, that sounds good. Let me just go get my uniform. Do you need to stop by home and trade cars with your husband? Yours still has the stuff from Julia’s wedding in it, doesn’t it?"
"Yeah. I can only fit in the driver’s seat."
"Okay. Give me a minute to change and I’ll be out to give you a ride." She walked to her bedroom and shut the door, giving her enough privacy to change into her uniform and quickly put her hair up in a messy bun. It was just going to get more tangled after the ride, so she didn’t put a lot of care into it. She laced up her combat boots, slung on her leather jacket, and walked out to the front room. Ares looked at her questioningly when he saw her.
"What is it that you exactly do?" He asked. Devin stood up and grabbed his arm again.
"She’s a cop. You know, she upholds the law around here."
Shanyn grabbed two helmets and handed one to Ares. He stared at it. "Put it on your head. I’ll buckle it for you." He did so, and she buckled it. They walked outside, and Devin let go of his wrist to hop into her car. "See you there." She said, then started up the car and drove off.
Ares watched the vehicle move. Shanyn couldn’t see his expression under the visor on the helmet, but she suspected it was shock. She got on the front of her red Ducati and put on her helmet. She started it up.
"Get on behind me." She said. He did so. "Hang onto my waist." He hung on loosely.
"It’s kind of like rising a horse." He said.
"It’s nothing like riding a horse. Trust me." She pulled out of the driveway, down the street, and onto the freeway. She felt him tighten his grip on her waist, and smiled.
A few minutes later, they arrived at Devin’s house. Ares got off the bike, took off the helmet, and stared at her openmouthed.
"That was…" He searched for the word.
"Awesome?" Shanyn supplied. He smiled.
"Yeah, I guess. Awesome." She winked at him, flipped down the visor on her helmet, and zoomed off leaving him to the vulture that was Devin.
All day long, Shanyn was stuck in that damn patrol car, driving up and down the highway, watching for evil doers. Finally, she was able to get back on her bike and go to Devin’s to pick up Ares. She knocked on the door and Lenny answered it.
"Hey Lenny. Where’s Devin?" She said, walking in. Lenny closed the door behind her."
"She had an emergency at the lab. She stuck me with the freak. That guy, all he does is sit in front of the television all day." She smiled, and walked to the living room. She found Ares watching a show with Xena in it, again. But upon closer inspection, she found that he was dozing. She crouched down so she was eye level with him, and gently shook his shoulder. He bolted awake and looked at her.
"I saw it." He said.
"Saw what?"
"The sword of Ares. It contains my God Hood. We have to get it back."
"Where did you see it?"
"It was on the news." Lenny said, walking up with a beer in his hand. "They just uncovered it in Africa or someplace like that. It just got unloaded at the museum downtown. Oh, by the way, Shanyn. Devin left a note for you on the kitchen table. Something about universes or something like that. I don’t know, but I gotta go. There’s a football game me and the guys are going to. You can let yourselves out when you’re ready." He slung on a Jean jacket and went out the front door.
Shanyn went to go find the note. It took her several minutes to read it, and she re-read it again to be sure. After she was finished, she pocketed the note and returned to Ares, who was still sitting in the front watching Xena on the television. A picture of a blonde girl that Shanyn automatically recognized as a woman named Gabrielle, was on the screen, and there was plenty of hate in the air emitting from Ares. He was glaring at the television.
"Ares, I think I have this somewhat figured out. Parallel universes." He looked at her oddly. "Our universes, realms, whatever you want to call them, are exactly the same, your and mine are. Only mine is future to you, and yours is past to me. When your sword was uncovered in my universe, it must have been the sword from yours. Which means there was some divine intervention."
"That doesn’t explain why I’M in your universe."
"Again, divine intervention. Who would want to do this to you?" The moment she said it, she knew the answer.
"Discord." She said. Ares nodded.
"How did you know about her?"
"I...can’t explain now. We have to get your sword back. The museum people probably won’t be too happy if we just go in there and take it, so we have to be sneaky about it."
They brainstormed for a bit and finally came up with a good plan to restore Ares’ God Hood.
They returned to Shanyn’s house, where they got themselves ready for the night ahead. There was going to be a little party at the museum. Shanyn packed all of her guns, that included two forty fives and a nine millimeter, and Ares took two large kitchen knives as his weapons. They sat and went over their plan until dusk, then hopped onto the Ducati and headed for the museum.
They registered at the front desk for the guided tour, and waited ten minutes for the tour to start. Finally, after the crowd was ready to go, the guide showed up and they were on their way. They stayed at the back of the line. When they reached the exhibit before the room with Ares’ sword, Shanyn strayed away and set off the fire alarm. The crowd rushed out in a large mob, and only several of the policemen, a few museum workers, and Shanyn and Ares, were left. Before the gates that secured the room with the sword in it, Shanyn put her bike helmet under it, stopping it from closing all the way. Ares rolled under the space between the gate and the ground, and into the room.
The sword was sealed in a glass cube, with laser alarms surrounding it. He looked back at Shanyn, who was standing guard in front of the gate with her gun drawn, and she nodded. He turned back to the sword, passed over the lasers causing the alarm to go off, and broke the glass with a swift beat from his fist. The glass shattered, and Ares reached in and grabbed the sword. He felt the change come over him just as a loud sound came from behind him. A single bullet had been shot.
Shanyn had been surrounded by police moments after the alarm had gone off. Memories of similar situations that the warrior princess had been in skidded back to her, causing her to temporarily lose her focus. She unknowingly brought her gun up, and a young, scared officer fired at her thinking that Shanyn was going to attack. The bullet hit her in the stomach, causing her to scream in agony and fall to the ground. Before she hit, however, Ares was there. He caught her and gently pulled her to the ground.
She looked up at him, and another memory came into play. A memory…that was different. She was in narrow room, in a coffin. Ares was looking down on her, sad-faced, as he was doing at the moment. He gave a small speech that went directly to her heart. HE gave the last line of the speech, "but when you kicked ass, you were mine" then bent down and kissed her on the lips. The memory faded and she could feel the Ares who was with her now lean down and gently kiss her lips.
The memories flooded in, and she knew everything about the warrior princes. She felt like the warrior princess, and could barely remember being Shanyn at all. As if for only a second she had inhabited Shanyn’s life, her body, and was really Xena. She closed her eyes and when she opened them, Ares was looking at her with shock.
"Xena," he whispered, and tightened his arms around her. Pain shot through her stomach, and when she looked down she saw the blood had turned darker, almost black. She was going to die, she knew that. She looked up at Ares again, and he looked down adoringly at her.
"I can heal you." He said. He gently laid her on the ground. He knelt beside her and was about to put his hands on her stomach to begin the healing, but a guard stepped up and yelled, "freeze!" Ares looked up. The young guard had his gun aimed and was ready to fire at him, as were the rest of the guards. Ares put his hand up and a bolt of fire spread to them, knocking them back on the ground and charring their bones. He looked back down to his warrior princess, and moved his hands to her stomach, but was again interrupted.
"I’m sorry, uncle, but I just can’t let you do that." She said. Ares looked up and saw Discord. "With the warrior bimbo here, only Gabrielle is left to guard the child. So all the Gods were in. We didn’t mean for you to come here."
There was a flash of pink light, and Aphrodite showed up. "Oh Discord, you seriously have to open your eyes. The warrior chick and bro are tied together with love. So, if you send her here, he comes too." She turned to Ares. "And the whole thing where you turned into a mortal, that was jut a coinkeydink. Your sword got sent someplace else."
"That was no coincidence, you Barbie bimbo. I did that when I saw that he had come here, so he couldn’t see that his little princess was here. And now that you do, we can’t let you take her back." Discord said. She sent a bolt of fire at Ares. He deflected it, and she sent another. He dove out of the way.
"Aphrodite, help Xena." He yelled, drawing his sword. Discord drew hers, and charged him. They locked swords and fought, exchanging thrusts and parries. When their swords were locked, Ares used his free hand to send a blow to Discord’s chest, sending her across the room and slamming her back into a wall. He charged her, but she was ready for him, and parried his thrust. Hey continued like this for a while, each going strong and feeling no fatigue.
Aphrodite had rushed over to the girl on the floor that had now taken on the features of Xena at the beginning of the fight.
"Hey girlie, you’re gonna be all right." Dite said, putting her hands over the wound. The amount of blood covering her clothing lessened, and the new Xena started feeling less pain as she was healed. Finally, the blood was gone, and there was only a small scar where the bullet had entered. Xena felt no pain, as if the bullet had never entered her. Her armor had reappeared on her, as Ares’ had done when he became a God again, and she grabbed her chakram. She sent it flying in Discord’s direction, knocking the Goddesses’ sword out of hand. Ares put his sword to her neck and pinned her against the wall.
"This isn’t over yet. The child will die. Your warrior princess will die also. You can’t stop it forever." Discord said, then disappeared into her own realm in a flash of light. Ares exhaled and lowered his sword. Xena was standing on the other side of the room. He chakram had been returned to it’s spot on her armor, and she was meerly staring at Ares. Aphrodite looked from Xena to Ares, then giggled and disappeared. Ares approached Xena.
"Xena, when we go back to our realm, our lives…"
"It won’t be any different, Ares. This was a trick by the Gods against my daughter that you got into the middle of, nothing more. I still feel the same about you, and that’s not going to change."
"That’s where you’re wrong, Xena. You may hate me, but somewhere in your heart, you still love me. Your head just won’t let you see that. And when you finally realize it, I’ll still be waiting for you. Xena, you and I together makes sense. We both live for the fight, although we have different battles.’ He paused. "When you go back to your daughter and Gabrielle, you’ll forget all about this whole thing. But I won’t. God’s don’t forget. I know you felt something here, in this realm, for me. And if this is the closest I’ll ever get to being with you again, then I’ll remember it forever, even if you won’t." He raised his hand and caressed her cheek softly. She jerked away, and he lowered it.
"Good-bye, Xena." He said. She blinked, and when her eyes opened again, she was at home, where she belonged, with Gabrielle and Eve. She had no recollection of the event that had just occurred over a spread of several days. To Gabrielle, she had simply disappeared. The days were all a blur to her. The only thing she had to show for her journey, was a scar on her stomach where a bullet had entered.
Ares returned to his home temple, and was haunted with the memories of his warrior princess in his arms, as he always had been. He still had hope, though, and that was enough to keep him going.
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