Authors notes: After "Motherhood." I seriously don't know what's with me and these short, pointless, kinda angst-filled stories of late. The closest thing I can figure is I'm depressive because the Gods are dead *mumbles something violent.* Anyway, they're keeping me occupied until I decide to write another good long one with a PLOT!! (amazing, eh?)

Xena was sleeping now. So peacefully, her daughter and the bard on either side. Ares watched silently through his mirror. He didn't speak, he didn't move. Finally, he left his lair and headed towards Aphrodite's room. He was about to knock, when he detected weeping from inside, followed by the consoling voice of Cupid. Ares hesitated, but finally stepped inside. Both of the Love Gods looked up to him. Aphrodite smiled a little, her eyes puffy and her face streamed with tears.

"Hey bro," Ares clenched his jaw and nodded at her. Cupid just watched him darkly. Ares knew that that was because of his blood, not Aphrodite's.

"Sis, I need a favor."

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Ares appeared in a shimmer of golden light not far from where his warrioress lay. Quietly, so as not to wake her or her companions he walked to her. He knelt by her head, and gently removed a stray hair from her face.

"You once told me that no one deserved the power to kill a God. Least of all you," he smiled at the sheer irony of it. "and now look at you. Slayer of Gods, feared by all left on Olympus. All except one. One who loves you," he told the sleeping warrior. He kissed her forehead gently and vanished again in Aphrodite's golden light.

"Ares," Xena whispered contentedly, having been awake since he arrived.

The End

...h.o.m.e...