Okay, this takes place during the episode Chakram. I wrote this
because I thought that while Gabrielle is a great fighter she made
the change to full out warrior a little fast. It also explains why he
gave her one of her sai during Succession.
Disclaimer: Not mine. If you don't know whose I'm sure there are
plenty of people around to enlighten you.
Archive: Anyone who wants it. Just keep my name with it and let me
know you have it.
Ares felt Xena's spirit return to her body. He had seen her death,
but because she had rejected being his chosen he could not interfere.
Ares smirked. `Typical Xena doesn't even let death slow her down. I
am going to have to win her back to being my chosen before this
happens again. Never a better time than the present to start.' Ares
began thinking of various plans to try.
`I can't do anything too obvious right now it would just drive her
further away. I have too many other plans going right now to do
anything that requires my presence the whole time. So that leaves
doing something that will work on her in my absence.' Ares turned to
watch her in the mirror and saw her holding the broken chakram.
`That's it! She's going to need replacement weapons. All I'll have to
do look through my stock of armaments to find something appropriate
and then attach a slight spell. An aggression spell, just a little
one that will make her fighting spirit a little less restrained and
her control over her anger a little more flexible. There is only one
shop in the closest town that sells worked metal and the quality of
most of the merchandise is questionable. That would make my weapon
the only one acceptable to her.'
Ares transported himself to his armament room filled with every
variety of weaponry you can imagine, from maces to swords, and bows
to javelins, not to mention the ones you can't imagine. `Now the
challenge will be to find something different enough to peak her
interest.' Ares thought as he picked up and discarded one implement
of war after another. He went along testing various arms until he
came across a pair of weapons he had all but forgotten about. `These
will be perfect! Unique enough to be something she would carry and
extremely versatile.' The weapons glowed for a moment as he added his
spell. Ares transported himself to the metal shop, and placed the
newly enchanted weapons in an out of the way corner. He knew
instinctively not to place them in plain view so they would seem like
a real find amongst the poor quality around it.
`I would love to stay but seeing as Xena can sense my presence I will
have to do my watching from a distance.' Ares shifted himself back to
his temple to watch the beginning of his plan unfold in comfort.
Gabrielle entered the shop and looked around herself in dismay. `This
is the only shop in town that sells weapons?' She asked herself as
she examined some of the closer swords on display. `Most of this
stuff is junk. The quality of the jewelry in here doesn't seem to be
any better. If I can't find anything that could withstand more than
one fight we may have to let the weapons wait and concentrate on
other supplies.' She wandered around the shop lifting various swords
and knives, testing their balance, and becoming more and more
discouraged as each one seemed worse than the last.
As she made one last circuit around the room her eye caught on
something in the corner. She moved forward and picked them up to
examine their quality. As she brought them into the light she noted
that they felt perfectly balanced. Gabrielle hoped it wasn't an
accident and that they would hold up to further inspection. `I know
these. The farmers in Chin used them to plant seeds but they also
used them as weapons. They're called sai. How did they get here?'
Gabrielle looked around for the shopkeeper.
"Excuse me sir, how did these come to be in your shop? I only ask
because they are rather different from the rest of your stock."
Gabrielle asked not only because of their origin but also their
quality.
"Well I'm not really sure. I don't recognize them but they're
probably just left over from the previous owner. I can let you have
`em real cheap since they don't have no real use. They're probably
just decorative anyway." The owner said with a gleam in his eye that
said `sale', not `intelligence'.
Gabrielle looked at him askance before quickly agreeing. `It's time
to meet Xena now and I won't find anything else even half this
quality here.' She thought before heading out to meet up with Xena.
Ares watched as she exited the shop and spoke to Xena. `This is going
exactly as expected.' He thought before suddenly sitting up straight
as he saw Xena not even attempting to defend herself from the
soldiers who were attacking. After the fight was over Ares leaned
back and sighed. `I should know better by now. Nothing ever works out
just like planned with Xena.'
`Well,' Ares thought as he sat down. `Xena has her memory back and a
brand new chakram to go with it. It looks like Gabrielle will be
keeping the sai. While not what I originally had planned this could
be very interesting. Depending on how things develop this could have
a lot of potential.' Ares laughed. `Little Gabrielle is going to see
some interesting changes, and that is going to be fun to watch!'
