Secrets

Summary: Xena has just left Ares and decides to start walking her path to redemption...

Only half a day left. Very soon she would be on the outskirts of Amphipolis, her home town. Very soon, she would see her mother again for the first time in ten years.

Xena couldn't believe it. Only days earlier, she had been Ares' lover, confidant, warlord...his chosen. Technically, she was still his chosen, but Xena wanted to forget all about that. She wanted to move on with her life.

For ten years she had battled. Pain had driven her. Pain and passion. Passion for war, passion for death, passion for power. Only now, she had passion for nothing.

The pain was still there, though. It would always be there, no matter how much she regretted her past, no matter how many sins she atoned for, it would not disappear, but maybe she would be forgiven...

Xena was more than a little nervous as she stepped through the doorway of her mother's tavern. She stepped up to the bar and sat down. A minute later, her mother walked in from the back. Cyrene froze when she spotted her daughter for the first time in near on ten years.

"Xena..." her mother whispered in shock. Tales of the legendary Warrior Princess had reached Amphipolis, of her only daughter...

"I never thought that you would come back here," Cyrene told her daughter.

"Things change. I've changed...I'm not a warlord anymore. I guess you could say that I've had a change of heart," Xena explained flatly.

Her mother nodded. "I'm glad." And she was, but they had never really been that close, so conversation would be awkward either way.

Cyrene frowned. "You're old room is still vacant. It's always been you're room, and there's no need to pay, Xena. I'm glad to have you home, again..."

Xena and Cyrene had sat down and really talked for the first time that Xena could recall. Xena retold of her life the past ten years and Cyrene had done the same. Xena had offered to lend her mother a hand in the tavern for a while, until she could get used to her new life, Cyrene had gratefully accepted...

Her mother had put her in charge of the bar while she prepared some food for her customers, but as Xena wiped down the bar, she began to feel feint and the world started spinning out of control until she passed out.

Before Xena could hit the deck, a flash of blue light appeared next to her. Cyrene entered the room when the tavern's customers noisily acknowledged the new presence.

The first thing she saw was a handsome young man holding her unconscious daughter in his arms. She immediately took charge of the situation.

She dragged the young man along and led him down the hall, to her daughter's room, where he tenderly laid her upon the bed.

Xena slowly began to come around. The Warrior Princess groaned, opening her eyes to see her mother and...

The woman was to occupied with concern for her daughter to notice the flash of blue light behind her.

"What was he doing here, Mother?" Xena asked with a mixture of curiosity and anger. She had seen him for two weeks, since she left his temple before her encounter with Hercules. She didn't want to fall back under his spell.

"Hmm? Oh, I don't know, Xena. He caught you when you fainted and carried you in here. I take it that he's a good friend?" she questioned with only a small hint of disapproval in her voice.

Xena stared at her in disbelief. "Mother! That was the very god that you despise! That was the God of War. That was Ares!"

Cyrene opened her mouth in surprise, but quickly closed it as the expression on her face turned dark. She quickly spun on her heel and exited the room.

Xena sighed in resignation of what was to come. She was definitely in for an earful later on. As Xena fell asleep, one question was floating around in her mind. What exactly did Ares expect from her this time...?

The God Of War watched kept a close eye on his chosen through his portal to the mortal plane. His expression grew tender as he witnessed her fall into a light sleep. She was so beautiful...

Xena awoke to the sound of his voice and the feel of his muscular arms around her waist. She didn't move, she didn't dare do anything but pretend to be asleep. Ares was so engrossed in his own thoughts and words, that he didn't even notice...

"I wish I could tell you everything, Xena. Nothing in this world would make me happier than you returning to me of your own free will, but what you refuse to understand is that I will love you forever, no matter what side you fight for, no matter what you have done, no matter what you will do."

She felt his gentle touch move up her body and to her face. His large fingers caressed her cheek and removed the hair from her face.

"I wish that I didn't have to sneak in to be with you at night, and sneak back out before dawn, for fear of you waking and finding me here. For fear of you rejecting my love. But one thing is certain, my love, one day you will return to me, not as my chosen, but as my equal, as you have always been."

Ares moved his hands and placed them gently over her stomach. "But for now, my princess, sleep and dream of me." Xena felt a warm glow spread through her body, starting from her stomach, where Ares was caressing her bare skin. He got out of the bad and kissed her where his fingers had just been.

Cyrene heard her daughter's yell and hurried to her room, not knowing what to expect. "Xena? Is something the matter?"

Xena was sitting up in bed, and appeared to be hyperventilating. "Xena?"

Finally, Xena noticed her mother in the doorway. "Mother? He was here...he said...he said..."

"Ares..." she whispered. "He said...'Take care of your mother for me, my children.' His children??? I can't be pregnant! Can I?"

Cyrene was worried about her daughter. Everything pointed toward pregnancy, but what would happen to the children? Everyone knew that the gods rarely acknowledged their half-mortal children. In fact, the only one that she had heard of was Hercules.

"Oh, gods...oh gods...oh gods!" Cyrene rushed to her daughter's side and tried to calm her down.

"Xena...Xena...it's alright. If you are pregnant, then you'll be a mother, and that's it. You'll bring up that child to the best of your ability and watch as he or she grows into an adult. If Ares decides to come after it...well, the man that I saw didn't seem that bad, Xena. I saw a man that cared very deeply for you. I don't think that he would harm either you, or the child..."

Xena stared at the wall in front of her. "He would never harm us, he cares too much..." she murmured, almost to herself. "Just before Hercules persuaded me to change, Ares had asked me to spend an eternity with him, become a goddess and be with him forever..."

Her mother gasped. "Xena...he actually asked that of you? I never believed that the God Of War would ever...by the Gods! What did you say?"

"Of course...All I had ever wanted was to spend every waking moment with him. He was everything to me, more than hatred, more than anger, and more than war."

A tear leaked from the corner of her eye and trickled down her face, another followed in it's wake.

Xena and Cyrene turned to the god who had spoken. The sadness in his voice had effected them both.

Xena stared at the clasped hands she had in her lap. She couldn't face him.

Ares knelt down by her bed and held her hands in his own. "I love you, Princess, why don't you come back to me?"

He rose an eyebrow. "I'm a god, it's my prerogative..." he chuckled gently.

"But if it helps any, I'm never evil to you, and Hercules never said anything about changing me, just that you don't have to be a warlord any more, yeah?" he continued tenderly.

"I doesn't matter to me anymore, Princess. I just want you to come back to me. If you want, we can go ahead as before, just minus your murderous tendencies. So, how about it? You still want to marry this ancient War God?" he asked seriously.

Xena looked to her mother as if seeking her wisdom. Cyrene looked at Ares and smiled. He was everything she could have hoped for, for her daughter. Kind, gentle, understanding and most importantly...loving.

It didn't matter who he was to the rest of the world, as long as he treated her daughter like the princess that she was referred to as...or in this case, the goddess that she would become...

Xena, noticing her mother's joyous look, turned to face Ares once again and nodded. "Yes..."