Previously on Soul Desire:
Alti watched the scene play out. She did not move when she saw the Kent children flee. They had served their purpose. She had no more use for bait. She already had Clark right where she wanted him. True, she still meant to kill Lois and the kids, but that could come later, at her leisure. Now it was time to end the game, as much as she was enjoying every moment of Clark's pain. She reached into the tailgate of the Blazer and pulled out the lead case she held hidden there. With a grim smile that even touched her eyes, she popped open the case.
Clark was instantly writhing in redoubled pain, his eyes squinted tightly shut. Even through the haze of agony that was his mind, he knew that this new assault was not a memory. Rough moans of pain escaped him as he rocked his body, trying to get away from the deadly chuck of Kryptonite that Alti had somehow procured. His body was already weakened from Alti's mental battering; he could feel how much more quickly the actual stone was bleeding his life from him as a result. He silently cursed his nearly flawless mind for not having forgotten those brutal memories in the first place.
Alti crossed the clearing and knelt by Clark. Clark whimpered as the Kryptonite was brought closer to him. He forced his eyes open, forced himself to see the world around him instead of the world of his tortured memories. The chuck of stone that the shamaness held was thick on one end but tapered down to a sharp, pointed end on the other side. It looked sharp enough to puncture his skin.
"I can hardly wait to take in your soul," Alti said, kneeling in the grass beside him. "Dahak thanks you for your sacrifice."
With that, she plunged the stone into his stomach. Clark cried out in anguish as the radioactive substance entered his body.
***********
"Alti!"
Xena's voice was like the roar of a lioness. So fierce was her challenge that all movement in the clearing stopped for several heartbeats. The warrior princess threw herself at the shamaness, her sword raised. In an instant, the battle was rejoined.
"Again?" Alti asked, sounding bored and overconfident.
In the blink of an eye, Xena was upon her ancient foe. It was enough to break Alti's concentration as she squared off against Xena. Lois felt the phantom hands leave her throat. She gagged and coughed as her lungs sucked in precious air. She rolled to one side, getting off her back. As she did so, her eyes focused on her husband. Her eyes widened as she saw the green spike of stone protruding from his abdomen. His hands were loosely ringed about the deadly rock as he made feeble attempts to pull it out. His blood flowed from the wound, turning the vibrant blue of his suit to a sickly blackish crimson. Despite the weakness that she felt in her entire body, Lois pushed herself up onto her elbows. As Xena faced off against Alti, Lois crawled to Clark's side.
"Oh God. Clark?"
Clark's eyes had slammed shut against the unbearable pain once more, though he also felt the release of Alti's mental assault. He pried his eyes open again at the sound of Lois' voice. He tried to smile at her, but found himself incapable of doing anything more than grimacing.
"Are...you...okay?" he gasped out after a long moment.
"Yes," Lois lied. "I'm fine."
"The...kids?"
"Xena helped them to escape. Just lie still. I'll get this out of you."
"Hurry," he begged.
A couple of lines of tension had melted from Clark's brow as he learned of his children's escape. Lois pushed herself up to kneel at his side. She gripped the Kryptonite and began to pull it from his body. Clark bit back a cry of renewed pain, and although he kept his body still for Lois, he only managed it through sheer willpower. Slowly, she worked the stone from his body. With a wet pop, she finally freed the rest of it from him.
"Oh no!"
Clark didn't need to ask what Lois was groaning about. He could feel the answer well enough.
A good two inches of the green rock had broken off and remained deep within his abdomen. Clark went even paler as he gazed upon the broken spike. He grimaced again as a fresh wave of panic rolled over him.
"Got to...get it...out," he said through gritted teeth. His hands numbly raked across his stomach, as though he could tear it out.
"Easy," Lois said in a soothing voice. "Let me try."
Xena, meanwhile, had become the recipient of Alti's powers. The warrior woman crashed to the ground as Alti used the memory of Xena's crucifixion at the hands of Julius Caesar. She felt the heavy hammer crash into her legs and the snap as her bones shattered. A primal scream tore from her throat; a sound so chilling that even a few of the warlords paled at it. Hercules shot a concerned look over to Xena, and received a savage blow to his head in return. That memory had been one of the most excruciating moments of Xena's life, and Alti knew it. Next, she felt countless arrows piercing her body as she found herself once more in Japan, facing her death. Each remembered arrow sliced through her flesh and muscle. And although it was only in her mind, it could not have hurt more if it were actually happening. Xena sprawled on the ground, gasping against the pain rocketing through her body. Alti advanced to gloat over her foe.
"Oh Xena, is that the best you can do? I'm disappointed in you."
"Oh really?" Xena asked through gritted teeth, forcing herself to fight against the pain. "Then how's this?"
With one fluid motion, Xena rolled off her stomach and to one side, pulling out the diamond dagger with the Stone of Creation in the pommel as she did so. The sapphire seemed to pull in the sunlight, absorbing it like a sponge. It glowed brighter and brighter as it soaked in the sun. Finally, the light spilled down into the diamond blade, until that too glowed. Sparkles of refracted sun bounced off the outer edge of the blade, throwing miniature rainbows around the clearing. They dazzled the eye, giving Hercules, Iolaus, and Gabrielle an added advantage over the last three warlords. Gabrielle plunged her sais into the chest of the man she was battling, a lean, bald, rat-like man named Sinteres, whose fighting technique employed the same pressure points that Xena so effectively used. But Gabrielle was the faster warrior on this day. Sinteres had tried to strike at her, but she had parried his every move. Of that, she was glad. Pressure points had been one technique that she had never mastered at all.
"A dagger?" Alti laughed, though she eyed the glowing weapon with veiled unease. "That's the best threat you can muster?"
"You don't know what this is, do you?" Xena asked, taunting the shamaness. She needed Alti to get closer before she could strike.
"A pretty trinket, nothing more," Alti said dismissively, taking the last, vital step towards Xena. She reached down to grab the blade.
"Wrong," Xena hissed, using all of her strength to bring the blade into Alti's right foot.
The shamaness roared in pain as the blade grazed her foot. Xena's brow furrowed in anger. She'd meant to impale the appendage. But Alti had shifted her foot at the wrong moment. Alti grabbed a fistful of Xena's raven locks and pulled so that Xena was forced to look into her face.
"I'm going to enjoy killing you," Alti promised. "You've always been a thorn in my side."
"Funny, I was about to say the same thing," Xena said mockingly as she tore herself from Alti's grasp.
Xena pushed herself up, pulling the dagger free of the dirt as she rose to her feet. The stone had done exactly as she had thought it might. The power flowing through the weapon had broken the powerful hold that Alti had on her mind, though the blow had only succeeded in causing a minor flesh wound. The pain radiating throughout her body had vanished completely.
"Dahak cannot be stopped," Alti hissed, as Xena waved the blade before her.
"See, now that's where you're wrong," Iolaus said, having knocked out the last warlord and coming to Xena's right side. "You see, we know a little secret about the psychotic god you've fallen in with."
"That's right," Hercules confirmed with a smile. "You bet on the wrong horse." He stepped up to flank Xena's left side.
Alti shot a look at Clark and smiled a slow, triumphant smile.
"In another minute Dahak and I will have the most powerful soul in history. Then not even that fancy dagger of yours will be able to harm us."
Clark's breathing had become shallow and ragged. His skin was deathly gray. He no longer groaned against the pain; he no longer had the strength to. It was all he could do to keep breathing. He suspected that the Kryptonite had torn something vital inside. His eyes were locked on Lois' eyes, silently pleading with her and shining with hurt and fear. Lois' hands were bloody. She had tried desperately to reach the broken off point of the Kryptonite, but it was embedded far too deeply within him. All she could do now was to try and comfort him and rid the area of the larger chunk of Kryptonite.
"Hercules," she called out, trying to think fast. "Catch!"
She tossed the glowing green rock in an underhanded pitch. The demigod deftly caught it. She didn't need to tell him what to do. With a show of his strength, he launched the rock into the air. It sped away, tearing a hole through a thin white cloud that was drifting past. Lois watched it as rocketed through the air. She did not see it arc back towards Earth, and wondered if Hercules hadn't managed to put the rock into orbit.
The absence of the larger section of the rock did little to improve Clark's condition. Though only a small piece remained within him, the contact with it was sapping his life force with increased speed. Both Lois and Clark knew that it would be only a matter of minutes, if that, before it killed him. Lois fought back the tears that were welling in her eyes, putting on a brave face for Clark. She gripped one of Clark's large hands with one of her smaller ones, trying to will some of her own life into her husband. Her other hand restlessly smoothed through his hair.
Clark's breathing grew increasingly more ragged, sounding more and more like a death rattle as each second passed. He was starting to feel cold and the pain was becoming more distant. The knowledge chilled his very soul. Pain was good. It meant that he was still alive. Vanishing pain was only stark evidence that he was losing the battle to stay alive.
"Stay with me, Clark," Lois whispered to him. "Please stay alive. Fight. You're stronger than this."
Clark forced himself to make a weak moan that might have been an agreement.
Xena lunged at Alti, barely missing stabbing her as the shamaness side stepped neatly out of the way. But her gait told Xena what see needed to know. Alti was favoring her wounded foot. The power of the dagger had managed to hurt her. Perhaps it had even drained Dahak's gifted power from that portion of her body. And for all of her bravado, Alti seemed afraid of the blade. Xena grinned a feral smile and loosed a war cry. She struck out again, but Alti parried the blow, stepping beneath the arc of Xena's blow and crossing her arms above her head. Before she could use her position to throw Xena off balance and claim the dagger as her own, Xena flipped out of the way, landing behind Alti. Alti whirled, reaching for her hunting knife in the same motion. She pulled it free and held it defensively before her, daring Xena to come closer.
Gabrielle took a step forward to help.
"No, Gabrielle. Stay back," Xena ordered. "Keep an eye on those warlords."
Lois got the impression that the order was meant for Hercules and Iolaus as well.
"How noble," Alti sneered. "Trying to spare your friend the pain of my powers."
With a thought, she sent Gabrielle to her knees as the strawberry blonde bard relived the time she'd been dragged behind a horse. Xena had tried to kill her after Gabrielle's evil daughter, Hope, had killed Xena's son, Solan. Xena had been mad with grief and had blamed Gabrielle for Solan's death, though they had later learned to forgive one another for the various betrayals they had both committed against each other.
"Let her go, Alti. She's not the one you want," Xena said, warily circling as Alti did the same, looking for an opportunity to strike. "Clark will be dead in a moment. In the meantime, don't you think Dahak would love to claim my soul as well?"
Alti laughed, the sound like a bag of gravel being kicked down a flight of stairs. "A tempting offer, if I was stupid enough to be distracted by it."
She fixed Xena with another cold stare as she bored into the warrior woman's memories once more. This time, Xena felt the agony that she had experienced when she had been trying to protect a young girl from a group of zealots who had wanted to make their prisoners into human sacrifices. One of the man had sprung a trap, and a huge battering ram of a tree had swung down and crashed into Xena's back, sending her flying through the air into the trunk of another tree. She'd suffered numerous ruptured organs and internal bleeding as a result, and had, in fact, died from her wounds. But she had fought her way back from the Underworld with the help of Autolycus, the King of Thieves.
For good measure, the shamaness attacked Hercules and Iolaus as well. Iolaus found himself reliving the agony of the dagger that King Gilgamesh had thrown into his body. The blow had killed him and allowed Dahak the warrior heart that he required. Hercules found himself experiencing the pain from a beating he'd once received when he'd traded his power to pursue a life with Serena, the last Golden Hind. The god, Strife, had killed Serena but the townsfolk had thought Hercules had done the unspeakable deed. They'd savagely beaten him, fracturing his skull and dislocating his shoulder. Xena had later helped him prove his innocence, and Zeus had been forced to restore Hercules' power.
Xena went down hard as pain exploded through her body. The dagger slipped from her nerveless fingers. Alti put her back to Xena, ignoring her enemy's torment. Instead, she focused on Clark, quickly checking on his journey towards death. Unsatisfied with his progress, she fingered her hunting knife thoughtfully. She strode towards him, knocking Lois aside once she reached Clark. Lois landed several feet away, close by to Xena. Alti bent over Clark, pushing his head back to expose his vulnerable throat. The sunlight gleamed callously on the blade that she held as she brought it to his skin.
"Goodbye, Superman," Alti said in a rough whisper, a hungry, predatory look in her eyes.
Clark screamed feebly as a phantom fire ignited in his entire body. He felt flaming razors of pain searing through flesh and bone alike. It was a markedly different feeling than the pain from the Kryptonite. He could feel his very essence being ripped away from his mortal body. He knew instantly that the shamaness had begun the process of tearing his soul from him. He grit his teeth against the dual assault of pain, trying to will his soul back into place. But he knew that he was losing the fight. Bit by bit, he could feel himself slipping away. In a haze of agony, he thought of peeling a bandage from skin, only his soul was the bandage, being torn from his body. He tried to call for help, but he was well past the point of being able to form a single word.
Alti grinned a feral grin and made the first slow puncture into Clark's neck. She moved slowly, deliberately, enjoying the sight of the first fat, round drop of Clark's blood as it welled up from the tiny hole. Lois fumbled on the ground as she panicked. Suddenly, her fingertips hit upon something warm in the grass. She grasped it as realization flooded her. The dagger! With a burst of adrenaline, Lois pushed herself off the ground and sprinted at Alti. The shamaness was too late in turning to meet Lois. The dagger slammed into Alti's back, between her shoulder blades. It didn't sink in far and the wound wouldn't kill the woman. But it was all that Lois could manage.
The shamaness roared in pain. She whirled to meet Lois, forgetting Clark for the moment. Both of Alti's hands went up as she tried to reach the Dagger of Creation. Smoke issued forth from the wound as the pure sunlight began to sear away the darkness of Dahak. A haunting scream filled the air as Dahak was irrevocably destroyed. The scream hung thickly in the air for a long moment, perhaps trapped by the trees, before it faded away into nothingness, like the master it had been born of.
At the same moment, Xena and the others were released from the prison of Alti's mental war with them. Xena was instantly on her feet. She stepped in between Alti and Lois. Alti was even more furious than before.
"What have you done?" she demanded, growling like an injured animal.
Xena arched one eyebrow. "What should have been done a long time ago. Your master is dead, Alti."
"Impossible! Nothing can destroy the almighty Dahak!"
"Nothing but the Stone and Dagger of Creation," Hercules said, stepping forward. "Dahak is dead."
"Surrender now and we'll let you live," Xena offered.
"Never! You see, you were right, Xena. I was using Dahak. Clark's soul will give me the power that I need to become the most powerful being on Earth. I will become the Destroyer of Nations."
Before Xena could make another move, Alti lunged at her. The blade of the hunting knife flashed in the sun, silver and cold. She aimed it for Xena's heart, but the warrior princess was quicker. She side stepped away as Alti rushed her, but deftly plucked the dagger from the shamaness' back. Alti roared again in pain and fury. She turned and rushed Xena again. Once more, the warrior princess was ready for her. Xena caught Alti's wrist and twisted it so the point of the knife faced the shamaness. Alti's own forward momentum did the rest. The knife sunk to the hilt into the soft flesh of her stomach, tearing through her guts with savage fury. Her eyes widened in shock. Before Alti could die from the wound, Xena took the Dagger of Creation and neatly plunged it through the woman's heart. Alti's eyes glazed over in death. Xena ignored the lifeless body as it sagged to one side and toppled over. Her eyes were only for Clark. Lois bolted to Clark's side as well, matching Xena stride for stride.
"There's a piece of rock in him," Lois explained, trying to quickly fill in Xena. She was well aware of the warrior's skills as a healer. After all, Xena had tended Clark's wounds once before, when he'd nearly been killed in the Coliseum. "We have to get it out. It's poison to him."
Xena nodded, needing no further explanation. She knelt beside Clark on the side opposite from Lois. She pulled Alti's knife from the dead woman's stomach and wiped the blade clean.
"I'm going to have to make an incision to get to it," she said. "Will he heal once it's gone?" She clearly remembered witnessing Clark's remarkable healing abilities once he had been brought back to his own time and his powers had been restored.
"Yes," Lois confirmed, bobbing her head up and down in a quick nod. At least, she hoped that he would. She'd never seen him so close to death before.
"Good."
Xena carefully cut away Clark's suit from the wounded area. Without his aura of invulnerability, the knife easily cut through the fabric. Xena narrowed her eyes in concentration. She hesitated for a split second, trying to decide if she should use her knowledge of pressure points to numb the area where she was about to cut. She ultimately decided not to risk it. If Clark healed as fast as the last time she'd witnessed his remarkable abilities, then she wouldn't have a chance to undo the pinch on his pressure points. She brought the weapon over his bared flesh. The point of the knife cut into Clark's stomach easily, but he was so close to death now that he didn't even moan in pain. Fresh blood welled up and spilled over the torn flesh. Lois felt a lump rise in her throat, which she fought back down. Xena widened the incision enough to slip her hand inside. She groped around for a moment, until at last she felt the shard of Kryptonite. Clark's eyes rolled back into his skull and his head lolled to one side. He expelled a shuddering breath and did not draw another.
Hercules and Iolaus were on the move from the moment that Alti died. As swiftly as they could, they crossed the clearing to Alti's car. They each threw open one of the doors and made short work of freeing Jonathan and Martha Kent. The Kents blinked as the blindfolds were gently removed from them.
"Who are you?" Martha asked, as Iolaus helped her from the vehicle.
"Friends of your son," Iolaus replied.
"What's going on?" Jonathan asked at the same moment.
"It's a long story," Hercules admitted.
"Clark!?" Martha cried, as she stepped from the car and saw her son laying on the ground, with Xena cutting into his flesh. "Get away from my son!"
Xena ignored the woman's outburst and focused on her work.
Iolaus gently held her back. "It's okay," he said gently. "She's not trying to hurt him. She's trying to help."
"Come on, Clark," Hercules muttered under his breath as he held back Jonathan. "You can make it. I know you can."
"Clark?" Lois cried out, when his chest failed to fill with breath again. Fat tears overflowed in her eyes and fell, unchecked, down her cheeks. A few dripped from her chin onto Clark's chest, mixing with his sweat and blood. "Xena..."
"Got it," Xena said.
She firmly grasped the deadly rock. Slowly, so as not to cause further damage to him, she worked the stone free of his body. With infinite care, she pulled the shard until she had finally gotten it free and out of Clark. The wound continued to bleed. Xena pressed her free hand to the wound, trying to stem the flow. Lois' hands rushed to aid the warrior princess.
"Why isn't he healing?" Xena asked, alarmed. She extracted her hand from Lois' and checked for signs of life. "He's still got a pulse, but it's weak and fading fast."
"We've got to get rid of that shard," Lois responded.
Without another word, Xena turned at tossed the rock at Hercules. Once more, the demigod reared back his arm and sent the Kryptonite rocketing away from the area. Clark did not stir and continued to bleed.
"Come on, Clark," Xena encouraged him. "Don't die on me now."
All thought left Lois. She found herself only doing. She followed her gut instinct and bent over Clark. Her lips pressed against his and blew into his lungs. Her hands began chest compressions when she failed to find a pulse in between breaths. Five times she repeated the cycle.
"Lois..." Xena said gently. She put one hand on Lois' shoulder. "He's gone. Let his spirit pass."
"He is not gone," Lois said savagely, shrugging off Xena's touch. "He can't be. Come on, Clark. Don't you dare leave me," she challenged in a thin, watery voice, as she pressed on his heart again. "I know you're still in there. Come back to me. Please."
As if in response, Clark suddenly sputtered, coughed, and drew in a large breath. The tears that Lois had been trying fighting back burst forth anew as her body sagged in relief. Clark opened his eyes and immediately fixed them on her. He managed a weak smile for her, raising one hand as he did so, and gently wiped away a few stray tears that were glistening on her cheeks. Lois covered his hand with her own, reveling in the returning warmth of his palm. She kissed his hand several times, unable to stop trembling as she did so. She did not see as his wound closed, his flesh knitting itself back together both within his abdomen and on the surface of his body.
"It's okay, Lois," he said as he continued to wipe away her tears. "I'm here. I'm alive. You're not getting rid of me that easily."
Lois released a shuddering, watery laugh at her husband's poor attempt at lightening the mood with humor. She rewarded him with a thin smile as fresh tears slipped from her eyes.
Iolaus released Martha as soon as he saw Clark begin to stir. She and Jonathan rushed to their son's side. Xena stepped back to allow them to draw close to him. Hercules and Iolaus looked at each other and smiled in relief. And unspoken message passed between them both, and they turned away from the clearing and headed into the trees.
"I thought I'd lost you," Lois said as a couple more tears slid down her cheeks, though she was slowly coming to control herself once more.
"You almost did," he admitted.
"Oh, honey," Martha said, reaching his side and inspecting the flawless skin on his stomach. "Are you all right?"
"Fine now," he said, "thanks to Xena and Lois." He nodded in the warrior's direction.
"Thank you for saving my son," Martha said, turning to Xena.
"My pleasure," Xena replied. "I'm just glad that I could."
Clark sat up, testing his strength. Feeling almost as good as new, he stood.
"Take it easy, son," Jonathan warned him.
"It's okay, dad. I feel pretty good now. Are you guys okay though? What happened?"
"That crazy woman forced our car off the road last night. We were looking for a hotel to hole up in for a few hours of rest. We tried to get away, but she somehow made us relive old memories of pain. By the time the pain vanished, she'd bound us all in chains and blindfolds. She said she was going to use us as bait."
"The kids," Clark suddenly realized. His heart leapt into his throat and he began to scan the area.
"We're right here, dad," Michael said, stepping out from the trees with his siblings, Hercules, and Iolaus.
"They didn't get too far," the son of Zeus said, shrugging.
"Thank you," Clark said, his shoulders sagging in relief.
He rushed to his children, now feeling fully recovered from the exposure to the Kryptonite. He dropped to his knees and gathered them all in a warm embrace. Tears of relief slipped unashamedly from his eyes as he held them close. He reveled in hearing their strong, familiar heartbeats; heartbeats he had known from the first moment they had flared into existence within Lois' womb.
"I'm so glad that you're safe," he said to them, his voice rough and thick with emotion.
"We're glad that you're safe," Michael said. "We saw what happened."
"I'm fine now," he assured them, releasing them from his embrace. He remained on his knees for a moment longer.
"Dad? I'm sorry."
"Sorry?" Clark asked Michael, not understanding. "What for?"
"I tried. I really did. But I wasn't strong enough. I couldn't break the chains." Michael's voice wavered with regret and shame.
"Hey," Clark said, looking his oldest son in the eye. "There's nothing to apologize for."
"But I couldn't protect Hunter and Rebecca. I disappointed you."
Clark smiled lovingly at his son and shook his head. "Michael, I appreciate that you wanted to protect your brother and sister. But the truth is, you're still very young and your powers are only just starting to develop. You can't be so hard on yourself. It took me a long time to learn that. I don't know how strong you will eventually become. But there are going to be times when even super strength won't be enough or fails. The important thing to remember is that you could never do anything to disappoint me, so long as your heart is in the right place. And no matter what happens, I'll always be proud of you. And I'll always love you."
Michael smiled and threw his arms around his father's neck. Father and son shared a fierce embrace. Then Clark stood, releasing Michael. He turned to Xena and hugged her close. She returned the embrace gently.
"Looks like I'm once again in your debt," he said with a wry smile. "We've got to stop this trend of you saving my life every time we meet."
Xena smiled back and laughed. "Don't mention it."
"And Dahak?" he asked, with a brief glance at Alti's unmoving form.
"Destroyed," Gabrielle confirmed for him. "Thanks to Lois."
Clark breathed a sigh of relief. "How?"
"Let's get out of here first," Hercules said. "Then we can all get filled in on the details."
Clark shook his head. "I can't just leave her here like this. And the rest of these warlords need to be dealt with." He dragged a hand through his hair in thought. "I'm just not sure how I'm ever going to explain this to Police Chief Henderson."
He gestured at the men sprawled all around the clearing. A few groaned groggily as they began to come to. Iolaus bent and knocked out one of the men who had started to try and get to his feet again.
A flash of pink heralded Aphrodite's arrival. The scantily clad goddess looked with disgust on the bodies laying before her.
"Ewww," she squealed. "Clean up on aisle seven."
"Aphrodite," Hercules sighed. "Unless you're here to help, could you hold off on the comments?"
"Yeah, like I can do anything. Goddess of love remember? Not goddess of blood, guts, and gore." She rolled her eyes playfully. "Mini Kents! Right on!" she grinned, looking at Lois and Clark's children.
"She can't help, but I can. You might not want your children to watch this."
Another flash of light revealed Hades, his helmet tucked beneath his left arm. He waved his hand at Alti's body. In a flash, it vanished, leaving behind only bent blades of grass to mark that she had ever been there. Next to him, an elegant woman dressed all in white and holding a candle appeared. She floated an inch or two above the ground. She went among the warlords who still lived. Clark and Lois pulled their children close, turning them away from the battlefield. The woman with the candle touched each man lightly on the shoulder before moving on to the next. At each touch, the man beneath her hand collapsed in death. As soon as her task was complete, the woman returned to Hades' side.
"Thank you, dear Celesta," he said.
Death nodded and vanished from sight, as quickly and as silently as she'd come. Hades pointed at each dead warlord.
"Back to Tartarus," he muttered each time, sending them all back to the Underworld. Each time, the bodies disappeared. "No need to leave any evidence of this battle behind," he said, addressing Clark.
"What about Alti's tendency to be reborn?" Xena asked, crossing her arms before her.
Hades smiled. "The dagger and stone took her life. Its power destroyed her soul's power when it pierced her corrupted heart. She will never walk this earth again. I only regret that she will go to the Northern Amazons' land of the dead, where I have no jurisdiction. I would have come up with such a torment for her that it would have made Sisyphus' uphill rock pushing look like a day on Olympus."
"Hades," Hercules began.
Hades put one hand up to stop his nephew from speaking.
"I know what it is that you want. You know that if I could, I'd let your friends remain in the land of the living. But I can't break the law of the gods."
"Can't you give them a little more time at least?" Hercules pleaded. "They did just help save the world."
Hades sighed and relented. "Under the circumstances, I suppose I could give you some more time together. I'll give you until midnight tonight, but no longer. Then they have to return with me."
"Thank you," Hercules said gratefully.
Hades nodded and vanished. A second later, Ares took his place in the clearing. He surveyed the battlefield, as though he could still see the bodies laying there. He inhaled deeply and grinned.
"I love the smell of bloodshed in the morning," he said, stretching his arms to either side, as if to embrace the battlefield. "Nice work here. Xena. By the gods, it was a thing of beauty to see you back in action. Your power. Your passion. How I've missed that."
Xena rolled her eyes, though she appeared to be just as pleased with the outcome of the fight.
Clark looked towards Lois' Jeep and groaned. He'd have to fly the vehicle out of the area and to a junk yard. It didn't take a mechanic to realize that it was totaled. Hercules followed Clark's gaze, as did Lois. Lois sighed sadly.
"Ares, do you think you could fix that?" he asked, pointing.
Ares frowned, offended. "I'm Ares, god of war. Not Ares, god of mechanics. But what I can do is get rid of Alti's car for you."
Before anyone could stop him, he hurled a ball of fire at the car. The vehicle exploded noisily, a plume of flames rolling up into the sky. Ares threw his head back and laughed. Firelight flickered across his features even in the bright sunlight.
"So much for subtlety," Clark said.
"You are so twisted," Hercules said at the same moment, shaking his head at Ares' antics.
"I know," Ares shot back with a deep chuckle, clearly entertained. He seemed to choose to ignore Clark's remark.
"Are you done yet?" Xena asked.
Ares enjoyed the sight for another minute, then breathed a deep , contented sigh. He pointed to the inferno. What was left of the Blazer disappeared from sight.
"You never were one to enjoy such destruction," Ares sighed. "Slaughter of epic proportions, sure. And don't get me wrong. A field of rotting bodies still gets to me too." He put his hand over his heart, as though moved to great emotion by the thought.
Xena shook her head. "You know that's not who I am anymore."
"And what a pity that is," Ares countered, though his light ribbing was only for show. He truly had fallen in love with the woman Xena had become, not the warlord she had once been.
"I think it's time that we went home," Clark ventured, before Xena and Ares could continue.
The others nodded their agreement, eager to be as far from the battlefield as possible.
To Be Continued...
