The story of Xena's daughter Eve is quite amazing. Eve is the product of an "Immaculate Conception". That is, when a deity or a spiritual force conceives a child with a mortal, human being through supernatural means. In this instance Callisto conceived Eve with Xena at the end of the Season Five episode "Fallen Angel", when she reaches out and touches Xena. This occurs just after Callisto helped Eli resurrect the Warrior Princess and Gabrielle. Callisto's reasons? As she stated in the 100th episode "Seeds of Faith" she wanted to give back to Xena all they had taken from one another in their turbulent past: Life. Xena also finds out that Callisto has a destiny, and that is to be reborn into the physical world to become "The Messenger". Xena accepts Callisto's soul into her unborn child. This not only gives Callisto another chance to live in the mortal world, and have the happy life she was robbed of in her past, this gives Xena another chance to experience motherhood in ways she did not with her son Solan.
It is also in the episode "Seeds of Faith" that we learn of "The Twilight". This is a prophecy by the Fates that foretell's the fall of the Olympian order. We learn more about the Twilight in the episode "God Fearing Child", when Zeus himself tells us Eve's birth will herald the end of the Olympian gods. He attempts to kill Xena and Eve, and would have succeeded had Hercules and Hera not intervened.
Because of their fear of the Twilight, the gods of Olympus begin to hunt Xena, Gabrielle and Eve relentlessly in an attempt to shatter the prophecy of the Fates. Everyone attempts to kill baby Eve, from the temple guards of Poseidon, Artemis and Apollo in "Eternal Bonds", to Athena in "Amphipolis Under Siege". This constant threat to Eve's well being finally sends Xena to the Fates in an effort to find a solution before the gods succeed in killing her child. It is the episode "Looking Death In The Eye" that Xena and Gabrielle, with the help of Octavious, manage to trick the gods into believing they are dead by allowing the gods to "kill" them. Only one thing goes wrong: Ares. He, as the other gods, believes the three to be dead and attempts to give them an honorable funeral. He places Xena and Gabrielle in an icy grave where they remain for twenty five years. To keep her safe, Octavious takes Eve back to Rome where he raises her.
Eve's story continues in the episodes "Livia", "Eve," and "Motherhood". Xena and Gabrielle awaken to find Twenty-five years have passed. Joxer and Meg have a good-hearted poet son Virgil, but Eve is no longer Eve. She is Livia, Champion of Rome. She is everything Xena didn't want her daughter to be: a warrior and a cold-blooded killer with the same thirst for bloodshed and power she and Callisto had had in their own dark pasts, and guiding her on the road to destruction is Ares. Xena shows Ares up for the liar and traitor he is, and tells Livia of her true identity, but this costs Livia her plans to marry Augustus (formerly Octavious) and become the Empress of Roma. Livia views Xena as a threat to her rise to power. Instead of being happy to have her mother back in her life, Livia challenges Xena to a duel to the death in the infamous Roman Colosseum. Once Xena defeats her, Livia takes her army and sets out on a campaign to destroy the followers of Eli, more out of anger for Xena than any loyalty to Ares.
Xena and Gabrielle, with the help of Joxer and Virgil, also set out on a mission of their own to save her, but not before Livia does a lot of damage. The gang finds that Livia has plans to raid a temple to Eli where the last of his followers have gathered to pray for a miracle that will save them from her. Gabrielle attempts to talk some sense into Eve, but this plan backfires and Livia captures her, planning to kill her to egg Xena into another fight to the death. Xena and Virgil arrive to save Gabrielle, but during the struggle, Livia kills Joxer. Ironically, it is his sacrifice that saves Livia, as Xena was about to use the chakram to kill her. Livia and her army continue on to the temple, leaving Xena, Gabrielle and Virgil to deal with Joxer's death.
Though distraught over the loss of a dear friend, and father, the three manage to make it to Eli's temple ahead of Livia. There, with the help of some soldier's from Augustus' army, Xena and Livia have their final showdown. Xena is finished trying to save her daughter, and is resigned to killing her. However, Livia gets the upper hand in their last fight, and just as she is about to kill her mother, Eli intervenes. In one of the most poignant moments of the season, Xena and Livia relive their lost past, from the moment Eve was conceived through all their special moments together. This vision changes Livia and seeing the error of her ways, she goes off to find redemption, leaving Xena with the knowledge that all her efforts succeeded. She was no longer Livia, but she was once again Eve.
-Caina Q. Fuller.