Early one fortnight, an army from Sparta crossed the mighty mountain regions that bordered their city from that of Athens. Lead by their strongest warlord Parentheses, they stormed into Athena's famed city on their black as night horses. They killed all citizens they saw including women and children and burned their homes to the ground. All seemed lost until the mighty army of Athens began to retaliate. All of sudden the Athenians were on the roofs of homes striking down the Spartans with their arrows and in the streets battling with their swords. This battle continued on for three days, until the Spartan army was weak and beaten. Parentheses and his powerful army fell. All of the Spartan army fled back to their homeland except for Parentheses. He was kept as a prisoner.
The villagers of Athens gathered in the great temple of Athena to decide the warlord's fate. They began to pray and chant for Athena to come and give Parentheses his sentence. Suddenly a bright light appeared before them and out stepped the goddess, gray-eyed Athena. The people bowed and went to one knee in awe and worship of the goddess. She stepped in front of the assembly and looked to Parentheses who was in chains and the only one standing.
She spoke. "You, Parentheses, have ravaged the lands of my city, burned its homes and killed their occupants. What do you say in your defense?"
He said nothing, just spat at her feet.
"So be it!" Athena remarked. "Your sentence is this: You are here by banished from the soil of Greece forever and you shall be made to walk the vast deserts to the south until your life force has drained and you cease to exist." The villagers cheered at this punishment.
Athena walked toward the prisoner. She touched his shoulder and they were immediately transported to the a desert where all that they could see around them was the sandy dunes. Athena, taking pity on the beaten mortal, gave him a bladder of water. "This will be your last taste of water," she said as she walked away, disappearing into the sandy winds. "May you enjoy it."
Athena appeared back on the top of Mt. Olympus and was confronted by her brother Ares, god of war. "That was a little harsh don't you think?" he said.
"Parentheses threatened my city. I had to make an example. Others will see what I did to he who defied Athens, and will keep peace with my city."
"That's not what I think. I think that the enticement for conquest over Athens will heighten. If an army defeats Athens, they will have defeated your city plus that of Sparta, and will have power over both."
"You are wrong Ares. No one will dare mess with the great city of Athens. No one!"
Ares gazed into his sister's gray eyes. He dove deep in them until he saw the truth in her soul.
"Your not so sure, are you?" Ares questioned.
Athena broke eye contact with Ares and walked away, her baige robe whipping in the wind.
Ares was left with his thoughts. "Athena is right. Her actions may bring on war, but most likely, the warlords of the world will be to afraid to start anything. If only I had Athens the world could be mine. A world of war! But of course, Zeus would never have consider me for the ruler of Athens. I know now what I must do." Then he spoke as he disappeared with a flash of blue light. "It's time Parentheses got a little gift from the gods."
Somewhere near Athens a tall warrior woman with hair black as night and eyes ice blue was traveling with a strawberry blonde girl with a staff and a cream-colored horse. "All right you hold out a fist for rock, a flat hand for paper and two fingers for scissors," said the blonde.
"Gabrielle, what's the point of this game?" the warrior woman said.
"Just think Xena, it could solve problems all over the world"
"How?"
"Well if you get rock you crush scissors, if you get scissors you cut paper, and if you get paper you cover rock. You get it?"
"But what if three people are doing it and they each get something different. Then no one wins," Xena said walking ahead.
"Nevermind!" Gabrielle exclaimed annoyed.
Then they came upon a war-torn Athens. Xena mounted her horse, Argo, to go to Athena's temple to see what happened while Gabrielle stayed back to talk to the villagers.
Xena approached the temple and dismounted seeing a an old man who looked like the head priest. "What happened here?"
"Who are you?" the priest commanded.
"My name is Xena................"
"The Warrior Princess," a young priest interjected. "The one who battles for peace."
"You've heard of me." she said apathetically.
"I've heard many stories of your adventures." the young priest said awe-struck. "You're an amazing woman."
"Thank you. Anyways like I was saying, what happened?"
The head priest spoke again, "The Spartans waged war on us and pillaged our city until we beat them and banished their leader."
"It looks like they took a real bite out of Athens," she said. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"No, but we could have used you last week," the head priest said with a condescending tone in his voice.
"Xena," Gabrielle said running to her. "I found out what happened."
"So did I. Let's help clean up," Xena said figuring she had nothing better to do.
Ares appeared in the desert where Athena had left Parentheses. He spoke to the fallen warlord. "You've failed me, Parentheses. I trusted you with one of my best armies and you failed me!"
"Have pity Ares. Have mercy............"
"Let me finish. I'm going to give you another chance and this time you will not fail me," Ares told him with a dark tone.
"What are you going to do?" he asked frightened on his hands and knees.
Ares put his hands out in front of him and twisted them around eachother until a golden box appeared in them.
Parentheses rose. "What is this," he asked smelling the sweet aroma coming from the box.
As Ares slowly opened the box a reddish glow came out of it. Parentheses shielded his eyes from the warm light but then looked at the contents of the box. Parentheses exclaimed "Ambrosia!!"
"The food of the gods. One bite will make you or anyone a god." Parentheses began to reach for the box. Ares snapped the box closed. "One thing before you dig in."
"What..............Anything!"
"Wear this," Ares said as he handed Parentheses a golden ring encrusted with black stones. "With this I can control your powers to benefit me as well as you. Wear this and become a god, or don't and rot in this desert. This is an easy choice."
"Yes it is." Parentheses said. He put on the ring and indulged himself in the flavorful food of the gods. After he was finished he rose as a strong, powerful god.
Ares exclaimed, "Hear me world! Meet Parentheses, god of revenge!!"
"And if you get paper you cover rock," Gabrielle explained to the young priest.
"Gabrielle," Xena called, "give it up!"
Just then, dark thunderheads began to gather overhead and a strong southern wind began to blow over everything in its path. Xena looked up to see a large funnel that reached from the clouds to the earth.
"WHAT IS THAT!!!!" Gabrielle yelled over the winds as she ran to Xena.
"I DON'T KNOW!!"
The winds began to subside and in the funnel high in the sky the image of the new god Parentheses appeared. "Listen well, all ye people of Athens. Because of my banishment you shall feel the firey wrath of my newly gained god powers and Ares as well as the Spartans shall rule the world!!!" He laughed as he sent down two lightning bolts into the vast olive trees igniting a fire. Al of the villagers fled in horror.
The young priest quickly rushed to Xena. "What's happening?!"
"Parentheses?! You didn't tell me the warlord you banished was Parentheses!" Xena exclaimed.
"Why does that matter?" Gabrielle asked.
"I fought him once before. His was a tough apponent. I didn't know what made him so powerful then, but I later realized that he had been trained by Ares who was watching out for him."
"What should we do?" asked Gabrielle.
"Gabrielle, you go and get everyone to safety." Then Xena looked at the young priest. "You'll come with me to the temple. I have a plan. GO!!"
Gabrielle went to control the crowd as Xena and the priest ran to the temple dodging fireballs and lightning bolts. When they reached the temple, Xena informed the priest of her plan. "All right, I know that in every temple to Athena, she personally places a vile of Hind's blood near the altar."
"Hind's blood. That can kill a god."
"Being the goddess of wisdom she's prepared for these kind of things. We just need to find it."
They rushed to the altar in the center of the temple. It was covered with gold and jewels. They both threw the riches aside in search of the vile they needed as the lightning bolts flew closer to the temple. A minute later the priest cried out, "I FOUND IT!!"
"GOOD! GIVE IT TO ME!!" Xena shouted.
Just then a bolt struck the top of the large temple and shook it. The young priest launched the vile into the air as he and Xena fell back. Xena quickly fish-flopped up and flipped into the air catching the vile. She took her sharp, disk-looking weapon from her side and covered it with the deadly blood. She made sure the priest was okay and then ran out of the temple.
Xena looked around and not enough of the Athenians were to safety. She knew she had to kill Parentheses quickly. She saw him and darted behind a still standing hut waiting to strike.
"YOU CAN'T ESCAPE FROM ME!!!!!!" he called out to the Athenians. "YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM A GOD!!!!!" He quieted himself and turned to the hut where Xena was hiding. "A heartbeat," he quietly said to himself, "I wonder who it could be? HELLO XENA!!"
Xena quickly jumped out of the way of the house as it was blown to bits by Parentheses. She quickly put her chakram covered in Hind's blood in it's holster knowing Parentheses would blow it to bits if he saw it. She drew her sword. "Hello Parentheses. Long time no see."
"Don't even think about fighting me. You know how hard I was to fight when I was mortal. And now as a god," he said drawing his sword, "you don't stand a chance."
"We'll see," she said and struck her sword with his. They exchanged blows and swings and were evenly matched."
"You've improved, Xena, but who do you really think is going to get tired first?" Parentheses looked at his sword and threw it to the ground saying, "What am I doing?" He then flicked his finger and sent Xena flying 100 feet backwards into the remains of a hut.
Parentheses looked around for the villagers of Athens. He saw a family run into a nearby cave. He began to walk toward the cave. Xena threw the hut remains off her bruised body in time to see what Parentheses was doing. She stood and readied her chakram. Parentheses heard the ping of her disk-like weapon and knew what she was going to do. He turned around and raised his hand toward Xena. His hand began to glow with fire and was about to fire when Ares appeared and swiped his hand through the air sending the fire ball intended for Xena into a nearby tree. Xena and Ares exchanged a look as Xena threw her chakram. It bounced off of a few trees and rocks then slit Parentheses's throght injecting the Hind's blood into him. The chakram returned to Xena's hand in time for her to watch Parentheses slowly die. Ares disappeared with a puff of blue smoke.
The people of Athens came out of their hiding places as the thunderheads parted. They all praised their goddess for delivering them from destruction once again. All but one, that is. The young priest came out and said, "Thank you, for everything." He then returned to the other priests.
By the fire that evening, Gabrielle said to Xena, "Now there's two things I don't get. If Ares wanted conquest over Athens so badly why did he stop Parentheses from killing you."
"You remember when I said that Parentheses had been trained by Ares?"
"Yeah..........."
"Well so was I. That's how I could defeat him the first time I battled him. When Ares was planning to take Athens he wasn't counting on me being there. He has feelings for me and........."
"Say no more," Gabrielle interrupted "I understand."
"What's the other thing you don't get."
After a pause Gabrielle said, "You really don't like the game I made up?"
"Gabrielle.........."