CHAPTER TWO:
Q & A
The Q Continuum, some time earlier
Q had been furious when he discovered the trick Ares had played on Xena and immediately summoned him back to the continuum from which he and his fellow 'Olympians' had been ejected so long ago. He glared at the self-proclaimed god of war and fumed "of all the ridiculous tricks you've played on humanity over the years, Q, this has to be one of the cruellest. Don't you know that the one thing that really keeps humanity going is hope? If Xena had been a lesser mortal you could easily have destroyed that. Not to mention the fact that what you showed her was a completely skewed version of reality, that you've been playing around with the timeline and......."
"OH GODS!" interrupted Ares at the top of his voice, "will you shut up!! First of all, don't call me Q, I hated that even when I was part of the continuum, the name is Ares. Second of all, I'm not stupid enough to endanger any timeline; I wouldn't have done it if I didn't trust Xena and Gabby to keep their mouths shut. And third of all, Oh Mighty Q, since you and your cronies chucked me out of your delightful continuum eons ago, I really don't see that it's any of your damm business!" The wargod made himself comfortable on the oversized armchair and draped one leg nonchalantly over the arm. "Admit it, Q," he sneered, "you're only bothered about this 'cause you've got a thing for that little redhead."
"If you're refering to Captain Janeway," said Q indignantly, "I happen to have a great deal of respect for her and I'll thank you not to demean her in that way."
"Yeah yeah, whatever" shrugged Ares disinterestedly as he sank deeper into the comfortable chair. A second later, however, he found himself sprawled on the floor as Q dematerialised his chair with a click of his fingers. "Hey! What was that for?!"
"I didn't bring you here to make yourself comfortable. I want to know what you're going to do about it."
"Oh for Zeus' sake, Q! She was the best warlord I ever had and I just want her back. I thought it was worth a shot. Wipe her memory if you're that worried."
"You know I can't do that. Apart from the fact that it would be totally unethical, with someone like Xena there's no guarantee it would be permanent. We'll have to think of something else."
"We!?"
"Of course, we. You're the cause of this problem, Oh Mighty Ares, and you're going to help me sort it out."
Sullenly the god of war got to his feet and stood before his former colleague. Although the continuum had thrown him and the other renegade Q out of their circle long ago, they had not been relieved of their powers. Ares was only too aware that if he annoyed Q much more he was likely to persuade the continuum to remedy that situation and so he decided to co-operate. He knew too much about mortals to want to be one of them. "Alright, Q, you win," he moaned, "what do you want me to do?"
"I don't know yet, but if we put out heads together I'm sure we can come up with something" replied Q condescendingly. Eventually, after trying to find another way out, they came to the conclusion that the only course of action was to show Xena and Gabrielle the other side of the story. Q wanted Ares to take them back to Voyager but he argued that they would be unlikely to believe him again or trust his motives and so it was decided that Q himself would be their guide this time. However, as he had just raised his hand to click his fingers and send himself to ancient Greece, Ares stopped him.
"I have a suggestion, Q" he said.
"Oh yes?"
"Why don't we make this a little more interesting for ourselves?"
"What are you talking about?"
"A bet."
"Ooh, a bet! Go on." said Q excitedly.
"I still believe that Xena will be won over by a glimpse of the future," began the wargod as he strutted around the room, "I think she'll realise that despite all the wishy-washy stuff that goes on aboard your precious Voyager, she is still essentially a ship of war. If I'm right and Xena comes back to me, I win, and you have to become a Greek god. If I'm wrong and Xena walks away, I'll give her up and leave her and her little girlfriend alone for the rest of their pathetically good lives."
Q thought about it for only a split second before shaking hands with the smirking Ares and as an afterthought added "no tricks, Ares."
"Of course not" chided the god,
and with the sealing of the bet, Q set off to find the ailing warrior and her attentive nurse.
End of Chapter Two
