Fic Rec for Xena: Warrior Princess (rec written from inside my GLASS CASE OF EMOTIONS)

[demonqueen666]

Equal To The Gods by LadyKate.
Starts out as Xena/Gabrielle, Xena/Ares and then takes us through the completely understandably and expectedly arduous (to put it, um, lightly) at times journey of them reaching a balance not unlike OT3ness. Rated R, set in season six, AU for most of canon from "Old Ares Had A Farm", featuring cameo appearances by

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[demonqueen666]

IAWTC. The nightmare scene was so. effin'. amazing. for every reason you just described. When it got to the part where in his dream, he as a frightened mortal was looking into the eyes of his former God of War self...I had to get up and walk away from the computer for a moment or two. Because, idek. Glass case of emotions. I mean - I loved all of it, but not gonna lie, the parts I've since gone back to reread are like all the Ares ones. (I'm also very fond of that first conversation with Aphrodite, mainly for how it really helps drive home the whole difference, by how so very much she, portrayd as one of the more sympathetic gods usually even, just does NOT get it. Also the scene at the temple with the Moment Of Temptation because...DUH. There was a certain point in there where I stopped breathing, and it was such a relief when I could start again.) Almost never have I been more happier than I was when we got to the point where he was like, "So, come back home already, dummy" to Gabrielle and I realized that not only did I want to hug him but that he might just actually deserve it, too.

Fuck continuity, I wish that he could have gotten that arc on the show, too.

I still remember the very first time I saw "Old Ares Had A Farm" being like, "XENA, why are you just leaving him there, what the hell? TAKE HIM WITH YOU. THIS IS NOT EVEN THE HARD MATH."

Xena loves them both already and they love her, her arc can be a little lighter than theirs, but Gabrielle needed to touch and understand her own heart of darkness at the same time that Ares needed to struggle towards right before they could even begin to meet in the middle.

Yeah - Xena's role, at this point, is basically "Keep calm, try not to go insane, and stop anybody from getting killed". Difficult and gut-wrenching as that got for her, at times. Ares and Gabrielle on the other hand, had their own respective Shit That Needed To Be Dealt with that was almost more tangentially (at best) related to Xena than anything else. The relationship tangle was more the road walked than the journey itself, for them.