Mountains and Prophets

She already tried every place she could think of. She tried all of Spike's hanging places, she tried random evil-flooded locations, and she's even slain a couple of vampires, but could find neither Ares nor Spike.
After giving up, she went back to the library, hoping maybe Giles would figure out a better way to find him. As she approached the library, she saw Giles and Xander lying outside, trying to recover from what seemed like a very harsh fight.
"Giles! Xander" she yelled and ran to help Giles up.
"You just missed them" the watcher said, still breathing heavily.
"They were here?" she seemed surprised.
"Yes, and they've got Willow" Xander now stood up.
The warrior slayer paused and thought for a moment. "We have to find them" she said. "But when we do, things will be a whole lot easier."
"But of course!" Giles proclaimed. "Instead of convincing Ares to come to us, we bring the spell to him."
"Willow is already there" Xander said. "All we need is to get Buffy and Xena there, and to have Willow cast the spell."
"If Mohammad won't come to the mountain…" Angel wallowed towards them.
"Are you ok?" she was genuinely worried.
"Well, Ares knocked me down real hard" he said. "But I'm alright."
"We have a new plan" she told him and smiled.
"I heard, and I have to say I like it a lot better than trying to seduce him" he commented angrily, and Buffy gave him a reassuring look.
"So do I" she commented. "Both of… me…"
"He's most probably with Spike, so I think finding him is our best bet" Giles said.
"You're right" Angel commented. "I can help you with that."
"Time's a-wasting, then" Giles said. "Let's go."

"So let me get this straight" Spike faced the god of war. "You're holding Willow, who also happens to be an ancient bird, because you want to get to this… Xena?"
"Right" Ares smiled.
"You do realize that Xena is a bloke, right?"
Ares stared at him. "What do you mean?"
"The same way Gabrielle is in Willow's Body, well…" he started, but Ares already got the point.
"You could have stated that before" he was angry.
"I didn't know before" Spike sounded defensive. "Anyway, she's in the body of another vampire, like me, only…. Far more annoying."
"Wait, you mean that vampire that almost shish-qababaed you?"
"That's the one" Spike said. "He's your…. Woman."
Ares thought about it for a second. Funny, he expected to recognize Xena's spirit even if it was in somebody else's body. "Ahh, it doesn't matter, I didn't really expect her to join me, anyway."
"So why did we kidnap little red riding-hood here?" Spike pointed at Willow who was sitting tied up on the floor, a rag covering her mouth.
"We still need some leverage over the good guys" Ares stated. "We don't want them interfering with our plans, now do we?"
Spike was almost tempted to ask "What plans" but realized that it didn't matter. All that mattered to him now was the slayer, and she was probably on her way to save her friend.
And indeed, it wasn't long before she arrived.

"Can you really track him down?" it was more Xena asking than Buffy.
"Yes" Angel replied as the group was walking towards some caves they realized they never noticed before. "I can sort of… smell his presence from afar."
"I'm not even going to joke about that" Xander said and everyone wanted to thank him for that.
"They're inside" Angel said as they stopped near the entrance to the caves. "I'm sure of it."
"Good" Buffy said. "Now all we have to do is cast that spell."
"Right," Giles said. "Buffy, you go inside first and start diverting them. We'll try to get to Willow and free her. She must cast that spell before they realize what's going on."
"Right" Buffy said, and Giles turned to Angel now. "Angel, I'm afraid you can't come inside."
"Why?" Angel seemed offended.
"Spike thinks you're Xena, and probably told Ares. If Ares realizes that all three of you are together and ready for the spell, he'll disappear again."
"You're right" Angel said. "I'll stay here in case Spike makes a run for it."
"Sorry" Buffy said, and when Angel leaned forward to kiss her good luck she drew back. "Later" she whispered, and they ran inside.

"So she finally appears" Spike said as he saw the slayer. "Came to free your little friend now, did you?"
Ares surveyed the new faces and frowned. Something was not right. He raised his hand towards them and they all flew back in mid-air.
Buffy was the first to rise and started running towards the God of War. The Xena part of her instinctively wanted to do her flip, but she refrained. Ares must not know she's also Xena.
Ares shot her with a lightning bolt, but she rolled aside and evaded. Spike jumped at her, but she kicked him and continued towards Ares.
In the meantime, Giles and Xander ran to Willow to untie her. "Whatever happens," Giles whispered to her, "We have to make sure that Ares does not escape."
Xander removed the rag that was covering her mouth, and she started chanting something in Latin.
"Constraining spell" she explained with a happy smile. "Now that I know all the Latin Gabrielle knows, I can cast spells much better."
"Splendid" Giles smiled.
"There's still more" she said, closed her eyes, and continued chanting. Giles and Xander stood guard, but both Ares and Spike were too busy to mind them.
Knowing all of Ares' moves was an advantage for Buffy and Xena, but she couldn't make it too obvious. Instead she evaded most of the time, to keep them busy until Willow could constrain Ares.
It was a hard fight. Spike was insanely quick and Ares was inhumanly strong, but Buffy was both, and Xena was clever.
Ares then suddenly realized what was bothering him: Xena was not there, but yet he could… feel her presence. With an extra push of his strength, Ares again used his special powers and Buffy flew back in the air. Ares stared at her for a moment, and just as he understood what was going on, Giles signaled her, and she realized the spell was done.
She smiled wickedly and with her unique Battle cry, it was now Xena who took over and battled on forward. She flipped in mid air, and landed right next to Ares. It was then that Xander threw her a sword, and the God of War drew his own as well.
"Xena!" he was almost too happy to see her. "I knew you wouldn't miss out on a chance to get me."
"Despite what you may think, Ares, it's not always about you."
She plunged at him with the sword, and he blocked her and went on an offensive of his own. At this point of the battle, Spike had turned back to the witch and her friends, but to his surprise the little redhead was free, and as he attacked her she suddenly evaded, and hit him in the back. He recuperated quickly, more surprised than he was hurt, but before he could do anything about it he was hit from behind. He turned back quickly to see Willow holding some sort of broken pole she picked up from the floor. She knocked him down again, this time by swooping the staff under his feet, and as he was down she pointed the sharp edge of the pole directly at his heart.
Giles and Xander looked at her, stunned. So did Spike. It was obvious it was Gabrielle who took over, but then she suddenly seemed confused.
"I… I don't know how I did that…" she mumbled. "I'm Willow!"
"Oh no" Giles seemed shocked. "Your entities are starting to merge"
"Does this mean…"
"Yes" Giles turned back to see how Buffy was handling the God. "If we don't cast the spell NOW, one of you is going to vanish!"
Spike got up and managed to escape the deadly wooden pole, but as Willow turned to run after him Giles stopped her; "No, we don't have time for this, let him go."
Willow stopped.
"We have to cast that spell!" Giles urged again.
"Alright, let's do this!" she sat in the corner, and both Giles and Xander went into defensive positions again to make sure nothing interrupts her.

"What have you done to me?" Ares tried to dispel himself again when he realized what they were trying to do.
Xena smiled. "We made sure you stay to our little party" She dodged another series of attacks from the enraged godling.
Ares slowly walked towards the exit, but then suddenly felt like he couldn't move. "Humans can notcast spells!" he was red with fury.
"They can in this lifetime" She said and kicked him, but he was constrained against the invisible wall Willow had summoned, so the kick just knocked him flat against the wall.
Enraged, he started to battle Xena with furious slashing of the sword.
"Let me go, Xena" he said. "There's still much work I can do here"
"Work? Or do you mean bloodshed?" she evaded and tried to get as far away from Willow as she could.
"This world HAS to accept me. They have no real gods, they have nothing to hold on to…"
"And you think you are the ultimate solution?" She stopped. "Typical."
"These are amazing times, Xena. Warfare is at its prime!"
"Warfare?" she kept the distraction. "Ares, this so called Warfare killed millions of innocent people!"
It was then when she made the fatal mistake of looking at Willow to see how she was doing. As she did this, Ares realized she was distracting him.
He plunged to the direction where Willow was sitting, but suddenly he was raised in mid air, and his arms spread. He slowly turned around and saw the little blond, who for him was now Xena, standing below him.
"War will never win, Ares" she said. "Evil – will never win. Not as long as there are people like… people like Buffy, around."
She looked over at willow, and saw that she was also raised in mid-air, hands widely stretched, still mumbling Latin.
"And people like Gabrielle," she added with a smile.
Willow finished chanting and slowly turned her head at the Slayer, and the two exchanged a deep recognizing look, that was obviously not any more between them than it was between Xena and Gabrielle.
Ares started shaking, and suddenly a light appeared and with an enormous flash Ares disappeared. The light then suddenly jumped to Willow and consumed her. Her head was thrown backwards, and her eyes opened. In the midst of the rumble, she could hear someone whispering something in her. Was that Gabrielle's voice? She wasn't sure, but before she could think about it any further, the light disappeared from her eyes and she fell down to the ground.
Xander rushed to help her up, but Giles turned worried to Buffy.
"Are you…" he started.
"It didn't affect me" she replied, more shocked than she was worried. "This can't be! I can't stay here!"
"We'll find something…"
"Not without Gabrielle!" she seemed panicked. "I can't be stuck here!"
"Come to your senses!" he snapped at her. "You are also the slayer, you always prevail."
"So does Xena" she explained. "But not like this. Not without telling…."
But before she could finish the sentence, suddenly she started levitating.
It was her time.
She started shaking in mid-air, and then suddenly she spoke, in a language Giles couldn't understand, but could only assume was Greek. She said something softly, looking into nowhere – as if addressing someone that wasn't there, and as the light appeared in her eyes as well, a flash came over her and she fell to the ground.
Slowly she recuperated, as did Willow, and rose to her feet.
Willow looked at her. "Buffy?"
Buffy nodded. "It's only me now".
Willow smiled and gave her a hug.
"Too bad, though" she smiled. "That woman had many skills".
What she didn't tell them, though, was that she remembered everything. Xena might have gone back to her own time, but she left Buffy with a gift sweeter than anything: All her knowledge, all her skill, and most of all – her inner power.
Buffy never revealed it, but a part of her – from that day forward – always carried on the knowledge, the strength, and the love – of the Warrior Princess.