For just an instant, Xena's stoic mask wavers, and a wave of complex emotion breaks thought.

Redemption.

She hadn't expected this. She'd expected something akin to the Olympians; gods who's very being reflected, and embodied, the very make up of the world...but who were at the same time capable of petty selfishness and cruelty.

"You have studied me well," she says, her voice thick. "I've committed terrible crimes. Evils that I can't erase, no matter how much good I do. And that darkness is still within me, as much as I wish I could deny it. I long for redemption with all of my being, but I know that it will take me the rest of my life, and more."