She paused as she tried to control the rage that was inside of her. "I peeked, and I saw Herodotus grabbing Gabrielle and shaking her, then he slapped her and she fell to the floor. Then he started to pound on her. After he had left, I climbed in and took care of her the best I could. Then I sneaked back out, and was determined to find Herodotus."

I sneaked into their barn and waited for him. He came out that night to check on the animals and that was when I attacked. I wanted him to die slowly, and painfully. I started to choke him, and I could feel myself slowly crushing his throat, he couldn’t talk nor could he breathe. And I thoroughly enjoyed his pain and suffering. All the dark thoughts I had while I was waiting for him where coming to fruition. Then next thing I knew, Athena had pulled me off of him."

"Why?"

Sophia sighed. "There are many advantages of being a child of the gods, but there are many disadvantages as well. That night I learned that I had inherited some form of darkness, a darkness I couldn’t control. It was about to break through. It would have been one thing if the darkness was aim at Herodotus only. But it wasn’t. While I waited in the barn, I thought about ways to torture and kill the whole family and town except Gabrielle. I wanted to punish Hecuba for not protecting Gabrielle from Herodotus, and I wanted to hurt Lila for loving her daddy. I blamed the town because Herodotus seemed beyond reproach because he agreed with their old ways of thinking. I wanted everyone to share in Gabrielle’s pain and to pay for it. Athena had sensed my thoughts and stopped me."

"I know about darkness. For ten years I let it control everything in my life. At times, I still struggle with it."

"Xena, no offense, but the thoughts I had in that barn that day would had made the old you look like one of Athena’s virgin priestess. Athena knew that no one would be safe if she left me there. So she took me to Tartarus to work off my aggressions. It worked. Nothing is better for uncontrollable darkness than fighting with the eternally damned."