Here Comes Trouble,
An Awakening
XXIV
Frau Hunter Ash
(Aka Dana Cooper-Kjarr)
*Disclaimers
Ownership:
Repeat after me: I don’t own Xena, Gabrielle, etc. I’m borrowing them for entertainment
purposes, please don’t bother to sue me, you wouldn’t even get court costs.
Violence: Battles
between gods, character death, a new God of War, and the return of an old enemy
make this violence level a little higher than usual. Strong R.
Subtext/Alt Fiction/Sex: the story assumes a loving and sexual relationship between people
of the same gender and of the opposite sex.
If this offends you or is illegal for you then please leave. Come back when you are older, have an open
mind, moved, or changed your laws.
Feedback:
always welcome and responded to!
Storyline: The mystery of who Joxer has been with is
solved with the return of an old enemy who brings major life changes and the
possibility of a war between the gods that could destroy the Earth and all the
Realms.
The story can stand on its own but it is part of a
series and you might want to catch some of the earlier parts to know exactly
who is who.
A Visit Home, an Awakening 1 * An Awakening,
Discovery, 2 * Amazon Bonding, Awakening 3 * Healing, 4 * Trial of a Roman, 5 *
Gladiator, Bard, Warrior, Mother; 6 * Reunited, 7 * Ides of March, 8 * Children
of Gods, 9 * Even with Ares, 10 * Settling with Brutus, 11 * Darkness
Awakening, 12 * Amazons North, 13 * Amazon Darkness, 14 * The Wild Hunt, 15 *
Bard Scrolls, 16 * A God’s Twilight, 17 * Chakram, 18 * Death and Rain, 19 *
Beowulf & Grendel, 20 * Nightstalkers, 21 * Blood Darkness, 22 * Aftermath,
23 * Here Comes Trouble, 24 *
Xena frowned as she looked over at her mate and then over to Meg. The warrior noticed that Gabrielle was
keeping Xena and Argo between her and the innkeeper. Not that Xena could blame the warrior bard, not after Meg had
suddenly attacked Gabrielle.
Xena thought everything was confusing before they met up with Meg but now
it was even more puzzling. Prior to
Meg, Xena and Gabrielle were told the child the bard was carrying wasn’t a
child of Bacchus as they once feared, but magically conceived as a child of
both Xena and Gabrielle by the Forest Spirits of the Siberian Amazons.
Xena was still trying to process this new revelation
and she knew Gabrielle was still in shock.
The bard believed the only possible answer to her pregnancy was Bacchus
when they fought him and Alti in the Spirit
Realm. During this time Gabrielle was
tortured and sexually abused and turned into a bacchae again. Only her blood connection to Xena brought
her back and saved them both.
The discovery that she was pregnant and presuming that
Bacchus was the father devastated the bard, sending her into a suicide attempt. The attempt had been stopped at the last moment by Xena and some of the
gods; the gods finally called the Forest Spirits
forth and they revealed the truth of Gabrielle’s pregnancy.
Xena and her mate were facing another child in their
lives, something created by both of them this time.
They were also wondering about Joxer now.
Meg had told them of how Gabrielle had appeared a
month earlier, seduced Joxer and ran off with him. The bard had quickly denied even seeing the warrior turned
innkeeper, pointing out to Xena and Meg that she had been with her family in
Poteidaia.
Xena knew Meg didn’t
believe Gabrielle and only reluctantly agreed to accompany the warrior and bard
to Amphipolis because she didn’t know where else to turn to find her husband.
Of course, Xena and Gabrielle didn’t have an idea
about where to look for Joxer either or who was actually with him. Who could look and act enough like Gabrielle
to fool Joxer into going with her and then staying away for a month?
Gabrielle continued frowning as her thoughts
traveled along the same path. An
unexpected and still mystifying pregnancy, being mentally and physically
stressed out, these did not add up to a fun ride back to her home with Xena and
Meg.
“You okay, little one?” Xena asked softly.
“Yeah,” Gabrielle mumbled. “Any idea what is going on? I know I don’t have a twin.”
“I didn’t think I did until we ran into Diana and
then Meg,” Xena grumbled back.
Meg glared at both the warrior and the bard and then
concentrated on the road ahead of them.
“Enough like me to fool Joxer into leaving Meg?”
“I can’t buy that either,” Xena admitted.
“Who would want to do this?” Gabrielle pondered. “Only Aphrodite comes to mind but I can’t
really see that. She wants you and me
together, so why would she mess with Joxer and Meg by making them think I
wanted Joxer?”
“Gabrielle, you’ve been through a lot lately. Any way that the Furies or someone else
could be using you?” Xena questioned
and wasn’t surprised when the bard’s green eyes flashed angrily.
“You think I was with him?” she hissed, trying not
to attract Meg’s attention.
“No, I just know how Morpheus, the Furies, maybe
even Bacchus can mess with people, especially us,” Xena whispered back.
“I was with my family!” Gabrielle snapped. “Lila is pregnant again, my mom got married
and I was busy most of the time throwing up my guts!”
The warrior wasn’t surprised when Gabrielle urged
her horse ahead of the other two in a fit of anger. Xena shrugged off Meg’s glare, she didn’t blame Gabrielle for
being upset - nothing was easy about any of this.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Gabrielle was hurt and angry but knew she couldn’t
blame Xena for questioning her about her mental state of the last month and a
half. After the mess with Alti and
Bacchus she was shattered enough to try and kill herself.
She began to calm down as they got closer to
Amphipolis and let her horse fall back alongside Xena’s. Gabrielle was still upset enough not to meet
her mate’s eyes though.
She finally shrugged and saw Xena relax a
little. Even after all the years they
have been together, occasionally they would argue but they usually made up by that evening and Xena was grateful this seemed to be one of those times.
Gabrielle pulled her horse to a stop and Xena
quickly did the same. The warrior had
her chakram in hand even before she thought about it.
“What is it?” she asked softly as Meg looked over at
the two warriors.
“I don’t know, something is wrong,” Gabrielle
muttered and pulled her sais into her hands.
Xena motioned for Meg to be quiet and listened, her eyes going
unfocused for a moment. “Gabrielle,
close your eyes and listen.”
The bard closed her eyes and let her sense shift
into hyper alert.
“Sasha!”
Both Xena and Gabrielle urged their horses into a
rapid trot with a surprised Meg following behind them.
“What in Tartarus is going on?” Meg demanded.
“My daughter is psychic gifted and is yelling for help,”
Xena explained.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
All three horses stopped on the edge of town, each
woman trying to take in the sight of the village center.
Gabrielle heard a growl from her mate and felt her
own ears roaring with rage.
Dexicreon, the village blacksmith and Xena’s friend,
was chained to a post nearest the women.
The sight only got worse as they saw their friends and family chained to
other posts: Cyrene; Solan; Reija and son; Joxer; Sasha; Torris and wife.
Xena heard Meg moan softly beside her as she saw
Joxer hanging in his chains. The former
soldier looked like he had been through a gauntlet with bruises, cuts and blood
everywhere.
Everyone else looked okay but shaken.
There was no sign of anyone else in the village and
there were no sounds either.
“Gods, it’s a trap!” Gabrielle complained with a
whisper.
“Yup, definitely set for us and well baited too,”
Xena growled. She resisted letting a
battle cry loose and rushing forward, especially at the sight of the toddler
Kiryk, her grandson, and her daughter, Sasha in chains. The boy kept pulling on the chain around his
waist, trying to crawl to his mother.
Reija and Cyrene looked frantic; Solan and Torris
enraged. It didn’t help that they were
gagged and couldn’t reassure each other or even yell at whoever had them
chained.
“Joxer looks dead!” Meg cried, trying to keep her
voice low.
“I can see his chest moving,” Gabrielle said
softly. “What do we do?”
“Circle around and see where in Tartarus the trap
is. There has got to be archers or
soldiers waiting in the inn and the buildings around the square,” Xena
muttered.
“To rush out and surround us when we go in,”
Gabrielle nodded.
“Yes.”
“Let me go in and scout it out,” Gabrielle
suggested.
“Not likely, Gabrielle!” Xena’s eyes narrowed. “Not in your condition.”
Gabrielle felt herself blushing, remembering the
reason for the recent emotional and physical turmoil. It had taken years of growth and experience but she had become
almost an equal partner with Xena in their battles and adventures. Now that was going to change for a while.
“Condition?” Meg asked and Gabrielle blushed an even
deeper red.
“Never mind that, she’s not going in,” Xena said
abruptly.
“Then what do we do?” Meg demanded.
“You wait here,” Xena ordered. “If it is a trap, I want you to ride to the
next village and gather the militia.”
“I’m not leaving Joxer!” Meg protested.
“Just do it!”
Xena growled and drew her chakram.
“If we’ve been spotted they won’t wait much longer before forcing our
hand. Come on, Gabrielle.”
“Right with you,” Gabrielle said easily, her sais in
hand.
“Fast and quick! You go for the far end, get them
loose and into the stable or inn,” Xena ordered.
“The chains?”
“When you reach Joxer, I’ll cut the chains with the
chakram and then help get the others out of the line of fire.”
“Let’s do it!”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Gabrielle wasn’t surprised when Xena held back at
the edge of the fountain while she dashed forward on her horse. The bard leaped off her horse before it had
even skidded to a stop, landing on her feet easily, almost right under Joxer’s
nose.
“Joxer!” she yelled and raised the soldier’s
chin. She grimaced as she took in the
sight of his battered face.
“Please don’t hurt me anymore, Gabby,” Joxer said
softly.
“What?” Gabrielle thought her heart would stop as
his words sank in.
The bard quickly spun, swinging her sais in an
arching motion as arrows began flying through the air. She managed to deflect five of the arrows
and gritted her teeth as an arrow went through her right calf.
“Gabrielle!” she heard Xena scream as another round
of arrows came flying out of the air.
The bard turned and again deflected several arrows,
most of them aimed at Joxer.
Xena growled and rushed Argo forward behind the
posts and began cutting the chains as she went along. She also found herself catching and deflected arrows as she went.
The warrior cursed under her breath as she took in
the sight of several soldiers rushing out of the inn on one side of the square
and several from the blacksmith shop on the other.
“Soldiers!” she shouted at Gabrielle and turned Argo
to take on the soldiers from the blacksmith shop while Gabrielle turned to take
on the ones from the inn.
Solan, Reija, and Kiryk were still chained. Torris and his wife quickly grabbed Joxer
and Cyrene and dived to the ground; Torris covering the women with his own
body.
Gabrielle growled and then yelled in anger as she
broke off the arrow embedded in her leg and faced the soldiers. The bard took on the rush of soldiers
easily, parrying one sword strike and blocking another and burying one sai in
between the ribs of one soldier. She
ducked a sword swing and came up with the blunt end of the sai under the
soldier’s chin, knocking the soldier off his feet.
Seeing several more soldiers rushing her, the bard
sheathed one of her sais and grabbed up a fallen sword.
Xena screamed a war cry and took Argo through the
middle of the first rush of soldiers and with her sword and Argo’s hooves, four
soldiers went down quickly. Argo spun
easily back through the bandits or soldiers and three more went down.
Xena yelled again and flipped off the horse and
landed in between two of the soldiers.
A backhand sent one onto his back and one slash of her sword sent the
other to his knees, trying to hold his stomach back in place.
The warrior turned to her family when she froze at
the sound of a female war scream.
Gabrielle, finishing off another soldier, turned to
face another when both froze at the sound.
The bard turning pale in the sunlight.
Xena and Gabrielle knew that scream very well and both
turned to the source.
“No, please!” Gabrielle whispered as she took in the
sight of Callisto at the edge of the square, a knife held at Meg’s throat.
Xena glanced over and saw the shocked expression on
her mate’s face and felt the same emotions overwhelming her as well.
“Hi!” Callisto said cheerfully, her brown eyes
frenzied.
The Goddess looked exactly like she did when Xena
and Gabrielle last saw her falling into a river of lava. Except her eyes were now brown again instead
of new-God white.
“Miss me?” Callisto asked, pulling roughly on Meg’s
hair.
“Not much!” Xena growled, raising her chakram.
“Now, Xena!” Callisto scolded, “Is that any way to
greet an old friend?”
“What do you want, Callisto?” Gabrielle demanded.
“Oh, what I always want,” the warrior said in her
child-like maniac voice. “You screaming
in pain, Xena’s head on a platter, the usual.”
“You’re a god now, why bother with us?” Xena tried
reasoning with her. “I helped you get the ambrosia.”
“And put me in that lava river! Did you think I
would forget that little part? One thing about immortality, I can’t be killed
but that lava did hurt a little bit.”
Gabrielle turned and blocked a sucker punch from one
of the soldiers and put her sai through his throat.
“Oh, interesting! You have changed!” Callisto said
delightedly. “You know, it wasn’t easy
being you for the last month!”
“You?” Gabrielle pressed, the pieces falling into
place as she looked down at the barely conscious Joxer.
“Trust me! It wasn’t my best work!” Callisto laughed. “Although, he is better than he looks and
torturing him was so much fun!”
Gabrielle and Xena’s eyes widened in shock as
Callisto… shifted and it was a twin of Gabrielle holding Meg.
‘Gabrielle’ looked over at Joxer and grinned as the
former soldier raised his head and looked at her and then at Gabrielle.
“How’s it going, lover?” ‘Gabrielle’ asked and
laughed as he flinched and lowered his head again.
Meg yelled in anger and struggled in Callisto’s arms
and only stopped when the knife bit into her neck.
“Let her go!” Xena demanded. Then she growled when Callisto shifted again
and merely laughed at all of them.
“Now,”
Callisto yelled and both Xena and Gabrielle quickly looked around at the
soldiers appearing on top of the buildings, each with bow and arrow.
“No!” Xena screamed and launched herself into the
air, flipping over and over, trying desperately to reach her family. Gabrielle dropped the sword and dived
forward herself, somersaulting towards the remaining chained members of the family.
Gabrielle grabbed a shield up from one of the
soldiers and dropped it over Torris’ back as she flipped by them and turned to
face the arrows as she shielded Sasha and Reija.
Xena flipped in front of Solan and Kiryk just as
precisely at the same moment the arrows reached the Greeks. Three arrows in one hand, two in another and
one buried in her side, Xena hit the ground hard, almost next to Gabrielle.
Xena heard Callisto’s laugh and Cyrene’s scream.
Gabrielle quickly turned and saw that the arrows had
missed Sasha and Reija and rapidly looked down. “No!” she cried out when she
saw the arrow sticking out of Xena’s side and then she stopped, stunned as
Callisto laughed.
Xena turned over and somehow wasn’t surprised at the
sight of an arrow sticking out of Solan’s chest. Exactly like the vision Alti showed her months before.
Gabrielle reached down without looking and helped
Xena to her feet. The warrior broke off
the feathered end of the arrow in her side with a growl and turned her attention
to her son.
Solan was still alive but blood was flowing freely
from his mouth and Xena groaned at the look of pain on his face.
“Solan?” she whispered as Reija screamed next to
her. Out of the corner of her eye she
saw Torris trying to release Reija and the kids.
“Mom,” he whispered and closed his eyes.
Xena screamed as Solan stopped breathing.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Gabrielle looked up from her mug, the weariness
apparent to everyone, especially Meg as the other woman sat down.
“How is Joxer?” the bard asked.
Meg wiped tears from her eyes and Gabrielle could
see her struggling.
“I don’t know, they say he’ll recover physically,”
Meg sobbed. “Mentally, he won’t even
talk to me. Just keeps saying he’s
sorry.”
“Meg,” Gabrielle didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t responsible for Joxer’s condition
but it almost felt like it.
“How is everyone else?” Meg asked, dismissing the
beginning sympathy.
“The healer is about to remove the arrowhead from
Xena, Reija is grieving for Solan, Sasha is in shock, Cyrene has lost her
grandson, and my leg hurts.”
The innkeeper fought against her remaining and
misplaced anger at Gabrielle and helped the bard into one of the back rooms of
the inn where the healer was working on her mate.
Cyrene wiped Xena’s forehead with a cool cloth as
the warrior grabbed the bedposts and gritted her teeth.
“Xena?” Gabrielle questioned softly, staying back
out of the healer’s way.
The warrior opened her fevered blue eyes and tried
to smile at the bard and then bit back a scream as the healer prodded her side
with a knife.
Meg pulled the bard back to the wall to a chair and
quickly checked Gabrielle’s bandage and nodded, satisfied with the stitching
and cleaning of the wound.
Gabrielle found herself being held back by Xena’s
twin as the warrior screamed as the knife and tongs sought out the arrowhead
still embedded in her body. The bard
could see the pain on Cyrene’s face as she watched her daughter.
Cyrene glanced over and nodded reassuringly to
Gabrielle and the bard sank back down in her chair, biting her lip. She could almost feel Xena’s pain
herself.
Gabrielle tried not to think, it hurt too much. Solan was dead before Xena had cut his
chains. It had taken Torris and Dex
both to drag Xena away from her son’s body so that her own wounds could be
tended to inside the inn.
Gabrielle had sat in the dust with the boy’s head in
her lap while everyone else ran around franticly. Whatever magic Callisto had cast upon the town lifted with her
disappearance and the villagers came pouring out of their houses and
businesses, all wanting to help.
The bard could barely make out Cyrene’s voice as she
took charge and ordered the people about.
Gabrielle became aware of Reija sitting next to her, holding Solan’s
hand and softly crying. The bard wanted
to say something comforting, to lend the girl a shoulder to cry on, anything.
Instead, Gabrielle found she couldn’t move, speak or think.
So she sat in the dust, wiping the blood away from
her adopted son’s mouth, watching his blonde hair wave slightly in a
breeze. Gabrielle found herself staring
at the arrow still in the young man’s chest, the blood turning very dark in the
air.
The bard had no idea how long she sat there. She knew it couldn’t have been long, but it
felt like forever with Xena’s screams still sounding in her ears and Reija’s
gentle sobs softly telling the bard of the passage of time.
Strong hands and a soothing voice reached her
finally but somehow Gabrielle still couldn’t respond. Those same strong hands gently lifted her into strong arms and
the bard closed her eyes against the sun and the pain that filled her body and
soul.
Hands and voices kept trying to intrude into her
darkness and force her to pay attention to something. The abrupt pain of the arrow being forced through the rest of her
leg brought the bard out of her shock with a scream.
Dex, the blacksmith, held her back onto the bed with
gentle but firm hands while Reija wiped her forehead with a cool cloth. It felt like fire shooting from her leg but
the pain soon eased into an irritating and painful throb and with help,
Gabrielle was able to get back into the main room of the tavern.
Now Xena was screaming in pain, Reija was nowhere to
be seen and Gabrielle had no idea how bad Joxer truly was.
The bard let Meg wrap her arms around her and they
both finally wept as Xena sank into a troubled and fevered sleep after the
healer bandaged her wounds.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
“Joxer?” The soldier opened his eyes slowly and
grimaced at the pain as it radiated throughout his body.
Gabrielle almost broke into tears when her best male
friend whimpered and tried to move away from her.
Meg quickly lay next to him and took him in her
arms. “It’s okay, Joxer,” she said
softly. “It’s okay. That’s Gabrielle, remember? She’s not the one who hurt you.”
Gabrielle moved back away from the bed several feet,
trying not to cry.
“Don’t hurt me, please,” Joxer muttered.
Gabrielle gave up and left the room with a sob. In the hallway she sank down against the
wall.
Xena was still unconscious and the healer feared the arrow was poisoned. An examination of the last round of arrows had shown they were
coated with something. Reija wasn’t
talking to anyone, only her son Kiryk could get her attention away from the
coffin the carpenter had made for Solan.
Cyrene was still trying to maintain control but
Gabrielle could see the strain beginning to overtake the older woman.
Torris and Dex reported that Callisto’s bandits had
escaped north at a fast speed and there was no sign of the insane goddess
herself.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Gabrielle looked up with a hopeful look as the
healer entered Xena’s room but the healer shook her head. Gabrielle already knew the answers from sitting with her mate for
most of the day.
Xena was feverish, the wound was infected, and her
system was poisoned.
Cyrene frowned as she wiped Xena’s forehead with a
cool wet cloth again and then held Sasha close. The child hadn’t left her mother’s side since the battle.
“You said awhile back that you could heal, can’t you
help her?” Cyrene questioned the bard.
“Yes, but not a lot. To heal I have to use my own energy and now with being pregnant I
don’t know how dangerous it is,” Gabrielle said softly, stroking Xena’s
cheek. “I’m going to try a little bit
at a time.”
“Gabrielle, you know, being the daughter of gods she
should heal from this,” Cyrene reasoned, suddenly changing her mind now that it
concerned her grandchild, Gabrielle’s unborn child.
“I know but it might take time and I want her back,”
Gabrielle said simply. The bard had
waited until her own body had mostly healed the arrow wound to her calf and she
had gotten over some of the shock of the day.
It had been an emotionally rough ride during the
last two months for the bard; all of which was draining emotionally and
physically.
That included running into Meg and finding that
Joxer was with someone he thought was Gabrielle.
Joxer was devastated by whatever he had been
through, Xena was poisoned and Solan was dead.
Gabrielle closed her eyes and placed her hands on
her mate’s arm. The bard began concentrating
on her breathing and focusing, drawing her energy into a focal point.
After a moment Gabrielle felt dizzy and broke off
the connection and when she felt Cyrene’s hands steadying her. When she opened her eyes she was relieved to
find the redness around Xena’s bandage was lessened.
“What do we do?” Cyrene asked.
“I don’t know,” Gabrielle admitted. “Wait for Xena to wake up, grieve and hope
Callisto doesn’t come back.”
“Xena won’t sit still for that,” Cyrene frowned.
“I know but how do you kill a god? Xena may be a
demi-god but Callisto is still a god and damned hard to kill,” Gabrielle
protested.
“Callisto isn’t finished,” Sasha said simply.
“What happened, Cyrene?” Gabrielle asked softly.
“Raiders came from all directions,” Cyrene began,
touching Xena’s face gently as the warrior tossed in fevered sleep. “We could hear the villagers yelling and
pounding on their doors and windows but they couldn’t seem to get out. The raiders grabbed all of us and threw us
in the center of the square, Dex included.
They beat Torris and Solan badly when they resisted and threatened Reija
with a sword and rape if anyone continued resisting.”
Gabrielle closed her eyes, feeling Cyrene’s painful
memories.
“Then you appeared with Joxer thrown over his
horse. We thought it was you,
anyway. Then she changed into Callisto,
I had heard enough tales about her to recognize her,” Cyrene continued. “She just dropped Joxer at my feet. Poor man was barely alive.”
“Joxer was begging her not to hurt him anymore,”
Sasha said quietly.
“They chained and gagged us and we waited while
Callisto ranted and paced,” Cyrene explained.
“She then disappeared and we saw you and Xena riding towards us.”
“You said that Callisto isn’t done, Sash,” Gabrielle turned to her
adopted daughter. “What did you mean?”
“I just know, she said she was only beginning,”
Sasha shrugged, reminding the bard of her warrior mother.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The days and nights began to run together for
Gabrielle as she kept her vigil next to Xena’s bed. The warrior was getting better and on the third day her fever
finally broken and her sleep was restful.
Gabrielle had expended as much energy as she could towards
Xena and Joxer’s recovery without draining herself too much.
By the third day Joxer was able to sit up and walk a
few feet with Meg’s help.
Cyrene, Meg and Gabrielle were shocked at Joxer’s condition when they
examined him. He had been beaten almost
to the point of death with numerous cuts along his arms and legs, obviously the
result of torture. All the fingers on
his left hand were broken as well as his nose.
On the fourth day Torris and Dex was able to help
Joxer into the back of a wagon and Meg climbed up into the seat and took the
reins from Cyrene.
Gabrielle looked over the sides at the former
soldier.
“Joxer, you could stay longer,” Gabrielle suggested
and felt her heart breaking when he wouldn’t meet her eyes.
“I want to go home with Meg,” he said simply.
Gabrielle gave up and turned to his wife. “Meg, I’m sorry you both got caught up in
this.”
“I know,” Meg looked down from the wagon. “Joxer and I need some time. I still love him and I think he loves me.”
Gabrielle and Cyrene watched the wagon leave, both
women frowning.
“Give him some time, Gabrielle,” Cyrene suggested.
“He’s loved me for so many years and now he’ll
always see me as his worst enemy,” Gabrielle said sadly. “He wanted me for years and then Callisto
gives him his dreams only to shatter them along with his image of me.”
“That was her plan,” Cyrene said firmly. “Just like killing Solan was part of her
plan to destroy Xena.”
“Gods, Solan,” Gabrielle whispered. “What more can she do to us?”
“Never ask that out loud,” Cyrene cautioned.
“True,” Gabrielle tried to smile as they walked back
into the inn.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Xena opened her eyes with a groan and then managed a
small smile when she recognized familiar green eyes looking at her. Then the memories came flooding back and the
pain washed over her face in a flash.
Gabrielle didn’t say anything but simply took her
mate into her arms as Xena began to cry.
Neither woman was aware of how much time passed as
Xena's cries began to subside to gentle sobs of anguished grief. Tears streaming down both their faces as
Gabrielle held Xena tight.
"I lost so many years with him," Xena
cried.
"We had some good years with him and now we
have his son," Gabrielle responded softly.
"How can I give up Sasha after this?" the
warrior demanded.
"I don't know, love, I truly don't know."
Screams and shouts broke the women apart, both
diving for weapons and Gabrielle for the door before the first scream had
finished echoing throughout the inn.
The bard hit the hallway at a dash and looked out over the railing to
see Callisto sword fighting with Torris and Reija and a man in leather trading
blows with Dex, the blacksmith.
Gabrielle felt a growl in her throat and judged the distances and
positions of everyone. She felt Xena
move up beside her and glanced over at her mate and wasn't surprised to see
Xena sweating and gritting her teeth in pain against her wound.
Instead of scolding her mate, Gabrielle pointed to
the man fighting with Dex and then at herself.
Xena nodded, lifting her chakram, her eyes narrowing as she took in the
back of Callisto's head since Gabrielle was going to tackle the stranger, that
left the insane Goddess to Xena.
As Gabrielle vaulted over the rail Xena released her
chakram. Just as the circular blade hit
the chaotic goddess in the back of the head, the warrior's eyes spotted Sasha
and Kiryk under a table against the wall and Cyrene sprawled near the
fireplace, either dead or unconscious.
The bard landed lightly in a crouch and drove her
sais upwards in the man's back as he sent Dex flying backwards over a
table. The sais went deep into the
man's chest, driven by the force of Gabrielle springing to her feet from the
leap and thrusting the energy into her sais.
Xena screamed Gabrielle's name as the man turned and
backhanded her mate, slamming Gabrielle painfully into the bar. She fell to the floor on her hands and
knees.
The warrior couldn't believe her eyes as the chakram
returned to her hand and Callisto merely brushed her hair back into place,
looking up at Xena. Then Xena's eyes
widened as the man reached behind his back and pulled the sais out and there
was no sign of any blood.
"Damn!" she muttered, hanging onto the
rail as her energy quickly evaporated.
"Xena!" Callisto called and casually sent
Reija flying into the table over Sasha and Kiryk with a motion of her
hand. "So glad you could see
this!" Torris fell back, holding a
wounded side and slashed thigh.
Gabrielle shook her head and looked up at the man
standing over her holding her sais. Her
back was hurting badly and he appeared unharmed and slightly amused.
The man was taller than Xena, which meant he towered
over the small bard, but had similar black hair that was brushed back and had a
full beard. Dark eyes laughed down at
Gabrielle and the bard had a feeling of familiarity. The beard made him look older but the bard could see the youth
behind the beard and the viciousness in the eyes. He was dressed in a leather vest with no tunic and tight leather
pants. The leather gauntlets and wide
belt were studded with silver and gold inserts. A large sword hung on one side of his belt and a long dagger on
the other.
Gabrielle looked at the silver necklace around his neck and grew
pale. She knew that design.
"Ares, the sign of Ares," she whispered
and was rewarded with a grin from the obviously young god along with a kick to
her jaw; sending her back into the bar where she ended up sitting with her back
to it. She fell forward onto the floor
onto her hands and knees again.
"Yes, very good, bard," he hissed as he
knelt down in front of her.
Xena pulled herself back up to a standing position
with the help of the railing as Callisto's brown eyes danced with delight at
the warrior's pain. As the warrior's
eyes darted back and forth between her mate and the male god, Callisto, and the
others. Callisto seemed to be waiting.
"What do you want, Callisto? Leave my family
out of this, I'm the one you want," Xena growled, gauging whether in her
condition she could flip over the rail and land on her feet.
"Oh but, Xena!" Callisto protested and
moved over to pull a stunned Reija to her feet. "That's exactly what I want! You destroyed me when you
killed my family. I thought I'd return
the favor."
"No!" Xena screamed, taking in several
things at once.
The other god, anticipating Gabrielle's reaction to
Callisto's movements, backhanded the bard again and then smashed a fist down
across her eye, stunning her.
Cyrene, shaking her head and trying to raise her
hands, screamed as Callisto dragged Reija to her feet.
Sasha and Kiryk had terrified eyes as the young
toddler screamed for his mother. Sasha
tried holding him back and shielding him under the table, her blue eyes
pleading with Xena for help.
Reija tried to fight back, even though she still
couldn't focus her eyes, as Callisto easily turned her around and threw the
Amazon across a table.
As the male god glanced over to Callisto; Gabrielle
shook her head and closed her eyes, focusing on her breathing rather than the
pain. The bard let herself drift for a
moment and then keyed into the energy she had felt once before in the caves of
Bacchus, in the Spirit Realm. She
slowly sat up with her back to the bar and used it to help her get to her feet.
When the bard opened her eyes she could see the
energy beginning to build around her hands, golden energy of her father,
Apollo, god of the Sun.
"Stop her!" Callisto screamed and pointed
to the bard.
Xena released the chakram once again, hoping to at
least distract Callisto but the chaotic goddess merely deflected it with her
hand, barely noticing its passage. Then
Xena screamed as the male god turned with Gabrielle's sais in his hand as her
mate's eyes began to flash.
Everything happened too fast.
The male god thrust forward with the sais as
Gabrielle was about to release her energy bolts at him. The bard screamed as she was impaled through
both shoulders with her own sais, the energy bolts dissipating into nothing.
"Gabrielle!" both Cyrene and Xena screamed
at the same time as Gabrielle fell to her knees and onto her side.
Xena vaulted over the railing and landed hard on the
wooden floor, falling over as she clutched her side.
The warrior looked up as Callisto laughed heartily
and the blonde turned with a vicious grin and slashed out with her sword,
hitting one of Reija's legs behind the knee.
The young Amazon screamed and went to the floor, holding her leg.
"Damn you, Callisto!" Xena screamed,
trying to sit up, blood flowing past the hand holding her wounded side.
"Oh, I have no doubt of that, Xena,"
Callisto grinned. "But then,
you'll probably be with me so that makes it alright."
The male god grinned as he walked over and kicked
Dex in the head, ensuring the blacksmith's continued unconsciousness and then
joined the insane goddess.
"Hello, Xena," he said simply, looking
down at the warrior, not even glancing at Cyrene, as she got to her feet and
dashed over to Gabrielle. "I'm
Mars, son of Ares and the new God of War."
Xena felt a chill run over her body at this
introduction. He obviously was as bad
as his father or maybe even worse.
Mars walked over to the table where Sasha and Kiryk
were hiding, and he simply threw it aside.
Sasha rushed with a scream forward, aiming for the god’s face with her
fingernails as Xena struggled to get to her knees. Mars merely grinned and threw the teen under one arm, then he
reached down and grabbed Kiryk by his collar and turned to Callisto.
"No!" Xena screamed and finally got to her
knees, feeling the blood coming up into her mouth and noticing Torris trying to
get to his feet as well, sword in hand.
Callisto, Mars, and kids disappeared as Xena got to
her feet and Torris slashed forward at where Callisto had been with his sword.
Xena screamed in rage as she fell back, clutching
her side.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Xena winced as Gabrielle bit her lip to keep from
screaming as Dex pulled the sais out of her shoulders.
The inn looked like a hospice again: Xena stretched
out on the floor with Torris next to her on one side and Reija on the
other. Dex with a bandage around his
head and Cyrene nursing a couple of broken ribs.
The only one undamaged was Torris' wife,
Serita. She and Cyrene quickly laid the
bard down and pressed compact bandages against both sides of Gabrielle's
shoulders as the bard cried out in pain.
Xena looked down and saw that the bleeding through her bandaged side had
slowed down and she no longer tasted fresh blood in the back of her mouth.
"Hold that tight!" Cyrene ordered as
Gabrielle bit back another scream and then went limp.
"Mom!" Xena cried out and Cyrene glanced
at her daughter as she worked on Gabrielle and then turned to Reija's wounded
leg.
"She's passed out, Xena," Cyrene finally
answered. "Gods, where in Tartarus
is that healer!?"
"Right here," she called as she opened the door. "I should move in here free of
charge."
"I'd be glad never to have your services again,
friend," Cyrene countered.
Cyrene shut down the tavern for the night. She set the kitchen staff to work handing
out meals out of the back of the kitchen for those with nowhere to go, she was
keeping the main room of the tavern/inn shut.
Cyrene, Serita, Dex and the healer worked late into
the evening on the wounded family until they were satisfied everyone was going to
survive and Reija was going to be able to keep her leg. Cyrene held the young widow as the healer
was forced to inform Reija that she probably wouldn't put much weight on the
leg ever again and would need crutches to get around. Both Cyrene and the young girl cried as the realization of her
crippling injuries, her missing son and her dead husband sank in.
Dex carefully carried Gabrielle into Xena's room as
the warrior watched anxiously, still holding her aching side. Her blacksmith friend placed her mate next
to her on the bed and Xena quickly checked the bard's breathing and pulse.