Deus Ex Gabrielle : The Author's Cut

"You're back!" Hercules exclaimed in relief as Xena and Gabrielle reappeared in camp. They had returned only a short time after they had left, in purely objective terms, but he'd grown progressively more worried as each minute had slowly dragged by in subjective time. The pale glow of the beginning of a false dawn was even now peeking over the edge of the horizon, and the deadline for Gabrielle's "cure" was getting much too close for comfort.

Gabrielle released Xena's hand after giving it a final squeeze, then looked around the camp. Seeing no sign of her patron, she turned back to Hercules, ignoring Xena's curious expression as she watched the goddess' swift perusal. "Have you seen Artemis?" she asked. "I thought she was going to meet us, but I don't see her."

Raising one eyebrow in an expression worthy of Xena, Hercules wondered at that. Artemis? he thought. "No," he denied slowly. "What's wrong?"

"Mmm." Gabrielle thought intently for a moment. "Nothing. I guess I'll just..." she trailed off. She'd been hoping to ask Artemis about the link she'd accidentally created while at her parents' house, but if the goddess wasn't available, she'd simply have to deal with it on her own. It wasn't dire, after all... even if the thought of broadcasting her emotions made her more than slightly uncomfortable.

Unsure what she had done, she had no clue what properties the apparent link she'd forged would have - or even whether it would need to be undone. It might have been simply a freak accident... a transitory surge of her divine power trying to escape the rigid limits she was imposing upon it. After all, as the length of time she spent as a goddess increased, she had actually been able to feel her power growing (a very unsettling sensation) but she had still been able to keep it under control... mostly. Maybe it had simply been something like her glowing eyes - an intrinsic power she didn't yet know how to subconsciously control.

After this whole mess is over and done, she decided, I'll have to talk to Artemis. Hopefully she can answer my questions and undo anything residual that I created - if it still needs undoing, that is... and if I'm not in a position to do it. "I'll just have to be extra careful while I'm getting rid of this godhood," she explained uninformatively.

Xena looked at the sky and gauged the position and appearance of a few stars. "There's still a little time... if you hurry. Do you really need to see her?" A delay would make the timing uncomfortably close, but if there was some avoidable peril...

"No," Gabrielle softly denied again. "It can wait." I hope so, anyway.

Seeing the dubious expressions on their faces, the goddess hurried to reassure them. "Really... it wasn't that important. Anyway, I need to get started. I'm not sure how long this will take, and time is short." Hercules and Xena both reluctantly nodded; they were still worried, but knew she was right.

Okay, Gabrielle thought, accepting their cautious acquiescence with some relief, now let's see... made final visits, made preparations in case I fail... made preparations in case I succeed... now what? Now nothing, she decided. It's time to do it. She shivered, more nervous about the slim prospect for success then she had been willing to admit - even to herself. She opened her mouth to speak, then froze.

With a growing sensation of horror she realized her mind had gone completely blank. She didn't know where to begin... She couldn't decide what to do. The goddess' pulse raced, and she started to breathe rapidly. Consequences of failure flashed through her mind, increasing her panic. She actually began to feel faint as her fists clenched convulsively.

She turned to face Xena... and began to relax. The warrior was perfectly centered; seemingly as immutable as a mountain and as peaceful as a mountain lake. (She wasn't really very calm, but she was forcing herself to appear that way - and Gabrielle wasn't reading her mind to tell how much of a facade the veneer of unconcern truly was.)

The goddess focused solely on Xena's calm, confident expression, suppressing stray thoughts and fears as she concentrated only on the moment, trying to absorb the warrior's equanimity into her own soul. Frowning with the effort, she calmed herself and tried to reason her way through the momentary crisis of confidence. She could do this. After all, it wasn't nearly as difficult as that time they had to decide whether to stop a warlord or a giant and Xena had...

Of course! she thought triumphantly. After so many years of practice, it should have been habitual, but her panic had made her momentarily forget. She began to compile a mental list - noting everything she'd need to do in a preliminary order by urgency, her confidence growing with each entry she made. The familiar routine was immensely comforting; she'd done it countless times before - even if Xena had usually completely ignored her lists. Even more importantly though, while she forced herself to think only rationally and logically as she enumerated the steps to her salvation, the unreasoning panic that had seemed so overwhelming began to fade to a much more manageable level.

Hercules and Xena shared a look as they watched Gabrielle's odd shifts in expression and stance, but remained mute. They didn't want to chance distracting her if she was doing something important, even if it looked like she was helplessly dithering.

The demigod rose and dusted off the back of his trousers, then began silently pacing as the tension mounted. He stopped after Xena sent a withering look of disapproval in his direction. Shrugging slightly in embarrassment, he rejoined the warrior in silent contemplation of the goddess.

Okay, Gabrielle finally decided, checking her list after a few moments' intense thought, let's begin... with something easy. She quickly scanned her mental list and tried to decide where to start. Alright, she continued silently, making her decision, this looks simple... With a faint tinge of amusement, she decided, I'll start with... where to start.

Despite her trepidation, the goddess knew this not simply a bad joke, or a meaningless question meant solely to delay her task. When her link with the source of her divine powers was severed, she fully expected to lose consciousness (at the very least) so a comfortable resting place, well clear of mundane hazards, and a safe distance from the others (not that she expected them to stay anywhere near far enough away to be truly safe) while she attempted the severing was essential. Fortunately, Autolycus and Iolaus were sleeping near the edge of the clearing (having retreated there to minimize the light from the fire before trying to sleep) so most of the clearing was an adequate distance from their slumbering forms.

Looking quickly around the campsite and evaluating the landscape, the goddess considered several places for performing the procedure. Most of the possible spots were rejected immediately, but several others needed a closer examination before she could rule them out. Before she could go back to examine them more closely however, she found the perfect spot.

To the goddess' surprise and delight, not only had Xena brought along Gabrielle's own bedroll, she had also set it up beside her own in obvious anticipation of her success. The goddess felt her heart fill as she absorbed the quiet confidence that Xena's act showed. Her beaming face was met with a small, almost shy smile as the warrior noted the direction of her gaze. Shrugging at her reaction, Xena said only, "I'd no doubt you'd succeed."

Gabrielle smiled back at her friend, her expression reflecting her resurgence of confidence. The bedroll would be perfect. It was relatively comfortable (except for stray rocks), free from hazards, and far enough from the others to keep them safe if any but a truly catastrophic accident occurred during the... procedure. Bolstered by Xena's confidence, she walked over to her bedroll, her own lingering fears finally diminishing.

She unslung the bow Artemis had given her before unhooking the small quiver from her belt, then deposited both next to Argo's saddle. If the goddess wanted them back, she could give them to the goddess after the ritual - or Xena could if she was unable to, she nervously amended her initial thought.

About to lie down on the bedroll, she abruptly halted. Something that had slipped her mind was suddenly brought to her attention; the pommel of the sword across her back smacked against her ear as she crouched.

She already knew the scabbard had been included in Ares' charm (having failed in her efforts to remove it the prior night), but lying down on the sword as well as its sheath was liable to be much more uncomfortable - and it wasn't really hers... or her, for that matter. Best take care of this now, she thought, shivering as the monumental nature of her task - and the price of failure - was brought back to mind, sapping her newly regained confidence and showing just how fragile and transitory her composure truly was.

The weapon would be a reminder of one of the few good experiences she'd had in this whole complicated mess - if she made it through successfully - but right now it would simply be a needless distraction from what she needed to do. Turning to face the two watching heroes, she slowly rose and drew the sword, looking fondly at the blade as she remembered Hephaestus' kindness.

She stared unblinking at the naked metal of the blade, her expression as changeable as her emotions, and grew lost in thought. The goddess' face reflected her turbulent emotional state, her expression shifting amorphously as emotions swirled through her mind. Pleasure, nervousness, excitement, fear, resignation and others each altered her expression in turn, making Xena's eyes widen briefly as she pondered her friend's precarious hold on her emotions. "Gabrielle?" she asked carefully, her own insecurities and fears rising as she slowly crossed the clearing to approach the unmoving goddess. "What's wrong?"

"Xena?" the goddess began in response, shaking her head to help shake off her reverie. She offered Xena the blade hilt-first over one forearm, like a queen presenting a young warrior his first sword. "Hephaestus gave me this as a gift... for me to give to you. I sort of forgot I was carrying it around, what with the excitement of these last few days, but... I still want you to have it." She laughed briefly, then added, "I'll give you the scabbard too - eventually. I'm just a little attached to it at the moment."

Hercules' eyes widened as he stared at the sword in the silence left in the wake of Gabrielle's revelation. His fatigue and boredom melted away as he eyed the weapon in the goddess' arms. He had assumed the sword had been part of Ares' ensemble, not a separate piece... Although, now that he bothered to think about it, she had been wearing the sword when she visited him the first time, before she had gotten stuck in the armor. He'd simply been too focused on her being a god to notice the comparatively minor strangeness of her carrying a sword.

Wide awake and with a faint stirring of distrust awakening in his heart, he cast a jaundiced eye at the sword. Even from across the campsite, he could feel the power locked inside the deceptively plain looking blade - now that he was concentrating on it, anyway. If he didn't actively look for strangeness with his semi-divine nature, it appeared to be just an ordinary sword - and a plain one at that... one so common no one who saw it would look or think twice about it. To anyone but a god, the sword was so ordinary as to be utterly forgettable... and was so subtle in its power that even a god would be deceived as to its true nature unless he was actively looking for something unusual in the weapon.

Hephaestus has learned a few things since his days of creating flashy, blatantly heroic weapons, Hercules mused. Gabrielle's sword radiated more power than the sword and shield he himself had once been given (and then had destroyed) but would inspire none of the greed and envy his old weapons had engendered.

And that was something to think carefully about. The god of the forge made countless weapons to be given away, but almost none of them were imbued with any special powers or virtues - although all were superbly crafted, and most were beautiful examples of the smith's craft. Why would Hephaestus have given Gabrielle - even if she was a new goddess - one of his "special" blades... and one that had its true nature so expertly concealed, as well? Unable to arrive at a conclusive answer, he remained silent, but his burgeoning distrust was plain in his expression.

Xena was reluctant to accept the sword as well, but for her own reasons. Unlike Hercules, she couldn't detect anything overt to make her distrust the blade, but just the idea of the gift made her nervous. Gifts from the gods (and Xena grimaced at the aptness of the analogy) were usually dual-edged... and had strings attached, as well. Once more, Xena realized, Gabrielle - even as a god herself - showed herself to be too trusting of the gods by far.

Her own distrust of the blade was more specific than that blanket description of unease : Hephaestus was too friendly with Ares for her to treat one of his gifts with any degree of nonchalance. The two gods had their feuds and disagreements, true, but Hephaestus did continue to make the weapons that the war god distributed to his followers - usually when he needed to bribe them into performing some special service or to steer them in the direction he wanted them to go. Xena grimaced at the memory.

She herself had once "found" a cache of Hephaestus' weapons, ten winters ago, when Xena had still been a warlord. Looking back on events with the benefit of hindsight, she now recognized the cache had actually been a "gift" from Ares, but at the time she'd been too gleeful over the quantity and the sheer quality of the arms to care where they came from - once she had been convinced there were no more to be found, anyway.

The addition of the weapons to her arsenal had been enough to convince her to change her plans. She'd ambushed a rival warlord, instead of honoring a truce with him... and had soundly crushed his forces. Antinoös' army had been slaughtered to the last man, with no quarter asked or given, despite his enjoying a slight numerical advantage. The surprise attack and the superior weapons had carried the day for Xena and her army. That single victory had nearly doubled the territory under her control, giving her control of almost half of Greece, and set her path squarely on the road to Corinth... and one of the bloodiest battles in Greek history.

I'm getting a headache from all this, Xena realized, rubbing her temples to soothe the throbbing as she stared at the sword lying so innocently across the goddess' forearm. She was loathe to accept a gift from any god, but it was also from Gabrielle... and that made a difference. Once prompted again by Gabrielle's silent repetition of her offering motion, she slowly took the hilt in one cautious hand.

It suited her perfectly she noted. It was unadorned but functional, strong but with enough flexion to prevent easy breakage, and was precisely balanced for her arm's length and strength. In fact, if she didn't know better, she'd have thought it had been made specifically for her... And maybe it was, she considered with a small frown of distaste as her headache began to worsen.

Xena decided to have Hercules examine the sword later... well before she actually tried to use it in battle. He'd dealt with more of the smith god's work then she had (his own gauntlets but one example), and might be able to tell if there were any hidden traps locked within the innocent-seeming blade, and arranging an accident to destroy the sword if it seemed prudent was well within their abilities. "Thank you, Gabrielle," she acknowledged the gift cautiously, rubbing one throbbing temple with her free hand. She hid her true feelings behind a mask of pleased surprise, but it was unconvincing at best; between the pain of her headache and her own growing nervousness, her distrust of the gift was readily apparent and her trepidation was beginning to show as well. She set the sword aside with almost comical haste, and attempted a pleasant smile, but it was futile. The veneer of calm she had been maintaining had been cracked irreparably.

Gabrielle was blithely unaware of the source of her friend's unspoken trepidation. Worried about accidentally transmitting her emotions again, she had simply shielded everything (at least on the levels mortals used - she hadn't learned of all the levels used by the gods yet) both sent and received. She could therefore only gauge Xena's reaction to the gift by purely mortal means, such as facial expressions... which Xena had many years of experience at masking.

Of course, after several years of travels with the warrior, Gabrielle had learned how to read even the smallest shift in her often impassive mien, and the warrior was anything but impassive at the moment... but for weal or woe she misinterpreted Xena's obvious trepidation as simply a reflection of her pain; the warrior's frowns and her attempts to soothe the throbbing of her headache had not passed unnoticed. The goddess was therefore, pleased at giving Xena the sword - and wholly misinterpreted her friend's hesitant acceptance.

Is it that simple though... just a headache? Gabrielle wondered silently. The goddess' cheerful expression slipped slightly as she wondered if something else was also troubling the warrior. She looked the warrior over carefully. Small lines of tension were carved into her face, and a visible crease was centered between her brows. Is she hiding...? Could it be...? Should I...?

Xena saw her frown. Worried her camouflaging facade had slipped, she quickly asked, "What is it?" hoping to avert detection.

"I just realized," the short goddess began. She paused, then appeared to be concentrating while staring at the ground between the warrior and herself.

"What?" Hercules demanded in unison with Xena, moving closer and looking curiously to see what had caught her attention.

A subdued flash later, the tantalizing aroma of fresh baked nutbread filled the camp as a basket large enough to feed a small army appeared by the fire. "I haven't eaten very much lately, so I'm liable to be hungry when I get finished," she explained with a cheery smile.

Different expressions flitted across the two heroes' faces - bemusement, surprise, shock... but eventually amusement won. Hercules chuckled, but Xena had to laugh. Made into a goddess, with the power to make the world tremble at her feet, facing a fate potentially worse than death... and her reaction is to make nutbread? She couldn't help but laugh; it was so incongruous... and frankly so absurd... but so wonderful... and so Gabrielle.

Shielding herself from the thoughts and emotions of those around her, the goddess had come to the (correct) conclusion that Xena was suffering from a tension headache which was souring her mood - something she'd seen many times before. Gabrielle hadn't been wrong when she thought the worry clouding Xena's brow was from the underlying tension of the situation - she just didn't realize the other dimension to her concerns as well.

Knowing her friend was in pain, she'd automatically acted to help ease the strain she was under - even before worrying about herself and her own looming deadline. After her own near panic attack, and Xena's unknowing aid to help her weather it, she had no intention of letting her friend suffer anything remotely similar. While ordinarily a nice relaxing backrub would have helped reduce the tension and eased the headache the tension caused, they simply didn't have the necessary time for her to perform her usual deft digital manipulations. The goddess' conclusion had been that a more prosaic release of tension would have to serve until she had fixed her own problems.

Tears were beginning to trickle down the warrior's face, and her laughter was gaining a hysterical edge as her emotions were unleashed. Her iron control had slipped with Gabrielle's gentle prompting, and released the stress and worry and pain that Xena had been bottling up inside her since first finding Gabrielle missing bare days before.

It was cathartic - a purging of sorts, and the goddess knew Xena was perfectly fine, but the release of tension - however transitory - did her worlds of good. Already she was regaining control, and the warrior looked much more relaxed - albeit flushed, the dreadful tension Xena had hidden within herself greatly alleviated. It took only a few moments for Xena to recover from her brief laughing fit, but in purely subjective terms the impact was enormous, and it greatly reassured the nervous goddess.

Gabrielle gauged Xena's mood with an experienced eye and sighed in contentment as Xena's tension and level of stress visibly eased. Her fears allayed, the goddess didn't lower her shielding to find out what was really wrong with the warrior... and consequently completely missed the heroes' concerns over Hephaestus' true motivations.

Quietly pleased with herself for the success of her impromptu plan, Gabrielle sank down onto her bedroll. She happily reached into the basket and helped herself to a treat; she deserved some reward for helping Xena after all, and she definitely needed something to help settle her nerves before she continued with the rest of her plans.

Savoring the aroma of the nutbread, she closed her eyes and breathed in the warm, ambrosial scent. Taking a big bite, she moaned in sheer sensual delight as the wonderful flavor covered her tongue. "Perfect," she sighed in contentment. If there was one thing she knew better than anyone, it was nutbread, even if it had been made by... unconventional means. And, even though this batch was made with only her second favorite recipe (the variety of nutbread she thought tasted best unfortunately included henbane - so she didn't eat it... much), it was still incredibly tasty.

Hercules heard the moan and raised an eyebrow. It wasn't that he had never heard anything like it... it was just he hadn't heard anything like it from a woman outside of a much more intimate situation. Gabrielle's enjoyment had a decidedly carnal air.

He desperately wanted everything to work out and so didn't want to disturb her efforts, but Xena's near-hysteria and Gabrielle's own moans and strange behavior overwhelmed his reticence. He knew full well gods could act strange at times, but this... Glancing sidelong at Xena, who was still recovering from her jag and in no shape to ask the obvious question, he decided to simply take the minotaur by the horns. "Are you alright?" he asked cautiously, his brow clouded.

"Jushhht Wunnfulll," she mumbled around a mouthful of nutbread, spraying a few crumbs and not paying much attention to him as she savored each heavenly morsel. She did smile at him... though that was as much because of the divine taste of her nutbread as to reassure him.

Given the events of the past two days, and Gabrielle's luck since becoming a goddess, it was probably to be expected that Gabrielle would repeat her earlier mistake. She did.

This time, though, she was luckier. Xena was too busy rubbing the tears from her eyes to notice anything unduly unusual in her friend's smile. Her heart raced and she felt a pang of desire... but that happened every time Gabrielle smiled. She simply smiled back and blinked a few times, wishing she could see better through the curtain of tears of relief and release clouding her eyes.

As for Hercules, he, unlike Xena, was undistracted and could see her face perfectly...

...but he was also experienced.

When he and Nemesis had been involved, she'd taken (and given) great pleasure in demonstrating that aspect of a god's nature. When his demigodly vitality had been utterly drained by his labors to sate her divine appetites, she'd simply smiled at him - and he'd invariably risen to the occasion. Now he was older, more experienced, and without the spur of a preexisting condition of lust and arousal to drive him on. He reacted - he was part human, after all (or maybe it was because he was Zeus' son) - but he was able to remain in control. He did have to sit down rather hastily on a conveniently positioned log, though... His pants were simply too tight to conceal his rather noticeable reaction.

He swiftly but awkwardly pulled Xena down beside him on the log, and held her steady. They were a bit farther away from Gabrielle then the warrior would like, he knew, but a decent buffer space would help to keep any... distractions at bay until after the deadline was reached; after all, a goddess' smile was a potent thing.

Finishing her snack, Gabrielle immediately reached into the basket and took another piece of the nutbread, idly noting Hercules' disconcerted look and Xena's embarrassment as she regained control, but ignoring them both as she concentrated on her treat.

You had to have your priorities straight, after all.

Gabrielle finished her second piece of nutbread and delicately licked her fingers clean. "Mmmm," she purred in contentment. It's been ages since I've had good nutbread...

Fresh nutbread - even nutbread as moist and delicious as this batch - tended to be crumbly, and she hadn't been very careful while eating. Before lying down, she casually brushed the crumbs off her chest, pulling on her halter and shaking a little to get them all out, then swept more stray crumbs off the fur of her bedroll. She finally sank down and stretched out, wriggling as she tried to make herself more comfortable on the soft furs. She was fed and content, confident Xena was more relaxed and that her friends were relatively safe... Gabrielle was finally ready to attempt her own salvation.

Xena and Hercules' subtle shifts in posture and expression on the log were ignored as she focused her mind on energies beyond mortal comprehension. Which was probably for the best... Hercules had twitched at Gabrielle's latest moans; the carnal edge of her enjoyment much more distracting to him since she'd smiled... and he'd even had to look away as she pulled on her clothes to free the trapped crumbs. The combined effects of her moans and the inadvertent flashing of tantalizingly bare divine flesh had his heart pumping madly and his posterior shifting uncomfortably on the log - so he was just as happy to be ignored.

It was times like this that made him regret his tight wardrobe... A loose fitting - and very concealing - chiton would be much more comfortable right about now, he thought wryly, shifting once more on his perch in a vain attempt to ease himself.

He turned away from her in an effort to help him control his reactions, and couldn't help blushing at the look of open love and lust on Xena's face as she gazed upon the recumbent Gabrielle. That certainly didn't help his control. She had that same expression the first time we... He clamped down on that thought firmly and turned back to Gabrielle... and was relieved to find her in a much less distracting pose. He sighed in mixed frustration and relief and unconsciously loosened his grip on Xena.

The demigod renewed his grip, knowing if Gabrielle smiled at her again while she was actually able to see, the result would not be pretty. Well, it might be pretty... and a lot of fun to watch, too... but the resultant encounter would last far beyond the imminent deadline. "You need to stay here... away from Gabrielle," he began to explain.

Xena's reaction to that was predictable. She writhed in his grip, trying to escape his pinioning grasp, and only stopped after her arm accidentally brushed against his tumescence. She stopped struggling momentarily and raised an eyebrow as she took notice of the bulge straining the seams of the codpiece in his leather pants. "It's nice to see I still have an effect," she told him, laughter sparkling in her eyes, "but Gabrielle needs me," she insisted.

His erection hadn't subsided, despite feverish attempts to think about nothing but discus throwing. "Sorry to burst your bubble," he said drily, amusement warring with embarrassment, "but it's not from you... it's from Gabrielle."

The warrior's amusement vanished instantly, and the warmth in her eyes visibly froze. She quickly glanced over to the goddess to make sure she was alright, then turned back to him and snarled, "Stay..."

Chilled by her expression, he hurried to interrupt her before she could complete her threat, tightening his grip as she fought with a renewed viciousness in an effort to break free from his restraint. "NO!" he forcefully interjected. "Not like that! Think!" He strained mightily and held her still for a moment, then looked deeply into her cold blue eyes, hoping to convey his sincerity. "Remember when I told you Gabrielle isn't in control of her powers?"

"Yes..." Xena slowly replied, momentarily ceasing her struggles, though her eyes remained icy shards as she glared at him.

"This is one of them," he hastened to add. "Listen to me Xena... Think back to Gabrielle's stories... How do you think the gods are able to seduce mortals so easily - when they bother to seduce them? Even when disguised as animals... or things like 'shafts of gold?' Most women don't find a swan or a bull to be an especially desirable bedmate, but with a god's aura, and this power..." he trailed off, letting her draw her own conclusions.

"I see," she responded carefully, her muscles relaxing slightly. And she did understand... but didn't like the conclusions she was able to draw. "That must be why when Ares..." she stopped without completing her sentence... much to Hercules' great relief. Some things he simply didn't want to know.

"But if it's so strong," she gestured towards his crotch with one hand, "then why..."

"Believe me, I feel it," he told her, shaking his head in bemusement and shifting uncomfortably. "But I'm a demigod, and I've felt it before, so I'm able to resist it... somewhat. Considering how you feel about her though... if she hit you with this power..." He struggled to find a proper manner of phrasing. "There's not enough time left. Let's just leave it at that."

"I understand," she said softly. "And thank you," she added, after a moment's thought.

"No problem."

They shared a small smile, and Hercules cautiously released his grip on her. She scooted away from him a few inches, though not enough to be insulting, then the two settled back to watch the goddess.

The demigod breathed a surreptitious sigh of relief even as she edged away from contact with him, and the potential flashpoint faded safely away without incident. When her expression had hardened... He couldn't repress a shiver at the memory. The look on her face had been more frightening then any he had seen while she had still been a warlord.

Besides... despite that ferocious scowl, her scent, and the sensations her attempts to escape had created as she writhed against him, were bringing memories of their past to mind that were very... distracting, especially given his present condition. Manfully, he ignored the aching and tried to sit quietly while observing.

Together, they watched a drop of sweat appear on Gabrielle's temple as she concentrated. Shortly after, she began to glow with a soft, white light. She raised her hands, then cupped them, so that her fingers were pointing down at her torso... then froze in that position.

This tableaux continued without the slightest change for several long minutes. After several more minutes, Xena and Hercules looked at each other and simultaneously came to the conclusion that it might take longer than they had thought.

The tension was palpable, and even after Gabrielle's earlier effort to break the tension, Xena desperately needed a distraction. "So..." she began, a small twinkle of amusement in her eye. She carefully met his gaze before glancing briefly down, letting him know exactly where she was looking. "What's up?" she teased.

Hercules blinked. "Very funny," he drawled, amused by her teasing despite his embarrassment and the dreadful tension. "So," he began, shifting in his seat and trying to fill the ominous silence. "Who's going to take the laurels for the discus at the Olympics this year?"

On the heights of Mount Olympus, a much more important discussion was taking place. The missing goddess Artemis was arguing Gabrielle's case before a highly partial judge - her father, the king of the gods : Zeus. Sadly, she wasn't having much luck, and the good mood she had enjoyed after Gabrielle's stirring Amazon ceremony had long since fled. "Why not?" Artemis demanded of her father furiously, leaning against the railing overlooking the Abyss of Tartarus and staring daggers at Zeus' back.

Zeus ignored his offspring's latest outburst, intent on watching the events unfolding in the clearing far below on one of his video displays. What is she doing? he wondered. He could see the play of energy crackling invisibly around her fingers as Gabrielle focused, but could not understand what she was attempting to accomplish by focusing those energies.

The glow surrounding Gabrielle's body intensified momentarily and one finger twitched - then stilled again. Seeing her fall back into a stasis, he turned back to face his highly annoyed daughter. "What?" he demanded in irritation.

"Why won't you relent and let me help Gabrielle?" she repeated, irked both by his lack of attention and his intransigence.

"Times are changing," he explained shortly, "and something needs to be done. Gabrielle can help. It's as simple as that." He turned back to the monitors, his dismissal clear.

Artemis was taken aback both by his explanation and his attitude - and was confused as well. "I don't understand," she grudgingly admitted. "What do you mean?"

"Haven't you noticed?" the king of the gods asked in surprise. "The world is shifting away from us and our powers are going with it." He paused, then began again. "Or maybe it would be a better explanation to say... we are moving away from our powers as the world changes," he mused. "In either case... the process is inexorable, and is continuing despite my every effort.

"The destruction of the Sumerian pantheon, the rise of the Druids, that woman from Ch'in's philosophy, that demigod in Eire killing her god-lover, those necromancers roving the steppes... or even further back, the machinations of Sisyphus and Atlantis... all of these should have warned you. The world as we know it is dying and something new is coming to replace it. Granted, the gods that are falling aren't true Olympians... yet, but..." He paused, then asked curiously, "Didn't you feel the world shift after Strife's murder? He was an irritating little weasel, but still an Olympian. When he died, one of the pillars of our very existence was shattered. An Olympian god, with his full powers and while imbued with an office, died. That never happened before... don't you understand what that means?"

"I still feel the same as ever," the huntress slowly murmured, although she wasn't very confident in that admission.

"I didn't think Apollo had noticed, but I was sure you..." he muttered softly in response to her denial, before continuing at a higher volume. "Athena knows the truth. She saw it almost before I did. Ares... why do you think he was so eager to play at being a traitor to Dahak? If it looked like the demon would actually have won, he would have switched sides in a heartbeat, making his treachery real instead of a mere ploy.

"For that matter, that interloper wouldn't have dared try to invade our world in the old days. I alone would have been able to make short shrift of a pathetic bug like that back in the old days, flush with power after killing my father, let alone what all of us - not even including the other 'gods' of the world," he sneered to show his contempt for non-Olympians, "could have done to him. But now..."

Zeus sighed in mixed frustration and sorrow. "Now mortals are growing more numerous and more sophisticated, our powers are dwindling - albeit gradually, and the one god of the Israelites is gaining strength daily. The only bright point is the final defeat of Dahak. But unless we do something all of Olympus will go the way of Uranus and Cronos."

"But why Gabrielle?" she demanded. "She's... she's... why?"

A half smile crossed Zeus' lips, despite his grim mood. "So my little girl is finally smitten is she? And by a mortal, no less?"

"So?" Artemis snarled, unable to muster a convincing denial. "Do I need to mention Alcmene...?" she shot back.

"Yes," Zeus sighed. "Point taken. Another sign of the changing times. I too, fell for a mortal. As did Ares for Xena, Cupid for Psyche, and now you for Gabrielle... and there are others." He snorted in disgust. "As much as I like them, mortals are so far inferior to us... but the day may come when even we gods will be nothing more than mere mortals... or we may simply fade away, lost to the mists of time. I refuse to allow that... even if Alcmene and all of Greece must burn for it." The pair silently turned back to watch the monitor, and Gabrielle's unmoving form.

After the silence had lengthened unbearably following Zeus' grim pronouncement of potential forthcoming doom, the huntress broke it, needing to aid her chosen before something unpropitious happened. "You owe me," she wheedled, changing both her tactics and the subject.

"How so?" Zeus asked in surprise, turning back to face her.

"I've let your depredations among mortal women pass unavenged..." Some of her anger slipped into her voice despite her desire to cajole him. "I even withheld my vengeance after you raped one of my own handmaidens - me, the avenger of the defiled! - an act against your own laws and decrees... and let's not even talk about the last visit you made to Hippolyta's village... You should know better than anyone that gods aren't supposed to interfere with another god's people - that's a rule you yourself created!"

"Lysia..." her father sighed in fond reminiscence. The smile that briefly brightened his face formed a sharp contrast to his daughter's darkening scowl, and to his own earlier glum demeanor. After his momentary reverie had passed however, he hardened his heart, and denied her claim. "Means nothing."

At her outraged expression, he explained, "Besides, you forfeited all debts when you refused to stand by me during Hera's coup. When you did not support me, you opposed me... and thereby you lost your privileges."

Only with great effort did she refrain from summoning her bow, though the effort required made her clenched fists twitch convulsively and her eyes glow a brilliant white. "Did I?" she growled, her tone icy.

Zeus briefly contemplated changing his position, surprised by the strength of her reaction, but he remained unmoved and instead strengthened his resolve. He couldn't afford to back down now... not so soon after Hera's coup attempt. It would make him look weak and invite a second attempt to usurp his throne.

His daughter forced herself to remain calm, then corrected his view of events. "I never supported Hera. I sympathized with her, yes. After all, I hear the wails of the countless women you and the other gods have raped and seduced," the contempt in her voice was clear, "over the years and the pleas for mercy you ignored... but I still did nothing to aid her. Hera was twisted and evil, but ask yourself this... Who made her that way?" Her words were frosty, but all the more biting for the coldness of her tone.

Zeus couldn't argue with her logic, though self-recrimination was beyond him. He actually retreated slightly as her stern lecture grew more sharp, until he was backed against the railing, as far from his grim daughter as the small platform would allow. "And you are so innocent," he retorted when he could retreat no more. "What of Actaeon, daughter? Your hands are no cleaner than mine."

Artemis openly sneered at that feeble sally. "It wasn't his spear that lecherous mortal had in his hand when he crept up behind me. He didn't know or care that I was a goddess - let alone a virgin... The images of what he wanted to do to me and my handmaids were so clear in his mind, he should have been grateful I only turned him into a deer. And bards say he was an innocent," Artemis laughed harshly in disgusted disbelief.

"You know how bards love to make up details to enliven stories they haven't witnessed," she continued, "which is fortunate for you, isn't it? If the mortals knew what you truly did to Leda... your offerings would be even more dismal then they are now. How much did you have to pay the muses to keep that truth to themselves?"

She stared scornfully at her father, and her mouth twisted in disgust. "So don't try to shift either the argument or your blame - it was your philandering and lack of self-control that twisted Hera, and your self-serving decrees and manipulations that soured the other gods on you. You were what made Hera's coup almost succeed - not her - and I think you know that." She sighed, sick of the whole sordid mess, but her expression soon hardened again. "I still supported you - even if not openly - but only because you were the lesser of the two evils." She paused to give him a chance to respond to the charges, but he remained mute.

"And tell me," she continued coldly, words laden with an icy menace, "while you were mortal, getting sloshed in that bar... who do you think kept Discord away, even though you provoked a bar fight - a surer way to draw her than the finest sacrifice on one of her altars?" When he didn't answer, she continued, her voice rising in volume with each syllable until she was screaming at him. "Or shielded you from the worst of the collapse of the bar when Ares' and Hercules' fight demolished it? Who do you think destroyed all the hind's blood your lightning storms splashed all over my forests - not to mention the hind's blood on the thornbush in Ares' woods - when any of the gods would have given me anything I desired for the smallest droplet to use against you? And who do you think has never told her twin brother who his real mother was?" She barked in conclusion, "I never supported you, have I? Tell me then... Who was it who did these things? WHO?" she shrieked, fists trembling with the effort not to launch an attack.

Zeus' expression revealed nothing of the emotions running through him, nor of the thoughts darkening his eyes. "Hera was your mother," Zeus informed her curtly, turning back to the monitor with a grim scowl on his face, but still revealing nothing to his furious daughter.

"Your switch may have fooled my arrogant little brother... and even Hera for that matter, but even when barely born I was never that naïve. I did help deliver my brother after all - and Hera isn't blonde. I've always known who my mother really was... and what you did to Leto after our birth." She snorted briefly. "It always amazed me Hera could actually believe she bore triplets that time - and triplets who looked so different from one another and from her... she should have known better."

Harshly she concluded, "So don't try to tell me I haven't supported you. I've probably been your staunchest supporter next to Athena..." Her voice turned saccharine as she completed her sentence, "But then, she doesn't know what happened to her mother does she? O great and cannibalistic father? You are more like your own father than you dare to admit!

"I didn't want to force a confrontation with my brother by openly aiding you, but I've supported you. Even knowing the full litany of your crimes, I've supported you. But don't... don't you dare make the mistake of thinking I'll ever blindly follow you or accept your dictates... or let you get away with your lechery and rapine among mortal women ever again.

"For too long I've turned my back on my responsibilities, been too content with my own solitude, and been satisfied to simply guard what Amazons the other gods had not yet seduced away from me... but no more. A line has been crossed, and my patience has been exhausted. I will no longer allow the depredations of the gods to go unpunished. From now on I will enforce my mandate fully in all areas... and I certainly won't submit in this... this... farce with my Gabrielle."

Zeus turned back to the monitors, shrivelling slightly under his daughter's unforgiving glare. Everything Artemis had told him was true... and the stench of the misdeeds she cast in his face was foul indeed. He actually began to feel a twinge of remorse... but it swiftly passed.

Gabrielle's hands moved on the monitor, distracting him from the rare moment of self-contempt his daughter had engendered. What is she doing? he wondered silently.

Turning back to face his grim daughter, he actually contemplated relenting. "I..." only to stop as his daughter screamed like one of the damned, her bean sidhe howls of agony mirrored on the monitors by both Xena and the glowing Gabrielle.

Zeus swiftly checked on his daughter. She thrashed uncontrollably on the floor of the balcony, screaming incoherently and clutching at her temples as she writhed and twitched.

Artemis' scream echoed down the shaft of the Abyss, her agonized howls amplified by the echoes as the sound reverberated back and forth down the depths of the stony pit. Her cries of suffering, mimed and echoed by the shaft, rose back to join her unceasing wails in unholy harmony as her torment rose to new heights.

Her suffering was unparalleled; she had never felt pain like this... she hadn't known gods could even feel such pain. This was nothing like the echoes of Gabrielle's pain she felt through their bond... This was gut- wrenching agony, inflicted on a being who had never felt true pain before, and under its cruelly barbed lash, she could do nothing but scream and thrash blindly in a futile effort to escape its torturous touch.

Bending over the suffering goddess, Zeus searched for the source of her pain, then prepared a remedy. Aura flaring, her father summoned his power and reached deeply into Artemis' soul, erecting a shield against the force that was tormenting his child. She may have taken him to task, but she was one of his favorite daughters... even if she did know far too much about his past misdeeds for comfort - and was less than forgiving about them.

Breathing out heavily from the effort, he rose again and backed away, leaving her to recover on her own. Checking the monitors, he noted Xena and Gabrielle having much the same reaction as Artemis... though much more intensely since he hadn't blocked the effects for them. Foolish girl, he thought. Tampering like that... Gabrielle should have known better, he shook his head in disgust. I should have realized what she was trying to do... even if it is entirely the wrong approach to take.

Behind him, Artemis slowly returned to awareness of herself after the pain had lost some of its ferociousness. "Wh... wh... what happened?" she stammered, sitting up slowly and pressing the heels of her hands against her temples as the pain that had consumed her gradually lessened - but continued to torment her.

"Gabrielle bonded you," Zeus explained smugly, turning back to face his daughter. "So when her attempt to take away her godhood failed... you felt her pain that resulted."

"That's impossible," the goddess denied, unsteadily rising to her feet and shuffling away from the edge of the balcony. "You can't bond to another god - and a bond doesn't work like that, either."

"True; but she did do something similar." He gloated, both at the new goddess' failure and at the vindication of his choice to keep her as a goddess. "Isn't she something?" He looked almost paternal as he watched the goddess suffering on the monitor. "Barely a goddess - and not even a full one at that - and already doing things none of us ever could..." Smugly he added, "You see... I was right all along."

Hmm, he mused silently. I need a consort - not going to make the mistake of marrying again, though - and she is available...

Still too shaky to debate him, Artemis stumbled away. "This changes nothing, father," she said unsteadily, "The days of you and the other gods molesting mortals without reprisal is over... mark my words well." She shakily teleported away, heading for Apollo's bar. She dearly wanted to check on Gabrielle, but first she desperately needed some nectar... her head was killing her.

Xena's and Gabrielle's twin screams resounded in Hercules' ears, making him jump at the sudden noise. Shocked, he leapt over and knelt next to the warrior (since she was closer), and was shocked both by the intensity of the torment in the cries, and the twisted expressions of agony carved into their faces. Taut sinews and contorting muscles had twisted their countenances into deformed mockeries of their normal appearances.

"What's wrong?" Hercules asked Xena frantically, trying to still her thrashing long enough to check her for signs of injury, but without success. The pain lent her already prodigious strength a new intensity as she writhed with ever increasing vigor in futile attempts to escape the pain's grip. The blind thrashing of her limbs pounded against the demigod, slapping him with her arms, then cracking him across the nose with a fierce jerk of one leg, before finally kicking him away.

Hercules hit the ground across the camp with a dull thud, momentarily stunned as his skull impacted with the ground. Shaking off the blow, he arched his back and with an acrobatic flip, regained his feet. Before he could return to their side, like marionettes after the strings have been cut, Xena and the similarly writhing goddess abruptly ceased struggling, slumping back on the ground and panting heavily.

Iolaus and Autolycus had awakened when the two women screamed, but by the time they'd managed to untangle themselves from their blankets, the excitement was over. The screaming and thrashing hadn't lasted long, but the fearsome torment in Xena and Gabrielle's voices and on their faces had made it seem an eternity to the three men. Rubbing their eyes, the reawakened men looked around, but remained relatively calm in the preternatural silence left in the aftermath of the screams. Seeing Gabrielle was back, they began getting up, stretching and yawning uncomfortably as they did.

Gabrielle slowly rose to a sitting position, muttering to herself, "I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry..." She repeated the phrase over and over like a mantra, gradually increasing the volume with each repetition as she hugged her chest and rocked in place.

"What happened?" Hercules demanded, helping Xena to sit up. The warrior remained mute, overwhelmed by the stabbing pain she had felt - and still felt to a lesser degree.

"I'm so sorry..." the goddess repeated again, turning to look at the demigod with shadows haunting her eyes. "I did this... to you... I'm so sorry..." she fell back onto her bedroll. "I didn't know... it would feel... like this."

A subdued flash of white light heralded Artemis' arrival. She materialized at the edge of the forest, carrying two flasks. "I'm here Gabrielle," she announced, looking worriedly at the huddled and almost fetal goddess, "and I brought something that will help you."

Autolycus muttered sotto voce to Iolaus, "Now that's what I call a goddess... I think I've just found religion."

"That's Artemis," the hunter informed him, straightening his vest. "I've met her before. She's Gabrielle's friend."

"Artemis?" Autolycus gasped, voice rising several octaves. Images of Actaeon's gruesome fate danced in his mind - along with the memory of his theft of her bow. "Do you think she holds a grudge?" he whispered, stealthily edging further into the shadows and hiding behind Iolaus.

Xena waved Hercules away with a grunt, wanting Gabrielle to be helped first. Reluctantly the demigod left Xena's side to approach the newly arrived and obviously upset goddess. "I can help..." he began, then stopped. He looked uncertainly at the two flasks she carried; one looked to have been carved from a single giant emerald, and the other was a simple hammered brass container - one that could be found in any village market. "Um, what are they?" he asked.

Artemis immediately interposed herself between Hercules and the still recovering Gabrielle. "Stay away from my chosen, Hercules," she commanded, eyes blazing. After confronting Zeus, and suffering the torment she had just faced, she was in no mood to deal with Zeus' son - even if he was her half-brother.

He reluctantly backed off, as surprised as his father had been by the intensity of her reaction.

Tossing the brass flask over Hercules' head - to land with a thump beside Xena, Artemis kept the other and turned to help Gabrielle, ignoring the demigod. Giving her a sip from the emerald container, she added over her shoulder. "I don't want you near any of my Amazons ever again."

She sneered at the obvious bulge in his pants, which still remained proudly rampant despite the rough manhandling by Xena (or maybe because of it ;P). "And if you come near another one of my queens with that... you'll wish I had only turned you into a pig."

Gabrielle coughed after breathing in part of the thick fluid in the flask, but was already feeling much better. The nectar filled her with energy and soothed her pain... and as her pain faded, so too did Xena's. Gabrielle sat up and took the flask away from the huntress, taking a larger sip of the contents.

Xena drank from her own flask despite the diminished pain, and was relieved to taste ordinary mead rather than a more exotic beverage.

"What's wrong, Artemis?" Hercules eventually asked, stung by the goddess' reaction and the cold shoulder she had literally turned on him. "We've known each other a long time... almost since I was a boy. You should know me well enough by now to know that I wasn't going to hurt Gabrielle - or try anything inappropriate." Xena and Gabrielle both nodded in agreement, though they remained silent while they continued to drink, the pain in their heads precluding rational conversation.

"Just remember what I said," Artemis ordered in response, crossing her arms across her chest and planting herself squarely between him and her recovering chosen. "Zeus has kept you protected despite your crimes against the Nation... but no more. From this day on, you are no longer welcome on Amazon land, and are warned to stay well clear - or be prepared to face my wrath." She was furious, and even Hercules quailed under her wrathful glare.

"Crimes? What crimes, Artemis? What do you mean?" Gabrielle asked, slowly rising to her feet before draining her flask.

"I'm kind of curious about that myself," Hercules retorted as he helped Xena to her feet.

"Setting aside the matter of the theft of my queen's girdle, I'll simply name three : Hippolyta, Penthesilea, and Cyane. There will be no more consorting with my queens, son of Zeus."

Xena raised an eyebrow at the last name, but volunteered nothing despite Gabrielle's curious look.

Hercules' face reflected his surprise at the names, but the huntress remained unmoved. "Heed me well, Hercules. Until now I've been forced to overlook your... indiscretions with my children; Father's protection and the fractures in the Amazon Nation ensured I never did otherwise. But no more."

The demigod opened his mouth to protest, but the angry goddess silenced him with a look. "I've wrested the last of my peoples back from under Ares and Hera, and I'm finally free to protect them from the depredations of the gods." She paused, then added with a pointed look at Hercules, "and demigods." Scowling fiercely, she concluded, "Although he and the other gods like to ignore it when it suits their desires, Zeus's own laws give me the right to protect my children - and I will. Father has exempted you from most of the responsibilities of your heritage, but this rule I will enforce : against you, against Apollo, against Ares, and even against Zeus himself if need be. Not even father can forbid me this - his own laws bind him."

Gabrielle was still mulling over the names Artemis had listed, listening to the goddess' lecture with half an ear. "Those three were all Amazon queens, weren't they?" she wondered softly.

"Yes," Artemis answered her, eyes still icy and locked on Hercules. "And only three of the score of my Amazons he's dallied with, against the laws of gods and man... but he has a preference for seducing and abandoning my queens once he has sated his lusts upon them."

"A score of Amazons?" Iolaus and Autolycus silently mouthed. The men were awed by the figure - which was not exactly the reaction Artemis had wanted.

"Oh, yes," Artemis confirmed Xena's raised eyebrow. Scowling at the demigod, she added, "I'm just grateful that when you met Ephiny, her son was with her... or I suppose your total would now be four queens."

"Those encounters were entirely consensual," Hercules protested, finally rallying to the defense. "I know Zeus and Apollo aren't always... scrupulous in their dealings with mortals, but I've never forced a woman; and don't forget I've also helped the Nation - more than once - while committing these so called 'crimes'... in case that fact had conveniently slipped your mind." After a moment, when she failed to respond to his argument, he added, "For that matter, Zeus turned back time so my liaison with Hippolyta never happened - surely you can't hold me accountable for..."

"Is that what he told you?" the Amazon goddess sneered, her fury rising. "He lied. Oh, he turned back time, that's true. But since he used your involvement to hide a... tryst of his own, he made sure that some of Lysia and Hippolyta's memories remained intact - as well as the child he and Lysia conceived. Just a small bonus for his darling boy, over and above your sidekick's life."

Iolaus looked startled. He'd died several times, but didn't remember ever dying in an incident involving Amazons. His confusion only grew when Autolycus muttered, "I hate time travel."

Artemis frowned at the two men, and a crack of thunder silenced them before she continued. "And before you start trying to deny accountability for your actions, remember that you were already married to another woman during those 'consensual encounters.' Of course, so was our father, and that never stopped him, either. The fact that Hera had corrupted Hippolyta's tribe in an attempt to claim them for her own only made his assignation with Lysia that much sweeter for him." Her fury at Zeus' faithlessness was plain.

"Aah," Hercules said, eyes widening as a sudden afflatus took him by surprise. "You've been talking to Zeus. That explains a lot." He too sometimes felt as blindly furious as Artemis obviously was after speaking to their mutual father.

Xena interrupted before the situation could degenerate any further. "Enough!" Everyone turned to look at the irritated warrior. "This argument can wait... but Gabrielle can't. Just shut up, and you can fight later... agreed?" Her grim expression was met by embarrassed looks from the two feuding children of Zeus as they remembered the imminent deadline.

"Agreed," they reluctantly said, though Artemis continued to cast a baleful eye on the demigod.

"Now," Xena continued, "Gabrielle... what went wrong?"

Sighing heavily, Gabrielle sank bonelessly down on her bedroll again. "I'm not sure... I thought it would work, but..."

"What? What did you try to do?" Artemis asked. "It hurt, whatever it was."

"You too?" Xena asked, and greeted her nod with a raised eyebrow.

Thinking quickly, Gabrielle tried to think of a simple explanation for what she had attempted. "Okay... remember when I told you the soul was the interface between the source of godhood, and the human body... with a connection to each?"

At the mortals' nods, she continued, her voice growing more confident as she elaborated. "Well the soul - with these connections - forms a structure very much like... like... like a sheet of parchment," she proclaimed, happy to find a good simile to provide a description. "And how many sides does a sheet of parchment have - if you ignore how thick it is?"

"Two," Iolaus answered.

"Right! But... what if you took the parchment, twisted it, and connected the ends?" Seeing their blank looks - even on the face of the goddess - she concentrated and made a glowing green sheet appear in midair to demonstrate the creation of a Möbius loop. "You see? It has only one side." A red line slowly traced its way around the loop, showing the altered nature of the construct. "Basically, I tried to sever the connection by making it impossible for my soul to link to both the source of power and my body."

"That makes sense," Autolycus muttered, picturing the event in his mind. "So what went wrong?" He edged back as Artemis frowned at him, obviously remembering his face, but unable to place where she knew him from.

"Everything was going great, but... when I tried to form the loop... it got out of my control. I simply couldn't do it... not to myself anyway. It hurt too much... that's what I meant when I was apologizing to you, Hercules. It was like what I accidentally did to you - only worse. It felt like my soul was being simultaneously torn out and disintegrated, and then when I lost control... it snapped back into place and... Rebounded."

The horrific description made her audience shiver - especially the two who had shared in the experience. "Okay, that much I understand; but why was Xena hurt too?" Hercules asked. "That shouldn't have happened."

"I don't know... When I was visiting my parents, I accidentally broadcast my emotions... maybe I did the same thing this time."

"You did," Artemis said. "You bonded with Xena - and me - and when you lost control, we shared in your pain."

"Bonded?" Gabrielle demanded, voice rising in pitch. "Like... like a chosen? But... Xena's... and you're..."

"Not exactly like a chosen... more like simple empathic projection," the goddess explained. "And now that I know what it is, I can block it; for myself and for Xena, so you needn't worry."

The new goddess mulled over the description. "Yes... I see... that makes sense... if you can..." she trailed off as her mind explored the possibilities of such a bond, and ways to interrupt the transmissions.

"Gabrielle?" Xena gently interrupted. "The time?"

"Right... right. Well, then..." she went silent.

"Do you know what to do now... despite this failure, I mean?" Iolaus asked cautiously.

"I was so sure it would work..." Gabrielle bemoaned her failure. "But... I guess... I have no other choice."

"What?" the group demanded.

"I'm not sure this will work, but... I have to try it." She glanced up at the sky, and the pale glow of Dawn's rosy fingers coloring the horizon. "Right now."

"I need to... Argh! There's no time to explain!" she moaned. Gathering herself with an effort, she commanded, "Stand back," before lying back on the bedroll once more.

Automatically the group obeyed the ringing command of the goddess, clearing an open space around her bedroll, though Autolycus' eyes lingered on the empty and discarded emerald flask, lying forgotten beside the reclining goddess. Gabrielle's brow furrowed as she concentrated fiercely, the press of time weighing heavily upon her, and forcing her to delve deeply into her reserves as she readied herself to make the ultimate effort. She shut her eyes and focused intently inward, gathering all her might for this final attempt.

Artemis swiftly interposed a shield around Xena's mind, preparing to protect her from the anticipated return of pain, then stepped back. Despite her recent argument with him, she softly murmured a prayer that Zeus would relent... though she maintained little hope that he would. She knew she was protected from feeling Gabrielle's pain but... She could only watch her chosen's struggle, and wonder which would truly pain her more : Gabrielle's success, or her failure.

Gabrielle's eyelids snapped open to reveal her eyes glowing like lanterns beneath her furrowed brow. The others stared open mouthed at the shafts of light emanating from the goddess' orbs, and unconsciously stepped back another pace. It was well they did, for it kept them safe from what came next.

With a cry of commingled pain and ecstasy, the goddess lifted one hand and shot a shaft of power into the sky. Energy flowed from her raised palm in a steady stream of glowing might, the shaft piercing the heavens as she attempted to drain her power faster than it could regenerate itself.

Instead of petering out, the glowing shaft that Gabrielle emitted actually increased in both diameter and brightness as she strained to force all the energy at her disposal through her and out of her, despite the burning sensation and the strain it caused. The light from the energy flowing from her hand lit up the camp as though it were noon, and left the mortals blinking in the hot glow of raw power, until they were finally forced to turn away from the incredible display... and she struggled to force still more energy from within her.

Artemis blinked at the awesome power being unleashed by her chosen. Enough energy to incinerate entire cities poured from her upraised hand in an instant... and still more flowed out. To all appearances like a strand of the sun connecting the earth and the heavens, the energy flowed forth, streaming ever upwards in a ravening flood of power.

The very air screamed as the rampaging energy pouring from Gabrielle tore it asunder, the sound of its destruction booming over the hills like thunder, echoing across Greece and stampeding animals for leagues around. The thick clouds overhead, pierced by the tendril of divine might, boiled away from the heat of its passage, leaving the sky clear and revealing the still darkened sky and the stars glittering far overhead. This was no mere lightning bolt or fireball, to be cast and forgotten; this was the raw power of the gods, unleashed in a primal ejaculation of energy upon an unsuspecting world. The countryside lit up as the shaft of divine power illuminated the world for miles around and rattled the very foundations of creation... and still the massive outflux of energy continued.

The shaft of power stuttered momentarily, and the watchers turned back to face her as the glow faded slightly, but it was only for a moment. With another sharp cry, Gabrielle flung her arms out, arching her back and screaming... and seven shafts of power streaked into the sky. A beam of energy now rose directly from each of the points she had discovered marked the connection of her soul to her body. The watching mortals were forced to hide behind trees as their skin began to redden under even the incidental glow of that energy, and even Artemis had to back away, awed by the sheer volume of power that was being unleashed.

The glow in Gabrielle's eyes slowly faded as her eyes rolled back in their sockets, though in the hot glare of the beam emanating from her forehead, it was impossible to see. Every scrap of power she could grasp flowed into her and just as rapidly out again in an awe-inspiring display of divine pyrotechnics.

Olympus itself shook as Gabrielle's power streaked past, the divine realm buffeted by the shockwave of the energy's passage and the disintegration of the molecules of the air as the energy streamed out of the atmosphere. Pillars fell and priceless vases shattered as Zeus' throne room rattled, and Zeus himself backed off his ledge following an ominous cracking noise, even as he continued to watch dumbstruck through the monitors as the girl struggled to free herself of her unwanted connection... but still he did nothing to assist her. He watched her grow pale and weak as the energy that should have sustained her body was gathered up to be flung away... and still he merely watched.

Finally, just as the edge of the sun's disk appeared on the horizon, the world rumbled on its foundations. For only the third time in the long history of the world, an Olympian god hovered on the brink of death - and for the first time at the god's own hand. Protesting the fall of one of the Powers of the world, Gaia herself trembled, her movements sending waves rippling out through her crust, toppling buildings across the globe and leaving chaos and devastation in the wake of the waves of destruction.

From nowhere and everywhere, a scream echoed across the world, reverberating through the land and inspiring fear in all who heard it. Gabrielle shrieked in soul-deep agony as the energy burned through her in a flood, her connection to godhood flickering at the verge of closure. A brilliant flash illuminated half of Greece, temporarily blinding even the divine Artemis, and then...

And then the world went still. With an eerie finality, Gabrielle's scream and the shafts of energy faded away in a final stuttering burst... and then the earth's rumbles stilled, the sky darkened as the clouds closed in, and all was silent once more.

At last, it was over.

Gaia's bones trembled with Gabrielle's final scream, her knell echoing throughout the world. Most who heard the agonized cry reacted predictably - with fear or horror - to that terrifying sound. A scant few however, by virtue of their natures or their associations, were unique in their response.

Joxer the Mighty, would-be warrior and self-proclaimed hero, looked over his shoulder and asked, "Gabby?" ignoring the one-time royal cook nestled in his arms.

"What?" Meg screeched angrily, smacking him on one biceps and pushing him off her. To say she was upset that he'd called her by another woman's name - again - was a gross understatement.

"That scream... it was a woman's... and it sounded like Gabrielle," Joxer explained, sitting on the edge of the bed and looking for his clothes.

"Jox, babe... remember where you are. I'd be more worried if you didn't hear a woman screamin' in my place," Meg calmed him, greatly relieved it had been his heroic nature that caused the slip this time and not his oft wandering heart.

"Are you sure?" he asked, scratching his nose and turning back to face the black-haired madam.

"Positive - the bouncer woulda come an' got me if something was wrong." She giggled. "'Sides, if Xena was around, you and me would both be in trouble... considerin' what I was wearin' last night - some of the time, anyway - and what we was doin'."

"Oh yeah... okay," Joxer sighed, reassured. It did sound like Gabrielle though, he thought. "I guess you're right." He idly rubbed the soft material of the pink nightgown he wore against his stomach, his thoughts drifting back to the time Gabrielle had given it to him.

At first he'd kept the silken garment - despite the embarrassment of that presentation - because it was a gift from Gabrielle... then he'd rediscovered how wonderful it felt against his skin. Gods, did I really say, "It soft... like baby monkey?" Even now he had to blush at that memory. But despite his embarrassment... whenever possible, he refused to sleep in anything else. After wearing the coarse leather and homespun cloth of his custom-made armor all day, the soft and slickly smooth material felt wonderful. He stretched, and the fluffy hem of the gown twitched lazily across his thighs.

Glancing over at Meg, who was watching the display with thinly veiled amusement, he smiled happily. After her discovery of the garment in his bag one night months before, he'd been afraid she'd throw him out on his ear - understandably, after what his family had done with Jase... but she hadn't. She understood him, and compared to the "petting" zoo she maintained for some of her other customers, she thought his enjoyment of the delicate touch of the fabric against his skin rather mundane. She was also willing to indulge his imagination... and was willing to play whatever role he fantasized - and he fantasized a lot.

He looked at Meg, looking lovely (if rumpled) in only a pair of leather bracers and the torn top half of a leather undertunic, and felt a warm surge fill his heart... and other areas. The rest of the replica of Xena's armor was scattered about the room, discarded early the night before. The bits of armor and leather were intermixed with (among other things) a (slightly stained) Hestian gown and veil, an Amazon Queen's vestments, a royal robe and (glass) tiara, a leash with scraps of raw sheep's wool caught in the weave (what it was used for is perhaps best left to the imagination), and a very low-cut peasant milkmaid's dress and shawl that partially covered his helmet in one corner.

"Mmm..." he hummed, considering the discarded detritus of the prior night. A grin crossed his features as yet another idea struck him. The memories tied to his silken nightgown had recalled another old fantasy of his.

"What? Again?" Meg demanded, recognizing the look on his face.

"Mmm mmm. Attus want zug-zug," Joxer retorted, grunting and scratching himself through the delicate pink fabric, a wicked light gleaming in his eyes.

Meg rolled her eyes and began unbuckling the rest of the armor. Attus wasn't one of her favorite scenarios - the leather bikini "Princess Gaea" wore chafed.

Oh, well, she thought. At least I won't have to wear it long. She tossed aside a faded and threadbare Amazon mask and picked through the debris on the floor, looking for the laurel wreath she needed for her outfit. She giggled as she struggled to loosen the tie on one forearm guard. Joxer was fun, but a night with him could really be exhausting.

A continent away, in a small yurt, two young women jolted awake and stared at each other as the echoes of an eerie scream faded across the steppe. "Did you hear that?" one asked softly.

"I did, Yakut," the other replied. "It was the sound of a soul in torment. We must prepare."

The younger Amazon slipped from between the furs and reached for her clothes in swift obedience. Otere made no attempt to hide her enjoyment as she watched her lover dress, stretching briefly and savoring the warmth and the scent of their love that lingered in their snug nest of furs. When Yakut was clothed once more, she pulled her back down and kissed her thoroughly before giving her further instructions. "Wake the others," the young shamaness commanded, after she'd caught her breath once more. "We need to dance."

"Okay," Yakut said breathlessly, kissing Otere's palm before teasingly trailing her tongue down one calloused finger. "But get dressed first this time, alright? I don't like sharing you with the others."

Otere simply laughed.

In the village of Potadaiea, a vigil was being held.

Despite Gabrielle's instructions, Herodotus and Hecuba had gathered all their friends and relatives together in the temple that served the small community to pray for their prodigal daughter's safe return and to give what modest offerings they could afford in hopes of appeasing Zeus. It was a somber affair, due more to the early hour than to any sincere belief in the disjointed tale of Gabrielle's peril they'd been told by her teary and frightened parents, but the gathering was still of great comfort to Hecuba.

And then Gabrielle's scream echoed across the land and the night turned into day... Much more focused and fervent prayers and cries for forgiveness began echoing to Olympus... and a mother's cry of forlorn grief shattered the stillness of the Potadaiaen night.

"Gabrielle..." Lila quietly murmured through her tears, before turning away from the candle-bedecked altar to soothe her grief-stricken mother.

"Typhon, wake up," Echidna, the mother of all monsters, whispered, shaking her husband with two of her tentacles and shivering as the echoes of a scream lingered in their cave.

"Wha... What is it, honey?" the giant asked sleepily.

"A scream... a scream like my own," she screeched softly. "The cry of a mother who's lost her children."

Typhon listened for a minute, but heard only silence. "I don't hear anything," he responded sleepily. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and rested one hand comfortingly on her scaled abdomen.

"It was there," she retorted, uncoiling her serpentine body with the dry rasp of scale against stone. "I heard it."

"Don't wake Obie," Typhon warned her softly, sitting up and drawing his wife into a hug. "Are you sure it wasn't a dream, sweetheart?"

"Well... Maybe... I don't know. I don't think so." Echidna slowly replied, curling her hairless head into the hollow of his neck. Her nightmares had been horrific following the deaths of her children, turned into monsters by Hera, during Hercules' labors, and still returned to haunt her sometimes, despite her reconciliation with the hero.

Fortunately, her husband knew how to soothe her. Typhon kissed her deeply, his tongue deftly avoiding the razor edges of her fangs with the ease of long practice. "It was just another bad dream," he whispered.

Echidna sighed and snuggled in closer, tentacles twitching idly.

Now that he was awake, the giant knew he would be unable to fall back to sleep. More importantly, he also knew Echidna needed a distraction from her lingering sorrow... and his wife's endlessly flexible limbs were stroking him in a gentle rhythm that made his loss of sleep the furthest thing from his mind... "Sweetie... How 'bout we see if we can't give Obie a sister?" He kissed her again. "Think that would help give you better dreams?" One hand teased at the bony ridge running up her back, making her emit a hissing purr of pleasure.

Echidna's tentacles quivered at his caress, then tightened around her husband. "It couldn't hurt," she murmured, her tail wrapping itself snugly around one of his ankles as one tentacle teasingly tugged at the drawstrings of his trousers...

An intimate gathering of a much different nature was also taking place. If one were able to see through solid (and molten) rock, one might be able to observe a casual gathering in a cavern miles beneath Typhon and Echidna's boudoir. (Which all things considered, was probably for the best. Echidna had never been described as reserved and quiet... but let's leave that pair to their intimacies.)

A trio of divinities sipped nectar and idly chatted while relaxing in a subterranean palace. Hades, lord of the underworld and routinely overworked judge of the dead, was taking a moment to relax with his sister Celesta, the hand of death, and his wife Persephone, who had only recently rejoined him for her winter stay in the underworld.

The scream echoing through the bowels of the earth shattered the peaceful interlude.

Persephone, still unused to the noises coming from Tartarus, only shivered, failing to recognize it for what it truly was. The other two did recognize it - and rightly feared what it foreshadowed. "Uh oh," they said in unison.

"We're so overworked now..." Hades began before trailing off.

"If she takes up her old habits again, Charon will quit outright - he already constantly complains about the workload, and if the influx of souls goes back to her old levels..." Celesta finished.

"Not to mention the problems in processing, distribution, and punishment..." Hades added.

"Ugh, and I hate dealing with the ones that are beheaded; it's so messy... and that was her favorite tactic in the old days." Sharing a look, the siblings drained their goblets, and flashed away in unison, hurrying on their way.

Persephone watched the two vanish with surprise. She set aside her own goblet and wondered briefly what all the fuss was about.

Her husband briefly reappeared, picked up his crown, kissed her on the cheek, said, "I'll explain later," then vanished again, leaving Persephone even more curious. She straightened her dress then vanished as well, eager to find out what had so disconcerted the two chthonic deities.

Julius Caesar sat up in bed, startled by a scream, and looked down on the slumbering form of Antistia, Pompey's wife. She was still sleeping, exhausted after their long night of sex - though she had considered it lovemaking. Just another (albeit a quite pleasurable) example of his "divide and conquer" technique, he mused, though hearing her call him "the true Magnus" at the height of her pleasure had certainly been entertaining.

His brief smile faded. The scream sounded familiar somehow... who could it have been? The house is empty except for a few servants, Antistia was still asleep, and it certainly wasn't shrill enough for Crassus' widow... or even for Licinia - the Vestal Virgin the dead triumvir had been so enamored of.

He laid back down, and tried to sleep, but couldn't. The scream continued to nibble at the edge of his consciousness, keeping him from Morpheus' arms. Sighing in frustration, he tried to puzzle out the identity of the screamer. It was female, so that narrowed the possibilities... Irritably, he mentally listed the names of the many women he had known, starting with the ones he was currently sleeping with and working his way backward in time, considering each and comparing it to his memory of the scream.

A frustrating hour or so later, after considering and eliminating all of the women he'd known, and failing to hear the scream repeated, he simply shrugged and curled up once more beside Pompey's wife. Probably just a slave girl, he finally decided, wrapping one arm around the sleeping woman and gratefully succumbing to sleep once more.

Far from the bedchamber where Pompey had been cuckolded, two men were enjoying each other's company... although one was far gone in his wine. Meleager the Mighty, warrior, hero, and ex-drunk, sipped his goat's milk and tried in vain to follow the increasingly disjointed story of how Draco sealed a portal to an alternate world. He made the effort despite the incoherence of the tale since Gabrielle (or a lookalike) was somehow tied up in the story.

The two men had met at a bar earlier and hit it off famously, sharing as they did two common interests : old war stories and Gabrielle. Draco had recognized the grizzled old veteran immediately, and after introducing himself, they'd happily fallen into fond reminiscence about old battles, shared enemies, and their dealings with the famous and beautiful Bard of Potadaiea.

Despite what the tavern keeper said, the brawl that followed shortly thereafter was not their fault. As the ex-warlord later explained to Meleager, while stepping over the piles of unconscious bodies on the way out the door, when he'd first tried to redeem himself, he'd taken his army and slaughtered a rival warlord's band - raiding his plump warchest and taking all his loot... and then returned it to the cities and towns that warlord had raided. His incredulous troops abandoned him after he explained why he did it.

Somehow the story had spread, and he'd been unable to attract another army. He'd been forced to seek his redemption and make himself worthy of Gabrielle... alone.

The young bravos who'd picked a fight had made the mistake of taunting Draco about Gabrielle; he hadn't reacted when they'd insulted him, but when they began insulting her and making insinuations about her sexual practices... Meleager had leaped to her defense only a shade slower than the younger man. The arrogant bullies had been shocked to find themselves faced with two furious and thoroughly experienced warriors... who were not amused.

Meleager couldn't help but smile. It had almost been like old times, fighting back to back with Draco in the bar... the furious melee getting his old juices flowing and returning a rare smug gleam to his eye.

The two warriors had swiftly mopped the floor with a score and a half of the brash, overconfident young punks and been ready for more... until they had been (politely, admittedly) asked to leave. Still, the second bar they'd chosen had been much more congenial. (Actually, the second bar was usually a far seedier place than the first, but since all the rougher denizens were unconscious in the other bar, it had turned into a nice, quiet place to relax... in case you were wondering.)

Gabrielle's scream shook both men. At that grim prompt, Draco finally succumbed to the heroic quantities of alcohol he'd imbibed, and began crying into the spilled port the shaved side of his head was resting in, drunkenly muttering something about "the Executioner." Meleager shivered, both at the sound of the scream and at Draco's drunken collapse. He hurried into the street to search for the source of that terrible cry, feeling the need to do something heroic.

Finding nothing, he soon rejoined the sozzled ex-warlord at their table and finished his milk, patting his drunken companion's back in support. He'd been where Draco was now many times before. Now if I can only remember the recipe for my old hangover cure...

In Athens, Salmoneus was finally losing his patience with a customer... which was something he had thought could never happen, but the little snip of a bard had kept him up half the night arguing over the cost of amphora of all things. However... it was a governmental contract, since the Academy was a state-sponsored enterprise, and once he had his toe in the door... The sound of dinars clinking as his potential profits rose ever higher had comforted him greatly during the long negotiation process.

Suppressing his irritation, he kept his smile firmly in place. "Look, I have suppliers I need to keep happy, alright? This is quality merchandise - you don't find jars this good at every stall. I can only lower the price," he shrugged, waggled his head and pretended to think a moment, then lowered his profit to only quintuple his costs, "5 more dinars." At the freshly outraged look on the boy's face, he shrugged again. "You won't find better anywhere in town, or my name's not Salmoneus!"

"Is that your name?" Orion asked curiously.

The merchant rolled his eyes. Kids today... "Yeah, kid. That's my name. So... do we have a deal?"

The bard opened his mouth to reply, but Gabrielle's scream froze the two in position. "Was that Gabrielle?" Orion asked, horrified.

"Can't be... last I heard Xena was over in Thrace," Salmoneus replied off-handedly, looking around the deserted agora for the source of the cry, but seeing no one. The silent streets remained empty; the citizens (those who were awake, anyway) knowing that to react would mean getting involved... and the scream was not repeated, so either there had been no true danger, or it was too late to help... There was no reason to risk themselves in either case. Shaking his head slightly at human foibles (including his own), the merchant turned back to his customer, and then frowned as he began to think.

The young bard looked dubious at Sal's casual denial, but let it pass. He knew more of Gabrielle's recent problems than the merchant possibly could, but... it wasn't like screams were uncommon in the city at night. It's just my imagination, he decided. It can't have been Gabrielle - she's a goddess now.

Tugging on his beard, the merchant was still busy digesting the implications of the bard's last comment. "You... um, know Gabrielle?" Salmoneus asked slowly, concealing his surprise. "Gabrielle of Potadaiea? Xena's friend?"

"Sure... we went through the tryouts for the Bard's Academy together."

"How... um, how well do you know her?" Sal ventured cautiously. He didn't look like Gabrielle's type, but you never knew... Come to think of it, he had no idea what Gabrielle's type was, though the way she hung on to Xena all the time spoke volumes. Not that he blamed her - if he could, he'd do the same thing... Ooh, proud warrioress... he shook off that mental picture and concentrated on the sucker... er, customer before him.

Orion blushed furiously and traced a circle in the dust with the toe of his sandal. After his dreams and the divine Gabrielle's effect, and then all the stories the bards had been telling about Ares and Discord...

Grimacing, the bearded merchant kissed his profit margin goodbye as he read the youth's obvious crush. If Xena found out he'd cheated one of Gabrielle's friends - or maybe significant other, if they'd done more than compete together... He shivered at the mental picture that evoked.

His natural instincts offered a compromise - one that would keep his profit intact, and ensure Xena never found out about the deal... and also allow him to get rid of some old merchandise he hadn't been able to unload; not all the artists in his stable were on a par with Warholeus or Picassus, after all. "Tell you what," he began, a wide grin spreading across his face. "buy the amphorae, and I'll throw in a free gift - one I reserve for my special customers - just for you... seeing as how you know Gabrielle."

He reached under the counter and brought out a smallish object covered by a cloth. He slowly unveiled the gift and watched the young man's eyes widen and his hands begin to tremble with the desire to touch it. "Oh yeah," Salmoneus gloated silently. "He's hooked." The sound of dinars clinking resounded in the merchant's ears.

In a small hamlet not far away, but isolated from the rest of Greece by mutual inclination, two men heard the scream. One, a man who had been forced to flee his home village because of his forbidden relationship with his true love, immediately tried to soothe his disturbed lover, "Easy Bessie," he whispered, caressing her horns with a loving hand. The other man, a shepherd who had once had the "luck" to find a bottle holding a djinn, simply stroked one of the frightened ewes gathered around him and said, "It's okaaaaay, Baaaaa- bies."

The two men shortly fell asleep beside their animal lovers once more. Their reactions had absolutely no impact on any of the momentous events occurring in the world, but you must admit, their reactions were remarkably unique.

Falafel, the great culinary genius and purveyor of rare and exotic foodstuffs to the finest crowned heads, joined his own scream to Gabrielle's as it resounded through his stall, and completely ruined his latest experiment as he jumped in shock.

He had been attempting to improve his most successful creation - a truly stimulating beverage made from a rare bean - by adding a blend of warm milk, spices, and using a different blend of the coffee beans. He was planning to name this new creation "Chino," after his brother's wife's sister's aunt from Corinth, but a most unfortunate incident would prevent it's creation.

After that scream and the earthquake that shook his small storefront, he crashed into the mechanism he had cobbled together to brew his latest marvel and collapsed insensate on the floor. When he regained consciousness, he was disgusted to find that his expensive brew of Chino had spilled and had not only drenched his thinning hair, it had formed a small puddle in the bowl of his fallen hat. "Ruined!" he cried out in dismay, climbing to his feet and shaking his fist to the heavens. "It's ruined. Who would ever want to buy a cap o' Chino?"

Cyane, former Queen of the Siberian Amazons, as well as former lover (and victim) of Xena, ignored the scream. She had much better things to do, nestled as she was in a bedroll along with a trio of giggling and eager Telaquir Amazons.

Her entry into the Amazon Land of the Dead had been delayed far too long, and since her entrance into Eternity, she'd been making up for the time she'd lost while in the limbo of the netherworld with a will. After all, she was dead, but she wasn't quite dead, and the cold, barren, and desolate landscape around the volcano housing the Gate her tribe had been forced to linger in after Xena had slaughtered them and Alti had enslaved their souls had completely killed the mood... despite the long, long years that had passed while they waited with nothing to do. Besides, the Telaquir were very imaginative... and very athletic.

So enraptured was she in fact, that it wasn't until after they'd collapsed from exhaustion (again) that she felt the pull of the mystic chant drawing her back through the Gate of Eternity. "Not again," she complained, sitting up before looking about the small cabin for her other boot.

"What is it?" Lysistrata asked, hugging her from behind and pressing the firm globes of her breasts against Cyane's muscular back.

Cyane smiled over her shoulder at the brunette Amazon. And I thought Xena had been insatiable... "The shamaness from my tribe... she's summoning me again." Rolling her eyes, she poked through the mound of discarded clothing, searching for her undergarments.

"Is it serious?"

"Probably not," Cyane denied. "Ever since Xena taught her a few tricks, she's been overenthusiastic about using them. Next time she goes spirit walking I'll have a talk with her." Cyane stood up and stretched mightily, leaving the three reclining Amazons staring enraptured at the sight of the muscles flexing visibly under her tanned and flawless skin.

"Can't it wait?" Lysistrata pouted, "I don't want to be alone." She looked up with adorable green eyes, silently pleading for her to stay.

"You're hardly alone," Cyane retorted, pulling back the blanket to reveal the other two Amazons' hands roaming over Lysistrata's body. "And it might be important this time," she added, "didn't you hear that scream?"

"Sorry," Juliette, the smallest of the Amazons murmured, leading to another spate of giggles.

"Not that scream." Cyane ignored the renewed laughter and finished dressing, pausing to ensure the pearl armlet was secure. Now that she was concentrating on Otere's spell, the urgency in the summons was clear. Adjusting the sword on her back, she knelt down and kissed each of her lovers gently. "Be good, now." she whispered.

"How can we when you aren't here?" Lysistrata giggled.

"We've been naughty," the smallest chimed in, irritatedly evicting a small flea from an indelicate location. "We need purification."

Venus, in the furs, added, "It's my turn on the altar."

"No fair," Lysistrata cried out, "we skipped my turn last time." She dug through the scattered clothing and came up with a whip and a stained prayer mat from Ch'in. "I should get to go twice - hey, maybe Justine will come..."

Cyane hurried out before she could be distracted once more.

Ephiny, Queen Regent of the Amazons, and new holder of Gabrielle's right of caste, was crouched before Artemis' altar, praying for her safe recovery. She was alone, even the priestesses choosing to indulge in the revelry and celebration that had followed the remarkable ceremony of succession.

After the scream shook the village, diminishing only slightly the raucous party, silent tears began to decorate the altar. "Gabrielle..." she mourned, her shoulders shaking as she fought to suppress her grief.

Yet of all the reactions to the scream, mundane and profound, only one was watched by mortals and gods alike. Fear shrivelled the souls of many a silent observer, as a far too-calm warrior slowly approached a still form.

"Gabrielle?" Xena asked softly, staring down at the pale form lying so unnaturally still on the ground before her. The pale face of the bard, framed by smoking wisps of red hair, was beautiful... and lacked the ethereal inner glow that marked her as divine.

The bedroll, burned by the titanic outpouring of power that had flowed from the woman atop it, emitted small wisps of foul-smelling smoke, which rose to join those rising from the bard's scorched hair. Carrying the scent of carbonized flesh and fur, the traces of smoke rose to irritate the warrior's sensitive nose as she crouched unheeding by her friend's side.

The eddying fumes were undisturbed by breath as they wafted around the head lying motionless before her.

"Gabrielle?" she repeated, ignoring the mild burns covering her own body as she reached out to gently shake her friend by the shoulder.

There was no reaction.

Hercules turned away, his heart breaking at the sick look of anguish that slowly spread across Xena's face. Tears ran down Iolaus' cheeks, the hunter already mourning yet another lost friend. He spun and ran out of the clearing, brushing past Autolycus as he went, not even noticing the contents of his unlaced belt pouch spilling into the dust as he fled.

Autolycus frowned, struggling to quash the emotions rising in his soul. Ever since his brother's murder he'd tried to avoid forming close friendships with anyone because of how he felt at moments like these. Despite himself though, he had been unable to avoid bonding with the irritating but cheerful girl who followed in Xena's wake. Over the years he'd watched her grow from a simple village girl into a true hero whose light brightened his world - even if she was annoyingly moral. If she was truly gone, then the world had just become a darker place.

When Iolaus ran by, trailing coins and trinkets from his slipping belt pouch, the King of Thieves reacted. With a deft motion, he grabbed the heavy gold coin that fell in front of him. It wasn't intentional; it was purely instinctive... but he clenched the coin in his fist so tightly his knuckles gleamed whitely and the reeding along the edges gouged roughly into the soft flesh of his palm. He struggled in vain to keep his face impassive as his eyes remained glued to Gabrielle's body, desperately seeking the faintest signs of movement.

Artemis slowly stepped up beside the silent warrior, her eyes also searching for signs of life in the too, too still form of Gabrielle. Her bond with her chosen had been broken when Gabrielle had become a goddess, but even without it she still knew what had happened, though she couldn't bear to look too closely at her body, unwilling to fully confront the horrible truth. Resting one hand on Xena's shoulder, she turned to face the dawn, unable to bear looking at the motionless body for even an instant longer. "It's over," she whispered, tears flowing openly as she contemplated resuming the long, empty march of years without a companion, or even a beloved mortal to watch over. There will never be another like my Gabrielle.

Xena looked up into the goddess' grieving face and whispered, "no..." unable to comprehend the depth of her loss. After the last time Gabrielle had died, she'd felt... a black flood of misery and despair rose in her soul as the pain of that loss returned once more. Clutching her unmoving friend to her breast, she screamed out her anguish into the rosy light of the rising sun.

"GABRIELLE!"