Final Conflict

Xena woke up harshly, the nightmare of her almost drowning surfacing again. She wiped a hand down her face, grimacing as it came away drenched in sweat. Not wanting to wake up her partner, she eased out of bed quietly. Silently, she put on a shirt and shorts, knowing there was no more sleep for her, and headed downstairs to the kitchen. What had brought on that dream again?

Feeling out of sorts, she paused to watch the rising sun, hoping the dawn would lift her spirits up. Instead, fear gripped her heart fiercely, as she watched the legion of speedboats heading towards her, some already banked at the beach. She knew she only had seconds and her main concern was for the blond woman upstairs.

Within seconds of the sight, one of her guards came running in, almost knocking her over in his surprise that she was already up.

"Xena! Armed men are headed this way."

Gabrielle woke up suddenly, the sound of an explosion flinging her out of bed and to the window. Where their boat had been, all she saw was a ball of flame. Before her mind could comprehend, a different noise distracted her. Her eyes went directly to the helicopter that was hovering right outside her window. Men dressed in black were sliding down several ropes and running everywhere.

She ran back and quickly started getting dressed. Just as she was done and wondering where in the hell was her lover, the sound of crashing glass snapped her out of her musings. She barely had a chance to scream before she was tackled.

The explosion startled Xena as she was giving instructions to her men and she ran to find the cause. As she got to the window, bullets started flying everywhere and she ducked. 'Gabrielle!', her mind screamed. She felt like she was in a time warp, the yelling, the bullets, men running everywhere, there was so much noise!

"Xena!"

She turned around at the sound of her name.

"Here."

Two guns came flying towards her. "Ammo!" Several more dark objects flew through the air. She caught them as the men started pouring in. The dark haired fury started shooting, trying to fight a path to reach the stairs and get Gabrielle. And in a moment of pure terror, she saw her beloved being dragged down the stairs.

"Hold your fire or she dies!"

Everyone stopped at the booming voice. A man came out from behind and spoke into the radio. "We got them."

********

Marcus knew things had gotten out of hand when the boat exploded. "Shit!" He looked in desperation as men started dropping out of the helicopter. The ground was a swarm of black running figures. "My friend, what have you gotten yourself into."

Jonas called out. "Marcus, if we go in there now, we'll only get ourselves killed. What if we follow them. I'm sure they won't be expecting it."

"Yes, good thinking, that's exactly what we'll do. I can only hope that she can stay alive. And if she is, I will stop at nothing to save her." Marcus looked out at the mayhem. 'Even if it kills me.'

******

John turned around at the sound of his office door opening. His face was expressionless as the two women were roughly pushed inside. He looked from blue to green eyes, his hands steepled against his nose as if deep in thought.

A sarcastice sounding sigh. "My darling Gabrielle." He began. "So this is what you wanted?" He waved a casual hand towards Xena. "After everything I gave you, after I took you in from slumming in the streets..."

"Slumming?" Gabrielle piped in. "Just cause I didn't have cars in the triple digits or a mansion the size of a country does not mean I was slumming."

The tall man looked at his wife as if she were a misguided child. "I guess even after all that, ... I guess there was one thing I was missing." He stood up and slowly walked behind Xena. "Pussy!" He said it like it was poison. "You should have told me Gabrielle. Money buys everything. Especially pussy," he sneered. He leaned in and whispered in the tall woman's ear. "You're no ordinary gardener, are you." He casually walked around to Gabrielle. "Did your dyke friend tell you all of the horrible things she's done? Hmmm?" He walked around and faced his wife. "Has she told you where all her money came from? The boats she's sank, the cold blooded murders she's committed!" He he ended with a yell, spraying spittle into the blond haired woman's face.

"Well you aren't any better, but at least she loves me for real. You only think you love me because I was something to show off, something to make you look clean, something...."

The sudden back hand across her face sent her sprawling to the floor. Xena lunged, but was quickly brought back as meaty hands grabbed her by the hair.

Gabrielle slowly sat up and wiped her mouth. "Oh yeah, and you really suck in bed too."

His blood boiled as he heard snickers from his men. He knew that they had heard the rumors from other women, and now his wife had just confirmed those rumors. John took a step and swung hard, his wingtip connecting solidly with the small figure still on the floor.

The socialite screamed.

"You fucking dickless pig. It sure takes a real man to beat up on women, doesn't it. Why don't you try some of that manliness with me, you piece of shit." The gardener struggled with her hold.

John laughed out loud. "Oh baby, you have no idea. You see..." He turned to Gabrielle. "Get up, dyke." The man behind her picked her up the hair, forcing her to standing up or be scalped. "You turned my wife into a dyke, made her forget what it's like to be with a real man. But I'm going to fix that starting with you." He turned his attention back to Xena. "On your knees!"

The man holding Xena her kicked the woman's legs out from under her and she dropped down viciously to her knees. "See here..." He reached for his pants and started undoing them.

Gabrielle whimpered. 'Oh god, no!' She thought.

Blue reassuring eyes turned her way and winked. "You are in need of a real man." He reached in and pulled himself out and slowly started stroking himself into hardness. "You are going to fall in love with this dick before this is over. dyke!"

"John, don't. Please."

"Shut up Gab, I know you want a piece of this too, don't worry, you'll get yours."

The house suddenly shook and in a flurry of movement, Xena kicked the guy behind while swinging at the one holding Gabrielle. She reached out and grabbed the dangling object in front of her and twisted with her left and she picked up the gun that had slid up to her from the fallen man behind. She grinned with satisfaction as she brought the man to his knees and swung the other arm, shooting the guard before he even had a chance to know what was going on. The gardener swung the gun around again and placed it on the sweating forehead in front of her. "Say your prayers."

"No!"

Xena felt a warm hand behind her. "Please, let's just get out of here."

She struggled, wanting desperately to put an end to the piece of shit she was still holding on to. Breathing hard, she swung the gun up and flung it down on the man's temple. "Come on."

Xena turned and looked deeply into the green eyes before her. "Are you okay?" She brought up a hand and softly caressed the bruised face she had fallen for so hard.

"Yeah, I'll be even better once we're back home." Gabrielle said with a small smile.

Xena answered it with a small one of her own.

Just then, the door opened. "Xena!"

The gardener's eyes grew wide. "Marcus, what...how.." She stumbled around, not sure she understood or believed what her eyes were telling her brain.

"There's no time, I'll explain later."

They were almost out when another explosion hit. "What the...?"

Just then, Jonas spotted them as he ran by the hallway. "Marcus, we gotta get out of here, there must have been explosives..."

Another explosion rocked the house. The wall blew inward and flames came in after them.

Gabrielle dropped to her knees in a coughing fit, agony clouding her vision and her ribs complaining from the kick they had received earlier.

"Gabrielle!"

"Nobody is leaving this place alive, ladies!"

Xena turned around and saw the gun pointed at her.

"You should have killed me when you had the chance, bitch."

"No!" Marcus dove as the shot fired.

Gabrielle screamed as she heard shots fired and saw Xena go down, Marcus landing on top of her.

Xena struggled momentarily with the weight on top of her, the smoke and the body on top of her making every breath difficult. She turned Marcus over and saw the blood gushing out. "Damn you, Marcus, what did you think you were doing?" She cradled his head, tears streaking a clean path on a smoky face.

"I owed you Xena. I let them throw you out and I didn't..." He coughed, more blood gushed out. "I saw them attacking your island and I followed them here. It was the least I could do."

"I never blamed you for that. I never expected you to take on a whole crew."

"Shhh," he placed fingers on her lips. "Get out of here."

Xena leaned down and kissed him softly. When she pulled back, he was gone.

"Xena, come on, otherwise his death would have been in vain." Jonas urged.