The Chosen One II

Part 5 - The golden gift

The halls were unusually quiet as Xena and Ruth made their way to the throne room. The occassional passer-by guard was quickly dispossed of.

"This way," Ruth whispered and waved her hand forward. "He's through this door." The two women stopped outside the closed door. Ruth looked at Xena. "I guess we should knock."

Xena glared.

"Just to be polite," Ruth shrugged with a wry grin.

Xena kicked the door down and marched her way inside. She immediately scanned the room and found nothing. No one was waiting for them.

"This!" Ruth gasped. She strode over to a pillow with a golden arrow resting on it, mesmorised by its glow. "It's...so beautiful..." She wanted to touch it, but held back, contorting her face. "But there's something strange about it. Like it has..."

"Powers?" Hestocles finished. Both women whirled and found the man dressed in his warrior skins sitting on his throne. His grin was of pure evil.

"Where's Joxer?" Xena hissed.

"And Jonus?" Ruth added.

"Oh, they are safe, contrary to what your friends think. I have them well hidden from you and your companions."

"What do you want?" Xena's voice whispered.

"You are of no concern to me." He flicked his wrist and the warrior woman went flying into a side wall. She lay still a moment then lightly shook her head. Ruth fumed and charged the man, but she too ended up in a pile of pain and bruises. "Too easy. I thought the Amazons were tougher."

"We are," Ruth answered. She got up, closed her eyes and concentrated. After a moment, the throne began to shake.

"Oh for Olympus sake, Amazon," Hestocles sighed in frustration. "If this is the best you have, then you are truly a sorry race of women." He looked in her direction, narrowed his eyes and the shaking stopped. Ruth had been pushed back to the wall and was now unconscious.

Xena, meanwhile, had recovered from her shock and now held her sword ready. "I don't know what kind of sorceror you are, but I'm warning you. Release Joxer and Jonus."

"Hah! And just what do you plan on doing if I refuse?" He stood up and began walking towards Xena.

With a quick, fluid motion, Xena grabbed her chakram and threw it. Just as quickly, Hestocles caught the weapon and examined it. "Hmm, fascinating. How exactly does this work?" He looked at Xena with a smile. "No better way to learn than by doing." The weapon shot out of his hand, heading towards Xena, but the warrior dove out of the way. The weapon embedded itself in the stone wall. Xena looked at it with amazement, but immediately focused back on Hestocles. She narrowed her own eyes. This man was going to take some special moves to eliminate.

"Which way?" Jonus called out, a few steps ahead of Gabrielle and Solari holding up the still unconscious Joxer.

The group came to a halt in a T-intersection. Gabrielle looked down the left. "This way."

"No, we came from here." Solari motioned in the opposite direction.

Jonus rolled her eyes. "This isn't the time to forget which way you got here."

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking." Gabrielle furrowed her brow in thought. Right. Left. Left. Right. Right... Xena was always better at direction than me.

"Too late," Jonus breathed. Coming down the hallway to their right was a large contingent of guards.

"Great," Gabrielle muttered. "Come on!" She hauled Joxer's limp form down the left hall.

"I'll hold them off!" Jonus lept forward and brought her bow up in a strike and knocked two men down. She continued to twirl and strike with her bow at the oncoming men. She saw Solari and Gabrielle still standing. "Run! Get Joxer out of here."

"But what..." Solari began.

"RUN!"

Gabrielle tugged on Joxer, forcing Solari to focus on her task. "Don't be forever, Jonus," Solari called over her shoulder.

Don't worry, the deer thought sarcastically as she blocked a blow and countered with her own.

Abruptly, the guards stopped. They stared at eachother, unmoving. Jonus eyed them suspiciously. What in Tartarus was going on?

"You are Jonus?" one guard asked.

Jonus squinted. "Yeah. So?"

The guards muttered among themselves, then took off down the hallway Gabrielle and Solari had taken Joxer.

"No! Wait! Fight me!" Jonus's cries were not heard by the guards who raced past her. She ran after them, protesting and begging them to fight her, but they would not listen. Each rounded a number of turns, going further into the castle, until Jonus abruptly skidded to a halt.

There before her was the throne room. She could see Xena locked in a fight with some warrior/sorceror looking man. Her eyes widened in recognition of the man. She thought he had been a dream, but no. There he was. His eyes glowed and his form was almost a shadow. She gasped and staggered back. The man from the dream was here. She remembered back, then searched frantically around for Joxer. She stealthily moved in and around the scattered guards, hoping beyond hope that Joxer, Gabrielle and Solari had not been captured. She peered around one pillar and finally found them.

Unfortunately, so did Hestocles.

"Xena, warrior princess," Hestocles mewed, "I grow tired of this little game. You know that you cannot possibly defeat me."

"I don't have to," she snarled back. She lunged with her sword again, but was thrown back with a backhand to her face. She fell back, stunned from the hit, but attacked again, this time leaping into the air and attempting an aerial kick. Hestocles once again deflected the attack and Xena landed hard on the stone floor.

"Ah, well, even you're attempt to stall me has failed. Look, Xena woman." He pointed across the room. "Your comrades are here with us now." He clenched his hand into a fist, pulling Gabrielle and Solari in front of him. "You know what I can do to them, don't you? It would be so easy..." He touched Solari's hair, but she pulled away. "But you are not my goal, dear. No, I reserve that for...you!"

With a jerk, Jonus was pulled into the foyer of the room and forced to her knees. Her insides screamed with pain and she knew her ankle cracked in new places. She knelt there, panting. Waiting.

"Jonus. I am ever so glad that you could finally join our little reunion." He shoved Gabrielle and Solari aside and walked over to Jonus. He gripped her arm and hauled her up. "You are going to tell me about this arrow. Now." He dragged her over to the arrow-laiden pillow. "Pick it up," he instructed.

Xena took Hestocles's diversion to begin another attack, but he anticipated the move. All the guards rushed her at once and attacked mercilessly. Gabrielle and Solari fought back with Xena, but they knew they were losing. These guards seemed transfixed and utterly focused on hurting and killing. Nothing seemed to affect them.

"Solari!" Xena yelled. "Get to Jonus. Distract Hestocles."

Solari pulled off a guard and jumped over others to get to Jonus. She nearly got to them when she was lifted into the air and pushed into a wall. She fell, limp.

"Nothing can distract me from my destiny, Xena." Hestocles's eyes glowed once more. He faced Jonus. "Not even you, witch of my dreams."

His dreams!? Jonus blinked in amazement. This had been the terror of her dreams when she had travelled with Joxer to the Amazons and now he's saying that she had been his terror?

"That's correct, Jonus. I envisioned you coming here and destroying my power. That is why I brought you here myself, before you could do anything. Now, pick up the arrow and tell me what it is." His voice was changing into that of an animal roar.

"No."

"What did you say?"

"No. I won't do it." Jonus swallowed hard, but remained steadfast. She was not going to give in to this demon.

Hestocles's eyes became slits with his anger mounting. "ENOUGH!" he bellowed. The room went still, all eyes on the scene playing out before the arrow. He gripped Jonus's arm even tighter and she could feel her bone beginning to bend under the pressure. "Perhaps you need more incentive." He turned her around. Within moments, Joxer's limp body was magically brought before them. "You refuse me, he dies."

Jonus's eyes widened in fear. Joxer was going to die if she didn't tell him what he wanted to know. She looked at Xena. Her face remained impassive. Great help! Gabrielle's eyes only went sad, as though she knew someone was going to die. Jonus looked around and saw Ruth and Solari still unconcious, possibly dead themselves.

Artemis! Please tell me what to do! she begged the goddess. Don't let Joxer die because of me. Tears began to stream down her face.

Hestocles raised an eyebrow. "Ah, so you care for this one, eh? Then your decision should be simple. Tell me."

Jonus lowered her head and closed her eyes. "The arrow...it's..."

"Don't tell him, Jonus!" Gabrielle cried out. "Don't give in to him."

She looked at her queen. "I can't let Joxer die." She faced Hestocles.

"That's not what Joxer would want from you. He would gladly give up his life for you."

Jonus didn't know what to do. She knew Gabrielle was right, but she also knew that she herself was right also. She couldn't, wouldn't, let Joxer die. Then, what was she to do?

Slowly, very slowly, a plan began to form in her mind. She remembered what Artemis had told her about the arrow, what it could do when needed.

"Give me your dagger." She held her hand out.

"What?"

"Your dagger. I need to give you a demonstration of what the arrow can do."

He eyed her with suspicion. Then, carefully and methodically, he drew the dagger hidden in his boot and held it out for Jonus. But he held it tight when she went to grab it. "Any tricks and your friends shall die."

"No tricks." She pulled the dagger away. With surefooted steps, Jonus walked over to Joxer and knelt down. "Joxer, I know you can hear me. Please understand and believe in what I'm going to do. Trust in me." She pushed his hair back and kissed his forehead. "I love you." In one quick motion, she stabbed the dagger through Joxer's heart.

His body convulsed and breathed edged out of him. Moments later, Jonus checked his neck and found no pulse. She placed her head on his chest and heard no heartbeat any longer.

Joxer was dead.

"I've just killed Joxer," she announced, rising.

"What have you done!" Xena screamed. She rushed forward, but Hestocles held her back. Gabrielle only stood dumbfounded and confused, unable to move or speak. Jonus had killed the man she loved! Why? What in the whole of Olympus would make her do that?

"Interesting turn of events, Jonus. You may have potential after all."

Thanks, but no thanks, she thought. She calmly walked past Xena and Gabrielle, unable to look at them. "I need the bow of Hephaestus. This arrow is sacred and no ordinary bow can handle its strength and power."

"Guards! The bow!" A guard obeyed the instruction and handed it to his master. He paused before handing it over. "Tell me first, before I give this to you."

"This arrow is a gift from the great goddess, Artemis." She held the arrow up. "It has a great power. The gift of life, she said."

Hestocles's eyes widened. "Gift of life! Life eternal!" His eyes gazed longingly at the arrow, running up and down the shaft in an almost loving way.

"But," Jonus interrupted the sorceror's attention. "Only I can shoot it. That was part of the deal Artemis gave me. And only with the bow of Hepeastus."

Hestocles quickly handed the bow to Jonus. "Give it to me. Give me the gift of life." He raised his arms, readying himself.

"You need to move back. Stand there." She pointed to a particular spot. He obeyed.

"Jonus! What are you doing? Don't give him this!" Gabrielle begged. She moved forward, but Xena stopped her. The Amazon queen looked at the warrior princess in a state of confusion.

"It's okay. I think I know what Jonus is doing," she whispered. "Just stand back." Slowly both women moved away.

"There. That's good," Jonus said. Hestocles stopped moving and readied himself. "Get ready. This is going to pack a punch." She put in the arrow in the drawstring and pulled it back. She took a deep breathe, blinked, then released the arrow.

It went wide off its target, richocheting off the wall, to a column and to an outcropping of stone. It then went through Joxer and seemed to take an eternity to pass through. After one more hit and turn, it stopped within the form of Hestocles. Everyone watched with baited breathe as the arrow turned and careened around the room, untill finally settling in Hestocles.

"Ahhhh!" he screamed. His body was pushed forward from the impact and he fell to his knees.

The room was silent, all eyes focusing on the fallen Hestocles.

Then, a slight whine was heard, growing with intensity as each moment passed, until finally the sound was unbearable. Everyone still concious covered their ears to block out the painful noise. Hestocles then began to rise. He stretched his arms out, looking at them curiously. His legs were shakey, but they held him up. He scanned the room with glowing blue eyes and began to smile.

"Eternal life!" he roared, not knowing how to control his immortal voice just yet. He took a tentative step, then another and another. He finally walked around the room, ignoring everyone in it, focusing entirely on his own transformation from mere sorceror to god.

"You have what you wanted, now let us go," Jonus commanded. Her bow hung low at her side as she watched the man circle around.

"Oh, no, my dear! This little secret can never escape this..." he stopped in mid-sentence, a powerful force overcoming him and doubling him over. He looked up with scared eyes. "What's happening to me?"

Jonus raised an eyebrow. "I told you what the arrow was."

Hestocles grimaced with pain. "Said...eternal life..." he gasped out.

The deer walked over to him. "No. I said it was the arrow of life."

Understanding was quick to come to him. "You!" he bellowed, ignoring his own pain. "You lied to me!"

"I did no such thing. You took from my statement what you wanted. Enjoy your life." She looked down at the form before her, then turned to Solari and Ruth still limp on the floor.

"I don't understand," Gabrielle whispered. "What's wrong with him?"

Xena watched Jonus move towards her Amazon sisters, then flashed to Joxer and noticed some movement from him. "That's it!" She looked at her friend. "Hestocles wasn't dead. You can't use the arrow on someone who's alive. C'mon." She pulled her friend to Joxer, who was now starting to wake up. "Joxer?" Xena said gently. "Can you hear me?"

"Uhhhh," he mumbled, trying to sit himself up. "What happened?"

"You died," Gabrielle said simply. She pulled his vest away to reveal the healing scar in his chest. He looked down, then back at his friends with wide eyes. "Jonus did this, didn't she?"

Xena nodded. "She had to, to give you back your life." Joxer's face betrayed his confusion. "I'll explain it later. Meantime, we've gotta get you to safety, and the others."

Xena and Gabrielle were helping Joxer up. Jonus was assisting the now awake Ruth and was trying to wake Solari. No one noticed Hestocles finally right himself.

Joxer, Xena and Gabrielle were now standing and making their way to Jonus and the others when the shaking began. Everyone stopped and looked in terror as the columns and walls began to crumble. Xena turned to Hestocles, fear in her eyes.

"Jonus!" he screamed. "You did this to me. Now pay the price." He stretched out an arm, pointed it at Jonus and before anyone could react, hit her with the last bit of energy in his form. He smiled as he fell to the ground.

The blue-white lightning lit the room with such intensity that everyone had to shield their eyes. When it was over, there was silence in the room. All anyone could see was the form of Jonus lying at an awkward angle on the floor.

Go to chapter six.

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