Their camp spot was protected by large boulders nestled near a tumbling stream. Xena had allowed a small fire and their meal was consumed in silence. The body of the Hun lay nearby as a constant reminder of the day’s ordeal. Xena had not wanted to bury the guard as she planned on delivering him to the Huns the following morning.

The warrior took out her sharpening stone and began to work on her sword with smooth even stokes. She glanced over at Gabrielle and found the young woman quietly contemplating the fire in front of her. The silence between them was dragging at her soul and this was not good for the bard. She knew her Gabrielle. She had to talk through her feelings or they swirled inside her, eating at her positive outlook and sunny disposition. Xena also sensed a hopelessness in her friend, something that was not the normal Gabrielle approach to life.

"Come over here." As Xena uttered these words she put aside her sword and held out her hand to the bard. Gabrielle drew her eyes from the fire. After a moment, she rose and slipped to Xena’s side. She was quite surprised when the normally stoic warrior pulled her down next to her and drew her close. "It’s been a pretty rough day."

Gabrielle’s eyes widened a moment and she shook her head. "Xena, you are a master of understatement."

As sea green eyes met crystal blue, the warrior chuckled. The tension was broken at last. "You know any foe can be beaten, even the Huns. Even me."

Gabrielle continued to search her friend’s face. The calm confidence of the warrior was beginning to have a positive effect on her mood. "So just how do you intend to do that, princess?"

Xena smiled at her friend’s comment as she squeezed the shoulder of the bard. She sensed that Gabrielle needed close physical contact with her soul mate just as much as she needed to work through her emotions. "Any foe, no matter how strong can be defeated in two ways. You can use their weakness or you can use their strength against them."

"Finding a weakness, I get that. You used the soft spot between the eyes of the giants we faced. What is the Hun’s weakness?" Gabrielle was now fully into the discussion. Xena smiled at the bard’s enthusiasm.

"The Huns do not speak our language nor are they familiar with the people they will have to fight. They also don’t know the lay of the land. We can use their ignorance against them. That is a weakness."

"I can see where that might be useful. What about you? What is your weakness?"

Xena looked long at the face of the bard with gentle eyes filled with love. Finally Gabrielle dropped her gaze and lowered her head. "Oh, I get it."

The warrior gently raised her bard’s chin so that green eyes met blue. "Gabrielle, I wouldn’t have it any other way."

Gabrielle smiled her agreement. "So what about this strength thing? How do you use a foe’s strength against them?"

"Well, since we’re on giants, I defeated Gareth by using his height and speed against him. That’s what got the flying parchment into the sky and directed Zeus’s thunderbolt to kill him."

"I see that, what about the Huns?"

The warrior thought a minute. "The Huns charge on horseback. It’s how they attack and feel comfortable fighting. It could be used against them if we could get them to ride into some sort of trap."

Gabrielle looked up at her friend with shinning eyes. "Is that possible?"

"I’m not sure. We’ll need to see where they are camped tomorrow and how many Huns are there."

Gabrielle now had the look of devilment on her face and she again questioned the warrior. "What about you? How could your strength be used against you?"

Xena let her lopsided grin turn the corners of her mouth. "Well, first Gabrielle, if you were trying to kill me, I would strongly suggest you do not fight me in close with sword or staff. You are very good but I still would have the advantage. You should stay at a distance, perhaps unleash a hail of arrows that I was too arrogant to heed. I couldn’t catch them all."

Gabrielle’s face lost the fun loving expression and her eyes grew serious. "I don’t want to talk about this anymore." A cold chill, almost a premonition shook her frame.

Xena saw the change but pressed on gently. "Gabrielle, we are going into the fight of our lives. You must keep the greater good in mind. Promise me that you will put that over my life or our love for each other. It may come to that and if it does, you’ll have to be strong. Never ever lose focus. Remember, we are fighting for our families and civilization as we know it. The Huns will destroy everything and everyone. We must be willing to do anything, to sacrifice everything in order to stop them. Now promise me."

The bard looked deeply into her friend’s eyes and listened to the intensity in the warrior’s voice. She nodded slowly. "I promise. Xena, you have to make the same promise as well."

Xena looked into her bard’s face and wondered if she could keep such a promise. Finally she nodded, knowing that surviving beyond the death of Gabrielle would be impossible for her. "I promise."

The warrior continued to hold the bard closely as they both starred into the fire. The meaning of their promises sank into both their hearts. Gabrielle turned and reach for Xena’s hand. "I have something I must ask you."

She felt the warrior stiffen and then turn back to her. "I know. I’ve been waiting."

"How do you know so much about the Huns? How did you learn their language?"

The warrior looked into her best friend’s face. Would she see the revulsion and disgust she had always feared? Could she bear it? She had learned to love this woman with all her being. Now she had to trust her as well. She had given her heart and now it was time to risk her soul to another. Gabrielle’s rejection at this moment could plunge the warrior back into the darkness always hovering nearby that threatened her.

"I rode with the Huns and led part of their army for over a year."

Gabrielle sensed that her reaction to this disclosure was critical to the warrior at her side. She steeled herself and never flinched from the crystal blue eyes before her. Her own eyes were filled with love and devotion to this woman who meant everything to her.

"Tell me if you want. I have told you time and again that your past is gone. Only the here and now matter to me. You matter to me."

The warrior let out a ragged breath and pressed her forehead against the bard’s. "I don’t deserve you, Gabrielle."

Similar thoughts crossed the minds of the bard and the warrior. Gabrielle was always amazed at the contrast between the woman she knew today and the war lord of the past. She never could understand how a heart so pure and loving have allowed such evil deeds to be done by her own hand. Xena asked herself the same questions over and over again. How could I have inflicted the pain and horror I did on so many and will I give into the dark passion and do it again?

Xena looked searchingly at her friend’s face but saw only love and concern for her in her eyes. With a sigh, she began her tale. Gabrielle knew how difficult it was for the warrior to speak of her former life but she had to admit Xena was getting better at disclosure. The bard was sure that the more the warrior shared and faced her past, the closer she was to healing and to forgiving herself. Maybe then the nightmares would end and the tormented warrior would find peace at last.

"After my battle with the Centaurs, they had lost over half their troops but my army was decimated as well. I decided not to build up a new force but pick twenty of my best fighters and raid the countryside. I figured that a small group of raiders was easier to feed and control then a large army. Frankly, I could do more damage that way. A black cloud had engulfed me and I wasn’t happy or content unless I was causing death. I enjoyed the killing and felt at rest only when blood flowed. I was incredibly restless and ranged farther and farther north."

"This was after you gave up your son," Gabrielle noted.

Xena nodded and continued her narrative. "We headed north and then finally east across a wide plain and desert. I didn’t care much where we went, as long as we could find villages to raid. We kept moving. We crossed a very high mountain pass and found a wide grass land below. As we rode down into the valley, we saw a small cluster of tents and huts being raided by a mounted war party. The villagers were holding their own and the small group of raiders were being beaten back. Naturally, we rode in on the side of the raiders and killed the villagers. All of them." Xena’s face grew bitter with a cynical self-hatred.

She felt Gabrielle’s hand tighten its grip on her own. She let out a deep breath and continued. "The raiders welcomed our help and shared the spoils with us. They motioned us to follow and led us to their camp, quite a distance away. There we met the Hun leader and his followers. You see the Huns live in family clans, grazing their sheep and horses. They live off the land and plunder villages to fill their needs."

"Every once in awhile a great leader will come along, win all the events of the csata and unite the clans into a fighting army. Then they will go raiding and destroy all that is in their path. This had just happened when we arrived and Emre the vez`er had amassed quite a force. We joined up immediately. They accepted us into their clan after I persuaded a few doubters."

Gabrielle looked at her friend and rolled her eyes. Xena grinned crookedly.

"I was really at home with the Huns and soon learned their language and customs. It just felt natural, almost as if I had always been a Hun myself. We practiced warrior skills every day and I grew stronger, faster, better than ever before. Finally, I challenged one of the group leaders under Emre and won. Now I was leading a large group of Huns myself. I don’t think I ever felt better or more alive. My men fit right into the Hun way of life and soon married into the clan."

Gabrielle was now totally caught up into the story and as Xena paused she asked, "Did you fall for Emre?"

"No, he had a wife. But we did become friends and I respected his courage and capabilities. I followed him as my commander. Probably the only time in my life when I was content not to lead myself. I never challenged him for leadership of the clan. When we parted, I rode alone back towards Greece. However, I warned him never to come to my homeland or I’d kill him. He laughed but agreed."

"So if you felt so good being with the Huns, why did you leave them?"

Xena turned her face from the fire to look into her friend’s eyes and then dropped her gaze. "One day we hit a small village in the eastern mountain foothills. It was a quiet place, pretty with nothing much unusual about it. But my men were feeling really good and aggressive, just as I liked. We swarmed into town without warning and murdered everyone in the village; men…women….and even children. As I saw the Huns finish off the wounded, I just knew I had to leave."

"Did you….?" Gabrielle asked hesitantly.

Xena jerked her head up and her cold icy stare stopped Gabrielle’s question. "What do you think? The great warrior princess has always claimed she never harmed woman or children except perhaps for a little mistake in Cirra." Xena spat the words out with contempt in her harsh voice.

Gabrielle’s green eyes flamed and she grabbed the shoulders of her soul mate. "I know what’s in your heart, in your soul. The Xena I know would never harm innocent people. Don’t do this to yourself. The past is dead."

Gabrielle embraced the warrior in a tight hug. She felt her heart skip when the warrior after a pause returned the pressure of the embrace and took a raspy breath. "You don’t really know me, Gabrielle. You don’t understand what I am truly capable of," she whispered into the soft hair next to her lips. "By the gods, I pray you never find out. The day may come when you will have to protect the world from the dark side of my soul."

"You will never allow that to happen," Gabrielle replied with a ring in her voice.

Xena pressed her forehead against Gabrielle’s and tried to smile. "I wish I had your confidence."

"Then I have enough for the both of us. Let’s turn in."

With that comment made, the bard pulled the warrior down towards the blankets. She always knew when her warrior was at her emotional limit. They curled up together, sharing each other’s warmth. Sleep did not come easily to either of them and both saw the gray of dawn through the trees.