She and Gabrielle had had several long and serious discussions about what they would face upon their return to Amazon jurisdiction. The bard had been certain that her position within the Nation would ensure the Warrior Princess went unharmed, "After all," she reminded her best friend while Patroclese had been washing up in a creek at one of their night camps, "it's not as if you did any real damage."

Xena quirked her a mirthless smile as she responded sarcastically, "Oh no .. no real damage. Just broke the Regent's arm, battered her a bit, kidnapped the Queen by dragging her out of the village with the full intention of killing her."

"Stop that," rebuked Gabrielle firmly, giving her friend a concerned look, knowing that she didn't really remember any of it and was just quoting from what the bard had told her about the incident. "Ephiny's a friend, Xena, she owes you far more than could be destroyed by a broken arm .. as for me, well I'm still here and very much alive. If you'd really wanted me dead, I'd be dead."

The bard watched closely as the blue eyes jerked away from hers and Xena concentrated on prodding a stubborn cook fire into life. Moving over to the raven haired woman's side, she hunkered down next to her, laying a gentle hand on her friend's arm, "Xena, you weren't yourself ... the grief, the anger, all of it ... in your right mind you would never have done what you did."

"Gabrielle ... I ... I'm so very sorry," the warrior whispered as she tried desperately to remember what had happened within the Amazon stronghold. Her mind tried to picture the scene as the bard had painted it, but her memories refused to focus and images slid into a nothingness that left her feeling frustrated and deeply ashamed for what she had nearly done to her one true friend.

Slipping her arm around the other woman's shoulders, Gabrielle hugged the tormented warrior and whispered softly, "It's alright, Xena. It's over .. past. We'll find the way to make the Amazon's get over it too."

Allowing herself to be comforted, Xena still couldn't shake the feeling that the Amazon Nation would be far less likely to forgive and forget than the young Queen who had chosen to remain at her side after all she had done to her. It was something that remained foremost in her mind as they pushed steadily towards Nation territory. But however the Amazons might feel about the Warrior Princess, they would welcome their queen back with open arms, - And right now, she needs to be somewhere that's safe from Caesar, - her practical mind argued. - I'll worry about me when I know she's safe! -

As they probed deeper into the forest, Xena's highly tuned senses soon registered the fact that they were no longer alone. However, if she'd been asked how she knew, or how she knew that the watchers were Amazons, she wouldn't have been able to find the right words to explain. A feeling, a sound, a movement, all were part of a whole, along with a myriad of other minor things that came together to give her an answer. Now she knew that they were in the midst of a screen of Amazon warriors.

"Alright," she said coming to a standstill in a small clearing, "Throw down your weapons and raise your arms in the signal I showed you."

Gabrielle grinned at her partner patiently. She knew the ritual, having performed it before, but went along with it anyway for Patroclese's sake, who this was all new to. She threw down her staff and clasped her hands together over her head in the Amazon sign for peace at about the same time the others did.

As the weapons hit the ground, the Amazon's appeared, almost like magic, from their vantage points in the trees that had camouflaged their presence. Patroclese's eyes nearly popped out of his head at the suddenness of their arrival, and then they goggled at the women who surrounded them in their full exotic splendour.

"Hi Solari," greeted the bard happily, recognising the distinctive mask of the head of the Royal Amazon Guards, "how are things going?"

"Gabrielle," greeted the Amazon, the tone warm for her. Then she and the other Amazons levelled their weapons in the Warrior Princess's direction. "Xena," she said grimly, "You should know better than to return here!"

Xena studied the Amazons recognizing latent hostility in their attitudes, "Solari." she greeted coldly with an icy stare, "I'm just escorting Gabrielle to Ephiny. I won't be staying. I have to be somewhere else."

None of the Amazons relaxed and Solari's tone was anything but friendly as she replied,"We'll see. There's a lot of hard feeling against you amongst the sisters at present," she stated stonily, "We'll see what Ephiny and the elders have to say."

Gabrielle began to feel worried for the first time. The atmosphere generated by the Amazons was cold and distinctly unfriendly. They looked tense and ready to spring at Xena at the first wrong movement, "Solari ?" she asked in concern, "What's going on?"

The stolidly, dour, Amazon, glanced in the bards direction, softening her tone slightly as she answered, "Amazons died when she raided the village to get to you. Many of the sisters want justice." She took a deep breath, before continuing, "Therefore in the name of the Amazon Council, I arrest you, Xena of Amphipolis, on charges which include treason and murder."

Gabrielle was stunned. She knew that Solari stood close to Ephiny, was in fact the Queen Regent's head of the Royal Guard, and for all her distinctly aggressive posture, her tone and demeanor were not greatly different from normal, but the attitude of most of the other dozen Amazons was definitely antagonistic. Quietly, the bard said to her, "Is this a call for justice ... or vengeance, Solari?"

Ignoring the comment, Solari eyed Xena warily, "Are you coming along peacefully, or must we fight?" Her question was emphasized by four of the Amazon's drawing bows with the arrows aimed at the Warrior Princess.

Xena looked long and hard at the Amazon before answering, "I'm not here for trouble," she told her with chilling coolness, "So we'll keep this peaceable ... for now."

"Lay down all your weapons, Xena, and take off your armour as well," the Amazon warrior ordered coldly.

"Solari ... "Gabrielle started to intervene, worried about how Xena would react, anxious about just how bad the situation with the Amazons really was.

Her eyes never leaving the Amazon leader's, the Warrior Princess interrupted her friend with the quiet words, "It's alright, Gabrielle. We'll do it Solari's way for now."

The bard watched in uncomfortable silence as she saw Xena arch an Eyebrow and gain Solari's tacit nod of approval as she slowly reached to remove her armour, bracers and greaves, tossing them down in a pile in front of her. Moving carefully, she divested herself of the breast dagger and the two boot daggers she carried, before unhooking the chakram from her waist and handing it over to a reluctant Gabrielle, "Keep it safe for me," she said with a crooked smile.

One of the scouts stepped in and expertly looped some heavy ropes around Xena's wrists, binding her with professional expertise. The Warrior Princess stood motionless for the indignity, accepting that now was not the time to start a fight. She needed to ensure her bard's safety before her own.

Gabrielle, however, was far from silent. "Solari!" she exclaimed, "What do you think you're doing? There's no need to tie her up, she's surrendered her weapons."

"I'm sorry, Gabrielle. But she has to face charges and I can't take any chances .. I have too much respect for her fighting skills to do that." came the flat reply.

As the bard spluttered in indignant disbelief, Patroclese held the reigns of the horses and looked on. He felt totally out of his depth and very uneasy in presence of such hostility where he had expected a different kind of reception. He wondered what he should do, but as the Amazons formed up around the trio any decisions were taken out of his hands, "Me and my wanderlust," he muttered morosely, "I could have been safe and comfortable in some tavern by now."

Gabrielle tried to banish her look of concern over the situation and reassure the healer, "Don't worry," she told him encouragingly, "We'll clear all this up when we see Ephiny." - I hope - she added silently as she took note that all but three of the Amazons were tightly clustered around Xena.

The armour and weapons were quickly gathered and packed to be carried by Argo, with one of the guards taking the reigns from Patroclese and leading the two horses down the barely defined trail. Everyone else in the party followed on, Gabrielle and Patroclese behind the horses, Solari and the bulk of the guards next, arranged around Xena, with two flanking scouts out.

"Who is this Ephiny?" asked the healer intrigued about the name he'd heard mentioned several times.

"She's the Queen Regent of the Amazon's. Kind of the deputy for the real Queen," explained the bard with a half smile, "and a friend."

"That's good, agreed Patroclese edgily, "But wouldn't it be better to have the real Queen on our side too?" he asked, throwing a look back at Xena and the Amazon Warriors who were regarding their prisoner rather like they would a deadly snake.

Gabrielle's smile broadened, "Well, she is as well," she told him.

Patroclese looked at her with frank disbelief, "Oh yeah," he said with a touch of sarcasm in his tone, "Well then, who is she, and why doesn't anyone talk about her?"

The bard looked at him in slight confusion, "I thought you'd heard Xena say," she replied, although when she noted the blank look on his face, her glance became sly and she told him, "Actually, I'm the Amazon Queen."

Patroclese stumbled in mid step and would have fallen if Gabrielle hadn't moved quickly to support him, "You're kidding!" he blurted out.

"Actually she isn't," the dark warrior voice rumbled from behind them, looking to move forward when she saw the healer stumble.

The Amazons had tensed at the sudden movement of their prisoner, hands gripping weapons tightly in the expectation of use, and only relaxed when Xena realised how nervous she was making her guards and dropped back into the dense pocket they had formed around her with a mocking arch of a darkly sardonic brow.

"What's with all the hostility, then?" he demanded, grappling with an awful lot of suddenly new ideas.

"Long story," Xena answered him from behind, ignoring the edginess that the Amazons continued to display.

Patroclese fell in beside Gabrielle again and demanded to know, "What have they got against Xena?"

The bard sighed. It was not really a story that she wanted to go into with such a new acquaintance, but she could sense the healer's concern and understood his need to know, "Not so long ago," she began, " Xena and I had serious falling out." she grimaced at the inadequacy of the words to describe the hatred and torment that had welled up between the two of them, "It was pretty bad," she added, putting a lot of emphasis on the 'bad'. "Both of us ended up hating each other - or so we thought at the time. Anyway, I went to stay with my Amazon sisters, while Xena went somewhere to get through what she felt." Gabrielle collected her thoughts and continued with her narration, aware that most of the Amazons were listening as well, "Well, eventually, Xena decided that she'd feel much better if I was dead, so she rode into the Amazon's village and abducted me, intending to kill me."

"What? She rode into a whole Amazon village on her own and just took you away?" asked the healer incredulously as he stole a look at the Warrior Princess who sauntered along stoicly behind them.

"Yeah." agreed Gabrielle," That's what this problem is about. Xena wasn't exactly in full control of herself at the time, and several of the Amazon's got hurt, but neither of us realized that any had died." she explained.

"Hey," said Patroclese suddenly, grabbing the bards arm, "How come you're still alive, then?" He thought about it for the barest second before clarifying what he meant, "I've seen her fight and if she wanted you dead, you'd be dead."

"Yeah," agreed Gabrielle with heartfelt understanding, as she pulled her arm free, "Well I guess I was lucky, because even though we were both hurting, the love in our friendship was enough to break through all the pain, anguish and hate that we'd managed to build up," her eyes were a little misty as she remembered. "Yeah... I guess I was real lucky." The bard looked over her shoulder and smiled a sad, pain tinged smile at Xena, who returned the look with a faint, tender, smile of encouragement that Gabrielle had grown to recognize and treasure.

They spent the rest of the day toiling through the dense woodlands that protected much of the Amazon Nation's lands. No one spoke much, not even Gabrielle. She was busy trying to work out ways to defuse the situation once they reached Themiscyra, while Xena wasn't known for her verbose conversation and with the Amazon's edgily watching the dark warrior's every move, Patroclese had no one else to talk to.

Evening came and a camp was made. They were still a good half day's journey from the Amazon capital and Solari saw no sense in travelling through the night. Xena was detached and, worryingly, more silent than was usually normal for her, even when Gabrielle sat beside her in open support of her friend. Yet the bard sensed that her partner was grateful for the company and the Amazons looked on, knowing that there was no longer a rift between the Warrior Princess and their Queen.

Patroclese had gotten over his nervousness about the Amazons and was in a deep conversation with a young girl that Gabrielle seemed to remember was called Alexa. The pair were soon lost in trading stories and soft laughter. The rest of the Amazon's didn't make a major show of it, but they were obviously keeping a careful watch on Xena, even though the Warrior Princess had done nothing but comply with them.

Gabrielle watched as Xena twisted her wrists within her bonds to keep the blood circulating. The warrior was staring into the fire and seemed far away from the reality of the campsite. "Hey," said the bard softly, "You okay?"

Xena seemed to return from some distant place before nodding and answering, with "Stiff shoulder," which both of them knew was an evasion of the question.

"Here, let me take a look at it," offered the bard, just wanting the warrior to know she was there for her.

Physically relaxing under Gabrielle's gentle ministrations, Xena switched back her finely honed senses to the area around them. She was aware of the movement of the wild creatures that ran almost silently in brush and through the tree canopy, all normal sounds for where they were. She had remained alert all day, more worried about the slower pace that the larger group travelled at, than her current uncertain situation. She wasn't sure how close the pursuit was, but she hoped being within Amazon territory would discourage the bounty hunters from continuing after them.

For a long period, she had heard nothing out of the ordinary. They had eaten their evening meal and settled down for an uneasy rest for the night. Gabrielle had remained at her side and she had spoken of inconsequential things, her concern at the current situation showing in her incessant talking. Xena didn't mind, in a strange way it was soothing. She almost laughed, - There was a time when her ceaseless chattering nearly drove me insane .. now I find it comforting. - She shook her head wryly at the thought.

Stiffening, her eyes suddenly narrowed as she picked up the sound of someone, or something, moving closer towards the camp - Several someones! - she decided. She concentrated, fining down her senses, narrowing onto the area of concern and blotting out everything that was not relevant to the situation. She was only vaguely aware of the salve that the bard had been rubbing into the almost healed wound, but she responded with a quiet, Thanks," as the blonde replaced the dressing.

"Have we got problems?" asked Gabrielle, recognising the tell tale signs in her friend's attitude.

"Yeah," breathed Xena, as she got slowly to her feet, "Get your staff, and try to keep out of serious trouble ... don't get caught this time, huh?"

"Who me?" whispered the bard incredulously, giving Xena her most wide eyed innocent look.

"Yeah, yeah," muttered the Warrior Princess as she moved towards the fire to add some more wood to the flames, making the embers leap into renewed life and add some light to the clearing. Circling around the camp fire, she hunkered down next to Solari and told her quietly, "We've got visitors out there. They could be after Gabrielle, so keep an eye on her."

Solari looked at her with stoney implacability, acknowledging Xena with a bear movement of her head. She gave a signal that sent two of her scouts into the woods, the Amazons stealthily slipping between the trees like silent shadows.

"Any chance that you'll cut me lose and give me my weapons?" asked the Warrior Princess neutrally.

Solari gave her an unreadable look before replying, "Can we Amazons trust you, Xena?" she replied flatly, "How do I know that this isn't a trick of yours?"

"Forget it." Xena told her, disgust evident in her voice, "Just keep Gabrielle safe," she instructed in a tone like chiselled granite.

She was on edge. She could feel the presence of the intruders, and she knew that the Amazon's were far more concerned with keeping an eye on her, than in getting ready for an attack so deep into their territory. Xena flexed the muscles in her wrists, straining against the ropes, but knowing that they had been tied all too well. it was going to make the coming fight ... interesting, to say the least.

Ghostlike, one of Solari's scouts returned bringing the news of an imminent attack, but before any of the Amazons could consider cutting the Warrior Princess loose, or even decide whether it would be safe to do so, the undergrowth around the clearing erupted and spewed forth dozens of warriors, yelling war cries and brandishing weapons.

Caught at a disadvantage, the Amazons followed Solari's shouted order, "Protect Queen Gabrielle," leaving Xena outside the protective ring of their weapons and disadvantaged by her tied hands.

A warrior rushed towards her his sword held high. Xena ducked beneath his wild slash, and rolled away from him as he swung down at her, only to have his feet kicked out from under him as he did so. Xena sprang athletically to her feet, meeting another man with a double handed punch to the gut and a two fisted uppercut to the jaw that threw him backwards and his sword up in the air to land safely into her waiting hands. With no time to cut herself free, the Warrior Princess turned to face the charging mass, weaving a deadly arc with the blade to keep the warriors back.

The Amazons held a tight cordon around Gabrielle and Patroclese, with the pair mopping up any attackers that got past the Amazon defenders. Many of the sisters had taken wounds as they dealt back death to the warriors who were pressing to reach the bard, but so far none of the women had fallen.

Xena was beating back four warriors, when her sword was clubbed from her hands, leaving her weaponless, once more, in the face of the enemy. She swiftly remedied this with a slugging backhand blow to the nearest warrior, sending him sprawling into his comrades and taking them down into a confused bundle on the ground. As another man ran towards her with an upraised sword, Xena neatly sidestepped and grabbed his passing arm, slamming it down across her knee in two heavy blows that snapped the bone and sent the sword flying. A quick forward roll gave her the opportunity to grab the fallen blade from the ground and, on the upward roll, the momentum to execute a thrust under the ribs of a warrior just about to spit Solari.

Booting the warrior's body off of her weapon, Xena spun with a whipping high kick that struck an attacker across the side of his head and somersaulted him out of the action. Yelling out her ululating battlecry, Xena backflipped over the heads of those converging upon her and landed beside a newly fallen Amazon just in time to deflect the killing blow the soldier swung. A reverse thrust of her sword took out the warrior attempting to sneak up behind her, but as he fell the sword was twisted from her grip.

Swaying to one side, Xena avoided a sword thrust, grabbed the extended arm, spun under it and used the created torque to flip him out of her way into three rushing warriors. The move, however, left her open to attack from her flanks and three warriors leapt at her clubbing her down with fists. They all went down in a heap, but one man was ejected from the brawl with a double footed thrust that sent him skywards to land some distance away. As the two remaining warriors tried to haul the Warrior Princess to her feet, she pushed off hard from the ground, flipping over to break their grip on her and head butted one before back handing another.

A quick look assured her that Gabrielle was fine and in no danger, although the Amazons had lost two sisters, and a couple more looked badly hurt. A glance up, however, told her that the attacking warriors had had enough and were dragging their own wounded and dead back into the forest where they had come from.

Xena scanned the area with a professional eye to make sure that all sources of danger were gone and, only when she was satisfied on that point, did she start to make the rounds to check what needed to be done for the injured. Gabrielle and Patroclese were already moving amongst the Amazons doing what they could to patch them up.

Xena moved to the fallen girl, Alexa, who lay unmoving. Hampered by the ropes around her wrists, she had difficulty examining her. Noticing an abandoned dagger to her side, she started to reach for it, intending to cut herself loose, only to feel the cold steel of a sword blade against her neck. A glance over her shoulder revealed one of Solari's warrior's standing guard over her. Xena shook her head slightly in angry disbelief, before pushing the weapon aside and continuing her examination of Alexa. The girl had a variety of small wounds, none of them serious, except for the sword thrust through her side, "Patroclese," she called, "You better come here. She needs to have this wound cleaned and stitched before she loses much more blood or we'll lose her," she told him.

She looked up into Solari's eyes. The Amazon remained as dour as ever, but she grated out a, "Thanks," before turning back to check on the rest of her sisters.

Xena stood wearily and shook her head. She doubted that the warriors would be back for more, they'd taken quite a beating when they had probably felt they were going to get an easy victory. However, the rest of the night wouldn't be a comfortable one, with very few of them getting any sleep. But they stayed because the injured needed to rest and the group, as a whole, would be better off moving through the forest in daylight, rather than darkness.

Looking down at her wrists, Xena sighed. She'd be damned before she asked Solari to release her again, her pride wouldn't allow it. She hoped that she hadn't made a mistake in bringing Gabrielle to the Amazons, but in truth, the sisters were still the only people that she felt the bard would be safe with. Glancing at the alert Amazon guard behind her, Xena made her way over to where Gabrielle had laid out their sleeping furs and settled down, moodily, to get what rest she could.