Glumly avoiding eye contact with the four men who sat close to her, their hands still bound and all of them watched by alert guards, the bard sent out a silent message to her friend:

"Hey! Gabrielle," said Iolaus softly, nudging her with his shoulder, "C'mon. Don't give up on us yet. We can get out of this, right?"

The bard shook her head, but looked up into his concerned face, and glanced around at her other companions, "I feel so helpless," she admitted with a miserable sigh. "After everything. All the effort ... everything. I'm back where I started, and all I've done is get you all into this fix as well."

"Sheesh, Gabrielle!" broke in Autolycus, "Why should you get all the credit for this? You did everything you could. It's not your fault that the odds were stacked against us."

"That's right, Gabby," chimed in Joxer, "Don't blame yourself. It's not your fault."

She looked at the silent Toris, who focused on her with those so very blue eyes that were almost a match for his sister's, "No blame from me," he told her, "I would have come anyway, for Xena ... and for you."

She sucked in a deep breath and tried to force a halfhearted smile, which was pretty much a failure as she replied, "Thanks guys. You're all very sweet, but ...."

"No but's, Gabrielle," broke in Iolaus, "The games not over yet. Who knows, Herc might turn up to bust us loose yet."

Her attempt at a smile was a little better this time, "Okay, you win. But you might have to remind me sometimes. It just seems that very little has gone right for me recently. I think I must have some kind of curse on me."

"Nah!" shrugged the small blonde man, "It's just a phase. Happens to us all." He looked closely at the bard, knowing that she needed something to cheer her up, "Ah Gabrielle," he offered, "Did I ever tell you about the time just after Herc was turned into a pig, what Ares did to me and Autolycus for interfering with his plans?" He saw the spark of interest in her eyes and knew that she couldn't resist a new story.

"You promised you'd never tell anyone about that," groaned the thief knowing he was about to be embarrassed.

"It's in a good cause," Iolaus growled at him, "and I suffered too, you know."

"Come on Iolaus, spill it," ordered Gabrielle, the bard in her unable to resist a story and was grateful for the distraction that her friend was trying to offer.

Grinning, the blonde man began his tale, "It all started when a certain thief went and stole Artemis's bow, and then sold it to Discord. You know all about her turning Herc into a porker, I told you that last time we got together. Well after we got Herc turned back to normal, I kinda used the bow to turn Discord into a chicken."

"Oh, I like it?" grinned the bard, "I bet she was spitting feathers?"

"Well she wasn't crowing about it," put in Autolycus, "And Ares was more than a little bit miffed about the whole thing as well. Nearly laid an egg as I recall," he joked, getting groans from the others.

"Anyway, " continued Iolaus, "Ares decided that me and the thief were due for some 'serious' behavioural correction, so he chained us together with some shackles made by Hephestus ..."

"Yeah, and the miserable son of Zeus made certain that there weren't any locks to pick, either," grumbled Autolycus.

"But that wasn't the worst of it," came back the smaller man, "He also did something so that we could talk normally to each other, but all anyone else heard was some vicious snarling and growling ... pretty much how Autolycus normally sounds really," he added as an after-thought.

"You know, shorty, that smart mouth of yours is really gonna get you in trouble one of these days!" growled the thief.

"See what I mean," grinned Iolaus, getting a smile in return from the bard. "Anyway, did I tell you that Ares also left us in the middle of nowhere wearing nothing but a smile ... or a scowl in his case."

"That does it, blondie. When I get my hands loose I'm gonna ...."

"Yeah!" challenged Iolaus, "You're gonna what?"

"Hey guys," broke in Joxer, "just finish the story. It makes a change for someone else to have all the trouble."

"Break it up you lot," broke in the stern voice of one of the guards, "Just settle down and get on with the story, like he said." he emphasised pointing to where Joxer sat.

Autolycus rolled his eyes in resignation and listened as Iolaus continued with the tale, explaining how they'd managed to improvise clothes from stolen sacking, but then had been fighting each other so much that they'd fallen into a bog and got plastered in thick, evil smelling mud and were hunted by villagers, thinking that they were some kind of swamp monster.

"Then mastermind went and ate a gussenberry and passed out cold on me, so I had to lug his carcass along. Unfortunately, while I was crossing a rope bridge, I muttered something about wishing I had some boots. Well Ares was watching and, being Ares he thought it would be a great joke to let me have them along with size twenty feet. Autolycus ended up with the same treatment and we both had our features slightly re-arranged," he told them, pleased to see Gabrielle rolling with laughter, even if it was highly embarrassing for both him and Autolycus.

Next had come his explanation of winding up in a freak show cum Circus and that was where Hercules had found them, "Once Herc broke those chains that Hephestus had made, all the of Ares tricks collapsed. But things weren't quite finished. Ares enlarged Discord in her Chicken form and she came after us, and anyone else who got in her way."

"Let me tell you, that was one big chicken," put in Autolycus.

"Well, me and my 'partner' there, we cooked up a scheme using Gussenberries to knock the stuffing out of ol' Discord, and because Ares hadn't laughed so much in eons, he kind of let us off the hook."

Tears streaming down her face with mirth as she imagined just what had happened, Gabrielle finally managed to ask, "Why didn't you tell me all this before? And what happened to Hercules?"

"Ah, well. The reason I didn't tell you about this Fowl," he winced at the groans from everyone in the tent including the guards, "story was because I promised twinkle toes, over there, that I'd never tell anyone the gory details, but you needed cheering up, so... and as for Herc. Well once he set us free, he had to take Katherine, the pig, back to her home, so he missed all the fun."

"Thank you, Iolaus," smiled the bard. "I think I needed something to remind me that things could be worse."

Feeling better, simply for knowing that she had friends with her, Gabrielle settled down to get some sleep and was soon joined by the others. None of them were particularly comfortable, but they were all exhausted, so the day slipped by without them really being aware of it.

Gabrielle thought that it was less than a candlemark until dusk, as close as she could judge it, when Martinus entered the tent and ordered them to their feet, "We're leaving for Rome, now," he informed the guards. "Get them up and outside. I want to be ready to move within a quarter of a candlemark."

Standing next to Toris, the bard leaned over and whispered to him, "Something's not right here. I thought we were being held awaiting the arrival of Brutus before we were taken on to Rome, but we haven't heard his arrival, so it seems as if our captors were just waiting for nightfall before moving us."

"What do you think's going on?" Toris asked softly.

Gabrielle looked around trying to spot anything that might give her a clue as to where the loyalty of these soldiers lay. She remembered all of Xena's lectures about looking for colours, banners and badges, but she really didn't know enough about the Roman system to be able to make out anything of use, "I'd say that someone else has gotten interested in what Brutus is doing."

"The Senate?" suggested Toris.

"Maybe," agreed the bard, "Either them or Pompey. He'd want to inconvenience Caesar anyway he could."

The guards began hauling the men roughly to their feet and pushed them towards the tent flap. Toris got behind Gabrielle trying to screen her from the rough handling, and saw that the other men were doing pretty much the same around the sides, "Is being Pompey's prisoner a better prospect, or worse?" he questioned her softly.

Gabrielle thought hard for a moment, "Could be either," she reluctantly said at last, "It depends what game he's playing with Caesar, currently. As for what the Senate would do with us, that's anyone's guess."

"So we're not really any better off," muttered the big, dark haired man.

"No," agreed the bard, "Except ... " she added hesitantly.

"Except?" prompted Toris.

"Except, neither the senate, nor Pompey, is likely to know very much about some very specialised skills one or two of us have," she answered, "It might give us an important edge."

Hercules stood in the familiar pit and observed his latest opponent. Crusher - What an original name, - he thought sardonically, was taller and far broader than he was himself. Muscles bulged on the man who had a mean look in his eyes that spoke of the enjoyment he took in causing pain to his opponents.

As with the other fights he had participated in, this one was to be fought without weapons. He was trying to build up a reputation in the unarmed combat field, a reputation that would be sure to attract Caesar's interest, especially with the vast sums that Ephiny was wagering on his victories. News of that would also reach Caesar, and with the man's unceasing need for dinars, the Amazon's deaf, mute champion would be an attraction he'd find hard to resist.

Crusher advanced on his intended victim, his arms were spread wide as he tried to corner Hercules so that he could pin him in his trade mark crush that so often broke his opponents back.

Bouncing on the balls of his feet, the demi-god swung a decent right at the hulk, the kind of blow that would normally, at least, stagger anyone that it was thrown at. It connected beautifully on Crusher's jaw, snapping the brutes head to his right, but instead of falling or being forced back, Crusher slowly turned his head back towards the son of Zeus and grinned.

- Oh boy, - thought Herc as he backed up slowly. He needed to beat this man, but he had to make the fight look good, and it looked like he was going to have to exert more of his great strength to do so. The problem was, that he had to draw the fight out to impress the 'paying' public, which meant he was going to take some damage from the ham fisted brute strength of the lump of muscle looking to nail him.

- Ephiny, you are going to owe me big time for this! - he allowed the thought to register in his mind before ducking under one of the outstretched arms, only to be caught by a back flung fist that slammed hard into his shoulders, - Ooof! - he grunted silently, knowing that he had to avoid making any sound.

Spinning around he realised that Crusher was deceptively fast, for the man mountain stood ready for him and was in fact beginning to advance on him once more. - Okay chum, - the demi-god spoke silently, - let's see how you handle this! - and he launched himself forward in a charge, head butting his adversary squarely in the stomach. He heard the air whistle out of Crusher, and felt the vibration as the man dropped to the ground. However, Herc was too busy with his own pain to take advantage of the situation. Clutching his head he moaned to himself, - Ughh! What does he have in there? Rocks!? -

Shaking the crick out of his compressed neck he recovered in time to see Crusher getting slowly to his feet, a scowl etched onto his features, and deadly intent in his eyes, - Oh, Oh! Looks like I've got him mad! - his mind had time to register before a backhanded slap connected to the side of his head, leaving the sound of ringing bells as Hercules was thrown across the pit into the wall, - Guess he doesn't like getting hurt! - his mind teased.

Easing himself back up with the help of the wall, Hercules was confronted by the immediacy of his opponent, who gave a wicked grin and aimed a right fist that was intended to plaster the hero's face across the pit wall.

Herc ducked!

Crusher's hand hit solid stone and seemed to crumple as the bones shattered. - That's gotta hurt, - thought Hercules as he took advantage of his opponent's injury, by sending two crashing blows into the giant's jaw, driving him back to gain enough room to place a well timed kick to the groin that had Crusher folding up as he made small, animal-like squeaking noises.

When his opponent failed to rise to continue the combat, the demi-god held his hands up in a victory salute, as was expected, and ignored the excited applause of the crowd, and the happy winners who showered dinars upon him as a sign of their favour. Hercules was just pleased to escape from the pit so he could seek the refuge of Ephiny's suite.

It was late that night when Pompey arrived, unaccompanied, at Ephiny's door. The Amazon guards made him wait while the Regent was alerted and, more importantly, Hercules could climb into her bed and arrange to look dishevelled. When Pompey was admitted, he found the Amazon Queen Regent clothed in a flowing silk robe, standing in the middle of the room, while the demi-god was sprawled in a tangle of bedding.

"He's such an animal after a good fight," explained Ephiny adjusting artfully tousled hair back into place. "What can I do for you?" she inquired pointedly.

"My men have just brought in some prisoners. I want to see if you can identify them as your friends," he explained, "They may not be the right people, but they answer to the descriptions."

"Where are they?" demanded Ephiny pointedly.

"Currently? They're in my dungeons. I wanted everything to look as natural as possible to anyone who was watching .. spies are rife in Rome. They were brought in as captives so the natural place for them to be taken was the dungeon. But if they are your friends, then we'll have to find alternative accommodation for them ... as long as you are willing to go on with our plan."