"They're gonna bring those horses round into these gardens any time now," hissed Iolaus.

"Don't sweat it shorty," answered Autolycus, drawing a glare from the blonde warrior. "We can climb the back fence and circle around until we get down to the harbour. A detour won't hurt us ... unless you're worried about climbing over the TALL fence."

"Cut it out, Autolycus," ordered Ephiny before Iolaus could react. "We don't have time to play! And fighting amongst ourselves is suicidal!"

The thief contrived to look shamefaced, "Yeah, yeah .. you're right. Old habits, you know? Anyway, lets get the Hades back to the ship before we start having to explain to those soldier boys who we are and what we're doing here."

The King of Thieves led the way back to the fence that ran around the building's sizeable attractive gardens. The area had the well tended look of belonging to someone who enjoyed it as a recreational space. Autolycus doubted that it would be so pleasant after it had played host to five hundred horses! - Mind you it should do wonders for the roses! - he grinned to himself.

As it turned out, they didn't have to climb over the fence, someone had conveniently left a gate in a handy spot and it was just the work of a moment for the thief to pick the lock and let them all walk out without an undignified scramble over the high brick and wood obstruction.

"Knew there was a good reason for keeping you around," smirked Iolaus.

"In the words of a tall dark and dangerous friend of ours, I have many skills!" grinned Autolycus.

"I hate to break this up, fellas," whispered Ephiny, "but which way do we go?"

"Follow me," announced the thief, leading the way towards a narrow alleyway. Iolaus and Ephiny moved behind him, with Malonda, Hakine and the other Amazon bringing up the rear.

They soon found that they had to spend precious time dodging into dark, narrow, and frequently smelly, alleys as not only were there an abnormal amount of soldiers moving around in the streets, but many of the citizens, disturbed from their rest, were out trying to see what was happening.

Knowing how quickly rumour could spread in bored, jaded towns, especially about something as exotic as Amazons, Autolycus endeavoured to keep them to the shadows as much as possible, preferring not to risk an untimely encounter with any Roman .. military or civil .. in case of difficulties.

"This is taking too much time!" hissed Ephiny in the thief's ear.

"What do you suggest," returned the thief snarkily, "that we march out there and ask the nearest citizen, 'excuse me, but is this the quickest way to the harbour, and please don't tell anyone you saw us because your army is looking for us' ... I think that would work pretty well. It should get us locked up, chained up or hung up in double quick time."

He was shoved hard by Malonda, "Watch your mouth, thief!" she snarled.

"Leave it Loni," instructed the Regent. "He has a point. I might not like how he made it, but he does have a point."

"Look! The street's clear. If we make a quick dash we should be able to get over to that alleyway on the other side," offered Iolaus.

Autolycus took a quick look both up and down the road, "Alright everybody. You heard the man. Let's move it." The six of them sped quickly on silent feet and were safely within the embracing darkness without being spotted.

Hakine peered about her cautiously, "I think I recognise this one," she whispered. "We passed through here on the way up to the harbour master's building when we started the rescue."

Autolycus straightened up and looked around carefully, "You know I think you're right. It's just a hop skip and a jump down to the harbour from here." He gave his companions the once over. "It's time to play bluff the Roman's again," he announced. Three of us are still dressed as soldiers. We can form up around you other three, if any one tries to question us, I'll just try bluffing them and tell them that you're some of the escaped prisoners everyone's looking for."

"And if that doesn't work?" questioned Malonda.

"Then we start busting heads," grinned the thief.

"Sounds like a plan," agreed Iolaus tentatively. "Not a very good one," he held up his hand to still the thief's objection, "but the best we're gonna do at short notice."

"Can you guys pretend that your hands are tied?" asked Autolycus, "Just to make it look more official."

"How do you propose we do that? We haven't got any rope," sniped the hunter.

"I'm aware of that, shorty. Just pretend. If you hold your hands behind your backs, my troops," he grinned at the two disguised Amazons, "can get up close behind you to hide the fact that you're really free."

Ephiny jumped in before Iolaus and the thief could get into a debate, "Sounds workable to me. Let's get on with it."

They continued to keep to the shadows as much as possible, but on those occasions when they were forced onto the well lit streets they utilized their ruse and everything seemed to work favourably for them. Now the big problem was going to be finding a rowing boat that no one would immediately miss .. unless the longboat that Autolycus and his fake Romans had used was still where they had moored it.

Feeling a little more optimistic, Autolycus headed out for the slip where the boat had been left and offered a little prayer up to any listening gods that it was still there. With no more cover to be had, as they traversed the cobbled surface of the wharf front, their determined footsteps echoed far louder than they had dreamed possible and they had to fight against the rising anxiety that gripped them, certain that they would be stopped at any moment by their enemies.

Almost to the slip where the rowing boat was moored, they encountered a Roman patrol of eight men, "You there!" the decurion called. "Who are you? and who are those prisoners?"

"Urbansis of the Seventh," replied Autolycus smoothly, "And since when does a lowly decurion address an optio in such a fashion?" he demanded belligerently, hoping to bull his way through the situation by pulling rank as he had in the dungeons.

"I'll need your credentials, sir!" barked back the decurion, only slightly less aggressively. "There are imposters running around Ostia and I have orders to check out all unfamiliar personnel." He continued to approach with his men.

"Be ready," the thief threw back over his shoulder, "I think we're gonna have to fight our way out of here." He returned his attention to the decurion who was no more than a few strides away now. "I haven't got time to waste with such stupid trivialities," he growled. "I have orders to take these prisoners out to that ship and use them to secure our possession of it."

The young decurion drew his sword in a swift, smooth motion, "You're no Roman optio, Urbansis .. or whatever you name is. I think you, your 'prisoners' and your men are coming with us."

Autolycus smiled, "Big mistake, decurion!" he snarled.

"Oh I don't think so .. I think maybe I just got that promotion I've been dreaming of."

"Think again, junior," retorted the thief as he swirled his impressive red military cloak from his shoulders and flipped it over the Roman officer enveloping him completely. He threw his own sword to Ephiny, preferring to use his fists rather than steel, and waded into what was a short nasty scrap.

The Amazons worked together. Their first aim was to get Malonda a weapon, then they intended to use steel to end the conflict before it could attract enough attention to stop them from taking the boat and getting back to the ship. They were very effective in their intentions and soon pressed the Romans, from the local garrison troop, severely.

Iolaus did his usual. He ducked below slashing cuts, jumped over low aimed blades and generally frustrated the Hades out of the two men trying to end his participation in the fight. When he saw his chance, he did a quick forward roll, to get between and behind them, before coming up and delivering a powerful kick into the small of one man's back, propelling him into his officer who still struggled with Autolycus' cloak. Then dropping to the ground he swept the legs out from under the other soldier as he turned, felling him in a clatter of metallic armour. Taking his chance, the agile blonde hunter delivered a thumping right to the Roman's jaw, that put the man's lights out for the duration of the rest of the fight.

Turning to check on what was happening with the others, during the brief respite he'd gained himself, Iolaus saw Malonda cleave into a Roman neck with the sword she'd acquired somewhere during the fight, and also noted that three more soldiers were down on the ground, unlikely to rise again .. ever!

It was at that point that Autolycus spun one of his adversaries away in the hunter's direction and Iolaus joined the fight once again. Just avoiding the point of the soldier's lunging sword, the blonde warrior shook his finger at the man and said cheekily, "That wasn't nice!" before diving back into the fray.

The Amazons were having a lot of fun letting off pent up steam soon finishing off their own six opponents, and had turned to see if they could help the men with the soldiers attacking them. They were in time to see the decurion and the man Iolaus had entangled him with, rise angrily from the road, the snaring cloak being thrown away from them.

Autolycus seeing the Amazons looking for more to engage their attention, grabbed his current assailant's arm and swung him in their direction, dusting off his hands with a smile. He heard movement behind him and was able to nimbly sidestep as the soldier, who had been with the decurion, charged past and ended up battling against the women warriors as well.

Grinning to himself the thief failed to realise that the decurion was also behind him. With an angry yell, the Roman officer rushed at Autolycus, diving to grab him around the waist and took him over the edge of the wharf with his momentum, down into the river where both men sunk under the weight of the armour they were wearing.

Kaylee and Danara had scaled the fortification wall with ease. It was good to stretch their muscles once more and, for two women who had grown up spending almost as much time in trees as out of them, heights offered no fears. When they reached the parapet, they had seen their sisters methodically disarming and disabling the ballista and, with a quick nod to each other, they'd trotted around the walkway to find Turra.

"What are you two doing here," the contingent commander had demanded, "I thought you went with the thief?"

"We did," replied Kaylee taking the lead. "We got Hercules, Iolaus, Toris and Nebula out of the dungeon, but Eph and Loni were being held somewhere else. We were just deciding what to do when we got wind of a large party of mounted men coming in from Rome. Autolycus and Iolaus went with Hakine and Phoebe to get Eph and Loni. Hercules, Toris and us came here to warn you and Xena, while Nebula and the others went back to the ship."

Turra had glanced towards the town and drummed her fingers on the wall crenellations. "Alright, we're going to have to try and buy Xena the time she needs if a Roman force comes this way." She'd looked across to where her demolition party was about to start work on the last three catapults. "Okay, leave those three for now. We may have a use for them. Get them sighted to cover the causeway out from the port."

The Amazons had moved to do as ordered, many looking forward to getting another crack at the troops of Rome. "Well this is turning out to be an interesting evening," grinned Turra to herself.

Flaccus estimated that he had lost close to half his men out on the exposed causeway. The Amazons firing the three catapults they were using, had proven to be deadly accurate .. and the damage more pronounced because they had elected to use many smaller stones per shot, as ammunition, rather than the larger boulders. The result was that the smaller rocks had scythed through the troops who had absolutely nowhere to take cover. Not all, by any means, had been killed, but enough damage had been done to make them unfit for further combat.

Trying to contain the growing rage he felt as the situation seemed to be escalating out of his control, he attempted to concentrate upon the main task at hand .. namely recapturing the escaped slave, Xena, and, if possible, retaking the other slave, Gabrielle. The chastisement of the Amazons, and the male friends of the two slaves, would wait until Caesar arrived.

"Alright!" he snapped at his optios, "Get the men searching this fortification in groups. Make sure that each group has at least three nets in case they find the slaves. I want units two, five, six and seven with me ... and find someone who can show me to the winch room!" he snarled, knowing that if she wasn't there yet, that's where Xena would be heading to. "The rest of you make sure you scour every room in this place, except for you Petrus. I want you to take a third of the men and clear those damned Amazons off of the parapets!"

The optios quickly dispersed, one having the presence of mind to send a tower guard over to the centurion. None of the Romans wanted to draw Flaccus' wrath down on their own heads. The man was something of a legend in legion circles. He was known for being hard but fair, but if he became angered by something, or some luckless person, then they'd need the gods to protect them, because Publius Flavius Flaccus was merciless.

"What's your name?" demanded the centurion of the young soldier that appeared before him.

"Sertorus, sir," he answered a little shakily. "The optio said you needed someone to show you to the winch room?"

"Well?" demanded the veteran soldier, grey eyes narrowing.

"Sir?" questioned the boy at a loss to understand what the officer was getting at.

"By Jupiter's balls!" roared Flaccus, "Where is the room, laddie? Don't stand there pissing your pants .. just show me!"

"Umm! Right. Umm do you want to follow me?" answered Sertorus, wondering what had brought the wrath of Mars down upon his lowly head.

"Move, you worthless reject from this man's army!" thundered Flaccus who really had the bit between his teeth now.

Taking that as an invitation to run the young soldier sprinted off down the dimly lit corridors with the centurion and his chosen men in hot pursuit. They clattered along, boots slapping on the stone floor, the metal of their equipment jingling loudly as they exerted themselves.

Sertorus was breathing deeply when he pulled to a stop at the top of the stairs that wound down to the winch chamber. He opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when Flaccus held up a commanding hand. He stood silently as the centurion motioned him closer.

"Get back to your post," came the rumbling whisper from the veteran. "We'll handle things from here."

Nodding vigorously, the young legionnaire couldn't wait to get as far as possible away from to the hard bitten centurion and his grizzled troops. - Damned if I know what's going on, but I'll be damned if I want to stay and find out! -

Listening intently to the sounds that echoed up from below, Flaccus recognised the distorted voice of the slave he was hunting and, from the feminine voice of her companion, he guessed that the bard was down there as well. - Perfect! Both in one fell swoop! - He considered the situation and gestured two soldiers forwards. - It won't hurt to have backup, - he decided. "You two," he whispered forcefully, "go and round up a couple more squads and bring them back here. I want to make sure there are no mistakes."

Getting a nod of affirmation, Flaccus turned to the rest of his men and warned, "Remember! We want them both alive. Use the nets, use clubs, but no swords! Got it?" He glared sternly at the men as they nodded their understanding. "Four of you stay up here and spread nets across the stairwell. If they get past us they'll be coming fast and should get tangled in the mesh before they know it's there."

With the arrangements made Flaccus stealthily led his men down the winding stairwell towards where he could hear the two women conversing. When Xena stopped speaking, he knew that they'd been detected. No longer bothering to try and move quietly, Flaccus straightened his shoulders and moved down the steps with impressive confidence.

As he reached the chamber his eyes took in the bloody remains of the men that had been stationed there before swivelling across to the bound, unconscious survivors and from there to the two women who stood with weapons ready. He allowed a death's head smile to grace his features. A smile that never reached his eyes. "Time to go back to your pit, slave!" he rumbled authoritively.

Standing shakily by the window, Toris bent over and took some deep breaths. He couldn't believe the ease and speed with which the two Amazon warriors climbed to the top of the tower. It had been lucky that Hercules hadn't wanted to climb the full distance, reasoning that Xena was likely to be found on the ground floor if not down in the cellars. So they had made use of the inviting window behind him, from which, Hercules had told him, boiling oil would be poured should the fortification be attacked from the seawards side.

The raven haired man looked out of the window down to the sea strand below. He shuddered a little when he realised just how high they had climbed. - I still don't like heights! - he moaned to himself.

The son of Zeus stepped over to him and slapped him lightly on the shoulder, "You okay Toris?" he questioned quietly.

"Yeah," answered the other man very quietly, then added in a stronger tone, "Yeah .. just fine."

"Good, because we need to get moving. This place will become a hornets nest soon and we need to find Xena as quickly as possible," Hercules told him.

"A lot of soldiers, huh?"

"Oh yeah! Should make things real interesting," added the demi-god.

Toris grinned, "What are we doing standing here then?" he demanded, "Let's go join the fun," he said as he moved across to the exit from the room.

"Oh boy!" muttered Herc shaking his head a little in disbelief, "Just like his sister." He turned to find that Toris had already moved through the door, "Hey, wait for me," he called before moving quickly to rejoin his companion.

The two big men trod cautiously through the dimly lit hallways and corridors. Generally speaking the Roman garrison were settled down for the night, so they had little difficulty moving through the middle floors of the building. That's not to say that they didn't encounter any opposition. They were in fact able to mop up several small groups that they stumbled across. After the initial, short brutal skirmish, the pair had acquired Roman helmets and cloaks, as well as a short sword each, allowing them to approach their enemies openly, utilising their rough disguises, and ambush other men before they had a chance to realise that Hercules and Toris were not fellow soldiers.

Having worked their way to the stairwell, taking more time than they had hoped, the two tall men had cautiously moved down towards the ground floor, and it was there that they became aware of a large body of men forming up, and low orders being issued by an officer. They drew back around a corner, in the corridor, and Toris waited while the demi-god eased his head around to see what he could make out.

When he drew back he whispered quickly and quietly to the raven haired man, "That's Flaccus in charge out there."

"Flaccus? Are you certain?" hissed Toris angrily and looked ready to charge the Roman contingent for the chance of getting at the centurion who had so brutalized Xena. Visions of her scar laced back danced before his eyes.

Hercules grabbed his arm and had to exert a considerable amount of force to stop his companion from doing something foolish, "Stop that," he whispered in a rumbling tone. "If you run out there now, you'll be captured or killed and that won't do Xena the least bit of good."

Toris looked as if he might argue, his blue eyes deepened to almost violet in the passion of his anger, before he managed to take a deep breath and force himself to start relaxing, "You're right," he agreed grudgingly. "Any idea what's going on?" He questioned trying to impose some calmness upon himself.

"Good man," grinned Hercules. "I think Xena must be down in the winch room and they know she's there. Flaccus is going down to get her."

"Well what are we gonna do?" demanded a still agitated Toris.

"We're going down behind them. While they're busy with Xena in front of them, we'll take them out from behind," explained the big man. He saw the tense, worried look on the other man's face, "Don't worry, Toris. They want her alive, remember. They won't do anything that could kill her .. and remember, they don't have that luxury in return. Xena won't let them take her easily."

Getting a nod of understanding from the raven haired man, Hercules was about to check on what was happening around the corner when two Romans appeared before him. "What are you doing ..." began one of the men just before he felt a massive hand clasp him beside the head and ram it with stunning force into his compatriots skull.

"That was close," whispered Toris and received a nod agreement from the demi-god.

Taking a breath, the son of Zeus, once again, carefully edged his head around the corner and found that there were now just four men there, busily stringing a net trap to catch anyone trying to bolt out of the cellar. He eased back to where Toris waited impatiently, "Just four still up here, the rest are obviously on their way down to the cellar. We can take the four out up here and then go down after the others."

Blue eyes sparkled coldly as the other man grinned, "Sounds like a plan!"

Straightening their cloaks around their shoulders and making sure that their 'borrowed' helmets were settled correctly, the two large men, moved around the corner and marched over to the four working soldiers. They had two down with solid punches to the jaw before the other two realised what was happening and, after a brief, almost silent, scuffle, they managed to deal with the second pair.

Wrapping them all up in the nets that they'd been using to snare the entrance to the stairwell, Hercules gave each man an additional 'tap' with his fist to ensure that they wouldn't be moving any time soon and nodded for Toris to follow him down the spiral staircase in the wake of Flaccus and his men.