Gabrielle sighed. "Well, I'm okay, that should help. At least you didn't kill me." A piercing look of angst and darkness swept over Xena's face, and Gabrielle bit her lip. "Do we talk about what just happened, or move on?"

"Move on." Xena put an arm across the shoulder of her best friend and gave her a squeeze. "I am sorry, Gabrielle." The bard nodded, her blond hair sweeping across her face as the sea breeze blew.

The two walked away from the frothing ocean toward the cliffs, puzzled looks crossing both their faces. They should be dead, they knew, but divine intervention had stepped in to save both their lives and their friendship. Xena, tall, dark and ready to fight at a moment's notice, knew she needed the calming presence of the smaller green-eyed bard if she was to ever find her peace with her purpose. As it was, the Warrior Princess remained too quick to punch and stab, - and, - she thought with a regretful glance at her friend, - try to kill. -

She had done just that with Gabrielle as an insane rage, caused by the death of her son, had washed across her. When Gabrielle, distraught over the destruction wrought by her daughter, had returned the emotions in kind, a powerful cycle of events occurred that even now made no sense.

It was enough, though, to know they were speaking again and their relationship seemed to be mending.

For her part, Gabrielle was glad to find herself whole after being abused by her dearest friend. - Love has strange consequences, - she mused as she walked beside Xena. - Love and hate are not that far apart, and I didn't really understand that before. - And, she realized, they were the two most powerful forces in the known world.

Finding a way from the beach and up the cliffs over which the two women had fallen proved to be more difficult than either had anticipated. Four days passed before a suitable path led them back to the lands of the Amazons. During that time Xena and Gabrielle were able to talk and sort through their differences, and discuss the amazing things that had happened to them in the land of Illusia. While each admitted they were disturbed by the events, they knew it was time to put the past behind them and move forward.

"I'm not sure we should go back to the Amazons. They're not going to be very happy with you," the bard said. She stopped walking and leaned against a tree. "They could even try to kill you."

Xena smiled wryly. "I hurt their Amazon Queen. I know. I'm prepared for whatever happens. They are your family, in a way, Gabrielle, and that means I have to make it all right."

"But I thought we were trying to put the past behind us. The Amazons are in the past." Gabrielle stepped back beside her friend as they resumed their walk.

"I know, but they're also your future." Xena said. She checked her whip and shifted her armor. "They're important to us both and they'll be worried." Xena touched her partner on the arm. "Besides, you're an Amazon Queen and that can't be denied."

Gabrielle looked slightly apprehensive. "Xena, do you really think I should have that honor? I mean, I wasn't born into the Amazon nation."

Xena sighed. "Gabrielle, you were given the right of caste. The Amazons accepted you as one of their own. By the gods, they had accepted me and I'm not an Amazon! Whether or not they try to kill me when they see me is something else again, but you're the queen. You earned the title. It is your right Gabrielle. And," Xena paused, "if you decide you want to stay with the Amazon nation now, after all that's happened, I won't stand in your way."

Gabrielle shook her head. "Xena, you know I'll go on with you. So why do we even bother to go back there, when it could mean they come after you? It seems pointless."

"Gabrielle, sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do simply because you know it's the right thing to do. And you know it's right to go back to the Amazons, if only to ease their minds," Xena said. She was truly surprised they had not come across any Amazons, searching for the queen that Xena had so cruelly stolen from them.

The quiet crept across the forest, and Xena tensed. She could sense a change in the air, the way the birds stopped their incessant chatter. No chick-chick-chick from the squirrels, no rush of a rabbit underfoot. She pulled her sword from its scabbard, and Gabrielle stepped close.

The bard usually fought with a well-balanced staff which enabled her to hold her own in a fight, but she did not have it with her. Weaponless, she realized that in spite of her improved fighting skills she remained a burden on the Warrior Princess when it came time for self-defense.

"Gabrielle, stay beside me," Xena said. She began to swing her blade before her, crossing it so that it covered both of them. She flinched, and moved the sword swiftly to the left, deflecting an arrow. "Get down!" she shouted. Gabrielle hit the ground, staying low and out of the way of the warrior's blade. Xena caught sight of men moving among the trees. She made a fast count.... five.... ten.... twenty....more than she cared to take on at the moment. She pulled her whip from her belt and snapped it into the trees above her. "Grab my legs!" she shouted, and she and Gabrielle quickly sprang from the forest floor to the tree tops.

"Xena, what is going on?" Gabrielle whispered when they were safely above the heads of the men. "What do they want? Are they bounty hunters?" The Warrior Princess kept a bounty on her head, even though her marauding days had ended several years ago. Towns she had once pillaged and warlords she now defeated were constantly trying to get her body parts in the hopes of either allaying fears that she would turn evil again or stopping her path of goodness. Either road spelled trouble for Xena, it seemed.

The men had figured out where Xena had gone and sent more arrows their way. With Gabrielle in tow, it was impossible for Xena to fight from the trees for any length of time. Tree climbing was not one of her friend's strong points. A few of the arrows in the bows held flames, and Xena feared the men would set the whole woods on fire if they began shooting arbitrarily into the forest veil where she hid.

"Do you think if I help you we can get to those trees over there?" Xena pointed to some strong limbs that were out of reach of the arrows. Gabrielle nodded and Xena scurried forward. She moved quickly, and it was easy for her to step so fast that Gabrielle had no time to follow her. She stopped again and again, losing precious seconds. Finally Xena pointed toward the trees and told Gabrielle to go ahead. "I'll hold them off."

With a leap and a cry, she landed in front of the mass of men. "Ah ha ha!" She laughed. "Come on, you want me?"

"Come peacefully, Xena, and we won't kill you," a man with a scar on his nose sneered. "There are too many of us for you."

Xena suddenly screamed and jumped toward the man. "Alalalalalal" she cried. She swung around quickly and punched the speaker, then caught another by the throat and tossed him into an on-rushing enemy. She kicked another in the groin, then spun and sliced. A quick parry and she was up against several others. In the corner of her eye she saw Gabrielle edging away in the trees, safe for the moment, and she turned her full attention to the fight.

She was completely surrounded, the men each poking at her. - It's almost ludicrous, - she thought, - the way they are afraid of me. - With a mighty yell she flung herself into three of them, and took out another with a left hook. One man grabbed her leg; she shook him off and kicked him in the chin. She grabbed her chakram from her belt and tossed it; it bounced off a rock and into the body parts of four men before embedding itself into a nearby tree.

Xena heard the slight cracking sound before she saw anything, and knew the branches holding Gabrielle had given way. Several of the men pulled away from Xena and headed for the fallen woman; Xena turned her attention in that direction. But Gabrielle got up quickly, and caught one of the men's arms as he came at her with a sword. She wrestled the sword away from him, and then held it as a staff to block blows; Gabrielle felt blood in her hand as the sword cut into her palm as she raised the weapon above her head and grabbed the blade. She winced, but continued fighting.

When one man came at Xena with a javelin, Xena grabbed it. She quickly knocked the head off it, and threw it to Gabrielle so she could defend herself. Gabrielle neatly caught the pole weapon and whirled to take on her nearest attacker. Pop! She whopped a fellow in the head.

But now there were twenty men fighting Xena and ten heading toward Gabrielle. One man fell as Xena slashed at him; then another and another. But there were too many, and the ten around Gabrielle quickly had her subdued and down. They began hauling her away into the woods.

"Xena, Xena help me!" Those were the last words the warrior woman heard. She turned toward her friend, concerned, and in that split second of loss of concentration, a big foot slammed into her face. Once down, several men piled on top of her, beating her with fists and boots. The last thing Gabrielle saw before she passed out herself was a man standing over Xena with his sword drawn, ready to plunge it into her heart.

When Gabrielle woke, she stifled the moans in her throat. Her arms were tied behind her back; her ankles bound together. She could feel the deep cut in her hand; it had dried and closed long ago, leaving her entire hand numb and stiff. She moved to try to sit up, and her eyes filled with tears. - Is Xena dead? She must be, - Gabrielle thought. - I'm tied up here in some warlord's camp, and if Xena could help me she would. -

She rolled to a sitting position, leaning against a tree. Her arms ached terribly. She had a cut on her right arm; not deep, but it throbbed. When she shut her eyes the image of the man with the scar readying his sword at Xena's heart played itself over and over in her mind.

A kick at her thigh made her open her eyes. An ugly one-eyed man grinned at her. "Nice to see ye decided to join us, missy," he said. He put a dipper of water to her lips, and she drank. "You've been out for a good bit. Missed all the fun, you have." He laughed raucously, and Gabrielle winced. She drew in her breath as his hand slid up her thigh, stopping short of her crotch. He laughed again. "Oh, you'll be worth a good bit to us, you know," One-eye said. He leaned close, and Gabrielle pulled away from him, terror on her face. His hot breath played across her cheeks; she could feel it mixing with her tears.

The man with the scar on his nose approached. "Let her be, Istus. She's not your plaything." He kneeled down beside the two and peered at Gabrielle. "How's your head?" He ran his hand through her hair and Gabrielle realized she had been hit hard near her eye. "You've been out a long time -- over a day. Got quite a knot there." Scar-nose examined her carefully, his hands surprisingly gentle.

"Is Xena dead?" She choked out the words. One-eyed Istus laughed again.

"Don't worry about her; she won't bother you anymore," Scar-nose said.

Confusion and pain showed on Gabrielle's face, but she said nothing.

"Kredo," Istus said to his leader, "how long are we going to be here?"

Kredo glanced at Gabrielle, who shut her eyes as if in exhaustion. Turning back to Istus, Kredo said he hoped only another day -- long enough to get the dinars promised by the Amazons and "a little bit besides -- a slight ransom for the return of the queen here."

- The Amazons! Ephiny had hired mercenaries to go after Xena? - Gabrielle had a hard time believing it, but obviously these men knew a little of her story, facts they shouldn't know otherwise. But they didn't know that Xena was her friend. - Whatever Amazon is responsible for this, - Gabrielle swore, - she will pay! - But her big concern now was Xena. - Had this Kredo actually done the unthinkable and murdered her? - She moved again, causing the ropes to pull at her aching shoulders, and this time tears fell unchecked.

"Here, missy, what's the trouble?" Istus bent down again beside her, his eyes moving from the tears on her cheeks to the heaves in her breast. A slight smile escaped him as he watched her. "We're not going to hurt you. The Amazons would kill us, for one thing, and there are more of them than there are of us."

Gabrielle didn't look at him until she had her emotions under control. "Xena wasn't my enemy; she was my friend!"

Istus laughed once more. He seemed positively delighted by Gabrielle's statement. "She's not dead -- yet. Look-a-there!" He moved and pointed to Gabrielle's right.

She looked, and gasped.

Through the fading light and the shadows of the camp fire, she could make out an unclothed figure tied spread-eagle between two trees. Xena's head hung down upon her chest and Gabrielle could tell that the ropes were holding her friend up; her feet, though they touched the ground, were not bearing her weight. Gabrielle was too far away to see what kind of damage had been done, but she had seen Xena stand even when she was as close to unconsciousness as a person could get. If Xena wasn't standing now, then clearly she was badly hurt. Gabrielle struggled against the ropes that bit into the flesh of her arms, and winced.

Kredo watched Gabrielle struggle. Amusement showed on his face as well. "What's this? She tried to kill you and then you made up? Is that it?" He began to laugh so hard he had to lean against a tree. "The Amazons are paying us to get you back and they didn't need to! Hear that men?" The thirty-odd men looked at their leader. "The Amazon Queen here had forgiven the Warrior Princess!" Grins all around sent Gabrielle into a frenzy of pain as she tried harder to pull herself free. "And all this time I couldn't figure out why Xena let me do whatever I liked to her after I finally threatened your scrawny little neck!" He broke out in another convulsion of laughter.

The party was interrupted when a runner entered the camp. He gave a scroll to Kredo, who read it with a satisfied grin. "We got what we wanted, men! There'll be 1,000 dinars a man when the Amazons come in the morning to fetch their queen! And then we sell Xena to the highest bidder!"

Istus bent down and untied the rope around Gabrielle's ankles. He pulled her to her feet and held her steady while the world whirled around her aching head. Her eyes had never left Xena, who remained unmoving on the other side of the camp. Istus led her to her friend, with Kredo walking behind.

The firelight flickered off of Xena's bronzed body, and between that and the fading daylight Gabrielle could see all she needed. Totally naked, Xena hung by her wrists, her arms outstretched and her body twisted. Her feet had been pulled to opposing sides, as far apart as humanly possible and still allowing a stance, but the strong legs of the warrior did not hold her body up now.

The ropes cut into her flesh as her body fell forward. Lacerations from a whip ran across her shoulders, her thighs, her calves -- Gabrielle could only guess what her back looked like. Her hair was matted with blood; a large cut on her cheek burned its image into Gabrielle's mind. Other bruises appeared where she had been beaten with either fists or a hard object. Her lips, eyes, and nose, were swollen and grotesquely mishappened. Gabrielle drew in her breath to keep from fainting. She had never seen anyone beaten so badly and still living. But Xena did live; the slightest movement in her chest assured the bard that her friend still breathed.

"Remember, you've been out for a day and a night," Kredo said. "That's a long time to try to keep someone like Xena bound and alive." He pulled out his knife and slit the ropes that bound Gabrielle's hands. "You can go to her, but one false move and you both die."

Gabrielle moved beside her friend. She sniffled back the tears that threatened to spill again. Xena hung at eye level; the slack in the ropes forced her body to droop sickeningly. Gabrielle put a hand to Xena's face and pushed back her hair, waiting to see if she received some acknowledgment of consciousness from her friend. But there was none; and Gabrielle was frightened.

She looked back at Kredo and Istus, who watched her carefully. "Can't you cut her down?" But they stood firm in their handling of the former warlord, and finally all Gabrielle could do was content herself with a bucket of water and a cloth, with which she washed the dried blood and dirt from her friend as best she could. The markings from the whip ran long down her back; Gabrielle counted over thirty-five separate cuts and welts in that area of her friend's body alone. The dirt beneath the warrior was stained crimson with blood. Xena's right ankle was swollen and twisted; Gabrielle doubted she could have stood on it even if she wasn't unconscious.

"Oh Xena, I'm so sorry," she whispered as she wiped away the blood on Xena's cheek.

Istus came up behind Gabrielle and grabbed her arm, surprising her, and she dropped the bucket. "That's enough. Kredo wants her now."

Gabrielle protested in vain as her hands were pulled back behind her back and she was restrained once more. Kredo moved forward with another bucket of water in his hand. This time he flung it over Xena, who moaned slightly. Kredo grinned as the men gathered around for the evening's sport. "Wakey, wakey," Kredo said. He watched as Xena struggled slightly, trying to regain her balance. In spite of the swelling in the sockets, her steely-blue eyes peered out, cutting into Kredo as their vision locked. He smiled, a thin-lipped sneer, and then pushed Gabrielle forward.

"Got your little pal here, all tucked away. You got that, don't you?" Xena didn't answer, but her eyes roamed over Gabrielle's outline, drinking in the image of her friend. Kredo put his hand under Xena's chin, lifting her face up to his. "I said, don't you?" Xena nodded, almost imperceptibly, but enough to satisfy Kredo. "Soon, we will sell you, dead or alive, to the highest bidder. In the meantime, you know there's not a man among us that doesn't want a piece of you for some reason or another."

The men muttered in agreement. "She killed my brother!" one called out.

"Murdered my village," yelled another.

"Oh gods," Gabrielle said beneath her breath. Not only had the Amazons hired mercenaries, they were mercinaries filled with hatred for the Warrior Princess. Gabrielle shivered slightly; Istus tightened his grip on her arm.

Suddenly one of the men threw a rock at Xena; it hit her in the shoulder. Istus pulled Gabrielle back as the men surged forward; she stumbled as she tried to see -- and not see -- what was happening to her best friend. She heard rather than saw one particularly hard punch to the stomach that Xena took; she also saw, briefly, a faint look of terror in Xena's eyes as she looked for Gabrielle. The terror quickly vanished, to be replaced by a smoldering fire, and Gabrielle was scared for her friend.

Xena's soul was scarred by darkness and still raw from her recent run-ins with Gabrielle's evil daughter Hope and Callisto. Together those two had killed Xena's child and nearly ruined their friendship; Xena had, however briefly, found her dark side once again while she battled to calm her inner turmoil. Kredo's physical punishment could be the final blow that led to Xena's demise. But there was nothing she could do.

Istus pulled her away from the scene, and turned her back to it as he tied her to a tree. Her pleas were ignored as he went to join the entertainment himself. Gabrielle heard the hits, then heard the sounds of a whip whistling through the air. She heard it crack as it landed on Xena's skin. And finally she heard the low moans of pain coming from the mouth of her friend, and Gabrielle's tears fell unchecked.