"Love Finds a Way"

By baby Iris

Disclaimers:

General: I do not own any of the following characters in this story. They are the creation of Robert Tapert, and belong to USA Studios and Renaissance Pictures. I am merely a fan testing her creativity outlet to see if the ending to Friend in Need II could end in a more fan friendly way.

Sex/Violence: There is some violent content.

Dedicated: To the characters, Xena and Gabrielle and the persons who played them uniquely, Lucy Lawless and Renee O Connor.

Copyright: July 2001


Comments, feedback, and constructive criticism may be sent to lil_honey_eyes@hotmail.com. Thank you.

Egypt came too soon. At least, for Gabrielle. She had made it as far as the coast and then abandoned that quest as Xena’s spirit had abandoned her. A promise made to her in words was thought to be enough, but that unfaithful morning upon the ship made them break as easily as glass. She had awoken to an empty spot where Xena once lay standing over her.

"Xena?" she sat up and gazed around to the rickety surroundings.

"Xena?" she asked again. Still no answer.

She had waited a while or so before allowing the panic to run up and down her body like a freight train. It was almost unlike Xena to disappear because she was always right by Gabrielle’s side whenever she needed her, even in spirit. She left her rotten wooded chamber and came above deck. A gust of seaward wind caressed her cheek and ran its fingers through her hair. With so much on her mind, she hadn’t noticed.

"What is it?" asked the captain as she approached him. He looked at her curiously as she gazed out among the sea’s blue intensity that stretched to all four corners of the earth. She had a look on her face as though she had lost something, something very important.

"How far away are we from the Nile?" she asked.

"About a yard or so. There’s a shorter route we can take, but it’s much more risky," he replied.

After a moment or two of thought, she replied. "Take it."

***************

The land of the Pharaohs was located near the Nile, the route Gabrielle had now chosen the ship to sail. She had learned of a prophet by the name of Amoo who could tell you where a spirit had ventured or been taken to. Xena had spoke of him only once, but Gabrielle’s memory was long and clean and she smiled as his village came into sight.

"Is this the village of the great prophet Amoo?" shouted Gabrielle as the boat was almost at port.

A young Egyptian boy replied that indeed, it was.

Once on land, Gabrielle walked the long and grinding pathway with the boy as she wiped the beating sweat that began to drizzle down each temple.

"Why have you journeyed so far from your home to speak to Amoo?" replied the boy. He was curious as he bent to fix his sandal and then continued to carry on down the path beside her.

"To help find my friend," she replied.

"Is she lost?" asked the boy. His ashy air had fallen into eyes from the wind and he quickly brushed it away.

"Her spirit is," Gabrielle replied. She smiled to the young boy and then covered the beating sun -which prevented her to see- with the back of her hand.

"Then Amoo will find her," said the boy as he returned her smile.

"I’m counting on it," she replied as the young boy came to a stop at a small hut made from dried clay and sand. It smelt of musk, but was much better then standing out in the blistering hot sun with the taste of sand on her tongue. She thanked the boy and carried on inside, gazing carefully to her surroundings. The hut was covered with candles and herbs, skulls of dead camels and a smell unfamiliar to her nostrils. What ever it was, it was foul.

It was then that she heard a small rustle come from the very back of the hut, out of eye’s way. She reached for Xena’s Chakram and almost felt herself hurl it straight at the old Egyptian’s head.

"You might as well put that away, you won’t be needing it in here," he replied. His voice was crackled and raw, but Gabrielle found it to be an ancient calming.

She smiled at her own embarrassment and slid the Chakram back upon the buckle of her attire. She had gotten rid of her sais and was now practicing sword play.

"Please, have a seat," he motioned to the blanket and endless amount of filthy pillows that decorated the floor of his hut.

"Thanks," she looked across at his back turned to her and smiled weakly. But even before she could open her mouth to ask, he was already spewing his prophecy.

"You’ve come for the whereabouts of Xena’s soul, correct?" he turned and fumbled with his long beard that fell past his knees.

"Yes," she replied. She was both intrigued and amazed.

"Then as you can see, you’ve come to the right place," he sat down before her and gazed into her emerald eyes. After a moment or two of silence he spoke again.

"I can sense much pain in you Gabrielle, too much pain for a mortal soul to endure," he breathed and then went on, "yet we continue to endure it everyday."

"And I suppose you now why?" she asked. She had made herself sound almost sarcastic, but also hopeful to hear what he had to say.

"It’s a vicious cycle. A circle we must come to bear, as you have come to bear it. We all eventually end up where we began."

There was a moment or silence before Gabrielle felt herself speak. "Where is Xena?" she could hardly utter those words, those three simple words that would change her life.

"Her soul has been taken," he replied, "by the Greek God of War.

"Ares?" she uttered. She looked past Amoo as if a part of her had always known. "How?" she asked. She didn’t need to know why. It was Ares’ obvious attraction for Xena all these years that had made him do such deeds.

"How, is not important. What is important is that the God of War isn’t aware that by taking her soul, he is allowing her decent into her spiritual world to fade. Soon she will be trapped among the mortal world as a lost soul, the darkest of all creatures."

Gabrielle took a moment to establish this all in her mind. "You mean, if Ares keeps her soul for any longer, she’ll be trapped and be forced to walk the mortal world alone for eternity?"

He shook his head lightly, agreeing with every word she said. The woman before him had strength and a passion he had not seen in anyone since himself. He knew; she too carried a few of her own prophecies.

Gabrielle turned her head to the side and swallowed hard. Thoughts ran through her mind as if she had been violently shaken.

"I have to go and get her back," she stated.

"You can, and there is a way, but not the way you are thinking about now," he replied.

She looked to him puzzled. "Then how?"

"You want to be reunited with your friend, do you not?" he asked.

Gabrielle had realized that prophets had come to ask as many questions as they gave answers.

"Yes, more then anything I’ve ever wanted... needed in my life," she replied. She was almost at her knees begging by now, a look of determination on her face. "But what does that have to do with saving Xena’s soul?"

"Plenty," he said.

*****************

The God of War seemed distraught, even in this time of joy with his warrior princess gazing at him from across the room. He continued to pace back and forth, occasionally throwing a glance Xena’s way, only for it to be ignored. He sighed aloud and fell into the comfort of his skull carved throne.

"Why don’t you talk, say something at least. That’s why you're here, isn’t it?" His tone was angered, but also hurt.

"What’s there to say?" she replied.

"I don’t know, how about 'hello' or 'why did you bring me here, Ares?' " he spoke with his usual sarcasm.

She turned her pale-once glowing- cheek toward his stare. "Because I already know why you brought me here."

He rose from his chair in sudden interest and crossed his arms across his chest with sloppish care.

"Oh yah, how come?" he asked.

"A lasting pathetic attempt to try and win me back as your warrior queen. One thing you seemed to forget though, is the fact that I’m dead," she replied. She too, shared her usual sarcasm with the God of War. A snarl had slowly crept upon her pale pinkish lips. Her color was dying and even Ares could tell that she was weak.

"Wrong!" he exclaimed. He slowly walked across his large temple-his footsteps echoing from off the thick stone floors- and stood before her. "When I heard of your death, it was like something inside of me died too. The thought of losing you made me go crazy, like something inside of me just snapped!" he had put a lasting effort onto the word snap by snapping his own two fingers in front of her face. " Don’t you understand, I would have done anything to see your face again...and I did."

She gazed into his blank gray eyes for a time, trying to find the monster she had hated in Ares all along. But the truth was, she had seen that monster grow weaker and weaker when she was still alive and could hardly see it all now. She braced herself for what would come next.

"I understand that people do crazy things when they are grieving, but not gods," she stated.

He bit his lip and turned his head to the side. She’d hit a nerve all right.

"You always spoke like gods had no emotion, well we do!" he exclaimed. She could make out the pain in his voice and began to pity him. That pity grew stronger when he pushed his face close to hers, so close that even in her spiritual self she could feel his hot breath beat against her cheek. "There was always something you brought out in me when I was around you. Blame it on lust or greed, but it was love. Yah, so I might not know the best way to love, like a certain blonde, but I still loved you."

These words seemed to break that invisible boundary which Xena had kept whenever Ares was around her. She’d always believed that every word that spewed from his lips was a lie. But she could sense a lie, and this was not one.

"If you truly loved me, then you’ll let me go," she replied. Her voice barely there. She was now the one begging and Ares was the one standing tall.

Ares turned his back, and stopped long enough to hear the plead in her voice. She saw it strike him, but casually brush it off like a wolf shake off a flea.

"I would but, no. I guess you could say, your presence lightens the room and as you can see, my temple needs all the light it can get," he stated. He was of course referring to how dark his temple was except for the few scattered candles that flickered every now and then.

"You know my spirit is dying," she replied. She let her knees buckle and slide against the comfort of the stone wall behind her.

"Not with me, it won’t. I’ll make sure you spend the rest of eternity living it out as my queen," he stated with a smile, before turning his back on her.

****************

Gabrielle walked as the prophet had asked her to do. They already walked quite a way before he had said for them to stop.

"Here," he said. "This is where I will tell you."

Gabrielle sat on a rotten stump that had been eaten away at the countless sandstorms Egypt had to offer. Across from her was Amoo.

"The Greek god, Willow, is the guider of souls among the mortal world. Like the Greek god Charon, who guides the souls of the dead into your Underworld, Willow finds the souls of the lost walking among the mortal world and guides them to their rightful spiritual world. That world, being left up to the soul who is lost." He breathed in a moment or two before continuing on with his prophecy. "Willow must collect a key that is given to all souls once they leave their bodies, like Charon collects a coin in his mouth from every soul wishing to cross the river and enter the Underworld. Once this key is collected the soul is no longer in Willow’s hands. It must venture to the spiritual world it chooses or is given to."

Gabrielle gazed to Amoo both understood and intrigued. She had never met an Egyptian prophet who knew so much about Greek culture.

"I understand that part, but how did Ares get a hold of her soul?" she asked.

"My guess is that Xena was hiding her key so that she could continue to walk the earth in your heart. To be at your side when ever you needed her to be. If she were to enter Elysium she would never miss you and be haunted with the thought that you would always be coming home each day that passed. Heaven carried no place for her as long as you continued to walk among your way alone," he replied. His breath was now in short whisks as the hot dry sun of the afternoon was dying down in the oncoming night air.

"So Ares stole her key and gave it to Willow, making him... ruler of her soul," she uttered. She was speaking slowly now as her mind had finally begun to fit the pieces to the puzzle.

"And he still has the key, hidden somewhere so that no one can find it. He truly has become a desperate god," Amoo replied.

Gabrielle hadn’t heard his last few words. She was already trying to devise a plan to retrieve Xena’s key. It was then that Amoo’s words shook her from her train of thought.

"There is something far more greater you must do in order to save your friend and it will in turn reunite you with her once more," he said.

Gabrielle thought hard about bringing Xena back to her mortal self once again. She would continue to live her life out like it was suppose to be, with Xena.

"Then what is it that I have to do?" she asked.

"See that cave?" he pointed to the bright light that was peeking through a giant sand covered stone. There was barely any daylight left so the light shone on clear as crystal.

"Yes," she replied. She gazed to it curiously, almost frustrated. She did not have time for such games.

"Follow me into that cave and there you’ll find your answer."

****************

Gabrielle gazed around to her small surroundings. It was a temple covered in Egyptian writing that she could hardly read. She watched as Amoo walked toward a stone chest and placed it down carefully in front of her.

"This is my gift to you," he said. He slowly opened the case and abandoned it, revealing in the palms of his hands a delicate ball made of crystal and stone that had Egyptian carvings connected in a band around it.

"What is it?" she asked. She looked to it curiously.

"It is an Egyptian key that can open to the holes time possesses. It belonged to the great Egyptian pharaoh, Ramses, who used it to travel back to the time of his ancestors and ask for their words of wisdom," he replied.

She gazed to the wondrous device that he carried so cautiously and watched as his fingers found a tiny glitch.

Suddenly the ball opened, exposing its inner core as a musical instrument. It circled around and around playing a tune Gabrielle didn’t recognize, but was memorized by instantly. It was like one of those small jewelry boxes that played music with a ballerina in front, dancing in circles.

"In order for you and your soulmate to once again be reunited, you must recite the lyrics to this song," he stated. He continued to hold the odd looking instrument in one palm and retrieved the scroll from the chest in his other.

Gabrielle took the scroll and opened it to a language she was luckily familiar to.

"This is Egyptian-Latin," she said. "I learnt to read this the last time Xena and I were in Egypt."

"Recite it and this will open to any portal in time that you wish," he stated.

"Why would I need to go back in time?" she asked. She had already begun to read the words from the scroll aloud in her head.

"You must go back and retrieve Xena’s greatest enemy, before her enemy’s soul was ever replenished and forgiven for her sins," he said.

"Callisto," she whispered. It was a name she had almost forgotten.

"Once you have brought her back to the present, you must fight her to the death," he stated. He was now gazing into her lost green eyes, ones that had only now accepted the hard shell the world had created for her.

"Why?" she asked. She was confused because none of this was making any sense.

"I cannot tell you why, but you must do this, to save your friend," he replied. He had now taken the instrument and placed back in its stone chest.

"Why should I trust you?" she asked. She looked up from the instrument and gazed into his aged eyes.

"What choice do you have?" he replied with a question. He simply smiled to her before turning his back toward the opening of the cave.

**********************

Gabrielle felt as though she could put her life into Amoo’s hands. It was the barrier of trust he carried that had convinced her so. After all, if Xena had trusted him once, then so could she. But still, a part of her was worried that something may go wrong and that she might never be reunited with Xena, in person or in spirit. So she sent word to Eve, the daughter of Xena, who was Chin.

"Priestess, there is message for you," said a man. He was a young monk from Chin who was studding under the guidance of Eve who was spreading word of Eli’s message of peace.

"Thank you, Atok," she replied. She lifted herself from off the floor of the small room and collected the scroll clenched in his palms.

Eve opened it and read the message that was from her dear aunt, Gabrielle. A moment or two later-when she had finished reading-she left her chambers quickly.

"Where are you going, Priestess?" asked the monk.

"To Greece, to find my mother," she replied.

*******************

It was a day or two before Gabrielle had thought herself physically ready enough to battle not only Xena’s greatest enemy, but an enemy once of her own. Amoo had watched her from afar, practicing her sword work and getting the hang of Xena’s mighty Chakram. He smiled to how much love and pain conquered each side of her heart. Though he’d only just met Gabrielle, he felt the strong connection she had for Xena. A friendship stronger than blood.

It was that night that Amoo walked her to the cave and opened the chest once more. This time Gabrielle wasn’t afraid of the instrument before her, but welcomed it with an anxious joy.

"When you travel back to that period in time you must remember not to let yourself be seen by your younger self or Xena’s. You must find Callisto and once again the hole will open and bring you both back here," he stated calmly.

Understood, she nodded her head and took in a deep relaxing breath.

"Are you sure this is what you want Gabrielle, to be reunited with Xena?" he asked. He placed the ball onto the stone block before her and tapped the tiny glitch for it to open. It began to hum its arrhythmic tune as it tickled Gabrielle’s ears.

"More then anything in my entire life," she stated with a passion. She lifted the scroll open in her palms and glanced at the words and symbols below her fingertips.

"Then you know what you must do," he said. He stood back a ways and watched as she began to chant the complicated language.

"Mongula, Mongla, itchnoa montiabla alitnabla..." her tone was smooth and flowed to the tune of the instrument like a small stream.

Suddenly a small black hole began to appear brighter and brighter before her very eyes, until it had grown to the size of a cloud. Amoo continued to watch as the wind began to blow and Gabrielle was sucked into the depths of the unknown. It closed behind her and all that was left was the scroll she had been reading, rolling back and forth upon the stone floor.

***************

Eve had traveled by ship until she had made it to the coast of Greece. There she continued on foot towards Athens. She had been to Ares’s great temple before, the one that stood tall and alone on the tops of Mount Olympus. He’d taken her their only once, back in her evil days as Livia, Conquer of Rome. When in Athens, she was greeted by an old friend.

"Eve?" came a voice from behind her. The town square was loud and full with peasants, but she’d been able to make out that familiar voice.

"Virgil?" she turned around with a surprised gasp. She was grateful to see him standing there.

"I’m, I’m sorry about your mother. I heard word of her death when I was traveling in Cornith," he said with a look of remorse creeping across his face. He had lost his father to Livia, but now Eve had lost her mother. It was as if that rough wave between them all this time had finally settled.

"Thank you," she replied. She dipped her head to the side before looking back into his eyes again.

"Is there anything I can do?" he asked.

She thought about it a moment or two before replying. "Yes, I need your help. Will you help me?" her tone was of desperation and Virgil could hear it.

"Of course, what do you want me to do?" he asked with curiosity.

"I want you to walk with me to Mount Olympus. It’ll be a long walk and I’ll need the company," she replied as she picked up her satchel of supplies and began walking toward the opening of Athen’s city.

"Sure, but what possible reason could there be for you to want to go to Mount Olympus?" he asked. He threw her a curious gaze as he continued to walk by her side.

"I’ll tell you on the way," she replied.

*****************

Gabrielle found herself in the woods of Greece. The sun was peeking through the thick trees as she gazed above and allowed its warmth to bathe her face in warmth. It was like she was home again, only something seemed oddly different about this home and the one she’d only just left. Everything was still so young. She remembered about the prophet’s words about not allowing herself be seen by that of her younger self and Xena’s. It was then that she heard footsteps from behind her and a familiar voice.

"Gabrielle, be careful!" it was Xena, shouting after her.

A moment later, Gabrielle watched from behind a tree as her younger self-long blonde hair and staff- came running down the pathway she once had been standing on. She waited until a second pair of footsteps came closer and closer. This time Gabrielle watched as Xena stopped upon the path right in front of her and began to sniff the air. She knew that Xena could sense her. Seeing Xena, so young and vibrant made Gabrielle want to give herself away and touch the cheek of the warrior princess. Instead, she watched as Xena brushed it off and continued running after Gabrielle’s younger self down the path. This was all too hard for Gabrielle to bare as she rested her back against the tree and bit her lip from crying. It was a minute or too later that Gabrielle heard the sound of footsteps again.

"Come out, come out little piggies," came a squeak of a voice. It was a voice all too familiar to Gabrielle. It was Callisto’s.

Gabrielle knew that this was her chance and that there was no turning back. She took a deep breath and walked out from the wood and stood right in Callisto’s way.

"Hello Callisto," she replied. Her voice seemed bold, but shaken.

"Gabrielle, there’s something different about you. Maybe it’s the hair or the new outfit, or maybe this new found sense of courage," she replied, tapping the tip of sword to her cheek in curiosity. "But, a kill’s a kill," she cackled hard as she drew her sword to Gabrielle’s throat.

Gabrielle watched as the portal behind Callisto grew and grew until it was the same size as the one that had brought her here. Just as Callisto raised her sword to slit the throat of the bard, she was sucked into the portal. Gabrielle felt herself turn just in time to catch Xena and her young self walk a ways toward her before being sucked into the portal herself.

"Did you hear something?" asked a young Gabrielle.

"It was probably just the wind," replied a vibrant Xena.

****************

Both Callisto and Gabrielle awoke to the hot sand and sun bathing their bodies. Callisto picked herself up, still clutching her sword and hastily looked to her surroundings.

"Where am I?!" she screamed as her voice was carried away by the wind. It was the one and only time Gabrielle could remember Callisto sounding so scared. She turned abruptly and faced a now standing Gabrielle with a raging glare. "You did this!"

She came toward Gabrielle with her sword, only for it to clash against Xena’s. Callisto stood back a ways and gazed to Xena’s sword that Gabrielle now gripped in her palms.

"Where did you get that?" she asked.

"Let’s just say, it was a gift," she replied. "Now lets finish what you started," Gabrielle held the sword in front of her boldly, and the look on her face was a determined one.

Callisto smiled sickly. She liked this new Gabrielle and although she had no clue where she was or how she got there, she didn’t dare turn down a fight to the blonde bard. She came at her with her sword and smiled as it clashed against Gabrielle’s once, and then again. The sounds of both their screams echoed over the desert valley.

***************

Eve and Virgil had made it to the foothills of Mount Olympus and could spot Ares’s temple, standing tall in-between two mountain slopes. The sun was just beginning to set and the sky was painted with a deep red, like someone had punctured the sky and made it bled. It was exactly like Eve had remembered it.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Virgil with hesitation.

"As I’ll ever be," replied Eve. In that particular light she shed the look of her mother as she gazed to the great temple.

They looked at one another and then continued on toward the path that would take them to the entrance.

********************

Ares watched as Xena stood in the corner of the room. Her color dimming and her eyes barely open.

"Come on Xena, we had a contract, remember?" he said. It was a fragile tone he spoke in, unaware of it himself. "I gave you Gabrielle’s soul back in exchange for your own. You just happened to hide that little contract from me so it couldn’t be finalized."

He walked toward her, close but not too close. "You ARE mine, Xena," he stated.

She looked up from the floor and gazed into his eyes with loving care as she did that day he’d almost killed her. Like now, she was weak, but there was still something that was keeping her from strangling him. "I’m not yours Ares. For the longest time I’ve been trying to show you this."

She watched as he turned his back to her. He let all the anger and rage in him fade with his lasting sigh and let a spark of emotion show. Not only was Xena weak, but he himself as well. More then Xena would ever know. "Why couldn’t I get you to love me, Xena?" He asked like the weakened child he had become.

"Because, love is something you can’t make people feel," she replied. It was a moment or two later that they both stood there in silence. She knew that he was misunderstood, and wished the she had the will power to explain to him every last feeling that sparked whenever he was around her. But that time had come and gone. Finally Xena’s voice cut the unbearably string holding Ares together.

"I did love you Ares, just not in the way that you wanted it to be. I wish I had," she replied. The last few words she’d whispered, but carried deep in Ares’s heart.

Ares felt himself tingle with pain and confusion. All this emotion was something unknown to him. He cared for Xena more then anything he had ever cared about before and knew that in his heart he had to let her go. She was never his to begin with. She was dying and he knew even as a god he could do nothing to keep her heart here, with him, when it belonged to someone else.

"Even though I’m gone, a part of me will always live in your memory. Those Memories are what will keep me alive in your eyes for eternity," she said. He was now standing before her, so close that he could feel the light within her soul bath his face.

He looked at her hard and long, finally convincing that greedy part of himself to give up the key and do the right thing, for once in his immortal life. He slipped his hand into his pocket and retrieved her key, glistening in her own light. She looked down at his palm and then back into his eyes with a noble smile.

*******************

Callisto threw Gabrielle off of her and let her fall back into the thick sand. She laughed hideously and kicked her sword away when Gabrielle tried to reach for it. She stood over her with her sword pointed to her throat, a blank smile stretching across her lips.

"Finally the bard will sleep," Callisto proclaimed as she went to drive her sword into Gabrielle’s throat.

Suddenly Callisto felt her feet buckle from under her as Gabrielle pushed her back and reached for her sword. Instead she found Xena’s Chakram and closed her eyes in hopes to find the answer that she needed. Even to save Xena, she couldn’t bring herself to kill Callisto. It was then that she heard Callisto holler from behind her.

"You always were a sad pathetic excuse of a warrior. What Xena saw in you, I’ll never know. At least now I’ll have the privilege of hearing you squeal like a pig, just like your precious husband did when his heart met the end of my sword," she said with a devilish smile.

As Gabrielle lay collapsed upon the sand- tears streaming down her face- she gave no thought at all and let the anger in her throw that Chakram straight at Callisto. She turned her back, to avoid the sight of Callisto’s death, but was met with the sight of her own.

Callisto had caught the Chakram in mid air and threw it back towards Gabrielle on instinct, cutting her head clean off her body. Callisto watched as it rolled upon the sand and gazed back at her with empty eyes and tear stained cheeks. Suddenly, as if the soul in her had been drowned in conscience, Callisto dropped her sword to the sand below and starred on ahead. She had realized that the deed she’d done was not how she had always pictured it, like the little good she still contained in her soul was consumed. With a look on her face as if she’d seen a ghost, she was sucked back into the gapping hole that had brought her here. All was silent as Amoo walked toward Gabrielle’s body, picked up her head and began to pray.

*****************

Eve and Virgil had entered the temple and watched as the spirit of her mother kissed the lips of the God of War for the very last time and then faded before him in a ball of light. Ares stood there a moment or two and touched his lips, as if to recollect what had just taken place. He whispered one last good-bye to his warrior princess and then looked to both Eve and Virgil before materializing into a bright blue light.

Eve and Virgil stood there in silence before looking at one another for a time. They fell to their knees and embraced in a stunned, but remorseful hug as the silence in the temple swallowed them whole.

**************

Amoo watched as Gabrielle’s body was burned in front of him. The young Egyptian boy who was one of the villagers came up beside him, gazing to the cremation before his very eyes.

"Why?" he asked. His voice was shaken, but barely heard over the blaze.

"Why what, my friend?" Amoo replied with a question of his own. He had turned his eyes away from the fire and looked to the boy.

"Why was it that she had to fight that murdering woman from her past?" he asked. The boy’s curiosity had obviously been biting at his tongue long enough.

"Because her soul was protected by her own forgiving and loving light, which would guide her alone when she were to pass on. In order for her soul to join her friend in the spiritual world, she would have to be killed by the one first to have murdered it," Amoo replied to the boy.

"Then why didn’t you tell her that she had to die, in order to be reunited with her friend?" The boy seemed upset by all this. He’d only spoken to Gabrielle shortly at the time of her arrival, but the vibe she gave was honest and genuine.

"Even as a prophet, I have come to understand that not all questions have an answer. But, that everything eventually ends up where it began. Xena and Gabrielle were united once because of fate and it is that same fate that has reunited them again, whether it be in the mortal world or the spiritual world," He replied. He turned-as did the boy-and watched the ceremony of Gabrielle’s decent. Chanting an Egyptian prayer, he followed the smoke as it rose thick and black toward the night sky.

*******************

In Amoo’s hut he placed Gabrielle’s ashes next to Xena’s, resting them in a stone chest. He smiled to the sight of both of them and turned when a man had entered the hut. He was the captain of the same ship that had brought Gabrielle to him.

"You asked for me?" he stated.

Amoo turned back toward the chest and closed it carefully. Turning back, he held it within his palms as he approached the captain.

"Take them to Amphipolis and bury them there. It is what they would have wanted."

The captain nodded in agreement and took the stone chest from the old man’s hands. When he had disappeared, Amoo followed him out into the night’s sky and gazed to the stars above.

"I will miss you young bard," he replied to the sky.

*******************

Gabrielle found herself walking in the misty forests of Greece once again. The sun was glistening through the leaves as it had before, bathing her in it’s ever lasting warmth. She couldn’t remember how she had gotten there, but there was something different about these woods, as if this weren’t Greece at all. Like a small child, she was lost. She continued to walk the long path ahead of her, walls of forest surrounding her. Suddenly she could make out a figure on a horse trotting toward her. It was Xena. Gabrielle watched as she came up beside her and stopped, both gazing to one another.

"Hey," said Xena.

"Hi," replied Gabrielle. She stopped and took another look around at her surroundings. Her eyes then fell upon Xena’s once again.

"We’re together again, Gabrielle," she said with a thankful smile.

"Always," replied Gabrielle as Xena reached out her hand to her which Gabrielle gladly took within her own.

As Gabrielle climbed on top of Argo’s back, she wrapped her arms around Xena’s waist and looked to her. " So where are we heading?"

"I don’t know, somewhere between Heaven and Elysium," replied Xena as she began to trot along the path leading to the fork in the road that lead to any spiritual world they could choose.

"Xena?" asked Gabrielle.

"Yes?"

"I love you," said Gabrielle.

"I love you too," replied Xena with a gentle smile. They continued to ride down the path until they disappeared into the mists of the spiritual world. The echo of their beginning brightening their smiles till the end.

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