Ed Schecter guided the helicopter down an expanse of river and trees, taking his direction from Aphrodite, who occupied the co-pilot chair. From the seat behind, Xena gazed out of the window to the vista of buildings and trees below, and marveled again at having a bird’s eye view of the world. Absently, the warrior listened to the conversation between pilot and goddess, her headset, blocking out much of the noise of the aircraft when suddenly she felt an emotional tug to the area below.
“Hold on,” she said into her microphone.
“I was wondering if you’d notice,” Aphrodite said kindly.
“Where are we?” Xena asked.
Ed was about to answer when Aphrodite silenced him with a shake of her head. “Take us lower,” she instructed the pilot. “Where are we?” she asked, repeating the warrior’s question back to her.
Xena studied the terrain from above. She saw the river and the trees. She could tell it was hilly, although clearly the structures and signs of habitation made the view much different from two-thousand years ago. One spot in particular caught her eye, a place of barren ground between several groups of trees. A memory seared its way to her consciousness, white hot and burning in its clarity. She shut her eyes to block it out, then forced herself to open them and look. “This is where I died,” she whispered. “This is Higuchi. First the arrows, then the sword.”
“It is,” Ed replied sympathetically. “I’m sorry you were killed here, Xena. I am sorry you didn’t die in your sleep surrounded by loving family. I think it’d freak me out, were I to see something like this.”
“Did Vox or Michelle tell you?” Aphrodite asked without judgement.
“I’ve known for five years,” he explained. “Vox and I have had to bunk together on occasion when I helped her pull all-nighters studying for her captain’s certification exams and she talks in her sleep. Wasn’t her fault. I haven’t said a word to anyone, not even her,” he assured them. “Remember I’m the guy who thought you were a robot. I believe the unbelievable.”
Aphrodite squeezed his muscular shoulder reassuringly and pointed off in the distance. Taking her cue, he circled one last time then the helicopter rose and left the scene of Xena’s beheading.
The hilly area dotted with trees moved away from her field of view, leaving Xena with feelings of pain, sorrow and regret competing for her attention. She once again reevaluated the decisions she’d made that day, now with the new perspective of knowing about Gabrielle’s life in the ensuing years. What the bard had done immediately after her death and then the fateful bargain with Poseidon to bring her back. It was hard not to feel guilty knowing that Gabrielle had suffered so much in the ensuing years over a choice she had made.
She’d read the bard’s journal from that time. Her decision to return to Egypt and the decade she spent there continuing her fight for the greater good, as if it were the two of them battling the odds. Then her return to the land of her birth to revisit all of the places they’d traveled, including the stop in Cirra that changed everything. All her life, Xena passionately believed in a person’s right and responsibility to make their own choices and grapple with the consequences of those choices. Too many times, a person’s choice had led them to their death on the end of her sword or chakram. But on occasion, a person’s choice had led them to her bed, or to stand at her side. And one amazing time, it led the other half of her soul to travel with her until her end. With a perspective only rebirth can give you, she realized that while she often felt unworthy of Gabrielle’s love, it wasn’t her choice who Gabrielle felt was worthy. If she’d realized it back then, that she was truly worthy, she might have made a different choice in Higuchi. A choice, perhaps, that would have had them living out their lives in the natural order. Perhaps even dying in her sleep as an old woman surrounded by loving family. A choice that might have made the world a very different place two-thousand years later.
“Is this the building?” Ed asked Aphrodite, cutting into the warrior’s thoughts.
“No, that taller one over there.”
The helicopter touched down lightly on the landing pad, earning a nod of respect from one of the attendants waiting for them. Clearly these were Gabrielle’s people, the pair greeted Ed warmly with handshakes.
“I am Asahi, and this is Suki,” he said with a nod to his companion. “Miss Romanoff, Miss Winter, Mister Schecter, your car is downstairs.”
“I’ll be staying with the ‘copter,” Ed replied with a grin. “Give us a chance to catch up. Asahi-san, you’d better have some photos of the children, I’m sure they’ve grown.”
The young man smiled delightedly. “Shall we order lunch for Mister Ed?” he asked Aphrodite. “Will you be long?”
Aphrodite chuckled at the warmth of their reception, completely unsurprised that the large body builder made friends wherever he went. “Yes, please, order lunch. We will be a couple of hours if all goes well. Ed, I’ll text you when we’re headed back.”
The second attendant stepped forward and bowed respectfully. “If you would please follow me then, I will take you to your car while these two catch up.” She was the younger of the two, dressed in a similar suit. “Mister Ed introduced Asahi to his wife and he is godfather to Kaito and Kenji.” As she chatted with Aphrodite, Xena took in her surroundings. It was an office building, non-descript, buzzing with the general efficiency of people hard at work. As they rode an elevator down, she realized that it was a financial building, with a bank on the bottom.
“Just the closest spot to where we’re headed and could have an unscheduled landing,” Aphrodite explained. As promised, a black sedan was waiting for them outside.
“Shall I drive?” Suki asked, opening the back door.
Aphrodite shook her head. “No, please, enjoy lunch with Ed and Asahi. You have been very helpful, thank you.” The attendant beamed at the compliment, shutting the back door. She bowed politely, which was returned by the goddess.
Moments later they drove through the busy streets of the downtown area, Aphrodite appearing quite at home in the bustle and traffic.
“Why are we here?” Xena asked, looking around at the scenery and marveling at how much had changed since her last visit to Japan.
“You’d be amazed how often we immortals get that question,” Aphrodite replied with a chuckle. “Who knows, we just are.” Xena frowned at her and the goddess relented. “Okay, okay. You weren’t asking in the metaphysical sense. I have a colleague who may have an inside track on someone who can help us. Or maybe she has white amber incense herself, I don’t know.”
“You and other immortals have some kind of ‘superhero club’ or something?” Xena asked with an eyeroll.
“Absolutely not!” the goddess protested. “We do our best to stay out of each other’s way, give each other our space. What I’m up to right now is fairly out of bounds. But Calypso crossed a line, so I figure I can too. Can you imagine that crap with Ares if all sorts of other immortals got involved and picked sides? All that drama out in the open and in the press, freaking people out?”
“Maybe people need to be freaked out?” the warrior suggested as Aphrodite left the downtown bustle for a road heading into the hills. “Maybe people would be less distracted by petty squabbles if they felt that real help was at hand?”
“Human beings barely make their own bed, metaphysically speaking. You can’t even persuade everyone to wear a mask and take a friggin’ vaccine to help fight a pandemic. If they knew that there were actual people with power walking among them, they might stop doing even the minimal stuff they actually do. People would take a ‘fix it for me’ attitude or try to blow us up or something. I’m not going to trust a creature with my wellbeing that can’t even keep its own nest clean thank you very much. I’ve been around mortals a very, very, long time. Sometimes I wonder if they’re evolving backwards.” As she spoke, Aphrodite rounded a corner onto a new street that moved through a stunning neighborhood. Trees groomed with precision, houses that were neat and tidy, all tucked behind expansive gardens. The goddess paused at a cross street before coming to a decision and turning left.
“Do you know where we’re going?” Xena asked, dubiously.
Again, Aphrodite shrugged. “I’ve never been here before, but I do know where I’m going, kinda. So how was Gabrielle when you left? Getting her strength back?”
“Yes, slowly. She could stand on her own,” Xena replied. “She’d gone back to bed to rest, but was checking in with everyone by video. She told me about her experience in the dreamscape. I’m glad you helped her find her way out. I know what you mean to her.”
They seemed to have arrived at their destination because Aphrodite pulled the car over and turned the engine off. She turned to look at Xena, giving the warrior her full attention. “You and I go back a long way,” she began, smiling but serious. “We’ve had some fun, kick ass adventures, and heavy moments. I’ve watched you and Gabrielle fall for each other like a ton of bricks. I’ve watched her evolve from someone who didn’t know her own mind to a powerful, competent woman who could love fiercely. Conversely, I’ve watched you evolve from someone trying to manage her broken pieces to a woman who finally realized that love is the strongest force on earth. And that your heart was stronger than any of your weapons.”
“Am I going to need that strength when Gabrielle chooses you?” Xena asked unflinchingly.
Aphrodite looked at Xena for long moments before replying. She tenderly reached over and held the warrior’s hand. “While this really isn’t any of your business, I’m going to tell you a story. It’s about a bet that Ares and I made before you were even born. He was determined to have a warrior who would bend the whole world to his will. My part of the bet was to stop him. I’d figured out you were his mark when you were probably seven. Later, I came across this amazing child. A five-year old who stopped my oracle during a procession to return a flower. I gave the oracle a vision about all of the amazing things this little girl would experience in her life including the most epic of love stories. Xena, I did not put myself in that story. You may have been on a collision course from that fateful day, but how it played out was chosen by the two of you. You two chose each other. You love each other with intensity, dedication, as much honesty as you can handle, humor, tenderness and passion. Do you seriously think for a second, as amazeballs as I am, that I could get in the way of that? That I would want to get in the way of that?”
“But she loves you,” Xena protested.
“Of course, she does,” Aphrodite replied. “I love her too. We shared a really intense couple of months. You weren’t on the scene, and her heart needed to remember how to feel, how to trust, how to let go. But so what? You loved Solon, you love Shen, does love for one child have anything to do with your love for the other? Before you tell me it isn’t the same thing, just stop yourself right there, because you know better.
“Xena, unfortunately you haven’t had the opportunity to love a ton of people in your life. Not in a healthy way. You loved Lao Ma when you were mostly broken; same with Borias. I have no idea what was going on with that whole Ulysses thing or that guy in Egypt, but whatever. Maybe Marcus was close?” She briefly pondered the idea before dismissing it and moving on.
“You’ve always been a fairly focused thinker and generally that serves you well, but not here. You have to think and feel bigger than that. Gabrielle has lived over two-thousand years. There have been a number of people she’s loved deeply, never encroaching on the love she’s always felt for you. She’s really caught on that love is not a finite resource, but time is. Relationships take time and work and often a person only has the bandwidth to really focus on one at a time. You are always going to be Gabrielle’s primary relationship. She and I are always going to be close, but we have our own thing. And that thing? It doesn’t infringe on your thing. Savvy?”
Xena nodded; the goddess had given her a lot to think about. “So, I’m supposed to be chill when Gabrielle climbs all over you?” she quipped, a humorless smirk on her face.
Aphrodite smiled. “Honey, I’d take your snark more seriously if I didn’t already know for a fact that you like to watch.” The Goddess of Love winked, causing the Warrior Princess blush. “Xena, the heart is not always a reliable narrator, but then again, neither is your head. Now, if we’re finished with our sensitive chat, we have work to do. Ground rules: be polite. Remember who you are, and remember what’s flowing through your veins. Also remember that this person could squash you like a bug if she wanted to. She’s a colleague of mine not yours.”
Shaking her head in dismay at the cryptic nature of Aphrodite’s words, she nevertheless followed the goddess up the cobblestone walkway. As they walked, Xena thought about what Aphrodite had said. There was firm but gentle comfort in her words. Love, humor, insight, intelligence; the facets of her friend shone and sparkled now in ways she’d never appreciated in the old days. It was plain to see what Gabrielle was attracted to. Deciding she didn’t want to consider her own potential attraction, she focused instead on their surroundings.
“I noticed the rain stopped as soon as we arrived,” Xena observed.
“Yes,” Aphrodite agreed. “Almost as if someone is expecting company. What a gorgeous house. Look at these trees and the fish!”
Xena had to agree. They’d arrived at a stunning home tucked behind a charming garden. The home itself was beautiful, timeless, with impressive woodwork and slate grey tile. The walkway wound through a garden of manicured trees and greenery over a delicate bridge with huge koi swimming gracefully in the pond. The walkway opened onto a small courtyard of intricately laid stone.
Upon reaching the front door, Aphrodite knocked. The door gracefully opened, and they were greeted in the foyer by a smartly dressed young woman. Xena guessed she was in her early twenties. “Welcome,” she said. “If you would please follow me?”
Her English was flawless, but that didn’t keep Xena from leaning towards Aphrodite as they entered. “Should we let her know we know Japanese?”
Aphrodite shook her head. “When in Rome, hon. We’ve been extended a courtesy, and we will honor it.”
Xena nodded and followed Aphrodite inside. Just inside the entry there was a place for shoes so they removed theirs, donning the provided slippers. The home was immaculate. Unlike Aphrodite’s place, a jumble of different styles and designs that all worked together in a bohemian fashion, this home was elegant and very Japanese. There was a quiet serenity to the space, and it smelled faintly of jasmine. There were a few photos, several sculptures, but the ornamentation was minimal. She felt warm and welcome, but there was a sense of order and formality as well.
“This way,” their guide said, leading the warrior and goddess to the main living area.
“Pam-san!” Another woman exclaimed in greeting, rushing over to hug Aphrodite. “It is so good to see you. I didn’t think I would. You have made me very happy.”
“Keiko-san,” Aphrodite replied, returning the hug warmly. “I wasn’t sure I’d found the right house, but I hoped so.”
The pair kissed each other on both cheeks and held hands a moment before Aphrodite turned her attention to Xena. “Keiko, this is my friend, Xena,” Aphrodite began the introduction. “Most will know her as Natasha, the way I went by Pam back in the day. Xena, this is my friend Keiko, also known as Benzaiten in this neck of the woods. She is the goddess of everything that flows: water, time, words, speech, eloquence, music, knowledge and of course, love.”
“So, you are the Aphrodite!” the Japanese woman exclaimed joyfully. “I had my suspicions, of course! Like knows like, but I wasn’t sure. Please, come in, sit,” she said indicating low couches around a black lacquered table. “You must call me Keiko,” she said turning to Xena, “I consider it an endearment from a very beloved time.” As she spoke the woman who met them at the door silently crossed the room to stand on the far side at the doorway. “I met Pam in the June of 1966,” Keiko continued, “It was a on flight coming home from the UK with my husband at the time. Pam was the most wonderful flight-attendant, we called them stewardesses or air hostesses back then, and we hit it off so wonderfully. Now it’s clear why. Of course, you haven’t aged a day, and I love your hair – you always look so glamorous…” As she chatted another woman appeared at the edge of the room joining the first, silently waiting for instructions. She was much older, graying hair was swept back in a bun, her skin bore the wrinkles of time and experience. “Tea, please, for my guests,” Keiko said without missing a beat. With a respectful nod, the newcomer departed. “We ended up going to the Beatles’ concert together, didn’t we?”
Aphrodite chuckled at the fond memory. “Indeed, we did. Your husband was so grateful not to go; found them distasteful, right? ‘Long hair noise’ he called it. The concert was at the Budokan Hall in Tokyo, and the controversy! That an English band would perform in the scared space of Sumo wrestling. I remember all of the press coverage. But we had such a good time, didn’t we Keiko? We went backstage – let’s just say that those amazing love songs didn’t come from nowhere.”
Moments later, the elderly woman reappeared with a tea service. The three women sat in silence as she prepared tea for them, each elegant movement graceful and with purpose. The younger woman watched with rapt attention, studying the older woman’s movements intently. When she was finished, all three women on the couch smiled in thanks and nodded respectfully. Each of them sipped her tea, letting the silence and reverence of the moment wash over them like a gentle wave. Xena considered the power of rituals and ritual movement. Like the meditation of practicing with her sword or chakram; her skills developed through practice and hard work to the point that exercising those muscle memories now was an act of calming meditation.
As the stillness hung in the air, Xena took the opportunity to take a better look at their host. Keiko seemed like a young woman, in her mid to late twenties, perhaps. Her black hair was immaculately straight and reached the middle of her back. When she moved, her hair flowed like water, neat and graceful. She was beautiful, certainly. Her features were delicate and symmetrical, her skin flawless. She was smartly dressed in an elegant Qipao imprinted with cherry blossoms. It seemed formal for hanging out at home alone, but the warrior suspected their arrival was expected. In spite of herself, Xena felt an intense attraction. She moved with unhurried precision, and to the warrior, it indicated strength and control; she suspected that this would be a formidable foe.
The two attendants stood at the edge of the room, unflinching but relaxed, observing the three of them without a trace of judgement. To Xena it seemed clear that the younger attendant was in training. She wondered if years of study were required to be in the service of a goddess. “This is Sumi, she helps me,” Keiko broke into the warrior’s thoughts to explain, nodding to the older of the two women, “and this is Toshiko, who is ‘learning the ropes’ as you say.” She indicated the young woman who had greeted them at the door. “Sumi does not speak, but even if she could, your confidences would be kept here. Please speak freely. Pam-san, I don’t think you came all this way for a social call.”
Without being asked, Toshiko bowed respectfully and retreated from the room, leaving the women alone with the mute attendant. Aphrodite smiled warmly at their host before speaking. “Your wisdom is manifest, Keiko,” Aphrodite began.
Xena noticed the change in tone from the goddess’ usual manner of speaking. There was a friendly formality here, but also an acknowledgement of her own power, that in this moment she was speaking to an equal. Goddess to Goddess. And that all of the deference and respect that she happily bestowed on her friend, she expected in return.
“I’ve come to ask for your help, dear friend,” she continued. “I do not wish to intrude on your domain but circumstance has forced my hand. You’ve no doubt heard of my uncle, Poseidon, God of the Sea. He has been captured by the spirit of a vile shaman from our homeland, named Alti. She is using the body of a woman from here; Kana, niece of Titan Onozuka. Life means nothing to her and she has killed already, and her power is growing. She is draining the power from my uncle and with that his life. We know of several whose only offense was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We think that she’s being assisted by the Onozuka organization and the Shinigami. We need white amber incense, information about her, and where she might be holding my uncle.”
Keiko studied Aphrodite for a long moment before speaking. “How did this mess land in my garden, if I may ask?” The tone, while light, indicated this was anything but a question.
Before she realized what she was doing, Xena spoke. “Two thousand years ago I was killed in Higuchi.”
Xena saw surprise register on the Japanese woman’s face, quickly replaced by thoughtfulness as she considered a time long past. “Xena…Xena…Yes, of course! The Warrior Princess. You vanquished Yodoshi, as I recall?” Keiko replied with a warm smile. “Even then I was impressed by your bravery and your sacrifice. You gave up someone who made your heart sing, and she you.”
Xena nodded. “That was Gabrielle, the other half of my soul. She was granted near immortality by Poseidon a decade later, and she spent the next two millennia searching for Aphrodite and a way to bring me back. She succeeded five years ago.”
“Ahhh, that would explain so much,” Keiko said, nodding. “I did not know why the Shinigami were so agitated of late, but it all makes sense now. You kept your end of the bargain, Xena. Their quarrel would not be with you. But Poseidon, and anyone who aided him, would be the target of their ire.” She looked pointedly at her friend.
“That’s just it,” Xena replied. “This shaman, Alti, her quarrel is with me. It has been since she and I traveled together. Power is what she’s after, at any cost, and she is very manipulative. I can see her convincing someone that assisting her is the only way to settle that score.”
“I own up to my part of this,” Aphrodite added. “Gabrielle, Poseidon and I brought Xena back. I do not think that negates Xena’s deal with Yodoshi. But I can see why we would be targets for the Shinigami. They must feel that Alti is a means to their end, and I’ve no doubt Alti feels the same way about them. They are the key to her revenge. For what it’s worth, the power Alti is sapping from Poseidon, she’s testing it in your backyard – I’m sure you can sense that. When all of his chi is transferred to her, he will die, and she will have the power of the sea. If she succeeds, she will come after me next and anyone else with power she can get her hands on. With each kill she will get stronger and stronger. Eventually she will call on you.”
The goddess of all flowing things sipped her tea thoughtfully for long moments before responding. Xena looked uncertainly at Aphrodite who just smiled reassuringly.
“I sense another power nearby that is a visitor to my domain as well. A friend of yours?” she asked.
“That would be Yoruba,” Aphrodite supplied. “From Africa. She goes by the name ‘Calypso’ at the moment. We’ve only recently become acquatinted, but I trust that she is interested in rescuing my uncle and maintaining the balance of the seas. I do not feel that she intends to encroach on my domain, or yours.”
“Would you call her ‘friend’?” Keiko asked.
Aphrodite gave the question some thought before responding. “I would,” Aphrodite finally replied. “Yes. I had my reservations at first, but truly, I sense a caring ally, I’ve seen no evidence of duplicity.”
Keiko was quiet a moment more as she sipped her tea. With a soft smile, she gently placed the delicate cup on the table and regarded her two guests. “If you would be so kind, please walk with me in the garden.” Gracefully, Keiko stood, and Sumi gestured towards their exit.
As they made their way outside, Xena’s breath caught in her throat. The garden was stunning, beautiful, manicured, and serene. The home opened onto a larger courtyard the patterns on the ground matching those in the front of the house. A large pond was surrounded by plants and sculpted trees, with koi gracefully moving through the water. A memory surfaced of an afternoon spent with Akemi in just such a garden. A moment in time when Xena had seduced the young woman and captured her heart.
“Xena?” Keiko asked mildly.
“Just remembering something,” the warrior replied.
“Memory is a profound thing,” Keiko continued as they walked. “I for one remember the 1940s when there was so much pain and despair here. I was aware that forces joined mine in providing comfort and solace. Nameless hearts from the world over came to Japan as I myself had traveled to internment camps in California and death camps in Poland. You ventured here, didn’t you, Pam? You helped me without my asking. Twenty years before we’d ever met.”
Aphrodite stopped on the wooden bridge and turned to face Keiko, reaching for her hands and holding them tight. “I traveled to Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” she began. “I stayed for several years. Before, I’d been traveling to and from the various concentration camps, providing what help I could. War is nasty business. Just when I think I’ve seen the depths of depravity people can sink to… Keiko, I’m so very sorry for what happened. The destruction…the aftermath…” Her voice trembled, then broke from the pain and anguish. Weeping, Keiko reached for her and held her as they cried together.
“And 2011?” Keiko asked, pulling back a little and wiping her eyes.
Aphrodite smiled, at her warmly, her radiant grin conveying love and care. “Fukushima? Of course. I almost looked you up then, but I knew you would be swamped. My dear friend, I’ve been meaning to reconnect with you for so long, I have missed you…”
“When you have all of Time, decades slip by like seconds. I feel no injury Pam-san. I rejoice at our reunion. From this moment we can keep in touch, yes?”
“Absolutely, Keiko. I would like that very much,” Aphrodite replied, with a final hug. They separated, and she and Xena followed the Japanese goddess across the bridge to a pagoda at the edge of the pond. The afternoon sun peeked out from behind the clouds, illuminating dazzling reflections on the still water. The structure was small built for perhaps four or five people, so while the trio was not crowded, it was still cozy and intimate. Sitting on the bench, Keiko was between the other two and looked at Xena intently.
“If you please,” she said to the warrior, “tell me the story of Akemi. It was she you remembered on the bridge, was it not?”
Remember who you are, remember what flows in your veins, Aphrodite had instructed. Xena looked at the reflections on the pond, of the sky, the house, the trees and plants and remembered a story she’d told Gabrielle years ago. It was about a rock rippling the water’s surface, and how after, when the stillness resumed, the cause of the turmoil persisted. “I am an imperfect person,” she began sadly, not willing to look at either of her companions. “For much of my adult life, I have been more than imperfect, I have been broken, and in my dysfunction and pain have wrought destruction all around me. Akemi fared no better. I met her when I was in Chin with my lover Borias. She’d been captured by pirates and sold to a warlord named Kao. I bought her, then convinced Borias to travel back here to ransom her back to her family. On our journey I taught her the art of war. I taught her a number of things. I seduced her in a courtyard very similar to this one. I did not expect her to kill her father, nor did I expect her to take her own life afterwards.
“Her dying wish to me was to take her ashes to her family shrine. I was drunk and out of my mind, trying to grapple with grief and guilt, which were not indulgences I usually tolerated back then. Her urn was smashed and her ashes ended up in the gutter. In my rage, I grabbed a torch and before I knew it, Higuchi was engulfed in flames. It was not the last city I burned. There was Cirra.” As Xena spoke, she realized that the shame she’d carried for so long about who she’d been and what she’d done was gone. While she was not pleased about her past life, she did feel like it was in her past. She had done everything she could do to atone and tip the balance book in her favor and that it was enough. It had to be enough.
“Is your debt paid?” Keiko asked softly, without judgement.
Xena nodded. “It is. I spent nearly a decade trying to do right, and here, in Japan, I paid the ultimate price, knowingly, willingly.” Facing Keiko, Xena glanced at Aphrodite before continuing. “Gabrielle saw to my resurrection with help from Poseidon and Aphrodite. They gave of themselves to see me whole and alive again. My intention is to continue to do what I can to make this world I now call home a better place. If trauma from my past life follows me here, I will put it down as I would have back then. But I am not Xena of Amphipolis anymore. She died, and for better or worse, her balance book is closed.” Thinking of her life, now with Gabrielle, her new-found family, even her growing closeness with Aphrodite, she added, “I’m much more than that, now.”
Keiko studied Xena for a long moment before responding. She turned to watch the koi swim in the pond, lazily moving through the sun dappled water. “Show me,” she said.
With a frown, Xena looked from Keiko to Aphrodite, wondering what she might do to impress the goddess of all flowing things. Remember what flows in your veins. Aphrodite had said. Flow… the goddess of all that flows… After a glance to Aphrodite, the warrior gazed at the koi in the pond. So subtle that one could miss it, the koi began to swim in a figure eight motion, moving from sunlight to shadow and back again. One behind the next, they made a neat formation, moving elegantly through the water. Flowing, Xena thought to herself with satisfaction.
Clearly, Keiko was pleased because she clapped in delight. When she did the spell was broken and the fish scattered. “You are clever, Xena. The truly powerful are people who don’t feel the need to flaunt it. Did you know that Akemi had a daughter before she was captured by pirates?” the goddess asked.
Xena turned to look at her clearly surprised. “I did not,” she said. “Her bloodline continues?”
“Indeed, it does. Akemi spirited her baby away for safety to be raised by people she could trust. The child stayed at the monastery until it became improper for them to care for her. She was moved to a family, but stayed close to the people who she felt were her beloved uncles. A young man caught her eye and he decided not to join the brotherhood so he could be with her. They in turn had a daughter, and so on. There are a number of men and women in Japan with Akemi’s blood in their veins. One in particular that will be of interest to you. Please, let us return to the house.”
As they rose to leave the garden, Xena stopped her. “Why here, Keiko-san? Why have me tell you about Akemi here and not inside the house? Why test me?”
“I think that there is power is speaking where the sunlight can hear. Just as there is solace in speaking under the light of the moon. There is something about the absence of walls that gives us freer access to our thoughts and our feelings. Pam-san, would you agree?”
Aphrodite grinned affectionately. “I think that there is power is speaking from the heart, openly and unguardedly. And you were kind to bring us near water. Clearly you sense Xena’s affinity for it.”
“I suspect salt water is a stronger connection, but water has its own magic in any form,” Keiko replied. “All of us; you, me, your uncle, even Xena, we all respond to the tide of enchantment that flows through us – like water.” She stood and led her companions back into the house. Sumi bowed respectfully at the door and led them back to the room with the black lacquered table. On it was a pad of paper with a pen. “No doubt time is of the essence, so I won’t delay you further.” Keiko jotted a name and address on the pad as she spoke. “I would love for you to have some refreshments with me if you could spare the time, but will not be offended if you don’t. Toshiko is preparing something to eat.”
“What is this address?” Xena asked curiously looking at the paper.
“It’s a shop in Karatsu,” Keiko explained. “Yui owns it. She is a distant daughter of Akemi. It caters to devotees of western new age thinking. Very unusual. I pop in from time to time, it’s charming, in a ‘witchy’ sort of way; stone, herbs, tarot cards, incense. She has power, but unexpectedly so. I can’t guarantee that the wickedness from your past hasn’t also sought her help or may have persuaded her into an alliance. I believe she has some white amber incense, if Alti has not taken it from her by now. It is of great value, so it would be hidden and protected. It is rare enough that people in my line of work keep track of who has it, no doubt as Pam-san does with ambrosia.”
Toshiko returned to the room with a tray laden with fruits, artfully cut and fragrant. Quickly Xena weighed their options and came to a decision. “If I may,” the warrior asked turning to Keiko, “I would like to step outside and call Gabrielle. If she is feeling up to it, she and Calypso can visit Yui. They could get there more quickly than it would take us to drive back to the helicopter and fly back to Karatsu. I’d see no reason then that Aphrodite and I can’t join you for lunch before returning. We are grateful for your hospitality and your help.”
“Wonderful,” Keiko replied, delighted. “Sumi will accompany you outside. Then I shall tell you the story of Akemi that you have not heard, and of her many descendants.”
Poseidon stood at the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean, infinitely grateful for the quartet of women who assisted him. The sea, as always, looked beautiful and inviting, quite unlike the harsh, unforgiving environment that it truly was. With sadness, he realized he was looking at the sea of old, when the only litter present would have been the ships and bodies of dead sailors he’d claimed in a storm. As his power diminished, he had left his beautiful home vulnerable to the most insidious of substances: plastic. He was helpless against the tide of oil rigs and cargo ships, commercial fishing, whaling, and the military. How the mighty had fallen, He thought. There was no denying that in his long life, change was coming faster now, with each decade bringing more change than entire centuries of long ago.
“Knowing what you know now, would you have done it?” Eve asked, joining him at the cliff.
He suspected that in this dreamscape, she and her companions were either figments of his or Xena’s imagination. Still, even imaginary friends can be nice when you need someone to talk to.
“The hindsight of age,” he replied, with a sad chuckle to himself. “I am a foolish old man. I really thought being able to interact with humanity would help. Apollo was not tethered to the sky; Demeter was not tethered to the night. I don’t know child, maybe I should’ve left well enough alone. Who’s to say we still wouldn’t be right here if I had?”
He looked to the horizon, the pinks and blues of sunset, pastel and breathtaking. There were clouds allowing for patches of light and shadow on the water. The sea crashed onto the rocks below, making the ground they stood upon shake. Such was the raw power of the ocean. Rhythmically, relentlessly, the pounding on the rocks sent a fine mist into the air and Poseidon inhaled deeply. To him is smelled like home. It was blissful.
“In my day,” he continued, “there were any number of things that could injure a god. Who is to say it wouldn’t have been some enchanted dagger or amulet? The dead ambrosia is from long before the tether was ever severed. I don’t know, maybe I would have stood a chance against the tide of progress, maybe not. At the end of the day, I am still a foolish old man.”
“Are you afraid?” Eve asked.
He looked at her and smiled, his eyes still capable of a mischievous glint. “I am not afraid to die, to be over. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to give what power I have to some shaman who thinks she can just take it. I have enough spite in my veins to keep the world free from that.”
Solari joined them at the cliff’s edge to stand on the other side of Poseidon. “Alti is back at the doors,” she said. “Eventually she’s going to come here. Ephiny and Amarice have organized the others and are keeping watch. She will not enter here without someone seeing it.”
“I’m sure my mothers will come through,” Eve said, urgently. “You just need to hold on long enough. She and Gabrielle always find a way. You must stay hidden.”
He gently patted her shoulder, regretting never having had the opportunity to meet her during her life. “Who would have thought a man my age would play ‘hide and seek’? I’ve no doubt that I stand a better chance at survival in the hands of Xena and Gabrielle than anyone else. Athena herself was no match for Xena. Besides, I may have a trick or two left up my sleeve.”
There was the distinct caw of a crow and Solari grabbed Poseidon’s arm in alarm. “That’s Ephiny’s signal. Alti is here.”
Poseidon turned to face the two women, his back to the ocean. He grasped each of their hands warmly, patting them in a grandfatherly fashion before letting go. “Thank you for your help. I am in your debt.” With that, he fell backwards off the cliff towards the ocean below. A massive wave roes up to catch him, and then he was gone.
Like lightening, a figure darted across the plain to confront the two women at the cliff’s edge. “Where is Poseidon?” Alti demanded.
“Poseidon who?” Eve replied with a smirk every bit reminiscent of Livia.
Calypso paused at the door to The Hippolyta’s command center until she was noticed by the captain – or in this case captains, as Vox and Nicolai were discussing something at her approach. Hatsuo cleared his throat to announce her presence and the attention of captain and XO turned to her.
“Calypso,” Vox said respectfully, “what can we do for you? Is everything okay?”
The Goddess of the Deep Sea smiled reassuringly with a friendly nod everyone in the room: Hatsuo, Prisha, Wolfgang, as well as the captains. “Yes, all is fine, but Xena asked me to check on Gabrielle, and she’s also mentioned an errand she would like me and Gabrielle to handle before she and Aphrodite return – if Gabrielle is up to it of course.”
Nicolai turned, straightening his back to his full height. “What sort of errand?” he asked, protectively. “Gabrielle only just woke up before Xena had to leave with Aphrodite.”
With the briefest of glances, Vox looked at the large Russian and the short goddess. In all honesty, she wasn’t sure who would fare worse if it came to a battle of wills. “Nicolai, why don’t you accompany Calypso to Gabrielle’s cabin. I’m up to speed for my shift, you can see first-hand if our intrepid leader is up for whatever it is that Aphrodite and Xena need her for. XO, you are excused.”
He grunted approvingly at the young woman. “Shrewd,” he said with satisfaction. “Like Gabrielle is going to admit not being up to snuff.”
“Actually,” Vox pushed back gently, “I was thinking you’ve known her longer than anyone on this ship, and you’ll know if she’s full of shit when she says she’s ready to take on whatever it is that needs doing. You tell me she’s not up for it, and the helicopter is grounded. We all love Uncle Ariel, but no one on this boat is risking Gabrielle again.”
Nicolai smiled with genuine affection at the young captain and at the nods of agreement from the others in the command center. “Yes, captain,” he said proudly before escorting Shen’s tutor to Gabrielle and Xena’s stateroom.
Arriving at the door, Nicolai knocked two times in crisp succession.
“I know that knock Nicolai” the bards voice called out weakly, “come in.” He opened the door and stepped aside so Calypso could enter. He was about to close the door behind her to stay in the hallway when Gabrielle frowned. “You might as well stay – there are no secrets from you on this ship.” He nodded curtly and closed the door behind him. “I suspect this is more than you guys checking up on me,” she added.
“First things first,” Calypso said warmly, “how do you fare?”
Gabrielle returned the smile but it clearly took some effort, “I feel a little weak, just kind of drained, but my head is clear and I’m getting stronger. What’s up?”
“Aphrodite is with Xena at her colleague’s home. She has texted the location of a store not too far from shore. It is some kind of new age apothecary shop that may have some white amber incense. It would save time for us to venture there while Aphrodite and Xena travel back to the ship in their helicopter. Time is of the essence for Poseidon.”
“It’s almost strange to hear him called that now,” Gabrielle said with a wry grin at Nicolai who had seen and heard enough not to be surprised by anything.
“If you are not up to it, the helicopter stays grounded,” Nicolai commented. “Captain’s orders.”
Gabrielle nodded understandingly, “and you’re the one deciding if I’m up to it?” she asked, receiving an affirming nod in response. She was silent a few moments considering her options. “I agree with Xena and Aphrodite,” she finally replied. “Time is of the essence for our beloved uncle, and going to an apothecary shop shouldn’t be taxing. We will take Michelle; she can fly the helicopter and drive once we land. Calypso – if you’d be so good as to check on Shen, make sure he’s doing more than just making music in the hold with Sarah and Blake? It wouldn’t kill him to watch a documentary or two. Nicolai, my friend, this won’t be the first time you’ve helped me get dressed when I’m out of sorts. I assure you that I am up for this task, provided have the backup I need. Please text Michelle and let her know.”
Nicolai Burns held the door for Calypso as she nodded warmly at the two of them and departed. He quietly closed it once again. “Boss…” he said softly, once he’d sent the text.
“I’m better than I look,” Gabrielle protested as she moved the sheets so she could get out of bed. “Just be thankful that I already took a shower with Xena so you don’t have to help me with that…again.”
This time he chuckled, remembering the occasion fondly. “Budapest, wasn’t it?” he asked. “All night bender with a couple of women who turned out to be spies. I hadn’t been with you very long, and I did not hide my disdain very well.”
“You mean at all,” Gabrielle corrected him.
He shrugged. “I was more disappointed in the hangover than the behavior,” he clarified, then reconsidered. “I wasn’t thrilled with the behavior either, to be honest. I was young and stupid.”
At that, the bard chuckled, “I was the one who was stupid. At least about those two.” Gabrielle’s eyes narrowed. “Truth be told, my friend, they tried to kill me. Lethal amounts of heroin and an LSD chaser, so I was pretty strung out. At the time I obviously thought it better to play it off like a hangover, but I thought you were some kind of fuzzy orange lizard man for hours. A charming one though.”
“You were not thinking with the head on your shoulders,” he commented dryly, handing her a hairbrush from the night stand.
“You would think after all these years I’d know better,” she agreed.
“At the time I chalked it up to youthful indiscretion.”
“Hardly, I’ve always had a weakness for brunettes with beautiful blue eyes.” I guess now you know why.”
“Indeed, I do,” he agreed. “Rarely does someone get the better of you unless that’s your plan,” he observed, putting the brush back. “I think you must be different then from so long ago.”
Reaching out a hand to steady his friend as she stood, Nicolai walked Gabrielle to the walk-in closet. “Sometimes I wonder why I make the same mistakes, but you are right, the mistakes are fewer and farther between now.”
“What were you like when you were younger?” he asked gently.
Gabrielle sighed and tried to remember that young woman from Potidaea from eons past. “When I first met Xena, I was hopelessly naïve. I’d never been away from my family, never gone anywhere or done anything. We were captured by a warlord named Draco, and Xena rescued us. I left with her and over the next several years had my world turned upside down in more ways than I could count. I learned about grief, death, and loss, but also about love, devotion, friendship, forgiveness, and leadership. I went from a village girl to a woman who could command an army. I’d like to think that the most essential parts of me haven’t changed, but I don’t know if that is true.”
“Changed or no,” Nicolai replied, “who you are today is a leader I follow without reservation. You have proved yourself time and again and never once shown yourself to be someone undeserving of my respect, even if we don’t share the same taste in women. I prefer blondes with blue eyes…although I think you do too? Not my business. My point is, you would not sacrifice a mission by sending anyone who was not up to what the mission required.”
“You’re not asking me if I’m sure I’m up to this,” Gabrielle continued as she looked through her clothes, deciding what to wear.
“You know your word is good enough for me,” he replied with an affirming nod as she selected a pair of jeans and soft, muted green sweater. “All these years, you admit when you are not at your best, you expect honesty from everyone around you. You never punish people for speaking the truth, but you do correct them when they don’t. You are half god, Gabrielle, what could this old man do to stop you if I wanted to?”
“I’m zero percent god, Nicolai,” Gabrielle protested, taking her clothes and moving back to the bed. “And you aren’t old,” she added. Tenderly, he held her steady while she dressed, assisting her with clasping her bra in the back and adjusting the straps. He stooped to tie the laces on her Chuck’s the stood to appraise the overall ensemble. With another approving nod, he helped her walk to the bathroom where she applied deodorant, then studied herself in the mirror while she applied make-up.
“You will look just as you do now when I am on my deathbed,” he said softly, as he watched her. As we are immortal gods to dogs, you are now as a god to me.”
From her sleeping position at the foot of Gabrielle’s bed, Argo lifted her head and cocked it inquisitively. “I was not talking about you specifically, Argo” Nicolai added. Nevertheless, the dog jumped down and joined them in the bathroom.
“My dear friend,” Gabrielle replied, putting down her mascara and turning to her companion, “I am only long of life and rich with experience, which I realize is probably semantics, but I have no other power than a talent I’ve honed over the centuries to discover truly remarkable people and bring them into my orbit. You are right, if I felt I wasn’t up to this I would tell you what I would need in order to do what must be done. With your help, and the help of Calypso and Michelle, I can handle a shopping trip to a new-age bookstore. And if, dear one, you would like me there at your bedside when the time comes, I will be there.”
He smiled down at her warmly and patted her shoulder affectionately. “That would be nice,” he said.
Nicolai escorted Gabrielle to the waiting helicopter as Michelle was going over the preflight checklist. Without invitation, Argo jumped into the open door of the ‘copter, and made herself at home on the back seat. The imposing Russian smiled indulgently at the dog, then glanced at his phone before addressing the two women. “Calypso is with Shen, they are discussing documentaries and she will be along momentarily,” he announced.
“Thank you, Nicolai,” Gabrielle said with a smile. “Michelle’s got everything under control, please let Vox know we’re about to depart.” Nodding respectfully, he turned and made his way back to the interior of the ship.
“I’m kind of surprised he’s leaving you in my care,” Michelle observed. “I kind of thought he’d want to run point on this. Do you need some help?”
Gabrielle had looked at the steps required to get into the helicopter with grim determination, and was grateful for the assistance. “He isn’t running point because Shen’s onboard The Hippolyta,” the bard observed as the brunette gave her a hand into the aircraft.
“And you do have that healing thing,” Michelle added. They were quiet a moment as the pilot surveyed the dials and readouts on the instrument panel. She turned to look at her boss. “Are you sure you’re okay to do this? Healing thing aside, I would not forgive myself if anything else happened to you, nor would anyone else on this ship – especially your wife and your…ah Aphrodite.”
It was just a flicker across the pilot’s face and was gone behind the impenetrable wall of professionalism, but Gabrielle saw it. Michelle was about to start up the rotors, the sound guaranteed to drown out any heavy conversation, but Gabrielle’s hand stopped her.
“Michelle, I may heal but you don’t, at least not from something deadly. I would not put you or anyone in harm’s way if I did not feel like I was up to it. If this mission required fighting, or I don’t know, a significant amount of running – I would demure. I value your safety. As for Xena and Aphrodite, they’re the ones who asked Calypso and I to do this errand, so they would certainly not hold you responsible. And while we are on the subject. Aphrodite. The last couple of years have been…a change for both of you. Are you okay.”
Michelle looked away, out the window of the helicopter wishing that Shen’s tutor would get a move on. Finally, she took a breath and released it slowly. She reminded herself that over the last several years being honest and frank with herself as well as with her boss had made things easier not harder. “To answer your question, yes, I’m alright. It’s kind of disorienting to have Aphrodite around, but it’s nice too. I love her, like a really good friend and then some. But it’s different from the relationship that the two of you have and I am both jealous and not jealous about that and it’s weird.”
“Weird is a good word for it,” the bard agreed.
“You know better than anyone on this ship that I truly understand the nuances of different kinds of relationships. You know I’ve had open relationships in the past, which is why Aphrodite and I worked. And I was very close to Aphrodite for the first three years of Xena being back in your life, those years gave me a lot of perspective – I feel like I have insight not only into my relationship with her, but the relationship the two of you have as well as your relationship with Xena. It’s easier for me to move into a different lane, and as much as I adore Aphrodite, I feel like the space has been good for us both. It certainly has for me. But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel unreasonable and petty emotions like jealousy, and I don’t know what I’m more jealous of: your feelings for her or her feelings for you. And…” Michelle let the thought drift away unsaid.
“And you don’t know how Xena deals with it,” Gabrielle finished for her.
Calypso emerged onto the deck of the ship. Michelle gave the bard a warm smile before starting the engines. They both donned their headphones. “If it’s any consolation,” Gabrielle said into the mic as the Goddess of the Deep Sea joined them, “Xena dealing with it is a work in progress.”
“This is the place,” Calypso said checking her notes. “It says Path Not Taken on the sign.”
From the passenger seat, Gabrielle looked at the shop and shrugged. “Xena said it was a new age shop, and this certainly looks like one.” A carved wooden sign hung over the sidewalk and a window display fit for Diagon Alley displayed an array of metaphysical supplies. “She said the proprietor is a western-styled witch, nature magic, new age stuff.”
“I sense power,” Calypso confirmed. “But it is benevolent, like most people who feel the pulse of the Earth within them. I feel that this woman has cultivated talents and wants to share them with the small slice of clientele in this part of the world that is interested, nothing more. I don’t see why Alti would seek her out, they are not kindred spirits.”
“Unless she has something that Alti wants,” Gabrielle countered. “And if that is the case, I feel for her,” she added, nodding in the direction of the shop.
“Would you like me to go in with you? Or stay in the car with Argo?” Michelle asked after parking and cutting the engine.
“I think Calypso and I can manage,” the bard replied, glancing behind her seat at where Argo slept curled up next to the goddess. “I’m feeling better, and if I take it slow, I can walk okay. I hope she will hear us out.”
“I can guarantee that much at least,” Calypso replied with a chuckle.
Gabrielle looked at her in alarm, vividly remembering techniques Aphrodite had employed when she tried to convince her crew about her longevity. “No jedi mind tricks,” she said emphatically. “Especially if this woman has powers of her own.”
Calypso sighed, her brows furrowing in frustration. “Is this situation with Alti of upmost urgency or not, Gabrielle? As we sit here, Poseidon loses strength, moment by moment, like sand falling through an hour glass. We have no way to know when it empties. I take your point about free-will, I know that’s what you meant. And no, I will not manipulate this woman into doing anything against her will. Even knowing the arts of herbs and smoke, she is not a god and I am. I can make her listen. But if you object to using the strengths of the people around you, then you need to start writing his eulogy now.”
Stung, Gabrielle nodded. “I understand, and I apologize. But I do feel strongly that force and manipulation – two of Alti’s hallmarks – would make us no better than her if we use them. We are better than that.”
“On that we agree,” the goddess replied.
“Okay then, if we’re ready?” Michelle said with a nod, then exited the car to open the door for her boss. “I’ll keep an eye out for your signal if anything goes south.”
A cheerful bell twinkled as Calypso pushed open the shop door. Gabrielle smiled at familiar scents; sage, lemon verbena, rosemary, lavender, and other herbs she’d become familiar with during her life’s many incarnations. The shop was small and tidy. Framed art depicting body chakras and other prints decorated the walls. Dark wood shelves were lined with books and selections of oils, ritual tools, sculptures, stones, tarot and oracle cards. The flagstone of the floor and darkness of the space made Gabrielle think of the interior of a castle from long ago. Despite this, this space was warm and inviting.
“Alti has been here,” Calypso whispered near her ear in Yoruba. “Recently. I can smell it; power and fear. Our witch is frightened.”
“I’m so sorry,” a young woman said as she entered the shop from a back room, “I am closing for the day. I need to leave; I don’t feel well. I was just about to lock up.”
The scent of burning sage entered the room a moment before the woman did. Gabrielle suspected she had been engaged in a cleansing ritual, trying to eradicate Alti’s lingering presence. When she made eye contact, the bard felt a cold shiver move up her spine. It was like stepping back in time. Gabrielle had never met Akemi in life, but she had met her in death. It was like being transported back to that teahouse so long ago. Like her ancestor, the woman was slight, delicate, young, and made Gabrielle feel awkward and ungraceful. She could see how a woman like this could have turned Xena’s head, especially the old Xena.
She thought of the white hot jealously she’d felt in learning that Xena had taught the young woman how to cut off the flow of blood to someone’s brain. Vivid memories surfaced of two-thousand years ago, sitting across from Xena, putting two fingers on her warrior’s neck and learning the pinch. Later, she was running in the rain, stopping at a horrific sight that still brought bile to her throat all these years later. The weight of memory made her stagger and she nearly fell, leaning on a book case for support.
“Are you alright?” the woman said, rushing to her side to steady the bard.
After regaining her balance, Gabrielle looked at her. “I’m alright, thank you. Yui, I need ten minutes of your time, please. I know who has been here. She is a vile and dangerous woman and you are right to be rattled. But please, hear me out.” The bard spoke with urgency, tempered by compassion. How often had she been face to face with the unbelievable?
“How do you know my name?” the woman demanded, stepping back warily. “I’ve never seen you before. Please, just go.” Yui moved behind the counter where a cash register resided backed by a wall of glass jars, all neatly marked with the name of the herb or incense inside. She picked up her phone. “I’ll call the police if I have to,” she said. As she spoke, Gabrielle felt a movement of energy, like electricity on a breeze, gathering itself to the frightened woman behind the counter.
Gabrielle took the phone out of her pocket and selected a photo, putting her phone on the counter and stepping away so Yui could look at it. The photo was of three women, Aphrodite, Xena, and someone the Japanese woman immediately recognized. “I know her. That is Izumi Tanaka. She’s a customer of mine. I see her once or twice a year. And this other woman…” Gently Yui touched the phone screen. Although Gabrielle couldn’t see it, she knew she was caressing the image of Xena. The shopkeeper was experiencing that same déjà vu. “Who is she?” As she spoke, Gabrielle felt the energy dissipate, like a gathering storm that does not materialize. Yui’s fear was lessening.
Calypso glanced at Gabrielle, assuring her that Yui was prepared to listen to what she had to say. The African woman seemed to be browsing the shelves, now picking up a singing bowl then putting it down, now looking at a deck of tarot cards, now touching a crystal. But the Goddess’ expression told the bard a different story. With body language to put their host at ease, her face was one of concentration, not paying any attention to the trinkets, rather focusing her attention on Yui without looking at her.
“I’m going to tell you a story,” Gabrielle began, trying to think several steps ahead at how that story might take shape. “It starts a very long time ago with your ancestors and the ancestors of the woman in that photo who you don’t recognize, yet somehow know. It’s a story about two women, Xena, and Akemi, who is a mother to you from many generations past. Xena met Akemi in China after your ancestor had been captured by pirates. Akemi had given birth to a baby girl the previous summer and had kept that fact from her family, especially from her father, who was a very cruel and violent man…”
With skills honed over millennia, Gabrielle wove a tale about a woman rescued from a warlord by an unlikely pirate; an unsavory warrior who had the potential to be much more. How the pirate had returned the girl to her homeland, and how Akemi took her father’s life then her own. In time, the pirate Xena became a hero, and many years later was summoned by Akemi’s spirit to fight for the freedom of the souls of Higuchi, paying the ultimate price. She also told You about Xena’s history; how her home village had been sacked by a warlord named Cortese, how she’d met the vile shaman Alti, who taught her dark arts in her quest for power and control. She finished by describing generations unfolding until the present when Alti broke free of her prison, and with the aid of the Shinigami and the Onozuka crime family, set forth to wreak havoc in the present and gain yet more power.
When she’d finished her tale, Gabrielle glanced at Calypso once again. The African woman nodded, taking a deep breath and releasing it in a gentle sigh, signaling that she had released whatever hold she’d taken upon the young woman. For Yui’s part, she sat down on the stool by the register, her shoulders slumping with the weight of what she’d just heard juxtaposed on her recent encounter. Yui reached behind the counter for a shell containing incense and lit it. Gabrielle was immediately comforted by the scent.
“That Alti woman is frightening,” Yui admitted, looking from Gabrielle to Calypso and back. “But you wield strange power too.”
Gabrielle nodded. “I assure you, now that you’ve heard me out, I will not try to make you do anything against your will. If you still want us to go, we will. If you’d like security for your shop, I can make that happen. I don’t think Alti will come back, but I can have someone alert me if she does. Please, just listen to what we need and decide if you want to help us or help Alti. Because you’re picking a side either way.”
“What is it you want?” Yui asked apprehensively.
Gabrielle smiled, trying to diffuse Yui’s trepidation “Have you heard of white amber incense? I know it is very rare and very valuable.”
“I have heard of it,” Yui replied, guardedly. “Why do you think I have it?”
Before Gabrielle could answer, a well-dressed couple entered the shop, a man and a woman who spoke excitedly in Japanese to her companion about how this would be the perfect place to find a birthday gift for his goth niece. Yui greeted the new comers with a forced smile, her panic palpable.
“Why don’t you two go in the back room,” Calypso offered amiably to their host. “I can help your new guests; I’ve worked a till or two in my day.” At a loss for alternatives, Yui nodded in gratitude. “Welcome to Path Not Taken,” the goddess greeted the man and woman, in flawless Japanese. “Now, what can I help you find today?”
Gabrielle followed Yui to the backroom, which was as well-ordered as the front of the shop. The scent of sage was stronger here. There were stacked boxes of inventory, wooden boxes on shelves, a table where she worked, and a small kitchen area. “Izumi-san sent us here. She said you might have the incense. Can I make you some tea? I’m sure you have questions. The bard made herself at home in the kitchenette. Yui nodded absently, seemingly lost.
Yui took a small box out of her pocket, “She gave me these,” she said, dumping the contents of the box on the work table. Several gemstones spilled out, and Gabrielle looked down onto two diamonds, a sapphire, and a ruby, all exquisitely cut. “I only took them because I feared what might happen if I didn’t.”
“That was wise,” Gabrielle observed. “You should put them back in the box. They’re yours now, do what you will with them when you’re ready. What did she want?”
Instead of answering, Yui walked over to some shelves which housed a series of small unmarked wooden boxes. Gabrielle smiled, recalling a time very long ago when she had owned a similar apothecary shop. The labels on the small glass jars out front were for her customers benefit. For her inventory in the back, a lack of labels was bound to slow down or confuse a thief. She knew each item by sight or smell. The Japanese woman picked up a small box and put it in front of Gabrielle. It contained what looked like gray ash. She closed the box.
“In this box I had a small earthenware pot, very tiny, the size of a walnut. In it was a bit of a crumpled leaf, black as tar and foul smelling. For years I’ve been researching, trying to figure out what it was, but I’ve found no answers. This woman you mentioned, she was very insistent that I sell it to her. She’d been in my shop once before, and was friendlier that first time. She had asked me questions about traveling a dream scape, astral projection, meditation. This last time she terrified me to my core. She mentioned white amber incense too.”
As she spoke, Calypso entered the back room and helped Gabrielle with the tea, patiently waiting for their host to finish speaking.
“Your customers have left; they made a very large purchase and you’ll find your receipts are all in order. I’ve taken the liberty to close your shop so we will not be interrupted further, if that is alright with you?” Calypso put her handbag on the table and then placed a cup of tea in front of the chair. “Please, sit,” she suggested. “Have some tea. Gabrielle and I do not mind standing.”
Yui smiled uncertainly, but took her seat. “I would like to believe you, your story. I would like to trust you. I am grateful to not think I’m crazy for being so fearful. But still…I wish I knew more. If I could think on this, consult my cards, meditate. Will you come back tomorrow?”
“My dear,” Calypso said as she opened her purse, “I am afraid that time is of the essence for us. We are trying to save someone who is on borrowed time as it is. Your understanding though, that is something I can help you with, with your permission of course. I have some herb here, from my home in Africa, it’s a sap actually, a little of it in your tea, very little, and I can help you better comprehend what we face.” As she spoke, she extracted a small pill box, in it were three different compartments, each containing a different compound. She pushed the pill box towards Yui so the young woman might get a better look.
For long moments Yui regarded Calypso intently, as if trying to ascertain what she may be hiding, and what her true motives might be. She looked at Gabrielle as well, wondering how she could justify what she felt at the sight of the two of them and what she should think. Coming to a decision, she pushed her tea cup towards Calypso. “I consent,” she said.
The Goddess of the Sea smiled reassuringly and took the pill box back into her possession. Carefully she took two small granules from one of the compartments and dropped them in her tea, then pushed the cup back. She also took Gabrielle’s tea cup and did the same. With a nod the bard accepted the cup and drank, when she did, Yui did the same.
This time, Gabrielle was not surprised when she opened her eyes to another dreamscape, and was wearing clothing from long ago. Rather it was Yui who was caught off guard, wearing traditional garb and not feeling like herself.
“Where is your friend?” Yui asked after getting her bearings.
Gabrielle looked around, finding no sign of Calypso. “I don’t know,” she said. She and Yui were standing on a hill. It was night, the stars sparkled brightly, and the tall grasses around them were bathed in indigo. At the base of the hill was a campfire, so they moved towards it. Two figures were huddled around the campfire and Gabrielle recognized Xena’s silhouette. They heard a laugh, a course, toxic laugh and the bard’s stomach dropped. “This is Xena and Alti,” she explained. As they watched the two women converse, Gabrielle felt nauseated. The conversation was about power and techniques to bend one’s will. What herbs would facilitate compliance, paralysis or death.
“That is not the woman who came to my shop,” Yui said.
“This is what she looked like in life,” Gabrielle explained. “The woman you saw, the body of the woman you saw, is Kana, niece of a mobster. She is possessed by the spirit of Alti.” While she didn’t comment on the scene unfolding before them, Gabrielle could see what an avid student Xena was. Appearing attentive but not eager, the bard recognized the hunger in those blue eyes. They spoke to the bard of a young woman ready to learn any new power or technique to give her the upper hand. Gabrielle thought back to when she’d learned similar skills. Long after her life with Xena, she learned mystic arts from an old woman she’d befriended in the forests of Scotland. Always, the focus was on the greater good and helping others. She witnessed the quiet power of someone at one in their body and with the world around them. ‘Old Hannah –
as she was known – made potions and poultices for women. They visited in the dead of night, so as not to be seen by their neighbors. Curing sickness, giving guidance, making love spells, the occasional abortifacient tea, she did more for her community then the men in the village could possibly realize. When she died, Gabrielle stepped into her role for a number of years, but being young and beautiful made her more of a target than Old Hannah had ever been. After being forced out, she was not surprised to learn that shortly after her departure, sickness had decimated the village.
The wind picked up, and the scene changed. Now they were in a courtyard, beautiful in its quiet symmetry, every stone placed with intention, every plant meticulously groomed and cared for. Here, Xena approached a different woman, a woman Gabrielle recognized; Akemi, a young Japanese woman saying the words of thanks for being returned to her family, but the longing in her voice and expression evident. She didn’t want to leave Xena, the woman who bought her, only to sell her back to her family. Gabrielle felt nauseated as she watched Xena work, taking her time like a boa constrictor with a rat, moving closer to the young woman, touching her face with the back of her knuckles, gently side stepping any defense or protest. They were kissing now, and the bard forced herself not to look away. To Gabrielle, scene seemed to take forever, unfolding with agonizing deliberation. She well knew what the warrior’s hands felt like, what her mouth tasted like. She also knew Xena’s heart, the openness, vulnerability, and trust that beat in tandem with her physical prowess. That was absent here. To Gabrielle, it was obvious that while Xena may have enjoyed Akemi’s company, she did not love the girl. Certainly, she said and did all of the right things, and clearly enjoyed their closeness, but to the bard it was plain that the warrior’s heart wasn’t in it. She was watching her love use someone. All of this Gabrielle kept from her features as she felt her companion watching her take in the scene before them.
“This is my ancestor?” Yui asked quietly. The girl did not seem embarrassed by what she saw, only curious about the woman in the scene with features so very similar to her own.
“Yes,” Gabrielle answered, as the scene shifted yet again, this time revealing the dead body of Yodoshi and a distraught Akemi outside. She and Xena spoke, and the expression on the warrior’s face was one of shock and horror when the young woman took her own life. The scene changed to Xena building a funeral pyre for the young woman then drunkenly staggering through the streets with her ashes. Gabrielle and Yui watched as Higuchi burned.
Again, the wind picked up, shifting the scene to her initial meeting with Xena. Gabrielle scarcely recognized the face front of her, the face of an innocent, inexperienced, and fearless girl who was ready to take on the world. Unconsciously, she touched the naked nape of her neck, her short hair so different from that of her innocent self. Gabrielle felt a deep sense of love and gratitude. By experiencing of all the different lives she’d lived in this dreamscape, she realized none of it would have been possible without the foolhardy, fearless woman in the blue sweater standing next to her.
“Your ancestors are mixed up in this too?” Yui asked, surprised, drawing the bard from her thoughts.
Gabrielle nodded, unable to bring herself to lying outright to the young woman, but not wanting to explain her own life’s history either. In rapid succession, the scenes unfolded of Xena and Gabrielle living their lives, fighting for good, growing close, becoming legends. Like this, in snippets of moments, the bard could clearly see her own evolution from naïve girl to a woman who knew her own voice, desires and worth. She also saw the changes in Xena too. Not as apparent in her appearance perhaps, but the changes were there nonetheless. She learned to trust, to love, and to believe in her own redemption.
As she feared, the scene continued to that fateful day back in Japan where Xena was struck down, body pierced with arrows, her head severed. Gabrielle felt the bile rising in her stomach. While she’d seen the aftermath of her lover’s execution, she’d never had to see it happen in real time. She winced with every arrow, fighting to keep from crying out in anguish. She was both grateful and confused that the scene began to melt around them as she watched her former self run into the courtyard to find Xena’s body strung up between posts in the rain. Disoriented and blinking tears from her eyes, Gabrielle was back in the shop with a similarly bewildered Yui.
“I’m sorry, Gabrielle,” Calypso said, the calm of her tone not hiding the urgency of her message. “Your phone is blowing up; the ship is under attack. Michelle is at the door.”
“Fuck,” Gabrielle replied. “I’m sorry, Yui. We need to go, now.” With a quick glance at her phone, she fired off a text to Michelle. The distant banging on the shop door stopped. “Yui, I wanted you to have more time, but you need to decide right now who you stand with – us or Alti. If you have more of the incense we need it, if you gave it all to Alti, we need to know.”
Taking only a second to look from Gabrielle to Calypso and back, the young woman stood and hurried to the shelves of wooden boxes, withdrawing a small box from its place behind several larger ones. “Izumi-san told me to keep this safe, but if she is with your friend then I think I know whose ancestors she sides with. I think she would want me to give this to you. It is the white amber incense,” Yui said, putting the small wooden box in front of Gabrielle.
“Then what’s this?” Gabrielle asked picking up the tiny empty box she’d been handed earlier.
“May I?” Calypso asked, opening the box and bringing it to her nose. Quickly she put it down. “This smells like death,” she said, pointedly looking at the bard.
“I lied and told Alti that I did not have the incense she sought, but once she had the small walnut sized urn, she didn’t seem to care. Izumi-san said to keep the incense safe, she never mentioned its container,” Yui said with a shrug.
With an understanding nod, Gabrielle stood and picked up the box. “Thank you, Yui-san. I will have some security keep an eye on your place. This is my number, feel free to reach out. I will touch base with you again when this is all over.”
Yui nodded, accepted the business card, and led the other two into the main room of the shop. “I will call Izumi-san and inform her that we have spoken and what I have done.”
Only now, with windows to the outside, could Gabrielle both see and hear the rain coming down in sheets. Michelle was standing at the door, oblivious to the rain, a hand under her jacket on the weapon in her shoulder holster. “We’re good here,” Gabrielle assured her as they rushed to the car. “Fucking Alti,” she added as she buckled herself into the passenger seat of the SUV. Argo leaned forward from the back seat in an attempt to lick the bard’s face. “Not now, girl,” she admonished gently.
Michelle drove into the rain with the skill of someone who had driven in far worse conditions. Visibility was minimal, even with the windshield wipers working at full steam. The occasional streak of lighting lit up the sky, quickly followed by a clap of thunder. “Where are we with the helicopters?” the bard asked as she surveyed the messages on her phone.
“Xena, Aphrodite and Ed are already in route to the ship,” Michelle answered, rounding a corner. “Our ‘copter is waiting. No injuries on ship so far but shots have been fired. Shen is secure. Vox reports that they went to high alert as soon as it started raining. They saw the small boats approach, no word on how many assailants or who they work for. Our people in government report nothing amiss with respect to us and the authorities.”
“I have a guess who it is,” Calypso commented dryly from the back seat.
Stopping in front of the hotel, the trio of women and pit bull raced into the lobby to the elevator that would take them to the roof. Argo shook furiously, clearly annoyed at the soaking she’d received in the short trip from the car. Gabrielle nodded sympathetically, brushing her wet hair away from her eyes. The elevator doors opened on the roof, and they rushed to the waiting helicopter. Argo growled and barked in warning, making Gabrielle stop abruptly. “Where is Daisuke?” Gabrielle asked the man waiting for them with a large umbrella.
“He was called away,” the man said. “I am Itachi, I will be filling in for Daisuke. I will fly you to your ship. This way please. You are getting wet in the rain.”
Argo continued to bark and growl, not lunging at the man, but clearly agitated. If she would move no closer, then neither would Gabrielle. In moments all three women were completely drenched by the rain. Without being asked, Michelle had her phone out and was dialing. “I’ve got the president of the helicopter company on the line,” she said, handing her phone to her boss.
Gabrielle stepped away and briefly and spoke on the phone before returning to the others and handing the phone to the man with the umbrella before stepping back again. Putting the phone to his ear, he frowned, returning the device to Gabrielle. Making a move to bow, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun, only to find that Michelle had one already drawn on him.
“Today is not your day,” Michelle warned, her voice icy calm. “I’m soaked, cold and annoyed.” His eyes traveled from the woman with the gun to the growling pit bull and back. Doing a quick calculation, he dropped his gun and looked at the ground.
“Get into the elevator,” Gabrielle instructed. He complied, his expression flat,. As soon as he was in, Gabrielle punched the button to the lobby level and hit the button to close the door, stepping out just as it shut. Michelle picked up the discarded weapon as she followed Gabrielle and Calypso to the helicopter, Argo jumping in first to get out of the rain.
“One of Onozuka’s men?” Calypso asked as the aircraft rose from the landing pad.
“That’s my guess,” Gabrielle replied as she adjusted the controls and maneuvered the aircraft off of the landing pad. “Daisuke is missing according to the owner of the helicopter company. Police were alerted and going to detain the guy we sent back down the elevator.”
“I’ll let Vox know we’re on our way,” Michelle said into the microphone of her headset. “You up for flying?”
Gabrielle nodded as she studied the read outs of the craft’s instrument panel, adjusting various switches and dials as necessary. Battered by wind and rain, Gabrielle piloted the craft as if she’d been doing so for decades, her calm demeanor evidence of experience.
“You’ve been flying a long time,” Calypso observed as the helicopter left the city behind and headed for water.
“I just wish Leonardo could have seen his ideas come to fruition,” Gabrielle replied, focused on the gleaming white ship, barely visible through the downpour. “I thought he was crazy at the time of course, but he made a good case as to why it could work. I owe him an apology.”
By the time they touched down on The Hippolyta’s landing pad, the battle was over. Eight soaking wet men knelt on the top deck of the ship, their hands bound behind them with zip ties. A substantial cache of weapons was piled on the deck well away from the intruders. Xena, with Aphrodite and several of Gabrielle’s people stood watch over them with weapons drawn.
“Report,” Gabrielle said joining the group.
Vox stepped forward to greet the new arrivals. “Two boats, four men each. They had guns with silencers. We took them out with tasers. Ingrid’s traps were priceless, as was the enhanced radar. Their boats have been secured. Nicolai has the conn, and Hatsuo is scanning our monitors for more trouble. Steve and Blake, and Samantha and Ingrid are doing security sweeps. Wolfie is getting some stitches from Dr. Kate.” Pointing out one of the men bleeding from a cut above his eye, she continued. “That dick bitch got off a shot that grazed his arm pretty bad, but no one else was hurt. They won’t talk to us. Xena has suggested putting the pinch on them. Shen is still rehearsing in the cargo hold with Sarah, and he has no idea what went down up here.”
Gabrielle’s eyes met Xena’s, who shrugged noncommittally. “We want to know where they’ve been, what they’ve seen,” she said. “We’re trying to find Alti’s safe-house, right?”
“I don’t disagree,” the bard replied. “But questioning them one at a time will take forever, even with Argo’s help.”
“Throw them in the pool,” Aphrodite suggested, as she began to strip off her clothes.
“Wait…what?” Gabrielle asked, surprised by the goddess disrobing. The prisoners ran the gamut from openly leering to looking quite embarrassed and uncomfortable that a naked woman was standing in front of them, absolutely comfortable in her nakedness. The fact that her eyes were faintly glowing also seem to rattle them.
Two new comers rounded the deck, stopping short and taking in the scene in surprise.
“Well, hello sailor,” Ingrid said, attempting to mask her shock. “Shit, did I say that out loud?”
“We finished our security sweep,” Samantha said to Vox, “Everything is secure.” Steadfastly, she ignored the naked woman standing in front of her, considering it the professional thing to do.
“Are we pretending that Aphrodite isn’t standing right there in the rain in her ‘all together’?” Ingrid inquired, “because I just want to be on the same page as everyone else. And might I add, you are absolutely gorgeous.”
“Thank you, dear,” Aphrodite replied with a smile.
“I’ve finished Wolfgang’s stitches, did you want me to look after…” Dr. Kate stopped short as she joined the others on deck, taking her eyes off the naked goddess only with effort. “I think I missed something,” she said to no one in particular.
“Before the entire crew shows up,” Aphrodite, now mildly annoyed, moved to the pool. “I can question them all at once,” she added, gracefully walking over to the salt water pool and descending the steps. Immediately the water became opaque and pearlescent, but instead of the blue and turquoise hues of before, fiery red and orange colors danced in the cloudy water.
As all eyes turned to her for instructions, Gabrielle quickly considered her options. Coming to a decision she nodded. “You heard her,” she said. “Toss them in. This one first,” she said indicating the man who shot Wolfgang.
The men immediately started to protest, only quieting down when Vox, Prisha and Ed trained their guns on the attackers once more. “Don’t be such a baby,” Xena muttered hoisting the first man up by his arm. “You’re getting wet in the rain; the pool won’t be much different.”
“I don’t swim,” the man said defensively.
“I don’t care.” Xena replied, shoving him in. After sputtering and splashing the man stood, realizing that he was in the shallow end of the pool and quite safe. He was about to lunge at a seemingly defenseless Aphrodite, perhaps with the intention of taking her as a hostage when he stopped short and froze, the water of the pool now shifting from orange-red to amber-yellow. He cried out painfully, then was silent. The men on deck began to struggle in panic as various crew members dragged them to their feet, shoving them unceremoniously into the water.
One by one the men made a splash as they fell into the pool, each sputtering as they stood in the shallows, soaking wet. All of them remained frozen where they stood; spellbound staring at the goddess in the water.
Gabrielle was as well mesmerized by the scene. Always gorgeous, there was something luminous about Aphrodite when she was in salt water. Her eyes glowed blue, nearly matching Xena’s in their intensity, and she radiated a power that was palpable. A montage played in her mind of their moments together. She felt profound love in all its aspects from deep caring to pulsating lust. Realizing that she was distracted by the movement of the goddess’s body as her breasts shifted in the water, Gabrielle closed her eyes, directing herself to focus. When she opened them, she made a point of turning her back on the scene and addressing her crew, who were similarly distracted.
“Ingrid,” she said, getting the mechanics attention, “please go get a robe for Aphrodite.”
Seemingly grateful to be torn away from her own thoughts, the mechanic nodded with a bashful smile and departed towards the interior of the ship.
“What do we do with them when she’s finished?” Ed asked, after closing his eyes and also turning his back on the scene.
“I can help with that,” Calypso offered, seemingly unaffected by what was happening in the pool. “We will put the men in one of their boats. It will hold them all. I will guide it back to shore, you follow in the other and bring me back here.”
“There are eight of them,” Ed asked, the worry evident in his voice.
Casually Calypso glanced over her shoulder at the pool and the men standing fearful and docile in the glowing red water. “I, too, have ways to keep them still,” she assured them.
Gabrielle nodded in agreement, then turned her attention to Xena who was, unsurprisingly, staring at the woman in the pool. The hunger in her expression was not lost on the bard. “Xena,” she said quietly. “Xena,” she said, a little more sharply. The warrior blinked, then turned her attention to her wife. She shrugged, helplessly. “No, I get it,” the bard reassured her with a smile. “Let’s get Dr. Kate and go inside. I’ve got the white amber incense.” She leaned forward to whisper, “The bad news is Alti has more dead ambrosia.”
Poseidon coughed. Even that act of unconscious movement caused pain. He was exhausted. Tired of the deathly scent carried by the ash that covered him. Tired of feeling weak and helpless. Tired of the fight. Taking a shallow breath, he exhaled slowly, his heart sinking at the realization he was in the corporeal world once more. He closed his eyes, willing himself back to that place of safety; the sensation of salt water coalescing around him, making him buoyant, joyful, powerful. It didn’t work. His eyes opened and he looked around. Unlike the stone like cell he’d been in before, this room was warmer, brighter, more traditional. They’d changed residences, again.
She was here, of course, again, as if somehow, she knew when he’d wake.
“Not much left in the tank, old man,” she said tauntingly.
He was on a tatami bed, which would have been an improvement over the stone floor had he been strong enough to enjoy it. Unbidden, a tear escaped from his eye and ran down his cheek. Stop it, he admonished himself. You can’t spare the moisture. At the edges of his vision, he could see them, the Shinigami who were eagerly awaiting his demise. Like vultures. As Alti had feasted on his power, siphoning it bit by bit to make herself stronger, these silent specters were waiting for the last morsel. They would feast on what remained, making themselves stronger, destabilizing the power dynamic of immortals in this part of the world.
He chuckled painfully in spite of himself. How very like him to once again charge headstrong into a decision with no regard as to the consequences of his actions. Was resurrecting Xena all that different from seeing to it that the anvil of Hephaestus was destroyed? Were the two actions not linked? Had he not agreed to the bard’s demands to help restore the warrior he might only exist in the oceans still. If only he were as glib with his promises as Zeus was; easily made, easily broken.
He watched a moment as Alti prepared to hurt him again. In an urn she placed some white amber incense, the glossy white chunks looking deceptively benign. On a wooden cutting board, he saw that she had one leaf of dead ambrosia left. She cut it in half with a silver knife, then cut one of the halves into thirds, making one small piece and three tiny ones.
“I’ve got some rabbits I need to feed this lot to,” she said conversationally with a nod to the three pieces.
He frowned. “It will kill them,” he protested.
“I think the snakes will kill them first,” she replied with a smile. You can all get reacquainted in the afterlife; you, the snakes, the rabbits. You’re all prey to me.
So that’s the plan, he realized. At the knife’s edge of death, the thing that would send him over was a snakebite. He was at the stepping-off point, his toes curled around the edge of that cliff.
He let his thoughts travel to the future and what would become of him. The most basic of dilemmas that mortals wrestled with daily. What was the next step after life? Was it like turning off a light? Would that last breath hurt? What happens when immortality is over? Absently he listened to the rain as it hammered the roof. He could feel the fresh water in the air, the purification of sea water by clouds making each droplet a wonder in and of itself. Alti was reaching, experimenting, trying to determine the full expanse of her power. She would not care for the oceans as he did.
Alti put the larger of the pieces of dead ambrosia into the urn with the incense. Immediately the smokey ash began to expel from the holes in the vessel, making him cough and sputter, the smoke leaving behind powdery residue on his clothing. He watched her inhale the smoke greedily, she’d gotten stronger with every breath. It disgusted him. He was torn between anger and despair, wondering if it wasn’t better if the whole blasted affair were over with already. In the distance, he heard the echo of a crashing wave, the memory of water pounding sand, relentlessly turning anything in its path into tiny granules. His home was unyielding and he should be too.
As he thought of the wide-open sea, something shifted in his awareness. A renewed greediness, a ravenous hunger in the Shinigami. He could almost feel the phantoms salivate at the thought of the feast that the sea would bring them. Curious, he wondered why Alti came after him first. Then it dawned on him. It wasn’t him, but what he protected. The sea. The sea was the key. The oceans and the rarest of its treasures – ambrosia. When he was gone, the last of his knowledge would be transferred to his killer, the location of ambrosia. The greediness of the Shinigami made sense now. They weren’t going to just feast on him. When Alti had an abundance of ambrosia, should she find a way to kill it, she could use it to kill any number of immortals, leaving the husks for the vile specters that haunted his periphery. After eating some of it herself, no doubt.
Fear, like glacial ice, coursed down his spine. Once again, his foolishness would impact the whole world. This is why he was first, most likely at the urging of the Shinigami. Alti was only interested in her own resurrection, whatever murder was required would make no difference to her. His breathing was measured and deep as that glacial fear turned to white hot fury. The fuck she would. He pictured Aphrodite in his position, or Calypso or any number of immortals being slowly bled of their life force. Using the rage that such images conjured he gathered what will he had left and cried out to the oceans that had been his beloved home forever. Regardless of what it might cost him, he would send out one last message.
“Here is where we are,” Dr. Kate Sprucehill explained to the small group huddled around the table in The Hippolyta’s sick bay. “This seaweed is indeed very fragile. As soon as it hits the air, true to its name, becomes brittle and breaks apart into tea-like fragments.” As she spoke, she carefully snipped off a small bit of the plant, now in a larger tank of salt water and brought it to the surface. Wolfgang assisted by holding a fine net under the fragment and as soon as the tweezers cleared the water, the leaf broke apart. “I’ve run some unconventional tests,” the doctor continued. “You said that the plant restores something to its natural state,” she said looking at Calypso. “I took the plant fragments and put them in a Petri dish, and added some hot water.” When the fragments dissolved, she removed a flower from the bouquet that Nicolai had gifted her at the wedding. After putting some black dye on the bloom, she then took an eye dropper of the black brittle tea solution and added it to the flower as well. As the liquid met the discolored petal, the natural color was restored. “We’ve discovered that this only works on living matter. I tried dying a piece of fabric and the solution had no effect. It also loses its potency almost immediately, within minutes.”
“That is one of the reasons it is so precious,” Calypso explained. “First to find it, then harvest it without destroying it, then to steep it and use it immediately…” the goddess paused as Aphrodite entered sick bay, dressed in a robe, her hair up in a bath towel. All eyes traveled to the newcomer.
The Goddess of Love looked radiant, her eyes no longer glowing, but the exercise of her power still showing lingering effects. Her skin was luminous, her eyes a more intense shade of glacial blue. She surveyed the room before speaking. Besides Gabrielle, Wolfgang, Vox, Dr. Kate, Michelle, Calypso, Gabrielle, and Xena regarded her She smiled. “Good news loves. I know where Alti is holed up, but she moves safe houses every day or two. We don’t have much time. I hope you’re making progress with seaweed.”
“Dr. Kate was just showing us how it works,” Gabrielle explained willing her brain into making coherent sentences. Radiating with power and pheromones, her friend was captivating. Knowingly, Aphrodite winked at her, the familial gesture breaking the spell, on her at least. The bard’s eyes traveled around the table, nearly everyone was looking at Aphrodite with varying degrees of hunger. With a degree of amusement tinged with jealousy, she noticed that Xena especially was riveted. Only Calypso seemed immune, her expression one of bemusement.
“Perhaps we should focus,” the Goddess of the Deep Sea admonished her companions sternly, breaking the spell.
“We need to find a way to make that tea a stable enough to travel where Alti is and somehow get it to her – in an aerosol, or injectable, whatever it takes.” Gabrielle explained to the doctor when she had the tall woman’s attention once again. “She is sapping Poseidon’s power and it is making her stronger. Aphrodite’s friend sent us to a wiccan shop owner who had this,” she removed the small box of incense from her pocket and put it on the table. “I don’t know how this can help, but I think it’s supposed to.”
All eyes turned to Aphrodite and Calypso, the two immortal beings in their midst. Aphrodite opened the box to reveal a half dozen opaque white chunks, the glossy surface reflecting the overhead lights brightly. “There is this highly toxic substance that Alti has found,” the goddess explained to the others. “Think of it as the opposite of the seaweed stuff. That is what is letting her siphon off Poseidon’s power. He said that she’s burning it, making a smoky mist, she’s using this incense as a carrier,” she said, picking up the small box. “It provides stability to the toxic shit she’s burning.”
“So, if we burn the seaweed stuff with the incense, it could fight fire with fire?” Wolfgang wondered out loud. “Make a smoke mist of our own and pump it into the safe house were Alti is hiding.” Xena shrugged hopefully, liking the suggestion.
“One problem,” Dr. Kate said with a glance to Xena and Gabrielle. She surveyed the assembled faces before speaking, unsure if she should voice her concerns privately.
“It’s okay,” Gabrielle said, reading her expression, “I trust everyone on this ship.”
“Out with it,” Xena added.
“You’ve been understandably cagy about exactly what caused your longevity,” the doctor began.
“It was something I ate.”
“It was something she ate,” Gabrielle and Xena said simultaneously.
“And you?” the doctor asked Xena.
“No,” the warrior replied offering no additional details but noted the eye contact between Vox and Michelle who knew the whole story.
“My concern is that if you inhale the smoke, Gabrielle. Or get too close to it, would not you be returned to your natural state as well?”
“Is this tea still active?” Xena asked.
The doctor nodded. “For another minute or two.”
“Ouch!” Gabrielle exclaimed as Xena plucked a hair from the back of her head.
Dropping the hair onto the petri dish, her eyes widened in surprise as the strand was turned to dust.
“Oh shit,” Vox murmured.
Without uttering a word, both Xena and Aphrodite moved to stand in front of Gabrielle, blocking her from the table. “Hey!” Xena exclaimed as Gabrielle plucked a dark strand of the warrior’s hair. She handed it to Aphrodite, who dropped it into the dish. Nothing happened.
“Maybe it’s inactive?” Michelle wondered.
“Wolfie, give us one of your crap tattoos,” Vox said turning to her friend.
He frowned for a moment, but relented, “Aphrodite, can I borrow that towel?”
She chuckled as she took the towel from her head, handing it to the engineer who had turned his back on the women, discretely removed his jeans, wrapping the towel around his waist. He lifted the bottom of the terrycloth a bit revealing an old tattoo on his thigh that said “Claire.”
Exercising restraint, no one chuckled aside from Vox, who openly smirked at her friend. “You’ll tell me that story later bro,” she said as she wiped a tea-soaked gauze pad onto the tattoo, leaving virgin skin in its wake.
“Oh, that’s so cool,” he replied, “Didn’t even hurt. Here, do this one,” he said pointing to an Atari logo on his knee. Vox wiped the new patch of skin but this time it did nothing more than fade the tattoo. She tried wiping again and it did nothing.
“Like I said, it only lasts a few minutes,” the doctor commented dryly.
“How long to craft an injectable with this stuff?” Xena asked.
The doctor shrugged, “I’ll do it as fast as I can, but there are so many variables. We don’t know how strong everything needs to be. How much seaweed? How much of the incense? How long will the incense keep it viable? I can’t make something that would kill someone.”
Calypso shook her head. “No need to worry about that. As you’ve seen, the black brittle tea does not take anything from anyone that would not be there naturally.” Unconsciously, she glanced in the direction of Gabrielle but quickly turned her attention back to the doctor. “As for the incense, it is harmless on its own. It’s just a rare substance that stabilizes other things. People have used it to preserve most precious potions and medicines the world over. Make your potion as strong as you can. It is Alti we are looking to destroy, not the woman who unwittingly carries her. I would not mislead you in this.”
The doctor cast a questioning glance to her boss and receiving an affirming nod. “I will take you at your word,” she said. Turning her attention to Gabrielle, “I will let you know as soon as I have something.” She was about to say more when a warning came through the ships intercom system.
“Rogue wave incoming, starboard, brace for…” Nicolai didn’t have the chance to finish his statement when The Hippolyta was rocked from one side to the other. Aphrodite cried out and fainted, while Xena covered Gabrielle’s body with her own as the petri dish slid off the work table and broke well away from them. Dr. Kate secured the tank holding the black brittle seaweed while everyone else grabbed something to steady themselves until the rocking stopped.
“What the fuck was that?” Wolfgang asked as the doctor took a broom from a small closet to quickly sweep up the broken glass and liquid, keeping a wary eye on her boss.
Vox hit the intercom button, “Report,” she barked.
“Just the one wave, Captain,” the Russian reported. “All scans quiet now. Water still choppy from the wind and rain, but nothing else that our sensors can detect.”
Michelle rushed to the side of the unconscious goddess, the worry on her face plain. As Xena shifted, releasing the bard beneath her, both women turned their attention to their friend.
“Was that Alti?” the doctor asked, looking questioningly from Calypso to Xena and Gabrielle.
“No,” Calypso assured her. “That was a cry of desperation from a very frightened God of the Sea. Something has changed.”
As she spoke Aphrodite’s eyes fluttered open. She smiled warmly at Michelle who was cradling her head in her lap. “I’m alright, hon, thank you,” she whispered before sitting up. “We need to deal with this by morning if we’re going to save him,” she announced. “I’m not even sure he has that much time. Doc, I hate to rush you but…”
“I’m on it,” the doctor said with a nod to Wolfgang. “You’re with me. I need an extra pair of hands, you follow instructions well, and you have tattoos we can experiment on.” Vox nodded at the engineer, releasing him from his duties.
Kicking his discarded jeans out of the way, the engineer nodded crisply at the doctor dressed in no more than a t-shirt and bath towel. “Whatever you need doc,” he assured her.
“It’s okay if you put your pants on,” Doctor Kate muttered with a smile, taking the box of incense as the others prepared to leave.
“Vox, Michelle, please join Xena, Gabrielle, Calypso and myself in the study,” Aphrodite said as she stood up headed to the bard’s private study.
Xena and Gabrielle paused as the others filed out of sick bay. Gabrielle regarded the sealed tank of salt water securely attached to the table and the glass cylinder submerged within. Dr. Kate talked quietly to Wolfgang as she reviewed her notes and readied the instruments she would need to create her potion.
“Dinar for your thoughts?” the warrior asked as she approached her wife at the tank.
Gabrielle gave her a small smile. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been this close to something that could literally kill me. There was cannon fire on a pirate ship awhile back, and an unfortunate incident too close to an erupting volcano, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen something I should be afraid of.”
“There could be more out there,” Xena offered quietly. “Different plants, trinkets imbued by who knows what from any number of gods. Things may have changed some from the old days, but probably not as much as we think.”
“It’s oddly beautiful, isn’t it Xena?” the bard asked quietly, looking at the velvety black leaves that moved gracefully in water. The alternating blades appeared to have a soft lacy texture that reminded Gabrielle of white sage.
Xena glanced up at the pathologist, who was ready to take the plant out of the tank but hesitated; she didn’t want her boss anywhere near the deadly seaweed. Xena nudged her wife in the shoulder and pointedly looked at the doctor they were delaying.
“I’m sorry,” Gabrielle said, smiling. “I got lost in thought. We’ll get out of your way. I know we’re all pressed for time.” She looked up at her wife, marveling once again at the good fortune and years of effort that brought her beloved back into her life. “We’ve a date in my study.”
The seat behind the art deco desk had been left empty, so Gabrielle slid into it as Xena and Michelle took seats on the couch, Argo between them. Calypso and Vox took the two chairs in front of the bard’s desk. Aphrodite sat on the edge of the coffee table, helping herself to the bottle of scotch and taking a swig before passing the bottle to Xena.
“Are you alright?” the warrior asked, accepting the bottle.
“I’m fine. Uncle Ariel is desperate, which that kind of throws me, but I’m ok. We are at the endgame. My uncle is on the knife’s edge of death. He can feel the Shinigami lurking in the shadows. When Alti gains the last of his power and his knowledge,” she said looking at Xena meaningfully, “she will know the location of what she needs to take her war on immortals to the next level. She will hunt us down, taking on our powers and knowledge and becoming more powerful with every kill. I’m next on her list. I sense that the Shinigami directed her at Ariel first as payback for that resurrection-Yodoshi bullshit, but I’m the target she’s more interested in. Once she has my abilities…” she left the rest unspoken.
Gabrielle looked around the room at everyone. What went unsaid was clear. When she had Aphrodite’s abilities, she would be irresistible. What she, Calypso and Xena knew that Vox and Michelle did not was that if she knew the location of ambrosia, she would also, potentially become immortal. The world would be transformed in her wake in ways that would make Ares envious.
Aphrodite went on, “She’s got a fuck ton of guards, maybe fifty or more, patrolling the safehouse grounds. That intel is courtesy of the thugs I questioned in the pool. Onozuka has pulled in muscle from some of his other operations. Neither Calypso nor I can risk confronting her in person, obviously.” She typed something into her phone, then looked over to Gabrielle. “This is the address of the safe house where she’s at. Can you pull up a map?”
“So, we need to strike now, the second that Dr. Kate has some kind of formulation,” Vox urged, trying to sound upbeat. “As long as Gabrielle stays away from it, you guys are okay, right?”
Michelle sighed in frustration. “I understand there are things you two need to keep private, obviously how Xena got resurrected and whatever it was that Gabrielle ate that caused her longevity. I get that if word leaked about a fountain of youth people would go bananas and it makes sense not to divulge that, but I kind of feel like we’re flying blind to some degree. We know that the black brittle tea is deadly to Gabrielle, but is the stuff that’s hurting Poseidon going to hurt you, Xena?”
Xena looked from Calypso to Aphrodite questioningly. The Goddess of Love nodded her head sadly. “The same substance that is sapping my uncle’s strength would probably be harmless to Gabrielle, but would be damaging to Xena. Again, it’s over time, it won’t kill you instantly like that seaweed would kill Gabrielle.” She looked at the bard as she said it, love and concern plainly written across her face.
“Gabrielle isn’t going to the safe house,” Xena countered. “I am.”
“Um. No.” Gabrielle replied, glaring defiantly at Xena. “Of course, I’m going. Aphrodite just said there is something that can hurt each of us. But each of us is also impervious to something, and we stand a better chance as a team. I can’t believe after two thousand years we are still having this conversation.”
Xena looked down guilty while everyone else looked around the room uncomfortably.
“I hate it when mommy and mommy fight,” Vox muttered breaking the tension.
“And I can assure you,” Gabrielle replied turning her attention to Michelle, “that if there is a ‘fountain of youth’ I have not encountered it. I’m not trying to be cagey, but yeah, neither Xena or I can get into specifics. It’s not just for your safety, but for the safety of humanity in general. We don’t want wars started over a resource that doesn’t exist anymore. Aphrodite, this is the address you gave me.” Gabrielle turned her monitor so the others could see it, zooming in on the house. “Well protected by a wall, sparsely inhabited surroundings, nestled in mountains at the side of a cliff.
Xena studied the screen unhappily. “No way they don’t see us coming,” she groused. “Even if we tried to drop in by helicopter over here,” she pointed at the screen, “or arrived by boat over here and scaled the wall. The only unobtrusive entry would be heading up the road as far as the other estates go, but then, here, that’s a choke point at the gate.” She frowned, staring intently at the map. “If we had more time, or if this was the old days with less sophisticated surveillance…”
“The guards are the real problem,” Vox agreed. “That many of them. I’m sure you guys have raided castles or whatever back in the day, but fifty guys armed with guns is probably a little different than swords or arrows.”
“Attacking from two directions at once may be one way to divide the guards,” Michelle suggested. “Have more of us go, all attacking at once.”
“What if I get Onozuka to pull back the guards,” Gabrielle offered. “If the guards are gone Alti can’t watch Poseidon and the compound herself.”
“This kind of mercenary only takes orders from the man at the top,” Vox said sadly. “We can’t fake some kind of stand-down order.”
“Do we know where Onozuka hangs out?” the bard asked.
“We know he spends time at his heavily guarded office building,” Michelle offered. “If you could get through the door, maybe get up to the top floor, but he’d have a ton of different guards there, lawyers, people running interference. His ilk is all about stalling for time.”
“How would you convince him to change sides?” Xena asked curiously. “Because that is what it would take. If he at least decided to stay out of it and pull back his guards. I don’t see him moving his allegiance from the Shinigami and Alti to us.”
“We don’t need him to join us,” Gabrielle replied. “You’re right in that we just need him to step away from assisting Alti. And yes, that would mean choosing between continuing to serve the Shinigami and his own present self-interest. I’ve released the Kraken, in the form of my CFO on his finances. I’ll touch base with her and see what leverage we have. If it’s there to be found, Heather Martin will find it,” Gabrielle explained. “If he sees the potential of losing enough in the here and now, he may choose to short-term survival over loyalty.”
“But as soon as she sees her muscle pack it in, Alti is going to know something is going on.” Vox observed.
“Two things to keep in mind,” Aphrodite added, “We all are at risk here. The two of you especially. There will be something in that house lethal to each of you. The good news is that Alti doesn’t know what those things are. Distracting Alti in the dream realm will give the best opportunity to beat her in the physical realm. If she leaves the dream abruptly, she will be at a disadvantage. You saw what happened to Gabrielle. At a minimum she’ll be disoriented. You said Kana was a martial arts expert, Alti picked that body for a reason. I think you should be prepared for someone who can fight like Alti in the dream realm and this one.”
“I like our odds with a war on two fronts,” Gabrielle agreed. “Just not two fronts at the house. We need Alti distracted.”
Calypso smiled, her white teeth making her grin look reminiscent of the Cheshire cat. “I think Miss Aphrodite and I can help. We will enter our realm of the sea and keep her busy in the dreamscape. If we can stretch her thinly enough, she will be more apt to make a mistake, but you will still need to be careful.”
Xena nodded with approval. She turned her attention to her wife, her expression softening. “When we get to the house, we can’t worry about each other. We have to stay focused on the mission.”
“I know,” Gabrielle replied with a loving smile. “I will meet you there and we will finish this. We can keep each other safe and get the job done. Alti’s biggest flaw has always been underestimating us, and I, for one, am fed up with her bullshit. We will both be in danger, and I’m not going to let you take that risk without me there and I know you wouldn’t either. When Dr. Kate is ready, I think I’ve got an idea for slipping her the potion.” She paused, then went on. “We all know what we have to do, and we leave as soon as we can. I need to go to the safe have a chat with my CFO. Right after we check in on Shen.”
Xena and Gabrielle paused at the door to their son’s quarters. Mixed in with the rest of the crew, Gabrielle had to admit that he probably felt most at home here, like his dormitory at school. During the ship’s redesign, she’d showed him several floor plan designs that would have moved him closer to the quarters she shared with Xena and at each turn he’d chosen to stay with the crew, citing her privacy. “No one wants to have a room near their mom,” Xena had commented at the time. “I remember that from my mom’s inn.” After knocking softly on the door, they waited for an invitation before entering.
“Come in,” the boy called distractedly. As his parents entered, he looked up from his lighted magnifying lamp, surprised. “Oh, it’s you guys. I thought you’d be Vox.” Sitting at his desk, he’d been carefully applying paint to a miniature figurine. A dozen or so tiny statues dominated the desk in various stages of completion.
“Are those for the game?” Xena asked excitedly, rushing over. “Which one is me?”
Gabrielle chuckled, watching Shen bring out Xena’s child-like sense of wonder was something she was sure she’d never tire of.
“This is your magic user,” Shen announced proudly, handing Xena one of the several finished figurines.
“That is so cool,” she proclaimed proudly as she studied the tiny statue under the magnifier light, “Gabrielle, come look at this. It’s magnificent!”
Gabrielle joined them at the light and nodded with approval. “Wonderful detail,” she agreed. “Maybe that will remind you that magic users shouldn’t go storming into the dungeon before anyone else.” Shen chuckled at the frown Xena shot Gabrielle in response.
“My infection is cleared up,” he announced, proudly pulling aside the sleeve of his t-shirt so they could see.
“It is indeed,” Gabrielle agreed. “I see no reason you can’t talk to your friends then. You are officially un-grounded.” She took the phone from her pocket and sent a text message to alert the crew.
“Vox told me earlier that she may have a line on some kind of cream that can fade tattoos.” He explained happily. “She said it’s hard to find, but maybe a shop in Japan might have it, she said she’d ask you.”
Xena and Gabrielle exchanged knowing glances. “No promises,” Gabrielle replied. “But we will see what we can do. Either way you can see her guy in Garden Grove and have the memorial tattoo done right.”
The boy smiled bashfully. “I’m sorry I did it behind your back, it was stupid.”
Xena shrugged, “we all make mistakes, just try not to make the same one’s twice.” After an affectionate hair tousle, she added, “we’re leaving the ship tonight and we’ll be gone for a while, hopefully getting back tomorrow.”
“I’ll be glad when this company buy-out thing is done,” he commented. “Or when you track down Uncle Ariel or whatever. It’ll be nice to get back home, or at least do some sightseeing.”
“Maybe we can do a bit of both when we finish,” Xena assured the boy.
“We just wanted to stop by and tell you how much we love you before we head out,” Gabrielle added. “This wasn’t the family trip we’d planned.”
Shen rolled his eyes dramatically even though his sheepish smile told another story. “You guys – come on, I get it. I love you too. Man, so sappy! There will be more family trips, I’m not a totally disaffected teenager…yet.”
Xena embraced him in a rough hug and tousled his hair again. “You’re never too grown up to have your moms tell you we love you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he replied, returning the hug and hugging Gabrielle as well. He accepted the bard’s kiss on the top of his head before she released him. “I’ll see you when you get back.
While the cold, cutting rain had stopped, the sky was still gray and the ocean choppy, as if nature itself roiled with Poseidon’s turmoil. Escorted by Michelle, the pair of goddesses descended the stairs to the aft deck. Hair still unkempt and wet from her sojourn into the pool, Aphrodite simply stepped out of her robe and waited for her companion to take her clothes off. Having seen Aphrodite naked many times, Michelle nonetheless felt a familiar increase to her heart rate.
“Should I wait here for your return?” she asked, focusing her attention on Aphrodite while Calypso disrobed.
The Goddess of Love smiled at her warmly and shook her head. “No love, you should get inside. We will be off that way,” she said pointing starboard. “Just leave a pair of those warm fluffy robes in the supply box over there. We’ll be fine. Come here,” she added as the brunette stepped forward to receive a warm hug and a soft kiss on the mouth.
“Please be careful,” Michelle implored with a respectful nod to Calypso as well.
“We will child, now go, get out of this cold,” the Goddess of the Deep Sea instructed. With a final glance in their direction, she departed leaving the two goddesses alone.
“Are you cold?” Aphrodite asked her companion with surprise.
Calypso shook her head, “no, but I know she was.” She seemed like she was about to say more but thought better of it.
“What is it?” Aphrodite asked, in a tone that brokered no argument.
“I find your attachment to them interesting, that’s all,” Calypso replied with a chuckle.
“What?” Aphrodite demanded.
The shorter woman shrugged. “You have messy boundaries with them. People in general, but especially some of the people on this boat. Your dalliance with Michelle, your tryst with Gabrielle – do you not worry that you’ve needlessly complicated her relationship with Xena? Her emotional entanglements with you are ever present.” She shrugged. “Cultural differences I suppose.”
Aphrodite studied her companion for a long moment before replying. It was clear she was choosing her words carefully. Calypso found this respectful, she was being treated as an equal, a colleague, but was also saddened by it – a spontaneous response is what Aphrodite would have given anyone else on this ship; people she saw as family.
“Love is messy,” Aphrodite finally replied. “Love can be stoic, playful, selfish, and unconditional. It can burn out beautifully in one night, or last an eternity. I’m all for experiencing the full spectrum.” With a wink, she dove into the sea, calmly treading water while she waited for her companion. “I’m not above a dalliance, but Michelle wasn’t one,” she continued when Calypso joined her in the water. “We had a lovely relationship, and it is still open-ended to some degree, but my relationship with Gabrielle was hardly a ‘tryst’. Love is something there is never going to be too much of in the world, in all its forms. People learn to expand their horizons by the varying relationships they see and experience. Had I not lost a big chunk of my power, love in the world of today would never have been confined to such a narrow definition.”
After swimming a distance from the ship, the women resumed their conversation while effortlessly treading water once again. As the pair relaxed into their power, Aphrodite’s eyes began to glow their intense blue, while Calypso’s skin shimmered in the water, her eyes glowing an amber hue. The water around them shimmered.
“Is that the assessment of your colleague in Japan?” Calypso asked.
Aphrodite’s eyes narrowed slightly. It was clear that she didn’t like her judgement questioned, nor was it the first time that it had happened. “Keiko? She has her style, I have mine. I’m sure there are differences in how you and my uncle approach the sea. You also seem comfortable among mortals, clearly you interact with them at home.”
“More as a revered auntie or traveling healer. I don’t regularly invite them to my bed.” The last was said with her judgement tempered by humor. She knew she was overstepping.
Aphrodite shrugged, taking no offense. “I’ve had a lot of people in my bed. I don’t deny that. I’ve had long relationships, short ones, epic ones, every hue of the rainbow. But mortals are the creatures I’m charged with protecting and enlightening. Absolutely it rubs off on other animals, but my primary responsibility isn’t caring for whales in the sea, for example. As for Keiko, I’ve no doubt she comports herself by the dictates of the culture she finds herself in at any given time. Like me, she’s done some traveling, so she probably conducts herself differently depending where she is. Formality makes sense at the English Court, but would be out of place at Burning Man.”
“Is she going to help us rescue your uncle?” Calypso pressed.
Aphrodite shrugged. “She led us to the white amber incense. I don’t know how much of an active hand she wants to take against the Shinigami, I don’t know the nuances of the local politics here. I do know that as a friend and colleague, she will be as helpful to our cause as she feels she can. I trust her.”
“Then it looks like we are on our own in the dreamscape,” the African goddess acknowledge with concern. “We need to keep Alti as off balance as possible to help Xena and Gabrielle when they confront her. Do you have any ideas?”
Aphrodite grinned, the thousand-watt smile that indicated that indeed, she did have an idea. A very, very good idea. “You know,” she said playfully, “Gabrielle gave me a great idea when she confronted Alti the last time. Let’s just say that knowing a couple of specific mortals well is going to give us an advantage.”
From the passenger seat of the SUV, Gabrielle studied the ominous building in front of her for long moments before speaking. The name “Onozuka” looked a dull gold against the gray sky, but she had no doubt that it glinted imposingly in the sun. She shook her head in dismay. She owned several buildings, just as impressive, that served as offices for the various parts of her company. High tech and secure, she also found space for trees, plants, gardens, outdoor eateries and friendly exteriors, but her name or any number of aliases or businesses appeared nowhere on the building. “This building looks like the Borg made it,” she finally said dryly.
“It does look like a fortress,” Ed agreed from the driver’s seat. “Do you want me to go around back?”
“No, we’ve already circled around once, if we show up on their security cameras a second time, they’ll be suspicious. You stay with the car. Is Xena set on her end?” she asked.
“Phoenix, what’s your twenty?” he asked into the radio he carried. He wore an earpiece and while the bard could hear sounds that where unmistakably her wife’s voice, she couldn’t make out the specifics.
“Team Fire in position,” he replied to his boss. Cautious about unwanted ears listening in on their comms, a series of code words had hastily been devised. “They are far enough away that they won’t cause suspicion, but are able to keep an eye on the one road leading away from target. When and if management departs, they will know. She also says that Team Ocean is at the ready, Team Earth keeping watch. That just leaves us. I could drive you closer?”
“I’ll walk from here,” she said with a look to her companion in the back seat. “Team Air on the move. You ready for a walk girl?”
“Hardware?” Ed asked. “In the glovebox if you need it,” he suggested with a nod.
Gabrielle shook her head. “What’s he gonna do to me?” She held up her phone, “I’m armed with something deadlier to him than a bullet. Come on girl,” she said, opening the rear door, “it’s showtime.”
Dog and bard casually walked down the sidewalk towards the main entrance of the building. Argo chuffed indignantly which made Gabrielle chuckle. “You know the leash is just for appearances, girl,” she said reassuringly. They were about to cross the street when Argo barked and sat down stubbornly looking away from the office building. “Come on, Argo,” Gabrielle pleaded with her companion, “We don’t have a lot of time.” She tried to keep walking, but was jerked back as the leash went taught. “What the hell,” she muttered looking at the dog.
Argo sat at the corner, defiantly looking away from the Onozuka building. Gabrielle looked in the direction the dog faced, hoping to see another dog or squirrel that may have caught her eye. There were several people out and about, dressed as she was for the cold. Some people carried umbrellas. Gabrielle wore jeans and a sweater over her flannel shirt. The car had been warm so she’d pushed the sleeves up to her elbows, enjoying the feel of the brisk air. She saw several shops, all upscale and tidy, except for one. There was a small Izakaya next door to a jewelry store that looked more homely than the others. “Okay,” she capitulated. “You lead. Where are we going?”
Hearing the release command of ‘okay’, Argo stood and looked at her mistress before leading her across to the other side of the street, down the sidewalk to the small restaurant. It was tiny, only room for two diners outside and maybe two more inside. Even air heavy with moisture from the recent rain carried the scent of a complex coconut broth that made the bard’s mouth water. “This better not be about lunch,” she muttered to her companion as she stepped inside.
As her eyes adjusted to the dimly lit eatery, she realized she owed her pit bull an apology. A large man sat at one of the two tables, casually reading his newspaper. His companion, a Rhodesian Ridgeback from the look of it, was immediately on its feet and growling. Argo barked once, sharply, and the other dog sat down.
“No dogs in here!” the cook said sternly to Gabrielle as he poked his head out of the small kitchen at the commotion.
“Are you serious?” Gabrielle asked incredulously, looking pointedly at the now quiet Ridgeback.
The cook looked fearfully at his patron, unsure of what to do. Moving the paper just enough to make eye contact, the large man closed his eyes once, as if his face were shrugging. Relieved, the cook disappeared back into the small kitchen.
“Tea, please,” Gabrielle called after him. She took a seat at the table across from the former sumo wrestler. With precision, she placed her phone, screen down, on the table, folded her hands politely and waited, a move that made her companion lower his paper, his expression stern. Keeping her face neutral, Gabrielle studied her companion. It was easy to see the man’s sumo wrestling past. He’d kept his hair long; it was slicked back on the top and pulled back into a neat ponytail. Certainly, it was long enough to be styled in the traditional top knot if he so desired. His face was round, his skin showed some age. Both his goatee and hair were flecked with gray. His eyes were hard, and a scar in his left eyebrow spoke of a past that included physical violence.
“I have not invited you to join me,” he said curtly, then dismissed his guest. His dog whined nervously, also unsure of how to handle the newcomers and he kicked it sharply with his booted foot. Argo barked once again and the dog was quiet.
Gabrielle frowned, unhappy with the treatment of his dog. Before she could voice her displeasure however, she felt the air around her heat up, almost as if she were under a warming lamp. Moments later, the temperature became uncomfortable. It would have been unbearable had her skin lacked the ability to instantly heal itself. She nodded. “I see, this is how we’re going to do things. You have the Shinigami and I have this…” Keeping her voice calm in spite of the discomfort, she turned her phone over and tapped it, once to open the lock screen and a second time to send a pre-composed message. Nothing happened. Titan Onozuka smirked at Gabrielle while she kept a passive expression on her face, enduring the heat, hands calmly folded on the table once again. Moments later, phone across the table from her vibrated and Titan Onozuka shot it a casual glance. He picked it up, eyes growing wide in alarm at the messages he was receiving. In quick succession his eyes traveled from his phone to the building across the street then back to his phone. In an instant, Gabrielle felt the attack on her stop.
“That’s better,” she muttered.
His eyes narrowed. “Who are you?” he demanded hotly.
“My name is Susan Vincent and I represent Gabrielle Evans,” she said calmly. “Tea, please?”
“TEA,” he shouted as the cook came rushing from the kitchen carrying a tray with a teapot and fresh set of tea cups.
“My apologies,” the wiry cook sputtered, bowing deeply to Onozuka, his hands shaking as he poured the tea.
Ignoring the cook, the large man frowned at Gabrielle after glancing at the screen of his phone every few seconds and typing off instructions. Finally, he dialed a number and after a furtive glance at the woman across from him, began to speak in Albanian.
“Stop the bleeding,” he instructed whomever was on the other end of the phone. “I don’t care what you have to do, shut it down.” He listened a moment more, his face continuing to sour and added, “fine, the reserves then. Get the share price back up, contact our people and move now.” He kept glancing up at his building, clearly talking to people inside. He listened and as Gabrielle watched the man across from her, she began to see the first micro expressions of fear. A twitch in his forehead, the tightening of eye muscles; she could read him like a book. “What do you mean we are locked out? Our allies then, they owe us. Yes, all of them…” Calmly Gabrielle took a sip of tea and watched. He waited a moment more, then took the phone from his ear and cut the connection.
“Supply chain issues?” Gabrielle asked innocently.
“I could kill you where you sit,” he growled ominously, switching back to Japanese.
Gabrielle shrugged. “You could try.” The bard watched as his eyes shifted towards the kitchen. As Argo barked in warning, Gabrielle felt the air around her move. Leaning to the side, she thrust her arm at the attacker approaching from behind, deflecting the strike of the clever, but not before it created a long gash across her left forearm. She winced in pain, but disarmed the cook with her right hand, then pinning his foot the floor with the cleaver. He howled in pain, needing two jerks of the blade to free himself. Still crying, the skinny man limped back to the kitchen.
“Attack,” Onozuka said in German. The dog at his side lunged at Gabrielle, only to be deflected by Argo, leaping up and knocking the taller dog to the side. She barked and growled which had the Ridgeback whining uncertainly, looking from his master to the newcomer.
Gabrielle held up her arm so the mobster could see the skin knit together, the deep gash healing before his eyes. “Down,” she said to the dog in German, who complied.
“I am listening,” Onozuka said, with a grunt of resignation.
“I’ll bet you are,” Gabrielle replied in flawless Albanian. She watched the muscles of his jaw clench and only with effort did she keep a well-deserved smirk off her lips.
“What do you want?” he demanded flatly.
“Now that we’ve established that we both have extraordinary forces at our disposal. You have security protecting someone who looks a lot like your niece. She’s using your safe houses, there was a museum heist, any of this ringing a bell?” Gabrielle kept her voice calm, neutral.
“What of it?” Onozuka asked looking uncomfortable and staring at her now pristine arm.
“This is where you get to pick sides,” she said matter-of-factly. “Clearly you have served the Shinigami faithfully and have been rewarded. As you can see,” she said wiping the blood off of her arm with a napkin revealing no trace of the wound, “I too have allies. I also have a stranglehold on your financial empire.” Meaningfully, she looked out of the ramen shop to the to the imposing building across the street. She glanced at her phone. “Looks like I have controlling interest in six, no make that eight of your companies, I’m poised to transfer assets from three accounts in the Cayman Islands, and I’ve taken substantial stakes in the companies of your top four shareholders. I could have Gabrielle Evans’ name on that building in three weeks after you are publicly kicked out on your ass. Hard to run a criminal organization when you’ve no way to launder your money and someone like Ms. Evans has made you look like a punk.”
She saw his jaw clench even further, a vein to the side of his head pulsing rapidly. “She might be persuaded to lessen her grip,” she continued, “if you withdraw all of your assistance to the woman walking around in your niece’s body. The security forces, transportation, technical assistance – everything. You make a call and have everyone one of your people walk out. And you’re going to do it now. The Shinigami are going to be unhappy, but you get your empire back, well, most of it at least. Naturally there is a service fee. Or you can keep serving the Shinigami and rebuild your legit empire up from the very first brick. It’s up to you. You’ll be back to laundering the money from your criminal division in a decade or so.”
“I can have you killed, destroy everyone you know; I have an army of assassins at my disposal,” he shot back with a menacing growl. “I have people everywhere.”
Now Gabrielle actually chucked. “In my experience, armies of mercenaries don’t stick around for too long when they don’t get paid. You use your interest from the real estate holdings to pay your security team, the crypto venture ties you in with the cartels in Central America and Albania, and there is that sweet hotel chain you’ve got with those oligarch tools in Russia. That’s kind of the spine for your human trafficking ventures. And don’t get me started on your China crap. I can go on. Clearly, I’ve done my homework. Everywhere you have people, Ms. Evans has people too, and she’s on very good terms with INTERPOL, local police, and loads of three-letter agencies in the U.S. The headaches she could cause for you in America are nothing like the havoc she could wreak in Europe, Central America and China.” she shot a glance at his phone, where various panicked messages were still coming in at an alarming speed. “Besides, you just tried to have me killed and as you saw, it didn’t go well. But fine, I’ll wager by sunset, you won’t have the assets to make payroll for your dog walker.”
Titan Onozuka frowned at the woman seated across from him; her face was calm, relaxed, confident, and fearless. He glanced at the napkin on the table, red with her blood from a now nonexistent wound. He thought about his comfort, his safety, and the likelihood he would be able to keep it should the forces of darkness no longer have his back. He also considered the work necessary to start over and rebuild everything. In the end, he settled on the comfort to which he’d grown accustomed.
Gabrielle moved as if to stand, “I’ve got a thing I need to get to, so if you aren’t interested…”
“Fine,” he shot back. “I cut ties with my niece, and Gabrielle Evans returns everything?” he asked flatly.
Gabrielle sent a text on her phone then regarded the mobster. She waited a moment or two and pretended to receive a message. “Ms. Evans has released one company as a demonstration of good faith. She will release more as I see you holding up your end of the bargain. I’m sure you’re not surprised that major crime bosses don’t have a great track record with keeping their word.”
He glanced at his phone and frowned. He picked up the phone and dialed, speaking in clipped tones to the person on the other end. “Clear out of the house,” he said. “Everyone, take the gear, shut it all down. Everyone return…” he looked suspiciously at the woman across from him, “home. Have all units return to their bases, I’ll send further instructions later.” He listened for a moment and grunted. “Very well. Just get everyone else out. Everyone stand down.”
“Yeah, Ms. Evans doesn’t have a singular base of operations either,” the bard replied with a shrug. “Makes sense to have them to return to their various units. Let me guess,” she added, “Whoever is in charge over there said that your niece has some of your people cut off from communication with the others?”
He nodded. “Six men.”
With an unhappy sigh Gabrielle studied her companion. It wasn’t the first time she had to decide what to do with the people who willingly followed unsavory people. While her fight wasn’t with them per se, unless she made the effort to save them, they would be collateral damage. “If you want your men back, tell me something I can tell them to assure them that I’ve spoken to you. I don’t give a shit if members of an organized crime syndicate die in hail of bullets. But my fight is with Alti, and I’m not interested in killing some guy because he had the misfortune to get separated from communication with the rest of your thugs. I’m going to do my best to spare your niece as well.” The large man shifted uncomfortably; his concerns glaringly obvious on his face. “Would you look at me?” Gabrielle demanded losing patience. “Does it look like I’m going to take this intel and infiltrate your organization anytime soon? Change your secret whatever it is moving forward, I don’t care. I’m leaving in five seconds and I’m done hand-holding you.”
“The left foot,” he blurted. “There is an infra-red tattoo of a crest on the bottom of the left foot. It is a closely guarded secret.”
“Like this?” she asked putting the small round pin on the table that had been delivered to Xena by a seagull. The large man paled a little and nodded silently.
“Fine,” she said with a shrug as she retrieved the pin from the table. Gabrielle stood ready to leave when Argo nudged her shin and gave her a soft chuff. In response the dog at the man’s side whined. Gabrielle sighed. “What’s your dog’s name?” she asked.
“Raion,” he replied with a frown.
She shrugged again. “Appropriate for an African Lion Dog I suppose,” she muttered to herself. “Raion,” she called and the dog immediately stood up. “I’m taking your dog too,” she added as she left the ramen shop.
“Should I even ask about the dog?” Ed asked as he drove the SUV through the streets of Karatsu.
Gabrielle turned in her seat to look at the pair of dogs sitting in back. Raion was looking out the window curiously and seemed happy to be starting out his new life. Argo leaned forward to lick her mistress’ face appreciatively. “Argo wanted a brother I guess,” she replied to her driver before turning back. “You’ll need to tell Nicolai that Raion has been trained as a security dog using German commands. We need him to get settled before Shen meets him. Not that Argo would let anything happen to Shen. But I don’t want anyone surprised. Report from The Hippolyta?”
“His phone was successfully cloned,” he reported with a grin. “I can’t believe he just let you put it right there on the table.”
“Hubris,” the bard muttered.
“Wolfgang says he can cut the camera feed from the outside cameras for sure, so you can get to the house undetected. We don’t know if he has a backup system inside. There may be other security measures too. The Goddesses are in the water, awaiting our signal, Xena is in position monitoring the safe house. Heather Martin and the finance team are waiting for your signal for phase two. I take it that phase one did the trick?” Ed asked. He drove with precision through the rain drenched streets; while the rain was intermittent, it had persisted long enough to cause driving hazards.
Before she could answer, the radio chirped with Xena’s voice coming in clearly. “Team Fire,” she announced. “Forces leaving target position. Six cars so far.”
“Well, that answers that,” the muscular man muttered with a chuckle before responding. “En route, ETA seven minutes.”
“Roger that,” the warrior replied. The radio went silent.
“Do you think Alti is listening in?” he pondered.
“Hopefully she’ll have more pressing issues on her plate to care.” She picked up the radio and opened the connection. “Michelle,” she said, “signal our friends – it’s showtime.”
“I may have had my doubts, but you do make a convincing…” Aphrodite began but was cut off by a sharp shake of Calypso’s head.
“The walls have ears,” she whispered.
“Waitress,” Aphrodite finished, looking pointedly at the trappings of the tavern where they had materialized. “I for one, like seeing the warrior princess serve a tankard or two.”
The plan was simple: Enter the dreamscape disguised as Xena and Gabrielle to distract Alti, should they be able to find her. Materializing in Cyrene’s inn seemed like a logical choice. Aphrodite had an impeccable memory and explained that she’d been familiar with the location, choosing not to explain exactly why. Not surprisingly, the rough-hewn wood looked exactly as she remembered. A fire burned merrily in the fireplace, illuminating the center of the main room in warmth and light and providing shadows at the periphery for patrons who wanted more privacy. The inn was bustling with activity; the patrons who sat at tables in the dining hall near the fire chatted amiably. With a wry smile, the Goddess of Love took note of the husband and wife sitting in the corner, watching the crowd. She knew that they would be spending the night with a sixteen-year-old Xena, receiving the soon to be warrior’s virginity in exchange. Other patrons came and went up and down the stairs to the sleeping rooms. From the kitchen, Cyrene carried a tray laden with tankards of ale, and treated her guests with warmth and familiarity. A young Torus, Lyceus, and Xena also moved among the patrons, refilling tankards, collecting dinars, depositing meals and enjoying an easy camaraderie with the clientele.
Deciding as to who would play what role was not difficult. Knowing the bard so intimately made Aphrodite the logical choice for Gabrielle, and in the three years she’d known Xena, Calypso was confident she could mimic the warrior’s mannerisms. Aphrodite had filled in some details of Xena’s life for the goddess while they waited for their signal from Michelle.
The pair made their way towards an empty table, taking in their surroundings. “Gabrielle, I wish you could have seen it when I was younger,” Calypso said, her voice coming out exactly like Xena’s. “When it was busy like this. There is a music to the bustle of a place; life unfolding at every turn. I think we can hide Poseidon here. Look, there I am…” as she spoke a sixteen-year-old Xena came out of the kitchen carrying her own tray laden with plates of food and bowls of soup. As they had hoped, several sets of eyes glanced in their direction at the mention of Poseidon’s name. The two women took a seat at the table and seemingly oblivious, happy to talk about Xena’s life before so much had changed, patiently waited for their quarry.
“Pull over here and let me out,” Gabrielle instructed as soon as she saw her wife standing next to a parked SUV. Ed stopped the car, turning off the engine as soon as he parked. “I want you to drive back down the hill, get the dogs back to the ship wait for a signal from me or Xena.”
The large man nodded in understanding and briefly glanced out the window before turning back to his boss. “And if things go sideways?” he asked.
“I keep my final instructions updated with Michelle and Fiona at HR, and Aphrodite knows. If something happens to me and Xena, the goddess is your go-to. If something happens to just me,” she shrugged, “Xena will know how to move forward.”
“Let me say, I’m glad you two are bullet proof,” he replied with a warm smile. “Good hunting, boss.”
“Thank you, Ed,” she said with a grateful nod before turning and heading towards the car.
Xena smiled broadly at her wife’s approach. “Ten cars left, all of them full,” she announced when Gabrielle drew close. Both women moved to the back of the warrior’s car and opening the hatch. “It’s been quiet since, so I think that the only guards left are the ones cut off from the rest of the forces. The ones closest to Alti. I suspect she’ll have one or two patrolling outside. No chance I can talk you out of joining me?” she asked as they surveyed the gear for their mission.
“You talked me out of joining you once upon a time, Xena,” Gabrielle said steadfastly holding her lover’s gaze. “Never again.”
Xena nodded in resignation, as she handed a tactical vest to the bard. After donning her own, she opened a small steel case, nestled inside the black foam recesses she withdrew several syringes, one with a red stripe, and one with no stripe. Gabrielle took the one with the red stripe and one with no stripe, gingerly putting them in different pockets of her tactical pants. Xena did the same with her set. “I’m hoping your secret weapon works,” the warrior commented, glancing at the sixteenth-century ring that she wore on her index finger.
“It’s old but sturdy,” Gabrielle said with a smile. “However this ends up, I love you, Xena, with everything I am.”
“I love you too Gabrielle,” Xena replied with a grin, then reached out to hug her wife warmly, giving her a soft kiss when they parted. “With all my heart. We’ve got this.” They smiled at each other. In this moment, at this point in time, nothing remained unsaid.
Staying to the side of the narrow road, they approached the estate, moving carefully in shadow. Xena had Gabrielle lead while scanning the hillside and their surroundings for signs of trouble. An imposing security fence rimmed the perimeter with an intimidating gate blocking the road to the buildings beyond. Xena noticed that while manicured and balanced, the gardens here were not as stunning as they’d been at Benzaiten’s house. Here, sight lines were maintained and the plants kept trimmed for the sake of security. To the side of the main house was a detached building, a garage most likely, as well as a security station.
They had not moved but several feet inside the gate when Xena signaled Gabrielle with a hand gesture, slipping silently away as the bard continued moving. Seconds later there was a grunt and soft thud as the guard hit the ground. Gabrielle backtracked to find Xena securing the man’s hands and feet with zip ties. “That’s one down, five to go,” Gabrielle commented as she efficiently unloaded each of the man’s guns keeping the magazines for herself. “Get his vest,” she suggested. Xena nodded understandingly and complied.
“We know from the blueprints Wolfie found that the main building encircles an open courtyard inside. There is bound to be a reinforced room somewhere that wouldn’t be on the blueprints. Any ideas?” Gabrielle asked as they approached the gate.
Xena studied the building, recalling all of the castles and fortresses she’d encountered in her days as a warlord, pirate and hero. “The most logical place to put a safe-room would be on the back side. This building butts up to the cliff and is sheer rock to the back and side, but that makes me think it’s on the right side instead. Not the obvious choice but still protected by the cliffs to some extent. You met him, does he think that way?”
“He was a sumo wrestler. Strategy is a big part of his thinking. I think it’s as solid a choice as any,” Gabrielle agreed, taking her phone from her pocket. “If we find a guard inside you can always ask them, if you leave them conscious long enough.” Xena frowned at the comment. “I’m not complaining,” Gabrielle added hastily. “I’ve seen several cameras, you?”
“Yeah, the obvious ones,” Xena replied. “I’m sure there are plenty of cameras we can’t see.”
They reached the gate. The bard checked her phone, then entered a code into keypad and the imposing gate slowly opened. Once inside, they cautiously made their way to the front door. Another security keypad presented itself and Gabrielle once again looked at her phone.
“Is this the one that changes every two minutes?” Xena asked.
Gabrielle nodded in the affirmative, and texted the crew on her ship. She waited for a response while Xena moved to the key pad, waiting. “Four, one, two, two, eight, five, one, two,” she whispered as Xena keyed the numbers into the pad. After a soft click Xena pushed open the heavy door and the two women slipped quietly inside the house.
The home was dimly lit, but the warrior’s eyes quickly adjusted. She nodded approvingly. The entry way opened up to several expansive rooms illuminated by the same soft lighting. While the colors were rich and dark, small details shone brightly. The warrior’s attention was drawn to the room across from them which appeared to be a central gathering place. Various cabinets were illuminated from within and displayed a variety of collections. A series of swords gleamed in the display on the far wall, glints of steel sparkling along with reflections from the lacquered display cases. A sword from the middle of the case was conspicuously missing. There were book cases set into the wall nearest them, and just in front of them was a sunken living room, it’s shape and styling a distant echo to a sumo ring. The place looked lived in.
“I think this is more than just a safe house,” Gabrielle whispered as the two women made their way inside. “I think this is one of his main living residences. I see a sword is missing, did you want to take one?”
Xena looked at the case on the far side of the room and shook her head. “Not if we want to keep Kana alive.”
Gabrielle nodded in agreement and noted the mobster’s global tastes. There were pieces on the wall she recognized from India and Africa, as well as from the regions of her youth; Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Egypt. Not only did he collect weapons and sculptures, a glance at the books in the book cases indicated that the former sumo wrestler was very well read.
“What’s that?” the warrior asked, nodding towards the center of the sunken living room. A large square glass enclosure dominated the space, resting on a pristine white carpet. A raised glass table rose just over the top, leaving space for air to circulate into the box.
“It looks like an enclosure for an animal,” Gabrielle commented. “My guess is reptiles, but I don’t see anything in there. Oh look,” the bard added pointing, “snakeskin from a recent shedding. The guy has snakes, because, of course he does.”
Xena cocked her head, listening intently. “I know we’re near the ocean, the cliffs and all that,” she said. “But I can’t hear it. No sound of waves. The walls here are heavily reinforced and soundproofed, undoubtedly bullet proof as well.” Moving further along the wall towards the door to the courtyard beyond, something caught the warrior’s eye. An illuminated display case containing a variety of coins made her stop. One series in particular drew her attention. A series of coins from the Cook Islands depicting various gods brought a smile to the warrior’s lips. “Gabrielle,” she whispered. “Look at this. Coins with gods on them: Amaterasu, Loki, Shiva, Ra, Quetzalcoatl, Hades, Athena, Hermes, Zeus, Hera, Demeter and this one – Poseidon. There are other coins here too. Dinars, doubloons, quite the collection.” She picked up the Poseidon coin to study more closely. “He needs to see this: long hair, beard, ripped and holding a golden trident. He needs to remember what’s flowing in his veins.”
“What do you mean?” Gabrielle asked, joining her wife at the display
“It’s just something Aphrodite said to me; to remember what is flowing in my veins. Poseidon has gotten distracted. Maybe that’s my fault,” Xena replied looking at the coin again.
“It says ‘Cook Islands, 2019, Twenty Dollars’ on it,” Gabrielle said, turning the coin over and looking at it the reverse side. “Part of a series, I’d guess.” She handed the coin back to Xena.
“I’m going to take it for Uncle Ariel,” Xena announced. “A reminder.”
“Go ahead,” she replied with a shrug. “I took the guy’s dog.”
As Xena glanced at Gabrielle as she pocketed the offered coin, she noticed a movement in the reflection on the display case glass. She dropped to the ground, bringing Gabrielle down with her as a shot shattered the glass case above them. The women rolled towards the sunken living space in the center of the room, Gabrielle grabbing a shard of glass and throwing it at their attacker. The man fired again, this time a spray of bullets moved across the room to be stopped by the thick plexiglass of the animal enclosure. The thrown shard hit its mark into the man’s arm and he grunted in pain. The distraction was what Xena needed to move on the man, quickly disarm him, and jab his neck with two fingers.
“I’ve cut off the flow of blood to your brain,” she said calmly. “You’ve about sixty seconds to decide if you live or die.” The man struggled, impotently grasping at his neck. Gabrielle took his gun, removing the magazine and emptying the camber. By the time she was done, blood had started to drip from his nose.
“Xena!” Gabrielle warned moving flat against the bookcase as she detected movement in the hall. Xena followed suit. “Not one more step,” the bard called to the unseen sentry. “Or your buddy checks out.” Inert gun still pointed at the helpless man, she leaned down and took the earpiece from the man’s ear, inserting it into her own. She also took the microphone from his sleeve. “I’ve spoken to Titan Onozuka,” Gabrielle explained, speaking to the man and into the mic for the nearby guards. “You have an infrared tattoo on the bottom of your left foot, a Sakura flower, it looks like this.” She took the small, round pin from her pocket and showed the man whose eyes went wide. “Onozuka says to stand down. The rest of your team has already left the building. There are what, six of you that Kana Onozuka had cut off from the rest of the security forces? Go ahead, try to reach them. You are all that’s left and one of your buddies is already unconscious outside. You need to stand down or we will kill you. Kana isn’t worth it and that isn’t my assessment, it’s Titan Onozuka’s. Tell your team.”
Gabrielle held the mic at the man who croaked, “she has the crest.” As soon as he spoke, Xena jabbed him in the neck a second time, releasing him. He slumped over, breathing heavily as he covered his bleeding arm with his good hand.
“Where is the safe room?” Gabrielle asked the man. “And you, in the hallway, disarm, kick your guns out and walk forward slowly. The other two of you, drop your weapons, let’s go, come out here. I see a weapon, you’re dead.” There was no movement so the bard lowered the mic to the captured man and stepped on his lacerated arm. He spoke frantically to his companions over the radio. “I’m not fucking around,” Gabrielle added menacingly. Several seconds later, the unseen sentry and two others emerged from the darkness of the hallway.
“The safe room?” Xena sweetly asked a second time. The injured man tried for defiance, shaking his head at the bard’s question. When Xena raised her hand to jab him again, he pointed.
Xena nodded appreciatively. “Well, your guy is full of surprises,” she said to Gabrielle.
There was a noticeable shift in the mood of the tavern. Aphrodite and Calypso exchange knowing glances. The guests got quieter, the normal bustle of an inn on a busy night slowed noticeably. Only the sparks and pops from the fire stayed consistent as the logs shifted. Moments later, the door swung open and Alti sauntered in, rolling her eyes dramatically at the pair seated at the table. “No more doors,” she said with disdain. “No more tricks. You shouldn’t have come back. This is where you both end. This is my domain.” She raised her arms dramatically then was abruptly shoved aside by someone moving past her to get into the dining space.
“Xena, Gabrielle!” a woman called as she pushed past Alti to rush to the table with the warrior and bard. Aphrodite’s eyes went wide as she was confronted with someone disguised as her. Like looking in a mirror, the newcomer was wearing her sheer pink negligee, long blond hair in spiral curls her demeanor cheerful and unafraid.
What the fuck? Aphrodite thought keeping the confusion from her face with effort.
“I didn’t want to miss the party, Gabrielle” her twin said with emphasis on who she was talking to.
“Aphrodite,” she replied playing along. “Fancy meeting you here.”
The woman in pink winked knowingly, “I’m repaying a debt,” she said then added quietly, “your party is going to be outside.”
“Excuse me?!” Alti demanded, beyond annoyed that her dramatic entrance had been spoiled by the interloper.
“Oh right,” Calypso/Xena said with a wicked grin, “we fight now.” As she spoke, she took a swig from the tankard on the table and grabbed a log burning in the fireplace. In one coordinated movement, she spit the alcohol over the burning end of the log creating a plume of fire and smoke in Alti’s face. The shaman howled in pain and surprise, turning her head and putting up a hand, creating a shield to deflect some of the blow.
Aphrodite/ Gabrielle took the opportunity of the shaman’s distraction to move past her towards the door, effectively switching places with the woman dressed as Aphrodite. Grabbing a chair by the door, she tipped it over behind Alti in case the shaman would get an opportunity to trip on it later. Before moving outside, she made eye contact with her doppelgänger one last time to make sure she saw the chair. The woman nodded in acknowledgement.
With an angry wave of her arm, Alti made a shoving motion in front of her. The logs in the fire levitated then flung themselves at the woman she thought was Xena. With reflexes that would have made the actual warrior proud, Calypso flipped over the table where they’d been sitting and ducked behind it, avoiding the blazing timber. She grabbed the chakram at her waist and threw it over Alti’s head, severing a string of large, heavy sausages that hung over the far end of the bar. The Aphrodite imposter waved her hands, and the sausages turned into a giant python that knocked the shaman from her feet with its weight, making her trip backwards over the fallen chair which smashed under the combined weight. The chakram ricocheted off of a metal tankard held by a patron at the bar, knocking it from his hand and dousing the shaman with ale, then returned to its owner. With a frustrated growl, Alti picked herself up, the python disappearing into sand as she thrust her hands forward again. The dripping ale made her appearance most undignified.
“You’ve learned some new tricks since your last visit,” she purred with deceptive sweetness.
“You’re the one who made such a big deal about how the rules don’t apply in the dreamscape,” Calypso replied with her best impression of a Xena shrug. “Live and learn.”
Pushing two hands forward, Alti focused on the tavern floor underneath her opponents. The floorboards began to shift back and forth, like a twisting suspension bridge, each board untethered from its neighbors all shifting back and forth independent of the others. Both Calypso/Xena and Aphrodite/Gabrielle fought to keep their footing.
Calypso/Xena focused on the sand around Alti that had been a python only moments before. The grains of sand began to vibrate and shift, coalescing into quicksand which caused the shaman to sink into the very floor itself.
“Well, Xena, aren’t you full of surprises,” Alti taunted as she levitated from quicksand.
“I could do this all day,” Calypso replied with a grin, recalling a line from the Avengers movie she’d watched with Shen and much of the crew on a recent movie night.
Aphrodite/Gabrielle ran from the tavern but she stopped short at the sight that greeted her. Dozens of diaphanous forms floated several feet above the ground, towering over her. Thin and spindly with an unhuman countenance, they sputtered in and out of focus as if existing in several realms at once. There was a similarity to the forms as they floated and swayed but they were not identical. Each one had features more grotesque than the last, and seemed to be the physical embodiment of hate and despair. The Shinigami. The foul stench of death and decay turned Aphrodite’s stomach. Like the din of flies on a rotting corpse they began to buzz, the thrum getting louder and louder. Usually acting as spirits to persuade the corruptible to give in to their basest wants and desires, to indulge in hatred and revenge, now they seemed to want something more. Aphrodite/Gabrielle sensed a vile exuberance to them, as if they were gleefully waiting for something. Something she dare not give voice to.
In addition to the floating menacing horde, Alti existed here outside the inn as well. She stood among them a smile of smug satisfaction on her face. “Not expecting me to be in two places at once?” she taunted.
Aphrodite/Gabrielle rolled her eyes, knowing full well the gesture would lose some of its disdain coming from the bard’s face. “Honestly, Alti. I don’t give a shit about you and your Dementor backup dancers, whatever.”
Alti frowned, clearly not understanding what she meant. With a wave of her hand, a dozen swords materialized, razor sharp points aimed at her. The shaman flicked her wrist and the swords flew through the air at the lone woman standing in front of the inn. Aphrodite/Gabrielle held up one finger and the swords stopped, morphed into bullets that fell harmlessly at her feet before disappearing. “Unlike you,” she said calmly, “I’ve had over two thousand years to grow and learn, to watch a few Matrix movies and read books, so I know what the fuck a Dementor is.”
“Xena’s puppy has learned to bark,” Alti sneered. “But you can’t be in two places at once. And the dreamscape is mine.”
Aphrodite shrugged. “I’m exactly where I need to be,” she replied calmly. “And don’t act like you own the place. Everyone dreams, dick bitch.”
The Shinigami advanced and again, and again Aphrodite held up one finger. They stopped, seemingly uncertain of the lone obstacle in their path. This was the enemy she needed to fight, not a dream manifestation of a millennia-dead shaman.
She briefly thought about her uncle. Saw him lying prone and weak in a sparse room feeling alone and frightened. They were giving her this insight, providing a vision designed to throw her off her game; make her think the stakes were too high, and that she might make a mistake that would cost Poseidon his life. Like nearly everyone else in the universe, they underestimated her. They showed her the altercation taking place in the inn. Calypso/Xena and her doppelganger fighting one instance of Alti, struggling to hold their own against the shaman, who was at her strongest here in the dream realm. She could sense how unbalanced the fight would become, should these vile spirits make it past her to join in; how strong Alti would be with reinforcements. Again, it was by design, the dark specters in front of her trying to give voice to insecurities she did not possess.
Calmly, she sat down on the ground. Alti moved towards her and without even lifting a finger Aphrodite gazed at her and the shaman’s feet became one with the ground. She was rooted where she stood. Impotent. Aphrodite crossed her legs, straightened her spine, closed her eyes and began to meditate. Focusing inward, she left the distractions of the buzzing behind. She loved her uncle, but he needed to stay out of her thoughts for this battle. With compassion, she put her awareness of him aside. She could hear the sounds of fighting coming from inside the inn. She had faith in their ability to fend off Alti and so cast aside any thoughts of them. Whoever the newcomer was, and she had her suspicions, the pair would be more than a match for the shaman inside the inn. Here and now, this was a battle of wills, Aphrodite and the Shinigami; hers against theirs, love versus hate. Blocking out everything that wasn’t about this precise moment she focused her will to receive and refract the tide of sinister intent directed at her by the horde of malevolent phantoms. She was the light against the darkness and she would not falter.
“This is the door?” Xena asked the uninjured guard she’d dragged with them. They’d moved to down the hall that opened to the outside courtyard and to the building beyond. Like the rest of the house, the traditional stylings had modern touches. Xena noted the cameras continued to be unobtrusive but ever-present. The homeowner was paranoid about security. No artwork adored the hallways, making them feel more like corridors in a secure facility instead. They’d rounded one corner, past several closed doors. The warrior checked the rooms to make sure no one would be sneaking up behind them; the two she’d entered so far were empty. The third room had her prisoner hesitating which made the warrior stop. Not where the warrior expected the safe-room. Still, the electronic keypad outside the door indicated that the room had restricted access.
“I’ve got the rest of them secure in the living room. Did a quick bandage on the injured guy. They’re all zip-tied so they don’t get any bright ideas. They aren’t going anywhere.” Gabrielle said in a rush as she hurried to catch up with Xena.
“This guy was about to tell us the passcode,” Xena commented.
“I don’t know it,” the guard replied.
Gabrielle looked at the lock and back at the guard. “You’ve been in here, yeah?” she asked. He shook his head ‘no’ but the bard saw a different answer in his micro expressions. “He’s been in here. It’s a retina scanner,” she explained to her wife. “Get his eye at that screen and it should open. I think this group of guards all have clearance which is why Alti cut them off from the others.”
“Does his eye have to be in his head?” Xena asked?
The captured guard’s eyes went wide as Xena jabbed him in the neck with two fingers. He stiffened, and Xena caught him as he started to fall, holding his face at the scanner and unlocking the door. She jabbed him again and he fell towards Gabrielle who put him in a sleeper hold until he passed out. “Paralyzed?” the bard asked.
Xena shrugged. “Just to get the door open; no lasting damage. Nice move with the sleeper hold.”
Gabrielle smiled at the compliment and followed her warrior inside. Once clear of the door both women froze at the sight that greeted them.
The battle inside the inn raged on, with Alti parrying the attacks of her two foes and returning the assault. More than once she tried to make Calypso/Xena fly from one side of the inn to the other, frowning at her inability to make the woman move. Aphrodite’s doppelganger also seemed unusually adept at this kind of battle, parrying Alti’s attacks with ease.
Alti grew frustrated. While she had enough energy to fight her battle on two fronts, something seemed amiss, beyond the warrior and bard learning from their previous experience in the dreamscape. Every time she threw fire at the warrior, Xena would somehow parry it with liquid. A flaming bottle of spirits would be blocked by a shield made by a thrown tankard of Ale, or a tipped water bucket, or a wave of ash from the great stone fireplace. Aphrodite mimicked the shaman’s attacks, tweaking them slightly to keep Alti off balance. Instead of the floor shifting, she made the walls move, shifting up and down and forward and back, giving the shaman momentary vertigo. When Alti threw a series of tiny fish hooks at the pair, Aphrodite made them connect into an intricately woven net and threw it back.
Alti repeatedly glanced at the door behind her as if waiting for someone. Finally, her eyes went wide with surprise and fury then abruptly, she vanished.
“Was it something we said?” Calypso/Xena said to her companion, mimicking Xena’s tone and cadence perfectly. As if props from a play, everyone else in the tavern vanished as well, leaving them alone in the empty space.
The pair headed outside and stopped short at the sight that greeted them. Aphrodite sat on the ground, still looking very much like Gabrielle. Dressed in her brown skirt and green top, she could be the bard gathering her thoughts before reciting a tale of adventure and triumph. Making up several rows behind her sat a number of Amazons, also sitting cross legged and with meditative focus.
Calypso counted the number of Amazons assisting the goddess of love, there were a dozen of them. Not as many as the dark specters that faced them, but much closer to leveling the playing field. “What is this?” Calypso whispered to her companion, not wanting to distract the women.
“I owe Aphrodite a debt of gratitude,” her companion said. “You must be Calypso, please call me Keiko. I contacted other…individuals, colleagues of ours, who are not afraid to take sides. These are our friends from the world over. Taking the guise of Amazons, everyone has anonymity. A nice touch I think, don’t you?”
Calypso nodded, pleased that Aphrodite’s friend had provided such significant assistance. “We can help them?” The Goddess of the Sea asked hopefully.
Keiko nodded and led the way to the edge of the gathering, taking her place next to an Amazon deep in concentration. “Clear your mind,” she instructed. “The streams of consciousness will carry you.”
Calypso/Xena sat and exhaled slowly as she closed her eyes. She immediately felt the energy swirl around her, welcoming her. Focusing inward, she joined in and added her energy to the battle underway. Like a rising tide, African goddess was flooded with a sense of love and wonder. Only now she fully understood that when the Japanese Goddess of All Flowing Things said ‘colleagues’ she meant other gods and goddesses of love. Immortals who wanted to stand at the side of the Greek Goddess of Love and fight the shroud of darkness and hate, filling the void of antipathy and sorrow with devotion and abundance.
Swept along with the tide, she felt love in a myriad of dimensions across the spectrum of emotion, everything from the exuberance of newly discovered desire to painful farewells. Every facet of love was shared, all colored by the nuances of the regions and cultures of the immortals in attendance. The gathered focused on time and custom, how people felt and expressed love. From feats of sacrifice and dying declarations, to the simple act of cooking a meal or being present for someone else’s sorrow; the projections of hate and despair were no match for the sheer magnitude of ways that people express love.
Calypso/Xena added her own perspective to the joyous chorus. From her experience with the peoples of the coast of her African homeland to the myriad of life forms within the oceans that made up her domain. While most creatures of the deep behaved on instinct, knowing no other urge than to survive, some had emotional complexities that rivaled that of human mortals. Calypso thought about the mammals of the oceans, and all those creatures rendered extinct by time and circumstance. She thought of the octopus, the one sympathetic to Xena’s request for black brittle tea seaweed and how it wished her well in her quest.
The direct union of her thoughts with those of so many others was having a profound effect on the Goddess of the Deep Sea; she would be forever changed by the experience. Having lived so long and seen so much she was flush with wonder at discovering something new, feeling the unexpected, and being given the opportunity to grow. It only took a moment to realize that while the various immortals disguised as Amazons where assisting Aphrodite in this battle of wills, that the unassuming Greek Goddess of Love didn’t really need the help. Her power was immense and her focus was unwavering. Calypso realized that much of what she thought she knew about the Greek pantheon was simply wrong.
Aphrodite’s mind and her heart we completely open. Calypso could see with vivid clarity the shard of seashell the goddess had kept safe, how most gods and goddesses have some sort of totem that tethers them to the rejoin and people where they manifest. How in giving that up, she had become untethered, her power stretching and growing, she had become more than she had been. While Calypso did not know the identities of the other manifestations of love’s sentries, she sensed that Aphrodite did and that she was one to repay her debts.
It became clear why routinely, religions returned to messages of love over and over. Why so many versions of the same song were sung by people from every corner of the planet. Aphrodite had mastered a stubborn selflessness that left room for love in the most unlikely of places. The places where the Shinigami tried to do their worst, love still existed there. In the depths of despair, people still gave and received love. From newborns who knew little else than the love and safety bestowed upon them by a parent, to the aged on the cusp of death who once again knew or understood little but the love and safety they felt around them. For every picture painted by the dark specters of hollow despair and destruction, Aphrodite projected the energy of love that still lived and thrived.
With a palpable hunger, the vibrating dark figures tried time and again to move forward, to encroach on the small band of seated fighters that kept them at bay with nothing more than their belief in the power of caring. Here too, Calypso saw that love was not always bright, not always joyous. There was love in walking away from relationships and people. The love that rode in tandem with the sorrow of goodbye. There was love in a selfless act of destruction. There was even love in the foolhardy mistakes people made, often with dire consequences. For all of their power and hunger, the Shinigami were no match for so much love.
The periphery of the dark horde began to sputter and fade. Unable to retain their hold in the dream realm, they disappeared, one by one. When the last one vanished, Aphrodite/Gabrielle took one last deep, controlled breath and slowly exhaled. All of the assembled Amazons followed suit.
She stood, still wearing the guise of Gabrielle. “Suck it, dick bitches!” she said calling after the disappeared specters. The rest of the Amazons stood to greet and congratulate each other and Aphrodite warmly. After moments of relaxed reverie, they too vanished one by one until only Calypso and Keiko remained. After a momentary shimmer, each woman morphed into her usual corporeal appearance. “Alti sure left in a hurry,” Aphrodite said. She then warmly greeting her unexpected friend. “Keiko-san, I’m so glad you could join us.”
“I would not miss it, Pam-san,” she replied after a warm hug. “But I must return, I am near your friends. I will touch base with you when this business is over.”
“Alti left in a panic,” Calypso commented when the Japanese goddess departed. “I hope that means that we were able to help.”
“Today is not going as she expected,” Aphrodite agreed. “It can’t hurt.”