Part Seventeen
Are you watching? Do you see how the world is
changing, turning and falling into my hands?
Silence greets him.
You cannot stop it, girl. It is too late.
It is quiet. Much too quiet.
Then rot in there, dear child. Stay hidden and
watch me rule the world; watch me kill all who stand in my way... Watch and
learn, Gabrielle.
Zeus sends out another round of warriors. He can
feel the tide shifting and presenting him with victory. It is so close, so tantalizingly
near.
If only the others were here, to see this grand
display. They had no vision, no foresight. They got too close to mortals, too
close to thinking... somehow... that they could just be better versions of humans.
My children... my foolish children...
Another explosion rocks the ground. This youthful
body in his possession holds fast, steady feet on the moving surface of the
world. He moves Gabrielle's legs, like a puppet, bending down and launching
upward.
It is glorious. It is joyous.
This is the last night of your life, Gabrielle.
Come out and enjoy what you can.
And Zeus laughs, the sound coming from Gabrielle's
lips... It echoes into the burning night.
He laughs more as lightening courses from his palms,
shooting out and cracking trees, opening the hard-packed dirt, creating a crevice
running into Athens.
It is then, in the height of power, that Zeus feels
her and hears her.
It reminds him of the sound of Poseidon's roar
and tidal wave. So loud and so strong.
It is then that Zeus feels this body plummet and
crash, taking away not just the flight... but...
But how? You are mine!
This... is one... mortal... you cannot... best... Gabrielle's voice rasps out.
And for the first time ever, Zeus feels pain. Creeping
and sharp, stinging and raw - Gabrielle's body is suffering wounds from her
descent back to the earth.
I won't let you go! You hear me? You are mine
to control and to--Ahhhh!
Gabrielle laughs now, cold and calculating. Her
fingers are coated in her own blood. She digs deeper into the shallow cut, the
pain causing her own mind to reel.
This will kill you! Severing ties with me will
kill you... I'll take you down, girl!
Such... an old... threat, Zeus... You know I
do not care.
Zeus surges back, struggling to lift the body and
make it move. The steps are halting and contorted. He gets so far and then she
pulls back.
I'll give you death, a very painful end.
And Zeus jerks the reins, leaving Gabrielle behind
for breathless seconds. He runs this body closer to Athens and to battle, drawing
the sword and preparing to end this girl's life... once and for all.
*
Gabrielle fights back, though she is weary. In
her own mind she can hear the many voices of her many lives - peasant, queen,
bard, and warrior - and they push her forward.
Forward to death... how bizarre that I set out
for an end to my life and that was from grief, only to save myself... by dying...
So many questions dive around Gabrielle's brain
and there seems to be no answers.
Will I go to the Amazon land of the dead? Will
Zeus remain even if I am gone? And... will I see her again, before my last breath?
She can see Athens. The city of her youthful imagination,
just ashes and smoke.
She can see Amazons and centaurs and men and women,
alive and dead. She sees blood. She sees carnage.
And she can see her own body, stumbling and careening,
killing and bleeding.
Zeus is giving it his all.
Every form that is not on his side, he is slaughtering.
Gabrielle concentrates and makes her body rear
back, slamming into the crippled wall of a building.
Her body is aching, weak in some places and too
strong in other places... The battle between mortal and immortal, playing out
in her skin and bones.
Suddenly, arrows cascade down from above, moving
rapidly into the bodies of unknown men. Each sharp tip finding that vulnerable
spot between armor.
Gabrielle looks up and Zeus sees the cause.
It makes them both freeze, but for vastly different
reasons.
Xena.
Xena.
*
Varia can take no more.
The power to stand, much less fight, is waning.
The others, those still alive, marshal on. But in their eyes... there lurks
the realization that this battle will mark the end for them.
Xena took out many and continues to do so, but
it is not enough. Artemis, it is too late, I fear. My bravery is strong,
but... the rest of me is shattered. What do I do?
Varia doesn't feel like a leader now.
There won't be a nation left to rule or care for,
not after all this. All of Greece is changed. If, by some miracle, Zeus is defeated,
who will remain?
In all this time, Varia found the necessary will
to carry on.
Even when Gabrielle fell apart, even when Xena
disappeared, even when Artemis floundered... Varia looked to the women in her
tribe and found the strength to go on.
But now, they are almost all dead... or will
be soon enough...
Someone jerks her down, her head narrowing escaping
a spear thrown in her direction. She looks toward her left and nods a thank
you to a fellow Amazon.
"Are you alright? Are you injured?" The
woman asks.
"I'm fine."
"You were just staring, not moving."
Varia blinks, as if waking from a dream and then
pulls the woman with her, the both of them running and dodging falling debris. Kill
or be killed, Varia, you know this... get it together, for them...
"Thank you."
"You'd do the same for me."
"To a strong Amazon nation, then..."
And Varia reaches out, gripping the woman's arm. It is warm and alive. It is
powerful. And the woman returns the hold.
"You're Anteris, right?" Varia questions,
lifting her blade once more.
"Yes."
"Then to a glorious night, whether we are
here to see it or not, Anteris."
They smile at each other. And then, they run back
out into the fray.
And Varia knows that if tonight is the end, then
she passes on with friends in her midst.
No gods or goddesses, no mystical heroes... But
friends who have fought by her side, some for years and some for just these
few weeks.
I can do this, for them... for them...
So, they fight. As if the streets were not already
littered with the dead, as if they were not all tired and failing, as if they
have every chance to win.
*
Xena felt it first.
The hot and then the cold, running up her spine.
And then... there, in the shadows and the fire, the reason for all this destruction...
and the reason for all this love... All in a pair of green eyes, staring upward.
Artemis took note of the golden blade in those
deceptive hands, hanging between air and ground, motionless. The goddess focused
even more, sensing the struggle between Gabrielle and Zeus. It might be their
only chance, the only moment in which to strike... to get Gabrielle back or...
Xena feels her heart beat faster, such a wonderfully
human reaction. Artemis sways with it.
She is fighting him.
Of course she is.
Artemis can feel the warmth, the overwhelming devotion
and knows that to restrain Xena is pointless. The warrior has her sights set.
Nothing will stop her now.
I suspect she knows you are here. Try to reach
her and I'll give you as much time as possible. But beware, Zeus is there and
he will attack.
Xena doesn't wait for more. Her eyes close, even
though her body continues to move and pull the bowstring. And Xena reaches out
with everything she is and with everything she has. She lets Artemis be the
warrior.
All Xena wants is to reach Gabrielle.
Anything, Gabrielle, just give it to me and
I'll find you... I'll bring you back and you'll be safe... Nothing will stop
me, Gabrielle... Nothing and no one...
A tugging inside her gut is the first feeling,
pulling her from the rooftop. But it is not her flesh and blood moving, it is
her soul. It feels like the finest dream, liquid and pure. She spins and spins,
catching the brief look of horror in that familiar emerald gaze.
Then darkness. Am I
in her? Is this...?
It is, at first, oppressive. Xena starts to panic
in this blackness. Up and down, left and right... they mean nothing in here.
And hands, large and cold hands seem to push her, hold her, and smother her.
Zeus... Her minds
hisses.
The hands remove themselves and Xena feels not
only relief, but she can feel a sense of herself again.
Not her body, but something close to that... something
like being alive... Just different.
Is this what it has been like for you, Gabrielle?
With him holding you back? With this coldness?
Xena senses movement. It sounds close, it sounds
like a gale ripping through trees. The pressure comes back... only to be pulled
away again. Artemis and her comment comes back to Xena, reminding her of the
internal war going on.
"Gabrielle! I'm here!"
The roar of sound gets louder and Xena covers her
ears, dropping down and surprised to find some kind of surface to hold her up.
Then light, dim and twinkling, like the stars... we would
watch and talk about, your hand in mine and the feeling of everything being
right in the world...
And then, soft and radiant, the darkness is pushed
aside. The light of a million stars burst forth and Xena sees her. Gabrielle...
*
TBC