Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the shows or people mentioned in this story. I promise that I didn’t cause any permanent damage. I would like to send a shout out to the TV series Voyagers for the concept and the Omni.

“What’s happening?”

“Not much yet. Just some general talk about last night’s baseball game so far. Someone named big papa or something hit a homerun to beat the Yankees in the bottom of the 10th. We are a bit early though.”

“True, and these are just the lowly henchmen not the big fish that we are aiming for. And it’s big Papi, not papa. When is the buy supposed to take place?”

“Our operative said the meeting was scheduled for 11:00. I’m sure they’ll all be here soon. Thompson’s known for being on time.”

“He’s also known for being a real Romeo.”

“At least in his mind he is! Remember when he tried to seduce Ma in Paris?”

“Yes, he almost succeeded. He got her drunk, took advantage of her, and then made his fatal mistake by letting her know about the take over of Runway.”

“I don’t think he really knew how loyal Ma was. She went right back to Mom to warn her.”

“And just a few months later she and Mom were inseparable.”

“If you two are finished with your little stroll down memory lane, Thompson just showed up along with our operative.”

The two identical redheads looked up guiltily as their team leader came up to them.

“Sorry ma’am.” Caroline Priestly said.

“We were just discussing our past run-ins with Thompson. He’s been trying to work our family for years.” Cassidy continued.

“I heard, but right now we have the chance to put him away for a very long time. You two need to stay focused. Dominique just reported that Thompson and his goons just pulled up outside.”

“We’re ready ma’am.” Caroline said.

“I’ve told you before, my name is Janet, not ma’am.” Janet said as she went back to her observation post.

“Yes ma’…Janet.” Cassidy replied quietly.

At that moment the door at the end of the warehouse opened and Christian Thompson, notorious arms dealer and award winning author, stepped in followed by a group of nondescript thugs.

Caroline Priestly looked over the motley crew and suddenly saw a face she recognized. “Cass isn’t that?”

Cassidy had been scanning the group as well and recognized the person her sister was pointing to right away. “Yes, it is. We need to tell Janet right away.”

Caroline silently made her way over to the team leader. “Ma’…Janet, we have a problem.”

“What is so important that you felt you needed to break out of formation Alpha, Oscar, Zulu private?”

“One of Thompson’s thugs is NYPD.”

“What? How do you know?”

“She’s been over to our house for dinner like a million times. She is good friends with our Ma. When Andy was a junior reporter she always called her when she had questions. They became good friends. Her wife is also a big supporter of Mom’s charities, and Mom supports hers too. Trust me, she’s a cop.”

“Well, it’s too late to do anything about it now. Here comes our operative. Get back into formation.”

Caroline made her way back to her sister. “It’s too late. We’ll just have to try and make sure she stays safe without blowing her cover.”

“Absolutely, Mom and Ma would not be happy if she were hurt.” They both turned their attention back to the scene as the door opened once more and their team walked in.

“My dear Ms. Diamond, how nice to see you again. It has been too long. I heard you fell in love with the enemy and went legit.”

“Oh yeah, I tried that for a bit. Even had a nice little shop in Barcelona.”

“What happened?”

“I got bored.” Lucy Diamond, former reformed head of the Reynolds crime family replied.

Thompson threw back his head and let out a huge laugh, “What about your girlfriend? The perfect score, what was her name?”

“Amy.” The muscular blond standing next to Lucy said extending her hand. “Nice to meet you. I decided to see what all the fuss was about on this side of the line. I gotta say, it’s definitely more interesting. I can see why Lucy got bored.”

Thompson laughed again, “Truer words were never spoken. I gotta say Diamond, I can sure see why you switched sides for this one.”

“Thanks. Shall we continue?”

“This is something my tech boys have been working on for quite sometime. We were getting nowhere until we ran across a strange man made entirely of metal. He had human flesh, but his skeleton was of some kind of metal that we had never seen before. He was extremely hard to kill, but when we were finally able to defeat him we made incredible strides in this.”

“What is it?”

“A weapon that will allow its wielder to quite literally change the world.”

“Enough with the fancy advertising, what is it?”

Thompson signaled for his men to bring the crate holding the weapon to the table. Lucy and Amy looked inside, but all they saw was a small, handheld device. Lucy couldn’t see anything that looked like a trigger or detonating device. “So, what is it and what does it do?”

“It’s called an Omni and with it you can travel through time.”

“You’re kidding? You expect us to believe that this little thing will allow a person to travel through time?”

“I can prove it to you.”

“All right, how?”

Thompson motioned to one of his goons, “Jo. Come over here.”

Cassidy and Caroline watched as their mothers’ friend stepped away from the others and towards Thompson. Thompson took the device and moved some of the dials. “I’ll just set the dials for five minutes in the future. Jo here will hold the Omni and disappear, reappearing instantly five minutes from now.”

Jo stopped a few feet from Thompson. “Wait a minute. What do you mean, I’ll disappear? I didn’t sign on for that.”

“If you want to stick around here, you’ll do it.” Thompson insisted.

Caroline and Cassidy could see the wheels turning in Jo’s head. They knew that in order to keep her cover, she was going to have to do what Thompson said. They also knew that if the machine didn’t do what it said… They looked at each other and proved why they were such a good team. Their eyes said everything and they started to move into position where they would be able to help.

They were amazed when Jo stepped forward and reached to take the Omni from Thompson. Thompson pulled the Omni back and grabbed for the watch on her wrist instead. Thompson showed Lucy and Amy the watch so they could see the time. He took the watch and wrapped it around the Omni. He set the Omni on the table and then pushed a small button on the side. Instantly the watch disappeared. “Now, we wait.” Thompson said.

Five minutes passed while everyone in the warehouse waited. Lucy and Amy stepped off to the side and talked quietly. Jo went back to stand with the other goons, thankful to have gotten out of that situation without losing anything more than her watch. Caroline and Cassidy looked across the warehouse to where their team leader was also waiting.

After five minutes the Omni reappeared on the table. Lucy reached over and picked up the watch, leaving the Omni on the table. “Look,” she showed the watch to Amy, “It still says the same time as it did before he pushed the button. The only way that could be is if it really did arrive here instantaneously. With this, we could really change the world. What’s your price?”

“Something like this is truly priceless you know. The bidding starts at $25 million.”

“Bidding? What do you mean bidding? I thought we were here to conduct the sale?”

“Oh no. This is your invitation to the sale.”

“That’s not what we talked about.”

“Well, there is another option.”

“What is it?”

“For a set fee, I can sell you the plans to build your own Omni.”

“And how much would that be?”

“$100 million.”

“Are you crazy!”

“This is a priceless weapon. With this you can go anywhere and do anything. You can go back in time and steal the greatest treasures before they were found. You can jump forward in time to escape law enforcement. This weapon is truly the greatest weapon ever created.”

“If it’s so great, why are you selling it? What aren’t you telling us?”

“I can see why you have been able to lead the Reynolds family for so long at such a young age. You’re smart Diamond. The Omni can be a little bit unpredictable at times. It has a tendency to send people to a time where something is wrong with history. It’s not a big deal though. All you have to do is fix whatever is wrong and then you can go wherever you want.”

“$50 million for the plans then.”

“Deal. All you have to do is transfer the money into this account and I will give you the plans.”

“I will transfer half of the money into the account. When we put the Omni together and it works, I will transfer the other half.”

“All right. Echo, Sierra” Thompson motioned to two of his associates, “Bring the plans and the laptop.” The two women stepped over, one carrying a briefcase and the other holding a laptop. Sierra opened the briefcase to show the plans while Echo booted up the laptop to a Swiss bank website.

“Scud.” Lucy called to her second in command and resident computer genius. Scud came over with his own laptop and prepared to make the transfer. Suddenly there was a noise from outside.

“This is the Department of Homeland Security, we have you surrounded Diamond, come out with your hands up.”

“This is ridiculous.” Lucy huffed, “Next, the D.E.B.S. will be busting in here. I mean, c’mon I’ve only been back in the states for a week!”

“Never mind why they’re here. What do you suggest we do?” Amy asked.

“I know what I’m going to do.” Thompson said motioning to his associates. “Mike, Charlie, Victor grab this stuff. We’re leaving.”

“Wait!” Lucy exclaimed. “We still have time to make this deal. Scud, how are we doing on the transfer?”

“We’re done. The money should be in their account.” Scud replied with a wink.

Echo checked her laptop and sure enough the screen showed that the money was there. “He’s right, it’s there.”

“Fine. Sierra, hand over the briefcase.” Sierra gave the briefcase to Lucy and Amy motioned to where Janet was hiding. “Now!”

Immediately all hell broke loose in the warehouse. D.E.B.S. agents swarmed all over Thompson’s people, easily apprehending them. Caroline and Cassidy made sure to take control of handcuffing Jo.

Initially Jo tried to resist, starting to speak. Caroline stopped her by saying softly, “Relax Jo, its us.” Surprised Jo finally looked at her captors and saw the identical faces of her best friend’s stepdaughters. “Caroline, Cassidy? What the heck?” Then she saw the uniforms the girls were wearing. “You’re D.E.B.S.?”

“We’ll explain later, just play along for now.”

“Ok.” Jo agreed quickly realizing that her chances of getting out of this situation had just improved dramatically. The three made their way over to Lucy and Amy who had met up with Janet by the table. Some of the other D.E.B.S. handcuffed Thompson and took him out to the waiting Homeland Security officers. The door opened and a glamorous blond woman, a tall brunette, and a distinguished silver haired woman walked in and over to the rest of the group.

“Blair?!”

“Mom? Ma?”

“What are you doing here?” Jo, Caroline, and Cassidy all exclaimed in disbelief.

“We were meeting about the charity ball next week when we heard about the Homeland Security bust of Christian Thompson. I knew that Jo was working on bringing him to justice and Andy knew that you two were also working on that, so we came right away.”

“That was incredibly foolish of you all. You coulda been hurt.” Jo said with a pointed look at her wife. “Caroline would you mind?” she then said motioning to her still cuffed hands.

“Oh! Sorry.” Now that Thompson was gone they didn’t have to worry about damaging Jo’s cover. She quickly removed the cuffs and Jo gave her wife a strong hug, “I’m fine.”

Caroline and Cassidy stood with their arms around their mothers and the entire group formed a little circle of friends as they breathed a small sigh of relief that the whole ordeal was over.

“Did you know that Thompson was going to do that with your watch?” Caroline asked Jo.

“No, I thought he was going to make me test the machine. I was really nervous. I had no idea how I was going to get out of that. I know now why he didn’t make me use it though, he couldn’t risk the Omni sending me back to some time when history was messed up. With the watch he didn’t have to worry.”

“Amazing that such a small thing can do so much damage.” Janet reached out to touch the Omni.

“Janet, no!” Amy cried reaching to grab Janet’s arm and stop her. As she reached her, Janet pushed the button and the entire group vanished into thin air.

The group reappeared in the middle of a forest.

“What happened? Where are we?” Lucy asked.

Everyone looked around, but nothing looked familiar. Janet was still holding the Omni. Jo reached over and took it from her. “Remember what Thompson said? He said that the Omni had one flaw. It sent people to sometime in history where things weren’t right.” She opened the lid on the Omni and saw a flashing red light. “Look at this. It says that we are in Greece, sometime before the birth of Christ. The red light must be what tells you there is something wrong. There’s a green light here too. If we fix what is wrong, I am sure the green light will light and we will be sent back to our own time.”

Suddenly a group of women descended from the trees wearing feathered masks. Amy was the first to move. She put her hands above her head and motioned for the others to do the same.

The leader of the small party removed her mask, “You know the Amazon sign of peace, but you are not Amazons. Who are you?”

“My name is Amy. This is my partner Lucy, our friends Janet, Caroline, Cassidy, Miranda, Andy, Jo and Blair. I didn’t know if that sign would really work, I saw it on a TV show once.”

“A TV show? What is this?”

“TV, you know, television. A small machine…” Janet started explaining when Jo put a hand on her arm.

“We come from a land far from here, but have lost our way. Can you help us?” Miranda explained, correctly assuming that this group of women would expect her to be the leader as the oldest of the group.

“It isn’t up to me, that is up to our queen. We will escort you to the village.”

“Might I ask, what is your name?” Miranda asked gently.

“Oh. Forgive my poor manners, my name is Eponin, and that’s Juliet.” The group started off walking through the woods. Pretty soon the group came to a small group of huts surrounding a central courtyard. “Please wait here. I will get our queen.” Eponin said walking off to the largest hut on the other side of the courtyard. Eponin went into the hut and after a few minutes she came back out with a small, strawberry blond woman.

“She doesn’t really look like an Amazon.” Cassidy whispered to her sister.

“My queen,” Eponin said bowing, “these are the strangers we found wandering on our land. They claim to have lost their way. Ladies, may I introduce Queen Gabrielle of Potadeia.”

“Oh my god.” Amy gasped.

“What’s wrong?” Lucy asked scared at the way her partner’s face had gone pale.

“The TV show is real!”

“What show?” Jo asked.

“I can’t believe you don’t know the show.” Caroline replied. “I thought all …uhm everyone knew about the show.”

“What show sweetie?” Andy asked again.

“Xena: Warrior Princess!” Cassidy finally remembered the show. “It’s a show about this reformed female warlord and her sidekick, Gabrielle. But, where’s Xena? And why is Gabrielle ruling the Amazons? She was made queen, but she didn’t rule. Her regent Epiny ruled while she traveled with Xena helping her atone for her evil past. If Gabrielle is here in the village, then Xena should be with her.”

“Gabrielle looks pretty young, this must be before they went to India.” Amy mentioned.

Queen Gabrielle walked across the courtyard to stand in front of the group. “Welcome to our village. I heard you ask about Xena. How do you know the warrior princess?”

“We have only heard tales of her heroic deeds.” Amy replied. “Where is she?”

“Xena is visiting her hometown, Amphipolis, while I take care of some issues here in the village. She is expected to return in time for our harvest festival in a week. You are all welcome to stay with us until after the festival. When the festival has ended I will be able to spare some warriors to escort you to Athens.”

“That would be wonderful.” Miranda said, “We hate to impose, but really are a long way from home.”

“Yes, your clothes are so strange. I have never seen anything like them. What kind of fabric is this? Where are you from?”

“We are from a land far from here called Quebec. It is across the sea from Britania.” Miranda continued. “These fabrics are from there.”

“Lima.” Gabrielle called to an Amazon standing to her right. “Take these women to the guest quarters. Make them comfortable. It may be best for you to dress in Amazon clothes while you are here.”

“If you don’t mind. We would like to keep these. We are not used to the weather around here and your clothes, while lovely, aren’t as warm as our own.” Jo replied thinking about trying to hide their various weapons in the skimpy outfits the amazons were wearing.

“As you wish. We want you to be comfortable while you are staying with us.” Gabrielle answered. Then she walked back into her hut and Lima gestured to the group to follow her. Lima led the group to some huts on the southern edge of the courtyard.

“I’m afraid you will have to share quarters. We only have two huts to spare.”

“That’s fine. We are used to close quarters.” Miranda replied. Lima left and Miranda turned to the group. “Cassidy, Caroline, Andy and I can share one of the huts. If you 5 don’t mind sharing the other?”

“That should work. Nice going about the clothes, Jo. I was worried about keeping our guns hidden in those outfits.” Lucy said.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking of. Amy? Do you have any idea what could be wrong here that we would have to fix?”

“The only thing wrong that I can think of is the fact that Xena isn’t here. I don’t understand why she would leave Gabrielle alone.”

“Ok, then. We need to investigate what is going on here and what we can do to fix it.”

That evening at dinner, everything became clear. Xena wasn’t in the village because Gabrielle was attempting to bring the village together. It turned out that another Amazon had tried to take control of the village. Xena had defeated her but there was a group that felt the other Amazon was the rightful ruler. They wanted to expand their territory through war and Gabrielle believed in making peace with their neighbors. Xena was staying at her home village to give Gabrielle the chance to bring peace to the village.

That night, everyone met in Miranda’s hut to discuss what they had learned.

“I think we should try to send someone to Amphipolis to bring Xena here. I know that she is supposed to be here to help.” Amy insisted.

“Ok, but how do we accomplish it?” Jo replied.

“I have an idea.” Cassidy said shyly.

“Let’s hear it.” Jo said.

“Don’t be afraid Cass. It’s a good idea.” Caroline encouraged her sister.

“I heard some of the younger girls talking and one of them is here from Xena’s home village. I think we should try to convince her that Xena needs to be here. She would be able to go to Amphipolis and bring Xena back.”

“That’s a good plan.” Lucy said, “We wouldn’t have a clue about how to get to Amphipolis. The question now is, how do we convince this girl to go get Xena?”

“I just had another one of my brilliant ideas.” Blair said. “What if she thought that the queen was in danger?” Everyone looked at her, “I mean. I know that Jo would come running to my aid if she thought there was even a chance that I was in trouble. What if we convince this girl that the queen faces a threat that the Amazons can’t defend against. The only hope would be to get Xena.”

“I hate to admit it princess, but that is a brilliant idea.” Jo said. “Now how do we do this without putting ourselves in danger? I don’t really want to hurt any of these women and I sure as heck don’t want them coming after any of us.”

“How about an assassination attempt?” Lucy suggested. “Someone goes out into the woods and fires a shot at the queen. That person would be able to get away long before the Amazons figure out where the shot came from.”

“The only problem with that is that we would all be the first ones under suspicion. A strange weapon is fired at the Amazon queen? The first place they would look would be the strange women who suddenly appeared in their woods.” Miranda said reasonably.

“True.” Lucy admitted.

“How about simple vanity?” Andy said. “Why don’t we send someone to talk to this girl and really play up how much they were hoping to meet the warrior princess in person. Maybe we could convince her that we just can’t wait a whole week to meet her. Ask to be taken to Amphipolis to meet her?”

“I like that idea a lot better than the assassination attempt.” Miranda said, “Who would we send?”

“Well, I would suggest we send someone about the same age who can really lay on the hero worship role. I think we should send Caroline and Cassidy.”

“I agree. They can be very convincing when they want to meet someone. Remember when they begged to go see that girl singer Miley something?” Miranda smiled at her girls.

“Mom! It was Miley Cyrus and we didn’t beg. We cajoled.” Caroline replied embarrassed but pleased that Andy would think they could handle something so important.

“I agree.” Amy said. “They would be the perfect choice.”

“All right, its settled then. Tomorrow, Caroline and Cassidy will convince this girl to take them to Amphipolis to meet Xena. Then it will be up to them to convince Xena to come here early.” Miranda said, ending the discussion. “Now, I am going to go over to the dining hall and get some food and some more of that wonderful ale that they serve. It is better than any whiskey I’ve ever tasted.”

The next morning Caroline and Cassidy were able to convince the young amazon to take them to Amphipolis. Amphipolis was in a delta river valley and seemed to be quite prosperous. They had been traveling over some rough terrain and both girls were extremely happy to see the town and even happier to see that the young amazon was taking them to a hotel in the center of town. “This is Xena’s mother’s inn.” the amazon explained. “And there’s Xena.” Caroline and Cassidy turned in the direction the amazon was pointing and saw a tall, beautiful, dark-haired woman striding towards them carrying a string of fish.

“November. What are you doing here? Is everything ok in the village?” Xena handed her burden off to a young man to take to the inn and came over to the small group.

“Yes, Xena. Everything is fine. These two young ladies wanted to meet you. They are staying with us for a few days and couldn’t wait for the festival. Caroline, Cassidy this is Xena.”

“Oh my gods, it is such a pleasure to meet you.” Caroline gushed.

“I can’t believe we are really standing here talking to the warrior princess herself.” Cassidy added, playing their role to the hilt. As Xena looked on amused at the obvious acting the two were doing.

“Ok, what do you really want?” Xena finally asked, putting a stop to the gushing.

Caroline and Cassidy had discussed how to get Xena to the village and had decided to simply tell a slight variation of the truth. “Gabrielle is in trouble. One of the gods sent us here to help, but all we know is that you need to be with Gabrielle.”

“What do you mean sent you?”

“As you can see, we are not like you. The truth is we are from another land in another time. We were sent here with some of our friends to put right what went wrong at this time in history.”

“And how do you know what my history is supposed to be?” Xena asked.

“I can’t really explain that except to say that your history is well known to many people in my land. I don’t know what is going to happen exactly, all I know is that Gabrielle is in trouble and you need to be there to keep her safe. Besides, you know you really want to be with her in the village.”

That much was true. Xena had been missing her best friend the whole time she had been in Amphipolis. She knew that Gabrielle needed to do this on her own, but being away from her bard was tearing her up. “All right. What harm can it do. I was going to be leaving for the village in a couple of days anyway. We’ll head out first thing in the morning. Be ready.”

Back in the Amazon village, the others were trying to figure out what would happen after they were able to reunite the queen and her warrior.

“We should all be ready to go as soon as Xena gets here. Just in case the Omni sends us back as soon as things are fixed.” Jo said

“I hope it will take all of us back. What if we have to be touching like we were when Janet pushed the button the first time?” Blair asked.

“We’d better all stay close then.” Jo took the Omni out of her pocket and opened it. It was still blinking red and the time they were in was still showing.

“I was hoping we would get to stay for the festival.” Janet said. “I heard they throw great parties here. There is supposed to be dancing, story telling, and competitions. I was hoping to show these ladies some of my dance moves.”

“What dance moves?” Amy said, thinking about the clumsy girl who used to always be losing her gun.

“I’ll have you know I took dance lessons as a kid. I was going to be a famous ballroom dancer, until I realized that ballroom dancers weren’t all that famous. I can do the Foxtrot, the Waltz, and the Samba, but my Tango is good enough to win Dancing with the Stars.”

“Hm, who knew.” Amy said. “I hope you get the chance to show off your skills then. I would like to stay for the festival too. I hear that the queen is an excellent storyteller.”

“If we can, we will stay.” Jo said.

The next afternoon, everyone who had stayed behind in the village were together by the practice fields watching the Amazons spar. Eponin was the weapon’s master and it was easy to see why. She was their best fighter. Suddenly, Gabrielle joined them. “How are you all enjoying your stay in the village?”

“It has been marvelous Queen Gabrielle.” Miranda replied. “Your customs and way of life are so very different from ours. It is truly fascinating to see.”

“Please, call me Gabrielle. I really don’t see myself as a queen. I’m really just a simple storyteller from a small village not far from here. My friendship with Xena has led me to be the ruler of these Amazons, but Ephiny is the real queen.”

“That’s not what I heard.” Amy answered. “I heard you flung yourself over an injured amazon to keep her from being hit by more arrows. Then she gave you her rite of caste, eventually making you queen. It sounds like a very brave thing to do.”

“Brave, yes, but not necessarily queen worthy. Especially in some people’s eyes. Case in point.” Gabrielle said, motioning to the leader of the group of amazons who felt that Gabrielle was too peaceful to lead them.

“Can’t they see that you accomplish more through peace than through war?” Amy asked.

“No, they can’t. All they’ve ever known is war. They have had to fight for everything they’ve ever gotten. They don’t believe that someone would just give them what they want because it benefits both sides. I have tried to prove it by establishing treaties with our neighbors, but the only true test will be keeping the peace. I’m afraid it will take many years before either side believes in the other. In the meantime, I need to keep my warriors from attacking. I think I have done that for now. I just have that last one to deal with. Which brings me to why I’m really here. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go beat up some amazons.”

For the first time, Amy noticed that Gabrielle was holding a fighting staff. “Awesome.”

“What?” Lucy asked, coming to stand next to her partner.

“We’re going to get to see Gabrielle spar.”

Gabrielle faced off against the leader of the rival faction, Kiera. They started off slow, but soon Kiera was going full out trying to beat the queen. Gabrielle was easily fending off everything she could dish out though. Soon, Kiera threw down the staff and grabbed a sword from the rack next to the sparring field. Gabrielle was still able to defend herself, but everyone could see that she was tiring. Suddenly, she tripped and went sprawling in the dust. Kiera saw the opening and prepared to strike a killing blow. As the sword was coming down it was stopped just inches from the queen’s unprotected neck. Another sword had gotten between the queen and the plunging sword. With a strength that few possessed Kiera’s sword was slowly lifted away from the queen and into the air. Xena stood there holding her own sword casually waiting for Kiera to make her next move. Kiera was not stupid, but she knew her life was forfeit for trying to kill the queen. Xena saw in her eyes the instant she made her decision. She sighed at the waste that was to come and prepared to strike the killing blow. As Kiera rushed at Xena with her sword raised, Gabrielle regained her footing and swung her staff, catching Kiera in the ribs and making her lose her sword. The bard followed the blow with a reverse that took Kiera off her feet and knocked her out cold.

“Lock her in the root cellar. We will deal with her later.” Gabrielle ordered. “Nice timing.” she said to her partner as she was engulfed in a huge hug.

“Luckily, these girls talked me into coming early.” Xena replied gesturing to Caroline and Cassidy who were standing with the rest of their group next to the practice field. She noticed that they were all holding onto each other in some way and looked as if they were expecting something to happen.

Jo took the Omni out of her pocket and opened it. It was flashing green. “Well, I guess we fixed it.” She closed the Omni and looked at the others. “Everybody ready?”

Everyone nodded and quickly grabbed onto the person nearest them. They waited, and waited, and waited. Nothing happened.

“Well, I guess we get to stay for the festival.” Miranda broke the silence with a smile. Everyone else smiled glad that they would get to enjoy their time in this strange place for just a bit longer.

“What are you doing?” Lucy asked Amy who was staring at the queen’s hut where Xena and Gabrielle had just disappeared.

“Wishing I had X-ray vision.” she replied with a sigh.

“What, why?”

“Because if I did, I could answer the one burning question of every Xena fan in the world.”

“What question is that?”

“Are they lovers?”

“Really, that’s the burning question?”

“Yep.”

“I don’t know why. It seems pretty obvious to me. Who else would throw themselves in front of a sword to save their friend?”

“True. But wouldn’t you do that for me?”

“I rest my case.” Lucy smiled and kissed her partner.

“You win.” Amy replied when she was able to catch her breath.

Three nights later, the festival was in full swing and everyone was having a wonderful time. There was so much food that everyone was able to eat at least a kilo! Janet was able to show off her dance moves and Gabrielle told many amazing stories of the warrior princess.

“Brava, brava.” Miranda and the others cried when Gabrielle finished her newest story about the strangers who had come to their village and become friends.

Late that night after all of the amazons had gone to their respective huts, the travelers from the future met in Miranda’s family’s hut and prepared to leave. Caroline had told the others the story they had used to get Xena to come to the village and they all decided that it would be best if they just left without telling anyone. Xena would assume that whatever god had sent them had taken them back to their own land and that way they wouldn’t have to say goodbye to their new friends.

“Is everyone ready?” Jo asked. Everyone nodded, although there were quite a few teary eyes in the group. “Ok. Here we go.” Jo took the Omni out of her pocket, opened it up and saw that it was still flashing green. The time now had changed back to the time they left. “I think I figured out how the dial works.” Jo said. “I set it for just a few seconds after we left. We should show up right back where we were.” She reached out her hand and briefly covered Blair’s who was holding onto her sleeve. Everyone was tightened their grips and then closed their eyes as Jo slowly pushed the button.

When they opened their eyes, they saw Scud. He was staring at the spot by the table where they had all been standing just moments ago. The Omni had returned them to the right place, but they were all now on the opposite end of the warehouse. Lucy smiled and then yelled, “Hey Scud.”

Scud turned towards the sound and blinked. His mouth fell open even wider as he looked first at the table and then at the group behind him. Suddenly, his face broke out into a huge smile as he ran to Janet and hugged her. Soon everyone was hugging everyone else and laughing. Just then the door opened and Dominique stepped in. “Is anyone coming out here to explain to these Homeland Security guys what is going on here? I’ve got a golf game to get to and I don’t want to be late.”

Janet sighed and looked at Scud once more before saying, “Hold your horses Dom, I’m coming. I’ll take care of everything. You are relieved.” The squad leader looked at Cassidy and Caroline. “See you both back at headquarters?”

“Yes ma’…Janet.”

“Good. And good work everyone.” She left the warehouse.

“What are we going to do with this?” Jo asked.

“If you don’t mind detective, I’ll take it and lock it up in the safest place known to man.” Miranda replied.

“And where is that?”

“The closet. Of course.”

“Of course.” Jo said laughing as she handed it to the woman.

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