Disclaimers: All characters that are from Xena: Warrior Princess are copyrighted by PacRenPic and no copyright infringement is intended. I just borrowed them for awhile. I put them back when I was done except that somehow Gabrielle’s toenails were painted a passion pink and Xena had a lonely new set of boots.<bg>

Dedication: To a friend I never met but knew only through the e-mail. One of the innocent lives cut short on September 11, 2001. This is in her memory.

Feedback: . If you like the story, you can reach me at sissy2757@yahoo.com. This is my first story, so please be kind

"Hey."

"Hey there! You look tried, Xe." The small blonde said as she handed the tall woman a bottle of water.

"Yea." Quietly comes the answer. The weight of the world seemed to rest on her shoulders this night. Bright blues eyes filled with sadness and pain stared off into the dark. "I’m tried, Gab, so tried. It never seems to get any better after all these years, does it?"

Gab turns her green eyes towards her lover and sighs, "The name and faces change but it is the same old evil every time."

Xe pulls her small lover into her embrace, saying, and "You know, when Aphrodite brought me back to life and gave us this gift of a eternity together I thought of it as a blessing. Lately I think it may also be a curse from Ares."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"After all these centuries, the way people destroys each other keeps growing on a larger scale. I think Ares believed…"

The green-eyed blonde put her hand on Xe’s face turning it towards her. "…that the darkness would re-surface in you and the Conqueror of All Nations would rises again. But it didn’t. You stayed on the path of the greater good."

"The last fifty or so years I’ve been able to stop fighting and help people. I thought we had finally found a place and a time to live a peaceful life together, Gab." A lone tear rolled down her cheek as she looked at the smoke and dust in the distance.

Xe tightens her hands into fists shaking with angry. "Why? Can anyone tell me why all those innocent lives?"

Tears fall from Gab’s eyes as she said, "I’ve been asking myself that question for over two thousand years and haven’t gotten an answer yet. Taking of innocent lives to get their point across has been around a lot longer than we have. Sometimes I think they do it because they can."

Xe’s heart was breaking for all the friends and co-workers they lost. So many just… gone. She sat up straight and wiped the tears off her lover’s face. "You know something, Gab, we will get through this as always. We will help re-build. We have been left standing to fight another day…Together."

A shadow fell over them. Xe and Gab looked up at the man standing there. Shifting from foot to foot he said, "Sorry to bother you, Xena. The captain said the break time is over and you two have the next shift." With a grim smile, he turned and left.

"Well, back to work, my love." Xe said standing and pulled Gab up beside her.

"Together…always." Gab whispers as she kissed her wife of so many years.

The two women pulled on their firefighter gear and headed back towards the rubble that use to be the World Trade Center towers.

The end