Implications
In Amphipolis Gabrielle excitedly skipped across the dirty road to Cyrene's tavern.
"Xena, Xena!" Gabrielle shrieked as she bounded up the wooden porch steps of the tavern clutching a letter in her hand to where her best friend sat in a chair.
She paused after reaching the porch to catch her breath, and to notice her friend looking up at her with red, puffy eyes.
The bard sat down on the arm of Xena's chair and put her arm around her shoulders.
"I've got some great news that might cheer you up?" she attempted, hoping to peak Xena's curiosity.
The Warrior Princess slouched back in her chair and plopped her feet up on the railing in front of them, staring absently at her companion.
"I don't think that is possible," she grumbled, wiping away the last of the tears that was still running down her cheeks.
Gabrielle slipped her hand in Xena's to comfort her. It ate her alive to see her so upset.
"Well, I have a plan; you haven't left this house for close to a month brooding over your break up with Ares." she rubbed her friend's arm. "Since it's almost time for the fall festival, we received a letter from Philemon inviting us to Athens for a masquerade party aboard a pirate ship."
"I don't think so Gabrielle, I'm not much in the mood for a party." The raven Warrior answered, looking even more depressed than before
"Well, I think that sounds like a great idea." Cyrene interjected coming out of the door, and overhearing the end of the conversation, obviously thrilled of having her daughter actually doing something other than sitting around the tavern, sulking.
"We're all set then!" Gabrielle burst out with excitement. She immediately leaped from her chair and gave Xena a hug. "Don't worry when we get there you'll see how much fun we'll have!"
"Yeah…a lot of fun… whoopee!" she answered back starring down at her empty hands, not sure, she wanted to go.
"Good, it's all settled then. We leave at first light ok?" Gabrielle decided, ignoring Xena's less than enthusiastic response. "I'll go pack," she announced, skipping to the door of the tavern and going inside.
Cyrene reached over and patted her daughter on the shoulder. "You'll be fine. Just try to have some fun," she suggested, and then retreated down the steps of the inn to do some shopping at the vender train.
They arrived at the city gates of Athens after a two-day, tiring ride. Xena swayed in her saddle with the movements of her horse; Gabrielle rode behind her, half-asleep with her head resting on her back, arms slack around her waist.
The two friends moved along with the sluggish pedestrian traffic following the road, passing through the gates and into the city.
Ultimately, they found the street where their inn was located; they could not wait to get a decent meal, far away from the noisy, crowded market place.
Riding up in front of the modest motel, Xena stopped her horse, held her arm out, and helped Gabrielle to the ground.
"You go get us a room; I'll take care of Argo." she suggested in a quiet voice before riding off towards a big black barn matching the color of the hotel it sat next to.
The Bard bit her bottom lip as she watched them ride off and could not help muttering to herself a very hopeful "Please let this trip cheer her up. She deserves something nice after her break up with Ares."
Later that day, Gabrielle dragged Xena by the arm through the roped off section of the streets for the venders in search of costumes to wear to the masquerade party that night.
When they reached a group of tables full of costumes the Warrior Princess pulled her arm from Gabrielle's grip, bought a hotdog from a food vendor nearby then relaxed back against the vender's wagon waiting for the Bard. While she was still preoccupied with chewing her tasty hotdog, a group of men walked down in front of her, slowing down as they passed by, obnoxiously checking her out. She stared them down as she lifted the hotdog to her mouth and took an exaggerated bite out of it.
The men pushed each other out of the way, hurriedly passing by Gabrielle as she pushed open the curtains and stepped out in her pirate costume.
"Ta da!" she proclaimed, obviously very pleased with her disguise.
Rolling her eyes at her childish excitement, Xena gave her a once over, from her black knee-high leather boots, over her baggie pants and ruffled shirt to the red bandana wrapped around her head.
"You look like any other pirate I've seen. Thought you'd be like the captain or something, not the second in command...," she said in a bored voice, shrugging her shoulders, very unimpressed by what she saw.
"Well, I thought you could be the pirate captain and I would be your first mate." Gabrielle contradicted, jumping down from the step of the dressing room with another costume in her hand.
"Like this one." she announced, holding it up against herself as she showed it to her friend.
The Warrior Princess shook her head as she swirled her tongue around in her mouth cleaning the leftover food she ate off her teeth.
"Been there done that…Sorry…not interested." she proclaimed as she grabbed the costume out of the bard's hands and threw it over her shoulder. It landed on a man's head. After a few dirty looks from Xena and some bemused giggles from Gabrielle, the man scurried away from them.
"Besides, I have something else in mind," she declared, pulling something out of the leather bag that hung from her shoulder.
"I kind of found this when we stopped in that small town for supplies before reaching Athens. Now you go find something to entertain yourself while I change." she advised as she pushed her friend forward and headed into the dressing room, closing the curtains.
Gabrielle soon took her friend's spot and, drawing in a deep breath she relaxed against the vender's wagon, watching the passers by as she waited, thrilled that her friend seemed to be in a better mood and getting into the sprit of the holiday.
Aphrodite inconspicuously appeared above Gabrielle sitting atop the wooden wagon just as the dressing room curtains jerked open and Xena stepped out in her new costume.
The Goddess squealed and clapped her hands at what she saw.
"Oh Ares will be beside himself when he gets a load of you in that!" she yelled, jumping up and down like a spring.
The Bard straightened and began to circle her friend while letting out a loud, appreciative wolf like whistle, making sure to caress the silky fabric of the floor length black skirt and running her fingers up Xena's leg through the slit that ran up to her hip.
"This will definitely attract some attention."
Aphrodite vanished in a shower of pink sparkles, eager to find that dark brooding brother of hers.
Unbeknown to Aphrodite, another Goddess named Triteia also had her eyes on the Warrior Princess….her motives were slightly different though….
When Aphrodite left the aether, she was in the Halls of War. It didn't take long for her to find her brother slumped down in the rocking chair in front of the fireplace were she had left him earlier. She elegantly crossed the room to the hearth and crouched down beside the chair were her brother sat, placing her hands on the wooden armrest.
"Hey bro." she purred as she brought her hand up and combed his tangled dark hair back behind his ears with her fingers. There was no reaction from the God's part though…no reaction at all.
"Have I a bit of juicy information for you!" she gushed out enthusiastically, hoping to summit a retort from Ares.
"I told you the last time you were here, I don't give a damn about the latest gossip among the Gods Dite.," he stated in a dreary voice, turning to her and casting her a frighteningly vacant stare.
"Well good thing then because that isn't what I was talking about." the Love Goddess countered, moving to sit in front of him on the floor and taking his hand in hers resting them on his knees.
"I found a way for you to apologize to the Warrior Babe so that you two can get back together again."
A sparkle lit up in his eyes at the mere mention of her name, but soon diminished as he remembered the past circumstance that had caused all the drama.
"She will never forgive me; I can't even forgive myself for what I did." he dully stated.
"Oh come on Ares, things just got way out of hand you didn't mean to strike Gabrielle and I think it's time for her to forgive and forget and I think I might just have a plan to get it started."
With that said, she energetically dragged him out of his chair by the hands and when he stood beside her, she placed her arm through his. "But first, we need to go shopping."
They both disappeared in fragments of lights from the room.
As the sun set, Xena was all dressed up….She had decided to wear the dark leather skirt, lacy white blouse and a sword strapped to her hip.
Gabrielle was the captain's first mate. They followed behind the crowd to the docks.
Even though they were wearing, half masks that covered the upper part of their face, Gabrielle could easily tell her friend wore a scowl on hers.
"Come on Xena, this will be fun." she tried one last time when it was their turn in line.
Once they walked up the plank to board, a gust of wind picked up from the ocean and blew Gabrielle's hat off back to the shore.
"You go ahead and go aboard I'll get my hat and meet you there." she said, patting Xena on the arm and swiftly turned to make her way back along the slat and through the crowd down to the docks.
"Ticket please." the person operating the door uttered behind her, trying to gain Xena's attention away from watching Gabrielle.
As she reached in her blouse, she pulled the ticket out from between her bosom, presenting it to him as she passed him to board the ship. She made her way to the mast of the boat where she had planned to stay for the rest of the night. Little did she knew that her plan was soon about to change….
The nasty Goddess Triteia soon appeared sitting on the sail above Xena, holding a burning candle in her hand. She patiently waited for the flame to die out, and skillfully carved Xena's name into the wax of the candle, where it exploded into a burst of sparkles. The nasty Goddess held it out over the Warrior Princess' head, raining dark sparkles over her and blocking the bond she and Ares shared. With that done, she disappeared in a spurt of black, evil light.
As Xena waited for Gabrielle to board the ship, she looked over her shoulder when she heard a loud mouth Caesar bragging about his ability to bob for apples.
Sick and tired of listening to the wannabe conqueror's loud mouth, she turned and headed to where the person dressed as Caesar stood by a water bucket filled with apples.
Xena tapped him on the shoulder and when he turned towards her, without wasting one second of her precious spare time, she expertly grabbed him by the arm and dragged him over to the railing of the ship, grabbed the back of his pants and threw him over board.
Then, going back over to the water bucket, she hefted it up and, trudging back over to the railing, she tipped it up and dumped the water along with the apples on top the person wearing the Caesar costume.
"Emperors should always do everything in an original and bold enough way to attract the attention of their people. So, there you go! Claim your destiny! Do it how Caesar himself would do it!"
Ares stood on the top steps of the forecastle deck, the last light of the setting sun glimmering on his bare skin. Arriving late, he heard the king announce that this would be the last dance and then everyone could remove their masks on the last count of three.
A bit restless, he scanned the dance floor of the main deck. To his dismay, he discovered there were at least three different women dressed in the costume his sister had described to him.
Two stood on opposite sides of the ship peering over the railings and one stood by the mast.
After a certain amount of consideration, he hesitantly descended the steps, the crowd parting ways in his path as he made his way to her.
The warm breeze from the ocean was blowing the ties of the headscarf, he wore. As he halted his progression, a few feet away from her, his long dark curly hair hung down past his bare powerful shoulders. He cleared his throat to gain her attention.
She turned around immediately, as if having waited for someone all this time. The lanterns hanging from the ropes above her head chased away the darkness that fell around her.
Bringing one of his hands to clasp against his bare chest, Ares stretched his other one out in front of him, beckoning her to him with a wiggle of his finger, while backing away to the middle of the dance floor.
When she got close enough, sliding his eyes to look at her out of the corner of his eyes, with a sweet smile he twirled his hand towards her, inviting her to dance.
She elegantly placed her gloved hand in his, accepting his offer to dance. Pacing forward, he spun her around her under his raised arm.
She relaxed back into his firm chest as he raised her arms above their heads and placed them behind his head where she laced their fingers together.
He stuck out his chin and rested it on her bare shoulder, nibbling the skin on her neck while his fingers kept tracing down the laces of her low cut blouse, skimming the edges of her breast as the path led down her cleavage to her ribcage.
When Gabrielle finally came back aboard, she headed straight for the deck of the ship, scanning the dance floor for Xena. To her disappointment, she noticed there were three women dressed in her friend's costume. She was delighted to see that they were all dancing, thinking that Xena was actually enjoying herself.
She went to lean against the mast nearby to watch the couples dancing, to wait.
As she watched, a prince approached her and asked her to dance. She quickly agreed, so he led the way.
Hearing her intake of breath, Ares smiled as he outlined the edge of her ear with the tip of his tongue. He squeezed her waist pressing her back against him as they gyrated to the beats of the music.
When the music tempo changed, his hands left her waist grasping her folded hands from around his neck. He spun her around to face him placing one hand in hers and, keeping the other at the small of her back, they graciously circled the dance floor.
A shout of "one" rang out over the music. He removed his hand from her back and raised their joined hands above their heads, twirling her under his arm around in a circle.
They repeated the same motion for the count of "two".
On the third turn, he brought his arm down and spun her out away from him. When their fingers were the only thing connecting them, he whipped his arm back and brought her back in towards him, dipping her back at the last minute when they met again.
When "three" rang out over the crowd, his hand slowly reached her mask and he rested his hand on it for a split second.
He gradually lifted the mask from her face, his heart pounding in his ears at the prospect of seeing his beloved. Nonetheless, his shoulders sagged inward as he hung his head down and his eyes filled with tears.
"No" he whispered under his breath. His chest became suddenly tighter, his legs started wobbling under him, eventually giving out on him, and he sank to the floor, to his knees, his heart broken in two as he stared in disbelief at the Goddess he was holding in his arms.
About a long hour later, walking down the gangplank, Gabrielle finally spotted Xena sitting nearby, on an over turned dingy, waiting for her.
She hopped to her feet when the Bard approached her.
"Sorry…. got bored after I threw Caesar overboard and came out here." she admitted
"That's ok you missed little as my Prince Charming turned out to be some guy with chronic skin problems."
They both laughed lightly, ready to go back at the inn.
They started chatting and Gabrielle was just making a joke about kings and queens when they picked up the sound of running footsteps behind them. Before they knew it, two wet arms snaked around their shoulders.
Joxer stuck his head in between theirs. "Trick or treat!" He said as he walked with them.
"Joxer what are you doing here? And why are you wet?" Gabrielle asked, visibly happy to see him.
"Oh funny story." he laughed, "Some less than enthusiastic reveler thought it would be funny and threw me overboard off the ship earlier. But the joke's on them cause I got to bob for apples all by myself and had a fantastic time doing It." he squealed, then removed his arms as he ran in front of them, dancing down the street.