The Spaces Between

Chapter 3 - Loss

As both expected, the days of solitude and peace were not to be long lived. Neither could have anticipated that one of the most painful and confusing pieces of their life would present the next challenge. It was Hope. It was Callisto. Callisto had taken Perdicus from Gabrielle. Hope had engineered the loss of Solon… and Gabrielle was forced to lose Hope. All of it confusing. All of it painful. Tearing best friends from one another in a way they had never thought possible. Facing these women would again test their bond, now so much deeper than it had been. Where it led was the darkest place the warrior had ever traveled. The deepest fear and loneliness Xena had ever known.

Xena awoke suddenly reaching across the earth beneath her, "Gabrielle!" she screamed. There was no answer, just as the nights that had passed before – she was alone. She had traveled to the land of the dead, she knew her lover had to be alive: somewhere. Was she all right? The warrior cupped her own face in her hands. No one would believe that she could sob. She was lost. Some nights she had wished for death - the pain in her heart was searing. She would close her eyes and drift away imagining Gabrielle was next to her, forcing herself to hear the sound of her companion's voice and she would wake the same way – watching her lover fall through fire; helpless.

"I will find you." She said to herself. "No matter what. I will find you