The group stopped not far from the base of the mountain when the Executioner could barely walk anymore. They made her comfortable while everyone ate some food that they'd brought in their backpacks.
"Do you think she's gonna die?" Zee whispered, biting into a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
"I don't know," Sunny replied quietly.
"Does anyone even care?" Callisto asked a little too loudly. Sunny and Zee stared at her. "I mean, she's the Executioner. All she wants to do is cut people's heads off." Callisto ate some of her own sandwich. "I don't think anyone cares."
"I care," Xena cut in, obviously having overheard Callisto's heartless words. "Because she's my friends mirror self. If she dies, Gabrielle dies."
"That's a weird way of caring..." Zee mumbled after Xena had walked away.
"How's your cut?" Mattie asked, sliding onto a log next to Mephistopheles. She started inspecting his forehead.
Mephistopheles ducked and brushed her hand away. "What, are you my personal nurse now?"
They both looked up when they heard Tigra chanting, "Mephistopheles and Mattie, sittin' in a tree, k-i-s-i-n-g!"
Mephistopheles and Mattie glared at her.
"You spelled kissing wrong," Rogue pointed out. Tigra glared at her.
"There's alot of glaring going on around here," Trance said. "Can't we all just love each other?" Everyone gave her an odd look. Trance averted her eyes and shrugged. "Just a thought."
Xena sat beside Storm. "Do you hear that?" she asked.
Storm went still and listened. "Yes." She nodded. "People surrounding us in the woods."
"How do you guys do that?" Gabrielle wondered. "I don't even hear..."
Xena silenced her by putting a finger over Gabrielle's mouth. "Shh. Go tell everyone to prepare for an attack," Xena told her.
Gabrielle nodded and obediently went to do so. Xena and Storm helped until everyone was huddled together beside the Executioner, who was resting on a blanket spread on the ground.
"Here's what we'll do," Xena told them. "We'll have a better chance if..."
They attacked before she could finish. A bunch of men dressed in camoflauge leaped out from behind bushes and trees, holding knives among other weapons.
Xena whirled, pulling her sword out and slashing a few down. Storm rose into the air and blew a group of men back with a rush of wind. Rogue punched a couple of guys out and threw some back into the woods.
The more vulnerable people fell back and the stronger fighters made a protective circle around them. Trance and Mattie knelt beside the Executioner, arming themselves with stones. Sunny and Gabrielle found a couple of long sticks and stood around them in case any bad guys got through.
Tataka, Tigra, and Zee put their fighting skills to good use while Hope simply turned the enemies' hand-to-hand weapons against themselves with a look.
Mephistopheles managed to hold his own against a group of them for a while but started to become overwhelmed. Xena helped him by throwing her chakram and knocking a few of them out, and Storm sent some lightning bolts to assist him.
Callisto got into it, screaming and laughing as she shot fireballs from her fingers. Some plants caught fire and it started to spread.
"Callisto, tone it down or you'll kill us all!" Tataka yelled at her.
"Storm, the fire!" Rogue shouted.
Storm called down some rain before it could turn into an all out forest fire. A few of the bad guys broke through the barrier of stronger people and advanced on the weaker ones.
Gabrielle and Sunny fought them off with their sticks, but more just kept coming. The two of them got pinned down, their sticks ripped from their hands.
Trance tried to help them by attacking from behind but she, too, was restrained. Beside the Executioner Mattie tried to punch an enemy, but he grabbed her wrist and forced her to the ground.
The Executioner managed to lift her heavy axe and drop it sideways on the dudes head before passing out. It knocked him out cold and Mattie pushed him aside. But then another one jumped on her and she struggled against him.
The enemies managed to restrain everyone but Storm, Rogue, Xena, Hope, and Callisto. More than one man had to hold some of them. Sunny stood with her hands held behind her back beside Tataka, who was wriggling in her captors grasp.
"Tataka, my pocket!" Sunny blurted before the dude holding her covered her mouth and ordered her to shut up.
Tataka twisted in her dude's hold and licked the side of his face. "Ahh!" he screamed, releasing her to try to wipe the burning, acidic spit off his cheek.
Tataka quickly reached into Sunny's big pocket and pulled out a gun. Having never seen a gun before she took a moment to figure out how to work it, but was soon shooting it at the people still fighting. She didn't hit much with her bad aim but it made the men scatter.
Once Hope was no longer occupied by her attacker she sent rocks,sticks, and dropped knives flying through the air, pummeling the dudes restraining the others.
"Retreat!" one of the bad guys yelled, ducking randomly whenever he heard the gun go off. Callisto sent him running away on fire and the rest of the camo dudes followed.
"Is everyone okay?" Rogue asked once they were all gone.
"Nothing serious,"Tigra announced, and everyone else mumbled their status.
"We make a pretty good team, kind of," Zee said.
"Yeah, most of us," Mattie agreed. "She has issues."
Mattie pointed toward Callisto, who was still screaming and shooting fireballs into the woods, which Storm patiently kept putting out with little rainclouds.
"Stop, Callisto," Xena said, pulling Callisto away back to the campfire. "They're gone."
"You're no fun," Callisto said. Xena ignored her.
Sunny took her gun from Tataka. "I'm never letting you have this again," she said.
"If it wasn't for me having that we might never have gotten away," Tataka replied.
"I would have gotten away," Hope said.
"If you had, would you come back for me?" Tataka asked.
"No," Hope said simply, then went to check on the Executioner.
Tataka looked insulted for a moment, then shook it off. "She's just kidding. She'd come back for me," she whispered to Sunny. Sunny had stopped listening a while ago, so she didn't respond.
After a little bit the tired people dozed off. The others kept watch for a while but eventually fell asleep as well.
Will the Executioner get better? Will they ever manage to reach the top of the mountain? Or will Callisto just go insane mental psycho on everyone and kill them all? Come back for more of the fun adventure!