25. Forgetting
Feeling the unusual shaking of the ground, Xena's eyes opened instantly and she first rushed in her daughter's room to see if she was alright. The little girl was sleeping peacefully so the Warrior kissed her daughter's forehead softly before leaving the room and going straight to Gabrielle's. Xena was worried that this could have been a direct attack and she needed a strategy, a plan, anything to protect her daughter and themselves too.
The door burst open and Xena entered the room.
"Xena!" Dite and Gabrielle exclaimed simultaneously.
"Dite what are you doing here in the middle of the night?" Xena asked bewildered. She hadn't expected to find the goddess with her friend.
"Nothing…did you feel that?"
"Yes."
"What is it Xena?" Her best friend asked when she saw Xena's grim face.
"We need a plan…"
"What do you mean? I thought we have a…some kind of plan!" Dite retorted but Xena wasn't at all convinced. They definitely did not have a plan.
"I suspect that those earthquakes aren't natural and I have an idea of who could have produced them. We won't last forever in here."
Just as she finished her last sentence, the ground stopped shaking.
"It's over." Dite said.
"For now. So who has an idea?" Xena asked taking a seat on Gabrielle's bed.
The Goddess stared at her with wide eyes while Gabrielle frowned, trying to come up with an idea.
"Xena…I think we'd better wait for my brother… He wouldn't have wanted you to do anything reckless before…"
Xena gave the goddess a confused look. What was she getting at, really?
"It's not something reckless, it's saving our lives and the human race. Longer we wait, harder it will be to thrown down the Dark One."
"Xena is right Dite!"
Aphrodite looked at Gabrielle not quite believing her ears. She had just told them her opinion for Gaia's sake, why were they even fighting her on this?
"What?"
"I've just said that…Look at her, no reaction when I mentioned Ares." Dite continued but in a hushed voice so that Xena wouldn't hear it.
"Dite I am right here…Say it out loud, maybe you do have an idea." Aphrodite turned to Xena.
"I'm having an idea actually…What happened to you?" The Goddess questioned in a serious voice, staring inquisitively at the Warrior Princess.
"What do you mean?"
"This…you're acting all strange. Xena are you just worried and…"
"Worried about Dahak of course I am, how could I not be? Now if that means strange than…"
"No, not Dahak…my brother."
"What!?"
At hearing Xena's strange question-answer Gabrielle finally started paying attention to her. Dite could have been right after all.
"Ares, he left to retrieve that weapon, that's the plan remember?"
The Warrior Princess suddenly appeared more than confused.
"I don't know what are you…"
Right then the door opened again and Hephaestus came in with a tired, cranky and scared Adam in his arms.
"Hephie what are you…?" Dite questioned when she saw Adam practically jumping from her husband's arms, and running straight to his mother, burying his face directly into her chest.
"Mommy… I missed you!"
Xena remained stunned there for a minute and then just embraced the little boy.
"I…hey little one…"
Adam stopped and looked at his mother with bright eyes, drinking her in; he had missed her so much all those days.
Xena looked at Gabrielle, than at Dite and back at the child.
"Do you want to see how well I'm mastering my powers now? Dite is a good help!" Adam asked, really proud of what he had accomplished with his powers those days.
Powers… that made sense, Xena thought.
"Dite why didn't you tell me?"
"Tell you what?"
"This…you having another child…?"
Hephaestus almost choked.
"Now you believe me Gab?" Aphrodite was really worried now. They were in such a big mess….
"Xena…don't you remember Adam?" the Bard asked her long time friend.
"Should I?"
"Xena!" Gabrielle approached her friend while Aphrodite came and took a hold of Adam.
"Adam sweetie, go back with Hephie."
The child looked upset with her words.
"I don't want to." he said in a sad voice.
"Hephie take Adam."
The God obeyed his wife and he took the child from where he was clutching at his mother's arms and looked pleadingly at Xena.
"I want my mommy! Mommy!" the boy started to cry but Xena just blinked once looking confused around the room.
Seconds after Adam's outburst, Hephaestus disappeared with the boy in his arms, still crying.
"Xena where are we?" her best friend asked the warrior.
"In a fortress, why does it matter? Who was that child?" She got up from the bed and looked at her two friends in the room.
Something was definitely wrong with the Warrior Princess. Now Gabrielle could see it clearly.
"Don't you know?" Gabrielle asked once more. She couldn't quite believe what she was witnessing.
"I told you Gab, something happened to her."
"Yes Dite, I see but…"
"I'm in the room." Xena burst out loud.
Both women gave her a perplexed look.
"Xena….why don't you take a seat, Honey?" Dite offered.
"I don't want to. I just want you two to tell me what's going on."
"It appears that you have lost some of your memories." the Bard said, not quite believing it yet…
The Warrior started laughing.
"I don't think so. I do remember really well who you two are."
"Yeah that's what makes it so strange…" Dite added.
"That I know you?"
"Dite let me speak to Xena alone, ok?"
The Goddess glanced at Xena and then back at Gab and she knew that of course her friend could easily talk with the Warrior Babe since she wasn't doing any progress with her on the contrary she was only upsetting her even more.
"Ok." She said before she vanished.
Xena raised her eyebrows at her friend after the Goddess disappeared from the room.
"Ooook…so let's see. Do you remember Eve?" Gabrielle asked.
"Of course I do."
The Warrior Princess took a seat on the bed again.
"Good. Joxer, Virgil?" Gabrielle breathed more easily when her friend nodded.
"It's nothing wrong with my memories. I remember everything from my past, the first time I saw you, the time when you saved me in Amphipolis, all our adventures with the Amazons, in India, giving birth to Eve, her being hunted by the gods and now this problem with Dahak… Want me to continue?"
"But that still doesn't explain what just happened..."
Xena furrowed her brows again.
"What, that child?"
"Yes. Now answer me, where are we?"
"Dite's fortress."
"Dite? Xena did you see the walls in here?"
"Yes."
"There are pictures with you everywhere. Why would Dite have that?"
"So you are saying that this is not her place than."
The Bard simply nodded.
"Then whose?"
"Do you know that we are not alone in here?"
"Apart from Dite? Yeah I do. They are her family after all. I couldn't have said no even if I wasn't too keen on having all the gods in here."
"Yeah after what happened with Eve. But Athena is not. Do you know why?"
"Well I do have a theory about that. I think she is working with Dahak. I think that they were at the gates a few moments time ago, that they produced that earthquake so we need to do something soon cause if the veil drops…"
"We die." Gabrielle ended on a grim note.
"Yes. I need to think of something. It's late now but we will continue this tomorrow, but just so you know I'm fine really." the Warrior said kissing the Bard's cheek before leaving her best friend's room.
xxx
"Dite!" the Bard called out just a few seconds after, and hardly had she uttered her name that the Goddess was in her face asking all kind of questions.
"Stop it, would you? I don't know what's wrong with her but you are right…it's like some of her memories were erased from her brain."
"Let me guess…the past that involves my brother."
"Yeah. She thought that this is your fortress. She doesn't know about Adam either."
"Because she forgot Ares. How could she? Something must have happened to her but what? We were here in this wing all along…I mean no contact with the other gods or…where did it go wrong? My brother will kill me, he will be so angry and hurt…and and…" Aphrodite started pacing around trying to find a clue about Xena's condition.
"Dite I don't know, but for now, just keep Adam with you."
"Why? He needs his mother."
"I know but as far as Xena is concerned she only has Eve."
"But that is not true." the Goddess insisted.
"Dite…I just think that right now it will be best for Adam and Xena not to…"
"No, I don't think that this is such a great idea." Aphrodite intervened before Gabrielle even had the chance to say what she wanted but of course the goddess already knew where all this was going and she didn't approve…at all.
"Xena needs to know about her son, he is her son Gabby." the Goddess pointed out.
"I know that very well, but…"
"No buts. What's your problem?"
"I don't have a problem, what are you saying?"
"I don't know…We both know that Ares is not your favorite person, maybe this is a way for you, I don't know to leave him out of it."
"What?" The Bard looked really surprised at Dite. She didn't expect Dite to accuse her of something like that.
"I agree, Ares is by far not my favorite person but he grew on me all this time. So no Dite that's not my problem, it's just that Xena has to cope with so much right now…And I don't think she will take it lightly, you know their past relationship, retaliate facts to her won't make her see him in a good light. Plus, I'm sure as hell know nothing, no detail about what ever happened in their intricate past, so how could I ever explain it to her? And then there's Adam."
"Well about that, I didn't think about it. You are right Gab, I'm sorry but it's all just confusing and frustrating and this…I wanted so much for them to have their happy ending once and for all...and something always comes in their way of achieving that." the Goddess puffed and took a seat on the edge of the bed.
"What are we going to do?" she asked sadly.
"Next time I talk with her I will ask her more." the Bard answered, setting her hand on Aphrodite's shoulder in comfort.
"… and of course we need to focus on the enemy."
Dite nodded in the end and then all of the sudden she gasped.
"Ohhh by all the gods…Finally! I need to leave Gab…" the Goddess said, getting ready to leave.
"Leave?...Where?"
"Ares."
And then she was gone.