Xena kept as much distance from Nobody and their new companion as possible. Xena felt another wave of outraged after she found out that Nobody had invited Thetis on their quest, without consulting her. She was still smarting from his earlier comment. Everytime she looked at her horse, her most trusted companion, Nobody's words came hurtling back. She was a murderer. The worst part was that it was true, and it hurt to realize it more than she wanted to admit. She had become the very thing she had been accused of when she was driven out of her village.

Hercules had more color to his face, but remained unconscious. Neither Nobody nor Thetis seemed concerned about him. Xena watched as Thetis offered to wait on Nobody. Even more puzzling, she watched him refuse to be waited upon and instead insisted on helping her, even going so far as to help her cook.

"I didn't know you could cook." Thetis said with surprise.

"I haven't burnt anything, but I'm not that good either. I help my mom sometimes in the kitchen. She is an excellent cook." Nobody told Thetis.

"She sounds lovely."

"She's amazing. Kind of had to be to handle me."

"What do you mean? You are very kind and so well mannered. You sound like a devoted son."

Percy scoffed, "You'll see, we're just wired for trouble."

There he went again, saying strange words in normal conversation. Thetis gave him a funny look. "'Wired?'" she questioned.

Nobody froze and looked at Thetis apologetically. "Sorry, I meant, well, that half-bloods attract trouble, and we're born different from everyone else."

That was something Xena related to. All her life while other little girls were playing with dolls or braiding each other's hair, Xena was climbing trees, playing sports with the boys, and getting into fights.

"Well, naturally." Thetis agreed. "He is born to be great. I just hope he will be as kind as you." Thetis smiled at Nobody. Xena rolled her eyes.

"I suppose you'd have to thank my mother for that too." Nobody stared pensively into the fire with a far away look. He did that sometimes. Xena thought he looked homesick when he did that. She scowled at his moment of weakness.

All this talk of mothers brought unwanted memories of Xena's own mother to mind. She was a strong woman who ran her own establishment. Not many women in this world could boast that. She too was a gifted cook, making a meal fit for a king out of scraps. She hadn't thought about her mother since she had been exiled, and it hurt to think about how her mother had turned her back on Xena when the village turned against her. What would she think of what Xena had become, now? Xena shoved the emotions down that threatened to bubble over. She cleared her throat, trying to swallow the lump rising up. "I'm going to get more wood."

"But you just got back from bringing a load. We should have plenty for tonight." Thetis pointed out.

"It's going to be a long night." Xena clenched her jaw as she spoke, trying to contain her growing temper. Xena got a glimmer of satisfaction when Thetis looked away mulified. She stomped off into the woods, having a strong urge to stab something. She tried to avoid thoughts of her mother and her village, but the more she tried to avoid them the more persistent they became. She wasn't sure how long she wandered before she finally returned to camp. There was more chatter than usual, which she shouldn't be surprised, since Nobody and Thetis talked nonstop since they met. They had suddenly become best friends, while Xena only seemed to argue with him. Then she realized that Hercules sitting up and eating.

"Xena, you're just in time for dinner." Thetis offered her a steaming bowl. Xena wanted to grumble about how hot it was, but stopped herself and took the bowl.

"Now that you're feeling better, Hercules, we'll leave tomorrow morning for the underworld. Thetis knows a way in." Nobody said.

"Great." Hercules said in a less than enthusiastic tone. "I avoided a visit to the underworld only to go there anyway."

Nobody laughed. "I didn't think of it that way, but you're right."

"Why exactly is Thetis going to the underworld with an infant?" Xena said disgruntled.

Thetis looked at Nobody, then Xena. "I asked the Oracle how to protect my baby from those that would seek to harm him." For some reason, when Thetis said this she smiled at Nobody.

"There is something in the underworld, the world of the dead, that is going to help protect your baby from death?" Xena let the question hang. "Sure, why not. We're going there to get skin."

"I am anxious to see that." Thetis smiled wider.

Xena narrowed her eyes at the two. What were they keeping from her?

"Whenever you feel up for it." Nobody patted Hercules on the shoulder.

"Right, I'll get right on that." Hercules grumbled as he settled down to sleep.

"I think I'll join him." Thetis said as she lay next to her baby.

"I'll take first watch." Both Xena and Nobody said at the same time.

"Sounds good." Thetis yawned.

Xena and Nobody stared at each other awkwardly. Nobody cleared his throat akwardly. "Um, can we talk? In private?"

Xena wasn't sure she wanted to hear anything he had to say, but she reluctantly moved away from the camp.

"Look, I shouldn't have said what I said." Percy started.

"You're apologizing?" Xena said disbelievingly. Truth be told, she had never been apologized to unless she was about to hurt someone for offending her.

"About what I said." Nobody clarified. "I have a tendency to shoot my mouth off, and it gets me into trouble. A lot of trouble. Point is, Argo confided in me, and I didn't mean to hurt your relationship."

"What relationship? She's a horse. She takes me places." Xena deflected.

"Argo doesn't see it as that."

"She doesn't?" Xena said surprised. Then she realized that she had just revealed that she cared. She quickly looked away.

"Whatever you've done, it isn't my business."

Xena didn't know how to respond. She had never met someone so perplexing as Nobody. Even without the mystery surrounding him, he acted contrary to everything she had ever encountered. He cared more about others than his own well being. In fact, it was almost like he would go out of his way to get himself into trouble as long as he was helping someone. Xena also noticed that she didn't have to assert herself when she was around him. He naturally treated her, a woman, as an equal.

"I know you are mad that I insisted on saving Thetis and her baby. Something you need to realize about me is that can't just stand by and watch others get hurt. If there is one thing I can't stand it's that I can't stand bullies, of any kind. Just because I'm not supposed to interfere, doesn't mean that I can stand by and do nothing either."

A realization began to dawn on her. He liked helping others. Something that she, along with the rest of the world, thought of as weak and not worth the trouble that comes with it. She had learned that the hard way. "Helping others will only make enemies." Xena grunted.

"And friends. If we hadn't saved Thetis, we wouldn't know how to get to the Underworld." Nobody pointed out.

Unfortunately, he had a point, even if Xena didn't like it. "You don't understand. There are the strong and the weak, and everyone is out to get you. If you don't ally your self with the strong, you are targeted by it."

"So there are bullies and there are targets?." Nobody clarified.

"Right." Xena agreed.

"But don't you think that good people are worth defending? A bully won't stop until someone stands up to them. The innocent shouldn't be punished, just because they're considered easy targets. There needs to be those that protect the good in the world too."

"You're one against thousands. If you loose . . ." Xena thought back to when her village lost to Draco. So many young men died because she had wanted to stand up to Draco, to defend themselves.

"You only loose if you give up. I was tempted so many times to stop fighting. But I knew that if I did, Kr . . ., they would win. It was the good in all of us that won the war in the end. Doesn't mean that there weren't losses. But the threat is over and now hopefully we can have peace. So hopefully their deaths weren't in vain. It's the battles we have with ourselves every day. What's right and what's wrong, do we run or fight, and all that grey in the middle. At the end of the day, we have to live with ourselves, too."

His words hit hard. He spoke from experience, despite his youth. It was the first time he had spoken so openly to her. She couldn't help the words that spilled out. "I never wanted to be like this. I dreamt of fighting off men that wanted to hurt my village, but when it came time to fight, I failed. So many of the men that fought by my side were cut down. I grew up with them." Xena felt her heart grow heavy and her eyes pricked at the memory. "I was exiled from my home as a result."

"That's harsh. So is that what made you decide to join Draco? Can't beat them so join them?"

"I offered Draco a deal: my services in exchange for my village's safety." She thought back to when she first started. It was just survival at first, but she lost sight of things somewhere along the way. She stopped letting herself feel.

"I see." He looked away. "So you were trying to protect good people.*

By hurting others, she added in her mind. She felt sick. Xena and Nobody sat there in silence, watching over the camp. He had given her a great deal to think of. She had never given herself other options other than Draco's lacky.

Nobody left her to her thoughts. Xena kept watch as she tried to make sense of everything. For some reason, Nobody's words left her unsure. Xena was never unsure. Not in herself, not in the proper order of the world. Now she found herself questioning everything she ever knew. Her thoughts kept her occupied for half the night, until even she had to succumb to sleep. She woke Nobody, to take over watching over the camp and went to bed.

She tossed and turned as visions of villages she had attacked raked across her vision. She could hear the villagers of her own village, yelling, "Murderer. Traitor."

She woke to Thetis cooking breakfast with Nobody by her side, helping. Hercules was up, looking like he was ready to go, unlike Xena. They didn't eat much that morning. Everyone looked nervous about their trip to the underworld. After breakfast, Thetis guided them in a north western direction. They weren't on any road or even a path. Thetis was studying the ground around them as they moved. Xena wasn't sure what she was looking for, but she seemed determined.

Thetis then suddenly pointed a few yards from them. "There. That's where we enter."

Xena didn't see much at first. The only telltale sign was wisps of steam rising into the air, which was odd since there was no fire or water anywhere around. As they got closer to it, she discovered that there was a large vent with hot steam coming out of it.

"This is it." Thetis said a little too excitedly.

"Wait, we're supposed to go down there?" Hercules questioned. Xena didn't blame him as she had her own doubts.

"If Psyche could do it while pregnant, I think we can." Thetis looked determined.

"Let's get this over with." Nobody looked less than happy to go down, but he was the first to move toward the vent.

"Wait! I should go first." Xena blurted out.

"Why?" Nobody questioned.

"The god's threatened my life or worse if anything happened to you. I'll go first." Xena strode purposefully toward the vent, hesitated a moment and began climbing down.