She was tied to a post in the middle of an otherwise empty tent. She looked down and tried to gauge the severity of her wounds. She could see several small cuts and deep purple bruises crisscrossing her body starting from her knees and probably only ending at her scalp. She tested her muscles and limbs one by one. Nothing seemed broken, but her right wrist felt sprained. She twisted in her bonds realizing that only her arms were tied to the post, which also held up the canvas of the tent. She smiled. They underestimated her; she knew that keeping a clear account of her own prowess out of her recent scrolls had been as brilliant a stratagem as they had hoped, when they had discussed the idea.
Gabrielle forced herself to relax and listen. She listened to the sounds of the camp. They had changed. She could hear the confident strides of the legionnaires outside. There were two guards outside her tent. The previously ever present sounds of digging had disappeared. Lucius had found his price and had probably killed or dismissed the workers. Then she became aware of people working not far away building something large made of both wood and stone. Probably the preparations for a ceremony as described in the scroll. Her awareness expanded further as she sorted the many sounds found in the camp. The sound of Erkan's voice as he read then repeated words in a language unknown to her. He was studying the scroll, most likely at Lucius' orders. Her awareness spread further and further then she heard it. Sandals sliding across sand as their wearer shifted nervously. Weapons slapping against leathers as their owner readied them for battle. A horse whinnying as it railed against standing still to long. An army was hidden amongst the dunes. Gabrielle closed her eyes in contemplation.
Suddenly she heard someone loudly commanding the two guards to stand aside. Plini was just outside the tent. She decided to play groggy and unresponsive as if her head had gotten a mighty blow. Plini stepped inside dressed as the proper roman legionnaire and commander he was.
"So you lied to us", he said and started walking around her. "You thought you'd use me to get close to my general, the rightful ruler of this land. You charmed me and probably planned to kill me, when you were done with me", he seemed to get angrier for each sentence. She slowly rolled her head over towards him and forced herself to speak as if each word was painful and she could only barely whisper.
"I had nothing like that planned. I was planning to join up with the Egyptians and convince them not to attack you again, and then I would sneak in here and steal whatever it was Lucius was planning to use to become a god", she whispered and tried to get eye contact with Plini.
"Lucius become a god, don't be a fool! He is only doing the bidding of Rome", Plini mocked and slapped her across the cheek.
Gabrielle tried once again. If she couldn't convince Plini that Lucius had a mad plan to become a new god then she would have to fight her way to him and that could prove difficult. She gave up her façade of being hurt and groggy.
"Listen to me Plini. I am not a person known to lie. Brutus, Pompey and even Caesar would believe me. I am not trying to fool you. Lucius was not digging here or anywhere else looking for gold or treasure. That was just an excuse he used to be able to have support for this in Rome and be able to find the clues to this places. He is here for a scroll, which he thinks contains the secrets to becoming a god. I have known two people, who became gods. Neither was able to handle that kind of power. I know two gods intimately and I can tell you that being a god by birthright is very different from becoming one. I beg you Plini; you must help me stop him. We can stop him, if we just destroy the scroll. It should have been destroyed ages ago", she begged with all her charm showing in her watery eyes. Plini just shook his head and turned away.
"You truly are insane. I have known Lucius since his early years. He is a scholar as well as an excellent general and friend. You are wrong about him. Even if he were to become a god, I know no one else who was more worthy than him", Plini said while looking over his shoulder at her. Gabrielle contemplated attacking Plini, but he was already too far out of reach for her short figure to grasp his neck and the guards were probably alerted by their continuing conversation. She would have to wait for a better time or find another way to get out of her bonds.
The time passed slowly and Gabrielle guessed that she had probably woken around midmorning either the day after Lucius playing his dirty trick on her or the more likely the day after that judging from the dryness of her mouth and growling of her hungry stomach. Gabrielle knew that the Egyptian infantry would probably attack this very day most likely just after night had fallen or at the strike of a sandstorm on some other distracting event. And from the fading sounds of workers she was guessing that they were getting ready for some big ceremony soon. She had very little time to work in, but she had to await the right time to strike and hope that everything fell into place. She set about making sure that her bonds were ready for her actions.
Most of the day passed and night was rapidly approaching. Suddenly she heard a hush coming over the camp and the surrounding area, as if nature itself held its breath. She focused on the here and now. Far away she could make out the thunder of hooves on the sand. A warning cry went up. The Egyptians were attacking in force. Gabrielle for a second lamented that her original plan had failed and now many lives would be lost. The camp came alive with soldiers. There was something else as well. She focused her senses on the camp. There it was. Someone was chanting in that ancient language. The ceremony was about to start. Then she heard her guards.
"What is going on?" One guard asked the other. "I don't know", the other answered. "I'll go check", the first guard claimed. Gabrielle heard him running off. She smiled at her luck and drew in breath.
"Guard, when am I going to be fed", she yelled. She repeated the exercise a few times until he came in.
"Shut up bitch", the guard ranted as he ducked inside the tent.
"Listen you roman numbskull. I have been given neither water nor food for more than a day. If you plan on keeping me alive I need something, okay moron. And another thing, unless you want it to get really disgusting you find a way for me to go or I'll soil the tent instead. Not that I mind doing it. Hey, why don't you bring me the roman imperial standard, so I'll have something to dry myself with afterwards", she was trying to bait him.
"Slave bitch", he grumbled and walked towards her ready to bash her with his fist.
Gabrielle was more than ready. Quickly while ignoring her aches she jumped up and coiled her legs around the neck of the soldier. She drew him close and gave his head the most vicious and fast twist she could manage. His neck snapped loudly. Gabrielle let him go and gasped at the brutality of her attack. She shuddered at her abilities to kill for a few moments then shook herself out of it and quickly maneuvered with her nimble feet wrapping them around the handle of his short sword. She managed to draw it from its scabbard. She kept all her muscles in her feet taut, while she carefully lifted her own body in her bound arms, raising her feet and legs so that her knees touched her nose. Carefully she let go of the sword and amazingly managed to catch it with her fingers. As quickly as she could she moved the blade against her bonds cutting them away.
Suddenly roman sandals ran towards her tent. Gabrielle ignored the immense pain in her sprained wrist and pressed against her bonds with all her strength.
They burst just as the other roman guard dashed inside. Gabrielle quickly grasped the short sword and dropped into a fighting stance. The guard looked at her in surprise and readied his javelin for combat.
She had the advantage in the enclosed space and quickly closed in on the guard. He swung the spear at her like a staff. Gabrielle saw it coming and jumped over the wooden shaft. She landed and immediately swung the sword sideways. The guard jumped back and nearly got entangled in the tent's opening. Gabrielle kicked him on the side of his knee. He toppled to the ground. She hammered the butt of the sword into his forehead. His eyes crossed and he fell to the ground. She quickly dragged him into the middle of the tent and went towards the opening, when suddenly something cut into the canvas at the back of the tent.
Gabrielle swiveled and saw the roman dagger cut a man sized hole in the tent. Plini's head looked inside only to find the two guards lying on the ground and no Gabrielle in sight. She smiled and put the blade against his neck. "Hello Plini. Not a big fan of regular tent openings or was it the guards?" She joked as he looked at the disheveled amazon in surprise.
"I came to free you", he offered and quickly came in through his opening carrying what seemed to be her belongings. "And to give you this", he said and gave her the two saddlebag and her sai's. "Oh, and the chakram as well, I had steal that from Lucius' tent myself", he said and carefully reached down to his side where the razor sharp weapon rested. He handed it over as well.
"Why the change of heart, did you suddenly come to your senses or?" She asked waspishly, while she quickly put her weapons into their places and checked her belongings. Xena's ashes were still in their place as were her scrolls.
"After I went to see you, I realized that you really weren't known for lying about things like this and that if you were right, we could suddenly have another divine emperor on our hands. So I went to Lucius and made some inquiries of my own. It seems that he is really out to become a god and at any cost. Right now he is in some hastily constructed wooden structure making ready to sacrifice 100 slaves in some bizarre ritual to give him the power of a god. Erkan his treasure hunter seems to be handling the ceremony. I don't know what he gets out of it, but they are going at it right now. I would have come sooner, but the Egyptians were holding off their attack and I needed some distraction", he explained and some sort of guilt shone in his eyes.
"What did you do?" Gabrielle asked after taking a much needed drink of water from her waterskin.
"I sent one of my patrols out to provoke them into attacking without the knowledge of the other commanders. The Egyptian are outside the palisade right now", he explained. Gabrielle nodded understanding fully what Plini had sacrificed to get her out of imprisonment.
"Thank you… Listen, Plini we must stop Lucius before he becomes a god or we will suffer terrible consequences. Men are not meant to have godlike powers believe me. But if we go in there, you might be forced to fight your friend. Could you do that?" She asked with pity in her eyes.
His eyes got a far away look as if he remembered something from his past. "I must. I am Lucius' friend, but I also lost my entire family to the madness of Caligula. Lucius must be stopped", he swore and indicated to Gabrielle that she should follow him out his opening.
Outside the controlled chaos that was a battle went on. The Egyptian horsemen were busy throwing torches and oil inside the compound, while the archers of both sides tried to kill each other and in the middle of all of this the Romans were forming up their units getting ready for a full on attack on the Egyptians outside the walled camp. Gabrielle and Plini slowly made their way towards the stone and wood structure hastily made around the place where Gabrielle knew her soul and its mate had lived many years ago.
They kept to the shadows as crept slowly closer. They got within viewing distance of the entrance. A small five man detachment of legionnaires guarded it. They were ready and seemed to sneer at even other legionnaire coming too close as they were readying the catapult just a few yards to the left of them. "Should we attack them?" Plini asked sounding not too happy about taking on his own side even now.
Gabrielle looked around and suddenly smiled. "It won't be necessary", she said and drew the chakram from its resting place. She carefully aimed the lethal weapon and threw it. It flew fast, screeching its metallic song as it hammered against the bottles of oil stored at one of the Roman catapults nearby then chopped off a torch creating a massive explosion of fire. The guards were hurled to the ground and the wooden temple caught a little fire. Even Gabrielle and Plini felt the searing air blast past them. "Now", she commented as she caught the chakram and ran towards the temporarily unguarded opening as the guards were very busy elsewhere or putting out their own private fires.
Gabrielle drew her sai's as they passed into the wooden structure. Its construction was obviously shoddy and haphazard, yet was ready to serve its function as a place of sacrifice for a new god. Gabrielle's eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness surrounding her. It was built like one gigantic room with a rough stone floor. At the opposite end of the room was a large stone altar already covered and slick with fresh blood. Erkan stood over the altar with a large dagger slitting the throats of one slave after another, while constantly chanting a litany in an ancient language. Each dead slave was discarded onto an already large pile by the very same centurion that Lucius had commanded to hold a knife to her amazon sister and a new one was immediately brought forward by a man looking a little like Erkan.
The blood ran thick down the sloped altar and Gabrielle could only guess that Lucius lay on the other side drenched in the blood of innocents. The slaves were kept in wooden pen, and each struggled as much as they could when it became their turn but all would eventually be sacrificed to the mad plan of Lucius. The centurion had just thrown the body of a boy onto the pile, when Gabrielle screamed: "Stop this madness". The three figures turned towards her with curiosity, while Gabrielle noticed that Plini had not come through the door behind her. She cast a quick glance in that direction and saw Plini fighting several legionnaires through the thick smoke. The building had caught fire and the first flames were apparent in the left hand side of the wall already. Soon thick smoke would fill this enclosed room. "Kill her", a thick voice commanded from behind the altar. Lucius she guessed.
The centurion charged towards her, while Erkan and his helper picked another slave from the pen. Her amazon sister was next up. Gabrielle readied her sai's as the charging man drew out his massive sword while running.
He swung a wide arc, but Gabrielle easily dodged his brutal attack and swept his feet out from under him with a low kick. He bounded back onto his feet just as quickly and swung a low arc at her. Gabrielle jumped back and drew back her stomach avoiding a vicious gut wound.
She stepped towards him and with lightning speed hammered her sai's into his side sharp ends first. He dropped dead. Gabrielle hardly noticed and instead broke in a dead run towards the altar.
Erkan's helper, an ugly unshaved man, was ready for her and threw a dagger at her. Gabrielle moved to the side, but the throw was a good one and it nicked her across the upper arm. Searing pain shot through her already tired body. She felt some of her strength drain from her. Then somehow she remembered Xena's words from way back in the past: "When I have to do something impossible, when I have to reach for strength, you're my source". Gabrielle focused on the thought of failing Xena again. Rage flooded her system.
The man barely saw her sai's as she began thumping him across the chest, then the head, then the arms, going back to the chest then finally delivering a shattering blow with the pommels to his forehead. He dropped like a stone. Gabrielle turned her smoldering green eyes on the last man, she could see. Erkan stood in lonely majesty holding a knife over the amazon. From behind the altar the changed voice of Lucius cried out: "One more, my high priest. One more and I will gain the power I can feel their souls filling me. Their energies are transforming me. Soon I will be immortal. I will live forever as the ruler of this world and all shall bow to me. Kill that slave", he commanded.
Erkan lifted the weapon in triumph and plunged it down. Two sai's roared through the air. The knife dove for the Amazon's heart. Erkan suddenly flew back towards the wall two sai's embedded in his chest his lifeblood flowing thick down his clothing. Gabrielle dashed up and drew the Amazon back to stand behind her.
"Give me that slave", Lucius commanded as he rose from the strange pool of boiling blood that had been his resting place behind the altar. "Her soul is mine. I need it", he screamed. His body seemed to have lost some of its cohesion and his skin seemed more like the same blood he had risen from. Things or were they organs were moving underneath his skin. He was in short a disgusting thing to look at.
"Never monster", Gabrielle said and drew up her chakram praying to Eli that he hadn't become immortal yet. She knew she was no god slayer, so this could be her last chance. She heard the slow footsteps of someone entering the room behind her. She threw the chakram as hard and as fast as she could towards his throat. Behind her the amazon screamed in fright as she saw the thing calling for her blood and soul as sacrifice.
The chakram was precisely on target. Lucius suddenly moved faster than Gabrielle could see and the chakram passed over his head harmlessly. Her hope fell. "Now I'll kill that wench and then I think I'll spend the first period of my godhood teaching you proper respect for men and most importantly me. When I am done with you no one will ever recognize you body or soul", he screamed in rage and ran straight towards them while his hand became clawed and his skin scaly.
"Hey Lucius old friend", Plini's voice suddenly called out in greeting.
Lucius paused and looked in surprise at the heavily wounded man standing at the entrance.
"Made ya look", Plini said with a smile.
The chakram sheared the madman's head clean off.
Gabrielle caught the chakram with ease and ran without pause over to what she hoped would be the corpse of her twisted enemy. His body seemed to dissolve before her eyes and slowly many small white wisps were released from it. The souls he had drawn into himself to become a god were slowly released from their thankfully short capture and went into the afterlife. Gabrielle smiled as her two new friends walked up to stand at her side. She walked to the altar and picked up the ancient scroll and threw it into the growing fire eating away at the side of the wooden structure. She intently watched it burn.
"What do you have in mind for that war out there", Plini asked and looked at her.
"Why don't we go stop it after I have brought these slaves to some place safe", she suggested and drew the smiling amazon with her to the pen. Plini shook his head with a smile and followed the warrior bard.