Part 30:

Joxer's eyes shot open as he drew in one harsh breath and he immediately began choking and gagging. He dimly realized that he was lying on a stone floor in some type of chamber as he coughed until he was finally able to catch his breath.

"D-Dorie? E-E-Evie?" Joxer's voice was a harsh, unrecognizable croak. He coughed once more as he slowly sat up and blinked several times while he took in his surroundings. "Where are you?"

"Papa..." Adora's voice was soft, close by, and very frightened-sounding.

"I'm here too, Uncle Joxer." Eve's voice was steadier than Adora's was, but strained.

Joxer rubbed his still-burning eyes and stumbled to his feet. As he turned around, he saw that both of the girls were chained to the wall by their wrists and ankles, as was Behlem, who was vainly trying to pull away from the wall. He clumsily ran over to them. "I've got to get you out of here!" he gasped, desperately looking around for some type of key to unlock the shackles.

"Don't even bother attempting to try and free them, human," a deadly calm voice interrupted.

Joxer turned around and his eyes widened in surprise as a tall blonde Goddess with icy blue eyes entered the room, pulling a chained-up Brigandu in her wake. "You were the one who was helping me," he murmured.

Brigandu nodded and was about to say something when Teutales appeared, an ugly sneer marring his darkly handsome features. "Yes. My own mother betrayed me for her precious humans rather than siding with her family!" he snarled.

"My son, you're making..." Brigandu began.

"ENOUGH OF YOUR PITIFUL EXCUSES, MOTHER!" Teutales roared, his voice loud enough to shake the walls and send shivers down Adora's and Eve's spines. He turned around and he smiled as his eyes met Joxer's. "This ends now," he murmured before suddenly turning around and he slammed a bolt right in Adora's stomach, making her scream in agony and Joxer fell to his knees, yelling from the pain as his hands clutched at his head.

"DORIE!" Eve yelled, fruitlessly trying to pull herself free from her bonds. "UNCLE JOXER!"

"Her connection's merely been severed from the vessel," Abnoba observed coldly as she turned to gaze at Eve briefly. "Now stop your screaming before I give you something to scream about, mortal scum!"

"Time to take care of something that I should've done a long time ago - and my plans for you, my daughter, are finally coming to bear fruit," Teutales said with a smile as he shot a massive fireball straight at Joxer, who was trying to stand up.

Joxer let out a strangled cry as the fireball hit him directly over his heart and the force of it lifted his body up and slammed him straight into the wall. His eyes widened once before they slid shut as he fell to the ground with a sickly thump and didn't move.

"PAPA!" Adora yelled, the tears running down her face. "NO! PAPA! PLEASE BE ALL RIGHT!"

Eve stopped her struggling as she stared at Joxer's still form. "Uncle Joxer... Oh no..." A single tear fell down her cheek as she shook her head in disbelief.

Abnoba began laughing softly, the coldness of it making an involuntary shiver run down Eve's spine as she watched Teutales approach her friend with a triumphant smile on his face.

Jett let out a loud gasp, his eyes rolling up in his head before he fell down in a heap. His opponent stared down at Jett's body in surprise and yelled when he found himself falling backwards off the wall courtesy of a well-timed push from Autolycus.

Autolycus quickly knelt down next to his friend's prone figure after kicking another ladder away from the wall. "Hey! What's the...?" he yelled in Jett's ear and stopping when he realized that his friend didn't seem to be breathing. "JETT!"

From the corner of her eye, Gabrielle saw Jett fall and Autolycus desperately trying to rouse him. "Xena! Jett's down!" she yelled, her sais crashing against her opponent's sword. She wrenched it away from the man's grip and gave him a push. He fell backwards, screaming as he went down.

Another volley of rockets shot overhead as Xena yelled in reply, "I saw it! Keep fighting, Gabrielle! There's nothing else that we can do!" Instinctively, she ducked her head down as one of the rocket's trajectories fell short and exploded just outside the town's wall.

"You know what this means, don't you?" Ares sneered as he appeared in front of Gabrielle. "Joxer the Mighty Idiot's finally managed to stumble his pathetically skinny ass into something he really couldn't get himself out of this time - and he's taken his equally stupid brothers with him," he added in with a throaty chuckle.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Gabrielle screamed, plunging her sais straight into his chest.

Ares looked down at the sais and began howling with laughter. "I love it when you get angry like that - but I love it even more when she does!" he exclaimed as his eyes briefly flicked over in Xena's direction. He continued laughing as he disappeared in a white-hot flash, revealing that Gabrielle had actually stabbed another would-be attacker in the stomach.

Gabrielle didn't even flinch when she saw the man's dead eyes staring into hers. She merely yanked the sais from his guts with a sickening squishy noise and kicked the body away before going after somebody else with a furious glint in her eyes.

From the corner of her eye, Xena saw the expression on her long-time friend's face and she swallowed hard at what she saw. Her eyes then narrowed as a fierce grin appeared on her lips and she let her trademark yell fly loose while she went after her attacker with wild abandon.

Jace lay on the ground, his rapier carelessly tossed to the side. His unconscious opponent was sprawled out in the opposite direction with a head wound and a rapidly rising lump on his forehead.

Stephanos picked up the rock that he had thrown at Jace's opponent and ran over to kneel down next to him. He shook Jace gently as he exclaimed, "Jace! Jace!" He heard footsteps and he whirled around, poised to throw the rock, which he lowered when he saw it was Ioannes. "C'mon! Help me get him out of here! I can't seem to get him to wake up!"

"What in Hades' name happened?" Ioannes asked as the two of them picked up Jace's limp body and began moving away from the fighting as quickly as they could.

"Dunno! He was fighting that guy I knocked out when he suddenly clutched at his chest and fell down. I managed to throw that rock just before the guy went to stab him in the guts..." Stephanos grunted as they moved up the hill.

"Gods... He's not breathing!" Ioannes said as he glanced down at Jace.

Stephanos' face turned pale at his friend's words and he looked down at Jace, swallowing hard when he saw that Ioannes was right.

Brigandu stared at her son with a horrified expression on her face. Her eyes shifted momentarily to look at Joxer's still body, then at Adora. "What have you done?" she whispered.

Teutales' left eyebrow arched up as his mouth widely split open in an evil grin. "I've made it possible for my daughter to take care of something that should've happened a long time ago and get rid of those idiotic Olympians for good, Mother."

Brigandu shook her head, closing her eyes. "This is..." She stopped talking when a loud growling noise pierced the air. She turned her head in the direction it came from and her eyes grew wide in shock.

Behlem and Eve were staring at Adora with horrified expressions on their faces. Even Abnoba looked uneasy as she gazed at the young woman, who raised her head to stare at Teutales, who returned her gaze with a surprised look on his face.

Adora's eyes, normally a soft and gentle dark brown like Joxer's, had transformed into a blazing red glow. A breeze stirred up in the room then and gained intensity, blowing her hair around her face. Her teeth clenched down in a grimace and the shackles that held her, Eve, Behlem and Brigandu broke open with a loud clang, freeing them. Her body glowed with a strange bright light and her feet began rising from the floor. "You took away the most important person in my life, you bastard - and you'll pay for that!" she said in a low voice as a soft humming noise pierced the air and grew in strength.

Teutales took a step back and raised his arm. A fireball appeared in his hand and he threw it at her. She took a direct hit but it ricocheted away from her and harmlessly crashed into the wall. He threw another one, as did Abnoba, but both fireballs were easily deflected away.

"I am Eve's protector - the one who will bring peace and destroy the Gods - the Gods of Gaul," Adora continued over the now-howling wind. "I have that power to give her - and there's no way that you'll stop me from doing it!" With those words, she began spinning around in midair and a lightning blast shot from her fingertips, hitting Eve, who rose off the floor as the bolt hit her.

Eve gasped loudly as power flowed through her body and she stared down at Teutales, who leered at her.

"Do you think that you'll be able to stop ME, you stupid mortal?" he yelled, immediately tossing several fireballs in her direction, as did Abnoba. The smile left his face when the fireballs easily deflected off her and fizzled into nothing.

"My lady, do something!" Behlem begged Brigandu as he peeked from behind her skirt.

Brigandu shook her head. "No. It's time," she softly replied as she watched Eve's arms slowly rise. She closed her eyes and gripped the chains that hung on the wall for purchase as the wind picked up speed.

"Time for what? MY LADY! PLEASE DO SOMETHING!" Behlem shrieked in terror. He looked up at Eve who stared down at Teutales as he and Abnoba ineffectually blasted fireballs at her.

"Blood for blood. Sacrifice for sacrifice," Eve murmured, her eyes losing focus as the power that Adora gave her flowed through her body and strengthened in its intensity until a single fiery hot lightning bolt flew from her and Adora's hands. The two bolts then combined into one huge bolt and it hit Teutales squarely in the chest, temporarily knocking him off his feet.

Teutales made a quick recovery, rose to his feet and began laughing. "You-" he started to say when he gagged. A hand flew to his throat as he began coughing and spitting up pools of dark blood. Beams of light shot from him as his body literally began disintegrating before everyone's eyes. The wind howled in the room as the light grew so intense that it was blinding and Behlem shut his eyes and hid his face in the folds of Brigandu's skirt, but not before he saw one of the beams hit Abnoba, who screamed in agony just as a vortex opened up right behind her, sucking her inside it before it closed up again as quickly as it had appeared...

Aer laughed while Aphrodite slowly rose to her feet, still stunned from a fireball that she couldn't dodge in time. "You're so pathetic!" she sneered but screeched in surprise when two huge fireballs hit her directly in the chest, sending her flying across the field and straight into a rock-covered outcropping. The rocks tumbled over her, temporarily burying her. She could hear Aphrodite's throaty laughter underneath the rubble and her temper skyrocketed. "AUUGH!" she yelled as she blasted the rocks off her body. "Now you've really made me mad, bitch!"

"Oh puh-leeze!" Aphrodite giggled when two sizzling bolts flew from her hands and more rocks rained over Aer's head even as she dodged several fire-bolts shot back at her in response. "Looks like you're losing your touch, hobag!" she taunted just before she got knocked off her feet again. She screeched in dismay and the air sizzled with electricity while the two Goddesses shot bolts at each other.

Thunder cracked overhead and rain began pouring down in buckets, although this did not affect the two as they fought viciously, yelling insults at each other the entire time. Aphrodite powered up to full strength, as did Aer. Huge energy bursts shot from their hands and they both went flying backwards as they hit each other squarely in the chest.

"Now that was like totally not cool!" Aphrodite muttered, shaking her head just before the ground began shaking underneath their feet. "HEPHIE, NOT NOW!" she yelled as they both fell down again. The shaking continued unabated and her eyes widened. "That's not him... What the heck?"

Two huge bolts shot down from the sky and hit Aer straight in the chest before she could move away. The Goddess, her body in flames from the blast, screamed a horrible, high-pitched scream that actually made Aphrodite cover her ears because it was so loud. She watched as Aer lifted a fiery hand up to her face and saw her skin burning away from bone. She continued screaming as her body burned into a pile of ash that was washed away by the driving rain. There was one last horrible cry that pierced the air before it faded into nothingness.

Aphrodite watched in wide-eyed silence as Aer's ashes washed away and shuddered once. "Whoa," she muttered as she rose to her feet and then let out a sharp gasp. "OOOHHH!" She staggered forward a few steps with her hand pressed over her heart.

A very pale-looking and wounded Cupid appeared in front of her just before she collapsed to the ground. "MOM!" he shouted, pulling her to her feet.

"Ahhh..." Aphrodite said shakily, her beautiful face twisting up with pain. "This is way bad, Cupid!" she gasped through chattering teeth. "All of the mortals... Too much at once... Overload... Need Hephie... You're hurt..."

"I know, I know! I've gotta get you outta here now!" Cupid said, holding her up as they both disappeared into the ether in a shower of golden sparkles.

As the wind died down, the thunderstorm stopped and the ground ceased shaking, everybody that was fighting looked at each other dazedly. Weapons fell to the ground one by one as the battle ground to a halt. Some began walking away to go home while others continued staring at each other in stunned silence.

"Xena, what happened?" Gabrielle asked in a faraway voice as she sheathed her sais and watched as the fighters outside the wall turned away to gather their wounded and dead or simply leave the scene. "Is it over?"

Xena turned around to look at her blood-spattered friend and swallowed hard as she shook her head once.

Gabrielle's eyes filled with tears as she returned Xena's too bright-eyed gaze. "Joxer..."

In the distance, a rooster crowed as the sun began rising up in the sky.

The two slowly came back down to the ground, both of them passing out briefly from sheer exhaustion as the last of the wind died away.

Eve eventually came to and blinked fiercely as her vision doubled briefly. She moaned softly and placed a hand over her violently churning stomach. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, desperately willing herself not to get sick. Opening her eyes again, she took in her surroundings and with a start saw that they had somehow managed to get not too far away from home and that the sun was beginning to rise in the eastern sky.

Carefully rising to a sitting position, Eve saw that a very pale-faced Adora was sitting up and staring ahead unseeingly. A short distance away from Adora, Behlem was anxiously fussing over Brigandu while she also rose to a sitting position and placed a hand over her forehead. She licked her lips and turned in the direction that Adora was staring in, hoping for a miracle.

Joxer lay a short distance away from them in a crumpled heap, unmoving.

Eve turned away then, swallowing hard while she watched Adora get up and walk over to Brigandu as she slowly rose to her feet.

"I spared you so you could bring Papa back," Adora murmured.

Brigandu shook her head slowly. "There is nothing that I can do to help him, my granddaughter."

"But you're a God!" Eve cried as she stumbled to her feet. "You must be able to bring him back!"

Brigandu sighed gently as she turned around to look at Eve. Her dark eyes were filled with regret and her beautiful face seemed - older - for some strange reason as Eve returned her gaze. "There's nothing that I'd like to do more than that, child, but you must understand that I no longer have the power to do so. I'm mortal." Before anyone could reply, she turned away and unsteadily walked off in the opposite direction, not looking back.

"My lady, come back!" Behlem squeaked. He stared up at the two girls with a desperate expression on his face. "Please help her! She's defenseless!"

Eve looked at Adora, her eyes wide with worry. "He's right! We can't just let her go off like that!"

Adora turned away and gazed down at Joxer. "We need to take Papa home. She knows where we'll be if she wants to join us," she said distantly.

"Dorie, she's coming with us," Eve replied, her voice turning steely with barely held-back anger at her friend's words. "We're not leaving her behind!"

Adora's eyes narrowed defiantly as she looked up at Eve. "But Papa..."

"What do you think that Uncle Joxer would think of you if you left your own grandmother to fend for herself - or anybody else who needed help?" Eve asked, gazing at her friend steadily as she placed her hands on her hips. "Or do you think that you're better than everybody else now and you can just do whatever you want to do because you feel like it? Mom was right when she said that having great power can corrupt even the most well-intentioned person, y'know."

Tears slowly filled Adora's eyes and her bottom lip trembled briefly as she shook her head. Without a word, she turned around and ran after her grandmother as fast as her legs could carry her.

Eve looked down at Joxer's body and carelessly ran her hand over her wet cheeks as she and Behlem waited in silence for the two to return.

They came back a few minutes later, both of them looking exhausted as they approached. Without a word, Brigandu removed her cloak and offered it to Adora. "This might help," she said softly.

Adora nodded as she took it and looked down at her father. "Thank you."

"I'll be right back," Eve said and ran over to a small grove of trees to find some broken branches to make a makeshift stretcher. She came back after a brief search dragging two long but sturdy-looking branches behind her. Brigandu's cloak was tied to the branches and the two friends went over to put Joxer's body on the stretcher when Behlem cleared his throat loudly.

"What is it? We have to go home!" Adora said in an exasperated voice.

"I can help. I'm very strong!" he replied.

"We don't have time to play with...!" Adora's voice faded away when Behlem carefully picked Joxer up and gently placed him onto the makeshift stretcher then took the two ends in his clawed hands.

"Please... Let me help you." Behlem looked up at the three with pleading eyes.

Adora and Eve exchanged glances before Adora nodded, wiping her cheeks. "Okay."

"Lead on, mistress," Behlem said.

Adora nodded once and the three women slowly began walking down the path that led to town, Behlem carefully dragging the stretcher that carried Joxer's body behind him. As they walked, Adora reached out and hesitantly placed her arm around Brigandu's waist. The former goddess looked at her granddaughter with a surprised expression on her face before she carefully returned the gesture.

Eve placed her arm around her friend's shoulders and Adora turned to look at her. "I'm sorry for what I said."

"Don't be because I deserved it, Evie." Adora sighed and swallowed hard. "I just want to go home and see Mom and..." Her voice trailed away and they walked the rest of the way home in silence, trying not to look at the destruction lying all around them.

Later that day, everyone gathered in the middle of Gabrielle's shop, where Jett, Jace and Joxer's bodies were carefully laid out. Melody silently wept as she held her son in her arms while he cried bitterly. Pierre sat in a chair with a dazed expression on his handsome features as he stared down at his husband while Gaston held a brokenhearted Jezda in his arms. Hercules, Iolaus, White Dove and Autolycus sat on a large bench and gazed at the three brothers sadly, Hercules sighing heavily and shaking his head.

Brigandu sat a short distance away from the others, her eyes closing briefly before she looked down at the three men who would be given heroes' funerals that evening. Cyrene was sitting next to her, shaking her head in silent disbelief as she watched Eve try to comfort a devastated Adora even as she cried.

Gabrielle leaned against Xena as tears spilled down her face while she sobbed and kept asking over and over, "Why?" Xena closed her eyes as she embraced her friend, one tear slipping down her proud and beautiful face.

In the middle of the floor, Behlem looked at everybody with a puzzled expression on his face. "Mistress, why do you weep so?" he asked.

Startled by the question from the strange creature, Adora's head shot up. She wiped at her face and glared down at Behlem. "My father and uncles are dead, you idiot!" she snapped.

"I don't understand..."

"Look, you stupid creature from, from - wherever or whatever you come from! THEY'RE DEAD!" Adora shouted as she strode over to Behlem.

"They're not dead, mistress!" Behlem insisted. "They're only..."

"THEY'RE DEAD!"

"No, mistr...!" Behlem screamed when Adora suddenly snatched him up from the floor and shook him violently. "You're hurting me! Please!"

"I know dead when I see it, you, you thing!" Adora exclaimed as she continued shaking him.

"Please mistress, you're hurting me! They're alive..." Behlem screamed again when Xena reached out and snatched him from Adora's grip. He swallowed hard as his terrified gaze transferred from furious brown eyes to icy blue.

"What do you mean: they're not dead?" Xena sneered, her eyes narrowing as her face came within inches of the shaking gargoyle's face. "How do you know that?"

A pink tongue nervously flicked over lips that looked like highly polished granite and his mouth opened and closed a few times before Behlem was finally able to say, "They're not dead. The essence of who they are - their spirits... They're... frozen in time - is the best way to explain it..."

"They're frozen in time? They have no heartbeat and they're not breathing! They're dead!" Eve shouted, angrily swiping the tears from her face as she rose to her feet and walked over to stand next to Adora.

"No! They're not dead!" Behlem insisted.

Gabrielle raised her head and looked over at Brigandu. "Is he telling the truth or is this nothing but some kind of sick trick that the two of you have cooked up?" she demanded.

The former goddess returned Gabrielle's stare wearily. "It's possible that's what's happened to then, but I can't tell you for sure since I no longer have the capability to know one way or the other..." she admitted quietly.

There was a small pause before Gabrielle said, "I believe you." She then turned to look at Hercules. "Would Hades know if he's telling the truth?"

"I don't know. Whatever happened to Joxer and how it affected Jett and Jace was outside his 'jurisdiction,' as insane as that sounds," Hercules replied. "Besides, I hate to say this but I think he's a little too busy to tell us right now..."

"I understand." Gabrielle nodded once and turned her head sharply to gaze at the still-terrified creature. "Can you help them?"

Melody's eyes darted back and forth, watching the interplay between the others as her heart began beating wildly in her chest.

Behlem shook his head slowly. "I can't, but miss... Adora can."

Xena gave Behlem a good, hard shake, making him scream shrilly as she growled, "Then you little pipsqueak, you better tell Dorie exactly what you know right now before I permanently turn you into a flowerpot!"

Behlem gulped loudly and shivered at the ferocious expression on Xena's face. "She has to find their spirits and bring them back."

"That's crazy!" Autolycus exclaimed. "You're seriously telling us that whatever makes them whatever they are is..." He waved a hand in the air. "...wandering around someplace in limbo?"

The gargoyle nodded. "And mistr... Adora's their only hope of getting back."

Adora raised slowly her head and looked at everyone. "I have to try," she said in a soft yet determined voice.

Nobody made a move to stop her as she walked over to where the brothers were lying in state. They watched as she intertwined their hands and then knelt down next to Joxer. Her face twisted painfully as she silently concentrated and she began sweating profusely.

"NO, DORIE! IT'LL KILL HER!" Gabrielle exclaimed hysterically, but Xena held her back.

"Let her try, Gabrielle. Let her try. She's their only hope," Xena softly cautioned her friend.

Gabrielle stopped her struggling and watched, not realizing that she was holding her breath until she finally had to take in some air and she gasped loudly, taking in deep breaths.

Adora's eyes slowly opened and Eve licked her lips nervously when she saw that they had changed to that strange fiery orange glow like they had in the temple. She held her hand up to shield her eyes as a bright light flowed from Adora's hands down to her father's arm and spread across his body and to his brothers, eventually surrounding them.

Before it grew too bright and she and the others had to turn away, Eve saw Adora's mouth moving as if she was saying something, but no sound came from her lips. Shortly after that, the air grew very heavy. Everybody found it extremely difficult to breathe and they all could feel their temples pounding furiously. It seemed to last for a long, long time until Adora uttered a soft moan and collapsed atop Joxer's chest. The light surrounding them disappeared and the air slowly returned to normal.

Gabrielle blinked hard, her eyes readjusting to the light before she ran over to kneel next to Adora. "Are you all right?" she asked, tears re-filling her eyes as she took her daughter into her arms and looked down at her unmoving husband.

Adora nodded. "Yeah... Stomach aches an' I feel real dizzy... Feel kinda different too - like something's missing... Not just the connection between me and-" she mumbled before she looked down at her father and felt her eyes prickle with tears when she saw that there was no change with him, Jett and Jace. "It didn't work!" she exclaimed and she buried her head against Gabrielle's shoulder, sobbing softly.

"You tried, Dorie. You tried," Gabrielle whispered while she held Adora tightly.

"But it wasn't enough...!"

Xena's jaw muscles worked as she willed herself to keep her composure and she walked over to Eve and silently embraced her daughter as she cried. Andy hugged Melody fiercely as he sobbed in her arms while Pierre buried his face in his hands. Jezda shook her head, tears streaming down her face as Gaston held her. The others remained silent, not knowing what to do or say.

"G-G-Gabby?"

Gabrielle's eyes widened as she looked down at Joxer, who looked completely exhausted but still somehow managed to weakly smile at her. "JOXER!" She looked over at Jett and Jace and saw that they, like him, looked utterly worn-out, but it appeared that they were also going to be all right after taking some much-needed rest.

"Gabrielle? Wha' happened?" Joxer asked softly.

Gabrielle let out an inarticulate exclamation as she pulled Joxer into her arms and hugged him tightly. "Don't you ever do anything like that again, or I'll kill you!" she shouted.

"Okay..." Joxer wheezed as Adora, Xena and Eve joined them, all of them laughing joyfully as they group-hugged. From the corner of his eye, he saw Jace practically get tackled by Pierre and Jett was softly reassuring Melody that he was okay even as Andy sat on top of his stomach whooping at the top of his lungs. He briefly turned his head and saw Brigandu watching the reunion with a soft smile on her face. Thank you, he mouthed before he found his face getting turned in Gabrielle's direction and her lips going down on his in a fierce kiss.

While the others celebrated loudly, Gaston smiled as he embraced Jezda and leaned over to kiss her on the cheek. "Our sons are going to be all right, ma chérie," he said.

Jett, who had somehow overheard the remark over all the commotion, turned his head in their direction, and to Gaston's astonishment and Jezda's delight, winked.