Chapter 8

Hope and Xena sat across from each other, on either side of their stricken mother. Xena's expression was one that mingled shock and disbelief. She studied Hope for a longtime, trying to sense any duplicity on the young doppelganger's part, but could find none.

Gabrielle lay with a thin sheen of perspiration forming on her face. Her breathing was shallow and becoming more ragged by the moment.

Hope looked back up at her, her own eyes alight with desperate fire.

"Well?"

"Let me see if I understand this," Xena said.

"I told you!" Hope said anxiously. "David said that he was not actually here for me! He was here for Mother, but the time wasn't right yet. This was why he came to me!"

"And for the last ten days, every night you've been sleeping, he's been training you. Teaching you things that you used to be able to leech from Dahok." Xena finished.

"And each night, I've watched him age!" Hope finished. "Getting older and older until the time-" She stopped suddenly

"When you killed him," Xena finished icily.

Hope nodded. She no longer cared what her sibling thought. "He also told me that he didn't teach me how to heal myself after the training, so that you and Mother would see me getting hurt, and feel sorry for me!"

Xena's gaze frosted over. Once again, she suspected Hope of trying to play her as a fool.

"He taught me a lot, yes!" Hope continued. "But he also used me! He played on my inexperience to get to you! And he was counting on you and Mother's compassion to get us to open up to one another!"

Xena looked down at Gabrielle, seeing her paling by the moment.

Hope waited for a few moments and then an exasperated breath burst from her lips.

"Look," She said urgently. "We may never resolve our differences! I can live with that, if I have to! But we can help Mother!"

"We?" Xena smiled coldly.

Hope extended her hand towards Xena. "Yes! I can't do this alone!"

"I can get us to where David brought me," Hope's voice began to take on the same, husky edge, and her eyes dimmed a little, going colder. "But I know I won't be able to stop him by myself. I need your help."

"You're asking me to go up against my own father," Xena protested.

"In order to save our Mother's life," Hope countered. She held the hand steady. "But you have to be willing to trust me."

Xena was clearly reluctant. She looked back down at Gabrielle, and two lifetimes of memories flashed before her eyes. Everything they had been through together, all the adventures and the tragedies. In that moment, she understood. She looked up at Hope and the two of them held one another's gaze each searching the soul of the other.

"Okay," Xena nodded. She reached up and clasped Hope's hand.

"Just relax," Hope instructed. "Just like your father taught you. Let me lead the way."

Xena nodded and closed her eyes.

She felt herself floating for a moment. The only sensation was the feeling of her fingers intertwined with Hope's. Ands then she felt soft earth beneath her feet again.

"Xena?" Gabrielle's voice asked.

Xena opened her eyes and looked to her left. There was Hope, looking at her questioningly.

"Are you alright?"

Xena sighed. Hope had Gabrielle's voice. She nodded.

They released their hold on one another and surveyed their surroundings.

The sky above was deep purple, dotted with stars. All about them were the dank, lichen draped boughs of the ancient trees.

Mists and gasses swirled around them, stretching into an unseen distance. The air had a thick, bittersweet smell. Night creatures made their strange music all about them.

Xena looked about and suppressed a shiver.

"This is where my Dad brought you?" She asked.

Hope was frowning as she surveyed the surroundings. "Yes."

Something in the tone of her reply told Xena that she was uncertain. She arched an inquisitive eyebrow in the direction of her companion.

Hope was dressed in a simple pale robe. A belt encircled her waist, and in her hands was a simple, long wooden staff.

By contrast, Xena was dressed as she normally was, in dark leather armor, with her sword and chakram hanging from either hip.

Hope looked about them for a few more moments, getting her bearings. Then she nodded.

"This way," she moved off in the indicated direction.

They moved silently through the thick bracken covered ground, threading their way over semi dry patches of muddy earth. Eventually, a small dry clearing appeared through the trees. In the center of the clearing, seated on a rotting stump, was a single figure, dressed in pale robes of the same design as Hope. His silvery hair fell like a silvery mane past his shoulders.

Xena looked over at Hope questioningly and Hope nodded.

Then Hope pointed in a direction, indicating the opposite side of the clearing. Through gesture, she suggested that Xena circle around to the other side in order to catch David between them.

Xena's heart went leaden in her chest as she realized that, in order to save her best friend, her mother, she would soon have to battle against her own father.

Hope saw the look in Xena's eyes and understood it. She nodded soberly. Then the two of them separated.

Hope stepped into the clearing a few moments later and stared at the figure seated before her. The figure made no move.

"So?" She asked. "What will be the lesson today?"

The mane of hair shifted slightly.

"No lesson today, Hope," David replied in an unusually subdued voice.

On the opposite side of the clearing, Xena emerged from concealment.

"Hi, dad," she said quietly.

The head turned the opposite direction, and clear dark eyes gazed at her from over his shoulder.

He smiled in appreciation. "Well, you have learned a lot. More than I gave you credit for."

Hope smiled coldly. "I realized something quite a while ago. Even though you brought me into dreamscapes that were not a part of your real life, they were a part of you. That meant that every person I met, every creature I saw, right down to the animals in this swamp, were a part of you. They came from your mind. All I needed to do was ask the right questions, and I learned a lot more than you planned on teaching me."

"We came to ask you to stop what you're doing," Xena said, her eyes flicking in Hope's direction. There was something so cold and calculating in Hope's voice, that she felt the same chill she had always experienced when seeing her in the past. It was as if the old darkness was asserting itself once again.

"Just leave mom alone," Xena pleaded.

"Out of my hands, I'm afraid," David replied. Still he made no move.

Hope's brows creased as she studied the figure. He had the same build, the same features, but something about this entire situation was wrong.

"Something else I learned," Hope continued. "My energy wasn't stripped from me."

Hope stepped sideways with slow deliberate strides. Her eyes fixed on David with unnatural intensity. "It was replaced."

David shrugged. "Sometimes you need one poison to drive out another."

Hope stared into the dark brown eyes for a moment more, and a knowing smile began to creep across her face.

"This is all wrong," she said. David raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

Hope looked about her. "This is a swamp, yes. It is very similar to Dagobah." Her green eyes flashed as they fixed on David again. "But it isn't Dagobah, is it."

"What makes you say that?" David asked.

"The air feels wrong," Hope sniffed. "The smells." Then her eyes fixed on David again. "But most importantly. The noises. They're more like a swamp in the real world. Nothing like what I've heard for the last two weeks."

Xena looked back and forth between the two of them. "What's going on?"

"This isn't David," Hope said with icy calm.

David looked at her, and then a smile spread across his features. Again, he shrugged.

"I was hoping to keep you fooled for a might bit longer, lassie," he said, his voice and mannerisms slowly changing to something else that Hope recognized. The features of the figure between them shifted and flowed. The goatee on the face thickened and grew into a long grayish beard, the hair color darkened, and the eyes changed to a clear gray.

Hope felt her mouth drop open in shock.

"Ian!"

The big man stood and nodded, his smile still visible as the whiskers finished their unnaturally quick growth.

"It's good to be seeing you again, love," he said with a simple half bow. Then he looked back at Xena. "Though I was expecting to be seeing only you. You've learned a lot more than your David was led to believe."

"Hope?" Xena asked. "Who is this person?"

"This is Ian," Hope said. "He was the one that David sent to find me after I got out of the ruins."

Xena moved to stand beside Hope, eyeing the big man uncomfortably.

"You've mastered a lot in a short time if you can be bringing your sister into the dream realms with you, lassie," Ian said with a touch of pride.

"If he's here,' Xena asked, pointing at Ian. "Then where's dad?"

Hope's momentary sense of levity faded and the two of them stepped back.

"Ian," Hope asked. "I need to find David."

The big man shook his head. "I can't let you do that, love."

Hope's eyes frosted over again, and Xena's likewise did the same.

"You're the first friend I've ever had in my life, Ian," Hope said with a growing edge. "Please help us."

Ian shook his head. "I can't do that either."

"Can't?" Xena asked. "Or won't?"

"Take it as you may, darling," Ian said. "But this is the way things are."

Xena's hand drifted to her sword hilt.

"You can't hurt me with that, love," Ian smiled.

Hope put a hand on Xena's shoulder. "Come on. David said it would be time when he wasn't here. If Ian's here, then David is going after mother."

The two of them turned and fled into the trees...only to emerge from the foliage on the opposite side of the clearing. They turned and ran back into the trees a second time, only to return to the clearing again, standing before Ian.

Hope's gaze was like a frozen sea.

"Ian," she growled. "I love you as a friend. Don't make yourself my enemy!"

Ian smiled. "I'm not making you do anything, lassie. But I also have a job to do. When it benefited you, I was your friend. Now that it does something you don't approve of, I'm your enemy?"

"I just found her," Hope said. "I just got her back!"

"And why is it that I told you to go and find her first, before al the others, love?" Ian asked. "She was the closest to her time of passing. You needed to resolve those things before that happened."

"Let us out of here," Xena said angrily.

Ian stood his ground and crossed his arms over his chest.

Suddenly, Hope's eyes widened in realization.

"Hit me," she said quickly.

"What?" Xena asked.

Hope turned to face Xena, even as Ian's arms dropped and he began stepping forward.

"Hit me!" Hope demanded.

Xena looked past Hope's shoulder and saw the big druid closing.

Quick as lightning, she drew back and punched Hope in the nose.

The entire universe flashed white in Hope's eyes and she fell to the side, her fingers released their grip on Xena's outstretched hand.

She pushed herself up to her knees and felt the dull, stinging tingle of the punch.

Looking over, she saw Xena, opposite Gabrielle's form, slowly rising as well.

Hope gingerly touched her nose and her fingers came away red.

"Did you have to hit me in the nose?" she asked, wincing.

Xena shrugged as they looked down.

Gabrielle was pale and still.

"She isn't breathing," Xena said in a rising panic. Her fingers probed for a pulse.

"Mother!" Hope cried in dismay. She looked helplessly at Xena. "Do something!"

Xena shook her head helplessly. Then she paused.

"She's still warm," she said quickly. "That means Dad was just here."

Hope felt tears stinging her eyes.

Xena jumped to her feet and grabbed Hope's hand, hauling her up.

"I know where they're going!" she said quickly. "Come on!"

They ran through the dark woods, ignoring the branches that clawed at them, as if trying to impede their progress.

They burst out of the woods near a large, glassy lake.

Xena was shedding weapons and gear as she ran, letting the objects fall.

"Dive in and keep swimming down!" she ordered.

The two of them never slackened their pace. They leapt from a small rise and dove into the frigid water.

Hope pumped and kicked, fighting the urge to return to the surface. Her lungs were on fire. Ahead of her, she could just barely see Xena, swimming ahead of her with long, powerful strokes. Her vision began to spot over, and the fire in her chest became a palpable burning. Even if she turned back now, she knew she wouldn't make it to the surface before she drowned.

In panic, she kicked harder, the water around her stifling a scream that struggled to emerge.

Then the surface of the water broke before her and blessed air flooded her lungs in a long, shuddering cry.

Xena was hauling herself up onto a flat rocky shelf.

Hope struggled to the bank, and also pulled herself out of the water. The whole place was dark and covered in oozing slime. The light around them was tinted reddish orange, as if fires burned somewhere nearby.

Hope felt the heat through the soles of her shoes.

"Where is this place?" she asked.

"We're at the borders of the Underworld," Xena said quickly, pulling Hope the rest of the way to her feet. "Come on!"

They ran through a long, cave like passage and began descending a winding tunnel of steps, always heading down. As the light increased, Hope could hear a distant, low thrumming in her ears. Her fear increased as she remembered her nightmare. She felt each step becoming more and more difficult.

They exited the tunnel and emerged on a long, arrow lane of dark shingle that led to an old decrepit dock.

Moored to the dock was an equally beaten old boat. A single figure, dressed in tattered dark robes, stood at the stern of the boat with a long pike in his boney hands.

Two other figures were standing nearby, getting ready to step into the boat.

"Stop!" Xena shouted.

The two figures froze and turned.

Hope skidded to a halt next to Xena and her mouth fell open as David and Gabrielle both turned to face them.

Each of them wore an expression of surprise as Xena and Hope ran forward.

"What the heck is this?" the boatman asked in a gruff voice.

Xena stopped before her parents and looked over at the pale figure. She smiled in recognition.

"Hi Charon," she said quickly. Then she turned back to her parents, and looked at her father. "Hi dad."

Charon looked from David and Gabrielle to the young woman before them, and then he snapped his fingers with a bony click.

"Xena!" he said, and he chuckled. "Well, I'll be a Harpy's handmaid! Look at you!"

"What are you doing here, baby?" David asked.

"Don't do this," Xena was shaking her head. "Don't take her away yet."

She looked at Gabrielle and felt her emotions begin to knot in her throat. She was young, strong, and beautiful again. Her eyes were clear, green, and filled with the same sparkle that she remembered all those years past.

"Mother!" Hope cried, running up behind Xena.

"What the?" Charon asked, looking at the twins in wonder. "Okay, first and foremost! Who's riding? Pay up and you can talk on the way!" He waggled a finger at Hope. "And just cause you look like her, doesn't mean you don't have to pay!"

"Hang on a sec," David said. He looked at Xena and smiled. "How in the hell did you pull this off?"

Xena smiled. "I've been here before." She wrapped her arms around her father's neck and held him tight.

"Hey! Hey!" Charon protested. "I got a schedule here!"

Xena stepped away from her father, tears stinging her eyes, and turned to Gabrielle.

"Don't go," she begged.

"Please!" Hope added.

Gabrielle smiled and put a hand on each of her children's cheeks.

"Look at you two," she said.

She gently led the two of them back down the dock toward the shore.

"What gives?" Charon bellowed after them. "You can't do that! You're paid up and everything! Come on!"

"Hey, Leatherface!" David said harshly. "Give them a second, will ya!"

Grumbling, Charon seated himself in the rear of his boat.

The trio stepped onto the rocky shore. Then Xena and Hope both wheeled around and began pleading with Gabrielle to stay.

Gabrielle shushed them both and smiled.

"It's time for me to go," she said gently. "Past time, if you think about it, really."

"But we're supposed to be together forever," Xena protested.

"And we will be," Gabrielle replied. She placed a hand over Xena's heart. "Because I'm going to be right here, no matter where you go."

"I," Hope stammered, fighting the torrent of emotions under control. "I just found you, really found you, and now I'm going to lose you again!"

Gabrielle let her hand rest on Hope's shoulder.

"I thought I lost you, all those years ago, Hope." Gabrielle replied. "And in the end, I got you back. You can't imagine how that makes me feel."

"Then stay for a while longer," Hope pleaded. "I want to get to know you. I want to learn all the things that I didn't get the chance to learn before."

Gabrielle's eyes were welling up also.

"I wish I could, Hope," she said. "But I can't. It's my time now."

The girls opened their mouths to protest, but Gabrielle stopped them.

"There's nothing more that you can say," she said gently. She looked at Xena.

"You and I will see each other again, soon." She smiled. "That's a given. So don't worry too much about this, alright?"

Xena nodded.

"Besides," Gabrielle continued. She stepped back and looked at the two of them. "You need to help your sister along for the time being. She's going to need your guidance and your experience. She still has a lot to learn."

She turned to Hope. "And you're stepfather told me exactly what he did for you." She continued. "He told me how he did it. You still have a great many things to learn about yourself. Some of those lessons won't be easy. You need to be ready for that, okay?"

Hope nodded.

On the boat, Charon cleared his throat loudly.

"It's time for me to go," Gabrielle said quickly.

"Honey," David called from the dock.

"I know, I know," Gabrielle replied, holding up a hand, begging patience.

"There's one more thing," she continued. "I need for the two of you to take me back to Poditea and lay me to rest in our tomb. That way, your father will find me in the future, and, well, you know the whole story." She smiled, looking at Xena.

Xena nodded. "I'll take care of it."

Gabrielle pulled both of her daughters to her in one final embrace.

"Take care of each other, too. Okay?" she choked.

Hope and Xena nodded, shutting their eyes against the tears.

Gabrielle forced herself to step away, her eyes locked on her children, as if to burn the image into hr mind.

The emotions were a rising tumult in Hope's chest, like a wave of pressure that she had never experienced before. She didn't know how to react. She felt the tears streaming down her face, felt the shuddering sensation as she tried to force her lungs to take air.

It was like a dream as they watched Gabrielle rejoin David on the dock and step into the boat.

"Okay," Charon grumbled. "Let's get the show on the road. I'm late already."

He leaned against the pole in his hands, and the boat slipped quietly away from the dock.

The wave of pressure finally exploded in Hope's heart and she cried out a she tried to leap forward to stop the boat.

She felt Xena's arms wrap about her shoulders, holding her fast. The agonizing wails echoed like a ghostly chorus in the cavern. Hope struggled, pounding her fists against Xena's forearms as she tried to break free.

The entire universe was a blur of emotion, threatening to drown her. She felt her legs give out beneath her and the two of them dropped to their knees.

Xena whispered soft noises in Hope's ear, despite her own agony.

Looking out at the river, she could see her parents staring back at them, feeling the same palpable sorrow that they were expressing.

David suddenly stood up, pointing at the two of them on the shore.

"Hey! Xe!" he called. "Keep your chin up! You take care of your little sister now, you hear me?"

Xena nodded.

"Hope!" David called again. His voice thundered through the place and snapped her out of her hysteria. Her bloodshot eyes fixed on him.

"Ian was right about one poison driving out another!" David called. "You be careful! You got everything I had! You understand? Watch your temper!"

He raised his hand in one final farewell, and then his fingers closed into a fist.

Xena repeated the gesture. It had been their traditional farewell ever since Xena had begun traveling on her own. They would each wave, and then symbolically take a part of the other, holding it tight.

Hope seemed to be in a state of semi shock, her haunted eyes fixed on the boat as it moved away.

"Mother," was all she could manage to whisper. She was only numbly aware of Xena's arms gently rocking her.

On the boat, Charon looked back at the dwindling figures on the shore and sighed.

"That is why I never recommend having the kids here when you," he stopped as he turned back and saw the looks on his passenger's eyes.

Gabrielle had a hand covering her mouth, her eyes filling with tears, while David's gaze was something that mingled sadness and ferocity in equal measure.

For a moment, Charon feared that he might have a mutiny on his little boat.

He set down his pole and let the current pull them along as he seated himself across from his passengers.

"Look," he said with uncharacteristic compassion. "You got some good kids there, right?"

They both nodded.

"And we all know Xena," Charon continued with a wry grin. "I don't think you two have anything to worry about."

He stood and took up his pole again. "Besides, I think you guys are really gonna like where I was told to drop you off."

David smiled suddenly, and Gabrielle frowned.

"What do you mean?"

Charon only smiled and tapped the side of his nose.

The boat had vanished in the distance. The only sound was the gentle lapping of the river against the shingle, and still, the two of them had not moved.

Hope was completely spent. Her eyes were still locked on that distant point, but they saw nothing. As Xena leaned forward, she could hear Hope humming softly to herself.

"It's okay," Xena whispered.

Xena didn't know how long they stayed there. In that place, on the borders of life and death, it was as if time had no meaning.

After a time, Xena gave Hope a gentle shake.

"Come on," she said quietly. "It's time to go back."

Gently, Xena help Hope back to her feet and began leading her, like a child, back towards the cavern that would lead them back to the world of the living.

As they moved up through the cavern, Hope slowly began to come back to life, though she wept continually as they walked. Xena kept a reassuring arm around Hope's shoulder.

After a short time, they began to hear other footsteps coming towards them.

"What's that?" Hope asked, sniffling.

Xena listened as the sound grew until it echoed through the tunnel. The sound of many shuffling feet drew inexorably closer.

"Something's happened," Xena said quietly. "Something big."

Hope frowned.

"This many people, coming down to the River Styx only means one thing. Some type of catastrophe, or a war."

The figures emerged from around a gentle curve in the sloping tunnel. All of them moving with slow, traumatized deliberation, down towards the edge of the river.

Xena and Hope watched the people shuffle past them. Many of them suffering grievous wounds.

"War," Xena said knowingly.

A figure further down the line caught her attention, and her mouth dropped open in shock.

"Alex?" Xena gasped. She pushed her way through the nearest victims and grasped her brother's shoulder, spinning him to face her.

"Alex?" she whispered in despair. "Oh, no. Alex!"

The shocked bleary look in her younger brother's eyes melted away to something clearer.

"Xena?" he said as if he were not quite sure. He blinked a few times. "Xena? Did they get you too?"

He looked down and Xena saw the large stab wound in his upper left chest.

Hope stepped up next to Xena and looked up at Alexander. His eyes turned towards her, and in a sudden moment of awareness, all the fire returned.

"You!" He snarled. His gray fingers shot out and grasped Hope by the throat.

"At least we got you before the end!" He continued, his fingers tightening around her throat.

Xena grabbed her brother's arm and tried to wrench his hand free, as Hope struggled to pry the dead fingers from her neck.

"It wasn't me!" she gurgled desperately.

"Alex!" Xena begged. "Alex! Let her go!"

"She wiped out the entire town!" Alex said.

"She's been with me, Alex!" Xena shouted.

His eyes locked on hers.

"What?"

"For the last two weeks!" Xena continued. "She's been with me and mom for the last two weeks! It couldn't have been her!"

Alex's eyes darted back and forth between Hope and Xena. "But I saw her!" he said.

"Alex," Xena begged. She saw Hope's eyes rolling back in her head as unconsciousness threatened to overtake her.

"Alex, let her go."

Alexander looked into Xena's eyes, searching deeply in her soul. Then his fingers snapped open and Hope collapsed to her knees, choking and hacking.

Xena knelt down and helped Hope back up to her feet.

"What the hell is going on, sis?" Alexander asked. "What is she doing alive? What are you doing with her?"

"Long story," Xena replied. "All I know is that she has been with me for two weeks, so she couldn't have done this!"

Alex fixed his eyes on Hope. They were afire with barely contained hatred.

"I saw her!" he hissed. "I saw her priests, ripping our town to shreds!"

"It wasn't me!" Hope replied.

"Cylissa?" Xena asked.

Alex stopped and shrugged. "She was still alive when I bought it. Whether or not she's still up there, I don't know."

That statement drove home the fact that Xena was speaking to her recently deceased brother.

"Oh gods," Xena whispered.

"Listen to me," Alexander said urgently. "Cylissa is still up there! She's still alive. I know she is!"

"But you-" Xena started.

"Forget about me!" Alexander cut in. "I need you to find her! I can't do anything from here!"

Hope's mind was reeling with the knowledge that her old cult was still active.

"How can they be capable?" she asked herself aloud.

"You tell me," Alex said sharply.

Hope shook her head. She really had no idea as to how the remnants of the cult of Dahok could even be active. She felt the burning in her heart under Alexander's accusing stare.

"It wasn't me," she said, backing away as she shook her head. "It wasn't."

She turned and fled up the passage.

"Hope!" Xena called after her.

Hope pushed through the seemingly endless throng of victims slowly making their way down the passage to Charon's boat. Dull eyes and scarred faces stared at her, unblinking in the crimson light.

Cold, pale hands groped for her. Voices whispered, ghostly in the confined place.

"No!" Hope cried out. "It wasn't me!"

Suddenly, her cries were drowned by the water surrounding her.

She pumped her legs and pulled with her arms, fighting for the surface. The pale light of the day dropped from the murky depths to meet her.

She erupted from the depths in a fountain of water. The air flooded in and out of her burning lungs in a hoarse cry of pain.

She clawed her way to the shore and hauled her body clear of the water, sobbing in despair.

"I swear, Mother!" she cried. "I swear it wasn't me!"

She looked up and could see the shimmering figure of a person, looking down at her.

"Mother," Hope choked. "I swear it wasn't me."

Gabrielle smiled and nodded before she shimmered again, and vanished.

Hope's head dropped into the grass. She breathe din the thick earthy musk and fought her fledgling emotions back down.

As the horror and the despair settled, she was suddenly aware of another emotion, bubbling beneath the surface.

A sense of outrage that she had never known slowly began to assert itself, driving the sadness away, and sharpening her mind.

She pulled herself to her knees.

"Someone is using me," her mind suddenly hypothesized. "Dahok is defeated, never to trouble the world again, but the rumor of his coming could still be a powerful weapon."

"Breathe," she whispered aloud. "You need to think."

She stumbled to her feet and half walked, half crawled back toward their camp.

Gabrielle still lay in the blankets, her eyes closed, her body, completely still and pale.

Hope stopped short when she saw the corpse. She had almost forgotten.

The despair reared its ugly head again, but she fought it back.

Swallowing her sadness, she knelt next to the body and began gently preparing it to travel.

She then found two long branches and lashed them together to form a bier.

As she worked, she spoke to her mother.

"Someone's trying to use me to cause a lot of harm," she said. "They killed your son, too." She paused, feeling the cold outrage again. "They killed my brother." She corrected herself.

With each word, she felt the old coldness reasserting itself. Instead of being bent on the destruction of others, or the conversion of people to her father's ghastly religion, the ice in her veins was focusing on vengeance.

Alexander had been the one to stop Xena from killing her, after the fateful duel with her step father. Granted, there was no love lost between them, but the young man had been her savior. And now, someone had used her past as a guise to eliminate any chance at a future reconciliation.

Yes, vengeance seemed the appropriate course of action.

"I'll take you home, first," Hope said to Gabrielle. "That was the last thing you wanted. And it's the least I can do. Then, I'm going to find the ones responsible for all that death." Her eyes were as cold as a frosty sea. "I'm going to find them, and I'm going to kill them. I'm going to kill them all."