A.N, I left out this chapter! It was supposed to be right after Chapter 19 that ends when Halfrek tells them that when she left Buffy and Xena were fighting to the death. I don't know HOW that happened! VERY sorry about it!

Chapter Twenty

Alara slowly opened her eyes. She could tell it was already well past daybreak from the light seeping through the cracks in the walls and around the edges of the centaur-skin flap that served as a door. She could hear the goings on outside as the Amazons were beginning their day.

She glance over to the lifeless body of Old Mother. She felt a twinge of regret, and a bit of wonderment. She recalled Old Mother's warning to her – "You are a fool who is destined to cause a death before the sun rises." She never expected it to be the one, the only person, she had any real feelings for.

But the twinge quickly left her as she began to experience her first taste of her new powers. She was becoming aware of feelings drifting, surrounding her. Feelings and emotions of the women outside her hut.

Some were happy emotions – contentment and pleasure and cheerfulness.

Others weren't so pleasurable. She could sense dissatisfaction, annoyance, and resentment.

Other emotions tended toward desire, admiration, and love.

As yet she wasn't able to discern which emotions came from which women, but she was confident that in time she would.

Alara slowly arose from her bed and stepped outside the hut. She looked around until she saw Marla, and she called to her.

"Old Mother passed over in the night. You will see to it that she is bathed and prepared for her funeral. I will break the news to Ephiny of this . . . great tragedy."

She nodded, and with tears running down her cheeks, Marla set about with the preparations. She called upon several of her sisters to help.

Alara walked purposefully toward the center of camp, where the communal meal was being prepared. She spotted Ephiny with Gabrielle, Xena and Buffy. They were laughing and enjoying the morning. Alara's distain for them had not lessened since the day before. Only her desire to be queen was gone.

"I have sad news to report," Alara said without preface. "Old Mother, the ancient matriarch of our clan, passed over to the other side last night."

Ephiny immediately got to her feet and embraced Alara in consolation and camaraderie. Alara could feel the sadness and distress in her. But it only felt like weakness to her.

When Ephiny stepped back, Gabrielle took her place. The emotions coming from her were similar.

"I'm so sorry," Buffy said." I didn't know her, but any death is a sad occasion."

While they were expressing their condolences, and as the word began to spread, Alara, who was still having trouble thinking of herself as Halfrek, began to analyze the feelings of Buffy, Gabrielle, and Xena.

She could feel the love and respect and loyalty Gabrielle and Xena felt for each other.

Buffy had feelings of respect for Gabrielle. But she had very little for Xena.

Alara could also detect a bit of a rivalry. The kind that exists between two mighty warriors, each wondering just who may be the stronger, the faster, the better combatant.

Going back to Xena, she then found a sense of hostility toward Buffy, and jealousy because of Gabrielle's increasing affection for Buffy. And there were comparable feelings of who was the better fighter.

Alara smiled to herself. Although she no longer had any interest in the Amazons and their little queendom, she still felt the animosity toward the three of them. And she concluded to best way to say farewell to her life as an Amazon was to instigate a confrontation between the two "champions."

Let their jealousy and pride bring them together in a fight to the death. She knew once the challenge had been made, no one could interfere. They would battle on until one or both were dead or dying.

But Buffy was right, she could not increase their enmity toward each other on her own. She would have to find someone to make the wish. Someone with a weak mind who would be easily manipulated into saying just the right words that would give . . . Halfrek, her opening.

"What do you mean? A fight to the death?"

"Oh, just a little something I instigated as my farewell to the Amazon life. They both were going at it with murder in their eyes."

"Why would you do such a thing?" Dawn was hysterical. "WHY?"

"They irritated me from the very instant they entered Amazon territory. With their fighting skills and preternatural powers and Gabrielle's lording over us just because she was the queen. I didn't like them at all, none of them."

"But what happened to them? Did one of them kill the other?" Willow asked

"How should I know? I lost interest and teleported myself to Rome. Lots of women being badly treated there."

"You've got to go back!" Dawn exclaimed. "You've got to stop them!"

"Actually, I don't. Besides, that was centuries ago. Who really cares anymore?"

"We all do," Anya told her. "Buffy is our friend, and she's the only Slayer we have. Can't you do this one little thing?"

"Anyanka, you of all people should know how D'Hoffryn feels about recanting spells. It's not his favorite thing to do."

"Can't you do it?" Dawn asked. "It was your spell."

"Only D'Hoffryn can undo a spell once it's been cast. And asking him to travel back 2000 years to reverse one, well, that's one favor I don't intend to ask for."

"But can't you at least translate the spell for us so we can go back and stop them?"

Halfrek looked a Willow for a few seconds, considering it, then said, "Oh all right. I suppose it's the least I could do."

Halfrek laid the sheet of paper on the dining room table, then passed her hand over it, and then across the space next to it. In the space a second sheet appeared. The words were in English.

"Thank you, Hallie," Anya told her. "We really do appreciate it."

"Yes, thanks ever so much," Willow. "You don't know how much we do."

"Yes, yes. I know. You're all so grateful. So, Anyanka, if there's nothing else, I must be off."

Halfrek started to dematerialize, then stopped and said, "I don't know how much good the translation will do you. The spell has to be recited in the original language. Good Luck."

Before anyone could say anything, she was gone.

Willow picked up the sheet with the translation and began to read it out loud. After a couple of sentences she stopped.

"It won't work. I can tell. There was magic when I read the original, I could feel it. These are just words."

"NOW can we sell it on Ebay?" Anya asked. "Giles, you said it would be worth a fortune."

"I said it would be priceless. Not the same thing."

TBC

And now the chapter that follows is the one where Alara wakes up back in her hut. Again, very sorry about the screw up!