Chapter Twenty-four

Buffy looked from Willow and back to Dawn.

"Then how?"

"We don't know. We thought maybe you did."

Buffy shook her head.

"So what happened?" Dawn asked. "How was it?"

"Well, it was . . . different. Of course it could have gone better if I'd had my clothes, and everything else."

"You can thank D'Hoffryn for that. He changed the last line of the spell so you'd go back with nothing, instead of everything."

"How do you know?"

"Well, Anya has this Vengeance Demon friend who read over the spell and she told us. But before you tell us anything, why don't you eat first so we can call Giles and Xander and Anya and Tara so they can hear all about it too?"

"Fine by me. Isn't anything ready YET?"

……………-

After she stopped laughing, Gabrielle instructed everyone to gather around her, she had something to tell them.

"And if anyone starts that kneeling and bowing, you WILL feel my wrath!" she joked, although no one took if for anything less than a deadly threat.

"I understand you all seem to think I have some kind of power over Ares," she began. "And in a way you are right. But it's not the power you're thinking of. The power I have is knowledge. Ever since Xena and I began traveling together Ares has been trying to get her to return to her old ways. She was once his most valued warlord. Time and again he has returned, trying to convince her, bribe her, almost begging her to lead his army. So when she was in danger of dying I knew if I called for him, using her name, saying she could be killed, he would come. And even though he said he didn't heal mortals, I knew he wouldn't let her die because of three bits of information I knew about him."

Gabrielle held up one finger.

"One, as I already said, he wants her to lead the mightiest army there ever was. His army."

Gabrielle looked around at her audience. They were all sitting or squatting, transfixed by her story.

"The second thing I knew was than he wants Xena to bear him a child. He wants an heir, and he wants it from Xena. And thirdly," she said as she held up three fingers. "Even though he denies it, Ares is in love with Xena. And even if he hadn't made Aesclepius heal her, HE would have done it. So you see, there was no magic or great power on my part. It was simply the knowledge of Ares' feelings for Xena."

Gabrielle looked around. Their expressions hadn't changed. But now they were marveling at her wisdom.

"So," she continued, "what happened today can be summed up in two sentences of three words each. The first is, 'knowledge is power.' The more you know, about anything, the better off you'll be, no matter what the circumstance. And the second is, 'know your enemy.' Now, technically, Ares isn't our enemy, but he, like all the gods, and like any enemy you may face, will have one or more weaknesses. And if you use whatever knowledge you can glean from whatever sources you can find, you will have a distinct and unquestionable advantage."

She could see they were still enthralled by her, so she added, "The day is almost half over and there have been too many distractions, and your chores and responsibilities have been neglected. So I suggest you get to them."

When no one moved, she clapped her hands, "NOW!"

Immediately, everyone rushed to get to their work, and the sooner they could get to it, the less the chance of incurring her wrath.

"Well, I hope they all understand what I was trying to tell them," she said to Ephiny.

"I wouldn't count on it, My Queen. They will only remember three facts -- you called out to Ares, he answered your call, and when you demanded he heal Xena, he complied. That is all they will remember, and that story is what will be passed down through all the generations of Amazons. And the more the story is told, the greater your powers will grow, and the more magnificent Queen Gabrielle will become."

Gabrielle sighed, "Unfortunately, I'm afraid you're right.

………………..-

While Buffy polished off her second helping of hash browns, sausage, and scrambled eggs, Dawn, Willow, Tara, Xander, Anya and Giles waited impatiently.

"Well, was she?" Dawn asked, unable to contain her curiosity. "Xena -- was she a Slayer?"

"No. No slayer. But my god, that woman was strong!"

"What was she like?"

"Tall," Buffy replied. "Beautiful, long dark hair, gorgeous blue eyes, and slender. I really thought she'd be stockier than she was."

"What about the other one, Gabrielle?"

"Short -- about my height, long strawberry blond hair, greenish eyes, and very personable. I liked her right away. She gave me some of her clothes to wear. And we got along great. But for some reason there was always this tension between Xena and me."

"So what happened after you got there?"

"Well, fortunately, I appeared in the woods, naked, as you well know. And I found them by following my nose. I could smell their campfire. After I showed up, Gabrielle gave me something to wear. I think maybe Xena didn't trust me because I didn't tell them right away I was a Slayer. Anyway, they were heading to an Amazon camp. So we had a couple of days to get to know each other."

"What did you talk about?"

"Well, let me see. I found out Xena's Chakram is a ring and not a disk like we thought. She never would let me hold it, but it looked like it was made of two different colored metals, like maybe copper and steel. And it was inset with jewels on both sides. But then we got into this whole religious discussion after she said Ares gave it to her."

"The god of war, Ares?"

"The very one. She also mentioned knowing Hercules, and Bacchus -- another god. Of course I argued about how people believed in their gods even though they don't exist. And to prove me wrong, Xena yelled out, and poof, he appeared, right out of thin air. Good old Ares."

"Ares? He was REAL?"

"He looked real enough to me. Gabrielle said he was in love with Xena, but they both denied it. Anyway, since he claimed to be a god, I asked him if he'd send me home, but he wasn't much interested in anything except my Slayer powers. He didn't really do anything godly except appear and disappeared in a flash of red light."

"So, what was he like?"

"Very human looking. A bit taller than Xena, dark hair, goatee, black leather, and carrying a wicked looking sword. And quite a hunk I must admit. But I actually was a little disappointed. You figure a god would be like, twenty feet tall."

"So then what happened?"

"Well, we finally got into Amazon territory, and they challenged us."

"And that's when you caught the arrow?" Xander asked.

"How did you know about THAT?" Buffy was shocked.

"You just finish your story and we'll tell you ours."

"Well like I said, we were challenged. Gabrielle was this Amazon queen, but no one recognized her until we got into their camp. And we met another queen named Ephiny. Then we got cleaned up, had a nice little feast, and I told them all about why I was there and who I was, the whole nine yards. And everything was fine until the next morning. We were eating breakfast and then all of a sudden, for absolutely no reason, Xena and I started fighting. It's like I was full of this blind rage and all I could think of was killing her! Now, I realize it had to have been some kind of spell. But we fought and fought, and even after they pulled us apart, we still broke free and went after each other."

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