Chapter 44

It was well past mid-day when Xena and Astra made it back to Athens. They had received an urgent message that told them to head straight to Athena's temple once they arrived in town. Xena hoped it wasn't anything too serious after she had spent the whole morning cleaning up that damn town. She just wanted to rest and wash this whole miserable day away. They made their way inside to see all the other warriors already there and with Athena on her thrown going over a plan. Once the Goddess had noticed them enter she looked up over at them and began to inform them on what was going on.

"Ah Xena, Astra, you made it back just in time." she gave them a soft smile and returned back to her warriors to continue with what she had brought them there for, "I have received word that an army is threatening a town ten miles east of here that is under my protection. They have already taken over half the town and I need to send my best warriors there as soon as possible to help stop them from causing any more damage to the place. I will provide all the necessary provisions you will need for this mission. Gather whatever weapons you consider useful for this attack only. Anything else, I will take care of." she dismissed them and then vanished from her throne without another word.

Xena sighed mentally that she would not get a chance to rest before they moved out. She knew that since Athena wanted them there as soon as possible, she was going to transport them there herself. That way ,no time would be wasted in reclaiming the town. She waited patiently in the throne room with Astra for the others to arrive since they already had their weapons with them from being out earlier. She was tired and her muscles ached a little from all the hard work she had put in restoring that damned village earlier. Who knew such a simple task could be so exhausting? Although, Astra was no help during the whole ordeal either. She had somehow managed to get Xena stuck with all the hard duties, countless hours in the sun while she had the simple ones. She was certain that this was done on purpose with this new found power that Astra had over her at the moment. She looked up at hearing the others return. She was hoping this would be an easy battle, she couldn't wait for it to be over and she longed for the comfort of her own bed.

Once all the warriors had arrived in the throne room Athena reappeared. "Alright, we are moving out now. I will transport you all there myself since it will be the quickest way of putting an end to this mess. If you were to travel by foot it would take too long and I don't believe the town will last the night. I will separate you into groups and scatter you around the army." she said, looking out amongst her warriors and seeing that they were all ready for this.

Once everyone fell into their squads she took one last look around. She took one small fleeting look in Xena's direction and could see that the events from earlier today had indeed tired the warrior out a little. She smiled to herself knowing that Astra had done her job perfectly. Xena was going to pay for betraying her with that conniving brother of hers. Still, she couldn't help thinking that it was a pity to lose such a great warrior. She had served her well over the years but throwing in her lot with Ares was unforgivable. She should have known better, there was no going back from that and she knew she could never fully trust her again after. No, this was the only solution to ensure that it wouldn't happen again and to show the others that she knew everything when it came to them, no secret was safe and if they betrayed her they would meet the same fate too, regardless of how valuable they were to her army.

Warriors came and went and although she knew it would be hard to replace Xena- since she had such a knack for war planning- she would find another more worthy warrior who understood loyalty and didn't falter the moment some serpent started to whisper in her ear. She was not going to be made a fool of by having Xena continue on living after what she had done and the fact that she had almost disgraced her temple with that manipulative bastard... The Goddess had to calm her thoughts before she dealt with her herself. No, Xena would pay for her misdeeds and she would suffer in the process, she was going to pay for them with her life. With one final look around her throne room she waved her hand to transport all her warriors to the town, or at least to one in particular who thought she did.

Xxxxxx

Xena closed her eyes once she started her journey through the ether. She always hated the feeling it caused on her stomach when Athena would transport her somewhere. She always felt seasick afterwards and now after such a long and tiring day it felt even worse. Feeling her feet touch solid ground again, she opened her eyes expecting to see the rest of her squad but instead she only saw the empty forest surrounding her. Taking a cautious look around the clearing she now found herself in, she searched for the rest of them, maybe they had been scattered a little, although Athena had never separated them too far from each other whenever they had something similar to do, not wanting to give the enemy army a chance to strike with a weakness within the ranks.

As she did one last scan over the area, she knew without a doubt that she was in the middle of this forest completely alone. There was no sign of her squad or any other squad for that matter either. Her mind was beginning to wonder at the possibility that this was no accident on Athena's part, the Goddess had done this countless times and a mistake like this had never happened before. She suddenly heard a twig snap from behind her and she immediately turned in that direction with her sword drawn. She was not sure what she was going to encounter and now that she was on her own she couldn't afford to take any chances. She listened as she heard multiple footsteps coming from where she now faced. Her gut was telling her that this was not the place to keep standing. She was too out in the open and more vulnerable to an attack. She couldn't see her attackers for the dense forest covered them, but she knew they were there.

She heard another snap of a twig come from her left and she turned in that direction and she started to glance back and forth between the two places she heard the noises. She slowly began to back up to the woods behind her, hoping that if she could just make it to some cover then she might have a chance of surviving the night. She was fairly certain that the lie Athena had spoken about in the temple was just a ruse. Everything about the situation she now found herself in screamed at her that something was not right, and the Goddess had the audacity to say that Ares was the deceitful one, leading her down a dark path while all along her own Goddess had been the one plotting her death. She heard the tell-tale sound of an arrow flying through the air and she had caught it with her free hand before it made contact. As she threw the arrow to the ground she looked up to see about, what she guessed to be twenty men make their way out of the forest in front of her. The situation was bleak and she knew it.

"Ah, it seems the guest of honor has finally arrived." one of the men who had a nasty looking scar covering the left side of his face said, he seemed to be the leader, "We were beginning to think that the Goddess had changed her mind about you." he looked her up and down appreciatively and smirked,. "Although it would be such a shame to see a beauty such as yourself see an untimely demise. I guess we could at least have our fun with you before that happens." all the men began to laugh and agree once they heard that statement.

Xena gazed at all the men in disgust, she pinned them all with a steely glare. "I would rather plunge my own sword into my chest before I would ever let that happen." she hissed at them.

"Now, now… there is no need to make this unpleasant. I can guarantee that you will love every moment of it." one of the men replied, giving her a lustful gaze as he continued to rake his eyes over her body.

"I'd rather die." she repeated as she continued to stare down the men in front of her.

"Well, if you want to do it the hard way, we don't mind beating you into submission. Actually, you will probably be more receptive that way and a little bondage never hurt anyone."

Once again, words of agreement could be heard around the small clearing as the leader finished his words.

Xena's heart was beating fast in her chest as she cast a glance around the clearing, it seemed that more men had now joined this little party…Great! She steeled her features to show them all that she was not intimidated by them. Sure, she had been up against some dire situations before but she knew the cards were stacked against her in this one. She had backed up then and now she was a sitting duck as she stood in this clearing alone with no clear way out of it. There was no way to know for sure how many men this group really had and from what she could see of her surroundings nothing looked familiar to her. Athena had most likely sent her somewhere she had never been before, the sneaky bitch.

But if she was going to die then she was not going to go down without a fight and she was definitely not about to just let them have their way with her and she was going to take as many of those filthy bastards down as she could with her. Seeing the dagger that was now flying in her direction, she caught it before it could make contact with her leg and a slight smile formed on her face at the reaction of the others standing before her. She knew they didn't expect her to do that and she gave them all a devilish grin. She stood there a moment longer seeing how they were going to respond to that. Seeing that now the battle had just begun for her life she flipped the dagger in the air once. As all the men kept their eyes on it she quickly snatched it out of the air and sent it flying into the nearest man's chest.

It sank right into his heart and he instantly fell to the ground, dead. Seeing that all eyes were now on their fallen comrade, Xena took that opportunity to run into the forest to put some distance between herself and this pack of savages. She needed to come up with a plan if she wanted to survive the night and an all-out assault right now would do her no good. She could hear them chasing after her as she continued to run deeper into the unfamiliar forest. She needed to find someplace where she could hold up and come up with something. She had no idea where she was or which direction she was running in. After she had put a good amount of distance between them and sure that she was no longer being followed, she climbed a tree to see if she could recognize the area and hopefully be able to see some sort of shelter for herself. Maybe a nearby town somewhere, or a cave that she could set up shop and figure out how she was going to get herself out of this….