Chapter 6

Both Xenas were frozen in shock as they saw each other' s face.

"Who are you? Or better said what are you?" one of them, the one who had just been tracked by the first who came here, asked.

"Well, to start with, I am Xena, just like you are by the looks of it," the other replied. "I came here to deal with the cult that is in control of this town, just like you, as I would guess. The only difference is that we belong to different worlds."

"Nonsense," she responded.

"Have you not been informed about this place beforehand?" Xena1 asked her with some barely hidden smugness. It was not every day she got the chance to berate herself. "This town here is the crossing point of many dimensions. Some of them were worlds where exact copies of yourself exist. The Souvereign, Hercules' double, have you ever heard of him?"

The short expression on the second Xena´s face told her that obviously, she had indeed had.

"I see, so you at least know what I am talking about," she commented. "By the way, I am not the only one. There are other people here with me you should meet. Maybe this will convince you."

"Oh yes? And who can tell me that you are not working for them?" she whispered, pointing at the assembled cultists some ten meters from both of them.

"Please! If I really worked for them I would just hand you over to them here and now. In fact, one wrong move from either of us and they would probably notice us and we would have to fight them all at once. So unless you want to start an all out battle right now, you better come with me," she stated.

Her counterpart hesitated for a few moments, while lifting her sword up and down a bit, but then she seemed to have finally decided that her argument was sound after all and she ended up following her.

It didn´t mean that she completely trusted her self proclaimed `other self´, by far not, but she had a point. If she had been somehow allied with the cult, she could have handed her over to them right there. No matter how good she was, she would have been killed. A light smile formed on her lips.

She would see what her double had to show her. Xena3 didn´t fully realize yet that she was in for the surprise of her life.

xxx

The rest of their group was still watching the crowd of robed cultists in front of them. For now, they were waiting.

"Xena should be back every moment," Gabrielle mentioned.

"Do we even need this distraction?" Callisto questioned. "Together we should be more than enough to defeat these figures, especially since she has still some of her power left." She said, pointing to Discord. "You know, Xena and me alone could probably take half of them by ourselves."

"Probably is the key word here," Ares responded. "We don´t know how much of the power of the Neconomicon they have already unlocked. "

They heard someone approaching from somewhere behind them. Xena was back.

But as soon as she came fully into view, they were faced with a more than surprising sight. Right behind the Warrior Princess they knew, stood a second Xena, crossed realities indeed.

"Xena?" Gabrielle said a bit unsure.

"Gabrielle," the newcomer gasped. It sounded as if she was more than surprised to see her.

Nearly at the same moment, she gave a more than angry look to Ares who was standing next to the Bard.

Indeed, she had lost `her´ Gabrielle a long time ago. Alternate worlds, the words of her double sounded suddenly far more believable to her. Gabrielle, Ares and Callisto, all of them long gone in hers, dead. But they were all here and they acted as if this wasn't even anything unusual.

So, at least for the moment, she was willing to believe her `twin´s´ story.

"Well, this is for sure a surprise," Ares commented.

"You," the second Xena hissed at him the moment he addressed her.

Her hand was once again on her sword. It looked as if she was struggling with herself not to attack him on the spot.

"Another Xena…Great! …Just what we need." Callisto stated sarcastically.

But despite everyone's expectations, she didn´t react to her taunts. In fact she practically ignored her presence.

Instead she just kept glaring at the God of War.

"I guess that means it didn't turn out so well between us in your world," he said.

"You can say that," she responded.

"Ah, sad really, a Xena who is holding such a grudge against Ares, but completely ignores me," Callisto cut in, "maybe I should feel hurt."

"Believe me Callisto, in my world their are far greater problems than you," the other Xena told her. "I remember you quite well. I remember everything, including the role that you played in the death of my son. In fact where I come from I already killed you a long time ago. But in comparison to what else had happened in my world, you are less than nothing," she declared.

"And you," she turned back to Ares, "you should be glad that I don´t even know who to hate more, you or myself," she told him. "Your powers don´t work in this place right? Is it the same with your immortality? Maybe it would be an interesting thing to find out."

"That is enough," the first Xena interrupted her. "Whatever happened between you and the Ares of your world, we have other worries right now. He and Callisto are not even really the same persons you remember. Technically, they have done nothing to you."

"But that doesn´t make it any easier," she replied. "You are right however. We all have other things to do. If you want my help, that is." She already acted as if she was part of their team. "You said you were here for the book?"

"It is a source of power too dangerous in their hands," Xena1 answered.

"I see."

"As it looks, you were able to get those robes you wanted to get?" the first Xena remarked, with a glance at Gabrielle who was holding the clothes in her hands.

"Callisto and Gabrielle took two of them out," Ares told her.

"But it wasn´t exactly a pleasant job," Gabrielle commented.

A few yards behind them she could still make out the unconscious forms of two shackled and gagged figures lying in the sand. She couldn´t see them clearly, but given the in part monstrous deformities the inhabitants of this town seemed to possess, she wasn´t sure if she even wanted to have a better view.

From the side of her eye she caught a few glimpses of twisted and completely inhuman looking limbs and body parts. But it was more than enough for her to get an idea of the full picture.

What had happened with the people of this town? she had to asked herself. She had seen much in her life, but this...They seemed to have lost their humanity in both body and mind.

"Is everything ready?" she asked the others.

"We can start whenever you want," Discord answered.

"Then let us begin," Ares said to them.

"Good, Gabrielle and I, we will take the robes," Xena1 stated. "We will get the book. The rest of you will hold them back when they realize what is happening."

"Well, as you wish," Callisto replied.

xxxxxxx

Meanwhile, the nightmarish procession in front of them continued.

So far, none of them had noticed that two of their members were missing. They were all spending all their concentration on what was happening before them.

The leader, the priest who was holding the ceremony, was about to raise his voice again.

"People of Inhiata," he announced, "the time has nearly come, the moment we have been all waiting for..."

But he never came to end this sentence. Suddenly a bright light shone up behind them.

In a short distance, a fire started to burn. Not a normal one, but flames that were hanging freely in the air, moving completely unconnected meters above the ground, without any substance to fuel it.

The air itself was burning. This should have been impossible, if not for one thing, divine intervention.

That was also the way the cultists saw it.

"A sign! " one of them shouted as he saw the unnatural phenomenon.

Others around him started to repeat it, until the entire crowd was calling out the same words. Some of the voices were nearly as distorted as that of their leader, a few sounding more like the noises of animals than human beings.

For them, this was clearly a sign from the force they were worshipping. It went against the natural order of things, that was exactly what their master represented, so it was obviously some kind of holy manifestation.

They gradually began to draw back from the altar, closer to the mysterious flames, curious about their meaning.

This was exactly what Xena, Ares and the others had been waiting for.

xxx

Xena and Gabrielle, wearing the stolen robes, were cunningly using the distraction to get closer. This was their chance. While Discord was putting up a show with her remaining power, they would get the book.

Only one of the cultists was left standing by the altar, the leader of the ceremony.

As they came even closer however, they saw another horrifying detail. All around the altar, scattered human bones were lying. Human sacrifices, they remembered Ares' stories. Xena realized that a few of the bones also looked as if they had been gnawed upon by very sharp teeth. As if something had eaten the flesh off of them. In between, a still complete arm that had been ripped off from its body could be seen.

The altar itself was constructed asymmetrically. The different stone plates were twisted unto each other in a way no sane human being would ever have considered for building. All of it looked like a scene out of a bizarre dream.

But for the moment, they deleted all that out of their mind. It was time they made their move.

Xena and Gabrielle were moving quickly to the altar. At about the same moment, the cult leader noticed them and turned around.

"You, what are you doing?" Because of the robes, it took him a few seconds to realize that they were not people of his town. "Strangers, trespassers," he growled. "Kill them," he shouted.

The crowd, that had one moment before only eyes for Discord´s fire, was turning back to them letting out angered screams.

"Gabrielle…" Xena addressed her, "…lets take the book and get away from here."

As she said this, she circled around and faced the cult leader who tried to attack her with a sharp dagger. She disarmed the man or whatever he was, quickly and knocked him out by hitting the hilt of her sword over his head.

Gabrielle stepped to the altar and reached out for the Necronomicon. The moment her hands touched the book, an ice-cold feeling shot into her, as if all her senses were screaming out a warning, but she chose to ignore it and picked it up anyway.

Now it was time for her and Xena to leave as quickly as possible.

xxx

The rest of their group was fighting off the cultists, who had now clearly fallen into a murderous rage. They were drawing back, trying to make room for them to leave with the book.

If they were to let it come to an open battle, they would probably win, yes. They had after all some of the best fighters in the world with them. But it wasn´t for sure.

At least some of the deformed cult-members seemed to be stronger than normal humans. This was a lesson they had learned painfully.

One cultist jumped at Sarah before anybody could do anything about it and bite her arm. His teeth were not like a humans' and sharp like knives.

Ares finally stabbed the guy in the shoulder and threw him off of her. Callisto had at the same time her hands full with two other opponents. They all had to admit these guys were dangerous.

The second Xena and Callisto then both cut one of the cultists down who were still attacking them like raging beasts. They seemed to have lost all senses as they realized that their `holy book´ was now in the hands of these interlopers.

During all this, Ares and the others were quickly retreating and they soon reunited with Xena and Gabrielle.

They now saw that Xena was carrying a body on her shoulder, the suspected leader of this cult. She had made the split-second decision to take him along, since she thought having him as a prisoner might be useful.

They were quickly drawing back into the foggy and hard to oversee area.

xxx

After a few more minutes they finally lost their pursuers and were now moving somewhat slower.

Gabrielle and Callisto were both seeing to Sarah´s wound, while the two Xenas and Ares were taking a closer look at their captive.

"It is okay," Sarah assured her `aunt´ and her partner.

"The wound shouldn´t be that dangerous, as long as we prevent infection," Callisto stated.

"Hopefully," Gabrielle said, "but we should better keep an eye on it. Who knows what a bite from one of this beings could do." Thoughts about creatures like werewolves or vampires went through her head.

"She has a point here," Callisto admitted. "We will be careful."

"Callisto," Sarah addressed her as soon as Gabrielle had left them to talk to Xena and Ares, "I have something to ask you." They were now walking a short distance away from the rest of their group.

"Go on," she said.

"Today you were a bit...well...different. Whenever you are talking to the Xenas or Ares, you are acting...strange…"

"Why don't you say it?... Like a psycho," Callisto replied.

"No, it is not that."

"It is exactly that, stop denying. I was insane. I was a completely deranged monster once, I would have killed you and everybody else here without a second thought. Never forget that."

"But you are no longer like that." Sarah whispered.

"No I am not. But to be honest, I am not sure if I will ever be truly normal. What shall I say? old habits die hard and being around them seems to bring out the worst in me."

xxx

Gabrielle had just rejoined the others. Their group had stopped for a moment and was no longer moving.

"Xena?" she asked a bit unsure as she realized that her friend was continuously watching their surroundings, turning her head from one direction to the other.

"This is not the same way." she concluded, seconds later.

"What?!"

"Look around Gabrielle. We are not on the same path as before."

The second Xena showed a similar reaction as the first one, but didn´t say it out loud, as her `twin´ had already done this for her.

"We are not even a kilometer away from the town. We can not be that far off," Gabrielle replied.

"No, she is right," Ares claimed. "I don´t recognize anything here. We have never been in this spot before. But at the same time, I am sure that we have taken the exactly same way back."

They were interrupted by a hoarse laughter. It was their prisoner. He had regained consciousness.

"Fools, you won´t ever leave this town," he said to them. "The book will not let you go. Chaos itself will not let you go."

The man, creature, had by now dropped his mask. His face was of a bizarre monstrosity, like a mixture of parts of human, fish and primate.

"It's this place," Ares stated, "and the book. Its power is active. The area around us itself is changing while we're walking."

xxx

At the same time however, they were being followed by someone else, who was waiting for the right chance to attack.

"Xena, once again," she stated. "Just how many versions of my mother are in this place?"

"I am not quite sure Eve, but so far I can make out at least two others and they have the book we have been looking for," the red haired woman replied.

"I see. Continue to follow them with your senses Delilah. We will wait for the right time to strike."

xxx

The group around Ares, the two Xenas and Callisto was still trying to make their way back, away from the town.

The further they walked, the clearer it became that something was wrong. Not only were they not able to recognize any of their surroundings, they should have passed the outskirts of town awhile ago now. But there was nothing.

Where were they?

Then, they suddenly heard something.

"Here, I am here!," they heard someone calling out. It sounded like the voice of a young woman.

"I am..."

"Could someone else be here besides us?" Gabrielle asked.

"Maybe," Ares replied.

"Do you know what would be a really stupid idea?" Callisto spoke up. "In our situation to follow that voice. But as I know you, you will probably do exactly that."

"We have no idea in what direction to go anyway," Xena1 responded, "so we can as well take this one."

xxx

They were however not the only ones who had heard it.

"Do you hear that?" the woman called Eve asked.

"Yes, but I can not make out the source," the red-head answered.

"You can´t, I thought your powers are working here?"

"They are working. But I can still not see where it is coming from. They are just too deep in the mist."