Dedication: I've Lost My Profile Page and also RubyRedMorena, thank you both for the support and for reading the first two chapters. Also to all those of you who may have read it full stop, i hope it continues to entertain
Unexpected Visitor
Unlike their previous efforts to stay away for as long as possible, with a new purpose Xena and Gabrielle found themselves arriving in Ampholis in no time. Xena's mother Cyrene was pleased to see her daughter and Gabrielle but her pleasure turned to concern when she saw that they had brought an unexpected visitor along with them, many questions formed in Cyrene's mind about the girl because she knew her only daughter had the tendency to have trouble follow her everywhere.
"Who is she?" and "Where is she from?" along with choruses of "I hope you haven't brought trouble here with you Xena." Were consistent. "This was supposed to be a nice visit for me to spend time with you, not wait around filled with worry whilst you go off to fight."
After finally calming her mother down and filling her in on the situation, Xena was quick to join Gabrielle who was sat in one of Cyrene's spare rooms. In which Martha lay on a bed unconscious, with a mountain of covers and pillows to keep her warm and comfortable.
"How is she?" Xena asked.
"Oh she'll be fine, I think she just got a bit disoriented." Gabrielle said looking slightly guilty.
"What's the matter?" Xena said noticing Gabrielle's guilt.
"I heard your mother talking whilst I was in here, I feel guilty. All your mother wanted was a nice visit and we have probably brought danger in to her home." Gabrielle sighed.
"Look we don't know for sure that this girl is trouble." Xena said gesturing towards Martha.
"All we know is her name and that she comes from Britannia, she didn't even use the right name for that though. She called it Britain, her friend completely disappeared as well." The Amazon Queen said in a whispered tone.
"I'm usually the one who doubts people." Xena laughed.
"Look just don't jump to conclusions until she has woken up, then we can get an explanation." The Warrior Princess added.
"Your right, I suppose we should just sit and wait." Gabrielle said with a nod, at that point Martha started stirring.
"She's waking up." Xena said moving over to the bed, Martha then opened her eyes and rubbed her head. She then spotted first Xena and then Gabrielle and all the recent events that had transpired came rushing back to her.
"I was hoping that it was just a bad dream." Martha moaned.
"How are you feeling?" Gabrielle asked.
"Like I've been sucked through time and space and dumped in ancient Greece." Martha sighed whilst rubbing her head.
"Where am I?" the Medic said sitting up.
"Your in Ampholis, at my mothers house." Xena answered.
"My friend? What happened to her? Is she here?" Martha said in turn.
"No she disappeared whilst we were speaking to you." Gabrielle added.
"You keeping calling Greece ancient, why is that?" Xena said in a curious tone.
"I umm I suppose err its because it is ancient, from where I am from anyway. I guess it's quite new for you guys." Martha said struggling to find the answer.
"You said you're from Britannia, no you said you were from Britain." Gabrielle said trying to jog Martha's memory.
"I am." Martha said simply.
"But as far as I know, the place is still called Britannia. Unless the name got changed without us knowing." Xena said continuing her questions.
"There's no difference really, Britannia is what Britain used to be. I mean Britain is what Britannia is about to become." Martha said getting confused.
"Okay what's the story, what was your name Martha?" Xena urged.
"Yeah Martha Jones." Martha answered.
"Okay Martha Jones, what is the story?" Xena said sharply.
"If you don't tell us then you will make things complicated for yourself, you already seem to be struggling to explain yourself. Just tell us the truth." Gabrielle said in a softer tone than Xena's.
"Its not as simple as that." Martha said in an almost pleading tone, these women wanted answers and she didn't want to risk changing history. The blonde woman seemed nice, but the brunette named Xena seemed as though she would force the answers through some method anyway whether Martha wanted to tell her or not.
"I don't think you'd believe me, even if I told you the whole truth." Martha said with a forced laugh.
"Try us." Gabrielle challenged.
"I've told you the truth about who I am and where I come from, this is where it gets tricky… you see there's a slight problem. Me telling you all this could change things." Martha said sounding even more confused.
"Okay your letting this get complicated, when it can be straight forward so I'll ask the questions." Xena said quickly.
"Okay." Martha nodded.
"Explain about where you come from, about Britannia changing." Xena asked.
"This is what I mean about changing things." Martha said.
"Please… get to the point." Gabrielle said almost impatiently.
"Damn the Doctor, making time all complicated." Martha said.
"I don't think I should be doing this but it's a risk I'll just have to take, so here goes…" Martha added. Xena and Gabrielle all moved in closer as Martha began her explanations.
"My name is Martha Jones, I come from Britain or rather Great Britain. Also known as the United Kingdom, its called Britannia now but in the future it will be renamed Britain… you see I know this because I have…"
"Go on." Xena urged her.
"Nothing can surprise us." Gabrielle said looking at Xena.
"Well almost nothing." The Bard added.
"I have travelled through time, I am from the future… Thousands of years into the future." Martha continued to explain as looks of shock appeared on Xena and Gabrielle's faces.
"I work for a special government agency called UNIT as a Doctor."
"What's a Doctor?" Gabrielle asked.
"A healer." Martha answered with a slight smile, she didn't realise that Doctors didn't exist yet.
"Carry on." Xena pressed.
"Well I was on a team, we were investigating a rift. You know like a tear in the fabric of the universe, well the tear started getting bigger and me and the woman that was with me got sucked through it. I know the rifts are unstable and that there is no way to predict where it would cough us up but I didn't expect Greece." Martha finally finished.
"A tear in the universe?" Gabrielle said in disbelief.
"It's the truth." Martha answered.
"What's the only thing that can cause a tear in the universe? A God." Xena said.
"You think the Gods did this and brought Martha and her friend her?" Gabrielle asked.
"Hang on what are you talking about Gods?" Martha said in her own disbelieving tone.
"You said it yourself that you thought one of the Gods might be responsible, the question is which one?" Xena said over the top of Martha's comment.
"Gods!" Martha said looking confused.
"Yeah Gods! Zeus, Hera, Ares, Aphrodite. Surely you must have heard about them, even if you do live thousands if years into the future." Xena finally answered.
"They don't exist! The Olympians are just a myth! What you learn about in history lessons at primary school." Martha said.
"Of course they exist." Xena scoffed.
"Trust us, we should know." Gabrielle added.
"Gods? They can't be! They must be aliens or something." Martha said trying to think of it logically.
"Aliens? What's Aliens?" Xena asked, Martha looked from Xena to Gabrielle and then back to Xena. She was in a different land, thousands of years into earths past. Things change, things evolve. This wasn't her time or place in the universe and she just had to go with the flow instead of allowing herself to get caught up in finding answers for questions, answers that would probably never come.
"Something from my time, never mind it." Martha said quickly.
"Okay so what next?" Gabrielle said.
"Well like I said only Gods have the power to tear holes in the universe or time or whatever Martha said." Xena presumed, Martha just listened. She wasn't going to put this down to aliens, no one even in the twenty first century knew the cause of the rifts.
"The question is which one? And what are we going to do even when we find out?" Gabrielle asked.
"We make them reverse it." Xena said simply.
"How?" Gabrielle asked.
"We're meeting with Hercules and Iolaus aren't we?" Xena said with a sly smile.
"Hercules! As in the Demigod Hercules, son of Zeus. But he's a…" Martha stopped herself, she cant accuse people of just being myths.
"Come on Gabrielle, lets leave Martha to rest." Xena said walking out of the room, Gabrielle nodded and then smiled at Martha before also exiting the room. Martha let out a big frustrated sigh, how in hells name was she going to get herself out of this mess.
Iolaus was getting himself all excited, it had been ages since he had seen Xena and Gabrielle and couldn't wait to catch up with them. Hercules was kneeled a few feet away next to a river, where the half mortal/half God was busy taking a wash. His bare torso glistened in the sunlight, he was listening whilst his friend spoke.
"You know it'll be good to catch up." Iolaus smiled, Hercules nodded.
"I'm not too sure about meeting them at Aphrodite's temple, don't get me wrong I do like your sister. But she has a habit of getting us into all kinds of trouble, the same goes for Xena and Gabrielle. Something always compels her to use us and them to fix her mistakes." Iolaus said whilst trying not to sound insulting of Hercules very much older by possibly thousands or even millions of years.
"I doubt Aphrodite will even be there." Hercules laughed.
"I don't think she spends her every moment spying on us, waiting for the perfect moment to get into trouble and cry for help." The Demigod added.
"Why not, Ares and his goons seem to spend all their time picking on you." Iolaus said in turn.
"Look don't worry about my sister or the rest of my family, this is going to be a nice visit. No trouble at all." Hercules smiled, completely unaware of the events that had already transpired in Xena and Gabrielle's presence.
"If you say so." Iolaus said smiling back.
Discord stomped angrily around Ares' throne room, Ares himself was slouched in the throne itself looking annoyed.
"Tell me again why you sent Deimos to follow Xena and the bard, you know if you want a job doing properly that you have to come to me." Discord snapped, Ares laughed disbelievingly at his younger sister.
"I could do a much better job than that perfect excuse for a God." Discord tried to defend herself, at that moment a red flash of light appeared in the room and all of a sudden Deimos materialised out of thin air.
"Well?" Ares said saving any idle chitchat Deimos usually tried to share.
"I followed Xena and the pesky blonde for ages, they just seemed to be on one of their usual little trips." Deimos said.
"Your one to talk about pesky blondes." Discord scoffed.
"Is that all?" Ares asked ignoring Discord.
"No that's not even the half of it, when I was following them I travelled ahead then I could take a break. Well all of a sudden a bright spark appeared, almost like something was tearing. At first I thought it may just be one of the others materialising from Olympus, then two women were flung out of it. From what I saw they certainly weren't Gods." Deimos began.
"Two women?" Ares questioned.
"Yeah, there was a blonde chick who was knocked unconscious and a dark skinned chick, she was unconscious for a while until Xena appeared. Xena and the bard started talking to the girl, I couldn't hear what they were saying but after that the girl collapsed. Xena scooped her up and carried her away, Ares looked at him with satisfaction.
"What happened to the other woman?" Discord cut in.
"The who?" Deimos gulped, Ares smile faded a bit.
"The other woman, who was unconscious." A wicked smile appeared on the equally wicked Goddess's face.
"I… I didn't take notice, she… she just disappeared… whilst I was watching Xena." Deimos stuttered.
"You idiot!" Ares said jumping out of his seat, Discord rubbed her hands together gleefully.
"To be fair you only wanted me to spy on Xena." Deimos shook in fear, Ares said nothing. A knowing look appeared on his face as a fireball materialised in his hand, seconds later Deimos was hurled across the throne room whilst Discord cackled with laughter.
"How about I…" Discord began to suggest.
"No." Ares stopped her.
"If you want a job doing, don't send idiots to do it when you can do a better job yourself." The War God added shooting a dangerous stare at the Goddess of Retribution and with that the angry Olympian Deity dematerialised in a steam of dark blue.
"He scares me." Deimos said almost sobbing, Discord just looked at him and shook her head in disgust before dematerialising herself.