Chapter 24

Xena awoke. Where was she? Slowly the pain seeped back into her as memories swirled out of the fog. She put off the returning reality, trying to grasp on the last fleeting images of a Gabrielle of another life. Gabrielle in this life was gone. She sobbed into the earth. She was face down in the mud. Why had she been dreaming? She never dreamed before without the presence of her lover.

She forced herself up with weakened limbs. She had ridden her horse until it had collapsed on the ground, and as her world drifted further away from her, she had lost consciousness somewhere in the water that had flung itself furiously from the sky.

Xena looked around. No horse. No Jianjun.

"Shit!" she hissed through her teeth. She turned in circles, looking for tracks. There wasn't a sign of any kind of disturbance, not even the coming and going of small rodents. It was if the place had been wiped clean.

"Eli!" she growled. Obediently, he appeared looking distraught.

"Where is he?" She demanded.

A single tear slipped from his eye. "He went back, Xena."

"Back? Back where?" She would follow him to whatever afterlife it was this time, she'd pull him out of its depths and cover him with tears and kisses. Xena let out another sob, deep and desperate.

Eli shook his head. "Back to the army camp, where you just left three days ago."

"They've captured his body?" Xena said stupidly, but the meaning of his words was creeping in despite her immediate rejection of the possibility.

"No... Xena-" She had crumpled to the ground; on her knees in slick earth she ground the mud into her face and wailed an unearthly cry. What he was saying, it couldn't be true.

Blinking away her tears she looked up. "No." She stood. "I wont believe it, not until I see it." Eli looked at her blue eyes, full of that white fire that kept the warrior going, even when she found herself floundering in a sea of agony. He studied her for a moment, then nodded.

"The faster the better, the longer you wait the less likely they will still fear you."

"I will pause for nothing." She spat then turned, to find a majestic white horse pressing itself through the trees. She turned back to Eli, stone faced.

"Thank you."

Eli nodded, stepping forward. He ran his finger along her mustache disguise and made a sign on her forehead.

"But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.

"They will soar high on wings like eagles.

"They will run and not grow weary

"They will walk and not faint." (Isaiah 40:31)

She blinked, and in that second she felt the weight of a full suit of leather armor heavy on her body. Eli nodded again.

Xena flipped up and over, twisting herself around at the last second to land perfectly in the glistening saddle. She looked terrifying. Mud and masculinity gone, she was now an erect female warrior full of desperate determination, radiating the power of Eli's blessing. The horse reared as she turned him sharply, looking back only once to see that Eli had disappeared.

She rode hard for two full days and nights, neither she nor the horse ever slowing or showing even a glimmer of fatigue. When she finally steered the horse into the army camp, the footmen scattered out of her way, and someone raised the alarm. She cast her eyes about the scattering men, afraid of what she might find.

Then, she saw it. Her worst fear come alive, Jianjun came out of his tent, eyebrows pressed together and jaw set. Xena held up her hand. She couldn't cry now, so her anger took over. She knew it to be true. Jianjun had never died, or at least his spirit hadn't been forced to go on to another fate. Somehow, he had used Xena's cursed attachment to this earth to power his own type of immortality, an ability to heal his own body of wounds as well as age, and even, as his presence now protested, to heal himself back from the dead. It was a sickening thought. This, clearly, was not Gabrielle. She'd been had.

Jianjun stopped dead in his tracks at her signal, clearly afraid to come any closer. Instead he turned to the soldiers that were gathering around him, as if for protection.

"What are you waiting for? It's an intruder! Attack!"

The men shuffled nervously into an offensive formation and slowly began to approach Xena.

"Have you forgotten your High Zuut so quickly, Aravt? I am no intruder, but Junjie, your champion!" Immediately the soldiers stopped and looked at each other. Another Aravt had appeared out of his tent, and was studying Xena closely. "You shouldn't have let a mustache fool you so well, Aravt Jianjun."

"You are aware, I'm sure, that it is against our law to allow women to join the army?" The other Aravt called out. Slowly, Xena turned to him.

"Are you complaining?" She asked in her husky, low voice. She raised an eyebrow.

There was a long moment of silence during which all eyes were riveted to Xena's impressive presence. All eyes except Jianjun, who was staring angrily at the other Aravt.

"You cannot possibly allow this woman to escape judgment! She deserted us!"

"That's not entirely true." Xena's head had already spun into action, forming her story against Jianjun. "I chased after your potential murderer, Jianjun."

"Impossible!" He roared, "I was never in danger!" Xena raised an eyebrow. "At least not this time." He corrected.

"Uh-huh. Well, I beg to differ. Anyone notice Jianjun's own leave of absence? I followed him, to save him from himself. If I hadn't interfered, he would have taken his own life."

"You lying bitch!" He screamed. Xena shrugged. It was close enough to the truth.

"Silence!" The other Aravt cut in. Jianjun slowly closed his mouth, which had been open to let in puffs of furious breaths. Xena smiled coolly.

The Aravt continued, "I think she has served this army well enough to deserve a respectful discharge. Even discounting this alleged suicide attempt, she has saved your neck many times on the battlefield, Jianjun. I have seen it. I say we let the Emperor decide."

Xena smirked wickedly at Jianjun, and slowly he forced himself to nod. She let out an evil snicker as he turned on his heel and flung himself back into his tent. She hated everything about him. The loathing boiled inside her, the foam nearly spilling out; but she kept her face cool.

"I guess I will be on my way then."

"I- think I need to send you with some men, just to make sure-"

"Oh I think I'll find the Emperor just fine on my own thanks."

Spotting her old horse Joxer tied to a pole, she untangled his tack and pulled him alongside her as she rode out of the camp, hearing behind her the desperate instructions of the Aravt as he tried to maintain authority.

"Follow her! She must be brought to the Emperor!" –a muddled jumble of soldiers arguing in undertones- "Alright then just follow behind her and report back to me! Insolent cowards."

Xena smirked as she pointed her horse in the direction of the capitol.