Before long, they could hear Krellus and his thugs discussing the best way to get their ransom for the young Cora.

Gabrielle whispered, "I don't see her, Xena."

"Oh, she's there alright," Xena whispered back confidently.

"But where?"

Xena searched the campsite with her trained eyes and suddenly pointed to a smaller tent. "There!"

"How do you know?"

"I just do, must be some skill I acquired as a warlord."

"Who knew that would come in handy huh?" Gabrielle let out a little giggle, causing the warrior to smile.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?"

"Yeah, I'm ready. What's the plan?"

Xena stood up and began walking into the campsite, Gabrielle scrambled behind her to catch up. Xena walked up behind the men at the campfire, "Well hello boys."

All of the bandits whirled around with shocked expressions, "Its Xena!"

"It's me alright," Xena answered, giving her taunting laugh. "Now, where's the girl?"

"Seems she's right behind you," one of the men blurted out, motioning towards Gabrielle and laughing.

"Oh come on, you know who I'm talking about. The Suryllus girl, must be worth quite a bit for you fine gentlemen to go through all the trouble of getting her."

Krellus walked up with a defiant smile on his face. "Well of course, Xena. I wouldn't take such a challenge on unless it was actually going to be worth all of the trouble."

Xena unsheathed her sword and swung it end over end, "You'll never change, Krellus."

Krellus picked up a sword from a nearby rock and began walking towards Gabrielle. "And yet, I see you've changed. Would this innocent looking child have something to do with that?" He asked, pointing his sword at Gabrielle.

Xena smacked his sword away with hers and stepped in between the two. "Oh she's not a child, she's my friend."

Krellus began to laugh, "Xena, the mighty warrior princess, actually has a friend? I don't believe it!"

"Well believe it," Gabrielle chimed in, lifting her staff into her fighting stance.

"Oh and she even has her own little staff? How cute," he taunted. "Don't let them get the girl!" He ordered his men. Xena took a step forward and the fight was on.

Krellus stayed back to see what kind of damage the five measly men he had would do against these women. The two strongest men naturally went for Xena, as the other three thought they would overtake Gabrielle in no time. The mighty Amazon princess dealt out a beating to remember with her trusty staff, bravely taking on all three men. Xena, easily handling the two men attacking her, managed to steal a glance at the young girl and admire her drive.

Gabrielle, knocking the last man defenseless, looked at the warrior princess with an accomplished smile. Her smile quickly turned into concern when she saw Krellus crack his whip around Xena's throat, leaving her scratching to get free. With a crooked smile, he yanked back as hard as he could, launching her onto her back, choking her.

"LET HER GO!" Gabrielle screamed.

"Or else what?"

She charged at him, picking up Xena's sword on the way.

"What are you going to do, kill me?" He taunted.

She continued charging, saying nothing. In one fluid motion, she jumped and cut the whip, wielding the sword in her left hand, and cracked him in the side with her staff, which she wielded in her right hand. Xena gasped for air as she unwound the whip from her neck. Krellus was holding his side, laughing, "I see the little girl has a few tricks up her sleeve after all, eh, Xena?"

Holding her throat, Xena replied, "You have no idea." Yet, in the back of her mind she couldn't help but wonder where Gabrielle had learned how to do that.

He seemed to have forgotten that Gabrielle was still standing beside him. Seeing that he was distracted with Xena, she cracked him in the back of his head with her staff, knocking him to the ground unconscious. She then quickly ran to the aid of her fallen warrior, helping her to her feet.

"I owe you one," she said with a weak smile.

"Xena, you don't owe me anything, I'm just glad I was here." She was trying to smile, but Xena could see the utter look of concern in her eyes.

"I'm fine, Gabrielle, really I am," she was being as reassuring as she could. "We should tie him up, before he wakes up," she nodded towards the unconscious warlord.

"If you're sure you're fine," Gabrielle said hesitantly.

"I'm sure."

Gabrielle slowly released the warrior from her nurturing grip and began to hog tie Krellus. "Is this good enough?"

Xena was making her way towards Argo so she had something to tie their prisoner to. "Looks good to me, now go get the girl so we can get out of here."

Gabrielle nodded and turned quickly back towards the camp in search of the girl. She aimed for the small tent Xena had pointed out, faithful that the girl would be there. She cautiously opened the entrance to the tent with her staff at the ready. When she looked in, it was empty, aside from a cot and a couple baskets. "Cora?" She looked in all of the baskets, but didn't find her. She quickly took off to search the other two tents.

Meanwhile, Xena had successfully tied Krellus to Argo and was applying some healing ointment to her neck. She heard some scrambling behind her, and stood up a little straighter. The men had regained their footing and were ready for another attack. One of the men took a swing while Xena's back was turned, thinking he'd get the best of her. Unfortunately for him, she ducked and spun around, taking hold of his arm and throwing him to the ground. "Nice try," she said as she faced the other men. "Who's next?"

The men exchanged glances and all charged her at once. She dealt blow after blow and kick after kick until the men lay in a crumpled heap on the ground before her. "Thanks for the workout boys," she said stepping over them.

Gabrielle had searched all the tents and come up with nothing. As she made her way back to tell Xena the bad news, she noticed the pile of men and couldn't help but laugh. "Decided to have some fun while I was gone I see."

"Yeah well, I got bored. Where's the girl?" She looked behind Gabrielle.

"She's not here Xena. I checked all of the tents and all around the campsite, there's no sign of her."

"Huh," Xena paused to think, "I guess we'll have to wait for sleeping beauty to get up and tell us what they did with her."

"I guess so," Gabrielle said as she approached her. "Are you ok?" She said, gently tilting her chin up to see the sore on the warrior's neck, which was already developing a dark purple bruise.

"I'm fine Gabrielle," she said softly, "I already put some healing ointment on it. Guess it really was a good thing you came." She took Gabrielle's hand from her chin and looked her in the eyes. "By the way, that was some serious skill you whipped out, where'd that come from?"

Gabrielle smiled, "I guess from watching you. I thought you were going to die if I didn't do anything, and that's all I could think about. I didn't really know what I was going to do until I did it."

"Well," Xena said raising an eyebrow, "it was pretty hot." A cute smile spread across her face.

"Oh yeah?" Gabrielle said with a quick lift of her eyebrows.

Just then, a groan came from behind them. "Well good morning, so nice of you to join us again, Krellus."

"Ugh, my head! What hit me?" Gabrielle smiled and tilted her staff out to her side. "You did this?!" he asked, astonished. "Well, I must admit I'm slightly impressed."

"You should be, she's full of surprises," Xena said, "now Krellus, what did you do with the girl?"

"Well Xena, I don't see why I should give you the details."

"Oh, I don't really think you're in any position not to tell me."

"I beg to differ. You see, Xena, I am in control here."

"How do you figure?"

"I have the information you need to save the girl. If I don't give you that information, you're not going to find her."

"I'm sure I'll find her, one way or another," she growled, "but if you don't cooperate, I don't think you'll make it." She pulled her sword and aimed it at his throat, "So...what'll it be?"

"Well, I guess I'll just cooperate then," he said in a condescending manner, "off towards the East Mountains."

"There, that wasn't so hard was it?" she asked sarcastically.

"Not at all," he said, hiding a smirk from them.