Transgressions VI: In Cold Blood

Xena, Gabrielle, and Aleta were camped just outside of the town of Styra. The city wasn't a sprawling metropolis like Athens, it didn't even compare in size to Thebes or Corinth, but the place was growing from its humble start as a simple fishing village on Euboea's western coast. When Xena had been jaunting off to Egypt with Ares, Gabrielle and Aleta had heard from travelers about a man who'd shown up in Styra spending money like King Midas on a holiday. Convinced that the man flaunting his gold was none other than Ander, Gabrielle and Aleta had set out at once. When Xena rejoined the women, she started running point on the mission to find the murderer and bring him to justice. The plan was simple. Go into town, get Ander, turn him over to the local authorities, or haul his ass back to Kamena herself. Still, Xena needed Aleta to make a positive identification.

They'd decided the best plan was to disguise his step-daughter so that Ander didn't catch a glimpse of her and bolt before Xena got her hands on him. Gabrielle pushed a wayward tuft of hair up under the headscarf she'd fitted onto Aleta's head. "How does she look?" Gabrielle asked as she stood back to take in her handiwork.

"Perfect, now let's get going." Xena answered without really looking, anxious to have the whole ordeal over with. Her mind was still plagued with questions about what she was going to do about Ares, her heart brimmed with anguish. Xena sighed, she couldn't afford to think about him right now. The warrior tamped down her thoughts and took a deep breath to quell the churning in her stomach. She'd deal with him later, she promised herself, then checked to make sure all of her weapons were in place. Satisfied, Xena turned to the other two women and managed a smile, "Let's do this."

Thirty minutes later, the ladies were milling about a casino where it was rumored that a manfitting Ander's description was blowing a lot of coin rolling bones. A percussion band thumped an erotic Persian beat. Scantily clad lute girls swayed their hips as they plucked their accompanying notes. The air was thick with smoke from the Arabian hookahs that were being shared in various darkened corners. Otherwise, the joint was surprisingly well lit. The drinks were watered down, Xena noticed, as she grabbed a complementary goblet of wine from a serving tray. She swigged it down quickly and placed the empty vessel on the next tray that passed by.

"Oooh look, they're showing the Labors of Hercules," Gabrielle cooed as they passed the placard for the casino's indoor theater.

"We're not here for the entertainment, Gabrielle." Xena rolled her eyes and pulled the bard away from the box office. The last thing Xena wanted was to be dragged to see a show about Ares' most despised brother. She was trying to get the god out of her mind, not sit through a showing of his family drama.

"I know, I know." Sometimes Xena just zapped the life out of everything, Gabrielle thought, as she allowed herself to be ushered away.

Boisterous laughter rang out over the music, catching their attention. An unkempt man of average size stood throwing dice at the head of a gaming table. The people around him roared heartily at his most recent comment.

"That's him, that's Ander." Aleta confirmed. Xena had to put a hand on the girl's forearm to stop her from charging at the man who had killed her only sister.

Xena studied Ander for a minute. He appeared to be enjoying his new found attention. There was nothing remarkable about the man. Xena guessed he'd probably spent most of his life ignored, a nobody. It angered her that he was frivolously throwing away the money that he'd killed Rina to get his grimy hands on. Xena had to fight the urge to pull her sword and lop his head off where he stood. It was men like Ander that gave validity to Ares' low opinion of humanity. Xena closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting the dark feeling of violence rush over her and out of her. When she opened her eyes, she'd calmed down.

"Gabrielle, take Aleta back to camp. I am going to talk to the local authorities and see if they'd be willing to assist. It looks like he's surmounted quite a fanbase here and I don't want to cause a scene in the casino. If I can get the local magistrates to escort him back to Kamena, that'll be for the best. If not, I am gonna ask them to keep him in custody until we can secure passage. I don't really want to haul his ass overland but if it comes to that, I will." Xena was afraid if they had to travel with him for too many nights that Aleta would find a way to kill him before they ever made it back to Kamena. She'd seen the murderous look in the girl's eyes when she pointed him out to her. Xena had felt the same about Cortese, the man who'd laid waste to her village and killed her brother, for years. Xena feared that murdering Ander would set the girl on a similar dark path to the one she'd walked. Once you crossed that line, there was no going back.

The warrior watched as Gabrielle led the girl out of the gaming room toward the casino exit. Then, Xena slinked back into the shadows. She had every intention of going to the authorities as she'd told Gabrielle. But she wanted to study Ander a little longer, memorize his body movements, just in case she found herself having to drag him all the way back to Kamena.

He won another round, his fellow gamblers offered him congratulatory pats on the back. Xena laughed wryly at Fate. She found it hard to believe in karma when this murderous son-of-a-bacchae was winning so handsomely with money he hadn't even earned. She wasn't sure if it was the injustice of it all or her desire to run him through that sickened her more, but she felt a wave of nausea pushing bile up into her throat.

The nausea worsened when she felt a familiar tingle electrifying her spine. She couldn't do him right now! He had to go! Maybe if she ignored him, he'd stay hidden in the aether, spy on her a bit, and then just go away. She kept her eyes fixed on Ander. Ridiculous! The bastard won again. He raked in more chips and added them to his impossibly huge stack. Xena smiled wickedly when she realized just how much she was about to change his luck.

"What pleases you so devilishly, my dear?" Ares asked, hoping that the graceful curve of her lips and the dark look that passed across her eyes were indicators that she was pleased to see him.

Shit! Her body had betrayed her again. She hadn't even realized she'd been grinning over her thoughts of bringing Ander to justice. But she had, and now Ares thought she'd been smiling because he had showed up. "Not you, it that's what you're thinking. Look, I'm kinda busy here, I don't have time to fight with you."

Ares licked his lips. "Ok, so still mad at me."

Xena whipped her neck around. "What part of I am busy did you not pick up on?"

"I shouldn't have said what I said the other day." He apologized without really apologizing. Typical Ares.

"Ares, please, not right now." Xena glanced back at the gaming table. Ander was raking in his winnings, preparing to leave the table. She couldn't afford to lose sight of him. "I'm working."

"Working?" Ares looked across the casino, following her eye line. What could that insignificant mortal possible have done to upset Xena? Then it hit him. She had caught a lead on the man who had killed that tavern whore. "I see, he's the one?"

Xena sighed at Ares' description of Rina as a tavern whore but couldn't waste the energy dealing with that at that moment. "Yes, now, if you'll excuse me," Xena followed Ander as he headed toward the cash cage.

Xena felt Ares disappear into the aether. Her soul shuddered and her stomach lurched again.

When Ander exchanged his chips for coins, he'd had a decidedly profitable payday. Instead of the one bag of gold, he now had four purses dangling from his belt. Xena also noted the dagger that he had resting on his hip, as well. She wondered if that was his only weapon.

Xena was surprised when Ander stepped out onto the streets. She assumed the casino would have provided him room and board, considering the amount of coin he was playing with. Plus, it was just stupid to walk down the street with that much gold. She didn't care if it was in the light of day. When he turned down a back alley, Xena was sure that he'd made her. She held back and edged against the corner of the building. Craning her neck around, she peeked down the alleyway and saw him whip out his pecker and take a piss. That's why he'd stepped off the beaten path, she thought, and rolled her eyes.

Xena felt the atmosphere crackling again. She quickly searched for Ares. Why couldn't he get a clue? She didn't have time to deal with Ander and him. She scanned her immediate vicinity. She didn't find him. Was he still hiding in the void? She couldn't afford to worry over him right now. Keeping Ander's trail was more important. Xena looked back down the alley. To her astonishment, Ares had Ander in a death grip. Ares' right hand was clenched like a vise around Ander's throat. The murderer's feet kicked a full foot of the ground. The god laughed mercilessly at the man's useless struggling. Xena wanted to scream out for Ares to stop. She knew it was murder. She knew it was wrong. But even though it was murder, somehow, it felt like justice. Xena watched as Ander's legs stopped kicking and with a last fateful twitch he fell limp in Ares' powerful hand. The same hand that had soothed her burned skin, the same hand that had gently caressed her pussy to orgasam. A hand as deft in violence as it was in love. Ares looked down the alleyway toward Xena and mouthed, "you're welcome". He dropped the corpse coldly into his own piss and disappeared into thin air.

Xena just shook her head. At a loss. Why hadn't she stopped him? He had murdered a man in cold blood and she'd just watched. And how could she be mad at him for what she herself had considered doing? Had he done it because he knew she wouldn't? Couldn't? Had he done it because he knew that in her heart of hearts that it was what she wanted to do? Did he really know her soul that well? Xena looked at Ander lying there, dead, gold coins littered the ground. They must have burst out of the pouches when his body hit the dirt. Was it justice? Was it Fate? He'd murdered Rina for gold, broken her neck and left her dead in an outhouse and now here he was killed in a chokehold by the very god who'd given Rina the coin, and left for dead in his own urine, his ill-gotten money scattered about his body. There was a time Xena would have considered this justice, but not any longer. He should have stood trial, been judged by the magistrates of Kamena. But in the back of her head she could hear a little voice telling her that they probably would have let him off. No one in Kamena had seemed that interested in finding Rina's killer to begin with. Was murder the only way to achieve justice in such a situation? Maybe it was. The thought opened an old hole in her soul. She knew it was dishonorable but she left his body laying in the street. She felt a darkness creeping in, taunting her, calling to her in Callisto's shrill screaming laughter. Xena ran as she felt the blackness chasing her. She couldn't let it catch her. She barely registered Gabrielle and Aleta as she blew by them on the trail.

"Xena?" Gabrielle called. By the gods, something was wrong. Something had happened. Something terrible. "Come on," the bard called to Aleta as they both sprinted to catch up with the Warrior Princess.

When they made it back to camp, Gabrielle found Xena bent over some shrubbery, emptying the contents of her stomach. "What could have upset her this much?"

Ares! It had to be Ares, Gabrielle thought. What had he done now? How was she going to fix it? Fix Xena, this time?