PART4

Xenia would never, ever neglect her sacred duty. She wandered around her mother for a while. While her mother was in a meeting, talking and spending time with her people, Xenia always made moves as if she wanted to talk about this issue, but she could not get the opportunity to talk to her mother.

One morning, while she was sitting quietly with her mother at breakfast, she suddenly asked:

"Mom, why don't you want to see Xena again?"

There was silence for a while. Gabrielle took a deep breath and placed the fork in her hand on the table.

"Look, my child," she said with deep sadness in her eyes, "I had to cremate Xena with my own hands. They handed over her severed head to me. You have no idea what it can do to a person to see someone you love so much in this state, and I hope it doesn't happen, because it's a terrible feeling that affects every cell of you until you die. And there is no way to make up for this pain. Do you understand me?"

Even though Xenia couldn't fully understand what her mother was saying, she knew how upset she was.

"But from today on, you don't have to worry anymore, mom, I found Xena," said Xenia.

She said these sentences so confidently that Gabrielle looked at her with surprise that she could speak like this, because this topic was not really something to make fun of and even joking, lying or dreaming about. It would make Gabrielle sad. Her daughter must have known this. She thought her daughter was kind of dreaming for her mother to be happy, and maybe she believed in this dream herself.

"I think I've told my daughter too much about Xena, and she's making up things in her head because of all of this," she thought.

Then she took her daughter's hands and looked into her eyes.

"Look, my child, I don't want you to talk about this again. Please understand my pain and don't go over this pain and make my wound bleed more," Gabrielle said.

Xenia shook her head helplessly, but there had to be a way to convince her mother and bring her together with that woman, but how? She had to think about it. Should she ask someone for help? How could she bring them together? Maybe she could ask someone for help. Maybe someone her mother respects or listened to.

Moreover, Xena didn't seem to want to get together with Gabrielle either. But she had to find out what was preventing them from getting together and solve it as soon as possible. At that moment, she did not dwell on this issue any further, leaving her mother alone with her thoughts and went out into the garden.

In the garden little blonde haired Luna was looking at her with a smile

"Hello little girl," Xenia said, waving at her.

"Hello," the girl giggled and came over to Xenia.

"Will you play games with me?"

"Of course! What do you want to play?"

While Xenia was thinking that the little girl would want to bring one of her rag dolls and play house, she suddenly spoke:

"Do you like horses?" asked the little girl.

"Yes, a lot."

"I like them, too. Then let's get on our horses and fight."

"How?"

"Let's fight against the evil ones. How about you be a great warrior and I will be your helper, how about we both fight against all the evil ones and protect the good and the weak?"

Xenia laughed: "Why not, it would be great."

"Come on, go find yourself a stick, let's fight together!"

At that time, Gabriel was looking out the window and watching the girls playing happily. She thought about how beautiful youth was and how beautiful life seemed to them. She had a very important matter to attend to right now. She was worried about how the Persian king would welcome them. To establish peace between them and the Persian king, they had a chest prepared containing beautiful gifts, including the best foods of Caria, fabrics and arts. They also put beautiful jewelry made of rubies, emeralds, gold and silver in the chest.

Gabrielle had heard that the Persian king gave importance to ornaments and jewelry. So she hoped the king would like it. The convoy that would take the gift chest would set out the next day. While thinking about these, Gabriel suddenly remembered what she had said to Xenia.

This move she made took Gabriel back to the past.

It was really not possible for Gabrielle to forget that terrible sight. She had already tried everything imaginable, including calming herbs and incense, for a long time. In fact, she drank wine for days and passed out until the morning, got up and drank wine again and passed out again, but she could not get rid of this sadness from herself. Why didn't she follow Xena? Xena had followed her into hell. She had come all the way to Tartarus. But Gabrielle didn't die with Xena.

Sometimes she would feel guilty about this and cry. Even though years had passed, Gabriel still could not be the lively, excited and energetic Gabriel she once was. She turned into a completely different person after this incident.

But actually the truth, Gabrielle's truth, was different. Nobody knew this:

On the day of the incident, Xena was very drunk while taking Akemi's ashes away. Killing her beloved friend with her own hands was unbearable. She drank too much wine to drown her sadness and focused on performing the ritual Akemi asked her for, but it was impossible for her to do it with a sober mind. She could neither see her surroundings nor realize what she was experiencing. As the people taunted her, Akemi's ashes fell to the ground and Xena went crazy with this incident. There was a brawl there due to the influence of drunkenness, but Xena did not remember exactly what happened there.

JAPA, 20 YEARS AGO

Xena helping Akemi and causing Yodoshi to die interrupted all plans, and for this reason Yodoshi felt an endless grudge and hatred towards Xena. He was ready to go to any lengths to take revenge for this. Because he was a complete psychopath.

Akemi had taken revenge for what he had put his family and children through, but for Yodoshi, the real revenge was definitely starting now. He should have made Akemi's accomplice, Xena, regret doing this. It was a complete lie that 40,000 people died in the fight that Xena started after Akemi died that night. Because it was absolutely impossible for a village of 40 thousand people to be destroyed in such a small fight anf fire.

But to convince Xena that this was happening, they made her see visions. Because Yodoshi had such powers. Then he made Gabrielle see the same vision. After Xena and Gabrielle came to Japa, they completely moved away from reality. Their sleeping bodies were shown things that did not actually exist. They lived an imaginary story entirely in a world of delusion.

In fact, Xena did not die, her head was not cut off, and her body was not killed with thousands of arrows. These were all delusions that Yodoshi showed to Gabriel, asking her to accept this incident in this way and let go of Xena.

While Gabriel, in pain, took the dead body of her beloved with her, Yodoshi took the unconscious Xena to his own reign. He first broke Xena's mental balance. Xena no longer remembered anything, and although she sometimes had fluctuations, she was no longer aware of either her abilities or her power. As revenge, he made her his geisha. He used her for his personal service and even subjected her to very bad torture and harmed her. Physically and spiritually,

Xena was all alone and helpless. In fact, she did not even realize that she was serving a very cruel and cruel ruler. He had a strangely sad facial expression and a helpless attitude. Although he had many servants, he especially assigned Xena to the most difficult jobs. For example, he starved her for days, sometimes made her work for hours under the sun, and made her perform all kinds of services.

He punished her by giving her only water for days. That magnificent, proud, powerful warrior had been a toy in the hands of such a cruel person for 20 years. If she wanted to run away, she had no idea where to go or what to do. She couldn't think of anything, couldn't explain anything. Over time, she became unable to speak and became so exhausted and sick that she could no longer do the work Yodoshi wanted. Xena was brutally punished because she could not do the difficult work that Yodoshi wanted due to her age and weakness. Then one day, a great god destroyed Yodoshi as punishment for his cruelty. So he released Xena and all the other servants. They were poor servants who had been treated as badly, though not as badly as Xena.

Xena had actually been a servant and slave for years, even though there was no punishment she had to suffer. She was free now, but she had no idea where to go or what to do. All she thought about was Gabrielle. She remembered her. Her smile, the warmth in her eyes. The strength of being able to meet her again one day kept Xena alive. She endured all kinds of difficulties for this. All she could think of was her beloved Gabrielle. A voice and a light to the depths of her heart brought her this far. She was hungry, thirsty and weak on the roads. She was sometimes bullied by thugs. But she still had a strong feeling in her heart that she should continue on her way. When she arrived in the Carian lands, she almost fainted from exhaustion. When she finally met Xenia, her mind was filled with blurry images and emotions.

When Xenia told her about Gabrielle, her heart trembled with excitement. She wanted so badly to see her and hug her tightly. But she didn't want her to see her like this. She wanted Gabrielle to remember her well as a great warrior, strong and talented. She didn't have the strength or ability to appear in front of Gabrielle right now with this helpless and sick appearance. Moreover, she could not speak. She couldn't see as well as before. Sometimes her thoughts would go back and forth and her mind would stop at that moment. I guess things needed time to get better. Maybe it would never get better, it would get worse, who would have known?

What Xena went through was not easy at all. There were times when her bones were broken due to the difficulties she went through and the beatings she received, and even when she couldn't sleep at night because of the pai. None of this could be made up for, but maybe she could pull herself together and be reunited with her beloved Gabrielle. She had walked long distances in the hope of this.

"Gabrielle" she said to herself.

"Oh Gabrielle… I've been waiting to see you just once. They beat me a lot. They broke my bones. I vomited blood but I didn't die. I lived. I lived just to see you one more time. I'm coming to meet you. Wait for me, Gabrielle…"