Disclaimer: “Xena: Warrior Princess” and its characters based in the series are copyrighted to Studios USA and Renaissance Pictures. This is for entertainment only and cannot be sold. I retain the copyright to the story plot only. Please do not upload this story or link to it without the written permission of the author.
Rating: PG-13 for violence.
Subtext: If there is subtext, it’s coincidental.
Violence: Nothing more than what is in the show itself, maybe a little harsher. Okay, a little more gory.
Synopsis: Xena and Gabrielle get a second chance at life, but they first must defeat Callisto.
Author’s Note: This is my take on how they are going to bring them back from the land of the dead.
Story Disclaimer: While Xena and Gabrielle’s lives were restored, Xena’s chakram couldn’t be saved.

It was an ominous scene. This was their destined fate. It was fore told to them. They should have known they couldn’t change their destiny. It wasn’t their time. It wasn’t supposed to happen.

Their spirits arose from their battered bodies. Their bodies were all that remained on the earth this day. They arose together. Their spirits joined together and then disappeared into a spiritual abyss of light.

Together, they walked down a corridor filled with past and future lives. Though they maybe separated, they would always be forever connected. It was a bright place, filled with many colors. It was to be place of comfort, no one need be afraid of this place.

“Ah, we meet again,” a voice said from behind. The woman was dressed in a white clothe. She was an angel.

One of the figures turned around.

“Xena. It was expected that you would try to beat your destiny. You could have succeeded at this attempt, if weren’t for the ‘agent of light’,” Alti smirked.

“Alti . . . ,” Xena said. She was surprised to find Alti here, in this place. Even she thought she wouldn’t end help here. People like her, don’t end up in the places like this. This was a serene land where everyone was at peace with them. Xena didn’t feel at peace. There was something left undone.

“Agent of Light?” Gabrielle asked.

“She means Callisto,” Xena said looking at Gabrielle. She turned to look directly at Alti. She stared with her ice-cold blue eyes into Alti’s own eyes. Two persons, destined to battle each other for eternity.

“Callisto . . . sent by the Lord of Hell to complete a mission. Should she have succeeded in her mission, she would have been able to return to the land of the living and become a powerful force for her Lord.”

“I’m surprised you weren’t with her. You like power so much or was the offer not given to you,” Xena quirked.

“She failed her mission. Her mission was to make you an agent of her lord and to make Caesar an agent as well. She wasn’t supposed to harm you. She broke your back and Caesar died at the hand of his loyal friend, Brutus,” Alti proclaimed.

“It means nothing now,” Xena said. It was too late.

“It means everything Xena,” Alti said. “You can have a second chance. The Lord has spoken. Callisto’s thirst for revenge has made it possible.”

“Why are you so willing to help us?” Xena asked. She was unsure of this sudden change in Alti. Or maybe it was a vile attempt to lure her into some sort of battle so that Alti may gain her powers back. Xena was uncertain of this. She didn’t know what to make of it. She decided not to listen to Alti’s spiel anymore.

“Because it wasn’t your time,” Alti said. She disappeared through a cloud.

“You don’t really believe her. Do you?” Gabrielle asked.

“What do you think?” Xena asked her young friend. Xena was being her normal untrusting self. This was a typical characteristic of the Warrior Princess. If she had too much trust in people, she would be dead. Many of her friends and comrades have betrayed her. Some lived to tell about it, while others didn’t. Their spirits disappeared.

The Forest

“We have to go back,” Amarice said. She looked back toward the prison, wanting to go back for her friends. “If they aren’t behind us, then they were captured. If we go back, we’ll suffer the same as they did,” Eli warned. He continued on ahead, but he never looked back.

“You can’t be certain they were captured,” Amarice said.

“You can’t be certain that they weren’t,” argued Eli.

Amarice left the group and headed back to the prison. She was going to find out for sure what happened to her friends. If she had too, she would risk her life to save them. She owed them that much. Gabrielle saved her life twice and Xena has done the same thing.

Heaven

“Where are we?” Gabrielle asked. “This place reminds me of Illusia.”

“I don’t think this is Illusia,” Xena said. “I don’t hear music.” Xena was looking around, and everything about this place was serene.

“The Elysian Fields then,” Gabrielle said.

“This place is different,” Xena said.

The bright colored walls of the corridors reminded a soul of the fruits of life. This place was to make one feel protected from the spoils and temptations of life. Each color represented a different aspect of life. From certain ribbons of color, one could see his or her own life span. It was to serve as a reminder of what good they did while they were living. This place was to make them not want to miss their lives as they existed on Earth. Even in this place, the dead could hear the living thoughts of mortals.

“Different is right,” Alti said.

“I find it hard to believe that you would end up here,” Xena said. “Are you here to help or to just torment?”

“The same could be said for you Xena. You can change the fate of yesterday. It wasn’t your time,” Alti proclaimed.

“Ain’t nothing like being in the wrong place at the wrong time, huh?” Xena commented. She continued to walk ahead. She wanted nothing of Alti. For the first time, she actually seemed at peace with herself. She doesn’t feel totally cleansed of her misdeeds as a warlord, but is more at peace with herself. Something of which was never there before. She didn’t want to give up that feeling she had.

Gabrielle stayed behind. For some reason, she felt she could trust Alti. Perhaps, she it was because she wanted to find out why she was willing to go off her path to protect Xena. She was contemplating her ‘way’.

“Don’t you want to you know?” Alti asked. She appeared in front of Xena. Xena stopped. “Know what?” “How to change your fate. It wasn’t written,” Alti said. She moved her hand to open a window that looks down onto the Earth. They can see what it is going on. “This lets you view the world as you used to know it. Everyone you know, everyone you don’t know. Guardians of the ‘light’ you are. Your friends are heading for trouble soon.”

“What’s still unwritten . . . ,” Xena said.

“You can erase,” Gabrielle said.

“If you stay here, your friends will suffer,” Alti said. She opened another portal. “You can change it. However, if you go through this portal, there is no telling where you’ll end up. You could end up as a soldier, yourself, Gabrielle, or one of the prisoners . . . That is the price for the ‘Gateway to the Past’. It is yours for the taking.”

The Prison

“What do you think you are doing?” Eli asked Amarice. He had followed her, perhaps he wanted to help the two women that have saved his life on a number of occasions. He felt he owed it to them.

“I’m going to get them,” Amarice said. She headed for the prison yard with great determination. She knew she had a job to do, and she was going to do it.

Eli took a deep breath and shrugged his shoulders. He wasn’t going to allow her to do this alone. He owed Xena and Gabrielle at least that much. “It’s going to be guarded.”

“I can handle it,” Amarice said. “I’m an amazon you know.”

“Maybe so,” Eli said. “Are you willing to risk your life for them?”

“Wouldn’t you?” Amarice asked. She glared at Eli. She was waiting for him to suddenly back down like the wimp he was. She didn’t have a whole faith in his way. She didn’t buy the mumbo jumbo about love being an all-powerful source.

Eli gave no response, for it wasn’t his ‘way’.

Amarice and Eli arrived at the prison. It was guarded. It was obvious that the Romans were looking for them. Amarice and Eli snuck into the prison and found what they had hoped they wouldn’t. They found Xena and Gabrielle, hanging from the crosses. The Romans were on guard to thwart any rescue attempt.

“It is no use,” Eli said.

“They couldn’t have died that quickly. There is still a chance,” Amarice said. She was about over a wall when she stopped in her tracks. Eli was close behind her. He nearly walked into her. Amarice saw a figure standing before her. She recognized the person.

“We have to go,” Eli said. He saw the figure too. “Now.” He sensed an evil presence. He knew this person as well. He knew what this person was and wanted no part of it.

“I think you are right,” Amarice said. She hasn’t seen this figure in quite sometime. It brought back painful memories of her past.

The figure turned to look at Amarice and Eli. The figure glared at them. Amarice and Eli quickly turned and left the prison.

Heaven

“We can change it,” Gabrielle said. “All of it.”

“All of it?” Xena asked. “Maybe it’s not meant to be changed.”

“Alti said it herself. Callisto changed it when she threw the chakram and hit you.”

“But if I or you or both of us go back, there is no telling where we’ll end up.” Xena began to pace.

“We don’t have much of a choice. Eli and Amarice will suffer if we don’t go back,” Gabrielle said. She was sure they could change it.

“And how . . . ,” Xena paused. She made up her mind. She decided if they were given the chance to change their fates, she would. She would change all of it.

She pushed Gabrielle aside.

“What are you doing?” Gabrielle asked. “Going back,” Xena said. This was something she had to do alone.

“Without me?” Gabrielle asked. She didn’t like this. “We are supposed to do this together.”

“If I succeed, then you will disappear from here. No sense in both of us risking it. That way if I fail, you can come back and . . . ” Xena stopped herself short of completing her sentence. She wasn’t going to allow Gabrielle to repeat what she did. She didn’t want Gabrielle to kill again. “Promise me you won’t follow.” She looked at Gabrielle. That was that needed be said from the Warrior Princess.

“I can’t promise. I’d still do it again,” Gabrielle said. “I would still choose the way of friendship. I wouldn’t change that for anything,” Gabrielle said. “Be careful.” Gabrielle knew that Xena was going to save them. She also knew her friend well enough to know that Xena won’t let take the lives of the soldiers again. Xena was again, protecting her from the monster that results in all of us. That animal that made people tremble at the mere mention of Xena. She remembered something that Xena had said once. “Don’t let the light go out . . . I couldn’t stand the darkness that would follow.” Perhaps Xena was right. Maybe she’s trying to protect me from that darkness, Gabrielle thought to herself

The two friends gave each other one last look before Xena jumped through the Gateway to the Past.

It was a rush of mystical magic and light. It provided a glimpse of what was and what was to become. The colors that Xena saw on her journey were all represented in this tunnel. Everything about them was there. All things were joined in a matter of seconds and the journey began. The final sequence ended with a view of their deaths. It was still part of their fate. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but it would be someday.