Foot of Mt. Amaro

“...I can arrange it for you and Gabrielle and all her peaceful little friends to just walk out here and no one gets hurt. And you and Gabrielle can live happily ever after,” Callisto said.

“What’s the catch?”

“Well, there is one little thing. You have to drop your sword and join Gabrielle in fulfilling a life of love and kindness.”

“Not interested . . . ,” Xena said. She continued to walk on by. She ignored Callisto. She wasn’t going to let her taunt her any longer. She blocked Callisto out of her mind totally.

Callisto knew it was a lost cause. Xena was determined to rescue Gabrielle. “You can’t just walk away from me and get away with it.” Callisto did a Xena type yell. She enjoyed herself. She was sadistically smiling all the way through the yell. She wanted the Romans to learn of their escape.

“It’s Xena! Find her!” A Roman soldier commanded.

The Prison Cell

Xena bursted into the prison. She smashed Roman guards to the right of her, to the left of her. She grabbed a key from one of the soldiers. Gabrielle approached the prison cell door. She was relieved that her friend had arrived. She knew that they weren’t going to die on crosses.

“Xena!” Gabrielle exclaimed. “I’m so glad to see you.”

After a brief hug, “That vision isn’t going to come true.” She freed Gabrielle and tossed the keys to another prisoner.

“Come on Eli, get up!” Xena smashed her sword against the chains that held Eli and Amarice to a post. Eli and Amarice got up. Amarice retrieved a sword from on the unconscious Roman soldiers. Everyone ran out the prison, hoping to find their way out. It wasn’t going to be easy task. The Romans were already alerted to their escape thanks to Callisto.

The Courtyard in the Prison

“They’re escaping! Stop them!” A Roman soldier shouted.

Roman soldiers came from all directions.

Amarice and Xena cleared a path for Gabrielle, Eli and the others to get out of the prison. Gabrielle made sure Eli and everyone was safe. Amarice followed. Xena and Gabrielle were the only ones that remained in the courtyard. More Roman soldiers entered the courtyard. Xena continued to fight her way through the Roman soldiers. Not sparring any of them.

Callisto stood on the steps watching Xena defeating her fate. She was angered. Not by Xena’s presence or her eagerness to defeat her fate, but something more personal. Something that not even Xena expected.

Gabrielle went to tell Xena that everyone was out, but stopped when she Callisto standing on the steps that over looked the courtyard. She was in shock. She couldn’t believe that Callisto was there. She was motionless.

Callisto yelled and threw the chakram directly at Xena.

Xena quickly turned around and caught the chakram. But the force of the throw knocked her to the ground. As she struggled to get up, a Roman guard came from behind and knocked her to the ground again.

Heaven

“No!” Gabrielle screamed. She jumped through the Gateway.

She was faced with the same images of the past and the future. They molded into one and created the crucifixion scene. That didn’t matter anymore.

The Prison Courtyard

Gabrielle grabbed a spear and threw it at an oncoming Roman soldier. It went into his chest and he fell the ground like a bag of rocks.

Xena struggled to get up. She couldn’t get focused. Her eyes couldn’t find the ground nor the sky. Her legs and arms weren’t acting to the commands she was giving them. Nothing was working.

After having realized what was about to happen, Gabrielle picked up Xena’s sword and rushed forward. She impaled a Roman soldier without thinking twice about it. It came as naturally to her as it would with her staff. She would make Ares proud.

“Get up!” Gabrielle shouted to Xena.

Xena moaned. She continued to struggle to get focused. She knew she wasn’t seriously injured. She just found it difficult to get up. “Gabrielle, go!”

“Go! Get up!” Gabrielle shouted at Xena. Gabrielle continued with her fight of fury. “We have to get out of here!”

Xena continued to struggle to gain her focus. Her body was starting to react to the commands she was giving it. It was a slow process, but she was regaining her focus. “Gabrielle get out!” She wanted Gabrielle out of harms way.

Callisto looked down on to Gabrielle, “Interesting.” She’d never seen Gabrielle react this way before. It was a change of events she wasn’t inspecting.

Gabrielle continued to fight. Something had overcome her. She was doing something she never thought she’d be able to do. She was angry. She felt hatred. She was killing not of out self defense, but out of hatred. She continued to fight.

“Gabrielle . . . NO!” Xena shouted. She pleaded with her friend to stop fighting, the killing. She didn’t want Gabrielle to kill to protect her, not again. This was wrong she thought. She wanted to stop it, but it was useless. As much as she wanted to prevent Gabrielle from killing like this, she couldn’t.

“We aren’t going to let this happen,” Gabrielle said. She continued to fight.

Xena continued to struggle to gain her focus. “Gabrielle STOP!”

Gabrielle continued to kill, hoping to give Xena enough time to regain her focus.

A Roman soldier knocked Gabrielle down. She tackled him. She jumped on top of him, head butting him several times before grabbing a knife. She repeatedly stabbed him in the chest. She only stopped after she realized what she had done. She spied the knife as if was foreign to her. The blood dripped from the knife. She then dropped the knife. She stared into the open space. Everything that she had just done, caught up with her within a few moments.

“We aren’t going to let this happen,” Xena said. She grabbed Gabrielle from behind and pulled her up. Xena grabbed her sword and the fractured chakram. Roman soldiers just missed them.

The two friends ran out of the prison and headed for the forest where the others were already at.

“NO!” Callisto screamed. “You aren’t going to get away from this Xena. Not this time.”