It was then that she spotted the goddess. She hadn't noticed Xena's entrance yet, and was anxiously staring at Gabrielle, as if she could will her actions with only her eyes. A movement drew Xena's eyes back to Gabrielle, and she saw her friend raise the chalice towards her lips.
In that moment, Xena knew she couldn't let her friend drink from that cup. It was as if her very soul cried out to stop her. So, with a burst of energy, Xena made her entrance, moving forward with a speed most mortals would never accomplish.
"Gabrielle! I'm sorry I kept you waiting so long. You wouldn't believe the trouble I ran into getting here."
Xena had Gabrielle's attention, but the bemused look on her face worried Xena more.
"Excuse me, but do I know you?"
Gabrielle didn't know what to think. This woman, standing so boldly in front of her, seemed familiar somehow, and yet not, all the same. Anxiously, she turned towards Artemis, seeking her council as she had since the river.
"No Gabrielle." Artemis replied quickly. "You don't know this woman."
No! She can't be Xena's friend, the goddess silently wailed. I won't let her take my love away. I swear it, she thought determindly to herself.
"Nor will you want to know her, love. This is Xena, Gabrielle. A murderess of boudless porportions. She has laid waste to whole villages, and slain men for no other reason than looking at her wrong."
Artemis turned triumphantly to look at the shocked Xena.
"She is beneath contempt, Gabrielle. Not worthy to clean your boots."
Xena was startled at first by Artemis' unprovoked attack upon her character, but she noticed the terms of affection the goddess casually spoke, and understanding took root immediately. Gabrielle was looking at Artemis with a completley horrified expression. She glanced back and forth between the goddess and Xena, as if trying to decide the truth. But Xena wasn't about to give in without a fight.
"By the gods, Gabrielle! It's me, your best friend, Xena. We were supposed to meet here days ago, after your visit to Perdicus, but I was delayed. You remember, don't you?"
Xena stepped forward to emphasize her closeness to her friend, but Gabrielle took a wary step back at the same time.
"You're my best friend? No! That cannot be! Artemis is my best friend. And who is Perdicus? Why was I visiting him?"
Artemis gloated with pleasure at the brief downtrodden look on Xena's face with Gabrielle's words. Artemis felt far superior to the warrior princess in that moment. She forgot she was dealing with a goddess, she smugly thought to herself. No one can stop me. Not even Xena.
Gabrielle's mind was a tumult of confusion. Xena's words seemed to echo inside her, but none found familiarity in her mind.
"No Gabrielle! She's lying. She wants to use you to hurt me. You won't let her get away with that, now will you?"
Artemis tried pressing home her point with what she figured was a final blow.
"Look carefully, my love. Listen not to me, but the men she's killed, as they step from the past to proclaim her shame."
Artemis regally rose her arm and pointed to the darkest, dankest area of the temple, where shadows lingered no matter the time. From that darkness, a line of bloody spirits stepped forth, walking in an agonizingly slow line between the silent Xena and the disturbed Gabrielle.
As each one passed, it would point accusingly at Xena, and proclaim her intent to cause death. Man after man passed, until the line seemed endless. Through it all, Xena stood impassive, not looking at her accusers, but the distressed face of her best friend, Gabrielle.
Artemis watched the play of emotions cross her new lovers face, and felt the beginnings of victory race thru her body. Finally, after Gabrielle looked ready to collapse in tears, Artemis ended the line. Many of the men brought forth were not even real, but Gabrielle need not know that, Artemis mused wickedly.
Gabrielle's wimpers were almost inaudible, but Xena heard them. Her look at the ecstatic goddess could have frozen stone. But Artemis ignored her.
"There. You see? She wants nothing more than to hurt us, dearest. We can't let her do her evil upon us. Drink the springwater, Gabrielle. Save yourself before she can harm you too."
Gabrielle backed away and started to raise the chalice to her lips, but Xena's words stopped her cold.
"The Gabrielle I used to know was a fair judge of those she met. She would never make a decision based on one side of a story. If you were that same woman, you would allow me to tell my part, and then decide."
Gabrielle stared at Xena for a long moment. Slowly, she lowered the cup away again.
"All right. Tell your tale. But do not attempt to lie to me. I will know if it you lie."
Xena's replying smile was one filled with memories.
"Yes, you would. You've always known when I've lied. That much is true. But while you think on that, consider this. Can you say the same for your companion? Can you tell if she is lying to you or not?"
Gabrielle looked thoughtful for a moment as she stared at the silent goddess. But she soon returned her attention to Xena as, from the beginning, she retold her story. She told of the time she lusted for blood, openly showing her grief over her own actions. She told of meeting Hercules, and how he changed her life. Then with a voice softened by caring, she retold of her first meeting with Gabrielle in her village, and how she had helped Xena overcome the warlord Draco. At this point, Gabrielle made as if to stop Xena's discourse, but Xena raced to finish before she could loose her friends attention altogether.
"Gabrielle, if you don't remember the laughter, the tears or the adventures we shared, you must remember Perdicus. I cannot believe you've forgotten him."
Gabrielle was a little put-off at that.
"You said that name before. Who is he? What is he to me?"
Xena stepped forward until she and Gabrielle were almost eye to eye.
"Gabrielle, Perdicus was your hsuband." Xena said softly.
"One year ago, the day after your wedding, he was killed by the blade of my enemy. Together, we tried to bring the woman responsible to justice. You loved Perdicus deeply, and you grieved a long time for his loss. I almost lost you then, Gabrielle. Don't say that after all we've been through, I'm going to loose you now."
Gabrielle could hear Xena's heart in those words. Wonderingly, she looked up into Xena's intense blue eyes and saw tears form silently there. A tiny memory, one so buried it had to dig it's way to the surface, appeared before Gabrielle. It was Xena, leaning over her as she gasped to take a life giving breath.
Tears had sparkled in her eye then, as well. On the heels of that thought, another emerged, reminding Gabrielle of the time Xena had died, and she had to fight one of her fellow amazons for the ambrosia to bring Xena back to life. Suddenly, she remembered the cup in her hand. Looking at it, memories started to surface, but indecision still warred within her.
"Gabrielle, this is our judgement day. You must choose how our lives will continue from this point. You are my family. I will abide by whatever decision you make. But follow your heart. It will never lead you wrong."
Xena stepped back to give Gabrielle more space, but the gap was immediately filled by Artemis as she anxiously stepped close to Gabrielle's elbow to further plead her case.
"Gabrielle, you can't believe her. I love you. You know who's telling the truth."
Artemis' pleas went unanswered. Gabrielle stood in limbo, looking between the two women, knowing that she must choose which way her life path, and both her companions, would lead.
By the gods, Gabrielle thought pleadingly. Help me remember. Help me choose. Then Gabrielle felt it. A presence that engulfed her spirit with soothing energy and a feeling of such total love, unlike any she had ever felt before. Or so she thought, til she recognized it and remembered.
Perdicus. His voice sang gently in her mind, whispering his love for her and the correct path she should take. Filling her mind to overflowing with memories, not only of their brief time together, but of Xena as well. And just before his presence faded into oblivion, Gabrielle could clearly hear him say, "I love you. I always have. And I always will."
When she opened her eyes, the light of knowledge glittered within. Xena still stood there, her dark hair billowing with the wind, but Gabrielle wasn't fooled. She knew Xena was worried, could in fact tell by the little things like her whitened knuckles of her fisted hand, or the taught muscles of her neck. And Gabrielle knew she couldn't continue his torment a moment longer. Her true destiny lay like a gleaming road of gold before her, and she didn't hesitate to step upon it.
Her smile was beautiful as she asked, "Xena, what took you so long?"
Together, they laughted, and stepped closer to hug, but Artemis' scream of outrage drouded out their happy reunion. The angry goddess saw her loss of another lover as a personal affront by Xena, and she wasn't about to give up.
With the cry, "NO! You're mine!" Artemis grabbed Gabrielle by the elbow and tried todrag her away at the same time as force the cup to her lips.
But Gabrielle hadn't forgotten anything with the return of her memory. All the techniques Artemis had taught her she used in that single heartbeat, outmaneuvering the fast acting Xena and catching the enraged goddess off guard. A twist and a flip later, the goddess of the hunt and the gold chalice went sailing thru the air to land with a splash in the spring.
She struggled briefly as the water surrounded her, but her former lover held a strength Artemis had never considered. Arethusa, joined with the river god, pulled the goddess back into the shelter of her body, carrying her far below the surface and away from the temple at a rapid pace. The chalice merely faded out of sight as it sunk beneath the deep waters. Artemis could hear her former lover laugh lightly all around her, yet at the same time, she could feel her love flow with the gentle ebb of the currents holding her. And in that moment, Artemis realized Arethusa was still with her. She was still loved.
"Gabrielle, are you all right?"
Xena was bent over her knealing friend, who had not arisen after flipping Artemis into the spring.
"Gabrielle! Answer me!"
Xena was starting to become frantic. She lowered herself down to eye level and tipped Gabrielle's chin up to the light. Tears sparkled in her eyes. And Xena knew what was wrong.
"I know. You feel bad about everything with Artemis."
Gabrielle nodded sadly.
"And how did I repay her? She taught me so much, Xena. More than I imagined."
Xena sat down next to her friend and comfortingly put her arm around her shoulders.
"She knows. And besides, you gave as much to her as she did to you."
Gabrielle blushed a little as she mumbled, "You could say that."
"What? I didn't hear you."
Gabrielle blushed again. "Nothing. I'm just... well... nevermind."
"You don't have to be embarrased. I understand. Besides, finding love in any form, whether it be male or female, is something to be treasured. You know that."
Gabrielle nodded her agreement. But the color still remained on her face. Seeing that, Xena chuckled as she propped her head against Gabrielle's strawberry blonde one.
"Oh, Gabrielle. I did miss you."
***
Walking away from Ortygia later that day, Gabrielle was forcing all the details she could get out of Xena about the adventure she had on her way to meet her. But, as usual, Xena was not very forthcoming with details.
"Come on, Xena. Tell me more about the child. Did you find her family? Did she run off? How could she just disappear?"
"I don't know. But she did."
Xena could still feel the child near her, as if she had become part of her. Yet ghostly words, echoing, "Goodbye mother. I love you." would not fade from her mind.
But that wasn't possible, Xena thought. Or was it?
"Can we change the subject?"
"To what?" Gabrielle asked pertly.
"How about how you learned that little trick you used to send Artemis flying into the fountain?"
Gabrielle could hear the laughter in Xena's voice and replied, "Oh, that's nothing. You should see what I can do with a bow now..."
The End.
