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When In Rome

by Kamouraskan

Disclaimers: Characters from the television show Xena: Warrior Princess are not owned by me, to my regret. This is written purely for enjoyment with no thought to monetary gain.
Post FIN, I guess, though I have kept specific references to a minimum.
Thanks to the members of the Bardic Circle, especially Extra, Jaden, Jess, JFalconer, and as always, Claudia and the great Mary Morgan.

Chapter 11

Gabrielle turned her face away. "Plan? Pawns don't have plans," she muttered.

Wincing in pain, Xena squatted in front of her. "Okay. I've had it."

"What?"

"Look, I get that you're angry, I get that… that you're this old dried up woman, that you've been through hundreds of years of a life FILLED with changes that I know nothing about. But there is NO WAY that any part of the Gabrielle that I knew would accept being a pawn. Not if there's any other choice."

Gabrielle began making jabbing motions with her index finger. "DON'T you try to tell me WHO I am! Don't you DARE tell me you've changed and then do that."

Xena didn't back away but the torch in her hand wavered slightly. "I knew that would get to you!"

"You know nothing! LOOK at me! Nine hundred years later and I'm backing right into that box we made for me. I've just finished stitching your ass up like the little sidekick I always was."

"You just rescued that ass!" Xena exclaimed. Their voices reverberated along the tunnel walls.

"Yes, but…" There was another angry retort on her lips, but she'd seen the look of anguish on Xena's face, and was unable to continue. She turned away, and in a completely different voice, said, "I'm not being fair. I know. And I'm not proud. I'm angry, AND ashamed."

"Ashamed? I get the angry, but ashamed?"

"Because I gave up. I gave up on you. I never searched for you after I died."

"That's alright," Xena said quietly. "It was better that way."

Gabrielle shook her head. "You still don't understand. When I died, somehow I lost it. I lost us. And now that it's all come back, I'm caught right back at the beginning. Caught between the guilt that You Know Who was right. That I can only get through this by sticking to my resolve. Shut down what I'm feeling. Even admit that I prefer not remembering what we really meant to each other." Her green eyes were over laden with tears and she fiercely wiped them away with one dusty hand. "I hate feeling this way. I hate feeling, full stop. Especially the guilt. Guilt that a core part of me still believes love should have been enough. It should have been enough to keep me trying to find you. Even after death."

"I do understand. There's things I haven't told you. I needed to change too. I needed to learn what we had. And I couldn't have if I didn't know you were…"

Whatever Xena was about to say was cut short by the appearance of a glowing apparition, which blinded them in the dimness of the underground corridor. Almost as bright was the smile and exclamation, "hello young lovers!"

Xena dropped her head in frustration, nearly losing her torch. "Oh, bloody HELL!"

Gabrielle was almost as taken aback. "Aphrodite, what are you doing here? What happened to not popping in? And more importantly," Gabrielle looked about worriedly, "how did you find us here?"

The Goddess shrugged. "Ummmm… First question first, nice to see you too, sweets. Second, like, as it's you two, it's worth it. And as for the third, well, you guys told me where you were."

"We told you?" Xena looked over at Gabrielle. "Unless my brains really are in my ass, I think I'd remember that. You, Gabrielle?"

"Not me."

The Goddess happily explained. "Well, actually, it was both of you. Just not yet."

Realisation struck both with a thud. "Oh, crap," said Xena.

"You've got The Loom," Gabrielle completed.

Aphrodite nodded gleefully. "Uh huh. Did I say thank you? That's part of the job done, and I could kiss you both if you weren't in this grotty, yucky place."

They needed to get back to the main point. "We told you where we were?" Gabrielle asked

"Well not now, in the future, where I was, you know?"

"No, we don't," groaned Xena.

"You have such a closed mind," the Goddess criticized. "Because it is so cool! I just wrapped a thread around and here I am!"

Gabrielle strode over with her finger wagging. "You told me you were going to drop it into some place no one could find it."

Exasperated, the Goddess said, "I was going to. But then you asked me to come back here! And can I say again, YUCK."

Gabrielle closed her eyes. "And now you're immediately going to drop it in a pit somewhere, right?"

"Well, I did plan to, but let's think about it for a teensy minute. The Fates are still in chains. I could go back, and use the thing to set everything right! I could get you and Dark and Deadly out of this hole for starters."

"No."

Aphrodite placed both hands on her hips and confronted the girl, the tone of the single word, spoken as if to a wayward child, clearly rubbing her the wrong way. "Listen, I don't have to ask. I AM a Goddess, remember?"

Gabrielle didn't flinch. "And I, am the only real friend you have ever had, and you made a promise to me."

"But…" the Goddess squirmed.

"I want your word."

There was a Goddess-sized sigh, but then a slight lift to the head. "You sure? Because they have a sort of scrying pool down there…"

"And?" asked an interested Xena.

Gabrielle shot her partner a ‘don't encourage her' glare.

The Goddess continued anyway, "I sort of peeked at what was going to happen to you guys…."

"It doesn't matter," Gabrielle insisted.

"That's what you think," retorted Aphrodite.

Xena took Gabrielle aside. "Wait a minute…"

Gabrielle glowered. "Look, the world can't afford her getting in the habit of making visits there. You know better than I do that power corrupts." She gestured at the now pouting Goddess. "Even with warm fuzzies attached to it."

Xena shook her head. "That's not my point. She already has information and we need all that we can get." She asked Aphrodite. "Did we happen to say why we wanted you to come here?"

"Ummm, not really. You were all kind of abrupt. Like rushed."

Gabrielle considered this. "Well, probably because at that time, we'd already had this visit, so when we asked you, we knew what happened already."

Xena pressed her palms to the sides of her head. "Now I've got a headache." Visibly making an effort to calm herself, she tried again. "You didn't tell us things were going to be bad?"

Aphrodite shook her head. "No, you already knew."

"We knew because she told us now," Gabrielle theorised. "Hey, I'm getting the hang of this!"

Xena let out a slight moan. Now on the trail, Gabrielle ignored her. "Okay. Since we're supposed to find out, you might as well tell us."

Aphrodite gave a false smile. "There are a few possibilities, one of them is that you just head for the river and escape.…"

Gabrielle nodded. "And…"

"You live happily together. Sort of. For a while. We might have the Loom back, but my brother still wins the main prize. The losers at the Pontifical College have screwed up. They couldn't convince the Emperor's head guy to delay the announcement of… His promotion to big kahoona until the Emperor got back, and once he's made head God, there's no changing it. He finds you years from now, and He, well, it's not pretty. But," she added with a false smile, "you do get to live until then in peace."

"And if we don't run away?"

The rest came from the Goddess in a rush. "You-Know-Who becomes head God for all the reasons I already gave and he catches up with you tomorrow. He plays a few games and when you lose, he uses his power and reaches… he's really angry, you see, about losing the Loom and all," she trailed off.

"Go on," Gabrielle warily encouraged.

Wincing, the Goddess did. "He reaches into you… and pulls out your souls. I try to stop him, but, he's drawing from millions of new worshippers at hundreds of brand new temples. Then he crushes them in a way that you die… in agony."

"So we die," Xena said flatly.

Aphrodite shifted uncomfortably. "He crushes them reeeeal slow."

There was little change in Xena's tone. "So we die slowly."

"Slow, like an eternity," Aphrodite completed.

Both mortals looked at each other with widened eyes, before Xena spoke again. "Okay, we don't like that. When does this happen?"

Aphrodite thought. "Your bet with Bro was to not be caught before noon, and that's also when the new temples are consecrated. You die right after that."

Xena looked at Gabrielle. "Noon. In Rome. Did you have any other appointments?"

She shrugged and said sullenly, "pawns go where they're told. Pawns…"

She might have been about to continue when a thought struck her, but Aphrodite interrupted. "What is with you? You have a choice. I have the loom! Aren't you listening? I can make things better!"

The expression on Gabrielle's face was very familiar o Xena, even if it was on an unfamiliar face. Xena knew that a missing piece had filled some puzzle. "Like you did when I died?"

Flustered, Aphrodite took a step back. "What do you mean?"

Gabrielle moved forward to follow the retreating Goddess. "It just struck me. Something Xena was about to say. You even reminded me yesterday, that you always were around. Like when I died."

Aphrodite looked suddenly nervous. "You were special to me. Of course I'd be there."

"You weren't just there. You did something, didn't you?" Her voice became strident, causing dust to drift down the narrow walls. "What did you do?" she demanded. "What did you do to me when I died?"

The Goddess shook her head firmly. "You got it all wrong. I did nothing. Really."

"Really. Then why did I forget how I felt about Xena, until now?"

"Mortals leave some emotions behind when they die. It's part of becoming on another plane," she explained glibly.

Gabrielle shook her head. "But when Xena and I died together on those crosses, we still knew each other. You had to have done something, didn't you? A part of me didn't go… with my spirit. That's why it wasn't the same." She raised a finger and waved it from one to the other. "What haven't you told me? Why I didn't keep all my memories of Xena into the afterlife?"

There was a glance to Xena, before Aphrodite began. "What happened to you on the crosses, it was special. Your love was pure, it was so true. You died for each other," the Goddess said wistfully. "When you died the last time, so alone, it was all corrupted, it was part of your pain. It couldn't follow you. I thought about…"

"What?" Gabrielle demanded.

"Not letting it happen. But, I knew it would be better for you. Both of you. Do you think that me, of all people would want any love to die, especially love like yours?" she asked, plaintively. "But I knew you'd never stop, even at death, searching for her. You'd keep searching, and only get caught by Ares just like…" Aphrodite stopped, realising what she'd said.

There was no victory in Gabrielle's voice as it echoed in the dark chamber. Just another flat statement. "Caught. Like you knew Xena was." She took a deep breath. "You knew that he had her when I died."

Aphrodite held out her hands beseechingly. "Honey…"

Gabrielle ignored the entreaty. "You knew that Ares had taken Xena's soul. You knew and you didn't say anything to me. I was dying, I DIED, crying her name and you didn't say anything." She shook her head in slow anger.

"I thought, I thought it was what was best, for you."

Xena spoke for the first time. "And I thank you for it."

Gabrielle turned on her. "What? How can you say that?"

"Gabrielle. She saved you. She saved me. If you had been taken like I was, I wouldn't have had any hope."

Gabrielle laughed bitterly. "Like the hope we have now? We've heard the future!"

"But I could change that, if you'd let me help," Aphrodite inserted hopefully.

No words could have been better designed to anger the girl. "And you've been SO helpful! Thank you so very much!" she spat out sarcastically. "Once again, I need someone to save me. Make my choices for me, poor child that I am. Have you ever noticed that you're both SO very, very happy when I'm kept innocent and ignorant? And you can say things have changed? NOTHING. Nothing has changed!"

Gabrielle stomped off down the corridor beyond the reach of the flickering torch. Aphrodite looked to Xena, about to say something indignant, but the warrior grimly shook her head. There was a shuffle/stumble in the darkness and then a loud curse before Gabrielle returned to them, her stony face bathed in cobwebs.

"I need to get out of here." Away from you, was unspoken but clear.

Aphrodite bobbed her head in enthusiastic agreement. "Name a place and whoosh, you're there."

"Are the Fates still chained up?" Gabrielle asked.

Aphrodite started to nod her head before hesitating. "Somebody should release the ladies, sure, but… Do you really think you're exactly the right…?"

"Send me there. But to the time after you've already sent yourself here."

The Goddess looked over to Xena who nodded. She turned back to Gabrielle, somewhat miffed. "Isn't that a bit of a double standard? You won't trust me to go, and I'm not the one who torched the place the last time!"

Gabrielle's expression gave nothing. "You said anywhere."

"Do it," said Xena

Aphrodite stared at both of their firm, set faces. "I guess the girls could send you back when you're…done. You won't be long?" Getting no response, she raised and shook her arms in exasperation. "Fine! I mean, who am I to argue? Just because all of the Gods but one have gotten together and promised to let mankind alone to make their own fate, hey mortal, here's the keys to the wishing well." Nevertheless, she flung her hands out and Gabrielle vanished.

Xena smirked. "Here's the keys to the wishing well?"

"She knows what I meant," the Goddess griped uncharacteristically. She lowered herself heavily onto a stone bench and continued, "and, oh yeah. The Fates are going to love getting another visit from her. Especially with that expression on her face. Lucky for her they're in chains."

She looked up to Xena, for once not attempting to hide her worry. "She really wouldn't…?"

Xena replied to the unspoken fears. "We trust her."

"Because we love her, right?"

With Aphrodite following her, Xena began advancing down the tunnel, the torchlight glinting off the marble collages on the walls. "That, and because she's pissed off that people have been changing her life drastically without permission. Do you see her doing that to a whole world?"

"She did once."

"Different situation." There seemed to be a cave-in ahead, blocking the entire tunnel, so Xena slowed her pace, placing the torch in the nearest sconce in order to examine it.

Aphrodite continued the conversation, blithely unaware of any obstruction. "But mortals who were beat up as kids, sometimes become the worst batterers."

"Not Gabrielle." The ceiling collapse was quite extensive. Who knew how far it extended? Xena was thinking.

"You'd know about that," Aphrodite shot back.

That shot broke through. It also hurt. Xena angrily turned about with a stone slab in her hands and gave the Goddess the full power of her pale eyes. "Is this your business? I don't owe you any explanations."

The Goddess did not back away. "Don't you try to intimidate me, Xena. Because, yes, you do owe it to me. I brought that girl back, and I need to know you're not going to hurt her again."