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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 2

Back on the hillside, the other former corpse was neither alone nor asleep. She was nervous and waiting; two things she hated more than almost anything else. Almost as much as what or whom she was waiting for.

"Listen up, cat. Let's get this straight. I'm sharing these fish only so I can have at least one conversation before things get out of my control again. And that should give you an idea about how much she changed my life. Before her, the only way you'd have been welcome in my camp is barbequed."

The wild tabby looked blandly up, indicting it wasn't impressed by the honour.

Had anyone searched the hillside they would have seen very little in the way of a habitation. Notwithstanding where she was, the former slave's injured condition forced her to stay hidden on the hillside until she healed. It was a nervous cure though; shadowed always by the knowledge that only the hill protected her from what lay at the base of its opposite slope: The ‘Navel of the Empire', and the Roman Forum. That and the knowledge that soon she would once again be what she despised; a pawn in play.

She continued to quietly address the cat. "Okay, where was I? Oh yeah. Dead. And a stupid, useless death. Even she wouldn't be able to come up with all the words to describe how stupid. But it all seemed to make sense then. I thought that being without her would be both part of the punishment and what was best for her. I convinced myself I would be able to stick with her as best I could until we both could be together properly, someday. You know?"

The cat seemed to shrug.

"Okay, so I was fooling myself again and I probably deserved to have that bastard take me away from her. But the payments never stop. The age isn't always the same, the eyes aren't always blue, and occasionally I‘m not a woman. But the bodies are always big, dark and fit. Ready for battle." The tabby batted the head of the fish the woman had caught in the ruins of one of Nero's ponds and looked up for more. Xena groused at it. "If you're not going to eat that part, I will. The head is good for you, stupid cat. And knowing Nero, it was probably imported."

In another of her too many lives she had been a slave of Nero's, before being crucified once again along with the Christians who were blamed for the destruction of Rome by fire. Before that, there had been the slave revolt with Spartacus; before that…

"I'm handed the choice of being with the winner, but the price is too high. So I keep my promise to her and I end up on a cross. Think someone is trying to tell me something, cat?" she asked rhetorically. "Lots of scope for revenge this time. Flogged and raped. And even a handy clue to identify who did it." She looked at the Roman Victory pin that had been clutched in her hand when she'd awoken. "Just makes you want to say, well done," she muttered caustically. She knew that few Romans wore any jewellery; it would be easy to trace the owner. She let the pin/clue slip from her fingers and fall to the ground without any ceremony, or even regret for the fate of the woman whose battered body she now wore.

She realised she had finally passed the point where she cared about vengeance for herself, much less those caught in the strands of her lives. For some time she had stumbled from life to life with little holding any meaning to her. Anaesthetised in order to survive, repressing guilt and regret as well as pain and fear. "So what happens when we refuse to play, what's next on the schedule? Another crucifixion, another pointless, agonising death if I fight back? So don't complain to me about the quality of the free food, cat."

The cat ignored her and grudgingly took another piece of the raw fish.

***************

Inside the House of the Vestals, the girl woke, confused and thirsty. Her head cleared rapidly as she became aware of that sensation. Thirst, the fogginess after sleeping, these were not the experiences of the dead. She raised her hand and again marvelled at its colour and lack of liver spots, the clarity of her vision. She was about to clear her throat when a shadow in the corner of the room swooped down on her. Though the room was dark, she was able to make out the form of a middle-aged woman, and of the knife she carried in one hand.

Again, she tried to swallow.

"You have nothing to fear from me," the woman whispered in Latin, "if we have nothing to fear from you."

The girl directed her eyes to the knife, but the woman did not lower it.

"I am alive then?" she asked in Greek.

Though the words themselves frightened the Maxima, the tone of wonder they were spoken with dispelled it. She nodded and sat down carefully by the girl.

Though she had instructed all that she would be nursing the girl alone, she looked to the door before asking her question. "What is your name?"

"Gabrielle," the girl wearing Numai's body replied.

"Do you know where you are, have you any memories of this place or of me?"

There was a small shake of the head as the girl replied, "I've never seen you before as far as I know."

At that, the Maxima closed her eyes in prayer for the loss of Numai.

Seeing her pain, the girl reached up to hold the Maxima's hand gently in a gesture of comfort. "I'm sorry. Have I taken someone's… place?"

The Maxima did not answer at first. She looked at the soft hand on hers and then at her knife before lowering it. "I want you to know that you are only alive because I believe that this house is protected by our Goddess. That whatever spirit or God has brought you here could only be for the good. But I still must have an answer to my question. Who are you, and how did you come to be in this poor girl's body?"

The green eyes stared at the Maxima with some curiosity. "Can I ask…? You're taking this all very calmly. In fact, better than me."

The Maxima answered simply, "I have my faith in my Goddess."

"That could be it. I have only, only my pain. I was finally finding peace in an afterlife, and now…"

"You aren't 16 years old, are you?"

Gabrielle finally smiled. " Nope. Haven't been for quite a while." She took in a deep breath and marvelled at the sensation of air once again in her lungs. Cautiously at first, almost disbelieving the ease at which her limbs worked, she rolled onto her side to better look about the room. "I don't suppose you could tell me what year it is, at least in a way I‘d know how long I've been… gone, I guess is the word."

"You are, were, Greek? Then you would know the works of Homer, when they were written?"

Gabrielle nodded with a faint grin. "Yes, I have a pretty good idea of that."

"It is about nine hundred years since that time."

"Years? As in four seasons? It couldn't have…" The girl fell back with a thump. "Nine hundred years!!" The concept hit her like a wall. So much time passed, so much time alone and still she had waited and hoped. The Maxima wondered if the measure was the difficulty.

"That is, as we determine time, by the Julian Calendar…"

A face from the past came to Gabrielle along with a name. "Please don't tell me it's named after Julius…"

"The Diaus Caesar, Yes."

"They made him a God?" The girl snorted. "Xena would love to hear that. But at least he's dead."

"Xena?"

The girl blinked, as though seeing something again, and yet for the first time. "Xena!" she breathed. "How…?" She shook her head to clear it. "Remember that name. I think you'll be hearing of her soon enough. Or at least I will. I'd be willing to gamble anything that that's why I'm here." She lay back again and stared at the ceiling. "Bad enough all of my lifetime was screwed around with, now they're doing it with my death. Damn them AND her!"

The normally placid face of the Maxima showed her confusion. "Who do you mean? Is this Xena dangerous? Do you hate this woman?"

There was another bitter laugh. "Dangerous? In more ways than you could count. And as for how I feel about her, well… somehow I'd forgotten. That she made a choice. And it wasn't me." The girl closed her eyes in remembered pain. "I searched for her for so long after she left me, searched in so many places, but, I think I'd finally gotten over it. Now, nine hundred years later, it still goes on? What does it take to end this?"

"Why did she hate Caesar?"

At this the girl chortled. "Have you got time for a long story? And that's not to say I was a big fan either."

The Maxima became more puzzled, if that was possible. "How would you have met him? He was martyred about two hundred years ago."

Gabrielle stared. "But you said Homer wrote nine hundred years ago. You do mean Homer, as in the Iliad, right?" The Maxima nodded. "And Julius Caesar, tried to become Emperor of Rome but Brutus and the others…"

"Over two centuries ago. You could not possibly have known them all. Unless you have lived many lives in many eras?"

The green eyes somehow became darker. "No. I lived my life in one straight line. It's time that's skipping around."

The Maxima recognised her cue. "Then perhaps this is the time I should tell you of a message I was given for you."

******

Another bright morning on the hillside, and another day of scavenging. The former slave was quiet while the blue eyes stared into a point of the sky. For the first time the self-mocking tone was absent, and the stoic facade shook slightly.

"I know you don't want to hear this, Gabrielle, but I'm about done on both sides now. I can't keep doing this. Not alone. Not without you. It just goes on and on and I don't see… love… breaking this cycle. Even when I do figure out the game, that bastard just twists Fate's strands, and I start all over again. Would you recognise your warrior now? Scared to take a step, just because I'll find myself back where I started? Or worse."

There was a meow and the tabby appeared out of the brush to look inquiringly at the food stores. A smile appeared on the former slave's face, and she welcomed the animal and the diversion it provided. "Hey there! At least I know what you're here for. " She reached out to caress the animal who bore the attention for a moment in easy grace. "Gotta shake off the self-pity, cat. We're all pawns of the Gods, right? I just have a more personal relationship with one of them. I don't suppose you'd know what His plan is. Even he must be running out of patience or time, or is he finally getting bored?"

She warily stretched her back, flexing the shoulder muscles and satisfied, cautiously lay down on the bracken bed she'd fashioned. She lay in her shade and closed her eyes. " I should be able to take a walk around tomorrow. I could still see the top of the Tabularium, so I'm guessing Rome is still mostly the way I remember it. The ruins of Nero's house make it look like about a hundred years since I was last here, maybe more. If I could just get around the Forum, get behind the Palatine, I'd be right alongside the Tiber. Grab me a boat and get the Hades out of here. But that…." She opened her eyes and looked beyond her shelter, "would be too easy, right? More likely, if I stick my nose out of these bushes it's going to be chopped off. Or time will take another twist, and I‘ll be back here or worse. Any suggestions, Cat?" The cat had found a sunbeam to lie in and didn't deign to answer. Xena didn't notice.

"I keep thinking that there has got to be some point to all this. Some end game here. That eventually I'll see what the damn plan is. I thought we were leading up to Caesar, but that was just a feint. Then the rebellion with Spartacus. But I threw in with him and it still made no difference. What if there isn't a point, and this is just my Fate? Alone….Hell of a curse, cat." Once more she shook her head as though to cast out the thoughts inside, and addressed the cat again.

"I could swim across Nero's lake, you say? Good plan. Great for sore muscles, and once I'm on the other side I might be able to sneak around the Palatine Hill to the Tiber. Though I admit, I was almost hoping you'd suggest a short walk past the Senate. Just so I could take a moment to spit on the steps where they killed Julie. But maybe next time." Xena laughed but there was no humour in it. The mid day heat was taking its toll and she yawned and closed her eyes. "I‘m sure there will be a next time."

Once her breathing was even, the cat rose, but froze for a moment when a word passed through the sleeping slave's lips. "Gabrielle…" There was nothing more. Satisfied, the tabby slipped stealthily away through the brush. Once it was a fair distance, it began to shimmer and its image grew faint. But before it completely vanished, a voice said with some amusement, "all this time, and still waiting for that annoying blonde. But I wouldn't worry. You'll see Gabrielle. Not the Gabrielle you might remember, but we do what we can…" The last chuckle faded with the cat.