Redemption

**All rights belong to Universal and Renaissance Pictures**

Jadxea dug her heel into the knot of the tree and pushed herself higher, grabbing branch after branch. Satisfied with the height, she swung herself into the trunk and crouched low. The leaves would shade her, of that she was certain. But how long until it was noticed that she was missing; that was left to the Fates. She smiled; every culture had their own gods, their own beliefs, and even whil she lived in a foreign land, Jadxea's mother had never forgotten her own. The Fates were something that rolled pleasingly off the tongue when in need of a scapegoat; they were the only explanation for tragedy that wouldn't argue back... nothing more. Still, Jadxea had picked up the phrase, to the taunts of many of her friends, and cherished it like the rescue of an abandoned animal.

Jadxea shifted and cursed herself as she did so. If the scuffle of her boots were only slightly louder, she would be discovered. Sliding her feet out from under her, Jadxea balanced herself on the branch, her back against the tree trunk. She gazed down to the clearing, hardly ten feet from the tree. The blonde-haired woman she sought turned in her bedroll, and reached for something, or someone, who wasn't there. Jadxea studied the familiar face from her vantage point. She was dreaming, far away from any thoughts that something was amiss.

Good.

Jadxea climbed to her feet and swung herself higher still. A better view was imparative.

"You seek me every night in your dreams, and yet, when I appear you seem suprised."

"Every time I see you, I pray to every god I can name that you're real; flesh that I can touch once again."

"One day, my dear friend. You know as well as I... we will meet again in the flesh."

"Someday... hopefully... if we find each other."

"We will! Trust me!"

"Small comfort to me. The promise of one day, of souls and reincarnations... it doesn't cure my lonliness... the loss that I still grieve."

"You have never lost me. I will never leave you. Not even-"

"In death. You speak in echoes. Somehow I know in my heart that you are nothing more than an echo. You are the dim reminants of a life I pleaded for so long ago."

" 'Take me with you!', you pleaded of me."

"And you obliged."

"Reluctantly."

"I will never repay you. You gave me life!"

"A painful one. Full of loss and heartache."

"Better than remaining and suffocating. You gave me just what I asked for; the world!"

"But was it wise?"

"Of course not. But the heart never is. You couldn't leave me. We are a part of each other. We both knew that, somewhere inside of us, we were meant for each other. You couldn't just... leave me."

"And I never have."

"Big talk from the one who doesn't have to wake from this dream. You will be gone... and I will remain... alone."

"You're not alone."

Lips pressed against each other, familiar and warm. Comfort; great swirling colors of comfort. Unyeilding, undying love.

"Find me..."

"Xena!" Gabrielle bolted from her blankets, the name second nature on her lips. There was hardly a morning now that didn't begin with the fallen warrior's name.

Gabrielle breathed, slowing her heartrate. This dream had gripped her many times. It was rare that she did not dream of Xena. But it was that parting plea that always haunted her; "find me...". Hours were spent attempting to interpret the urgent message that broke through only at the moment Gabrielle felt the deepest love for her lost companion.

But now was not the time for such examinations. Something wasn't right. Gabrielle shifted her head and listened hard. It was obvious that she was being watched, but from where? She had never been as good at pin-pointing the predator as Xena. Even some of her Amazon sisters had surpassed the abilities taught to her, or they had the last she saw of them.

The wind blew at her, pressing against her back, pushing her hair into her face. Gabrielle raised her head, examining the space in the corner of her eye. Of course the mighty tree behind her would be the perfect shelter. Gabrielle crouched slowly, carefully drawing her sais from their harnesses. The rustle of leaves and the intake of breath carried on the wind was all that she needed.

Gabrielle spun and flung one sai at the tree. A yelp greeted her from the leaves and she regarded it's source with a sharp, fixed gaze.

"No!" a voice cried. "It's just me!"

"Jadxea?" Gabrielle, wide-eyed and panicked, bolted for the tree.

As she reached it, a dark-haired child swung from a lower branch. Her ankles and hands locked around the branch and she hung there, upside down, as if one trussed for a ready fire. She held the hilt of the sai between her teeth, and offered it to Gabrielle with as much of a grin as she can manage.

"What were you thinking?" Gabrielle scolded, taking the weapon from her. "I could have killed you! What were you doing up there?"

"Nothing," Jadxea shrugged vaguely. "I watched the sun rise. Just wondering how long it would take for you to find me."

"How many times have I told you; that is not a game that you play when I don't know you've begun it."

"You found me faster today!" Jadxea squealed in delight.

"I'm familiar with the terrain. I was trained on this soil." Gabrielle sheathed her weapons and folded her arms.

"You wouldn't have found me if I hadn't gotten excited. Or..." she unlocked her ankles, hanging from the branch, then dropped to the ground with a wince, "if I had moved faster."

"Jadxea," Gabrielle admonished, catching a glimpse of the clean slice of flesh torn away by the sai. Immediately, she wrapped the young girl's arm around her neck, and held her up by the waist. "Come close to the fire. I'll stitch you up." She set the girl on her own bedroll and began digging in her saddlebag. "Stubborn," Gabrielle mumbled under her breath. "Stubborn and reckless!"

"Like my father!" Jadxea concluded proudly, pushing her dark hair out of her face.

"Yes," Gabrielle agreed with a dark look to the child. She knelt over the wound and began working. "And at the rate you're going, you'll leave the world the same way." She knotted a stitch and took a moment to stop, reaching up to the girl's face; a moment of tenderness amidst her frusteration and anger. "And I would not lose you like I lost him. Not while I can still breathe."

Jadxea lowered her eyes, an apology simply in the way she looked away. She felt the stitching resume. Quietly, Jadxea's eyes found their way to her savior's face. "Mother, tell me about him."

Gabrielle smiled, her work never halting. "Why don't you tell me? You probibly know more than I do by now."

"Please? Tell me a story?" A childish plea that Jadxea knew her mother couldn't deny her.

"He was a great warrior. Such that the world had never known. And though he spent much of his time fighting, he fought for the preservation of peace."

"And the first time you saw him..." the girl prompted.

"It was as if I had known him forever. I knew I couldn't let him get away."

"And then you saved him, even without combat skills!"

"Especially without combat skills." Gabrielle tied off the last stitch and rolled to sit beside her daughter. "I kept him safe without the aid of weapons and that was what convinced him of my sincerity."

Jadxea tucked into Gabrielle's arms and gazed off into the foreign feild, as if her father would come from behind the rolling hills and into their waiting arms. "His eyes?"

"Blue," Gabrielle breathed, her heart lightened by the admiration shining in her daughter's face at the mention of her fallen lover. "So blue that they matched the sky on a cleaar day. His hair was like a raven bathed in the sun. And so strong... in every sense of the word."

Mother and daughter stared out at the field before them, lost in memories and fantasies. A seagull overhead broke their revery and Gabrielle shook her head to clear it.

"Can you walk, little one?" The girl replied with a determined single nod. Gabrielle stifled a chuckle. Her child would do anything to prove herself just as strong as her parents. "All right, pack up! We can't lose daylight. It's been many years. Some landmarks are bound to have changed."

Quickly, determined to conceal discomfort, Jadxea began rolling up her blankets and packing them onto her pony's saddle. Her mother moved with twice her speed, not just because she lacked injury. Her mother had always been faster, her father had trained her so. Jadxea had attempted to race her so many times, but her mother assured her that it simply came with time and practice.

The area cleared, and cool sand spilled over the smoldering coals, Gabrielle pulled herself atop her brown mare. The small Palimino pony that her daughter favored and had won for her own, shifted, impatiently waiting for her little mistress to mount. Gabrielle took the pony's reins to still her while Jadxea found balance with her weak leg.

Finally in the saddle, Jadxea sheepishly met her mother's eyes. "I'm sorry, mother. No more training without you knowing first."

Gabrielle smiled. The child had learned her lesson well enough and harsh words were hardly necessary now. Instead, Gabrielle released the pony's reins. "You should train Kepi instead of worrying about your own training. She's very loyal to you. You could probibly teach her quite a bit."

"Like you trained Danae!" Jadxea gleefully made the comparission her mother's coveted brown mare.

"And as your father trained his horse. Kepi is very similar to your father's horse. I'll bet she'll learn just as fast."

This information bolstered the girl's determination and eagerness. "One day I'll be as great as he was!" she assured as the horses trodded through the trees and into the forest.

"Well, I'll tell you this, Xea," her smile was sincere, but her eyes were solemn and serious, "he wouldn't have wanted to see you become a warrior."

"You keep saying that..." Jadxea rolled her eyes.

"Duck," Gabrielle warned, dipping her head under a branch. Jadxea nearly caught the lower branch, dodging it just in time. "You're not used to the forest, Jadxea. Keep your eyes open."

"See! That's what I mean! You teach me the reflexes of a warrior, why not the skill?"

"I teach you how to survive, Jadxea. It will be a cold day in Tartarus when I put a weapon in your hand." As if second nature, Gabrielle reached back and took the pony's reins close to the halter, clicking her tongue in a command. "Stay close to me. I don't know how friendly this forest is after these years."

"Mother? How old were you when you met Father?" Jadxea's eyes roamed the trees. The morning excurtion left her hungry for more, despite the stinging ache in her leg.

"Much older than you. So stop trying to play that angle." Gabrielle led them over a small hill and around a tight cluster of trees. They were either a perfect hiding place, or the perfect trap.

"Where do you suppose he is now? Heaven? The Illesian Fields? Aaru?"

"All names for basically the same thing, Xea. Your father's soul is at peace. That's all that matters." Gabrielled steeled herself. the details of that day flashed back at her, as they always did when mentioned, and she gripped Danae's reins tighter. The mare snorted her disapproval, but never waivered in her path.

"Do I look like him? Do you think they'll recognize me in..."

"Jadxea!" Gabrielle hissed suddenly, halting both horses. "Do exactly as I say," she whispered. She slowly pulled the pony beside her own horse, her eyes fixed on their surroundings, her ears keen to the sounds of the forest. "Climb on behind me," Gabrielle whispered, reaching to pull her child from the saddle.

"But... Kepi..." Jadxea looked between her mother and her horse.

"Do as I say!" Gabrielle snapped. The girl immediately hopped on behind her mother and clung tight to the beaded deerskin that wrapped tightly around her mother's ribs. "Stay as quiet as you can, and wait for my instruction." She felt Jadxea nod against her back, and, slowly, she urged Danae forward, pulling Kepi behind her.

A feather covered arrow landed in Danae's path, and Gabrielle held the reins tight to still her. Then another arrow, then three, then five more, until the horses were surrounded and the two mounted were trapped. "Jadxea," Gabrielle comanded frantically, "do exactly as I do!" And with that, she clasped her hands above her head in gesture. she checked back to be sure the girl had done the same, and then watched the trees closely.

True enough, a horde of women, clad in beaded deerskin, descended on rope from their treetop hiding places. Falling in a specific formation, their bows at the ready, and arrows aiming true. Despite seeing this woman not only dressed similarly, but giving them the signal of peace, the women agressively watched the intruders, begging for an excuse to shoot.

"What is your tribe?" Demanded one woman, standing center, only slightly protected by two other women flanking her. Gabrielle took note of her complex outfit, and the beaded necklace that fell heavily against her chest.

"I am Queen Gabrielle of the Athens tribe in the eastern valley," Gabrielle delivered officially. She felt Jadxea shift behind her and prayed the girl would keep silent... just this once.

"You lie!" the woman accused and the others puled their arrows tighter. "Queen Gabrielle died years ago. She took her own life as she left Athens."

"She tried," Gabrielle granted darkly. "She failed." Slowly, keeping her eyes on the women as they held hers, she slipped her hand into her saddlebag and pulled out a necklace similar to that of the warrior who spoke. She tossed it at their feet.

The woman did not make a move to claim it, she only glanced at the royal design and unique beading. "That proves nothing," she challenged.

"Your queen," Gabrielle maintained her authoritative voice, "she will know me."

"You beg an audience with the queen who will claim your head from your tiny shoulders when she's realized that you've stolen from and disgraced the great Queen Gabrielle?" the woman sneered.

Jadxea's arms, newly snaked around her mother, squeezed tighter in fear. Gabrielle breathed deeply, expanding her ribs and loosening her daughter's grip. "No. I request an audience with my sister Amazon."

"And if this is an attack...?" the Amazon observed Gabrielle closely. "I would be taking you in... to our queen. If you attack her..."

"I have no reason to attack. I have no quarrel with your tribe. And," she leaned in the saddle, revealing Jadxea, "I have my child with me. We mean no harm."

After a moment's hesitation, the Amazon gave a signal and the warrior lowered their weapons. Gabrielle nodded her appreciation, swinging her leg over and sliding off of her mare. She reached up and helped Jadxea down as well, missing the additional signal the Amazon Princess gave her warriors. By the time Jadxea's boots met the soft earth, two Amazons took the girl's arms and pulled her from Gabrielle's reach.

Immediately, Gabrielle retrieved her sais, and held them at the ready. "She's a child," she pleaded with steel and fire in her voice.

"Mother..." Jadxea whined, attempting to twist her wrists from the oppressive grip.

"She poses no threat!" Gabrielle implored.

"She's right!" Jadxea piped up. "She won't even teach me how to punch properly!"

"The pup remains in our care until your identity is revealed. These are dangerous grounds. We trust no one," the Amazon Princess proclaimed.

"All right," Gabrielle attempted to not look like she was swallowing her heart back down into her chest. "You keep her safe for now."

"What?" That girl attempted to charge at her mother, but was thwarted.

"Jadxea..." Gabrielle warned, her eyes locked with the young princess, "trust me. They'll care for you. Be brave." She took Danae's reins, and tossed Kepi's at one of the Amazons guarding her daughter. She stepped up to the princess and held her hand out in a friendly gesture. "Your name?"

"Larya," the princess replied, not taking Gabrielle's hand.

Gabrielle smirked. This would not be easy. Coming home never had been. Even coming back to the Amazons.

Jadxea trudged along the rocky winding path, keeping her eyes on her mother constantly. She was walking ahead with the leader Amazon. Why hadn't she said anything about the Amazons before? That necklace she had thrown; Jadxea used to play with it, pretending she was a princess. How could her mother never tell her that it actually had been a symbol of royalty?

As she considered it, Jadxea realized that there had been signs. Her favorite lullaby when she was little had been about an Amazon child. Though she occationally conformed, her mother always prefered the soft deerskin costumes she carried with her, to the sheer wrappings of the Pharoh's Lands. And so many of the bedtime stories her mother had told her had been about a tribe of women in a forest in some distant country, learning and fighting for their lands. Had those stories been true? Were these her mother's experiences before she was born? She knew so little of her mother's past.

Something caught Jadxea's foot and she tripped forward. A strong arm caught hers and steadied her.

"You okay?" the voice was quite youthful, and when Jadxea looked up, the Amazon couldn't have been more than a few years older than herself.

"Yeah... thanks." Jadxea smiled and kept moving, making a mental note of keeping an eye on the terrain.

"I'm Terreis," the girl introduced herself conversationally.

"Jadxea," she answered enthustically. Walking in silence was starting to get to her.

"You're not from here, are you?" Terreis, Jadxea noticed, had been the one to take her pony's reins. She shook her head, reaching out and patting her horse. "You don't seem like it. You're a little too dark for a Greek."

"I grew up in the land of the Pharohs, south of here. But my mother is Greek," Jadxea chatted. Talking made her feel much more comfortable, being seperated from Gabrielle.

"I was born and raised here. In this very tribe," Terreis offered.

"Really? What's it like? To be an Amazon, I mean!" Jadxea nearly skipped to keep up, and her leg was really beginning to ache, but she was too excited to take much note of it.

"Well," Terreis sighed and gazed ahead of them, "you should know... if your mother is who she says she is."

Jadxea pursed her lips and looked toward her mother. She was speaking to the Amazon who lead them. Jadxea could tell it wasn't like the casual, light conversation she was having, but there was something about her mother's ease. The ease in her step, in her body, in the way she had spoken before. It wasa a comfort that Jadxea had never seen in her before.

"Tell me about Queen Gabrielle?" Jadxea asked of her new friend. "Was she well known?"

"With the Amazons. She was a great leader. She spoke of fairness. Never one to immediately set her mind to war, like many Amazons tend to. She believed in tradition, but only for the benefit of the tribe. She taught us the value of negotiation, not sacrifice and slaughter." Terreis smiled down at her little friend. "Does that sound like your mother?"

Jadxea shrugged. "How did she die?"

"We're told that Queen Gabrielle was a traveller. But she came to see us once more before her death. They say that she came for the ceremony of the equinox, and while most of the tribe slept the day after, she left to take her own life. No one knows by what means, though.

"Why would she do that?" Jadxea watched her mother disappear behind the hill ahead of them.

"We were never told, but," Terreis' voice lowered, making Jadxea strain to hear her, "I remember that festival. I wasa a little girl. Children aren't allowed to participate in the festival of the equinox until they come of age but, sometimes they find a place to hide and watch. I fell asleep against a hut and my friends left me there. I woke up as the sun hit me and i recognized the queen by her mask from the ceremony. She was standing over me, watching me. She took my hand and walked me to my hut, and she told me about having a daughter of her own once. I watched her go into the forest. But, I remember her taking the mask off, and all of this beautiful golden hair suddenly falling around her shoulders." Terreis looked ahead of them, and then back at her little friend. "For the record, I believe your mother is Queen Gabrielle."

Jadxea's mind was racing. Not only wasa her mother an Amazon queen, but she had tried to kill herself once. This had to have happened before Jadxea was born. She had always said that Jadxea was her reason for living. And, 'she had a daughter of her own once'. What did that mean?

Soon they arrived at the Amazon village and if they had turned Jadxea away, she wouldn't have been able to find her way back. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she didn't remember half of her process of travelling. However, as she followed Terreis past the eyes of curious Amazons, Jadxea's leg began throbbing from the ache. Far ahead of them, her mother wasa entering a hut, and Jadxea stepped forward to cry out to her. Instead, the small amount of pressure on her leg was enough to collapse her and she gripped her pony's mane for support.

"Jadxea?" Terreis wasa immediately there, with her shoulder under the girl's arm to take pressure off of the horse.

"I'm fine," Jadxea insisted, wishing that she could believe it.

But Terreis found the injury on her leg and immediately took the girl's weight on her. "You should have ridden the horse here." She smirked at the girl, "Even warriors have to heal."