~ The Joining ~
by Kamouraskan
Part 6 of 10
Chapter 1
"We ARE going to talk with them," the Queen repeated, leaning back against the warrior, partly to avoid looking down from their leafy perch.
Xena buried her nose in the bard's hair. "We? Nope. Not my department, love."
Gabrielle tilted her head, giggling when her partner's nose slipped along her ear. "This is about the two of them, so it's about the two of us, isn't that clear by now? Robin has got to know about the Bond, and how separation can feel. And James has got to be shown that the risk is worth it. And since you can't leave the tribal grounds without endangering Lycea, at least until the Plan comes off, you might as well work with me."
Xena sighed and in frustration grasped her nose with her thumb and fingers. "My advice? If you want a battle plan, you need more reconnoitring. James already tried to talk to Robin. He was shot down. Still has scars. We also don't know why or how she lost her memory. So if they have your little talk and Robin doesn't remember when she gets home… It'll kill James. I'm not doing that to him." Xena shook her head, knowing that despite what she was saying, there would still be a familiar optimistic gleam in her bard's eye.
"No, I don't know why she lost her memory, but it sounds like a curse. And there's always a way around a curse. I'm thinking that the solution is in getting them to make a commitment. A declaration. So…"
"I hate sensitive chats," the warrior muttered half-heartedly.
"But you're so good at them." Gabrielle shifted herself about and right into a kiss. It began as a sweetness, and despite their promise to keep apart until after the ceremony, it was beginning to turn into something else, when Xena stiffened.
"Ephiny... about three trees back, trying to figure how to get over here..."
"Oh, poop," said the Queen of the Amazons, as she began to straighten her clothing. There was a movement on the branch above them as weight was added, and then the Regent was facing them on the branch, arms crossed.
"Hi, Ephiny!" Gabrielle said a little too brightly, trying not to feel like a teenager caught necking by her father.
"Uh, huh," said the Regent.
"Don't look at me like that, I mean! Really! This branch is hardly a handswidth. It's not like we could DO anything..." Gabrielle's attempt at outrage only got another, "Uh huh."
"Anyways, we were just coming to see you..."
"Uh huh," said the Regent.
Chapter 2
The banquet that was thrown together was held at Cyrene's, though no one would call it that within earshot of Xena's mother. The open-air bar was strictly Salmoneous' creation, she was assuring all and sundry, especially after she saw the price list.
James, still avoiding Robin, had moved to a seat at the head table, and sat listening to Gabrielle and Ephiny having their usual argument.
"You can't seriously still call what you do as 'playing at being the Queen', Gabrielle. Not after your performance at the trial," Ephiny was yelling over the din.
"But that's what it was, a performance. You're the leader, Eph, my life is with Xena on the road."
"I know, I know, I've heard it a thousand times, but have you considered that..."
At this point, Ephiny reached over and grabbed a surprised James by his collar and pulled him over, nearly spilling his drink. "James and I have been talking..."
"You have?" Gabrielle looked at James accusingly.
"Yes, and we think that you've been selfish, especially as far as your adventures on the road are..."
"Not selfish," James hastily corrected. "Perhaps too concerned with the lives of your Amazons."
Ephiny disagreed. "Selfish. If she would allow us to make our own choices..."
James tried to move away from the argument, "Actually, I thought of this as a way of ending the tension between the warriors and the peacemakers. I mean, Gabrielle? How many challenges to the Mask do you want to go through? Do you really want to spend all your time and maybe your life defending your beliefs AND the mask? You have to give them something to do. Velasca was right, if only that these ARE warriors...."
Several people noticed the discussion becoming more heated and Autolycus was waved over to be questioned by the bard.
"Don't tell me you're volunteering to help them with this squad?" Gabrielle accused.
"Well, let's see the disadvantages," Autolycus mused. "I'll be forced to work in close quarters with several young, even attractive, women. At times of my choosing. Virtually preventing you and Xena from calling on me at, shall we say, awkward moments. Gee, Gabrielle. I can't see why I would agree."
Gabrielle, looked at him with feigned distaste and turned to Ephiny. '"What does Xena say?"
Ephiny now played her trump card. "Oh, she said it made sense, but that you would never agree to it..."
The thief, James and Ephiny maintained straight faces as Gabrielle's eyes blazed, and then she stood. Banging her staff on the table until quiet was achieved, she called out.
"Amazons! I have an announcement!"
The celebrations ceased instantly.
"It has been brought to my attention, that there have been several instances when Xena and I in our travels have needed the help of our Sisters. And I might have hesitated… calling upon them… because I felt it was not my place to risk more lives in our pursuit of the Greater Good. I have been advised that some of you might have gladly volunteered for such adventures, and that I might have been ..."she choked on the next word slightly, "selfish, in not offering this...ah, chance."
She looked across to Xena, who was staring at her open mouthed. This seemed to galvanise her. "I now believe, that a select group of Amazons, with specialized training, including," looking to Autolycus now, "Lock picking..."
Ephiny broke in, "Dungeon and prison rescues, castle storming..."
Now the Amazons in the crowd were really listening.
"...teaching villagers basic defensive techniques…" Gabrielle tried to continue, but the Regent interjected again. "Specialized combat training by a certain warrior princess..."
Gabrielle glared at Ephiny until she meekly sat down.
"If there are any that would be interested in such a force, Eponin will take your names and..."
The rest was lost in the sound of one hundred Amazons leaping to their feet and charging the unprepared Weapon's Master, who failed to move from her stunned stupor before being swamped by the stampede.
Chapter 3
Iolaus caught up to James and they watched with amusement as Eponin cowed and threatened the eager volunteers into orderly lines. "Of course you realize that you guys have just given the former Destroyer of Nations her own elite strike force, don't you?"
James took a sip of his ale and said, "Hell, with Xena's charisma, she could sign on as a cook in someone's army and within a week she'd have the sworn loyalty of every soldier they had. If she wanted. And this army will be under Gabrielle, with Xena as her commander. So, nope, not worried."
He noticed that Iolaus was staring at a point above his shoulder, and wasn't surprised when a silky voice spoke from behind him.
"Perhaps he's more worried about his talk with Joxer?"
"What talk with Joxer?" said a slightly sloshed Solari, joining them.
James cursed to himself. 'That damn bet. Of course she would remember it'. "You're going to hold me to that? I don't even remember what it was I lost at."
"There was a bet?" Solari inquired.
Xena leaned over to Solari's ear and began explaining something. Solari's eyes grew large, and she sputtered, "And He Lost?" She turned to evaluate James again with a now critical eye. "No wonder he's avoiding Robin..."
"What the hell?" James turned to face Xena. `"Look, I still don't know what this bet was, but I'm damn well not going to counsel poor Joxer if he finds out that I'm only doing it because I lost some stupid drinking contest. How do you think he would feel?" The group fell silent.
"Wow," said Iolaus noticing Xena's expression. "Xena is embarrassed. And about hurting Joxer!"
"Xena likes Joxer, Xena likes Joxer," Solari started chanting drunkenly, before she was picked up by an angry warrior princess and swiftly carried from the bar. Eponin called out from her registering duties, "Twenty dinars says we can hear the splash from here!"
James left to look for his new client while Iolaus began to calculate the distance to the nearest stream, not realizing that it was just outside the Amazon territory. But Xena had forgotten that as well...
Chapter 4
Joxer was sitting alone, staring at an empty pitcher in front of him. James stood above him until Joxer lifted his head to look up. He grimaced. "It's OK, I heard about the bet. I'll tell Xena we talked." He turned back to look at the pitcher. James could only curse himself, and sit down beside him. "Look, Joxer…"
"Go away. Please."
"Xena cares about you..."
Far off in the distance there was a screech that was clearly from Solari, and then a slight splashing sound. Eponin called out "YES!" and began collecting money from those around her.
"...though she has strange ways of showing it sometimes..." James sighed before continuing.
"Look, Joxer, Xena couldn't do the sensitive chat, so she sent me. That's all. I know it's not right, I mean, you don't even know me... almost like Gabrielle doesn't know you."
That got his attention. "What do you mean Gabby doesn't know me?"
"Joxer, you think you're the king of rejection? I got you beat all over. Chances are a week from today, the woman I love will be calling the police if I show up at her door. And that's where the real pain is when you've got unrequited love. You let your heart and your soul hang out there for this person to see, and you're so open, a breeze hurts. Because you're showing them everything you are...
... and then they say 'No`."
They sat in mutual silence for a moment.
"That's pain." James continued. "They seem to be saying 'I reject YOU,' because you were so open and you figure they've seen and judged your very core, everything you are. But Gabrielle, she never saw that. She was looking only at Xena the whole time. She never really knew you, Joxer, she never did. Your heart is still a secret from her, and she never knew what beautiful things you might have offered her. She missed all that. For whatever it's worth, she hasn't rejected you.
"But hurt like this, knowing the facts isn't enough. So, you just have to be strong. You have to be immensely tough, to try to remind yourself, biting back the pain, that these two people are your friends, and somewhere what's best in you is happy for them. Time won't heal this wound now. Strength of character is what you've got to find. Anything else will destroy you, and your relationship with them." Joxer lifted his red eyes and looked mournfully to the dais at Gabrielle.
"They are your friends," James continued. "They've needed you before, and they will again. And if you don't bite back the pain, and keep this from twisting you, you won't be there for them."
"Might serve them right..." he mumbled.
"I've read Gabrielle's scrolls, Joxer. I know the one thing you are not, is a coward. So, let me buy you a drink, and let's try to toast true love, even if it kills us, okay?"
Joxer hesitated. "You mean that about being in love with a girl who would call the cops on you?"
"If you had a choice, do you really want to listen to my problems? Or do you want to get your lute, I get my guitar, and we get into some music after we finish these drinks."
"Yeah," his hound dog face grinned crookedly," we could do that."
Neither noticed that a thoughtful Robin had just moved away from the table directly behind them, and slipped away.
Chapter 5
He had just taken Joxer`s arm when James felt a strange crawling sensation on the back of his neck. It was that perplexing link with Gabrielle again, and when he looked up to the front, he saw Gabrielle's head snap around to stare at him from across the tavern. 'Lycea! Oh God's, where...? The Plan! And we're not ready!' they thought. He saw his own anxiety, mirrored on the Queen's face, increase when he put up his hands to indicate he didn't know where to start.
She turned and began speaking urgently to Ephiny who nodded and ran off. James spoke to Joxer.
"I'm really sorry, but we have to put off that session for a moment. We have a real emergency, Joxer. We need to find Robin, right away. Grab anyone you have to, but find her! Okay?"
"Sure," Joxer said, confused. "That shouldn't be too hard, she was sitting right there a moment ago..." and he pointed to the seats behind them.
James blanched. "You mean she heard everything…" and shook himself. 'No time for that now.'
Gabrielle ran up to him, calling, "She's gone! Lycea`s gone! One of the guards is dead. Ephiny's gone to the Temple of Artemis. Where's Xena?"
"She just took Solari for a swim, she must have gone to the stream at the base of the hill." He grasped the hands of the frantic bard.
"She just walked off the grounds without thinking? I'm going to kill her!" Gabrielle stormed. "Where's Robin?"
"Joxer is in charge of finding her." She nodded and touched Joxer's arm, then spotted Iolaus and Eponin and called out to them. "Pony, we've run out of time and He's made His move. We're on! I have to get around to the stream without being spotted, so you guys get the clothes and the wig. Iolaus, talk to Joxer, you have to find Robin and get her ready. Now!"
James and the Queen looked at each other, and she said, grim faced, "This had better work, because we only get one chance."
Chapter 6
Standing in the moonlight, Xena had been enjoying herself watching Solari swimming to the opposite bank, making note of some of her newest obscenities, when she felt a familiar prickle on the back of her neck. Cursing her stupidity, hoping that she hadn't ruined everything, she spun around, her sword already drawn.
"Hello, Ares."
The God of War was hardly visible in the starlight, but Xena knew there would be a confident smirk on his face.
"Xena," he purred. " Here I was becoming worried that we might not have a chance to chat before the big event. You've been avoiding me." He shook his head sadly. "Hiding is so unbecoming in a war-...Ah Ah!..." he cautioned as she moved towards him, and Lycea materialized in his arms.
Xena froze, murder in her eyes. "How did you....?" she hesitated.
"Get her out of Amazon territory? I didn't. I had some human helpers. Those caterers that Salmoneous hired, and Falafel, was it? Very eager to help, and oh, so easily terrorized..." He looked over at the grim face and smiled.
"Oh, don't worry. I already took care of them for you. Consider it a favour. We couldn't let people live who could so easily betray my new Chosen. Could we? And one of your Amazon Guards was a bit... damaged as well, I'm afraid. " He leaned over to kiss the child's forehead.
Xena restrained herself with an effort.
"She is NOT, and never will be your Chosen, Ares. Put my daughter down."
"Oh, but Xena. You knew I'd be, how did your friend James put it, creaming my leathers, over her? Ugly phrase, by the way. And yet, when the moment came, you were hardly watching her at all." He circled behind her, his whispers brushing the taut muscles of her neck. "But I wouldn't worry, I'm leaving her with you until her Time. I wouldn't want her to lose all the advantages of home and family. I'm just here to make my claim, just the Touch, make my Claim, and then I'll be off... for a while."
"No offer of a deal, Ares?"
"Her, in exchange for you? Oh no, Princess. I'm afraid that you've become rather set in your ways, old news really. " He raised the child and stared into her eyes. "There's a new player in town, and she's going to be all mine."
Continued in Part 7