"You did what?" Scott angrily demanded.
 
"I turned off that machine of yours that makes that string thing that keeps you guys connected to the future," Aphrodite replied in a nonchalant sing-song. "I heard you explaining about it to Xena."
 
"But how did you ... no-one can ..." he sputtered.
 
"Oh, please! I'm a goddess. Your little security thingies don't mean anything to me."
 
"You're a goddess," Scott repeated with deadpan cynicism. He looked toward Xena.
 
The warrior slowly nodded. "That's Aphrodite, goddess of love."
 
Scott leaned his forehead wearily on one hand. He should have known better than to doubt. He looked up at the smiling goddess. He thought that if he had had to imagine what Venus would look like, she would certainly be it. He had to admit it, though this was the very woman who, with a twitch of her nose or whatever, had just made it completely impossible for he and David to ever get home. And speaking of David, where was he?
 
Apparently, the question had also occurred to Xena. "What have you done with Gabrielle and David?" she asked Aphrodite threateningly.
 
"What have I done with them? Not a thing, dear," was the goddess' reply. "Now what they've done with each other -- well! That's a different story!" She shivered with delight.
 
At that moment, David and the bard emerged into the clearing. Despite the emergency, Gabrielle seemed more than a little embarrassed at having been gone all night. Xena looked at her with vacant eyes.
 
"Scott!" called David, a bit out of breath. "The tether!"
 
"I know, I know," said Scott, already tired of panic. "It's been cut." He pointed with his thumb at Aphrodite. "And there's your girl. She did it. The goddess of love!"
 
David looked at the goddess in disbelief. This was ridiculous. He had come here not even believing the gods existed. His first encounter with one had threatened to end his life, now this one seemed as though it would change his life forever.
 
He turned again to Scott. "How could she possibly have done it?" he asked.
 
"Oh, please," Scott mocked bitterly. "She's a goddess!"
 
The four mortals sighed simultaneously, which was followed by an uncomfortable silence.
 
"Hey!" Aphrodite interjected. "What's everybody so bummed out about?"
 
David looked at her. "Why did you do it?" he pleaded, his face full of confusion and despair.
 
"Why? Why?" she repeated. "Why, I did it for you, loverboy. And for you," she said to Gabrielle. She leaned in close to the two of them. "You guys were amazing out there. You could almost teach me a few things."
 
The two lovers suddenly felt as though they were naked right then and there. "Do the gods watch everything you people do?" David asked angrily.
 
"Only when it's going to be really really annoying," answered the bard.
 
"Anyway," continued Aphrodite, "I thought you two deserved a shot at lasting happiness together. And you wouldn't have gotten it with this time thing working the way it was supposed to -- whisking you off, never to return. No, that would never do."
 
David sat down on the ground and sighed. He didn't know what to think or feel. He desperately wanted to stay with Gabrielle and yet he knew he had a job to do. Until now, he was sure of who he was and where he was from. Now he was an anonymous figure in his own distant past, which had suddenly become his present.
 
Aphrodite walked up to Xena. "You know, it did cross my mind that if you had a little extra time with Scotty ..." she began, but stopped when she saw Xena's menacing glare. "I should have known better," conceded the goddess, hands on her hips. "Whew, is it getting colder? Or is it just that I'm standing next to something frigid?"
 
The warrior drew her sword and, with a fierce cry, mercilessly slashed at Aphrodite. The blade passed cleanly through her, doing no damage.
 
"Take it easy, Xena. I was only kidding," said Aphrodite with a careless wag of her head. "Methinks thou dost protest too much." Then she giggled, "One of the Muses taught me that."
 
"They need to go home, Aphrodite," Gabrielle finally said in an attempt to get back to the matter at hand. "Reverse what you've done."
 
"No can do, sweetie," the goddess replied. "With their rope to the future cut, they belong to now. Even I can't change that. I learned that from Scotty, too." She flashed a smile and a wave in Scott's direction and blew him a kiss.
 
Scott rubbed weary eyes full of exasperation and regret. "I don't believe this," he muttered.
 
Aphrodite stepped away from Xena into an area of her own and spoke as a celebrated hero accepting her accolades. "Well, you're welcome," she declared. Xena drew her chakram and hurled it at her with a fierce grimace. "Now, now, Princess," the goddess chided, shaking her finger. "Make love, not war." She then vanished just as the weapon was inches from her nose. It continued its travel, bouncing off three or four trees, then returning, as usual, to Xena's waiting hand.
 
"If she's supposed to be the goddess of love, why do I hate her so much?" Gabrielle rhetorically asked.
 
Both Scott and David were completely aghast. Maybe Xena and Gabrielle were used to things like this, but the travelers were not. They were far more accustomed to predictable destructive forces. Scott finally spoke. "There's got to be some way out of this -- some way to fix it."
 
"Not by what you told me," Xena said. "You said nothing could break a natural tether."
 
"Why does everyone have to pay so much attention to everything I say?" he lamented angrily.
 
"Look, there's no need to panic," Gabrielle said. "We'll come up with a solution. It may take some time, but we will get you connected to your machine so you can go home. We always find some way of doing what needs doing, don't we Xena? No matter how long it takes."
 
The warrior raised a doubtful eyebrow. As Gabrielle thought of David, she couldn't deny that a part of her hoped it would take quite some time.
 
"We've got ten days," David softly said.
 
The bard's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?" she asked.
 
"Ten days to find a non-existent solution to an impossible problem," Scott droned. "No big deal."
 
"What are you two talking about?" Gabrielle persisted.
 
"The pod itself is still working, and it's still tethered to the future," David answered. The women looked at David, eyes widening as they absorbed his simple statement of fact. "In ten days, that pod is going home -- with or without us."