PART 10

Back in Tricca, Xena emerged from the local inn where Gabrielle was resting peacefully. The wife of the innkeeper had dressed her wounds and was feeding her. Xena beamed happily now and looked up at Hercules, Iolaus, Autolycus, Salmoneus and Joxer lined up outside waiting for news to see if the non-possessed Gabrielle was still a god, a titan or possibly even faking her normalcy. None of them wanted to live through this ordeal again.

"How is she?" Hercules asked.

"Tired, hungry," Xena slowly peered back through the doorway. "She doesn't remember much, but she does have bits and pieces, but she thinks they were a dream."

"Is she a god?" Joxer asked.

"I don't think so." Xena wandered over to Argo. "I scratched her arm to make sure and she bled."

"Faking?" Autolycus asked.

"She knows her family lives in Poteideia and where we first met." Xena folded her arms. "Unless you told her that stuff."

"What I want to know is," Iolaus stood up. "How? How did she survive not getting turned into stone? I mean, Discord was even inside her, but technically, all through this, Alyssia and Gabrielle were one and the same."

"Maybe becoming a Titan separated the two." Hercules theorized as he leaned his back against the outer wall of the inn. " I mean, despite the possession, Gabrielle had to have been fighting for dominance against herself and maybe even unconsciously she tapped into Alyssia's godhood. Or maybe that's just the way it is. Why examine it?"

"I don't know." Joxer posed like Hercules and compared himself to the hero's might. "But I wish Gabrielle could have kept some of that power. I thought she was sort of... magnificent. Almost fifty feet tall, and all that power... It sort of makes me a little excited!" Salmoneus and Autolycus cringed at his dirty little fantasy and pushed him back disgustedly into the thorn bushes.

"Pervert!!" Salmoneus yelled at him.

"What I'm worried about..." Iolaus looked at Xena and the others. "Is there anything still left in Antequeria we need to be worried about?"

"I don't think we need to worry bout it." Hercules spoke up. "The ruins were devastated when Gabrielle clawed to the surface. I doubt any of it still exists."

Far to the north and almost a mile underground, the further collapsed rooms of the ancient city seemed to gasp a bit of relief. The ghosts relaxed and the statues returned to normal. A few treasure-strewn chambers were intact and one such forgotten temple had remained unscathed. One jewel-incrusted serpent entwined around an altar that had been further buried by the giant's escape. Its diamond eyes blinked, its tongue tasted the air and it curled up a bit more as it waited for another chance...

END