Continued from KOK #7…

Blast it, Kore! Where are you? Gilead lay on the cold floor, clutching his stomach. Grunts and short gasps of breath escaped his lungs. As Ares presently stopped showering him with lightning bolts, or whatever they were, Gilead had a fraction of a second to realize that Kore and his army should have charged through the door by now. Just where were they? Through the smoke rising from his own singed skin, Gilead could see Ares. He would never let him leave here alive; that was for sure. Hope was in a corner, sitting with her eyes closed as if she was lost in thoughtful meditation; Callisto was missing.

Gilead tried to stand up, reaching for his sword on the floor, to his left. Ares resorted to fisticuffs, punching Gilead in the face and knocking him back down. Gilead swung his leg out and tripped Ares up. While Ares scrambled to his feet, Gilead lunged toward his sword, but yelled in pain as a foot crunched on his hand. Ares looked down at the pathetic mortal. "Do you actually think, Gilead, that you can beat me? You’ve been letting Xena influence your thinking," Ares said, rather calmly. "That good-for-nothing ‘Warrior Princess,’ as she likes to be called, is nothing but an idealist. She was my pupil, you know. Then the Chinese woman Lau Ma came by and took her away from me; filled her head with ideas of peace and justice."

I know that, thought Gilead. So what if mother used to be evil? She sees her mistakes now. You are the one that corrupted her in the first place.

Ares grabbed Gilead’s shirtfront and pulled him up. "What, no ass-kissing, begging for mercy? Don’t expect to get out of this one alive, pal. I’ve got you where it hurts, and I’ll be damned if I screw this chance up."

Gilead raised his knee and rammed Ares in the stomach as hard as his aching muscles would allow. Ares fell back, and Gilead reached over and grabbed his sword on the floor. When Gilead turned around, ready to attack, Ares had vanished.

Xena was outside, panting. She lay Gabby gently down on the ground and attempted to shake her awake. "Come on, Gabrielle! Help me out here!" Out of desperation, Xena resorted to slapping Gabby. "Gabrielle! WAKE UP!!!" Exhausted, Xena slumped down next to her friend, and caught her breath. When her mind was clear enough to think, she thought again about her son. Was he…?

Xena drew her sword and rushed back inside, but before she could enter the door she collided with Callisto and fell backward. Immediately springing to her feet, Xena put herself between Gabby and Callisto.

"Noble efforts shall not go unpunished." Callisto grinned, and put a hand out toward Xena.

"Ahhh!!!!" Xena’s body was flung back through the air, and she crashed against a boulder ten feet away. Barely having time to shake herself back into sense, she saw Callisto, standing above Gabby, her sword drawn.

"Nnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooo!"

Almost by reflex, Xena got up and rushed over just in time to push Gabby away and take the hit herself. When the dust settled, Xena had received a six-inch long cut on her left shoulder, but Gabby was safe.

Callisto grabbed Xena by the throat. "Can’t I do anything around here without you butting in?" snarled Callisto as she lifted Xena off the ground by the neck, choking her with both hands. Xena kicked Callisto in the stomach repeatedly, but she did not budge. Out of desperation, Xena spat in her face.

"Ugh!" Callisto immediately let go of Xena, dropping her on the ground, and wiped her face.

"(Cough) Worked like a charm." Xena rolled away from Callisto and stood up. Against Callisto, she was the last line of defense for Gabby, and she was not about to let Callisto get to her friend.

Callisto feverishly wiped the sticky liquid off her face. "Did you just spit at me? How low can you get? You dare call yourself a warrior?"

"Call me resourceful!" Xena delivered a forceful blow to Callisto’s shin. As Callisto doubled over, grasping her leg, Xena took a hold of Callisto’s shoulders and delivered a whamming headbutt. As Callisto barely stood on her feet, dazed, Xena kept on driving her back with kicks and punches. One mighty fist to her face finished the punishment, and Callisto tripped. She lost her balance, fell, and rolled down the mountainside.

Watching Callisto roll down and down, Xena wiped the sweat from her brow. Turning her attention to her shoulder cut but not taking her gaze off Callisto, Xena mumbled, "Happy landing." Looking back in the direction of the temple, Xena jumped: Gabby was gone.

Taking several moments to realize that he was alone in the chamber and that Hope was still meditating in a corner, Gilead got to his feet and took aim. He planned to throw his sword at Hope, and as he raised his right hand in a wind-up, Gilead suddenly saw the left wall come toward him. Actually, Ares, who had come out of nowhere, had pushed him; Gilead realized it moments before he slammed into the wall. Gilead cradled his head with his hands, bracing for impact. When he hit, the impact blasted the entire wall outward; half the wall crumbled, and a big hole remained in the wall of the building. Outside the temple on the dirt, as Gilead lay buried under the rubble with his wind knocked out of him, he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Xena.

"Solan! Are you alright?"

"Quite, mother. Watch out for Ares."

Xena helped a dazed Gilead up. Then, staring at the wall (or the lack thereof), she let her mouth drop open. "What the…I won’t waste my time asking what happened here."

Gilead rubbed his head. Beyond the crumbled wall, Ares stood, smiling and holding Gilead’s sword in his hand. Seeing Gilead eyeing his sword, Ares challenged, "come and get it," shaking the sword in front of him.

Gilead jumped back inside the temple and resumed his business with Ares. Xena, about to go after Hope, felt a sharp pain on her head and fell down on her face. Rolling onto her back, she saw Callisto; she has sucker-punched Xena in the head. Even after Xena had beaten her to a pulp and threw her down the mountainside, Callisto had managed to make it back in record time.

Avoiding Callisto’s sword, Xena sprang up and fingered her scabbard slung across her back, but touched empty air. Callisto saw her immediate advantage. She hurriedly kicked Xena in the face, sending her staggering back and crashing into Gilead, who was standing behind her. As her son helped her regain her balance, Xena remembered that she had left her sword outside, by the back door.

Gabby, upon regaining consciousness, had immediately seen Callisto choking Xena. She had fled without thinking, knowing that if she stuck around she would be killed too. If Xena was here, that meant Gilead was nearby. She had run out to the front of the temple when she stopped dead in her tracks. Peering out to the front courtyard, she could see the four knights, along with their army, surrounded by a band of trolls. The trolls, with their sheer number, were making mincemeat out of them. Finding no help here, Gabby ran back. She knew she had to help Xena, but it would be impossible without Gilead. Where was he? Perhaps he was inside?

Gabby was standing around and wondering what to do when she heard a deafening crash just behind her. Whirling around, she saw that half the wall that she was leaning on—one of the sides of the square shaped chamber of the temple—had been blown out. Covered in bricks and dirt was Gilead. She started to run toward him, but saw movement out of the darkness and stopped. Thinking fast, she took cover behind a nearby bush and watched. It was Xena, running over to Gilead at full speed. She too obviously heard the sound of the blast. Xena helped Gilead up, and Gilead rushed at Ares standing inside, engaging him in battle.

Just as she was about to rush out, Gabby saw another movement. It turned out to be Callisto, who stopped short of bumping into Xena and punched her in the head. Xena fell, rolled over onto her back, dodged Callisto’s sword, fingered her empty scabbard, and got kicked in the face by Callisto.

If Xena did not have her sword, where was it? The sword that Ares was holding was Gilead’s, so Xena’s sword had to be somewhere else. Gabby darted further into the forest, keeping out of sight, and made her way to the back of the temple. Then, voila! The glitter of flashing metal in the moonlight caught her eye. Xena’s sword lay on the dirt, not far from the back door of the temple. Running out of the bush and seizing it, Gabby stopped for just a moment to catch her breath, and raced back. Just as she was rounding the corner, a voice sounded from behind her.

"Please…help me!"

Gabby looked around and saw Rexlar, the brown knight. He was bloody and in terrible shape. Gabby went over to the man and kept him from hitting his head on the ground.

Rexlar:
"We lost…every single person is dead."

Gabby gasped. "Even…even your brothers?"

Rexlar painfully nodded, with tears in his eyes.

This is just too unbelievable, thought Gabby. How will we ever live to see daylight? She figured killing Hope was the only way. She laid the wounded soldier on the ground as gently as possible, but his grunts made her wonder if she was helping or actually making his injuries worse.

Brushing a lock of Rexlar’s hair out of his face, Gabby asked, "the trolls…where are they?"

"As soon as they finished slaughtering us, they suddenly turned and fled. Seems like they left as soon as their job was done…"

Gabby caressed the man’s head comfortingly. "Rest here. I just remembered I had something to do."

Without another word, Gabby left him there, alone and defenseless. Gabby took one look at the man before disappearing around the corner. He would have to take his chances; no one could afford to stay with him.

Gilead stopped Xena just in time to keep her from banging her head against the stone wall. Xena and Gilead were being kicked around mercilessly by the two gods.

Callisto yawned. "This is absolutely no contest. Come on, Xena. Surely you can do better than that!"

In a lightning quick motion, Xena unhooked her chakram and whirled it at Callisto, but Callisto caught it in her hand with no problem. She threw the chakram over her shoulder; it landed near Hope. Her eyes following her chakram, Xena saw Hope; she had begun to speak in an intangible garble, reciting an incantation. As Hope rambled on, Xena realized that they now had only seconds before Dehak was released from his prison deep underground.

At that precise moment, the ground began to shake. Gilead and Xena lost balance and fell, being tossed and turned as the ground beneath their feet wobbled like a layer of jelly. Xena watched in utter horror as the altar sitting on top of the staircase began to crack. With a hiss, a white gas began to steam out of the cracks, exuding a foul smell.

"Ugh!" Xena had to cover her nose, but Gilead, as usual, could stand the smell without trouble. When the altar was decimated, Xena and Gilead could see that a large hole had been burned in the ground, right where the altar used to be. Hope stood up and turned around. She took in her present company, and let her evil grin flow across her face.

Xena felt a chill go down her spine. "Behold, ye mortals. The end of your world has come," announced Hope grandly. She raised both arms, as if basking in the thunderous evil energy that filled the air.

Just then, Gilead’s eyes saw something that no one else seemed to notice. When Callisto had snatched Xena’s chakram in the air, a tiny leather pouch had fallen from her side and landed behind her feet. Gilead carefully peered around, and he could tell that no one ever saw the pouch, as they were all excited over what Hope had just said. Gilead’s eyes fixated on the leather pouch on the ground when Gabby rushed in through the crumbled wall opening. Before either Callisto or Ares could react, Gabby darted over, and with all of her might, pushed the sword in her hand into Hope’s stomach.

"Nooooooooooooooo!!!!" Callisto’s cry breathed fire, as she ran over to Gabby, who was still holding the sword handle. Gabby turned her head just in time to see Callisto’s hands coming for her throat. As Hope fell away, hands shaking and convulsing, with the sword still lodged in her stomach, Callisto lifted Gabby off the ground and began to beat her savagely. Had Gilead not dashed into Callisto, knocking against her knees and causing her to fall on her back and release her grip on Gabby, Gabby might not have lived.

As Xena watched in disbelief, she had forgotten all about Ares. A vicious kick to her face reminder her. She fell on her back, and by the time she recovered, Ares had rushed over to Hope. Only now did Xena see Callisto’s leather pouch, lying on the ground. Ares’ foot kicked it away to the right wall, where it slid behind the crates and overturned urns and disappeared from sight.

Ares held Hope in his arms. Hope, losing strength quickly, whispered in his ear, "my father will come," before breathing her last.

Ares did not know what to think. He did not really care about Hope, as long as Dehak lived. If Hope had succeeded in bringing Dehak forth, Ares’ ultimate goal was accomplished, but seeing Hope die made his blood run cold for some reason. He whirled around, and was surprised to see Gilead, holding Callisto helpless in a tight arm-lock. Callisto was fuming and cursing and struggling with all of her might, but Gilead held on. Ares looked at him. You, Gilead. Where did you get your strength? No mortal can ever restrain a god!

Gabby was jammed in a corner, pushed against the wall by Callisto’s body. She coughed and rubbed her throat when she heard a deep, dark growl that made her turn her head toward the hole in the floor. Everyone else did too, at the same time. The growl, more evil and sinister than Hope, was definitely coming from the hole. The growl gave Gabby the impression that a deadly beast was behind her, ready to pounce the moment she made a move.

Xena dragged her exhausted body toward Ares. Ares, turning around and seeing her, laughed out loud heartily. "Now you see, Xena. All your attempts to keep up your reputation as peacemaker has failed." He stared at Gilead, still restraining Callisto but losing his grip to her thrashing. "Release her, mortal. Unless you want me to toss you down that hole this instant."

Gilead ignored Ares. He held on for as long as he could, then his numb fingers finally gave way to Callisto who kicked him away, then stood up. Callisto immediately kicked him in the face. Ares caught a hold of Xena just in time to prevent her from jumping at Callisto.

Gabby sneakily reached over and grabbed the handle of Xena’s sword, still lodged into the stomach of Hope’s lifeless body. She pulled it out, and swung it at Callisto’s legs. Callisto did not get hurt but was tripped, landing on her back. Ares held Xena in an arm-lock, watching the action. "Easy, my dear Xena. Let’s see how your son does against Callisto," he whispered into Xena’s ear.

As Callisto stuck her hand out and snatched Xena’s sword from Gabby, Gilead stuck his foot out and tripped Callisto, making her lose her grip on the sword. "You mortal pig! I’m gonna kill you right now!" With that, she drew her own sword, and chopped down at Gilead with lightning speed. Gilead moved in time to avoid having his head split neatly in half, but not fast enough to avoid the blade cutting deep down into his left shoulder.

"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!"

Blood flew everywhere, and Gabby and Xena shielded their eyes.

"Nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!" Gabby and Xena screamed at the same time.

Gabby scrambled over to Gilead. As she kneeled next to him, shouting his name over and over again, Callisto backed up, reveling in Gilead’s pain and suffering.

Xena kicked and screamed at Ares, but he held on. Xena fought and struggled and yelled every curse and obscene word she could think of, and continued until she was exhausted, sagging in Ares’ grip. Ares let out a truly evil laugh. Ares had been warned by his father Zeus to not touch Gilead ever again. So he had figured he could send him into hell alive, to see him suffer for all eternity; that was the next best thing. But now, Callisto had killed Gilead for him, and Ares was overjoyed.

"So, Solan. You aren’t so tough after all, are you?" mocked Callisto as Gilead lay on the ground, doubled over, unable to think through his pain. Gabby, in desperation, took a hold of the sword lodged in Gilead’s left chest, aiming to pull it out.

"I wouldn’t do that if I were you," said Callisto. That would only accelerate the bleeding, and you don’t want that, do you?" Callisto leaned over and tapped Gabby’s head. Gabby lost control, got up and rushed at Callisto. She was met with a punch to the midsection, however, and was thrown back down.

"This is what happens to arrogant mortals who do not know their own limitations. I suppose you learn from this, Gabrielle," said Callisto.

Gabby looked over at Gilead, no longer moving and barely breathing. He lay on the floor, his body curled up like a shrimp. His eyes were wide open, and his hands gripped the blade of the sword, still stuck in his chest. His flesh had been severed from the left shoulder right down to his rib cage, and his upper body was stained completely red. Sobbing uncontrollably, Gabby’s face fell down on Gilead’s body, clutching him tightly.

Suddenly Callisto gave a yelp. Ares looked over to see that an arrow had pierced Callisto’s stomach; somebody had shot her from behind. Turning halfway, Ares could see a bloodied man dressed in brown armor, holding a crossbow in his hand. He stared at Ares with a look of pure hatred as he cocked another arrow.

Forgetting about Xena, Ares stretched both hands toward the brown knight. Energy bolts shot out simultaneously, striking him. "So, Rexlar. Just how in the world did you survive that troll attack?!" demanded Ares, standing over the fallen man.

"I faked death. Your trolls are not very bright, Ares."

Ares grabbed Rexlar, picked him up, and carried him over to the pit. "Looks like you are going to be the first one to feed hungry Dehak!"

Xena suddenly had a truly wild idea. This gave her control of her grief, and she darted over to the crates in the corner; behind it was the leather pouch Callisto had dropped, and she had to get it while she had the chance.

Ares thought Xena was running away, not being able to stand seeing her precious son’s suffering. Ares, seeing Callisto run after her, was about to say, "Let her go, Callisto," but Rexlar had somehow managed to twist himself out of his grip and fall to the floor. Ares acted just in time to grab the back of Rexlar’s shirt, preventing him from escaping. He held the brown knight over the pit, then let go. Rexlar’s scream faded away as Ares had time to catch a glimpse of the brown knight’s body disappearing into the flaming lava pit below.

Ares looked over at Gabby, still huddled over Gilead’s body and sobbing. You don’t die easily, do you, Gilead? Why don’t you spare your beloved Gabrielle some heartache and just die? Ares then glanced in the other direction, over at Callisto and Xena, tangled up on the floor, partially hidden behind the overturned crates.

To be continued…