Joxer stumbled along the trail. Maybe he was going to something or away from something. He couldn't really remember anymore. The clumsy warrior tripped and fell head long down a steep slope. As usual. He waited for a while to make sure he wasn't hurt, then he carefully stood up. He started to stumble again, but a sure strong hand caught him by the shoulder.

"Hi, there," said a light female voice. "Need a hand?"

"This would be a real dumb time to say 'no', wouldn't it?" Joxer sighed.

The young woman laughed gently. "I take it you fall down a lot? Don't worry about it, I used to do that all the time. What's your name, friend?"

"Joxer," he said flatly as he sat down.

"Oh, the Mighty."

The girl sat beside him and for the first time he really looked at her. She had dark auburn hair that fell just to her jaw and skin that if anything was even paler than his was. She wore a tight fitting tunic and breeches of some black cloth with a pair of black leather boots that reached to mid-thigh. Joxer couldn't see any sign of a weapon, although he assumed she carried daggers in her boots, or maybe she would have in her sleeves if they hadn't been so tight. She tilted her head to look back at him and Joxer almost found himself drown in the crystal blue pools rimmed with dark violet around her eyes.

"How... How do you know that?" He stammered out after a moment.

"I know a lot of things, Joxer." She smiled slightly.

"Are you... a god?" Joxer cursed himself when his voice squeaked.

She laughed lightly. "Not exactly. More like a manifest aspect of Human Nature."

"Huh?"

"That's kind of like a god, except the gods you know will someday fade to be replaced by new ones," she explained as if she had all the patience in the world. "I will never fade away so long as the Human Race still exists, because that is what made me."

"So what do I call you?"

"You know, nobody's ever asked me that before." She giggled again. "I guess you can call me Wonder."

"Wonder?" Joxer frowned.

She nodded making her straight hair bounce softly. "Yeah, like 'Oh, I Wonder what's over there.' or 'I Wonder if there's something different a little farther on'. That's me. The need to see what else is out there."

"Oh." Joxer frowned for a moment. "So what are you doing here?"

"You were wondering where you were going kind of loud." She smiled as she caught his slightly confused look. "You called me here, because you need me."

"Well, I am kind of lost."

Wonder shook her head. "That's not it. I can't help you get to where you need to be, because I don't know either. But I can show you what ever you wonder about."

Joxer blinked. The expression painted across his face made Wonder giggle.

"Look, Wonder," Joxer started.

"Nope, stop right there, hero-boy!" Wonder held up her hands. "You can't tell me to go away, that's not how it works."

"How what works?" Joxer demanded. Here she was, yanking him around, and not helping anything! "I don't even know what you're talking about!"

"You were wondering what it would be like to be a hero, and I'm going to show you." Wonder explained softly.

"No spells?"

She shook her head again and smiled. "I'm going to show you another world, a world where you are a hero."

"Uh.... I'm not sure about...." But it was too late as they vanished in a soft shimmer of purple light. "This..."

"Hmmm. You shouldn't make me manifest then." Wonder huffed at him. "Come on."

"Come where? We haven't moved!"

"We haven't changed Relative Locations," Wonder said, gesturing to the slope Joxer remembered tumbling down. It showed no signs of something that large falling down it's face. "We just changed our Dimensional Locations. Now, come on we're going to miss it."

"Miss what?" Joxer hollered as he ran to catch up with the .... what ever she was.

Joxer dropped to one side and rolled as the warlord slashed at him. "Do you mind? This is a new shirt!"

"Sorry, but it's about to get a lot of holes in it, pretty boy," the Warlord snarled.

"No, sorry, that's not in my schedule today," Joxer taunted as he swept the legs out from under his enemy.

Joxer stopped and stared at the man in the white linen shirt who looked exactly like him, pounding on Draco. "Wonder? Is that... Is that who I think it is?"

"Right on the dinars, sweetie. Joxer, the Hero. The man you've wanted to be from the day you meant Xena, and Gabrielle." Wonder nodded. "And yes, he's beating the stuffing out of Draco."

Joxer looked up from where he had slammed his sword through his enemy's chest just in time to see a tall lanky figure go down. The woman with him just looked back and shrugged at him. Joxer went over and stared at the man who on closer inspection looked exactly like him... "Who in Tarturus are you?"

"I'm Wonder, and he's you. Sort of." The redhead grinned. She looked back down at the other Joxer and crouched beside him. "Wake-y, wake-y, hero-boy, we have to go save Xena and Gabrielle."

"Excuse me? What can the two of you do to help the Warrior Princess and her sidekick?" Joxer asked as his look-a-like started to come around. "Why would you want to? They can take care of themselves the last time I checked."

"They need help?" Joxer the Mighty asked softly as Wonder helped him to his feet. "Okay, let's go."

"Why?" Joxer asked and crossed his arms over his lean muscled chest. He glared from the redhead to the man in the absurd armor.

"Because even if they aren't the Gabrielle and Xena from my world, if they're anything at all like them, then I have to help," Joxer said to... himself. He turned to Wonder. "Are they? I don't want to save a couple of murderers or anything."

"Actually, they're very much like the Gabrielle and Xena you know, except for a few little things," Wonder answered. She tucked her hands under the arm of the Joxer on either side of her. "Now that that's settled, let's go."

Joxer watched as Gabrielle and Xena were led past by a small troop of Roman soldiers. There was a group of Amazons with them, and they were tied up like Gabrielle and Xena.

"How do you know they don't have a plan in mind?" this world's Joxer hissed at Wonder.

She shot him an annoyed look. "Because they would have gotten away by now. So are we going to save them before or after Caesar has them executed?"

"Let's go," Joxer hissed at them both. He stood up from where they were crouched behind the roadside bushes and drew his sword.

"I must be out of my mind," the other Joxer muttered as he drew his own, much better, sword.

"Well, duh," Wonder said cheerfully as she pulled a set of sais from where they were hidden behind her back. She danced into the fight kicking and ripping the swords from her opponent's hands, a light in her eyes and a laugh on her lips.

Joxer the Mighty slammed into the two soldiers in front of the partially armored Gabrielle. His sword got stuck point down in the dirt as he went down in a tangle.

The blonde Warrior Princess slid her rope bound hands over the hilt and sliced them away with a quick jerk. She yanked the sword out of the ground and stabbed behind her where another soldier was rushing her back. She snatched her chakram from one of the soldiers who had gone down with the strangely armored man.

"XENA!!"

Xena shoved hard at the soldier beside her and held up her hands when her friend shouted for her. The chakram hissed through the air, cutting the Amazon Queen's ropes. As it rebounded to the warrior, Xena snatched the dagger from the Roman's belt and ran around to free her tribe.

The Roman's didn't last long after the women were freed.

Gabrielle reached out to help the armored man to his feet as Xena and Joxer started arguing behind her. "Thanks, I'm.."

"Gabrielle," he said as he took off his helmet to hit one of the soldiers when the Roman started to stir. "Yeah, I know. I'm.."

"Joxer?" She frowned. Wonder came over and explained quickly. The Warrior Princess blinked. "Oh. You're from another world."

"Right. Sorry, I guess this is kind of confusing, huh?" Joxer scrubbed a hand through his spiky hair.

"Yes, it is." Gabrielle nodded. "But then Wonder always has had an... interesting sense of humor. Let's walk, while the girls finish tying up the Romans."

They walked slightly away from the others.

"You're not much like the Gabrielle I knew," Joxer said quietly. "She's a bard and... Why are you laughing?"

"I am a bard, Joxer," Gabrielle explained as she smiled up at him. "Xena has no idea how to tell a story."

"Oh."

Her smile faded slightly. "You're in love with her, aren't you? Your world's Gabrielle I mean."

"Yeah, I just don't know how to tell her," Joxer answered looking anywhere but at the woman who looked like his Gabby.

"Just tell her, give her your love with no strings attached," Gabrielle told him as she remembered a man who had looked at her like he had for a moment, a man who had looked so much like him. "I lost someone very important to me, before I ever told him how much he meant to me."

"Perdicus?" Joxer asked gently.

Gabrielle laughed suddenly. "Gods, no! Jett, it was Jett. Which is probably why this Joxer and I aren't on the best of terms."

Joxer blinked then stared wide-eyed at her. "Oh. Did... did he love you?"

"I don't know," she said sadly. "Don't waste time like I did, Joxer, or like he is now." She jerked her thumb back over her shoulder at the other Joxer.

"He's in love with Xena?"

Gabrielle nodded. "And he's too stubborn to say anything."

"Did you tell him to go for it?" Joxer asked genuinely curious.

"Yeah, but he didn't listen to me. Too mad about Jett," Gabrielle sighed.

Wonder came over. "Hate to break up the love fest but it's time to go home, Joxer."

Joxer nodded and said good-bye to Gabrielle. He walked over to talk to the other Joxer and Xena for a moment. "You're an idiot, Joxer, and coming from me that's a lot. Xena, he's in love with you." They stared at him dumbstruck as he went back over to Wonder. He looked at her and shrugged. "He wasn't going to say anything."

Wonder rolled her eyes and they vanished again. Joxer looked around when the world came back. They were standing on the trail where they had just fought the Romans in that other place.

"Here you go, Joxer, trail to trail service," Wonder said as she waved her hand down the road.

"Wonder? Why'd you do it? Why'd you show me what a jerk I'd be if I were a hero?" Joxer asked quietly.

"Because that guy wasn't anymore of a hero than you are," Wonder answered just as softly. "Look inside you and be strong. And you'll finally see the truth, that a hero lies in you."

Joxer thought about it for a moment. "That doesn't explain anything."

"No, it doesn't. But you needed to see it, and you needed to hear what that Gabrielle had to say as much as she needed to say it." Wonder smiled at him then vanished into a shimmer of the violet light. Joxer stared at where she had been standing for a long time, then he went to go find his friends. He had a lot to say to both of them.

Please take the time to write to Jag at wild_jaguarita@yahoo.com, and let her know how you liked the story!

COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER:
Xena: Warrior Princess, Xena, Gabrielle, Joxer, and all other characters who have appeared in the series, together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of StudiosUSA and Renaissance Pictures. The lyrics to "Hero" are owned by the appropriate copyright holders. No infringement of copyrights or trademarks is intended in the writing of this fan fiction. The character of Wonder, along with the alternate versions of Xena, Gabrielle, and Joxer, were created by the author for use in this fiction. This story is copyright © 1999 by Jaguarita J.H. and is her sole property along with the story idea. This story cannot be sold or used for profit in any way. Copies of this story may be made for private use only and must include all disclaimers and copyright notices.