Xena's eyes shot open and focused on a gray sky, sleep immediately leaving her as she rose to a sitting position in her bedroll. The startling blue eyes narrowed and she cocked her head to the right, listening intently.

It was quiet in the clearing - much too quiet for her liking.

Xena cautiously rose to her feet, turning in the direction that her ever-faithful Argo had been grazing in when she had fallen asleep the previous night. The golden palomino mare whickered nervously, her liquid-brown eyes huge as she stared at her approaching mistress.

"Hey..." Xena murmured soothingly as she stood in front of the horse, gently reaching out to pat the velvet muzzle.

Argo bellowed loudly, suddenly backing away from Xena and rearing up in front of her. Xena was so surprised by her normally calm steed's actions that it was only her lightning-quick reflexes that saved her from getting hit by a hoof. She reached out and grabbed her horse's reins and shouted, "Calm down, girl! Shh!"

Xena continued speaking softly to Argo, and eventually the mare calmed down. Xena, however, was not nearly so sanguine as she temporarily left the mare to have a quick bite to eat and then break camp. Her hand kept creeping over to her chakram of its own accord several times and she had to mentally force herself to leave the deadly weapon alone.

Xena gazed up at the sky again as she mounted Argo and sighed; no sun today, but it didn't look like it was going to rain either. The gray sky suited her equally bleak mood. She had been gone from her family and friends for far too long and she had missed them terribly while journeying back from Chin for the past few months. Her thoughts turned to them.

Eve, at seventeen, turning into a poised, beautiful, and strong young woman... Gabrielle, her green eyes sparkling with excitement as she told stories of their adventures that would hold her audience captive for hours upon end... Joxer, playing his lute, always ready with jokes or silly stories that would make everyone laugh... Adora, her lips pouting out in concentration like her father's did as she drew on any empty piece of parchment that she could find... Andy, his short blond hair flying around his face, laughing merrily as he ran into Jett's waiting arms... Even Autolycus still shamelessly flirting with her after all this time was enough to bring a tiny smile to Xena's lips. It's true: you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone, she thought to herself. She made a clicking noise and Argo obediently moved forward.

Horse and rider moved along in companionable silence for some time until a slight breeze stirred up and a faint and odd-smelling odor made its way to Xena's nose. She halted Argo in the middle of the path with a soft murmur and inhaled deeply. Xena exhaled sharply and her stomach roiled in sudden recognition. It was a scent she knew all too well - the sickening stench of bodies decaying combined with the sharp, metallic scent of blood.

Xena's heart sped up in her chest as she urged Argo forward. "YAH!" she cried. Argo's hoofs thundered down the dirt road in response to her mistress' yell. As she rode along the path that would bring her home, Xena carefully scrutinized the land, searching for any clues of a battle recently being fought in the vicinity.

The scent grew stronger as Xena continued riding and dread filled her soul. One hand slid from the reins to clutch at her chakram before she forced herself to concentrate fully on her riding. Her sharp eyes scanned the horizon as she drew Argo to a halt when she spotted a single small puff of smoke rising into the gray sky from a large hill. Her lips drew together in a thin line and her eyes narrowed as she grimly turned the mare towards the smoke.

Xena reached the top of the hill and her eyes widened in shock when she saw the amount of bodies scattered across the plain. She had Argo come to a halt and she nimbly dismounted from the mare, murmuring for her to stay while she looked around. The mare snorted, but she put her head down to graze while Xena cautiously walked towards the outskirts of the battle with sword drawn and eyes darting back and forth.

Xena sighed as two vultures lit down and greedily began feeding on the carcass of a half-eaten man not too far away from where she was standing. She turned away, her face drawn up in disgust. The scent of decaying bodies made her stomach churn uncomfortably. Her nostrils flared as she straightened to full height and grimly began picking her way through the dead but she stopped short when something registered in her whirling mind.

Xena's eyes widened when it occurred to her that the dead weren't soldiers but villagers upon closer inspection. There were shields, swords, maces, and other weapons normally seen in combat but none of the dead were clothed in any particular garb that would identify them as any part of a specific army garrison. As she continued to pick her way amongst the corpses, Xena even saw that a couple of fallen men held pitchforks in their stiffened hands and she shook her head in disbelief.

Xena knelt down beside one of the bodies and she saw that whoever had killed the man lying next to her was no professional. He had not died from a single quick stab to the gut or had his throat slit, but he had been stabbed repeatedly. She noted how haphazard the wound strike pattern was and it seemed to her that the killer had gone completely insane with rage, striking out blindly until his victim fell.

Xena swallowed hard as she rose to her feet and began walking again, her sharp mind taking in everything that she saw in minute detail. She heard the softest of moans and her blue eyes widened in alarm. Gods... Someone is actually still alive... she thought to herself. She whirled around in the direction of the moaning, her ears straining until she heard it again and she could determine exactly where the person was. Grimly, she slowly and carefully maneuvered herself over the fallen until she found the man.

A metallic taste filled Xena's mouth when she saw the man's condition - and his age. He was no more than eighteen summers, she reckoned as she knelt down next to him. He didn't have long to live, she saw. Infection had already set into the gaping wound in his stomach. She could see some yellow-green pus weeping from the wound in conjunction with the slow stream of blood that trickled out with every shuddering breath of air he took in his failing lungs.

The sight of the man and the foul stench of imminent death, combined with the knowledge that there was nothing Xena could do to help him except for delivering a quick and final blow of mercy to relieve his suffering suddenly threatened to overwhelm the battle-hardened warrior. She resolutely swallowed back the bile that rose to her throat as the young man's eyes opened and focused on her.

"X-X-Xena," the man whispered, his unusual silver-colored eyes wide as he recognized the tall warrior.

Xena carefully put her hand over what was left of his upper arm - the man's hand and part of the lower limb had been hacked away. "What happened?" she asked in as gentle a voice that she could muster under the circumstances.

The man's breathing was becoming labored. "World's gone mad," he managed to choke out. He coughed once, a harsh rattling cough. A trickle of bloody spit fell down his chin. "Death everywhere... Towns burning..." His eyes were beginning to lose their focus.

Xena's eyes widened at the man's last two words. "There's a town five leagues to the south of here..."

The man's eyes widened as he drew in one last, wheezing breath and became still. Xena rose to her feet shakily, staring down at the man's face. It seemed to her as she moved away from him that his eyes stared up at her accusingly, damning her for having the unmitigated gall to still live. She turned away from him, her face drawn up in an ugly scowl that hid her increasing anxiety.

Argo whickered uneasily as her mistress approached. "Me too, old girl. I don't like it either. Let's go home," Xena growled low in her throat, taking a moment to pat the mare's neck once in reassurance before mounting up and heading back down the road at top speed, her fury and anxiety increasing with each stride the golden mare took.

As Xena rode along the road, she met no travelers along the way but she saw many dead bodies off the road, and once, she had to slow Argo down and guide her around two half-decayed bodies lying smack dab in the middle of it. She saw that both bodies had swords stuck through their stomachs. Her anxiety grew and threatened to overtake her several times as she approached her home. She held onto the reins so tightly as she urged Argo onward that she didn't even realize that the leather straps were beginning to cut into the palms of her hands.

A couple of hours later, Xena finally reached the town's outskirts and she drew Argo to a halt, gasping sharply when she saw that the gates leading into the sleepy town had been destroyed. She slowly dismounted the golden mare, unsheathed her sword, and warily led Argo through the remains of the town gates and down the path that led to the marketplace - only there was no marketplace.

There was simply - nothing - nothing but burnt-out remains of buildings. The memory of leading her army to loot and burn Cirra came back to the ex-warlord's mind with a vengeance and Xena's face turned white.

Cirra post-sacking looked like downtown Athens compared to this place.

Xena heard a noise a short distance away from her and she whirled around, sword held before her defensively. She breathed in, trying to calm herself down when she saw that it was only a piece of pottery that had fallen from the remains of a windowsill.

"Gabrielle... Eve..." Xena murmured, her mind immediately slamming back into the present. Dropping Argo's reins, she broke into a sprint, running as fast as she could towards Gabrielle and Joxer's home, her heart beating in her chest like a sledgehammer as she ran.

Xena didn't even feel her sword drop from her nerveless fingers as she skidded to a stop before her best friends' home. "Oh no," she moaned, shaking her head in disbelief. "No..." The strength left her legs and she fell to her knees. "No," she repeated over and over, her voice growing louder as she stared with wide eyes. Gabrielle's sais... Joxer's sword, lying to one side... The burned skeletal remains of a leg, separated from its body...

Xena had killed many men in her past life as a warlord and had been both the cause and witness of many gruesome scenes in her life, but - nothing - had ever prepared her for anything like this. Her head kept shaking in disbelief as she continued staring, her voice rising to shrill screams as she repeated over and over: "NO... NO... NO... NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

As Xena's grief-stricken cries echoed through the silent valley, a gentle rain began to fall from the gray midday sky.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" Xena yelled, her heart pounding in her chest as she bolted upright in her bedroll. She breathed in deeply in an effort to calm herself, her mind distantly registering the fact that she was sweating and that her body was shaking like a leaf. Her eyes flew up to gaze at the sky - a deep and almost cloudless azure. She could hear birds chirping in the trees and Argo neighed cheerfully to her mistress in greeting.

Xena fought back the temptation to be sick by continuing to take in several deep breaths and hanging her head low until the sensation passed. "A dream... It was nothing but a bad dream," she murmured, wiping her sweaty forehead.

"Morpheus sometimes takes his job a little too seriously, I'm afraid."

Xena immediately shot to her feet, all traces of her earlier distress gone, replaced with fury. "Athena!" she growled as the Goddess of Wisdom appeared before her. Her fists clenched together as she drew herself to full height. "What do you want?" she demanded in a deadly soft voice, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

Athena gazed at Xena serenely. "I think you know why I'm here," she said simply.

Xena licked her lips, taking in the Goddess' words. "Eve... Adora..." she said in a whisper. "It's beginning to happen, isn't it?"

The Goddess nodded. "You must hurry, Xena. Time grows short." Athena then disappeared into the ether in a flash of white-hot light.

Xena blinked furiously as the after-effects of the Goddess' departure flashed before her eyes for several seconds. When it finally stopped, she walked towards Argo, who whickered. She reached out and gently scratched underneath the golden mare's chin. "We've got two days of hard traveling, old friend."

Argo snorted in reply and Xena smiled grimly. "I just hope that we're not too late."

Jett and Jace were heading for the dance school when a boy ran up to Jett. "Are you Jett the bounty hunter?"

"Yes."

"I've got a message for you." The boy handed Jett the scroll and waited. Jett dropped a dinar in his hand and the boy left.

Jace watched as Jett opened the scroll and read it with a grim look on his face. "Bad news?" he asked.

"I've got to go after and bring back Tolly," answered Jett, shaking his head in disbelief.

"TOLLY? But he's a farmer!" Jace exclaimed as he stared at Jett in astonishment.

"I know, but according to this he's wanted for several killings and I've been ordered to bring him in dead or alive." Jett handed Jace the scroll and Jace quickly read it.

"If I didn't just read this, I'd say you were out of your mind," Jace said finally as he returned the scroll to his brother. "Well, I hope you bring him back alive. There's got to be a reason why this happened. Tolly's got a family."

Jett sighed as he returned Jace's gaze and rolled the scroll up into a tight roll. "He used to have a family, you mean. I better go talk to Mel. I'll have to take a rain-check on helping you."

"I understand. Be careful, okay?"

"I will, Jace. Thanks."

Jett walked away and Jace headed back to his dance school alone. He was almost there when he spotted Eve. "Eve, why aren't you in school?"

"Hi, Uncle Jace. I ripped my skirt and had to come home and change it." She pointed to the large rip.

Jace's eyes widened with distress when he saw the damage. "Oh no! Not the skirt Xena worked on so hard to make for you?"

"Yes..." Eve suddenly broke down and cried.

"Hey," Jace said as he took Eve in his arms and gently patted her back. "Don't cry, Evie. Maybe it can be repaired. I'll have Pierre take a look at it. He's an expert on sewing. He makes most of my outfits."

Eve nodded as she wiped her eyes. "Thanks, Uncle Jace. I better get to the house and change!"

Jace nodded as Eve hurried away.

Joxer was chopping wood when Eve came into the yard. "Eve, what's the matter?"

"Tore my skirt! Had to come home and change!" Eve exclaimed, not bothering to stop or turn in Joxer's direction as she ran into the house.

Gabrielle turned from checking the meat she was browning for the stew she was going to make for that night's supper when Eve came thundering over the threshold. "Eve?"

Eve sighed as she came to a halt to catch her breath. "I tore my skirt."

Gabrielle's eyebrows rose. "Not..."

Eve rolled her eyes. "Yes, Aunt Gabrielle, the one Mom made me! Uncle Jace is going to see if Uncle Pierre can repair it. I don't have time to talk. I'm going to be late as it is and you know how Foon Li gets if anybody's late for his astronomy class."

Gabrielle nodded as Eve ran back into the spare bedroom to change quickly. Eve waved goodbye as she ran back down the road towards school. Gabrielle came out and went over to Joxer. "I hope Pierre can repair her skirt."

Joxer placed his arms around his wife. "If anyone can, he can."

Melody kept reading the scroll over and over. "This makes no sense! Tolly? That man wouldn't harm a fly!"

"Mel, I know it makes no sense. I couldn't believe what I was reading at first either, but there are just too many witnesses. He's killed his own family and a few neighbors in cold blood. I've got to bring him in. It's my job."

Melody turned away from her husband. "I hate your job."

Jett wrapped his arms around her. "I know you do, but I'm good at it and it puts food on our table."

Melody stood stiffly in her husband's embrace. "Why can't you be a farmer?" she asked softly.

Jett laughed. "Me, a farmer?" He slowly broke the embrace and Melody walked over to the window. He sighed as his hands fell loosely to his sides. "I've got to go before his trail gets too cold," he added in quietly.

Melody leaned against the windowsill and stared outside. "When will you be back?"

"As soon as I get Tolly and take him in. I'll try to be back before Xena comes."

She nodded once. "You better go, then. Say goodbye to Andy."

"Mel..."

"Just go, Jett."

Jett hesitated for a moment and almost began walking toward her before his face grew expressionless and he slowly walked from the room instead, hearing the sound of Melody softly crying as he walked out the door of their home and into their small front yard where Andy was playing with his wooden sword. "Those are pretty good moves, son."

Andy turned and looked at his father with a big gap-toothed smile on his face. "Thanks, Dad!"

Jett sat down on a rock. "Come here, Andreas. I need to tell you something."

The smile left the little boy's face as he approached his father and stood in front of him. His father never called him that unless something was wrong. "Yes sir?"

"Andy, I'm going away for a few days and I'm leaving you in charge."

Andy stood before Jett as tall and as proudly as a five year old could manage. "I'll do a good job, Dad."

"I know you will." Jett replied as he ruffled his son's hair and then knelt down and gave him a big hug. "I've got to go now. Be good for your mother. I'll miss you," he whispered in Andy's ear. Jett rose to his feet and walked into the stable where his horse was, Andy following behind him. The little boy watched his father with a solemn expression on his face as Jett saddled up then mounted his horse.

Andy moved to the side and looked up at Jett. "Everything will be just as you left it, Dad."

Jett nodded and started to ride away when Melody ran out, calling to him. "Jett! Jett!"

Jett wheeled his horse around and Melody ran over to him. He quickly got off his horse as she ran into his arms. "Please be careful. I love you."

"I'll be careful, Mel. I promise. I love you too," Jett rasped in Melody's ear. He held her a little longer, closing his eyes as he deeply breathed in the vanilla scent of her hair then let her go. He walked over to his horse, remounted, and rode away, looking over his shoulder once before urging the horse into a gallop.

Melody felt her son's hand touch hers. "Don't cry, Mommy. He'll come back."

Melody sadly smiled down at her son and put her arm around his shoulders. "I know."

Eve arrived at school, slightly out of breath from her full run from Gabrielle and Joxer's home and saw Adora talking to Stephanos. She hurried over to them. "Dorie, why aren't you in Foon Li's class? You know how he feels about students being late!"

Adora and Stephanos ignored Eve. Suddenly, Adora reached up and kissed Stephanos forcefully on the lips. "I've got to go now, Stephy, but I'll see you later," Adora purred.

Eve stared at the two of them. "What's going on here?" she demanded.

"What's it look like, Evie?" Adora replied. "I asked Stephanos to the dance and he said yes."

"But you can't go to the dance! You're grounded and Stephanos is my boyfriend!"

Adora smiled at Eve. "I'm going to that dance and sweet Dad ain't gonna stop me."

"And how do you plan to do that?"

"I'll use my powers if I have to."

Eve shook her head. "Your powers? I thought you lost them."

"Nah, I've just been Daddy's little girl, but now it's time for Daddy's little girl to grow up. See you, Stephanos."

"Stephanos is my boyfriend," Eve repeated.

Adora smirked. "Really? Let him speak for himself. Stephanos, are you Eve's boyfriend?"

Stephanos looked at Adora and grinned. "Eve? Who's Eve?" He then took Adora's hand and they walked inside. Adora turned around and stuck out her tongue at Eve.

Once inside, Adora took Stephanos inside a storage closet. "Better turn myself back, handsome, and take the spell off you. There's nothing worse than a best friend stealing a boyfriend."

Aer giggled as she changed herself back into her "Dinah" disguise and looked at Stephanos, who stared at her blankly. "Well, handsome, as soon as I leave here, you won't remember a thing that happened in the last twenty minutes." Aer snapped her fingers and left Stephanos alone in the storage closet.

Stephanos shook his head and looked around, wondering what he was doing in a storage closet. He walked out and spotted Eve hurrying down the hall. "Eve! Hey Eve! Wait up! I'll walk you to your class."

Eve stopped in her tracks and whirled around to face him. Stephanos halted in the middle of the hall when he saw the look on Eve's face - and her eyes. The blue eyes were like her mother's were when she was furious and the young man gulped nervously. "Eve?"

"Don't you Eve me, Stephanos!" she snapped.

"Eve, what's wrong?" Stephanos asked with a very confused _expression on his handsome features.

"You can take Adora to the dance. I wouldn't go with you if you paid me!"

"What? Adora? I don't want to take Adora! I want to take you!"

Eve turned around and walked away from Stephanos, paying no attention to him as he called her name several times before he finally gave up. He turned around and walked to his philosophy class, shaking his head in puzzlement.

When Eve got to Foon Li's class, she opened the door and walked inside. The astronomer from Chin looked at her disapprovingly. "You're late, Eve."

"I'm sorry, sir," Eve replied. "I..." she started to give an explanation as to why she was late, but the astronomer put his hand up, signaling her to keep silent.

"I don't like students to be late for class. Lateness creates disharmony. You will write me an essay on the composition of stars and it is due next week. Now take your seat," he said.

Eve started to walk to her usual seat but decided not to sit there and took another one instead.

"Is there something wrong with your seat, Eve?" Foon Li asked.

"No sir," answered Eve.

"Then I suggest that you sit in your own seat."

Eve nodded as she went back to her own seat and sat down. Adora smiled at her but Eve ignored her.

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