Gabrielle is my friend, my soul mate. WHO: Xena, Nico, and Billy WHAT: They face the Tower of Judgement WHEN: During the Towers crisis WARNINGS: mentions of trauma, death, and corruption STATUS: Closed and Complete
Billy was walking along when it happened. Between one step and another, he was no longer on the street, but instead inside some weird structure. Oh boy.
He scampered to place his back against a wall as he looked around, but as he moved the whole room seemed to shimmer and dissolve, and then he saw something that made his skin go clammy. His sister, looking hurt, partially crushed, and with skin coming off in places. For a second he gazed on that image in horror, before out of her came what could only be a ghost, a glimmering translucent image, all white and colorless otherwise, with her in perfect health.
“Why Billy? Why did you send me in your place? Why did you send me to die?” And the horror of his own personal nightmare shuddered through him as he backed as far as he could, tears in his eyes, staring and unable to turn away, as she asked him again. “Why, Billy?”
“I--- I’m so sorry, Mary. I’m so sorry!”
“If you hadn’t backed out, if you hadn’t told our parents that you hated them and me, you could have gone and been there, and died in my place. You knew it was dangerous and you were afraid, weren’t you Billy?”
Horror at the scene filled him and he felt like his mind was slowing down, like everything was.
How-- what---
Oh gods.
***
Nico had just wanted to get out of his apartment for a little while, get some fresh air that didn’t come with having to go to class or take Cesare out, just try to get his last dream out of his head at least for a little while. He hadn’t been looking to get dragged into some weird building. And he definitely hadn’t been looking to get dragged into one where the visions from his dream would be replaying over and over.
“Nico...why didn’t you save me? Why didn’t you get your father to save me” He heard his mother Maria, dressed in the old fashioned clothes that seemed to populate his dreams, asking him, as the lightning bolts hit all around her ghost. He whimpered quietly, tears falling down his cheeks as he looked at her. “Madre...I couldn’t do anything.” He admitted softly, retreating backwards until he felt the corner of the wall in his back.
He knew it was cowardly but he couldn’t face her. Not by himself. So he ran. Turning the corner and stumbling blindly down the hallway until he almost tripped over someone else.
*** The best part about the OC was that Xena got to beat the shit out of people, and there were no consequences. That they usually deserved it made it all the better.
She spun her Chakram around, ready to take care of another pack of mercs when she suddenly found herself somewhere else. "Oh come on, I had them."
Then someone ran into her. She grabbed Nico and nearly stabbed him before she caught herself. "Hey. You okay kid?"
***
Billy scrambled back as Mary moved toward him, a floating ghost with a face frozen in horror. He was shaking as he rose to his feet and just ran, dodging around the walls and then sliding to a halt as ht spotted two other people.
Wait… two people he didn’t know. Who might not know this place was dangerous! For a second, his will to help others rose over his fear and he shouted. “Hey! Watch out! There are ghosts here!”
He ran toward them, tripping at the last moment as he felt a hand grasp his ankle, and he felt a spark of pain as he fell. As he turned to look, he saw Mary on the ground, holding on to his ankle, which was twisted in her grasp.
“Oh man….”
***
Out of all the things Nico had seen since moving to Orange County this woman with her weapon was one of the more intimidating, but the amount of control she showed in stopping herself from stabbing him made him feel a little bit safer around her. Not much but enough that he didn’t try to shove her off him as he looked from her weapon to her face. “Loaded question. This place...something in here is fucking with me.” He’d practiced to make his Italian accent less heavy so that he could communicate with others easier but when he got upset, it came back. And so did his tendency to swear.
He heard someone speaking behind them and turned his head, making a slight step backward so that he could get a closer look, wanting to make sure it wasn’t another ghost. The guy looked real enough but the figure behind him...clearly not alive as far as Nico could tell. “Yeah. I ran into one of my own,” he looked back at the woman holding him and stepped away, squaring his shoulders and moving to reach out for him to pull him away from the ghost. Or at least help him up once they got him loose. “Sprain or broken?” he asked quietly.
***
"I'm getting that impression." Xena looked around. She had a bad feeling about this place, and it made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Xena had experienced her share of tests from Gods and other beings, and this whole place screamed some kind of test. She couldn't think of anything she needed to be tested on, and she hoped she was right about that.
"Pull him back," Xena ordered, before flinging her Chakram at the ghost. If nothing else it might buy them time.
***
“Sprain. I think.,” He groaned as he got up with Nico’s help, retreating from the ghost. And wincing as the Chakram made the ghost vanish, for a few minutes. “Wow! That was amazing.”
He was starting to relax when it slowly started to regather. “We have got to get out of here. Anyone see anything like a door?” He was looking around for anywhere to retreat to.
***
Nico was stronger than he looked, and he put his arm around the other boy to give him support if he needed it. “This place seemed to throw the three of us together for some reason.” He said, looking back and forth between his companions.
“I wasn’t paying as much attention to things as I probably should have been. I just wanted to get away from my -” he stopped himself from saying the word mother. That wasn’t his mother. “I just wanted to get away from what it was showing me.” He looked back at Xena. “Did you see anything before we ran into each other?”
***
The weapon bounced around,before heading back to Xena. She caught it and hooked it to her belt. “I was in a parking lot, playing chicken with a tank. Ended up here. Whatever this place is, it’s testing you somehow.” Her eyes narrowed. “Or showing you fears. I’m gonna just say we want to get out of here before we see what it throws at me.”
Xena’s history was dark, and bloody, and while she’d done all she could to redeem herself, that didn’t mean others might agree.
“Too late, Xena.”
Xena turned at the voice. There was a blonde woman, with close cropped hair. She wore a partial helm/mask that covered her forehead and cheek but left her face exposed. Her armor was black, and spikey, though covered less than Xena’s armor. It was like a dark version of Gabrielle’s Amazon gear.
Xena swallowed,her throat bobbing, “Like turnin’ the woman of my dreams into me at my darkest.”
***
Billy stared at the new woman, then at the reforming...form, of his own ghost, and glanced around to see if Nico’s would join the fray.
“Uhm. Okay. Yeah. that’s not good.”
He glanced around. “I think we should trade. Maybe we can help each other face what we can’t ourselves?”
***
Nico was dreading the appearance of his mother’s ghost but watching Billy’s reform made him realize that it was only a matter of time before Maria showed up again. He swore he could almost smell her perfume before her figure came around the corner. Old fashioned clothes, gloves, hat and all. So similar to the way she was in this life but so different at the same time. It made something in him twist painfully to see her the way she looked in his Dreams.
“Madre…” he murmured, forcing himself to stand upright as he watched her approach them. “If this place wants me to...do something to my mother...it’s not going to happen. I can’t.” It had almost broken him to see her die in his dreams even though he knew she was still alive in Italy. He’d talked to her that day, verified that she was fine.
“I think our best bet might be trading.”
***
"I'm not sure that means we'll pass the test," Xena pointed out as Gabrielle drew her sword and advanced down the stone steps. She drew her own sword. "You two swap. I can handle my own demons."
She hoped.
***
Billy glanced at her, then at the demons. Ghosts. People? Something.
“Maybe we’re supposed to help each other, instead?” He glanced at Mary. “Mary is my sister, and she blames me… I blame myself some, for arguing with her, and not wanting to go with my parents on another boring archaeology trip, and so she ended up going instead. And they all died. So she died, in part, because of me.”
He swallowed, unsure what to do.
***
Nico was a little bit relieved that Xena was taking on her own demons or whatever these things actually were. Because he really didn’t like his odds too much on facing her. She was armed and he couldn’t be sure but a part of him was sure that she knew how to use those weapons. And he was more concerned with surviving whatever this was than passing it.
“That’s my mom. Maria. Well how she looks in the dreams at least. She was killed there. By my uncle who was trying to kill me and my older sister.” Nico said, his voice catching a little as he watched her coming closer. “My father used his powers to protect us but he couldn’t do anything for her. If it weren’t for Bianca and I...she’d have lived.”
***
"Gabrielle is my friend, my soul mate. She was just a bard, and I a reformed warlord. I was always afraid that she'd turn into me. Or what I used to be. But she didn't. I know she didn't. She always held true to what was moral and what was right."
Xena glanced back at the others. "It wasn't your fault. You were just a kid. You couldn't have known something would happen to them. For all you know she might have come along with you anyway, and then you'd all be dead. That ain't your fault."
She looked at Nico. "I've been a mom a couple of times. She'd have wanted you to live. She'd have laid her life down a thousand times over for you to live."
Xena pointed her sword at Gabrielle, "That ain't Gabrielle. That ain't your mom or your sister. They loved us, an' we loved them an' I ain't gonna fight love."
And then she sheathed her sword.
***
Bill nodded, listening to them both and as Xena spoke, he slowly breathed in and out. “Your mom loved you, died for you, and I believe… she would want that, yes. Like Xena said. She would want you to live, and grow up, and know you are loved.” He offered a hand to Nico, on one side and Xena on the other, as he faced Mary.
“I love you, Mary. I didn’t intend for you to die, I never would have. And I wont fight you now, ever. Do what you must. I wont back down.”
***
Nico took Billy’s hand when he saw it extended towards him, swallowing as he forced himself not to look away from Maria’s approaching figure. “I’ve got two sisters Billy. Neither of them would have wanted me to die in their place.” He was willing to bet on that. They had their issues (but then what family didn’t?) but he would never want either of them to die in his place and he was sure they’d say the same thing.
“I’m with you two though. I’m not going to fight someone I love. Do what you have to madre.” He closed his eyes, whispering an old prayer she’d taught him in Italian.
***
Gabrielle spun her sword, and charged towards them.
“You can run me through, I’m not gonna fight you,” Xena repeated, and she closed her eyes too. There was gust like wind, blowing her hair about and nearly strong enough to knock her off her feet. A voice boomed around them, announcing that they had passed the test.
And then they were standing in the street, as though nothing had happened.
***
Billy looked around, breathed out, then shuddered. “Holy Moley. We did it.” Emotions ran across him rampant and out of control. They had survived.
he looked to Xena, eyes shining, tired, yet triumphant. “You figured it out. Thank you. I’m not sure I would have, in time, otherwise.”
***
Nico let out a small laugh when he realized they’d survived, letting go of Billy’s hand and falling to his knees in relief. He’d really thought that he was going to be killed in there. He gave Xena and Billy both grateful smiles. “Grazie. Thank you. Both of you. I don’t think I’d have made it out of there alone.” He’d probably still be in there running and hiding.
***
“Gods like to test people where I’m from. Sometimes, you don’t always pass it. But if you’ve got faith in what you believe, you can get through anything.”
Xena smiled tiredly. Now that she was past the shock and anger of seeing what Gabrielle could have been, she was, more or less, rather reflective of the whole thing.
“Look at it this way kids. You got to see ‘em again. Maybe not the way any of us wanted, but at least we got to see their faces again.”
***
“Sounds about right. Tests from gods, tests from life. We made it through and got out of it. Somehow. And thanks, to both of you.”
He shook his head, looking out on the city which was still in the chaos. “After that, I am tired, so i think I am headed home. But… if you two ever need anything, anything at all, let me know. You wont have to ask twice.” He offered them both his hand.
***
Nico wasn’t tired so much as just emotionally drained and he just wanted to get home to Will and Sans and relax. Maybe watch a movie on television, order something in for dinner because the idea of cooking was just not something he could handle after that and it was his night to fix dinner after all. “I guess that’s one thing that’ll be true no matter what world we’re in. The gods like messing with people’s lives.” He was already learning that from his and his cousin’s dreams. At least the ones he’d heard about Percy having.
He pushed himself up off the ground, taking Billy’s hand once his feet were back under him. “Same. If you need anything - I’ll do whatever I can to help you. Both of you.” They’d both seen the worst part of his inner demons, the guilt he would have to carry, something like that made him more willing to at least give them the chance to earn his trust.
***
Helping people had become Xena’s life calling. The thing she lived for, the thing she did for redemption. Eventually it had been because it was the right thing to do, and in the end that was what mattered. That it was the right thing to do.