"THE PRINCESS & THE QUEEN" series -SCROLL IX: THE COUP DE GRACE OF THE CROWNED

pt.12

With the arrival of many of the villains from Xena and Gabrielle's past, all of whom aside from Ares were dead, it seemed as though the already dire situation for the village had quickly grown much worse. Xena and Gabrielle stood side by side with their weapons ready. Fighting one or two would have been one thing, but with this many powerful foes standing against them even with the other women's help the odds of them coming out on top against the odds so drastically stacked against them it appeared that the fight might have very likely been over before it even started.

GABRIELLE
Xena, what are we gonna do? We might be able to take some of them but ones like Hope and Ares aren't gonna be easy.

XENA
I know. We still have the rest of Alti's army as well as Alti herself to deal with too.

GABRIELLE
(Sarcasm) Can this get any worse?

Calisto smiled an evil grin.

CALLISTO
It can when we kill you and everyone else here.

XENA
I don't care what the odds are I won't let that happen.

VELASCA
Come on Xena, even you aren't able to defeat all of us. So why don't you just surrender now and make this easier on all of us?

GABRIELLE
Velasca you lived here with us. You were an Amazon. Regardless of how you feel about me and Xena how can you help Alti go against your own people? The same goes for you too Celine and Kai.

VELASCA
I'm dead Gabrielle. Why should I care what happens to anyone here when they're too blind to see that they were following someone who would only lead them to their own demise?

CELINE
I never cared about anyone here. All I wanted was to make you and Xena pay for killing my mother. So if destroying this village is what it takes to make the two of you suffer, then that's just fine with me.

XENA
What about you Kai? You lived here your whole life. How can you be okay with seeing everyone you knew be whipped out and letting Alti get her hands on the very thing that I thought you were supposed to protect?

KAI
(Angry tone) Ha! This place and everyone here stopped meaning anything to me when they all chose you and Gabrielle over someone they've known their whole lives. They decided to defend someone who's done so much evil and then made me out to be the villain when all I wanted to do was defend my people.

XENA
Spare me. If that was actually true then you wouldn't have gone after Gabrielle just to try and get to me.

KAI
You can believe whatever you want Xena. Because the fact is that none of that will matter anymore soon enough. Because as long as you and Gabrielle die, the rest of the world can burn for all I care. I'm already dead anyway, so what do I care about what happens to anyone else?

Some of the others from the village stepped forward as they momentarily broke away from the fighting.

FAUNA
How can you say that Kai? It hurt all of us more than you could know to see you leave. We were heartbroken when we heard that you were killed due to your involvement with kidnapping Aurora. None of us wanted that to happen. Even after your exile, we still thought of you as our friend and sister. None of that ever had to happen.

Kai scowled as she looked at Fauna.

KAI
(Angry tone) Oh, give me a break Fauna. You and everyone else here are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites. When I try to get rid of Xena and Gabrielle for what Xena did I'm the villain. But when all of you do the same nothing happens to you. All's forgiven and everyone just moves on like nothing happened.