Bernice and Jason appear out of nowhere and are relieved to find that the Time Rings seem to have worked perfectly, given that most things from the Collection are less reliable these days. Bernice confirms that the date is correct and they’ve arrived in Greece in 430 BCE. The landscape appears to be just as Homer described it and the weather is classically Mediterranean too, just right for a nice relaxing walk. Ignoring Jason’s protests, she leads him towards their intended destination…

Before long they stop for a breather and Bernice checks the triangulation for more directions. Jason is already complaining that the walk turned out to be longer than she’d led him to believe, but she promises he can stop for a bottle and a paddle on the way back. He’s a little bit disappointed by the Sacred Spring of Delphi and it would seem people were less choosy about their special effects in these days. All they have to do now is find the cavern they‘re looking for, which knowing their luck is probably at the top of the hill. Jason would offer to go himself, but he doesn’t have Bernice’s language skills and probably wouldn‘t understand anything, so he stays behind to do a bit of skinny-dipping while she goes ahead alone.

Bernice isn’t surprised to discover that she’s going to have to complete their top secret mission and save the Universe alone while Jason mucks about in water with his bits out. As usual. As she complains to herself she reaches the last leg of her journey, but then loses her footing and falls down the side of the hill. Jason is relaxing in the water when he hears Bernice’s scream. He calls out to her, and is reassured when she yells back to say she’s fine. Moments later, he is greeted by a woman passing by on horseback. She tells him both she and her horses are thirsty and asks whether he’d mind if they stopped for a while. He naturally has no objections, but even he is surprised when she takes off her clothes and gets down into the water with him. The woman assures Jason he doesn’t have to shield his eyes from her, but he tells her he usually gets told off when he takes a bath with beautiful women that he’s only just met. She persuades him to look at her and he slowly succumbs to her advances, almost as if he’s being hypnotised. He makes small talk about her beautiful pair of horses and asks what such a nice girl is doing here, but she points out that he doesn’t actually know whether she’s nice or not. She adds that she’s come here especially for him…

Eventually Bernice arrives at the cavern and calls out. She’s not particularly keen on the décor of the place, particularly the foul-smelling smoke which reminds her of Jason‘s old rooms, but she has a question she needs to put to the Oracle of Delphi… Sometime later, she races down to the Spring at the bottom of the hill and calls for Jason. She has bad news as the Oracle wasn’t there and the place seemed deserted. Unfortunately the Spring is deserted too. Where the hell can Jason be?

It’s a week later when the speaker at the Assembly orders everyone to calm down. He won’t tolerate this sort of behaviour any more and reminds them they have a duty to discuss the war with Sparta, not waste time with childish squabbling and idle gossip. His demand for an end to the raucous jeering and cheering is met with a roaring cheer of support from the crowd. He announces that the Spartans have recently been spotted on the outer fringes of Attica and there’s a good chance they’ll make their way here and try to lure them out into a fight. In which case, the Assembly must now decide what their next course of action should be. One of the audience suggests they should just let them in, make friends with them and go to the pub - and when he realises they haven‘t invented pubs yet, he adds that they could still get slaughtered together and have a laugh. The speaker is outraged at the suggestion from Jason…but then he considers that to voluntarily allow the enemy to enter the city in order to slaughter them is a brilliant idea. Jason laughs and corrects him, but the speaker says they can’t ignore the fact that Sparta is their enemy. He informs the crowd that the voting urns will soon be making an appearance. They need to take action against those who would see their nation dead, so their options are - should they rely on either their army or their fleet, or should they just surrender to their oppressors?

Bernice enters the city and addresses the people in the market as porcupines, then realises immediately from their reaction that her grasp of their ancient language is obviously a bit rusty. She’s approached by an elderly man who guesses that she’s not from around here. Bernice understands him perfectly, which is a source of great relief to the old man as very few people do. She realises that the word she meant to use was ’gentlemen’, so she tries to open her conversation again, this time without calling them either porcupines or porpoises. The man explains that they rarely get the pleasure of a woman’s company. As the others leave, one of them calls the old man Socrates, and Bernice is delighted to discover she’s talking to the philosopher himself. She believes Socrates is the wisest man in Athens and is therefore the ideal person to help her. She claims to have arrived in Athens desperately looking for a man and he’s flustered to think she’s making advances towards him. He offers to take her back to his place which is just around the corner…

The speaker at the Assembly announces that several people have approached him recently with concerns about a recent immigrant to their city, namely the honourable Lady Megaira. The crowd cheers enthusiastically and he concedes that she may be a nice bit of skirt, but several of their wives have become too interested in her cult. Some of the men have decided to treat them like any other threat and have called for the army to be brought in, but Jason intervenes again and suggests they can’t go for a single day without persecuting anyone. The speaker ignores him and pleads with the men not to impose their own beliefs upon the religions of outsiders. Should their wives chose to attend Megaira’s ceremonies then it remains a matter for their individual households to resolve, rather than by the authority of Athens. The statement receives a mixed reaction and the speaker emphasises that it’s not the business of the Assembly to discuss the affairs of individuals. He proposes that they conclude their meeting forthwith and invite an informal discussion of Lady Megaira’s activities. Now that the speaker is able to preach outside the restrictions of his office, he declares that they cannot allow any foreigner the opportunity to infiltrate and destroy their peaceful democracy. He calls to the crowd for options…

Socrates offers Bernice a drink to help her relax and then asks her more about why she needs a man. She admits that she doesn’t have a great deal of time and would appreciate his help, but he’s sure the pleasure will be all his. At his age, there aren’t many women who want his ‘assistance’. Bernice starts to explain that Jason has been missing for a week now, and Socrates suddenly realises his mistake. Jason disappeared after bathing in one of the Sacred Springs of Delphi and Socrates wonders whether he’d displeased the Gods in some way. Bernice assures him he didn’t (at least, not this time anyway) but he does have a habit of getting involved where he shouldn’t. When Socrates learns that Jason is her husband, he becomes deeply worried, as inviting a married woman back to his house for a drink could lead to the wrong conclusion. He believes Jason may have been kidnapped by slavers, but Bernice found very dainty feminine footprints nearby and it was those that led her here. She’s reluctant to blame another woman for Jason’s infidelity and she reserves her real anger for him - they were never meant to come so close to the city or spend any length of time there. Bernice tells Socrates that they can’t stay here long as she knows what’s coming. He thinks she’s referring to the war with Sparta, but that’s the least of their worries. Something far, far worse is on its way…

Lady Megaira rebukes Jason for his late return from his mission. It’s nearly nightfall and the Assembly should have concluded their business nearly an hour ago, but he says the meeting lasted longer than she anticipated. She demands to know whether they were discussing her as Jason has that flustered look on his face, the one that was adorable at first but soon grew wearisome. He tries to explain himself, but she angrily strikes him across the face. He was sent to the Assembly to observe their activities and report back, so she wants answers now. He tells her the members couldn’t agree what they should do, but at least they’re not planning any military action against her. She tells Jason to remain here, promising to return later when perhaps he can be of some use…

Socrates is having trouble following Bernice’s revelation - there’s a massive plague on its way, a curse to end all life, and it’s going to devastate the whole of the area. In order to explain how she knows this, she allows him to believe that she got the information from the Oracle of Delphi. He wants to warn the Assembly, but she can’t allow him to do that as it would save everybody’s lives and what happens to Athens has already been written into the future. However, she assures him not everybody will die - he will survive himself, for example. Reluctantly she agrees to go to the Assembly anyway just in case some of them will listen, but now it’s Socrates turn to point out that Bernice won’t be allowed inside as she’s a woman and a foreigner to Athens. She can’t understand why the women of this time put up with their treatment and Socrates tells her they often go up into the hills to have bonfires. Apparently there’s some sort of weird women’s cult which the men of the city are in uproar about. She can’t believe that her beloved ex-husband will have got involved in some sinister cult, but they can’t do anything at this hour anyway as there’s a curfew in place. They’ll have to wait until morning, so Bernice decides to go to bed. With Socrates sleeping on the floor, of course.

Lady Megaira speaks to her followers on the hillside and tells them the fall of Athens is upon them. They are to bring forth their offerings, and one by one each of the women steps forward out of the darkness. She calls on them to join her in a union so that the Mother Goddess can empower them. With her aid, they may break off the shackles of their masculine oppressors. She assures them they may only be women in this world, but their spirits are as strong as any man’s. The ceremony begins and her followers cry out in fury as Megaira predicts the destruction of their city, just as the Oracle of Delphi decreed.

The next morning, Socrates calls to Bernice and offers her a breakfast of fish and cheese. There’s no response so he enters her room and finds it empty. She’s left him a poorly translated message telling him she’s gone off to the Assembly and will return later, signed with lots of sex, Benny.

Bernice smuggles herself into the Assembly, disguised as a man. The speaker calls everyone to order and apologises for the early start of today’s meeting. It seems that the majority of the members have requested they turn their attention back to the activities of Lady Megaira’s ever-expanding cult. Some members who live on the edge of the city were even kept up all last night by the sound of their squawking! Bernice calls out in a deep voice that she’s never heard of Megaira and asks for an explanation, but the speaker refuses to repeat himself again and tells the ’man’ that if he wants to know what’s going on, he should make it to the meeting on time in future. The speaker asks for the man’s name and Bernice is momentarily flummoxed before coming up with the name Testicles. Typically, it’s the first time she’s ever been able to benefit from having a boy’s name and she’s blown it! The speaker advises ‘Testicles’ that if he has a question to put to the Assembly it should wait until after they’ve concluded their business, but Bernice shouts back that this is really important. She announces that there’s a plague coming! The speaker demands to know where she got this information and when she tells him she consulted the Oracle of Delphi, the entire gathering bursts into laughter. It’s clear that they regard the Oracle as an ancient booze-ridden wench. The group is ready to disregard her contribution and continue without her, but she stresses again that the entire city is going to die. Bernice then changes tack and tells the group she needs their help in locating a friend who she recently lost, but when she explains that his name is Jason and he is her husband, there is an astonished gasp from the crowd. She realises there’s no way she’s going to be able to back peddle out of this one, so she comes clean and admits to being a woman. The speaker reminds her that the Athenian Assembly is privy to its male citizens alone, in which case she has deliberately set out to deceive them. They will not tolerate any woman who dares to interfere in state affairs, so she’s physically manhandled out of the building. During the furore, Bernice fails to hear Jason calling to her from across the room. He urges someone to stop her before she leaves, but it’s too late.

Bernice is thrown out of the building and finds Socrates waiting for her, ready to rebuke her for rifling through his laundry basket to find a disguise. She comments on the fact that the speaker in the Assembly appeared to be doing an impression of Socrates during his big speeches, and Socrates believes he does this in the hope that he’ll also pick up some of his rhetorical skills. He wonders how the members discovered she was really a woman and although she’d like to say it was a combination of her potent feminine charms, fine figure, razor-sharp intellect and pert bosoms, it was really because she got a bit gobby. She should have left it to him to do the talking, but she was too worried about Jason. Even now she can hear his voice calling out to her again from the distance, but she thinks she’s just imagining it. As they go to leave, they bump into a young man carrying an urgent message for the council. Something is happening in Piraeus and people are dying from what appears to be a plague! Bernice urges him to deliver the message immediately in the hope that someone in the Assembly will listen. Just then a man in the market groans in agony and keels over, presumably from the plague, so Bernice takes Socrates out of the city where they’ll be safe.

Once again, Megaira has cause to rebuke Jason for his late return from the Assembly. He tells her they still haven’t reached a decision as they’re preoccupied with some kind of epidemic that’s broken out nearby. His mistress is confident the plague won’t take long to reach the upper city, whereupon it will cleanse their sins. Her desire is for the people of this city to answer to nature for their crimes, but she can also sense that something else occurred today that Jason isn’t telling her. In fact, she believes he must be keeping it from her deliberately. He assures her he wouldn’t lie to her, but she knows he’s not telling the truth. He has no loyalties to the city or its people, so what could be so important that he’d keep it from her? She uses the power of her mind to force the answer from him and he cries out in agony. Eventually he agrees to tell her everything…

Socrates and Bernice ride out of the city and he asks her to explain what’s happening in more detail. She reminds him about the man who collapsed in the market and tells him the plague has already arrived. Her intention is to seek out the women’s cult, especially as that’s most likely where she’ll find Jason. She knows from history that Socrates will survive, but that’s no guarantee that either she or Jason will. There’s a war coming to her own people that will make the feud with Sparta look like a scrap between two fluffy kittens and the only way it can be stopped is if she finds what she came here for and take it back to her own world. She’s seeking the Oracle of Delphi to find the answer to a very simple question. Socrates agrees to help her, but wants to stop off at his home first to pick up supplies.

Jason continues to struggle against Megaira’s mind control, but he tells her there was a woman at the Assembly. She wasn’t a member of the cult but a foreigner looking for her husband. She warns him he shouldn’t be looking at other women and should restrict himself to doing her bidding. If the woman wasn’t important, as Jason claims, why was he trying to hide her from Megaira? She realises he’s still hiding something, and although she can’t see any further into his mind she can sense that he knows this woman. He’s forced to admit that he does, but he assures her she’s not a threat. He finally admits that her name is Bernice Summerfield and that he is the man she’s looking for. Megaira decides it’s best to keep him out of sight for a while and she orders him to change into clothing more befitting his new status…

Back at Socrates’ house, Bernice urges him to hurry. All they need is a change of clothes and some food, so he should really leave the fancy carved ornaments behind. While he continues to pack, Bernice expresses some confusion. She knows this period very well and she’s never heard of a Lady Megaira. Socrates explains that she’s a religious fanatic who arrived here a few months back and has been stealing women away from their husband’s beds every other night. It’s all very secretive and no one knows what they’re getting up to as the rituals are women-only. There’s been some speculation about their initiation ceremony, but there’s only one way to find out. Bernice decides it’s time she got involved as investigating a previously undiscovered 5th century cult is what she’s spent her whole life waiting for, and in any case - where else would Jason be than with a spooky all-women cult up to no good. Socrates agrees to come with her, even if it means he has to copy Bernice’s idea and dress up as a woman!

At the next meeting of the cult, Megaira proclaims to her followers that the wine they’re about to share has been distilled from the soul of the Mother Goddess herself and it will bring the gift of life to each and every one of them. Moments later, Bernice and Socrates arrive and try to lose themselves among the others. They’re approached by one of the women distributing the wine and Bernice is amazed by the kick it carries. Socrates whispers to her that he’s teetotal, but she orders him to drink some to maintain his disguise. Unfortunately the effect on him is instant and he takes his leave to be sick behind some bushes. Megaira announces it’s time to start the ceremony - and Bernice is shocked to discover that she recognises her, although she can’t quite recall where from. Megaira calls on the women to unite, and the entire group begins chanting. Suddenly Bernice starts to fall under their influence. She struggles to resist as Megaira orders them to tear down the city and rid it of its contagion of men…and before long she is chanting along with all the others.

Socrates returns, feeling much better, and asks what he missed. When he sees Bernice chanting, he joins in, believing she’s just trying to maintain her disguise, but it slowly dawns on him that she’s actually been swept along with the others. Megaira reminds the women that they joined her cult to achieve salvation and harmony. For centuries they’ve been slaves across the entire world, their society is not a democracy and they are not treated as equals - but she tells them they’re better than that and they must overthrow the very people who’ve oppressed them for so long. Their aim is to achieve a genuine equality between the sexes, but for this to happen they must ensure that women rule! Her followers take up the chant - until a lone male voice shouts out “bollocks”! All the faces turn to stare at Socrates who’s sure the women here aren’t the kind to overthrow a government - in fact, they’re no more than slaves again, but this time to Megaira. He tries to get some support from Bernice, but his friend is too far under the influence. Unfortunately, by doing this, he’s inadvertently revealed Bernice’s identity to Megaira, who recognises her face from somewhere far from here. Megaira turns her followers against Socrates and he flees for his life, carrying Bernice over his shoulder. The hypnotised women give chase, demanding that he submit to being their slave…

As Socrates drags Bernice to the safety of the city, they’re approached by a cheery voice. It’s none other than Plato himself, rebuking his fellow philosopher for trying to bring a body into the city while there’s a plague around. He hears Bernice addressing Socrates as her slave and he thinks the old man has been up to something. Socrates is happy to go along with the mistake and tells him there’s a group of angry women chasing him because they don’t approve of his relationship. Plato agrees not to say anything, and when the others disappear into the darkness, Plato steps forward to challenge the hypnotised horde. Megaira realises her enemies have reached the safety of the city and calls off the search. She’s confident they won’t escape for long and there’s nowhere they can hide that she won’t be able to see them. She knows Bernice won’t harm them and it’s only the man who is their threat…but there are other ways to take care of him.

The following morning, Socrates is joined by a very distracted Bernice. He’d decided to let her sleep things off and in any case, everyone was being told to stay in their homes. Bernice is still muttering to herself about how women are better, but he ignores her and explains how he’s been re-organising the city’s infrastructure in his head. The plague has put the whole city on edge and all the Assembly seem to be doing is drowning their sorrows. They’ve given up, as if it’s better to accept their fate, and they weren’t even interested in what Socrates had to tell them about what their wives were up to. Without warning, Bernice comes up behind him and attacks him, then starts smashing up the room. Socrates throws some water over her…

…and at that exact moment Megaira screams out. Jason rushes over to see what’s wrong with his mistress and she assures him she’s alright. She tells him she was reaching out to the woman she saw last night. She tried to have Bernice kill the man she was with - and Jason is momentarily alarmed that she was with another man. Unfortunately the bond between them has been broken and Megaira realises her opponent is powerful, easily the equal of any man. Megaira can see the war that’s coming and knows the future is not safe. She can also see the part that Bernice will play in the war…and the role that her ex-husband will fill. Jason realises he’s been rumbled and claims that he was going to tell his mistress all about it at some point…

Bernice starts to come round and is confused to find herself back in Socrates’ house in the city - where the plague is. She’s also confused to find Socrates is sitting on her, and he explains that she just tried to kill him, so he’s not taking any chances. He asks how much she remembers about last night, but all she can recall is a woman inside her head. Socrates tells her this was the cult leader who wanted all men to be her slaves. Bernice promises not to attack him again, so he lets her get up. They realise the woman will be looking for them now that her plan didn’t work, so they should probably lie low for a while, but Bernice points out that’s exactly what she’ll be expecting them to do, so she wants to surprise her and meet her head on! Socrates protests, but Bernice thinks she can use the fact that she’s still inside her head to track her down.

Socrates leads Bernice to one of the big houses under the Acropolis, where the woman used to live. She used to complain about the work the members of the Assembly were doing and she left after some men painted some “encouraging” words on her door. No one knows where she’s gone, but Bernice thinks she has an idea and leads Socrates off down the street. Before long, they come across a lone dog in the path outside someone’s house. Bernice tries to cuddle it - until she realises there’s a dead body lying next to it, covered in flies. It’s obviously the owner and the dog stayed by its side until hunger became too much and it started chewing on the dead man’s face. To their horror, they realise he must have been a plague victim.

Lady Megaira can sense Bernice coming nearer, but she’s not coming for Jason - she’s coming for her! Jason realises Megaira can’t control her like she can him and she admits that Bernice’s mind is something different, and yet she’s still being drawn to her. He warns his mistress not to hurt her, but she ignores his pleas and orders him to keep out of sight. Jason resists temporarily, but is eventually forced to leave.

Bernice leads Socrates to a nearby house which she’s sure is where Megaira now lives. She has a connection to the woman after the previous night, so she suggests it might perhaps be best if Socrates leaves them both to it. The old man refuses to leave the two women alone, but Bernice argues that he’ll be more useful elsewhere. People are going to need him and they’ll listen to his advice, so he should save as many as he can. Socrates realises he’s never going to see Bernice again, but she doesn’t know what’s going to happen. She’s glad she met him, but Socrates jokes that he’s just glad she’s someone else’s wife! She packs him off, then knocks on the door and tells the owner to come out quietly. Megaira opens the door and greets Bernice warmly.

Bernice finally recognises Megaira as the Oracle of Delphi, although she can’t actually be sure that they’ve ever met before. After all, she travels around and meets a lot of people, and not necessarily in the right order. Megaira says she saw Bernice in her palace of dead things, talking with gods and monsters, and with a tall man who holds time itself in his hands. She can see him in Bernice’s eyes - a tall man, severe and as old as the sea, a god protecting her. Bernice assures her he’s long gone, but she now realises Megaira must be time sensitive. Megaira plans to ensure that women rule Athens, whereupon the world will be a better place, as it is in Bernice’s time. Bernice argues this is probably not the best time to try to restructure society as there’s a war going on - or was that her plan all along? Is she planning to leave Athens vulnerable to attack? She accuses Megaira of being a Spartan and working for the other side, and Megaira admits she was born in Sparta and lived there for years, content for years to dote on her family. Then Athens invaded and killed her father, then dragged both herself and her mother into this city to ’entertain’ the troops when they were off duty. She was lucky to catch the eye of the Athenian chief who kind to her at first. They fell in love and had twin sons. Then everything was ruined by politics - it wasn’t appropriate for him to be seen with a Spartan wife, so she was hidden from public view to prevent their children being branded as mongrels. He married an Athenian woman instead and Megaira was sent into exile, but Sparta saw her relationship with the chief as a betrayal of her nation and refused to take her back. She’s been roaming the plains of Attica ever since. Then she found something in the desert that gave her the power of prophecy. It was a stone, and when she touched it, it ripped through her and she was left alone, screaming. It nearly killed her, but left her with a vision of all that was coming. She saw a chance of revenge, although she claims she’s only nurturing what was already going to happen anyway. Bernice wonders if she really understands what the plague does to people - it starts off with sore throats, headaches and sneezing, but over the next few days it gets steadily worse and the body swells up, leaking bile from every orifice. Ulcers attack the lining of the internal organs, pulling the victims apart from the inside. Those lucky enough to survive the first stages suffer progressively worse symptoms until they wish they’d died along with everyone else!

Socrates moves through the city urging people to leave before they get infected too. One man refuses to leave without his children, so Socrates promises to look out for them. One by one, people start to listen to him and prepare to evacuate…

Bernice already knows from history that once the plague hit Athens, the people resigned themselves to death, knowing there was nothing they could do to combat it. Megaira hopes they will die in the streets like dogs and Bernice is horrified to think she would sit back and watch that happen - even to her own children - just to get back at their father! She wonders what sort of mother Megaira is, but her response is to point out that Bernice has left her own son in the care of a dog. Megaira has seen Peter’s future too - he will kill someone close to Bernice! Bernice refuses to listen as she’s had enough cryptic destiny messages to last a lifetime. All that matters to her is the here and now - the men, women and children who are all going to die. Megaira points out that some people are more important than others in the grand scheme of things, which is exactly the sort of thing that the tall man with time in his hands thought, and look what happened to him. Megaira reveals that she can save those she wishes to. Her ceremonial wine contains a vaccine and taken twice a day it can ensure immunity against the plague. Now the area is infected she can go to the Assembly and demand their co-operation in handing the city over to the Spartans. If she can win their war for them, they will take her back and allow her home. Bernice is convinced that even during such an emergency, the Athens council will never allow a woman to join their ranks. Megaira agrees, and says this is why she acquired an assistant to take that duty on her behalf. She claps her hands and calls for her slave. Bernice isn’t even remotely surprised when Jason enters the room dressed in a toga.

The speaker calls a meeting of the Assembly, and although he acknowledges that their numbers seem to be somewhat depleted, he hopes they’re ready to proceed with their daily business. Unfortunately the crowd before him is clearly ill, and the members cough and splutter their way through the agenda. The speaker tries to raise the subject of the epidemic that’s gripped their nation so suddenly, and he calls on them, the cream of their society, to do their best during their nation’s hour of need. As he asks whether he can rely on their help, he starts to feel ill himself and asks whether anyone else can take his place on the stand…

Bernice demands to know why Jason never came to find her, but Megaira points out that he tried to on several occasions. Jason struggles against her will and blurts out an apology to Bernice, but is silenced by a wave from his mistress. She explains to Bernice that her ex-husband has been infiltrating the Assembly on her behalf, and as payment for his services she allowed him the gift of speaking the Greek language. Bernice is furious with Jason for preferring to get naked in the Spring instead of accompanying her to see the Oracle, and as a result he’s now in league with a mad old trollop! She slowly realises that Jason isn‘t responding. Megaira says he can hear her, but like most men his mind is weak. That made him ideal for her when she needed someone to do her dirty work. Against his will, Jason grovels to his mistress and begs her not to let him to go with Bernice again. Even though she knows Megaira is making him do this deliberately, she becomes upset - but then suddenly Jason pulls out a knife and holds it to Bernice’s throat. She struggles to tell Jason how much she loves him, but he says he never loved her and he can see no reason why she should be allowed to live. Bernice asks him whether he loves Peter and whether he wants him to grow up without a mother. Megaira realises that if she orders Jason to kill Bernice it would make her no better than her own husband, so she orders him to release her and go about his duties. She assures Bernice that she doesn’t want to fight with her, but she wanted her to know how powerful she was. She agrees to release Jason into Bernice’s care if she helps her with the cause, then they can both leave the city to its fate. She reveals that she’s prepared to let Bernice go because she is part of her plan too…

Socrates encounters Jason in the street and realises he’s just come from Megaira’s house. He demands to know what’s happened to Bernice and describes himself as her friend and protector - and if need be, her avenger too. Jason dismisses him as a geriatric, but Socrates still goes wrestling three times a week and easily overpowers him with an armlock. They struggle for a while, but Socrates’ knowledge of martial arts is too good for the younger man.

Megaira admires Bernice’s strength and believes this is exactly what women should be like in the future. Bernice is momentarily flattered and wonders whether her opponent would be prepared to put that in writing and bury it in the desert for a few thousand years? Megaira reveals that it was when she first saw Bernice that she was inspired to fight for her family and their sex against an insurmountable enemy. Bernice realises that the Oracle got inside her head and reached out to her - and that’s what led her to start studying the prophets of the ancient world. Bernice is surprised to learn that Braxiatel said she was important and would change things. Megaira reveals that Jason is taking the cure to the Assembly now, so by the time she gets there, they’ll be easy to control. They will cede their authority to her because she can spare them from the plague, and then they can all start over afresh - an Athens governed by women. Bernice refuses to help her change history, regardless of whether it’s for good or bad. If people start writing over history then nothing matters any more, nothing is worth fighting for and nothing has any meaning! Even Braxiatel knew there had to be rules. Megaira tells Bernice that their minds have been connected for thousands of years and she cannot resists her control, but Bernice lashes out and knocks the woman to the floor, unconscious. She ties the woman up and then races out of the house…

Jason struggles against Socrates’ hold, but it’s no good. Suddenly Bernice appears and races over to stop them fighting. She rebukes the old man, but when he tells her he was avenging her, she think it’s rather sweet. Even though Jason says he’s back to normal now, she tells him to stay on the floor. He claims he was never really hypnotised and was only putting on an act to find out what Megaira’s plans were, but Bernice reminds him he held a knife at her throat and swore he never loved her! However, she can’t deny that Megaira did tell her everything, so Jason was quite clever after all. In return, she claims she was only being rude to him to help break the spell. Jason explains that when he first met Megaira back at the Spring she tried to take him over, but he could see Braxiatel inside her head so he let her think he was under her control in the hope that she’d take him to where Braxiatel was hiding. Bernice thinks he saw a future version of Braxiatel, but Megaira certainly has his powers, his way of treating people…and perhaps some of Bernice’s unswerving sense of justice too. She only did what she did because she was inspired by Bernice. Jason proudly announces that he switched the barrels around, so the stuff with the cure in it has already gone to the Assembly. Socrates is relieved to learn that everything is going to be OK, but Bernice in unsure. This is all part of history - it’s not a cure at all but an inoculation, so drinking the wine will only work for those people who haven’t already been infected by the plague. The reason the three of them are unharmed is because they drank some earlier, which means all the women will survive too. Everyone else will still die, but Bernice argues this is what was meant to happen so they can’t change anything. She sympathises with Socrates, who still wants to do everything he can even if it’s futile. He used to think that you could talk your way out of anything, but now he knows that sometimes you just have to make a stand. He decides to stay behind to help people, but Bernice and Jason must leave to sort out the future. They’re facing their own war now, so Socrates asks Jason to protect her and, if need be, avenger her. He was pleased to know Bernice, despite everything, and he kisses her goodbye.