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This page was last updated: September 15, 1998
(c)September 1998
URL: willow14.htmlThe following is a bit of alternative fiction based on certain characters from the Xenaverse It is not meant to infringe on anyone else's rights. If you don't agree or disapprove, please go read something else.
This story is part of an Altaverse based on Bite Me and the Fonder Heart. It can be found, along with other such stories, at The Realms of the Xenaverse, under Blood and Roses. Xena is Ares' Daughter and Gabrielle is Bacchus' Daughter
Characters from Buffy: Vampire Slayer have also been borrowed for the purposes of this story. All of this is written with the utmost affection and the no desire for renumeration (except for possible emails). The same above disclaimer is in effect. There are certain changes that have been made to accomadate this particular Xenaverse. Buffy's Vampires are really part of the Kin, renamed for purposes of this story
Xex Alert: Yes, there definitely will be, between two consenting immortal women even. Maybe even more
Violence Alert: Yes, probably, given that this is a story involving slayage and Xena.
"That's the Sunwalker?!?!?!" Angel gasped incredulously, his eyes focused on a slender golden-haired woman with an easy smile and graceful body. She was a looker all right, but she would have to be the last person in the world that he would peg as the most powerful Immortal in the Universe. The Destroyer... now that was something he could get into... her shimmering darkness sang to him and made him ache with the need to shed blood. This other one, she made him recoil in disgust and want to back away. "She's nothing," he snarled. "I could snap her in half." He snorted dismissively even as his senses warned him otherwise and his body begged to flee. "Hell, even Buffy would be more of a challenge than that." He gestured disgustedly at the dim forms sitting on the back porch of Willow's house.
Druscilla's already alabaster cheeks continued to pale as they got closer to the Sunwalker. It had been easy to locate the Immortal-- the simply followed the rising pain in their bodies. The sensation the Sunwalker created within them was different from that of the Destroyer of Nations. Xena's scent left them breathless with longing and eager to nurse on the dark power of the menacing Daughter of Fire. The Sunwalker, however...
That was another ballgame entirely.
Angel's skin felt like it was being flayed off his body ... his muscles ached... sweat poured down his face, chest and back-- soaking the black silk shirt he wore. His fingers clenched and unclenched with the desire to wrap around the Sunwalker's neck. End her existence and his pain. It felt...
Exactly like the first time he had died.
When he lost his mortality and became one of the Twilight's Children. He was a part of her... he could feel it in the blood that roiled in his veins. She was one of the ones from whom this immortal damnation came. Daughter of the Blood.
Defier of the Blood.
She did not dance to the call of the hunger. She did not bow to the dawning of the light. She was not denied the touch of the woman who was even now killing his Kin.
Her Kin.
Her Children.
He wondered what her Blood would taste like as it trickled down his throat. How that golden hair would look splayed across the black of his shirt. He wanted lines of agony to crease her face, see those eyes glassed with the horror and the pain that he had endured every night for centuries.
Before Druscilla even realized he had moved, Angel vaulted over the low hedges that kept them concealed from the Immortal. A low growl quickly became a dull roar as he raced across the distance that separated him from the Betrayer.
Gabrielle had felt them when they were still miles away from Willow's house, and yet she let them draw nearer. She could sense the rage and pain of one of them... the faint reek of madness on the other. They were strong, she knew, and had already identified her the one who walked in the light. It would do no good to seek them out. They would, after all, find her. They were as unable to resist the lure of her light as they were the call of the Blood.
Three mortals sat with her, and she had no fear of protecting them. Willow, Xander and Cordelia chatted on happily, oblivious to the stalking danger nearby. It reminded her of the first few months Xena had been returned to her, when the dark woman was still ignorant of her heritage and the immortality that bound them.
In her darker hours, guilt consumed the Immortal, and she wondered if she had never claimed Xena would the dark woman have been allowed to live out her mortal life and finally be at peace. Some might have argued that the existence of a fifty-dollar hooker was no life at all... and that was how Gabrielle had first justified bringing Xena back into her world. However, she knew... as certainly as she knew she would see the dawn tomorrow... that she would never have been able to let her lover go unclaimed. Blood sang to the Fire, and the vows they had spoken over two millennia ago would not be denied.
The roar was growing louder, and she glanced up to see Willow's horrified eyes focusing on something behind her.
With the preternatural grace and speed that was part of her heritage, the fair-haired Immortal stood and whirled around, bringing her chair up to repel a dark-clad figure hurtling itself towards her.
The dark form flew backwards for several yards before it righted itself and landed ably on its feet.
Gabrielle could see now that he was a Kin, felt his pain and rage. This one hurt so terribly and thought her annihilation was the answer to his pain. He wasn't driven by bloodlust or fear... just a horrible soul-rending agony she could feel pouring off him like the sweat on his brow. She flipped easily off the porch, wanting to put some distance between the mortal children and the enraged Kin. Spying a tool shed at the back of the yard, she dashed towards it, grabbing the long wooden-handled shovel propped against the side of the shed.
The Kin was on her now, his brown eyes bleeding red with fury. "I'm going to watch you die, Sunwalker," he hissed. He was too close-- Gabrielle couldn't maneuver the shovel-- and he backhanded her twice sharply across the face, his nails raking across her fair skin.
The scent of her own Blood infuriated the Immortal... whereas before she shared in his agony... because he was a part of her... now the Sunwalker was well and truly pissed off.
Her fangs lengthened in response to the attack-- all of her Immortal senses kicking in, and he smiled savagely in satisfaction. "You're not so different from us, Sunwalker..." They were grappling hand-to-hand now, the shovel/staff abandoned as her Blood sang for the satisfaction of putting this upstart Kin down.
"You're right," she growled back, springing to her feet and easily ducking a badly-timed punch, countering with one of her own. The Kin's head snapped back sharply, a thin trail of blood slinking from his nose. "But there is one important difference." A kick-punch combination sent the Kin's body flying backwards, and she followed it up with another sharp kick to his ribs that knocked him onto his back.
"HERE!" Xander's voice called distantly from behind her, and Gabrielle heard the sound of a wooden stake whistling through the air.
Without ever taking her eyes from the Kin, she snatched the weapon out of the air and knelt on his chest. "I learned to control what I am, Child. It was a lesson that you would have done well to learn." The red fury paled in the Kin's eyes, and Gabrielle felt waves of sadness and relief pouring off the Child's body when he recognized the end of his life in her hands. Hefting the stake, she prepared to drive it home.
"NO!!!!" Willow screamed. "AUNT GABRIELLE!!!!!!!!! WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The stake hovered in mid-air, its wicked point just piercing the thin fabric of his shirt. Willow was at her side in an instant, placing an unnecessary hand over her immortal Aunt's. "You can't!" she gasped.
"Better let her do it, Willow," the Kin replied, much to Gabrielle's astonishment. He laughed viciously, "If she lets me live, you and your precious little slayer will never have a moment's peace again. I promise you."
The Immortal's eyes flickered between the prone Kin and her nearly frantic
niece. "Let me guess," she said slowly. "This is Angel."
"You sure you don't want to come with me? Willow will be worried about you." The ride to Buffy's house had been short and swift, Xena opening up the Triumph along the deserted suburban streets. Now, as blue eyes turned upon her and gazed steadily into sea-swept gray, Buffy felt the fires of connection snapping between them. Part of her wanted to say Sure, let's go... if only so she could stay nestled in her position at the warrior's back, arms curled around Xena's trim waist. However, a larger part of her wanted to just climb the stairs, take a hot shower and fall between clean sheets. She needed silence-- not the excited clamor of her friends-- to examine everything that had happened to her tonight.
Something had changed.
The slayer wavered between exhilaration and exhaustion now that the
battle was over. She had never seen so many demonspawn in one place, and
she had certainly never been in a fight like this one. Until now, slaying
had been a pretty clean sport. You staked-- they crumbled to dust. Tonight,
Xena had brought Buffy's fate into bloody, gory focus. With each strike
of Xena's sword and each stake she had put through a demon's heart, seventeen
year-old girl realized that she-- Buffy Summers-- was a killer.
Thing was... looking into the pulsing blue of the warrior's eyes and
feeling the pounding of her own heart... she really didn't mind so much.
That was what bothered her the most.
As Xena helped Buffy off the bike, she noticed the slightly dazed look in the slayer's eyes that was at odds with the fluid heat of the girl's body. It was a contradiction Xena knew well... and one she had felt herself two thousand years ago, when she stood on a battlefield in Amphipolis and faced down a warlord-- at the cost of her brother's life and her own innocence.
"You didn't know they could bleed, did you?" she asked softly.
"They're demons," Buffy replied, studying the warrior's form intently. The moonlight painted the blood on Xena's arms black, and Buffy felt the sticky weight of it on her own face. She wanted it off... but at the same time, couldn't help herself from reaching out and brushing the darkness that coated the warrior's skin.
Xena forced the shudder from her body at the light tracings of the slayer's hand. It was only the Fire's natural response to the combination of blood and human touch... but Buffy would have no way of knowing that. The slayer was already skittish enough, and Xena didn't want to ruin their newfound understanding with a misinterpreted reaction. She swallowed hard and smiled lightly. "Buffy, they've lost their souls... not their flesh and blood."
"But when I stake them..."
"They crumble." Xena nodded. "It's Twilight's way of protecting its Children. No bodies means no proof... and no humans poking around the shadows."
"It's safer for them that way."
"It's safer for everyone that way," Xena corrected gently. At Buffy's confused look, the warrior mentally rolled her eyes. She was really going to have to have a word with that Watcher. What in Tartarus is he teaching her anyway? She doesn't know about Twilight. Xena chuckled mirthlessly. "Gabrielle's really better at this stuff than I am." They meandered up the steps of Buffy's house and now stood in the darkest part of the porch's shadows. Xena glanced at the door. "Isn't your mother going to be wondering where you are?"
"Probably," Buffy conceded. "If she was here. But she's in LA doing some career thingie... You know the old schmooze and booze. So I'm on my own tonight."
Buffy's voice was returning to normal, Xena noted, and she had stopped touching the Immortal-- which disappointed the warrior in a masochistic sort of way. "You going to be okay here?" Alone? she meant.
The slayer picked up on the unspoken end of Xena's question and smiled-- a cheeky sort of smug grin that lit up her whole face. "You know, warriorbabe, you keep being all concerned about me and stuff-- I might get the wrong idea."
Xena froze momentarily. "And what idea might that be?"
"That you're actually a nice person." She poked Xena gently in the midriff and rested her hand on the leather vest, letting her palm absorb the warmth she felt there.
Oh that.... The warrior breathed a mental sigh of relief even as her pulse spiked once more at the contact. "Buffy," she growled. "I am not a nice person."
The slayer smirked... and slapped the warrior in the belly lightly. "You know what? I almost believe you. But not quite." Seeing Xena's brow rise dramatically at the liberties the mortal was taking with her body, she continued, "You stuck your neck out back there for me. Don't think I don't know that."
Xena shifted, suddenly uncomfortable. "You handled yourself well." That's the understatement of the century... her mind prodded.
Buffy shook her head. "There's no way I could have taken down that many," she admitted. "I had no idea..."
"It's us," Xena interrupted. "Gabrielle and me. That's why they were here." She studied the slayer's angular features, still softened by her youth. "I..." Xena hesitated over her words, not quite sure what-- or how much-- to say to the girl whose fire was so similar to her own. "I wasn't going to leave you alone to handle it. That's not... how I am." The warrior blew out an irritated breath, disliking having to explain herself. "Gabrielle and I will be here until this whole mess is finished."
One way or another...
Blood and Roses Realm | Fan Fiction Site | Home Page
This page was last updated: September 15, 1998
(c)September 1998
URL: willow14.html