The 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.
Izacon, who-is-Gabrielle, let the pleasurable sensations of the song roll through her. She writhed with the joy of incantation. Light scattered from her fingertips, her toes, her belly, her marks. She was chanting an old old story, an old old prayer, taught by a master of the art. She, a one time bard now demon, was summoning up the power and letting it pour out of her as it willed. Let the madness come as it may.
She gloried in the sensuous sensation, in the rising of herself, the dark wild Goddess, the power. She thrilled in the ecstasy of *their* fear. Where the entrapped Tartaran's massed consciousness tried to summon her, she called to the remnants of their individuality. Come hither, come hither. She sang a conversion spell.
If their hearts were true, they lived to serve her. If their hearts were false and yet they drew near, their innards would heat until they blew apart into a million sparkling particles. Either way, in the end, they would be free.
In the back of her mind she knew it would have been better, if somehow, instead of causing the Tartarans to fight among themselves, she could find a way to let *them* do the converting. Like dominoes they would have fallen, if she'd had that final key. But to save her friends she surrendered to the darker portion of self, the part of her that was no longer very far away. The necessity of the moment, called for action: Death to the encroaching foe that threatened her lover and those charged under her care.
Her power seemed to grow with each soul that turned to her. She felt them join her, contributing a little bit of themselves to the power. Her song embraced them and soothed them as they gave up the last little bit of their will to her. Then, when their souls were captured fully in the glory of the song, they flung themselves willingly upon their fellows, charmed into battling for her cause.
It was inevitable, she concluded later, that Xena should somehow manage to find her way into the fray. As it was, her lips curled in sultry recognition of her lover's song,as she felt it melt through her. But she was too far gone in her choice to lose herself to Xena's lure. Izacon had long ago formed a will of her own. Now, with a precise and complicated skill she used the feelings of her warrior's music to invoke in her a weaving; a new seduction to the harmonizing chant. The promise of something paradisical and sleek entered and added a dimension to the spell she carefully crafted.
It was irresistible.
The Tartarans began turning in droves.
And it was good.
Then she heard the scream.
The sound of her lover's pain ripped right through her heart.
The song of summoning came to a shattering halt, though the battling demons hardly noticed. They were already involved in their mindless task. Gabrielle cast her gaze down, realizing that in her surrender to growing insanity she'd not even been aware of how close Xena...and Penho, had managed to come to her. Heart in throat, and mind not too very clear, she dove after the tumbling trio.
Despite the weighted gravity of their fall, *she* was faster, because she willed it and Survival demanded that she somehow, someway break the plummet. With powerful arms she grabbed hold of the foreign demon, and used her wings to drag against the air. Her muscles fairly screamed with the effort as she frantically pulled, but the Tartaran wouldn't let go of her lover, or her friend. It was too dead to be willed away.
With a voluminous wail she let go of the Tartaran's waist, clawed her way up its back. She grabbed the creature's jaw. Then yanking its teeth from the body of her lover, she tore its head apart with a shriek and peeled the demon all the way down to its hips.
She quickly yanked what was left of the bottom set of teeth out of Xena's body. Izacon forced it's limbs to release by viciously kicking with her legs and clawing with her own hands. The creature fell away, in pieces.
Izacon grabbed Xena, who was tattered and barely conscious, while Penho struggled. The blue Tartaran's wings flapped lamely. One was obviously broken. Izacon held on to both of them, but Penho seemed bent on resisting, as if she didn't realize her wing was broken.
"Hold to me!" Izacon commanded. She held her friend by the arm pit.
Penho, tears of pain streaming down her face, shook her head. "You can't hold us both." She almost sounded reasonable.
Xena moaned and Izacon pulled her lover closer, working to get a good hold on her, even as her other arm was extended outward by Penho's deliberate movements. "No. No. I can. We're closer than it looks. Hold on." Izacon could still feel remnants of the power flowing through her. She was sure they could reach their destination. The red Tartaran pushed herself forward to demonstrate, but Penho wriggled from her grasp.
"Catch you on the other side!" She grinned through her tears. It seemed for a moment as if she floated, sustained by that smile. Then, she folded her one good wing around her body, and let herself fall.
"NO!!!" Izacon nearly reached, nearly let go of Xena. But she couldn't. In her body, she could feel the pulsing of her Xena's blood. She could smell it. She recognized the warm liquid by touch as soon as she felt it and it was smeared all over her thigh, her hand. Gabrielle, who-is-Izacon, cried out desperately for her lover to hold on, to stay...with her. She recognized the bubbling noises the warrior was making.
Then she felt her lover's touch upon her face. She was forced to look into shadowed blue eyes. She tried to ignore the blood that was obviously pouring from Xena's nose and mouth. The warrior tried to speak. "Xena..." Gabrielle nearly looked away, towards the massive columns of the city. But her eye caught gold as Xena raised her necklace up.
"I have plenty." the warrior gasped. "Time to die." Then Xena smiled as if it were some huge joke and closed her eyes.
"No. Wait!" Izacon felt the shuddering sigh as life left her companion's body.
Again.
Here was a madness she hadn't anticipated.
For a heartbeat Izacon hesitated. Then she let go. Xena's body tumbled as if in slow motion.
Izacon raced to the ground, using a burst of power, pushing with all the speed she had. Her knees and shins scraped the surface of the world as she swooped back up. In seconds she had her arms around her now unconscious friend. Then, with another push that sparked gold behind her, she threw herself in Xena's direction. She was determined to catch them both.
She'd forgotten what this world was like. A hand bigger than Izacon's body plowed through the air above the golden-haired tartaran and snatched the fallen warrior away. Then Izacon felt a sharp spine-tingling slap between her wings and everything went dark.
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