The warrior rose and stood, grabbing the bard's staff. She turned, too briefly, to look at Gabrielle. "Start Climbing!!!"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.
Xex Alert: Oh Boy Is There. .This is a Prurient Piece with a Bit of Kink (If you hear the crack of the whip then you'll be in the neighborhood) Proceed at your own risk. :)
The warrior rose and stood, grabbing the bard's staff. She turned, too briefly, to look at Gabrielle. "Start Climbing!!!"
"What?" Gabrielle looked up and felt a terrible shiver. "I can't do that I. . ."
"Gabrielle Please!" There was a look of terror on the elder Xena's face. "There's no choice. Start climbing!"
"You didn't come just to tell me stories did you?" The bard asked as she gathered her bag and slung it over her shoulder. The contents were precious now. She had two full scrolls of Xena's past.
"I went insane without you Gabrielle." Xena's voice was flat, though her hand caressed the bard's face, "I felt. .I felt so betrayed. I was worse than the Sovereign ever was. I left. . .left Hercules in the between world." She touched Gabrielle's lips with a fingertip, and looked infinitely sad, "I couldn't keep my promise."
Gabrielle's hazelgreen eyes went wide and she took her lover's hand in her own, "How?" There were so many questions she'd wanted to ask.
"I was offered one chance, by Artemis. She said, she said this wasn't my fault, but the Gods. They were supposed to help, but . .the timing wasn't right. . ." There was almost a sob, but the tear never fell. Xena hadn't cried in a Long Long time. "The Sovereign had spotted us, sent. . ." It was obvious from the sounds below what he'd sent, "You were all alone. .It was my fault . . .I couldn't pass it up. I promised Artemis I'd do anything. Anything. I knew. . . I knew. . ." She changed her words midstride, "I knew if you were to suspect. .you wouldn't speak to me," Could hear the clank of metal approaching. "So I left my weapons behind and Artemis changed me." She looked down at the body that Artemis had told Xena should have been hers. She would have been. . .a different kind of Empress, if only. . .
"But I thought. I thought you'd become a," her finger traced the snake, "healer." Xena's sad, then wicked look told Gabrielle all.
"I became something else." Tormentor, Tyrant. Everything that Gabrielle hadn't wanted her to be. Everything they'd fought so hard against, "Please Go Gabrielle. Let me change it. Let me. . ."
The bard grabbed the cloth of Xena's tunic and pulled her forward into a kiss, then let the startled woman go. "I would have spoken to you. Maybe yelled, but I would have spoken to you. No matter what."
It was an innocent thing to say, but the Warlord didn't smirk. Xena's voice was very gentle, full of love and totally opposite of the life she'd been living for forty years, "Go." Then she stepped away and turned to face that which was coming.
They flowed over the very edge that Gabrielle had backed away from not too long ago. Big men they were, wearing the black leather and armor of faux Hercules' army. They were aggressive and smelly and they seemed to have come from out of nowhere. They were also armed to the teeth, while it seemed that Xena had nothing but the staff.
The bard looked up and up and this time, her hand touched the face of the rock and her foot and she began the climb that would take her to her Xena and change the world. She heard the first shout of astonishment, male, as well as the tumbling clatter, but she didn't turn to look down. She knew that it would be a mistake. Then she heard a laugh that chilled her to her core and Xena's cold voice mocking, "Thanks for the sword." Then the carnage really began, and the screams, as Xena gleefully took out all her rage upon those who had caused it.
Katrina's Fan Fiction | Fan Fiction Site | Home Page
This page was last updated: April 30, 1998
ŠApril 1998
URL: ../../STO/warlord/warlord75.html