Angel’s
Dancing
By
sHaYcH
Disclaimer: Xena and Gabrielle belong to
MCA/Universal (and they're very lucky to have them too). Blood and
Roses is an alternate Xenaverse created by Katrina, and I'm
just
playing in her backyard for a while. Lady Evangeline St. Claire and
Rhiannon Moore are creations of Bardwynna and are used here with
permission.
Xex
Alert:
Oh, Yes, Very Much So. Sorry if the idea offends. What there is of it
is pretty mild though.
Violence
Alert: Oh
Dear, Here We Go Again. Xena is a warrior and Gabrielle is a bacchae.
These are violent professions...some blood will be spilled...and drank.
Here's my
story, friends - love it, hate it, or whatever - please let me hear
from you at: shaych3@yahoo.com
‘Hot
weather is not a good thing when you're trying to get some rest.’
This was a conclusion Gabrielle the bard had drawn after a
particularly long bout of restlessness one warm summer's eve. So she opened a window. Which was probably the
invitation that "they" needed to test her strength, again. A glass bottle, lit rag
dripping limply out of the neck, wobbled its way through the newly
opened aperture and shattered against her recently vacated bed. The wooden four-poster that
she had owned for more years than she could remember lit up like a
Solstice Tree in less time than it took her to sneeze.
Realizing that she would not
be able to make it out of her room by the conventional method,
Gabrielle did the next best thing--she hopped out the window that had
allowed the entrance of the Molotov cocktail and began running towards
the front door, intent on getting to the hose.
“They”,
however, had other
ideas. In two's and
three's they melted out of the foliage surrounding her sprawling
mansion, and circled her. As
the acrid smoke of burning fabric, wood and other precious objects
assailed her nose, seven Ferals of the Unseelie kind jumped her. Fangs bared, claws extended
and saliva puddling on the ground at their feet as they prowled around
her, the Ferals growled and hooted their joy at coaxing the ancient one
out to play. Gabrielle
was not amused by their game.
A
tan and gray striped feral leaped for her throat, growling viciously. Gabrielle ducked, twisting
her body sideways as she changed, her own claws
and fangs releasing from their prisons of flesh.
A spray of warm blood decorated the air as the bard ripped
out the Feral’s throat. A
howl of pure joy erupted into the night as bloodlust rose thick and
warm in the bard’s heart.
Tossing
aside the monster’s twisted larynx, she put a lock on the Frenzy
building inside of her soul and turned to face the remaining six
Ferals. A pair of twin black-furred Unseelie thought they would confuse
her by simultaneously attacking, but she just stepped back, allowed
them to collide head on, then while they were still stunned, she
stepped up and slammed the palms of her hands into the bridges of their
noses, killing them instantly. Three more of the wrong-born lasted
about thirty more seconds and the last one earned himself the
"brilliant bad guy of the week award" by running away. She did not
pursue the creature, preferring to stay and save what she could of her
home.
It
took all of forty-five hard fought minutes to rescue her house from the
embrace of Prometheus' Gift, and in the end, she had cause to grieve.
Several of her mementos, objects whose memories were echoes of Her,
were destroyed, including Senticles' creation. Her heart froze in her
chest as she reached for the box that contained her most precious of
treasures, only to find a pile of blackened ash.
The only thing that survived the conflagration was the
slightly pitted, but still shiny and still very sharp, chakram.
"My
lamb..." she croaked, trying in vain to remember when the last time she
had held the precious toy was. She
could not, and guilt crushed her, causing tears to well and fall. With each tear, came a
carefully made brick in the wall she had built around her heart, until
she had a pile of heartache drowning in her lap and Morpheus carried
her away, clutching the remnants of her past to a soot stained breast...
Gabrielle's
eyes flew open, the dream-fires of long ago gone.
Her lover lay sprawled beside her, coal black hair fanning
out over the pillows. The sun streamed across the foot of the bed,
illuminating golden fibers in the large lapis colored quilt that draped
her and her partner's sleep-tossed bodies.
Carefully,
she crawled over her beloved, reaching for a warm robe and a pair of
soft socks. A
glimpse through the lower partition of their bedroom window gave her
cause to smile. Just
as she had hoped, a thick white blanket of snow covered their yard. A chill in the air
reminded her that she had best stoke the fire.
Quietly, she padded downstairs to start breakfast. Even though she took every
precaution not to wake her lover, she wasn't too surprised when a
disheveled sable-haired head peered around the doorway into the living
room.
"You're up
early, Gabrielle." Goddess, each time she heard her name roll out of
that mouth, she was almost ready to believe in miracles.
"No one
sleeps late on Solstice Morning, Xena," the bard said, smiling up at
her lover gently. Gabrielle
set the covered platter with their breakfast down on the coffee table
and patted the couch insistently.
"Come
here and join me, I have something for you." The bard then proceeded to
lavish several gifts upon the young woman, once a whore and now her
beloved companion, much to the other woman's consternation.
"Gabrielle,
how many times do I have to tell you that I don't need gifts? You're
the only gift I’ll ever need."
Those
words...Gabrielle's heart found residence in her esophagus and she
couldn't quite swallow it fast enough to ask what she so desperately
wanted to ask.
"Anyway, if
you’re going to insist on the gift exchange thing, then I have
something for you as well." The dark-haired young woman reached under
the tree and withdrew a small, cloth wrapped bundle. "For you," Xena
said softly, smiling warmly and handing the parcel to Gabrielle.
Gabrielle
slowly, reverently revealed the gift's contents, almost dropping them
when she saw what lay within the package. Inside the soft fabric was a
hand-carved lamb. Not daring to hope, the bard gave a very slight tug
on the toy's tail and was rewarded with a faint, "Baa." She forced
herself to swallow the lump in her throat this time. Setting the toy
down next to her, Gabrielle captured her lover's face in her hands and
locked their eyes together.
"Tell me who
you really are," she said softly, begging the woman before her to tell
the truth, hoping it was a truth she wanted to hear. The other woman
was silent for several minutes.
"Gabrielle, I
think it's my turn to be the bard," replied Xena, unlocking the cage
around her soul and letting her bard past the doors in her eyes.
Recognition, shock, disbelief… a million emotions flitted across
Gabrielle's face at Xena's unspoken revelation.
"What? How?
Xena? Is it...?" the bard finally stammered brokenly.
"Shh.
Listen...It began when we got that telegram from Holmes..."
X&G
STOP CALLISTO AFTER L&R STOP COME QUICKLY STOP SH STOP.
"The telegram
was fairly vague, but I finally figured out that L&R meant
‘Lina and Rhiannon’ or Lady Evangeline St. Claire and Rhiannon Moore,
descendants of ours that still lived in the old country. Somehow,
Callisto must have found them, and more importantly, found a way to
harm them. SH was an old friend, Sherlock Holmes. If you remember my
love, we had encountered Mr. Holmes on one of our many visits to
London..."
"I remember.
We were visiting kin, and while walking into a restaurant, he called
out ‘Lady Lina’ and tapped you on the shoulder. I can still see the
look of shock on his face when he found that you were not who he'd
expected." Gabrielle shoved aside her shock and settled into a more
comfortable position on the couch, listening to her lover speak.
"Yes, but I
would have to say that meeting Sherlock Holmes and discovering that he
knew one of our descendants would have to be the singular most
interesting way we've ever discovered one of our ‘kin’." chuckled the
dark haired woman. Gabrielle smiled to herself in remembrance.
It hadn't
been too big of a shock to learn that two of their descendants, one
Evangeline St. Claire and a Rhiannon Moore had discovered each other
and had since become "close." They had put aside their planned visit to
take some time to get to know the famed detective, and through him,
their descendants. Of course, it hadn't taken Holmes long to put two
and two together and come up with a thousand and he confronted them
with his suspicions about their identities. Both of their eons-honed
senses told them that he could be trusted, so they confirmed his
suspicions, and told him a bit more. Ever since then, they had kept in
quiet contact, with Holmes providing Xena and Gabrielle detailed
reports on their descendants-turned-detectives.
For a while,
Xena and Gabrielle had contemplated revealing themselves to their
English kin. However,
after discussing the matter with Holmes, they came to the decision that
unless it was absolutely necessary, Lina and Rhiannon would be better
off not knowing of their unique lineage. The arrival of Holmes'
painfully brief telegram prompted both women to pack in haste then jump
on the first ship to England.
When they
arrived, Holmes met them at the port, not bothering with hellos, just
quickly filling the women in on the terrible situation. Callisto had
been able to subvert an Unseelie Duke by the name of Mordrigern and he
had kidnapped both Rhiannon and Lina in an attempt to blackmail Xena
and Gabrielle. He
had then laid out a complex trap, hoping to hold them for Callisto. Instead, Holmes had
discovered the kidnapping in just enough time to warn the bard and
warrior before Callisto's missive arrived. Now
their task was simple - find Mordrigern and they would find Lina and
Rhiannon.
After very
little searching, they found the women. It was almost too easy, and
both bard and warrior were suspicious, but they couldn't look a gift
horse in the mouth. Spiriting away their descendants under cover of
daylight, they never noticed the unusual shadows creeping along in
their wake.
Holmes
volunteered to guard the thoroughly drugged Lina and Rhiannon until
Xena and Gabrielle dealt with Mordrigern and Callisto. Later, both Rhiannon and
Lina would question Holmes until they were blue in the face, but the
only thing that the urbane detective would reveal about their
whereabouts was that they had been exposed to a toxic chemical.
The two
immortal women slipped out and returned to Mordrigern's Underhill
manse, prepared to destroy all of the Unseelie Court. Two shadows
peeled themselves from the walls they had clung to, and followed the
bard and warrior through the gates of Underhill.
Proctor and
Nestalle had but one mission burned into their brood-Raged brains--sire
Xena. Any way and any how they could, their mission was to sacrifice
themselves to the warrior's battle lust.
Attacking
just as the two women emerged from the final gateway, Proctor wrapped
his toad-like body around the warrior's legs as Nestalle engaged the
bard's lethal staff. The attack shouldn't have surprised Xena and
Gabrielle, but it did. Proctor’s bite shouldn't have affected her, but
it did. The warrior felt the hideously deformed man's teeth sink into
her thigh and screamed with a shrillness she'd never heard from her
throat before.
Reactions
honed by years of fighting took over and her hands shot down, punching
and twisting, and soon, Proctor lay gasping at her feet, blood pouring
from his nose. Reaching into a special quiver at her side, Xena
withdrew a long, thin shaft of bone and drove it straight down into the
broodkin's chest. He vanished with an unearthly howl.
Nestalle
broke off his attack on Gabrielle and turned to Xena. Leaping at her,
he wrapped his hands around her head, twisting it to the side and sunk
his teeth so deeply that by the time she forced him back, they had
broken off in her artery. Gabrielle dispatched Nestalle with a quick
slam of the butt end of her staff and a sharply thrust dryad bone, but
it was too late. Xena listed over to one side queasily.
Gabrielle,
concerned for her partner, suggested that they leave and come back
another day, but Xena declared that the menace of Callisto would be
ended forever that day. So they continued on to Mordrigern's castle,
aware that their presence was known, and not caring.
Mordrigern
was indeed, waiting for them. The battle engaged swiftly, with Xena
almost tossing the bard out of the room in her exuberance and need to
get at the Unseelie Duke. The fight was quick and vicious and ended
with Xena practically tearing off Mordrigern's head. Dripping in
Unseelie blood, battle fury keening its way through her veins, Xena
rose from her half crouch, looking for more enemies to destroy. Gabrielle took a step back
in fear, noting the change quickening in her beloved’s blue eyes.
"Gabrielle?
Wha...what's happening to me?" croaked the warrior as she stared
absently at the blood and ichor staining her hands. The bard flinched
at the tone of her lover’s voice. She could see the signs of the
Change, the feral taking over the rational, but she refused to believe
it. Gabrielle shook
her head, trying to clear away the vision before her, but it was still
there. Xena was
still there, slowly, agonizingly so, loosing her humanity to the bite
of the Unseelie Feral. Sharp,
bitter laughter cut through the air.
"What’s
happening, Xena? Oh…nothing. Nothing at
all…except…you're becoming… Mine!" Callisto appeared in a swirl of
smoke and sparks, head tossed back and eyes lit with insane glee.
Gabrielle
couldn't tell whose heart broke faster as Xena realized what the
goddess meant. Xena
had been brood-bitten, and she was Changing.
A blood-maddened monster, whose only goal in life would be
to kill and destroy, would soon replace the woman she knew and loved. The warrior's shoulders
slumped forward, her knees buckled and a plaintive moan issued from a
throat raw from battle cries.
"Stop this,
Callisto. Change her back,” growled the bard, as she caught her shocked
lover, cradling her against her chest.
"Stop it?
After all the trouble I went through to get her here? Do you actually
think it's easy to control the mind of one of the Unseelie? Why
Gabrielle, I would have expected better of you. Surely you can come up
with something a little more threatening than that pathetic little
growl? Come on little bardling, fight for your bed warmer," Callisto
taunted.
Gabrielle let
Xena's shifting form slip to the ground, stepping around the warrior’s
body to face Callisto. Bringing up her staff in a protective position,
she let the Rage take over.
Time went
still as Gabrielle opened her soul to the killer inside. She felt the Feral Sense
explode her senses, changing her stance to be more predatory. She felt her jaw shape
itself around her fangs as the bloodlust sang arias in her veins. The staff in her hands
wavered momentarily as she opened her eyes and focused on Callisto.
Then, she
struck. Staff
whipping out, singing through the air and connecting with enough force
to crack the wood, she hit the mad goddess.
Fragments of wood peppered the air as she hit Callisto,
but the goddess only laughed at Gabrielle’s efforts. That
laughter drove the bard to the Frenzy. Dropping
her staff, she flew at Callisto with every intention of biting to kill.
The bard was
stopped cold by a harshly whispered, "Gabrielle, no." Xena stood, her
body now totally consumed by the brood-Change, only her eyes remained
the same, glittery ice blue. The Feral that was once Xena stepped
forward, thrusting the bard behind her and silencing her with a look.
"This is between Callisto and me." Gabrielle nodded her understanding,
and stepped into the shadows to watch as the next chapter of their
centuries-old war against Callisto unfolded.
Callisto and
Xena battled, bled and fought for hours, until Xena found a way to lock
the goddess into one of the Unseelie banishing cells. It was ironic to
the bard that the very thing that Callisto had thought to use to bring
the warrior to her flock was turned against the revenge-crazed goddess.
Both women were battered, blood seeped out of wounds too numerous to
count, and Gabrielle had long since lost track of how many times Xena
had torn out Callisto's throat, only to watch the goddess heal
immediately.
"Let me out
of here, Xena. You know that I won't survive long Underhill," Callisto
pleaded.
"Remove the
brood Curse,” Xena growled in reply, pacing around the cage.
"I can't.
Isn't that marvelous, Gabrielle? She won't let me die, and I can't cure
her of that which will make her mine. No matter how hard you fight it
Xena, in the end, I will win." The goddess lost herself in a
long-winded cackle.
"Actually,
Callisto. I can, and will let you die. I have before," Xena reminded
the goddess. Callisto immediately sobered.
"You can't. I
won't let you. I order you to release me." Callisto threw herself at
the cage bars furiously, sending shards of darkly charged energy
spluttering into the air. Xena just looked at Callisto with a blankly
dry glance.
"No," the
warrior replied softly.
"Bitch. Fine,
I'll still win. You're still going to become a very bad girl Xena. And
when you do, I imagine that you'll see my side of things much
differently," Callisto said in a sickly sweet voice, grinning madly.
"No, I won't.
Gabrielle, come here." Gabrielle slid out of the shadows and cautiously
approached her lover. When she reached Xena's side, the warrior touched
the bard's tear stained face tenderly and then drew Gabrielle into her
arms.
"You're still
you..." the bard marveled as she ran her hands over the dark fur that
sprouted in sickly patches all over the warrior's Changed body.
"For now.
Gabrielle… I need to ask a big favor of you,” the warrior said softly,
smoothing the hair away from her lover’s face.
"Anything,"
choked the bard around fresh tears.
"Kill me,"
whispered Xena.
"what?"
gasped Gabrielle, as she moved in to kiss the warrior's cheek.
"I can't live
this way, Gabrielle. Callisto is right; I can feel myself falling into
that dark pit even as we speak. Please my love; give me a chance at
seeing you again in the afterlife. Give me peace."
How could the
bard say no? How could she deny her beloved warrior the peace of the
Elysian Fields after so many years? No words were spoken - none needed
to be said. Everything
they would have said had been spoken so many times over during their
years together that once more would be meaningless. Quietly, and with
an almost gentleness, Gabrielle let the Feral out again. Lacing her
fingers into the raven tresses one last time, the bard drew the
warrior's head down, exposed her neck, and bit.
Xena tried
hard not to struggle too much, knowing that her bard would stop if she
did. As Xena's world went dark, she managed to direct the bard's hand
to the pouch containing the dryad bones. Gabrielle understood and,
reaching in the pouch, she withdrew one long shard and drove it home
into Xena's heart as the bard swallowed the last drop of the warrior's
blood.
"Thank
you...love you...Ga-brielle." whispered words tumbled from numb lips
and then all was soundless.
"Oh, this is
just too good. Gabrielle, little miss don't-kill-it's-wrong, just
murdered her one true love. Oh, happy day." Callisto did a mad little
dance in the center of the cage and snickered at Gabrielle's evident
grief.
Gabrielle
stood, cradling her warrior's lifeless form in her arms. Stalking over
to the cage that held the immortal Callisto, she released the lock on
the door, but held the goddess pinned with her gaze. Although killing
the madwoman would be a pleasure, it would not do anything to bring
back her beloved, and the gentle spirited bard couldn't bring herself
to kill the goddess in cold blood. But she could, and would threaten
her.
"Hear me
well, Callisto: I blame you for the death of Xena. I may have taken her
life, but you killed her soul. She wouldn't kill you. I will. If I ever
see your face on this earth again, I will rip your head off and spit
down your neck. Got me?" There was no mistaking the seriousness of the
bard's tone.
Callisto
gulped, and knew the threat to be true, and executable, for the bard
was Artemis' Chosen and there was no way in Hades that the insane
goddess could get the Huntress to go along with any plan that involved
injuring Her bard. Ares had only agreed not to interfere with her
revenge on Xena because she had promised him whatever was left.
Callisto nodded silently and slipped out of the cage.
Just before
she vanished, she smiled nastily at the bard, "I still win. I killed
her soul...just like I promised." Cackling madly, Callisto vanished in
a puff of sparks, fleeing Underhill and the world Outside back to
Olympus.
Gabrielle
returned to London, said her goodbyes to Holmes and her two descendants
and then went to Greece to bury Xena beside her brother in Amphipolis,
just like the bard had promised so many years ago.
"When they
sealed the tomb behind you, I thought my soul had died," sobbed
Gabrielle. Xena scooped her bard into her arms.
"Shh. I
know... but listen, there's more to my tale," soothed Xena.
When the
warrior awoke, she was laying on the bank of the River Lethe, Charon
the boatman hovering nearby, poking her with his ferry pole.
"Eh dere
warrior, ye gonna git on board, er are ye gonna lounge about fer all of
eternity? Whatever ye do, it makes no nevermind ta me, just do
somethin' soon."
Xena debated
waiting around for her love, but decided that she was 1) way too damn
curious as to where Hades was going to stick her this time, 2) pissed
off at the gods for interfering in her life -- again, and 3) mildly
nauseated by the sight of Charon.
The ferryman
was draped from head to foot in a voluminous black robe, but what
wasn't covered was skin so pale and scabrous, that even the warrior's
battlefield hardened stomach turned. Besides, no matter where she ended
up, she was sure that she could get some answers from someone as to how
Callisto had even gotten away with doing what she'd done.
"All right
Charon, let's go," she said, getting up and boarding his boat. Charon accepted the
warrior’s coin and slowly began poling them across the river.
"I can't
believe you didn't wait for me," the bard sulked. Xena smiled and
kissed Gabrielle until the pout vanished.
"Would you
rather I had waited love?" she finally murmured into the bard's kiss
whetted lips.
"Um, that
would be a 'no'," Gabrielle whispered back and pulled her beloved down
for more mouth-to-mouth communication. Finally, Gabrielle let Xena
breathe and asked, "How did Callisto get Mordrigern to go along with
her plans anyway?"
The newly
revealed warrior shifted her bard until they were snuggled up securely,
then answered the question.
"Ares gave
him to Callisto."
"What?"
"Just wait.
And listen."
Surprisingly,
Charon’s boat stopped at the Elysian Fields.
Xena took about a week to get herself acclimated with the
in's and out's of Hades' Realm, then began to truly explore. Her
demi-godhood afforded her some leeway with the guardians of the
Underworld's various sections, and soon she had gathered enough
information to go before Hades himself. She found the god in his study,
Persephone was serving tea and Baby Bliss was drooling on the carpet.
"Got stuck
baby-sitting again, hmm Hades?" asked the warrior as she wandered into
the room.
"Xena. How
...nice... to see you. Is there something I can help you with?" Hades
didn't seem pleased to be disturbed.
"Yes,
actually. I think I was unfairly sent here. Look at this." Xena spent
the next several hours showing Hades the information she had gathered.
Finally, Hades held up a hand.
"All right,
Xena you've made your point. What do you propose to do about it? I
can't just let you go. You're dead - fair and square, six feet under
and all that rot. Besides, the other gods would have a conniption."
Persephone came up and began to rub his shoulders.
"Dear,
couldn't you...just this once?" she asked softly.
"No," the god
said darkly, leaning into his wife’s touch.
"Don't worry,
Hades. I have an idea." Xena smiled wickedly.
"Why do I get
the feeling that I'm not going to like this?" Hades said plaintively.
"So what did
you do?" Gabrielle asked breathlessly, her storyteller's soul
cataloging her lover's tale in a neat little corner of her mind. Xena
smirked at the eager face of her bard.
"Gabrielle,
if you keep interrupting, I'll never get this story finished," Xena
drawled, amusement dancing in her eyes.
"Oh, sorry.
Please, go on," Gabrielle
said eagerly.
"No worries.
Anyways, so my plan was..."
"Ares you
sniveling cowardly excuse for a father, get your ass down here right
now!" Xena stood in Hades' Great Hall; head tilted back, eyes flashing
and temper frizzled. There
was a brilliant starburst of light and the War God was there.
"You rang,
Xena?" the buff god crossed his arms and stood with his hips cocked in
a "come hither" stance.
"Yeah,
Daddy." she made the affectionate term an explicative. "It's not nice
to toy with your darling daughter's emotions."
"What ever do
you mean by that, my dear?" Ares was all innocence.
"I mean not
coming to see me even once while I've been down here!" Xena pouted.
Ares, surprised at Xena's statement, could only stare as his half-human
child slid across the floor with a sexy shift of her thighs, and then
was in his arms, caressing his face and pectorals. "I'm hurt,” she
crooned. "Don't you love me anymore?"
"Wait a
minute, you cuddled up to Ares!" Gabrielle sat up and jabbed Xena in
the chest several times.
"Gabrielle."
"You let
that...that...filthy son of a..."
"Gabrielle!"
"What?"
"You're
interrupting again."
"Sorry.
Sorry. Go on." the bard soothed the warrior princess' frayed nerves
with a few kisses.
"Yeah, all
right. So Ares he..."
"Xena, Xena,
Xena. My very special daughter, how could I have forgotten to come and
visit you? I am so remiss! My humblest apologies! Can you forgive me?"
Ares was anything if not urbane. Smooth as silk his voice rolled over
the warrior princess' ears. But she wasn't fooled. She was the one
doing the fooling.
"Oh Daddy,
you're so affectionate." Xena cooed, nuzzling the War God's neck. He
grinned to himself, thinking that death had indeed, delivered him the
woman he'd wanted for so long. Ares pressed himself into Xena, allowing
her to feel the power of his godhood as his hands slid up her back to
take possession of that which was so rightfully his, Xena sprung her
trap. Spinning out of his grasp with a giggle she dashed across the
chamber to land in Hades' throne. "Oh Daddy, isn't this so magnificent?
I should have come down here ages ago!"
"Yes my
dear." Ares smiled tolerantly at his offspring. "Anyway Xena, what
would you like to do? Terrorize a few denizens of Tartarus? Chase a few
Elysian maidens?"
"Oh no
Daddy." Now Xena's voice was serious and she was pouting in that
absolutely sexy way that got to him every time. "I want to know why you
let me die." Ares swallowed. She would ask that. Oh well, he could just
leave and let her puzzle out on her own. The dark god made ready to
teleport back to Olympus, but found he couldn't. He was stuck. Then he
remembered. No one, mortal or immortal, could enter or leave Hades'
Great Hall without the Master of the Underworld's permission.
"Yes, Ares. I
too am interested in why my niece had to pass prematurely? I didn't
expect to see her again for several eons." Hades appeared from the
shadows, holding the leash to Cerberus' collar. The three-headed hound
growled menacingly at Ares, who shrank back. Knowing he was caught, but
too stubborn to admit defeat, Ares stood tall.
"What does it
matter? She's dead now and that makes her fair game."
"No, Ares.
You cheated. Or should I say Callisto cheated for you. Clever ploy
Ares, but you let yourself become involved with the fate of one of your
children. We gods can't just go sticking our noses into our children's
lives like that. Why look at all the havoc Zeus has caused. You know
the rules. I think you'd better listen to what Xena has to say." Hades
leaned against his throne and smiled grimly at the woman lounging
within.
"Thank you,
Uncle. Yeah Ares, you'd better listen up. See, I know how Callisto was
able to get to me." Ares just raised one eyebrow. "Your pet Unseelie
have sent quite a few of their staff down here recently. It seems that
you lost a bet with Callisto and had to pay up by giving her Duke
Mordrigern. Naughty, naughty, Daddy dearest, don't you know that
Callisto cheats?
Anyway, we
all know what she did with the nasty little Duke after she got his
allegiance, so we won't re-hash that. My point is this...I want my life
back. Everything. All of it, and I want you out of my life forever. No
more messing with me just because you're bored." Xena sat up straight
now, staring her immortal father down.
"But, I
can't..."
"I know.
Hades has explained that I can't be released from the Realm of the Dead
once I've crossed over a second time. But I may have a solution to
that. If a girl child of my lineage should accidentally become injured
to the point of death, I wish to have my soul transferred into her
body."
"And you're
telling me this because?" Ares seemed to be about to accept his defeat.
"You will
present my case to the Olympic Tribunal. You will champion my cause and
you will win." Xena's voice left no room for argument.
"But..."
Hades interrupted his nephew's protest.
"Ares, if you
don't do everything Xena asks, I will go before the Tribunal myself and
tell them of your transgressions concerning Xena. I'm sure they will be
more than happy to hear me. And punish you. At least this way, you get
to seem like the hero." Ares shut up.
"Ok. I can't
guarantee anything, but I will do as you ask...daughter." Hades nodded
and Ares disappeared.
"Now what?"
Hades asked curiously.
"Now, we
wait. And see what kind of nuts our plan shakes out of the tree." Xena
and Hades both vanished to their respective "dwellings" in the
underworld.
"So we
waited. And waited. Ares would send us messengers every few years or so
telling us of his progress. I watched over you, and our families as
best as I could, always on the look out, of course, for someone who
would work as a replacement. But we are, of course, a hardy bunch."
Gabrielle chuckled.
"You always
did heal faster than anyone I knew...rarely scarred too. I wonder why
that is?" The bard ran her fingertips over the upper portion of Xena's
left arm, tracing the not-there outlines of where Dahak's avatar had
wounded her.
"Parentage. A
warrior-god's children would be warriors too, so they'd have to heal
well,” Xena reasoned logically.
"Yeah, that
makes a bunch of sense. So go on? I mean, I don't imagine it took a
hundred years for Ares to get the Olympiads to listen to him,
especially since they were all pretty un-busy."
"No, it
actually took Ares something like 63 mortal years to get Zeus to
organize a tribunal, hear the evidence in my case, and agree to my
release. After that, it was all about waiting for the right person to
appear. I may have had my soul back, but my body was another matter."
Gabrielle nuzzled Xena's neck, nibbling first on the soft flesh she
found, then working her way up to the warrior's earlobe.
"Mmm..." the
bard breathed, "and such a nice body it is, too." Xena relished her
lover's attentions for a few, brief minutes, and then sighed.
"Gabrielle...if
you...don't...stop," the bard's kisses were becoming light nips, then
grew into harder ones, "that, I won't...be able...to finish...the
story." Finally, Xena was able to finish her thought, and once spoken,
she grabbed Gabrielle and kissed her lustily.
Hands and
bodies and lips and teeth and tongues moved and traced and touched and
slid and soon, both women were vibrating from their arousal. The bard
kissed her warrior once more, deeply, and then snuggled back into her
arms.
"All right,
my Xena tank is full now. You can finish the story. But make it quick,
I think I might have sprung a leak."
Xena's
eyebrow traced a familiar path up her brow, as she chuckled. "As you wish, my bard."
"Oh, I wish."
That got the bard a long snuggle, which was wonderfully comforting and
did tons of repair work on the bard's long fractured soul.
"I watched
you all the time, you know. I was so proud of the good you did for our
kin, my love." Xena's voice brought Gabrielle out of her pleasant haze
of mushville.
"Did you? I
kinda wondered...I talked to you a lot. When I needed you...when I was
sad...happy...lonely..." Gabrielle said quietly, snuggling into Xena’s
arms.
"I know. I
heard you." a softly spoken reply, joined with several more minutes of
quiet hugging, and more aches were healed.
"Thank you.
For listening, I mean."
"How could I
not, my heart? You are the best part of my soul." Gabrielle just beamed
tearfully at her lover.
"And you are
the best part of mine. Now finish your story before I end up bawling."
Xena smiled and continued.
"Well, to cut
through the boring stuff... you know, the usual: Ares trying to back
out on his word, Ares getting in my way, Ares trying to kill you… which
was funny in its own way because Bacchus nearly turned Ares into
bacchae food for that one. Then
Callisto was freed, trapped again… you know, the usual yada-yada-yada
Same Old Warlord, Different Village type thing. Anyway, after awhile, I
got to feeling like some kind of morbid vulture, waiting for a direct
lineage female relative to sicken or be injured. I was almost ready to
give up when Alexia came onto the scene."
"Who is
Alexia?" Gabrielle asked, sitting up and taking a sip of tea.
"I'm getting
to that part." Xena got up, stoked up the fire, stepped into the
kitchen briefly for a tray of snacks and returned to her comfortable
position on the couch.
"Oh, ok."
Gabrielle gratefully accepted an offered plate of munchables.
"Alexia
Pappas was the third daughter of Mel Pappas' third cousin's second
wife. She could have been born to wealth, but because of the weavings
of fate, she ended up destitute, disinherited and hooked on opium,”
began Xena, around bites and sips and swallows. "Eventually, she
overdosed and went into a coma. She was 16 when this happened.
She was
lucky, or maybe we were lucky, because her family was rich and well
connected. Even though they had thrown her away several years before,
something had changed to make them want to try to save their daughter's
life. I'm sorry to say, they weren't successful. Alexia Pappas became
legally brain dead on the eve of her 17th birthday. That's when Hades
notified me that I had my chance. I almost didn't take it."
"What!"
Gabrielle sat up spluttering, nearly dumping her tea on Xena in the
process. She favored the silently laughing warrior with a glare. "Why?"
"As I said, I
had begun to feel rather...vulture-like...and I didn't want our reunion
to be...tainted by that. But then I heard you one night, crying softly
in your sleep, and that was all it took. I had to get back to you.
Hades made the arrangements for my soul to slip into the place left
vacant by Alexia's, and that was that. Alexia Pappas made one of those
‘miraculous recoveries’ that occur from time to time."
"You know, I
seem to remember hearing about that in a letter..." Gabrielle mused
while clearing away the debris of their snack. Xena nodded and
continued.
"After
several months of detox to get the opium and other drugs out of my new
body's systems, I began a rigorous physical training program and set my
sights on finding you. I knew you wouldn't accept me for who I was at
face value, so I had to become someone you would. I had heard about
your contributions, " she squeezed her lover's hand, "to keeping young
kids off the street. So I resumed Alexia's career, only I became better
at it. No longer was I a two bit hooker, I was a high class call-girl."
Xena's face twisted a bit at that. "I suppose I could have had worse
jobs, I could have been a phone sex operator!" Not knowing what to say
to comfort her mate, Gabrielle chose to just hold her and convince her
without words that all was well.
"And I guess
I know the rest of the story...right?" she finally asked.
"Pretty much.
I made sure I knew where you spent your time ‘cleaning’ and made sure
that you saw me. After that, it was up to you."
"I guess I
came through." she smiled, "Good. I like it when my stories have happy
endings."
"So do I my
bard, so do I." the two lovers ended up falling asleep entwined as one
on the small couch. Outside, snowflakes began to fall, scuffing the
earth like angels dancing across the heavens.
fin
03/11/98
Revision on
11/18/00
Note: If you really enjoyed this
Altaverse, please go check out the original story that started it all
and the rest of the Blood
& Roses world.