Sapphic Voices Fan Fiction

THE AMAZON QUEEN

Part Twenty-Four

DISCLAIMERS: The characters of of Xena, Gabrielle, Cyrenê, Joxer, et al (meaning anyone else I didn't list and should have.) are the property of their creators and anyone else who has a legal claim (thanks for letting the girls come out to play!) Melysë and The Amazons belong to themselves, though, (and I dare any man to say different!) This Story is mine, though, and written just for fun, not profit.

Subtext: - YES, though nothing explicit. Xena and Gabrielle, while still soul-mates and the very best of friends, are not a couple in the romantic sense of the word. They are joined to others as heart-mates.

Violence: Yes, but no more than you’ll see on the show.

Language: Pretty tame, so far.

Spoilers: (so far) The Deliverer, Gabrielle's Hope, Maternal Instincts, Sacrifice I&II, A Family Affair, Livia, Eve, The God You Know, Path of Vengeance

Other: If you haven’t read the previous installments in this series, you may have difficulty following along with who’s who.

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"Gabrielle!" Xena yelled over her shoulder. Najara was as tough as ever. Never mind that the last time the warrior had seen the zealot, Najara had been unlikely to ever rise from that deepest of sleeps just at the threshold of death. Perdicas had grabbed Gabrielle again and was dragging her away. Xena looked quickly around. Michael and Anaxilea were gone.

"Son of a Bacchae!" the warrior said with a growl. Najara cocked her head and simpered at the warrior.

"What's the matter, Xena?" she asked. "Someone else have Gabrielle's attention?"

"Shut up, Najara," said Xena.

"Oooh, no, I don't think so," said Najara, her smile brightening further. "Remember, she's your weakness."

"One of many, Najara," said Xena, twirling her sword, waiting for Najara to strike. "And Gabrielle can take care of herself - it took me a long time to learn that, but now ..."

Xena moved in swiftly, attacking without hesitation.

Perdicas was attacking the Bard with his words even as Najara attacked the Warrior with a sword.

"Why, Gabrielle? Why couldn’t you just do what you were supposed to do? None of this mess would have ever happened if you had just acted the way a normal girl did," said Perdicas.

"Normal?" said Gabrielle, looking up at him. "When was I ever normal? You wouldn’t have liked me if I had been normal."

"I would be alive," said Perdicas, solemnly.

"Yeah? Would you still be a jerk, too?" said Gabrielle, growing angry.

"Gabrielle, what are you saying?" asked Perdicas, his eyes welling with tears.

"Oh, stop it - the Perdicas I knew would never ..." the Bard’s annoyed words trailed off. "The Perdicas I knew - you’re not Perdicas!"

"Very good, Gabrielle," came a sinister purr as Perdicas metamorphosed into a beautiful blonde warrior. She threw back her head and screamed in laughter.

"Callisto!" said Gabrielle, eyes narrowing in hatred. Xena whipped around, suffering a blow from Najara in the process.

"So Gabrielle is no longer a distraction to you, hm, Xena?" said the zealot with a sweet smile.

"I don’t have time for <you> ," said Xena, fighting Najara in earnest, beating her back.

"What’s wrong Najara - the Djinn talking to you, distracting you?" The warrior chuckled coldly. "Or is Dahak your puppet-master now?"

Najara stopped fighting and her eyes narrowed in a glare. Suddenly, Xena found herself looking at an older enemy than the zealot.

"Ming-Tien," she said. He threw back his head and laughed, his body growing and transforming until he was a great green dragon, towering over the trees. Xena stared up at the monster who was breathing smoke. She heard Lao Ma, her mentor and mother to the monster before her, in her mind.

"Make him small again, Xena."

"I can’t," said the warrior through clenched teeth. "I don’t know how." She glanced quickly over to Gabrielle, who was staring down, of all people, Callisto. The warrior was worried. Perdicas, she knew, would probably never harm Gabrielle. Callisto was another matter. Could Gabrielle hold her own? Xena doubted it. Gabrielle had certainly grown into a competent warrior in her own right over the years, but it took more than competence to defeat Callisto. It took skill and ...

Xena looked up at the dragon, searing the treetops, again and was torn. She had been wanting to slay a dragon for years now, ever since the Mage War in Themiscyreia when Romy was a baby. Yet she knew that Gabrielle couldn’t handle Callisto. The only thing she had to decide was who/what to kill first ...

"Now who needs to be made small?" Xena whirled around, momentarily turning her back on the dragon and Callisto.

"Ares," she said.

"Come on Xena, what are you going to do?" asked the god, arms folded over his chest. "Tough decision, I know - do you become Dragon-slayer or do you save your friend? Shouldn’t be that difficult for a warrior of your stature to do both, though, right? In the meantime, though, I thought you should know that your great-grandson has been born."

"What?" said Xena.

"Yep - Eve is here, too," said Ares. "Well, she was, but the truth is she grabbed the baby and ran."

"What!?" Xena cried, advancing on the god. "Why didn’t you stop her?"

"Well, I was a little busy at the time," said Ares, turning his arm to show a bloody bandage. "Anaxilea showed up."


To be continued...

If you have enjoyed L. M. Townsend's "THE AMAZON QUEEN - Part Twenty-Four", then please be certain to e-mail her at  QueenLaese1[at]aol.com  and thank her for posting this Story.

Click here to continue on to "THE AMAZON QUEEN, Part Twenty-Five"

Click here for a list of all of L. M. Townsend's  Stories and Poetry at  Sapphic Voices Authoresses.