Disclaimers: I do not own the rights to Xena: Warrior Princess. It is owned by Renaissance Pictures, Studio USA, and Rob Tapert. I am merely borrowing the characters for a bit of fun :)
Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was violently harmed in the production of this motion picture.
Author's Notes: This story is my rewrite of a longer, angstier Bitter Suite. It is written in both Gabrielle and Xena's POVs. Also, I hope you enjoy it Rowan!
Warnings: Gabrielle/Callisto, angst, and lots of violence (of course, this Xena). Raping (so to speak) of the Xena/Gabrielle relationship.
Summary: What happens when Gabrielle is pushed over the edge, and joins Callisto in vengeance against Xena?
The canteen is poised just above my mouth, the liquid inside ready for entry. 'Why don't you do it?' I hear an angry voice snarl.
'I don't know...' I reply back at it, confused. Even now, I notice how empty, broken and lifeless my voice sounds.
'It is so easy... it would end all your suffering.' That angry, yet sad, voice replies back in a thoughtful tone. It is trying to tempt me, I have dealt with this part of me far too much to not recognize what it wanted. It wanted me to end my life. However much I wanted to surrender to it, to this side of me that felt so defeated, I fought it. Bringing the canteen down slowly, I tipped it over, until the very last of the poison was emptied out of the container and onto the ground below.
This memory, like so many others that had occurred these past couple of months, brought a painful ache to my heart whenever I re-accounted them. Silent, I struggled bitterly against the unbidden tears that I knew would come, instantly reminding me of what had happened on that horrible day that would drive such a sweet, innocent girl like me to suicide.
It had started off normal enough. Xena and I were heading to visit her son, who lived with the centaurs. But then, I ran into this little girl. She looked about seven or eight years old, with frizzy brown hair. A normal enough child in Greece... at least that is what I thought. Until I caught the look she had in her eyes when I met her. It still sends cold shivers down my spine to think of the fear I saw in them. It turned out that the fear she felt was because she had somehow released Callisto from the lava pit Xena had trapped her in, and was worried that Callisto would kill her. The girl had come to find Xena, because Callisto wanted to let Xena know that she knew about Solan.
But here is the best part of the story... It turns out that the girl is actually Hope. My daughter. I was so relieved in those few moments of finding out the truth, the agony I had been feeling ever since the incident in Britannia lifted. I felt... hope... that my daughter was still alive. And as I looked into her eyes... I thought the impossible. There is no way this sweet, innocent little girl could be evil. Boy, how I was wrong.
Hope ended up killing Solan, and my worst fears were realized when I stepped through the open door of Calliosipe's hut to find Xena cradling Solan's dead body in her arms, tears streaming down her face unchecked. At that moment, I could feel my heart breaking as the intensity of the situation crashed down on me like a tidal-wave. I had to control myself to keep from crumbling down on the floor into a crying heap myself. I caused this... I remember thinking at that moment, my breath held in my chest as I waited for Solan to get back up, and proclaim himself alive. It never happened.
"If I had just done what you had said," I choked out, staring into my lover's tear-filled eyes, the both of us standing in front of Hope and Solan's pyre's, the flames blazing, "then they would still be alive, Kaleipus and Solan."
"No." Now Xena looked at me, her eyes cold and angry. A river of tears still threatened to cascade down from them as she glared at me. "Don't you even speak his name." My grip involuntarily tightened on my staff as I watched her, heart-broken. I wondered if there would be any of my heart left in the end, her words echoing louder and angrier in my head, a mental hit in my stomach. "You lied to me. I trusted you and you lied to me." The warrior's voice cracked as she spoke, turning her head back to stare, broken, at Solan's funeral pyre in front of her, the flames blazing and crackling in the night sky."Now my son is dead, because of you."
My heart beat fast in my chest, thoughts raced through my head as I ran through what had happened over the last few weeks. After all the time that I had been with Xena... No! I shook my head, trying, forcing myself to not think of that heartless Warrior Princess. If it wasn't for her...
"...You wouldn't have a daughter."
I froze, not daring to move an inch on the table where I lay. Even in Tartarus I would recognize that cold sneering voice. Callisto... since when could she read thoughts? Must be a god thing. "What do you want?" I finally managed to spit out, my voice shaking a little more than I hoped it would.
"Oh... don't worry, precious little Gabrielle." Suddenly, the fierce warrior came into view as she stood over me. "I'm not going to kill you." My heart beat even louder as those dark brown eyes, void of all emotion bore into mine. Her mouth formed a twisted smile as she began to speak again. "I came to offer you my help."
I had to stop myself from snorting at Callisto's words, despite the depressed state I was in at the moment. Am I delusional, or did Callisto, murderer of my husband and thousands of innocent people, just say SHE was going to help ME? "You're not going to trick me, Callisto." I said, making the tone of my voice cold enough so she would hopefully know that I was serious. You can't fool me that easily...
Callisto now disappeared from my line of sight, and I knew she was circling around the room, I could hear her footsteps echoing quietly on the ground around me. "I understand that you don't trust me, Gabrielle." The sound of her footsteps stopped, and quietly I waited for the sound of Callisto unsheathing her sword, ready to drive it into my chest. But strangely, it did not come. Silence followed, and for a split second I had hoped that she had left, my heart stopping in my chest as I started to look around. "It looks like I will have to earn it." Again, I froze, Callisto's voice sending fear and hatred into my very soul. I didn't even understand the words she had spoken. "Listen, Gabrielle." Now Callisto was standing right in front of me, her voice growing angry, impatient. I knew that it wouldn't take much from me before she snapped, attacking. Wishing I had a weapon, I clenched my fists together, ready to defend myself if need be. "We both have reason to hate Xena."
"I don't hate her, she is the one that hates me..." I whispered, more to myself than to Callisto, but even as the words left my lips, I knew they weren't the truth. I could feel the hate bubbling inside of me as I watched Callisto sneer at me, a touch of sympathy in her eyes.
"Oh come on Gabrielle." She runs a finger through my hair. I shiver slightly, the sudden closeness between us startling and yet comforting. "You both travel to Britannia, hoping to stop Caesar. But then something unexpected happens..." Her finger now runs down my cheek, her sneer turning into a smile as she spoke. "your blood innocence, now lost, causes you to give birth to... a child." She leans in close, her mouth just inches away from mine. I waited, holding my breath, for her to strike me in the stomach with her knife. But the sound of flesh piercing skin, the searing pain I have been wanting for so long, never come. Why then, was I feeling so full of lust then? This warrior in front of me, so different in appearance than Xena, was sending something like adrenaline through my veins, and instead of pushing it away, I welcomed it. So happy to feel something besides pain and regret, even if it meant making love, joining with Callisto,I would do it. "But Xena... Xena doesn't trust your child does she?" Callisto's voice almost made me jump, I was so lost in my own thoughts. "No... she says Hope is... evil. And she wants to do the unthinkable. Xena wants to KILL your CHILD. A child that cannot defend itself, that cannot speak for itself." Callisto's words, so true and yet so menacing, reminding me of how Ares would try to tempt Xena into doing his will, albeit more forcefully and dangerously than Callisto. Still... she awakened something in me... a fire sparked in my very soul. I didn't dare try to fight it. No... like the lust I was feeling for Callisto at this very moment, I welcomed it. All former emotions: love, compassion, sympathy, hope. They were dead, replaced with these two feelings, so strong as to turn me into a completely different person. In the past, I would detest them, turn away from them, fight the people that had welcomed them, called them home as I am doing now. "But that wasn't enough for Xena, no... After Hope kills Solan, something that might have been avoided if only Xena would have let the two of you raise the child together, she makes you kill Hope, feeding her poison and then burning her body next to Solan's." Callisto moved an inch closer, licking her lips slightly at the fire I knew she saw blazing in my eyes now. A fire that she had just sparked. "It is too much for one person to go through unscathed." The tears had stopped coming now. The fire crackled inside of me, wanting me to complete the connection, complete the final spark. Lips met lips, as I fulfilled it's command, forcibly kissing Callisto. My tongue, so denied of pleasure this last week, pushed it's way inside of Callisto's, not waiting to ask for entry. Unbending, Callisto pushed back just as roughly.
"Okay, I'll help you." I said, my voice cracking as I broke the kiss. I gasped for breath, waiting for Callisto's reply.
Callisto formed another twisted smile, knowing her battle was won. "Gather the Amazons, then, we've got a princess to dethrone."
***
Knees buckling under me, I finally gave in to my exhausted body, crumpling onto the ground. I had been traveling for days on end, looking for something to relieve me of the pain and anger I felt growing inside me. Ever since I had parted with Gabrielle after cremating my son, about five days ago, I've fought the overwhelming dark side of me that wants to avenge Solan's death. Evidently, it hasn't been easy. Every night has been torture, tossing and turning in my bedroll, nightmares of the day I found Solan dead in my arms repeating ever night. It would be so easy to just give in to my dark side and kill Gabrielle, but... I can't do that. I made a promise to myself a long time ago to never go back to those old ways. Besides, breaking that promise would not bring my Solan back to me.
"I've been waiting such a long time to say I told you so." At that voice, my eyes lit up, and I was suddenly more alert. I'm not in the mood to deal with the God of War, but...
"What do you want, Ares?" I snarled back at him, standing back up and then turning around to face him. Wherever Ares goes, which is usually stalking me, trouble seems to follow.
"Do I always have to want something?" He projected back at me, crossing his chest in an annoyed manner.
I unsheathed my sword, as a necessary precaution, and I couldn't help smile slightly as the sound of metal met my ears. "You don't exactly have the best track record..." My eyes never left his as I spoke, always ready for a possible attack. You could always expect one from the God of War.
"All I came here for," Ares replied, advancing on me, my grip on my sword tightening as he grew closer, "is to tell you that..." a shiver ran down my spine as he placed his hands on my hips lustfully, staring deep into my eyes. "...Gabrielle didn't go to Chin to stop you from killing the Green Dragon." Ares leaned in closer, his grip on my hips tightening slightly and his mouth right beside my ear, and I started to groan in slight pleasure. I stopped myself quickly, releasing I was succumbing once again to the war god's teasing touches. His words echoed in my head, however, and I was ever vigilant. "She went because she was jealous."
A spark flashed through me at Ares' words, my heart beating faster, pulsing something like fire into my veins. Nothing the war god ever says can be taken with a grain with truth, but this... something just told me that it was true. Still, a low growl formed in the back of my throat, and I spat out at Ares. "You're lying!" I took a few wary steps back from the war god, fighting the dark side within me even harder now.
Ares took a few steps back, his arms extended, and that sneering smile I knew so well planted on his face. "You know where the irritating blonde is, so find out for yourself. I'll be there to tell you I was right." And with a snap of his fingers, and a flash of lightning, he was gone.
My mind started racing, contemplating Ares' words. Could Ares really be right? Was Gabrielle that jealous of Lao Ma?
"Well, there is only one way to find out." Ares' news had sent me over the edge now, my skin felt like it was on fire. I knew there was only way to satisfy my lust for revenge: to kill Gabrielle. Letting myself succumb to the dark side, I started walking back the way I came, to the Amazon village. "So be it."