Disclaimer: I don't own Xena and crew.
Subtext: probably..
Chapter 1: What She Lost
Xena closed her spirit eyes and concentrated on locating her soul mate. This afterlife that she was stuck in, was an indescribable existence. She wasn't in the one god's heaven nor the Elysian fields. In fact, one would probably call it a lack of an environment. All around her was a white fuzzy existence. A feeling of nothingness. All that she had was a sense of her being. She was pretty certain she had done the right thing in freeing the souls, but she couldn't help but wonder what had become of her. It was a niggling constant.
She had expected to be once again in the one god's heaven, hopefully getting to see what she hadn't successfully experienced the last time. This place was an unwelcome revelation. The unknown to her, was worse that Tartarus. She didn't know how much time had past or if she would be allowed to continue on to her next life. In reality, it was because of the fact that she had not fully forgotten Gabrielle, that it was not possible for her to move on.
She focused on remembering her time with Gabrielle. At first she could only remember her face. Each time she tried after that, she found that she was able to remember more each time. Even memories that she didn't have. It was only a matter of time before she realized she was actually watching Gabrielle in the present. Each time she caught a glimpse, the harder it became for Xena to watch. It was extremely hard to see Gabrielle mourning, but a recent development was even more difficult. Gabrielle was moving on.
Suddenly a rumbling was heard to the side of Xena. It was quite startling after years of silence and nothingness. A strange hulking figure came into view out of the white mist. It was dragon like in appearance but human at the same time. It was dressed in traditional samurai garb. It reached out its talon hands toward her shoulder and closed its grip. It did not hurt, but still caused uneasiness. Xena grabbed his hand in a wrist lock and found that the being was immune to the action. His arm was bent in an inhuman manner and he was barely flinching. She turned her body to deliver a round house kick and found her leg whiz completely through him. Perhaps he was a ghost like her. The logical decision was to let the being complete its intent. In her existence there was nothing to lose.