Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: R for mature content
Summary: Gabrielle's life was a blank scroll before Xena rode into it and filled it with vivid color, love, and life. Now her love is gone, and Gabrielle is blank, and filled with sorrow, once more.
Warnings: Femme Slash, Character Death, Suicide planning
Spoilers: Xena's fate
Word Count (excluding heading): 818
Disclaimer: Gabrielle, Xena: Warrior Princess, Mount Olympus, and the Elysian Fields are & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Aphrodite, Ares, and the Gods of Mount Olympus are & TM Themselves, not the author, and are used without permission. Everything else is & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
She gazed up at the twinkling stars that filled the sky, memories dancing before her green eyes. The night wind played over her body, tugging gently at her blonde locks and caressing her body with the skilled hands of her love whose arms would never again wrap around her. Gabrielle ached for those arms to hold her close once more, and though she felt her try to pull her close every time she laid down and hug her each time she cried, it would never be the same.
Gabrielle's dry lips parted as she whispered chokingly, "Xena." The wind moaned in answer, and Gabby shut her eyes. She could feel arms encircling her, but she knew that if she opened her eyes, she would see nothing but empty air.
Her love was there, but she could not see her. Her soul mate was right beside her yet she could not touch her. She could feel her, in this moment of the Witching Hour, as clearly as if she still lived, but she knew that if she dared to make the mistake of opening her eyes, she'd find no one there. Thus she kept her eyes tightly closed and took what relish she could in what she had left, the feelings of her ghost lover doing her best to reassure her and the memories of a love more beautiful than anything else on Earth or even Mount Olympus.
Maybe that was why they had taken her from her, Gabrielle mused as tears tracked silently down her cheeks. The Gods were known for Their jealousy and vengeancefulness, but no, her mind argued with her emotions, Aphrodite and Ares had both been stricken by her beloved Xena's death.
She had been a woman who had even touched the Gods, Gabrielle reflected with bittersweet fondness. Her Xena had been the most wonderful, amazing woman to walk the face of the world, and of all the legends Gabrielle had ever heard, read, or written about, hers was the most worthy one of them all to be praised. Gabrielle would see to it that she got the texts, sonnets, and praise she deserved, and then she would gladly walk into the arms of Death for only in death would she ever again truly be reunited with the love of her life and her soul be complete again.
Gabrielle had once loved the story of how every person had a missing part of their soul and could only be completed by finding and uniting with the person who possessed the other half of their soul. It was still one of her favorite legends, but with the knowledge she had now, she would have rewritten it if she'd had the chance. She would have warned of the pain that would come from losing that part of one's soul the second time, but she knew that she would not have lived her life any differently.
Xena had brought so much to her life. Her love and the adventures they had shared had filled her existence with meaning, but it was far more than all the good deeds they'd done together over the years. As she lay there, lost in memories and contemplations, Gabrielle realized that her life was like a painting, or even a scroll. Before Xena had rode into her world, the parchment of her life had been blank, but Xena had splashed over every inch of it, filling it with the vibrant colors of love, inspiration, friendship, astonishment, wonder, beauty, and purely life at its grandest living.
And with her death, all of that had been taken from Gabrielle. Gabby would not have changed anything about her life except for one thing. She would have died with Xena if given the chance again. She would never have let her ride off by herself on that last, fateful journey. She would have died with her and awakened in the Elysian Fields with her love holding her close.
Yet she had to believe there was a reason why she had lived, and there was only one purpose left to her that she could think of. One day soon, Gabrielle promised herself, one day soon, when her mission of telling the world about the amazing Warrior Princess it had been her honor, pleasure, and fate to love, she would awaken to the wondrous feel of her love's arms around her, and when she opened her eyes that time, she would be greeted with Xena's beautiful face. When that day came, no power would ever part them again, Gabrielle knew, but it was killing what little remained of her soul to suffer through every tormented moment she breathed without her beloved partner.
One day soon, Gabrielle repeated to herself over and over again. She was still chanting the mantra in her mind when she finally slipped into troubled sleep, all the while still held close by Xena's ghostly arms.
The End
Author's Note: If you enjoyed this story, or any of my other writings, I hope you'll consider joining my friends and I at a brand new fan fic/art site we're creating called Ficcers Unite. We welcome all fandoms, pairings (slash and het), and even no pairings at all, and we'll also be RPing a world where Disney and Marvel comes together in one universe. Come on over and check us out at ficcersuniteDOTproboardsDOTcom today!