Disclaimers: The following story is classified as Fan Fiction. The characters of Xena, Gabrielle and others who have appeared in the series, Xena: Warrior Princess, are the property of MCA/Universal Television and Renaissance Pictures. I only borrowed them. The story itself is mine and cannot be redistributed in any form without my consent.

Timeline: In the series, consider this a standalone story near the end of season 2. It's my version of how and why Gabrielle lost her blood innocence. No Dahok, no Hope, etc.

History Cast in Amber

by LZClotho

(c) July 1997

CHAPTER ONE - ROAD TO TROUBLE

On the road into Corinth the morning was bright and a breeze picked up strawberry blonde hair. Brushing it out of her face, Gabrielle walked beside Xena who was rubbing Argo's neck as she rode along. The warrior was attentive as Gabrielle tried out her latest finished tale, the story of their battle against Velasca and Callisto. She'd titled it "A Necessary Evil." When she reached the part about Xena luring the two demi-goddesses to the lava flow, the warrior held up a hand.

"You make me sound like a goddess myself, Gabrielle. Can't you tone it down just a little? I guessed that the lava would hold Callisto and Velasca. I didn't know," Xena admonished.

"You went up against a goddess-in-the-making," argued the bard. "I'm convinced this is the only way to convey your brilliance."

"Great. Now I'm 'brilliant'."

Gabrielle retorted, "Xena, listen, you are the greatest strategist I've ever had the pleasure to tell a story about. You're even better than Ulysses, and he was incredible!"

"He beat the Sphinx too," Xena commented.

"No, that was Oedipus," Gabrielle sighed. "You just don't get it, do you?"

Xena sighed back. "No, I guess I don't. You're the one who beat the Sphinx's riddles when we tried to get those girls back for Atalanta on the Thessaly Road. And that's final."

"But you gave me the idea to use the Trojan War as the basis for the final riddle. You realized the Sphinx was unaware that it had taken place, but that the Sphinx's soldiers would know, validating the answer. She'd already guessed my riddle about your chakram."

Gabrielle hung her head. She recalled easily the surprise she'd felt when the Sphinx had just studied Xena for just a moment and then blurted, "That! Her round killing thing."

Xena looked down at Gabrielle and shook her head.

Gabrielle stopped walking. Xena brought Argo to a stop. "Are you really that uncomfortable with the presentation?" Gabrielle didn't want to anger her best friend.

"I appreciate the confidence in my skills, Gabrielle, I really do. But I am embarrassed by the praise. I'm just me, not another Hercules."

Gabrielle knew that, but she was determined to make Xena claim some glory. There were so few heroes; Greece needed a real one to follow. Nothing against Hercules, but Xena was all too human. Gabrielle thought that made her stories of the warrior woman more gripping, and memorable. "I'll tone it down, but you deserve praise. You've done well for yourself and others, and I think people ought to know that."

Xena smiled. "I guess I can understand that, but I don't have to like it."

Gabrielle frowned. "I'd appreciate it if you liked it ... at least a little."

Xena's tone was conciliatory. "Write the story as you think it deserves to be told. I'll like it just fine. But remember, I'm not your audience; Greece is."

"So what stories do you want to hear? I'm your bard, remember. I am your entertainer as well as your tale-bearer."

"You insinuated yourself in that role as I recall," Xena replied with a half-smile.

"So? I'm still here, aren't I?" Gabrielle smiled broadly up at Xena, waiting to see if the warrior would challenge her yet again.

"Yeah," Xena relented. "Okay. Tell me stories of ordinary people making a great difference." Xena pushed her dark hair off her shoulder.

"Really?"

"Honest." Xena straightened in her saddle and nudged Argo with her knees.

"Then you'll have to continue hearing at least some stories about yourself," the bard answered curtly. Gabrielle walked quickly ahead of the horse for a few strides, presenting her back to the warrior. Xena made a useless, silent gesture to call her back, but said nothing, merely nudging Argo alongside. Xena waited. She

wanted to apologize but didn't know where to start.

Gabrielle broke the silence first, as usual. She looked up at Xena and asked, "How long do you think until we reach the valley?"

"Maybe another day."

Gabrielle touched Argo's withers. "What exactly are we here to do?"

Xena pulled the weather-beaten parchment from her pouch. "There's a slaver in the area. I've been asked to come solve the problem."

"You looked pretty angry about what the runner from Amber had to say," Gabrielle commented, thinking back to the night in the tavern in Briar when the rag-clothed, tired man had stumbled in from the rain, crying Xena's name.

"Slavers go after women. We all know that. But this one also collects children," Xena replied coolly.

Gabrielle sighed. "Can't anybody play by the rules for once?" She stepped away from Argo's side and kicked at the dirt. "So, who are we supposed to meet up with?"

"The tavern keeper in Amber knows where the slavers' camp is. I was told to meet with him. Amber's just over the Northern Pass, and the terrain isn't the easiest to travel. In fact, for some of the way, I'll probably walk with you to make it easier for Argo."

Gabrielle winced, "That steep, huh?" The bard stepped around a large rut in the road, and skipped forward twice to return to Argo's side.

Xena mused at her companion's lightfooted walk. Sometimes she wished she could hold a picture of the bard's sunny face, keep it in her pack to look on when her spirits were low. "Pretty sight at the top. I think you'll like it." The warrior patted Argo's neck when the horse's ears twitched toward her voice.

"So, you've been to this valley before?" Gabrielle asked. Xena nodded slowly but not answering. Gabrielle realized when she looked up and saw the shadow stealing across the warrior's bright blue eyes that the history of Xena in this place wasn't a pleasant memory. "What happened here?"

Xena shook her head. "Nothing that matters now."

Gabrielle nudged a little. "Come on, what happened here?" Xena frowned at the blonde. "I've heard a lot about your early travels. Just tell me." Xena shook her head. Gabrielle tried a different tact. "How can you atone for a past you keep denying?"

Xena's eyes darkened to the blue of a moonlit night sky. "Gabrielle," she warned. The bard pulled up on Argo's reins, making Xena stop, and turned to stare up obstinately at the warrior. Xena forced her jaw to loosen and said evenly, "Amber's

older citizens are probably some of my old victims."

Gabrielle nodded. "All right. Well, at least I'll know not to mention your name anywhere." She released Argo's reins, allowing Argo to resume walking. She strode alongside Argo's head. The two women walked in silence for a while, each woman focused on her own thoughts.

Xena sighed. She should know by now that Gabrielle would never judge her for her past actions. But she suffered through an incredibly powerful urge to run whenever the pair was entering an area where the Warrior Princess had once plied her evil. Dredging up her past made Xena... tense.

Xena's ears and body sense focused on every sound of the forests around them. She happened to glance down and see the top of Gabrielle's strawberry blonde head. The bard was looking around in that absorbing way of hers, memorizing details. Xena loved the bard's sense of awe and reverence for the world around her. The warrior had suffocated that trait in herself so many years ago out of a need to survive.

Gabrielle's friendship brought that sense of amazement back to the weary warrior. Even now with the coming confrontation on her mind, Xena let her heightened caution slip and looked around. A squirrel scooted across Argo's path and skittered up a nearby tree. Xena watched the animal until it disappeared.

Gabrielle noticed when Xena's eyes followed the squirrel. She'd been watching the little beast herself for the last fifty paces. Gabrielle skipped around another rut and came alongside Xena. She decided to try and lighten Xena's mood further. "Sometimes, I envy you, Xena."

Gabrielle looked up as Xena looked down. "Why is that?"

"You may have been a warlord while you were doing it, but you have traveled everywhere. Is there anywhere you haven't been?"

Xena shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't been there," she replied with a wry smile. Gabrielle laughed so hard she brought herself under control only with great difficulty.

She hiccuped, "Gods, why do you hide that wit?"

Xena smiled genuinely. "I can't beat a warlord with wit."

"It might be an interesting battle, since you'd be the better armed," Gabrielle laughed. She was pleased at the turn of events and the smile, so rare, on her friend's face. She stopped walking, alerted to the growl of her stomach. She looked up at the position of the sun.

Xena noticed the pause in the bard's even stride. She watched Gabrielle rub her stomach and looked at the sun herself. "Maybe we ought to stop and have some lunch." The warrior started looking around more carefully at their surroundings, and cocked her head to listen. "I hear some water over that next rise. Let's

cut into the trees over there." In another stride, without causing the mare to pause, Xena slid off Argo's back and walked beside Gabrielle, leading both the younger woman and the horse off the right side of the road.

Gabrielle sighed. Everything she did was so transparent to this woman. She wondered if it was even possible for her to think something without Xena seeing it plainly written on her face within minutes. Or if the woman was a mind reader. She glanced up at the older woman at the thought.

Xena pushed aside a low-hanging branch so Argo could pass and continued to hold it for Gabrielle to slip past as well. "I don't read minds, Gabrielle. Just body language. And you, my friend, have the most expressive face and body of anyone I've ever met." Gabrielle gasped. Xena chuckled.

Gabrielle shook her head. "Don't ever change, Xena," she said, touching the warrior's arm. She was rewarded when Xena lifted her left hand and captured Gabrielle's hand in her own. Neither spoke anything more. As they broke through more trees, Gabrielle finally heard the sounds of water which Xena had heard a hundred paces back on the road. She shook her head again in amazement and smiled.

The bard collected berries from a robust bush along their path. "Let's just snack on some trail sticks," Gabrielle suggested, popping the berries into her mouth. "I want a swim in that water. It sounds perfect."

Xena shook her head. "You like to live dangerously, don't you?"

"What's wrong with that?" Gabrielle squeezed Xena's hand, which she still held. "Besides, I travel with the great Warrior Princess. Danger is my life," she replied with a light laugh, knowing that was a sticky point with the warrior. Gabrielle liked the adventure and risk that came with traveling with Xena. Her laugh prevented Xena from dwelling on that fact.

Xena didn't dwell on it, but late at night when she couldn't sleep, she would think about it - hard. Why the soft-spoken bard put up with Xena's taciturn nature and quick-as-a-flash temper, questions the warrior would never ask and had been unable to answer.

The pair reached a clearing by a river thick with rocks and rushing white water. Gabrielle removed her scroll bag and their food supply bag from her shoulders. She dropped her staff on the ground beside them, sat down, and unlaced her boots.

"If we stay in that alcove, we should be safe enough," The warrior pointed out a spot in the river surrounded by large rocks that would be a perfect place to soak off their trail dust. She dropped Argo's reins and removed the mare's saddle and their bags and bedding. Argo lowered her head and nibbled the soft, green grasses blanketing the clearing.

Xena removed her scabbard and armor, standing in only her leathers for the moment, looking around. Gabrielle stepped out of her skirt and folded it atop her bags.

"I'll race you to that water," Gabrielle suggested. "Looks absolutely inviting!"

Xena's eyes sparkled at the challenge and said simply, "Whenever you're ready."

Nodding, Gabrielle jumped toward the water, then yelled, "Now!" A few paces from the water's edge, she looked over her shoulder and saw Xena. The clearing was empty behind her. She stopped. "Xena?"

"Over here," came the reply. Gabrielle spun to see Xena come out of an aerial somersault and land lightly ahead of the bard, about a step from the water.

"Gods!" gasped the bard, falling to the ground as she spun quickly around. "You did that without so much as a rustling sound!"

"Nothing was on the ground where I took off. Not even a dry leaf," shrugged the warrior. She stripped and slipped into the water first, while the bard remained on the shore, her face suffused with astonishment. Smiling broadly Xena announced, "I

win."

Gabrielle shook her head, pulled off her shift, and slid into the water beside her friend. Both women sank down in the warm water, moaning contentedly. Although a strong current still moved past them, the huge boulders kept the harshest white water away.

"Divine!" sighed Gabrielle, ducking her head under the water and rubbing trail dust from her face and strawberry blonde locks. When she came up for air, water cascaded over her head, making her splutter. "Hey!" She splashed back at the warrior... or at least where the warrior had been.

Xena popped to the surface behind Gabrielle and splatter her from behind. This time, as Gabrielle turned in the water, she felt the warrior's body sliding past her legs. She dropped a hand in the water and touched a bare back. "Gotcha!" the bard spluttered when Xena came to the surface, splashing her in the face once again. "Gotcha, too!"

Both women laughed and settled against the rocks, breathing deeply.

Sounds of branches breaking and a woman screaming broke their idyll. Within an instant of hearing the first piercing scream, Xena was on the bank. Another moment later, she had pulled on her shift, grabbed up her sword, and charged into the forest.

Gabrielle groaned, "Wouldn't you know it? Never an afternoon of peace." She sighed again, climbed out of the water, and headed for her clothing.