In The Darkness Where The Stars Do Not Shine And The Gold Has Shattered.
The whip comes down again this time hard enough for her scream to echo through the dimly lit chamber. I'm surprised she still standing but she is, she the only one standing and the only one whose survived the torture but that's because she's not human anyway. Oh she may look human to you and me but she's not far from it. Under that fair skin and green eyes is a huge monster that I have yet to see, a werewolf. She's smart I'll give her that she posed as a slave, she was trying to take something from my royal room a pendent and she was caught, and then it became clear that she wasn't human. Human's don't break arms or throw people against walls. It took five of my best men to hold her down and three more to chain her, I admit as I'm watching her take her flogging I'm impressed, I'm rarely impressed any more by anything. I don't know if it's her curse that keeps her alive but ether way she's so much harder to break than any normal person and that makes me lick my lips with excitement.
Power like that excites me I've spent my life in pursuit of it, I searched for the werewolves once but I found nothing. They are very clever over grown dogs who know how to hide and now here I stand with one finally in my grasp. I have conquered the known world and yet I have found nothing but relics which have no power. This will give me what I want absolute power I've seen the power of these beasts I've seen what they can do to a man they can tear him limb from limb while he's still breathes. It's a power I want for myself, I want to be that strong if I was then no one would stand up to me! Rome would fall at my feet in a heart beat. I step out of the shadows pulling up my hand causing the solider to stop the lashes. I watch as the small blonde woman falls on to her knees her teeth grinding together as she takes the pain. Her ripped ropes are covered in blood but she doesn't seem to care. The chains holding her on the floor are long enough that she can sit down, but they are very thick and heavy.
I had them made especially for her since I don't want her escape. Normally I'd have people here to watch this display but not today. I want to be the only be one to speak to the prize that will change my status in the known world. She breathes in deeply as I come to stand in front of her. "Two days is a long time to suffer monster." I fold my arms looking at her long blonde hair and bleeding back. "Wouldn't you like the pain to end by telling my men why you were here?" Gabrielle opened her eyes looking up slowly meeting the face of the Conqueror. The tall woman had long dark hair and was wearing long red robes. Her ice blue eyes looked in to her own the pleasure as clear as day in them. The bitch was enjoying this, for her it was entertainment she looked down ignoring the stinging pain. "Do as you will I don't care." Xena laughed enjoying the mocking sound. "Oh how charming, the monster can speak, you should have spoken when we captured you snooping around in my palace it might have saved you so much pain."
Gabrielle narrowed her gaze as she looked up. "My name is Gabrielle! Not monster!" Xena raised her eyebrow. "Frankly I don't care what your name is, I know what you are. Do you know how difficult it's been for me to capture one of you? It's taken me ten years to find a living breathing werewolf. The ones they normally bring in are dead and useless to me, though they do make nice rugs." She felt her cruel smile widen. "You monsters are so very good at hiding. Yet here you are, alive and well and in my grasp." She grabbed the girl by her long blonde hair pulling her up savagely so there eyes met. "I know the reason that you're still alive, they tell me that every night you heal up again as if untouched. She ran her finger over the small beautiful young woman's jaw line it was a shame that she was a monster because even she couldn't deny that her body was very easy on the eyes as was her face. "Don't think that this changes anything I can just find much harsher ways to hurt you, after all I've heard that you can't grow your limbs back."
She kept her eyes locked on the green ones which stared back their hatred as clear as day. "I'm going to leave the room and when I come back your going to tell me all I want to know, or so help the gods you will know no peace monster!" She let go stepping back slightly watching as the solider raised the whip again. Gabrielle looked up again hating the dark haired woman's beauty as she watched her disappear back in to the shadows. She closed her eyes as she braced her self. All she'd wanted was her sister's pendent back. She had nothing off her family who had all died long ago when slavers had killed them. She felt her teeth grind together as she waited for the pain.
Silvermoonlight
This was a test piece for an alternate universe Conqueror fan fiction though I never went with the idea of Xena as the evil Conqueror I later used the werewolf concept in Shattering Of The Silver Light.