Disclaimers: See Chapter 1
Additional Note (Please Read): This tale is tied in with, The Conqueror & Ri: A Twist of Destiny. A profound shout out to the bard, Silvermoonlight. Because of your feedback, you have invigorated me to strive onward and upwards. Forever thankful for your words. Now on with the story. Enjoy!
Xena & Gabrielle
A Turn of Fate
By Ahkiken
Chapter 6: Shifting Madness
The loud resonance of their cabin door getting shut with force had startled Gabrielle. "Xena, what was all that for?"
Xena eyed her sternly. "I don't want you hanging around that monk. The last thing I need is for you to conform and adopt his philosophies."
"Is that a dig of some kind, Xena?" Gabrielle asked, becoming agitated.
The dark-haired warrior sat crossed-legged on the floor again, replying, "You know how you can be. Meet a new person, discover their ways and, sooner or later, wound up becoming absorbed by whatever they avowed that intrigues you."
Cognition of Khrafstar, Najara, Aiden, and Eli, plagued Gabrielle's mind. Every one of them had entered her life at convenient times, offering some form of solace in what she was beginning to understand; a destructive world, merely to leave scars of their own on her very soul.
"Why are you speaking to me this way?" The young blonde was vexed now.
"I have a lot to sort out." Xena said, proffering a truce. "I don't want you changing on me when I'm loving the person you are."
Gabrielle smiled, her unsettling thoughts diminishing. Alas, the Amazon's fiancée missed her beaming mien, 'cause Xena's blue eyes closed so she could resume her meditation. Swiftly, she moved to the rear of Xena and started massaging her strong shoulders.
"I'm no longer that gullible, nor easily fascinated girl who needed others to guide her. I'm who I am today because of you." Working out the knots in Xena's muscles, her massage leisurely turned into a caress. "You're the one that always believed in me. Had faith in me to get things done, no matter the challenge. You've pushed me to exceed all my limitations."
Bending down, Gabrielle had begun kissing Xena's neck, while delicate fingers unbuckled the bronze armor, removing it to the side.
"Come to bed with me. I know we're not married yet, but allow me to be a wife to you." The trim Amazonian Queen whispered into the Warrior Princess' ear, extending her hand over a broad shoulder.
Xena grabbed it and the duo lifted up onto their feet. Pulling away, Gabrielle lied on the cot, ardently descrying her best friend taking off dark boots. The bard's heart had quickened at the sight of the leather-clad beauty traipsing toward her.
"I'll help you forget about the stresses of tonight." Gabrielle purred, hastily finding Xena's lips with a succulent mouth as she laid beside her.
Xena was falling into her lover's euphoria, their tongues colliding together in a thorough embrace.
Gabrielle broke the kiss, saying, "I will aid you in momentarily leaving this Japa nonsense behind."
With that admission, the taller woman halted their intimate activity, much to Gabrielle's puzzlement.
"What happened?" She questioned, looking at the dissatisfied expression on Xena's face.
"Japa isn't nonsense. None of what has taken place tonight is balderdash." Xena answered, reclining on the cot.
Gabrielle nestled against her, placing her head atop Xena's chest. "Japa's affairs disturbs you this badly?"
"Yes. All of this alarms me."
"You trust the Shogun and everything he explicated to us?"
"For now, but I fear there might be more to it." Xena admitted.
Greenish-blue irises glanced up to sapphire ones. "Should I stay vigilant and on guard?"
"A warrior should always be doing that at all times."
Gabrielle snubbed the spiteful reprimand, musing, 'So long honeymoon in Egypt. Hmm, maybe that's why Xena is irritable. She must be disappointed that we're going to Japa in lieu of where we'd planned.'
Noticing that her stomach wasn't queasy, Gabrielle knew the vessel was still stationary.
"Xena, we aren't in motion. If you want, we can jump ship."
"We remain docked, however, we aren't going to abandon this mission." Xena replied.
"You owe me big time for this." Gabrielle puffed.
"I'm sorry we have to postpone our bonding." She caressed Gabrielle's pouting expression. "I just got to know if Akemi is really there."
"And assist in stopping Yodoshi." Gabrielle added.
"Yea..." Pulling away, Xena assented in the manner of an afterthought. "That, too."
The way her soul mate responded had sent warning signals inside Gabrielle. She recalled Xena's facial features when Harukata revealed that unique blade; the same sword which was lying on the middle of the floor.
"Who's Akemi?" The bard inquired again, a bit timorously this time.
Xena decided not to be reticent, predicating truthfully, "She was a poet. Something like yourself."
That got Gabrielle's full attention. "Akemi was identical to me?"
"Not exactly alike, but similar to you. She had a way with words and a wonderful understanding of nature, being able to describe it poetically." Xena affirmed. "She quoted a handful of poems... I still can remember some of 'em."
Gabrielle became slightly jaded from hearing this new information from an upbeat Xena. "She... Akemi recited poems to you?"
"One of them is short and sweet." Xena got lost in her reminiscence. "'Yesterday the moon took lodging on my sleeve. Today I have hope for even the brokenhearted stars'... She was truly alluding to me."
If Xena was being invidious, it'd gained hold of Gabrielle, making her highly envious.
Hiding it well, she wanted Xena to divulge further. "So beautiful. To say something like that, she must have liked you very much."
The light in Xena's eyes had gotten dimmer. "The truth is, Gabrielle...she broke my heart."
Internally outraged, Gabrielle ruminated, 'Xena said after Caesar, she'd never loved another person again in that fashion, even when she falsely assumed she did. She claimed it was I who'd broken the shell enclosing her heart! So how could Akemi break a shielded one?'
The petite blonde wouldn't accept that what her soul mate evinced to her in Thebes was a lie.
She couldn't.
"When did you meet Akemi? It could not have been prior to Caesar, was it? Is she really a-"
"Gabrielle." Xena interrupted her barrage of inquiries. "Preceding our arrival to Japa, I should tell you everything that happened there last time."
'Finally, some disclosure.' Gabrielle cogitated.
The Warrior Princess expelled a breath to start her tale. "Many years ago, before me and Borias left Chin after Lao 'Ma exiled us from her kingdom, he apprised me about a girl who was kidnapped by a warlord there. She'd been taken from a mighty island that was farther east. The Land of the Rising Sun."
'Japa.' Gabrielle sardonically thought.
"We found her being held hostage by a loser named Kao. Akemi already knew who I was and she had spirit. A fire I hadn't seen in a young woman, then. She informed Borias and Kao that I wouldn't let any harm come to her. Telling us that she would become my student and I would teach her everything I know." Xena chuckled softly. "Seems a lot of adolescent girls I meet have that in common; wanting me to train them."
'I'm nothing like Akemi.' Gabrielle put a superficial grin on her face for show, not forgetting the auburn-haired teenager who pretended to be the Destroyer of Nations either. 'Nor am I identical to Tanya, for that matter.'
"Akemi prophesied I'd fall in love with her. I was drawn to her by that prediction and aspired to tame the Japian to prove she would be wrong. I offered fifty pieces of gold to buy her, nonetheless, Kao didn't care for my proposal. So, I'd done what I did best during those days." Xena insinuated.
"Kill them all." Gabrielle stated.
"Yup." Xena concurred offhandedly. "Once we departed Chin, all I wanted to do was use her to not only procure the ransom from her father, but to also get some kind of toehold in Japa, utilizing it to conquer every land between there and Britannia. Akemi was insistent I would be a great teacher, and if it wasn't for Borias' taunts, declaring, 'I couldn't teach a dog how to bark', I probably wouldn't have taught her anything. Instead, I did, and it was brutal for her."
"What did you do to Akemi?"
"I damaged her ribs."
Xena's averment shocked her lover, and she confessed, "I'm not amazed you can still astonish me by how cruel your behavior could be."
"Anyway." Xena continued, ignoring Gabrielle's mortification, "Borias broke off from us, reminding me that he was entitled to half the money. Therefore traveling with Akemi to her island for the ransom, I was to learn that my heart was seeking something else. My acquired captive had us traversing all over Japa, until we arrived at a gravesite. Notifying me that we had to receive her grandfather's blessing in order to succeed, I'd no clue what she was talking about. Whilst surmising that we were heading to her father's estate, she was playing me for a fool. I had contemplated killing her there and leaving the corpse for the vultures. But, when she spoke of a weapon far superior to mine or any other, I became enticed to have it."
"What was this weapon?"
Xena pointed, causing the Amazon's head to rise. Espying where the elongated, ring-adorned forefinger was directing, her gaze fell on the sword that rested on the floor.
"It's a Sacred katana. I had always called it the Grand katana, though. Akemi manipulated me into fighting her father's Sensei to obtain it."
Tons of questions were spouting in Gabrielle's brain, so she resolved on asking one, "If Akemi was conniving, why...how did you fall in love with her?"
"I didn't know it during the time, and I really craved having the blade. My ambition, in combination with Akemi's schemes, aligned perfectly for her plight. I was the tool she needed." Xena pronounced.
Gabrielle had various emotions for Akemi, from indifference to plain dislike.
Enmity began winning out. "She sounds like a bitch."
"Gabrielle!" Xena was disapproving her friend's uncharacteristic language towards a deceased person, let alone Akemi. "You have to discern it from her angle. I discovered from her that she wasn't kidnapped. Akemi's father sold her and she was used as a pleasure slave. Women, as you are aware, doesn't have many rights juxtaposed to men. In her country it is worse unless they are born to a caring father or married to a devoted husband who has no desire to control them. Other than that, it's a woman's duty to honor and obey."
'She could have lied to you.' Gabrielle speculated mentally. 'Besides, what women go through in Japa does not sound much different than any other place, save for the Amazons.'
Xena could tell the last part of what Gabrielle was thinking by scanning her visage. "In Japa, women are more disfavored to a male. A father could kill his daughter without any grounds for arrest in almost every area of the country. He could whore her out if inclined to, invoking shame, which is a very significant blow to females' outstanding dignity. A woman cannot gain obeisance by becoming a warrior of any kind. If she isn't placed in a prestigious position, the best she can hope for to reap some form of reputation is becoming a geisha."
"Are they prostitutes as well?" Gabrielle queried.
"No. There are different types, but mostly a geisha is simply an entertainer, and doesn't have to sleep with another person unless she chooses to, which are notably their bona fide lover. They can become very popular, amass good wealth, including reverence."
Laying back on Xena, Gabrielle always became allured by the ex-warlord's vast knowledge of the world, professing, "Finish your story anent to Akemi."
Picking up where she left off, Xena imparted, "Thereon defeating them... Or you can say, murdered the Sensei and his retainer of Samurais, I stole the Sacred katana. While we were by ourselves, Akemi recommenced reciting poems of love. I did not want to hear anymore of it, 'cause she was slowly getting to me. She requested me to demonstrate how to do the technique that I had done on Kao. I told her it was a sacred trust. She'd agreed, so..."
"What was the skill?"
"The pinch."
"You knew Akemi for a few weeks and you taught her the pinch?" Gabrielle arose once more, appalled. "Xena, in all the time I have accompanied you, you've purely instructed me on how to take it off. I can't believe this."
She distanced herself from Xena, but could only move a little, considering the small amount of space on the cot.
"Gabrielle, that was me long ago. I made a terrible mistake teaching Akemi how to initiate it." Xena proclaimed, sorrowfully shaking her head. "She used the pinch to kill her father, Yodoshi."
"Yodoshi is Akemi's father?" Gabrielle became dumbfounded.
Xena grew increasingly disconsolate. "That was her plan all along. To learn from me in hopes of enacting revenge against him."
Gabrielle made the short distance into Xena's arms. "I'm sorry Akemi misled you, Xena. Do...do you think she honestly felt anything for you?"
"I'm unsure. Notwithstanding, I was deeply in love with her." Xena confided the truth.
She been had confirmation that her future wife wasn't totally honest in Thebes, but Xena's candor didn't sit right with Gabrielle at all during this moment. The bard unwillingly came to terms that Xena already gave her love to a poet before their fateful meeting on the outskirts of Potidaea.
'Another deceitful person shattered Xena's heart.' Gabrielle really started to hate Akemi. "What happened next?"
"With Yodoshi dead, Akemi put the pressure point on herself, imploring me to restore her honor by using the Sacred katana to decapitate her. She insisted that I place her ashes in the cemetery with her siblings and mother. I was seething in anger that I wouldn't get any riches, but I couldn't bring myself to hurt her. I saw in her eyes how intent and reposed she was on having it no other way. Thus giving her last entreaty, I ended Akemi's life." Xena elucidated without losing her composure from the tragic retelling.
"You killed Akemi." Gabrielle accepted the revelation. "Did you carry out her wish?"
"I tried to. Commencing my nightly trek to get there, word had spread fast whilst I was cremating Akemi's body. The people of Higuchi knew what she had done and decreed that I shouldn't deposit the 'damned' ashes in her family's shrine."
"I don't comprehend, why would they care?" Gabrielle was perplexed.
"Yodoshi was the Shogun of the village. Although he was an atrocious family man, Akemi had dishonored herself by committing patricide. She slayed her father and their political leader. To hinder my travel, the crowd threw stones at me. One of them hit the pottery I was carrying her ashes in and shattered the jar. I was alone, broke, and in a drunken, dishevelled state. All I wanted to do was a simple selfless act, and idiots had to ruin that. In retaliation, I snatched a nearby torch that illuminated Higuchi at sundown, and with the remainder of my saki, I set the whole town village ablaze." Xena formed a gloomy smile of pride. "I left Japa, hoping never to return again."
Peeking at the sword, Gabrielle prodded, "What did you do with the Sacred katana when you had it in your possession?"
"I tossed it in the fire with Akemi. Obviously it didn't take, seeing that it's here and in perfect condition, but I swore it melted. It was gone when the pyre's flames abated." Xena disclosed.
"Why did Akemi want vengeance in the first place?"
"Yodoshi supposedly had slaughtered Akemi's entire family. Her grandparents, her mother, and siblings; a sole brother, two sisters." Xena asserted.
"Do you..." Gabrielle hesitated. "Do you still love her?"
"Don't ask me that." Xena shot the inquiry down.
"I want to know, Xena." Gabrielle stayed firm, but a response wasn't forthcoming, so she played a different tact. "Do you look forward to beholding her again?"
"Yes."
"You do love her." The bard deduced.
"Just because I want to see Akemi, doesn't mean I love her." Xena got annoyed.
"And it doesn't suggest you don't either."
"Gabrielle, I do not have the will, nor patience to deal with your jealous outbursts." Xena rejoined.
The Amazon went silent, deserving the comeuppance that was bestowed. She had no reason to feel jaundiced; Akemi was a ghost, a specter. It was no way feasible that she could steal Xena away from her. Also, the Warrior Princess gave her a promise that nobody would ever break them apart.
Nimble digits guided up Xena's torso to her raven tresses.
"Forgive me and my comportment, Xena." Gabrielle placed a gentle kiss above the cleavage that her brown battledress accentuated. "I love you so much. I can't imagine my life without you in it."
Rosy-colored lips rendered moist pecks on her lover's upper chest and the hollow spot of Xena's neck, preceding nipping at her mouth, coaxing the blue-eyed beauty to open it to taste a wet tongue. Xena remained upset, albeit relented as she grasped short, golden hair, pressing their mouths together rigidly. A profound moan escaped the confines of Gabrielle's throat while their tongues were immersed with each other.
For unacceptable reasonings, Xena couldn't stifle her rumination of Akemi. She visualized a wintry backdrop, the feeling of icy wind encompassing her skin whilst licking snowflakes off of hardened nipples. Succumbing to guilt, she tried to withdraw from the kiss, withal Gabrielle deepened it even more.
The younger female could feel Xena trying to cease her advance, though Gabrielle couldn't fathom why she was becoming seemingly diffident. Choosing to disconnect their mouths, the nubile bard crossed her arms, lifting off the halter top. Thereafter, she placed Xena's palms on both of her bare breasts.
"Make love to me." Gabrielle cooed.
That did it for Xena, and she jumped off of the cot, avowing, "I can't do this."
Becoming angry, Gabrielle inquired, "What the hell do you mean, you can't do this?"
Donning her footwear and walking to the door, Xena announced, "I need to clear my head. I'll be back."
"I'm lying here half-naked for you, begging for your touch, and you need to clear your head?" Gabrielle was seeing red. "You're doing it again, Xena! You are pushing me away!"
"I am solely going to check on Argo." Xena muttered, exiting the room.
As unambiguous as the sound of the closing door, so was Gabrielle's awareness that Xena wasn't returning tonight. Nightfall had reigned the sky for a long time, and the sun was some hours off from rising.
Getting up, she blew out the lantern, letting the darkness engulf her while cogitating, 'She's going to go brooding over this. I'm not sure if it's concerning this entire situation or a singular person. But who; the demonized father or his poetic daughter?'
Gabrielle rested on the cot again, bringing forth every detail Xena had expressed tonight by her words and actions, fearing the answer she came up with to explain the Warrior Princess' demeanor.
The cropped blonde really disliked the mist of spring, but was now positive that she'd started harboring a hatred for the Japian more.
"Akemi." She declared aloud in disgust.
{X&G}
Looking for a way to get to the stables, Xena traipsed the long interior that was the third tier of the warship in a complete circle. She wasn't quite attentive to the environment 'cause her focus was preoccupied with trying to deny the happenstances that occurred in the cabin with her fiancée.
Looping around once more, Xena spotted one of the Samurais who was with Kenji. He still wore the purple armor and mask, howbeit rather than being accoutred with all the weapons he'd equipped earlier, only a katana was sheathed on his right hip.
"Hey." Xena called out, pacing at his heels.
He whirled to face her, a gloved hand gripping the handle of his sword.
"Don't get testy." Xena held her hands out to infer she wasn't provoking any disorder. "Just wanted to ask you how do I get to the bottom tier? I want to inspect my horse, Argo."
Not uttering a sound, the Samurai walked passed her. At first, Xena derived he was silently rebuffing her, then made the decision to follow him. Coming to a cessation, the armored warrior knelt to release a latch to an inconspicuous section in the floorboards.
'That's why I missed it.' Xena fumed internally at herself.
The Samurai stood, gesturing with his index finger where she would find the stables.
"Thank you."
He nodded and trudged away as Xena climbed down the ladder below. Finishing her descent, she observed two walkways on both sides of her. Smelling the unmistakable scent of horses, she trailed the left path.
While touring the stables, the dark-haired woman descried Kenji's and the Samurais' steeds. Minus the monk's horse, the armor they once were wearing was disassembled, and she already knew how the Samurais denoted which one belonged to their rightful owner. Xena had a meritorious understanding apropos to the bonds between an animal and its human companion, utterly like her exceptional memory referring to people. Especially horses, whilst she viewed the dark-brown steed that Tanya rode off on.
'Great.' Xena snorted in disbelief. 'She's on board, too?'
Argo's whinny from the neighboring stall had ceased Xena's grousing cogitation.
"Hi, girl. Did you miss me?" Xena quizzed, noting the fresh hay and water bucket. "Ah, I see they have taken very good care of your needs."
She reached into the saddlebags that were prone in the corner of the compartment to take out an apple.
"But I bet they haven't fed you any of these."
Argo II let loose a joyous neigh when Xena fed the fruit to her.
"What am I doing, Argo?" She complained after several moments. "Gabrielle is everything to me. It's just... I miss Akemi, and I can't evince my feelings for another to my soul mate. She cannot conceive how imperative Akemi's wellbeing is to me, not excluding the importance of this objective to Japa. She'll get jealous and angry... I don't want that."
Once the apple was consumed, Xena stroked the mane of her mare.
"Am I selfish? I did run out of our cabin when we were on the verge of making love. How can I tell her that everything she was doing and the sensual affirmations prompted me to remember Akemi? Gabrielle will kick my ass for sure."
Xena's fingers aimlessly went through Argo's hair as the retentive flashback of a winter background resurged.
["In a flurry of snow, two breaths of the wind unite, and become as one, then disappear into each other."
Her poems of love again. Enough is enough.
"Listen, Akemi, I don't want you to take this the wrong way. I really love this sword, and you're a nice kid, but I just came for the ransom."
"I don't believe that." She disputes.
Like I care what she believes. If she doesn't stop this foolish talk referring to eternal bullshit, I might strangle her.
"What do you hear?" Akemi inquires.
Here we go with this again. Fine, I'll indulge her silly game. I close my eyes, listening intently.
"Snow falling on cedar." I say mockingly, 'til I hear something else. "No. Your heart, beating harder than normal."
Akemi strolls to me, taking my free hand that isn't holding the katana into hers. What is she doing? Why am I allowing her to affect me like this?
"You're a master of war, yet you know no words to speak of love. And then you go and save my life. There's no greater gift of love a teacher can give a student than that." She avers.
I see it in her pretty, hazel irises that she's sincere. Oh, how I want to drown in her. I perceived that Lao 'Ma was the sole woman I had a sexual urge for, although she never took me up on the stimulating offer, and after what I'd done to the father of her child, I'm assured it won't ever happen. Nevertheless, I know Akemi will let me while I catch a gleam in her dark eyes.
"I have another gift I must ask of you." She nearly makes me scoff.
Always something... People always want something.
"I saw what you did to kill that coward Kao."
The pinch? She wants to learn the pinch.
"It's a sacred trust." I respond.
Akemi smiles. "I would be honored beyond words if you teach me that."
"All right." I concur, also smiling.
Jabbing four digits into Akemi's neck, I watch her fall onto youthful knees, desperate to breathe.
"You have thirty seconds to live." I taunt, leaning above her. "Is this the skill you wanted to experience?"
Blood flows from her nostril and she gasp for air, croaking, "Yes."
I glare at Akemi, a part of me wanting to espy the life leave her, whilst the other half yearned to feel that exotic body.
Dropping down, too, I undo the violent pressure point. Her mouth makes a sibilant sound, wheezing for oxygen. I wipe the trickle of blood off of her upper lip and nose.
"Show me, Sensei." Akemi rasps.
"Do you desire me to be your master?" I coo, running my hand in her ebony hair that's shaded much like my own.
Gripping it tightly, she winces, but manages to convey, "You already are."
I refuse to contain myself any longer. I kiss Akemi's luscious lips, forcing my tongue into the cavern of her mouth, exploring it, desiring to take and taste every ounce of her. Her silent moans drives me on as I hold sable strands in a vise-grip, plunging my slick tongue deeper down the Japian's throat unlike a savage.
Suddenly, I debar myself with that realization. I don't want to possess her identically to how she expounded Kao had done. Not like this, and not to her.
"Not like this." I repeat aloud, drawing away.
Her hands touch my cheeks delicately, impelling my pupils to look onto hers.
"Let me tutor you." Akemi predicates to me, gently kissing my lips. "I'll help you forget about the stresses of life. I will cure and succor you into leaving your shifting madness behind."
Hearing that false assertion, I conclude our kisses. I am not some sort of affliction that can be cured. Mine is power, and one day, every living soul will know my name to represent fear in all locations of Gaia.
Gazing at Akemi, she must distinguish that something is wrong now; a miscalculation on her part. Ha, perchance she can hear it in my heartbeat because I'm ready to lay into her, and not with my fingers, but with the new Grand katana...
My katana, where is it?
I glance to the right of me, looking at its blade sticking into the snow-covered grass. Damn it, I'd dropped it carelessly when I put the pinch on Akemi. Turning back to my intended victim, she's divesting the furs that protects her from the cold. Untying the sash to the white kimono that's wrapped around her waist, she exposes erect black crests on ample breasts to me.
"Make love to me..." She gathers both of my hands this time, setting them on her bust. "I'll teach you, Sensei."
It is over.
She has won.
At this moment, I willfully fall into Akemi, and secretly understand, I wouldn't deny her anything.]
Xena's arousal stirred at the recollection of that salacious night with the temptress who instilled in her the art of sapphic passion. Her hand was frozen on Argo's cream-colored mane for numerous minutes, prior to restarting the rubbing ministrations again.
Emitting a dreamy sigh, Xena had spoken the appellation of the person she would forever love, "Akemi."
To Be Continued...