Disclaimers: See Chapter 1
Additional Note (Please Read): This tale is a companion with, The Conqueror & Ri: A Twist of Destiny. If you haven't read both stories' chapters preceding this one, you should do so now. A special thanks to Beta, Jinxie 2013, who'd strengthened my writing and grammar. Also, a shout out to Xenelle, and my faithful readers. Please enjoy! ;-)
Xena & Gabrielle
A Turn of Fate
By Ahkiken
Chapter 41: Disarrayed Affiliation
Taking a respite from their sparring, the two associates, who were blossoming into friends, found a secluded area in the crowded armory for a resumption of the intriguing theme that referred to an evil spirit.
"So, Yodoshi is a daemon...who's depredating Japa. That is why y'all require Xena and Gabrielle's aid?" Tanya inquired, attempting to wholly comprehend what was divulged to her.
"Yes." Suzu said, gauging the teenager's comportment to determine if she was dubious. "He's an eater of souls, and is intent on desecrating the sun goddess' temples for his own ambitious devices."
"By the gods..." A rapturous grin emerged on her lips. "I'm going to participate in one of the Warrior Princess' infamous adventures. How exciting!"
"I don't perceive anybody aboard would share your viewpoint." Suzu had a medley of emotions, becoming riveted and disquieted by her thrilled reaction. "This quest is dangerous, Tanya-Kun."
"All of Xena's missions can be chancy, but she manages to always pull through." Tanya clarified, having extensive understanding from hearsay surrounding the former Destroyer of Nations' exploits. "With my heroine by our side, we will kick that demon's ass, and he'll wish he'd stayed dead."
Recognizing Tanya's mispronunciation, Suzu emended, "He is a daemon, not a demon."
She espied him lackadaisically, asking, "What's the difference?"
Before he could explain the polarity, they noticed a Samurai walking in their direction.
"Suzu, it's strange seeing you without your shadow." Denzo implied, standing next to them. "Where is Hiro, resting on his laurels?"
'That's precisely what he's doing.' His best friend ruminated, howbeit wouldn't assent to it. "Our inner duels are completed, hence Hiro's free to do whatever he wants till we engage the winners from the other squads."
"And you rather squander time training alongside this female, instead of your clansmen?"
"Hey!" Remembering Denzo's contemptible attitude prior to the inception of their squad's contest, his comment was an affront to Tanya. "I told you my appellation once. Either memorize it or refrain from alluding to me altogether, jerk."
Incensed from the disrespectful name-calling, the Japian predicated, "Let your victory over Ekko cloud you into assuming you're a contender...Tanya. He had trivialized you in y'alls face-off, I will not."
Gripping her naginata tightly, the auburn-haired teen raved, "Is that a challenge?"
The agitator settled a hand on his katana's hilt, rejoining, "Make your move, girl."
Providentially, the cacophony of diverse clatters that was produced by numerous trainees, whom were homing their skills, precluded them from having an uncomplicated aural faculty to discover Tanya and Denzo's heated encounter.
Knowing his compatriot had insulted the nineteen-year-old first and deserved her rude retaliation, Suzu chose to defuse the situation in Tanya's favor. "Perhaps you should leave us alone, Denzo."
Shocked that Suzu was ultimately supporting Tanya in the argument, his head shook in begrudged acceptance. "Should've surmised you'd defend her. You and Hiro succored another foreigner against Neji in this very place, too."
"You do not have a clue what you're prattling on about." Suzu became angry and dismayed that Denzo would bring up their fallen comrade in such a fashion. "He had gone astray, betraying our code of-"
"You're really going to denote him as a betrayer whilst justifying your actions?" Denzo laughed in derision, stating seriously, "Finish footling around, but never turn on your own."
Feeling like he'd won the verbal confrontation and certain he would've defeated the Greek in their puerile bout, Denzo scoffed at both of them, thus traipsing away. Glaring at Denzo's retreating form, Tanya hindered herself from using the metallic pole to hit him on the back of his neck, and got curious to investigate what he meant in regards to Neji. Nonetheless, descrying Suzu's dismal mien, she'd changed her mind, deciding not to pry.
"Don't allow that dunce to bother you, Suzu." Tanya tried mitigating his glum demeanor. "Let's continue our spar, and-"
"I'm finished, Tanya-Kun." He'd cut her off gingerly. "I need to meditate."
"Oh...um, alright." She obstinately concurred, watching Suzu drop his naginata and depart the armory.
{X&G}
Unarmed and hopeful for a peaceful result, Harukata strolled the tier's corridors that led to Gabrielle's quondam cabin, albeit every step felt leaden; mentally weighed down by his previous infelicity. Not cognizant of how their discussion would proceed, he had procrastinated long enough, and finally summoned his inner hardihood to discourse with Xena, no matter the outcome. Traversing onwards, he unwittingly neglected reciprocating greetings to his Samurai who'd addressed him, because the Shogun's cerebration concentered on a singular objective.
Arriving in front of the closed lodging that Xena occupied, he steadied his perturbation and stably knocked on the door. Letting moments pass, Harukata began rapping on the barred frame once more when he didn't receive an answer. Still there was no response, and his trepidation veered into slight frustration.
Eventually, the Shogun banged on the sealed ingress, declaring, "Xena, I know you're in there."
The room's entryway instantly opened, and a hand grabbed his red kimono, yanking him inside. Afterwards, he'd gotten shoved onto the wall that was adjacent to the closing doorway as a sword's tip aimed precariously at his throat.
"How does it feel to have an unsuspecting blade directed at you?" Xena lampooned. "Ought to throw your cogitation in shambles, wouldn't you say?"
The Shogun shunned Xena's mockery, avowing, "I have to speak with you."
"You shouldn't have come here at all." She responded, raising the Japian sword to force Harukata's skull upwards to prevent it from piercing his jugular. "I've seen what a katana can do to a person, specifically this one. It'll bisect your anatomy without me even trying."
"Make me its second victim, and you'll never see Gabrielle-San again." Harukata affirmed.
"Are you spewing threats?" The Warrior Princess tsked her condemnation. "I'd assumed you had learned better than to subject yourself to erroneous pursuits. Have this morning taught you nothing?"
"Yes, it has given me insight..." He admitted, thereon quizzing, "What of you, Xena? Hasn't this voyage enlightened you also?"
"Journeying to your land has simply impelled misery on me." Her blue orbs flared ominously, pressing the Sacred katana's sharp edge on his skin. "I've lost everything."
"I... I'm sorry for attacking you on the upper deck, and for your fiancée's plight." Harukata muttered, embrangling Xena. "Withal you're wrong in thinking that I don't wanna help you ascertain a solution to switch Ri-Kun and Gabrielle-San back to their rightful worlds."
"It doesn't matter what I think or not." She huffed, removing the blade from him and discarding it on the floorboards.
The Governor of Shinto descried Xena while she'd strolled to the cot, inwardly satisfied that she decided not to perforate his windpipe. Bravely wending to stand beside her, he eyed the few weapons that was methodically exhibited on the bedding. Identifying the bard's twin sais and the katana he'd conferred to her, Harukata fondly reminisced apropos to the cropped blonde's impressive drilling under his tuition.
'She would've made an admirable Samurai.' The Shogun internally proclaimed, growing exceedingly remorseful over Gabrielle's disappearance.
"The chakram is missing from Gabrielle's arsenal." Xena announced, terminating his nostalgia.
"I've been informed." Harukata evinced. "Kenji notified me that you've accused Ri-Kun of stealing it. On the contrary, you and I know she didn't seize it."
His remark riled Xena. "Why do you keep supporting her? Just because Ri shares my lover's appearance, does not automatically sanction that she embodies her innate goodness."
"Your statement doesn't substantiate that she's immoral, either." He parried, exhorting her to dwell on the riposte.
She'd mustered the decency to feel guilty for groundlessly criticizing Ri. The strawberry-blonde was authentically terrified during the moments she had sustained harassment, although that wasn't astonishing in itself because the tall woman could inflict fear on a sundry of mortals and gods alike. Whereas when Xena furiously choked the erstwhile Handmaiden, she saw a familiar fire suffuse aqua irises in the course of her capitulation to Xena's rage, rivaling Gabrielle's rare choleric carriage.
['Do...do it then.']
'Ri had become profoundly apoplectic, and was willing to let me kill her.' Xena inferred, conceding, 'Perchance she and Gabrielle have ingrained similarities after all.'
Choosing to disrupt the silence, the Shogun pronounced his appreciation, "On an unrelated topic, thank you for not seriously hurting my men whilst battling them."
"That's the final time they will reap any form of combat experience from me. I am through preparing them for war, Harukata." Xena purported. "So if you came for that invocation, it isn't happening...and on the off-chance you've come to apprehend me, you should've brought your elites, 'cause I'm not going without a fight."
"I've no inclination on having you arrested."
"Well, you've already submitted an apology and gratitude... Guess you can dash off now." She expressed.
"Xena." Harukata faced her, professing, "We need your assistance. You must-"
Emitting a deriding sneer, she effectively discontinued the Shogun's avowal with a dismissive gesture, and crisply trudged from him. Xena's stretched arms braced her slanted figure atop the table, which the Amazon's scarlet raiments and assorted, silver adornments lied on. She kept her back to Harukata, averting the darkness that was caged within from springing loose.
The ex-warlord's exasperation at the havoc of losing Gabrielle, invoked her to scarcely be able to contain the murderous zeal that numberless victims had tragically witnessed. Reining in her odium, she defied the beast's pernicious roar, once more abating its reckless impulse to maltreat an individual.
"I'm not constrained to do anything, except for a single design that Akemi inadvertently plotted out for me, and your third-in-command had emphatically imparted." Xena's unseen visage broadcasted a lugubrious look as she publicized, "But I have no intention dissipating my life on Japa, Yodoshi, nor his daughter."
Harukata was utterly dispirited to hear the raven-haired warrior's apparent resoluteness to deny saving Amaterasu's sanctuaries from further destruction; predominantly dooming Japa's citizens. "I beg you to reconsider for the sake of-"
"Finding my betrothed is the only responsibility I'm obligated to undertake." Xena interrupted him, expounding, "I won't coerce you into altering your ship's watery route to Scione. I'll endure this aquatic expedition to Higuchi, and upon the debarkation, I will procure my own return to Greece."
"How can you consign..." The Shogun deterred his censure of Xena's decision, and queried, "Will you take Ri-Kun along with you?"
"The Omphalos shard is rooted in Ri's necklace, and that's the key to unraveling this teleporting dilemma." Xena recalled the storyteller's shimmering jewelry. "If it cannot be removed, then, yes, we'll have to travel together."
Adhering to Xena's judgment, he sought a compromise. "I will honor your choice. Nevertheless, throughout the remainder of our trek, at least complete the Samurai's competitions and train them. Thereupon, they'll have raised chances to trounce many of Yodoshi's undead forces."
"Locate the chakram first, and maybe I'll contemplate doing that." Xena cynically murmured.
Harukata indulged her by prodding, "Have you searched this entire cabin?"
"It's not here."
"Precisely." The Shogun intoned, bemusing Xena. "I wouldn't be surprised that whatever clothes Gabrielle wore had gotten transported with her, too."
Xena's jaw twitched from vexation. "Your point, Harukata?"
"Use your senses, Xena. Ri-kun didn't arrive here naked, did she?"
Her utterance was a serrated whisper, "No."
"Is a single article of Gabrielle-San's attire gone also? 'Cause I'm deducing an habiliment of hers has been spirited away, and your razor disc must've followed." He elucidated.
One of the Warrior Princess' extremities balled into a fist. "As long as the yin-yang chakram remains misplaced, I deem not to instruct your Samurai. That's the deal."
"The weapon is nowhere to be detected on my ship." Harukata's patience had begun slipping. "It has vanished. Take solace that it is in Gabrielle-San's care on Ri-Kun's world."
"Our agreement is struck. It's best you go." Xena ordained, gritting her teeth.
Becoming greatly annoyed, the Shogun articulated, "Maintain your deluded thesis. Notwithstanding, preceding my exit, what if Ri-Kun decline joining you on the returning trip to your homeland?"
Xena swiftly replied, "She has no option. Ri will accompany me whether she wants to or don't."
"If she opts not to join you, we'll abide by that selection. I'm not allowing you to harm her again, Xena." Harukata mildly forfended. "Your multiple transgressions and penchant to enforce selfish megrims is the basis for us failing to be hearty allies."
"Don't try intimidating me!" She instinctively used the clenched hand to pound the table's surface, thereby cracking its wood and angling her bent torso to espy him. "Our disarrayed affiliation was generated from Gabrielle's vanishment and Ri's materialization, nothing else. Do not get it twisted relevant to this antecedent arrangement. I was solely supposed to die for the principal of aiding you in killing Yodoshi, subsequently breaking the heart of my Amazon Queen, though that was my doing."
Harukata stood quietly while listening to Xena blow off steam.
"Furthermore, I'd nominated myself to upskill your eight hundred men. I aspired to continue doing that amidst your postponement for Neji's cachet hara-kiri, following his botched endeavor to murder my soul mate. And it wasn't a Japian water god that protected her from his tanto, neither was it Koska, who'd paid no heed of my warning to watch Neji. The dragon tattoo was bestowed on her by Grecian goddesses whom did the bidding of a mystical being. Adding to unfortunate events, somebody apprised Gabrielle anent to my impending death in Japa."
"I swear to you, I've necessitated a pledge from my whole-"
"Shut up, Harukata!" Xena interjected, loudly. "All of that betided, and I haven't resorted to decimating everyone on this vessel like I'd threatened to do. You've claimed that you had obtained an oath from your warriors, but that means little compared to mine."
Her abstruse animadversion engendered the Shogun to prompt, "What are you insinuating?"
"Prior to Gabrielle's decession, she secured an adjuration composed of me not dying if the damned shards activated and transferred her. Do you understand? I can't die for your cause anyway." Xena voiced, tilting her frame to overlook the table once more, ergo concluding their interchange of dialogue.
"So be it, Xena... However, will you reflect on recommencing the Samurai's contests?" He urged, yet she refused to reply.
Weary of talking to Xena's rear, Harukata sighed softly and laggardly left the room.
To Be Continued...