Into The Dark

Amphipolis, Greece, three months after S6E22

Gabrielle held the pot between her fingers. She stared down at the tomb, her hand grazing the stone. She hated that she couldn't carry around her ashes for the rest of her life, but Xena had a request and she was going to fulfill it. She wondered who would be around to make sure they were laid to rest together. She shook her head, she didn't wish to think of such things now. She placed the pot on top of the stone and sighed. "Old friend," she said affectionately, "even though I have to leave your ashes here, I know you'll never leave me." She kissed the tips of her fingers and pressed them to the lid of the wooden pot. "I love you, Xena-"

"I love you too Gabrielle," came a whisper.

Gabrielle twisted at Xena's voice and shuddered. Her hand flying to her chest, "Xena? You scared me. Is that really you?"

It'd been a few months since Xena had appeared to Gabrielle, and the bard was beginning to think she was imagining her everywhere she looked. She'd walked across Asia Minor and Greece seeing the warrior in the corner of her eye. She felt Xena's breath in the wind and her guiding hands when she raised her sais. Now the air had thinned, and the temperature rose slightly. It was impossible. But Amphipolis was deserted, abandoned to divine forces. There were no people here anymore, just bones. "Xena?" Gabrielle repeated and turned her head back to the tomb. Xena was standing before her, wispy around the edges like she was made of smoke. Gabrielle didn't want her to blow away.

As she walked closer and reached out for her, the apparition disappeared. Gabrielle searched the tomb and then walked outside. It was a dark and clear night, the stars were overheard, and boy was where she'd left him. She took the horse's reins and circled the town that was once so bustling and full of life. She wondered what'd happened here, what Cyrene had seen, what the ruins of the tavern had seen. She knew Eve once saw it but she herself feared for the tortured spirits left in this place. It'd been a few years since they'd last been here, together, now the place was simply falling apart.

Gabrielle walked up to the entrance to Cyrene's tavern and left boy waiting. She climbed each stair carefully, her fingers trailing along the walls. Everywhere she went now was painted with memories, it was like they were tapestries covering the walls. The nights they'd spent here. She reached the room at the top of the stairs, the room they'd shared so many times over. The door creaked the same, and the bed still had notches in the posts from Xena's armour knocking against it. She sat down. The wood heaved under her weight, and she laid back spreading across the bed. She asked herself not to cry. But fleeting images of hiding under blankets and pushing the two bedframes together and laughing and kissing and the birds' chorus in the mornings. Of Eve crying, of Cyrene asking questions about them in the morning after they staggered down the stairs, hair ruffled.

As she turned onto her side and her hands found their way across the bed, she felt breath on her face. Her head craned forward instinctively and met a line of hair and solid bone. As their foreheads bumped, Xena tumbled over her and held herself up on her forearms. Gabrielle's eyes stayed tight shut. She could feel every hand placement on her skin, could remember the way Xena would whisper to her. "Look at me..." and she would, she'd be enthralled, captured by her eyes that she couldn't look at anything else. She could feel every inch of Xena's shift under her fingers, every inch of the ribbons that kept it tied. The smell Xena had of wood smoke and horses. Her skin tasted like apples. That was probably why Argo was so attached to her.

Gabrielle crumpled into a crescent shape, her knees to her chest, her eyes still tight shut. It was days like this, when the world was empty of life and there were no battles to win, that she fell to pieces. "Why can't I see you?!" She yelled out, finally wrenching herself upright.

When she opened her eyes, Xena was standing in front of her. "You don't need me anymore."

"I will always need you!" Gabrielle yelled back, forcing the tears away from her eyes with the back of her hand. She blinked and Xena was gone.

She left the room, closing the door on the memories. She couldn't look at the empty room and feel the bed creak the way it used to. She backed into a wall, sliding onto the floor, her head fell into her hands. "I can't, I can't..." she mumbled under her breath.

"You are my light," said Xena. Her body appearing at Gabrielle's shoulder and pulling her in. She held her tightly, kissing the top of her head. "You are stronger than you know, Gabrielle. Without you-"

"Without me, you'd still be here." Gabrielle replied softly, sitting up a little and looking into the swell of Xena's face.

Xena stroked her cheek, "without you, I would be nothing." Gabrielle's lip quivered, and she faltered. She held Xena's gaze until her eyes began to water, not wanting to blink in fear that she would vanish into the wind. "I have to go," she whispered, "I'm needed." Gabrielle sniffed, and wiped her face. She leant on Xena's shoulder and let all her muscles relax.

"Xena," she said, but she was gone. Her hand rested on the Chakram. She would always carry a piece of Xena wherever she went.

"You'll see me again." The wind seemed to say, writhing and flying through the air. The spirits of the haunted tavern muttering under their breath.