I'm sitting here at work when an idea pops into my head and I know that I need to write it out if I want to get it out, thus, here is story. I need this out of my head because I have several other things I'm working on at the same time.

This is a different take on the Xena mythos set up and expressly owned by Renaissance Pictures / Universal Studios / MCA, etc. I've changed some of the existing plotlines to suit my own ends. Go fig. Part is alt, part is Uber.

I don't know Xena and Gabrielle's ages throughout the run of the show. I figure that Gabrielle was sixteen and Xena was twenty-eight when they met. *shrugs*

Sex warning: Yes there is some and between souls who happen to both inhabit female bodies. If it shocks you, then Pat Boone singing heavy metal must give you a heart attack. Please do not continue to read if you are offended or just can't handle love in any form. Go out and discover life.

This is more sexually graphic than I've written in the past...at least in my opinion. I don't normally write like this, but, this time it's important to the story.

Violence warning: Oh yesh, there is some of that, too.

Rape: Yes, there is a rape in the first chapter.

That concludes this test of the Emergency GaBroadcasting Xe-stem.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"A Million Deaths" by Magenta (the_auryn@angelfire.com) "She'll taste of Life
She'll taste of Love
She'll taste of Death
And be reborn
To walk forever
In search of her Soul
So say Fate."
- chanted by the Fates upon the creation
of Xena's life thread

Prologue: She sits there, staring out the window of her penthouse suite at the sparkling nighttime City skyline, pondering how her twisted existence began. Everything is like yesterday to her when, in fact, it was eons ago. The look of Her. The smell of Her. The taste of Her. She was the other half of this dark woman's soul and when She died, She took it with Her as She crossed over.

The dark woman's been doomed to walk the earth in search of Her since, knowing She's out there, within grasp. The dark woman knows Her better than anyone else could. She feels Her nearby. She hears Her heart beating, a siren's call. The dark woman wonders, *Can She feel Me?*

Her name is Xena and this is her story...

Chapter One:
Taste of Life

She sat tall on her golden warhorse, exuding a pride she didn't feel. She scanned the rubble of yet another wasted village as the survivours wailed their mourning.

Why did she go on when every action she performed made her heart feel heavier? She longed to stop, but her rage drove her on. She wanted her family to be safe and happy and if that meant destroying all who threaten their safety, then so much the better.

Xena closed her eyes as she felt the presence of her slave, Alia, approach her from behind. The petite, unimposing slavegirl was the only person allowed the lord of this vast army when she was surveying her latest victory.

"My lord Xena," she said, curtsying even though her master couldn't see her. "Your evening meal has been prepared."

Without turning, Xena replied, "You don't need to be formal when we're alone, Alia."

The so-called slave stepped towards Xena and placed a warm, comforting hand upon the exposed skin of the warlord's thigh and looked up at her master. Xena returned the gaze, letting her sadness show only for a moment as an errant tear was pulled by gravity from where it was swimming. Nonchalantly, the warlord wiped away the tear as her slave gave her thigh a reassuring squeeze. Xena covered Alia's hand with her own and turned back to her vigil of the decimated village in the waning twilight.

"Do you know what I wish, Alia?" the warlord asked rhetorically as she continued, "I wish I didn't feel like I have to keep doing this anymore."

"If you want to stop, you can, you will, stop. Greece will not stop existing so you can stop being a warlord. That is a decision you alone must make and must commit yourself to. No one can tell you to stop except yourself."

"Why do you think I do it?"

"Protection. You've lost so much to warlords that the only way you think you can protect those you love is by total domination."

Xena didn't respond. She didn't need to. They both knew that the slave was right. They continued to look at the smoldering remnants of the village for another few minutes before Xena tugged Alia onto the saddle behind her and they rode back to the camp.

As they got to the outside ring of tents, Xena let Alia off and told her to bring both of their meals to her tent. She then handed Argo's reins to the horsemaster and went to await her dinner.

"Let no one except Alia or Tavaris in," she ordered her guards.

"Yes, Lord Xena."

The warrior inwardly winced at the title her men recently bestowed on her and went inside.

*Lord.* The word reverberated in her head. *Alia's right. To protect those I love from war, I've become War. And the cost? It's my soul. A fair trade it seems... My soul does me no good as I decimate village after village.*

At that moment, Alia stepped through the entrance to the tent, her arms laden with their dinner. Xena moves to clean off the table and help Alia set out their dishes.

"You shouldn't do that, my Lord," she whispered. "What if one of your men comes in and sees you?"

"I left instructions at the door that only you and Tavaris were to enter." Xena took the rest of Alia's burden, placed them properly on the table, then wrapped the woman in her embrace for the comfort of her warmth.

*Nothing had better happen to you, Alia. You're the last vestige of my sanity. When I am certain that none will rise up to try and harm anyone I love, I will settle down and you will be my Queen,* thought Xena as she pulled away and looked into her erstwhile slave's eyes. She found the reassurance she needed, but not the love she desired.

*Not yet, anyway...*

She let Alia go and took the seat directly opposite her to begin dining. *I will earn her love,* she continued in her thoughts, *I'm worthy, but she needs to see a great deed before she can understand how truly worthy I am of her.* The meal proceeded quietly, the only sound being their utensils against their plates.

Then it was time for dessert.

Alia stood and grabbed a plate of various sweetcakes then crooked her finger, beckoning Xena to follow her as she crawled up onto the warlord's pallet. Xena stood and the slave directed her to sit on the edge of the pallet, away from her. Smirking, she did as told. Alia put the plate onto her lap and pressed herself against Xena's back. She bent down and broke a baklava in half and placed it into the warlord's mouth as she gently bit Xena's earlobe and slowly removed the warrior's armour.

The dark woman almost whimpered when she felt Alia's warmth back away from her and crawl off the bed, but did not turn to see where she had gone. She just chewed and swallowed the baklava, hoping for more to come. Behind her, Xena recognized the sound of wine being poured into one of the goblets and Alia's soft footfalls coming towards her.

The slave placed the goblet onto the floor, then knelt beside it, reaching for the buckles to Xena's knee and shin guards. She reverently kissed the insides of Xena's thighs as the armour was removed, the took the plate of sweets from the warlord's lap and placed them on the other side of the goblet.

With her head down, Alia looked up into Xena's eyes, silently asking her to move her legs further apart. The warlord complied and was rewarded when the slave picked up the other half of the baklava and pressed herself against Xena and raised the sweetcake to her lips. Xena bent forward to kiss her beloved slave, but Alia moved to avoid the kiss, momentarily, as she placed the baklava halfway into her mouth.

The warlord smiled, then, as Alia leaned forward and allowed Xena to bite the cake in half. The dark woman licked the crumbs from the slave's lips and leaned back to look into Alia's eyes.

Xena saw the desire, but still no love. *It doesn't matter. She wants me. Love will come later...so to speak.*

The warlord swallowed as Alia resumed her leisurely kisses to the insides of Xena's thighs. "Scoot forward, my Lord," she requested.

"Alia..."

"In this, you are 'my Lord'," admonished the slave as she repeated, "Scoot forward, my Lord."

Xena did as the younger woman requested and scooted towards the edge of the pallet, spreading her legs further to accommodate Alia. The slave continued to trail moist kisses towards the apex of her master's thighs, Xena's head lolling back as she awaited the pleasures of Alia's tongue.

The warlord was not known for her patience, but the act of love demanded time to learn and explore. When it was purely for release, it was quick and violent, but when she shared herself with another human being, it was slow, time-consuming, and very, very rare.

Rare, that is, until Alia became her slave-lover.

Xena almost lost consciousness as the younger woman's velvety tongue made contact with her centre, making them both shudder.

"Alia, please..."

The slave shook her head, knowing what Xena wanted having refused to do so before, and continued pleasuring the warlord. She didn't care that Xena, the Lioness of Amphipolis, one of the most feared warlords in the history of Greece, had said "please."

"Now!" Xena growled.

Alia pulled back, drawing a confused whimper from her master. "Being inside you is not my destiny, Xena."

"You're already inside me, Alia...why does THIS matter?" The warlord couldn't understand why the one person she loved and trusted above all others, even her own army, wouldn't make that final step.

"It does matter, Xena. That is a step I cannot take...it's not my destiny. I don't belong there."

"I say you do."

Alia, summoning all the courage, compassion, desire, and sternness she could muster and letting it all show in her eyes and voice, replied, "I say I don't. Please don't make me do it." A sadness unknown to Xena flitted across the woman's soft features. If the warlord had a heart to break, it would have shattered into a million pieces at the emotions she saw.

"I'm sorry, Alia," apologized Xena softly. The slave reached up and gently caressed Xena's cheek, then, as suddenly as she had stopped, Alia resumed pleasuring the warlord. Her tongue laved gentle attention onto the sensitive bundle of nerves that were, at the moment, the centre of Xena's world.

Within moments, the warlord exploded from the inside out, innumerable lights and colours flashing behind her eyes. She wanted nothing more than to scream her release, but was carefully aware of her soldiers outside. Reluctantly, she pried Alia away from between her legs and put her onto her back on the pallet and quickly stripped both herself and her slave of their clothes. The warlord gently lay herself between Alia's legs, the slave's scarred, yet soft skin reigniting her fire, and curled her limbs against her hips. She gently rocked against Alia's warm, slick centre, focusing her attention on the slave's breasts, feeding from them like she'd never again have such sustenance.

As non-vocal as Xena was about their lovemaking, she allowed Alia to give voice to her passions. The warlord needed to know that what she was doing was being liked by her lover. Xena never cared about how loud she got...and figured that Alia had never been louder than she was that night. The moans and screams for her slave drove the warlord on, rocking harder against her slave, but keeping the pace slow and torturous.

Feeling that Alia's release was imminent, Xena asked her slave to open her eyes. "I need to see the power." Alia complied with pleasure, opening her passion-darkened eyes to look deeply into Xena's cerulean pools. When their eyes connected, Alia released. Xena quickly moved down her body, keeping her eyes in contact with her slave's, and lapped up the evidence of their passion, drawing further spasms of pleasure from Alia's body.

Finally, the slave settles and gently tugged Xena away from her centre. The warlord crawled up the bed and covered their sweaty, spent bodies with a sheet. She lay next to Alia, a leg draped over her hips and resting a hand atop a firm breast. Aroused for their lovemaking, Xena resisted the urge to sate her hunger, thinking Alia exhausted.

The slave could feel Xena's wetness against her thigh and smiled at her restraint. If it had been anyone else in that bed, Xena would have taken them many times already, but Alia knew the power she had over her master. She would never abuse that power, however. She had lost too much in her short life for her to lose the last thing she valued the most: herself.

Alia turned over and faced her master, sliding her thigh firmly against Xena's slick heat, and trapped her with a kiss. Xena didn't let her surprise show as she returned the kiss, deepening it, and slid her hand between Alia's legs, matching the thrusts of the thigh that moved against her. The slave broke their kiss to give voice to her release with her master opting to muffle her own moans against the soft skin of Alia's throat and neck, biting and sucking, marking her as her own. Finally, they settled and fell into a deep, satisfied sleep, content in the knowledge that each was safe in the other's arms.

Outside, the soldiers snickered and groaned, wishing they were the recipient of their Lord's attentions, wishing that the feeling of oneness they experienced with her on the battlefield would extend to the pallet. Soldiers often took other soldiers to bed imagining that it was Xena they were sucking and fucking, careful to not shout her name in release.

Unaware of the eyes observing the camp, the men relaxed...more than they should have.

*****

Horse's hooves and angry faces. Men creeping silently out of the woods towards Xena's camp. No guards in sight.

Xena awoke with a start, but was careful to not awaken her exhausted Alia. It was a rare occasion when she had dreams like that, that vivid and real, but when she did, she knew trouble was right around the corner.

Silently, she slid out of bed and got dressed, grabbing her sword and chakram as she slipped out of the back of her tent, only to run into three of her camp's attackers. Around her, the sounds of fierce battle erupted.

"Yiyiyiyiyiyiy!" screamed Xena as she launched herself at the attackers. She felt the steel of her sword effortlessly slide through the soft tissue of one of her attackers. A quick flick of her wrist and his spinal cord was severed. She threw the lifeless carcass at a group of soldiers running to back up their comrades-in-arms against the vicious warrior woman. She spun around and decapitated one of her attackers, splattering herself with blood. Then, with her chakram, she blocked the potentially lethal downstroke coming at her head and sheathed her sword in the soldier's abdomen. Having dispatched her immediate threat, she launched her chakram into the alarm bell. From there, it ricocheted through the necks of five attackers, bounced off the helmet of another and flew into the waiting hand of its master as she fought another five men by herself.

Suddenly, the walls of her tent started shaking and a bloodcurdling scream pierced the night air distracting the soldiers long enough for Xena to eviscerate the lot of them in less than three moves. She then entered the tent to find Alia spread-eagle on their pallet underneath a sweaty mongrel of a soldier who's pants were down around his ankle.

With a fury unmatched, Xena screamed and threw her chakram at the cretin who dared rape a woman, especially her Alia. The flying disc cut cleanly through the soldier's body, the force of the throw knocking him off Alia. A compatriot of the man was closer to the woman than Xena was and he, in retribution, thrust his sword through Alia, through the pallet and into the floor below.

"NOOOO!!!!!!!" screamed Xena.

Realizing the futility of trying to retrieve his sword, the soldier ran out to join his comrades in destroying the warlord's army. Pale and shocked by the sight of Alia, raped and dead on the pallet they had shared mere moments before, Xena felt all the warmth seep from her body. It was quickly replaced by cold, hard darkness and fury. She walked towards the pallet and with a sickening slurping sound, she pulled the weapon from the body of her slain lover. Without looking, she hurled the sword out of her tent and into the head of an attacking soldier. He was lucky.

Xena stepped out of the tent and screamed. It wasn't a battlecry and it formed no semblance of words. It was primal and dark and contained a fraction of her fury. Quite a few of the soldiers, both hers and the ones attacking, threw down their weapons and ran away. The rest of the attacking army advanced at Xena, the others forming a protective circle to fight off her soldiers.

In a blind flurry of swords and limbs, Xena quickly dispatched her attackers, her darkness driving her past the point of exhaustion, pushing her forward and giving her the energy to decimate her attackers single-handedly. She stopped when she no longer felt a threat and looked around her. Crawling away through an opening between the survivours of her army was the man who killed Alia. The warlord pushed him onto his back and grabbed a nearby bowl and placed it under his neck. She cut his throat and waited for his blood to fill the bowl. Once the thick red liquid filled the bowl, Xena kicked aside the corpse and brought the blood to her lips.

*This is for Alia.*

Xena drank the blood, tasted the life that had been in it, the metallic hotness flowing down her throat, filling her, giving her power. Her eyesight magnified and the world lit up, though it was still night time.

"Find me Tavaris, Draco and Marcus and tell any survivours to start collecting heads."

With half a candlemark before sunrise, all of Xena's orders had been carried out. She killed Tavaris for the lack of security and had all of the heads put onto steaks. Armed with this morbid treasure, Xena, Marcus, and Draco traced the steps of their sloppy attackers back to their camp where a hundred more men slept and in vain awaited the return of their fellow soldiers. They planted the stakes strategically around the hill and into the valley where the camp was, the survivours of Xena's army hidden around the camp for a surprise attack at her signal.

The warlord waited for the sun to add the full effect of the stakes on the hill, then screamed "Yiyiyiyiyiyi!!" to alert the sleeping soldiers to her presence. The men stumbled out of their tents and fell to their knees at the sight of a hundred heads on stakes surrounding their camp, and the silhouette of Xena atop the hill, a stake and head in her hands. Her hair was wild and her army's survivours would later swear that her eyes glowed a hideous red.

Pausing long enough for the fact that she was still alive sink in, she lit the head she held on fire and threw it into the camp, the signal for her men to rush out of hiding and slaughter the army. The descended like locusts razing the camp and killing everything, their horses, their meat animals, their slaves and their targets.

Five of the soldiers, including one Xena assumed was the leader, started towards her. "You killed my wife, bitch...and your reign of terror ends here."

"Yiyiyiyiyiyi!!!!!!!!!!" screamed Xena as she launched herself into the middle of the five soldiers. In the space of a breath, Xena eviscerated three of the soldiers and proceeded to block and parry with the remaining two. She stepped back, allowing a sword swipe to swing high above her, then she thrust her sword through his abdomen. She pulled out and stalked towards the last remaining soldier.

"You're the leader?" she asked, her voice low and venomous.

"Yes."

"Good...because I want the pleasure of tasting your blood." Xena knocked away the leader's sword and kicked him, sending him to the ground twenty feet away. The warlord launched herself into the air and landed on top of the leader, the avenging husband who's failed in his duty. She looks deep into his eyes and slits his neck, bending to drink from the wound.

Xena was oblivious to the wide-eyed stares from her army as she drank from her victim. She pulled away and, momentarily sated, she walked wordlessly back to her camp and took to bed with Draco.

She was twenty summers old.

---

Continued HERE.

HOME
Table of Contents