Now Gabrielle found herself laughing.  “Really?  I noticed you didn’t have a problem sticking your tongue down my throat last night.  When did that change?”

 

“Touché, but I’m not thirsty.”

 

“Xena, you’re going to have to find something else to wear.  That silver champion’s uniform makes you stick out like a sore thumb.”

 

“What am I going to wear?”

 

Gabrielle found a grin pulling her lips wide apart.  “I think you’d look good in leather.”

 

*****************************************************************************************************************************

 

Xena/Varia

 

“Hey Micah. Come here.” 

 

Amphitryon motioned for his good friend Micah to drop his work of scaling the catches of the day and joining him for a walk.  He’d spent the entire night tossing and turning, images of Xena’s hands on Varia’s body torturing him with both righteous indignation that they would bring such practices into the honorable village of Amphipolis and his own desires to see them again. He was ashamed to admit it but the site of two women together had excited him as much as it had enraged him.

 

However, after a night of tossing and turning Amphitryon realized that with these kinds of preferences he was never going to get close her.  He didn’t stand a chance against Xena, so he would make them pay for their perversions by telling the entire town exactly what they were.  He’d give the women a week before the harassment became so bad they closed up Cyrene’s place and left for Varia’s home village where that kind of behavior was more than likely common place.

 

“What’s up Amp? We’ve been getting a lot of business so I need to get those fish scaled and-.”

 

“This is more important than business.  This concerns the welfare of the village.”

 

Now he had Micah’s full attention.  “Yeah?”

 

“You know those two women?  Xena and Varia?”

 

A grin crossed Micah’s somewhat plain face.  “Boy do I.  They’re real lookers, those two.”

 

Great, Amphitryon thought.  Micah, and no doubt a lot of the village men, had noticed their beauty too, and Amphitryon didn’t doubt he’d be able to use that against the two perverted harlots.

 

“What about them?”

 

Amphitryon looked around as though he didn’t want anyone else to hear which only added to the element of mystery he was trying to build to make his story more dramatic.  It worked.  “You can forget about getting next to them.  Let me tell you what I saw last night.”

 

******************************

 

Xena poured a mug of hot water over Varia’s hair to rinse the Jasmine scented soap that lathered her hair in great poufs of white foam.  As the water cascaded down her back Xena could feel the new warmth of desire flood her belly, but she held herself in check. She still had mixed feelings about the passion they’d shared the night before, and if she’d learned anything she’d learned that every time she tried to allow herself happiness life found a way to rip it away from her.  

 

I’m making a huge mistake with Varia, Xena found herself thinking.  I just can’t allow myself to fall for her.  I can’t.

 

“Xena?”

 

Varia turned in the water to face her new lover, a smile bright and beautiful on her young face.  “Your turn.  It’s past noon and we haven’t gotten a thing done.”

 

“What am I doing with you?” Xena blurted out the words and regretted them immediately.  Varia’s smile dropped from her face like a heavy stone in the hands of a child and she recoiled from the hurt that grabbed her heart like a cold fist.

 

“I’m sorry?”

 

Now that the door had been opened, Xena found she was tapped between stepping through or remaining on the outside.  She could easily rectify her words with a kiss or a smile and make up some excuse of why they were in the tub instead of in bed, or she could talk her feelings over with honesty. 

 

She decided to be honest, as Gabrielle had always encouraged her to be.  “I said ‘what am I doing with you’?”

 

“I heard you the first time. I just don’t understand what you meant by them.”

 

“I mean I’m 58 years old and you’re barely a day over twenty four. I’m robbing the cradle being with you.  Let me up.”

 

Varia moved aside at Xena’s urging and watched as the Warrior Princess rose from the water and pulled on a robe. “Xena, age doesn’t matter to me.  Besides, you were frozen in a cave for 25 years. Its not like you’re an old woman.”

 

“Age matters to me.  I just…I think maybe I’ve made a mistake.”

 

Something awfully close to panic flooded Varia’s chest and her heart began to run away with her.  “What are you saying?”

 

“I’m saying I don’t feel right with you.”

 

With that, Xena turned and left her there and entered the room where they had spent the night making love, resting and making love again.  As far as Xena could remember they’d shared their passion four times.

 

Varia entered the room, her eyes also going to the sheets rumpled from their passion, only unlike Xena she hadn’t bothered to put on a robe.

 

“What do you mean you don’t feel right with me?  You didn’t seem to be having a problem with age last night.”

 

“I mean just what I said. It’s not just our age difference.  It’s still too soon in our…friendship for this.  We’re moving ahead too fast.”

 

The younger warriors mouth hung open with speechless shock.  When she found her voice she was ashamed at the tremor of emotion that hinted at how close she was to tears.  It took a lot to make her cry, but now the tears flowed from her eyes in rivers.  Xena had become everything to her, and now she was just going to leave her, after all they’d shared together. It was just too much.

 

“Xena you-you’re just-“

 

Xena watched Varia cry and wondered just how deep the Amazon’s feelings ran for her.  She also wondered why she didn’t care more than she did.  “Varia, I know how deeply you care for me. That’s not lost on me.”

 

“It’s not lost on you alright.  You just don’t give a damn do you?”

 

“Yes, I do give a damn about your feelings.  I shouldn’t have made love with you Varia.  It was wrong for me.”

 

Varia gave a short, bitter sounding laugh, trying to pull herself together and wipe the tears from her eyes.  “You shared your soul with me last night Xena, and you took part of mine.  Now you wake up satisfied and decide to just end it?  You’re just going to walk away from all we’ve accomplished with your heart and the Inn?”

 

“I didn’t say that.”

 

“Then what are you saying?” Before Xena could open her mouth to respond Varia spoke over her angrily.  “Let me guess:  You want to take off and lose yourself in your hatred, right?  Well be my guest.  I’m finished trying to save you.”

 

Varia stormed out of the room but Xena didn’t follow.  She was too ashamed of what she’d done to face Varia, and she wondered if she ever would.

 

******************************

 

The last thing Varia expected to see when she exited the Inn was a mob of angry villagers carrying everything from swords to walking sticks. They were quiet, dangerously quiet, but Varia could see the hatred in their eyes.  Her instincts told her that the man front and center of the group had something to do with it.

 

“Something tells me you’re not here for breakfast.”

 

“We know what-“ Micah began, but Amphitryon cut him off with a nudge to his ribs.  The news he’d shared with Micah had spread like wild fire, and within three hours the villagers had formed a mob.  He’d started this game, and this was his moment of revenge.  He wasn’t about to let anyone but himself take the glory.

 

“Would you care to tell the fine people of Amphipolis what you and Xena have been doing since you arrived.”

 

Varia couldn’t figure out for the life of her what he could be talking about.  She threw up her hands in frustration.   Her heart was breaking over Xena and she didn’t have the least bit of interest in dealing with these people.  She wanted to get back to her tribe and back to a normal life.

 

“We’ve been fixing up the Inn. We were going to re-open but things have changed. I’m returning to my tribe-“

 

“No, no.” Amphitryon eased closer to her, a grin that Varia found decidedly menacing covering his face.  “Why don’t you tell us what you and Xena have been doing with each other since you got here.”

 

Varia didn’t get anxious easily but Amphitryon’s words, along with the hateful expressions of the villagers behind him made her wonder if he somehow knew she and Xena had made love the night before.

 

“You seem to think you know something. Why don’t you tell me?”

 

The door to the Inn opened behind Varia and Xena stepped out taking in the sight of the angry lynch mob.  “Sorry people, we’re not opening the Inn after all.  Though I doubt you’re interested in biscuits right now.”

 

“Why?”  Micah asked from behind Amphitryon.  “Are you and Varia going back to her Amazon camp to play house?”

 

An angry wave of mumbling started up in the crowd and Varia looked to Xena with something akin to panic on her face. Another villager that Xena had never seen before stepped forward, wielding a newly sharpened pitchfork.

 

“Let me guess Xena.  You’re the man and she’s the woman, right?”

 

Varia looked back at Xena again.  “They know.”

 

Before Varia could stop her Xena grabbed her by the arm and shoved her into the Inn, then she took a handful of Amphitryon’s hair and shoved him in after her. This earned her a few indignant objections from the villagers but she ignored them.

 

“Excuse us for a minute,” Xena said, backing into the doorway.  “I’ll send him right back.”

 

 

Once the door was shut and bolted behind her Xena motioned for Varia to lock the back door as well. Luckily for them none of the first floor shutters were open.

 

“Alright.  What have you been telling them?”

 

Amphitryon stared Xena over in pure disgust.  “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

 

“You’ve heard of me Amphitryon. You know what I can do.”

 

“Oh, that pinch thing.  You’re not going to kill me Xena. You don’t murder innocent people.”

 

“I don’t murder innocents, that’s true, but I’m not averse to the idea of killing scum like you. Scum is never innocent Amphitryon.”

 

She had then pinch on him in seconds, and he fell to the floor as his legs gave way beneath him.  A pressure like nothing he’d ever felt before began to build in his head, and the only relief his body could give him came when blood exploded from his nose.

 

“Now, you’ve got less than thirty seconds, so I suggest you start talking.”

 

Varia came back into the room and began pulling off her new dress and replacing it with her Amazon uniform. “Go on friend,” she said, her voice dripping with disdain.  “I’m dying to know.”

 

“I…told them…the truth about you.”

 

“And what truth is that?”

 

He struggled to answer Xena’s question as dizziness began to take over. “I told them what I saw.  I saw you two…”

 

Seeing he was about to pass out, Xena removed the pinch and he fell back. His head was throbbing with excruciating pain but the pressure was draining fast and his nose was beginning to stop bleeding.

 

“You saw us making love?” Varia asked. She was dressed now and had her weapons strapped on. 

 

“Yes I did, and I’ve told everyone about you.”

 

“That’s all I need to know.  Varia, can you hold him here?”

 

“What for?” Xena could hear contempt directed at her in Varia’s voice but she ignored it. She deserved it after playing with the girls heart the way she had.

 

“I need to get my walking clothes on.”

 

Xena ran upstairs and Varia sat on one of the tables before Amphitryon.  “You’d better be glad my Amazon sisters aren’t here.”

 

“I am, believe me.  The last thing we need around here is an hoard of you sick perverts.”

 

“What makes me sick Amphitryon?  Am I sick because I love a woman?”

 

“Yes!”  The righteous hatred in his face amazed her.  Men were, Varia saw now, so incredibly foolish.

 

“You love women, why can’t I?”

 

“That’s different for me to love-oh, I’m not going to argue the point with you.”

 

Xena came down the steps a few moments later and Varia was impressed with how quickly the older warrior could get ready for battle.  She came over and jerked Amphitryon to his feet just as the villagers began to bang on the main door. From the sound of it they had gotten something solid to ram the door with.

 

“Xena?”

 

“What?

 

Varia drew her sword.  “I think we’re going to have to fight our way out of this one.  Then we’ll go our separate ways.”

 

“Going our separate ways is something I want to talk to you about.  I never said I wanted to separate, you did.”

 

“I’m through talking about it Xena.”

 

“You’re letting your pride get in the way of us-“

 

“-my people need me, you don’t. It’s that simple.”

 

Amphitryon snorted in disgust. “This is so disgusting-“

 

Xena had had enough. “Shut up!”

 

The door crashed open and the village men barged in, some of them carrying torches.  They screamed her name in anger and began to demand Amphitryon’s release.  Xena shoved him toward the waiting arms of the villagers.

 

Micah stepped forward, carrying a cheaply crafted sword.  “We’re not going to allow your kind in this village.”

 

Xena jumped up onto a table, pulling Varia with her. “This village,” she began. Varia knew Xena well enough to hear the hurt in her voice from these people’s betrayal.  “This village is full of fools.  You’re always so quick to turn on your own aren’t you?  You murdered my mother, but did that stop me from saving your stinking hides from Mephistopheles?”

 

Amphitryon came to stand beside his friend.  “We owe you nothing.  You’ve been a thorn in Amphipolis’ side since the day your family moved here the first time.  Always causing trouble.”

 

“And how would you know?  You weren’t even born when my mother moved us here.”

 

“Stories. Like you said Xena, I know you. People!  Listen to me!  If we let them leave here they’ll just move to some other village and corrupt them.”

 

“What are you saying?”  Micah said, beginning to look nervous. “What can we do?”

 

“Kill them. Stone them for bringing their unnatural lusts into our upstanding village.”

 

The crowd began to cheer and Xena drew her sword. Almost in unison the villagers fell back, away from her in fear. They did indeed know her, and they knew that there wasn’t one of them who could handle her. This was a warrior who’d once fought off an entire army alone after all.  Their strength may not even lie in numbers.

 

“Don’t be afraid,” Amphitryon said, venturing close to Xena. “She won’t hurt any of us, even as we stone her.  Her weak moral code won’t allow her to.  Isn’t that right Xena?”

 

A villager began to climb the steps and before Xena fully realized what he was doing he set one of her mothers hand made tapestries on fire. It told the story of Cyrene’s romance with her husband and the birth of her children up to Xena. It was the last gift Cyrene had given Xena and it meant the world to her. Now it was on fire.

 

Varia had gone a long way to easing the pain of losing Gabrielle, but without the one she truly loved in the entire world to act as her moral compass, Xena found it incredibly easy to entertain the thought of slaughtering innocent villagers.  Especially when she’d risked her life on more than one occasion to save them.

 

They were betraying her again.  This, coupled with the memories of seeing her mother being burned at the stake at their hands and now seeing them destroy the only happy memories she had left was more than Xena could bear. 

 

“I’m sorry Gabrielle,” she found herself whispering as her hand tightened on her sword. “I can’t keep my promise.”

 

The final barrier of goodness left within her gave way under the pressure of her anger, hurt and pure rage and Xena allowed herself to fall into the Abyss of hatred that only Gabrielle’s love had the power to save her from.  With a cry of pain and rage, Xena brought her sword around taking Amphitryon’s head off in one fatal swoop.  The villagers stared in shock as their eyes took Xena in. Each of them had seen the change take place as surely as Xena had felt it. Their hatred and betrayal had resurrected the monster that Gabrielle’s love had slain many years before, and there was nothing and no one on earth with the power to stop her.