DISCLAIMER: The characters of Xena: Warrior Princess remain the property of MCA/Renaissance Pictures and Studios USA. No copyright infringement is intended and this is a non-profit story.
PLEASE NOTE: This story is based on the Season Two episode Intimate Stranger, if you haven't seen it you may not understant this short story....so....go and watch it!!
SUBTEXT: even though there is nothing graphic in here, there are implications of two women making love. If this offends you....read no further. If you’d like to write to Hoggle Bard....and she’d love you to!!...write to: hoggle_bard@hotmail.com
Callisto sat up and glanced around her. She looked over and saw the sleeping redhead beside her and knew it had worked. Awkwardly she poked the girl to wake her, while saying her name.
Gabrielle stirred and looked up at Xena, she seemed distant, worried as she told the girl that Callisto and Ares were working together and seeking revenge. Her vagueness as to how she knew this puzzled Gabrielle. It wasn’t like Xena to place so much faith in dreams or nightmares, but she knew that Xena’s guilt over Callisto’s death was troubling her, and if it took a trip to Amphipolis to put the warriors mind at ease, she was more than willing to follow her friend.
"No, Joxer will only
get himself killed". Callisto phrased her words to Gabrielle carefully; she
didn’t want the little bard to find out who she was ...yet. She had such plans
for the young girl. Xena had murdered her family, and simply killing her nemesis
was not enough. No, she had always planned to make her creator suffer, and
now she had the perfect angle with which to do it... as Xena.
Callisto had seen the way the little brat had looked at Xena, and how the
soft weak warrior returned the feelings of love. It sickened Callisto. She
had never really understood love, only as a trick nature played to aid reproduction,
but then that didn’t really make sense in this case, did it? She looked at
Gabrielle, she was attractive, and Callisto was not above understanding lust.
Her plan was to destroy Xena. The first part of that plan involved the assination
of Xena’s family and hometown, and the second part, just as much fun, to seduce
her chatty sidekick. Callisto wondered how the two women could be so clueless
about each other’s feelings, when it was plain to everyone.
Originally she had just planned to kill the girl, but instead she had killed
her husband. In a way, it had worked out much better, destroying the brat
piece by piece meant doing the same to the warrior, and besides, death didn’t
really mean that much to people like her and Xena, why she had already overcome
it! Yes, seducing the bard would serve many purposes, as it would horrify
the girl to later find out that she had been intimate with the person she
hated most in the world, and it would crush Xena to see that her bard had
been taken advantage of in such a way, and also for the warrior to realise
how easily it could have been done by Xena herself. All this before the revulsion
Callisto hoped to instill in the girl towards this body destroys any possible
future romantic relationship between the friends. But first thing was first;
she had to see Ares. She instructed Gabrielle to pack their things and wait
for her, as she went off to celebrate with the God of War.
Gabrielle was worried
about Xena. First the odd conversation earlier that night, then this? Her
feelings about everything had been so up in the air since Callisto had killed
Perdicus. At first, she had been mad at Xena, for not having saved him, for
making both of them a target because of her horrendous past, but then she
realised she was as much to blame for her husband’s death. She had followed
Xena and in doing so she accepted all of her, including her past. Then she
had fallen in love with the warrior. She hoped that Xena was feeling the same
way about her, and then when Perdicus had asked her to marry him, well, she
had seen it as a sort of a test of Xena’s feelings. She knew it was a horrible
reason to marry her childhood friend, but she had honestly expected Xena to
stop her, and when she had spoken to her, the warrior had made it clear enough
that she was all for her marrying Perdicus. So she had thought about it and
decided it was better to marry someone who loved her, than wait around in
the hopes that the one she loved would come around.
At first her decision seemed a sign of defeat and she had resigned herself
to a loveless marriage, but when she had seen Perdicus throw down his sword
and refuse to fight, she realized that she could grow to love this man. He
had the one characteristic that she could not find in Xena, the one in herself
that she continued to nurture in herself: Peace. Xena was a warrior pure and
simple, and even though she was fighting for good, her blood lust and the
pleasure she got from fighting could never be understood by Gabrielle, and
when she had seen that this man, this man who loved her, wanted her, felt
the same as her, she believed that would be enough for them. And it might
have been, given time.
Gabrielle realised she and Perdicus had a lot in common. He had changed so
much since Gabrielle had left Potadiea, and so had she. So she was looking
forward to a peaceful life with her old friend turned husband, when Callisto
had ruined all hope of her finding love again when she had killed Perdicus.
She had loved Perdicus, and knew in time she may have fallen in love with
him also, but Callisto had stopped that.
Gabrielle could still feel the rage and guilt flooding through her system,
and shuddered at the thought of what she might have become if she had killed
Callisto. Instead she had let Xena do it, which was now impacting on her friend’s
life and mind as much as it might have on hers. Her feelings so confusing,
Gabrielle only knew two things: that she loved Xena, and that she hated Callisto.
As they trudged through
the dense forest in the dark, Callisto struggled to maintain calm. The brat
was having trouble controlling the horse, who for some reason seemed to be
aware of a change in her ‘mistress’. Argo was struggling in confused fear
as Gabrielle pulled on her reins urging ‘Xena’ to take them. "No, no you hold
her. She’s picking up on my feelings." Callisto said pouting "She was like
this the last time I went up against Callisto." The warrior smiled and thought
about the situation, the horse would have to go. She wouldn’t be able to ride
her and might eventually alert Gabrielle to the fact that something was wrong.
Callisto decided to play a little mind game with the girl, she planned to
get Gabrielle to fight her beloved Xena, thinking she was Callisto. It would
be perfect, Xena would have to kill the bard to protect herself, and that
would destroy her. Callisto knew she had to re-ignite the hatred Gabrielle
felt for her, or at least for her body. Make her believe that ‘Xena’ couldn’t
fight ‘Callisto’ again and leave it up to the brat. She turned to Gabrielle
"Gabrielle, I have something important to tell you. You should have killed
Callisto." The younger woman stared at the warrior in shock and confusion.
"What?"
"I was wrong, you had every right too, not me. For me it was murder and the
guilt is going to destroy me… I don’t think I can do it again..." Gabrielle
looked up at the taller woman.
"It’s up to me? Is that what you’re saying?"
"No Gabrielle, but she’s going to kill my mother." Callisto let the message
sink into the girls mind.
"She has to be stopped."
"Oh, I can do that, but what then?" Callisto turned a grin that was forming
into a pained expression "I’ve never felt so…helpless". Callisto turned away
from Gabrielle, who watched the warrior walk ahead. The imposter was trying
hard not to laugh, as the younger woman started to follow. ‘Now, for the
next little part of my plan…’ thought Callisto as she turned back towards
the sidekick.
"Gabrielle, do you like this body?" she ran a hand down her thigh sensually.
"Xena…?" The bard looked at the other woman in confusion. She was about to
ask what was wrong with her friend, first all the talk about Xena feeling
helpless at the prospect of facing Callisto, and now this? when Callisto cut
her off.
"These legs, these breasts, these lips?" she said excentuating each one as
she named them, and enjoying the odd sensation of touching Xena’s body, and
feeling it herself. Gabrielle gulped audibly, confused by Xena’s strange actions,
but aroused at the sight of her friend touching herself in ways the bard had
always wanted too.
"Do you like this body Gabrielle?" Callisto asked again, moving closer. Gabrielle
nodded silently. Callisto smiled.
"You want to touch me don’t you?" the blonde gave a small nod again and Callisto
took another step forwards, they were less than a foot apart.
"Then why don’t you" she said smiling seductively at the now visibly shaking
girl.
She leaned in close to her ear and whispered menacingly "Why don’t you Gabrielle?"
enjoying the way the name rolled off her tongue.
"Xena, I…love…" Callisto captured a soft earlobe between her teeth and bit
it gently. The moan elicited effectively stopping the bard from uttering the
offensive phrase. Gabrielle arched into the warrior, and dropped her staff
and the horse’s reins. She moved her hands to the dark hair and brought the
soft mouth to her own. Callisto was pleasantly surprised by the small woman’s
boldness, she had expected that she would have to initiate everything, but
here the little brat was taking the lead. She kissed the girl forcefully,
pushing her tongue past the lips against hers. She yanked Gabrielle’s skirt
down unceremoniously, and tugged at the laces of her top. The bard gasped
as her clothes fell to the ground and Callisto explored her bare skin roughly,
pushing Gabrielle against a nearby tree. Callisto moved her lips away from
the girl’s and bit down on her shoulder as she ran her hands down the firm
back and along soft hips. Gabrielle groaned loudly when the strong hands found
their mark. Callisto smiled and bit hard into the shoulder again "You like
that don’t you little girl?" she bit down on Gabrielle’s shoulder again, drawing
blood "Don’t you?" she said licking the warm liquid from her teeth "Don’t
you?" the girl squirmed against her, panting "…yes" before collapsing into
Callisto’s arms.
"Gabrielle, we have to keep moving" Callisto said without emotion "Get dressed". As Gabrielle’s breathing steadied she looked up at the warrior, in all her dreams and fantasies about Xena; it had never been like this. She was so cold. It wasn’t like Xena at all, at least not the Xena she knew… Gabrielle silently picked up her clothes and dressed quickly, a tear falling as she watched the warrior continuing along the path.
Callisto smiled as she walked ahead, leaving the damaged girl to collect herself. She took an odd pleasure in being Gabrielle’s ‘first’. If she decided to let the brat live, or if Xena couldn’t kill her in battle, she hoped the experience would drive a wedge, at least sexually between the two. She giggled to herself ‘Poor little Gabrielle. Kill one lover, and kill any chance with the other. My, it’s good to be Xena.’