Ancient Greece, Friday Fandom Time
A Road Leading to Poteidaia, Early Afternoon
The less that was said about the wedding night, the better -- not only because it had been awkward and fumbling (at least on Gabrielle's end), or turned out to be a very convenient way to forget about the trauma of the previous day's fighting. Or the fact that Gabrielle couldn't quite forget the look on Xena's face at the ceremony and it made her feel guilty every time.
. . . or maybe that she'd never admit that maybe she'd thought about Bobby for a little while there. (She'd have texted her friends at Fandom if she could, but funny thing about being home -- cell phone reception was extremely spotty, to be generous about it. Anyhow, matrimonial conventions having evolved the way they did over the millennia, it probably would not have gone over well at all.)
The relevant thing here was that the long journey on foot back home to Poteidaia took a lot longer when you kept stopping to make out in the middle of the road, and say things like "I know what love is, now. It's life. Everything is united by love alone." Which was what Gabrielle was saying to Perdicas just before they were interrupted by a mocking sigh and the last voice she ever wanted to hear when completely defenseless and oh gods, why was this suddenly seeming like a very, very bad idea?
"Oh -- love, love, love, love." They turned to see Callisto astride a horse, leaning lazily forward over the saddle with a mocking smirk. "Oh, it unites, you’re right. And hate divides. Let’s see which one's stronger, shall we?"
She swung down from her mount and casually unsheathed her sword; Perdicas walked up to her, spreading his arms. No no no no no -- bad idea, bad idea, and she'd left her staff behind with Xena and --
"What do you want? We're unarmed." It was probably not the smartest thing Perdicas could have said.
He got a nasty sword cut to the arm and a kick to the jaw for his trouble, and went sprawling. "Good. That makes things simple then, doesn't it?" Gabrielle, of course, tried to get to him, but Callisto was between them, and now she went crumpling to the ground with her ears ringing and the taste of blood in her mouth from the impact her teeth made when she took a savage kick in the chin. "Nighty-night," Callisto almost cooed.
The next few minutes went by in hazy, surreal flashes. Callisto, standing over her with her sword upraised. Spitting out a mouthful of blood-flecked saliva as she struggled to her feet. Xena's distinctive ululating battle cry. Grunts, the screech of metal on metal, the frenzied trading of bone-crunching blows. It was a deadlocked struggle; it always was, Xena and Callisto matching each other landed blow for landed blow, parry for parry, backflip for backflip.
Which meant Gabrielle should have seen it coming when Callisto's last backflip carried her away from Xena -- and she stalked toward Perdicas, who'd just gotten back to his own feet. If he cried out at all when she ran him through, Gabrielle couldn't hear it over Callisto's victorious scream.
***
A Cliff by the Ocean, Evening
Gabrielle had stood by the funeral pyres of loved ones and heard Xena sing this same mourning chant before. Staring into the flames that crackled around Perdicas's body, just like that, she'd decided she'd had enough.
She didn't wait longer than a second after Xena finished the song. "That's the last one."
"What do you mean?"
In the firelight, Gabrielle couldn't make out the alarm in Xena's eyes; even if she could, she likely wouldn't have read it for what it was. "From here on out," she said quietly, absolutely convinced she'd made a rational and right decision, "all I want is Callisto's blood on my hands."
"Gabrielle, leave Callisto to me," Xena insisted. "You need time to mourn."
It sounded like the stupidest, most ridiculous idea in the world. "I have the rest of my life to mourn," Gabrielle said quietly, through clenched teeth. Why was it suddenly so hard for Xena to understand this? "I want to see her dead."
"Gabrielle --"
"In the morning I'm going after her. Now the question is: are you coming with me?" Not waiting for Xena's answer, she turned and stalked away from the pyre.
[OOC: NFI/NFB/OOC-okay/TBC still. Still adapted from "Return of Callisto." This was not supposed to be just a text-type canon catchup but for massive massive massive coordination fail on my part.]
The less that was said about the wedding night, the better -- not only because it had been awkward and fumbling (at least on Gabrielle's end), or turned out to be a very convenient way to forget about the trauma of the previous day's fighting. Or the fact that Gabrielle couldn't quite forget the look on Xena's face at the ceremony and it made her feel guilty every time.
. . . or maybe that she'd never admit that maybe she'd thought about Bobby for a little while there. (She'd have texted her friends at Fandom if she could, but funny thing about being home -- cell phone reception was extremely spotty, to be generous about it. Anyhow, matrimonial conventions having evolved the way they did over the millennia, it probably would not have gone over well at all.)
The relevant thing here was that the long journey on foot back home to Poteidaia took a lot longer when you kept stopping to make out in the middle of the road, and say things like "I know what love is, now. It's life. Everything is united by love alone." Which was what Gabrielle was saying to Perdicas just before they were interrupted by a mocking sigh and the last voice she ever wanted to hear when completely defenseless and oh gods, why was this suddenly seeming like a very, very bad idea?
"Oh -- love, love, love, love." They turned to see Callisto astride a horse, leaning lazily forward over the saddle with a mocking smirk. "Oh, it unites, you’re right. And hate divides. Let’s see which one's stronger, shall we?"
She swung down from her mount and casually unsheathed her sword; Perdicas walked up to her, spreading his arms. No no no no no -- bad idea, bad idea, and she'd left her staff behind with Xena and --
"What do you want? We're unarmed." It was probably not the smartest thing Perdicas could have said.
He got a nasty sword cut to the arm and a kick to the jaw for his trouble, and went sprawling. "Good. That makes things simple then, doesn't it?" Gabrielle, of course, tried to get to him, but Callisto was between them, and now she went crumpling to the ground with her ears ringing and the taste of blood in her mouth from the impact her teeth made when she took a savage kick in the chin. "Nighty-night," Callisto almost cooed.
The next few minutes went by in hazy, surreal flashes. Callisto, standing over her with her sword upraised. Spitting out a mouthful of blood-flecked saliva as she struggled to her feet. Xena's distinctive ululating battle cry. Grunts, the screech of metal on metal, the frenzied trading of bone-crunching blows. It was a deadlocked struggle; it always was, Xena and Callisto matching each other landed blow for landed blow, parry for parry, backflip for backflip.
Which meant Gabrielle should have seen it coming when Callisto's last backflip carried her away from Xena -- and she stalked toward Perdicas, who'd just gotten back to his own feet. If he cried out at all when she ran him through, Gabrielle couldn't hear it over Callisto's victorious scream.
***
A Cliff by the Ocean, Evening
Gabrielle had stood by the funeral pyres of loved ones and heard Xena sing this same mourning chant before. Staring into the flames that crackled around Perdicas's body, just like that, she'd decided she'd had enough.
She didn't wait longer than a second after Xena finished the song. "That's the last one."
"What do you mean?"
In the firelight, Gabrielle couldn't make out the alarm in Xena's eyes; even if she could, she likely wouldn't have read it for what it was. "From here on out," she said quietly, absolutely convinced she'd made a rational and right decision, "all I want is Callisto's blood on my hands."
"Gabrielle, leave Callisto to me," Xena insisted. "You need time to mourn."
It sounded like the stupidest, most ridiculous idea in the world. "I have the rest of my life to mourn," Gabrielle said quietly, through clenched teeth. Why was it suddenly so hard for Xena to understand this? "I want to see her dead."
"Gabrielle --"
"In the morning I'm going after her. Now the question is: are you coming with me?" Not waiting for Xena's answer, she turned and stalked away from the pyre.
[OOC: NFI/NFB/OOC-okay/TBC still. Still adapted from "Return of Callisto." This was not supposed to be just a text-type canon catchup but for massive massive massive coordination fail on my part.]