Xena: Warrior Princess/Legend of the Seeker - Callisto & Cara - Redemption
Title: Redemption
Fandom: Xena: Warrior Princess/Legend of the Seeker
Characters: Callisto & Cara Mason
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Violence, angst, major character death.
Word Count: ~700
Summary: After years of being apart, Cara and Callisto hug it out fight to the death.
A/N: This story was hopelessly inspired by this crossover fanvid by milerna in which Callisto and Cara were from the same village. Since this is a crossover, and crossovers aren't usually perfectly aligned, both character's backgrounds have been tweaked slightly. Xena still devastated Callisto's village ("on accident"), but Cara had already been taken to be trained as a Mord'Sith prior to this happening. They've still pretty much done everything that's canon for them (Cara traveling with the dream team, Callisto going on her killing spree as the warrior princess, ect.), though.
“Cara!” a tiny Callisto yells from atop a grassy knoll. “Hurry up! You’ll be late!”
“Wait for me!” a cherubic blue-eyed girl cries out with a giggle from the bottom of the hill. “Wait!”
-
Callisto - now fully grown and wearing the scars of a traumatic life - can’t remember how long she’d been gone. But she knows she hates her for it.
“You left us!” she shrieks, her sword drawn and pointed out towards the battle wore Mord’Sith in front of her, “You left me!”
Cara knows what happened at her village after she had left. She’d heard horror stories about it. She’d laughed about the mighty warrior princess and the devastation she spread with her sisters in the spacious temple they called home. All the while ignoring all the family and friends she had once had there as a child.
Metal clashes and Callisto falls to her knees with a shrill, feral yell that chills Cara to the bone and cracks open the sky into large jagged pieces, darkened before its time by the heavy smoke billowing upwards.
Cara withdraws her agiel from where it’s been planted on Callisto’s bare neck, taking a few steps back. Her face is twisted into a scowl, but she doesn’t attack again until the other blonde is on her feet.
“I had no choice, Callisto,” Cara hisses, dodging another swing of Callisto’s sword, “You know that!”
The structure behind them is on fire, and they’re both covered in dirt and sweat. They’re tired, and they ache, but that wouldn’t stop them. It never had before.
“Why?!” Callisto screams again and Cara can’t help but stare horrified into the other’s eyes.
Terror, anger, insanity… Cara saw it all reflected in two perfect pools of brown, worn around the edges and set alit by the surrounding flames.
Cara pretends there aren’t chills running down her back at the sight of Callisto wild and dangerous as the two carefully step around each other as if part of some ancient, ritualistic dance.
“You’re not Callisto!” Cara finally shouts, this time barely missing a well placed slash of Callisto’s sword, “You look like her, but you’re not.”
Cara’s lips twist into a scowl as she slips forward to just barely graze Callisto’s left arm, but she isn’t surprised when it only elicits a faint yelp.
“The Callisto I knew wouldn’t do this. She wouldn’t kill innocent people.”
The choked laugh that came out of Callisto’s mouth sounded unnatural to Cara, and it made her want to cringe under her leather.
“What would you know about me?! You think you know me so well, Cara? Well look at me now! This is me! This is who I was always meant to be. You were just weak. You should have stayed. We could have been happy! We could have been happy, Cara!”
Cara’s eyes flicker with a hint of understanding, and all she wants to do is tell Callisto that it’s alright.
That she’s been through this all before but more importantly, she’d survived it.
They were both damaged little girls torn from their blissful playing and thrown into the adult world of pain and suffering. This was what they were used to, this was what they’d expected. But Cara knew better now.
If she had learned nothing else from her year traveling with Richard and the Mother Confessor saving the Midlands, it would have been that redemption wasn’t ever out of reach.
“I know this isn’t you, Callisto!” is all she can offer though, sending a quick look past the wild child in dark leather to the wall of flames behind them, the grasslands on the south side of the house catching like flames to paper.
She doesn’t have time to think before Callisto is barreling forward into her with what seems like triple her previous strength.
Cara doesn’t have time to feel as Callisto’s sword fatally slips through her abdomen and out the other side, but a strangled gasp does escape her lips as she falls forward into a horrified Callisto.
“I'm s-” is all Cara has time to say before the world around her goes dark and Callisto is left alone with the lifeless body of the girl she had once been so close to.
Fandom: Xena: Warrior Princess/Legend of the Seeker
Characters: Callisto & Cara Mason
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Violence, angst, major character death.
Word Count: ~700
Summary: After years of being apart, Cara and Callisto hug it out fight to the death.
A/N: This story was hopelessly inspired by this crossover fanvid by milerna in which Callisto and Cara were from the same village. Since this is a crossover, and crossovers aren't usually perfectly aligned, both character's backgrounds have been tweaked slightly. Xena still devastated Callisto's village ("on accident"), but Cara had already been taken to be trained as a Mord'Sith prior to this happening. They've still pretty much done everything that's canon for them (Cara traveling with the dream team, Callisto going on her killing spree as the warrior princess, ect.), though.
“Cara!” a tiny Callisto yells from atop a grassy knoll. “Hurry up! You’ll be late!”
“Wait for me!” a cherubic blue-eyed girl cries out with a giggle from the bottom of the hill. “Wait!”
-
Callisto - now fully grown and wearing the scars of a traumatic life - can’t remember how long she’d been gone. But she knows she hates her for it.
“You left us!” she shrieks, her sword drawn and pointed out towards the battle wore Mord’Sith in front of her, “You left me!”
Cara knows what happened at her village after she had left. She’d heard horror stories about it. She’d laughed about the mighty warrior princess and the devastation she spread with her sisters in the spacious temple they called home. All the while ignoring all the family and friends she had once had there as a child.
Metal clashes and Callisto falls to her knees with a shrill, feral yell that chills Cara to the bone and cracks open the sky into large jagged pieces, darkened before its time by the heavy smoke billowing upwards.
Cara withdraws her agiel from where it’s been planted on Callisto’s bare neck, taking a few steps back. Her face is twisted into a scowl, but she doesn’t attack again until the other blonde is on her feet.
“I had no choice, Callisto,” Cara hisses, dodging another swing of Callisto’s sword, “You know that!”
The structure behind them is on fire, and they’re both covered in dirt and sweat. They’re tired, and they ache, but that wouldn’t stop them. It never had before.
“Why?!” Callisto screams again and Cara can’t help but stare horrified into the other’s eyes.
Terror, anger, insanity… Cara saw it all reflected in two perfect pools of brown, worn around the edges and set alit by the surrounding flames.
Cara pretends there aren’t chills running down her back at the sight of Callisto wild and dangerous as the two carefully step around each other as if part of some ancient, ritualistic dance.
“You’re not Callisto!” Cara finally shouts, this time barely missing a well placed slash of Callisto’s sword, “You look like her, but you’re not.”
Cara’s lips twist into a scowl as she slips forward to just barely graze Callisto’s left arm, but she isn’t surprised when it only elicits a faint yelp.
“The Callisto I knew wouldn’t do this. She wouldn’t kill innocent people.”
The choked laugh that came out of Callisto’s mouth sounded unnatural to Cara, and it made her want to cringe under her leather.
“What would you know about me?! You think you know me so well, Cara? Well look at me now! This is me! This is who I was always meant to be. You were just weak. You should have stayed. We could have been happy! We could have been happy, Cara!”
Cara’s eyes flicker with a hint of understanding, and all she wants to do is tell Callisto that it’s alright.
That she’s been through this all before but more importantly, she’d survived it.
They were both damaged little girls torn from their blissful playing and thrown into the adult world of pain and suffering. This was what they were used to, this was what they’d expected. But Cara knew better now.
If she had learned nothing else from her year traveling with Richard and the Mother Confessor saving the Midlands, it would have been that redemption wasn’t ever out of reach.
“I know this isn’t you, Callisto!” is all she can offer though, sending a quick look past the wild child in dark leather to the wall of flames behind them, the grasslands on the south side of the house catching like flames to paper.
She doesn’t have time to think before Callisto is barreling forward into her with what seems like triple her previous strength.
Cara doesn’t have time to feel as Callisto’s sword fatally slips through her abdomen and out the other side, but a strangled gasp does escape her lips as she falls forward into a horrified Callisto.
“I'm s-” is all Cara has time to say before the world around her goes dark and Callisto is left alone with the lifeless body of the girl she had once been so close to.