Fallen Star
Disclaimers: Voyager and Xena belong to Paramount and Universal respectively. I'm not making money out of this - just having some fun with the characters.. This story contains love between women so if that offends you or it's illegal where you live, go read something else (or move). There's also angst and some violence.
Feedback: is welcome at [email protected]
SPOILER WARNING: You might want to skip this if you haven’t seen the Xena finale.
I’m dedicating this one to Jean for being the best beta reader – couldn’t have done this without you, thanks. :) I'd also like to thank Sonja for the ever so pretty graphic.
****
Part 9
Mt. Fuji, Japa, 30 years later...
Cradling Xena's face in her hands, the blonde woman lowered her head to kiss her fallen love. Their lips touched, allowing one precious droplet of water to pass the warrior's lips. It was water from the fountain of strength, on Mt. Fuji, and it would give Xena's ghost the strength to defeat Yodoshi. The warrior opened her eyes to see her lover's smiling face.
"Gabrielle..."
She stood up as strength flowed through her body, imbuing her with a supernatural vitality. She faced the bard.
"Gabrielle, I need the sacred katana to finish the job."
The sword was placed gently into the palms of her outstretched hands.
"Thank you." She whispered softly.
Gabrielle nodded and glanced at the western sky, it was beautiful shade of pink and gold. "The sun is setting, Xena... I have to find your ashes."
"Gabrielle..." the warrior hesitated, "I-"
"C'mon!" she was interrupted by Yodoshi's angry roar. The powerful spirit had recovered and was now spinning, turning into a deadly whirlwind of flame. He soared high into the sky, and Xena had no choice but to follow.
Gabrielle abruptly turned away, determination etched in her features as she crouched over the ledge from which Xena's urn had fallen. She had to retrieve Xena's ashes before sunset, or her beloved would be lost to her forever.
"Gabr-" Xena started to call after her, in vain. Another roar from Yodoshi forced Xena to turn and face him. "Aiyiyiyiyiyi!!!" She too, became a ball of flame that spun round and round, flying higher and higher. The two spirits raced across the sky, setting the treetops alight before they collided, smashing into each other with a tremendous explosion. They sky rained fire as they both materialized on the ground once more.
"Enough of this!" boomed Yodoshi as he emerged from the flames. The two spirits began to fight in earnest, and the sound of swords clashing filled the forest.
***
Gabrielle had begun to descend the cliff face, having spotted Xena's urn lying snugly in a bird's nest several metres below. The climb down was perilous - the few footholds she found were treacherous and slippery with ice. Her foot slipped, and she almost fell, but she regained her precarious hold and continued her vital mission with renewed determination.
***
Meanwhile, the ghostly battle raged on. Yodoshi matched Xena blow by blow, and lightning crackled as their swords clashed together, locked in a struggle of colossal power.
"You're about to join the 40 thousand souls you condemned, Xena." The evil spirit snarled at her, baring his teeth in a feral grin. "And the first thing I'll do is take the head off of your friend with the tattoo."
***
Gabrielle inched closer to the urn, her foot nudging the nest while she clung onto the cliff face with her hands. Almost there... just slightly further. She gasped with the effort of hanging on. If only she could get down a little closer...
***
"You won't live that long." Xena returned, before forcing his sword away with a mighty heave. She slashed at him, their swords meeting again before the warrior woman backflipped behind Yodoshi and sent him flying backwards with a strong kick. He slammed into a tree before flying back towards her, sword raised before him, wearing a terrible visage of hatred. Xena twirled the katana expertly, impaling the ghost upon it using his own momentum. Yodoshi let out an awful scream and dropped to his knees as his killer unsheathed her sword from his body with a sickening slurp. Whirling around with a cry, she beheaded him in one swift stroke.
***
The urn sailed through the air in an arc before falling... into Gabrielle's hand. She clutched it tightly to her chest and breathed a sigh of relief, then began the grueling climb back up. The sun was beginning to set...
***
Xena's eyes widened as the thousands of spirits that Yodoshi had consumed began to glide free from his corpse. The glowing, jellyfish like spirits darted around the warrior before soaring into the air. One, however lingered behind the others...
***
Gabrielle finally reached the top, hoisting her tired, aching body over the ledge. She hurried towards the fountain, but stopped as she saw the samurai standing before her. He was the general of the army that defeated Xena, whom Gabrielle had killed just hours before. She had denied him an honorable death by refusing to behead him. Now he stood with his sword pointing towards her wrathfully.
"I deserved the dignity of a warrior."
Gabrielle looked towards the west, knowing that if she paused to fight him, it would be too late to save Xena. In that moment, she made a decision.
"Dignity huh?" She lifted the chakram off of where it rested on her hip. "Like you showed my friend?" Green eyes hardened with resolve, and she let the chakram fly... like she'd seen Xena do so many times in the past. It struck his temple, rebounding off the rock wall before she caught it, amazement colouring her features as she stared at the round weapon. The only other person who had been able to use the weapon was Xena. Glancing at the sky once more, she hurried towards to fountain of strength.
***
The face of a young girl appeared on the lone spirit that hovered before her.
"Xena..."
"Akemi."
"You've redeemed me... you've redeemed them..." A joyful voice rang out. "You've redeemed yourself."
"Go in peace, Akemi." Xena replied as the little ball of swirling energy floated away with the others, "We'll meet again... one day..."
***
Poised, leaning over the fountain, Gabrielle removed the lid from the urn with shaking hands. She moved to tip the contents of the small bronze pot into the clear water, only to be stopped by a firm but gentle hand.
"No Gabrielle..."
"Xena?" She turned to the warrior in confusion.
"No..."
"Xena, the sun is setting." The bard said urgently, "I have to bring you back."
"No," Xena's hand guided Gabrielle's in closing the lid, "Not if it means condemning the souls of the forty thousand who burned at Higuchi."
"The souls are free?" Confused eyes scanned Xena's face.
"Free from Yodoshi's grasp... Akemi didn't want to tell me this incase I wouldn't come back to help..." She paused, "But for those souls to be released into a state of grace, they must be avenged." Xena explained softly, "I must stay dead..."
Gabrielle opened her mouth, unsure of what to say. "But...if I bring you back to life..." she trailed off.
"The souls will be lost forever."
The younger woman's eyes filled with tears and she closed them angrily, turning away. "Xena..."
The warrior could only watch sorrowfully as her beloved dealt with the harsh, painful truth.
"That is not right." The bard protested, turning to face her again.
A tear trickled down Xena's cheek.
"I don't care..." she whispered pleadingly, causing Xena to give a small, sad smile, though in her heart Gabrielle already knew what she had to do. "You're all that matters to me." Tears ran freely from her eyes.
"Don't you know how much I want to let you do this?" Xena stared intently at her love, "But if there's a reason for our travels together... it's because I had to learn from you enough to know the final, the good, the right thing to do." She stopped, overcome with tears. "I can't come back," she whispered, "I can't..."
Gabrielle dipped her head, finally accepting what had to be, painful though it was. She sat down beside the fountain. "I love you Xena." She looked to the warrior, "How am I supposed to go on without you?"
"I'll always be with you Gabrielle." She replied as the bard rested her blond head on Xena's shoulders. She leaned into Gabrielle's embrace. "Always."
They watched their last sunset together, tears shining in both pairs of eyes. All too soon, the sun dropped below the horizon, and Xena bowed her head, eyes closed as she began to shimmer and fade...
"Xena..."
The warrior opened her eyes. Why was she still here? The sun had set completely, leaving them in darkness.
"Xena?"
"Yes Gabrielle?"
"You're still here." A hesitant hand touched her face.
"I know."
***
Gabrielle stood on the deck of the ship, holding the urn in her hands while looking out to sea. "A life of journeying has brought you to the farthest lands, to the very edges of the earth..."
A hand was placed on her shoulder. "And to the place where I'll always remain - your heart."
Gabrielle smiled warmly at the warrior.
"So where to now?" asked Xena.
Gabrielle stayed silent for a moment. "Xena..."
"Hmm?"
"Seven's ashes are still in that cabin..."
The warrior was silent. The unexpected reminder of their dead friend brought back painful memories, long buried.
"Harukata told me that the ashes had to be sprinkled in the fountain by the second sunset after death." Gabrielle furrowed her brow; "It's been a far longer time than that..."
"And you think it's still possible to bring her back?"
"I think Harukata was lying."
"Why would he lie?"
"Xena, think about it. From the very start, he held a grudge against you... he blamed you for the forty thousand people who died in the fire." Gabrielle explained her thoughts, "He must have thought that it would take me much longer to get your ashes, and that I would give up after the second sunset had passed."
Xena thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, that would ensure that the souls would be avenged, letting them move onto a higher plane."
"...and it would explain why you didn't disappear after that second sunset..."
"That means Seven still has a chance." The warrior smiled.
"Yes." Gabrielle grinned at her, eyes bright with hope "I knew their story wasn't finished... Now we have a chance to bring them back together."
"We have a problem though." Xena added.
"What?"
"How do we get B'Elanna back here?"
*******
Her head was nestled snugly in a warm lap while soft hands stroked her hair. The brilliant blue sky was unmarred by clouds and the sun bathed her bare body in golden warmth. A gentle breeze caressed her skin and caused the grass she was lying in to ripple, tickling her. Closing her eyes, she was lulled to sleep by a beautiful voice singing to her. The tune was hauntingly familiar, though she did not understand the words - she only knew that the ethereal lyrics were for her, issued from the throat of a goddess. Everything was a warm, blissful haze... she felt safe here, she was happy.
"B'Elanna..."
Her eyes slowly fluttered open to see a pair of intense blue eyes looking back at her.
"Who are you?" she found herself asking, even though she'd seen the woman a thousand times before - and had asked the question a thousand times over.
"Don't you know who I am, Be'nal?"
As always, she did not have a chance to answer. The ground began to shake ominously, and in an instant, the sky turned dark. Lightning flashed, splitting the sky in a jagged streak as rain began to fall, piercing her skin like billions of icy needles. B'Elanna stood up, unsure of what to do as the muddied ground began to slide away from under her feet. She scrambled away from the unstable earth as the mudslide began to carry everything away. A split began to form as she watched, and soon a wide chasm gaped at her feet. Where was her blonde goddess? She looked about frantically, eyes widening as she finally located her - about to fall over the edge of the chasm. She slogged through the mud towards the woman, but it held her back, sucking her down. She growled in frustration and charged on, knowing that she had to save her. The half Klingon cried out in relief as her hand caught hold of the other woman's wrist and gripped on with a fierce desperation. The elements were working against them, however. The ground continued to shake and lurch, each jolt almost wrenching B'Elanna's arm out of its socket. The rain made their grip slippery and she found herself unable to hold on - slowly, but inexorably her hand began to slide away until they were only holding on by the fingertips. Looking into the woman's calm blue eyes, time seemed to be frozen as her fingers began to lose their tenacious grip...
B'Elanna's eyes flew open, and she sat up breathing heavily. The engineer ran her hands through her sweat-drenched hair, trying to stop shaking. It was the fifth time she'd had that nightmare this week... they were turning her into a nervous wreck. She now dreaded going to sleep; knowing that she would be awakened every time by the dream. Why was this happening? She'd hadn't had this dream for six years... in fact, the last time had been... it had been the day before Seven died. She immediately cut off that train of thought. No thinking of Seven. She sighed and leaned back, tucking her legs up against her chest. Closing her eyes, B'Elanna tried to calm her racing hearts, and wondered why it was all coming back to haunt her now.
Perhaps it was because she'd been working closely with Borg technology recently, and it had brought back painful memories of her lost love. It had been a busy day at work - the new model she'd been working on was almost ready to be tested. It was a new project that was a melding of Federation and Borg technology - the first Starfleet vessel to travel at transwarp speed. The little ship was B'Elanna's pride and joy; she'd been working on it for almost four years now, and soon, it would be completed.
The first two years after they returned to the Alpha quadrant was spent wandering aimlessly, wanting to give up on life. She'd traveled from planet to planet, never really settling down anywhere... she hadn't even kept in touch with any of the Voyager crew. Janeway had eventually tracked her down and talked to her at length... she had finally told Kathryn the entire story then, and it was as if a huge weight had been lifted off her chest. "You promised Seven that you'd live... but would she want you to be living like this?" Janeway had asked her. It was what finally made B'Elanna pull herself together. After that, she'd joined Starfleet's newly formed Research and Design Department, designing and improving new ships - something she truly enjoyed because it allowed her to be creative, while providing a challenge for her engineering skills. She was not happy, but at least she had finally stopped thinking about Seven's death and moved on. Hadn't she? If so, then why the hell were these dreams coming back? B'Elanna sighed in frustration and turned over, pulling the covers up. The half Klingon viciously shoved her troubled thoughts into the back corner of her mind, she had to get some sleep - tomorrow would be another busy day.