Summary: This story shows a possible outcome of what happened to Gabrielle after Xena's death in A Friend In Need. After Xena died, Gabrielle is heartbroken, will she be able to move on and love again? Or will her world end with the life of her soulmate.

Disclaimer: Xena and Gabrielle and the other characters from Xena, The Warrior Priness don't belong to me. I'm just borrowing them for this story. Which makes me sad, but, Alexandria does. So at least I have one kick ass chick to my name.

I have used the lyrics to two songs in this fanfiction. The Story by Brandi Carlile and A Thousand Years by Christina Perri do not belong to me. I am also just borrowing them for this.

Violence: There will be violence, I mean, it's Xena. It's not overly graphic, but enough to make you cringe in certain parts. There is also a lot of offensive language.

Subtext: Subtext is maintext in this fanfiction. There will be graphic scenes of two women making love, and having sex. Lots and lots of angst and romance. If this bothers you, then you might want to stop reading this now, or you can open your mind and continue.

If you are under the age of eighteen, or this type of story is illegal where you live, then close stop reading now. Close the page.

Author's Note: This is my first Xena fanfiction, and it shows what could have happened to Gabrielle after Xena died in A Friend in Need. You may be confused for the first few chapters, but everything will start to come together eventually.

Comments are very much appreciated.

If you wish to send them to me, my email is jacklavigne13@hotmail.com

Enjoy the show! Or so to speak.

In Need Of A Friend

By jacklavigne

Prologue

They say when you lose the one you love, it's like having your heart ripped out of your chest. They were wrong.

It was so much worse.

It felt like my heart had exploded in my chest, tearing up my insides, pulling a scream of pure anguish from my throat. My head was throbbing from the amount of tears I had cried, and my throat was raw from sobbing and screaming at the Gods, or what was left of them anyway. My body ached from lying on the hard wood on the deck of this ship, as it drifted out to sea, in no particular direction, a bit like my mind, which seemed to have left me over the past couple of days.

I held the marble urn that contained my lovers ashes tightly to my chest, my knuckles white with strain from having gripped it for so long. I still couldn't believe it. That something so breakable could contain something so powerful. That everything that was once the most feared warlord in the Known world was now contained inside something so small.

Though people used to ask me a similar question. How did I, a little slip of a girl, manage to tame the beast that was The Warrior Princess, Destroyer of Nations. I'd just laugh and tell them that you could break a horse with a whip, but to gain it's trust, you only needed a gentle hand. Though I never broke Xena, I did manage to calm the rage in her heart, and soothe her damaged soul with my touch and softly spoken words.

But now she was gone, she had left me, her soul flying up to the Heavens, without me.

And suddenly I felt a white hot burst of anger and betrayl.

How dare she leave me! When she promised that she never would, not even in death. She swore that I was her everything, her soulmate, her one and only. And yet she didn't even think twice about dying, about leaving me here to live out the rest of my life on my own, while she laid in the Fields of Paradise. It was for the greater good, she said.

Well, fuck the greater good! And fuck Akemi for sending for her, and fuck the forty thousand souls that were to be lost forever without the death of my warrior.

All I wanted was Xena, in my arms where she belongs. My lips on hers, our fingers entwined, and our hearts beating as one.

But she's gone. And I'll never again feel her in my arms, while my heart still beats. Never hear her whisper my name, when i'm awake and not dreaming. Never feel her touch which brought me such pleasure.

I don't know how I can possibly go on without her. I have wondered whether I should just take my own life, throw myself over board and let myself sink in the water, so I can join her, but I cannot. I already promised Xena years ago, that if it came to this, I wouldn't spill my own blood. I just never thought it would be this hard.

I have no one now. She's gone. I'm alone. Empty.

I wonder if the emptiness can ever be filled? I doubt it.

A friend in need, is what I am. A friend in need of a friend, that no longer breathes.

To be continued in Chapter One.

 

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