The Last Ever Episode of Xena Warrior Princess: Final Scene.
by Trisha Von Doss, aka Xenamour
Standard Disclaimers -
These characters are owned lock stock and barrel by The Powers That Be at Renaissance
Pictures, Universal MCA, and their various and sundry associates and affiliates.
No infringement on the copyright holders of these characters is in any way intended.
My sole wish is to share, through my humble efforts, my hopes, dreams, and fantasies
for the Incredible Beings so lovingly created by the staff of Gifted Individuals
at Renaissance Pictures.
~
Of course there are some pretty dusty hidden corners of this marginally balanced
intellect of mine... and who knows... someday I may even develop a few of my
own peripheral characters.
~
Subtext - It bothers me a bit that I even have to make a disclaimer here. I
don't see too many disclaimers for stories with implied heterosexual relationships
floating around and I am inclined to follow suit. However, until such a time
as people can accept each others sexuality with reciprocal respect, it is evidently
expected that we who view the Bard and the Warrior as more than friends warn
those of you offended by this of the presence of such a relationship within
the pieces we write. In any case, their's is surely one of the greatest love
stories of all time. It is my own personal belief that the emotional integrity
of that love should be maintained at all costs, no matter how one views the
physical aspect or lack thereof in this relationship. So if you have something
against love... this is not the story for you.
Emotional Content- Well I should blessed HOPE so.
The Last Ever Episode of Xena Warrior Princess
Final episode... Final scene...
Blades of newly born grass caressed by the gentle spring breeze, wave as if
in greeting to the world. The winter sun giving over its watch to its warmer
brother hangs a few candlemarks longer in the late afternoon sky. Newly returning
song birds, as if sensing the coming twighlight hour..slow thier fervently chirped
glee over the earths rebirth to an occassional warble. On a grassy knoll, underneath
the shade of a budding old growth oak, two women stand in silence...remembering
another time in this very place...when a young and impertenent woman-child offered
herself to slavers to save her sister and friends...and a lone warrior appeared,
as if from legend, to fight the slavers off and save them all.
The taller of the two, a sleekly muscled woman with raven hair and intense blue
eyes chews idly on the corner of her lower lip and stares intently into the
distance..the only outward sign of her knotted stomach. Her companion, a petite
and compactly built blonde leans with her back against the old oak, her head
turned in the direction of her friends gaze, her arms folded as if in protection,
over her heart. Her green eyes reflect a profound sadness. Unable to stand the
silence any longer...knowing that here...in the world of words... It is she
who must be brave... The blonde begins to speak...
"Xena... How long has it been... Not counting the Void I mean.. Six years? Gods!
Six years and a lifetime ago. So much has changed. I was just a little girl...
I still think of that sometimes and wonder why you ever let me come with you...
And how my life would have been if you hadn't."
Silence
Slowly...in a low and stilted tone reflecting the painful fear behind the words...
"Gabrielle... I... Do you ever regret it? I mean... I accpeted that it was what
you wanted...and that it was your decision... A long time ago. But there are
still times..." Narrowed blue eyes glance briefly into those of her friend and
then down...finding another more comfortable focus for her attention.
Unable to stand the emotional or physical distance any longer, the blonde reaches
out her hands and entwines them with those of the raven haired woman, pulling
her a step closer.
"Xena... Xena look at me..." Green eyes lower to meet blue as a gentle hand
raises a reticent chin, "You and I have talked about this before... You know
how I feel...how I have always felt. Yes...there have been times along the way
when I questioned the road I traveled with you...times when I doubted... myself
more so than you or our bond. I guess... I guess it's part of growing up...we
have to ask those questions or we follow blindly and never have faith in our
own journey. But you know as well as I do what the answer to those questions
has always been in the end... Yes. Yes this is right for me... Yes
this is where I belong... Yes... You... This ... Us... Is my Home. When it came
right down to it...there was never any other choice for me...all my heart wanted
was You. That is why I can't understand this...why now after everything we've
been through together...all we've meant to each other, you choose to leave me."
Unbidden tears begin to fall from blue eyes and green alike. Unable to stand
the thought that she is again causing this woman, her heart, more pain, Xena
closes the remaining distance between them and pulls Gabrielle into a gentle
but urgent embrace.
"Xena...talk to me...please...help me understand this...why? What could I have
done, after everything we have endured, that could be so horrible that you would
leave me now?"
As if reeling from a landed blow, blue eyes close tightly and the darker woman
momentarily falters to maintain her upright stance.
"No...no... Gabrielle...shhhh...shhhh... Don't cry... Please don't cry... You
didn't do anything wrong...it's me... It's always been me...don't you understand
that...after all this time...don't you know...you are my source...my heart..."
Voiced agony incarnate... "Then WHY?" Tears flow unchecked as small fists pound
thier frustration against the body in front of them... "Why Xena... Why Why
WHY?????
Larger hands reach smaller ones and stop them in mid flight. Lacking words to
express her need and her love and her pain... The Warrior leans forward, pressing
the smaller woman back against the tree and lowers her head to press her lips,
first gently, then ever more urgently to those of her beloved.
Quieted but unsatisfied the blonde continues her quest for the truth...
"Why Xena....tell me why." A statement, not a question.
Red rimmed and swollen at their effort in denying futher tears, blue eyes finally...
Openly... Meet green. It has always been this way hasn't it. You have never
allowed me my attempts at solitary exile...my punishment. Every time I try you
refuse me, pull me back from that abyss as if it would be your own.
"Gabrielle... I...I know you have wanted to be with me... I know it is what
you have chosen. Gods...so many nights I fought myself to turn you away...send
you home... Leave you somewhere remotely safe. In the end it was my selfishness
that kept me from doing it. I... I needed you... I needed your light...your
balance...your love. I couldn't see anything but darkness in myself...but you...you
saw something else...something I couldn't. I needed to be able to look in your
eyes and see that other person...an image I could try to live up to and maybe
somehow become in the processs."
Unable to interupt her soul mate's willing expression of her inner demons, Gabrielle
instead encouraged her... gently caressing Xena's hands in her own.
"But now...now I realize how selfish I have been for so long...and I realize
that if you are ever going to have a chance at another life... I mean, neither
of us is getting any younger...and if you want to have children... Other children
I mean... I can't give that to you... This life can't give that to you. There
have been times along the way you have asked me to think about settling down...
So don't tell me it isn't what you want... Because I know there have been times
at least when it has been. I just want you to have that opportunity".
A long pause.
Green eyes intently measured blue.
"Xena...do you want to leave me?"
"Gabrielle this isn't about what I want!"
"Xena answer the question... Do you want to leave me?"
Silence.
"Well if it isn't about what you want... Then let's talk about what I want."
"It's true there have been times when I wanted to settle down...like with Perdicus...when
I was running from the truth about what I wanted from you...or with Eve...because
I wanted her to be safe and because the idea of living a life where I was sure
the two people I loved most in the world would be safe was an attractive one."
"But given the choice... and I was given the choice Xena, more than once...
I would always choose to be with you...anywhere...than to be without you. And
that is not your choice to make...do you understand that. Actually it never
has been...even from the beginning...when I was just than persistently obnoxious
kid who refused to take no for an answer. And Xena... That is what I am doing
now too...I won't let you leave me."
Stiffening her upright stance and her resolve, the taller darker woman turns
away. Her eyes cold and hard...refusing reproach...forcing the desire to scream
her surrender once again down inside... She takes purposed steps away from the
smaller woman...whose searching eyes in near panick struggle to find the words
that will make her stop...make her stay...
"Xena... You can't just leave me here. I came all this way just to be with you.
Xena... I'm not cut out for this village life... I was born to do so much more.
You've got to take me with you...teach me everything you know."
Heavy feet still there movement. Erect shoulders slump forward ever so slightly...
A long silence... green eyes stare intently at the barely discernable change
in stance of the now idle figure...willing it to mean what she needs it to...
surrender...
"You know where I'm headed there'll be trouble."
"I know"
"Then why do you want to go into that with me?"
"That's what friends do, they stand by each other when there's trouble."
Blue eyes...tears overflowing...turn to meet green.
"C'mere friend."
Arm in arm the two figures walk into the twighlight, stopping on a distant hill
they turn one towards the other, silouhetted against the setting sun. Cupping
the smaller face in her hands, the taller figure gently pulls her soul mates
lips toward her own, meeting them in a gentle but lasting kiss.
Fade to black.