Love Exists
Sep. 20th, 2016 08:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katleeptTitle: Love Exists
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Xena, Warrior Princess
Character/Pairing: Aphrodite, Xena/Gabrielle
Rating: PG-13/T
Challenge/Prompt:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
a_war_of_roses: Twisted Every Way (If you join, tell them Kat Lee of Team White Rose sent you!)
Warning(s): None
Word Count: 818
Date Written: 16 September 2016
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.)
Every night, she steals away from the protections placed all around her to visit her friend. A girl would think that her daddy's guards would eventually catch on, but you can't stop a Goddess once her mind is made up. So every night Aphrodite steals away to Earth, and each and every night, she observes, with a single glance, that her friend's heart is no closer to mending than it was the first night they lost their Princess.
Aphrodite smiles at the thought. Xena would be pissed if somebody called her a Princess to her face. To her way of thinking, she was always everything but. The Goddess of Love can see through illusions, though. She can easily and clearly see straight to the heart of every being, which is why, even if Gabrielle's face wasn't streaked with tears, if she wasn't tossing and turning and crying out Xena's name, she'd know the girl was still heartbroken with only a glance.
They say you can't get over a Princess. Aphrodite knows that's wrong just as she knows that Xena was a Princess. She was a Princess forged a battle with no real birth right to rule over a kingdom or make her the belonging of a King or Queen, but she was a Princess nonetheless. She rose from ashes to become the protector of her people and her land, and that was what made her a Princess. She had stopped at nothing, even her own death, to protect and save her own people. The only reason death finally stopped her was because her murderers did unspeakable things to her remains.
Aphrodite shudders at the memory, a cold feeling stretching through her belly. With barely a thought, her outfit changes from pink lace to black leather. Xena would never have admitted it, but love was her driving force. She was as much Aphrodite's as she had been her brother's if not more. But they'd all been told not to intervene. They're not as strong as they were in the old days, but she could have helped. She could have done more than help except that she was afraid of the fate that would befall her.
But she's the Goddess of Love. If she won't stand up for love in a world so full of cruelty and hate, who will? "Xena!" Aphrodite turns, with tears rising in her darkening blue eyes, to where Gabrielle even now is contorting in pain and calling out for her love. You can get over a Princess, Aphrodite knows, but you never really get over losing the other half of your soul, and Gabrielle and Xena were two parts of one soul if ever Aphrodite had seen soul mates.
"I'm sorry, Gabby," the Goddess whispers a plea for forgiveness to her only two real friends. "I should have done this long, long ago." It takes only a thought for her to turn back time and another to take Gabrielle to the moment she dreams every night. Wind blows sand across the Goddess' face. She turns into it to watch as Gabrielle again cries out Xena's name.
"Oh, no, no, no! What have they done to you?" she murmurs, crying, as she runs over the shifting sand and falls beside her love.
But this time, although it looks bad, Xena's head is still attached to her shoulders. Her wounds are already healing. Her heart, when Gabrielle lays her ear against her chest, is still beating. "Xena! Xena! Come back to me!" She shakes her.
Aphrodite smiles through her tears as she watches all of this. She sees Xena's bright blue eyes open again. She hears the anguished scream of the Fates. She senses the power coming after her. Still, she stands, watching. A love as bright and pure as her friends' shoulder never be destroyed, and now it won't be.
She watches, tears falling down her face, as Xena and Gabrielle embrace. Then she feels a power stronger even than her father's wrap its icy, demanding fingers around her. She wipes the tears from her eyes and, as Xena taught her, doesn't let any more fall as she's swept away from that time and place.
The being thinks it can squish her. It thinks it can replace all the Gods. Maybe it can stop the others, but there are forces in this world that will never be stopped. The Goddess of Love is taken quietly from this world, her sacrifice for her friends making her an easy target, but what her replacement doesn't realize is that love still exists.
It still exists, and it's shown every day between a Warrior Princess and her bard. It still stops wars, although it sometimes starts them too. It still saves lives. Love still exists in the world, and every time it is shown, somewhere, a certain Goddess smiles for as long as love exists so, too, does its Goddess.
The End
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Xena, Warrior Princess
Character/Pairing: Aphrodite, Xena/Gabrielle
Rating: PG-13/T
Challenge/Prompt:
a_war_of_roses: Twisted Every Way (If you join, tell them Kat Lee of Team White Rose sent you!)Warning(s): None
Word Count: 818
Date Written: 16 September 2016
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.)
Every night, she steals away from the protections placed all around her to visit her friend. A girl would think that her daddy's guards would eventually catch on, but you can't stop a Goddess once her mind is made up. So every night Aphrodite steals away to Earth, and each and every night, she observes, with a single glance, that her friend's heart is no closer to mending than it was the first night they lost their Princess.
Aphrodite smiles at the thought. Xena would be pissed if somebody called her a Princess to her face. To her way of thinking, she was always everything but. The Goddess of Love can see through illusions, though. She can easily and clearly see straight to the heart of every being, which is why, even if Gabrielle's face wasn't streaked with tears, if she wasn't tossing and turning and crying out Xena's name, she'd know the girl was still heartbroken with only a glance.
They say you can't get over a Princess. Aphrodite knows that's wrong just as she knows that Xena was a Princess. She was a Princess forged a battle with no real birth right to rule over a kingdom or make her the belonging of a King or Queen, but she was a Princess nonetheless. She rose from ashes to become the protector of her people and her land, and that was what made her a Princess. She had stopped at nothing, even her own death, to protect and save her own people. The only reason death finally stopped her was because her murderers did unspeakable things to her remains.
Aphrodite shudders at the memory, a cold feeling stretching through her belly. With barely a thought, her outfit changes from pink lace to black leather. Xena would never have admitted it, but love was her driving force. She was as much Aphrodite's as she had been her brother's if not more. But they'd all been told not to intervene. They're not as strong as they were in the old days, but she could have helped. She could have done more than help except that she was afraid of the fate that would befall her.
But she's the Goddess of Love. If she won't stand up for love in a world so full of cruelty and hate, who will? "Xena!" Aphrodite turns, with tears rising in her darkening blue eyes, to where Gabrielle even now is contorting in pain and calling out for her love. You can get over a Princess, Aphrodite knows, but you never really get over losing the other half of your soul, and Gabrielle and Xena were two parts of one soul if ever Aphrodite had seen soul mates.
"I'm sorry, Gabby," the Goddess whispers a plea for forgiveness to her only two real friends. "I should have done this long, long ago." It takes only a thought for her to turn back time and another to take Gabrielle to the moment she dreams every night. Wind blows sand across the Goddess' face. She turns into it to watch as Gabrielle again cries out Xena's name.
"Oh, no, no, no! What have they done to you?" she murmurs, crying, as she runs over the shifting sand and falls beside her love.
But this time, although it looks bad, Xena's head is still attached to her shoulders. Her wounds are already healing. Her heart, when Gabrielle lays her ear against her chest, is still beating. "Xena! Xena! Come back to me!" She shakes her.
Aphrodite smiles through her tears as she watches all of this. She sees Xena's bright blue eyes open again. She hears the anguished scream of the Fates. She senses the power coming after her. Still, she stands, watching. A love as bright and pure as her friends' shoulder never be destroyed, and now it won't be.
She watches, tears falling down her face, as Xena and Gabrielle embrace. Then she feels a power stronger even than her father's wrap its icy, demanding fingers around her. She wipes the tears from her eyes and, as Xena taught her, doesn't let any more fall as she's swept away from that time and place.
The being thinks it can squish her. It thinks it can replace all the Gods. Maybe it can stop the others, but there are forces in this world that will never be stopped. The Goddess of Love is taken quietly from this world, her sacrifice for her friends making her an easy target, but what her replacement doesn't realize is that love still exists.
It still exists, and it's shown every day between a Warrior Princess and her bard. It still stops wars, although it sometimes starts them too. It still saves lives. Love still exists in the world, and every time it is shown, somewhere, a certain Goddess smiles for as long as love exists so, too, does its Goddess.
The End
