Author’s Note:This is my first try at alternative Fanfic writing, and is also my first try at writing a full story in English.
The story is inspired by an RPG (Role Play Gaming) storyline I have from a Star Wars RPG club. Damie and Ricky, my characters (who are as a matter of fact based on Xena and Gabrielle), are two members of the “Aurora Force” squad of the club called “Rebel Squadrons”. After traveling together for a couple of years, Damie and Ricky have discovered that their love was more than just a love of two best friends, and then an entire storyline starts that is based on that, and is the origin of the next story, thus I wouldn’t tell you anything else about it in order not to spoil your reading.
When thinking about the limitations of transferring a Star Wars High Tech Science Fiction universe into the old mythological Xenaverse, I asked myself if I wanted to make this an Uber story or not (Uber means taking the characters to the present day). Eventually, finding absolutely no way to put the storyline the way I wanted to, I have decided to make this an Uber story after all.
Also, I define the story as “Alternative”. And while it does not contain any extreme sexual imagery, it does contain some light sexual descriptions. The reason I defined this story “Alternative” is due to its alternative (literally) nature, and has nothing to do with the Xenaverse’s definition of “Alternative Fanfiction”.
Note that since this story is fictional (well, duh!), all of the “Military regulations and rules” in the story are of course made up.
So between my shallow English, my US-military ignorance, the so-called alternative story and the Uber, I hope you enjoy the story!
-Elad Avron
Dedicated with love to Liat Levi, who, among others, inspired me a lot, but is one of the only persons in this world who can stand me (and my craziness) day after day (or maybe not, but at least you’re trying ).
Also dedicated to Ayelet Yaari who helped me a lot with the storyline. Thanks for that, and for everything else you’ve done for me as a friend, and as what I consider family.
The one God of war
Written by: Elad Avron
Inspired by his own “Damie and Ricky” Star Wars RPG storyline.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Circumstances
“Come on Xena, please!!!!”
“No, Gabrielle! You’ve had enough!”
“But Xena, I can’t help it!”
“Gabrielle, I said no!”
“Xena, I really want it!”
“If you’re so hot for it, do it alone, you don’t always need me, you know”.
“Alone? How can I do it alone?”
“All you need is to be fast with your hands”.
“Xena, I’m not half as good as you are!”
“How can you know if you haven’t tried?”
“Oh I’ve tried, it’s not even close to being as good as when you do it”.
“Oh alright, but only a few more fishes!” Xena said and stepped into the river again.
She stood still with her eyes focused to a point up the river, and instantly she sent her hands into the water and pulled out a nice herring. She gave it to Gabrielle and caught another one.
“Come here now” she told her.
“Into the water?” Gabrielle asked.
“No, I want you to fly, of course to the water!” Xena said sarcastically.
Gabrielle took off her boots and walked into the water. Xena stood behind her and held her arms.
“Ok, now look up the river” she told her.
“Xena, what are...” she started.
“Common” Xena said. “Look up the river”.
Gabrielle bent forward, turned her head to her right and looked up the river.
Xena bent forward with her and turned her head as well, still holding her arms with her hands.
“Now open your palms” Xena said.
Gabrielle opened her palms and let go of her arms, letting Xena control them.
“Do you see that?” Xena asked.
“What?” Gabrielle asked.
“That trout, swimming towards us?”
“I only see the skies reflecting on water”.
Xena left Gabrielle’s arms and placed her hands on Gabrielle’s head, moving it a bit to the left, lowering her sight.
“Now?” she asked and grabber her arms again.
“Yeh!” Gabrielle smiled and turned her head up to Xena, and then looked back at the fish.
A moment passed, they both stood silent without moving, as suddenly Xena pushed Gabrielle’s hands into the water. Gabrielle instinctively closed her fingers, grabbing the fish in her hands.
“I got it!” she yelled with excitement. “I got it!”
Xena laughed with her and pulled Gabrielle’s arms out of the water with her own hands.
“See, you can do it” Xena said with a smile.
“Thanks” Gabrielle said and kissed her on the cheek. Xena’s arms closed around the bard, and with them the latter’s, leaving the little blond in the warrior’s hands. Gabrielle looked up at Xena and smiled.
“This is nice,” she said.
“Yeh” Xena said, and Gabrielle turned to her, putting her arms around Xena’s waist. Xena looked down at her bard and kissed her softly on the forehead.
“When are we due back?” Gabrielle asked and rested her head on Xena’s chest.
“Our leave ends in a few days” Xena replied.
“Must we go back?” she asked.
“The unit needs us” Xena sighed. “And if we don’t get back, we’re in for some trouble”.
“Yeh, well, it’s boring!” the bard complained. “Why do we have to teach cadets?”
“So they could fight? Besides, it’s safe” Xena thought. “It’s safer than a base in the southern border and being in a risk of getting shot all the time”.
“Safe? We’re immortal, Xena!” Gabrielle said as the warrior went out of the water and dried up in a towel.
“You’re coming?” she yelled to her.
“No, I want to practice this a little bit” Gabrielle yelled back.
“Good, with enough practice and concentration, you’d become good at this”.
Gabrielle smiled at her and looked back up the river. Xena went to their bags and took out the car keys. “I’m going back to the car to get you a towel as well”, she yelled.
“Thanks” the bard smiled at her and looked back up the river.
Xena walked about five minutes and arrived to where they parked their Ford Explorer, and opened the passenger door. She sat at the passenger seat and opened the glove compartment to look for something, as suddenly she jumped to the unexpected yell.
“Varuuuuuuuum” a voice yelled and made car noises.
“Very funny, Ares, scare me to death, why don’t ya?” she breathed, shut close the glove compartment and stepped off the car.
“This is the welcome I get?” he asked. “After such a long time?”
“Not long enough” she said. “It’s been like… What, two hundred years since we last heard from you?”
“Yeh, I’d say so” Ares leaned back on the driver seat. “Woh, this feels comfy”.
Xena opened the back door and grabbed a towel she left there the day before.
“So, what are you and Gabrielle doing in this desolate piece of nature?” he asked.
“Resting” she shut the door close and turned her back to him, going back towards the river. “So go away, we don’t want you here”.
Ares thought for a second and then walked out of the car, and after Xena.
“Do you still blame me for the death of Eve?” he asked knowing that the painful memory would probably make the princess hate him even more.
“Buzz off, Ares” Xena said and started walking fast.
“But I didn’t tell you what I came for!” he screamed at her, and teleported himself in front of her.
“I knew there was something. Spit it up, Gabrielle awaits me” she listened without patience.
“I have a preposition for you” he said.
“Not int…”
“I know,” he interrupted her. “Not interested, but hear me up. This might be your chance to get out of the boring life you two have”.
“Sigh. Ok, I’m listening” she said.
“Soon, I’m going to present myself to the world as who I really am”
“Huh!” she laughed at him.
“I am going to take control over this world, Xena. It’s as easy as that. The people of this earth are dying for God to come down to them, and so when he does….”
“Wait, you’re going to make them think you’re THE one God, as in from the bible?”
Ares smiled. “Yes, well Duh! They forgot all about us Olympians!”
“You know Ares, when Gabrielle and I got our immortality”, she started.
“And I my Godhood back” he completed her, both referring to that incident that happened so long ago.
“Well, I realized people never forget. They just stop caring”.
“Forgot, gave up, does it matter? The point is that the people of the world are so impatient for an answer, they wouldn’t give a virtual damn if it would be God or an alien UFO coming down from the sky… And if I am that answer they’re looking for, why not come down to them? Help them…. You know…. Organize the world”.
“The point is, Ares, that your kind of order is not the kind of order the world needs” the warrior was about to give up.
“There’s no better way, Xena”.
“You’re still claiming to be what you’re not, Ares. That never works”.
“And what if I told them I was Ares, the ancient Greek God of war, ha? Then the catholic would consider me Satan, or a demon, or whatever, and by trying to kill me they’ll only devastate themselves. And then what have you gained?”
“And if you tell them you’re God, they’re going to ask you to do things even you can’t do, and when they realize you’re not the almighty one God, but can still do all that Godly stuff, you’ll be tagged as “Demon” again, and there you have the same result again” she turned her back to him and walked back to Gabrielle.
“Oh ancient Greek immortal warrior princess of little faith” he mumbled.
“Ha, Ha!”
“This is going to change things, you know, whether it works or not” he said. “If you cooperate with me you can only gain. Any other way would only hurt you!”
“Bye, Ares!” she yelled back as she was getting farther.
“You’re going to regret this!” he yelled back at her, and disappeared with a blue cloud of pure divineness.
***
“You call this shooting?” Xena, or Major Joanna Best as everyone in the base knew her, asked to poor private.
“Sorry maam, must have been out of concentration” he replied with an embarrassed look.
“No, Private, had you been out of concentration you would have got at least one of the bullets, what you did here is statistically impossible!”
“Sorry, maam”
“If the God of war saw this he’d fry your sorry…”
“God of War, maam?” he interrupted her.
“Never mind private, just try again” she sighed.
“Maam, are you not Christian?” asked another soldier.
“My religious beliefs are none of your concern,” she sounded offended. “Now shoot another round, and this time hit, by the Gods!”
“Hey, Jo” Gabrielle called Xena as she entered the staff room.
“Hey, Gab” Xena dropped in a chair next to the bard and sighed.
“What’s the matter?” she asked her and gave her a cup of coffee.
“The soldiers are starting to pryabout my religious beliefs” she sighed.
“Are you one of those people who think God is mistaken for Aliens?” asked her Lieutenant Mike Fisher.
“Yeh Mikey, and I also believe you are one of them” she raised both her eyebrows as she does when being amused, and sipped from her coffee.
“Pity, now I’m going to have to kill you with my laser-gun!” he grabbed his bag and was about to leave the room.
“Don’t forget to hide before they beam you up!” she yelled at him before he left.
Just as he closed the door Xena changed her expression back to an angry frustrated look.
“Xena, are you alright?” Gabrielle asked as they were finally alone.
“Yeh, it’s nothing, it just annoys me how simple questions about religious can make these people sound so… arrogant. As if they know what they believe it true”.
“That’s the way religions are, Xena” Gabrielle said and held her lover’s hand. “But you know the truth, so why do you even pay attention to what they say?”
“I donno, Gabrielle, but in the past two thousand years millions over millions of people died in the name of religions both you and I know are not true”.
“You sometimes wish you could give them an answer, don’t you…” Gabrielle said and wondered about something, as suddenly Xena raised her face in surprise.
“What is it?” Gabrielle asked.
“That’s exactly what Ar…” she started, and realized it was too late to stop now.
“That’s exactly what Ares said to me when we were on vacation” she said.
“Ares?” Gabrielle said with surprise.
“Yeh, he wanted me to join him in another one of these ridiculous plans of his”.
Gabrielle stopped herself from asking ‘Did you agree’. She knew she trusted Xena, however the fact that she felt the need to ask made her uncomfortable.
“Don’t worry about it though,” Xena said. “You know him and his plans”.
“Yeh” Gabrielle said. “But what does giving the human kind an answer has to do with it?”
“Nothing you should worry about” Xena said and kissed Gabrielle’s hand. “Now let’s go punch out and go home”.
Gabrielle didn’t know what Xena was hiding, but she knew she could trust her. After all these years, she came to learn that even when Xena holds something back from her, it’s for her own good. It took a couple of centuries to come to accept that, but once she did the trust issues between the two were merely over.
***
On the southern side of the big LA Base, were the living quarters of the high ranked officers and their families. Just like a neighborhood, the people who lived there would go to work, in this case the military in the morning, and come back home in the evening. Thus, most of the people who got to have homes in the living neighborhood were people with desk jobs, but exceptions were made. Xena and Gabrielle, being combat training instructors, got an apartment of their own. Nobody ever asked why they lived together, but if they did, Xena and Gabrielle would just answer that they’ve been closest friends ever since kindergarten, and thus they’re like family. But there were a couple of secrets no one knew. Maybe two or three people knew they were lovers, but absolutely no one even thought they’re actually ancient Greek warriors who became immortal some two thousand years earlier.
Xena took the identity of Joanna Best, while Gabrielle enjoyed the fact her name was still common in some places in the world, and took the identity of Gabrielle DePadro.
They have three cats named Joxar, Autolycous and Iolus, and a bitch called Callisto. The pets pretty soon lived up to their names: Joxar would knock over things all the time, Autolycous would steal food from the neighbors, and Iolus would…. Well, Iolus would do nothing but eat and sleep, being the only one not to live up for his name. And as for Callisto, she would hunt the three miserable cats all day long. She knew well enough she couldn’t hurt any of them, but she still enjoyed the chase.
As for the names of the pets, it was a long on going tradition they had. Gabrielle’s first horse after they got their immortality she called Joxar, to make sure the memory of her friend doesn’t die with him. So every time they had a new horse, they’d call him after one of their old friends. They both were very nostalgic, yet the usually joked about it. For example, they had both Xena’s Chakram and Gabrielle’s swords hung in the living room above the fireplace. They would tell everyone these are replicas of ancient Chinese weapons, and that they’re not sharp enough to cut anything, when the truth was that they sharpened these as often as they could.
In the last two millenniums, Xena and Gabrielle had many friends, some better friends then others. Some of them even knew the truth about their immortality and their life history, before people stopped believing in these things. But no matter what, Xena and Gabrielle never forgot about their first friends, especially Joxar. Sometimes they’d meet up with Hercules (Who nowadays called himself Kevin Sorbo) when he wasn’t busy playing his role as “Superman” in the most famous syndicated show ever, Luis and Clark. Whenever the two would meet with him, they’d sit over a beer and bring up old memories of their old friends, family and adventures. Although sometimes, Gabrielle would have periods of deep depression whenever a memory would come up. It’d start with her thinking about the old times. Mostly after that, she would recall of Joxar, and then she would just forget all about it, not think about it at all until that very night, on which she’d dream about the adventures they had, and would recall of all of their friends. Then would come the depression of generally being immortal. Knowing you can’t stay in one place for more than ten or twenty years (which seemed like nothing), knowing that the friends you have you’re going to one day lose, knowing you will live to see eternity… At least she comforted herself with the fact they’d always have each other. It spared her the heartbreak of falling in love in a mortal, just so that one-day she’d have to see him go. And so whenever Gabrielle got one of those depressions, Xena would take her on a vacation to nature, to get away from the city, from work, from modern life… On the one hand it only made Gabrielle think even more about the old days. But on the other hand, this was a chance for Gabrielle to enjoy the simple life she loves and missed so much, and was also a chance for her to take everything out and deal with her sorrow.