“Don’t do this, Kael,” Lao Ma warned.

“Just stay outta my way.”

Lao Ma stood her ground as the footsteps came ever closer. Kael raised the weapon, aiming for the doorway. Two men came into view, their faces blank tableaus, upon which murder was ready to be written in blood.

Kael squeezed the trigger and the men fell to the floor, to be replaced quickly by two more. One of the men managed to get off a shot before his head exploded in a fountain of blood.

His partner was smarter, using the dead body as a shield. Pushing the corpse into the room, he waited until the American woman ducked out of the way, then fired.

Kael felt the sting of a bullet as it whizzed by her ear, missing her by a hairsbreadth, at most. Her grin widened. “You couldn’t hit the Great Wall, four eyes,” she taunted, before ending his life with a perfect shot to the heart. The man fell soundlessly, his weapon clattering to the floor.

Three more men advanced, spraying automatic weapons’ fire into the room, chewing through the walls and artwork that had stood in the once pristine room.

Kael managed to get the first two and was drawing a bead on the third, when her wrist was creased by a bullet, causing her arm to go numb. Her next shots went wide of their mark, allowing the third man, followed by a forth, and a fifth, to enter the room, their expressions grim.

The American tried to fire her weapon, but her hand wouldn’t work. She backed up slowly, eyes frantically searching for an escape.

Ming Dao entered at the end of the parade of armed muscle, his seamed face further creased in a mocking smile. “So, Ms. Androstos, we meet again. I had hoped to make your death a little more …painful …but you’ve cost me too many of my men already. The hunt has been fun, but I’m afraid it is time to say goodbye to the prey. Do you have any last words?”

Kael bared her teeth. “Eat shit.”

The drug lord threw back his head and laughed, gesturing for one of his men to finish the job.

He was dead before he’d even stopped laughing. The bodies of his remaining guards quickly joined him on the blood-pooled floor.

Her eyes wide with shock, Kael whirled to face a barely standing Geraldo, his weapon clasped loosely in one limp hand.

“I couldn’t let them kill you,” he gasped, slowly straightening as some color came back to his cheeks.

Kael looked at him for a moment, before turning her head to track down Lao Ma. “You can come out now,” she called. “The bad guys are all gone.”

When there was no answer, Kael dropped her gun and ran behind the bed where Lao Ma was sprawled, face down. Gasping, the tall woman squatted, turning the body over. “No,” she half-sobbed, taking in the shredded and blood soaked gown. “No! Lao Ma! No!!”

Panic stricken, she shook Lao Ma’s unresponsive body, then blindly reached for a pulse.

There was none. Lao Ma’s flesh was already growing chill.

“NO!” Kael screamed, gathering the dead woman into a tight embrace, burying her face in her mentor’s thick hair. “No!!!”

Sirens pierced the now-still air.

Geraldo limped painfully over to where Kael sat rocking Lao Ma in a fevered grip. “Help her,” his lover begged, her eyes sparkling with tears. “Please. I can’t lose her.”

“We need to go,” he said tightly, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. “The police are coming. We’ll be stuck here forever if they find us.”

“Help her, damn you!!”

“It’s too late! Kael, please! We have to go! Now!!”

“No! I won’t leave her!”

“You have to! I’ve gotten us passage out of the country. We must leave, Kael! We must!!”

“No. I won’t leave.” Looking down, Kael gently wiped a strand of hair clinging to Lao Ma’s full lips. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, sobbing. “Lao Ma, I’m so, so sorry. Please, come back to me. Please.”

The sirens came closer. Squealing tires were heard as the cars skid to a stop on the wet pavement outside the establishment.

“There’s no more time, Kael,” Geraldo warned, grasping her arm and trying to pull her to her feet.

“Leave me alone, damnit!”

“I can’t! I won’t! Lao Ma is dead, Kael. There’s nothing more you can do for her. “We need to get away. Now!”

Kael looked from the dark man to the dead woman, listening as the sounds of car doors slamming and men yelling penetrated the thick walls of Lao Ma’s home. She bowed her head, placing a last, tender kiss on the woman’s soft brow. “You’ll always be a part of me, Lao Ma,” she whispered, stroking the long, jet hair for the last time.

Slowly, her eyes hardened to arctic ice. She released Lao Ma, then stood.

“Let’s get the fuck outta here.”

END OF SECTION TWO

DESERT STORM

Part 10

by: SwordnQuill

Disclaimers: The characters of Xena, Gabrielle, Lao Ma, Alti, Borias, and everyone else who sounds familiar belong to Pac Ren and Universal Studios. I am not making money off of this story.

Genre Disclaimer: Ok. Bear with me, please, because this is kinda tough to explain. Sometime last year, I read a story on the internet that moved me so much, I was inspired to write a sort of companion piece to it. That story was “Lost Soul Walking” by DJWP. In her words, “This is NOT UberXena fiction. It just starts out like it is.” The same can be said for this piece. While not directly related to “Lost Soul Walking”, “Desert Storm” can be considered a sort of prequel to it. It is a story, if you will, about the lifetime before the one depicted in that fabulous, outstanding story. (Can you tell I loved it?) In addition, this is somewhat of an ambitious piece of fiction, in that I am attempting (don’t know if I’ve succeeded, but I’ve attempted) to take the entire X:WP universe and modernize it. We start, in updated terms, with my version of Xena’s betrayal by Caesar (seen in “Destiny”), and continue up through the X:WP episode known as “Remember Nothing”. The plot will be very recognizable to you. It’s meant to be that way.

Special note: Because of this, Gabrielle does not appear, except in offhand mention, in a great deal of the first half of this story. Do not look for her, because you won’t find her. After all, she was not a part of ‘evil Xena’s’ life. If she were, things might have turned out differently, but because this is based on the premise of “Lost Soul Walking” it cannot happen differently. Gabrielle will, however, make her presence known, and that quite strongly, in the second half of the story. If you can hang on till then, I believe that you will not be disappointed.

Sexuality and Violence Disclaimers: We’re dealing with an updated dark Xena through much of the first half, and an updated redeemed Xena through the second. There’s gonna be violence. There are gonna be naughty words. There are also descriptions of sexual activity in this work. There are allusions to heterosexual sex, but nothing graphic. There are some graphic (though I hope tasteful) scenes of sexual expression between women as well. That is how I see the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle, and that is how I will continue to write it.

And, finally, thanks: To, as always, the incomparable Mike. A better beta and a better friend one could never hope for. Thank you also, as always, to Mary D, who rescued this story from the refuse heap and begged me to keep going on it. If you hate it, blame her. <w> Grateful and heartfelt appreciation goes out to DJWP, for continuing to write stories that grab me somewhere above the liver and giving her kind permission to mention her story in these disclaimers. If you haven’t read her stories, please, do yourself a favor and do so. Finally, this story is dedicated to a group of people without whom I would most probably be living on the streets. Elizabeth, Rachel, Sulli, and the rest of the “Get Sue to Atlanta” crew, this one’s for you!

Feedback: As always is gratefully appreciated. If you wrote to me regarding “Redemption” during the month of September to early October and I haven’t responded, please allow me the honor of apologizing in public. It was then that I was at my lowest point and making ready to move to my new home. Your words of praise and encouragement for my writing kept me firmly out of the pit of depression I was falling into and I shall be forever grateful to each and every one of you who took the time out to feed this bard. And for those of you patiently (or not so patiently) waiting for Redemption’s sequel, fear not, for with the conclusion of this piece, that piece will be started. Any and all who wish to may write me at SwordnQuil@aol.com. I’ll continue to do my best to answer each and every email. An exploding mailbox is a good thing to have. Thanks again!

DESERT STORM

by: Sword’n’Quill (Susanne Beck)

PART THREE: Adventures in the Death Trade

“Help me. And I will make you Destroyer of Nations.” Alti: Adventures in the Sin Trade

23 December 1991 Rodriguez Compound Medellin, Colombia

With only two days to go before Christmas, Medellin was ablaze in the colors of the season. Churches, storefronts and houses all displayed their finery in preparation for the holiday’s celebration.

Within the heavily walled confines of the Rodriguez compound, however, the air was more funerary than festive. The bedroom, in particular, had taken on the look of a dismal cavern. Heavy curtains masked the large windows, blocking out the bright Colombian sun. In the fireplace, a cheerless fire blazed, the flames’ light reaching out and turning a glass of Cabernet sitting on the table the color of freshly spilled blood.

Kael sat slumped in a chair facing the fireplace, staring blindly into the flames as if trying to divine the meaning of her existence from the shifting patterns of light and shadow.