In the Valley of Disregard: Prologue

Disclaimer: This all belongs to Renaissance Pictures and Universal. I wish I could say it was all mine. Truly I do. But I'm just borrowing this wonderful world with all due respect.
Title: In the Valley of Disregard
Author: LadyRowan (rowandarkstar@gmail.com)
Rating: Mature
Spoilers: Through "When Fates Collide"
Categories: Angst, hurt/comfort, Xena/Gabrielle, hints of Xena/Ares UST
Summary: What if Caesar clipped the wrong thread?


Huge thanks to my beta squad: Teddy E, Elsie Austin, and AnnaK (and to TriciaByrne and Tularia for the best of intentions :))


IN THE VALLEY OF DISREGARD
by
Lady Rowan
Copyright (c) 2008


"Who am I, to break this young girl's heart
How the mighty rise and fall"
-- 'Shining' by Kristian Leontiou


Prologue



I deserve to burn in Tartarus for what I've done. I deserve to burn for eternity and never be cleansed of the pain I have caused.

I have spent my life devoted to a path of peace, a path of caring and compassion for my fellow man. I fashioned myself the warrior princess's flame of hope in her ever threatening darkness. She believed in my light and fashioned herself unforgivable. But I look at us now, and I think we had it all wrong. Hers is the soul of eternal light, ever fighting, ever determined not to be doused by the darkness. Childlike, resilient, and so very beautiful.

While my soul -- my soul, at its core, is a mature and deliberate shade of black, capable of such intimate cruelties as Xena in her simple and misguided lust for security would never imagine.

I am the darkness.

And I deserve to burn through eternity in Tartarus for what I've done.


*****


(End Prologue. Continued in Chapter 1...)