Disclaimer - Same old same old. I don't own em, the folks at Universal do. Just borrowing, no dinars made, will have them and the station wagon back as soon as the dance is done.

Warning - Don't read this if you're looking for romance or scenes of gentle loving. Pent up, pissed off ex-warlord on the loose. Explicit girl on girl on girl action to follow. Adult language used throughout, non-consensual sexual violence depicted.

Author's Note - This story takes place directly before the epilogue of the 4th season episode; The Crusader. Its all meant in fun and is this writer's thoughts on what really happened between the scene where Xena and Gabrielle led Najara into the trap and when they reappear in the non-descript village to hand the blonde zealot over to authorities.

Additional Note - Several hundred "worship" Klancy7 statues are now in commission for all major cities around Australia. It was the smallest gesture I could come up with to thank my online buddy and fellow smut writer for her inspiration and permission to use "the most fun a bard can have with a whip handle" theory, and to revise an image she herself used in Night Rage. Praise and renumerations good buddy. DA bows in awe.

Zero Tolerance

© 2000 Dark Angel.  

Gabrielle struggled desperately to free herself from the rope bindings, ignoring the increasing rawness around her wrists. It was a pointless task she realized, Xena had secured them firmly. The compact blonde's arms were stretched high above her head, her feet perfectly positioned in the very center of the thick piece of wooden beam. A torch glowed furiously off to the right of her, threatening to burn through the rope and supposedly drop her to her death. The only problem was, threaten was all the thickly woven twine was capable of doing. Like her purposely arranged stance as fake prisoner over the gorge, the torch was set at an angle that only gave the impression it was capable severing the cord. In reality it was no where near being any use to freeing her.

Still, she couldn't let herself give up. She knew she was in trouble, more importantly she knew Najara was in trouble too. The kind one generally didn't get up and walk away from.

"Xena," the bard shouted trying to project her voice into the inky depths of the grotto, keenly aware it may go unanswered like her previous attempts. Xena was furious and worse still, at least in the warrior's mind; she'd been humiliated in the worst possible way. Gabrielle knew her lover well. Anytime the once destroyer of nations got herself in such a state, it was only a matter of time before someone got their skull cracked. And that someone in this instance was likely going to be the blonde evangelist they had befriended not more than a quarter moon before.

Gabrielle sighed audibly and doubled her attempts to free herself from the bindings. Somewhere off in the darkness of the largely unexplored cave, Xena held Najara wavering on her own cliff edge. The one that divided rational thinking from murderous revenge.

One very angry, uncontained warrior princess flexed her shoulder muscles, firming the grip she held on her adversary's forearm and squeezing much harder than they both knew was necessary.

'I can stay in this position all day if I need to,' She thought absently, 'Well, that is if the fool dangling below stops wriggling about. One never can tell what kind of accidents can happen when you have some crazy woman attached to you over a bottomless pit.'

Her mind reeled with the sardonic self-dialogue that had been so common during her murderous reign as a warlord. It was the sort of thing that earned her the reputation of being beyond heartless and cruel. Najara was clearly beaten and the emptiness below them ensured she had no escape now other than plummeting to her death. Yet Xena wasn't prepared to let go of the woman who had clobbered her so badly earlier that day, who had mocked her and crossed boundaries with the warrior no sane person ever would have attempted. Najara needed to be taught a lesson. And if that meant she didn't survive past the fundamental rules of opposing the warrior princess, then there wasn't really much that could be done about it.

'Pull the bitch up? Or let her go?' Xena debated one more time before finally deciding she'd had enough of this game. It was time to start on the next important thing Najara needed to learn. With an unlabored motion, she pulled the blonde evangelist clear of the cliff edge.

The zealot's head spun and just for a moment she thought she would retaste her lunch. She was stunned, as she'd been expecting her life to end as she stumbled back into the gorge below. Then needing to grab hold of the rock face itself to prevent herself falling forever. But before she could register what was happening, her body was airborne, flying high above the warrior's head and then pulled earthward, deposited butt first in a clearing at the center of the cave. There was no time to get up, to run or even defend herself because just as abruptly the revenge bound ex-warlord had appeared to hover over to her prostrate body.

Xena's dark eyes gleamed despicably as her muddy boot rose a little before descending at lightening speed, grinding its heal hard against what possibly was a fractured jaw. She smirked openly at sounds of crunching flesh as bone ground together under her weight. A combination of bile and blood caused by a couple of lucky punches she'd intercepted herself swilled in the warrior's mouth, a reminder of their previous battle that day and how it had gone against her. She gathered the spew into a ball with her tongue and projecting it in one precision place spit, watching as it splattered just above a bloody half closed eye and the side of her boot.

As the recipient of the repulsive gesture, Najara could only moan, unable or unwilling to risk movement under her guise.

"You know, I'm right about your focus being off, Preacher," Xena remarked snidely, repeating the statement she made only moments before she backed the woman she guarded to her potential death. "But it took some time to work out why." The boot drew back and kicked forward. "Same reason why mine gets so twisted up around a certain bard."

Najara rolled her lower body up in a vain attempt to swallow the next blow to her rib cage. "It's why you were so cooperative about taking her off my hands in the first place, isn't it? - You wanted her for yourself."

The evangelist remained silent, laying crumpled and bleeding on her side, pain wracking her body in nauseating intervals. She kept her eyes fixed on the collection of mud and dung covering the warrior's boot. All her concentration was spent gauging the way the dark woman's weight shifted and looking for the opportunity that would allow her to bring the tall brunette down again.

It had all been a trap, one she was starting to realize Gabrielle had been more than willing to participant in.

At first, Xena had arrived at Najara's hideout content just to extract a little harmless revenge on her blonde nemesis - break a rib or two before handing her over to the authorities. But when she saw the condition of things inside the cave -the make shift bedding arrangements, Gabrielle in a state of partial dress - she realized her nagging suspicions about Najara's sickly sweet encouragement to leave the bard in her capable hands had been correct. It was one thing to be a lying, cheating, murderer; it was something completely different to be a lying, cheating murderer who coveted the warrior princess' mate.

"I won't ask you again," Xena threatened, increasing the pressure along Najara's fractured jaw line. Gods this woman pissed her off. "What were you doing in here with her before I arrived? Trying for a repeat performance of last night?"

"Teaching her about love, my friend," Najara responded as evenly as her voice would allow. "Something you know nothing about."

Xena heaved her weight back and kicked where she hoped it would do the most damage. "I'm not your friend, bitch. And believe me, neither is she."

"Suit yourself, warrior," Najara grimaced through clenched teeth. "I have memories of another story."

Xena's eyes narrowed to tiny slits as she hauled the smaller woman up, restraining her by what remained of her shirt clenched in her angry fist. Her captive had no choice but to be dragged along like a sack of corn till they were back in the illumination cast by the torch lights and be flung down again between her captor's boots.

"Gabrielle," Xena snarled at her partner. "Did this bitch touch you?"

Gabrielle chocked back her fear, well aware of the atrocities her lover was capable of.

"Xena...." she started to protest.

"Yes or no," The warrior cautioned.

Gabrielle finally nodded uneasily, knowing she was possibly sealing the other woman's death warrant. She didn't have to wait more than a breath to see what Xena would do with the new information. There was no way of preventing what she knew her lover saw as fair retribution. Again the warrior's boot was drawn back and propelled forward, delivering another bone crushing kick to the fallen woman's side.

Xena smirked at the anguish encasing the face and stooped down so she could inspect the bludgeoned body more closely.

"So, you look like a 'lick the honey from the pot' type of girl. Am I right, is that what you did?" She asked with a perverse kind of pleasure.

Najara tried to gather enough strength to turn her head away but it was a futile endeavor. The warrior was an animal and why Gabrielle insisted on being with her totally eluded the zealot.

"Ah! Don't go shy, preacher, the fun's just started," Her adversary assured her. "Tell me, is that what you did? Did you climb down between my bard's legs?" And she kicked her again.

Najara shut her good eye, refusing to be baited like this. Xena's upper lip twitched dangerously.

"You are and you did!" She concluded loudly. "But you see, that's where you went wrong. Didn't my beautiful slut tell you? She likes something a little less subtle than a tongue on her clit. Sure, she likes a talented tongue and all. But you know to get her screaming, you gotta fill her - totally."

In that moment, Gabrielle didn't know what was worse; falling to her death in the abyss below or having to witness the execution Xena would not be persuaded from. The bard redoubled her attempts to free herself, thrashing frantically in the ropes that kept her suspended.

"Xena, let me down and let's just go." She implored. "You've paid her back. The authorities are on the way. What more do you need?"

Xena ignored her lover. Instead she kneeled down further to tilt the battered face toward the torch light.

"Looks like you weren't paying attention, Preacher," She commented, running a bloodstained finger along the disfigured cheek. "Some of this looks like it could be permanent unless you get the right kind of treatment." She pressed hard against what looked like splintered bone just under the skin and Najara moaned.

"Xena, please. Let her go. It's done."

Xena eased up away from Najara, surprising the bard as she walked clear of her captive and over to the thin line of wooden plank that kept Gabrielle imprisoned. One muscled arm latched around her love's waist while the other extended the distance above her and worked the bindings loose.

Xena wrenched her down and off the beam, holding her meshed firmly against her hip as she maneuvered them both back over to where Najara lay unable to move.

"Tell her, Gabrielle. Tell her it takes more than a few well placed licks to get you screaming."

Gabrielle shook her head, not so much as a denial to the question but more as a warning she would not be willing to play along with the torture Xena seemed insistent on enacting. The warrior squeezed the fine features of the bard's cheeks till they are puckered together, pulling Gabrielle into her and ravishing her mouth as if she was feeding off her. Instinctively the shorter woman wrapped her arms around broader shoulders, allowing the building passion to possess her, hoping it would calm at least some of her lover's battle lust. From the corner of a down cast eye, she could see Najara had heaved herself up a little to get a better view. Gabrielle's fleeting thought was that she was taken by the sight as much it angered her.

"Show me how she did you!" Xena demanded, breaking off the ravenous kiss.

Gabrielle's eyes shot wide. Six simple words of instruction laced with the warrior's own growing need. Their kiss had not placated the warrior at all. It only seemed to ignite her desire further, driving her deeper into her own darkness. Xena had made no secret of her wish to see Gabrielle with another woman. She had gone as far as to whisper the fantasy on occasion when the two had been in the throes of their own merging. But it had never gone any farther than that. It was not for lack of opportunity but because down deep they both knew the ex-warlord would not be able to stand passively by and allow another to possess Gabrielle as she did.

Gabrielle struggled to break free of the stronger grip.

"Xena, no!"

Things had been very difficult between them lately but this went beyond reasoning even for Xena. She understood what Xena was proposing. She also understood it had little to do with pleasuring Najara. Xena had beaten the woman half dead, leaving only one purpose for the warrior's demand - to humiliate her.

Gabrielle knew she wanted more than roaming from village to village, finding murder and mayhem whether they were looking for it or not. To top it off, they'd been having 'sexual time out' from each other for the last couple of those months, which certainly didn't help. It also explained a lot of why Xena had let Najara get the better of her. Xena always was a little off when they weren't relating and totally impossible to deal with when she was going through her 'I'm no good for you' phase. That, for some ridiculous reason Gabrielle was sure even Xena didn't understand, also involved abstinence. It didn't mean they didn't love each other or that Gabrielle imagined being with anyone other than the dark goddess. Gabrielle had gone with Najara because she felt she had no choice. Xena had been beaten within an inch of her life and as much as she knew she couldn't stand the violence that hung about the warrior like a shroud any more, she couldn't let Najara kill her either.

"You don't want this. I know you're angry but believe me, love, you don't want..."

Xena looked at her lover exaggerating her disbelief. "I'm not angry, Gabrielle," She drooled. "If I was angry, you know she'd already be dead."

Gabrielle opened her mouth, searching for another angle to reason with her enraged lover - anything that would prevent what she knew Xena had full intentions of carrying out.

"Do it, Gabrielle, or I swear I'll gut her where she lays." The warrior ordered, kicking the zealots twisted legs apart.

Xena pushed her lover forward, forcing her down till the bard knelt between the parted limbs, taking up a position which would suit her purpose. She let her own hands roam over the coarseness of Gabrielle's skirt, molding the firmness underneath.

"Go on!" She hissed, aware Gabrielle had hesitated at the folds of silky trousers the preacher wore. Najara's brilliant and fixed pupils, a few shades lighter than Xena's own, locked on to the bard as she dared a quick look at their captive. The zealot's respiration appeared shallow, even and surprisingly relaxed but from their previous encounter, Gabrielle realized she was also experiencing the first pangs of early arousal.

"What you're doing will only drive you further away from the light," Najara offered lamely to the warrior, hoping her voice didn't betray the conflicting feelings starting to assert themselves. "Gabrielle understands that. That's why she can't stay with you any longer."

As the bard's hands hovered at the juncture of clothes, her words bore more truth than perhaps even Najara could fully comprehend. But Gabrielle also knew it was a different kind of light that they were all seeking - none of them were saints. Xena scoffed at the statement, growling as she continued to stroke under and around Gabrielle's opening. She had shut her eyes and thrown her head back so far that all Gabrielle could completely make out was the rapid rise and fall of her breasts in the torchlight. Gabrielle sighed, willing her fingers to unbutton the clasps on Najara's harem style pants, pulling the two separated sides apart to nuzzle the material down. She slid over firm hips, leaner than her lover's, till Najara's auburn mound was exposed. In truth it was the first time Gabrielle had seen the preacher's most private place. The events of the last evening had been stilted, uncomfortable and a little clumsy. She had allowed Najara to disrobe her under the blankets, enough to allow access between her legs but no more. She feigned modesty rather than reveal the truth that she felt compelled to be her bedmate rather than feeling any real desire.

Yes, she found the blonde evangelist attractive. She had even initially flirted with her but that had been only to get Xena's attention. Xena had done similar with her often enough including flirting with men. Always it had meant no more to either of them than the promise of an exquisitely animalistic pace of lovemaking where both reasserted ownership and enjoyed the pain that accompanied their remerging.

Gabrielle lowered her position over the downy patch of Najara's womanhood, blocking what view Xena may have originally had. She felt the sharp intake of breath from Najara as her movements created a slight breeze between their bodies. Tentatively, she kissed the tip of Najara's sex, flicking the mass of soft hair apart lightly with her tongue. Moisture formed almost as instantly as her touch, glistening and revealing the other woman's readiness.

From behind her, Gabrielle felt Xena's own ministrations through her skirt cease, her greater weight shifting as she turned away fidgeting with the contents of the blonde woman's saddle bag. The bard dared not look back, knowing her lover was succumbing to the blood lust. It was times like this that she'd learned the hard way not to question or challenge the ex-warlord's motives. Xena knew better than she the most efficient way to temper her dark side. Hers was simply to follow and do what she was required.

Just as quickly as it had one, she sensed the return of pressure behind her and her lover's fingers on her skin. Gabrielle felt fingers trail up close to her thigh and slowly tug under her own skirt. Firm insistent hands snaked around the hem of her underwear, guiding the garment down roughly to her knees. From these actions, she determined what had been the warrior's total intention.

The bard kept her advances slow, allowing the action of disrobing her lower half to occur unobstructed. 'Now is a funny time to tell me you want it, warrior,' she thought idly, feeling the increasing pressure of her sex being parted by her lover's fingers and something stiff and thick at her center. The warrior's fingers slipped inside, passing by her bush and folds without resistance, two strong digits driving into her easily. She moaned realizing they were simply to prepare, not release her. The fingers pulled suddenly out to be replaced by the leathered handle of the warrior's whip.

She stopped, rising up a little.

"Xe..."

Xena pressed her down, "Do her, Gabrielle, and I'll take care of the rest."

Then the pole was being eased back past her entrance, further and further till the bard's rear twitched in protest. Xena pulled back a fraction more then thrust back up driving the handle to Gabrielle's limit. Sounds of soaking fleshing rubbing against the object filled and mixed with Najara's suppressed moans as she too grasped what the warrior had done.

Gabrielle's lower half pressed back against the offending rod, twisting to accommodate as much of it as she could. Xena pumped her solidly, drawing in and out in a practiced rhythm. Not breaking her assault on her lover's cunt, she drew the whip length between her own legs and up around her back and shoulder. She set up a sawing motion in time with Gabrielle's jerks and thrusts.

"Don't you realize you're hurting her?" Najara rebuked over the bard's grunts.

"Ah," Xena moaned enthralled by the obvious compassion the blonde demon had for Gabrielle. She thrust deeper still inside her mate. "But that's what I do best, Preacher," She answered. not breaking the pattern of her movements. "I hurt Gabrielle. The bit you don't realize is -" and she punctuated her meaning with definite jabs of the hilt. "She - likes - me - to - hurt - HER! This is what she likes, Preacher. Something thick and hard," Xena informed Najara, guiding the leather tail along her own britches "Something that makes her feel full and owned."

Gabrielle cried out from a particularly forceful press of the whip handle.

"See? She agrees totally." She thumped her lover. "Tell her Gabrielle," she ordered. "Tell your bitch preacher this is what you like. Tell her you love me to fuck you this way."

Gabrielle sobbed, her body moving mechanically in time along the length of the object that impaled her, her inner walls sliding easily along the harshness. "You Xena, I want you like this, only like this."

Xena could feel the growing urgency in her lover's voice, could see the pattern of clenching and unclenching as her lover's buttock bobbed back and forth in front of her. If she wasn't careful the very practiced sexual torture would have the bard screaming the cave ceiling down in moments. The thinner tail of the leather skidded back against her own core and she wanted to explode. She needed to slow them down just enough to ensure they both benefited in the best way from this.

"Enter her Gabrielle," Xena ordered, letting the curled up leather fall through her own tense fingers. "I want her to feel you inside."

Gabrielle fought off the rush of heat that was chasing her. She was still uncertain just how far Xena's enraged temper would take them or how she was going to maintain her position like this without letting go. Keeping her tongue and sucking movements consistent, Gabrielle moved one of her hands closer to Najara's opening, sliding easily along the wet crease. The pounding behind her had stilled, willing her to continue or to call and end to her own pleasure. Xena was waiting for her to do or do without. There would be no debate.

Gabrielle straightened her fingers and jabbed two deep into the succulent core of their prisoner, feeling the chained woman gasp unexpectantly and clench down, bathing and drawing the stiff digits further in. Gabrielle wondered how the warrior would feel if she realized that Najara was actually enjoying what technically was her own rape.

But she didn't stop. She moved in and out of Najara sensing the other woman's dignity slip away, the motion of her own invasion continuing under a warning from Xena not to allow their captive to climax. She wasn't pleasuring her, she was teaching her a lesson. Gabrielle pumped insistently, monitoring the woman's breathing to determine her pace. Each time as Najara's breathe began to labor she would stop and withdraw, leaving just the tips hovering inside the folds.

Xena was relentless in her assault on Gabrielle and her verbal battering of Najara. Keeping up an array of insults and taunts to the zealot as she knew her lover lifted her higher and higher.

"Was it this good last night, Zealot?" she challenged as she maintained her piston like attack on Gabrielle. For her troubles she extracted sobs of joy and anguish from the both. "Bet it wasn't," she continued, uninterested in the stony silence of their captive.

"See I've Gabrielle on the run here." She thrust harder. "She can't work out whether she loves or hates me right now. She's beside herself."

Xena had let the leather tail fall from herself and was now using it to saw away at her clit. The hilt maintained the rhythm of grinding and pulling at her until she could hold out no longer.

"Gods, Xe-nnnn-na!" Gabrielle lurched back into her lover's waiting arms, at the same time driving herself down on the whip handle. Xena released the thinner strip of weaved leather dispensing with her own immediate pleasure in preference to embrace Gabrielle fully. She rocked her gently delivering a stream of profanities as the smaller woman rode her wave. "Now tell me again, who owns you, my little cunt?"

"You do, Xena," The bard cried. "You do." She struggled, holding back for the final glorious words of permission.

"Then show me." Xena husked low against her ear. "Show me what I do to you."

The blaze started deep in Gabrielle's belly, spreading up and about her thighs and waist like wild fire till it had engulfed her. Her breasts, her shoulders, her neck all succumbed and then she couldn't see. Xena thumped the hilt one last time deep into her sex.

"Give yourself totally to me!" She ordered in a tone that was scarcely audible but was all the writhing bard need.

Within seconds Gabrielle was there, standing at their own private ridge edge and allowing herself to fall unguarded into the depths of Xena's dark desires. A blinding rush of pleasure spilled out of her, draining and rejuvenating her all at the same time. Xena rocked her hard, keeping the soaking handle strict as her lover's body shuddered uncontrollably. She flayed about like a fished thrown to the riverbank. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her head pressed fully against Xena's saturated cleavage as her mouth opened - delivering voice to of her climax.

Xena's eyes remained open as she took her own delivery silently in the ease before her. Her arms never left the slighter form, her body stayed strong. She held her commandingly and watched. The bard was hers, now and always. But what the preacher had not realized, had foolishly let her own desire blind her too, was the bard owned the woman who held her just as much. Whether the people who came into their lives ever realized made no difference to the warrior. For all her rage and her murderous past ways, she would gladly lay down her sword or thrust it through her own heart if that's what it took for Gabrielle to understand what power she had over her. No one could stand between them, no one would ever separate two halves of the same heart. And she damned to an eternity in Tartarus anyone who tried.

She could almost forget that this most intimate and profoundly missed moment between them actually had an audience. Almost but not completely. She had wanted Gabrielle like this for moons but it had started as something difference and the matter of their audience's transgression was still yet to be fully resolved.

When she was sure Gabrielle had endured all that she was able, that she had taken all that could be harvested from the orgasm, Xena loosened her grasp around her and slowly extracted the device from her body - feeling the fluid as it spilled on to her hand.

With soothing gestures she helped Gabrielle to her feet, repositioning her clothing for her in almost modest fashion. Then she bent down and kissed her gently on the lips.

"Mmm, nice - even for a zealot bitch," Xena murmured, savoring the taste the bard still carried on her lips.

Gabrielle deepened the kiss for a time, allowing Xena to experience what remained of Najara's essence then wiped her mouth self consciously, smearing any excess amount on the back of her hand.

"I'm glad it pleases you, my love," she smiled indulgently, glowing from her own satiated state. Their eyes locked as a thousand words no one else would ever hear or understand passed between them. They kissed again.

Gabrielle slapped the warrior playfully. "But next time, would you mind letting me in on your plans first."

Xena rubbed her shoulder feigning injury from her lover's strike and looked down at the woman curled protectively into a fetal position. Xena touched the whip handle expectantly, feeling the aftereffect of Gabrielle's climax still coating the leather. She stepped closer, kicking Najara once more to get her attention. Her captive's eyes hid none of the horror as a new realization of Xena's intentions settled in.

"Certain things are just better kept as a surprise," the warrior whispered as she knelt down ready to finish the final lesson.