Redemption

All the villagers worked in the town without care--
They were buying and selling and trading their wares.
But far above town, near the top of a hill,
Sat Xena, the Warrior, all dressed to kill.
At the edge of a forest, quite hidden from view,
She thought long and hard about what she might do.
Astride her mount, Argo, she watched from up high,
With bitterness, anger, and hurt in her eye,
For the villagers feared her. Because of her past,
They wouldn't accept her, the first to the last.
At some level she'd brought on herself such a fate:
She'd used them and mocked them, and shown them her hate.
But recently Xena had started to fight
The warlord within her, and make old wrongs right--
Because of a challenge, made by Hercules,
To rid from her Being this evil disease.

But the sight of the townsmen caused conflict so strong,
That Xena just couldn't discern right from wrong--
And now, tempted by Ares, the evil within her
Caused Xena to take up the role of the sinner.
And so, for the present, she watched down below,
And wondered how best to defeat such a foe.
The townsmen, so busy with all of their chores,
Gave Xena the cover to start up her wars.
As quickly as lightning she stormed down below,
And she lined them up, ready to take them in tow...
Then suddenly, someone she knew not so well
Caught her eye; could this somebody be..."Gabrielle?"
Asked the Warrior, as she looked into the eyes
Of this short, red-haired woman, and then realized...
Gabrielle had once aided her-- not long ago--
When Xena was wounded by Lord Nicoleau.
But did this kind act touch the Warrior? No!
Or, at least at the time thought the Warrior so.

Again, so conflicted, she paused and she stared
At the little one facing her--who had so cared
For a stranger. And not asked for anything back...
Until now, when she tried to thwart Xena's attack.
"Xena!" she shouted, "Please don't harm these men;
I can see the good in you--I can be your best friend!"
For Gabrielle knew that the monster within
Was Loneliness--And that the cure for this sin
Was friendship. And this she could offer to her--
She could be like a family... She could be her sister.

The Warrior pondered a bit in her head,
And then realized that what Gabrielle said
Was truly the key that would unlock her heart.
And now, with the evil suppressed, she could start
A new life together with this new-found friend--

And with her continue to put to an end
The old Warrior ways that had crippled her past,
And undo the wrongs in her life, now, at last.

Inspired by "Ties that Bind" (With a good measure of poetic license thrown in).

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