Demon Dilemma
"A Vengence Story"
Part 1

By Shadowdancer

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Part 1

 

Xena and Gabrielle were having a hard keeping from being roasted alive by this fire Demon, squatting behind some rocks and shrubs to either side of a pain laboring Vengence.  They know that Vengence can’t take it much longer; she’s already way beyond her limit, and she’s straining as hard as she can to keep her pregnancy hidden from the Demon they’re fighting, as well as suffering through heavy labor. As she squats there with them, Vengence breathes hard, trembling, her agony very apparent on her face. “Xena, we have to do something, look at her, she can’t keep this up, she has to give birth now, and she should have delivered the baby a long time ago”. 

“I know, but we can’t fight him alone, he’s too powerful, she’s the only one who can destroy him”. Xena thought for a minute, “Vengence, I know your baby is coming now, but if we can find away to distract him long enough for you to rest, do you think you would be able to conceal it again long enough to finish him off?”.  

Unable to answer, Vengence nodded her head, fighting another hard contraction. Gabrielle felt so sorry for her, she didn’t know anything about what a Demon was supposed to look like complexion wise, but being that she was half-mortal, she didn't think she should be this pale. Her ordeal was taking its toll on her.   

You’ve been hitting him hard for a while now, I can tell he’s weakening, his accuracy is off.  Is there anyway you can contain him at least long enough to give birth, and then, when you’re strong enough, you can finish him off?”.  “Ch..Chains, special chains in my..In my lair. They’ll hold him for a short time”.  “You’ll have to send me there, and bring me back, there’s no other way to get to it that I know of. You’re the only one who can get in and out without setting off all the traps I’ve heard you have”. Again, Vengence nodded, she was trying so hard to continue to resist the urge to bear down, and that she was out right shaking. No human could keep from pushing even once, let alone as long as Vengence had been resisting, and it was taking its toll on her. She was well past her physical limit, and she was one of the most powerful demon/immortals they knew. 

“Xena, she can’t, look at her, she doesn’t have the strength, and we’ll have to hide her and try and keep him away from her until she can give birth somehow even if Drakkar kills us”. Vengence shook her head, “He can sense me no matter where I am. All demons can sense each other, and he’d kill you before you could even begin to run”. “But Vengence, you can’t, you aren’t strong enough, look at you”. “You're right Gabrielle, but so is she. The only reason we’re still alive right now is because she’s been protecting us, but if she’s gone, he won’t hesitate to take advantage of the situation. Her mark on our chests won’t keep him from cremating us where we stand once she’s gone. It might stop any other Demon, but not this one.  He wants to destroy her to take her place in her father’s realm, he figures he has nothing to loose, and there's no turning back for him now. We can’t stop him without her. She has to send me to her lair, I have to get those chains to hold him at least long enough to give her some kind of break, and let us get an upper hand on him maybe. Vengence? Can you try?”. 

“Xena,…” “I know Gabrielle, if there was any other way, I’d do it, believe me, but there just isn’t”.  The Demon was taunting them, calling Vengence to come out and continue their battle. They couldn’t stay hidden much longer before he either came after them, or started sending in fireballs or some such.  “Vengence, can you send me to your lair? Can you try?” after a minute or two with no obvious change in Vengence, Xena faded out as if she’d only been an illusion. Vengence collapsed to the ground on her side, unable to remain on all fours any longer, sending Xena to her lair had taken even more strength from her.   

“Vengence, it’s alright, release your powers, let the baby show, it’s too much for you to keep hiding her. I won’t let him hurt either of you, please, trust me, let the baby show, I’ll protect you both as if she were my own family, you have my word”. Too exhausted and in pain, Vengence didn’t respond, but a moment later, her stomach expanded slowly from flat, and non existent to huge, and round until Gabrielle gasped in surprise. She thought Vengence would explode before her stomach stopped growing, but it finally did. After picking her jaw up from the ground, Gabrielle said more to herself than Vengence, “You’ve been hiding that? Gods on Olympus”. 

Vengence moaned, afraid that the Demon would hear, Gabrielle quickly put a hand over Vengence’s mouth to muffle it, “Ssssssshhhhhh… I know Vengence, I know. I’m here, I’m right here. Hold my hand, squeeze it as hard as you have to. Well, you know what I mean”.  She laid her other hand on Vengence’s enormous belly and she couldn’t believe how tight it was, much less understand how Vengence was still holding back. She adjusted the position of her hand on Vengence’s belly, and concentrated, she couldn’t tell if Vengence were pushing or not, so she leaned close, and listened to her breathing. Vengence was breathing hard, and grunting, but she wasn’t holding her breath, which meant she wasn’t pushing.

“It’ll be alright Vengence, Xena will come back with the chains, we’ll take care of him, and then you can have your baby and you won’t have to keep suffering any more. Just try to keep holding on”. She kept talking to Vengence in a gentle, soothing, even voice as she gently kept rubbing the enormous roundness that was Vengence’s belly.*This baby should be coming now, but she’s trying to keep holding it back as long as she can. Her stomach is so tight you can bounce a dinar off it. I don’t know how she’s doing it, but she can’t possibly keep it up much longer. Demon or not, it does have to be putting both of them in danger*.  “Harder, rub, harder” Vengence murmured to her. The rubbing was helping, she didn’t know how, but it was, so Gabrielle gently took her hand from Vengence’s and began rubbing, and messaging  the enormous belly harder in a downward, circular motion. She didn’t know if it was the right thing to do, but it seemed to be working. She was glad that it was soothing her somehow. Seeing Vengence in so much agony was making her, stomach hurt. 

Just then, Xena faded in, solidified, then faded out again, faded back in, faded out again, “Come on Vengence, you can do it, try again, you can do it, come on, you almost had her that time”. Not wanting to distract Vengence, Gabrielle stopped the messaging. Xena faded in again, solidified, and stayed solid. Xena shivered as if cold. “Her lair is absolutely freezing! I don’t know how she can stand it in there. Its sub zero”.   

“Are those the chains?” “Yes, I’ll have to get it around him somehow; it’ll keep him helpless for a short time, like the chains of Hephaestus on gods I’m assuming. How is she?”. Xena was watching the messaging, and noticed that Vengence seemed to be lying still rather than rocking back and forth, as she had been before. “Not good, she can’t keep this up, she’s way past her limit. She needs to have this baby now Xena, she should have had it long ago. She has to be hurting herself and the baby holding it back the way she is. This messaging seems to be relieving her a bit though”. 

“I know Gabrielle. I’ll try to get him chained up as fast as I can hopefully without getting killed, you stay with Vengence. If something goes wrong, try to get her out of here and to a safe place where she can have the baby”. “Alright, be careful” Gabrielle responded, she doubted she could get Vengence to do anything when she wasn’t in labor, but she’d try her hardest. 

She kept rubbing the huge belly, and whispered to the little Demon inside, “Hey, take it easy on your mother in there little one. You have to wait just a little longer, momma has to do something before you can come, so please give your mommy a break?”. Not a minute after Xena had gone to confront the Demon, Gabrielle heard a sound from Vengence and looked down at her. She had shuddered, and was absolutely still. Gabrielle’s heart stopped cold for a minute, and she checked for a pulse, not even sure, if demons had a pulse in the same place or not. She sighed with relief, there was a pulse. 

“Vengence, let the baby come, I’m here, I’ll help you. Xena will have him chained up and then we’ll get you to a safe place until you can recover. We’ll figure out a way to keep him contained until you can deal with him”. In her head, Gabrielle heard, *You don’t understand, if I have it now, I won’t be back to full strength for at least a candle mark or more. By that time, he will have gotten out of the chains and he’ll come looking for you two until he kills you, and then Potediea is next. I have to kill him now before I have the baby*.   

*It would be such a relief if she could just push even if she won’t let it come* Gabrielle thought, *I just wish she would let the baby come*.  As Vengence lay there panting, Gabrielle said, “Vengence, I know what you said, but look at yourself, there’s no way in Tartarus you can keep holding the baby back, You have to have the baby now, you’re hurting yourself and the baby”.  

Gabrielle watched as Vengence’s enormous belly slowly vanished little by little. “Um, wow” Gabrielle said, amazed yet again at the power of their former enemy. She’d never seen anything like that before. Vengence’s emerald green eyes snapped open a minute later, and she sat up with great effort, Gabrielle quickly moved behind her to support her. “Vengence, are you alright? How did you do that?”. “ A little trick I can do”. She rolled over onto all fours, took a minute or two, and then pushed up to her feet. Anybody could see that she was beyond exhausted even for a Demon, she was staggering a bit, as she stood there, off balance just standing still. 

Gabrielle had to admire Vengence’s strength, and endurance to suffer what she was suffering to protect her and Xena, and Potediea. “I have to get him in the chains fast”. They heard a cry come from Xena, it wasn’t a “good” sort of, “I’m winning the fight” sort of cry either. “I have to put him somewhere that will hold him until I can deal with him. I can't keep this up much longer, but I have to do this”. “Stay here until Xena either comes for you or she calls you” Vengence instructed her, obviously expecting to be obeyed.  

“Without waiting for a response, Vengence forced her usual strong, defiant, powerful countenance, and walked out into the clearing where a one sided battle that Xena was not winning was taking place. All Gabrielle could do was shake her head. “Well Vengence” Gabrielle heard come from the clearing, “Nice of you to join us. If I’d known you were hiding in the bushes all along, I would have come in after you”. 

“Try that bluff on somebody else Drakkar. You don’t have the courage to “come in after me”. You’d wait in the open for me so that you have ample room to fight, or run in your case”. Gabrielle could hear the tightness in Vengence’s voice, and the underlying exhaustion that Vengence was trying to mask as much as she could from the Demon she’d just called Drakkar.  

She heard what sounded like chains rattling, and knew that Vengence must have called the chains that Xena had brought from Vengence’s lair to her hands. Gabrielle had learned to tune her hearing acutely to what she needed to hear, and concentrated on Vengence. She was listening specifically to Vengence’s breathing, and could tell that Vengence didn't have to spare. Add to all that, she was attempting to hide both of those facts from Drakkar, and fight him at the same time.   

If all this didn’t kill the immortal for sure this time, nothing would. Gabrielle knew that the longer Vengence continued to hide her pregnancy, the faster her strength, would be gone in very short order, and then it would all be over. As she knelt there behind the bushes, she heard the battle start up again, this time it sounded like Drakkar was loosing, of course, now he had Vengence to fight, the last thing he wanted. 

*I’ve got to go out there and help, I’ve got to do something, I know Xena is out there, but Vengence needs all the help she can get* Gabrielle thought to herself, then an idea dropped into her head as if someone had literally just plopped it in there. She closed her eyes and concentrated, *Vengence, I don’t know if you can hear me or not, but if you can, then take my strength from me. Your mother took Eve’s soul from Xena when she was pregnant, so maybe you can take my strength from me the same way only without having to be right here with me. I know you don’t want to do it, but it’s all right, I want you to, you need the strength far more than I do right now. I’ll recover, do it Vengence, I’ll open my mind to you, take as much as you need, take it all if you have to, I’ll be alright. Do it*.