The characters Xena and Gabrielle, (owned by Renaissance Pictures/MCA) are used herein strictly for non-profit purposes of parody and satire. No infringement is intended.

1. Sandy Beach. Bright noon sunlight.

Sharp focus, camera steady and level on Callisto as she screams and runs toward the camera, giving her best insane grin. The edge of her sword is red with blood.

Gabrielle (off screen) Get her Xena!

Xena runs from behind the camera, shouting. They fight, Callisto attacking, Xena on the defensive. Swordplay.

[Foley: DEAD SILENCE. *NO* sounds other than dialogue, Xena's shouts, and Callisto's screams.]

As the camera darts around, following the fight, we catch glimpses in the background: a) Perdicus lies a few meters behind Callisto, crumpled on the ground, lying deathly still, his hands to his slashed chest. b) Gabrielle stands a few meters behind Xena, wearing her wedding dress, looking around for something to fight with.

The fight lasts only a few seconds. Gabrielle finds a staff-sized piece of driftwood. Then suddenly Callisto bashes Xena in the back of the head with her sword pommel. Xena falls, knocked out, and Callisto *sprints* toward the camera at top speed. WHIP-PAN to follow Callisto as she dashes past the camera toward Gabrielle, who is frozen in shock. Callisto's sword breaks Gabrielle's stick into splinters. RAPIDLY close in on Gabrielle's face as Callisto takes another running step, and, with one last scream, stabs her sword through Gabrielle's heart. Just as Gabrielle's face contorts in pain,

Shock cut to:

2. Closeup of Xena's face. Cloudy afternoon daylight.

Closeup of Xena's face lying on the sand as she recovers consciousness. Camera stays steady and level on Xena's face as she *rapidly* gets up and looks around, ready for battle. DEAD SILENCE and HOLD HOLD HOLD on closeup of her face in profile as she sees Gabrielle dead. She looks away. Unspeakable grief. On the verge of tears, she closes her eyes. Her face shuts down, she refuses to cry.

Cut to:

3. Full body view of Gabrielle lying crumpled and dead.

A brief look that lasts too long, then

Cut to:

4. Closeup of Xena's face. Evening light.

Xena is totally calm. No visible anger or grief. Looking toward us, she watches something intently, then suddenly moves up and out of the camera's view.

[Grahms: DEAD SILENCE broken by Gabrielle singing in Greek. A dirge, unsettling. Like "Funeral Pyre" (22)]

Camera hurriedly pans to catch up, then steadies on Xena kneeling beside Callisto's lieutenant Theodorus. Xena has just cut off the blood to his brain. She whispers in his ear, and he chokes out an answer, but the *only* sound is the dirge. Theodorus finishes talking, and Xena gets up and strolls off as she puts her fingers in her mouth to whistle for Argo. Camera stays on Theodorus as he reaches after Xena imploringly. He continues to reach for a moment, then topples, dead. Camera closes on his face, his open staring dead eyes, and keeps moving closer to one of his eyes, ending with an *extreme* closeup of his dilated open pupil filling the screen. Hold on this as the dirge ends, then

Cut to:

5. Campsite at night. (wide angle shot).

Gabrielle (asleep, shouting) NO!

[Foley: Crickets and other normal night sounds.]

All is dim except for the wan glow of a nearly full moon filtering through the trees, and the red coals of a campfire. Argo is dimly visible dozing in the background.

Camera is centered on Gabrielle, her back to the fire, under a nondescript dark blue wool blanket. She struggles to free herself from the nightmare as Xena, waken by her cries, *instantly* sits up from under a white, patterned, larger, and warmer looking blanket. Her bedroll is laid out beside Gabrielle's: they were sleeping facing each other, with Gabrielle between Xena and the fire. Xena is dressed in her gray cotton shift (cf "Sins of the Past"). Xena pulls Gabrielle into an embrace.

Xena Gabrielle! It's all right, You're here with me, you're safe!

Gabrielle struggles to escape from her dream as Xena holds and rocks her. Camera moves in closer. Xena is looking down, loving, worried. Gabrielle is in profile as, eyes closed, she presses her face against Xena's chest. A slightly red-brown stained bandage runs across Gabrielle's forehead -- a souvenir from some recent fight.

Xena (Gently) Do you want to tell me about it?

A long moment, then Gabrielle pulls up her blanket to cover herself and sits up, gently pulling away from Xena. A hurt look flickers on Xena's face for an instant, is gone.

Gabrielle catches her breath and looks into the fire.

Gabrielle It was just, *her*, what she did.

A pause as she looks back at Xena.

Gabrielle (continuing) (forced casualness) A nightmare. (hesitates) I think I'll keep watch for a while.

Xena Don't be silly. That's Argo's job. (pause, then hesitantly and quietly) I could hold you while you sleep.

Gabrielle (struck by the generosity of the offer, not sure how to respond) I... I'm not you, Xena. I don't think being held will help my dreams. (apologetic) I'm going to practice, get some exercise. I'm too full of energy to sleep.

Gabrielle grabs the roll of clothes she uses for a pillow and stands, dropping the blanket as she rises out of camera view (except for her bare legs and shod feet). She walks off screen, and Xena looks on, hiding her hurt, but showing her worry.

[Foley: Gabrielle dressing]

Cut to:

6. Omitted.

7. Another angle on the same scene.

Xena is facing away from the camera, looking past the fire at Gabrielle, who is holding her staff and is dressed in cold-weather Amazon garb, which (as usual) bares her midriff, but covers her arms and cleavage, and replaces her usual skirt with warm leather leggings. It's not the ugly green spots bra we saw on her in the 2nd season. Gabrielle starts to practice with her staff.

Gabrielle Get some rest. I'll sleep later. I'm fine. Really.

An unvoiced "hyah!" punctuates each sentence as she swings her staff.

Xena watches for a moment longer, then lies down facing the camera, and stops hiding her anger. She knows Gabrielle is lying. She closes her eyes and, with the discipline of a soldier, almost instantly falls asleep. The sounds of Gabrielle and the crickets fade as

Camera unfocuses until all is featureless gray, then
Rapidly REFOCUSES on

8. A razor-sharp extreme closeup of wet, dark sand.

[Foley: again, *NO* sounds except as specified]

Suddenly a braided length of leather streaks across the screen and silently yanks taut. The fingers from Xena's left hand reach onto the screen from the left and, grasping the whip, pull.

Callisto (off screen, amidst dead silence) (admiringly) Oh, you're *good*!

Xena's combat-calloused right hand and wrist reach past her left and grasp the whip.

Callisto (off screen) (continuing) But I'm better.

[Foley: So fast that it seems like one sound, a dagger being pulled from a scabbard, and a "thunk" as it is thrown and strikes.]

The hands give a single shake, tremble as they try to keep pulling on the whip, then, suddenly, fall limp.

Callisto (off screen) (tenderly) We can spend eternity in Tartarus -- together!

The limp hands slide along the whip as they drag left across the sand and out of view. After a moment, the whip drags down into the sand and disappears, and

Unfocus to featureless gray mist.

9. The Styx. No background, only silent mist and fog.

Xena steps out of the mist, onto Charon's boat. Charon looks at her, exasperated. Will he never be free of these heroes who aren't dead yet and never pay their fares? Xena looks at him, contemptuously expressionless, reaches into her mouth, and pulls out a coin.

Charon (disappointed that he has nothing to complain about) Eh. Happens to everybody sooner or later. Where to?

Xena holds out the coin.

Xena (flat) Tartarus.

He takes the coin and poles the boat away from shore (soundlessly), and he and Xena vanish into the mist.

Charon (off screen) (after a long pause) Huh. Too bad about you and your friend.

Camera begins to move forward through the mist.

10. Tartarus. Same fog as the Styx.

Xena's POV. Suddenly out of the mist a pair of racks appear. Camera continues to move toward them. Callisto is stretched out and bound to one, the other is empty. A patch of fog glows in front of Callisto's face, moving as she does so that it is always directly before her eyes wherever she looks. She keeps turning her head, eyes shut, in a vain attempt to block out the sight it holds. The glow fades for an instant, and Callisto looks over her shoulder toward the camera. Her face lights with pleasure as she sees Xena approach, as she would at the approach of a lover.

Callisto (caressingly) Xena! Welcome. I knew you'd come. I've been waiting for you to-- join me. (near lewd emphasis on "join")

Camera halts just before it passes Callisto's rack, and Xena walks past it into view, approaching the second rack. The camera looks past Callisto's shoulder as the glow reappears. A brief glimpse into it: a mother and young daughter playing happily in Elysium. Then Callisto jerks her head around, her eyes shut tight, teeth clenched, cords standing out in her neck, her face a mask of pain, and the glow follows, whipping out of view.

Meanwhile Xena has walked up to the empty rack and is methodically getting onto it. The camera moves past Callisto's rack to close in on Xena as she straps her legs and left arm into the device, turns the crank to stretch herself out, and finally positions her right arm in the straps, which animate and fasten to her. The crank gives itself a final tightening spin. A glow appears before Xena's face. Camera closes on Xena's face seen framed by the glow. Details outside the glow blur and fade into the background mist, and then even Xena's face fades into a dim reflection and vanish, leaving only the glow.

11. View through Xena's glowing thing. (Funeral)

Featureless mist broken by a glowing border around the edge of the screen. Within it, the mist gradually clears as the camera smoothly moves forward and descends. (The entire scene is seen through the glow, whose borders remain just barely in view at the extreme corners of the screen.)

[Grahms: DEAD SILENCE on the soundtrack is broken by Xena singing something in Greek. Lament for a lost love, like "Burial" (5)]

Looking out and down from above on Gabrielle standing next to Xena's body, which is laid out on a funeral pyre. Dim in the background mists is Amphipolis's graveyard, with Lyceus's tomb. She wears Xena's sword and chakram. Half the chakram is streaked with a dull rust brown residue. Her face is solemn, her eyes dry. Her hands shake almost uncontrollably as she fusses with the wreath woven into Xena's hair. She kneels to lift a large and heavy vase of oil and pours it over the wood of the pyre. She sets the empty vase down, but it tips over and breaks. She turns and reaches for a lamp to light the pyre, fumbles picking it up, and then drops it on the pyre so the fire goes out without lighting anything. Gabrielle stands looking at the extinguished lamp for a moment, then bows slowly over Xena's body, her shoulders shaking with each breath.

Throughout all this, the camera smoothly and continuously moves down and in closer. It moves past Gabrielle's still tearless face. Gabrielle's stylus calloused hands are now at the center of our view. They quiver as she fusses again with the wreath, caresses the side of Xena's face, traces the outline of her lips, and finally grasps Xena's shoulders with white-knuckle force. Camera moves in closer, centered on the hollow of Xena's throat, and we lose sight of Gabrielle's hands, although their continued shaking is transmitted into Xena's body. The camera finally comes to rest on an extreme close-up of Xena's throat. We can see the pores in the skin. The lament ends as a tear falls on Xena's throat.

12. Campsite. Pre-dawn.

Camera jerks up and back from the drop of water on Xena's throat as Xena wakes *instantaneously* and jumps to her feet, every sense alert, looking into the trees above.

[Foley: a few birds, normal pre-dawn sounds.]

When the camera comes to rest, it is looking from the same angle as in #5: a medium distance shot of Xena, with Gabrielle's (empty) bedroll and the fire beside her and Argo in the dim BG. Xena is tense for a moment, then relaxes.

Gabrielle (off screen, approaching) What is it? Are you all right? (pause) Do you need me to hold you?

Xena wipes the water from her throat. Her voice isn't quite steady -- whether because of the dream or Gabrielle's offer is unclear.

Xena No. A dewdrop fell on me. I was just startled.

She holds out the patterned blanket.

Xena (continuing) Here, get some rest. It's early.

Gabrielle (coming into view) (concerned) You looked a little more than startled.

Gabrielle takes the patterned blanket and re-wraps it around Xena's shoulders. A ring glistens on her finger.

Gabrielle (continuing) I'm warm enough. You need this more than I do.

Her hands linger on Xena's shoulders, then she steps back.

Gabrielle (continuing) Besides, I'm not done practicing.

Xena hides how deeply she is hurt by Gabrielle's distance.

Xena (reciting a truism) Practice when you're tired and you practice your mistakes. (pause) Rest. I'll wake you if you start to have another dream. (pause) (with confidence, reassuring) I'm fine.

During all this, Xena is rearranging Gabrielle's bedclothes and then gently pushing Gabrielle's shoulders, urging her to lie back down. At first Gabrielle resists, but when she hears the certainty with which Xena says "I'm fine," she relaxes, laying back and letting Xena roll her plain blanket into a pillow for her and tuck the patterned blanket around her. Xena's face shows none of the anger or hurt seen earlier as she caresses Gabrielle's hair and back until she begins to drift asleep, her face to the fire.

The camera begins slowly to move in closer as Xena dons the warm cloak that was pillowing her head, then picks up her leather armor and moves to kneel on the other side of Gabrielle, next to the embers of the fire. Like Gabrielle, she has been sleeping with her boots on. She absently revives the fire as she continues to watch Gabrielle. Satisfied that Gabrielle is peacefully asleep, she turns to the armor. Producing a leatherworking needle from one bracer, she probes along the seams between the stitches of her armor, then brushes at something unseen with her hand. The polished metal needle glints in the firelight.

[Foley: sand scattering from Xena's brushing]

This work is about as demanding as knitting. Xena begins to think about her nightmare. The camera continues to move in toward Xena's face as she begins to show a new, difficult to recognize expression.

Callisto (voice-over) We can spend eternity in Tartarus -- together!

Camera comes to rest in a closeup of Xena's face as we realize that she is *afraid*.

Fade Out.