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. Evening at the campsite. Montage.

[Grahms: lyrical, too brief: like "Roll in the Leaves" (21)]

A series of dissolves between shots of the campsite from various angles. Each shot occurs later in the day, starting just before sunset and ending with nightfall.

a) Xena in her leather armor (without breastplates) gingerly removes her boots and inspects the damage where the sword cut her boot, making a large bruise underneath. Grimacing, she flexes her twisted swollen ankle, kneading at pressure points, trying to reduce the pain. In the background, Gabrielle pulls a cloth from a pot of water sitting on the fire. The cut on Xena's face is cleaned and bandaged.

b) Gabrielle cleaning the wound in Xena's back, a smear of blood on her cheek where she wiped at a tear. Her face is emotionless, she will allow herself to feel again later when there is luxury for it. Xena's armor and shift lie on the ground, her ankle is tightly bandaged. She covers her front with a blanket and calmly gives directions.

c) Gabrielle feeding Argo. Xena, her back now bandaged, wearing her shift, sets down her stew and rises from her seat by the fire to help. Nerves at the breaking point, Gabrielle storms over, yelling, and shoves, almost hits Xena to make her sit down again.

d) Xena lying on her stomach on a bedroll next to the fire. Gabrielle sobs out an apology as she fusses with Xena's blankets. Xena unsuccessfully tries to reassure her.

Fade to black, then fade up on:

2. Night. Xena sleeping on her stomach in the firelight.

Facing the fire and the camera, Gabrielle a dim shadow sleeping behind her, Xena dreams. Rapid heavy breathing, body held stiff as a board, a hand clamped to her open gasping mouth, she is utterly silent, even her breathing is quiet. She is about to bite her hand in her sleep.

Xena's chakram falls through the air and lands in front of her face, and the camera jerks back as she *instantly* wakes up, alert, pulling out the bodice dagger and throwing it up into the trees, all automatic.

[Foley: there is no thunk from the dagger, but there is a rapid rustling of leaves as someone runs away along the branches. Then nothing but crickets.]

Xena sits up, looking all around, she snatches up the chakram and holds it ready to throw. A long tense moment, then she relaxes, and grimaces with renewed pain as the adrenaline rush fades.

Gabrielle (waking up) What? Xena?

Cut to:

3. Reverse angle, looking past Gabrielle to Xena.

Xena A squirrel.

Xena turns to face Gabrielle. Holding up the chakram, she gets that wide-eyed expression of wicked sarcasm.

Xena This place grows some big ones.

Gabrielle (eyes closed, mumbling) Oh. (opens her eyes, looks) Oh. (still sleepy) What now? (waking up) You didn't hurt her?

Xena tucks the chakram under her pillow of bundled clothes and slowly, gingerly, lays back down.

Xena No. Go back to sleep.

Gabrielle (complete trust) OK.

Xena warily scans the area one more time, closes her eyes. A long moment, then she peeks out to check on Gabrielle, who has fallen back asleep. Satisfied, she closes her eyes and forces herself to rest.

Dissolve to:

4. The campfire, a few tiny embers remain.

Dissolve to:

5. Gabrielle sleeping on her back in moonlight.

Similar angle to #3, Gabrielle in foreground, Xena asleep beyond her. Gabrielle has given Xena most of the bedding and sleeps in her clothes, rolled in the patterned blanket.

Gabrielle is dreaming, her head tosses back and forth, she moans: a nightmare. Before she can cry out, a small hand reaches out from somewhere off screen and gently clasps Gabrielle's forehead.

Gabrielle's eyes open, panicked, she is still in the dream.

Voice (gentle, reassuring) It's all right, you're safe.

Gabrielle (still half asleep) Xena?

The voice is similar to Xena's. Gabrielle doesn't wake up enough to realize that it isn't she. The hand caresses Gabrielle's forehead and hair.

Voice It was only a horn dream. (pause, then, with authority) Enough with nightmares. Dream of something happy.

Gabrielle (falling asleep again, mumbling) Sorry...yelled...love. . .

And she falls back asleep. The hand withdraws. The view of Gabrielle loses all focus, and

Refocuses on:

6. Omitted

7. A wheat field just before harvest.

[Foley: silence except for music] [Grahms: celebratory but fast, breathless, leaving no time for contemplation: like "Quarterman's Festival" (20)]

Gabrielle is walking through the field, inspecting the heads of grain to see how soon they will be ripe. She wears a green dress resembling her early first season costume. She looks up and waves, happy, overjoyed.

[Intercut: Xena sitting on Argo at the top of a hill. Xena raises her hand in salute. She does not smile, but does not look all that lonely either]

Gabrielle leaves off inspecting the wheat, and walks briskly to the edge of the field toward the hill as the camera stays with her. She emerges from the wheat, revealing that she is about 8 or 9 months pregnant.

Cut to:

8. Perdicus standing with open arms.

He is in Gabrielle's path, looking too boyishly handsome to be true, practically glowing, every village girl's dream, the perfect farmer's husband. Gabrielle comes abreast of him and he sweeps her into a hug, then touches her belly in a gentle but possessive manner. He begins walking away from the hill, his arm around her. Camera closes in on Gabrielle's face. She smiles, but it doesn't fit somehow. Perdicus suddenly calls and waves.

Cut to:

9. Gabrielle's sister Lila and her (Maori) husband.

Gabrielle and Perdicus join them. Lila's husband kisses Gabrielle on the cheek, ditto for Perdicus and Lila, and then Gabrielle disengages from Perdicus and hugs Lila for dear life. Camera closes on Gabrielle's face as she looks utterly lost, torn up inside but not really sure why.

Cut to:

10. Gabrielle walking with Lila.

They are both talking and laughing, not a care in the world, and then Lila points off toward her husband and Perdicus, laughing. Gabrielle looks, but does not laugh. Instead the lost expression is back.

Cut to:

11. Perdicus and Lila's husband

They stand and talk, focusing on being *manly* farmers in the self-conscious way of boys who, now that they have wives, try to act as they think husbands should, but have had no practice in the role. Of the two, Perdicus is a little better at it, but on both of them the role is, as yet, still unconvincing and forced. To get an idea, think of the interaction between Joxer and Perdicus in the wedding scene in Return of Callisto, and pump it up several notches.

Cut to:

12. A view of Gabrielle's pregnant abdomen.

Gabrielle puts her ring hand across her belly, and suddenly backs up and sits down against the rail of a fence. Sitting brings her face back in view. Gabrielle looks down at herself. She says something: we lip read the word Xena, and she looks up, around.

Cut to:

13. The hilltop.

Xena is nowhere to be seen. As the music ends,

Cut to:

14. Gabrielle sleeping on her back, a moonbeam on her face.

The camera looks down on Gabrielle from just above her head. Just partly in view, Xena sleeps on her stomach to one side, and the glow of the fire comes from beyond her.

[Foley: crackle of a lively fire]

A breath, and Gabrielle opens her eyes and looks around. She's confused for a moment, then she covers her face with both hands, sobbing quietly. A long, shaky breath, and she looks to the side.

[Intercut: Gabrielle's POV, a closeup of Xena's face turned toward the camera as she sleeps on her stomach.]

Gabrielle smiles at Xena, her eyes full of tears. She turns toward Xena and reaches out with one hand, hesitates to touch her, and settles for resting her ring hand on the blanket right next to Xena's face, touching a lock of black hair. With that and a final look at Xena's face as her lifelines, Gabrielle closes her eyes again.

Dissolve to:

15. Looking past the fire at Gabrielle and Xena.

A small dark hand quietly feeds another stick to the flames.

The camera closes in on Xena as she sleeps.

Shock cut to:

16. Harsh noon daylight on a bright, flat sandy beach.

[Foley: DEAD SILENCE]

Xena is fighting First and Second Soldiers. Beyond and in the distance behind Xena, Gabrielle bashes the sword out of the hand of her sole remaining opponent, while Leader rides up behind her, raising his sword. Xena shoves and kicks her opponents back, and the camera turns to stay focused on her face as she spins around and throws the chakram. Camera stays on Xena's face as First Soldier attacks, she parries incompletely, is hit, staggers forward to fall on her hands and knees, gets her leg and arm kicked out from under her, and as the two soldiers raise their swords for the death blow,

Whip-pan 180 degrees and do a SLOW MOTION ZOOM toward

17. Gabrielle.

During the zoom, Leader's sword goes flying as the chakram hits it, and Gabrielle somehow evades his horse's hooves, gets in close, and pushing up his leg, topples the already unstable Leader from his saddle so that he falls on the footsoldier and both land in a tangle. Gabrielle recovers her staff, stands, and

Zoom ends with NORMAL SPEED shot of

18. Gabrielle's face in closeup.

Gabrielle finishes standing up, she looks into the camera and *TURNS UTTERLY PALE*.

[Grahms: DEAD SILENCE is broken by a death chant. Dark, sinister. Makes "Funeral Dance" (17) sound like a picnic.]

Gabrielle opens her mouth and screams "NO!" at the top of her lungs, we see but don't hear it, and then she is running toward and past the camera, still screaming.

Camera turns and becomes

19. Gabrielle's POV as she runs (handheld camera)

In the FG Gabrielle's hands have a white-knuckle grip on her staff as she runs toward Xena. While the two soldiers standing over Xena in the distance are moving in slow motion, Gabrielle's running seems speeded up, overcranked.

Xena is dead. There are deep, gaping cuts into the back of her neck (almost decapitated) and lower back. But no blood. Even in a nightmare, Gabrielle cannot, will not see that. Warm, bright liquid light shines from Xena's wounds and flows onto the sandy ground, the naked soul escaping its former home. The light fades as Gabrielle approaches, leaving nothing, an emptiness, a liquid shadow pooling in the empty shell of Xena's body and puddling on the ground.

First Soldier stands staring down at Xena, he despises himself utterly. Second Soldier looks up in alarm and fear at Gabrielle's approach.

Extreme shock cut to:

20. Xena getting on Charon's boat, coin in hand.

Charon. (acting bored, but actually feeling compassion) Where to?

Xena (Emotionless) Tartarus.

Charon pushes off, and the camera quickly moves past the boat into the mists.

The mists part to show

21. Xena clamping herself into the rack in Tartarus.

Camera quickly moves to a closeup of Xena's face as she looks up and sees the image in her glowing thing. She opens her mouth to shout, and a tricky transition:

--Slow background dissolve to the beach (Tartarus's mists and the rack fade into bright sunlit sand and pale blue sky), and AT THE SAME TIME, a
--Foreground shock match cut to:

22. Gabrielle's face, mouth open, screaming

Very close match (same camera angle, same distance, same position of the head) of Xena's face with Gabrielle's, as if she *replaces* Xena, as if Xena had *become* Gabrielle. Only the emotions are different. Xena has them, while Gabrielle is nearly expressionless, her face fixed and frozen.

Gabrielle, screaming, her face *utterly pale*, ignores First Soldier (who stands staring down at Xena in horror at what he has done), and thrusts the end of her staff straight at the camera with all her might. Second Soldier's hands reach out from behind the camera in a vain attempt to cover the lens (ie, his eye) before the staff hits, and

Shock cut to:

23. Closeup of Xena's face in Tartarus.

Xena gasps, her face twists, she looks down, horrified, and

Dissolve/Match cut (just like the one described above) to:

24. Gabrielle's face looking down, her staff backswinging.

Again, match Xena's face to Gabrielle's. We get a glimpse of First Soldier as he falls down, out of the camera's view, from the blow Gabrielle has just dealt. Utterly pale, no longer screaming, Gabrielle finishes her back swing and swings again to strike with all her might at the fallen soldier. As the staff descends,

Dissolve/Match cut to:

25. Gabrielle's face on the beach becomes Xena's in Tartarus

A very close match, as if Xena *replaces* Gabrielle, as if Gabrielle had *become* Xena. Xena closes her eyes to the horror, but it does no good, she still sees no matter what.

And proceed to cut back and forth: -- from Xena tying to look away -- to Gabrielle swinging back and then starting to swing down again -- to Xena looking away, starting to cry -- to Gabrielle, swinging again, the end of her staff now stained dark red -- to Xena, shaking, sobbing, about to shed tears -- to Gabrielle swinging again, as a drop of dark red blood flicks off the end of her staff and lands on her deathly pale frozen face.

Zoom in on the fleck of blood as Gabrielle swings again.

Shock match cut to:

26. Campsite. Early dawn. Xena asleep.

Match the blood fleck to a tear streaking down Xena's face in extreme closeup. Pull back as Xena, again lying stiff and silent, hand in mouth, bites down *hard* on the base of her thumb, almost drawing blood, and wakes herself up.

A long, shaky breath, and Xena opens her eyes. She wipes at the tear, showing the bite marks on her hand. Pull focus to the foreground, where a wisp of smoke still rises from the campfire, and a loaf of black peasant's bread and a broken wedge of cheese sit on a rock, impaled by Xena's bodice dagger. Hanging from the handle of the dagger by a drawstring is a small white silk bag. Camera pulls back as Xena sits up like an old woman, suppressing a wince of pain. After a suspicious look around and up into the trees, she pulls the dagger from the food and puts it away. She dips out a pinch of coarse brown granules from the bag, smells and then warily tastes them. Suddenly with a sense of urgency, she turns around.

Cut to:

27. Argo.

The horse stands placidly (not lying down anymore) in the background at the edge of the clearing. The cloth covering her poultice is festive blue, and is fastened differently from the one Xena applied the night before. Using her sword as a crutch, Xena limps over to inspect the new poultice.

Xena (quietly sardonic, relieved) Some watch horse you are. (louder, with humor) Traitor.

Cut to:

28. Xena sitting back down on her bedroll, Gabrielle in FG.

Looking at Gabrielle, Xena absently massages her ankle, her mind returning to the nightmare.

Gabrielle (voice over) If something happens to me, you *promise* me that you will not become a monster.

Again there is fear on Xena's face as she mulls over the nightmare. But she is far more haunted by this dream than by the previous night's. Pull focus to Gabrielle's peaceful, sleeping face, her waking depression not visible.

Xena (whispering) But what if something happens to me?

Xena tentatively extends a hand towards Gabrielle's face, hesitates to touch her, and settles for resting her hand right next to Gabrielle's head on a lock of her red-gold hair, letting that be her lifeline.

Dissolve to:

29. Another angle. Xena gazing at Gabrielle asleep.

It is later, more light, louder birdsongs.

Gabrielle (voice over) Here's your sweet thing.

Xena closes her eyes to the painful memory.

[Shock intercut: A shot of a battle in the center of Amphipolis. A soldier wearing the trademark helmet of Cortese pulls his gory sword from Lyceus's body. A screaming, teenage Xena leaps on his back, jerks off his helmet, and, too enraged to use the sword she is barely big enough to hold, beats him over the head with the helmet.]

[NOTE: This and later scenes from Xena's past are in full sound, but have the air of faded, precious, albeit painful, old pictures from a photo album -- the shots are solarized or perhaps filmed in B&W]

Xena opens her eyes.

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

Xena gazes at Gabrielle. The first rays of sunrise appear, falling across Gabrielle's face, making her look achingly beautiful.

Xena (whispering) I don't want anyone to ever love me that much, (crying without tears) especially not you.

As the light hits her eyes, Gabrielle stirs, slowly waking up. She turns her head, shading her eyes as she opens them. Xena schools her expression, but she still looks a little haunted as Gabrielle turns to meet her eyes.

Gabrielle What?

Xena Just watching you sleep. (smiles) Keeping away the nightmares, (more sadly) since being held doesn't help you.

Gabrielle turns on her side to look more comfortably at Xena. Long eye contact.

Gabrielle Thanks. It helped. No more nightmares, just like you said.

Xena looks puzzled. Gabrielle opens her mouth, and Xena forestalls her question by holding up the bag.

Xena Had another visit from our shy friend last night.

Gabrielle reaches a hand out toward the bag, ends up holding Xena's hand holding the bag.

Gabrielle What is it?

Xena Dried poppy flower sap. (quickly explaining before Gabrielle can ask) It kills pain. I was worried Argo might favor her leg so much that it would heal with a permanent limp. With this, she won't.

Gabrielle (peeved) Well I guess she liked my staff too much. (pause) We'd better get going.

But she just sits there holding Xena's hand.

Wipe to:

30. Inside leader's tent.

Leader silently listens to several of his lieutenants, including Lieutenant #1 from the earlier battle, arguing over a map. Cut from face to face as each speaks.

[Grahms: Invincible endless unstoppable evil military might, like the Imperial March from the second Star Wars movie, but ancient Greek style.]

Lieutenant #2 We aren't going to find them. It sounds like a chance encounter to me, probably travelers heading for the pass.

Lieutenant #1 (contemptuously, to #2) Is your name Joxer? (using words of one syllable) We've looked upslope. Nobody's used the pass since Theseus rebuilt the roads. They were spies, from the city. Obviously. Where else would they be going?

Lieutenant #3 (thinking out loud) Spies. Maybe they aren't done. They could be hiding uphill, gauging our strength.

Lieutenant #2 (stung from the Joxer comment) Well, if we want to attack on the festival, we have today and tomorrow to find them.

Leader clears his throat. When he speaks, the camera is focused on the room as a whole.

Leader I would not have believed that *competently* (glares at the room) led *men* as well trained as ours would be unable to find two wounded *women* (pause). They're hiding from us. Search upslope, starting near the camp and working outwards.

The lieutenants jump to obey.

Wipe to:

31. Closeup of a rope wrapped around a small tree branch.

The tree grows next to a small cliff: beyond it we see the meadow and forest below, and far off the coastal city. The rope stretches down to something dangling over the cliff.

Pull back to reveal the archer as she wearily hauls the rope. Soldier 4, slowly spinning, rises into view. The archer pauses, sways, too tired to grab the soldier and land him. A deep breath, wills herself to focus, and she snatches him, nearly dropping him before dragging him up onto the clifftop. Using him as a chair again, she sits, nearly falls, onto him, produces a small water skin, and drinks. She glances down at the soldier.

[Intercut: Soldier 4's face as she pulls off his gag.]

Soldier 4 (dry, cracked voice) Just kill me and get it over with.

Archer (wide eyed, aw shucks) But that wouldn't be any fun.

Holding up the water bottle, she makes fish motions to him with her mouth, aims a stream of water at his mouth, stands.

Cut to:

32. Archer dragging soldier #4 across the dry rocky terrain.

She drops him next to the others, all tied up but ungagged, beneath a small, twisted cherry tree in early blossom.

Soldier 3 (being diplomatic) Look, I'm sorry we bothered your witch friend, and our behavior there was really reprehensible, but don't you think you're overreacting?

She gives it serious thought.

Archer (shrugging) I like to finish what I start.

Wipe to:

33. Gabrielle and Xena at the campsite.

The campsite is packed, and yet in some ways it seems no time has passed: Xena is still barefoot and dressed in her shift, her cloak beside her, and she and Gabrielle are still sitting, holding hands, looking at each other silently. A nearly empty bowl of peasant's black bread and cheese sits beside them. A long moment, then Gabrielle stands and helps pull Xena to her feet. Xena puts weight on her bad foot and nearly falls, sagging against Gabrielle, who holds her up.

Gabrielle Maybe you should have some of that sap yourself.

Xena That's a bad idea. It can become a hab...

She trails off.

Cut to:

34. Closeup of Xena's head in profile

Xena pays heed to something we can't sense.

[Intercut: a low to the ground shot of the feet of four soldiers walking silently through the forest]

Xena (urgently) We have to leave right away. Finish packing Argo's bags. Hurry!

Gabrielle Aren't you going to get dressed?

Xena No time.

Xena empties the bowl, and Gabrielle takes it and goes to finish packing. Xena opens the silk bag, licks a bit of cheese and dips it into the bag. She looks at the result with dubious suspicion for a moment, then eats it.

Cut to:

35. Xena, Gabrielle, and Argo walking through the forest.

Gabrielle looks back nervously. Xena, dressed in her shift and wearing her cloak, leans on Gabrielle's shoulder as she walks, barefoot. Her limp is some better. She keeps her right hand near the sword and chakram lashed to Argo's saddle. Argo is also limping. The ground is rocky.

[Foley: barely audible, the soldiers talk at the campsite just out of sight behind them -- ad lib along the lines of "they can't have gone far" and "go back and report."]

Gabrielle and Xena speak just above a whisper.

Xena (confident) We're fine.

Gabrielle (worried) Maybe you should take more of that sap.

Xena Too much and you fall asleep.

Gabrielle Oh. (pause) You must have made them really mad.

Xena Uh-huh. The one who tried to kill you? (darkly) He'll never hold a sword again.

Gabrielle Why? Did you --

Xena shakes her head. Gabrielle makes a questioning chopping motion at her wrist.

Xena No, our shy friend broke his wrist one way, then I broke it the other.

Xena demonstrates. Gabrielle looks ill. This is more detail than she was looking for.

Xena (by way of explanation) They hurt my horse.

Center and move in on Xena's face as she gets ready to respond to Gabrielle's predictable comment.

Xena's idea of Gabrielle (voice over) I hate it when they go on these obsessive revenge trips.

Gabrielle Well, he wants revenge. That's understandable.

Xena looks at Gabrielle, incredulous, disappointed, angry, and worried all at once. Gabrielle doesn't see it.

Wipe to:

36. Male soldiers searching, walking from right to left.

Cut to:

37. Male soldiers searching, walking from left to right.

Cut to:

38. The white-haired woman arranging 4 rocks as a pointer.

She is exhausted, nearly passing out. She shifts a wad of something from her cheek and swallows it like medicine, then puts more dried leaves in her mouth -- a bigger pinch than last time -- and starts chewing.

Cut to:

39. Gabrielle and Xena in the forest near a steep hill.

Xena looks ahead, behind, to the side. She's getting a little worried. The pursuers are close.

[Foley: there are no searchers to be heard, and the forest is not unusually quiet.]

Gabrielle (whispering) My staff!

Cut to:

40. Gabrielle's staff propped on a forked stick.

The ground is very rocky. Gabrielle grabs the staff, delighted to see it again, then, with concern on her face, gives it to Xena, who leans on it. Xena looks warily up the slope in the direction the staff was pointing. She doesn't like this one bit. Gabrielle sees her expression.

Gabrielle She already had lots of chances to do something bad.

Xena grimaces, nods angrily. They start uphill.

Cut to:

41. A series of cuts.

Views of pointers at the feet of Argo, Gabrielle, and Xena. In the first cut, Gabrielle toes the pointer. In the second, Xena is swinging her foot to scatter it. In the third, it is being scattered by Gabrielle. In the fourth, Xena sets her foot down after scattering and takes another limping step, leaning on Gabrielle's staff. Through the series, the ground becomes increasingly rocky, the terrain increasingly barren. From the last cut,

Camera pans up to

42. Looking up a small canyon.

A small stream has cut deep into the side of the hill. With enough water, the trees in the bottom of the canyon are more luxuriant than usual. The ground along the streambed is solid bedrock, clearly they cannot be tracked here.

Xena looks behind them, listening or perhaps feeling, and then relaxes a little.

Xena (satisfied) They're having trouble tracking us.

She looks ahead into the canyon.

Xena (continuing) (suspicious) But that looks like a dead end.

Gabrielle (fed up) We owe her our trust. (turning to face Xena) You said she nearly got killed helping me.

Xena's expression suddenly clamps down as she remembers.

Gabrielle What?

Xena (pensive, abstracted) I used to think there were only two other people who could catch the chakram.

Gabrielle (haunted, angry) Her.

Xena (shaking her head) No. (sadly, speaking of the dead) One of my teachers.

Gabrielle starts to ask the obvious question. Xena shoots her a fierce "don't ask me" glare.

Xena (decisive) We can trust her. Let's go.

Dissolve to:

43. Gabrielle, Xena and Argo walking barefoot up the stream.

[Foley: rapids, muted in the distance upstream]

Being on the run has hidden much of Gabrielle's sadness, but it's still there and especially evident at the moment.

Gabrielle (midsentence) . . . how sometimes dreams are so far beyond what you could ever hope for that when you wake up, you cry?

Xena carefully puts on a calm expression.

Xena (voice somehow steady) Like a slave who dreams of what it's like to be free?

Gabrielle (nods casually) Or when you dream somebody dead is still alive. Remember when you woke me from my nightmare last night and told me to dream of something happy? I had one of those dreams afterwards.

Xena's feelings start to show. Gabrielle misinterprets.

Gabrielle No, I wanted to thank you. Really. I mean, even if they make you sad, you cherish them afterwards, don't you?

Xena starts to speak, then closes off her feelings and memories with an effort.

Xena It wasn't me.

Gabrielle looks at her, mouth agape. Xena pats the chakram.

Xena She kept the fire going too.

Gabrielle (annoyed) Did she spent the entire night right next to us? Maybe I was wrong about being able to trust her.

Xena (confident) Oh, we can do that.

Gabrielle Well, she isn't up on theology, that's certain. She called it a horn dream. Those are the once in a lifetime true dreams direct from Oneiros. She meant ivory.

Xena (urgent) Quiet!

She looks behind them, and then up at the top of the cliff.

[Intercut: Views looking up. Nobody's there to be seen.]

Xena Get under the trees, quick. They may not have seen us.

Cut to:

44. The canyon's dead end.

Gabrielle and Xena, their backs to the camera, face the end of the canyon, a steep, 45 degree incline down which the stream tumbles before ending in a large, still pool overhung by trees. Not a waterfall, but too steep to be mere rapids.

Gabrielle (bitter) I should have known better! (glancing nervously upwards) We've been set up.

Xena (flat) We can trust her. (looking around) She must have left another pointer, or something.

Gabrielle (exasperated) Xena! There is no way you can climb that with your leg, let alone Argo. She's trapped us.

Xena grabs Gabrielle by the arm, her eyes stern but kind.

Xena (imitating) Gabrielle! (holding up the chakram) This was about to cut your head off when she jumped in the way.

Gabrielle swallows, hard.

Xena (unable to stay calm about it) And if she hadn't pulled you up on the horse, the one on foot would have hurt you, maybe even killed you. (ashamed, really upset) They rushed me. I didn't have time to do it right.

They stare at each other for a few moments. Xena is seriously regretting saying anything. Gabrielle looks down, stands on a rock so she can look Xena eye to eye, and gently cups, almost caresses, Xena's cheek with her hand. Eye contact. Their faces are just centimeters apart. Gabrielle's other arm reaches down, pulling Xena close.

Gabrielle (quiet but intense) Xena, if you couldn't, then nobody could. *You* are the only person I could ever want or need to have looking out for me. I know you would do anything and everything to keep me from being hurt in any way, and (pause, emphatic) I trust you completely.

Xena smiles.

Xena (quiet, awkward but genuine) Thanks.

Awkward pause, their faces almost touching. Xena suddenly looks up. Gabrielle feels the pursuers too, is a little surprised that she can. They step apart.

Gabrielle (businesslike) So what do you think she had in mind.

Cut to:

45. Their POV, Looking up at the walls of the canyon.

Camera looks past the overhanging branches at the canyon walls, focusing on, then dismissing various hiding spaces and climbable slopes. Suddenly it centers on an unusually large tree growing in what looks like a ledge or bowl halfway up the steepest side of the canyon. Camera pans down to the pool at the base of the canyon below the tree.

Zoom to: Leader's stiletto, hanging point-down from a branch growing out over the pool.

[Foley: splashing under the rumble of the rapids as Gabrielle and Xena approach the knife and pool]

Xena One last pointer. There.

Gabrielle (confused) Down?

Xena A cave, I guess. (to Argo) I'll get you safe, don't worry.

Cut to:

46. Gabrielle and Xena wading toward the stiletto.

As they wade knee-deep into the pool, Gabrielle (in the lead) suddenly stops, a little scared.

Gabrielle Xena. This water.

Xena (mystified) It's dry. . .

Xena splashes a handful of water on her cloak, then at Gabrielle, who splashes her back. The water looks normal, but acts like mercury, sluggish, reluctant to break apart, and refusing to make things wet. They break off the waterfight, a little reluctantly.

[Intercut: Xena's arm in closeup. Tiny dewdroplets adhere to the ends of hairs, producing a beautiful halo, but her skin remains dry.]

Gabrielle It's no fun if you don't get wet.

Moving deeper into the pool, Xena feels with her foot, looks back at Gabrielle.

Xena Take Argo. I'll be right back.

Being careful of her ankle, Xena steps forward off an unseen ledge and sinks out of sight.

Fast dissolve to:

47. Gabrielle and Argo hip-deep in the pool.

[Foley: we hear faintly hear distant splashing under the rumble of the falls] Gabrielle alternates looking nervously down the canyon and looking even more nervously into the pool. A long moment, and Xena's face breaks the surface and sinks back as she jumps up to take a breath. Another long moment, and her head breaks the surface again as she walks up a slope to a spot that is only neck deep.

Xena This way. Careful, you can't float in this.

Gabrielle approaches cautiously. Argo dips her head to drink, but Xena quickly stops her.

Xena (to Argo) No girl, I don't want you guzzling this stuff. (to Gabrielle) You can run, so you lead her. (pointing) There's a black hole down over there, once you get inside you can see light ahead. Be sure to hold Argo's nose until you break the surface on the other side. And watch your step, it's bumpy.

Gabrielle Hold her nose how?

Xena, with whispered reassurances to the horse, demonstrates as they descend the slope.

Gabrielle Can you drown in this stuff? Never mind, I don't want to know. I'll go as fast as I can. Thank, (groping for an apt deity) thank whoever it's not cold. (hyperventilating) Ready? Set? Go.

Xena calms the horse as Gabrielle clamps her hand over Argo's nose and mouth. Then Gabrielle half-walks, half-runs down the slope until she and the horse vanish beneath the surface. Xena limps down the same slope, takes one last deep breath, and vanishes.

[Foley: Splashing and shouts of pursuit become louder]

A long moment, and then, with a ululation, Xena breaks the surface, vaulting high with Gabrielle's staff. She grabs the stiletto hanging from the branch, and, carefully extending her unhurt foot for the landing, drops back down into the water, not with a splash, but a subdued plop.

The wind picks up. The surface of the pool ripples, then clears.

Soldiers appear, splashing through the water. One trips on a rock and falls into the pool, shouting as he becomes very wet with very cold water.

Cut to:

48. A quiet pool of water in a dimly lit cave.

A few sunbeams penetrate from unseen openings high above, otherwise it is quite dim. Argo, and after a moment, Gabrielle break the surface.

Gabrielle's dry hair is haloed by tiny glistening droplets, as is Argo's coat. Argo jerks her head free of Gabrielle's hand, snaps at her.

Gabrielle (gasping) Hey! (spits) Trust me, you won't like the taste.

Argo laps at the water, then shakes her head in disgust. Meanwhile, Xena breaks the surface and slowly limps up the slope.

Gabrielle (to Argo) Told you.

Gabrielle sees Xena rising slowly out of the water, her hair haloed by tiny droplets which burn with fire as she steps through a sunbeam. Gabrielle is entranced.

Xena Gabrielle? Is something wrong? Oh.

Gabrielle steps forward into a sunbeam of her own. They look at each other for a moment. Eye contact. A pause, and then Xena smiles, while Gabrielle laughs.

Gabrielle So, this is a real garden spot. It's warm and dry enough, I guess, but is there someplace to sit down?

Leaning on the staff, Xena wraps her other arm around Gabrielle and begins to lead her toward the camera.

Xena (mischievous) Right over here.

Gabrielle looks toward the camera. The camera moves to the side as they approach, and Gabrielle's eyes follow it as she tries to look around a corner. Her jaw drops.

Cut to:

49. Gabrielle's POV.

Xena Yeah, a real garden spot.

[Grahms: Awe, celebration, joy, the ineffable. A Gregorian chant in ancient Greek, with women's voices only.]

Coming into view from around a corner of the cave is a huge, cathedral-like space. The walls are smooth from flowing water which hollowed out the place long ago. Very high up, here and there, a few holes pierce the wall ahead that separates cave from canyon, letting in sunbeams. But somehow the place is much lighter than would be expected from just that. The rapids outside in the canyon can barely be heard at all, and it echoes. Splashing or bubbling comes from a few spots off screen as water falls from above or flows down the sides of the cave into the pool. The pool shelves up toward the cliff face into a bank of mud, sand, and shale, covered (in spots that get enough sun) by moss. In the middle of the bank, like the entrance to a chapel budding off from the cathedral, a small, in comparison glaringly bright, opening slopes up. At the top of the slope is a level spot, carpeted with grass that puts the Emerald City of Oz to shame, out of which grows a big tree (from this angle only the massive lower trunk is visible).

Slow dissolve to:

50. Reverse angle, down from high up in the "chapel."

The tree looks even bigger from here. No branches visible anywhere on the lower trunk. Patches of sunlight move on the grassy floor below as the branches growing above the "ledge" in the cliff face high overhead blow in the breeze. A gentle, steady drizzle of water falls from somewhere up above onto the grass with a sound like gentle rain. The water flows down the low edge of the slope, then turns into a rivulet which flows into the pool.

Slow dissolve to:

51. Looking out toward Gabrielle and Xena from the slope.

They wade toward the slope. Midway up it, next to the rivulet, burns a patch of oil shale, making a sort of woodless campfire. Beside the fire lays the white haired woman, unconscious.

Dissolve to:

52. Xena examining the woman.

Xena carefully lifts away the woman's bandage. Behind her, Argo limps eagerly on her own up the slope toward the grass.

[Foley: splash and shout as Gabrielle steps in the rivulet]

Gabrielle (off screen) (vexed) Well, at least some of the water here is normal. (approaching into view) How is she?

Xena (puzzled) I don't know why she didn't die then and there. Since she didn't, I guess she'll live.

Gabrielle kneels by the fire, which burns from bare rock without fuel, and looks at it with dull eyes. Her capacity for marvels has been exceeded. She touches Xena's arm.

Gabrielle Xena? What is this place?

Xena looks up, around. It's not a question she's taken time to consider. She shakes her head in bewilderment.

Wipe to:

53. The cherry tree at the clifftop.

The four hapless, near-naked solders are each tied, sitting with legs stretched in front of them, to the trunk of the cherry tree, one at each compass point. Four crossbows have been propped up and braced a few meters away from each soldier, with strings tied to the triggers of each leading to collars around each soldier's throat, so that the slightest movement from a soldier will earn him a bolt between the eyes. They are not gagged, and bear the long-suffering look of mistreated dogs.

The camera follows the archer as she walks around the tree with the happy, satisfied air of a craftswoman nearing the proper completion of an exhausting job. She steps over the trigger strings and swings her bow with a careless air that makes the soldiers wince and yelp ad lib protests. Only half her attention is on her handiwork with the soldiers. She fusses with her unstrung bow, tying a cord to one end of it, then tying a metal barb to the end of the cord.

Archer There. Now all we need is some bait. Can't catch trout without bait. Let me see. . .

Before each of the following lines, she rummages in her shoulderbag, carelessly stepping over the next trigger string, pulls out a drawstring pouch, opens the pouch, and looks inside. She says the line, then dumps the contents of the pouch on the face or lap of the soldier at her feet.

Archer Garden spider? No, too pretty to kill (dumps on #3) Millipede? Nah. (dumps on #1) Scorpion? Too mean (dumps very fast on #2) Hissing cockroach? Just the thing!

She impales the roach on the barb and tosses the empty bag in the face of #4. Soldier #4 sighs with incredible relief, while the others cower, not daring to move or wriggle lest the arrows kill them.

Cut to:

54. View of the Archer walking away.

Archer Bye-bye boys! Have fun!

She walks jauntily off, whistling tentatively, as if trying to find the right melody. She passes a cluster of rocks, and, poking her bow down among them, nonchalantly catches and swings a dainty, beautiful black-gold-red ringed snake through the air to land, hopping mad, in #4's lap. It thrashes around, hissing, bites the knot holding his drawers on, then glides down to hide under his leg. He whimpers.

The archer is tired, but feeling cheerful. She's almost skipping toward the tree at the edge of the cliff. She finds the melody she's looking for and, as the camera begins to fade, we suddenly recognize it as a version of the theme for the credit crawl of the Andy Griffith show. She reaches the tree and starts to belay down, still whistling. Slowly

Fade out.