| Friend In Need II |
| Previously on Xena: Scenes from A Friend in Need I Xena, in a new outfit, buries her old breastplate. She listens. She hears lots of sounds; drums, horses, soldiers walking. The cinematography is intense and breathtaking. Gabrielle listens. She is with the Monk. She says it is too quiet. She remembers Xena's voice saying "Always remember I love you. She yells for Xena and starts running. Xena listens. The army moves. She grabs her chakram and tosses it into a couple of wagons, spilling their contents. Then she knocks fire onto the spilled items. There is a huge, vast firebomb, a wind of fire, rushing over the land. The fire wind knocks Gabrielle to the ground. There is a mushroom cloud. Xena runs up a tree, Amazon-style, and begins shooting arrows at soldiers. Gabrielle runs. Xena continues to shoot arrows. The drums beat. An army shoots arrows at Xena. Thousands of arrows. Xena catches a few. She deflects more. She is shot in the shoulder. She runs. She moves. She is shot again. She manages to get behind an overturned wagon, she is shot again in the other shoulder. She is shot in the arm. She pulls her sword. "Now you asked for it." She moves forward. She is shot in the stomach. She fights the men as they advance. Lots go down. Xena yells for Gabrielle. There is a montage of Xena/Gabrielle shots from past episodes. Xena kills more men. She turns around. A samurai chops her head off. Gabrielle runs through the forest. She finds the chakram, covered with blood. She looks at it. At the tea house, Akeme sits playing her instrument. The sacred katana appears. Xena, naked, enters. Akeme tells Xena she dreamed of her, and now she is there in her reality. Xena puts on a red robe; other women attend to her. Akeme says she is filled with joy at the sight of Xena. Gabrielle, still looking for Xena, sees the Ghost Killer on the battlefield. He is stabbing souls as they depart the bodies, to keep Yodoshi from swallowing them. The Monk tells Gabrielle to ask him if he's seen Xena's soul. Gabrielle turns on the Monk and tells him Xena is alive. She is alive! Akeme tells Xena she is so happy to see her that no poetry can express her feelings. Xena tells Akeme she's been in the underworld before; this feels very different. Akeme says it is an illusion, projected by Yodoshi. One of the women, with an ankle bracelet on, stamps her foot, and Yodoshi appears, a whirlwind of darkness. The other women all bow. Yodoshi blows an evil wind at Xena, blowing her around. His arm turns into a lariat of fire. He grabs Xena, tosses her around. He tears the clothing from her, leaving her lying prone and naked upon the floor. He beats her back with his lash of fire. He pulls Xena up. She bows, and tells Yodoshi she is at his service. Yodoshi laughs wickedly, and leaves. Akeme tells Xena she is relieved that she showed Yodoshi the proper respect. Xena says she is going to destroy Yodoshi. She tells Akeme not to follow her, and Xena slips away. Gabrielle walks through the woods. She is at a pretty spot, with a creek, and rocks. She hears something. She catches a glimpse of something white. She sees a flash of red. Gabrielle eases across the stream, and runs directly into Xena. They see each other, and hug. Gabrielle asks Xena why she has on robes. Xena says she has to kill Yodoshi. Gabrielle holds out the chakram. "Then you'll need this." Xena reaches her hand out, and it goes directly through the metal. Gabrielle's face is filled with emotion. "You're dead!" she says. "How could you let yourself be killed?" Xena tells Gabrielle that she had to go into the battle alone; otherwise, Gabrielle would be dead, also. "We'll find a way to bring me back," Xena says. After all, they always do. She says she had to die to kill Yodoshi and end all the torment. Gabrielle hugs Xena. "You're my whole life, Xena. I won't lose you," she says. The Ghost Killer arrives, and Gabrielle pulls her sword. She warns the Ghost Killer not to come near Xena. Xena tells Gabrielle it's okay; they are working together. One of the women from the tea house is behind Xena. She moves forward, and the Ghost Killer stabs her. Before she vanishes, Xena grabs the ankle bracelet. Xena returns to the tea house with Gabrielle. She introduces Gabrielle to Akeme. "This is my soulmate," she says. "She's a poet like you, Akeme." The Ghost Killer and the Monk walk up. The Ghost Killer asks Gabrielle if she would risk her life to bring Xena back. Gabrielle says of course. The Ghost Killer and the Monk tell Gabrielle that if she burns Xena's body and takes the ashes to a special fountain on Mt. Fujisha before two days pass, Xena will come back. Gabrielle and Akeme meet, awkwardly. Gabrielle, looking very sad, prepares to leave on her journey. Akeme stops her. She says she wants to give Gabrielle a gift, something to protect her on her journey. She takes Gabrielle inside and gives Gabrielle a large tattoo all over body. Xena lies beside Gabrielle while the work is done. Xena gives Gabrielle a sword. "Good luck, old friend," she says. "I'm getting your body back, Xena, and before sunset tomorrow we will meet again on the side of Mt. Fujisha," Gabrielle says. Gabrielle, at dusk, with a storm rages, searched the war camp for Xena's body. She knocks out a few guards. She finds Xena's body, strung up, hanging. Gabrielle drops to her knees, vomiting and sobbing. She stands. "Give me her head!" she cries. She cuts the body down and covers it. As she works, the samurai moves behind her. Gabrielle faces him. He tells her that Xena died with honor. Gabrielle tells him he knows nothing of honor; he bested her 1000 to one. He tells Gabrielle she has a deathwish. "I accept the challenge," Gabrielle replies. Gabrielle crosses swords with the samurai. She hears Xena's voice telling her to listen. She hears every movement the samurai makes, every nuance. The samurai raises his sword; Gabrielle sidesteps, and the samurai is down. There is a collective gasp from his watching army. The samurai, kneeling, asks Gabrielle to kill him honorably by beheading him in one blow. Gabrielle knocks him out with the hilt of her sword. The men move aside as Gabrielle strides to Xena's head, which rests on a place of honor. She covers the head, puts everything on a horse, and rides out into the night and the rain. At the tea house, the Ghost Killer chants. Xena, dressed as the maiden who once wore the ankle bracelet, eventually stamps her foot and calls Yodoshi. He immediately arrives, and then realizes something is amiss. The Ghost Killer rises and stabs Yodoshi. The Ghost Killer if flung about. Xena grabs his sword. Yodoshi falls into the bath water, which bubbles and bubbles as Xena stabs the water many times. Yodoshi disappears. Steam rises, and Xena looks for the soul swallower. The steam turns to water, and Yodoshi reforms. Xena and Yodoshi fight. While they tussle, the Monk gets slashed and killed. Akeme falls into the bath, trying to help Xena, and Yodoshi breathes on the water, freezing it over and trapping Akeme beneath the ice. Yodoshi then stabs the Ghost Killer. Xena attacks Yodoshi, and cuts off his arm. She stabs him, and he implodes in a blaze of fire. Xena frees Akeme. They hear a mighty scream. Gabrielle lights a fire. She tells Xena that can't let her die. She remembers many times together with Xena. "You will return to me, my friend," Gabrielle says. Xena holds the Ghost Killer. In his dying breaths, he tells Xena that Yodoshi has gone to Mt. Fujisha to drink from the Fountain of Strength. He tells Xena that the job is not finished. Xena swears she won't rest until Yodoshi is done away with. Gabrielle rides through the hills. The samurai attacks her. He says he won't let her revive Xena's body. He knocks Xena's ashes away. Gabrielle goes after the urn, trudging through the snow, slipping over rocks. The samurai catches up with her, and they fight. Gabrielle knocks the samurai down, and his hand hits the urn, knocking it on over the cliff. Gabrielle races after it. She drops to the edge, and sees the ashes have landed in a bird's nest. Yodoshi, with one arm, tries to get the Fountain flowing. The water gurgles. Xena runs up and hits him, knocking him away from the flow of water. Xena attempts to get beneath the water as it begins to flow down, but Yodoshi makes the water freeze as it falls, and he knocks Xena backwards with a mighty blow that knocks the Warrior Princess senseless. Pieces of the frozen water lie all around. Akeme appears. She grabs the sword and tries to behead Yodoshi, but fails. Gabrielle, on the cliff, realizes she hears Xena fighting with Yodoshi. She runs to Xena. Yodoshi eats a piece of ice from the waters of the Fountain, and his arm grows back. He then takes a very long time to suck up Akeme, who tries to stab the sword into the ground and anchor herself, to no avail. Yodoshi swallows her soul. Gabrielle, at Xena's side, tries to figure out what is happening, but Xena is too weak to tell her much. Gabrielle runs over the water falling from the top of the mountain, and stands beneath it. As she does so, Yodoshi tosses a ball of fire at her back; the fireball hits the dragon tattoo and the flames bounce back into Yodoshi, knocking him aside. Gabrielle runs back to Xena and kisses her, several times, and droplets of the water from the Fountain of Strength go into the Warrior Princess. Xena reemerges, a strong, healthy ghost, dressed now in her Warrior Princess brown leather fighting outfit and breastplate. Xena tells Gabrielle she needs the sacred katana to finish Yodoshi off. Gabrielle gives her the sword. Gabrielle says she has to get Xena's ashes, and rushes off. Xena whirls around and turns into a cloud of fire. Yodoshi does the same. The two fires race across the woods, and then run into each other. Xena emerges. Pieces of Yodoshi fall around her, and then reform. They fight each other, swords clashing, as Gabrielle begins her climb down the cliff after Xena's ashes. The woods are on fire; the swords clang as Yodoshi and Xena fight. Yodoshi vanishes; Xena listens, hearing everything, ready for Yodoshi when he attacks again. They fight some more. Yodoshi tells Xena she is going to join those 40,000 souls she is worried about, and then he is going after Gabrielle. Xena turns around, and stabs Yodoshi just as Gabrielle gets Xena's ashes. Xena whirls around and beheads Yodoshi, releasing all the souls, which whirl around Xena. Gabrielle goes to the Fountain, and the samurai again is there to stop her. Gabrielle tosses the chakram and hits the samurai in the head. Gabrielle catches Xena's weapon, and looks at it. She puts it back on her belt. Akeme appears to Xena, thanking her. She tells her that all are redeemed, including Xena. Gabrielle begins the ceremony to bring Xena back. Xena puts her hand on her arm and stops her. She tells Gabrielle that even though the souls are released, their deaths must be avenged. Akeme didn't want to tell her that, she says. Xena tells Gabrielle that she must stay dead. "If I bring you back to life, the souls will be lost forever," Gabrielle says. "That isn't right!" she cries. She says she doesn't care. "You're all that matters to me!" she says. Xena looks very sad. She tells Gabrielle that it must be. "If there is a reason for our travels together, it's because I had to learn from you .... to learn the good, the right thing to do. .... I can't come back," Xena says. Gabrielle cries. "I love you, Xena. How am I supposed to go on?" Xena tells Gabrielle she will always be with her. They sit beside the fountain, Gabrielle resting her head on Xena's shoulder, holding her ashes. They watch the sun set, and as the last remnants of light begin to fade, Xena vanishes, leaving Gabrielle alone. "Xena," Gabrielle whispers. Gabrielle, on a boat, holds Xena's ashes. Xena the ghost appears, and tells Gabrielle she will always be alive, in Gabrielle's heart. She asks Gabrielle what will happen now? Gabrielle says she will go to the land of the Pharaohs. "I hear they need a girl with a chakram," she says. "Wherever you go, I'm always at your side," Xena says. "I knew you'd say that," Gabrielle replies. Gabrielle, standing alone on the boat, drifts over the water as the sun sets. |
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