ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT

4X01
- ADVENTURES IN THE SIN TRADE -


[TEASER]

X: “Yah!”

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Hades: “Tartarus. Elysian Fields. Tartarus. Elysian Fields.”

X [Interrupting]: “Hades! My friend, Gabrielle-- where is she?”

Hades: “Gabrielle, well-- if she’s dead-- she didn’t come to me.”

X: “I _saw_ her die. She _had_ to come to you.”

Hades: “Why would I lie to ya? Look-- if you’d like to see Solon, I could arrange a few moments with-- ”

X [Interrupting]: “No, no, no-- you leave Solon out of this. He doesn’t need to know about my problems.
It’s Gabrielle I wanna see. Come on. You owe me.”

Hades: “Xena, not all the world’s dead come to me.”

X: “She was Greek. The Olympian gods control her destiny.”

Hades: “Yeah, I admit, it does seem like she’d be mine-- like these people.
Charon and I are gonna be very, very busy.”

X [Interrupting]: “I’m not interested in your workload, Hades! Look-- I just wanna know where
my friend went after she died.”

Hades: “Did she, uh-- belong to any spiritual orders, or-- ”

X: “No.”

Hades: “What is it?”

X: “Do Greek Amazons come to you?”

Hades: “No.”

X: “Then that’s it. Gabrielle’s initiation into the Amazons meant she went to a different land of the dead.”

Hades: “Well, I can’t help you then. I don’t know where that is!”

X: “I do.”

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X: “Sorry, girl. I can’t take you where I’m going. Yah!”

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X: “Yah! Yah! Yahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

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[ACT I]

G’s Voice: “Xena. Xena.”

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G’s Voice: “Xena.”

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G’s Voice: “Xena. Xena.”

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X [Thinking]: “Gabrielle-- I’m entering a world of darkness I promised myself I’d never return to.
But it’s the only way I can see you again.”

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X [Thinking]: “My mind has lost its center. It’s turning-- turning-- can’t hold.”

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X [Thinking]: “It can’t hold.”

G’s Voice: “Xena-- ”

X [Thinking]: “I hear you-- or is it the wind? As I travel along paths I left long ago--
I’m engulfed by my memories. They consume me.”

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[The Past]

Borias [Bor] and X: “Ahhh! Ahhh! Ahhh!”

Bor: “Ay!”

X: “What?”

Bor: “What would you do-- if I told you-- I’m in love?”

X: “I’d cut out your sweetheart’s throat.”

Bor: [Laughs]

X: “You think I wouldn’t?”

Bor: “No. I mean, I’m in love with you.”

X: “With me? Have you lost what’s left of your mind? People like you and me don’t fall in love--
not with each other, anyway. [Sighs] Where do we go from here? I say we take on the Amazons.”

Bor: “They’re a tough bunch-- but reasonable, I think. I say we offer to ally with them against their
traditional enemies, the Centaurs. With the Centaurs out of the way-- nothing stands between us and Greece.”

X: “You and your alliances-- didn’t do us much good in Ch’in.”

Bor: “We did all right in Ch’in. We would have done better if it wasn’t for your unquenchable lust for power.”

X: “I thought you liked my unquenchable lust.”

Bor: “Well-- it does have its good points.”

Man’s Voice: “Borias!”

Bor: “What?!”

Man: “We caught these two lurking in the camp. The hag says she’s a Shamaness-- claims she
can-- help us beat the Amazons.”

X: “How can you do that?”

Alti: “I was once an Amazon, myself. But they expelled me from their number because my power
was too great. I am Alti-- and this is my apprentice-- Anokin. Congratulations.”

X: “What?”

Anokin: “Hmm.”

Alti: “You are with child.”

Bor: [Laughs]

X: “Very good. I haven’t told anyone that yet.”

Bor: “What?”

Anokin: “Hmm.”

X: “I would have gotten around to it. Go.”

Bor: “Xena, what are you doing? A Shamaness like her can only be trouble.”

X: “I like trouble, Borias. Please-- make yourself at home.”

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[The Present]

X: “Gabrielle.”

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Amazons’ Voices: “What is she doing?” “I don’t know.”

Man’s Voice: “Huh? Look at this.”

Bald Man: “What do you think you’re doin’?”

X: “You did this, didn’t you?”

Bald Man: “Yeah. So what? Ahhhhhhhhh!”

[Fight]

X: “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

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Amazon: “Look what we got.”

Otere [O]: “Good.”

Amazon: “Pick him up.”

Man: “Uh!”

Amazon: “It’s a warrior-woman. She fought our enemies, so I don’t think we need to fear her.”

X: [Yells]

[[[[[[G’s Voice: “You’ve got to take me with you-- teach me everything you know.”
X’s Voice: Even in death, Gabrielle-- ”]]]]]]

X: “Ahhhhh!”

[[[[[[X’s Voice: “I will never leave you.” X’s Voice: “You are the best thing that ever happened to me.”
X’s Voice: “You gave my life meaning and joy.” X’s Voice: “You will be a part of me, forever.”]]]]]]

X: “Ahhhhhhhh. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. Ahh. Ahhhhhhhhh.”

O: “That wailing? I heard it before, a long time ago, when I was a child.”

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[The Past]

O’s Voice: “An army from the East swept across the steppes. They destroyed everything in sight.
It was led by a great warlord named Borias-- and her.”

X: “Alti! Who did this?!”

Bor: “Xena, let’s go!”

X: “I’m not leaving without her.”

Bor: “Then don’t! Throw her on a horse, and let’s move! This is the last of the villages
before Amazon territory. I don’t want the Amazons to think we’re moving on them.”

X: “I don’t care about your plan! My friend is dead.”

Bor: “You knew her for less than a moon. What spell have they thrown on you? Quick, girl!
Come on! It’s only a child. Yah! Out of the way! Yah!”

X: “It’s too late.”

Alti: “You can see her again, you know.”

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[The Present]

O: “She must wanna cross over to the other side, and she needs the horse’s spirit to do that.”

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[ACT II]

X: “What are you doing?”

Dead Amazon: “You’re the one who gave me a decent funeral. Now you, too, are in the land of the dead.
I thank you-- mourn for you.”

X: “Don’t mourn for me. I’m not dead.”

Dead Amazon: “If you’re not dead, then-- why are you here?”

X: “I’m looking for a friend. She should have passed through the gate into eternity by now.”

Dead Amazon: “So, you plan to follow her into eternity?”

X: “That’s right.”

Dead Amazon: “So, will you be able to get back from there?”

X: “That, I don’t know.”

Dead Amazon: “She must be a very good friend.”

X: “She’s the only friend.”

Dead Amazon: “How come you know so much about the land of the dead? Have you been here before?”

X: “Let me tell you a little story.”

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[The Past]

X’s Voice: “Gabrielle’s not the first I followed here. I came once before.”

X: “Anokin! Oh!”

Anokin: “Uh.”

X: “What’s the matter?”

Anokin: “Stay away from me.”

X: “Why?”

Anokin: “You poisoned my soul. I want nothing to do with you.”

X: “I _hate_ the dead. You can’t take vengeance on them.”

Alti: “Ah-- but you can.”

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Bor: “Come back to me, Xena.”

Alti: “Uh! Uh!z’

Bor: “Come.”

X: “What do you want?”

Bor: “I want you. The stuff you’re intop-- it’s madness. You’re carrying our child within you.”

Alti: “Uh-- the baby will be a fine-- healthy boy-- with his father’s mouth and his mother’s eyes.”

X: “What will we call him?”

Alti: “Neither one of you will name him.”

Bor: “We’ll name him! And you can stop your evil predictions, you hag! Ah!”

X: “Borias-- you shouldn’t have done that. She’s powerful.”

Bor: “In the land of the dead, perhaps-- but here, she’s a pathetic bag of bones.”

X: “Never mind. It’s over your head.”

Bor: “And who is this?”

X: “Alti needed a human body in order to get us to the land of the dead.”

Bor: “You’re killing people, to help that demon cast her spells?”

X: “Come on, Borias. After all the people we’ve killed, what’s one more corpse?”

Bor: “I can’t believe what’s happening to you.”

X: “And I can’t believe what’s happening to you. You’re as soft as a pig’s belly. And what’s all this
talk about _our_ baby and us?! I swear, if you use the word, “Family,” I’m gonna puke!”

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X: “These powers you’re after-- ”

Alti: “You wanna know what they are. Your friend you told me about-- Lao Ma-- her powers
come from denial-- from self-sacrifice-- from the light. That’s not for people like you and me.
I wanna tap into the-- heart of darkness-- the sheer, naked will behind all craving--
hatred-- and violence. I’ll become-- the face of death itself-- capable of-- destroying not only-- a person’s body,
but their soul. Help me-- and I’ll make you-- ‘Destroyer of Nations’.”

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[The Present]

Dead Amazon: “What is it? Who’s that?”

X: “Cyane, Queen of the Amazons.”

Dead Amazon: “Cyane?! She’s a legend! You knew her?!”

X: “I killed her.”

[Flashback to Past: Cyane: “Uh!”]

Cyane: “What are you doing here, Xena? You’re not welcome.”

X: “Cyane-- why are you still in the land of the dead? You should have crossed over into eternity.”

Cyane: “Answer me first. What do you want?”

X: “I’m looking for a friend-- a Greek Amazon.”

Cyane: “An Amazon is your friend.”

X: “That’s right. Her name is Gabrielle.”

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[The Past]

Cyane: “At heart, you’re an Amazon, whether you believe it or not.”

X: “It’s not for me to say.”

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[The Present]

Cyane: “Follow me.”

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Amazons: “Think she’s dead?” “Poke her.”

O’s Voice: “She’s not dead. Her spirit’s with the dead.”

Amazon: “I say, we send her body there, too.”

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[ACT III]

O: “Uh, no! We don’t hurt her.”

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Cyane: “You see, Xena-- none of us can pass through the gate to eternity.
We’re doomed to wander the land of the dead forever.”

X: “Alti did this to you.”

Cyane: “Yes-- Alti.”

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O’s Voice: “Watch it-- don’t jerk her. Keep everything smooth, or she’ll feel it.”

Amazon’s Voice: “Careful.”

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Cyane [?]: “We’ll look up top. [?]”

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O’s Voice: “Be careful-- don’t wanna wake her up, just yet.”

Amazon’s Voice: “What’s wrong with her?”

O’s Voice: “Nothing.”

[Flash to Land of the Dead]

O’s Voice: “She’s in the land of the dead. We’re gonna let her accomplish what-- ”

O: “-- she must there. She’s probably acquiring great powers.”

Amazon: “I still say we should cut her throat.”

O: “No.”

O’s Voice: “She’s our future-- I’m sure of it.”

Amazon: “Why should we believe you? There’s something you’re not telling us.”

O: “Borias had taken me in out of the cold.”

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[The Past]

Alti’s Voice: “She must die.”

X’s Voice: “Her-- what’re you talking-- ?”

X: “-- about? She’s just a child.”

Alti: “_She_-- will take your power away from you, one day. Have I been wrong with my predictions, so far?”

X: “You think Borias is trouble, now-- you should wait and see if we knocked off his little orphan girl.”

Alti: “Control your destiny. Kill her now-- and avoid the day she takes your power.”

Bor: “No! Get out of here. Xena.”

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[The Present]

Amazon’s Voice: “So, she would have killed you if Borias hadn’t shown up.”

O: “Nope-- I don’t think she would have. She didn’t kill me because she knew what Alti predicted must happen.”

O’s Voice: “I am destined to take her power.”

Amazon’s Voice: “I’m glad you’re so sure about it.”

Amazon: “I’m gonna have my ax ready when she starts to come around.”

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X: “I’m so sorry for what’s happend to you.”

Cyane: “I don’t think they believe you, Xena.”

[Flashback to fight with the Amazons in the past]

Cyane: “She claims she’s looking for a friend-- a Greek Amazon, no less.”

X’s Voice: “I understand your anger.”

X: “The sight of me must be a torment you. But once I find Gabrielle, you’ll never see me again.”

Cyane’s Voice: “Then, go!”

Cyane: “The gate to eternity lies in the heart of that volcano. That’s where you’ll find your precious Gabrielle.”

X: “But you said that Amazons can’t pass through the gate.”

Cyane’s Voice: “Our tribe can’t.”

Cyane: “The other Amazon tribes from Greece and Mesopotamia-- they can.
The path to your friend lies through that gate. Now-- go into eternity-- and out of our lives forever. Go!”

G’s Voice: “Xena. Xena.”

X: “I can’t. Gabrielle, I can’t. You know, nothing would make me happier than seeing you again.
You were my light. But I just realized what it was that you gave me-- a light of my own.
There’s something I gotta do-- something you’d want me to do. I love you.”

Cyane: “I thought I told you that the gate was over there.”

X: “Some other time. I’m going back to stop Alti.”

Cyane: “Our holy word should have been strong enough to undo whatever it was that kept us from
eternity, but still, we can’t pass through the gate.”

X: “Maybe you need a new hold word-- one stronger than the last.”

Cyane: “Our holy word is ‘Courage’, Xena. Nothing’s stronger than courage.”

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[ACT IV]

Amazon [O?]: “Get back! Quick! Move!”

X: “Who are you?”

O: “Otere.”

X: “I remember you. How did I get here?”

O: “We moved you. We thought you’d be safer here. We were careful not to wake you up.”

X: “You did well. Ahh!”

Amazon: “Oh!”

X: “I could teach you a thing or two about holding a sword on somebody. Who’s he?”

Amazon: “Our enemy. You wounded him. We haven’t decided who gets to kill him yet.”

O: “You drew first blood. You should make the kill.”

X: “Can you walk? Good. I want you to deliver a mesage to Alti. Dah! Tell her that Xena’s coming.”

O: “If we move directly on Alti, she’ll send _him_ after us.”

X: “Who’s ‘him’?”

O: “Berserker-- only the greatest fighter in our land. He’s been given special powers by
 Alti-- killed every warrior he’s ever met in combat.”

X: “Is that so? Well, let’s get started then.”

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Wounded Warrior: “Uh!”

Bald Warrior: “He says that-- ”

Alti [Interrupting]: “Xena’s coming! Do you _idiots_ think I didn’t know that already?
I’ve felt her presence for days. It was only a matter of time before she looked for me.
And you-- were kind enough to _bleed_ your way back here, and leave _ever_ so nice a trail.”

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X: “This one’s for you, Gabrielle.” [Yells]

[Fight]

O: “The Berserker!”

X: “_That’s_ the Berserker?!”

O: “No! _That’s_ the Berserker!”

X: “Get out of the way!”

[Flashes back and forth between the present and painful memories of the past]

X and Berserker: “Yah! Ahh! Uh! Ahh! Yahh! Ahh! Ahh! Yahh! Ahh! Yahh! Yahh!
Ahhh! Ahh! Ahh! Yah! Ahh! Yahh! Yahh! Ahhhhh!”

Amazon: “You all right?”

X: “My legs still feel broken. It doesn’t make sense. The power that was making me
relive my past seemed to be coming from the Berserker.”

O: “But you killed him.”

X: “I know. That should have released me from-- ”

O: “Alti’s spirit was in the horse. She seemed afraid of you.”

X: “Now, maybe. But as we get closer to her stronghold, she’ll get stronger and stronger.
This new power that she has-- the ones that make you relive your past-- it’s a toughie.”

O: “Can we beat her?”

X: “We’ve got to.”