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ACT THREE
FADE IN:
EXT. FOREST PATH - EVENING
The women from the village are fastened together, and their wrists are tied. Their legs are tied also, but loosely so they can walk.
They are not in the same place they were taken. The trees are much closer, and there are no sounds of habitation around them.
Xena and Gabrielle are near the back. They appear docile and avoid looking at the men who have captured them. They have their hands tied behind them.
The men have odd purple staining on their bodies, and all have thick hair and beards. They wear hide clothing, but carry well crafted weapons.
PETI (angrily) Thought you were going to protect us.
One of the captors hears her.
MAN What?
Peti falls silent, but glares at Gabrielle. Gabrielle doesn't answer. The men prod the women with long sticks.
MAN (cont’d) Move!
PETI Where are you taking us?
The man hits Peti across the face with his stick.
MAN No talking!
Xena watches impassively. Gabrielle looks down and swallows. Her hands clench at her sides, but she also remains where she is.
MAN (cont’d) Move. Be silent. We won't hurt you.
Peti snorts. She is bleeding. The men start herding the women along a half hidden path, drawing aside branches and leaves as they look around to make sure they are not being watched.
GABRIELLE (under her breath) This was a good idea, right?
The best Xena can manage is a shuffle, as the men have tied her legs in a short loop. She does not look pleased.
XENA Hmph.
CUT TO:
EXT. WATERFALL - NIGHT
The men shove the women down a path lit only by moonlight. They are climbing upward, and the women are visibly exhausted.
Xena and Gabrielle climb stolidly at the back of the line. They are in much better shape than the villagers, but it hasn't been an easy night, and both have smears of mud across their skin from falling on the path.
MAN Hold!
The line stops.
GABRIELLE (softly) Xena.
XENA (whispering) You all right?
GABRIELLE Fine. (beat) I think there's something familiar about these guys.
XENA My fist wants to get very familiar with them.
GABRIELLE Y'know....
XENA (sighing) This was my idea. Yeah. I know.
The men have been removing what appeared to be a fallen log from near the bottom of the waterfall. Now they return, and prod the women forward.
It is apparent they want them to go behind the falls.
GABRIELLE Ah. Guess that's why they never found them.
XENA They never looked.
One of them men comes over.
MAN Are you talking?
Gabrielle looks at him with gentle innocence. She points to the waterfall, and then shrugs. The man grunts and shoves her up the path.
Xena moves towards the man. He senses it and turns to look at her, raising his stick and aiming a blow at her head.
Xena evades the stick and keeps walking past the man, shifting as she comes even with him and knocking him back.
XENA Sorry.
MAN Bitch.
XENA (amused) Among other things.
The man shoves Xena, but ends up almost unbalancing himself when Xena proves quite unshovable.
They disappear under the water.
CUT TO:
EXT. FAR SIDE OF WATERFALL - NIGHT
The women emerge from the waterfall, drenched and disoriented. They are faced with a ring of torches. They stop, confused, then they are grabbed and shoved into a large cage made of tree limbs lashed together.
PETI Hey!
MAN Shut up!
The men grab the women in front of Xena and Gabrielle and hurl them towards the cage. Two stumble and fall, and as they do, Xena is revealed in the torchlight.
WOMAN'S VOICE STOP!
Xena's head jerks up in reaction. She tries to see past the torches, but the fire is too bright and she can't shade her eyes from it.
MAN Getting them in the box, m'lady.
WOMAN'S VOICE Not that one. Put the rest of them in.
The man grabs Gabrielle and pushes her towards the cage. Gabrielle resists, sensing something is very wrong. Her lips twitch, forming Xena's name.
WOMAN'S VOICE (cont’d) But leave this one out. (laughing) This is one piece of long, cold revenge about to be served up to me least expecting.
The man wrangles Gabrielle into the cage. Xena remains where she is standing, flanked now by the two other men, holding weapons close to her.
The torches flutter, and a shadowy figure moves past them, into the light.
It is a woman, perhaps in her late fifties, with gray hair showing faint signs of once being red. She wears hide garments like the men, but a battered, faded copper torc circles her neck.
Xena's expression remains very still.
XENA Hello Boudicca. Been a long time.
The woman looks at Xena with utter hatred.
BOUDICCA Longer for me than you, apparently. But it doesn't matter. I've waited a lifetime to find you again, you worthless deserting coward. (smiling) It's now been worth it.
She turns to her men.
BOUDICCA (cont’d) String her up. Tight. Don't get too close.
Boudicca backs into the shadows. A half dozen men descend upon Xena, throwing ropes around her, while three stand back, with crossbows aimed at her.
Gabrielle puts her hands around the bars, her expression stunned.
CUT TO:
EXT. BOUDICCA'S CAMPSITE - NIGHT - SHORT TIME LATER
Xena is hung from a tree, her hands tied to an upper branch, and her legs tied to lower. Around her, the men are gathering, bringing drums and laughing together.
Xena looks around. The campsite is a collection of shelters in a semi circle, some tucked under rock overhangs that line the back side of the waterfall.
She sees a small child hanging back near one shelter. The child is dressed like the men, but is watching the women inside the cage with wide eyes.
One of the men spots him and walks over, grabbing him and shoving him inside the shelter.
Boudicca reappears, and approaches Xena.
BOUDICCA These men here? (pointing) They're all that's left of my people.
XENA And?
BOUDICCA And the death of us started with you.
The men settle around the tree Xena is hung from.
XENA Don't lay your failures at my feet. It was your army, Boudicca.
BOUDICCA (fiercely) Aye. It was. But it was your battle, and you ran from it.
CUT TO:
EXT. CAGE - NIGHT - SAME TIME
Gabrielle untwists a bit of the hemp rope tying the cage bars together. The rope extends all the way up the joint out of her reach.
She sits down near a back bar and starts to use the rope to saw through the bar near the bottom.
PETI What are you doing?
GABRIELLE Getting out of here.
PETI Little late to think of that, isn't it? Now that you got us into this.
Gabrielle doesn't look up.
GABRIELLE We didn't get anyone into anything. If you're going to blame someone, blame them.
Gabrielle jerks her head towards the men around the tree.
PETI Well, turns out you aren't the heroes you made yourselves out to be after all, huh? Your friend over there sure got pegged fast.
GABRIELLE (gritting teeth) It's not what it sounds like.
The woman makes disbelieving sounds and comments.
PETI Sounds like you're a couple of frauds, to me.
SECOND WOMAN Maybe at least we can find out what happened to our children ourselves.
PETI Yeah. Who needs heroes?
Peti goes to the front of the cage. Gabrielle doggedly keeps working on her makeshift saw.
CUT TO:
EXT. BOUDICCA'S CAMPSITE - TREE - CONTINUOUS
Boudicca brings a torch close to Xena.
BOUDICCA See their faces? They still remember that day, Xena.
XENA (quietly) So do I.
BOUDICCA They believed you had a plan. Hell. I believed it.
She brings the torch close to Xena's face.
BOUDICCA (cont’d) And then you turned tail and ran, and left us to Caesar's mercy.
Xena blinks as the smoke from the torch enters her eyes. She looks past Boudicca
XENA You would have lost anyway. It was never about you.
BOUDICCA No. It was always about you, wasn't it? You and him. Did he pay you off to lead us on, Xena? How much?
Boudicca grabs Xena by the hair and pulls her head back.
BOUDICCA (cont’d) What was your honor worth... if you ever even had any?
CUT TO:
EXT. CAGE - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS
Gabrielle is concentrating on her sawing, but she can hear what Boudicca is saying and it is distracting her.
SECOND WOMAN (kneeling) What are you trying to accomplish? You'll never get out of this thing like that.
GABRIELLE Sure I will.
The second woman looks out at the fire circle.
SECOND WOMAN She caused all those people to die. What kind of people are you?
GABRIELLE It's not.... It's not as simple as that.
SECOND WOMAN So you're saying she's lying?
Gabrielle pauses. She looks at the string she's been using, which has just frayed in half. It falls to pieces and drops from her fingers.
GABRIELLE No. Not exactly.
PETI Yeah, I bet.
GABRIELLE She didn't run from anything. She... (exhaling) ... Had something else to take care of.
Peti snorts in derision.
PETI Well, she can't run now.
Gabrielle gets up and goes to the front of the cage. She grabs the bars and shakes them in mounting frustration.
CUT TO:
EXT. BOUDICCA'S CAMPSITE - TREE
Boudicca plants the torch to one side of Xena. She removes a dagger from her belt and approaches Xena again. With a dispassionate look, she takes a handful of Xena's hair, and cuts it off.
BOUDICCA Something to remember you by.
Boudicca puts the knife to Xena's throat. The men start to drum, a low, throbbing sound like a heartbeat.
Xena stares straight ahead.
BOUDICCA (cont’d) One thing, before I decide how you'll die, Xena. One thing I want from you. One thing you owe me. Owe them.
XENA I don't owe you anything.
Boudicca grabs Xena by the throat.
BOUDICCA Liar. You destroyed my people, and now I want to hear from your lips you admit that.
She sneers.
BOUDICCA (cont’d) Tell me how you turned your tail and ran. Tell me you're sorry, Xena!
She shakes Xena, then screams.
BOUDICCA (cont’d) TELL ME!
CUT TO:
EXT. CAGE - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS
Gabrielle grips the bars and pulls against them. She takes a breath, then lets it out. She starts looking for another way out, leaping up and grabbing the top bars, and rattling them.
CUT TO:
EXT. BOUDICCA'S CAMPSITE - TREE - CONTINUOUS
Xena struggles for the first time, ripping herself free of Boudicca’s grasp and taking a breath. Boudicca grabs her again.
BOUDICCA Say it! Say it and I may let you live the night through, Xena.
She leans in next to Xena and whispers.
BOUDICCA (cont’d) Say it.
Xena stares at Boudicca.
XENA (loudly) All right.
CUT TO:
EXT. CAGE - NIGHT
Gabrielle stops in mid-motion and just listens.
CUT TO:
EXT. BOUDICCA'S CAMPSITE - TREE
Boudicca turns to her men. They stop drumming and face her.
BOUDICCA Listen! Listen all of you. Remember this. Remember all your friends and comrades dying. Remember their screams. (to Xena) Go on. Tell them. Say it!
XENA I'm sorry.
CUT TO:
EXT. CAGE - NIGHT
Gabrielle looks through the bars at Xena's profile. Her expression is very sad.
CUT TO:
EXT. BOUDICCA'S CAMPSITE - TREE
Boudicca tips her head back and laughs harshly.
XENA (yelling) I'm sorry I didn't turn my back on you sooner.
Boudicca turns and stares at her.
XENA (cont’d) You weren't worth what was lost that day.
Boudicca recoils, then lunges for Xena.
CUT TO:
EXT. CAGE - NIGHT
Gabrielle's head drops, and she looks away. She leans against the bars, shaking with emotion.
Peti walks over to her.
PETI See? What a bitch.
For a moment, Gabrielle is completely still. Then she whirls and slaps Peti across the face with shocking violence. Peti stumbles and falls.
GABRIELLE You're not worth what we're about to go through.
Gabrielle goes to the bars again. She sees Boudicca grab Xena.
GABRIELLE (cont’d, loudly) Boudicca!
Boudicca turns and lets go of Xena. Xena twists and looks over at the cage for the first time.
BOUDICCA Who speaks?
GABRIELLE Why don't YOU tell the truth? You couldn't lead your people to victory so it's easier to blame someone else!!
Boudicca steps out of the circle of torches and shades her eyes. Her expression turns very cold.
BOUDICCA You.
GABRIELLE Yes.
BOUDICCA (to men) Bring that one. Hang her there. When the moon rises, they'll both die.
Boudicca leaves the campfire circle. The men pull Gabrielle from the cage, and start tying her up. Gabrielle doesn't fight them. She looks past them at Xena, a faint, wry smile on her face.
FADE OUT. |
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END OF ACT THREE |
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