Xena: Warrior Princess, Gabrielle, Argo and all other characters who have appeared in the syndicated series Xena: Warrior Princess, together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MCA/Universal and Renaissance Pictures. No copyright infringement was intended in the writing of this fan fiction. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author. This story cannot be sold or used for profit in any way. Copies of this story may be made for private use only and must include all disclaimers and copyright notices.

1. AS ON EARTH, SO IN HELL

Tableau with dialogue; Callisto and Valaska, imprisioned in lava, vent their frustrations verbaly. Oddly Callisto is the calm one, willing to wait.

The story of Pan and Syrinx is quickly enacted. Cloven hoofed Pan is desperatly in love with Syrinx, a member of Artimus' hunting party. He finds her bathing in a stream, sneaks up on her but when he makes to grab her he gets nothing but arms full of reeds. Syrinx and Artimuses snicker at him from the far side of the stream and disapear into the forest. Pan makes pipes out of the reeds and plays his sorrow.

Establish the whereabouts of our heroes. Hercules, Iolus, Xena, Gabrielle and Ephany are at the Olympics with a large contingent of Amazons and most of the worlds heroes.

Gabrielle is entered in the poetry contest (they really had one). Ephany thinks the Queen of the Amazons should do something related to Artimus not Athena, but hey, she's the Queen she can do whatever she wants.

Hercules is mediator of the negotiations between warring states which are held every four years.

Strife sets Callisto and Valaska free of the lava. He is, after all, the God of strife, he doesn't need a war to gain power just strife and these two gals are experts.

Valaska plots to overthrow Artimus as Goddess of the Amazons.

She talks to Pan about Syrinx and says that she will get her for him if he disallows all hunting in his forests.

The lack of hunting weakens the Amazons and lessens Artimus' prayer base. If a hunter can't make a kill they wont offer thanks to Artimus.

Callisto finds the Xena look-a-like Meg sucking face with Joxer and kills her.

She is very upset to discover that its not Xena and tells Joxer to tell Xena that she's back. He tells her to go to Hades.

She thinks its a good idea and already knows the directions.

Valaska gets a bucket of the river Styx.

Callisto uses this as cover to steal Charon's boat and sneak into Hades while Charon is distracted by Cerberus barking at Valaska.

Valaska uses her bucket of the Styx (the waters of forgetfulness) to make the Amazons that aren't at the Olympics forget and then she tells them a goddly lie. “Gabrielle is a usurper and is attempting to raise a false Goddess for the Amazons, Artimus. Gabrielle must be killed and Artimus defiled to restore the rightful Amazonian Goddess to power, Valaska, the Goddess of conquest.”

A band of Amazons who were trading for food escape Valaskas plan.

A war ensues as the Amazons defile Artimus temples and annex villages on their way to burnt out, half deserted Troy, which will be their new capital.

Gabrielle and the other Amazons (20 +) are at the Olympics. Artimus appears to Ephany as she prays before a match and demands to see Hercules.

Artimus explains what is happening and that she is afraid to look into it herself because Pan has turned the forests against her. She is so weak that she had to wait until Ephany prayed to her before she could manifest herself.

Xena, Gabrielle, Hercules, Iolus and the Amazons go to Troy to find out whats going on.

They enter Troy as allies of the city but it is a trap.

All escape alive thanks to Gabrielle catching the arrows meant for her with her staff and Hercules holding up the portcullis.

Callisto starts a rebellion in Tartarus.

2. UP STYX CREEK

Joxer arrives at Troy with the message for Xena.

There is a skirmish with the Amazons of Troy who are called Valaskans.

Ephany captures and tries to talk to one of the Valaskans but her memory is gone and she doesn't remember Ephany.

Callisto lays siege to Hades castle with an army of the residents of Tarterus.

Hades makes sure that Persephone escapes through the portal to Olympus before he destroys it so that Callisto can't use it.

The portals look like giant spinning coins. Hades has three of them. One each for Olympus, Tarterus, and Earth.

Callisto takes the castle and imprisons Hades in something suitable as he had done to so many others.

She then tells Cerberus not to let anyone into Hades.

Hermes shows up for Hercules and Xena and takes them to Olympus.

Gabrielle is left with the Amazons, Iolus and Joxer.

Gabrielle does leadership stuff. Learns to make tough Queen decisions.

The Amazon hunting party shows up.

Demeter, Persephone and Artimus ask Hercules and Xena for help.

Give info about Callisto and Valaska, some talk about how they got free.

Get weapons from Hephestus. Xena gets a forearm shield.

I'm not sure what Hercules gets, he's so hard to shop for.

The Valaskans stage a raid and capture Gabrielle so that they can sacrifice her to Valaska.

First they rack her between horses. Then they cut her Achilles tendons. Finally she is hung from a stake by the wrists and burned, as the flames rise about her Valaska walks through the fire to her and says

Valaska slowly slides her knife across Gabrielles stomach intending to spill her guts on the hot coals.Ephany and Joxer have been watching from some high perch and Joxer is having a fit because there's nothing he can do. Ephany srings her bow and blinks away the tears to aim.

We hear Valasca's scream rising in the distance.

Callisto takes the portal to Earth and steals eggs from Typhon and Ikidna.

Then mixes them with her own blood and makes hideous pets.“I never thought Id be a mommy.”

With the Underworld in disarray Gabby wakes-up on the shores of the Styx with no way to get across.

she uses Charon as a guide on her journey down the banks of the Styx to Elysium.

Callisto and her army of darkness rally at the gates of Hell and begin a march to Elysium.

They are on the opposite side of the Styx from Gabrielle who is faster because she is with Charon.

After getting weapons from Hephestus Hercules and Xena return to Troy.

Iolus and Ephany are making an army out of the displaced people in the Valaskans wake.

Xena is told about Gabrielle and gets a serious case of blood lust.

Big argument with Ephany about killing the Valaskans.

While Charon scouts ahead Gabrielle is confronted by a Sea Hag in the stygian swamps who wants to eat her. As usual her tongue and brain save her but not without a scuffle. After which she finds a deserted building that looks like a cross between a castle and a cathedral. She sits to wait for Charons return and immediately falls asleep. In a dilapidated spooky building. In a frozen lightless swamp. On the shores of a river that runs to Hell.. Think maybe it was a bad idea?

With Artimus' help Hercules & Xena lay siege to Troy which falls because Valaska is too busy opening a portal to The Happy Hunting Grounds to help her Valaskans defend it.

Valaska steps through the portal and into a trap. She ends up hanging upside-down by one foot holding on to the spiked branch that was suppose to impale her.

A smaller group of Amazons reach Valaska's temple first and get sucked through the portal as it fluctuates.

When Artimus, Hercules, Iolus, Xena & Ephany reach Valaska's temple she and the first group are gone but the portal is still open.

Artimus rushes them through before it collapses.

Gabrielle wakes with a start then goes exploring. At the back of the castle she finds a stone pier with a derelict funeral barge tied to it. On closer inspection it's infested with zombies and a death knight but she needs the transportation so she grabs a metal flag poll mounted on the deck and cleans house.

The death knight is attacking Gabrielle and things look bad but then Charon shows up.

The death knight swings, Charon parries with his poll.

the Death Knight drops low for a dragon kick. Charon hops over the kick and returns with one of his own putting the Death Knight on his back.

the Death Knight does a handspring to standing and immediately into a swing. Charon ducks and uses the knights inertia to throw him clear across the room. The Death Knight stands up extremely pissed, ready to charge.

the Death Knight charges, Charon braces. At the last instant Charon sidesteps and clotheslines the knight who tabletops to the level of Charons arm and then his head comes off and rolls into the corner. As the head watches Charon smashes his foot through the rusted and dusty chest plate like a finishing move from Mortal Kombat.

Gaby gets Charon to pilot her down river.

3. HAPPY HUNTING

The first party through Valaska's gate is hunted down. Short but nasty.

The second group come through at a different location because the portal was fluctuating. Artimus immediately closes her three portals to prevent Valasca from escaping and explains the rules. “In The Happy Hunting Grounds all things are equal, Valaska may be a God but she is in a God's realm.”

Gabrielle & Charon come to an abyss. The Styx falls away to nothingness but on the far side of the cavern is the extra planer river Oceanus. This is the short cut to Elysium, the soft vallys that lie at the foot of Olympus. Callisto must take her army the long way.

Charon can't go any farther all he can do his help Gabrielle across the cavern.

After crossing the cavern Gabrielle falls into the Oceanus, the shot swirls and when she surfaces she is on the shores of Elysium.

She meets Purdicus and at first he doesn't remember anything so she pricks her finger and writes in blood.

Do you remember that summers day?
The night before, with me you lay
and all the world did seem at play
to we within our joy.

Since youth betrothed to you, and yet,
I'd never have thought I'd never forget
the man who would make me want to beget
a child with him to share.

One callous cut from savage pride
to exact her price apon the bride.
The wind itself through grass did cry
for “Oh, my Love had died!”

and then he remembers. She tells him to leave but he stays to prepare people for Callisto s army.

It's hard because in Elysium people have no memories. Gabrielle writes out everything they need to know so they can read it anytime one of them forgets.

She continues uphill to Olympus.

The party in THHG finds what Valaska has left of the first group through the portal, it's gruesome and undignified.

Iolus and Ephany get in each others face about old hunters tricks and how to read the signs.

They move on, looking for Valaska.

Get ambushed, big fire fight, one dead.

Gabrielle free hand climbing a cliff. Fly on the wall shot. She makes the mistake of looking down and the camera shows us clouds beneath her which part to reveal a miniature landscape. Far in the distance a thin line of smoke rises at the head of the great black line which is Callisto's army.

Callisto's army arrives in Elysium.

Absolute mayhem, happy picnickers butchered, people eating fruit trapped in the groves as they burn, skinny dippers eaten by horrid monsters. And finally the whole place is set ablaze because Callisto wants Olympus to know shes coming.

In THHG they set a trap and wait but nothing happens. Bait the trap with Artimus and wait again.

There is a stirring of leaves and then the trap is sprung. Valaska is caught in the net whish she immediatly shreds. A huge fight ensues, both Herc and Xena are barely a match for Valasca. Artimus is the only one who can stand her ground. One of the Amazons is critically injured when she turns her back to set off the second half of the trap. A huge log hung from vines swings towards Valasca. Xena rushes into the fray to save Hercules and is caught by the log which hurls her down a hill. She slides off a cliff and plummets a hundred feet into the Oceanus.

Hercules and Artimus chase after Valaska but don't catch her.

Xena goes over a few waterfalls the shot swirls and she surfaces on the shores of Elysium.

Elysium is burning.

Gabrielle clambers over the edge of a cliff and is overjoyed to find that it is the last. The gates of Olympus stand before her and they're locked.

She squeezes through the bars, comments on the lack of security and finds the Gods in a heated argument over who's fault this is and who should clean it up. Someone notices that Strife hasnt been around much lately.

Gabrielle sets them straight by showing them what Callisto has done to Elysium. They tell her what they know about Valasca, Hercules and Xena, which isn't much.

Elysium is now dark with smoke and ash. Hell in Paradise. Bodies are strung liberally about, shackled to trees, crucified, mounted on those spiked wheel things.

Xena is wagging a one woman guerrilla war on Callisto's forces as they march uphill.

Booby traps, weapons raids, the old kill the last guy in line until there's no one left trick.

Xena and Callisto engage and Callisto parries the shield away, Xena nearly dies.

In THHG Iolus and Ephany tend to the wounded. They get along a little better.

Artimus picks the killing ground, they all set the traps.

Artimus calls Valaska to the battle.

Run the scenario. It's long perhaps eight minutes of continuous action.

Eventually they catch Valaska in a net made by Hephestus.

Xena, in desperation, grudgingly prays to Aries.

Xena and Aries move what remains of the army of Elysium to cut off Callisto's army of darkness in the foot hills of Olympus.

Basic war movie stuff.

End the episode with Purdicus giving a slow motion battle-cry in the midst of total mayhem.

4. GOD KILLERS or TO SHAKE THE PILLARS OF HEAVEN

A montage of the battle we ended on last time.

Xena marching, lockstep, up and down the lines and fortifications barking orders.

Aries going one on one with Callisto and getting his butt kicked.

Gabrielle questions the old crone of the fates on how to kill a God and learns about the Sickle of Cronus.

Gabrielle appears to Hercules as a reflection in water as he wets a cloth to clean his wounds. She tells him about the Sickle.

To kill Callisto and Valaska they need to find the Sickle of Cronus which is guarded by the three Hundred-handed Giants at the innermost regions of the Earth.

Artimus reopens the portal to Hades.

Hercules and Iolus go to free Hades and get the Sickle from the depths of Tarterus.

Ephany wants to come too but Artimus needs her. Faith like Ephany's is hard to come by.

Callisto makes it to Olympus and lays siege to it.

Hercules and Iolus return with the sickle which they give to Artimus but she won't touch it. It is forbidden for a god to kill a god because Zeus doesn't want what happened to his father to happen to him. Hercules must execute Valaska but if he does it he will never become a god and he will lose all his immortal powers. Heavy stuff this, big chat with father and then Iolus. But the conclusion is enevitable Hercules performs the execution.

Callisto's army breaches the gates.

Once again, absolute mayhem as the Gods wage war in Olympus.

The hordes of darkness move like a living tide into the stately courts and gardens where they are cut down by the Gods and our heroes but the flow seems never-ending.

Hercules wades through the horde with the sickle flashing darkly.

He sees Callisto and Xena engaged in single combat and throws the sickle to Xena.

Climactic battle, Xena and Callisto fight on a rapidly narrowing precipice until Callisto forces them both off the edge.

They fall from Olympus and strike the earth as balls of fire. Xena lands in a lake, Callisto on the beach.

Byron quote for Gabrielle later “and fiery the Angels fell. / Bright thunder rolling round their shores. / Burning with the fires of Aoch.”

Xena's shield saves her.

they engage again. Callisto is all rage and furry with two swords. Xena is calm, parry and wait for the opening. Finally she sees it and hacks Callisto's arm with the sickle.

The camera swirls about the fast swordplay. Energy bristles off the weapons. Xena makes a series of strikes.

They are eye to eye now. Callisto is shocked that the weapon is in her. Xena twists the blade up into her heart saying

Callie spits up blood which falls to the water or ground to be used later as a plot device. Hudson can be brought back as anything you like, good or bad. Even multiple things. Just as Aphrodite was born from Uranus' blood spilled in the sea.

Callisto's head rolls back and Godlight spills from her mouth and eyes. Xena lets the body drop as she steps away. The camera pulls back and we see a discorporate Callisto watching Xena drop her body. A black light opens behind her and she turns into it.

Wrap things up.

The army of darkness is sent back to Tarterus.

Hades is back where he's suppose to be.

Gabrielle gets to come back to life because she never crossed the Styx.

Elysium is restored though Purdicus is gone forever.

Water from the Styx is used to wipe the memories of the Valaskans again so that they can rejoin the Amazons.

Big m.f. party.

In the VOID.

dissolve to black.