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| - The saga of the steppes continues as Xena and her new young Amazon friends build a purge hut in preparation for a spiritual battle with Alti. Xena takes Otere into the hut for some girltalk. She remembers spying on Queen Cyane while she was in a similar hut. Xena fell through the roof and the Queen whipped her butt. Xena would have died except Borias intervened. Later Xena proclaims Yakut the new shamanness of the tribe. They do the Dance of the Spirits. Alti, meanwhile, calls forth a bunch of hapless souls from the land of the dead to go and attack Xena and the Amazons. Xena cannot get the young Amazons out of their bodies to fight the souls; she has to beat them up as they are taken over and they attack her. Finally, though, she shakes them up and the souls depart. The young Amazons and Xena travel to find Alti. Xena says they must go to a sacred place of the dead, where Alti's power is. They make camp, setting up a charm circle. Xena remembers being asked to join the Amazons. Queen Cyane won a spiritual dual with Alti, impressing the younger Xena. While keeping watch, a spider jumps on Xena, and she falls into a trance-state. The spider takes on Gabrielle's face, and then Alti comes out and tries to strangle Xena. She wants to know who the blond girl is. Xena tells her she is goodness and light. The spider bites Xena and she is tranced again. The girls put Xena on a litter and continue their journey. Xena bounces up and they walk on. They reach the sacred dead site. This is where Queen Cyane's body is, hanging from a tree. Lots of them hang from trees. Xena remembers how they got there. She attacked all the leaders of the Amazons, after she had set traps, and killed them all. She left the Amazons virtually defenseless, with no strong leader to rally around, and thus easy to wipe out, except for the bunch she now journeys with. Alti gathered blood from the dead Amazon leaders to make herself stronger and curse them so they couldn't cross over to Eternity in the land of the dead. Xena suddenly runs around and puts her "pinch" on all the women because Alti is near and they have no time to do the spirit dance. Xena and Alti, in spirit, fight, flying through the trees. Alti shows Xena her future death, a place of fire, and finally she shows her how she and Gabrielle (who has very short hair) are crucified. Xena's hands really start to bleed as the nails are driven in. But Xena is suddenly happy and she regains her strength, because if Gabrielle is in her future, she isn't dead yet. She and Alti fight some more. Xena throws Alti into a tree limb and Alti dies. Xena returns to her body (and there are holes in her hands) and brings everybody back from her "pinch." She tells Yakut that the new holy word is "love", and the souls in the land of the dead are now free to go to Eternity. The young Amazons do a dance. Xena turns over her role as leader of the Amazons to Otere, and she gets on a horse and heads back to Greece to search for Gabrielle.
- Xena continues her search for Gabrielle and prepares the Northern Amazons to combat against Alti, who gives Xena a horrifying vision from the future.
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