The following episode written for The Xena Warrior Princess Virtual Season is a work of fiction based upon the television series Xena: Warrior Princess. The original characters are used strictly for fan purposes and not for profit. There is no intent to infringe upon or violate any copyrights held by Studio USA, Renaissance Pictures, Universal Television or any other organization that owns the rights to this series.

The script, story ideas, and any characters created by the authors that are not part of the original series are copyrighted and remain the sole property of those authors. Also, any original artworks are copyrighted and remain the sole property of those artists. Permission to use any of the written or drawn works herein must be submitted to the original author(s) and artist(s).

Episode 7.6: And Egypt Shall Rise

Story by Hadley Langosy & bezalel

Teleplay by Hadley Langosy

Directed by Nando

TEASER

1. INT. TOMB HALLWAY – NIGHT

A woman stands within an Egyptian tomb. She is tall with long, auburn hair tied loosely away from her face. She is beautiful in an exotic sort of way, and she appears to be in her early thirties. She has a bag over her shoulder and holds a torch in her hand.

Darkness pushes towards her, the torch casting a small pool of light on her surroundings. She is examining the hieroglyphics on the tomb wall, running her finger across them as she reads them silently to herself.

She reaches into her bag and pulls out a scroll which she presses against the wall and rubs with a piece of charcoal to copy the writing before carefully replacing it in her bag and spots a doorway off to her right.

She glances around the hallway a last time and then heads towards the next room.

CUT TO:

2. INT. TOMB – NIGHT

She enters the tomb silently, hardly stirring the dust beneath her feet. She stops again and surveys the room carefully. Deep shadows cut into the sarcophagus, statues, and carvings on the wall. She raises her torch to get a better look at her surroundings and notices something that intrigues her.

She walks slowly, continually glancing around the tomb as she moves. She stops before a pile of scrolls on a small table and picks one up, looking it over.

WOMAN

The Battling Bard’s scrolls. You find them everywhere these days.

She puts the scroll down and turns slowly, casting an eye at the far corner.

Her torchlight falls on a book resting on a small podium in the center of the room. She walks slowly towards it.

Carefully she opens the cover and her eyes run over the hieroglyphics contained within. She looks around for a moment and rests her torch in a holder on the wall before turning her full attention back to the book.

The book is heavy, covered in what appears to be carved stone and bound with silk. The pages are papyrus and covered in brightly colored illustrations and bold black hieroglyphics. Gold leaf gleams in the torchlight and she smiles in delight at her find.

She speaks aloud in Ancient Egyptian as she reads.

WOMAN

(in subtitles)

…and the dead shall rise, and with it, Egypt will return to the Pharaohs as it once was and all the world will fall to their mercy…

She rolls her eyes and stifles a small laugh, turning to another page and running her finger over some of the writing.

WOMAN

This is too rich. Who comes up with this stuff?

She closes the book and runs her eyes over the cover, then she takes her bag off of her shoulder and opens it, preparing to take the book from its resting place when there is a sound behind her, like stone being pushed against stone. She pauses and reaches slowly for her torch, turning to peer into the darkness behind her.

From the shadows a small moan sounds, followed by a low scraping sound.

She takes a slow step forward, thrusting her torch into the shadows as she moves.

WOMAN

Hello? Is someone there?

Her eyes follow the sound until her circle of light comes to rest upon the sarcophagus lying on an altar-like stone in the back of the room. The lid is slowly rising and settling, as if breathing.

She reaches instinctively to a knife on her belt, wrapping white knuckles around it.

The lid rises and falls again as she watches in disbelief.

Suddenly the lid is shoved from the sarcophagus and lands on the floor with a dull thud. She freezes.

Seconds pass into minutes and nothing happens. The tomb is silent save for the sound of her breathing. Beginning to calm, she takes an uneasy step towards the fallen lid.

Suddenly, a mummy sits up; its resin soaked bandages gleaming in the torchlight. It turns its head and looks at the woman, eyeing her through its bandages for several beats before it begins to slowly pull itself from its sarcophagus. It struggles, omitting a low hissing sound, until it finally manages to free itself and places a heavy foot onto the floor.

She begins to back slowly out of the room.

The mummy, now fully standing, continues to hiss and moan as it watches her slow retreat.

Suddenly, with speed she never would have guessed it had, the mummy makes a lunge for her, its arms outstretched as if to embrace her.

On instinct, she hurls her torch at it, turns and flees.

CUT TO:

3. INT. TOMB HALLWAY – NIGHT

She runs blindly through the dark labyrinth, only the smallest bit of torch light from behind her illuminating her way.

She can hear a scraping and wheezing sound coming from the rear of the tomb, and she is well aware she is being followed.

Finally, she hits the door to the tomb, only slightly ajar, and shoves at it with all her strength and stumbles out into...

CUT TO:

4. EXT. DESERT – NIGHT

...the cool desert night. She turns on her heels and begins to push at the tomb door, trying to seal it shut.

From within she can hear the scraping sound getting louder and closer. Just as it seems to be upon her, she pushes the door firmly closed, hearing it click shut.

She looks out at the desert, shifting her eyes to the stars above as she catches her breath.

Suddenly she hears a dull thudding sound coming from behind her, cutting the silence of the night. She turns and looks at the tomb door, which vibrates with each hit from behind.

Turning, she starts to run to her camel, which is waiting by a column a few yards away. Suddenly, more thudding begins to her left. She freezes in her tracks and glances at the entrance to another tomb and realizes, with horror, that the valley is beginning to echo with the sound of bodies being thrown against tomb doors, trying to break their way into the night. Turning back, she catches sight of her frightened camel trotting off into the desert.

WOMAN

This is a fine mess you've gotten yourself into.

The door she has just come through begins to slowly open. A bandaged hand slowly slides out into the night air, trying to push itself free.

She watches this for a moment and then turns to come face to face with the mummified remains of a once noble Egyptian. He reaches for her and she ducks away quickly, then spins and sends a quick kick to his head, which goes flying into the darkness.

The headless mummy lunges again and then stumbles and falls backwards into the sand.

Taking this as her cue, she breaks into a sprint after her camel, vanishing into the darkness and leaving the sound of hundreds of mummies coming to life behind her.

CUT TO:

5. EXT. DESERT – MID-DAY

Xena and Gabrielle can be seen on camels taking a lazy trip through the desert. Gabrielle has a cloth wrapped around her head and she is rubbing sweat from her face with the end of it.

Xena watches her for a moment before handing her a skin of water.

GABRIELLE

Xena, I know you wanted to see more of Egypt, but this is a bit extreme, don’t you think? I mean, we haven’t seen anything all day except for sand, sand, and more sand.

She throws her hands wide around her to illustrate her point.

GABRIELLE

(continued)

What did you possibly expect to see out here?

She takes a gulp of water and then hands the skin back to Xena.

XENA

For all the times I’ve been to Egypt, I’ve never really seen this area of it.

(beat)

I just thought there might be something interesting out here. Something we haven’t seen yet.

GABRIELLE

(jokingly)

Well, we have seen plenty of sand.

Xena is about to reply when she suddenly notices something on the horizon. She stops her camel, causing Gabrielle to continue a few paces ahead of her before she also stops and follows the direction of Xena’s eyes.

A figure can be seen in the distance stumbling towards them across the desert.

FADE OUT.

END TEASER

ACT I