- Xena: What makes you think we can trust this child?
- Gabrielle: What makes you think that we can't?
- [pause]
- Gabrielle: Xena, she gave us Callisto's plan.
- Xena: Exactly! Callisto wouldn't tell her anything she didn't want us to hear. The child's probably a pawn or worse!
- Gabrielle: That is not true! Xena, you were always so quick to blame her, weren't you? Well, she is not evil! She's NOT!
- Xena: [shocked] Hope? The child is Hope?
- Gabrielle: [Gabrielle nods] I'm sorry. I never meant to lie. Xena, I couldn't kill her. She's my daughter. You're a mother, you know this! I had to save her.
- Xena: Maybe it's not too late. She's young; poison'll kill her if her powers aren't mature.
- Gabrielle: Poison? XENA, SHE IS MY CHILD!
- Xena: She is NOT a child! She is a body, a vessel, an instrument for evil, THAT IS ALL!
- Gabrielle: YOU ARE WRONG!
- [pause]
- Gabrielle: Xena, Hope is the victim here! That is why I sent her to Kaleipus' hut, so she would be safe from Callisto...
- Xena: [pause] You sent her to Kaleipus' hut?
- [Xena frantically runs to the hut where Solon was left in]
- Solan: [crying about Kaleipus' death] Like my father...
- [pause]
- Solan: ... and my mom.
- [Xena glances at him]
- Solan: But why does everyone I love die?
- [pause]
- Solan: Is it me?
- Xena: [quietly] No, no! Of course not...
- Solan: Then why are they dead? Everyone who ever loved me?
- Xena: They're not! You still have me-
- [Xena stops herself as Solan looks at her]
- Xena: ... many, many friends. And they've all said how much they love you and want you to come and live with them...
- Solan: But I don't want to.
- [pause]
- Solan: I want to live with you.
- Xena: [whispers] What?
- Solan: I won't be any trouble, I promise. I'll catch my own food and keep up. And I'm hardly ever sick...
- Xena: Solan, I don't think...
- Solan: Please! My uncle always said if anything happened to him, you'd be there for me.
- Xena: And he was right. But all your ties are here. Don't you wanna be with someone that you know, someone that you care about?
- Solan: Yes, you!
- [pause]
- Solan: You said we were friends and real friends are like family, right?
- Xena: [smiles happily] Like family!
- Solan: Then take me with you, please?
- [pause]
- Solan: Don't leave me!
- Xena: [starts crying] When all this is over, you be packed and ready to go. We've got a lot to talk about. We might as well do it on the road...
- [she leaves Kaleipus' hut]
- Gabrielle: [Gabrielle purchases some goods from a seller in a shopping hut] Thanks...
- [Gabrielle bumps into Hope who is holding a wooden lamb toy; Hope drops it and Gabrielle picks it up]
- Gabrielle: Where did you get this?
- Hope: I didn't steal it! It's mine. It's always been mine!
- [pause]
- Hope: The people who found me said so...
- Gabrielle: [Gabrielle looks at her showing confusion] Found you?
- Hope: They said it was in the basket with me. All's I remember is lots of water, me crying for my mom...
- [pause]
- Hope: But she never came.
- Ephiny: [yelling from outside] Gabrielle?
- [pause]
- Ephiny: Gabrielle! Xena says to hurry; they're ready to go-
- [Ephiny notices Gabrielle's distraught face; she looks over at Hope]
- Ephiny: Is there something wrong?
- Gabrielle: [to Ephiny] No. No, I'll be right there.
- [Ephiny leaves the hut. Gabrielle, now realizing that the little girl she ran into is her daughter, Hope, talks to her]
- Gabrielle: Look, um, there's something that I have to do, here. So, I want you to do a favor for me, okay? I want you to wait in my hut 'til I get back. And this way, I - I'll know you're safe...
- Hope: [pretending to be distressed] Don't see why *you* care...
- Gabrielle: You will!
- [pause]
- Gabrielle: Do you promise?
- Hope: I promise.
- Gabrielle: [Gabrielle is filled with emotion] Bye!
- [she quickly leaves the hut]
- Hope: Bye-bye...
- [pause]
- Hope: Mommy!
- Gabrielle: [Gabrielle barges into her hut. She's frantically looking for Hope, who's going by the name Fayla] FAYLA!
- [Gabrielle looks around and throws her staff near her, covering her face with her hands; Fayla then enters the hut. Gabrielle grabs her]
- Gabrielle: Where have you been? I have been looking all over for you! You said that you would wait here, remember?
- Hope: [Hope starts to cry] I'm sorry, but she wouldn't let me! I tried to get away, but she-!
- Gabrielle: [Gabrielle hugs her] Who? Who... Callisto?
- Hope: [whispers] Yeah.
- [pause]
- Hope: I have this power... to move things. I don't know why. She says it's 'cause I'm... evil.
- Gabrielle: That is a lie. You are not evil. Never believe that!
- Hope: My mother thought so. She tried to drown me in a basket.
- [pause]
- Hope: She wanted me dead.
- Gabrielle: She wasn't trying to drown you. She was trying to save your life...
- Hope: YOU WEREN'T THERE! YOU DON'T KNOW!
- Gabrielle: [starts to sob] I do!
- [pause]
- Gabrielle: The basket is all there was. I - I had to put you in it or I had to watch you be killed. Now, I had no choice, I LOVED you!
- Hope: [smiles] You... you loved me?
- Gabrielle: I - I prayed that the Gods would protect you, and they did. They brought you home.
- Hope: [they hug] We have to go! I'm sorry, Mommy, it was me; I helped Callisto get out. And now she's coming for the kids. We have to go! Come on, hurry!
- [Hope starts to leave, but Gabrielle grabs her arm]
- Gabrielle: No. Wait, wait. Xena has to know this.
- Hope: No, Xena hates me!
- Gabrielle: She doesn't hate you. She just doesn't understand. Now, she will see what I've known all along, that you can fight your dark side, just like her!
- Hope: But I'm scared! If Callisto finds out I told, she'll kill me, SHE WILL!
- Gabrielle: She will not find out!
- [pause]
- Gabrielle: I will take you to the safest place there is until we can go. Okay?
- Hope: [smiles] The safest place? You promise?
- Gabrielle: I cross my heart. Don't be afraid okay? Now, come with me. Let's go.
- [Gabrielle leads Hope out of her hut]
- Callisto: [as Xena fights Callisto in the cave] You'll trap us both! That's your plan, to trap me here while my pain keeps growing and growing and you die and yours ends!
- Xena: You're wrong, Callisto! You let your pain kill you years ago... I'm gonna live with mine!
- [Xena escapes and Callisto screams as the cave crumbles on top of her]