What is it?
- Take it easy. Take it easy. - What's happened to him?
Someone cut out his tongue.
He's a monk from the Xo monastary in Chin.
I hope that message was important enough to die for.
Someone thought it was important enough to kill for.
"The hawk and the dove must be made one with the wisdom."
Who wrote that?
Lao Ma.
Lao Ma?
Your old teacher?
Xena, she's been dead for years.
That's right.
What does that mean?
"The hawk and the dove..." I don't know.
But the wisdom must mean her book.
And whatever it means, somebody didn't want us to find out.
Why can't we just get this at a bookstore?
I left it in Chin in the safest place I knew.
The Xo monastery.
Lao Ma's power is in its pages.
You had the power once, didn't you?
Yes, but I let it slip through my fingers like sand.
This time, I'm going to keep it.
It's not a very warm reception.
The villagers must have retreated to the monastery.
Look at the size of that pothole...
What weapon could have caused this?
I don't know.
Whatever it is, it sure packs a mean punch.
What did anybody do to deserve it?
Nothing.
Whoever did this wasn't after the village.
They were after Lao Ma's book.
- The Xo monastery... - That's right.
Come on. We don't have much time.
Let's go.
Let's get outta here!
- You all right? - Yeah.
Thanks for your help.
- My name is... - Xena.
You're my mother's friend.
Your mother?
I'm the daughter of Lao Ma.
In a time of ancient gods...
...warlords...
...and kings...
A land in turmoil cried out for a hero...
She was Xena...
a mighty princess, forged in the heat of battle...
...The power...
...The passion...
...The danger...
Her courage will change the world...
Purity
Hey! You guys! Look at the size of this hole.
Can you believe it?
We really got those guys on the run back there.
I mean, that must have been some powerful greek fire
to put a hole in the wall like that.
That wasn't greek fire.
Whatever this is, it's more powerful than that.
This is something different. You can smell it.
Kung Pao chicken?
It's black powder. An ancient Chin formula.
So it exists. I've heard it spoken of in legend.
The kings of Chin have forbidden its production for many centuries.
But now, an evil warlord, named Go Kun,
has rediscovered it and broken the taboo.
A man who does not honor his ancestors is a man without morals.
And that makes him most dangerous, indeed.
Not half as dangerous as he's going to be
if he gets his hands on Lao Ma's book.
Here.
The book...
Somebody's taken it.
Not more than an hour ago.
The soldiers never made it in here.
Maybe one of the monks escaped with it.
We must find it.
They couldn't have gone far. Come on.
Hey, Joxer...
Come here.
I want you to take this book. Put it in one of Argo's saddlebags.
- Don't let anyone see you do it. - Ok.
Right.
I'll explain later.
Twenty, maybe thirty horses rode south for the attack.
The same number retreated to the north.
But only one horse rode up towards the mountains...
and it doesn't look like it was weighed down by weapons or armor.
Just a book...
Gabrielle...
I want you to take this. Find out what's in the black powder.
Legend says a chinese cook discovered it by accident.
That's just a silly tale.
Hey, never underestimate cooks.
What you smell there is sulphur.
There's charcoal in it, but there's something else,
something that makes it explosive.
Something from the cook's kitchen.
I want you to go to a market.
Get every spice, every seasoning you can find.
Wait a minute. No offense, but...
Gaby don't know shallot from shellfish. You know?
That's why you're goin' with her, smart guy.
Meet me at Ming's palace.
All right, Pao Ssu...
Let's do some tracking.
What brought about your devotion to my mother, Xena?
Your mother helped me find a kind of peace that I'd never known before.
And when she died, it died with her.
And you wish to reclaim what you lost...
I'm not sure I ever can.
Strange...
Why would she abandon her own two daughters
simply to become a surrogate mother to a stranger?
Well, I'm sure if your mother sent you away...
it was because she felt she needed to protect you.
I would risk death to know my mother as you did
rather than live as I have all this time.
Without a place to call home.
But she did not give me much choice now, did she?
I guess not.
And you, Xena, you'd never give up this child, would you?
No, not this child.
There, you see?
You and my mother are destined
to walk down separate roads, after all.
- We're being followed, aren't we? - Since the head of the trail.
Suggestions?
We lose 'em.
Gaby, there you are.
Hey, look, I found some excellent huang mint.
You do know your spices, Joxer. I'll give you that.
Right. So, for all of this, we'll pay...
No, no, no. What are you doing? What's this?
No, no. No, no, no, no, no.
Look, we're only gonna pay three.
Three hwan, understand? Three. Three?
He don't speak greek too good, do he?
Three. Three.
Three. That's it.
Come on.
Listen, you gotta know how to haggle with these people.
Especially since I agreed to pay two.
Come on, if we dress like locals, we might learn more.
- Pao Ssu... - What?
I want you to give me the reins.
We're gonna send the horses off.
That way anyone who's following us will think that we rode west.
There you go, Argo.
That's pretty clever, but I need that horse.
Argo will bring her back. Come on.
That's good.
Hey, come here. Listen, my friend.
I have here, in my possession
an assortment of exotic, local spices...
which I will give to you for free.
Savy? Free?
If you can tell me exactly what's in this powder.
- Are you crazy? - What?
How 'bout I throw in a kiss from the pretty blonde?
- He has the forbidden powder! - No powder.
Joxer!
What are you doing? Put that away!
Hey, wait a minute. I can explain! I can explain!
The hoofprints head back into the forest.
Yeah, but the rider...
The rider went on on foot...
up to there.
Hello, sister.
You wear the face of innocence, Pao Ssu
but it cannot hide your true nature.
Ironic that a creature like you would accuse me of having two faces.
You will never have the book.
I will take the wisdom from its pages
even if I have to pry them from your dead fingers.
I believe you have the fortitude to do exactly that, my sister...
but we share the same blood, thus, the same will.
No. You're weak, K'ao Hsin.
You will never have the strength to defeat me.
All right. This ends here.
If you wanna protect the book,
hand it over to me now.
She can't be trusted, Xena.
If you believe in what my mother stood for, you'll kill her.
I can tell you what your mother didn't stand for.
- Murder. - You don't actually believe her?
You know what I don't believe?
It's that the black powder army would retreat so quickly.
Someone ordered them out. Someone like you.
So it's you who has forged an alliance with Go Kun...
You were right about one thing.
A person without morals is the most dangerous kind of enemy.
A lesson I intend on proving to you again and again.
- Now, give me the book. - Can't do that.
Aren't you going after her?
No, I'm not.
What is this?
Prayers...
Remedies...
It's nothing but a fake.
- I was tricked by Xena. - Pao Ssu...
If we ride south at sunset
we could reach Huang Di, sweep up the coast and...
No!
Your obsession with that book has made our enemies stronger
and put us at a disadvantage.
As long as you continue to hunt for it...
you keep us from taking full advantage of the black powder.
The concerns of my enemies are irrelevant.
If Xena masters the powers of the book,
she will end our campaign with little more than a breath...
and all of Chin will bow to her.
We will continue our search.
You replaced the book with a fake. That's why you let Pao Ssu escape.
It's all in the wrist.
You move with the agility of a panther.
That's an impressive feat, given your condition.
As long as your sister doesn't have the book,
her army's mission will be simple.
To find it.
In the meantime, they won't be conquering any more towns or villages.
A word of caution...
Before you cut off the dragon's head...
you must be sure it cannot grow another more deadly.
The trick'll be not to kill Pao Ssu,
but to make sure she can't do any more harm.
I fear these two things are mutually exclusive.
The ancient warriors of Chin believed
that in order to achieve ultimate victory
you must annihilate your enemies completely.
And you agree?
I cannot, in good conscience, call for the death of my sister...
but I fear her vengeance.
I know she will not stop until the world is hers.
People who want the world end up their own worst enemy.
I learned that myself.
The truth is, we won't have to destroy Pao Ssu.
She'll destroy herself.
Hello!
- Joxer! - What?
I wanna thank you for today. You were a great help.
You know, Gabrielle...
I've been around long enough to recognize sarcasm when I hear it.
- But at least we're together. - See? There it is again.
Hey! Would somebody please fix the gutter up there?
The leak is driving me crazy!
It's not a leak!
That's the whole point.
What did you do with that pouch of black powder?
Down my pant leg.
All right. Joxer, hold still.
All right.
Gabrielle...
We're in public!
What is that?
Say... it's...
Remind me to cut off my foot when we get out of here.
Gabrielle, where did you learn to do that?
Would you be quiet? I'm trying to concentrate.
Got it!
That's not gonna work! You're gonna need a spark for that!
Oh, yeah. Here we go.
Good, Gabrielle!
You know...
That's the first time I ever had three feet in my pants.
You tell anyone and you're dead.
What is it?
I've been here before.
This is where I first met Lao Ma.
You're very like her, you know?
I have walked in her shadow all my life.
Now it seems is no exception.
But I wonder, Xena, why do you look so troubled?
There are people you meet, who move in and out of your life, like ghosts.
And after they're gone
you find that they've left a part of themselves with you.
It's as if in some small way...
that their spirit helps define who you are
or what you wanna bring to the world.
Then it seems that my mother is still alive in us both.
Your mother taught me compassion.
It's a lesson that I wanna pass on to this child.
But you...
How did you learn that without the benefit of her love?
Every day that passes in Chin without bloodshed...
passes because my mother
played a part in the destiny of our own homeland.
Just look around, Xena.
Her lesson is her legacy.
She speaks to me even now, through the whispering wind.
You wish to know where I learned compassion?
All you have to do is listen.
You are your mother's daughter.
It must have been beautiful.
Yes.
I was cornered here, and your mother hid me in her bath under water.
She gave me her breath to keep me alive.
She died in this palace, didn't she?
That's right.
Then this is the perfect place to study.
In the presence of her spirit.
Great... Now we're lost.
I told you we should have followed that big, brick wall back there.
It's the Great Wall, Joxer. It's a thousand miles long.
I know where I'm going.
Maybe I can help.
- Pao Ssu... - Thank the gods.
- Where's Xena? - She sent me to find you.
Come. We must hurry.
"The entire world is driven by a will, blind and ruthless."
"In order to transcend the limitations of the physical world,"
" one must cease desiring..."
"and become what we desire."
"To conquer others is to have power,"
"but to conquer ourselves is to know the way."
Lao Ma's power came from her purity of thought.
Then with purity on our side, Pao Ssu will be easily defeated.
No.
Pao Ssu has her own kind of purity.
The purity of hatred.
Xena!
Stay here. I'll take care of this.
You have something that belongs to me, Xena.
Give me the book.
You can't reach them both in time, Xena.
Save Gabrielle! Save Gabrielle!
Hand over the book...
It's the only way to save your friends.
Why do I get the feeling that even if I do give you the book...
you'll drop the torch anyway?
- Only one way to find out. - Wait.
K'ao Hsin, no!
Our mother would not have wanted blood spilled over her writings.
- K'ao Hsin, don't. - I'm sorry, Xena.
But our mother determined our destiny when she sent you the letter.
"The hawk and the dove must become one with the wisdom."
And so it shall be.
K'ao Hsin, this is not what she meant!
Lao Ma's power's would have been wasted on you.
And you, Xena, were right.
I would have dropped the torch anyway.
Xena!
Xena...
You won't believe it.
It was incredible. I was like a bird. I could see the trees, the ocean...
You weren't high enough to see the top of my socks, dummy.
Xena, I'm sorry.
Pao Ssu now has the black powder army and access to Lao Ma's wisdom.
It makes her the most dangerous person in Chin.
Somehow we've gotta level the playing field.
I have tried every combination of spice, and so far, nothin'.
Except for a fabulous Moo Shu sauce.
Hey, Joxer!
- What's this? - Oh, that?
That's just a meat curative they pull up from the ground in India.
Really crude. No good cook would use it.
Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
Whoever said black powder was invented by a good cook?
Let me see that.
- Are you sure? - Yeah, yeah.
Well... Here goes nothin'.
It works.
Hey, K'ao Hsin, what do you think, huh?
What's wrong?
I'm plagued with doubt and fear.
I can't still my mind.
Fear of what?
My sister's hate.
I hear her words echoing through my mind, telling me that I am weak.
And she's right.
I'll never have the strength to defeat her.
Wrong.
It takes great strength to show compassion.
Lao Ma taught us both that.
That's what we're going to need to beat Pao Ssu.
- I don't understand. - Yes, you do.
You do.
You said yourself Lao Ma lives on in her legacy...
and each of us holds a part of that.
Her blood is in your heart. Her lessons are in mine.
If we focus together, we don't need the book.
"The hawk and the dove must be made one with the wisdom."
All this time I thought it was Pao Ssu...
but it's you.
This may be the only thing you ever gave me, Mother...
but believe me, I'm going to put it to good use.
"Knowing the way is like being a child."
"Laughing and crying all day without being hoarse."
"Small people hate loneliness..."
"but the master makes it her home, her source, her mother..."
"for she knows it allows her to be one with the universe."
"The master knows no expectation, and therefore, no disappointment."
"And thus she stays young..."
"forever."
To conquer others is to have power.
To conquer yourself is to know the way.
- I've had... - A vision...
- of Lao Ma. - So did I.
When Pao Ssu and I were infants, she saved our lives...
At great risk to her own to protect you from your brother.
The Green Dragon.
She knew that he would see any siblings as rivals to his throne.
She couldn't risk a battle with him...
till she knew you were safe.
That's it.
That's how we defeat Pao Ssu.
We have to dilute her puriy.
"The entire world is driven by a will, blind and ruthless."
Pao Ssu...
In the time you've wasted pursuing the powers of a dead woman...
we could have every enemy faction under our boot heel by now.
I say...
this idiotic experiment is finished.
There we go. Gentle, gentle, that's it.
Sulphur... A little sulphur.
Roll, pinch and roll.
That's it. Put it in there.
What do you think?
Fuse.
We need a fuse.
There it is.
It's working.
The army's moving out to where the explosions came from.
Pao Ssu's not with them.
- Is Joxer ready? - Yes.
You know what to do.
This way.
I have something wonderful to share with you both.
You've been studying your mother's book?
Yes! And I've made a wonderful discovery.
I don't need anyone.
Not allies, not my army...
or my family.
Hurry, Joxer!
What is this? An arms race?
I have a bead on that munitions tent.
We're gonna blow it sky-high.
I don't think so.
Kill them!
- Line 'em up, now! - Ok, ok!
I want you to launch a rocket attack against Xena.
Ooh, wait!
You see? I, too, have studied the art.
Mine is Hoong Heng Huang.
Joxer, run!
We've seen into your past, Pao Ssu.
How perfectly symmetrical.
In my meditation, I saw into my future.
I am to follow in the footsteps of one who is called the Green Dragon.
Then you'll be walking the path of a dead man.
The Green Dragon was our brother, Pao Ssu.
He would'a killed us both if Mother hadn't sent us away.
Lao Ma risked her own safety so that you might live a full life.
And what have you done with her gift?
Shut up!
Her heart was breaking as she let you go.
And when she died, she died without regret,
because she knew that she had saved your life.
I saw the tears on our mother shed
when she handed you off to the fisherman, Pao Ssu.
Stop it!
I heard the wails of anguish as she said goodbye.
Pao Ssu, you're losing your purity of hate...
because you're having a loving thought of your mother.
Don't fight it. If you do, you will end up dead.
At least, I'll have you two to keep me company.
To conquer others is to have power.
To conquer yourself is to know the way.
I feel perfectly still...
but I do not feel the power inside me, anymore.
We were just its vessel.
If you call it back, it will come.
Xena...
Kun's army is moving to the northern mountains.
As far as I can tell, all the black powder has been destroyed.
Thank you, Xena.
You are the strongest woman I have ever met.
You never knew your mother.
But you're a worthy successor to her.
As you are...
My sister.