Season 5 Episode 19 - Looking Death In the Eye

This story starts with a very old Joxer buying one of Gabrielle's scrolls in a tavern. He takes it home to his wife Meg and reads it to two of his children. The story goes like this, after leaving Egypt Xena took Eve from her mother and went to see the Fates with Gabrielle. The Fates tell her that Eve will bring the twilight when Xena is in the essence of death. Until Xena dies the gods will try and hunt Eve down. Xena and Gabrielle think of a plan they capture Celesta, the sister of Hades. When Celesta is dead know mortal can die and so the Gods will have to stop their hunt for Eve.

When the Gods find out they are furious and try to get Celesta back, they capture Gabrielle and Joxer and tell Xena that if she doesn't give Celesta back then they will kill them. Xena hands her over and Gabrielle, Xena and Eve go on the run in a chariot. That is where the story ends but Joxer tells the rest which he knows because he was there. Gabrielle and Xena, still in their chariot, are getting chased by Athena, Hades and Hephaestus. Athena destroys the chariot and Xena, Gabrielle and Eve are flung out of it over a cliff. Xena gets up and goes over to Gabrielle but soon realizes she is dead, she goes to find Eve but sees her dead burnt body in the remains of the chariot. Xena in complete despair tries to kill herself but Ares stops her, Xena is determined to die and drinks some poison she has on her. Then falls to the ground dead. Joxer tells his kids that the story isn't over yet though because the chariot chase was all part of their plan. Just after their deaths Joxer met up with Octavius who told him what their plan was. At the beginning of the story when Xena was talking to the Fates they said that "Only in the essence of death" will Eve's prophecy be complete. The Fates didn't mean Xena had to die but appear dead. She took some of Celesta's tears when she had her and Gabrielle drunk them when she hit the ground appearing to be dead to the Gods but not to really. Then Xena drank the tears pretending it was poison, as for Eve she was safe with Octavius, she had been switched earlier. The tears would wear off soon and then they could live a quite life with the Gods thinking they were dead. But something went wrong, Ares was so unhappy about Xena dying (not knowing she wasn't really) that as soon as she killed herself he took Gabrielle's and Xena's body and froze them it ice in an unknown place. They have been there, frozen in time, ever since.