I have here listed, in detail, what will happen with the episode "The Way" set to air the week of February 22 1999. ONLY read furthur if you are SURE you want to know what will happen. If you want to be surprised, go back now!
"The Way" story basically goes along like this. At the end of "Devi", Gabby loses her magical powers, but somehow they get passed onto Eli. After some time and the word spreading, Eli's power grows so great that the inhabitants of the land believe that he is an incarnation of God (an Avatar) who has been brought to rid evil from the land. Indrajit (a new character), discovers Eli and kidnaps him in order to subdue him and force his powers with his own, becoming evil rulers of the world. At the same time, Gabrielle (who has a close bond with Eli) is kidnapped and tortured by Indrajit so that he can make Eli his slave. Indrajit is pretty close to killing Gabby when Xena shows up and chops his arms off. But what Xena doesn't realize is that Indrajit not just a magician, he's the prince of Demons (ofcourse) and he grows out six arms and starts doing some major ass-kicking. Indrajit cuts off Xena's arms and leaves her for dead, but Xena prays to the Hindu God Krishna to come save her and she is miraculously transformed into KALI - a frightening, black-skinned, long-tongued, four-armed female hindu god of war! They have a big fight sequence and then she kicks his ass and chops his head off. At the end, Gabrielle decides that her powers of love (which were strengthened by her contact with Eli) are so incredible now that she can carry on as Xena's aid without resorting to violence and so throws her staff into a river which then floats away, out of her life.