The sound of sword being sheathed echoed throughout the dark world as Xena armed her sword in one hand, then kept her empty hand on her chakram.

“Well, well… looks like Auntie Xena came to stop my little party.” An eerie voice sounded throughout the area. “If you want to save your little ‘girlfriend’, then you must stop me and save her from all her nightmares.

A blinding flash of light, then before Xena could even blink, she was back in the temple of Dahak, only this time…

Blood was everywhere, yet Gabrielle hadn’t lost her blood innocence yet. In fact she was heading towards the woman standing over that man lying on the table, speaking in an evil, and almost Hope like voice. Before she even realized it, Xena was running towards Gabrielle, going to stop those horrible chains of events that had all started with Gabrielle killing this woman.

This is a nightmare world, Xena thought as she reached for her bard, things are going to be exaggerated according to Gabrielle.

Blood spewed all over Xena as she grabbed her, but no matter how hard she tried to hold on, Gabrielle kept sliding from her grasp.

“No! I’m not going lose you! It’s not going end like this!” Xena screamed. A sly smile stretched across her face as she came across an idea. Reaching for her whip, Xena threw it quickly at Gabrielle. Thankfully this pulled Gabrielle towards her and out of harm’s way.

That horrid voice boomed down again as it said, “Alright, warrior, you saved her from the first nightmare, but what about the others?”

Again, that light flashed brightly, and another nightmare appeared before Xena’s eyes.

Back in the real world, Aphrodite and the Goddess of Dreams was observing Gabrielle’s functions. After about 10 long minutes, her breathing started to slowly returned to normal, and Aphrodite breathed a sigh of relief.

“It looks like she is getting better… I wonder what Xena is doing in her mind?” Aphrodite stated. The Goddess of Dreams could tell by her worried expression that the love goddess cared deeply for Gabrielle.

“If you want, we can observe what is going in the girl’s mind, but it probably won’t be that pretty. Would like to see what the bard and warrior see?” the Goddess of Dreams informed Aphrodite.

She nodded as a cloud appeared, and Aphrodite cringed as she saw a dark, bloody centaur town in despair as Xena ran to one of the slimy houses. This house in particular had a very depressing thunder cloud over it.

“Solan! I’m coming, this time I’m going to save you!” Xena’s shaky voice echoed as the now familiar voice of Hope sounded against it.

“On the contrary Xena, anything you do here doesn’t affect life in the reality. I trust you know who I am now?”

Xena’s voice snickered as a sneer crossed her blood-stained face. “Of course, I’d know that evil voice anywhere. Your Hope, and now I’m going to kill you.”

The awful sound of flesh meeting metal sounded as Xena plunged her sword into young Hope’s chest. “Die, you soulless tool of evil!”

The daughter of Dahak cackled her final laugh as Xena plunged her sword out of the monster, and she reappeared Scot-free next to Aphrodite and the Goddess of Dreams.

“Gabrielle, is she okay?” Xena asked worried as Aphrodite ran over to Xena with a big grin on her face.

“She is just fine. Thank you so much for saving her sweet-pea.” Aphrodite said, just as Gabrielle raised up, looking at Xena.

“Xena, what happened? By the gods, my head hurts.” Gabrielle stammered, putting a hand to her head.

“I’ll tell you about it later. For now, we can head back to Aphrodite’s temple.” Xena smiled, looking at Aphrodite.

“OK, everyone ready to go? Don’t forget to thank the Goddess of Dreams!” Aphrodite asked, but the Goddess of Dreams had disappeared back into her temple.

Xena, Gabrielle, and the beautiful Aphrodite joined hands as they disappeared with a flurry of golden light and sparkles.