Gwendolyn watches the muttering Xander from the other side of the cell door, the pain she can sense in his voice brings her to tears, torn up over the idea that he is hurting and there isn’t anything she can do to end it.

“Okay… so, does anyone have any ideas? On how to help them?” Kayde asks, not having any thoughts himself on what to do. Everyone’s heads look down towards the ground, none of them having any idea on how to snap them out of it.

Inside of Kali’s nightmare, she finds herself back in Melusarej, the breeze that she feels against her skin causes her to remember where she was before this. They were stuck underground, or at least that is the last thing she could remember.

She stops questioning the situation when she sees Drakthar approach her.

“Hey, I want a rematch,” he tells her. “Sure! Let’s go,” Kali agrees, her tone dripping with enthusiasm.

They silently walk to the warehouse that is owned by a group known as the Bears, which Drakthar used to lead. Kali finds the lack of small talk unnerving, but because it is Drakthar she understands.

They enter, the two of them alone in the arena with no one else to witness their showdown. Drakthar pulls out his axe, sparking confusion from Kali.

“Aren’t you going to put on your power armor?” She asks, spotting the cart that holds it in the corner of the room.

Drakthar shakes his head, “I don’t think I will need it to defeat you”.

“You underestimated me last time, I guess it is your loss if you choose to do so again,” Kali declares as she draws her sword.

Something isn’t right, Kali felt it when she drew her sword, it feels heavier than it should. This is confirmed for her as she tries to block Drakthar’s first attack, her movements are slow.

Her sword bounces back, unable to fully block Drakthar’s attack. Realizing his opponent cannot handle his power; Drakthar pushes Kali down with a single arm. The wind is knocked out of her as she falls to the ground.

Kali looks at either of her arms and notices them much slimmer than they should be, her arms haven’t been this small since she was probably twelve years old. The confusion is heightened as she sees Drakthar begin to walk out of the warehouse.

“Wait! This isn’t over yet!” She screams as she tries to get up off the floor, but for some reason, she can’t, her whole body feeling like it was sapped of its strength. Drakthar turns around, Kali spotting a harsh glare coming from him as he tells her, “You’re too weak. Whatever was going on between us is over. I could never be with someone as pathetic as you”.

She watches helplessly as he walks out of the warehouse, crushed by the parting words he gave her. Only able to pick herself off the ground once he has left, she begins to chase after him, but to no avail, no matter how far she runs she never makes it out of the warehouse.

Meanwhile, inside of Jorge’s dream he, O’Malley, Kayde, and Drakthar are on a ship heading to the Sacrosanct Empire in search of alcohol. They land in the port, O’Malley breathes in, savoring the fresh air of their new environment.

As he exhales a smile finds its way onto his face.

“Finally, I can start up my business again,” he loudly declares as he steps off the boat.

“And what business would that be?” A Sacrosanct Empire soldier asks plainly, trying to establish why these people have come to the Empire.

“The drinking business, I am here to sell alcohol. The ban in the desert destroyed my business,” O’Malley doesn’t mind explaining. The man calls over his fellow soldiers and they all start to seize O’Malley as Jorge, Drakthar, and Kayde look on.

“You are arrested for selling prohibited goods,” the first states as they drag him away.

“What about you three?” The man asks the others.

“Oh, we’re just visiting,” Kayde explains with a smile.

The soldier nods and they head into the capital city.

“What are we going to do?” Kayde asks the other two as they start to walk the streets.

“The ban extended here too…” Drakthar notes as he starts to think.

Jorge doesn’t hear the two of them; he is twitching, his body starting to finally react to the lack of alcohol. The other two watch as he collapses to the ground and starts to shake.

Back in reality, the others start to notice Jorge’s body begins to convulse.

“He is going into shock because of withdrawal, Kayde grab something from his bag and give him some,” Gwendolyn quickly orders, having seen something like this before when they had new recruits adjust to life in the Brotherhood.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Once Kayde has grabbed a bottle of rum, he enters the cell and positions the edge of the bottle up against Jorge’s lower lip. He pours the liquid into his mouth as he holds it open.

Inside Jorge’s nightmare, he sees an angel descend from the sky. She approaches him and hands him a golden chalice, the sweet smell of rum emanating from it.

“It is not your time yet my child,” the beautiful angel tells Jorge as she hands him the chalice.

The second the rum makes its way down his throat Jorge comes to, grabbing the entire bottle from Kayde and tilting it all the way back, draining every drop that was in there.

“Well lads, what did I miss?” Jorge asks them, glad to realize that the hell devoid of alcohol is not the reality he exists in.

“You can see us?” Kayde asks excitedly, wanting to confirm Jorge has actually snapped out of it.

“Of course, ya’re right in front of me,” Jorge responds, not seeing why Kayde would ask him that.

“What happened to you?” Lunette inquires, trying to find the reason why the alcohol snapped him out of whatever state he was in.

“It was horrible,” Jorge shudders as he recalls his nightmare.

“I was stuck in this hell, the women had gotten rid of all the alcohol. Us men kept trying to find some… but it didn’t work out,” he recants his experience.

“Jorge, would you say the focus of your dream was trying to find alcohol?” Lunette asks him, fairly sure she knows how to help the other two.

“Well, yeah it was,” Jorge realizes, too focused on the agony of it instead of the reason he was unable to find anything to drink.

Lunette brings her hand to her chin as she begins to think out loud, “Interesting… If these new distortions’ insanity only ended because we gave Jorge alcohol… and that’s what he wanted. I bet the others are experiencing something similar”.

She perks up, having figured it out, “Guys! If we figure out what the other two want we can snap them out of it!”

Gwendolyn doesn’t need to hear anything else, she opens the door to Xander’s cell and holds him, trying to hear the mumbling so she can determine what it is he is dreaming of.

She is finally able to comprehend a couple of words.

“Gwendolyn… Drakthar… Kayde… please,” he mutters, inside his dream, he is desperately trying to chase after his friends.

Having heard their names, Gwendolyn tries to assure him, “We are here. All of us are”.

“Please don’t go…” she hears him mumble next.

“I would never go anywhere, I love you,” she tells him, looking down at his pained expression as she tries to break him out of it.

The look on his face is too much for Gwendolyn to bear. She kisses him, wanting to show him that she hasn’t left as he believes in whatever nightmare he is living through. As she slowly pulls back from the long kiss she sees his eyes flutter open.

“Please tell me that is really you,” he begs as he sees her leaning over him, realizing she is holding him in her arms.

“It is, you don’t have to worry anymore,” she holds him tighter, not willing to let him go again.

Xander looks around and sees that his other friends are there, causing him to smile. It fades however when he notices Kali, still stuck in the state he just escaped.

“Hey Xander, what was your dream about?” Lunette asks, trying to ascertain more information that would confirm her hypothesis.

Xander starts to shiver, remembering that hell he was subjected to.

“I… I watched you guys die. It kept happening over and over again”.

“We are alive, calm down,” Drakthar notes plainly, this being his way of reassuring Xander what happened there wasn’t real.

“Yeah, I will. What did I miss?” Xander asks, wanting to know their status.

“There was this talking distortion… it touched you and Kali and ran… although you probably remember that part. Anyway we gave Jorge alcohol and he came to, so Lunette was thinking that we could end whatever is going on with you guys if you give them what you were searching for,” Kayde starts to ramble on, along the way explaining what happened since Xander lost it.

They all shift to looking towards Kali, her being the only one afflicted by the touch of the distortions.

“I wonder what she is dreaming of,” Drakthar comments calmly.

“Come on man, I think we all have a guess. Xander snapped out of it with a kiss, maybe you should try the same,” Kayde suggests, half-jokingly, knowing Drakthar is not one to do something like that.

Drakthar sighs and enters her cell. He leans down on one knee and tries to listen in on what she is saying.

“I’m not weak. Please, Drakthar, I’m strong,” he hears her almost start begging.

“I know you’re strong, I have always said you’re a worthy opponent,” Drakthar responds to her, assuming she can hear him. She responds, continuing to mutter similar things over and over again.

“It isn’t working,” Drakthar informs the bigger group.

“Come on, do a better job,” Kayde jeers at him from outside the cell.

“Yeah, kiss her,” Lunette calls out, adapting to the crowd mentality that is slowly being established from outside the cell.

Drakthar grumbles as he looks back down at Kali, he isn’t going to kiss her, especially not with everyone standing around right now. Instead, he grabs her and holds her up so that his mouth is right next to her ear so there is no way she won’t be able to hear him.

Drakthar whispers something quietly, making sure to say it in such a low tone so the others cannot hear what he is saying. The others are shocked as Kali opens her eyes, whatever Drakthar said having snapped her out of it.

She looks up at him excitedly, unsure if he actually said what he did or if she had only imagined it.

“Did you mean that?” She asks, trying to determine if this is all real. He nods in response.

Kali starts to grin, unable to hide the pure joy of this moment; she wraps both of her arms around Drakthar and hugs him, unafraid to do so after what he just said. The others watch on at this odd sight, they may be together, but this is by far the most affectionate they have been with each other.

Even Drakthar, though reluctantly, puts his arms around her and stands there, mortified.

Once they are done they leave the cell, prompting Kayde to ask with a smirk, “So what did you tell her?”

“None of your business,” Drakthar grumbles at him as he walks past. Kayde shrugs, realizing it doesn’t matter, they are all back.