The Return of Hope

By: Timothy


        It all starts when Xena and Gabreille are camped in a forest sleeping.
Xena tossing, turning and sweating is having a nightmare about Callisto.
"Xena! Help me!" Gabrielle yelled over a pit of fire."Gabrielle hold on!"
Xena yelled. Flipping to Gabrielle Xena sees Callisto with a sword. "
Hahahahahaha" Callisto laughed evilly. Raising the sword Callisto cut the
rope sending Gabrielle into the pit of flame. Xena flipping to Gabrielle,
missing the rope Xena was set off balance falling into the pit of flame.
"Ahhhhhhhhh!" Xena had just woke up and noticed that Gabrielle was also
tossing and turning. " Mommy!" a familier voice called to Gabrielle. With a
smile on her face Gabrielle rialized that she was in a beatiful meadow.
Gabrielle sees Hope and suspiciously looking at her Gabrielle starts to
turn away. "Mommy" Hope said again. "Why did you kill me? Why didn't you
give me another chance?" Hope said. With tears in her eyes Gabrielle
angrily staring at her Gabrielle screamed "Because you are evil". Still
with tears in her eyes Gabrielle turns away from Hope. " I forgive you
mommy just stop crying" Hope said soothing Gabrielle a little. Gabrielle
then turned to Hope and huged her and said " I am sorry for killing you."
Smiling evilly Hope and Gabrielle are tansphered in a different place which
looked like an armory. " I'm sorry mom but I have to kill you and your
friend Xena" Hope said. Gabrielle looking behind her sees Xena tied to a
stake. Hope setting Xena on fire starts to laugh evilly. " Nooooooo!"
Gabrielle yelled. Crying Gabrielle sees that Hope was smiling at her. Then
Gabrielle rialized that Hope was hurling a sword at her. " Ahhhhhhhh!"
Gabrielle screamed waking up. Gabrielle saw Xena was up and they told each
other about their nightmares.
        "So let me get this strait, Xena we have having dreams about each other?"
Gabrielle asked. " I guess so but if we did have those dreams then somebody
should have caused it" Xena said. " I agree, but who do you think caused
it" Gabrielle asked. " I don't know but I think I know who it is" Xena
said. "Who? Do you think it is Ares again?" Gabrielle asked. " Yes I think
it might be but we aren't sure yet" Xena said. " Ahhhhhhh!" a familiar
voice said. " Joxer?" Gabrielle said out loud. Xena just waited and then
flipped, kicking one of the three men chasing Joxer. After Xena hit the
biggest guy Gabrielle went after the smallest guy who also had a staff. At
first the smaller guy laughed at her until that is Gabrielle hit him strait
across the face knocking him over. Joxer, still running away is cornered by
the third guy. Xena, seeing this quikly pulled out her chacrum hitting it
on the right angle and hitting a tree, a large stone, the guy that cornered
Joxer, another tree, then back to Xena knocking the guy to the ground. The
three men ran away screaming. " Who were those guys?" Gabrielle asked. "
They might be just some soldiers that were passing by" Xena said. " They
are not just regular soldiers, they are from Callisto's army" Joxer said. "
Wait a minute, didn't Xena trap Callisto in a cave?" Gabrielle asked. "
Yes, but there may be a person or thing that could have freed her" Xena
explained. " Who do you think freed her?" Gabrielle asked. " I don't know
Gabrielle" Xena said. " Joxer, when those men were chasing you did they
mention how Callisto got freed?" Xena asked. " No, but they did mention
something about Hope" Joxer said. " Do you mean Hope as my daughter?"
Gabrielle said. " I don't know but I think they were talking about your
daughter" Joxer said. " Lets just get some rest and discuss this tommorow"
Xena said. " Okay, Xena and good night" Gabrielle said. " Good night
Gabrielle" Xena said.
        Xena, Gabrielle, and Joxer  are traveling around the place trying to find
Hercules. Suddenly, Xena stoped she looked around then out of a tree,
Callisto jumped out. " What are you doing here?" Xena asked calmly. "
Becaused I missed you Xena, and your going to pay for what you did to me"
Callisto said. Giving out her battle yell then flipped to Xena. They were
fighting sword to sword, both of them were very skilled but they couldn't
wound each other that well. Then Xena saw that she had an opportunity so
Xena stabed Callisto in the chest. Callisto fell but soon recovered, mad at
Xena for doing this she launched lightning bolts at Xena. Callisto couldn't
even hit Xena with one lightning bolt. Hope was on the side just looking
and seeing that Callisto was losing she tranported them to an armory. Joxer
seeing this started running toward Callisto. Callisto seeing him and
hearing him she knocks him into the wall. Gabrielle rushed to Joxer and
told him that he had an more important thing to do and it was to find
Hercules. After hearing this Joxer started to argue but Gabrielle knowing
how to pursuade people, she persuaded him to go after Hercules.
        At first Hope tried to help Callisto by throwing daggers, swords, and
arrows at Xena but all the weapons hit was the wall because Xena just keeps
on dodging the weapons. Seeing that it is almost impossible to hit Xena she
soon turns to Gabrielle and starts throwing weapons at her. " Ahhhhhhhhhh!"
Gabrielle screams as one of the arrows almost hit her face. " Mommy don't
worry I'm just going to pay you back what you did to me" Hope said.
Throwing weapons at Gabrielle, the only thing that Gabrielle could do was
dodge the weapons or hit them to the side with her staff.
        A couple of minutes later, Joxer came back with Hercules and Iolaus. Joxer
quikly ran to Callisto, trying to attack her from the back. Callisto
immediatly hit him back into the wall, but this time it knocked him
unconcious. Hercules and Iolaus went to Gabrielle to help her get Hope.
Hercules managed to grab hope but Hope dropped a mace on him, knocking
Hercules unconcious. Iolus also tried to get to her but he couldn't because
Hope was throwing too much weapons at them. Suddenly Gabrielle saw a little
opening in the roof above them and she rialized that they were in the
basement. " Iolaus, when you came into this building was there an upper
floor?" Gabrielle asked. "Yes, why?" Iolaus asked. " I'll explain it to you
later, but now we have to wake up Hercules and Joxer" Gabrielle explained.
After waking up Hercules and Joxer, Gabrielle got Xena and explained to her
what to do. Xena and Joxer will distract Callisto while Gabrielle and
Iolaus distracted Hope. While they were doing that Hercules managed to get
out the second door that led you directly outside. According to Gabrielle's
plan he would have to demolish a part of the building so it would cover the
first door leading to the basement and leave the second door leading to the
basement was cleared so the Xena, Gabrielle, Iolaus, and Joxer get out.
After doing this he looked into the basement there was a fierce battle
going on. Hope was throwing objects everywere and Callisto was shooting
lightning bolts everywere. After seeing this Hercules gave the signal for
everybody to come out but since Joxer got unconcious again Xena had to
carry him. After everybody got out exept for Hope and Callisto, Hercules
covered the second entrance so nobody could get into the basement or get
out.
        Hercules soon found out that Hope was freed by Hera so that Hope could
destroy Hercules. Hope, knowing that she couldn't do that by herself she
freed Callisto. Now Hera's angry eyes are watching them all. " I hope we do
meet again one day" Hercules said. " Yeah me, too" Xena says. " Hey where
are you guys heading toward?" Gabrielle asked. " Athens" Iolaus said. "
Great we were heading there ourselves, right Xena?" Gabrielle asked. " I
guess so" Xena said. "Great, you can come with us" Hercules said. Then they
all traveled to Athens then going thier seperate ways. " Goodnight Xena"
Gabrielle said sleeping on a rock. " Goodnight Gabrielle" Xena said, " Now
go to sleep because tommorow we are going to fight a whole army." " What!"
Gabrielle said in shock. " Just kidding" Xena said with a laugh. "
Goodnight" Gabrielle said. " Goodnight" Xena said back.