I'm terrible and totally want to see "I love you please don't go" if you haven't already done it. XD

Ashi couldn’t control her body. She felt numb but she was still in motion, like some huge puppeteer was deciding her actions for her. Her arms and legs were scythe-like black blades, carving out a path of death and destruction through army after army. Above the screams she heard gloating laughter. She couldn’t see him but she knew who it was.

Her heart sank and her stomach dropped like a stone, but her body kept moving. She continued her relentless assault, slicing her way through scores of enemies, cries of terror and sprays of blood in every direction.

“Yes! Kill her! Kill them all! Make your father proud, my daughter of Aku!”

And then she saw her, a mighty warrior woman with long red braids holding a shield in one hand and a broken sword in the other. She stood her ground as Ashi swooped down on her and blocked every strike from her twin blades with her shield. Then she was swinging the jagged stump of a blade at her, unable to strike her with it. Suddenly her face twisted into a look of shock. Ashi looked down and saw that one of her arm blades had pierced right through the woman’s stomach. Her green eyes were huge and her mouth open in a soundless cry as her blood spilled to the earth.

“NO!”

Ashi jolted awake with a scream. She sat in bed panting and sweating and trembling all over.

“Ashi?”

She turned to see Flora in bed beside her, confused and disheveled from sleep but very much alive and unharmed.

“A dream…” Ashi muttered, raising a shaky hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead. “Just a dream…”

“A dream?” Flora echoed, sitting up with a frown. “From the way ye were screamin’ it must’ve been a nightmare.”

Ashi nodded weakly, pushing her wet bangs from her sticky forehead. “It was…” she said, speaking between breaths. “Aku… he was controlling me… I couldn’t stop it… And I… I killed you…”

Flora frowned harder. She put an arm around Ashi’s slim, shaking shoulders. “There, there, lassie,” she said gently. “It wasn’t real. He’s gone and I’m here. Everything’s alright.”

Ashi leaned heavily against her, trying to calm down but still breathing hard. “But… what if it’s real? What if…there’s still a piece of him alive inside me? What if he takes control of me again, and… and what if I hurt you?”

“That will never happen,” Flora said without hesitation.

“You don’t know that,” Ashi replied. “Maybe you shouldn’t be around me. Maybe it’s safer if I left…”

“No,” Flora said firmly. She took Ashi’s chin between her thumb and forefinger and lifted her head to look her in the eye. “Ashi, I love you. Please don’t go. If ye’re right and there’s still a piece of him alive in you, we’ll beat him together. I swear on my father’s grave I’ll not let that demon have his way with you ever again.”

Ashi gazed up at her, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. Flora looked so sincere, so brave and gentle all at once. She laid her head against her chest and wrapped her arms around her waist, hands tangling in her long red hair as her body shook with sobs.

Flora said nothing. She simply held Ashi and rocked her, stroking her short black hair and humming a soft lullaby her mother taught her. Ashi clung to her even after her sobs quieted down and her shaking stopped. The longer she stayed in Flora’s arms the more sure she was that she wasn’t dreaming.

“Thank you,” Ashi murmured at last. She lifted her face from Flora’s chest, tears running down her cheeks and smiling bravely. “I love you, too, Flora. I won’t go.”

Flora dried her tears and kissed the top of her head. “And neither will I.”