"Am I asleep? Or am I awake?" Gentle Heart wondered as she walked through the mist-covered ground. Only a minute ago—had it been a minute or an hour ago?—That she had heard Bright Heart explaining his strange device's purpose as she'd been lulled to sleep. The next, she was here…wherever here was.

She looked around. "Hello? Is anyone here?" Gentle Heart called nervously, hearing nothing but her own voice echo back at her. Walking along, she noticed the scenery starting to change. Where before it had been an empty expanse, it was now starting to resemble the Forest of Feelings.

"Gentle Heart?" She whipped around to see a familiar figure standing behind her.

"Oh, Bright Heart it's you. What're you doing here?"

"Don't you know?" He asked. She furrowed her brow in thought.

"I didn't remember you saying that you could enter my dreams too. I thought your machine could only monitor them."

"I modified it." He said smugly. "Find anything?" Gentle Heart shook her head.

"No sign of No Heart or anything else." She sighed. "I'm not sure what sort of chance I have against him."

"None at all." Bright Heart said flatly. Gentle Heart blinked in surprise. "Face it, you're bland, dull, and without any special gift or ability that could help you. You're just an order of lamb chops waiting to happen." If someone had ripped Gentle Heart's still beating heart out of her chest and shredded it in front of her eyes, then that would probably give one an idea of how she was feeling.

"Lamp chops?" Gentle Heart repeated weakly, her voice numb with disbelief. She felt her knees buckle beneath, leaving her to stare up into Bright Heart's eyes. Eyes that looked…wrong, she thought. They were cold and hard, showing none of the intelligence or warmth that should be there. Then came the belated realization that Bright Heart would never say anything like that to her or anyone else. No one in the Care Bear Family would! She shook her head as if trying to banish those hateful words from her mind with a mere gesture. She looked one more time in Bright Heart's eyes…only to see that they had become the wrong color. They were red. "You're not Bright Heart!"

'Bright Heart' laughed. "And I thought 'I' was the smart one!" He said, indicating the form he had assumed. He smiled as transformed himself into his true form, the hooded, looming sorcerer that the Care Bears had feared for years.

"No Heart…" Gentle Heart bleated in fear, standing up and backing away. "What are you doing in my dreams?" He just laughed again.

"There are no dreams where I'm concerned, you wooly fool. Only nightmares." His eyes flashed. "One you're never going to wake up from."

Gentle Heart braced herself and concentrated, preparing to send out a Care Cousin Call. Her tummy symbol glowed briefly, then faded. "Huh?"

"Someone having some trouble?" No Heart leered. "Allow me!" Raising his hands he proved that while Gentle Heart's Call might not be working, No Heart recognized no such restraint in using his dark magic. Gentle Heart ran, only narrowly avoiding being struck by No Heart's lightning.

Running through the faux-Forest of Feelings, Gentle Heart wondered what had happened to make her Call fail. In desperation, she hid behind a tree and cautiously strained her hearing for signs of No Heart. Hearing nothing she heaved a sigh of relief and leaned back against the tree's trunk. Tilting her head back, Gentle Heart looked up into the leafy canopy above her and sighed again, this time in despair.

"Now what?"