Chibiyu: Alright, I'm having issues with writing again.
Nick: Yay!
Chibiyu: Doesn't mean I won't have fun trying though!
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Joe only offered a short laugh as the Professor pulled off the highway and onto a dirt road. They neared the Summer home, and Joe felt his stomach drop at the sight of the house. He had wanted to get away from the rich life, and now, he was thrown right back into it.
He was caught in his never ending nightmare.
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August 4th, 2010, Somewhere in Egypt, 11:32 pm
Though Oneiro was quiet to some, it still plagued the minds of many. It's new target was a girl who lied on her bed, eyes on the stucco ceiling as she traced the many ridges. Her thoughts, which would normally be on a fictitious horse that raced through the grooves above her head, were clogged with the words from her older brothers. She had just pointed something out to their father - something about the boys not being in their rooms last night and her questioning where they may have been. She never meant for it to escalate into such a fight. Now she would be lucky if they even looked at her - she had unintentionally ruined whatever progress she had made with their relationship.
She turned her head to stare at the window as her self-hatred turned to wonder. Did anyone know how she felt right now? They all claimed to know her well enough, but she knew otherwise: they only knew the girl she made herself to out to be. They saw the vivacious reader and the smile of curiosity, but not the pain she hid or the fear she ran from. They didn't know what she wished and dreamed for. She simply didn't allow them to know.
She would stare up into the hazy Egyptian night sky and wish as hard as she could on the first star she managed to me. She would wish for the confidence to put herself out in the world and throw off her mask. She wished that she would be able to let go of her self-conscious nature and believe in herself. She wished that she knew the answer to the question of who she loved the most. She wished to be a better version of herself. Wished that the words of those close to her didn't leave her reeling in pain; wished that they could see her tears behind her smile.
She wished she rode the horse she imagine every night as it jumped, curved, raced, and overcame the unending track above her head. What an exhilarating feeling: to race through an uncharted area with no one to judge you, surrounded by the others who dared to take the journey with you. The others who accepted you.
She wanted that. She wanted to be happy, to be accepted, and in that acceptance, to be successful.
And every time she closed her eyes to dream, she was that perfect girl who lived that perfect life.
"You're such a tattle, Dina! I can't believe I can't trust my own sister!"
The voices drifted through her partially opened door. Tears welled in her eyes and she forced herself to face the wall so her sorrow would remain unseen. It was just too much for her to handle. All she wanted to do was to escape, to become the girl she dreamed of without having the fear that she did.
So she did the only thing she knew how to in order to get there: she closed her eyes and let her breath slow. She let herself fall into the awaiting hands of the dreams she thought she loved. She let herself be taken.
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August 4th, 2010; Somewhere along the coast of Maryland, 12:03 am
Nick jolted out of his slumber when the closing of a car door both shook the car and loudly sounded. He blinked furiously as he tried to clear his vision, fists already balled while his heart pounded.
"I'll get Nokia, hun, if you get Macy," the quiet voice of his mom pulled him from his stupor. He nodded once as her face swam into his view and his fingers loosened. He helped pull off his sister's seatbelt and helped maneuver her safely into their mother's arms. He watched with a small smile as her young arms wrapped around Tynisha's neck.
He watched her walked up to the mansion-like Summer home, his breath caught in his throat as he stared at the structure. Though it was night, the walls were lit, which revealed an ancient-looking wooden door, its intricate design shadowed, dark wooden windows to accent the light hue of the siding, a paved walkway, beautiful flowers, and a giant lush yard. The youth couldn't help but let his mouth drop slightly; luxury like this was supposed to only exist in Nokia's stories. And yet, here it was in front of him. Here it was, all for his mother and his sister. And for him, if he did return.
"You coming?" Nick stared at the face his perfectly manicured brother, "I know; it's crazy isn't it? Stella told me the Prof was rich, but I didn't except to come back to this." Joe quickly added this next part as he saw Nick's confusion: "I came from money and came with the Prof to find you both and to get away from it. Trust me, it's not all happiness and roses like the fairytales say."
Joe withdrew his head as he didn't want to go into further detail about this right now. Instead he just chose to watch his younger brother carefully gather his girlfriend in his arms and whisper something in her ear. The brunette nodded sluggishly and wrapped her arms around Nick's neck gently as he moved her out of the car.
"Follow me, the Prof already has the rooms scouted out. Your mom and Nokia are right next to you, as is Macy. We're across the hall."
Nick nodded once, too tired to form a sentence so he just blindly followed his brothers. Though even in this state, his eyes still flickered over to the trees that surrounded the house when a bird left its perch or when a rabbit crunched the underfoot leaves.
When Macy was deposited in the plush bed, she opened her eyes and smiled up to Nick, her arms still around his neck. "Need a teddy-bear tonight?" she breathed into his ear. Nick smiled at her and pushed her grim-covered hair from her eyes, letting her interpret his answer. "I'll wait up," she told him before she kissed his jaw and released him. "Don't stay up too late talking, okay?"
Nick only offered a shake of his head before he headed out the door to where his brothers and the Professor was gathered.
The old man nodded once in greeting before he jumped right into the hushed conversation. "We must go to my lab across town. Tonight."
"No," Nick whispered the first word he has spoken in hours. "Tomorrow night."
Kevin nodded in agreement, noting how Nick's eyes had darted to the shared room which housed his mother and sister. "Certain people would never forgive us if we left without a proper goodbye," he elaborated when Nick offered no other words.
The Professor pursed his lips, obviously displeased by this.
"Besides," Joe inserted when the Professor opened his mouth, "I doubt anything will happen tonight - I doubt any of us want to dream tonight. It's all about the willingness to dream and to remember them, and after sitting through what we did, or experiencing it like Nick did, I think we'll be safe."
The Professor pursed his lips, though he knew it to be true from his own experience with his daughter. "Alright. One day here and then to my lab tomorrow night. When the nightmares, according to Tynisha, will be the most violent." The Professor's eyes were only on Nick's as he said this, as if he was looking for confirmation.
Nick nodded once to him before the elder bade the brothers a goodnight. But the teen wasn't quite done. "Did your daughter have green eyes?"
The Professor stilled completely at this and his head slowly turned to stare at the youngest of the four. "What did you say?"
Kevin and Joe both stopped in their doorways as well, confused at the question.
"Did she have green eye?" Nick repeated, eyes narrowed in what the brother's could only describe as analytical suspicion. "Was she about this tall?" He held up his hand to just about his waist. "Did she have long blonde hair, presumably taken from her mother's side?"
"H-how...?" the Professor managed to stutter out as his heart hammered loudly against his ribcage.
Nick didn't answer that. "Is it true that our ancestors managed to open the seal, and it was them who leaked the nightmares into Oneiro, which in turn corrupted the dream world?"
"Nicholas, h-how do you know this?"
"And is it true," Nick finished with a question that he didn't have an answer too, "That they created the Ohm around our necks to be more in-tune with Oneiro, instead of to stop the damage they created?"
The Professor was hunched over, hand on his heart as he processed the knowledge the boy had. "Nicholas, tell me how you know this!"
Nick shrugged once before he pressed his back to Macy's door, his hand on the knob. "May told me."
He vanished in the room before the Professor had time to gasp out from this. "Boys," he managed to whisper, "Be ready for tomorrow. We cannot waste another moment."
"Why? What's going on? Who's May?!" Joe and Kevin both shouted in hushed screams, but the older man had already scuttled down the stairs with a panicked look to his face.
"A girl with green eyes?" Joe questioned as he turned back to his older brother, "Why is that familiar to me?" Joe looked towards Nokia's room, but he knew that the memory of the eyes didn't come from her.
Kevin could only shake his head, the description also bringing up the vague feeling that he too knew the girl. "I don't know, Joe. But we should talk about this tomorrow, when the Professor is less freaked out and Nick is willing to explain more." Joe nodded once at this. "Goodnight, bro."
"Night."
As the two older snuggled under their covers in their separate rooms, Nick pressed himself closer to Macy, afraid to close his eyes.
"I'm right here, Nick," she whispered as she burrowed closer into his chest, her own arms wrapped securely around him. "You'll be fine. They're only nightmares."
Nick sighed, his chin resting on top of her head and the words: 'if only you knew,' caught between his tongue and locked lips. "That's not it," he stated lightly, but was ignored as Macy spoke over him.
"And I'm not leaving you alone with that man," she whispered, having heard the conversation, and she unknowingly made the perfect lead in to what Nick had been trying to say before.
"I need you to. I need you to stay here and protect my family. Can you please do that for me, Mace?" The distress in Nick's voice was enough to tell the girl why the teen wasn't keen on sleeping.
The girl sighed dramatically to show her distaste, and to bring the small smile back onto her boyfriend's face. "Fine, I'll babysit for you," she drew out as if this would be the hardest task in the world. "Nokia won't leave my sight. Girlfriend's honour," she swore and was reward with the feeling of Nicks' chest rumbling as he chuckled.
"You're amazing," Nick muttered as he kissed the top of her head.
"I know," Macy joked before she pushed Nick off of his side and used his chest as a pillow. "That's why you love me."
Nick laughed once again, but he shook his head at her in an endearing way. "Goodnight, Macy."
"Night, Nick."
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When the morning came, Tynisha was hardly surprised to see Macy's door cracked open and Nokia firmly snuggled on Nick's free side by the edge of the bed, with her older brother's arm wrapped tightly around her in case she rolled too far. She smiled at the scene as she leaned against the doorframe, a sad picture of happiness on her young face.
"Are you okay?"
The mother started slightly at the quiet voice, but before she could turn and see how spoke, the figure leaned on the wall across from her and peeked in.
Stella smiled as the sight as well, only to roll his eyes. "I wouldn't have guessed..." she trailed off, eyes only on the supposedly tough-natured boy. "Actually, yeah, I would have," she corrected after a moment of silence when the youngest shifter closer to her brother.
"She'll be devastated when Nick leaves," Tynisha breathed out, but it was her own heart which ached from the awful knowledge.
"He'll come back, though," Stella reassured her, a careful hand placed on the mother's arm. "The Professor told me countless times that this mission won't do anything harmful to the boys. After all, dreams can't hurt us, right?"
Tynisha let her head fall so the girl couldn't see her face through her curtain of fresh-washed hair. "There is a saying, Stella: if you die in your dreams, then..."
"No!" Stella cut across her, careful to keep her voice at the same volume, though her tone cut through the air and smacked the woman in the face. "They will be fine. Nick will come back to you, Kevin will go back to his old family, and Joe..."
"Will come back to you?" the mother asked with a knowing and teasing smile.
Stella blushed, but refused to agree with that statement. "I'm going to eat. Need help waking them up?"
The subject change was not lost to the mother, who had to cover her mouth to not laugh. "No, go on. Nick will help me with that, I'm sure."
The blonde mouthed Nick's name once before she peeked in the room , her blush deepening when she met the pair of open eyes. He offered her a good-natured wave and even went as far as to smile at her obvious embarrassment.
"Sorry," Stella quickly whispered, "I didn't mean to wake you!"
Nick rolled his eyes once at this. "You didn't. Mom did."
At the blame, Tynisha faced her son. "What? How?"
Nick shrugged, his movements getting Macy to stir. "You were staring at me."
Tynisha let out a light laugh and put her hands on her hips. "I can't win with you, can I?"
"No one can, Tynisha. Trust me; I've tried," Macy spoke out, voice cracked from sleep.
Nick chuckled lightly before he kissed the top of her head with a smile. Stella was shocked by this, not by the actions, but how different Nick already seemed without the threat of the Administration looming over him. His shoulders were still tense and eyes still hardened, but there was a softness to his face that hadn't been there yesterday, and a carefree way his fingers played with his sister's hair.
"Come on, Noki," he coaxed gently as Macy sat up and rubbed her eyes, "Time to face the day."
"No!" the younger grumbled in protest as she burrowed closer to her brother's warmth.
Nick laughed again and sat up, picking the nine year old up, and placed her in his lap. Nokia huffed at the movement and her eyes cracked open to glare tiredly at her big brother.
"No fair," she pouted, arms now crossed. Nick didn't answer, but the cocky smile on his face said it all. He stood, sister's feet now placed on the ground with one hand locked firmly in hers, the other being offered to his girlfriend. She slapped it away playfully, and told them about catching a shower before she ate.
While Tynisha directed the brunette to the bathroom, Macy's tattered pack in her hand, Stella gestured the others to follow her down the spiral-carpet stairs and through the plain hall whose walls were covered in replica's of famous garden paintings, and finally to the old-style kitchen.
"Morning!" Stella happily greeted the tired faces gathered around the large circular wooden table. She plopped down next to Joe, Nokia and Nick followed suit on her other side, leaving Nick next to his oldest brother.
"Rough night?" Nick guessed as he leaned over to grab the pitcher of juice, eyes on Kevin. The bags under his eyes were answer enough, though Kevin nodded all the same. "Yeah, that will be me tonight"
"How do you do it?" Kevin asked in a whisper, eyes focussed on Nick pouring his drink.
"Do what?"
"Deal with it?"
Nick set down the pitcher lightly, expression dark, but thoughtful. "I don't deal with it; I'm just used to it," came his rather bitter reply.
"Alright," the Professor's voice cut across the whispering brothers as he sat across from them all. "Stella and Nokia, I apologize, but I am addressing the boys right now. I don't mean to be rude and ignore you both, but this is important."
The girls nodded, knowing enough from the Prof's stressed tone to judge the seriousness of this next conversation.
"What's up, Prof?" Joe joked in efforts to lighten the mood, but the Professor's scowl only deepened.
"Joseph, please."
"It's Joe!"
"Now is not the time!" the Professor finally yelled, hands brought down on the table. Nokia instantly shrank back, Stella jumped, Joe stared in surprise, Kevin blinked at the display, and Nick's fingers curled into fists, brow furrowed. "I apologize. But the situation could be more dire than I first expected."
No one lost their defensive and shocked posture at this.
"Joseph," the Professor addressed him, "Tell me about your dreams again."
So Joe retold; went more in-depth about his nightmares and how horrible they made him feel until he realized they weren't true anymore. How he wasn't alone anymore. And he told of his better dreams; the ones where his family had never been split apart, where their family was alive and all of they were happy. And there was a silent moment when a blush spread across his face, and his eyes darted quickly to Stella.
"While you are dreaming, does it feel like a dream?"
Joe thought about this question for a moment. "For the most part...it's hard to tell. In the nightmares, it generally ends in a way that could never happen in real life, so it's obvious then. But in my normal dreams, they feel real until I wake up."
"And you know they were just dreams immediately after you woke up?"
"Yes," Joe confirmed with a nod.
"Do you remember all of them?"
Joe tapped the table once, eyes lost in thought. "Most of them. There are a few of them that I remember for a few minutes, and then they're gone. But I remember the nightmares clearly; but the faces are always blurred.
The Professor turned to Kevin and asked him the same thing.
Kevin nearly repeated what Joe did, word for word. The only difference was that he would immediately recognize the dreams as dreams, and sometimes, wouldn't dream at all.
The Professor nodded once, eyes switching between the two. "You both are still in the early stages. You are at low risk to be taken by Oneiro: to fall into a sleep in which you could never wake. To be captured by the nightmares."
"Nicholas," the Professor called, but the teen already stared him directly in the eye.
"How come you're not affected by it? You are obsessed with Oneiro," the teen questioned, tone not one to mess with, "It would seem you would be vulnerable as well. So why aren't you?"
The Professor only shook his head once. "I just don't dream."
Nick's eyes narrowed at this. "Everyone dreams," he contradicted harshly.
"Perhaps I am affected, Nicholas," the Professor shot back, already tired of this conversation.
Nick blinked once and leaned back in his chair. "May?" he guessed once, knowing he was right when the Professor's eyes fell back onto the table. "You know, Professor, how do we know that this...mission...isn't only for your own selfish means? You know too much about Oneiro; you're obsessed with it because it took your daughter. That could be dangerous to me and my brothers. What if we come into contact with May?"
The Professor's eyes shot up at this as he glared accusingly towards the male. "You already have."
Nick neither agreed nor denied this, he only crossed his arms. "Answer the question."
The Professor sighed once, seeing that the only way the teen would cooperate with him was that if he too cooperated. "I lost my daughter years ago; I've accepted her death."
"But you still want her back."
"Of course I do!"
"So what will you do if I told you that I've met her in Oneiro?"
The Professor, though he had expected this, fell silent for he did not expect the ex-gang-leader to openly admit this.
"After all, you do know that sealing the hole our ancestors created will, in turn, seal her away as well?" Nick pressed, not even sure of this himself.
The Professor hung his head. "I will still dream of her, that much will be unavoidable."
"But she won't seem alive. We close the seal and she goes away."
"Then I will be left with my memories of her!" the Professor fought back, though in his heart he knew that he was only trying to convince himself. "She is gone, Nicholas. I've accepted this."
Nick shrugged, not bothered to push the man any harder, so he remained silent. "My dreams," he added to the silence after a moment to circle back to the Professor's original questions, "Are different than my brothers. But you expected that, didn't you?"
The Professor nodded once. "But to what extent?"
Nick stared at the man for a second longer. "To the point where I'm aware and yet I am not."
This was vague enough for the ones at the table to stare at confusion, but for the Professor to blanch, hand on his heart.
"That far?" he gasped out, in shock that Nick could nod so calmly at it. "This is bad, Nicholas!"
"It's Nick," he finally corrected, feeling a lot like Joe. "And I know. But I'll will be fine; I know more than your daughter did."
The Professor pursed his lips as he leaned closer to the young man. "Don't underestimate it, Nicholas. Oneiro is not something to be trifled with. It is a part of you, as it is to all of us. It knows you better than you know yourself. It can break you within a single night."
Nick stood slowly, his stomach still not feeling up to food, and said: "Then why hasn't it already?"
Macy slowed entered the room, her belly-shirt showing off her elaborate rose tattoo. Nick slid past her, fingers automatically tracing a swirled stem, before he climbed the steps. Macy turned her attention to the ones at the table, a small knowing smile on her face.
"He being a party-pooper?" she guessed before she slid into Nick's old chair. "Typical," she laughed once as she tried to ignore everyone's ogled gaze at her ink.
"That's so awesome!" Stella finally compliment, a smile in her eyes and mouth still open. "Did it hurt?"
Macy laughed openly at this. "Uhhm, only a lot!" she admitted with a blush, but the smile was still there. "Anyway, let's ignore my tattoo for a minute and talk about my boyfriend, shall we?"
Everyone fell silent at this.
"Nick is special," she joked lightly though she meant it, "Think about it: we grew up in a less than stellar environment, and he is used to being in control. Now Nick is smart too: he knows he isn't in the Administration anymore, but old habits die hard. My advice? Give him time and let him adjust, and then he will star contributing more to the party. Got it?"
Everyone nodded at the brunette's piece of wisdom.
"Good!" she clapped her hands together and smiled once at Stella. "Now please pass the toast: I'm starving!"
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August 4th, 2010; Somewhere along the coast of Maryland, 11:43 am
The Professor, finally alone in his study, fervently flipped to one of the last pages in his father's journal. Something Nicholas had said...he needed to confirm it before he took the boys to his lab for observation.
Oneiro is a strange force indeed. It's power is intoxicating and it's voice is nothing less than the chorus of angels. Even as I write this, I can hear it calling out to me, wanting to tell me it's deepest secrets, but it tells me that I am not yet ready for it. That it needs to prepare me a little more for the greatness it holds. That we need something more.
But Thomas is getting weary of this power. He says Oneiro is a part of all of us, which is correct, but he also says that is knows us better than we do. That the nightmares will use us for their own gain. That we are going in too deep and it is getting dangerous. But he doesn't understand. The nightmares are safely sealed away in the farthest corner; they are not to be feared! He may see his dead children while he sleeps, but that is all he can ever see. He fails to see the bigger picture. Fails to see the absolute beauty that is being offered to us. He has only skimmed the surface of it - I am at its heart.
Which is why when the Ohm pendants, the keys, are created, I will receive the 'Trance' segment. I can barely contain my excitement at this thought. But Thomas is slacking when it comes to creating them. We need his mind to do this. After all, without the pendants, we will just be observers from afar. Oneiro needs us to get the keys in order to tell us what it wants to tell us. Such a power...we need it.
Oneiro needs us to need it.
But more importantly, it needs us. When it decides that we are worthy of it, we, I, shall only serve it. I shall be in the midst of the beautiful wonderland. I shall rule it, as Oneiro told me.
Oneiro and I...together, will be unstoppable.
Savage looked over the top of the ragged journal and sighed deeply. It was as he suspected, only to a much lesser level. Nicholas was on the path for danger, but he had yet to reach the fork that could either send him back to the beginning stages or to tumble into the clutches of Oneiro, of obsession. Like his father had. Like he was very close to doing, only in a different form.
His father used to be weary of the power; wanted nothing more than to study it and, in a way, respect it. But this man who had written the last entries was not the man who raised him. This was the kind of man who used the brains of their youngest recruit, the Lucas boys' father, for his own gain. The kind of man who wanted power and was greedy enough to give up his own mortality to get it. Only then, this man didn't realize, or didn't want to realize, that he would have to give up his life to live with the dreams - to be tortured by the nightmares for all eternity. To have his negative emotions be their energy source: to be the food that made the nightmares all the more stronger.
His father never realized that he was being manipulated; that was how he was drawn in so easily. But Savage himself knew, and by the sound of it, Nicholas was cottoning on as well. To Savage, Oneiro avoided him - it knew that he could seal away the nightmares and keep it from leaking into the real world. It avoided him, so therefore, he wasn't affected. And if Nicholas was correct, it May was still out there in Oneiro, if she still was strong enough to have her own mind untouched by the nightmares, then she was avoiding him as well.
And this very thought made the Professor's heart ache with unanswered questions. Why would she avoid him? If she was still out there in the metaverse, why wouldn't she tell him everything that she knew? Why wouldn't she help him? Be with him?
Was he that much of a disgrace to her?
"Savage?"
The Professor jumped at the call and met the uncaring face of Nicholas.
"We leave when Nokia is asleep, alright?" Nick all but ordered.
The Professor sighed once before he consented with a nod. "Fine, fine." He had heard what had been unspoken, and he knew how hard it was to say a possible eternal goodbye. "Inform your brothers, will you?"
"Already did."
The Professor closed the journal and regarded the teen analytically. "You have something more to ask?"
Nick nodded, though his posture was unsure: his fingers twisted with the hem of his clean shirt, eyes darted nervously around the room, and he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet.
"Nicholas?" Such a show of emotion had even the Professor worried for the usually stoic boy. "What is it?"
Nick looked to his feet. "I know I'll have nightmares tonight," he whispered to the floor, "And I know they'll be bad. I know you'll want me to tell them to you, but..."
"Actually," the Professor cut across him easily during the hesitation. "My father and yours invented a way for me to see what you're dreaming. Our parents have put a lot of effort into all of this, Nicholas. Your father especially. Thomas Lucas wanted nothing more than to study the dream world and learn from it. He wanted to experience it in the safest of ways. It was my father who wanted the more. And together, they accomplished wonderful things. Some good, and some bad."
"So you will be able to see everything we that we see?" Nick summed up with a simple question.
The Professor nodded once. "See and hear. And if need be, there are ways to pull you out of Oneiro before one of the nightmares gets to close. But those are untested, so I would rather not use them."
"Great," Nick muttered under his breath, his posture changing from unsure to one of offense. "Then hear my advice," he suddenly fired to the eccentric-looking man with a heated voice, "When you see May, keep a level head."
The Professor mouthed the words: 'when I see May,' before he spoke again. "I assure you, Nicholas, seeing my daughter will not affect me. I have seen her for her entire life. Nothing about her will surprise me."
Nick sighed as he crossed his arms. "But you've never seen her the way I do," he stated before he backed out of the room. "Remember what I said."
"Nicholas?!"
The teen stuck his head back in the door.
"Do not worry about what I may or may not do. Worry only for yourself."
Nick smirked once and rolled his eyes. "I'm not worried about you," he bluntly stated, "But seeing as you're the one who knows the most about this whole situation, it would be the best thing for me and my brothers if you kept a level head."
The Professor had to smile at this, amused by such antics. "So you worry for me because you worry for yourself?"
Nick nodded once. "And others."
Savage leaned back in his chair as he let the silence close in. The two stared at each other for a moment longer before Nick shrugged and walked away, suspicion in his eyes once again.
There, the Professor mused, is another difference in Nicholas; he only looks at the larger picture. It is never about him. Oneiro, the Professor thought with vigor, surely knows this. It will use it against him. But how? Will it force him to think only for himself or will it bring his family into play? How will it manipulate him? And most importantly, will Nicholas be strong enough to see through its trickery?
The Professor sighed once again. At least, he consoled himself, Nicholas came from what he did. He will always question the world around him, always fail to believe in it until it is proven true.
But if the Professor hadn't found Nicholas, then he may have been taken by the dreams in the days that followed. And Savaged thanked the Heavens that he had found the boy when he did. That he, in some accounts, was able to open all of the brothers' eyes to the danger and to the reality of it all. For Nicholas, this, in the long run, will make it harder for Oneiro to drag him in.
Though in the end, the Professor had a horrible notion that Oneiro, that the nightmares, would get their way. That in the end, the brothers would fail. In the end, they all would be captives of their own imaginations.
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Chibiyu: So the next chapter will be more fun to write...I hope. I may turn on the tears as well, if I feel like it haha. Until Next Update!