Summary: Dizzy sequel, Vince begins having nightmares of his past, and the gang readily go on the Zooniverse's annual away trip to a country mansion, that Vince finds scarily familiar. But with emotions and fears running high, how much of what happens is reality, and how much is an illusion. Warning: disturbing/dark themes.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination.

Echo: 1 Dreaming Reality.

A couple of months after the defeat of Bainbridge, Howard was woken in the middle of the night for the third time this week.

Howard jumped out of bed as he recognized the thrashing, whimpering noises coming from Vince's room. The jazz maverick sprinted to his friend, hoping to get to him in time.

The first time this had happened, a couple of weeks ago, Vince had ran to him scared, having not had a nightmare for years. Howard had comforted him, but Vince wouldn't say what he had dreamed of. Howard wasn't even sure if Vince knew himself, to panicked by the experience to remember.

The second time Howard was awoken in the mornings to an unnaturally jumpy Vince. Once again he failed to get anything out of him, but could see how tired his friend was, and guessed he hadn't slept, along with the strange paranoia he held all day.

The third and fourth times were soon after this, and Howard awoke to muffled thrashing, but couldn't get to his friend through the locked door, that once the thrashing stopped, Vince either couldn't (due to sleep), or wouldn't open to him.

The day after the fourth Howard convinced Vince to keep his door unlocked in case it happened again, and then Howard could wake him up from it.

The time after that Vince had tried to describe his nightmare to Howard as they both sat on the sofa, too afraid and worked up to sleep. The blur of images and glare of bright lights that Vince haltingly described could have been anything, and they both slept feeling even more confused and worked up then before.

The first time this week that it had happened, Vince had fallen back asleep with exhaustion after waking Howard with an actual scream. Sweaty and pale it almost looked like he was being drowned by the blanket. But he was sleeping peacefully, and Howard didn't have the heart to wake him.

The last time, Howard went to the room, only to find in the, incredibly short, time it took to get there Vince had woken up and ran to the bathroom, and locked it. Howard had spent a few minutes trying to both comfort and persuade the retching man to let him in, finally leaving tentatively as Vince first screamed and then begged Howard to go away. Vince had sounded so broken that he couldn't refuse, and in the morning he had already left to go to the newt house, returning sounding cheerful and untroubled.

So it was with a fair amount of desperation that Howard dashed into Vince's room that night, determined not to leave him alone to the nightmares.

Vince lay twisting and turning, gradually becoming trapped in the blankets and sheets, making whimpered, noncommittal noises. Howard sat on the bed and shook Vince gently; even the small movement seemed enough to wake him up.

With a gasp Vince sat up, panting and wide eyed, he nearly bolted from Howard before actually seeing who it was.

"Oh, Howard." Hw mumbled, looking down at the bed covers and shaking. It was awhile before Howard recognized the small shuddering movements and suppressed sobs.

"Its okay Vince, its over now." He coaxed gently, pulling him into an embrace. The threatening tears never fell, but the thin frame continued to shiver periodically. Howard wasn't sure what to say, but for now Vince seemed content with just his company.

Eventually even the shudders subsided; Vince slowly untangled himself from the blankets and turned to look at Howard.

"Thanks." He muttered sheepishly.

"Its alright, what are friends for eh?" Howard replied, glad when a small smile escaped Vince. After a while Howard dared the next question.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Vince visibly tensed and looked at his hands.

"I, it was pretty fuzzy." Howard could hear the nerves in his voice; it did nothing to soothe his own anxiety.

"Vince?" He questioned carefully.

"I saw the neon lights. I remembered them." Vince muttered, more to himself.

"You mean the ones in Bainbridge's house?" Howard asked, now plain confused.

"No." Vince insisted, turning to look at him earnestly before turning back to his hands.

"The ones in my old room." Howard couldn't place the emotion in the smaller man's voice, so he frowned.

"Do you mean where you lived before you went to Bainbridge?" Howard had never really thought of this concept before.

"Yeah." Vince turned back to him, but kept his eyes on some fixed point in the room.

"How long did you live with Bainbridge?" Howard asked softly, for the first time really wondering the answer.

"I don't really know, maybe a year? Maybe more?" Vince frowned himself. "It was hard to keep track of time there."

He and Vince shared a complatitive silence. Howard tried to think how he felt about the revelation. On one hand, it was strange to know how long Vince had been there, on another, it was strange to think of him having lived anywhere else. Strange to think of the place where he lived when he had turned into the slightly disturbed person he was. Strange to think of the people who made him this way. Strange to think of his parents. How much did Vince even remember himself?

Howard was surprised when he saw the sky beginning to lighten. Knowing they'd never manage to fall asleep again now, Howard decided on a different tact.

"Want to go give the tortoise its bath?" Vince smiled at him, and they got up to begun the days work at the truly obscene hour of three, might as well not have bothered with sleep.

And so begun their next adventure, by the end of it, Howard would be wishing they'd both gotten those extra hours of sleep. They could have used them.

It was about midday in the zoo when fossil called a meeting. Wearily the entire zoo staff turned up, including Naboo, and for some reason Bollo, though no one seemed to mind.

The four friends stood next to each other, staring impatiently at their slightly retarded boss.

"Now, as I'm sure you're all aware." Fossil begun seriously, before switching to deranged hyperness. "The Zooniverse annual holiday is starting tonight, and you all have to go!"

"We've never had an annual trip before!" Piped up someone.

"Yeah and why tonight?" Someone else complained.

"Zip it!" Fossil commanded, and they obeyed, though silently swearing that they'd have him if he didn't control their jobs.

"Now we're all going and we're going to have a happy Zooniverse holiday! You got that! So pack your bags, that means you too Moon!" Eventually everyone grumbled and returned to their jobs, resigned to their fate.

"Its ridiculous, demanding us like that!" Howard complained.

"Why, you got something better to do?" Naboo smirked; Howard scowled and was about to announce he wouldn't be going, when Vince spoke.

"Wow! Howard I've never been on a holiday!" Howard looked at the pure joy on Vince's face and found he didn't have the heart to let him down.

"Yeah Vince, should be great." He smiled, gaining Vince's famous dizzy grin, before he caught Naboo smirking, and hurried off to pack.

Maybe a holiday was just what they needed, a bit of rest and relaxation might even help with Vince's nightmares. Oh how wrong he was.

The Zoo's employees traveled deep into the wooded country on a minibus, somehow Bollo had managed to get onboard without anyone noticing.

Vince looked out the window; the scenery was calm if a bit ominous of a storm. Tall pine and fur trees reached across the sky, standing out somewhat morbidly against the sky.

As the bus passed over a bridge, Vince looked down to see sinisterly swirling inky water, a river hitting some rocks before plunging down several meters seamlessly until it hit a mist that Vince couldn't see through.

He had the most unsettling feeling of memories from there for some reason, although it could have been a dream.

However, as more familiar scenery passed by, Vince begun to have the unshakeable feeling that he had been there before. This was cemented when the dregs of fuzzy memories begun to emerge. Like when you're trying to remember what the programs you watched as a child were like.

He turned to see Howard dozing peacefully before turning back to the scenery. As small drops of rain begun hitting the window he saw the trees swaying in the wind. It was almost as if they were welcoming him back.

But to what, Vince didn't yet remember.

::Well the first installment, what did you think? Interested? Intrigued? I hope so anyway hehe, more soon hopefully.

::Thanks for reading, shadowtheo.