It was time. She could feel him congealing about the ship now: could feel that something had changed, that the ship was now at risk, that madness was starting to spread, that he now had the ability to hurt with his strength now. It would be the madness that would consume them. All this, of course, a demon girl could take in stride. Why shouldn't she
( ... )
Not long into her journey, she'd stumble across Leon, picking himself up off the ground.
Up until a few moments ago, he had been trapped in his own body. His arms and legs moved of their own accord, taking the skills he learned and putting them to malevolent use.
He could hear them, Saddler, Salazar, the hundreds of other plagas. They were a constant chorus in his skull, laughing as they manipulated his movements, turning him into nothing but a puppet on a string. He had been screaming inside his own head, but couldn't break through the noise.
He could only watch helplessly as the violence unfolded in front of him, but it was the targets that he was sent after that made the experience more unnerving. They were senators, congressmen, and other politicians. People he was sworn to protect, but that he, frankly, hated. And because of that, there was some perverse part of him that was enjoying this show. There was something about watching these assholes get what was coming to them that just satisfyingThis was just the warm up act,
( ... )
Because Claire Redfield was still alive after Raccoon City. Because Sherry Birkin Redfield-Kennedy wasn't going to spend her life as a lab rat. Because Manuela Hidalgo could remember that she wasn't some monster, but a person. Because Ashley Graham made it safely back to her father.
Because, after seven years of fighting, the world no longer has to fear the T-virus.
Because even selfish jackasses needed someone to stand up for them, because there are worse things out there than other selfish jackasses. Like you, he told the Nightmare King.
Messed up as they were, and as much of a pain in the ass as they were, they were still his crew, and none of them deserved to be messed with like this. He was going to protect them.
But first, he had to wake up.
He kept repeating those two words, like a mantra of sorts.
wake up wake up Wake up WAKE UP wake up wake up Wake Up
WAKE UP!!!!He screamed at the noise in his head, and with sheer persistence and stubbornness, he started to break through. His hands
( ... )
"That looks fairly nasty," Alessa commented, watching Leon's struggle. While she had no love for the Military commander, she also had no hate for him either. Like most people on the ship, she was usually indifferent, and showing any kind of emotion for anyone was restricted to her chosen few.
She waited for a moment though. His nightmare was his own, and unless he actually needed her help (she suspected he was too proud, and if that were the case she was happy to oblige him). There were others that were going to be needing their help. Humans were usually fairly weak when it came to their mental issues, so she had an idea they would have a bit of jumping around to do.
She had an idea that Leon was the type to spite death if given the chance. That would keep him alive.
"Whenever you're ready," Alessa said. "We have a lot of work to do, don't we?"
Something was wrong. Mai could feel it at the back of her mind. Something, somewhere was off. She couldn't quite tell what and it was starting to needle at her brain. However, her train of thought was cut off by the sound of her mother's voice, "Mai, pay attention to your calligraphy lesson."
Mai blinked, attention returning to her surroundings. Where was she? Oh, yes. Of course. At home, watching her tutor go through another stunningly boring lesson. She already knew most of these and she didn't see why she needed to learn the horrifically obscure and complicated characters. Still. She sat up a bit straighter, murmuring a reply, "Yes, mother."
She wasn't sure how long the rest of the lesson lasted. She did know it seemed to drag on forever and when it was finally finished, she let out a soft sigh of relief. Maybe now she could get away. Go back to her room and throw some knives at the wall or something. Wait.
She slid a hand into her sleeve, feeling for the reassuring weight of her throwing knives. They should be there. She always
( ... )
"How perfectly boring," interrupted a voice. Mai could look around at first: she would see Alessa just yet, and that was just as well. Like the Nightmare King, she preferred a temporary cloud of anonymity, just so the girl could mull over her situation. "I'll admit that your situation isn't as action packed as one might hope, but the scenario seems just as bleak. Going through the motions without caring about the situation is as detrimental to a human being as any mental breakage you try to avoid
( ... )
Leon was there. Linefaced as usual, he was looming slightly behind Alessa. He probably stood out like a sore thumb in these surroundings. The clothes, the weapons, the skin color and hair, nothing about him fit this place and this time.
He didn't interrupt the conversation as of yet, wanting to see how Mai reacted to them.
Mai's brush faltered and she set it down, looking at Alessa curiously through dulled eyes when she appeared. That wasn't supposed to happen, her mind told her. People didn't just appear out of thin air like that. Not even the now-extinct Airbenders. For a long moment she simply stared at Alessa and the offered knives. Those weren't her's. She'd given it up ages ago because her parents had made her
( ... )
They had been surging forward at an impressive rate: even Alessa had no criticism in how quickly they covered ground. Once they got to the next scene, she was sure that they would topple whoevers dream was next. As they got closer though, Alessa felt the smell of something in the air: blood. She knew it well enough, and stopped Mai and Leon. She closed her eyes, allowing herself to feel out the situation, to fell for the reason of change in the air. When she got her answer, she sighed.
So much for saving her strength.
"You can hang back, or proceed to another dream," she told the two, "its up to you. But unlike both of your dreams, whoever this is must be very strong. We are in the Nightmare of someone who has dreamed a dark god. This is about to get very dangerous."
"Because the one Dark God wasn't enough," Leon muttered to himself. He did a quick check of his weapons, then considered the situation.
Of course, for him, the thing he was considering was how to deal with this.
"We need to find whoever dreamed this thing up and smack some sense into them." Easier said than done, but that's neither here nor there. Leon looked at Alessa, "Can you keep it distracted?"
She was surrounded by dead Slayers. Giles lay dead at her feet, and behind her, she heard Angel howl as a stake pierced through his chest, turning him to dust.
She looked up into the sky.
Willow hung in mid-air, dressed in black, her face all pale and veiny, her eyes shimmering with the darkest sort of magic. In front of her, in an aura of bright green, fluttered Dawn, Buffy's sister. Literally, Buffy's own flesh and blood.
Leon stood behind Buffy, and he had the oddest sense of deja vu. He was half tempted to toss the shield at Willow, just to see if it would work again. But Willow was just a figment of Buffy's imagination, or so he assumed. Buffy he recognized, the others, not so much. So he didn't need Willow alive, nor did he need her attention. He just needed to snap Buffy out of it.
Mai watched silently from beside Leon. She didn't really have anything to say. What was it with people and their doomsday, end-of-the-world dreams? Did no one else fear boring, hum-drum, everyday life?
Alessa appeared, but at the sight of Buffy she paused. It was one thing to go jumping into a gods' dream, but whoever this was, she was an experienced killer. The scene itself was an interesting one though: she would have liked to know the story behind it if they had the time. The floating redhead, for instance, definitely had a sense of style. She could feel the darkness without even being that close. The scent of death was close to this girl, she knew that enough.
She gave Willow another look over, then turned to Buffy. "We are on a bit of a time restraint, actually. You must know about the nightmares by now: they are starting to affect the ship. We are trying to defeat a dark god who is preying on your fears even now. You should join us."
She had to make mention of something though. "You're a powerful one. You would be a good asset."
Obi-Wan faced his apprentice across a landscape of burning stone. He had no idea how it had come to this. Not this, not Anakin...No, not Anakin, tainted with the dark side and staring at him with bald hatred in his gaze. Not his sword-brother and friend, the man he'd once raised as a son, then trained as a partner, and fought alongside.
'If you're not with me, you're against me,' the apparition sneered, and it was such an Anakin thing to say- impulsive and without base, without thought.
"Only Sith deal in absolutes," Obi-Wan shook his head and took his Lightsaber in hand. How had it come to this? "I don't want to fight you, but I will do what I must."
'You will try.'
And that was when the battle began in earnest, a blurring madness of flashing blades and the burnt-ozone smell the blades exuded when struck hard. Obi-Wan fought desperately, but his heart wasn't in it. He didn't want to win this fight, and he couldn't afford to lose.
"Yes," the demon girl agreed. "Is this something that you need to see right now? You are in the throes of the Nightmare King: you are living in your fears. You have to break free, so that we may fight back."
Alessa looked at the shooting and shook her head. So abrupt. In any case, it got the job done.
Anakin was a Jedi-trained; even in his clouded state the limited prescience of the force guided his blade and the bullet hit his Lightsaber's plasma with a flash of light as it vaporized. Obi-Wan half turned at the shot, distracted, and his attention caught on the jarring incorrectness of Leon and Alessa standing among the charred soil.
What in the-
That was a mistake: the Nightmare-Anakin slashed upwards from his block and it was a near thing for Kenobi to execute the blind dodge. If he'd had less trust in the Force, he'd have lost an eye, but the break in the fight was like a cold bucket of water among the hellish heat.
No. No, this wasn't right, this wasn't right.
"This isn't right," The Jedi said aloud, as if to force it to be true. Anakin wouldn't do this to him, Obi-Wan knew that! Not Anakin! The presence of Alessa and Leon only confirmed it, and the truth of Obi-Wan's faith snapped to the cool grip of the Force like the first cool drink after an eternity in the desert. He was awake, or at least aware, but there was still
( ... )
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Up until a few moments ago, he had been trapped in his own body. His arms and legs moved of their own accord, taking the skills he learned and putting them to malevolent use.
He could hear them, Saddler, Salazar, the hundreds of other plagas. They were a constant chorus in his skull, laughing as they manipulated his movements, turning him into nothing but a puppet on a string. He had been screaming inside his own head, but couldn't break through the noise.
He could only watch helplessly as the violence unfolded in front of him, but it was the targets that he was sent after that made the experience more unnerving. They were senators, congressmen, and other politicians. People he was sworn to protect, but that he, frankly, hated. And because of that, there was some perverse part of him that was enjoying this show. There was something about watching these assholes get what was coming to them that just satisfyingThis was just the warm up act, ( ... )
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Because Claire Redfield was still alive after Raccoon City. Because Sherry Birkin Redfield-Kennedy wasn't going to spend her life as a lab rat. Because Manuela Hidalgo could remember that she wasn't some monster, but a person. Because Ashley Graham made it safely back to her father.
Because, after seven years of fighting, the world no longer has to fear the T-virus.
Because even selfish jackasses needed someone to stand up for them, because there are worse things out there than other selfish jackasses. Like you, he told the Nightmare King.
Messed up as they were, and as much of a pain in the ass as they were, they were still his crew, and none of them deserved to be messed with like this. He was going to protect them.
But first, he had to wake up.
He kept repeating those two words, like a mantra of sorts.
wake up wake up Wake up WAKE UP wake up wake up Wake Up
WAKE UP!!!!He screamed at the noise in his head, and with sheer persistence and stubbornness, he started to break through. His hands ( ... )
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She waited for a moment though. His nightmare was his own, and unless he actually needed her help (she suspected he was too proud, and if that were the case she was happy to oblige him). There were others that were going to be needing their help. Humans were usually fairly weak when it came to their mental issues, so she had an idea they would have a bit of jumping around to do.
She had an idea that Leon was the type to spite death if given the chance. That would keep him alive.
"Whenever you're ready," Alessa said. "We have a lot of work to do, don't we?"
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Mai blinked, attention returning to her surroundings. Where was she? Oh, yes. Of course. At home, watching her tutor go through another stunningly boring lesson. She already knew most of these and she didn't see why she needed to learn the horrifically obscure and complicated characters. Still. She sat up a bit straighter, murmuring a reply, "Yes, mother."
She wasn't sure how long the rest of the lesson lasted. She did know it seemed to drag on forever and when it was finally finished, she let out a soft sigh of relief. Maybe now she could get away. Go back to her room and throw some knives at the wall or something. Wait.
She slid a hand into her sleeve, feeling for the reassuring weight of her throwing knives. They should be there. She always ( ... )
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He didn't interrupt the conversation as of yet, wanting to see how Mai reacted to them.
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So much for saving her strength.
"You can hang back, or proceed to another dream," she told the two, "its up to you. But unlike both of your dreams, whoever this is must be very strong. We are in the Nightmare of someone who has dreamed a dark god. This is about to get very dangerous."
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Of course, for him, the thing he was considering was how to deal with this.
"We need to find whoever dreamed this thing up and smack some sense into them." Easier said than done, but that's neither here nor there. Leon looked at Alessa, "Can you keep it distracted?"
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She looked up into the sky.
Willow hung in mid-air, dressed in black, her face all pale and veiny, her eyes shimmering with the darkest sort of magic. In front of her, in an aura of bright green, fluttered Dawn, Buffy's sister. Literally, Buffy's own flesh and blood.
Willow was killing Dawn.
And ending the universe.
And Buffy was powerless to stop her.
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"You waiting on an invitation or something?"
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She gave Willow another look over, then turned to Buffy. "We are on a bit of a time restraint, actually. You must know about the nightmares by now: they are starting to affect the ship. We are trying to defeat a dark god who is preying on your fears even now. You should join us."
She had to make mention of something though. "You're a powerful one. You would be a good asset."
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'If you're not with me, you're against me,' the apparition sneered, and it was such an Anakin thing to say- impulsive and without base, without thought.
"Only Sith deal in absolutes," Obi-Wan shook his head and took his Lightsaber in hand. How had it come to this? "I don't want to fight you, but I will do what I must."
'You will try.'
And that was when the battle began in earnest, a blurring madness of flashing blades and the burnt-ozone smell the blades exuded when struck hard. Obi-Wan fought desperately, but his heart wasn't in it. He didn't want to win this fight, and he couldn't afford to lose.
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"This is the wrong battle you're fighting, General Kenobi."
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Alessa looked at the shooting and shook her head. So abrupt. In any case, it got the job done.
"This will not help you."
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What in the-
That was a mistake: the Nightmare-Anakin slashed upwards from his block and it was a near thing for Kenobi to execute the blind dodge. If he'd had less trust in the Force, he'd have lost an eye, but the break in the fight was like a cold bucket of water among the hellish heat.
No. No, this wasn't right, this wasn't right.
"This isn't right," The Jedi said aloud, as if to force it to be true. Anakin wouldn't do this to him, Obi-Wan knew that! Not Anakin! The presence of Alessa and Leon only confirmed it, and the truth of Obi-Wan's faith snapped to the cool grip of the Force like the first cool drink after an eternity in the desert. He was awake, or at least aware, but there was still ( ... )
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