REaLA: Journey of Your Nightmares

Rated K+ for mild language and violence. What would happen if NiGHTS was the loyal Nightmaren, and Reala was the "Dualizer"? Why, the entire Night Dimension would go insane, of course!

(-)

The First Night

Huff...huff... Young Will Taylor panted hard, leaning his hands over his knees. Sure, he was a practiced soccer player, but running like a madman from those dark cloud monsters would make anyone winded. He couldn't help but shiver a little when he thought about what had just happened. It was only just a nightmare, he tried to remind himself...but why were his nightmares seeming so strangely real? Every day, it only seemed like they were getting worse and worse...they'd been feeling more and more real... And that time, he was sure that it actually was.

He took a moment more to catch his breath, then slowly stood up again. This time, he felt sure that he'd find himself back, safe in his bed, far from the Bellbridge playing field...but apparently, he wasn't done dreaming just yet.

What lied in front of him was nothing like anything he'd ever seen. Well, no, actually. It was like something he'd seen, but not like this. He knew what a fountain was, but he'd never seen this one before, nor had he been in this particular location before in his life. A vast forest surrounded it...but it looked like he was on some sort of floating island. A gate stood before him, leading up to the fountain with two headless statues on either side. "Cool, it's kind of like Greece!" Will decided. That had been his last chapter in History. In fact, he'd just failed that last chapter test... His smile wilted again. "Why'd it have to remind me..." He shrugged, disappointedly. "Oh well, I may as well just go see what it is. It can't be worse than those monsters, right?"

He took a step forward...and ran right into a little shining blue orb. "What?!" he cried out in alarm as the orb flew up, attached itself to his butt, and then magically disappeared. His heart beat wildly. "What was that?!" Those monsters didn't seem so bad right about now...

Gingerly, he stepped around the other blue orbs in his path, though they quivered a little, and carefully stepped through the gate. Apparently, the gateway must have been on an alarm system, because as soon as he put his foot on the other side of it, an enormous, puffy brown thing came swooping down into his face, booming, "VISITOR!!!"

"AAAAAAUGH!!!" Will fell over backwards, into another of those orb things, which promptly stuck itself onto his head. His entire body trembled in pure, unsweetened terror at the devilish monstrosity that now loomed before him.

"Visitor, Visitor!" the creature cried. "Oh, I'm awfully sorry, Visitor! I didn't mean to frighten you, Visitor! Are you okay, Visitor?"

"Wh-wh-wh-what is it?!?!" Will's blue eyes widened, and his entire face went chalk-white.

The creature, which was apparently some sort of big fat brown bird in a shirt, landed on the stone pathway and made a bow before him. "Oh, oh, how dreadfully rude of me, Visitor. I suppose I didn't make a proper introduction, Visitor. You may call me Owl, Visitor. I am the protector of this Dream Gate, Visitor."

Slowly, Will was beginning to calm down. He wasn't really sure if he should, but at least the thing wasn't biting his face off...yet. It was awfully, terribly annoying, though. "Uh...so what's this Dream Gate thing?" He chanced to ask it. That was probably what he was supossed to ask it. He got back up to his feet, because if he needed to make a run for it, he would be able to do it much more easily if he was standing up.

The owl hovered back up into the air at his side. "Hoo! Why, you don't know about the Dream Gate, Visitor? Didn't you know that the realm of "dreams" actually exists, and that you come to it when you fall asleep, Visitor? This place is the crossroads into Nightopia, Visitor, the world of dreams, Visitor! The humans who come here during their sleep are known as Visitors, Visitor!"

Will scowled as he took a few more steps towards the fountain. "Yeah. I got that already. My name's Will, by the way."

"Oh, yes, of course, Visitor!"

"...So you can stop calling me 'Visitor'."

"Yes, Visitor!"

Will sighed and gave up. He wondered if he'd be able to conjure up some earplugs if he just wished hard enough...

"Well!" the owl suddenly remembered, turning to face him in front of the fountain. "I nearly forgot, Visitor! Nightopia is in great danger, Visitor! That's probably the only reason that you were able to come here, Visitor. You see, right now, a being known as--"

"OUT OF MY WAY YOU OLD MAN!!!"

Will just barely had enough time to duck, as something dark suddenly whizzed past, nearly taking both his and Owl's heads off.

"Dangit, I missed."

The owl gave a dirty look while Will's eyes widened. The dark streak halted, solidifying into an odd shape, floating in the air just above them. It resembled a human, but its arms and legs were much too long and spindly, and its feet too enormous. It had no nose...but it did have two long, curled, um...hat...horn...hair...um, things. They were colored with red-and-black stripes, and it also had red-and-black boots and checkered designs on the ends of its white sleeves. It wore a black shirt and white tights, with a ridiculously frilly and feathery pink collar that completely clashed with the rest of the outfit. Two scarred, cold aqua eyes stared back at him from its pale blue face.

Will blinked. "Okaaaaaayyy..." he said to himself. "Now there's a flying clown dude in ancient Greece with the annoying talking owl... I have got to stop watching so many cartoons..."

The clown dude crossed his arms. Will thought it was a dude, since it seemed powerful and commanding...though that stupid frilly collar made him look "gay". "What the hell is that thing?" he asked. The exact same question was on Will's mind, but in...slightly more innocent terms.

"Ahem!" Owl recovered himself, looking fondly over at Will. "'That thing' is a Visitor! It's the first one we've had in quite a long while, Visi--er, unwelcome guest."

"Well, that was uncalled for," the clown dude replied, gracefully lowering himself to the ground in front of them. "After I come all this way to stop your sorry, pathetic world from constant transformation?! Unwelcome guest?!"

"Well, my, if I didn't know better, I might've thought you were trying to take my head off, hoo!"

"Indeed, I was."

Before the frightened owl could get a word in edgewise, the creature turned his horned/tentacled/haired/hatted head towards Will. "Oh, great, you're a little kid. I hate children. They're so stupid and bratty. If I had things my way, all humans would go straight to adulthood after they were born...but I digress..."

Will had begun to clench his fist in protest. I'm not such a little kid...

The clown dude made a quick, insincere bow to him and introduced himself. "My name is REaLA, former First Class Nightmaren of Nightmare. I used be called Reala, but when I came here, the letters of my name somehow got infused with BaD iNtErNeT sTyLiZaTiOn, and so now, I'm REaLA."

"I-I'm Will," Will hesitantly spoke up. "Will Taylor..." He didn't trust REaLA at all, and he had every reason to. He'd said he was a nightmare...

"Well, hoo!" The owl broke in, coming between the two of them to fill in the details. "Nightmare is the dark dimension which is currently trying to take over Nightopia, Visitor. REaLA deserted his post as a member of this force to better assist us in defending against them..."

With a loud smack, REaLA backhanded the old bird into one of the headless statues. He gave off a screech of pain, before slowly sliding down it and onto the floor, unconscious. "Don't listen to him," he announced, turning his attention back to Will. "I couldn't care less about Nightopia. I got kicked out of Nightmare, and lost all my powers, and so there's just nothing better to do."  

Will couldn't help but shudder a little as REaLA brought his face a little closer to his. Was he going to end up just the same as Owl?

"But since you're here, and you've got a Red Ideya, I can just borrow yours."

Will's eyes widened even further. "I-Ideya? What are you going to do with me?"

REaLA sighed, pulling away again and crossing his arms. "I would just take it out of you and use it myself, but unfortunately, I seem to have lost the power to extract dreamers' ideya as well..."

Now Will was even more confused. "Uh...what?"

"H-hoo...koff..." Feebly, Owl lifted his head again, apparently brought back to consciousness by the dire need to answer a question. "...I-Ideya are p-p-pieces of the power of...y-y-your heart...koff...Visitor. N-Nightmare has been...st-stealing them away from Visitors...koff...Visitor, and you've only got w-one of y-your f-f-five...koffkoff!"

REaLA snarled. "I thought I told you to shut up?!"

"Mmmmfff..." Owl lied his head back against the stone ground and pretended to be unconscious again.

REaLA turned back towards Will, considering. "And you've got the Red Ideya of Courage."

"Really?" Will looked down at himself. He didn't feel very courageous at all. Well, no one probably could while standing in front of REaLA. He looked like he was ready to eat him.

The scary clown in question hovered up a little closer to him again, a nasty little grin spreading over his face. "And that means I can use you--er, dualize with you and share powers with you! What do you say?" He held up one thin, long-nailed hand, the same pale blue color as his face. "All you have to do is touch my hand. You'll be able to fly! Haven't you always dreamed about being able to fly?"

Will frowned a little. He was right, he realized. He had always wanted to fly. But...but this just didn't seem right. "But what's going to happen?" he asked. "Are you going to be controlling me?"

REaLA quickly shook his horned/hatted/exc. head. "Oh no, nothing like that. You'll see when we start. Just touch my hand."

"But didn't you say that you were going to use my power because you don't have yours anymore? Isn't that the same thing?"

"You don't have to think so deeply about it. It's nothing, really--just touch my hand."

Will began to feel his arm tingling, like it wanted to automatically reach out for his hand. He grabbed it with his other arm and held it back. "No, I don't trust you! You said something about using me! And you hurt the owl!"

"Well, I never hurt you did I? I never meant to hurt you, and I never said anything about using you! Just touch my freakin' hand already!"

That was the last straw. Will's hand twitched uncontrollably, but he clasped it firmly down, tears of fear and frustration coming to his eyes. "NO! I WON'T DO IT!"

REaLA gave off a loud sigh, finally relenting and turning away again. He'd like to just grab the stupid kid's hand himself, but the all-important Laws of Dualization stated that the dreamer had to freely give himself over for the trick to even work. If he tried seizing his little clammy hands, nothing would happen. He flew up a little higher, crossing his legs indignantly in mid-air. "Fine. If you want to just let Nightmare eat your dreams and take your ideya and conquer the whole world, whatever. I don't care. I didn't choose to be here. I should be sucking your brains out right now. But no, he had to play this little joke on me, and now I'm at the mercy of a bunch of bratty kids..."

Will just took a few deep breaths, letting the disgruntled Nightmaren fume to himself for the next twenty minutes.

"And then, I get so bored that I actually offer to help this brainless dodo save his stupid floating island, and I still can't get any respect..." REaLA slowly lowered himself to the ground, seating himself underneath the shade of a nearby tree. "...Dear Wizeman, I hate children..."

After a moment, Will stared back at the fountain. Then down at his arm. Hmm...now what was he supposed to do? Maybe he should just go back the way he came...but that seemed to be a dead end. Wasn't he going to wake up soon? This was a dream, right? He should be able to wake up from it...

Slowly, hesitantly, he stepped up beside Owl, poking him in the feathered head. He could probably tell him what to do next. Nothing. It seemed that the owl was actually, truly unconscious this time.

Will sighed. What was he supposed to do?! He stepped back up in front of the fountain. And out of sheer boredom and desperation, he turned to look back at REaLA...who was now engrossed in a pamphlet entitled, "Dualizing for Ideyots".

"...How do they make it look so easy?! ...And why does it have to be a kid anyway? Why can't I dualize with an adult? At least adults have some sense in their heads..."

"Um..." Will never wanted to speak with him again, but he was the only conscious living creature in this place, and he desperately needed some instruction. "...Do you know what I'm supposed to do?"

REaLA shrugged, not even looking up at him. "Do whatever the hell you want, kid, it's your dream. But there's not really much you can do, since you insist on not dualizing with me..." He turned a page in the pamphlet, haphazardly. "Who knows? You might be stuck here for the rest of your life. And I'm not letting you share my cavern."

Now it was Will's turn to sigh. "Gee...stuck here the rest of my life? That's not very fun. There's nothing to do here."

"Go drown yourself in the fountain," REaLA suggested. "That would be amusing."

Will wished he'd never said anything to him--now he'd be picking on him for the rest of his miserable life here. Suddenly, he looked around at the formation of broken archways all around the fountain. Dimly, he found himself wondering what those were. He had a terrible urge to run up to one and see what it was.

REaLA finished reading his pamphlet, and was so bored that he conjured up a little red sphere in his hands and began tossing it back and forth, absentmindedly "Pathetic," he muttered. "They used to be about fifty times the size of this..."

Will's attention turned back to him again. "Oh," he asked. "Are you going to juggle?" He was a jester, after all...  

REaLA only looked extremely offended and threw the little red orb at him. "I know they're tiny! At least I can still make them at all! Don't you make a mockery of me!!!"

Will's hands scorched a little when the orb touched them, but he was still able to hold on to it, like a solid object. He dropped it onto the ground near his feet. "Uh...sorry. I just assumed that because you were a jester, you'd know how to juggle."

"I'm not a jester!!!" REaLA roared. "And I can juggle, but I would never do such a useless and childish thing for your own personal amusement!" He crossed his arms and went back to pouting and fuming to himself.

Will told himself that he was going to ignore him from now on. He looked down at the ball at his feet...and smiled. At least now he had something to do! Deftly, he picked up the ball with his foot, flinging it up, and bouncing it skillfully off his knee. It didn't bounce very well--it was rather crackly and hard--but it didn't really need to be. Naturally, Will just seemed to flow into it. He broke into a sprint, keeping the ball perfectly between his feet in front of him. He went around the fountain, practicing his dribbling technique. Then, he went around it a second time. Without even realizing it, he was beginning to mutter to himself. "And it's three-for-three, with Taylor coming down the fifteen-yard-line...It's a diffucult shot ahead, with the wind factor working against him..."

It was only when he had really gotten into the "zone", and began these fantasy narrations that REaLA at last stopped muttering and took notice. His first thought was that the kid was going nuts already, and that he was disappointed that he wouldn't have anyone sane enough to insult anymore. Then, he realized what was really going on...and slowly, he began to get back to his feet again. A grin began to creep onto his face.

Will zipped halfway around the fountain again, manuevaring quickly, as if to swerve in and out between his opponents. "And there goes Taylor, cutting straight through the defense line! He's on fire! He's on fire!"

"Whooooo!" REaLA pretended to cheer from the sidelines, waving an invisible flag. "That's incredible!"

Will heard and recognized his cry, and his head only swelled up more. Ha! He called me a stupid child, but just look now! I'll make him respect me now! He's recognizing me as the awesome soccer star I really am! Will zipped to the other side, ducking and weaving on his way, to show off. And now it's time for the grand finale! Get a load of this!

"And he comes up to the fifty-yard-line...oh, he's hot, he's hot!" Will made a quick flip around to the other side of the ball...then aimed it, letting loose a powerful kick into its side. "And he shoots..." The ball whizzed perfectly between the broken columns of the nearest archway, slamming into the tree behind it with a loud crack! "...he scoooooooooores!!!" A huge smile lit up on Will's face, as he fell back into a celebratory run.

REaLA cheered and waved his nonexistent flag wildly. "That was awesome!!!" he exclaimed as Will came running by him. "High five!!!"

"Yeah!!!" And in his complete exstacy, Will zoomed up to his side...and slapped his outstretched hand. The instant he did it, he realized his mistake...but it was too late now.

"Mwaahahahahahaha!!!" REaLA burst out as the white light erupted from where their hands met. "Your power is mine!"

"Noooooo!" Will shrieked, trying to rip his hand away, but failing. "That's not fair! I didn't mean to...!!!"

And then, he couldn't speak anymore. He found himself plunging into some other, strange dimension. There was a lot of blackness...a few purple splotches, and something enormous and metallic gray... It felt extremely awkward and uncomfortable. He couldn't make out anything, but these things remained somewhere in the back of his mind, and as much as he tried not to think about them, they were still there. Then he felt something else. Something very painful.

He opened his eyes. The fountain was in front of him...but now he was somehow floating above and looking down on it. It hurt a lot. His whole body felt like it was ripping apart.

"Aaaaugh," a deep voice rumbled out from somewhere very close to him. "This is extremely uncomfortable."

Will had to agree...and for one moment, the pain faded, only to fade back in again a moment later.

"Okay, you little brat," he heard REaLA's voice again. He felt himself being jerked roughly to the right, and fresh pain crackled through his arm.

"Uuugh!"

"If you're going to time-share my body, you're going to have to follow my rules, so listen up!"

Will opened his eyes again, and noticed the fountain moving...apparently, REaLA was flying around it. He could look out of his eyes... Could he also take control of his limbs? Right now, REaLA was dragging him along like a puppy on a leash...but what if Will ran ahead and started pulling him instead?

"Okay, so flying should be pretty simple. You go up, you go down, you go left, you go right. I don't see how anyone could mess that up, but, you've got to know about the death move!"

Will felt the dragging pang of REaLA pulling him ahead faster, and he made up his mind. Now! He had to do it now!

"Build up a little speed and...aaaaaaaaugh!!!"

Will held up what he figured were his hands, yanking powerfully back in the opposite direction. A horrible shock of pain went through him, but he still hung on for his life. He let out a little cry of pain.

REaLA had halted in mid-air. Weakly, his arms lifted up to clutch at his head. "W-What...are...you...doing?!"

He pulled back with all his might, but Will stood his ground. The pain was almost unbearable...but he wasn't going to let this evil clown control him! Then, all at once, there was a terrible, piercing, tearing noise, and a horrifying scream burst out of both of them. Will felt air whooshing around him, though the pain was gone...then, his back slammed hard against the cold ground. His eyes were closed, and slowly, a few tears began to squeeze out from underneath them. It was over...It was okay... It was all over now... "I just want to wake up," he whispered. "Please, just let me wake up..." This was more of a nightmare than a dream.

REaLA hovered above him, eyes widened in shock and agony. He pressed his hands tightly to the sides of his head, just where his hat/horns began, panting and shivering. This wasn't right...nothing had ever said that it was going to hurt... He felt as if a giant hole had been ripped inside of him. Slowly, it began to fill in again, and once it felt sufficently mended, he took his hands away and felt almost like himself again. He lowered himself back to the ground, beside the stricken Will.

"Now what went wrong?" He casually flipped through his manual again as Will panted and stared up into the blackened sky as if he'd been traumatized for life (which he probably had been).

He rolled his eyes. "In order for dualization to be maintained, both the dreamer and the host must be joined in thought or purpose. One may only lead the other with the other's consent. Any dissent may lead to the dreamer being forcibly torn out of the host's body, which should be avoided at all costs. So--" REaLA snapped the pamphlet closed and tossed it back into his nonexistent pocket which was connected the fourth dimensional cavity purposely created for the convenience of cartoon characters who were never endowed with the ability to store their own random stuff, otherwise known as "hammer space". "Listen, you little brat--you've got to let me lead. Otherwise, you'll have Horrible Grievous Pain in your Soul. So we're going to try that again...and this time, no resisting!" He thrust his hand out again, hoping that the kid would be too stricken to think straight about this.

Will weakly shook his head. He wasn't that stunned. "N-No. I-I'm never...doing that...again...in my life."

REaLA chuckled, spitefully. "Oh, really? That's what you said the first time. High five? C'mon--just do it now and save yourself the humiliation later."

"I-I...won't let you...control me."

"Why not? Gee, I'd think you'd enjoy it. You get that nice flying sensation, and you don't even have to do anything! Just sit back and enjoy and the ride!"

"I-It hurts..." Will shuddered at the memory, still lying prone on the ground. "It hurts too much..."

"Well that's only because you were resisting, idiot!" REaLA snapped. "If you'd just listened to me and not gone all self-righteous, none of this would have happened!"

Will couldn't help whimpering a little. "...Can't you just...make me wake up? If you hate me so much... I'll stay out of your way, I promise. I'll let you have my ideya--anything you want. I just want to get out of here..."

REaLA sighed deeply, shaking his head to himself. "I can't take your ideya anymore. Haven't we been through this already? If I could, I would've done so a long time ago." He glanced down at Will again, who was staring back up at him with big watery pathetic baby eyes. "Look, if you ever want to get out of here, you're going to have to dualize with me. Like it or not, it's the only way to advance the plot. I didn't choose any of this. So, let's try it this way..." REaLA hovered down closer over Will's body and held out his hand. "You want to get the heck out of here, right? I want you to get the heck out of here too!"

And he did. He really did, with all of his heart. Slowly, hesitantly, Will began to pull himself back up. Was he...offering to help him? They both wanted the same thing... "Y-yeah..." he admitted. "I just want to get the heck out of here..." And he let the urge overcome his arm, gently lifting it back up...and holding his hand out...close to REaLA's.

For one moment, he thought he might have seen a slight grin on the evil jester's pale face before the blinding white lights enveloped him. And it didn't hurt. Will concentrated on that one, steady thought. "...out of here...get out of here..."

"Get the heck out of here!" Will almost felt the quiver of REaLA's voice from within him. It was pretty disturbing, but at least it didn't hurt.

He opened his eyes again and watched the fountain growing smaller as they again lifted into the air. Those gray, black, and purple splotches flashed in the back of his mind again, but he paid no attention to them. He couldn't do anything with them anyway. They were just...there.

"Well..." the voice quivered out again, and Will felt his limbs stretching. "That's a little better."

"Yeah..." he realized, moving around a bit and getting comfortable. "That is better." There was no more pain... Actually, he felt strangely warm and safe all of a sudden. That didn't last.

"Okay." There was a bit of pressure on his head as REaLA asserted himself. "Now you have to just lay back and hear the rules for a moment. I'm not going to just let you run willy-nilly all over the place with my body. We'd tear apart again in the blink of an eye. So...."

Will sighed. He'd known this was coming. He didn't particularly like the idea of just giving himself over helplessly to this demon, but...if this was the only way... "O-Okay..." He took a deep breath and relaxed all of his body, letting REaLA tug him forward. At least this time, it was more of an occasional tug instead of that awful pain that felt like he was being dragged violently across the pavement.

"Okay!" REaLA called, a little too happy at finally being able to do something. "If you were being obnoxious before and weren't listening, it's up, down, left, and right--though that should have been completely obvious, even by your standards..."

Will felt himself gliding up into the sky, diving down towards the ground, then quickly twisting right and left through the sky.

"Naturally, I always know the right way to go, so don't you ever try to stray off my course, understand?! It's against the laws of the universe, and you'd probably rip yourself out again, and neither of us wants to go through that again, do we?"

Will was about to agree, but REaLA continued over him, tugging him, a bit roughly, into a glide around the fountain.

"Now, since you have some power left in you right now, we should be able to go a bit faster than this..."

Will couldn't help but let out a little cry of alarm as his body was suddenly yanked through what felt almost like a wind tunnel. He shot, furiously forward, turning rapid barrell rolls in the midst of it all. Thankfully, it stopped a few moments later, and they fell back into a gentle glide.

"That's a 'Drill Dash', I think they call it. It's quite versatile--for going faster, throwing things at people, or destroying things by bashing them with my amazingly strong head... Yup. But then, we can only do it for so long before your power runs out and we have to recharge it by going through these garish yellow chip rings... God only knows why. They're so darn yellow...and do they always have to make that annoying musical noise?! Personally, I wish they were all spike rings. Spike rings don't make any stupid noises. But, no, those have to be the dangerous ones..."

Will was beginning to slip into unconsciousness, and feeling it, REaLA quickly shook himself, pulling the boy back with him. Darn it--he couldn't go on any good rants while he was like this.

"Urgh..." Will was still feeling a little dizzy from the Drill Dash, and now being jerked back into position... At least it's better than the pain. Anything's better than that pain, he reminded himself.

"Pay attention, kid, this is really important!" REaLA snapped. He tugged him forward again, into the glide. "Build up a little momentum, then make a circle in the sky...preferrably around something..."

With a little gasp, Will suddenly realized that he was being tugged into a large loop-de-loop in mid-air. Wow--this was fun! Almost like a roller coaster!

For a moment, REaLA shared his exileration, though for a very different reason. He pulled out of it and back into his glide, grinning proudly. "That's called a "paraloop"--don't ask me why. It sucks whatever we circled around into an endless black void! It's really the most useful move in my entire arsenal--it kills those annoying little Nightopian rats!"

"Um...what's a Nightopian rat?" Will was beginning to slip away again.

"You'll find out soon enough," REaLA growled. "They're really very nasty creatures... Oh, and you know those weird blue spheres that kept attacking you? Well, stay away from them. They burn like hell."

Will felt suddenly disjoined, maybe from being tugged around so long. He couldn't really understand what REaLA was talking about, and he didn't feel like trying. This was getting very exhausting...

REaLA gritted his teeth as he gracefully lowered to the ground again. "Hey, kid," he spoke up, devising a new strategy. "I hate you."

At least that Will could understand. He frowned. "I hate you too."

And the connection was renewed.