Chapter One: The Dream Maiden

"H-Hello?" Guren asked, his voice echoing in the air. Guren looked around, observing the dark landscape. The red-head had no idea where he was, all he could see was a seemingly endless landscape, covered with fog, with nothing but a pitch black sky, a purple moon lighting up the land with an ominous glow.

"Guren…"

Guren shot upright as he heard the voice in his head. He searched for the source of the voice in the fog, but with no success, he could hardly see anything in it.

"It's useless trying to look for me little one…" the voice echoed again.

Guren shivered. The voice was smooth and fair, but something about it gave Guren goose-bumps. He still couldn't find the source of the voice, and he stopped dead as a light laugh echoed across the landscape. The fog started to thin out, and Guren could make out a silhouette in the thin fog. He ran toward it, tried to ignore the voice as it spoke again.

"Oh? Eager are you?"

Guren stopped as he approached a large black and gray throne. A woman, who appeared to be about twenty and human, was sitting on top of it. She stood, and Guren was able to get a better look at her. She had waist long hair, flowing in the air, appearing like it would look in space, with the black space, and twinkling stars. She was wearing a long navy dress, and was wearing black armor that covered her waist to her wrists, where she was wearing a pair of black gloves. Like Bravenwolf's own armor, the front of the armor appeared to be in the shape of a bull, the horns on her shoulders. She was wearing a mask that covered her eyes, also mimicking the design of a bull. She smiled at Guren, and the boy shivered, seeing the small fangs she had.

"Oh Bravenwolf, it is not polite to stare like that…"

Guren gasped. "What- How do you know about that?!"

The woman laughed. "Why, of course I know about that! I am one on Villius' soldiers you know… well, used to be, I'm on my own now."

Guren clenched his fists as he glared up at her. "Who are you?!"

The woman pretended to look offended, before putting on a serious expression. "I am Nightsteed! Ruler of the dream-scrape, and soon, Quarton and Earth!"

The woman broke in to a hysterical fit of laughing as a sudden wave of drowsiness washed over Guren. The teen held his head as he felt his eyes droop, everything becoming blurry. Guren finally fell to the ground as he heard Nightsteed's last words before he fell asleep.

"Nighty-night Guren…"

Guren yelled as he sat upright in his bed. Max yowled as the cat jumped off of Guren's lap, looking at him worriedly. Guren sighed in relief as he leaned back, thinking. Thank god… it was just a dream.

He felt Max curl on his lap as he fell back asleep.

Guren stretched as he entered Mr. White's shop, announcing his arrival. No one called back to him… in fact, Guren didn't see anyone. He heard voices from the basement though and ran down looking for his friends. He found them all surrounding a table not far from the portal. "Hey guys!" he said cheerfully.

Mr. White and the others jumped at his entrance, and Ceylan smiled grimly. "Wassup Guren…"

Guren raised an eyebrow at his best friend's grim tone, and his attention drew to the table. He shouldered past Chooki and Gen, gasping. "No way…"

On the table lay Beni, her arms limp as her chest rose and fell evenly. "I just went to visit her this morning," Gen began. "And I found like her like this."

Guren turned to Mr. White. "What's wrong with her?"

The old man just shook his head in defeat. "I don't know. It seems she is just sleeping, but we can't wake her. We tried shaking her, and pouring water on her, but that didn't work. Toxsa and Ceylan even accidentally dropped her down the stairs but that didn't work either." Ceylan and Toxsa looked away sheepishly. Guren suddenly remembered his dream from last night.

"Last night, I had the weirdest dream. There was a woman called Nightsteed. She said she used to be a Corrupted Commander. She also called herself the 'ruler of the dream-space'. And Beni can't wake up…"

His friends all gulped nervously. "Umm… I know this is going to sound stupid…" Gen began. "…but I think I may have had the same dream. There was the woman with the bull armor right?"

Guren didn't get a chance to reply before Ceylan piped up next to him. "Yeah, I think I had that dream too. It was all dark-"

"And Foggy." Chooki murmured. Toxsa nodded his dream in agreement. The boys all turned to Mr. White who was in deep thought. "Care to explain?"

The boys all stared at the screen by the portal as Mr. White brought up a picture of Nightsteed. It was obviously her Quarton form, and she had a group of strange animal machines behind her. Her armor was a dark navy blue, the bull on her chest, the horns swirling down her arms. She had glowing white eyes, and was holding a large scythe. The animals behind her looked like something out of nightmares, resembling monsters and mash-up animal combinations. Mr. White began to explain.

"What Nightsteed said was true did have a commanding position on the Corrupted army, and she possibly stronger than Villius himself. She led loyally, but then she discovered a way to travel to Earth. She observed animals from zoo's and parks, also studying fears in humans, as she had a special power, the power to walk in and manipulate the dreams of Corekai and humans, also known as the dream-space. She could also trap them in permanent sleep, or alter them in real-life, but that happened very rarely. She turned the animals into monsters based off of these fears, which she called Dreads, and turned on Villius. She almost destroyed him, but the Corekai also attacked him at the same time, and they were horrified by her deeds. The Guardians intervened, and she and her monsters became trapped in the dream-space, where she had walked in for years. We haven't heard from her since."

"So what you're saying is," Guren began, "is that Beni is trapped in this dream-space?"

"Yes, and I fear she may be preparing to enter the real-world again, and if that happens, who knows what she could do. But, there is a way to stop her and bring Beni back, but it is very risky."

The boys raised their eyebrows and looked at each other curiously. "Well, what is it?" Ceylan asked.

Mr. White sighed. "I still have a device from the Guardians that can send a person to the dream-space. It also gives them the powers to manipulate the dream-space as well, but only slightly. I could send your bodies into a deep sleep, but if Nightsteed kills you in the dream-space, there's no coming back… this applies to Beni as well. Are you boys willing to risk it?"

The boys looked at each other, and nodded they're heads. Guren looked at Mr. White, determination in his eyes. "We're ready."

The boys stood in one of the empty guest rooms upstairs, standing next to each other. Mr. White was holding something that resembled the Portal Device, but it was a dark purple and silver. Beni's core was inside to power it. "You boys ready?" Mr. White asked uncertainly.

The boys nodded as Mr. White pressed a button on the device, and a large purple beam hit each of them in the chest, a wave of drowsiness washing over them. Toxsa went down first, Ceylan following fight after. Gen looked like he was trying to stay awake, but fell asleep and fell right on top of Chooki, who had also fallen asleep. Guren felt his consciousness as he too fell to the ground.

"Good luck boys…"

Nightsteed sat her throne, obviously bored. She huffed as she got up, observing the scythe next to her. It was about as tall as she was a large curved steel blade on a large blue, also steel, stick. The stick had the same appearance as its holder's hair, looking like you could see space through it. She lit up as one of her Dreads flew onto the arm of her throne, looking worried. It was a mix between a snake and a squirrel, having a snake's body, and having a squirrels tail, paws, and ears, and instead of fangs, it had buck-teeth like a squirrel's.

"Lord Nightsssteed, we have detected new entitiesss in the dream-ssscape. Five humansss." It hissed.

"Oh?" Nightsteed said with a hint of excitement and wrath in her voice as she remembered the five boys whose dreams she had visited. "Well, what a surprise… this shall be fun. How is the prisoner holding up?"

"She'sss not happy, but ssshe is still unable to escape."

"Good." She said. She stood, grabbing her scythe. "It's time to have some fun with our new guests."

Author's Note:

Me: A wild story has appeared! Go Shadarus and Aurorus!

Aurorus: Please. Don't.

Shadarus: Yeah, you're a Pokemon too ya know! So these jokes are just a bit inappropriate!

Me: MEH. Anyways! This story, surprisingly, took quite a while to write… anyways, please review, and Rock on!