KEVIN was completely engulfed in the blue waves that rolled over his body as it made contact with the water. For five horrible moments he couldn't think about anything but the pain. But then his mind reasoned that he had to swim away to safety if he was going to survive this crazy messed up dream world. So Kevin set off swimming.

Kevin didn't mind swimming for long distances. In fact, he liked it. Before Kevin had joined the Samurai Rangers, he had been a professional swimmer. He even hoped that he could someday join the Olympics.

But that was all a thing of the past. He could never be in the Olympics now. And he never would. Just like Mia, in order to be a Samurai, he had to sacrifice all of his dreams of a normal life.

At the thought of Mia, Kevin's blood ran cold. He had seen her when he was falling. He was sure of it. She was dancing along some glass table thingy about to fall into a swirling vortex. The only problem was that she didn't seem to know that it was a swirling vortex. She kept smiling like an idiot and trying to grab for it.

It was funny. Kevin had never seen her smile before. He stopped for a moment in his swimming to try and call back his memories of it. She looked…nice. She looked really pretty as a matter of fact. Mia was almost as uptight as Kevin was, so he never really got to see her smile very often. He thought that it was nice change.

Kevin remembered that he had to get swimming if he was going to make it to safety. He had to save the others and he couldn't afford to simply go with the flow and see where the tide took him. In this world, all worlds as a matter of fact, that could only lead to trouble.

Kevin continued swimming but gradually, his mind wouldn't focus the way he wanted to. He was losing his concentration as his thoughts kept drifting back to Mia.

He had tried to wake her up. Unsuccessfully he was certain, but at least he had tried. For a few moments, he landed on that weird glass portal with her before gravity sucked them both downwards.

He had tried to reason with her, but for once reason failed. After all, this was the dream world; a place where the impossible became real.

He kept shaking her telling her wake up and that this was all a dream. She shook her head about wildly, eyes wide with her long dark hair whipping back and forth in the wind. She kept muttering something about how the love of her life wasn't supposed to treat her like this.

Her eyes got all watery and her bottom lip quivered a bit. Kevin was afraid she was going to cry. She looked so pretty in that dress (maybe a wedding dress?) that part of Kevin just wanted to screw the Nighlock and start comforting her the way that a real husband should. The irrational part of him. The part that just wanted to go with the flow. The part of Kevin that would never win out.

Just as Kevin thought that he was maybe getting through to her, the ground ripped open and swallowed them both up. He and Mia were rapidly falling away from each other. Kevin tried to reach out and grab onto her but she slipped through his fingertips. Well, more accurately, she fought him off like mad kicking and screaming and biting with force that he wasn't aware that she was capable of.

Apparently she was still somewhat submerged in the dream. And in the dream Kevin was some sort of wife-beating monster. Fantastic.

So Kevin did the only thing that he could do. He let go. He didn't want to and literally seconds later, as he saw the icy cold water approaching him, he mentally kicked himself for it. But still, he had to. He had no other choice.

Even as he was swimming, Kevin worried about Mia. About a million questions raced through his mind about her at a mile per minute. Was she experiencing a nightmare of her own right now? Was she scared? Where was she?

She's married to a monster. And her perfect little world has been shattered before her very eyes.

Suddenly Kevin felt a surge of rage that was unusual for him. He had always been very level headed and calm. Especially when it came to fighting Nighlock monsters.

So why did the idea of Mia feeling helpless and undergoing pain at the hand of a monster make him want to rip whoever was responsible for this to shreds.

"Who's doing this to her?" He asked aloud as he stopped to look around for the voice that spoke to him. "Show yourself Nighlock!"

The voice that responded seemed as though it emerged from the waves. It came from the sea itself.

You are. The voice answered him.

Kevin was not expecting that. The shock of that answer was so great, that, if he had not been a champion swimmer, he might have drowned right there and then. He felt himself go underneath the waves, momentarily too stunned to fight the pull. Then he forced himself above the surface once more, gasping and spitting out salt water. "I am?" Kevin asked again in a weak voice.

Yessssssssss.

Kevin shuddered. It was as if the monster was the sea. Even this response sounded as the waves did when they broke and crashed on the shore, washing away everything in sight.

You shattered her perfect world. She could have been trapped in a nice dream for all of eternity. You had to come along and ruin it.

"You wouldn't have let her be happy anyway!" Kevin shouted back accusingly. "You're lying!" But the problem was, Kevin wasn't sure. What if it was all his fault?

The sea began to shake as if it were becoming furious with him. Then without warning it quieted. For a moment, everything was calm. Briefly, Kevin thought that the monster had actually left him alone.

Honestly Kevin. It chided him. Why can't you learn to just… go with the flow?

Without warning, the waves became fierce and tumultuous. They thrashed him about, crashing down on him in rapid succession.

Kevin couldn't breathe. He couldn't see or feel or hear anything but the roar of the waves like an angry monster.

Kevin started to panic. He fought the waves viciously, kicking and trying to thrust himself above to surface. His lungs started to burn from lack of oxygen. He still hadn't let go of his spin sword or his Samuraizer. They were weighing him down. They were too heavy. Kevin's chest started to burn, though he couldn't tell if it was from water or fear. Letting go of his Samurai weapons was a fate worse than drowning.

But Kevin was so weak. And he was so horribly scared now. He thought that he would never know how it felt to breathe in air again. At this point in the dream, he would usually wake up kicking and screaming in his bed. In his reoccurring nightmare, he had never gotten beyond this point. But it was clear that Kevin was not waking up anytime soon.

He tried grabbing his sword and in panic he thrust it at the dark shadows in the water. He slashed at imaginary creatures and monsters that were not there. Suddenly, Kevin felt very young. The way that he had when his father first threw him in the ocean and told him to swim. Kevin was a scared little boy, not a big and intimidating Samurai then.

Suddenly the ocean was no longer a place of comfort. It was a dark and scary place where danger lurked at every corner. Kevin whimpered in fright. He didn't feel safe anymore. With his few remaining breaths, Kevin tried to draw a symbol that would get him out of here. After all, his symbol was water.

But Kevin, calm levelheaded Kevin, was shaking like a leaf. He could not keep his hand steady long enough to make the symbol.

Kevin started to see dark spots flash in his vision. He was losing focus. He knew that he would inevitably lose consciousness soon.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kevin saw a golden thread dangling in the water a few feet away from him, shining like a beacon of hope. Desperately he lunged for it and tugged for a fraction of a second. Without warning, the string snapped and Kevin tumbling out deeper into the ocean. The pain that he felt was unbearable. Kevin's whole body seemed to be on fire.

Kevin felt his muscles start to lose strength. His Samuraizer and spin sword slipped from his grip and sank deeper into the ocean. And throughout all this, Kevin watched disinterestedly as he lost control of his limbs.

Soon, he too started to sink into the blackness, the Nighlock's last words echoing over and over in his mind.

Honestly Kevin. Why can't you just go with the flow?