AN: Hey everyone! I hope you enjoy the next installment of Remember!

~I 3 JULIAN!

RememberPOV

Everyone turned to stare at the person who laughed. Almost everyone staggered back at the sight.

It was Julian, of course, but he wasn't the 35 or so year old Julian, he was the striking, devilishly handsome, seventeen year old Julian. Even I wasn't prepared, but I took it better than everyone else.

"What's this all about?" I asked smoothly.

A smirk split his face, "Whatever do you mean, Remember?"

"You know exactly what I mean," I said, advancing. "Where are we? Why are my friends here? What is going on?" Every question I asked, I took another step forward. Most would expect me to get louder, to crescendo until I was yelling. But I was a lot more dangerous when I was quiet, everyone knew that. My last question was a whisper, right in his face.

"Who are you?" I heard several of my friends ask, "What's going on?"

Julian flashed me a wolfish grin, "Do you want to tell them, or shall I? Hmm?"

I shook my head, and turned around, forcing a smile. "Alrightie everyone. This is my insane, father, Julian."

There were gasps of surprise.

Maia asked, "That's Julian?"

Skye said, "Omigosh."

Dream stared.

Theo looked confused.

And Jake? He was indifferent. Already having met Julian.

Me? I was ready to blow up on my stupid dad if he didn't tell me what was going on! I glared.

Julian looked pleased with the reactions. "Your training, of course."

I was puzzled for a moment before I realized what he was talking about. "What happened to good old one on one?"

He shrugged, "It's just so much more fun with everyone else involved."

"But—!"

"But nothing," he said, "Your mother agreed too."

"Huh?" I asked brightly.

"Your mom, Jenny, agreed to let me do this."

I felt a sudden spark of anger toward my mom, but then I realized that she must have some reason for agreeing to something like this…the only question was, why?

I glared at him, "Your point?"

"My point is that you're here until this Game is over, no buts." He looked quite indifferent, but I saw the glint of smugness in his gaze.

"I'm hoping you know how this Game works," he said, smoothly, voice like water running over rock, "You have to find your friends, face their worst nightmare with them, escape alive, and make it to the top to find your little boyfriend and to leave. You have until dusk, which is at exactly 7:01 tonight. Good luck." And he disappeared, taking my friends with him.

"Very original," I muttered. He couldn't even come up with another Game, ha! I thought I heard a faint snicker…but I could be wrong. I rolled my eyes. Okay, now how to advance…I looked around, but There were only solid walls. No staircase. No opening. Nothing.

I was just about to yell when something came to me. This Game was all about me. My training…right, so I bet that everything that was going to happen was a test, to see if I could learn on site. Clever, I thought, so, so clever.

I closed my eyes and turned to shadow, mentally searching for Maia. When I found her, I transported to her. I ended up appearing right in her shadow. She jumped.

"What the heck, Remy?" she scolded, and I knew from her tone, she wasn't talking about scaring her.

"I'm sorry, Maia," I apologized, "I promise I had no idea he would do this."

"I'm not even talking about that," she sounded exasperated, "I'm talking about the fact that your dad is back, and you didn't even bother telling me."

I smiled, "Sorry, it was kinda a secret. The only one who knew was Jake, and I swear Julian just appeared this morning about two hours ago."

"What do you mean by 'appeared'?"

I shrugged and gave a sheepish smile, "I might have possibly carved his name into a runestave…"

"Why?" she asked.

"You think I could go the rest of my life knowing that my mom is in pain and it's all my fault?"

"What?"

I shook my head. "My mom would never have gotten over him. She sees his shadow every single day, in me. I look too much like him for her own good, and I couldn't let her be miserable like that…I was also hoping to get to actually meet my dad, too."

"And how's that working for you?" She crossed her arms.

I smiled. "We clash a bit."

She raised an eyebrow. "A bit?"

"Hey," I said defensively, "I like knowing, okay? And at least I know where I got my personality from."

"Yeah, Miss Mood Swing."

I rolled my eyes, "At least I'm not as bad as Julian."

"True that…so…now what?" Maia looked at me as if I had all the answers. I obviously don't.

"Well…why don't we go find…" I paused trying to decide who to meet next.

"Dream," Maia supplied.

"Sure," I said, and held out my hand. She looked at it and hesitantly placed her hand in mine.

"What are you doing?"

I gripped her hand, making sure I wouldn't accidentally let go…that might be bad. "We are going to Shadow travel." I didn't give her any time to even think about backing out before we were out of there.

I opened my eyes to see…an empty white room? Maia staggered next to me, trying to catch her balance.

"You okay?" I asked.

She nodded, and then seemed to realize where we were, and her eyes widened. I put my hand on her shoulder. She looked up at me. "Ya know," she started shakily, "I've never told anyone this…but I'm a little claustrophobic."

I looked around; this room was about eight by eight. I'd call it small, but not that small. I told her so.

"Okay, maybe a bit more that a little," she confessed.

Then I spotted the problem. Two of the four walls were starting to close in, slowly, but ominously. I heard Maia whimper as she noticed as well. I grabbed her hand and tried to Shadow travel out, but it was like there was an invisible wall, keeping me from leaving. Maia freaked.

She started trying to push the walls back, to try and at least slow their pursuit, but to no avail. Nothing worked. Finally, Maia gave up and sat up against a non-moving wall, knees against her chest, head in her hands.

What was I supposed to do? The walls were suddenly so close I could press my fingers against each wall, arms out. As they advanced I tried to push them back that way, but nothing slowed them and I could touch each wall with my elbows. I could faintly hear Maia crying. Maia never cried.

Then it hit me.

I shimmied down the narrow isle, trying to reach Maia before the walls crushed us. They were pushing against my shoulders now, and I had to run sideways. Maia heard me, and looked up. I held my hand out, and as soon as my fingertips brushed hers, I did it.

I turned us into shadows.

I heard Maia shriek as the walls closed completely, but nothing happened to us. Yeah, it was that simple the whole time.

Since I still couldn't Shadow Travel, we 'walked' out of the room, through the solid block of walls…it was kind of like trying to swim in syrup: slow and thick, but smooth.

We stumbled into the hallway. I let Maia become human again, to catch her breath and calm herself down. When she looked up, and nodded, I grabbed her hand and we Shadowed to Dream.