At long last, the much-delayed chapter 10! I won't even attempt to account for my lost time, but let's just say that school, holidays, and general laziness all were a factor. What did I say in the beginning about long, unexplainable hiatuses?
I want to give official special thank-yous to both shokogoddess11/shokokchan and KirbsterMK/LilStarcon for the wonderful fanart! It makes me so happy that I've done a good enough job for people to want to draw out some of my creations. I love all of it, and it means a lot to me. PLUS I would also like to thank that anonymous person for that gigantic and wonderful review, which provided much motivation.
Oh, gosh, so much has happened. Now I have some adorable commission-made plushies of NiGHTS and Reala sitting here staring at me with their big painted eyes, and also lots of other projects I'm working on. But I swear, I'll find time to finish this story, eventually!
I feel like this chapter isn't up to par, but I've felt like that with the past three or so chapters anyway. But the second half in particular seems lacking, which is a shame. I just don't feel like trying to re-write it now, because I've worked really hard the past couple of days to get it done. Please forgive the rather lackluster ending parts.
If anyone was wondering where the Voidables had gone, they're back in full force now. Actually, that's one thing I would critique about my own story--that the Voidables aren't very threatening and just seem to wait around for Reala and Tiana to come defeat them. If this was something I could actually publish for real, I would definitely want to revise that, along with Tiana's disappearing former friends.
It kind of seems like the thing with NiGHTS is brushed off too easily and left unresolved...and it definitely is. That's why there's another chapter.
I know. He has tentacles instead of hands. And that's it. Clean your minds!!!
And this is, of course, the second-to-last chapter. I have no idea when the real last chapter will be, but hopefully sooner than the time it took me to write this one, since there will be no more holidays, and less schoolwork to get in the way.
Once again! NiGHTS, Reala, exc. belong to Sonic Team! I own Tiana, the Voidables, and introducing Illuzius!
(-)
Chapter 10: The Void
NiGHTS could only goggle at her like a blue-eyed goldfish, his mouth in a fixed "O" of speechlessness. "Gone?" he finally repeated. "What do you mean, 'gone'?!"
"I-I mean he's gone!" Tiana cried, waving her arms out. "He's not there! He's missing! He disappeared! He vanished!" Her arms dropped back down at her sides, fists curling under her long blue sleeves. "D-Did he...did he..."
"No." NiGHTS snapped into a grave, solid frown. "No, he would have--left a body." His teeth clenched after the awkward phrase. "He wouldn't have just disappeared into thin air!"
He swept Tiana aside, gliding down the hallway to her room, his life force pounding against his chest. But...but he couldn't have just gotten up and walked off somewhere. He couldn't even sit up, much less stand! How could he have...?! But it was true.
NiGHTS halted, suspended over the threshold. It was all too plain. There was Tiana's bed, right in front of him--empty, the puffy blue quilt and clean white sheets rumpled back like a chocolate wrapper. "...Ree?!" he called, as if hoping Reala was still in the room, only playing a game of hide-and-seek. Perhaps he had just fallen out of bed, and crawled underneath it, for whatever convoluted notions he'd gotten into his head now. But there was nothing. No mumbled groan, rustle of movement, or red-and-white body part revealed itself. He was gone.
Tiana silently stepped into the doorway behind him, clutching one hand to her mouth. "Why...? How...? Where...?"
NiGHTS floated towards the bed, hoping to find some clue in the only trace Reala had left behind. He fingered the edge of Tiana's bedsheets, feeling for the warmth left from his body, some sensation that he might be able to pick up on. And it slowly came to him. "Maybe...maybe he'd been storing it."
"What?" Tiana asked, growing bolder and taking a step back into her own transfigured room.
"The energy," NiGHTS finally clarified. "We have a small cavity inside our bodies for storing energy--kind of like a camel's hump, only you can't see it. And while the energy he got from sleeping would eventually taper off, I thought it was depleting kind of fast. Maybe he was...storing it up...to make some kind of last-ditch, desperate effort..."
Tiana's chest clenched. He was planning to leave? All this time, when I felt so bad for him...he was planning to just leave us?
A ray of sunlight filtered through the room, making it strangely holy and unreal. NiGHTS turned his head...and noticed it, at last. The window was open. The thin green curtains floated in the gentle breeze. He immediately drifted to the windowsill, the pane pulled all the way up, fully opening the large square-shaped hole in the side of the house. He'd flown?
NiGHTS shoved his head out of that hole, staring down to the miniature dirt driveway far below, in a panic. If Reala had tried to fly, and then fell from this height... Sure guardians were rubbery, and they had no bones to break, but it would still bruise him up pretty badly. And in his state, he couldn't afford to be injured again. But there was no sign of a long-limbed red body lying splattered against the ground.
"H-He flew?" Tiana asked, echoing the questions in NiGHTS's mind. NiGHTS nodded. It had to be--there was no other way. But where had he flown to? He couldn't have gone far... Stored energy wouldn't be enough to sustain an extended flight. And for that matter, what had he been planning to do out in the Waking World...on his own...with only a small store of energy to live on?
NiGHTS hovered, his hands pressed to the inner windowsill. He was getting a bad feeling about all of this. A very, very bad feeling... The spot in his mind went black--deep, dark, and infinite. "Let's go." He whirled around to Tiana, who was now only a few feet behind him. "We need to find him. Right now!"
(-)
His body shuddered. The sparkles blinked out. He sputtered up and down for a moment before plopping onto unsteady feet. He only barely managed to keep his balance. Splotched yellow film bled across Reala's vision, and he had to lower his head for a moment, panting, before it gradually wore away.
A store. He was near a small shopping plaza. The sidewalk.
He could feel his knees trembling underneath him as his body slowly began to give out again. Why had he even done this? What had he hoped to accomplish? It was only just going to happen again. There was no way out. Was he really so helpless? Was it really so futile? What had happened to him?!
Reala couldn't even think, as he lifted his body again. He felt as light and as fragile as if he was balanced precariously on the edge of a wire. At any moment, he might tumble to his doom. His stick-thin arms spread out like feeble imitations of wings, pawing the air. The world was fading in and out again--there, and then not, there...and then not... Like a heartbeat.
Energy... It was the only word in Reala's dazed, half-conscious mind, as if all of his body was conspiring towards that single purpose. I need...energy. Any energy. Just...energy. Energy...
And then, he could see it. Light. Small globes of light, dancing up and down the street, carrying shopping bags, holding smaller globes of light by the hand. Swirling around him. Passing by him without a second thought. Lights everywhere. A force. A power. They were taunting him, dancing by, encircling him, watching his own life force wither and die away while they skipped joyfully, easily past, full of life and vitality. Full of energy.
One of Reala's hands slipped forward, towards them...just wanting to touch them...to feel their life and power...to share some of it. Energy... Please...energy... But they were hovering just out of his reach. Something was trying to yank his arm back, trying to stop him from reaching them. But that force was gradually diminishing, as the rest of his body faded.
"Don't..." it whispered. "You shouldn't... You can't..." Then it died.
The need, the desperate, overbearing, overwhelming, crushing need overrided everything else. There was only one thing in the world he needed right now. And it was all around him. Energy... I need...energy...
His arm wavered forward, reaching out desperately towards those warm, glowing orbs, trembling dangerously with the effort...leaning over the edge of the high wire... I need...power... And at last, the palm of his skeletal, white claw-hand fitted over one of those globes of pure, white glowing energy.
It felt as if beams of solid metal shot down into his arms...steadying them...holding them up...supporting them. The wire underneath him was now a thick plank of wood. Solidifying. The wavering static of the world faded closer in. It felt...better. For the first time in almost a month, he felt...better.
A soft thud came from somewhere close to him. Then other strange noises, from the far end of a tunnel.
Reala lifted his head. It felt natural...light, yet with a certain organic weight. He was a being again--not a jellyfish, wobbling somewhere above the misty clouds. Why stop this process now?
The lights were beginning to move together now, in a pattern. Some fled away, but most began to draw closer towards him, congregating, crowding, pushing...asking to be of service. So Reala lifted both his hands towards another one...and obliged.
The wooden plank was now a platform. The bars of iron his arms. His legs sturdy trunks. His chest settled. He closed his eyes and felt the energy coursing through his body, exhilaration and excitement sparking after it, weaving through every fiber of his being. The energy! The power! It was his now...again...at last. He didn't have to be that weak, useless, helpless creature shivering in the shadows anymore. He had the power--the authority--the energy he had missed. And now there was only one thing he wanted.
More! A grin of sparking excitement broke over his face--such as he hadn't felt in months. More! he cried. More! Yes, I need more!!!
The lights throbbing with power were scattering quickly now, scurrying away in all directions, squeezing, blinking, flying, smashing against each other in desperation.
Reala grinned at them. Trying to get away from me now? He dashed forward with a swiftness he had forgotten, seizing one of them in his hand. It faded. Leaping up into the air, he dove forward, slashing through three at a time. They blinked out around him left and right. Shining, pulsing, throbbing, thudding, screaming, tearing, ripping, shredding... Screaming. Screaming. The sound thrilled him to the core. Scream! he called. Scream for me! Who's helpless now?! Who's laughing now?! That's right! Heh...Heheheheheheheheheh!!!
Out of the corner of his eye, Reala noticed something else. Another orb--bigger and shinier than all the rest, just sitting obliviously against a chair not too far away. It was a challenge. A great enemy. A tremendous force rising up against it. It had to be eliminated!
Reala shot towards it, a bullet speeding through the air. A sharp crashing noise burst out around him--then a mouse's squeak. The light began to move. But before it could get anywhere, Reala clamped his hands over it...squeezing out its life, underneath two strong blue, ripping talons. He pressed all of his force into it, crushing the giant orb of light with his own force. It bent, broken, toppling out of its chair. Dead. A half-colored canvas clattered against the concrete ground, tearing itself in two.
The swell of victory surged within Reala's chest, poking at something he couldn't recognize. He zoomed back out, easily snatching up another orb in his hands...only this time he pressed it to his mouth, sucking out its very life force, draining it of everything it was composed of, savagely tearing into it with fanglike teeth, lustfully, ravenously stealing away its own lifeblood, before throwing it coldly to the ground, a limp, dry, useless rag.
Reala stood a moment, staring down into dead light, one fist raised in utter domination. Something warm was licking at his feet. The screams continued to echo in a bubble over his red-and-black striped sensors. This was it. This was the power he'd needed--the power he'd missed, the power he craved. He was their master--he was their superior. Why should he be anything less?!
A new noise was beginning to call, feebly, amidst the roar of nothingness. But it was too far away to make out. Reala lowered his fist at last. He felt compelled to at least figure out what this assailing force was--if it was another foolish challenger. He lowered his head.
"REALA!!!" NiGHTS screamed, Tiana dashing underneath him, hair rippling behind her like a flag. But it was too late.
A black, gooey substance grew and bubbled up around Reala's ankles--a giant puddle, a miniature lake, stretching to the ends of the parking lot. Someone was calling his name. Someone he knew. Someone who was important to him.
Slowly...tentatively...Reala began to turn his head. To see who it was. And it struck.
A massive black, snakelike tentacle burst from the lake at his feet, lashing around him, slapping its strong, thick cords tightly around his knees.
"Reala!!!" NiGHTS called again, flipping his body to a halt, Tiana tumbling forward to her knees under him, staring with white eyes. There was no time.
Reala's body lurched to the side as another tentacle squeezed around the end of his arm, yanking it out, bent close to his face. His teeth gritted against the overbearing force, grappling with it and trying to tear it away. His eyes popped open. And stared. The arm in front of him was blue...thick, and rippling with muscular mounds. Torn white fabric fluttered forlornly around it. Yet this strength was ineffective on the choking tentacles.
More of them burst upwards with breathtaking force, giant closed bulbs of poison at their ends. They whipped around Reala, binding him tight, squeezing his arms to his chest, his ankles into a cross, his head down into his shoulders, his sensors to the back of his head. Every inch of him seemed engulfed in these oppressive binds. And at last, his face had melted...he was shocked...appalled...confused...and terrified. And then, he began to sink.
"Reala!" NiGHTS called, twitching forward in alarm, but he froze again an instant later. There was nothing he could do now.
The tentacles dragged Reala down...pulling him...reeling him into the infinite black puddle. And he disappeared...slowly...consumed by their depths. Until at last, he disappeared completely. The last tip of one of the tentacles' bulbs sank into the ground. And all was silent.
The ends of NiGHTS's feet bobbed up and down as he hung suspended in the air, staring into the endless black lake, his face blank and paling. Tiana stretched her arms out in front of her, fingering the rough grains of the sidewalk, her dress draped around her legs. Tears glistened at the edges of her round eyes, her heart frozen in her chest.
Everyone had immediately fled the scene, leaving her and NiGHTS utterly alone...with an enormous lake of black that only they could see. The bodies were sprawled across the sidewalk...not exactly dead yet, but paralyzed. Stupefied. Empty. Soulless. Perhaps it would have been better if they really had died. A former painter lied against the shattered glass window of his studio, lifeless. The destruction...the horror...it was back. All of it. Right before her eyes...right from underneath her.
Tiana felt the fire flare up in her chest--pumping out to every part of her body, filling her with anger, despair, shame, and confusion. "He...he killed them!" her mouth gnashed over the pointed syllables. "He k-killed them! After...after everything! He...he betrayed us! He betrayed us! After everything!!!"
Her voice died in her throat, and her face fell down into her hands, the tears spilling over her cheeks, trickling through her fingers. And I trusted him. I thought I knew him. I thought he cared about me. I thought he was a good person. I cared about him. I didn't want him to die... When all that time, he was just planning to leave. He was planning to turn on me. He was planning to...do this.
Tiana's heart felt torn, ripped up and destroyed. This is why she couldn't have friends. Why she shouldn't ever trust anyone. It was too dangerous. She had offered her tender, glittering heart out to another being for the first time in years...only to have it slashed, torn, bitten to pieces, and then tossed back into her own face, leaving her to try to paste the shreds back together again. This always happened. This always, always happened. And she was a fool for letting it happen.
"I'm...an idiot..." she mumbled. "I am...an idiot."
NiGHTS remained silent. He'd heard her every word, of course, but he couldn't say anything. Emotions raged through his crystalline heart for a moment, before they settled, at last. He knew it. He couldn't forget. He would never allow himself to forget.
He lowered himself from the sky, soft purple booted feet pressing against the sidewalk next to her, without a sound. "...Are you going to give up now?"
Tiana's tearstained cheeks turned towards him. A firm stoicism gripped his warm face. Hard and firm as a brick wall. All of the pain he'd been through...everything he'd been forced to endure, alone, without anywhere to turn... He knew it was true. He knew it was real. It had to be real.
"...Well, I'm not. I'm not giving up. No matter what happens. I'm never giving up!!!"
NiGHTS clenched his hands to his collar, head jerked down to the bottomless inky blackness, in challenge. "...I'm never giving up."
The Void, Tiana realized, following his gaze. It's the Void...the same realm we fought against...the evil realm... Her eyes slid over toward the soulless bodies...then back to the enormous black portal to the Void.
NiGHTS hovered to its mirky edge, hands pressed to his chest. He flipped towards her, a small spot of living color against a shadowed army of immeasurable magnitude, under the darkening sky. "Would you rather he had died?"
Tiana couldn't speak. Her voice dried up in her mouth, as the tears dried on her face. No, she realized. I didn't want him to die...and I still don't want him to die. I...I don't know. I wanted him to die before. I turned on him. He turned on me. I can't...just walk away. She stood up, carefully, balancing on her black flats...and looked into NiGHTS's blue almond eyes.
"So...are you coming with me?"
Tiana joined him at the edge of the Void--the very end of this realm, the cusp of light and shadow, the jumping-off point, from which no one could be expected to return. She lowered her head for a moment, closing her eyes...feeling the air around her, fiddling with her sleeves and the ends of her hair. It wasn't just Reala. It was the entire world...the entire dimension of reality itself. Everything that she had seen and heard. When something ugly appeared...something cruel, something she did not like, she did not expect, she did not want to see...she couldn't just abandon it. She couldn't just abandon him.
Her head lifted, brown eyes clear, daring the ocean of darkness to take her down now. "Yes," she declared, her voice just as firm and resolute as NiGHTS's...bearing the weight of deep experience and insight. Her Ideya of Wisdom. "Let's go."
And so, together, they joined hands...and dove into the deep unknown, the bright material of the world dissolving into blank singularity at every point around them.
(-)
The Void... The same thought echoed into his own mind as he felt his body sinking into the mire. This is...the Void... Then, gradually, things started coming back to him. Reala carefully opened his eyes again...and it felt as if he had just woken from another dream. Only he was still inside of it.
The thick tentacles squeezed over every inch of his body, immersing him in a binding net. He was completely paralyzed...and for a moment, he couldn't recall how he had gotten here. NiGHTS's cry of desperation rang through his memory, and he could see his brother's face, flushed and twisting with shock, confusion, and pain. Tiana sprinted at his side, also panting, eyes wide like a horse mad with terror.
NiGHTS! And the girl... My realm... Something came up from the deep caverns of his soul, and a sting of panic dashed through him. Where are they? What happened to them? What happened to everything else? What happened to....me? All he could recall was feeling faint and unsteady...and then suddenly feeling strong and fierce. And now he was here...
The world was utterly black and shadowed, as dark and terrible as the realm of Nightmare. But this felt entirely different. In Nightmare, there had been that beautiful delicacy of sorrow and fear--a web of intricate silence, accented by crystalline sobs and screams. Here, there was life. The darkness seemed to squirm and shift underneath, and Reala could barely make out the dim outlines of creatures--gruesome, amorphous creatures of evil substance, slithering to and fro, hissing and pulsing in every corner. Perhaps even the darkness was theirs--the stale air itself a creature, hanging watchfully overhead.
Reala sank deeper and deeper into this endless pit, the ropelike arms around him also merging with it in the process. Then at last, he reached some kind of plateau, and felt a light bumping from somewhere below him. With a wet, slithering, slipping noise, the tentacles at last began to loosen themselves around him, enfolding outwards, slowly and carefully, so that a dome of thick black ropes formed, positioning him in its center. Four of them still remained, binding his arms and legs in a vice-grip.
Reala immediately struggled against them, pushing back at their coils, trying to yank his arms up out from within them. He felt the fire--the rush of power surging through him again--and he channeled all of it into the task of breaking through his bonds. He'd slip out of them--he'd tear them completely apart! He needed to get out of here! The Waking World was... NiGHTS and Tiana were...
A burst of air broke out of him, as his body went limp again, flopping over the soft, thick appendage above his waist. It was no use. There was some greater power welding the arms to his skin...something much more powerful than physical strength. A will. A resolve. An essence of malicious intent. And a bonding point.
"...Heh..." A voice came out of the writhing atmosphere, high and yet filled with cruelty and dominance. "Heh heh heh heh heh..."
Reala had never heard a voice like that before in his life, as far back as his dim memories reached. But something about it was very close--an echo of something he carried inside him. "You..."
"Heh heh heh heh." One of the four tentacles stretched above him coiled itself down, drawing close in front of his face. Then the tumid bulb on the end opened up in the middle, like the peels of an onion...revealing one giant, round, iridescent eyeball in the center.
"You."
A massive figure began to form out of the pulsating darkness, the ends of its robe rippling from within, sharp, straight points piercing their way through the living realm above. The name entered Reala's consciousness at the same moment it slid across his lips. "Illuzius."
Illuzius. Master of the Void. Creator of the Voidables. His enemy, since the beginning of time. The eight, eyed tentacles slithered out from the folds of his long, mahogany-red robe. Sitting on top was his round, faceless head of gold, long, straight, spear-like spikes piercing straight upwards over its surface, from which his voice crackled. Two haloed golden rings extended behind it, studded with colored jewels...just as his brother, Wizeman the Wicked of Nightmare. Three diamond-shaped jewels were attached at his collar, the same as the ones on the halos--the center one orange, and the other two purple. Soul crystals. Reala recognized them at once. These were his soul crystals--detachable, dispensable...and powerful.
"Heh heh..." Illuzius cackled again, looming closer over Reala's paralyzed body with pride. "Simple. So simple. And yet he always complained that he could never capture the Guardian of his opposing essence. Could never bend him to his will. He had to send all of his own forces out to accomplish the deed. He had to use his "First-Level". Yet my own opposing Guardian flew right into my grasp!"
Fire surged again within Reala's chest--of protest, rage, panic, and shame. "I will never allow you to take my realm!" His black-lipped mouth snarled over the words. "I will not allow you to bend my will so easily! I'll never serve you or any creature in this abominable realm!!!"
"Ah, but you'll serve under my brother without any such resistence, won't you? Though in essence a mirror to the Void, it is still certainly connected. And a fine commander of the Nightmaren you made..."
"Shut up!" Reala spat. "It was not my choice!"
"...But it was," Illuzius hissed. His tentacles began to undulate around him, tauntingly, and a few more opened their eyes, to stare through his own. "It was your choice to detach from your realm...it was your choice to bind yourself to Wizeman. It was your choice...to forsake the ones you love, in search of foolish power... It was your choice...to come to me."
A spike of truth thrust into Reala's chest, forcing the air out of him again. "It doesn't matter!!! Now that I've remembered... I am no longer a weakling wasting away in a girl's bed! I'll defeat you--and I'll go back to my realm! I haven't forsaken anyone!!! And with this "foolish power", I will crush you!!!"
And in that instant, Illuzius's tentacles snapped away from his body, suddenly releasing him from all restrictions.
"Hrraaaaaa!!!" Reala lunged violently into the air--to choke the life out of the Void Master, to tear out his arms, to scratch out his taunting eyeballs, to rip his cloak to pieces. Yet he only crashed forward, to the black rock of the plateau below him.
Confused, panicked, and defiant, he shot up again a moment later...only to topple back onto his elbows. "Ghhhh...ahhh... Ugghhhhh!" Again and again, he tried to wrench his body off the ground--but it always flopped back, heavily, to the front or the side. He was off-balance...his body too heavy for his legs to hold up. His forearms slammed back down against the solid rock...and he stayed there this time, panting and shivering.
"Heh...heh heh..." Illuzius's voice crept out again, the high syllables crawling over his skin. "Look at you. Crippled by your own amass of power. Your own lust for tangible superiority over your subjects. I don't need to do anything--you've ensnared yourself for me."
The swimming heat and the painful, stabbing pulsation of his own crystal overwhelmed Reala's senses, and he could barely even hear the Void Master's taunt. Every fiber of his being was focused on the terrible choking feeling in his chest.
As he slouched there, paralyzed, Illuzius's tentacles began to twirl and dance in the area around him, as if performing some kind of ritual. A deep blue light flickered into being between them, until they shaped it into a solid, sloping barrier. With a blast from another tentacle's eyeball, the black plateau underneath him broke apart. And before Reala even knew what was going on, he found himself trapped in a cage, like a figurine inside a dark snowglobe.
Illuzius chuckled again and retracted his tentacles--the disgusting appendages slithering out of either side of his mahogany robe like living hairs. "No amount of that type of strength in this universe can break through my barrier. I have not yet made the necessary preparations for your coming, since I did not believe that you would be so easy to capture...but it makes no difference. There is no way that you will be able to escape from it until I am ready. You shall see. Sadly, I must leave you now, but I say to you, welcome. A fond welcome to you, Reala...my most powerful and valuable servant."
At last, Illuzius turned, extending his eyeballs, calling his Voidables together...and gradually disappearing amongst their blackness again.
Reala gulped down the sensation, painfully, and his sensors began to throb back to life. His hands were still pressed to the sharp rocks of the ground...but out of the corner of his eye, he could see the blue edge of the barrier shooting into the blackness just ahead. He was trapped again. Helpless. Inhibited. Only this time, it was his own fault.
"Huh..." he gasped. "Ah..." He pulled himself back onto his knees, though he still couldn't lift his arms. And that was when he finally got a good, steady look at his arms.
An acute, sticky, nauseating ball of spit built up in his mouth at the sight, and his stomach twisted and knotted, sickeningly. It was disgusting. He couldn't look. He disgusted himself. It was just like before, except in reverse. It disgusted him, to see the muscles on his arms...bulging and oozing out of the long rips they had torn through the fabric of his sleeves. It wasn't natural. His jacket and tights were also stretched over his newly expanded body, though not as much. It was as if he'd been exposed to some radioactive chemicals--grown and mutated by the power he had stolen from the residents of his own realm.
I'm a monster. Reala lowered his head, squeezing in his disgusted bile. Look at me. I'm a monster.
He turned towards the barrier of the globe-cage now, wondering what kind of substance it was made out of...and saw his own face reflected in its smooth, shiny blueness. Once again, the disturbing feeling filled him...that otherworldly feeling of being outside of himself. That face was familiar, yes, but it wasn't his. He'd seen that creature sitting on a tall checkered throne...he'd stared into its blue surface, its snarling black lips, felt its stifling breath a centimeter away from his sensors. But now it followed him. It blinked when he blinked. It frowned when he frowned. It shrugged its large, round shoulders when he lifted his.
Nightmare energy, Reala thought with a shudder. Well, of course that would make me feel better. The Nightmare energy. How did I...? Why did I...? I...I wanted it. I wanted to feel it. I can't believe... How could I have done that?!
He didn't want anything to do with Nightmare now. It disgusted him, the way he'd let Wizeman use him for his own purposes...even to hurt NiGHTS...to take over his realm...to destroy the only things he cared about. The only things...he cared about.
Reala sank down against one curved base of the cage, a limp, aching feeling suddenly overwhelming him. He...was right, he now clearly realized. I did abandon them. And I promised NiGHTS...I promised that I would never let this happen again. That I would be able to stop it. To control it. To control...myself. I can't even control myself.
He closed his eyes at last, just trying not to look at himself--not to look up at the reflective cage or down at his arms. He couldn't bear to see it again. ...I'm an idiot.
(-)
So this is the Void? Tiana thought. It was dark, but strangely not desolate...which was even more disturbing. She wasn't falling anymore...but it strangely didn't feel as if she was standing on solid ground either. She was almost hanging, suspended by the very atmosphere. It felt like something was moving just underneath her. Something was alive, all around her. And the feeling of being accompanied in the darkness...to never be able to get away...was even more terrifying than being all alone in it.
She turned, and for an instant, she couldn't even see NiGHTS beside her. His shine seemed diminished in this wriggling, oppressive darkness. He wasn't facing her.
Slowly, Tiana held out her arms, getting used to the squiggly feeling just under her fingertips. She had never been afraid of the Voidables, since she had first seen them, but now, she couldn't Dualize and fight back. There were all kinds of Voidables here--every type and shape in existence. Yet they didn't seem to be attacking her. They didn't even notice her. Well, she shouldn't question it, as long as they stayed away.
As she lowered her arms, her fingers brushed against something soft and squishy. "Ah! Tiana!" NiGHTS's light voice called out. "Ohmygosh! I thought I lost you!"
Tiana laughed. "You were right next to me the whole time!"
"Heheh! I was?" NiGHTS appeared floating in front of her again, scratching the side of his head.
"Where are we?" she asked him.
"The Void."
"Well, obviously. But where in the Void?"
"I don't know." NiGHTS shook his head, firmly. "I don't know anything about the Void. It's always just been Ree's thing, you know? It didn't concern me. He wouldn't even tell me when I asked about it."
"Really?" Tiana extended one arm and moved tentatively in his direction, pushing herself somewhat from behind. Her body floated forward like a soft bubble. It felt a little bit like flying with Reala--only more awkward and sluggish. And she was in her own body, of course. "I wonder why. But I'm not surprised--he never tells me anything either."
NiGHTS smiled again, knowingly. The soft glow of his crystal illuminated the area around him, though it faded over the tips of his horns and the ends of his feet. "C'mon," he spoke, urging her on. "Let's go find him. I have absolutely no idea where we are now, but I can feel for his presence. We should be able to locate him in no time!"
It won't be that easy, Tiana dourly thought, even as she prodded her body forward after NiGHTS, who began to fly further into the Void, tucking his head down for concentration. It's never that easy. I don't know why the Voidables aren't attacking me yet, but...
As she bobbed forward through the thick atmosphere, following NiGHTS, she thought she could see pinpricks of light weaving in and out in the distance--the tiny, living eyes of the gaseous creatures splitting and merging. They were watching her--she could feel the weight of their pressing gazes from every corner. A stream of dread began to crawl through her chest. Something was keeping them at bay now...but how long would it last?
Come to think of it, would NiGHTS be any help at all? She was forbidden to Dualize with him, of course, so they'd both be weaker, right off the bat...and if Reala couldn't fight them when he wasn't Dualized, NiGHTS might be completely useless.
Tiana bit her lip, trying not to think about the blinking stars of the Voidables' eyes growing gradually closer and closer. They would find him. They had to find him soon. If he remembers... There was still a tiny shred of doubt in her heart. If he hasn't abandoned me...
Meanwhile, NiGHTS himself didn't even notice the Voidables. He was too completely focused on the sensations quivering through his two soft horns. Something didn't feel entirely right about this presence...this feeling. At first, it felt like Reala--but it was a faint throbbing of his aura, mingled with something else. Something he had never felt before. His only hope was to follow it, and hope it would lead them in the right direction. Reala had been changed, after all--perhaps it was the Nightmare energy flowing within him. But yet, whatever it was, he felt he couldn't turn away. He needed to find out.
As NiGHTS glided forward, he began to feel a smooth surface brushing the bottoms of his boots. Pressing his feet down, he realized that there was some kind of floor beneath him now, though he could only make out dim edges in the light of the creatures' eyes.
Tiana noticed it at the same time and stepped onto the platform, at last feeling solid again. "W-What is this?" she asked, astounded. But NiGHTS couldn't hear her.
So...this place does have landscape to it. It has...some kind of shape. Always changing... His eyes widened...and for an instant, flashed pure blue.
"NiGHTS?" Tiana stepped a little closer. She could practically hear the Voidables slithering through the sky surrounding her. Something was agitating them...and though he may be completely useless, NiGHTS was all that she had for protection now. Would he have been able to...?
It has shape... NiGHTS turned from her. The feeling was growing stronger...closer. It was part of him. It felt as if he had another limb...another piece of his very body that he'd never even known existed until now. It wasn't Reala...but something else, very close. Very, very close to him.
The lights danced in and out above him. Tiana was about to call out. She opened her mouth to warn him. But she never had the chance.
A child-shape Voidable suddenly poked its fully-formed, visible head out of the cloud of darkness from above--right in front of NiGHTS's face.
Tiana gasped. And NiGHTS did...nothing.
His eyes were glowing again...soft blue...blank and disconnected. Gently, he lifted his arms...cupping the creature's round, black head in his hands. So this is a Voidable...
What is he doing?! Tiana thought. He seemed to have tamed the evil creature somehow...but she dared not step any closer.
The Voidable flew back up, into the air, melting back into its cloud of brethren. And NiGHTS's pale eyes followed it. It was no longer just a cloud of creatures...it was his. His cloud. His outer cloud. His right arm. Waiting to be used. Waiting to be shaped. Just waiting... He could do it. He could just reach out...and touch it.
Unconsciously, his arms began to raise...his hands extended just in front of each shoulder, close. Close...so close. He could touch that piece...the missing part of him, wondrous and new. It was his, after all. He had to know more. He had to touch it...
His arms rose...his palms coming closer...closer...
Now!
NiGHTS's palms slammed into each other, clapping in two quick, violent crashes. And instantly, the world around him changed.
The Voidables fell into their places, molding and shaping themselves into a beautiful multicolored forest of pink trees, purple waterfalls, and bright plastic-green grasses. And his face broke into a smile of pure wonder and fascination.
Tiana saw nothing. She saw NiGHTS's back before an infinity of darkness, his hands together in front of him, as if giving the darkness a round of applause. He can't be... Did he... No, please don't tell me... The dread trembled within Tiana's heart. "N-NiGHTS?" she called again. "Hey, NiGHTS? We have to get going...you know...finding Reala. Can you hear me?!"
He whirled around, and Tiana leaped back in surprise. She hadn't actually expected to get a response out of him. Maybe it wasn't as bad as she'd feared. ...But his eyes still looked strangely blank. He smiled to her.
"N-NiGHTS...?"
"Tiana!" His voice was oddly airy. "There you are! Isn't this amazing?"
"W-What?" Tiana struggled to reply, fearing the worst in her heart. "I don't see anything. Do you mean...the Void?"
NiGHTS's face lit up, and his ghostly eyes glowed brighter. "Oh, let's play together! You'd like that, wouldn't you?! We can play here forever!"
"N-no," Tiana found her Courage welling up to protest. She couldn't stand listening to him talking nonsense like this. "We have to find Reala! That's what we came here for! We have to go now!"
NiGHTS bobbed down closer to her, putting on a sad, disappointed face. "Why are you so angry?"
"Because you're acting like a moron!"
"You don't...want to play with me?"
The Voidables churned and rolled above his head, threateningly.
It's him, Tiana realized. It was NiGHTS. They won't harm him. They're protecting him. Because he is one of them.
Her black flat slipped back on the smooth floor of the platform. She would have to run. She would have to start now, if she hoped to outstrip them. She would be all on her own now...but she had to do this. There was no one she could trust...but herself.
"Well...I don't care if you forgot. I'm going to find him by myself!" And with that, she turned...sprinting across the dark platform as fast as she could push herself, not daring to look back.
For a moment, NiGHTS could only hang there in the atmosphere, stunned.
Tiana pounded her stinging legs against the platform, the soles of her flats tapping in quick succession, her hair and the ends of her skirt and sleeves trying to drag her back. Her eyes squeezed shut against the wind. She couldn't look. She couldn't dare to look.
"Tiana...?" NiGHTS's voice finally wheezed. She was growing steadily smaller and smaller...further and further away...she was going to break off. She was going to break it. Break it! She was going to break it! "W-Wait...!" He couldn't let her!
A terrible, desperate panic had begun in the depths of NiGHTS's being. Like it was something he needed. He needed air, and he couldn't get it. He was going to die...he was going to burst if he couldn't get it! "Wait!" his lips violently jolted over the word.
The blue, rippling folds of Tiana's dress were almost gone now. Soon, it would snap. As if there was a cord tied around her waist, connected to NiGHTS's heart. It was tight, tugging, yanking, pulling...soon, she would tear it straight out of him. She would break it! She would break it all!!! She couldn't--! She couldn't--!!!
"DON'T GO!!!"
With a skittering, crackling, and rolling, the Voidables shot forward from all around him, swarming and buzzing forward, headed straight for Tiana's distant form at the sound of their commander's agonized screech.
NiGHTS remained in that position a moment more, hands pressed to the sides of his head, body squeezed inwards, bracing itself for the pain of being ripped apart. And nothing came. Nothing came. Nothing...
Something gently slipped away from him...something he couldn't clearly recall. Tiana? Where was Tiana? Why did she...?
NiGHTS opened his eyes again, between his clenched gloves--crystal clear, wide, and filled with utter shock and dread. What had he just done?!
In the distance, he could see the ends of Tiana's dress, just barely, as she slipped into the darkness--and the rushing stars of the Voidables' eyes as they chased after her. And then, everything came back to him at once. That girl, Reala's capture, and everything, everything that had happened...
"...Tiana!" NiGHTS called, and instantly, he shot off after them. Oh God, Tiana... What have I done to her?!
(-)
It had only been about fifteen minutes, but it felt like hours on end. How long did it take to make a mind-wiping device? To take one of the shattered soul crystals and shape it into a facsimile of a Guardian's? For a Master, who knew? No one knew very much about how the Masters operated. Not even Reala, who'd been a pawn of one.
He was still settled in a corner of the bubble-cage, knees up near his chest, hands dragging on the ground, and trying to look anywhere but at his arms or at the reflective surface of the barrier. He couldn't stand this...left with no option but to sit here and wait for his doom to arrive.
He'd tried pushing against the barrier, but just as Illuzius had said, it wouldn't budge an inch, no matter how hard he threw the weight of his body against it. He couldn't fly to check the barrier above, nor could he even stand up. If he even tried to lift his arms, the rest of his body ended up flopping after them, collapsing uselessly under the mass. So he just closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep.
Only he couldn't, of course. Firstly, he was just too anxious and panicked. At any second, the Void Master could return with his finished devices, and wipe away his memories again. Everything he had worked so hard to gain back would be gone again in a flash, and there was nothing he could do about it. And secondly, the Nightmare energy just wouldn't let him rest. Whenever he closed his eyes and tried to drift off to sleep, it pulsed up within the nerves of his body, pounding like a crazed heartbeat, as if he'd just had twenty cups of coffee.
Reala growled in frustration and tore his eyes open again to stare into the border of the cage, where the blue force field melded into the black jagged rock. And he stared some more. He frowned.
That looks...different somehow. A terrible suspicion was sneaking into his mind, and at first, he was reluctant to have it confirmed. But he had to know for sure. He had to try to do something about it.
With a cringe against the disgusting sight, he unraveled a bit of the black strip over his stomach and tore a long piece off. It was awkward to try to maneuver when he always had to keep one hand on the ground at all times, but luckily, the wrappings had ripped and come a little loose already. Then at last, Reala attached one end of the fabric strip at the base of the bubble with a rock...and stretched it to the other side, making a small puncture with his nails at the point where it met.
Then, after another five minutes (or three hours), he did it again. The new hole was an inch below the first one.
The cold feeling spread through Reala's chest as he stared at the holes. ...I was right. This cage is shrinking... He glanced up at the rounded side high above him, ignoring his ghostly reflected outline. Does he intend to crush me in this bubble? He wouldn't. He needs me, as his servant. I'm much more valuable to him than that. I'm the protector of the very world he's trying to take over. There will be nothing to stop him. Except the Awakers. And they won't stand a chance.
Reala led out a frustrated sigh and sank back to the ground, leaning his back against one blue, shrinking wall. He just wants to make sure I'm as uncomfortable as possible.
He lowered his head to his chest again, and as the space around him gradually continued to contract, so did his mind. It was pressing in...it was slowly pressing in, though no one could see it. The world was closing in...on one single piece of his soul.
(-)
Tiana's own breath throbbed in her eardrums. Every muscle of her body strained and ached. A terrible, sharp pain suddenly pierced the side of her gut. She never was much of a runner. Stupid gym class...
Her thoughts were all knotted and twisted together, so that she couldn't think clearly. All she knew was that she couldn't look back. No matter what, she couldn't look back. She had no idea where she was going, but it was better than sticking around here. She had to run away...though she had no way of knowing what she was running to.
I'm going to die. That was the only clear thought in her mind as her body began to fail on her, and her shaking legs slowed. I'm going to die.
It didn't take long for the Voidables to catch up. The swarm of creatures rushed around her, rustling the ends of her dress, and her body fell back. Tiana crouched, pressing her hands to her knees, panting and coughing. It was useless. She was no match for these creatures by herself. NiGHTS had abandoned her, and Reala...well, no one knew what had happened to Reala.
The Voidables shrieked in delight, their lighted eyes dancing over her. With a few weak strokes, she managed to smack away the ones that got too close, but she couldn't keep it up for long. She was surprised that she could actually land punches on them--apparently, in their own world, they were solid all the time.
Panic and adrenaline surged through Tiana's body, crackling through the ends of her limbs, but the Voidables dashed forward again and overwhelmed her. Child Voidables scratched at her neck, sharp leaves slit her exposed arms, metal pipes bruised her sides, and even more threatening spears and spike mines were beginning to materialize in the distance. She struggled and kicked and screamed for her life, but it was no use. No one could hear her.
I'm going to die.
Tiana jerked her head up to what she assumed was the sky, over the lighted wall of Voidables that were gathering together to block her path. Anyone. Anything. Please, she thought. Please.
And then...something began to glow...
(-)
Tiana. The name--the person--softly faded into his collapsing mind. Tiana.
That was the one piece...the piece he was searching for, and couldn't find. The piece called "Tiana". The piece that was his and yet not his at the same time.
Reala squeezed his eyes shut once again, trying to feel for it...and that's when he realized. She's gone. She'll never come back now. It's been too many times... This was not required. There is no explanation for this. I really...truly betrayed her this time. I've...hurt her.
The piece...the seed... The tiny seed of that part of his soul, which he had always tried to deny. It was there, and he was afraid of it. For some reason, he was deathly afraid of its existence. It was too close. And yet it was there. He didn't want to see it, didn't want to think about it, but he couldn't do without it. He had to hold on to it, as tightly as he could. He wanted to hold on to it. It was something very, very special and unique. Close.
But now, it was gone. It was gone, and he needed it. And he himself had crushed it. He had destroyed it.
Tiana...
It felt...bad. Very bad. He wasn't really sure why...but it did. And somehow, it felt as if this wasn't the first time.
Reala sat up, almost automatically...and pressed his face into his hands. And it was in that moment that he came briefly out of the confinement room of his mind, to feel something at once exterior. Something very strange to him.
Immediately, Reala pulled back, his face twisted and squeezed with confusion. He spread his fingers over one cheek, just to be sure, just to feel it again. What's this...sticky stuff...all over my face?
It hurt...it hurt, not on the outside, but something internal. Something within his soul. His soul crystal. It was Tiana. It was their connection.
Tiana. That kind, innocent, witty, understanding, sensitive girl.
Reala's eyes closed again, and this time, he could feel that seed inside of him, damaged and crumpled as it was. It had always been there. His fingers crawled up again...and this time, pressed lightly, tenderly, over his blue crystal.
...She is a part of me.
"Aaaagggh! Aaaaahugh!!!"
Suddenly, a pain like he'd never felt before thrust straight through his chest. Reala gasped, his body flopping forward onto the base of the cage, convulsing in spasms of agony. It felt as if a thousand knives were tearing him apart from the inside, every chunk separating and ripping apart from each other.
Something was coursing through his limbs, flooding and gushing through his entire system...but it wasn't the Nightmare energy. He could feel that as well--bubbling and churning and percolating just under the surface of his skin.
Reala's mouth gnashed open against the cold, hard surface of the cage's base, forcing out a horrible, wailing scream. There was no room for thought. All he could do was lie pressed against the ground, feeling the thing--the energy, the life, the feeling--twisting through his body. His own screaming faded into a vacuum of noise--the buzzing undertone of machines, the slicing of helicopter choppers.
His body gave a sudden spasm, flinging him hopelessly against the obsidian floor, his arms and legs quivering as if turning into jello. Hot panic squeezed through Reala's chest as he felt his arms convulsing disgustingly--bubbling, reforming, and mutating. Then it was his legs. Then his torso.
He coughed. He coughed and coughed, violently and purposefully, as if trying to expel a lung. It was rejection. Something inside of him, that his body was rejecting, with everything it had.
He pressed himself closer, just trying to get it to stop, just wishing for it to stop, unable to think of anything else besides the pain...the horrible pain, the unbearable pain, his own...pain. Please just stop.
But then...just when he thought he couldn't take it anymore...when he thought he'd have to kill himself, just to get the pain to finally stop...he found it.
He brushed up against it, just for a moment...as if he'd been swimming through an endless dark ocean of pain, and suddenly touched against a spot of warm light. Everything faded.
Reala's body was still at last--deathly still, exhausted, and overstrained. Everything was numb. There was just...nothing. Nothing outside. Nothing inside. Quiet. Stillness. Reala's eyes stared, wide and blank, from the darkness of the cage ground, his head turned sideways, towards the edge of the shrinking force field. Separated. Soulless.
But slowly...something was building in his chest...bleeding in...piecing itself back together...and returning. Mounting...and mounting...and mounting. Until suddenly, it felt it might burst. It might burst.
And then, he took a new breath.
It was small and awkward at first...but it grew. Gasping a little, he drew his breath in deeper...letting it reach its fingers down into the innermost chambers of his being...places that had never before been touched. And with it came his life...his thoughts, his feelings, his memories...his strength. His real strength. The only strength that mattered. The kind he had forgotten...or never even knew in the first place. It was back. It was here at last. And everything felt right again.
Reala pressed his hands into the ground. Then his knees. Then...without a single dip or wobble...he rose to his feet, standing firm, solid and determined as a hundred-foot statue.
Experimentally, he raised one arm, letting it hang there in the air...and stared into the ripped pieces dangling from its long, thin shape. His other hand began to reach out for them...then dropped back to his side. And he looked away.
His hand lowered...gently folding in, as if for the first time...his fingertips meeting a smooth, warm, glowing surface. It was his. He could feel it...for the first time, in a very, very long time. As if all the walls and shutters had been pulled back from his mind, and from his heart. From his soul crystal.
Reala's hand closed around the shining blue crystal on his chest, unaffected by its searing hot surface. It was a part of his own body, after all. It was his own life, as it always had been. Only now, he knew it. And he could accept it. Fully and openly.
This is what he wants. His thoughts came back to him in words, at last. This is what Illuzius wants. What he wants to take away from me. What he's been trying to take away from me. What I've let him take away from me. Something I've never even really had...until now. Because I wouldn't look at it.
With a firm little tug, Reala pulled the crystal from its slot on his chest, holding it tightly in one hand. Its shine didn't fade for an instant--and the act even seemed to intensify its inner glow. He was a part of it now...he could hold his own heart in his hand...and still let it be his heart.
Then, at last, with his new, conscious mind, Reala decided. He lifted one arm to the sky, to the world, nearly brushing the ceiling of the contracting force field, just like his declaration under Wizeman's influence, renouncing all connection with his other half. But this time, it was confirmation and acceptance...of himself.
The light of the diamond-shaped jewel in his hand beamed straight through the blue fabric of the cage, and he could feel its power--his own power--welling within him. So this was what the Void Master had meant.
And so, raising his head and his sight to the dark depths of the entire realm in challenge, Reala made his declaration.
"If this is what you want...I will never let you have it!!!"
(-)
Blue light bloomed from the horizon, above the wall of Voidables gathering just in front of her. And though Tiana's mind didn't immediately know, the rest of her soul surged forth along with it--Reala!
A new power burst into being within her--something she'd never even known she had--and suddenly, she didn't feel weak and helpless anymore at all. She could do something. She could get to that light--that light which was calling her--that light which she needed. She was no longer confused, afraid or unsure. Everything felt reachable, solid, and secured in the world.
A shot of adrenaline beat through her, and almost before she even knew it, she'd torn all the Voidables from her shoulders, head, and ankles, exploding into a run towards the blue light in the distance with all her might. Tiana couldn't stop for even an instant to consider her odds or to let them hinder her. Her body--and her heart--threw themselves in the direction of the light...towards her hope and her completion.
The Voidables piled themselves on top of each other, squirming and jumping desperately, trying to stop her, but the burning light of the distance and her own soul was too much for them. Tiana leaped into the air, straight over them, vaulting above their barrier, breaking the skittering creatures apart and dispelling them into the atmosphere. For a moment, it was as if she was flying, all on her own--hovering there in the Void, just like before...but this time with wings.
Her sleeves billowed out behind her like a bluebird's feathers as her body sailed through the black, dense air. But she wasn't flying...she was falling.
Tiana tucked her knees up against the wind rushing over her as she felt herself plummeting into the bottomless oblivion...but for some reason, she wasn't afraid.
The light was below her, growing closer and closer as she shot towards it. It was a large, round globe, filled with brilliant blue light. Brilliant, powerful, and pure, driving back the darkness of the Void. Her arms stretched out for it, just to touch it, to come back to it, to feel it again. And that's when she saw it.
There was a tall, thin figure standing in the center of that globe, the shadow of his two curled sensors barely shadowed below the blinding source of the light. It was really him, she knew now...and Tiana's heart leaped with pure joy and relief.
"Reala!" she called out to him...but he didn't even need to hear it.
His eyes flew open, joining the intense blueness of the cage, and his heart rejoiced even more. Tiana! She was here! She hadn't given up on him! But before he even consciously thought it, his entire being was rushing to her, in the blink of an eye, reattaching his crystal and launching himself into the air, to the ceiling edge of the cage, where her hands were reaching out for him.
And then, right there, through the smooth barrier of the cage's force field...their hands met.
A rush of wind burst around Tiana's body, just like the very first time they Dualized. Ridged colors of white and pale blue filled her senses, and for a moment, it felt as if she was flying through the clouds. The whooshing of air across a narrowing hole stabbed deep into her eardrums, and she noticed her hands automatically curled up towards her chin, away from the dome of Reala's cage.
Her feet bumped against the smooth ebony ground again. And when she opened her eyes, it was all over.
In front of her was a hollow blue globe, attached to the jagged ground...shrinking. The globe-cage grew smaller and smaller before her eyes, collapsing in on itself...squeezing its edges in, crushing its own inner sanctum. Along with it, Tiana's eyes grew in the same increments, her breath knotting within her chest as she watched.
Her body was losing its strength now, limp with the shock and aftereffects of her adrenaline rush. She began to slip backwards, unaware...until her back bumped into something warm. She fell into two thin, yet strong, arms which immediately clamped firmly over her chest and yanked her away, into the air.
Tiana could only gape at the crumpled sphere in awe, before finally turning her head up towards the creature that held her. Reala's face was grim and unreadable as always...yet there was something different about it. Perhaps it was only the contrast of their blackened surroundings...but his round face looked white. Not white, like the pale, sickly color he had been, lying paralyzed in her bed...but just white. Milky white...pearly white. A soft, healthful shine of white that she had never seen before.
His body was thin and supple again--not frail, but smooth. The same size as his brother. The checkers on his sleeves, the stripes on his boots, and the stripes of his sensors were all maroon-red...the same lighter shade they had been when he'd lost the last of his Nightmare energy. Only now, he had his own energy to support him.
Though its shine had faded considerably, his blue crystal was still glowing with life and energy--faint and almost unnoticeable, just like NiGHTS's red one. Yet Tiana knew that if she touched it, it would be white-hot. He had done it, at last. He had re-melded with his soul. Though it had taken a betrayal and a trip to the Void to do it.
And then, as Tiana stared up in amazement, she realized that there was something else different about Reala's face. His smooth cheeks looked shiny...more so than the rest of his skin.
"R-Reala?" she spoke to him at last. But he didn't pay any attention to her yet. He was too focused on taking her away from here--as far away and as fast as possible. His eyes blazed forward as he flew, tightly holding on to her, so she wouldn't fall.
He would have to say something, eventually. He would have to try to explain. He would have to apologize. But for now, he only needed to know one thing.
"Where's NiGHTS?"
Tiana's heart froze a little in her chest at the sound of that name. "N-N-NiGHTS?"
"Yes."
"Um...NiGHTS is...not well. I...I don't know where he is now."
"Not well? What do you mean, 'not well'?!"
Tiana took in a deep breath at the sound of his argumentative tone. "I...I had to leave him, to come find you. He got a little lost. But I had to find you! I couldn't just...leave you...here... Even if...you didn't care about me. Even if you had abandoned me."
Reala let out a frustrated sigh. "I was just...confused. I...I didn't know what I was doing. You know how delusional I was getting towards the end of... Augh, just forget it, okay? Forget it ever happened."
Tiana smiled. She knew that was all the apology she was ever going to get.
Reala growled deep in his chest and yanked her further through the pulsing blackness of the dark realm. Apparently, she wasn't going to tell him anything else about what had happened to NiGHTS....so he'd just have to find him himself.
Reala closed his eyes, curling his fingers tightly over Tiana's shoulders and shifting her into a more comfortable position. He lowered his head to feel around the area for NiGHTS's aura. It was there, just to the right, in the distance...though it felt much fainter than it ever had before, as if he was distanced from it. As if he was excluded from it. Tiana's own aura was closer, which just felt strange. Maybe something really had happened to NiGHTS...
It was extremely odd, especially for more than a second, to feel that this girl he'd only just met a few months ago was now closer to him than the partner he'd been with all of his infinite life. But she was...and he knew it. At least for now.
He had no idea, really, how it had happened. The whole experience was completely surreal--more like part of the Dreaming World than his own, and that was probably why he didn't even want to think about it. But there was nothing he could do about it. All three of them were here, trapped in the Void, in danger of being crushed by the Voidables and their Master.
Reala narrowed his eyes as he continued flying forward, hopefully in the general direction of NiGHTS's aura. No matter where he is,we need to keep moving, he decided. Illuzius will be returning soon, and when he finds out that I escaped the cage...
He tuned his thoughts to their current peril, focusing only on the immediate danger...though deep within his soul crystal, in the cavity of his heart, he was feeling completely calm and even joyful. He had been forgiven...he had been accepted back into her life, to occupy this new, amazing position, close to her own soul. It was so very close...a dangerous, fearful closeness...but also a position of peace and wholeness... Reala couldn't ever remember feeling so complete before. It was powerful, but calm, and light. It was a wonderful feeling, and he couldn't believe that he'd ever once refused it.
"Tianaaaaaa!!!"
They both heard NiGHTS before he felt him. Reala immediately angled himself in his direction, and soon enough, a purple streak was whizzing towards them. He was dashing forward so quickly that he nearly passed by them. A sharp, high-pitched gasp shout out of NiGHTS's chest, and he yanked himself to a stop, just barely in front of them.
"R-R-Ree!" His deep indigo eyes widened, his mouth stretched open with awe. "Y-You... She...she... Tiana! A-Are you okay?"
"Yeah..." Tiana's voice was quiet and unsure. NiGHTS seemed to be okay now. Whatever kind of control the Voidables had managed to gain over his mind had faded away. Perhaps he didn't even remember it. Now that they had found Reala, it was over, anyway. They could just get out of here--come back to the Waking World and start over. Right...?
She didn't want to do this...she really didn't want to do this. How could she tell Reala, so soon after re-connecting with him, that his own brother had betrayed them, even for a moment?
Reala certainly was suspicious enough on his own. He hovered, gently, closer to his partner and placed Tiana onto another one of those black, invisible platforms, below them. "So what happened with you?" he asked, crossing his arms.
"Ah..." NiGHTS was at first speechless, staring into his eyes and the crystal on his chest with complete wonder and awe. "Uh...um, we just got a little lost, and Tiana ran off by herself, to find you. That's all. We're...fine, really."
Reala cocked an eye socket back at him, but there was no time to try to torture the rest out of him now. "Well, we're all here right now, and I guess that's what counts."
He turned his head, staring out across the dark expanse, to wherever the Void Master lied in wait, spinning his malicious devices. "I was...captured, as you know. With this girl's help, I managed to escape the field that was placed around me, but we can't remain hidden from him much longer. He probably sensed the collapse of his force field and is hurrying to check on it right now. If we don't move quickly--"
Reala twitched as NiGHTS touched the side of one gloved finger to his cheek. There was just no way that NiGHTS could listen to these words when something so amazing and elusive was right there in front of him. Something he'd never thought he'd get to see again in his lifetime.
Carefully, tenderly, he pulled his arm back, cupping his other hand above his finger, as if sheltering a young flame from the wind. Only there, just on the edge of his index finger, was a tiny, round teardrop. A single tear...from Reala's cheek.
Closer...and closer...he brought it up to his own face...to his own cheek, to his lips...as if he was about to kiss it, or sip it into his own body. This rare, precious substance... He wished he could keep it forever, in a little glass box, where the sun could shine and reflect off its crystalline bead. Reala's tear...the first in over twelve years.
At last NiGHTS lifted his eyes again, letting them rest on the beautiful, miraculous sight of the soft, glowing blue crystal of his soul. A wonderful feeling of warmth...of closeness, of love...was welling through him. And once again, he could barely speak.
"You... Reala, you...you melded... You...are complete now... And this...this is all it took. You just...needed to cry."
Reala scowled back and brusquely wiped his face with the dangling strips of one sleeve. "We have more important things to worry about now than my emotional health."
NiGHTS smiled, his own crystal warming from within. Everything was back to normal now. Everything was going to be okay. At long last, Reala had truly returned.
"Ree will be Ree," he chirped.
Reala rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Let's just go. The sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can--" But once again, he never got to finish his sentence.
A terrible, heart-trembling shriek sliced through the entire realm, bringing all movement to a dead halt. For an instant, every single Voidable was suspended, motionless, beside each other, and cracks of light appeared between them.
Tiana felt the entire plateau tremble underneath the thin soles of her flats. What is that?! Panic leapt through her chest, though the rest of her froze. Is that...the big thing? The thing that captured him in the first place, with those huge tentacles?
"Illuzius," Reala snarled again, as soon as the wailing had ceased. "There's no way out of it now." He swooped down, smoothly, as if to protect Tiana, holding her back. "We're going to have to face him."
Tiana gulped back her breath and tried to find her Ideya of Courage. It didn't seem to be doing its job. Reala turned, his familiar clear blue eyes staring straight into her own. But this time, it didn't feel intimidating or intrusive. It felt almost comforting and bolstering.
"This is it," he told her, his voice taking on the grave and final tone he had used so many times before, at the end of each reality...and at the beginning of the last. "If we can defeat the Master of the Void, the invasion will be over. At least for now. It'll never be over for good. And you still need one more ideya. But it's time now. It's time now, to face him...and see what comes of it."
The rumbling aftershock of Illuzius's screech was now beginning to build beyond the black curtain, rolling over and over itself. He was searching them out...pinpointing the only miniscule speck of non-Voidable life in this entire realm. It wasn't that hard to find them.
Tiana clenched her hands, under the long flares of her sleeves. She whirled around to get a look at NiGHTS, and his face was also unusually grave, focused exclusively on Reala. He was worried about him, probably. Maybe he was worried about her too. But he also looked solemn...like this was something they just had to accept and work through. Reala's face had a similar look.
Tiana didn't want to die now. She cared about her own world...she wanted to go back to it. She needed to see her town, her school, and her mother. She couldn't die here...far away...where no one would know. But at least, if she was going to face the terrifying prospect of losing everything that she had gained thus far...she didn't have to face it alone.
Reala nodded to her, knowingly, and she felt it within her heart. He could read her feelings, and she knew it. They were together in this. And they'd be together in it to the end.
Tiana's body clutched as the rumbling increased, yet she stood her ground. Reala turned towards the sound and extended his arms, shielding her. NiGHTS squeezed his gloved hands to his lips. And all together, they lifted their heads to face the doom and destiny that awaited them.