Live, Laugh, and Love Lunacy
Chapter 9.3
Victory in the Dream World
A flash of light, and Bedlam was surrounded by plant life he had never seen before. Plants and trees larger than skyscrapers were everywhere.
"Incredible…" Bedlam held out his arm and suddenly a vine from the ground climbed up his leg, wrapped around his arm, and in the palm of his hand a beautiful pink flower began to bloom.
"Ha! Looks like my Bullet Lilies like you. Why not...give 'em a shot?"
"Bullet Lilies? You mean…"
Bedlam clenched his fist and the flowers condensed and turned into a fiery ball, he threw it off in a direction and when it hit something it exploded.
"Now that's pretty cool." As he saw all this before him Bedlam got an idea. "Oh I know someone who would like this place."
Bedlam raised his arms and the vines wrapped themselves around his body and eventually he was consumed inside a giant flower bud.
When he emerged from it he had been transformed: his legs were green leafy and slender, his skin became fair and pale, he… seemed to have turned into a woman with fair sized breasts that were barely covered by more leaves, his ears were like ferns, he had vines growing out of his arms that had also turned leafy with long sharp pink nails, and finally he had flowing red hair.
He, now a she, looked at Travis and gave a devilish grin, she turned to face him and put a hand on her hip to increase her sexiness factor.
"A promising garden." She said with a deep and enticing voice.
Travis had to admit, she was quite a figure to look at. And as she sauntered her way towards him he only felt that feeling grow. Soon enough she was right in front of him, giving him a devilish smile and a stare that pierced his soul.
"Who… who are you?" He asked curiously.
"My name is Zyra, Rise of the Thorns, I have seen the garden you've created here and it makes me… jovial. For someone to be so creative and imagine such a beautiful array of plants moves me."
She tried to put a hand on his shoulder, but as her fingers got close to him he pulled away.
This made Zyra frown. "You do not trust me…"
"What? No, I…"
"You have been betrayed by someone close to you, in a way that it may never truly heal, and now you refuse to let anyone into your heart."
Zyra grabbed one of his hands and began tracing along the lines in his palm, sending electric shocks through his nerves.
"You cannot be expected to forgive so quickly, but to deny yourself a companion is equally reckless. To create the next generation one needs a mate."
Travis' brain was overloading from all the sensory feelings. "But, but… how do I move on from this? Every thought I have always comes back to this, about how she…"
Zyra used her other hand and put a finger to his mouth, stopping him from talking. She had experience with this sort of thing, smart people go through every option including the most horrible ones and it only makes them more worried.
"If she would do that to you she was not worth keeping. She was created by you but she developed her own mind over time and I suspect that she has been insidious for quite some time."
Travis looked down. "I blame myself…"
"You cannot. All things created to mimic people never quite turn out; every Frankenstein monster, every Hal 9000, every Cortana and yes even every Allie… they are all undone sooner or later. It is not your fault."
"So… what am I to do?"
She put a hand on his shoulder. "You are to awake from the tormenting dreamscape, you are to reunite with your father and Oscar, and you will push yourself forward to better and greater heights because you can, because you want to, and because you were meant to."
"And...what about Allie?"
Zyra's expression hardened. "She will pay in time, make no mistake, and I think when it does come it will hurt greater than any punishment I could bestow."
Zyra turned around and continued. "And if you're referring about finding another partner, one will always come around… even when you least expect it. All that matters is that you keep your eyes open."
Travis thought about everything that he had heard, and as much as he had been hurt his drive to go on was stronger. He wanted to do so much and he saw that creative spark he had in himself again. And when he realized it he felt something appear in his hand, it was a long giant key with a golden handle and silver key end with a divot that looked like a crown.
"Kingdom Key huh?" Bedlam said, he had turned back to his normal form when Travis wasn't looking.
"A bit bland…" He extended his arm and summoned his own giant key but his was black with a much sleeker design and an inverted crown for the key end. "Oblivion is my personal favorite."
Unbeknownst to our heroes, the Shadow Allie mob (or what remained of it) had regained their footing and didn't look deterred in the slightest from putting up a fight. They hid themselves among the foliage, hoping to surprise and take them down, but their plan was doomed to fail as the predators soon became the prey.
Vines and roots grabbed them from every direction before flinging them skyward.
Looking up, Travis saw his adversaries ascending, descending, and then repeating it over again. The jungle was juggling, and Travis was sure there was a joke in there somewhere.
"Hey Bedlam, do you remember Duck Hunt for the NES?"
"How could I not? That damn dog always laughing at me for missing a shot annoyed the hell out of me!"
"Same here. So why don't we see if we've gotten better." Travis said before pointing his Kingdom Key to the sky.
Before Bedlam could reply, several Allies came from out of the brush and he was forced to defend himself. Travis ran to his aid and parried several nearly fatal blows aimed at his friend before cutting down his enemies with great prejudice.
Bedlam nodded in thanks before aiming up and sending bullets of light at the 'ducks' provided. Travis knew he'd have to keep anything off Bedlam's back until all the Allies were gone, or at least the ones in the air. His tail twitched in a mix of excitement and agitation. "Anyone who thinks stuff like this looks easy should get a swift kick in the nuts. Oh well…" Rolling his shoulders, he walked forward to face the next wave, whistling a tune as he went. "Showtime."
On the outside, Ivan had just finished dispatching the facilities last soldiers.
"Jeez. If this wasn't an outpost base, I'd probably have had more trouble. Don't want anything worse than these boogers on my trail." He mumbled to himself as he looked over the piles of bodies he left from the battle.
"Hey Oscar, you doing okay over there?! That corner is looking pretty good!"
Oscar had managed to crawl away with his injuries from earlier and plant himself behind a crate in the corner.
"I'm fine! But what about him?!" He yelled, pointing at Bedlam, his hand still inside the skull of the giant shadow beast before him.
"I dunno. He hasn't moved an inch since he first went in."
Looking at the monster, he felt something was familiar about it, but he couldn't quite place what it was. Whatever it was would have to wait until he could find and rescue Travis. Deactivating his Lost Driver, he returned to looking like he normally did and pulled his Gaia Memory out of the belt. Noticing that the Memory was cracked, he scoffed in aggravation. "Looks like another dud Memory. Damn."
While he was pondering on where he went wrong this time in the development of the Gaia Memory, a bright flash of light came from behind him. Turning to look, he saw the monsters' exterior began to crack before exploding outward with the sound of glass breaking. He raised his arm to shield his eyes from the sudden assault, but after the spots in his eyes subsided, what he found in the monster's place left him shocked.
It was Travis. Only, he had no large furry appendages like before. Excluding the fact that his hair remained stark white, he was pretty much back to normal.
Bedlam still had a hand on his head, while Travis himself sat with slumped shoulders, the pants he had been given were in tatters.
Ivan fell to his knees, and all the A.I. appeared in front of him, including someone new.
Alpha was the first to speak up.
"Looks like there's more to this than I thought. I got a glimpse of something in his head earlier, but who knew it'd lead to this?"
Looking at his latest fragment, he saw that she had a fiery look in her eyes...and considering her whole body looked to be on fire, that wasn't saying much.
She was Sigma. Creativity and ambition. She had a figure like an acrobat, lithe and flexible, while the flames surrounding her made up her 'clothes'. Her hair looked to be a softer flame of sorts and was tied in a loose pony tail near the end, and her eyes were a dark orange with gray pupils.
Sigma put a hand to her chin in thought. "You think he needs our help? I know I'm new and all, but something tells me we need to get in there."
Alpha nodded. "Great minds think alike. Ivan, plug us in." And with that said, they vanished.
Looking at his watch, Ivan removed the chip he had plugged into it. Walking around behind Travis, he lifted the hair covering his neck, revealing a small octagonal plate with a slot in the middle, the exact size of the chip.
Meanwhile, with Travis and Bedlam, the situation was still hectic as enemies surrounded them. Bedlam had shot down all the ones being tossed into the air by the plants, but that only lessened the number of adversaries by a small degree. With Keyblades in hand, the two stood back to back against the crowd of Allie copies. The situation had Bedlam chuckling a bit. Travis couldn't help but wonder what was so funny.
"You wanna let me in on the joke?"
"You might not think it Travis, but this is the most fun I've had in a while."
"Really?"
"Yeah! Getting to fight hundreds of shadowy clones all at once, I've got someone watching my back, the world isn't at stake, and I haven't gone into a rage fueled onslaught. This fight definitely cracks my top 20."
"Only if we survive it."
Bedlam chuckled. "You should not question my survivability my friend, I've walked away from way worse situations with a lot less blood. This will be easy by comparison."
"And how do we deal with the ever approaching mob of darkness?"
"Easy."
Bedlam raised Oblivion to the sky.
"Thundaga!"
Lighting came down from the sky and struck the crowd of Allie's, causing some to disappear and knocking most of them to the ground.
"Alright then, you take the 500 on the left, I'll take the 500 on the right." Travis said.
"Pfft, yeah right, I'm taking 501."
"That's the spirit."
And so Bedlam and Travis rushed back into the fight, cutting through wave after wave of shadow clones. They fought close to each other, sometimes following up each other's combos with dash attacks and rapid slashes. One would block while one attacks and together they became a nigh unstoppable force.
Bedlam threw his Oblivion blade surrounded by fire and it took out a large group of the shadows. He was about to celebrate but suddenly he felt a large pressure in his brain and he fell to the ground in pain.
"Bedlam!"
Travis rushed to his side and deflected the blows from other shadows while trying to get his friend back up.
"Are you okay?" Travis asked.
"Someone's… trying to break in…"
"What?"
"Someone else is trying to enter the dreamscape."
Cracks began to form on the ground where Bedlam and Travis were standing.
"Too much stuff going on. I can't… hold this form, can't… let them get in!"
Bedlam's eyes began to glow and he screamed to the skies, his power filled the air and started pushing the clones back with sheer force.
Meanwhile on the outside, the chip short circuited and Alpha came back out.
"What was that?" Ivan asked confused.
"Something forced us out, it's like he didn't want us to go in there. For now, we're stuck on the outermost layers of his mind. If we try and force our way in again...well, it wouldn't be pretty."
And inside, things weren't turning up roses for our heroes. Bedlam fell to his knees, holding onto Oblivion like a lifeline.
Keeping Alpha and the others from entering had cost him quite a lot of energy, and now he was too tired to defend himself. Travis couldn't help but feel worried at the worsening situation in front of him.
Bedlam was down, the Shadow Allie army was closing in every second, and now he had to fight them alone. He didn't know what to do now. Before, he was fighting on pure adrenaline, and Bedlam was feeding him ideas as they fought, if subtly.
Now he had to face the enemy on his own, and the adrenaline was waning.
Bedlam weakly stood, Oblivion still in hand. Raising his weapon, he cast a wide area Reflega spell to hold the dark forces back for a little longer.
"So...what are you gonna do now?"
Travis couldn't help but ask himself the same thing. What WAS he going to do now? He was out numbered immensely, and his backup was on his knees again, tired and near breathless. Bedlam chuckled at the look on his friend's face.
"Why so worried? You've got this."
Travis looked at Bedlam in anger. "How?! How do I have ANY of this under control?! You're close to passing out, they're about to break through the barrier you made, and I have no idea how we're going to get out of this alive!"
After that, they just stared at each other, Bedlam smiling, and Travis looking nearly defeated. The situation kept getting worse, and it was taking its toll on the traumatized boy. Travis fell to his knees, his eyes directly in line with Bedlam's gaze.
They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity before Bedlam spoke up, his tone soft and understanding.
"Feeling better yet?"
"...yeah."
No man, no matter how strong, was immune to stress. Letting out your frustration was something absolutely necessary to stay sane, and Bedlam knew this well. He had seen the same look in Travis' eyes that he once had himself. Had Travis not let out his stress in some form, it would've killed them both in their current situation.
Standing up, Travis surveyed the current surroundings and began calculating everything down to the last detail from what he could see. "Well, I've got good news and I've got bad news."
"What's the good news?"
"I may just have a way out of this where we both come out on top."
"And the bad news?"
"It's after Labor Day and I'm going to wear white."
Bedlam couldn't help himself after that. Even in his weakened state, he fell onto his back, laughing up a storm. Travis was returning to his former self.
Smiling at his friends' enjoyment, he turned his gaze to the enemy forces that were chipping away the barrier. They were many, but he had a distinct advantage that he had been ignoring since the start of the fight. Now that he had calmed himself down, he was berating himself for not utilizing this advantage more than just with the change in environments. Stretching his arms out, Kingdom Key disappeared from his grasp before being replaced with a suspicious looking cane.
The barrier suddenly collapsed, letting the Allie copies swarm the two from all sides.
The army closed in, and were no more than 10 feet from them before everything stopped. They just froze. Bedlam looked around at the horde of Allies. His confusion didn't last long as his wandering eyes cast themselves on Travis again, and what he saw had him grinning from ear to ear.
Travis stood tall, his white hair complimenting his new outfit. He was now sporting white corduroy pants, white semi-formal shoes, a button up light gray shirt, and a long ivory coat. He looked completely human in appearance, all his furry bits were gone, but didn't lessen the intimidation he let off.
"Time is something that shows on everything, whether living or inanimate." Travis spoke, his voice smooth and dangerous.
"No more hope, no rewinds, no turning back…" Bedlam extended his arm. "Take my hand, let the last of my power fuel your great efforts."
Travis took his hand, as he did he could feel pure energy flow into him, the energy of chaos, the energy of 1000's of years of life, the energy of a god at his fingertips... his eyes filled with light.
"This is the power that time possesses..." He said with an almost ethereal voice.
Bedlam felt the power connected to him too, like two batteries sharing a charge he felt Travis' will overtake him and point him in a direction.
"The unstoppable force that nothing can escape from…"
The glow surrounded the two of them and lifted them up into the air.
"Let this force end your existence…"
"And scatter your memories into the winds of the universe!"
Their glow intensified, growing brighter and brighter until the both of them were ready to unleash it.
"CHRONO PHANTASMA!" They cried out in unison.
A giant gear appeared underneath the mob of Allie's, the symbol of the Azure Grimoire. Once its power had control over all of them it changed to a clock face, the hands on that face kept spinning faster and faster until they became a blur.
When the blur stopped all the Allies came back to reality, but they didn't attack. Instead they looked at themselves and saw them turning to dust, they screamed in primal rage and pain as all of them turned into dust and scattered back into the infinite dream realm never to be seen again.
When the attack was over the energy that surrounded Travis and Bedlam disappeared and the both of them fell to the ground, utterly exhausted but smiling because they had won. Victory hadn't come easy, but it was theirs to cherish.
Laughing to himself, Travis extended a fist which Bedlam bumped in kind, a symbol of their friendship. "So...was that cool?"
Bedlam raised an eyebrow with a wry smile on his face. "Are you kidding? That was badass! I haven't felt power like that since me and Luna...well, you know how fusion works, right?"
Travis just nodded and stared around him, noticing that the surroundings had returned to a clock tower setting, but this one looked more ethereal in nature. Gears turned in midair, connected to many interconnected devices that surrounded just as many staircases. The walls were gone, and in their place was what looked like swirling, twisting, and turning blue energy, its appearance calming in some way.
"Looks like that last attack did a little redecorating. I wonder...what else do you think changed?" He asked Bedlam.
"Couldn't say, but how's about you investigate another time? We should probably get out of here. Ivan's probably worried sick."
"But...how do we...WAIT! Don't tell me. I gotta wake up, right?"
And then he was hit in the head with a golf club. Hefting said club over his shoulder, Bedlam saw everything around him start to fade.
"He'll thank me when he wakes up. That was faster than exposition about dreamscape theory anyway."
Soon the floors, the clock tower, and everything else that surrounded them began to fade. Even Travis' body turned to dust and once he was safely out it was Bedlam's turn to follow.
The duo woke up back in reality shortly afterwards with all of their comrades surrounding them, the wounds they had acquired in the dream world did not carry over but they were still exhausted.
Ivan leaned over the duo. "You boys alright?"
Travis let out a sigh of relief. "I feel sore, but that was an incredible experience."
Bedlam let out a laugh. "That's not the first time someone's said those exact words to me. Of course the context was different, but still…"
It took a moment for Travis to understand what he said, but when he did he had a question.
"Wait, so you…"
Bedlam just gave him a cocky smirk. "Who do you think I learned the dream walking skill from?
Travis gasped. "No way."
Bedlam nodded. "Oh yeah, I'm getting mooned all the time if you catch my drift."
Authors Note
And that's the official end of Chapter 9! I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did writing it with my buddy spiderwilliam13. Admittedly, this took a lot longer than expected, but life got in the way for both of us, so I hope you can forgive the wait. Chapter 10 will be coming out over the next few weeks, and with it, a return to where this story started! Stay tuned and don't blink!