Dream World

Chapter 13

Cool breeze shifted and moved the long blonde hair of a girl that was completely alone underneath a giant, maple tree. The fall season colored the brilliant leaves of this tree ember, topaz, and bright peridot making it more than a natural and beautiful sight. The girl slept peacefully under this large tree within the protection of its roots and under the shade of its appendages that stretched across the sky and her body was cradled in the soft mounds of its fallen leaves. She wore an opal colored dress of satin that raised no higher than her knees and its sleeves only covered one of her shoulders, almost in a Roman-aged fashion. The grass surrounding the area in which she slept resembled the plains of Africa and stood about calf height in its light beige color, almost hiding the young woman completely from anyone's immediate view. However, someone did spot her slumbering there battled with themselves whether or not they should wake her. This was not a light decision by any means, because the tree in which she slept under represented something important and had different appearances for anyone in the same situation as the young woman and had two very grave and life-changing consequences need a decision be made.

If roused from her sleep, she would face pain and confusion of the heart, suffer a betrayal from someone she favored, as well as heartbreak that would surely haunt her for the rest of her years. On the brighter side though, she would find love in not only one place, but two and have fierce protectors that would do anything for her. She would find something that has been hidden from her her whole childhood and young adult life, connect with that person and become that person's best friend as well as an ally. If left alone, she would remain there for however long the young woman herself wished, which could be for decades or very well forever. Most of the time people in this situation never knew there was such an important decision to be made, and slept their lives away completely and only opened their eyes when death arrived.

It was knowing all of this that the woman watching was hesitant to raise her hand and lay it on the younger woman's head. If she woke her then it would be all of her fault for the pain she would go through, including the fate to be plagued by the dark shadow of her family. The elder woman prayed the younger would be strong enough to persist and resist the temptation of self-destruction, despite finding out the identity of her family line, continue the want to live. It should all be fine...she's strong like her mother once was when she was young.

:::

Blue eyes opened gently to soft hands caressing her face. She had half the mind to swat them away but didn't considering the gentle massage was lovely and meant no harm.

"Wake up child, you must. I don't have a lot of time to stay here with you, and you don't belong here"

The words of another woman floating into Lili's ears made her sit up faster than she meant to, startling and upsetting the mound of autumn leaves around her as she looked for the source. There in front of her, sitting calmly on a huge root of a tree near her, was a slender and tall woman wearing a strapless, deep red dress that flowed along the ground around her. She bore a strong resemblance to Lili's mother and the subtle fact made the young girl's eyes well up softly with tears. The signature silver/blue-ish hue to her eyes was the trademark of her family, as well as the height and blonde hair, except the woman's in front of her had her's cut shoulder length neatly and no bangs to speak of. Needless to say, she was nothing less than striking and Lili found herself unable to look away.

Although she had the appearance of being around the age of mid-twenties, there was a look of wisdom within her eyes that told Lili she could trust her fully, but still she had to know, "Who are you?" she asked breathlessly.

The woman smiled lightly in no particular direction, "My name is Alexa"

Lili nodded to the woman in acknowledgement and felt a warm blush of embarrassment creeping onto her face, "Well...my name is Emilie, Emilie de Rochefort"

Alexa smiled even and wider and turned to finally face the product Lilian made with that man, and was pleased. Before the girl even had a chance to react, she was sitting next to her in her pile of leaves, reaching out her hand and gently cupping the younger woman's chin and tilting her face this way and that. Alexa ran her fingers through Lili's hair in mild delight and picked leaves out of her scalp with her other hand, until she returned her hands back to her side and smiled at her once she realized she was making the young girl wary of her rather than comfortable.

"You and your mother could be twins. I could almost say you have none of your father in you, but you have his eyes. Nothing to worry though, it enhances all the prettiness of your face" Alexa said with a slight laugh.

A pang in Lili's chest at the mention of her mother, made some of the tears that had left a couple minutes ago return and she wiped them away before they had the chance to fall. The woman in front of her, Alexa, talked about her mother as if she knew her personally and looked like her except for the minor differences that made her who she was and not a photo copy of Lilian herself. If she wasn't crazy right now, she could say that she might be a relative on her mother's side, but she knew that to her knowledge of them that they were all gone. No aunts, no uncles, her mother was an only child just as she was.

"How do you know her?" Lili found herself asking.

Alexa smiled a bit wider, showing a hint of her sparkling teeth with pride, "I raised her of course"

Her grandmother. This woman was her...grandmother? But how? "But..how can you-

"Do you know where you are, child?" Alexa asked. She wasn't surprised when Lili suddenly stopped mid-sentence to look around her and shake her head, "this is a place you created, or rather, we're inside your mind right now"

The younger blonde blinked slowly to herself and her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. How the hell could they be in her own mind? And if what Alexa was saying was right, then how could she be here in a domain that only belonged to her? The older woman could see the questions written all over her grand-daughter's face and she decided to liberate her from them.

"I passed when your mother was maybe a few years older than you, and ever since then I've been watching over the two of you in spirit. Because you are now closer to death than you'll perhaps ever be in your lifetime except when it's time for you to move on yourself, is how I come to be here to speak to you right now" she explained.

Lili's mouth fell open in mild shock, memories of the blinding light from the car that side-swiped her as she was crossing the street to find..."So that means...I'm in a coma, trapped inside my own mind, but...I'm alive"

Alexa nodded silently and Lili groaned and leaned her head back on the bark of the tree behind her, it was all still a little hard for her to believe.

"Do you not remember where exactly you've seen this place before?" the older woman asked while gesturing to the beautiful scenery around them.

Lili was caught within the beauty of the place before acknowledging that she was asked a question. "The painting.." she murmured more to herself, "there's a painting in the hallway of my home and this is it..."

Alexa nodded and smiled faintly as she gazed out into the open fields of the area, "Your mother was an amazing painter even at a young age, and it seems you have a wonderful imagination if you're able to make it come alive like this"

The two of them sat in equal comfortable silence, taking in the scenery around them before Alexa bristled and stood silently, looking about the place with a concerned look on her face. Lili stood with her and followed her around as she seemed to search the distance for something.

"What's going on?" Lili asked.

"Someone's here" Alexa muttered gravely

The young blonde's eyes grew wide, "How is that even-

"I don't have the time to really explain it, but I need you to leave this place..." she ordered, "this person is dangerous and they could possibly kill you"

Lili paled in the face and all of her thought process stopped, "How do I even-"

"Use that beautiful head of yours child, think of another place that you favor and you'll go there. Remember, this is your head and you alone control what happens. I can alter things, but I can't do much. Now go"

She turned to leave, but she had to know something before she left. "Will I see you again?"

Alexa turned to face her and smiled, reaching for her grand-daughter and kissing her lightly on her forehead. "Maybe in your dreams if you leave your mind open enough, but you won't remember"

"This is stupid," Kazuya shouted, "you have no idea what it could mean for you if you do this!"

Angry silver eyes flashed as a rage like no other exploded beneath them, a look he wasn't to use to. "I know what I'm doing Kazuya. It's been ten years since and there's no way I can back out of this, it's too late for that now" she said with a slight grimace.

She was shoving things quickly into a black bag, silver clips with hollow points inside, protective vests (but none of them for her), knives, and what seemed to be poisoned darts. The gun in which those bullets belonged to was somewhere on her person and for the life of him he couldn't remember where she had hidden it. Her long, blonde hair was put into a high ponytail and sashayed along the middle of her back as she made her movements swift, keen, and with purpose. She was removing whatever important trace of her that was written on paper by burning it with a metal lighter that he let her use and anything he said along the lines of her stopping what she was doing earned him venomous words. So he only stood there, leaning against the wall of her office in Mishima Co. and watching her move about the room almost frantically. Something in his chest was burning terribly and he knew that was just him being irrationally angry at her for making a life-threatening decision without a second thought for anyone who cared about her. It was selfish and self-less all at the same time. Honestly he hated her. Kazuya didn't think he would ever get the chance to hate someone before (other than his own father, who hadn't croaked yet), but it turned out he hated the woman in front of him. God how he hated and loved her at the same time.

She turned to face him all of a sudden, and the look on his face caught her attention for a moment. His gaze was not returned as she turned her back on him and continued to clear her desk of every single piece of paper that tied her to Mishima Co. and its dealings. All of her personal items were in her main office at Celeste Beauty Products and she would have to discard those as well or return them back home where Edward would surely know what to do with all her stuff. All she knew is that nothing of herself could be left for anyone to find that would paint the people she cared deeply for in guilty colors.

Everything was cleared out and removed after fifteen minutes with the help of two of her bodyguards, whom she thanked graciously in french and dismissed them until she sought them out to leave. The office looked just as empty and bare as it was before Kazuya decided that it would suit her if she wanted it so she didn't have to travel back and forth between her office and his with her work stuff, it would all be right here. The black felt couch that sat against the left side of the room and the large red-wood desk that took up most of the space in the room were the only things left in the room at the moment, except for the lone picture frame of Lilian and her toddler, Lili, that she didn't seem very forthcoming in trying to take with her. She would gaze at it frequently, and an emotion akin to guilt would pass underneath her eyes but would pass just as quickly as it came.

"Are you happy now?" Kazuya spoke quietly, "the very idea that you may never see her again doesn't bother you at all?"

It was nightfall already, and everyone in Mishima Co. was gone already. The silence of the building echoed off the walls of every empty corridor and abandoned cubicle into this very room with only the two of them in it. He could hardly look at her, at her sad eyes that widened a bit at the edges, at her mouth that was upturned in a defeated frown, and at her hands that shook uncontrollably at times where she thought he wasn't looking at her. The truth was written all over her body, she was terrified by whatever it was waiting for her on the other side of the door leading out of here.

She went to move pass him, collecting her heavy bag that held parts of weapons and things she needed for the night, and meant to just leave without saying a word to him. As if she couldn't bear the thought or stand his presence any longer and an anger like no other rose in him like a wave, the way her silver eyes rolled over and passed over his head as if he were a child that didn't understand anything and could do nothing to stop whatever was going to happen. Before one of her heeled black boots even got to the threshold of the door to his left he took the chance to take both of her arms and whip her around to face him, watching her face turn from surprise to quiet reluctance to where she couldn't look at him, taking the easy way out and letting her bangs cover her eyes.

"Think, just for a second, about your family" he whispered harshly while tightening his grip on her arms slightly, God he just wanted to shake her, "are you really going to just...abandon them?!"

Her eyes snapped to his and her mouth twisted up, "I could never do that to them willingly and you know that! This is the only way to protect them from what I'm doing and this is how I ensure that no one I've burned goes storming into my home and slitting their throats while I'm not there to prevent that from happening"

He understood where she was coming from, he truly did, but the mission she was about to embark on was utter suicide. "And I'm telling you that I could-

She shook herself out of his grasp and walked away from him, putting both of her hands on the desk in the middle of the room and letting her hair fall over her shoulder. "You can't do anything, and I'm not doubting your ring of connections, but I don't want you to do anything to help me whatsoever. If you didn't have people that love you and look up to you then maybe, but no. I can't let you and out of respect for me, which I know you have, you won't do anything unless I absolutely allow you to" she stated flatly.

Kazuya halted his words and glared at her back. There was another reason why he hated her. She was logical and precise, and offered clear cut opinions that no one could honestly argue against unless it happened to be him. At the point in time though, he didn't have an argument, she had stolen it from him before he even had the chance to use it. That's why he hated her deeply to his core. She was completely right and he knew, but he also knew that anything permanent to fall on her head because of what she was about to do wasn't something she was ready to handle. Like separation from her family by death. It was something that put such a fear in her that she could no longer hold the graceful and cool composure that she once had. Raw emotions that he'd never saw from her before were easily seen, and there was no longer any way for her to hide them. The fear that had heart in its grip was the possibility that she'll never see her daughter again.

He would hear the way she would speak to her over the phone, a toddler only speaking complete gibberish, and yet the bright smile that appeared on her face and the hard laughter that would bring tears to her eyes was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen from her. The love she had for her only child engulfed every aspect of her life, so much so that she was willing to do anything to ensure her future.

"I saw them the other day," she spoke with a softer tone, "your family"

Kazuya's eyes trailed to her back once more.

"I was about to get in my car to drive back here and I noticed the both of them picking out various vegetables and meats at a food stand" she chuckled a little in memory, "I could even tell you what you had for dinner that night because that's just how long I stared at the two of them"

He couldn't help the small smile that was slowly edging at the corner of his mouth, his family often got looks when he took them out somewhere.

"They're beautiful. Your wife and son. He's a little bundle of joy and he looks just like you, and her...I can see why she caught your eyes in the first place," she said while tracing objects into the table in front of her, "there's no way I would be able to forgive myself if I turned out to be the reason why you don't go back home to them, that would be cruel even for me"

Kazuya was defeated. Now his argument really meant absolutely nothing. It was cruel of him to even offer to assist her with something so dangerous, just to know there was a chance that he would possibly never come back right along with her meant that he was more enamored with her than he originally thought. It was a bit of an eye-opener to know that even at the idea that his family would grieve for him because he decided to run off with the woman in front of him meant something. It meant he was really the demon that slept within him.

There she stood with a hand covering her mouth as she weeped into it, wearing all black, in tight cargo pants and a long-sleeved shirt that showed a bit of cleavage, and black heeled boots. A mother about to go into war with no parting words to the love of her life, and he would be the last one to see her. His strides were long and quick and he had her in his arms before she could do or say anything else, kissing her while gently wiping her tears away with both of his thumbs. She returned his kiss openly and fully almost embracing all of him with the way she received and returned his kisses.

He leaned his body weight more onto her, forcing her to lean further back on the desk and give him more access to her thighs that spread just for him.

Black was just along the edges of Jin's vision as he struggled to stay awake. His chin rested on top of his knuckles and his long lashes fluttered against the temptation of sleep. He could feel eyes on him as well, enhanced hearing that made the fit of giggles from the female nurses outside of the door more apparent as they watched the sleepy prince guard over his sleeping queen. He wanted to shoo them off with a look, but the constant nodding of his head to drift off to sleep was too strong.

He felt himself falling off into the familiar abyss and he accepted the feeling with open arms, a couple minutes wouldn't hurt, and afterwards he would go home and rest properly. For now though, he would just doze and see where his sub-conscious mind takes him. What most people didn't know about him was that he was a sometimes frequent dream walker. It was something he could exactly control nor stop from happening if it decided to happen on its own, but when it did he was often amused and surprised by what he was really thinking at times.

The dream walking started when he was young, maybe around the age of twelve or thirteen, and he first discovered he could completely recall most of his dreams and sometimes even make decisions within them as if it were reality, and if he really concentrated then he could control what it was he dreamed about. The older he got the less he started to care and he realized there was absolutely no time to worry about it anymore and just left it to utter random which eventually led to him losing the control over it he once had.

Like now, when he was least expecting for something like this to happen, it happened and he found himself standing in pitch darkness with his train of thought completely open to him. He tested it and sighed deeply when he acknowledge to himself that he was dreaming, or at least about to until he could filter out the things running through his mind and at least pick out what it was he wished to see. Before any suggestion was able to make any kind of head way however, Jin noticed the darkness start to take shape and slowly color into what seemed like would become broad landscape. His eyebrows scrunched in confusion as he realized he hadn't thought of anything, yet the image around him was something he hadn't thought of nor seen before. He was dreaming yes, and completely aware that he was, but what was starting to form and shape in front of him didn't feel like his own.

The landscape surrounding him suddenly cleared and his eyes widened at the scenery around him. The sky above him was a dim pink-ish orange and the sun was setting somewhere far away. He stood in an open field with beige colored tall grass that tickled his calves, and his bare feet crunched in autumn colored leaves with every step. It was all so real and vivid that it almost frightened him. He looked down at his hands, examined them, and did the same to the rest of his body, even going so far as to attempt to wake himself up but he knew there was no hope to do that now. The hazy feeling he got pinching himself on the cheek did nothing but made the muscle cramp up in reality, which did nothing to disturb the slumbering male. He grumbled something to himself and shoved his hands in his pockets, raised his eyebrows in surprise, and looked down to find himself wearing completely different attire than the one he fell asleep in. He wore billowy, white shorts that stopped right above his knees, and a just as equally comfortable short-sleeved white shirt. It made him scratch the back of his head in confusion, but seeing the dream out to the end always satiated his curiosity and ignorance so that's what he planned to do...starting with the trail of autumn leaves leading towards a massive tree in the distance.

The closer he walked towards the tree, the more his size seemed to diminish in comparison. Something this huge and elaborate with heavy detail worked into one singular object was no work of his own mind he knew, and the more he approached it the more he felt like an intruder. The beauty of it was eye-catching enough to keep Jin's attention away from the soft conversation between two people coming from the other side and on the vibrant color of the leaves that seemed to fall from its branches in slow motion and lay on the ground without a sound. A twig snapping off to his right brought him out of his awe, to spot a woman peering at him from the side of the tree. She stood tall and graceful on the twisting and tangled roots of the giant tree and stared at him with a predatory gaze that made him stand still as if he had been caught doing something he shouldn't have. Her deep red dress draped over the root she stood on top of and stretched up her torso and curved over her breast to cover them in a lady-like fashion, and her blonde hair was cut neatly to settle just around the area past her shoulders. Silver eyes bore into his as she seemed to judge him without saying anything and the only thought that seemed to be running through his head at the moment was the resemblance to the portrait of the woman in Lili's home, her mother.

He blinked and he almost stumbled back as she was standing right in front of him, glaring at him as if he had murdered her newborn child straight from the cradle.

"Dream-walker..." she hissed.

He wanted to open his mouth to speak, but the hair on the back of his neck started to raise unexpectedly. Nothing seemed out of place with her, yet his body was reacting furiously towards her and he had no idea why. Soon, even the hairs on his arms stood on end and his pupils began to dilate as the setting around him changed drastically from the beautiful field he once saw, to a place where only a nightmare would reside. The grass bled black and turned into ash with every hesitant step he took backwards, and the tree that once captured his attention now twisted up its roots and all the life it seemed to illuminate went away with a whisp of a stench that smelled like death.

"There is absolutely nothing stronger than the power of the mind, dream-walker..." a female voice whispered to him.

He looked around for the source and found none, where had that woman gone? She was just standing in front of him a few moments ago and there was no where else for her to go that quickly without him noticing. He backed into something hard and he swiveled around faster than he meant to and almost losing his balance. There standing behind him was the woman he saw earlier, but it couldn't be. What stood in front of him now was nothing short of a monster. Something that could only be conjured from the deepest fear someone had personified, and it definitely wasn't his own, but it got the job done in completely making him lose all color in his face. Teeth that only a fish from the bottom of the ocean could have, flesh the color of molten coal, and nails like talons from a bird of paradise. A tail whipped furiously behind the creature and Jin's eyes widened as he dived out of the way from it striking out at him but catching his ankle instead to drag him closer. His breath came out labored and uneven as he met the creature from the ground up and he found himself frozen in the angry gaze of silver pupils. She descended upon him, landing her massive weight onto his pelvis and sucking the breath right from him as she leaned in close to devour her prey whole. Her jaws opened slowly and broke at awkward angles so she could fit most of his head in, before a certain scent caught her reeling to a stop. A guttural growl went through her body and Jin felt a crawl go up his back as cold, taloned hands reached for the collar of his shirt and pull it down to reveal the mark along his collarbone.

An angry hiss could be heard and all the weight from his person was lifted as the beautiful blue sky and gentle wind returned, as well as the tall beige grass. The natural fear in him went away, but the feeling of foreboding did not. He couldn't help but feel as if the landscape around him was just a curtain to hide its nightmarish alter ego.

"Stupid girl..." the voice sighed with disappointment, "you won't remember this dream-walker, for your sake I hope we don't meet again"

Jin could hear a shattering noise, like glass, and the sky above him literally fell on top of him. He felt himself falling into a pit of complete darkness and then he woke up, his head shooting up from his knuckles that left an imprint in his cheek. His head pounded with pain akin to a hangover and he felt as nauseous as a habitual drinker. The back of his throat throbbed painfully and a rush feeling coming from the pit of his stomach sent him running towards the nearby bathroom in the room with a hand covering his mouth. He fell to his knees in front of the porcelain toilet and his body wasted no time in emptying its contents within the bowl. After flushing the waste away, he stumbled over to the sink and used it to support his weight as put both of his hands on it while looking at his reflection in the mirror. Sluggish was the word he could say that he was feeling openly and he looked just as much of the word as he felt. His hair was atrocious and no amount of running his hands through it did anything to help him, his clothes were disheveled and wrinkled, and because he slept on his hand it looked like someone socked him right under his jaw. It was bruised and blotchy red thanks to the constant pressure from his own fist. He sighed and bent down to splash cool water on his face and rinse out his mouth from the taste of bile, once he was done, he grabbed paper towels and patted his face down dry and discarded them.

He opened the closed bathroom door and walked through the threshold and was met first with the sight of Lili laying still in her hospital bed, her golden mane long and flowing over her shoulder as she slept peacefully. His eyes lingered over her for a bit longer until he turned and left out of her room for the night, God he needed more sleep.

Jin completely missed the way her eyelids fluttered slightly while they were closed.

A/N: Before I even start the news stuff in this area, I first want to thank Cat-chan who sadly hasn't made a profile so I can PM her my thanks :/ she has kept me going with this for longer than expected and the rest of you who have done the same has gotten a PM from me, you know who you are :). To everyone else who wasn't mentioned, you are NOT forgotten and I haven't overlooked you guys either. You guys get a big ole' thank you from me as well so thank you, thank you, thank you!

Now to the news stuff! If you're down here reading this stuff, thank you for that too. Two new updates are going to be put on my profile, one in the fictional character area for Alexa Celeste and in the visonal area for the dress she wore when Lili first met her. I don't want to confuse or overwhelm you guys with her constant appearance anywhere while there's already Lilian who's fictional, and the fictional version of Lili's father as well. I don't know about the bulk of you, but I know that some readers may get annoyed when an author keeps adding characters of their own creation into the story. If this is not the case with you guys, let me know in a review and I'll sprinkle a little bit of Alexa in some areas that would make sense and not throw you guys off. Another thing to clear up is that in the story I mentioned Jin being able to "dream-walk" or in other words, more or less being able to somewhat control what he dreams about and so forth. I planned to throw this little idea in from the very beginning, this is not something that just magically and spontaneously came to my mind while eating food, I've been slowly developing how it would turn out since...chapter four. Slowly, but surely this concept has been working its way to its semi-climax and here it is. Revealing the truth about it in later chapters will tie up a lot of loose ends in this story, and happens to be the unique factor in this story. Also, "dream-walking" as I call it, is a real thing and people can actually do it! In my case, I can't control it whatsoever, it either happens or it doesn't but I don't try to force it. You can look up more information about it or witness accounts on Google, I just happened to grow curious about it one day and searched for some answers.

**Alert** Sadly, my power will be going off tomorrow and won't be coming back on until Friday, which is why I uploaded this chapter today so you guys won't have to wait so long. Just know that I won't be able to make any head way with chapter fourteen until Friday. Nothing is stopping, just my progress of writing due to terrible weather and bad electricity routing in this building -.- the notice went out yesterday.

**Fun Fact** I changed the name for this chapter three times. It went from Dream World, to Sacrificial Lamb, to The Land of Dreams, back to Dream World. For the life of me I could not make up my mind.

As usual, thank you all for reading and reviewing and don't be afraid to help me out with mistakes either or just things in the story you don't like. We're all on the same team here, and I apologize for this author's note being so damn long there was just a lot of things to cover before I ended it, Happy Reading! ~Sasusakui