It takes them an hour, but they finally make it back to the Dream Gate. Xavier gently sets Nights on the grass near the lake on the first level, "He's in bad shape guys..."
He really did look bad. Most of his clothes were burnt and some of his face as well. His breathing was shallow and slow in between.
Helen hugs Claris, "What do we do?" She begins to cry. Will is fighting back his own tears.
"Oh, NiGHTs..." Owl looks at his friend sadly, "Hang in there, old friend."
"Try taking off the burnt clothes" Molly tried to keep herself and everyone else calm "I'll let him use my jacket"
They take off the burnt vest, shirt, gloves, and boots.
"We should dampen these clothes, and set them on the burns," says Elliot. Which they do. Xavier then notices the shard in NiGHTs chest...The Ideya was dim, it lacked lust and color like it had before.
"Oh no..."
NiGHTs was in trouble. Xavier looks at the others, "Guys, NiGHTs shard of courage is dim..."
"What's that mean?" Molly asked.
"It not only gave him courage, Molly, it merged with him. It is permanently a part of him, and right now it is very dim...NiGHTs is barely alive..." Xavier's shoulders begin to shake, "And it's all my fault..."
Everyone gives him a group hug and for the first time in 30 years, Xavier weeps. His tears sparkling as they fall next to NiGHTs, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
The others try to comfort him as best they could.
They have done all they can for NiGHTs...and the painful game of waiting begins.
...
Meanwhile, back with Reala... He was slowly pulling himself out of the rubble. He looks around and sees that the other Nightmarens that were there had fled back to Nightmare.
"Cowards" Reala growled under his breath. Xavier's words suddenly came back to haunt him. "I have already done something to you..."
But what? What is that it that dreamer hinted to have done to him? For once in his lifetime, he felt truly frightened.
"What did you do?!" He punched the ground and shouts to the air. Silence was his only answer.
Reala grinds his knuckle into the dirt in frustration. A thought then occurs to him, What if he was bluffing?
Yes that's it, that freak just wanted to psych him out and make him release NiGHTS. He had freaked out over nothing! Usually, He gets under peoples' skin, not the other way around!
He's going to pay. And pay dearly...
Reala gets up and brushes himself off. At least the portals are staying up. Perhaps he could take out the dreamers...in their sleep.
He smiles and flies into the air and though one of the portals.
...
The dreamers watch over NiGHTs very carefully...But none more so than Molly.
Just watching each rise of his chest, she holds on to one of his hands and squeezes to try and reassure herself. Xavier, meanwhile, is trying to wake himself up, so he can get NiGHTs to a hospital.
Owl watches the saddened Visitors from his perch in the tree. "Please, NiGHTs, don't give up."
Claris and Helen work together and get the clothes wet and reapply them to the burns when they started to dry out. Elliot checks NiGHTs breathing every once in a while, "I wish there was more we could do..." "
"Me too" Will says quietly.
Soon, Xavier begins to fade. He looks at Molly, and smiles sadly, "I will be right back."
"Hurry please"
Daianala wakes up with a start, and holds his head, "W-What happened?" He looks at himself, a robot again but there wasn't time to waste right now.
He remembers NiGHTs, and tries to activate his warping ability on a nearby mirror. It doesn't work the first few tries, but after like the 7th it sputters to life.
He goes through, coming out of the waterfalls reflection in the Dream Gate, his eyes glowing an icy blue. The dreamers quickly get to their feet "We have to hurry"
Daianala nods, and gently scoops up NiGHTs into his arms, "Where should I go?"
"With the Nightmarens it's to dangerous to go to the bigger hospitals, there's a small one near the park by the school. Jonson Medical it's a tan building."
"Alright, wake up as soon as you can." He flies towards a portal in the reflection on the lake.
"I wish to go with you," Says Owl.
"We wish too Owl but we promise to come as soon as we can"
"I insist," Says Owl, and without another word, glides onto Daianala's shoulder.
Daianala, knowing there wasn't time to argue, flies through the portal, and emerges once more from the lake in the park.
He quickly flies into the hospital. Right after he does, people begin to see Nightmarens fall from the portals around the globe. Daianala rushes to the desk, "I need a doctor, NOW!"
The lady at the desk mouth drops in surprise and she looks behind her "We need a stretcher stat!"
A man with a stretcher runs out. Daianala sets NiGHTs onto it gently, and looks at the people, "I will go guard the door from the Nightmarens."
Owl sits next to NiGHTs on the stretcher, "It will be all right, NiGHTs."
They start to look him over looking confused as they do. Owl looks at the doctors, "What is wrong, Humans."
"We're at a lost how to treat him" "Start by treating those burns..."
"That's not what we're refering to um Mister Owl" "'Owl' will do, but what seems to be the problem?"
"To put it simply, we never treated outside of humans"
"Try, please, he is barely alive." "Alright" And they get to work. Owl watches them, while Dianala keeps a constant vigil by the front door.
"How are the stats?" "Holding sir"
"Please hold on, NiGHTs..."
"Bring me some more antibacterial"
Daianala soon spots the others. "Excuse me did you see a jester with a Owl-" They point "Oh you did, thanks"
He gives them a fleeting smile, "Glad you could make it..." "How is he?"
"No better...no worse..."
They looked worried "Well still alive that's good" "But he hasn't woken UP!" Daianala punches through a wall, his eyes glowing red in frustration.
"Calm down Xavier, he's still alive that's something to be happy about"
"For how much longer? His life is on the edge of a knife, if it falters, even the slightest bit..." He doesn't finish, as his hands clench into fists.
"The doctors are working thier best, give them a break they haven't had to deal with dream beings before." Molly puts a hand on his shoulder.
Daianala pulls away from her, glaring at her.
"Xavier..."
Elliot gets an idea, "What if we turned NiGHTs back into August again, like the other night?"
"That might make things easier for the doctors"
"Daianala, could you do this for us? I know you are still punishing yourself for this, but none of us could have predicted this," Says Elliot, "You did what you could, and you got him away from Nightmare."
"They probably would of killed him right away"
Daianala calms himself, and takes a bunch of air into his engines, a robotic version of a sigh, "Alright...Sorry I snapped, Molly..." He closes his eyes, and concentrates.
And in a flash August is in the place NiGHTS, you could see surprise in the doctors face but also a bit of relief.
"I think you can treat him now," Says Owl with a small smile.
...
Nearly at the same instant, Reala feels a sharp pain in his chest. He stops and holds it tightly, letting out a small gasp of pain. Somewhere deep inside him, he feels something beginning to grow within the shadows of his being.
"What is going on?" He rubs his chest in confusion.
The changes die down almost as quickly as they had come, to Reala's relief. But...he feels...different.
Like there was a void inside him, was being filled with something..."What's happening to me?"
His minds starts spinning a bit. Reala stands on his feet and leans against a wall, starting to feel very dizzy. His knees are wobbly and can barely support him up any longer.
He soon regains his composure when he sees Nightmarens beginning to cause havoc in the town, not wanting his reputation ruined.
Reala stands up as straight as he could and gave a menacing glare. The Nightmarens seem to be fooled by this. They just went along destroying buildings, cars and just about anything possible while they were scareing the living daylights out of people.
For some reason, Reala didn't enjoy it as much as he thought he would. For some odd reason, he began to think of this from the humans' point of view.
Seeing all of this destruction and fear he started getting this odd sense of sadness, like this just hurt to watch.
He tries to shake his head clear, then starts getting angry at Xavier..."What have you done?..."'
"Focus on the anger, forget those other feelings. Don't let them take you."
It starts to rain. Clouds block out the daylight. Reala looks up at the sky, feeling the rain as it fell on his mask and face. The rain here wasn't different from rain in his world but why did it feel so new? Like he never had felt it before? As if he never seen rain fall from the dark storm clouds?
Should he tell Master Wiseman of this? A flare of defiance told him that he rather not.
The rain begins to fall harder, and claws of lightning rip through the sky. Thunder crashes above it sounds echoing all around.
By now, the jester is soaking wet, and the lower Nightmarens have moved on, leaving him alone. Reala suddenly hears something through the rain...crying.
Where was it coming from?
He looks around, and spots a little 7-year old girl hiding beside an overturned car. She is completely drenched. When he comes closer her head shoots up and her eyes are filled with fear.
She backs away slightly, cold and frightened. Reala just stares at her, she was afraid. And he didn't like it?
At least get her out of the rain. He leans down and tries to speak calmly "Hey why don't you get out of the rain?"
She cowers away from him into a corner, and begins to cry again.
Why wouldn't she listen to him? She could freeze out here. That's when he saw his reflection in one of the car windows, and realizes just how scary he looks to the poor child.
But wait, since when did he care about humans, such pathetic lifeforms...he looks back at the little girl.
She should freeze if she's stupid enough to stay outside.
The little girl begins to mumble as she cries, "M-My l-l-leg h-urts..." Reala, upon hearing that, remembers when his own leg was broken.
"Would you let me look at it?" What the heck am I saying?!
The little girl looks up at him, fear and pain etched on her face. Reala, on instinct, slowly takes his mask off, "Let me help...Please let me"
The girl watches him, "W-Where's M-Mommy?" Her mom?
"I don't know...Let me look at that leg."
The girl whimpers, but doesn't do much else as Reala finally sits over her, keeping the rain off of her as he looks at her leg, which he finds is in fact broken.
"This needs someone else to look at" This is why she didn't get up...
He notices that the girl is shivering terribly.
Why do I have sudden concern for these weak humans...Why this urge to help?
He never felt anything towards them, at least nothing like this.
While Reala is deep in thought, he doesn't notice the little girl scoot closer to him. He then feels her lean against him for warmth and comfort.
That makes him tense, and he stiffens, his eyes are filled with surprise as he looks down at her.
He feels her shivering, and her breathing is shallow. Slowly, yet not really knowing why, he wraps an arm around her.
And both sit there together...
I really feel the title of this chapter Definitions of Life: is fitting the chapter.
There's definitions is different ways:
*There's NiGHTS who is seriously injured and his life hanging on by a thread. He is the balance of life and death.
*Then Reala finds himself noticing, feeling and doing things he never would do before. He's the new perspective on life