Author's Note:

My sincerest of apologies for the disproportionately long wait in relation to this chapter's length. Of Children, Men, and Monsters has just gotten to the "real" story, so to speak, and I feel that I needed a bit of a reprieve from that rather long previous chapter, lest I burn my passion for writing out.

A few shout-outs to November Red Angel and RavenThePirate for both the Favorite and Follow! You do this not-so-old man proud, lads/lassies!

Disclaimer:

Iji, Super Smash Brothers, and any referential materials found in this story do not belong to me. They belong to their respective developers and subsidiaries, and I claim no ownership of them.

Dimensions and Realities

Chapter Twenty-Three: A Nightmare

Cue music – Super Smash Brothers for Wii U soundtrack – Crazy Orders: Final Battle Victory

Iji was transported back into the chair-filled teleporter room, still feeling a bit dizzy as well as winded after the series of battles she had endured in Crazy Orders. The descendant of the wielder of Ragnell was the first to come down from his seat, giving her a few hearty pats on the back, grinning widely whilst doing so. Said pats had quite a bit of strength to them, to the point where Iji nearly lost her balance and fell over to the floor. With an apologetic mumble, Priam relented on his pseudo-assault.

"Sorry about that. You did good there, Iji! A bit better than I would've expected, in fact! How's about we head down to the dining room and have ourselves a nice, hearty meal?"

After getting her balance straight, Iji responded, "After a bit of rest. Give me a half-hour of alone time in my room; I'll probably be all rested up after that. If you'll excuse me…"

Priam gave her another heavy pat on the shoulder before she left the room, probably just to make sure that she got that he was proud of her recent efforts.

Iji plopped down on her bed, feeling thoroughly exhausted by what she had just accomplished. Propping her legs over the covers, she let out a lengthy sigh.

'Now, if only I could win against the other Smashers, I'd really start feeling better about myself…'

That's not to say that she had confidence issues – far from it, actually. She just felt a tad insecure about not earning a win against her fellows as of yet.

Before she even realized it, she felt her eyes closing in an attempt to give the woman a chance to rest. She was too tired to resist the tempting lull of sleep. Her last thoughts before sleep overtook her are as follows:

'… Aw, you know what? Why not. I'm sure no one'd mind if I slept for a little while; they know what I've just been through, and I think they think that this is some sleep well-earned…'

Cue music – Iji soundtrack – Hade Shade

…

Her eyes opened again. She took in the unfamiliar sights, and, noting their odd features, quickly realized that she was most likely dreaming at the moment.

"Drat. And just when I thought that I was really going to have a good rest, too."

But her rest was about to go from only somewhat calm to incredibly not-calm rather quickly.

The dreamscape swiftly transitioned from a mix of grays and greens to a stark, bleak stretch of black. A rainbow-colored dot then appeared from somewhere in the seemingly endless void, and floated over to Iji. The woman wanted to move, but found herself incapable, as if she were rooted to the spot. A glance at her feet revealed to her that the blackness was slowly creeping up on her from the floor, and crawling slowly upon on her person. She let out a frightened gasp, and desperately attempted to move, but once again discovered that she was incapable of doing so.

Sluggishly, the black stuff climbed higher and higher as the orb drew closer. No matter how much Iji struggled, Iji couldn't move, and as the stuff neared her neckline, she let out a despairing cry for help…

But no one came.

The orb was now practically face-to-face with her. Iji was immensely tempted to cry, but stifled her tears. If this thing was going to end her, then she wouldn't go out like some cry-baby!

Just as the enveloped her vision and person completely, she heard an off series of beep-like noises…

-.- - ..- / .- .-. . / - .. -. . / -. - .-

"Iji!"

She heard a voice.

"Iji! Wake up!"

The orb glowed red, shaking fiercely for a short while before disappearing, the shadowy substance doing likewise as the dream collapsed into a furious miasma of memories not Iji's own…

…

Before she awoke with a gasp, panting heavily. Sweat poured furiously from her forehead, and she immediately glanced around in a frantic manner. A hand held her shaking form steady, and Iji heard someone say, "Iji, calm down! You've just had a nightmare! None of that was real!"

Another twist of the head, and Iji was staring directly into a pair of eyes. She noticed the odd symbol in the left eye of the person currently looking at her. The rest of the face was very familiar to the woman, feminine features aside, and then Iji realized who she was.

"Lucina?"

The hand retracted from her shoulder. "Indeed. You were gone an hour and a half longer than you said you would be, so I came to your room to investigate and found you twitching and mumbling incoherently in your sleep. Then you started screaming, as if you were in some severe pain…" She appeared very concerned.

"Do you wish to discuss what you saw in your nightmare, or…?"

The green-shirted woman shook her head, swiping an arm over her forehead to get rid od the rather startling amount of perspiration on it. She then wiped the arm on the bed sheets, saying during that action, "No… It's probably nothing. Not like it made any sense, anyways."

Lucina appeared hesitant to let the matter go. "Are you certain? It would not be of any detriment to me for you to talk; I've nothing planned any time in the immediate future…"

Iji once again shook her head, now proceeding to rise from her bed. "Again, no. The thought is definitely appreciated, though." She smiled appreciatively at the other woman appropriately.

She hoped that the wielder of the Parallel Falchion wouldn't notice her worry, and was relieved a tad when she, indeed, did not. "If you insist upon it, I suppose that I'll let this go. Now, shall we go to your impromptu feast? You've been keeping everyone waiting, though, luckily, most of the other Smashers have since found entertainment in each other." She chortled briefly. "You should've seen what Bowser Junior and Toon Link did to Greninja. It may have been mean-spirited, but that hardly stopped their little joke from being funny for the rest of us."

"I can only imagine…" Iji said in reply. Leaving her Nanogun behind, Iji left the room alongside the slightly younger woman to finally consume her much-desired (as well as much-earned) meal…