A/N: So, this chapter, despite taking a while, was actually a LOT of fun to write! I like to think I'm getting better with each chapter I release and I can confidently say that I'm proud of how this one turned out and it makes me even more excited when we finally reach Act Three. Trust me, I'm just as eager to get to Solstice as some of you are.

Again, thank you to everyone reading and to those who have left reviews. If you're enjoying the story and haven't already, go ahead and favorite/follow!

Enjoy!

Chapter 33 - Seeking Refuge from Nightmares

My eyes opened to find myself standing in a dark hallway. The cold air bit into my skin as I stood rooted to the spot. What...was this? Was I dreaming?

"...Niko?" I whispered.

The only thing I heard was the sound of my breathing. Slowly, I began to move down the corridor, the floorboards creaking and moaning with each step I took. The only source I had to see where I was going was the soft blue light coming from the windows, but looking through them showed nothing but dead air. Goosebumps wracked my body as I continued down the seemingly never-ending hallway, my mind going haywire.

Why was it so dark? What happened to Niko and the sun? Where even was I? Why did it feel like...this was someplace I knew?

Just then, I stopped. My blood turned to ice as I felt a gaze pierce into me from behind. I couldn't turn around. I didn't want to turn around, but I KNEW there was something there. The feeling persisted as I quickened my pace, the floorboards screeching under my feet. No matter how fast I ran, the feeling grew stronger and stronger until I was stopped in my tracks by a door.

No...not just any door…

As if I had lost control of myself, my hand reached out on its own and opened the door. Staring back at me was a flight of stairs leading down into the cold void of darkness that was the basement.

It all clicked. I was...home. No, no, this had to be a dream. After everything, I couldn't be back here! This was a dream...That's all it was…

My instincts screamed at me to run away, to be anywhere other than here, but a pair of hands clamped down on my shoulders, freezing me in place. I could feel my heartbeat grow faster and faster as the hands tightened their grip on me before hearing their owners speak.

"Welcome home, brother…We've missed you so much."

In an instant, I was pushed through the doorway, tumbling down the steps into the darkness before landing at the bottom with a hard thud. I stared up at my assailants. Their red, lifeless eyes bored down on me, freezing me in place before their laughter echoed down the steps.

"This is just a dream. It's not real. It's just a dream..." I repeated over and over, trying anything I could to drown out their laughter.

"Don't worry...This is just the beginning..."

The door slammed shut, leaving me in complete darkness. I couldn't even see my hand if I lifted it in front of my face. It was suffocating to the point where I was struggling to breathe.

"No…no, please don't leave me alone here…" I panted as tears started to roll down my face, "I don't want to be alone…"

I began to hear whispers surrounding me. All I could make out were three words repeated over and over: "You deserve this." Louder and louder, they became. I could even recognize some of the voices. Calamus, Alula, and Silver, among others.

"I'm sorry...I'm trying to fix this...Please, I'm sorry…"

The voices continued to grow louder as more and more tears poured down my face. I couldn't breathe...couldn't...think.

"Alan…"

It's so dark here...

"Alan."

Don't leave me alone down here…

"ALAN, WAKE UP!"

My eyes shot open as I bolted upright, gasping for air. My entire body was caked in sweat as I shivered on top of the bed, the nightmare replaying over and over in my head. I barely noticed Niko next to me, her eyes filled with worry. We sat there in silence while I slowly began to calm down, my body finally realizing I wasn't dreaming anymore. That's all it was. A dream.

"...Was it a nightmare?" Niko asked once my shivering finally stopped.

I nodded silently.

"Do...do you want to talk about it?"

I shook my head.

She fell silent as she continued to watch me. I was still stuck in a daze. The nightmare was beginning to recede into memory, but its effects were lasting.

"Do you want a hug?"

I looked up at her in surprise before slowly nodding. She crawled into my lap and wrapped her arms around me as I did the same. Simply having her in my arms quickly calmed me down. I even smiled a little as she consoled me like how I had done for her so many times before. Of course, she didn't know that.

We stayed that way for several minutes until I was sufficiently relaxed. The nightmare still haunted me, but I was at the point where I could function normally again and not collapse into a shivering mess.

"...I'm sorry," I sighed.

Niko leaned back to look at me, bewildered, "What for?"

"It probably doesn't seem very 'godly' of me to freeze up from a nightmare like that…"

"Everyone has nightmares…" she said, her voice laced with sympathy, "I know when I have nightmares, it can be hard to fall back asleep. That's why my Mama always gives me big hugs to help calm me down. Besides..." she smiled up at me, "...it shows me that you're still a person like everyone else. It's comforting."

I laughed softly, "Well, when you put it like that…"

She laughed with me before leaning back into my chest, "Plus, you're my friend and friends take care of each other."

My breath hitched in my throat as every part of my being turned numb. That's what she said to me in the original run. Back then, it was comforting. Now, it felt like being stabbed through the heart. How could I call myself her friend with how much I'm keeping from her? How much I've lied to her? My eyes stung from the impending tears, but I held them back. I had to. I couldn't break down now.

I dried my tears just before Niko let go of me, "Thanks, Niko. I feel a lot better now."

She smiled again and hopped off the bed, grabbing the lightbulb as I followed behind her. Once we reached the gate, I pulled out the feather and vial of ink and quickly made the pen. When I went to sign my name, what I saw caused my chest to tighten. Although blurry, I could make out what looked like mine and Niko's signature at the bottom of the paper. I hardly had time to think of a plan. Instead, I hastily signed my name over hers, hoping that she wouldn't recognize her name.

Niko signed her name and off we went through the gateway to the Refuge. I went through a mental checklist of everything in the Refuge. There was the Garden for the kernel, fixing the elevator, getting a library card, and finally figuring out if this fox we had met before was this Rue...

"Hey, Alan?'

Niko had stopped at the top of the steps behind me. I looked back at her and noticed her confused expression, "Is something wrong?"

She shuffled around on her feet, "Well, when we were signing our names, I noticed there were other names already on the scroll. They were kinda blurry, but…" her ears fluttered, "I think one of the names that you wrote over said "Niko"? The other one looked like your name…"

My entire body turned to ice. Crap, crap, crap, gotta think of something fast…

"M-Maybe it was someone else that also had your name coming from the Glen?" I said, fighting to keep my voice steady, "It wouldn't be crazy to think someone in this world shares your name."

She stayed silent, processing what I said, before nodding, "I guess that makes sense. I just thought it was weird."

Niko walked past me further down the hall while I released the breath I had been holding. That was way too close for comfort. If we ended up back here in a different run, I'd need to make sure she didn't see those names. She couldn't know we had done this all before. I just couldn't do that to her.

I took a couple of seconds to get control of myself before following her towards the Refuge. Entering the last passage before entering the crimson city, it didn't take long for squares to spawn all across the walls as well as cutting off the way back to the Glen.

Oh, not again...I thought before quickly picking up Niko and sprinting off down the corridor. The squares crawled along behind us, turning the walls into an amalgamation of stone and squares. It all became as a passing blur as I rocketed up the last flight of stairs before entering the Refuge.

I slowed to a stop, breathing heavily from the intense sprint while also having to carry Niko in my arms.

"You-*huff*-alright? You're not hurt, are you?"

She shook her head, "I'm okay. I just wasn't expecting you to pick me up like that!" she added with a giggle.

"Well, I-*huff*-just wanted to make sure those squares-*huff*-didn't get close to you."

She stared at me with a warm gaze, her smile growing bigger and bigger, before she nuzzled her head into my neck, "Thanks, Alan…"

My face burned up, "I-It's no problem…" I stuttered out. I let her hop out of my arms and, as we walked along the sky bridge further into the Refuge, my eyes landed on the Tower that was so close to us once again. Chills surged through me. It felt like the Entity was looking back at me, watching my every move. It had some idea that we had done this all before, but it didn't seem that eager to stop us. Maybe it was forced to let us reach the Tower? It did say that it couldn't go against its programming…

I shook my head. Whatever the case was, I wasn't looking forward to entering the Tower. Throughout both the Barrens and the Glen, there was hardly any difference in the journey, nothing that could change the outcome. I slowly had to accept that there may not be a way to fix this on my own, that I would just need to sit and wait for whatever The Author had planned.

I focused back in on Niko, who was talking to the big guardian robot of the Refuge. The only solace I could get from all this was knowing that I could be with Niko until his "solution" was unveiled. The only caveat was having to watch as Niko's memories would be locked away, taken from her while I could do nothing but lie to her; to pretend that all of the moments we've shared together never existed. I loved her like a little sister, but I could never risk putting her through so much pain. I couldn't do that to the one person who meant so much to me.

On cue, Niko had finished her conversation with the robot, looked over at me, and smiled. I couldn't stop myself from smiling back. Even with her lost memories, she still was the Niko I knew.

"So, the robot told me there's a library we need to go to find out how we can get into the Tower," she said, once she came back over to me, "He also said there's a Garden further down past him where we can plant the kernel we got from the plant lady."

"Then we better get going," I said, holding out my hand.

She grabbed it and we started walking towards the garden together.

"Ow ow ow, my foot…"

Niko and I silently watched the lamplighter grab at his foot in pain. He didn't seem aware that we were watching him.

I cleared my throat, "Excuse me…"

"WOAH!" he yelled out, jumping back from us in surprise before he grabbed his aching foot again.

"Are you okay?" Niko asked.

He set his foot down slowly, "Yeah...yeah, I'm good…" We both sweatdropped while the lamplighter shook his foot to get rid of some of the pain, "Is there, uh...anything I can-" he grimaced from the pain, "-help you with?"

"We need to get to the surface!"

He sighed, "Yeeaahh, I was afraid you were gonna say that. Right now, the elevator is the only way to access the surface, but…"

"There's no button," I said, pointing at the empty hole on the elevator panel.

He nodded, "Yeeep...and that's a problem. There's supposed to be a big button that says "GROUND" on it, but it vanished?" He rubbed his head, "M-Maybe it exploded…"

"Well, we could just make a new one!" Niko said, "Shouldn't be too hard."

The lamplighter sweatdropped, "Well, uh...good luck with that. I'll just, uh...stick to my original plan…"

"Are you sure about that? I think your foot has gone through enough punishment…"

"Well, that's why I have two feet," he retorted before kicking the elevator door again, wincing in pain.

Niko and I sweatdropped one last time before leaving him to his door-kicking. Following the same plan as in the original run, we tracked down everything we needed to make the button: the magnets in the apartments (along with the bag of soil from the gardener), the coffee can from the diner, and the tape from the generator room.

"Well, looks like that's it!" Niko said, holding up the button.

"Nice work. Let's get back to the eleva-" I turned to see the black cloud of squares hovering in the doorway. They seemed to distort the area around them, twisting and morphing it all into something completely unrecognizable. We watched as the cloud vanished into the dark corridor that led to the computer where the Entity waited for us, but I didn't want nor need its help. I was just about to ignore it before I heard a ticking coming from the hallway.

Strange...I don't remember hearing a ticking in the original run…

I grabbed on to Niko's hand, making sure she stayed close to me as we entered the corridor. The further we walked, the louder the ticking became. The ticking echoed in my ears once we reached the stairs, completely ignoring the computer at the end of the hall. We finally found the source of the ticking at the top of the stairs. Hanging above the door, the nixie tubes that had been inactive in the original run were now on, counting down the seconds until...the door opened?

I was stunned. This...this had never happened before, so why was it happening now? Was this the Author's doing? I processed just how long the countdown was going to take.

90 days…

"Three months?" I murmured.

"Huh? Three months until what? Do you know what this door is, Alan?"

I flinched, forgetting for a second that Niko was still with me, "N-No...no, I don't know what this door is for."

"Do you think it's important?"

I frowned, "Maybe...but we're not gonna know anytime soon."

"That's a shame…" she said, "Well, we better head back to the elevator. That man's foot is probably hurting a lot right now."

I heard her turn to leave, but she stopped when she realized I wasn't following her. My eyes were glued to the countdown. I could feel my heart pound harder and harder as the seconds ticked away. Was this it? Was this the solution the Author was creating? Was this what was going to save this world AND let Niko go home? This was the only major change between this run and the original. This had to be it. It had to be.

"Alan, are you coming?"

I jolted out of my daze, looking back at Niko, "Y-Yeah, I'm coming. Sorry."

She watched me walk beside her before quickly taking hold of my hand in a much tighter grip than before. During the walk back, my mind was racing, constantly thinking about the door and what could lie behind it. I kept telling myself that that door was the key to fixing all of this, to saving this world, and to letting Niko go home for real.

But...three months is a long time to wait. Could I really wait that long? Could I even survive that long?

Even when we returned to fix the elevator, putting in the button and punching in the security code, my mind constantly wondered about the door. What was behind it? Would it really fix everything? I didn't know...I just didn't know.

A yawn coming from Niko finally snapped me out of my thoughts. I glanced down at her to see swaying on her feet. I stashed away my worries and held her shoulder, "Looks like you're tired again," I said with a smirk.

"Mhm…"

I lifted her into my arms, "Well, there's a place nearby to rest. Let's get you over there before you start drooling on my shoulder."

She frowned at me, "I don't drool…"

I laughed, "I don't know...I think my shirt is still a little wet from the boat ride."

I got a poke in the cheek followed by another before I fell under attack by a poking barrage. I sped up my pace to the bedroom, "Alright! Alright! You don't drool! I'm sorry!"

The poking continued until I finally plopped Niko onto the bed, holding my cheek in mock distress while Niko burst out laughing.

"You're so cruel…" I whispered.

"Well, that's what you get for saying I drool!" she said cheekily.

She turned away to place the lightbulb at the foot of the bed, only to turn back to me suddenly poking her in the nose.

"WAH!" she cried out, flailing backward onto the bed.

I laughed and sat down on the bed, "No one expects the surprise attack!"

Niko quickly sat up and thrust her finger towards me, but I was ready this time. I tilted my head to dodge and countered with a poke to her chest. She tried again, receiving a poke to the nose again.

"Come on, Niko, it shouldn't be that hard to poke me…" I joked, dodging another attack and plucking her hat off her head, exposing her fluttering ears.

She said nothing, electing to pout instead while I turned away to place the hat on one of the corners of the bed. This ended up being a mistake, taking a poke directly to the nose when I turned back. I blinked in surprise.

"Gotcha."

I scoffed, "Yeah, because I was putting up your hat. That hardly seems fair."

"Who was the one that poked my nose when I was putting the lightbulb down?"

"...Touché."

We both burst out laughing. For a moment, I forgot about everything that was bothering me; the reset, Niko's memories, the Entity, the door, the choice. It was like breathing in fresh air for the first time. It took a while for our laughter to die down, occasionally breaking down into giggles again, before we finally fell silent. It didn't last long when Niko broke out into a yawn. I smiled at her before yawning too.

"Looks like we both need some rest," she giggled.

"Well, after all that, I definitely could use some sleep."

She grinned and started to wiggle underneath the covers. I was about to lay down beside her when the nightmare I had back in the Glen surged back into my head, shattering my peace.

Niko quickly took note of my abrupt mood change, "...Alan? What's wrong?"

I glanced at her before looking away, "It...might be awhile before I get any sleep…"

"...Is it because of the nightmare you had?"

I flinched, giving her the answer she was looking for.

She fell silent as she watched me before she suddenly threw open the covers. I just watched in confusion before she patted the spot next to her. I raised an eyebrow but relented. I kicked off my shoes and tucked myself under the covers. It was definitely different than just sleeping on top of them. A lot warmer.

I turned over on my side, facing Niko, "Okay...now what?"

She said nothing. All she did was smile and pull the covers back over us before quickly wrapping her arms around me and snuggling into my chest.

I blinked, "Niko? What're-"

"I figured you'd have a better chance at sleeping if I was close to you, in case I needed to help wake you up," she said,

I stared down at her, wide-eyed. I was hardly able to stop myself from smiling, "...Thanks, Niko. I'm feeling better already."

She smiled back up at me, "Good…"

We both fell silent, taking solace in each other's embrace. I could feel my body slowly start to relax before I chuckled.

Niko looked up at me, "What's so funny?"

"I'm just realizing that maybe I'm not the only one that's really warm."

"W-Well, I have been carrying the sun all this time…

"Nah, I think it's mostly you."

She giggled as I rested my chin on top of her head. My eyes grew heavy and started to close, but I gave Niko one last squeeze.

"Sleep well, Niko…"

"You too, Alan…"

My heart ached, but I didn't care. I know I will, Niko. I have you with me after all, I smiled one last time before letting sleep overtake me.