AN: Yes, two chapters. Consider it a Christmas gift---it's the best and only thing I can give you, and I owe so much to you as readers and reviewers that it's not even funny any more.

Random Person In The Audience: YOU MEAN WE HAVE TO SIT THROUGH TWICE THE LENGTH?!

Yes, you've brought this upon yourselves. Merry Christmas.

Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of Sega's characters. But if Santa gets me that homing-missile launcher I asked for, that may very well change. Stay tuned.

The people will live on.

The learning and blundering people will live on.

They will be tricked and sold and again sold

And go back to the nourishing earth for rootholds,

The people so peculiar in renewal and comeback,

You can't laugh off their capacity to take it…

107 from The People, Yes by Carl Sandburg

Chapter Twelve:

A City Built In A Day

Deep within the heart of Nightmare, Wizeman let out a satisfied breath.

It was done.

His masterpiece. A pure, unbreakable shell of power, encasing his world in a shield of peace. The Dream World could become unbalanced, dreambeasts could ran rampage without, the world could tear itself apart; within his shield, he and his small kingdom of dreams would be untouched.

He and his prize creations. He turned to gaze down at the sleeping creatures that lay next to him, each of them curled and lost in their own dreamless sleep, unaware of anything about them. Six creatures, six dreams; perfect. He was truly a genius.

It was a bit of a shame to have lost so many of his creations, but if they couldn't be trusted, he did not want them to taint his perfect world. The six would be enough---no, they would be more than enough! They would be the perfect nightmare creatures, each in their own perfect nightmare!

His laugh, though tired, was triumphant. He was truly a god of a perfect world.

Luna let out a harsh breath, and shoved her hair out of her face. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have officially been shut out."

"You said that already," said Tessa mechanically.

Aster skittered to her teacher's side, hands clasped to her heart. "Miss Luna…wh-what is that? What's happened?"

"I'm not sure, Aster, but it LOOKS like some GREAT TRAITOROUS RAT has gone and SEALED US ALL OUT of our OWN HOME." She pounded the end of her lance into the ground with an angry snarl. "Of all the two-faced, disgusting, two-timing…"

Terrance sat on the sparse grass, moaning. "Tessa, what'll we do?"

"I don't know, Terrance."

Around them, the gathered nightmaren were beginning to panic. "What'll we do?"

"What's happened?"

"Oh Wizeman, what's that?"

"Where's the leaders?"
"What is it?!"

"What'll we do?"

An ear-splitting whistle shrilled through the air, followed by a shout. "ALL EYES ON ME!"

Near the edge of the crowd, Chaotica was standing high on Heckler's shoulders, his hands wrapped about her ankles to balance her. It was his signature whistle that pierced their ears.

Chaotica was, once again, taking control. "Panicking's just going to make things worse," she cried out over the vast group of nightmaren. "So let's just all stand quiet and hear what our leaders have to say, m'kay?"

The teachers gathered together realized with a start that she was looking towards them. Now that the High Seekers were gone, the instructors were the next on the line of duty.

Tessa, as usual, was the most level-headed. Her calm voice carried through the silent air. "Listen closely. Apparently we've been shut out of the castle and the grounds surrounding it, and we don't know when or if we'll ever be let back in. So we're going to set up camp out here for the night, and prepare ourselves for making up a colony outside of the barrier."

"Are you sure we can do that?" called someone from the crowd. "We don't have any supplies!"

"They all come from out of the castle," replied Tessa. "We've got enough maren-power to take care of ourselves."

"But what about the monsters?" This question probably came from a younger maren.

Luna stepped up in her turn. "We fought off a world of dreambeasts before, and we can do it again. All it'll take is work and obedience."

"To who?"

Luna sighed and rubbed the grip of her lance absently. "The last leaders you had skewed you a big one, I know. Do you trust us?"

Aster cheered at this. "Of course we do, Miss Luna!"

"Well, we're going to work together and make ourselves a colony out here. It's been done before."

"So a cheer for the Free Nightmaren Colony!" cried Insomnia, leaping onto a boulder with a shout. "To all of us!"

The slightly confused cheer that greeted him, mostly by the younger fighters, was enough. He laughed and struck a dramatic pose. "WE RULE!"

"However we'll also starve if we don't get things organized," said Tessa with an expression of long-suffering, shoving him off and taking his place to better reach the ears of the assembly. "Who's part of the kitchen crew?"

Hands raised in the crowd. She gestured to them. "All right, your duty then is to gather together all of the food brought and organize a way of feeding the group. Those of you who gather, you help out the kitchen workers for today---we'll get to gathering tomorrow. You younger ones who tend the fires and torches!" Assorted calls answered her. "Your job is to get several large fires going. Forget searching for firewood; get some of the gatherers to help you collect some shrubs and ground cover for fuel. Fighters!"

This was a large part of the population. She gestured towards the instructors. "Find your teacher; they'll give you orders. Your job is to protect us all until we have defenses going."

She guessed what was going through their minds, and added, "The last few encounters with dreambeasts have been bad because we were not prepared. With such a large round of defense, as long as we stay alert we should have no problems. The rest of you, whatever your job is, if you're not sure what do then ask one of the leaders."

She stepped down, and the crowd, after a moment, broke up into chattering and shuffling bags as they began to set up camp and go about their various assigned tasks. Lunatic raised an eyebrow at Tessa. "Never knew you were a politician."

"I never doubted it!" proclaimed Terrance, putting an arm about his sister's shoulders and ignoring the odd look she gave him. Luna gestured the other teachers closer as she noticed the group of fighting maren coming closer.

"Okay, defenses are what?"

"I'll take my archers and make a half-ring facing the forest," said Tessa quietly, pointing to the western woods. "That's where all the attacks have been coming from recently, and with such a large stretch of plain between here and there we'll be able to pick off most of what comes."

"Right." Luna scratched a quick circle in the dirt, indicating their soon-to-be camp. "I'll take my skirmishers and meet your edge on the left, facing the mountains southward; Terrance, your acrobats can take the eastern side, if that's all right with you. They'd be best for any sort of creature that comes from the ocean."

"Sure."

"I'll keep a few of the swordsmen behind your archers," she informed Tessa. She nodded to her brother. "The same with your acrobats. You'll both need some sword back-up if there's any serious action."

"Same here. I'll send out a few archers---I have more than enough."

"All right." Luna smiled at Aster, who was flanked by as many younger fighting maren as the girl had been able to find. "So let's start your first OTJ round of training, hm?"

"Um…yeah." Aster fiddled with the grip on her lance. "Uh…Miss Luna?"
"Yes?"
"Don't you find it…y'know…kinda weird that in a few we're all out here and suddenly trying to live on our own?"

"Aster, with all the crazy things that have been happening recently, all you can really do is just try to roll with the flow. And keep a nice sharp bit of metal by your side."

"Carpe diem," added Insomnia, giving his axe an experimental swing. Luna eyed him.

"Carp-a who?"
"Somethin' Morgen used to use---he said it was in some kind of dreamer language. Basically it means you live each day as it comes. Carpe diem."

"Uh-huh." Luna tried it out herself. "Carpe diem…I like that."

"So do I." He twirled and hefted his weapon high, grinning. "Carpe diem, baby!"

Kneeling by the stretchers, Stella patted Nyct's shoulder gently, soothing the fevered girl. "Don't worry, child, th' leaders have everythin' under control."

Nyct was calm. "I'm not worried. It's all right now."

"Why's that?"

Nyct leaned back, closing her eyes peacefully. "The white people are gone now."

It wasn't finished yet. He'd saved some power in reserve, in wait for the finishing touches his perfect world would need. But he wouldn't make them just yet. Later, after he'd rested, he would finish.

His hands clasped the greatly-diminished orb, and he began absorbing the last bit of energy within. He'd most likely have to use it all, but it was worth it. The world would be wonderful.

Feeling the power seep into him, he relaxed and let himself rest.

Corbeau had organized some of the scouts in training and, along with several of Luna's skirmishers, had begun a trip to check out their surroundings as well as give the shield a closer look. Aniline, supremely excited over being given the boon of coming with, kept step with him; as they made their way over the grassy plain northwards, she asked him a question that had been on her mind for some time.

"Why's that thing up, anyway?"

"I have no idea, Di."

Her nickname, pronounced 'die', came from the fact that she had a pink diamond painted over each eye. Newcomers were often quite electrified to hear someone scream "DIE!" from across the grounds, but Aniline had become so used to the nickname that she didn't even give it a passing blink. "D'you think it's really a barrier to keep us out, like Miss Luna said? Maybe someone attacked Lord Wizeman…"

"Perhaps, but I find it highly doubtful. It's far too convenient that we were ordered to evacuate and then, as soon as every maren was out, the shield was raised. None of the leaders came with us, you'll notice. No doubt he had some other use for them."

"So we're the useless ones?"
"I don't know," he answered honestly. "I don't know what Wizeman was planning, I mean. I do know that we're certainly not useless."

"That's good." She shielded her eyes and stared at the great bubble-like wall that rose up to meet them, almost invisible. "It's hard to tell it's even there…"

"Not if you look near the ground."

She did as he mentioned, and noticed his point. "Oh, so that's our reflection we're seeing!"

"Sort of." He waved a hand briefly, and the faint, ghostly outline of a small maren in a group moved in reply. "It reflects back everything, but at the same time it's apparently semi-transparent. Look in the skyline, right about a quarter up, where the Spring Valley mountains should be---you can see them, just barely."

"Oh yeah…weird." She squinted upwards. "So where's it end? I can't tell---it reflects the sky and shows sky through, too!"

"I can't tell either. I suppose if you flew high enough you'd be able to tell by when your reflection ended."

"Mm." She slowed; they were nearing the barrier. One of the skirmishers, a strapping young boy named Shadow, looked back to Corbeau.

"Now that we're here, what exactly are we suppose to do to the thing? Attack it?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of poking it with a stick."

"Oh." Shadow seemed relieved.

"Um…Corbeau? We don't have any sticks. There aren't any trees around here."

"I was joking, Di." He approached the barrier calmly, and drew the small dagger that hung by his side. Aniline held her breath as he reached out with it and touched the barrier.

Nothing exploded.

She moved closer, watching him poke at it. "So…what is it?"

"I have no clue," said Corbeau. He pressed the point of his dagger against the barrier again, showing that it repelled him without a sound. "It's not quite what I'd call hard, but it doesn't give any, either. Nothing I've ever seen before, that's for certain."

Aniline reached out hesitantly and poked at it. Nothing happened. Several of the other younger nightmaren came closer too, then, and also poked it; soon it became a form of amusement, to lean back on or to run into. Corbeau smiled indulgently at the boys who were shoving each other into it and turned away. "I hate to break up your fun, but we're on a mission. Let's hurry on and check out the surroundings before it gets dark, m'kay?"

"Hey, Corbeau, what's this?"

He looked over to where Shadow and a friend were poking at something round and shiny on the ground. He moved to their sides quickly, always cautious of a dreambeast; when he saw what they were investigating, however, he relaxed and looked at it thoughtfully.

"I don't know."

"It looks kind like the barrier, y'know?" Shadow poked the round orb again with the tip of his sword. "Except a bit more bluish. I wonder what it is?"

"There's some more over there," called one of his friends, who had mounted a small rise and was pointing a bit further east. "They're all down the edge of the barrier."

"That's odd." Corbeau looked back down at the ball. "You're right, it does look like the barrier. Perhaps it was some form of side-effect."

"I wonder---" Shadow reached down to pick the ball up, and promptly found himself holding air. The others all started back.

"It just absorbed into him!"

"Shads, you okay?"

"Are you all right?"

Shadow paused and swallowed, placing a hand over his heart. "Yeah, actually, I feel fine. Kinda better, really. Like I just got a little shot of caffeine."

Corbeau nodded. "Ah…that makes sense. It's leftover energy. You're made of living energy, and so it absorbed into you when you touched it."

"So why didn't it absorb into his sword?" piped up Aniline. "That's energy."

"I'm not sure…although that energy was once metal, which was refined, and then hammered into his sword, whereas we're more closely related to dream energy. Perhaps that's why."

"Eh, either way, I feel great." Shadow grinned. "Whoo, better'n coffee any day!"

"That's nice." Corbeau gestured to the other maren gathered around them. "All right, let's move on. And don't go chasing blue chips all over the place."

"Blue chips?" Aniline jogged to get back to her place by his side.

"They're blue, and they're a chip of the barrier. You can come up with something better if you'd like."

"Nah, blue chips is fine."

Wizeman bent over the orb in his hands, concentrating. It was much harder to create over long distances…

The orb was not His Orb. His Orb had been entirely absorbed into his body, filling him once more with the pure energy that he'd been gathering from Ideya for centuries. Now that he had only six creatures to do his bidding, it would take far longer for him to regain his strength once he was finished, but that was all right. He'd planned for it, and had already begun plotting out a way to make up for the loss of maren-power.

The seeing-orb held between his hands reflected a world within itself, showing him a place not that far from home. It was inside a building; one in Splash Garden, to be exact. He was shaping that building and its contents.

He'd already taken care of the structure itself, and was now furnishing it. Long halls spread out in circles from the main bedroom, all of them wide and tall to give plenty of room for bouncing. The walls were covered in vibrant wallpapers, luxurious velvet hangings draped around tasteful paintings and flowing gracefully down the sides of short columns, which held priceless vases and sculptures. Case upon case of valuable jewelry were shelved in dark-wooded cabinets lining the walls. Bookshelves were placed in different spots, decorated with gold trim. Long, low tables were flanked by cushioned ottomans, and lamps stood in corners to provide a dusky, sensual atmosphere. This was obviously a place of deep luxury.

Wizeman was currently busy molding the ceiling, sculpturing the openings and doorjambs between rooms. He gave the last one a small tweak, and the thing was done.

One more to go. He willed the orb to change its view to Soft Museum, where a monolithic structure stood. In this place, he'd work a bit on the outside first.

He began pulling at the molecular structure of the grounds outside, softening the statues and the paths, pushing and prodding at things until the entire landscape looked decidedly skewed. One or two unfortunate Nightopians were caught in the middle of the changing landscape, but he ignored their shrill cries and focused on solidifying the terrain into one soft, supple item. Small pavilions and benches slowly became molded with the ground.

Done with the grounds, which now most certainly fit the name of Soft Museum, he moved to the building itself. Firstly, as to perspective…

The few Nightopians who had not fled the gardens in terror were now amazed to see the entire museum shudder, break from its base, and flip on its side.

Now for some more tweaking with the rules of physics. He repeated his work of the outside with the inside, pulling the walls and columns about like taffy until the entire museum had become one solid, soft playground of twisted walls and flipped windows. Paintings were permanently sealed to the walls, and doors bent in odd ways. By concentrating hard, he was able to alter the gravity a bit, making the ceiling draw when the floor did not. This occupant would love his new home.

The lighting was bright and airy, sun rays beaming in through the skylights; as he moved deeper into the museum, however, he sealed the windows away and began placing lamps in small corners and wall sconces. The lighting became more dim, shining through lampshades marked with a faded spade pattern; the ceilings and floors began to have tile patterns of card suits. Soft hallways stretched out in long, circling patterns, moldable mirrors impressed in their walls and blocking off hallways. Draperies of gauze and transparent silk hung overhead and, sometimes, across doorways; odd moldings and indentations in the tops of columns and scattered across walls gave the effect of strange faces peering out, invisible once looked at straight-on but appearing with the length of shadows. Still the hallways became more twisted and tortuous.

Finally, in the very center, they ended in a large room. A pile of giant blocks lay tossed in the middle, their sides flaunting the same card-suit pattern that adorned the floor in garish colors; question marks flashed from the sides of one, and a giant ball lay against them. The ceiling was a bowed pattern of red laser-lighting and mottled black. Humungous jack-in-the-boxes, their heads nearly touching the ceiling and their eyes unfocused, stood in the corners; one was broken and stared out from the shelter of its box with unblinking eyes, and the other bobbed eerily. The walls seemed to fall away into nothingness and stars, and a curving stone staircase led up to an open door, whose frame stood alone against the emptiness beyond. A guillotine, painted in bright child's colors, stood in one corner. The slightly off measures of the walls and lines in the room gave a twisted, strange perspective.

Perfect. Wizeman pulled away, tired but proud. The nightmares were finished; now all he had to do was finish the nightmaren.

" 'Hoy, Chink, it's us!"

The green-haired guard waved for the row of fighters that had stood up to lower their weapons. Corbeau and his scouting party came closer, a smile on the scout's face. "Guess we know whether this side's guarded well. Nice reaction there."

Chank joined his brother, giving the others the signal to return to their posts. "Thank you. Any findings?"

"No, it looks clear from here to the edge of the woods. We didn't care go any further, since night's coming on, but you've got the whole plain clear."

"All right." The two moved back to their assigned posts. Corbeau told the scouts to scatter, and headed for the nearest fire.

The fire-tenders had done a good job, as there were multiple blazes about and plenty of fuel. The teachers were gathered around one of the smaller ones and all looked up expectantly as the scout approached.

"Nothing," he said in reply to their silent questions, as he seated himself next to Luna. "That barrier holds firm, but it doesn't hurt, and we can't get anything through it. No dreambeasts on the plains all the way to the forest. Nothing at all…although we did find some odd orbs near the edge of the barrier. They seem to be made of pure energy, and I believe they broke off from the barrier. They absorb into any nightmaren who touches them, but it's like a dose of caffeine, nothing more. That's all."

Tessa prodded the fire, moving back as a log fell and erupted into flames. "Then it looks like we're officially succeeding in our first night on our own."

"On our own, pah." Luna punted away a stone in irritation. "You mean kicked out."

"Call it what you like, but I think we're doing quite well." Corbeau looked over to one of the larger cooking fires, where Chaotica was directing others to the making of dinner and basking in the praise she received for having food brought along. Heckler stood beside her, taking orders and backing her up. Amaranth, noticing Corbeau watching the two, chuckled.

"Do y'know that Heckler asked me to make him a ring to give her as soon as I get another forge set up?" he asked, nodding towards the two younger maren who were overseeing food preparation. "Apparently he's her boyfriend now."

"Boyfriend?" Corbeau raised his eyebrows. Relationships between nightmaren were uncommon; female and male nightmaren were created to compliment each other as helpmeets, not to induce reproduction. A 'relationship' was more of a pact to hold a solid friendship for a lifetime. It was still a serious commitment, however.

"I'm surprised Heckler admitted to that," he commented.

"Well, they are pretty close."

"True."

He looked across the fire, noticing for the first time that Tessa had a young girl by her side. He recognized her as Vespers, the librarian; the girl seemed very nervous about something. She was holding a book like her life depended on it.

"What's that for?" He nodded to the book. Tessa sighed and, with a nod from Vespers, explained.

Stella cocked an eyebrow when the archery instructor had finished. "Ghosts in the library?"

"I dunno," whispered Vespers. "They're just…there."

"What's in the book?" asked Apathy.

Tessa shook her head. "Not much---it's just a diary. There's no ultimate important information in it, I suppose, although we did find something interesting near the middle."

"Interesting isn't the right word for it," muttered Vespers.

"This nightmaren," continued Tessa, "whoever he was, put forth the theory that the Dream World is really only one of many worlds out there---different pockets of time and space with their own laws of physics and populations, separated by thin barriers of energy. A large shift in energy could cause a tear in the barrier which would eventually heal by itself. He surmised that the dreambeasts originally came from another one of these worlds, which is why they were so different from the rest of us."

Corbeau cocked his head at her, brown hair falling across his face. "And you believe it?"

"I wouldn't go so far as to call it fact, but I'm beginning to have a hunch that he's right. It would explain the sudden appearance of dreambeasts again." She sighed, and a shadow flitted across her face. "It would have been far better if I knew he was lying," she murmured.

The scout raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because." She sounded as if her thoughts should be obvious. "If there really are worlds out there that we don't know about---if there really are worlds out there with monsters like the dreambeasts---then what's separating them from us? It isn't very much, Corbeau, we know that. They've broken through it."

A pall settled on the group gathered about the fire, and her voice, though low, carried well. "So who else might come along sooner or later?"

"It may have been a freak accident," Terrance tried to reason. "We haven't seen any dreambeasts appearing out of nowhere before."

"That's not the point. The point is that it could happen, and that it has at least once. Don't you see?"

She put a hand about Vesper's shoulders, her voice becoming even lower. "We may have just opened a Pandora's box."

The leaders fell silent.

"We may have and we may not." Corbeau, as usual, was providing the soothing. "But this is all simply speculation, remember. He may have been wrong."

"Perhaps. But then where did these dreambeasts come from?"

The scout had no answer. Tessa leaned back, triumphant in her warning of trouble; Dysdane folded her hands calmly. "Philosophic theories are interesting enough in their place, but it's not useful to us now. Was there anything else?"

"Not really, no."

"So why are you keeping it?"

She looked down at Vespers, who was shivering. In the background the younger guards were becoming loud, joking with each other most likely, and she had to raise her voice slightly. "Something wants her to have this book, and something else doesn't. I don't know what we're dealing with, but until we find out I think it's best to keep this book hidden and safe."

"Yeah." Vesper's voice was almost a whisper.

"Well she certainly can't keep it," murmured Dysdane. "It's wreaking havoc on her. Couldn't you find somewhere else to put it?"

"I was a bit caught up in the minor matter of evacuating the entire castle and creating a colony," replied Tessa. "Not yet, no."

"Bury it," suggested Amaranth.

"No, then we'll never find it again. And if it's so valuable that things are beginning to get distinctly creepy over it, I think I'd rather keep my hands on this, thank you."

"Well, we'll just have to hide it somewhere," sighed Terrance, leaning back and poking the fire.

A moan made them all glance sympathetically at Nyct, who had been moved close to the fire to be warm on her stretcher. Hist glanced at his fellow sufferer before looking at Stella. "I think she needs to have her hand bathed again."

Stella moved to Nyct's side. The girl, however, was fully conscious, and shook her head. "We can't afford to waste the water," she wheezed. "We won't have any more until the gatherers get to Mystic Forest tomorrow…"

"Nonsense." Stella began pulling away the bandages, knowing she was backed by every other nightmaren sitting around them. "Hold still."

"You should hide the book," whispered Nyct. "Hide it now."

Tessa looked at her from across the fire. "Why?"

Nyct's voice sank even lower. "So the white people won't find it."
"The white---"

She trailed off, remembering the girl's feverish murmurings earlier. "What did they look like?"

Nyct moaned and pressed a finger to her lips, eyes wide and haunted.

The silence that fell over the group was broken by Aster's shrill scream. Hovering by the edge of the fire, its legs still in the shadows, its features pale and gaunt, a white being stood. One hand was held out towards the girl on the stretcher; its white eyes gazed blankly at her. A bundle of dead twigs was in its grasp.

Nyct's voice was low and terror-filled. "What do you want?"

"I think you need some of this woodsbane," said Morgen.

Note: Before I get plenty of questions as to the last sentence: yes, it's him, yes, he's alive, no, I'm not just being cruel and getting your hopes up, no, he's not a ghost, and yes, it's part of the storyline. A gift to you and myself both.

Merry Christmas!