ANOES 8:The Beginning of the End

Maggie opened the door to her house, thoroughly exhausted from her day at the shelter. She was back in Central City and used her house on elm st. for a vacation home of sorts. Springwood wasn't much a place for vacationing but she felt that she should keep the house in case anything else came up. Zach had warned them all that even though they beat him; it was no reason to totally let their guard down. Most of them, with the exception of Doc, thought he was being paranoid. Doc remembered the dream demons though, so he knew that they could still do something. It was about midnight and Maggie decided to forgo dinner and just hit the hay. She's out like a light as soon as her head hits the pillow.

She is walking down elm st. not thinking about much. She looked around; everything seemed so peaceful now, no missing child posters, and no wanted posters. Everything was good. Just then, the scene changed. Everything was on fire and the sky had turned from baby blue, to a smoke filled, blood red.

"Welcome home Katherine," a deep, gritty voice said.

Maggie whipped around, and saw her father standing about 10 feet away, holding a broken doll that looked a lot like her in his left hand. Even though terror coursed through her veins, she clearly saw that her father had changed. He was now wearing a long black trench coat and a skeletal claw had replaced his old glove. His burns were different too.

"You can't be back, we sent you..."

"To hell, I know. Do you have any idea of what it's like down there? Of course not, that's why I'm giving you a taste of it right now."

"What makes you think you can win, Zach beat you before, he can do it again."

Freddy glared at his daughter.

"You don't know what you are talking about princess. He didn't beat me, he couldn't. That's all I'll say for now, you need to wake up."

Suddenly, Maggie shot up in her bed, sweat dripping from her face. Wildly, she looked to her left and saw, to her horror; her father was standing in the corner! She couldn't do anything, she couldn't move, she couldn't breath, she couldn't even scream. She had been scared before, but what she felt right now was beyond that, it was beyond everything. This was true fear. Freddy grinned and walked over to her, placing his left hand around her throat, he brought his claw up to her face and put a blade right under her nose.

"I have my full power back and no you're not dreaming, this is the real world. I can now go between it and the dream world whenever I want."

Letting go of his daughter, Freddy took a moment to laugh at the fear on his daughters face before ripping open a portal back to the dream world. It took Maggie several minutes to shake off her fear and when she did, she rushed to the nearest phone and called Doc.

Doc meanwhile, was pouring over his numerous books on dreams and the dream world when the phone rang. The sudden break in the silence caused Doc to jump out of his skin in fright. Calming down, he answered the phone to be greeted by Maggie's frantic voice.

"He's back Doc, I don't know how but he's back!"

She continued like this for several minutes before Doc got her to calm down. The news he was back wasn't news to him, he had had the same dream and had woken up to find the same results. When he told her this, she nearly fainted.

"What do we do?" she asked.

"You need to contact Zach and I'll see if there is anything in my dream books that will help," Doc said before hanging up. Doc then began reading his book (The Secrets of the Dream World) again hoping he would find anything that would help.

Maggie meanwhile had just downed some sleeping pills and was falling asleep as we speak. She manages to make it to the couch before she collapses on it.

Zach and Tracy were walking down to the beach when Maggie found them.

"He's back Zach, Freddy's back!"

"WHAT!" Tracy and Zach shouted as they whirled around.

"He's back, my father..." was all she got out before Freddy shot out of the sand between them.

"That's right, I am."

Zach stood there; not wanting to believe the simple truth was true. Freddy was back.

"Zach," Freddy drawled, "Surprised to see me?"

"You could say that." Zach said slowly.

"Yes, I thought you would be."

"How?"

"You'd be amazed at how easy it is to get thrown out of Hell. Just cause enough trouble and they spit you back out."

"Just so you could be sent back," Zach retorted.

"Not this time. You see, before sending me on my way, they gave me a gift to make sure I wouldn't be back anytime soon. You see this claw?" Freddy raised his right hand, "They gave it to me. It allows me to go between this world and the real world whenever I want."

"No," was all Zach could say.

"Yes. Now, I came here to end this fight, I will have control over the dream world and there is nothing you can do to stop me."

"Watch me," was all Zach said before charging Freddy.

Raising his fist, Zach made as though to punch Freddy's face in and Freddy raised his arm to guard against the incoming blow. That blow never fell as at the last instant, Zach pulled his old disappearing trick, reappeared behind Freddy and kicked at his head. Freddy sensed this and brought his arm up to block, totally surprising Zach! Freddy then took the offensive while Tracy ran up to Maggie and yelled at her to wake up, which she did. Tracy then jumped at Freddy who ducked her incoming kick and returned with a roundhouse kick of his own. Tracy blocked this but couldn't block the next one that nailed her across the jaw, sending her sprawling. Seething with rage, Zach rushed Freddy and attacked him with a flurry of punches, all of which were blocked. Amazed at this, Zach faltered in his attack and was rewarded with a slash to the face. Healing this with a wave of his hand, he charged his enemy again and was hurled into a building.

"Damn, he wasn't this strong last time," he said as he hopped up, "what's going on?"

Suddenly, FK 2 appeared behind Zach and trapped him in a headlock. Struggling to breathe, Zach elbowed FK2 in the gut, turned around and placed a powerful uppercut into his opponents jaw; sending him through the ceiling.

Tracy was having a bit of trouble. FK 1 punched her in the gut and then kicked her in the jaw and launched her in the air. FK 3 appeared above her and punched her in the gut again, sending her crashing to the ground. Zach saw this and launched him self at FK 1 & 3. He kicked FK 1 in the face but FK 3 cut his arm and then cut the side of his face. FK 2 came back onto the scene and knocked the wounded Zach into the ocean.

As soon as he went under the water, he screamed in pain because of the combination of open wounds and salt and lost precious air because of it. Freddy appeared behind him and trapped him in another headlock and squeezing the remaining air out of his nemesis's lungs. Feeling his life slipping away, he let out a powerful shout. Simultaneously wasting the rest of his air and creating a massive explosion, causing all of the surrounding water to be violently pushed away and giving Zach the air he so desperately needed. Turning around, Zach saw Freddy floating about 6 feet behind him, totally unphased. Putting out an energy barrier to keep the water back, Zach stared in amazement at his enemy.

'What is UP with him? He never would've been able to withstand that kind of attack six years ago.'

Freddy grinned and used his own power to shatter the barrier and cause the water to surround them again and when it did, Freddy punched Zach in the gut causing him to take on another lung full of air. Freddy then got Zach in another headlock and this time Zach was sure he'd die, in fact, he was just falling unconscious. Suddenly, some force ripped Zach out of Freddy's grip and shot out of the water, carrying him to an unknown location.

After about 20 min, the thing that was carrying Zach set him down outside of the mysterious cave that he had visited that morning.

Zach slowly opened his eyes and saw someone standing over him. Blinking several times, he saw that this person was wearing a pair of poofy white pants, a sleeveless white shirt with a white scarf wrapped around her neck, and another white scarf that seemed to be floating behind her back with it's two ends wrapped around each wrist. Focusing on her face, Zach saw that she had slicked back shoulder length brown hair and brilliant blue eyes.

"Who are you?" Zach asked as he got up.

"I am Tigraria, the protector of the dream world and those who visit it."

"Fine job your doing," Zach said sarcastically.

Tigraria glared at him.

"If there was anything and I mean ANYTHING I could have done to prevent this situation, I would have."

"Then why are you it's protector if you don't have the power to do anything to fulfill your duty?"

Tigraria flew at Zach and buried her fist in his gut. Using her free arm and right leg, Tigraria flipped Zach onto his back and then pulled a knife out of nowhere and made as though to stab Zach in the face. She stopped a fraction of an inch away from his eye.

"I never said I didn't have power, but your power surpasses mine and his power surpasses yours so naturally neither of us can stop him." Tigraria said as she lifted the knife.

"Yeah, sorry." Zach said as he got up

"Don't worry about it. Now, you obviously need help with Freddy so will you please come with me." Tigraria said as she walked into the cave.

Zach followed her; curious on what was going to happen next.

"Are you human?" Zach asked.

Tigraria smiled, "No, even though I look like it, I'm not."

"Then what are you?"

"You know the dream demons?"

"Yeah."

"They are my brothers. They didn't always look like that, they once looked as I do but over the years, they grew discontent with the power they had and longed for more. After awhile, they came across this portal, it led to Hell. We didn't know how it got there but once they went through, their true form were revealed. You see, only those who lust for something can enter that portal and at the time, I was happy with the power I had. They came back through with more power than I could handle and in the end, a war was fought between the good creatures of this world and the evil."

"So what happened?" Zach asked.

Tigraria sighed, "My forces won but at a horrible cost, both armies, along with the plain we fought on were destroyed. And for the plain, I don't mean destroyed as in nothing stands there anymore, I mean destroyed as in gone, nothing left at all and if you don't believe me," she waved her hand, "look down."

Zach did so and found himself floating and looking straight down into a gaping hole filled with gray mist.

"Anything that falls in there never gets out." Tigraria said as she waved her hand and they were back inside the cave.

"How did that happen?" Zach asked.

"My brothers and I put all our power into one last attack and the combination of power resulted in a massive explosion, nearly killing all of us and you saw what it did to the environment."

"Whoa."

"Yeah, that's why I'm going to help you. You see, if you and Freddy did the same thing you'd end up destroying the entire dream world and quite possibly yourselves."

"So what are you going to do?"

"Follow me."

Zach did so and eventually found himself in a gigantic square room. Walking over to the edge, he saw that the entire room was really a huge pillar of rock sticking 100 feet out of a pool of lava.

"Come here," Tigraria said.

Zach obeyed and saw that she was standing next to a beautiful sword. The hilt was wrapped in leather; the pommel was pure gold along with the hand guard that traveled into the midpoint of the blade. The blade was incredible; it was a relatively straight but was slightly curved in the middle, kind of like water. On the base of the blade, there was a little blade guarding the hilt (For all you people who have played Final Fantasy X, the sword is Caladbolg). The swords most notable feature was that the entire blade was filled with some kind of blue-green crystal.

"Like it?"

"Hell yeah, it's incredible."

"Well I'm glad you like it. Its name is Yamaria. The other sword," Tigraria pointed at it, "is Yumani." Yumani looked exactly like Yamaria except that it was filled with what appeared to be obsidian.

"What do they do?" Zach asked dumbly.

"They alone have the power to destroy Freddy."

"So what do I have to do?"

"You must pass a test."

"What kind of test?"

"You must face your worst enemy, yourself."