Cold Ideyals

Part One: Yellow Ideyal

Chapter Two: The Philosopher

Author's Note: Okay, I totally revamped the first chapter. :P so go and check that one out if you want, it's actually readable now! Oh, and I meant for this to be a Reala-centric fic, but I was going over the plot again and realized that I can't really do what I wanted to without including him as a main character for at least a chapter or so.

Oh yes, and one person wondered why I made Kaze both ugly and a Jester Nightmaren. Well, I guess I just think that Reala would have cohorts that were all that pretty, and frankly, I couldn't imagine a Shleep saying some of the things she says to him. XD Who knows though, maybe there's a reason why Kaze is ugly... :P

Waking World: I actually don't remember if it was called the "Waking" or "Walking," but it's the non-dream world.

It wasn't as if NiGHTS had never been inside an Ideyal Palace before. In fact, for many months he had lived inside one, waiting for what seemed like an eternity for any human soul to touch and therefore free him.

But that had been a long time ago. Almost two years on the waking world since the children Claris and Elliot had freed him, though hardly any time had passed in the dream worlds, NiGHTS felt the effect of time's passage well enough considering that, for quite some time, he had once again become a dream.

In fact, last time he checked he had become a reality and could peacefully live in the waking world. So "why," he wondered, "am I stuck in Nightmare again?"

"I've heard of dreams becoming reality but never of reality becoming dreams," NiGHTS muttered, lounging with his back against of the Ideyal's cream-colored pillars. Time passed differently for the dream world, and since his return to a state of what he, sometimes jokingly, liked to call "un-reality," he assumed that at least a century had passed in the Waking World.

That was unfortunate. He had wanted to see more of the world, which had the ability to change. He wanted to see people's lives unfold. He was tired of the unchanging Nightmare and Nightopia. The worlds were in fact created by humans, yet it seemed that human fears and desires never really changed, and so neither did the Dream Worlds, and it wasn't as if he could see an actual life change in his worlds.

Nightmaren and Nightopians weren't born: they were dreamed up and they couldn't gain knowledge or change, because they were already created with all of the knowledge they contained and the personality that they were going to have. No matter what.

NiGHTS sighed. He hadn't realized how bored he had become in Nightmare before Wizeman's fall. He now understood a bit more about why he had originally rebelled against Wizeman. Before he thought that the Perfect Dreamer Wizeman had ordered them to capture's words, "There's so much more inside of you," had been correct, and that's why he now fought for the 'Pians, but now he wondered.

"I am exactly what someone has made me." The words flew through his mind like a bizarre mantra, which he had heard before, though he knew not where.

As NiGHTS stared ahead into the bleak winter of Frozen Bell, his mind raced back to something he had heard Wizeman say long ago on the day he was dreamt up.

"Everything in this world comes from dreams. No one is truly born, no one truly dies. Nothing changes because nothing really exists. We, Nightmarens, are created with ideals, and we'll die with the same ideals and even those are determined by our dreamers."

"If that's true," NiGHTS wondered aloud, perplexed by the paradox of his one-time superior's words, "Then who dreamed up me?"

NiGHTS' philosophical quandary didn't escape Reala, who had long ago decided that his life wasn't really 'life' at all, and because of that he wasn't to be held back by the normal moral standards that he knew humans applied themselves to.

It was because of this that he was able to manipulate that human girl into freeing him so easily, and then showed her a little piece of Hell before letting her go into the Waking World.

Now he flew gracefully above his domain, the Stick Canyon, searching for Kaze. He both smiled and narrowed his scarred eyes as his dipped into a drill dash and sped up.

"Where is that little brat?" He hissed to himself, leveling off after passing the white Ideya Capture. He slowed a bit more and let his feet trail to the ground, the tips touching the rocky surface below him.

Out in the distance he could see the sloping of the dusty hills that made up his home and the perpetual construction that seemed to always be continuing near the blue Ideya Capture. In the background he could hear some 'Maren' chattering away.

Reala listened closely, waiting to hear what they had to say. He thought it strange that Kaze wasn't in this area. She'd called Stick Canyon her home ever since he could remember.

"Damn." He muttered, his voice sounding like a snake's hiss. Reala doubted that she would betray him since she had been bonded to him ever since she was little, though much to his dismay.

So he couldn't understand- "Why isn't she here?" The 'Maren's roar echoed over Nightmare and the chattering stopped.

Angry, Reala turned from the blue Ideya Capture to the silence behind him.

"Eep!" A little squeal followed his turn and the 'Maren realized that it wasn't other inhabitants of Nightmare that he had been listening to, but instead-

"Pians!" Reala screeched, outrage showing up plainly on his pale face. "Freaks!"

"Eek!" The twin Pians cried out again, quickly flying backwards, fear enveloping their tiny frames; however, Reala was much faster than either of the two inhabitants of Nightopia, and his claw-like fingers quickly shredded the closet one's wings. Then, when he was sure it could no longer escape, he flung it aside so he could catch its partner.

At once the 'Maren's anger exploded; nothing was going his way. "First the failed mission, then Kaze's disappearance, and now these little "freaks" in my domain, MY domain!" he thought angrily.

And as the Pians were slaughtered in the 'Maren's rage, far off, in a place much colder than the canyon, a different 'Maren was about to realize why he had been brought back into dreams.

Ending Note: Yes, I realize that many of the philosophical ideas presented in this chapter contradict what actually happens with the characters. You'll see why later. Oh, and the story will pick up pace now that Reala has been freed. :P

Expect a cute, little cloaked maniac in the next chapter!

Yeah. The next chapter will be better --. I promise!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter:P :hands out cookies: