-------------------------------

Nightmare Village was just… screwed up, even by Psychonaut standards.

There were twisted, cylinder shaped buildings with black holes for windows in which the nightmares flourished. The ground and sky were both dark orangey-brown, with splotches of bright neon orange in the sky. Macaroni-like creatures that were the color of apricots swam by as if moving through water. Large purple nightmares, small grey ones, and orange ones with two heads walked by, seemingly undaunted by Raz's approach. They turned to stare at him as he passed, curious but not willing to come close. As he walked further into the Village, he saw that they were nursing their injured comrades with what looked kind of like Dream Fluff, except it was orange. Small nightmares barely four inches high squealed and chased each other to and fro while their mothers (presumably) chased after them. Raz was kind of freaked out. These nightmares had clearly been here for a very long time. They were smarter than the typical nightmares. What's more, they were thriving in the depths of Lili's mind. There had to be hundreds of them, Raz thought in terror. Dear God, Milla only had like 5 or something… He noted the lack of figments, and found it odd that he had yet to see one in Lili's mind. Perhaps it was connected to the amount of nightmares she had. The insane people Raz had encountered before had many figments. The one thing he did notice, though, was that there was an apt supply of cobwebs. If only he'd had his duster – but Sasha had taken it away, so there was no way he could clean up Lili's mind at this point.

A dull thud caught his attention as Raz spotted a memory vault being chased by a horde of baby nightmares. Going invisible, he was quiet as a ghost as he approached the now cornered memory vault. Then he hit it, going visible and scaring off the little nightmares. Their mother hissed angrily at him as they picked up their children with their tiny arms and patted them on the back. The baby nightmares cried and pointed at him. Freaked out, Raz wondered if all nightmares had this semi-human behavior. It seemed… unnatural. On so many different levels. Trying to put those thoughts out of his mind, Raz pulled out the memory reel.

'Moscow Blues' its title read. Raz held it up to his eyes cautiously, and smiled.

--------------------------------------

(Begin Flashback/Memory)

----------------------------------------

"Liliya,1" a girl with dull blonde hair called out, waving an arm. Her dark brown eyes sparkled with laughter as she spoke with a thick Russian accent. "If you do not hurry, we will be late, duh?"

They were in a huge city, Moscow, he guessed. It was raining, and it was late evening. Lili, age 4, was meditating over a flower. Lili looked up and yelled something in Russian as she left the little flower growing out of the gutter and ran to join her friend. Whatever the remark was, it caused the other girl to laugh. Her voice was deep, and she threw her head back when she laughed. She looked to be about thirteen or so. Picking Lili up, she swung Lili around and threw her into the air.

"Rialia2," Lili screamed. "Put me down, you naska!" 3

Rialia grinned and slowly let Lili down via telekinesis, chuckling. Lili grabbed her hand and they started to walk home, talking rapidly in Russian. Occasionally they alternated to Italian, which Riala struggled with and Lili spoke fluently. Rialia checked over their shoulders and occasionally ordered Lili to hide for a few moments in a bush or something. Raz watched with a sense of wonder and the older psychic girl seemed to adjust their course based on precognition. Future-seeing psychics were very rare in Asia. Nine out of ten were from Europe.

"Your English is much improved," Rialia commented to Lili. "Do me favor, tell your papa that I have improved much as well, and since I'm a junior agent now, I'd like to leave Russia. You tell him that, please?"

Lili laughed. "Of course. You're my onii-chan."

Both Raz and Rialia raised an eyebrow at this, and the Russian girl groaned. "Oi! First you learn Italian, then Russian, and English, but Japanese? You hang too much with Agent Mimosa and Sasusi."

Their light conversation was cut short by a purple psi-blast that missed Lili by a hundredth of an inch. Rialia shoved Lili into a bush and then turned. Focusing, she shot at the sky and hit someone. Raz was surprised to see a much younger Sasha Nein collapse on the ground. Rialia ran over him and seized him with a telekinetic hand, holding him by his ribcage up in the air. Sasha, dressed in a black trenchcoat, grinned good-naturedly at her.

"It was just a test," he chuckled. "Truman sent me-" At this point Rialia laughed full heartedly and set him down. "It's good to see you've developed a sense of humor, Agent Vinyaal. Agent Vodello set me on fire last night for throwing a fake grenade through her window."

Sasha had a sense of humor, too, Raz thought with a smile as he watched Rialia nearly fall over laughing. Chuckling still, she linked arms with Sasha and called Lili over. People gave them weird looks as they walked by. The three made a broken conversation in Italian punctuated by Sasha and Rialia using an English word (or Russian, in Rialia's case) when the correct term failed them.

They entered a rundown part of town, at which point Rialia said her goodbyes. She hugged Lili and stood like that for a minute, which caused Lili to giggle madly at how silly she was being. Rialia then kissed Sasha once on both cheeks and hugged him. 4 When he blushed, she punched him on the shoulder and said, "Be a man. You can take bullet, you can take kiss!" Lili laughed and said something in Italian to Sasha that Raz would've bet money was a taunt.

Once Rialia left, Lili demanded that Agent Nein give her a piggyback ride. Raz burst out laughing as Agent Nein swore loudly in German and picked her up. Somewhere along the way home, Lili dosed off peacefully. She woke up as they entered a large building marked 'Psychonauts Moscow Division'. Her father, a tall man whom Lili inherited her haircolor from with small blue eyes, was there to carry her off to bed. Her mother, a slightly short woman who bore remarkable resemblance to Rialia except her eyes were light brown, smiled and sang Lili to sleep.

Outside Lili's bedroom door, her parents began to talk.

"You think it's wise to let her stay with your sister?" Truman asked.

His wife, Lydia, sighed dramatically and rubbed her forehead. "Rialia is a good girl, no matter what you think about Russian psychics. You know, sometimes I wonder why you married me if you have such issue with who I am."

"You're not like the rest of those bastards," Truman replied. "They're… evil. Rialia might not be, but we don't know for sure-"

"Bastards!" Lydia snapped. "Sasha was right, I can do better than you! We need to go to a therapist or I'll… I'll file for divorce!"

"So you're cheating on me with Nein?" Truman demanded. "That German son of a b-"

"NO!" Lydia spat at him. "You see, this is what I hate about you! I cannot see my friends, because they're Russian! I cannot see my American friends because they're 'pushy' to you. And now I cannot even try to find a friend in Sasha because he's German!"

"You shouldn't let Lili hang out with all these Russians and Germans and God knows who else! Culture aside, they're bad news and she's worthless enough as it is, Lydia. I knew I should've married a psychic!" At this point it had become clear by the slurring of his words he'd drunk some serious vodka.

"Just because Lili can't do what you can doesn't make her worthless! I say it's your upbringing that turned her bad, not mine. I take her out, I buy her nice things, but you just keep destroying her!" Lydia shrieked, throwing her hands up in the air. "I'm not even her real mother, for cryin' out loud! I demand a divorce!"

At this point, they heard Lili's soft sob from within her room. Opening the door, they just barely glimpsed her exiting via the window (they were on the first floor) and taking off like a bat out of hell. Lili was screaming and crying as she stumbled, barefoot, along the way to Rialia's house. She crashed into walls and lampposts, but she could care less. She was screaming in heartbreak. This could not be happening, no, not now! Everything was going so good, and now this! She screamed out in Italian, Russian, English, some bits of German she'd picked up from Sasha, even some Japanese, but nothing seemed to express her pain well enough. Finally she burst through the door of Rialia's broken down home.

A stranger scene there never was.

First off, the house was more of a one-room shack. Bugs were abundant on the floor, the one dim light bulb that lit the room flickering on the verge of going out. There was a small sink that dripped muddy water, and a small, cheaply made table that was rotted wood at this point. The bed was a mattress with a hand made, passed down quilt on it along with a balled up second set of clothes that probably served as a pillow. The smell of mold hung thickly in the air even though the tiny window was open.

Second of all, Sasha was sobbing quietly into Rialia's shoulder as the two sat on the bed. Rialia, who looked shocked, was rubbing his back and saying, "Nes yerr 5, my friend, we all must cry eventually. Is good." Sasha, who looked ashamed of himself, just murmured, "Arigato6," and tried to get himself under control. When they caught sight of Lili, mud stained, sobbing, and screaming out in Russian, Sasha asked, "What's wrong?" Rialia just smiled sadly and held out an arm. "Valsh maah, ni bri'et yon kall. 7. Is good." Lili took a flying leap and bombarded Rialia, sobbing into her other shoulder.

"Moscow sure brings out the despair in your souls, my friends," Rialia noted. "I hope you, at least, soon get to leave this place. Because I know I will probably not as long as Truman Zanotto remains Grand Head."

--------------------------------------------

End of Flashback/Memory

----------------------------------------------

Raz sat, stunned, reeling from what he had just seen. Stowing the memory reel in his mind, he grabbed the vault by its handle and numbly dragged it out of the nightmare village and back to it's proper door. He collapsed for a moment to try to comprehend what he'd seen. Sasha, crying. Lili's mom wasn't Lili's mom. Rialia, trying to comfort them while living in a hellhole. Lili, screaming in five different languages in pain. And the prejudice of Truman Zanotto… it was all so intense. To go through that, at that age… Yet Lili never let on that things like that had happened. She put up a strong front and moved on, smiling occasionally and still training to be a Psychonaut after what she'd heard. Raz felt an admiration and pride in her strength. All this time, he never knew. Lili was weird, but never traumatized or psychotic like one would expect after all that. And who knew Sasha could ever have a breakdown of any kind? It all seemed so unbelievable that now he really wished it were all a bad dream.

Sadly, however, it was not. And this was merely the beginning.

-----------------------------------

1 Many foreigners will find that Russians like to ask 'ya', 'ni', 'skerr', or 'ski' to their names in order to make it both easier to pronounce, and more Russian sounding. In this case, Lili becomes Liliya.

2 Rialia is pronounced Ree-all-yah.

3 Literally 'you jerk' in Modern Russian.

4 Rialia doesn't like Sasha in that way; public displays of affection such as kissing, hugging, and holding hands are very common in some Moscow communities.

5 It's alright.

6 'Thank you' in Japanese.

7 I'm here for you, my sister.

Coolness! I'm so happy I wrote this… this fanfic may turn out to be REALLY long, though. I put some Modern Russian in to make it more appealing, but I probably screwed up the order of words. Oh well, I tried.

I know you guys said I could take a while, but I thought 'hey, I got three reviews, why not post this anyway?' So I did. Enjoy, and review my minions, review!