For the record, I do not hate Laurie. She annoyed me – but I do not hate her. Just thought you all should know ahead of time. XD

Fair warning, this is where things start going down hill and it starts looking more like a horror fic. Thanks for reading & reviewing! Enjoy!

Part IV

"So." Dan swallowed and rubbed his hands together awkwardly. Rorschach's wound had been wrapped and the man was sitting there, shirt and overcoat back on; entire body visibly tense.

Once Dan had gathered himself and stopped vomiting into the sink, it had become very apparent that Rorschach was radiating anger. Jon would have been proud; Rorschach was practically nuclear himself. Dan was tempted to cook an egg on his back to check but felt he might lose a finger. Now, though, Dan just had to figure out if it was because of the message now carved into his back, the nightmare itself or both. Shifting himself in the chair and placing his hands back on the kitchen table to steady himself, Dan looked at his friend across the way. "Are you going to tell me what happened?"

Rorschach jerked slightly. Friend or not, discussing the Blair case was not something he wanted to bring up with Daniel. Not a good memory; dealt too much with Kovacs. Had no desire to break Daniel. Rorschach went for truth minus details. "Attacked. Krueger had access to personal memories. Used to shape shift and confuse." Rorschach growled and laced his fingers together tightly. He heard the leather stretching in his gloves. "Caught off guard."

"Personal memories?" Dan sat up a bit straighter. Fred had used the shape shifting thing before, but he was always mimicking something random or people Dan hadn't met before. It was all rather impersonal save for the occasional shot at his owl hobby. Now he had access to Rorschach's personal thoughts? The things that were in his head when he wasn't wearing that mask? Dan could feel the chill; he could barely picture Rorschach as having a personal life. "Like what? He read your mind?"

"Yes." Quick short answer.

"Well that's weird." Dan's face scrunched a bit trying to process this information. He tried to squash the curiosity to know what exactly it was that affected him. But Rorschach seemed against sharing at the moment. Dan liked keeping the death threats in his dreams for the moment, if you please. "Nothing he ever did to me was personal."

"Doesn't matter." Rorschach pulled his coat tighter around himself as his fists gripped tighter around each other. He longed to have another go at Krueger, but needed to prepare first. Needed a battle plan to take him out and bring man to justice. One could not escape justice; not even in the mind. "End goal hasn't changed."

"Yeah, but maybe this means he has a power now he didn't before." Dan muttered. The thought of this guy being able to read his mind in addition to everything else was just depressing. "How do we fight a guy who just gets stronger?"

"Same way we always do." Rorschach stood up from the chair and walked over to the counter; grabbed a handful of sugar cubes from the dish Daniel had set out. Daniel was a good friend even in rough times. "Power through. Don't give up."

Dan chuckled and rubbed at his eyes. They were burning behind his eyelids and begging to be closed for an extended period of time. He'd never, ever, take sleep for granted again. Dan reached out and grabbed his coffee mug and took another swig of the liquid that was steadily losing its effect. "Easier said than done, buddy."

"Never said it would be easy." Rorschach shoved a sugar cube in his mouth and stared up at the ceiling. A second one followed quickly enough. "Need a better way to stay awake." He paused. "Or fight while asleep."

"I wasn't seeing many weak spots in there, were you?" Dan snarled before taking a breath. These mood swings might be the death of him long before exhaustion. "It's like he's invincible or something."

"Nothing is invisible. Just missing something." Rorschach pulled his face back down and tucked it into his collar. Rorschach tapped his finger on the counter as he ran through the past couple of days. Shape shifter. Regenerating qualities. Mind reader. Perfect nightmare. Rorschach's hand gripped into a fist. "Need to find it."

"Yeah, well." Dan held his head and took in a shaky breath. The design on his plate mats was spinning. Dan wondered if the pharmacy would have anything to help him stay awake. "Let's hope it's quick. I'm not sure how much longer I can stay on my feet without passing out, Rorschach."

"Might have to risk naps." The inkblots shifted on his face slowly. "Take turns watching."

"And if we fall asleep while on guard?" Dan prompted with a chuckle. Rorschach was glaring at him now (do not ask how Dan knew that through the mask, but he always knew), but Dan proceeded anyway. "I already know I won't make it through an hour by myself and last I checked you fell asleep just by sitting down."

"Get outside help." Rorschach snorted in agreement. This was too important to risk failing. However, their options were limited as to 'friends' they could ask. Rorschach nearly hit himself for even bringing this particular person up. Still shocked Daniel himself hadn't brought the woman up. "Ask Jupiter."

"Laurie?" Dan tilted his head. "Yeah, she did offer to help with whatever, didn't she?" Nite Owl wondered how he could have brushed it off so easily. It was almost funny making her come through with her promise. "Wake us up if we have a nightmare. Easy."

Rorschach shrugged and walked to the side of the kitchen and grabbed Nite Owl's coat before throwing it at him. Might as well get this visit over with before Rorschach lost his will to spend more time with the woman. "No time to waste."

"It's four in the morning." Dan fumbled a bit with the coat. "She's probably asleep."

Rorschach stared at him without a word.

"Right, wake her up." Dan snorted and shrugged on his coat. He wasn't sure what was scarier: Krueger, a grumpy Rorschach, the wrath of a women woken from slumber, or the thought of catching her in bed with Jon again. Dan grabbed his keys off the counter and headed for the door to the lair knowing Rorschach was already following. "Let's get this over with."

Laurie was starting to regret thinking Dan was crazy even for a moment.

"Shit!" Laurie exclaimed as her foot was pricked by an upturned screw from the side of the rickety catwalk. She stumbled for a moment and grabbed the railing to look down for any damage. Laurie sighed in relief when she saw there was no blood and rubbed her arm through the costume sleeve. The crime fighter huffed and took another careful step this time avoiding the screw.

Fully dressed in her crime fighting gear minus the shoes.

Silk Spectre wondered what in her subconscious made that up for a dream. The costume part? Yeah, she could understand that. But why on earth would she stay the same way she went to bed? Couldn't her mind dream up some proper footwear? Laurie sighed and rounded another corner in the creepy boiler room. Laurie wished she had a smoke. All of Dan's talks about dreams and that Freddy guy had rubbed off on her and now she was dreaming about it.

Laurie supposed this is what happens when you work too hard. The whole thing with Dan and Rorschach had left Laurie frustrated enough to make sure Jon knew she wanted a little time to herself. Time to herself meant Laurie spent the night patrolling alone and ended up taking down at least two gangs. By the time she got home she walked right past Jon in the lab (of course stopping to give him a quick kiss on the cheek), kicked off her shoes and collapsed in bed for a well deserved day of sleep, much more relaxed.

Sadly, her dreams failed to cooperate. They had started out so nicely, too, Laurie sighed to herself. When she first closed her eyes she was happy strolling along the beach, feet in the sand and before she knew it the sky was getting darker and she turned a corner to find herself in a steaming, dark, dank, red boiler room. Laurie blamed Rorschach. It had to be that madman's fault Dan was having nightmares. One couldn't stay in his company for long and not have something go wrong with their heads.

Laurie jerked and dodged to the side when a pipe suddenly burst open and sprayed her with steam. She bit her tongue to keep from screaming as the heat scolded her skin. She stared at the red, burnt wound on her shoulder (heat eating right through her costume) and tapped it gently. It stung. Laurie wasn't a declared genius like Adrian, but even she realized dreams weren't supposed to hurt that much.

"Get a grip, Laurie. You're the Silk Spectre!" She breathed to herself. She shuttered a bit when her voice echoed somehow among all the industrial noises of steam and creaking metal. "You've faced worse." Laurie started to chuckle and move away from the broken pipe. "Hell, you're dating a man who's a walking powerhouse. Can destroy whole cities in the blink of an eye and you can tell him what to do and when to do it." Laurie stood up a bit straighter, confidence restoring. She'd had stake outs in scarier places than this. "Yeah, this is nothing."

"Guess I'll have to work a little harder then."

Laurie froze and slowly moved her feet into a more defensive position. That was one voice she knew she had never heard before. Now she definitely knew the stuff Dan had been talking about had gotten to her. "You're going to have to try a lot harder than that to scare me."

"Oh, how so?"

Laurie scanned the room with her eyes. The voice was clearly coming from the side somewhere, but she wasn't sure just where. If she could locate the threat, she could beat the crap out of it and get back to her nice dream on the beach. Seemed she still had some tension to get out of her system. "I'm dating a walking weapon of mass destruction and on a team with a psychopath, an even crazier psychopath and-"

The voice cut her off. "I don't think that second one counts." There was a chuckle. "You see, I met that dude with the cow mask and he was just as scared as the rest, you know. Just some guy in costume." A pause. "Never found masks all that scary, myself." Another laugh. "That guy with the owl fetish wasn't very scary either."

"Dan I can understand, but I find it hard to believe you met Rorschach if you don't think he's scary." So the guy she dreamed up was talkative. Wonderful. Laurie took a few steps cautiously forward towards the catwalk stairs. Better to fight on the solid ground. "But I suppose the point is the disjointed voice in the background isn't doing it for me. Why don't you come out and play face to face?"

"Fine by me."

Laurie could feel her face contorting into pure disgust as something warm and wet made its way up her neck and over her ear. A shiver worked it's way down her spine when she realized someone had snuck up on her so effectively he had licked her ear without her notice. Shock wearing off, Laurie reacted and snarled as she swung around to deliver a blow to the man's gut with her elbow.

Silk Spectre missed.

"What?" Laurie shouted as she turned around. She reached up and felt the saliva still coating her ear but there was no one there. "Where'd he go?" Laurie rubbed the disgusting liquid off her hand onto the back of her thigh and looked around. The temperature in the room felt like it was increasing again. Sweat was starting to pour down her body and onto the ground. "Come out here and take a punch like a man!"

"I'd rather not."

Laurie swung around to the sound of the man's voice and gasped slightly. A burnt man in a fedora and an ugly green and red sweater. It matched Dan's description to the letter. Somehow, Laurie was doubting whether or not this was just a dream created by his stories. "Oh God."

"It's amazing how many people make that mistake." Freddy wagged a finger at the lovely specimen in front of him. "But it's just little old Freddy."

Laurie got a grip on herself and shook her head. This was all some crazy dream caused by stress and worry for her friends. "You, you're just a part of my imagination! You're not real!"

"People always say that, too." Krueger walked up closer, a slight skip in his step. It was so much fun when they stood around to talk. They always ran immediately after getting to know him, so he cherished these first meetings. "But I'm very real."

Laurie threw an arm forward to try and catch the man in the jaw. He wasn't there which meant no consequences for taking out some stress on her dream punching bag. "Let's see just how real you are!"

Freddy ducked to the side and avoided the hit. "Hey now! Not the face!"

"It's not like I can mess it up any more than it already is." Laurie jabbed again and started to feel Dan's frustration. This guy was as slippery as an eel. Laurie ran forward again, ignoring the burning of her bare feet. "Stand still so I can try and fix it."

"Much as I'd love to play, I'm on a bit of a schedule." Freddy chuckled before dashing behind a boiler. "Come and catch me if you can!"

It was probably stupid, but something about this man just pissed her off. Maybe it was the hat reminding her of Rorschach or her anger at Dan for making her have these weird dreams int he first place but Laurie was dead set on beating this bastard's face in before she woke up. Silk Spectre took off after the loon and turned the corner after him-

"Oh, should'a ducked." Freddy winced as the lady hit the ground. "Looks like it hurt."

Laurie clawed at her chest trying to get a grip on the pole that was imbedded through her rib cage. Laurie had run straight into the sharpened pipe sticking horizontally out of a random dead-end wall when she turned the corner; her eyes burned from the agonizing pain. "Wha, what?"

Freddy strolled around her as she stood there trying to pull at the pole. It wasn't his most creative moment, but it was sure to leave an interesting mark for his latest kids to find and figure out. "Need a hand?"

"Screw you." Laurie gasped before pulling back far enough to free herself from the pole. The blood gushed a bit but she covered it quickly with her arms to try and stem the flow. The man was still staring at her now, smiling. She looked down and finally noticed the knives on his fingers twitching and scraping against each other. The burnt man was staring at her thoughtfully and Laurie swallowed. "What do you want?"

"Not much, really." Freddy walked up closer and pinned her against a wall. "Little love, little fun, but I think you mean right now?" He lashed out and grabbed a fist full of her hair before bashing her head into a pipe. Now disoriented, Freddy was free to steal a kiss, relishing her groan into his mouth. He laughed his next words straight into her mouth. "I need to send a message."

"Is it just me, or is it way too quiet in here?" Dan asked as he walked through the Watchmen entrance in the back of Jon and Laurie's compound. Normally this place was bustling with steam and computers beeping and Jon moving things with his mind. But, All Dan noticed was the lights off. Dan felt along the wall and flipped the switch to the overhead lights. He looked around the lab and noticed the absolute still of the room and equipment. "Where's Jon? He doesn't sleep at all, right? Shouldn't he be working? We'd know if he was out, right? I mean, but that doesn't make any sense. Jon doesn't go out unless Laurie drags him."

Rorschach noticed Daniel was starting to string together sentences and talk faster. Nerves were getting to him. Not mistaken, however, as Rorschach too was sensing something very wrong in the blue man's lab. Rorschach strode forward past Daniel and headed towards Ms. Jupiter's room. Froze when he breathed in and Rorschach knew that smell.

"Hey! Rorschach!" Dan cried out when the masked man dashed forward in a sprint toward's Laurie's room. Where on earth did he get that energy from? Nite Owl was still thankful he wasn't in costume. "Wait up!"

Rorschach burst into the door and froze. Felt his stomach drop and was glad he had seen worse. Rorschach needed to keep his calm; remain unaffected. When he heard Daniel catching up he slammed the door shut and stood in front of it. So much for unaffected. "Can't go in, Daniel."

"Rorschach." Dan stood staring at the man hunched in front of the door, grip tight on the door knob. Dan slowly looked up at the door. Something was very wrong. Very, very wrong. Daniel tried to look around the masked man. "Rorschach, why can't I go in?"

"Can't see." Rorschach breathed in through his teeth. Daniel couldn't see this. It'd destroy him. "Trust." The words weren't coming out the way they needed to. Rorschach fumbled for the right ones. "Trust me, Daniel."

Dan narrowed his eyes and felt something in his throat constrict. Suddenly Dan felt that whatever was behind that door was important. Enough to freak out the unmovable Rorschach. Dan needed his resolve. "Rorschach, get out of the way."

Rorschach shook his head. "Daniel." He took in a breath and considered knocking Daniel out, but had to retract that idea when he realized that would hand Daniel right over to Krueger. "Please, trust me. Don't want to see."

"What happened to Laurie, Rorschach?" Dan had a sickening feeling he knew. This wasn't like the time Rorschach walked in on her and Jon in bed. At the time, Rorschach hadn't cared and let Dan go right on in and make the same mistake before grumbling about loose morals. This time, though, Rorschach was shaking and holding the door closed so tightly Dan thought the handle might snap off. Dan repeated himself. "What happened to Laurie?"

"Dead." Rorschach answered, hand still on the door. Daniel would find that out eventually, but he didn't need to, didn't need to see it. He heard a thump that Rorschach could only assume was his friend's knees hitting the floor. He took in another breath and kept the door shut firmly. "Don't want to see." Rorschach flinched when he heard the hitched sob come from his friend.

Rorschach had never been fond of Ms. Jupiter. Loose woman, bad influence. But Daniel had been fond of her; probably interested. And now he was sobbing on his knees, spared only the knowledge of how horrifically Ms. Jupiter passed on to the next life. Rorschach prayed it was enough to keep Daniel from breaking. Couldn't let him die. Rorschach needed both: A partner in Nite Owl and a friend in Daniel. It was all he had.

Rorschach snarled to himself and flinched hard enough to break off the door handle. It clattered to the ground and rolled towards Daniel. The door slowly crept open an inch and he couldn't stop Daniel from seeing a sliver of the blood on the wall. Rorschach was thankful Daniel turned away on his own and held his head between his knees as he curled on the floor and heaved. Krueger was a dead man.

"I can not express my sincere condolences to you, Daniel." Adrian put a hand on the man's shoulder as they stood in the graveyard. The service had been beautiful and no expense had been spared thanks to Ozymandia's contribution. It had been a quiet affair, despite the number of masks present. Rorschach lingered in the bushes out of sight, but he was still there for Daniel which is what counted. Adrian himself noticed the bags under Daniels' eyes. "Still not sleeping?"

"Can't." Dan sucked in a breath. Eight days with absolutely no sleep. He'd been too tired and exhausted even to mourn Laurie properly after his first breakdown upon hearing the news. Dan just felt dead inside. Laurie was dead and Dan wondered if it was his fault. Laurie was gone, dead. Who would be next? "I just, I can't."

Adrian knew a battle lost when he saw it and nodded slowly. The last time he saw Daniel Dreinberg came to mind and the sleep study he had performed. That and his fixation with a man in his dreams out to kill him. He wanted Dan to have the benefit of the doubt, but it was possible the young Nite Owl II was losing his mind. But, now was not the time to let Daniel know he was currently a suspect in Ms. Jupiter's murder. "Take care of yourself, Dan."

Rorschach watched Veidt walk away from Daniel and calmed. His friend was too out of it to see the signs, but Rorschach was more than well aware they were suspects. No one would believe them if they said Laurie Jupiter was killed by Fred Krueger. Instead, they saw a blank Daniel and a tense Rorschach standing in front of the crime scene. First on the scene.

And a gruesome scene it was.

Thankfully Daniel never saw the body even with the small glance he got, but even Rorschach couldn't stop him from entering after the paramedics had removed Ms. Jupiter from the scene covered with a cloth. Daniel was greeted by the words "KrUGeR wAs HeRE" written along the back wall in blood. It was smeared, messy and later forensics revealed Laurie's own fingerprints.

Krueger had made Laurie write the message with her own blood.

Rorschach snarled again to himself before starting to sink farther back into the woods before he was seen. Krueger was able to enter all of their minds it seemed. Was no one safe? Certainly no one who slept could be. Rorschach rubbed his face and squat down out of sight. Well, there was one person who never slept who could probably be of help. If not for one major problem of course:

Dr. Manhattan had disappeared.

No one had seen Dr. Manhattan since Ms. Jupiter's passing. Possible man was in mourning and isolated self to grieve. Doubtful he would be returning soon if this was the case. Rorschach was hesitant to make guesses past that, but for sure that the man was gone without a single trace or clue. Lab untouched and empty. Government naturally going crazy and promising to solve this murder to bring him comfort.

Rorschach doubted Manhattan cared.

Rorschach looked up when he heard a rustling in the bushes and tensed ready to bolt. He calmed when he saw Daniel push through the pushes, tie now open and loose hanging around his neck. His eyes were red and puffy, but there were no tears. Rorschach wondered if Daniel had any left.

"Funeral's over, Rorschach." Dan collapsed on the ground next to his squatting partner, deciding instead to sit fully on his rump. He spread his legs out in front of him and leaned against the rather large shade tree. "Laurie's really gone, isn't she?"

"Yes, Daniel." Rorschach reached out a shaky hand and put it on Daniel's shoulder as he had seen Veidt do earlier. Seemed appropriate. "Sorry."

"Not your fault." Dan sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. His voice was even when he was continued. "We have to get this guy." Dan knew Rorschach nodded in agreement. Daniel's face started to harden into his 'Game Face' as Laurie had dubbed it. "Have to take him out." Daniel gripped his fists and pictured his kevlar and his gloves and the equipment he took such care in creating. "I think it's time Fred Krueger said hello to Nite Owl."

For once, Rorschach couldn't agree more.