Imagine Ch.4: The Dream!

Author's Note:

Hey guys! Finally finished this chapter and I am loving it! I can finally get started back on this fic for season 2! But before we get to the chapter, it's time for questions!

1. Zlaxe: To Dream and Serena's parents. Are you guys going to make an arranged marriage for Dream and Serena?

Jenna, Chris, Ember and Lucian: What?!

Jenna: Of course not! *laughs* Who our kids marry will be up to them.

Ember: I agree, though between you and me, I don't think we need to arrange their marriage. *chuckles*

Serena: Mom!

2. FyreBlazes: To Dream. Why didn't you just imagine for those around you to either not care about the weird things happening around you or for them to be nicer?

Dream: Now that's a nice question. The reason I didn't is because, well, I can't. My powers have limits too. I can't change or manipulate events in time and I can't make people do or think things. I can't create events either. My powers won't allow me to make others not care about that weird stuff, but even if I could've used them for that, I wouldn't. It wouldn't be right.

3. Zlaxe: To Eve. How many times have you hurt/seriously injured SP?

Eve: Hmm... I don't really know. *laughs*

Me: You're telling me... Anyway, that's all the questions for now. On with the chapter!

Dream Forest, Dream's POV:

"Please help us down guys!" Ruby yelled from up in the tree. Serena had previously told me about Ruby's fear of heights, so it wasn't too surprising to hear the desperation in her voice when she said that.

"Alright guys, hold on!" I shouted back as I began to concentrate. I raised my hand up towards the tree and paused before making a swift downwards motion with it. Immediately afterward, a ripple appeared near the top of the tree before a trail of rainbows began spiraling down to the ground, connecting in strange ways until they stopped right in front of me. It wasn't until about a minute later that I realized that they had created a slide.

"Hmm..." I sounded as I reached out and tapped the slide, confirming it as solid. "Strange, I was thinking of an ice slide... Alright guys, hurry up and slide down! We've got to get moving!" I shouted.

We ended up sitting there for a full ten minutes waiting for them to slide down. Apparently, Ruby was also afraid of sliding down the slide, and it took a while for Ryan to convince her to slide down with him. I probably shouldn't have made it so steep. Regardless they eventually made it down, at which point I got rid of the slide and we regrouped.

Ryan sighed. "Man, this place is weird. Don't tell me it's always gonna be like this."

I shook my head. "Ryan, I'm a guy who can create things from my imagination and travel faster than sound. This is a dream forest inside a tree. I don't think you need that answered." I responded with a laugh.

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah yeah. So, what now?"

I turned and examined the path ahead. "I say we just walk that way until we find something." I suggested, leading to a series of face-paws from the others. "What?"

Serena sighed. "Dream, we don't know anything about this place. We can't just explore it blindly."

I gave her an odd look. "I thought you loved exploring. Don't tell me you're scared already."

I immediately received a questioning expression. "Woah. Wait just a minute. Scared? No way. Who do you think you're talking to?"

A sly expression quickly made its way onto my face. "Well then, if you're so brave, why don't you just tell us what we should do here?"

She looked like she accepted the challenge as she stared boldly back at me. "You can bet I will! We're gonna walk that way until we find something! That's what we're gonna do!"

I grinned. "Alright! Now that we're in agreement, let's head out guys!"

"Umm, don't we get a say in this?" Ryan asked nervously.

I laughed. "Nope, sorry."

He sighed. "What have I gotten myself into?"

I laughed. "That's the spirit! Now get going!" I said as I pushed him forward and we began our journey.

After a while of walking, we arrived at a massive chasm. There seemed to be nothing connecting the two sides of the chasm, nor were there any apparent means of crossing it.

Ryan sighed and plopped down on the ground. "Great. Now how are we gonna fix the tree?"

"Relax Ryan. Getting across this chasm should be a piece of cake. I just need to creat a bridge." I explained to reassure him as I turned towards the chasm's edge. Concentrating, I made a lifting gesture with my arm, yet nothing seemed to happen. "Hmm... Maybe one more time." I repeated the gesture several times, but to no avail. I turned around and shrugged. "It's not working."

Serena looked at me thoughtfully. "Can you create a snowball?" She asked.

"A snow ball? Why?" I asked back.

Serena shook her head. "Just trust me. I've got an idea."

I shrugged. "Alright then." I said as I created the snowball. "Now what?"

"Try throwing it over the chasm." She told me.

I didn't quite understand what she was getting at, but nevertheless I took the snowball in my hand and threw it as hard as I could towards the chasm. Oddly enough, it broke apart right as it was about to start flying above the actual chasm, as if there were some sort of barrier there. "What the..."

"Just as I thought. Dream, I think there's some sort of barrier over the chasm that prevents your powers from affecting the area inside of it. It looks like we'll have to find some other way to cross this thing." She explained to me, quite to my surprise.

"You mean it's blocking my powers? That's the second thing to do that today." I replied as I stared at the chasm. "Huh, weird. Well how do you think we're gonna get over there? If that area is a dead zone for my powers, I can't fly us over the chasm. And I'm pretty sure we shouldn't climb down there. Water should not be purple." I said in response to the strange purple water that was present at the bottom of the chasm.

"Well you're the dream guy. You figure it out." Ryan said as he pushed me forward a bit.

I was about to complain, but soon found I found myself thrown off balance as the ground lifted up from beneath me and flung me through the air and over the chasm. "What the-?!" I searched frantically for something to grab onto, but failed miserably. The only thing I found was a strange railing near the other side of the Chasm. "That'll have to do." I said to myself as I flipped around and aligned myself with the rail. I ended up landing on it perfectly and surprisingly slid straight across it to the other side of the chasm. "Huh... That was fun." I laughed.

"Dream! You ok?!" Serena shouted to me worriedly from the other side.

I chuckled. "Yeah, don't worry! I'm fine! Don't step on that spot though! I don't think you can do what I did because you're a quadruped!"

"Then what should we do?!" She asked back.

I pondered her question for a moment while I observed the previous area from my new position. "Hmm..." I sounded. Suddenly my eye caught sight of something strange behind some bushes. "Hey! Check behind those bushes over there! There's something behind them!"

Serena's POV:

'Something behind the bushes?' I contemplated what he had said for a moment before deciding on what to do. "Ok! We'll go check!" I shouted back at Dream before turning to the others. "Dream says there's something we should check out behind those bushes over there."

"We know. We heard..." Ruby replied bluntly.

"Oh yeah. Heheh... Anyway, let's check it out." I said as we walked over to the bush. Pushing the bush aside, what we found was a bit odd. It was an oddly shaped, red, curved spring with a blue circle and yellow star in the center, like what you'd find in a cartoon or something.

"Well that's certainly not something you'd expect to find behind a bush." Ruby commented.

"Whelp! No use standing around here looking dumb! Let's jump on it!" Ryan exclaimed before leaping onto the strange contraption without hesitation. Oddly enough, he didn't even get a chance to land on it as he was immediately thrown over the wide gap where he eventually crashed into a bush.

Ruby shrunk back from the spring after the incident. This time I didn't blame her, but we still had to move on. "Want to go next Ruby? I'm sure Ryan will try to catch you."

Ruby nodded hesitantly. "Y-yeah... Hopefully he does more than try though..." She replied as she too hopped on the spring. The results were the same, all except for Ruby crashing into Ryan after a failed attempt to catch her. That spring really sent you flying as it seems.

I sighed and jumped on myself. It all went by in a blur. There was a springing sound, a blast of wind in my face, and the rustling of leaves as I crashed into a bush. I shook my head to clear up my vision as I sat up and looked around.

Just then, Dream ran over to me and helped me up. "You ok Serena?" He asked me, hugging me as he did so.

I have to admit, I blushed a bit at the gesture. "Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine." I replied, closing my eyes with a grin and resting my head against his chest. I soon came to regret that decision when I heard laughing from off to the side. I quickly pulled myself away from Dream's embrace and turned away from him to hide my face.

"Hehehe. Who are the love birds now?" Ryan teased, laughing along with Ruby.

I glared at him. "That... That was nothing! Dream was just being nice!" I protested, but it only seemed to make it worse.

"Heh, yeah. Then what was that grin all about?" Asked me.

"It was... It was... Ugh! Look, we have other things to deal with right now ok?" I replied, annoyed.

Ryan sighed. "Alright, fine."

Ruby looked on ahead. "Well what do we do now?"

I took a second to calm down before responding. "Well Dream said to just keep going that way... What do you think Dream?"

Dream looked as if in thought. "Mmm... Oh yeah!" He exclaimed as he gestured outwards with his hand and created a cloud. "We can use one of these to go up above the tree line and survey our surroundings. We're bound to see something from that height."

Ruby visibly shook from his explanation. "But what about Ruby?" I asked him, not wanting her to have to experience her fear again.

"She can just stay down here. It should be safe if she doesn't go anywhere. Besides, we'll only be up there for a few minutes." H replied.

I turned to Ruby and she nodded, walking over to a nearby tree and sitting down next to it. "Alright. Looks like we have a plan I guess. Hopefully we don't have to cross that chasm again." I said as the three of us hopped onto the cloud and rose into the sky. When we were above the tree level, Dream started searching around everywhere for something that could indicate a travel destination. I looked down to see that the cloud appeared clear. "Oh yeah. Forgot about the clear thing. It really is a good thing we left Ruby down there."

"Wow. We're really high... Ya know, I've always wondered how standing on a cloud would feel. It's a lot softer than you'd expect... And not as wet." Ryan commented.

"Found it!" Dream exclaimed, pointing off in a random direction. Turning to look myself, my eyes focused in on what looked to be a small black dot in the distance.

"You sure that's it Dream? It could just be a shadow." I asked him, slightly unsure.

He nodded. "Yep. There's no doubt abou-" He stopped suddenly, a scared look seemingly overtaking him as he turned around. "Oh my Arceus..."

"What is it Dream?" I asked him as I too turned around, only to be met with the sight of a huge wall of the same darkness that had distorted the Melodos tree advancing towards us. It wasn't tall enough to reach the cloud, but Ruby was still down below. "Dream!"

"I know." He replied as he jumped down to retrieve Ruby.

Dream's POV:

I landed on the nearest tree branch and jumped from tree to tree until I was close enough to the ground to leap down to it. Once I was down there with Ruby, I ran to her. "Ruby, we've gotta go!"

She looked up at me, apparently surprised at my sudden appearance. "Dream? What's going on? Where are the others?"

"Up above. Listen, there's this huge wall of distortion heading our way. We've gotta run for it." I explained to her, effectively grabbing her attention.

"Run? What do you mean run?" She asked me.

"Just trust me. Climb on my back." I instructed her. Despite her confusion, she did as told. "Now, hold on alright."

She nodded. "Why do I need to hold on again?"

"You'll see." I replied before we shot off with a sonic boom.

After screaming for a second, Ruby got over her initial surprise and relaxed. "H-how is this possible? You just broke the sound barrier without even accelerating!"

"One of my many talents." I grinned as We rapidly approached another chasm. This one seemed to be the same as the last one, yet it had gigantic stone pillars rising out of it.

"Well what do we do now?" Ruby asked me, sounding frightened.

"We jump. Hold on tight." I replied as I leapt from the edge of the chasm toward the first pillar. Turning my body slightly, I landed diagonally against the pillar and used my momentum to kick off of it towards the next pillar. The resulting shockwave caused the pillar I left behind to crack majorly and break off into the depths below. I continued this process until I got to the other side, where I promptly flipped and landed on on the grass-covered ground.

"Ugh... Show-off..." Ruby commented, seemingly disoriented as she slid off my back and laid down in front of me.

"Heh, sorry..." I apologized. "Guess I forgot you were on my back for a second."

Just then, the others arrived with the cloud and stepped off of it, allowing it to disappear. Serena walked over to Ruby, chuckling a bit. "So how'd you like running?"

"Ugh... I feel like I just got shot out of a canon..." She replied.

Looking ahead, I spotted something through a break in the trees. "Mmm... Think you can walk Ruby?"

She sighed. "Yeah. I'll manage. Why?"

I walked a bit ahead of the group. "Because I think we've arrived. Come on." I replied as we advanced towards the clearing ahead. Once there, we discovered a huge, pitch-black crystal-like rock that seemed to be hovering and radiating a dark aura.

"Well that's certainly...interesting." Serena commented as we stared at the strange object.

"That's definitely what's causing the problem with the tree." I concluded. "Should we break it?"

Serena shrugged. "I would guess so. Not much else to do with it."

I nodded and raised my hand above my head. Just as I did so, a series of what looked to be pink pieces of glass started collecting above it until they eventually formed a sword. The sword was a clear pink color, and had a crescent moon design covering the hilt. It was also extremely light. "There we go."

Serena looked at me with curiosity in her eyes. "What's with the sword Dream?"

"This is a sword that I call Daybreaker. I discovered it when I tried to create a sword for the first time. It does some pretty interesting things, so I'm gonna try it out on this black thing." I explained before approaching the crystal. I took my sword and pulled my arm back before attempting to break the crystal with a strike from my sword, but it just bounced harmlessly off of it. "Huh?"

"Well that didn't work. What now?" Ruby asked me. I turned around to face her. I had a theory, but it was a long shot.

"Ruby. Why don't you try to break it?" I asked her, seemingly taking her by surprise.

"What? Me?! Why?" She asked me.

"Just a thought. Try it." I insisted.

She sighed and walked up to the crystal. "I'm telling you, it won't work." She said before pulling her arm back and striking the crystal with her paw. Surprisingly, the crystal shattered upon mere contact with her paw, leaving only a ball of light in its place. "Uhh... What just happened?"

"I was right. You do have a weird aura." I smiled, enjoying my victory. "Though I have to admit, I had no idea that would happen.

"Weird aura?" She asked me. "What does my aura have to do with breaking some crystal?

I shrugged. "No idea. But look." I replied, pointing towards the ball of light, which by that point had formed into a portal. "Looks like we have our way out."

Serena let out a sigh of relief. "Good. Home is good." She smiled. "Sleepover anyone?"

We all laughed at her question before entering the portal one by one.

Melodos Tree Monument:

After exiting the portal, we looked around to find no one within inches of the monument.

"Wow. Loyal crowd." Ryan commented, only to receive a jab to the side from Ruby.

"You can't expect them to just stand here. We were gone for a while." Ruby replied.

"Sky!" A familiar voice exclaimed as I was suddenly pulled into a tight hug. "Are you ok?! Don't worry me like that again young man!" My mom scolded me as she continued to hug me. Wait. Sky?!

"Mom! You promised you wouldn't call me that in public!" I whined in response to the giggling I heard around me.

She pulled away and sighed. "Sorry sweetie. I was just so worried about you."

"Wait." Ryan laughed. "Wait a minute. So your real name is Sky? That's hilarious!"

"It is kind of funny." Serena chuckled. Ruby agreed.

I sighed. "Guess everyone knows now."

Mom looked at both Ruby and Ryan. "So you two are my son's other friends. It's so nice to meet you."

Ruby smiled. "Nice to meet you umm..."

"Jenna." Mom finished. "Anyway, Dream. I'm not just here because I was worried. The mayor asked me to come get you when you returned. He has a proposal."

"A proposal? Wait a minute. How did you know when we'd be returning?" I asked her.

"Mother's instinct of course. Oh and don't worry about not having enough room at home for your friends to stay over tonight. I've got that covered." She replied.

We all just stared at her, wondering if she was psychic. "Ok then. Well where is town hall? I've been all over the town, but as you know I've never really had all that much acceptance here."

Mom chuckled. "Follow me."

Melodos Town Hall:

I was a bit nervous about being in the office of the town's mayor. The mayor was Serena's father and even deemed me as a friend, but I guess being in any sort of political place put me on edge.

Just then, the mayor walked in followed by Serena's mother and sat in his chair, facing us. He had a serious expression on his face. "Well then." He started. "Seeing as our beloved tree has returned to normal, I believe that you have saved it, and for that I must thank you." He smiled. "Now, on to more pressing issues."

"Pressing issues?" I questioned. He nodded.

"Yes. There have been reports of similar occurrences to what you just witnessed happening all over the continent. Reports of distorted trees and buildings. Even water seems to be affected." He explained.

My eyes went wide with this news. "You mean this is happening all over the place?! How?!"

He sighed. "That's just it. We don't know. We only have you and your experiences to go off of."

"Hmm... So why did you call us here?" Serena asked her father.

He smiled. "I'm glad you asked that Serena. We've already deduced that this problem won't go away on its own, so for that we've proposed this. If it's ok with you, will you four go out on an expedition to find a cure for this horrible predicament?"

Serena's eyes lit up. "Wait... You mean like an adventure?!" She asked excitedly.

I chuckled. Ruby did say she liked adventure.

"Yes. Exactly. We don't have another solution, and there doesn't seem to be any time to think of a better one. So, will you do it."

We all exchanged looks before turning back to him. "Looks like you've got a deal. Oh and uhh, tell Burn he'll have to find another playmate while I'm gone." I laughed. Everyone else laughed along.

"Alright then. We'll prepare everything for your departure tomorrow. Ruby, Ryan. I've already informed your parents about this decision and your school transcripts have been finalized. We can't exactly penalize you for trying to save the world now can we?" He smiled.

"Thank you for everything." I smiled back.

Dream's House:

"Wow man. Nice room!" Ryan exclaimed as he gazed around at what my powers had done to my section of the house. "Wish I could have a room like this."

"Don't we all." Ruby smiled.

"Heh, wait till you see him mess with the scenery." Serena laughed. "It's amazing."

Ryan laughed. "Oh yeah? What's he gonna show us? The sky?"

"Ryan!" I complained.

"Heh, sorry."

- SnivyPro18