Hours had passed since Lincoln, and Ronnie Anne began their counterattack, and the two had already freed a few people. Including Flip from drowning in a sea of nightmare slime-flavored flipees and Bruno from a man-eating hotdog cart. The Nightmare king's rage grew as more people were freed from his grasp.

"Curse you both; I won't let you stop me!" He roared.

"Looks like he's about to start going on the offensive," said Lincoln.

"We better step it up," Ronnie Anne replied.

"I'm going for Clyde," said Lincoln.

"Clyde?" Questioned Ronnie Anne. "I thought he'd be one you'd save for last.

"He sacrificed himself to save Lily; I owe him that much,"

"Then I'm going for Sid," said Ronnie Anne as the two separated, flying into different pods.

Clyde's Dream

Clyde's dream had started with him alone in his home, with no sign that either of his fathers were home too. It was weird that there were signs that they had just been there, coffee in the maker and newspaper inside; it was like they both just walked out before he got out of his room. The confusion only grew when he went outside to see the car was still there, and he could not see a single soul in the streets.

"This feels wrong," Clyde said to himself, walking down the sidewalk for reasons he didn't understand. It was like he was compelled to explore. He couldn't shake off this feeling of absolute isolation like he was the last man alive. Heck, he couldn't even see birds flying or squirrels in the trees.

"Where is everybody?!" Clyde called out, only to be answered by the wind.

Panicking, Clyde started to run, heading for familiar places where there had to be people there, even if it was early in the morning. Burpin' Burger, the school, the park, everywhere he went was completely abandoned yet pristine. It was like all people in the world had just disappeared except for him.

Worn out from the running and fear, Clyde collapsed outside of Flips, panting heavily. Right now, he had no idea what to do, even using his phone got no results.

"What's going on!?" He yelled.

"Clyde, is that you?"

Clyde heard a familiar voice from a distance, turning; he saw none other than Lincoln from a distance running towards him.

"Lincoln?"

"Finally, I found somebody,"

"Wait, how are you here? The last thing I remembered was being eaten by that slime,"

"It got me, too; I woke up here. I've been searching for someone for hours,"

"Listen, Linc, I need to-" Clyde started, but an inhuman wail went off like a fire alarm, cutting him off.

The door to Flips flung open, and out shambled the old man himself; only he didn't quite look normal. He looked like a savage animal, eyes all red with nightmare slime dripping out like tears and more oozing out his mouth and fingers. Lincoln screamed, and Flip ran at him, grabbing him and chomping on his neck like a wolf.

"Lincoln!" Clyde screamed, seeing his friend's jugular ripped open by the deranged Flip.

"Why didn't you…." Lincoln wheezed, only to melt into nightmare slime that Flip seemed to guzzle down. Then Flip looked to Clyde, who promptly ran off. Flip gave chase but couldn't catch up to him.

Clyde somehow found his way to the mall and got inside. Flip must not have seen him do this because he didn't follow inside.

"Clyde? Is that you?"

Clyde's eyes widened when he saw Lincoln come out of hiding from behind a kiosk. "Lincoln? But… I just saw you get killed by Flip?"

"What do you mean? I've been here the entire time looking for anyone. I never went near Flip." Lincoln replied, looking just as confused as Clyde.

"I know it was you. Wait, how do I know that you're the real Lincoln?" Clyde asked.

Lincoln frowned. "Is there more than one of us that you abandoned?"

Clyde felt like he had just been punched. "I-"

There was another inhuman wail, and multiple people came running out of the various shops in the malls, at least one per store. Clyde could see each member of the Loud family and his own fathers, and each had the same dripping slime appearance that Flip had.

"Oh No," said Clyde

The pair began running for their lives, trying to get away, until they hid in the only store no one came out of, the sporting goods store. As the two caught their breath Lincoln and Clyde were trying to understand the situation.

"What the heck is going on!?" asked Clyde

"I don't know, but we better keep-"

Suddenly supposed to Lincoln and Clyde for heavy breathing coming from above them as they looked at the ceiling; to their shock and horror, they saw Lori clinging to the ceiling like a mad beast.

"Lori?" They both said.

Suddenly Lori dropped from the ceiling on top of Lincoln and began tearing into him as he screamed for help.

"Lori, no stop!" screamed Clyde.

"Why did you let this happen?!" Cried Lincoln before Lori ripped open his throat.

"Lincoln! Lori, what have you done!?"

"What's the matter, Clyde, don't you like me anymore?" she asked, sounding flirtatious.

Clyde gulped as Lori walked to him, stepping over Lincoln's melting corpse while shooting a flirtatious smile as she swung her hips.

"Now that Lincoln is gone, nothing is keeping us apart," she said, leaning over and showing her cleavage.

"No, I'm over my crush on you!"

"Are you? Or was it Lincoln keeping us apart? Isn't that why you abandoned him?" she said, petting his cheek.

"No, I made a mistake; I should have believed him,"

"Well, IT'S TOO LATE NOW!" Said Lori as her voice became demonic and her skin turned black.

Clyde made a run for it out of the shop, seeing everyone in the mall also turning black. He ran up the escalator and found a door that brought him out of the mall, though everyone was chasing him. Lori's voice was the only one he could hear. Finding a fire escape, he got to the ground and ran away from the mall. Running, Clyde could hear several growling voices closing in on him; suddenly, the road before him collapsed into an empty abyss that he just barely avoided falling into. Trapped, Clyde looked to see nothing that could take him over or even around the ledge. It was like he was literally at the edge of the world.

"I'm trapped!"

"Clyde, is that you?" Said a voice.

Clyde turned to see Lincoln standing across from him.

"Oh, man, I am so glad I found…."

"No, stay back!"

"Clyde?"

"You're not Lincoln! Stay away!"

"Of course I am. Who else did you abandon?" Said Lincoln as his skin turned black like everyone else.

As the nightmare Lincoln advanced, now joined by everyone else coming from to corner him, they all began shouting things like "traitor" as Clyde moved closer to the edge.

"This is where you belong, you backstabber. Gone forever!" Said Lincoln as he was about to push over the edge.

Shazam!

Suddenly a lightning bolt came crashing down, blasting the fake Lincoln away into the crowd, making them merge together into some kind of Cronenberg monstrosity. Standing there was the real Lincoln powered up, saving Clyde from falling over.

"Shazam?

"You're safe now. I'll handle this,"

"You're ruining everything!" Said the nightmare in numerous voices.

"Yeah, that's kind of the idea. Did you think I'd make this nightmare worse?" Lincoln snarked before using his staff to shoot off an electro-ball at the amalgam of nightmare people.

"No! I won't let you!" Screamed the creature in one voice in pain.

The amalgam lunged at Lincoln, making him grab Clyde and fly them both into the air. As the amalgam tried to reach them from below, Lincoln raised his staff, creating an even larger electro-ball before dropping it on the amalgam.

"Noooooo!"

Upon hitting the creature, it exploded, taking out not only the creature but the whole nightmare as the whole dream became a white void.

"You're safe now,"

"Wait, my friend Lincoln, the real one, is he okay?"

"He's fine; in fact he's waiting for you,"

Lincoln then created a flash, blinding Clyde temporarily; when his vision came back, he was no longer standing in a void but on a rooftop. Seeing himself in a reflection, he saw he was dressed as One-Eyed Jack. Clyde was confused until he noticed Lincoln by the edge dressed like Ace Savvy.

"Ready to deal out some justice, Jack?"

"You know it, Ace," he said before they both jumped off the roof into the city below.

Sid's Dream.

Sid found herself in a place that she really did not want to be in. She was bound to a wall by hardened slime, with some still gooey dripping down and covering her in some places. She could feel it in her hair and under her clothes. The setting was a familiar one to her; it looked like her home, but the walls were coated in the slime, both hard and soft, and she saw her family trapped in it as well. Honestly, it looked exactly like something out of an Alien movie.

"Not this again." She groaned, not bothering to try and break free of her binds. "I'm not afraid of this movie; I'm not going to let it freak me out anymore."

"Then I guess I'll have to surprise you with something else." A voice said as if right next to her ear.

Sid panicked, remembering that voice. "No, not him."

Coming from around a corner was something that looked a lot like a xenomorph, but this one was green and had Mr. Mind's face. The head overall looked like a caterpillar, somehow making it look more disturbing than a normal xenomorph.

"You're dead!" Sid insisted.

"I got better, and now I'm not going to manipulate people to give me power; I'm just going to use their bodies in other ways."

The Mr. Mind alien stepped aside, and now Sid could see her family had facehuggers covering them.

"This isn't real; this is just a dream," Sid claimed.

"The mind makes it real; if you die in a dream, you die for real. Believe me, I know." Mr. Mind laughed, bringing out an egg.

"No, you can't do this!" Sid protested, struggling harder to break free.

"Oh no, child, this egg isn't for you." Mr. Mind clarified, moving the egg to someone trapped in the wall a few feet to her left that Sid hadn't noticed until now. Sid gasped when she saw it was Yoon Kwan.

"No! Don't do this to him! He's suffered enough because of you!"

"He failed me; that requires punishment." Mr. Mind said happily while stepping back as the egg began to open.

The sound of the egg opening woke up Yoon as he looked down at the egg. "What's happening?"

Suddenly a face hugger leaped out onto his face.

"Noooo!" Screamed Sid.

Yoon screamed, but the sound was muffled while Sid watched in horror; suddenly, Adelaide started to wake up, along with her parents. Just the face hugger fell off Yoon's face leaving him unconscious.

"Sid…. Is that you? Why does my head hurt?"

Sid didn't want to say anything; she knew this wasn't the real Adelaide but seeing her in pain was still like a knife in her heart. Her dream parents began screaming in pain too. Adelaide began crying and begging for the pain to stop. Suddenly Mr. Chang's eyes rolled to the back of his head as he started convulsing before his mouth opened wide. To Sid's horror, she watched as a large worm that looked just like Mr. Mind erupted from his mouth, pulling itself out and leaving a boneless bag of flesh behind. Adelaide and Mrs. Chang screamed in horror; however, the same thing soon happened to her. Adelaide then looked at Sid with tears in her eyes.

"Sid….I don't wanna Die!"

Before Said could say anything, the same thing started happening to her. Sid could only watch as the dream version of her sister died.

"No, make it stop!" Screamed Sid.

"Ah, my head!"

Side watched as Yoon woke up and began screaming in pain like everyone else until a worm burst through his face before dropping to the floor covered in blood. Sid watched as the remains of her family and idol dissolved into slime.

"You monster!"

"We're not done yet; my children need food," The Mr. Mind alien told her.

"Food?"

"Yes, and you're on the menu,"

The worms started growing until they were just like Mr. Mind but half his size; all four started advancing on Sid, ready to eat the helpless girl.

"Save her brain for me, children," laughed Mr. Mind.

Shazam!

Crashing down like a lightning bolt Ronnie Anne blasted away the worms, to Sid's relief.

"Ronnie Anne?!"

"You are officially banned from watching horror movies ever again,"

"I will not lose to you again!" Mr. Mind rued, pouncing at Ronnie Anne.

Ronnie Anne let him get close, and as soon as it was too close for Mr. Mind to backpedal, she covered herself in electricity. Mr. Mind acted and even sounded like a bug that flew into a bug zapper.

"And stay down." Ronnie Anne said before using her strength to break Sid free from her binds.

"I'm so glad to see you, my family. Are they okay?"

"They'll be fine. I'm going to save them, but first, let's turn this horror show into a showstopper,"

Summoning her staff Ronnie Anne slammed it down, creating a white-out. When Sid opened her eyes, she found herself sitting on a throne at a concert front row in front of the stage. Everywhere banners of her name were hung, suddenly Twelve is Midnight walked onto the stage; Yoon Kwan smiled and winked at Sid. Sid smiled as Yoon Kwan spoke to the crowd.

"We dedicate this concert to out number #1 fan Sid Chang!"

"Now this is what I call a dream." Sid said happily.

"Enjoy it, I've still got work to do." Ronnie Anne said before leaving to find the next one to help.

'Weird, out of all the people I've helped, only Sid and Bobby seemed aware they were in a dream. Everyone else thought it was real. Why is that?' She asked herself. "Maybe because Lincoln and I made them aware," she thought.

Leni's Dream

As Leni sat in her room in her sleepwear, she wondered to herself what was going to happen next. Leni knew she was in a nightmare and feared the trauma she was going to face this time.

"It's just a dream, Linky will save me," she said hopefully sitting on her bed

Suddenly a mannequin hand shot up from within her bed, grabbing her arm. Leni screamed as she pulled away, leaping off her bed. Stumbling, she fell into the chair in the corner. She tried catching her breath, but more hands shot out of the chair grabbing her arms and legs. Suddenly two more hands shot out grabbing her breasts viciously causing her to scream.

"No….get off of me!" She screamed, kicking and screaming.

Suddenly another hand popped out between her legs aiming for her crotch, however this one was different; it wasn't a mannequin like the others. It was an armor hand that was too familiar to her.

"No….not him!"

Showing great strength, Leni broke free and ran to the door. Opening the door she ran out, however instead of the hallway of her home she fell into a black abyss. Falling, Leni landed onto a heart shaped bed in a love hotel room. Before Leni could react, more mannequin hands rose up grabbing her arms and legs restraining her to the bed. Then another armored hand rose up grabbing onto her nightgown, tearing it off her body leaving her in her underwear.

"No please,"

Suddenly a knock came at the door and an unfamiliar voice said they were coming in. The door opened and a man walked in, though he was barely able to get through. This man was very obese, with puffy cheeks, dirty nails, hairy and smelled worse than one of Lori's farts. He looked like a guy who was protesting every concept of hygiene or basic self care. Leni was disgusted, but the man just smiled.

"So you're Leni Loud, I hope you're as good as my friends say you are."

Leni struggled trying to break free but couldn't, making the man laugh.

"Aw c'mon babe I'm really a nice guy you know what they say, inside every fat guy,"

Suddenly a second armored hand burst through the fat man's belly to Leni horror. Then the wound was torn open as the fat man deflated and August Smith stepped out of the fat man.

"There's a psychopath waiting to get out,"

"No…not too you!"

"Miss me?"

"Don't you come near me you creep, I know this is just a dream!""

"Why don't you just lay back and enjoy it, get a taste of your future,"

"My brother will save me,"

"Why would he bother? Where were you when he needed you to save him?"

Hearing those words struck Leni hard as she lost her will to fight as she gave into her fate. August then advanced on Leni, however he soon heard a knock at the door.

"Room service," said a voice on the other side.

"Must be the champagne I ordered," he mocked.

As August moved to the door, he placed his hand on the doorknob and turned it

Shazam!

August was then blasted through a wall before Lincoln walked in.

"Linky!?"

"Not in the real world or the dream world will you ever lay a hand on my sisters!" Roared Lincoln.

"Come on, don't be a cockblock!" August complained.

"How about you not be a rapist?" Lincoln replied.

August chose not to respond verbally but rather by getting through the hole in the wall and growing bigger. In seconds he had become a literal white dragon. Ripping off the roof of the room, August tried to bite down at both Lincoln and Leni, but Lincoln delivered a powerful uppercut knocking him back before freeing Leni.

"Stay here,"

Lincoln then flew into the air ready to fight August who started to talk with Nightmare's voice.

"Why are you trying so hard to save these people? I've seen their memories and how they turned their backs on you, yet you want to save that worthless town. What does Lincoln Loud owe Royal Woods or even the world?"

"The old me would have said the very same thing, but I don't feel that way anymore, I've been given a gift and it's my job to use it to protect everyone," he said. "Because I'm not just Lincoln Loud anymore, I AM!

"NOOO!"

"SHAZAM!" he yelled, firing a massive blast.

Nightmare August screamed in horror as his body was destroyed, when the blast faded what was left started turning to ash.

"I don't understand. You have all this power and yet you waste it protecting these people. Most people would use it to take control over their own life and make sure others didn't take that control away. Why would you protect the people who wanted nothing more than for you to suffer? Especially after how that boy betrayed you and started it all?"

Lincoln became curious upon hearing what Nightmare had just said.

"You know who made that photo don't you?"

"Oh, protector I've been inside your mind too and you've known this entire time who made that photo. I felt it and you felt it, you just never wanted to admit it, so go see for yourself. Let's see if the great Shazam still wants to protect these fools after he's forced to admit who betrayed him," mocked Nightmare August as he faded away.

Frowning, Lincoln turned to Leni.

"Is he gone?" asked Leni.

"For now, but you need to go somewhere safer." Lincoln said before making the dream fade away and disappearing with it.

Leni called out to her brother, but when the dream came back she was standing on stage receiving an award for amazing breakthroughs in fashion, Leni looked to the audience to see her family sitting there so proud of her. This made her cry tears of joy as she accepted the award. Leaving Leni's Dream Lincoln floated for a moment, wondering what nightmare had said.

"Maybe I have always known who did it. Well, time to find out," he thought as he flew off to another pod.

Carlota's dream

Carlota found herself inside a large room, really large, almost like a stadium. Yet it was filled with grass, trees, bushes, and even a waterfall by the far wall. She recognized the place immediately, feeling very uncomfortable in a place like this.

"Not this place." Carlota groaned. This place was the main room from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. While others thought it was a cute movie, Carlota always found it very disturbing. Willy Wonka always came across to her as a sadistic villain more than anything, and the traumas the kids went through made it venture into horror territory over fantasy. Being here was not something she considered to be a good experience, she wanted out of this candy-coated torture chamber.

"I can't be here." She said, looking for an exit. She saw one, a dark cave that the chocolate river was going into, but there was no way she was going in there if she could avoid it. However, she saw someone by the river's edge.

Carlota saw CJ by the riverbank looking for something in the chocolate river, until he fell in. Knowing what was to come, Carlota rushed to him. CJ tried to swim out, but the chocolate grew out arms with melted faces and pulled him away from the shore. It also looked like some of that nightmare slime was mixed into the chocolate now.

"I'm here CJ!" Carlota yelled when she got to the river, ready to jump in and free CJ. But before she could, something hit her and knocked her down. She saw it was a pretty big jawbreaker, and apparently it had been thrown by what looked like an evil oompa-loompa on the other side of the river.

"Carlota, help!" Maria cried from the other side of the river. Carlota screamed when she saw Maria had apparently been transformed into a giant blueberry and the evil oompa-loompas were eating her alive, sharp teeth dripping with blood and blueberry juice. Maria could do nothing to fight them off in her current condition.

"Carlota, help!" CJ shouted too, fighting off the nightmare chocolate pulling him towards the pipe.

"There's a boat somewhere, maybe I can use it." Carlota said, looking for a boat. She saw one docked upriver and it did not look like the one from the movie, but right now she didn't care. If it would help save her relatives she'd use it.

Carlota ran to the boat while a few more oompa-loompas threw more jawbreakers at her. While she ran she saw Hector chained to the wall with what looked like caramel being poured over him while he tried to escape, and Rosa being crammed inside what looked like a giant peanut butter cup, only she'd be the peanut butter. Then she saw Frida having her eyes pecked out by the giant geese from the movie, and Bobby and Ronnie Anne floating in the air grabbing onto the wall trying to avoid being pulled into a ceiling fan made out of serrated blades.

Finally, Carlota got to the boat, which was tied to a tree with licorice. She ripped it apart and jumped in, getting it started. It seemed to start on its own so all she had to do was steer it.

"Welcome aboard Ms Wonka."

Carlota looked behind herself to see a single oompa-loompa. Up close she could see this one had red-tinted orange skin with dark green hair, red eyes, and instead of being dressed in the classic outfit he looked more like a butcher.

"I'm not Wonka." Carlota objected, wanting to get away from this creature. The oompa-loompa held up a mirror and Carlota saw herself dressed like Willy Wonka, making her gasp.

"Come get a closer look at our new creations." The oompa-loompa suggested, with the boat going closer to the other side of the river.

Carlota heard two screams followed by the sound of wet shredding and bloody chunks and entrails falling onto the ground and into the chocolate river. On the bow of the boat a human hand landed, making Carlota gag. Oompa-loompas began to quickly gather up the chunks and blood.

"Looks like we got some new cream filling to use." The butcher oompa-loompa said happily.

They passed the giant geese, now eating Frida, then they passed Hector and Rosa trapped in their candy coffins and being packaged and put on gurneys. When they got to Maria, the oompa-loompas were still chowing down on her and had even put pieces of her on plates to pass around to others. Carlota wanted to vomit. Then they passed the pipe in the river and she could see CJ trapped halfway inside it, looking like he was suffocating.

"Now for the fun part." The butcher oompa-loompa said with glee as they got closer to the tunnel.

Shazam!

A lightning bolt struck the chocolate river, creating waves and pushing the boat away. Carlota gripped the railing of the boat to avoid falling over, but the butcher oompa-loompa wasn't so lucky and fell into the chocolate.

"Thanks for ruining candy for me Carlota." Ronnie Anne flew in and grabbed her cousin.

"Thanks Ronnie Anne, but it would have been better if you got here sooner." Carlota said.

"I am so sick of you interfering!" The Nightmare King called to Ronnie Anne, his voice echoing throughout the dream.

Right then the candy room shook violently as if an earthquake hit it. Cracks appeared everywhere and pieces of ground shifted everywhere, with flames and lava spewing out. Ronnie Anne and Carlota were immediately grateful they were still in the air. The chocolate river rose and formed the face of the Nightmare King in front of them.

"Do you think doing all this is going to make that boy like you? He replaced you Ronnie Anne when you left, and the only reason he took you back was because she and everyone else abandoned him. If Stella trusted Lincoln, would you be the one who became Lady Shazam?"

Ronnie Anne's answer was blasting him with multiple lightning strikes, making him splatter.

"Do you think I have no motives beyond that? How shallow do you think I am? I'm a hero because I believe in doing good, not because I want the world to put me on a pedestal."

"Liar, you love the attention and adoration. You love the feeling of strength and freedom that power gives you. But the wizard put restrictions on it, why limit yourself? With me in control, if you work for me you could be everything you want to be every moment of every day."

"Don't listen to him, Ronnie Anne." Carlota pleaded.

"Nightmare King, your offer sounds good, but frankly, it also sounds boring." Ronnie Anne replied, flying up and reenacting the scene with the glass elevator bursting through the ceiling of the chocolate factory.

Once out, Ronnie Anne dispelled the nightmare and dropped Carlota in front of a perfectly normal bodega.

"Remind me not to eat candy for a month when I wake up," Carlota said.

"Beating this creep will be sweeter than any candy." Ronnie Anne remarked, looking eager to punch the bad guy and hard.

"Ronnie Anne, I may not know much about your power, but I know that you are worthy of it. You didn't get it by some technicality, you're more deserving than anyone else I could name." Carlota stated.

Ronnie Anne smirked. "Was there ever any doubt about that?"

"Never prima,"

"Listen, Carlota, normally I turn these nightmares into an exciting dream, but after what you've been through, you could use something a little slower pace," said Ronnie Anne disappearing.

Carlota headed inside to her apartment; as she walked in she saw her family sitting together watching TV, but there was another there. It was none other than Alisa offering a seat next to her.

"Hey girl, saved you a spot,"

Carlota only smiled as she joined her dream family, enjoying her dream. As Ronnie Anne left Carlota's dream, to her surprise, dozens of pods had been turned. Ronnie Anne then noticed Lincoln, but something was wrong with him. His fists were clenched and he was breathing heavily.

"Lincoln, are you okay?" Ronnie Anne asked, approaching him.

Lincoln turned around, showing distress on his face. "No, Ronnie Anne, I'm not, I feel like I've been betrayed all over again and the worst part I knew who it was along, but I know who to take this out on!" Said Lincoln flying off.

Ronnie Anne was confused by Lincoln's words until a realization hit her.

"He knows who made that photo,"

End Of Ch. 21