A/N: This was fun~! Hope Spider's not too horribly OOC, but well. –shrugs– If he is, I have an excuse. XDDD Hope you enjoy? ^^ Also, warning: this contains confusing explanations! Hope you don't get confused. XDDDD

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito in any way or form. (or shape!)

Chapter Forty Eight; Lucid Nightmare Arc

"…Spider."

There, I'd said it. I'd acknowledged his existence. My mouth went dry a second later, earlier confidence at being right flying out the window faster than I could say 'oh, crap!'. My body tensed in heightened awareness as he shifted just the slightest. The red orb-like eyes had never looked very intimidating on-screen – in fact, I had thought Spider's whole outfit was quite ridiculous – but now they looked blood-chilling, glowing back at me as the only part of his body that I could see at the moment, other than the lower half of his face. The eyes and outfit in the darkness in real life made him look like a monster straight out of a story book. And his smirk wasn't helping in the least.

He waited for a moment to see if I had something more to say, my mouth opened a bit to take ragged breaths, the cold air burning down my dry throat. After a minute – that felt like an eternity – his smile grew, the shadows of the darkness making it twist more sinister than he probably intended – or, maybe that was his plan, since he probably knew exactly what he was doing.

A shuffling noise echoed through the alley as I took an instinctive step backwards, slowly and unhelpfully. I shut my mouth, teeth clacking together as they clenched, and I focused on regulating my breath because if I passed out of hyperventilation in front of him, I'd never live it down. Possibly literally, too.

He finally spoke up, tone lilting in a way that got under my skin, an indescribable fingers-on-chalkboard ring to it despite it not sounding anything similar to that. "At a loss for words, kitten? Did you not expect me to show up – you seemed to know who it was, though, so maybe you were just denying reality…," He trailed in a mocking way and my brow twitched, whether in fear or irritation, I didn't know.

He paused to take a dramatically long breath before his hands moved out in placating gesture, barely visible. "But don't worry, I won't hurt you." He stated, smirk lessening just a bit, as if to give comfort. It didn't. A scowl twisted on my lips and my arms quivered, wrapping around my torso protectively in a gesture that could've been mistaken as being cold. Tonight was cold, but I was wearing layers and despite my sleeves only going down to my elbows, it was enough to keep me warm, so if he wasn't here, the night wouldn't warrant such measures.

"Sure," I scoffed, "The only reason you won't kill me is probably because you'd die if you did so, right?" Despite him probably already knowing who I was, I found an odd comfort in deepening my voice to 'Jester's'; it gave me the confidence to spar verbally with him, even if I was still rooted to the spot in fear.

"Oh, so you figured that out." He hummed and he walked forward with a grace I could only dream of having. Once he was closer, I realized that not only was his outfit's creepiness not look great on-screen, but his size was also downgraded from there, too – at the moment, he towered over me, obviously much taller. 5'9, or 6'1 – no, maybe even taller; I couldn't make an accurate guess with my mind as frazzled as it was.

"Of course I did. You're non-canon, so…," I coughed lightly, leaning away as he leaned closer into my personal space. My gosh, those orbs were unnerving! "…so, you…shouldn't even exist." I finished unsteadily. He chuckled deeply in his throat, thankfully stepping away from me a bit as I threatened to tip over backwards. As it was, I lost my balancing, stumbling back a couple of steps and crashing into a trashcan, sending it plummeting to the ground with a loud crash as its contents fell onto the concrete below. Thankfully, though, I was able to regain balance before I tumbled onto my butt in the middle of trash.

I shuddered, letting out a huff of breath as regaining a defensive stance. At least there was some distance between us thanks to my clumsiness, I mused internally. Once again, he laughed in his mocking way. "You seem to forget that you shouldn't exist here, either." He pointed a gloved hand at me, "Yet here you are, at this very moment. With me." The last word was hissed out and I felt like a child all over again, the way adults seemed to think children didn't understand complex things clear. That feeling was practically being shoved down my throat by this arachnid maniac.

I suddenly felt a lot smaller next to him and it had nothing to do with height.

My temper flared up despite that – if there was one thing I despised, it was being belittled. Of course, since I'm younger, I don't understand all the diverse aspects of the world, but I wasn't clueless – it's not like I wouldn't learn and it's not like I had no common sense, yet there would always be this one person who thinks they are higher than you – higher than everyone. Anger bubbled in my chest and before I knew it, angry words were spilling out of my mouth like hot coal – bitter.

"It's not like I wanted to be here! And you weren't supposed to happen! The only reason you're alive at this very moment is because of me! You should be grateful that I don't just find a way to kill you, you–!" Yelling with a dry throat wasn't a good idea and I was now suffering the consequences, sentence cut off as a coughing fit ensued. Once it subdued, I cleared my throat noisily, eyes averted from Spider in embarrassment. Some threatening – I'd royally screwed it up.

I froze as a hand patted my back gently, but the hand was so cold that I could feel it through my layers, chilling the skin and sinking in like frostbite. It spread with the feel of spiders creeping along my skin. I grimaced, my shoulders pulling up and tensing, hunched to protect my neck. The glowing red orbs were right beside my face now, staring me down. "Now, now, don't hurt yourself." His teeth flashed in a derisive smile, "Wouldn't want you getting hurt."

I scoffed. "You wouldn't really care. You'd probably be glad to get rid of the only person who currently knows of you." The factoid that I really was the only person who currently knew about him hit me in the face – since he hadn't tried to kill KID, Kaito didn't know about him, and since Spider didn't exist before I got here, Saguru also didn't know about him; I hadn't even told Akako about my hunches, since I wasn't certain. The only person who knew who Spider was was me. And I was currently right next to him.

He removed his hand from my back – thank goodness! – and paced to stand in front of me once more. "Probably true, but it'd be a shame…," I raised an eyebrow, wanting him to elaborate what would 'be a shame'. "Since if you died, I'd die, too." He finished with another smirk, stating the already stated fact. I felt the innate need to shove his head into the nearest wall. My fingers twitched.

"I'm curious. When did you figure out it was me?" He took a step back to look at me speculatively. I could imagine his eyes narrowing behind his mask in interest. My shoulders relaxed the slightest when I realized he probably wasn't going to suddenly jump at me and kill me – I had an advantage over him. To him, I was untouchable.

"It was actually kind of a long shot, truthfully. I hadn't really thought it was you, until this morning. A…friend of mine told me something that made me think quite a bit…and I remembered something that led me to the conclusion that it could possibly be you." I answered. Akako telling me her mother had been killed had sent my thoughts in a tangent and I had realized that, maybe, just maybe, her mother had been killed in a witch-hunt. With that, I had remembered the scene with Akako and Spider in a Magic Kaito special episode. It had been an out-there theory, but it had been surprisingly right. I hadn't doubted it much, though – for some reason, I had just known it was him.

He gave a hum, leaning against the wall of the alley, "You wrote your heist note before this morning. Did you invite your 'stalker' without even knowing who it was?" He sounded incredibly amused by my logic. I scowled, readjusting my position, wondering why there were no police sirens in the background. I hadn't noticed before, but now it was quite obvious the night was silent despite me having stolen the ruby.

"When he was following me at all times since my heist, even when I was at school or with friends, it was about time he needed to be taken care of." I replied through clenched teeth, irritation returning from remembering all those times I'd purposely walked home alone or went straight home or the feeling of eyes tracing my steps. It had been annoying and it had heightened my paranoia considerably. The feeling started right after my first heist, when I woke up. Of course, I had shrugged it off then, but it eventually became obvious that someone was watching me.

"And what did you do to the police? There's no way that they just went on a random coffee break by chance." I hissed, worried for the officers. I'd invited him to my heist not knowing who he was and it could've possibly cost the lives of innocent bystanders. The thought left a welling pit in my stomach like acid. If he'd killed them…

"Don't worry, they're alive and well, kitten. I wouldn't kill anyone without a reason." The smile on his face said otherwise and my eyes narrowed in a fierce glare. At the look, he continued, "And don't give me that face – you know very well that if I kill anyone, it's because of you." I blanched at his analysis of the situation and before I knew it, my hand had gripped his arm to pull him forward before slamming him back into the wall he'd been leaning against. He followed my movements like a ragdoll, but it didn't seem to affect him.

"If you kill anyone, I'll personally shave your head, goldilocks!" I barked, only getting another deep chuckle in return. He laughed way too much for my liking – it unnervingly reminded me of myself. And that thought made me feel cold all over again.

"Shaving my head won't do anything, kitten–" "–and quit calling me that! It's creepy!" "–after all, in all of your memories, I have a head full of hair." I clicked my tongue at his blatant ignoring of my order but released his arm, crossing my arms again. I was still glaring bullets at him, but my fascination got the better of me.

"Is that how it works? Everything I remember about you in my memories, you will be?" I questioned, feeling a bit awkward at having a seemingly normal conversation with him. It was civil enough and it gave me a weird feeling that I was doing something wrong, but after the initial shock and fear, having a conversation with him wasn't too hard. Especially since I knew he couldn't hurt me. If it wasn't for that, I would probably still be paralyzed in fear.

His head tilted in a fashion that made the light from the red orbs flash across the brick wall on the other side for a brief moment. It illuminated the dark space before disappearing, the darkness invading once again. "Not everything. What you remember about my appearance and most of my personality remains intact, but since I'm not actually the real Spider, only a being appearing to be Spider, things are different. For instance, that ridiculous organization has nothing to do with my current version."

"A being…? So, are you saying that you're not human like the Spider from the show?" It was obvious now that he knew a lot more about me than I had first thought. He even knew he was Spider, yet not Spider since he was created from my memories. It was also obvious that he knew that I wasn't from this dimension. Great – the odds were being placed in his favor now. If he was like Spider, but not Spider at the same time, I couldn't be sure what to expect from him. And the fact that he was and wasn't Spider was kind of confusing, as well. Why couldn't anything just have a normal explanation that made sense?

His lips curled up into a sideways grin that looked unpleasant and I noticed for the first time that his canines were a bit longer than normal. I shuddered. "Originally, I was a regular spider. When you came into contact with me, however, all your thoughts and memories were place into my head to fix the anomaly you created. I'm not human, but I'm no longer a spider, either. I'm one of those void beings that bend to memories and thoughts and perspective. Your perspective."

My brow furrowed as I processed the information. If that was right, then I had to have come across… "Oh…," I breathed out, remembering that little insignificant spider encounter as I had been entering Agasa's house. It had been unimportant and basically only five seconds – if even that long – but it had created…him. Suddenly, I felt like not only smashing his head into the nearest wall, but mine as well.

This was utterly ridiculous.

I blinked, "Wait a minute…if you aren't human that means you can probably do things that the original Spider couldn't do, so…," I took a defensive step away from him, realizing that despite him not being able to physically counter me, he could certainly do it mentally. "Those nightmares. They were you, weren't they?" My tone was menacing and just a bit murderous as the words came from between clenched teeth as I bared them at him, thoroughly displeased and angry.

He chuckled and stood up properly from the wall, probably sensing that I was about ready to make an aim for his 'family jewels' and wring his neck until he was begging for breath. No one – and I mean no one – messed with my sleep! My hands twitched.

"That was me." He admitted with yet another derisive smirk, "The things you're afraid of are interesting. You're not cared of the dark, yet you always had a panicking reaction once someone you cared about came into the picture. You're perfectly fine being alone, yet you had a panicking reaction when faced with your alternate version. I meant no harm, really." Every word out of his mouth sounded like a big fat lie and I wondered why I had even bothered thinking he'd be able to be civilized – that I would be able to be civilized since he essentially had been stalking me for over a week.

"You're biggest fear was never returning home." He chimed, "You're afraid that you won't be able to find the gem or that someone else will find it first."

He narrowly avoided my fist as I lashed out at his stupid face – I needed him to shut up. If he continued to unravel things, I would begin to feel helpless again and I still didn't know what the heck he wanted from me! I wouldn't be of any use to him, so why was he following me? This bastard had successfully written his (stupid – I was being petty, I knew) name on my blacklist in permanent ink.

I swiveled on my heel to face him again, where he was standing in front of the trashcan I had toppled over earlier. He raised his hands in an offering gesture, "How about we make a bet? Whoever acquires the gem wins – loser has to face the consequences of failing to retrieve the gem." He sneered in a way that made it obvious he was confident in his win. My body trembled with adrenaline – the gem was obviously the one I was looking for, the one that would take me home. If he got it first, who knows what he'd do to it?! Why did he even want it?!

But, there wasn't much I could do, since he was probably going to go through with it either way. Despite my inner judgment screaming at me to say no, I said the complete opposite, offering him a feral grin that spread across my face unbidden. If he wanted a bet, then he'd get one. "Fine by me, goldilocks. Be prepared to lose horribly." After all, I didn't exactly play fair when it came to things like this. If he wanted to be a jerk about it, I'd play as dirty as I needed to – he would lose. I'd make sure of it.

He flashed back a grin that mirrored mine – crooked and unpleasant – before suddenly lunging at me unexpectedly, earning a startled yelp. I tumbled backwards, a heavy coldness weighing me down, and my back connected with the concrete painfully, the back of my hand banging against the flooring since I hadn't seen his attack coming. I gasped for breath, trying to regain the breath that I'd lost when he'd fallen on top of me.

My legs struggled to untangle from his as his hands searched my pockets, leaving frostbitten trails in their wake. "Get the fuck off me!" I shrieked, my hands banging his back powerfully and I heard him grunt as I struck the back of his neck with a fist. My boots scuffed across the ground and the zipping sound of my pouch alerted me that he was probably looking for the heist gem. Ignoring the coldness of his body, I moved my head ot his shoulder and vengefully bit down, breaking through skin by the metallic taste that filled my mouth after.

"You little–!" He shouted, pulling back to grasp his shoulder protectively. I spit out his blood, taking his momentarily lapse as opportunity to position one of my legs between his and knee his…well, you know. He doubled over and I quickly shoved him off of me, shuffling backwards with harsh breathing. My heart pounded in my ears as cold sweat dotted my face at the recent attack. Everything my mother had told me about not going or meeting strangers in dark alleys filled my head and I felt really stupid for staying this long.

My hand came up to clutch the back of my head as my vision swam, remembering the way my head had hit the floor. Damn it, I hope that didn't give me a concussion… but, judging by my suddenly unbalanced legs, it freakin' had. A headache began to build up and my eyes squeezed shut as I tried to regain a semblance of balance and coordination so that I could get out of here while he was recovering. My hands trailed down to zip my pouch back up after feeling that he hadn't acquired the gem.

My small brawl victory was short-lived, however, and my eyes snapped open to see him getting off the ground, looking more or less unharmed. There was a darker patch on his shoulder that I could see in the dark, but other than that, he was unharmed…and he looked angry. His twisted grin from before was curled downwards into an equally unpleasant scowl. Oops…

I blinked in rapid succession as his figure split into two and I stumbled backwards unsteadily, back hitting a wall. My mind scrambled for an escape route, but I couldn't freakin' tell which one was the real one and they were both on sides that trapped me between the two. And he was just getting closer and closer and closer…

Something skidded across the floor between us and suddenly, there was a bright flash that left me blinded, my hands reaching forward as if to grab Spider for reassurance strangely. Spider let out a curse and I jumped as a hand – a warm hand – covered my mouth, feeling of silk, and I was dragged somewhere aimlessly – I couldn't tell where I was or where I was going as my vision danced with black dots due to the flash.

But, somehow, I trusted whoever was leading me.

ooOOoo

I huffed for breath as my savior – or kidnapper, whichever one it was – finally stopped the dead sprint we'd been in and I doubled over, hands supporting me as I leaned on my knees. I blinked, vision finally returning. The other person seemed fine, though, breathing only a bit irregular. Then again, whoever it was probably didn't have a concussion. Shoes clicked by my side and I glanced over to see pure white shoes, practically glowing in the darkness, the parts of his pants that I could see were also of the color, the hem just above what looked like blue socks.

"Are you alright, ojou-san?" The tone was smooth and a bit deeper, but I definitely recognized it. And the clothing was also horribly familiar. Suddenly, that guard that had sounded somewhat familiar made a lot more sense as the voice clicked into place. Don't tell me…

I let out an exercise cough and cleared my throat, slowly bringing my head up, eyes trailing over a white silk suit, reaching a blue shirt and a red tie, and going upwards to meet the familiar bottom half of a face, the top half shadowed with the brim of a top hat and the left eye covered with a monocle that was reflecting light from…somewhere. He was smiling gently, one of his hands on my back to comfort me, or something.

"Kaitou KID…," I murmured, starstruck. I saw Kaito every day, but something about him when he was in KID's outfit made him seem infinitely different.

His smile lifted into a smirk. "The one and only. At your service, ojou-san." He tipped his top hat carefully in introduction.

You've got to be kidding me…

Review Replies:

To: Kudo Shinichi Tanteisan – If you research enough, I'm sure you'll figure it out. XDD *snickers as Kaito's ensuing shrieks as I present him fish – lots of fish* XDDDDD Yay~! I'm glad you like it! 8DD I've been planning Spider's appearance for a while, basically since I started this whole story. XDDD Here's the next chapter~! (Grins as snowflakes fall and eats cyber cookie) Thank you, E-chan~!

To: Meow-chan-15 – (Laughs) Possibly… XDDD It's okay. XDD I know I forget names a lot, too, especially if it's in first-person. XD (Laughs) You read one where he dies? XDD I think that'd make me kinda depressed, since he's actually a fascinating character. XD And yes, he should watch his back~! XDDD And Conan in currently in Gunma with Yukiko. XDDD He's working on a case at the moment, lol. And yeah, the protagonist is a bit of a person who over thinks things and stuff. But, at least Akako's feeling better. XD; Thank you! Here's the next chapter! 8D

-whoo, this was fun, but hard. I feel like Spider's out-of-character, but he's my Spider, not the original, so it's a'ight! XDDD See you next time~!