AN: This one is kinda dark, but less than the previous one.

#6) Nightmare

"Because that was his worst nightmare.

But this time, there was no waking up."

There were not many things that could scare Sting. But once in a while, he would have this dream and would wake up covered in sweat. Lector never dared to ask Sting what was this nightmare about that made him so scared.

The only one who knew what were those nightmares about was Rogue. Because he had the same kind of nightmare.

They all started happy and somewhat normal dreams, until a single thing went wrong. By the time they finally got to wake up, all those people they loved would be covered in horrendous wounds or dead. Every single time.

So when the situation in the war started to take a turn for the worse, Sting kept chanting like a mantra that it wouldn't end like the nightmare. He wouldn't let it end like the nightmare.

Until the scarlet despair showed her face. The mages started to fall, the weaker first and little by little the strong started to struggle and fail in driving back the enemies.

Wave after wave Sting managed to somehow keep standing, back to back with his counterpart Rogue. Soon they were facing the scarlet despair herself, the ones that could be called the strongest among the tigers.

Badly hurt and unable to keep fighting, their numbers just went down. Yukino, Orga, Rufus, Minerva… only the twin dragons were left.

Rogue then saw it. A single attack aimed at Sting's blind spot. And Sting saw red and his partner since ever falling with a fresh and dangerous wound. Just like in his worst nightmare.

He called Rogue's name over and over, begging him not to lose consciousness. All the events on his nightmare happening one after the other.

A single whisper of "just a nightmare, I just have to wake up" fell from his trebling lips, until a harsh voice, maybe his reality sense, told him otherwise.

"This is not a nightmare. There's no waking up from it."

And with the pain of that same scene playing over and over again, one of the twin dream triggers broke. The other was already cracked beyond repair since a long time before that…