Suzu's eyes snapped open. She was in reality again, that she was certain of.

Or was she? She fumbled her hand into her pocket, looking for that familiar shape. The action was made much more difficult due to her prone position. Her hands wrapped around it, pulling it out. It was a small metal battleship, barely bigger than her pinky finger. It reminded her of those dreams long since past, the endless games with Death. When she had met Hisao, those dreams seemed to disappear.

Hisao. The word made her heart ache. When was she going to be able to go home? Was she going to go home? She sighed, sitting up, still clutching the small token of her past.

She felt it around in her hand, taking satisfaction in the distribution in the weight.

She was in reality. Suzu sighed, swinging her legs around the bed. She hadn't dreamt anything since she was out. This wasn't exactly a rare occurance, but something still felt odd about the whole situation. She shrugged it off, standing up.

She felt her wrists, where the binds had cut into not a day before. After a few days, Thom had extricated her from her nylon prison, and even took off her blindfold. She had given him a mumbled thanks, not wanting him to know how much she hated it.

The first time he had seen Thom, she was shocked. He didn't look like the type of man to be involved in this work. He looked like he had fallen into the rabbit hole, and couldn't surface again. The dark bags under his eyes reminded Suzu of her own, and his voice always carried a dark undertone, like something dark had happened in his past.

She rubbed her eyes, managing to stand up on her shaky feet. The room they had kept her in turned out to be a conglomerate of rooms. She had a room to her own for sleeping, another for the paltry meals she was given, and finally a room for her… training. As much as she hated the concept of being an information mule, she loved her time in the dreams with Thom. It seems as if his child-like wonder with the nature of the dream had rubbed off onto her.

Not that she needed a push, she already relished the feeling of being able to control something, which up until that point had controlled her. It was a primal feeling, one she knew she shouldn't be enjoying.

But, she did. Maybe she had a weakness for this sort of petty power. With these thoughts in mind, she walked out of her dingy bedroom, and into the hallway connecting the three rooms. It must've been 4 in the morning. Her sleep-cycles were always skewered, thanks to her condition, but in return it gave a most strange affinity of being able to predict the current time.

She slept in her room alone, Thom exited through that heavy, metal door guarded by a key-code every night. Suzu hated to admit it, but sometimes she missed the man. His sermons on dream-sharing were most delightful when they did so while prancing through through the fields of her mind. It was a little peculiar, Thom never became the dreamer in their lectures, even if he could control the nature of the dream to prove a point.

He had taught her about projections, when she became lucid her mind always filled the dream with them, projections of her own subconscious. They looked like normal people, but it didn't take more than one time of her getting ripped apart by them before becoming incredibly wary of them.

There were also… personal projections. Memories that anyone sharing the dream sometimes brought with them. There were multiple occasions where a string of power lines ran right through a road, through a building, e.t.c. Intersections too, more than one time she couldn't go around a corner, knowing what memory lay unseen by her eyes. However, these were barely a deterrent against the unlimited creativity she enjoyed.

Her ears suddenly carried a vibration? What was that? She continued towards the sound of the noise, it appeared to be coming from the 'dream room', or so she had called it. Suzu could make it out more clearly now. It was rhythmic hissing, in and out, like a pump. She realized that someone was using the PASIV device. She turned the corner, surprised at the sight in-front of her.

The device was indeed activated, standing on its usual center pedestal. It was activated, the counter reading 15 minutes left, which meant 3 hours in dream time. A single IV line was being used, trailing down to the floor, and up to a man's wrist. Thom was knocked out, deep in the throes of whatever dream he was in. Suzu realized that this could be her chance. She could tie him up and interrogate him for the code when he woke up.

She then noticed that the other IV line she used for sharing dreams was still on the counter, cannula pointed toward her as if it was taunting her. Thom's chest slowly raised up and down, trying it's damndest to convince her to join him in the ether. Suzu's rational thoughts were quickly replaced by intense curiosity, a feeling she knew all too well as of late.

Suzu exhaled out of her nose, dragging a recliner over to the other side of Thom, and sat back in it. Slowly, she reached for the IV, exposing her right wrist in the process. As she inserted it, she felt a short nick of pain before a slow, cool sensation flowed into her wrist, making her shiver slightly. The all too familiar feeling of her chest being compressed took hold, and her eyelid's drooped. Her breaths slowed until they could hardly be made out over the ambience of the room.

And Suzu fell into sleep again.

She found herself on a grassy knoll, her hair blew in the breeze, blurs of turquoise making themselves known in her peripheral vision. The looked around. Grassy fields, separated by rolling hills consumed her entire view. Suzu could hear the rumbling of the ocean in the distance, making her smile slightly.

But something was wrong, what was it? She looked around, trying to decipher the answer. It wasn't the greenery, no, that wasn't unusual. The sky? Perfectly normal. It was then that she turned around. A farmhouse took up the majority of her view, making her wonder why she hadn't noticed it before. The paint on the sides of the house had long since frayed, little chips falling into the green grass below. The windows were slightly dusty from neglect, but otherwise, it looked like it was lived in. A few gardening tools lay unused on the side of the house, Suzu predicted that she was at the back of the house.

Making a few cautious steps forwards, she scanned every inch around her, no sign of any projections. Why? She reached for the holster on her slacks, only to find it missing. After her training on a militarized subconscious, she was always armed in her dreams, but not this one. How strange.

Suzu rounded the corner of the house. A black sedan was parked here, the sleek black exterior matching the interior. It was a beautiful car, marred by the horrible parking job. One of the tires was off the driveway. She noticed that the front door was open, as if inviting her inside. She walked towards it, as if drawn by its outward appearance. She peered inside. It looked like a normal precipice to a house, a red rug lay on beige tile, welcoming her in. She stepped in carefully, making sure to not kick the opened door. To her right was a small table with a picture that depicted a couple. She was about to pick it up before she recoiled. The woman had no face, a smooth expanse of skin glazed over where her features should've been.

Suzu stepped back, but managed to stop her reaction before she hit the wall behind her. She hadn't looked at the picture for long, but she knew the man in that picture well.

What was Thom's dream doing here? This question would go unanswered for long, however, as she heard a noise emanating from around the corner. A living room? Whatever it was, the noise was constant. Someone was talking.

Swallowing her fears, she quietly began her solemn march forward, carefully avoiding the brown coat strewn on the floor. Suzu was nearing the corner now, she could just barely make out the words.

"…just let me go, Thom." All of the cascading curiousness inside Suzu's head was answered as she rounded that corner.

A couple sat on the couch, Thom was looking away from her, looking towards an unknown person. He had his hand outreached towards the person's face, but her façade was blocked by a strategically placed lamp. Suzu couldn't say anything, and simply shuddered. She shouldn't be here.

The person put a womanly hand on Thom's arm, slowly releasing his grip on… her face? A small bead of moisture trailed down the inside of his thumb, collecting in his palm.

"Honey, you know I can't do that." Thom replied. It wasn't his usual voice, gone was the dark undertone, replaced with something… else. Suzu couldn't quite name it. A sharp inhale came from the unknown person, was she crying?

The person took a breath, as if she was about to speak, but then stopped. Did she notice her? Suzu's heartbeat raised as the woman sat up, revealing her form to Suzu.

Saki Enomoto. She'd changed in the last 8 years, but she was still recognizable from when they were friends. She was wearing a dark red camisole, which contrasted heavily with her fair skin. A faint hissing sound escape from her back, Suzu wondered what it was before she got a glimpse of the strange source from a mirror in the back.

The camisole covered most of it, but from what Suzu could see, she could only guess at how far it extended down her back. A small, brownish-grey ridge, made of metal ran down the skin above Saki's spine. It was segmented in several locations, obviously meant for mobility. The machine whizzed and whirred as pumps inside fought to keep Saki alive.

Wait, why was Thom the only dreamer? Projections didn't… form from alive people.

As if Saki herself heard this thought, she finally spoke. "Suzu Suzuki…" She trailed off, walking around the couch to orient herself right in front of Suzu. She caught a glimpse of Thom's face as she walked around, one of bewilderment. He hadn't expected her to jump into his dreams like this.

"It's been a loooooong time…" Her voice was the same as when they were kids, but what felt like vocal daggers stabbed into her back. This woman is dangerous, screamed her brain.

"Y…you're dead." Suzu said, deadpan. It was really all she could muster from her constricted throat. Saki smiled, letting a small giggle escape from her lips.

She grabbed ahold of one of Suzu's shoulders.

"Of course I am sweetie." The way she said 'sweetie' made her shudder. It was venomous. This wasn't the real Saki. This was Thom's projection of Saki. Some emotion deep inside of him projected onto this mannequin of a woman.

Saki moved her hand to the side of Suzu's throat, resting a thumb on her chin, rubbing it back and forth slightly. She heard a small noise emanate from the couch, Thom had snapped out of his daze and gotten up. Saki removed her thumb from Suzu's chin, and wrapped it around the other side of her neck.

She barely suppressed a shudder, she was completely at the mercy of this woman now.

"Send my regard to Rika, would you?" Her voice barely a whisper, Saki ever so slightly increased the pressure of her grip, ready to begin to choke Suzu.

But she never got the chance.

Thom grabbed Saki from behind, surprising her, letting go of her vice like grip on Suzu's throat. She fell backwards onto the red rug, watching Thom and Saki.

Thom turned around and pushed Saki onto the floor, a cry of surprise emerged from Saki's lips as she was pushed to the ground. Thom momentarily hesitated before turning around and giving Suzu his hand, which she accepted. The two of them standing now, they watched Saki, who was immobilized by the contraption on her back.

"Why is she here Thom?!" Saki screamed, turning into a different person, Thom's apparent self-hatred. "You kidnapped her didn't you?!" She kicked around, trying to gain purchase on the unsteady ground.

Suzu sneaked a peak toward Thom. His cheeks were red, and his eyes were moist.

"You never changed from that day Thom." Saki's voice had quieted, and she turned around to look at Thom.

"You never changed." She echoed her prior words.

Without further ado, Thom grabbed Suzu's shoulder and led her out of the farmhouse, and into the waking world.

Suzu gasped, getting used to the sensation of waking up. Thom was already pulling the IV out of his wrist, setting it on the table.

He sighed, sitting on the side of the chair for a few moments, before gathering the courage to stand up.

"I'm going somewhere." He mumbled, grabbing his coat from the back of the chair. "I'll be gone for a day or so. You'll be fed."

He was out of the door before Suzu took the cannula out of her arm. Suzu felt her mind spinning. This man, her kidnapper, was with Saki? She tried remembering her short dialogue with her. Was she implying that Thom wasn't always like this? Filled with questions, she retired back to her damp, musty bedroom.

She was still exhausted after all.

Suzu always was.