Chapter three:
Mello's emotions bounce back to determined. "Of course."
Luna stands normally again obviously glad by that answer. "That is great. Since there isn't any time to lose I will explain and show you what happened after you take out this darkness if you wish."
"Where do I begin?" Mello questions.
"I will give you the power to jump from dream to dream until you defeat the darkness and I will do my best to help you keep track of the darkness." Luna says then she raises a hand to above Mello's head only to open her fist dropping some sparkle dust onto Mello.
The dust falls onto Mello and disappears to inside of him.
"Now you can open portals in dreams to disappear into another dream. Once you defeat the darkness this ability will wear off though." Luna reminds him. "I will do what I can to help. We must stop this darkness before anyone else dies. Good luck." She then snaps her fingers causing a flash of light to go making Mello shield his eyes.
When Mello stops shielding his eyes he finds himself in another place that looks like a city in ruins.
He looks around himself a little trying to find where this darkness is as it's obvious she teleported him to where the darkness is currently.
A scream suddenly catches his attention.
"HELP ME!"
Mello turns to the direction the scream came from. "There you are." He says to himself then moves quickly as he races to help Matt before it's too late. He skids around a corner taking a short cut through what could have been an alley way and he skids around another corner to go around a building but this skid almost makes him fall over. He is swift to continue running. He exits the alley way and skids to a stop out the other side only to turn to what is going on.
There is a dark figure is standing with Matt on his back on the ground looking at the figure in terror. The figure has a knife raised to strike Matt.
Mello's eyes narrow. "Oh no you don't." He races towards the figure and tackles the figure…. Or at least tries to….
The figure spins around and knocks Mello back making him tumble to the ground back the way he charged from.
Mello has his eyes closed to brace for impact but opens them to glare at the figure and he moves to get to his feet.
Soon he is having a standoff with the figure.
A breeze goes past making the figures cloak shimmer in it revealing the clothes underneath.
"Mello?" Matt gasps in surprise.
Suddenly the figure makes a snap of the fingers move causing the cloak to fade from the bottom up as it is all turned into bats that fly away.
When there is no cloak left the figure's eyes opens to meet with the fiery blonde's eyes.
Mello and Matt gasp when they see this.
"No way." Matt says in shock.
"Near!?" Mello is also quite surprised about this. "But I don't understand…."
"I never asked you to understand." Near responds only to smile and Mello barely catches the twinkle of bloodlust in his narrowed like a cat eyes.
Mello's eyes narrow. "You are not Near! What are you!?" He demands. "The Near I know would never do this! I've been analyzing him long enough to know this." He says pointing to Near.
"Oh my my you are a little bit of dimwit." Near chuckles. "I am a Nightmare."
"A nightmare huh?" Mello responds getting ready to fight the other.
Matt can only stay where he is watching in shock.
"I. Am." Near closes his eyes for a moment then opens his eyes half way as he finishes what he is saying. "Nightmare Near."
"Catchy." Matt utters a little softly but loud enough to be heard.
"And you just made my job easier." Nightmare Near begins moving towards Mello by a few steps as he speaks. "I can now take out two together instead of having to hunt you down in your own dream."
"But what happens if I awaken?" Matt asks.
"You won't." Nightmare Near slightly turns his head to look to Matt who is behind him as he clutches the knife that is now at his side as he lowered it when Mello first attacked. "I'll make sure of that and I can use my magic to keep you from awakening making this dream last as long as I need it to."
"You have magic?" Matt questions.
"It was a bonus for my switch to being the me I've been hiding all along." Nightmare Near tells Matt then turns to focus on Mello. "Now time to take you out."
Mello tenses not sure what is going to happen. "So I need to reach the good that is hidden under that darkness huh?" He whispers to himself. "I just need to figure out how I can do that."
Nightmare Near raises one hand all the way up making his palm face the sky and he with wisps of darkness coming from what seems like nowhere it swirls to form a ball. He laughs sinisterly a little then throws the ball of darkness right for Mello.
Mello leaps out the way and lands in a roll only to spring to his feet glad that he managed to not get by that ball as it crashes into a building making a good chunk of it crumble. "I'm not going to give up."
Nightmare Near growls the charges towards Mello obviously ready to use the knife now.
Mello gets ready for the strike.
Nightmare Near moves quickly and slashes at Mello.
Mello sways his body to the side to dodge it and he goes for Nightmare Near's arm to grab it.
Nightmare Near snarls then releases a blast of magic knocking Mello backwards. He turns to face Mello again and glares at him.
Mello decides to take action this time and he charges towards Nightmare Near.
Matt watches not fully sure what he can do to help right now. He knows he isn't really a fighter so would he really stand a chance against such a powerful enemy….. No more like powerful boss.
Nightmare Near dodges Mello's punch only to swing the knife at the other making Mello jolt back as he gets a cut on his wrist.
The cut isn't too bad to Mello's relief and he finds his sleeve just barely can cover it as his sleeve had slid back when he swung that punch.
Matt finally comes to a decision and starts to get up.
Nightmare Near notices this out of the corner of his eye and his eyes flicker to look to Matt only to let out a warning growl.
Mello glares in determination at Nightmare Near. "Don't you dare think that you are going to win." He says and he swiftly moves in to once again strike Nightmare Near. He reminds himself that he needs to find a way to reach the good inside of Nightmare Near but he is hoping that fighting Nightmare Near for at least a first bit might allow him to try to understand his enemy better.
Nightmare Near raises a hand in a quick flick in which a black crystal comes out of the ground with a pointed tip.
Mello's fist hits the crystal instead of Nightmare Near. He moves around it only to turn in surprise upon hearing Matt let out some kind of battle cry.
Matt is charging.
Nightmare Near won't have it though as Matt jumps to try to tackle him that's when the other slashes Matt's leg before throwing him away.
Matt cries out in pain and tumbles along the ground until he skids to a stop. He curls up and brings a hand towards his leg in pain but is too afraid to actually touch in fear of getting more pain. He now can only sit there and watch now as his leg hurts pretty badly thanks to the gash.
Mello turns back to Nightmare Near and spots his chance in which he goes to take it.
But there becomes an unexpected turn of events.
Nightmare Near turns his back to Mello and dashes away but it's not to disappear somewhere into the dream as some kind of opening leading to some kind of starry dimension is opened.
It is opened long enough for Nightmare Near to go through it then it closes disappearing without a trace.
Mello looks to his friend. "Listen Matt. I'm sorry to just leave like this but I need to chase after him." He tells him.
Matt smiles to his friend. "Go get him. Destroy him before something happens."
"There is a good hidden under that darkness that just needs to be reached. I don't have time to say much else." Mello moves forward and mentally calls for a portal to another dream in which it appears allowing him to go through.
Matt watches as Mello leaves and the portal Mello made closes behind him. "Good luck my friend."
Mello leaps through another portal and skids to a stop as he finds himself in another dream. He looks around himself taking in his surroundings while trying to see if there's any signs of Nightmare Near as he walks in search of anything.
So far no sign of anything.
This dream is a spooky and dark forest where not even the moonlight from the full moon in the dark sky seems to dare to enter.
This place definitely gives off the feeling that any shadow can be some kind of monster.
Mello pauses in his walking but looks around himself a little more. "Damn it. Where the hell is the person dreaming this dream? Why haven't I run into anyone or anything yet? Did I just walk into some empty dream?!"