Chapter XIX: Waking Nightmare

Glitch and Azkadellia walked into the kitchen the next morning to find DG already at the table with a frown and her face supported by both of her fists. She looked grumpy and from what Azkadellia heard earlier that morning, she already had a visit or two to the bathroom. But something told her that wasn't the reason that DG was that upset. Something else was going through the troubled mind of her younger sister.

"Why so down this morning, Doll?" Glitch asked and hugged DG with one arm. He looked up at Cain who was over the stove scrambling some eggs and bacon, "Oh… well, Cain isn't that bad of a cook. He did great on the meat last night. Cooked very well- a little rare for my taste, but what else should I expect from a rough guy like Cain?"

"It's not that he's cooking," DG pouted and looked up at Cain, "It's that he won't let me help him cook- or help him do anything else for that matter."

"You don't need to constantly serve us just because we're from the O.Z. and we're now on the other side of the rainbow," Cain reminded her and brought the pan over to her plate, "How much eggs do you want?"

"Just a little," she said and Cain piled the eggs onto her plate and then went back to cook some more. She looked back at her plate and then at the back of Cain. She stuck her tongue out at him and then scooped most of her eggs to Azkadellia's and Glitch's plates. She looked at them and then took two slices of toast and put them on her plate, "The only thing I was able to make this morning was the toast, and even then that was pushing it. He was in the bathroom and nearly threw me against the wall to protect me from the well done bread that jumped up once it was done."

"You need to slow down a little bit more, sweetheart. With the Slayer of Hearts and Soren still coming after you- not to mention the pain that you had in your chest yesterday, I don't want to take any chances with you. So keep it slow," Cain explained, "If not for you, than for the baby."

Glitch chose this time to choke on a glass of orange juice that was sitting unused at the side of DG's plate. Azkadellia patted his back until he was able to talk normally again. Glitch looked up at Cain and DG, "You two are expecting?! A baby?!"

"What else would be expecting?" DG muttered and stabbed at her eggs, "A Papay?"

She through that over for a moment and a gruesome visualization came to mind. She squinted her eyes and put a hand against her stomach to try to block it out again, "Ow…"

"Wow," Glitch looked at them and then back at Azkadellia, "Just wow…"

"Az, you didn't tell him?" DG asked her sister.

"We fell asleep on the couch before I could tell him," she explained, "And when we woke up we turned off the television and went to bed. I didn't even think about it in my sleep stupor. I thought that I'd just tell him when we got up this next morning."

"Well then, Cain," Glitch stood up and patted Cain on the back, "Good job on the baby front. Congratulations are in order. As soon as we get back to the O.Z. I am making you a big pot of warm muglug."

"Thanks, Glitch," he nodded with a straight face. He turned back and put some bacon on DG's plate before giving the rest to Azkadellia and Glitch, "Now if someone would just take it easy for herself and others and let herself be pampered-"

"That's just it, I don't want to be pampered more than what I am as a princess," DG rolled her eyes and bit into her toast. She chewed fast and then swallowed, "I mean, look at Az!"

"Don't bring me into this," Azkadellia began to eat and held up her hands in defense. She knew how Cain and DG could get into it and she wanted out of the battle zone.

"Well, you were fighting me head on when you first discovered you were pregnant. You didn't hold back and you're about ready to burst now with a perfectly healthy baby," DG argued, "And here I can't even cook my own breakfast without a lecture or safety equipment. I'm surprised that you're even letting me use a fork. I think Popsicle has sporks somewhere in the kitchen. You want me to look for those?"

"There is no need for sporks- whatever those are. Az didn't have a glowing tattoo of the family seal on her chest and died two times before she was twenty-three, now did she?" Cain asked and sat down next to DG with his own plate.

"Arg," DG fumed and grabbed her piece of toast and got out of her chair, "You were so sweet last night and now you're just infuriating! Lecture after lecture of my safety! It's enough to drive me insane!"

"I'm taking care of you," he reminded her and tried not to yell back.

"Well, I appreciate it more than you know! And I understand why you do it! But you are so- so- ugh!" she pushed in her chair and walked to the front room where she laid out on the couch, "I'm laying down!"

Cain growled as he stared at his food. He looked at the back of the couch where DG laid down and then put his fork and knife down. He took a deep breath and started to get out of his seat when Azkadellia put a hand on his sleeve.

She shook her head and looked at him, "Believe me, she'll feel better after a nap."

Cain looked at Glitch who popped some eggs into his mouth and nodded his head furiously. Glitch pulled out some of the pop tarts that DG had bought the day before and offered one to Cain after he swallowed the eggs he was chewing.

"Poptart?"

Soren walked through the fog of limbo and fumed at his progress, "How dare the queen move DG to the other side! It was hard enough breaking into others dreams, now I had to break the wall between the O.Z. and the other side."

He had broken through one of the guards outside of DG's quarters. He was posted for too long and like a simpleton that he was, fell into a deep sleep. It was easy enough to sneak into his subconscious, wake up his body and sneak into DG's bedchambers. Although, once doing this, there was no DG to be found. He was later told by the other guard on duty that the princess had been sent to land far away for protection.

"Hiding again, princess," Soren shook his head and looked as dreams began to form to either side of him. He looked through the dreams of the people of Kansas and found most of them to be pretty simple. Some dreamed of better crops, while others dreamt of catching their beloved one's eye. He caught quite a few dreams of people flying off to different locations on the 'other side'. Some dreamt of a new, fantasy land while others dreamed of places that seemed real enough to be actual places. While he was looking through the many dreams and thoughts he found one young man that was deep in sleep and dreaming of the same thing that he was looking for. Or the same person he was looking for.

In the dream the young man had beaten a form of Wyatt Cain to the ground which thoroughly entertained Soren. The young man then stepped up to DG and took off with her in a very different looking kind of vehicle than what is usually seen in Central City and drove off into the many fields. Then the young man had DG all to himself and doing some very unspeakable things with her.

Soren didn't know whether to be intrigued or outraged by this boy's interest in Princess Dorothy. He moved closer and thought that the dream had gone on for long enough. He had work to do and the activity of dream watching was getting him no where. He tapped the boy's shoulder and his head of black hair whipped around at Soren.

"Who the hell are you?" the boy yelled at him as Soren sat and smiled at the boy from the hood of his car.

"The question I believe, is who are you and how do you know the sweet, Princess Dorothy?" Soren touched the DG copy and she faded away from the dream with a frozen face of confusion much like that of the young boy.

"Princess?" the young man laughed and leaned on the seat of his car, "You have got to be thinking of somebody else, buddy. DG is no princess."

"And yet you still dream of her," Soren smirked, "Almost as if she was one."

"She's an ex-girlfriend who wouldn't let me go all the way," he explained, "Of course I'm a bit built up."

"What's your name?" Soren asked again.

"Jared, who are you?"

"I may just be the answer to your dilemma, Jared," Soren smirked, "What if I told you that there's a way to get DG back and clear Wyatt Cain out of the picture? Where DG would be linked in such a way to you that she couldn't escape even if she wanted to?"

"I'm listening," Jared nodded.

Soren jumped off of the hood of the car and put his hands on either side of the dream Jared's head, "Just relax and I'll tell you everything to do to give me control and give you what you really want."

"Why are you doing this?" Jared asked hesitantly as scenes flew in front of his dream eyelids.

"Because we both want the same thing," Soren smirked and found himself thrown inside the head of Jared, "We want DG. And we will have her."

DG laid on the couch and ate the rest of her piece of toast while she stared at the ceiling. She remembered staring at the same ceiling when she was around eight years old and picking out pictures of flying monkeys and cute dolls. It may have been another clever set up by her parents or by her robo-parents, but then again, she couldn't find the same figures in the texture of the ceiling now.

She heard the other three move about and talk quietly at the table behind her. She could tell that Cain wanted to come and talk to her, but she probably wouldn't have listened if he did. She wanted to be stubborn at the moment and he made her mad. The last thing on earth that she wanted to be was pampered. And it was her pleasure to show him, Glitch and her sister what kind of world she grew up in.

A loud sigh escaped from her and she hugged one of the throw pillows that was sitting on the couch behind her. She held another beneath her head and stared out the window. She half expected to see a twister on the horizon, but there was no twister in sight. Just more of the flat farm lands of Kansas. She didn't know which was worse. Missing the O.Z. when she didn't even remember what it was, or missing the O.Z. even with the stuffy balls and fluffy dresses.

She felt her eyes start to droop over her eyes and couldn't remember when she felt as tired as she did. She blamed it on the new pregnancy and now that she knew what it was, it seemed all the symptoms have caught up to her and have crashed down on her in one fell swoop. First she had to deal with headaches and nausea and then food cravings. Now the fatigue had began to settle in and she just couldn't wait for more morning sickness.

When DG was aware of herself again she was walking through the fog banks like she had right after she was stabbed. Except this time she had gravity applied. She wasn't floating though the area. She felt the ground beneath her feet, even though she had no idea what material it was. It was too firm to be dirt of mud and too soft to be concrete. She shrugged and just believed that it was the way that the fog banks felt under her feet.

Vaguely aware of what her surroundings looked like she hoped that she was having a dream or nightmare instead of actually being there. The last thing she needed was Cain, Azkadellia and Glitch freaking out that she wasn't waking up. As she walked along she saw no sign of any activity, much less any other people. Maybe she was still in the safety of the past monarchs. Being on the opposite side of the rainbow may have its down sides. Hopefully it didn't completely disconnect her from her past.

She wandered long enough that the fog began to dissipate and she was in a small clearing that she remembered from her travels. Cain, Glitch, Raw and her had all stopped there on her original journey through the O.Z. She sat on the small stump that Cain used as a look out and then looked up at the sky, careful to shield herself from the rays of the sun.

"One sun?" DG squinted her eyes and looked around her, "Well, I know I'm dreaming, so that fact shouldn't be all that unreal."

The rest of the area looked like it had the day they had stopped. It even still had the fire pit that Cain had built to cook some meat that he had caught. She even remembered how the meat tasted. At that point it had been so long since she had eaten anything that the thought of eating a poor defenseless animal wasn't so appalling as she would originally had thought.

Then something caught her attention, a slight sound that was so familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She looked at the ground and saw a huge shadow. She looked up and tears nearly sprang immediately to her eyes.

"Dad?" she whispered.

There in the large basket was her father, guiding the large balloon to come to a stop on the ground beside her. She ran to the basket and threw her arms around him as he tried to climb out of it. He hugged her too and kissed the side of her head.

"DG," he murmured, "I never thought that I would have seen you here. I thought you were back on the other side. I heard you from the other side."

"I was," she nodded and helped him out of the basket, "Cain got me back over to the other side. Some how with the power of the crystal he got me back over to where I needed to be. Although, it didn't work the same way with you."

"I heard," he nodded and leaned on the basket, "I appreciate you trying though."

"So… you heard all of that, huh?"

"Yeah, I did," he leaned forward and tapped a finger on the edge of her nose, "You will always be my little girl- my spitfire. And I'll always be your dad. If you remember me or not."

"I just wish I remembered more."

"Me too," he sighed, "Then this may be a little easier on you. How did you get here?"

"I'm asleep," DG shrugged, "I've been pretty tired lately."

"What have you been doing that would tire you out so much?" he chuckled. She paused and looked at him a bit confused on how he didn't already know, "I may show up in your dreams, little girl, but I'm still no mind reader."

"Well, I guess I should tell you," she smiled and put one hand on her lower stomach, "You're going to be a grandfather… again."

"That's great," he smiled and hugged his daughter again, "Does Wyatt know?"

"Yeah, and he's treating me like porcelain again because of it. I'm not going to get hurt," she saw Ahamo's eyes shift from one side of the clearing to the other, "What is it?"

"This is not a safe place for you to be, DG," he warned, "He's still here and can invade your dreams. I've followed you the best I can, but if I can cross over, so can he."

"I still have connections to 'limbo'?" DG asked and looked at the place, "Is that where I'm at?"

"You're in the lower level of it," Ahamo nodded, "You can make it into any place you want to as if you were having a lucid dream. I thought I'd have some fun flying since you did a marvelous visioning of the clearings near the Realm of the Unwanted."

DG smiled and looked at her father. Really looked at him. He was a good man and deserved so much better than to be lost in limbo, "Are you going to be stuck here like he is?"

"I have no one on the other end of my blade," Ahamo shrugged, "Until he passes on voluntarily or finishes what he wants to accomplish- which is not an option- I'm content with flying in my balloon."

"What if he passes on?" DG asked.

"Then my soul, I guess you can call it, will be free to do what it needs to," he waved his hand in the air.

"Then this really is goodbye, huh?" DG asked her eyes shifting away.

"I'm sorry, Spitfire," he rubbed a hand along the side of her arm. As he took a breath to say something else his balloon began to immediately deflate on top of them. He took her by the arm and pulled her out of the way of the material before they were both caught underneath.

"What's going on here?" DG asked and watched as the vision of the O.Z. fell and the fog rolled back in. Then out of the darkness one figure stepped out.

"I finally found you, my princess," Soren smirked and began to walk toward them.

"Get out of here, DG!" Ahamo pushed her in the opposite direction that Soren was coming from. Soren came forward and struggled with her father. She watched unable to leave her father again. She saw him fight and noticed that he was just as good as Glitch as far as fighting was concerned and kept up well. She was none the less still worried about him.

As he pushed Soren away once again he looked back at DG, "I said run, DG!"

"Run where?!" DG argued and pointed behind him, "Watch out!"

Soren's fist came into contact with her father's jaw and he went flying to land near her feet. He shook his head and gently felt along his jaw with his hand. He looked back at the approaching Soren and then back up at DG.

"Wake up, DG. You need to wake up! Wake up!"

DG sat up on the couch with a scream and her hands out in front of her. Cain jumped from the table, was over the couch and at her side before she stopped.

"DG?" he held her shoulders to turn her to him.

She immediately yelled and fought against him. Her eyes were tightly shut as were her fists as she hit against him in attempt to escape whatever attacked that had come after her.

"DG, sweetheart, it's me," he said and held her to his chest instead of holding her by the shoulders. Slowly her gasps and struggles receded and she breathed in his scent. He lowered his head to her ear, "It's me. You're safe."

"Cain…" she opened her eyes and lunged at him, "Oh God, Wyatt."

"What happened?" he asked and rubbed up and down her back.

"He's on this side. I know he is," DG whispered, "And he knows where I am."