Woo! Been a while, hasn't it? Sorry. With school and all, there's really not much time to actually write, let alone type it all up and post it. Anyway, this here is Clay's dream. You learn more about myself and my characters, blah blah, all that junk. Remember to read the footnotes! #4 is important! And there are lots of short Spoiler stories from Traveler. I think you'll like them, and perhaps I could be encouraged to pick up writing Traveler again. Maybe.

~entering Clay's dream~

~Clay's POV~

Wraslin' the pigs on my Daddy's farm was a dirty but fun game. Now, I know right away that I'm dreamin', 'cos I'm asleep at the Xiaolin Temple. But I reckon dreamin' of home won't hurt a bit; 'fact, it ain't bad at all. I like dreamin' of home. It takes the edge off my homesickness when I'm awake, since comin' to be a Xiaolin Warrior.

So here I am, wraslin' in the pig sty, when all'v a sudden, the sky gets mighty dark. The pigs are gone, the mud is gone, and I'm all cleaned up and dressed.

I find maself walking thru the open space 'tween the house and the barn. It bein' night out an' all, I got no idea why the barn door is opened halfway or why there's light comin' from inside. I hear a girl singin' and as I get closer, it's clear that whoever it is is inside the barn.

I get to the barn door and push it open the rest of the way. Normally, the hinges squeak when the door gets opened; this time, they gave no protest. That was the first warnin' sign in this dream. The second was that when I walked in, I saw no one. The singin' had stopped as soon as I touched the door. I could definitely sense something very wrong in here.

I'd never felt scared in my own barn before in my whole life. I had never been creeped out by the peaceful silence that inhabited the barn. But dang it all if I wasn't now! At least in real life, there were crickets chirpin' at night, or the wind whistlin' thru the eaves, or animals and birds making noise outside, or the faint scuffling of mice in the barn. This warn't no "peaceful silence", this was heavy and looming and waiting! It was a dark foreboding.

It instilled in me that cautious fear; where you know something is wrong in that scary way, but you don't exactly know what the heck it is that's makin' you feel uneasy or why it's makin' you that way in the first place. Whatever it was, it was makin' me edgy, that's fer sure.

In the back of our barn, there is a giant stack of hay bales. They're stacked up thick and as high as they can go without topplin'. When I was younger, me and sis would sometimes try to climb to the top. We never made it all the way up to where the bales touched the rafters. Mama and Daddy always scolded us not to do it 'cos the whole stack might fall on us if we did.

Lookin' up, I could barely see the rafters. Not because they were so high up, but because they were shrouded in darkness. Lookin' at all that black murk was beginnin' to make ma skin crawl. There was somethin', I don' know what, somethin' just not right about any of this. And then I saw slight movement on the highest bale.

I turned and took a step towards it. A voice behind me stopped me though.

"I wouldn't go near her if I were you."

I turned around again. Standin' aways behind me was a girl. A pretty girl, too. She was tall and blonde and her eyes were the prettiest shade of green I ever did see. She was, well, I wouldn't call her skinny or thin. She wasn't scrawny and overly boney. She had some curves, a little meat on her, and she wasn't exactly petite. But she warn't fat or chunky, by any means! Slender, that's the word I'm lookin' for. She was tall and slender.

"She's moping right now. Out of two names I could've picked, I didn't pick hers. So now she's acting offended. It's depressing."

She was dressed real simple. A clean, white, V-neck, button-up T-shirt with the sleeves neatly rolled up and a pair of straight blue jeans and weathered tennis shoes. She looked at me with her big green eyes and her pretty blonde hair framing them. She looked somewhat sad.

"Who's 'she'?" I asked. The girl looked up behind me and pointed.

"Morgan" she said simply. I couldn't help it. I turned and looked.

Now that I did, though, following the girl's finger, I could see the top of the highest bale in the stacks. I saw a dark figure, faintly outlined in the gloom. It must be Morgan.

She was sitting on the top bale, knees drawn up to her chest and arms crossed over the top of them. I could barely make out the top half of her face; no notable details, just outlines and shadows. The rest of it was buried in her arms. She shifted her head away from me so I couldn't see.

"She looks like a pouting child," I remarked. The girl nodded.

"She's had practice."

"Is she gonna come down soon? It's dangerous up there—"

"In more ways than one…" she muttered under her breath.

"—and I don't want her to fall."

"See?" A new voice rang out. "The cowboy cares! And he doesn't even know me!" A shiver went down my spine to hear it. It made me think of all sorts of terrible things, the kind of stuff that nightmares are made of. I didn't understand how it would seem that way though. It was a perfectly normal voice, raised a little in pitch through the whine. I noticed that Morgan's voice and the other girl's voice were shockingly similar. They both had a ringing husky tone to their voices.

I looked at Morgan again. This time, I caught her lookin' at me. The darkness around her seemed to be movin' and it had shifted back; I could see Morgan's face better. She had lifted her head to speak and I could observe it before she ducked it away again.

It looked a lot like the other girl's face. Similar contours, same lines, etc. Maybe they were sisters? Anyways, Morgan's face was tilted in a surprisingly innocent expression. And she was definitely pouting.

When she saw me looking, she quickly turned away again, emitting a small 'eep!' sound. I turned to the other girl again.

"Were you the one who was singin' in here?" I asked. The girl, whose eyes had been drifting around the barn in a wary manner, focused on me again.

"Yes, I was singing. I love it. I'd sing all day if I could. But my family doesn't like it."

"Is that why you stopped when I walked in?" I asked. She nodded. "Why?" She shrugged.

"I guess I'm still a little shy. It's a bad habit I'm trying to break, but that's easier said than done."

I took a few slow steps toward her without her noticin'. "You got a nice voice, darlin'. I don't think you should stop singing." Why did I bring that up? I forgot as soon as the thought crossed my mind.

"I meant I'm trying to stop bein' shy," she clarified. I felt a little embarrassed.

"You said something about names before. What did you mean?" I asked.

"I don't want anyone to know my real name, because it's embarrassing. So I had to choose a new one. Morgan likes control and if I took her name then I'd allow her control. It's a long and complicated story, and I doubt you'd understand. But I took her sister's name because I know she's not inclined to take over my body. Morgan is."

I blinked and scratched my head. "Takin' over your body? Normal people cain't do that, hun. D'ya mind explainin'?" The girl sighed.

"Morgan and her sister don't truly exist in my world," she said. "But they are real. This world would probably allow them more freedom, so I can't take any chances. If they got free, Morgan would more than likely be stuck in her sister again, instead of with me."

I was thoroughly confused by this point. I couldn't make head nor tail of what the girl was sayin'. I might've thought she was crazy, if some part of me hadn't been shoutin' out that I knew her and I should know. But I didn't. Or at least, I don't think I did. The girl was avoidin' telling' me her name, even her new one. If she and Morgan's sister were sharing it, then it would make sense why she warn't tellin' the sister's name either.

Still, I encouraged her to keep talkin'. "Girl, could you dumb it down a bit for me?" Up in the stacks, Morgan drew herself closer together, anticipating the girl's next words.

"Morgan is a Shadow. Not directly my shadow, though she's pretty darn close. She's the Shadow of her sister. She's like a ghost; certainly a spirit in some sense. She's made up of all things dark and evil, including the hurtful emotions of the body. It means that she's mostly evil; her sister is the exact opposite and she's had an effect on Morgan. But generally, she's referred as a Shadow or a Shade. Either one works."

"Now how is that supposed to work out? You said they were sisters. How can Morgan be like she is? What would their mother of it?" The girl tilted her head at me in a curious fashion.

"I'm unsure of how to answer the question of their mother. Morgan wasn't even born. Her sister was. In their world, Morgan wasn't even sentient. She was the pit of darkness inside of Mel—crud." The girl accidentally let slip the name. I nodded at her.

"Ya might as well just spit it out an' be done with it," I said. She grimaced, but before she could speak, Morgan spoke up for her.

"Her short name is Mel. And in the world she was born in, her mother and father both died, so they don't think much at all. I was "born" in an alternate version of your world. Magic brought me to life, but I don't have my own body. I existed inside Mel. Our story is much too long to tell; besides, only the beginning is truly important, and it holds all you need to know." I waited. She didn't speak. I waited some more, then spoke.

"Well aren't you gonna tell it to me?" I asked.

"Tch! No!" Morgan scoffed. "Knowledge is power, cowboy. Tellin' you even a little bit of our story is risky; I ain't gonna give you access to more power so soon!"

I sat down on a stray hay bale and sighed. I heard several soft thumps as Morgan came down from the top of the stack. She skipped all the way to the other girl, who I suppose would be called Mel if she took Morgan's sister's name.

Morgan had long black hair that stretched all the way down to the bottom of her butt. It almost came down to where a faint outline of darkness followed her, attached and flicking, like an invisible tail.(1) Her clothes were black as well. She wore a loose, black baby-T that had been cut short, exposing her midriff, and tight black jeans that hugged her legs. They had horizontal slits running up the outside of each leg. She also wore a pair of black knee-high boots that had a large chunk of heel on them, with silver buckles adorning the sides.

She turn and slung her arm over Mel's shoulder, hugging their faces close together, cheek to cheek. The darkness—Her Darkness, I realized—followed her, wrapping around the two of them, tendrils stretching out in an attempt to blot out the light. The tail-like thing whipped around and curled over Mel's leg teasingly.

Mel was cast in shadow. But Morgan was lit up. Her skin gave an eerie glow in the gloom. Facing Morgan full in the face, I could see her much more clearly.

My surprise must've registered on my face. Morgan's eyes were red. Not the whole eye, mind, but irises. They were bright and dark and sparkling at the same time, resonating bloody scarlet. I looked into her eyes and I immediately knew of the terrible things she'd done. I did know her, I did recognize her. But not from this world, this life.(2)

Morgan saw the look on my face and laughed. She smirked and curled around Mel in an almost obscene fashion. Mel looked a bit uncomfortable, but she didn't push Morgan away. I had a feeling that she was used to Morgan's closeness, that she preferred the contact. She stayed where she was with Morgan, but she watched the black substance warily. Morgan spoke.

"When our adventures officially ended, Mel and I didn't die. I'd long figured out our immortal status. We were transferred instead to our little Goddess here." She finished with a poke at Mel's head. Now Mel spoke.

"When I was younger, I created Melody and I made up her adventures. That was on a purely amateur level; I didn't realize exactly what was happening, what I was doing. When I got older, I organized all the stories and realized that it was all the same tale. I went back to the beginning, re-realizing Melody and finally seeing Morgan's prevalence in the stories. Morgan was only a vague concept at first; I refine her and redefined her over time. My stories and creations came to life. Originally, I had based both girls on myself. But Mel developed herself and changed on her own. She became indepentant and now belongs to herself; after her troubles and hardships, she deserves it. Her development had some effects on Morgan too. And me. I myself became less like Mel and more like Morgan. I gave my own creations power; Morgan came to life inside of me, much like she first came to life inside Melody.(3)

"Morgan needs a vessel to survive, and since we're so close together, I'm hers. When Mel's 10,000 years were up, Morgan couldn't rely on her anymore. Plus, she had already broken off from Melody in her last world and disappeared, changing the course of Fate and allowing them both to live past the 10,000 year marker.(4) They both have a shot at life through me. I suppose, depending on how you think about it, I could be considered their mother. I created them, in a sense, and their lives, at least in my head. The concept I wrote about in their stories, though, negates that conjecture, though I'm not entirely sure that it's accurate."

"Ah, shove it," Morgan said. "You're not our mother or our sister, though you're close enough to be one of us. We got a bond and we're all connected; we're almost related, but we're really not. That'd be weird."

At last, I understood. This girl was special and unique, but had some major problems too.(5) Both spirits lived inside her, though one was closer to the other. It's possible that her spirits had limited influence over her as well. She needed help, but what was I supposed to do?

The darkness lunged and blotted out everything. It was just me, Mel, and Morgan, alone in the dark but each of us were strangely lit up. Behind the two girls, a tall figure in white approached us.

She could be an angel or a goddess; it don't much matter which. But everything about her sang of light and goodness. She gave off a golden glow in the dark and there was a faint outline of feathered wings behind her, though they warn't directly visible.

Her eyes were bright blue, and again I had a sudden shock of déjà vu. I know her-knew her…

"Come on, you two. I think you've given Clay plenty to think about." she said. This woman was familiar. I knew her! I had to remember when. She looked older than Morgan and Mel, though this must've been the sister, Melody.

The remembrance of the name brought flashes of phantom memories to my mind. I saw all of us in what must've been an alternate world. Melody was our friend. She was just a kid, then, my age. She was different from us, but she was thoughtful and smart and kind. She was powerful and skilled, though she had difficulties wielding Shen-Gong-Wu. We grew up together, fought together, and lived in the same Temple together. When the rest of us fought, she was the glue that held us together. She helped bring us back together. I learned many lessons from her. In that world, she was our dearest friend. Heck, even all our kids were friends! I remembered that whole life from the world where I knew her.

I couldn't remember everything, just some of the important memories. Like the day she first came to us. The things she showed us in our dreams. The first time she performed her first voluntary display of magic. The first time she fought. Several of the other times she fought, that turned into epic battles between herself and Morgan. The day she grew her wings. The day she first learned to control her wings and fly. I remembered her many talents and songs, her quirks and odd sayings. I remember the time when she admitted that she'd fallen in love. The Jack in that world was different from the Jack in this one, but my opinions of him were the same. She had changed him a little. He was actually good for a while. I remembered the first time we met Morgan in real life and learned of her powers and her relationship with Melody. I remembered having to fight her. I remembered our first meeting with Chase Young. I remembered the first time Melody died; she had fought long and hard, but Wuya proved determined. I remembered the horror of seeing her impaled on the sharp pole, the blood, her lifeless gaze… Then Morgan rising up and the short battle afterwards. I remembered Melody came back when Raimundo laid his hand over her heart. I remembered when Chase had kidnapped Mel. Jack had saved her, only to be caught by Chase. The horrible things he'd done, our rescue, Melody's sacrifice… She was heart-broken when it came to he either loved her or he lived. She chose to sacrifice the love they had. He had inherited Morgan's hatred as a result. I remembered Melody's sadness and the way she grew closer to Raimundo. I remembered how Jack had gotten more evil, how we discovered the power of Melody's kiss, how Melody finally got over Jack and how Morgan helped her.(6) I remembered when Melody was kidnapped and brainwashed by Chase and how he planned to gain her powers and abilities through a sacred magic ritual that was the equivalent of marriage.(7) I remembered the end of that adventure, when Raimundo rescued Melody and broke the spell Chase had put over her. And I remembered the Final Battle between the forces of Good and Evil. Melody tipped the scales and defeated all existing Evil. I remembered how she had disappeared for 3 years to return a changed woman.(8) I remember how Jack had changed back to good and normal. I remember how we all ended up married with kids. Melody with Raimundo, and their daughter Aura. Kimiko with Jack(9), and their daughter Capri. Me with Abra and the twins, Ada and Cole. Omi remaining an unmarried monk. I remembered it all.

We had lived a long and prosperous life in that world. Things warn't easy there, and I had a feeling they wouldn't be easy here, either.

Melody was watching me, and I knew she gave those memories to me, so I may remember.

"Remember this knowledge, Dragon of Earth. Memories are hidden treasures, and these will be priceless in the future…"

Her voice echoed in my head and then the light surrounding her spread until everything was gone and all I could see was white.

(1) Morgan does have a tail. It's long-ish and whippy, solid and black. It's sort of leathery, too. There is a hidden blade inside it; whenever Morgan shows her beastly side, it's long and curved, super sharp, and extremely deadly. You probably wouldn't feel it right away if Morgan took a slice outta you. Note: her tail can change with the rest of her, when she shifts shapes. Morgan's tail is to her like Melody's wings are to Melody.

(2) Clay and the others know her from my other story, that has been pretty much given up on. Traveler. If I ever have oodles of time, and nothing better to do, I'll attempt to revive it. I'm kinda stuck on it. In a rut.

(3) This part is entirely true. It's exactly what happened. So now you know how the girls came to be.

(4) :SPOILER!: This comes from the VERY last story in what's going to be my Traveler series. Another spoiler: Takes place in the world of Sonic X. Something goes majorly wrong and Fate loses contact with Melody during the transferring process. Melody is lost, seemingly forever. There's a cosmic accident, one that wasn't supposed to happen and affects ALL the universes and dimension, which is pretty damn big, and Melody loses pretty much all her memories of the last almost-10,000 years; including from the time before she was Traveler. She truly thinks she's apart of that world, no memories, just flashes. She's part phantom, kinda of ghostly, but solid too. And she somehow has a mental connection with Tails. The reason all this happened? Morgan finally figured that she's half good and she didn't want herself or Melody to die. She figured out a way to separate herself from Melody permanently and left the world Melody was in. She disappeared. This results in a sub-series that I will call Children of the Traveler, in which ALL of Melody's children scattered throughout the worlds come together in Melody's personal world and train, learn about each other, and work together in an effort to find out what happened to their mother. There'll be TONS of adventures here, and it includes a series of sequel stories to all the worlds Melody visited. Lots of details, missions, etc. Trouble is my muse gets way ahead if itself a lot of the time. I know where I'm going, just not the how of getting there.

(5) He means mental problems. I'm a nutcase, as you all can see.

(6) Most of these are majorly epic battles that I have no time to go into detail about. If I ever get back to writing traveler, I'll have to remember them all, so if I get time, I'll be writing excerpts.

(7) Yeah, Chase gets majorly screwed here. When I originally started writing, I hated Chase and gave him the true villain's role. In the end, Melody cursed him to love Wuya. (Back when I still thought Chase and Wuya should be together. What the Hell was I thinking?) Raimundo professing his true love for Melody, and it's him that saves her and breaks her out of Chase's spell, just in time. Her memory is restored, Raimundo is injured and she heals him, yada yada yada... She's wearing the wedding dress Chase had made for her the entire time, and since she doesn't have any other clothes with her, when they meet up with the others (who were busy fighting hellish minions), it makes for awkward conversation and embarrassment on Melody's behalf.

(8) Because she eradicated almost all evil from the world, the balance was greatly upset, so she spends those 3 years in a seemingly meditative state, restoring balance. In actuality, she was traveling to several other worlds and dimensions and altering them so that the universe balanced out with what she did to that world. Really complex.

(9) Don't yell at me if you don't like JackxKim pairings! Melody found Jack living in the streets as a hobo after the Final Battle. He was dirt poor and orphaned. Melody was still friends with him, so she took him along on her travels of the world. He became her manager and she became a famous singer, just like she always wanted to be. They went to Tokyo to visit Kimiko, cuz Kimiko and her father had adopted Melody into their family during the first year Melody spent in that world. At the beginning. Melody re-introduces Jack to Kimiko and the two find that they have a lot in common. Jack actually behaves like a really cool, normal-ish person, and Kimiko finds herself liking him. Within three weeks, they're officially dating, and Melody gets Jack an apartment nearby with her new fabulous wealth so he can spend more time with Kimiko. :D He also gets a junior executive job at Kimiko's father's company and invents new technology. They eventually get married and they are the first out of the entire group to do so. So Melody is Kimiko's adopted sister, which now makes Jack and Melody brother-and-sister-in-laws. :D

If you want to know the order everyone got married and had kids and stuff, it goes as follows: Kimiko and Jack marry. Clay meets Abra. Kimiko gets pregnant. Clay and Abra get married. Capri is born. Melody and Raimundo have long since decided to move in together, but they still haven't taken all the hints from their friends to get married already. Melody is Capri's godmother and Aunt. Abra and Clay have twins Ada and Cole, so now Capri has other kids to play with. Melody and Raimundo FINALLY get married and Melody gets pregnant with Aura. They live in a crystal lagoon, with a small waterfall and their own river and natural pools and everything. Really beautiful place, and full of wild, natural magic. There's fairies and wood nymphs in the forest around them and water sprites and water spirits living in the lagoon. Aura is born. 1 year and three days after Aura's birth, Fate takes Melody away from her family, and Melody has to move onto another world. She still keeps in touch with Raimundo and watches her baby's growth throughout the years. Sometimes, between missions, Fate allows Melody to go back to that world and Melody spends time with her husband and daughter. (Though, at this point, Melody has already had other husbands and daughters, which Raimundo knows, but he still loves her and doesn't fault her for her wandering heart. Remember: time moves differently in each world, so Melody is, like, hundreds of years older than Raimundo when she returns.) I should probably stop summarizing spoilers for you now.