A/N: Happy Christmas, folks! I hope you spent this day with family and you weren't just surfing Fanfiction all day. As a special treat, here is another chapter!
Chapter Twelve – Dream Guidance
Of all the places Blade expected to find Sky, he didn't think she'd be up on the roof of his hanger.
"How on earth did you get up there?" Blade called up to her.
"I climbed." Sky shrugged, flipping through a book in her hands.
"Well come down from there. Carefully." Blade ordered.
Sky chuckled a little. She scooted to the edge of the roof, put her book in her teeth, and grabbed hold of the gutter, sliding down like it were a pole in a firehouse. She landed perfectly on her feet, removing the book from her mouth and checking the spine for damage. "Do I worry you, Blade?"
"Yes. It's like having a teenager on the base." Blade huffed. "Where's Nick?"
"Trying to get as far away from here as possible." Sky said. "As if that's going to prevent us from switching."
"Has it worked?" Blade asked.
"No." Sky said. "We just switched about half an hour ago, and I ended up in a New York City Chinatown. Or maybe it was actually China."
"Well, he'd better get home soon." Blade sighed. "What's that you're reading?"
"The Megami-Hito book I got in Basque Country." Sky said. "I don't really know why I keep it. It's just full of pictures. But, oddly enough, I feel more relaxed just by studying the pictures in this book."
"I'm surprised by how relaxed you have been through this entire ordeal." Blade noted as they departed into the hanger to retire to bed.
"Me too." Sky admitted. "I'm actually a bit confused because I'm so calmer than I expected. In the past, I've always freaked out when something really weird happened to me. Of course, given my track record, maybe I shouldn't be so freaked out over all this craziness."
"I doubt you've gotten used to weird things happening to you." Blade said. "Any idea why this time is different?"
Sky reached into her pillowcase and pulled out the amulet Nick gave her. "Honestly, I'm crediting this thing. I know it seems strange, but I've been doing some research on the stones in this amulet. The red jasper and the snowflake obsidian and all this stuff. Each stone has some sort of healing power or mental calming ability. I never believed in healing crystals before."
"But….?" Blade could hear the doubt in Sky's voice.
"But whenever I felt nervous about something, whenever I feel overwhelmed by stress, I put on the amulet and I feel better." Sky said. "It can't be a coincidence. Maybe it's just in my head, but it actually feels like something is changing within me."
"It could be just in your head." Blade said.
"I know. But it doesn't explain why I feel physically stronger when I'm wearing the amulet. Sometimes it feels warm, like there's a power or something radiating from it." Sky rubbed the amulet with her thumb. "I hardly take this thing off anymore."
Blade considered Sky's words. "Well, if it works, keep doing it." He wasn't sure he believed that the amulet helped Sky's mental health, but he wasn't going to tell her to stop doing something that was truly helping her.
Over the years, Sky picked up the cues that told her she dreamed. The subtle differences between a dream setting and the real thing—the shades and hues, the senses she lacked—Sky soon grew accustomed to them, which helped her learn to control her dreams.
But this dream felt different. Sky felt like a spectator watching a movie. And she wasn't alone.
"Nick?"
"Cuervo?"
"What are you doing in my dream?" Sky asked the helicopter beside her.
"Oh, good. It's your dream." Nick sighed in relief. "For a second there, I was really confused."
"Still doesn't explain why you're here." Sky said. "Though, if we're stuck in the same body, we must be sharing the same dream."
"But where are we?" Nick asked. He and Sky looked around, and they saw that they stood in a cave. Thanks to the wooden, branch-design chandelier, the place was well-lit. There were two fires: a large one that provided warmth, and a smaller one sitting on a shelf built into the wall. The smaller flames burned bright green.
A woman sat at the only pieces of furniture in the cave: a wooden chair and table. She had an assortment of knives, carving utensils, paints, and paintbrushes set up in front of her. The beautiful young woman wore a simple green dress. But her appearance changed every time Sky and Nick blinked. At first, she had fair skin and curly brown hair. Then she had tan skin and straight black hair. Then she had dark skin and mocha brown hair. Her appearance never stayed the same for more than a minute. One thing did stay the same: the detailed, black tattoo-like markings on the side of her face, going from her temple and down her jaw a ways. There were four different marks: a fire, a tree, a cloud, and a snowflake. The woman carved two figures in extreme detail. She already had one finished: an old-model vehicle. Currently, the woman worked on a wooden figure that looked like a human.
"What are you doing?" Nick asked. The woman didn't answer. In fact, she gave no indication she heard him.
"I don't think we can talk to her, Nick." Sky said. "We're just viewers here."
"But where is here?" Nick wondered.
The woman finished her painting, and she held up the wooden figure. "Perfect." She nodded in satisfaction. She took one of her knives and carved a symbol into the doll. Sky walked over and looked over the woman's shoulder. She gasped softly when she saw it was the same symbol as what was carved on her amulet. The woman stood, walked to the hearths, and tossed the wooden figure into the green fire.
"All that work, and she burns it?" Sky murmured.
As the figure burned to ashes, the flames grew bigger. In fact, some of the green fire flowed from its source and swirled about the room like ribbons of flame. The flames created a column in front of the woman. The flames compacted and disappeared, and a human materialized in front of the woman. The human wore a toga, indicating a very old-age human.
"Welcome to life, my child." The woman said. She went to the table and lifted the wooden figure of the vehicle. She handed the figure to the human. "This is your Soul Connect Partner. You must find them at some point in your life. For you are a psyche human, and you are most powerful when with your Partner."
Sky. Sky, wake up! Hey, wake up!
Sky's eyes flew open. Nick, apparently parked next to Sky's bed, jumped in a startled manner. They looked to Blade, who stared back in concern.
"Sorry." Blade said. "You were talking kind of loudly in your sleep. I was worried."
"I'm fine." Sky said.
"Me too. Just a weird dream that we ended up sharing." Nick said.
Sky felt something fall in her lap, and she saw that she had fallen asleep with her Megami-Hito book on her chest. The book had been left open at a Renaissance-style painting. "Yeah. Really weird."
"We're dealing with enough weird stuff already." Blade said. "Try to get some sleep."
Sky nodded slowly. She glanced to her book, and then tucked it under her pillow before going to sleep again.
Still, the dream replayed itself in Sky's mind the next morning. She couldn't believe the dream was random. Plus, Nick was present in her dreams without even meaning to. That had to have something to do with them being connected. For some reason, Sky kept thinking about the dream, especially the woman. At one point during the dream, the woman looked identical to Sky.
At last, Sky couldn't take it. She called Harley and Katherine.
"Hope I'm not interrupting something." Sky said into the radio.
"Oh nothing much." Finn's sarcastic voice said in the background. "Just a covert spy mission that could result in our death if we fail!"
"Finn, I don't normally say this, but take a chill pill." Harley said. "Katherine's doing fine in there. What do you need, Sky?"
"I was just wondering if any research you did on Megami-Hito included stuff related to the symbol on my amulet. It's also the symbol in my book." Sky said.
After a moment of thought, Harley replied, "If I remember correctly, that symbol is for the Goddess of Psyche."
"Goddess of Psyche?" Nick repeated. "What's that?"
"Not 'what.' Who." Harley corrected. "All the deities in the Megami-Hito religion had a certain mark. A symbol connected to who they are. Katherine found several legends revolving around these gods, goddesses, and spirits. But most of those stories are disregarded, not really considered 'true' myths because so few people believe the Megami-Hito really existed."
"I don't care about speculation. I care about getting answers." Sky said. "Do you think you and Katherine can email over the information you have on the goddess? Maybe mail over some books or something?"
"I'm sure I can find stuff in C.H.R.O.M.E.'s library, too." Harley said. "But why? What's so important?"
"I'm just testing a theory." Sky said. She jumped when she heard gunshots.
"Oh dear. Kat needs backup." Harley sighed. "Talk to you later!" The line went dead.
"Exactly what theory are you referring to?" Nick asked.
"The one I recently came up with." Sky said. "If it works like I hope it will, we may have a chance to separate."
"Really?" Nick asked hopefully.
"Don't get your hopes up too high." Sky warned. "I have no idea how this is going to work."
It took a few days, but Harley came through. To Sky's surprise, the Radiator Springs spy arrived in person with Finn, Katherine, and Leland in tow.
"What happened to your mission?" Sky asked.
"Shots fired." Harley shrugged.
"Yes, and I'm more thankful than ever to be paralyzed and numb from the waist down." Katherine said, patting her leg, which had been wrapped in a thick layer of gauze bandages.
"Jeez, why didn't you hang up when I called?" Sky gawked, taking the box Harley handed her.
"We could hardly think about the mission with your and Nick's situation." Harley said. "We were concerned, so we came to help how we could."
Sky sighed. "Fine. Let's go into the main hanger." The group journeyed there, Nick and Blade following Sky. Once inside, Sky pulled out the books and photocopies of journal entries and photos. Everyone watched her, with some fascination, as Sky quickly looked through everything Harley brought. No one wanted to break the silence, at first.
"Raven, what exactly are you looking for?" Blade asked.
"This." Sky set down the picture she held, showing an image of the same symbol stamped into her amulet and on her book. She picked up an open book. "This says the Goddess of Psyche is often associated with mental and emotional healing, and dreams."
"So?" Harley shrugged.
"So, I think that dream Nick and I had last night—and a dream I had on the way home from Basque Country—was inspired by this." She held up her book of pictures. "My theory is that the book gives me a dream based on what page I left open when I fell asleep."
"What was last night's dream about?" Katherine asked.
Sky described her dream to everyone, and how she had no control like she usually did. "When I woke up, the book was lying on my stomach, open to this page." She showed everyone the image that looked like a Renaissance painting.
"That's a painting of a town from the Renaissance Era." Leland noted. "The dream doesn't seem to connect."
"Not quite true, Leland." Finn said. "The Renaissance was an era of creation and art. I think the painting we see here is symbolic of creation, hence the dream's contents."
"I don't remember what page I was on during that last dream." Sky said. "I don't remember seeing the woman."
"What if that woman is the Goddess of Psyche?" Harley said. "And, in that first dream, you were looking through the eyes of that goddess? Maybe you're right. I think each picture in that book is symbolic of a theme that connects to a story about the Goddess of Psyche."
"Maybe…" Sky stared at the pictures in her book, listing the themes she could think of and wondering what stories the pictures told.
"How is this going to separate us?" Nick asked.
Sky tapped her lip in thought. "I don't know yet."
Sky continued reading through lunch while her friends left her to her work. Only Blade and Nick remained to help how they could. Sky had yet to tell them her thought process, even though they were dying to know where she was going with this research and her theories.
Scanning the pages, Sky eventually found something she needed to know. She read the passage to herself.
The deities of Megami-Hito did not have a singular home or place of convening like the gods of Olympus. Rather, each deity has a place of birth and a place of dwelling. The place of birth is often the setting of certain tales for the deities, such as coming-of-age. The place of dwelling is where a deity lives to master their specific craft.
Sky pulled over another open book. She read quietly to herself, "'According to legend, the Goddess of Psyche was born somewhere in what is now Basque Country. There is even a holy site open for visitation. However, historians and mythologists have been unsuccessful in locating her dwelling place.'"
"What was that?" Blade asked.
"New theory. Where's Windlifter?" Sky didn't wait for an answer. She darted out the door.
"Whoa, hey!" Nick yelped. "Wait for us!" The two helicopters hurried after Sky as she ran right to Windlifter as the large chopper weight-lifted logs at his hanger. She passed Harley, Katherine, and Sparky on the way, and the trio trailed after her.
"Hey Windlifter!" Sky said, standing below the copter. "Sorry to interrupt, but I have to ask you something. Do you know any myths within your own Native American culture related to the Goddess of Psyche?"
"Yes." Windlifter answered between lifts. "The Lakota have their own Psyche Goddess, translated into a spirit who helps the Lakota connect with their ancestors and the land."
"What about an amulet?" Sky asked. "Like mine?"
"There is only one legend I know of." Windlifter said. "An ancient Lakota legend tells of how the Goddess lost her amulet of power, which allowed her to watch over her people and hear their prayers. Without it, her power is limited. The Goddess offered a wish to any and all who return the amulet to her. Coyote tricked the Goddess and claimed to have the real amulet, only to be punished by the Goddess when she discovered the truth."
"Great. That's great!" Sky said excitedly. "Thank you, Windlifter."
"Cuervo, back up." Nick said. "What's so exciting about a legend?"
"That legend just gave us our answer." Sky said. "I'm going to find that missing amulet and return it to the Goddess of Psyche. I can use the wish to separate us."
"What?!" Blade and Nick yelped at once. Harley's, Katherine's, and Sparky's jaws dropped.
"Sky, are you nuts?" Sparky said, still in shock.
"Crazier things have happened, Sparky." Sky shrugged. "For example, what's happening to me and Nick right now." She and Nick switched as she spoke.
"Speaking from a spiritual point of view, this is one of the craziest things I have ever heard." Katherine said. "Skylar, you're talking about seeking out a goddess. A deity. Someone who may or may not exist, and may not want to be found."
"But if she wants her amulet back, I think she'll make an exception." Sky said.
"I'm with Raven." Blade announced unexpectedly. "Windlifter's friend said we would have to pray to the spirits, prove something to the gods. We don't have very many options left. Our only hope may be this goddess, regardless of our skepticism."
"Blade has a point." Harley sighed. "Taking a spiritual route may seem unorthodox, but it also may be the only way to separate Sky and Nick."
"I don't want either one of us to disappear." Sky said as she and Nick switched back. "If there's a chance to save us both, we ought to take it, even if it means doing something crazy."
"Agreed." Katherine and Blade nodded at once.
"I'm in." Harley said.
"Sure. I guess." Sparky said uncertainly.
"If it gets us separated, I'll do it." Nick agreed.
"We better get Finn and Leland updated." Harley said. "This is crazy, but it just might work."
"We have quite a bit of work to do." Katherine said. "Where do we start?"
Sky held up her book of pictures. "With this. The dreams will guide us."