I do not own Lorien Legacies or any of the characters.

Nightmares

I watch as Marina runs to Eight. John begins to throw fireballs at the Mogadorians again. Their powers are back. Marina can still heal Eight. Just as she starts to try, the stone breaks off of my body and I fall. I land on my feet and pick up a fallen blaster, except, I'm not controlling my body. I look out the corner of my eye and see Setrákus Ra's hand moving like his fingers have marionette strings attached to my limbs. I try desperately to move but I can't. As I pass John, he shouts in surprise, seeing my wounds. Then, a Mogadorian tackles him and they start grappling with a knife. I hear it stab something but it's behind me and I can't see who got stabbed. Finally, I reach Marina and Eight and she looks up at me in surprise and fear.

"James?" She breathes. "I...I don't know if I can-"

Bang!

My blaster goes off and leaves a gaping hole in the side of Eight's head. Marina screams in fear, surprise, and grief. Then again in pain as not one but two scars begin to burn themselves onto her ankle. Marina looks up at him and time seems to slow as my body raises the blaster. I shout in rage, trying desperately to stop, to not do what I know I'm about to.

Bang!

I sit bolt upright in bed, gasping for breath and looking around in a panic. I'm not in that base. I'm in the John Hancock Center. I can still feel the blaster, the heat off the barrel as I fired. The burning of so much ash in the air. Marina's screams still echo in my head. I roll out of bed, heading up to the roof silently. It's empty right now. I sit down one the edge, staring down at the streets below. I can feel myself starting to drift off soon. I force my eyes open again but when I do the city's completely different. Everything is destroyed. And there are corpses everywhere.

"There you are," a voice says from behind me.

I spin, shoving myself to my feet to see Chad Chadwick standing behind me, except for a jagged purple scar around his neck.

"Chad?" I blink. "What...how?"

"What're you doing man?" Chad asks. "You should be out there, fighting the Mogs. We're soldiers. Not babysitters. We don't protect. You know that. We're Marines. We kick in doors, kill everyone inside, and then move on to the next house."

"Chad...what are you talking about?"

"You're going about this all wrong man," Chad sighs. "Tell me where you are."

I glance around, seeing we're suddenly in a body-filled and burned field. Then, I look back at Chad.

"Who are you?" I growl. "You're not Chad."

"No," he nods. "I'm not."

He raises his hand and a sword blade erupts from my abdomen before stone spreads from it, encasing my body.

"I'm going to find you and kill you all!" Chad growls with Setrákus Ra's voice.

I jerk as I wake up, and suddenly I'm in free fall. I hear a shout above me and suddenly Eight has me by the arm and we teleport back to the roof, landing hard.

"God damn boy!" Eight grunts, pushing himself up. "Shit, I've been looking for you. Come to Ella's room. There's trouble."

Then, he's gone. I lie there a moment, trying to force my nerves to be a bit less fried from my two nightmares, one hand pressed firmly to the spot where the sword wound had been. No one knew, to my knowledge, but that one wound had left a scar, despite Marina healing it. It also had left nightmares. This hadn't been the first, but it was the most...vivid. And the first in a long time to feature Chad Chadwick.

I finally stand and hurry down to Ella's room, finding not only Ella, but also John, lying on the bed, both with their teeth clenched, hands curling and uncurling in the sheet, and both looking to have no intention of waking up soon.

"What happened?" I ask.

"We found Ella like this," Six says. "Then she grabbed John's hand and suddenly he was like this too."

"She couldn't do whatever she did to John to Sarah, though, so we doubt it effects humans," Nine says.

"There's something, at least," I mumble. "Now what?"

No one answers. After a bit, we all file out of the room. Most go back to their rooms but I return to the roof. I don't feel like dealing with another nightmare, especially not with what's going on with Ella and John. Being human, I doubt it was anything more than a nightmare for me. But I still don't want to have to deal with it. I sit on the edge again and a moment later, Eight is behind me.

"Not going to jump again are you?" Eight asks.

"Sorry about that," I sigh. "And thanks for the catch. I was...having a bad dream."

"Yeah, I could tell," Eight sighs. "I doubt anyone is going to sleep tonight."

"I agree," I nod. "You had visions of Setrákus Ra, right? Would it be possible for me to?"

"You dreamt about him?" Eight asks.

"I saw my dead friend, with Setrákus's neck scar," I say. "Except, everything was destroyed and there were corpses everywhere. Then, all of a sudden, a sword stabbed me from behind and I was encased in stone again." I realize I'm holding the scar again and lower my hand. "Then my friend has Setrákus's voice and starts demanding to know where I am."

"I don't know if it was a vision or a nightmare," Eight says. "But I'd guess Nightmare."

I nod, happy to hear someone say it. Then, I sigh, turning back to the city.

"You know, you don't have to go tomorrow," Eight says.

"I'm going," I say flatly. "No way am I staying here while she goes after Five's chest when there are probably Mogadorians or worse guarding it."

Eight nods and then teleports away. After a few minutes, the door opens and closes. I know who it is even before they start to walk away from the door.

"You can't sleep either?" Marina asks.

"No," I say. "I suppose that's to be expected though. All things considered, it'd probably be bad if I could."

Marina nods and sits beside me, leaning on my shoulder.

"What do we do about the mission?" Marina asks. "Without John, should we still go? It looks like a pretty bad way to start."

"The mission will be fine," I assure her, though I'm less than optimistic about it. "We'll sneak in, grab the chest, and be out before anyone even knows we were there."

Marina nods before yawning.

"You need to rest," I say. "Try and get some sleep."

"I can't," Marina says. "I keep worrying about what'll happen to me if I do."

"Don't worry," I smile. "I won't let anything bad happen to you. You should know that by now."

Marina smiles up at me for a moment before setting her head back down. After a moment, she nods and stands. Then, she holds out her hand. I accept her help and we head down to her room. There, I lie down with her head on my shoulder. Under normal circumstances, I'd be very far from this situation, for her own safety. But she needs sleep. And I'm just too tired to think about whether or not my curse will use this opportunity. Within a few minutes, Marina has drifted off to sleep. I smile, watching her for a moment before my own eyes begin to close as well. I steel myself for a nightmare, but there is none.

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