A/N: All right! What is up everybody, Gussygus28 here. And I hope you guys had a great first week of 2023. With that said, welcome to the official sequel to "Dark Legends: Enter Gibb", that I am titling: "Dark Legends: Preludes and Nocturnes", my adaptation of PotCFan101's "Dark Legends 2: The Age of Nightmares" which in and of itself was an adaptation of the Justice League Dark animated film with elements of The Sandman graphic novels. This is gonna be a bit different from the last story, where I basically had to skip around a bunch of scenes, as I'm going to basically retell this entire story, only with the inclusion of Gibb Smith (when dreams and nightmares are involved, why wouldn't she be here?), William Clayton (who was in the original story, but only for three chapters), and Trixie Espinoza. And also, I'm going more heavy on the Sandman aspect here than Potsey was in the original story as I do essentially want to make Dream/Morpheus the main character of the story, or least second to Alice Pierce, which is why I have this labelled as a "Child's Play/Sandman" crossover, so do expect a bunch of new scenes and as well as some characters pulled from The Sandman Netflix series (which is fantastic, by the way, go check it out).

All that being said:

DISCLAIMER: I do not own "Dark Legends 2: The Age of Nightmares". The original story belongs to PotCFan101. And I guess I just also say that I do not own The Sandman or Justice League Dark. All rights are owned by their respective creators.

And with that... We shall start our little tale...

Dream: We begin… ...in the waking world, of which humanity would insist on calling the real world... as if your dreams have no effect upon the choices you make. You mortals go about your work, your loves, your wars, as if your waking lives are all that matter. But there is another life which awaits you when you close your eyes... and enter my realm. For I am the King of Dreams… and Nightmares… Or I was, until I left my kingdom to pursue a rogue Nightmare. But then… I failed… Became powerless, trapped by a spell cast by an amateur with no concern for the damage he had done to my realm and to his own. The savagery of my captors then bespoke a world whose dreams in my absence turned darker. A world which would soon be at war. A world completely ravaged by the disease which doctors named... encephalitis lethargica… Some begged for sleep that would not come. Others lived as perpetual sleepwalkers. Most slept without waking… And in some cases… died in their sleep… And now… After 106 years since my imprisonment… That war… has begun…

Now Playing: "Mr. Sandman" by SYML

Washington D.C., 2022

It was nighttime in Washington, and many people were attempting to get back to their homes. But unfortunately, there was a rather large traffic jam that was caused by a brunette woman who was too busy talking on her phone, and as a result felt her back bumper get hit. Oh, how we love it when that happens.

"Well, just great!" the woman complained. "No, not the presentation, that's terrible! Some idiot just hit me." The woman then stepped out of her car, and stood in the middle of the street.

"Do you realize how much this will fucking cost?! Not in money which I have plenty of, but in-"

The woman then stopped her little rant when the man who hit her stepped out of his car… and turned into something horrifying right in front of her eyes. From what she could see, he had light brown skin, horns for eyes, goblin-like ears, and sharp demonic looking teeth.

"What the…?" the woman murmured in fear. "Get away from me! Get away!" She then hopped back into her car. But as she got in, she then saw several similar looking demons walking toward her direction.

"Help me! Someone help!" She continued to scream as a demon was then facing directly at her, making her scream even more.

"Stay the fuck away!"

The woman then closed her windshield and started her engine, tearing through the streets and hitting as many demons as she possibly could. But then suddenly, she felt her car getting picked up and then simultaneously being set down. A tall black haired woman then approached her, wearing what looked like red armor with golden linings on the edges, a blue skirt, red and gold combat boots, bracelets on both wrists, and a golden tiara. The brunette instantly recognized her as none other than Wonder Woman, otherwise known as Diana Prince from the island Themyscira, who had once saved the world in World War I, but was hidden from mankind for decades until she finally came back to the open four years ago to save it again when Damien Darhk had unleashed Hell upon it, and had been in the superhero game ever since.

"Wonder Woman! Oh thank God!" the woman cried out, as she got on her knees. "Save me! Save me from them!"

"From whom?" Wonder Woman inquired.

"Demons." the woman said. "They're everywhere! Don't you see them?!"

Diana then turned around to see what she was talking about. And all she saw were normal and innocent people who were all either horribly injured… or dead. She didn't know what this woman was seeing, but she thought she was completely delusional and needed some serious help. Wonder Woman then gave the woman a glare, making her nervous.

"I see only one."

Central City

In a suburban home, a man was seen aiming a shotgun at what appeared to be some red grotesque monster that had several mouths and eyes all over its body.

"I'm gonna ask you this one last time!" The man yelled. "What the Hell did you do to my family?!"

"Steven, it's me, Gloria!" the monster yelled in a distorted voice. "I'm your wife, and these are our children!"

"You're not my family! You killed them, just the others!" Steven yelled, cranking the pump on his gun. "Now it's your turn!"

But just as Steven pulled the trigger, a flash of yellow lightning came into the house, running in front of the monster. Pun intended as when the streak faded, it was revealed to be none other than, well… The Flash, who opened his left hand and let the shotgun pellets fall straight to the floor. He then ran towards Steven, and snatched his shotgun away from him.

"No one's dying here tonight."

"It's not me you should be stopping!" Steven insisted. "It's them! Look at them!"

Just then, the front was kicked open, revealing the likes of Detective Joe West and Captain Singh barging into the house as they started to arrest Steven. While this was happening, Flash looked around to see what Steven was pointing at… and then saw a woman with two children, who he immediately assumed was Steven's family, appearing to be very scared of what was going on.

"It's just like the neighbors." Steven said in desperation. "Go to my shed, you'll see I'm right!"

Barry then ran to the shed, proceeding to throw a ball of lightning to bust the door, and peered inside. And as he suspected, all he saw were mutilated bodies. Whether they were hung up toward the ceiling, or simply laid on the floor, they all had one thing in common: They were all human. Has this man completely lost his mind?

As Allen thought this, he then gave Steven a glaring look once he and the cops had joined him.

"What have you done?"

Star City

"What the fuck did you do to my Laurel?!" Detective Quentin Lance asked, aiming his gun at a demon in front of him.

"Quentin- Dad! I am Laurel!" The monster begged. "Don't you remember?! You took me in just so I could get away from Ricardo Diaz!"

"No, you're lying! You killed her!" Lance yelled, aiming to pull the trigger. But just before he was about to do the deed, the Green Arrow burst into the apartment and quickly disarmed Quentin.

"Quentin! What the Hell do you think you're doing?!"

"Oliver, look at that thing! It's a demon!" Quentin yelled. "And it killed my daughter!"

Queen looked behind him, and what he saw was none other than Laurel Lance from Earth-2, who recently had cut her hair short, possibly as a way to stand out from her late Earth-1 doppelganger. Oliver walked up toward Laurel, and began to comfort her.

"Laurel, are you alright?" he asked, turning off his voice modulator. Lance slowly nodded yes, and then they both turned to Quentin, who had a face of shock.

"But… But…" Quentin stammered. "I could've sworn that it was a demon."

Oliver looked at him with confusion. What had become of his old friend? Sure, he was shown to be judgmental in the past, especially when Queen first started the vigilante gig as The Hood. But this… This was something else entirely. The Green Arrow then left the apartment as he thought this.

Gotham

A blonde woman was seen standing on the balcony of a cathedral, holding a blanketed object in her hands. And then, as she pulled the blanket back, in her eyes, she saw a tiny demon, but in reality… it was a baby, presumably her own, which she was preparing to drop into the streets down below.

"Let me help you."

The woman then turned around to see none other than the Batman standing right next to her.

"It's not my fault." the woman tried explaining herself. "I've given birth to the Devil. It's the Devil!"

"Ma'am, I've seen the Devil with my own eyes, and he is not a baby." Batman tried to assure her. "You're clearly tired. Just give me the baby. You don't want to hurt her."

The woman looked at the Caped Crusader one last time, and then took another look at the little demon, when for a brief second, it changed back into the baby… but then it quickly changed back into the demon, scaring the life out of her. The woman then threw the baby off of the balcony, with Batman quickly jumping off afterward, catching the baby and using his grapple gun to swing up to safety. But then after 2 seconds, he heard a thud, and looked to see that the woman had fallen to her death. Batman then looked at the baby with remorse. He may have saved the infant, but unfortunately, he couldn't do the same for her mother.

"I'm sorry."

Arrowcave

An hour had passed, and Batman found himself in the Arrowcave, surrounded by Team Arrow, consisting of Roy Harper, Thea Queen, Earth-2 Laurel Lance, John Diggle, and Felicity Smoak, a few members of Team Flash which consisted of Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow, and Kara Danvers otherwise known as Supergirl from Earth-38, who is noticeably wearing a new outfit with blue pants, as she had completely ditched her red skirt. Green Arrow, The Flash, and Wonder Woman all gave the rundown about the rising crime rates within civilians.

"These crimes were committed by law-abiding citizens." Barry Allen started, while footage of the woman running over people was playing.

"They all claim to have seen nightmarish visions beforehand." Oliver added.

"So, got any clue what's causing it?" Supergirl asked.

"No idea." Green Arrow replied. Danvers sighed.

"Great. I decided to crash on your Earth for two weeks just to get away from all the people barging into my house after I revealed my identity to the public on my Earth last year, and it couldn't be some giant ass robot?"

"The same pattern is slowly starting to repeat around the world." Prince continued, as Felicity showed a map of the globe. "So there could be an overriding factor. Perhaps a paranormal element."

"Are you talking about magic?" Batman asked.

"We've gone up against magic before, Bruce." Flash defended. "Damien Darhk, Mallus, Benatu Eshu, Charles Lee Ray."

"Even our friends like John Constantine have magic based powers." Green Arrow added. "So for everything we've seen over the years, is it really that easy to rule out?"

"The criminally insane don't need magic as an excuse." Batman muttered as he rose out of his chair and started to leave. "I recommend that maybe you should spend more time on the streets, rather than running around or flying over them."

"Huh, he's even friendlier than they say." Kara commented, looking at Oliver.

Now Playing: "Dream's Escape" from The Sandman Season 1 OST

In what looked like a sandy and rocky domain, a bald dark skinned woman was seen running toward what appeared to be an unconscious figure.

"Sir! Sir!" the woman shouted as she looked closely at the figure. "Oh my goodness." She then turned the figure over and it was a thin and tall man with pale skin and messy short black hair, and was wearing an ankle-length robe and a black uniform.

"Sir. It's me."

The pale man then opened his sky blue eyes and looked at the woman. Could it be? Was it really…?

"It's Lucienne."

"Lucienne…" The pale man gazed. It really was her.

"You're home, my Lord." Lucienne said, with joyful tears in her eyes.

"I am…" Dream of the Endless, otherwise known as Morpheus or The Sandman in folktales, assured her.

With that, Lucienne helped Dream up to his feet and they began to walk toward what looked like a massive gate, which was the gateway to Dream's kingdom. Over a hundred years ago, Morpheus left the palace to go to the waking world and capture an escaped Nightmare of his, The Corinthian. But he had ultimately failed as he was then captured by a sneaky sorcerer named Roderick Burgess and imprisoned for over a century.

During that time, Dream had sensed the world had suffered in light of his absence, with many mortals developing what they called encephalitis lethargica where they would either beg for sleep, sleep walk, or for the most part, sleep without waking. Heavens, there were even the occasional cases, specifically during the 1980s, where mortals wound up dead in their sleep in one specific town.

But now, the situation had gotten even worse, as now the mortals of the waking world had started to have nightmarish visions where they supposedly started seeing demons and wound up killing each other or even themselves. This was the breaking point for The Sandman, as now he knew he couldn't have been in his cage for any longer. Luckily, at that moment, the seal to the cage broke, and Dream managed to escape his prison, and had punished Burgess' son, Alex, with eternal sleep.

And that led us to now, where Dream had finally arrived back to his kingdom within what was known as The Dreaming and reclaim his throne. But just as Dream opened the gates, Lucienne then caught his attention.

"Forgive me, sir, but… the realm… the palace… they're not the same as you've left them."

Dream looked at his servant quizzically after she had said that, but then turned around and was horrified at what he saw of his former kingdom. It looked like a complete wasteland, with the castle completely falling apart. Might the new epidemic have something to do with this?

"What happened here?" Dream asked. "Who did this?"

"My Lord, you are The Dreaming." Lucienne started. "The Dreaming is you. With you gone as long as you were, the realm began to… decay… and crumble."

"And the residents?" Dream inquired. "The palace staff?"

"I'm afraid most have… gone."

"Gone?"

"Some even went looking for you."

"And the others?" Dream asked, walking toward Lucienne.

"They thought, perhaps, you'd grown weary of your duties." Lucienne said, which puzzled the Dream Lord. "And-"

"What? Abandoned them?" Morpheus asked. "Did they have so little faith in me? Do my own subjects not know me?"

"If I may, sir." Lucienne said. "Recently, over 10 years ago, Lucifer Morningstar had retired his title as the Ruler of Hell, and even started living among mortals in the waking world."

Now this was major news to Dream, as he and Lucifer had known each other ever since he was the angel known as Samael before his banishment. And even after that point, they still had very mild respect for each other, despite having very different jobs. So to hear that Morningstar just… quit… astounded Morpheus.

"And besides, this is not the first time one of the Endless had-"

"Enough." Dream interrupted. "I will not have Dreams and Nightmares preying on the waking world, especially to the point where they are now killing each other. I will set things right and bring them all back."

The Sandman then looked at the decaying palace once more, still with a determined look on his face.

"I made this realm once, Lucienne. I will make it again."

With that, Dream and Lucienne walked to the palace to take a look at what had remained at The Dreaming.