Previously on "Dreams of Destiny, Steven, after going through one dream after another meeting, befriending, assisting and rescuing the likes of fellow dreamers such as Annie, Pony, Ed and Hilda, there was only one more dreamer that they found in need of saving: Lincoln Loud from Royal Woods. After saving and joining up with the Man With the Plan, the group of six, at last united together, exorcised the ghostly ghouls from the dream world. Afterwards, they gathered around a campfire at Lincoln's suggestion and the group each took turns telling each other about their origins. But that wasn't all as they came face to face with the one who's been summoning these creatures and messing up their dreams by turning them into nightmares: The ghost of dreams known as Nocturn! He went on to explain that it was him who summoned his minions, the sleepwalkers to terrorize the dreams of people in order to harness their dream power to make himself and his sleepwalkers stronger by keeping them asleep to do so. Using the same method that dissipated the sleepwalkers earlier, Hilda, Steven, Lincoln, Pony, Annie and Ed managed to wake up from hellish dream.

But the question is: Are they really back in the real world or this this just another one of Nocturn's tricks?

That question will be answered as the story continues today...

Chapter 10: Awakened: Part 1!

Back in the real world...

"AAAHHHHH!" Lincoln as he shot up in his bed, sweat dripping down his face.

Feeling his face a bit, he calmed down a bit. "Woah, that was some dream."

Lincoln, you're awake." said a sudden voice, causing him to let out a yelp.

Looking to his right, he saw Lucy standing there with a sort of relieved look on her face, though it was hard to tell due to the darkness of the room.

"Lucy? What are you doing in here?" Lincoln said, rubbing his eyes.

"I fell asleep in the vents when I was awoken to the sounds of what appeared to be groaning, so I quietly followed them to your room and I saw something really strange." Lucy explained.

"What were you doing in the vents?" Lincoln asked.

"I was writing poems when I grew tired so rather than crawl back to my room, I chose to fall asleep in there." The goth said.

"Okay, but you shouldn't sleep around in the vents sis. There's not much room in there." Lincoln said to his sister before he got back on topic. "So what did you see in my room?"

"I saw these big, green things with stitched closed eyes putting a metal helmet on your head." Lucy revealed. "I tried to get off you and wake you up, but when I did, the helmet shocked me. So I jst I just stood here and waited until you woke yourself up."

"A helmet?" Lincoln began before he realized something. "Wait, did you say big, green things?"

"Yes." Lucy replied.

Lincoln's eyes widened in shock. "Lucy, those weren't just big, green things with stitched eyes, those were Nocturn's sleepwalkers!"

"Who?" Lucy asked in confusion.

Lincoln slapped his forehead as he forgot to explain his dream first. "Lucy, when I was dreaming, I was attacked by this ghost of sleep named Nocturn and his army of sleepwalkers."

"A ghost?" Lucy said as she smiled a bit. "A real live ghost?"

"Yes, yes, you can get excited later, just please listen." Lincoln ordered. "When I was in there, I met these people who helped me."

"Who were they?" Lucy asked.

"They were the people from that drawing I showed you." Lincoln explained. "There was these two guys named Steven and Ed, these two girls named Annie and Hilda and this male pony named Pony."

"That must've been some dream." Lucy commented. "What else happened in it?"

"Nocturn said that he was using the power of our dreams to make himself and his legions of sleepwalkers stronger. However he's doing that."

"Well, the dream world is a powerful place to manipulate and control. Having that could be dangerous." Lucy theorized.

"Yeah," Lincoln looked down at the remains of what was put on his head. Lincoln then picked up a piece of piece of glass as he examined it for a bit before he picked up a torn electrical wire. "And I guessing these helmets are Nocturn's key to keeping everyone asleep."

"Make sense." Lucy said. "What better way to gain power than to make sure that there's no competition."

"In a way." Lincoln said before asking. "Lucy did you see anything else? Do Mom or Dad or any of our sisters have these on too?"

"Yes, after I failed to get that helmet off you, I went to everyone else for help, but they had helmets placed on them as well." Lucy said. "I think all of Royal Woods have these placed on them."

"Great, so it's just up to the two of us to figure this out huh?" Lincoln said. "This reminds me of that time you clogged the toilet and I took the fall for you."

"Yes, but only this time there's no need for you to do that and I'm not the culprit." Lucy responded.

Lincoln then got up from his bed, being careful not to spread the remains of the helmet onto the floor as he got out of his bed. "I'm going research this problem, you want to help me out?"

"Of course I'll help Lincoln, I'm the only person who can help you." Lucy said. "I'm also quite interested in seeing this "ghost of dreams" for myself."

"Figures you would." Lincoln said as he rolled his eyes. "C'mon sis. We've got research to do and a town to save from eternal slumber!" He said in a dramatically heroic tone.

"You've been wanting to say that, haven't you?" Lucy said in a joking manner.

"Yeah, just let me have this." Lincoln as he and his gothic sister walked out of the room. "I just got out of a dream trap, you know."

A few minutes earlier in Trollberg...

"AAAHH!" Hilda screamed she jolted herself awake from her forced slumber as sweat dripped down her face.

Taking a moment to calm her heart, she looked down at her bed and saw some bizarre pieces of scrap metal and wire on it.

"What in the name of weird..." Hilda began to say but was cut off.

"Hilda, you're awake!" said a familiar voice.

"Ahh!" Hilda yelped as she fell out of her bed.

Landing on the floor roughly, the person jumped onto Hilda's nose.

Hilda groaned as she opened her eyes to see her tiny elf friend known as Alfur standing on her nose. "Alfur?"

"Hilda, it's so good that you're awake." said the tiny elf, who was very relived that the adventurer was awake.

"Of course I'm awake." Hilda said, rubbing her eyes to get rid of sleep in them. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, I saw these strange spirits come into your room and get past the leather belts using some weird invisibility power they have and put this weird helmet on your head."

"A helmet?" Hilda said in confusion.

"Check your bed." Alfur said, jumping off Hilda's nose and pointing up at the latter's bed. "The remains of the helmet are on it."

Listening to the tiny elf, Hilda found out that he was right.

Hilda saw scraps of metal and glass and even a wire or two. "Whoa, mystic ghost tech." She pointed out as she picked up a piece of an electrical wire before turning back to the elf. "Did you see anything else, Alfur?"

"Oh, yes. I saw them put the same type of helmet on Raven and Twig." Alfur explained. "They must have not been able to see me. Talk about lucky."

Hilda's eyes widened in surprise as she jumped to her feet and shouted.

"MUM!"

With adrenaline (as well as a hint of fear) in her heart, the blue haired adventurer ran out of her room, with her elf friend following her although he was struggling to keep up.

Johanna's door had burst opened by the sheer force of Hilda slamming into it. Hilda groaned a bit as she shook her head to get rid of the pain. After doing that, she stared in shock as she saw her mother have the same helmet on her head as well.

"Don't worry Mum, I'll get that thing off you." Hilda said with determination as walked towards her mother's bed.

Once she was on the covers, she crawled over to her mother's head and reached for the helmet.

Before she could even touch it, the helmet's natural defense kicked in as it shocked Hilda's hands causing her to be sent flying off the bed and onto the floor.

"Ow!" Hilda said as she stared at her hands in order to asset the damage. "So that's what happens when someone tries to take the helmet off."

"Are you... alright... Hilda?" Alfur said, panting a little bit from exhaustion.

"Yeah I'm fine, aside from getting shocked." Hilda said as she began to think up something.

"I got it!" Hilda exclaimed as Alfur jumped on her shoulder. "C'mon, Alfur. We're to see the one amalgam of rodents that might be able to help us."

Alfur facepalmed himself as he muttered. "Oh dear."

A few minutes before in Japan...

"AAAHHHH!" Steven screamed as he jolted up from his slumber, sweat dripping down his forehead.

Panting a bit, he looked down and saw that he was back in the real world and in his bed. Speaking of his bed, he saw the remains of a helmet on it.

"I'm home?" Steven asked himself as he felt his face a bit. "Whew, talk about a weird dream." He then looked down at the remains of the helmet. "What are these scraps of metal doing here?"

He picked up a scrap of the helmet's metal and examined it a bit before it clicked for him.

"Wait a minute?" He said himself before he recalled something in his dream.

Something about... phone numbers.

Instantly, he closed his eyes as he tried to flashback to the campfire he had with Lincoln, Pony, Annie, Hilda and Ed.

"I remember now!" The half human said as he opened his eyes.

After doing that, he went towards his phone that was on the dresser next to him and dial the first number he could remember.

"I hope you guys are awake..." Steven hoped as he continued to dial the number before completing the number and pressing call. "We're going to need all the help we can managed to get."

A few minutes prior in Pennsylvania...

"AAAHHHHH!" Both Annie and Pony screamed as they jumped up from their beds.

"Wha? What happened?!" Pony said as he freaked out a bit.

"Calm down, Pony." Annie said as she grabbed onto Pony's tail, causing him to stop. "I think that we're awake now."

Hearing this cause Pony to stop his freak out almost instantly. "Wait, we are? But how?" he asked.

Thinking a bit, the Bramely girl saw the remains of the helmet on the covers.

"I think Steven's tactic worked." She stated before picking up a piece of glass. "And I think this pile of junk on my bed and your stack of hay was the reason we stayed asleep for so long."

"Hmm, you might have a point Annie." Pony said as he stared down at the remains of his own helmet. "These parts must have come together to form some kind of helmet that Nocturn's goons used to keep us as well as Hilda, Lincoln, Ed, Steven and who knows how many countless others asleep."

"Yeah, I think so too." Annie said as she got out of bed. "C'mon Pony, we need to do some research about that Nocturn creep."

"I agree." Pony said. "We're going to need some info on that ghost before we confront him. We also need to get Ed and the others, assuming they woke up."

"They probably have and are already doing the same thing as we are." Annie said as scooped up some of the helmet's remains being super careful not cut herself on a piece of metal or glass before she and Pony raced out of the room...

A few minutes in the past in Peach Creek...

"AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Ed screamed loudly as he shot up from his bed before he realized that he was back in the real world.

"I... I'm alive?" He asked himself in confusion before screaming out "I"M ALIVE! YEAH!"

As Ed jumped into the air, he suddenly realized something important...

This was no time to celebrate! It was time to take action!

Without a moment's hesitation, he ran out of his room and up the stairs that lead to the living room.

Upon bursting through the door, he looked out the window and saw, to his horror, thousands of Nocturn's sleepwalkers flying down the streets of Peach Creek from outside his window.

Ed began to think of a plan in his head as watched wave upon wave of ghosts fly all over the place.

"In order to fight an army of that size, I might need one of my own, but how can I rally one behind me, especially at this hour?"

Wait a minute, Sarah and Jimmy... and Mom and Dad." Ed said to himself. "Perhaps they can help me. And of course Double D and Eddy can help me too."

Going into Sarah's room first, her older brother found his sister in her bed asleep as well as Jimmy, who apparently didn't go home and chose to crash here for the night.

"I hope Jimmy told his parents that he was staying the night." The moronic brother thought to himself.

As he walked closer, he noticed something.

There were these weird metal helmets on the two kids' heads.

Ed went to try and get them off, but when he did...

"YEW-OUCH!" Ed screamed as he felt himself getting shocked before being sent flying back towards the wall and slamming into it hard.

Getting up instantly almost brushing off the pain he was feeling in his back like nothing happened, Ed pondered for a moment on what to do.

"Guess, I'll have to come back and deal with this later." Ed said sadly.

He went to the door before turning back to them briefly. "Don't worry, you two. I'll be back once I figure this out. I promise."

Ed headed back into the living room and looked out the window, and saw a few sleepwalkers flying around the Cul-De-Sac.

"Guess I'll have to try and sneak around them." Ed said as he duck underneath his window to avoid detection from the opposition outside. "That's going to be extremely difficult though."

To be continued...

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you all next time.

Now before you guys ask "Reality Shredder, what about your other stories like Man of the Loud House, or The Exiles or that new series: Over A Latte?" Don't worry I haven't forgotten about them so I'll be sure to update them eventually, perhaps as soon as I'm done this story of course. I probably won't be updating them until next year rolls around to be honest.

Now I'm going to post a poll on my page, the options are:

The Exiles

Steven Universe: Hunted

Man of the Loud House

Over A Latte: The Series

and

The Dreams of a Young Genius in Love

Be sure to vote on it and I'll see your votes and the deadline is New Years day. Vote wisely.