More Greek Times

by An Indecisive Mess

Sequel to Greek Times for a Future Girl. Aria's quest might've ended, but her greatest adventure has only just begun. Join her on more interesting adventures as she lives her new life in Hercules' world. There will be action, mystery, fun, (love?), and a whole lot more!

11. Chapter 11: The Long Nightmare

Chapter 10: The Long Nightmare

"Aria…" a voice called out.

I found myself in a strange gray room full of strange crystals. No furniture, no doors or windows, no people. Just crystals in an empty space. I didn't know where I was. It didn't look like any room in the Underworld, but then again, I haven't seen a lot of the rooms there either. And I've been there for almost two years. My searching was stopped when I finally saw someone: A tall woman with dark brown hair and olive skin wearing a white dress. Her familiar face is what I knew the most.

"Mom!" I cheered.

I was so happy to see her alive again a month after her death. I ran to her with arms outstretched for a hug. Happy tears came streaming down my face.

"I missed you so much!" I told her as I kept running.

"Then why did you let me die?" my mom said in a deadpan, almost robotic tone.

I stopped running and put my arms down in shock.

"W-what?" I stammered.

Mom's expression was deader than she was as I started backing away from her in fear and shock. I didn't let her die. I wanted to save her, but the tumor she had -well- it had already done its damage. She said so herself. No matter what I could've done, she wouldn't have lived much longer. It wouldn't have been right to bring her back to life. I knew that, and so did she. So, why was she doing this to me?

"You could've saved me, but you let me die." my mom told me again.

"No…" I softly spoke as saddened tears came down my face. "That's not true."

Dark blue smoke started to form out of the crystals as they changed from a pure white to a dark purple, as if they were becoming corrupted with every ounce of fear and sadness I was feeling and was filling the area until there was nothing but thick fog everywhere. I couldn't see my mom. I tried to call her out, but just before I did, a large image of her face appeared in the smoke. Her eyes were now pitch black, as if her pupils had dilated so much, they took over her vision. It was horrific.

"Why did you do it?!" Mom roared.

I tried putting my hands over my ears as she kept repeating that stupid question. I didn't need to hear this. I didn't let her die.

"It's not true!" I finally yelled.

I woke up screaming. I looked around in fear to try to see those images again, but there was nothing. I was still in my room in the Underworld. I checked the time on my phone and saw that it was only thirty minutes until my 7:00 alarm was supposed to go off. All that madness was just a nightmare? That was impossible, how could something that horrible be a nightmare? That felt all too real to be a nightmare. But then again, dark crystals don't just pop out of nowhere while your dead mom yells at you.

I gave a heavy sigh as I held my head in my hands. "Hades and Miss Kore are right. I put this grief way too hard on myself."

I then decided that since I woke up so early before my alarm, I might as well get ready for school. So, I got out of bed, got myself dressed, and went downstairs to the kitchen to make myself some breakfast and tea to calm my mind and keep me up. It kept me up, but it did nothing to calm my mind. I just couldn't stop thinking about what my dream-mom kept yelling at me. I know that Hades, Miss Kore, and the imps all said that Mom's death wasn't my fault, they've spent the last month reminding me, but why did it feel like it still was? Even after all the progress I've made with Miss Kore?

In the midst of my too early thought, I saw Hades enter the kitchen wearing his nightrobes. He stopped mid-yawn when he saw that I had already woken up.

"Up already?" Hades questioned as he went over to make his morning coffee.

I nodded. "Couldn't sleep."

"Whaddya sick?" he then asked before he made an accusing face. "You better not be starving yourself again."

I shook my head. "No, it's not that. I had a bad dream. It was mom-related though."

"Unfortunately, babe, I don't have time to hear it, and you don't have time to tell me." Hades said as he leaned against the counter and drank his coffee. "I've got another lousy day of work, and you've got school to get to."

"Yes, sir." I saluted.

"You be careful goin' up there, okay?" Hades told me. "I'm not the worrying kind of god, so don't go making me one."

I nodded before I reached into my satchel and pulled out one of my teleporting pearls before stomping on it. Releasing the apple scented mist that transported me to the one place that was on my mind at the time. When the mist disappeared, I found myself standing right outside of the Prometheus Academy. I know I've been a little tense about being back here after what happened a month ago, especially since after it happened a lot of the other students have either stopped talking to me or tried their best to do what they can to make me feel better, but unfortunately school waits for no one.

I walked into it hoping nobody would bring up my incident, but as I was walking in, I noticed a very peculiar theme going on with the other students. They all looked freaked out, and I kept hearing some really spooky sounding conversations going on between everyone.

"It was awful!" a few junior boys talked among themselves.

"I couldn't stop screaming!" I heard Pandora tell someone.

I saw one sophomore guy give a shutter as he talked to his friend. "I've never been so scared in my life!"

"I had to crawl in bed with my mom and dad!" I caught Melampus admitting to someone.

What happened to everyone? They all looked like something scared them so much that they didn't sleep at all the night before. Heck, even the beauty sleep-lover Adonis looked like he had bags under his eyes. Something was up, and I didn't really like it. This reminded me of last semester when Hercules and Icarus got the "genius" idea to put Morpheus to sleep with his own blanket, only this time, everyone looked like they couldn't sleep because they were too afraid to sleep. Not because they literally couldn't.

I found Hercules and Cassandra chatting amongst themselves by our lockers. Also sharing the same panicked and tired look as everyone else.

"Hey, you guys." I greeted as I walked towards them.

"Hey, Aria," Herc was the first to greet me with the same lines he used for the last month. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine, I guess." I said before looking back at everyone else. "What's going on?"

"It's happening to everyone. We've all had…" Herc struggled to find the right words. "Not dreams last night."

"Everyone?" I repeated curiously.

"Yeah." Cassandra confirmed.

"Did you have one too?" Herc asked me.

"I'd rather not talk about it." I immediately shot his question down.

Hercules gave a confused look before he realized what my dream was about. "Oh, right. Sorry."

I accepted the apology before questioning him and Cassandra. "So, what were your dreams about?"

Hercules explained that his nightmare was him being eaten by a hydra right before he regained his godhood and rejoined his family on Olympus. Meanwhile, Cassandra dreamt that she was the perky housekeeper of seven Icarus' -Snow White reference? I think so. But to be perfectly honest, I couldn't tell you which one of their nightmares sounded the worst. Heck, I don't even think my dead mom nightmare was as scary as the Cassandra White nightmare.

Cassandra gave a shudder as soon as she was done explaining her nightmare to me. "I hope this isn't some sort of vision. I don't need another curse."

"Cassandra!" Icarus' voice rang through the open halls as he ran towards her. "You're still here! Oh, thank Zeus!"

"Icarus, what's wrong with you?" Hercules asked him.

"Something terrible happened to me last night." Icarus explained. "I had a horrible-"

"Let me guess:" I interrupted. "Not-a-dream?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Icarus asked me.

"Everyone had one." Cassandra told him.

I turned to Hercules. "Might as well ask the million-drachma question while you're at it."

Hercules nodded and turned to Icarus. "What was your not-a-dream?"

"Oh, it scared the be-Zeus outta me!" Icarus shuttered.

Icarus being Icarus, dreamt that while he was following Cassandra to a quiet and secluded spot for things that I can assume are not very appropriate for me to say because the thought of it grosses me out, and she grabbed a pair of wax wings and flew right into the sun. It sounded more like something Cassandra would actually do in that situation rather than Icarus' worst nightmare if you want my opinion.

"I just hope I never have another dream like that!" Icarus shuddered. "I mean, that could really mess up a guy, y'know?"

"Maybe Morpheus was just having an off night." Hercules suggested. "I'm sure it will never happen again, right?"

"I don't know." I dismissed his thought. "I've been here for almost two years now, and I don't think that Morpheus is responsible for this."

"What do you mean?" Cassandra asked.

"Well, he's the god of sleep, right? He's supposed to give mortals good dreams as they sleep, and believe me I know more about this stuff than anyone. So, I know I'm right about it." I explained my thesis statement about the situation to them. "I think something else is going on."

"But you don't know what?" Hercules asked.

"Haven't a clue." I shook my head.

"You don't think Hades is responsible for this, do you?" Icarus then asked before raising his hands in defense. "I mean, I'm not assuming, but it doesn't hurt to ask."

"I doubt it." I turned down that assumption. "Hades has no control over dreams, nor does he have the patience for them. Plus, he's been keeping an eye on me after…y'know, last month's incident."

Icarus gave an apologetic look at my statement after that last part.

"So, whoever did this definitely took their time to give everyone these dreams." Cassandra thought out loud.

"Yeah," Icarus agreed. "Probably had from the dawn of time to work on it, too."

"Here's hoping your theory is correct, Aria." Hercules said to me. "If we have another not-a-dream tonight, we'll talk to Morpheus about it."

"Just call it a nightmare, Herc." I corrected him. "That's what we call them where I'm from."

"Nightmare?" Icarus shuttered. "Sounds creepy."

Later That Night

I was flying over the ocean. I had beautiful crystal wings that grew from my back -think of something like Flashwing's wings from the "Skylanders" games- that I was using to fly over the endless sea with hardly any cares or worries in the world. When all of the sudden, sharp crystal spikes started shooting out of the water like stalagmites and I was forced to fly around them to avoid being stabbed. Why my dreams involve crystals and gemstones, I'll never know. But they were as dangerous as they were beautiful.

Anyway, as I was maneuvering myself around the spikes, I heard my mother's voice again.

"Aria! Help me!" she called out.

I looked around, but her voice sounded so distant, I didn't know if I would find her. Had I not looked where I was flying, I would've been impaled by the largest crystal spike you'd ever seen. Think the Space Needle in Seattle, but three times as large and just as sharp. And on the very point of the spike, I saw my mother clinging onto dear life. I knew I had to save her, so I flew as fast as I could.

I almost had her, my fingers were almost touching hers as she reached out for my hand, but I felt someone pull on my wings and drag me up higher into the sky. I looked up to see who did it, and weirdly enough, that someone was me! But my duplicate had a pair of demon wings, and her eyes were pitch black. Just like how my mom's eyes were in my last nightmare. I tried to fly away from her grasp, but it was no use. My duplicate was stronger than me.

"Let me go! I have to save her! That's Mom!" I pleaded.

All my duplicate did was fly me over the spike with an evil pointed grin. "Why save her if you're the one who killed her?"

My eyes widened when she said that, but it wasn't what she said that caught my attention. Something was wrong. That duplicate may have looked like me, but she wasn't me at all. Her voice especially didn't sound like mine, in fact, it sounded more like a man's voice than anything. Like the Ice King from "Adventure Time". Somebody was messing with my dream just like I thought, but before I could ask my duplicate who they really were, they ripped off the wings from my back and laughed as I fell from the sky. I was falling and falling until I was seconds away from the spike.

I screamed in fright when I woke up. I found myself back in my bedroom in the Underworld and I was breathing heavily, the same wake-up routine I was in the night before, right after I had the other nightmare about my mom. I then quickly checked my abdomen to ensure that I had not been impaled by that spike. Thankfully, I wasn't, but that feeling was still terrifying. I hated nightmares that ended that way.

"Aria!" my door swung open to reveal Pain scampering to get inside to my aid. "Aria, are you okay?!"

"What's wrong?" Panic rushed in shortly after. "We heard screaming!"

"Bad dream… Really bad dream." I finally panted.

Pain's expression dropped into a sad one. "Was it about your mom again?"

I held my head in my hands. "I just wish I could get over it, but I can't!"

"Is there something we could do to help?" Panic asked me.

"You could keep me company in case I fall back to sleep." I suggested when I finally looked back up. "I'll need you guys to keep me up so I won't have to go through all that again."

"Aria, you know how you get when you don't sleep." he reminded me. "Last time that happened, you were bumping into everything."

"Yeah, maybe you should go back to sleep." Pain agreed. "If the bad dreams keep comin', just face them."

"I can't." I told them both. "How can I face them, if all they're trying to do is kill me?"

"I might have a solution to that, babe." a familiar voice spoke up.

The imps and I looked up and saw a flash of blue light fly into my room. And hovering by my bed was none other than Hermes. I admit, it was pretty great to see him again, I hadn't seen Hermes much since he came to Mom's funeral to give his condolences. I gave his absence since then a pass since his job as Messenger of the Gods was a busy one, but it was still good to see him. I kind of missed the guy.

"Hermes?" I sat up with a small smile on my face. "What are you doing here?"

"Morpheus wants a gig with you ASAP." he explained. "He thinks he knows how to stop the bad dreams you mortals have been having."

I gave him a suspicious look. "You gods spy on us mortals while we sleep?"

"That's creepy." Panic added as he folded his arms.

"W-what? No! No, no, no. No, babe, we don't spy on you!" Hermes tried to rephrase himself. "Phantasos just used you and Herc as examples to show us what was going on with the bad dream thing."

That name caught my attention. "Who?"

"Phantasos. Morpheus' little bro." Pain told me. "You probably never heard of him."

"On the contrary, I have." I remarked before growling. "And that creep has no right to spy on me or mess with my dreams!"

For those who aren't aware, Phantasos was the actual god of dreams in Greek myths. Tasked with providing all the dreams mortals saw when they slept. But in this alternate world, Phantasos had no such status. At least not yet. If I remember this episode right, he was jealous of Morpheus for being titled as god of sleep way back when all the other gods got their jobs and titles, and had schemed up a way to get Morpheus' title. The scheme? Making a quilt with stitch patterns of people's worst fears that acted the opposite of Morpheus' sleep blanket. Mystery solved as to who was behind all this nonsense, now I was ready to hit him so hard that he'd be the one sleeping!

Panic looked at me. "Does that mean you're gonna go see Morpheus?"

"C'mon, babe, it'll help you." Hermes begged a little. "Please? For me?"

I didn't want to say yes but considering that Phantasos personally infiltrated everyone's dreams to turn them into nightmares and went all out to remind me of the guilt I've put upon myself after Mom died. I was all up for beating him up! Also, Hermes trying to convince me to go may have had something to do with my decision too. Curse my inability to resist his charming face! But that means nothing! Okay? Need I remind you that I don't fall in love or get crushes on people? Hermes is no exception, so please stop saying that I like him!

"Fine!" I gave in to Hermes' plea before I grabbed my clothes from my dresser. "But I'm only doing this because I want these nightmares to end. Not because I like you, or anything."

Hermes shrugged coyly. "I mean, I didn't say anything about you liking me."

I shot him a glare before I closed the bathroom door. "You were thinking it."

Later

While the imps argued that they wanted to come along and help me, I managed to convince them to stay behind in case Hades were to check up on me. And so, Hermes carried me all the way towards Morpheus' temple. Where we saw a long, long line of angry mortals and various other half-human creatures all lined up to demand answers from Morpheus regarding the nightmares. Thankfully, since I was summoned by the sleep god, Hermes knew exactly where to take me.

"There you go, first in line." he said as he placed me down outside the temple doors.

"Hey! What gives?" an angry woman from the crowd yelled. "We were here first!"

"Cool it, kitty." Hermes defended me. "She was summoned by the dream guy, himself."

I gave Hermes a small smile. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it, babe." Hermes smiled at me. "And good luck."

And with that, Hermes flew off. Leaving me with the angry crowd who were glaring daggers right at me. I forced myself to turn around towards the doors so I wouldn't be looking at them all because, and let me tell you, all those angry people staring at me felt way worse than my normal stage fright. But thankfully, my waiting and patience was rewarded when I heard a familiar gruff-sounding voice yell out from the crowd.

"Make way! We have an appointment! Demigod comin' through!"

The voice was followed by the sound of a horse whinny. I turned around, and sure enough, Pegasus was trotting through the crowd with Herc and Phil riding on him. I don't mean to sound rude, by why is it that the one time I get summoned by a god, Hercules ends up getting the same treatment as well? Maybe it's a hero or demigod seniority thing, I don't really know. But I wasn't just going to stand around thinking to myself about why Herc was here.

"What are you guys doing here?" I questioned when they came my way.

"Whaddya mean 'what're we doin' here'?" Phil questioned when he saw me. "What're you doin' here, Creepy Eyes?"

"I was summoned by Morpheus." I answered when I petted Pegasus' head.

"So was I." Hercules stated.

"Good. You're here." a soft, yet kind, voice spoke.

The three of us turned to see one of the temple doors was opened, and a god was the one behind it. A tall, sort of heavyset, blue skinned immortal with tired eyes wearing a cornflower blue toga and wore a small gold headband around his forehead. I recognized him from when Hades had the imps and I stay in this exact temple to keep watch over a sleeping god. This was Morpheus, and it was good to actually see him awake this time. He looks like a pretty chill and nice guy.

"You wanted to see us, Morpheus?" Hercules started.

"I need your help." Morpheus explained as he let us into his temple. "Let's go to my office where we can… talk privately, 'cause I can't even hear myself think out here."

While Morpheus tried his best to calm the angry mob, I finally managed to get a decent look at the inside of his temple. The last time I was here, I was suffering from my lack of coordination sleep deprivation and could only make out some psychedelic aspects of it. But now that I was awake and alert, I could finally see that the temple was a very cozy looking place. It looked like the inside of an Earthbound store minus the healing crystals and singing drums, but complete with the nice smell of burning incense. I could definitely see why such a chill god like Morpheus would keep to himself in his temple.

"Wow." I said in amazement.

"Something wrong?" Herc asked me.

"No, it's just that the last time I was here, I could hardly see straight." I told him as I looked around his temple. "This is the coolest temple I've ever seen!"

Just then, the door to the temple closed again, and Morpheus rubbed his temples in exhaustion before immediately walking over towards a kitchenette and poured himself a cup of what looked like decaffeinated coffee -fitting for a god of sleep- to relax over all the chaos that was happening outside.

"That's better." Morpheus gave a relieved sigh after sipping his coffee.

"What did you want to see us about?" Hercules asked him.

"I need a hero, Hercules." Morpheus told him as he sat down in a cozy-looking chair. "I am an absolute wreck over this dream situation. Just look at me, I'm a basket case."

"Yeah, and so are we." Phil said. "We're not getting any sleep! What's goin' on?"

"It's my brother, Phantasos." Morpheus explained. "He must've found a way to invade dreams and turn them into something frightening."

"I'll say. That hydra I keep dreaming about is as scary as they come." Hercules said.

I nodded in agreement. "And I, personally, don't like what he's done to my dreams."

"Yes, I am… aware of the nightmares he has given you." Morpheus gave us an apologetic look. "And I am truly sorry about what you've gone through. Especially you, Miss Ariadne."

I ignored his sympathies. "Just tell us what we need to do so I can punch your brother."

Phil gave an impressed laugh. "Whoo! You are scary when you're mad."

"But why Aria and I, Morpheus? You're a god." Hercules then asked. "Can't you stop your brother yourself?"

"I'm not good at confrontation." the god of sleep confirmed. "Besides, the deity union rules are very strict on this point."

Herc gave a confused look. "Meaning?"

"Morpheus only oversees sleep; this situation is about righting wrongs." I explained in simpler terms.

Phil pointed a thumb at Herc and I. "So, what exactly do you want the kids to do?"

"I want them to stand up to Phantasos in Dreamland." Morpheus told us straight. "While Hercules would manage on his own thanks to his strength and heroism, Ariadne's cleverness could provide an advantage as they both face Phantasos."

"So, Herc and I are gonna try and take away Phantasos' weapon of fear and use it against him?" I interpreted for him.

Morpheus nodded to confirm. "Exactly."

"Ok, if you need a hero, I'm in." Hercules agreed to the plan.

"He doesn't go anywhere without his personal trainer." Phil joined in. "I'm in too!"

"And if Phantasos is looking for a knuckle-gyro, I'm gonna be the one giving it to him." I added as I popped my knuckles.

Morpheus gave a grateful smile as he stood up and led us to a bed where the sleep blanket was gently laid upon it. It looked pretty big, but considering the fact that Hercules, Phil and I are going to fight some dream god, I put two and two together about what we were about to do that involved the bed, and I immediately started to have second thoughts about this whole thing. Like I can handle fighting monsters and wanting to beat up evil gods and goddesses, but I draw the line sleeping in a bed with a guy. Fully clothed or not.

"I'm sleeping with them?" I asked rather uncomfortably.

"I know this is a rather awkward position, but it's the only way to get to Dreamland." Morpheus gave an apologetic look.

I suppose that made sense, but it doesn't mean I like it either way.

"Okay," I gave in before pointing at Hercules. "But he's sleeping in the middle."

"Why him?" Phil asked.

"Because the idea of me sleeping between you two makes my skin crawl." I retorted.

Neither he nor Hercules argued back, so we got into Morpheus's bed together, which was the softest and coziest bed I've ever been in by the way. I turned to my side to get in a more comfortable sleeping position and to not be so close to Hercules, but I guess my foot must've accidentally brushed up against his leg, because the next thing I knew, Herc let out a surprised yelp before giving me a mean look.

"Aria, your feet are freezing." Hercules complained.

"I'm aware." I remarked as I turned my back towards him. "Deal with it."

"Nighty-night. Don't let the gorgons bite." Morpheus said right as he put the sleep blanket over the three of us.

Next thing I knew, I was falling asleep and getting mentally prepared to fight a dream god.

In Dreamland

Dreamland was a weird place. The world itself looked distorted, like if it were made from the ripples of water, and the whole ground was made out of quilted material. The weirdest part was that, even though I knew Herc, Phil, and I were all asleep, it still felt like we were wide awake and that all this was real. I didn't know if it was supposed to be like this normally or because this was all Phantasos' doing, but this place was weird.

"Welcome back, lady and gentlemen!" a loud voice echoed throughout Dreamland.

"I recognize that voice from my nightmare!" I said with wide eyes.

Phantasos' voice echoed with deranged laughter. "It's gonna be a hot time in the old head tonight!"

I growled as I looked around. "Where are you, you cheesy excuse for a Freddy Krueger rip-off?!"

Herc gave a confused look. "Who's-"

"Not important!" I stopped his question.

Just then, Phil gave a loud scream as he scrambled back. Hercules and I were confused at first, until we saw what exactly got the goat-man so scared. A large, dark ominous cloud swirled overhead, but it just stayed in place for a moment. It just stayed still like it wasn't even a cloud at all, kind of like Jean Jacket in the movie "Nope". And just like that alien, the cloud started to change its shape, only this form was more of a human-like one. Well, human-like if you excluded what looked like goat hooves.

"It's the mother of all bad dreams!" Phil screamed at the sight. "It's my-my…"

The cloud then turned itself into a massive, yet older, female satyr with long gray hair and wore a blue dress. This particular satyr, however, I pieced together something important about her when I saw that her eyes looked just like Phil's.

"That's your mom?" I asked him in a confused way.

"Morpheus! Take the blanket off!" Phil shouted to the sleep god, but to no avail.

"You can't run, and you can't hide! This is Dreamland!" Phantasos' voice spoke out of the female satyr. "I love my work."

Just then, the image of Phil's mom started to change again, only this time it was a creature I recognized. A massive, purple reptile with black spines and markings all trailing down from its three heads down to its singular tail. Two massive legs with sharp talons started stalking towards us as the creature's six orange eyes glared down as three mouths full of sharp teeth bared. Remember how I said in the first story that the one thing from the movie that scared me was Hades? I lied. The other thing in the movie that scared me was this exact creature: The hydra.

"Boy, your mom can really turn on you." Hercules said as we started backing away slowly.

"No freaking kidding!" I yelled as I dodged an attack from one of the snapping jaws.

The three of us then split up to try and get away from the hydra's attack. Since this was a dream, Hercules was now all decked out in his hero armor and I had my crystal sword on me. Lucky for me, I knew that cutting off the heads of the hydra would only bring more trouble, so I had to wait for an opening for the literal belly of the beast. That's when Herc stepped up to give me said opening. The plan was for him to distract the hydra with his own sword so I could sneak in and attack from the side, unfortunately this was a dream. And the moment Herc drew his sword to attack one of the heads, Phantasos immediately turned it into a bouquet of flowers.

"For me? Aren't you sweet?" the head smiled menacingly.

Another one of the hydra's heads slithered next to Hercules and I as it licked its chops. "I'll let you know."

I managed to escape before the head started chomping at us, but Hercules wasn't so lucky. I turned around to see that the hydra managed to grab Herc's cape by its teeth and was dangling him around the other two heads. Hercules was dodging the attacks as best as he could, but sooner or later, one of the heads would get a bite out of him. So, I ran to the back of the hydra, grabbed the nearest sharp rock I could find and dug it right into its tail.

"YEEOW!" Phantasos shrieked in pain from the two heads.

I cackled. "I hope that hurts, ya creep!"

Just then, one of the heads spotted me and lowered itself downward in eye-length of me. I tried to stand tall and not show fear at this ugly dream-lizard, but the head started to change and morph once more. And what it turned into forced me to drop my macho act and step backwards in fear. Dropping my crystal sword in the process.

"What's the matter, Aria?" Phantasos' voice taunted from my mother's head. "You blame yourself for your mommy's death?"

"Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!" I closed my eyes tightly as I swung my fists. "If you weren't immortal, I'd smash your face into the ground 'till you were dead!"

"But ya can't, can ya?" Phantasos chortled as he used his dream magic on me. "You're just so pathetic, you little imp."

In just a blink of an eye, I could tell that I had now been transformed within the dream too. I was now about four feet shorter, and my skin was now a nice shade of sapphire blue. It didn't take a genius to know that Phantasos had taken pages out of Hecate's scroll of being a complete jack-wagon and turned me back into an imp. Complete with the wings, horns, tail, and my massive bird-like beak.

"Oh, no!" I stared at my hands in utter horror. "Not again!"

"Phil, Aria, I need a sword!" Hercules called out. "Get me a sword!"

"The last thing you use to defeat a hydra is a sword!" Phil reminded him from afar. "You've got enough mouths to feed already."

Phil had a point. The only thing that would help Herc now was for me to help him fight the hydra. But I sort of ran into a little problem. You see, I remembered what Pain and Panic taught me about shapeshifting the last time I was turned into an imp, but when I tried turning into a human again, nothing happened. I started to freak out and tried doing everything I could to shapeshift, even forcing it to happen.

"C'mon, change back!" I grunted as I stretched myself to force my body to change.

But nothing changed. It was as if my body had completely forgotten how to shapeshift. I was back to how I was the first time I became an imp: Completely powerless and useless. And when Herc needed my help the most, too.

"Aria, what's the matter with you?" Phil asked me before trying to get me to fight back with some words of encouragement. "You gotta snap outta it!"

"I can't change back to normal!" I told him before I curled up in the fetal position as tears began to run down my face. "I really am pathetic! All I ever do is let people down!"

Hercules screamed in fear as he kept being flung around. "What are we supposed to do, now?!"

"Fight your fear!" Phil told us. "Not yourselves or the hydra!"

"Aria," Phantasos started taunting me as my mom again to make me feel more miserable. "Why did you let me die?"

I don't know how, but something inside me snapped when he said that. I have been blaming myself for the last month about letting my mom die, but what Phantasos forgot when he started messing with my dreams is that I've got a bunch of friends -yes, even Hades- who care about me and know that I would never, ever hurt my mother like that. He can't mess with my head like that! No matter how much I screw up, no matter what bad things happen, I am in control of only one person's life: Mine! I can't control the deadly tumors or the twisted mind of a psycho god, but I can control how I deal with those outcomes. Starting with dealing with this loser!

"I didn't." I finally said as I stood up and wiped my tears away with a fist. "I tried to save my mother, but what she had couldn't be cured here or back home!"

Dream Mom's face blinked in confusion. "What?"

"And another thing!" I yelled as I stood up and faced Phantasos. "My mother would never let me feel guilty about something I had no control over, even in my dreams! I am in control of this dream! You're just a stupid nightmare!"

Which reminds me.

I gave Phantasos a wild, fanged smile as I finally shapeshifted into a massive RainWing that was about the same size as the dream hydra. Although, this RainWing had those Flashwing wings from my earlier dream. Something to add a little more damage to this dream demon when I beat the snot out of him, 'cause -and let's face it- the venom and sharp talons of this dragon wouldn't fully damage him as much as I would've loved. But venom, sharp talons, and crystal wings? Oh, they definitely would.

"This is just a dream, and we're the one's dreaming it!" I roared loudly with a deep laugh.

Hercules saw what had happened and took note of what he was supposed to do now. So, he unclipped his cape from his armor and fell to the ground. I slapped Phantasos' heads with my talon before racing after Hercules. If we were going to stand up to Phantasos, we had to do it together, but it was a little hard to do when Phantasos kept appearing wherever we went. Transforming into that hydra with every chance he took with unpredictability. Reminding me of something that happened last year when Hercules first took me to Phil's island.

"Hey, Herc," I talked to my friend as we ran from the dream hydra once again. "Remember when you first fought the imps?"

"Yeah." Hercules responded. "What about it?"

"Remember how unpredictable they were when you fought them?" I reminded him. "Phantasos is doing the same thing."

"He's just messing with our heads!" Herc realized with a grin. "Literally!"

"So, we gotta mess with his head." I told him a plan. "He wants us to fear him, but I'd say, let's not give him any."

"I like it!" Hercules nodded.

Just then, the ground sprouted up three purple roots that all constricted around the pair of us and lifted us into the air. I snarled when the ends of the roots turned into the hydra's heads and started licking their mouths at the thought of swallowing us whole, but Phantasos had another thing coming. This time, Hercules and I weren't going to be afraid or run away. We were gonna be brave and stand up to this dream god or die trying. I, personally, would prefer the former.

"What're you looking at?" Hercules folded his arms. "You can't hurt us!"

"Yeah, but we can really scare ya!" the heads said in unison before they made "scary" faces at Hercules and I.

Herc and I didn't even flinch at the sad attempt to scare us. Honestly, was Phantasos trying to scare us or a couple of little kids?

"You call that scary?" I scoffed. "I've seen way worse."

"Yeah, you can't scare us, and we won't let you!" Hercules added. "Now whaddya gonna do?"

One head paused before admitting something. "Uh, not sure. It's never happened before."

"First time." the second head agreed.

"Got me. I'm flummoxed. File this under flummoxed." the last head added before announcing to the other heads. "Group huddle!"

And with that, the heads all huddled together to discuss how they were going to scare us. But, when they were distracted, their grip on Hercules and I loosened, and we were able to get back onto the ground safely and without notice. Y'know, for a god who created nightmares and was really passionate about scaring people, Phantasos really lost part of his master plan when he saw that we were standing up to him. He's more pathetic than I thought.

I ignored Phantasos' little awkward moment before extending a wing down towards Hercules. "Wanna finish this, Herc?"

"Yeah, thanks." Herc said as he hopped on. "Nice wings."

"Thanks." I smiled as he sat on my neck.

And with the flap of my wings, we took off into the air. With Phantasos still distracted with himself, it was easy to sneak up on him more than it was escaping his coils to the point where I'm honestly surprised he didn't hear my wing beats even when I was three feet in front of him. When I was flying close enough, Hercules hopped off my neck and grabbed the hydra's necks, determined to end this fight once and for all.

"What's say we wrap this up?" Herc asked me.

"Couldn't agree more." I agreed as I turned into my human self, but kept the wings, to help Hercules tie the heads together.

"OW! Whaddya doing?" Phantasos whined when he saw what we were doing. "Oh, I hate neckties."

When we were finished tying the necks in a little bow, Hercules then ran over to the hydra's tail, grabbed it, and spun it around in the air before throwing it into a convenient pit. Nothing but the sweet sound of a psychopathic freak screaming his lungs out as he was sent hurling to -well, it wouldn't be demise since he's immortal, so let's just call it a major wipeout for now, shall we? I wish I could've seen the look on Phantasos when he hit the ground, but Hercules and I were too busy celebrating our victory with high-fives.

"Way to go, kids!" Phil cheered for us when the fight was over.

"I guess you can do anything in a dream if you set your mind to it." Hercules said before getting an idea. "And by anything…"

Almost on cue, the ground around us started to shake again, and four large and familiar snakes emerged from the earth, and with them, was a new dream form of Phantasos. This time, he decided to take on Typhon's form. With Hercules and I still on his head. Dream Typhon used his long forked tongue to slurp up Hercules, but I was too quick to catch and Hercules was too clever to be eaten, so he ended up climbing out of the titan's ear.

Herc gave a proud smirk when he looked over at me. "I kind of grow on you, don't you think?"

And with that, Hercules slid down the titan and made himself grow titan-sized, himself. Equal size means equal fight, after all. Well, unless you're Zeus fighting off Typhon.

"Nice job winging that idea." I made my own pun as I flew next to him.

"Dream's over, Phantasos." Hercules told the god as he picked him up. "Time to go back and face reality."

Phantasos pouted like a whiny child. "No! You can't make me!"

Geez, no wonder Zeus gave Morpheus the title of god of sleep over this guy.

"Ok. Have it your way." Hercules smirked as he shrank back to normal.

With Herc now normal-sized, he and Phantasos fell from the sky. Phantasos, now realizing the danger he was in, transformed into his true form -which was a green-skinned, thinner version of Morpheus that wore a red toga opposite of his older brother's blue one. And let me tell you, watching this poor excuse for a joker panic at the thought of crash landing in defeat, again, was very humorous to watch.

Okay, so that makes me a bit of a sadist, but the guy deserved it, alright?

"NOOO!" Phantasos screamed as he and Herc fell towards the ground. "What are you doing?! Stop!"

"Sure you won't change your mind?" Hercules asked him. "I bet even in a dream, hitting the ground's gonna smart."

"Jumpin' without a parachute?" I asked Phantasos in my best Bugs Bunny impression while free falling next to him and Herc. "Kinda dangerous, innit?"

"You can't make me stop!" Phantasos kept denying our demands.

"Ooh, how about we make it even more interesting?" I asked in my normal voice.

Herc gave me an approving nod. "Be my guest."

I snapped my fingers, and right below us, tons of sharp crystal spikes protruded from the ground. Indicating that if Phantasos didn't stop his little plan, he'd be shish-kabobed. And I know he's a god, but if my knowledge of movies has taught me anything, it's that if you get hurt or killed in a dream, you're hurt or dead in the real world. And no immortal wants that sort of fate to ever happen to them.

"This is payback, pal!" I shouted.

"Okay! Okay! You win!" Phantasos finally gave in. "Next stop, reality."

And the moment we got near the crystal spikes, Dreamland started to fade away. Meaning that Hercules, Phil, and I were starting to wake up from this crazy dream.

In Reality/the Morning

I woke up from the dream feeling awesome. I felt like I was ready to face anything that came my way. And what came my way when I looked over to the side of the bed, was a wide-eyed and frightened Phantasos holding the massive nightmare quilt -or his dis-comforter, if I remember right- as he looked right back at me in fear. And all I could do then was give him a mean and sadistic smile.

"Boo!" I yelled.

"YIPE!" Phantasos screamed as he fell onto the floor to get away from me.

I laughed at him meanly as I hopped out of the bed. "Score 1 for the Dream Team!"

"Dream Team?" Hercules repeated in confusion when he and Phil got up. "Really?"

"I kinda like it." Phil added. "Short and easy to remember."

"Thank you, Phil." I said to the goat-man.

"So, little brother, it was you who's been doing this." Morpheus stated as he then inspected the quilt. "Hmm, panels of individual fears. Very clever. And very good use of the cross stitch. If it wasn't so evil, I'd be proud."

"Keep it. I won't need it anymore." Phantasos pouted as he folded his arms. "I give. You're the god of sleep."

"Well, I'm glad you won't be troubling people with bad dreams anymore." Morpheus said as he folded the quilt.

"Actually, Morpheus, bad dreams aren't necessarily a bad thing. I mean, I feel good right now." Hercules interjected.

I nodded in agreement. "Ditto for me."

Phil gave a puzzled look at the two of us. "You do?"

"You feel really good right now?" Morpheus asked curiously. "How so?"

"Well, I wouldn't be afraid if I ever faced a real hydra." Hercules explained. "Tackling it in my dreams made it, I don't know, less frightening."

"And I'm not so afraid to finally face the truth about my mom." I added, finally accepting her passing.

"Hmm. You know, you may be onto something, kids." Morpheus thought out loud. "Perhaps I haven't explored the potential of dreams."

"Okay, can we just get outta here now?" Phantasos asked while keeping a close eye on me. "She's freaking me out."

"Just be glad none of the stupid nightmares you gave me included frogs or toads, bub." I gave the dream god one last scare as we all left the temple.

Later That Night

I finally had a good night's sleep that night. There were no traumatizing nightmares about my grief over my mom, and I actually felt like I was starting to get better in the grieving process. Those nightmares really were helping me. I know that grief is something that I'll never really get over, for the sake of my mental -and to a certain extent physical- health, I know it's something I have to try to do. Just like how I started going to therapy with Miss Kore. And now, after everything that's happened, I'll go back to school tomorrow with my head held high and a much brighter attitude. I've finally reached the acceptance stage of grief, and I knew mom would be proud of me doing so.

Anyway, let's finish this chapter before I start rambling, shall we?

I had probably gotten about three hours of sleep when I woke up to screaming and my bedroom door being slammed. I shot up and saw both Pain and Panic on the floor, backs faced to the door as if they were trying to keep it shut, breathing heavily. Normally, I would've just asked them to leave, but since they were obviously scared about something, I decided to be the great friend I was and see what was wrong. So, I got up out of bed and went over to the little imps and knelt down to try to talk to them.

"Hey, what happened?" I yawned.

"Bad dream!" Pain panted. "Really bad dream!

"What was it about?" I asked them.

"A-a g-g-g-ghost a-attacked us!" Panic shook as he held his tail for comfort. "We c-c-could feel it all over us."

I arched a confused brow at them. "You both had the same dream?"

They both nodded. "That's why it was awful!"

Oh, I am going to have a very long conversation with Phantasos about this.

Panic twiddled his fingers as he nervously approached me. "W-we don't m-mean to s-sound c-c-creepy, b-but-"

"You can sleep in here for the night." I told him and Pain, already knowing what they wanted to ask.

"Thank you." the imps said in a relieved unison.

I scooped them up and brought them to the bed. And after a brief warning of me being a tosser and turner in my sleep and Panic being a snorer, the three of us all climbed into my bed. The imps took the form of cats to try to not make the situation any more awkward, which I was pretty okay with. They're both very soft and warm as cats. And then the three of us then drifted back to a well-deserved peaceful slumber.