NOTE: Credit to Merging Emperor here as well as Tyroth Darkstorm!
Chapter Thirty-Five
What's in my Dreams?
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, the Disciples rested around the fire that still continued to burn.
Each of the older Diciples took turns in spending an hour keeping watch to make sure no humans discovered them.
Regan and Aurora being the youngest were excluded, and they slept through the night.
Yet as Aurora slept, she had been peacefully sleeping, until dreams started to plague her...
Aurora stood in a white void, unsure of why she was there, and what would happen.
"Hello?" she called "Where am I? What is going on?"
Just then some laughter was heard behind her.
"Stupid little girl!"
Aurora frowned and looked behind her only to see a woman in shadow standing behind her.
"What?" she asked "What is this?"
"You thought you killed me? Foolish child!"
"I don't understand!" Aurora cried "What are you? who are you?"
"You thought you'd find satisfaction! Revenge! you were wrong! and you fucked up!"
Aurora turned away from the woman covering her ears.
"Go away! I don't know you! I don't know what you're on about!"
Aurora closed her eyes and covered her ears screaming in anguish, then after a couple of minutes she opened her eyes and she saw some humanoid animals before her, all consisting of four turtles in different coloured masks, Blue, Red, Purple and Orange, all reaching to her, along with a female lizard woman with long dark hair with a pink headband around it.
Aurora saw them reach out to her, all with pleading looks in their eyes yet she was unsure why they were and she didn't know who they were.
"Baby..Princess...Geisha! Tigeress!"
"What?" Aurora asked as she looked at them reaching for her "Who are you?" she reached out her hand as she stepped towards them.
"Who are you?" she demanded "Who are you? Who are you...?"
Aurora opened her eyes with a start and sat bolt upright.
She looked around temporarily forgetting where she was until she realized that she was in the woods where she and the Disciples had set up camp.
She saw the others laying in sleeping bags nearby.
Regan was next to her, curled up with her wings wrapped around her like an extra blanket.
The others were nearby and around the fire that still continued to burn keeping them all warm.
Ravage, Samson and Seth were snoring softly which sounded rather loud in the middle of the quiet wood.
She then looked to the side and saw Lilith was sitting on a fallen tree trunk just outside the camp looking out through the trees, no doubt taking her shift as night watcher.
Aurora lay back down and stared at the night sky.
It was a clear night and dotted with stars.
Looking at the different sparkling white dots in the sky, she tried to think back on her dreams trying to understand why she had dreamt them and why those people, or rather humanoid animals were in the dream.
She couldn't place her finger on who they were, but something deep down seemed to tell her that there was a reason she was seeing them in her dreams.
The more she lay there, the more difficult she found it to go back to sleep so she sat up and climbed out of the sleeping bag.
As she did, the rustling of her moving made Lilith turn around and look at her making the hybrid jump.
"Lilith..." Aurora said in a tiny gasping voice "Sorry..."
Lilith put a finger to her beak and cocked her head.
"Can't you sleep?" she asked to which Aurora shook her head.
"Do you know what time it is?" the hybrid asked.
"It's half four in the morning." Lilith reported looking at a wrist watch she wore.
"Still a way till dawn then." Aurora sighed.
"I still got half an hour until Diablo takes his post then hopefully the dawn will have risen and we can move on." Lilith said.
"Okay." Aurora said then started to get back into her sleeping bag "I'll let you keep guard."
"Wait."
Lilith's voice stopped the young hybrid and she turned to look at the falcon.
"If you can't sleep, do you want to sit and chat?"
"Sure!" Aurora said "If you want?"
Lilith gave a small smile and gestured with her head for the hybrid to join her.
Aurora stepped over to where Lilith sat, slowly and carefully so as not to wake the others and sat on the trunk with her.
"Such a quiet night hmmm?" The Falcon asked.
"It is yeah." Aurora agreed "Its so peaceful, I could sit here forever."
"It's nothing new to me." Lilith said "When we go around the country, we often camp out and sleep under the stars or in any transport we've stolen from our victims."
"So you don't keep any of the vehicles?" Aurora asked.
"No." Lilith said "Almost every vehicle is registered in the United States, and sooner or later, the police find the vehicle, so we have to keep changing them, just to keep one step ahead."
"Wow." Aurora breathed.
"For ten years we've been doing this." Lilith said "Ten long years we've travelled the USA, punishing sinners of the worst kind, and helping those who can't help themselves."
"What kind of sinners have you punished?" Aurora asked.
Lilith sighed.
"Lost count kid." she said "But we've targeted people the law can't touch because of the Freedom of Speech shit, Hate Preachers, MAGA Cultists, Racists, Homophobes..."
"MAGAs?" Aurora asked
"Make America Great Again." Lilith explained "Those who support Donald Trump."
Aurora was quiet for a moment then she realized.
"Oh yes, him!" she said.
Lilith nodded.
"Those types of people are Diablo's favourite to target." she said "Bullies, and I don't blame him for it as these are the people who in his mind have never suffered consequences for their actions, or learnt anything."
"Have you ever been bullied?" Aurora asked "Before you became what you are now?"
Lilith sighed as she looked at the sky.
"Quite a few times, I don't know anyone who hasn't been bullied, the others have been bullied before, I know Seth had because he and I were friends at High School."
Aurora looked over her shoulder at the other Disciples.
"I think out of all of us Regan has been lucky not to have been bullied, she was mutated at the age of five." Lilith murmured "Either that or because she doesn't remember her life before she joined us."
"What happened with you?" Aurora asked.
"A lot of things." Lilith said "Not being in the cool group, or not being good at a certain subject, maths being one of them...many things, that's the thing with bullies, they target your weakness and use it against you."
"Bastards." Aurora growled "How can people do that and look in the mirror."
"Some people just do." Lilith said "It's really sad."
The falcon looked over at the other Disciples sleeping.
"All of them were targeted for something that happened to them, Seth was a persecuted a lot because of the fact he's Jewish, and Lamia had the same trouble being a Muslim, its heartbreaking as they cannot change who they are, and they shouldn't have to, as humans they were peaceful people."
"Until now." Aurora said.
Lilith snorted.
"True that." she said "But sometimes peace isn't enough, and Diablo believes that if that cannot be the case, then we use the behaviour they use against them."
"And do you follow him?" Aurora asked "Do you agree with him?"
Lilith snorted again and she glared ahead at the trees and the darkness before her and Aurora wondered if a nerve had been touched.
"Yes and no." she said.
Aurora frowned.
"How do you mean, yes and no?" she asked.
"In a way I agree then when someone does wrong they must be punished, but at the same time, it won't take back or bring back what was taken or damaged." she said "I speak from experience."
"What do you mean?" Aurora asked.
"When I was struck by that car those drunk teens drove, and I was mutated, Diablo and his Disciples dragged them back to where we were hiding and they gave me the chance to punish them, yet I refused, because I knew it wouldn't give me back my life, even though I was barely living anyway."
"Because of Nigel?" Aurora asked.
Lilith nodded.
"Despite the anger and fury in my soul that my life was stolen, and the chance to make the ones who ruined it was there for me to punish, I didn't, because I saw no point, it wouldn't change anything."
"Is that why you didn't join in with the torture of those bastards we attacked earlier?" Aurora asked.
"In a way yes," Lilith replied "As much as I believe sinners must be punished, I have my limits, and I often think about what my brother would say, if he were here."
Aurora looked at the Falcon.
"He hated bullies and he always stood up for those who suffered, and he always protected me, and when he was killed in action, I felt so alone."
"Very much like Diablo when he lost his sister." Aurora said "I mentioned to him that he shared your pain."
"Yes, we do have that in common." Lilith said "We both lost an older sibling we looked up to, one we felt safe with, one we considered a best friend, not just an older sibling."
Aurora looked at Diablo was was still sleeping on his sleeping bag then back at Lilith.
"Is that was brought you together?" she asked.
"What do you mean?" Lilith asked raising an eyebrow.
Aurora blushed slightly, a little worried she had offended the falcon.
"Oh nothing," she said "it's just, I wondered if you connected in a way, given how you had such things in common, you know, like chemistry?"
Lilith cocked her head.
"You mean like a romance?" she asked then shook her head.
"Oh Good God, no." she said "Sure, we may have some very specific things in common, but that's not nearly enough to start a romance on, especially since he and I don't see eye to eye all the time."
"I can understand that, after what you just told me." Aurora said "Again, I'm sorry of you thought I was being rude with my assumptions."
"Oh Goodness no child." Lilith said with a kind smile.
"Don't get me wrong, I am grateful to him for saving and taking me and Seth in, as we really didn't have anywhere else to go like this, but I don't fully agree with what he and the others are doing, even if their cause is just. I wouldn't even have been in this situation if it wasn't for him to begin with."
"You never told me in full detail how you two met." Aurora said "If it's not too much to ask, I'd like to know?"
"Sure..." Lilith said, but she stopped as she heard a rustling sound as well as the sound of wings opening and she looked up to see Diablo rousing from his sleeping bag to take over the next watch.
"We'll speak later kid." she said.
The Raven stood up and stretched his wings then looked over to where Lilith and Aurora sat.
"Lilith." he said "You may rest now, I will take watch until dawn."
He then saw Aurora.
"Ah, you're awake early Aurora." he said.
"I couldn't sleep." Aurora replied.
"She gave me some good company." Lilith said walking over to her sleeping space as she passed Diablo.
"I'm glad." Diablo said as he watched Lilith settle down into her sleeping bag "Get some sleep, I will wake you when it's time to move on."
He then walked over to the trunk to sit with Aurora.
"You feeling alright child?" he asked.
"In body yes," Aurora replied "Yet my dreams are plagued."
"Oh?" Diablo asked cocking his head.
"May I ask what of?"
Aurora looked down and fiddled with her thumbs.
"I had dreams of humanoid animals calling to me." she reported "I cannot be certain, butr they called to me as if I knew them, but them, I knew them not!'
"I see." Diablo frowned his eyes glittering.
"And there was something else too." Aurora said "A woman, of Asian race, attacking me, mocking me...yet I didn't know her... I haven't seen her before."
"Oh yes?" Diablo asked placing a clawed hand on Aurora's shoulder "Do you feel your memories coming to you?"
"I don't know." Aurora replied shaking her head "I still don't remember my life before your friends found me."
"I see." Diablo said stroking the hybrid under the chin "But when or if you remember, you are safe here until then...that is a promise."
Aurora nodded at Diablo, yet she clenched her eyes shut as she thought more about the dreams she had and why she had them.
"What are you? Who are you? Where do you haunt me?"
Dreams have come to the hybrid, showing a part of her old life which she cannot recall, is trying to break out, and she's had to time to speak with Lilith and Diablo.
And Lilith has spoken more about her feelings as a Disicple, she agrees with Diablo, yet doesn't in some parts.
Also, I bet a lot of you have spotted I referenced MAGA as well as bullying in this chapter and given how the American Election is approaching. Trump or Harris, and I encourage my American readers, Vote for Harris, for your future, for your workers rights, for the rights of your female friends, for hope, for love and for a brighter future!
Your vote means a lot, even if you are just one person, you can make a Big difference for the future.