129 Phase 113: A Different Sort of Dreamworld

They tried to find a way out. Maybe this was a Dreamworld under construction or some sort of test project. Maybe these were the remains of a Dreamworld that was abandoned in development.

Maybe, just maybe… this place had a link to the main network. Somewhere in here, they thought, there might be a Gate out.

But there wasn't. It took them all of five minutes to discover the truth.

"There's no exit." Alicia kicked the wall as hard as she could. The wall didn't budge. "Ow."

This was, by all appearances, some sort of mall, just like but yet not in the least like the one they'd been running into. There were a lot of escalators, a small open area in the center and several platforms with seating areas…

But no exits. No entrances. No doors of any sort, not even windows. Either the front of a store was open, or it was sealed tight and no amount of kicking, pushing, or pulling would budge it.

Every other place, anywhere else likely to have an entrance or exit was simply… gone. In their place were… voids. As if someone had torn a hole in Dreamworlds and left an empty gap of a starless outer space just sitting there. A black hole that, thankfully, didn't quite suck anything in, but Colin didn't relish the idea of trying to walk into one either. He felt certain it would be very painful and very, very dangerous.

Alicia threw in a shoe anyway. It wasn't her shoe; she'd picked it up from an open store in the 'mall'. She chucked it in, and it disappeared. Then, she poked the shoe's partner at the hole, then drew it back after an inch or so of poking.

Where she'd stuck the shoe in, the shoe had… vanished. It looked for all the world like someone had sliced off the shoe's toes with an extremely sharp blade.

"Yikes." Alicia stepped back apprehensively. "Colin, don't touch that. Don't go anywhere near that."

Colin wasn't about to try anything that stupid in the first place, but he didn't argue. He just nodded and took a big step back.

Alicia, though, looked at that Void thoughtfully. "You know, Colin, I think if we tried to go through that, we'd die. What happens if we die here? Do we respawn in Nakama World?"

"I don't know. What happens if we die in Gardens Dreamworld?" Colin asked right back.

"I have no idea. I don't think it's ever happened before. I don't think it's {supposed} to happen. I've never heard of a respawn zone in Gardens Dreamworld." Alicia shivered. "What if… what if when we die here, we die for real?"

"What?" Colin stared. "What are you saying?"

"I mean… we're completely disconnected from the rest of Dreamworlds." Alicia said. "I've tried calling out, and my comms are dead. Completely dead. I can't even get the time from my Traveler watch. The data link is totally gone."

"So… we can't die our way back?" Colin figured.

"Worse. If we die here…" Alicia looked around apprehensively. "I don't think there's any coding here for that. We might never respawn."

"So we just… sleep?" Colin wondered. "No dreaming?"

"Even worse." Alicia gulped. "Since we're disconnected from the network… it's possible that… well…"

Colin realized what she was saying. "No way. You can't mean… we're never going to wake up?!"

Alicia started shaking.

"That can't be." Colin grabbed her by the shoulders. "It happened to me, remember? {I} woke up. I lost my memories, but I woke up just fine."

"Lost your memories…" Alicia trailed off, still scared, but at least she didn't look like she was about to go nuts. "Is that what happens? We're disconnected, so any memories of this place simply… doesn't come back with us?"

And then Alicia started freaking out again. "What if… what if only {part} of us wakes up? What if 'we', the 'us' in here are going to be trapped here forever, while the rest of 'us' wakes up and continues life, never realizing there's a part of 'us' trapped in some disconnected…"

"Alicia!" Colin shook her. "I have the scar!"

"What?" She blinked.

"This!" Colin tapped the scar on the back of his right hand. The bracer extended; somewhere along the way, it had slipped back into that little diamond scar again, but now that he knew how to call it, it came out readily.

Alicia stared at it for a moment then asked, "So?"

"So I woke up with this. This is proof that whatever happened to me in those lost hours, it came back with me when I woke up." Colin said. "We're not going to be trapped here forever. At the worst, we'll just wake up. We might not remember what happened here, but we'll wake up, and we're not leaving the 'us' here behind. How do you even separate someone's mind anyway? I don't think it's even possible."

"A division of soul…" Alicia trailed off, as if remembering something. "But no. This is… this is different."

"Quit freaking us out." Colin told her. "There's got to be a way out of here."

They looked. They really did. But they just couldn't find any. Alicia got more and more agitated, and at last, she had had enough. "That's it! I'm {making} a way out!"

"You can do that?!" Colin stared, impressed. "How?"

"Like THIS!" Alicia grabbed a cashier's chair and slammed it against the wall. "We'll just BREAK out of here!"

"Not that wall! That one leads to the next shop!" Colin pointed. "Try that wall."

"No. That's going to lead to the shop's store room." Alicia frowned, calming down a little. "Let's go to the outside wall. If we can break through {that}…"

"There's a tool shop below. Maybe there's something better to use than a chair." Colin added. "Like an axe."

They didn't find any axes, but they settled on a crowbar, a climbing pick, and a hammer that would take both of them to lift and swing. Thus armed, they got to work.

The crowbar barely left scratches. The climbing pick got stuck on the first swing and took them some time to tug out.

"Hammer." Colin glanced at Alicia, and saw her nod curt agreement. Business-like in attitude, they lifted the sledgehammer together, took about a minute to adjust their grips and stances, and then, when they were ready, gave each other determined nods and swung.

The hammer hit the wall with a {thwack}. It barely left a dent.

"Again." Alicia said, shifting her position.

"Wait." Colin shifted his, changed his grip a bit. "Ready?"

"Ready." Alicia answered. "On three. One. Two."

"Three." They said and swung at the same time.

This time, the wall shook. Colin felt like the whole mall shook, but then again, it was probably just himself who was shaking from the impact.

"Again!" Alicia said. "Harder!"

"Harder." Colin agreed.

This time the hammer slammed into the wall with a satisfying POW!

And then the most impossible thing happened.

Somebody said, [OW!]

"Whoa!" Colin fell over backwards. Alicia dropped the hammer almost on his toes. "What…?"

"What are you doing?" Alicia demanded. "You weren't even hurt…"

The world shook. The entire mall started tilting. [What… who…? Where…?]

"Cody!" Colin recognized the voice.

[Colin?!] Cody gasped. [What… where…?]

[HERE!] Colin sent him the image of the mall the way he'd send it to Lynn.

The world went quiet. Cody fell silent. Colin said nothing. Even Alicia stood there without a word.

[That's… Flora. It's a mall at Thrivesholm.] Cody said. [That's… one of my sealed memories.]

"This is… your memory?" Colin gasped. "You're saying we're in your head?!"

[As far as I can tell… yes. And I have to say, you're giving me a headache. What are you doing in my head?]

"We were…" Colin threw up his hands. "Here!"

He sent Cody his memories, from being grabbed by the Green Men at Gardens Dreamworld, to Alicia rescuing him, to running into the mall trying to get away.

[Ah. So that's it.] Cody figured. [I'm remembering now… just a little. Thing is, I did that too.]

[Did what?] Colin asked.

[I ran into a mall to get away from the Cult of Gaia.] Cody explained. [Somehow, our Resonance and our psionic abilities formed a connection inside Dreamworlds and voila, you're in my memories. I KNEW hacking into Dreamworlds was a bad idea.]

[You're… HACKING Dreamworlds?!]

[Not electronically. Psionically. It's… complicated.] Cody paused. [Colin… you can't let anyone know about this. A lot of important things depend on this.]

[I don't even know what 'this' is!] Colin protested. [And how do I know you're a good guy anyway? You're hacking Dreamworlds!]

[A good guy? Me? I'm not a good guy. But I'm not a bad guy either. I'm just… me.] Cody shifted. [I'm just here to find my brother. That's all I want.]

It was true. Speaking to Cody mind to mind like this, Colin knew it for sure. Cody was telling the truth about being here to find his brother.

But… [Cody, I think you're wrong about one thing. I think you are a good guy. More or less.]

Alicia broke in. [All this is very interesting, but if you don't mind, could you let us out now?]

[Let you out…?] Cody paused. [You're… the other one, right? The girl. Alicia.]

[Yes, nice to meet you too. Now, get us out of here!]

[Hold on.]

Colin exchanged hopeful glances with Alicia as the world around them started tilting and shaking a bit more. Cracks began to open in the walls, pouring light through, white, or blue, or green, or yellow, and even black, like the Voids around.

At length, Cody contacted them again. [Hmm. Here's the thing. I can't let you out.]

"WHAT?!" Alicia burst out.

[More like… you're not actually in my head to begin with. This mall… it's from my sealed memories, sure enough, and it's connected to me deeply… but it's not in my head. It's all coming from my link to Dreamworlds. I can't let you out when you're not even inside.]

"In other words… we're still in Dreamworlds?" Colin figured. "But what is this place?"

[It seems to be… a side effect? No… it's too well formed to be a side effect. I think this was supposed to happen in Dreamworlds. At least, originally. Maybe it's an older code…]

"Get to the point." Alicia barked. "Where are we?"

[Well… basically… you're in MY Dreamworld. Like… my own personal Dreamworld.] Cody paused. [And in a place that even I can't get to. My memories were sealed for my own protection some time ago, and you're in a part of it.]

"So we're not in your head, but we're in Dreamworld's bad copy of your locked away memories… and you still can't let us out?" Alicia threw up her hands. "Great. Just great."

"But there's got to be some connection. I mean… you said we were giving you a headache." Colin pointed out.

[Yes. You were. I think it was that sledgehammer.] Cody replied. [I'm hacking Dreamworlds psionically, remember? I've got a very intense psionic link to the network, way stronger than your toy headsets. This Personal Dreamworld Thing is deeply connected to me.]

Alicia cut in. "Look, I don't care. If you can't get us out of here, at least have the decency to tell someone who {can}. Contact Dreamworlds Admin or something."

"Um… Alicia…" Colin nudged her. "Hacker, remember? If he contacts Dreamworlds Admin…"

"He gets kicked off the server and probably banned forever. So?" Alicia flared. "That's none of my business."

"His brother…"

"None. Of. My. Business." Alicia said cuttingly.

"You do realize he's our only hope of letting others know, right?" Colin pointed out. "Are you {sure} you want to act so coldly towards him?"

Alicia froze. "But to leave us stuck here… we don't even know if we'll ever be able to access Dreamworlds again or if we're doomed to log in here forever more. To leave us here like this is just… selfish…"

Colin sighed. "And to ask him to give up finding his brother just so we could go on playing in Nakama World… isn't that selfish too?"

Alicia fell silent.

Cody spoke up then. [So. Tell me, as one selfish person to another… why should I help you?]

"We have Clira…" Alicia offered. "Items in Nakama World… money in Dreamworlds is valid in the real worlds too."

[And how would a citizen of the Hiranin Empire transfer funds through an Astalin network to a Xenokan hacker?] Cody chuckled.

"A what where who?" Colin was blur.

[You are Hiranin, right? Citizens of the Hiranin Empire. You're the ones who have regular access to Dreamworlds.] Cody pointed out. [Without subscription fees or anything.]

"Yeah. We are."

[But the technology for Dreamworlds was developed by the University of Astalon. Astalin technology is particularly fussy when it comes to money.] Cody went on. [You do know that Princess Darna founded Astalon, right? She's the big boss of the Astalin. She's also a Princess of Hiranor by birth. Astalon may be neutral, independent, but let's just say that Dreamworlds is a bit iffy about letting money flow out from the Empire to anywhere else but Astalon.]

Colin frowned. "Okay. That's clear enough. What's this about Xenokan?"

[That's what I am. I'm from Star System Xenos, which used to be at the very edge of the Galactic North Frontier. It's about as far from the Imperial Center as a star system in the Terran Alliance can get.] Cody chuckled.

"Was? You mean it's not on the edge any more? Something else was colonized further?" Colin wondered, ignoring Alicia's disinterested look.

[It was overrun by Fogai. My home was destroyed.] Cody answered quietly.

Colin froze.

Cody showed him images. A star system without a planet. Asteroids rich in mineral deposits. A space station… Five Roads Station, where Cody's family lived. The mining clans of Xenos were known as the Xenokan; Cody's mom was Xenokan.

And then Cody showed Colin the news reports of Xenos' fall, among others. The Third Generation Fogai had come, and mankind on the Frontier were in deep, deep trouble.

"This is… real?" Alicia whispered, her eyes wide, all signs of disinterest long gone.

"People are dying on the Frontier." Colin said in a low voice. "And here we are worrying about whether we can ever play in a children's Dreamworld again."

Cody was silent for a minute, and neither Colin nor Alicia dared say anything. But at length, he said, [That is my war. Not yours.]

"Still. They're people. We're people. We should care about it." Colin felt.

Cody hesitated. [Colin… are you Prayi? You sound like one.]

"Well…" Colin glanced at Alicia. "I guess we are."

"Which reminds me. The Prayerman helped us earlier…" Alicia frowned. "Wonder if he's okay."

[I hope he is.] Cody stirred. [I wish I could be as confident as you are. I'm not a real Prayi. I'm trying to be… but… the way I am now… I'm not a true Prayi.]

Colin gulped. [I don't think I am either.]

"Guys." Alicia said.

Colin sighed. "Cody, as much as I'd like to talk to you more, we really should get out of here as fast as we can. We don't know what this place is or what it's going to do to us, and people are going to start worrying if we've disappeared for too long. Is there any way you can just…?"

[I'm not fool enough to contact Dreamworlds Admin. But you mentioned a Prayerman.] Cody mused. [I could contact him. What's his name, and where was he?]

"He was on Gardens Dreamworlds with us, chasing a trio of Green Men away. I'm worried about whether or not he's okay." Colin said. "His name is Tsion."

[Tsion…?] Cody froze. [Wait. I KNOW that name. I KNOW I know it!]

"There aren't that many Prayi around." Colin shrugged. "So…"

[I'll go look for him.] Cody said.

There was silence for about ten seconds.

"Cody?" Colin called.

No reply.

"Guess he's gone." Colin sighed.

***

Alicia went window shopping. Colin walked around the mall on his own for an hour, looking for something, anything that might interest him and take his mind off worrying.

There wasn't much here. A great many things simply weren't fully formed. Others existed as mere glimmers, or half-images. The shops on the upper floor, for example, were only half-there. The other halves were just empty spaces, no room, no walls, just more black void.

But at last, Cody returned.

[Colin?] he called. [Gardens Dreamworld was crawling with Gaians. It's a mess out there. I couldn't find the Prayerman. I'm sorry.]

"Get us out of here!" Alicia yelled. "I don't care what you do to your own head, just…!"

Colin had a moment to wonder how she knew Cody was back before Cody replied her in a deathly grim thought. [Okay.]

"Wait-!" Colin gasped but it was too late. The entire place started shaking again, and this time it felt like immense pressure was being built up all around. The walls started cracking. Streams of dust fell from the ceiling. The floor was almost bouncing, and the tiles were starting to come out…

The bottom fell out. Colin didn't know how else to describe it. The ground floor of the entire 'mall' suddenly dropped away from the others and tilted crazily in a vast blackness…

"COLIN!" Alicia was screaming at him as if he'd done something wrong.

"WHAT?!" Colin protested his innocence as the floor turned completely upside down and they went spiralling into lightless vacuum alongside potted plants, furniture, and a store's worth of shoes…

But 'up' and 'down' didn't exist here in this nothingness. The athletics department spilled jump ropes, weights, and other gear off to the upper left, and the cosmetics store sent its supply of face-paints and stuff over to the lower right... everything from the mall was flying out in every direction.

The nothingness {shifted}. Colin saw something far, far above the falling-apart mall, something in the vast blackness that was looked very solid. Something he'd never expected to see.

An eye had opened and it was looking down at them. A purple eye marked Colin and watched him fall.

And then all the blackness moved. A second eye opened. Blackness upon blackness turned…

"We're in a shadow." Colin gulped, suddenly looking at all the blackness around him on an entirely different magnitude of perspective. "We're in the shadow of… of…"

[The Dark One.] Cody stirred, and this entire reality stirred. But the blackness was indeed shifting, and the lightlessness was apparent now that Colin's eyes were getting used to it.

It was like suddenly realizing that outer space had been in the shadow of an unspeakably immense giant. Colin had a moment to wonder about gravity, but then, he realized he was dreaming anyway, so that sort of thing really didn't matter here. What mattered was…

[Hades.] Cody voiced in recognition of the figure that blotted out all light in his inner world. [He did this to me.]

"Who's Hades…?" Colin gulped.

[He is the Grand Master of the Haunts. The greatest psionic in the Cult of Gaia. We… we met… I think… and… fought...]

"You fought the Big Boss of all Cult Psionics?!" Colin gulped. "I'd have started running the minute he came by."

[I was… an idiot.] Cody admitted. [I can't remember how… or why… but…]

"Will you just shut up and HELP US!" Alicia screamed.

A dark bluish-green T-shape appeared behind them, a form as big as a bus. Cody saw it transform, parts shifting around, and pieces moving about until behind him stood what looked like an armored giant.

"What's that…?" Colin asked.

[It's my Mirage-X. My convertible.] Cody said with pride. [It's a real genius of Xenokan-Floran engineering.]

"You have a Mech?" Colin said with envy as the figure's hands grabbed him and Alicia in one hand each.

[It's also a space fighter.] Cody said as a hatch opened in the figure's tummy and the thing slipped Colin and Alicia inside. They found themselves in a cramped space behind a cockpit as things started shifting around again.

Colin peeked over the seat and was startled to find it empty. "Cody?! Where are you?"

[I'm not THERE, remember? You can sit down. Just don't put on the control helm.]

"The what?" Colin blinked, looking around the cockpit and seeing only monitors. "Hey, where are the controls…?"

[The whole thing is controlled by the helmet. It's like your Dreamworlds headsets. In other words, I control it by thinking at it. That's why in Dreamworlds, and in my own Inner World, I can control it without actually being there. All of it is already linked with me psionically]

"Thanks." Alicia said, slipping into the seat.

"Hey!" Colin protested.

"First come, first serve. You can stand behind." Alicia said ruthlessly, and looked about at the monitors with interest.

Colin scowled but forgot all about grumbling when he saw Cody's Dark One shifting again. Huge hands reached for the space fighter they were in.

{Flicker.}

Cliff. Sea. Island. Grass.

"Huh?" Colin blinked, and then the whole space fighter vanished, leaving him and Alicia to drop several feet into a pile of bushes. "HEY!"

"Sorry." Cody said.

Colin turned to see him there, looking as before. Dark brown hair and eyes, now wearing a black flight suit lined with blue, a sword hilt visible over his shoulder.

"Ouch." Alicia glared at Cody. "You could have put us down nicely. Or better yet, done that from the start!"

"I needed a better grasp of you two." Cody explained. "I couldn't even track you at first, much less get a good enough grip on you to bring you here. That's why I needed my fightercraft."

"Where are we?" Colin had to ask.

"This? This is my Inner World. A part of it that I know well." Cody said. "This is my Sanctuary."

They were in a garden on a cliff overlooking a sea and an island. Colin had no idea where this was in the material universe, but in this virtual universe, it looked like a safe, peaceful place.

And then blackness loomed over them.

It was almost inconceivable. There was the sea, and the sunlight sparkling over the waves, yet beyond it, beyond this image of a world, Colin could see the unspeakable darkness drawing close, like outer space itself had decided to rise up and engulf the world.

Cody saw it too. His face grew grim. "Run."

"What?" Colin stared.

"Get out of here. Now." Cody told him.

"How?!" Colin protested.

{Flicker.}