That day, Colin and Alicia acted like nothing weird had happened. Nothing at all.
"How's Dad?" Colin asked at breakfast.
"He's fine." Mom said, looking away. The topic of conversation then shifted to other matters.
There were Jonah and Larry complaining about difficulties in the Continent of Eternal Winter. They were badgering Alicia to join them again and go to the Hourglass Continent or something. Alicia didn't agree, but she didn't refuse either, simply asking them for more and more information.
Meanwhile Gracie was tugging at Mom and talking about cake. She kept saying she liked chocolate cake.
At least school was quiet. Maybe a bit too quiet for a Friday. People were excited about the weekend, of course, but for some reason, a lot of people in school today seemed... tired. Or tense.
Or maybe it was Colin himself who was tired and tense. Students around still laughed and chatted and pranked and acted normally. Maybe it was just him. Everybody {looked} normal. Well, normal for teenagers, that is.
But somewhere during reccess, Colin overheard Dante mention over a beef sandwich, "Hey, everyone seems quieter than normal today."
Colin's ears perked up at that, but then Crystal poked him and said, "You should be too! The exams are coming!"
{Oh. So that's why.}
***
Night fell and they returned to Dreamworlds.
"Nakama World." Colin called at his entry point, and slipped through blue mists.
But something went wrong. Flashes of red swirled in the blue, and then flickers of green. Colin felt like he was spinning slowly as the world opened up into...
"Where am I?" Colin stared.
He stood in the middle of a desert.
***
First of all, he cleared his throat.
"Nakama World." He said again, wondering whether he'd mispronounced something and ended up on some other world by accident, or maybe he hadn't quite reached his intended Dreamworld yet, and the system needed a little reminder.
But nothing happened. Colin stood in the middle of a vast sea of sand and cracked rock. "Why...?"
"Colin?" Alicia voice sounded behind him. He turned to see her there in a pink sequin dress. "What are you doing wearing furs in a desert? What have you done this time?!"
"I didn't do anything! I just called for Nakama World and..." He trailed off. "Wait. {Furs}?"
He glanced down at himself. Of all things, he found himself wearing what appeared to be a bodysuit of white fur. He was covered from neck to toe in it. {At least it's not hot. It looks like I should be sweating buckets out here, but I don't feel hot at all.}
"We're not in the Middle Plane, are we?" Alicia guessed. "This is either the Ancient Ways or the Lower Plane."
Colin gulped. He glanced around. He didn't see any of those mind-speak signboards floating about. "I don't think this is the Ancient Ways."
"So..." Alicia frowned. "Why exactly did we start in the Lower Plane?"
"Are you sure we're in the Lower Plane?" Colin wondered. "I mean... aren't there Nightmares and stuff down in the Lower Plane?"
"Look around you." Alicia offered. "Think about where we were last at."
"The Uber Marshes." Colin glanced about. "You're saying this is the Nightmare of the Uber Marshes? The place that was once the Forest of Myth... becoming an empty desert?"
"It sort of makes sense." Alicia said. "Kinda. But I don't think the marshes themselves have Nightmares. I mean, a {place} can't have Nightmares, right?"
"Maybe it's the Nightmare of one of the Wilds." Colin froze. "Oh."
"Oh, {what}?" Alicia glanced at him.
"I know what this is." Colin said then.
"What?"
"This is..." He took a deep breath. "This is Fenria's Nightmare."
{The Heart of the Uber Marshes is the Howling Forest. And the Heart of the Howling Forest is Fenria.}
A soft whine made him look down at his feet. There beside his right foot was a little green cub, small enough that he could carry it in one hand, so thin it looked starved.
Colin's first thought was, [F-Fenria?!]
But there was no response. No answer from its mind to his. {Wait. That can't be right. Fenria is the Lord of the Frenzied Sonic Wolves. Even if this were some Nightmare, she should be able to mindspeak back. Even normal Comrades can respond to mindspeak in some manner. But this...?}
"Hey." Alicia knelt down and scooped up the cub. She spoke to it softly. "Hey, there."
The cub whined at her, and stared at her vacantly.
"It didn't Recover." Colin noted. "Does that mean it'll bond you? It's your Tame?"
"No." Alicia reeled back, almost dropping the cub. It dropped to the ground instantly, but for some reason, it didn't even seem to feel the impact. It just looked from her to Colin with a dull glaze in its eyes. "This is...?"
"What?" Colin crouched down and tapped the cub on the nose.
There was no response. There was no reaction. There was no sense of whether it was male or female, no sense of whether it was happy or sad or hungry or in pain or...
"There's nothing." Alicia said, eyes widening. "There's nothing at all."
"What does that mean?" Colin asked, picking up the cub, stroking it gently. "Hey, you all right? You hungry?"
"Colin... that's not a Wild. Nor a Tame." Alicia said. "I mean... I don't think it's even alive."
"Alive?" Colin blinked. "What do you call all your Comrades, then? Are they 'alive'? I'm not talking about dying and respawning. I mean..."
"They have minds. Or maybe they're programmed to have some sort of artificial intelligence. But they're... {different}." Alicia pointed out. "I'm not sure how to explain it, but Wilds and Tames and Comrades in Nakama World have their own minds, sort of. Their own version of being alive. This cub... there's nothing. Nothing at all."
"It's mindless?" Colin paused. He studied the cub.
It whined. The sound it made was painful, desperate. But there was nothing in its manner, or its expressions or its eyes that even hinted at pain. It felt nothing. Thought nothing. {Was} nothing.
Colin looked at it and knew for a fact that he could not bond this cub. There was nothing in it to bond. "It's like an empty shell."
A horrible thought occured to him then. "No way... don't tell me...?"
"Is that what happened to Fenria?" Alicia said for him what he could not bring himself to say. "She went Frenzied, fell into the Lower Plane, had this Nightmare and then got stuck here for God knows how long... until... until..."
Colin fell to his knees. "How do I tell Lynn? This... a hug isn't going to be enough this time."
"You're assuming your guess was correct." Alicia snapped. "Don't go assuming things so easily! You have no proof, no basis!"
"But the Heart of the Uber Marshes is Fenria. And this Nightmare..." he gestured around.
Alicia whacked him on the head. "Don't go and surrender before you even know what you're up against! For all you know, Fenria's back at the Uber Marshes having tea with Asblar!"
"What's with you and tea?" Colin wondered. But at the same time, he felt his heart lighten. {That's right. We don't know anything for sure. We only know this is a Nightmare. And besides, if Fenria really had become Mindless, then shouldn't the Uber Marshes have changed also?}
"Good point." Alicia said, hearing his thoughts. "You might say the fact that the Uber Marshes haven't changed is proof that Fenria hasn't changed either. This cub couldn't be Fenria."
"But it could be some poor Sonic Wolf who got stuck in the Lower Plane for far too long." Colin pointed out, saddened.
"Or it could have been a part of a Nightmare. And once the source of the Nightmare gets over it... {poof}!" Alicia said, gesturing dramatically. Looking at her make that gesture in the pink sequin dress had a startling effect. For a moment there, she really did a good impression of the Drama Queen.
{She's making a far better impression of Mandy than I am of Shiro, at least.} Colin glanced down at himself and grimaced. {Why, oh why am I wearing white furs?!}
And then Alicia looked down at herself and jumped. She put both hands to top of her head and shrieked. "NOOOOO!!"
For some reason, she pounced on him and started whacking him. Colin stared at her as her hands went around his throat. "What?"
"Forget you ever saw this! Forget it right now!" She throttled him.
"Um... I don't think you're actually strangling me." Colin pointed out, still entirely able to breathe quite easily.
But then with her weight on his, he lost his balance and stumbled backward. He fell over and suddenly noticed a jagged piece of rock sticking out of his chest from below. "See? I don't even feel {that}..."
White light.
***
They found themselves back at the Heart of the Forest of Legends.
"Ugh!" Colin had never felt this sick before. This was... this was...
He barely managed to turn aside before vomiting. {Maybe I should have thrown up over Alicia. It'll have been payback for before.}
"Huh?" Alicia gaped. "Why??"
"Wh...?" Colin couldn't finish even that short word before heaving again. His legs gave way and he found himself leaning forward with his hands on a helpful tree as his stomach tried to empty out all his insides.
Alicia was saying something behind him. Something about jeans or some sort of clothing... {she's warping in clothes. Why is she warping in clothes?}
"Don't turn around!" Alicia said sharply. "Dirge Squad! Wist! Whim! Blackswirl!"
Her Comrades appeared as Colin's already-empty stomach still tried to empty out all the air inside.
"Cover me!" Alicia said. "I'm going to change clothes! Make sure Colin doesn't turn around! If he does..."
"Chitti." One of her squirrels answered.
Colin didn't care. Right now, he was too busy trying {not} to fall over while his stomach tried its best to heave itself out of him. Black spots were appearing in front of his eyes; he could barely see, much less try to look. Even his hands were trembling; it was all he could do to keep from falling face-first into his own vomit. His stomach still kept heaving; he couldn't stop it if he wanted to and the way he felt, he honestly {didn't} want to. At least everything inside was already out. Try as he might, nothing emerged from there any more. And he really felt like he was trying; his guts felt like someone had wrung a wet cloth to dry it.
{At least... at least we're back in the Middle Plane. I thought... I thought dying in the Lower Plane meant... what was it again...?}
Right then, he couldn't remember, didn't really care. He was just totally thankful to be out of there.
Then again, he was paying a very, very high price for it. Once more his stomach went into a bout of heaving and this time when the black spots came, they covered everything.
***
[Colin, you shouldn't be here.]
"Lynn...?" Colin said feebly, barely able to speak. "H-help..."
A pause. [Hang tight. I'll get you two out.]
{Two? Alicia must have...}
There was movement. Fast movement, though he barely felt it. {What...? Why...? Where...?}
There were voices. Alicia's voice. Lynn's voice. Others. Others that he couldn't identify...
***
Sudden clarity flooded Colin's awareness. He gasped, feeling like someone had just thrown cold water on him to wake him up.
"Wha...?!" He said, only to find something coin-sized shoved into his mouth. He tasted something powdery, like flour, before it dissolved in a split second and a feeling of energy coursed through his veins.
"One more." Lynn said sharply. Colin blinked to see her standing over him. She shoved a green pill the size of a ten Clira coin into his mouth, and Colin tasted green tea or something before that, too dissolved, and he felt a mild refreshing feeling like he was in the forest and there was a breeze with the scent of dew all around him...
"Lynn?" Colin spluttered. "Where... what... how...?"
"You fell unconscious in the Middle Plane." Lynn said grimly. "Colin, you didn't tell me you were a Planeswalker."
"A what?" Colin stared.
"You have access rights to move from Plane to Plane without a Gate." Lynn said sternly. "You have to be more careful! You can't just fall asleep inside Dreamworlds! You'll end up in the Lower Plane..."
"Wait. I have what?" Colin stared. "Since when?"
"That's what I want to know! And when does it expire?" Lynn asked.
Colin stared. "I have no idea. Until now I've never even heard of..."
"And when did you get together with Alicia?"
"Huh?!" Colin stared. "I didn't..."
"And did you finish your Quest? I asked about..."
"I wrote you a... aargh!" Colin grabbed a handful of relevant memories to Lynn's questions and threw the whole cluster at her. [Here!]
Lynn fell silent. "Ah."
Now that he was given a reprieve, Colin finally managed to look around.
They were in a tall gray hall. There were a few people moving around in the distance but right on top of him were Lynn and Alicia. Lynn was in t-shirt, short jacket and shorts while Alicia was back with the clothes Colin had bought for her before. {Wait. Why are they on top of me?}
Colin suddenly realized he was lying on his back. Slowly, carefully, he managed to sit up, only to find that he was feeling much, much better. "What did you do to me?"
"She saved you." Alicia said. "Brought you and me here, then injected you with something and pushed two pills into your mouth. Did I miss anything out? Oh yeah. She freaked when she saw us in the Lower Plane."
{Injected? I didn't even feel it. I tasted the pills though.} "What exactly happened to us?"
"Let's see..." Alicia paused. "You fainted at the Forest of Legends, and we appeared in the Lower Plane again, except Lynn was there, and her friends, and she brought us to the Higher Plane with some expensive looking devices. Well, she brought you. I don't think she expected to have me along."
"The Higher Plane?" Colin glanced about. "This is the Higher Plane?"
"This is the OSS Nakama. The orbital space station above Nakama World." Lynn said. "Also known as Hearth II-s1."
"What?" Colin was blank.
"This is the Hearth Dreamstar system." Lynn told him. "The first Dreamworld around this star is Adventura, also known as Hearth I. Nakama is the second, so it's Hearth II. Hearth II has a moon, called Hearth IIa, and one orbital space station, called Hearth II-s1. If there was a second, it would be Hearth II-s2."
"Huh." Colin sat there feeling like all this was way over his head.
"Welcome to the Higher Plane." Alicia smirked. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to go shopping. It's my first time in this Plane and I've heard all sorts of things about what we could buy here. Some of those devices you used, for example, would come in really handy, especially if Colin keeps snoozing in the Middle Plane."
"Those... those aren't the kinds of things you can buy at a mall." Lynn said. "Building one is really tough. Most of the materials you'd need aren't easy to get. I bought mine at 20,000cr... and that was from a friend."
"Twenty thousand... {each}?" Alicia grimaced.
"Yep."
Alicia gave Colin an accusing look. "You just made Lynn spend eighty thousand Clira to get you here. And that's assuming that the devices she got from her friends were as cheap as hers. We're not even counting the cost of the pills and the injection yet."
"Oh, the pills don't cost much. Just a few hundred Clira. The injection could cost a thousand or so." Lynn waved it away. "{Those}, you can find at most pharmacies."
"We could {really} use some of those." Colin said. "I mean... I don't feel sick at all any more."
"They won't work in Nakama or Adventura." Lynn warned him. "They'll only work in the Higher Plane."
"Aww." Colin sighed. {I guess that leaf's still the best I got there.}
"One more thing. You might want to be quick about the shopping and get back there as soon as you can." Lynn added. "There are a lot of Gaians here."
Colin felt a chill. {On Nakama World, I at least have my Comrades and friends. Up here... it's just me and Alicia.}
He tested it anyway. He tapped his badge and called, "Shiro. Raiki."
Nothing happened. {Maybe they can't come up here. Or maybe they're ignoring my calls again. I don't know. But either way, we're on our own.}
"See?" Lynn said, stretching. "Now, I gotta go."
"Wait. Lynn, what's going on? You said you were running out of time." Colin mentioned.
"I am." Lynn told him. "Colin, I'm... busy. I have a concert in an hour and rehearsals and sound checks in a few minutes. There are some five thousand people waiting for the next concert. It's going to be broadcast live to the Middle Plane as well, so you can watch it on Planar Projection."
"Watch what on where?" Colin was blur.
Alicia poked him. "She's a member of the Starlight Hearts. Bassist and second vocalist. She's rather famous, you know."
"She is?" Colin blinked.
"You didn't even {know}!" Alicia threw up her hands. "I'm not a fan of her kind of music, but even {I} have heard of them."
"What do you mean, my kind of music?" Lynn asked.
"You know. The happy, jumpy kind." Alicia said. "The kind that says everything's good and all right if you just smile. Well, it's not all right, and it's not going to change so easily. We have to take responsibility."
"True." Lynn nodded. "But I'm not trying to change the galaxy here. I'm just trying to give people hope and help some kids recover from what they've suffered in the Lower Planes when a mountain sank."
Alicia paused. She thought about it for a moment, then glanced at Colin and said, "I like her."
Lynn laughed, put an arm around Alicia for a moment, did the same for Colin and said, "You two take care now! Don't get into any trouble and get back as soon as you can. I gotta go."
They watched her dash through the hall, heading for a side exit, then exchanged glances.
"I don't think shopping here is a good idea." Colin said first.
"Not for you, it's not." Alicia grinned. "But I have nothing to fear."
"Well, I can go back first while you shop." Colin offered.
"That sounds great. Thing is, I came up here when Lynn brought you up. What makes you think I won't appear with you in the Middle Plane when you go back down?"
Colin shook his head. "I have no idea. I guess we'll just have to try and see."
"I don't want to risk it. I may not have a chance like this for a very long time to come." Alicia said. "At least let me have a look around the station."
"I don't want to risk it." Colin said right back. "If they catch me here..."
Alicia thought for a bit. "Well, you {do} tend to attract a lot of attention wearing a fur costume like that. But what if you put up the head?"
"What?!" Colin stared. He glanced down at himself.
{Goodness, I'm still wearing the white fur costume! And there's a HEAD?!}
"Here." Alicia put it over him. Colin found himself covered in a sort of helmet. He could see through the eyeslots and breathe through the mouth... even the nose seemed to have slots... but now he definitely felt warm. Very warm indeed.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Colin said.
"Well, nobody's going to recognize you now. How is that bad?" Alicia smirked. "Of course, I'm going to remember this for the rest of my life..."
"Do you {have} to?!"
Alicia's smirk broadened. She put up her own hood and said, "Now all I need is a picnic basket and people will think we're Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. Maybe they'll think we're actors or advertising something."
Colin groaned then. He just let out a long, heartfelt groan.