Soon after the red monkey said its last words, Harley woke up with a gasp as if she had been holding her breath for a while.
It was now morning and her body was drenched in sweat, making her feel quite uncomfortable.
She then looked to the side, hoping for Ethan to still be there, but unfortunately, he was not.
And with a sigh, Harley climbed out of bed to go take a shower, she needed to get this sweat off of her.
As she walked to the bedroom door, she started to think about what happened.
Was it all truly a dream?
And if not, should she just...forget about it all?
Could she forget?...
Suddenly, she heard a bit of snoring and looked down to see her hyenas sleeping peacefully on the floor.
"Hey...can you guys still talk?" Harley asked, trying to wake them up with a nudge. However, the two didn't show any reaction and continued to sleep without a care in the world.
"Bah...who cares!" Harley groaned, dismissing her curiosity as she gently slapped her face to wake herself up. "Even if it was real. I don't want to be associated with someone who wants to pull me away from my Honeybun. It's as simple as that."
>>>><<<<
Two hyenas were walking across the empty red plains with no destination in sight, however, this did not stop them from moving forward.
These hyenas were, of course, Bud and Lou as the duo decided to stay behind after Harley left the Red dimension.
"Are we sure we have to do this Lou?.." Bud asked his brother. The hyena was incredibly stupid, but not completely as he knew what they were doing could possibly mean the end of their lives.
"We have to do it," Lou answered. " We have to convince them to help our master become stronger." He was determined to see this through to the end for his dear master.
"But..didn't she already make her decision? It was loud and clear." Bud said with a whimper.
"She did...but I have a bad feeling and she needs all the help she can get. Don't you want our master to continue being happy? She deserves it." Lou growled, baring his teeth at Bud. He wasn't particularly angry at his brother, but sometimes he was just annoyed with Bud's attitude.
Bud simply nodded his head and continued to follow his brother's lead with a gloomy look on his face.
Hopefully, 'they' were in a talking mood.
'They' as in the Parliament of Limbs, avatars of the Red that have come to rest. These former avatars represent the interests of all animal life across the universe, making decisions that will keep animal life thriving.
The Parliament of Limbs isn't all-powerful, they can only do so much and that is the reason they enlist new avatars of the Red.
Harley was but one of many, however, her situation was special due to them being involved with Ethan.
He was an enigma, he didn't belong to this universe, his mere breath causes fate to change to the point where anything could happen.
It may not be now, but in time the enigma will have enough power to rip through space and time, laying waste to countless universes.
He was that dangerous.
Harley had the chance to potentially be a powerful avatar of the Red, one that could kill that man with enough time.
And so, they tried to get Harley to relinquish her link to the man with the promise of making her stronger. Unfortunately, she outright refused the offer leaving them with little choice.
They will need to do this another away.
>>>><<<<
"Harley!"
Harley heard a familiar voice and looked up to see Pamela walking towards her after she opened the door.
Harley's first thought was to ignore her as she wasn't in the greatest of moods, but seeing her worried face made her think twice.
"Where is everyone?" Harley asked, noticing it was just her and Pamela in the RV.
"They slept at a hotel for the night," Pamela answered with a sigh. "I just got done talking with Ethan on the phone, he told us to go meet them..."
"I see.. "
"Harley about last ni-"
"Let me take a shower first! I want to be squeaky clean for my Honeybun!" Harley didn't let Pamela finished her sentence and immediately stripped off her clothes before hopping in the shower.
Pamela wryly smiled at this, it was obvious the blondie didn't want to talk about what happened last night in New York.
'Well, I can't force her...she'll talk on her own. I hope.' The redhead thought as she sat down on the couch and called Ethan to tell him of their status.
Once in the shower, Harley's mind started to drift to places she didn't want it to. The near-death experience was at the forefront of her head and she hated every moment of it.
Even though the shower was steaming hot, she found herself shivering from fear.
'You've been in many close calls before...why is it so different now! You talked a big game in that dream...now it's time to play. You can do it...' Harley tried to psyche herself up with encouraging words, but it could only do so much.
So instead, she focused on the one thing that made her happy.
"Honeybun..." She muttered with a soft smile.
A psychologist would say that it was unhealthy to do so, and ignoring the problem will not help it go away.
>>>><<<
After freshening up, Harley then left with Pamela to meet up with Ethan at the hotel they were staying at.
Pamela tried to strike up a conversation with Harley, but she only responded with either "Yeah..." or "Mhm." which was about to make the redhead explode.
Usually, it's hard to get the blondie to shut up, and now it's like they had switched positions.
'Oh no...wait is that a bad thing?... Yes, yes it is. Crap...I'm already becoming crazy, I'm answering myself.' Pamela groaned, smacking her head.