When the void faded, reality was back to the way it was. But there was no escape for the Sandman. He had thought himself free from the madness of the boy who almost broke him, but that boy was just the beginning of others. Seeking help from his accomplice, the Sandman found him chained down, captured by another boy. It was unbelievable that such children existed. Even after all that, they were still children in the eyes of the Sandman.
All of these thoughts went by in the seconds the void was dissipating and he was falling.
"Juno! Now"
The boy's voice echoed.
What he did not realize is that the tables had already turned long ago. He was already surrounded from everywhere. There were other children nearby, standing far at the rooftops that surrounded the Sandman.
They all held their signature weapons in their hands: their pens.
This was a checkmate.
※※※
Having reached for the help of the others during his trip within the dreams, Lloyd was able to get the team back on track with the aid of Shogo from the outside, of course. So when it was time to rid everyone of the dream, they would be ready to strike.
And indeed, Lloyd and the Sandman exited the void, they were more than ready to handle the situation from here.
This was now their own playground.
Juno heard Lloyd's signal and began channeling a chant of her own. Unlike the dragooun, which she struggled with that morning, it was easy to come up with the command script to capture the Sandman. He was, more or less, a sentient being that took the form of a human, and that made matters easier.
"By the will of Tartarus…" She mumbled to herself, starting the first line of yet another chant to conjure.
Hearing those words, the Sandman already felt a threat coming towards him. Like a scalded cat, he attempted to escape.
"Oh, no you don't, old man!"
[Sub-Technique: Rush Boost]
Entering the scene was Emiya Langley in all her glory. She used yet another one of her writing techniques that focused on the lower part of her body, and leaped forward out of her position from one of the rooftops and right in the direction of the Sandman. Before long, she was floating right in front of him, creating a greater gap between him and Lloyd, who was still floating — this was all happening in a matter of seconds after all.
"They always say "respect your elders," but…" Emiya said, giving the Sandman a glimmer of hope to escape. "Not your kind of elder."
She swung her leg and kicked the Sandman right in the face, almost knocking him out unconscious.
"Get out of the way!" Juno warned both Emiya and Lloyd from the distance. She was about to use up her chant, which could potentially have them both caught up in it accidentally.
Due to her current ability activated, only Emiya had a clear footing to escape, but the same could not be said about Lloyd, who had no grasp of his surroundings. Thinking quickly, Emiya leaped toward Lloyd and held him up from his back and legs with her arms, getting away from the chant's area and landing in a safe area.
Being together in that awkward manner, it was almost as if Emiya was the knight in shining armor who saved the princess, with that being Lloyd. But he was not one for the typical standards. If anything, he chose to embrace the situation, despite the crisis they were facing around them.
"My hero…" Lloyd said in a mocking tone.
"I swear I will drop you!" Emiya declared, who was not so amused about the situation.
— Bummer…
Jumping quickly to battle, Nathan started writing a technique of his own, to aid the others in some form. Mere seconds after the script was finished, the buildings surrounding the Sandman shifted and bent forward, closing in on him as if he was trapped between two walls that were slowly going to crush him. But Nathan was only ensuring the Sandman wouldn't pull a trick out of his sleeve and escape.
"Anytime would be good, but we really need it now, Juno! Hurry up, while we have the full cards in our deck." Nathan called out, as he struggled to maintain his script together from being erased on its own. "(Seriously hate this. Would have gladly preferred more sleep to this dogfight.)"
Far in the distance, watching from the sidelines, were Shogo and the Boogeyman, who was still held captive with the chains. The Boogeyman was helpless and could not do a thing to aid his accomplice, who was soon to join him. Shogo, on the other hand, was quite amused by what he was seeing, like a mentor watching their student achieve what they dreamed of.
"Amazing, aren't they?" He commented.
"There are more of you?" The Boogeyman could not believe his eyes.
"That's right!" He swung his pen and wrote for the Boogeyman to be floating right in front of him, to which he did all of a sudden. "And we will continue to exist as long as the likes of you still roam our streets! We will write our mark of justice in the world. That is the sworn duty of writers above all else."
Even after everything, the Boogeyman could still feel the terrifying heat coming from Shogo's gaze. It was the one thing that wouldn't die out.
"Now, watch it all!"
He dropped the Boogeyman back on the ground, making him watch his friend's demise without being able to do anything.
Unexpectedly, the night sky lit up with great lightning. It was exactly like before when Lloyd summoned the Chasm of the Undead. However, this was far from Lloyd's doing. This was the result of Juno's chant spiraling out of control. It was natural, that chant was easy to figure out but harder to control.
Nevertheless, the others felt a greater threat to them coming from the chant than to the Sandman. If Juno did not handle it soon enough, it could affect the rest of the place and potentially harm innocents.
"I got it!"
Lloyd, who landed safely with Emiya, stepped forward and decided to lend one final helping hand. The only other alternative to maintaining the control within was to lock out the outside from this location.
"Zoe, need a hand!"
"Right away!" The very reader of the team, Zoe, showed up.
The expansion method could never be written without the help of the reader. Naturally, it was up to Zoe to aid Lloyd with her page, especially since they required an exact replica of the area in order to not overwrite the others' work.
"First Form Technique!" Zoe ran across the area toward Lloyd's direction.
Since this was a small area, the First Form Technique sufficed, as it sent a third-grade pulse, scanning the surroundings, including the people, within a range of twenty miles.
With the base page done, Zoe slapped the flat of her palm against Lloyd's palm, leaving the next turn to him.
[Recto-Verso Expansion]
An invisible folio sphere spread around the place, concealing the place they were inside, and making an identical copy of what once was on the outside.
Thankfully, that expansion bought Juno a few more seconds to get on the upper hand of things. She unzipped her jacket, and pulled out another pen, out of the inside pocket, different from the one she held in her right hand. It was her job as one who carried the Scholiast element.
On the ground beneath her, she drew a wide circle, as this second technique required more creativity from the mind than to-the-book handwritten scripts. Connecting the lines and dots, she sketched a reversed star pentagram, and a chaotic mess of shapes ranging from hexagons to hexagrams behind, with the certain insignia of the crescent moon.
[Higher Chapter Dexterity: Totem Oubliette Pentagram Technique]
This was a special technique, which held the target out of their body's control, completely trapped within the metaphysical pentagram through their signature insignia. Every Fabled had an insignia that identified them as the being they were, but they were not something to be seen to the naked eye. However, Juno, being a Scholiast, gained the ability to see such things with her will. It was easy for her to memorize the Sandman's insignia and to draw it so quickly.
Just like that, the script and technique began to take action.
The Sandman was faced with a humongous string of bars from above that extended all throughout his surroundings. They were trapping him into his own cell. It hindered all of his movements all of a sudden, due to the pentagram technique. But the bars did not remain in place. With each movement toward him, the ground shook, that was the kind of dominating power that the chant imposed on the place.
"Insolence!!" The Sandman spoke out of rage. "You haven't the faintest clue—"
"You're just another wild pest!"
Juno did not give him his chance to speak up. And with that final sentence, she finished her chant and closed it off for good.
The Sandman was trapped.
The Arbiter of Dream's glory was forever gone.
He became nothing more than a creature concealed away.
※※※
Before long, the town was swarming yet again with more agents from the authorities. It was the dawn of night, but that didn't stop them from barging in and making all kinds of ruckus. There was no way the capture of two of the Strange Men was going to be something done in secret. Citizens were looking out their windows, some were even out of their homes, standing in the crowd, watching the whole scene transpire before them. Most of the people were unaware of what happened since they were all sound asleep from before the Sandman's attack. But there were some who, not only remembered the attack but the vivid dreams that they had — and let's say, they were not pleasant.
"Three in a day?! And quite the big fish… two, actually. I must say, though. This was a much more swift capture — other than the disaster that was this morning. That's impressive!"
The inspector from earlier that day, Mycroft, was brought to this case once again.
"A-Actually…" Lloyd was pushed back by Shogo, "Actually, they were mi—"
"Not going to lie, it was all a team effort." Shogo interrupted with his usual optimistic tone. "Now, if you please, inspector," he placed his palms against each other and bent his torso to an almost bow position "Take them out of here quickly. And thank you very much for your service. It's always a pleasure to work with you, inspector."
"This will not be the last you see of me—"
The Sandman, still trapped, tried to speak up, but he was immediately pushed away by agents from the Association.
The same could have been said about his buddy, the Boogeyman.
"Talk about a senile old man… Sounds like a cartoon villain too." Nathan commented.
"He is a Fabled after all." Lloyd clarified, "Not that weird if you consider that."
"Ugh… Can't believe he put us all to sleep just like that." Emiya expressed her displeasure. "What if I was taking a shower and slipped on the ground then and there? Who would have paid for my hospital bills, twice?"
"I am sure that would not have been an issue considering your thick skull." Juno tried to poke at her.
"Hey!" Emiya rubbed her head to make sure there was nothing wrong. "It's quite fragile, ya'know."
"Righhhht…"
"Can we get home already?" Emiya felt shivers seeping into the upper part of her body.
It was getting colder than ever, as any night would. Being pulled out of her room into an emergency by Shogo, who sprung out of nowhere, Emiya had little protection against the cold of the outside. All she wore were her simple pajamas that were definitely not making her situation better. And the same could be said about Juno, but she was always content with whatever she was presented with and never complained. It was always Emiya that was the sound of the two.
Emiya and the others were gathered together to talk about the whole situation. But Lloyd was left contemplating on his own. He was particularly thinking about the part in the dream with Juno. What happened then was nothing short of… odd.
He looked at her. She had her usual calm expression. Her eyes were as calm as a river. Her appearance and posture were all reserved. And she did not give off any weird aura. It was a huge contrast to who he had encountered in the dream. Even then, he could not stop looking at her. That dream made him think of her more than ever for some reason. He had questions, questions about why it was her in particular that showed up in that kind of dream.
A truly bizarre matter.
"What?" Juno noticed his gaze.
"Um— Nothing!" Lloyd tried to turn away in embarrassment.
There was no way he was going to explain to her the situation he was dragged into in his dream. He wondered if that was truly the deepest of his desires, for he never had a different perspective of her other than respect.
But Juno wasn't perceptive for nothing. She approached him quickly after showing interest in her, causing him to back away in frustration.
"Doesn't seem like nothing to me." She said.
Her face still maintained an oblivious expression rather than the monotone one she always had on. This wasn't the first time she had her face up close to Lloyd's, yet he could not help but feel a slight sense of embarrassment.
"Those dreams really did a number on you, huh." She reached out her hand over his forehead to check for heat, considering he was out in this cold all night, which was surprising to Lloyd, but he couldn't move a muscle. "Hmm… warm. No fever."
— When did she get all touchy?
Having experienced the dream himself, Lloyd was taken aback by Juno's actions. Without saying a word or showing anymore embarrassment, he grabbed Juno's hand and pulled it away slowly.
"Oh, sorry," she pulled her hand back. "Just making sure you didn't catch a cold or something. You can't be too sure with this cold, ya'know."
Juno was flustered herself.
Lloyd could tell. One noticeable thing about the way she spoke was how formal she often would be, trying to keep a professional front true to her image. But whenever she was personal, unsure, or self-conscious about something, her speech patterns would sometimes line up with how Emiya spoke. It wasn't strange that she picked them up easily from her best friend.
That was one thing… and the fact that she showed concern towards him was another thing in itself. Juno was not the ice queen she was made out to be, but she was also not the warmest person ever. She had a "tough love" sort of emotion toward the people she cared about.
It was then that Lloyd asked himself…
— I'm reading way too much into this, aren't I?
"Hey!"
"Listen…"
Both of them called for the other in unison, much to their surprise.
"Oh, what were you—"
"I was just—"
There was no use in talking. Both of them were constantly interrupting one another unintentionally.
"Stop talking!"
"Yes, ma'am"
Juno snorted and almost burst into laughter from Lloyd's response. It was rare for her to show a reaction like that.
She cleared her throat, "About earlier, thanks for the help!"
"Huh?!" Lloyd then remembered when he laid down a folio to contain her chant. "Oh… that! It was nothing. Heh. I wouldn't have been able to do that without Zoe's help, really. Team effort… A-And that must have taken a lot of effort from you as well."
"But I have to say," she said, "Scaring the Sandman with a dozen of horror flicks' set-pieces, how did you even come close to that?"
"You'd be surprised how many movies are etched into my memory." Lloyd chuckled, and looked away, "Quite ironic, huh. How my knowledge of movies is what saved me, not the books."
"That doesn't excuse that though!"
Lloyd felt an ominous aura beginning to emanate from Juno. Saying such words in front of the academy's top student was like sentencing yourself to a death sentence.
"I'll catch up! Don't hurt me, ma'am."
"I wasn't going to? Who do you think I am? Emiya?"
A few feet away, the two of them heard Emiya sneeze as she approached them.
"Junoooo—" She clung onto Juno's arm, which provided quite the warmth for her. She tried to hold back her already runny nose to speak. "Let's go homeeee, I'm tired. I need my beauty sleep."
Whenever Emiya was tired, her personality would take a switch for the worse. It wasn't any better than someone who was outwardly drunk.
"And youuuu," Emiya pointed her finger at Lloyd, "Don't ever think you owe me anything for what I did back there for you! — I hate it as much as the next guy. I won't let you get away from the—"
"All right, come on. Let's go, Zoe." Juno took Emiya, and Zoe, along with her and moved away from Lloyd. "See you tomorrow!"
The girls left the scene, heading back to their homes.
It was a long night, but it was a night that was finally coming to a close.
"Is the night watch over then?" Nathan joined Lloyd's side.
"Even if it isn't, I'm beat." Lloyd yawned. "No way in hell am I going further than this. Besides, it's past midnight… meaning I'm officially off-duty."
"So… how about you guys join me up for a drink, eh?" Shogo suddenly showed up behind the two boys and wrapped his arms around their shoulders, "Come on. Not tempting enough?"
"We're minors… and so are you, technically." Nathan clarified.
"You know that's not what I meant."
"I don't need caffeine when I'm dying to sleep."
"Yeah, me neither," Lloyd spoke up. "You gotta cut back, man. What's this? Your third? Fifth cup of coffee of the day?"
"Tenth actually, excluding the iced coffee."
"What?!!" Nathan backed away and took a deep breath. "You should watch your caffeine intake, otherwise you are gonna die a miserable, unexpected, but definitely expected, death — and we kinda need you, right now."
"Are you gonna die soon?" Lloyd looked at Shogo with the most enthusiastic glimmer in his eyes. "Does that mean I can have your "Phantom Rouge" special edition?? Or maybe—"
"No, never… over my dead body."
"(Well, I will be snatching it off your corpse then, doesn't make much of a difference.)"
Shogo gave him a look of challenge, daring Lloyd to even think of touching his collection in some shape or form.
"You two sort your problems on your own. I'm heading to bed — should've been there hours ago." Nathan sighed, "See you tomorrow or… whatever."
With that, Nathan walked away, leaving the scene.
The authorities were still on the site, and the crowds seemed like they were not going to let up any time soon. It was much quieter, however, almost akin to the crime scene of an average criminal being arrested and taken away. But that wouldn't stop Neverland's citizens, who witnessed all kinds of adventures as they simply existed within the city, and they would always desire for more. It was all one big source of entertainment and curiosity to them.
"Hey…" Shogo called, a smile still on his face, yet his voice was calm and soothing, "Why don't you come sit with me for a while?"
— Huh?!
"Don't worry. I… I won't force you to drink anything. Just two friends sitting together, that's all."
Behind that smile, there was a sense of concern, concern over one's self. Lloyd could not see it, but he could feel it. It was the first time he could catch a glimpse of uncertainty in Shogo.
"I don't mind, I guess…"
Lloyd followed behind Shogo, both of them walking away from the ruckus and to a more somber place befitting of the night.