A Sunless Dream

One wasn't supposed to dream in the dream realm, however that didn't stop Sunny's mind from wandering to all of the horrors he had been put through ever since becoming an awakened. Currently, he was half asleep in a chair next to Nephis bed while she was giving a speech to the fire keepers in the deck above. His mind flashed back to his initial encounter with the Winter Beast, it had killed everyone and then left as quickly as it came.

The feeling of powerlessness was something Sunny was familiar with and his fight against the lord of shadows reaffirmed it. He didn't want to suffer, nobody did. However, the thought that he was now going to be forced to re engage with that thing once again quite frankly shook him to his very core. Sunny was so focused on introspection that he didn't even notice Cassie walk into the room and hearing the low sounds of Sunny crying to himself.

Although she was blind, she could still tell with varying degrees of accuracy multiple things about the outside world through sound alone. Her unique method of echolocation though not granting her complete vision of the world around her, at least allowed her enough vision to notice Sunny's trembling form in the corner of Nephis room.

She walked up to him and shook him awake, Sunny's eyes darted across the room before he completely took in her form. Quite frankly, he resisted the urge to scowl at her before shrugging her arm off him "I'll be fine, I'm just thinking" he said firmly. A bit more firmly than he intended as Cassie sat down on Nephis bed in front of him.

"What are you thinking about? Don't even try brush me off because it won't work" was all that she said.

Quite frankly, she had been mustering up the confidence to engage with him for a while now. She wanted to know what he had been through and how much he had to endure on her and Nephis behalf. She wanted to understand him.

Sunny looked her over for a second, he was confused. What could she possibly want by engaging with him? She definitely didn't fully remember him, and the little memories she did have he didn't doubt were far from positive. So, what purpose did she have in engaging with him?

'I'll humour her' he thought to himself before responding, quite frankly although he was incapable of lying to her the thought of giving a vague answer was immediately snuffed just from observing her. She wasn't going to leave until she had fulfilled her own desires in coming to speak to him.

"In Antarctica the winter beast came along and killed every single member of a cohort that I was a member of, I was the sole survivor. I was just reminiscing of the times I could have avoided if I never met you people in the first place" now he stood up to face her completely, leaning against the wall and looking down on her "What do you want from me? I understand Nephis, but ultimately you are one of the root causes for the situation we're both in right now".

His firm tone caused Cassie to flinch at his words, what could she have possibly done that led to all of this. She understood the incident at the forgotten shore at least but now his responses only left her with more questions than answers, what had she done that had been so vile and irreversible.

"I want to understand you, Sunny. I want to figure out what evils I have done to you so that we may reconcile and move forward, I'm sorry for what happened in the past but I'm not the same weak little girl I was back then. I have the power to change things now!"

She raised her voice at the end of her sentence causing Sunny to raise a brow. Maybe she had changed, the old Cassie only ever raised her voice at him when attempting to justify her abandoning him at the forgotten shore. But ultimately, he saw through it all, he knew why she was there.

"You aren't here to reconcile, well no. Maybe you are here to reconcile, however I didn't realise your reasons for doing so would be so selfish. Ultimately, back then, if you had the opportunity to kill me yourself to save Nephis you would do so over and over again until you achieved the result you desired. It isn't your powerlessness that made you do all the things you did it's your character."

Sunny knew the words he was saying would hurt Cassie, and he knew he didn't care either. Although he wasn't being rational years of emotional anguish had been caused by this woman and he wasn't going any further in his journey if he didn't get it off his chest.

"You really want to learn about me?" he grabbed Cassie by the chin and looked pulled off her blindfolds allowing him to look her directly in the eyes. They remained locked with his and silence invaded Nephis room, "I'll let you look through my memories, maybe if you see why I desire freedom so much you'll understand why I hate you."

Hearing the words "hate" leave his mouth caused Cassie to flinch, and in a split second Sunny had a clone split off from his body who disappeared for a split second before returning with Nephis. Turning to her, he could observe she was still mildly dishevelled from being pulled through the shadows so abruptly.

"I'll show you both a few memories of mine, and maybe you'll learn why I'm not particularly elated to be surrounded by people who ultimately only care about me because of my strength and are using me to fight off a distorted warped clone of myself"

Hearing his words, Sunny was struck across the face by Nephis who looked genuinely irritated by his statement. "Don't assume that I only want to get to know you better because you're strong. You could be a sleeper for all I care and this feeling I get whenever I speak to you or I'm near you, this feeling of familiarity and warmth would never leave"

Sunny was surprised, the bond between them had wiped him of all suspicions of Nephis merely using him for his strength. Taking an involuntary step back he muttered under his breathe "You...ordered me again." His breathes became more erratic and his expression became more and more panicked as he put his hand over his chest to calm himself down.

Levelling a glare at Nephis who appeared horrified at her involuntary usage of her control over him, Sunny pushed it to the back of his mind. He would worry about that later.

"Cassie, create a mental link between the three of us. If you truly want to get to know me a little better, it's important you know what drives me." Cassie had no objections, simply doing as she was told and in the blink of an eye they were in the outskirts, gazing upon the world through the eyes of a short gaunt boy.