A Sunless Dream

Nephis had retired back to the castle after her most recent encounter with Sunny. A million thoughts flew through her head as she collapsed onto her bed, driving her face into her pillow and letting out a silent scream.

Pulling her head back, she sat on her bed contemplating her life decisions so far. Although she was glad to see Sunny training, what could he possibly need the strength to cut a continent apart for. Aside from destroying the world.

'Don't tell me he plans to do something that ridiculous!' shooting to her feet, Nephis combed through her hair before taking a quick shower. After taking a moment to look herself over in the mirror, she opened the window and took off, hoping to find Sunny once more.

It didn't take her very long to find the saint, all she had to do was look for parts of the clouds that didn't line up properly. The signs of Sunny's handiwork were all over Bastion, but people didn't care enough to notice such a thing.

After flying a good distance over Sunny's head, making sure to stay as out of reach from his senses as possible, she slowly descended to the ground, activated her memory, and began to make her way towards him.

Sunny was looking into the distance in the direction of Bastion with a blank expression on his face, his posture revealed no emotions as he pulled out a small black book from his pocket and wrote something she could not discern within it, before placing it within his pocket once more.

Sensing her presence, Sunny turned around and offered her a slight smile. In a moment, Nephis had been pulled into the shadows, standing next to where Sunny was positioned.

"I never got to ask before, but what is your name?" his voice was calm and curious; however, he never once peeled his eyes away from whatever distant object had caught his focus. Nephis meanwhile, was internally panicking.

She had never bothered of thinking of a name for her disguise, and millions of names flashed through her head in a matter of moments as she remained silent, hoping to not give away her internal turmoil.

"Stella, and you?" that was the best she could think of, it seemed natural enough at least in her mind and she was desperately hoping not to set off any alarm bells in his head.

Sunny turned to her, his tone remaining light "Sunless, but my..." he cut himself off, the words friends became stuck in his throat as the pain of his flaw forced out an answer "my family used to call me Sunny."

'He's an orphan then' she turned her face attempting to focus on whatever distant object had caught his attention. After a few moments of confusion, she abandoned the endeavour and chose to ask instead.

"What are you looking at?" Sunny was slightly taken aback by the question, his face however remained perfectly calm, and he slowly laid on the soft grass. "I'm looking at Bastion, I'm contemplating if I should cut the place in two or not" despite the gravity of his words, Sunny's tone was light, almost as if he was describing the weather.

Nephis furrowed her brow, the gravity of his words laid bare in the air as she decided to address it. "Why would you want to do that, surely there are innocent people there right? What could make you want to kill them?" The rapid-fire questions caused Sunny's flaw to flare up once more as he stared at the sky.

"I'd do it purely because I could, I've been doing a bit of introspection. Most of the people who I have formerly called friends have ended up betraying me one way or the other, so now I've found myself questioning what makes people valuable."

Stretching his arms outwards, his hands hit the grass with a quiet thud as he continued to speak "What specific thing am I lacking, that Cassie or Nephis aren't that makes them want to betray me? I'm supposed to help Nephis kill Anvil and rule these people, but why should I care about them?"

"Saving the people close to me seems enough, I doubt humanity needs this many people anyway, no?" Nephis expression nearly faltered as Sunny spoke, she knew it too that she had broken him. Any further than this and he may truly become an enemy out of pure spite at the world.

Before she could retort, Sunny continued "These people didn't care when I was in the outskirts, fighting for food to keep my sister alive. They didn't care to move to the dream realm until it directly affected their lives, so why should I care about them, it seems only fair I shouldn't right?"

Nephis had no words to respond with, so her body moved instinctively. She made her way towards Sunny, lowering her head down to his chest before taking a moment to listen to his beating heart. Sunny almost moved attempting to shove her off him but couldn't find himself caring enough to as he allowed her to do as she pleased.

"I know you can't hear it, but your heart was racing." Shooting him a small smile she continued "Humans are unique creatures; they have the capacity for immense indifference and evil as well as immense good. I agree the world shouldn't have treated you the way it did, you have every right to be angry and lash out at people, but that isn't strength."

Slowly moving her hand towards his chest, she felt the ever-quickening pulsations of his heart as she continued speaking. "To be strong is the ability to endure, endure all the pain and suffering and look for a brighter future. To be strong is to overcome everything in front of you no matter the odds, or at least possess the will to do so."

"I believe you can be strong Sunny. I know it even." Sunny shook his head in response before raising himself, sitting up and looking her in the eye "I didn't ask to be forced to endure, and I didn't ask to overcome everything in front of me."

"But that's irrelevant right now, come here." Sunny pulled her towards him before shadow stepping a few feet away from their initial position, before returning to where he once was. "I'm going to put on a mask, immediately I start bleeding I want you to try your hardest and pull it off me. Nothing before and nothing after."

Nephis was confused by the request but nodded anyway. In a moment Sunny summoned weavers mask and slowly placed it over his face. Channelling his essence, he activated the [Where is my eye?] enchantment and gazed at the strings of fate once more.

The experience was mind numbing, he could see infinite amounts of golden chains coiled tightly around his form and extending in a multitude of directions. He saw a particularly large chain extend in the distance towards a sphere of glowing light which caught his undivided attention.

'Nephis.' He thought, if he could grit his teeth, he would. Just the thought of her quickly became irritating as he continued to look around, he only had a few more seconds before his mind would break anyway.

A curious blue string was connected to his body, extending infinitely into the distance without an apparent endpoint. Almost out of instinct, Sunny grabbed the string and pulled on it lightly. The experience wasn't painful, but it shifted the coils of the chains that wrapped around him ever so slightly.

In the next moment, he was looking up at the panicked expression of the woman he knew as Stella. Shaking his body to keep him conscious.

Nephis had no clue what had happened, in a moment she saw the mask glow purple. Sunny looked around for a few moments before an ear curdling scream was elicited from his mouth, it was so loud that it shook the ground beneath her.

Biting her lip till it drew blood, Nephis anxiously awaited for the signal. Two faint drops of blood began pouring out of Sunny's skin before she ran over to him and tore the mask off his face. It took a little bit of effort, even for a transcendent titan such as herself that was still monumental.

Grabbing him by his shoulders, Nephis shook him as his eyes flickered back to life slowly but surely. Her own screams of his name were drowned out by the joy she felt when he slowly began to regain his composure.

Sunny turned to the side and threw up a torrent of blood before falling on his back. Nephis stared at Sunny, her hands twitched instinctively, her entire body knew she waned to heal him however she bit back her instincts and settled for a question.

"Sunny? What just happened to you?"

"I saw my own fate."