In the Shadows We Fight (for justice and ourselves)

Is this what lies before us?

Reverie doesn't know why he was chosen for the task. As a well-off villain who controlled one of the most prominent districts, Banshee should have many people who were more suited for the job. Reverie may have been a sidekick who worked in the shadows, but that didn't mean he was particularly good at tailing people. He knew the fundamental skills through and through. It was one of the lessons Dream had drilled into his and Fantasy's head. Knowledge was only as good as its application, however, and that is where Reverie found himself lacking. Fantasy was far better at it. She had a way of dispersing her consciousness into the metallic objects all throughout the city, creating a network of energy that transmitted information to each other and Fantasy like neurons to the brain. Dream had been highly impressed with Fantasy that occasion, even though it really did a number on her to stretch her powers so thin. Reverie, on the other hand, couldn't do anything like that. It wasn't easy to manipulate the chaos that could be summoned from his fingertips, and that control grew weaker the farther the chaos was from him. Reverie had to rely on old tracking tricks that hunters of the forest would use to find people. The one thing he was good at was making himself part of a crowd. He could lose himself in the crevices of a gathering, being part of it enough that no one took special notice of him. Still, that skill couldn't be why Banshee enlisted his help. Especially when the lady he was searching for in question was the disappearing woman of the Badlands.

Reverie did his research before he went in search of her. From what he could gather, she was something of a folktale in the Badlands. There were rumors of a brunette who could glide through any location without anyone batting an eye. There was much debate over her nature, some claiming that she stole from them blind while others were sure she was a spy for another district. There were people that wondered if she was a spy from their district, working for or even with Halo, the hero in charge of the Badlands. Reverie didn't pay too much attention to the conflicting rumors. They didn't give him much more information than her nickname did. He didn't have a clue what Banshee would have wanted with her. Perhaps she was a spy for him that had defected, or maybe he had taken a special interest in her skill set for a mission. Whatever the case, Reverie knew that it was his responsibility to investigate on behalf of the heroes. Perhaps the information could lead him to a new clue about the whole Dream dilemma, or maybe he would be able to scrounge up something to keep Dream sedated with his recent lackluster performance. No matter the case, Reverie would find out what he needed to know. He would personally decide who was permitted to hear it.

Of course, that would require getting the information in the first place. True to her nickname and the rumors, Alyssa was difficult to find. Allow Reverie to reform that last statement. She was easy to find, it was keeping track of her that proved challenging. He would have her in his sight, pinning his gaze on her wispy blonde hair when she would disappear. Reverie would search the crowds again for another trace of her, but it would take looking further down the street to find those cloudy blue eyes trailing along the stalls. Before she could disappear again, Reverie did something that he wasn't sure would work out. Lightning clouded in red mist glowed around his palm like a freshly lit fire. The mist floated above his palm, condensing into a translucent butterfly. The creature of chaos fluttered in the wind before diving down to the ground. The butterfly weaved through the crowd before landing on the top of Alyssa's head. Reverie's chaos faded into her skull, a strand of red flashing down her blonde hair that showed she harbored a fragment of pure chaos. Reverie closed his eyes. He let his mind find the chaos in the air before pinpointing Alyssa. Reverie soared across rooftops as he followed the girl. She would occasionally disappear from his visual view, but with the chaos part of her, she couldn't hide from Reverie's sixth sense. If he focused hard enough, pain shuddering through his body as he strained, he could almost predict her movements. He couldn't do it for long, but when he got a fuzzy image in mind, he took off in the direction.