Rise of the Nightmares

Chapter 15

The flooding memories of her past soon came to a halt. It was enough for Kate to remember the main details.

The stalker was her childhood friend. One who wanted her to be his girlfriend. Someone who gave up his humanity for the corrupt power of the Dark Dreamers, becoming a Nightmare himself. The person responsible for kidnapping her and taking her away from her family from force. And now, he was consumed with his power to call himself a king, and he wanted her to be his queen.

He was once, maybe still was, Andy Vallaros.

As the memories came to an end, Kate blinked to find herself back in the forest outside of the Mushroom Kingdom, where Andy had come to confront her and show his face to her for the first time since she had come here.

"Now do you remember?" he asked her.

"Yes Andy... I remember everything..." she said.

"Now that you remember, we can go back to Earth. It's my kingdom, to my liking, but... if you join me, become the Dark Queen, it can be our kingdom. I'm not asking you again, come with me, Kate," he said.

Kate clenched her hands as he said that last line.

"You never asked me if I wanted to be a part of this... you never gave me a choice to stick with you or stray from you. All you want is for me to be yours, and yours alone. No friends, no family for me. Only you..." she whispered, sounding bitter.

She looked up at him and glared at him angrily. She tightened her grip on the sword she had with her.

"You gave up your humanity for corrupt powers, caring only about yourself and what you want. You claim that this was for me, but it was still only for you. You took me away from my family, but... if you hadn't, I wouldn't have met the friends I have," she said.

She raised her sword and got ready to attack.

"And I know won't let you hurt them!" she shouted.

She was about to charge, but Andy quickly pulled out his scepter and fired a blast at her. Kate dodged the attack, completely avoiding the hit.

"Of course, you care about them over me!" he shouted.

"You want to hurt them, then you're gonna have to get through me, you shadowy devil! COME AND GET ME!" Kate screamed out.

She charged again, intending to start the destined fight, and emerge victorious, for her friends.

Back in the Mushroom Kingdom, chaos was continuing as the Nightmares were continuing to attack the group. Mario and Sonic had given Knuckles a chance to escape and go rescue Kate, so the rest of the group had to focus on defending themselves, since now that Kate was possibly secured in their possession, the Nightmares believed that their next objective was to fight her friends.

It was chaotic, to say the least.

The second that Knuckles was trying to get away from the fight, a few Nightmares tried to slow him down. Mario and Sonic got to work, but if a few others hadn't tried to help, then they probably couldn't have given Knuckles his window of opportunity. Shadow and Rouge were the first to react, for the black hedgehog had used his Chaos Spear attack on a few Nightmares and Rouge charged at a couple and gave them a good kick in the face.

Once Knuckles was gone, the others did their best to put up a fight.

Right by the entrance to the castle, Princess Peach was fending off a couple of Nightmares. She had the fire flower abilities, but she was also swinging a yellow parasol as a weapon to knock some of them back. She wasn't fighting alone, for Amy and Princess Daisy were there to help her. Amy had her Piko Piko hammer still, and Daisy herself had some fire flower abilities at the moment.