The Trial of Dreams and Memories (TMM 2)

Crossing Dreams

Something was...off...in the Realm of Dreams. Past Morai could feel it. She completed her meditation, took up her staff, and headed towards the Outlands once again. It had become her job to keep the Land of Nightmares under control, which often forced her to go toe to toe with the creatures that inhabited it. Nightmare Morai lived above them all. A wispy and sometimes intangible form, she was the representation of nightmares that often threatened Morai's sleep. 

As Past Morai descended into the nightmarish terrain with a solemn look on her face, she couldn't help but wonder how long she'd keep this up. Was it her duty to fight this imbalance between dreams and nightmares forever alongside trying to balance Morai's very soul? Her body, though it was made up of dreams and psychic power, had grown weary. As the trainer traveled further into the land, she realized that its cruel ruler was nowhere to be found. 

"She would've come out to fight by now," Past Morai told her pink Espurr companion as it came to rest on her head. It didn't take much longer to come upon the nightmarish scene lying within the nightmare land. 

"A...hole..." Morai said with curiosity. "Like shattered glass. Like the very reality has been...broken."

The urgency of the situation suddenly hit her with terrifying force. 

"She's gone!" she yelled, immediately putting Espurr in one of the satchels hanging from her belt as she leapt through the supposed tear in the fabric of Morai's mind and soul. They were consumed by darkness as Morai began to realize that her actions might have been too hasty and reactive. Until they hit the ground, that is. 

"All of that work," the familiar voice of nightmares said, "for absolutely nothing at all."

The recognizable figure was looming over someone else, who was sat on the floor against a wall. 

"I just need more time!" the figure pleaded. "I can still fix it! Fix you!"

I know them, Past Morai thought. I haven't seen them with my own eyes, but...somewhere in our shared memory...

"More time? You can't resurrect people from the dead, doctor," Nightmare Morai said. "You can't undo what she's—what I've done. Not only did you fail to save my soul, but you managed to lose so many others' in the process. Now the damage is done. I'm doomed to remain the way I am and the world is all the worse for it. The cruel, unforgiving and chaotic world filled with people hiding behind their masks of righteousness, doomed to give into their selfish and evil desires. Not only did you fail to change the world, you failed to save one single person. You have blood on your hands, doctor."

"The formula!" the doctor said, frantically grabbing a syringe from off the counter above, "I think I've got it right this time! If I could just—"

Morai—or the nightmare that had taken her appearance—clawed the man's outstretched hand and sent the syringe flying to its doom, the blue liquid spreading over the cold laboratory floor. 

"Don't you get it, you fool? I never wanted to change!" Morai said, grabbing him by the collar of his white coat, her sharp teeth inches away from his face. "That's what you wanted! You and that entire team trying to accomplish the impossible, putting me through hell just because they wanted their old Champion back, and you wanted a lab rat you wouldn't go to prison for testing experimental drugs on!"

"Morai, I'm s—"

"And look where it got you! You're the last to live! It seems so unfair that fate would spare you out of everyone, but perhaps it's a just punishment. You've witnessed the bloody consequences of your failure first hand, and now you have to watch as the one whose soul was placed so carefully in your hands—"