Mr. Sandman's dream girl

Chapter 19: A shattered dream

¸¸♬·¯·♪·¯·♫¸¸ 𝓘 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓪 𝓫𝓻𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓷𝓸 𝓵𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓻. 𝓘𝓽'𝓼 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓭𝓸𝓷𝓮.¸¸♫·¯·♪¸♩·¯·♬¸¸

Honestly, I was disgusted by what I saw. The old timeline did have Nuka running a flower shop in a neighborhood that was filled with white and prejudice people.  Likewise, Victor made sure to take care of the men that wanted to take Nuka's place in that world. This world, however, has brought about a change; in which the same men who tried to stop her in the past have now succeeded in killing her in their attempt to make sure she has no future.

A few minutes after emerging from the alleyway, Cody enters the shop where Nuka and one other woman had been shot and had been lying on the floor covered in bullets, shattered glass all around them. I followed suit and watched as Nuka's soul as well as the woman's soul left their bodies at the same time. As Cody grabbed hold of the other woman's soul, he sent her upward into the heavens. He then holds on to Nuka's soul to allow us the opportunity to speak to her.

"What are you doing?" Nuka asked. Her ghostly face turned pale as she became confused on what's going on. Before she spoke again, she composed herself. She her piercing gaze looked right into our eyes. She probably had a guess about what's going on and even though she was afraid to say it, she said it anyway to get clarification.

"Does this have something to do with Victor?" Her voice held sorrow within it. I felt pity for her but we nodded anyway. "He's broken a taboo that shouldn't have never been broken in the first place. And now, if we don't fix it, the world will be unbalanced forever. Either you nor your friend were supposed to die. I should know." Cody explained.

Nuka hangs her head and holds back tears. From the looks of it, I could sense that she knew something had to be off about this world. And now Cody has confirmed her suspicions about it.

"When I first saw him, I was cleaning out my pot that a god had given to me to keep to teach. One of my students used it to help me with my shop but I didn't know it at the time."

"What she did was, she put a dash of wishing powder in her potion and wished to summon someone that could help me. And so his lamp showed up."

"You didn't tell him this—did you?" I questioned. Though I already knew the answer. She shook her head in which confirmed my thoughts. "As a matter of fact, I was considering sending him back because I didn't want to use him as a tool to help me. However, as I gazed into his eyes, I felt as if a darkness was looming over him. It was as though somthing deep inside him was slowly breaking at his soul." Nuka explained to us.

"You thought you could save him," I stated. Nuka nodded. "Well then come and save him now." Cody interjected. "He literally created a void within time and some souls can't go where they need to go because of it. And I'll be damned if anyone takes my family away from me. One of my daughters is having a baby and I want to see my granddaughter when she's born. I'll put you back in your body and we can talk to him about fixing this."

"I can do you one better," Nuka says. As she closes her eyes, she transports us to this cabin where another woman stood with a staff in her hand, wearing a wrap around her head as well as a beautiful golden dress.

"Who is that?" I asked. "I am Nuka's mother. You may call me Rita. I am a witch as well as part shaman. I foresaw this event and told her to bring you here." The woman replied. She then turns to head inside and we followed her.

Once inside, to our surprise, we saw Nuka! She was just lying there on the couch. She had no bullet holes or anything. "You are Cody, the angel of death correct?" She asks Cody. "Yes." Cody answered. "Put her spirit back into her body. This is my daughter's true body anyway."

I blinked. Not once nor twice. But three times! How is this even possible? I thought. My head was like a spinning needle. It was just going around and around. The needle was poking at my brain but nothing was making sense to me at all.

Cody did as Rita said and placed Nuka's soul back into her body. It was going to take awhile for her to awaken, so Cody and I used the time wisely to talk to Rita.

"Rita, what's going on?" Cody asked bluntly. Cody had always been a no nonsense type of guy. Him asking the question straight out is just another example of how serious he is.

"As I have mentioned, I foresaw this event and made sure that my daughter was prepared for it." "For you see, Nuka can move through dimensions as well as create them. Meaning that when reality is warped, she's not as easily manipulated by it. As a shaman, we can astral project into other dimensions and planes that are beyond the world that we live in. I've helped Nuka channel that power further by having her spirit be apart of the universe that Victor created."

"And what was the point of that?" Cody asked. "To see how messed up he is? Well he's pretty messed up. Now let's fix it."

"Easy Cody. Let's hear her out." I tell him. It's obvious that Rita knows something that we are clearly missing. Yes time is precious. It's essential. But for Rita to go this far to teach her daughter to astral project into another dimension, where she even gets killed, that means this is bigger than just Victor.

"Thank you." Rita says. "You see it wasn't just by coincidence that Victor met Nuka. There was a spectator that orchestrated them to meet."

"A spectator?" I questioned. "Yes, when the child used the pot she was possessed by something. Or someone possessed her."

"What?" I gasped. A third party played a part in this twisted story. But why? What's the end game?

Before I could ask Nuka finally wakes up in utter panic and looks right past us. The rest of us follow her gaze and we saw Victor with Nuka's lifeless body through I believe a dimension hole. "That's Victor," I said, stating the obvious. From his expression, he was devastated and angry. He was mumbling something but we understood what he was doing!

"He's going to reverse time!" Cody shouted. "Not yet." Rita put out her hand and suddenly, Victor was out like light. "What did you do to him?" I asked. "I just put him to sleep is all. Now I'm going to take his time watch that he has in his pocket. When we set the time we're going to go back there though only myself and Nuka will remember what we need to do with the child is possessed. We will come find you once we deal with her." Rita explained.

She walks over to him and grabs Victor's watch and set the time. "Are you ready?" She asked us. I glanced over at Cody. He glances at me and gives a nod. I turned my attention back to Rita and nodded. As soon as she pressed the top of it, my mind was blank.

********************************************

1966

"Hmm, another night well spent," I said. Stretching I was walking along the dream stream and suddenly, I was stopped by these two women standing in front of me.

"Can I help you ladies?" I asked.

One of the women snapped her fingers and suddenly, a rush of memories started to flow back into me.

"Come now Brutus. We have much to do."

7 months later....

"You were suppose to be my friends!" "How could you do this to me?!" Victor yelled. As he was drained through the sand. As reinforcements arrived, the battle between Cody, Victor, and myself was finally over. Cody and I walked away, leaving Victor behind. We never looked back. At least for the time being.  We knew that Victor needed time to heal, and we hoped that one day he would find peace. His dream was to be with Nuka. And we know we ruined it for him. I had hoped one day he would forgive us.

*******************************************

Present

He's free now from black desert. Stronger than ever. Now it's a dangerous game of revenge. Who will win? I hope it's us.