Two Halves | Book One of The Judgement series

Chapter 10

That night I dreamed for the first time since I've been in Nightmare's castle. To be completely honest, I was happy. Whatever was blocking my dream link with Raven was gone and as soon as I entered our dreamscape (I learned that term from Nightmare when we visited his version of the Tree) Raven tackled me.

"You're safe! Thank God you're safe!" She pulled away from me and held my shoulders, taking in my appearance just like I was taking in hers. Her black hair was completely disheveled, she had dark circles and bags underneath her eyes, her clothes were a mess and she looked like she hadn't slept right in days.

"You look horrible." We said at the same time. A couple seconds passed by and we burst into a fit of laughter before embracing again. It felt incredible to be by her side again. I felt whole with my sister here. I felt Raven pull at my new necklace.

"What's this?" Her pale fingers glided across the golden dragon with a delicacy I didn't know she was capable of.

"A gift, I think." Raven looked up at me.

"From Nightmare?" She spit his name out like it was poison. I couldn't blame here though. He did take me away from her for his own gain.

"No, not from him. The note with it was in strange symbols, kinda like sign language but not really."

"'Beware the man who speaks in hands.' Oh my God, Dove. You got a gift from Gaster." I felt my brows furrow at her statement.

"Who's Gaster?"

"He was the previous Royal Scientist in the original universe. There was this freak accident when he was working with the CORE and he fell in, resulting in him getting lost somewhere between space and time and the memories of his existence erased from everyone, including his sons."

I sat down on the grass of the dreamscape. "That's... Incredibly sad. No person or monster deserves that." My fingers found their way to the necklace. "I think he gave me something for you, too."

"What makes you say so?" Raven sat down next to me and hugged her knees. I leaned my head on her shoulder but before I could reply, the sky around us darkened. Raven scrambled back up to her feet.

"What's happening!?" The wind started to blow hard and the ground started to shake.

"Someone's trying to break the link!" I heard Raven yell over the wind. My fear spiked because I knew exactly who was doing this.

"Raven! You need to hide the apples!"

"Why!?" The ground cracked between us, separating my twin from me.

"Just trust me! Hide them where no one will ever find them!"

"I will!" That was the last thing I heard my sister say as the ground swallowed me up. When I woke up, Nightmare was livid.

~~~~~~

Raven's Point of View

I sat up on the couch quickly and instantly Ink and Dream were by my side. For the first time in a over month, I smiled. I felt happy. My twin was okay and she was safe. That happiness disappeared as soon as I felt a pain shoot across my cheek. That pain wasn't my own.

My sudden change in behavior didn't go unnoticed by the two skeletons. Dream was the first to speak. "You saw her, didn't you?" I felt myself nod but winced when there was a tight grip on my arm. Once again, it wasn't my pain.

"Yeah, but now she's in trouble."

"She was happy while she was with you." Ink grabbed his paint brush and turned to Dream. He was in battle mode. "Track the location of her last positive emotion."

"But we were in the dreamscape. How can you track her from that?" I got up and pulled out a battle body that Blue had made for me.

"That positivity was felt by her physical body even though she was technically sleeping. It's the same with you, which was how I knew you saw Dove." Dream slung his bow and quiver over his back and typed away at a weird wrist watch. "I got the location of Nightmare's castle. We need to hurry."

A searing pain ran across my upper arm. I grabbed it, grunting from the burning feeling. More sharp pains like that went down my arms and across my stomach. It didn't feel like whoever was cutting my sister was going deep into her skin.

"How are you going to survive going to Nightmare's castle? You'll be too weak to fight." Ink stared at Dream, concern shining through the strange shapes of his eyes.

"I'll be fine. We have to worry about Dove right now." Before I could think, my feet were carrying me towards the bedroom my twin and I shared. The two skeletons didn't notice my absence until I collapsed onto the floor from the pain my sister was enduring. I cradled what I collected to my chest.

"Raven!" Ink carried me bridal style to the couch. Dream was staring at the item in my hands with wide eyes.

"Where did you get that?"

"It doesn't matter now. You need to use it. You have to in order to endure your brother's negativity." I smiled through the pain I felt and offered up the large, golden apple to the Protector of Positivity. "One step closer to restoring balance."

Dream took the apple and hesitantly bit into it's surface. He ate until there was nothing but the core left. A soft glow appeared around his bones as Dream absorbed the last positive magic from the Tree of Feelings. Ink pressed his teeth to my forehead in a friendly manner and opened a portal to Underswap, signaling Blueberry.

"We'll get our girl back and then we'll hide you two. Somewhere where Error won't find you and where the nightmares can't get you." For some reason, those words sounded extremely familiar to me. I found myself hugging the Star Sanses, Blue had just arrived but accepted the hug anyways. Before they left, I stopped them. I had one thing to say.

"Kick their asses for me."