The march forward was silent and awkward.

Cecilia scouted ahead of the party, with Alistair and Solveig following close behind her. Aquamarine took the middle, ready to launch a water blast whether the enemy attacked from the front or the back. Then was Lenoria...along with the party's new addition, Quincy, on the rear. He was a bit of a pacifist, but he promised Lenoria he wouldn't let anything hurt his new friend.

"...I'm sorry about your other friends," Lenoria said, in reference to the late Darla and Legs, both carelessly burned by their boss. "We only meant to incapacitate them if possible."

Quincy stayed quiet for a moment. Then, "The boss said it was common for people to come and go all the time. Before them, it was Arms and Johnny Bob, and before them it was Lips and Hoss. Before any of them, it was always just me and the boss."

Others? Were they transferred to other teams? Or perhaps...were they betrayed by El Buitre?

"Boss only had one job for me, and that was to swing this 'ere fist at anyone he pointed at. A lot of people would stop moving after I did that, though. He explained later that I was 'hurting' them, and he only had me do it because people always hurt him first."

"Sheesh..." It was as if Quincy didn't know the difference between right or wrong. Lenoria was glad Alistair was out of earshot, but Aquamarine looking back at them every now and then indicated she could hear them. Lenoria would smile at her to show nothing was wrong, but she dreaded whatever discussion awaited her.

"You never met the boss before, did you?"

Lenoria shoved her worries aside to give her new friend her full attention. "Can't say that I have, Quincy. The only reason we even engaged a conversation was because you guys were after my friend."

"Friend." There was that word again. Quincy looked up ahead, watching Cecilia speak with Alistair and Solveig. "She's your friend, too?"

"S-something like that." Lenoria wasn't sure if Quincy was ready for the mess that was her relationship with the halfling. At the very least, they were acquaintances, but Quincy didn't need the full details for now.

"He never said why he was after her. But he wanted to hurt her, too." Quincy stared at the ground as he walked. "Lenoria, I feel weird. It's like I'm hurt, but I don't think anyone hit me."

"I think that's your conscience speaking again." Quincy looked at her, confused. "Oh, you know. It's that feeling that tells you when you're doing something bad."

"Something bad?"

"Yeah. You didn't feel anything when your boss wanted to hurt her. But now that you know Cecilia is my friend, what you're feeling is probably guilt because you could have hurt someone I cared about. I mean, at least I think so."

"It's scary," Quincy admitted. "How do I make it go away?"

"Don't feel bad, big guy. Everyone struggles with guilt when they get it. The best you can do is promise to do better and try not to hurt people your friends care about." Lenoria nodded. "If there's ever any time you need to hurt someone, it's when people try to hurt you or your friends. You can't go around beating up people just because someone told you, okay?"

It seemed like Quincy had difficulty grasping the concept, but he nodded eventually as if he understood. Lenoria patted him on the back and left him alone with his thoughts. She needed some time to think, too.

"You have a knack for this, you know," Pearl said as she materialized herself next to Lenoria.

"Oh, hey Pearl. There's nothing to it, really. It's like speaking with kids. I do it with poppets and robots all the time. A lot of them are always confused when they start feeling things. Most of the time, they get their memory chips removed and move on to become androids."

Speaking of kids, the girl wondered how Alistair felt. He wasn't comfortable with the idea of a member of the Blue Jay traveling with them. The fact Quincy still wore a blue cape - as protective as it was - didn't help matters.

"Al. I wonder if I did the right thing."

"It would be best if you let him cool off. Only time will tell if you made the right choice." Pearl placed her arm around Lenoria, an act that surprised the latter. The embrace was not amorous, but rather motherly. "That thing you said about judging someone based on how they looked? Thank you for saying it."

"W-what's with you? You rarely act like this."

"Is it really strange for me to feel pride for you?"

"Yes."

"Then perhaps I've been too cruel to you." Pearl retracted her arm and floated right along with Lenoria. "Was it Starflower, then? Then one you thought about when others judge based on appearances?"

Lenoria did not hesitate to nod. "Yeah. What about you? Have you been judged based on how you looked before?"

Pearl's pride slowly shifted to a sad smile. She did not answer, but Lenoria knew just by looking at her. Perhaps there's a reason Pearl never spoke about her past.

***

Luno tapped into the fountain's magic to search for Caesar. The images in the fountain shifted between the dreams of the other pirates - a feast at a king's castle, a fishing contest, even a wedding ceremony - but she could not find Caesar or the rest of the Williams family.

"That puny little brat! What did she do?" Her mental voice was almost hysterical, searching through the dreams with no success. "How is this possible? I can't find him!"

***

"Hello?"

Things got weirder for Caesar after Selena disappeared. Nightfall arrived in after a while, but the streetlights did not come on. In fact, the streets grew darker and darker, to the point Caesar believed he was going blind. He tripped over a piece of broken sidewalk, and felt blood drip out of his nose when he quickly got back up.

But there was no pain.

When Caesar tried to readjust his sight, the outlines of the buildings were gone. All he could see was pitch-black darkness. He looked down at himself, and he could see his arms and body just fine; everything else around him was gone, and now he felt like he was wandering inside a big empty room.

"Mroww?"

Everything was gone...except Precious. The cat made her way to him and rubbed her body against Caesar's legs. Happy to see her again, the boy cradled the cat with his arms and refused to let her go. Precious, for her part, did not struggle like she did earlier and purred contently as Caesar continued to wander in the darkness.

"I don't know what's going on. Maybe I am dreaming." Caesar scratched the critter's chin. "But at least we're together. Mind if we look for Selena together?"

Precious was not listening, and even if she was, there was no way she could answer. She was a cat, after all. But the boy was just happy she was around, even if this was a dream. Truth be told, he didn't know what he was dealing with now; he pinched himself earlier and felt pain, so he truly believed he was back home. But things got weirder the moment Selena disappeared. He no longer felt any pain, and when he thought of the possibility that he could still be in a dream, he tried to empty his mind; it was easy for lucid dreamers to turn their dreams into nightmares if they had no control over their thoughts.

"Wait. If everything disappeared when I emptied my mind, then maybe..." It was worth a shot. Careful not to invoke some scary image, Caesar thought about his family. His mom, dad, and his brothers came to mind. Weekends were the only days they could spend time together as a family, and while he and his brother Devin were introverted, they had no choice but to go along when their dad wanted to visit the lake or when their mom wanted to go to the local aquarium.

Devin. Caesar wondered what his younger brother was up to. Before he knew it, there was a brown wooden door in the middle of the vast expanse of darkness. Seeing no other way out, Caesar approached the door. He could see light coming from underneath, and he could hear muffled gunfire coming from the other side. Taking a deep breath, Caesar opened the door and ventured inside.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Caesar's younger brother, Devin, was a stocky boy several months into puberty. He would often lock himself up in his room, either reading comic books or playing video games. The scene before Caesar was no different; Devin had wrapped himself with a woolly blanket and was having fun playing a video game where he could shoot other people.

"Devin?"

Without a care in the world, the younger boy greeted his brother. "Hey, Caesar. Nice to see you again."

"Again?"

"Yeah." Devin did not pry his eyes away from the screen. "I see you in my dreams every now and then. Wanna play a game with me?"

Caesar sat down next to his brother and looked at the screen. He never enjoyed shooting games like his brother did, because he always thought they were too violent. "You know how Momma feels about games like that."

"She ain't here, bro. Now, check it. This is Sinner's Circle 2. You get to be this guy who leads a gang and wipes out all the other gangs in his city. Best part is, you can make him into anything you want."

Caesar took a closer look at Devin's avatar. "Your guy's a girl."

"I know, right? She cute, too. Look what I can do."

By pressing some buttons, the girl on the screen - wearing a simple white top, a black ballcap over her blonde, braided hair, and black baggy pants - twirled her pistol and shot a police officer behind her. In a matter of seconds, there was the all-too-familiar sound of police sirens, presumably to arrest or kill his brother's avatar.

Caesar....could not bear to witness the carnage that followed. He caught glimpses of his brother's character getting gunned down, but her health went back to full whenever he had her smoke a cigarette. But the shootout eventually ended, and in the way Caesar expected it to end; his brother's character lied in a pool of her blood. But after the screen turned black for a couple of seconds, she was hale and healthy again as she stood outside an apartment complex.

"Thought I could get away that time. But now check this out. When you pause, then you hit up, up, down, down, X button, B button, and Start button...hahaha, she's wearing a banana suit!"

Caesar grinned and nodded along. It was nice to see his brother having fun after not seeing him for so long. But at the back of his mind, he knew he had to get going soon and find a way out of whatever he was in. The girl he saw on the TV screen reminded him of Lenoria; in fact, her slender frame and her aptitude with firearms was nearly a perfect match. That...couldn't be a coincidence, could it?

"Can she talk," Caesar asked.

"Sure. I just press this and..."

"There's nothing I can't do as long as I have my trusty wrench," said the girl on the screen. To Caesar, even the voice was similar, if not the same as the girl he had come to know. It was all too coincidental; this had to be some crazy dream. And if he could remember everything about Lenoria, then surely she must be real, right?

Caesar stood back up with Precious and headed to the door. "I'll be seeing you, Devin."

"A'ight, bro. Just be sure to check on Momma. She misses you, you know? Ever since you died, she just hasn't been the same."

"Ever since I...died?" Something appeared in Caesar's mind. It was brief, maybe even less than a second, but he heard gunshots as he fell into a river after jumping off a high bridge. Dread overwhelmed him and did not want to think any more on the matter, deciding instead to open the door and go back out into the darkness.

Except the door now led him into a graveyard. It was a warm sunny day, yet the atmosphere was far from bright. The smell of cologne he used to wear as a pirate was in the air, and once again he took a moment to inspect himself. His pirate clothes had returned to him, as well as his pepperbox pistol and cutlass. He was no longer a small teenage boy; he was once again a man who had the strength to bear his armor and gear. He was back to being a pirate from Io.

"Caesar." The pirate turned around to see who called out to him, but he could already tell from just the voice. The voice belonged to another African-American male, wearing a black trench coat and holding an umbrella.

"Antoine..." Caesar took a step forward, but a glare from his older brother stopped him.

"So this is what you've been up to? While Pops worked himself to death, you were playing pirates." Antoine raised his hands dramatically, letting them fall on his sides. "I don't know what's going on. I only saw you in my dreams, but those dreams were almost always the same. There you are, sailing the skies in some flying ship, drinking and stealing from other people. I had to see it to believe it."

Dreams seemed to be a recurring theme here. First, Devin claimed to see him in his dreams, and now Antoine was saying the same. Caesar wondered how this could be, and wondered how his brother could even peek into his life as a pirate. "Hold up, bro. You can't be serious."

"And that ridiculous outfit. You always had that on in my dreams. And now I'm seeing you here. Does this mean I'm dreaming again?"

"I-I don't know, but I can explain myself. Please give me a chance."

"A chance?" Antoine scoffed. "Okay, Caesar. How do you explain your new life? Are you really dead? Or did you just fake it so you could run away?"

"I didn't fake anything!" Caesar's shout spooked Antoine into silence. "I don't know what's going on, either. But I did die. All I remember is falling off the bridge and into the river. Then...it was all blank for a while."

His anger quelled but not entirely gone, Antoine listened to Caesar's life in another world. His mom would always talk about life after death, and after his memories returned after hitting puberty in Io, Caesar believed he must have been dead the entire time once he overcame the shock of remembering his past life. Without a way to return home, he made the best of his new life. He was orphaned at a young age, so he could not remember his new parents. But his life would take a turn after the orphanage he was in was raided by pirates, and he had been taken away to work as a deckhand. One thing led to another, and eventually he came to lead a crew of his own.

"You really thought you were dead, then..." Antoine sighed. He wanted to be angry, he really did. But Caesar was never known to be a liar. He would always confess if his mother ever found out about something he did, even if it meant going to bed with a sore behind. "Sorry, it's just...it's been difficult since you've been gone."

"You said Pops worked himself to death. You don't mean..."

All Antoine had to do was point to a couple of tombstones behind Caesar. The pirate captain inspected them and read the engraved inscriptions. He simply could not believe his eyes. A circular piece of stone had been glued between the tombstones, which read "IN LOVING MEMORY OF FATHER AND SON."

RUFUS NORTON WILLIAMS

Born 07-25-1961

Died 03-07-2009

Loving and devoted father, husband, uncle, and brother.

MELVIN CAESAR WILLIAMS

Born 10-21-1990

Died 12-09-2004

A light from this world, gone too soon.

Caesar knelt before his father's tombstone. Flowers had been placed before it, and twice as many had been placed before his own tombstone. He had a morbid curiosity about being so close to his own corpse, but he focused his thoughts on his father. This was a dream, after all; it would make no sense to dig his own grave just to see what he looked like now.

"What year is it," Caesar asked his brother.

"2028," Antoine answered somberly. "Ice caps are melting, raw beef is 20 follars a pound, we order our food with our phones now...oh, and we had a black President about 20 years ago."

"For real?" Caesar asked bemusedly.

"You missed a lot of things. And...we missed you. When you died, Pops looked for another job to cover the hospital bill and the funeral. There were days where he wouldn't get sleep for days." Antoine pointed at his father's tombstone. "As you can see, it caught up to him not long after you left us. Momma had savings for my college funds, but with Pops gone..."

Even if this was a dream, this all came as a shock to Caesar. The tears did not come to him, but he was saddened all the same. "Pops..."

"He died from a stroke. Doctors said it was mostly stress, but they also said part of it was a poor diet. They never miss a chance to knock on soul food."

"Momma always told him to eat his greens, but he did love his pork chops," Caesar commented. With a groan, he stood back up. "I'm sorry I couldn't be there, Antoine. If I hadn't died..."

"Not your fault. I was angry for a while that I had to give up my dreams, but no matter what I thought, I just couldn't leave Momma alone. And that's a choice I would make again."

Antoine held out his hand. Caesar grabbed it, and the two brothers then pulled each other for a hug. Precious clung to Caesar's chest before climbing up to his shoulder. Antoine didn't ask, but deep in his heart, he knew; Caesar had to leave and return to his new home. Back on Earth, he had been dead for 24 years; even if he was able to return after all this time, there was no way they could explain everything without risking getting sent to some mental ward.

"Devin hasn't been the same, you know," Antoine said. "He didn't take the news of your death very well, and when Pops passed, he refused to leave his room. He never believed you died, and after he started claiming you were visiting his dreams, he got a little better and got out of his room more."

"He seemed fine when I saw him just now," Caesar pointed out. "But...he was the same as he was back when we were kids. But you? You grew up..."

"I kinda had to. Momma needed me. Devin needed me. And Pops couldn't be there anymore." Antoine sighed. "Devin started having those dreams about four years ago. I didn't believe him at first, and neither did Momma. But then I started having them about two years ago. Talking to you now...I guess it made me feel better."

Caesar knew what he had to do next. There was one more person who needed to see him, even in dream form. "I just gotta find Momma's dream, then I need to find Selena."

Antoine hung his head back in confusion. "Selena? Who's that?"

"The girl next door. Don't you remember?"

Antoine chortled and shook his head. "You tripping, man. We rarely had any neighbors because no one liked us, remember?"

Time slowed down for Caesar. A feeling of dread he hadn't felt before overwhelmed him. His 'memories' with Selena became a jumbled mess of colors; the meals they shared, the outings they went on, the bugs they recorded on their notebooks...all gone. Instead, they were all replaced by memories of Caesar sitting alone in the park, recording his findings on his own. Whenever he tried to think about Selena, he couldn't remember her face anymore. Instead, he saw...her.

"I finally found you!" Luno's frantic voice stunned Caesar and Antoine with fear. Powerful winds buffeted them without ceasing, opening a door behind Caesar that wasn't there before. When it opened, the winds shoved him and Precious with overwhelming force, closing the door when they unwillingly crossed to the other side.