Andie tapped her fingers anxiously as she teetered awkwardly on top of one of Cedric’s drones, riding it up toward the rooftops. Cedric himself had gone first, and Dyllan was right behind her on the other drone. “Alright, I’m here.” She hopped off of the drone and on to the cheap roofing. “So what exactly was it that you needed to… see… so…”
There, suspended limply between two buildings in a web of colorful yarn, was a person. She looked exactly like Maddie, but in black and white - much like the shadows of Andie, Dyllan, and Cedric. Unlike their shadows, however, the monochrome coloration didn’t come off as menacing - it came off as sad and lifeless. More alarmingly, there was a brilliant silver spear with a golden yellow ribbon tied to it piercing the girl’s stomach. It was unmistakably a Virtue, the weapon of a dreamwalker.
“Okay, yeah. I can see why you were so worried about this.” Andie spoke to Cedric, but couldn’t pry her eyes off of the girl. “Just one question: What the fuck am I looking at!?”
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“Don’t rush him, Andie. I’m sure Cedric -” Dyllan called out from below, cutting himself off as soon as he rose high enough to see over the edge of the building. “Okay, nope, never mind. Cedric, I don’t know what’s going on in your head right now, but if you could bring us into the loop, that’d be great.”
“…I knew it.” Something was off about Cedric as he spoke. His voice was the same, but the tone was cold and calculated. “It’s exactly as I thought, if the shadow of a dreamwalker successfully usurps their ego, this is what happens. Denial, mental anguish, and madness.” He turned to look behind Andie and Dyllan. His eyes had turned colorless, but the rest of him remained normal. “And from the look in ‘Maddie’s’ eye, I could tell it was quite the painful experience for both parties involved.”
“So even if I win, I lose, huh?” A shiver ran down Andie’s spine as she heard her own voice come from behind her. “So that’s why you never helped us fight.”