He woke up in the middle of a forest unsure of how he even arrived there. The last thing he remembered was laying in his bed as he had just woken up again from a nightmare. The nightmare… He looked around and realized he was dreaming again. Something felt different this time but he couldn't figure out what it was.

He stood up and took stock of his situation. He was still in his dress uniform and his side arm was thankfully still on his hip. His dress shoes wouldn’t help here, but they were worn in and comfortable. Other than that he had nothing else on him, 'the same as every other dream' he thought.

Next he looked up into the sky through the forest of massive pine trees to notice the sun seemed to be in the middle of the sky. As he looked up at the sky he heard something behind him, which made him whip around to look as his hand went to his side arm on instinct. Nothing was behind him, but he slowly walked his way to where the noise came from. After a few moments he heard another noise coming from directly behind him. He spun around this time with his gun in his hand, but found nothing.

He paused for a few moments and waited but nothing happened. He let out a nervous chuckle as he thought to himself, 'My nerves must be getting to me, this nightmare is fucking with my head.'

He holstered his gun and walked next to the closest tree and studied the base for a moment. The first tree had no moss around its base but the second tree did. Once he figured out north he started to move towards the south where he could see some mountains in the distance. He started to make a list of stuff he would need to find, water, food, shelter…

He stopped himself, this was just another nightmare, he didn't need food or water… He spun around again as another sound was heard from behind him, but nothing was there.

He shook his head before he heard a loud roar of an animal off in the distance to the north of him. He frowned as his hand rested on the grip for his sidearm. He turned back south and increased his pace a little as he walked towards the mountains. He wasn't sure why, but in every nightmare he always moved south.

He didn’t want to admit it, but something was very wrong with this nightmare. He had spent hours as he walked through the forest towards the mountains in the distance. But the mountains looked the same distance as when he started and the sun still seemed to be high in the sky. While those happened in every one of his nightmares, something about this one felt wrong. It didn’t feel like the other ones, it felt… Real maybe?

A noise was heard from behind him, but he didn’t turn around this time. He lost count of how many times he had heard something, only to turn around to find nothing like in every nightmare. So he decided to just ignore the sounds and concentrate on moving towards the south and the mountains.

He tightened his grip on his side arm as he heard another monstrous roar to the north behind him. It seemed to be closer this time and it had been getting closer as time passed. That seemed new, but he couldn't remember as the nightmares always became hazy at this point.

He increased his pace again into a light jog, but never took his right arm off his sidearm resting in his holster. But the feeling of wrongness never left him. He used his left arm to wipe the perspiration from his forehead as he moved through the trees.

He had lost track of how long it had been since he started running. But his chest hurt with every breath he took and his calves felt like they were on fire. But he never stopped moving, he couldn't, it was close now. He could almost feel its hot breath on the back of his neck. Its roaring had become less frequent and something in the back of his mind told him it was familiar. He shook his head a little, of course it was familiar. He had lost track of how many times he had this same nightmare.

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After running all out for a while, he finally collapsed on the ground. His body had given up on him and no longer responded to his commands. He took torturous ragged breaths as he looked at the bright sky above him. He knew this is where the nightmare always ended, the beast was close now and right as it pounced he would wake up screaming.

Less than a minute passed as he laid on the ground, his eyes closed as he waited to wake up. He had never heard the beast as it approached him. The sound of his own heart was always deafening as it thundered away in his ears.

His body flinched instinctively when he felt the beast's hot putrid breath wash over his face. That was definitely new, he was sure that had never happened before. He shook his head, it was just another nightmare and soon he would wake up.

His eyes shot open as unbearable pain exploded from his right foot and he let out an agonizing scream. He reached for his sidearm on instinct and with his shaking hand aimed it at the beast that had just ripped his foot off.

He quickly squeezed the trigger only to hear the distinctive click of a dry fire. He remembered immediately that he had no round chambered and worked through his pain to quickly pull back the slide and chamber this first round in his gun. He took aim at the beast as it was about to bite his left foot.

As he pulled the trigger that same distinctive click was heard and he swore he saw the beast smirk before it bit down on his other foot as another wave of agonizing pain swept through his body. He couldn't help but yell out in pain, "It's only a dream! It's only a dream! It's only a dream! It's only a dream! It's only a dream!"

He heard a deep animalistic laugh before a voice he heard many times before said, "Not this time, commander."

vvvvv

Three people stood inside the mirror dimension as Mikhail took his revenge on his former commander. Flanked on either side of Tao stood Ezekiel and Mordo.

Mordo grimaced as he asked, "Is this considered cannibalism?"

Ezekiel shook his head and said, "No, he is clearly not eating the man." As Mikhail spit out the man's right hand after he bit it off.

They watched in silence for a few more moments as Mikhail systematically ripped the man apart, while he was still alive.

Mordo spoke again as he said, "While I can understand the man's need for vengeance, I don't think you should have helped him with it, in the way that you did."

Tao nodded in agreement as she said, "If I was truly informed of what was going on, I would have never allowed you to help. While I am not against Mikhail seeking to punish the man or even killing him. Your actions took this too far, even though he was going to die, you still somehow broke his mind."

"In my defense I didn't think that was going to happen… I just wanted to help out a little as I didn’t want the man to have an easy death. But honestly it's a little terrifying to think I could do that by accident.

"I don’t really plan to inform the others of your actions, mostly because Steve is the only one who would really look down on what you did here. But this isn’t the first time you have shown this type of out of character behavior. We’ll need to have a long talk once those young girls are rescued from the widow program and try to figure out why this is happening." Tao crossed her arms over her chest and stared down at Ezekiel who stood on her left side.

"Yes, Master."

Mordo's lips twitched up the tiniest bit in a smile before his face went back to his normal stoic look. Tao was still turned to Ezekiel as she said, "Don't worry Master Mordo, we’ll also be having a conversation about your actions during the last few days, later this week. Also I believe it's your turn to help with cleaning duty around the temple this coming week.”

“I was on cleaning duty last…”

Tao glanced over her shoulder as she said, “For the next month.”

Whatever Mordo wanted to say, he stopped himself and replied, “Yes, Master.”