"Wait," Cinder's voice called out behind us. We turned to see her standing there, wings shifting through uncertain orange-purples and troubled grays, her hostile draconic maw melting back into human-ish-ness. "I... don't go. Please. I... don't want to be alone here!"

I rotated.

"I don't want to see the rest of it," she whispered, but somehow her voice carried all the way to where we stood.

"We don't have to see the rest," I said. "We can go somewhere else. Anywhere you want."

"Can we?" she asked. "Just... make this all go away?"

"Hum," I said "Isn't this your dream? Your mind? Can we not go anywhere, be anywhere? Make it into a lucid dream or something?"

"I... I don't know where to go or how to leave this nightmare," she admitted, wings wrapping around herself. "I've been stuck in this memory for so long... having the same damn awful dream. Over and over. Night after night... For two years now."

"That... doesn't sound healthy at all," Vee said, black feathers swaying. "Sounds like deep magical trauma, a tear in the psyche. Could be the result of the ritual. Wait. Ritual. Gate. Leviathan. Repeating dreams. Sheeet. It... Sounds like something got in you... and is leeching off your worst day, getting stronger."

The Thunderbird frowned.

"W-what?" Cinder blinked.

Vee pulled me by my elbow closer to the weary-looking Quetzi.

"Those flesh-warp twats were trying to open a gate," Vespera said. "Looks like they've succeeded. Something had come through, attached itself to your soul and also to this lakeshore. Friggin' Abyss, Emmy.... why did your stupid beerch ass not tell anyone anything? Dum, dum dragon-knob."

"What?" Cinder's eyes went wide. "Something's been... feeding off my nightmares?"

"Gates work both ways. Those warpards were trying to reach back through time to the Leviathan. Instead, something else reached forward through you. Through your voice, your pain, your fear. It's been using this memory to anchor itself here."

"How do we get rid of it?" I asked.

Vespera looked around. "An Astral Phantom gotta be somewhere around here, hiding between the cracks. We have to zap it first. We need some kind of a massive amp and focus tool for that though..."

"Like those amps you used at the D&D concert?" I asked.

"Na," Vee clicked. "Waaaay bigger. Something truly massive."

"And that would... stop the nightmares?" Cinder asked.

"Nope," Vespera clicked. "Digging the dream parasite out is step one. Step two is find where it's actually anchored in the physical world. Probably somewhere near lake Eerie. If we don't close the door there, don't get those beast cores out of the lake, it'll just slowly get into your head again. See those colorful shears in your dream? Those ain't never going away. That's soul damage, scars that don't heal."

"The lake..." Cinder's wings trembled. "I haven't been there in two years. Nazareth. I can't go back there."

"You won't have to," I said. "Vee and I can handle it... right?"

"Probably not," Vespera shrugged. "This thing is clearly devious. Clever. Old. If I wasn't a pro Dreamwalker trained in mental manipulation, I wouldn't have noticed shit. Likewise, we won't be able to find shit ourselves at the lake. We'd need our rainbow-feathered princess as... bait."

"As bait?!" Cinder's feathers shifted through fearful grays. "I... I can't. Not there. Not again!"

"You're not alone this time," I said softly. "You've got us."

"For now," she said bitterly. "Until you get what you want and move on. Just like everyone else."

"Ci," I sighed. "I'm not going anywhere. You know that. And neither is Vee. We're a team now, remember?"

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"Team 'I love you'," Vespera drew an electrical arc in the air in the shape of a heart. "Heckin' max-cheez, but true. You know, Ci... for the longst' time I didn't give a shit about anyone. Specially you. 'Cus you were such a knob. But this pink meatsicle, he makes me feel stuff. Like I don't have to pretend to be dumb. And I see how he looks at you - like you're something precious that needs protecting but also someon' fierce that deserves respect. That's... that's real, Ci. That's not manipulation or control. That's just... fren'ship. Reeel' two-way fren'ship, not whatev' half-assed bullshit thing we had with Em n Sol."

"How can you be so sure?" Cinder asked.

"Because he's not even tryin' to hide how he really feels about you," Vespera clicked her beak in amusement. "Just starin' at ya, like a lovesick puppy. It's actually kind of adorkable. Worst of all is that he makes me feel stuff for you."

"What stuff?" Cinder asked cautiously, her feathers shifting through curious blue-silvers.

"You kno', like... actual caring?" Vespera tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Not just surface-level party-girl stuff, but genuine concern. When I see you hurting, it actually hurts me too now. And I want to help, not just because it's entertaining, but because... because you deserve better than being trapped in this nightmare forever. Also, if we don't get this thing outta you and off the lake, it'll probably eat you from inside out. I am very concern. The lack of colors on your bod, failing grades, excessive snappiness... That's not just normal stress from being near-perma-murdered. That's your psyche tearing up, weakening. My bad. I should have scanned your dreams earlier, checked if a memetic was in ya..."

Cinder trembled.

"Acs'hully," Vespera sighed. "I should scan everyone. Hard. Make sure it hasn't gotten into anyone else. Kat's condition is... concerning too. If the incarnator isn't fixing her, that's soul damage. Damn it, how is this happening? Now I care about that wheelie too. Heck! Way to go."

She smacked me.

"What was that for?" I rubbed the back of my head where her magisteel talons landed.

"For making me care about people," she clicked. "It's very inconvenient. I was perfectly happy being shallow and selfish."

"No you weren't," I said.

"No, I wasn't," she agreed with a sigh. "But it was easier. Getting this thing outta Ci is going to be an effort and a half."

"Why?"

"Did you see how many beast cores those flesh-flaps dropped into that lake?" Vespera glared at me like I was a knob. "How many bracelets they had on already? This thing's level has to be in the 40k star-range!"

"That... doesn't sound like something five teens can deal with," I said. "Should we like tell Cinder's dad about this or something?"

Vespera smacked me in the head again, even harder this time. "No, you knob. How are you so smart and also so stupid?"

"Ow," I complained. "Stop hitting me. I don't have my AI here to bounce my thoughts off. Just thinking out loud."

"Em and this clueless rainbo'," Vespera pointed a steel-covered talon at Cinder. "Obviously did something incredibly illegal to make an entire Skinwalker clan disappear. I read a report on sus vanished upper classmen skinnis. Vigilante justice of the worst kind, I suspect. If we get her dad involved or the Justice department, it'll kick up an ant's nest and then there's going to be no end of it. I'll get caught up in it, you'll get caught up in it. Judge Nova operates within the confines of the law, does everything by the book. And if the book says his daughter goes to prison for perma-killing a bunch of perma-murderers, then that's that. Trust me, we really don't want that much scrutiny over us."

"Noted," I said.

"So what do we do?" Cinder asked, her entire body trembling even more now. "If we can't tell anyone, and we can't fight it directly..."

"We do what I do best," I said. "We cheat. I'll figure something out. Give me time to think, research. Understand what got into your head, get Yulia to think about it. There's got to be a way to deal with high-level entities without direct confrontation."

"And in the meantime?" Cinder's feathers darkened to blood-red. "I just... keep having these nightmares?"

"Obviously not," Vespera shook her head. "The nightmares are like an ever-tightening noose around your neck making it stronger. Just so you kno' Ci, I really wouldn't have done this for you, if this cheeky meatsicle wasn't here."

The Thunderbird patted my head. I looked at her.

"What would you have done if I wasn't here?" I asked.

"Throw the book at Ci," the Thunderbird sighed. "Tell everything to her dad, let OFBS deal with it. If she goes to prison, that's that. I'm screwed anyway, so let everyone else burn... etcetera."

"You're screwed... how?" Cinder blinked.

"Vee is trapped in an arranged marriage," I said. "Big Omnicorpo-merger stuff. Her dad wants her to modify her own mind using Dreamancy to accept it."

Cinder blinked. "So... why?" She looked at Vee. "Why help me when you've got your own problems?"

"This persistent pink disaster," Vespera poked me in the cheek with a talon. "Blame him for everything. I know he ain't gonna give up on you. So... both of us are gonna stick our heads into your noose and keep it from suffocating you. We're gonna stay here, let your monster feed on us too. Night after night. No matter how long it takes."

She walked across the shore gathering sticks in her arms. Cinder and I watched her. The Thunderbird dumped the sticks into a pile.

Then she exhaled as if letting go of something. Cold rain whipped at us from broiling clouds overhead, the shear and lightning vanishing away. Time resumed.

"Commere, you knobs," she said with a toothy smirk. She leaned down and pointed a talon to ignite the firewood pile with a thunder-blast, spreading her wings wide like a canopy and patting at the ground on both sides of her. Raindrops fell onto her dark feathery mane and wings, making her sparkle. "Sit, hold onto me and stay warm. The Astral Phantom won't let us leave this dream until Ci wakes up in the mornin', but at least we'll have each other. Three souls are harder to digest than one. One for all... All for one and all that cheesy Alexandre Dumas jazz."