Mira’s POV

Once we found Cole, I could tell what was going on. If the Elemental had completely taken over his body, then it would be able to move around, pretending to be him, whereas if the worst had happened and they’d destroyed each other, Cole’s body would be super still. But it was all twitchy, which meant that neither one of them could control what the body was doing. Both Cole and the Elemental must be fighting inside Cole’s mind, and the only person who could help Cole was Me, because Daddy can’t go Ghost Mode like I can.

I went Ghost Mode, and tried to make my way into Cole’s mind. I’d never done this before, but it shouldn’t be all that hard, right? I used Daddy’s Eyes to look at Cole’s body, and tried to shove my way inside of his head, since that’s where I saw Daddy building Cole’s mind. While Daddy made my mind and body separately, so I could slip in and out of my body whenever I wanted to, Daddy seemed to not want Cole to be able to do that. He made Cole’s body first, then made his mind inside of the body that he’d already built. This made it so that Cole couldn’t go Ghost Mode like I could, because his mind and body were too well connected. My plan was simple, go inside of Cole’s mind, and beat up the Elemental!!

When I’m in Ghost Mode, the world is kinda…weird. I can’t see anything, hear anything, touch, smell, or even taste. But somehow, I can still sort of know what’s around me. Not anything specific, which is why I need to use Daddy’s eyes to guide my way to Cole’s head, but enough to where I could tell where Cole and Daddy were, almost like…Oh! That radar thing from Daddy’s memories. It’s kinda like that, where I can feel different ping!’s around me. It was scary back when I first woke up, because I didn’t really know what was going on, but eventually I figured out how to access Daddy’s memories, and watched him make me, which is what told me that that weird ping! Next to me was actually the body that Daddy had made for me. And from there, I started practicing Ghost Mode whenever I was alone, and figured out how to move around freely, and how to find my body whenever I wanted to go back to normal.

Another weird thing, is that for some reason, when I go Ghost Mode, my memories don’t go back to my lair, the room with all of the books with my memories. I’m not really sure why, but I think that Daddy might’ve connected that room to my body, and not my mind. I’ve practiced Ghost Mode a lot in the past couple of years, but after I realized that the memories don’t go back to my lair, I made sure to keep all of my practice as a secret from Daddy and Cole, that way I could get really good at it and surprise both of them. Especially Daddy, he always knows when I’m trying to sneak up on him, but with this, he won’t be able to see me!! Because the mind isn’t something you can look at with your eyes!! Though I guess Daddy doesn’t have eyes, but it’s still the same thing.

Cole’s mind was…weird. Normally, in Ghost Mode, I can’t really interact with anything around me, and just kinda pass through it all, but here? Rather than passing through everything around me, it felt more like…I was everything around me? Even though there was nothing there? Ugh, it’s super hard to explain. It’s kind of like being a person made of water inside of a pool, but there was no water. So like a person made of nothing in a bunch of other nothing, but still somehow distinct from the nothing all around it? Did that make sense? No? Hmmm, well anyways, that’s how it was.

Because there was nothing here, there were no real ‘directions’, and because I was in Ghost Mode, I didn’t really have a way I was ‘facing’ either, so I couldn’t even make up directions based on where I was pointing. It was super confusing, but what made it even more confusing is that I could somehow still feel where to move around to. I was going ‘deeper’ into Cole’s mind. Going back to the pool explanation, it was kinda like…rather than a pool, it was a puddle, so there was no real ‘down’, but it was connected to a series of magic portals that each flowed into the other one, and I was going through the different portals.

The more of these ‘portals’ I went through, the closer I felt to Cole. I couldn’t really tell how many I actually ended up going through, because they weren’t actually portals, but more like a direction that you can’t see. It’s super tough to explain, but I knew how to move to get to Cole, and eventually, I reached the ‘bottom layer’, where I could feel Cole, and…huh?

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Does the Elemental have a Ghost Mode too? Next to Cole, it feels a lot like the way that I do, like the Elemental is the same kind of thing that I am. Wait, am I actually a Dream Elemental? No! That can’t be!! I’m a dragon, and not just any dragon, I’m the Dragon Princess!! I’m not a stupid Elemental!!

“Mira!? Is that you??” Huh. Weird. Why can I hear Cole talking to me? I don’t even have ears! Is it because I’m literally inside of his mind right now? Maybe rather than talking, like how we usually do, this is more like how Daddy talks to Mommy Sophia and Auntie/Mommy Ash sometimes, where it’s directly from one mind to another. But even if he asks, I don’t really have a way to answer him, because I don’t have a mouth either. I tried to respond with my thoughts, the same way that I can remember Daddy’s conversations with Mommies going, but it doesn’t seem like it’s working. I can’t figure out how to send my thoughts out. I mean, currently I’m in Ghost Mode, so my entire body right now is just my thoughts, so maybe if I touched Cole I’d be able to do it, but…

Right now, I still feel like, rather than becoming part of my surroundings, all of my surroundings are becoming a part of me. If I touch Cole, maybe I’d be able to send my thoughts directly to his mind, but it’s also possible that I’d end up eating him accidentally, and I don’t want to risk that. So, unable to answer him, I tried my best to just focus on the problem, and come up with a way to help him fight the bad guy, but…I don’t know how to beat up the Elemental. Cole is managing to keep it at bay, but rather than fighting, it’s kinda like…they’re both pushing at the air? Huh? I tried to join Cole in pushing the Elemental, but couldn’t figure out how. I reached out my tendrils as hard as I could, but it didn’t seem to be doing anything. Are Cole and the Elemental playing pretend??

“Don’t touch the Elemental, Mira, it’ll consume you!” Cole warned. How does he know? Is it something you need eyes to figure out? Or wait…is that what I’m doing right now, where my surroundings are becoming part of me? Am I eating whatever is around us inside of Cole’s mind? That sounds right, and if it is, then there’s a chance that the Elemental is doing the same thing. So if I touched the Elemental, would I be able to eat it? Or would it eat me first? I considered it for a moment, but decided not to risk it. The Elemental lives in Ghost Mode, and has probably practiced eating a lot more than I have, so it’s probably better at it than I am, so I’d lose.

Oh well, if I can’t touch the Elemental, then how am I supposed to beat it up? I sat there for a moment, trying to think of what to do, now that my big master plan’s fallen apart. Hmmmm…. Hmmmmmmmmm…. Oh! I know!

Instead of going towards the Elemental, I made my way over to Cole. He seemed like he was chained down, tendrils just like mine leading from his back, his legs, his arms, and all of his fingers and toes. It was almost as if someone had dipped him into something sticky, then put him right in the middle of this place, so he couldn’t really move too much, and always had to fight against the stickiness for every action. If I got rid of all the sticky stuff, shouldn’t he be able to move better?

I got to work, reaching out my tendrils to grab onto all of the ones connected to Cole, then pulling them off of him, one by one. He yelled out every time I disconnected one, but he didn’t tell me to stop, so I figured he was okay, but maybe it felt like picking off a scale or something.

One by one, I worked, until his left arm was completely free, then his right arm, then his right leg, then his left leg, then finally, I started freeing his torso. The freer I made Cole, the closer the Elemental seemed to be getting. Like the Elemental didn’t really like what I was doing, and was pushing harder than ever to make it stop. Well, if the Elemental doesn’t like it, then shouldn’t I keep going? After all, the Elemental is the bad guy, so if the bad guy doesn’t like something, then that means that I’m doing a good guy thing! The transitive property as it applies to negative numbers for the win!! I worked faster, and when I finally reached the last tendril…

Fwoosh, Cole’s body seemed to be melting! Wait, not melting, the other one, where solids turn directly into gas, uhhh…Sublimating! That’s the one!! Cole’s body started turning into smoke, similar to how I do when I go Ghost Mode. Wait, did I just make Cole able to go Ghost Mode? How? Oh wait, were those tendrils the connection between Cole’s mind and body? If so…Then I know what to do!!!

I sent my tendrils out, grabbing Cole and bringing him inside of me, then I made my way back through all the weird portal things, not up or down, not front, right, left, or back, but…through?? It’s still so weird to try to describe, but I made my way through all the different layers, until I finally made my way back to the outside world, and brought Cole with me over to my body, so I could keep him there, while Daddy beat up the Elemental that was still in Cole’s body. Fufufuu… I’m a gosh dang genius!!! Bow before my intellectual superiority peasants, for I am the Tyrannical Dragon Princess!!

I finally made it back to my body, then took a little time to set up Cole so he’d be nice and comfy in my head, then repossessed my body, so I could tell Daddy what he had to do.