Shen still lies in wait of his awakening. He has to push a little more to manifest his path to victory. Submerged in a literal abyss of nightmares, Shen endlessly fights his way through hundreds of nightmares experienced in just a few fractions of a second. Each moment feels like an eternity, yet in the real world, barely any time has passed. He could have awakened by now. Not even Sandman would stop him, but he’s hellbent on saving the unfortunate folk still trapped in their dreams.

The first of these dreams is a nightmare a child as young as seven is experiencing. She’s trapped in a closet, hiding from a monster alongside Shen. Deep within the deepest depths of her mind lies a fear of the unknown. Her life of instability and uncertainty led her to these horrible sights.

“Hey!” Shen whispers. “Are you okay?”

She shakes her head. Her makeshift panic room bellows and rumbles. All cloth turns pitch black as they wrap around the two of them. A whirlwind of darkness separates them, launching these victims into a cold abyss. Its slimy grasp of them creates discomfort as they attempt not to drown. Shen, though afraid of the dark, isn’t afraid to act. Knowing that these nightmares are just dreams means that just a few actions and thoughts are enough to manifest a way out.

“I can’t see a thing. Maybe I should create a light? Or should I create some kind of pathfinder to the girl?”

He begins to trace a star with his fingers. He dots out two eyes and sketches a smile as he pictures a soft and adorable sprite bouncing along his tune. It finally gains form and begins to guide him towards the helpless girl. Shen creates a little ball of air that would push him forward. Shortly thereafter, he crashes right into her, pulling her into the bubble.

“Are you okay?” he asks as she coughs up some black gunk. “I hope I didn’t frighten you. I’m… I’m Selen! I’m here to purge evil nightmares.”

“I’m fine. Thank you. Axis.”

“Probably another Dream Catcher, huh?” he asks himself.

“Tell me what happened. Why are we in here?” he asks her.

She had lost count of just how many iterations of this dream she had gone through. Initially, she was locked in her bedroom with some horrid entity knocking for hours till it broke into her room. She’d be dragged into some kind of abyss before she’d ever get a chance to look at the creature trying to drown her in darkness. After several attempts at hiding beneath desks, behind a chair, behind a closet, and in a closet, she managed to find some clothes to hang over her and delay the inevitable.

“I don’t wanna see it again! Please get me out of here!”

Her cries and tears are shed in terror. Before long, Shen manifests a door her size, suggesting that she escape.

“And what about you?” she asks, wiping away her tears.

“I’ll be fine. No nightmare can beat me, okay?”

Before she could look back, Shen pushes her. She’ll likely forget ever being saved by a stranger and being concerned for him. The dream falls along with Shen creating a rainshower of poisonous black drops. His air bubble bursts, introducing him to acidic dream droplets. Yet, despite the hurt he’s experiencing, his eyes are set on another one of the victims. The golden clouds are almost blown away by shrieks loud enough to reach space. Below are several featureless heads with just a mouth screaming at one lonely old man rapidly aging to almost decay.

“And I thought my dreams were weird…” he thinks, growing less and less afraid of getting hurt.

He manifests noise-canceling earphones onto the old man and himself and fires off an arrow of youth. Its impact not only wipes the horrors tormenting the victim of this dreamscape they also grant youth to the poor old man subjected to the bellows of disharmony. Before Shen could take a look at the young man, he crashes into the earth straight through this nightmare into the next.

After 100 nights worth of nightmares, Shen is met with his greatest challenge. The next victim isn’t a helpless individual who has been subjected to torment. He’s here because of foreign issues. Every night, Sandman invites him in without any lures or trickery. Hellfire is a willing participant even if he can’t remember any of the dreams. He unknowingly fed Sandman into becoming as powerful as he is today.

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One lone boy is standing over a stovetop, paralyzed by some kind of fear. Shen has just entered through the front door. Though he hasn’t had the chance to take in this nightmare, Shen can feel intense, almost crippling loneliness. His heart is beating like never before until the young boy runs towards him. He had significantly grown, but not enough to be considered an adult.

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“A guest?? Hello! You don’t have to take off your shoes. Or take them off if you want to! I don’t really care!”

Hellfire seems high-strung and full of energy. His excitement is soaring just by inviting one guest.

The living room is decorated with many balloons, plushies, and fancy and colorful ornaments. His birthday cake is just as colorful as he is. fourteen candles, a ‘Happy Birthday’ sign, smarties, strawberries, and some chocolate icing… You wouldn’t know what to start with. Before Shen could get himself seated, Hellfire crumples up a few letters with all kinds of names on them. Only one of which he can recognize. ‘Elena,’ Railgun’s actual name.

“Weren’t we supposed to have more guests?” Shen asks. “Those letters are for others, right?”

“They’re busy…”

He doesn’t seem to want to elaborate on the other guests. Yet, despite the apparent taboo, Shen tries to prod a little further. The least he can do is find out about other Dream Catchers while he’s trapped in these nightmares.

“Well, it seems you’ve known them for long. I’m sure they do want to show up.”

“I don’t know…”

“Tell me more, and I’ll determine whether or not they’d show up if they could! That way, you don’t have to worry about them not wanting to show up,” says Shen. His heart grows even heavier as his breaths grow shorter.

“Well… I know Elena doesn’t have it easy. Her reputation is always somehow in the gutter, and no one wants to tell me why… She only ever drops by to gift some snacks. But she only stays for a few minutes and then doesn’t talk for weeks. Maybe interacting with me is a bother…”

“Why would that bother her?” Shen asks.

“It does sound like they don’t have that much they wanna do with him… But then why even bother dropping by?” he thinks.

“Well… ” Hellfire hesitates. “I was supposed to be part of the Bavarian Council, but she took my spot despite her infamy. Maybe she doesn’t want to risk sinking even lower because of me.”

“But she drops by all the time… So that means she likes you enough to leave gifts. It’s just the Council… Eventually, that awkwardness will fade.”

Hellfire spends a bit of time pondering as he slowly eats his slice of cake. Shen isn’t entirely sure how he should take care of the Sandman’s final anchor. He can’t feel that same power he felt before, meaning he can’t just manifest a pathway out for Hellfire. The only thing he can do is talk to Hellfire till his issues are resolved. But how can you defeat such crippling loneliness in just one dream?

“What about the others? Elena sounds like a cordial stranger, so the rest must be friends, right?”

“Yeah! There’s Aqua, Karen, and Mysterio. But Mysterio and Karen disappeared, and Aqua has been busy with her own duties and finding them. She’s only found clues about Mysterio, which all point to him being alive, but Karen has seemingly vanished… She’s probably dead.” His eyes well up.

“And her powers? I’m sure she knows how to defend herself,” Shen says, trying to grasp at straws.

“Teleportation…”

“If she’s avoiding you, then her powers make it almost impossible to trace her. Have you thought about that?” Shen asks.

“But why would she-”

“Why would she be dead? If there’s no body, then there’s no death. I can’t confirm or deny it, but you have to hold out on losing all hope,” Shen claims.

“I’m sorry for lying to you,” he thinks.

Though the heaviness of his heart is beginning to fade, his guilty conscience is only adding to it. But for now, he’ll have to defeat Sandman. If that ends up hurting just one Dream Catcher, then it may be worth doing.

“Then I’m sure you must be lonely. I only have one friend, and I wouldn’t know what I would do without him,” Shen says. “But if I have you as my second friend, then I won’t have to worry as much, right?”

Hellfire fumbles with his plate while avoiding eye contact.

“Well, if you don’t mind…”

“Of course I don’t! Just tell me where I can find you, and we’ll figure something out, okay?”

They exchange contact information so they can keep in touch in the real world. Shen can’t be certain Hellfire will remember their little meeting after waking up, but at least he’ll soon have someone to confide in. Before Shen steps out to confront Sandman, he leaves behind a few parting words of promise.

Now, in the deepest depths of these interwoven nightmares lies just one more being waiting to be found. Its tricks were meaningless. Its powers are exhausted. Its plans have fallen apart. Now, it can only wait for Shen's judgment.

“You’ve been here for quite a long time, haven’t you?” Shen asks.

A dark figure is weeping while on its knees. Darkness is oozing off of it along with purple flames, creating a mighty mane. Yet beneath that darkness lies a little round body with an even rounder disproportionately large head, short arms and legs with stubs for hands and feet, and big round eyes that are soft yet empty. Instead of vanquishing it as he was supposed to, he embraces it as he lets his body burn and sear.

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As he wakes up, his eyes adjust to the brightness of the real world. However, instead of being surrounded by grass in a gray world whose beauty only shines through at its center where the spire breaches the clouds, he’s met with pink delights and lovely petals of pink and white. The plain grass field has turned into a flower field of hibiscus and many more flowers.

“Are you okay?” Calypso asks. His forehead is bleeding, and one of his eyes is kept shut from the downpour of blood.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” Shen asks. He gets up to inspect his surroundings, only to be met with the embrace of pink tourmaline clusters shielding the two of them.

“What happened?”