One very successful muffin later, Soral opened his eyes in a haunted landscape similar to the one he had spoken to the nightmare king in. This time he stood in ruins of what must have once been a majestic banquet hall. Now it was destroyed, with vicious claw marks carved into the walls that seemed to ooze pure darkness.

“You’ve returned,” the wind howled. Or rather the king of nightmares pretending to be wind. “I did not expect you to come so quickly after your hasty departure. Have you come to realize our fates have intertwined?”

“I have, so I figure I might as well ask some more questions,” Soral replied.

“More questions? Have you come to make another deal?”

“Nope. I just figured I would ask you what you know about Doc. I figure it can’t hurt. If you won’t answer without a deal, you won’t answer.”

“I could give you a simple deal,” the nightmare king offered, “Something I wish for you to know and something you wish to know. It is a deal where you lose nothing and only gain.”

“Gain something I don’t want,” Soral guessed. But it was just knowledge, right? He was tempted. “How much will you tell me about Doc if I agree?”

“Everything you wish to know. Have you prepared you questions?” The voice was garbled and hard to understand.

“Can you add on that maybe you impart knowledge in a normal voice so I can hear you properly?”

“You wish for knowledge of what my voice sounds like? Do not worry. That was some of the knowledge I wished to impart onto you.”

Why would the nightmare king want someone to know his real voice as part of a deal? It sounded pretty innocent but Soral was certain there was a catch hidden somewhere. He seemed willing to answer anything as long as Soral had the right questions. Judging by how short his time felt here last time, he didn’t have much time to deliberate.

“I accept,” Soral told him, “How quick are the things you wish to tell me?”

“There are three,” a deep, but mostly normal sounding voice replied, “My voice, as you have just heard, my appearance, and my name. You will be unable to forget any of these things once I reveal them to you.”

Now that sounded ominous. “Okay. I’ll ask my questions and then you can do your next thing,” Soral suggested. He wanted to make sure he got his questions in.

“Where is Doc’s actual base?” Soral asked.

The scenery around them changed to reveal a small pole sticking out of the desert sand. They followed the pole beneath the sand to reveal a bunker. Around the pole had been countless buildings, every one a trap and facade.

As the knowledge filled his mind, Soral began to feel dizzy. Was this what it meant to have your questions answered by nightmare royalty? He regained his composure and asked his second question.

“If I destroy all the collars, will there be any dangerous after effects?”

Now he was shown a vision of the magic overload shutting down the protections and shields that kept the bunker safe. Because they exploded, it became an underground prison, slowly filling with sand.

“How do I avoid that?” Soral asked, glad he had not just tried it blindly.

This time he was pulled through the halls and showed a switch that would turn off the power, disabling the systems. Once they were off it would be safe to release the magic surge.

That was all Soral could handle, so he held his hand up. “Okay. I’m done.”

“As I have fulfilled my deal, I will take my payment,” the deep voice told him.

Soral’s surroundings changed again, and he stood in front of a cracked black throne. Sitting on the throne was a man with glowing red eyes and pupils that were sharp slits like a snake. His overall color palette seemed to be tones of black and red, to his clothes, his hair, and even the crown on his head, built to resemble the twisted horns of some kind.

“My name is Chaos, king of the Nightmare Realm,” he introduced himself, “It has been a long time since someone in reality has known my name.”

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A powerful tremble seemed to shake the entire realm as he spoke, and a flash of blue appeared. Another man showed up. He looked exactly like Chaos, but instead of red and black, his colors were blue and white. His crown also resembled majestic antlers rather than twisted horns.

“Do not speak his name in reality, child,” the newcomer warned.

“And here is the dream king to ruin the party,” Chaos scoffed.

“Why shouldn’t I?” Soral asked, genuinely concerned after all of that.

The man met eyes with Soral and seemed surprised, but calmed quickly. “Speaking the name of a dream in reality grants them power to interact with it. That is why his name was purged from reality, as was mine. It is more dangerous since you know his voice and appearance. The more you know, the more power his name holds when you speak it.”

“So just speaking the word chaos would do nothing?” Soral checked.

“That is correct,” the dream king confirmed, “Let me take you to my realm so that when next you dream, you do not have to return to this haunted land.”

Chaos reacted to that. “Don’t you dare! He sought me out first so he belongs here, with me!”

Luckily, Soral snapped awake before he saw the end to the argument between dream kings. He already felt a bit sick from the intense overload of information. Just like Chaos had promised, it was impossible for him to forget any of it. That did mean he would have no trouble remembering how to disable the systems in the bunker.

Now he could make a plan. Since there was an extra step, he would feel more comfortable if someone was with him. Howler had proved reliable, and if he took Rosalie Doc would let his guard down thinking Rosalie was leading him into a trap. Sloth, Lala, and Scythe could take the opportunity to apprehend him when he least expected it.

There was no way things would just go that smoothly so Soral made a plan to get help from those who would know the bunker best. He would offer every single spy a chance at redemption and revenge. They could convince the other prisoners easiest as well.

Just in case, he definitely needed that healer. What was his name? Phoenix. Soral was pretty sure, anyway. And there was that other guy who was good with technology. Soral was drawing a blank on his name. He mostly remembered he found it boring. But how would they communicate?

Soral suddenly remembered the telepathic conversation he had overheard from some twins with their own fiery names. That could work! Soral was brimming with ideas and went to meet Oasis right away, forgetting to contact him ahead of time. That didn't seem to be a problem as Soral was able to quickly track him down.

Oasis was in a room that reminded Soral of Sibel's office. It wasn’t just that it was an office. It had the same level of function while also allowing for displays of trophies, and a nameplate outside the door. Actually, it may have just been the nameplate that made Soral think of Sibel. Oasis was currently speaking with a man wearing a silver and orange band that Soral recognized. It was that guy he couldn’t remember the name of.

“Soral?” Oasis asked as he noticed him standing outside the door.

“Hi,” Soral replied, “I forgot to contact you ahead. I just learned some more information and I thought you would want to know the rest of my plan.”

“Is Jeff going to be part of it?” Oasis asked, gesturing to the man in the room.

“He is,” Soral confirmed, glad his name had been mentioned, “But I have a lot of people in my plans who aren’t orange. Is that alright?”

“Are they red?” Oasis asked.

“Yeah.”

“Then yes. So long as you think you can trust them,” Oasis confirmed, “Tell me who you have in mind so far.”

“Rosalie and Howler, first of all. I learned about a problem if I just release the collars the same way. We have to turn off the main power first,” Soral explained, “So I will take them with me to do that.”

“Why those two?” Oasis asked.

“To let Doc’s guard down. Rosalie is a spy he will think he has perfect control of, and Howler doesn’t look too threatening.”

Oasis observed Soral. “Do you know what Howler is?” he asked.

“What he is?” Soral repeated.

“Howler is a Wolf in human form,” Oasis explained, “While he might not appear threatening, Doc will certainly notice.”

Soral thought for a moment. “I don’t think it will matter. That just means he can protect us better if something goes wrong.”

Jeff raised his hand slightly. “Excuse me, but you just said some concerning things,” he interjected, “Rosalie is a spy?”

“Was a spy,” Soral corrected, “I saved her so she is on our side now. I know because I can hear her thoughts.”

“Why do you need to turn off the power? Is it because you intend to release some sort of surge? Is that how you release the collars?” Jeff questioned. He leaned forward in interest.

“Uh, yeah,” Soral answered, a bit surprised by his reaction, “I can tell you more later maybe. Anyway, I learned Doc’s real base is an underground bunker. Everything above ground is a trap.”

“That explains a lot,” Oasis considered, “May I ask you how you know?”

Soral hesitated. “I heard the thoughts of all the spies,” he lied, “Of course I would learn some things. Rosalie knows the most out of all of them and we have been planning.” Well, not all of it was a lie.

Oasis accepted this explanation. “What do you intend to do after you release the collars?”

Soral explained his plan with the assassins and using the twins’ special connection as an extra source of communication. Oasis agreed, but added his own insight. One of the twins would stay behind rather than having one inside and one just outside as support. This way Oasis could communicate with them and send backup if everything went wrong.

He agreed with the choice of Phoenix on the team as well, and suggested he should join Soral’s group rather than staying in a safer zone. It might be impossible to retreat to the healer once injured. Phoenix was also good with long range weapons, so he could help with protection. Jeff would go with the assassins to make sure they were able to make it through the bunker undetected.

Oasis was far more hesitant about Soral’s other idea. Even though they were now free and hardly friendly with Doc, he wasn’t sure releasing a bunch of former spies and prisoners of his enemy into that very enemy’s base would be a good idea. Especially once he found out no one had actually agreed to take part in this yet.

“It will be fine,” Soral assured him, “We will give them the option to volunteer. Those who are interested can come and those who aren’t can be watched by you.”

“The other day you treated me as an enemy,” Oasis pointed out, “Why the sudden trust?”

“Helping us take down Doc is in your best interest,” Soral replied, “You won’t jeoprodize that. And even if I don’t like you, I know you wouldn’t waste talent like that.”

“Have you been listening to my thoughts?” Oasis asked.

“No,” Soral answered, failing to hide the disgust in his tone, “I don’t want to know what you think about.”

Jeff was amazed by the back and forth between the two, but interjected again. “Should we invite everyone we talked about to discuss this then?”

“That sounds like a good place to start,” Oasis agreed, and Soral told him everything he knew about the spies. He had found out about more from Rosalie’s thoughts but he wasn’t sure it was all of them.

“There are more than I expected,” Oasis commented, as he looked at the list, “We will hold this meeting as a special luncheon so as to not arouse too much suspicion. Soral, you have been practicing a lot of recipes, right? Bring some to this meeting. It will serve as our excuse to watchful eyes.”

It probably was best to be safe of any spies that might be loyal for some unknown reason, so Soral agreed. Besides, getting to eat tasty food during a boring meeting sounded so much better.

Now, what should he bring?