The morning dawned at long last. Time had seemed to pass aggravatingly slow for Soral. He hadn’t dared sleep that night just in case he got trapped in dreams and was late. With nothing else to do, Soral completed his project, and decided that this raid would host the first appearance of his heroic alter ego, Mr. Dehd Lee.

His disguise was fairly simple. A forest green top hat and matching long coat. He hadn’t figured out how to make a mask yet, so he had settled for some sunglasses instead. They were a very popular item here in The Oasis, and apparently something Nicholas had recommended. On the inside of the coat, he wore dark gray. Not really desert colors, but Soral figured he would be using this outfit most in the forest.

Rosalie stared at Soral incredulously when he arrived in his new clothes. “What are you wearing?” she asked.

“A disguise,” he replied.

“A disguise?” she repeated, “Doc doesn’t know what you look like to begin with? And is that a wig?”

“Nah. A wig would be too troublesome. I found a potion that can temporarily change the look of my hair,” Soral explained, taking off his top hat to better show her his new murky brown locks. The potion had made his hair quite a bit longer, with the disorderly bangs covering part of his face. He figured it would help deal with the lack of mask. Sunglasses just didn’t seem like enough.

“Isn’t it going to be hard to fight in that?” Rosalie questioned.

“I tried to make it so I could fight easily in it,” he replied, “I had to make some adjustments, but I can do all of my morning stretches with it on.”

“I was talking about… Never mind,” Rosalie had been going to press further but gave up, “I was going to tell you thanks for doing this, but are you really sure the nightmare king won’t punish me for defying Doc?”

“Yep. I made a deal and you are free now,” Soral told her, “I just have to provide you with dream energy instead of him.”

“You really didn’t have to go that far,” Rosalie told him, but was visibly relieved.

The others quickly arrived at the meeting place, with Oasis coming in last to catch any stragglers. They naturally split into their groups and prepared to depart. Now that the night had passed, Ember was the one who looked nervous while Flame was ready to go.

“If I die during this, I am going to haunt you forever,” she warned Soral.

“No one will die,” Soral promised.

Oasis opened the portal, or rather a blue band that Soral didn’t recognize did. The portal opened to the entrance of the bunker. With such a large group Oasis had decided they couldn’t risk coming through inside it. Lala’s group went in first to check for traps. Jeff seemed thrilled to get to use all of the odd gadgets from the silver house.

After that, Soral led his team inside, the clear memories Chaos had shown him guiding him to his goal. He had to be careful, though. Part of the plan was to have Rosalie look like she was leading. Unfortunately, unlike Soral, she couldn’t remember the exact path.

The halls of the bunker were quiet. Eerily quiet. Soral had expected some kind of something to be happening here since this was Doc’s real base, but he began to feel nervous that Chaos had lied to him and he was walking into a trap. Lala and the others had already disappeared out of sight somewhere, and the last group had gone in a completely different direction.

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As they turned down the next hallway, Soral had this itchy feeling of being watched. Strange black orbs attached to the walls almost seemed to turn to follow their movements. If they were being watched then, he needed to play his part.

“Are you sure we are going the right way?” he asked Rosalie.

She quickly realized what he was doing and nodded confidently. “That’s right. Once we turn the power off, Doc will be a sitting duck. This will be the first and last successful mission.”

“What are you doing?” Ember whispered.

“It’s part of the plan,” Phoenix assured her in his own whisper before Soral could. He also seemed uneasy, unable to take his eyes off of the suspicious orbs.

“We are almost there,” Rosalie told them, but Soral knew there was still a ways to go. She must have been trying to lure in Doc.

It worked, perhaps a bit too well. At the next doorway, Rosalie suddenly came to a stop. “Right in here.”

Hopefully Lala and the others were watching. Should he walk into the trap? Avoiding the trap would draw suspicion and the target team needed to know where Doc was so they could strike. He gave Rosalie a nod and followed her inside the room. It was most definitely not a control room, but there was someone inside.

Soral hadn’t been sure what he was expecting, but Doc’s appearance surprised him. Perhaps it was because he looked too ordinary, or the lack of the stereotypical evil labcoat. It might even be the calm smile with which he greeted the group of intruders.

“Welcome, my honored guests,” he said, his eyes sweeping over them and landing on Soral, “You must be this Soral I have heard about.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Soral replied, remembering his disguise, “I am Mr. Dehd Lee.”

“Mr. Deadly? I see,” Doc snorted, barely trying to hold back his mocking laugh, “Come inside. I’ve been waiting for you. Rosalie, come here.”

How much longer should they play this game? Soral stopped Rosalie from going closer. He had a terribly bad feeling. She stopped and looked back at him a bit confused.

“You already know,” Soral guessed.

Doc’s smile widened. “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice all of my precious nightmares vanishing?” he asked, “I don’t know what you have done but I have done everything to make sure you will regret doing it.”

Soral jerked back. He needed to warn the others. Ember quickly got the hint and started sending the message to her brother so he could warn Oasis.

The door closed them inside preventing their escape and Doc began to approach them, quickly guessing their roles from the bands on their wrists. He drew a weapon of some kind and used it to paralyze Phoenix before any of them could react.

“Now tell me, Soral, how did you convince the nightmare king to switch sides? What kind of nightmares did you offer him? Confess in front of those who trust you what sins you have promised to commit.”

“I never promised to commit any sins,” Soral spat, “I’m not like you.”

“Come now. You must have promised something,” Doc pressed, now pointing the weapon at Ember.

Ember was furious. She fearlessly grabbed the weapon and the metal tip melted in her hand. “Shut up, old fart,” she told him, “We don’t have to tell you anything.”

Doc looked down at his melted weapon for a moment before casting it aside. “You know, you have just destroyed my one act of mercy. All of these toys here in this room were designed to draw out the nightmares of my victims. Paralyzation is such a weak nightmare, don’t you think?”

Soral’s bad feeling only got worse. He needed to do something. He then remembered the reason he couldn’t release the collars before shutting everything down. He didn’t have time to hesitate or wonder if this was a good idea. He could only hope his collar destroying magic surge would also destroy all of those nasty looking weapons.

The surge released, and Doc’s hand shot back as the weapons on his shelves sparked menacingly. “So that’s how you do it,” he said, “How fascinating. And you still have enough magic left to confidently stand there? If I found a way to drain it, I could use your magic to power my experiments for years to come. I don’t even need the nightmare king!”

His expression and tone had both changed to one of excited madness and greed. Doc fearlessly shoved Ember to the side, ignoring the burns and welts that appeared when his hands touched her. It was like he couldn’t even feel pain. Rosalie tried to stand in the way, and he paused for a second.

“You should know better where you stand,” he growled, “My technology is destined to rule this world! You and your dreams and magic will fall into faded legends and history!”

As Doc lectured Ruena, something inside Soral snapped. That tone, those words, everything about it was far too similar to the ones Soral had heard all his childhood. He wasn’t asleep, but he could feel the hands from his nightmares reaching out to drag him back.

Blinded by panic, Soral shouted the one name he thought might be able to make everything go away.

“Stop it!” he shouted, less to Doc, than to the panic created hallucinations, “Chaos!”

His desperate tone made everyone freeze and stare in his direction, but not for long. A swirling black and red fog began to fill the room, and a voice like cruel thunder followed soon after.

“The King of Nightmares accepts your offering,” it spoke.

The fog thickened until none of them could see, and then abruptly vanished. With it every weapon Doc had created, as well as the man himself, had vanished. Soral’s mind also cleared and he realized what he had just done.

“What did you do?” Rosalie asked him, visibly shaking.

Soral oddly felt no remorse. “I sent that man to where he belongs.”