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Graff woke up suddenly, drawing a few sharp breaths. Green eyes open wide. What had happened ? They'd gotten the kids to the orphanage, and he'd spent the evening being pestered by Azul, and...

Wait.

Something was wrong. It took a moment for his sleepy mind to catch up on it, but when it finally dawned on him. The sky was blank. There was no stars. There was no clouds. There was nothing at all. He would lay there, eyes wide for a moment.

The sky above... was gone. Or maybe it had never been back at all ? Eventually he would sit, trying to make sense of what was going on. One hand would reach out for his hair, finding it short and gunked up with dried get, pulling away blue thanks to the chalk that colored it.

More importantly... The hand that had moved was gloved, but it laid too flat on his palm. Pulling it off revealed... Nothing. Nothing but hand, skin, and scars.

What... What was going on ?

Had everything been a dream ?

Nuhava ?

Silence.

Come on, this isn't bloody funny at all.

Still nothing at all, save for the wind and the buzz of a nearby neon light flickering.

That must have been it, then. That must have been a dream. Asedri, Penny, Azul. Taj, Lan, Vael, Nuhava... everything. For a moment he felt quite lost, and sighed. Maybe he should have realized that it was a dream much sooner than this, it had all clearly been too good to be true when he looked back on... Well, the whole thing.

Eventually the grumbling in his stomach would force him to rise. Walking to the edge of the old, abandoned building would reveal a sight that he was indeed familiar with – streets full of broken glass and rusting cars.

Could he honestly miss a life that had only been a dream ? Well, it seemed like that he had no other choice but to figure out, now was there ? The goggles that had been resting down his neck would be pulled up over his eyes. He turned around in order to gain momentum with his roller skates and jump to the other roof..

Just as he was about to start moving. A scream. It made him pause. The voice seemed... familiar. He would look back, and down below...

It was just like that day. The day when he had vanished in the dream. The man was carrying the woman, and she was screaming and punching, trying to free herself from the brute's hold. She did, indeed, look familiar, but it was when she looked up and their gaze crossed that it truly dawned on him.

It couldn't be...

“Graff ! Help me !”

It was. It couldn't be possible at all, but it was.

“ASEDRI !”

He jumped and landed roughtly on the concrete below, but he didn't care. Graff ignored the pain and moved, gaining speed. If he could just catch up and snag Asedri away before it was too late...

Then, a blur passed him, and he found himself hitting the wall of an old house, the air knocked out of his lungs as he fell on his knees. What the ******** had... ?

When he did look up to see who had pushed him, well... Things definitively got stranger. The man never stopped, and kept running. More importantly... He knew that man.

That man was him.

WHAT THE HELL. Graff would be dumbstuck for a few seconds. What was even going on ?! That couldn't be possible at all !

Another scream would bring him back to the task at hand. There really was to time to waste at all ! Graff would lift himself up, ignore the pain once more and push himself to catch up.

He had the sinking feeling he knew exactly where to go, And he did. It was the same hallway where he'd followed that thug years ago, the same hallway he had been left, broken and bleeding, to die in when he had failed that woman.

Only this time, he was the second man to hit the scene. And the doppelganger wasn't happy. The other Graff looked just as he did in the dream – or had it been a dream ? - long blonde hair, taller, older, down to the stone on his hand.

And he wasn't impressed at all. “Move along, squirt. I got this.”

”No you don't ! Listen, don't you remember how this went ?!?”

“What the ******** are you even talking about ?” The doppelganger huffed, crossing his arms. “Look, I don't have time for this !”

”You're both gonna die if you go up there alone ! Come on, you should know that, you're me, right ?!” He really couldn't believe this. Nothing really made sense anymore, but what choice did he have but to follow along ? ”Look, you distract him, and I'll take off with Asedri !”

“No, seriously, get lost ! I don't need help !” And the doppelganger charged on, which left Graff with the urge to face-palm.

”What the hell are you doing ?!” He dashed after the doppelganger. ”Are you even listening to me ?”

“I can take this !”

”No you can't ! Let me help you !”

“I don't ******** need help ! Screw off !”

”Am I seriously that big of a ******** pain in the a** ?!?”

The world seemed to come to a stop then. The doppelganger stopped, and glared him down. For a moment, Graff was certain he was about to get shoved again. The doppelganger was about to speak, but then didn't. The glare softened, and he simply smiled.

”Sometimes, yes. It does not change the fact that I have to put up with you, though.” The voice was different, but definitively feminine. And familiar, at that.

Graff paused, dumbstruck, and clearly uncertain if he was supposed to be relieved, or to be angry. ”Are you ********... Nuhava ! What kind of game are you playing ?!”

”A life cheating game, perhaps.” She pondered out loud, before turning to look ahead – both Asedri and the thug were gone as if they had never been there at all, and the alleyway was empty save for them. ”But before you go and decide to pin this on me, your subconscious is, if I may be blunt, ******** up enough that my involvement was not needed. I just now broke though to try and make you lucid.”

Make him lucid... ? ”So this is a dream ?” Well... That certainly was a relief, though it was such a bizarre feeling.

”It is. You rarely do remember your dreams unless I force you to go lucid in them. Like that dream where you first met me. You get this one every now and then. In each of them you fail to convince yourself, and both yourself and Asedri die in turn.”

That was... chilling. ”What is that supposed to mean ?”

Nuhava would be silent for a moment. Her host was very close to grasping the answer – she might as well poke him along. ”Your body is of a grown man, but your mind is otherwise... Well, was otherwise, perhaps ? The more and more time you passed with me, the more your mind was dragging you in one direction while you found yourself clinging to what you used to be out of sheer habit. It was how you dealt with the uncertainty you felt. When someone tried to help you, you were suspicious. When someone praised you, you lashed back at them.”

”I... used my past as armor... ?” That... Well, maybe that was true. He couldn't really argue against the points Nuhava was raising. He frowned, behind the goggles.

”Bingo. It is one of the many ways the mind can try and cope with things. Not the healthiest, but a mean nonetheless.” She would walk, and her form wavered feminine with longer hair, but still similar to her host. Still with those bright eyes that pierced down to his very soul. Strength would touch him and his own form would waver, into the form that was truly his. ”Do you think you still need this armor, Taylor ?”

”No... No, I don't think I do.” He didn't have to shield himself from them... From his friends. From his family. He had never needed to. The world he now lived in was not the harsh world of the urban wild of Earth, where every little kindness and softness could get you killed.

”It sure took you a long time to understand.” Nuhava grinned, a grin that was eerily similar to his own.

Graff would simply match the grin. ”I don't think im the only one being influenced here. You didn't use to sound like you felt much at all. Now at least you're having fun at my expense, which is better than no fun at all.”

”Why did you think I picked you ? You are what I needed. There were just bits and pieces I really did not care to drag along.”

And she showed him all of it. What she'd been doing while he was sleeping, All the little pokes and prods. He needed to know, because he might very well need to use them one day before they truly were one.

For the longest time, Graff was silent. ”Nuhava ?”

”Hm ?” The goddess smiled, quite aware of what was coming.

”I really ******** hate you right now.”

And Strength would laugh. ”I love you too, Taylor.” She would lean forward to kiss his forehead. ”You should wake up now. Azul is starting to get quite worried.”

And, just as Nuhava said those words, the world around him melted away and blinked out.