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Mystic had spent most of his time asleep. He woke on occasion, but being awake felt so exhausting. The dream realm felt more like the waking world and vice versa. He had not missed anyone while he was "away." All the people whom were important to him he could sense whenever they closed their eyes and drifted off to sleep.

He did not typically pry directly into the dreams of his friends and family, but he felt the need to make an exception for one Shadow in particular. It was his own fault. Red kept thinking of him, and it was very much interrupting Mystic's typical routine for when he was busy dreaming.

It was decidedly quite easy to slip into a person's dreams when they were thinking of him in particular. He thought it would've been harder to sneak his way into Red's portion of the dream realm. His was a blank slate. Blank and dark. He found that to be curious. Most people's minds created all sorts of wild imagery.

He figured that his little brother, whom he noted was not quite so little anymore, did not dream often.

"Fancy meeting you here," he replied in a decidedly familiar, though distincly lower voice that carried a slight, indistinguishable accent. In the dream realm, Mystic was also decidedly more real, though his appearance shifted constantly depending upon whom was looking at him. He appeared differently to everyone.

To Reyna he was a monster to be slain. To Holicinesh he had been a dark, strange guardian angel. To little Sam he was simply a playful spirit.

What would he be in his brother's eyes?

Mystic laughed outright. "Well," he replied smoothly, "We can't all have super strength and tote badass weaponry everywhere we go, now can we?" He willed his form into something more familiar to Red since it seemed his appearence would not settle on one thing based upon the other Shadow's influence or lack thereof. Idly he wondered if the snakes never dreamnt at all.

"What a boring blank space. Are your dreams always so bland?" he teased, "Perhaps I ought to liven things up a bit."

The blank slate seemed to fall away and was replaced with a meadow filled with delicate, night-blooming flowers and a full moon. Nearby the sounds of a babbling creek could be heard.

"There," Mystic said with a look of smug satisfaction as he settled to sit cross legged next to a large rock formation that overlooked the very edge of the creek, "That's better."

"Isn't he always?" Mystic replied, though he was somewhat apalled that Red did not dream. "I'll have to send some fun dreams your way. This not-dreaming is not good. How's a dreamwalker supposed to stalk his little brother if there are no dreams to be had?"

He chuckled quietly under his breath and eyed Red with a look of curiosity. The Fiend had grown, and interestingly enough, his dream visage seemed to be the same as he waking self. Or at least as much as Mystic could tell without having actually seen him in person since he had grown. He made a mental note to remedy that soon.

"So is that it then?" he asked with a hint of teasing laughter still in his voice, "You were fretting like Little Star and couldn't help but think of me as you fell asleep, thus beckoning me into your dreams."

"Oh no? You don't worry?" Mystic teased as he wiggled his fingers at Red and laughed quietly with a low, almost musical sound, "You're not a very good liar, friend. You should work on that."

He stretched out his legs where he sat and adjusted the cloak of darkness that seemed to swathe him in some sort of strange inky, black robe. "Screaming like a girl, eh? I can certainly not ever accuse you of that. Your voice is much too low for one. What happened to cause our little friend to scream, hm?"

He leaned back against the boulder behind him and laughed. He lifted one hand a bit of darkness seemed to ebb and flow in and between his fingertips. "Do I need to send a nightmare to plague someone in particular?"

Mystic laughed outright at Red's description of Dio's high pitched screaming. He could only imagine the boy's reaction, and the mental image was priceless. "I am so calling him out on that one next I see him," he declared with a bemused smirk, "There shall be no living that down."

His expression darkened considerably as Red spoke of the terrible things that had befallen his guardian. His eyes seemed to take on an unearthly glow and the shadows that surrounded him seemed to twist and pull tighter in around him in reflection of his mood. "That is not good," Mystic replied in a low, dark voice, "If per chance you do find out whom or what did that...... do let me know. I've a gift for them."

The elder Shadow fell silent for a time, eyes downcast as the subject turned to his "end" of things. He glanced up and met Red's gaze and shrugged. "Eh.. I'm okay. I have a hard time staying awake now, but it doesn't really bother me. The dream realm seems more familiar to me than the waking world anyhow," he told him simply. "It's an interesting place."

He sighed and reached out idly patted at the waves of grass and flowers that surrounded them. "I know myself better here than I do when I am awake. I'm more... me."

Red's confusion caused Mystic to laugh again despite himself. "Don't you ever wonder about what you are? Probably not since Hawk outright told you, I suppose. You do realize we are more than simply Shadows, yes?"

He sighed heavily and pressed a hand to his face. "We are not simply some strange race that Athan has concocted. We are not simply an experiment in magic.. we were once beings that were something so much more than this."

He paused for a brief moment before lifting his gaze to once more meet Red's. "So, yes. Here, I feel I am much closer to being whatever it is that I truly am. What I am meant to be."

"I think you misunderstand, little brother," Mystic told him with a look of consternation as he struggled to better explain himself. "The past remains the past, that is true. The present is indeed more important, but have you given thought to what it is you're turning into?"

Mystic's eyes closed and for a moment he seemed to blend entirely into the night. Inky black markings crept along his skin until there was hardly anything to see but swirling darkness. "Perhaps we should meet in person next you wake," he told him, "So you can see the beginnings of what I shall become."

The elder Shadow stood from where he had been sitting and moved towards Red. He extended a hand to him to help him up as well and embraced him briefly in a brotherly hug. "Until then, brother," he told him, "For now you should rest."

Mystic left him there, but soon after leaving the moonlit scenery he had built seemed to fade away, leaving Red to his restful gray slate.