[B-FIN]Like a Rising Star, The Dream is Coming (Uphane+Pega)

[cibarium]

Janice Fitzpatrick despised sleeping more than she hated certain portions of humanity. It was a senseless waste of time, she didn't understand why humans never evolved past the need for it -- and yet, even she recognized when she had to resign herself to a session of what she saw as several hours of zero productivity. She'd learned in psychology once that a man had died after so long without sleeping. Ten weeks... or was it just ten days? She couldn't recall. Didn't matter, she'd been awake for two days or so until her own handwriting was an ineligible squiggle to her eyes, and her body occasionally shivered from sheer exhaustion.

When she begrudgingly put her work away, turned off the reading light and shuffled herself under the sheets, it was 3:17 AM.

She didn't normally remember her dreams. They tended to be scrambled replays of her day-to-day activities, random strings of mundane memory made cohesive. Pretty boring.

It was late at night, Uranophane was strolling through the main street of some park, on a typical patrol, idly noting how nicely the apple blossoms were skating downstream as they fell off the trees.  

[x_Nata_x]

Recently, Pegasus had been dreaming a lot. Ever since that dream, in fact. Every night in the last few weeks, the strawberry blonde girl wandered the twisted, confusing land of dreams, searching for something or nothing, it didn't matter. Sometimes, they would be rational -- a ride through her family's estate on Caerus. Other times, not so much. Lucid or no, on a mission or wandering goalless, it was always the same, in the end. And in the morning she when she would wake up, groggy and confused, she would vow to find the sandman and strangle him.

It was coming to the point where she did not want to go to sleep anymore. But as Janice had found, sleeping was unavoidable. And Rea Marshall was practical -- she knew she could not escape sleep for long. Even if she managed to stay awake for a few days, max, it was likely to just cause her dreams to be more twisted. Because the truly ironic part of the whole ordeal was that the Senshi of Dreams seriously believed that dreams were merely your mind's way of processing the events of the day. There was merely a sliver of her, long since lying on a dusty shelf inside her soul, that believed otherwise, and it had long since been out of use. The images in her head, the places and people she saw were merely recollections -- memories too unimportant to keep.

That night, it was a park, the details hazed over in true dream fashion. Pegasus wandered the street idly, briefly admiring pink (or were they blue?) flower blossoms that powered the grass. So. No mission tonight. Nothing to do but wander the nameless streets. The only true thing that stuck out in her mind was a figure in the distance, surprisingly clear in the fog of the dream.  

[cibarium]

The blossoms were a pleasant shade of yellow that complimented the sunlight streaming through the trees; it was almost like a fairy-tale scene, really, with the healthy greenery growing over the place's small hints of domestication. Like one of those whimsical paintings of parks you could buy at furniture stores sometimes. It was nice outside today; birds were chattering cheerfully away as they hopped around a fountain in the middle of the intersection.

There was someone in the distance behind her, watching. Uranophane swiveled around, fast as a blink, her goggles ectoplasmic foglights in the technicolor haze they were wrapped in.

Bows. Short skirt. Tiara. A senshi.

Uranophane grinned broadly, beside herself with her good fortune -- another senshi star seed, to present to Her Majesty and the General-King. This would net her a promotion for sure, and she could hardly wait to feel the unmatchable power it would bring. And this one was so close, it would be so much easier than the last one. Just a few yards away. Like plucking berries from a bush.

She slowly started her way forward, flickering through the shadows cast by the trees, like a vulture moving in to encircle a soon-to-be-corpse.  

[x_Nata_x]

The quiet was a nice change of pace. Peaceful, even. Despite how the wind blew the leaves that still clung to the trees, red and yellow and brown with autumn, there was no sound. It was almost eerie, the quiet, even more so when the wind died down, and everything was still. The sudden (and yet... not so sudden... was it there all along?) sound of the brook gurgling a few feet away brought blue-green eyes away from the figure on the street, watching as it splashed over smooth pebbles. When she glanced up a second later, the dark figure had mysteriously vanished, as if there had never been anyone there at all.

Pegasus shivered, a gust of wind sending the autumn leaves into a flurry, sweeping under her skirt and bow. It didn't occur to her that she was patrolling alone, without Flora or Nerissa to be her backup -- it was as if she couldn't remember them at all. It also didn't occur to her to question why she was there, in the park that night. Undoubtedly, she was suppose to be there. And before she realized what was happening, she was walking, wandering down the street under the streetlamp, alert as she always was but surprisingly unconcerned.  

[cibarium]

The wind chilled Pegasus to the bone, but only made shallow cuts through Uranophane's hair, numbed her face. She was dressed for the weather, paid it no mind. Dry, curled leaves vanished into nothing under her boots and more skated along the concrete on the breeze, down the street towards the senshi. She'd been tracking this one for a while, it was all she had been doing for hours. Just following, watching, waiting for the perfect moment to make her first move.

The leaves trailed ahead of her, floating downstream, twirling and bobbing lazily when they hit rocks and eddies in the current. The alleyway was very long, and pitch black save for the concrete, the walls, the clear images of the lieutenant and the senshi both. A strong breeze pulled at them, but didn't whisper past their ears.

It was soundless, save for the enormous clacking of Uranophane's boots as she finally gave chase.  

[x_Nata_x]

The scene was changing. Brown trees were thickening, melting into the walls of the alley, dark and foreboding. As Pegasus walked, her eyes swiveled around the scene, and her skin began to prickle, another chill washing down her spine. The distinct feeling of being followed was just beginning to p***k on her mental radar; she was becoming increasingly more aware of the chilling atmosphere. She was leaving the park further and further behind, replaced by the alley, the wind cut off by the tall buildings on three sides that touched the sky, curving in to cut off most sky, leaving a tiny square of light from the moon at the top.

In front of her, a dead end.

Her breath quickened. Her own ballet-styled shoes moved soundlessly over the concrete, the clacking of boots matching her own steps in an off-beat rhythm. She picked up the pace. Down to the end, and Pegasus closed her eyes for a brief second, squeezing them shut before opening them again. Two options now, branching off. She took a right, then a left, weaving between the buildings.  

[cibarium]

The moon was a white, distant hole punched in the sky that watched emotionlessly as the chase continued, providing no light but what it used to illuminate itself. The alley was stark of activity, there was no sound, no motion besides the the senshi and her grinning pursuer, boots click-clacking on the concrete ever closer and ever louder. It was cold, sucking in a breath made it feel like a fresh layer of frost was dusting on their lungs. And they ran, pattering, clacking, raggedly breathing.

They ran for time out of mind, surely they'd never done anything else in their lives; all that they existed for was to chase and be chased. The senshi was just out of reach and Uranophane's fingers were just a hair away from touching her. Her hand was stretched out, ready to grasp on a fistful of skirt, ready to take her prey down--

but her fingers grasped at nothing every time--

She should have had her by now but her hands only found empty air--

And the damned senshi kept turning corners, vanishing from her sight only to come back a split second later. Uranophane kept losing the distance she gained, and -- and no matter how many times she clawed at her, her skirt, her bows, her hair, her arms -- she just couldn't catch her. Always just out of reach, for what felt like an eternity.  

[x_Nata_x]

It was getting closer.

The sound of boots clicking on the concrete, her own shoes moving silently over the ground. Walking turned to jogging. Jogging turned into a run. Running turned into a full on sprint, her breath fogging with every exhaled breath as sped down the alleyways, snaking about her head before dissipating into the night air, broken by the figure behind her. Those boots always quickening, always pushing her faster, until she felt she were flying, her shoes never touching the ground. Perhaps that was why they made no noise, while that constant clack clack clack sounded behind her, to the exact beat of her pounding heart.

She could feel those hands grasping for her. Shadowed hands like claws, reaching, so close she almost screamed, like a terrified animal unable to get away. So close, too close, it was going to get her, SHE was going to get her. And she knew, she knew what she wanted. She knew that hand would knock her to the ground, dig those cold fingers around her brooch...

Up ahead, another dead end. Pegasus continued to run, ignoring the way the walls felt like they were twisting, beginning to block out the moon, only a tiny sliver of white left as the brick walls grew taller and taller...

She ran through it as if it were air. And vanished.  

[cibarium]

She vanished.

Uranophane halted in her tracks, panting, staring. The exertion of the run was suddenly hitting her full force, she felt like she'd been running all her life, and then the very reason she'd been running her life was just -- gone. The air was still, and black, and silent, her eyes bored into the brick as if she could make the wall give way just by looking at it. She was gone. The senshi was gone.

All of that work, all of that being so close for such a long time, made pointless. Ruined. She had failed.

One rubber-clad fist -- she could see, and feel it trembling, violently -- it slowly raised up. She lifted it over her head; her entire arm was shaking -- and with a scratchy, infuriated wail that shook the ground below her, she drove her fist into the wall. And again. Over and over and over, screaming and beating her hands raw against the brick. For time out of mind, as long as she had been running.

Uranophane's hands were still hurting when the park came back into view, the tree branches just starting to be scattered with tiny, bright green leaf buds. Her gloves were shredded, the flesh of her bony pale hands exposed, still bleeding little twined rivulets down and around her fingers. There were flecks of blood spattered on her coat. Her arms were still shaking.

And then.

And then, sweet providence, there she was again. That damnable senshi, thinking she could escape; she'd picked the wrong person to run away from. Uranophane was going to tear her apart, make her scream, make her pay for being such a tease.

Again, she grinned, and again she stepped forward. Purposefully. Slowly.  

[x_Nata_x]

The world was spinning. But she was safe. The sensation of clawed fingers reaching for her bow, for her skirt, ready to tackle her and rip out her very soul was gone. The whole world had gone black, but it was a pensive blackness, neither frightening nor comforting. Pegasus couldn't even see her white gloves as she searched in the dark with her hands, trying to find purchase on anything around. But there was nothing. So she let herself drift for a while, until she began to feel something solid forming beneath her feet, soft and giving but solid to stand on.

She opened her eyes.

She was back in the park. It was daytime again, sometime after noon, when the sun had passed the high point in the sky. It was spring, flower and leafy buds beginning to unfurl, reawakened. The air was warm, but cool enough to be pleasant, and it brushed under her skirt once more, ruffling it a little, a gentle whisper of the howl from before.

Across the grass, a figure. Pegasus could make out the straight dark hair from before, those rubber gloves shredded, her hands bleeding. She didn't seem to fit in to the picture of the peaceful park, and the strawberry blonde girl cocked her head a little, staring, eying her uniform. Uniform... why did that seem suspicious to her. She didn't recognize the labcoat, but the pieces were clicking into place. A nega lieutenant.

She stepped forward. One step, then another. The distance between them shortened inexplicably, their steps quickening but never reaching a run, until they were face to face, blue-green eyes to grey-green ones. Any swipes at her, any grabs for hair, fuku, limbs seemed to inexplicably miss, moving right through her. Grabbing the front of the yellow-trimmed coat, Pegasus jerked the lieutenant towards her, planting her knee in her stomach.  

[cibarium]

They were approaching each other for hours, as if the ground was slipping beneath their feet or they were walking on an invisible conveyor belt, but soon enough their vision was filled with each other's faces: a pale, manic grin against Pegasus's healthier complexion and resolute demeanor. She had nothing to fear, and this was made all the more apparent when her opponent's shredded hand first swung forward -- and connected with nothing.

No, not nothing -- she should have hit something, felt her fingers claw into her face, but -- her arm had passed through her as if she were made of air. She tried again, swinging a leg to trip her, but it had been no trick of the eyes of the first time and wasn't the second.

why can't I touch you--

Teeth bared in an angry grimace, she kept trying. Kept clawing, kept lunging. Part of her wondered for a moment if this was some sort of trick, an illusion, but then she felt herself being forced forward and a knee knifing under her ribcage. Her expression washed into one of shock as she felt the wind get knocked out of her. Still-bleeding hands weakly scrambled after the ribbons and deep golden tresses of her opponent, but to no avail.  

[x_Nata_x]

It was like that with every blow. Time after time, fingers seemed to move right through her. Blows that should have collapsed her, pushed her back, pulled her to the ground had no effect. Those bleeding hands (claws?) reached for her bow, for her hair, that manic grin replaced by shock, then frustrated anger as she missed time after time. Yet each and every time Pegasus lashed out in retaliation, she was met by solid flesh and bone. Kick, elbow, punch, she felt each blow connect, watching black and blue spots begin to appear on areas she could see skin. Her knuckles connected with Uphane's cheekbone, the motion effortless and smooth, as if she had practiced it a million times.

why can't I touch you?

"You kill people," She replied, her eyes meeting those cruel, dark ones, the picture of calm determination. Whether she heard Uphane's thoughts and responded, or whether she was responding to her own thoughts, it was hard to tell.

"You won't win."

Kicking off the gravel, she leaped into the air, landing a few meters (kilometers?) away. The pose came easy to her, this time because she had done it a million times. Her arms rested, crossed over her chest, that familiar iridescent sphere appearing from nothingness. But where it usually stopped, it kept growing, glowing threateningly, the park beginning to fade away.  

[cibarium]

Her cheek was smashed, her ribs jabbed, her entire self battered until she could barely coordinate her limbs together -- her goggles had been hit, one lens cracked and, oddly, flickering like a bad fluorescent bulb. Every fist and foot and elbow that had been swung at her had connected fantastically. She was exhausted. Furious, but exhausted.

Uranophane wanted to move, to pursue the senshi further -- but she was inexplicably rooted to the ground, caught in some state where the impulse to run was intercepted and erased before it could even properly form.

You won't win.

She snarled.

She watched, standing limply, arms hanging at her sides, as senshi's attack formed and grew and glowed -- it became the focal point of their entire universe, the world around them flickered and hazed over -- and then the trees and grass curved, bent like they were being viewed through a fisheye lens. It came towards her before her eyes could even process it, and slammed into her body with a final devastating crash --


-- and with a start Janice's eyes popped open, her shoulders having jerked backward to give the sensation she had fallen onto her bed. She lifted up her hand and looked at it, a dark silhouette against the slightly lighter shade of the ceiling, having forgotten why she had done so by the time the shape of her fingertips were in her vision. She'd had a dream, that much was clear... but the rest of it was rapidly disintegrating to useless little bits of information that weren't even whole enough to put words to.

She had only slept for an hour and a half, and for once in her life she was going to end up frustrated she couldn't get back to sleep.


[FIN]