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'Another nightmare.' Moarte sighed as he stepped forth from the shadows. Walking over to Wayne's bed, he cast a spell with a wave of his hand. The spell was one he had found in one of Grayson's own journals. From what Moarte gathered, his old mentor used the very spell to calm his own nightmares in the aftermath of Rivercrest. It was a temporary solution but it would have to do for now.
This nightmare was different from his usual ones. He was back on his world as it was torn apart, yes, but he wasn't alone this time. A familiar figure was clinging to his arm, shaking like a leaf. Looking over to see who it was, Wayne let out one word, "Leslie?" As soon as he spoke, one of the people driven insane by the onset of the apocalypse jumped down from a dead tree, letting out an inhuman growl.
It was then that the person lunged at Leslie, a look of pure rage in his eyes. In what seemed like a split second, Wayne was between the two, aiming his pistol at the attacker. With one shot, the lunatic went down and Wayne turned to check on his friend. Before either of them could speak, a dark mist appeared throughout the area and in a moment, everything faded to black.
At this point, it feels like second nature to him, to just know when Wayne's having a nightmare. 'One day Linksano will find out I visit his brother's room on an almost nightly basis and probably try to kill me,' the ghoul thought to himself. 'If he actually did succeed, I would definitely be impressed, at least. Wayne probably wouldn't though.' The very thought that for so long, he was left wandering with no purpose anymore...that all of that was undone by someone not even of this world...it left him contemplative of his post-immortal life.
When things finally came back into view, Wayne realized that he was in a city, near an alleyway. Suddenly, he heard laughing coming from it. 'Why is this so familiar?' Wayne didn't have any time to think, a scream for help coming from someone. It clicked in his head, this was the day he first met Leslie.
'Leslie!' Wayne ran through the alleyway and just as he remembered, there were four bikers surrounding his friend. 'Talk about deja vu...' He then yelled at them, drawing their attention. One of them, the leader he presumed, told him to mind his own business unless he wanted to end up in the hospital. As Wayne reached for his pistol, he was surprised to find that it wasn't on him anymore. '...Wait, that's right. I left it back home that day. No matter, I saved Leslie once and I'll damn well do it again!'
Seeing as his job was done for the night, Moarte quietly crept out of Wayne's room. As soon as the door was closed, he felt a gloved hand around his mouth while another hand dragged him away quickly. Despite struggling to escape, whoever it was that grabbed him had one hell of a grip. Next thing the ghoul knew, he was in a familiar looking lab, the lights blinding him for a moment.
"What the hell were you doing in my brother's room?!"
'Speak of the devil...' Moarte thought as he merely stared at Linksano. "Helping him."
"I really doubt that," Linksano responded angrily. He relaxed a bit when a hand was placed on his shoulder and looked over at the person. "Boffo?"
Oscar, I understand that you're worried about Wayne, but Moarte is still one of the team. Please let him speak, Boffo signed to his boyfriend.
"I..." Linksano sighed, "you're right my dear, my apologies."
Moarte cleared his throat in order to get their attention. "Right. As I said, I was helping him - with nightmares."
Linksano's brows furrowed, "Nightmares? He hasn't said anything about any nightmares to me."
"He's been keeping it a secret from you," Moarte replied. "Ever since night one, he's been having them, all about the same thing - the apocalyptic destruction of your home world."
With a start, Wayne woke up. Looking around, he realized that he was still in his room. It wasn't a nightmare that woke him up but something else. Getting out of bed, Wayne left his room to wander and hopefully clear his mind a bit.
'Or not.' Wayne thought to himself as he heard talking coming from the direction of his brother's lab. The closer he got, the clearer the voices became and he quickly recognized them as his brother and...Moarte? It was in that moment, the dark mist in his nightmare suddenly made some sense. Sure, he didn't know what exactly it was but he was certain that it was the ghoul's doing.
"Nightmares? He hasn't said anything about any nightmares to me."
Wayne mentally cursed to himself. The last thing he wanted to do was tell Oscar about the nightmares. Sure, he gave his brother information about what happened to their world, but he left out the finer details for a reason. Oscar already went through so much because of that Lord Vyce bastard, the last thing Wayne wanted to do was make things worse for him.
"Look, I can I understand a lot of things but what I can't understand is why he would go to you for help over his own brother." Linksano was walking around the lab, alternating between asking questions aloud and muttering to himself. Boffo winced at the unintentional harshness in Linksano's words and offered Moarte a sympathetic look.
Moarte merely raised his hand and shook his head in response, completely used to being insulted by people, whether offhandedly or not. "That is the thing. Wayne never directly came to me for help. I reached out to him."
Linksano and Boffo both stared at him in confusion. After a moment of silence, Linksano spoke, "Why?"
"I've been wondering that myself. I've been wondering why I've been compelled lately to be around any of the team for that matter. If I figure out the answer, I'll let you know." With that Moarte turned and opened the door to the lab. Stepping out into the hallway, he noticed Wayne leaning against the wall. The two merely stared at each other awkwardly.
"Um..." Wayne started, trying to think of something, of anything to say.
"Get the hell in there and talk to your brother," Moarte grabbed Wayne by the shoulder, shoving him into the lab, receiving a shout of protest in return. "You'll thank me later." As the door closed, Moarte made his way back to his own room, deciding to stay there all night for once.
~Fin