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[Ventro]

Ventro made a light laugh.

"It seems like you and Droiture has something in common. You seem to be introuble with Reala. It's quite amusing." he snickered and looked at TORiAS. He stopped himself quickly and put on a serious face.

"NiGHTS! You say. I never saw him. I only heard rumors. I heard he was powerful enough to put Reala on his knees." he tried to remember.

[TORiAS_the_fallen]

"It's true, NiGHTS and I are, WERE, friends. That was, of course, before he defected. I haven't defected because I was never on Wizman's side, because I never was on anyone's side."
He sighed "I just fell from the sky, and there he was, Rea. I was, well, infatuated with the Nightmare he described. If Rea hadn't found me, I would have dystoyed myself. Yeah, I was crazy," He paused with urgency, and then turned his voice to a whisper ", Listen, I'll tell you my biggest secret if you promise not to tell scythes over there."
He hesitsted ", Reala and I, well, the reason Rea wants me back is because we were..... Lovers."

[Ventro]

"Hmmmm... I didn't say I didn't believe that Nights and you are not friends." he whispered back, but he continuted with concern.

"Let's be serious. How can a guy with a heart for wizeman have enough room to love you? Not to insult you, but he's not the guy who love. Overall, who am I to judge a nightmaren. Sure... I'll keep your secret. Old scythe boy might flip if he heard that." he said softly in a low tone. He picked up his bowl of star, moon, and weird shaped fruits to eat.

"You want any?" he handed a yellow star fruit to TORiAS.

"It seems like everyone has some type of issue with Reala or Wizeman. It also seems like I'm being pulled into trouble, but I don't mind. I was causing trouble in Nightmare myself. I don't think Reala or Wizeman sees me as a threat." he stated and ate a moon shaped fruit.

[TORiAS_the_fallen]

"thaks....,and you're right."
TORiAS closed his eyes.

[Ventro]

Ventro swallowed the last piece of fruit in his mouth and noticed the sour taste. He looked at TORiAS with a concerned look again. He thought he did say something wrong or too harsh to TORiAS. He floated to TORiAS and put his hand on TORiAS shoulder.

"Hey Now! Buck up! I'm sure you are more your friend's type than Reala anyway. You're free spirited. I understand if you owe some type of gratitude to Reala, but it's up to you what you want. Don't let me stop you, but I just wanted you to think a bit. Sorry if it seems like I offended thee." he stated. Ventro released his grasp on TORiAS and started to eat the chocolates in the bowl.

Suddenly, he noticed he lost time in the forest. He looked frantically around to see if any enemies had spotted them."Did we stay in the forest too long already?" he thought in his mind. There were no nightmarens in the area, but the forest was dead silent.

[DAiLiGHT]

"No.... but the trouble is just beginning...." Droiture said darkly, grasping his scythe tightly. "We need to go North, because I have a hideout there that I made on my first trip here. I tend to think forward like that. The road will be dangerous but my hideout is clear. Reala won't find us there until we want him to." Droiture began floating forward slowly, close to the ground, clearing away brush and tree branches with a wave of his hand. He smiled at TORiAS. "Reala's caused us all grief with his antics. I don't know what his problem is but I'm gonna find out. And I'll kick his ass, too."

[Ventro]

Ventro let out a sigh.

"Or you get your ass kicked by him." he said under his breath. Ventro followed Droiture through the hacked path. He narrowed his eyes when he noticed a bunch of twigs, bushes, and heading his way.

"Why do I feel like I'm dragged into this? I haven't done anything wrong... or atleast I think. I guess it's good to tag along." he thought in his head. He looked up at the sky and noticed that it was pitch black with very few stars twinkling. Then, he looked Droiture.

[DAiLiGHT]

"I heard that, Ventro. I'm not getting my ass kicked by a man in lipstick again. Been there. Done that. Not going back." Droiture said darkly. "Do you have any idea what it's like to get your ass handed to you on a silver platter by a man wearing lipstick?! It's not cool."

Droiture flew faster, shards of crystal shielding him from all sides as he held his scythe out straight.

[Ventro]

"NO! I know how to pick my fights more carefully. Picking a fight with Reala or even being haunted by him considers you an enemy of the Realm of Nightmares. Besides, I only haunt nightmarens who had Ideya and stand clear of any of Reala's gaurds. I heard a few things about him. He's like Wizeman's first hand nightmaren out of six.... I think Wizeman has six hands." he pondered. Soon, he heard something screeching around the area. There were hard flapping sounds that echoed in the air around them.

"I hope we are close to your hide out because I think more trouble is about to come are way." Ventro whispered. Quickly, he tried to stay in the shadows in the path.

[DAiLiGHT]

"I can take care of them. Chamber of Command!" A huge, ornate crystal palanquin (complete with floating shards) encompassed Droiture's body as he barrelled forwards, the spikes spearing and destroying the Nightmarens in his path.

"Sphere of the Subconscious!" Droiture's new crystal chamber shattered along with the Nightmarens, and the shards flew about and formed into a crystal ball, one which showed the path ahead.

"We better watch ourselves. The path is crawling with Nightmaren."

Droiture waved his hand and the ball dissolved seemingly into nothing.

[Ventro]

"Yawn! I don't even have to lift a finger with you around." Ventro leaned on a tree. He stretched himself up and floated towards Droiture.

"Nice Idea Droiture! Yet... one problem..." Ventro noticed. He looked at the path of killed nightmarens leading to where they are.

"I bet all these dead nightmarens won't arrise any suspicion right? Especially, when they are in a path." he said sarcastically. "No one is not going to fly around and say! Now... That's normal! A path of dead Nightmarens." he stated.

He let out a chuckle. "I don't know who to watch out for. The nightmarens in the forest or the person who's killing the nightmarens in the forest." he said jokingly.

[DAiLiGHT]

Droiture looked around at the scattered body parts surrounding him. "Maybe no one will notice." He said hopefully. "But let's go now in case someone does."

[Ventro]

Ventro follwed close behind Droiture and noticed the nightmarens not even moving in to attack. Some even fled when they saw the light Droiture's scythe. During the silence, Ventro tried to make conversation out of the boring travel.

"You are pretty powerful, but I always wonder if power has its limits. Even with all that power, you fail to retrieve any information from your one true enemy or I think he's your true enemy. Why do you have such a grudge against him? What did he do that ticked you off?" he asked curiously.

[DAiLiGHT]

"Actually, I'm not all that powerful. I just know how to skillfully use the power I do have. About Reala and what he did to piss me off... Well, when I first got to Nightopia over a year ago, he was the first guy I met. He seemed nice enough, offering to show me around and such, but then I got to see the horrid things he does with his time. It ticked me off knowing that such a man exists. I don't know much about him, only that he must be stopped if Nightopia is to survive. Look around you, Ventro. The world is falling apart. There are cracks in the ground, the air is thin, there's fire in the sky.... It's chaos here and it's all Reala's fault. I don't know who he is or what he's doing but he must be stopped or Nightopia will cease to exist and all Dreamers will too." Droiture said sadly.

"And I know this... because I'm a Dreamer myself." He said. "So I know that no matter what, I can't let Reala go through with whatever he's scheming. It just won't happen."

Droiture inhaled sharply and hissed in pain as a Nightmaren shot a spine into his side. He fell to the ground, holding his wound.

[Ventro]

"Droiture!" Ventro jumped when he saw Droiture fall to the ground. He noticed the sharp needle on Droiture's side. Soon, he heard strange echoes in the air. He couldn't tell where it was coming from, but he knew standing around won't help.

"Droiture! Come on! Suck it in and Let's move quickly!" he said trying to pick up Droiture. Unfortunately, Droiture is a little heavier than he thought, and it was causing Droiture more pain. He had to gently put him back down.

"Great! We're sitting ducks here. Droiture? Do you think you can move or fight?" Ventro asked quietly while he tried to find something to stop the bleeding.

[DAiLiGHT]

"Does it look like I can move or fight?!" Droiture snapped irritatedly. "You're gonna have to take them down.... I have to focus on healing myself...." Droiture choked. Was there some sort of poison in the spine? Droiture couldn't tell, but he did know that this wound was causing him some serious hellish burning pain. He set his thoughts inward and focused on closing his wound.

[Ventro]

Soon, Ventro looked around and heard lots of crocked laughter around them. It grew louder and louder when they came closer and closer into their area. He narrowed his eyes at Droiture.

"This is what happens when you attack without knowing your oponent. Don't know if you asked for it or not, but I guess that's what happens when you're thick headed." he insulted jokingly at Droiture. The crocked chuckles and laughters grew louder. Ventro stood up and gave a smug smile.

"You must think you're soo smart hidding behind the shadows. " he realzied and made two of his middle fingers touch eachother. He whispered his incantation, "Purity eliminate all darkness!" Suddenly, his sharp nails glowed white when he raised one of his hands up high.

"Okay! I'm ready to play with you." he quickly floated up and started slashing his claws in every direction. Sharp blades of light were made with every slash from his claws. The blades quickly slashed anything in it's path. He heard screams of the nightmarens and saw their bodies fall to the ground. In fear, one of the nightmarens dodged the attack and tried to escape.

"No you Don't! Don't run from a game you started." he yelled and focused his claws on the target. With one thrust forward with his claw, five small needles of light quickly ejected and hit the nightmaren. It fell to the ground with a terrible cry. Ventro flew down and picked up a weird bird like nightmaren.

"Alright! I know none of these nightmarens I killed are not the ones that threw the needle. So, who was it?" He interrogated by slamming the nightmaren hard into a tree. When the bird refused to answer, Ventro placed the sharp nails of his claw on the nightmaren's neck.

"I'm waiting?"

[DAiLiGHT]

"Hisss..... It was one of the bosses.... Dunno what they call him now.... hiss.... he's changed, see... used to be a gambling addict.... now he's feared even more..... hisss..... Sorry boss..."

With that the Nightmaren disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

[Ventro]

"Hmmmm..." Ventro pondered when he relieved his hand. He looked around and noticed that Droiture was still on the ground.

"I hope you're healed up now! I'm not the type that fights for nothing you know. None of these stupid nightmarens left any Ideya for me to take. I hate wasting my energy on third rate nightmarens." he complained. He took a look at his gloves and canceled his incantation.

"Hey! Did you hear what that bird said? It's one of the bosses that attacked you. He must of used these nightmarens to distract me from tracking him down. I don't know where he escaped to, but I heard he use to be a gambling addict. We might be able to use that to our advantage hopefully. It seems like Reala might be one step ahead of us after all." Ventro thought.

[DAiLiGHT]

"I think I'm alright for now.... however I need to move carefully or I'll tear it wide open again.... Hmm. Gambling addict you say? Well, that sounds like someone Mum used to talk about. Says he wears orange and ain't much of a talker. Let's go!" Droiture said.

[Ventro]

"Sigh! I guess I still have to fight til we get to your hide out." Ventro said disappointedly. On the path, Ventro kept using his purity power to kill nightmarens, but he also noticed a strange presence in the area. One after one, they dropped dead from his blades of light, but instead of a path. Ventro was smart enough to keep the killings broken and scattered. After a while, he noticed a few nightmarens that are easy to scare away. Once they are far enough, he used his attack to let them drop dead in a different area.

"I hope we're there Droiture because I don't like this path one bit. Why did we trust your crystal again?" he complained even more. Unexpectedly, Ventro was starting to loose his endurance to keep striking at the nightmarens scattered in the forest.

[DAiLiGHT]

"Look at the giant cave of crystal in front of you and tell me we're not there." Droiture replied dryly, leading them into the cave. "Opacity 65%!" He called, and the cave grew more opaque until it was dimmer than before. The walls themselves became more rocklike. "There. Now we're safe."

[Ventro]

"Whoa! Finally! I can relax my claws." He smiled while he messaged his claws. He looked around the cave to see what was inside.

"This is one interesting hiding place. Hopefully, I can get some rest. Finding your place is a whole workout in itself. So, how's your wound doing?" He looked at Droiture's side.

[DAiLiGHT]

"I'll be fine." Droiture said simply. "I've been through worse." A sound came rustling near the cave. "what was that?"

[InTheNightlight]

Meanwhile at the other side of the dream world...

"NiGHTS? I know NiGHTS!" A small kid told a taller maren. "Oh, sorry about that! My name is DaYZ! If you're looking for NiGHTS, he went towards the dream gate!" Suddenly, the kid flashed into a yellow maren for about one second then changed back to a kid.

"Thanks, kid!" A pinkish colored maren flew off.

"You're welcome, friend!" DaYZ waved. "I'd better find DaRKNES. He'll know what to do!" He jumped up and started to fly. "APTIVA!"

[Ventro]

Ventro noticed the rustling sounds too. Then, he smiled at Droiture.

"Hey! I got a plan." he whispered. He pulled his little red charm with blue feathers off the left side of his head. With a smile, he held the charm in his hand while his other hand hovered over it.

"I summon Kiwi!!!!" he said softly and the little charm floated in the air. Soon, little feet came out from the feathers and two red eyes opened from the gem. A pointey beak also formed from the gem, and it started to chirp.

"Peep!" it said. It jumped on top of Ventro's arm. Then, it jumped quickly on Droiture's head. Ventro can't help but laugh when it puffed up into a feathery blue ball on Droiture's head.

[DAiLiGHT]

"Whatever the hell this thing is, it gets off my head NOW, or I kill it." Droiture said through gritted teeth. He made a lunge for the bird with his arm.

[Ventro]

The kiwi dodged quickly from Droiture's and remained on his head.

"Relax! Take it easy! It's just my scouter Kiwi. You didn't think this charm I wear is made for show did you." He chuckled. Ventro raised his hand so the Kiwi could jump on it.

"It's quite harmless, but it will inform us if there is something there." He lowered the blue feathery, red headed kiwi on the ground. Quickly, it ran towards the sound and into the shadows. A puff a dust floated in the air

"Be prepared for our guest. If there really is someone there." Ventro grinned. The puffy kiwi ran quickly through the cave and scampered from rock to crystal.

[DAiLiGHT]

"Can that thing fight or is it just a scouter? 'Cause if it can't even fight it's basically a useless winged annoyance and I'm-a eat it as soon as it gets close enough to me." Droiture warned. "I bet it tastes just like chicken." Droiture said with an evil smile.

[Ventro]

Ventro glared at Droiture when he heard his last statement. Soon, the little Kiwi returned when it found nothing in the area making the sound. Overhearing the echoes of the conversation on the way back, the Kiwi thought about having some fun with his summoner. Unfortunately, it was soo dim in the cave that he coudn't tell which was Ventro.

"It's a scouter! Like I said!!! And it's not an annoyance. Sometimes, they can be useful. And I doubt you're quick enough too...." He stopped his argument. Ventro eyes waved slightly away from Droiture and noticed the Kiwi jumped on Droiture's tail.

"Ki... hummmph!!" Ventro covered his mouth. He tried to keep calm and tried to figure out a way to call it. Unexpectedly, the kiwi scampered lightly up the tail. When it noticed the silver feathers, the kiwi happily pecked at the feathers.

[DAiLiGHT]

Without warning, Droiture suddenly snapped his tail up and wrapped it around the offending bird. "I'm going to goddamn charbroil you!" He cried angrily, shaking the poor thing back and forth before throwing it against the opposite wall. He chased it around the room, screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs.

[InTheNightlight]

DaYZ flew past a cave when he heard a loud swear. He looked in. There were two nightmaren and one was chasing a small bird-like creature. The other yelled for the seemingly insane one to stop. "Um...excuse me?" He asked. The others stopped their screams and looked at the mouth of the cave. "I know this is none of my business, but what's going on?"

[Ventro]

"Peeeeep! Peep! Peep!" the little blue kiwi chirped while it tried to run from Droiture. Ventro glared at Droiture chasing the little kiwi.

"Droiture! It's just a harmless Kiwi! Leave it alone." Ventro tried to stop Droiture. Unfortunately, the force of them passing by caused him to be knocked backwards to the wall. When he landed on the ground, four more charms fell out of his pockets.

"Well, atleast it's only one kiwi!" he sighed with relief. Realizing that he spoke to soon, the Kiwi came towards Ventro and pecked at the four charms. Soon, there were five little kiwis running around the cave.

"I don't believe this..." Ventro said to himself. Soon, he heard someone asking a question from the cave. His eyes moved towards the mouth of the cave, and he saw Dayz. He tiredly floated towards Dayz and answered.

"Uh... my friend... is trying to kill my pet kiwi." he stuttered trying to explain the crazy situation that's happening.

"Who are you anyway? Who do you work for?" he asked Dayz.

[DAiLiGHT]

"I HATE ANIMALS!" Droiture cried suddenly, anguished at the thought of four more irritating little birds to contend with.

[Ventro]

Ventro was startled when he heard Droiture yell. He flew back to the commotion.

"Aww Shittios! Better do something quick or he'll really kill them." Ventro pondered and looked at the five little kiwis running around wild in the cave. He floated close to the ground with his legs crossed and held out his arms tiredly.

"Kiwi! Kiwi!! Come on! Ventro wants to play!" he yelled and smiled very childlike. When the Kiwis noticed Ventro, they ran towards him and tackled him. They chirped happily while they bounced on Ventro.

"See no harm done." Ventro said assuringly. The two kiwis bounced happily on Ventro's hands, two jumped on his lap, and the blue one jumped on Ventro's head.

[InTheNightlight]

"Oooookaay...So anyway, my name is DaYZ. What's yours?" The two maren told him their names. "And to answer your question, I'm helping my friend, DaRKNES. We're trying to find as much Ideya as possible, so Wizeman doesn't get his greedy mits on them. What are you guys doing?"

[TORiAS_the_fallen]

"Traveling," TORiAS had finally caught up. Really, he had thought about all Ventro said, and it made perfect sense. He didn't NEED Reala, per-se.
"We're Traveling."
He looked at Ventro "Sorry, I was.... thinking.... about before, you know...?"

[DAiLiGHT]

"Let me guess. You and Reala were--" Droiture linked his fingers together with a click of his tongue, "And now you're concerned?" He finished. He shrugged. He turned back to Ventro. "Just get those things out of my cave or else." He threatened darkly.

MEANWHILE THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY

"Rise, my fallen brother. Rise from the ashes with which you were defeated." In the dark depths of the shadows, a form began to take shape. Formerly just a disembodied voice, the color orange became prominent in its design. A Cheshire-Cat like grin appeared as if from the very shadows themselves....

[Ventro]

"Hey Tori! You missed all the excitement... and the pain." Ventro stated with five kiwi like birds jumping on him still. His eyes narrowed at Droiture.

"Okay! I'll get rid of them. Sorry Kiwis! Playtime is over! Return!" Ventro snapped his fingers and the kiwi's turned back into charms.

"Happy now Mr. Psycho!" Ventro mocked.

[TORiAS_the_fallen]

"Y-you knew?! DAMN!!!!" TORiAS blushed, but then looked at Droiture, and grinned "What was I to expect?"
TORiAS sighed, and watched the Kiwi's go back from where they came"Well, what now?"