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[DAiLiGHT]

"Course I knew. I've got the juju to tell these things." Droiture said. "And yes, Ventro, I'm happy now. And I'm not psycho I just hate animals." Droiture mumbled.

[TORiAS_the_fallen]

"Hmmmmm, and you don't hate my guts?" TORiAS smiled "I hate animals too!"

[DAiLiGHT]

"Course I don't hate your guts. You left him, didn't you? That's good enough for me." Droiture said lazily, floating upside down and clinging to the ceiling like a bat.

[Ventro]

Ventro placed the blue charm on the left side of his hat and the rest back into his pockets. Suddenly, he started too yawn a bit.

"Well, call me when your Juju is actually working in full function. For me, I need some fresh air. I'm not use to being caved in." he smiled fakely and walked slowly out of the cave. To not give away where the mouth is, he quickly jumped to a tree's shadow and sat at the branch looking at the light of the stars. For some reason, he felt depressed.

"I need some time on my own a bit." he whispered to himself.

[DAiLiGHT]

"I'ma Juju you, bird boy!" Droiture cried after him before creating a crystal caccoon around himself and dozing off to sleep.

[TORiAS_the_fallen]

TORiAS sat, wondering where he came from, already feeling a wall forming between him and the others. Why did he do this?! AHHHHH!!!
He closed his eyes and began to sob empty tears. Why was he a Nightmaren? Why were his memories gone? Why had he fallen from the sky? What was he?!

[Ventro]

Ventro stared at the sky and noticed he was dozzing off. Everything seemed fuzzy, but the trees beagan to blurr into an image he remembered in his past.

"What is this?" he wondered. Soon, he saw a something he recognized before.

"Why am I remembering this? I don't like remembering." he said to himself. Soon, he shook his head and the blurrs went away. But before he tried to stand up, he noticed something in his sleeve. It was his own persona. He sighed when he started to rub the three purple and blue feathers in the middle of his persona.

"An Ideyan Parasite... isn't that right." he whispered to himself and began to look at the sky again.

[TORiAS_the_fallen]

A Nightmaren prince who had bytray him, another who abused him, and now he was here, alone, and wondering about destiny.
He exited the cave, feeling lonely, it wasn't long before he spotted Ventro, and stood, paralyzed, unable to speak.

[Ventro]

Ventro stared hard at the Persona.

"Should I put it back on...? Mann... I hate to hear him again. I guess either now or never." he whispered to himself. Ventro quickly looked around and couldn't see anyone in the darkness.

"Well, it wouldn't hurt." he grinned. He decided to fly away from the cave til he was at a safe distance. When he put the persona on, there's a small speaker hidden in the feathers that allowed him to communicate with Wizeman or other nightmarens.

Suddenly, back in the realm of nightmares, Wizeman sensed that a nightmaren was wearing a persona.

"Hmmmmm... I recognize this one." Wizeman said angrily in his realm. "You! Speak Up! And tell me who you are?" he demanded.

"Don't get all angry just because I decided to speak with you." Ventro responded.

"You! I realized you were the one who's been killing nightmarens in the forest and stole Ideya that I need. I knew I should never let you run on your own. I demand you return home and surrender all the Ideya you took. I will assure your punishment won't be great. I'm sure your persona tells me that you are still loyal to me. " he compromised.

Ventro laughed, "Sorry Master, but I can't return home... yet. You know! I'm still on an investigation. You know what I mean." Ventro grinned.

"Quit with this foolish investigation. Reala is one of my perfect nightmarens. You should know." Wizeman argued.

"Yeah... Soo perfect that he set up Jackle to his own grave in a void. I'm telling you! He was jealious of Jackle when he was at the top of his game. Furthermore, you still refused to admit that you were also the reason for his demise Master. I'm going to find dirt on Reala soo bad that your own nightmares would hit you right in the back of your head." Ventro stated.

"Silence! How dare you talk back to me in that manner." Wizeman yelled angrily.

Ventro fell silent and looked around the area.

[DAiLiGHT]

Droiture walked outside and saw Ventro wearing some odd mask. "Ventro? Is that you? What's with the fruity eyewear? You goin' to a carnival?"

[Ventro]

"Uhhhh... it's nothing. Just a mask. Cool huh!" Ventro said shockingly and quickly took the persona off his face. He placed the persona in his sleeves and looked at Droiture.

"Anyway... What are you doing up? I thought you were asleep in your crystal caccoon." Ventro remembered. He tried not to act too surprised, so he won't look too suspicious. Suddenly, he noticed that Droiture didn't know what the mask is.

"That's odd... Every nightmaren created by Wizeman has a persona, but this guy doesn't even know what it is. Does this mean this human maren never was created by wizeman." he though in his mind. He leaned on the tree's trunk and looked down on Droiture.

"You should be getting your rest. It takes a lot of rest for a wound to heal like that. You should go back and rest" he suggested.

[DAiLiGHT]

"I was asleep, but I woke up. I guess one really can't sleep for all that long when you're already in the world of Dreams." Droiture said. "So what's the mask for, anyway? It makes you look silly. Gold eyewear just doesn't go with you, man. I'd say more of a silver or even a bronze finish, but gold really doesn't..." Droiture began rambling idly on and on about Ventro's choice in eyewear, giving him useless fashion tips and waving his spindly hands around effeminately as he did so, almost like a fashion designer watching his new line come to life on the runway.

[Ventro]

"Yeah... I thought soo too.." Ventro pondered. Ventro's eyes waved to the side when he tried to respond to Droiture's rambling.

"It's no big deal. It just a mask, and there's no importance to it. It just came with the suit that's all." Ventro answered. He stretched out his body and floated over to a large branch that had a thick bundles of leaves at the end.

"You know! I'm a little tired right now... very tired. I'll just go and take a nap." he lied and floated to the bowl of leaves. He layed down on the leaves and looked at the sky again in concern. He couldn't help but remember those voices long time ago.

"Hey Squirt!... You want to play again." a voice echoed in his head.

"No way man... you always cheat at this card game. "

"Keep in mind! In any game, Anything can go! Don't be a sore loser becuase you can't out smart my skills. So what will it be?" the voice keeps trailing in his mind.

[DAiLiGHT]

"I still think it looks silly." Droiture mumbled. He floated around the tree for a while. "You know, I'm sensing some crazy juju around this tree. Like there's something else there but we can't see it." Droiture said cryptically.

[Ventro]

"Uh... huh..." Ventro said with his eyes narrowed.

"What am I going to do? It seems like I might have a hard time getting some privacy around him. It's like he's invading my space. I just know it. I got to do or say something. Come on Ventro! Think!" his voice echoed in Ventro's mind.

"You know! Maybe I should scout around. Maybe, there are still some spy nightmarens hanging around. I'll go take a look." Ventro picked himself and flew around the trees.

"You might as well stick around at the cave. I'll take care of it." Ventro said assuringly while he flew away.

[DAiLiGHT]

"You're working for them, aren't you?" Droiture said calmly, but scarily coldly. His voice was calm and monotonous, but held an air of hatred to them. Droiture was quick to judge but slow to forgive.

[Ventro]

Ventro didn't stop. He kept moving forward quickly without looking back. He didn't know what to say or respond to Droiture's question. All he could think about is avoiding it. When he thought he was far enough, he rested under the shadows of the trees.

"Good! I lost him. I can finally relax alone for a bit."he thought and smiled. Soon, he dozed off into a painful memory.

He remembered seeing Reala and Jackle talking to each other while he was hidding in Jackle's Realm.

"I want you to get rid of NiGHTS." Reala demanded. When Reala floated away from his Realm, Ventro floated towards Jackle.

"Boss Jackle... When are we going to play? I think I can beat you this time." Ventro said triumphantly with a deck of cards in his hand.

"Not Today Squirt! Come back when you see me deliver NiGHTS body to Master Wizeman." Jackle laughed.

Later, Ventro returned to Jackle's realm only to see him defeated. Jackle was serverly injured, and there was nothing left in him. He panted heavily looking at Reala floating before him.

"You're a disgrace to MASTER WIZEMAN! I'll make sure to dispose of such weak filth like you." Reala said angrily. Ventro dared not to move. He noticed Jackle still had that cocky smile even in pain.

"It's not like you can do a better job. You're no better than me." Jackle laughed crookedly.

"That's enough out of you! Rot in the VOID OF DEATH!!!" Reala yelled and circled around Jackle. An eerie black void opened under Jackle. Ventro was petrified while he watched Jackle sinking into the void.

"No! Boss Jackle!" Ventro yelled.

Suddenly, Ventro snapped back to reality. Cold sweat ran down his face while he panted fast. "How long was I out?" he asked himself. He noticed the area around him grew really quiet.

[DAiLiGHT]

"About half an hour." Droiture said from behind him. "Hi."

[Ventro]

Ventro quickly turned around and noticed Droiture was right behind him.

"Ahhhh! Who... Whoa!!!!" Ventro lost his balance in shock and fell off the branch. He hit and broke most of the tree branches under him.

"Whoa! Ouch! Arg!!! Omph!" he yelled in pain. Bushes and branches slapped and hit Ventro til he finally reached the ground. His body slammed to the ground face down.

"Crap!... Crap! Crap! Crap!" he grumbled while he tried to lift his head from the ground. In shock, he totally forgot he could of flew during the fall.

"Things just can't get any worse for me." he mumbled.

[DAiLiGHT]

"Sure they can. You could be me, think about that for a while." Droiture replied darkly, filing his nails idly. "I mean really. Think about it. I'm half human, half maren, I'm a mess both here and when I'm awake, my mother is never around because she has to work two jobs to keep food on the table, I'm a freak here and there, I have no idea who my father is or where he can be found, I've got a bevy of medical problems, and to top it all off, for God's sake, I'm me." Droiture ticked off on his fingers.

[Ventro]

"Whoa...! You won there." Ventro spoke tiredly. When he finally regain his balance to stand up, he looked at Droiture. Ventro crossed his arms when the pain in his body stopped. His eyes narrowed with anger.

"What are you up to? Why are you tracking me down? It's not like I have something to hide." Ventro yelled. The wind blew lightly around them. He was not willing to talk about his problems nor his plans. Unforuntately, he felt tired, but his eyes slightly looked around for a quick escape.

"I'm no match for this guy in my current size. Shrinking myself won't give me any advantage if he knows I'm around. Even my Ideyan gloves are no good if I didn't get any rest. I only have growth to run on. I might be slow and my gloves will be useless, but I might have a better chance to escape." Ventro thought in his mind. He tried to keep his distance away from Droiture.

[DAiLiGHT]

"Because I'm a suspicious person. I want to make damn sure you're on our side, okay? I've been betrayed badly in the past and I don't think I could handle it if you left me so soon." Droiture said darkly. "Do you know what it's like to be used? To be played with like a toy, then thrown away like an old rag doll? It hurts, Ventro and damned if I'm going to deal with that B.S. again."

[Ventro]

Ventro fell silent and looked at the ground under his feet. He started to snicker than it grew into a laugh. When he finished laughing, he gave a loud growl in aggrivation.

"So, that's what this is all about. Betrayal!!! Why on earth do I want to Betray YOU? So Help Me! I'll beat some sense into you for keeping me up and chasing me around because of that." Ventro threatened. He can't believe his ears that Droiture would dare mark him as a traitor.

"When did you crazily assume that? I was wondering what you were talking about when you yelled that I work for "THEM!" Do you honestly think I want to work for that lazy bag of trash who created me, and allowed my boss to die under Reala's hands mercilessly. You calling me a traitor is worse than the nightmarens who called me an Ideyan Parasite. Why I otta...?" Ventro yelled. His violet eyes glowed in anger. Slowly, he balled his hands into a fist.

"You're One Track Minded, Dim-witted, and a Paranoid Moron!" Ventro insulted. When he finally started to calm down, he felt something strange about his face. Ventro quickly covered his face with both his hands. A browish beak formed on his face.

"Crud!" he mumbled while he tried to push it in.

[DAiLiGHT]

Droiture began to laugh insanely, clutching his sides while he let loose a ferocious burst of hahas and hehes that would make a hyena blush. His eyes began to tear up while he lay curled in a ball in midair, laughing like a maniac. "That was all the proof I needed! Now I know you're not with them! No problems here, Ventro. No problems here. I just wanted to make sure, Ventro. Like I said, I've been used and abused in the past. It's made me naturally suspicious of the people around me." Droiture said. He smiled and stretched his arms out, an invitation for a manly hug.

[Ventro]

"Yeah... but was it really worth this?" Ventro sqwacked in anger. When he finally calmed down again, he let out a sigh. He slowly pulled out his persona he hid under his sleeve. His eyes glowed at the sight of his persona.

"Wizeman has done some terrible things creating me. Especially, with this cursed power he gave me." Ventro stated while he attepted to push the beak back in again. Unfortunately, it wouldn't even budge.

"I just want to crush Wizeman anyway I can. I can steal Ideya from his nightmare lackys or prove that Reala is more disloyal than any rouge nightmaren... huh?" Ventro paused when he saw a large orange looking feather fall to the ground.

[DAiLiGHT]

"Why do I get the feeling this is very, very bad?" Droiture asked dryly, staring at the feather with his hand on his scythe. Stone snakes morphed from the scythe and wrapped around Droiture's hand and arm, working as a handle to ensure the scythe didn't fall out of his fragile grip.

[Ventro]

Suddenly, three large birds fell from the trees surrounding Droiture and Ventro. Each bird had a weird looking mightmaren ridding it.

"Great! It's Reala's stupid gaurds!" Ventro remembered.

"Haaaa! There you are! We got you now!" one of the gaurds yelled.

"Surrender Now! Or We'll make you kiss the ground." another gaurd threated.

"Reala will surely promote us if we turn them in." the last gaurd said gloriously.

[DAiLiGHT]

"Oh, for the love of God..." Droiture sighed. "You guys? Come on. Come on Frankie, you know it's me." Droiture addressed the Nightmaren riding the second bird. Obviously, he'd met these birds before somewhere. He put his scythe away and laughed. "Guys, you owe me. Remember what I did for you last year? I saved all your asses. You owe me big time. Now how's about you three just turn around and pretend you never saw us? We'll be even then and I won't have to remove your heads from your bodies, how about it?" Droiture said.

[Ventro]

All the gaurds looked at each other in confusion. Ventro slapped his hand on his head.
"Either Droiture has balls or he's just plain nuts." He thought. He narrowed his eyes at Droiture with a twitchy smile.

"Frankie! Do you remember this guy a year ago?" the first gaurd asked.

"No Nick! I don't remember this guy at all. How about you Carl?" Frankie lied.

"I don't know! He does seem familiar, but we are much stronger than a year ago." Carl said proudly.

Soon, they looked angrily at Droiture.

"How dumb do you think we are. We would never lose to a second rate freak like you! ATTACK!!!!" Frankie yelled angrily. Frankie's birds jumped towards them revealing its sharp claws. Ventro quickly used his growth skill to grab the bird's claw on impact. With force, Ventro pushed the bird towards the other two gaurds, but they dodged Frankie. Quickly, they landed while Frankie's bird slid on the ground and Frankie rolled off the bird.

[DAiLiGHT]

"Alright, you screw-birds. You asked for it. Daydream!" Droiture held his scythe straight up over his head. The blade began to glow a blinding shade of white. Droiture swung the blade and there was a satisfying crunch and a shing! as the blade hit solid flesh. The bird screamed as if being burned horribly.

[Ventro]

Ventro quickly moved and snuck behind Carl and Nick while they were distracted by Droiture's attack. He took off his gloves when he was right behind them. With eyes wide open, Carl, Frankie, and Nick watched Frankie's bird collapse on the ground. It turned into a puff of dark smoke where it fell. Carl and Nick pulled back when the bird disappeared. Slowly, Frankie tried to pick himself up.

"Get him!" he yelled, but Carl and Nick didn't budge.

"Are you mad? That thing... just sliced your bird... like it was paper." Nick studdered.

"Let's get out of here!" Carl yelled

"Cowards! What' will Reala say if we went back?" Franky argued. Suddenly, Ventro grabbed the birds from behind and yelled, "Ideya Drain!" .

The birds screeched and collapsed to the ground. Quickly, the guards picked themselves up and looked at Droiture. Then, they looked up at Ventro. Ventro laughed, "Now, what was that you said earlier about kissing the ground?"

[DAiLiGHT]

"I'm gonna give you screwbirds a choice. It's not a hard choice, in fact, it's so easy even you will choose the right option. Option A, is you turn around and run away, tails between your legs like you never saw us. You survive, we go on our merry way, everyone's happy. Option B is you get yourselves sliced and diced into very little pieces and sent back to Reala in a burlap sack. What's it gonna be, bird brains?" Droiture smirked, putting the sharp bit of his blade to Nick's throat in an intimidating threat.

[Ventro]

Without a thought, all three gaurds quickly ran into the darkness of the tree's shadows. Ventro sighed when he saw the two birds finally puff into smoke. He shrunk to his normal size and flew towards Droiture.

"You know they're going to tell Reala? Why did you let them go?" he asked angrily. "What are you planning? What will you gain from letting them go? I hope you thought this through instead of acting all macho like with your skinny self." Ventro noticed Droiture looks like nothing but skin and bones.

[DAiLiGHT]

"They won't tell Reala. They won't dare. 'Cause they know that if they do, I'll find them. And they'd be better off dead now, because they would NOT want me to catch them alive if they told Reala." Droiture said. He looked in the vague direction of Nightmare.

"There's a storm a-brewin', Ventro. And we're smack-dab in the middle of the hellfire." Droiture said sadly, placing his scythe down beside a rock as it began raining lightly.

[Ventro]

Rain started to pour heavily over them. Ventro sighed when he watch the rain drops fall to the ground. Slowly,he looked at the palm on his hand and saw a purple eyes looking back at him with black lining around it. When it blinked at him, Ventro covered it quickly with his glove. He looked at the rain again with a sigh. A rock on the ground provided him a place to sit and relax while he watched the rain. Then, he looked at Droiture.

"This guy looks like he's as scary as Reala... but why? Why are nightmarens terrified of him? Is it because of his scythe?" Ventro pondered in his mind.

[DAiLiGHT]

Droiture placed his arms up awkwardly and moved them, and began to play a violin that was seemingle invisible. Sad, emotional music filled the air around him, as he began to sing in French as the sky poured out it's tears.

"Quand le ciel est aussi obscurci que le coeur dans la douleur
Quand semble pour toujours trop loin
Quand le tout damne le monde vous méprise
Tout ce que vous voulez trouver élude à votre voie
Quand vous voulez seulement trouver votre but
Quand votre vie devient un mensonge rapide
Quand les faits deviennent des opinions
Et les pluies roulent dans le ciel rêveur"

He sang that over and over a few times like a mantra, and then put his violin down. he flexed his spindly fingers and they cracked like twigs in a fire before he sat down on a rock and watched the sky, waiting for it to turn blue once again so he could find Reala and demand answers.

[Ventro]

Ventro made a loud sigh when the rain started to slowly fell from the sky. He tried to start conversation after hearing Droiture's depressing song that he couldn't understand.

"Why do you sounds soo depressed? You're the last person I would think to have any feelings. " Ventro stated remembering all the nightmarens Droiture killed. His purple pupils moved slowly to Droiture from the corner of his eye.

"Sometimes, you remind me of Reala, but I'd rather be around you than Reala to tell you the truth. He always got on me after he killed boss for some reason. He assumed that I might betreay Master Wizeman, but I was tired of working for that prick Wizeman and his tard Reala. But for some reason, I felt like Wizeman or Reala is still spying on us from somewhere... Wait... Am I talking all paranoid like YOU???" Ventro said in shock with his hand pointing at Droiture.

"Oh My Gosh! You're Paranoia is contagious!" Ventro yelled and quickly flew behind a bigger rock from Droiture.

Back in the Realm of nightmares, things were not looking to well for Wizeman.

"REALA!!!! DID YOU TURN OFF YOUR SPEAKER AGAIN??? ANSWER ME REALA!!! I'VE BEEN CALLING YOU FOR HOURS!!! REALA!!!!!" Wizeman yelled through the microphone. His voice traveled to every intercom in the Realm of Nightmares.

[DAiLiGHT]

Droiture only heard the first part of Ventro's speech. " 'Last person I'd think to have feelings?' Ex-cuse me? Is that how you feel? Really? Well, listen here, you. I've got a heart. It's not made of stone. You think I like being out here all alone? I don't know anything about this place. I'm not even supposed to be here! I'm supposed to be at home with my mother, or at work so we can survive! I'm not supposed to be traipsing all over God's f@(%!^& creation with you! Don't you get it?! I'm not supposed to be here, so I don't know anything about here! All I want to get to the bottom of whatever Reala's hiding so I can go the f@(% home!" Droiture cried desperately, near tears. In his rage, he took a vicious swipe at Ventro with his claws.

- I - N - - N - I - G - H - T - M - A - R - E - - -

Reala stretched out, and remembered he shut his intercom off. He flicked the switch back on again lazily, then laid back on his bed to sleep.

[Ventro]

Ventro dodged quickly before the Droiture's claw made any tear in his vest.

"So, that's how it is ahey!" Ventro narrowed his eyes in offense.

"Well, if you just want to waltz right in there and get what you want. Fine by me. That's all you seem to care about is Yourself! Just like Reala! I might not get a few things, but I'm not stupid either. I can take a hint. You're no different. No one else matters." Ventro yelled insulted by Droiture's statement. Soon, the storm started to pick up and lightening flashed outside the cave. The rain poured heavily making the forest look foggy.

"I don't care to stoop to your level by fighting. I'm out of here!" Ventro said angrily. Without hesitation, he flew away. The lightening flashed and Ventro was gone without a trace.


Meanwhile, Wizeman was furious of Reala's laziness.

"Reala!! REALA!!! What on earth are you doing? You haven't reported anything for days now. Did you put out more spy nightmarens in the forest?" Wizeman asked angrily.

[DAiLiGHT]

"You're wrong! Wrong, you hear me? You'll die out there! There's spies everywhere in those trees and the only hope you have is me." Droiture called as Ventro left. He was livid. "You hear me?! I'm your only hope for survival! You stuck up selfish son of a--" The thunder drowned out the rest of his words.

---

"Yes, Master, I have located the annoying whelps and have a perimeter around them of only the strongest. They won't survive."