Insert Song / Mr Fixer / Sou / ID:INVADED OST

The baked field was full of greyish, leafless trees. Above, the gears of a clock replaced the sun as its steel hands ran parallel to the rotten earth. The fact that colours existed here failed to appease anyone; it only made things more nightmarish.

A hollow, rather robotic voice sprinted around the area. "To all the liars out there, please continue lying in your grave."

The statement grew into a fading chant as a chilly wind tumbled across the five humans huddling together.

"Where are we?" Jade sneezed.

"Not sure," Mei muttered and looked at Zayn. He was scanning the area alongside Sage and Titan. The two girls followed but found nothing more than the selfsame trees, then ran off on their own accord to seek a possible pattern in the trees' placement.

Sage inspected the hands of the clock and watched as they disappeared upon touching every tree and reappeared after passing through it, seeming to hold a consciousness to not graze them. The layer of moss, the intertwined stalks of begonias and tansies on the hands all followed the same procedure. Putting out a finger, he felt a slight cut before blood seared his flesh. A hiss shot through his gritted teeth, and his shoulders rose and slumped.

"There are thin strings attached to the gears and the ground," Titan, who was from a stone's throw away from him, pointed out. "Are we being lifted?"

"No. But the ground is cracking." Zayn blinked and leapt over the second-hand. "Watch out for the clock's hands! They're speeding up!"

"This is such a nightmare," Titan grumbled under his breath before joining Mei and Jade. They eyed him and listened as he asked if a pattern was found.

"It resembles a gameboy cartridge's circuit board," Mei answered. "Game?"

"Who knows?" Titan shrugged just as they all fell into the earth's jaws.

The five of them landed on the same barren field, seeing the same gears, the same arid gusts of dust. Yet, now a creature lay motionlessly some distance from them, a serpentine body with green and black markings sinking gradually into the soft, moist earth. Most of zir back, head, and neck were black, while the underbelly and the tip of its tail were green. Zir eyes, simply four green, glowing hexagons, akin to a Bug-type's compound eyes, shifted a little as the creature shook.

"Zygarde," Zayn breathed. "Zie's asleep."

"Then... we're in Zygarde's nightmare?" Sage sucked in a breath.

Sage thought through the possibility of such an absurd statement, of such a ridiculous situation. That couldn't have been right, but it could explain the unique supernatural forces at work.

Even then, how did they get caught up in this mess?

Was it the void in Terminus Cave? Was it the void that claimed them on their way there? Was it the raw power of the legendaries, the ability to impress upon humans fear and communicate their need for salvation? Could it be just that?

A tower fell from the sky, and all went black.

That is, till they awoke in the same barren field, there lay the same Zygarde, shrouded in the same stillness. Yet this time, it rained. It seemed like a time loop, just that the environmental conditions were changed each time. After a sudden meteor shower, natural disasters, a gathering of voices and words that hurt transmitting through the air, they awoke again, and again, and again, and again.

The cycle grew dull, save for the bizarre torture and execution methods, much like one would to criminals and call it right, that this utilitarianism was all for the greater good, entities that seemed to contradict their current situation. For there was no one else but the five humans, and no being inferior to humans existed here either.

'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' Such a statement was easily dismissed by the puppeteer of this nightmare, this hell. Sage had lost count of their death count, but estimated it must have reached a hundred, at least. There was so much killing—of desires, of pasts, of sensibility. No one could justify the aims of destroying Order, or the embodiment of it, repeatedly. Yet, there must be some way out of this.

As bullets ran parallel to the earth, charging towards all sentient, living beings in the space, Sage realised everything could be determined with the flip of a coin. If it be fair, then it would land on the other side. Yet, the circumstances seemed to defeat this great probability. He could still try, regardless...

"Titan," he said as he ducked a bullet. "Use your Healer card!"

"What?" Titan shook his head. "Will it work?"

"We could try."

Titan entered the app and activated the card, describing as much and as best as he could the situation at hand, awaiting a miracle. Still, in a world ravaged by nonsense, it wouldn't be surprising that a miracle seed grew from the cracks of the earth instead.

Seconds of silence seeped through.

Then, a different change stirred awake.

They had finally seen the end of it all, though at a cost.

Sleeks of red and black rose from the fractured earth and strange, vivid vines twirled around the five of them, Zygarde escaping all vision despite zir immobility. The world was soon coated in a dull slew, and in its corse of life, a dream, decidedly one, grew conscious.

Of course... How can there be nightmares without Darkrai, the true guardian of the Umbrage Zone? Sage smiled wryly.

"Prisoners of Nightmares, struggle. If you awaken, you will be released. For fooling with my plans, venture forth into your darknesses."

On Darkrai's calling, Sage felt his limbs turn to lead, his mind a flight and his body nothing more than a dew.

「」

His id was invaded.

The experience was akin to the opening of a portal in one's chest, a casual, wild hand slinking in, and all things visceral stroked, it retracted, digits coated with a dull red, craving more in its pleasure. The workings of desire disgusted him as usual.

There required no elaborate violence to startle his soul, nothing too psychological or gripping either. Instead, as if this new world had soaked his conscience, it spewed mundaneness on his flesh. The most trivial and frivolous of life environed him. White, gold, grey, black, red lights danced across the parlour at evening. Pots and pans rose and ebbed, glasses clinked and pink fizzes sloshed about, within the valleys of painted lips. Someone elbowed him, one stepped on his foot.

It's a party. It's routine. It's boring, cold, predatory. It made him feel so alone, secluded in that dingy corner of a balcony where dust mountains erupted their ashes.

Sage turned, again, to the commotion, the rubbing of bodies, limbs, joys. The lyrics to the squeaking playlist made no sense. Conversations were planted everywhere; the floor was dense with saliva and feet.

Sage snorted.

When will this end?

The thought was the cue to the crashes. The echoing screams transcended time and space.

Shards were everywhere, lifeless bodies too. Only one was still alive, eyes on the boy.

"It's you, isn't it? You killed my friends."

That wispy voice swirled in his ears.

He watched the girl lift herself up, watched the sapphire streaks, like trails of blood on a window, on her dead white dress. Then that red plush she had sat on was lifted, too.

She started again. "It's the chandelier, isn't it? Always the chandelier."

Sage blinked. "How? I-I couldn't have done it."

"Your shadows, Sage. You killed them all."

"N-No. It's a gift, yes, a gift."

She said it wasn't one.

"I couldn't have! Why would I?"

"And why wouldn't you?" A pregnant pause. "You're envious that we feel happiness, unlike you, Sage Shrike."

"Envy can't kill people!" Sage shook his head. The shadows slipping from his darkening scar hoisted the girl. "It's always like this. People just judge me because I'm different, introverted, alone."

"I can help you," she said. "If you let me."

"This is all a nightmare!"

"This is reality."

"You're lying."

"You're distorting the truth."

"What is the truth?"

"I..."

"I guess you don't know too," Sage mumbled and released her. "Take your revenge then."

"I choose to forgive and help you."

"How cold."

She merely smiled. "I promise I can make you a better person."

"What are you, a potter?"

She nodded and her blue eyes intersected with his brown ones.

"I am one, too." Sage felt his heart thump hard. "I don't know who you are, but how did you know my name?"

"Yvette told me." She took his hand. "We have to leave before the police arrives."

"Yes," Sage muttered and they left the parlour, the house, the street. At the bend, he paused and glanced her way. "So, who are you?"

"I'm Sayo."