Cody

It took a while but I finally slept. But only nightmares plagued me.

At first there was nothing.

Then I was back. Back at the Conch Command. I think, I was in his room? It was hard to tell. No one was around, not even the Professor even though he was supposed to be. The whole place was destroyed, mostly from what looked liked to be C4.

"Why am I back here?" I whispered to myself. "I though I already had these dreams." It had been days since my last one.

"Did-" A haunting voice startled me. "Did I really deserve this?"

Looking at where it came from, I realized I was no longer alone. The purple form stood a couple feet away, yellow eyes were filled with fear and pain. His arms covered up one spot near his chest. "You.." I spoke this time. Disbelief laced my voice. "Why are you here this time?"

A low chuckle emitted from him. "You haven't figured that out yet? Stupid Penguin." Though the voice was still his, it sounded warped. I just blinked, still in shock. "But.. You're dead. I killed you." Anger flashed in his eyes. His teeth bared. "Oh I'm dead alright." He moved his arms to show the stab wound, blood started to pour from it before it was covered once more. "But why? Why kill me?"

"You needed to be stopped."

"So you kill me? If you do that to everyone who does bad things, you would be a tyrant. Or maybe," he started to laugh. "You already are."

I shook my head. "No, no! I'm not like that!"

"Oh really? Let's see what you've done. Invaded my home, killed my men, took my CHILD, CAGED HIM, blew up my home then after chasing me up to my room, killed me." He seemed most angry about what I did to his baby. "You could have done so many things, but you truly are evil. Maybe more than me." I opened my mouth to protest but was stopped. "I don't even mess with children and look what you have done. You caused this. What kind of king does this?" Then a wicked smile played on his lips.

"What would your father say?"

My heart dropped like lead.

"I..." There was nothing I could say. No words to defend my actions. He didn't stop. "Would he have killed me? No, he would have done the proper thing. He would have given me trial. A chance. But no, you let your emotions control you." He approached, making me walk back. My heart pounded like it was going to come out of my chest. "You decided to do what you thought was right instead of what clearly was the right thing to do." I glance back, not much room was left for me to walk back to. I was approaching the very ledge where he was dropped off of. My breathing began to become ragged.

"Did you ever think about Blooper? He did escape from you, so where would a child go after escaping?" I felt my heart fill up with more guilt and dread, chest tightening. "He would go home." My voice barely a whisper. "What would happen when he did?" I looked around. "He would of saw the damage his home was in. A child who saw this would be scared and sad. He would want-" I choked up. I felt like I could barely breath.

He would want his father.

"My baby would see me dead! Do you know how he would feel? DO YOU EVER THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU DO AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF IT?" I was out of room and on to the balcony, and he was mere steps away, a knife was in his hand. He raised it. "DON'T YOU EVER THINK ABOUT HOW I FELT?" Something was in my hand when he was close enough to strike. My fingers curled around it.

I didn't think, I was just looking to defend myself. I lashed out to stop him only to watch him pause dead in his tracts. I had made contact with the thing, and him. The purple being looked at what I did, and after a moment, I did too.

The thing in my hand was the Sword. The same sword. I had killed him again.

I started up again at the yellow eyes, they were full of so many emotions, I couldn't make out all of them. The Villain stumbled forward, making me move out of the way, only to see what was happening. Just like last time, he fell, and just like last time,

I was the one to cause it.

A cry came from behind. When I turned, everyone I knew was looking. At the front of the group was his son. Baby Blooper.

The tiny kraken just looked at me like I was his worse nightmare. "Y-you monster!" The child gasped and tears welded up in his eyes. "DAD!" He screamed and jumped down after him. I tried to stop him or say something but more voices haunted me.

"Cody," It was the Professor. He just looked at me with disappointed eyes and shook his head. "What have you done?" I froze up. No words would flow out of my mouth. "I though you were the good guy..." The Sneaky Sisters spoke up this time. Both of them were horrified. "I guess we were wrong." Panic set in. "Wait but I-" Rasmus was staring me in the eye. For once, he had nothing to say. More and more people spoke up, and one by one, they all disappeared.

Except for one.

"Cody?" The voice was unsure. I took a double take at who it was. Sadness filled his eyes when he looked at me. "I can't even recognize you anymore." He turned to leave. "J-" I couldn't say his name without pain overcoming me. A powerful voice boomed around me.

"WHO'S THE REAL MONSTER NOW PENGUIN?"

I was frozen in place. Now alone, with only darkness left.

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"Cody!"

I gasped awake, shaking just a little bit from what I had experienced. That nightmare was more vivid than any others. Though my eyes flew open, they weren't really processing anything. I closed them again and sighed.

Soon, every sense started to work. I felt a softer blanket than mine being wrapped around my form, as well as something soft being shoved inside of my hands. The smell of what could only be Hot Coco filled the air. I soon realized the Snake Person was in my room.

"Cody are you okay?"

"What?" I spoke out confused. "Cody, sorry about the intrusion, but you were having a night terror so," She handed me hot chocolate and sat down on the side of the bed, looking expectantly at me. "Are you okay?"

I began to notice what was going on. Tanith was in my room and had wrapped me in a fuzzy blanket, made me a soothing drink, somehow found my teddy bear and put it in my hands as well as now was waiting to comfort me.

But only one question was in my mind.

"How did you get into my room? Into the castle?"

Her face blanked out. "Oh-uh. I kinda broke in." I stared at her like she was crazy. "What about the guards?" She just waved it off. "I snuck past them. You were having a really bad dream so I kinda had to." Then something else occurred to me. "How did you know?" She just shrugged. "I just kinda knew. You know? It's just a thing I have. Now we can discuss details of that later but right now, are you okay? From what I know, it was a pretty terrible dream."

I didn't answer at first. I was kinda of avoiding telling her about what happened in Atlantis not too long ago. I didn't want someone to know that I did something so awful. Plus, I didn't really want to talk about it. But something told me, she wasn't leaving without answers.

"I'd rather not get into it but. Not too long ago, I did something. Something bad. I regret it everyday and I just wish I could change what I did but-" I let out a heavy sigh. "There's no going back. It happened and after all this time I still have nightmares. Nightmares that maybe... Maybe I changed from it. That maybe I became."

I didn't meet her eyes.

A monster. I didn't speak it. That was the one thing I hated the think about most. That maybe by killing him, I became the real monster.

Tanith patted my back. Honestly, it was a little awkward. "I know how hard this might be but sometimes things happen for a reason.  Everyone makes mistakes and even though-." Something changed in her tone. "Even though it haunts you and you want to go back and fix it so you don't have to deal with all this guilt and pain," There was a long pause. "You can't." Then it was followed by a heavy sigh. "This is the path you took and things will turn out for the better because of it."

She glanced at the clock. "I have to go soon. You personal guard will be back soon and I doubt they'll like me being here. Think about what I said and just. Take it easy. Not everyone has to deal with the pressure of being a king you know."

Just like that she was gone as quickly as she came. I took a long sip from the drink in my hands and stared at it.

Something told me that I wasn't the only one she was convincing. 

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So here is my next chapter. I hope it worked out, I'm kinda worried about going a bit Out Of Character with Cody but anyways, tell me what you think! I should have another update soon.

--JustAnAtlantisWriter