Chapter Text
Dream felt the ripple that cascaded through the Dreaming, and then tore at the base of it, slicing her open and twisting in on itself, and all of it happened in the space of mere seconds. Once it was finished, something had been altered, had been changed, had been forced. He stepped slowly, carefully, but whatever had come through had used the opposite of the power of one thousand dreamers. The opposite which only he should have had the ability to use.
Yet the throbbing pain hovering in the undercurrent of the Dreaming tells him that he was not wrong about what has stepped into their universe. Narrowing his eyes, Dream allows himself to sink deeper into the Dreaming to find the source of whatever it was that used the forbidden Power of Waking to rip apart the boundaries between worlds to reset their own timeline for a purpose he did not know.
--
It took time to find him.
He'd hidden himself well, and had Dream not noticed him in mid-action, perhaps he would have never found the boy who was able to slip into shadows with skills not even his Nightmares possessed. As though they were a part of him that he accepted and had opened his heart to. However, now he watched as the boy reached out to touch the Nightmare hovering over a young boy, and he stared, incredulously, as the Nightmare was drawn into the boy, hovered within him, before it was expelled from the Dreamer.
Dream stepped closer, staring in horror as he watched the lingering touches of the Nightmare linger on the boy, but he did not flinch from the clear pain that he was in. He had eaten the dream without hesitation, and all his focus was on the boy who was leaning into his hands and sniffling with tears. The Dream Eater, who was also a Dreamer, spoke quietly to the boy until at last he awoke, fading from the Dreaming. Once he was gone and in the Waking world, the Dream Eater turned to face him, and Dream debated tearing him from the fabric of the universe, the abomination that he was.
The Dream Eater raised his chin. "I'm looking for someone."
Dream stepped closer and towered over the boy, letting Nightmare flow over his skin in threat. "You do not come to my domain with demands, child, eater of Dreams."
"I haven't hurt anyone," the boy said, tilting his chin up stubbornly. "Not even your, your Dreams and Nightmares."
Dream paused, tilting his head. There was no scent of lie in those words, they were the truth. "What do you want?" Sorrow, thick as a blanket, swept over the boy, and Dream frowned, some of Nightmare beginning to fall over his shoulders.
"Told you," the Dream Eater answered, tapping his heart. "I'm looking for someone."
"You have torn yourself into this universe using a power you should not possess," Dream hissed. "The danger it brings to the world-"
"I know!" The boy snarled. "I watched them tear apart my world, I watched them tear apart everyone I cared about, and I lost myself to it for far too long and I hurt him! And now he sacrificed himself for all of us and I will bring him back!"
The ripple of power from the boy, and the blade he drew into his palms was one Dream recognized with a shock. The Keys. The boy was from the universe that housed the Keys. He took a step back and shook the last of Nightmare from his skin. He continued to stare for several seconds. "You've unlocked the door to our world."
"No," the boy shook his head. "I, I locked it. It was open. Who, who I'm looking for. He opened it, by accident, I think? I'm not sure. I need to find him. Please." The boy took a step forward. "I need to find him, please."
Despite himself, the burning honesty and desire to find the person shone through the Dream Eater, and Dream found himself agreeing to help with a nod. "Let us go to my librarian. She will assist us."
~!~
Hob had kept his ear to the ground the second the Instances had begun. They were continuing to cause havoc, and people were leaving the large cities in droves. He couldn't blame them, the large shadow creatures that came, destroyed, and then left again were terrifying. But he wouldn't leave, not when so many people needed help.
Like the boy who had fallen from the sky and into the grass behind the New Inn.
Uninjured despite the feel, and wearing clothing that Hob didn't recognize in terms of feel, design, or material, there was something going on with the kid. But he couldn't have been more than fifteen, maybe sixteen. So Hob had brought him up to his flat, and given him water when he'd woken up, clearly dazed and confused.
Dream hadn't answered any of his summons, but that wasn't surprising, since the Instances had impacted the Dreaming as well, though not as badly. Hob stared at the kid who was demolishing his way through the plate of sandwiches that he'd made. "You know you're going to have to tell me who you are, right?"
"Sora!" he announced.
Hob blinked. That had been far easier than he expected. He glanced out the window, but it looked like it was still quiet in the city and he relaxed a fraction. "All right, Sora. Can you tell me how you ended up in my backyard, you're wearing clothes that I don't recognize and have never seen anything like before?"
Sora blinked and looked down at his clothes, pulling and tugging at them. "No world magic," he said, frowning to himself. "Strange."
There were several dozen ways Hob could respond to that, but hell if he even knew where to begin. He took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you're not from here, right?" He rubbed his hand through his hair. "Dream is going to kill me and call me a trouble magnet again," he muttered to himself. Even if it was the truth and that truth was giving him a sunny grin.
"Do you know how you got here?" Hob asked. That, surprisingly, was enough to make Sora look down and frown, his shoulders hunching.
"I do," Sora said, his voice soft. "I think... I died. But not all the way. I dove into my heart and followed my light here." He looked up at the man standing across from him. "Who are you? Where am I?"
Christ he needed Dream, because not a single bit of that made sense. Hob let out a rough breath and shook his head. "Okay, that, I don't know what that means. If you died, you clearly aren't dead now, so that's a good thing. We'll take that as a win. You're in London. My name is Hob Gadling."
"Hob," Sora repeated, pushing himself to his feet, holding out his hand. "It's nice to meet you." He paused, chewing on his lip. "You haven't run into someone named Riku, this tall, silver hair?"
"Riku," Hob repeated, shaking his head. "No, I haven't, but I have someone that I can ask who might be able to help you find him. Who is he?"
"He's my..." Sora paused, and pressed a hand to his heart, smiling faintly. "He's the light. I came here, to him. I just have to follow my heart and I'll find him again."
Hob took a deep breath and immediately reached for the alcohol that he had sitting on the side of the counter. "Okay, well, we can't quite go on a quest to find your friend this second. London's been flagged for an Instance today, and likely tomorrow, so we need to stay close to the bunker. Have you seen those shadow creatures?" Instantly, Hob felt every hair on his body raise as the easygoing posture Sora had had was gone and replaced by tense awareness that Hob usually only saw in soldiers.
"Tell me about these Instances," Sora demanded. "Right now."