Nightmares
"Emma lass, behind ye!" Banshee screamed down from wherever he'd been and grabbed the White Queen out of the way of the missile. The shooter grimaced as he reloaded.
"It's hopeless, Sean!" Emma cried, "His shield are too strong for me to break, and with that gun, none of us can get close!"
"I refuse to believe that! This madman MUST have a weakness!" Banshee said half desperately. He turned to make another pass, the White Queen secure in his arms, his wail tearing metal and shattering windows for a mile around. At the same time the shooter raised his weapon, Banshee passed in front of him. For a split second, time stood still, and the White Queen saw their danger.
"Down!" She screamed, raised a telepathic sheild around them. The missile shattered through her sheild and with a scream both mental and peircing, the White Queen fell down to the ground. Above her, Banshee gave one last wail before he plummeted to the rocky cliff. The other members of Generation X watched in shock.
A third missile exploded right next to the White Queen, and the world disappeared around her in a colored rain.
"Emma doll," whispered a voice in her head, "Welcome back."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
When she woke, Emma found herself in an eighteenth century bedroom. She layed on a huge four poster bed with curtains pulled back, a washstand in the corner, a huge wooden wardrobe across the room, and a hardbacked chair upholstered in red velvet next to the bed. The walls were solid wood, and the floor was covered in rag rugs.
With a groan, Emma sat up and rubbed her head. The covers slithered down and pooled around her waist, and it was only then that she realized she was dressed in a lacy white nightgown that she knew wasn't hers. "Where am I?"
"Where do you think?" asked a smooth voice. Emma's head whipped around. Leaning against the wardrobe was a sight she'd seen only a few times in her life, but would never forget.
"Nightmare," she said flatly.
"Am I so memorable, good Lady?" Asked Nightmare, straightening up. His dark green cloak hid him as effectively as shadow, and his eyes glittered strangely in the glow from the windows. "You do me an honor."
"What do you want, Nightmare? Where have you brought me?"
"Why, to my Realm, of course. Is there another place as splendiferous as here?"
"Oh, I'm sure I could think of a few." Emma sat up and threw the covers to one side. She stood up, leaning on the bed for support as the room spun dizzily around her.
"Tch, tch, Emma, you really should rest. That's a nasty gash you got on your head." Nightmare said.
"What the hell do you care?" Emma groaned. "Why am I here, anyways? Did you get another 'intruder' you want me to take care of for you?"
"What?!" Nightmare said, insulted "As if I'd need help in dispatching an upstart pretender."
"An upstart pretender?" Emma raised an eyebrow, her face a grimace of pain.
"Oh, alright. Someone has taken over the Nightmare Realm."
"And this involves me how?" Emma said, giving up and sitting back down on the bed.
"Becase...because...becauseIneedyourhelp!" Nightmare said in a rush.
Emma sighed. "There ARE easier ways of asking than just kidnapping me from the middle of a fight."
Nightmare smiled rougishly "Ah, but I love to help a damsel in distress..and you were certainly in distress!"
"Banshee. How's Banshee?" Emma asked suddenly.
"Ah, well." Nightmare shrugged "Him I could do nothing about. I assume he fell over the cliff like he was headed for when I snagged you."
"What?!" Emma cried "You save one, but you can't the other? I wouldn't help you now if you offered me everything!" She stood up and, ignoring the pain, walked torwards the door.
"Wait!" Nightmare said desperately "You don't understand! I couldn't save him! I could only save you!"
Emma stopped and slowly turned around. "Couldn't? What do you mean, couldn't?"
"You know that pretender that's taken over my Realm? Well, she's taken over my powers too!"
"She?" Emma narrowed her eyes "This isn't like the last 'pretender' that took over your Realm, now is it?"
"No, no! This one is real!" Nightmare said.
Emma stood a minute, looking at him. "Okay," She said "Talk quick."
"Wellseethere'sthisgirlandshe'stakenovermyRealmandnowshewantsmeDEADsoIhadnooneelsetoturntobut
youandyouhavetohelpmeorelsesomethingTERRIBLEisgoingtohappen!" Nightmare said.
Emma raised a hand to her head, closing her eyes. "I have a headache, I've just been kidnapped, woken in a strange room, and I have to look at you again. Don't make it any worse!"
Nightmare gulped. "Well, see, ther'es this girl and she's taken over my Realm and now she wants me DEAD, so I had no one else to turn to but you and you have to help me or else something TERRIBLE is going to happen."
"What," Emma asked icily, "Could be more terrible than this?"
"She, uh, wants to take over the world." Nightmare said.
"Really? I'll remember her to Hitler. Now, if I'll excuse me, I'll leave." Emma turned back torwards the door and pulled it open.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" Called out Nightmare.
Emma pulled open the door and stuck one foot out. The whirlwind under the room pulled her out, and she grasped the door with a scream. A windstorm of purple, pink, and orange swept around her and lightning-like flashed ran up the sides of the windtunnel. With a yank, Nightmare grabbed her and pulled her inside the room again, slamming the door.
"I told you not to do that." He said.
"What...what is that?" Gasped Emma from the ground where she'd been thrown.
"I don't know. It's what she created."
"Is everything like that?"
"Everything that I don't personally stand on, like this room. I've managed to create a..well, a 'floating ship', you'd say, one that can travel all through my Realm in one piece. It was originally built to surprise the X-Men on Halloween, but I never did get to use it..."
"Lovely, Nightmare. I could care less. Now, before I truly do lose my temper...send me home!!!" Emma said, fuming.
"I can't."
"What did you say?"
"I can't. I can bring you here, but I can't get you out again."
Emma tried to calm herself. She tried. With an angery lash, she sent out her mind and grabbed Nightmare's. The tremendous backlash sent her flying across the room onto the bed.
"Ow!" cried Nightmare, clapping his hands to his head, "What'd you do that for?!"
"You think I meant to?" Emma snorted, then groaned, "Ohhhh, my head. Where'd you get that damn shield?"
"Shield?" Nightmare asked, astonished.
"Never mind." Emma sighed, "So tell me, what do you plan to do about this 'pretender'?"
"Uh, well...I was kinda hoping you'd be able to do something about her," Nightmare mumbled.
"Me?" Emma laughed, unkindly, "What could I do? I don't know anything about this world."
"That's okay," Nightmare said, with a radical change of mood, "I can take you to her castle!"
"Castle? Oh, what I wouldn't give for one asprin..."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"That's it," said Nightmare quietly.
The room behind the two wasn't that of a bedroom anymore, but the main bridge of a space ship. "In keeping with the spirit of things," Nightmare had said when he'd changed it, changing Emma's clothing as well. She wore slim, futuristic, metallic clothing now. "At least your sense of humor's still there," Emma had said dryly when she'd seen her clothing.
Where the bed had been there was now a huge screen the width of the room. It showed the view below them. A huge tunnel of wind, with the flashes of purple and pink that Emma had seen before, appeared on the screen. At the center of the tunnel was a clear space, and at the bottom of that tunnel was a huge, mythological castle. The battlements raised higher than was possible, banners flung from all the spiral towers, and strange...beings...circled the castle.
At Emma's puzzled look, Nightmare said shortly, "My minions." He grasped the wheel of the ship and twisted it violently to the left. The ship shuddered once and then started to fall.
"Look what that witch has done to my castle," hissed Nightmare, glaring at the floor of the ship as if he could see the castle through it. Perhaps he could, Emma thought.
On the screen, the castle grew closer, bigger. The colors of it were pink, making it resemble a fairy tale Cinderella castle. Emma doubted that it had looked that way while Nightmare had still been in power.
A tense silence invaded the ship as they grew closer. The winds outside buffeted them, sending the ship into shuddering movements, and the lightning flashes came closer together.
"What's that?" asked Emma, pointing to a dark colored shadow in the maelstorm of the winds.
"One of the lightnings, I gu...." Nightmare stopped in shock.
"What? What is it?" Emma asked.
"It's...Angarkin."
"Angar-what? Who is that?"
"Not who...what. My nightmare steed. But if Angarkin is there...then the rest of my minions must be frozen as well."
"Frozen?"
"She would need to remove them, get them from underfoot. What better way to do that than to freeze them in her own winds?" Nightmare continued viciously, "I can't wait to get my hands on that little witch. And on the one that started this all."
"Can we free them?" Emma asked slowly, an idea beginging to take shape.
"I...I don't know. It would take time to free them, time we don't have any longer. The ship can't take too much more of the wind. If we stop to rescue them, then we'll...fall to peices, I guess."
Emma shrugged. "Suit yourself. But what will happen to them once we free your Realm? Or, if we free your Realm."
Nightmare wavered between his hatred for the pretender and his minions. Finally, he said "Free them. If you can."
Emma smiled a little. She reached for the mind of Angarkin, wincing a little at the strong backlash of power but managing to hold on, and then she released him. With a shattering of ice and a neigh of anger, Angarkin whipped away into the wind.
"Grab him!" Emma shouted.
Nightmare sent out a surge of power that grabbed the steed and teleported him into the ship. Angarkin stood there, trembling with fear and loathing, his coal black coat and eyes glaring with hatred at Emma. The ship shuddered deeply before settling.
Nightmare slipped over to his steed, murmuring words and grabbing it by its mane. He stood there, staring into Angarkin's eyes, before turning to Emma with astonishment.
"I know you were not here when the pretender took control, Emma. Yet...Angarkin says that you were. The smell, the mindprint...they're all the same."
Emma's eyes narrowed. With a voice full of disgust, she said "Cordelia."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
For the next hour or two...in Nightmare's Realm, it was hard to tell the passage of time...they unfroze as many of Nightmare's minions as they could. The ship held up, but barely, and Emma feared they wouldn't make it to the castle before it started to break apart. She kept her mouth shut, though. There's nothing worse than a bragging, smug demon, was her thought.
By the time they finished, the minions, both the small dark demons and several other...things...that Emma prefered not to look at too closely, were running around the ship. They got underfoot, yanked at her hair, bit her ankles. Finally, Emma turned to one of them and kicked it clear across the room. "The reason," She said crossly, "That I hate children."
Nightmare laughed, slightly strained. Teleporting all of the others had drained his weakened power dangerously. With a sharp yank, Nightmare sent the ship careening through the wind to the center of the tunnel. "Relax, Emma-doll," he said, "Soon you'll be reunited with your dear, lost sister."
"And that," Emma said coldly, "Is supposed to be a good thing?"
"Oh, family reunions are always...fun," said Nightmare, "Why, I do remember when I met dear old Uncle Alvwyn. He had been trying to kill me for almost a century."
Emma snorted. "And you made up, kissed his hand, and invited him to dine with you?"
"Oh, no," Nightmare said, "I actually ripped off his head and fed it to Angarkin. But, the important thing was that I had fun while I was doing it."
"Oh, of course," Emma said.
Suddenly the ship shuddered, the wood screaming as if it were almost human. A tearing sound was heard and the wind seemed to be inside the ship itself. "It's taken too much!" Yelled Nightmare. Emma could barely hear him over the noice.
The minions started screaming, panicking, and tried to crowd at the other corner of the ship. Emma grabbed onto Nightmare to keep from being blown out the window.
"Use your powers, Emma!" Yelled Nightmare.
Emma reached out with her mind and found the hole in the ship. Great sections of the hull had ripped away. With a concentrated thought, Emma imagined a huge bubble over that end of the ship, and then tried to place it there. The bubble appeared strong, but weakened quickly, before disappearing completely.
"It won't work!" Emma said, "There's something blocking me!"
"Well, this is it, then! Get ready to crash!" Nightmare grabbed onto Emma and hugged her as the ship broke apart completely and the floor fell out from under them. With a scream she recognized as her own, Emma dropped into the numbing cold. The wind whipped around her, her blood froze in her veins, and with a last gasp, she went unconcious.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Slowly Emma woke up. The cold was still numbing, and the wind whipped by, though not as fast or painfully. Her back was numbed and tingling lying where it was. She lifted her head up and saw that she was on the top of the castle's battlements. Cold stone rose above her head and cusioned her body.
"Ohhhhhhh," groaned Nightmare from nearby. Emma turned her head and saw him a few feet from her, sitting up and grasping his head. "Do you know how annoying that is?"
"I can guess," Emma said dryly. She grabbed a stone gargoyle and used it to push herself upright, then surveyed the area around them, "Well, I see no sign of your minions, and it doesn't look like there's a way off of here."
"No way off?" Nightmare said, jumping up, "Impossible! My castles are always built with exits from everywhere."
"It's not your castle anymore," Emma pointed out.
Nightmare waved a hand dismissively. "Details. Besides, this pretender can only make new things out of old things. Change the appearance, make demons out of grass, things like that. So, the basic underlying castle has to be the same."
"And how, in your infinate wisdom," said Emma sarcastically, "do you intend to find the reality below the image?"
"Dear Emma," said Nightmare ingratiatingly, "Why else would I have brought you here?"
Emma sighed. "Oh, of course, leave everything to me...like I haven't done enough already..." She concentrated for a moment, and the brown and cement stone of the battlements wavered enough for them to discern the mottled black onyx that it was really made of. "There!" she said, pointing to a small blackwood door.
Nightmare grabbed the door before the illusion faded and yanked it open. "After you, m'lady," He said graciously, bowing to her.
"Dont' call me a lady, you genetically challanged moron," Emma said, hitting him on the head.
Nightmare stared after her with a lovesick look on his face.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Exactly where are they?" Asked the tall pretender, his dark purple cloaks swirling around his feet as he glared at the young, blackhaired girl in front of him.
"At the top of the castle, oh majesty, lord," the girl said, gritting her teeth.
"The..." The pretender paused for effect, "Top of the castle? And how did they manage to get there?"
"Through no fault of my own, oh majesty, lord. The woman managed to contain the explosion of the ship and cacoon herself and...Nightmare.." The girl drifted off.
"Cordelia, Cordelia, Cordelia." The pretender walked back to his throne and settle himself before continuing. He set his huge, multi-faceted head on his hand and regarded the girl. "If I didn't know better, I'd suspect you of helping your sister."
"No, oh majesty, lord. Never!" The girl swore feverantly.
"Of course not," The man smiled. Cordelia barely stopped herself from shuddering at the grotesque look of his three faces and four arms. "And, since you have barely any love for your sister, you'll have no objection if I were to...say...erase her from existance?"
"None, oh majesty, lord," Said Cordelia, with a viperish smile.
"Good," The pretender settled back with a smile and a loving look at the huge weapon across the room from him.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Where are we?" Emma whispered harshly.
"Shhh, woman!" Nightmare growled, his hands silently closing the trap door above them. Emma spun and faced him, her finger jabbing into his chest.
"Alright, that's it, mister! I have spent my last few...hours...being dragged from one place to another, frozen, cut, and numbed. Either you figure out where we are, or I'm leaving!" She whispered angrily.
Nightmare's hands loosened with suprise, and the trapdoor closed with a bang. Emma jumped. Dust swirled around them.
"Oh, my." Said Nightmare faintly. "NOW you've gone and done it!"
"Done what? WHAT have I done?!" Emma fairly yelled.
"Please don't yell! It's not as if they can't already find us, what with your clumsiness and screaming voice." Nightmare stepped away from the trapdoor, his nose raised hautily in the air. He stumbled when Emma kicked him in the back of the knee.
"They? Who are they?"
"'They' are special beings that my jester Magigog created for his acts." Nightmare started hopping down the hall, favoring his left foot. With a grimace, he whispered under his breath, cursing women and their infernal violence.
"Keep it up," Emma said coldly, "and your knee won't be the only thing I'll kick!"
Nightmare shot an injured look at Emma and moved moved a bit furthur away. From down the hall came the sound of a cannon. Emma whipped around defensively, crouching to make as small a target as possible. A small, blue bundle zipped right by her, but with a furious cry and a lightning-quick move, Nighrmare snagged it inches from her neck. He broke the blue thing's spine and tossed it at Emma's feet.
"Whirlers," Nightmare said briefly, his eyes scanning the hall behind them. He reached down and pulled Emma up with one hand, then sent her stumbling down the other way. He half-ran behind her, facing the Whirlers with a mean look in his eyes and one hand under his cloak. When Emma reached an open doorway, he shoved her inside, then whirled around, his cloak flying out, and cut off the head of the first Whirler with a scythe. It's scream was drowned out by the sound of chopping and splattering.
"There, that's taken care of," said Nightmare, ducking into the room and pulling Emma up off the floor. He was covered with slimy, oozing, clear liquid. He started to throw the scythe away, then stopped and tucking it under his cloak. "Never know when we might need it again, eh?"
"What are these...these...Whirlers?" asked Emma, trying to keep up with Nightmare. The room they walked through was covered with dust and rubble, pieces of the wall crumbling and the ceiling half caved in.
"Oh, they're the special creatures Magigog created. Sneaky little thing, Magigog. He liked to do his juggling acts with the Whirlers...of course, he killed most of them because he was completely inept. 'Kill' being a term of convenience...Whirler's arn't alive."
"What are they then? Machines?" Emma asked breathlessly.
"Microids, actually. Same thing though." Nightmare suddenly stopped short. Emma ran right into him.
"Oof!" Emma said, her face smashing into his back.
"Why, Emma," Nightmare whispered, "I didn't know you cared!"
"Why, you-" Emma started to say. Nightmare's hand went over her mouth quickly.
"Shhhhhh...." He said, tilting his head forward, "they're right on the other side of that wall."
Emma smiled slowly, viciously. "Then I think it's time we came up with a plan, don't you? Something...unpleasant."
"Emma,' Nightmare chuckled, "Your a girl after my own heart. That is, if I had one, you would be."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Cordelia was bored. Almost two weeks ago she'd struck a deal with the ex-jester Magigog, he for her powers and she for his crown, but there'd been no way to engineer any accidents. She was beginging to think there was no way to engineer any. With his three heads and four arms, Magigog had all sides covered.
"Cordelia, where are they now?" He asked petulantly.
"They're meeting your Whirlers, oh majesty, lord," Cordelia said, gritting her teeth. She put the proper amound of fear on her face, but inwardly she seethed. How badly she wanted to be up there, ruling her kingdom. "We should have their pieces withing a few minutes. If there's anything left to find."
Magigog suddenly straightened in his chair, all three sets of his eyes going wide and two of his arms clutching the throne. His mouth opened and closed silently. Cordelia turned to see what had so engrossed him.
The wall across from Magigog was dissolving. Not disappearing, not disintigrating, but dissolving...pieces of it dripped like molten wax down to the flagstone floor. They made a sick dripping sound, a hollow ping as they hit the floor. The puddle of wall quickly spread, and with an "eek" of disgust, Cordelia backed up agains the wall off to the side.
The puddle of wall moved, slowly, to the center of the room, stopping exactly in front of Magigog. From the puddle great a tall, green cloak-covered grinning nightmare. "Hello, Magigog," the Nightmare grinned, "I want my castle back."
Magigog gave a scream. He threw his own cloak over his head and sat there, whimpering. Cordelia took advantage of that moment to slip around a corner of the wall and tiptoe to the door. "There's still time enough to get a few things before I take off," she muttered to herself.
"Oh, no, there's not. Sister. Dear."
Cordelia stopped, stiffening in fear. Her eyes grew wide and her hand twitched. "Em-Emma?" She asked quaveringly.
"Did you doubt?"
"Oh, Emma!" Cordelia said, turning torwards Emma and throwing her arms around Emma's neck. "It was horrible! You don't know the things that...monster....made me do! I didnt' want to Emma, I didn't, I swear it!"
"Really?" Emma asked, narrowing her eyes and raising a hand to her sister's neck. She smiled, slightly twisted, and said "Of course you didn't want to. That's why your going back with me now...and not staying with Nightmare. But if we ever catch you here again, Cordelia, no matter who's relation you are...Nightmare gets an experiment. Got it?"
Cordelia gulped and quietly followed Emma back into the throne room.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Emma walked into her bedroom, carrying a single candle with her and placing it on her vanity before sitting down. "Damn weather," she hissed to her reflection, glaring at the flickering light. "Can't even get decent power for the price I pay?"
A loud flash of thunder outside her window made her jump, almost upsetting the candle. She reached out to grab it, bending quickly and catching it before the flame went out. She set it back carefully onto the vanity and reached for her hairbrush. Her hand stilled.
"Nightmare." She said flatly to the reflection in the mirror. Nightmare smiled back at her, one hand offering her a single black rose. She raised her eyebrow at it, and flounced by him to sit on the edge of her bed. "What are you doing here now? Did someone else manage to take over your Realm?"
"Dont' be silly, Emma." Nightmare laughed cruely. "After what I did to Magigog, I don't think anyone will even want to think taking over my Realm!"
"Then why are you here?" Emma said narrowly.
"Why, to see you of course. Can you think of a better reason?"
"Several-" A loud crack of thunder and a bright flash of lightning interrupted her, and when Emma could see again, she saw that Nightmare was gone. But where he'd been there was a single black rose...and laughter lingering...
And of course, a nightmare.
The End
This fanfic is by Jeanne aka FlameWraith. She has six Generation X fanfics on my page. Through our correspondence, we have become good friends. She's great!
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