The Raven's Nightmare

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Nightmare took a moment to glance at the lifeless body of Raven before looking at the yellow Guardian and answering truthfully, "I don't know what she would have wanted or do I think Starlight would have known either. Plus, it's too late for apologies brother; the damage has already been done."

Dream glared at the changed skeleton with bitter tears while stealthily placing his hand in one of his pockets, "𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗹, 𝗜 𝗴𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗲 𝗻𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝘆𝗼𝘂..."

Before the living nightmare could comprehend what had happened, the Guardian of Positivity pulled out a golden apple from his shirt and took a bite from it. A bright light surrounded him that caused Nightmare to forcefully release his brother as he was blasted away from him before landing back on his feet.

Raven, knowing that she couldn't be heard, still screamed out in worry "Nightmare!"

The said skeleton shook his skull before his sockets widened in surprise as Dream aimed his new acquired golden bow at him. He rolled over as soon as a sky blue arrow was released and landed in the spot where Nightmare once stood. The ex Guardian let out a snarl before activating his magic and shot black cyan tinted bones at his target; who easily dodged them while charging up another arrow.

Tears streamed down the mage's cheeks as she helplessly watched the two brothers fight. Why did this have to happen? Why is she forced to watch the love of her life go through more pain? Haven't they suffered enough? Was Raven being punished somehow? If so, then for what? The black haired woman has been expecting some kind of Grim Reaper to come and collect her SOUL...

But nobody came.

An odd sound interrupted Raven from her thoughts as she turned to face the new commotion but gasp in surprise to see a hole floating in the sky. But what made her even more speechless was what came out of the anomaly; another skeleton. But this skeleton looked weird, instead of his bones being the usual white they were black and red; while the finger tips and teeth were yellow. His interior of his sockets were red with his left eye light was white and his other yellow/blue; with blue lines running down on both sides of his cheekbones. His choice of clothing were... unique and he had words around his body that Raven had never heard of before.

'What's an error?'

Upon seeing the battle, the odd being tensed before quickly running towards the dumbstruck mage and hiding behind the trunk where her corpse laid. Peeking from his spot, the skeleton whisper shouted to himself "𝚆-𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚞𝚌𝚔 𝚊𝚖 𝙸?!"

Crouching next to him, the mage gave him a droll look "Who the Hell are you?"

Of course the unknown being can't hear her as he continued to watch the fight with morbid interest.

"𝙸 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔 𝙸'𝚖 𝚒𝚗 𝙳𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚖𝚃𝚊𝚕𝚎..."

"No. You don't say."

"Gah!"

"No!"

With her body moving on autopilot, Raven ran in the direction of Nightmare; who was lying on his back with an arrow pierced into his shoulder as Dream stalked towards his injured brother while readying another ATTACK.

"𝗣𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲, 𝗡𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗲! 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻! 𝗜 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂!"

"I will never stop! Not until I pay back all the pain and suffering that we have been through! After I'm done with this world, I'll find a way to go to others and spread negativity throughout the universe! Raven wants me to live, then so be it. I'll do it for her! Just like I'll make sure everyone and everything will know my wrath that was caused by her death because you failed to properly do your job!"

Dream flinched from the harsh truth that allowed Nightmare to take the open opportunity and plunged one of his tendril through his chest. The Guardian of Positivity coughed out yellow marrow before giving a sad smile to his brother, "𝗜-𝗜 𝗴𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁-𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗴-𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳-𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗵-𝗵𝘂𝗵?", the area where he had been hit slowly started to turn to stone as he continued with tears cascading down his face, "𝗠𝘆 𝗼-𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘁 𝘄-𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀-𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝙗𝙤𝙩𝙝. 𝗠-𝗺𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝘄-𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗱-𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁?"

With those last words, the Guardian of Positivity became no more as his stone face still gave his brother that same sad smile. Placing his hands on Dream's shoulders after standing up, Nightmare gently pulled his new appendage out from his chest. Gritting his teeth to prevent cyan tears from escaping his socket, the ex Guardian shakily whispered "M-maybe they w-would have..."

Raven let out a sob from her place besides Nightmare; after witnessing him killing Dream, she couldn't help but think that all this is her fault. That the love of her life is now truly alone because of her...

"Oi.. who do you think you are blaming yourself when you know damn well that it isn't."

The deceased mage let out a sharp gasp as she turned to glare at the familiar being, "Rage."

The said emotion only smirked which only angered the distressed woman more as she shouted, "What are you doing here?!"

"I came to say I told you so."

"What?"

The child like version of Raven giggled at her original's confusion before repeating, "I told you so. I warned you two that not permanently dealing with the problem will cost you. I even offered to do it for you but noo, you idiots decided to push me aside again! So, it serves you right."

Another wave a tears threatened to show but the black haired woman held them in, not wanting to show that the child hit a nerve, as she growled out "Is that why your here?! To boast?!"

"That's only half of it. But to tell you the truth, I'm only here to observe."

This caused Raven to cross her arms and scoff, "Well isn't that wonderful!"

Rage only rolled her eyes and ignored her as the two watched as Nightmare started to slowly trudge to the trunk until a whistle caught his attention.

"𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚌𝚑 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚜𝚙𝚘𝚔𝚎. 𝙳𝚒𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚖𝚎𝚊𝚗 𝚒𝚝?"