Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It is wise to note that Dreams are one’s gateway into other worlds. Sometimes, they are the fabrication of the Dreamer. Sometimes, the Dreamer just gets pulled along for a journey.

What was lost will return. Both Good and Bad will come in a tidal wave that we must brace for. Dreams will become Nightmares. But we must hold our heads high, for the dawn will come. And Hope shall guide the way.

Loud beeps echoed from the alarm. Curtains closed together haphazardly let light stream into the cluttered room, whose floor was covered in clothes, lego and scrunched up bits of paper with faded writing on them. Aging posters brought life to the plain white walls above the creaking bed.

A small body rolled around over and over under heavy covers as the red haired girl tried to ignore the consistent beeping that resonated in her ears. Her bleary eyes opened up as a frustrated groan escaped her. Pinching the bridge of her nose with small fingers, she dragged her hand over her freckled face. She slowly reached out and slammed her fist against the snooze button before grabbing her phone.

From a young age Kono had accepted her life was… a work in progress that was nearly finished. Her childhood had been the initial sketch, constantly being added to, removed from, transformed in someway. Her time as a teenager was the lineart being set into place. Solid lines that brought to life the plans from her childhood. Edits could still be made if there were issues with the image as a whole but, all in all, she was halfway there.

But when she started sixth form, she would have to acknowledge the fact that she was in the final stages of creating her life. Colour was finally being added, but it had to stay within the lines. No more drastic changes, at least not like before. No more guessing and then changing her mind later.

Those were the rules.

So by the time she was sixteen, two years away from university and applying for a degree in math, Kono had accepted that her life was a work in progress that was nearly completed. And she still had no idea what she was doing with her life (y’know… aside from math).

She had a set routine in place. Wake up late every morning so that she was barely on time for registration (because she spent the previous night playing Overwatch, telling herself: ‘just one more game’), have a five minute shower, leave without breakfast (no time), shove any study material that lay on her desk into her bag with her USB, kiss her mother and father goodbye on the cheek (they deserved that much at least for raising her crazy butt) and run for the nearby bike lock near her block of flats before she got in trouble for lateness. She had followed it every day for the four years she had been in high school and she wasn’t going to change it because of it was her last year and the one with her exams (even though she really should). Thankfully, her best friend had caught onto this system early on and would always bring a fresh cup of coffee for her at the entrance to their school.

So when she realised she had twenty minutes to get to school, she jumped out of bed, ran to the toilet and rushed past her father. The aging man turned to look as she slammed the door shut behind her, sighed, then went back to what he was doing. She grabbed the nearby comb and ran it through her spiky, unruly hair as she simultaneously brushed her teeth.

Within seconds she rushed out, the comb still precariously hanging from her spiky hair, and back into her room. Throwing the comb to the side, she found a plain bandana on the floor and folded it over before tying it around her throat and sliding it up her face to hold her fringe back before swapping her plastic labret piercing retainer out for the metal one (the only tasks she actually took time on).

Snatching her school shirt, blazer and hoodie off the floor she pulled them on and grabbed her bag, before she shuffled down the stairs, pulling on her trousers. Slipping into her shoes as she ran out of the house, she yelled “I’m going now! Love you!” over her shoulder.

Unlocking her bike, she shoved the lock into her bag and went off. She sighed as she peddled down the street, preparing for the unnecessary personal introduction she would have to do in her new school because every form tutor she had ever had always asked them to introduce themselves on the first day. She knew it was cruel, they knew it was cruel and yet they did it anyway… buttbrains.

She cycled between the hoard of students migrating through the large gates of her new school as her chin length hair danced in the breeze. She had finally moved into year 11, the year that she must stare down her GCSE exams in a battle of wills. She must draw her pen like a sword and fight. But that wasn’t what she was worried about. No, what she scared her was just the accursed ice breakers that she would be forced to participate in even though she had been stuck with her fellow year elevens for a good five years already.

Skidding to a halt next to the bike shed, she locked it to the pole before waving sporadically at her best friend. The girl merely raised an eyebrow as she walked closer. Over the years, Rose had always kept her dark hair relatively long -mostly to appease her mother- and her brown eyes had always stared critically at Kono from behind small rectangular glasses. Yet another thing that wouldn’t change (not that Kono wanted it to, Rose’s lack of change always helped her anchor herself to the small, naive child she had left behind due to time).

So she wasn’t surprised when the artist raised a styrofoam cup filled with her usual coffee (six shots of caffeine that were so intense that the baristas always asked Rose if she was sure she wanted that many) as she skidded to a halt from her intense run from the station to the school.

“Just made it,” Rose told her “Again.”

“It’s an art form, really. It is,” Kono retorted once her breathing had evened out and she had stopped panting. Her best friend merely scoffed, well aware that her words would merely be a repeat of a conversation they’ve had numerous times. “Kono, you need to stop cutting it so close all the time. I’m not gonna be around forever.”

“You said that in primary school, and yet we still went to the same high school for the past four years. We’re even planning to apply to the same sixth form. Accept it. You’re stuck with me.” The red haired girl retorted, grabbing onto her. Rose’s face contorted into disgust as her unruly friend whispered sinisterly, “I am your personal barnacle…”

“That’s not disconcerting at all,” Rose mumbled, lightly pushing Kono away. For a moment, they stared at each other in silence before a snicker came from Rose and then a giggle from Kono. And within seconds they were both laughing up a storm. It took a few seconds before they calmed down, wiping imaginary tears from their eyes. “Come on,” the bespectacled girl said, pulling on her friend’s arm.

Sighing warmly, Rose pulled out the map they sent to her through the mail whilst Kono sipped her coffee before grimacing. “So bad… but so good ,” the redhead rasped. Rose briefly looked up from her map, sighing.

“If it’s so bad, why do you drink it?” she asked.

“Because, I need it~!” she exclaimed, mimicking the cartoon character from their childhood. “ok, forget ‘why’, how can you drink it?!”

“Look , I like my coffee like I like my men," Kono explained "Tall and Strong-"

"Enough to kill you?" Rose interjected, staring at the styrofoam cup she had passed along, wondering why she fueled her friend's coffee addiction. "Well..." she began, her voice gaining in pitch as she extended the vowel. "What the hell..." the black haired girl whispered before shuffling forward in an attempt to stop Kono's madness from spreading.

The fire haired girl laughed. Finishing off the coffee, coughing once for good measure, she shot the empty cup into a nearby bin as they made their way into the school reception. The lady behind the desk stared at Kono for a moment. Bright red hair, freckles, and green eyes filled with life were the only warning senior staff got that this girl was a disaster waiting to happen. All of the staff were aware of Kono. Loud, good at math, bad at everything else. That and she had a serious case of verbal diarrhea when she had to be social. But, then again, everyone and their mother knew that.

“Welcome back, girls.” she greeted, waving as the two girls shuffled begrudgingly into the building, laughing lightly as Kono complained about the icebreakers that were most definitely going to happen. she complained like there was a chance they weren’t going to happen. It was better to just accept that sad truths of life: it was cruel, harsh, and it was going to make you socialise. It was much easier being a pessimist, you were either: always right, or pleasantly surprised.

School from that point for Kono was just plain awkward. There were the icebreakers that just made things weird™, over enthusiastic teachers that were trying to get them to be social (and that was discounting Kono’s loud and tactile nature anyway, which tended to make people try to back away from her like they would that table with the corner that had a random piece of gum stuck to it). Thankfully, she and Rose were in the same form group, that made it a little bit more bearable. What a fun day. -if you couldn’t find her sarcasm, Kono would happily point you in its direction

When it got to that accursed moment in the form introductions, Kono sighed before she stood. Looking to the side, she saw Rose giving her a thumbs up. Nodding, Kono turned back to the class and gave a bright smile before honestly declaring:

“Hi, I’m Kono and I have absolutely no clue what I’m doing with my life!” she exclaimed with a fake smile plastered on her face. She could hear a loud smack as Rose’s face landed in one of her hands, all the way from the back of the class.

“Oh my god , what was I thinking ?!” she groaned four hours later, lying down in the large field in the local park after school. “It could have been worse,” Rose placated as she had more ice cream. Thanks to London’s odd weather, it was boiling hot despite it being september so no one batted an eye when they saw the two surrounded by tubs and tubs of the stuff.

Kono whined loudly before rolling around in the grass. “ How ?! How could i have been worse than that?”

“You could have fainted like that time you were asked to speak one line for that school assembly our class did in primary school?”

The redhead shot up into a seated position. “You swore you would never speak of that!”

“Look, my point is that, sure the entire school thinks you’re a weirdo with no goals in life. But they could know you as that weirdo with no goals in life who faints. Ergo, you’re still alright.”

“Gee, that’s super helpful!”

“I know!”

They stayed there for hours, with Rose acting as the mock councillor for her friend who all but cried out her woes until sunset (there were many, many woes). Getting to her feet, Kono stretched. Loud, satisfying clicks filled the air before she picked up her bike. “Want a ride home?”

“Nah, I’m good,” Rose waved off, pulling on her bag.

Putting on her bag on, Kono situated herself on the bike. As she placed one foot on a pedal, she heard Rose call out, “Hey Ko?”

Turning her head over her shoulder, she looked at her confident friend. “Yeah?”

“Happy birthday, ya maniac.”

Kono gave a lopsided grin, before thanking her and waving over her shoulder as she began cycling home.

So let’s recap. She was nearly late to school, she made a joke of herself in front of the group of randos she would be stuck with for at least the next year… oh! And her birthday was on the first day of school, that’s always been lovely.

Dropping her bag onto the floor as she walked into her room, she shrugged of her hoodie off. She toed off her shoes at a snail’s pace. For a single moment she swayed tiredly before collapsing on her bed. She lay there silently for a second and then rolled around, turning her duvet into a makeshift cocoon, then lulled herself to sleep.

Except she didn’t fall asleep. When she closed her eyes, she was sure she was in the warm recesses of her room. So why was it, that when she next opened them, she found herself suddenly laying in the warm sun, in the middle of some kind of crop circle in a field of knee-high grass, looking like some weirdo out of an old school gladiator fic?

Chapter Text

She looked down at herself and raised an eyebrow. Golden vambraces and cuffs were fastened to her arms and a roman cuirass was secured onto her torso over a soft uneven dress that ended at the back of her calves. She wore a tenebra plate skirt that really sealed the gladiator look and a soft cotton skirt underneath that (someone was a fan of modesty, thankfully) and gold greaves which extended to oval-shaped kneecaps, protecting her legs and glinting in the sunlight. The gladiator sandals she wore were also weirdly comfortable; the feeling of cold dew covered grass on her feet was odd but relaxing.

Despite the tonnes of metal she was carrying, it felt like she was wearing just the dress and the skirt (which was an odd combination that hadn’t escaped her notice, but this was a dream and she was really hoping her imagination had just gone a bit wild). She wasn’t being weighed down under all of the armour as she took a few hesitant steps away from the circle she had ‘woke up’ in (if you could even call it waking up); citing dream logic for everything that was happening.

Sighing, she ran a hand through her red hair (and boy was she glad that some things didn’t change, even if the freckles on her arms had disappeared) that seemed to have shortened and changed from its usual spiky, unruly nature to a more soft, delicate one. Like the unattainable perfection that hair care brands threw at you in the commercials so you would feel inadequate and buy their crap (and you always bought their crap).

Looking back down, she stared at the cursive squiggles that seemed burnt into the ground, only realising how detailed they were at that moment. The black writing looked like an odd mix of ancient greek lettering and old norse symbols, blended together. Squinting her eyes, she realised that the circle was floating through the grass instead of being painted on like she thought. Reaching over, she caught a blade between her fingers and pulled, only for it to phase right through the ink. She paused for a moment, and she can’t help the grin that grows onto her face. “Awesome!” she chirped, her eyes lighting up with the sort of curiosity and wonder that one would sooner find in a child rather than an adolescent.

Her eyes began to wander and note the tall trees in the distance that seemed to sway in the soft breeze, as if it were coaxing them into a dance. The leaves rustled in a harmonious chorus that filled her ears despite being so far away. It was a beauty that she had never been exposed to because of her life in the city. The sun warmed her skin in a way that she had never felt before, the british sun burnt rather than soothed. It was nice.

Too nice.

The one thing spending a good chunk of her life playing video games had taught her, was that life had a great way of lulling you into a false sense of security before ripping it right out from underneath you. Sighing, she steeled herself and shrugged. “Whelp, if this is gonna become a nightmare, it at least started out nice.” she mumbled, taking her first steps out of the circle. Her feet crunched against the green as she waded her way towards a spire in the distance that shone like a beacon. Much smaller buildings surrounded it, as if they were built around that single spot.

Slowly but surely she made her way to the citadel that crept closer and closer, following the path into the forest; her body was hunched over as she walked, waiting for the monster to burst out from the trees surrounding her in every direction. The shifting leaves kept her from hearing any sounds in the distance. Until a screeching cry came from over head.

Looking up, her eyes widened upon seeing a large black creature that looked like a snake with two legs and six, beady red eyes, flailing as it fell toward the ground. Kono just stood and stared in fear while it’s long tongue shot out; like it were trying to convey that if it were going to die, so was she.

Was this how she was going to die? This felt too real, too jarring to be a simple dream. She didn’t wanna go out doing nothing. Why couldn’t she just wake up already? Her life flashed before her eyes. Bright laughter, Rose, her parents. Closing her eyes, she was waiting for it to end when a loud feminine cry reached her ears. Her eyes snapped open to see a blur shooting down towards the creature.

A crackling, curved blade sliced through the tongue like a knife through butter. The blur came to a halt, doing a three point landing, a bow staff in her free hand that had a makeshift blade made out of condensed lightning.

And in the split second before the creature hit the ground, she spun the scythe while the lightning blade got longer and when she seemed to have the aim just right, she put her entire weight on the heel of her right boot; Kono watched as the blade carved through the entire snake monster.

The scythe blade disappeared from the metal staff, as the stranger turned to face her and that was the first clear look she got of the girl. Her long, blond hair was pulled back into a half updo and she wore a tunic under an archery chestguard made of metal. A knee length double split skirt swung with the turn of her body. Her arms and legs were protected by the same armour as Kono’s with the metal greaves tightened over the black breeches she wore.

Her grey eyes darkened as she glared, looking like a contained storm as she stomped her way over to Kono whilst the snake faded out of existence; coming to a halt in front of the red head, she shoved an accusing finger into Kono’s face before yelling “What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“Um-” Kono began to say when the stranger interjected

“The hell were you thinking?! That Shade could have killed you if it weren’t for me! And then where would you be?”

“Well, you see-”

“Kicked out of the Mirrorlands for a month, that’s where!” the girl screamed, her body letting off little bursts of lightning as her anger grew. Kono leaned back a little, slightly scared that some of it would catch onto the metal on her body and shock her. “Look, I dunno who you are, or what this place is, or what that thing was, but it would be great if you could stop yelling,” Kono stated, before curling into herself as the glare strengthened “Please?”

The other girl paused, slowly leaning back so Kono could stand up straight. “What’s your name?” she asked (but let’s face it, it sounded a hell of a lot more like an order).

“Kono. You?”

“Nike.”

“Like the shoe brand?” Kono inquired, her head tilting to the side in her confusion. (‘why would her parents name her that?’ she thought to herself). She could see Nike’s teeth gritting, a vein on her temple pulsating as the grip on her staff tightened. “No,” she ground out “Like the ancient greek goddess of victory.”

“Ohhh~” Kono said “That makes more sense,”

“No shit. Do you even know where you are?” the blonde asked her, pulling her free hand over her face.

“In my dream?” Kono said, but it came out more like a question. She was starting to be less and less sure about that fact as time went on.

“Sort of,” raising a hand to the air, she said “Welcome to the Mirrorlands.” She walked off in the direction of the crop circle, using her staff as a walking stick to map out potholes and ditches in the earth.

”Where are you going?” Kono inquired following after her.

“The Citadel.”

“The what?”

“Big pointy building in the distance.” Nike responded begrudgingly tucking a stray hair behind an ear.

“But isn’t that in the completely opposite direction ?”

Nike stopped in her tracks. Turning around, she looked Kono in the eyes and asked “Are you serious?”

“About what?”

“This! Do you really know nothing about the Mirrorlands?”

“Listen, I’m pretty sure this is all a fever dream.”

At that comment, Nike’s face distorted into what could only be referred to as a carbon copy of the ‘y u do dis’ meme. “How irresponsible are your parents?! How could they not tell you about your birthright?!” Nike seethed. Kono stood stock still for a moment. “Um… I’m adopted…”

“Oh…” Nike whispered.

‘Yeah: oh. It’s not that big of a deal! ’ Kono internally grumbled, shrugging. “So um… can you explain all this madness to me?” she asked. The staff wielder sighed

“Might as well. Can’t have you getting yourself killed,” she acquiesced “Come on.”

They made their way through the forest together and on the trip out, Kono was a hell of a lot more relaxed than on the trip in. Mostly because if something did burst out of the trees, she at least had the reaper (as she had affectionately began to call Nike) to fend them off. She was certainly scary enough to fend that… thing… off, whatever it was. (The blonde had called it Shade, maybe she could ask about it later).

When they came to a stop on the crop circle, Nike grabbed the red haired girl’s hand with her own and closed her eyes. Kono watched herself as her skin glowed and the two shot up into the air. It was a most disorientating sensation as the wind rushed past them and they left a trail of light behind them before they landed on another circle in the middle of the city that had once been in the distance.

“What. The hell . Was. That ?” Kono groaned out, holding her stomach as it began to settle.

“Teleportation circle. Easier way to get from the Citadel to the Wild lands.” Nike shrugged, walking down the stairs of the roofless, circular gazebo that they had landed in. Running her hands over one of the banisters on the edge of the raised platform, Kono lightly traced one of the roses on it before running after Nike.

With a clear view of the city, Kono felt… tiny, for lack of better words. The spire pierced the sky and homes were stacked upon each other with washing lines connecting them above the cobblestone streets. Unlit lanterns hung from them, waiting to burst into life and bring light in the dark. There were people milling around in simple clothes talking to each other with bright smiles on their faces.

The smell of spices filled her nose as she turned, her eyes rapidly running from one thing to the next like a magpie in a jewellery store with everything catching its eyes.

But what was most intriguing were the people walking about wearing clothes from different Earth eras and armour. One girl walked about in a plain hoodie, bike shorts and the same greaves as Kono and Nike, while another looked like she came right out of a Round Table fairytale. It was as if time had been fractured, like a rock thrown at a mirror causing everything to distort.

After a few more twists and turns, they came into a large city square with market stalls set up around a large fountain. Large arcs of water came out from a beautiful centerpiece statue of a woman in a long, sleeveless dress. Bandages covered her entire skull and the upper half of her torso, only opening up to reveal her mouth. Her long hair was pulled into two twin braids with bows at the end and she was surrounded by ravens that seemed to melt and connect to her skin. She was in a delicate pose, leaning back and cupping her hands together in the air as water fell from her grasp via some hidden mechanism.

Tapping Nike on the arm, she pointed to the statue and asked who it was. The other girl just looked at it and said “I’ll explain in a bit,” before leading her to a bench in front of the fountain. The fighter placed her weapon so it lent against the seat next to her while Kono sat down on the other side. Both of them watched the citizens of the city in an awkward silence until the blonde finally broke it by asking “So how much do you know?”

“I’m Kono, you’re Nike, this is the Mirrorlands and this place isn’t as nice as it seems.” the redhead rambled, fiddling with her fingers. The reaper barked out a laugh “Well, that’s the short story,”

“What’s the long one?”

“Well the Mirrorlands are dying-” Nike began, causing Kono to shriek in fear “Woah, woah, relax.”

“How?!”

“Deep breaths?”

“Please start from the beginning,” Kono requested, running a hand through her hair.

“Ok. Lets try this again. There are two worlds: Earth and the Mirrorlands. Earth doesn’t need magic in its atmosphere or in the earth to survive, but some people are born with it. The Mirrorlands is the opposite. It needs magic, but the people aren't born with it. Well they are, but not enough to use it like we can or power the planet. Just enough magic to keep themselves alive.” Nike started, raising her left hand for Earth and her right for the Mirrorlands.

“Right,” Kono said, just going along with it.

“That statue there is of the goddess Yuna, the lady of Magic, Champions and Shadows. She and her twin brother, Gaius -the god of War, Rebellion and Instinct-, created the Dreamer system. People of Earth with the ability to use magic would come to the Mirrorlands in their sleep and protect people from Shade, creatures that eat magic; and in doing so, they would release magic.”

“Why didn’t the gods just do it themselves?”

“Well…” Nike drawled, scratching her scalp as she racked her brain in an attempt to find the words. “Gods is a bit of an overstatement. The thing about Lady Yuna and Lord Gaius is that they are pure constructs of magic which gained sentience and then condensed themselves to look like the inhabitants of the Mirrorlands. But even they don’t have enough magic in their bodies to keep this world going.”

“How do we help, though?” Kono inquired, all but pulling her hair out.

“The twin gods use what magic they do have to create false bodies for Dreamers, that’s us, and transfer our conscious minds into it using our own magic to jumpstart the Bounce from one world to another. That’s where most of our magic goes. We can use the rest to fight Shade here. We start Dreaming when we hit our 16th birthday, our first dream uses the most magic as it is a compilation of the magic we have made since we were children. After we hit puberty though, we start making magic more regularly. By the age of twenty four, our bodies start to create less and less magic, and by age twenty six, we stop making it all together, so we no longer need to Dream. Some people don't make more magic after they hit puberty, so they have the one off dream and that’s about it.”

“The gods take the magic we let off in the Bounce and feed it to the planet, which keeps the atmosphere, nature and growth in check. Without magic, everything here would die.” Nike explained, playing with a clump of hair as the group of children from earlier ran by, role playing as dreamers.

She couldn’t help but tense when one child exclaimed “I’m a Dreamer so I’ll fight that shade and protect you!” eagerly.

“Is that why those kids are playing ‘Dreamer’? Because, by being here, we keep them alive?” Kono questioned her staring at them as the skipped by, using sticks to portray a sword fight.

“Yeah, basically. The name comes from how we come here in our sleep. Like we’re dreaming.”

“Man… that really puts life into perspective.”

“So you believe me?” Nike asked her, somewhat shocked. She had heard stories of Dreamers raised outside of their families; how they refused to accept that their dreams where anything more than, well, dreams.

“No, but it seems like an interesting comic plot,” Kono replied bluntly. Nike’s eyebrows twitched in annoyance. “What are Shade?” Kono hurriedly asked in an attempt to dissuade the blonde’s wrath, who just sighed.

“Shade are natural creatures of the Mirrorlands, and it's our job to eradicate them. We get payed for it, obviously, from either the Maidens in Yuna’s Temple of Magic, or by the Monks in Gaius’ Library of War but that only happens if you are marked as one of his. We get cheaper stuff in marketplaces too if we can prove we’re Dreamers, most just use their magic as proof. But I digress; the monsters are mindless creatures that attack anything with a lick of magic so they can feed. And when the inhabitants of the Mirrorlands got together and made the Citadel. Using Gaius' runes, they made a sheield around the Citadel that only Dreamers and the denizens of the Citadel can pass through. So the Shade went for the next best thing: the magic in the air.”

“Homicidal, magic eating, shadow monsters. Got it. Hey… can you teach me that lightning thing you did?” Kono asked, turning to look at her with an excited smile on her face.

“No,” was the harsh reply, which dashed her hopes “Magic is like our DNA. Sure there are similar blood types but DNA is always fundamentally different to make proteins individual to each person. Magic is similar to that. Basically, think of our Magic as our DNA and our Soul Speaks as our proteins and our blood types all at the same type.”

“Our what whats?”

“Soul speaks are essentially the manifestation of our magic and personalities. It isn’t rare for people to have similar or even the same soul speaks if their from the same family - like someone sharing a blood type with a relative -; an example of that is how both my sister and I can manipulate lightning. But outside of that, it israre to have the same Soul Speak as someone if you aren't from the same family.”

Kono hummed in understanding, as she moved to sit further back into the bench and began swinging her legs to and fro. “So how do I figure out what my Soul Speak is?”

“Meditation. You spend the first couple of weeks in your new body sensing out magic. We can all naturally do it, its how we find Shade.”

Kono nodded in understanding before turning and grabbing one of Nike’s hands between both of her own. “Please,” Kono said lowly, then she exclaimed “Teach me how to do all this!”

The blonde paused in consideration once she had calmed local onlookers that had heard the redhead.

“Look, I may think this is all some weird arse dream caused by the amount of ice cream I had before bed but on the off chance that it isn’t, I can’t just stand aside and do nothing!”

“You would certainly make things more interesting…” Nike admitted begrudgingly. “Fine,” she assented, only for Kono to jump up and down in glee “Only if you stop doing that, though,” to which Kono listened and stopped.

“So how do I, y’know? Get back?” Kono asked

“You close your eyes, and say there’s no place like home.”

“There’s no place like home, seriously?” Kono reiterated skeptically, a hand on her hip as she raised an eyebrow.

“No,” Nike denied, smirking “But on a serious note, just close your eyes and think of waking up.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it”

Slowly, she closed her eyes. The next time she opened them, she was in her room again staring at the ceiling about an hour earlier than she usually got up for school.

Pushing the duvet off of herself, she got to her feet and shuffled out of her room. After brushing her teeth, she padded down the steps, and made her way into the kitchen where her parents sat. Both of them stared at her as she began to make food in a zombie-like daze. “Kono, are you ok?” her mother asked, placing a hand on her daughter’s forehead. The red haired girl brushed the worried hand off and mumbled an “I’m fine,” as she shoved a piece of toast in her mouth.

“Hey, so I might be going to the park after school with Rose, if it's okay with you.”

“If it will mean you wake up this early from now on, go for it,” her father shrugged, folding up his newspaper to eat. Kono mindlessly nodded before starting to get ready for school as per usual.

It was oddly nice not to have to worry about trying to make it on time, going at her own leisurely place. After about ten minutes of finding and changing into new shirt and trousers, redoing her tie and pulling on her blazer, she packed her bag, removing all the unnecessary textbooks and classwork from the previous year that she left in her bag. ‘No wonder it was so heavy yesterday’ she thought to herself as she tossed a french revision guide aside.

Zipping her bag up, she lifted it and felt that it no longer felt like she had the world on her shoulders. Skipping out of her room, she jogged down the stairs as life slowly returned to her once she had dismissed her bizarre dream. “I’m off,” she called out as she opened the door.

The world seemed so much more lively that day. Children ran down the pavement with their parents trying to keep up, tired smiles on their faces. She couldn’t help but remember those kids who lived there,  in a world that was just like a car precariously dangling off a cliff. Where the slightest thing could destroy them and all they know. How could her mind come up with something so… cruel?

Keeping her head down, she turned a few corners before stopping in front of Rose’s house; coming to a screeching halt as her friend was closing the front door. Once she turned and saw Kono, she immediately took a step back and asked “Who are you and what have you done to my best friend?”

Kono merely laughed, “It’s me dummy. I just happened to wake up early today,”

“Bullshit,” Rose retorted blandly “You never wake up early unless something has happened.”

“Well-” the red haired girl mumbled as she stood on the pedals and her friend sat on the seat with her knees bent. “Come on, you can tell me about what happened at the cafe. I’ll even buy you the coffee,” the black haired girl said tying up her long hair in a pony tail. Kono snorted “You alwaysbuy me the coffee, Rosie.”

“Exactly, nothing like your usual routine to make you more comfortable, y’know?”

The bike ride was filled with their usual inane chatter that slowly helped Kono return to her usual hyper state. She didn’t even realise they had gotten to the cafe until the soft smells enveloped her in a warm hug as low level chatter entered her ears. Quietly, they got a muffin for Rose and Kono’s life’s blood (aka coffee), and sat down at a window seat where the early morning light reflected off of the table and for a moment Kono thought that the ironic beauty of the Mirrorlands had followed her into the waking world. She was snapped out of her stupor when Rose placed her hands on the table between them and merely said “Talk to me,”

“I… I had a nightmare.”

“Oh?”

“But like, not in the normal sense?” she added, her sentence coming out more as a question than a statement “Like, I wasn’t in some dark forest, though there was a forest, and I wasn’t running from my own personal Freddy Krueger or anything. But it was just so sad!”

She spent the next five minutes giving a play by play of her dream and by the end of it, her friend sat wide eyed and pale. “That’s… dark.”

“I know right?” Kono said, tightening the bandana around her forehead “Where did I get that stuff from?!”

“Look, it’s probably just a one off dream; you’ll probably forget it by the end of the day. I doubt it’s re-occuring, but if not, we can always google what ‘dreaming up a dying world where I’m a superhero’ means, okay?” Rose told her, a soft smile on her face “Even better, we could totally make a comic out of this.”

But despite Rose's words, Kono didn’t forget. She kept seeing the children’s faces in her mind, filled with hope at the mention of Dreamers. She kept seeing a marketplace of happy faces that made the best of their situation despite how close they all were to teetering off the edge. And she couldn’t get the shrouded face of Yuna looking toward the setting sun of the Mirrorlands as she raised her hands in a prayer, despite her status as a Goddess, out of her mind.