Chapter Text
The nightmares started a month out of Harlok’s Point.
They were deep into Earth-Kingdom territory by then. Forest had given way to grassland and farms. It was…picturesque, but far different than the home Liu remembered from his childhood. Gone were the little farms with a single man toiling behind a plough; Future Industries and the similar corporations had seen too it that mechanized tillers and other automation had banished that life to only the poorest and most destitute farmers.
It meant larger fields, fewer animals, and the constant smell of diesel as they traveled through the harvest fields. Children no longer trailed after their parents, flinging stones from before the plow, and peasants didn’t glean the fields looking for scraps left behind by the workers. It was a far cry from the world Liu remembered, where the landlord’s cotton gin was the strangest creature the whole town had seen, and claimed four lives and a dozen more hands before the village learned how to use it.
But it meant work, and less sleeping on the ground. Whenever Liu and Noa reached a new town, Liu let it be known that he was a handy mechanic and a bit of a blacksmith. Within a few hours farmers and shop-keepers would seek him out, asking after his skills. Repairing the machines they brought to him took him right back to the best parts of his days in the city; the smell of melting metal, surrounded by other men, laughing and chatting, a hammer in his hands and goggles over his eyes.
And the farmers appreciated him. That was perhaps the most marked change since his childhood. They wanted a mechanic and paid him well for his services. That meant fresh eggs and milk, warm bread just out of a farm-wife’s oven and news of the city discussed over children’s heads. It meant money for rooms and a table set aside at the pub. It meant soft beds and hot showers, something he hadn’t had much opportunity for under the Equalists.
But there was an unspoken hint from the townsfolk. Somehow, without quite understanding the signal, they all knew that Liu and Noa were wanderers. After a few days of hard labor, the work dried up, as did the hospitality. Travelers were interesting for a while, but after three days there were whispers of the ill unmarried men could do to town daughters and of what a couple of soldiers could have done to be discharged and poor. Without tinkering work it was understood that the two men would turn to darker pursuits to feed themselves. It always seemed easier to move on rather than attempt to fight those rumors.
So Liu got used to comfort for a few days interspersed with days spent sleeping beneath the stars on their way to the next village. He knew now that neither of he nor the former Amon had any destination in mind, though the winter snows might change that. Still, they worked their way further inland, farther away from Republic City, and he felt his mind ease.
That changed when, four weeks away from Harlock’s point, on the night of the winter solstice, Noa awoke screaming.
Until then, they hadn’t spoken about the nightmares. Noa simply worked until he was exhausted, then fell into a death-like sleep. He only slept a few hours out of the night, spending the rest on watch or silently staring at the ceiling. And when he slept he whimpered, but quietly, turned into the pillow so Liu had not even heard it for the first few weeks they had spent together.
Liu had never seen Amon asleep before, so he assumed, correctly, that this was the way their leader had always slept. He didn’t wake him and ignored the damp tears on the man’s pillow as best he could.
Until Noa woke up screaming, and Liu stared back into completely blank eyes.
“…Noa?” He shook him slightly as the other man’s breathing quieted.
Slowly, his irises returned and focused. Then he shuddered and pulled away.
“Sorry. I won’t wake you again. I promise.”
Liu tightened his grip. “What the hell was that?”
“A nightmare.” Noa answered, eyes flickering to the ground to avoid staring back at Liu’s unbelieving face.
“The hell it was. You’ve had nightmares all this time – we all have - but you’ve never woken up screaming.”
Silence.
“It’s gotten worse. I know it has. The only reason I haven’t noticed was that we’ve been getting separate rooms. How long has this been going on?”
More silence, this time guilty. Noa’s hands twisted against one another until Liu lowered his hands enough to grip them.
“You do understand that your screaming could get us killed, right?”
Finally he responded. “I highly doubt that…”
“You sound like a damn fox-bear. They shoot those for going after chickens. You’ve met these people; they shoot just about anything that they don’t like, especially when it’s late at night and they’re frightened. Now what is going on? Why’s it so much worse now?”
Noa licked his lips. “It’s the Avatar. She’s gone and done something stupid. And now the spirit world is unbalanced.”
Liu nearly slapped him. Of all the idiotic excuses…but the man apparently believed his own words, which meant that not only was he a monster, but he also was apparently insane.
He sunk back on his haunches, finally releasing Noa’s hands.
“And does that explain the eye thing?”
Noa blinked. “What ‘eye thing’?”
“Your eyes. They were white.” Then, more quietly, as if he didn’t want to admit it: “You looked like the pictures of the Avatar.”
Noa swore under his breath and turned away. “Then it’s worse than I thought.” He glanced at Liu’s frustrated expression. “…but I promise it doesn’t concern us. As you said, only evil can come from my abilities. Attempting to fix any of this would only unbalance the world further.”
Liu stared at him for a moment longer, eyes narrowed.
“So let me understand this. The Avatar has done something in the Spirit World, and as a result you are having nightmares that cause your eyes to roll into your head. Are you going to start foaming at the mouth any time soon?”
The former Equalist shook his head. Liu didn’t believe him, but what did that matter?
“And will this interfere with our work during the day?”
Another shake, this one more emphatic.
“Fine. Then I’ll take your word for it. But I don’t want to hear anything else about the Spirit World or your dreams. We heard enough of those lies in the City.”
Amon nodded and turned back to his bed roll. Whatever Liu thought, he would at least try to give the man a good night’s sleep. Spirits knew Noa wasn’t going to get one.
----------------------------------------------
The beast towered over him, saliva dripping from its mouth, a million eyes matching its million arms, all fixed upon him. Around them the forest stretched for leagues, untouched but corrupted by bogs and mires, the insects of a thousand years coming to reside within it. The air hummed with heat and the sound of wings.
The centi-beast tightened its clutch on him, but this time he wouldn’t cry out. This was a dream. Not just a dream, but a dream none the less. And that knowledge was power enough to allow him to speak.
“Spirit. What do you want of me?”
“I want nothing boy, than what is rightfully mine. It has been a long time since a Ratava has wandered into my lair…”
Its insect mouth snapped shut and it twisted its limbs tighter. There was laughter bubbling in the beast, and each chuckle sent a squeeze throughout its form. The stench of it filled the world, the smell of rotting trees and decaying bog. Its land was long gone, tilled under and drained for more farmland, but somehow the monster had found a refuge here, and brought the whole of its domain to the only one who might remember it.
But he wouldn’t scream out. He knew what this was, and knew what his fate would be.
A corruption spirit. How fitting. And so far away from the allies he had soothed in the city. It would feast on his soul, and leave nothing but a husk behind…
“Noa. It’s time to get up.”
He snapped awake, moving from paralysis to awareness in less than a second. His brow was wet with sweat and the leaves beneath his bedroll had blackened. But Liu didn’t notice, and he intended to keep it that way.