Luna was patrolling the dream realm as usual, when she suddenly stopped, noticing something. The fake dream her sister had created to protect herself had started to shake.
She knew that a nightmare was trapped in it already, and now there was a second one in it, too. It was not something she did worry about too much.
But in retrospect? She should have realized that something was… off. She knew that it had more to it than she knew, more than it showed.
YOU!
Whirling around, she came face-to-face with a dark red cloud of energy, seemingly decaying at the edges.
It was you… always you. It was always, always, ALWAYS… you.
A red-black beam of energy shot out of the cloud, and Luna jumped to the side, not managing to avoid getting grazed by the beam. It hurt, which was surprising, but to her horror… it felt dark, corrupting.
She could tell that the being attacking her wasn’t aware of this ability. It looked around, having condensed into a silhouette of a wendigo.
It… it strengthened me… and now, this allows me to move in this realm! Oh, Presence, you should never have come here! It exclaimed, invisible gaze boring into Luna’s own representation.
“What art thou?”
I am a being just like you.
“We art nothing alike!” Luna exclaimed, realizing her opponent was like the beings that had trapped and corrupted her – just two, tens, dozens, hundreds of times stronger…
Oh?
Then, let me disprove you.
You have another side, like me.
Luna froze, paying that mistake with a fast, strong punch to her side.
“Thee art who made our ‘other half’!”
We both gather strength from dreamers! I did not realize, but you dared not to fight me – I was draining one of the strongest dreamers! That’s why you ignored me! That is why YOU were attacked!
“Tis’ a lie! Thou art saying what thee wish to be the truth!”
The cloud managed to somehow chuckle, firing another blast at Luna.
And if I am lying? What would that mean? You clearly knew! YOU SAW ME THERE! TRAPPED! YOU KNEW WE WERE SIMILAR! And yet… you did nothing. Yet you came to watch me. Again. Again. Again… thousands, hundreds of thousands of times you gazed at me, ignoring my need for help!
The being stopped screaming at Luna and slithered up to her, whispering now into her ear instead.
You? You already were a monster when you got ‘corrupted’. I am not sure what to believe anymore… did those small, conscious slivers of magic truly corrupt you? Or did they just provide you with an excuse to finally cut loose?
“LIES!” Luna exclaimed, trying to retaliate, but her opponent dodged.
Look into a mirror for once. And ask… am I the monster? For existing? Or… are you the monster… for stealing power not yours, for ignoring my silent plea for help, for attempting GENOCIDE?!
This time, the blast crashing into Luna was far bigger than before.