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// Chapter 2: Dreams of the past. 
// Story: Your Human and You: A Tale of Silence 
// by RedmoonLevee 
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	I had read for so long that I had fallen asleep without preparing my mind for the night. To sleep unprepared was to risk invasions of the mind from magic users that called themselves the Dreamwalkers. I drifted off into slumber without a defense for the Dreamwalkers of my world. If I were back in my world, the dreams would start in an instant, giving a sign that a target was ready. The Dreamwalkers would probe my mind for memories, knowledge, or just someway to turn me to their side. Some even had ways of programing my subconscious with a key phrase to take control of me. As part of my training I could defend against such attacks without setting up defenses before I sleep, but it was better to give yourself an edge.
For the first time in years I had forgotten to defend myself from such attacks and yet, none came. Instead I just dreamed. My dream started with me working in the dojo of my old home. I watched as a younger me worked through a kata he had just learned. I remembered that it was the last one I needed to learn, as it was just days before the masters would give me the final test. I watched as the younger me worked through the movements with slow grace. Each of my movements were like dance steps as they flowed from one to another. Before I could finish watching the other me, I was pulled further into the dream memory.
I sat on my knees with my head down and one fist on the ground waiting for my master to finish the briefing and send me on my way. I was garbed in the ninja gi Master had gifted me that morning. He was sending me on my first solo mission, to gather information on Knight and his operations in America. I listened intently and when he finished, I asked my last question to him.
“Do you think I can do this on my own?” I asked. I was always doubting myself when it came to my training.
“No, my son,” my master replied. “If you can, you will come back. If not, you will die.” That was my master, truth, no matter how bad it hurts. “If you do this, you will be a True Shinobi.”
I remembered the feeling I got when he said that, my heart racing with excitement and fear. I was ready for this mission. I remembered the days of planning that I put into this job, just to make sure I would come back. I was ready for anything, to bad I wasn't ready for what was going to happen.
My dream rushed forward to the day I left to do the mission. I was to poison my target and get out without being seen or detected. I slipped into the building and maneuvered past the guards, into a small room that I needed. The ceiling tiles gave me quick access to the rafters above. The rafters that led to the dining room that my target was in right now. The dream rushed forward once more.
I braced my ankles against the beams and then my knees. I then let my upper body gently fall until it stopped swinging. I reached into my belt and pulled out the vial holding the poison. I slowly uncorked it, pulled out my dropper and took a dose out of the vial. A single drop of the poison was all I needed to get into his glass and then I could leave.
I leveled the dropper over the drink and then held my breath. One drop formed on the end of my tool as I squeezed the poison out. The drop plummeted down, right into my target's glass. I let out the breath I was holding and made to leave.
I continued to use the rafters to make good my escape until I found the room I first climbed into them. I cracked the door and checked for guards, by now they should be running around looking for the killer. But they were not there, not even a noise.
I moved through the halls, but there was nothing. I checked the blueprints and went to the security room to look at the cameras. My target lay dead, face down in a plate of food with a spilled drink, but there was no one in the room with him or in the halls. This had me worried.
I checked the feed to see if I was spotted, but I wasn't there. I watched him die just to see what happened, but after he fell over the recording cut off and no new data was left. All of my training told me this was a trap. As I dashed out the door, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
Just before I turned to see what had set my danger sense off, something touched the back of my neck at the base of my skull and fired a bolt of electricity down my spine.
I was unconscious before I hit the ground.

As I came to, I felt a burning in my right shoulder. My vision swam as I looked up at the culprit and pondered what was going on. I thought this was a dream, you can't feel pain in a dream. That was when I noticed the man standing before me.
He was a tall man with dark hair and darker eyes. He wore a business suit and had a scar that ran across his face, marring his boyish good looks. I remembered him from seeing him talking with my master. That was when it hit me, he hired my clan for this job!
“Damien was right about you shadow types,” he said. “You even picked up on the trap before it snapped closed on you.” His voice was rough, like stones being ground together. I couldn't see much of him in the low light.
“You are the first assassin that ever saw it coming,” he gloated. “I may have a use for you, just after I tie up the last few loose ends.”
“What... loose ends,” I croaked.
“Why, the rest of your clan, of course,” he said mockingly. “I can't have this little job traced back to me, now can I.”
I looked up shocked. This man was talking like he had already won. He was talking like I would help him even though he killed my clan.
“What makes you think I would ever work for you,” I snarled.
“Your new implants will be installed shortly,” he said matter-of-factly. “After that it's just the obedience program that they put into prison implants.”
As he turned to leave, I made to lunge at him but was stopped. My right hand was strapped to the wall by a metal cuff. This made him laugh a little at me as I made to pull on the cuff.
“It's an auto weld cuff that only I know the code to, so stop struggling. I'll see you when this is all over and we can get started on that job offer of yours. The soldiers should be arriving soon.”
With that he walked out leaving me alone, with only time and a need to escape. I pulled on the cuff to test the strength of the weld and saw that I couldn't break it without some help. My tools were hung on a wall across from me but out of reach. I was losing hope, until I saw the stone sitting in front of me.
I could touch the stone with the tips of my fingers, just enough to pull it slightly closer. I needed to hurry if I wanted to make it to my home before those soldiers did. With all my might I struggled against my restraint to reach the stone that would be my freedom. I brushed it with my fingertips, careful to not push it farther away. Slowly, I pulled it closer until I managed to get it close enough to pick up.
With the stone in my hand I turned to work on the cuff holding me to the wall. I banged the rock against the metal with all the strength I could muster, but I only dented it. As I hit my binding, the rock began to shatter against the metal's hardness, I was losing hope.
I had to escape. I couldn't fail. The metal cut into my hand as it bent beneath my blows, cutting off the blood flow to it. That gave me an idea, I couldn't pull my hand free, but I could get my wrist free. I was desperate, I was panicking and I had to act.
The first blows shattered bone and tore into the flesh. The pain was great, but I fought it down. I used the rock to cut the skin and tendons, giving me room to start pulling. I couldn't control my hand with all the muscular damage, so I just started to pull. I felt like an animal in panic, pulling until the flesh rips off the bone and the shattered stubs of my wrist remained.
As the flesh finally came loose, I turned to run out only to be faced with something new. My mind reeled as I gawked at the thing before me. The pain of my freshly severed hand came to mind but that strangely merely felt like background static. It was then I remembered the dream. I had lived this already and was only seeing a memory of my past.
The thing before me was something from my new world. It was a horned and winged pony that was a little taller than me. It was a dark blue with an ethereal blue mane and tail, and the moon plastered all over it. It looked like it was going to be sick from the fact that I had ripped of my own hand off, but shock at the fact that I did it to begin with.
To me, it was a Dreamwalker. I slammed my defenses down on it, rocking the mental plane we were on. That pulled it out of its shock and made it look hard at me. Anger began to build in it's eyes as I started the process of waking myself from sleep while dreaming. The fog of sleep started to lift as it shouted something, but I couldn't hear it over the din that my minds defenses was making.
Soon I sat bolt upright in the little room that I had set aside for sleeping, only to hear a pop and a voice behind me.
“You can not hide in the waking world from me, human,” it boomed out. The voice was feminine, but forceful. “Your dream said you lost your hand, yet there it is still attached, how odd.”
On instinct I started to roll out of my makeshift bed but was grabbed by the blue aura that was pony magic. My struggles went unnoticed as I was lifted out of the blankets and set in a chair. I stiffened as she came close to me and looked me in the eyes.
“I saw that memory,” she said. “You lost your hand, but you still have it. How?”
I raised an eyebrow at her.
“I know you are smart, I know of another like you.”
That shocked me. According to the book I read, humans were nothing more than animals, beasts of burden or show pets. Some were trained to work as attack animals, but that was just for illegal fights.
“How is it you still have a hand?”
I raised my right hand and grasped it with my left, and then pulled it off. Her eyes went wide with fear as I replaced it and flexed the fingers. “How is that possible,”she mumbled. She was quiet for a second, but then she asked something strange.
“Can you speak?”
I was taken aback by that, but shook my head. I then lifted my chin and pointed to the scar on my throat.
“You were debarked?”
Again I shook my head. I slowly reached into my belt and produced one of my knives. I then pointed from the knife to the scar under my chin. She looked shocked at what I was implying.
“Did that happen here or at your home,” she asked still shocked.
I shook my head. This was going nowhere and I was starting to wonder how I could get away from this magic using pony. Nothing stuck out for an escape route, but I was still looking.
“I could heal it, you know. Magic could repair that for you.”
That made me freeze. I locked eyes with her and gave her a dark look. I don't like being teased, and getting my voice back was something I had given up on. It was always too expensive or had too much chance of malfunctioning. Yet here was this pony, offering to cast a two million cred spell for free, without even looking at the damage first. My look turned to a glare as she started to speak again.
“Let me get you something to write with and then we can talk in earnest.”
Her horn lit up with the blue aura that was her magic and paper and a quill and ink appeared before me bobbing gently in her magical grip. I was shocked by her display of power. No one could teleport, it was impossible. And yet here she was, defining everything I knew about magic. This pony scared me. 
I took the paper, quill and ink and started to write, keeping an eye on her the whole time.
Why do you want to help me?
She read what I had put to paper and looked at me, questioning.
“Because you are wounded, broken. That and speaking is so much easier.”
I'm not broken, I lost my voice because I failed to stop something from destroying my home. I wrote that down and she looked up at me in shock and sympathy.
“How did you fail?”
My master was killed by men working for the man from my dream. I let her read that and then started in on the painful memory.
I had just escaped after taking my hand off, but I still had to get back. It was a three hour run from where I was to my home and I didn't even find the exit for a good thirty minutes. By that time the crew had dug in and was starting to waver in their conviction to attack a ninja dojo. At that time of the attack, sixty of my brothers were there and defended our home with honor. They brought two powered armor and thirty heavily armed men.
I stopped there, I didn't want to relive that pain. The pony understood and looked at me as I sat there in my memories.
“You couldn't stop them, could you?”
I nodded, unable to muster the strength to write.
“Would you like me to heal you now,” she asked after giving me a moment.
How would I repay you?
“There is no need for repayment, It is a simple enough spell for me and I do this to see if you really can speak.”
I raised my eyebrow at her, questioning her reason.
What do you mean by that?
“I know someone who is like you that can't speak because of some magic that brought him here. I want to know if it affects you as well.”
Then test away. I have forgotten what my voice sounds like after so many years.
She nodded and lit her horn. The magic reached into my body, starting at my chest and started to move up. When it reached my throat, it stopped and began to heat up the air inside it. Pain began to grow as the heat reached my lungs. That fire spread through my body in one agonizing second and then it was done.
And I screamed. Not very loud, mind you. But I still screamed. As I did I fell to the floor, my body twitching. With each spasm came a new pain, but they were fading. When I stopped twitching, I looked up and tried to speak.
“Thank you.”
It came out nothing more that a harsh whisper, but it was still speech. For the first time in years, I could talk.