Dreams - Part 6

Dreams
Part 6


The group entered a large concert hall, not much different from those seen in real life. But that concert hall wasn't just large, it was enormous, with rows and rows of fancy, cushioned seats facing a large stage, with a large enough space for an orchestra in front of it. And much like a cinema, the rows became higher and higher the farther they were from the stage. Above the hall was a large chandelier, which was apparently floating in midair, as there was no ceiling to block a magnificent view of the starry night sky above them.

"Well, give Seymour some points for style..." said Silver.

NiGHTS began to fly around the theater, searching for any signs of the Ideya, or the visitor responsible for the place. However, once he didn't see anything in particular and began to descend, a mixed sound of many instruments was heard from the stage.

"What the!?" said NiGHTS.

At the stage, two figures began to appear out of nowhere, enveloped in what appeared to be a binary code. Soon, the 1s and 0s disappeared, and on their place were a man and a woman, each of them holding a violin. At the gap near the stage appeared a whole group of men and women with violins. All of the players had small stands in front of them with music sheets, and seats for them to accommodate themselves.

NiGHTS flew back to the ground as the group decided to sit on the front row to watch whatever was about to happen. As they waited, they all saw the young genius himself entering the stage with a violin in hands. Instead of his usual lab coat, Seymour was wearing a white version of his brother's suit without the fur cape, a white bow tie and still wearing his red gloves. Once he entered the stage, he gasped when he saw he had an audience.

"Guys!?" he said in his thick British accent. "How did you enter my dream!? Who are those with you!? And why are you on the front row!?"

"We were looking for you!" said Sonic. "Then we entered this theater, and here we are! There's more to it, but we can explain it later."

Seymour looked around, searching for something, then he grunted in annoyance.

"Oh, just great!" he said. "The other one's missing! Now who will I play with??"

Helen raised her hand.

"I can play the violin!" she said.

Seymour looked at her.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Helen. Helen Cartwright." she answered.

The boy widened his eyes.

"THE Helen Cartwright!?!?" he asked in surprise. "The prodigious violinist??"

Once Helen nodded, Seymour snapped his fingers. A man came from behind the stage and walked towards the girl, asking her to get up. When she did, the man carefully held her hand and guided her to the stage, where he gave her a violin. She stood right next to Seymour as the man placed a stand with a music sheet in front of her.

"Do you know this song??" asked Seymour.

Helen smiled when she noticed which song it was.

"Yes." she said.

Seymour made a hand gesture for the maestro to begin. Soon, as the orchestra began playing, the crowd recognized the song as Coldplay's "Viva La Vida", in a string orchestra arrangement. Silver and Blaze learned from Seymour himself that this particular song was one of his favorites, seeing as he instantly connected his own life with the lyrics and melody. Seymour occasionally glanced at Helen while playing, to see if she was doing fine, and then focused again on his violin.

Soon, the music ended. The "audience" cheered their performance as the orchestra bowed in gratitude. Seymour thanked Helen for her help and told her to return to the group.

"Thank you! Thank you!!" said Seymour. "You've been a lovely audience!! Welcome to the Pepperland Theater!!!"

He descended towards the seats, while the orchestra vanished.

"Never knew you could play the violin!!" said Blaze.

"My mutter taught me when I was little..." said the boy.

"Your what?" asked Helen.

"That's German for 'mother'" he explained. "You know, because my mother was German."

NiGHTS flew towards him and examined him closely.

"Ummm... Hello..." said Seymour awkwardly.

"Oh, this is NiGHTS." said Sonic. "He's helping us to stop that Syndrome that's making everyone sleep back at home."

"Where were you when it happened??" asked NiGHTS.

Seymour began rubbing his chin in thought.

"You know, it was very curious..." he said. "I was at my family's mansion in London, when I suddenly began to feel drowsy all of a sudden... I slept in the couch of the living room, and somehow I woke up here, this theater that I know from my previous dreams. Before falling asleep, I saw a faint silhouette in front of me... And it kinda looked like..."

"Your brother?" asked Shadow.

Seymour looked at him in surprise.

"Y-yes... But how do you know??" he asked.

Shadow merely nodded. The boy facepalmed.

"Not Ryan again..." he said.

NiGHTS and Helen were dumbfounded.

"He's your brother!?" asked Helen. "But he's so much older than you!!! You must be at least 12!"

"Legally, yes..." said the boy. "It's a long, complex and dark story I'd rather not speak of at this moment."

Suddenly, a twisted giggle was heard from behind them. Reala descended from the air, looking at them with malice on his eyes. NiGHTS called Helen as they dualized. Sonic and the Mobians assumed a battle stance.

"Well, well, well!" said Reala. "It seems our dear rescue group has decided to stop and take a listen to classic music! Can't blame you, it is also my favorite!"

"Yeah?? No one asked ya, pal!" said Sonic. "In fact, I was about to make you leave!!"

Reala snickered again.

"Is that so?" he said. "Well, then I hope you don't mind if I present a show of my own! A magic show, going straight to the vanishing act!! The vanished?? YOU!!!"

"I won't allow you to hurt them, vile creature!!" said Seymour, standing between Reala and the group with his arms spread. "You'll have to go through me, first!!"

"Sorry, kid, but I've been strictly forbidden to harm you..." answered the Nightmaren.

Reala made a hand gesture, and suddenly, two bird-like Nightmarens came out of the dark and took Seymour away from the group, holding him in the air, his violin still held firmly on his left hand.

"Seymour!!" shouted Blaze, then turning to Reala. "Let him go, you monster!!!"

"I would, but I don't want to!!" answered the creature. "Not until I receive the Ideya you possess, plus the one hidden in this theater!!"

"Ideya??" asked Seymour.

He discreetly looked inside the violin, where he saw a faint yellow light emanating from the sound gap. He looked around him and smiled.

"Receive THIS!" he proclaimed.

He began to focus on the walls surrounding the theater, as they began to shake and rattle with a metallic sound coming out of them. In a millisecond, metal plates tore through the "concrete", smashing against the two Nightmarens holding him and allowing him to fall on the ground safely. He immediately reached for his sword and charged it, causing its pixelated blade to appear. He threw the violin to Silver, who grabbed it before it fell.

"Cower before my blade, creature!" proclaimed Seymour. "For you shall not find mercy on me!!"

"Sorry, child, but rules are rules!" responded Reala.

With a wave of his hand, more of the bird-like Nightmarens appeared around Seymour. As Silver and Blaze rushed to his rescue, Reala trapped the others inside a large, misty barrier with apparently no way out of it. From above the barrier came a big chameleon-like Nightmaren wearing a magician's attire, holding a magic wand on his hand.

"Chamelan!!" said NiGHTS.

The chameleon took off his hat, spreading several magic cards around the area, and hiding behind the mist it created.

"Can you expose him???" asked Sonic.

"No problem!" answered NiGHTS. "A paralooop will do the trick!"

NiGHTS flew into the air, looking around him, searching for the Nightmaren. However, once he heard the chameleon's chilling giggle, he quickly bolted out of the way, as a light beam passed next to him. NiGHTS then made a loop in the air, and once he reached the starting point, a circular hole appeared on the mist, clearly showing the magician. Sonic wasted no time and performed a homing attack towards Chamelan, hitting him with full force and causing him to vanish, along with his whole force field.

Once it lowered, they saw Seymour, Silver and Blaze getting rid of the last Nightmaren. Reala himself had suddenly disappeared.

"You okay there, Seymour??" asked Sonic.

"Fine, thank you..." he said.

"Incredible!" praised NiGHTS. "I've never seen a visitor hold himself against the Nightmarens like that!"

"With a brother like Ryan, you'd wield a sword, too..." said the English boy. "That Ideya he mentioned... You have one, don't you??"

Sonic took the small white light on his hands.

"Yep!" he said. "And it's all yours!"

Seymour politely took the light from Sonic's hand and watched as it grew brighter on his hand.

"I... I feel something... different..." he said. "Yet so... familiar... It's as if I could shout to the world what I feel right now!"

"The Ideya of Sincerity is definitely working!!" said Helen, still dualized with NiGHTS.

"A little too easily..."

Everyone looked at Shadow.

"That Nightmaren who surrounded us a few seconds ago seemed like a tough opponent, at least enough for NiGHTS to recognize him..." said Shadow. "If Reala wanted the Ideya so badly, how could that chameleon fall so easily?? Ryan wouldn't send a tough enemy to face us for something he wants and have the minion defeated like this."

"Maybe it's because they never faced someone like you before..." suggested NiGHTS.

"Good theory, but it still bugs me..." said the hedgehog.

"And speaking of bugging..." said Seymour.

He took his violin and shook it, causing a yellow light to fall from the soundhole.

"That's the Ideya!!!" said Silver.

"I take it we need this to move on, right?" asked Blaze. "Good thing it was here on your dream, huh?"

Seymour chuckled as he hid the Ideya on his pocket.

"Oh, this is just the setting, Blaze..." he said, walking towards the center of the stage. "The stage for my tragedy. The plot lies further within this stage's contraptions... A stage I dare to call... my own mind."

The stage's curtains raised towards the ceiling, depicting something that everyone, including Shadow, gasp in amazement: a huge painting of the whole Weever family together again, with Richard and Amelia standing behind their two sons, who were exactly as they were now, with Ryan wearing his famous business suit and holding his cane on one hand, and Seymour wearing his lab coat, gloves and a purple bow-tie. If one looked at the painting, to this person's left, Richard stood behind Ryan, with his left hand on Ryan's shoulder, and his right hand holding Amelia by the waistline. Amelia was behind Seymour, also holding his shoulder with her left hand. All of them looked forward with smiles on their faces, except for Ryan, who was grinning differently from his usual evil self, instead having a visionary, confident grin on his lips.

"This is your dream..." said Silver. "You want your family back..."

Seymour began averting his gaze from the group.

"Ever since that incident..." he said. "I thought that Ryan would help me to become stronger... I only didn't think he would do it by fighting against me... And all because of revenge..."

NiGHTS let go of Helen for a moment to fly towards Seymour.

"I know how you feel, Seymour..." he said warmly. "I had a brother, once. I also thought he would help me to become stronger... But just like you and Ryan, we stood in different sides of the battlefield..."

Silver and Blaze walked towards them.

"Seymour, I think I should ask you this question, now that I have the chance..." said Silver. "I noticed when we saved you back at Soleanna that you had a special look in your eyes when we ran away from the robots... Is there any other reason for why you admire me and Blaze??"

Seymour scratched the back of his neck.

"I guess... you kinda remind me of my parents..."

Silver grinned. Blaze giggled. They knew there was something else to it.

Seymour looked at NiGHTS.

"Thank you, NiGHTS..." he said. "And thanks to all of you... For now I know that, even with my parents away... I still have a family to count on..."

They all smiled as they left the theater.


===In Nightmare====================================================================

Ryan watched the whole scene from the Nightmare Realm, thanks to the powers contained within the place. The scientist sighed in sadness.

"Oh, Seymour..." he said to himself. "How I wish to make your dream come true... If only I didn't have so much to take care of... If only I wasn't blinded by revenge..."

The dark presence appeared to Ryan again.

"Do not forget that your revenge will give you what you most desire...!" said the presence. "With Shadow out of the way, there will be nothing stopping you from returning home with open arms...! Think of NiGHTS as a bonus target to hit..."

"Well, obviously! He was part of our deal!" exclaimed Ryan. "But you missed a detail! I also cannot allow Sonic and his friends to escape this ordeal alive!"

The voice chuckled evilly.

"Only a minor digit in our equation..."


===Back at Earth==============================================================

Johnathan heard the door open behind him, as two adults entered the room. A man with brown hair, and a woman with long blonde hair. He took off the helmet he was wearing and looked at them.

"Are you Dr. Johnathan von Neuron??" asked the man.

He smiled warmly.

"Yes, mister..." he said. "Please sit down, Mr. Taylor and Mrs. Cartwright. We have a lot to talk about."