The great dreamer

We wander through the countless corridors, always wary of potential attackers, but wherever we go, nothing but the squishy feeling ground and the walls made from the same material can be seen.
While we walk, Mary takes a small sample from a wall and begins to run an analysis of it.

After about 10 minutes, she finally looks up from her screen and says over the radio, “That's strange.”
Natalia responds, “Which part? That we have yet to run into hostiles, that the walls look like some sort of giant creature swallowed us whole or the simple fact that Gordon seems to know exactly where he's going?”
“That sample I took...as you already correctly stated, it appears to be of organic nature.”
“...so we got eaten and we're just waiting to get digested, or something?” Marty asks.
“No, not quite. But look at this...”
Marty raises his hands and replies, “No offense Mary, but I'm the kinda guy who shoots first and asks questions later. Whatever you want to show me, I'm pretty sure I won't get it.”
“Let me have a look,” our engineer, whose name I have already forgotten again, says and moves over to to Mary's side and looks at her portable computer.
He hums a few times and then says, “You're right, that is strange.”

I stop and ask, “Okay, now you've got me curious. What is so strange?”
“The substance around us seems to be fluctuating, “ the engineer explains.
“And what exactly does that mean?”
Mary explains, “That means it's changing at a rapid rate. We could be walking in circles for hours on end without ever coming by any sort of landmark we could remember.”
“Wait, this whole thing...but if that's the case...” the lad with the red eyes starts, but I raise my hands and shout, “Calm down everyone. Listen, we just need to keep moving. Remember, if the great dreamer didn't want us here, there would have been more than enough possibilities to crush us.”
“Right...did it ever cross your mind, that this 'great dreamer' of yours might be playing with us? You know, watch, while we get lost in its labyrinth, until hunger and thirst make us attack each other?”
I reply calmly, “And if that were the case, would you want to give it what it wants so readily? Because you're on the best way to. Now let's keep moving and keep your eyes open. Mary, do we have anything to track our position?”
“Hmm...nope, all of my instruments are a complete mess. I can't even see, whether we're going upward or downward. It's like we're walking through a space, where the laws of physics don't apply.”

Mary's sentence echoes in the back of my mind for a little while, until it gets drowned out by a terrible thought, which is again by a great number of pictures of different battlefields, with bodies littering the ground as far as the eye can see. I push them away from my mind and clench my fist for a few moments.
Eventually I say, “We need to keep moving.”
I resume my walk, much to the protest of my teammates.
Natalia's voice sounded through the speakers, “How long do we want to follow him anyway?! He obviously doesn't have any idea about what's going on here! Even worse, he'll lead us into our doom! He will doom all of mankind, if this continues!”
I mumble, “I can hear you...”
“He can hear you, you know?” Mary alerts her.
“I don't care! Hey, Talbot. Tell me, how was that replica you screwed? Couldn't find yourself a real girl, so you had yourself one made, eh?”
Mary tries to intervene, but Natalia just doesn't shut up.

My finger inches near the trigger and I consider silencing her forever, but just when her accusations and insults become hard to bear, she suddenly falls silent and Mary explains, “I removed her from I our channel. Honestly, I know that she's stressed out and everything, but those things...”
I reply with a sad voice, “She's right though. I really don't have much of an idea of what's going on up here. And I was so hung up on Illiya, that I never even noticed that the one you gave me was just a replica. And I will probably kill all of us in the long run anyway.”
Marty cuts in, “Now wait just a second here, Gordon! You're supposed to...”
“I don't care! But you know what? I may be worthless. I may be pathetic. But I still believe, that the great dreamer called us here to help them. And because of that, I'll keep going. Whether you'll follow me or not is not for me to decide.”

Mary starts saying something, when her connection suddenly gets severed with a blood curling scream. We hurl around to see Mary on the ground, her face distorted to a grimace of pain mixed with one of surprise. Natalia is standing behind her,  her gun still ready to fire.
After a few seconds, she gets her radio back online and says, “That'll teach the little bitch not to mess with me. Alright, I say we wreak a little havoc around here and see if we can't lure this 'great dreamer' or at least a few of its minions out, eh?!”

She raises her gun to the ceiling and I shout, “No, don't! Are you out of your mind?!”
Natalia looks at me with a mixture of pity and envy as she points her weapon at me and replies, “No...just tired of you and your antics. Now, are you game...or would you rather end like your little lady friend?”
I yank up my own gun, my hands shaking like crazy, while everyone else is just looking at each other, obviously uncertain on how to react right now.
“Puh-lease...you wouldn't hit a barn from 10 meters distance!” Natalia scoffs.
I close my eyes for a moment and reply, “You're right. I wouldn't. But I don't have to either.”
Behind my back, I fumble the item I had smuggled aboard out of the gun belt, detach the activator and throw it towards Natalia, who just looks at it completely unimpressed.
While everyone tries to get to safety, Natalia merely continue scoffing, “A grenade? Honestly? Didn't you listen to Mary? Explosives don't work so well in space.”

I reply with a crooked smile, “Good thing that this isn't an explosive then.”
I take two steps back and press the trigger, causing the grenade to unleash its charge into the surrounding, immediately rendering everything in a 500 meters radius immobile.
I thank God, that the integrated neutralizer field of the activator button worked like it was supposed to do and pick up my gear again, before leaving my comrades frozen in time behind.

While I'm walking, I record a message for them, “You've been hit by a stasis grenade and will 'thaw' in about two hours time. You will probably feel like crap for a time, possibly puke and I hope you'll have the decency to keep your helmets on and bear with the stench instead of the agonizing death by explosive decompression. You are probably mad at me and I understand that. However please understand that I had to stop Natalia.  No, that's not quite true. I had to stop all of you. What I am about to do now, I need to do all by myself. I just wished, I had not hesitated so long to use the grenade I brought. Maybe Mary would be still alive then. But if I'm right, I can remedy that.”

I take another turn and the path before me twists and turns in sickening ways to look at, but eventually it stabilizes and beckons me to traverse with various lights adorning the walls.
After about a kilometer of constant walking, I can hear the voice in my head again, “You have chosen to abandon your friends to face me alone?”
I reply truthfully, “No, I have chosen to prevent further bloodshed. Tell me, dreamer...have you driven Natalia into this madness?”
“Her mind was feeble and her will was weak. I have no intention to speak to one such as her.”
“Then why? Why did she had to kill Mary? You...you know, don't you?”

The voice remains silent for multiple seconds but eventually replies, “This is a place, where dreams and hopes become reality. But so do nightmares and fears. Tell me, Gordon Talbot, what is it you fear the most? What is within you, that might become a dreadful reality in this place?”
I close my eyes and eventually reply, “I understand...will...it happen again?”
“Only if you allow your fear to escape you. Hold it firmly in your heart and the power of the Manifest will not have any more leverage against you and what you need to do.”
I nod and continue walking at a hastened pace.
I'm pretty sure that the others can't follow me, even after the effect of the Stasis grenade wears off. I'm way too far into the complex for them to find me again without help.
But I am not going to risk running into my nightmares again.

After passing through something akin to a door, I find myself in an unfamiliar surrounding. Whereas I had just left a dark and damp cavern with pulsating walls, I was now in a warmly lit room with a large bed. The noise of running water echoed through my speakers and the measurements showed livable conditions.

I close my eyes and head straight for the door on the other side, repeating 'Not real, just a dream, none of this is real, this is just the Manifest messing with you.'
I am almost to the door, when a familiar voice says from behind me, “Are you really going to leave again so soon, Gordon?” making me freeze on the spot.

A thousand images run by before my mind's eye and everything within me yearns to turn around, to tear off my helmet, to embrace the red-headed owner of the voice, but the little that is left of my sanity somehow still manages to hammer it's point through and I manage to escape the vision through the door, holding it shut with all my weight.

After a little while, I sink to the squishy ground, still panting heavily, while trying to get the images out of my mind.
Eventually I get back up and yell, “Do you think that's funny?! To toy with me like that?!”
“I have done nothing,” the voice replies calmly, almost indifferently.
I force myself to my feet and continue walking, thinking, 'I must have lost my mind...that's probably all there is to it. All this madness must have driven me bonkers. I'm probably in some sort of sanatorium, bubbling all kinds of incoherent nonsense and none of this is real.'

After a few seconds, I finally manage to get a grip of myself again and pull myself up at one of the walls, taking deep and slow breaths.
As I begin to walk again, I think, 'Doesn't matter. Right now, this here is real to me. And I will see this to an end, one way or another.'

As I keep walking, various visions pop up left and right, trying to get me to stray from my path, however I just keep on walking, not listening to the voices, not even turning my head towards them.
I just keep pressing on, muting the sirens calls or visions of terror to the best of my abilities.

Eventually I find myself standing for a massive door, when something hits me and I stop abruptly.
I whisper, “'Welcome back, Gordon Talbot',” before asking loud, “Manifest, have I been here before? Or have I never ever left this place?”
But I don't get an answer. Everything around me is silent except for my own heartbeat I hear pounding strong in the blood pumping through my head.

I am just about to repeat my question, when the voice of the Manifest suddenly booms through the silence, “No, Gordon Talbot. You have not been here before.”
“...what's with the emphasis on 'You' and 'here'?” I keep probing, when a terrible suspicion dawns on me and I ask with not much more than a whisper, “Am I...human?”
Again, a long silence falls, almost driving me crazy as a million thoughts run through my head, until the Manifest replies, “Yes, you are.”
“And why did you take so long to answer that?! Cat got your tongue or something?!”
In response to what I said, a meowing noise comes from the left, albeit not the noise of a kitten, but much rather that of a woman.
I close my eyes and count until ten until the illusion goes away, yelling at myself to get my act together silently.

After a few more seconds, the Manifest replies, “Gordon Talbot, the man you were, came to the Manifest moon in the past. Yet you are not this man, so you haven't been here before.”
“That's bullshit! I have never been...!” I start, but then remember that a lot of things supposedly happened in the past ten years. Things I cannot remember.
I calm down and ask, “When was that?”
“Many have come and gone during the years. Few remember.”
“...it...was in a dream, wasn't it? Did I...did I ever summon a Manifest while asleep?”
“Yes, you did.”
I sink to the ground, wondering how many people I killed, because I couldn't keep my eyes open. All of a sudden the presence of the memory plug made so much more sense to me.
Somewhere in these 10 years, I must have fallen asleep during the night and probably caused havoc and destruction among the people.

“Fear not. Your Manifest has never walked the Earth.”
I blink a few times and ask, “What...do you mean by that?”
“Your Manifest walked this moon, wandering these halls and hollows.”
“So...that's how you knew about me! And when I got this Neurotransmitter thing...”
“I was finally able to find you again, yes Gordon Talbot. And I thank you for keeping the word of your Manifest thus far and not causing needless bloodshed.”
“...I did though...Mary is dead...and it's my fault...”
“Did you pull the trigger? Did you ask her to terminate the female? What you did was stop her from trying to hurt me or the moon without harming her. And in that, there lies hope for your kind.”
“Why me, though? There are better people than me out there!”

Again, silence for multiple seconds until the door in front of me starts changing. One after another, the blocking bars recede back into the walls, like arms releasing something they were cradling and eventually the door opens, slowly and with great shaking. If there had been sound in this area, I'm sure it would have rumbled quite a bit.

Beyond the door, brilliant white blinds me with its brightness and I have to enable the 'Shade mode' on my visor just so I can see anything despite the intense lighting.
Before me, just beyond the door, a sphere is floating over a small podium with various runes inscribed upon it, which are glowing faintly as well. At least according to the Lumen measurements on my HUD, with my eyes I wouldn't know any difference.

I slowly step forward, my gun still ready to fire at a moments notice, when a proximity alert makes me doge to the side and not a moment too soon, because a plasma burst passes right where I had stood only fractions of a second before. I drift against the nearest wall and stare at the group that was standing a good 50 meters away from me.
Over the radio I can hear Natalia foaming, “I found you, you damn traitor!”

I open a channel and start as calmly as I can, “Look, I know you're not happy about the stasis grenade, but...”
Another three bursts of plasma come inching towards me and I just manage to roll away before they leave gaping holes in the wall, which quickly regrow, but a load moaning echoes through my mind as if to protest against the sudden violence.

I yell, “Would you stop shooting and start listening?! I'm trying to end this here! That's what we came here for, isn't it?”
Suddenly one of the other suits, Marty judging from the stature, stands next to Natalia and forces her gun to point to the ground before starting, “No, Gordon. That's what you came here for. And I thank you for your invaluable assistance.”
A terrible understanding begins to dawn within me and I stutter, “How...why...how did you even find me?!”
“Gordon, please. There's a tracker installed in each suit, so we can find each other again, if one of us should get lost. Did you really forget that already? Has the Manifest blinded you so much?”
“That maniac killed Mary!”
“An unfortunate casualty, I will admit. However she was a calculated risk. Whereas she was brilliant in her studies of the Manifest and invaluable in recruiting you back into our ranks, she had outlived her usefulness, so I asked Natalia to terminate her if she should cause trouble.”

Somewhere in the back of my mind I feel my world crumbling to pieces. If Natalia had decided to shoot now, I'm sure I wouldn't have managed to get away in time.
However then something within me clicks and a broad smile appears on my face and I ask, “All my dreams and nightmare can manifest in these halls and hollows. You Sir, and the betrayal you are portraying, are not real.”

I turn around to head back towards the radiant sphere, when another shot scorches the ground right next to me and Marty says sharply, “I wasn't done talking yet, Mr. Talbot. Besides, even if we were just a manifestation of your fears, you yourself should know best, that Manifestations are as dangerous as 'the real thing'. Now, turn back around and face us.”
I clench my fist and think, 'Damn...he's right,' before turning back to face them.

After a short silence, I ask, “Okay, so what's the deal? You haven't turned me to space dust for a reason, right?”
“If only you were as obedient as you are observant, this whole thing would be easier, Gordon. Maybe then I could trust you with things, but you of all people just had to have a mind of your own. And so nosy too. You know, a few weeks, you uncovered my plan by sticking your nose into things that didn't concern you. And you actually tried to stop me!”
“...PTSD wasn't the reason for that memory plug, was it?”
“Someone give this guy a price! He deserves it!” Marty scoffs, before continuing, “Yeah well, I had you captured and had the memory plug installed. I told everyone, that you couldn't bear the stress of being 'Gordon, the slayer' any more, which is why the plug was adjusted to make you forget about everything that happened after the Night of the Manifest.”
“Why not just kill me and make it look like an accident?”
Marty laughs for a brief time, but then continues, “Don't flatter yourself, of course I did think of that. But the simple fact of the matter is, that your death would have raised questions. Questions, I didn't want to answer back at the time. Furthermore, you played a role in my plan and losing you would have greatly hindered them. And my decision paid off! Look at us, standing here at the doorstep to the greatest power mankind has ever seen! Just imagine what we could do with it!”
“I don't need to imagine that, because I've seen it. Death. Destruction.”
“You're failing to see the big picture, Gordon. What is it, that made mankind go to war over and over again? What is it that caused all the death and suffering?”
“No clue, but I'm sure you're going to tell me any second.”
“Regional leaders, that's what. Since the beginning of time, there have been small bands, unified under regional leaders, who went to fight each other for things like food or possessions. As mankind advanced, the bands became larger, tribes were born, later kingdoms and eventually the countries we know today. But even though, the world was still getting tormented by war and terror and what not. And do you know why that is?”
“I'm afraid you're going to tell me that too,” I remark, frantically looking for a way out. The previous shots were mere warning shots, I'm sure. If I tried to make a run for the door, Natalia would not hesitate to end my life with that crazy rifle of hers.
“Because everyone thinks they are the greatest leader in the history of mankind, meant to rule all. But nobody ever is! But the Manifest shuffles the decks anew and a new world will emerge!”
“...so you want the Manifest as a weapon? Isn't that exactly what you swore to prevent?!”
Marty sighs, “Always the idealist, aren't you? That's a fault you, Mary and Lance all had in common. You wanted to believe in the good of mankind. In the good of every last one of us. But the world isn't 'good'. Mankind isn't 'good'. It's rotten to the core and the only language they'll ever understand is 'power'!”
“...okay, I get all that. But why am I still alive?”
“Believe it or not, but I want this new world to be one of peace. One without struggle. One without strife. One without violence and destruction. I want to make the paradise, our ancestors have promised us, happen. And if history has taught us one thing, it's that changes forged in blood have only demanded more blood. That thing about Mary is really unfortunate, but with the power of the Manifest, I could bring her back to life. Illiya too, while I'm at it. I could make the two of them your personal harem if you wanted.”

I blink a few times and eventually ask, “Okay, now I know that you're just a manifestation.”
“What, because I want you to be happy? Okay, there is a catch and it's also the reason why you are still alive. You see, my studies of ancient scriptures we found about previous comings of the Manifest moon...”
“Wait, the Manifest moon came here before?! But I thought...”
“Relax, it's all just legends. But it makes sense. How else would an entire city, made of Gold all of a sudden just disappear? How would a mediocre country, which had only just begun to recover from losing the greatest war in the history of mankind, suddenly become a superpower which almost managed to unify the world under their banner? How could...”
“Okay, I get it already! So what is it?!”

Marty chuckles a little and eventually replies, “The scriptures and legends all point to the existence of a 'chosen one', who would wake the previous great dreamer from his sleep. And that 'chosen one' are you, Gordon. Sure, if I kill you, another one will be born under the Manifest moon, but I just don't have the time to wait another decade or two to find that brat and raise it, just to wake up the stupid dreamer!”
“...I'm no chosen one. I am just an ordinary guy.”
“Yes you are. You've proven to be it a number of times already, although you don't remember.”
“...what do you mean by that?”
Marty looks over to one of the other guys in suits and just says, “Do it.”
“Are you sure? What if...”
“Not even 'Gordon, the Slayer of Hundreds' could take us all on, especially not after that.”
“Okay, you're the boss,” the other suit says and something in my suit suddenly starts whirring.

As the whirring grows in intensity, Marty explains, I believe Mary already told you, that the memory plug can be disabled by applying a focused EMP discharge to it. I had your suit equipped with an EMP emitter for this very special purpose.”
I want to reply, when a numbing pain and a major headache suddenly forces me to my knees, making my thoughts spin as a myriad of impressions and memories flood into my conscious, remain briefly and then disappear again, taking its place in my memory.
The feeling is nauseating and I almost hurl a number of times but still somehow manage to keep it in. After what feels like hours, the torrent of pictures finally stops and the world around me stops turning.

I gaze up towards Marty and spout, “You...damn traitor!” just about ready to charge into him, however another warning shot to my feet tells me better.
“I see it works. Do you remember now? How I came to believe that you are 'the chosen one'?”

A number of memories surface before my inner eye.
In most of them, we are running from gunfire and Manifests hunting us.
And there's something else. A recurring voice, telling me what to do and how to evade capture or destruction. It seems to know where my enemies are, what they are plotting and how to counter them. But that's not all, because seemingly from nowhere, weapons of all kinds, reaching from plain guns to full fledged bazookas just appear in front of me, allowing me to take down everything that opposes me.

What scares me most however, is the look of madness in a reflection of my face.

After the flashbacks pass, I get to my feet and reply, “Yes...I think I know now where you might have gotten the idea from...so what do you expect from me now?”
“Quite simple...the legends tell of the chosen one waking the great dreamer and then being given a choice...whether to take its place and become the great dreamer or to send the Manifest moon back into the grand void, in the search of the next great dreamer.”
“And let me take a wild guess, you want to be that 'next great dreamer'?”
“I would let you do it, seeing how you were chosen for that, but your loyalty has always been...questionable, to say the least. So yeah, you've got it.”
“And what if I just wake the dreamer and send the Manifest moon away?”
“Then you and everyone on that sorry excuse for a planet dies.”
“...I get that you'll kill me, but why everyone else?”
“Ask your friend.”

I look back to the sphere, which was now pulsating in a heartbeat like fashion, but remains silent.
“Well?!” I shout towards it.
“The power of Manifest is within all dreamers the moon's light touched. If the moon should cease to exist, so would the power of Manifest.”
“But...that's a good...”
“Hear me out, Gordon Talbot. Your companion speaks the truth. If the power of Manifest is withdrawn suddenly, it would induce a great shock on all those it is drawn from. They would die.”
“But...but that's madness!”

“Man, how I'd love to see your face right now,” Marty scoffs again, as the panic in my voice tells him that the Manifest had told me exactly what he wanted me to hear.
“...fine, I'll do it. However only on one condition,” I respond while laying down my gun.
“...which condition?” Marty asks, slowly approaching.
“No manifest will ever walk the Earth again.”
“Nice try, Gordon, but people won't start listening unless you've got the bite to back up your bark. But I will promise you that I won't kill anyone, who doesn't try to act against the new world I build. Will that be all?”
“No, actually...I have an alternative, seeing how you feel unable to fulfill my previous condition.”
Marty sighs, stopping a little ways from me, still holding his gun tightly and asks, “And what would that be?”
“It's two things, actually, none of which should be too difficult for you, seeing how you're on your way to becoming a God.”
“Flattery isn't going to help you. Spill it.”
“Mary and Illiya. I want them brought back to life.”
After a long pause, in which Marty without a doubt is trying to figure where I hid the trap for him in my words, he eventually replies, “...fine by me. Anything else?”
“...no, that will be enough.”
“What, you don't want them to be completely into you, read every wish from your eyes and...”
“I said I want the two of them back alive. That includes their characters. I don't want puppets, I want people! What do I need to do to get that into your skull?!”

Marty snorted lightly, trying to hold back a laugh and eventually retorts, “You're one to talk about having a thick skull. Alright, your conditions are acceptable. Now lead the way. And no tricks. I'd hate to spill your blood on the doorstep to my new temple.”
I mumble, “So it's your 'temple' now, eh? Just peachy...”
“What was that?!”
“Nothing...let's just get this over with.”

As we walk towards the large door with the bedazzling light, I ask, “So what did he promise you guys? That you would stab all of mankind into the collective back?”
Natalia is the first to respond, “I grew up in a country torn by war, intrigue and torment. He can stop all of that, thus I follow him, so future generations don't have to suffer the same I did.”

The others all say similar things, how they just want the Manifest to disappear from the night.
I try to argue that the Manifest won't be 'disappearing', but much rather just dance to a new music, but all I'm getting is a hit against my helmet from Natalia's gun barrel with the sharp warning, “The next one takes the helmet off, just so you know.”
“Yeah, yeah...I get it,” I complain.

As we walk through the door, the light vanishes and reveals that the orb is a floating capsule of some sort, which has room for maybe two or three people. The capsule opens a narrow space, akin to a door, as if to invite us in.
“...it says to get in there,” I remark, pointing at the capsule.
“No shit, Sherlock. And you really had to talk to the great dreamer to know that?” Natalia asks, poking me with her gun barrel once more.
Marty insists, “You go first.”
“Really? You're not afraid that I'll just close the door on you and take off?”
“...good point. Natalia, you go first.”
“With pleasure, Sir,” Natalia salutes slightly, while I curse myself for my big mouth.
After Natalia, Marty and I embark, the door closes by itself and the capsule begins floating upwards toward an unknown destination.

As we travel, I look down to the other people left behind and ask, “What'll happen to them?”
“They'll go back to the shuttle and return to Earth, obviously.”
“And what about us? How are we going to get back down?”
“I think, I should be able to arrange that, once I've become a God, don't you think?”
I switch to a private channel to Natalia and say, “You are aware that he's going to kill us both, right? Why do you follow him, despite knowing that?”
“He won't hurt me.”
“Why not? He sure had no qualms getting Mary killed.”
“Because, unlike that bitch, he loves me.”
“Oh really? Pray tell me...what use does a God have for things like 'love'?”
Natalia doesn't respond and I think, 'Please don't be completely blind...'

After the capsule comes to rest on another platform, the door opens again, allowing us to disembark into yet another long winding floor, at which end another large door stands, which slowly creaks open as we approach.
In the distance, we can see another capsule embedded into the wall, overseeing the entire room.
“Is that...” I begin to ask, when thousands of pictures flood my mind once again. Memories of me standing here before, however they're gone again so fast, that I cannot hold on to any of them.
“Hey. Get a move on. Your task awaits, Mr. Chosen One,” Natalia 'encourages' me to keep moving.

As we slowly proceed into the room, a strong sense of deja-vu rises within me, as if I've stood in this exact spot before and it gets hard to move on, despite Natalia's best efforts to keep me going.

Eventually she shoves me a few steps forward, groaning, “Move, or so God help me, I will end you here right on the spot!”
“Natalia, please. This is a momentous occasion. Let's not defile it with needless bloodshed.”
Natalia grumbles something, however just before we pass the threshold, she asks, “Hey Marty?”
“Yes, what is it?”
“You're going to become the next 'great dreamer', right?”
“Yes, that's right.”
“So...will I ever see you again?”
“Of course you will. I will be everywhere, in every last creature that walks the Earth.”
“Yeah, well, but...you know, what we talked about earlier...starting a family and all that...”
“I will make it happen. You won't have to worry about anything. Never again.”

He then proceeds towards the elevated capsule, while Natalia stands back. I switch to the private channel again and ask, “And will that make you happy? You say you love him and I have no problem believing that, but once he enters that capsule, you'll never see him again...if he lets you live that is, I'm really not that sure about that, actually.”
I notice how Natalia's fist cramps ever so slightly as she asks, “Marty, can't you just...you know, materialize yourself and be with me or something?”

Marty doesn't even respond any more, completely caught up in his dreams and ambitions.
I ask, still trying to figure out a way out of this mess, “Do you see it now? He doesn't really care about you. All he wants is the power of the Manifest and you and I are just means to an end.”
Natalia hurls around and yells, yanking up her rifle, “You're lying!”

I raise my hands instinctively at the imminent threat, when Marty finally reacts and says sharply, “Don't let him get into your head, Natalia. And don't shoot him either. At least wait 5 more minutes until he has woken up the great dreamer. Think you can do this for me, darling?”

I close my eyes, formulating a plan of attack and eventually decide on a daring plan, which relies on Natalia being shaken enough to not shoot me the instance I make my move.

I step forward and demand, “Okay, I'm going to do that now...please step back, I need some space.”
Marty smiles. I just know he smiles, even if I can't see his face. He has that smug smile I've always hated on his face and steps back, standing next to Natalia.

I raise my hands theatrically and shout, “Oh great dreamer, it is time for you to wake from your slumber. Awaken and let us look your glory.”
But nothing happens. I didn't expect anything the happen either. However I pretend to be listening to voice of the Manifest, before muttering, “Are you serious? ...fine, fine, I'll do it.”
I fall to my knees and assume a praying stance, accompanied by frantic laughter from Marty.

I bark, “Shut up, I'm trying to focus here!” while putting my plan into motion.
I close my eyes and try to call up the image of the stasis grenade from my memory.
After I have a good handle on it, I project the image into my cupped hands, raised to an offering position. As I feel the familiar weight in my hand, I close my hands again and get up to a stand again, carefully priming the grenade with a flick of my finger.

I close my hand around it and move both of my hands to my back, looking up to the ceiling, sending a small prayer up, before flicking the wrist of my hand towards the other two, count to three and then pull the trigger.
My surroundings get illuminated with the stasis particles and I carefully turn around to take a look at what my manifestation of a stasis grenade did and I really have to stop myself from laughing out loud at the picture before me.

Apparently both Marty as well as Natalia had switched to private channels and when the grenade hit, Natalia was just putting her finger on Marty's chest, whose facial expression was a mixture between annoyed, angry and bored.
I was worried for nothing, they were so preoccupied with each other, I probably could have summoned an assault rifle and mowed the two of them down without them reacting.

Still, the hardest part was yet ahead of me.
I turn back to the capsule and ask, “Okay...now how do I really wake you up?”
“Call the name of the dreamer and they shall wake,” the voice replies in a matter of fact manner.
“And...what is the name of the dreamer?”
“I cannot tell you.”
“What, you really gonna pull the Rumpelstiltskin on me here?! Those two guys aren't going to stay frozen forever and when the wake up, they're not going to be happy!”
“I cannot tell you, because I do not know. Only the dreamer knows.”
“Okay, so how did the 'chosen ones' of the past do it?”
Silence. Of all the times for the Manifest to shut up, it chose now.

I close my eyes and try to think. I try to figure out the answer to my own question.
How did the other 'chosen ones' do it, if only the dreamer knows their name.
The first thing that comes to mind is, that they knew the dreamer from before they became the dreamer in the first place and that's how they knew the name. That's really the only way they could possibly know the name of the great dreamer, unless it was passed down to them by others in legend and lore.
But does that mean, that the dreamer, the entity, which has put the entire world into a stranglehold of nightly terrors, the creature, which has banished us to walk in the night and sleep during the day, could actually be a human? If so, why? Why would the dreamer do something this cruel to their own brethren?

As I mull over the question, another thought passes by.
'Dreamer'. A dreamer dreams. The very name implies, that the dreamer is asleep and is dreaming. And, save lucid dreaming, where the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming, they have no control about what happens in the dream. The entire dilemma we have found ourselves in may well stem from the best intentions, but warped and distorted by the dream that was born from it.

“Find peace of your own accord, or go down in flames,” I whisper the prophecy of the aliens from all those years ago and I begin to understand.
The dreamer never meant to terrorize us. The dreamer never meant to banish us to the night. They never meant for any of this to happen. All they wanted, was to bring peace to the world, much like what Marty supposedly was trying to do.
It was an innocent wish, a wish so pure, that only a child could have spoken it without any ulterior motives or a 'great idea' on how to achieve it.

I open my eyes together, as something in my mind clicks and the cogs begin revolving at an alarming speed, putting information together, making connections where I never thought any of them possible and all of these information, all of these connections lead me to another possibility on how the chosen ones of the past could possibly have known the name of the great dreamer.
Because the great dreamers themselves have walked the planet the Manifest moon is looming over. They have walked the Earth and possibly met 'the chosen ones' and given them their name.
No, even more so, this encounter may well have been what put the 'chosen' into 'the chosen ones'.

I keep following the string of thought, browsing through my still somewhat hazy memory, looking for the beginning of the strange abilities, looking for where I first realized them.
I go back, month by month, year by year until more than an entire decade has passed before my minds eye and I am back in that strange basement below the game shop.
The words of the man echo in my ears, “Are you sure it wasn't just your imagination...”

A memory so powerful, that not even the memory plug could erase it.
I remember, that shortly after that, I summoned my first Manifest and it was bigger and stronger than the Manifests of everyone else. We picked up the fight and I took down enemy after enemy, not stopping for anyone, stomping tanks and enemy Manifests alike.
But that's not all. Because that was also the time, when I felt myself to be connected to this mysterious redhead. Up until now I thought it to be infatuation, but it was more.

I look at the HUD and while I was thinking, the oxygen levels of my surroundings have changed to a livable atmosphere.

I take off my helmet and breathe in the fresh air the Manifest has supplied me with before yelling at the top of my lungs, “Wake up, Illiya!” before adding at a significantly lower voice, “Please, let's go home...”

The entire room begins shaking and rumbling and I hurry to put my helmet back on in case the Oxygen should vanish again just like it came, but after a few seconds, the rumbling stops.
Instead, the firmly embedded capsule now slowly floats to the ground until I can finally look inside. I recognize Illiya immediately of course, however she is far older than she should have been, probably 50-60 years old.
Maybe the Manifestation I met in town that day, was her in younger days, maybe being the great dreamer makes you age faster, maybe it is something completely different.

I don't know. And I don't care either. However as the capsule opens, I simply heave her out as she still sleeps soundly. I carefully lay her to the ground, when a mechanical voice I have never heard before suddenly echoes through my head, “Take your pick, chosen one. Enter the capsule or flee.”

I look back at the fighting Marty and Natalia and then down to the still sleeping Illiya.
I consider just taking her and run. Hope to somehow make it back to the shuttle and take her back to Earth. But that won't do. I don't know if the information I got earlier was just a bluff or not, but I cannot risk it. I cannot allow all of these people to die.

This is why I take off my helmet again, climb out of my sweaty suit and lie down in the capsule.
As it closes, a great weariness comes over me and right before I drift into dreamland, the voice from before asks me, “What is it, you wish for, great dreamer?”
I mumble, “An end...to the nightmares...” and then drift into utter blackness.