Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Stephen's hands continue to squeeze your neck, you feel the tears running down your face.
"Please." you croak, tightly holding onto his robes.
"No mercy this time," he says, and starts squeezing harder.
You finally close your eyes and pray to all gods in existence to make this stop. "Stop this nightmare." you say, taking a deep breath as fingers on your throat loosen.
"You called, honey?" a voice says in front of you, and you open your eyes again, looking at the black mass before you. In a second it takes a human-like shape, still black, as if it was wearing a swimsuit.
"What are you? What is this?" you want to turn around, but you're seated on some sort of stone chair. The figure in front of you changes from black to green, and you finally see the features of a very pale man.
"This is my home. Well, technically it's your head but since I'm in control..." he shrugs comically and smiles, showing a row of sharp teeth. "I'm Nightmare."
"Yes, I can see what a nightmare you are," you say, struggling against the invisible force once more.
***
Strange, now carrying you towards the bedroom, hears one word from your mouth, "Nightmare." He barges into your room, startling America, who was still asleep. He hurriedly puts you on the bed and puts his hand on your forehead again. Still burning hot.
"What happened?" America asks, scrambling towards your body, weirdly straight as a chord.
"I- I don't know, she uh, she fell asleep, and then she didn't wake up, I can't wake her up. It's like she's stuck somewhere. And I think the incursion started." Stephen rambled so quickly that it took a moment for America to fully understand his words.
"Incursion? Can you fix it?" she taps your face, but quickly retracts her hand. "Oh God, she's burning."
"Get me a wet towel, run it under cold water, and I'll get her robes off," Stephen orders the girl, and she runs away. "Come on now, where are you, y/n?" he mutters, taking off the first layer of your attire.
***
"My name is Nightmare, you ungrateful brat." he spits, shooting up from his throne.
"Oh," you say to yourself and nod slightly. "I would say it's nice to meet you, but everything I've experienced wasn't nice at all."
"That's the point, right? You liked my little show?" he smiles, and it chills you to the bones.
"Liked? I-" you don't get to finish as he claps his hands loudly.
"Glad to help. You see, it was quite hard to get to you. I used to sneak up in your dreams, get to know you before the grand meeting." he begins pacing slowly in front of you.
"I'm flattered that you care so much about me. Why?" you strain a little and notice that your hands are a bit free, it becomes easier to breathe. If you're even breathing here.
"Your mind is interesting. I had to create a little scheme to, you know, wrap things up." he swings his finger in the air and laughs maniacally.
***
"Stephen, here!" America bursts into the room with a wet towel, noticing you lying on the bed with a t-shirt, and robes thrown next to you.
"Her pulse is high, it's like a fever, or something worse," Stephen says, tapping the wet towel on your face to cool you off a bit.
"Stephen, I don't think that's a medical problem," America says cautiously, afraid that in this state, Stephen might burst again.
"Nightmare..." he whispers, but then loud steps reach his ears.
"Y/n! Y/n, what did you do?" Mordo bursts into the room and notices America and Strange standing in front of the bed in defensive positions. "You. Did you see what you've done? Where is she?" Mordo steps closer to the bed and sees you lying there all sweaty and breathing heavily, hands tightly gripping the sheets. "What have you done to her?" Mordo quickly parts Strange and Chavez and slowly reaches to touch your forehead.
"She fell asleep. We both did," Strange feels a blush creeping on his cheeks. "Since then I can't wake her up. It's like she's stuck somewhere. And she keeps saying 'nightmare' from time to time."
Mordo thinks for a moment, looking at you apologetically. "She's trapped in Nightmare's World... The Dream Dimension."
"Where?" America asks loudly, meanwhile Stephen and Mordo look at each other.
"How do I get in there?" Stephen asks with a determined expression.
"You don't. She has to get out herself." Mordo falls silent for a moment, and Strange notices how he blinked out some tears. "You've caused too much trouble already. If you don't know, the incursion has started. Leave my universe before there's still something left to fix."
"No." Strange says, standing his ground. "The Sorcerer Supreme has to fix the incursion. But we have to save her now."
"How can we do that? If she's trapped in a dream?" America asks shyly, still fearing Mordo.
***
"My mind is interesting? You must be crazy then."
"I waited for your little protection spell to wear off. A smart move it was. To not let Scarlet Witch read your mind. I also know your deepest secrets, your desires and..." Nightmare falls silent for a dramatic effect. "I know that some trouble has landed upon the universe you're supposed to protect." he laughs, the whole place echoing the sound.
"Trouble?" you mutter to yourself, mind racing as fast as possible in this weird place you're trapped in.
"Yes. But don't you worry, darling, it doesn't concern you anymore."
"Like hell. Let me go! What do you even want from me?" you squirm in the stone chair, but despite your effort, nothing happens.
"I want to destroy you. Not physically though, I don't like getting my hands bloody. Hard to wash it off." Nightmare shudders mockingly. "I want to destroy your little brain, I want to break your soul. And when I break your soul, there's no reason for your body to exist."
"Nice uh, tale. But your little monologue still hasn't answered my question." you press your hands behind your back tightly, trying a couple of simple spells.
"Why you? Oh. I thought it was simple. Broken heart. Broken soul. Exciting adventure. Great powers I can take from you. Sorcerer Supreme. Even greater powers I can take from you. And, perhaps a way to control more people if you die." he counts on his fingers each thing and in the end, he has seven fingers down. "Fresh soul. Exactly what I needed."
"Why does everyone think I have great powers?" you blow the air out and hang your head, still trying to do a spell.
"Because you do. You may not have realized your full potential, but I see it. I also see how you've been trying to do a spell behind your back for the past few minutes." he says, turning his back on you, and looking at his throne.
***
"Shit," you murmur under your breath, but everyone gathered next to your bed hears this.
"She probably tried spells, but unsuccessfully. When you're trapped by the demon himself, you don't expect to have your powers with you." Mordo sighs and sneakily touches your hand on his way to standing up. The touch chills you to the core, even in the depths of your soul you feel that.
"I'm going to the library. You-" Strange points to Mordo, "hold off the incursion. And you stay with her." he points to America, who quickly nods.
"You're not the one to give orders, Strange. You're the reason all of it is happening." Mordo harshly puts his pointer finger to Strange's chest, but the latter doesn't move a muscle. "If I could turn back time, I would make sure that you two would have never stepped a foot into my universe."
"Oh, I bet if you had the Time Stone, you would have made sure every version of me was eliminated, right?" Stephen asks, watching in satisfaction how Mordo's eyes widen. "Yeah, I know about your little schemes and whereabouts. I know you despised me. Believe, the feeling's mutual. But right now we have things to do."
Mordo glaces at Stephen and America, casting one last look at you before leaving the room.
"I'll be right back. I hope. Cool her off as much as you can." Strange taps America's shoulder and quickly walks away to the library.
***
In the corner of your eye, you notice a white-headed figure wearing something similar to purple, sneaking behind one of the stones. Why in heaven this guy needed those stones here, you can't wrap your mind. Trying not to make it obvious that you're looking at the person, you direct your whole attention to the man rambling in front of you.
"I think it's time to begin our little play, right? I'm sure you're tired of sitting there, but you can't complain when you have such a great view, right?" Nightmare turns around and smiles at you. Fucking narcissist.
"You want me to be your Juliet or what?" you roll your eyes at the demon.
"As much as I love humour and Shakespeare, I'm not really fond of being Romeo. I'm more like a spider, you know. And you" he comes closer, standing full height before you. And yeah, your head is somewhere near his crotch. If he even has that sort of thing. Disgusting. You look up, him up in the eyes. "You're the silly little fly, who got trapped in my web." He touches your cheek, wiping the loose hair away from your eyes.
You wait for a harsh grip on your face, but never feel it.
"Hey there, wandought!" the person who was sneaking behind the stone shows up, and you see that it's a woman. A beautiful one. Focus y/n, focus.
Nightmare quickly turns around and notices the intruder, "Who dares to disturb me?"
"Me. Come here and fight, I can show you a good time." the woman winks and sends a blast of light purple energy towards Nightmare. He falls to the side, hiding behind another stone, whereas you feel how nothing is controlling you anymore.
"Great," you mutter and blast chaos magic towards the man, a little surprised that your powers actually work here. The woman looks at you a bit surprised but continues sending blasts at the demon.
"You can't defeat me, you pathetic witches!" Nightmare shouts, and you feel how your vision becomes darker and darker.
"No!" you shout, grabbing your head, you can't let him get in your head again, you wouldn't survive this time.
"Block your mind!" the woman shouts, appearing beside you, and you see that she's almost transparent. You shake your head and notice that it's not really her, but one of the illusions of her. Smart.
Taking a deep breath, you close your eyes and think about all the nice things you've experienced, imagining a literal wall protecting your mind. In a moment, you feel a strange feeling leave your body, your mind has never been clearer.
"Now it would be a good time to help!" the woman shouts, fighting directly with Nightmare. You see him struggling to hold off and without hesitating to help a stranger, who literally saved your life.
"Bolts of Balthakk!" you shout and golden bolts of lightning appear, mixed with purple faltine magic, they manage to put Nightmare to his knees. You send a final blow - Chains of Krakkan and everything falls silent. Nightmare looks at the two of you, straining against the magical chains.
"Pretty good job there." the woman says, catching her breath and you see her hand in front of you. "Clea." she smiles, and you notice her perfect eyeliner that emphasizes her eye colour.
"Y/n. Where did you come from?" you ask, shaking her hand, she's got a strong grip.
"I can sort of travel through dimensions. But I wanted to get that bastard. Lucky for you, y/n, I came here on time. Now, I think you should come back to your universe. And who knows, maybe we'll meet again." she smiles, and you feel like someone is pulling you from the place, sucking your soul back into your body.
You wake up with a loud gasp, taking as much air as possible in one intake, that scares the hell out of America and Strange, who was ready to perform a spell. "Holy shit." is all you can say.