…
Chester knocked on the door twice, and then after a pause, three more times. It took a while for anyone to gain courage to answer, as evidenced by the shuffling and loud whispers that came behind the door. Soon enough, it was opened by, predictably, Lily, who at first peeked through the initial gap. After confirming who it was, she swung the door open, unveiling the rest of the orphans right behind her.
“You’re back!” she exclaimed, with the rest of the kids yelling in celebration.
They encircled around Chester, except for his back, tugging and pulling on him out of excitement. There were loads of questions being pelted at the hedgehog, like, “Did you get rid of the clown?”, and “Was it scary?”, and “Did something crash?”, and “Did you shoot laserbeams like Vicky and Roboties?”, and “Can you make more sandwiches?”, and more. Chester felt a little overwhelmed by such large amount of attention he was getting. 
“Alright, rugrats, calm down!” He tried to push them back into place. It took him a bit of an effort, but it seemed as if they were responding to him positively. For a moment, Chester felt like they were looking at him the same way they did the TV. “Okay, uh, you guys had lunch?”
The kids, now huddled and quiet, checked on each other to see if they have. Charlotte raised her hand.
“I ate Gavin’s and Bobby’s,” the young crocodile explained. “Can you make two for them, and one more for me, please?”
“Really?” Chester saw Gavin promptly nod his head, then rolled his eyes. “Well, I guess I now know why Miss Cheshire makes you drink the cabbage soup.”
“Ew, no! I don’t want soup!” Charlotte exclaimed. “Can I just have the sandwich, please, Chester?”
The hedgehog furrowed his brows, then scratched the top of his head. His needles weren’t making him itchy, but he felt funny.
“Hey, where is Bobby?” he asked, glancing over them to the bedroom. “Where’s that klutz went off to.”
“I’m here!” Chester turned around, and then finally noticed the puddle of water on the floor. It came from under the bathroom door, a fact that made all of the tykes around him groan in disgust. He himself didn’t bother asking for further questions, and just motioned others to go with him. When Bobby tried to explain, he just said, 
“Wait here, and don’t move.”
“Okay! No problem!”
He followed down the stairs, with the rest of the orphans dutifully following right behind him. Chester for a moment thought that they were making fun of him. Who knows what these little boogers might do, he thought. But then again, he didn’t exactly mind that either. He was getting a warm feeling of accomplishment from that. Like, it was a sense that everything was exactly, fairly as they should be. A sense of justice over what just transpired. A sense of his work being done, and everyone acting proud of it. And he wasn’t exactly finished either, though. He still needed to check up on Miss Cheshire. He should talk to Fotia too, whenever he'll gets the chance. Maybe even probe him again about Mister Mouton. Last time he tried, the spirit got tongue-tied, and said some sort of riddle involving a two-way river, or something. 
There were still things to do. And yet, he’s been getting that sense of satisfaction already. That these boogers will be safe while he was away. That the old hag won’t be bothered anymore for the rest of her short life she had on this earth. That the rest of the town, and everyone in it like Miss Elefantus, Russel and Mister Bearson, stupid Mandy and her cohorts, Officer O’Hare, Missis Goodwill, Aunt Cheshire, and especially Barbie’s mother, will all be safe. No more monsters, for a while at least. Destruction of the lair, the destruction of the clown, and with it, nothing particularly awful to happen to the few good people who were still living in this small piece of earth. 
It was satisfying feeling, yet also, saddening. Chester wasn’t exactly sure why he was getting weird about this. He was finally about to leave this town, leave it for real, like he always wanted to. But the feeling that he just couldn’t do that yet, not unless he was done, wouldn’t leave his mind. 
“Probably nothing,” he whispered to himself, just as he was reaching the bottom of the stairs. 
And then he saw his spirit, standing in the living room. A cold shiver down his spikes made them all stand up. The kids even took a step back.
“What’s going on?” Chester asked the blue spirit.
Azure didn’t have time to say anything, when a yell, mixed with honks, emerged from within the room. This was definitely Matthew. And then…
“OI-HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!!!”
“Are you kidding me!!!”
…
“Okay, here we go…on the count of three,” Flora then took a deep breath. She was getting sleepier by the second. “One,”
“Wait, you started now or before?”
“…Barbie…” Flora groaned. 
“I’m sorry, I thought you mean before, so I got ready, then I got confused and…”
“THREE!”
Barbie gave a yelp, understanding the prompt. Flora closed her eyes, feeling her body getting sucked right into her own mind, becoming once again heavy and loose. She entered into darkness, a cold one thanks to the air outside, with an accompaniment of wandering musings.  
This was all part of the plan, believe it or not. As it should be, Tom and Kage would enter deep sleep themselves, leaving only Barbie to be awake. Up until this point, the monster could only put one of them asleep. Thus, their plan involved was to purposefully enter the same dreamscape again, like Flora did last time when Barbie was out, only this time, leave the latter up instead of Tom. For this plan to work, the two would have to be off for a long while, which was easy to do for each of them thanks to both Rose and Kage. Meanwhile, Barbie would use her powers to free them, because as Tom witnessed, the monster’s power became weaker the more people entered the dreamscape.
Flora’s mind, thus, had returned back into her dreams. And since she was getting quite sick of them, her latest dream ended up reflecting that too. Neither her mother nor her father were there. Instead, only her, within the same confines of her bedroom she would always come back to. Whether it was the bedroom from her life in the city or from the Valor Valley did not matter at all, since it barely changed. Same pink walls, same table with her mirror near her bed, same study desks with multiple books that were barely touched, plus magazines and thrown around devices. Same dolls scattered around her frilly bed, same green and pink rug under her feet, same bunch of posters of her favorite bands on the wall. None of these were different, just like she liked it. And for the moment, she felt like returning back to doing her favorite activity, which she does for every time she was here, playing on her phone. 
“You return to here in your interim?”
Flora sighed. “Sometimes, I guess. Maybe I got used to staying in my room all the time. It sucks.” She looked over to her study desk. “Hey, I thought you’d be too tired to do that? Shouldn’t you rest?”
“I have not replaced you this time, if it is that what you are referring to.” Rose smiled and then lightly spun herself on the office chair. She always found these amusing, to which Flora came to barely pay attention to. “Are you, by chance, still unquiet over…that?”
“Seriously though, I still can’t believe I let that one thing out of my sight,” Flora groaned, throwing her back right into her bed. It was unsatisfyingly not soft when she landed on it. Probably because it was a dream.
“You could not have known what happened to your mother, Flora.”
“But like, it was SO suspicious this happened!” Flora huffed, choosing to instead get up on her feet. “Seriously, I am taking the role of a leader, and the first thing I learn, was that I messed up already! Can you imagine!? I will NEVER be able to do anything right in my life!”
“The point of mistakes is to be taught, not to be dwelled on,” Rose tried to calm her down. “Even so, you have only recently accepted the role of the ‘leader’, let us not forget. While a serious show of passion is truly welcome, I think so at least, there is still more room for you to grow.”
“Yeah, guess so,” Flora replied flatly. She whipped out her phone, just to try and distract herself. “Guess I can learn about making better plans about taking down a super-fast Torque who puts people into dream prisons. Gee, what a solid plan that was…”
She could feel Rose sigh beneath her breath.
Flora kept swiping her phone down, then groaned. As expected of a phone created of one’s own imagination, it was also trapped within her own thoughts, and kept flashing news articles claiming her mother’s disappearance. Just a never-ending stream of capitally titled articles, with few even making clear it was her own fault. Scrolling through this whole thing, Flora finally rolled her eyes and threw the stupid thing away. Who knew that when inside your own mind, you couldn’t leave your thoughts?
“Mayhap,” Rose suggested, leaning her head full of rosy hair on her hand, “you ought to consider channeling such frustrations, instead?”
Flora sighed again, and bit her lip a bit.
“Look, Rose…I get what you are trying to say, that I need to-“
“You will commit mistakes in the future, this is an inescapable fact, young lady,” Rose cut her off coolly. “You are far from a perfect example of a leader, and so, you must commit grievous mistakes, for you to learn from. There is no other way around this, Flora.”
Flora tried to retort, but her words came empty. Suddenly, she felt like she just got disarmed while fighting a Torque.
“I…understand your fears, and I sympathise, truly, with your desire to prove yourself worthy of such position,” Rose stood from the chair, then slowly moved towards the young deer, “but you are still novice. A talent it may be to you, a skill is not simply earned.”
“So…what do I do? Read up on leadership skills 101?” Flora asked.
“Mayhap,” Rose answered indefinitely.
The world began to shake a bit, and then gradually dim. Flora watched how her room within short amount of time turn unrecognizable. The walls peeled colors, the images of her boy bands became just a smudges, her numerous objects folded into themselves, and even the rug turned into goo. 
“Time to get out.” Flora sighed, then repeated to herself, “Varavarasha.”
She felt the spirit’s hand lay itself on her shoulder.
“You are not worth more nor less for your standing, nor for expectations of others. Simply…let yourself be who you are, Flora.” Rose then embraced the young girl in a hug. Somehow, in a realm where everything was faked by the mind, that felt warm and pleasant enough to be real. “Your friends shall follow you through it all. Do not be worried.”
“…Alright,” Flora said, after taking a breath, “I’ll try.”
-
Within the minute that Flora fell asleep, Varvara had already felt the grip of the bands on her hands, feet, stomach and neck come loose. She could even turn her neck, just a tad. This meant, doubtlessly, that the plan was working, and that now, all was left up to her. Varvara inhaled slowly, thinking of her parents one last time, then wishing Flora success, before finally turning to Zamarad, who stood at ready. 
“Let us begin,” the spirit said to her resultantly. Varvara nodded, never dropping her smile once.
Varvara and her spirit fused. The bands were now loose enough to stretch for her transformed state. They were still unbreakable, and it would still be impossible to escape from them, yet, but nothing more was needed. With that out of the way, she closed her eyes and relaxed her body. Varvara never had to enter that state of mind where you see “magic” yet, not actually willfully, so this had a tinge of excitement to it. Regardless, she relaxed herself, all the way until she saw nothing…aside from electric sparks, travelling all the way, up and down her own body. 
The whole world became nothing more than a series of sparks, of “jumps” from one energy to the other, all connected by a web-strings made of light. From herself, all the way to the sky. These “jumps” were infinite, and invisible to everyone else. But now, Varvara could see them, and she couldn’t help herself but awe at it all. 
“Think of your body as energy,” Zamarad focused her back to the task. “Forget your corporeal body, and transform it into energy itself. This is the hardest part. Are you ready?”
Varvara didn’t answer that. Rather easily, she just proceeded to do what Zamarad said to her, making her body fill up with “jumps,” more and more as time went on. It was no different than going to that dreamscape, at least for her. The energy kept clumping up, filling her insides with electric discharges, until her body started to degrade. It was odd feeling, but something that Varvara had little trouble dealing with. Her body slowly replaced by nothing, transforming into pure form of energy itself. 
She became nothing. 
She became just a bunch of atoms, very small pieces, each one of them. 
And each of them were ready to separate.
If she were not careful
But she was careful.
She had to.
When they first heard of this technique, Flora was a little bit disturbed. She asked if there was a way to return to her normal body, which Varvara was keen on to learn to. Truth be told, being turned into nothing more than small pieces of life’s building blocks had the potential of turning sour, but as Zamarad surmised, the clown was in fact probably on his way to get to Chester. The Torque was still there, so it was safe to say that the general was alive too, and with how long they spent inside that prison, there was a growing chance that the hedgehog might be in trouble. The two girls came to a conclusion that perhaps they should try it. Thankfully, Zamarad revealed that there was a simple way to get her back to normal. As long as her mind was focused on one goal, then she could perform it quickly, and then simply focus on reforming back. But if that won’t work, then…
Her body entered the table that she was strapped on. Doing so, she figured out its hand-like shape, the fact that it was hovering above the ground, and that it got connected to the back of the Toque’s body. She followed all the way until she managed to enter the Torque. Having to thin her electrical body to fit in and then follow one path made it much harder to control all of the atoms. She felt like she lost a few on the way.
Inside the monster, she could somewhat describe its form. It wasn’t big, or small. It wasn’t particularly different from any other, though she couldn’t tell what color it was. As she traveled all over its body, that enough began to hurt it. The monster moved, she felt it. She felt it wince. She kept travelling, all the way to its brain. She learned a bit more about Officer Hare, who this whole time, was afraid of his own abilities as a police officer, having to take over the precinct after the late Officer Daschund. She got to know more about his fears, his likes, his dislikes, his nervousness, which turned his mind into a storm of “jumps.” She was slowly becoming part of the monster. And that monster couldn’t handle it. It was clawing at itself, bashing its head against the nearest hard surfaces, roaring into the air. Varvara would’ve felt bad, but she was having trouble remembering how to do that.
And soon enough, the monster began to disappear.
It was just a little while longer. Soon, the monster’s power would disappear too. Just a little bit more, and small incisions came from its skin. Just another second, and its dark power leak out, intermixed with electricity, hers. She was losing more and more of her own atoms. She was making less “jumps” with her body. The monster was becoming a normal person, and that would eject her from him. But she needed just a little bit more. She couldn’t collect herself back anymore. She was losing her “body,” whatever it was beforehand.
She was about to disappear.
She needed to focus on something.
She couldn’t remember.
Remember, one important point.
Varvara had to remember. Just one important thing. Just one goal, just one memory.
And yet, nothing was coming to her. All that she was feeling are her atoms leaving.
More and more of her was leaving. More of her turned to “neutral.” 
More of her was taken. She couldn’t remember anymore.
She was becoming nothing.
She was nothing.
“Varavarasha, wake up, Tata needs strawberries.”
Varvara opened her eyes. The sky was clear and grey. The wind was cool and breezy. The ground was soggy. She blinked, thinking for a moment she saw her brother, Laska. Then he leaned in, and gave her a hug, revealing it to be Flora, who was very relieved to see her. Next to her, Tom was clutching his chest and breathing heavily, rubbing the sweat off of his forehead. Nearby them was Officer Hare, lying on his belly, unconscious. All the spirits, were standing above them, though she couldn’t see the faces. She knew, at least, that Zamarad was still shaking with fear. Flora released her from her hug, and both of them had eyes that were wet. 
Her brother was her age when she last saw him.
…