Freedom Card - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Control Your Dream, Control The World

“Ah, I've been waiting for you.”
The voice sounded hollow and echoed a lot. He looked around. It was almost as if he was inside a rainbow-colored ball. There were colors everywhere. And in front of him stood someone very familiar: Caylos! It only took him two seconds to realize that something wasn't quite alright here.
“But... I'm Caylos, right? What am I doing there?! Besides, that Caylos looks a little different. Like... older.”
He looked at himself to ascertain that he was, indeed, Caylos, which was confirmed.
“Strange... very strange... wait, could this be... a dream? A dream, yeah! This must be a dream.”
“So... could you hand it to me?” The older Caylos asked.
“Hand what to you?” The younger one replied.
“A picture... it's supposed to be in your right pocket.”
“Right pocket? A picture? He never put a picture there, didn't he? Then again, this was a dream. So maybe that other Caylos was right.”
He reached into his right pocket and indeed, he felt something like a small sheet of paper in his pocket. He pulled it out of his pocket and admired it for a bit. It looked like it was new and gleamed in the light. Where that light came from, in this rainbowy space, Caylos didn't know. What was on it, surprised him for a bit. It was a picture of Xyle's Hand, including himself... and two people he didn't recognize. Were they people Xyle once knew? Caylos could only guess. He held it up for the older Caylos to see.
“You mean this?”
“Yes, that's what I meant.”
The younger Caylos turned the picture around again to look at it again and especially the two persons he didn't know. One was a girl with long, black hair and a slight blush on her cheeks. Maybe she had something for the one that took the picture, he guessed. The other one had black skin and look cheerfully at the camera, with one hand raised, waving. His clothes looked strange. Almost out of this world.
“Does textile like that really exist? I've never seen this before!”
But then he realized.
“In the first place, this dream doesn't make sense, so I guess this passes as possible too in a dream.”
When the Younger Caylos raised his head from the picture, he looked straight into the face of the other Caylos, whom had walked up to him. He held up his hand and Younger Caylos laid the picture in the other's hands. Next, Older Caylos started to admire the picture as well.
“Man, I miss them. Especially you,” he said as he moved his hand over the surface of the picture.”
“Why do you miss them?” Younger Caylos asked.
“Wait, why did I ask that? It's like I'm doing things before my brain can decide whether to actually do it or not. It's like I'm not leading this conversation, but someone else inside me is.”
“Because it's been such a long time since I last saw them. And aside from that, I won't tell you anything else.”
Older Caylos laid his hand on Younger Caylos' head.
“You have a long and difficult road in front of you, but you'll make it.”
“What do you mean by  that?” Younger Caylos asked, while Older Caylos turned around and started walking away.
“See ya!” he said, before he suddenly seemed to walk through the rainbow-colored space.
“WAIT!” Younger Caylos yelled.

The next moment, he opened his eyes and realized he was in his bed, with his right arm stretched out into the air. He moved it to his forehead.
“Man, that was a crazy dream. An older me and a picture.”
That's when he realized something.
“Wait, what's a picture? I never heard of something called “a picture”. Not as an object like that. So strange, this all!”
Suddenly, a note appeared into his field of vision, saying:
“Are you awake?”
Caylos turned his head sideways and saw Lepodes laying in his bed, his face turned upwards. Strangely enough, he was wearing his glasses.
“Yeah, I'm awake. What about you? Why are you awake?”
Lepodes retracted his hand, grabbed a pen from out of nowhere and started writing on his noteblock again, still in the same position, which made it look slightly strange.
“I never sleep. I rest,” it read after Lepodes had shown it to him.
“Oh, I see...”
“Weird.”
“Don't mind if I turn around one more time to catch some more sleep,” Caylos said.
The next note read “I don't mind” and Caylos turned around and fell asleep shortly after. He wouldn't be sleeping much more, though. The night was still young and a lot was about to happen.

And it all started fifteen minutes later when their darkened room was opened and a stream of light flowed into the room, waking Caylos. Caylos identified the person standing in the door opening as Qualoppe.
“Come, put your clothes on, Dergez and Xyle are waiting!”
Within seconds, Caylos had all his clothes on again. Lepodes had never unclothed when they'd gone to bed, so he was ready right away. And Caylos couldn't find any fault in that. In fact, it was actually pretty wise, because they KNEW that they would eventually been woken up unexpectedly and had to move out quickly.
“Is Yigixo in Dicarpio?” Caylos asked.
“Not yet,” Qualoppe answered, “Are you ready yet?”
“Almost,” Caylos replied, laying a knot in his second shoe, “Done!”
He stood up and ran at the door. Lepodes had already exited the room.
“Where to?”
“Outside. Xyle is waiting for us at the church. Dergez, Herene and Mini are waiting for us outside the hotel.
“Slowpokes!” Herene scolded them as they finally exited the hotel.
“Blame the newbie.”
“HEY! I HAVE A NAME!”
“Oh, Caylos?”
“We have no time to talk. Let's go,” Dergez said.
Dergez quickly lead them to the slightly from the town secluded church. From afar, they saw Xyle sitting at the gate in a relaxed state. Next to him laid a nicely tied-up lady.
“Let me introduce you to Mohawk here. She's one of our target's henchmen.” he said to his Hand when they had arrived. Caylos looked at the woman, whom had ropes around her arms, legs and had a piece of cloth covering her mouth, so she couldn't call for help. Her expression looked especially angry and she tried to get free from her binds, to no avail, since Xyle was excellent at tying people up. As Xyle introduced her, she muffled something which, obviously, nobody understood.
“Pay no attention to her. She likes being tied up too, so there's no reason to worry for her too.”
The woman started visciously “mmm-mm'ing” at a angry tone, but Xyle continued nonetheless.
“Let's go somewhere else. This is not a place to interrogate someone,” Xyle proposed. No-one protested. Xyle stood up.
“Herene, you carry Mokawa.”
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere secluded. Somewhere no-one can see us. There's a lot of trees in that forest over there. Let's go there and ask her a few questions.”

“You're walking really stiff,” Herene commented after ten meters.
“Dang woman paralyzed me with a poisoned needle. Was in a pinch until she removed my rings. Stupidest thing she could do.”
Herene snickered.
“Sounds like a deus ex machina!”
“I thought so as well,” Xyle said enthusiastically.
Megane grumbled for a few seconds.
“In any case, are you sure she's from Yigixo's band of merry men?”
“No,” was Xyle's answer.
“Huh?”
“I'm not completely sure she is one of Yigixo's henchmen, but I suspect she is. I think she was sent here to see whether this town had any interesting magical weapons. After that, I think she would've gone back to Yigixo, reported everything, which would have lead Yigixo to destroy the town. Why he feels such a strong desire to destroy everything after he steals magical weapons, I don't know. It's possible it's a lame reason like “I like to destroy things”. He sounds like an idiot.”
“No, that's just how you picture him in your thoughts,” Herene commented.
“Though I wouldn't be surprised,” she said with an almost muffled voice as she turned her head downwards. An angry and saddened expression decorated her face for a few seconds. Just then, they reached the first few trees and everyone had to look out not to trip over branches or trees' roots that were hard to distinguish in the dark.
“I wish there was a little more moon,” Qualoppe said, as he moved away a branch in front of his face. As soon as he let it go, it lashed back, right into Herene's face.
“HEY! Watch out! That hurt!” she yelled.
“Glad to hear that,” Qualoppe said, with a chuckle right after it.
“I swear, I'll kill you one day.”
“HA! Don't make me laugh.”
“You better start thinking about what color you want your gravestone to be! You're really pissing me off right now!”
“Oooooooooh, scaaaaryyyyyyyyy!” Qualoppe teased, before starting to laugh.
“Xyle, can I punch him?”
“Sure,” was Xyle's immediate reply.
“Wait, Xyle, wha-”
“Thank you very much, Xyle. Caylos, take care of Mohawk. I have a nose to flatten right now,” she said as she let Megane slide of her back. A devilish aura seemed to envelop her as she cracked her knuckles.
“NOOOOOOOO!” Qualoppe yelled, as he started running away from her.
“Come here! You're not talking very smoothly now, aren't ya?” she yelled, chasing after her prey. She'd just said that, when she suddenly felt her right foot catch a branch, lying on the ground, camouflaged by both the darkness covering the forest and the dark leaves on the ground. She landed face-first into the fresh, wet forest-ground, with a by leaves muffled yell.
“And that's why you shouldn't run in forests when it's dark,” Xyle said as he passed her.
“Xyle, I'll kill you as well one day!”
In reaction to that, Xyle started laughing.
“I wonder where that Qualoppe went.”
They walked another ten meters, when Qualoppe suddenly appeared in front of them.
“There I am again.”
He turned to Herene, as he started walking again.
“Have you calmed down?”
“I'm always calm,” Herene replied, “more importantly, what took you so long?”
Herene grinned.
“Could it be... did you trip as well?”
“T-trip?! No way! I'd never do something as lame as that.”
“Oh, don't deny it. Even geniuses like you can make a mistake now and then.”
“As I said... wait... what did you just say?”
“That even geniuses like you-”
“No, before that.”
“That you tripped?” Herene asked.
“...as well.” Qualoppe added.
Herene immediately realized her mistake; Qualoppe smiled.
“Hoooooh? So you tripped, huh? Suits you,” he said, before he started laughing.
“Shut up!” Herene yelled, embarrassed, “It's not like you didn't fall!”
“Unlike you, I never fell,” Qualoppe said, feeling superior over Herene for once.
“Then what's your face all wet for?”
Qualoppe laid his hand over his face and concluded that his face was indeed wet and that the small amount moonlight breaking through the forest shone on his wet forehead.
“T-That's not water! That's sweat!” Qualoppe quickly countered, “Yeah, sweat! That's it!”
“That's an awful lot of sweat for just a few seconds of running,” Herene said, trying to catch him in his own game.
“You know my physical condition isn't used to running away from punch-happy girls.”
“I could change that for you,” Herene said, smiling
“No thanks,” was Qualoppe's quick reply.
“He-Herene! C-Could you take her over? She's heavy!” Caylos, whom was carrying Megane, said. At the mention of “heavy”, Megane began “mmm-mm'ing” angrily and tried to kick Caylos legs with her own tied-together legs. She succeeded, though that made Caylos lose his balance and both fell backwards, Caylos on top of Megane, which made Megane “mmm-mm” only more and she tried to get the heavy Caylos of her. She didn't need to wait long, as Caylos immediatelly removed himself from Megane.
“I'm sorry,” Caylos immediately apologized.
“What are you apologizing for, you idiot!” Herene scolded Caylos as she approached the two, “we're enemies and on top of that, she kicked you. Kick her back, if anything. I'll carry her for you again.”
“Not needed, Xyle's voice sounded.
“This distance will be sufficient. Caylos, remove the cloth covering Medina's mouth so we can talk with her.
“Okay,” Caylos said, as he reached for the knot keeping the cloth tied around her head. As he untied it, he noticed how Megane was glaring at him with a big amount of killing intent visible in her eyes. The cloth was only barely removed when she started ranting at full volume.
“FIRST OF ALL, MY NAME IS NOT MEDINA, MOHINA OR MOHAWK! IT'S MEGANE! SECONDLY THE NEXT TIME YOU CALL ME HEAVY, I WILL BITE YOU TO DEATH!”
She inhaled for a next rant, but it changed into a coughing fit instead.
“Oh, it was Megane. Sorry, we mixed up the name a bit,” Xyle replied.
“A BIT!” Megane yelled, “How did you get from Megane to Medina!? YOU IDIOTS! UNTIE ME THIS INSTANT! THIS IS NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY!”
“And a lady usually doesn't shout like that,” Xyle replied.
“You're pretty conceited for a kidnapper. Just for your information, but of no worth to you, so you better let me go!”
“Ah, but that doesn't work this time, m'lady,” Xyle said, as he bent his head towards hers. She'd been helped to sit against a tree as they were talking, “we're not interested in money and even if I were, I would never kidnap a tomboy like you.”
“I AM NOT A TOMBOY! And if you aren't interested in money, then why have you kidnapped me?”
“Dear lady, you've been using the wrong term all this time,” Xyle said, “You're not a kidnapped woman right now.”
He bent even closer to her face.
“You're a prisoner of war.”
“W-war!? What the heck are you talking about?!”
Xyle moved out of his bent shape.
“Exactly what I'm telling you. You know something called Yigixo, right?”
Clearly readable from her face was the realization of what this weird group was really after. But only for a few seconds.
“I have no idea who that is.”
A smile covered Xyle's face. The rest of the group knew Xyle was playing a game of chess with Megane. And Megane was losing, even though she didn't even know that herself.
“I see, I see... So you don't know... incidentally, where do you live?”
That was a pretty tricky question. She had basically two kinds of answers. She either lived in Dicarpio or she came from somewhere else. Taking the first option, she would take a huge risk. Dicarpio was a close community. Everyone knew everyone. There were no strangers in the community. If this group happened to be from Dicarpio, then saying that she was from Dicarpio would be an obvious lie. But if they weren't from Dicarpio, then she was pretty safe. Then again, regardless of whether they were actually denizens of Dicarpio, they would claim to be anyways, if she would give that answer, so she looked at her other option.
Saying that she was from outside Dicarpio was vague and wouldn't be a denial to her affiliation to Yigixo. It actually made the possibility greater if she claimed that. But that's still a possibility. She could keep claiming that she didn't know of a man called Yigixo. It was an easy decision.
“No, this is my first time in Dicarpio,” Megane answered.
Xyle smiled.
“So she went for the long route.”
“Hmm... and where do you come from? Where were you born? And how did you end up here?”
“Why should I tell you that?! What do you have to do with personal information like that!?” she yelled, trying to get away from the question.
Xyle bent his body right back at Megane.
“I think you don't really understand your position, Megane. You are a prisoner. You have no right of protesting here! All you have to do is simply answer the questions!” Xyle spoke to her in a threatening voice.”
That slightly intimidated Megane and she didn't have any words to counter him.
“Then, should I repeat my questions? Where were you born? And why are you here?”
“I was born in Segalia and came here because I like adventure. I've traveled all around the globe.”
Those weren't lies. She really came from Segalia and only recently joined Yigixo's group, before that, she'd travelled the globe.”
“Hmm, I see... Segalia, huh? Interesting. So... what were you doing in the church?”
There was only one answer that wouldn't sound suspicious.
“I... I was praying.”
That put Xyle to laughter.
“I think I saw you and your partner doing something completely different. Who was that partner anyways? A friend of yours? Also an adventurous soul from Segalia that just so happened to come praying in the very same church as well?”
And that's when Megane got a very good idea.
“What partner? Who are you talking about?”
He can't prove that I had a partner. After all, if he's not here, he probably esca-”
“Now, now... don't be rude to the dead.”
Shock suddenly covered her face.
“What do you mean!?” she hastily inquired.
“Ooooh? You're suddenly very interested in this non-existant partner of yours. Sadly enough, I have to announce you that he's not among the living anymore. I had to bury him in the church. It was such a mess too.”
Megane had an angry expression adorning her face.
“Now, don't look so angry at me! I wasn't the one who killed him! It was him.”
Xyle pointed at Dergez with his thumb. Megane only quickly shifted her eyes sideways at Dergez, before returning them to Xyle.
“You dirty...”
“Now, don't start scolding us! I thought he never existed. Or did he exist after all?”
Xyle bent forward again with a smiling face, which made Megane only angrier.
“You won't live for much longer if you try to go up against Yigixo. He won't forgive you for kidnapping me and killing Kenton! Never!”
“Ah, a confession. Just as planned. So, we're at the main event now. My dear lady, could you please tell me where Yigixo is right now?” he said, still bent forwards, almost right in front of her face.
What Megane did next was rather unexpected. She spit him right into his face.
“Die!” she said right afterwards.
Xyle didn't move for a few seconds and let the spit drip from his face onto the women's chest. He then moved his hand to his face and wiped her spit of his face, moved his head backwards a little and admired his wet hand for a bit.
“Hmm... so you want to play this game a little dirtier?”
His voice had changed a little. The playful tone had partially taken place for a dangerous undertone in his voice. He shook his hand for a bit to get the spit of and wiped the last bit off on his own pants.
“Let me warn you. I am very good at playing dirty games, y'know. I've never lost before.”
He shifted his eyes a little downwards, towards her hands, which were tied together in front of her. He picked them both up and looked at them for a bit.
“Ten. Ten chances.”
“Wait, what did he mean with that?”
“I'll ask you again: where is Yigixo?”
“I... I can't tell you.”
“Really?” he asked as he picked out the pinky of her left hand and brought it to his mouth.
“What's he going to do?!”
“Really,” she replied.
He slowly brought her little pinky to his mouth.
“He's not going to do it! He's not going to do it! He's just bluffing! He's not going to do it!”

…

“HE'S GOING TO DO IT!”
“WAIT, I'LL TE-”
But it was too late. A loud womanly shriek sounded through the forest as Xyle suddenly moved her little pinky into his mouth, bit and then moved his head abruptly to the right, effectively breaking and dislocating her little pinky at her knuckle. Xyle released the pinky of her teeth and it slowly slid out of his mouth and started dangling from the knuckle-joint with only the muscles and the sking connecting the pinky to her main body. Megane gave a few more shrieks.
“One chance spilled,” Xyle said as he now took her ring finger and held it in front of his mouth.
“NO! No, please! I'll tell! Please don't do that again!”
“Then will you tell us the location of Yigixo?”
Megane nodded, as tears streamed down her face from the immense pain.
“Good.”