Z10

Defenders of the Earth: This Is Their Story

By Marzena

Plot: Season 2, Episode 43

Chapter 10: Dreamwalk

"How is she?" Kshin whispered, standing next to Amy in the corner of Jedda's bedroom, trying to get a good view of the bed in the corner, where Jedda Walker's body was resting on the mattress.

The other Defenders were in the room too, and they all looked worried. Phantom sat next to Jedda's bed, holding her hand, not leaving her side for even one minute. Rick was standing pretty close to the bed as well, and so was Mandrake, who had several books of magic next to him, trying to figure out a way to help Jedda to leave her nightmare.

"Please, Kshin, I need to concentrate," Mandrake replied rather sharply, flipping another page in the ancient-looking book he was holding.

"There has to be a way to get her out of this state," Phantom said, holding Jedda's hand tighter. "She's sweating. I can feel her panic rising. Whatever she's going through must be horrifying."

"It's been happening to all of us last night, but apparently, Jedda was affected most," Sheila stated, standing apart from the team as she usually did these days.

"Must be due to her empathic powers," Phantom replied. "And once whatever is controlling her had her in its power, it let the rest of us go. If only there was a way to help her to wake up. She's getting weaker by the minute, Mandrake. We have to do something!"

Indeed, Jedda was just lying there, her whole body covered in sweat. Her eyes were closed and she lay absolutely still, her face as white as a wall. And it seemed like she was losing energy by the minute. Nobody said it out loud, but they all knew if they couldn't figure out a way to help Jedda, she wouldn't survive the day.

When Kshin tugged at her sleeve, Amy turned, and he took her arm and dragged her out of Jedda's room into the empty hallway.

"You could try to save her!" he told her immediately. "I bet you'd be able to!"

She bit her lip. Yes, she'd been thinking about that, too. She'd come to like Jedda very much and she wanted her to be safe, happy and alive. But unfortunately, there was no guarantee that Amy would be able to just dreamwalk in there. For all they knew, she could only make things worse or end up in a similar state than Jedda was in. Also, she wasn't even trained properly. She wouldn't really know what to do and when to do it, and in case of an emergency, she had no training or real experience to rely upon. For the first time, she regretted not telling Mandrake about her powers. If she had, maybe he would have helped her figuring them out. And they could have worked together to save Jedda. She would have made him proud, like Jedda and April made their dads proud.

"I don't know, Kshin," she sighed. "I mean, I want to, of course I do. But I don't have experience or training, nor can I control or understand my powers. I could make things worse!"

"But Jedda's really sick! She needs your help!" Kshin exclaimed. "Mandrake's books aren't offering any help. You could at least try! You tried with Sophie!"

Sophie had been a quiet girl from Kshin's school who Kshin had wanted to help with some personal stuff. In order to find out what was going on with her, Kshin had enlisted Amy's help to invade Sophie's dreams. For the first time, Amy had managed to not only walk around in a dream but actually to take someone else – Kshin – with her. They'd tried to influence Sophie via dreamscape to face her fears, but in the end, Kshin had reached out to the girl in person. Nevertheless, this experience had made Amy want to understand her dreamwalk-power more, so she had experimented a bit with it, but not as much as she probably should have.

"But that was different," Amy tried to explain. "Sophie was just dreaming. She wasn't held in dreamworld by whatever force against her will."

"Why are you so scared?" Kshin shot back, glaring at her. "Jedda's in danger, and if I had a power to help, I would go in there and just do that! She's probably going to die, Amy!"

"You're scared, and I get that."

Suddenly, Sheila had appeared at the door, smiling at the two of them. Other than Kshin, Sheila was the only one who knew about Amy's powers, and she only had learned about them recently.

"But you see, Amy, some things are worth taking a risk."

"I really want to help her. I just don't know if I can. I might fail miserably. Maybe I end up like her, or maybe me entering her dreamscape will make things worse."

"An awful lot of maybes, don't you think?" Sheila went over to her and put an arm around the young girl's shoulders. "We're running out of options, Amy. And if you were willing to step forward and try to help out, we'd all be thankful. It doesn't matter if you fail. We all fail sometimes. You just have to do your best. Nobody will ask for more. You do your best and it will not be a failure."

"If I can't help her …"

"Then it was worth a shot. But you're the only option Jedda has left right now. And we're running out of time."

Taking a deep breath, Amy followed Sheila back into Jedda's bedroom, with Kshin right behind her. In the room, the scene hadn't changed much. Phantom still looked worried, and now Rick sat on the bed as well, while Lothar and LJ were helping Mandrake to flip through some more dusty old books.

"There's nothing in there!" LJ impatiently exclaimed, slamming one of the books shut and sending dust flying everywhere. April, who'd been standing nearby, started to cough.

"We don't really know what exactly to look for either," Lothar sighed.

"We need a way to enter Jedda's nightmare," Sheila calmly announced, pushing Amy further in the direction of Jedda's bed.

"Ah, and how are you going to do that?" Flash icily replied back. "Or is there another power you never mentioned to us?"

"Sadly, no, I'm in no position to help out here," Sheila said, avoiding his gaze as she usually did. "But someone else could try. We do have a dreamwalker in our midst, people."

"Like who?" April asked disbelievingly.

"Like me," Amy announced, holding April's surprised gaze.

Silence greeted this announcement, and Amy still kept looking at April, mostly to avoid Mandrake's looks. She didn't even want to see if he was curious, furious, stunned or if he didn't even care at all. She couldn't handle that power very well, so in the end, she'd disappoint him anyway.

"You're a dreamwalker?" Mandrake finally said, a strange tone in his voice.

"Why haven't you said so before?" Lothar wanted to know, now slamming his book shut as well.

"If you can help Jedda, you should go ahead," the Phantom demanded.

"Why didn't we know of this before?" Flash asked, but his question was directed at Sheila, not Amy. "Are you keeping secrets again, princess?"

Impatiently, Sheila shook her head. "Explanations can wait until later," she decided. "But I'm sure Amy will be able to enter Jedda's dreamscape."

"And then what?" Flash shot back. "Whatever monster is holding Jedda there might attack Amy on the spot. She's powerless in there!"

"No, I'm not."

Sick of the constant bickering between those two, Amy lifted her hand and one of the books flew through the air and crashed into the wall next to Flash, sending one of Jedda's framed pictures down the wall. Flash stood there, frozen on the spot, probably asking himself if little Amy O'Connor had really just used another unknown power on him.

"Apparently, she's not gonna be helpless," the Phantom interjected, suddenly leaving his place next to Jedda at the bed and gesturing for Amy to take the seat instead. "You go ahead, Amy. Bring my daughter back to me."

"I will," she said, but the scared look in her eyes betrayed the forced confidence in her voice.

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Article

Author

Chapters

1: Death

April and the other Gordons face a tragedy.

2: Beautiful

Mandrake is reunited with a romantic interest.

3: Peace and Quiet

Flash is thrown into an unexpected struggle.

4: Nightfall