Cylus 25th 720
Like most nights spent in the lingering dark of his cell, Patrick had little to no trouble drifting off to sleep anymore. If anything he expected that by what should've been morning time, for Cylus anyway, he'd be wide awake and moderately sore from the firm mattress he laid on. Except when he slipt away into that empty slumber, he felt something tug at him the deeper his weariness settled within. Exhaustion he understood because that was a given every Trial, but this was a different sort of weariness; the kind which implied one falling into an actual state of mental sleep. Which meant...
As he felt himself drift deeper within he felt lost, fallen inside what felt like an enormous void of space. Yet his feet touched ground after what felt like an eternity, implying that wherever he'd sunken to had some means of footing. As his heavy eyelids came to a slow open his senses shortly became aware, a sign which implied he had yet again fallen inside the realm of dreams like many times before. He should know after all, he was still a Dreamwalker after the Maze event that took place. Funny how not long after that happened, the dominos came tumbling down in one continuous reaction.
Yet to be here again? As he brushed the grogginess from his eyes, Patrick realized he wasn't just in some empty place. He was in his own dreamscape sure but it was different now, compared to the other few instances he had visited this place. He stood at the shore of the old pond that seemed to represent something, or at least remain connected to him in some way. Beyond on it's other shore was the cavernous nook where the waterfall normally trickled down... except now there wasn't any sign of it. Much less the life in the trees or stars within the sky, even the moon had abandoned this place from the looks of it. And surprisingly enough Patrick started to see why, for particles of black floated from the barren ground; with a thick pool of what appeared to be black sludge in place of the pond.
So this was the effect his darkness had on his dreamscape now...
"It's a sad turn of events; isn't it?" A familiar voice reached his ear in almost a mournful tone. Patrick turned around to look at the source, his green and honey colored eyes narrowed once he laid eyes on it. "Such life used to thrive in this place, but now that it's almost gone; tell me what do you think Patrick?" Lush added with quite the intense look at the Dreamwalker present, however within the Dreamscape even Lush seemed different than before. Instead of his pelt being golden as it were in the waking world, here it was a coat of midnight much like the world itself; with a sole eye the color of silver lingering on Pat.
"Probably won't be long now before it fades away." He answered the oversized cat with a moment of contemplation, before turning a shoulder away with a bitter tone. "This place sucked anyway."
"Patrick..."
"I thought I made it clear. I don't want your help, why can't you or the glowing insect accept that?" He balled his hands into a fist, eager to leave this place now more than ever. He knew how to, all it would take is a bit of focus and... Nothing? He tried to push past the boundaries of his mind, project his subconscious to make him leave; yet no matter how hard he tried he couldn't dive into another Dreamscape.
Lush only seemed to sigh as a response to Patrick's remark, "That isn't going to work. There'll be no running from it this time."
Aggravated Patrick turned around to face him once more, his eyebrows furrowed as he looked close to being angered. "Who says I'm running? I did everything I could, I tried to be the hero and look where that got me!" Lush opened his maw as to start answering, however the Rharnian wouldn't allow it. "No Lush! Don't even bother, it's over so just leave me to rot. Forget about me, just like everyone else already has."
"Hmph, you forget it's never that easy." Now it was Lush's turn to interject, once he saw Pat shake his head and open his lips to speak. "And before you go denying any it further, you should consider that maybe there's a reason you're trapped here. Surely you could just wait it out until you awaken, but I think you'll find that things won't go your way. Beside we've an unexpected surprise for you."
Once Lush's words had managed to sink in after hearing them, the sour expression which lingered on Pat's face dissolved into confusion. "Surprise?" Lush's lone eye moved away from Patrick towards the Rharnian's right, towards a vacant space within the desolate grove they stood within. And then in the middle of all this darkness a light manifested, generating two separate forms which appeared within the Dreamscape. The first being the smallest form, Patrick immediately recognized it to be the winged fairy he'd insulted earlier. Yet the other hadn't fully manifested yet, but the silhouette around it's form implied it was somebody shorter than him.
"Whew, we actually made it!"
"On time too considering... Has he agreed?" Lush inquired as he watched the form materialize, the light dissipating into particles at the figure's feet first. Gradually the rest of the figure came to appear as the light surrounding him lessened, as he appeared to be looking around in a timid but curious manner.
"Yep! I told him everything and sure enough, he agreed to step in and help us out. Can't believe your idea worked though, never thought I'd be able to bring another into Pat's dreamscape like this." As she finished the rest of the light faded away, and the child who had accompanied her looked around. Daxter stood near Ri but once he saw Lush, he wasted no time to walk up towards the lion near him.
"So this is another dream?" Daxter inquired curiously as he looked around more, a gradual turn made until he finally came to face his would be father. "Patrick?" Hearing the boy say his name somehow stinged, but not as bitterly as the realization that the others... had brought him here. Here.
"Why the hell is he here?!" Patrick remarked with cold resentful eyes on the other two.
"Ri'ku told me everything." The boy answered quickly in their stead. "They said that I could help you."
"Did they tell you that I don't want it. Not even from you?" The inquiry posed as an insult hit the child hard, and while Pat wanted to think nothing of it; somewhere within him a part hurt even more when his boy looked disappointed. Why? "Get him out of here. I don't want to see any of you ever aga-"
"What's with you?!" Dax cried out bitterly with a pained look in his eyes. "You think hurting us with insults is going to drive us away?!" While a lot of emotion seemed to pour out in his tone, Dax's own remarks to Patrick garnered a look of proud intrigue within the lion. Even Ri'ku seemed to bounce just a little, after seeing the boy so bravely confront his father. So did that make Patrick the villain of the story after all? Was his own son here to save him, to help him see the light within all this darkness? "I get why you gave it away, but if this is the cost of that; then you need to get it back!" Get it back? Get what back? Did he mean?... Oh... Oh now that was precious.
"Dax..." Patrick muttered with a troubled tone, his expression solemn with a hint of regret. "Sometimes things happen... and we can't take them back. No matter what."
"But this," the boy brought his arms up to gesture at the hallowed environment, "all this and more can be fixed! Sure you can't take back what you did, but you can't fix everything you expect to avoid it all the time!"
"Dax-"
"No!" The boy nearly shouted now with a shake of his head, his denial met with the combination of sadness. "I wanted to meet you, to know who you are because... Because..." No. No please. Patrick had an incline where this was heading, and no matter what he had to avoid hearing it.
Patrick brought a hand up to gesture a stop at his words. "No, Dax, listen I'm not-"
"You are!" Daxter yet again interrupted as tears started to well down his cheeks.
"Go on child."
"Tell it to him Dax!" The fact they both encouraged him meant all of this was planned, that Lush and Ri'ku had every intention to force the confrontation. And he knew why too, because now a deep seated pain started to resonate within Patrick. A pain he wanted to keep buried away forever, at least to the end of his days. So why? Why now did they have to force him to face it? Daxter hesitated even with the encouragement, yet even the child could see that Patrick was lost. And when the Rharnian seemed less and less inclined to say anything, or even break away, the child finally came out with what he withheld for what felt like an age.
"You're supposed to be my father... someone I can count on." A momentary lapse came as Dax breathed deeply a few times. "But I can't do that if you don't even want to be." That was the hammer which drove the nail within, which staked Patrick's very core deeper than any knife could possibly could. Reluctant as he was to admit it Patrick wanted to... He wanted to be so much more than what he was now. A hero. A father. A brother. There were so many things he wanted back, so many things he wanted to become in time. Yet all that went away the moment he sacrificed the other half of his humanity, the light which he lost within the depths of Emea once the Dreamscapes were being repaired.
"I..." Patrick choked after that sole noun escaped his lips. Internally he felt the walls he kept up crumble away, the will to push everyone away diminished within seconds afterwards. "I want to." He admitted softly with a heavy swallow, hopeful the lump in his throat wouldn't be noticed. "Believe me Dax I really do... I just... I don't..." Why was this hard? Come to think of it why was he admitting this to a kid? Daxter didn't need to be involved in this, yet even though he tried Patrick couldn't hold onto that thought. It wasn't enough to fight back, not when all three watched him intently. "I don't know how anymore." He finally came out with a sigh to follow. "Don't know how to do anything right anymore..."
While he resolved to lower his head in total shame, Daxter eased off from the lean he had on Lush earlier. Slowly did the boy creep up to his father, with the eyes of innocence that all child seemed to possess. "Then stop trying to do what you think it right," The boy responded softly as he took one of his father's hands, "do what Lush and Ri'ku ask and let us help you."
Dax lingered where he was with a hopeful look in his pleading eyes, the other two still in their patience to watch things pan out. It felt like another eternity had to pass for Patrick, for all the consideration and contemplation he had to weigh in. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that there would be a lot of torment, a lot of hell, and certainly a lot of shit to do... before he'd even be remotely ready to be the kind of person they all needed him to be. But if these three were the only ones intent on not giving up, then surely all Patrick could do was try and do his damnedest to live up to the expectation.
Finally after yet another troubled sigh, the father looked down to his son once more; a reluctant nod given to the boy to show he'd comply.
"Patrick", "Follower", "Ri", "Lush"