Written: Monday. December 30, 2019.
She finds herself in a room filled with pictures. Lady Veergha takes a closer look; focuses on the images, and comes to the conclusion that these are the drawings of a child. She looks even further, finding a couple of other things: a journal filled with words and dates, a picture of a boy wearing weird glasses standing beside a girl wearing a weird fabric on her head, and on one of the walls are a bunch of other drawings.
She takes a few steps back in the room to look at the wall filled with drawings, and notices that these drawings depict similar visuals of a black being. The drawings were roughed out, as if the creator of the artworks struggled as he drew. But because the images had similar elements, she was able to understand that these drawings were just different drawing iterations of the same subject; the monster in Toby’s vision.
The scene shifted, and Lady Veergha was standing in the middle of a classroom. Even in her brief time of impersonating a teacher, she was able to distinguish that she was sitting in one of the armchairs, as if she was one of the students in the class.
She looks around, seeing a couple of familiar faces. Although, the faces look somewhat younger than how she remembered them. Then she saw a face she could put a name to; the silent one, named Drew.
She heard herself speak, but it wasn’t her voice that she heard. It was Toby’s voice, but it had a slightly higher pitch.
“I’m telling you, Drew,” Toby’s voice said, “this felt real. Like, in a weird kind of way where I actually felt what was happening.”
“Most dreams are like that, Toby.” Drew replied.
“Yeah, but this was different. I’ve never had a dream like this ever before. It’s never been this specific. You know how some dreams are precognitive? Meaning, they might predict actual events that might happen in the future? What if this dream is like that?”
“Okay, so let me just clear things out for you about what happened in your dream: None of it is probably real. That vision of a meteor landing in your footsteps is impossible. That’s straight out of a sci-fi cartoon from a few years ago. And I know how much you like that show; you talk about it almost every time. You once told me that you wished that someday, an alien watch — much like the watch from that cartoon — would show up to you, latch onto your wrist, and turn you into ten different aliens. And that you’ll be a hero once it happens.”
“First of all,” Toby started, “never bring Ben 10 into this. Sure, I like the show. Sure, I’d love to have the Omnitrix and use it to turn into Heatblast, or Four Arms, or even Diamond Head. But this dream is nothing like that. The pod wasn’t a watch. But it knew how to talk. It was an AI! An Artificial Intelligence! It could learn things. We had complete conversations about how the universe worked; I can’t remember any of the answers he gave me, but that proves my point.”
“What point is that?” Drew asked.
“That this Alien-AI-Pod thing might’ve been trying to warn me about the monster that was gonna come and destroy our world. Maybe even our whole universe!”
“And that’s why you’ve told me this?”
“You don’t believe me.” Toby shook his head.
“Of course I don’t believe you!” Drew replied. “That dream of yours is impossible. You’ve told me about your dreams a couple of times already. Like the one when you had a dream within another dream? Inception. The dream you had where you had this suit of armor that shoots lasers? Ironman. Should I keep going?”
“Oh, come on.” Toby said, “Those were dreams. This one was a vision. I was crying when I woke up.”
“How do you think that helps in making me believe you?”
“Yeah, okay. You’ve got a point there. But I’m telling you, man. This dream was real.”
“You said that the last time.” Drew said.
“This time, I’m sure.”
The scene shifted again. This time, Toby was alone. He was walking inside of this village, probably on his way home. Lady Veergha, reliving Toby’s memories, looked up in the sky and saw a beam of light heading towards her. A few moments later, she was holding a metal ball in her hands — Toby’s hands. And then the scene shifted to when Toby got home, went up to his bedroom, and took the ball out of his backpack.
“Greetings, Earthling.” The ball said. “I am pleased to meet you.”
“Pleased to meet you as well.” Toby replied to the ball, as if all of this was just natural. “So, what can you do?”
“I can do many things, Earthling.” The ball said, “I can tell you things about your world. I can tell things about where I come from.”
“Where did you come from?”
“I came from many places. Travelling across the galaxies. Looking for intelligent life.”
“And have you found intelligent life across the galaxies?”
“I’ve found life, yes. Thousands upon thousands. But they’re not quite what I expect them to be.”
“What? Intelligent?”
“Yes.”
“That’s why you’ve come here; to find intelligent life?”
“Yes, Earthling. I have found life here in your world. But I’m afraid I’m not quite impressed with what is presented to me.”
“I don’t know about that.” Toby replied. “But there are certainly smarter people than me that you could meet. Do you know how to time travel? We could go back and meet Einstein or — “
“I cannot traverse in and out of time, Earthling.”
“What can you do?”
“Soon, Earthling, you will see. But for now, I must do what I must with this world of yours.”
“And what’s that?”
The scene shifts again. Lady Veergha is standing in rubble. All around her are buildings falling down. Trees are on fire. The sky was red. People were screaming in pain, running around, and trying to find shelter. There were bodies lying around. She looked closely, and saw that their faces showed no emotion. Some bodies were ripped open, sliced up, and other things that she’s seen before. This must be the final moment of Terran Tobias’ dream. She thought.
She’s been in situations like these before. She’s caused situations like these before. But why did she feel afraid? All around her, she recognized faces that she shouldn’t have recognized. She was crying. She was weeping for these people. She didn’t know who they were, let alone what their names were. But she felt their pain. She felt their agony. What’s happening to me? She thought to herself. Who are all of these people? Why am I acting like this?
And then, she saw a face of a girl. She recognized it. It was the same girl in the picture from the previous memory thread. Then she realized it was Toby that was in that picture with her. Was she a lover of Toby? No. This boy is too young. So why was she sensing an attraction for this Terran girl?
Then she sees a giant foot step on the girl, and crushes her completely. Lady Veergha screamed at the top of her lungs; trying to run towards where the girl was. But then she looked up, and saw a tremendously large black being. The same being that was in those drawings. It was looking right at her — right at Toby.
It’s just a dream. Lady Veergha tried to tell herself. But why does it feel so real? What is this?
She looked down once more, and saw the faces of Toby’s friends & family; Tom, Drew, June, Amanda, Franco, Lily, and other faces she can’t put names to. They were all lying on the ground. Their lifeless eyes seemed to look directly at her. But then the next face that she saw was what truly frightened her. It was the face of Ervagh, her servant. He was among the bodies scattered across the rubble.
Why am I seeing this? Lady Veergha asked herself. Ervagh is not a part of Terran Tobias’ dream. But why is he here? And why is he —
Toby finds himself in the middle of a ruined city. The sky was red, much like from his visions. But there were three moons in the sky. There was no monster looking straight at him. Instead, he saw himself running fast towards a bunch of figures that seemed to be trying their best on running away from him. But he was quick on his feet, and sliced through several of these figures. They seemed to be of a different race; An alien race. Toby should have been feeling scared at this moment. But why did he feel…contented?
“Please,” one of the aliens said. “Don’t do this! Let our people go!”
“Now why would I do that?” Toby looked at the alien, grabbed hold of its neck, and started to heat up his hands, “The fun’s just getting started.”
She finds herself in a room filled with pictures. Lady Veergha takes a closer look; focuses on the images, and comes to the conclusion that these are the drawings of a child. She looks even further, finding a couple of other things: a journal filled with words and dates, a picture of a boy wearing weird glasses standing beside a girl wearing a weird fabric on her head, and on one of the walls are a bunch of other drawings.
She takes a few steps back in the room to look at the wall filled with drawings, and notices that these drawings depict similar visuals of a black being. The drawings were roughed out, as if the creator of the artworks struggled as he drew. But because the images had similar elements, she was able to understand that these drawings were just different drawing iterations of the same subject; the monster in Toby’s vision.
The scene shifted, and Lady Veergha was standing in the middle of a classroom. Even in her brief time of impersonating a teacher, she was able to distinguish that she was sitting in one of the armchairs, as if she was one of the students in the class.
She looks around, seeing a couple of familiar faces. Although, the faces look somewhat younger than how she remembered them. Then she saw a face she could put a name to; the silent one, named Drew.
She heard herself speak, but it wasn’t her voice that she heard. It was Toby’s voice, but it had a slightly higher pitch.
“I’m telling you, Drew,” Toby’s voice said, “this felt real. Like, in a weird kind of way where I actually felt what was happening.”
“Most dreams are like that, Toby.” Drew replied.
“Yeah, but this was different. I’ve never had a dream like this ever before. It’s never been this specific. You know how some dreams are precognitive? Meaning, they might predict actual events that might happen in the future? What if this dream is like that?”
“Okay, so let me just clear things out for you about what happened in your dream: None of it is probably real. That vision of a meteor landing in your footsteps is impossible. That’s straight out of a sci-fi cartoon from a few years ago. And I know how much you like that show; you talk about it almost every time. You once told me that you wished that someday, an alien watch — much like the watch from that cartoon — would show up to you, latch onto your wrist, and turn you into ten different aliens. And that you’ll be a hero once it happens.”
“First of all,” Toby started, “never bring Ben 10 into this. Sure, I like the show. Sure, I’d love to have the Omnitrix and use it to turn into Heatblast, or Four Arms, or even Diamond Head. But this dream is nothing like that. The pod wasn’t a watch. But it knew how to talk. It was an AI! An Artificial Intelligence! It could learn things. We had complete conversations about how the universe worked; I can’t remember any of the answers he gave me, but that proves my point.”
“What point is that?” Drew asked.
“That this Alien-AI-Pod thing might’ve been trying to warn me about the monster that was gonna come and destroy our world. Maybe even our whole universe!”
“And that’s why you’ve told me this?”
“You don’t believe me.” Toby shook his head.
“Of course I don’t believe you!” Drew replied. “That dream of yours is impossible. You’ve told me about your dreams a couple of times already. Like the one when you had a dream within another dream? Inception. The dream you had where you had this suit of armor that shoots lasers? Ironman. Should I keep going?”
“Oh, come on.” Toby said, “Those were dreams. This one was a vision. I was crying when I woke up.”
“How do you think that helps in making me believe you?”
“Yeah, okay. You’ve got a point there. But I’m telling you, man. This dream was real.”
“You said that the last time.” Drew said.
“This time, I’m sure.”
The scene shifted again. This time, Toby was alone. He was walking inside of this village, probably on his way home. Lady Veergha, reliving Toby’s memories, looked up in the sky and saw a beam of light heading towards her. A few moments later, she was holding a metal ball in her hands — Toby’s hands. And then the scene shifted to when Toby got home, went up to his bedroom, and took the ball out of his backpack.
“Greetings, Earthling.” The ball said. “I am pleased to meet you.”
“Pleased to meet you as well.” Toby replied to the ball, as if all of this was just natural. “So, what can you do?”
“I can do many things, Earthling.” The ball said, “I can tell you things about your world. I can tell things about where I come from.”
“Where did you come from?”
“I came from many places. Travelling across the galaxies. Looking for intelligent life.”
“And have you found intelligent life across the galaxies?”
“I’ve found life, yes. Thousands upon thousands. But they’re not quite what I expect them to be.”
“What? Intelligent?”
“Yes.”
“That’s why you’ve come here; to find intelligent life?”
“Yes, Earthling. I have found life here in your world. But I’m afraid I’m not quite impressed with what is presented to me.”
“I don’t know about that.” Toby replied. “But there are certainly smarter people than me that you could meet. Do you know how to time travel? We could go back and meet Einstein or — “
“I cannot traverse in and out of time, Earthling.”
“What can you do?”
“Soon, Earthling, you will see. But for now, I must do what I must with this world of yours.”
“And what’s that?”
The scene shifts again. Lady Veergha is standing in rubble. All around her are buildings falling down. Trees are on fire. The sky was red. People were screaming in pain, running around, and trying to find shelter. There were bodies lying around. She looked closely, and saw that their faces showed no emotion. Some bodies were ripped open, sliced up, and other things that she’s seen before. This must be the final moment of Terran Tobias’ dream. She thought.
She’s been in situations like these before. She’s caused situations like these before. But why did she feel afraid? All around her, she recognized faces that she shouldn’t have recognized. She was crying. She was weeping for these people. She didn’t know who they were, let alone what their names were. But she felt their pain. She felt their agony. What’s happening to me? She thought to herself. Who are all of these people? Why am I acting like this?
And then, she saw a face of a girl. She recognized it. It was the same girl in the picture from the previous memory thread. Then she realized it was Toby that was in that picture with her. Was she a lover of Toby? No. This boy is too young. So why was she sensing an attraction for this Terran girl?
Then she sees a giant foot step on the girl, and crushes her completely. Lady Veergha screamed at the top of her lungs; trying to run towards where the girl was. But then she looked up, and saw a tremendously large black being. The same being that was in those drawings. It was looking right at her — right at Toby.
It’s just a dream. Lady Veergha tried to tell herself. But why does it feel so real? What is this?
She looked down once more, and saw the faces of Toby’s friends & family; Tom, Drew, June, Amanda, Franco, Lily, and other faces she can’t put names to. They were all lying on the ground. Their lifeless eyes seemed to look directly at her. But then the next face that she saw was what truly frightened her. It was the face of Ervagh, her servant. He was among the bodies scattered across the rubble.
Why am I seeing this? Lady Veergha asked herself. Ervagh is not a part of Terran Tobias’ dream. But why is he here? And why is he —
* * *
Toby finds himself in the middle of a ruined city. The sky was red, much like from his visions. But there were three moons in the sky. There was no monster looking straight at him. Instead, he saw himself running fast towards a bunch of figures that seemed to be trying their best on running away from him. But he was quick on his feet, and sliced through several of these figures. They seemed to be of a different race; An alien race. Toby should have been feeling scared at this moment. But why did he feel…contented?
“Please,” one of the aliens said. “Don’t do this! Let our people go!”
“Now why would I do that?” Toby looked at the alien, grabbed hold of its neck, and started to heat up his hands, “The fun’s just getting started.”
End of Chapter.
* * *
* * *
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