NiGHTS looked over the letter in his hand, triple checking that he had arrived in the location specified as he entered the warm forest of Helen's dreams. The location where he'd been captured and almost lost his new friend. He hadn't planned on going, he was almost certain it was a trap. It wasn't normal for any Nightmarens to want anything to do with him after his defecting unless it was to capture him, and so returning to this spot without Helen or Will beside him was dangerous enough that Owl would chew him out as soon as he got back.
It was also, however, the first time Reala had reached out to him since he'd defected from Wizeman in a way that wasn't simply throwing him in a cage. NiGHTS wasn't going to give up this chance, not when he'd missed his brother so dearly after so long.
Sure of the location, NiGHTS glided into the canopy covered clearing, landing hesitantly in the center and watching for any tricks or traps Reala might have employed.
"Well, I was starting to believe you weren't going to show." Reala's voice echoed around the clearing, setting NiGHTS on edge.
"Reala, show yourself!"
Reala simply laughed. "You really don't know how to have fun anymore, do you brother."
It was, of course, false. If anything, NiGHTS was the one who had learned what fun really was, but it was unlikely Reala would believe him on anything that went against Wizeman's decree. "You called me here for a reason, either talk, or capture me, but I'm not here to play games."
"And here I thought that was all you could do." It seemed Reala finally listened as he lowered himself down from the tree and into the clearing, his steps even and methodical, as though he believed just by showing up here he would win.
NiGHTS tensed, expecting an attack from Nightmarens, or for the cage to suddenly appear, but no attack came. He hesitantly approached Reala. "I'm surprised to see you after…" Even with no love between him and Wizeman, it was difficult for NiGHTS to speak of the death of the man who had created him.
"I was surprised to survive," Reala admitted, a rare moment of weakness from the proud Nightmaren. "I had assumed that your foolish stunt had doomed us all."
NiGHTS nodded. Even he had been surprised to have survived. "I hadn't expected to survive, I just knew Nightopia would be better for Visitors without him. It was a cause worth dying for."
Reala scoffed. "Why? What could Visitors possibly offer worth dying for."
"Everything!" NiGHTS couldn't stop himself from blurting out the answer, but now that it was said, it could only remain hanging in the air. "You wouldn't understand it. All you've ever done is hunt them."
"As I'm aware." Reala simply acknowledged his statement.
Not for the first time, NiGHTS wondered why he had bothered to show up to this meeting. It hadn't ended with him in a cage, but if Reala was going to be as unyielding as ever, then all it did was prove that there was no point to him showing up.
As NiGHTS was about to bring that up and leave without another word, Reala spoke up once more. "It's something I want to understand."
NiGHTS looked at Reala, unable to believe what he was hearing as all he could do was stare blankly. Reala, his brother, the one Nightmaren who was more loyal to Wizeman than anything, wanted to understand. "Understand what?"
"What made you want to help the visitors to the point that you would choose to betray your own kind for them."
NiGHTS didn't know how to understand. In all of his wildest fantasies, he could never have imagined a world where Reala had actually wanted to listen to him on what he had to say. "It's complicated."
"Until we leave this clearing, you have my undivided attention."
NiGHTS hesitated, unsure of how to answer to Reala's genuine curiosity after so many years of hostility between them. "Visitors have something that we don't have, something that we'll never have no matter how many times we take it." NiGHTS reached for his heart, resting his hand over it. "But it's something that we can still try to understand, to feel."
Reala crossed his arms, dismissive. "Are you telling me that you're doing this because of ideya?"
"When you dualize with a Visitor, for a moment, you can experience everything they feel." NiGHTS closed his eyes, imagining the red Ideya of Courage filling him with its light. "Once you do, you start to understand why everything Wizeman told us was wrong."
NiGHTS had hoped that Reala would listen, but instead his cautious expression had turned into a frown, and his eyes narrowed in disgust underneath that hateful Persona showing where his loyalty still lay. The dialogue had closed. "You would ask me to dualize with a visitor, to betray our master upon his return, for the sake of what?"
"Your master." NiGHTS had long stopped listening to or following anything Wizeman said. "And yes, I would, because you deserve freedom too. Wizeman lied to us about so much. The fact that we can even have this conversation right now is proof of that."
"It's time you stop following everything Wizeman says so blindly, and start thinking for yourself." NiGHTS turned away from Reala. "If you're ready to do that, you know where you can find me."
He didn't wait to hear Reala's reply. The conversation was over, and NiGHTS left without another word.
Reala had hoped that his conversation with NiGHTS would allow him to return to serving his master when he inevitably returned from death without question, but if anything it had left him with more questions than ever before.
"You deserve freedom too." It was difficult for Reala to imagine just what NiGHTS had meant. Freedom didn't matter, what mattered exclusively was stealing the ideya, something that had always been his purpose.
Except what if he could find a new one, just as NiGHTS had in guiding the visitors. NiGHTS himself had said that the reason he had been able to find freedom in the first place had come from dualizing. Was that all it took, to reach out to a visitor and understand? Was it this same confusion that Reala was feeling now what had driven NiGHTS to leave the Nightmaren ranks during his initial defection?
The sound of crying had pulled Reala from his thoughts as he wandered around the dark expanse of Nightmare. He had expected to see a wandering Nightopian by following the noise, but instead, he was surprised to find a young visitor, crying in the corner.
He looked at the visitor, the red glow leaking from her hand likely the only ideya that remained, and simply stared, unsure of what to do.
His first instinct had been to reach for the ideya, to do what he had been created for, but his conversation with NiGHTS was still fresh in his mind, and he simply hesitated, watching the visitor.
Perhaps it had been the fact that he hadn't been hostile, but the visitor looked up, stopping her crying to face Reala. "Are you here to help me?"
Unsure of the answer himself, he chose to sit down next to her. "What happened?"
She sniffled. "I was so scared. There's this new girl at school and I want to be her friend but she…" She buried her head in between her legs again. "She turned into a monster and I…"
He went to reach out, but hesitated. He was a Nightmaren. He wasn't supposed to feel empathy for the visitors who found their way into this realm.
Yet a part of him could only empathize. If nothing else, he understood what it was like to reach out to somebody in an attempt to connect, only to be shot down time and time again. "I understand..."
He wasn't used to this whole comfort thing, it had been ages since he'd sat and comforted NiGHTS after Wizeman had hurt them to provide it, still, he wanted to do it. "It wasn't real though."
The girl looked at him, her eyes wide. "H-Huh?"
"This place is called Nightmare. It's meant to scare human visitors away, so they lose their ideya. It was nothing but a dream."
The girl looked down. "Why are you here then?"
Reala wasn't sure how to answer. It was his home, of course, but if he told her that, then there was no doubt in his mind that she would just run away. She'd be safe, of course, she'd eventually find her way back to the Dream Gate where she'd meet with NiGHTS and safely reclaim her other four Ideya, but if that happened, then he'd never truly understand what NiGHTS meant.
He took off his Persona, looking it over and suddenly wondering if it would still have meaning after the night's events. "I'm a guardian. I look for visitors in Nightmare to take them to a safe place."
He reached out his hand to the girl. "If you'd like to get out of here, I'll take you to my brother, NiGHTS. He resides in the Dream Gate, and he's very good at getting visitors back their ideya so they can return home."
The girl looked at him, the fear still visible in both how small she made herself and how stiff her movements were. "How?"
"We'll dualize," Reala said. "It's a process that will allow us both to combine, and we'll be able to fly out of here. Only if you're willing, of course."
The girl hesitated, but her fear outweighed her distrust, and she closed her eyes before nodding, and reaching out to take Reala's hand.
And Reala understood.