Reunion

Slowly regaining his senses, Jonathan felt his consciousness return to him as he slowly began to hear the sounds of crickets chirping in the blowing wind. Confused, he was reminded of his situation once he felt the coldness of the night breeze and remembered the excruciating soreness of having to walk for so long dragging along his motorcycle. That and the discomfort laying on the bench for so long.

“That's right, someone was here–and my bike, where is it?” he thought.

Opening his eyes, Jonathan sees a ball of wool fabric bundled before him. Realizing that it was Lewis who must have fallen asleep waiting for him to wake up, he decided to stand to go wake him up.

“Lewis? Ahh my back. Are you awake?” Jonathan says as he gets up from the bench. He felt the pins and needles of poor sleep poking at his legs and spine.

Stirring from under his mantle, Lewis pokes his tired head out to see Jonathan standing, looking around in confusion as night has set.

“You’re finally up, had me worried there for how long you were out.”

“Sorry it’s been a long day.” Jonathan says, rubbing his back.

“I could tell.” Lewis says, unraveling himself from his shroud.

“So, where is my motorcycle?” Jonathan asks as he scans the surrounding darkness before looking to Lewis.

Lewis points over to the right where in darkness Jonathan was able to see the outline of two motorcycles standing side by side on the pavement in front of Jonathan’s auto shop. Jonathan sighs in relief.

“I’m sorry that you had to go through all of this–especially since it's been, what, six years since we’ve last seen each other?”

“Seven.” Lewis says, dusting his clothes under the cloak as he stands.

“Seven huh. Where is my manners? Please come inside, you must be tired from waiting for me all day outside.”

“I would appreciate that, I have a lot I need to tell you anyways.”

Making his way up the front porch, Jonathan opens the door to his house and goes to turn on the lights. Walking ahead in the darkness, Lewis is greeted by the full disarray of the home once Jonathan manages to find the lightswitch.

“I didn’t expect you to be this messy.” Lewis mutters to himself as he investigates the room.

In the plain white room that lacked any type of decor was basic furniture like a simple television, large square rug and several chairs and tables. It was apparent to Lewis that most of the pieces served only for the purpose of guests as there were thin layers of dust mounted on many of the chairs and television from their lack of use. What stood out more to Lewis however was the various stacks of papers and notebooks piling on the table and space around a worn out chair. Taking the top paper from the pile and glancing at it, Lewis realized that the stack must have contained at the minimum hundreds of fully illustrated diagrams and notes on not only machine parts, but also machine logic and Dream.

“Wow, you made all of this Jonathan? This is just–”

“The air here must be a little stale, let me open up a window for you.”

As soon as Jonathan opened the window, a strong gust of wind filled the room and scattered the papers from the neatly piled stack across the floor. Noticing a little too late, Jonathan closes the window and turns to see the disaster and kneels down to pick up the notes.

“I forgot about all the loose paper. I haven’t had a guest over for a long time so I haven’t bothered with opening up the window.”

“You don’t get guests? But don’t you run an auto shop?” Lewis says as he helps pick up the notes.

“Business hasn’t been well these past months because of Dream.”

“Still though, with these skills you could have done more than just run an auto shop.” Lewis says as he picks up the last piece of paper, looking at another well made diagram depicting a possible way to make Dream take 3D scans. He gives it to Jonathan.

“I was once a Dream researcher, but I realized I was more happy helping people directly. Though I’m not so sure now.” Jonathan says as he places the papers back onto the pile.

“Sounds like things haven’t gone well,” Lewis clears his throat.

“So about the reason that I’m here in the first place. We need to talk.”

“Please, take a seat. I know it's not much, but make yourself at home while I go get something to drink. Then we can talk.”

Understanding, Lewis pats a chair across the table from the worn out chair and papers before taking a seat. Leaving Lewis to his own devices, Jonathan goes to the kitchen where Lewis hears the clicking sound of a stove’s ignition from down the hall. Realizing just how dirty his cloak is, Lewis quickly takes it off and hangs it behind the chair. In his wait, Lewis decides to look at one of the diagrams on the table to find that it's actually a pencil sketch of nature.

“Probably a part of one of the farms that I saw on my way here.” Lewis thought before setting down the drawing when Jonathan returns with two steamy cups in hand.

On the table lay scattered hundreds of pages, fully illustrated with various diagrams of not only machine parts but also computer logic diagrams. Apart from these diagrams, various still life paintings and sketches of scenery hang on the walls haphazardly.

“Sorry if it’s a bit messy here, try to sit over there, you can put stuff on the floor if you need to.” Jonathan says as he leaves Lewis alone.

Lewis carefully walks around various stacks of books and papers to take a seat on a couch. Bored, Lewis picks up one of the sketches from the table and looks over it. For a moment, his eyebrows furrow in interest at the details of the diagram.

“I know you like coffee so I brought you some.” Jonathan says as he sets down the cup on the only coaster on the table for Lewis.

“Thank you, but I actually don’t drink coffee anymore. The caffeine messes with me now.” He says as he points to his covered arm.

“Oh really? My bad then. Here, have my green tea instead.”

Replacing the cup of coffee with the tea cup on Lewis’ coaster, Lewis picks it up with care and takes a cautious sip.
“Ahh. Thank you.”

Taking a large mouthful, Jonathan sets down his coffee on the table after moving some papers to make space for the cup.

“So you’re still doing Benedict’s practice, huh?”

“Yep. I haven’t had a day off from it. Jonathan says, sitting down.

“You haven’t stopped doing it? Hasn’t it been like seven years?” Lewis says after taking another sip.

Picking up another one of the diagrams–this time a complete breakdown of a car– he looks at the paper with amazement as there is a section that illustrates even the multiple specific screws and bolts used for a simple panel of the interior.

“If I didn’t see something like this I wouldn’t have believed you, but if you were good back then you’re even better now. Heck, I could probably rebuild this entire car just from this diagram alone.”

Jonathan laughs, shrugging off Lewis’ praise.

“Please, I still have a lot more to learn Lewis,” Jonathan takes a drink.

“So tell me. Why are you here now? There has to be a special reason apart from you just wanting to catch up with an old friend.”

“You’re right. I’ll just come out and say it. I need your help. Or I guess a better way to put it is. We need your help.”

“What do you mean by we?”

Getting in a more comfortable position in his chair, Lewis leans a bit forward before clearing his throat.

“It all started about a month ago. At the time I was in the Great Deserts. You know the ones in Phaedra right?”

“You mean the country?”

“Yes,” Lewis says with a nod.

“I was there because I was in a nearby town and I figured that I might as well spend a week in the desert–since I’m a traveler you know?”

Jonathan takes a sip of the coffee before he nods.

“It was beautiful, at night you could see the stars sprinkled above–it’s a rare sight nowadays with how much artificial lights and Dream clouds muddy up the sky–but that's besides the point. After I had finished enjoying my time in the desert, I took a buggy back to town with a tour guide named George who I’d made previous arrangements with. As we returned his buggy started having issues which he thought was strange since it was practically brand new. Well after the engine had sputtered out several times on the way back, it came back to life one last time before blowing up.”

Upon hearing this, Jonathan almost spilled his coffee all over himself. “What it blew up! Are you okay?”

Seeing his shock, Lewis couldn’t help but laugh.

“We luckily survived, but sadly I wasn’t able to leave it unscathed.”

Standing up, Lewis stretches to reach for the back of his bandaged arm’s shoulder. Jonathan watched intensely as Lewis pulled a long strip of gauze from his back, unraveling the wrappings. As the bandages fall to the ground, Lewis pulls up his dress shirt’s sleeve and Jonathan couldn’t help but be amazed when he revealed his robotic arm.

Lining Lewis’ entire arm are various plates of steel and plastic which acted as a new layer of skin. Inside his arm, wires connected with severed muscles and ligaments giving Lewis a complete range of motion as they extended and contracted as he moved his arm about to show Jonathan. It would have been hard to tell where the original ended and the prosthetics began since the entire arm was colored to match his skin tone, but because of the scar tissues bubbling in several parts there was still evidence of surgery. Webbing his arm were several lines of Dream, noticeable through its characteristic metallic hue of purple embedded deep within Lewis’ skin.

“Of course something like this would have been nearly impossible without Dream, just look at how dexterous his arm is. It's probably better than my own.”Jonathan said to himself.

“Can I touch it?”

“Go ahead.” Lewis says as he extends his arm; the muscles moving beneath the skin.

Getting closer, Jonathan touches his arm and couldn’t help but feel a sense of uncanniness knowing that what he was feeling was most likely plastic skin. Applying some pressure, he saw several lines of Dream glittering when exposed more to the light.

“Heh, that tickles.”

“My bad– wait, you can feel that?”

“I can feel my whole arm, though it's still a bit tingly.” Lewis says, pulling back down his sleeve.

Lewis bends over and picks up the gauze at his feet. He proceeds to rebandage his arm tightly.

“It's amazing what the doctors are able to do with Dream over there.” Lewis says while bandaging.

“I worked with this stuff for so long, but I can’t begin to even fathom how they managed to do this. But, doesn’t this classify you as a criminal now, prosthetics created with Dream has been banned in this–”

“I know, but let me finish, okay?” Lewis says after finishing wrapping his arm.

“My bad. Please continue.” Jonathan says, leaning back in his worn chair.

“Luckily, an expedition team that was heading to the desert happened to be near enough to see the blast and bring us to the nearest hospital. After I woke up a doctor told me that George was unwounded apart from a few minor burns and that I had unfortunately lost about sixty percent of my arm. But the worst of my problems had yet to come.”

“How much worse can this already get? You’ve almost lost your arm.”

“Shortly after the doctor told me this, the town suddenly got a warning to prepare for a Dream cloud. And I didn’t know till later, but this was the first one they had ever experienced, so you could imagine the terror amongst the other patients when they announced that the area will become a level three zone in a few hours.”

Intrigued, Jonathan looked on with interest as Lewis took a pause to drink some tea.

“Wow, I remember how bad it was when the first clouds passed here, even though it was a level one we were all so scared that we didn’t even want to breathe during those times.”

“Then you can imagine how worried the staff were trying to prepare emergency generators for the power and signal outages. During that chaosI was left alone in a room while the staff scrambled to move patients of higher priority around. Little did they know, the room that they left me in still had the windows opened. So when the storm hit, my room was instantly flooded with Dream.”

Jonathan’s eyes popped with concern,

“Did you have any protection, just breathing in a handful of those particles would suffocate you.”

Lewis shakes his head,

“I was there for hours, unprotected. Thankfully a nurse must have heard me screaming for help as he opened my door to find the disaster that was happening. Getting me out of there, the doctors were astonished to find that I somehow managed to survive unscathed.”

“Wow, that's a miracle.”

“But now here is the reason why I’m here to talk to you now. You see, while I was alone in that room, delirious from the pain of struggling to breathe, I started to dream, hallucinate or whatever else you want to call it. Jonathan, when the Dream entered through that window, well it started speaking to me.”

“What do you mean, it spoke to you.”

“I know this is hard to believe–trust me I’m struggling to believe it myself–but I promise to you that the Dream formed into the figure of a person who spoke to me. I know how it sounds, I was delirious and suffocating, but for those few moments that it spoke to me, I never felt so alive. Look, I'm shaking just thinking about it.”

Returning the cup to the coaster on the table, Lewis raises his hand to show his trembling fingers.

“So what did it tell you then?”

“It told me that I needed to find you. Jonathan, something massive is going to happen soon because of the Dream. Something bigger than the clouds.” Lewis says, his voice wavering as he starts to look into the distance while he recollected his memories.

“You’re telling me something bigger than the clouds– the very thing that has nearly destroyed the world is coming? And you need me to do something about that?”

Slowly, Lewis returns his far off gaze back to Jonathan and with a lack of words he just nods once.

“The world isn’t ready for it Jonathan.”

Jonathan takes a deep breath to recollect his scattered thoughts.

“Okay. So Dream just told you this huh. What happened afterwards?”

Startling Jonathan, Lewis chuckles as fear flashes in his eyes.

“Right before I woke up, it told me to tell the first doctor that I see when to send me to a place called the Purple Lounge. And to my surprise, the moment when I woke up after being rescued by the nurse, there was a doctor that was tending to me, so I turned to her and said ‘Take me to the Purple Lounge’.” Lewis says, just shaking his head afterward as his long stare creeped back into his eyes.

“So what?” Jonathan says, unable to contain his curiosity.

“You should’ve seen the look of astonishment in her face.” Lewis says after turning to Jonathan.

Feeling the chills make their way down his spine, Jonathan rubs his face as he furrows his eyebrows.

“It turns out the Purple Lounge is a secret place amongst the locals that deals with… let’s say modifications. Even though Mira has yet to convince Phaedra against allowing human augmentations, it is still looked down upon by the medical field. But I lucked out, it turns out that that doctor who just happened to be taking care of me was part of an underground organization that helped give people augments.

“The Purple Lounge.”

“Yep. It was hard to convince her since I was from a country that had banned augmentations, but she allowed it if I promised I would never mention her name so as to not get her unwanted attention.”

“So you had your augmentation surgery, which was a massive success and now you came to me after?”

“Pretty much.”

“But didn’t this happen all within last month, there is a lot of distance to cover plus I haven’t told anyone I used to know where I lived because of the Dream clouds. It should have been impossible.”

“It is impossible. But, something strange happened to me after my surgery. When I came about I realized that I had developed some type of locationation ability.”

“What?” Jonathan stated in disbelief; Lewis chuckles.

“The Purple Lounge doctors didn’t take me seriously too until I showed them that I really could with an experiment they setted up. I don’t think they have any explanation for it, but for some reason I can feel a tingling sensation within me when I walk towards something that I focus on. Without it there would have been no way for me to get to you. And so here I am.”

“Even so, you were still in another country. You would’ve needed transport to get here and I’m certain that all those surgeries cost a lot.”

Once again Lewis laughs.

“Jonathan, I’m a traveler. I make due where others can’t. I managed to pay off my bills and still have enough to travel back here on the motorcycle I travel with.”

In disbelief at Lewis’ tenacity, Jonathan snickers.

“So you’ve come. Now what?”

“We need to go back.”

“Go back?”

“We have to go back to the island off of Myrtle’s Coast and get back the Dream we used with Benedict all those years ago. I don’t know why, but the Dream told me that it's vital for the future and I need you to do it.”

At a loss for words Jonathan spends some time thinking in silence before Lewis breaks it.

“I know I’ve given you a lot to handle, but please you need to come with me.”

“I don’t know. Just give me some time to think about this.”

“I get it. I’ll let you sleep on it okay. But the sooner we go the better.”

Just then, Jonathan’s stomach rumbled and remembered that the last time he had eaten was before leaving for the Costa job.

“I guess that means it must be time for dinner.” Jonathan says, embarrassed.

Lewis chuckles, “Let me help you. It's the least I can do.”