Nero couldn't exactly get out of bed. Even though the government facility he was in wasn't that far from the police station, going there just to come back for the night would be a hassle. And so instead, Epsilon was brought right to him.
He did not like what he saw one bit.
Hearing that he had white hair confused him a little, but he figured that his appearance changed much like his own. But that wasn't even half of it.
Three people entered the room. But the first one Nero noticed was...
"Brother?"
He was dead. Not in the literal sense, but there was no emotion or life in the things he said or did. The way he walked, the way he looked into his eyes, and even the way he postured himself. They were all empty and had no depth nor purpose behind them. It was as if he were being puppeteered like a doll.
"Nero."
But that wasn't all. Someone annoying had come along with him. Someone whom he had no clue what to feel about.
"Emma."
"Hey?"
He heard from Officer Wort, that there was also a girl who was also challenging the first nightmare with them. It was a complete coincidence that it happened to be Emma.
"When did it happen?"
Nero didn't want to give anything away. He needed to remain passive and unsuspecting towards Emma, so that she wouldn't do anything drastic before he could confirm if she wasn't the friend he thought she was. Before they all went to the dream realm, he would need to investigate her, because if she really wanted to harm one of them, she'd do it then.
"I started feeling it not too long after you guys left. I'm glad anyway, now we can all still stay together. Isn't that right, Epsilon?"
She gently brushed the back of her hand against Epsilons, but he didn't respond to it at all. It made the situation rather awkward.
"Brother, are you really okay?"
He didn't want to ask too many questions. He'd like to keep it a secret that they shared a nightmare away from Emma. In fact, he'd like to keep what happened in their a secret, as well as their flaws of course.
"What happened to your leg."
He didn't even answer his question. Keeping cautious about Emma though, he responded.
"Ah, I got into a bit of a dog fight. I should be able to go home in 2 days though."
Epsilon just nodded lightly.
And then the third one to come in with them, the awakened that watched over them, finally spoke. He was a slightly older man compared to Cyrus and Kalane, with wavy brown hair and eyes. He wore amour suiting a knight rather in contrast to Cyrus's comfy blanket.
Noticing Cyrus sleeping, he simply said.
"Of course he's asleep. If he ever decides to wake up though, tell him he owes me one."
He then left as quickly as he came. Cyrus was meant to continue watching over the last two Aspirants, but he asked someone else to do it for him. Emma asked while pointing towards the man sleeping in the chair.
"So who is that guy?"
"He's a government awakened whose been helping me out recently. Don't mind him, he's just a sleepy head."
Thinking about it now, Cyrus was doing an awful lot to help him. Offering to teach him how to cope with his flaw, getting people to take over his post despite being a busy awakened, and then finding someone to heal his leg. He didn't need to do all of that, and he would've been forced to owe debt to the government, which would put him in a strange situation because of The Red Sons.
Yet he did it anyway. Why was that? He didn't seem like the malicious kind of guy, or maybe he's just a good actor like Emma.
'Maybe I should be cautious of him too? What could he even want from a sleeper anyway?'
Disrupting his chain of thoughts, Emma walked over and sat on Nero's bed. Then she asked the both of them.
"There is so much I wanna tell you guys.. How about I start with my first Nightmare? It was very difficult I will say.."
There were lots of different ways you could manipulate a 'friend' into getting what you want. But the most common one was letting loose everything you knew, to get the other person to counter back with what they knew, by either doing it through guilt or pride.
For example, if person A got an A on the test, and wanted to find out person B's scores, but person B was a humble person that didn't want to show off. Person A would say they got an A, which would guilt the other person into saying their scores. If it was good, then they did it to say:
'See! I'm just as good as you, so why are you trying to compare?'
But if it was bad, then they were also saying,
'See... I'm much worse than you.. won't you feel any pity for me?'
Of course, it could work the other way round. Although very obvious if you think about it clearly, you won't notice it if you thought person A who was Emma, was a genuine person to you. Now that Nero began suspect the truth, he could see it very clearly.
'Being subtle ey? Two can play at that game.'
Emma continued.
"It was very annoying. I got dropped in the middle of a jungle, and had to escape from these rabid tribesmen. I survived by eating bugs and insects, and at some point I even got poisoned. Luckily for me though, I managed to find a well protected city, which ended the Nightmare before I could die from it. All so exhausting."
She sighed.
"It was not worth it at all... I ended up with a utility aspect that lets me create water. It's only useful if you were stranded somewhere, I guess..."
She then nodded at Epsilon to say his own experience. But before he could say anything, Nero cut him off and spoke instead.
"My Nightmare wasn't that difficult compared to yours I think. All I needed to do was beat some homeless man with a shovel."
It was so strange, that even the sleeping Cyrus reacted a little. Lying on the spot was difficult, and Nero didn't have enough time to create something more appropriate, but it looked like Emma believed it, although that wasn't reliable.
"Oh, I had to find the shovel to beat him with obviously. That took quite a while though. Unsurprisingly, I got some pathetic dormant Aspect at the end of it. I can create a weak force, that lets me push objects by a bit."
His dormant ability wasn't a complete lie, but more of a half truth. The force was much more powerful, and even that was just an extension of his actual ability.
"So its a kind of telekinesis? That could be useful if its get stronger. Mine looks to be much worse in comparison..."
"You flatter me too much! That might not be the case. You could even flood a city one day."
Epsilon knew of the truth though. If he could get the message despite his rather cold hearted state, he would at least lie about his aspect too.
"My Nightmare isn't important. My dormant ability lets me create a force like Nero's. Although much more powerful."
Nero hadn't checked Epsilons aspect yet, so he didn't know if he was lying or not. At least, he hid the details of his Nightmare. It could reveal ones flaw depending on what happened inside of it.
Luckily though, Emma didn't dig for anymore details. She looked quite satisfied with the results.
They talked for a long while, but once it became very late, Cyrus finally awoke. He, along with Emma decided to leave for the day.
And so the two brothers were left alone.