<strong>Mary Nash - Sunset to Dream Sequence - Previously</strong><br/><br/>Theo simply nodded, gesturing to let her out.  He and the others definitely seemed to be tougher than any normal human being, although whether that was attributed to their special abilities and knowledges or not remained to be seen.  Theo looked apologetic that he couldn't answer her questions, wanting to put things together but simply not knowledgeable enough to help her.<br/><br/>The rest of the night was uneventful, but the dreams which accompanied her rest were anything but.  The dreams were always the same: back in Iraq, caught deep between the lines, her orders only known by the strategic officers and relayed to her and the others.  Yet the dreams were always different from her memories, even if they were so much more hazy and easy to forget upon waking up.  Sometimes it was impossible to imagine whether the dreams were true and her own memories were false, or if the dreams were so terrible as a realization of her own fears.<br/><br/>In the dreams, she hadn't arrived late, she'd been directly on the line when the thing had burst free from the tomb.  There had to have been at least a hundred other soldiers there, all with fully automatic firearms.  The thing looked almost as though a dinosaur's bones had been stripped from the museum, fitted with all sorts of metal appendages to make it seem almost human, and then covered the entire thing in the finely-tailored suit of human skins.  The skins still had faces, eyes which stared out and mouths which screamed in torment.  "<strong>You must stop this</strong>" came the voices, powerful and ephemeral which called out to all those assembled, but only about a third managed to bring themselves to action.<br/><br/>In the dream, Mary was one of the ones who stood still, paralyzed in fear and horror.  Others stepped in, emptying their weapons into the beast, lobbing grenades and doing anything they could to stop the monstrosity.  At first, its response was merely to scream, black fire bursting forth from the gargantuan's head like a dragon, which burst upon those assembled.  While the people who were standing paralyzed were immediately disintegrated to ash and blackened bones, the ones fighting were much slower to die, some keeping their weapons trained on the wretch even as their arms burned excruciatingly from their shoulders.<br/><br/>Stranger things happened as the fight went on, in painstaking detail, exactly the same as every other night.  Here in the dream, it was easier to remember, even though it was horrifying.  The human warriors displayed remarkable and superhuman talents, like bursting fire from the fingertips to throw at the beast, summoning forth barriers to block its teeth as it tried to chomp on more of the soldiers, or even causing near-invisible ripples in the air which seemed to somehow be hurting it worse than the bullets.  So many died, yet they went on, performing their duty.  For every one who stepped up to fight, though, nine were still frozen in horror.<br/><br/>It was always the same dream, even if it was so very hazy upon awakening.  Eventually the creature dropped, and the humans who had stepped up to fight seemed to return to normal.  The only difference to the dream was that it never lasted this long, never actually reached the creature's destruction.  She should have woken up, been spared the torments even if only to shift to another dream with more fathomable nightmares and horrors.<br/><br/>Everything slowly went black, until the stars could be seen, shining brightly amidst the sky as if winking jewels displaying their affection.  The moon didn't seem to show its light, and everything was dark and peaceful.  This was not her dream, but neither was she tied to the same actions as if caught in a memory loop.  A voice came from beside her, a presence more felt than seen in the darkness, "Such pain you've been through."  The voice of a man, calm and polite but warm and friendly, as if wanting to relieve her of all her suffering.  "People shouldn't have to go through all this.  It's not fair."