“Uh… Well I don’t want to leave my bestie in a dangerous situation alone, but I also don’t wanna get caught between you and lover boy.” She stated. 

"Pfffffffttttt. Okay. I'll call you on the comms if things go south. You remember how to hack into the streets cams where I'm meeting him at?"

“Oh please, a toddler could hack those things.” She said with a dismissive wave. “Don’t dis my skill, girl.” She grinned. 

She chuckled. "I don't. It's just a serious situation and I don't want you to get distracted." Sunny retorted as she fixed the voice modulator on her mask. She hardly had to use it. But it was just in case.

She organized her things and had the book snug in her knapsack. "Okay, I'm going. Be sure to be on that laptop!" She yelled out as she got in the driver's seat of the black van and drove off. Seeing Meredith with a thumbs up in the rearview mirror.

She was early but she wanted it that way. She parked the van in an close by alleyway. And secretly made her way towards the meeting spot. She extended her senses to see if she could sense the King or his boys waiting. Turns out, he was indeed there, hiding, along with the Murder Time Trio. The auras gave her chills down her spine but was comforted by her boyfriend's aura even though he didn't know who she was. Now, hiding in the shadows they waited for the Mafia member to show up. 

After about almost an hour goes by and no one shows up. 'They're either testing me or just trying to irritate the crap out of me.' she thought bitterly. She was about to turn back but then a fancy looking car pulled up. And there was the target. Dressed in an sharp dark suit with The Venom Fists logo tattooed on his neck.

'Show time…'

Nightmares pov

“error, watch things one and two while we are out.” I didn’t look at the glitchy skeleton as I clipped on my cloak, hiding my other appendages. 

“b-but i-i-nk-s ann-noy-ing a-an-d b-lu-e is t-too!” Error denied.

“are you telling me no? look, error, i don’t have time for this. take them out to do good deeds or something, we’ll be back.”

“w-w-h-y ca-n-n-t i co-me wi-ith?” Error asked.

“you are to easy to spot.”

“y-ou are too!” 

“no i’m not. not like this.” Behold the reason why I chose the Murder Time Trio. I was going in my passive form as to be more… discreet. I oozed negativity (literally) in my other form so this was my best way to hide… even if I didn’t like it. Plus it was only until the mafia informant was gone. Then I could go back to my more… dominant… form.

Error sputtered, not expecting me to go passive.

“watch them.” I said one more time before leading the other three equally shocked skeletons out.

We teleported to the location, scoping it out before going into hiding.

“boss, you going to be ok in that form?” Dust asked.

“i’m not completely defenseless in this form. i’ll be fine.” I assured him before disappearing into the shadows. 

It was three hours later when Lux Furem showed up. Yes, we’d come three hours early. We wanted to make sure it wasn’t a trap. It wasn’t. It took longer for the Mafia lackey to show, but seeing him made me want to switch forms and make him beg for mercy. Force him to tell me the location of their lair so I COULD TEAR THEM ALL APART. But I held back on that urge. That’s what former me would have done. Not present me.

The guy stopped in the middle of the alley.

"Oi! You here for the trade off or naw?" He spoke roughly into the shadows. It took a few seconds then Lux Furem stepped out holding the knapsack around them.

*"Well, the rumors didn't lie when they said that you guys have a thing of "quiet" discretion."* They clipped in response as they crossed their arms and tapped their foot like a mother scolding a child.

"Yeah yeah I have your money in the back of the car. Book first."

They took their knapsack and plopped it in front of them. The guy carefully walked up to it and opened it carefully as to see if it was a trap. When he realized that he just saw the book, his crooked smile curled up in greed.

"Pleasure doing business with ya Lux." He handed them the keys to unlock the car. "No funny business. Got it? Expensive ass car."

They gave the finger gun signal at him. To which he was confused about but didn't say anything. And made their way seemingly towards the back of the car. But before the guy could say anything about it. They got in the back and left the door open so it'll seem like they're trying to find the money. Meanwhile...

“horror… fetch.” I called from his hiding spot as he switched forms.

The cannibal’s red eye glowed as he lunged at his prey, the mafia goon.

“dust, killer make sure he doesn’t actually kill or eat him..”

The guy tried to run, but one couldn’t just escape a beast when he was let loose. Horror was on him in an instant, raising his ax to kill. Killer held him back though as Dust turned the guy's soul blue. I came out, watching Lux.

“i believe you have something that belongs to me.” I called to them.

They held their hands in mock surrender and pointed to where the book laid on the ground. 

I picked it up with a tentacle, checking that it was the book. With a sigh, I turned back to my boys. It was a relief that they weren’t stabbing me in the back too.

“a pleasure doing business with you, lux, i assume i will hear from you again in the news..” 

*"Likewise, and for the last part… mmmm, more than likely~"* they teased at the end of their sentence. I was about to retort on their comment when I smelled a familiar scent. Sunshine and vanilla. When I went to ask them about it, they were gone. Like a freaking shadow!

“huh…” I turned back to the boys. “tag him and bag him, this will be a gift for my assassin friend.” They ought to enjoy it. Dream won’t let me torture in the castle, so next best thing I suppose. 

“yes boss.” Killer replied as he and Dust traded places and he started hog tying the guy.

“horror, down. i’ll feed you when we return.”

“grrrrr… fine..” Dust sighed in relief, not having to hold the skeleton back for long. 

3rd pov

Sunny of course stole the money from the back. It was a check in a small case protected by a code so she was able to get away with. With any luck, Meredith will have it open before tomorrow morning. Sunny watched from a distance of where they weren't looking.

 'I guess a little parting gift wouldn't hurt.' she thought mischievously. As she sent her strong hormonal vibes from afar to him and then disappearing when he looked in her direction. 

A few weeks have gone by and on the Positive Side of the kingdom. Raven had gotten in touch with Nightmare about the new hostage. You see, after her mission, she was able to get the money from the Mafia group before they realized that they were duped. Now she had to pull out information from them. She had instructed him to leave him in the barrens in the back of the kingdom and she would collect and then tell in any information she had found.

Which so far went smoothly after she had collected him from their meeting spot. She currently had him chained up in her shop's basement. All she had to do was turn off the lights and let her spirits that serve under her do their thing in scaring the crap out of him. 

So far they learned that the Mafia group has almost completely taken over the underground black market and was making their power evident in new business plans such as renting out buildings and screwing the owners and the tenants of everything they had. Some of it was protection fees for themselves on market stalls, stores, and apartments. Didn't pay up, they would destroy or kill. And the majority of it was loaning money and human and monster trafficking to outside of the kingdom to other nations.

When Dream found out about how Nightmare was getting information, he demanded to know what it was so he could fix it. Nightmare was hesitant but relented and showed him. Dream was devastated. But he still didn't back down from the challenge. 

Dream had figuratively and literally pulled up his sleeves and started working out a battle plan to put an end to his people's fears. But there comes a point where even Nightmare thinks that he should get a break.

“brother, you need to relax, you’re still recovering.” Nightmare urged.

“i’ll relax when i’m done.” Dream retorted. 

“your working yourself to death, dream. at least take a walk, you might find something interesting.” Nightmare offered. 

“...... a walk, then i’m coming straight back here..” Dream agreed reluctantly. He felt that Nightmare had been working more than he has since the incident, allying himself with thieves and assassins and getting the Book of AUs back. He felt he NEEDED to do his part.

Nightmare suggested that he go inconspicuously through town so as to not draw attention to himself. He wanted to argue his point. But he was right. With how Dream is being targeted by the Mafia and how they were at risk. He couldn't afford to be spotted out in the open.

As Dream traveled in town, he went from shop to shop getting little trinkets and eating some treats. Until he heard some gossiping housewives whispering about a haunted store?

“excuse me, i couldn’t help but overhear. could you tell me more about this haunted store?” Dream asked politely. They.... were not so polite. 

“Well that’s a little rude, don’t you think?” One of the housewives commented hautily. 

“o-oh.. i’m sorry, i really didn’t mean too, could you tell me about the store?” When did his people get so… this? Was everyone like this?

“I suppose… well it’s this little dark shop with a dark haired witch as the owner. They say she curses every item you buy from there. Some say that people go missing in there and never return, then she summons their spirits to haunt the little shop and make more people disappear.” Another explained. Dream frowned. It was one thing to be snot nosed to him. It was another to speak about others behind their backs.

“i’ll bet she’s a kind young woman, just looking for a friend. she likely has her own unique interests, and i’m quite curious to see this quaint little place, so if you would be so kind as to point me in it’s direction, i’ll be on my way.” He crossed his arms as the ladies paled. 

“You’re crazy to want to go in there.” The one rude lady muttered.

“so i am, where is it?” He was losing patience with these women, which was a bit strange for Dream, but he WAS still recovering. 

“Just down there and to the left, you can’t miss it.” The other replied.

“That poor soul..” A third finally murmured as Dream walked down the street.

He finally found the shop. As the housewives said. It was a dark looking shop but not entirely unpleasant. Creative and fancy font that spelled out "The Raven's Nest" and had a picture of a Raven sitting in a nest with a collection of different items. Dream looked at the display windows which showed arranged items and mannequins. Some of it was clothes that were designed in a mix of varying lights and darks. While there were assorted candles and dolls along with other unique antiques that Dream had recognized in some of the AUs that were either destroyed or just wiped from existence from. 

“oh… wow how’d she get her hands on things like these?” Dream couldn’t help but wonder. He decided to go in and ask.

As he entered, he saw how dark but enchanted it looked with all the sorts of lights that were lit up around the room. Their were assorted clothes, aisles of books about magic, meditation, medical herbs and natural resources, your zodiac signs and their meanings, incense galore of various enchanting smells, and of course antique items from small dolls to music boxes. The room itself was something that looked like it came from a Lewis Clark novel. Enchanting, strange, and overall mysterious. 

He finally found the front desk, but no one was there. He saw the service bell and decided to make use of it.

RRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGGGGG!

Oh! He liked that sound so he let his inner Blue go a bit. 

RING RING RING RING RING RING RING RING RING RING RING RING

...........