Symbols POV

I lay down under the shade of a tree away from the cabin, trying to clear my head. I hated these days, with my mental barriers gone I was forced to live with these random feelings of anger and stress. It wouldn't have hit as hard if not for the fact that my body once was a prison to one of the most powerful Nightmare Fuels in existence, it's darkness leaving lasting damage to my mental stability. I just needed to be left alone long enough to cool down, or at least be around someone I really care about.

Things aren't going well, my insanity is beginning to resurface, I cannot allow Ashley to see me in such a state, she's still counting on me to teach her and be someone to follow. I just wish that I could do away with the darkness in my soul, but if I know that there is no way of doing that without destroying True Xram and The Nightmare King, but I am nowhere near strong enough to do something like that.

'What're you doing you idiot? You should be trying to find the Nightmare in this world, yet you sit here and dwell on your self pity.' I heard my inner thoughts speak to me, great, now I'm hearing voices, I really am insane.

Sighing, I sat up and looked down at the grass under me, seeming so colourful and lush. You know something is wrong when the grass seems more alive than you do.

Can I even be considered alive anymore? My body isn't even complete, it's just a physical manifestation of my broken soul, most of which was destroyed when I first fought Xram. I need to find a way to complete myself, if I don't my remaining sanity will slip away and I'll be no better than a Nightmare, a soulless killer.

As I was about to leave my spot and check up on Symph's energy levels, he's a little unstable and requires the energy of another, I looked to my hand and saw that small tongues of fire where seeping from it. "No not now!" The fire began to seep from my other hand as well. "I need to get away from here, now!" I tried to summon a portal, but I failed to do so. I then pulled out Sean and Ashley's token to try to enter the void, but failed again.

I could not let anyone see what was about to happen...

Ashley's POV

"Symbol!? Symbol where are you?!" I called out as I walked through the woods with Symph and Rainbow Dash who hovered beside me, Abi had stayed behind to prepare something, she didn't give me any details. It had been awhile since Symbol had left and I had started to get worried, so Symph suggested that we look for him. Dash, suspecting adventure, decided to tag along, hoping to face down another Nightmare. "He said he'd be back before five, it's seven now, where is he?"

"It's likely that he may have come across something of great importance or had a run in with an old foe, either that or he's fallen asleep somewhere." Symph stated as he pushed a large branch out of the way with a tendril.

"Maybe, but I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this, somethings wrong, I can feel it."

Symph looked up at me with a smile. "Ah, I see you're learning."

"What?"

"In our displaced family, there is a lot of troublesome things and unfortunate events that take place, so much so that most of us have developed a sort of sixth sense that tells us if something has gone wrong, I see that you're beginning to become more aware." He answered in his polite tone while walking a little ahead of us.

I just looked to him then to my hands, wondering just how much I would change over the next few years of my life. Simply being around these people seems to have an effect on me in some shape or form, I just wonder if it's for better or for worse.

"You ok there Ashley? You're kinda staring off into space." I heard Rainbow ask as she looked at me with her head tilted.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just thinking about some stuff." I answered as I shook my head to clear my thoughts so that I could focus on the task at hand. We were about to turn back to try another area when we heard Symbols voice cry out in the distance.

"SYYYYYMMMMPPPPHHHH!!!" His voice sounded panicky, like he was in trouble. I was about to blast off towards his location when Symph put up his hand to stop me.

"Stop, I know that tone he's using, he only wants me to come, you two head back to the cabin. Do not follow." He jumped into the air and his body became a small black vortex with his eyes in the middle. He closed his eyes and the vortex disappeared, I was guessing that this was his own form of teleportation.

"Soooo...we gonna go after them?" Dash asked.

"Yep." I am tired of not knowing things around here, I am going to know what us wrong, and I don't care if I get yelled at or punished in any way, I need to know.

Symph's POV

I landed in a small, snow covered clearing in the middle of a forest. I sensed my fathers presence close by, his energy unstable.

As I walked I noticed that some if the snow was melted, small puddles littering the path. The puddles became bigger as I walked along, less and less snow in the area and the air staring to feel unnaturally warm for a winter area. "S-Symph..." I heard a shaky voice say.

Turning around my eyes widened as I saw my father. Fire coating his body as he was on his knees, one hand gripping the ground while the other was covering his left eye which was burning with a strong purple flame. "Father, what's happening?" I questioned as I rushed to him, checking him over, his physical body's colour seemed to be fading away, turning his body grey.

"My..,m-my magic...i-in my soul...is unstable...its...breaking my body down...I...need...a Reality Star, and f-fast."

I nodded and set him down with his back against a tree. "I'll be back soon, do not worry father." I opened a portal and jumped into the void.

Author's Notes:

Well, looks like Symbol is really feeling the effects of his damaged body, but how much longer can he last without a complete body? Because unlike most of the displaced and displacers in the Nightmare-verse, Symbol is not immortal.