The ballroom's grand music is still in her ears as Brishen slowly opens her eyes. She blinks a few times before taking a deep breath and stretching her wings out as far as they can reach in the confines of the hall. A few moments pass before she furls her wings and stands. "Mf." She winces a little as she wraps her arms around herself and pads over to look down at Feli. "What are you dreaming about, hm?"

The Khatta doesn't answer; he's still quite asleep.

The Khatta stirs just a bit…

Brishen looks down at her dusty fur, at the patchwork gathering of cloth that would amount to a rather scandalous swimsuit on a distant sky-island. She sighs faintly, then shrugs and forages around for something to nibble on before settling down next to the Khatta.

Slowly, the black Khatta starts to rise up. His eyes look exceptionally groggy, and he clutches a paw to his head, propping himself up on one arm. "By the Star, what a weird dream… " He looks about with half-closed lids. "Oh, hello Brishen… " He cuts himself off with a large yawn.

Brishen breaks the melony thing she was eating in half, offering the end she's not nibbled on yet to Feli. "It would be nice if there were some bugs around here." She tilts her head slightly. "You wouldn't have danced with a handsome black bat, would you?"

Jynx accepts the melon, and takes a hungry bite. "I'll pass on the bugs. Black bat? No, can't say I dreamed of that." The feline thinks real hard to remember his dream. "Actually it was of a shadow… oh Dagh!" The cat leaps up, looking about wildly. "He could be anywhere now! But he said he'd help… "

Brishen squints an eye shut. "I think we may have both spoken to an old acquaintance, then. He was a good dancer."

Some of the gray dust from outside swirls about the floor, stirred up by Jynx's sudden movement.

"He-… it was a good arguer too. Now where is he?" The cat taps his foot expectantly, "He said he'd help. I hope his word is as good as he claimed… "

Jynx looks at the dust with a start. "How'd that get in here? I thought we were pretty far in… "

The dust continues to whirlwhind about, rising up until it's about Jynx's height. It starts to spread outwards, forming into something…

Brishen glances towards the entryway. "I really don't know. There are a few questions he never answered. I – Wires!"

Brishen stuffs a handful of vegetables into her satchel, then darts over to the Khatta.

The black Khatta backs away from the swirl. "I-… I think our friend is making his arrival… "

Two wings grow out of the dust, and a tail, and arms. Slowly it begins to solidify, taking on the form of a strange hybrid creature. It looks a bit like a solid black Khatta with slightly longer ears and a pair of stunted wings on its back. Or it could be an Eee with smaller wings, smaller ears, and a Khatta tail… or perhaps even a little bit of both.

Jynx freezes, and stares open-mouthed at Morpheus, "So… this is the form?" A looks of confusion crosses his muzzle, "Very… nice!" He forces a smile.

Brishen blinks a few times, watching the gathering of dust with large brown eyes.

The creature's wings flutter slightly, causing the dusts to swirl away and dissipate, "Thank you, Feli." He nods to Brishen, "Madame Kara."

Brishen smiles faintly. "You can call me Brishen. I've never been comfortable with honorifics."

Jynx looks to Brishen, "I-I guess you two have met as well." He looks back to the Catbat, "Well, it is indeed, interesting, if not flattering." He grins, "But now we must be on our way."

The 'catbat' nods. "Very well then. It's a bit of a walk… and you'll need to be mindful of the dreams running around here." His glowing eyes look about the room and fall upon an open doorway. "This way."

Brishen links arms with the Khatta. "Shall we?"

Jynx forces a grin, and crosses arms with the Eeee. "Let's!" As they follow belong, and after making sure Morpheus isn't looking, the Khatta looks to Brishen. "Do you trust him?" he signs.

Brishen's hand flickers. "As much as an unanswered question." She pats her satchel with a spare hand, to make sure the veggies are securely stowed within.

The Khatta just nods in return, his gaze returning to the strange hybrid in front of him. "What is this 'stasis' thing? And where will we find her?"

Morpheus' tail flicks slightly and he rounds a corner. "I sense a dream this way," he mumbles.

Brishen glances at Feli. "I've been wondering about that myself. I don't think the word is being used in quite the fashion I'm used to."

"I do not know. Perhaps it is a way to force someone to dream," Morpheus says. "Perhaps I can study it later."

Jynx shrugs, and just follows along with Brishen. "I've never heard the word at all myself, but I'm guessing it has to do with sleep." He sighs. "Everything else here does." He looks back to Morpheus. "Is it Last-Daughter that you sense?"

Morpheus stops abruptly. "No."

Jynx barely comes to a stop just behind the Catbat, almost bumping into him. He blinks. "Well, then wh-who is it?"

A bright light flashes up in the passageway ahead. The sound of armor jingles loudly, as does the whistling of a sword slicing through the air.

Brishen tilts her head, slightly. An ear twitches. "I think I've heard that sound before."

"Sound?" the Khatta asks. "What sound? I don't hear anything… "

Brishen shrugs faintly. "Armor, I think. A sword, too."

Jynx looks ahead at the light, "Wait, now I hear it… What is it? A warrior? Another ghost?"

Brishen wrinkles her muzzle, slightly. "Maybe it's the same one we saw before." A faint squeak escapes her, darting along the walls ahead.

The hybrid glances over his shoulder at Brishen and Jynx, and then begins walking forward again. Directly in front, a Savanite warrior steps out of the darkness. His sword glows in his armored hand, his other hand raises up to form the words, "Prepare to die, heretics of the Star!"

Jynx swallows, shakingly going forward. "R-remember, i-it's not real… " His body betrays his words though, as his fur puffs out in alarm.

The small brown Eeee tilts her head, slightly. "Well, I think he's a completely different sword-waving lunatic."

The black Khatta pulls the Eeee along, trying to stay behind Morpheus. "How can you tell? One sword-waving lunatic is more than enough for me… "

The warrior charges straight towards Jynx and Brishen. His sword sings as it cuts through the air… and passes right through Morpheus.

Brishen closes her eyes tightly, then grins at Feli. "When my eyes are closed, I can't see him."

Jynx jolts to a halt, and whereas the bat's eyes are shut, his eyes are wide open. "Uhh… d-did he just attack… Morpheus?" He looks to the Eeee, "It m-might be a good idea to keep them open… " He presses forward, albeit slowly.

Brishen opens her eyes. "What?"

The skin on Jynx and Brishen seems to tingle for a moment, and then the warrior rushes straight through them, vanishing down the hall behind them.

The black Khatta tenses as the warrior hurtles by, then relaxes with an sudible sigh of relief. "Heh… I guess my n-nerves are starting to get to me… Let's go." Embarassed, he tries to catch up with the Catbat.

"The dreams get weaker up ahead. They've spread out from their origin point," Morpheus comments, and then walks through a closed doorway.

Brishen rubs her arms gently as she looks towards Morpheus. "That was peculiar."

Jynx's ears twitch, "Origin point? Does that mean we're getting closer?" He tries to look ahead of Morpheus.

That turns out to be rather difficult to do, since the catbat just walked through a solid object.

Brishen walks up to the doorway and peers at it thoughtfully, then starts looking about for a way through. An ear twitches. "I suppose he could answer had he not walked through this door."

The Khatta grimaces. "Well, let's get it open before he gets lost… er, that is, we get lost." He begins to look for some sort of latch or knob.

The words "Crew Chambers" are formed on the doorway in red Savanite lettering. A handle looks to be the easiest way into the door.

Brishen giggles faintly as she turns the handle, then gives the door a gentle tug. "I think we shall require a more mundane means of gaining passage."

Jynx grins sheepishly. "I guess so. After you, Madame." The feline gives Brishen a wide arms sweep towards the door.

A scraping sound, and the door tugs open. Brishen and Jynx are hit with a strong gust of rather chilly air. The inside of the chamber is lit with an odd green glow.

Brishen looks over her shoulder at Feli, her ears backlit by the peculiar green glow. "Don't you start calling me 'Madame'." She slips through the opening presented and blinks in the odd light.

Goosebumps rise on the Khatta's skin, and his fur puffs up to demonstrate the fact, and he then follows in after the bat. "Yes ma'am. Brrr! I think this room was mislabeled. It feels more like the meat locker!" He blinks at the strange light, waiting for his eyes to adjust.

Morpheus stands quietly, admiring several strange cylindrical containers in the center of the room. Odd glowing screens light the room, flashing bits of handsign.

Brishen pokes at Feli's side. "Not 'ma'am', either. You make it sound like I'm ancient, or something."

"Okay, 'miss' then," grins the cat, happy just to find time to joke in a situation like this. He slowly makes his way over to the hybrid, and stares up at the cylinders. "What… what are they?"

"The dreamers," Morpheus responds. His wings flicker soundlessly. "Can you read any of the writings here?"

Brishen shivers faintly as she steps up to one of the strange glass windows, under which the handsign flickers. "I can."

Jynx looks up quizzically, "The dreamers? Yes, we can both read it, I think."

The catbat flitters his wings again, hovering slightly off the floor to peer into a 'window' on one of the cylinders. Written above it in sign is 'Ocean-Finder'.

Brishen draws a hand up to her mouth. "I – I'm not sure I understand this. It mentions something about the crew being dead." She squints; first at the cylinders, then back at the writing caught under glass. "But the passengers are still alive, I think. It says that resources are being diverted."

The black Cat squints at the words. "Ocean-Finder – wasn't that one of the ghosts we saw in the atrium?" He blinks at Brishen as she reads the strange words, "Alive? But… where are they then? And what resources?" He wipes at one of the cylinders, trying to see under the glass.

Suspended in a greenish liquid is a Savanite. They all look relatively alike, but the writing on Jynx's chamber reads 'Justice's-Hand'. It looks a bit like the Savanite being chased by the black knight. He doesn't LOOK dead… but he doesn't look very alive either.

Jynx backs away from the disturbing sight – disturbing to him at least. "What's wrong with them? And what is that… stuff around them?" He turns back to the hybrid. "What do we do?"

Brishen shrugs, shaking her head. "Well, it says the crew is terminal. That doesn't sound good to me." She scoops her wings a little, floating up to look at the cylinders. "And I don't know what resources it's diverting, or what the resources even are. I've never seen anything like this before."

Brishen pauses, dangling from a spot near Ocean-Finder's cylinder. "If they're dreaming, all of this must be keeping them alive, somehow."

"Then they're all asleep?" He presses himself close to one of the cylinders, "But why haven't they drowned, and how do we wake them up?" He looks around at all the writing, "It has to say how somewhere."

"You ask questions that nobody knows the answers to. Is it common to do such?" Morpheus circles onto another cylinder. "What precisely is 'alive', and 'dead'?"

The surface Jynx leans against is extremely cold, colder than anything else in the room. The window is covered with frost.

Brishen dangles from the ceiling. She fixes her bright brown eyes on Morpheus. "It's very common. How can we answer the questions no one knows the answers to, unless we ask the questions?"

Jynx looks up to Morpheus, trying not to be annoyed. "Well, I guess it's common. And to be alive is to be… living. Dead is when… well, when your body stops working, and you cease to exist." He continues to search for instructions, wiping at various cylinders. "Why didn't they freeze to death either?" he muses to himself.

Brishen scrambles across the ceiling. She only seems to have the barest footholds, but given how little she weighs at the moment, that's probably all she needs. She looks down at the handsign. "Feli, we still haven't found Last-Daughter."

Another cylinder bears the words, 'Father's-Pride'; the rest bear titles for crew. There seems to be about seven total. The screens next to each flash things about 'Terminal functions, stasis breakdown,' and other things. On each pod is a small metal wheel.

The Khatta continues to go from cylinder to cylinder, scraping the frost away at each. "I know, I know… but if all of these people are still alive, shouldn't we save them too?" He peers into the containers marked for the crew.

Brishen glances at Morpheus. "Can you tell who is dreaming, and who's not?"

The hybrid's eyes close momentarialy. "They all are… or were. They will not dream anymore."

"Who will not dream anymore?" asks Jynx. "All of them? Does that mean they are all dead?"

Each cylinder holds a Savanite, one seems to be frozen solid, another has dried into a husk, another floats quietly in the liquid of his pod, another looks half-melted…

"They will not dream anymore. If dead people do not dream, then they are dead." Morpheus shrugs. "The one you call Last-Daughter is not here."

The black Khatta's stomach churns at the various morbid sights he comes to, his heart pounding. He stops, then turns back to Morpheus. "What do you mean she's not here? Where is she then?"

Brishen's eyes get very wide. She scrambles over to Ocean-Finder's cylinder, then back to the text-windows. "There's still hope for these." She looks over her shoulder at the metal wheel. "We've got to get them out." After a moment's thought she flutters about, looking for something that could serve as instructions.

"Deeper in." The hybrid points to another door. "That way."

Jynx makes his way to the door, "Are you sure, Brishen? They all look dead to me, and we still need to find Last-Daughter."

There don't seem to be any direct 'open pod' instructions. But finally Brishen does manage to find a screen with 'release controls' signs on it in glowing green lettering.

Brishen shakes her head and points to Ocean-Finder. "He's not dead. Some of the others aren't either. Just the crew. The window said resources were still being diverted to the passengers, so they might still be alive."

Brishen stares at the screen. An ear twitches.

The Khatta inspects the door, then turns back to Brishen and Morpheus. "I guess we should get them out then. Any idea how yet?"

Brishen shakes her head. "I don't know – Maybe Last-Daughter would, but if she's like this she won't be able to help us."

Jynx nods, and pads back over to the bat. He looks at the screen labeled 'release controls'. "How about this?"

The screen in front of Brishen displays seven circles, each of which are flashing red. A bar points out from each red circle reading 'terminal'. Below it are the words 'release control' with a corresponding button for each pod.

Brishen blinks a few times, her ears growing ashen. She casts about for something similar, for the passengers.

It sppears the layout on the screen is the same as the layout for the room, almost like a map.

Brishen works her way along the map, looking back at the cylinders until she matches one with Ocean-Finder.

There it is… right alongside the other red flashing buttons. An arrow marking it as 'terminal' flashes brightly.

Jynx peers at the terminal, "That doesn't look good… "

Brishen holds her hands over her face for a moment, then shakes her head. "It's not." She sighs quietly, then floats over towards where Morpheus indicated Last-Daughter would be.

The Khatta frowns, his assumption turning out to be true. He follows after the bat, over towards the door that leads to Last-Daughter. "Morpheus? You coming?"

"Of course." The hybrid steps through the open hatch and vanishes around a corner.

Brishen floats after Morpheus. Her feet rarely touch the deck.

Jynx shrugs, following behind the others. "Well, he leads, we follow, I suppose."

The walk is uneventful for once, leading down several darkened passageways, rooms overgrown with plants and half-flooded with water. But finally the shadowy creature guides Brishen and Jynx to a chamber filled with more cylinders, at least twenty. Only one seems to be in use, though.

The Khatta pads over to the cylinder, wiping whatever frost may be on it away.

Brishen darts past a row of empty cylinders, pausing with a flutter of dark wings above Feli.

There's a bit of moisture, and the surface is cool to the touch. Beyond the window floats the face of a familiar Savanite cub. It's Last-Daughter; it must be.

"It's her!" exclaims Jynx, "We've found her!" He smiles up to Brishen. "Quick, look for a panel like that one; we have to get her out!"

Brishen blinks a few times, then scouts about for a suitable panel. "I'm looking!"

There's one right next to the pod. The readings on it seem much more appealing. "System malfunction, power diverted, life signs still within acceptable parameters." The screen also holds a release mechanism.

Brishen looks back at Feli. "I think she's still all right. I – " She furrows her brow. "I'm not sure what to do next – Stand near the cylinder; you may have to catch her."

Morpheus stands back. "Have I brought you to the correct place?"

Jynx nods in affirmation, and takes up position by the cylinder. "I'm ready when you are, but don't touch anything that looks bad!" He turns his head to Morpheus, and smiles, "Yes, yes, you have! Thank you!"

Brishen glances at Morpheus, smiling faintly, then turns to study the panel. "It's simple, I think. I hope. Watch the cylinder, Feli!"

Brishen closes her eyes and takes a deep breath – Then, she touches the release button.

The Khatta gets ready.

A sloshing noise issues from the chamber and the greenish liquid is sucked out through tubes. The pod begins to hum softly, and then the door hisses open – Right behind it a Savanite cub tumbles out and into Jynx's arms.

"Our pact is sealed then. I will be going now." Morpheus turns and walks back towards the door.

Brishen pauses, then darts towards Morpheus. "Wait!"

Jynx jolts forward, picking the cub up and cradling her as she tumbles forward. "I've got her!" He listens to her to make sure she's all right, then turns to the hybrid. "Wait! Where are you going?"

Morpheus looks back over his shoulder. "What is it?" His wings rustle.

The cub is motionless at first, as though she were dead. And then she starts to quiver a little and squirm in Jynx's arms.

Brishen's eyes are bright and wide open as she looks at the peculiar hybrid of dust and something else. "Thank you."

The black Khatta starts to wipe the green goo off the cub, "Are you just going to leave now? I mean – " He stops as the kitten moves, looking down at her face, then up to Brishen. "We need to go somewhere warmer."

The cub squirms, and then spasms as she chokes the green fluid out of her lungs. Unfortunately she does this all over Jynx… ew.

"I can lead you back. But that is the extent." Morpheus glances out the door. "I apologise, but I have been in your company for the past several weeks… I would like to experience some time on my own as soon as I can, now that I am able to do so."

Jynx grimaces as the kitten coughs the thick liquid up onto him, and is briefly reminded of Eve as a baby. Nevertheless, he keeps her close to warm her small body. "Yes, thank you, thank you for all your help. I'll hold up my end of the bargain, and leave you be."

Slowly, Last-Daughter's eyes open. She reaches out and pats the side of Jynx's face, as if testing whether he were real or not.

Brishen blinks a few times, then turns to crouch down near Feli and Last-Daughter. She wrinkles her muzzle a little, then starts to gently brush the goo from the kitten's fur. "There's got to be clothes around here, somewhere."

The black Khatta smiles down at the cub, then frees one hand to sign to her. "See? I'm not a demon." He looks down at Brishen, "Yeah, she'll need some, and we still need to warm her up."

Brishen spreads her wings, smiling. "I think I can help with that."

"Good bye," Morpheus says, and steps out the doorway. His black form vanishes in the shadows.

The cub's hands quiver, "Not… dreaming?"

Brishen shakes her head and signs back, "No, you aren't dreaming."

Jynx shakes his head in agreement with Brishen, then starts to make his way to where they came from. "C'mon, let's go back to the atrium. It's warmer there and we can get her something to eat."

Brishen looks to the shadows, then back at Feli. "You're going to have to tell me about your dream, sometime." She wraps a wing around Last-Daughter.

Last-Daughter clings to Jynx. She's actually a bit smaller than Eve – on the verge of bring too big to carry properly but still manageable.

Jynx continues to cradle the kitten, heading back out the doorway from which they came. "I will, but only if you tell me about yours too." He grins at the bat. Once he is out in the darkness of the hall, he gives a small sigh. "Well cat, I guess it's over. Now what?" He pushes the thought deep down for now, and makes his way back to the greenery room.

Brishen grins. "I can live with that. Morpheus turned out to be a good dancer."

Brishen grins at Feli, then turns, floating on ahead to the atrium. Something tickles the back of an ear; a few bits of information that don't really add up, questions that haven't been answered yet, the faint sense that she doesn't have all of the pieces just yet. She frowns, slightly, and shrugs. There'll be time enough once everything has settled down, to trade dreams and answers with the black Khatta.