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I had been napping in darkness while the transport took us out of the city. The empty void that I was so very used to was never comforting. Luckily, I seldom remembered it when I awoke. This time, however, I did not wake upon my own volition. Something pulled me from sleep; something powerful and dangerous. My eyes opened as the entity approached and I was faced with a young looking bear sitting down across from us. I could tell that Ben didn't like him. The wolf was scowling. I watched as the bear's pocket shimmered slightly. It was barely perceivable; nothing that the Commune would be able to detect, but it was a Dream nonetheless. He must have been the one I sensed earlier. The bear pulled a bit of food wrapped in plastic from his pocket and opened it. The creation of something so specific was alarming. I wondered just how practiced this individual was at Dreaming. The bear must have noticed that I was staring.

"Can I help you?" He asked. His voice was baritone, unlike Ben's mid tenor tone.

"Oh shit! Sorry," Ben said. "Sam this is Marcus. Marcus; Sam."

I held my hand out for the bear to shake, which he did. I thought it was a strange custom.

"Cool synth," he said.

"Where did you get that snack?" I countered.

"From my pocket."

I didn't nod or respond. Instead I examined him with my eyes more closely. Surface scans revealed nothing out of the ordinary. His appearance was that of a normal, genetically altered human.

"So, Sam, are you, like, Ben's father or something?" Marcus asked suddenly.

Ben started to sputter in alarm next to me. I just smiled.

"No, no. We recently met," I replied.

I needed to find out more. A more intensive scan was necessary, but I could not risk revealing myself to the humans on the transport. Instilling the suggestion of sleep was simple enough and soon everyone on the car was slumbering peacefully. I did not have as much experience with small Dreams and I had seldom tried a Consciousness Infiltration. The Commune had banned anchoring one's own psyche another's long ago, but it was a necessary process here if I was going to discover how this human had acquired the ability to Dream without our influence. Infiltrating the bear's mind could have alerted The Commune's Core to my location, but if he was left to Dream on his own, he might inadvertently draw them here regardless. I closed my eyes and sought out Marcus's mind. It was not difficult to locate. He was using far more of his brain than most humans naturally could. I let go of my physical body, the synthetic form dissolving as I did. I would need to use it again, but the Dream was easy to recall.

In the ethereal bridge between our minds, I saw a large door. I pushed on it, expecting it to open easily, but it stood firm. That was unusual. I did not want to force my way in. Causing trauma was not my intent. I needed him to let me enter.

Maybe...

I altered my appearance. It was not difficult to imagine myself as someone else; someone that the bear would accept into his mind. Ben and Marcus both seemed to know each other and I easily assumed the young wolf's shape. As my hand neared the door for the second time, it opened slightly to let me through. I was in.

I was assailed by sounds and images that were not my own. An image of a cheetah appeared before me. He was laughing about something. A female rat was next with an un-amused smirk on her face. An older lion, shirtless and dancing against a backdrop of lights emerged and then faded back into muddy, muffled blackness. Marcus's mind was a mess. Jumbles of unorganized thought appeared and disappeared around me and none lasted for longer than a moment. It was chaos. The noisy whirlwind of thoughts and emotions threatened to sweep me away with them. My inexperience in this kind of Dreaming was to blame. I was used to order and meticulous thought processes. This was anything but that. I held my ground against the tempest, closing my eyes to shut out the sights. If I didn't anchor myself to Marcus's subconscious mind, then any Dream he traveled with would leave me behind. First I needed order. I would have to stretch my sculpting synapses. I thought of one thing. A single, but complex thought. I pictured a white, synthetic room in my mind's eye: white carpet, black furniture, no windows, a fake potted plant on the black end table, and a hot pot of Ingoram Black Tea steaming next to it. The noise around me grew distant and I let myself inhale a deep breath, taking in the smell of synthetic materials around me. When I opened my eyes the room was exactly as I had pictured it... with a few alterations. Marcus's influence had shaped certain parts of the room. Like the pile of junk in one of the corners and the clothes strewn about. I grimaced and concentrated a bit harder, forcing that pile of junk into a neatly arranged filing cabinet and the clothes into a closet.

That was much better. I poured myself a cup of the Ingoram Tea and sipped it as I browsed through the memories in the cabinet. It tasted spicy and strong. Just the way I enjoyed it. I needed to find something that would anchor my mind to Mark. I discovered that the cheetah's name was Joel and apparently Mark was infatuated with him. I found most of Marcus's actions to be barbaric and primitive. It was not the sign of an accomplished or practiced Dreamer. He was prone to fantasy, meaning he was extremely dangerous. It would probably be better to lock his Dreaming abilities away. I doubted he could learn to accept the responsibility he now had, unless he knew about it or he was trained from birth. The anchor had to come first, however, lest Marcus should inadvertently Dream while I was searching his mind. I needed to find an ancient memory. Something that was less of an actual memory and more of an instinct. The memories in the cabinet were strangely single-minded. Marcus appeared to have troubleresisting his primal urges. The ursine was immensely sexually driven. Perhaps that would suffice as my anchor. I closed the cabinet and summoned my host.

Marcus appeared in the white room with a bewildered expression on his face.

"Where...? Ben?" He asked me.

I decided the façade wasn't worth it. I said nothing as I became Sam again and approached him.

"Sam-?" he began, but I held a finger to my lips.

"My name is Orion."

"I don't understand..." he was uneasy. I had a feeling he knew that this was more than a normal dream.

"You do not need to understand. Let me take care of everything."

I embraced him and our lips touched. I felt the heat that rushed to his cheeks as my tongue invaded his mouth. There was no love in this and I felt no emotion at all. It was a means to an end. My canine tongue rubbed across his lewdly. I heard him moan; felt his heart beat increase speed. He leaned into me and I ran my fingers over his back. Something rose between us; throbbing and thick. I knew enough about human sexual behavior to carefully guide Marcus to a bed that manifested in the room. His muscular frame hit the mattress and I followed, pinning him down. I let my tongue slip from his mouth, sliding it down his cheek to his neck and making him groan aloud. I suckled on his flesh there for a while, letting him get used to the idea of losing control over the situation. I lifted my mouth from his damp fur and looked into his eyes. They pleaded with me.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"M-more..." he whined, his erection throbbing against my furry belly.

"More of what?" I wanted to be sure he would put up no resistance. The anchor would fail if he interfered.

He whimpered under me, looking at me with those green eyes that begged me to go on; to keep pleasuring him. They were eyes that held the answer I sought. Black manacles fastened around his wrists, pulling them together above his head. I removed my grip from his wrists. There was no need to hold him down any more. His expression never changed. He was still looking up at me expectantly. I watched his maleness pulse on his stomach, drooling clear fluid into his navel. I smiled kindly at him as I ran a hand through his thick chest fur. The anchor was not working. I would need to go further to implant myself on his psyche. I lifted his legs resting the ankles on my shoulders. I imagined a decent sized erection for myself. It was black and it dripped against his hole. He gasped as I entered. It was all for necessity, but I smiled and made a show of enjoying it for him. He moaned and whined loudly as I pushed inside, forcing it all of the way in. His member stood upright when I finally hilted, drooling a line of precum down the shaft. Leaning forward, I began to thrust, making him yelp in need and desire. His face contorted into an expression of bliss and effort. I pulled him tightly to my chest, our nipples rubbing together as my stomach fur tickled his throbbing bear meat.

The thought of what that meat tasted like crossed my mind. I tried to push it away, but it wouldn't leave my brain. I had to admit his clenching around me was extremely pleasurable. I could feel the anchor solidifying between us as I looked at his passionate face. He really was rather handsome. I licked his cheek and watched him twitch in response. His muscular chest heaved under me. We groaned in unison. I realized, then, that we both wanted the same thing. He clutched me, digging his short claws into my back as I pounded him, trying to enter him as deeply as possible, and trying to give him as much pleasure as I could. The anchor no longer mattered. Pleasing him was more important. My breath left my lungs in ragged gasps, my heart beating in time with his. There was something in this act that was foreign to me. It was something strange and amazing; something my kind had abandoned in our quest for knowledge. Instincts long forgotten welled up inside of my being, driving my hips forward with carnal delight. I reveled in his reactions. The way the bear under me writhed every time I hilted inside of him; the way he gasped softly as I nibbled on his neck; the way he clung to me for dear life, desperately riding the same pleasurable wave that I did, I was in control of all of him.

The room fell apart around us as I gave in to my instinctual lust. Tension a millennia-old was forced away from me. It was liberating. Colors and shapes indistinct from one another flew by as I mated him. I clutched him to me, biting his shoulder in passion as we fell, landing in a grassy field. The soft impact was enough to push him over the edge and he suddenly erupted between us, his thick, beautiful cock spurting ropes of his gooey seed onto our bellies. My finger dragged through it, bringing the potent smelling substance to my muzzle. My tongue lashed out, the taste of his essence rolling over it like the bouquet of a fine wine. I felt his ass bear down hard around me and I let go with a deafening roar. My synthetic cum filled him with warmth around my cock as it throbbed and twitched uncontrollably inside. The pleasure assailed my entire being. I had never felt something like it before.

However, the loss of control in that moment was frightening.

The spasms of bliss did not last long and soon, Marcus and I were panting together, just gazing into each others' eyes. I had a feeling that it would be better if he did not remember our coupling. I smiled one last time at him; a genuine smile this time, and then sent him away, hiding the memory in my own mind instead. I rolled onto my back in the grass, gazing up at a blue sky dotted with wispy clouds. I wondered if he and I could live in peace together. No. His life-span was far too short; a fleeting moment to most of my kind. I was practically immortal by human standards and the human mind would not allow for a Dream that complex.

The grassy field-scape vanished and humidity assaulted me. I began to pant as I stood. Marcus was Dreaming. The Dream didn't feel dangerous, though, so I let it continue, observing what the bear would Dream about. Loud music and writhing bodies surrounded me. Flashing strobe lights briefly lit some of them. They were a myriad of creatures, but there were more regular looking humans than animal ones in the crowd. I spotted Marcus sitting at the bar and quickly slipped myself under his arm. Mark was chatting with a human next to him. Eventually a human female emerged from the sea of dancers and approached the bar. Mark encouraged the man next to him.

"Through playing matchmaker?" I asked when Mark turned back to me.

He gazed at me for a moment.

"For now," he said as he kissed me on the nose.

"I'm ready to go if you are, Mark."

He vanished and the scene disappeared along with him. I was left in my white room once again. The bear must have woken up. I set about investigating his mind further. I needed to disable his Dreaming ability before he ended up causing some real harm to himself or the universe. Now that his conscious mind was awake and focused on other things, it was easier to wander without being assaulted by chaos. I was focused on his memories as a young child when a terrible sense of dread overwhelmed me. It was as if something had been waiting for me there in the bear's mind, hidden deep below his deepest memories. I was unprepared for the black mass of The Core. The blob wasn't the actual shape of it, merely a representation of it that Marcus would have been reasonably able to comprehend. The orange orb-like eye squinted at me curiously. I was hoping that it wouldn't be able to tell who I was.

"Hello, Centurion Orion," it said.

Well so much for that hope.

"Core." I was trying to be as neutral as possible. I didn't want it to know what I had found in the Bear's mind.

"We have been expecting you. A squad of Phalanx Class has been dispatched to... Earth. It would be easiest if you gave yourself up freely. After all we would not enjoy destroying that primitive planet."

"All that I have done is because of you. Everything that has happened is your doing," I spat at it. It was incredibly difficult to hide the disdain. The Core seemed to notice.

"Actually, Centurion, everything that has happened is yours. We will not allow you to meddle in the affairs of the universe any longer. Should you continue down this path, we will be forced to annihilate that puny world and everything on it."

The words were confusing. I had not even began my experiments yet. Marcus's Dreams could not have been because of me. Perhaps The Core was the cause of Marcus's Dreaming. Access to that kind of energy was something even we were limited in and it appeared that the bear had a constant and direct link with the thing. I would need to sever it.

"Send your troops, then. When they arrive, I will go with them peacefully."

The Core drew close to me, the orange ball narrowing as it did. This representation smelled awful; like rotting meat and sulfur. The blob recoiled slowly, the orange sphere staying at eye level as it did.

"You must promise you will surrender yourself without resistance. Promise it on your heritage as one of us."

I grimaced. I had been hoping that the time it took the Phalanx Class soldiers to get to Earth would be enough for me to find out what I needed to know about Marcus. But if I made a promise to The Core, I would not be able to break it even if I wanted to. An oath sworn to The Commune's core was a binding ritual. It would be a voluntary acceptance of an anchor in my psyche. It would be The Core's leash to keep me in check. Investigation would be nearly impossible. However, did I want to risk the safety of Marcus and this entire planet? My father had risked it. He and all of his work were destroyed in the blink of an eye. I didn't want to be my father. Something shifted in my mind. I didn't want to lose Marcus either.

I opened my mouth to speak; to make my oath, but The Core suddenly burst into flames. The white hot fire swiftly spread over it, boiling the black ooze. It shrieked as it burned, cursing my name. I had done nothing. Was Marcus's unconscious mind fighting back against it? No. He should not have been aware that we were here. And yet, Marcus was there. He stood next to me as he watched The Core burn in his mind, glaring at it with the intent and focus of an experienced Dreamer. His eyes narrowed, fury gleaming through them as more flames erupted over the screaming mass of black ooze. The fire continued until the goo surrounding The Core was gone and the orange sphere was nothing but ash. I imagined that he had caused the real core much discomfort by forcibly disconnecting himself that way. An expression of relief spread over his features as if a great weight had been lifted from him.

"God that felt good. I've been waiting years to do that," he said, letting a smile creep across his face.

I could see now that he was different; older than the Marcus I knew. There were gray hairs dotted about his otherwise brown fur and his muscles were not as defined.

"Who are you?" I asked. "How did you get in here?"

"Orion, don't be a fool. I am Marcus Dunham, but you know that already, don't you."

I tried to fathom this. Marcus shouldn't have had the presence of mind to find me in his subconscious. He also seemed much more tired. His eyes showed signs of age and regret.

"Are you Marcus's inner self?" I guessed. It was the first time I had been confused about something in eons.

"No. Take my hand, Orion. Let me show you the way like you showed it to me so long ago. It's time I returned the favor anyway."

He held out his open palm towards me. Something told me that I could trust him. Uncertainty was not a feeling I was used to. It made me greatly uncomfortable, but what choice did I have? I took the offered hand and we vanished from Marcus's mind.

We appeared to be standing on a broken rooftop. The ruins of a city spread in all directions outward from that location. Small glowing lights dotted the otherwise dark streets. They flickered like fire light. The streets were devoid of people, filled instead with trash and abandoned vehicles. The buildings were mostly destroyed. Some of the larger skyscrapers were still barely standing, but the tops of them had long since fallen, leaving only the lower floors. Holes covered their walls, making them look like metal Swiss cheese. The sky above us crackled with lightning that arced across the sea of dark clouds. They seemed to go on forever around us on all sides. The sight was breathtaking. It was also depressing.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"New York City. The same city you crashed in twenty years ago," he replied.

The look on his face was a grim one. It told me that he was not lying, but I had never thought traveling through time was possible, even for us.

"This is a joke, is it not? This is all some kind of elaborate illusion."

Marcus shook his head.

"No. This is no illusion. I sometimes wish it was, though. When we met back then, you told me about your father's work. You told me that I was what your father had been searching for, whatever that means."

"You can Dream without our influence," I said. "How long have you had the ability?"

"A very long time..."

His words trailed off as if he was thinking very hard about something. A cold wind whistled past us on the roof.

"I'm sorry," he said. "It's been a while since I was able to think so clearly. I brought you here to ask you to stop all of this. Meet me in the past. Tell me honestly about what you are and your father's research. Don't block my Dreams, teach me how to control them."

I turned away from him. This was nearly too strange to be believed. I looked out over the desolate city and grimaced. The char-blackened mountains in the distance smoldered as if they were all waiting to erupt. I could tell that the very planet was on the brink of death.

"If you can travel through time, then why send someone like me to do this?"

"Because that's not how things happened. Besides, time travel is very complex. I can't go back to a time when I exist in the same fashion. When I arrived in my own mind, I was a thought; not a physical being, just like you were in that moment. If my past self exists physically in the same location in time, I'm unable to physically go there."

"I see."

I walked back to him, looking him over once more. He was a fine looking bear despite the hardships he had no doubt been through. I nodded.

"I will do as you ask, but first tell me... what caused all of this? Was it The Core? The Commune's Phalanx?"

Marcus put a hand on my shoulder. We were suddenly standing on a square section of grass in front of a building with the words Enterprise Hall etched into the metal wall above the door. A solemn look crossed Marcus's face.

"It was you, Orion," he said.

Tears welled up in his eyes and I reached a hand out to him, but he vanished. I was left alone in front of the stoic building, my thoughts buzzing through my head like a cloud of angry bees.