Generation 3, Chapter 6: Dreams weren't meant to last forever

Something in my life, in this world, just didn't feel right. Though I had succeeded in forming a tighter bond with Copper and Chambray, gaining one of their alien suits even, and having high hopes of getting the hell out of here, there was still something missing. Something that couldn't be explained.

Like when I was sleeping. They were always dreamless. But that wasn't the weirdest part.

I had the urge to sleep, yes, though I never felt tired. And when I woke up, I felt the same. The refreshing and energizing feeling that was always there suddenly wasn't. It all started after I woke up on this new world.

Could it be because of that? Had the new environment had a negative impact on my physiology? Or was it because of Copper's experiments on me and his probing of my mind?

The questions haunted me, each time the room fell silent. When I was alone.

"If only you knew...," a voice chuckled from the doorway.

Though I wanted to yell for Chambray to get the hell out of my room, it occurred to me that the voice didn't sound as if it belonged to Cham. That gave me reason enough to tilt my head up and try to see who it could be.

The sight shocked me.

Fully clad in normal attire and wearing her blonde hair in a bun, my mother stood in front of me. Out of all the hallucinations I could have, she had to be the one that appeared.

"Please, go away, mom. It's bad enough that we don't talk back on earth. Now you're forcing me to talk to you on a different planet, and might I say, in my dreams."

"Oh, Amelia. Open your bloody eyes already! Do I look like your mother?!" the person that resembled my mother sighed, rolling her eyes dramatically away from me. I knew that movement. There was only one person who always behaved like that, who talked that way. Squinting at the person while still lying on my back, I noticed the small difference.

While the person had all the features that made her look like my mother, she lacked her blue eyes.

Instead, her eyes were brown.

The eye color my sister had.

Charlotte.

"It's all coming together now, isn't it?" she chuckled again. The sound of her laughter almost made me cry. I missed listening to her snide comments, to her unending bickering. The pain that her words caused me would hurt, but would not hurt as much as the reality that she was dead.

Could it already have been ten years since the accident?

"God, no. It's been more than that, a LOT more than ten years. Maybe going on twenty," Charlotte smirked, crossing her arms tightly in front of her chest. She seemed to have a direct line into my thoughts. "You just don't remember. Oh, the irony. For all the intellect you might have, you can't even remember that. Of course, you did go through a lot of horror, and you tried to block it all out when you couldn't deal with it. Unfortunately, your mind blocked out the wrong things."

"What...the...f-"

"I'm not real, Amelia," the image of my sister interrupted before I could finish my crude statement. "That much has to be obvious. I represent a small portion of your mind that hasn't been affected by your emotions. The part that's still the real you, that's protecting you. Your own brain is split into two factions, and they're fighting for control. The real you is losing. Sooner or later, this dream will completely take over, and you'll never wake up. "

"You're...you're not making any sense, Charlotte," my head shook slowly, denying the facts that she was laying down on the table.

"You're stuck in a dream, Amelia!" she nearly yelled, her face twisted into a image of pure sadness. "You have no recollection of your life past the first accident. Your mind conjured up this scenario, filling in the big void that you made. In reality, you're not twenty four anymore. You're in your mid-thirties. You have a husband and two beautiful kids. You've seen them before, as certain parts, memories to be exact, escaped the barrier you created. How you and Richard met, how you struggled to cope with dealing with two little ones."

Her words were too much to comprehend. It sounded too extraordinaire to try and understand, but there was a little part of me that wanted to believe her. Maybe because it was the image of Charlotte telling me all of that.

"It still doesn't make sense...," the tears finally fought through, and I let them find their way over my cheeks. "How can this be? How...?"

"It was the second accident that pushed you over the edge," Charlotte moved closer to me, putting one hand under my head, trying to comfort the sudden onset of hysteria. "You're strong, Lia, but you weren't strong enough. But now, you have to become stronger, and break through to reality."

"I can't," I sobbed, hiding my head in the covers of a pillow. "I can't be strong without you here."

"I'll always be here for you, Lia," she smiled, planting a kiss on my forehead. She lifted a finger and pointed it at the roof. "The Charlotte that you know is looking down on you right now. Just remember...she'll always be with you, in your mind, in your heart, in your life. If you forget everything else, just remember that. It'll see you through."

And then, she was gone, abandoning me to be alone in the room again. Though her words lasted.

What she had said confused me. But it had to be true. The scientist in me always knew aliens didn't exist, and that their appearance was too magical to understand.

Though I believed her words to a certain extent, I had to get proof that this wasn't real. Something that would be too much for my mind to handle, that would wake me up.

Of course, that meant more investigating. What better place to start than with the man that supposedly brought me here?

How he had not noticed my previous outburst, I had no idea. Perhaps he thought that it was typical of humans to freak out like that. But even a scientist like him should realize talking to thin air meant something was definitely wrong.

I'd never understand how Copper's mind worked. In fact, I didn't want to know at all. I was afraid I might be scarred for life.

"Copper... Sorry to be disturbing you while you're working, but I have something important to ask." The fact that I had not stuttered at all when I spoke to him gave me a small confidence-boost. He was always so intimidating, but if I could get over that, talking to him would be a lot easier.

"No, it's quite alright, Amelia," Copper slightly smiled in my direction before turning back his attention back to the screen. "I'm just finishing chapter of my research. Please, go ahead and ask. I don't find it hard to have my attention divided."

There it was again. That patronizing tone that indicated he still viewed me as a lesser being. So I might have his trust, but that didn't mean he had respect for my entire race.

"I was wondering...why did you save me? What's the whole point behind your research? What the hell are you researching in the first place? And how did I get here?" the questions unloaded themselves before I could stop it. I was still so frustrated with Copper, as he never gave a clear explanation. Now I demanded them.

Deceptively calm, Copper turned his chair's position towards me, taking the position of one that seemed to be contemplating an important matter. Did that mean he was still deciding whether or not to tell me the whole truth?

"I'll start with the hardest one... How you got here. It's true that your ship didn't have the capabilities to reach out farther than your solar system. But it didn't need that. I had a research station of my own on your moon, monitoring space travels. When I noticed the readings on your ship, that your shuttle's systems were failing, I instructed the robot that was stationed there to reel you in, and then beam you to this planet. It's a modified transporter, of course, capable of traveling across the galaxy within seconds, even to your fair little planet. Perhaps one day, if you don't agonize me too much, I'll consider returning you."

"That still doesn't answer my other questions...," I grumbled. I still had no evidence that everything was a dream.

Copper chuckled, probably noticing the determination flaring my eyes. "Hmm. Seems like you're not gonna let anything get in your way today. Alright, my research. I'll be honest and say humans fascinate me. Though you might be less advanced with technology, your mind is completely different to that of us on this planet. Your emotions play a much bigger role in your lives. It actually governs it in a way. As some might say, you rely on your gut instinct at times. The reason I'm doing all of this is to see how we became completely different than your species. We do have emotions, but...not as strong as yours. We can feel sad, but it'll pass quickly. The same with happiness." Sighing, he finally opened his eyes again, looking straight at me. "The reason I saved you, was because you were an interesting specimen. Scans of your brain indicated you were intelligent, but that something was also wrong with you...on a emotional level. That was what I was going after, each time I scanned your memories. It would help me with my research, but I strongly believed that it could help you to find closure."

It all finally clicked. He was the persona of my real self that was trying to show me reality. All along I had been fighting him, while I should have let him continue...

Perhaps I would wake up then.

But something else also bugged me. If Copper was the good part of me that was trying to help, what were the humans trying to do? What was their goal?

~*~

"Daniel... Darcy... Do you hear that?" Richard looked up to gaze at his wife's face. She still had that troubled look on her face, that sometimes contorted into that of pain. But something had changed. Her breathing that was always rapid had finally calmed to a normal tempo. As if the dreams she were having had finally calmed down.

"Yeah... She's no longer making those weird snoring sounds," Darcy frowned.

"What you meant to say is, it doesn't sound as if she's struggling to breathe. Something must have happened," Daniel corrected his sibling. Her response was one of her classic eye rolls.

"Does that mean she's gonna be waking up soon, dad?" asked Daniel after sticking out his tongue at his younger sister.

"I don't know, son... Do you remember the doctor's earlier words?"

"That this whole thing is like a video game. That she's stuck until she reaches the end and beats the game?" Darcy smirked. "I didn't put too much stock behind that. I mean, mom is probably horrible at games. That's where Daniel inherited his suck-ish game strategy from. I keep kicking his ass at Call of Duty. That means that mom might be stuck like that for ever if it were indeed a video game."

"Ugh, Darcy. You're such a pain. Get out of here, please," her brother pushed past her, walking closer to the side of his mother's bed. "I'm sure that's not how it is in her head."

"Whatever the case...," Richard spoke calmly, ignoring the bickering between the two teenagers. "I have a feeling that she might be waking up soon."

~♥~

Caro Dio, that was a lot of writing. O_O Hopefully you guys weren't impatient and sped through it all. Trust me, it's important that you read through it carefully.

Anywho, thanks for reading!