"Alright. Is this mine or someone else's dream?" Serena asked, checking out her dream surroundings like always.

"Hmm, seems like mine, but is this another mission of sorts from Mamu and Sisig?"

Serena looked around again of the empty and translucent space to see if the twin female and male Gods were around.

"Or is Nanshe and Gestinana wanting me to interpret again?"

Still, she didn't spot the two Goddesses either and wondered if it was just another moment of hers entering the Dream Realm.

"Either way, as long as he doesn't show up again." Serena muttered, still talking to herself.

"He's been popping up too much and interacting with him only in this world is weirder than being only an acquaintance and schoolmate in the real world."  

However, her eyes roamed about her surroundings once again when Serena noticed the scenery changing and forming into some type of dungeon with two paths as she tilted her head in curiosity before silently groaning upon recognizing a familiar back.

"Of course."

She rubbed her forehead, tiredly.

"He'll be here."

Still, her eyes focused on Jake's back with a puzzled look as he seemed frozen in place since he wasn't moving about despite the scenery itself seemed unfrozen.

"So, this is Jake's dream or is it more of a nightmare?"

"That depends on how he perceives it, Cupid Reaper."

A familiar male voice softly spoke against her left ear before a chuckle followed along. Serena got the shivers, not out of fear, but how she disliked it when people or well, nonhuman-like people did this to her. She eyed the immortal.

"Really, Epiales? How many times have I told you not to do that?"

"I lost count."

"Of course."

Epiales chuckled, but didn't comment. Serena eyed the male.

"You're just as annoying as Hagan and Kannan."

"Whoa, there. No, I'm not. I take offense to that."

Epiales cast her with an offended look.

"Do not compare me to those two grim reapers."

Serena rolled her eyes with a laugh. 

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, why is Jake frozen?"

"Because I don't want him to hear or see me."

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

"You're so childish."

"Am not."

Serena didn't want to argue with the Nightmare God.

"Whatever. So, is this your doing or is it from Oneiros who's in a bad mood?" Serena asked a second later.

"Both."  Another male voice answered, speaking alongside her right ear as Serena got the same chill all over again.

She groaned as she stared at an amused Oneiros.

"Ugh. You're just as annoying as Kannan and Hagan combined."

"Yeah, right. I'm less annoying than them." Oneiros said in a matter-of-fact tone with a roll of his eyes.

"Don't you ever compare me to them."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Serena dismissed them while getting back on track.

"What do you two have to do with Jake though?"

"Not much." They replied in unison.

"Just that he's now involved with you and so we're just helping things move long faster." Oneiros responded as Epiales elbowed him while explaining more.

"What he meant by that is that since Jake has been appearing in the Dream Realm with you that it'll be fun to mess with you by including him more often."

Serena eyed the pair skeptically, not  believing their words as it felt they were intentionally leaving something out.

"Anyway, have fun with Pretty Boy, Cupid Reaper." Epiales teased before vanishing within a charcoal gray smoke.

Serena clicked her tongue.

"I'm taking all of Maofah's peach treats for two weeks."

"Don't be mean. The angelic feline is just bored and needs some chaos to entertain the immortal being." Oneiros said in a matter-of-fact tone with a laugh while casting her with an amused look.

"Anyway, Pretty Boy could do you some good with the mortal dating scene though. He's not so bad looking if you actually pursue him in your world."

Serena glared at the Dream God.

"Just get out of here, Oneiros, and go bother other people with Epiales like y'all always do."

Then a playful smirk graced her features.

"Just like Hagan and Kannan."

"Psh. Yeah, Right. We're honestly way better than them by centuries. At least we know how to have fun without getting caught though. However, do visit us sometime in the Inferno Realm when you do come again."

The Dream God vanished within a purple bluish smoke while laughing at his own words. Serena sighed deeply, shaking her head at the antics of these so-called Gods and how they ran about the world. Anyway, Serena wondered why they dragged her here to be in Jake's dream or well in this case, his nightmare since she still didn't understand how her being here will help their amusement. Then again, this dream depended on how Jake perceived it since it could go one way or the other.

"Nana?"

Serena's eyes shifted towards Jake as his eyes were on her now, curiously as a smile graced his features soon afterwards.

"Hi, you."

"Hi." She greeted in return with a small smile.

However, Serena had the sudden urge to ruffle Jake's hair and squished his cheeks when he tilted his head slightly and had such a goofy expression on his face. For some odd reason or another Serena thought Jake resembled a dog, especially that of a golden retriever. She repressed a laugh from escaping, believing this to be why Maofah picked on Jake in the first place.

"So, I see that we met again?" Jake said, giddily as he strolled towards her with a bounce to his steps.

"Um, yeah."

Serena had no clue why Jake seemed happy about meeting her again in his dream when they could actually meet in the real world. Then again, interactions like these in the dream world were much better than in the ones in the real world though.

"Anyway, are you having a bad or good dream?"

Jake glanced around him with a shrug.

"I dunno yet."

"Yet?"

"Yeah. This is the first time I've dreamt of this place."

"Really?"

"Mmhmm. I tried changing the place, but nothing happened. I also tried changing the song, but nothing plays either."

Jake cast her with an expectant look and Serena just stared at him, clueless.

"What?" She asked a moment later when he continued to stare at her.

"Why don't you try changing the area or think of a song?" Jake suggested with a hopeful look.

"Um, yeah, sure. I'll try."

Serena imagined them out in the open in a field of flowers on a sunny and clear day, but nothing changed.

"Hmm, okay. New song?"

Serena thought of the song Melanie had been listening to lately, but it stayed silent. She frowned. Did the Gods really want to mess with them and deactivated the part of where they could change bits and pieces of their dreams? Serena cast Jake with a nonchalant shrug.

"I tried. Sorry."

"It's okay. At least we both tried." Jake assured her and Serena wasn't sure why, but didn't comment.

"Anyway, Nana, I guess we should explore the dungeon, yeah?"

He didn't sound so sure and she wondered if he was scared of doing the activity. However, Serena didn't want to bring it up to sound insensitive if Jake was scared.

"If it helps pass time as we can't do anything about it, then yeah, let's go."

Serena took a few steps, passing by Jake in a nonchalant manner, but she soon felt his arms latched onto hers which made her stop walking. Serena eyed Jake weirdly as he cast her with a sheepish smile.

"We should travel together. Safety in numbers and you never know what will happen."

She suppressed a laugh from escaping while nodding.

"I guess, Jake. Sure." 

"Good."

Jake smiled as he re-positioned their arms in a more comfortable manner while Serena just let him do as he pleased before the pair continued their walk in the semi-lit dungeon until they came upon two passageways.

"Which way should we go?" Jake asked a second later as Serena shrugged.

"Doesn't matter. What does your gut feeling say?"

Serena felt both paths led to different things, but nothing felt off about either of them. Then again, this was the dream world and there hasn't been that shadowy figure either, so she hoped this was just a trivial manner.

"Um, let's go to the left."

Jake pulled the both of them to the left side, but then he stopped in his tracks and moved towards the right side.

"No. Let's go to the right side."

However, he changed his mind and moved towards the left passageway, but paused. He sheepishly giggled while casting Serena a look.

"Sorry."

"No, you're fine. No rush, Jake." She reassured him while patting his arm in comfort.

"Thanks."

"Mmhmm."

"Um, let's take the left path."

"Okay."

Serena led them this time around as they slowly made their way down the dimly lit corridor into a much larger circular room of sorts that opened to a few passageways and a little particle of glowing light in the middle of it all.

"What is that shiny thing?" Jake asked as Serena shrugged.

"No clue, but sorry by the way."

Serena shielded Jake's eyes with her free hand as the glowing light grew bigger and bigger into a lavender color while she closed her eyes and turned away. A pop-like sound exploded and Serena opened her eyes to focus her attention onto the now dimmed glowing. Jake removed her hand from his face t