This is what happens when you have too much time on your hands and actually resort to writing fanfiction. Regardless, enjoy. I apologize beforehand for any typos, but I hope that they won't pester you too much.

I could still taste the blood in my mouth as I approached the colony with my comrade, beat up, gasping and almost not able to raise our feet properly off the ground. Like every other day, basically. Since the Knights are roaming through the strata and taking everything under their control, life wasn’t particulary easy for us. Many of us could be pretty happy that, up until now, they actually survived, as our enemies, as much as we didn’t like to accept it, were simply far better equipped and eating through our defenses. We were not even sure if the Knights actually regarded us as an actual threat, since there were reports of knights defeating a dozen gremlins on their own without anybody getting a chance to hit them. Not to mention that Project Roarmulus failed in spectacular fashion. The factory was more reminiscient of a giant scrap heap instead of our trump card at this point, but we kept producing anyway. Giving up was simply not an option for us.
“We can’t keep this up for any longer”, the Demo to my left said, dragging himself forward with a stick he grabbed off the ground. “Ironclaw is done for.”
“Would you prefer that we let them invade the entire planet, down to the Core?”, I yelled back, just as bad with my feet as him. Deep down, I knew that there was something to what he said, but I was to stubborn to accept it. “You can’t just think of yourself at this point!”
“It doesn’t matter anymore”, he sighed. “We aren’t enemies to them, but a nuicanse. The closest we come to actually be able to stop them is Darkfang, and even they are systematically pushed back. And don’t get me started on Tenderfoot.”
“As bad as the situation is, we can’t just let them go through with this! We have to put a fight in order to-”
“What fight are you talking about?”, he yelled back at me. “There never was a fight! Everything we’ve done to have a chance against them ended in a failure! Roarmulus was our only hope and it didn’t even interest them as they marched through and destroyed all the prototypes! All we’re doing in the end only costs lives with no payoff!”
All the ignorance I’ve channeled up until now to not think about our inevitable loss began to crumble, but I couldn’t let this thought take me over. “Bu-but there will be our moment! Maybe not tod-d-day, or tomo-morrow, or…”
“Listen to yourself, you can’t even believe your own words!”, he pointed out. “Look, I would love to think that we can still win, but the reality just happens to be different. Face it, we are only overextending. It’s over.”
I wished I could counter his arguments, but not to shut him up, but rather because something in me was struggling. Through all the burnings, cuts and pinches, this mixture of disappointment, sadness and anger still managed to stick out and make my way home even more of a torture.
Both of us stopped the conversation completely, only interrupting the silence to say Goodnight as the sun has already set and my sight, already being negatively influenced by my tiredness and my lazyness to take my goggles off, was pretty bad, which ended up in me wandering around the colony for another half hour before I finally reached the door to my home. With the rest of my power, I put down my wrench and my claw was about to push the door open, but it went open by itself and light shone into my eyes, as I could make out my wife standing in front of me. She desperately gasped and grabbed me as I almost fell onto her before she asked me: “What in the name of the King happened to you?”
“The usual, my dear”, I barely got out before I regained enough power to stand on my own, only to fall onto her again. Even though she was shocked by my appearance, she still managed to drag me into our room and lay me onto the bad.
“This isn’t just “the usual””, she told me as she got out her wand and tried to help me as much as she could. “These Knights are getting worse every day. It’s a wonder you managed to survive that many wounds.”
“It’s a wonder I still found back home”, I jokingly responded to get my mind off the pain, but it wasn’t helping me a lot. Meanwhile, she was busy doing everything in her power with her spells while I just lay in front of her and let it sink in. Eventually, she fell silent and, aside from a few minor wounds, I was in good shape again.
“I can’t help you anymore today, sorry”, she apologized, “but I can’t concentrate for so long on healing you.”
“It’s fine for now”, I said to her. “I won’t have to go out there tomorrow anyway.”
She sighed relieved. “Good timing. There is something I need to talk to you about.”
“Really?”, I wondered while still staring upwards. “What exactly?”
“It’s about Amazeltoa. He’s had that dream again.”
“The one where he gets thrown out of the colony?”
She nodded. “This morning, after you left, he woke up screaming and crying. I tried to calm him down, but he didn’t notice me at all before he sobbed himself to sleep again.” She sat down on the matress, before she continued: “I’m getting worried about it. If it had only happened once, it wouldn’t as much, but… I can’t really talk with him about it. He doesn’t really trust anything that’s happening and clings to me like a magnet.”
“That must be one hell of a bad dream”, I, once again, tried to joke, but she only looked angrily at me as a result.
“That isn’t something to make jokes about”, she responded. “Maybe you should go and see it for yourself. He hasn’t gone to bed yet, so you should give it a try.”
“I doubt that I can help him that much at the moment”, I sighed. At this point, I was so tired that I might as well have been chained to the bed, but she only hit me with her staff.
“You’re his father!”, she yelled. “Doesn’t he mean anything to you at all?”
“He does, he does”, I assured her, “but I don’t think that I’ll look too convincing if I appear in front of him this beat up.”
She put that look on her face that she always used to get me to do things I’d rather not. “I think he’ll be too happy to see you to think about that. Now get up before he goes to sleep.”
Reluctantly, I got up and moved to his room. The lights were already out there, but I could still see that he was sitting under his blanket, with his eyes all wet and glittery. Never in my life have I seen him this down. He wasn’t acting like as we’ve sent him to his room and he’d get a little bit upset, though eventually understanding why it happened and calming down again. It also wasn’t the kind of reaction he’d show when he got bullied in school. It somehow managed to go well beyond that, and watching him struggle with the inevitable - that he eventually would fall asleep - wasn’t an easy feat. Eventually, I knocked on the opened door and asked: “Hello?”
He looked up with his teary eyes and wondered: “Dad?”
“Yes, I just got back from work.” I moved to his bed and sat down on it. “I heard you had that dream again. Is there something you want to tell me?”
Without any words, he shook his head, though at this point, he might as well have been shaking and didn’t answer at all.
“Do you… maybe need something? Maybe a glass of water before you go to sleep?”
It became silent for a while. Still shaking, he reached out his hand to me and whispered: “Please don’t make me leave again.” As I looked at him, tears started to build up in his eyes. “I don’t want to go back there.”
Slowly, I got out my right hand and grabbed his while looking into his eyes and trying to put up a smile to comfort him. “You won’t have to. I promise.”
He cheered up, still crying, and eventually lay down and loosening the grip.
“Good night”, I said to him before I left, but he already fell asleep, indicated by the snoring. With a smile on my face, I returned to my room, where my wife was already waiting for me on the bed, studying her magic book.
“And?”, she asked. “Is he doing fine?”
I nodded. “He’s fallen asleep.”
“Already?”, she wondered. “He must have been pretty tired if it happened so quickly…”
“Maybe he won’t have his nightmares anymore”, I told her before laying down. “It’s odd, though.”
“We shouldn’t think so much about it.” She put down the book and turned off the lights. “It’s already bad enough as it is.”

I don’t remember anymore when we woke up again. I do remember however how our son started screaming as if an entire group of wolvers chased and bit him, and listening to that made us feel the same way. We jumped out of our bed and rushed to his room. She forgot to bring her wand with her, so we just turned on the lights to reveal our child hiding under the blanket and crying. Quickly, she sat down beside him and gave him a hug to calm him down. However, he didn’t seem to notice it at all, as his weeping just grew louder and the tears started to soak into the blanket like a sponge. Eventually, I walked up to him as well and tore it off. He still didn’t react.
“He’s still sleeping?”, she wondered. “Just what is he dreaming?”
I shrugged. “No clue.” Slowly, he lay down again and stopped with the screaming, but he couldn’t help but continue his weeping and crying.
“I’ll stay here with him this night. Don’t wait for me.”
I silently nodded before I returned to our room, still having that screeching yelling in my ears, and quickly fell asleep again.

As soon as I woke up the next morning, I noticed how my wife was laying beside me again, silently crying.
“What happened?”, I asked her concerned.
“He was talking in his slumber”, she began, hardly able to speak properly, “and the things I heard him say were so… terrifying. Apparently, this magic he was talking about turned him into a crazy murderer and he couldn’t do anything but watch himself kill one knight after another. I just couldn’t stay any longer and left him.” Upset, she looked at me and asked: “What should we do? We can’t let him keep dreaming things like this!”
“We don’t have any impact on his dreams”, I told her. “Believe me, I’d like to do something for him, but…”
“But it’s tearing him apart from the inside!”, she yelled. “It doesn’t matter if he’s dreaming about murdering our enemies, there’s no way that it can be healthy!”
Shocked by her reaction, I remained silent for a moment, as I tried to figure out a way to help him. But I was interrupted by my wife: “What about our little secret spot?”
“Is it really safe to leave the colony right now?”, I wondered and raised an eyebrow. “After all, the way home won’t be too easy.”
“Maybe he only needs to get out of the colony for a while. Don’t you even remember how it felt like when we went there?”
I thought about her idea and eventually decided that she probably was right. “I’ll go there with him this evening. You wanna join?”
“I’d like to, but I have to get out there tomorrow and we’re currently pretty low on supporting power…”
It wasn’t hard to tell that she wanted to come with us, so I laid my hand onto hers and told her: “We’ll go there on our own someday, too.”
She smiled at me, gave me a kiss and got out, shortly followed by Amazeltoa walking in with red whites and an angry look on his face.
“You promised me that I wouldn’t have to go back”, he sobbed.
“I’m sorry about that”, I sighed, got up and kneeled down in front of him. “I want to make up for that, however. This evening.”
“And what would that be?”, he asked me.
“It’s a surprise. I’m sure that you will like it.”

It was already dark outside, when the two of us left, leaving his mother behind. We went to the elevator only a few feet away from the entrance and went up.
“Where are we going?”, he eventually asked, as the elevator propelled us upwards and left all these floating islands behind itself.
“You’ll see when we get there, don’t worry. Just be patient.” I smiled at him, but I doubted that he even noticed it. The lighting was too dim to be sure.
Eventually, the elevator stopped at the foot of mountain. Quickly, we climbed to the top and sat down there.
“So?”, he asked me again.
“Look up and see.”
He rose his head and was immediately stunned. The stars sparkled like little diamonds with the black nightsky behind them, and thanks to them it was so bright that one might think that it wasn’t night at all. His eyes got wider as he kept watching. I’ve never seen him with a smile quite as big as in this very moment.
“Do you see that?”, I eventually asked and pointed into the sky. “That’s the Great Wolver.”
“Where?”, he asked and looked at me, puzzled.
“Do you see those three stars right beside the moon?” He nodded. “Imagine those form a triangle and connect them with lines, alright?” He nodded again. “Now draw a line from the lower right star to the next one to its right, and then another two to the ones below it.”
He stared into the sky for a while, before he asked: “And that’s a wolver?”
I nodded agreeingly. “Kinda.”
“I think he needs to eat more if he’s that skinny.”
Amused by that, I chuckled at his answer and gave him a hug. “Don’t you wonder why I brought you to this place?”
“A little bit.”
“See, your mum and I used to get up here a lot when we were younger. It’s up until now our secret little spot we used to visit when we felt bad and wanted to forget it for a while. And it worked every single time.”
“I can understand why”, he said, still astounded by the beauty that surrounded him.
“Though I wish I could visit this place more often since the Knights arrived”, I sighed. “It just made everything more complicated and dangerous for all of us. Sometimes, I wish I could just drop everything and stay here for the rest of my life. But… I can’t.” I patted his head. “Because I still have to defend you, and that helps me survive even the hardest of fights, no matter how hopeless it gets.”
As I looked down to him again, I noticed how he began to cry again. “Why are you telling me these things?”, he asked.
I dragged him to me and put my arms around him. “The thing is, neither I nor your mother can be there for you in your dreams, no matter how much we wish we could. It was dumb of me to promise you something that I had no control over. And I’ve seen how much these dreams affect you. But… it just isn’t real. Look into the sky again”, I asked him. “Has there ever been something like this beautiful and clear in your dreams?”
He slowly shook his head. “No.”
“That’s because life isn’t always one-sided and vague. There will always be good and bad things at the same time. So, if you dream these dreams again, just laugh them off and remember that it will be over at some point, and then we’ll be there for you again.”
He looked at me, full of anticipation and hope, with his glittery eyes. “Promise?”
I nodded. “Promise.”

The way home was, at first easier than expected. Even though we had to take the long way back home, as opposed to just take the elevator back down again, we didn’t really meet anybody or anything on our way. The two of us ended up in a conversation about his dreams that, in a lot of ways, just can’t be taken seriously. What he feared the most only a few hours prior suddenly made him laugh out loud, as morbid as it was. But I figured that it helped him, so I let him.
We eventually reached the last depth on our way, when he suddenly froze in place. “What’s the matter? Did you see a Phantom?”
With gritted teeth and his eyes wide open, he nodded.
“You’re just seeing things. There are no Phantoms outside of Graveyards.”
His arm pointed forward. I couldn’t believe it myself. The head was the only thing I could make out, but there was no doubt about it that it was one. He moved slowly above the ground and, for some reason, carried an Avenger, but that didn’t bug me. “Okay, I want you to remain calm and not walk right into him. You got that?”
He didn’t even get to answer, though, as the Phantom turned around and fixated us, before he charged into our direction.
“Dad, I’m scared!”, he yelled and clutched his arms around me.
“Me too, I’m afraid”, I told him and got out my wrench. However, he didn’t charge his sword and got slower the closer he got to us, before eventually halting in front of me. “Why are you still here?”, he asked me. Only now did I notice that it wasn’t a Phantom at all as he wasn’t glowing purple. “It’s pretty late to stroll around the Clockworks.”
I backed away from him. “You can talk to us?”
“A little bit”, he answered. “And sorry about that mask. I wasn’t expecting anyone else.”
“So… you’re not a Phantom?”, Amazeltoa asked him, still not letting go of me.
“Don’t worry, I’m not”, the not-Phantom assured him. “Sorry again for scaring you. You’re not very old, right?”
“I’m his father”, I answered.
The Knight looked at him and asked: “Do you mind if I give him some candy as an apology? It’s from the Punkin King and I don’t need it anymore.”
“I’m not so sure about that”, I answered skeptically. “Punkin King or not, you’re still a Knight. There’s no way I can’t trust you as if you’re a close friend of mine.”
“I don’t hurt creatures that don’t attack me first, especially not if it’s a child.” Eventually, his hand opened a little bag in front of him and pulled out a few sweets. “It’s not like I can’t understand your reaction, but…” His hand moved to Amazeltoa, who slowly took his arms off me and grabbed the candy. “I prefer to solve conflicts without having to draw my weapons.” The Knight then proceeded to pat Amazeltoa’s head. “And I’d never be able to hurt or even kill something as cute and innocent as you.”
Amazeltoa then smiled at him and put the candy into his pockets. “Thank you”, he said to the Knight and then looked at me. “Shouldn’t we get home? Mum is waiting for us.”
“If you don’t mind, I’ll follow you to the elevator”, the Knight offered. “It’s not too far from here, and I think you could use some light.”
Reluctantly, I nodded, and we followed him as he illuminated our surroundings. As we reached the elevator, I asked him: “Why is a Knight still in the Clockworks around this time?”
“I like the atmosphere of this place when nobody’s around”, he answered and then went onto the elevator. “Well then, maybe I see you someday again. Good night.” And he was propelled upwards, before the platform came back down again a few minutes later.
“That Knight was pretty nice”, Amazeltoa said, as he began unwrapping one of the sweets.
“You shouldn’t eat these right now. You’ll only get stomachache and more bad dreams from these.”
“But I’ll only take this one! Please!”, he begged me.
I sighed. “Okay, but really leave it at that for today.”
He nodded and began eating the candy excitedly as the taste of it started brewing in his mouth, as I started to wonder about this encounter. In all these months fighting tons of Knights day after day, I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting one that was so nice to our kind. But was he an exception or the rule? I didn’t know, but somehow, having met a Knight like him managed to change the way I looked at them.
Maybe… these Knights aren’t as bad as I thought.