Even though he was in a previous roleplay, we didn't see much of Dash since he was unconscious for it. That all changes here.

It drives home the emotional and physical suffering Dash's been through.

Twisted images floated through Sebastian Dash's mind as his fevered mind tried to make sense of the events of the last few days. The recent head trauma combined with the odd actions of Catrina Whiteclaw (Dash's beloved and intended) into a nightmare of images on Dash's mind.

On some level, he could feel the memories washing over him. The warm passion of Catrina Whiteclaw, followed by her sudden and inexplicable betrayal. Part of Dash's mind fought to maintain the image of purity for her. All the years he'd known her had to mean something. Another part of him maintained the painful grip on ice hard reality. Dash was no stranger to the whims and betrayals of love.

It reminded him so much of his ex wife back in Honourburg. Dash's eyes fluttered as images of the city passed through his mind. There were technological marvels there he'd not seen anywhere else in the world. His mind's eye scanned over the city as he remembered it, morphing into a burning Seaside Town, somewhere between a vivid memory and an actual dream. At some point, his mind pushed him into an actual dream where was kissing Catrina up and down her body, hands in her fur, as she suddenly turned on him, clawing roughly at his back and laughing.

An evil, bestial shape interrupted Dash's nightmare. It felt so real he was knocked back several feet as he woke up in his campsite. His body refused to cooperate, as he blindly searched for his broadsword, and something to shine a little light on the campfire. The campsite was dead quiet on a moonless night, with only the fire in the distance illuminating it. Dash looked towards it, briefly wondering what was burning down now.. Was there even enough left of Seaside Town to attempt burning it down a second time?

Dash's campfire was dead. For a second, he thought he saw Catrina's powerful body lying where she always lay when she slept outside, but it seemed to melt into the darkness around the camp.

Dash fumbled around in the dark, feeling the cold and cruel chill of the moonless night against his bare, scarred chest, giving Dash an uncomfortable bone chill. Dash tossed a flashpaper into the general direction of his campfire. Surprisingly, it took to one of the few remaining logs, causing a fire to briefly flicker into existence. The flame's light barely illuminated enough of the campsite for Dash to see the dried blood around his campsite.

Dash could clearly see the events of the past few days illuminated in the crackling fire, although Dash wasn't quite sure if it was the magic of the fire, or just the results of his concussion playing tricks on his mind.

There'd been high points, at least, among all the tragic past few days. Dash had managed to win himself a new mosquito larvae, while Catrina was out helping defile the Crypt. The two then teamed up to take on a crisis in South Degrassi in an attempt to impress the Council. Prince Blahking had organized, in all, three separate tasks in an effort to gain the official support of the Council of Loathing in KOKOL's war efforts against the Knob Goblins. In an effort to impress the Council of Loathing, KOKOL sponsored a carnival, where Blahking tasked his kingdom's adventurers with both winning the 'most bitchin' meat car' contest, and finding another creative way to impress the 3 local guild leaders, who doubled as three of the four last Council of Loathing members. For Dash and Catrina, the answer was to attempt to take down a rumored 'sentient Yeti.'

To that end, Dash, Catrina, and Katherine Swift (an old ally of Sebastian's) had gone down to South Degrassi crisis there; Dash returned with the head of a yeti, which was enough to net him the win for the contest.. or not.. Even though it was only days earlier, the carnival felt like months if not years ago.

Enough had gone wrong with the carnival to make things interesting, but much more had gone right than wrong. It was by most means, a smashing success.

The Council publicly declared support for the war efforts, thanks to KOKOL's impressive performance. Moments later, the Knob Goblin King attacked the city, attempting to lay waste to it with a fire at one point, as his army laid raid to the city. Dash and the others battled the Elite 7 in several rough conflicts. It seemed like the Knob Goblins were departing the city more recently- but only after attempting to raise the dead. Literally.

Beyond that, Sebastian, along with Vixen and Lapine, had been teleported by the Jester King of Beasts into an entirely different dimension. One where they came against twisted and evil versions of themselves as well as an evil, fire wielding Becky Joy. Catrina found a way to follow him there. Together, they found an alternate version of Catrina. Lady Whiteclaw appeared to be the one person in this dimension who wasn't a total opposite of an AIL version. Oh, she was very different from Catrina, but she was certainly not evil.

Dash's unconscious mind begin to go over their experiences in light of what happened later. It was clear Lady Whiteclaw, like the twisted versions of Vixen and Lapine, had been until recently a 'pet' of this Zedika Dark. Dark managed to trap Lapine. Vixen freed her using some rather unconventional tactics, but the other worldly counterpart of Becky Joy caught the two running off in a deadly fire cage. Dash and Catrina arrived to save the day - but only after Dark had his disgusting hands all over Catrina, who was clearly in heat and not acting sanely.

Afterwards, she and Dash had gotten quite intimate with each other here and there. The most recent was when the zombies had first started to rise, only to be put down for the time. Dash and Catrina retired for the night. With all the stress they'd undergone, it was nice to spend a night like an actual normal couple.

Dash's blood went cold. Due partly to the concussion, he barely remembered waking up. Catrina was missing. Worried, Dash tracked her down. Unfortunately, he found her bedding the very leader of their clan, King MTiger. It was a heated, uncomfortable moment as Dash barged in. She said some rather cruel things to Dash before she took off. Dash confronted MTiger briefly before leaving to dress properly. Again, he tracked down Catrina, only to find her in some conversation with Raw Hide.

Dash confronted her, but he couldn't make sense of what she was saying at the time. Now it became clear to Dash; she was talking right past him to Raw Hide. It must have been Raw who nailed Dash from behind.

Dash felt his blood go cold at the thought. If Raw had attacked him, he'd obviously done it with murderous intent. Catrina failed to intervene.

She would have allowed Raw Hide to kill Dash.

"No!" Dash protested out loud, seeing the shadows creeping up on him, snagging his legs and torso, and trying to drag him into the darkness of eternity. Dash swung Bad Beats at them, letting out a scream of rage.

No.. Raw Hide had done this to her.. or Dark. Dark had poisoned her mind. Maybe Lady Whiteclaw had unwittingly carried the disease.. Dash fought desperately at the shadows. It seemed like a neverending fight.. until a bright light shone on the campsight, illustrating it for what it was- nothing but memories- and driving the shadows back.

The light coalesced. At first Dash felt his rage rise- but soon it quenched itself- for this was a Feline- but a more perfect Feline than even Dash's biased eyes could judge. The shadows receded into nothing.

No- this wasn't Catrina- this was her Goddess! She stepped toward him, again dressed in that manner that tugged much lower than his heartstrings. This time, however there was no smile on her face but a frown that matched Dash's. "Well met, warrior."

"I'm not awake yet," Dash noted, wanting confirmation. Indeed, as he looked around, he realized the campsite would shift in and out of focus- and had since he'd arrived. Even his body looked like a jumbled mix of memories of himself over his lifetime.

A small smile. "True enough. And as I have little time, let's make ourselves more comfortable, shall we?" A mere twitch of a whisker and the entire scene became the great savanna. The Goddess sighed in pleasure- even if the frown stayed put. "Much better! Now, I believe you have questions?"

Dash paused, his eyes falling on some unknown point in the distance. "What's wrong with my Catrina?" he asked in a sad, almost pitiful voice.

The voice that answered him sounded like one that was not used to uttering these words. "I do not know." She continued. "But I believe it has been brought about- either with the express knowledge of the Dark Ones or their acceptance. This is the moment I spoke of to you at another time. The moment when you must fight- for her."

Dash felt small and helpless in the face of a threat far bigger than he- and ever growing. "It was her intent for Raw Hide to kill me, I think."

The Goddess shook her head, her tail flicking in annoyance. "I... She fell from my pride before the attack on you. So I do not know her full intent. Although the fact that you are alive leads me to believe that some seed- some germ of the Light within her saved you... I hope."

"Or she's got worse plans.." Dash rested against the Goddess's body, feeling the sense of weariness melting away. "Are my injuries going to allow me to come out of this coma?"

The Goddess purred as she turned him to face her, smiling fully now- mischievously- sensually. "If my Dark brothers would only give me the time I would be happy to heal every inch of your lovely body." Where her paw roamed when she said 'every inch' left no question what she meant. "But, short of that I can at least get you on your feet again." With that she kissed him- a kiss that would... well, never mind what it would do; the point is that as her tongue explored his mouth- and her paw his ass Dash began to feel stronger. As she finally broke with the human, she smiled as she heard him whimper. 'Catrina....'

"Good! Keep her in your heart. The TRUE vision of your love in your heart will win through for you when the time comes!" She raised his chin, looking in his eyes with a gleam in her own. "I shall truly be upset with my Dark Brothers- from what I could hear..." She faded with a purr.

Dash held back a tear, his resolve steeled by her words. "I'll get to the bottom of this. She's became dangerous, though. I can't let her hurt any of our friends."

He heard a chuckle and a different voice. "Don't know who she is, mate but the only girls you're gonna be fighting in there are the female bed bugs."

Dash heard Todd Blackpaws voice as clear as day. His eyes jolted open; he tried to sit up in a bolt, but his limbs felt indeterminably heavy and weary. His head throbbed with a sudden pain he simply hadn't felt in the dream.

Todd finished tucking away his guitar, and then leaned forward to press Dash back into the bed where he belonged. "Whoa- whoa- whoa! I know my playin's good man- but you still got a long way to go before you can think about walkin outta here!"

"What're.." Dash's voice was jumbled still. His mouth was sore and uncooperative. "Talking about?"

Todd grinned. "What I'm talkin about, mate is that if it wasn't for a certain sexy bunny I know all that was about to be left to do was pick out the site of the Sebastian Dash Memorial Lawn Jockey." The fox got close- conspiratorially like. "Good thing you pulled through- that thing is ugly as sin!"

Dash smiled. "N.. not that easy.. put me away.." He furrowed his eyebrows, unable to believe how tough just speaking was. "How.. long.. was.. out?"

Todd shrugged. "Long enough for all the pretty nurses to be re-assigned to more observant clients. Couple weeks give or take."

"We lost.." Dash took a deep breath, forcing his mind to focus, and willing his body to obey. "Lost a few of our own?"

Todd's answer was to shut his eyes tight and growl deep. "We lost a few, yeah." He then opened his eyes and smiled. "Of course, that jackass Goblin King lost bigger than we did."

Dash smiled, despite himself. Catrina's betrayal set off a chain of events. "Good.. he deserved it." Already Dash's voice was nearly back to normal. "I need .. help. To help soon."

Todd chuckled. "Gettin' antsy to get back in the fight, huh? Well, you'll have to get the okay from your healer for that." Again the conspiratorial closeness. "Now, I can put in a good word for ya- Be glad to. I know just what to do to get her sayin' 'yes' to just about anything!"

Dash smiled. "Please.. that music's something.. maybe.." Dash paused to think. If he let himself relax, the magic should be at its strongest. "With a bit of rest.. it'll do its magic." Dash closed his eyes. No, he'd never gotten to know Todd that well.. but he knew he could count on Todd. Trust him.

Todd smirked as he unslung his guitar. "Aww, man. I was looking forward to 'talkin' Lapin into doing her thing... for you. that is." He settled in and began to strum a healing tune.

Dash managed a smile. "Thanks.. we'll.. 'fore we know it.. save.. help Catrina.." Dash's jumbled words faded into a quiet, contemplative sleep as Todd's healing melody continued.

Todd shows up a bit late in this one, but his handler was doing the feline goddess's part as well so it worked out well.

The meaningful dream is something Catrina's really mastered, but I think I did okay with it. Dash and Todd will finally get down to their mission, Degrassi, before it's all said and done. Meanwhile, the mission focus shifts back to the Bearsmashers.