I smell the stench of the sorceror on you, mutant!"
The...whatever the fuck that thing is pretending to be Johnson's wife snarls at me, long, broken limbs clinging around his body in a sick parody of a lovers embrace, her head flopping to the side that'd be almost comical if the entire scene wasn't so horrifying. Seriously, is Lyndon not seeing the same thing I am?
"Yeah, duh, how else would I be here? Not like I go strolling through other peoples dreams every night. Which is a good thing if this is what they usually look like. Because seriously, this is some messed up shit right here!"
Lyndon, who's just been sitting there staring at nothing since I got here, suddenly stands up, leaning on the desk as he glares at me "You got some damn nerve just storming in here, Sunshine! You think your Avengers card just gives you the right to waltz in wherever you feel like it?! How did you get past security?!"
...what? "Where exactly do you think we are, Mr. Johnson?"
Lyndon scoffs "Don't play dumb with me Sunshine, you're in the White House, as if you didn't know! Kennedy might have put up with you freaks coming and going as you damn well pleased, but I'm the President now, and if you think you can just act like you own the place, you got another thing coming! Get out before I have you thrown out!"
I look around, the room we're standing does look a little like the Oval Office I remember seeing in photos, but there's something... off about it. The walls are bare, the carpet is gone, even the furniture is missing, just four walls, and the desk Lyndon is sitting behind. Even the window behind him looks wrong, flat, like it's just a backdrop painting on a talk show set. There's not even any lamps in here, I don't know where the light is coming from. "I'm... afraid I can't leave just yet, Mr. Vice-President. We got a problem to discuss..."
"If you're here to try and change my mind about the Sentinel Project, forget it! I've been talking it over with Trask, and McNamara agrees with me, it's important to construct the Sentinel fleet for national security reasons! The United States will not tolerate an unregulated population of superhumans within it's borders any longer, you will fall in line!"
"Nnnno, but let's put a pin in that one. Doesn't anything strike you as wrong with the current situation?"
"Yes, there's a masked freak in my office who won't take the hint and get the hell out! I'm warning you-"
I hold up my hand, stopping him "No, that's not- ugh... Mr. Johnson, what's the last thing you remember?"
He blinks at the seemingly random question "What are you playing at, Sunshine?"
"What's the last thing you remember, before being in this office? Do you remember waking up this morning? What you had for breakfast? Anything at all before this moment?"
He scoffs, sitting back down "Bah, what a preposterous question! I don't know what kind of mindgames you think you're playing, but I...I..." his voice tapers off, his eyes widening. "I... I was..."
Nightmare, or who I'm assuming is dressed up as Ladybird anyway, wraps her arms tightly around Lyndon's chest, jaw hanging open "You remember, Lyndon. You woke up next to me, like you always do, as we've done our whole lives together! Why would today have been any different?"
Lyndon's eyes get a vacant, glazed look over them, his uncertainty disappearing. "Yes. Yes, of course, I remember now. You were there, you've always been there. How could I forget?" He says in a flowery, childish voice.
"Ladybird" turns her dead eyes towards me, her unnatural grin stretching even wider, as Lyndon stares off into space "It doesn't matter what you do in here, mutant! He will never listen to you, why would he? I can offer him everything he wants, the perfect life. He'll be the perfect pawn to sow discord and ruin in the waking world, one of the most powerful men on Earth, corrupted by his own grief and loss! A perfect pawn."
"...dude, you're a sick fuck, you know that?"
Her grin falls into a grimace, and for a second, her face seems to morph, giving me a glimpse of a gaunt, corpse-like man with shaggy black hair, before quickly returning to Ladybirds appearance "You and the Asgardian foiled me once before, but this is my realm, and there is no one to help you this time! The sorceror must've been truly desperate to send you to stop me!"
"Well, I hope you'll excuse me if I give it a shot anyway..." And in a flash of light, I zoom over the desk, and slam into Nightmare, sending the broken, dead thing into the false window behind it. Lyndon snaps out of his trance, his eyes widening in shock.
"LADYBIRD!! You son of a-" he actually moves to attack me, a fist raised as he moves at me, but trips as a pair of light bonds appear around his legs, sending him to the floor "UNGH! Damn you! Get your fucking hands off her, you bastard!"
"Sorry about this, Johnson, but it's for your own g-GUH!" I'm cut off as a stretched-out arm hits me in the chest, knocking me off my feet. Nightmare knocks the desk to the side like it's made of cardboard, her body twisting and bending with a sickening noise, finally twisting her around until she crawls on all fours with her spine bent backwards and her head turned towards me, looking like some nightmarish spider creature. Her jaw distends unnaturally, showing rows and rows of crooked, razor sharp teeth.
I really, REALLY hope I'm not going to remember this in the morning.
.....
Lyndon scrabbled across the floor, trying desperatly to reach his wife. He'd hit her, the mutant had actually HIT her! He was going to throttle the freak, crush his windpipe with his bare hands, make him wish he was never born, how DARE that masked fucker lay a hand on Ladybird?! No one hurt her, NO ONE, no one was ever going to hurt her again, not as long as there was a breath left in his body, but he had to get free from whatever held his legs-
Again? Wait, where did that come from? Ladybird had never been harmed before, had she? No, no way anyone would have dared! So why did he think it at all? And something else seemed strange, she was... there was an actual fight happening! That didn't make any sense, the mutant was easily twice the size of his wife, even without his powers, how could she be...
He shook away the unwanted thought. Now was no time for foolish speculation! He had to free himself! Kicking his legs fruitlessly as he tried to free himself from the glowing bands trapping him, his hand grasping empty air for something, ANYTHING, that could be used as a weapon. He had to save her! Had to! He couldn't go on without her! He didn't care what he had to do, he needed her!
That's when a familiar hand touched his cheek. And it was as if a fog had lifted.
"Lyndon..."
And Lyndon Johnson looked into eyes he thought he'd never see again.
...
Taking on the embodiment of nightmares in a fist fight went about as well as I had expected it to. Sure, I do technically have access to my powers here, but since I'm just here as a mental projection and I'm basically imagining the sunlight into existance, while this is Nightmare's home turf, it's about as effective as trying to stop a flood with a squirt gun. Of course, getting hit by him still hurts like a motherfucker.
The bare office has faded away as we fought, the walls giving way to a strange, featureless plain covered in mist. Nightmare barely seems to have noticed that the illusion is gone, being far more engaged in knocking me around like the worlds ugliest dog with a chewtoy. Finally, he slams me into the ground, pinning my arms down with his gnarled and twisted hands, the deformed face of his Ladybird disguise inches away from my own. The eyes have gone pitch black, with two pin-pricks of hellish red in the middle staring into mine.
"You were a fool to come here, mutant! What did you hope to accomplish, did you really think you could simply free Lyndon Johnson from his dream? You were never going to defeat me, I was giving him the very thing he wanted to the bottom of his soul" Nightmare laughs, an empty, flat sound "And all you had to offer him was the truth. You never had a chance!"
I manage to choke out a laugh of my own, trying to ignore the pain in my arms, and everywhere else he's hit me "I wasn't... trying to win, you asshole! I just wanted to break your concentration long enough!"
Nightmare stills "Long enough for what?! What have you DONE?!"
A golden light suddenly erupts above the plains, the fog seems to evaporate in an instant, and Nightmare shrieks as the glow touches him, scrambling backwards off me as he begins to lose control over his stolen form, his body morphing uncontrollably as he tries to escape. I grin and point a thumb upwards just as a familiar, cloaked figure appears through the light. "Long enough for this!" I get to my feet, rubbing my bruised chest as Doctor Strange lands next to me "Did you finish up the rest of your plan? Because I'd rather not do that again."
Strange nods, not taking his eyes off Nightmare "Yes, you performed your part adequatly. With Nightmare focused on you, breaking through his defences and dispelling his hold over the Vice-President was simple enough." He holds up his hand towards Nightmare, strange, crackling energy swirling around him "As for you, demon! Your plan has failed! Begone back to the dark recesses of the Dream Dimension! Never bother this man again!"
Nightmare slowly regains form, growing taller, thinner, a green tunic and a cape appearing over his body as he stands back up, just chuckles "You're an even bigger fool than I thought, Strange! You've won nothing this night! All you've done is delay my plans a little! There is nothing you can do to stop me from simply returning the next time the old man falls asleep and doing this all over again! Like I just finished telling your pawn, there's nothing you can do to break my hold over Johnson, because you have nothing to offer him other than the truth! He'll never listen to you, why would he ever want to wake up again when all that awaits him is pain?"
"You're right, Nightmare. Johnson has no reason to wish to listen to us." Strange nods solemnly. Then steps to the side, pulling his cape away, revealing what had been happening behind us while Nightmare was distracted. "But perhaps he'll listen to her."
Nightmares eyes widen at the sight of the golden figure kneeling next to Johnson.
.....
"Ladybird..."
She was so beautiful. Radiant. Like an angel. She smiled warmly at him, her hand on his face.
"Lyndon. Don't do this to yourself. Don't become someone you're not over me..."
He blinked, trying to gather himself. He felt like a fool, like he'd been lying to himself all this time. "...that wasn't you, was it? You would never have said those things, wanted me to do anything like that."
She shook her head sadly. He looked down, reaching up to touch the hand holding his face "I knew that. I think I did the whole time. I'm sorry..."
.....
"NO!!!" He tries to rush forward, but the light radiating from the woman and Strange repulses him, his skin smoking as he shrieks in pain. "HOW?! HOW?!!"
Strange smirks "I have allies in higher places than just the mortal world, demon. Places where you have no power at all. You are undone!" The medallion around Strange's neck opens it's eye, and Nightmare recoils at the sight, drawing further back into the shadows.
"Curse you, Strange!! You and your wretched allies! You'll faulter some day, and I will have my revenge, I swear it! You won't be able to keep me sealed away in the Dreaming forever!!" he turns towards me, hatred glowing in his eyes "As for you, mutant... I'll see you in your nightmares..."
And with that, he's gone.552