The dreamspace's scenery shifts quite suddenly, in part because the one who initiated the change has no idea what he is doing. A field of grass abruptly becomes a city of glass that Sheena will recognize, the cold and lifeless hull of Derris-Kharlan spread out around the Aegis and his driver, the stars only warm because it is the nature of dreams to soften things, especially those that we hold close to our hearts.

The one responsible for this sudden change does not know how the dreamspace works, has truthfully only set foot in it once while he functioned as his children's driver, before he realized how thin the walls were, there, before he decided it would be better if his children had no chance of seeing his long and shameful past. So when Derris-Kharlan settles, it is at the same location he stands in the real world. The top of a tower. The center of the blade network. And there you see him, a man with long white hair and tattered clothes, a golden locket on an old chain around his neck, his arm outstretched among the pinpricks of light, his fingers pressed against an orange star.

He realizes that he is not alone.

(This is good. This is bad. He could apologize to Mithos. Would Mithos even accept an apology, at this point? How long has he been able to do this? Would Mithos forgive him for not trying sooner? Why didn't he try sooner?)

There is not really a sound he makes, to convey his horror, but he definitely startles, as red eyes meet Sheena's gold for a brief moment--

(Did she recognize him? She cannot recognize him.)

And then he yanks his hand away from the network, disconnects from the orange port, and everything becomes static.