It was nearly dawn when Rayden returned home to Ev. She was lying half asleep in the bed. It seemed like a very big, cold place without him there and the babies seemed to be playing soccer, so in spite of the fact that she was exhausted, she couldn't stay asleep. She knew something was wrong as soon as the electrical shimmer started in the room. There was a reddish tinge to it. When he materialized his eyes blazed brightly enough to light the room.

Ev struggled to a sitting position, alarmed. "What's wrong? Is Katherine all right?"

Rayden didn't speak, but sat down on the bed, next to her. He was still too angry. Finally, with a sigh, he turned to Ev. His eyes still blazed, but not as brightly. "I have watched humans, and Immortals too, for a very long time. I thought that by now the things they do to each other wouldn't bother me anymore." He stopped and took her hand, then closed his eyes and fell silent again.

She stroked his face and very gently tried to "read" what might be bothering him. He was blocking her completely. "Does this have to do with Katherine's nightmares last night?"

He sighed and opened his eyes again, much calmer now, but still noticeably upset. "You don't need to read me to know what I'm thinking. Its one of the things I love about you."

"Rayden, I might be able to help, if you'll let me in. I've had to deal with man's inhumanity to man all my life. Its a lot closer for me. Even for a god, it can't be good to keep all that anger in and not at least talk about it."

He kissed her hand. "I'm not sure its a good idea for you. You know how you get upset so easily." He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "Connor says that Katherine has had these nightmares almost as long as he's known her. Every night. She's reliving the horrors she has been through over the years. You know she doesn't carry a sword. She never has. It leaves her vulnerable to a lot of things."

Ev scootched over into his arms. "Please talk to me. If its something that bothers you that much, share with me and maybe I can help. I know things upset me, but that's just my hormones out of control, that's not the same as really feeling that way." She stopped, remembering some of the things she'd been doing and saying lately and chuckled softly. "Well, not after the hormone storm is over, anyway."

He turned and drew her into his lap, cuddling against her and sighing. "I love you." It was as if he absorbed calm and serenity as he breathed in the scent of her hair. Maybe she could help. There were always surprises in their relationship. She was a constant source of delight to him. "Are you sure? She went through some terrible things, Ev."

"Just hold me and I'll be fine. And tell me what happened. I don't feel her nightmares any more."

"Connor and I went into her bad dreams with her. They were all things from her past. We showed her that they were just memories and couldn't hurt her any more."

"Went into her dreams? And changed the way they turned out?" Ev considered. "Sounds like lucid dreaming. Except with a little help."

"When I left, she seemed to be sleeping peacefully. I don't think she will have that problem again."

"You're wonderful." Ev cuddled against him and kissed his hand. "I don't think there's anyone else here who could have done that for her."

"It was a very disturbing experience for me. I won't say that my kind are always good to each other, or to other beings around them, but it seems that some humans and Immortals seem to try to make up for lack of time with a higher level of violence. I've never been able to understand that. And in contrast there are others who are......... like you........ sweet and thoughtful and ......."

She stopped him with a kiss. "So we're hard to understand, hm? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"I'm not sure, but that's part of the reason I've stayed here. Curiosity. So, for us, that's a very good thing." He smiled and kissed her. "Or we wouldn't have met."

"I'm glad you're so curious, then. Maybe I can help you with figuring out some answers. We could start with Katherine's nightmares. I haven't forgotten."

"You're too smart for me." He kissed her cheek. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes, I'm sure. And if I get upset, that's all right. Good people should be upset about the awful things that happen sometimes. If they didn't, there would be something wrong with them."

He studied her eyes and reached out to her with his mind. There was no changing her mind, and he wasn't sure he wanted to. Maybe she could teach him. "All right. Are you ready?"

She kissed his cheek. "Yes. Just hold me."

He drew her as close as was physically possible, resting his chin on her shoulder and showing her everything directly, without the interference of speech. Just in case, he paid close attention to her reactions, as well. Ev hadn't had this experience many times before, and only briefly. She began in fascination at the experience, then settled down to pay attention to the dreams. They were frightening. But she found herself looking at them a different way and by the time he had finished, she found herself sobbing. Rayden cradled her gently, reading her thoughts. All she wanted for the moment was to be held till she could calm down a little more. He reflected that somehow it did help to share the experience with her. He wondered how she seemed to know these things so intuitively.

Finally Ev had calmed herself a bit and was ready to talk. "I didn't realize...." She began, then started again. "I guess I've had a very sheltered life. Anyone would have nightmares after those things. She's come to the right place to heal from everything." She cuddled against Rayden and suddenly her eyes lit up. "One of those people in her nightmares isn't dead yet." She gave Rayden a look.

He met her eyes, a puzzled frown on his face. "I am not allowed to interfere in battles between Immortals, no matter how I feel about them."

Ev got a fierce grin on her face. "Didn't say anything at all about that."

He had never seen such an expression on her face. He gently probed her mind and was startled at the cold, hard anger that lurked there. That was something new he had never seen in her before. On exploring it, he found it connected to many other events, either from the news or various personal experiences. All of them had to do with someone in power abusing people who were defenseless. She had very strong feelings about that and felt a great deal of frustration that usually there was nothing she could do about it.

He sat, quietly, absentmindedly stroking Ev while he considered what he had found. This was a whole new part of her mind he hadn't explored before. It was giving him a lot to think about. Finally, he had an inspiration. The evil chuckle that escaped him, got Ev's attention.

"What do you have in mind?" She grinned at him. "I can find the man who was chasing her. That's not a problem. Lucid dreaming helped Katherine so much, maybe it can do something for him, as well." The evil grin stole back across Ev's face. "I like it! Let's do it now!" She shifted in his arms to see his face better. "Maybe we can do a few other things, too!"

He gave her a quick hug and started searching for the man. It wasn't hard to find him. He found the man staying in a cheap little motel not far from the city, apparently still planning to stalk Katherine. His mind had a very different signature than even the Immies in town. Rayden opened his mind so that Ev could see what he learned as he ruthlessly plundered the memories of this *person.*

There was a jumble of scenes of one quickening after another, most from very young Immortals, most of them barely out of their teens. All, except a couple of occasions where someone else had stalked him, were of those who were essentially defenseless. There was no conscience in him anywhere, not a shred of guilt for anything he had ever done.

"This *thing* needs our help." Rayden thought to Ev. "We are going to give him a conscience."

"Show me how you do it." Ev was fascinated. In an inversion of the process he used with Katherine, he sifted through the memories and put the evil one in the place of the victim and convinced him that it was a memory. He left the face of the attacker the same in each case, to mess with his mind even more.

In the course of the process, Ev's attention wandered and she sifted through some of the man's personality traits. He was almost pathologically fastidious. That gave her a couple of ideas.

Finally, Rayden had finished his part of the process. The man was tossing and turning, now moaning in his sleep. That was satisfying.

"Have you noticed this?" Ev pointed out the things she had found. The glee she felt was contagious.

He laughed out loud. This gave him extra ammunition. "For someone like this, what could be worse than fleas?"

Ev started to giggle. "Its perfect!"

Rayden searched for some poor deserving stray dogs and cats and transferred their fleas to the man who tossed and turned on the bed. "I can check on him from time to time and replace them if I need to. He'll never be rid of them as long as he lives."

He chuckled to himself. "He likes to look good. We need to do something to his clothes. It can't be too noticeable."

"I know. All you need to do is weaken the seams. He won't notice anything right away when he puts his clothes on, but they'll start falling apart as he wears them." She giggled.

He laughed appreciatively. "That's evil! I didn't know you had it in you! Thanks!" He paused, thinking again. "One last thing. We don't want him hurting anyone else. We need to fix his sword."

"Perfect! What are you going to do with it?" Ev giggled.

"I've seen those toy swords in the store in the mall. The ones that are plastic with the metal foil covering so they kind of look real. I think he can't be trusted with anything more dangerous than that. What do you think?" He chuckled.

"I've never seen this side of you! This is wonderful! Yes! Do it!" Her belly was starting to hurt she had been giggling so long, but she couldn't stop. "We certainly can't let him hurt anyone again."

"I think that should be enough. He'll never sleep through the night again without nightmares constantly waking him. So he won't be thinking straight. He'll wake up with the fleas and be totally disgusted and wondering why he can't get rid of them. He'll be falling out of his clothes. And if he tries to go after anyone or someone comes after him, he'll discover his sword is worthless. Have we covered everything?" Rayden grinned.

"Seems like it to me!" Ev had to hold her belly this time as a new round of giggles took her. Rayden joined in and they laughed together until finally Ev fell asleep again.