Back at DDI headquarters, Josh was immediately taken to the medical wing for evaluation. Dr. Walsh ran every test she could think of, looking increasingly concerned with each result.
"Your dimensional energy levels are off the charts," she said, showing him graphs that meant nothing to Josh. "Using your powers in Siberia drained you significantly, but you're already recovering. It's like your body is drawing energy from... somewhere else."
"The Frozen Realm?" Josh guessed.
"Possibly. Which means you're still connected to it. Still linked to the King." Dr. Walsh set down her tablet. "Josh, you need to tell me about these dreams. The commander mentioned them. What's been happening?"
Josh explained the dream from before the Siberia mission—the frozen plain, the King's words, the feeling that it was more than just a nightmare.
"He called you by name," Dr. Walsh said slowly. "Spoke to you directly. That's not random. That's targeted communication across dimensional barriers. Josh, the King is inside your head."
"That's comforting," Josh said sarcastically. "Any way to stop it?"
"Not that I know of. The dimensional energy inside you creates a connection. It's like... imagine you swallowed a phone that's always on. The King has your number." Dr. Walsh looked worried. "If he can speak to you in dreams, he might be able to influence you. Plant suggestions, manipulate your thoughts. You need to be careful."
"How do I know what's me and what's him?"
"That's the scary part. You might not."
After the medical evaluation, Josh was cleared to return to his quarters with instructions to report any unusual thoughts or feelings immediately. Kyla was waiting for him in the hallway, holding two cups of coffee.
"Dr. Walsh looked worried," Kyla said, handing him a cup.
"Yeah, apparently I've got an interdimensional king living rent-free in my head. Should I charge him?" Josh tried to joke, but it fell flat.
They walked to the cafeteria, which was surprisingly nice for a government facility. Stevens was already there, eating what looked like his third sandwich.
"Hey, it's the dynamic duo!" Stevens called out. "I heard you fought a twenty-foot-tall ice commander in Siberia. Did you at least get a cool boss fight soundtrack?"
"Next time I'll bring a speaker," Josh said, sitting down. "How's your leg?"
"Still attached, so I'm calling it a win." Stevens had been injured in Alaska and was on light duty. "Though I'm pretty sure I'm going to set off metal detectors for the rest of my life with all the screws they put in."
Kyla picked at her food, clearly exhausted. "I need to sleep for about sixteen hours. But every time I close my eyes, I see those frozen soldiers in the cave."
"That's rough," Stevens said sympathetically. "Want to hear a joke? Might help."
"Please no," Josh groaned. "Your jokes are terrible."
"Excuse me, my jokes are amazing. Okay, what did the ocean say to the beach?"
Kyla and Josh looked at each other, then back at Stevens. "What?"
"Nothing, it just waved." Stevens grinned at their groans. "See? Comedy gold."
"That's the worst joke I've ever heard," Kyla said, but she was smiling.
"Oh please, I've got worse. Why don't scientists trust atoms?"
"Why?" Josh asked, already regretting it.
"Because they make up everything!" Stevens laughed at his own joke. "Come on, that one was good!"
"That one was painful," Kyla corrected, but she was laughing too. "Okay, okay, I've got one. What did the chicken say to the egg?"
"What?" Josh and Stevens said together.
"You crack me up!" Kyla delivered it with such deadpan seriousness that both Josh and Stevens burst out laughing.
"That was terrible!" Josh said, wiping his eyes. "That was absolutely awful!"
"But you laughed," Kyla pointed out. "Mission accomplished."
They spent another hour in the cafeteria, trading bad jokes and stories from before all the dimensional craziness started. It felt normal, almost like they were regular people having regular conversations. Josh almost forgot about the King in his head.
Almost.
That night, lying in his quarters, Josh tried to stay awake. If he didn't sleep, he couldn't dream. If he couldn't dream, the King couldn't reach him. But exhaustion eventually won, and his eyes drifted closed.
The cold came immediately.
Josh stood in the Frozen Realm again, but this time it was different. More detailed, more real. He could feel the ice beneath his feet, smell the strange metallic scent of the alien air, hear the wind howling across the frozen plains.
"Welcome back, Joshua." The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. "I hoped we might speak again."
The King materialized before him, but smaller this time. Not the fifty-foot monster from Alaska, but maybe ten feet tall. Almost approachable, if you ignored the fact that he was made of ice and ancient power.
"This isn't real," Josh said, trying to convince himself. "This is just a dream."
"We discussed this. Dreams are doorways." The King moved closer. "And you opened this door when you took my power. Now we are... connected. Bound in ways you cannot yet understand."
"I don't want to be connected to you."
"And yet you used my gift in Siberia. Created ice, wielded cold as a weapon. Did it not feel natural? Powerful?" The King's eyes glowed brighter. "You enjoyed it. I felt your satisfaction when you struck down my creatures."
Josh wanted to deny it, but couldn't. Using those powers had felt good. Right, somehow, like he'd been missing them his whole life.
"What do you want from me?" Josh demanded.
"Many things. But first, understanding." The King gestured, and the landscape around them changed. Instead of empty plains, Josh saw cities—massive structures of ice, beings moving through streets. "This is my realm. My kingdom. I have ruled for longer than your civilization has existed."
"Good for you. Doesn't give you the right to invade Earth."
"Invade?" The King actually laughed, a sound like breaking glaciers. "Is that what you think I'm doing? Invading?"
"You're trying to freeze our planet and make everyone serve you. That sounds like invasion to me."
"I am trying to save you." The King's voice turned serious. "Your world is dying, Joshua. Your species destroys itself slowly, poisoning the air, warming the seas. In a century, perhaps less, your planet will be uninhabitable. But ice preserves. Cold maintains. If I freeze your world, your people could live forever, preserved in my realm, safe from the decay and death that plagues all warm things."
"That's insane. You want to freeze everyone to save them?"
"Is it more insane than what humans do to themselves?" The King showed images—pollution, war, destruction. "I offer eternal life. Peace. All I ask is service."
"Service as frozen slaves."
"Service as immortals." The King moved closer. "You could be one of them, Joshua. The first. The bridge between my realm and yours. With the power you carry, you could be magnificent. Powerful beyond imagination."
"No," Josh said firmly. "I'm not joining you."
"I am not asking you to join. Not yet." The King's form shifted, becoming less solid, more like smoke. "But I want you to understand something. I am not your enemy. I am offering salvation. And whether you accept now or later, eventually, you will see the truth."
"What truth?"
"That your world cannot save itself. But I can save it. I can save everyone." The King's voice grew distant. "Three nights from now, I will show you something. A memory. The truth of who I am and why I do this. Then you will understand. Then you will choose."
"I've already chosen."
"Have you?" The King's laugh echoed as he faded. "We shall see, Joshua Reeves. We shall see."
Josh woke with a gasp, his heart racing. The clock showed 3:47 AM. He'd been asleep for less than two hours, but it felt like days had passed in that dream.
His phone buzzed. A text from Kyla: "Can't sleep. Want to talk?"
Josh grabbed his jacket and went to Kyla's room. She answered immediately, looking as tired as he felt.
"Nightmares?" she asked.
"Worse. The King." Josh told her everything—the conversation, the offer, the promise to show him "the truth" in three nights.
Kyla sat on her bed, processing. "He's trying to recruit you. Make you doubt yourself."
"I know. But Kyla, some of what he said... it wasn't wrong. About Earth, I mean. We are kind of destroying the planet."
"So his solution is to freeze everyone?" Kyla shook her head. "Josh, he's manipulating you. Making you think he's reasonable. That's what abusers do—they find a truth you can't argue with, then use it to justify terrible things."
"I know. I do. But what if there's more to this? What if the King isn't just some evil monster? What if he actually believes he's saving people?"
"Then he's a well-intentioned monster. Still a monster." Kyla took Josh's hands. "Promise me you won't let him get in your head. Promise me you'll remember who you are."
"I promise. But Kyla, in three nights he's going to show me something. A memory. I need to see it. I need to understand what we're really fighting."
"Then we'll face it together. Whatever he shows you, we'll deal with it. But Josh, you're not alone in this. You don't have to carry this by yourself."
Josh pulled her into a hug, holding tight. "Thank you. For not thinking I'm crazy."
"Oh, you're definitely crazy. But so am I. We match."
They stayed like that for a while, drawing comfort from each other's presence. Eventually, Josh went back to his room, but he didn't try to sleep again. He couldn't face another conversation with the King. Not yet.
The next two days passed in a blur of missions and training. They closed two small weak points in South America, trained a new DDI team in Portland, and attended far too many briefings. Josh kept waiting for another dream, but none came. The King was silent, letting anticipation build.
On the third night, Josh didn't bother trying to stay awake. The King had promised to show him something, and Josh needed to know what. He told Kyla what he was doing, and she insisted on staying in his room, watching over him while he slept.
"If you start thrashing or seem like you're in trouble, I'm waking you up," she said firmly.
"Deal."
Josh lay down, closed his eyes, and waited. The cold came quickly, pulling him back to the Frozen Realm.
But this time, he wasn't standing in the present. He was in the past.
The King stood beside him, but transparent, like a ghost. "This is memory," he said. "Not mine. Not yet. But you need to see where it began. Where everything changed."
The scene shifted, and Josh saw Earth. But not modern Earth—this was ancient, primitive. And in a dark alley somewhere, a young man was being beaten.
The man was maybe twenty, thin, with bruises covering his face and arms. Three larger men kicked him while he curled into a ball, trying to protect himself.
"Please," the young man begged. "I didn't do anything."
"You exist," one attacker spat. "That's enough."
They left him bleeding in the alley. The young man lay there for a long time, crying, broken. Then his eyes fell on something—a sphere of dark, shimmering light hovering in the corner of the alley.
"What is..." He reached for it, desperate for anything to change his circumstances.
The moment his fingers touched the sphere, everything changed. The scene exploded with light and cold, and Josh felt himself being pulled forward through time, through dimensions, through impossibility.
When the vision cleared, Josh was back in the Frozen Realm. And standing before him was the King, but different. The ice was darker, more chaotic. And inside it, Josh could see the young man, trapped and transformed.
"Do you understand now?" the King's voice asked. "Do you see?"
Josh stared in horror. "You're human. Or you were."
"Yes." The King's form solidified. "Once, long ago, I was like you. Weak. Afraid. Beaten by a world that saw no value in me. But I found power. Or perhaps it found me. And I was transformed. Taken to a dying realm and given the strength to save it. To rule it. To become something more than human."
"But you're trapped," Josh realized. "The sphere—it possessed you. Changed you against your will."
"At first, yes. But I learned to control it. To use it. To become what I needed to be." The King's voice held no regret. "And now I offer the same transformation to Earth. The same salvation."
"By possessing everyone? Turning them into frozen slaves?"
"By saving them from themselves. By giving them purpose." The King moved closer. "Joshua, you carry a piece of my power now. You feel it, don't you? The potential. You could become like me. Strong. Eternal. Free from the weakness that plagues humanity."
"I don't want to be like you."
"Not yet. But you will. Because I will show you more. In the nights to come, I will show you everything. And you will understand. You will see that I am not your enemy."
The King's form began to fade. "Three more nights, Joshua. Three more truths. And then you will choose. Willingly, knowingly. You will choose."
Josh woke to find Kyla shaking him. "Josh! Josh, wake up! You were glowing—your whole body was glowing blue!"
Josh sat up, disoriented. His skin was still tingling with cold energy. "He showed me. The King. He showed me what he was. What he is."
"What do you mean?"
"He was human once. Just a kid who got beaten and found something that transformed him. Gave him power. But it possessed him, changed him into what he is now." Josh looked at Kyla with haunted eyes. "He thinks he's saving people. He actually believes it."
"That doesn't make it okay."
"I know. But Kyla, he said he's going to show me more. Three more nights. Three more truths. And I think... I think I need to see them. I need to understand what created him. Because if I don't, how do we stop him?"
Kyla wanted to argue, but she could see the determination in Josh's eyes. "Okay. But I'm here for all of it. Every dream, every vision. We face this together."
"Together," Josh agreed.
But as Kyla left to let him rest, Josh couldn't shake the feeling that everything was about to change. The King had a plan, and somehow, Josh was at the center of it.
And in three more nights, he'd learn the truth.
Whatever that truth might be.
End of Chapter 25