Chapter Summaries

Batman used his memory reader on Christopher and discovered a way to lure Insomnia out. He shared the finding with Deathstroke just as Alfred arrived with a late-night snack.

• Batman operated on Christopher without anesthesia and connected electrodes to his exposed brain.
• Deathstroke and Dream of a Thousand Cats watched Batman work while eating tofu pudding inside Harley's dream.
• Batman used the Bat-Glasses to connect his mind to Christopher's, suffering a nosebleed before finishing.
• Batman told Deathstroke that he had found a way to lure Insomnia out.
• Alfred arrived with a cart of cookies, unaware that Batman was speaking to someone he could not see.

Su Ming questioned Batwoman about Insomnia’s origins and weakness, learning that it came from Christopher’s missing memories and wanted to become someone who existed in reality. The group concluded that Insomnia pursued that goal by turning all living beings into dreamers, making humanity’s definition resemble its own.

• Batwoman said Christopher had multiple personalities and that his missing ten hours of memory formed the main part of Insomnia.
• Batman explained that Christopher’s primary personality and body had been unconscious while a secondary personality remained awake but unable to move.
• Su Ming suggested Insomnia might have wanted to witness or take part in killing Christopher’s family, and Batwoman’s silence revealed that the possibility hit close to her own experience with the Joker personality.
• Batwoman told Su Ming that Insomnia wanted to become someone who lived in reality.
• Su Ming told Kitty that Insomnia’s power came from Crisis and the Way of Destruction, as it sought to make every living being a dreamer and thereby change the definition of humanity.

Deathstroke enlisted Dream of a Thousand Cats and Harley to create a dream-within-a-dream that would lure Insomnia into a fabricated version of Christopher’s home. As Harley agreed to direct the new scenario, Deathstroke and Kitty began building the neighborhood for their trap.

• Deathstroke decided to use Christopher’s family and recreated home as bait for Insomnia, and he wrote a script in the Origin Codex.
• Dream of a Thousand Cats brought Deathstroke into Harley’s nightmare, where Deathstroke began dismantling the monitoring room and building Christopher’s neighborhood with Kitty.
• Harley greeted Deathstroke and Kitty, joked about making Kitty prove its identity, and asked how Deathstroke had entered her dream.
• Deathstroke explained that he had come after Adjutant messaged him and invited Harley to direct the new scenario.
• Harley offered to produce the movie, and Deathstroke told her that there were parts only she could handle because it was her dream.

Gwenpool waited in deserted Gotham for the moment Deathstroke had promised, then found a Sleepless Knight and convinced it that she was a nightmare like itself. She left the knight believing her absurd advice about how to frighten humans, while her promised message remained undelivered.

• Gwenpool ate ice cream on a deserted Gotham street while wondering how she would recognize the time Deathstroke meant.
• Gwenpool spotted a centipede-like Sleepless Knight and called it over, saying she had good news.
• Gwenpool fired an M202 rocket launcher at a fast-food restaurant, convincing the Sleepless Knight that her weapons were more frightening than its own.
• Gwenpool claimed she was a nightmare and told the Sleepless Knight that pink clothing made its wearer hit harder.
• The Sleepless Knight believed Gwenpool and changed its body to a flamboyant pink.

Gwenpool followed Deathstroke’s plan to divide the Sleepless Knights by exploiting their conflicting desires and lack of unity. She began persuading a centipede nightmare to abandon its outdated way of frightening people, showing it modern human fears on her phone.

• Gwenpool reasoned that the Sleepless Knights were vulnerable to manipulation because their members had separate goals and did not all support Insomnia’s plan.
• Gwenpool praised a pale-pink nightmare’s appearance and urged it to change its centipede body.
• The nightmare explained that it had been born from someone’s fear of centipedes and relied on them to frighten people.
• Gwenpool showed the nightmare a web forum on her phone and pointed out that modern people feared problems such as unpaid wages and bankruptcy.

Gwenpool used a misleading social media thread to convince Pink Knight that humans feared poverty more than the Nightmares it and Insomnia represented. Pink Knight turned against Insomnia and agreed to follow Gwenpool to a hiding place in exchange for her help.

• Gwenpool stopped Sleepless Knight from interrupting and urged it to keep reading the forum posts.
• Pink Knight read several posts about people fearing money troubles and concluded that humans feared poverty rather than centipedes or sleeplessness.
• Pink Knight worried that a powerful Nightmare representing poverty might serve Dream, and began considering abandoning Insomnia.
• Gwenpool recognized Pink Knight's fear and reinforced its belief that Insomnia was doomed and Dream could be evaded by disguising themselves as humans.
• Pink Knight transformed into a human-looking figure and agreed to follow Gwenpool's commands after she offered to take it somewhere Dream would never find them.

Gwenpool brought the first nightmare to Harley’s dream neighborhood, establishing a refuge where nightmares could hide from the Dream King and gather more of their kind. Su Ming’s group planned to use the residents as actors to lure Insomnia into a trap, while Kitty explained how Harley could later keep the nightmares contained in layered dreams.

• Gwenpool persuaded the Pink Knight to tell other nightmares about her plan to save them.
• Gwenpool took the Pink Knight to a replica neighborhood in Harley’s nightmare and named it Nightmare Town of Isolation.
• Gwenpool gave the Pink Knight a Spider Totem that could bring other nightmares into the town and let them enter or leave.
• Harley, Su Ming, and Deathstroke’s group watched the Pink Knight settle in and discussed using the nightmares as actors to draw Insomnia out.
• Kitty explained that Harley could later restrict the nightmares’ exit privileges by making them believe they had left through another layer of dream.

Su Ming and his companions waited in Dreaming while Harley played with Dream of a Thousand Cats, as a mysterious shadow consumed a multiverse. The shadow’s nature remained unclear, and the scene ended as a glimpse of “Mystery.”

• The Rebel Knight in pink left Gwen, while Su Ming considered how Dream would deal with the Sleepless Knights and future nightmares.
• Kitty offered to teach Harley how to divide dreams into layers, but Harley said she could manage dreams herself and wanted to play with the nightmares.
• Harley grabbed Dream of a Thousand Cats and sniffed her, while the group waited for Big Fish to take the bait.
• A formless black shadow spread through the void and began consuming a multiverse, erasing its galaxies, lives, and boundaries.
• An iron-patched crown covered in flowers emerged within the shadow before fading as the multiverse disappeared into darkness.

Insomnia investigated why its Sleepless Knights were disappearing and learned that they might have defected. It entered the Joker’s dream on Earth-0, where the Joker had made himself a passage for Nightmares again to draw Batwoman back to him.

• Insomnia sensed Sleepless Knights vanishing without their Nightmare Stone energy returning, suggesting they were still alive or had severed their ties.
• A newborn Nightmare suggested the missing knights might have betrayed Insomnia, and Insomnia agreed before kicking it for not speaking sooner.
• Insomnia left to investigate and used the Nightmare Stone to enter a Gotham resident’s dream on Earth-0.
• Insomnia found the Joker dreaming as Jerome, with coworkers hunting him through Wayne Enterprises.
• The Joker had removed the bat patch from his head again, hoping Batwoman would rescue him and keep him company.

Insomnia investigated why Sleepless Knights had disappeared and discovered Gwenpool recruiting them into Nightmare Town of Isolation. It followed another lead and found a missing knight wearing a pink bodysuit, repeating the same recruitment pitch.

• Insomnia left the Joker’s nightmare and entered Gotham to investigate the disappearance of Sleepless Knights.
• Insomnia watched Gwenpool persuade a Skeleton Knight to join the Frenzied Sleep Knights and transform into a human woman.
• Insomnia followed the Nightmare Stone’s guidance to another Sleepless Knight and recognized him as one who had lost contact.
• Insomnia saw the missing knight in a pink bodysuit approach another Sleepless Knight with the Frenzied Sleep Knights’ recruitment pitch.

Insomnia followed two Frenzied Sleep Knights into a dream to confront the Nightmare behind their recruitment. He found himself trapped in a sitcom-like town where he was portrayed as a cheerful family man, and the episode began with a crude encounter with his neighbor Tom.

• The Pink Knight persuaded another Sleepless Knight to defect, then used a wooden stick to make both Nightmares vanish.
• Insomnia concluded that the Frenzied Sleep Knights were offering valuable rewards and decided to kill their leader publicly and seize their territory.
• Insomnia spotted a Frenzied Sleep Knight recruiting in Gotham, ruled out Dream and Deathstroke as the one behind the group, and followed the recruiters into a dream using his Nightmare Stone.
• The dream opened as a sitcom called "Nightmare Town of Isolation," presenting Insomnia as an optimistic man with a wife and three daughters.
• Insomnia returned home, shoved his neighbor Tom out the door after Tom sexually harassed him, then agreed to go fishing with him the next morning.

Insomnia spent an evening at home in a sitcom-like family, hearing about his daughters’ bizarre school incidents and praising them without questioning the absurdity. The unexplained laughter and applause continued around him as he settled back onto the sofa.

• Insomnia’s wife told him their eldest daughter had been sued by a pig for taking its picture on the subway, and Insomnia dismissed the issue while wondering why the pig had a lawyer.
• Insomnia’s youngest daughter showed him a drawing of Aunt Jerry wrestling naked with a black man while Uncle Tom hid in a closet, and Insomnia encouraged her to draw the scene realistically next time.
• Insomnia caught his second daughter hiding cotton and learned her school had sent Black students to pick it while she watched with a whip and received a share.
• Insomnia praised Principal Jim’s educational approach, then lay back on the sofa as laughter and applause sounded from nowhere.

Harley, Deathstroke, Kitty, and Gwenpool prepared a staged nightmare to torment the brainwashed Insomnia while discussing how to investigate CAAT's destruction of multiverses. Kitty suggested sending Batman to confront the entity, but Harley and Deathstroke rejected the idea and left Batman in Gotham.

• Harley adjusted her nightmare's sunlight while Kitty explained that Insomnia had been altered into an actor named Christopher.
• Deathstroke directed the makeshift troupe, and Gwenpool arranged the Frenzied Sleep Knights as background actors for a manure-truck scene.
• Su Ming told Harley that CAAT had caused another multiverse to disappear and that he would continue searching for inspiration.
• Harley suggested sending expendable people into the next doomed multiverse to gather information.
• Kitty proposed sending Batman because he might accomplish what Lucifer could not, but Harley refused to risk Gotham's protector.
• Deathstroke agreed that Batman had to stay in Gotham and noted that Batman was also needed to help investigate the Spectre of Uni-Force with Jar-ro.

Su Ming left Kitty in charge of Insomnia and the defected Nightmares before departing with Harley, while Peter Parker woke from a disturbing dream involving Deadpool. Deadpool lamented losing the chance to become a “mommy,” and Peter challenged him with a question about farts and entropy.

• Su Ming gave Kitty the red gemstone and told it to let Daniel reclaim Insomnia after Harley had her fun, while leaving the other defected Nightmares to their television drama.
• Kitty warned Su Ming that the threat might erase even conceptual beings across Hypertime, and Su Ming said he would stay cautious as he considered where to go next.
• Peter Parker woke in his cabin, relieved to escape Deadpool’s plan to breastfeed the Nightmares and give them maternal love.
• Deadpool complained that Su Ming had stopped him from becoming a mother by dealing with Insomnia and reclaiming the Nightmare Stone.
• Peter put on his Spider-Man mask and asked whether farts caused no entropy change, leaving Deadpool astonished by the question.

Spider-Man and Deadpool joked in the spacecraft cabin after waking from the Nightmare, and Deadpool warned Peter that Deathstroke might send them on a deadly mission. Peter wanted to check on Squirrel Girl and Jessica, but Deadpool talked him into playing Monster Hunters instead.

• Spider-Man thanked Deadpool for saving him in the Nightmare and joked about finding a habitable planet to colonize.
• Deadpool warned Peter that Deathstroke might use them as cannon fodder in universes doomed by CAAT.
• Deadpool said he would stay with Peter and try to protect him if Deathstroke came looking for recruits.
• Peter said he wanted to check on Squirrel Girl and Jessica after their Nightmare.
• Deadpool dismissed Peter's concern, pulled out a laptop and controller, and urged him to play Monster Hunters.

Deathstroke met with Little Rich and Little Guy to discuss CAAT’s destruction of another multiverse and whether it had truly devoured it. Little Rich planned to revise his calculations, while Deathstroke invited the children to play games with Deadpool and Peter.

• Deathstroke listened as Little Rich reported that another multiverse had vanished and concluded CAAT was responsible.
• Deathstroke argued that the multiverses might not have been devoured, since there was no evidence CAAT had grown stronger.
• Little Guy wondered whether CAAT found multiverses as delicious as she found ice cream.
• Little Rich agreed to recalculate CAAT’s limits with Little Guy after they finished their ice cream.
• Deathstroke asked whether Little Rich had visited Doctor Doom, and Little Rich said he had and that Doom meant a great deal to him.
• Deathstroke suggested that Deadpool and Peter play Monster Hunters with the children, but Little Rich objected that they would slow him down.

Su Ming discussed his strange fatigue while investigating CAAT with Little Rich over ice cream, then explained why he would not seek more answers from TOAA. The conversation ended with Su Ming wondering whether TOAA had given him limited help to keep him from siding with the First Firmament.

• Su Ming told Little Rich that investigating CAAT had left him with a peculiar fatigue and a sense that he was close to understanding something.
• Su Ming gave Little Rich millions of Credit Points and suggested he take a break, while Little Rich dismissed romance and described his plans for artificial reproduction.
• Su Ming reassured Little Rich that he should make his own choices about having children, considering the horrors of Little Rich's past universe.
• Little Rich suggested that Su Ming speak with TOAA, but Su Ming said TOAA would not reveal information that might be used against it.
• Su Ming compared TOAA's limited assistance to a reputation-based vendor and wondered whether it wanted to stop him from joining the First Firmament.

Su Ming returned to Kamar-Taj, checked on its mages and the state of the Blood War in Hell, then met with Ancient One and Monark. Monark reported that he had stopped Atlanteans’ nightmare-born threats, while Su Ming accepted that some Atlanteans still hated him.

• After parting from Little Rich and Little Guy, Su Ming returned to Kamar-Taj and asked Mordo about Strange, Liu Haizhu, the Sanctums, and the Blood War in Hell.
• Su Ming told Mordo to proceed with the year's recruitment and went to speak with Ancient One.
• Ancient One and Su Ming joked about using birds to deliver messages before Monark arrived, soaked from the rain.
• Monark said he had dealt with Atlanteans who were affected by nightmares and warned Su Ming that some Atlanteans still resented him.
• Su Ming said he did not care about their private hatred and would let them challenge humanity if they acted on it.

Ancient One gathered Su Ming, Doctor Doom, Monark, and Wanda to seek ways to help him break through the Knowledge Barrier. Wanda arrived from the Dark Dimension despite Su Ming's warning to focus on securing the Inner Planes.

• Ancient One reassured Su Ming that he should temper his ruthless approach, then explained that she had invited spellcasters to help him overcome the Knowledge Barrier.
• Su Ming agreed to explore Mystic Side theories, and Doctor Doom explained that the Knowledge Barrier prevented one from realizing the true nature of the Dharma realm and attaining Buddhahood.
• Ancient One said she had also invited Wanda, who arrived from the Dark Dimension and greeted the assembled mages.
• Su Ming warned Wanda to keep guarding the Inner Planes, but Wanda said the Octessence were watching the outer layers and that she had come to help.

Ancient One hosted a tea gathering where Doctor Doom explained Knowledge Barriers to Su Ming, connecting the concept to how people’s assumptions and habits limit their understanding. The discussion ended with Doom accusing Su Ming of relying on his AI assistant for continual learning.

• Ancient One welcomed Su Ming, Doctor Doom, Monark, and Wanda to her modest home in Kamar-Taj for a discussion.
• Doctor Doom defined Knowledge Barriers and described how existing knowledge can shape people’s understanding of new information.
• Doctor Doom cited Su Ming’s habit of killing Aliens he disliked as an example of experience limiting his choices, and Su Ming denied that he killed every Alien.
• Doctor Doom outlined how comfort zones hinder exploration while curiosity and critical thinking can help people cross Knowledge Barriers.
• Doctor Doom concluded that people needed to keep updating their knowledge and said Su Ming had left that work to the Adjutant.