The Sandman Omnibus Vol. 1

Rose returns home from visiting Jed in the hospital and reflects on her recent experiences. She lies awake while the other members of the household dream. As Rose falls asleep, she realizes she can see into everyone’s dreams and pull them all together. Dream arrives and takes Rose away. At Jed’s bedside, Gilbert speaks with Dream’s raven companion Matthew and learns that Rose is a dream vortex, and Dream will have to kill her.

Dream tells Rose the truth about her nature and reveals that he needs to kill her to protect the dream world. In a conversation with Matthew, Gilbert reveals that he is Fiddler’s Green, one of the entities that has gone missing from the Dreaming, and when he finds Dream and Rose, Dream recognizes him immediately. Gilbert offers his life instead of Rose’s, but Dream tells him it is not possible. Elsewhere, Miranda sits with Unity at her deathbed. Unity falls asleep and joins Rose in the dreamworld, where she reveals that she was meant to be the dream vortex all along. Because of Dream’s imprisonment, the vortex passed through her bloodline to Rose. Rose removes the thing that makes her the vortex, which resembles a red, cut-glass heart.