Chapter 11

"'Average day', she claims," Wenara said, sharing a look with Lior. "Yeah, my casual day contains being stalked by an anime villain, too!" She rolled her eyes.

"You make it sound like I'm being ridiculous!" Jai huffed. She had just finished recounting her tale of what had happened to her while she was unconscious, and her teammates were giving her an array of concerned looks. "What do you expect me to do? Run around panicking?" If she was being honest with herself, she did feel like that was how she felt right about now, but she wasn't going to let her teammates know that. Telling them what had happened had restarted the feeling of her heart in her throat. She was terrified of this man, but she couldn't put her team in danger.

Lior rubbed his thumb against his prosthetic hand, frowning at Jai. "There's no need to act all defensive, Jai. We're in this together, whether we like it or not. And I don't think you're revealing your true feelings about this."

Is this how people feel when I analyze them? Jai wondered, frowning at Lior. "Okay, maybe it's a little stressful… but I can handle it." I think, anyway.

"No, you can't," Ivex said, scowling at her. "As Wenara pointed out, this guy is like some anime villain. Have you ever heard of an anime protagonist winning on their own?"

"Well-"

"What did he look like?" Lior interrupted her, flipping his sketch book open. "If we can get an idea, maybe we could get some information on him. The other two as well."

"But-"
"Did they looklike villains too?" Wenara asked, moving to sit next to Lior.

"I-"

"You can't tell us not to help you, Happy-go-lucky." Ivex sat down on the desk chair, leaning it back onto one leg. "Part of our 'job-descriptions' as teammates is to aid our leader, right? And even if you make an official order for us not to help, we'll still find some way to do it."

"It's not going to be safe, you guys. This is the same person or organization or something that killed my sister."

"I didn't come to Huntsmen academy to be 'safe', Dream Girl." Wenara crossed her arms. "How am I supposed to get stronger without challenges?"

Jai felt a slow smile stretch across her face. She was so grateful to have a team that had her back like this. She honestly felt sorry for team QRTZ, and their lack of teamwork. "Thanks you guys," she said, looking around at her friends. "Okay! Who's ready to take this guy down?"

"Welcome back, captain," Lior said softly.

Jai planted her hands on her hips, and began to pace around the dorm. "He was tall, but not outrageously. Only just barely taller than me. He had short hair, dark but getting gray around the edges." She shut her eyes, seeing the man as if he was standing in the room with her. "He had a long black coat that seemed to billow out around him and boots with pointless zippers all over them. He also wore black, leather gloves.

"Valkyrie had medium-length, orange hair. She had a white coat, but wore nothing but a short crop top and light blue leggings underneath it. She and Nicholas both had on silver rings, which is how the DreamMaster controls them.

"Nicholas had pointy goat horns, and red hair. He was taller than the other two, and held himself like a professor. He also-"

"Nicholas Torres?" Lior interrupted, looking up from his sketch.

Jai cocked her head at him. "I think so. Why? Do you know him?"

Lior looked back down at his drawing. "Yeah, I do. I've only met him a couple times, but he and Laura's dad go way back. He's like an adopted uncle to Laura and Mason." Lior paused, his ears turning a light pink. "He didn't like me very much though, because he guessed I had a crush on Laura."

Jai leaned back against the wall. "Whelp, that's all the info I got. Can I see your drawing?"

Lior flipped it around for Jai to see. She grinned. It wasn't realism, but it was a pretty darn good drawing nonetheless. He had captured the DreamMaster's gaze so perfectly that it sent shivers down Jai's spine.
"What about you two?" Jai addressed Ivex and Wenara. "Any insight? Comments?"

Ivex sighed, shaking his head. "Except for Tara also having a silver ring, but I'm sure you noticed that already."

Jai nodded. "I did, but thanks anyway. Wen? How about you?"

Wenara was sitting silently beside Lior, her eyes looking haunted as she stared at his picture. "Foirger Deese," she murmured. Her three teammates shared a look. Wenara was usually very talkative and bouncy. Right now, she looked like a mix between sick and enraged.

"'Foirger Deese'?" Jai repeated, trying to prompt Wenara into saying more.

"That's the DreamMaster's real name." She shuddered, and fidgeted with the bracelet she always wore. "He's an insanely good Huntsman, and he doesn't give a shit to anything other than his plans."
Language, Jai thought. She kept silent, not wanting to interrupt.

"How do you know that?" Ivex asked, letting his chair fall back to the floor.

"My parents worked for him. He always wore that ridiculous coat, even in the middle of a Vaccuan summer. When my parents weren't useful to him anymore, he offed them and blamed it on the Grimm." Wenara's hands tightened into fists. "He would have killed me too if it wasn't for my older brother holding me back from attacking him."

Ivex frowned. He got up and began to pace the room. "Why is he called the DreamMaster then? If his name is Foirger, and he's practically unbeatable, why the code name?"
"He can manipulate dreams," Jai and Wenara said at the same time. Jai glanced over at her friend. "But until he got Nicholas, all of those dreams were just empty fears. Nicholas made them possible realities."

"Even better," Wenara snorted.

Ivex continued his pacing. "So, the dream you and Wen had, was it empty fears or actually possible? What would have happened if you two had gone to Vale?"

"Definitely possible." Jai crossed her arms. "Nicholas has been under Foirger for almost 12 years."

"Twelve?" Lior exclaimed, his eyebrows jumping high on his head. "How is that possible?"

"What do you mean?"

Lior shook his head. "I've only known Laura eight and I've met him three times at least! How can he have been under the DreamMaster longer than that?"

Jai tapped her chin. "Hmm. Good question."

"Maybe he has a limit to how long he can keep someone under his control without a break?" Ivex said, pausing his pacing to glance back at the others. "Like, he has to give them a week off or so to recharge his control?"

"Now that I'm thinking about it, Nicholas always said he could only stay one day because his work didn't let him take off more than that," Lior said, tapping his pencil against his paper. "It could be that the DreamMaster only has a 'recharge' time of a day."
"He wouldn't let them all off at once, though," Wenara began, "because that would leave him without an army."

"That's true." Jai nodded. "So if he has a hundred people at his disposal, there will always be at least ninety-nine of his servants available." She sighed and slumped against the wall. "Way too many for us to take on."

"Unless," Lior said softly, "we bring out Foirger to fight, by himself. Even the greatest Huntsmen have weaknesses."

"Considering how well Nicholas seemed to know Valkyrie, they probably work together a lot. Meaning, Foirger probably takes them with him to most of his missions." Jai pressed the tips of her fingers together. "Getting him alone would be next to impossible. Nicholas can see the future and Valkyrie can make illusions come to life."
Ivex picked up his pacing once more. "Yes, but as Lior said, all Huntsmen have weaknesses. We just need to find his and wedge our knife in there."

"How would we even get to Vaccuo to fight him in the first place, though?" Wenara asked, her brow crinkling. "It's not like any of us have a 'skip-to-final-boss' card or something like that."

Jai frowned momentarily, thinking about it. "Hmm… what if… we went to Vaccuo for our mission? Then, he would be drawn to us. We could set the stage, and catch him off guard."
"But that isn't for another several months," Lior pointed out. "Don't you want to do something right now?"

Jai shook her head. "As nice as that would be, I think we most definitely need more practice before we engage in combat with Foirger. If Coli and her team couldn't beat him…" her voice trailed off.

"Didn't Tara say that Coli should have been able to beat him?" Ivex crossed his arms. "She got distracted, right? If she hadn't, it would have been fine."
Jai nodded once. "You're right." She stood up and planted her hands on her hips. "We can do this!"

Lior coughs. "After we get into the Vytal Festival Tournament. And actually pass our midterms."

Jai's shoulders slumped a little. She grinned sheepishly. "Right. Those things too." She clapped her hands. "All right people! Let's study hard for the exams! I won't have one of my teammates failing!"

A/n: Apologies for any grammatical errors I may have missed. Have a day. /Kronos\\