A/N: So… yeah… haven't updated in a while, huh? Crazy how life can be sometimes. But I came back to this story the other day and I recently got a message from a fan, XxStraussxX. It made my day. So, I figured, what the heck, huh? Here's a new chapter. As a warning: it has been years, and I can honestly say I haven't read Midnighters in a long time. If I get facts wrong, I'm sorry. I haven't had much study time for writing fanfics. But I hope you all enjoy! Thank you.

Chapter Nine: Reality

Robert leaned forward, resting his chin in his hands. He looked through the giant, two-way mirrors. The classroom glimmered.

"Why bother hiding it from them?"

Robert didn't look up as Nathaniel approached him. "Because it is comforting to them."

"Does that matter? They'll all be mind-wiped anyway."

Robert sat up, watching Mary, her hair up in a tight bun, wearing a high-collared silk top and a pencil skirt. Every inch the elegant school teacher. He sniffed. Nathaniel had always bothered him. Even back when they had been teenagers in Bixby. He was a glorified jumping bean.

"The mind is a very delicate masterpiece. We aren't mind-wiping them. They are still completely in control of their mental capacities. All we're doing is… facilitating their educational process."

"And adding in a few tweaks here and there? It's not like they'd notice. Or care. For all they know, they've always been like this."

"And for all you know, you are, in reality, a butterfly dreaming you are human."

Nathaniel paused. He hesitated. Robert laughed.

"That's not funny," Nathaniel whispered.

"Why?" Nathaniel was silent. "Because you know that I can bend and twist reality with a simple touch of my finger?" Robert reached out and touched the glass, his finger covering a group of young mindcasters, holding hands in a circle. "What you fail to realize is that reality is, by nature, malleable. It is not 'one size fits all'. Human beings have been changing and shifting and rearranging reality from the beginning of time. Every individual has their own version. What I do… what all mindcasters do… is change it back. We have been blessed, not only with the ability to see things as they really are, but to help others do the same. Sometimes, helping people takes a… hands on approach. Even with our own mindcasters."

"I thought Seers saw the truth."

"Seers see what was written before, by people tainted with warped realities. They are like human historians. Reliant on the minds of others. They only see what was. I see what is. People should trust their mindcasters."

Nathaniel opened his mouth to speak, but a spark of electricity burst in his mind. He looked up. Something wasn't right.

"What is it?" Nathaniel asked.

Robert stood and walked away from the window.

"Robert, answer me," Nathaniel called. Robert finally turned to face him. Old acrobat. So helpless. "What's going on?"

"Don't you trust me?" Robert questioned, grinning slightly, and leaving the room.

0000000000000000000000000000000000

Melissa sat beside him and watched him sleep. Rex. His shirt was open, his bandages fresh. He had been stabbed in the side, but he was strong. She rocked back in her chair, resting her foot on the bed. Her old Rex wouldn't have been able to survive. He was strong, but it was the Darkling in him that had saved him. She shuddered. Even in sleep there was something feral about him. Something different and wild and lethal. She didn't know whether to be terrified or in awe. She was a little of both.

He slept on his unwounded side, his hands clenching his pillow, his fingers curled almost like claws. His glasses were next to him on the bed. He had been studying the lore. Even when he should have been resting, when James was at school, he had been searching.

Melissa shifted positions and continued to think. Just being in his presence again was calming. The panic she had been silently carrying with her since he had fallen out of her psychic range was gone. She didn't need to sleep, like the rest of them. He was her rest.

Rex made a sound in his sleep. It sounded almost like a growl. Melissa wondered what he was dreaming. His eyes opened. They glinted in the hint of light that crept through the thick curtains over the windows. Melissa thought of a raccoon's eyes, seeing in the dark. He pulled his glasses on. The glinting disappeared.

"Can I have--"

Melissa handed him a glass of water before he could finish speaking. He took it gratefully and drank it all.

"What have you found?" Melissa questioned.

He sighed a bit and leaned back, his hand on his side. He reached out and lightly touched her shoe, still perched on the side of the bed as he painfully moved onto his back.

"James is a good researcher. He stumbled on a passage about old midnight, long ago. We're hoping to use it to find out why there are suddenly darklings again. Where they're coming from."

"What about mindcasters?"

"What about them?"

"I don't know yet."

Rex chuckled. "You're worried about this old mindcaster. He's turning out so many students." She nodded. "No. I haven't found a way to stop them. Not yet. But I'm looking."

Melissa fell into silence again. He was in pain. It made his darkling side angry. It made his human side scared.

"Who hurt you?"

Her question echoed in the dark room. It seemed to silence everything. Every sound, every thought. Melissa shuddered. Rex growled.

"I didn't see."

She tasted acid in his thoughts. A predator turned prey. He sunk his nails into her boot.

"It's okay," the words slipped out of her mouth unbidden.

"No, it wasn't. Madeline is dead."

Melissa froze. "When?"

"Right before we left. She was attacked, just like me."

Melissa's mind raced. Madeline wasn't a seer, she was a mindcaster. Why was she attacked?

"We'll keep you safe."

His head snapped to the side, glaring at her. He rose up a bit, leveling her, pinning her with his gaze. He didn't want to be protected.

Rex closed his eyes painfully, consciously. His grip on her boot slackened. He took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Melissa whispered.

Rex took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. Once he placed his glasses back on, he seemed back to normal.

"We will find out what's going on. No doubt whoever attacked me didn't know me. Seers are being killed everywhere, I hear. And Darklings couldn't get me in Madeline's house."

"Madeline is… was… a mindcaster."

"She was also mental. She was probably just in the way."

"Rex… how would anyone know about Madeline's if they weren't looking for you? It's hidden."

"What do we know about this school Jason mentioned?" His voice was sharp. Silencing. Melissa grunted.

"I have been talking to Jason about it. He doesn't know much. Robert didn't leave any markers in his mind that will lead back to him. All he has memory of is a school. A single room, with a woman teacher. She wasn't a mindcaster. She just watched over them when Robert wasn't personally passing memory. Robert was very careful in his personal instruction."

Rex nodded. "Then nothing has changed. He is still our target."

"We need to be careful around him, Rex. He's dangerous."

"Everything is dangerous. I'm dangerous."

"You know what I mean."

"Yes. But you also know what I mean. There are a lot of things going on here. Things neither of us understand. Things that may or may not be connected or even mean anything. Right now, though, our goal is simple: stop Robert. Wild mindcasters are not only dangerous, but they spread impossibly fast. The only way we have any chance of stopping this is at the source. Like playing othello. He turned a lot of tiles, but with a little targeting, we can change them back again. We need to focus."

Melissa nodded, uneasy. Normally she would argue. Normally she would insist that they figure out exactly what was going on. But he was the seer. And he knew more than he was telling her.

"Fine." She set her feet on the ground and rocked her chair back to the floor. "This is more than we're used to, Rex. This isn't just Bixby. This is the world."

"We're not the only ones anymore."

"But we're the ones who know. We see what's going on. We see reality. We have to help everyone else see it, too. Before it's too late."

Rex turned again onto his back. "Reality. Such a surreal thing. Nothing ever happens like it should. Like we expect."

Melissa stared at the ceiling. "I sure hear that."

"I missed you."

Melissa looked down at him. He was looking at her. She relaxed a bit and glanced away. "I missed you, too, Loverboy."

He reached out one hand and she sat beside him on the bed, brushing her fingertips over his palm. She only barely entered his mind, letting him into hers just enough to feel her fear, but also her hope. Her happiness at seeing him again.

"Get some rest," she whispered. "We have a lot of work to do."

She withdrew her fingers and his hand clenched. He watched her leave and, even as Melissa shut the door behind her back, she could feel his eyes still following her.