Hhehehehehhe~ The Sleepers... AWAKEN!
~Angel and Hel
Chapter Twenty One: Revelations
-.-.-
So you found your darkness. You found your light.
It haunts you. It will always haunt you.
Running from shadows never works.
But sometimes you can kill them.
-.-.-
Titian hacked blood, her vision dimming. Maybe - maybe death was enough of a redemption. The dark here was soft, not specked with flame. Safe. She could finally let it end. Let it all fade.
…
It wasn't fading.
If anything, her senses were returning stronger than she remembered.
Bustling… talking… none of it made sense, it all blurred into an uncomfortable wall of sound but it was there. Noise, the smells of life. Food.
Feeling returned to her limbs. Like a rush of blood. Pins and needles.
She couldn't even move. Couldn't even open her eyes.
"Hey there, just stay calm," a voice cut through the blur, "We'll remove the restraints in a moment. How are you feeling? Everything moving properly?"
Restraints - she - what was this - was heaven - was death a cage? Where was she?
She'd thought it was over. This was - this was a sick joke.
Titian tried to scream, but her jaw and throat didn't work properly. Dry. Her head hurt.
A hand on her shoulder. "It's alright, it was just a dream. Atlas is fine, nobody has been hurt."
It was supposed to be reassuring. It wasn't. It made everything - every agonising choice, every failure, every success, it made it all meaningless. And it made no sense. She thrashed, pulling at what she now recognised as straps holding her limbs down, she had to get out.
"Whoa, whoa, please, calm down. The restraints are only here so you don't hurt yourself." More 'reassurance'. "Or us. I know the Dream can provoke rather extreme reactions and behavior, please just calm down, let us explain. Can you nod or shake your head? Do you understand?"
Titian drew her claws and stretched -
The straps snap and she stood, fast. No weapon, no Rasaat, but they'd left her gauntlets on her - she pinned the human to the ground, knife to their throat, claws caressing their face and she snarled, screaming and -
She suddenly found herself slammed into the ground on her back, a forearm over her throat and all four limbs pinned by a furious red-headed woman who smelt of charcoal and sweat. "MISS CINEROUS." she started, growling the name through clenched teeth, "If you dare attack one of my staff again you will find yourself in the infirmary for a week. AM I CLEAR!"
"I. Was. Tied. Up. I was dead." Titian tried to stop the rumble in her vocal chords, or the instinct to bare her throat to a superior.
"Those restraints were specifically to stop this happening." the woman stated, glaring at her. Eye contact. Aggression. A challenge. But slowly, the pressure on her decreased, until she was freed again. "Do not disappoint me again, Cinerous."
Titian fell back onto the camp bed and nodded, slowly. Around her were the others, waking up, more humans in white bending over them. A snap as Yolona woke, casually breaking the bed and throwing the staff aside to roar in frustration as she punched a wall, before a grey cloaked figure rested a hand on her back.
Yolona was shaking, her breathing heavy. Her left arm was limp at her side. "I- I thought I had found Promethium," she muttered, leaning her head on the wall. Promethium. Berserker heaven, Titian assumed. The grey shrouded figure whispered something quiet, hand still on Yolona's back.
All around the room there were more displays. Yolona's breakout, Titian's own outburst, some screamed, some were puking. The armoured woman was still there. Moving from trouble spot to troubled spot, dealing with them. Trouble like her.
A superior then. A teacher, or just a huntress? It was hard to say.
"Ma'am? This one won't wake up."
A heavy smack on the forehead and one panicked squeal later, another problem was solved. Titian's ears picked up the telltale sound of petite snoring shortly after though. A short-lived solution, it seemed.
She was content to watch and listen, for now. She'd made her position clear, been told what was expected of her - she didn't like it, but she knew. Best to wait. Observe.
The person strapped to the bed next to hers woke with a jolt, straining against their ties for a moment before slumping back down. It took her a moment to recognise them. Avos. Even without the mask, it was still frustratingly hard to discern any feminine or masculine features.
Her limbs felt heavy. Hadn't she just been asleep? But she still felt tired. Not the physical tiredness of a heavy body, but a heavy mind. She - she wanted to be done with this. The - the sheer discordance of it all was…
"I have to see her, I have to see them, are they okay, did I save them?" Aphoth, thrashing on the bed next to the somnolent one. "She's so still, are you sure are you sure she's okay, I can't feel her, I can't feel them - "
"Everyone here is alive, in various stages of waking up from the same Dream you were in. Calm down, take deep breaths, stop panicking." More orders from the armoured superior. She had to be a teacher. Or an enforcer. But the Academy had androids and mechs for that. Teacher, then. Teacher of what, though?
She continued to wait, continued to watch.
-.-.-
You're angry. You want to rip and tear and burn and shred. But you can't.
People don't like seeing you angry. You worry about that, don't you, about what they'd think about what they'd do to you when you show your true colours.
Hotheaded? Try hot-blooded. High strung. Overexcitable.
You say you let your demons out to play but in reality they're the ones locking you away.
-.-.-
Firefirefirefirepainpainpain -
It hurt. It hurt a right bloody lot.
She'd show this damn worm what she could do - she'd show everybody w-what she was capable of -
Magma veins steel skin fire-
She couldn't move she couldn't - why was she so cold she was never cold like this -
Adrenaline, anger, rage, confusion, it all flooded her body in a rush she couldn't control. She opened her eyes, rushing forward in a snarl and her body was burning -
Something snapped, voices - noises - they all blurred and she felt tired she felt weak she - this wasn't right -
She fell to her knees, the fire retreating as she clutched at her stomach with her arm - arms? Why - how - what was going on?!
A strong hand grabbed her shoulder and squeezed. Squeezed hard. She bared her teeth, hissing in pain. "S-sod off -"
The voice cut through any confusion she might have had. "These are extenuating circumstances so I will allow it this once, miss Eruthros, but do not talk back to me like that ever again."
Ice filled her chest. The hand let go. She finally started to make sense of the blurred noises and colours in front of her. She hugged herself tight, started rocking back and forth with eyes open wide. She - she'd just -
She yelped and scrambled away as something cold pushed against her. There was a large, red-headed woman standing over her. Not angry, but not happy either. "The results of your little… display." She gestured to the stretcher that a couple of TSO's were extinguishing.
Oh.
"It was a Dream. None of it was real. You're back in reality now, so don't go starting up trouble." she ordered, before moving away.
Vivian sat there, horrified. None - none of it had been real? But - she'd died. She'd - she'd unleashed…
It can't have been just a Dream. It'd felt so real, so - so -
She whimpered, curled up into a ball.
She wished she had her hat. She could hide behind it's huge brim. It was also good for keeping the rain - snow, snow around here - it was good for keeping the snow off too - wait she should be focusing not distracting -
Maybe what she needed right now was a distraction, so she didn't notice things like Yolona raging against a wall or Titian - that bitch that let her family DIE - wait no no no it wasn't real it was just… just… just a dream. Nothing to… to…
But she'd only just found out it was a dream.
Titian had thought it real too and she still left them for dead.
No, she… she… shouldn't…
Shouldn't hate her. She was only doing…
Fuck, everyone in that bloody Dream was doomed to die one way or another.
That didn't stop it from hurting.
A noise from behind her. Someone thrashing. Oh, Krypton… Titian had let her little sister die…
Krypton was struggling. Panicking by the looks of it. A TSO quickly attended to her, dropping the fire extinguisher and doing their best to reassure her. Heavy breathing, flushed cheeks, the cold sweat.
Vivian wished her awakening had been that calm.
"It's okay, it was just a Dream. Welcome back to reality." The TSO waited until they'd stopped moving to undo the restraints. Restraints… Vivian couldn't remember - oh, right, she'd set hers on fire when she'd…
"The night… and the dream… were long."
Vivian flinched, shrinking herself down as much as she could before glancing behind her. A man sat on his own stretcher bed, dusting off his broadbrimmed, floppy grey hat and heavy woolen coat. He had a funny accent. Brass gauntlets… he didn't seem the type for fisticuffs.
And one other thing. "Uhh… isn't that a tad too tight?" Vivian pointed to the belt around his left leg.
"Stops the beast-blood reaching my heart. Corruption spreads sinister." He grinned. His teeth were yellow and crooked.
Vivian cringed. "Haven't you… thought of seeing a doc about that? What kind of infection could your Aura not… y'know, make it bugger off?"
"The Grimm blood." He made a snarling breath that virtually misted the air, then chuckled. "Ah… it smells so sweet, does it not? We are made men by it, born of it. Undone by it." He cackled then, high pitched and piercing, like a witch.
She shuddered, chills running down her spine. "Bloody tosser…" she grumbled, curling her arms around her legs and hiding her face behind her knees, rocking back and forth lightly.
It hadn't been real. Wasn't… wasn't a big deal, right?
-.-.-
You felt yourself slipping away in them. You lost your anchor. You were left to leave her to survive while you fell into the darkness.
You faced your demons.
And they didn't kill you. Strange, how death that shrouds your soul couldn't find its purchase on your heart. It has lost its sting. Strength from pain, from death, from failure.
Isn't that how it's always been for you?
-.-.-
Aphoth woke, still feeling horns in her throat, claws scraping her sternum, teeth in her leg. For a moment she reached for the dead - and found none. A dream, then? She was - she was on a bed, she was tied down where was she?
Panic wasn't helpful. She'd learned that by now. Don't panic, assess.
White ceiling. TSOs. Still at Atlas Academy then. But -
Where was Ash, where were the others, were they safe? The medical personnel suggested that it hadn't been a dream, hadn't been fake, not entirely, not really. She thrashed a little, testing the restraints, and a TSO approached.
"I have to see her." She tried to keep the desperation out of her voice, tried not to babble. "I have to see them, are they okay? Did I save them?" The officer moved and she saw - she saw Ash, she was unhurt and she couldn't feel her spirit so she was alive but how she'd seen her die, but it was fake, but she was so still and everyone else was awake -
It was only when the armoured redhead loomed over her that she realised she'd said some of that out loud. "Everyone here is alive." She growled it. "In various stages of waking up from the same Dream you were in. Calm down, take deep breaths, stop panicking."
Good - good advice. Centre herself.
She closed her eyes for a second, focused on keeping her breaths even. Feeling the rough white material of the camp bed under her, the leather straps done up tightly but not too tightly, not tightly enough to hurt smelling - had someone vomited?
She opened her eyes again. Better. She felt - better.
The - supervisor? - armoured woman was gone, moving over to a different bed, where a woman in red was thrashing in her sleep - and now she was on fire. So that must have been Vivian.
The straps were coming undone. She looked up, found a TSO impersonally releasing her. She stood slowly, moving over to sit down on the edge of Ash's bed, stroke her hair, feel her pulse. She was - she was definitely alive. Living. Fine. Not splattered on the ground by a Nevermore's claws. Not connected to her mind by a thread of frozen starlight, hissing her last words over and over again.
Alive.
The others. She had to find the others too. The cat lady, and the person with the crossbows, and poor Slade and stupid headstrong Winter and Maverick. She glanced round the room - there was the faunus, pleading with a TSO for something, crossbow - she thought it was them at least - trying to hug her.
"Please, I just need to call my sister, I just need to hear her voice, come on, I won't even say anything, it'll be like - the world's dumbest prank call, I just need to hear she's okay - "
"Mmmmhhh…" Ash mumbled, turning her head and nuzzling at Aphoth's hand. "Heyyyy…" She seemed dazed. Tipsy. Groggy maybe? Aphoth sorely hoped she wasn't still drunk like she'd been in the drea - Dream.
"Hey you." Aphoth did her best to smile reassuringly down at her.
"Hnnn didn't youuuuuaahahhhhhhhhhh…" it was just like her to cut herself off with a yawn, "Did you… thingy me?" she asked, blinking slowly a few times before rubbing at her eyes and yawning again.
"Yes. I - you died. In the Dream. I don't know if you - if you remember that. I didn't mean to Call you at first, but I was so angry and I was Calling everything I could to avenge you and then you were there and I couldn't send you away again."
Ash's sleepy smile fell a bit. "Hnn yeah… it hurt. It hurt like… thiiiis much." She held her arms out as far as she could and nearly tripped up a TSO moving between beds. "Ooops. Uhh… got buzzy after that."
She held out her arms and grabbed Aphoth, using her as a support to sit up and lean against. Now that she was so close… damnit. Aphoth could smell the alcohol on her breath. Still drunk. Ash was -
"Hey." She waved at a TSO. "Hey, um, how come none of us have hangovers? And - " Apoth's brain ran to a screeching halt as she remembered exactly how the dinner had ended. "And, uh. Um. How did you, uh, find some clothes. For me and uh, my friend."
The officer shrugged. "Aura, lost and found or whatever we could salvage from what was being thrown about. Don't feel too embarrassed about it, you two were one of at least eight couples that got a little too touchy feely. Happens every year," he explained offhandedly, before returning his attention to his charge.
"Oh." Aphoth did her best not to turn bright red. "Um. Who, uh, dressed us. Though."
"Probably Laura. She's the one in charge of that sort of thing. There's nothing to worry about."
Aphoth couldn't tell if he was smiling behind the mask, but he did his best to sound reassuring, at least. When she thought about it, a lot of the staff here would probably have been desensitized to teenage… shenanigans.
"Aphyyyyy," Ash whined, nuzzling her neck in the most - ahem, she was most definitely bright red now - alarming way. "Why are you so orange?"
Orange? She wasn't - wait, what was she wearing? She cautiously rubbed the floral patterned top between finger and thumb and tried not to look at it with the distaste she felt. "I - don't know Ash. I really don't know."
She did her best to ignore the TSO's quiet chuckling.
-.-.-
Home sweet home. A broken wreck. Like you!
Wait no, not like you.
Like your life.
It's a mess. You're a mess. You can barely function let alone -
You can fight. That's all you have left. Isn't it? Wheee what a roller coaster!
Pity, isn't it. Everything you've ever known torn from you and then shoved in your face like a trophy.
It hurts.
Doesn't it.
-.-.-
Slade lay there quietly, listening to the chaos around him. The last thing - the last thing he remembered before this was his head flying free, seeing Maverick's face, feeling his head hit the ground, he couldn't breathe -
Decapitation was not as painless as some would make it out to be. He curled his fingers and just -
It wasn't real. That was good, right? His father, Flynt. They were alive. His swords weren't broken. He still had his guns. The city was alive and fine. They were all alive. And that was what mattered. The body. Living.
The blade had been blunted. He could feel it, as if in slow-motion, tearing through the tender flesh of his neck inch by inch. Maverick's deranged grin, the geist at his back. His life had flashed before his eyes and he'd never thought he'd go like this.
He never even had time to utter a warning, a yell, a scream, anything.
That was probably what hit him hardest about the whole thing. How quick it was.
A life, seventeen years in the making, over in an instant. Everything he'd wanted or thought or dreamed of or hated or liked just - worthless. Chaff.
He didn't cry, because boys didn't cry, but he felt a sharp swelling in his throat. He clenched his fists under the restraints.
The city had been destroyed, everyone he'd ever known or interacted with was dead. Nobody left to remember him. Nobody left to remember anything. Wiped off the map. Erased from history.
It wasn't real.
"Hey there, good to see you're awake."
"Mm." Slade looked up. A TSO - female, he thought, though with the visor it was somewhat hard to tell. His senses were still coming together.
"Hmm, Slade Coal. Healthy, no abnormal reactions to the Dreaming, brain patterns don't seem to be completely whacko. How're you feeling?" she asked. The voice was lighter. There were definitely locks of blonde coming out from under the visor. And there were other indications of the TSO's gender that he definitely wasn't looking at as she bent towards him.
He would say though that this was a good view to come back from the dead to.
"I'm feeling pretty good, all things considered."
"Great!" she said, somehow projecting a joyful smile into her voice. "I'll have you out of these restraints in just a sec," she mumbled, more to herself than anything as she leaned over him, unstrapping his wrists first.
Slade thought it was an odd way to do it, standing at the head of the stretcher and leaning over him, but he wasn't going to complain.
Which meant he almost missed Aphoth coming up behind her.
"Excuse me. I hear I have you to blame for this shirt." Her voice was clipped and curt, and she was wearing - well, something that wasn't very her. Orange shirt, the odd printed rose or bird peering out of the bright fabric, a navy skirt. It looked not half bad though.
"Hm?" the lady leaning over him looked back over her shoulder, causing her chest to… sway. A bit. "Oh, I'm sorry, it's the only thing we had that wasn't… well, I thought it looked good on you. And it's not small enough to cut off circulation so I consider that a plus!" she explained cheerily.
And she was still leaning over him.
"It's floral. Florals make you look like a sofa. And is it impossible for you to stand up to have this conversation with me?"
"Juuuust a secon- there!" she finally stopped fumbling with his right cuff - something he suspected might have been deliberate - why would she do that though? - and finally stood up, bracing her knees on either side of his head.
As much as he was enjoying this, it was a bit too much. He very carefully sat up, working on the ankle restraints himself so he could cross his legs. He could still hear Aphoth's calmly furious voice behind him.
"And orange is a colour that works only on people with a darker skin tone - "
"I think it looks alright."
The two of them turned to look at him. Slade scratched the back of his head.
"The shirt, I mean. The pattern's a bit - eh, but the colour kind of pops, with your hair and stuff. Contrasts with your eyes a bit. And it's got some good shaping at the waist."
The TSO squealed and clapped her hands giddily. "EEE! I love fashionista students! You can help me redress her next time she passes out post-makeout!"
Slade blinked. "I'm… going to free myself and go find the possessed person who murdered me now."
Aphoth was bright red and more than a little stunned. "Uhh... yeah… I'm going to just… bye."
Thank god that was over.
On to the mission at hand… He cracked his knuckles.
That ass had better be around here somewhere.
-.-.-
~R&R?~