Woo! Chapter! And thank you all, gloriously, for the feedback. In hindsight, there are a lot of things we could have done better. In that manner, as we write, we're doing out best to address some of them in-universe! The only problem is, well... we're several chapters ahead of what we're releasing (having a buffer is pretty nice, though it detracts from being able to reassure people's feedback as quickly as we'd like).

Le MAO XVII: We're glad you're enjoying the teasing Slade's getting :P SHIPS FOR EVERYONE!

Enjoy~

~Angel and Hel~

Chapter Twenty Two: Revelations Part II

-.-.-

And you. So righteous in your hatred. So firm of opinion.

You won't change anything like that. Give and take - but that's never been your way, has it? Take, and take and take, from your father, and your trainer, and your friends until you found a new one to latch on to. And you know it, too.

The mask is cracking. We can see the rot beneath. We're coming for you.

-.-.-

He felt like laughing.

Actually, most importantly, he felt not dead.

Goddamn shooting his own head off had hurt. Like a ten out of ten on the bad ideas list.

He smiled though. Because he was still alive. And that meant…

"I was fucking right."

"Broad self congratulations upon waking up. Guess we've got another megalomaniac."

He hadn't even opened his eyes yet. "Oh yeah? Get a lot of those come through here, huh?" he asked, chuckling to himself. Man it felt good. Well, being alive was good, but being right? Over the goddamn Ice Queen herself?

It almost couldn't compare.

… That was a lie. Living was definitely better.

He probably should have stopped grinning like a shark right about now but he was having far too much fun with this.

"Yup. Mostly the Dream breaks them. Some it makes them. Those are the ones who generally end up dead after their first year of actual combat, or end up going rogue, or drooling in a mental asylum, or slaughtering their families because they 'sounded like Grimm'. You know. Standard crazy shit. Open your eyes so I can check pupil response?"

He didn't stop grinning but managed to peel his eyes open. Caked sleep was a bitch on the eyelashes after all. "Breaks them, huh? I must be a special case."

The TSO leant over him. "Nope. Just another teen with aura. Pupil response ok, you're good to go."

Maverick Blinked, standing up and stretching before they had time to say sit still. Dead in combat? Nah. Rogue? He sure hoped not. Drooling in a mental asylum? Maybe. Slaughtering his family?

That ship had sailed a long time ago.

"You fucker." Wait, he knew that voice, who was -

Someone punched him.

He staggered back, head reeling as he tripped over a bed, landing sprawled on his back. "Goddamnit, Slade!" he growled, shifting his nose back into place as he sat up. "The fuck was that -"

"You killed me. Seemed fair - "

Then two TSOs tackled them and everything went sideways again.

What the hell was up with everyone?! It was a dream. Though, getting killed hurt and he remembered the ice on his back and the hoarse whispering in h- kill them move move kill them all slice them eviscerate them MAKE THEM PAY you know they deserve -

A chill ran down his spine. Don- don't think about -

The worst part?

It had a point.

"Calm down, the pair of you. Do we need to slap the restraints back on? No? Okay." The arms relaxed from round him, and he could see Slade being released too.

"Greaaat…" Maverick muttered, grabbing his jaw and working out the stiffness. "You know that wasn't me, right?"

God he wished he was right.

You could kill him so easily just take out your gun -

He shook his head, shuddered a little. Yeah. He could. But why should he?

He'd do the same -

OKAY, ignoring the creepy voice for now and saving the plans to kill everyone he meets for later.

"I know it wasn't you. And whoever made the dream - I'm going to punch them in the face too. Just you were the first at hand."

Maverick rolled his eyes. "Great. Nice to know I'm appreciated as a punching bag, if nothing else." He shrugged his shoulders, standing up and stretching again. "I've got just the slightest feeling the General won't let you punch him though."

Water under the bridge water under the bridge just forget about it.

His lips twitched for the slightest moment.

Slade sighed, slapped a hand on Maverick's shoulder. He did his best not to Blink away. "Well, we'd best find the others then. Make sure they're - relatively okay." He frowned. "Who put you down, anyway?"

Maverick's face twisted into a horrifying amalgamation of a grimace and a grin. "That… might have been me. To be fair I nearly murdered the Ice Queen first before she impaled me on some ice and the Geist finally decided to fuck off."

He could still hear it's final whispers, echoing inside his skull like the pleadings of a dead man.

"Might have?"

"It got a little bit fuzzy after I pulled the trigger." Maverick shrugged. "Now, where's that ice-cold bitch? I've got a little something to goad over her."

He shouldn't be so gleeful about this. About how soon he'd figured it out.

A dream? A simulation? He would have cackled if he wasn't so worried about people thinking him insane. Seriously, him? A future megalomaniac? Psh, he was probably just going to… wrong line of thought. Everything in that world had been sheer wrong. Aura didn't heal broken bones over the course of minutes. Fatigue was all over the place.

What he'd told Slade about how often he could Blink? True, very true. But it wasn't in there. Not until he'd outright said it. Half his arsenal was missing, and he couldn't even fit anything extra into the holsters. And the Screamer Flares? Good lord were those a surprise.

A surprise he was more than capable of taking advantage of.

Ah, there she was! Standing up from her bed, and of course taking the time to fix her hair. Winter's eyes narrowed as she looked over at him.

"You."

Maverick grinned, held out his arms like he wanted a hug. "Me!" he laughed. "Guess what, Ice Queen; I was right."

He really should be less cruelly happy about this.

"About it being a dream? Evidently." She brushed off the edge of her skirt. "I didn't notice the inconsistencies at the time. You know. Like most people don't when they're dreaming."

"I literally pointed them out to you like three times."

"Which you also did to Slade, Aphoth, and Ash. Yet, you don't seem to be gloating at them, do you? Is someone a little upset that I saw you screaming and crying before you blew your - " Winter took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I crossed a line there, and I apologise for that. Regardless, no-one other than you noticed it was a dream. Congratulations."

"Hey, don't feel too bad." Maverick grinned, ignoring the jab at his rather fragile emotional state after being possessed and convinced into killing the only people he knew that even barely tolerated him these days. "I'm only gloating over you because it's fun."

He laughed at the glare she sent him.

He wondered if the girl even knew the phrase 'Putting on a brave face.'

"Oh come on, Slade's already punched me and I haven't even found any of the others yet."

He was having far too much fun. Adrenaline in his veins. He was getting jumpy. Hands shaking. He could kill them all so easily - NO, no. No he couldn't. Slade and his clones were too close- Blink away - Ice Queen had her Dust supplies back, and she was tenfold more capable with them than without -

"Stupid shirt, stupid shirt - Maverick! Are you okay?"

Necrocutie sounded alright, given how he'd last seen her - oh shit what was she wearing?

"What are you wearing?!" he exclaimed, his eyes nearly bulging out as he held up a hand to save himself from the horror of it. Mockingly. "It's - it's so bright - aargghh I'm blindeeedddd!"

Slade smacked him upside the head for that one.

"It wasn't my decision! Blame Booby McGiggles-a-lot who woke up your friend there."

Winter blinked twice. "What."

"Laauuuuuuraaaaaaa!"

"Ashie!"

Maverick stopped laughing and stared as Rockstar threw her arms around a particularly female TSO and got an equally enthusiastic response. "What."

"I thought you were dead!"

"It was a dream!"

"Why are you here, though?!"

"I work here!"

"Whaaaaaaaaaat? I thought you were in fashion stuff!"

"I'm uhh not supposed to tell you I work here? Cos you aren't allowed to expect special treatment or anything because you have family that works here."

"I thought you were deaaaaaaaaad!"

"Maybe you should lie down - ASHIE NOT ON ME!"

Maverick chuckled, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "Well… that was… a thing. I guess." He took another look at Aphoth. "Orange, though. Jokes aside, seeing you in something bright is actually kinda nice."

"Thanks." She blushed and fiddled with the hem of her shirt a little. "Seeing you again is nice too. Now I should go separate Ash from Booby, who's apparently her sister I've never met."

"See ya." He waved to the retreating bright goth. "So… how'd the rest of you guys die while I was off on my own?"

Do it now the back of her head is right there it'd be so easy to put a bullet in her -

His face twisted in displeasure for a moment. Of all the people that fucking Geist urged him to kill, Aphoth was the one he was most disdainful about. Maybe that was a sign, if the Geist really wanted to feed on his despair it'd urge him to kill those he felt the most about first.

Right?

Maybe he was - no, he was definitely reading into it too much.

…

She had a cute butt though.

-.-.-

Deals deals deals.

You were never a businessman. Yet you keep doing this to yourself. Weighing benefits with cons. Maybe you're a betting man…

Because that's all you're doing. Making your bets, spreading all your eggs into separate baskets.

You can't afford to be wrong.

But when you take every option there…

Well.

Something has to give.

-.-.-

Waking from one of Weaver's dreams was as fast as ever. One moment he was watching the bombardment of an Omega solution commence, the first nuclear detonations turning Atlas into black shadow and rubble, the next he was lying on a simple Atlesian camp bed, muscle memory already rolling him off it and standing him up.

Ironwood could hear the chaos from next door. The potential applicants, waking up. They'd be distraught. Terrified. And with good reason. The guilt surged, hot and swelling in his stomach - but he quashed it. If what was coming was coming, they needed to be ready. He couldn't have soldiers who didn't know what might happen. What the worst was.

What they needed to stop.

Helia remained unmoving on the bed opposite.

He blinked. Took a sitrep of the room.

It had been absolutely destroyed. There were marks all over the walls, stripped and shredded sheets blanketed the floor like snow. He frowned, put a hand up to his eye. It stung. The mirror on the far wall was shattered. The alarm clock he'd placed on the shelf above him was on the ground in pieces.

That… was unexpected.

Then again, given her reactions to what he'd said -

He sighed. The good Doctor had been very - reticent, on what she was capable of. And it had taken every piece of Ironwood's considerable authority, and rage, to stop him from flying down to the Academy right away to 'reclaim' his subject.

He wouldn't let that happen. He would never let that happen.

"Miss Helia." She was awake, even if she wasn't acting like it. "I - have a personal matter to attend to. Your friends are in the other room when you want to rejoin them."

She rolled over to face the wall.

Perhaps not yet, then.

He took a moment to adjust his uniform, then strode out through the back door, hit a secret section of the wall, and entered a code that changed every five days. He was lucky to have remembered the new one - he'd almost missed the message that would have deleted itself from his scroll within minutes, but Glynda had pestered him in that charming way of hers -

He smiled a little to himself. Then frowned. She… wouldn't approve of this. She knew about it. But this would have been her first time seeing it.

He foresaw a long argument in his future.

The room he entered was dark, lit only by the odd green light and glimmering screens displaying rolling sheets of data. TSOs sat at monitors, carefully compiling, translating and dissecting it, ready to be sent to the instructors for further analysis on problem students to look out for.

And at the centre of it -

He knelt by the green coffin, pressed a button on the side. "Hey there, Dreamweaver." There were wires and cables feeding into it, trailing all the way up the walls. The light pulsed softly, like a heartbeat.

A noise that might have been a muffled voice, then text printed across the small screen on the sarcophagus.

Did I fall asleep?

"For a little while." He kept his voice even, gentle. "You've got to stop nodding off. It's your big day today."

I just feel so tired James. It's all so tiring. My head hurts. I think.

"Hey, you know the rules. And I'm sorry to hear about your headache."

Sorry Colonel. Um. A pause. Why can't I see you? I can't - I can't feel anything but the headache. James?

Ironwood blinked away a tear. It always hurt. It always hurt so much to see him like this. He gestured and one of the TSOs starts administering the sedative. "It's okay, Rick. It's okay. I'm here. You're okay. Just rest now. I'll stay with you until it's time. It's okay."

So much reassurance.

"Sir, the applicants are becoming agitated."

"They're always agitated after the Dream." Ironwood sighed, lowered his head. "You know the event horizon. Report in again if it reaches that. let them sort out their disputes themselves for a few minutes. I imagine my presence would be… somewhat upsetting." After a pause, he said, "If it doesn't reach the horizon, I trust the attending staff can handle it."

He sat there, one hand on the tomb. "I'll talk to them soon. Soon."

-.-.-

The ice is melting. No. Not melting.

Breaking.

Is it everything you thought it would be? The fame, the rush, the killing.

This is the path you choose to go down. This is the path you choose to run from.

I would say it doesn't matter, but it does.

The difference between death and life, one might say.

But choices branch. They fracture. They crack. Split. Diverge.

So… many… paths.

Pick the right ones.

-.-.-

It still felt so close to real. Like at any moment it would rupture and tear like paper and the Grimm and the blood and the death would come surging back. Like the bright lights and brittle jokes, and notably more revealingly clad TSOs couldn't, couldn't ever hold back the surge of darkness.

It was a dream, right? There weren't that many Grimm out there. They weren't like that really.

There were more and they were worse.

How could anyone stand it? Knowing that, trying to fight it? Winter wanted to vomit.

They'd never told her - never warned her of what they were truly like.

"So… how'd the rest of you guys die while I was off on my own?" Maverick asked, rocking back and forth on his heels as he stuck his hands in his pockets.

"You know how I died," she said. She tried to keep the bitterness out of it. Tried. She could still feel phantom pain in her ribs. And the way he'd gloated at her -

No. They'd have to work together, possibly. Holding a grudge was inimical to that.

"Fairly sure you actually outlived me." Maverick pointed out. "You might have bled out a few minutes after I suicided," how could he just say that so casually? "Ooor maybe a gryphon came out of nowhere and squashed you." He shrugged, smiling. As though it was all just a game to him.

"There was a bright light at the end. But… I think I bled out. Yolona was still alive though."

Aphoth approached, arm around Ash. She was looking at the two of them as though she might have to dive in between them again. "I threw myself into a suicide attack to hem the Grimm in towards them for a killzone. Seemed to work… not too badly. I hope."

Ash flopped more into Aphoth's arms. "And I died before you left. Hooray for dying!"

Winter sighed and shook her head, giving the girl a flat glare. It was evident that she was still quite intoxicated.

"Uh, yeah, about that… I hope you don't mind, but I borrowed your axe."

"Meh. I was dead." Ash giggled, stumbling a little and falling down on Winter's stretcher, pushing into Winter's legs. Shit, she was going to fall - she stumbled backward, the world swaying slightly, landed on the bed.

Arms wrapped round her. Winter stiffened.

"You need hugs." Ash decided, her grip tightening around Winter's torso. Even through her combat gear she could still feel Ash's face pressing into her back.

"Helia will be here soon for that - " Wait, where was Helia? Where had she been in the dream? She'd seen her at the end - unless that was simply a product of her 'dying' mind? And - oh, she'd said that out loud.

She didn't dare glance up at the others. Maverick grinning from ear to ear, Slade trying to stifle his laughter, Aphoth… Aphoth-ing. Winter's face was probably the colour of Red -

Blue.

She'd let Blue die.

She'd taken Blue's weapon.

Suddenly she wanted to vomit again.

Ash squeezing her stomach didn't help.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow."

"Mine."

Helia!

Ash quickly slipped away, replaced with Helia climbing into her lap like an oversized pouty child. Winter managed a small smile as they wrapped arms - and wing - around each other. It felt… familiar. After the discordant mess they'd all been through, familiar was something she needed.

"Aww, lucky, you get the cute one!" Ash whined at her.

"Hey, don't sell yourself short," Maverick winked at the the petulant, cuddly drunkard. "You're positively adorable."

"One might even say cute," Slade added.

All this was background of course. The main thing was Helia. She was here. She was okay.

"Where we you? You weren't there. You weren't with us." She said it quietly. "I was concerned."

"I was watching." Helia whispered, nuzzling Winter's neck. Her blindfold was ruffled and dirty. "Wanted to say something. Couldn't."

"You're here now. You're okay. That's - that's good. I missed you. I mean - I - "

Helia smiled into her collar. Gave her a little kiss.

Winter stiffened, absolutely sure steam would start whistling out her ears at any moment.

"I - "

"Students. Or, potential students rather."

Someone talking, someone important. Everyone else was silent. She carefully sat up, one arm still around Helia. Looking for the person speaking, to see what was happening. General Ironwood was standing in the doorway, wearing a casual turtleneck. His face was haggard. Not falling away into the snow from a Grimm's mouth.

"I imagine you have a number of questions. I am going to try, briefly, to provide answers."

Helia whimpered quietly, shrinking into Winter's embrace.

She narrowed her eyes.

They'd better be good.

-.-.-

~R&R?~

So, next chapter is going to be Ironwood's big explanation to the students. We know we've portrayed him as quite assholish in this (it was most definitely on accident and via skewed point of view mostly ((we hope)), ... hopefully.), but we are doing our best to show his better sides in later chapters.

Sadly it all takes time to get to and release two or three chapters a week with a self-imposed average of between 3000 and 4000 words, it takes tiiiiiiiiime. But it's fun to write, so we hope you have fun reading, feels, funnies, warm fuzzies and all!

~Angel and Hel