A/N: Welcome back. Some gloss over here. You'll know it. I suppose I could have taken the time to flesh it out more, but I didn't really feel it necessary. I'm sure most will agree.

Also did get that little edit done to fix a glaring bad character interaction early on. CH 1 and 3 were edited.

Enjoy

break

Bonnie slowly woke up feeling the warm body behind her. Then she remembered how she had gone to sleep, with Kim stroking her forehead and humming a tune. She still held Kim's hand against her stomach. Carefully she extricated herself from Kim's embrace. Standing she yawned and stretched, feeling the headache spread across her whole head. She looked down at the table and found two bottles with a plain white pill on each sitting there. "Okay, now I see why Kim's kind of weirded out by servants." She spoke just above a whisper.

Looking at the clock she found it was a little after three a.m. No wonder she was so stiff, they had been sleeping for over twelve hours. She sat in a chair and leaned back after grabbing a banana. Peeling it she ate and stared at Kim sleeping. She was still breathing so that was good.

Finishing the fruit she looked over at their desk and walked over to turn on the small desk lamp. She pulled out one of her school books. "May as well get started." Her gaze fell on the small tray for mail and saw a few letters in it. None were addressed to her. One was from Ron. "She okayed it earlier." She muttered to herself. She reached out and took that one from the pile and opened it. She read it to herself and almost choked on laughter when he had called her a gold digger in the making.

"What's that?" Kim almost scared her out of her seat with the question.

"Jesus, K. You scared the crap out of me." Bonnie clicked the lamp to the higher brightness, illuminating more of the desk. "A letter from Ron. He called me a gold digger in training." She held out the letter.

Kim approached with a hand to her head. "Can't tell if it's from the drugs or from sleeping too long."

Kim took the letter from her hand. "Probably both." Bonnie responded.

Bonnie watched as Kim read the letter and her smile. "He also misspelled philosophical." She folded the letter and stuck it in her cubby of letters. She looked at the remaining two and picked them up. "One from my mother and another from my brothers." Kim looked at what Bonnie had pulled out. "Getting an early start?"

"Classes are resumed today, right?" Bonnie turned and looked back at the table. "Speaking of early start…" She let the statement hang in the air.

Kim set the letters back into the tray and returned to the table. She picked up their dose and brought them up to the desk to stare at them. "Any tips here?"

Bonnie shrugged. "Well we know why it started with Molly now."

Kim got a confused look in her face as she sat down in the other chair. "Why?"

"One of the consequences of dumping all the happy juice is you'll get easily depressed. Call it blue monday. So now would be a good time to hit us with a heavy hallucinogen for a depressing trip." She reached out and took one set. "On the other hand it is three AM and my earliest course isn't until nine." She downed the pill and water. "So unless it's something really potent we should be coming down by then."

Kim took her dose. "Oh, Goood eeee." She leaned forward and picked up her letters again. "These should cheer me up then."

Bonnie returned her focus to her course book. "This on the other hand will not." She frowned as she opened the book up. "Why are we even studying?" She looked at Kim. "I mean really? Chances are good we'll die before even finishing a degree. And if we do finish, we'll probably die at the hands of another acolyte. So, what's the point?"

Kim smiled at her. "I don't know about you, but I plan on being around for a long, long time. Didn't you tell me yesterday to roll the dice?" Bonnie nodded. "Well, if we roll the dice here." Kim pointed at the book. "And not get the degree, what happens if we do succeed? If we do win. If we do than we are left with no high school diploma, no degree, even though we spent years here. Or… elsewhere, and we would have to start again. On top of that, I doubt we will be hailed as heroes. Doesn't seem like it's common knowledge that gods exist and there is more than one of them." Kim leaned back opening one of the letters. "I don't know about you, but after a literal war of the gods I don't want anything to do with classes or schools or anything." She flicked out the folded paper. "I'm going to find me a job near a beach and every single day after working that easy job I'll be on that beach just chilling until the sun sets."

Bonnie took a deep breath. "Yeah." She looked out at the windows seeing the brightness of moon on snow reflected in. "Yeah that sounds nice." She sighed heavily. "I guess you sold me." She returned to the book and began slogging through the course work.

"My brothers are going to space camp and are getting to ride the vomit comet." Kim interrupted her shortly after. "Thats awesome." She reached over and took a pad from the table. "I'm going to ask for pictures."

Bonnie smiled. "Of them vomiting?"

"Eww. No. Of them in those NASA jumpsuits." She began writing. "Besides, by brothers are kind of built like me and we don't get motion sickness very easily, so they'll be fine."

It took her quite a while to make the letter and seal it up. When she was done she pulled out her own bit of work and started. A little while later she jerked away from her seat and looked at Bonnie with a frightened expression on her face. Bonnie looked back at her. "What?"

"You didn't hear that? Sounded like an explosion." Kim responded with just a little fear in her tone.

Bonnie looked back at her. "Did you actually hear it, or did your vision go like." She held up her hands vertically and wobbled them together and apart again. "Wa wa like that." Kim nodded. "Yeah, just shrooms then. I get synesthesia a little on them, too." She sighed. "If I start stripping, please stop me."

"Like seeing sound and stuff?"

"Or smelling the color nine. It's fine." She returned to her book. "Might want to set an alarm to get to class though. Most times I get couch lock, like pot." She got up wobbly and made her way over to the small end table next to her bed. On her way she turned on a couple of lamps to brighten up the room.

"Why the lights?"

Bonnie set the alarm for eight thirty. "Harder to hallucinate in a bright room." She returned to the desk. "Not impossible, but the light will make it easier to focus on the book work."

"So that's it, just get your nose back in the books and march on?"

Bonnie laughed. "Well you can try. I'm pretty sure I'm going to spend the next four hours re-reading the same page over and over. Your time sense gets pretty messed up." She pulled up the page in question and waved it back and forth before letting it fall back. "This one is a slow builder. The toxin is dealt with in the liver, and the byproduct of that toxin breakdown is what causes the hallucinations. So where the Molly plateaus, this stuff builds and peaks. At least that's how it works for me."

"Sounds good." Together they began to work on their courses. Bonnie was intently re-reading a particular paragraph for the third time she was pretty sure when she was interrupted by Kim poking her shoulder. When she turned to face Kim, Kim simply stated. "Put your pants back on."

Looking down, Bonnie found that she had started to strip already. "Right. Thanks." She finished buttoning. "Told you I have a tendency to streak on this stuff."

The alarm jerked them from the books. Bonnie got up and headed across the half mile of room to turn off the alarm. Sighing she turned to walk that treacherous path again. When she returned, Kim had closed her book and looked up at Bonnie worried. "Whats up?" Bonnie asked.

Kim looked down at her legs and back up at her. "I can't get up. I think I grew into the chair."

Bonnie knelt down and inspected the interface between Kim and chair. "Everything looks fine. Here, I'll help you up." She stood and offered her hand to Kim. Gratefully Kim took it and together separated Kim from her prison. "See, all good."

Kim looked at her free hand. "I'm starting to come around to the, let's not do classes, frame of mind."

Bonne took her free hand and rubbed Kim's shoulder. "Where's the fun in that? Besides we're on our way down. You can't feel it?" Frankly she couldn't tell, but she smiled anyway.

Kim took a deep breath and removed her hand from Bonnies. "Yeah, now that you mention it." Bonnie patted her shoulder. "Okay, let's get packed up." They didn't have far to go, but they were late anyway. Side tracked by their own mind. By noon they were pretty clear.

break

For two weeks they continued like that. Only once did Bonnie have a real scare, when Kim had asked her where her arm had gone. Together they looked high and low, until finally they realized that they were looking under the bedsheet by both lifting it by all the corners. How could they do that if they only had three arms between them. A bedsheet had four corners. All in all it wasn't too bad. Then Bonnie woke up and she was the only one in the room.

She looked in the bathroom and didn't find Kim. A little panicky she looked and saw the small card on the coffee table. In small text it read. "This phase is over. Kimberly has been taken to another area of the school to perform some individual preparation. When that is done your situations will be reverse. Your preparation today will start in the pool. Please dress accordingly for water activities. Dr. Ackerman." Bonnie sighed heavily. Okay. Kim hadn't wandered off.

Bonnie dropped the card back on the table. She looked at the clock and saw it was just before six. The card didn't give a time, so sooner was probably better than later. She dressed in normal clothes for breakfast and took one of the school supplied onesie swimsuits with her.

The cafeteria was empty except for the same chef that always greeted them. "Do you live here or something?" She asked him.

He looked up from the muffin he was shredding. "No. Five am to five pm. 12 hr shift." He frowned down at the muffin.

"Suck." Bonnie eyed up the selection. Sighing she filled a glass with fruit juice and a cup with coffee. "What not enough blueberries?"

He looked up again. "They all settled. My freshmen class is starting on baking. And it would appear that this student has some work to do." He pointed at her meager selection. "Not hungry?"

Bonnie shook her head. "I guess I'm spending the day in the pool. And based on how things have gone so far, I doubt it will be a pleasant swimming lesson." She gave him a sad smile, then her brow furrowed. "What's your name, Chef?"

He stuck out a hand. "Peter Grant."

Bonnie set the coffee down and took his hand. "Bonnie Rockwaller." She smiled as she shook his hand. "But you already knew that, didn't you."

He took his hand back. "No, all we got was a mugshot and 'Acolyte'. Pretty impersonal."

Bonnie took a swig of juice. "So how in the know are you." She leaned against the tray rail.

Peter popped a section of the dissected muffin into his mouth. "Well." He chewed and finished the bite. "I have a non-disclosure agreement on file, so in the know as much as I want to be. Which it would appear isn't that far." He ate another bite. "Seems a bit on the culty side, some of it."

"So you don't buy into the acolyte bullshit at all." It was a statement.

He shook his head in a sad smile. "If I knew more, maybe? But, no." He shrugged. "I'm concerned you and your friend are getting the short end of the stick for whatever deal you have with the inner circle." His brow furrowed. "I was told you two agreed to… whatever this is? Is that true."

Bonnie sipped the coffee and smiled. "Good question?"

He leaned back from the counter. "Now don't fuck with me here. If it's a no, I'd be a real shithead to not do anything about it. I've seen the abuse you two are taking, and even if you agreed, it's borderline criminal."

Bonnie took a deep breath. "We did agree." Bonnie sipped the coffee again and stared out into the empty room. "I'm kind of worried my friend isn't cut out for it though." She spoke quietly. She sighed. "Not that we can back out now."

"Just say no. It doesn't sound like you buy into it either. Get the hell out."

Bonnie smiled and returned her gaze to him. "You really don't have to buy into belief when it crosses into reality. When you witness it." She drained the juice.

"Wait, seriously?"

Bonnie shrugged. "Well I can't prove it wasn't luck in our cases, but the chances of both our situations changing on luck is pretty astronomical." She took a sip of coffee. "So here we are. In a messed up version of MK ultra."

All Peter responded with was a shake of the head. He ate another piece of muffin. "I've said it before, I'll say it again. Anything I can do to make it easier…"

Bonnie just shook her head. "Did the wife buy your story?"

He laughed at the change of topic. "I'm surprised you remembered. And, no. Not in the slightest." He ate more muffin. "Never could lie to her properly."

Bonnie finished the cup of coffee. "Whats her name? Back in the states I was known to make a serious row when needed."

He smiled. "Please, don't. She's Anette. Works as maintenance round here."

Bonnie nodded. "If you say so. Later." She waved as she left the cafeteria.

Bonnie found the locker room and got changed. Out in the pool proper she found one person in the pool swimming laps. She sat on a bench on the deep end of the pool. She looked down to the ten meter mark on the side of the pool and waited. Before long the lone swimmer launched himself out of the pool and she was surprised at the grizzled man in military shorts standing up. Swam damn well for being in the shape of a pear and looking about the north side of sixty.

He pulled the swimmer's goggles up on his forehead and eyed her up and down. "You must be Ms. Rockwaller." He spoke with a heavy scottish brogue.

Bonnie nodded and shook the offered hand. "I am. You?"

"Dr. Ewan Brus. Ready for a swim?" He waved behind him at the pool.

"If that's what I'm scheduled for. I'm not great at swimming." She said honestly.

He sat beside her on the bench. "No, just asking. You know, before we get to my lessons for today." He paused. "Dr. Ackerman says the drugs should be out of your system?"

Bonnie nodded. "As far as I can tell." She turned to face him. "What are we doing today? Water survival?" She asked hopefully.

He nodded his head from side to side. "Of a sort." He lifted his head and whistled. From the locker room she had just exited came two men in trunks and jackets carrying some gear. Bonnie tried to struggle as she was bodily lifted and sat down in front of Dr. Brus. They began to manipulate her limbs and lock them into the gear. "So what is the worst thing that can happen in the water?"

Bonnie felt the leather tighten around her crossed ankles as they tied her arms before her and to her crossed ankles. "I don't know. Shark attack?" She felt the scowl across her face not liking where this was going.

Dr. Brus laughed. The men complete, stepped away from her trussed up form. "I like your spirit, Lass." He leaned forward. "But you know what I want to hear."

Bonnie looked down at the mass of straps and knots that held her limbs together in front of her. She pursed her lips and exhaled slowly. "Drowning."

"Correct." He left the bench and knelt down in front of her. He lifted her chin so she stared back at him. "I'm going to take you into that water, to the bottom, and we are going to stay there until you drown." He paused to let it sink in. His next words were spoken in a calm gravely voice. "I'm going to watch you die, lass."

He reached beside her to the bag and pulled out a weighted belt and put it on himself. Bonnie could feel the tears well up despite herself. "Please, no." It came out in a hoarse whisper.

Dr. Brus took another belt and cinched it around her waist. "This is going to happen, lass." Bonnie looked up to the two who stood like statues, impervious. "They will not help you." Her eyes snapped back to his with anger. "Best get it over with."

With that he grabbed the leather between her wrists and ankles with an iron grip and dragged her to the pool and jumped in with her. Bonnie took a deep breath before slamming into the water. As they descended her ears popped and the chlorine made her eyes burn. Finally they settled to the clean concrete bottom and he stood there watching her in his grip as he held her at arm's length. Absently she watched his goggles drift down to settle on the bottom behind him.

She could feel her body aching for air already. She tried to struggle and the bonds only tightened. Or was that her imagination. She stared back into his eyes. There was no malice in them just calm. This was a believer. Not a fanatic. He believed he was helping her. She imagined that is what a serial killer who killed to free the spirit of the victim would look like as they cut away. Except this one drowned their victim.

A chill went down her spine. Bundy, Ackerman, none of the ones in the know here had that look. Not even her hand to hand instructor who kicked the crap out of her on a daily basis, beyond the point of sparring had this belief. They were following orders and instructions because they were told to. Brus, believed. And believed with a certainty that by all rights, only Kim and her should have. Did he hear the Mistress, too? He must.

She could feel her chest heaving to take a breath her clenched teeth refused to give it. Brus stared back and nodded and he mouthed, "It's ok, lass. Just let go."

Her lungs burned and she struggled out of reflex now more than anything else. She couldn't hold it any longer and she inhaled. She felt herself begin to sink again, but Brus held fast. Her body reacted violently to the not air she was inhaling and exhaling. It felt like fire and her body kept trying to breath the fluid to get the oxygen it so desperately wanted. She felt her body calm and relax from its thrashing and her inhaling and exhaling slow to quick motions. Flashes of light sparkled before her eyes. She began to get tunnel vision moments before it went black completely.

The next thing she knew she was on tile, hacking up chlorinated water and vomiting and spasming against her bonds and screaming. Through the tumult she heard the scot above her as he held her up so she didn't slam her face into the tile. "Welcome back, lass. Welcome back."

Bonnie moaned through the ravaged tissue of her throat. Another wave of bile came up and she spit the remains out. "Fuck you." She screamed hoarsely after she had cleared her throat.

She blinked hard clearing her eyes and watched towels pass under her cleaning the tile of the remains of her stomach. She was breathing heavily but clearly now and Brus settled her down to the tile gently. Bonnie moaned as she rolled to her side and finally up to a sitting position. She glared at Dr. Brus as he dripped, sitting on the bench. He let out a long breath. "For a poor swimmer, you have a fantastic set of lungs on you." He ran a hand through his short cropped hair. "Almost ran out of air myself."

Bonnie took a moment to get her breathing back under control. "Than you are fucked when Kim takes that trip."

He reached down to the weight belt and unclipped a device about the size of his fist. "I'm not in the business of wasting lives, girl." He pressed a button over the mouthpiece and brief puff of air escaped. "Especially not yours." He returned the device to its place on his belt.

Bonnie glared at him. She worked her jaw in anger before spitting out some more less than tasty saliva. "Bundy, Ackerman, they don't believe like you. Have you heard her too?" She saw the two minions glance at Brus.

Brus leaned back slightly, as if surprised by the question. "Of a sort. Though, not as clearly as you two do, I would wager." He took a clean towel and rubbed his head. "As the time approaches, it has gotten clearer. Still, it's in bits, pieces, and impressions. Not words. You?"

"Flat out spoke to the two of us."

"That makes sense. An acolyte has to be attuned the the veil. Would make it easier for her to communicate." Brus left the bench and approached dragging the duffel the goons had brought with him. He sat before her.

"The veil?"

She watched him begin to remove parts of the bindings and rework others as he responded. "I don't have a better name for the separation between planes. The veil, the border, the separation between the realms of men and the realms of gods. Though I get the impression there are men similar to us in her realm, from the dreams and visions she sends me." He freed her bound wrists, leaving the ankles firmly connected. "She hopes to bring both of you there to learn."

"Learn what?"

"How to speak for her. To learn her values." He began to retie her wrists together differently.

"The High Priest of the Cult of the Mistress of Death can't?" She couldn't help the sarcasm dripping from the title.

He gave her a sad smile. "I wouldn't presume that much. Over here we have a passing knowledge of what she approves of. Over there we think she can interact more directly. The Mistress of Death sounds like an end all title. Do you know what else she has been called?" He leaned back away from the knotted bindings she now had.

She flexed her wrists able to move them somewhat, unlike before. "No." She responded simply.

Brus reached into the duffel and pulled out a kettlebell weight. It read 45 pounds on the side. Bonnie figured between that and the belt she had on she would sink for sure. "The Sibilant Cry of the Suffering. Handmaiden of Pain. The Joyous Song of Sorrow." He began to tie it to the mess of cordage on her wrists. "You see, lass. The dead cannot feel these emotions, these counterpoints to the joy, love, and happiness we feel. She delights in these emotions we consider bad, for without them the world wouldn't be worth living." He cinched up the knots he was finishing and leaned back on his arms. "I first felt her touch while performing search and rescue in the north sea rescuing young men from a fishing boat that had capsized. Decades ago." He stared off above her head into the past. "We got them into the chopper and these four young men were shivering, fighting off the ravages of the icy seas. I felt it wash over me, her touch. These poor souls who were suffering their greatest would always know this pain. It would color everything they did for the rest of their lives and make it richer." He returned his gaze to her.

"Thats some SAW shit right there." She responded coldly.

He smiled. "I didn't capsize the boat. Nor did I capsize the dozens of other rescues I performed successfully, lass. I don't put people in danger for my own amusement." Bonnie lifted the bindings on her wrists. "This does not amuse me."

"Maybe I need some convincing."

He nodded. "You are experiencing a fairly common exercise performed by militaries around the world, lass." He flicked the cord attaching the weight to her wrists and ankles. "I'm going to throw you in, the weight will hold the knots tight, until you reach the bottom. Then you free yourself." He smiled broadly. "You've already drowned today. It can't get much worse than that, now can it."

Bonnie inhaled deeply and sighed. "And two innocent hikers?"

He leaned forward again nodding. "You and your friend are teenagers. Sheltered from reality. You see and hear, but you never have experienced death. Not really. And the Mistress, must have those ready to defend themselves to the death. Their families are being taken care of."

Bonnie felt her eyebrows rise. She could feel the question rip from her throat. "You killed them?"

He looked at her confused. "What? No!" He held up a hand. "A poor choice of words. No, we did not murder a whole family. The school has pleaded no contest to a terrible live fire accident. The court will investigate and will fine us what they think fair and order restitution to the families which will be paid in full."

"Still pretty fucked up." Brus turned her around to face the edge of the pool.

"You have more important things to worry about right now." He dropped the kettlebell off the edge of the tile and she could feel it tugging her bodily to the edge. "Good luck." And he shoved her off.

Bonnie spun as she entered the water. The weight dragging her deeper and deeper. She felt her head scrape across the wall of the pool as she descended. She tried to shove off of it but all that did was make her swing into it and smack her head. She stopped trying and finally the weight settled to the bottom. Well kind of slid across the rounded corner of the bottom. She waited until she floated like a balloon under the water. She looked down at the mess of cord at her wrist and began to slowly work out getting it undone. She managed to her her wrists unbound from the weight before she started to see spots. She began to panick, and her attempts to swim up only ended up with the weight still attached to her ankles dragging her back down. She began to see darkness at the edges of her vision before she remembered Brus's breathing device.

With numb fingers she felt the weight belt and found the same on hers. She pressed it to her lips and puffed the air to clear the water before clamping it in her mouth and inhaling once, twice. It wasn't a big device so it wouldn't give her much time she figured. She reached down with her bound together wrists and finally undid the section attaching the weight to her ankles. She began swimming up by kicking hard like a dolphin. Dumping the belt on the way up she began to use her arms to drag herself up. She reached the surface and the edge and spat out the small air supply and began taking in huge breaths.

She felt Brus drag her from the pool and sit her on the edge of the tile. He rested a hand on her shoulder. Bonnie couldn't help the smile on her face. She rubbed the chlorinated water from her eyes. She watched the two helpers dive into the pool to retrieve the weights. "Our records showed you an average student, at best, lass." He smacked her shoulders. "It would appear that you are a very quick learner." He let his feet rest in the water. "We were expecting to spend the day at this."

Bonnie shook her head as she began to pick at the bindings still attached to her limbs. "Sorry to disappoint."

"Probably good. From the transcripts you've done an amazing job at killing off your own brain cells." Bonnie could feel him turn and stare at her as he spoke. "Don't need to add oxygen deprivation on top of that."

She held up a middle finger in his general direction as she continued to untie the knots. The two helpers lifted themselves free of the water and began to collect the gear. "So how did a god that can barely communicate get herself an entire school devoted to her." Bonnie looked back at Brus.

He shrugged. "Patience. She gathers those she approves of, where they can do the most to further her goals."

"A collage, though?"

He smiled and tapped a finger to her forehead. "You're demonstrably intelligent, lass. Figure it out." And with that he stood. Bonnie watched him gather his towel. "Since this didn't take as long as expected. You should attend your classes as normal."

"What about Kim?"

"You will find out, when it is time." He began walking away.

"That's not good enough." She growled.

Brus turned. "It will have to be."

break