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It was so chaotic that he couldn't understand what was going on until they were through the portal, Gale stumbling over someone and falling to his knees on the oh-so-familiar training field. Grunting, he pushed himself back up, reeling in a sharp breath, and caught sight of Otto just ahead.

Or rather, Otto and the illustrious Sam, her dress stained scarlet. Despite his reservations about her, and about everything revolving around her, it didn't mean he was any less worried about the way her face twisted in pain, and Gale made his way over to them, kneeling down beside her.

"What?" he said, echoing Otto. "What do you need?"

She was entrusting Gale with a delivery. Either it was urgent, or Sam was in far more danger than he wanted to believe. Her coughing fit was hard to watch, making him tense then recoil as he felt flecks of blood hit his skin. Her eyes fixed onto his, and he looked taken aback before getting pulled down tightly in her arms.

His irregular breathing nearly stopped right then. Her odd fixation on him making him confused and puzzled. But then he heard the click, and felt her lips come close to his ear as she began to whisper to him alone.

Marked from the start.

All that time, he'd been led like a loyal mutt. Played like a complete fool. His heart fell, its surface darkening with betrayal. She didn't go through with it. But she'd meant to. He winced as she dug her fingers into his shoulder, her coughing sounding more and more agonizing. The immaculate lady of the Death Division, reduced to a convulsing and bloody mess of a human being.

Caelius had something to do with it. And some woman she so lightly referred to as the two timing b***h. It couldn't be Charlotte, who was currently dead without some of her skull. So who was it? Without a name to go by he couldn't exactly avenge her. He wasn't even sure he wanted to right now.

She was pulled away, and Otto was left dumbfounded, absently watching her as she was attended to; her cursing, her twitching and coughing. Her fists likely held whatever it was she'd taken from his shirt.

And soon, she just stopped. Still. His eyes seemed distant as if not even looking into anything in this reality, his face in tired shock. Sam might be dead, she likely wanted to kill him for a reason he just didn't know.

He felt his worries and pain begin to take on a numb feeling.

He wasn't sure what he was supposed to feel.

On the one hand, Sam had never been particularly nice to Gale, nor had she ever given the indication that she was even a decent person. Rude, pushy, and brash, all she'd ever done was get on his nerves, her every move screaming for him to distrust her.

On the other hand, she was still a human being, and still a member of Deus Ex Machina, even if the latter was stretched to the point where Gale wasn't even certain if it was true anymore. Everything about her death was confusing, messy, a thousand questions unanswered and the few that were had been answered with responses that begged more questions.

There were streaks of blood on Gale's coat, the marks of someone's fingers in clear view, sliding off the end of his lapel. He flicked his gaze towards Otto, who was looking as though he were made of stone, and Gale's hand reached towards the tablet that now lay beside Sam. He picked it up - it felt heavy in his hands - and slipped it into his coat, out of sight, his arm pressing down to hold it in place.

"Get up," he muttered to Otto, his fingers wrapping around the other's upper arm, and he stood, pulling the blonde hunter with him. They were very nearly the same height, though Otto was thinner, lankier, and his hair was shorter than it had been the last time Gale had seen him.

"We've gotta go find him," he said, and let go of Otto's arm, beginning to make his way towards the Death offices. Whether or not Caelius was even there remained to be seen, and whether or not Otto chose to follow him was also another story.

They took the body away, but it was nothing new. Another body, another name, another story finished.

"Hang on- Gale - Otto- wait hey!" Mark, who still had bandages wrapped all around him almost mummy-like, "Hey!" He grabbed a hold of Gale's shoulder, just barely managing not to trip over himself. "Not right now okay? Trust me. Just keep a hold onto- onto-" he tripped over his own words - "Give it a day."

There was a pause, and it was almost dramatic. It was clear that Mark was having conflicted feelings in the moment of. So much could happen in just a few hours, enough to rock half the foundation of an establishment, enough to create tension that would take months to distill. "Give it a day," he finally repeated, finally having found the perfect line to embody the sadness and feelings of the current situation, "Sometimes a padawan has to listen to their Jedi Master."

Deep feels moment.

In the background, two Moon Hunters pulling away the last of the unconscious trainees stopped, stared at Mark, and rolled their eyes.

Otto stumbled as Gale stumbled into him. Mark was given a dead eyed look, tired and empty. His prattling, no matter how serious or nerdy, somewhat registered with the blonde. Give it a day. That sounded fine with him. He didn't want to see His Highness anyway.

His gaze slowly fell on Gale as he barely contained his irritation, bombarding the assistant with questions. Icy eyes soon flicked to Mark. Would they be okay? He wasn't so sure he wanted to know...

All survivors woke up in a classroom. It was a familiar classroom, with simple white walls, four to be exact. There were rows of desks arranged in groups of six. There was a clock at the very front that ready some obscene time, something like 7:15 am.

Someone equally familiar to the room was standing in at the front. Well, sitting to be precise, at a desk, with a stack of folders, looking surprisingly very at peace with themselves, well, as much as at peace could represent in regards for the notorious reputation that surrounded the Death lead. It wasn't too clear what was more creepy: the fact that they awoke in the classroom, or the fact that Caelius had been watching them this entire time.

"I'll keep this simple." He stapled a set of papers and then put them back into the folder. "Outside this room is a team waiting to remove your bracelets so you may function as Hunters again. However, after the recent events-" there was no doubt what he was talking about here considering everyone in the room was part of these trials - "there is debate among the rest of Deus Ex as to if you still deserve to be reinstated as Hunters. Your actions reflected how impetuous, stupid, and ignorant you were, how given the opportunity you will destroy yourselves. If those words sound familiar," a sneer, "there is a simple explanation. Everyone was once a Hunter. What separates them and us is we generally spend more time resolving problems instead of making them. The difference is that we have accepted being a Hunter."

He was still surprisingly, in the pace of lecture mode. There wasn't any hint of item throwing, trainees getting beheaded, more restraining orders, or podding. Instead, he just sat there, and and made everyone wait long awkward moments.

"It must make you feel very important to place your meaningless lives in front of others, be rescued every single moment, day of your life, to enter these life and death situations and never understand what really is happening. Worthless from beginning to end, yet still willing to trample what you can. You make up excuses to escape to. This is some sort of game until it happens to you. This isn't real. You forget there are consequences to each and every action, which I will get to, but if you insist on keeping yourself in the dark, at least ******** remember you owe us. You owe us for your existence, for even having any semblance of peace, for us protecting you so that you may protect others every single second, minute, hour, day of your ******** inconsequential lives and we owe you absolutely nothing in return. I would consider these things called friendship a little more carefully considering it only took a few choice words for you to forget your ******** place in favour of whatever lies you created in their place."

"Now. Consequences are very simple, as this whole situation only wastes more ******** time. There is ignorance and there is repeated disobedience. If you exit out the door behind you, you will continue on as a Hunter. You owe us and I will expect it repaid. You are a Hunter, not anything else, and I expect your behaviour to be of a Hunter. You are not protected. You do not deserve anything. Not by your friends, by your division, by anyone. In the end you will die, if not by my hands, then someone else, and only because you owe us. It will be one more thing you owe which you can never ******** fulfill. Everyone who chooses to fulfill their condition as a Hunter may leave."

Pause. "Everyone may leave except the following. Finn, Jack, Roland, Lucky," he spent a long moment staring at the Life trainee but continued down the list, which was memorized, "Stormy, Abigale, Peyton, Otto. You will stay, as I have been given clearance in resolving this problem." He probably would have done it without permission anyway.

Roland sat quietly at his desk still have asleep, groggy, his eyes barely able to focus on the figure ahead of him. That's when the figure became clear, it was Caelius, and he was listing names. His name, his focus suddenly became a lot more clear as he continues to focus more and more on Caelius as the world started to become a bit more clear.