Only when he was closer, did Grigori see the icy scars on Jayden’s skin. So… he was back underneath the control of the beast? His question felt all the worse, especially as he explained his vision. With so few words, he cemented himself as a Rocket.

The grunt’s fists balled tighter, his knuckles turned as white as the frost on his boss's skin. “I… I see.”

“I saw the complete opposite. We’d lost.”

Why did he feel alienated, all of a sudden? Like he didn’t belong? He did, though. His bones were restless, and he shifted in place. “Not much, but… it sounded like you’d been e-executed. Hanged. Alongside the rest of the leadership. Except for me.”

“I’m… scared, Mr. Cross. Why would I see that-- why would I be shown that?”

His home was Rocket, even if he had disagreements at the moment. Did not like how quick they were to resort to violence. Some of them at least let the Oinkolonge eat the carrot after they'd been ran around for months.

---

jayden cross

As the grunt was shaken around, Grigori put his hands on Jayden’s arms. He didn’t attempt to remove the man. More like steadied himself against the storm. The tides that suddenly threatened to drown him whole.

“I did, Cross,” he countered. “I said what I saw– was told! Some stranger told me the news, I know little more than that.”

Air was sucked into his lungs, and shoved out of his mouth in a rhythmic, panicked manner. “I don’t. Know.”

“You think I wanted to see that, what to know that? I’m confused, dazed, lost about it– and I need someone. Anyone.”

For what? He couldn’t know. Maybe to tell him it was a lie, that it meant nothing. Or it was everything, and it was some deep-seated secret hidden within his heart. Anything at all, just that it was going to be alright. As he did to others, someone would do to him. Not his fault he stumbled upon one of the arguably worse people to share this vision with.

---

jayden cross

“Some civillian, I-I think,” he struggled to recall their name. It was someone he’d met maybe three times ever, and only hear the name of twice. “A friend of a friend. The people don’t matter, Jayden!”

He was alone, then. The admin was too focused on the reality of the dream to question if the dream was true at all. For him, it was a threat to the future that Jayden oh so desperately wanted. One that Grigori had no stake in. Except the admin thought it so, and thus, he was at odds with him.

A terrifying prospect. An awful one. His fears, his anger only grew. “I need help, advice, and you pester me with details over something we don't even know to be–”

He stopped. Caught himself. the grunt dug his fingers into the admin, against the ice crystals dug into his skin. “Mr. Cross. Did... did you see the magenta chain? In your vision?”

---

jayden cross

“Then…”

Maybe that was the point. In the real world, the toxic chain dominated as Avatars the populace. Rocket to their grunts. Gods to their believers. The magenta had yet to appear in this dream land, and its influence removed. Grigori could feel it, as abstract as it was. His mind clearer, if only a minute fraction so.

“Mr. Cross, what if… the chain is corrupting our visions? Shows us our dreams and nightmares. Tries to convince us of something,” he coined. Jayden saw his wildest dream come true, while he had seen a supposed dismal, bleak future. A theoretical nightmare. The chain corrupted it to feel nice.

It was an easy, honest, clear truth that explained a lot of what had occurred. Why he would ever want Rocket to fail, yet himself to live past its red legacy. “What if it wants us to believe what we saw?”

Jayden would see Grigori the most relieved and suddenly relaxed he'd ever been in the short time they've known each other. 

---

jayden cross

“I… do not know,” Grigori said. Nothing came to mind immediately, and the few seconds afterward didn’t illuminate the reason. To corrupt their minds with false hopes and dreams that bordered on insanity was a stratagem he’d never– wait. No. That was a tactic he’d exclusively seen for the last thirty years.

But best not to mention it.

“My only guess is that they desire to break us,” he looked as uncertain as he sounded, “and make us more obedient. Less likely to rebel, more likely to do their work.”

“And where the magenta chains come in is a little beyond my deductive reasoning,” he finally broke free of Jayden’s grasp, and rubbed the sore spots on his skin as he looked to the side. “They could just be further methods of control? A means to administer drugs into our bodies?”

---

jayden cross

They’d already been broken. It’d been proven not only effective but surprisingly simple. They’d failed the vote test, and their minds had been poisoned with the mask and chain. Jayden’s optimism was critical, but the trial by fire always weeded out those desiring action and those willing to act on them.

But for himself, the thought that the mask was only a ploy, a ruse, was good enough for him. So long as those dangerous thoughts were not necessarily his own, then… he could try to face the coming trials.

Especially with Jayden’s smile. Like a flower that bloomed for a singular day, the event's rarity made it much more noteworthy. Honest.

Wicked.

“I have no choice but to trust your words,” Grigori finally said. “I can only hope the other wards do not forsake us for our decision. Our damning.”

Easy ideas. Hard truths. “Company will be a cold comfort as we bleed out from… whatever the wardens decide.”

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jayden cross