Richard took in the scene, the thick wall had been destroyed as thought bulldozer wrecked it from within, it was so thick normally even a vehicle would not pass through colliding.

This destruction allowed enemies inside the compound, resulting in a surprising amount of property damage as well as loss of personnel.

Add that to the number of problems they were already facing and you had a hairy monkeys ass shitting down on his day.

The major loss had not come from that however, both a Chief of security and his head administrator were found here, Jacob was being accused to aiding their enemies by Bradley and Bradley didn't even know how he got there.

"Boss?" A replacement to Jacob glanced at him with trepidation.

"What?" Richard gritted his teeth in anger.

"Warden says he has more info on Jake." Jacobs replacement said, Raphael or more commonly Rafe.

"Am I going to like it?" He breathed in deeply.

His silence was all the answer he needed, he let the man lead him away as his people worked to barricade the destroyed wall.

He was led to the warden under the warehouse, where they kept their debt prisoners as well as captured enemies with valued information, as well as some other goods.

The warden was sweating, perhaps from the abnormal heat, or perhaps from the information he was about to give, likely implicating him.

"What." Richards question was also a statement, he was angry enough to kill, gruesomely.

"I...Well, you know Jacob..." The warden rubbed his hands nervously before launching into an explanation.

He left the office with more questions than answers, why would Jacob take a prisoner out along with two semi-prisoners.

More investigation only led to more questions, Jacob had also taken a woman and the son of the prisoner, who's guarded room held the bodies of four dead guards.

The impossible seemed to have happened, somehow Jacob had betrayed him and perhaps either Bradley knew about it, or was taken, hostage.

Then for some bizarre reason instead of escaping through a stolen vehicle, which would have been smarter, they blew a hole in the wall during an attack and stayed there instead of continuing to escape under cover, mind-boggling.

The actual damage to the wall could be explained away, Bradley had already put together certain people were affected by the dream slightly differently, it was why they were taking so many people in.

Bradley, himself and his men did not have what Bradley had pieced together was a 'guide' through the dream, seemed unfair but such was life and they already had a young man with healing abilities under them, soon there would have been more.

Richard himself was the last to die in his version of the dream, he killed the two other men and the woman was easy to control once terror set in, she was so useful and pretty to boot, a shame he couldn't find her now.

He had figured out that the tattoos on his body would respond to his touching if they were blinking, after choosing spirit once and passing the whirlwind the pain stopped him from choosing it again.

Choosing spirit hadn't shown any results and until he emerged from the dream here did he find out it took more to gain magic.

Returning his thoughts to the escape, he actually had no idea who other people were, few people did actually and he wondered if they weren't spies meeting up with agents inside their ranks.

Still of all his people Jacob and Bradley? Those two were pretty high up and had demonstrated absolute loyalty in their own way, up until now.

Richard felt a migraine emerging, ever since he had been placed in this shitty project things had gone downhill, luckily he couldn't report it as communications were down, something was scrambling all signals.

A remote place, while competing with small-time gangs for control, it was dangerous simply because the higher ups refused to give further aid that absolutely necessary, they felt he had enough resources to compete, which until now he had sort of agreed.

'This is a mess.' Richard scratched his brow with concern, with these many losses their enemies would only grow bolder.

Already they received attacks day after day, despite better arms, better organization and better men there was only so many people they could lose.

It was a meat grinder out here for his men, and procuring resources took far too much manpower than he liked, having to go further and further each time, competing with other survivor groups.

Perhaps it was time to get information straight from the horse's mouth, he had not done so because he was afraid of killing him in a reckless fit of anger.

Walking down the hall flanked by three guards Richard opened the door, Jacob was a mess, at least his face was, his nose was broken and missing teeth, blood was on the ground.

His hands were cuffed behind his back, and he was tied to a kneeling position, it had to be very uncomfortable.

"Jake, Jake, Jake, you've seen better days old friend." Truth be told Richard wasn't enjoying seeing him this way, but traitors had to be taught a lesson, anyone else would have already been in pieces.

"I dn't d' it B'ss." Jake's words were a bit blurry due to the missing and broken teeth.

"Fix his teeth," Richard ordered, Jake sighed in relief, Richard shook his head his intentions obviously misconstrued.

After Jakes' teeth were fixed, Richard felt more prepared to continue and he now had the option of breaking his teeth if he grew angry.

"Brad says otherwise and his dead guards are compelling evidence," Richard explained, anger mounting, he had to watch that before he accidentally killed Jakey.

"Bossman, I'm loyal I swear. Please, Bradley's lying." Jake looked around desperately, eyes watery, Richard could understand because he was considering killing him and slow, real slow.

Bradley himself was under scrutiny, Richard hadn't beaten the man because he was in a much less incriminating position, his hostage excuse held a bit of weight.

Still, Bradley wasn't to be trusted just yet, he would be under heavy watch and his duties would be downgraded to less important matters.

The man was smart and Richard was desperately understaffed, killing indiscriminately might push his men over the limit, balancing fear and morale was difficult.

Bradley had been trying to get him to invest in these new magics rather insistently, was that just something to distract him?

"Prove it." Richard gave him a chance, Jake had always been a loyal friend and killing him out of hand would make him uncomfortable, for a while at least it was nothing new, necessary was necessary after all.

"How?" Jacob trembled on the floor kneeling.

"Easy, your little friends who got out. You're going to get them back here and I want to personally watch them die." Richard still considered killing Jake regardless, he was a liability, but Richard wanted to trully know if they were spies and what information they stole.

"They aint my friends boss, I~" Jacob shook his head vigorously.

Anger mounting Richard lifted his hand up, silencing him before he made him lose his temper.

"I. DON'T. CARE. Find them, bring them here and I'll not dice you up like a salad." Richard promised, he would have to think up something else if he decided to still kill him.

"Yes of course!" Jacob nodded vigorously.

"Your replacement will be in charge and you will be restrained and unarmed the whole time. MAKE sure you don't disappoint me Jake, or I'll make you die so horribly, the devil will look like a saint, understood?" Richard asked.

"YES! Yes! Thank you Boss, thank-you." Jake actually bowed his head several times.

Richard looked him in the eyes, Jake seemed honest, but desperate men did desperate things, his gut instinct told him something was odd about the whole situation as well.

Who knew? Perhaps Jake was honest, and he was innocent, weirder things had happened, but he needed more information, time to interrogate Bradley.

Still, he needed those people back here, interrogated and made an example of.

*****

Jake stared at the floor of his cell, he knew the guards outside by name, they beat him up regardless.

Sweat dribbled down his neck when he saw the Boss, the whole time he was absolutely sure he was about to be turned into a mutilated corpse, brushing so close to death he freaked.

He was accused of being a traitor, Jacob knew what happened to traitors and he was personally responsible for dealing with them, he never thought he'd be in this position.

What baffled him was how, he had lost time, close to an entire day was blank, starting when the little shit whom escape spoke to him, he was central to all this he was sure.

Jake was going to find him, how he didn't know the 'how' quite yet, but when he did, he would have his mother fucked like a whore in front of him by every fucking man here, the little shit would be impaled from ass to mouth and roasted over a pit, this was personal now.

He wasn't stupid, Jake knew the Boss would still kill him regardless, he'd have to try to escape, but he also needed to make progress and actually find the kid, after everyone dropped their guard he would escape.

Gritting his teeth Jake grew frustrated trying to hatch a plan to get revenge without dying, it would be hard, very hard indeed, security on him would be tight.

During this time Jake remembered Edward, he was the little shit who even brought up Eian, was he in on this?

Either way, it was his only lead, for now, he'd search him out and hopefully they hadn't fled to the boonies, he knew exactly where Edward was.

If he had the Devil's own luck maybe the kid and his bitch-mom would be there, lined up for him like strung chickens.

A knock on his cell got him alerted.

"Time Jake." Rafe was dour, fully serious and now his replacement.

"I'm ready." Jake took a deep breath.

"I'm not. Why'd you do it Jake? Didn't think you'd jump ship... you leading me and the boys into a trap Jake?" Rafe looked at him with a frown.

"Believe me Rafe, I didn't do anything, that little shit did something to me. We're gonna find him and tear his guts out." Jake explained.

"Really? That's a pretty lame excuse Jakey." Rafe sighed and leaned against the wall.

"Things have been weird Rafe, it's a new world. You heard Bradley anything's possible." Jake grit his teeth and fumed, it did sound stupid.

Raphael stared at him, judging, waiting and scrutinizing him all over for far longer than Jacob was comfortable with.

"Bossman told me to do this. So I will Jakey, but you lead me into a trap and Believe ME, I will put a bullet in your head before I die. Understood?" Rafe grimaced, he looked like a man marching to his own death.

"For fuck's sake, Fine! But get me up and let's start, every minute means they get farther away." Jake grunted angrily.

*****

Driving towards Edwards little 'fortress' they barged in with minimal trouble, breaking in the front door and pulling out guns yelling at everyone to put their hands up.

They grabbed everyone fleeing, taking them to hold hostage, as they went deeper in sounds of alarm grew as well as people scrambling for weapons everywhere until they came into a standstill in an open spaced room.

Several people got down on the ground, but several stood holding weapons varying from handguns to tools like machete and axes.

The defenders were greater in number to them, but they were outgunned, still, if they attacked some of them would die, they tried talking first.

"Who are you?" A young black man held a machete up like a baseball bat, ready to swing despite being almost across the room from them.

"Get down!" Jacob ordered Rafe pushed him to a side, a pointed look telling him who was in charge.

Several adults, including young adults and teenagers, stood ready, few were armed with pistols but others held their empty hands as though they held something invisible to throw.

"We are here for your friends who killed some of our people," Rafe explained.

"What's he talking about? Edward?" The black man turned to look at the shifty young man.

"I...I don't know!" Edward had his hands up.

"Your fucking friend killed my men and framed me for it!" Jacob felt himself almost frothing from rage.

"Jake, shut up." Rafe shoved him motioning for two men to hold him back.

Turning to look at the young men Rafe explained.

"The Latin kid, he killed some men in his escape, the one Jake here pulled up with, you were with them." Rafe pointed to Edward.

"Eian?" Edward stuttered.

Rafe turned to look at Jacob, he nodded that was his name.

"Yeah him," Rafe explained.

"He's not here." The young black man said.

"Where is he?" Rafe demanded.

"I don't know and even if I did I'm not selling out a friend." The black man's knuckles tightened around his 'sword'.

"Ballsy, ain't ya? Look, let us search round a bit, and if we don't see 'em we are leaving. Hows that?" Rafe crooked a cocky smile.

"I don't trust you enough to let those people go, not to mention lower my guard and let you surround us." The black kid WAS ballsy.

"I~" Rafe opened his mouth to speak but lost his head mid-sentence.

Jacobs ears shattered, the black kid was shouting, screaming Jake clutched his ears from pain, dropping dazed to the floor.

Watching around from the floor Jake had trouble sorting his thoughts through the haze of pain, fumbling he saw Rafe staring at him, his eyes wide with alarm as all hell broke loose.

The severed head was there on the floor as Rafe's body slumped dead on the floor, all around of combat had begun, Jakes' eyes widened.

******

Several hours later Richard watched as his men returned, the sight had him gashing his teeth, too few returned and most were injured further infuriating him, Jake was going to die.

There was, however, something else, a select few people were being dragged in before him, a few prisoners, two young girls among them.

Most of the prisoners looked scared, as a matter of fact, HIS men looked scared, they should be, of HIM.

"What happened?" Richard growled.

"They're monsters, it had to be a trap." A man flinched away from like a beaten dog, worthless.

"Wheres Jacob?!" Richard raised his voice, hackles rising.

"He got away." The answer provoked him till he howled in anger.

HE was going to find Jake, tears out his testicles and force feed it to the man, but first.

Growling he grabbed the nearest man by the throat, throttling the idiot, restraining him were several men by the time he realized he lost his temper.

Spitting on the floor Richard marched back to the mansion, he needed some entertainment, he'd have one of his men send a woman up to him.

Wine and women, that would distract him from this blunder, if there was one thing he realized it was that he could take any more chances, Bradley had to die, unfortunately.

*****

Half stumbling and half dragging himself, Jacob stared at the sky in a daze, he was so fucked, how had everything gone so wrong so fast?

His ears still rang uncomfortably, that fucking nigger with the machete did something, he opened his mouth as if to yell and his ears burst.

Everything happened so quickly, the armed opposition attacked them when they were down, Jake did not stay to watch but casualties on his side were high.

Ever since the dream and those new powers were changing people, they were fighting back, that went against everything Jake knew.

Ransacking his memory Jacob tried to discern how Rafe died, the image of the machete kid came to him crystal clear.

After his ears rang, bowling him over like a truck, he saw the kid swing the machete strongly yet hitting nothing, then a spurt of blood splashed his face and he fell to the ground.

He reminded through the memory, trying to puzzle out what happened, the kid, it had to be the black kid, somehow he killed Rafael from afar after knocking them all on their asses.

He had heard and known about magic, it was all everyone could talk about, but when it came to nitty-gritty details few knew anything so Jake had decided to continue working and let the boss tell him what to do.

An epiphany sparked inside his mind, an idea took root and grew, he realized what his mistake was, he realized what his boss and everyone back at base was, perhaps only Bradley had realized it soon enough and only a little else he'd push more quickly.

The answer was simple, they had to gain power, the power that was used on him and the power the dream presented like a feast before them, already the sheep were using it and so they had to adapt.

The balance of the world was now a perverse rat race, all who got stronger faster would shape the new world and thrive.

Dropping to his knees Jacob stared at the floor remembering everything he could piece together of the dream.

Tearing away the fabric of his long sleeve to reveal his bare forearm Jacob stared at the numbers, he had been lynched by his teammates, so he had been the first to die.

Body read four, mind read three, and spirit read three, he remembered choosing a frozen door when he selected spirit, he stopped at three because nothing discernable happened.

No vision like the first one, no additional power, heck he saw no benefit to Spirit, increasing body clearly made him stronger and increasing mind supposedly made him smarter but spirit was different.

'Body then. Body only.' Finally Jake smiled, he would select Body and grow in strength.

He wondered how strong he would be if he got it to a hundred? Would he bend titanium like a toothpick? All of a sudden he was eager to find out.

A man needed goals Jake smiled as he pictured his first goal, Eian that little shit had landed him here, the little shit and his whore mother would die.

Then as he killed him, Jake made plans of what to tell him, starting with what he would do to his mother, truly it was competition which drove men to better themselves, Jake wanted to see what he could become.

He wouldn't go back to being a henchman, that seemed too low, too mundane, this was once more the land of opportunity and Jake meant to seize it by the neck and choke it.

Richard was another goal, for too long he had been his lackey and it was Richie's time to be someone else's bitch, his.