Dawn's POV

- 4 Days Later -

We had one last day, the final day before we faced our toughest challenge in training yet.

The final exam.

Looking around at my fellow trainees, many were deep in conversation trying to figure out what the final exam would be like or what we needed to know.

It was the last of our three prep days before our exam. Max and Karla had taken us down to a classroom of some sorts on our first preparation day. Instead of walking out of the training room and heading right towards the Adroit, they took us left down the hall.

After getting used to the few rows of tables with chairs behind them, we all broke off into what was almost study groups at a school.

Lucy had obviously come with me, but Xavier had dragged Alyson in with our group. Parker and Levi left to make their own group in fear of ours being too big.

Xavier had been watching over Alyson non stop since Sebastian deemed her stable enough to continue on with normal activities. Xavier would wait outside her dorm every morning before she got up, and he'd be stuck to her side until curfew every night.

Now, many would think it sweet that he was acting like her protector for the time being. However, It was really annoying when I needed to ask Xavier a question, or talk to him about something and Alyson was standing there listening to it all. Not to mention, after our final exam tomorrow Xavier would have to give up his guardian position and move on to his job.

"Shit," I mumbled as I rubbed a hand across my forehead.

Lucy started laughing at me. "Let me guess," she said while looking away from Xavier and Alyson. "You once again remembered that our final exam is tomorrow?"

"Yes," I said in slight frustration. "It's bothering me because I don't know what's going to happen. And this is the most important part of training!"

Laughing again Lucy shrugged before patting me on the shoulder. "Dawn we've done all that we can do. We went through everything we did during the physical part of training, and gone over and made up new scenarios for the special part. We're as prepared as we can be."

"You can never be too prepared," said a voice from behind us.

Turning around and looking up, Max was standing there with his hands behind his back and a small smile on his face.

"If anything, you can be prepared just enough," he added, turning his smile into a smirk.

"Does that mean that you expect us to keep studying?" Xavier piped up from next to Lucy. "I don't know how much more my brain can take after doing this for three days."

Lucy and I nodded in agreement. Max shuffled his eyes between all of us before chuckling. "I guess you guys do deserve a break. We don't want you to be exhausted for your exam tomorrow!" he said cheerfully.

He took a step back and away from our table and turned to face the entire room. "Break time trainees! You've all been working hard and deserve it!" he announced to the other trainees. "We only have another hour before we're completely done seeing each other every day, so I guess I could be a little nicer now."

A few laughs came out from around the room, but everyone immediately became a little louder, and smiled became more abundant around the room. I was glad some people could find happiness and be a little carefree even though something so important was coming up.

"Relax Dawn," Lucy said, she knew I got really stressed out about important things like this."We've been working so hard we should just sit back and chill out for a bit."

Still reluctant to drop everything, as I felt it was a waste of time, I followed her lead and sat farther back in my chair and glanced around at my small group.

"Alyson, Xavier," I said gaining their attention. "How are you guys feeling?"

They both stared at me rather blankly. Xavier looked almost a little offended, while Alyson looked more scared.

Realizing that they probably thought I was talking about the incident a few days ago, I quickly corrected myself.

"About the exam I mean," I rushed out. "You guys haven't said much about it."

Xavier smiled a bit and Alyson seemed to relax. "I guess it is what it is," Alyson said drearily. "We don't know what's going to happen so we can only prepare so much."

"Yeah, basically," Xavier said agreeing with Alyson. "I'm scared but confident in my abilities."

I nodded taking into account Xavier's answer. Why didn't I think like that more often? I knew what I was capable of, yet I still freaked out about major things that happened to me.

"As you should be," said Max from behind us.

Jumping a little I turned to look at Max who still had a smile on his face. I thought he had walked away to go and check on the other trainees.

I shared a glance with Lucy, before everyone stared up at Max as we waited to see what he was doing. Max stared back at us, seemingly not planing on doing anything different.

Quietly sighing, I didn't want to be sitting there the rest of the time so I decided to make use of Max's presence.

"On a scale of 1 to 10 how hard is the final exam?" I questioned him, while hoping I'd break the awkward stare off that was happening.

Max turned towards me and smirked. "It's as hard as you make it. If you want it to be easy, It'll be easy. If you believe it's hard, it'll be hard for you," he replied almost wisely.

Rolling my eyes I looked away from him and glanced around the room. "I thought you were my trainer, not my life coach," I said sarcastically with a kidding smile.

Lucy, Xavier and Alyson started chuckling and I could see Max was trying to hold back his smile and keep his composure.

"Now you see..." He started to say before he stopped himself. "I thought this was your break time, why are you talking about the exam?" he ended up questioning me.

I looked away from him after I shrugged. Even though it was our break time, I knew the exam was all anyone could think about. Most people were still talking about it in their little groups.

Not knowing how to reply to him, guessing that he already knew the answer anyways, I was glad when I saw Levi stand up and climb onto his chair. I focused my attention on him instead of Max who was staring at me.

"Attention, attention," Levi said as he stood all the way up on a chair and pretended to clear his throat. "May I ask that our two wonderful trainers take a place in the middle of the room?"

Max and Karla looked at each other from across the room. Max seemed more hesitant than Karla, but reluctantly followed her lead as she walked towards the middle of the room.

"Now this may seem sudden, unexpected, and odd all at the same time," Levi continued with a smirk once Max and Karla had taken their places. "But I wanted to speak on behalf of all of us trainees, all of which had no idea this was happening."

Max and Karla seemed surprised at the event happening before them. They remained quiet though, obviously curious as to what Levi would say next.

"I just wanted to say that we're thankful to have such good trainers. Without you we wouldn't know nearly anything that we needed to if it wasn't for you!" he said happily to them. "And yes, yes, I know we're all in a gang and we seem to be softies. But we need to thank you! Because we only got this far because of you!" he joked.

The two trainers started laughing as everyone else started cheering. There were claps and shouts, and I thought it was quite funny how charismatic Levi could be.

"Shut up! I'm not done yet!" Levi joked with a hint of seriousness.

Everyone quieted down and  happily let him continue to speak. He stepped around on his chair a bit before he smiled and looked around the room.

"Again I speak for everyone when I say we're not sad that we won't be coming to training anymore. There were some rough days, but we made it through!" Levi said proudly.

Max and Karla both gave Levi the same kind of glare. Levi nervously chuckled and scratched the back of his head.

"Er....I mean we'll be at least a little bit sad," he added on quickly.

Max and Karla's glares lightened up, and that here were more laughs that sounded from around the room, and I was glad that Levi could make even a somewhat sad topic better with comedy.

"Now," Levi said as he got really serious. "It's the trainees turn to say whatever they want about training, our trainers, etcetera. I can only think so much, especially after the past three days," he said as he stepped down from his chair and took a seat. 

There were more laughs, but everyone looked around curiously to see if anyone would actually stand up and give a little speech themselves.

After a moment, Parker surprisingly stood up and smiled at everyone. "Hi everyone!" he said cheerfully. "I just wanted to say that it makes me really happy that I have all you as friends and fellow trainees. Also that training has been one hell of a ride with you all, but I couldn't think of a better bunch to go through it with!"

It surprised me when Parker swore. He was always so happy and hyper, he always reminded me of an innocent little kid. Him swearing reminded me he was just another typical teenage guy, except he was probably happier than most. Either way, it didn't matter because Parker's little speech started a whole slew of people standing up and saying what they wanted.

"And I'll probably miss having breakfast and lunch with everyone at the same time the most!" Spencer said as he finished up his speech and sat down.

Everyone waited for the next person to go, but no one seemed to want to go next.

Shrugging I stood up from my chair and smiled at everyone. All the heads in the room turned to face me, and I definitely felt a little bit of pressure as I started to speak.

"So I don't know about you all," I started to say as I cleared my throat a bit. "But this has been the craziest few weeks of my life."

I could see the smirks and smiles appear on everyone's faces, and it gave me a little bit of motivation to keep going.

"I came into training late, the night everyone was out on their pre-training assignment. I'm so thankful for this opportunity, the chance to be loyal to something significant, something worth putting my time and energy into especially in times like these," I said seriously before pausing and taking a deep breath."I'm thankful to have something worth living for."

Looking around, everyone stared at me with wide eyes and closed mouths. The room was silent to the point where I could hear the hum of nothingness in my ear. Realizing I have gone a little too deep into my feelings I quickly coughed.

"Yeah, all the awful studying must be making me go soft or something," I said with an awkward smile, hoping to break the silence.

A few people laughed while others just smiled at me. I took it as my cue to sit down, and shortly after Rachel stood up and started to say her own piece.

Leaning back into my chair with a smile, Lucy playfully hit me in the arm with a smirk before focusing her attention back on Rachel.

Smiling to myself, I knew that everything I had said was true. I really felt that way even though it seemed like I was going a little too deep into my feelings for everyone else. Without feelings we wouldn't be who we are today, and I wasn't going to be the one to hide them, only the one to mask them until the time was right to reveal them.

I chuckled to myself a bit. Wow, I sounded like some wise professor trying to sound almost self-righteous to my students that were forced to listen to me. I was glad Max and Karla weren't like that. Everything they said had purpose, and they never dragged on a subject or tried to make themselves look good with a situation.

Speaking of situations, there were hundreds running through my head. With the test, two people leaving, evaluation after the exam, and the assignment of jobs and basically our careers in the Midnight Mafia, my mind was having a field day making up all sorts of scenarios that could happen in the next few days.

I still wasn't sure how I felt about finishing up with training. Coming in to the Midnight Mafia, it felt like a different world, one that i'd have to struggle to fit in to. But now, everything seemed normal. Waking up every morning for training, the hum and business of the Crater and Ground Zero, seeing the same people every day, taking instructions from Max and Karla, or even Jake and occasionally Kaiden.

It was all apart of my life now. Even though I had changed and grown so much in the seemingly short few weeks.

Knowing I probably shouldn't, I let my mind wander to Julia and Asher. Where did they go? What had they been doing? Were they still making it out alright on the road? Or were they continuously running into trouble and problems? There were millions of things that could've happened to them, they could even be dead at the moment and I would never know.

Shaking my head I wondered what it would've been like if I went with them. I wouldn't have more friends, or really much purpose to do anything other than survive. I wouldn't know Kaiden, Jake, Karla, or Max, four of the most skilled and intelligent people I knew. I wouldn't be exposed to a while new way of living that I was oblivious to.

Widening my eyes I realized how many events would've changed. Lucy wouldn't have had a best friend, and she might not have gotten another girl trainee to room with. Sage or Ryan may have been one of the trainees to pass training if I wasn't there. Alyson may have very well been dead because Xavier wouldn't have known the rooftop was there unless I had sprinted there and showed him.

I frowned a bit knowing that a single choice could change a series of events so easily, learning that our choices can be life or even death defining. It was an interesting concept to get my head around, but one that wasn't possible to grip.

"Alright trainees! That was very heartwarming and well addressed, but our time is up!" Announced Karla from he spot in the middle of the room. "You're all officially dismissed forever, but we'll see you tomorrow."

Looking up I realized that I had zoned out and missed what everyone else had said. I hadn't even noticed Xavier or Alyson stand up to speak when it was their turn. I shook my head a bit to make sure to come back down and land in reality.

"Yes, you'll meet us out in front of the hallway where your special training took place," Max Added in while crossing his arms. "Wait outside the door until you've all gathered there. Karla or myself will retrieve you when it's time to begin."

"Oh and trainees, just do your best and you should be fine for the most part," Karla said with a smile as she walked over the the classroom's door. "The moment you seem like you're starting to worry, we'll know you're doubting something and we'll use it against you."

Everyone glanced around at her words, trying to figure out what the new information could mean. How would they be using it against us? What would we even be doing in the first place?

"Enjoy the rest of your day trainees," Max said as he walked over and joined Karla by the door. "We wish you the best of luck for tomorrow."

You could feel a little bit of uneasiness in the room. You could tell people were more nervous now for the exam that before, because of what Karla and Max had said and how they were talking about it. None the less, everyone got up and started to file out of the room. Quiet chatter broke out to cover the silence that would've been there instead.

Walking out of the room with Lucy, Xavier and Alyson, I realized how fast time went by. The few weeks of training, the three days of preparation, heck even the past hour we were using for our break went by fast.

We quickly filled the training room as everyone walked through together. The chatter was getting louder now, and everyone else was seemingly happier now that we were free, completely done with training, and away from Max and Karla's knowing eyes. Walking towards the stairs I didn't know what emotion I was feeling. I was happy about everything, yet somewhat sad and even more so scared about tomorrow's events.

Everyone started climbing the steps, the heels of combat boots clicking on the old stairwell. I was in the back of the pack, and looking down behind me it really hit that I would never be going to training again. I'd never have to go down to the training floors to use them per-say. The thing that hit me the hardest was that I had almost done it.

I was almost a full-fledged member of the Midnight Mafia.

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Hello everyone! Dawn has come so far and it's making me feel really proud tbh.

Thank you for reading! It's amazing that you took the time to continue reading this story and I really appreciate it!

Please consider giving this chapter a vote it you enjoyed it! The votes are like little gold stars giving me motivation to keep writing because I see that people actually like the story.

Also don't forget that you can leave me your thoughts in the comments! I'd really love to hear from some of you guys and what you have to say!

- Delaney :)