Reverie stood on top of a roof that belonged to a building directly across from Schlatt's mansion. He held a spyglass against his eye. He could see the passing forms of mercenaries and heroes patrolling the perimeter and darting through the interior hallways. On more than one occasion, Reverie saw someone that he knew. He even caught sight of Dream when the top hero stopped at a window, peering out at the ocean. Reverie's breath caught in his throat, but he didn't lower the spyglass. Dream eventually left, and Reverie was able to regain his breath.

"Are you ready, Big Man?" Someone called out from behind Reverie. He lowered his spyglass to peer over his shoulder at Kamikaze. He had redesigned his seat, taking away most of the childish elements. His suit looked more like a stinging wasp than a bee ready to make honey, and Reverie was exceptionally glad for the additional armor spray-painted dark yellow or gray attached to his body.

"As I'll ever be," Reverie responded with a half-shrug. He was prepared to fight. His entire life had been about fighting. His experiences in the Pit and training underneath Dream had prepared him for the moment when the districts would be counting on his victory. He just was worried that this win would mean nothing. Kamikaze would be put in charge of Snowchester and Red district. It was a step in the right direction towards reforming the broken system, but there had to be more than what they were doing now.

"Hey, to the ends of the earth," Kamikaze whispered, grabbing onto Reverie's hand. Kamikaze squeezed Reverie's hand with a large smile appearing on his face.

Reverie turned that silly grin as he squeezed back. "To the ends of the earth."

Their moment was cut short as they heard a high-pitched siren wailing in the distance. Kamikaze gave Reverie one last reassuring look before the mechanical wings on his back began to buzz so fast that he lifted into the air. Kamikaze shot forward into the gathering group of mercenaries and heroes that were trying to figure out where the noise was coming from on Schlatt's front lawn. Reverie watched as Kamikaze dived into the group, green lightning bolts spreading from his body to each of the people. Reverie decided that Kamikaze was probably going to be fine in this fight.

Reverie jumped off the roof. He pushed off the strengthening chaos in the air to land softly on the asphalt road. He ran to the front of the gate. Most of the people who sided with the Syndicate had some means of flying or jumping high, but for everyone else, Reverie was to break the large lock that kept the gates closed. Reverie sent a ball of chaos at the electronic keypad, listening to it short-circuit as he began to climb the golden gate. He pressed the toes of his shoes against the bars while his hands scrambled to pull his body weight up. He eventually came to the large gate. Reverie filled his fist up with chaos before punching the lock. He felt it shatter beneath his knuckles, pieces shooting out with enough force to cause some to whirl back on him. They cut his face, drawing shallow cuts, but the gate was swinging open. Reverie kicked one of the gates as he clung to the other one. Schlatt's mansion was officially open to the public.

Reverie looked down from the gate. He caught sight of Nemesis and Banshee in the crowd that entered into the mansion. A glob of green goop rolled into the mansion, reforming into a person to hit a mercenary. Croupier followed after. Kitsune jumped down from the large wall surrounding the mansion. The Warden threw his trident into someone. Surprisingly, Reverie could see the Captain standing alongside Ankh. There were many more faces in the crowd, but Reverie's arms were starting to give out. His grip laxed until he was falling from the gate. Before he could screw his head on right to gather some chaos, his butt bounced on something that was much softer than the hard ground.

The thing underneath him lowered down like an elevator, and soon Reverie was standing on the ground without any broken bones or bruises. He turned around to see Integrity smiling cheekily at him, his hand glowing purple as he waved away the platform that Reverie was sitting on. Despite the war going on around them, Reverie's face lit up at the familiar face that he had not seen in such a long time. He nearly threw his arms around Integrity to hug him, but he saw a hero approaching them. Reverie glared darkly as he flicked his fingers up. The chaos exploded all around the uninvited guest, and he was flying into the sky so high that Reverie couldn't see him anymore.

"Stay alive," Integrity reminded Reverie with a tough look. Integrity turned away from Reverie. A sword made from translucent purple glass appeared in Integrity's hand, and he used it to start attacking a random mercenary. When someone tried sneaking up on him, a shield made from the same material as his sword appeared attached to his forearm. The attack bounced harmlessly off the shield as Integrity brought the sword down to hurt the person who attacked him.

Reverie turned away from that fight to join the crowd of fighting masses. He used his chaos to propel him forward, knocking opponents out as if he were a bullet. Most people were smart enough to duck out of his way, but they were still hit. The chaos was surrounding him like a whirling storm, the edges tearing flesh from bone if someone didn't manage to get far away. He was in the middle of an intense battle, of course it would be almost out of control. It took almost everything in Reverie to reign in the chaos just enough so that it didn't hurt his allies. Reverie simply had to hope that his allies were going to dive as far out of the way as they could as a secondary precaution.

Reverie finally made it to the main building. He stopped long enough to turn around. Crowfather was twisting and diving in and out of the sky. He brought people up and dropped them back down. He uses his feathers like projectiles to pin others down for the Blade to hurt them with his giant axe. The Blade looked like a serene dancer of gore and blood as he twisted his weapon around, destroying anyone who thought for a single second they could take him. Those who were trying to run away were quickly stopped by a teleporting burst of purple particles. Ender's violet eyes looked inhuman as he made sure no one darted away unseen. He occasionally teleported his allies, mainly Integrity and Kamikaze, out of harm's way. Reverie even caught a glimpse of Blaze in the swirling mass, and Reverie was a little surprised he showed up. He was probably trying to keep Nemesis safe, or maybe he wanted revenge on Schlatt for holding him hostage. He could see Lilka and Spark mixed up in the crowd as well, and that pulled at Reverie's heartstrings. Especially because he could have sworn he saw emerald green eyes glowing from on top of the outer wall.

Reverie decided to leave the front lawn to those guys. He had something else he needed to take care of.

Reverie slammed open the front doors. He heard wood cracking as the heavy doors hit the side walls. Reverie stepped into the grand hall of the bitterly cold mansion. He could see some servants clinging to each other in the shadows, but he hardly paid attention to them as he climbed the stairs. He came to a loft that branched into two pairs of stairs that led up in opposite directions. Reverie wondered which one he should go up. As he was deciding, something began glowing in the shadows of the left side. Reverie ducked to the side as a fireball launched right at him. The fireball soared over him, crashing into the window behind Reverie. The former sidekick looked up to see Combust standing at the top of the stairs with a heavy expression on his face and a ball of fire pulsating in his palm.

"I don't want to do this," Combust stated simply, his voice thick with a thousand emotions that would have painted him as sympathetic to a man with a weaker heart. Reverie was not swayed by the look. Combust was standing in his way. This made Combust an obstacle, not someone he used to look up to. This made Combust someone that needed to be defeated, not someone who shared memories with Reverie.

Reverie jumped into the air, using the chaos to shoot him slightly upward. He landed right beside Combust. The hero instantly went up in flames. Reverie jumped back to avoid getting burned, thick smoke starting to fill his lungs from being so close. Reverie pressed his hand against the marble floor. Cracks appeared across the surface, filling with a red mist filled with lightning bolts. Combust jumped into the air. He pushed off the nearby wall, his footprints burning into the wall. He rolled in the air, his leg coming down to strike his opponent. Reverie raised both of his arms into an 'x' shape. Combust's heel collided with Reverie's forearm. Reverie hissed in pain, but he was able to release a quick burst of chaos. Combust's hands went down to catch himself, but his fingers slipped into one of the cracks. Combust fumbled his landing, and some parts of his body went out. Combust rolled to a stop against the wall with his charred footprints smoldering above his head.

"Stay the fuck out of my way, Combust. You know as well as I do that Minotaur doesn't deserve shit. He's going to run this district into the ground. Your oath to protect people, not to follow the association blindly," Reverie snapped. He knew, objectively, that he probably wasn't going to win this fight. Even if he did, he would be severely burned from it. These wounds would affect his ability to fight Minotaur, and Reverie's main mission was taking that man out, not anyone else.

"Promise me that you'll be safe. I know how rash you can be," Combust said softly. His body weight shifted until his knees hit the ground. He looked like a spluttering out spark, clinging to life but rapidly fading. Reverie had never noticed before how exhausted most of the heroes were. He could still remember Dream's brief moment of weakness on that beach. He can still remember the way Unfound sighed tiredly when Reverie confessed to being the only one who ruined Church Prime. Corpse had been broken-hearted the last time they left, and from what Ranboo had told him, Lady Talon was as miserable as everyone else. Reverie was only a sidekick, and he was already discovering what life was like as a hero.

"I am not rash! My middle is 'careful', bitch," Reverie said back with a grin spreading across his lips. Combust gave a breathless laugh. He stood up. Instead of attacking Reverie, he turned away. He took a few steps down the stairs. Reverie didn't watch for much longer. He silently breathed out his gratitude before he started racing down the hallway once more.

He was not met with another opponent. He was instead met with an open room. It was illuminated by a single lamp with a dying light blub. There was a large desk that had been shoved to the back wall. A man laid limply in front of it. He was surrounded by dark brown and tinged green bottles made from glass. Some were fractured into a thousand pieces, and even more were completely empty. The man lying there looked drunk out of his mind, his suit crumpled into wrinkly pieces with the buttons unaligned and the jacket hanging off his elbows. His glazed eyes flickered up to meet Reverie's eyes. With words not slurred enough to be incomprehensible said, "You know, if I die, this district goes down with me."

Reverie lifted his hand. The swirling mists of chaos came together to create a spinning vortex against his palm. The inside of the ball was formed by a lightning core that glowed brightly in the dark room. Each of the glass bottles reflected back the light, painting Schlatt's pale, sweaty skin in a washed out red. He looked like someone who had been bathing in blood. Metaphorically, perhaps he was.

A voice began to whisper in Reverie's ear. It sounded remarkably like Banshee. The old leader of the Pit was pressing against Reverie's body like a heavy weight meant to drag him into the depths. The voice demanded that he kill Schlatt now. It reminded him of everything Schlatt had done... every sin he's committed against the people of his district... every wound he's placed on Tubbo's body. Schlatt's life was meaningless. He was a drunkard with a little bit of power in him. He used to be a top hero, but now he barely qualifies as a human being. He was going to kill himself from overindulgence eventually. It would be so much easier on everyone if Reverie sped up that process. Who would miss Schlatt? Who could blame Reverie for his actions?

Reverie swiveled around. Instead of hitting Schlatt with the chaos, Reverie released the vortex around Punz's body. The mercenary's sword clattered out of his hand as he was held up against the wall. Reverie kept him pinned there as the door slammed shut. Dream was staring at Reverie with conflicting emotions washing across his face. Dream tried pulling at something in the air, but the green thread he usually kept tethered to Reverie was absent. Reverie twisted his other hand, separating the chaos into two streams to keep both Punz and Dream pinned against the walls.

He turned back to Schlatt. There was something dark gleaming like rusted iron in Reverie's eyes. He stared down at Schlatt with nothing but contempt instilled on his face. "You are going to die, Schlatt. You are a fucking monster. You could never be a hero, no matter how hard you fucking tried. You ruined your life. You ruined the lives of the people around you. There is no way in hell I am letting you walk out of this room tonight. So, keep drinking like it's the end of the world, asshole, because it is your end."

Reverie tilted his head to look at Punz. "You're collateral. I didn't mean for you to be here, but... I am pissed that you fucking sold Purpled, so I'm not that willing to let you go free."

Reverie's gaze finally shifted to Dream. The two shared a sad look, and Reverie was certain that they could have been friends in another life. Dream's entire body slumps down, and Reverie drops the chaos. Dream lies complacently on the floor. He tilts his head up to Reverie, allowing his mask to slide off his face. Reverie is allowed to see that tired look one more time, realizing how the weight of the world can break a man down and make him insane. Reverie wishes he could travel back in time to take Clay and Drista far away from this city. They could have been a family, just the three of them. But he didn't have that power. He could manipulate chaos, not bring order.

"I wish it was simple again," Clay whispered, practically agreeing to Reverie's unspoken thoughts. Reverie smiled at his friend. He pulled out something from his pocket. It was a small metal ball with lines running along the surface. Each of the lines were glowing a faint green that became more saturated as the seconds ticked forward. Reverie sat the ball down on the desk behind Schlatt. The former hero was doing as Reverie suggested, drinking from a bottle. Punz was trying to break free from his constraints. Clay had brought his knees to his chest, leaning his chin against his crossed arms tiredly. Reverie pulled out another thing from his pocket. He carefully unfolded the pictures.

There was one of him and Wilbur with Techno and Phil in the background. He had been sitting on the couch, his head tucked on Wilbur's shoulder. Techno was reading a book on a reclining chair, raising a peace sign at the camera though his eyes were pinned on the book. Phil was looking over at the three of them with a nice smile and crinkled eyes, and Reverie was astounded by how easily the camera could capture the sheer adoration in Phil's eyes.

The next picture was of him, Tubbo, Ranboo, and Purpled. They were sitting at their booth at Sam's cafe. They were all smiling. Tubbo was practically laying in Ranboo's lap, and the Enderman hybrid was hunched over the table to be in the picture frame. Tommy had thrown his arms around Purpled's shoulders, his head right alongside Purpled's but lifted up slightly so he looked taller. Purpled was leaned back as relaxed as he could be. Niki had been the one to take the picture for them before she disappeared to the Antarctic district. Reverie later put the pieces together that she was Nemesis, but at this moment when the picture was taken, he was innocent and happy. He was unaware how truly despicable his world was.

Reverie looked up from the pictures when he heard Schlatt's sharp inhale of breath. He looked around warily, his eyes ghosting over everything in the room. He quietly whispered, "Does anyone else smell toast?"

Reverie hesitantly sniffed the air. All he smelled was the metallic scent of charged electricity. Reverie wondered what trick Schlatt was pulling, but then the man flopped onto the ground. He spasmed, his limbs jerking around inhumanly. Reverie stumbled back, his eyes growing wide behind his mask as saw Schlatt finally settle. Reverie pressed the tips of fingers against Schlatt's throat. He held his breath as he waited to hear a heartbeat. Nothing came. Schlatt's pulse was silent and unmoving. Reverie almost laughed at the insanity of it. He had come to risk his life to kill Schlatt, and the former hero died from a fucking heart attack, of all things.

Reverie looked back at his companions. Punz had stopped moving, staring at Schlatt's body with something akin to disgust on his face. Clay stared apathetically at the body laid out before him. Reverie supposed he wasn't upset Schlatt was dead, either. It was going to happen anyway.

"Can we leave now?" Punz asked, his eyes cutting over to Reverie.

Reverie smiled, "Nope."

Reverie told everyone his plan was to kill Schlatt. And it was, technically, but he had another plan running right alongside it. Reverie pulled out the totem from his pocket. Reverie already knew that murdering Clay and Drista was wrong. They were trying to make a better world, after all. Deep down, they were good people who made horrible decisions. Clay had done his best to prepare them for the world, and this sometimes left them feeling emotionally and physically abused. Drista and him argue constantly, sometimes even hurting each other when the arguments spiral out of control. But they weren't people worthy of death. Reverie wasn't, not yet, but the three of them had messed with factors far above them. Clay had tried playing god, Drista was becoming a god, and Reverie knew firsthand how the gods acted would retaliate. Clay and Drista could not be left alive, and Reverie was going to kill himself as repentance. Punz was a bonus.

"It won't ever be simple," Reverie whispered, tears falling onto the Totem of Immortality. He placed down both of the pictures he had been holding in his hands on the desk. He settled onto the wood right after. The bomb Reverie placed on the table was humming as the light grew so bright everything was painted in a green hue. Reverie sighed to himself, a smile coming to his face. He never imagined that he would accept death this easily. He thought that he, like chaos, would go out of this world fighting, screaming and kicking and clawing his way back to life. Instead, he was like a fire in the rain, not the lightning in the clouds.

"It won't be," Clay conceded. He stood on his feet. There was a grim look on his face. He took a few careful steps towards Reverie. He stepped over Schlatt's body, standing right in front of Reverie. He pulled Reverie's mask off his face to reveal the scarred teenager underneath. Clay smiled as he met Tommy's blue eyes. "But life was never simple to begin with. Everything in this world is complex and complicated. Some people will try their best, and they will fail every time. I'm starting to realize that all I've ever done is fail you and Drista. I thought I was making you stronger, but I was just breaking you down. Your friends and the people out there will make you stronger."

Tommy swallowed thickly, trying not to say anything. These were their last moments alive. He was going to let Clay say whatever he wanted to say.

"I wanted to save the world. I wanted to make people happy and healthy. I will never be able to achieve that. I'm too... defective to be a hero," Clay whispered, placing a hand on Tommy's cheek. "But you aren't. You're more human than anyone I have ever met. I used to think that made you weak, but it doesn't. Your humanity is what has protected you this entire time. I'm going to need you to reteach it to Drista. She'll need a mentor like you to help her harness her newfound powers without losing herself in the process. It will be hard, but you are Tommy Innit, Reverie, the former sidekick of Dream, and the one who will succeed me. I have never shown it well, and you probably won't believe me, but I need you to know that I love you and Drista both. Show the world what makes a hero."

Tommy opened his mouth to argue, but he felt a pressure against his chest. He stumbled back, and he was suddenly pushed out of the window behind Schlatt's desk. He hurtled toward the ground, the Totem of Immortality free-falling with him. His pictures drifted in the wind above him. Tommy tried reaching for them, but his vision shook when he slammed against the ground. He heard different things in his body shatter and break, and he felt warm blood soaking into his clothes. The Totem of Immortality hit the ground a few times, rolling away from him. Both of Tommy's pictures landed in his blood puddle, along with a new one that looked remarkably like him and Drista with Clay's handwriting along the back of it.

Tommy tilted his back towards the sky. His ears felt like they were filled with cotton, but he could clearly hear the explosion. Green electricity and bright red flames poured out of the room. The room and some of the adjoining structures imploded. A surge of chaos filled Tommy's body, enough to keep his heart beating. He felt tears pour from his eyes, and he wasn't sure why he was crying.

His eyes closed, hoping to get rid of the tears. The pain continued to burn in his body, and his consciousness slipped away from him like sand in an hourglass.