One moment, Mocha had been standing beside Oscar and the next, the world simply... came apart.
Reality itself had seemed to unravel around her, peeling away like layers of paper before everything she recognized vanished into an endless sea of crimson.
Gravity seized her without warning, and the wind tore violently through her hair as she found herself plummeting through open air. For the briefest of moments, instinct overwhelmed reason, and she reached out toward where Oscar should have been.
Her fingers grasped nothing.
The landscape spread endlessly beneath her, an immeasurable expanse of crimson-white earth stretching beyond the horizon, interrupted only by jagged mountain ranges, deep valleys, and enormous rivers that shimmered an unnatural shade of scarlet. Above, there was no blue sky, no clouds, only a suffocating darkness pierced by an eerie crimson glow that seemed to come from everywhere at once. The sensation felt oddly familiar.
The moon.
Her eyes widened as recognition struck almost immediately.
This...
This was the crimson moon. The very same moon that had hung eternally above the Dream Realm every single night.
Except she was no longer looking up at it.
She was falling onto it.
A few other figures were scattered throughout the sky around her, each separated by hundreds of meters as they descended toward the impossible world below. Most were far enough away to appear little more than silhouettes against the crimson backdrop, but even at this distance Mocha could distinguish awakened through posture alone. Experienced awakened instinctively corrected their descent, orienting themselves while searching for threats even before reaching the ground.
Then something else caught her attention.
Masks.
Her heartbeat skipped.
Several of the falling figures wore unmistakable white Grimm masks.
Sleepless.
The realization arrived so suddenly that it almost stole her breath.
They weren't alone.
Sleepless operatives had been brought here as well. Before Mocha could fully process the implications, movement erupted high above the battlefield.
One masked operative suddenly accelerated.
It wasn't ordinary falling anymore.
The Sleepless member altered course with practiced precision, streaking laterally through open air toward another awakened descending hundreds of meters away. The unfortunate awakened barely had enough time to register what was happening before the attack arrived. Steel flashed crimson beneath the moonlight as the awakened desperately raised his weapon, managing to block the initial strike through pure instinct.
For the briefest instant, it appeared he might survive. Then, another masked figure emerged.
Mocha hadn't even seen where the second Sleepless operative had been hiding among the countless falling bodies until it was already too late.
The second operative descended directly behind the awakened and a blade drove cleanly through his chest.
The man's eyes widened in shock.
Blood scattered into the endless wind before his lifeless body continued falling, now completely limp as gravity reclaimed it.
Mocha's stomach tightened.
Sleepless had planned this.
Even while descending from the sky, Sleepless operatives were coordinating assassinations against isolated awakened before anyone even reached the ground.
Her mind raced.
Years spent studying strange phenomena and piecing together fragments of occult knowledge allowed her thoughts to organize themselves with remarkable speed despite the chaos unfolding around her.
This was undoubtedly the moon.
Not merely something resembling it but the crimson moon itself—celestial body that had watched silently over every expedition into the Dream Realm since awakened first began exploring its endless landscapes.
Except somehow, for reasons she could not yet comprehend, she and countless awakened had been transported onto its surface.
One conclusion, however, presented itself with alarming clarity. This had to be the work of Sleepless. No natural phenomenon could possibly orchestrate something on this scale.
The final phase.
That thought lingered in her mind with dreadful certainty. Everything Sleepless had been working toward for years...
Every experiment, infiltration, sacrifice and every catastrophe they had engineered throughout the kingdoms.
It all pointed toward one singular objective.
Waking the Sleeper.
Perhaps...
This was it.
Perhaps the final phase had finally begun.
Unlike many awakened, Mocha possessed a far deeper understanding of exactly what the Sleeper represented.
She had lived with that understanding every day since becoming awakened. Like Jaune, she had never undergone a conventional awakening.
She had been created artificially. Their methods differed dramatically, yet the result remained the same.
Jaune's father had forcibly transformed his son by manipulating the Sleeper's influence for his own purposes.
Mocha's awakening...
Had been almost accidental.
Years earlier, driven by equal parts curiosity and reckless fascination with ancient rituals, she had performed a ceremony she barely understood.
She had believed she was investigating forgotten occult practices.
Instead...
She had summoned something. For one impossibly brief moment, the Sleeper's presence had noticed her. That single glance from an incomprehensible existence had been enough to transform her forever.
She had awakened.
Later, LUCID researchers eventually pieced together enough evidence to conclude what had truly occurred. She had become an artificial awakened because the Sleeper itself had answered her call.
Even now, remembering that day caused an involuntary shiver to pass through her body.
And now...
Somehow...
She had been brought into the hidden realm surrounding that very being. Although, Mocha supposed that it wasn't hidden anymore. Whatever barrier had once separated this place from the rest of existence no longer seemed to matter.
Her thoughts abruptly shifted back toward immediate survival.
She wasn't safe, not for even a second.
Her eyes rapidly swept across the surrounding sky again, counting every figure she could identify. The awakened nearest her all appeared to be Rank Ones.
That was fortunate.
If Rank Zeros had been scattered into the middle of this massacre, their survival rates would have been almost nonexistent.
Including herself, Mocha identified five awakened who clearly were not affiliated with Sleepless.
Well...
Four now.
The man who had just been stabbed through the chest had already disappeared beneath the sea of falling bodies. Three Sleepless operatives remained within visible range.
Three against four were manageable, if they grouped together quickly because isolation favored the enemy and cooperation favored survival.
Without another moment's hesitation, shimmering squares of translucent light burst into existence behind Mocha's back.
Her Pixel Rune assembled itself almost instantly.
Countless glowing fragments folded together into a pair of elegant crystalline wings before locking into place with geometric precision.
She beat them and her descent immediately shifted.
Rather than falling helplessly toward the ground, she angled herself through the air toward another awakened that was currently exchanging blows with one of the masked Sleepless members.
If she could reach him quickly enough, they could overwhelm the attacker together.
The distance between them rapidly closed and then the sky exploded. A deafening shriek echoed across the black heavens.
Something enormous plunged downward from above.
Mocha barely had time to register the black feathers before the massive Nevermore collided directly with the awakened she had been rushing toward.
The impact resembled a freight train striking a human body.
The awakened was launched violently away, tumbling uncontrollably through open air as blood scattered behind him.
The Nevermore never slowed, instead, it spread its enormous wings while banking smoothly through the air.
Then something even stranger happened. The Sleepless operative that the man had been fighting in midair, reached upwards, grabbing hold of the Nevermore's feathers. The masked man then swung himself onto the Grimm's back in one fluid motion.
He was riding it.
Mocha's eyes widened.
There were Grimm here.
Of course there were.
The realization seemed obvious now, yet until this exact moment her attention had remained entirely fixed upon the awakened around her.
She had scarcely spared the surrounding skies a second glance. Now she truly looked, and immediately wished she hadn't.
The heavens were alive.
Nevermores circled overhead and lancers darted through the air like living missiles. Winged Grimm of every imaginable shape soared between the descending awakened, converging toward isolated targets with terrifying speed.
This entire realm...
The moon itself...
Was absolutely infested.
Her thoughts stumbled over one impossible contradiction.
Why were they ignoring the Sleepless?
Her eyes locked onto the masked operative calmly riding the Nevermore as though mounted atop an ordinary steed. The Grimm showed no hostility toward him whatsoever.
It was as though the creature didn't even perceive him as prey.
Mocha couldn't explain it.
She didn't possess nearly enough information to even begin forming a theory. Perhaps Sleepless really did possess some method of controlling Grimm. After all, if they could create artificial Amalgamations and siege the Keeper stronghold with—if she was remembering it right—over 30 Rank 3 grimm…
It wouldn't be out of the question that perhaps they carried something that could conceal their existences from grimm.
Perhaps...
No.
There wasn't time.
Questions could wait and survival could not. Her gaze snapped toward the awakened who had been struck by the Nevermore.
His uncontrolled descent continued hundreds of meters away.
He was still alive but barely.
If she reached him quickly enough...
There was still a chance.
Without another thought, Mocha beat her Pixel wings with every ounce of strength she possessed and hurled herself toward the falling awakened, abandoning every unanswered question in favor of the one thing that mattered most.
Saving him before the blood red moon claimed another life.
.
.
AN: This chapter has been changed. Originally there was supposed to be a special reveal of information, but now it's been completely changed and the reveal will be done at a later chapter. I figured that it was better for pacing and story flow.