Dancing on Strings

Unmasking

"I swear to dreams that keep you alive, I will wipe you from this damn universe if you do not control yourself!"

Reve was screaming.

Screaming.

Mai recoiled at the voice that was so unlike the soft spoken man she was used to hearing.

Griffin's laugh was biting and mocking and infuriating and it was clear that it was, in fact, The Black Rabbit at the forefront.

"Go on!" he shouted back, "I dare you! I would love to get out of here! You can't get rid of me without losing Griffin! You're not the god you once were! You're a fallen shadow of a long-dead deity with powers as weak as shadow in sunlight! You're not your mother! You're not your father! You're a fallen! Living locked in his own demented paradise, deluding himself into happiness!"

"I don't need Griffin as much as you want to believe I do," Reve growled and The Black Rabbit just howled with laughter, spinning away, throwing his arms out wide into a gesture that welcomed an attack.

"You? Without Griffin and Angelique, you have nothing! What? A room of dolls? Is that going to make you happy when we're all dead and gone and you're left here, never venturing to the halls below? Griffin keeps you barely sane! Angelique gives you someone to argue with! What can you do without them?"

"I can find others, you're not irreplaceable."

The Black Rabbit laughed again.

"Oh enlighten me, Prince of Dreams!"

"There is a reason I befriended the princess," Reve said and Black Rabbit's laugh snapped off and he rounded on Reve.

"Don't you dare," he growled, "Griffin cares too much about her for me to let you take her from him."

It was Reve's turn to laugh as he shook his head. "I don't think you get any say in what I do and I don't think Griffin holds any claim to her."

The Black Rabbit started growling and Reve suddenly smiled.

"I think her highness should know exactly what's in love with her before said creature starts making claims to her," he said.

The Black Rabbit froze, then looked around and spotting them at the door just as Angelique opened the doors, sweeping in.

"Reve, stop!" she snapped, glaring at him.

"What?" Reve laughed, "Don't you agree? He's not human. Mai deserves to know."

"This is between them," Angelique growled, grabbing his arm.

"I don't think this involves you, Lady Nightmare," Reve said, wrenching his arm away. Angelique's mouth opened and he snapped his fingers.

The next second, Angelique was snapped to a chair, flattened to it like she was tied down, eyes startled.

"Reve!" she snarled.

"Stop talking," Reve said calmly, holding up a finger that silenced her – though it didn't seem to be by her own will.

He turned on The Black Rabbit and Black looked ready to either lunge at him or run, legs poised to spring, hands spread to grapple.

Reve laughed. "Your never-ending attempts to fight me with never fail to amuse me," he said.

"Wait," Mai started right before Reve vanished.

Before their eyes, he was gone, like he had been blinked out.

And then he reappeared in front of the Black Rabbit, within the protective space of his arms, too close to fend off and he hit him.