A City of Secrets and Masks

-Twenty Three- Flipped Script

The villains had a... rougher two weeks.

The first order of business for them was finding a place to sleep. The first night, they slept in the cell at the top of the Hub. They were given donated sleeping bags and some old clothes.

It was not the best.

The second night, Minx went back to the hideout and got her bag. She just had the essentials (and Tommy's watercolors) in there. Niki and Eret weren't as lucky. They legitimately had only the clothes on their back and their weapons. 

No one wanted to have the villains in their house. The Guardians got together and bought them a hotel room to stay in. It was small and cramped.

Minx commented that she preferred sleeping bags.

Eventually, they got an apartment. There was an open apartment in the building the Sleepy Bois lived at. The Guardians paid for a month's rent. It was a decent place to live- not as good as the mansion, but not bad.

They had training sessions at the Hub, too, but it seemed as if most of the heroes didn't want anything to do with them. It was mostly just Minx, Eret, and Niki sparring with each other. Tubbo, Tommy, and Phil came to join sometimes.

It stung, even though it made sense that the heroes wouldn't want to talk to the people who had made their lives hell for most of a year now. 

The former villains also geared up for the fight. They already had weapons, but they were equipped with some armor. Unlike a good amount of the heroes, Shubble had no reservations about working with the new Hub members. She worked with them to make them all armor that would enhance their abilities. Niki got a microphone so she could send her commands farther, Minx got light armor and a stealth costume, and Eret got a lighter crown and better armor.

Niki tried the hardest to make up with the heroes. She apologized to Wilbur any time they were talking. It was hard to express that she was genuinely guilty now. Getting to know him had changed her perception of the whole scenario by a lot. Most of the time, Wilbur brushed her off or ignored her. It was clear he didn't want an apology. He wanted things fixed. 

Minx understood that better. She got along with Tommy, Tubbo, and Wilbur the best. None of them ever mentioned what had happened. They acted like old friends. It was almost better for them that way. If they all tried hard enough, they could pretend nothing had ever happened, that it was all ok.

They could never pretend hard enough.

Eret stayed indifferent. He knew he had done some bad things and didn't see the use in trying to make up for it all now. He just cooperated as best as he could. Dream did talk with him sometimes. One time, he walked into the office where Eret had been writing down any piece of relevant information that came to his mind.

"Hi, Eret." Dream leaned on the doorway, the visible parts of his face remaining a calculated neutral.

"I think I've started to prefer that over King. I'm not really the king of anything now, it seems." Eret said, looking up with a small smile.

"Yet you still wear the crown." Dream let his neutrality slip away a bit and he laughed. "How goes the work?"

"Well enough. It's not difficult, just tedious." Eret set their pen down. "What else did you come here for?"

Dream laughed. "All of this time and you can still read me like a damn book. I just wanted to ask..." He walked closer, leaning towards Eret. "Why?"

"...What?"

"Why did you do all of this? Other than the obvious reasons you've given. Why did you take it this far? Why didn't you contact me?"

"I..." Eret cleared their throat, "I did start this for those noble reasons. To help with people's powers, especially to help kids who are like you. And I guess I just got... Too focused on what i thought would be best."

Dream let out a breath. "Still, why didn't you contact me? You've had my number this whole time, you could have sent a message or something. You could have got my opinion, my help!"

"I... I don't know why. I didn't think of it. I..." Eret looked down at his hands, "I forgot to think of you in the present."

This time, it was Dream's turn to ask- "...What?"

"I always used to think of you as a fixed figure in my past. Someone who had made an impact, gone, and was never coming back. I forgot that reaching out was something I could do, that you were still out there, living a life outside of my memories." Eret paused and looked back up. "If that makes sense?"

Dream just let out a hum of acknowledgement and left. The pair talked less after that. 

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The trio of former villians were forced into involvement near the end of the prep weeks. They shared all they could with Shubble and the other scientists in a last-ditch attempt to give the heroes some sort of advantage. Minx finished up the account and a weight settled over the room. Everyone in it seemed to realize that they didn't have long until things were do or die.

"We're barely prepared for this..." Aph muttered. "We don't even have a decent antidote for Mute yet..."

There was a moment of silence before Niki stood up, knocking over her chair. "This just means we need to work as hard as possible for this last bit of time."

She walked out of the room first, but the others followed behind her soon enough. Niki marched directly to the training room. Minx and Eret followed behind her. The science team hurried back down to the labs.

Niki threw open the training room's doors. Sapnap and Techno were there, taking a break from sparring. Techno just watched them, but Sapnap scoffed. "Why are you in here?" he said, his tone already sounding like an accusation.

"We are going to train." Niki announced. 

"For what, betraying us and returning to the Assembly's side?" Sapnap scoffed.

Niki laughed, almost maniacally before pausing. She smiled a sweet smile at Sapnap, one laced with as much venom as her voice "No, why in the world would we go back to the idiots who took our passion project and made it a supervillain weapon? We want to help you, get it through your skull. I know I've done bad things- I regret it and I have tried to apologize to you and everyone who I have hurt many, many times. Now there's no more time for apologies. It's down to the wire and I, for one, am going to work as hard as I can to ensure a victory for our side." 

There was a pause.

"She got you there," Techno said, his usual deadpan holding a hint of laughter.

"...Join our sparring. That way you don't get used to each other's fighting style. That's one of the main training policies for Hub members," Sapnap said, meeting Niki's eyes and holding eye contact. 

She nodded and gestured the others in.

"I've taught you well." Minx joked. Niki laughed, and tensions were broken. The group sparred until sundown.

And just like that, they had about a week left until the battle.

If the first skirmish between the Guardians and the Assembly was a storm, then this was going to be a hurricane.

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A/N

Hi folks! it's been,,, uh,,, a bit,,,

I finally decided to finish this-

an update, by the way: i go by quill and use he/they pronouns now!

but yeah! i hope you enjoyed this, and i hope the,,, hiatus,,, wasn't too bad for yall!!!

see you next chapter!