Jason himself often dreamt,mostly of that thirteenth birthday and of watching his little sister die and his father shatter faster than he could even help with if he'd been able to. Lavender had already been gone,and he'd only barely been able to keep Flasher from shattering. It always ran through his head most everytime he closed his eyes.But this time as he closed his eyes it was different,not losing his family but rather...losing the two fey,and knowing that...there was nothing after for them.It hurt and he soon refused to let these possibilities of deaths wash over his mind and so kept his eyes opened and forcefully focused on the ground or a tree.Anything to keep himself from seeing that time Puck had been shot,or when Ash had been iron sick.

Ash stood at the center of Tir Na Nog, the seat of the Unseelie Queen, his old home. These were his lands, once. He recognized distinct landmarks, as familiar to him as my own face, and yet all was not well.

The jagged mountains, rising up until they vanished into the clouds, were the same. The snow and ice that covered every square inch of the land and never really melted, that was the same.

Everything else was destroyed. The great sweeping forests of Tir Na Nog were gone, now barren, wasted fields. A few trees stood here and there, but they were corrupt, twisted versions of themselves, metallic and gleaming. Barbed-wire fences slashed the landscape, and hulks of rusted metal vehicles lay half-buried in the snow. Where an icy city once stood, its pristine crystal towers glittering in the sun, now black smokestacks pumped billowing darkness into the overcast sky. Sky-scrapers of twisted metal towered over everything; glittering, skeletal silhouettes that vanished into the clouds.

Faeries roamed across the darkened landscape, swarms of them, but they were not his Unseelie brethren. They were of the poisoned realm, the Iron fey; gremlins and bugs, wiremen and Iron knights, the faeries of mankind's technology. He gazed around at his homeland and shuddered. No normal fey could live here. They would all die, the very air we breathed burning us from the inside out, from the Iron corruption that hung thick on the air like a fog. He could feel it searing his throat, spreading like fire to his lungs. Coughing, he put my sleeve to his nose and mouth and staggered away, but where could he go if all of Tir Na Nog was like this?

"Do you see?" whispered a voice behind him, and Ash whirled around. No one stood there, but from the corner of his eye he caught a shimmer, a presence, though it slid away whenever he tried to focus on it. "Look around you. This is what would have happened had you not killed Machina. Everything, everyone you knew, destroyed. The Iron fey would have corrupted the entire Nevernever were it not for you and Jason."

Jason watched nothing with slitted pupils and hazel eyes of deep,glinting intelligence it seemed in those deep depths. He felt something was a little off,glancing around a bit but he didn't see anything about the outside world as odd. He wondered if something was just bothering him as usual or he was actually feeling something.

"Who are you?" He searched for the owner of the voice, but the presence slipped away, keeping to the very edge of his vision. "Why are you showing me this?" This was nothing new. He was fully aware of what would've happened had the Iron fey been victorious. Though, even in his worst imaginings, he had not pictured quite this much destruction.

"Because, you need to see, really see, the second outcome for yourself."

He felt the presence move closer, though it still kept infuriatingly out of sight.

"And your judgment was impaired, Ash of the Winter Court. You loved the boy. You would have done anything for him, regardless of the circumstances." It slid away, behind him, though he'd given up trying to search for it. "I want you to look around carefully, son of Mab, and understand the significance of your decision."

The burning inside was growing unbearable. Each breath stabbed like a knife, and his skin was starting to blister as well. It reminded him of the time he'd been captured by Virus, one of the Iron King's lieutenants, and had a sentient metal bug implanted in him. The bug had taken over his body, turning Ash into Virus's slave, making him fight for her. And though he'd been fully aware of everything he did, he was powerless to stop it. He had felt the metal invader, like a hot coal in his mind, burning and searing, making him nearly blind with pain, though he couldn't show it.

This was worse.

He sank to his knees, fighting to stay upright, as his skin blackened and peeled from his bones. The pain was excruciating, and he wondered, through his delirium, why he hadn't woken yet. This was a dream; he realized that much. Why couldn't he shake himself free?

He knew with a sudden, grim clarity. Because the voice wasn't letting him. It was keeping him here, tied to this nightmare world, despite his efforts to wake. He wondered if it was possible to die in a dream.

"I'm sorry," the voice murmured, seeming to come from far away now. "I know it's painful, but I want you to remember this when we meet again. I want you to understand the sacrifice that had to be made. I know you don't understand now, but you will. Soon."

And, just like that, it was gone, and the ties holding me to the vision were released. With a silent gasp, he wrenched himself out of the dream, back into the waking world.

Jason watched Ash,hazel eyes worried despite his calm expression. His slitted pupils payed close attention to his way of waking,worried as to why he'd gasped despite silent. He'd not seen Ash wake before as far as he knew for sure but didn't think that's how he woke every time. His narrowed eyes watched closely,not in a harsh way or judgmental.More in a caring way that wanted to know what was wrong.

It was very dark now, though the skeletal trees glowed with a soft white luminance that left them hazy and ethereal. Several yards away, Puck still sat in the branches, hands behind his head, chewing the ends of a grass stalk. One foot swung idly in the air and he wasn't looking at Ash; he had learned long ago how to mask his pain and remain silent, even in sleep. You don't show weakness in the Unseelie Court. Puck didn't know Ash was awake, but Grimalkin crouched in the branches of a nearby tree, and his glowing yellow eyes were fixed in his direction.

"Bad dreams?" The tone of his voice wasn't exactly a question. Ash shrugged. "A nightmare. Nothing I can't handle."

"I would not be so sure of that, were I you."

Ash glanced up sharply, narrowing his eyes. "You know something," Ash accused, and Grimalkin yawned. "What aren't you telling me?"

"More than you want to know, prince." Grimalkin sat up, curling his tail around himself. "And I am not a fool. You know better than to ask such questions." The cat sniffed, regarding Ash with that unblinking gold gaze. "I told you before, this is no simple task. You will have to discover the answers for yourself."

Jason watched the conversation,dragon sight helping him in the dark. But he only watched for a little bit until he felt sleep trying to pull at his head,but he didn't want to sleep because after seeing his fallen family he knew what waited for him in his mind. His tail tightened on the branch he hung by,holding firmly to where you'd think he was trying to snap the branch. And he could,if he wanted,but he didn't.

Ignoring the cat, Ash turned away, staring into the trees. A stray sod emerged from the darkness, a tiny green faery with a clump of weeds growing from its back. It blinked at Jason and then at Ash, bobbed its mushroom hat, and quickly slipped back into the undergrowth.

"This seer," Ash asked Grimalkin, carefully marking the place the sod had vanished so as to not tread on it when we left. "Where is it located?"

But Grimalkin had disappeared.

Time has no meaning in the wyldwood. Day and night don't really exist here, just light and darkness, and they can be just as fickle and moody as everything else. A "night" can pass in the space of a blink, or go on forever. Light and darkness will chase each other through the sky, play hide-and-seek or tag or catch-me-if-you-can. Sometimes, one or the other will become offended over an imagined slight and refuse to come out for an indefinite amount of time. Once, light became so angry, a hundred years passed in the mortal realm before it deigned to come out again. And though the sun continued to rise and set in the human world, it was a rather turbulent period for the world of men, as all the creatures who lurked in darkness and shadow got to roam freely under the lightless Nevernever skies.

Jason let his wings unfurl as quietly as he could and curled within then upside down. He hadn't noticed the oddness of the lighting of this realm before,but he didn't let it bother him and pull down his own guard of awareness.

(Tiny timeskip?)