The following morning, Andy woke up before Kaila.
She was still curled under the blanket, breathing slow, soft. Her hand was near her chest, where Skate pulsed faintly beneath her skin like a second heartbeat.
He didn't wake her.
Instead, he quietly got dressed, laced his boots, and stepped out into the hallway, eyes hollow and restless.
Scene: The Hidden Fragment
Andy moved fast through the base. Past storage. Past the east wing. Down the old service hall no one used anymore. The place where the lights always flickered, where the floor tiles were permanently stained with ash.
He unlocked the utility closet and slipped inside.
Pulled out the lockbox.
Inside it, the sliver of Draton's core still lived. Breathing. Pulsing red. Like a vein cut out of time.
Andy sat in front of it.
Staring.
"Why do I feel more alive around you?" he whispered.
The sliver twitched.
"Do you feel her too?"
He reached out. Didn't touch it. Just hovered his fingers above.
The air shimmered slightly.
Then he spoke again. Slower.
"She won't choose me over that thing inside her. But maybe... if I had a piece of it."
He touched it.
Pain ripped through his hand like lightning.
He fell back screaming, clutching his palm. Skin seared. Fingers twitching.
Then it stopped.
And when he opened his hand, the pain was gone. The wound was gone.
But a faint red glow pulsed under his skin.
And his eyes looked... colder.
Scene: Kaila Notices
Back in the main hall, Kaila sat with Harper and Alaric.
Alaric showed her the latest scans of her vitals.
"You're adapting faster than expected," he said. "Skate's bond is strengthening."
Kaila raised an eyebrow. "That good or bad?"
"Unknown," Alaric muttered. "You're stable. But I'm seeing signals I can't explain."
Harper leaned forward. "Like what?"
Alaric didn't look away from the screen.
"Psychic feedback loops. Reality distortion around your body while dreaming. Time echoes."
Harper stared. "Time echoes?"
"You've been in multiple rooms at once, Kaila," he said. "Your shadow has shown up before you've entered. You're slipping."
Kaila swallowed hard.
"I feel fine."
"You won't be for long."
Scene: The First Rot
A scream echoed from the greenhouse wing.
Andy was already there.
A resistance soldier was on the ground, convulsing. His eyes were black. His veins glowed faintly red. He was frothing at the mouth, muttering in gibberish.
Andy knelt next to him, calm. Almost too calm.
"Hey," he whispered. "Can you hear me?"
The soldier looked at him.
Then stopped moving entirely.
Kaila arrived seconds later, out of breath.
"What the hell happened?"
Andy stood up, brushing dust off his hands.
"Don't know. Said he was having headaches. Heard voices. Then dropped."
Kaila looked down at the body.
She could still feel a faint thrum of something unnatural.
Skate hissed inside her skull.
"This is not my doing."
She looked at Andy.
Something was off.
He was calm. Unshaken. Like death was expected.
Scene: Quiet Doubt
That night, Kaila sat on the rooftop again, alone this time.
She thought about the past few days.
The fight. The kiss. The night together. And now this... weird distance growing like a hairline crack in a mirror.
Something in Andy had shifted.
He smiled the same. Held her hand the same. But something behind his eyes felt... watched. Hollow.
"You are beginning to see," Skate whispered.
"See what?"
"He is becoming."
"Becoming what?"
"Less."
Scene: The Nightmare Begins
Andy dreamed again.
He stood in a black corridor. Blood dripped from the ceiling in thin, endless threads.
Ahead of him stood a mirror.
In the reflection, he saw himself.
But not quite.
His eyes glowed red.
His body pulsed like it was stitched together from parts.
And in the reflection, Kaila stood behind him, smiling.
Then her skin cracked like porcelain.
And she whispered, "Now you can love me the right way."
Andy woke up in a cold sweat.
The glow under his skin didn't stop pulsing.