Blaze didn't remember walking back to the dorms. His mind drifted through the world like smoke, slipping past people without hearing a thing they said. Every step felt heavy, like the ground itself was resisting him. The campus lights stretched into thin blurs, and noise faded into a dull ringing behind his eyes.
Aurion wanted him.
Jason was fighting for him.
And the Titans… the Titans kept looking at him the way people looked at a disappearing landmark. Like they wanted to memorize him before he vanished.
By the time he reached the training hall, he expected it to be empty. Instead, every single person he didn't want to face was already there.
Lionel. Grim. Anastasia. Scarlet. Aya. Kenji. Diego. Mikhail. Ryuji. Zara.
All of them stopped talking the moment he stepped through the door.
And that silence hit harder than any blow he'd taken in combat.
