Rain streaked the academy's dome in thin silver sheets, the metal dust in the air lighting every flash of thunder into stuttering neon. Students and staff were herded inside the inner halls as Bureau ships cut through the clouds—black, angular things that didn't fly so much as occupy space.
Sera stood in her classroom with her coat folded neatly over one arm. Her five students waited in silence.
"They're here for you," Kael said.
"They always come," she answered. "They just forget they trained me first."
Her implant fed her a data stream she hadn't asked for: satellite feeds, heart rates, the Bureau squad's encrypted chatter. She didn't remember accessing any of it. Her power was reaching again.
The lead ship docked at the roof platform. A dozen operatives poured out, helmets flashing Bureau insignia. Behind them came Director Elan Voss, the man who had once given Sera her badge and her kill orders.
"Vance!" his voice carried through the speaker array. "By Federal directive, you are ordered to surrender for debrief and containment. You've tripped a Contact Zero alert."
She opened the window shutters with a thought. "Containment?" she called back. "That's what we're calling it now?"
"Don't make this hard," he said.
"I'm a teacher, Elan. Everything I do is hard."
The five students stood behind her, unmoving. They didn't breathe fear; they breathed inevitability.
Ryn's crystalline skin dimmed to a dull violet. "If they take you, they'll take us next."
"I won't let them."
Tava smirked from her perch on the desk. "Good. I've never liked cages."
When the Bureau breached the door, everything happened in strobe flashes.
Noise, smoke, shouting.
Sera's body moved before her thoughts caught up.
Her power bent time around her pulse. Bullets slowed. Air thickened. She could see every path each round might take. She simply chose the one where they missed.
Her growth algorithm flared:
Neural load 58.2%. Adaptation vector expanding.
She stepped through the smoke and touched the first soldier's visor.
For a heartbeat, she saw his whole mind—his childhood, his orders, his quiet fear—and then it folded in on itself. He collapsed like his code had been deleted.
Two more charged. Ryn flicked a wrist, and hard light split them apart without a sound. Tava landed on another, tail cutting the rifle in half. Morthen's spores filled the room, dragging two agents into hallucination before they could scream.
Iri stayed still, water sphere trembling. The temperature dropped ten degrees as her eyes opened. A Bureau drone froze midair and fell like a stone.
In less than a minute, it was over.
Voss stood at the doorway, weapon drawn but unmoving.
"Vance… what have you done?"
She looked at her hands—no blood, just the faint burn of light under her skin.
"I stopped hiding."
He took a cautious step forward. "You can't control it. None of us could."
"That's why I left the Bureau," she said softly. "I didn't want control. I wanted meaning."
Behind her, Kael spoke quietly. "They won't stop coming."
"I know."
"Then what's next?"
Sera met Voss's eyes. For a moment, she almost saw pity there. Then she turned to her students.
"Next," she said, "we stop waiting for the galaxy to devour us. We take its teeth."
The floor shook. Far below, the planet's crust screamed. The Ruinborn swarm had entered orbit, drawn by the surge of her power.
Voss looked up at the trembling ceiling. "You brought them here."
"No," Sera whispered. "We woke them up."
Outside the academy dome, the Bureau fleet pivoted toward the rising distortion above the city. The clouds peeled back, revealing the first Ruinborn—a creature of black geometry and molten veins, its body twisting through dimensions like a mirage.
Sera's students stood beside her, eyes reflecting the impossible.
"This is your lesson for today," she said. "Adaptation is survival."
Kael smiled faintly. "And survival changes everything."