Monica Turner - November 2120
"This sucks," I mutter as I kick against the ground, sending the swing lurching backwards with a sharp creak of chains. "Why are we stuck on night duty?"
The cold metal burns against my palms, so I let a few sparks crackle from my fingertips. Heat rushes through the chains almost instantly, tiny flashes dancing over the steel until the freezing sting disappears.
Beside me, Gerald barely reacts. He sits on the other swing with his scarf pulled high around his neck while his eyes move carefully across the forest surrounding Trinity. He always looks too calm out here, like he actually enjoys sitting in silence watching trees move around in the dark.
"That's because you refused to wake up this morning," he replies. "I was forced to change our shift."
I scoff loudly and lean back on the swing. "You say that like it's my fault mornings exist."
Gerald adjusts his scarf again, completely ignoring me.
Ever since we arrived at Trinity, everyone here has been on edge. Maybe they were always like this, or maybe GeneX coming after us has made everybody paranoid. Either way, people constantly patrol the grounds now, checking the forest like enemies are going to crawl out of the trees at any second.
And somehow me and Gerald got dragged straight into their routine.
Patrols, supply runs, guard duty, you name it.
Guard duty being the most painfully boring thing imaginable.
"You know I'm not a morning person" I complain as another cloud of breath escapes into the cold air.
"And that," Gerald says patiently, "is why we are on night watch."
I groan under my breath and kick off the ground again, letting the swing sway higher while my boots skim through the dirt beneath me.
After a while, silence settles between us again.
This place has the wrong kind of quiet. Not peaceful quiet. Not relaxing quiet.
It's the sort that sneaks into your head and forces you to think about things you don't want to think about. The forest feels warm and safe one moment, then unsettling the next, like something is hiding just beyond the trees waiting for you to let your guard down.
I hate it.
Back at the facility there was always noise. Machines humming through the walls, alarms going off, people shouting somewhere down the halls. Here there's nothing except wind moving through branches and the occasional creak of the swings.
Too much room to think.
God knows how Kai managed to stay sane living here this long.
The thought makes my chest tighten before I can stop it.
"Do you think he's doing okay?" I ask, staring up at the stars instead of looking at Gerald.
He doesn't need to ask who I mean.
"I'm sure he's fine."
Fine... Right.
We had both heard Kai finally woke up earlier, only to collapse unconscious again not long afterwards. Since Ethan carried him upstairs, nobody has really seen him.
Not that I care...
"I never saw him sleep once back at the facility," I mutter. "Now I haven't seen him awake once since getting here. He's gotten lazy."
Gerald rolls his eyes, though I catch the small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Once he wakes up properly, I'm totally whipping him back into shape."
"You never beat Kai in a fight once," Gerald points out. "And you think you can train him?"
"After a burnout like that, I could probably beat him half asleep."
The joke leaves my mouth easily enough, but the second the words settle, something uncomfortable twists in my chest.
Burnout.
What Kai went through should have killed him.
The memory flashes through my head before I can stop it. The blood. The way he collapsed. How strangely fragile he looked for somebody who always seemed untouchable.
I tighten my grip on the chains hard enough for sparks to spit from between my fingers.
Gerald notices the shift in my mood immediately, but thankfully he says nothing.
The wind continues drifting around us until movement near the school doors catches my attention.
The door opens carefully, slowly enough that it almost seems like whoever is leaving doesn't want to be noticed. I immediately lean sideways and jab Gerald in the arm. He follows my gaze toward the building.
A figure steps outside and slowly walks down the stairs before stopping near the bottom. For a moment they just stand there looking up at the night sky.
Something about the shape of them feels familiar enough to make my stomach twist before my brain fully catches up.
Then it clicks.
I'm already off the swing before I properly realise I've moved.
"Something wrong?" Gerald asks, but I barely hear him.
My feet carry me quickly across the frozen ground toward the figure. The closer I get, the more obvious it becomes.
Dark clothes, pale face. That same irritatingly calm posture even while looking half dead.
Kai.
What the hell is he doing outside?
The second I get too close, shadows suddenly lash across the ground toward me. I barely have time to react before they wrap tightly around my ankles, stopping me so abruptly I nearly stumble forward.
"What the hell?"
I yank against them immediately, but the shadows only tighten harder around my legs.
Heat flares instinctively beneath my skin as I lift my hands, ready to blast them apart, but Gerald quickly catches my shoulder before I can.
"You'll wake everyone up" he warns quietly.
The explosions beneath my skin simmer restlessly anyway, impatient and twitching.
Gerald steps slightly in front of me before turning his attention toward the figure standing ahead of us.
"004..." he says carefully. "Kai."
Kai stays silent for a moment, his attention still fixed on the sky above us like he forgot we were even there. For the first time in my life, he actually looks exhausted.
Not weak exactly.
Just tired in a way that feels wrong to see on him.
Finally, his eyes shift toward us, and the shadows around my legs loosen before sliding silently back across the ground until they disappear beneath him completely.
"I heard you were at the school" Kai says quietly, his voice low enough that the wind almost steals the words away.
He studies us carefully after speaking, his eyes moving between me and Gerald with a look that immediately puts me on edge. It doesn't feel like he's simply looking at us. It feels like he's assessing us, weighing possibilities in his head, deciding whether or not we're dangerous.
Then his gaze settles properly on us.
"Why did you save me?"
Me and Gerald exchange a quick look. The question catches me so off guard that irritation immediately sparks through my chest.
"A thank you would be appreciated, by the way" I say sarcastically.
Kai's expression barely shifts.
"That depends on your answer."
The air around him changes after that.
It's subtle at first, but I can feel it instantly. The shadows at his feet move strangely across the frozen ground despite the stillness around us, curling and stretching like they're alive. There's tension sitting beneath his calm posture now, something dangerous barely being held back.
Gerald notices it too because he steps slightly in front of me without drawing attention to it.
"Because you are our teammate," Gerald says carefully. "We always had each other's backs."
Kai stays silent for a moment.
The wind drifts through the trees beside him while he stares at us with that unreadable expression that always made him impossible to understand back at the facility.
Then finally he speaks again.
"Is that really the reason?"
My irritation spikes immediately.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask, stepping closer before Gerald can stop me.
Kai's attitude is seriously starting to annoy me now.
After everything we did for him, after dragging him out of that nightmare half dead, he's standing here acting like we're the enemy.
He would literally be dead without us.
"Or was it because my father sent you with us?" Kai asks.
For a second I just stare at him in disbelief. My mind flips between anger and pure disbelief at how stupid that accusation is.
None of us at the facility liked that old bastard. We followed orders because we had no choice. Because people who disobeyed didn't tend to last very long.
Saving Kai probably put both me and Gerald straight onto GeneX's wanted list, but honestly that still sounds better than staying trapped in that place forever.
"Oh, come on," I snap, feeling heat build rapidly beneath my skin. "Do you seriously think we'd do something like that?"
Kai doesn't back down.
"You always followed his orders," he replies coldly. "Why would now be any different?"
The sparks in my hands flare brighter immediately.
Tiny explosions crackle across my fingertips as anger rushes through me faster than I can contain it. Maybe his head is still messed up from the burnout. Maybe nearly dying made him paranoid. Either way, I'm seconds away from knocking some sense into him myself.
But Kai notices the sparks instantly.
The second my power brightens, shadows violently lash upward from the ground.
Before I can even react properly, something tight wraps around my throat and jerks me off the floor hard enough to rip the breath from my lungs.
"Kai, stop!" Gerald shouts.
I aim at the shadows choking my neck while raising my hands to blast them apart, but Kai lifts his own hand slightly and more shadows snap around my wrists, forcing my arms away from them.
The shadows feel freezing cold and impossibly heavy at the same time, tightening harder every time I struggle against them.
"This is my only warning," Kai says as he slowly walks closer.
His face is completely blank now.
The exhaustion he carried earlier has vanished beneath something colder, something sharp enough to make my stomach tighten despite the anger boiling through me. His dark eyes somehow seem even darker in the moonlight.
"If you hurt anyone here," he says calmly, "I will snap your neck and throw you into the ocean."
The worst part is how casually he says it.
There is not anger or emotion behind his words.
Just certainty.
"We're not here to hurt anyone!" Gerald says quickly. "And we're not here because of your father. We just wanted to save you, that's all!"
The shadows around my throat squeeze tighter for a second. Pain shoots through my neck and I choke against it, my powers sparking wildly beneath my skin.
Then suddenly the pressure disappears. The shadows unravel instantly and vanish back into the ground.
I hit the frozen dirt hard, coughing violently as air tears back into my lungs. My throat burns as I rub at it angrily, glaring up at Kai through watering eyes.
"You…" I cough again, struggling to force the words out properly. "...bastard."
"I will trust you for now" Kai says as he walks towards us now. He reaches out his hand for me to take.
If anyone else did that to me and I would have knocked it away and punch their lights out. But with Kai, I can't help up take his hand. Like I have so many times before. He pulls me up with ease before he turns his attention toward both of us.
Kai doesn't react to the insult.
He just stands there looking down at me, his expression unreadable again now that the shadows have disappeared. The moonlight catches against the sharp angles of his face, making him look pale enough to disappear into the snow covered ground around us.
Everything in me wants to hit him... Explode something. Instead I settle for glaring hard enough to hopefully set him on fire through sheer force of irritation alone.
"You seriously need therapy" I rasp.
Gerald exhales quietly beside me, probably relieved I haven't blown up the entire courtyard yet.
Kai's gaze flickers briefly toward the marks forming around my neck before he looks away again.
"You reached for your power first" he says sounding more like his usual self.
"Because you were acting insane!"
"You were escalating."
"Oh, don't start with that psychological nonsense," I snap as I finally get fully to my feet. "You literally tried to kill me."
Kai's expression tightens slightly at that.
"I wasn't going to kill you, it was just a warning."
"That is not comforting."
Silence settles again after that, though this one feels sharper than before.
I notice that his breathing is slightly uneven. His hands twitch occasionally at his sides like his powers are reacting without permission. Even the shadows beneath him move strangely, spreading too far before pulling back again.
Gerald notices it too.
"You probably shouldn't be using your ability right now" he says carefully.
Kai doesn't answer immediately.
"I'm fine."
"That sounded believable for exactly three seconds," I mutter.
Kai ignores me, but I catch the faintest flicker of irritation cross his face.
Honestly, good.
If he's annoyed, then at least he's acting slightly normal again.
"You almost burned yourself out completely," Gerald continues. "You need to rest before you make it worse."
"I said I'm fine." His voice sharpens slightly this time. Not loud, but just enough to make the shadows around his feet ripple outward again.
The movement immediately puts me on edge.
My powers spark instinctively in response.
Kai notices and I notice him noticing.
And suddenly we're both standing there half ready to attack each other again like complete idiots. But this isn't the first time we have been in a stand off like this. Surprisingly it used to happen a lot.
Gerald pinches the bridge of his nose.
"You two are exhausting."
"I wasn't doing anything" I argue instantly.
"You were literally about to explode."
"That means nothing."
Kai actually lets out the faintest breath through his nose at that. Not quite a laugh, but close enough that it catches me off guard. The sound disappears almost immediately though, replaced by that same distant look again.
"You look awful by the way" I blurt out trying to get another dig in there.
Kai glances back at me.
"I've looked worse."
"Yeah, when you were unconscious."
"Well I guess I should thank you that I look better than being dead"
I stare at him and so does Gerald stares at him.
Kai seems completely serious.
"You are unbelievably weird" I decide.
For the first time since coming outside, something almost human softens around Kai's expression. It's faint, barely there, but enough to make him look less like a weapon wearing skin.
Then the moment disappears again.
The wind picks up harder this time, cold air sweeping through the courtyard and rustling the trees around us. Kai pulls his sleeves slightly further over his hands without seeming to realise he's doing it.
A tired habit.
The sort you only notice when you've known someone too long... I hate that I notice it.
His eyes drift toward the school building behind us. Something unreadable moves across Kai's face so quickly I almost miss it entirely.
"I am going to trust you for now" he says quietly, "but I need your help with something"