Days after the incident in the bathroom, Kaia cowers on the side of the training field. Wearing a long sleeve and baggy sweatpants to hide the wounds covering her skin. Her expression was a mess, her eyes red from crying all night long, with big dark rings under them. She watches Teon, talking to Dane about an experiment with their abilities.

  "Only that I get that right. You want to try to copy my ability, being me summoning Fenrir and letting him attack in the middle of being summoned?"

  Teon nods eagerly. Dane looks at him with skepticism but gives in after hearing Teon's explanation. He thinks, because the only way for him to copy an ability is through getting hit by it, that when the wolf is just in the process of appearing and attacks him, it would count as getting hit by the ability and not getting attacked by the wolf. This belief grew in Teon's mind because he got hit by Fenrir before, but his ability never activated.

  As the two get ready to try it, the door to the field opens and Max steps through; seeing the three, she waves and asks if any of them know where Kai is.

  "He borrowed my knife, and I can't find him anymore."

  Teon tells her that Kai left earlier this morning to go back to Lucius's island and train with Rumi in private again.

  "This piece of shit!"

  Max blurs out before turning on the spot. While leaving, she curses Kai some more, triggering smirks on both Teon's and Dane's faces. After the doors closed again, the two got ready to try. Teon goes into a defensive stance and waits for Dane. He takes a deep breath before releasing his Soul-Energy. The pressure coming from him, hitting the two near him, causes Teon to get a nosebleed. The feeling of his warm blood running down onto his lip and the taste of it is slightly off-putting for Teon, but he pushes it aside, remaining ready.

  Kaia, still cowering on the side, is strangely unaffected by the pressure. Dane forms the head of a wolf with his hands.

  "Hereby I call for the great Wolf, the Allfather's bane; may he grant you a quick and painless death!"

  After Dane finishes his chant, Fenrir slowly materializes while seemingly coming out of the ground. His massive jaw is gaping open, his sharp, clean teeth shining in the sunlight, strips of saliva connecting the lower and the upper rows. He aims for Teon directly, and before he is fully manifested, he is already biting down on Teon's torso. Not particularly hard, but hard enough that his canines pierce the boy's skin and bore into his muscles. Teon screams out in pain, and Fenrir responds by instantly letting go of him before lazily walking towards Kaia on the side, laying his head down right next to her. Teon falls to one knee; the wounds bleed slightly, but he ignores it the same way he ignored his nosebleed. After a moment he slowly stands back up straight. After taking a deep breath, he, just like Dane before, releases his soul energy and forms the head of a dog with his hands. A chant follows, like it's been in his mind forever.

  "I hereby call for the three-headed beast, guardian of Hades; may he grant you a slow and painful death."

  Behind Teon manifests a gigantic, black, three-headed dog, the same way as Fenrir did, seemingly shooting out of the ground. As it stands fully manifested behind Teon, it becomes clear that the dog is Cerberus. He is the same height as Fenrir but much more bulky. Beside his dark, messy fur, his most striking feature, the three heads, reminds one of the Mastiff and Molossus dog breeds. Long steaming strings of thick saliva hang from his lips and occasionally drop on the ground, leaving small smelly puddles.

  "Now that's a massive dog, if I've ever seen one."

  Dane comments before walking up to Cerberus, letting one head sniff on his hand. Teon jumps up excited.

  "Yes, it worked! But I have only one summon incantation in my head, so if I wanted to have more, we would need to do that again."

  "Yeah, not happening. You wouldn't survive."

  Teon looks disappointed but accepts Dane's words. His smile returns as he looks to Cerberus. His flat hand reaches out to scratch the chin of one of the massive heads. Kaias eyes shimmer slightly, and she walks to Teon and the dog.

  "Can I?"

  She murmurs, and before Teon answers, she lays her hand cautiously against Cerberus's snout. All three heads look at her, three pairs of red pupilless eyes directed at her, and for a moment it seems like they recognize something in her. But then the look back at Teon and pant. He and Kaia start to try some commands on the dog, and to Dane's surprise, it follows all of them obediently. It took him an eternity until Fenrir followed even one. Maybe it is because Cerberus is a dog and not a wolf, he thinks to himself.

  "Teon?"

  "Yeah?"

  Kaia hesitates before speaking again.

  "I... a few days ago..."

  Teon looks at her, a calm in his gaze that she wishes she could experience again, peace that she hasn't felt in so long and yearns for more than anything else. He patiently waits for her to continue speaking, but then, as she doesn't speak up for over a minute, he takes the lead.

  "Is it about the time you looked at yourself in the bathroom?"

  "N...no. Just forget it. Please."

  He tries to speak up again, but she turns away and walks away. His gaze follows her slow and tired movements with concern. Dane steps beside him, his eyes also following the girl.

  "What was that?"

  "I don't know, but I'm worried. She locked herself in our group bathroom a few days ago and didn't come out for a long while. And then there was this stench of metal coming from it."

  "If you believe it's serious, you should go to Lucius."

  "Yeah, maybe."

  The same day, it's already dark outside, and the group all sleep in their beds. Everyone except for Kaia. For her it's another sleepless night where she is plagued by this voice in her head. She just cleaned the bathroom after another incident and crawls back under her blanket, trying to find comfort in the warm fabric.

  "Why not let it happen?"

  "Never."

  "Why not? Why not?"

  "Get out of my head!"

  "Impossible."

  "Why?!"

  No answer; the voice finally shut up. Kaia sighs out a small sliver of relief. Just as she closes her eyes and tries to get some sleep, a hand is placed on her blanket. The unsuspected touch makes her shoot up, and in the dark she sees the features of her best friend, looking at her concerned. Whispering Max asks her if everything is alright. Kaia fakes a smile and reassures her. But Max doesn't let her be brushed off so easily.

  "Are you sure? Teon told me that you were acting strange today. You always look so tired with big under-eye bags."

  Kaias smile fades for a second before she forces it back and reassures Max again that she is fine and nothing is bothering her. Max sighs and looks down at Kaias's slightly trembling hand. Her hand extends and rests on Kaias in a feeble attempt to calm her down. She is shocked at how cold and thin Kaias hand feels in her own.

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  "If you say so. Please remember, should something, anything, ever bother you, I'm... we're always here for you. No matter what."

  Giving Kaia no chance to respond, Max gives her a tight hug, again being shocked about how cold her body feels. After letting go, she smiles one last time and goes back to her bed. Kaia waits till she hears the covers being pulled up before lying down herself. She turns away from everyone, and tears start to run down her face, soaking her pillow. Then suddenly the voice returns.

  "Kill her. Kill every single one of them. NOW!"

  More tears run down Kaias face, and she buries her face in the pillow.

  The next morning Max wakes up first. She smirks, enjoying the opportunity to torment her friends by waking them up. The first person she chooses is Lloyd. She sneaks over to his bed before kicking him out. He grunts as his body slams on the hard stone floor and curses her. Max starts laughing so loud that the rest wake up because of it.

  Lucius stands in the dark control room, already awake for some hours. With him there are Nova and Rumi. They discuss who to send to take care of Cynder.

  "Why not send Ragnar?"

  "You know him. Your brother has no interest in her; if he did, he would've taken care of her already."

  As Lucius suggests to Rumi that she or Dane should go, her eyes light up in excitement, and she accepts without hesitation, exclaiming that it's been far too long since she was on her last real mission. With a wide grin, she leaves the room, getting ready to search for the nightmare. After Nova left the room, Lucius stood inside alone, thinking to himself. He turns one of the many PCs on and activates the cameras of the training field. A small smile appears on his face as he sees the small group all training together, and he decides to go watch in person. Moments later the door to it opens and he steps through; the fresh air of the field fills his nose, and he sighs out, almost relaxed. Leans against a wall and watches for a while as the 5 spar in two teams: Kaia and Teon against Max, Percy, and Lloyd.

  Lloyd asks Kaia why she is wearing long clothes when they have 25°C, but his words fall on deaf ears. Then Max speaks up, telling Kaia that she is sweating so much more than any one of them, that this could be dangerous, and that she should at least change into a short-sleeve shirt.

  "I'm fine."

  Kaia says in a tone that's a bit harsher than she had intended. Her friends give up and accept her decision. Continuing their sparring session, Lucius notices how much faster and stronger Kaia has gotten in recent times, as she starts to outdo so much that Teon just steps aside and lets her fight the others alone.

  "It's really impressive; none of them has such a growth curve in such a short amount of time. But something is off with her soul. I just can't figure out what."

  Kaia becomes faster and faster, and her fighting style starts to lack defense, with only aggressive offense. To Teon, all of this starts to feel off. This is not the same Kaia that was called the weakest of their team only a few weeks ago. No one who would see this would even think about calling her the one with the least potential.

  Suddenly Kaias's hands shoot up to clutch her head tightly, and she stumbles over the field screaming in pain.

  "Kill, burn them. All of them!"

  The voice echoes through her head. The concerned looks of all her friends and Lucius lay on her trembling and screaming form. Lucius pushes himself off the wall and walks up to her. As he stands behind Kaia, he places his hand on her shoulder.

  "DON'T TOUCH ME!"

  She yells. Her left hand, clutched so tight that her knuckles lose all color, swings behind. Lucius's eyes widen as the back of her fist smashes against his cheek before he manages to raise his free hand far enough to catch it. The sound of skin against skin echoes loud, and for a moment no one moves. The silence is dreadful. Kaias expression turns into one of shock, and after apologizing, she hurries off the field.

  "She could catch me off guard?"

  Lucius can't believe what just happened, and even more shocking to him was the fact that the hit left a bruise on his cheek. Some time later he is back in the control room, his hand placed on the bruise. Behind him the doors open and Ragnar and Dane walk in, just on time.

  "You know, Lucius, I start to believe that you live in her."

  Ragnar says and chuckles at his own joke. But the moment Lucius turns around and the two see the bruise, it stops. Dane asks what happened, and Lucius explains everything.

  "Kaia? The shy girl without innate ability? You're joking, right?"

  Dane responds, not believing a single word that just left Lucius's mouth.

  "No, he is not."

  Ragnar exclaims, all serious now. He continues with asking if their meeting has something to do with the weird presence of Kaias soul. Lucius confirms Ragnar's suspicion and asks of the two that they have an extra eye on her. Both nod, and Lucius excuses them. After that, he walks through the long hallways of the base. He stops in front of the group's door. He knocks and enters.

  "Kaia, can we talk... Where is Kaia?"

  Percy and Max explain to him that they wanted to give her some space and didn't look for her after she ran off. Lucius's already concerned look gets worse as Teon adds that she is suppressing her Soul-Pressure and that they can't even locate her.

  "Find her!"

  The tone in his voice lets all of them shoot up and, without asking further questions, storm off. Everyone searches in a different part of the huge base, all while communicating over the devices they normally use on missions. Kaia is nowhere to be found. Just as they are about to give up the search, Kaia's Soul-Pressure bursts out abnormally intensely, located far away from the base.

  "I'm on it, guys!"

  Teon yells into his device before leaving the base. He follows the pressure to the peak of a snowy mountain high above the clouds. The air is too thin to breathe for any ordinary human. At the highest point sits Kaia, legs tightly pulled against her heaving chest, arms wrapped around them, and face buried between knees and chest. The snow in front of her is drenched in blood. Not far away lies the knife she has used so often already to cut scales off her body. She is not shivering despite the cold around. On the contrary, steam is coming from her body, and the snow around her seems to be melting. As Teon floats closer and she feels his presence, through all the terror inside her head, she looks up. She is crying, tears running down her cheeks and falling on her knees. Teon winces in shock as he notices the blood drenching her shirt, hair, hands, and throat. As he looks more closely, he is just able to witness how a deep cut in her throat closes fully. He doesn't dare to think about what clearly happened. Not believing that she would really try to do what this scenery implies.

  Kaia opens her mouth, her voice barely audible.

  "Teon..."