Something had shifted.
Not just in the city, but between them.
The AMP Squad was quiet that morning. No jokes, no playful bickering, no Ace trying to fly and crashing into trees. Just silence. Tense, sticky, watchful silence.
Even the jungle seemed to pick up on it—the trees leaned in, the air tighter somehow.
It started with the little things.
Zora snapped at Blair for tapping her pen too loudly. Asher rolled his eyes when Sylvia asked a basic question about the journal. Ace laughed at something no one else found funny. Enzo? He just stared at the map, lips pressed in a thin, frustrated line.
Then it escalated.
"Maybe if you actually focused instead of showing off, we'd get somewhere," Athena hissed at Ace when he nearly triggered a trap in the tunnel.
"Maybe if you stopped bossing everyone around like some bootleg Hermione, we wouldn't all be suffocating," Ace fired back.
"Can we not do this now?" Enzo snapped, louder than he meant. "I'm trying to decode something that might save us."
"Right, because you always know best," Blair muttered. "It must be exhausting being the only genius here."
Enzo turned slowly. "Say that again."
"Guys!" Zora shouted, hands glowing faintly. "Stop! You're not hearing yourselves!"
But the energy in the air buzzed—sharp, chaotic, charged.
That's when it hit them: their powers were reacting to their emotions.
Ace's sparks flickered dangerously near the walls. Athena's control field pulsed. Blair's illusions flickered—shadows stretching longer than they should. Enzo's surroundings vibrated subtly. Even the plants near Zora twitched nervously.
"I think... Keitha wants us to fight," Sylvia said, voice shaking. "It's feeding off this."
"We're being tested," Enzo muttered. "Again."
But the thing was—this test wasn't about puzzles or survival.
This one was about trust.
Later that night, they split up—half on the balcony, half near the fire, pretending to journal, pretending to sleep, pretending not to be mad.
Zora sat alone on the steps, hugging her knees.
"This place..." she whispered, "...it's digging into us. Finding our worst thoughts and amplifying them."
Sylvia sat beside her. "Yeah. I nearly screamed at Athena earlier just for breathing weird."
Zora cracked a smile. "She does breathe like she's calculating Pi in her head."
They both laughed—tired, real.
Inside, Blair apologized first. Softly. Stiffly. But it was enough.
Ace grinned, nudged Enzo. "Still mad?"
"No," Enzo sighed. "Just... scared."
Everyone went quiet.
There it was. The real truth under all the yelling.
They were scared.
Not of the jungle. Not even of Keitha.
But of losing each other.
Morning came with fog. Heavy, white, swallowing the house whole.
And a single glowing message carved into the table:
"You passed."
Underneath it, a single phrase burned into the wood:
UNITY IS YOUR SHIELD. DIVISION IS YOUR DOOM.
No one said anything for a while.
Then Athena spoke up, voice calm and clear. "No more secrets. If we're going to survive this place, we have to stay together. No matter what Keitha throws at us."
Enzo nodded. "Agreed."
And just like that, the cracks began to seal.
The rift? Not gone.
But healing.