The projection of Grant's X-ray still glowed above the console, casting jagged shadows across the walls. The twisted ridges along his arms seemed to pulse in everyone's memory.
Brakkon was the first to break. He shoved off the wall with a snarl, eyes burning.
"No! I don't share a damn thing with him. Nothing!"
"Brakkon—" Nullis started, but he cut her off with a glare sharp enough to pin her in place. His boots pounded as he stormed for the door, shoulders heaving.
Aldus didn't flinch. Her arms folded, voice low and steady.
"This isn't coincidence. The structures match. Fate set this in motion long before any of us."
Slha scoffed, sparks snapping from the ruined cable at her side.
"Fate? You really think the universe plays favorites?"
Across the room, Acuent's silence broke. Her tone was razor-edged.
"Regardless, the longer he stays exposed, the faster the world finds him. And when they do, he's a weapon to be claimed. We have to hide him again. Now."
Xylo clicked his tongue, shifting his weight lazily, but his eyes gleamed with unease.
"Hide him? After what he just did? You think he'll sit quietly in a cage? Not even the power dampeners worked on him."
Nullis hugged her arms tighter, half-phased into the wall, whispering more to herself than anyone else.
"Is he related… to Brakkon in someway?"
No one noticed Grant's faint stirrings on the cot, the sparks twitching across his arms.
****
The Ampers' voices echoed faintly down the hall—fragments of argument bouncing off steel walls. But here, in the smaller recovery chamber, the noise softened to a dull hum.
Grant leaned back against the cot, exhaustion heavy in his bones. The sparks across his arms had dulled to faint, random flickers. His half-finished meal sat ignored on the table beside him.
The door opened gently. Anna slipped in, balancing a small tray. She moved without fuss, like she had done when he was in a coma.
"You'll burn out if you don't eat," she said, setting the tray on his lap. "I'm not letting you starve on my watch."
Grant's gaze drifted to her, tired but sharp in its own way. "When I was under, in the void" he said quietly, "The shadow allowed me to watch some things, things that were happening around me. I saw you."
Anna blinked, tension flickering across her face. "Me?"
He nodded, voice rough. "You were here. Sitting in this chair. Talking to me like I wasn't gone. You told me… that you couldn't wait forever. That staying would break you, but leaving meant losing us. And when you walked out, you said it wasn't goodbye. Just goodbye for now."
Anna's jaw tightened, her eyes fixed on the floor. "I didn't think you'd ever hear that."
"I did," Grant whispered. He forced himself upright enough to look at her directly. "And it's the only thing that kept me fighting. The Shadow pushed me past breaking, but that memory—your voice—reminded me what I had to come back to."
Her gloved fingers twitched in her lap, as if she wanted to reach out but didn't dare.
Instead, she met his eyes. Her voice steadied, though it carried a crack of fear. "Then don't make me say it again, Grant. Don't make me leave."
Grant's throat tightened, sparks crawling faintly along his arms. "Then don't. Stay."
****
Aldus and Acuent were still snapping at each other when alarms began to sound.
Slha cursed, darting to the console. "Perimeter breach. Multiple signatures."
"Taskforce?" Kudin's voice cracked as he shot upright.
But the feed showed something else. Figures in gleaming white and silver, striding across the outer yard with deliberate calm. Not armored soldiers. Not Gifteds looking for shelter.
Anna helped steady Grant as he limped into the hall, blinking at the sight on the screen. "Who the hell…?"
The intruders entered like they owned the place.
Their presence lit the dim corridors with energy veins that pulsed through polymer armor, bright streaks of blues, yellows, reds, and greens sparking off their frames.
A unified front, a glowing "V" insignia gleaming on each chest.
At the head stood Ampra, her sleek suit lined with electric yellow, shock-batons resting casually at her hips. She raised her chin, voice calm and commanding.
"We came to help."
The Ampers froze.
Acuent stepped forward, voice cutting like glass. "Help? How did you even know we were compromised?"
Slha's teeth ground. "No one finds this place. Not without eyes on us."
Tension thickened. The Volts exchanged glances, until Daraf—the one with glowing blue gauntlets—finally admitted, "We… watch allied safehouses. Hidden feeds."
Aldus' expression darkened instantly, her voice sharp. "You spied on us."
"Watched," Daraf corrected carefully.
"Without consent."
The air bristled.
Ampra brushed the anger aside with practiced ease, her yellow-lit armor casting faint arcs along the walls. "Your boy shook the entire grid with that blackout. You think no one noticed? The difference is—we didn't come to kill him."
Her eyes flicked to Grant, red sparks still faint on his arms. "We came to show the world he's hope. Not another monster to fear."
That single line split the room.
Aldus' lips pressed thin, unwilling to yield. Acuent folded her arms, shaking her head. "You want to parade him like a banner? That's not protection. That's politics."
Grant said nothing—his gaze locked on the white-and-silver warriors, glowing veins running like rivers of power across their suits. He had never seen anything like them.
Anna's hand hovered near him, her whisper sharp enough only for him to hear. "Grant… they're not like us. They're not hiding."
The silence snapped when Rook, from the back, muttered bitterly: "And while they parade him as hope, the rest of us burn."
The clash was inevitable—Ampers demanding secrecy, the Volts insisting on symbolism. Fractures widened, the room caught between two futures.
And at the center of it all stood Grant, uncertain if he was a weapon, a symbol, or something else entirely.