The third day of training began with rain.
Not real rain,the sky was still black and starless,but water leaking through cracks in the outpost roof, dripping steady and cold onto the concrete floor. It turned the dust to mud in places, made everything smell of rust and age.
I woke to the sound of it,drip, drip, drip,like a clock counting down the days we had left.
Twenty-seven now.
Twenty-seven days to become something capable of facing Lord Azael.
Twenty-seven days until we marched north to whatever waited in his castle.
I pulled my blanket tighter, but the cold had already settled in my bones.
Across the room, Nyx hung upside-down from a beam again, wings wrapped around herself like a cocoon. She looked peaceful. Almost human. If you ignored the wings.
Kael sat on his bunk, flexing his healed hand,the one that had been broken beyond use just days ago. The skin was smooth now, fingers moving freely. No swelling. No pain.
But his face was wrong.
Haunted.
He hadn't told anyone about the serum yet.
But we all knew.
The bottle was empty.
Training started early.
Kai and Amie had us in the main room, equipment rearranged into a tighter space. Dummies in a circle. Obstacles scattered. Weapons on racks.
"Today," Kai announced, grin sharp, "we work on teamwork. Fighting together. Covering weaknesses. Because out there? You won't be alone. But you'll die alone if you fight like it."
He looked at Xeno.
"We start with you."
Xeno stepped forward without a word, shovel in hand.
The rest of us formed a loose line,Lira, Kael, Nyx, me. Waiting.
Amie explained. "Scenario: multiple threats. You protect the group while we engage. No killing allies. No hesitation."
Kai and Amie moved to opposite sides, practice weapons ready. Dummies "activated"—on ropes, swung by pulleys to simulate movement.
Then it began.
Kai attacked from the left, staff swinging. Amie from the right, quick strikes. Dummies lunged on ropes.
Xeno moved.
Shovel spinning, blocking, deflecting. He placed himself between us and the "threats," body a wall. Strikes that would've crushed bones stopped inches from us.
But he was too strong.
Too fast.
One swing meant for a dummy came too close to Lira,she ducked, but the wind of it ruffled her hair. Another blocked Kai's staff with force that sent him staggering back, nearly into me.
"Too much!" Amie called. "You're protecting us by almost killing us!"
Xeno froze.
Shovel lowered.
For the first time, I saw something in his posture,tension. Shoulders rigid. Like he was holding back a storm.
"I..." he started, voice low. "I'm used to fighting alone."
Kai rubbed his arm where the block had numbed it. "We get that. But alone doesn't work anymore. You have to trust us to move with you. Not just around you."
Xeno's blindfolded face turned toward me. Toward Nyx. Toward all of us.
"Trust," he repeated quietly.
Like the word was foreign.
Like it hurt.
They adjusted.
Slower drills. Coordinated movements.
Kai attacking, Xeno blocking,but pulling power at the last second. Lira flanking, knives flashing to "finish" what Xeno started. Nyx diving from above, wings beating to distract.
Me?
I stayed back at first. Small. Useless.
But then Kai called me in.
"Yona,your job is openings. Xeno creates them. You exploit."
I gripped my training dagger, heart pounding.
Xeno swung,controlled now, shovel stopping a dummy's "attack." The force left an opening on the side.
I darted in, small and quick, dagger tapping the dummy's "throat."
"Good," Kai said.
Again.
And again.
I found a rhythm. Xeno's strength creating space, my size letting me slip through it.
For the first time, I felt... useful.
Not just surviving.
Part of something.
Nyx's turn was different.
She fought like chaos,wings, flips, strikes from impossible angles.
But alone.
Always alone.
When paired with us, she overshot,wings knocking Kael off balance, dives coming too close to Lira.
"Control it," Amie said. "You're not fighting solo anymore."
Nyx landed, breathing hard, rose eyes narrowed. "Control is hard when everything feels... new."
She flexed her hands again, like they still surprised her.
"I forgot something this morning," she said suddenly.
We all stopped.
"What?" Amie asked.
Nyx frowned. "I don't know. That's the problem. There's a gap. Like I woke up and part of yesterday is just... gone."
Silence.
The erosion was speeding up.
She was losing herself faster.
And none of us knew how to stop it.
Kael trained one-handed still.
Even though he didn't need to.
The serum had worked,hand perfect, strength returned.
But he hid it.
Fought like the injury lingered.
Because admitting he'd taken it meant admitting he'd accepted help from a monster.
From Nyx.
And that was a line he wasn't ready to cross.
Not yet.
By evening, we were bruised, exhausted, but better.
Movements smoother. Reactions sharper.
We could fight together now.
Not perfectly.
But enough.
Enough to survive another day.
As we ate rations in silence, I watched Xeno sitting apart, shovel across his lap, blindfolded face turned toward the window.
He hadn't spoken since the teamwork drill.
Hadn't looked at any of us.
Like he was carrying something heavier than the weapon in his hands.
Nyx watched him too.
Rose eyes soft.
Almost sad.
"I know what it's like," she whispered. "To be strong enough to protect everyone... but too strong to be near them."
Xeno didn't answer.
But his hand tightened on the shovel.
Just a little.
That night, I dreamed of eyes.
Not Xeno's.
Mine.
Glowing in the darkness.
Watching.
Waiting.
For me to become something else.
I woke gasping.
The room was quiet.
But the whispers lingered.
Soft.
Patient.
Soon.