The first thing Nana saw when she opened her eyes was the sky.
Gray. Eternal. Unchanging.
Avalon.
Her head throbbed with every heartbeat, a dull ache that spread down her neck and into her shoulders. Her lungs burned. Her ribs—still injured from before—screamed in protest when she tried to breathe.
What happened?
The flood. The water. Drowning.
And then... someone had saved her. Pulled her from the water. Carried her to safety.
Who?
Nana forced herself to sit up, ignoring the way the world spun. She was on a rooftop—different from the one where she'd found Jisu's body. This one was smaller, more enclosed. And there, a few meters away, near what looked like a makeshift fire.
A figured.
Male,Tall, with broad shoulders. He was crouched by the fire, wringing out his jacket, his back to her.
Every instinct Nana had developed in Avalon screamed at her to be careful.
Trust no one. Everyone's dangerous. Everyone wants to survive, and they'll kill you to do it.
She'd been stabbed in the arm last week trying to help someone who'd pretended to be injured. The scar was still fresh, hidden under her jacket sleeve.
Can't let my guard down. Not even for someone who saved me.
Her hand moved to her hip. Her blade—still there, secure in its sheath. Good.
Nana pushed herself to her feet silently, ignoring the protest from her body. She moved like a ghost, the way Mina had taught her. Quiet. Deadly.
The man was still focused on his jacket, unaware.
One chance. Take him by surprise. Subdue him before he can fight back.
Nana launched herself at him without thinking.
Her legs wrapped around his shoulders, using her momentum to drive him to the ground. It was a move she'd perfected over months of fighting—using her smaller size as an advantage, getting the leverage to control someone larger.
They hit the concrete hard.
The man reacted instantly—faster than she'd expected. His hand shot up, catching both of her wrists in a grip like iron. One-handed.
He pinned her arms above her head with terrifying ease.
Shit.
Nana's blade clattered away, kicked aside by his foot.She try to kicked out, trying to catch him in the chest, the stomach, anywhere vulnerable. But he shifted his weight, using his body to pin her legs.
He's strong. Too strong. Military training? Hunter background?
They struggled for several seconds—Nana fighting with everything she had, the man holding her down with careful, controlled strength. Not hurting her, she realized. Just... restraining.
And then she saw his eyes.
Hazel.
Distinctive, unusual hazel eyes that she'd memorized, dreamed about, searched for across months and lifetimes.
No. It can't be.
Nana stopped fighting. Her hands, still pinned above her head, went slack.
The man stared down at her, confusion clear even with most of his face covered. His hood was pulled low, and a turtleneck covered everything from his nose down.
But those eyes—
I have to be sure.
With trembling fingers, Nana reached up. The man tensed, his grip on her wrists tightening, but he didn't stop her.
She pushed back his hood.
Black hair. Dark, familiar black hair that she'd run her fingers through in another lifetime.
Please. Please be him.
Her hand moved to his turtleneck. He could have stopped her—could have easily kept her from pulling it down.
But he didn't.
The fabric came away, revealing his face.Nana's world shattered and remade itself in the same instant.
Zayne.
It was him. It was him. The same face she'd watched dissolve into mist at the ice portal. The same sharp features, the same expression she'd memorized from a thousand moments in Linkon and Avalon.
He was here. Alive. Real.
"Zayne," she sobbed, the name tearing from her throat like a prayer.
She stopped fighting entirely, her body going limp beneath him. And then, without thinking, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him down into a desperate embrace.
Zayne made a startled sound as he fell forward, his body landing on top of hers. But Nana didn't care. She held him so tightly she could feel his heartbeat against her chest.alive.
He's here. He's real.
"Zayne!" She was crying now—full, broken sobs that shook her entire body. "It's me! It's me, Nana! I found you! I finally found you!"
The man—Zayne—went completely still. Like a statue. Like he'd forgotten how to move.
"Zayne?" Nana pulled back enough to see his face, her hands cupping his cheeks.
"It's me. Angelina. Nana. From Linkon City. From the cafe. From—" Her voice broke. "From before. Don't you remember?"
Zayne stared at her.
His expression was... blank. Confused. And underneath that, something like fear.
"Who are you?" he asked quietly.
Three words.
Three simple words that destroyed her.
Nana blinked, tears still streaming down her face .
"What?"
"Who are you?" Zayne repeated, his voice carefully neutral. "Have we... met before?"
No. No, no, no—
"It's me," Nana said desperately. "It's Nana. We met at the Linkon Cafe. You gave me strawberry candy. You're a doctor—a cardiologist. You have ice evol and you—" She was babbling now, the words tumbling out. "You fell through the portal three years before I did. You survived for three years. And then we found each other and you—you loved me. You told me you loved me more than your own life and you let yourself get bitten so I could escape—"
"I don't..." Zayne's eyes widened slightly.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Nana's hands fell away from his face.
He doesn't remember.
She known. Intellectually, she'd known that if Zayne had been reborn, he wouldn't have his memories. But knowing and experiencing it were two completely different things.
"You don't remember me," she whispered.
"I..." Zayne looked genuinely distressed now. "I'm sorry. I don't remember anything. I woke up in Avalon weeks ago with no memory of who I was or where I came from.The only thing I remember was just my name."
"I'm sorry," Zayne said again, and the genuine regret in his voice made it somehow worse. "You clearly know me, but I... I don't remember you."
Nana closed her eyes, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks.
He's here. He's alive. But he doesn't know me. Doesn't remember what we had. Doesn't remember loving me.
We're strangers to him.
For a long moment, they stayed like that—Zayne still partially on top of her, both of them frozen in this terrible tableau.
Then Nana made a decision.
I can't force him to remember. Pushing too hard will just scare him away. I need to start over. Build trust. Become... friends, if that's all we can be.
At least he's alive. At least I found him.
That has to be enough.
"Okay..." Nana said quietly, opening her eyes. "Okay. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have—" She took a shaky breath. "Let's start over. My name is Angelina. Most people call me Nana. I'm... I was looking for someone. For you, actually. Even if you don't remember why."
Zayne studied her face carefully. "You attacked me."
"I know. I'm sorry. I thought—" Nana laughed bitterly. "I've learned not to trust anyone in Avalon. Even people who save me."
"I saved you from the flood," Zayne said, like he was piecing together a puzzle. "You were drowning. I pulled you out."
"Thank you," Nana whispered. "For saving me."
Slowly, carefully, Zayne moved off her.
He stood and offered his hand.She stared at it for a moment—this hand that had held hers through rooftop conversations, that had cupped her face before their first kiss, that had pushed her through the ice portal while he dissolved into mist.
A stranger's hand now.
She took it.
He pulled her to her feet with easy strength, then immediately let go. The distance felt like a chasm.
"You should sit by the fire," Zayne said, gesturing to the small flame he'd managed to coax from debris. "You're still wet. You'll freeze otherwise."
"Thank you."
They moved to the fire together, sitting on opposite sides. The silence was awkward, painful.She couldn't stop staring at him. Every detail was exactly as she remembered—the way he sat, the careful economy of his movements, even the slight furrow between his brows when he was thinking.
It's him. It's really him.
But when he looked at her, it was with the cautious curiosity of meeting a stranger.
Not with love. Not with recognition.
This is going to break me, Nana realized. Being this close to him but having him not know me. Not remember us.
But what choice did she have?
She'd come back to Avalon to find him. And she'd found him.
The rest... they'd figure out the rest.
"So," Zayne said eventually, his voice breaking the silence. "You were looking for me specifically? Why?"
Because I love you. Because you're the other half of my soul. Because I can't live without you.
"Because I knew you were trapped here," Nana said instead. "And I wanted to help you escape."
"Escape?" Zayne's eyes sharpened. "You know a way out of Avalon?"
"I do. It's called the Wish Bridge. It appears once a year during the blood moon cycle." Nana pulled her knees to her chest.
"I escaped through it before. And I came back to find you so we could both get out."
Zayne was quiet for a long time, processing this.
"Why?" he finally asked.
"Why what?"
"Why come back for someone who doesn't even remember you? You could have stayed safe in the real world. Why risk your life to find a stranger?"
Because you're not a stranger to me. Because you died for me. Because I promised to bring you home.
"Because no one deserves to be trapped here," Nana said softly. "Especially not you."
Zayne studied her across the fire, those hazel eyes she loved so much trying to read her, to understand.
Nana wanted to cry again. Wanted to cross the distance between them and hold him and make him remember.
But she couldn't.
So instead, she did something that felt both natural and terrifying:
She shifted closer to him.
Zayne tensed, clearly uncertain how to react.
Nana ignored his hesitation and gently rested her head on his shoulder.He went completely still. Like a statue. Not pulling away, but not relaxing either.
"Is this..." Zayne's voice was uncertain. "Is this something we used to do?"
"Yes," Nana whispered, closing her eyes.
"We did this a lot. In another life."
She felt him relax, just slightly. And then—impossibly, wonderfully—she felt him smile. Not a big smile. Just a small upturn of his lips that she could somehow sense.
That smile. I missed that smile so much.
They sat like that as the fire crackled and Avalon's eternal chaos continued around them. Not talking. Not explaining.
Just... being together.
Zayne didn't remember her. Didn't remember their love, their sacrifice, their promise to escape together.
But he was here. Alive. Real.
And for tonight, that was enough.
Nana thought, breathing in his familiar scent (how did he still smell the same, even after being reborn?), tomorrow I'll tell him about the Wish Bridge. About our plan to escape. About everything.
But tonight, I just want to be close to him.
Even if he doesn't remember why that matters.
.
.
.
.
.
To be continued.