A cold wind swept across the endless white landscape.
Snow drifted lazily from the gray sky, blanketing the frozen plain where only a handful of stubborn shrubs clung to life beneath the ice.
Silence ruled the world.
Then space froze.
A figure materialized from thin air before crashing face first into a snowdrift.
For several seconds, he remained motionless.
Slowly, he rolled onto his back.
It was Shawn.
His clothes had been reduced to torn strips clinging to his body. Thin crimson cuts crossed his pale skin, and dried blood stained his arms and chest. His body was battered beyond recognition, yet his chest rose and fell with a steady rhythm.
He lay perfectly still, his sightless eyes turned toward the open sky as the cold mountain air brushed across his skin. He let his exhausted body sink into the snow.
After a long while, a weary breath escaped his lips.
"...Finally," Shawn rasped.
A faint smile touched his face.
"Free at last."
The simple words carried a weight only he could understand.
For the past two months, he had lived behind stone walls, locked behind reinforced iron doors and chained inside laboratories under constant watch.
Now, there was only the sky.
His thoughts drifted backward, retracing the chain of disasters.
He remembered the failed awakening, his grandfather leaving the clan, the destruction of the Starborn Clan, and the experiments inside Morgan's vault.
Before all of that, weakness had been nothing more than a concept.
He had been born the heir of one of the greatest clans in existence, protected by people capable of altering reality. Even in his previous life, he had always been praised as a genius with an unlimited future.
Only after the destruction of the Starborn Clan had he truly understood what it meant to be powerless.
He had failed his awakening, lost his sight, and become nothing more than a laboratory specimen.
A quiet laugh escaped him.
"...Quite the experience."
He doubted there was another twelve year old in the world who had endured everything he had.
Closing his eyes, Shawn silently acknowledged Vexer.
Their relationship remained complicated.
He could not forgive the man for sealing his memories, and part of him still suspected his failed awakening had been connected to that seal.
Yet when everything had been lost, Vexer's contingency had still come for him.
Shawn smiled helplessly.
"...Grandpa really is terrifying."
He had not witnessed what happened inside the laboratory, but he could easily imagine Morgan's frustration after facing the remnant soul of the strongest man alive.
Without Vexer, whatever Morgan truly intended for his body would almost certainly have been worse than death.
The thought lingered only briefly before Shawn turned his attention inward.
His newly awakened core pulsed quietly beneath his ribs.
He listened carefully.
The gentle wind brushed across his bare skin, but it felt different now.
It carried a familiar rhythm.
He slowly raised a trembling hand, trying to follow the nearby air currents.
The breeze stirred ever so slightly.
The moment he tried to guide it, however, a sharp pain shot through his muscles.
The tiny current scattered immediately.
His breathing turned uneven as fresh pain spread through his shoulders and chest.
"...I need to heal first."
He carefully examined his injuries, running his fingertips across his arms, shoulders, and ribs.
Something immediately caught his attention.
The cuts had stopped bleeding.
More than that, the torn flesh was slowly knitting itself back together.
The process was slow, but unmistakable.
His body was repairing itself.
Shawn frowned, resting his fingers against one of the closing wounds.
"Air Manipulation can't heal flesh."
He immediately called inward.
"Eva."
"Yes, Shawn?"
"Do you know what's happening?"
Eva remained silent for several moments before answering.
"I'm not completely sure, but I think it's related to one of the ancient bloodlines flowing through your body."
Shawn slowly nodded.
That explanation made far more sense.
Wind could cut, move, and protect, but physical regeneration belonged to a different source entirely.
He relaxed once more, allowing his body to sink deeper into the snow.
The biting cold no longer bothered him as much.
His awakened body instinctively resisted the freezing temperature surrounding him.
A faint smile appeared on his lips.
If awakened individuals had existed back on Earth, winter would have been little more than a minor inconvenience.
Eva giggled softly within his mindscape.
Shawn closed his eyes once more, allowing his body time to recover before deciding where to go next.
One thing was certain.
He could not afford to remain exposed on this frozen plain if Morgan decided to come after him.