The hum of the infirmary was a low, rhythmic pulse, far more soothing than the violent screaming of the static that had filled Kenzo's head during the fight.
Beside him, Sarina sat in a low chair, her eyes fixed on a translucent tablet. She was dressed in a variation of the Generation Zero uniform, though hers lacked the aggressive combat padding of Hans or Naomi. She wore a slim-fitting white tunic with a high collar.
Her long silver hair was pulled back into a loose, practical braid that rested against her shoulder, and thin, metallic bands circled her wrists, glowing softly as they helped focus her healing output.
The silence between them was thick—awkward and heavy. Kenzo felt the sting of humiliation from his absolute defeat in the testing bay, but it was overshadowed by the guilt of his earlier stunt.
"I'm sorry," Kenzo said, his voice cracking the silence.
Sarina didn't look up, but her fingers faltered for a fraction of a second over the tablet's interface.
"I didn't mean to run away like that," he continued, looking at his hands. "Or to make you feel... however you felt. Scared, I guess. I just... I couldn't wrap my head around it. That everything I knew is just gone. That I'm essentially a ghost to them now."
Sarina finally looked at him, her expression softening. She set the tablet down and leaned forward, her hands resting on the edge of his bed.
"I wasn't scared for myself, Kenzo. I was scared for you. Distorted energy isn't like the others. It doesn't just hit a target; it consumes the user. If you had reached the city streets in that state, you would have burned out before the security bots even found you."
Kenzo let out a bitter breath. "Faris said I'm a 'beautiful disaster.' I'm starting to think he was only half right about the beautiful part." He turned his head to look at her. "Tell me the truth, Sarina. If someone told you that your reality, everything you've ever seen or loved, was just a string that was about to snap, and you could never see it again... how would you feel?"
Sarina looked away, her gaze drifting to the window where the dark-violet sky of the Core hummed with eternal light.
"I think I would feel like I was drowning," she said softly. "Even with the air right in front of me. I've lived in The Core my whole life. The idea of not having a foundation... it's terrifying. I don't blame you for running. I think I would have done the same."
Kenzo nodded slowly. He closed his eyes, and for a moment, he wasn't in a high-tech hospital in the center of reality. He was back in the kitchen of the restaurant, hearing the sizzle of the grill and the sound of his brother's laughter from the small table in the back.
"I have a little brother," Kenzo whispered. "He's only ten. He's obsessed with those old-world trading cards and he thinks I'm the strongest guy in the world because I can skip rope for ten minutes straight."
He opened his eyes, his silver irises flashing with a quiet, somber intensity.
"Naomi said my world may be dying. And I'm stuck here. I can't go back to him. I can't tell him I'm okay." He gripped the edge of the medical sheets. "But if what she said is true—if these things come from dead worlds to feed on worlds like mine, then I don't need to be home to protect him."
He looked at Sarina, a newfound resolve hardening his features.
"I'll stay. If I can defeat the Remnants here, in the Core, or wherever they show up, maybe I can stop the rot from reaching him. Even if he never knows it's me... I can still protect my home from realities away."
He sounds just like him, Sarina thought, a sudden, sharp pang of memory hitting her.
"You're very strange, Kenzo," she said aloud, her voice barely a whisper. "But I think The Core needs someone who remembers what it's like to have something worth losing."
***
The transition from sleep to reality didn't come from the sun, there was no sun in the lower levels of the facility. Instead, it was the sound of a pressurized door sliding open and the sudden, buzz of the ceiling lights snapping to full brightness at exactly 4:55 AM.
Kenzo sat up with a jolt, his hand instinctively going to his shoulder. The wound from Naomi's shard was gone, replaced by a faint, silver-white scar—Sarina's handiwork.
"Five minutes early is on time. On time is late," a voice echoed from the doorway.
Hans was standing there, already fully geared in his slate-grey combat suit, his expression as unreadable as a statues.
"Sarina told me about your... change in motivation," Hans said, his eyes flicking to the white G-Zero hoodie folded neatly at the foot of Kenzo's bed. "Protecting a world you can't see is a heavy burden, Kenzo. Put your gear on. We aren't going to the Testing Bay today."
"Where are we going?" Kenzo asked, pulling the heavy white fabric over his head.
"To the Echo Chamber," Hans replied, turning to walk down the hall. "If you're going to hit something with that black and purple mess you call energy, you first need to learn how to breathe in time with it."
***
"Again," Hans commanded.
Kenzo lunged forward, throwing a rapid-fire jab combination. Each punch was crisp. But Hans moved like smoke. He didn't even use his energy to block, he simply slipped every punch by a fraction of an inch.
Hans caught Kenzo's wrist with terrifying ease and twisted, forcing Kenzo to his knees.
"Your anger makes you predictable," Hans said, releasing him and stepping back. "You think about the home that's rotting. And you let that pain overflow. It turns your energy into a flood. A flood has power, but it has no direction."
Kenzo stayed on one knee, breathing hard. The purple static began to recede, flickering weakly.
If I'm just a flood, I'll drown him too, Kenzo thought.
He stood up, but this time, he didn't rush. He closed his eyes for a heartbeat, visualizing the black and purple energy not as an explosion, but as the recoil of a punch.
"Don't fight the static, Kenzo," Hans's voice softened slightly, a rare pointer amidst the coldness.
Kenzo stepped forward. Left, right, slip. He began to move in a tight, rhythmic circle. He felt the static rising, but instead of letting it burst, he "tucked" it into his footwork. Every time his lead foot hit the floor, a small spark of purple lightning discharged, propelling him faster than humanly possible.
He was phasing.
Hans's eyes sharpened. "Better."
Hans finally raised his hands, a shimmer of blue energy forming a thin protective layer over his forearms. Kenzo blurred. He appeared on Hans's left, threw a jab that Hans parried, and then—before the parry even landed, Kenzo was already on the right.
"You explained Soul and Lunar energy yesterday," Kenzo panted, his silver eyes fixed on Hans's calm face. "Leo was speed and healing. Naomi was pressure and beams. But you... that blue light. What energy is that?"
The blue glow intensifying until it looked like liquid sapphire coating his knuckles. "I am an External user, Kenzo. While Soul users change themselves and Lunar users change the atmosphere, I manifest energy as a tool. I command the space and the objects within it."
To demonstrate, Hans flicked his fingers. The blue light didn't shoot out like a beam, instead, the air itself seemed to solidify into a translucent, sapphire-colored brick that hammered into Kenzo's guard, nearly knocking him off balance.
"I use conduits, like my polearm, to focus this power," Hans continued, stepping forward. "Without a weapon, I manifest it as physical force. It is the energy of construction. Now, stop talking and show me if you can deconstruct it."
Kenzo didn't need to be told twice. He felt the sting of the hit and let it fuel his rhythm. He closed his eyes for a split second, hearing the crackle of the purple static.
Don't fight the static. Flow with the gaps.
Kenzo lunged. This time, he didn't just punch, he timed his strike with a "glitch" in his own movement. He disappeared from Hans' front and reappeared inches from his side. The black and purple static erupted from his fist, turning a deep, violet.
Hans's eyes widened. He threw up a shield, a blue wall of force, but Kenzo's purple static didn't bounce off. It shattered the blue energy on contact, the jagged black sparks eating through Hans's defense.
Kenzo saw it, the perfect opening. Hans was off-balance, his guard broken. Kenzo pivoted, loading up a massive left hook that carried the weight of every frustration he'd felt since waking up in this world.
I've got him, Kenzo thought.
But as his fist approached Hans's jaw, a flash of the laboratory flashed in his mind. He saw the equipment he'd accidentally melted, he felt the fear of being a "disaster" that hurt the people trying to help him.
He pulled the punch. Just an inch. Just a fraction of a second.
That was all Hans needed.
With a movement too fast to track, Hans ducked under the weakened hook and drove a blue-clad palm into Kenzo's chest. The External pulse was like being hit by a truck.
Kenzo was launched backward, his heels skidding across the black floor until he hit the far wall with a heavy thud. The purple static flickered and died, leaving him gasping for air.
The silence in the room was absolute.
Hans stood in the center of the chamber, the blue light fading from his hands. He looked at Kenzo for a long time before letting out a slow breath.
"You had the win," Hans said, his voice flat but not unkind. "You bypassed an External defense with raw Distortion."
Kenzo groaned, sliding down the wall to a sitting position. "I... I didn't want to break your face."
"In a real fight, the Remnant won't care about yours," Hans replied. He walked over and offered a hand, pulling Kenzo to his feet. "You controlled the output, Kenzo. You found the rhythm."
The heavy, pressurized door of the Echo Chamber didn't just open, it retracted into the wall with a sharp, mechanical snap.
The temperature in the room plummeted instantly. A heavy, suffocating pressure washed over Kenzo, making the air feel like it was made of solid lead.
Standing in the doorway was Commander Nyx.
He wore a high-collared, midnight-blue trench coat that seemed to absorb the light around it, the edges flickering with a faint, cold blue flame.
"A Class-D Remnant has been detected in Reality 4," Nyx said. His voice was melodic, almost a whisper. "The leak is spreading. If it isn't sealed in the next three hours, the entire branch will begin to collapse even more."
Hans straightened his posture, his expression returning to its mask of cold professionalism. "I'll gather the equipment. I can be at the jump-gate in ten minutes."
"I've already informed Naomi," Nyx added, his glowing blue eyes shifting toward Kenzo, who was still catching his breath against the wall.
A heavy silence stretched between the three of them.
Nyx didn't move, his gaze lingering on Kenzo's white hoodie. Finally, the Commander spoke again, his voice dropping an octave.
"You and Naomi will take Kenzo with you."
The mask of indifference Hans wore finally shattered. His eyes widened, and he took a half-step toward Nyx, his hands clenching at his sides. "Commander, you know as well as I do that his frequency acts as a beacon. Sending him into a leaking branch isn't just a test, it's an invitation for the Remnant in the reality to go to his exact location."
Nyx didn't answer. He didn't even look at Hans. He simply continued to stare at Kenzo, his expression one of cold, detached curiosity.
The silence grew unbearable, the pressure in the room making Kenzo's ears pop. Hans looked ready to argue further, his grey eyes flashing with a rare, protective heat.
Hans looked from Nyx to Kenzo, and then back again. A sudden, dark realization flickered in his blue eyes, and he let out a sharp, cynical breath. "I see. You aren't sending him off to die. You're sending us to be the wall."
Hans turned slightly toward Kenzo, his voice gaining a grim, protective edge. "You know it'll attract the Remnant, don't you?" He looked back at Nyx. "You're sending Naomi and me because you know we're the only ones who can keep him alive while he plays the part of the bait."
"He needs to learn what he is," Nyx said, his voice like the scrape of ice on metal. "And you need to learn if you can actually lead a weapon, Hans, or if you're just carrying a liability."
Nyx's words hung in the air like a death sentence, cold and final. He began to walk toward the exit, his dark trench coat billowing behind him as if he were already bored with the conversation.
Vibrating with the same jagged intensity as the black and purple static flickering at his fingertips. Kenzo didn't just stand up, he marched forward.
Hans stepped back instinctively, his eyes wide with shock. "Kenzo, stand down—"
Kenzo ignored him. He walked straight into the "dead zone" of Nyx's aura, stopping only when he was inches away from The Commander. Up close, Nyx was even more terrifying. He looked, staring directly into those glowing, neon-blue eyes.
"I don't know what your motive is for this," Kenzo said, his voice ringing with a defiance that seemed to make the very shadows in the room tremble. "I don't care if you're using me as bait or if you're hoping the static just burns me out so you don't have to deal with me anymore."
Kenzo leaned in closer, his silver eyes flashing. "But I'm going to go out there and kick that Remnant's ass just to show you I'm more than just your little subject. I'm the guy who's going to make sure no one else loses their home."
A heavy silence fell over the Echo Chamber. Hans stood frozen, his hand halfway to his polearm, half-expecting Nyx to erase Kenzo on the spot.
"And get one thing straight," Kenzo added, his jaw tight. "I'm not doing this for you. I'm not doing this for Generation Zero or your 'Core.' I'm doing this to protect my world only. Don't think for a second you own me."
Nyx didn't move. For a long, agonizing moment, he simply stared at Kenzo. Then, the edges of his midnight-blue coat flickered with a sudden, violent spark of blue flame. His face inches from Kenzo's.
"Then prove it," Nyx whispered, a genuine, terrifying amusement dancing in his blue eyes. "Go into the rot, Kenzo. Show me that your 'will' is stronger than the entropy of a dying universe. Because in Reality 4, the Remnant won't listen to your speech. It'll just listen to the sound of you breaking."
Nyx straightened up and vanished through the door, the heavy pressure in the room dissipating instantly.
Hans let out a breath he seemed to have been holding for a lifetime. He looked at Kenzo, his expression a mix of disbelief and a newfound, begrudging respect. "You have a death wish. You just talked back to a man who can collapse a city block without blinking."
"He needed to hear it," Kenzo said, turning toward the gear racks, his hands still shaking from the adrenaline.