Zeron got there at eleven. His mother thought he was at a friend's. He didn't have friends. She knew he was lying. She had packed him food anyway.
Voss was already there. No fire. Just a man in a red coat standing on a rusted pier, looking at the water.
"I was a hero," Voss said, without turning. "I was good at it. I had a life that made sense."
He paused.
"My wife's name was Priya. My daughter was eight. My son was five - just starting to show abilities. We thought it was wonderful."
Another pause.
"My parents. My brother's family. The Cascade Tsunami took six hours to arrive. Six hours. And I was unconscious on a rooftop because something decided to be born."
The word landed between them like a dropped weapon.
"You didn't know," Voss said. "I can see that. Does it matter?"
"I'm not going to apologize for what I am," Zeron said. "I didn't choose it. But I'm sorry for your family. That's real."
"Don't."
Something broke loose in Voss's voice. Then he turned.
"Hit me back."
The fire came - not the controlled waves from the bridge. Something more honest. Everything at once.
[ENTROPY FIRE - GRIEF STATE: UNRESTRAINED]
Zeron let it land. The harbour shook. Warehouses collapsed. Voss threw everything he had and Zeron stood in the centre of it and let every wave absorb into him without moving.
[FORCE ECHO - FULL THERMAL ABSORPTION]
When Voss stopped - breathing hard, something desperate in his face - Zeron was exactly where he'd been. Not a mark. Not even his hoodie singed.
"Hit me back," Voss said again. Quiet now. "Please."
"No. That's not what this is."
Voss grabbed him by the collar. Eyes inches away. Fourteen years in his face.
"Then show me. Stop pretending you're just some kid. Show me what actually happened that night."
Zeron looked at him for a moment. "Okay," he said.
He stopped holding back. Not fully - not even close - but the fraction he let loose was enough.
[GRAVITATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY - PARTIAL RELEASE: 0.1%]
The harbour water dropped three feet. The cranes bent toward him like trees in wind. Voss felt the fire trying to pull away from him, toward Zeron. Then in his chest - a weight, a pressure, like gravity had developed a preference.
He had spent fourteen years imagining this. He had not imagined a seventeen-year-old who looked tired. Who looked like he'd been carrying something so heavy for so long that setting it down, even slightly, was almost involuntary.
"This is what I am," Zeron said. "And I can't undo it."
Voss's hand tightened on his collar. Then he pushed his power past every limit he had ever tested. Absorption - everything he had - and he pulled.
[ENTROPY FIRE - ABSORPTION REVERSAL: FRACTURE ENERGY EXTRACTION]
The power came. Freely. Zeron didn't resist. He let Voss take what he was reaching for.
For three seconds, Voss felt like a god.
Then he felt what was behind the first layer. Then the layer behind that. An ocean with no floor. No ceiling because the ceiling had never been built. His hands started shaking. His own fire began burning back through him.
"Stop," Zeron said. "Let go. Voss - let go."
He couldn't. His power wasn't designed for this. His body wasn't designed for this. Nothing was.
Zeron grabbed his wrists. Not to hurt. The way you hold someone who is falling.
"I've got you," he said. "Let go."
Voss looked at him. Under the pain, under the fire burning back - something gave way. Fourteen years of held-rigid finally released. Not peace. Not forgiveness. Just the exhaustion of a man who has been running toward something for so long that stopping, even like this, was almost a relief.
His hands opened.
He dropped.
Zeron caught him.
He stood in the burned-out harbour holding a man who had tried to kill him twice, and he didn't say anything. There was nothing to say. The fire was out. The water was still. Above Ashfield, the sky was just a sky - no storms, no bruising, nothing arriving.
He stayed there until the sirens started, and then he set Voss down gently and stepped off the pier into the dark.