(Celia’s POV)
The fire burned low, its flickering embers casting faint, restless shadows across the clearing. The night air carried the scent of charred wood and damp earth, wrapping around us like a silent embrace.
I was beside Jess, her body curled inward, as if trying to fold into herself. Her red hair fell over her face in uneven strands, hiding the expression I already knew was there. Shoulders trembling. Breath uneven. Silent grief, the kind that settled deep and refused to leave.
I already lowered myself beside her, my arms wrapped around her fra.. not too tight, not too loose. Just enough for her to know she wasn’t alone.
I knew it wouldn’t fix anything. But in tis like these, comfort wasn’t about fixing. It was about being there.
I ran my fingers slowly through her hair, feeling the slight dampness from the cold night air, the soft strands slipping between my fingers. The fire crackled, a whispering sound against the quiet.
"You know, Jess," I murmured, my voice low, steady, "soone once told .." I paused briefly, letting my words settle before continuing, "’We are never the sa after our pain or losses... but perhaps we aren’t ant to be.’"
Jess didn’t move, but I felt the smallest shift in her breathing.
I exhaled softly, brushing a loose strand away from her face.
"Sotis, after everything," I said, "who we beco is stronger than who we were."
Silence stretched between us, the kind that wasn’t empty, but full. Heavy.
I hesitated, then gently tightened my hold on her, my fingers still combing through her hair in slow, rhythmic motions. The firelight danced over her hunched fra, glinting off the tear tracks that lined her cheeks.
"Jess," I said again, softer this ti. "Raise your head for a mont."
She didn’t respond.
I let out a breath, a faint smile forming.
"Co on," I coaxed, my tone light, careful. "Just a little. Even if it’s just once."
There was a brief pause, before finally, a slow movent. A hesitant shift.
She lifted her head.
The firelight caught in her orange eyes, making them glisten, and for a mont, she looked almost fragile... like glass teetering on the edge of a fall. I reached out, brushing another strand of hair away, my thumb grazing her cheek as I wiped away the lingering tears.
"There," I murmured, offering a small smile.
She blinked at , her expression unreadable.
I held her gaze, my hands settling lightly on her cheeks, the warmth of her skin a quiet contrast against the night’s chill.
"Smile a bit for ," I said.
She hesitated.
"Please...", I said.
Then, slowly, her lips curved, just barely, but it was there. A small, fragile thing.
Not perfect. Not whole.
But real.
I felt sothing ease in my chest.
"I know," I murmured after a beat, my voice quiet, "this might not be comforting now, but... I’ll say it anyway."
I hesitated, watching the way the firelight flickered across her face.
"There isn’t anyone in this world who hasn’t lost soone they loved," I said finally.
She didn’t respond imdiately.
But slowly, a small nod. Almost imperceptible.
A quiet acknowledgnt.
I exhaled.
"I’m glad you told us," I continued, my voice steady. "That burden in your heart... you don’t have to carry it alone."
I let out a small, breathy laugh, shaking my head slightly.
"I know I’m not a good comforter," I admitted, my lips twitching upward. "But I’ll try to be one.."
Jess stared at for a mont, sothing shifting in her expression... sothing lighter. Softer.
Then, she spoke.
"Thank you."
Her voice was quiet, but sure.
A beat passed.
A slow inhale, then...
A small, happy smile I had always known on her face was there again. Faint though. . But real.
I let out a light laugh, tilting my head as I made a vague gesture with my hand.
"It’s nothing, really," I said.
I glanced at the fire, watching the embers shift and flicker. The night stretched around us, vast and quiet, but for the first ti in a while, it didn’t feel as heavy.
"All I want," I said, my voice softer now, "is teammates who can share their stories... and relate to each other."
And for the first ti that night..
Jess’s smile brightened...
*****
The night beca was quiet. Too quiet.
Jess had finally cald down, her breathing steadying, the tension in her shoulders easing. I considered making a joke, sothing light to break the weight lingering in the air... but then, sothing happened..
The fire flickered.
Not the usual, playful flicker of wind teasing the flas. This was sothing else. The embers dimd, their glow suffocated by an unseen presence, the orange hue darkening into sothing unnatural.
The air thickened.
The distant murmur of wanderers, the background noise of our temporary loose camp.. vanished. Just like that. One mont it was there, voices overlapping in hushed conversations, the occasional rustle of movent. The next, silence. Not the peaceful kind. The kind that dug its way under your skin, made the hairs on your arms rise.
Sothing was wrong.
I straightened slightly, my gaze scanning the periter. The tents, the supplies, the uneven ground... it was all there, exactly as it should be. But it wasn’t right. The space around us felt... mirrored. A reflection of our world, yet subtly twisted, as if we had been dragged into a version of reality that wasn’t ours.
Jess noticed it too.
"Sothing’s off," she murmured, her orange eyes flicking around, scanning the darkness between the tents.
I exhaled slowly.
"It is off," I said. "Stay close."
She gave a sharp nod, already rising to her feet.
Without hesitation, we both activated our Exoskeleton Bio-Armor. A faint hum vibrated through my body as the armor took form, spreading across my limbs like liquid tal before solidifying into intricate plating. My armor.. iron-touched blue, dark tallic in its sheen, yet layered with an organic texture, almost like sothing alive. Along its surface, soft blue hues pulsed faintly, dimming and brightening in steady intervals, as if the armor itself was breathing.
Jess’s armor took a different shade.. iron-touched dark red, gleaming under the faint light, its own organic plating shifting into place. The soft, glowing red lines along its structure were deeper, more intense than mine, burning with a subdued heat.
We stood there for a mont, listening.
Then the world shifted.
I saw it.
Not just a trick of the light. Not a feeling. Sothing had changed. The very fabric of space twisted, like the edges of reality had folded in on themselves, enclosing us inside an unseen boundary.
A trap.
I narrowed my eyes, My vision sharpened, the distortions in the air becoming clear as day. Faint ripples, like heat waves, undulating just beyond our reach.
Eagle Gaze.
"Jess," I muttered. "We’re trapped in another space."
Her fist tightened. "How many?"
I didn’t answer imdiately. Instead, I crouched low, pressing my fingers into the dirt beneath . The ground felt... wrong. Not quite the sa texture as before. I let the grains slip between my fingers, watching the way they dispersed unnaturally.
I stood, brushing the dust from my palm.
"Two," I said.
Jess didn’t need further explanation.
An ambush.
And they were waiting.
Cold began to spread from my fingertips.
Not the kind that sent shivers through the body.. this was deeper, more consuming. A creeping, biting frost that bled into the mirrored ground beneath us, crawling outward in jagged veins. The frost slithered across the earth, swallowing the twisted reflection of our camp, corrupting everything it touched.
I let it spread.
I let it consu.
Then, in the space between monts...
"Move."
The word left my lips in an instant.
Jess moved.
I moved.
We didn’t question it.
A blur of motion. The sharp crunch of our feet leaving the frost-covered ground. The breathless weight of the air shifting as we dodged..
Then silence.
For a fraction of a second, my gaze snapped back to where we had been standing,
A black void.
Not a shadow, not a trick of the light... an absence. A gaping wound in existence, swirling with crushing darkness, pulling everything toward its abyss. The frozen ground cracked and shattered as it was devoured, the frost I had spread monts ago disappearing into nothingness.
If we had hesitated, even for the briefest mont,
We would have been gone.
Jess landed smoothly beside , her breath steady despite the near miss. I felt her eyes flick to mine, only for both of us to turn sharply at the sound of a voice.
Soft. Feminine. Laced with a calm amusent.
"Well done. You dodged early."
My eyes locked onto the source.
There was nothing there.. to normal eyes.
But mine were different.
I saw them.
A man stood at the edge of my vision. Mature. His fra carried the weight of experience, the subtle edge of a caveman. Dark blue eyes, cold and calculating, set beneath thick black hair, unkempt. His beard was rough, more akin to a caveman’s.. like he had lived too long on the battlefield to care for anything else.
Guoly.
But he wasn’t alone.
Beside him,
A girl.
Young. Dark green eyes that glead with sothing unreadable. Her long, packed green hair frad a face that wasn’t expressionless anymore.
No. This ti, she smiled.
Not a polite, empty curve of the lips. Not a forced attempt at composure.
A wide, hungry smile.
Then, it hit .
Agon’s words.
"A dangerous enemy always… and will always have.."
A perfect ambush.
And this...
This was theirs.....
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