Nate ran.
His breath ca in deep, controlled bursts, his arms cradling Sera's limp body as his feet pounded against the rough ground, his enhanced speed propelling them forward through the darkness. He didn't look back. He didn't slow down. Not until the overwhelming sensation of sothing chasing him—sothing watching him—finally faded.
Only then did he allow himself to stop.
His body tensed as he scanned the surroundings, his heartbeat pounding in his ears, his muscles coiled and ready for any sign of pursuit. But there was nothing. No monstrous presence. No lingering sensation of unseen eyes boring into him. Just the heavy silence of the land around them.
Only then did he look down at the girl in his arms.
Sera felt… light.
Too light.
A frown crossed his face as he carefully lowered her to the ground, his hands steady but cautious. Sothing was wrong. He could feel it before he even saw it.
And then—
His eyes widened.
Darkness swirled around her, curling in tendrils like living shadows, twisting and shifting as if they had a will of their own. The shapes moved in eerie silence, circling her body, hovering just above her skin, but not like an attack—like a force protecting her.
Like they were a part of her.
Nate took a slow, hesitant step back.
"What the hell…?"
Sera had never shown any abilities before. He had spent enough ti around her to know that she was just a normal girl, soone who had grown up on the run, soone who had survived through instinct, not power.
So why was this happening now?
His mind raced.
Then it hit him.
The explosion in the tunnel.
The surge of energy.
It had changed her.
His hands twitched at his sides as he reached forward, intending to shake her awake, to snap her out of whatever this was—
But his fingers passed right through her.
His breath caught.
For a split second, it felt like she wasn't even there. Like she was slipping between reality and sothing else entirely.
His eyes flickered over her body, noticing sothing else that sent a fresh wave of shock through him—
Her wounds.
The bruises on her wrists. The cuts on her face. The damage from her bindings—
They were healing.
Not just healing.
They were closing at an unnatural speed, the swirling shadows nding her flesh as if ti itself was reversing.
Then—
A sharp gasp cut through the air.
Sera's eyes snapped open.
She choked on her breath, her body jerking violently as if she had been ripped from drowning waters, her hands clawing at the ground, her lungs sucking in frantic gulps of air.
And then—
Her fingers latched onto his.
Nate barely had ti to react before she gripped him tightly, her hold like iron, her entire body trembling as if she had just been reborn into a nightmare.
"Sera!"
She was shaking, her breaths uneven, panic still clouding her eyes.
Nate moved quickly, his other hand pressing gently against her shoulder, trying to steady her. "It's okay," he said firmly, his voice cutting through her panic. "You're safe. I got you."
The mont his voice registered, sothing shifted in her expression. Her breathing slowed just a little, the wild panic dimming enough for her eyes to focus on him.
The shadows around her—disappeared.
She exhaled a shuddering breath, her fingers loosening just slightly from his.
A long silence stretched between them before, finally, her voice broke through, hoarse but urgent.
"…User," she whispered, barely above a breath.
Nate frowned. "What?"
"User," she said again, more clearly this ti, urgency bleeding into her tone as she pushed herself upright, her body still shaking but determined. "He—he knew. He knew about . He knew about my origins. He—" She sucked in another breath, steadying herself. "He sold out. That's why I was captured."
Nate's expression hardened.
User.
That bastard.
His mind flashed back to when she had first been taken. He had wondered how she had ended up in the king's hands so quickly. How they had known exactly what she was.
Now he knew.
User had betrayed her.
But before Nate could even say anything, Sera suddenly pushed herself up completely, eyes widening as realization dawned over her face.
"I have to go back."
Her voice was urgent.
More than urgent.
Desperate.
She stumbled forward, as if she was ready to start running right this second.
Nate imdiately grabbed her wrist. "Whoa—hold on. What do you an, 'go back'?"
She turned to him, her entire body tense with urgency. "User is going to kill them."
Nate stared. "Kill who?"
"My people," Sera said, her voice raw. "If he gets to them before , he will kill them all."
That didn't make sense.
User had grown up with them. He had lived among them, just like her. "Wait—why the hell would he kill his own people?" Nate demanded.
But Sera shook her head.
"He was never one of us," she said, her voice firm. "They picked him up when he was a kid. Just like ."
Nate's jaw clenched. Another lie. Another damn deception.
But Sera wasn't focused on that right now.
"It doesn't matter," she said quickly, shaking her head. "What matters is that I have to get back. I have to stop him before it's too late."
She turned, her hands clenched into fists, her legs tense as if she was ready to start running despite the impossibility of it.
Because it was impossible.
Nate knew that.
She knew that.
They were days away from Ket-Ra on foot.
Even if they started running now, they wouldn't make it in ti.
The realization must have hit her, too, because her shoulders trembled slightly. Her hands gripped her sides, frustration rolling off her in waves.
Nate exhaled slowly.
Then, after a long mont, he spoke.
"I might be able to get you there."
Sera's head snapped toward him.
"…What?"
Nate t her gaze.
"The sa way I got you out of that tunnel," he said simply. "You didn't see it, but I—" He hesitated, searching for the right words. "I am Fast. Faster than you can imagine ."
Sera stared. Then, finally, she swallowed, nodding once.
"…Then let's go."
Nate held out his hand.
She took it.
And as soon as she did—
Lightning crackled in his eyes.
The air around them shifted, charged with raw energy.
Then—
With a single step—
Nate vanished.
And in that instant Nate tore through the land like a storm given form, his body a re blur against the vast, desolate plains as he surged forward with impossible speed, the very air cracking in protest at his passage, the ground beneath him trembling with the sheer force of his montum. The wind roared in Sera's ears, whipping her hair wildly around her face, but she could do nothing—she couldn't even think. Everything around her dissolved into streaks of color, the world lting into an indistinct sar of shadows and blurred landscapes, her mind failing to process what was happening. This wasn't just speed; this wasn't sothing a re human could accomplish. What Nate was doing right now defied reality itself. It was the kind of power spoken of in myths, the kind that only belonged to the gods in the ancient tales she had grown up hearing whispered around fires.
She had no sense of ti, no sense of direction—only the overwhelming force of movent, the unrelenting rush that left her breathless, her body frozen in stunned silence. The pressure was imnse, as though she were caught in the grasp of a great unseen force, an unstoppable tide dragging her forward. But just as quickly as it had begun, it ended.
Nate ca to an abrupt stop, his muscles locking in place as the world snapped back into sharp clarity. The sudden lack of motion sent a wave of dizziness through Sera, and she nearly stumbled as her feet touched the ground, her legs trembling as she fought to steady herself. She blinked rapidly, struggling to focus, her mind still reeling from what had just happened. Then, as her vision cleared, she turned her gaze forward—and her breath caught in her throat.
Her camp lay before her, stretched out under the fading light of the sky. But sothing was wrong. Terribly, horribly wrong.
The once-lively settlent, which should have been filled with the sound of children playing, with rchants shouting as they bargained over goods, with the clatter of tools and the murmur of voices—it was silent. Deathly silent.
A deep chill settled over her skin, sinking into her bones. Her heart pounded violently against her ribs as she took a hesitant step forward, her pulse roaring in her ears. Where was everyone?
Her mind scread at her to move, to search, to find them.
Without hesitation, she sprinted toward the nearest hut, shoving aside the tattered cloth that served as its entrance. Empty. The small firepit in the center was cold, the ashes undisturbed.
She turned sharply and ran to another. Empty.
Another. Empty.
Panic clawed at her chest as she ran through the camp, checking every ho, every hidden corner, her breath growing more ragged with each passing second. "Cleo!" she called, her voice shaking, raw with desperation. "Cleo, answer !"
No reply.
Her hands trembled as she reached for another door, as she called another na, but there was nothing—no laughter, no whispered voices, no familiar faces peeking out from behind curtains. It was as if everyone had simply vanished, leaving nothing behind but the hollow echo of their absence.
And then—
From sowhere deeper within the camp, Nate slled sothing horrible in the air as fly flew all around.
And then he saw them.
All of them.
Or rather—what remained of them.
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