I am awake...
That was the only thought echoing in my mind as the blinding sunlight seared through the cracks of my prison. My body, long unused and aching with dormant strength, twitched with an unnatural energy. I had awoken in rage, confusion, and grief all wrapped in a trembling heartbeat. I didn't remember rising. I didn't remember stepping into the open. All I remembered was the scream in my bones that pushed me forward.
Clouds moved, people moved, the world turned—but it all meant nothing.
"Where are they!?" I snarled without knowing who I meant. My hands lashed out against stone and steel, crushing supports, shattering the ground beneath me. I saw two figures in the sky. Strangers. Enemies. Monsters.
No, they weren't monsters.
I was.
"You see them?" a voice hissed in my mind. It was smooth, cold, and familiar.
"I see them," I whispered.
"They are why you hurt. They watched. They laughed. They let Syris die."
"Syris..."
His name cracked against the walls of my skull. It shattered what little stillness I had.
The taller one flew with ease, carrying the other as if weightless. They glowed like suns. I hated them.
"WHAT AM I DOING!?" I screamed mid-leap, scaling a pillar that crumbled in my grasp.
"You are freeing yourself."
"Freeing...?"
Another voice answered. This one was trembling, cracked. It sounded like me.
"You are giving in again. Just like before. You want to hurt them because you want to hurt yourself."
"NO!"
"Then stop."
But I couldn't. My body surged. The agony of remembering Syris' quiet laugh, his cautious words, his hand on my shoulder—they all drove me forward.
"Kill them," the cold voice whispered. "You'll feel whole again."
"I DON'T WANT TO!" I screamed again, tearing through a metal pipe like it was thread.
The glowing one turned.
"That's enough," he said. His voice boomed, not with malice but with restraint.
A red beam seared toward me. It was blinding. It tore across my chest and threw me backward. I should've collapsed.
Instead, my body trembled, then stilled.
"You see?" I muttered. "Even your pain doesn't stop me."
My skin hardened, glowing with new resilience. I felt it—my cells shifting, adapting. The beam's power no longer reached me.
I could feel the sky. The wind. The temperature. The pressure. I felt everything and I told my body:
Adapt.
And so, I flew.
Badly.
I stumbled through the air, careening like a ragdoll, flailing to control each burst of movement. But I flew.
The taller one looked back. Alarm in his eyes. The other—the younger, dark-haired one—clung to him, looking equally stunned.
"WHAT AM I DOING!?" I cried again. My hands scraped at the wind as though trying to catch answers.
The voices answered.
"This is what you want."
"You're doing what they deserve."
"You're not meant to forgive."
"You are rage. You are power. You are alone."
"You are justice."
I sobbed.
"You are a monster," one voice whispered softly, almost with pity.
"I know," I said.
My tears flew from my eyes, catching in the rushing air. I hovered for a moment, chest heaving, vision blurred.
"KILL ME!" I screamed to the sky. My voice echoed, but no one answered.
"KILL ME!"
No blast came.
No end. No justice. No release.
Just the silence.
A heavy, brutal silence.
I slowed, floating now, suspended in air like a lifeless cloud.
"You want to die?" the cold voice asked.
"Yes."
"Then why are you flying?"
"Because... I can."
"Then live. And hurt. And remember."
The other voices fell silent. Only that one remained. The one that never left me. The one I feared most. My own.
It spoke no words, only thoughts. Guilt. Shame. The echo of Syris' name.
I clutched my chest.
"Syris, I'm sorry."
His face appeared in my memory—not as he died, but as he lived. Smiling, frail, warm.
I remembered the day I adapted to hunger. He gave me food even when he hadn't eaten in days.
I remembered when I first resisted thirst. He made jokes about sharing cactus water like adventurers in old tales.
I remembered the last night. His eyes. His silent understanding.
And then he was gone.
"NOW LOOK AT ME!" I screamed to the clouds.
The world below paused in shock. People stared. The flying figures stayed just out of reach.
"Look what I've become."
My voice cracked like glass.
"Now it's been about a month..."
The winds rustled louder.
"I don't know why, but everything around me has developed so fast."
I lowered myself slowly, hovering inches above the ruined floor.
"I feel like I'm never gonna forgive myself."
Silence answered.
And I didn't fight it this time.