Chapter 90 Confusion
Kai's POV
Once we stepped out of the room we came across Dr. Voss but we couldn't reach out to her and supposedly she wasn't seeing us. She passed through us, like a knife passing through water.
"Are you seeing what's happening?" I asked Zara.
"Yeah I am." She responded.
"It's really weird for real."
My system glitched again. My head began pounding seriously. I wasn't seeing clearly. I had to retrace my steps just till I found a place to learn my frame.
"Kai are you good?" She questioned.
I just nodded briefly. Several memories passed through my head but the I felt a spider web build in my mind. Then everything went blank.
"Kai..." I heard someone call out on a worried tone.
I felt someone touch me. Yet their touch didn't seem familiar.
"Kai..." The person called out once again still shaking my tall frame.
"Get away from me." I yelled out.
I felt so uncomfortable still leaning on that wall. It was like I lost my senses. I couldn't remember anything at that moment.
"Kai.... It's me Zara." She said.
"I don't know you." I said in a clipped tone.
Just then a scruffy old man in scrubs stepped out of a room into the corridor I was standing.
"He's having a minor dementia." The old man said.
"Will he be fine?" The lady asked.
"He needs to be taken down while I reset a few things in him." He responded.
I felt the lady's eye twitch. Then the memory hit me harder than anything else. Silver cities burning. The scruffy old man was in my memory but this time, he appeared as a white wolf. His specie was different from any other kind of wolf I had ever seen. He was seated directly below the full moon.
"I'm yours to do with as you please." I said confidently as I bowed to his wolf.
This scruffy old man was the moon goddess. All my memories came rushing back like water gushing out from a rock. Apparently Prof Ajax was not who he appeared to be. Why wasn't he saying the truth?
Did he want to harm us?
"I'm sorry about pushing you away." I said to Zara with my eyes facing the ground.
She stood her stance a bit far away from me.
"It's fine." She said.
Looking up to face her, I caught tears pooling at the end of her eyelids. Then fear....
My wolf purred within me. She was scared and afraid for me.
My wolf purred within me. She was scared and afraid for me.
That realization cut deeper than the pain still echoing in my skull. Zara had seen me unravel before. She had watched me lose control, watched my mind fracture and rebuild itself in pieces she didn’t recognize. But this was different. This time, the fear in her eyes wasn’t about my rage or my power. It was about my absence. About the possibility that one day I would look at her and feel nothing at all.
“I didn’t mean it,” I said quietly.
“When I told you to get away. I didn’t know who I was.”
Her lips parted like she wanted to say something sharp, something defensive, but nothing came out. Instead, she nodded once, stiffly.
“I know,” she said.
“At least… I want to believe that.”
The corridor around us hummed faintly, the sound vibrating beneath my feet like a living thing. People moved past us again now, laughing, arguing, existing like nothing strange had happened. Whatever veil had dropped earlier was back in place. Or maybe we had been pushed back into it.
“I saw him,” I said suddenly.
Zara looked up at me.
“Saw who?”
“The Moon Goddess,” I replied.
“Not as a story. Not as a myth. As him.”
Her breath caught.
“You’re sure?”
“I bowed to him,” I said, the memory still vivid.
“I pledged myself. And I remember why.”
She stepped closer, lowering her voice.
“Then tell me. Because none of this makes sense anymore, Kai. Voss. Ajax. The memory wipes. You glitching like you’re a broken machine. Tell me why this feels like we’re being herded toward something.”
I dragged a hand down my face, exhaustion settling into my bones.
“Because we are."
I leaned back against the wall, letting its cool surface steady me.
“This academy isn’t just training us. It’s testing us. Breaking us. Resetting us when we don’t fit the outcome they want.”
“And what outcome is that?” she asked.
I met her gaze.
“A future where monsters are predictable.”
Her jaw tightened.
“And we’re the monsters.”
“Yes.“
For a moment, neither of us spoke. The weight of it pressed down on my chest, heavy and familiar. I had been created to be many things. A weapon. A bridge. A failsafe. But never free.
“I think Professor Ajax knows,” I continued.
“Or at least… he knew at some point. But he’s chosen silence.”
“Why?” Zara asked bitterly.
“Why lie to us?”
“Because the truth would change us,” I said.
“And they don’t want that yet.”
She laughed softly, without humor.
“They’ve already changed us.”
Before I could respond, a sharp tone sliced through the air. Not an alarm this time. A summons.
Every screen along the corridor flickered to life at once.
ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS
MANDATORY ASSEMBLY
TRAINING DOME C
IMMEDIATE ATTENDANCE REQUIRED
Zara’s shoulders tensed.
“Training,” she repeated.
“That’s what they call punishment now.”
My wolf stirred uneasily.
“Voss won’t let this go,” I said.
“Not after what just happened.”
Zara squared her shoulders.
“Then we don’t give her what she wants.”
We joined the flow of students moving toward the dome, but every step felt wrong, like walking willingly into a snare. The training dome loomed ahead, its metallic surface reflecting the artificial sky above us. The doors slid open with a hiss, swallowing us whole.
Inside, the air was thick with tension.
Students lined the perimeter, whispering nervously. At the center of the dome stood Dr. Voss, hands clasped behind her back, posture immaculate. Professor Ajax was there too, standing off to the side, his expression unreadable.
My gaze locked onto him. He met my eyes briefly, then looked away.
Coward.
“Today’s session will be… adaptive,” Voss announced.
“You will be pushed beyond your current limits. This is not punishment. This is preparation.”
No one believed her.
Her eyes swept the room and stopped on Zara.
“You,” she said calmly.
“Step forward.”
Zara’s fingers twitched at her side. I felt the bond between us strain, vibrating with warning.
I stepped forward with her.
“If she goes, I go.”
Voss smiled thinly.
“Of course you do.”
The floor beneath us shifted, panels rearranging themselves into a circular platform. Energy crackled faintly along its edges.
“Zara,” Voss continued.
"You’ve been exhibiting… anomalies. Strength spikes. Emotional surges. A tendency to resist conditioning.”
Zara lifted her chin.
“Is that a crime now?”
“It is a liability,” Voss replied.
“One we intend to correct.”
The platform hummed louder. I felt it immediately. A pull. Not on my body, but on something deeper. On the part of me that wasn’t entirely my own.
Zara gasped, dropping to one knee.
“Stop,” I snapped, stepping closer to her.
“Stay where you are,” Voss said coolly.
“This is her trial.”
Zara clenched her fists, teeth gritted as the energy intensified. I could feel it too now, tugging at the bond, trying to isolate her from me.
“Kai,” she whispered, panic threading through her voice.
“I can’t… I can’t hold it back.”
I knelt in front of her despite Voss’s sharp glare.
“Look at me,” I said firmly.
“Don’t fight it alone. Hold on to me.”
“But they’ll see,” she gasped.
“Let them,” I said.
“I’m not letting you break.”
Our foreheads touched. The bond flared, bright and defiant. I poured everything into it. Every memory of her laugh as well.