Chap 121: Furnace of Rage

The bright blue sky told her it was the time of day she would normally be in classes. But the blossoming trees and unfamiliar faces drifting by weren’t from her Academy. That memory was from her last Free Week before entering the terrifying Mid-Guard. Brenda and Warren spent the break with their families, so it had been just her and Jack.

He loved swings—said they made him feel like he was flying. But because the park and the recreation space at her clinic were the only places he could use them, he was deprived. The other swings at the park were occupied, and she spent nearly an hour waiting before she finally asked for a turn. Tee swore the only reason he accompanied her to the park was to give his full attention to those swings. He didn’t give a damn about her.

Well… until he made her swing with him on his lap. Moments like that always made her wonder if he was trying too hard to act distant. Could it be that he still remembered what they used to mean to each other?

After that day at the park, Tee tried her luck and invited him to a Pro–Xeno-victim concert. But that time would be different—they would be alone, and both were aware they were coverts. They arrived early and actually enjoyed the concert rather than showing up late to trash the place.

Tee remembered her ears buzzing from the loud rock music once it ended. She wondered if the low cap covering her ears had made it worse, but she refused to take it off—her white hair was an unmistakable marker.

They stayed outside near the train tracks, laughing at the videos they captured during the concert. One guy had jumped from the stage expecting the crowd to catch him, but no one lifted a hand, and he crashed straight onto the ground. They had to rush him out for medical care. Some people were far too reckless.

“We should do this again,” younger Tee told Jack as she tucked her phone away.

“Man, I feel great. It has to be something about the music.” Jack started punching the air and kicking like he was practicing kung fu. “It’s that pumped feeling I get after watching a superhero movie.”

Tee laughed—Jack was funny without trying—but then a harsh voice echoed from a nearby train tunnel, wiping the smile from her face.

“You feel invincible, huh? Like you can take on all three of us here?”

Tee and Jack looked around. They barely registered the handful of people rushing off until they noticed three figures emerging from the tunnel. They wore different colored masks and uniforms, but each bore the same golden badge.

One of them pointed a bat at them. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you two were Xeno-victims.” He spat beside his boot and swung the bat, smashing down one of the event signs.

“Yeah,” said another voice—a woman’s.

Tee and Jack turned. The speaker was another MG official dressed entirely in grey, blending almost perfectly into the concrete around her.

“Only scum come to these damn Pro–Xeno-victim concerts to bloat their self-esteem. Pathetic.”

Young Tee grabbed Jack’s arm. “Jack, let’s go—”

Jack yanked his arm free and stood his ground. “Oh yeah? What if we are Xeno-victims?” He glared straight at one of the masked officials.

Young Tee froze as though something sharp had pierced through her whole body. The smack of another sign hitting the ground made her jump. She turned just in time to see Jack stepping forward, eyes locked on the MG off approaching him.

The official looked Jack up and down, then glanced left and right. “Well, that would be too bad, since I’m not seeing any crest on you.” He slapped his bat into his palm and spoke sharply. “Crests are to be in plain sight at all times, and since I’m not seeing any on you, I’m afraid I’m going to have to teach you a lesson.”

Why was that MG off so quick to decide Jack was a Xeno-victim? He wasn’t. He just despised Xeno-victims—and anyone who supported them. He was using Jack’s what-if statement against him. She imagined the excuses running through that MG off’s tiny brain.

The kid said he was a Xeno-victim, so he was just teaching him a lesson to wear his crest in plain sight. He didn’t mean to hurt the boy.

Tee hated that the faces of the MG offs weren’t clear enough in her memory to track them down. But she remembered there was one whose face she had marked.

Jack’s yell of pain struck young Tee like a slap, and she whipped around just in time to see him crash into the ground. The blood he coughed up made her squeeze her eyes shut, trying to block out the memory.

“Get her too!” one of the officials shouted.

“Tee, run!” Jack yelled. The loud thud right after was him being kicked in the face.

Jack’s shaky shriek hit her ears, and all five senses exploded with alarm. But she froze. In a brief glimpse, she saw Jack look up from the ground, unable to meet her eyes before a thick boot with a metal front slammed into his face with a heavy whump. His blond bangs whipped to one side with a harsh crack.

“Jack!” Tee heard her younger self scream.

Her brows knitted as she watched the memory play out. There was no pain in her chest, no shiver, no tears running down her cheeks. Those reactions usually came—reminders that she was still in a dream, and needed to wake up.

Jack crashed onto the ground again and rolled onto his left side, his back facing her. He didn’t yelp that time. The short gurgle came from blood blocking his nostrils, making it hard to breathe. The loud gasp was him trying to pull air through his mouth.

Young Tee’s brows sank into her wide eyes, her jaw hanging open. She took one step toward Jack before looking up at the two MG officials charging at her. The fast blurs behind their heads were eventgoers fleeing like startled animals.

In that instant, her mind finally understood what Jack had yelled. Danger jolted through her, snapping her out of her frozen state. Young Tee spun around and sprinted toward the open floor of the nearby mall.

The MG officials froze, and everything around Tee blurred. Why did she expect anything different in that strict dream? She ran after her younger self into the mall.

Her thoughts of leaving Jack behind stopped her from going any farther. Her frantic mind searched for a place to hide—and found one.

Tee crouched beside her young, shaking self behind a thick concrete column. All she could think about was Jack. She should never have asked him to come with her to that concert. He was going to despise her after that. It was all her fault. But what was happening to him?

Young Tee leaned sideways, back pressed to the column, and peeked out. Seeing a few people passing through the mall entrance gave her hope—until she spotted a man in uniform turning his head in every direction. One of the MG offs. When his gaze began to swing toward her, she ducked back behind the column.

“There you are!” a grown man shouted, followed by fast, heavy steps slapping the smooth floor.

Young Tee darted her eyes downward and saw the top of a shadow sliding toward her. Her chest expanded with one final breath, and she squeezed her eyes shut.

Tee remembered wanting to escape—and wanting to get beaten up. If both she and Jack were hurt, maybe he wouldn’t hate her as much.

“Got-yah!”

Young Tee ripped her eyes open but what she saw was not an MG off’s furious face. Her view of the mall shot forward at super-fast speed, straight toward the entrance. Colors blurred past. The MG off zipped by along with everything else as her vision left the mall at lightning speed. She retraced the path she’d run, until she saw the man kicking Jack’s limp body again and again.

Young Tee snapped out of the foreseeing vision, the left side of her lip twitching. The slight headache was nothing compared to the furnace of rage burning inside her. Jack couldn’t even move, and that monster was still kicking him. And for what? The scream she held inside numbed her hearing.

The veins in her neck bulged as she rose to her feet. Her fists shook—not from fear, but from the desperate need to break something.

“Yeah, Tee, go get ’em!” Tee yelled at herself.

She looked around to confirm the MG off who had been searching for her was gone, just like back then. If that dream played out like her usual nightmares, he’d be lying flat in a pool of blood by then. But that didn’t matter—she was about to witness something just as satisfying.

Young Tee stepped out from behind the column and yanked the cap off her head. Whatever she was about to do, she wanted those suckers to see her face. She marched back the way she came, and Tee followed.

Her vision shifted again, showing distances far ahead, but she didn’t question it. Her mind was fixed on the man she had watched kick Jack over and over. She gritted her teeth, fists tightening with every step.

The MG official lowered the hand gripping Jack’s shirt when a blur entered his peripheral vision. His blue eyes widened when he saw the girl with white hair marching straight toward him.

“What the…?” he muttered. His eyes narrowed with recognition. “You’re that girl who ran off, aren’t you?”

A quick glance to both sides told him the other MG offs were too busy to deal with her. The low chuckle behind his mask meant he was pleased to be the one to handle her. He dropped the “loser” to the ground and stepped over Jack’s head, marching toward the brave little witch.

“Who does this damn girl think she is?” He smacked one fist into his palm. “I won’t need my bat to handle you.”

Tee tipped her head back and laughed at the ceiling. When no echo returned, she remembered—right, dream. That guy was all bark and no bite. She stopped laughing and rushed ahead to a spot where she could watch the show.

Young Tee looked past the MG off’s glaring blue eyes to the ground behind him. Jack lay on his back, his rising chest the only proof he was still alive. His once pale face was swollen and purple, blond bangs smeared with blood. But the small cracks of blue between his lashes meant his eyes were open. Whatever agony he was in would be nothing compared to what that sucker was about to feel.

The MG off was one foot away when he swung a fist at her head.

Her palm caught it.

Before his eyes could widen, his wrist twisted with a loud snap.

“Aaaaaah!”

His shaky shrill drowned out the cracking bones. He tugged at his arm to free himself, then froze. The way he pressed his face to the ground, wrinkles tightening around squinting eyes, told Tee he had just made the pain worse.

The other MG offs—busy kicking bodies and smashing event signs—froze. They snapped their heads toward the source of the scream. Their faces were just as blurry as they had been in her real memory of that day, but Tee could easily imagine the thoughts running through their heads…

Surely that girl-like scream couldn’t have come from their buddy. It had to be from the girl who… had his fist trapped in her right palm. But then… why was their buddy bending his knees and twisting his back like he was in agony? Oh—right. Clearly they were doing a dance battle!

But the moment her younger self’s pale eyes filled completely black, Tee stopped trying to think like MG offs. Her imagination shut down under the shock tugging at her eyeballs.

Her younger self smiled, and there was nothing but darkness where teeth should have been. The smile—curving unnaturally wide toward both sides of those blackened eyes—made her brows knit hard. Tee blinked and stepped back. It stayed.

What the freck was she looking at? That didn’t happen. Was her dream mutating into a nightmare?

Young Tee moved her lips to speak, but the voice that came out was not hers. A deep, thundering voice echoed through the nearby tunnel, perfectly synced with her lip movements.

“You seem to pride these hands of yours… Let me fix that.”

The other MG offs bolted the instant that body-shaking voice and that eerie smile hit their senses. Tee watched their blurred bodies in uniforms and masks scatter out of sight. The lack of any gut reaction reminded her she was still dreaming… but did that really happen? She remembered them running before she handled the guy’s arm but—

Her younger self kicked the MG off’s right leg, forcing him onto his knees. With his hand still locked in her grip, she stepped behind him and planted the sole of her foot between his shoulder blades. His back straightened sharply. In a blink, he was screaming at the ceiling, eyes squeezed shut from the blinding pain.

Young Tee wrenched his arm around to his back, snapping the shoulder joint clean out of place. When she released it, the arm swung uselessly at his side like a metal seat on a swing.

She grabbed him by the hair before he could collapse. She yanked off the mask covering his mouth and stared at his trembling, wet face. The scar on his left jaw. The blue eyes. She had memorized that face—the monster of that day. But she never saw him again.

Tee watched her younger self walk to Jack, ignoring the low moans from bodies scattered across the ground. She gently looped his arm behind her neck and lifted him. Jack’s head hung, his steps uneven as she guided him forward in slow, careful movements.

“Let’s go home…”