Chap 185: Into Darkness

Tee realized all her teammates had left the mission base. She quickly shifted her conversation with the Lieutenant to what truly mattered.

“Lieutenant,” she said, forcing casual into her voice, “I need to be sent back. I forgot something.”

The Lieutenant, posture straight and expression as neutral as ever, didn’t move at first. Then she clasped her hands neatly at her abdomen, her gaze steady and assessing.

“What did you forget?”

Tee hesitated. There was no way to dress it up. Eventually, she sighed and came clean.

“It’s the cutest fluff ball ever,” she said, a little too fast. “An ice-saber. My life companion. For my mental health.” She paused, then added, more defensively, “Plus it’ll help strengthen my Balance Seal.”

At that exact moment—unhelpfully, inevitably—the Commander walked over. His presence seemed to fill the space, and the Lieutenant, efficient as always, immediately informed him of the situation.

The Commander frowned, confusion creasing his brow. “I don’t understand how a wild animal could help strengthen her Balance Seal.”

Tee straightened, meeting his gaze head-on. Her expression hardened into something fierce and unyielding.

“I need it,” she barked.

Silence followed, thick enough to press against her ears.

Then Tee launched into her explanation, words tumbling out with urgency. She told them how, during the mission, she’d discovered she could command mindless creatures—ice-sabers. How instinctively it had happened, how natural it felt. A controlled environment, a familiar creature—her pet—would let her practice. Hone it. Test her limits.

“It could come in handy,” she said, gesturing vaguely, “just like Kie’s telepathy.”

She didn’t elaborate on the mission details. They had taken down Legion. That much she shared. But the rest she left untouched. That was Kie’s job during the formal mission brief.

The Commander’s expression shifted, surprise cutting through his earlier skepticism.

“You took down Legion—great news, cadet.”

The Lieutenant tilted her head slightly. “Practice mind control on an animal?”

The Commander crossed his arms. “Be careful. That’s animal cruelty.”

“It’s painless,” Tee blurted out immediately—far too quickly, and with absolutely no proof to back it up.

The Lieutenant considered it, eyes narrowing slightly as she weighed protocol against circumstance. “This request will require going back to the most recent coordinates,” she said at last. “We would also need to scan the creature for any anomaly.”

Outwardly, Tee nodded, calm and compliant.

Inwardly, she gave an evil laugh.

She loved when things went her way.

Five days later, the telecom Kie had snatched away finally died of energy. It flickered weakly in his palm before going dark, like it had been holding on just long enough to spite him. He stared at the dead screen longer than he needed to, jaw tight, then shoved it into his pocket.

But later that day, he found himself getting a new one as he and his three other teammates stood in the mission base. The room hummed with charged energy and sterile light, the familiar pre-mission tension pressing in from every wall. They were about to get teleported into the modern world for another outing. It was a treat for possibly killing Legion.

Tee was not there. And their telecoms were set to individual teleportation.

That alone felt wrong.

The Commander made a subtle remark about telecoms not coming back, his tone light but his eyes calculating. But then he requested that they teleport back together so he could give an announcement. The words hung in the air longer than they should have, like a warning disguised as a courtesy.

Kie hated seeing Zod and Miko being so cuddly with each other. They stood close, shoulders brushing, fingers intertwined like it was the most natural thing in the world. More than ever, he was a loser. The thought hit him harder than usual, sinking deep and refusing to leave.

He remembered the times spent with Tee that were fun—the laughter, the stolen moments, the way things had once felt simple. Even the time in District One-thirty-four before everything turned bloody hell.

Like before, the team decided to split up.

Saeda accompanied Kie that time.

They barely spoke to each other, and Kie was uninterested in trying. His mind wasn’t there. He wondered what Tee was up to—where she was, who she was with, whether she was thinking about him at all.

They ended up seeing iced coffee—bitter, cold heaven in a plastic container, frost seeping down its sides. He stopped walking without meaning to, eyes fixed on it, then decided not to buy any.

Saeda saw him staring hard at the iced-coffee and decided to comment.

“I don’t understand how people eat that stuff.”

People?

Was she referring to Tee that way?

Annoyed, he responded, “That people you’re referring to has a name.”

Saeda, shocked, regretted her words. The realization hit her immediately, and her expression shifted from casual to wounded. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

Then he walked off with his hands in his pocket, shoulders stiff, cutting the distance between them without looking back.

That was a reminder why she needed to keep her mouth shut. She wasn’t great with starting conversations, and somehow, she always managed to say the wrong thing at the wrong time.

They spent the rest of the time at an eatery, around a table next to a glass window. The light outside faded slowly, turning the streets into moving shadows and glowing signs. Kie drank himself drunk with beer and kept staring at the happy couples passing by through the window—hands linked, heads leaned together, laughter spilling freely. It was clear he was alone, and he didn’t want to be.

How did his life turn out like that?

One day he had a mother, father, and brother.

But they were gone.

He was alone.

Even if Tee did care about him, she was a Xeno-victim. She was at the age of mutation. Not many Xeno-victims lived past thirty. She was going to die on him and take a huge chunk of him with her. He couldn’t afford that. It was good she was distancing herself.

But why did he keep the telecom? To spy on her location with the holomap? To fulfill the elders’ command to keep an eye on her?

Saeda ate her pie and watched him sparingly, glancing up only when he lifted his glass or sighed too heavily. She didn’t mind the silent company. She wasn’t in the mood for talking.

When the group regrouped and teleported, they were shocked to find the Lieutenant and the Commander both wearing wide sun hats. Between them stood an unfamiliar man with short black hair, thick black glasses, and a long green jacket that brushed past his knees. He looked more like a researcher than anything else.

The Lieutenant turned to the new arrivals, adjusted her hat and cleared her throat. “Great they’re here. Sentinels, we have an announcement.”

The Commander folded his arms behind his back, posture unusually relaxed. “We will be taking a one-week vacation.”

The room went silent.

“And during our absence,” the Lieutenant continued, gesturing toward the man beside them, “Primus HQ will be under the temporary command of the Junior Lieutenant.”

The Junior Lieutenant stepped forward, pushing his high-tech glasses higher on his nose. The lenses flickered faintly as data scrolled across them, already scanning and cataloging the Sentinels.

Zod crossed his arms, brow furrowed. “Wait. You’re both leaving? Together? Shouldn’t you alternate?”

The Commander and Lieutenant exchanged a glance—brief, unreadable, and far too synchronized.

Then the Commander replied calmly, “Why would we want to do that?”

That answer only deepened the mystery.

The Sentinels hadn’t figured out the relationship between the Commander and the Lieutenant, and at that point, they decided it was best to keep it that way.

Junior Lieutenant straightened, clearing his throat as he addressed them.

“Greetings, Sentinels. I am honored to be entrusted with command of Primus HQ during the Commander and Lieutenant’s absence. I look forward to working with you and maintaining operational excellence.”

The Sentinels looked at each other, then back at him.

As team leader, Kie felt obliged to say something amidst the silence. Scratching the back of his head, he said, “And we will do our best to cooperate and make your short time worthwhile.”

His members nodded in agreement. To end the awkwardness, they walked off and went their separate ways. Though they weren’t in mission attire and didn’t need to hit the showers, they tossed their telecoms into the chemical basket as was custom. All but Kie. He threw the old telecom, drained of its life, into the basket and kept the new one. He activated the holomap and saw Tee’s location as she left the base. Why was he stalking her? The thought left him uneasy.

After returning from another library, Tee, along with Aven and Engel, went back to the Western Time Temple to meet Hana. Tee assumed Aven had visited Hana more times than she had, since it had been over two weeks since their last meeting. As usual, Hana wore her white robe with little ornamentation, her small, wrinkled eyes beaming with life. She paused her yoga session to greet them. Yoga, after all, helped energy flow better throughout the body.

That time, Tee turned her head the other way to avoid witnessing Aven and Hana making out. She needed to prevent barfing. Engel, on the other hand, thought it was a marvelous sight—two soulmates—and smiled warmly.

While they sat around burning essence and drank body-cleansing tea, they spoke together. The conversation flowed mostly in modern tongue, with a mix of Vergant tongue slipping in every now and then.

Tee recounted her time seeing her teammates again and how Saeda’s aura-sensing was working again—as if she had been the problem.

Aven then told Tee about the mysterious Seal that someone had placed on her to block her dark side from being detected. It had been destroyed with the creation of the Balance Seal inside her.

Tee gasped. “You mean that was the interference? That mysterious Seal?” She looked at Aven questioningly and added, “When did you know about this Seal?”

Aven spoke calmly as he sipped his tea. “After entering your Verge for the first time, I beheld the mysterious Seal. The elders and many others were informed about it later. Judging by your question, I assume you are only now becoming aware.”

Tee’s expression mirrored Aven’s as she also sipped her tea. It was not the moment for strong emotions. After some internal thinking, she decided to come clean.

“I knew Sade before coming to Primus,” she said.

“Sade. The main sorcerer of the Harbingers,” Aven added. “I knew. I saw him in your Verge as well.”

That time, Tee could not remain calm.

“What!” she blurted.

Aven lowered his cup and met her with his deep red eyes. “Sade must have been the one who put that mysterious Seal on you.”

Tee dropped her raised brows and went silent, thinking. She gasped, then looked up at each of them with tightly knitted brows. “That makes so much sense. The Harbingers—they want me. But since my dark side has been pacified, I’m probably of no use to them.” She shrugged.

“It doesn’t matter,” Aven said. “You ultimately decide your fate.”

Tee smiled at those words of trust.

While on the topic of her teammates, Tee went on to tell them how she could control creatures of low intelligence. Though the control was not permanent, it was pretty cool. She took Aven and Engel to a spot in the large garden outside the main library, where she kept her ice-saber pet.

Both Aven and Engel were dumbstruck. The ice-saber lay flat on the ground with its tongue hanging out, its chest rising and falling hard.

“Is it having a stroke?” Engel asked.

They eventually got the ice-saber shaved and built an ice igloo with freezing stations to keep it frozen. The ice-saber became livelier inside its new home and began running about near the waters.

She decided to name it Patience, since it had waited for her— even if she had controlled it to do so.

Aven clarified that she was not actually controlling the creatures, but rather creating comprehension of order from a superior being. It created fear in disobeying.

Back at the Primus main library teleportation station, Tee was once more drawn toward the door with the chains. She was determined and knew the library had chosen that door for her to learn more about the Xenogene.

Aven said, “That door takes you to Voidmere. The village is profound for its study of dark sorcery.”

Engel gulped loudly. “You may not want to go there.”

Tee knitted her brows in a serious look. “Nonsense. The Xenogene is linked to dark energy, making that place exactly where we need to go.”

Aven and Engel glanced at each other. They knew when a person’s mind was made up.

Tee stepped closer to the door. The chains disappeared, and it opened for her. The archway was pitch black. An unsettling feeling twisted in her stomach. She didn’t know what was on the other side, but knowing it might lead to a cure gave her courage. She stepped through.