The hospital waiting hall was a battlefield of its own.
Keifer had thrown the metal bench across the room, screaming at the officers.
"You DIDN'T search the basement! The tunnels! The back exits! SHE CAN'T BE GONE—SHE CAN'T—YOU HEAR ME?!"
Michael and Angelo held him back, both barely steady themselves.
"Keifer, STOP—" Michael choked out.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Keifer roared, eyes bloodshot, chest heaving. "SHE SAVED ME! SHE CHOSE ME—AND NOW YOU'RE TELLING ME YOU LOST HER?!"
Aries was hunched in the corner, sobbing silently, fingers buried in his hair.
Percy was punching the wall until his knuckles bled.
"She called my name," Percy whispered, voice shaking. "I was right there—right there—and I STILL couldn't— couldn't save her—"
Mayo was crying into Kit's shoulder, Cin clinging to Felix as if she'd collapse without him.
Blaster sat on the floor, head buried in his arms.Drew, Calix, Eman, David, Denzel, Rory—all broken.SEC-E wasn't a team tonight. They were a grieving family.
And Keifer—
Keifer was a storm.
A monster of pain.
A man losing the only light he ever had.
He slammed his bleeding fist into the wall again, screaming—
"BRING HER BACK! SHE PROMISED— SHE PROMISED—"
No one could stop him.
No one could calm him.
Aries sobbed harder. Percy collapsed.Everyone cried.
They weren't losing a friend.
They were losing their heart.
But Keifer—Keifer was the worst.
For the first time since Serina, he cried.Not silent tears.Not holding-it-in like a man who knows how to control his heart.
This time…
He broke.
He screamed into his hands, shaking, body curling forward as if pain itself was crushing him alive."WHY WOULD SHE DO THAT FOR ME?! WHY ME?! Why couldn't I save her back… just once…"
His voice tore through everyone there.
Nobody knew how to help him.Because Jay wasn't just important to him.
She was his home.
Far from the chaos, in a quiet, guarded corner of another hospital building…
Jay lay on a bed, hooked to monitors, her body bruised, burnt, stitched.
Beeping.
Slow.
Steady.
The doctor sighed.
"She's in a coma… yet she is fighting. Her brain keeps trying to wake her, again and again. She wants to come back. There is… a small chance."
A boy sat beside her.
The same boy who carried her out of the flames.
His name remained unspoken. Hidden.
He held her hand gently, his eyes reflecting guilt and fear.
"You're strong," he whispered. "Stronger than all of us. But… please don't push yourself too hard."
Jay flinched suddenly.
Her fingers curled.
Her lips trembled.
Her head moved as if in a dream—fighting, reaching, calling.
Inside her unconsciousness, she saw Keifer walking away in smoke, fading, disappearing.
Jay reached for him desperately.
"K…eifer…"
Her voice barely escaped her lips, soft but real.
The boy's chest tightened painfully.Hearing her call another man's name—while he held her hand—It hurt.More than the knife he forced himself to stab into Keifer's side.More than watching Kaizer betray everything.
But he still smiled shakily behind the mask.
"At least… you're waking up."
Jay's breathing hitched again—like she was trying to break through the surface of sleep.
He squeezed her hand gently.
"I didn't contact them," he whispered, lowering his head."If they know you're alive… Kaizer and your stepfather will know too."
His voice cracked, softer, afraid.
"And they will come back to finish what they started."
He brushed a tear off her cheek with trembling fingers.
"So… I'll keep you hidden. Until you can stand."A pause."Until Keifer can hold you again without losing you."
Jay's eyes fluttered.
Her fingers curled weakly around his.
He froze.
Slowly—she opened her eyes.
Barely.
Just a sliver.
But enough.
She breathed one broken word:
"…Keifer?"
And the masked boy beside her…
He let out a breath that sounded like relief and heartbreak tangled together.
"You're safe," he whispered. "Even if you're not with him yet… you're safe."
Except the boy who betrayed everyone to save the one girl he couldn't stop protecting.
Jay looked like a ghost trying to return to her body.
he sat beside her—silent, shoulders tense, fingers gripping the edge of the chair so tight his knuckles had turned white. His clothes were still stained with dust and smoke. He hadn't moved since they brought her in.
He wasn't supposed to be here.
He wasn't supposed to care.
But he did.
Jay twitched—again. Her eyelids fluttered, her fingers tightening over the blanket.
The monitor beeped sharply.
She whispered something—barely a breath, barely a sound.
"…Kei…fer…"
he froze.The words hit him like a knife.
It hurt—god, it hurt—but a small, broken smile still touched his lips.
"At least…" he whispered shakily, "…you're still fighting for something."
Jay's breathing grew faster, uneven—like she was trapped between worlds.Her dream-self screaming.Her real-self trying to claw her way back.
"Keifer…" she whispered again, this time louder, a tear slipping from the corner of her eye.
man swallowed hard.
"You can't get up," he murmured softly. "Not yet. If they know you survived… they'll come finish it."
Jay's fingers twitched again—trying to reach out, trying to feel Keifer's warmth, trying to find him.
man leaned closer, voice shaking.
"I haven't contacted them. I can't. Kaizer… and your stepdad… they're still out there. If they find out you're alive… it's over."
Jay's breath hitched, her lips trembling like she wanted to speak.
man hesitated, then brushed a strand of hair off her face with trembling fingers.
"They think you're gone," he whispered."And I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… but it's the only way to keep you breathing."
Jay's eyelids fluttered harder.
Her heart monitor spiked.
Her hand lifted—slow, weak, shaking—but it lifted.
She grabbed man's sleeve.
Her voice cracked out in a desperate whisper—
"Keifer… don't… leave…"
A tear fell from his face and landed on her knuckles.
"Don't worry," he whispered hoarsely. "He won't. He… he's breaking without you."
Jay's eyes drifted closed again, exhausted, slipping back into unconsciousness—but no longer sinking.
Fighting.
Coming back.
Alive.
Still alive.
And no one knew.
doctor "she is fine for now, but she need rest"