The amusement park looked deceptively calm in daylight.
No smoke, no screams — just the distant hum of cameras and the faint chatter of contestants pretending to be fine.
Aria wasn't pretending.
She was calculating.
Every rustle of wind, every flicker of light from a passing drone told her something.
She knew when someone was watching, even if they didn't know she knew.
And right now, everyone was watching.
"Miss Lane!" the host called cheerfully, mic already in hand. "Feeling ready for today's challenge?"
"Always," she said, smiling. "Though I'd prefer one that doesn't involve running or dying."
He laughed awkwardly. "Ha, ha! Don't we all!"
---
The new challenge was a "rescue mission."
Each team had to retrieve an unconscious "civilian" dummy from a mock crash site — an upside-down carnival tram surrounded by fake flames and fog machines.
Simple enough.
Except Aria didn't believe in "simple" anymore.
Bianca whispered to the others, "We just have to drag the prop out, right? Easy win."
Aria crouched beside the wreckage, fingers brushing the ground.
"Careful," she murmured. "The ground's been disturbed. Recently."
"What?" Bianca frowned. "It's a set."
"Then your set designer's using military boots."
The livestream audience went wild.
> 💬 "She can tell footprints apart??"
💬 "Girl, how do you even SEE that?"
💬 "She's like Sherlock Holmes with better hair."
---
A sudden explosion shook the ground — too loud, too close.
Bianca screamed, stumbling backward.
Aria's body moved before her brain caught up: one arm hooked Bianca's collar, pulling her behind a steel beam just as debris rained down.
The entire move took less than a second.
Cameras caught everything.
> 💬 "Did you SEE that?!"
💬 "That was NOT reflexes. That was training."
💬 "How many lives does she have?"
💬 "#ReflexesDontLie trending NOW."
Smoke cleared. The "fake" fire burned higher than intended, licking the edge of a set wall.
Crew members shouted off-screen, scrambling to cut power.
Aria didn't wait.
She leapt over the railing, grabbed the emergency lever, and shut it off herself.
For a moment, silence. Then a burst of applause — from inside the park, from terrified contestants.
The host's voice cracked over the speaker, trying to turn panic into PR.
> "Wow! Talk about quick thinking! Incredible work, Miss Lane! Totally unscripted heroism, folks!"
Aria dusted soot off her vest. "I told you. I'm not dying for ratings."
---
Later, in the medic tent, Bianca watched her warily. "You're not normal, you know that?"
Aria smiled faintly. "Normal's overrated."
"You move like— like you've done this before."
"Falling buildings? Yeah, once or twice."
Bianca frowned. "I'm serious. Who are you?"
Aria didn't answer. She just handed Bianca a water bottle. "Hydrate. You scream too much."
The chat section exploded again.
> 💬 "Bianca's trauma arc begins 😭"
💬 "'Hydrate. You scream too much.' — Add it to the quote list."
💬 "She's not even trying to hide it anymore."
---
Meanwhile, in a blacked-out van parked just beyond the amusement park perimeter, three men watched the live feed on encrypted monitors.
One of them, a younger man with a scar near his temple, froze mid-sip of coffee.
"Pause that," he ordered.
The feed stilled on Aria mid-movement — the exact position of her arm, the twist of her shoulders, the precision of her stance.
He knew that move.
He remembered it.
His heart hitched. "That's her," he whispered. "That's— that's A-01."
The older agent beside him frowned. "You're sure?"
He nodded. "She's alive."
The van fell silent.
Then the younger one — Noah Hale, her former protégé — spoke again, voice shaking.
"She saved me once," he said quietly. "I watched her die. I buried her file."
He leaned closer to the screen, jaw tightening. "I don't care what she's doing in there. I'm getting her out."
---
Back on set, Aria felt it.
That familiar chill crawling down her spine — the one that always came right before someone from her past reappeared.
She looked up at the nearest drone, eyes cold and sharp.
"Keep watching," she murmured. "You'll find what you're looking for."
The audience went wild again, thinking she was just being dramatic.
> 💬 "The way she talks like she knows we're here 👀"
💬 "Main character energy unmatched."
💬 "She's terrifyingly calm. I love her."
---
That night, she sat by the campfire, silent as ever. The other contestants laughed nervously, trying to shake off the day.
But Aria's mind was elsewhere — replaying the movement of that drone, the faint distortion in its hum.
That wasn't production-grade equipment. It was military.
And that meant her time pretending was running out.
The "weak one" act had cracked.
Her ego hadn't shattered — but her mask?
That was gone.
She smiled to herself, a quiet, private smile no one noticed.
Because if her past had finally caught up to her —
then it was about time they saw who she really was.