Darkness lingered.
A dull, rhythmic beeping pulled April back to the surface. Each tone cut through the fog in her mind, faint but persistent.
Her body felt heavy—like she'd been buried under lead. Her lungs burned when she tried to breathe, and her ribs ached with every motion.
Then she awoke, through her echo location April saw that she was on a bed, laying down. And someone else was within the room.
Sterile light hummed overhead. The faint hiss of oxygen filled the air. The smell of disinfectant bit at her nose.
She was in the infirmary.
"—She's awake."
The voice came from somewhere nearby. She turned her head slowly to the left—pain radiated down her neck like fire—and saw Jax sitting in a chair beside her bed, tablet in hand.
"You're alive," he said simply, setting the tablet down. "Which, considering what you went through, is impressive."
April's eyebrows slightly furrowed. Her throat was dry. "…How long?"
"Eighteen hours."
Her stitched eyelids stared at the ceiling again. "Feels like longer."
Jax leaned back, folding his arms. "Vance nearly crushed your ribs in the final hit. Two fractures, a dislocated shoulder, and a concussion. You're lucky your nanites kicked in when they did."
April's jaw tightened. Memories flickered— flashes of the fight. Metal. Screams. Blood. Her claws sinking into steel.
She swallowed. "And him?"
Jax's expression darkened. He didn't answer right away. "That's… complicated."
April's eyebrows frowned. "Complicated how?"
He exhaled slowly, tapping the side of his tablet. "When the response team got to the arena, you were unconscious. The floor was half collapsed, and the whole place was running on emergency power. They found your vitals first—but Vance was gone."
Her heart skipped. "Gone? What do you mean gone?"
"Gone as in—" Jax hesitated. "No trace. His nanotech signature vanished from every sensor. Surveillance cameras caught static just before his disappearance."
April pushed herself up despite the pain, eyebrows narrowed. "Someone took him."
Jax didn't deny it. "Yeah. That's the working theory."
Her stitched eyelids stared at him, the way her stitched eyelids stared at him conveyed her disbelieve. "Who?"
Jax's gaze dropped. "All we have is a fragment of the feed—one frame before the signal cut. It shows… someone standing in the debris. Wearing a mask."
Her stomach twisted. "A mask?"
He nodded slowly. "A smooth surfaced one White, no mouth. Just a single slit across the eyes. They walked straight into the fire and smoke—no hesitation. Lifted Vance's body like it weighed nothing."
April's breath caught.
Jax looked back at her. "And before the camera died… they turned. Looked straight into the lens. Almost like they knew we were watching."
A chill ran through her entire body.
Her mind filled the blanks—the flicker of movement, the sound of footsteps in the dark, the smell of burning steel.
Even unconscious, she could almost feel it again. The overwhelming presence and pressure.
"… i think i might have saw them," she murmured.
Jax blinked. "What?"
April's voice shook. "Before I passed out. Someone was there. I thought I was hallucinating, but—"
She shivered. "They looked at me. Through the flames. Like they weren't seeing me— but looking to my very being."
Jax's brows furrowed, his tone lowering. "That matches the report."
April's hands clenched weakly on the blanket. "What the hell was that thing?"
Jax exhaled. "We don't know. But whoever they are, they bypassed every security layer we have—and left without a trace."
The silence that followed felt heavy— suffocating.
The hum of the med-machines filled the void. April's heartbeat echoed in her ears.
Finally, Jax said, "You shouldn't worry about it right now. Rest. Heal."
She couldn't shake that moment.
That gaze.
Cold. Hollow. Infinite.
She finally whispered, almost to herself, "It didn't feel human."
The door hissed open.
Kai entered—silent, expression unreadable. His coat was still dusted with ash and dried blood, his eyes shadowed from lack of sleep.
He stood at the foot of her bed for a moment before speaking. "You heard about Vance."
April nodded faintly. "Jax told me."
Kai folded his arms. "Good. Then you understand what that means."
Her eyebrows frowned. "That someone wanted him alive."
"Exactly." He paused. "And they wanted you to see it."
April squicked. "What?"
"That mask turning to look at you wasn't coincidence. It was a message."
Her pulse quickened. "What kind of message?"
Kai's gaze hardened. "That the game just changed."
He stepped closer, lowering his voice.
"Vance's TakeOver was triggered remotely. That masked figure—whoever they are — might be connected to the group we've been tracking. The ones experimenting on Gear users."
Jax added quietly, "The ones tied to Ragnarök."
The name hung in the air like a toxin.
April's chest tightened. She'd heard it before —whispered in fragments, hidden behind encrypted files. But hearing it now, tied to this…
It felt real.
"Why him?" she asked finally. "Why take Vance?"
Kai's eyes narrowed. "Because he survived a full TakeOver. That makes him valuable."
Her hands trembled. "And me?"
Kai's gaze softened slightly. "You hurt him. You pushed a TakeOver user past his limit. That makes you dangerous."
She sank back into the bed, looking at the ceiling.
Dangerous.
The word echoed in her head—over and over —until it no longer sounded like a threat, but a truth she didn't want to admit.
Outside the infirmary window, red lights pulsed faintly along the corridor— emergency patrols sweeping the lower levels.
Somewhere in the distance, alarms rose and fell like an echo of her heartbeat.
The fight was over.
But something else had started—something she couldn't yet name.
And in the darkness behind her stitched eyelids, she saw the mask again—that blank, lifeless face staring into her very soul.
She couldn't tell if it was watching her…
…or waiting for her.
-----
4-day's later:
In a futuristic meeting room Jax stood before the pack, arms crossed. "We need to move out."
Kai frowned. "You think they'll come back?"
Jax nodded. "They know where we are now. The problem isn't that we can't fight them—it's that others are here too. Innocent people. We're not putting them at risk."
Saya sighed. "So, we pack up and relocate?"
"Exactly. I've already discussed it with the leader, he agreed to it. So everyone get ready," Jax said.
April leaned against the wall, still replaying the fight in her head. She had him.
And then—
"April."
She looked up as Saya approached, her expression unreadable.
"You know what just happened out there, right?"
April raised a brow. "Yeah, I let that bastard get away."
Saya shook her head. "No. You awakened."
April's lips twitched. "What?"
"You haven't felt it?" Saya pointed at the back of her head. "Touch it."
Confused, April reached up—and froze.
Something was there.
Something had grown or sprouted from the back of her skull. Tracing them, they felt smooth, yet firm—almost metallic. As she traced them shape fully, her breath caught.
Two-Angelic wings. One on each side of her head.
The sides had telescoped outward, a sleek, feathered silhouette made of her Gear's nanotech.
"Is this?"
"Your sigil. If i had to guess you properly awakened ut during your battle with Vance," Saya affirmed.
Her sigil.
Proof that she had taken the next step.
April lowered her head. Her stitched eyelids looking at the floor, her mind reeling.
She wasn't just stronger.
She was changing.
And there was no going back. But she knew she had to continue forward.
—
The team moved fast.
Jax didn't waste time. Within an hour, their HQ was stripped down—gears, tech, weapons, everything important packed, stashed, and anything traceable erased.
April stood near the entrance, watching as Kai loaded the last case into one of the many black, unmarked trucks. The tension was thick. Everyone felt it. This wasn't just a relocation.
It was a declaration.
They were on the run now.
"Everyone in," The leader ordered.
April climbed into the truck, taking a seat near Saya. The others followed—Kai, Juno, Kuro. The doors slammed shut, and the engine rumbled to life.
Juno and Kuro were the two individual's who were with the leader the day April met the still unnamed organization.
As the city lights blurred past, April's stitched eyelids imagined the faint outline of her new sigil.
She clenched her fists.
Ragnörak wasn't done with them. Not even close