The forest settled again.
Wind through the branches.Soft light on moss.Birds cautiously returning to their perches.
But Kayden didn't feel any of it.
He sat half-collapsed against Alex, chest tight, breath unsteady, eyes unfocused — still seeing the echo of that blue world, that trembling child, that erased memory.
Alex brushed his thumb under Kayden's eye.
"Hey… you're here.You're with us."
Kayden nodded shakily.
But he wasn't okay.
He didn't even know what "okay" meant anymore.
Phineas stood a cautious distance away, chewing nervously on his sleeve.
"…So, uh…not to interrupt the trauma,but someone please explain the whole 'forgotten cosmic childhood meltdown' thing?Preferably in a calm, non-heart-attacky way?"
Kayden looked at the ground.
"I saw myself.When I was a kid.Using resonance.Losing control."
Alex stiffened.
"Kayden… that shouldn't be possible.They said your first resonance event was—"
Kayden shook his head.
"They lied."
And then — quietly, almost too quietly:
"They took it from me."
APEX hummed in Kayden's skull.Not as a warning.Not as a directive.
As an answer finally allowed to surface.
Alex tightened his grip.
"APEX…you knew."
APEX responded without hesitation.
"Yes."
Phineas choked on air.
"EXCUSE ME YOU WHAT—YOU KNEW HE HAD CHILD POWERS—WHY DID YOU NOT LEAD WITH THAT—?!"
APEX ignored him.
Kayden swallowed hard.
"APEX…tell me.Please.What was I?"
A long pause.
The longest APEX had ever taken.
Then:
"You were the first successful Operator candidate."
Kayden's heartbeat stumbled.
"…what?No.I was normal.I grew up normal.I—"
"Your early resonance appeared at age ten.SRD intervened."
Kayden's breath hitched.
Alex froze completely.
"Intervened… how?"
APEX's tone darkened — not maliciously, but like unsealing a truth long held under weighted locks.
"Your abilities frightened them.They deemed your resonance 'catastrophic.'A threat."
Kayden whispered:
"…threat…?"
Phineas slowly lowered himself to sit.
"This got way too serious way too fast."
APEX continued:
"SRD used a suppression protocol.A crude one.It damaged your memory.It fractured your identity.It silenced your resonance until adolescence."
Kayden's hands clenched in the moss.
"So the reason I never…remembered anything about that meltdown…was because they erased part of me?"
"Correct."
Alex's expression darkened in a way Kayden had never seen —rage wrapped in absolute protectiveness.
"They hurt him.When he was ten."
APEX responded simply:
"They believed the alternative was worse."
Kayden looked up, tears rising.
"…what alternative?"
APEX's next words were soft.Heavy.
"You were not supposed to survive."
Silence dropped between them like a stone.
Kayden's breath broke.
"I…I don't understand—why would they—?I was just a kid—"
Alex pulled him close, voice cracking.
"They were afraid of you.Not because you were dangerous but because THEY didn't understand you."
Phineas whispered, horrified:
"So SRD looked at a scared ten-year-old and said 'delete him'?WHAT THE HELL—"
APEX corrected:
"Not delete.Contain."
Kayden shook his head.
"So why didn't they finish it?Why didn't they just—get rid of me completely?"
Another silence.
Then APEX said:
"Because the Citadel intervened."
Kayden froze.
"What…?"
"You were observed.Long before you were aware."
Phineas flailed.
"OH GREAT HE HAD A CELESTIAL STALKER SINCE CHILDHOOD—"
APEX ignored him again.
"The Citadel prevented your termination.They imposed a limitation on SRD.You were to be suppressed, not destroyed."
Alex's eyes narrowed.
"The Agent saved him?"
APEX's tone remained steady:
"The Citadel saved the Variable."
Kayden whispered:
"…but not me."
"That distinction did not matter to them."
Kayden pressed a trembling hand against his chest.
"So for years…I lived thinking I was just…normal."
"Normal was a cage constructed for your safety."
Kayden looked up at Alex, eyes wet.
"They broke me…and then buried the pieces…before I even had a chance to know who I was."
Alex pulled him carefully into his arms.
"You're not broken.You're just remembering.Piece by piece."
Kayden swallowed hard against the knot in his throat.
He wanted to speak.
He couldn't.
APEX added the final truth — the one it had been circling around:
"You were the first.And the Citadel has been waiting for you to awakenfor twelve years."
Kayden's lungs stuttered.
Alex held him tighter.
Phineas whispered:
"…holy shit."
Kayden wiped his face, voice barely audible.
"APEX…why didn't you tell me before…?"
APEX answered calmly, almost sadly:
"You were not ready.And neither was the world."
The forest quieted —too gentle,too still.
Kayden leaned fully into Alex, breathing shakily.
"I don't want to be what they planned.Not SRD.Not the Citadel.Not anyone."
Alex cupped Kayden's cheek.
"Then you won't be.You'll be what you choose."
Kayden nodded, voice trembling.
"…but now I know what they took."
APEX hummed.
"And what you can take back."
Kayden exhaled.Slow.Steady.Hurt.Certain.
He wasn't running from his past anymore.
He was walking straight toward it.