Jay's POV
The walk to the cafeteria was a surreal blur. On my left, Angelo's heavy black coat brushed against my shoulder, a physical reminder that the "legend" of the administration was actually just my overprotective cousin.
On my right, Keifer was still vibrating with adrenaline, his iron pipe finally tucked away but his knuckles still raw and red.
"Eat," Angelo commanded, sliding a tray of actual, decent food toward me. No more moldy bread or watered-down soup. This was the "Administrator's Perk."
"Kuya, I'm not really hungry," I whispered, though my stomach betrayed me with a loud growl.
Ion laughed, a musical sound that felt entirely out of place in this graveyard of a school. She reached over, ruffling my hair. "Eat, Jay-jay. You're going to need your strength. Tomorrow isn't just any day."
"My birthday," I muttered. Then, a thought hit me like a physical blow. I looked at the calendar on the cafeteria wall. The date. The realization made my heart skip. "Wait… Ion? Tomorrow… it's Zein's birthday too, isn't it?
We found out ding the first week. We share the same day."
Angelo's eyes darkened slightly, but he nodded. "The girl has a lot on her plate. More than you know."
I looked around the cafeteria. Keifer was busy stuffing his face, finally relaxing, but someone was missing. The most important person. "Where's Zein? And Ace?"
"She wanted space," Edrix said from across the table, his voice low. "And the Supremo… well, he has his own shadows to chase."
I couldn't sit still. The thought of Zein alone, on the eve of her birthday, after everything we'd been through, pulled at me. I stood up quietly. Keifer started to rise, but I pressed a hand on his shoulder. "Stay. Eat. I'll be right back."
I slipped out of the cafeteria, my boots silent on the stone floors. I knew where she'd be. The rooftop garden—the only place where the air didn't smell like decay.
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Zein's POV
The cold stone of the bench felt like ice against my skin, but I didn't move. The silence of the garden was supposed to be a relief, but instead, it just left too much room for the thoughts I'd been trying to outrun.
Matt.
My best friend. The person who knew my coffee order and the exact way I breathed when I was lying.
He had joined the BBG. He had stood on the other side of the line. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw his face—not the laughing boy from my childhood, but the cold, distant soldier he had become.
How does a heart break twice in one night? Once from the Board, and once from a betrayal that felt like a slow-acting poison.
"Ms.Shion , you're going to get an infection if you leave those scrapes open."
The voice was like velvet and jagged glass. I didn't have to look up to know it was Ace. The "Supremo." The man who had just stood on a balcony and watched the Board prepare to break me.
I didn't move as he sat down beside me. I heard the click of a first-aid kit. He reached for my hand, his fingers surprisingly warm, but I pulled away as if he were made of fire.
"No need," I said, my voice coming out like a winter frost.
"Zein, don't be difficult. Your arm is bleeding."
"I said no need, Supremo," I spat the title like an insult. I finally looked at him. His silver hair was disheveled, and his eyes—usually so unreadable—looked hollow. "Go back to your balcony. You seemed very comfortable up there while we were being kicked across the floor."
He flinched. It was subtle, but I saw it. "It wasn't what it looked like."
"It never is with you, is it?" I let out a harsh, bitter laugh. "You told them to wait twenty-four hours so they could get their 'data.' You treated us like hardware. Like objects."
"I saved your life!" he hissed, stepping closer, his shadow falling over me.
"You saved the data," I corrected him, my voice trembling now. "There's a difference. Now leave. I'd rather bleed out than have the Board's puppet touch me."
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Ace's POV
Board's puppet.
The words stung worse than any blade. I stood there, looking down at her—this fierce, broken girl who had no idea that every lie I told was a brick in the wall I was building to keep her safe.
I wanted to scream the truth. I wanted to tell her about the hidden cameras, the microphones sewn into the very fabric of this school, and the fact that if I had jumped down from that balcony, the Board would have executed her on the spot just to hurt me.
But I couldn't. Not yet. The game wasn't over.
Watching her sit there, thinking of Matt—I knew she was thinking of him, the way her eyes clouded over—made a dark, possessive jealousy roar in my chest.
"Listen to me," I grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to face me. She struggled, her movements cold and sharp, but I didn't let go. "You think you know everything. You think I'm the villain in your story. Fine. Believe that if it keeps you angry enough to stay alive."
"Let go of me, Ace."
"Not until you hear this," I leaned in, my breath hitching. The mask was slipping. I couldn't hold it anymore. "I can't tell you the truth tonight. I can't tell you why I did what I did. But I need you to wait. "
Her eyes searched mine, looking for the lie. "Why should I?"
"Because," I whispered, my forehead dropping to touch hers. The world outside—the blood, the rebels, the Board—faded away. "Because I love you, Zein. And I will burn this entire university to ash before I let them have you."
And I promise you ,'As long as I'm breathing you are safe. I am Ace Cragie your shield , your bulletproof, your knight.... My queen."
Before she could reply, before she could spit another cold word at me, I pressed my lips to hers. It wasn't a gentle kiss. It was desperate, a silent plea for her to understand the things I couldn't say. It tasted like salt and iron and a promise of war.
I pulled back, seeing the absolute shock frozen on her face. Her lips were parted, her eyes wide. Without another word, I turned and walked into the shadows. If I stayed a second longer, I'd ruin everything.
Wait for me, Zein. Just some more time.
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Jay's POV
I was standing behind the heavy iron door of the roof, my hand frozen on the handle.
I had come here to comfort Zein. I had come to tell her that tomorrow was her birthday and that we were going to survive it together. But the scene unfolding in the moonlight stopped my heart.
I saw them. Ace and Zein.
I heard his confession—the raw, unfiltered truth of it—and I saw the kiss. My breath hitched in my throat. A huge, goofy smile spread across my face despite the tears in my eyes.
Finally.
Those two were the biggest fools in Hell University. They had been circling each other like two dying stars, terrified of the collision, but seeing them like that… I realized they were exactly what the other needed to survive this place.
Zein needed Ace's calculated strength, and Ace needed Zein's humanity to keep him from becoming the monster he pretended to be.
I backed away slowly, giving them their moment of silence. I didn't need to go in there anymore. Zein wasn't alone.
As I turned to head back down the stairs, a pair of arms wrapped around my waist from behind. I gasped, but the scent of soap and old leather immediately calmed me.
"Found you," Keifer whispered into my hair, pulling me back against his chest.
I leaned my head back against his shoulder, closing my eyes. "You're supposed to be eating."
"Couldn't eat without my partner in crime," he murmured. He squeezed me tighter, his voice dropping to a serious tone. "We made it, Jay. We're still breathing."
I turned in his arms, looking up at his bruised but handsome face. The boy who had stood in front of a mob of fifty students just to keep them from touching my hair.
"Yes," I said, reaching up to touch the bruise on his jaw. "We made it. And tomorrow… tomorrow we're going to celebrate."
He grinned, that lopsided, reckless smile that always made my stomach flip. "Whatever you want, birthday girl. The Supremo might run the school, but you run me."
I laughed, pulling him down for a quick, soft kiss. The "Bloody Night" was over. The revolution had its generals, the lovers had their confessions, and for the first time in my life, I wasn't afraid of what the morning would bring.
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Third person POV
The air in the sub-basement didn't just smell like antiseptic; it smelled like ozone and old secrets. Deep beneath the Main Hall, past three biometric scanners and a door reinforced with depleted uranium, stood a man whose face was obscured by the flicker of a hundred monitors.
The "Architect." ( A/n :* The man behind laboratory)
He didn't turn around when the heavy pressurized doors hissed open. He didn't need to. He knew the rhythm of the footsteps entering his sanctuary.
"You're late, Angelo. Ion," the man said, his voice a low, mechanical rasp that sounded like it had been stripped of emotion decades ago.
Angelo stepped into the blue light of the screens, his protective stance over Jay and Zein upstairs replaced by a cold, professional stillness. Ion stood beside him, her hand resting on the hilt of a concealed blade.
"The 'Bloody Night' was a mess," Angelo said, his voice echoing in the sterile chamber. "The Board almost broke the girls. If we hadn't intervened—"
"If you hadn't intervened, she might have evolved faster," the Architect interrupted, finally turning his chair. His eyes were hidden behind thick, reflective glasses. He gestured to a monitor displaying a live, grainy feed of Jay and Keifer on the rooftop. "You think you can protect them, Angelo? Truly?"
Angelo's jaw tightened, a vein pulsing in his temple. "I am their family. I will burn this place to the ground before I let you put them back in a glass tube."
The Architect let out a dry, rattling chuckle that sent a chill down Ion's spine. "You speak of fire, but you forget who provided the matches. Look at them,Angelo. Look at the way their vitals spiked when the Board threatened them.They are same like Samantha and Allison,look at the way they instinctively led the rebels."
He leaned forward, the blue light of the lab equipment making him look like a ghost.
"That's their destiny, Angelo. They wasn't born to be a student. They were designed to be the apex. You can hold them,you can hug them, and you can tell them 'Happy Birthday' until your lungs give out... but you cannot stop what is already written in their marrow."
Ion stepped forward, her eyes narrowing into lethal slits. "Stop this fucking nonsense. They are a person. Not your experiment."
"For them ,it's both," the Architect whispered. "And tomorrow, when the sun rises on their birthday, the next phase begins. You can play the hero for now, but remember—every hero in this school eventually becomes a ghost."
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Jay's POV
The wind on the roof was getting colder, but Keifer's hold was warm. I felt a strange shiver run down my spine, a feeling like someone was walking over my grave, but I pushed it away.
I looked at Angelo and Ion, who were walking back toward us from the shadows of the stairwell. They looked... tired. Older than they should.
"Everything okay, Kuya?" I asked, stepping out of Keifer's embrace as they approached.
Angelo didn't answer immediately.
He reached out, pulling me into another tight, almost desperate hug. He buried his face in the crook of my neck, his hands trembling just a fraction.
"I've got you, Jay," he whispered, sounding like he was trying to convince himself as much as me. "I've got you. Nobody's touching you again."
Ion joined the hug, her arms wrapping around both of us, her chin resting on my shoulder. She looked at Keifer over my head, a silent, fierce command in her eyes: Watch her. Do not let her out of your sight.
"We're here, baby girl," Ion murmured, her voice soft but laced with a hidden steel. "We're right here."
I closed my eyes, squeezed between my family, feeling safe for the first time in months. I didn't see the way Angelo looked up at the security camera in the corner of the roof. I didn't see the way he mouthed a single word to the lens:
"Never."
The hunt wasn't over. It was just moving into the light.
A/N
The tension is finally breaking! Ace finally said the words, but can Zein trust him?
And with a double birthday coming up, you know things are about to get even crazier.
What do you think the Architect meant by "designed to be the apex"? The birthday party tomorrow just got a lot more dangerous...
I hope you all are excited for next chapter 😉
Let me know..
Target for next chapter : 25+ comment 🎯