The wind was colder than usual.
Ellee stood at the edge of the training field, eyes narrowed as the leaves danced wildly in the sudden gust. Something felt off. The air was too still, too quiet despite the wind. Her instincts buzzed with the kind of warning she had learned not to ignore.
"Everyone, be on guard," she said softly, but her voice carried. Zion stopped sharpening his blade. Xion and Maya both looked up from their discussion. Kate instinctively touched the communicator on her ear.
"Do you sense something?" Maya asked.
"I don't know," Ellee replied, brows furrowed. "But it feels...familiar. Like a presence I should recognize."
Before anyone could respond, a loud boom echoed from the east perimeter.
"Intrusion," Kate said, scanning the alert on her tablet. "Two unidentified combatants have broken through the secondary barrier. The Guild dispatched a suppression unit, but they're being overwhelmed."
Zion was already on his feet. "Let's go."
They arrived minutes later to a scene of chaos. The air shimmered unnaturally, thick with the scent of burning metal and scorched earth. Monsters—no, not just monsters, experiments—charged through the smoke. Twisted, warped things that once resembled humans. Ellee's hands lit with energy as she led the charge.
"Control your formations! Don't engage recklessly!"
They fought hard. For every creature they felled, two more took its place. Ellee moved with precision, but her mind felt heavy. Something in the smoke, in the shifting battlefield, was calling to her.
Then she saw him.
A dark figure stepped into the fray, cloaked in black, his movements fluid like a whisper through the storm. His face was masked, but his aura... her breath caught.
He moved too fast for her to warn the others. The monsters didn't stand a chance. Within seconds, four of them dropped, struck with surgical precision. It wasn't brute force. It was skill. Familiar skill.
Zion looked stunned. "Who the hell...?"
The man turned. His mask glinted in the firelight. A faint, glowing insignia on his chest read: SM001.
Ellee's world tilted.
"No... no, that's impossible."
Xion looked at her, concerned. "What is it? Do you recognize him?"
She stepped forward slowly, heart pounding. Every fiber of her being screamed in denial and hope all at once. That code name. That fighting style.
She had seen it before.
Ten years ago.
"Kael..." she whispered.
The figure paused. Slowly, he reached up and removed his mask.
Her knees nearly gave out.
The same sharp eyes. The same scar near his brow. A little older, taller, sharper... but it was him. It was really him.
Kael.
Her Kael.
Zion took a defensive stance. "You're supposed to be dead."
Kael's eyes scanned the group, landing on Ellee. "I could say the same about all of you."
Ellee couldn't breathe. Her chest ached. Her vision blurred.
"Why now...?" she whispered. "Why didn't you come back?"
Kael looked away, jaw clenched. "Because I couldn't. Because they would've killed you all if I did."
Maya stepped forward. "He's telling the truth. His energy... it's altered. He's been fighting them alone."
The battlefield faded in the background. Ellee took a shaky step forward.
"Do you know how long I thought you were dead? I... I buried you in my dreams."
Kael's voice broke just slightly. "And I lived through a thousand nightmares hoping you were alive."
Silence.
Ellee reached out slowly.
He didn't pull away.
Her fingers brushed against his, and just like that, the years of silence cracked open like shattered glass. Memories surged. Tears welled up. Hope that had once died burned quietly in her chest again.
The others gave them space, unsure what to say.
Ellee exhaled shakily. "Welcome back, Kael."
He gave a tired, broken smile. "I never left you."
Behind them, the last monster dissolved into ash. But neither of them noticed.
Because in that moment, everything else faded away.