The dawn broke over a shattered world.
The ruins of the Academy smoldered in the distance, a black scar against the rising sun. The wind carried the scent of ash and old blood.
Evan, Aidan, and Sera walked in silence, the weight of everything they had survived pressing down on them.
For now, the fighting had stopped.
But the war was far from over.
---
Aidan glanced over at Evan, his brow furrowed.
> "Is it really over?" he asked, almost afraid of the answer.
Evan shook his head.
> "No. Gravemind's... trapped. But it's not dead."
"It's waiting. Watching."
Aidan's fists clenched.
> "Then we'll stop it again. Together."
Evan gave a small, unreadable smile.
It wasn't something he would have believed possible once.
Before Aidan.
Before now.
---
They needed shelter — real shelter.
The Academy was gone.
The cities would be hunting anyone associated with the collapse.
They needed somewhere forgotten, somewhere even Gravemind's echoes couldn't reach.
---
Sera pointed toward the horizon, where the forest thickened into mist-shrouded hills.
> "There's an old resistance hideout out there," she said. "It's abandoned, but fortified. Off the grid."
Evan nodded.
It would do.
For now.
---
Hours later, they reached it — a crumbling fortress half-swallowed by the earth and vines.
Inside, it smelled of damp stone and rust, but it was defensible.
Safe, in a way nothing had been for a long time.
As they settled in, Evan finally allowed himself to lower his guard — just a little.
He sat with his back to the wall, watching as Aidan and Sera unpacked supplies.
For the first time in what felt like years, he wasn't immediately preparing to kill or be killed.
It was almost... peaceful.
Almost.
---
Aidan broke the silence.
> "Back there... when you fought Gravemind," he said carefully, "it looked like it hurt."
Evan raised an eyebrow.
> "It did."
Aidan hesitated, then asked the real question burning in his eyes.
> "You were the Psychic Reaper, right? The one they all feared?"
The words hung between them.
Evan didn't look away.
> "I was," he said quietly. "I'm not proud of it. But I won't lie about it either."
Aidan sat beside him, cross-legged.
> "You're not that person anymore," he said simply.
"You're Evan."
Not a weapon.
Not a monster.
Just... Evan.
---
Sera snorted from across the room, smirking faintly.
> "Sentimental," she said. "But true."
For a moment, Evan let the words sink in.
They didn't erase what he had done.
Nothing ever would.
But maybe, just maybe, there was something after.
---
As night fell, Evan stood outside under the stars, the cool air brushing against his skin.
In the distance, fires still burned across the horizon — the Academy's death throes rippling across the world.
Power vacuums would form.
Factions would rise.
Old enemies would awaken.
Gravemind would stir in its prison.
---
Evan closed his eyes, reaching out with his mind.
His telekinesis flared softly, casting an invisible net around their hideout — masking it, protecting it.
Nobody would find them tonight.
They had earned this brief, fragile peace.
And under the stars, Evan made a silent promise:
He would not run from his past.
He would not surrender to Gravemind.
He would fight for whatever future Aidan believed in.
---
For the first time in a long time...
Evan wasn't just surviving.
He was living.
Even if the world was burning.
---
End of Chapter 15