4 years prior.
Inside the vast, familiar living space of Irene's home, silence prevailed—an unnatural silence that should have been broken by several factors.
One of these factors could have been the constant tapping of raindrops upon the window pane of the penthouse or the frequent roar of thunder that closely followed the flash of lightning. All the elements of this storm should have shattered the silence, but they could not. The soundproof glass served as an impenetrable barrier.
Another potential disturbance to the silence should have been the heartbreaking cries and confused sobs of a child who might have just killed a man.
Yet, even those sounds were absent. There were no cries or sobs, and the silence remained undisturbed. It was only occasionally interrupted by the short, labored gasps of a man.
This was the only disruption to the silence, but it did little to break it. Labored breaths for air and soft gulps of blood.
It was a sound akin to the distant flow of a drying river while the occasional winds caressed its surface—a sound of muffled pleas for another chance that would never be heard.
It was the bone-chilling, gut-wrenching sound of a man dying.
His killer watched him die, locking eyes with him until the end. He resisted every attempt Irene made to shield his eyes from the gruesome scene.
Irene had shut her eyes tightly, not daring to glance back at the scene. She held Haze and Calyx tightly as they sat on the floor. She had intended to leave but couldn't bring herself to walk over the dying man. So, she phoned the police and waited, her eyelids remaining closed as she did.
Calyx, however, stared intently at the man. The gaping hole in his throat was impossible to miss. Calyx understood clearly that this man was dying and that he was the one who had taken his life.
However, he did not regret what he had done. It was simply necessary. The man had followed Irene up the elevator, and the scene Haze and Calyx were met with upon the opening of the elevator doors was Irene with a knife to her throat.
That was the moment when Calyx blacked out. He did not consciously attack the man. This was the second time the dark entity within him had taken control. The first time, it saved him from the explosion at the Quasarite chamber, and now it had killed this man.
This time, however, the action, although not consciously done by Calyx, was born from a desperate will to save his aunt from the man threatening her life. A will so potent, it made his heart burn. By the time he regained consciousness, his will had been done, and the method of achieving it did not matter to him. Perhaps this psychology was also born from the entity that lay within him.
That was the first time Calyx had killed a man, and it was decided that his resonance must be suppressed.
Calyx received no punishment for his actions, for a variety of reasons. The most important of which was that it was self-defense, and he was a child. However, it was concluded that he could not be left unattended. The power to kill a man in a second with wind was not a power young Calyx should be allowed to wield freely. This was their conclusion.
Present day.
Calyx and Haze sat in an interrogation room at the Zenith Police Department. Among everyone present in the warehouse, only Calyx and Haze were brought here. The others were rushed to the hospital.
The room was sterile and white, with three chairs and a metal table in the middle being the only pieces of furniture that adorned it. On one side, breaking the streak of white, was a mirror. Haze and Calyx could already tell people were watching them from behind it.
"How's Hal?" Calyx asked, his eyes fixed on his palm, not turning to face Haze.
"She's fine. It was just a small bruise on her face, and she was injected with some drug. But they said they have a way to completely cleanse it from her system. She should be fine enough to be in school tomorrow," Haze explained.
Calyx's arm stiffened at Haze's words, his anger almost receding upon hearing them.
"Don't worry, she'll be fine. And you got them back," Haze said, trying to calm Calyx down. It worked, as Calyx took a deep breath, relaxing himself.
"You think we'll go to jail?" Calyx asked, turning to Haze.
"What do you mean 'we'? I'm not the one who beat them to death," Haze teased.
"Oh, fuck off," Calyx scoffed, causing Haze to laugh.
"But seriously, I doubt they will send a Quasar to jail," Haze optimistically added.
"Huh? What makes you think that?" Calyx asked, just before the door of the room swung open and a woman stepped into the room.
"Long time no see. You've been very good at avoiding meeting us," the woman said as she closed the door behind her.
"Doctor?" Calyx said, a tone of of surprise.