The room was suffocating. The stale air clung to Elias's skin as he paced back and forth, the sound of his boots echoing in the silence. The walls around him were blank, featureless, like the space had been abandoned for years. It was the kind of place that could swallow you whole if you let it. And for a moment, Elias felt like he was already lost.
Lena had gone quiet again, her eyes distant as she sat on the old leather chair, her fingers absentmindedly tracing the seams. She wasn't looking at him—she was looking through him, as though she were seeing something he couldn't. Something he wasn't supposed to. The weight of her silence was pressing down on him, and for the first time, Elias wondered if she was hiding something from him.
"Lena," he said, his voice sharp, cutting through the quiet. "I need to know more. About what they did to me. About why they're after me."
She didn't respond immediately. Elias could feel her hesitation, the way her muscles tensed, as if bracing herself for something she didn't want to face. He stopped pacing and fixed his gaze on her, refusing to let her off the hook this time. He had already been in the dark for too long. He needed answers, and he needed them now.
"I can't just keep running like this," he continued, his frustration boiling over. "I don't even know what I'm running from. What they did to me—what's inside me. What's so dangerous about me?"
Lena's gaze slowly shifted to meet his, her eyes hardening, the walls around her emotions thickening. She exhaled slowly, then nodded, as though making a decision. When she spoke, her voice was calm, but Elias could hear the undercurrent of something else—something darker.
"They didn't just erase your memories, Elias. They did something to your body, your very essence. They used you in their experiments to create a weapon—something that could give them control over more than just people. Over reality itself."
Elias felt his breath catch in his throat. A weapon? He could feel the weight of her words, the implications sinking in like a stone in his chest. What could they possibly want with him—no, with what was inside him? He had no memories, no idea of who he had been before, yet whatever had happened to him was so powerful that it had made him a target. And that terrified him.
"What do you mean, 'control over reality'?" Elias asked, his voice tight with disbelief. His mind was spinning, unable to grasp the magnitude of what she was saying.
Lena stood up slowly, crossing the room with deliberate steps. She wasn't looking at him, but at the cracked window, the city's skyline silhouetted against the gray sky. She spoke, her words heavy with something he couldn't quite place.
"They were trying to manipulate the fabric of reality itself," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "They wanted to create something—or someone—who could bend time, space, and matter to their will. They used you, Elias. They experimented on you in ways that no one should ever have to endure. The memories they erased weren't just to hide your past. They were meant to suppress what they awakened inside of you."
Elias felt a chill run through him. The thought of his memories being stolen, erased, manipulated—it was too much to process. He didn't even know what had been real anymore. How could he know who he was when everything about him felt like it had been rewritten? But something in Lena's eyes told him she wasn't lying. This wasn't some far-off fantasy. This was real. And if they were right, he wasn't just a victim of the Council's manipulation—he was a ticking time bomb.
"What... What did they do to me?" Elias asked, his voice barely more than a breath.
Lena turned away from the window, her expression softening for the first time since they had started this conversation. "They didn't just erase memories, Elias. They rewired your mind, your body. They unlocked potential—abilities you didn't even know you had. They turned you into a vessel for something… unnatural."
Elias's mind reeled. Abilities? What did she mean? He hadn't experienced anything that felt like a superpower, nothing that suggested he was anything more than an ordinary man—except for the nagging feeling that he was always on the edge of something, that there was something more buried deep inside him.
"I don't understand," he admitted, rubbing his forehead in frustration. "What exactly am I?"
Lena's gaze softened, but there was no answer in her eyes—only a distant sadness. "You were meant to be their perfect weapon, Elias. The kind of power that could warp reality to their whims. But something went wrong. The process—what they did to you—left cracks in their plan. You didn't turn out the way they thought you would. Instead of becoming a weapon, you became… unpredictable."
Elias felt a strange surge of something inside him—fear, anger, and maybe even something else. Unpredictable—it was the only word that seemed to fit. He didn't feel like the kind of person who could wield power over anything. He didn't even know who he was anymore.
He crossed the room quickly, standing just inches from her. His voice was low, urgent. "So, you think they'll come for me? For us? Just because of what they did to me?"
Lena's eyes flicked up to meet his, her expression hardening again. She didn't answer immediately, but when she did, her voice was laced with a quiet certainty that sent a shiver down his spine.
"They already have," she said. "And they won't stop until they get you back. The Council won't rest until they control what they've created in you. And if they can't have you, they'll destroy you. You're their greatest mistake—and their greatest fear."
Elias could feel the weight of her words pressing down on him. His head was spinning, and for a moment, he felt like he was drowning in a sea of his own confusion. How had he ended up here? What kind of nightmare was he living in?
But in the depths of that fear, something else stirred—an instinct, a drive to survive. He might not understand what was happening to him, or why he was being hunted, but one thing was clear. He couldn't—he wouldn't—let them control him.
"I won't let them win," Elias said, the words coming out with more conviction than he'd felt in days.
Lena's eyes softened just a fraction, and for a moment, Elias thought he saw something like approval there. But then she stepped back, pulling away from him, her face hardening again.
"I know," she said quietly. "But we need to be careful. The Council doesn't play fair. They'll do whatever it takes to get what they want."
Elias stood there for a long time, his mind a storm of thoughts and fears. But in that moment, one thing was clear—he wasn't going to back down. He didn't know who he was, or what the Council had made him, but one thing was certain: he was done being their puppet.
Now, he was going to fight. And no one, not even Lena, was going to stop him.