The academy was burning.
Not with fire—but with silence.
After Ezra's vanishing act, Lucian, Ryker, and I found ourselves moving like fugitives in our own campus. Surveillance systems were glitching. Security bots froze mid-motion. And every corridor felt like it was watching us.
Ryker: "So… We just met your evil ghost-dad and blew up his camera. What's next?"
Lucian: "We vanish before he decides to haunt us for real."
I: "No. We don't run. Not this time."
Ryker raised an eyebrow. "You got a better plan, boss?"
I nodded. "We go rogue."
---
We met back at the hidden rooftop garden—our old hideout during the first week of school.
Lucian leaned against the vines, arms crossed.
Lucian: "We can't trust anyone in the council. They all knew Ezra was alive."
I: "Not all. One of them helped us get this far."
Ryker: "Vale?"
I nodded. "She gave me the code. The glitch that cracked Ezra's system. She wants him gone too."
Lucian narrowed his eyes. "If she's on our side, we'll need her."
Ryker pulled out a tiny device. "I've been scanning the database. Ezra has files—hundreds—of students he modified. Brainwashed. Some still active."
I: "So he's building an army."
Lucian: "He already has one."
---
I looked between the two of them.
"I want to end this. Expose Ezra. Set every corrupted student free."
Lucian nodded slowly. "Then we start our own faction."
Ryker grinned. "Oh hell yes. Rebel gang, let's go."
I: "We'll need help. Allies. People who can fight back without raising alarms."
Lucian: "I know one."
Ryker: "I know two."
I: "Then it's time."
---
We moved in threes.
Lucian recruited from his old dorm—a network of silent assassins who owed him favors.
Ryker sweet-talked a group of explosive hackers. One of them, named Pix, had purple hair and a talent for shutting down cameras with her chewing gum.
And I…
I found her.
Vale.
In the underground archive chamber.
She was waiting, sipping black tea as though she knew I'd come.
Vale: "So. You met the professor."
I: "He wants me to replace him."
Vale: "I know. He offered me the same position ten years ago."
My blood ran cold.
I: "And you said no."
Vale: "I said, 'not yet.'"
---
I stared at her, unsure if I should run or listen.
Vale sighed. "I've always worked in the grey. I couldn't save the others. But I can help you save yourself."
I: "How?"
Vale: "With this."
She handed me a black USB.
Vale: "Ezra's original override code. Destroy it in the mainframe, and every student he's ever tagged… will be free."
I held it tightly.
I: "What's the catch?"
Vale smiled, bittersweet. "It'll erase you, too."
---
Back at the rooftop, I explained everything.
Ryker: "So we either save the academy and lose you… or let Ezra control everyone forever."
Lucian: "That's not a choice."
I: "It's mine."
Ryker: "No. It's ours. We're in this together."
Lucian said nothing for a long moment… then stepped forward and crushed the USB in his hand.
We all gasped.
Lucian: "Ezra doesn't get to choose who lives or dies. We write the endgame."
I: "Lucian—"
Lucian: "We'll find another way."
---
That night, we declared war.
Silently. Secretly.
We hacked Ezra's systems. Freed five students from mental locks.
We burned every false profile he'd written.
We left messages on every hacked screen:
"You are not his puppet."
"Break the strings."
"Join the rebellion."
By morning, fifty students were offline from Ezra's grid.
By noon, that number hit one hundred.
By dusk, Ezra responded.
---
The intercom blared across the academy:
"To all students: Report to the underground hall. Those who resist will be treated as enemies."
We gathered in the shadows instead.
Lucian sharpened his blade.
Ryker prepped smoke bombs.
Pix handed me a tiny earpiece. "I can get you into his core server room. But once you're in, no contact. You'll be on your own."
I: "That's how it started. That's how it ends."
Lucian placed a hand on my shoulder. "Don't become like him."
I: "I won't."
Ryker smirked. "And if you do, we'll slap the programming out of you."
---
We split.
Lucian and Ryker led the rebellion into the underground chaos.
I slipped through secret tunnels Pix mapped out for me—straight into the belly of the beast.
The server core.
Dark. Cold. Red lights blinking.
Ezra stood in the center.
Waiting.
Ezra: "Didn't I say you'd come back?"
I: "I came to end you."
Ezra: "You came… to become me."
And as the doors sealed shut, I realized—
This wasn't a battle.
This was a final lesson.
---
End of Chapter 26