The room was ice-cold, humming with servers stacked like towers of judgment. Red lights flickered like dying embers. My footsteps echoed on the steel floor as I faced Ezra—the professor, the phantom, the man who engineered nightmares.
He smiled.
Ezra: "You learned quickly. Much faster than the others."
I: "Because I was never one of them."
Ezra: "You were always one of mine."
He lifted a tablet, and with a single swipe, the screens behind him lit up—files upon files, faces I knew. Friends. Enemies. Recruits. Victims.
Ezra: "Lucian. Ryker. Even Pix. All touched by my hand."
I clenched my jaw. "They chose me, not you."
Ezra stepped forward, gaze piercing.
Ezra: "Because you lied. They don't know who you really are."
My blood chilled.
I: "You don't know me either."
Ezra: "Don't I?"
He turned a screen toward me. My profile loaded. But it wasn't the usual student bio.
It was a spy dossier.
My name. My mission. My original orders. From a top-secret agency hidden in the government's black books.
Ezra: "You were sent to infiltrate, manipulate, and dismantle. You're not a student. You're a weapon."
My knees nearly buckled.
He knew.
Ezra: "Did you forget your past? Or are you just that good at pretending?"
I: "I was undercover. That doesn't mean—"
Ezra: "It means you're exactly like me. Created to break systems. Trained to manipulate trust. Loved only in masks."
He threw a folder at my feet.
Inside: My childhood. Training logs. Mission photos. A younger version of me, bloodied, smirking.
The real me.
I stared at my reflection in the black server screen. Who the hell was I?
Ezra: "You were designed for this academy before it even opened. You're not in the system. You're the failsafe."
My hands trembled.
He wasn't lying.
---
In the chaos above, alarms screamed.
Lucian: "We've breached Block 7!"
Pix: "Security drones are rerouting. But Ezra's cutting power to the upper floors—"
Ryker: "Where's she?!"
Pix: "Still inside the server core. No signal. No feed."
Lucian: "…If she dies in there, I'll kill him again."
---
Back below, Ezra circled me like a vulture.
Ezra: "Do you think they'll stay loyal after they learn the truth? You lied to them. Every second. Every touch. Every tear."
I gritted my teeth. "I didn't fake what I felt."
Ezra: "But you faked who you were."
He tapped a button.
Gas hissed from the vents.
I choked. Vision blurry.
Ezra: "Join me. And we won't have to lie anymore."
I fell to my knees.
Ezra leaned close. "We could rule this academy. Burn the council. Rebuild a new generation."
My hand slipped into my sleeve.
The hidden spike Vale gave me.
Ezra: "You could be my legacy."
I whispered: "I'd rather die free."
And stabbed it into his chest.
---
Sparks exploded. Ezra gasped. His entire right arm convulsed as the override code in the spike attacked his neural core.
Ezra: "Y-you—!"
I stood, panting. "You were right."
Ezra collapsed, writhing.
I: "I am a weapon."
Then I ripped the master server's cable from the wall.
And everything went black.
---
Alarms stopped.
Drones fell.
The academy lights died.
And in that silence…
The system rebooted.
Pix (on comm): "Wait… what? The whole network—it's purging!"
Lucian: "Is she still alive?!"
Ryker: "No signal. No video. No vitals—"
Then a voice echoed from every screen.
My voice.
"You are not data. You are not numbers. You are not his."
"This academy is yours again."
---
The lights returned—dim and trembling.
I stood alone in the server room, coughing.
Ezra was gone.
Not dead.
But the code had consumed him.
He was trapped in the system he built. His consciousness—scattered across corrupted files and broken bots.
His last words?
Ezra (distorted through a screen): "You may have won. But you'll never be whole again."
---
Lucian and Ryker broke down the doors.
Ryker: "There you are!"
Lucian caught me before I collapsed.
Lucian: "What happened?"
I: "I remembered who I was."
Ryker: "And…?"
I: "And I chose who I wanted to be."
---
Later that night, we stood on the rooftop.
The academy was in chaos—but also… free.
Lucian handed me a coffee.
Lucian: "So. You're a government agent spy assassin?"
Ryker: "You're so cool. I'm jealous."
I laughed.
I: "You guys aren't mad?"
Lucian: "I already knew."
Ryker: "Wait, what?!"
Lucian smirked. "She sleeps with her eyes half-open. Only trained killers do that."
I: "You still trust me?"
Lucian stepped closer.
Lucian: "I trust you more than anyone."
---
But in the distance… hidden in the shadows…
A figure watched.
A man with silver eyes.
The real founder of the academy.
A man no one remembered.
Except me.
My old teacher.
And he whispered:
"It's almost time."
---
End of Chapter 27