Adrien left the infirmary with a slow and long sigh, the sound of machines and soft beeps fading behind him as the door closed.

The corridor stretched ahead. Lit by pale neon ceiling lights that hummed. Their sterile glow brushing across his uniform.

His steps echoed softly on the smooth floor as he walked. His hands tucked behind his back. His eyes looked unfocused.

His mind drifted to the faces of the exhausted and pale candidates lying on those beds.

He clenched his jaw slightly.

"They've been through enough just by doing some training. I just hope this pause gives them time to recover. Because they will be our last hope of defense against the unnatural forces." he thought while glancing briefly through the glass wall where the infirmary lights dimly flickered. "I hope there will be no more complications and incidents. Please."

By the time he reached the operations office wing, the smell of coffee and warm circuitry filled the air.

Inside the office, Billy was hunched over his computer, data lines and reports scrolling across the monitor in front of him.

Jessica sat in her own seat, tapping her stylus against a tablet while scanning through medical charts.

They both looked up when Adrien stepped in.

Billy leaned back in his chair. "You told them, captain?"

Adrien nodded, pulling off his gloves and setting them on the table.

"Yes. They were mostly confused. Some of them, of course, wanted to know what went wrong. But some of them also still looked too tired to care about it."

Jessica sighed. "That's understandable. They've been pushed to their limits by this combat training that we thought was safe. Using the power inside themselves almost fried their body." She glanced at the tablet again before looking up. "Are there any signs of instability from Marcus?"

Adrien shook his head. "Nothing of it so far. Everything about him looked alright, for now." He took a seat across from them, his expression still tense. "We'll keep the project on hold until Erend gives clearance. General Lennard had given me the permission to do what I must do, so I will do it. I don't want anyone going through that again unless the real threat is gone."

Billy folded his arms, exhaling through his nose. "A smart call by the General. The higher-ups won't like it and he has to deal with them, but at least the candidates will live long enough to finish the project."

Adrien gave a faint, humorless smile, then turned his gaze toward his monitor.

He fell silent after that, his eyes fixed on the faint reflection on his monitor but his mind was far away from the glowing screen.

The quiet settled in the room naturally, like a slow fog that filled every corner.

Billy and Jessica didn't say anything either. They both eventually turned back to their work, even though neither of them truly focused on the numbers, diagrams, or words flashing before their eyes.

All three of them were thinking of the same thing. Toward Erend and what he did right now.

Out there, somewhere in a different world, he was on his own mission alongside the other Dragonborns. They all knew that what Erend was facing wasn't something they could fathom.

They'd heard and seen enough of Magical realms to understand that the places he went to were filled with dangers beyond human comprehension. And although everything here in the facility looked calm and normal, it was only a thin veil over the anxiety they shared.

The regular soldiers and staffers didn't know much. They believed the project was just being temporarily halted for recalibration or something, maybe even waiting for a new directive.

But those who held higher clearance—Adrien, Billy, Jessica, Thomas and Conrad and a few others—knew better.

They knew about the larger scale of the situation and the threats that had bled through dimensions into their world, and that Erend's absence meant he was once again carrying a burden that should've belonged to the world's entire defense force combined.

Billy leaned back slightly and broke the heavy silence.

"I wonder what Erend's doing right now," he said with a faint chuckle that didn't quite reach his eyes. "They probably wrestled with something that could level this whole place if it wanted to."

Jessica looked up from her tablet and stared straight ahead for a moment before turning to both of them.

"You two have seen what he can do with his power before, right?"

The question hung in the air for a moment. Adrien and Billy exchanged glances. They both gave the same uncertain look that looked half grim and half lost in thought. Before Billy let out a quiet exhale and smiled faintly.

"Where do we even start with that, captain?" he said, shaking his head. "Every time I think I've seen the limits of what he can do, he proves me wrong."

Adrien gave a slow nod, his expression unreadable. "Yeah… there's no easy way to explain it. The word 'power' doesn't even come close to us humans."

Jessica remained silent because he was not sure he was ready for more. It maybe could make her even more terrified after knowing the scale of things.

Her gaze drifted back to the tablet but her mind wasn't in it anymore.

The hum of the equipment and the ticking clock filled the room again.

—

Outside, above the underground facility, the weather began to change with eerie motion.

The soldiers at the entrance gate squinted upward as dark clouds rolled in and swirling fast and thick until they swallowed the bright afternoon sun.

The wind picked up, carrying a strange chill that didn't belong to the season.

One of the soldiers adjusted his rifle strap and frowned.

"Huh, that's weird," he muttered with a frown. "I swear a second ago it was still bright and hot."

His partner glanced around uneasily as the light dimmed further, shadows stretching long across the compound.

Something felt very wrong.

—