CHAPTER 97: HIGH COMMAND COUNCIL

At AMSO Headquarters

Lexa stood by the training observation deck, her arms loosely crossed as her eyes wandered, not at the recruits below, but toward the hallway where she’d last seen him.

Theo.

’Why was he here?’

She hadn’t dared ask Marlon directly. It would raise too many questions, and she couldn’t risk exposing the fact that she’d helped him escape that day. She had to keep pretending she didn’t know anything.

Still... her mind wouldn’t settle.

She remembered how he walked in earlier... calm, unreadable as ever. And how that Class 4 operative, Shine, had greeted him like an old friend, even throwing her arms around him.

Lexa frowned slightly at the memory. That girl was always overly familiar with people, but still - Theo looked different now. Sharper. More mature. And clearly, he wasn’t just some random survivor sneaking into red zones anymore.

He’d been walking alongside Marlon Pitt. Supreme Commander of AMSO’s Scientific Division. That alone said a lot.

Her grip tightened subtly on the railing in front of her.

"Is he joining?" The question echoed again in her head, taunting her.

It made sense. With everything that had happened recently and what she’d heard about the Stadium incident, it was no surprise that Marlon would want him onboard the moment they confirmed his identity.

Lexa exhaled sharply and turned her gaze away from the corridor. She hadn’t told anyone it was Theo. When Marlon and the others asked if she recognized the man who saved her, she had shaken her head, unsure what to say.

It was Beatrice Smith who ended up proudly blurting his name out, saying she knew him well, that they grew up together.

’I shouldn’t worry. He clearly has connections,’ Lexa told herself again, forcing a calming breath.

But the truth was... she couldn’t stop overthinking it. She hated that it still lingered - his face, the way he’d looked at her during the rescue, like he was terrified of losing someone again. Like she mattered.

She hated how she kept replaying it in her head.

Theo... He had looked like her knight in shining armor that day. When she thought it was all over, when the Stadium had nearly become her grave, he came out of nowhere and saved her.

That kind of moment wasn’t easy to forget.

And even now, long after the bruises faded, he was still the first face that came to her when she closed her eyes at night.

She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, ’I haven’t even thanked him properly.’

Lexa leaned against the wall, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. The hallway buzzed faintly with voices and footsteps, but she didn’t hear any of it. All she could focus on was the weight in her chest - the curiosity, and something else she didn’t want to name.

Theo had saved her life. Not just once, but twice if she counted the way he carried her out of that collapsing stadium. And yet, she never found the courage to thank him. She didn’t even know why she hesitated.

"You’re in deep thought again."

Lexa flinched slightly at the sound of Leon’s voice. His deep, calm tone always came unexpectedly, but it carried a kind of quiet authority.

Leon was a Class 1 AMS, senior to her, and a member of AMSO’s High Command Council, a governing body composed of top Commanders and government representatives who shaped AMSO’s long-term direction and political strategies.

She straightened and turned to him. "Commander Leon."

"You’re not scheduled for field duty today, right?" he asked with a friendly smile. "Why don’t you join me in screening the new recruits?"

Leon was five years older than her, twenty-seven. Lexa wasn’t naive, she knew he had taken a particular interest in her. It was subtle, respectful, but definitely there. And while he hadn’t said anything outright, it made it difficult for her to refuse his invitations, especially when they were about work and it came with a genuine smile.

"Alright. I’ll help out," she agreed, keeping her tone neutral. "Where do you want me stationed?"

He grinned, already expecting her answer. "How about the physical tests? I figure the written exams might bore someone like you."

Lexa gave a small shrug. "Alright. I’ll meet you there."

"Perfect," Leon said with a nod, and then walked ahead.

She watched him go for a moment, then followed after, her mind still slightly tangled in her thoughts of Theo. As much as she wanted to focus on work, the question still lingered: Was he joining AMSO now? It would be nice if he would instead of penetrating red zones without authorization.

The training grounds buzzed with activity as hundreds of hopeful recruits lined up for the AMSO screening. Lexa stood near the obstacle course, clipboard in hand, watching a group of candidates run laps under the scorching afternoon sun. Their movements were clumsy, driven more by desperation than technique.

Somewhere behind the rows of tests and drills, the medical tent was a quieter, colder place, where the real filters were applied.

Because of the chaos from the last few waves of outbreaks, the national hospital archives, both digital and hard copies, had been severely damaged. Fire, sabotage, and migration during red zone collapses left the AMSO’s registry for AMS and UMS patients incomplete.

That’s why the Command had reinstated blood verification for all applicants.

Inside the med-tent, two lab technicians quietly studied the results coming in from the scanners. A red light blinked.

"Another one," whispered one of the med techs, glancing at his colleague.

A man, mid-thirties, built like a tank, sat outside on the bench, smiling and joking with others. But the data said otherwise.

"Candidate ID 0718. Not AMS," the tech confirmed. "Definitely UMS."

His partner immediately stood and called for a commanding officer. "We have a UMS infiltrator in the applicant pool."

Lexa, now reviewing results by the side, turned sharply when she overheard the exchange.

She walked over.

"What’s going on?" she asked calmly.

The officer saluted her. "Commander Lexa. We just confirmed three cases so far. All pretending to be AMS, but they’re UMS. The blood traces are clear."

Lexa narrowed her eyes. "Any sign of mutation instability?"

"Not yet. But two of them had elevated core resonance levels," the medic explained.

Lexa exhaled, trying to stay composed. "Are they cooperating?"

"They don’t know we’ve flagged them yet. Orders?"

Lexa glanced toward Leon, who had just returned to the medical area with a bottle of water in hand. She gestured for him to come over.

"We’ve got UMS posing as AMS," she said quietly.

Leon’s expression hardened instantly. "Alert security. Discreetly pull them aside and isolate them. If they resist, authorize suppression. And notify Marlon."

Lexa nodded, then added, "I want full re-screening of every applicant. Double the verification scans. We’re not risking another breach, not after what happened at the Stadium."

"Yes, Commander."

Lexa closed her eyes for a moment, the memory still vivid like a scar etched in her mind.

She could still remember exactly how everything unfolded at Bandi City Stadium.

It was supposed to be a standard clearance mission. Relief operations had been disrupted after reports of infectee activity surfaced, and AMSO responded immediately. She was there - alongside a unit of soldiers, including a Class 4 AMS who led the front line. They moved efficiently, neutralizing threats one sector at a time.

Until the moment one of their own got badly injured.

He wasn’t just any AMSO soldier, it turned out, he was a UMS. An Unawakened Meteor Survivor who had somehow passed the screenings and got accepted. And the second his condition became critical, the truth revealed itself in the worst possible way.

His body transformed.

It was violent, grotesque. Meteorite energy surged uncontrollably, tearing through muscle and bone, reshaping him into a terrifying Meteorborn in seconds. His screams became growls. His skin hardened, mutated.

And then chaos truly began.

Some civilians caught in the stadium were also UMS. And when they got bitten or exposed during the attack, their bodies reacted just the same. One by one, people transformed before their eyes. The stadium turned into a nightmare.

Lexa still heard the screams in her sleep. So much blood... so much confusion. She had barely made it out alive. If it weren’t for one person, Theo, she would’ve died there.

Her heart sank.

As the officers around her moved quickly to contain the current situation with the fake applicants, Lexa’s gaze swept the area, heavy with the weight of what she knew.

She understood better than most that not all UMS were bad. They didn’t choose to be hit by the meteorites. They didn’t ask for their lives to be rewritten by something they had no control over. They were just... unlucky not to be Awakened.

But that didn’t change the harsh truth: if their bodies were pushed to the brink, by injury, infection, or death, they could turn. And when they did, the destruction that followed was catastrophic. They were walking time bombs... and not even they knew when they might go off.

That was the cruel, inescapable reality.

Lexa opened her eyes slowly, the weight of her thoughts heavier now.

’I can’t let another Bandi City happen,’ she told herself.