Kieran stepped off the ship and into his homeland for the first time in twenty-five years. The air smelled different, the streets were busier, the world had changed without him. But before he could process any of it, a wall of uniformed officers was waiting for him.

"Kieran Vale?" One of them, a detective with sharp eyes, stepped forward. "We need to ask you some questions."

Kieran barely reacted. He had expected this. A man returning from the dead—of course they wouldn't just let him walk away.

He was taken to a sterile government facility, placed in a windowless room with nothing but a metal table, a single chair, and a camera in the corner.

"Tell us what happened to you."

Kieran stared at his hands. They still didn't feel like his own.

"How did you survive?"

The words barely reached him. He was still somewhere else—trapped in memories of ice, of blood, of wings that had torn from his body like a nightmare come to life.

"Kieran? Are you listening?"

He clenched his fists. "I don't know."

It was the only truth he could give them.

The interrogation continued, but Kieran's answers remained hollow. He wasn't hiding anything—he simply didn't have the will to explain. He was tired. Tired of being questioned, tired of being studied, tired of a world that no longer felt like his own.

And then they arrived.

The door opened, and the air in the room shifted. A man in a sharp black suit, carrying an air of absolute authority, stepped inside.

"Detective, leave us."

The officer hesitated but obeyed. Kieran didn't look up until the stranger took a seat across from him.

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"Kieran Vale," the man said smoothly. "My name is Chairman Alexander Graves, head of Argos Academy, the world's most elite force against the evils threatening this world."

Kieran finally raised his head, meeting the man's gaze. "And?"

Graves folded his hands together. "You are an anomaly, Kieran. You should not exist. And yet, here you are, a man who has surpassed the limits of human evolution."

"I didn't ask for this," Kieran muttered.

"Perhaps not," Graves acknowledged. "But power is not a choice. It is a responsibility. And right now, the world is falling apart. There are forces that would burn it to the ground if given the chance. We need soldiers to stop them. We need you."

Kieran's heart pounded. "And what exactly would you want me to do?"

Graves leaned forward slightly. "You would hunt down threats before they destroy everything we've built."

Kieran's stomach twisted. He already knew the answer to his next question, but he asked it anyway. "Would I have to kill?"

Graves' response was calm. "Yes."

Silence stretched between them. Kieran exhaled slowly, something breaking inside of him.

"No."

Graves tilted his head. "Excuse me?"

Kieran's pulse roared in his ears. That promise—the one he made to himself in the cabin, when he swore he would never hurt another living thing—it rang louder than anything Graves could offer.

Then, before Graves could react, Kieran moved.

The walls shook as Kieran's power exploded from within him. His wings ripped free, shadows twisting around him. The room's cameras shattered from the force, the table flipped like it was weightless.

In a blur, he was gone.

The facility went into full lockdown. Alarms blared. Security forces mobilized. But none of them could stop him.

Kieran tore through the building, evading their attacks with inhuman reflexes. He leaped, tearing through reinforced barriers like they were paper. He flew, his wings carving through the night sky as he left the city behind.

He didn't stop. Not until the world below him became nothing but an endless blur.

For the next year, Kieran drifted.

He traveled across continents, avoiding civilization, observing humanity from the shadows. He saw things he had never seen before—things no news station would ever report.

Wars waged in secret. Cities drowned in corruption. Children abandoned, families torn apart.

Everywhere he went, he saw violence. Cruelty. Madness.

It didn't matter where he went—humanity was rotting.

And then, the question came to him, unbidden, quiet but unshakable.

Are we really worth saving?

He had spent so long trying to suppress his animal instinct's, but maybe… maybe those instinct's are not animal's but maybe his own