Two twenty five after midnight.

That was when I left the hospital with a clearly annoyed Birgit in tow.

“How are you?” she asked when we met up.

“As good as can be,” was my response. “I’m sorry.”

She didn’t say anything. She only huffed and started walking toward my dorm. I’d stood there for a bit, dumbfounded at the lack of a response. I followed her, walking as fast as I could when two thirds of my body felt like they’d been put through the ringer.

This wasn’t the worst fight I’d been in my life–far from it–but it’d been a while since I’d really gone at it. I stole glances at Birgit while we were walking, unsure of how exactly to start saying, well, anything.

And she, for her part, was silent the whole way as well. God. A good year. Why was that so much to ask?

Alpha Surge’s murder. Whatever Jensen was planning. Birgit’s parents. Sadid’s sister. Training Amir. The Inter-School Tournament. The Houses of Doom. Paragon’s voice in my head.

Both my personal and, for lack of a better term, hero lives were so overstuffed. And I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gotten a full night’s sleep. And I wouldn’t get it tonight either. I had Sadid’s sister to meet with tomorrow.

I looked back at Birgit. Suddenly I started feeling the same insecurities I had last year. Of dragging her–and everyone else–through the tangled mess that was my life.

And so I’d started to regress. Keep secrets I really shouldn’t have been keeping. But every time I tried to–every time I tried to put everything into words, I got stuck. I had tried to tell or tell anyone, everything that was going on, no words were coming out of my mouth.

And I tried to tonight as well. Same result. No words, nothing of value, other than a few noises that earned me a side-eyed look.

Until we were there. Standing right in front of the bridge that connected my mansion to the rest of the island. A journey that was both too short and too long at the same time.

The cold air brushed against my whole body. I shivered, but Birgit didn’t. The smell of the sea was infiltrating my nose–a familiar and comforting feeling. It reminded me of the summer’s I’d spend at home.

“I’m sorry,” I said again. And again, she didn’t respond. “You’re not going to say anything?”

“Every time-you know what, Alex? No. I’m not going to say anything.” I barely stopped myself from flinching at the anger in her voice. “Because it’s not going to matter.”

“What?”

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“There’s something going on with you, I know that,” she said. “But you haven’t said anything. You’ve just sat there, letting it chip away at you. More and more each day. And you’re just taking on more and more. And now this? You-you’ve had so many chances to talk to me! Talk to anyone! But you’re not! And why?”

“I-”

“No excuses Alex. I thought it was Alpha Surge at first. I know how much he meant to you, but there’s more than that. I know there is.”

It was like she could hear the gears turning in my brain, trying to figure out what I could say to get her to relax. The truth was that I didn’t know what was wrong. Everything was going great.

Or at least well enough. And any problems that came up I wasn’t worried about. I had people that cared about me.

I struggled and thought about it. But nothing concrete came to mind.

“I don’t know,” I said eventually. “I just–the only thing I know is that you shouldn’t worry. I’m struggling but I’ll figure it out.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“I want to help people.” The words came out before I could even think about them.

Like I was a cartoon with a lightbulb over his head. It all came together, like a puzzle I finally managed to complete. The best I’d felt–the closest to a true hero–was during my session with Amir.

“I’ve not done a good job with that. Finding out what happened with Alpha Surge and…everything else. When your parents first came? That was the most scared I’ve seen you be. Including when we fought Paragon! And I couldn’t help you. And I wasn’t there today either because I got into a stupid fight. There’s a thousand and one things that I’ve told people I’d do. And I just-it’s too much! And I hate myself for thinking that!”

I hadn’t realised it, but tears had formed in my eyes. They’d started going down my face and I couldn’t stop them. Birgit’s expression softened. She let out a small sigh and placed one of her cold hands against my cheek.

The tears froze when they touched it, shattering right after.

“You should have been there. You promised me.”

“I know.”

“But you shouldn’t stretch yourself so thin.”

“I know that too, now.” I chuckled at her words. It was a bitter sound. “But this shouldn’t be about me.”

“Kæreste…”

“Your mother tried to buy me off. Well, she pretty much told me she knows that I know she’s Lady Flame. And then she tried to convince me that you shouldn’t give up on being a hero.”

“It looks like another Christmas in Atlantis for me,” said Birgit. “I’ve never seen them like they were tonight. So mad. Usually they try to hide it and be as cold as possible. Not tonight.”

Her voice trembled. She looked down and I couldn’t even begin to imagine what she went through. I shook off her hand and wrapped myself around her. Self-pity. It turned out that I’d fallen in the very trap I wanted to avoid.

And this was the result.

“You can come with me,” I said. “Christmas in Crete. It’s not really snowy but it is cold and I have fun with my family.”

“Yeah.”

“I regressed a bit, but I promise you I’ll fix it.”

And I had a lot to fix. But I was back on the right track. No more false starts or going in the wrong direction. Everything would be back to normal now.

“My, my,” said an all too familiar voice. I could feel my eyes physically widening. “You can’t keep your hands off of each other, can you?”

We separated and I looked at where the voice was coming from. A blonde man, dressed in a red jacket. His green eyes almost sparkled with his smile.

Of course. The Inter-School tournament was almost here.

And so, Iraklis Drakos was here as well.