Perhaps I shouldn’t have even found it. It was where my paranoia began, where people took interest in me and my presence. I’m… afraid of what this will end with. And in that fear I find myself reverting to asking a God for his favour and protection.

-From Professor Shokolov’s Journal, 46th Entry

AxEl hung from the railings and climbed over into the balcony. He stumbled upwards and dusted himself off, trying to clean off any evidence that was on him. While dusting himself off with one hand, he grabbed the glove off his other hand with his teeth. He yanked the gloves off and shoved both of them into his coat pockets. The hotel hallway looked empty in the night, which AxEl counted as a blessing as he entered.

He walked through the sliding door and went up to his door, where the trap finally sprung. AxEl opened the door and despite the situation, didn’t flinch. Nook and Anagen were sitting on his bed, looking straight at him. His large figure cast a shadow into the dark room, but he didn’t need the light to see they were disappointed.

“Can’t let anyone else get their hands on Prophecy, can we?” Nook said mockingly. AxEl flipped on the lights.

“So, you know what I did,” AxEl replied.

“And what a stupid decision it was, AxEl. You do realize the government now has access to its abilities?” Anagen said.

“So, they can arm their Questors with one more weapon. It’s not as if those have been any trouble for us,” AxEl said, walking over to his bedside table and grabbing the bottle off of it. He took a gulp of it and smiled to them.

“What’s wrong with you?” Anagen asked, and AxEl ceased the expression. Instead of any kind of anger, he only saw disappointment and sadness on her face. He could see a few tears welling up and dropped the bottle.

“Ana, I’m sorry, I didn’t think you-”

“And that’s the problem! You’re not thinking! You’ve just been throwing every option at our enemies trying to hurt them without a care for how you hurt yourself!” Anagen lectured, and AxEl recoiled at the volume of her words.

“Perhaps you don’t understand the meaning of this,” she continued, flashing the ribbon that had started their relationship. “This signifies trust, trust with information, with decisions. Your counsel in all matters and decisions. And yet you’ve done nothing but ignore my suggestions and Nook’s, setting off on a course that has led us further into trouble than taken us away from it.”

She put a finger to the ribbon and AxEl froze. “Ana, please don’t do that. I just…”

She shook her head. “I’d want to believe you, but you’d just lie again,” she said.

“Why do you want it so bad?” Nook asked. AxEl looked over and his friend’s face wasn’t of anger or confusion, just simple interest.

“Want HoonUl dead?” AxEl asked and Nook nodded.

“Yeah. Why? It’s been years, AxEl, and you still haven’t told me,” Nook said, standing up and walking towards AxEl. Nook was much shorter than him, but his sheer presence made AxEl a bit uneasy.

“You had a vision. Of something Ana and I still don’t know. You won’t tell us, but why? And what did you see in it yourself that made you so committed?” Nook chuckled before continuing.

“Come on, who does all of this,” he said, spreading his arms wide, “just for money? That can’t be it.”

AxEl shifted on the back foot. Can I…. Are we close enough? He thought to himself. After all these years of keeping it to himself, could he finally tell them what he saw? And would they even understand? But he was sick of keeping it a secret. It ate at him to not tell them, lead them on when all they’d done for him was listen. Even if Nook had been acting distant, if Anagen had kept him from his goal. So he decided.

“You both should take a seat. I’ll explain everything. Now. Not later. Not as some vague time I keep giving you. Now. But you’ll need to know something else first.”

Hesitantly, Nook sat down. Though the expression on his face looked suspicious, he stayed quiet.

“Have I ever told you… about my father?”

****

My father wasn’t a bad man, I swear. It was just I preferred my mother over him.

ArcEl was a police officer. But I’d say he was more of an investigator. Dad’s office was always filled with case files and documents. He spent so much time in there or out patrolling my mother would have to scold him for it.

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Maybe because of how much time he spent away from the house, I wouldn’t get to see him much. When he was around, he’d try to play with me, but I’d always run away. I don’t know why.

He tried connecting with me, I know that. He’d bring my favourite toy, or a cartoon, or take me out to eat, but I’d always complain about not being near mom. I didn’t realize later how much it hurt him when I did that. I didn’t know he… felt so bad about it…

One day my mom left on a business trip. Our house was expensive and both of my parents had to work to support it. I remember crying a lot that day. My dad tried calming me down. Tried being patient. I just ran and hid from him.

“Come on, bud, you can’t stay in there forever,” he said in a tired voice. I think it was the stress of his job that did that. He would always move so sluggishly after coming back.

He tried to coax me out with ice cream and I just took it. I ran again to my bedroom and remember locking it so he couldn’t enter. I’d be pretty mad at myself if I had to deal with that.

But my dad wasn’t. He was the most patient man I’ve ever seen. He knocked on it to make sure I was inside, but I didn’t answer. I just wanted mom to come home so dad would leave. Haha… why did I say that?

Dad came by later with some food. Pasta, I think? It’s kind of fuzzy. He knocked again but I didn’t want to talk. So, he just talked at me.

“You sure you don’t want any of this delicious dish, Ax? It’s going to get cold out here, you know?” he said. After a minute he just sighed from the other end of the door and I heard a clink as he put the plate down.

I heard him walk away after that. Opened the door slowly so he wouldn’t hear me coming out and grabbed the plate. There were words written in ketchup but I…. I just ate it without looking.

I came down after that because I felt bad. The TV was running so I could hear some shows. But I also heard steps down there. I walked down and down those stairs, but I didn’t open the door.

Stomps were the first thing I heard, and it scared me. Then the arguing. People shouting about something I don’t remember and then something shattering on the floor. I heard gunshots and stumbled back against the steps. My heart started beating so fast it scared me. Then the screams. I could only make out a single voice though. A single, raspy, voice.

“Tsk, hold him down!” it shouted and I heard more struggling. I was scared, so I didn’t move from those steps. “And go check the rooms upstairs for evidence!” That’s when I ran. I ran all the way up to my bedroom and hid under it. The door was open, and it shined some light into my room.

My room was right above the lounge, though, and I could still hear everything going on downstairs. I saw legs move past my room and held my breath for so long I got dizzy. Then one last gunshot, and the sound of something spraying. That was it. The only thing I saw next was people moving past my door again.

I stayed under that bed for hours before I worked up the courage to get out. When I did, I walked down those stairs, looking for my father. I wanted to know where he was. I wanted him to protect me. I opened that door to a sight that’s seared into my mind.

My father was on the ground. He had a hole through his head, where blood sprayed out onto the floor. I didn’t move. I didn’t blink. I just kept looking. I just kept looking until some sense came into me and I moved to the telephone.

I picked it up and started screaming. I don’t remember what happened next, just that an officer put his hands over my eyes and took me out of the room. The other officers only said a few words around me, but I remember them all. And I remember one name in particular. Airwaves.

****

Anagen and Nook looked, horrified. AxEl was standing there with glazed over eyes, not moving even as he breathed in and out. Nook was the only one who dared to speak, and even that with stutters.

“W-what did you see in the Prophecy?” he asked AxEl.

“It was that same raspy voice, Nook,” AxEl started, “The visions were so much foggier, so vague, but I remember it. The man in my visions moved like the wind. We were fighting in someplace that was burning down, and I beat him.”

He paused for a moment as if debating with himself, then smiled a little. He raised his hand up to his left eye and held it open with the other. Then, he peeled the contact off of it and revealed the ash grey glow underneath it. “And I saw you there with me. We both stood above him.”

Anagen stood up and ran straight over to him. She placed a hand on his face and examined it quickly.

“What’s wrong with your eyes!?” she asked, her voice cracking.

“Prophecy abuse. I know you told me not to, but I kept using it. I needed it in so many situations it became a habit. And now? Now I see the Phantoms sometimes without it, Ana,” he said, and the expression on his face showed his sorrow. AxEl looked over at Nook, who was still digesting the information he had been given.

He’d let his friend have that. After all, Nook was his brother in this prophecy. He stood up after a moment, but didn’t move from his location.

“We….we can help you get rid of the Addiction. You’ll stop using Prophecy for a while, at least until the effects die down…” Anagen offered in a half-convinced voice. “…We’ll leave for now, and come back once you’re better.”

“We can’t do that now, Ana. This is our chance to take HoonUl down for good. If we leave, who knows whether my vision will come true.”

“Who cares about the vision! You need healing. And we need to regroup. We can handle Heravina and the Company some other time.”

“I won’t do that, Ana. I’ve waited too long,” AxEl replied, standing firmly.

“You… really think both of us are going to take HoonUl down?” Nook asked him. AxEl gave him a sincere and sad looking smile. With one eye ash grey and the other covered, Nook didn’t know how to react.

“I know so,” AxEl replied.

“Your health’s only going to deteriorate if you have to keep this up, AxEl,” Ana warned. She looked more scared than even him at the realization of what Prophecy had done to his body.

“Later. I promise you I’ll stop. But only after I avenge my father,” AxEl told her. Would he want you to avenge him? The voice in his head asked him. That little doubt he’d begun hearing after his father’s death. He ignored it again, and felt it recede from his mind. He couldn’t afford doubt when his goal was so close at hand.