The night became hectic.

Following Kaitlyn’s collapse outside their home, the Perez’s refused to let their daughter out of their sight. Ignoring the curious neighbors that had swarmed outside their front gate, Victor Perez, Kaitlyn’s father, used his massive frame to delicately pick her up and carry her inside while Anna Perez, Kaitlyn’s mother, rushed in front of him to gather fresh blankets, pillows, and other supplies to help make their daughter more comfortable.

Aiden remained standing outside, uncomfortable and worried, too embarrassed to follow behind the Perez family. What use would he be? What could he even say? So far he had only allowed Kaitlyn to drag him around all day, helped her cause a scene at the Academy, and then watch as her bizarre behavior culminated in her total collapse just now. He had no idea what he should do. His thoughts were a mess. His emotions were all over the place.

Honestly, he was too far out of his depth. He was more than happy to just stand in this one spot and not cause any more trouble for the Perez’s than he already had. It was the least he could do. Having managed to collect himself to this point, Aiden reached into his pocket and pulled out a small round piece of metal.

The metal disc was about the size of a coin but was completely devoid of any markings or designs. Although it looked ordinary, this piece of metal was actually a simple, but effective, emergency device given to every prospect upon their recruitment into an Academy. To activate it, all a prospect needed to do was to hold it between two fingers and provide sufficient pressure, once they did this, the coin would vanish from their hand and send a signal with the prospect’s location directly to the closest Star Order personnel within range. Placing it in the palm of his hands, Aiden contemplated his next move.

If he activated the disc, a member of the Star Order, most likely one of the Academy instructors, would show up very quickly; he would be reprimanded for breaking curfew, sure, but he would also be able to get Kaitlyn the help she needed.

If he didn’t activate the device, he would have to shoulder the responsibility for the entire situation himself. That would mean helping the Perez’s take care of their daughter and making sure that the Academy didn’t find out about what was going on with her. This might seem like the worst move he could make on the surface, especially when taking into consideration Kaitlyn’s health, but he wasn’t so sure. While he had no idea what had caused her to end up in this state, he knew that everything had started when she had passed by the hooded warrior earlier that day.

The very same warrior that had been having a private meeting with the Administrator only moments before.

He wasn’t a stupid man, knowing that the connection was circumstantial at best. Aiden also knew that each choice had its own pros and cons, but, now that the disc was in his hands, he had no idea which was the right decision. He hesitated.

The hesitation was enough.

Behind Aiden, Mr. Perez poked his head out of the house and bellowed at the young man’s hunched back, “Aiden! What are you doing, boy? Get your ass in here and tell us what’s happening to our daughter! She’s sweating buckets and a fever is starting to take hold!”

Startled, the young man clenched his hand around the metal disc and shoved it back in his pocket. He spun around and straightened his back before answering with a slight pitch, “A fever?! I--Sir, I don—She hasn—What I mean is—” Aiden bit his tongue to stop himself from blathering on like an idiot.

If looks could kill, Mr. Perez would've already murdered him several times over.

Wincing, Aiden took a deep breath, slowly releasing it as he struggled to remain calm. He nodded as he started walking towards the door, “Yes sir. I’ll tell you what I know.”

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‘I’ll see what I can do to help out before getting the Academy involved.’ he thought, trying to assure himself while hurrying behind Mr. Perez with a worried face.

Stepping inside, the first thing Aiden noticed was the air of comfort he got from the home. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly where the feeling came from, not ever having had a place he could truly call “home”, but the sense of calm that came over him as he followed Mr. Perez through the house was a pleasant feeling.

In moments, the two entered the living room, the calm that had washed over Aiden vanishing like a dream, and he could see why Mr. Perez’s voice had had a tinge of fear mixed in with his anger when he came looking for him just now.

Kaitlyn had been placed on the small sofa amidst a cloud of blankets, though most of them had been ripped away, cast to the floor haphazardly, and she looked terrible. She was still unconscious, which may have been a small mercy as her entire body was absolutely drenched in sweat and her breathing had once again grown incredibly ragged. Aiden, seeing her reddened complexion, stepped closer to check the fever Mr. Perez had mentioned but ended up stopping as the heat Kaitlyn radiated could be felt from where he stood. He recoiled, horrified.

Mrs. Perez sat on the edge of the couch, sweating as she ignored the heat, using a cool damp cloth to diligently wipe her daughter down, trying everything she could to bring down the sky-rocketing fever.

Sensing Aiden’s presence to her side, she turned to look at him, her expression of anxious fear highlighting the already drastic situation, “Aiden! Thank the stars! Please, son, you have to tell us what’s going on! I’ve never heard of a fever coming on like this before , and nothing I’m doing is having any effect!” her voice cracked as she strained this point, “If we can’t get the fever down soon, I don’t know what will happen.”

Aiden was shaken. Everything was happening so suddenly, and he couldn’t process the constant flow of emotions and events that were being thrown at him without respite. His hand went instinctively to the pocket where the metal disc lay, and he gripped it hard between his fingers. Although he was busy burying himself beneath despairing thoughts, in the back of his mind, Aiden felt the disc leave his hand and disperse.

‘I can’t do this. This is beyond anything that I can do to help. Why didn’t I call for help sooner?’ he regretfully berated himself, ‘If something happens to Kaitlyn because I can’t even make a simple decision, I—'

“Victor,” Mrs. Perez pleaded, nearing her wits end, her hopes fading rapidly as she watched the spiraling young man.

Mr. Perez was standing behind his wife and had gone through a similar process of shock and helplessness the moment he placed his daughter down and saw that her condition had deteriorated so much in the short time it had taken him to carry her from the front door. Thanks to his civilian military training and his years in the guard force, Mr. Perez had been able to use his experiences to shut down the errant emotions and focus on action.

Now, seeing that the kid wasn’t going to be of any help to his daughter in such a hapless state, he took the only reasonable action open to him given the circumstances. Reaching out and gripping the prospect by his immaculate uniform, Mr. Perez proceeded to deliver a full force, open palm slap to Aiden’s face using all of his considerable build. The result was spectacular.

Lifted completely from his feet by the force of impact, Aiden’s body spun wildly as he was sent flying across the room. His head turned to the side, Aiden crashed against the wall and fell in a heap on the floor, the entire left side of his face red and already beginning to show signs of swelling. Left stunned by the sudden assault, his eyes, which were staring up in a daze, were widened in shock and his mouth hung open like a fish.

The room descended into silence.

The first to break the tension was Kaitlyn, her ragged breathing bringing everyone back to focus. Mrs. Perez bit her lip as she continued to use the damp cloths to wipe away the sweat and cool down her daughter; her husband remained in his position and waited for Aiden to regain his senses.

Mr. Perez shifted uncomfortably. To be honest, he hadn’t meant to hit the kid quite that hard.

‘I hope I didn’t give him brain damage.’

Unexpectedly, the second person to break the silence wasn’t any of the three, but a mask wearing intruder who was somehow standing by the foot of the couch and staring down at Kaitlyn with an air of concern.

Before anyone knew what was going on, the intruder, wearing a standard issue Order cloak, looked from Kaitlyn on the couch to Aiden on the floor and said with a flabbergasted tone, "You, on the floor, pull yourself over here and explain to me how it's possible that one of our Selectees is currently dying from Energy Overload, without even having a single Authority."