Chap 142: It’s Time (Patreon)

The couple in the boat passed under the bridge, giving Tee and Kie a moment of privacy. She thought he needed it especially for what she was about to say. Her voice was soft, but laced with venomous intent.

“Kie, I need to tell you something,” she began, turning to him. “Something you may not like.”

He turned, brows furrowed. “Um… okay.”

She sighed, as if the words already hurt her. “I don’t think ‘we’ are working out.”

His brows knitted further, confusion flickering into hurt. “What do you mean… ‘not working out’?”

Tee swallowed, forcing herself to meet his eyes. “Kie, you’re sweet. You’re patient. You’re… everything I should want.” Her voice thinned. “But I feel like I’m dragging you into something you don’t understand. And I can’t pretend I don’t see the cracks forming.”

Kie shook his head slowly. “Tee, if something’s wrong, we can fix—”

“That’s just it,” she cut in gently. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to fix ‘us’ or chase after me, or… keep guessing what’s going on in my head.” Her fingers tightened around the railing. “You deserve someone better.”

He opened his mouth, then closed it, lost in the sudden shift of the moment. “Tee… did I do something?”

“No,” she whispered. “This isn’t about anything you did. It’s me realizing I’m not as ready as I thought. Like I said, my heart died with my first love.”

Kie stared at her, hurt softening into resignation. The quiet ripple of the water under them filled the space between his breaths. “So… what now?”

Tee drew in a shaky breath, eyes drifting to the lake’s reflection. “I need some time, Kie.” She exhaled. “Some time alone. To clear my head.”

He looked down, then nodded once—small, heavy. “Okay,” he murmured. “If that’s what you need. I’m not going anywhere.”

His words nearly made her shatter. Did that mean he wasn’t giving up? Why was he so fixed on her? Slightly annoyed, she turned away and walked off.

“See you around, Kie. I’ll teleport on my own.”

Time alone was exactly what she needed before the weight of everything swallowed her whole. Her chest tightened, though she couldn’t say why. What she did had to be done. She had never planned on staying with him for long, and that was the perfect time.

Kie walked away from the spot, one that reminded him of another horrible moment in his life. Was something wrong with him? Why did he keep losing people? He leaned on a pole, watching pairs of happy passersby. Once again, he felt like that invisible loner no one cared about.

Sliding on his shades to hide his teary eyes, he glimpsed his reflection. Though his scars were gone, he remembered the day he got them and the ones who died. The cause had been an accident, yet he had played a part. Most of them had wanted to die anyway. Was he facing punishment for that day? As if the universe already knew what he would do in the future—and why his father, mother, and brother had left him.

Meanwhile, Tee admired the monument up close during a yacht ride on the lake. She kept her back turned to the other passengers, unable to marvel at its size. Its enormity made her wonder about her MegaSapian form. What would it look like? Thoughts of who might die if she mutated at that moment tormented her.

She remembered the Commander’s warning—that she was giving the monster inside time to take control. But telling her teammates the truth was too hard. She had no choice but to keep running until the decision was out of her hands. Or could she shift the burden to someone else…?

Would the Commander tell her teammates her situation if she asked him? Asking the elders—or a random Vergant—was out of the question. But the Lieutenant… perhaps she could help.

She hung her head on the railing until the conductor called out to her. She turned around and realized the ride was over and she was the only passenger left. She walked out behind the crowd and a guy with messy blond hair stood out to her. 

“...Jack?”

Jack was dead but the resemblance from the back was shocking. She followed the person to a dead end and her heart dropped when he passed through the wall. As she stood, she became aware of her beating heart. 

She turned around to walk away. Seeing Tetra several feet facing her stabbed her heart with pain. Both Tetra’s round lenses shimmered with bright white light blocking her eyes out. Strands of her curly black hair hung over her face and her mouth was not visible. 

Tee knew Tetra was also not there and sought to walk around her. Jack appeared to stop her path and Tee stepped back from his black-filled eyes. A line traced from the corner of his lips into a smile showing his black teeth. 

“It's time,” Tetra and Jack said in synchronized deep voices. 

A jolt from deep within Tee’s body caused her heart to race. She looked down and held her chest to analyze the feeling she felt. What could it be? Her eyes went wide remembering the two times she heard those words from Jack’s ghost. But why was Tetra there?

She ran through Jack’s ghost hoping to put it all behind her. But both his and Tetra’s creepy faces kept flashing onto the people she passed. Their voices repeated in her head that ‘it was time.’ Her path got blocked again but it was not by Tetra or Jack but the unexpected. 

Facing a resemblance of herself caused her to stop. Her duplicate raised her head as her hair turned black. The sight of black eyes with gray skin made Tee jump back. 

Okay…the wine was seriously affecting her. It had to be. 

She turned away to run off, but froze—Jack stood in her path. Spinning the other way, she found Tetra there too, her glasses cracked down the middle. The three ghosts closed in, cornering her as they stepped closer, their presence tightening around her like a vice.

“It’s time,” they repeated, voices overlapping.

Tee shook her head hard, backing away until she couldn’t move any farther. She clamped her hands over her ears, but it was useless—their voices weren’t coming from outside.

They echoed from within.

Something began to rise from her throat, suffocating her. She fell to her knees gasping for air. Darkness began to crawl over her field of vision. Her trembling hand on the ground was the last thing she saw before pitch black consumed her sight. 

Her cry echoed inside her head as the brain-stabbing pain tormented her soul. Doubt about losing that battle rose from the most intense pain she had ever felt. Unable to take another breath, an explosion built deep within her chest. 

“Mam, are you alright?” asked a passerby seeing her on her knees. 

The stranger’s words got through to her amidst her inner battle. She remembered where she was and the people around her who would die if she mutated. No! She couldn’t allow it! Those thoughts ended with the pain that exploded all over her and her scream. 

Darkness tore through her back in a three sixty-degree wave. The passersby around her got hit first and their bodies were obliterated to bloody pulps. Towers and constructions got hit next before snapping apart and falling. 

All around, bursts of static came from hologram signs, machines, and wires. The lights died and dimness spread to distant areas of the park. On the lake, a wide wave began curling over to obstruct everything on its surface. A reverberating low hum came from the unaffected park as people fled the dead zone. 

Zod and Miko’s eyes flashed blue light for a second. They ignored the milkshake they shared with separate straws to look around. Alarms started all over the park drilling urgency in the air. The people on the open roof with them began to flee for the exits but it was the screams that got them on their feet. 

“What’s happening?” Miko shrieked.

Zod glanced at the hologram signs flashing across the walls, all pointing toward the park’s exits. “Emergency evacuation. We should contact the others before we teleport.”

The light-purple sky made the dark, fog‑covered sections of the distant park stand out. They barely had time to question what they were seeing before a worker barked at them to move. They lowered their arms and obeyed, running with the crowd. But how were they supposed to sneak away for a private teleport?

Saeda stood frozen after feeling the strong energy wave pulsing from the park’s surface. Her glowing eyes dimmed, and she trembled at the sight of people fleeing in sheer terror. Thankfully, in the fake night, no one noticed the shine in her eyes as they were too focused on escaping.

All the hologram signs pushed her toward a park exit, away from the source. But she felt the energy pulling from that direction—strong, familiar, like a memory of a previous Harbinger mission.

Yes. She had felt that exact energy before.

It was the day her aura-sensing helped her find the mountain where the Harbingers had trapped Tee.

A shiver crawled down her spine. That wasn’t a Xenosapian evacuation.

She ducked behind a slab as the last crowd rushed past. Her thumb hovered over her telecom, ready to teleport, but her curiosity won. Her aura-sensing was active. Was that a sign? If she got closer to the source, would it shut off again?

Meanwhile, Miko and Zod managed to slip into a secluded corner where they could teleport. Zod contacted the others, informing them he and Miko were leaving. Only Saeda responded.

Using his holo‑map, Zod noticed Kie was unmoving. He assumed he was already teleporting in a frozen state. But why wasn’t Tee’s signal showing on his telecom?

Saeda sprinted toward the surface, following the pull. She stopped dead when the energy vanished. Worse, all aura signatures around her blinked out. She pressed her hand to a wall—no vision. Nothing.

Just as she feared, her aura-sensing had shut off again.

Frustrated, she abandoned the pursuit. Once she returned to Primus, she would uncover the truth behind all this.

Saeda teleported into the mission base and gasped, filling her lungs after the suffocating panic outside. Zod and Miko stood with the Lieutenant, watching live broadcasts projected across multiple holograms. Saeda stepped forward—then froze.

Everyone around her radiated bright Ether signatures. Zod and Miko glowed the brightest of all.

Her aura‑sensing was working again—in the mission base, for the first time ever. Whatever the interference was, she had left it behind.

But what could it be?

Deep lines creased Saeda’s forehead as she joined the others to watch the broadcasts. Miko noticed her first and asked about Kie and Tee. Saeda only gave a blank stare.

Zod exhaled. “So Tee and Kie weren’t teleporting like I thought.” Worry sharpened his tone.

“Maybe they were having trouble finding privacy,” Miko suggested. “They’ll teleport soon.”

Zod accepted that reasoning—though it didn’t explain why Tee’s telecom was off line. Maybe them teleporting together had something to do with it. He tried to calm himself with that thought, while Saeda remained lost in aura‑sensing theories.

Time slipped away. They watched the disturbing live footage of the park for forty minutes before the Lieutenant reminded them neither Tee nor Kie had returned. The Commander’s warning about group teleportation twisted a knot of dread in her stomach.

All three teens called Tee and Kie repeatedly. Meanwhile, the Lieutenant used GPS tracking and satellite footage.

Kie’s location was found—relieving.

Tee’s was not.

“Your teammate Tee—her telecom is offline,” the Lieutenant said. “But I can still track her.”

They exchanged troubled looks.

Saeda whispered, “Maybe the Harbingers got her again. Maybe Kie tried to save her and they were separated… or maybe Tee is dead.”

Her voice faltered, remembering her glowing eyes. What if that had been a sign?

Zod snapped, “I refuse to believe that. Saeda, don’t speak unless it’s positive.”

While they argued, the Lieutenant analyzed the park’s energy readings. Her expression tightened. Dark mana registered across the destruction. Tracing it, she found the source—and her brows drew together sharply.

Tee was not only the source of the dark mana.

She was at the very center of the devastation.

Kie opened his eyes, glowing blue. A shock of pain ripped through him, drowning out the faint voices calling through his telecom. The translucent blue triangle enclosing him dissolved. As the calls continued, he stared at the destruction around him.

Sparks and static crackled from broken machines. People lay motionless in the fog. His heart seized—were they dead? A crash echoed. News drones buzzed above, capturing the chaos.

He spun, refusing to accept what he saw. The sky, half red with the setting sun, made it feel even more unreal.

“Kie!” his teammates called.

He forced himself to answer. “I’ll teleport—but not without Tee.”

The Lieutenant’s voice came through: “I sent her coordinates to your telecom.”

She knew Kie would uncover everything once he reached her location. Tee’s secrecy had lasted long enough.

Kie pushed his aching body through the nightmare, avoiding drones as he followed the trail of unconscious bodies—each one twisted worse than the last. A massive force had torn through that place. Doubt pricked him—had the Lieutenant given him the right coordinates?

Then he saw her.

A body lay at the center of the devastation. His heart lurched when he saw the white hair. Drones swooped toward them. He ran closer, frowning when he saw the black substance coating her body, hiding her nakedness.

No blood.

No gash from before.

No sign of a Xenosapian attack.

None of it made sense.

The approaching drones reminded him he didn’t have time to think. He flung a sword, slicing several of them from the air—regretting it instantly. They might have been searching for survivors.

He slapped Tee’s cheek—no response. He wrapped her in his jacket and carried her under fallen debris to hide.

He spoke into his telecom. “I found Tee, but she’s missing her telecom. How do we teleport?”

“I’m reading strong traces of compact Ether energy from you,” the Lieutenant answered. “Try initiating teleportation.”

Holding Tee tight, Kie bit down on his teleport button.