Underground. Cold. Silent.
Except for the echo of his boots as he circled me.
Professor Alden.
My psychology teacher. Always calm. Always distant.
But now, he was different.
No glasses. No tired smile. Just sharp eyes that seemed to pierce through me.
Alden: "Took you long enough to find the Red Mirror."
I: "You planted the music box."
Alden: "I composed the melody."
My fists clenched.
Alden: "Relax, Ashira. I'm not your enemy."
I: "Then stop smiling like a villain."
He smirked.
Alden: "Villains and heroes are labels the academy gave you. I gave you life."
I blinked.
I: "What?"
---
Flash. White room. Screaming. Metal table.
Memories rushed in.
Needles.
Code names.
Project Eve.
Alden: "You don't remember everything yet, do you?"
I staggered back.
He walked to the mirror, now cracked and humming faintly.
Alden: "This school wasn't built to train criminals. It was built to contain them."
He turned, his voice softer now.
Alden: "And you, Ashira, were built to replace them."
---
Back Above Ground
Kael and the others finally got a fix on me. They were trying to break in.
Lucian: "Her signal's moving."
Vale: "She's with someone. A faculty code—wait… no way."
Kael: "Alden."
Darius stood silently.
Ryker: "Who is Alden?"
Kael: "The man who founded this school… under a different name."
---
Back Underground
Alden walked to me slowly.
Alden: "You were never just a spy. You're the backup system. The last defense."
I: "Against what?"
He turned the mirror toward me.
It now showed the academy in flames. Screaming. Chaos. Familiar faces… dying.
Alden: "Against them."
Then he whispered my real name.
The one no one was supposed to know.
Not even me.
And everything—my mission, my identity, my feelings for them—began to unravel.
---
End of Chapter 35