Luna doesn't sleep. She paces the dorm roof at 0400, frost blooming under her boots like accusations spreading across concrete. Each step cracks the silence, ice spider-webbing outward. Ray watches from the stairwell door, kinetic power thrumming in his fingertips like stolen electricity. The stolen memory loops endlessly: Tessia Vale, age nineteen, standing guard in the hallway while Drake's flame devoured his childhood, her face impassive, hand on the data shard.
He steps out onto the roof. Wind whips her hair into white whips that lash her cheeks. She doesn't turn. "I can feel you," she says, voice hollow as a frozen lake. "Like ice in my veins. Like you're already gone."
Ray stops an arm's length away. The city below hums, oblivious under the pre-dawn gloom. Hero patrol lights sweep the skyline in lazy arcs, searching for villains that don't exist. "I didn't want you to see it that way," he says. "The memory. Her face."
Luna spins. Eyes red-rimmed from unshed tears, power crackling along her skin in blue-white arcs. "My sister was there." Voice flat, deadly. "She watched them burn you. Watched your mother beg. And she took the shard."
Ray nods. The hunger wants him to reach for her throat, test if ice shatters under kinetic force, absorb the storm before it breaks him. He crushes the urge, fingers curling into fists. "She took the piece that matches mine. Council orders. Cleanse the anomaly."
Luna's breath hitches, visible in the cold air. Ice spears erupt from the rooftop in a sudden ring around them, impaling the night sky. One grazes Ray's cheek, drawing a thin line of blood that freezes instantly. He doesn't flinch. The pain grounds him.
"I need to see her," Luna whispers, voice cracking like the ice. "Now. Face to face. I need to know why."
Ray's mind races through blueprints memorized from Mira's hacked files: visitation wing in the admin tower, biometric locks, rotating guards, Tessia's schedule as Council liaison (dawn briefing in thirty minutes). Confrontation means exposure. Means cameras. Means Reaper Unit accelerating their hunt. But Luna's eyes hold a storm deeper than any Catalyst, one that could freeze them both if denied.
"Visitation wing," he says, voice low. "Dawn shift change. Guards rotate at 0500. I can get us in through the maintenance vents. But if she lies..."
Luna's gaze hardens, frost creeping up her arms like armor. "She won't lie to me." A pause. "Or I'll make her."
They move. Ray leads, kinetic power muffling their footsteps on the fire escape. The academy grounds are a maze of floodlights and patrol drones, but he redirects a sensor beam with a flick of stolen energy, bends light just enough to slip through shadows. Luna follows, ice cloaking them in a thin mist that blurs outlines.
Maintenance hatch. Ray pries it with rebar from his pocket. They drop into the vents, metal cold and echoing. Crawl on elbows and knees, breath fogging. Ray counts turns: left, right, down. Luna's hand on his ankle, grounding.
They emerge in a service corridor behind the visitation suites. Sterile white walls, humming fluorescents. A guard yawns at his station, coffee steaming. Ray waits. Kinetic pulse. The guard's head snaps back into the wall, out cold. No alarm.
Suite 7. Tessia Vale. Door slides open on Ray's override (code lifted from Kira's memories).
Tessia stands at the window, back to them, A-rank uniform pristine. Ice-blue hair tied in a severe bun. She turns slow. Eyes widen at Luna, then narrow at Ray. "Little sister. And the anomaly. Council said you'd come crawling."
Luna steps forward, ice forming gauntlets on her fists. "Why?" One word, laced with winter. "Why were you there that night?"
Tessia smiles, cold as her sister's power. "Orders. Elior Kings was building something dangerous. Predator prototype. Had to be contained." She glances at Ray. "Looks like we failed."
Ray's hunger surges. He sees it in her eyes: recognition of the shard bulge under his shirt. "You took the piece," he says. "The one with the core code."
Tessia shrugs. "Insurance. Council wants the full set now. You're the key, boy. Turn yourself in, and maybe Luna walks."
Luna's power explodes. Ice shards pin Tessia to the wall, inches from throat. "You let them die. For what? Rank? Credits?"
Tessia's laugh is brittle. "For family. Mother's treatment. You think ideals pay bills?" Blood trickles where ice cuts skin. "Join us, Luna. We can rule."
Ray feels the Reaper Unit closing (three signatures, S-rank, elevator rising). Time's up.
Luna's hand trembles. "I trusted you."
Tessia's eyes soften for a flicker. "I trusted the system."
Ray steps between them. Kinetic field ready. "We're leaving."
But Luna hesitates. One second. Enough.
Alarms blare. Doors seal. Gas hisses from vents.
Reaper Unit bursts in: Viper (neurotoxin), Phantom (phase-shift), Titan (density control). Masks gleaming.
"Target acquired," Viper hisses. "Predator anomaly."
Ray grabs Luna's wrist. Kinetic redirection coils. "Hold on."
He slams the floor. Shockwave ripples, cracking walls. They blast through the window, glass shattering into the dawn.
Falling. Five stories. Ray redirects momentum, lands rolling on the quad grass. Luna forms ice slide, cushioning.
Sirens everywhere. Cadets pouring out. Drones swarming.
Ray pulls Luna into the shadows. "We run. Now."
She looks back at the tower, eyes shattered. "She's still my sister."
Ray's voice hard. "Not anymore."
They vanish into the slums as the academy locks down. Reaper Unit on their heels.
The fracture widens. Trust crumbles. The hunt is on.