CHAPTER FOURTEEN:MEMORY TASTES LIKE SMOKE.
[We're so complex; we're mysteries to ourselves; we're difficult to each other.]
----
The city of ruins didn't sleep that night.
How could it?
The whispers of her—of the girl with a ghost's grace and a god's gaze—spread like wildfire. Everyone in the underworld now knew her codename:
Ravyn.
No one knew her face.
But all of them knew what she'd done.
-----
Nightfall blanketed the city, but inside the Arena compound, the air still vibrated with echoes of Zareina's presence.
The cameras had stopped rolling. The gates had closed.
But the imprint of her was everywhere.
Footsteps clicked through an obsidian hallway. Icarus walked alone.
No guards.
No allies.
Just a storm wearing skin.
His coat was unbuttoned. His eyes—wild with unrest.
Each scene from the fight kept replaying in his mind. Not just the moves—her. Her voice. Her hair. Her eyes.
Something about her... gnawed at his soul like a ghost with teeth.
He stopped in front of a sealed chamber door.
He entered. The room is dark with some holographic screen.
His Private Wing.
He stood barefoot in the center of his sanctum.
He flickered and the room illuminated from darkness.
Around him: dozens of holographic screens looping her fight on repeat.
Inside: a wall of screens, all showing her from different angles. No face. Just presence. Weapon. Eyes.
Blood in slow motion.
Voice waves dancing like silk.
Her eyes—changing color mid-battle like they were alive. Silver turned violet, then emerald, then a flicker of gold. Each hue carved into his mind like branding irons.
Her hair… it had shifted too. From deep onyx to streaks of burning red at the finale.
Alive.
Breathing.
"She's unlocking herself," he murmured, eyes wild.
He reached out to touch the projection of her eyes.
"Who the hell are you… and why do I remember your silence more than anyone's scream? Damn it!"
And in the center, a single voice clip.
"You carry pain… but I carry silence louder than your screams."
He played it again.
And again.
And again.
Then, without a word, he sat down in the chair and whispered:
"Who are you to me? Why am I keep telling myself that you are mine?"
---
Zareina's Quarters – Deep Underground
Her body was still. Her mind, not.
She stood beneath a steaming shower, head tilted back, mismatched eyes dull from the flood of images and echoes inside her.
Steam curled around her as she leaned against the mirror.
Naked shoulders. Wet hair clinging to her back.
Her reflection was… different.
Feral.
Beautiful.
Monstrous.
Her mismatched eyes shimmered gold and turquoise now, pulsing in rhythm with her heartbeat.
And her hair?
What was once black had now faded into ashen gray streaked with deep violet—glowing faintly like smoke licking up her spine.
She pressed her hand to the glass.
"Icarus…"
She didn't know why she whispered his name. She didn't remember when she first heard it.
But it felt like fire meeting frost every time the name left her mouth.
The more she fought, the more she remembered... things.
Not memories, exactly.
Sensations.
A hand in her hair.
A name whispered in desperation.
Blood on white marble.
And a voice—his voice—soft but desperate:
"Please... don't forget me. Please my—"
Her knees buckled. She leaned against the wall, shaking, her breath ragged.
Her hair pulsed with light again—this time, streaks of gray and violet bled through.
She was changing.
Something ancient was waking up inside her.
And it was hungry.
---
Observation Bay of the Arena ,Upper Gallery,
At Night Surveillance
The Arena was dark. But their minds were on fire.
Aspen lounged on a curved seat, licking crushed sugar glass from her fingertips.
They watched Zareina's fight again on replay.
Aspen leaned back, arms behind her head, eyes glinting with admiration.
"She's not just good," she said. "She's something else. Like a black hole in heels."
Cipher scrolled through vitals and data.
"Her Evol is unstable... It's...it's just reacting like it's being repaired, not just awakened."
"She's becoming what Icarus lost,Darling." Aspen murmured.
Cipher paused. "What?"
Aspen licked a sugar stick. "I mean... isn't that the vibe? He doesn't want to fight her. He wants to remember her."
Cipher couldn't catch her words. Looking at her, Aspen smirked.
"Why darling? Don't you understand that? Well,she's not a player anymore," Aspen said, amused. "She's the real game."
Cipher, analytical as ever, flicked through diagnostics.
"Her Evol is restructuring. It's responding to emotional trauma. Memory loss. Something primal is waking up in her."
"Mm." Aspen smiled, dreamy. "You ever fall for someone who could erase you with a breath?"
Cipher raised a brow. "No. But you just did."
Aspen laughed.
Then, without looking, she whispered, "She's a queen made of silence and sirens. And Icarus? That man isn't obsessed—he's mourning. He's trying to remember how he lost her."
Cipher froze.
"…You think they knew each other before?"
"I don't think, but it's not really bad for guessing, right?" Aspen said, her tone suddenly serious. "I know. You don't look at someone like that unless you've already bled for them."
---
Boss's Office – Midnight
"Today's...Report," the assistant said, stepping inside.
The Boss didn't turn from the massive window where he stood, looking down on the Arena below.
The assistant hesitated at the threshold. "Sir… she's progressing faster than expected."
"She's evolving," the Boss said calmly.
"And Icarus?"
"Obsessing. Fading. Fighting a war he doesn't even know he lost."
The Boss stared out the glass window, watching the city below.
"Icarus and Zareina are parallel stars," he said softly. "Burning toward a single moment."
The assistant shifted. "You said they were once connected."
The Boss turned, face half-shadowed, half-lit.
"They weren't just connected," he said. "They were one."
The assistant frowned. "And when they collide?"
The Boss turned, eyes glowing faintly. "They won't destroy each other. Well, they never. But,they'll destroy everything else. Together."
---
Elsewhere – Secret Medical Wing
Vex lay on a bed, barely conscious.
She'd lost the match. But what she'd seen—what she'd felt…
The chill of Zareina's presence.
The burn of her eyes.
Vex exhaled slowly, hooked to machines. Her body was bruised. Her pride, shattered.
But her spirit?
Cracked wide open by what she'd witnessed.
"She… isn't normal," she muttered.
She smiled through cracked lips.
"She's not from this world…"
A shadow stepped forward—cloaked in black, a voice like velvet over steel. They leaned over her—someone cloaked, faceless, with sharp white gloves.
"No, Vex. She's not. She's what's left after gods fall." the figure whispered. "And neither are you. Your blade... was never meant to kill her. Only to wake her."
The figure leaned in, their voice barely a whisper.
"And now that she's waking up… so will you."
The figure leaned in closer to her ear.
"She's starting to remember. And once she does... Icarus will burn for her."
---
The Next Morning
The Arena's PA System
A digital chime echoed through every hallway.
A voice rang out:
"All participants… prepare. The final round begins in three days."
"Final Opponents:
Zareina
vs
...Icarus."
---
At Dawn.
Zareina's Room
She stood at the edge of her bed, eyes open, hair glowing silver and deep crimson now. The color of a war remembered in dreams.
She whispered into the silence:
"…Icarus. Who are you?"
(To be continued)