The First Awakening

The academy's combat simulation chamber smelled of scorched metal and sweat. Kairo Müller wasn't asleep. He hadn't even left the room since the trial ended.

His hands trembled. The training suit clung to his skin, damp with cold sweat. Around him, shattered drone casings littered the floor—ghosts of a battle he wasn't sure he'd truly fought.

A single replay flickered on the projection screen in front of him.

The moment his mech moved.

Not by command. Not by training.

But by something else.

Something that wasn't him, but was inside him.

Kairo exhaled. His body still felt like it was burning from the inside out, as if something ancient had stirred within his veins. He flexed his fingers, watching the tiny sparks of heat ripple under his skin. Not normal. Not human.

"The Phoenix Gene."

He had read about it in textbooks—an extinct relic, a legend passed down in military history. A gene so rare that most dismissed it as a myth.

But that myth had just moved his body like a puppet on strings.

A sharp chime sounded from his wrist console. SGP System Notification.

> "Strength lies in control. Embrace the fire within."

Kairo scowled at the words. Control? Was that what had happened? Because it hadn't felt like control. It had felt like being devoured.

The door slid open behind him. Kairo tensed before he even saw who it was. Arthur Blackwood.

The man moved like a shadow, his presence filling the room without a sound. Dark uniform. Cold eyes. The kind of man who didn't speak unless his words could cut through steel.

Arthur stopped a few feet away, his gaze falling to the replay footage. He watched, silent. Kairo's mech dodging a fatal hit. A perfect counterattack. A reaction time that no human could replicate.

Then Arthur spoke.

"You're afraid."

Kairo's jaw clenched. "No."

Arthur's eyes didn't waver. "Liar."

Kairo's fists tightened. The heat in his veins surged, licking at the edges of his control. But Arthur simply studied him, unreadable.

"Do you know why the Phoenix Gene is feared?" Arthur continued.

Kairo swallowed. "Because it makes pilots stronger."

Arthur exhaled softly. A sound dangerously close to disappointment.

"No. Because it makes them unstable."

Kairo's heartbeat pounded in his ears. He thought back to the moment in the trial—the split second where his mech had moved too perfectly, dodged too precisely. The voice in his head whispering, guiding.

He hadn't been piloting.

Something else had been.

Arthur stepped closer. "I don't care if you think this is a gift, Müller. You need to understand something right now." His voice was steel. "A weapon that can't be controlled is only one thing."

Kairo forced himself to meet his gaze. "And what's that?"

Arthur held his stare.

"A mistake."