Chapter 145

I was cold again.

But this wasn't the kind of cold that came from poison or fading life—it was the metallic chill of a lab floor beneath my knees. My fingers were smaller. My body… smaller.

I was a child again.

A ten-year-old Anos.

Back when the scientists called me by numbers instead of names. Back when the halls echoed with the whimpers of other test subjects—children, just like me. Forgotten.

Disposable.

"Subject-13, remain still."

That voice—sharp, cold, clinical. I obeyed, staring at the overhead lights as wires pricked my skin and needles drew crimson lines down my arms. I remember not flinching. I was good at that. If you didn't flinch, they hurt you less.

But then—screaming. Not mine.

"No, please—don't take her! Stop—Sakura—!"

My head whipped to the left.

She couldn't have been older than seven. Dark hair, trembling. A guard grabbed her by the collar, dragging her toward the containment cell. She was crying, reaching out for something—anyone.

No one moved.

Except me.

I broke the bindings.

I didn't think. I just moved.

I was just a kid, but I slammed into the guard, tiny fists pounding his back, yelling, "Leave her alone!" I got thrown into a wall, hard. But for one second, she got away. She ran. She escaped the room.

It earned me two weeks in solitary. No light. No food for three days.

But I remember smiling.

That was the first time I realized something inside me burned brighter than fear.

Now the memory shifted again—flickering.

Another child, older than me, sat beside me on the edge of a cot. He had a bandaged arm and a crooked smile.

Zane.

He looked down at me, curiosity in his tired eyes.

"Why'd you do it?" he asked.

I didn't understand at first.

"Why'd you help that girl?"

I shrugged. "She was scared."

"That's not why."

I was quiet.

Then I whispered, "Because I want to be a hero."

He blinked. Like he wasn't expecting that answer.

I stared at the concrete wall, voice softer. "I want to help people. I want to make the pain stop. Not just mine. Everyone's."

Zane smirked, then let out a breath.

"That's stupid."

I frowned.

"But… it's kinda awesome."

He extended his hand. "If you become a hero, I'll be your first sidekick."

I shook it. Not knowing that one day, he'd be my only one left.

The memory faded... and I was older again.

Back in the dark.

Back in the silence.

But that fire—small and scarred—flickered again in my chest.

They'd tried to make me a weapon.

But they forgot to erase the one part of me they couldn't control.

Hope.

My body was broken. My blood thinned with toxin. My breath rasping like crumbling glass.

But that moment in the lab... that promise...

It burned inside me.

Still here.

Still alive.

Still a hero.

This isn't the end.