Shadow of the Past

The sky was stone gray when Ren awoke.

Weak light filtered through the shattered panels of the warehouse, casting slabs of illumination on the icy floor. His body was sore—each breath a fire in his lungs. It was as if he'd been pulled through a furnace, and in a very real sense, he had.

Ren sat up slowly, sweat clinging to his skin despite the morning chill. His vision swam.

"You're awake."

Sera's voice came from the shadows beside the cot. She leaned forward, relief in her eyes, but her worry hadn't faded.

"You scared the hell out of us."

Ren parted his lips to talk, but all that emerged was a parched croak. Sera gave him a water flask. He drank, the cold soothing the hot coals still smoldering within him.

"I lost control…" he breathed.

"Yeah," Kaela said from the other side of the room, folding her arms. "You incinerated half a block."

Ren winced. "Did I harm anyone?"

"No," Sera said hastily. "We evacuated before it got any worse. But Ren…"

"You almost killed yourself," Kaela completed. "That power of yours—it's not only strong. It's unsteady."

Ren stared at his hands. No blue fire danced there this time. Only flesh, bruised and toughened. But he could sense it present.

Like a sleeping beast just under his veins.

"I have to master it," he stated. "Before someone gets seriously hurt."

Kaela and Sera shared a glance.

"Maybe there is someone who can assist," Kaela said slowly. "Someone… who was aware of the Blue Flame before it became an urban myth."

Ren looked up. "Who?"

Kaela paused. "An old Syndicate agent. Name's Kairo. He was one of their best researchers—expert in elemental occurrences and forbidden contracts. He disappeared years ago… but I do know where he is."

"Why didn't you mention this earlier?" Sera asked.

"Because no one's ever ever supposed to lay eyes on him," Kaela explained. "And because if we do—he'll murder us before we can even speak."

Ren walked up to standing, still shuddering in his legs. "Let's not be delayed, then."

—

They stood there for two hours later, the verge of a torn forest along the city edges—thick-stood shards of an aged laboratory half-razed by the wilds.

"Is this it?" Sera asked, staring at the worn-out signs, written in antique flame script.

Kaela nodded. "He went off the grid once the Syndicate began to clean out their own. This facility was one of the last safe houses he used."

Ren drew closer. His heart was pounding a little harder—not out of fear, but out of something else. Unfamiliar sense of familiarity.

He didn't know why… but something felt familiar here.

The air was heavy with residual energy. The acrid scent of ozone and charred memories.

They passed through rusty doors into a long hallway of broken glass and wisps of cables along the walls.

Then—

"Don't move."

The voice from above, ice and cutting.

Kaela unsheathed her sword in one moment. Sera's flame appeared on her palm. Ren spun—

And a man fell from the rafters behind them.

He stood in a black coat, flameproof, sleeves rolled to the elbow. His eyes were sharp, piercing gold, and a jagged scar, running down one side of his face. He held a jagged flame blade in one hand, pointed at Ren.

"You've brought trouble to my door," he said dryly. "Give me one reason not to kill you where you stand."

Ren flung both arms up. "Because I think you know who I am."

The man's eyes grew cold.

"I don't recognize you."

"But you learned about the Blue Flame," Kaela interrupted. "You learned of it. Perhaps even tried to use it. You know what it is."

The man's face remained unreadable. But he didn't attack, either.

"You shouldn't have come here," he told him. "The Syndicate will be looking for you. If you lead them here—"

We're not with them," Ren said. "I've been fighting them. Escaping them. Whatever they did to me. I didn't ask for it."

The man's eyes fell to Ren's hand. A tiny blue flash of pulse pulsed beneath the skin.

".You're the one," he said. "The botched contract."

Ren winced. "What do you mean 'botched'?

The man moved forward, dropping his sword. "I'm Kairo. I participated in the initial project—Project Ignis. A conspiracy to implant infants with divine or devilish essence and give them individual elemental characteristics. It was outlawed for a reason."

Kaela frowned. "That project was never more than a legend."

Kairo nodded. "No. It occurred. The idea was to produce a vessel for devilish and godly fire—a hybrid."

He glared at Ren, his voice thick. "You weren't meant to live."

Ren's breath caught. "You… you were one of them?"

Kairo nodded. "I told them it would kill the subject. That attaching both fires to a single mind would tear it in twain. But the people in charge wanted a weapon. So they experimented on you."

Pictures Ren couldn't find flashed at the edge of his eyes. A white room. A metal crib. Shouting. Blue light.

"I don't know…"

he gasped.

"They deleted it," Kairo replied. "And when the test went wrong, they threw you away. But something shifted. Your body didn't reject the flame. It adapted."

Ren's fists balled up. "So I'm a lab rat. A tool."

"No," Kairo breathed. "You're the sole survivor. The others—they screamed until they were dead."

The impact of it struck Ren like a punch.

Sera moved closer, putting a hand on his back. "Then assist us," she said. "Assist him to understand what he is… so he can endure it."

Kairo gazed at her, and then at Ren.

"You are not a simple hybrid," he said. "You're a convergence. God and devil. Blessing and curse."

He hesitated.

"If you wish to master it… you'll have to confront what was buried. Your past. The pain. The truth."

Ren gazed at him, flames burning in his gaze.

"I'm ready."

Kairo smiled faintly.

"No, you're not. But we're out of time."

He moved toward the back of the complex. "Come on. And hope the next fire you ignite doesn't burn your soul."