Smoke still hung in the air like a veil of ash and memory. Buildings lay broken, the city's east quarter now a crater where Sector B-17 had once stood. Rescue drones buzzed overhead, scanning for signs of life amid the scorched rubble. But all they found was her.
Aeria knelt in the center of the impact zone, naked and covered in her own blood. Or what was left of it. Her flesh had regrown, her skin sealed over burns that should've killed her. Not a single visible wound remained. Around her were the scattered remains of beasts, corpses of both monsters and fallen students.
Soldiers in reinforced power armor surrounded her, weapons aimed. She didn't resist. Her eyes were blank. Shock glazed her expression.
"She's the only one left?"
"Confirmed. Energy output off the charts. Healing factor is... it's not natural."
Aeria finally looked up, tears streaking her cheeks. "I tried... I tried to help them..."
"Ma'am, put your hands behind your head."
She obeyed.
Chains of energy bound her wrists, and with one pulse, she collapsed unconscious.
She awoke in containment. A white cell, sterile and humming with suppression fields. She couldn't feel the trees anymore. No roots beneath her. No wind. No nature. Just the constant pressure of technology. Of fear.
The room's walls shifted with projected warnings:
SUBJECT: AERIA CALDEN
CLASS: ALPHA
THREAT LEVEL: S-7 IMMORTALITY POTENTIAL
STATUS: PENDING PERMANENT CONTAINMENT
An observation deck overlooked her chamber. Scientists in military coats reviewed footage, charts, energy maps of her nervous system.
"She regenerated after being vaporized on a fundamental level. We watched her cells reconstruct from ash."
"This is more than healing. She's erasing death itself."
Then the visitors arrived.
Her parents.
They stood beyond the reinforced glass. Her mother clutched a security officer's arm, weeping silently. Her father's face was pale.
"Aeria..." her mother whispered through the intercom.
"I didn't kill them," Aeria said. "I swear-"
"We saw the footage!" her father snapped. "Everyone's dead, and you're... standing there like a goddamn monster!"
"I didn't-!"
"You should've died with them!" he shouted, voice cracking.
Her mother turned away.
Then they left.
Not another word.
Aeria fell to her knees again. Alone in a box of light, surrounded by people who saw her not as a person but as a thing to fear.
Not a hero.
Not even human.
A weapon that refused to break.