Ren's breathing came in ragged bursts.
The music had stopped, but its echo still howled in his mind. The silence was worse—empty, suffocating. Like the world had forgotten to exhale. His chest rose and fell in jerks, sweat clinging to his skin. The mechanical arms kept him locked in place, indifferent to the trauma pulsing through his veins.
He felt like a corpse being kept alive by wires.
Symphony stood upright, stepping back with effortless poise. Her silver-dyed locs fell over one shoulder in a slow, controlled sway. Her fingers no longer danced on the armonia; it hung silent at her side, the weapon sheathed in stillness. She cast a brief glance at Andre, one brow raised.
"I'm done," she said flatly, with her usual cool, unimpressed edge. "If you want more, you can serenade yourself—I'm getting coffee. Bye." With a flick of her locs and a barely-there smirk, she turned on her heel and strode out, heels tapping like punctuation marks as the door swung shut behind her.
The man leaning against the wall let out a low chuckle, his grin wide and knowing. He nodded slowly, eyes hidden behind mirrored shades, yet the tilt of his head made his expression unmistakable.
"Well, hell," he drawled, dragging the words out like smoke. "So the kid's an Essence user too. That explains the glowy hands and the kaiju barbecue."
He stepped closer to Ren, hands resting on his belt, the trinkets at his hips clinking with each step. "Didn't know what to make of you at first—just another half-dead brat with a chip on his shoulder. But now? Now we're gettin' somewhere."
Ren stared at him, eyes wide, jaw clenched. His body trembled with adrenaline and fury.
"You—" he hissed, voice cracking. "You watched all of that…? Everything? You saw it all?"
the man didn't even flinch. "Every damn second."
Ren snapped. His voice cracked like glass. "That was—mine! My life, my memories—what gave you the right to just rip that out of me?!"
He thrashed against the restraints, metal groaning in protest. "Why the hell did you do that?!"
Symphony said nothing. She simply looked away, eyes hooded.
The man didn't blink. Didn't apologize.
"We needed to know," he said flatly.
That was it. No remorse. No sugarcoating. Just raw necessity.
Ren recoiled like he'd been slapped. "Fuck you"
The silence between them crackled like a storm ready to break.
The man didn't flinch. Didn't raise his voice. But the shift was instant—like a predator remembering its teeth.
His grin vanished. His body straightened. A low, simmering gravity settled around him.
"You forget where you are, kid?" he said, voice hard now, stripped of charm. "You ain't in your bed at home cryin' over a bad dream. You're strapped to a table in the underbelly of a city that don't give two shits if you live or bleed out. You're here 'cause we pulled you outta that battlefield when your lungs were barely workin'. You're breathin' right now—healed—because we chose to fix what was left of you."
He leaned closer, and Ren could see the lines in his face now—etched by fire and years. "So maybe—you oughta show a lil' gratitude before you go cursin' out the folks keepin' you alive."
Ren's throat tightened, but he said nothing.
Then, as fast as it came, the storm eased. The man's voice lowered again—gravelly but no longer sharp.
"Look," he said, backing off a step, eyes unreadable behind those shades. "Ain't sayin' what we did was pretty. But I saw what happened to you. And I ain't here to judge."
He folded his arms across his broad chest, tone shifting to something almost gentle, before continuing. "Look, I ain't gonna lie or sugarcoat it. You went through hell. You're still in it. But I ain't here to hurt you—I'm here to offer a way out."
Ren said nothing, but his jaw clenched.
Andre continued. "What's in you—that power—it's called Essence. Every living thing's got it. Trees, bugs, dogs, people. But some of us? We're wired different. We got more. We can use it. That makes us Essence Users."
He tapped his chest. "Like me. Like her." He jerked his thumb toward Symphony, who stood silently, arms folded, eyes unreadable. "And now, like you."
Ren blinked, the words not quite settling in. Not yet.
"You don't know how to control it, which means you've been leakin' Essence like an open wound," Andre said, standing tall again. "Monsters follow that trail like blood in the ocean. That's why it found you. That's why people around you—" He paused, then shook his head. "—got hurt."
Ren's heart sank like a stone dropped into black water.
He didn't need to be told what "people" meant.
The man's voice dropped lower, no longer just persuasive—commanding.
"So here's the choice. You walk outta here and keep pretendin' this'll all go away. But you'll keep leakin'. And more people'll die."
A beat.
"Or… you stay. We train you. Teach you how to use what you've got. How to control it. So the next time a monster comes callin', it's you who hunts them."
Ren closed his eyes.
"They already saw everything.".
"These people… they just reached into my head like it was nothing. Like my life was some movie they could pause."
His breath caught.
The metal arms still pinned him down like an animal on a dissection table, cold and unrelenting.
"I should hate them. I do hate them. I'm furious. No one has the right to do what they did."
His fists clenched, still bound, still trembling.
"But… they're right, even tho I don't understand everything."
Memories flickered behind his closed eyes.
His father's hand reaching for him. His mother's scream. The crack of bones and the drip of blood on the hardwood floor.
Kaito's broken, hollow stare—the last time they'd locked eyes before everything twisted into madness.
"He needed help. I walked away."
The monster's voice, warped and burning with rage—"You watched. You did nothing."
Ren gritted his teeth. His chest burned.
"I don't want this. I didn't ask for any of it."
"But if I walk away now… Sensei's next."
His jaw tightened.
"No one else dies because of me. Not again."
He swallowed hard, the fire in his chest cooled into something quieter—resolved.
"…Fine."
The man smiled again. That slow, sure smile like a man who'd already seen the end of the story and knew exactly when the hero would break.
"Good answer, kid."
Without breaking eye contact, he raised two fingers and snapped them in a smooth flick. Instantly, the metallic clank of gears echoed through the room. The mechanical arms that had kept Ren locked down hissed and released their grip, slinking back into their housings like spiders retreating into the walls.
Ren gasped, his muscles sagging with sudden freedom.
"Alright, kid," the man said, stepping back and jerking his thumb toward a small metal table cluttered with medical junk. "Now do me a favor—put on some damn pants."
He grabbed a folded pair of black cargo pants from the mess and tossed them in Ren's direction. They slapped wetly against Ren's chest and flopped into his lap.
Ren blinked, staring down at them… and then froze. His eyes went wide as full realization hit like a hammer.
"Wait…"
He looked down at himself—really looked.
"W-WHAT THE HELL?!" Ren scrambled backward, clutching the pants against his bare chest as his face burned hotter than a reactor core. "I've been NAKED this whole time?!"
Symphony, still leaning coolly against the far wall, arched a single brow, eyes glinting with lazy amusement but saying nothing.
The man—unapologetic—just chuckled. "Hell, kid, you think we heal ya through your clothes? You damn near died, remember? You should be thankin' me you ain't still hooked up to the machines."
Ren's jaw worked uselessly, eyes darting around for anything to cover up with. He scrambled to yank the pants on as fast as humanly possible, twisting awkwardly on the floor, muttering curses under his breath.
"Oh my god," Ren groaned, still fumbling with the waistband, "could you guys have said something sooner?!"
"Where's the fun in that?" the man replied, smirking. "A little humility's good for the soul."
Finally, Ren managed to get the pants on—still red-faced, still glaring. He crossed his arms over his chest, now extremely aware of how cold the room was.
The man stepped forward, extending a large, calloused hand.
"Name's Andre," he said simply, the grin dropping into something solid and genuine for the first time. "Welcome to the crew."
Ren hesitated a beat—then exhaled hard and shook his hand.
"Ren."
Andre's grip was firm, warm, and final.
Andre smirked. "Yeah, yeah. I know, kid. Been sayin' it all night." Andre clapped him on the back hard enough to make him stumble. "Alright, enough mopin'. You're one of us now, so time to show ya around."
"So here's the thing," Andre began, waving a hand casually like he was explaining the weather, "you ever look up at the stars and think, 'Damn, I bet there's some wild shit out there?'"
Ren blinked, frowning. "Uh… yeah? Sure. Aliens and stuff?"
Andre laughed. "Aliens and stuff. Kid, you don't know the half of it."
He shoved open a heavy sliding door, motioning Ren to follow. "We ain't just some ragtag group of monster hunters from around the block. Nah. The rest of the crew—we ain't even from Earth."
Ren stumbled. "Wait, what?"
Andre grinned wider, clearly enjoying himself now. "Yeah, kid. Outer damn space. Whole other planets, galaxies you ain't even seen on your little science fair posters. We're what you'd call… extraterrestrial."
Ren stopped dead in his tracks. "Hold up, hold up, hold up—you're aliens?!"
Andre grinned, clearly enjoyin' Ren's reaction. "If that's what you Earth folks like to call us, sure. Different worlds, different systems, all workin' together for a greater purpose." He chuckled, shaking his head. "But yeah, technically. We work for POND—stands for Planetary Operations for Neutralizing Dangers. Fancy-ass name for what we do: keep Essence users in check and clean up messes before they swallow whole planets."
Ren's jaw practically hit the floor. "You're telling me there's, like, a space government that polices magic people?!"
Andre let out a whoop of laughter. "Calm down, kid. Ain't nobody really comin' out here, alright? Matter of fact, this the first time outer space even bothered with your planet. Earth and the Milky Way? Well… they ain't exactly remarkable. No offense."
Ren rubbed his temple, trying to piece it together. "This is insane. Like, actually insane. Why didn't anyone tell us? How is this not, like, global news?"
Andre shrugged, leading him down another corridor. "Ain't nobody lookin'. Folks see what they wanna see. We clean it up before it hits the headlines. Monsters? Essence? POND? All under wraps. You just one of the unlucky few who stumbled too deep into it."
Ren muttered under his breath, "Unlucky's one way to put it…"
Andre barked another laugh. "You'll get used to it, kid. Or you'll die tryin'. Either way, hell of a ride."
They rounded a corner, and Andre thumped his hand on a wide metal door. "Alright. Enough talk. Time to meet the rest of the weirdos."