Scene: Ironvale Academy – Night Surveillance Wing
The academy after-hours felt different. Not just quiet—unnatural.
Aeris stood near the south hallway entrance, where only the highest-ranked students and club leaders had access. But a back route—used during supply deliveries—had its flaws. She knew them all by now.
Dressed in her black hoodie and skirt, hair tied up under the hood, she moved like a whisper.
Her goal: Observation Block D, the floor rumored to belong to an unnamed elite club that didn't appear on any registry.
"Lucienne."
That silver-haired girl with the smile too sharp. Her words, her gaze… Aeris's instincts screamed "not normal."
Aeris (internal):
"She knows who I am. Or at least what I used to be."
She pressed herself against the wall as two cloaked drones hovered past. Her breath was slow. Measured. When they passed, she slid into a corridor covered in violet lighting. No student markings. No club logos. Just silence.
That's when she saw it—through the tinted glass.
A private arena. Empty. But in perfect condition.
At the center stood someone.
Lucienne. Alone. Waiting.
The lights flickered once, then steadied.
Lucienne turned her head, even before Aeris moved.
Lucienne:
"You're late."
Aeris narrowed her eyes, stepping out from the shadow.
Aeris:
"Didn't know I was invited."
Lucienne smiled faintly, lowering a datapad to her side.
Lucienne:
"I like watching you. You make chaos feel elegant. Like entropy in a dancer's form."
Aeris:
"You're insane."
Lucienne (tilting her head):
"Says the girl who crawled out of her own corpse."
A sharp silence filled the air.
Aeris's eyes twitched slightly.
Lucienne:
"Relax. I'm not here to expose you. I'm here to study you. Your rebirth. Your decay."
Aeris:
"You're VIONNE too."
Lucienne (smiling):
"The second star. The one built for foresight and calculation. Unlike you… a prototype built for death."
Aeris took a slow step forward.
Aeris (cold):
"Call me that again, and I'll show you how sharp death can be."
Lucienne (laughing softly):
"Good girl."
Suddenly—static crackled overhead.
A loud thud echoed from the far door.
A second figure entered, her hair long and tied with a black ribbon. Her jacket was unbuttoned, the symbol of Orbital Crown glowing at her collar.
Viora.
She didn't even look at Lucienne. Her gaze went straight to Aeris.
And it wasn't cold—it was disappointed.
Viora:
"You're sloppy. If this was a trap, you'd already be dead."
Aeris (tensing):
"Didn't come to fight you."
Viora:
"Then why do you keep climbing toward me?"
Lucienne smiled from the side.
Lucienne:
"Careful, VIONNE-01. If you scold her too hard, she might snap."
Viora (flatly):
"She already snapped. She just hasn't realized it yet."
Aeris clenched her fists.
Viora walked past Lucienne, slowly approaching her.The sound of her boots echoed like a countdown.
Then she stopped—just a few feet away.
Viora (quietly):
"I remember when you were just a small, shivering thing in that tube. Eyes too wide. Skin too pale."
Aeris:
"I don't want your memories."
Viora:
"But I do."
Silence.
Then Viora said it.
"They called you 'Birth.' The start of something impossible."
Aeris looked up—eyes sharp as razors.
Aeris (low):
"They called me the Dead Star."
Viora (smiling faintly):
"Maybe. But dead stars can still explode."
Lucienne clapped once from the sidelines.
Lucienne:
"Delightful tension. I'll log this under 'Sibling Rivalry Level 7'."
Aeris didn't move. She just stared at Viora.
Viora stared back.
Then she turned.
Viora (as she walked):
"Don't follow me again, Aeris. You're not ready."
Aeris:
"That's not your decision."
Viora paused at the door.
Viora:
"Then prove it. Survive long enough."
The door hissed shut behind her.
Aeris exhaled—finally.
Lucienne lingered for a moment.
Lucienne (quietly):
"When you break, I'd like to see what color your soul burns."
She walked away too.
Leaving Aeris in the empty arena. Alone.
Again.
The door began to hiss shut.
Viora's silhouette was halfway through when—
"I'M NOT DONE YET!"
Aeris's voice cracked across the chamber like thunder.Rage. Hurt. Fury all in one.
Viora turned slightly—brows raised. But she didn't even flinch.
Too late.
Aeris surged forward like a meteor crashing down, her foot slamming into the metal floor as she launched toward Viora. She didn't draw a weapon. Her hand glowed faintly—her rebirth aura crackling at her fingertips like fragmented lightning.
Aeris (screaming):
"You don't get to walk away from me again!!"
Viora raised her arm casually, a faint shimmer forming mid-air.
BOOM!
Aeris's strike collided with an invisible kinetic barrier, sending sparks into the air. The walls groaned from the pressure. Wind howled inside the sealed room from the energy clash.
Viora didn't move.
Viora (calmly):
"Still throwing tantrums like a child."
Aeris growled, stepping back and throwing a spinning roundhouse kick. The shockwave behind her foot blew dust and debris outward.
Viora side-stepped effortlessly.
Aeris (panting, low):
"You left me to rot in that tube."
Viora (cool):
"I followed orders. That's what perfect subjects do."
That word again—perfect.
Aeris's eye twitched. Her left knuckle cracked audibly as she lunged again, slashing with her arm like a blade. Her rebirth energy sliced across the room in a purple arc.
Viora finally drew her weapon—a sleek black gravity blade, its shape shifting mid-motion, surrounded by pulsing micro-fields.
She blocked it with ease, and for the first time… struck back.
CLANG!
Aeris was launched back, skidding across the metal floor until she slammed into a console.
Lucienne—still standing quietly at the far wall—laughed softly.
Lucienne (murmuring):
"I told them… VIONNE-01 was always elegant in control."
Aeris coughed. Blood touched her lips.
But her body shimmered.
Her wounds vanished. Her body twitched unnaturally. Rebirth already beginning.
Viora (frowning slightly):
"You really are the cursed one."
Aeris slowly stood.
And smiled.
Aeris (quiet):
"That's why I never stop."
She dashed again. The impact of her steps cracked the floor.
Their weapons clashed—fist to blade, rebirth pulse to gravity field.The entire chamber pulsed with raw power.
But…
Viora still held the upper hand.
In midair, she flipped, rotated her blade, and caught Aeris mid-dash—slamming her into the ground hard enough to crater the surface.
Viora (serious):
"This is why I'm the prototype that lived. You're just the failure that kept coming back."
The words pierced deeper than any blade.
Aeris stared up. Gritting her teeth.
Then, something flickered in her chest. Something… broken.
Her heartbeat surged. Her body began glitching—visibly.
Rebirth was trying to trigger again—but it wasn't even finished dying yet.
Lucienne straightened, intrigued.
Lucienne:
"Oh my. She's fracturing."
Aeris (whispering):
"No… not yet… not here…"
Viora stepped back, suddenly unsure.
Then—
SLAM.
Aeris's body rejected the glitch. Instead of rebirthing… she held it in.
Blood dripped down her arm, and she stood again.
Aeris (growling):
"I'm not done. I'll never be done."
Lucienne clapped slowly.
Lucienne (to Viora):
"She's adapting mid-combat. Not bad, for a dead girl."
Viora narrowed her eyes—but sheathing her weapon.
Viora:
"This isn't the place."
Aeris (furious):
"Then say it."
Viora:
"Say what?"
Aeris (teeth bared):
"That you abandoned me."
A long silence.
Viora looked at her. Long and deep.
Viora (softly):
"I did."
And then she left.No smile. No excuse.
Just truth.
The door closed behind her.
Lucienne lingered, eyes still scanning Aeris like data.
Lucienne (cold):
"It's beautiful, really. Watching a star die over and over… and still refuse to collapse."
Then she, too, vanished.
Leaving Aeris in the shattered chamber, standing in her own blood and fragments of rebirth energy—still trembling.
Still alive.
Still broken.