The scene opened just as it had left off, with Xavier staring blankly into the necklace that held the shattered remnants of his soul.
Victoria tried once more to reach him, stepping closer, her voice trembling with guilt. "Xavier... I'm sorry. I really did try to tell you about this, but I didn't know how you'd react..."
She paused, heart heavy. "I didn't want to ruin what you and Teslaine have. You're her very first friend."
Still, Xavier said nothing. Silently, he rose to his feet and, in a flash, appeared beside Victoria. Wordlessly, he handed her the necklace. Not once did he meet her eyes.
Then he walked past her, his face void of emotion. Those once-brilliant eyes now looked like hollow voids.
"X-Xavier!" Victoria called out again—but it was no use.
Just as he stepped into the living room, the apartment door swung open. His friends had arrived—Teslaine among them.
Catching sight of him, Teslaine's face lit up with joy, and she ran toward him. "Xavier!"
But as her arms reached out, Xavier suddenly stumbled backward, collapsing to his knees. His body felt impossibly heavy.
His vision blurred. His breathing quickened. His veins flared beneath his skin, and a sharp pain struck his chest like lightning.
Teslaine's joy turned to worry in an instant. She crouched toward him, gently reaching out. "Xavier, are you okay?"
Then their eyes met.
In that split second, her face twisted—not literally, but in Xavier's mind, it shifted into the face of Percival. That cruel, grinning face.
Terror surged through him. He slapped her hand away, violently.
"Xavier!" Jason shouted, shocked along with everyone else. "What the hell is going on with you?!"
Xavier didn't respond. He clutched his chest, gasping for breath. His heart raced, his body shaking. The walls felt like they were closing in.
He didn't know what was happening to him—only that it hurt. It hurt like hell.
Jasmine took a step forward, clearly frightened for him. "Xavier—"
"Get away from me!" he screamed, the pain twisting his voice. It wasn't aimed at her. It was Teslaine he couldn't stand to see.
Teslaine froze. Her voice cracked, almost a whisper. "Why...? Why are you being like this? What did I do? Why are you looking at me like I'm your enemy...?"
No response.
Xavier gritted his teeth, aura bursting from his body like an overflowing dam. His hair flickered between its usual shade and gold, unable to stabilize. RealmHeart struggled within him.
Then something darker awakened.
A terrifying, draconic presence surged through him. Shadow pits formed beneath his eyes, stretching into the whites. His aura bled crimson—deep, violent red dripping into the once-calm blue.
Everyone in the room stood frozen, paralyzed not by fear, but by sheer despair. Xavier was breaking—mind, body, and soul.
He whispered. "Why didn't you tell me..."
Then roared. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THE MAN YOU CALL FATHER IS THE MONSTER WHO KILLED MY DAD?!"
His voice cracked, fury and sorrow melding into a howl of betrayal.
"He took everything from me... everything..."
His irises shifted—twisting into the same draconic slits Alcmena bore.
Teslaine stood stunned. Scared. Lost.
"I... I don't know what you're talking about, Xavier. I swear."
But he heard none of it.
He stood, shaking. His voice, now ice. "I don't ever want to see your face again."
The words hit Teslaine like a dagger. She looked shattered, tears brimming—but Xavier had already turned.
He ran.
Jasmine reached out, trying to stop him, but he slipped past.
He didn't stop until he reached the exit of the apartment complex. Hand on the door—
It opened.
Anastasia stood there, Alcmena perched on her shoulder.
"Young master," Anastasia said, startled by his condition. "Are you okay?"
But Alcmena narrowed his gaze. "Xavier, your body is radiating immense ethereal energy... and your scent—draconic. Very similar to mine."
Xavier remained silent, head bowed.
"Look," Alcmena continued, voice unusually gentle. "I don't know what happened. But you need to breathe. You're not just a boy anymore. You're a vessel—a dragon's vessel. We are beings of immense power... and immense emotion."
He stepped closer. "If you keep letting your pain consume you... it will corrupt your heart."
But before he could finish, Xavier walked past him.
"I'm sorry, Miss Anastasia... Master..." he whispered. "But please... I need to breathe. I need to think. I just... don't know what to do right now."
He stepped out into the world, the night cold around him, yet not nearly as cold as the ache in his heart.
Anastasia and Alcmena remained where they were, watching him go. They didn't chase him.
They couldn't.
They could only ache alongside him.
And pray that, this time, he'd find his way back from the edge.
---------
Time passed by, with Anastasia and Alcmena eventually joining everyone else at Miss Victoria's apartment—the very place Xavier had left behind in silence.
In that time, Victoria explained everything. She spared no detail.
She told them Xavier was not the biological child of the Ashford family. That he had been adopted. That he was taken from his real parents as an infant and placed in a secret facility where children were molded into super soldiers.
She told them his father, Jonathan Ashford, was murdered—not lost to a fire, but killed by his own twin brother.
All of it... part of Percival's design.
Silence fell like a stormcloud. Words failed them.
"Taken from his family at such a young age," Elowen said, breaking the stillness. "I can't imagine something so cruel."
"And he was injected with a serum that destroyed his ethereal core," Aria added softly, "which made him physically weak. No wonder he struggled with channeling ethereal energy."
"Yeah..." Misaki whispered. "Xavier went through all of that... and we didn't even know. We called ourselves his friends."
Her words lingered, cutting through every heart in the room. Behind all of Xavier's smiles had been agony—unseen, unspoken, and now undeniable.
Jason was shaken. He clenched his fists. The truth about his uncle's death was a lie he had unknowingly lived with his whole life. "Father and Mother... they must have known," he thought bitterly.
Jupiter stood off to the side, unmoving, eyes on the floor. The sorrow for his brother weighed heavy, but so did the guilt. He hadn't spoken a word when Xavier broke down before them. He couldn't. He had been too afraid.
What kind of brother am I, he thought, if I couldn't even reach out my hand?
But the one who bore the worst of it all—was Teslaine.
She sat on the couch, motionless, her eyes brimming with tears that refused to fall. The memory of Xavier's parting words stabbed deeper than any blade.
Sadness. Guilt. Confusion. But the most crushing of all was the belief that it was her fault.
Her whole life, she had looked up to her father. Tried to be like him. Impress him. Believe in him.
And now she knew—he was the monster who destroyed Xavier's life.
She looked broken, and everyone could see it. Victoria placed a hand on her shoulder. Others tried to comfort her. But none of it reached the place inside her that ached the most.
Then her voice cracked the silence.
"Why didn't you tell me Father did all these evil things?" Teslaine asked, her voice trembling, barely above a whisper.
Victoria opened her mouth, but no words came. The memory of Xavier's breakdown had left her shaken, too.
"You won't tell me, huh?" Teslaine continued, rising from the couch. Her hands trembled. "I lived all these years thinking of him as a hero. Someone to admire. Someone I wanted to become. And none of you ever told me the truth!"
Her breath hitched. Her gaze fell on Victoria.
"You're just as cruel as him... You're just as cruel."
Tears spilled freely now. She turned away, clutching her chest as if trying to hold her breaking heart together. The weight of betrayal, grief, and guilt crushed her in waves.
Anastasia and Alcmena stood nearby, their expressions grim.
Anastasia's hand curled into a fist. I have to take the young master away. I can't stand seeing him like this anymore.
Alcmena's golden eyes flickered. I must guide him—not just as a dragon vessel—but as the chosen wielder of Excalibur.
If he falls now... the world may lose its guiding light forever.
By the window, Jasmine stood alone, arms folded, her breath fogging the glass. One thought circled endlessly:
I need to see him.
She rested her head against the cold pane. A strand of hair slipped forward. Her lips trembled.
"I'm sorry I couldn't help you, Xavier," she whispered. "I should've done something... anything. Watching you in pain like that—my heart feels like it's being torn apart."
The room remained still, haunted by truths too painful to ignore, and a silence that only Xavier's return could shatter.
---------
Now the scene changed to a rooftop of an apartment, one in which Xavier sat staring into the beautiful night sky with his cosmic eyes.
Xavier sat there, his eyes blankly gazing at the stars above. His mind raced with all that had happened recently, causing him to grip his fist in anger.
Suddenly, a voice cut through the silence of the night---Adam. As he asked, "How's it been, Xavier. Mind if I take a seat next to you?"
Xavier didn't respond or look his way, only continuing to look at the sky above him.
Adam calmly sat next to him, as he began small talk. "Hey... I heard what happened with you and Victoria. And I just wanted to tell you, that blaming Teslaine for what her father did is not right."
Xavier stood quietly as he continued to listen.
"Teslaine herself is a victim of her own father, Percival. Have you ever wondered to yourself why she lives alone with her aunt Victoria?"
"That's because Percival abandoned her at a very young age. As in Victoria's words to me, Percival said: 'What use do I have for something that is not even worth my time?'"
Xavier continued to listen as Adam revealed something shocking to him.
"You know Xavier, you were once saved by a scientist who worked for Percival right after you were taken from your family. And that scientist was none other than the mother of the girl you now dislike---Rebecca."
"She was killed for defying Percival and betraying him in freeing you."
Hearing the sudden revelation, Xavier lowered his head, as he asked, "Does Teslaine know who was behind her mother's death?"
Adam smiled, happy to hear Xavier speaking, responding, "No. It would be awful on our part to just tell a child that their mother was killed by her own beloved father, who she looked up to the most, for saving the life of an innocent baby."
There was a long pause as Xavier processed everything. The stars above him continued to twinkle, uncaring of the turmoil below.
Adam added softly, "But one thing Teslaine does know is that her mother died being a hero. That she died saving a boy from the hands of evil---that boy being you, someone she has grown to deeply love as her very first friend. And that's all that matters to me and Victoria."
"So I ask of you, Xavier. Please forgive Teslaine. Do not hold any animosity towards her for her father's actions to you and the ones you loved. As she herself has suffered enough from her father's actions too."
Xavier remained silent for a moment, wrestling with the guilt that had begun eating away at him long before Adam's arrival. And now, it swelled inside him---heavier, clearer, undeniable.
Then, he finally said a single word, full of thought and sincerity: "Okay."
Xavier's voice was quiet, but steady. He continued, his words heavy with reflection. "But to make it clear, I don't dislike Teslaine. I do regret my actions and the things I said to her. But... I don't hate her. No matter how much anger and pain I'm holding right now, I just can't bring myself to hate someone for something they had no control over."
Adam smiled even brighter, his expression softening. It was the kind of answer he had hoped for—the kind he expected from the kind-hearted boy he had always known Xavier to be.
Adam smiled genuinely, a warmth to his expression that caught Xavier off guard.
Just before he stood, Adam spoke again, quieter this time. "You know... she cried, Xavier. Not just because of what she found out about her father... but because of what you said to her. Because it came from you. That pain—it broke her."
Xavier's hand, resting on his knee, twitched slightly. He lowered his gaze.
Adam stood, offering his hand. "Come with me. There's something I want to show you."
Xavier hesitated at first, his thoughts still heavy. But curiosity, and perhaps a sliver of hope, moved him. He reached up and took Adam's hand.
In a sudden burst of shadows, the two were consumed by darkness that curled around them—vanishing from the rooftop and diving deep into the heart of London.