Kiana
The corridor outside the medical bay was quiet. Himeko had told them to wait here, though she didn't really explain why.
Kiana couldn't sit still. She leaned against the cool metal wall, crossed her arms, then uncrossed them. She tapped her boot against the floor tiles, the rhythmic thuds echoing in the narrow space.
"Why do you think she told us to wait here?" Kiana asked, her voice tight.
She looked at the closed door of the private briefing room down the hall, where Himeko had disappeared ten minutes ago.
"If it were a medical emergency, the doctors would be running in and out," Mei answered. She was standing perfectly still, her back straight, but her eyes were clouded with thought. "Kenji and Bronya are stable, so I don't think there's any immediate danger."
Mei paused, her gaze drifting to the door.
"If this were a mission debrief, we would be on the bridge with the crew," Mei deduced. "Theresa wouldn't keep us in a hallway unless she wanted to talk about something... personal."
"She's hiding," a soft voice piped up from the bench.
Wendy sat there, her legs swinging slightly, her heels scuffing the floor. Unlike Kiana's nervous energy or Mei's rigid stoicism, Wendy seemed strangely calm.
She was observing the situation with detached clarity, something that slightly unnerved Kiana. But considering everything that Wendy went through, it made sense how something like this wouldn't really bother her that much.
"What do you mean?" Kiana asked, frowning.
"Did you notice her eyes?" Wendy asked, looking up at Kiana. "Since we boarded the ship… Theresa hasn't looked any of us in the eye. Not once."
Kiana opened her mouth to defend her aunt, to say that Theresa was just tired or stressed, but the words died in her throat.
She replayed the last hour in her head. Theresa standing in the medical bay, staring at the floor. Theresa giving orders to the medical staff but avoiding looking at the girls standing right next to her.
"She feels guilty," Wendy stated simply. "Maybe it's about what Zero said. You know, about her making Kenji a stabilizer?"
The word made Kiana inwardly flinch. 'Stabilizer.'
Zero had screamed it during the fight. He had accused them of using Kenji as a tool, a heatsink for their problems.
Specifically, he had accused Theresa of bringing Kenji to St. Freya not as a student, but as a piece of equipment to fix Mei.
And for some odd reason… He also said it was to help her, too. A fact that still confused her, she didn't have anything to suppress, so why did he call her a Special Case?
"That's..." Kiana started, shaking her head. "That's crazy. Zero was just trying to mess with us. Theresa loves us. She wouldn't use Kenji like that."
"Theresa loves us," Mei agreed quietly. "But she is also the Principal and an Overseer of a branch of the most powerful organization on the planet."
Mei looked at her hands—the same hands that had just spent the last hour holding Kenji's bruised fingers.
"Zero was lying about a lot of things," Mei continued, her voice trembling slightly. "But usually, the best lies are built around a kernel of truth. If Theresa is avoiding us... It's because she has something to confess."
Kiana bit her lip. Deep down, a knot of anxiety was tightening in her chest. She remembered how quickly Kenji had been integrated into their team.
She remembered how Theresa had pushed for him to partner with her and Mei, even when his training was incomplete.
'You better have a good explanation for this, Auntie.' Kiana thought, staring at the closed door.
The door to the private room hissed open.
Himeko stepped out. She didn't look like she was bringing good news. Her expression was unreadable, her arms crossed over her chest. She didn't bark an order or crack a joke.
She just gave them a sharp nod.
"She's ready for you," Himeko said.
The three girls exchanged a glance. They didn't need to say anything. They braced themselves, straightening their posture and burying their exhaustion.
/ — /
Himeko held the door open, but she didn't step inside.
She leaned against the frame with her arms crossed. She didn't say a word as Kiana, Mei, and Wendy filed past her into the small room.
She just gave them a single nod—a signal that told them she'd be sitting this conversation out.
Kiana took the seat furthest from the door, her knee bouncing nervously under the table. Mei sat next to her, rigid as a statue, while Wendy took the chair on the left.
Then not a second later, Theresa walked in.
Kiana blinked, almost doing a double-take. She was used to seeing her Auntie in her nun uniform. Those clothes were her signature look, the cute, magical girl who could wipe the floor with her.
Tonight, she was wearing an oversized beige sweater and a dark skirt. Her hair was down, messy, and unbrushed.
Without the regalia of Schicksal, the illusion of age vanished completely. She looked exactly like what she appeared to be: a little girl who needed some sleep.
Though Kiana would never voice that part out loud.
Theresa pulled out the chair directly across from Wendy and sat down. She clasped her hands together on the table, squeezing her fingers until the knuckles turned white.
She didn't look up. She stared at a scratch in the table's surface for a long, agonizing minute.
"We really have a lot to talk about, don't we?" Theresa whispered.
Her voice was thin. It lacked the confidence Kiana was used to. It sounded like glass about to shatter.
Kiana opened her mouth—she had so many questions, a lot about Kenji, and more about herself—but Theresa already spoke again.
"I'm going to start with you, Wendy," Theresa said, her voice trembling but determined. "I owe you an explanation for what happened to you."
Wendy froze, clearly not expecting to be the first talking point of this conversation.
"Years ago," Theresa began, forcing herself to maintain eye contact with the girl in the wheelchair. "When Schicksal headquarters initiated the Gem of Desire project... I was the one who pulled your file."
The air left the room.
"I saw your aptitude test scores from the New Zealand branch," Theresa continued, the words tumbling out faster now, as if she wanted to get rid of them. "I saw your compatibility ratings. They were exceptional. So I signed the transfer order and recommended you for the implantation."
Kiana and Mei inhaled sharply.
"You what?" Kiana was finally able to ask, her shock evident on her face. "So everything that happened with Wendy… It started from your recommendation?"
"Yes," Theresa admitted. She didn't flinch away from Kiana's gaze, nor did she make excuses. "I thought I was giving a talented Valkyrie a chance to be great. I didn't know the procedure would end like that... but I knew the risks. And I signed the paper anyway."
Theresa looked back at Wendy, her eyes filling with guilt.
"Everything that happened to you in that lab... the pain, the isolation... it started with my signature."
Kiana didn't know what to say. She knew that it wasn't entirely Auntie's fault. She never knew it could end up like this.
But it was still because of Auntie that Wendy was stuck in a wheelchair. Kiana slowly turned to look at Wendy, expecting at least some anger.
But she found none. Instead, she let out a long sigh, slumped her shoulders, and looked at Theresa with a tired, sad smile.
"Jeez, I thought it was going to be something else. I already know about that, Principal." Wendy said.
Theresa froze. "What?"
"I know," Wendy repeated softly. "I heard the doctors talking about it. Back in the lab, I heard them complaining that 'Apocalypse's recommendation' was defective. They cursed your name every time I rejected the Gem."
"You... you knew?" Theresa stammered, her composure finally breaking.
"Yep."
"Then why? Why don't you look angry? Why don't you hate me for it?"
Wendy looked down at her legs. Her once useless legs were the result of a decision Theresa had made years ago. Then she looked back up.
"Because I'm free,"
Theresa could only stare at her, stunned into silence.
"If it were me from back then, I would be livid… I would be cursing you out and probably try to kill you… But I've had time to gather my thoughts." Wendy explained, her voice steady.
She opened her palm and created a soft ball of wind, "I can walk. I can fly. I'm stronger than I've ever been—sort of. Holding onto a grudge against you now... it just feels like a waste of energy. My anger died the moment I took to the sky."
"...You never intended to hurt me, and I knew you cared for me like any other Valkyrie. When I awakened as the Herrscher, you stopped Durandal from getting to me first and saved my life."
Wendy leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table.
"You came back for me. Even knowing the risks… You allowed them to rescue me and gave me another chance."
"You made a mistake," Wendy said firmly. "A horrible one. But when you saw a chance to make it right... You didn't turn your head away, and you didn't leave me to die."
She gave the principal a lazy smile. "That's why I decided to trust you. Because you're the only one in Schicksal who actually tried to clean up the mess you made… Even if it wasn't entirely yours."
Theresa let out a choked sob, covering her mouth with her hand to stifle the sound. She shrank into her oversized sweater, looking smaller than ever.
Himeko, watching from the door, let out a slow breath and uncrossed her arms. One crisis averted.
But the tension didn't leave the table. Because while Wendy's wound was old and scarred over, the wound regarding Kenji was fresh.
Theresa was quick to recover, taking a few steadying breaths before pulling her gaze away from Wendy to look up at all of them. "S-sorry about that… Now, onto… Other matters—"
"—Zero said you were using him," Kiana cut her off. "He said you brought Kenji here not because you wanted to save someone, but because you needed a stabilizer."
Her blue eyes narrowed, searching Theresa's face for a lie.
"Was he right? Did you bring him to St. Freya to protect him? Or did you just bring him here to fix Mei? What about those experiments he was talking about?"
Beside Kiana, Mei went rigid. She stared straight at Theresa with a nervous expression, waiting for the answer that would reconstruct her relationship with the boy.
Theresa opened her mouth to deny it. The instinct to protect them, to smooth it over with a comforting lie, rose in her throat.
She closed her mouth, and looked down at her hands again.
She took a shaky breath.
"I brought him here to protect him, just like what I did with you. You have to believe that. He is... he is important to me."
Theresa shook her head slowly. "When I first started researching his power... when I saw the unique energy signature he carried... I saw a solution."
Mei let out a sharp breath.
"I saw the way his energy reacted to the Honkai," Theresa continued, forcing the words out. "And when I saw how calm the core became when he was near you, Mei... I had a moment of weakness."
"...I saw a way to keep you safe without consequences. And his powers had so many hidden implications that I continued to study him."
"Study him how?" Kiana pried.
"I ran more experiments with his energy—zero risk experiments, so he was in no real danger. I expedited his training. I assigned him to train more with you all because I wanted to test the range of his stabilizing field," Theresa admitted.
"I told myself I was giving him a home. But a part of me... a large part of me... was just installing a safety measure."
The room went dead silent. The hum of the air recyclers seemed to roar in the quiet.
Mei stood up. She looked at Theresa with eyes that weren't angry, but filled with a deep, crushing sorrow.
"So it was engineered," Mei said softly. "The team... You set it all up."
"Wait, I only started doing that after I found out about his energy's effects on the core! I made him a part of your team without any ulterior motives."
Mei didn't say anything, so Theresa continued. "The bond you two formed, and the bond he formed with your team... that was real. I couldn't engineer that. I just put you in the same room."
"But you viewed him as a heatsink," Mei countered, her voice trembling. "You looked at him and saw a way to fix me."
"He trusts you, Theresa. He looks at you like family… At least, the closest thing he has to one. He sees this place as his home, and that you are his guardian."
Her eyes bore into Theresa with a pleading gaze. "Please... tell me that his trust isn't misplaced. Tell me that your care for him isn't just a facade to keep a 'stabilizer' happy. I need to know that the home you gave him is real."
"It is!" Theresa cried out. "It became real! I-I don't know when it happened... but somewhere along the line, I started to care for him just like I do for all of you,"
"He became family. And I hate myself for ever looking at him like a set of numbers. I hate that it took Zero appearing for me to realize I was holding the leash too tight."
She looked up, her face wet and red, yet her eyes filled with pure honesty. "I promise you, Mei. I see Kenji now as another student I have to protect, not an asset."
Mei looked at Theresa for a long moment. Studying the regret, the guilt.
She didn't offer forgiveness, for it was not hers to give. But she nodded, acknowledging her sincerity.
"Then prove it," Mei whispered. "Stop acting like his handler. And start acting like his family."
"...Okay," Theresa said, her voice steadying.
She looked at each of them in turn—Wendy, Kiana, Mei.
"Inside this room, there are no more secrets between us. If you have a question, ask it. I will answer truthfully, no matter how ugly the answer is or how much it implicates me. That is my promise."
Kiana didn't hesitate. She didn't let the promise hang in the air to cool. She tested it immediately.
"The Bio-Chip," Kiana said sharply. "Zero mentioned it when he was ranting. Did you really secretly implant something inside him?"
The room went still. If Theresa hesitated, if she tried to dodge the question in any sort of way, the trust would be broken forever.
Thankfully, she stuck to her word.
"Yes," Theresa answered. "It is a micro-inhibitor implanted at the base of his skull. It acts similarly to a vitals monitor, but more advanced and with some added features like a tracker."
Kiana's jaw tightened. "You put a leash on him."
"It was a fail-safe," Theresa corrected, though she didn't argue the semantics. "And yes, it is still active."
Theresa stood up, pushing her chair back.
"But I can have the medical team remove it tonight. The surgery is quite straightforward, so you won't have to worry about anything going wrong."
She put her hand to her chest and stared Kiana straight in the eyes. "I don't want to hold a leash anymore. If we are going to be a family, I can't always be a looming presence over you. I'll order the extraction right now."
Kiana let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Her shoulders relaxed. That was the answer she needed. That was the proof that Theresa was done treating Kenji like an asset.
"Do it," Kiana said firmly. "Get that thing out of his head."
"I disagree." Mei suddenly said.
Kiana turned, eyes wide. "What?"
Mei remained seated. Her hands were clasped in front of her, still as stone.
"Leave it," she said.
"Mei, are you crazy?" Kiana snapped, leaning over the table. "That's a chip in his brain! We just said no more control!"
"We said no more secrets," Mei corrected, her voice cold and dangerously pragmatic. "We didn't say we would be stupid."
Mei finally looked up. Her eyes were dry, clear, and terrifyingly resolved.
"Zero is still in there, Kiana. We just suppressed him, the threat of him taking control is still very real."
Mei gestured vaguely toward the hallway.
"Tonight, we got lucky. We had the element of surprise. We had sedatives, and Zero wasn't at full strength. But next time? If Zero wakes up when we aren't ready and gets away, we won't be able to find him."
She looked at Theresa.
"We need a way to keep an eye on him. We need a way to track Zero and stop him before he regains his full strength."
"But..." Kiana looked at Wendy, seeking backup, but Wendy remained silent. Kiana looked back at Mei. "But it's wrong, Mei."
"I know… I hate this as much as you do, but it's the best option," Mei stated, though her lips quivered for just a moment. "...When Kenji wakes up, if he asks for it to be removed, only then will we do so."
Mei stood up, meeting Theresa's shocked gaze.
"Leave the chip in. But give us access to it as well. If anyone is going to hold the leash, it shouldn't be Schicksal. It should be the people who are actually trying to save him."
Theresa looked stunned. "Mei, are you sure? You're asking to carry a heavy burden."
"I'm already carrying it," Mei said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "I fried his nervous system tonight. Keeping a mere tracker on standby isn't nearly as bad as that."
Kiana stared at Mei, seeing a completely different person wearing that familiar face. The soft, gentle Mei who cooked dinner and worried about grades was gone.
In her place was a hardened Valkyrie. Someone willing to make the cold calculation if it meant keeping her friend alive.
Kiana slumped back into her chair. She hated that Mei was making sense.
From the doorway, Himeko let out a quiet sigh. She uncrossed her arms, a sad smile touching her lips.
She had come here to make sure her students didn't get steamrolled by the Principal. Instead, she had watched them grow up in the span of ten minutes.
It wasn't even a year, yet they weren't just students anymore. They were making the hard calls. They were becoming protectors.
"Well," Himeko said, breaking the heavy atmosphere. "I think that settles the policy updates."
She placed a hand on Theresa's shoulder, feeling the tension radiating off the small woman.
"The chip stays. The secrets go. And we all try to sleep before the sun comes up."
/ — /
Kiana
"Meeting adjourned," Himeko announced, pushing off the doorframe. Her voice was soft, lacking its usual military bark. "Go back to the medical bay. Get some sleep. That's an order."
Wendy stood up first, using the table for support before steadying herself. She looked at Theresa one last time, her expression a complicated, quiet understanding, before walking toward the door.
Mei followed her. She paused as she passed Theresa and gave her a nod.
"Coming, Kiana?" Mei asked, pausing at the threshold.
Kiana was standing by her chair. She looked at the door, then back at Theresa, who was still sitting at the table.
"You guys go ahead," Kiana said, her voice low. "I'll catch up."
Mei studied Kiana's face for a second, then nodded. She ushered Wendy out, and Himeko followed them into the hallway, pulling the door shut until it clicked, leaving the aunt and niece alone in the dim light.
The silence returned. It felt heavy, but less sharp than before.
Theresa didn't look up. She sat hunched over, her oversized sweater swallowing her petite frame.
She looked braced for impact. She expected Kiana to yell again. She expected more questions, more accusations.
"Kiana," Theresa whispered, her voice thick. "I know I can't fix this overnight. I know you're all angry. And you have every right to be."
Kiana's lips opened, but no sound came out. There was a question she still wanted to ask, one she knew Theresa was also dreading.
Zero had said many things in their encounter, but one thing stood out to her the most. The fact that he said Theresa was using Kenji to suppress her as well.
He also called her a special case. Something that she knew had far more profound implications. Looking at her Auntie's eyes, she knew that if she asked, Auntie would give her the answer.
But was she really ready for it?
Was she strong enough to handle the answer?
…
She let out a tired, drawn out sigh.
She took a step forward. Then another. The sound of her boots on the floor grew louder the closer she got.
Theresa flinched as the shadow fell over her again. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for a verbal beating.
It never came.
Instead, she felt arms wrap around her.
It was awkward at first—the table was in the way, and Theresa was sitting while Kiana was standing—but Kiana leaned over, pulling her aunt into a fierce, clumsy hug.
She buried her face in Theresa's messy hair, squeezing tight enough to wrinkle her sweater.
Theresa froze. Her breath hitched in her throat. Her hands hovered in the air for a split second before she crumbled and returned the embrace.
"You're really short, Auntie," Kiana mumbled into Theresa's shoulder, her voice sounding wet. In any other situation, she would have punted Kiana across the room for calling her short.
"It's really hard to stay mad at you when you look like a kicked puppy."
Theresa let out a sound that was a half-laugh, half-sob. "I'm sorry, Kiana."
"I know… But you have to keep that promise."
Kiana pulled back slightly, looking Theresa in the eye. Her blue eyes were still red from exhaustion, but the anger was gone.
"We're a team. You, me, Himeko, all of us. We save Kenji together."
Theresa nodded frantically, wiping her eyes. "Together. I promise."
Kiana stared at her for a moment longer, ensuring the message had landed. Then, she offered her first genuine smile of the night.
"Good. Now go wash your face. You look terrible."
Kiana stood up straight, patted Theresa on the head—a reversal of their usual dynamic—and turned to leave.
She walked out of the briefing room without looking back, the automatic door hissing shut behind her.
As she walked further from the room, a resolve burned brighter inside her.
She would get stronger. Strong enough to stand equally with her friends, strong enough to find her dad, and strong enough to handle any secrets that were kept from her.
'Just watch, now it's my turn to split the sky!'
***
Author Notes:
I have returned! Hello again, everyone. I am finally finished planning the direction of this fic, and oh boy, I nearly had an aneurysm doing it (like seriously, researching Hi3 lore and playing the game hurts me more than university ever could).
Anyway, get ready because new chapters will be coming with their usual schedule again.
As per usual, after such a high-stakes arc will be a more mellow one. But don't be fooled, this is still a Honkai story, so there will always be DRAMA.
(Also, here's a little pic of the team together, and a colored version of that old drawing!)
Enjoy!