Aleksander had multiple ways to solve the oxygen shortage. With his supernatural intelligence, his mind had already designed a flawless, next-generation filtration system. But he was bound by harsh realities.
First was The Resource Deficit. The Ark was a scavenged, dying graveyard of metal. He lacked the raw physical materials—rare-earth metals, specific carbon-binding chemicals, and fresh titanium—to build it. You cannot build a castle out of dust, no matter how smart you are.
Second were his Magical Limitations. He could theoretically use his magic to transfigure or generate oxygen, but breathing life into a massive station of over two thousand people twenty-four hours a day would drain his magical core to the point of death. He was powerful, but he was not a perpetual motion machine.
Finally, there was The Threat of Discovery. Even if he managed a miraculous, overnight fix, the sudden appearance of impossible technology and unexplainable energy signatures would trigger an immediate Council investigation. The Ark's sensors would track the anomaly to him. He would be labeled a mutant, strapped to a medical table, and dissected to replicate his abilities for the survival of the human race.
So, when the news of the failing oxygen scrubbers leaked to him, he knew exactly what was coming. Clarke's father, Jake Griffin, had discovered the flaw and was attempting to go public.
The tension was palpable in Aleksander's quarters. He was playing chess with his best friends, Clarke and Wells, but Clarke's mind was miles away. She carelessly sacrificed her knight, staring blankly at the board.
Wells noticed immediately. "Clarke, what's wrong? You're completely distracted." When she hesitated, he leaned in, his voice soft but firm. "You know you can trust us."
Clarke looked between the two of them, the weight of her secret breaking her resolve. She swore both of them to secrecy, making them promise before she revealed the fatal flaw in the Ark's life support systems and her father's impending plan to go public.
Wells looked horrified, but promised his silence.
Before Clarke could leave, Aleksander reached out, gently stopping her. His unnervingly sharp eyes locked onto hers.
"Clarke, revealing this is a moral good, but the statistical probability of success is staggeringly low," Aleksander warned, his voice calm, driven entirely by his supernatural intellect. "If your father goes public, it will incite a panic. The Council operates on order and survival. Chancellor Jaha will not view this as transparency; he will view it as treason. They will silence him to prevent a riot."
Clarke offered a sad, grateful smile, knowing Aleksander was analyzing the situation to protect her. She squeezed his hand to calm him down. "I know you're worried. But my dad has to try. It's the right thing to do."
Aleksander watched her go, a heavy feeling settling in his chest. Days later, the inevitable news echoed through the station: Jake Griffin had been arrested.
Aleksander sighed in the quiet of his room. "Everything is happening like the original timeline."
Clarke managed to find her father before his execution, sharing one final, tearful goodbye before Jake was taken away to be floated for his crime. It was the Ark's most brutal punishment—the condemned was placed into an airlock chamber, exposing them to the outside elements and forcing their body to be sucked into the vacuum of open space, resulting in death from negative pressure and asphyxiation.
Aleksander, however, had already made his decision. He was going to help Jake Griffin.
The observation deck was cold. Aleksander stood near the back of the small crowd, out of sight from the station guards. While the others watched in horror, Aleksander subtly opened his palms, golden dust silently gathering in the creases of his hands.
Through the thick glass, Jake Griffin stood in the airlock, accepting his fate with a heartbreaking calm.
Aleksander closed his eyes, his hyper-active mind calculating the exact telemetry of the Ark, the rotational velocity, and the trajectory required for Earth's atmospheric entry. He felt the Phoenix blood rise in his veins—a warm, comforting heat that pushed back the chill of the space station.
"May we meet again," Chancellor Jaha's voice echoed solemnly through the comms.
The airlock doors hissed, violently blowing open to the unforgiving vacuum of space. Jake was ripped from the station, tumbling into the endless, silent dark.
Beneath the sleeves of his jacket, Aleksander's hands twitched, his magic bypassing the Ark's primitive sensors.
Out in the void of space, just as the freezing vacuum began to tear at Jake's body, a spark ignited. A bubble of pure, white energy blossomed in the dark. It expanded rapidly, taking the form of a brilliant telekinetic orb that swallowed Jake whole.
Inside the sphere, the lethal cold vanished, replaced by the warming, regenerative embers of Phoenix fire. The kinetic force of the spell arrested Jake's chaotic tumbling. The orb hardened, crystallizing into a smooth, glowing tear-drop shape—a perfect, magical stasis pod.
Aleksander opened his eyes, watching the tiny white speck adjust its course, rocketing safely away from the Ark and down toward the swirling blue and green sphere of Earth below. Jake Griffin was safe, caught in a deep, healing sleep until he made landfall.
Inside the observation deck, chaos erupted. Clarke watched as her father was sucked out of the airlock and immediately collapsed into her mother's arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Clarke repeatedly apologized, entirely convinced her father's death was her fault for trusting the wrong people.
"It's not your fault, Clarke," Abigail insisted, her own voice cracking with grief.
Before Abigail could pull her away, the station guards moved in, their batons drawn. Clarke was being arrested for treason.
As they stepped forward to take her to juvenile lockup, Clarke broke away from her mother and threw her arms around Aleksander, crying desperately onto his shoulder.
"It was Wells," she muttered into his jacket, her voice thick with absolute betrayal. "He told his father. Wells told the Chancellor."
Aleksander held her tight, his mind instantly understanding the flawless, tragic logic of her assumption.
To Clarke, it made perfect sense to blame Wells and completely absolve Aleksander. Wells was Chancellor Jaha's son. He had been raised with a strict, unwavering belief in the laws of the Ark, and his first loyalty had always been to his father. He had the direct access and the authoritative motive to report a treasonous plot.
Aleksander, on the other hand, had used his incredible intellect to explicitly warn Clarke against the plan. His logical breakdown of the Council's reaction proved he already knew they would fail. In Clarke's mind, Aleksander had tried to save Jake by using reason; he had no reason to turn him in, because doing so would only bring about the exact tragedy he had tried to prevent.
Furthermore, Aleksander was fiercely independent, keeping his supernatural mind largely hidden from the Council. He had zero loyalty to Jaha's administration.
"I'm so sorry, Clarke," Aleksander whispered, knowing he couldn't tell her the truth about her father or Wells yet.
The guards ripped Clarke away from him, dragging a devastated, furious girl down the corridor toward solitary confinement.