"WHAT?!" Sky's body froze in place, his muscles tense and rigid. His eyes widened, disbelief etched across his face. His jaw dropped slightly, words caught in his throat, as he searched for a response that eluded him at that moment. With his brows furrowed in confusion, his mind raced to process the implications of what he had just heard.

"I've unmasked you!" she said with a trembling voice. "And now I've got proof! I've taken some photos of you being friendly with this dangerous beast!"

"That doesn't prove–"

"Of course, you knew how to deal with phoenixes in the academy!" She chuckled. Her eyes narrowed with a fierce intensity, fixed unwaveringly on Sky, as if daring him to challenge her accusation. "You CONTROL them! Because you're Endurance!"

Hazel's body tensed up, her shoulders squared and her posture rigid, emanating a palpable aura of defiance. Her fists clenched tightly, the knuckles turning white with the force of her grip, betraying the pent-up anger that surged through her.

"You don't kill them, just scare them away―like every time we've dealt with phoenixes in the arena. And in the city. And like yesterday!" A subtle tremor coursed through her limbs, a mix of nervousness and adrenaline. "You're responsible for the massacre of last night! I hate you! And everybody else in the Hovering Hive will too once they see the photo!"

Sky showed her his palms open wide. I have to come clean and fix this misunderstanding right now.

"You won't show them to anybody," he replied calmly.

"Why?! Because you're... you're going to kill me?!" Her eyes blazed with a fierce determination, locked onto his with an intensity that bordered on desperation.

I hate her so much when she's stubborn and unreasonable like this! Especially when she gives into hatred so easily! Sky's body stiffened, his brows furrowing in frustration, as he bristled under the weight of Hazel's accusations. His jaw clenched tightly, his lips pressing into a thin line, as his patience waned and his temper flared.

"No, you bloody idiot!" He momentarily lost his patience. His eyes, once warm and inviting, now flashed with a flicker of anger, mirroring the tension in his body. His shoulders squared, standing tall and resolute. "Because I'm not Endurance. Can't you see?! I'm only seventeen, like you. But the attacks first started twenty years ago. Endurance can only be someone who's older than us."

"Oh." The realisation of her own rashness washed over her. Hazel's shoulders slumped, her posture shrinking inwards, as the weight of her rash accusations settled upon her. Her arms crossed tightly against her chest. She averted her gaze, unable to meet Sky's eyes. She also took a small step back and her head bowed slightly.

"Besides, you've already seen that Haywire isn't dangerous," he added, regaining his calmness.

"But it tried to kill me!" she complained.

Haywire replied with a growl once more.

"No, he didn't. He caught you and brought you back to me," Sky corrected her with a firm voice. "And he's not an 'it', but a 'he'. Long story short, he's my only real friend in the entire world, so don't belittle him or my relationship with him."

"Your... only friend?!" Hazel asked, raising an eyebrow. "This beast? How's that even possible?!"

"He's... one of a kind. He's playful, kind, and empathic. Everything we know about them is a big fat lie! Hazel, if you knew what I discovered in his brain when I found him here. It's..." He scoffed.

Hazel blushed in shame as she stared at him. The passion in his voice left her mesmerised.

"You... you really like him. I'm so sorry," she whispered. Her shoulders let go of all the tension and her gaze became sheepish. A lock of hair fell over her eyes. She struggled to put it behind her ear with trembling fingers while the blush of shame on her cheeks increased.

Sky sighed. "It's okay, Hazel. We screw it up once in a while. I mean, look at me, right?"

He chuckled.

"I've already messed things up more than once this month: the admission test, dealing with my overachiever mom, Mrs Evergreen took my whistle and made me become famous against my will, my weak performance last night according to the news and social media."

Hazel raised an eyebrow at him. "Is that why you didn't have it on you last night?"

"Exactly. I wish I could've used it." Sky's shoulders slumped, his once-confident posture now weighed down by the burden of disappointment. He clenched his fists tightly, the frustration evident in the tension of his muscles. His gaze dropped to the ground. "I could've saved some people."

With a heavy sigh, he ran a hand through his tousled hair, a gesture of frustration and self-doubt. He absentmindedly took some steps around Hazel. They became slow and hesitant, as if each movement carried the weight of his perceived failure. The lines on his forehead deepened, reflecting his inner turmoil and regret.

Hazel's eyes widened as the realisation dawned on her that Sky was as good as he was allowed to be, but that didn't match what he wanted to achieve or become. He had had many people hindering him.

She put a hand softly on his right shoulder. "I'm sorry. I've acted foolishly and said and done mean things that you didn't deserve. I see you have got quite a weight over your shoulders."

This is the Hazel I used to know. Kind-hearted, empathetic, trustworthy, honest, and supportive. I hope she can be like this from now on, now that she knows my biggest secret.

"Thank you," he whispered with a bittersweet smile. "I'm sorry, too."

"What for? You've done nothing wrong."

"Yes, I have. I... I accepted entering into the Elite Academy, which means I'm supposed to train to kill phoenixes. But they have been weaponised against their will. I can't... I can't kill them. They're innocent―all of them."

"All of them? What are you talking about?" Hazel's eyes widened, her body freezing in astonishment.

"Remember that first night?" he asked her, his gaze locked with hers. "The one I met you and your team by the Control Tower?"

"Yes, this Sonic Echo Ranger, the gold and orange one, was attacking it. You claimed you had hit it and brought it down, but nobody believed you." She made a small pause. "Neither did I."

"Well, I hit it," he confessed with a dissatisfied, bitter smirk. "It crash-landed here, in this clearing. I came to fetch some proof so that no one would dismiss me anymore. I would enter the Elite Academy with my head held high, but..." He sighed as he turned his face to Haywire.

The kind look in Sky's eyes took Hazel's breath away.

"But I couldn't kill him," he admitted. "He was friendly. I checked his brain, where I had hit him with my sonic gun. I had damaged the hardware component which triggers the sonic blast, but I also accidentally disabled a personality-monitoring chip in his brain, making him tame and freeing him from his master."

"Endurance." Her eyebrows furrowed, creating a slight crease on her forehead, as her mind raced to process the implications of what she had just heard. Her hands trembled, a visible sign of the mix of emotions swirling inside her. "Damn, I feel like a fool! Phoenixes are just... what? Deadly tools to him?"

"Yes. And I took away one of his toys, so to speak. That's why this mysterious enemy is mad at me, I guess."

"To the point he issued a killing order against you last night, as Naomi said over the phone."

"Yes, the attack was meant for me." He pressed his lips together for a moment. "Endurance might've wanted to find me dead or alive―I mean, preferably dead. I should've anticipated this. It's easy to foresee a new attack against the Hovering Hive now, one as deadly as the one from last night―or even worse. Because I'm alive. It'll be my fault again."

A gasp escaped her lips, her breath caught due to such a revelation. Her hand instinctively reached for her chest, her fingers lightly touching her lips in fear and disbelief. She took a step back, her body swaying slightly, as if trying to regain her balance.

He picked up an ebony-coloured pebble and threw it into the lake with anger.

"In the meantime, Mrs Evergreen doesn't seem to make preparations to face this challenge." His voice was tainted by badly-repressed anger. "She doesn't know the truth, of course. She's just busy accepting more money from the wallets of wealthy donors."

Another pebble ended up at the bottom of the lake thanks to his frustration and ire.

"I'm her most recent marketing strategy―something I hate. She's using me like a puppet, forcing me to hand over my gadgets. She only cares about that and... vengeance against Kane Kovak, a notorious scientist she gave the sack to twenty years ago. He must be Endurance, since he was pissed off at her and tried to defy her... even synthesised a virus to contaminate Mrs Evergreen's body with MS. But... I don't know. Something doesn't fit."

"What?"

"I got a mysterious call the other night."

"What about?"

"Someone who wants both Mrs Evergreen and Endurance to fail. He said I had called his attention."

"Who was that?"

"No idea," he admitted as he grabbed another pebble and toyed with it. "He insisted on the idea that Mrs Evergreen is cunning and manipulative, that I should beware. And after a meeting I had with her, what he claimed seems to be more than justified." He threw the pebble into the lake. A frustrated tsk followed.

Hazel averted her eyes while she gritted her teeth and her cheeks blushed just lightly.

"I'm a pathetic hypocrite, Hazel," he said after a chuckle. "You were right. I befriended the enemy, yes. But I didn't do it to hurt Anti-Ageing Inc. or the Hovering Hive. I hide in this clearing, away from everything and everyone, and spend my time with this beast because he's the best friend I have ever had."

Haywire came to Sky and leaned his head on Sky's left arm. Sky petted the hard metal feathers on his head with a bittersweet smile.

"And now that you've met him, we can all be good friends, right, Hazel?" He smiled at her. Then, he stared back at Haywire. "He doesn't care if I make mistakes, if I'm a loser, if I've got more problems than I can cope with. He will never abandon me or betray me, right, big fella?"

While Sky sank his hand in the short feathers on Haywire's head and messed them all up with a playful grin on his face, Haywire let out a low, satisfied, guttural, purr-like sound.

Hazel's body stiffened at that last sentence, her eyes widening in realisation as Sky's words cut through her like a knife. Her gaze darted around nervously, avoiding direct eye contact. A subtle trembling in her hands betrayed her inner turmoil, a physical manifestation of the guilt that gnawed at her conscience. Her shoulders hunched forward, and her lips quivered.

"What will you do now?" she asked, whispering.

"I don't know." He sighed in frustration. Then, his gaze landed on her eyes and went on with a pleading voice, "Just... don't tell anyone the truth―or about Haywire. Please. If Mrs Evergreen or my mother ever knew about him, they would take him away from me and weaponise him against his will again."

She gulped.

He leaned his forehead on Haywire's with contentment and love as he caressed his head and beak. As Haywire gently closed his eyes, Sky whispered, "I can't let that happen to my best friend."

Hello, my sugar cubes!

Sky promised to keep her secret. Will she keep his?
Who is the bigger hypocrite: Sky or Hazel?

Stay tuned!

XOXO

Mar