The Blazing Rebellion

Chapter 45

Sera POV

Despite Sera's attempts to contact him, John had been avoiding her for two days. It wasn't necessarily that he was ignoring her; she knew that there was more to it then that. He was simply trying to figure things out on his own. He didn't want to talk about them, not yet. If Sera's theory was correct, too, then she knew why. If things were going as wrong as she suspected, John wasn't in a good place right now.

Sera had gotten no confirmation that Jane, NXGen's patient, was, in fact, John's mother, but her doubts were slowly vanishing. She could see it in his eyes. John could get upset easily, but the level of despair and confusion she saw in his expression when she caught his gaze at school was different. He'd been vanishing from lunch, too. She'd asked Blyke already to make sure John was still eating; luckily, he didn't seem to be skipping dinner back at his dorm, even if he still appeared just as lost as at school. It was reassuring to hear that he was at least still taking care of himself.

He'd been acting off for the last few days, but Sera finally saw a reaction out of him when he was called to the office. The moment he heard his name called, he practically jumped out of his seat and ran out of the room. The door slammed shut behind him, leaving them all in confused silence. After a moment, the teacher cleared his throat and continued the lesson, but Sera knew she wasn's the only one who'd stopped listening. She glanced over at John's desk, noticing that he'd left behind his backpack. He really was in a hurry. Sera frowned. Why did he react like that?

She didn't get answers to this, unfortunately. Instead, she only gained more questions as she walked through the hallways. She'd already grabbed John's bag; if he was done in the office, she would be seeing him in their next class. She could give it back to him then, and they could talk. Whispers echoed in the hallway as she made her way to class. Sera was ignoring them as she usually did, not caring what the other students said, until she heard John's name.

Pausing, Sera turned to see a few students hanging to the side of the hallway. She frowned, taking a step towards them. Are they saying awful things about him again? She'd heard a lot of bad discussion about John. Now, with him more confused then ever, there was no way she was going to let them continue like that. No one is allowed to insult my best friend. Before she could confront them, however, they continued thier conversation.

"... he just ran out of the school. For a second, I thought he was going to knock that other guy over, he was going so fast!" One of the students, a girl with short hair, was saying.

"Wow. I wonder what happened to him," another student added. The first one nodded.

The third shivered. "I hope he's not going on a rampage again."

The group paused for a moment, all of them looking a little paler than before. Sera barely noticed as they changed the subject; her mind was still on their first words. He ran out of the school earlier... What did he hear in the office?

If he'd left, there was no point in going to her next class. She already knew the topics they were learning. Really, the only reason she didn't skip class as often as before was so she could be there to check on John. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, Sera was just about to open her texts to ask John where he was so she could return his backpack when she noticed that he had already texted.

His message made her eyes widen. It simply read, I need you right now. John's spelling, as usual, was messy, but this text seemed to be a bit worse than usual, as if he'd typed it in a rush... or if he'd been really upset.

Sera quickly changed direction to head out of the school building. Before leaving, she answered John's text to say she was coming and ask if he was in the dorms. She flipped her phone off of silent, too, in order to make sure she heard if he answered. Then, slipping the phone into her backpack, she picked up the pace.

It was beginning to get busier since class had just ended, meaning that Sera had difficulty clearing past the many students. It didn't help that she was the only one leaving. Everyone else was going the opposite direction to their classes. As yet another crowd appeared in front of her, Sera realized that this was going to take a while. I don't want to wait. After John's text, she felt a sense of urgency to get there. He needed her.

As if triggered by these emotions, Sera's eyes lit up a dark blue, her ability activating. The students around her froze. It's working again? Her ability had been on and off. When Spectre had disabled it, something inside of her powers had been sealed up; now, even after all of the treatement, it didn't always stay consistent. For the moment, luckily, it was working, and it could help her.

Before the effects of time manipulation faded again, Sera rushed through the small gaps between the groups of students. In mere seconds, she'd reached the front of the school. Her ability had definitely managed to speed her up. She deactivated it now that there was a clear path to the dorms, and set out at a brisk pace to head to John's dorm.

When she got there, she knocked on the door. She heard nothing for the other end. Hesitating, Sera reached for the handle and turned it. The door was unlocked. He must've left it open... whether for me, or he just didn't care to close it.

She paused for a moment before stepping through the doorframe and shutting it behind her. Although the other two doors in the hallway were open, John's was closed. Biting her lip, Sera set down John's bag and then her own next to the door before stepping forwards. She reached her hand up to knock on the door, but before she could, it opened.

In front of her stood John. Sera's eyes widened at the sight of him. His dark hair was unruly, all traces of hair gel having vanished from it; the dark circles she'd noticed forming under his eyes appeared worse than ever. His amber eyes themselves were bloodshot. Tears stained his face, and as she continued to stare at him, another trickled down his cheek.

There was no explanation. Without another word, John reached forwards and grabbed her into a tight hug, breaking down into sobs. Sera quickly composed herself enough to wrap her arms around him, gently patting his back. She couldn't help but feel an endless confusion at what was going on. He wasn't like this before. How could things get any worse? What happened to him?

She'd thought he'd been upset before, when he'd finally realized that she did still want to be his friend and being a tyrant wouldn't help the world they were stuck in, but this was a whole differnt level. She'd never seen him this broken. Never. The pained sound of his cries brought tears to her own eyes. Slowly, she began to sink to the floor as she felt John's legs giving out from under him.

They sat on the floor, hugging, for what felt like another hour before John's tears finally stopped long enough for him to explain the situation.

He wasn't the only one sobbing when he finished.