The Five Evolution

Chapter 31: The Great Pretender.

『"I’ve played the game, but to my real shame..."』

"You’ve been really careful about what you said and how you said it, haven’t you?" Amara’s voice remained calm. "Always watching your words around me. Measuring every response. But you slipped up just now."

"I don’t understand what you—" Gaius tried to speak, but Amara cut him off sharply, taking one step closer with her blade held firm.

"I never said anything about an illegal mining operation, Professor," she said. ’But you knew. You knew exactly what we found down there."

Gaius tried to take a step forward, his expression shifting into something almost paternal. "You younglings and your hormones. This is no time for jokes."

Amara poked the blade forward warningly. "No. Stay right there."

Gaius’s expression didn’t change. "You’re reading too much into a simple assumption—"

"And you’re so eager for us to get into that submarine," Amara continued, her intent sight confirming what her instincts had been screaming at her.

Gaius let out a heavy sigh. "Pray tell, when would I have had the time to sabotage the submarine? I’ve been with the girls since this debacle started."He gestured to Sophia and Hana.

"Bullshit," Amara responded instantly without thinking, the word slipping out before she could second-guess herself.

Just then, Hana’s dramatic persona faltered for a moment. "Uhm... He was with us if I remember correctly..."

"Thank you!" Gaius stretched out an arm toward her in grateful relief.

Then he turned his gaze back to Amara, his tone softening into something almost reassuring. "Your ability must be on the fritz or something. But I’ll let this all slide. We’re all burning a little too hot here, and with what’s happening, I don’t blame you."

Amara took one hesitant step back, her trust in her own ability wavering as she stared down at it and then at the ground. "I-I don’t understand."

"It’s alright, Amara. These things happen," Gaius continued smoothly, attempting another step toward her. "You’re a Dream Walker, after all. Your abilities can’t always operate at a hundred percent."

But before he could close the distance, Sophia raised her hand. "Wait a damn minute."

Everyone turned toward her in unison.

"Remember that call he had to take on his device?" Sophia asked, staring at Hana.

Hana nodded slowly. "Yeah. Now that you mention it, he was all flustered. Said he needed to take care of something."

"Uh-huh..." Sophia turned back to Gaius, folding her arms. "Then he shows up ten minutes after. Didn’t think much of it. Had no reason to. But now I’m beginning to wonder..."

Amara’s confidence began to return as she lifted Angel’s Bane once more, leveling it directly at him. "So ten minutes unaccounted for."

"This is crazy!" Gaius laughed. "It’s me you guys. It’s fucking Professor Gaius."

Amara used the blade to gesture briefly toward the submarine hatch before returning it to him. "Then you should have no problem getting in first. Show us it’s safe."

Silence stretched for several heartbeats as everyone waited.

When Gaius made no move, Naomi’s fingers began crackling with electricity. Moments later, Hiro’s boots sparked with red lightning as both stepped forward to flank Amara.

"You heard her," Hiro said, his usual humor completely absent. "Get in."

"Gaius... sweet, sweet Gaius," Naomi added with a dangerous smile. "Let’s not make this more difficult than it needs to be."

Professor Gaius looked at the three of them. Two Dream Walkers and one Shaper, all exhausted to varying degrees. His odds weren’t looking very good.

There was also Raj, Ethan, Andre, Hana and Tova to consider. And Ethan, despite his condition, already looked like he was ready to join in as his fist clenched beside him.

Gaius looked back at the Submarine hatch after weighing his options and his shoulders dropped. "This wasn’t supposed to happen." He sighed and rubbed his face with his hand. "You were never supposed to find out."

Hiro paused for a moment, then threw his arms up in disappointment. "Duuude. I was really hoping this was all a misunderstanding."

"Me too," Amara said, letting out a slow breath and looked past Gaius like he wasn’t even worth the focus anymore.

"Me three," Raj added quietly from behind, still supporting Ethan.

Gaius straightened slowly, and for a moment, no one moved. Then he exhaled through his nose, almost... tired. "You know what the worst part is?" he said with a voice that wasn’t even angry.

"I did everything right."

When he spoke no one interrupted him.

"I gave this place my life," Gaius continued, gesturing vaguely at the facility around them. "Decades. Missions. Sacrifices. I bled for the Institute. I buried friends for the Institute."

His eyes hardened. "And for what?" He sighed. "A ceiling." He tapped his arm where his sigil bars were.

"Two bars. One already grey. That’s it. That’s my story. That’s my worth." A hollow laugh escaped him. "Do you know what they do with people like me?"

He asked but no one answered.

"They park us," he said. "Stick us somewhere quiet. Safe. Out of the way." His gaze swept across them, then added, "teaching."

That word landed like an insult and he continued, "wasted potential babysitting ungrateful children who don’t even understand the world they’ve stepped into."

Hiro frowned. "Okay, that felt a little personal—"

"Shut up, Hiro," Sophia muttered.

Amara didn’t move, nor did she lower her blade. "Whatever justification you’ve built in your head doesn’t matter," she said, calmly. "You’re coming with us. You’ll answer for what you’ve done."

Gaius looked at her. Then he smiled. "Answer?" he repeated softly. "To who?" His smile widened just a fraction. "The same people who built this place?"

For a second, there was a flicker of doubt that moved through the group as they all wondered if they could actually take him in.

And in that moment, Gaius made his move. In one swift motion, he pulled a small device from his pocket that had a single button.

"Gaius, don’t," Amara warned, not entirely sure of what he had in his hand.

Hiro on the other hand, immediately recoiled, eyes widening in panic. "Oh no—nope—nope! That is a self-destruct button! I have seen this movie!"

Everyone tensed instantly. Raj shifted protectively in front of Ethan, Sophia did the same with Hana, and Amara raised Angel’s Bane higher.

Naomi stepped back, electricity crackling louder. "If you blow us up, I swear—"

Gaius raised an eyebrow. "A self-destruct button? You guys watch too many movies." he repeated with amusement. "And even if I could, why would I destroy something this valuable?"

"Then what the hell is it?" Andre demanded.

Gaius tilted his head slightly. "My escape plan of course," he answered and he pressed it.

For a split second, nothing happened. Then everything began to rumble and flip over. A deep, bone-rattling tremor tore through the facility and the ground beneath them shifted.

The Shrinking Clam had began the process of releasing Scale Compression Particles outward to feed and this process caused gravity inside the facility to warp unpredictably.

The floor dropped away as everyone suddenly floated upward, weightless and disoriented. From a distance, screams echoed through the corridors as the entire underwater prison descended into fresh chaos.

"What did you do?" Amara demanded, her voice rising over the growing rumble. "Gaius, what did you do!?"

Gaius didn’t look at her. Instead, he looked up in an almost reverent manner. "I turned off the HydroStatic Field," he said.

"That field doesn’t just protect the facility," he continued quietly. "It regulates it." Another violent shudder occured as though tectonic plates were grinding against each other.

"The Clam feeds when the field drops," he paused. "And it wasn’t scheduled to feed today."

"...What the..." Amara’s feet left the ground as did everyone else’s. They were yanked upward, bodies colliding as the world lost its sense of direction.

Hiro flailed. "What is happening!? I did not sign up for this!"

Raj grabbed Tova mid-air before he slammed into a wall. "I got you! I got you—okay I don’t got gravity though!"

Loose debris like tools, fragments of metal, even chunks of the wall lifted around them, drifting, spinning, colliding in slow, chaotic motion.

"Gaius!" Amara forced herself to focus, searching for the professor. But in the confusion, in the exact moment where reality itself stopped making sense, he slipped away.

As the group struggled to orient themselves in the floating mayhem, Hiro grabbed a handhold and pulled Sophia closer to safety. "What are we going to do now?"

Ethan, despite the damage taken and pain, forced his voice steady. "We need to get out of this place. Now." He coughed up blood into his palm after speaking.

Amara nodded, her eyes narrowing with worry as she anchored herself against a pipe as the SCP distortion continued to disrupt everything around them. "That means we regroup. We find other supervisors, other students, anyone still alive."

She turned to the group, her grip on her blade tightening. "Then we find a way out. Submarine, evacuation route, anything that still works."