Lexie pondered the realization as she stared blankly around her.

This world was not real.

Her soul, her body, and this situation weren't real either. The only thing that was real was the emotions pumping through her, heightening the closer the projectile got.

The kids started freaking out. They were trying to yell and call out for help, but they were up in the air, above the forest, and approaching the forcefield that protected the island. A few of them had opened up their system screens and were trying to call the professors, or anyone really, to help them.

Meanwhile, Lexie remained still and considered the situation. Even though she knew that nothing about this was real, she was still afraid. At first, she thought it was simply her body's reaction to the threat of pain and death, but it should have been dulled by acknowledging that whatever pain she received would be temporary. Now that she thought about it, her fear also didn't feel quite right.

Was it being artificially manipulated? Why? Was it a part of a test?

Oh, that's right. The second realization knitted together with the first, exposing the broader image. This was all a test. They were supposed to figure out a way to save themselves from this situation.

As her classmates panicked, Lexie continued thinking. If she were in a test, then it meant that the situation was solvable somehow. There had to be a way to defeat the projectile.

"What powers does everyone have?" she asked, but her voice was too quiet to be heard over the din and scramble. She said it again, louder.

"What powers does everyone have?"

The two closest people to Lexie looked at her. Two of the other kids were occupied with calling their mentors, another one was banging on the fortified windows, and the last girl had curled into a ball on the floor.

"I can talk to animals," the boy staring at her said.

That's not helpful, Lexie thought, and turned to the other girl, who said, "Short distance portal teleportation."

"For yourself or others?"

"Both."

Okay, that was more useful. "How many people can you teleport out of here?"

"One at a time, but I'll need time to recharge. About two minutes."

Yeah, that wouldn't work.

"Do you wanna just get yourself out of here then?" the boy said, looking spooked. "You could."

She hesitated, then shook her head. "I don't wanna leave you guys behind. Do you have a plan?" That question was addressed to Lexie.

"Maybe," she said.

Lexie didn't know if she had time to talk to the other four and figure out their powers. They were approaching the border in a few seconds, and once they crossed, the projectile would meet them. That way, they would not be protected by the forcefield at all.

Lexie sighed. Given the information she had, how would she solve this?

A few of her cards might work in this scenario. <Return to Sender> was one, but given that the target was a constantly moving object, that card likely wouldn't hold it back for long. Since timing was important, however, she could delay the projectile just enough that it would miss them by a millisecond, but even that was too close, and it would still hit the forcefield and cause significant damage. Not to mention that, if any of the missiles were heat-seeking, it would simply continue to follow them. So whatever solution she did come up with had to account for that.

<True Windbreaker> didn't have enough repelling force to take down the projectiles, and <Can't Touch This> would only be able to save her, possibly. <All Around Protection> might work, but it would drain her mana, expanding its influence over the entire trolley.

Or… she could do something else instead.

"Can you port me outside where the forcefield is?" Lexie asked. "Like right in the air, where the missile is approaching?"

The girl looked at her like she was crazy. "I could, but why would you want to do that?"

"Because I need to target it," she said. "I'll be fine. I just need to be out of here to get it."

She still appeared unsure, so Lexie added, "I think the missiles are heat-seeking, so I'm going to redirect them and slow down the trolley at the same time. In the meantime, focus on getting everyone out of here once you're charged up. Okay?"

"Okay," the girl said reluctantly. The other three had stopped freaking out, something about the calm Lexie exuded, calming them too. She nodded at the girl and said, "I'm ready."

She pointed at Lexie and said, "Here you go. One, two…"

A portal opened up behind Lexie and swallowed her in. It was dark for a second, and then she was dropped in the middle of thin air. Almost immediately, she activated a combination of <Can't Touch This> and <Return To Sender> targeting the trolley.

The effect drained her of a lot of mana, but it served its purpose perfectly. It made the trolley stop and inch back a few metres before the locomotive mechanism forced it to start moving again. The combo also kept Lexie suspended and moving back in the air, giving the effect of flying.

As it turned out, the missiles were heat-seeking, and they had now found a closer target that was not protected by a forcefield.

Unfortunately, that target was now Lexie.

The two projectiles arched in the air, speeding towards her faster than she was moving. Lexie tried to figure out a clever way to salvage the situation or turn the projectiles into nothing, but she couldn't think of anything. Her mana was pretty drained at this point, and she knew it wouldn't be enough, but she threw up <All-Around Protection> anyway. The first missile collided with her shield, sending her reeling back. The second missile collided with her, and searing heat burned through her as her body exploded.

<Simulation 1 complete.>

Difficulty Level: 3

<Calculating scores per factor. (Factor 1 - 80%, Factor 2 - 75 % Factor 3 - 63%....Factor 15 - 20%)>

Overall Score: 64%

Result: Success.

Lexie screamed once into the nothingness, and then the veil of darkness was lifted from her eyes. She blinked, disoriented as she looked at the lab around her. She was surrounded by a din of interrupted screaming and avid groaning, and someone was retching. Someone at the other side of the room was also yelling that this was cruel and unusual punishment, and the scientists were all sickos for making them watch people die.

Lexie, on the other hand, was calm as a cucumber as her handler, a lady with a blue braid, smiled at her. "Well done. I did not expect that from you, Sparrowfoot."

"Thank you," she said and brushed her hair back. Her team was once again sitting right beside her, and they were all staring at her, including the teleporter girl.

"I can't believe you did that," she was saying as she tried to catch her breath. The others who had been screaming still looked panicked.

Lexie was the only one who looked calm.

The scientists went over the lists, asking about side effects and making sure everyone wasn't still sick from the trauma.

"Alright." Dr. Miosa walked in with her black pad. "Now that everyone is awake, I'd like to thank you once again for participating in our simulation. I'm sure you're all very tired, so I'll keep this recap very short. As a group, you all did slightly better than last time, but not by much. I know you tried your best, but I encourage you to dig deeper and think of what you could have done better. Again, we encourage you to come to us for help, and at the end of the semester, there will be an exam for extra credit, if you can identify all the areas you could have done better." She smiled. "Though, to my surprise, there were a few standouts this time." She looked towards Lexie's team, first at the teleportation girl. "Elise, you had the opportunity to save yourself and leave your team behind. But you didn't. You stayed and tried to save as many as you could. That's pretty commendable of you."

Elise didn't manage a full smile, but she murmured, "Thanks," anyway.

"And you, too, Lexie." Dr. Miosa's gaze switched over to her. "I was impressed with how quickly you were able to overcome your shock, and you took on such a big leadership role. Your self-sacrifice at the end was also admirable, although not necessary."

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"I don't see how it wasn't," Lexie said, because it felt like someone just gave her an A-, her least favorite grade. "Not to argue with you, but given the time constraint, we had no other options."

"You did have multiple other options. Don't get me wrong, you've done quite well, and you and Elise are the only ones who passed your simulations today for playing your roles adequately. That also makes you two the first-ever first years to pass a simulation, and given that it's only your second ever, that is an amazing feat. However, you got points deducted for your final decision. You should still self-reflect and think of the other paths you could have taken, which could have yielded better results. For example, you didn't ask for help from all of your teammates and did not know what powers they possessed. If you had done so, you may not have had to sacrifice yourself in the end."

"We didn't have time for that," Lexie argued back. "We were in a time crunch, and everyone was panicking. By the time I would have talked to everyone and come up with a 'more reasonable' plan, it would have already been too late. It was just easier this way."

"Sacrificing yourself was easier than communicating?" Miosa sounded almost amused to ask.

"Yes, in this case," Lexie responded. But also, she'd chosen like that because she'd known she wasn't actually going to die. Maybe if she'd thought she would die, she would have tried harder to see another way out. But no matter how she sliced it, there was simply no other way.

"Interesting," she responded. "You don't think there was a reasonable option that avoids your death?"

"There wasn't," Lexie said convincingly. "Not in that time frame."

The woman raised an eyebrow. She noted something down on her pad and looked around.

"Alright," she said. "You're all dismissed."

"Way to make us all look bad," someone muttered as they got out of the chair. Lexie didn't spare them a glance, her brain still moving at a thousand miles a minute, trying to figure out how she'd known this was a simulation.

The complaints, however, continued.

"Peter–"

"No, it's annoying. First gym class, now this. It's like every single time she wants to show us all up."

"She's not doing it on purpose, Peter."

"I can't believe she one-shotted that whole thing. I thought she was a card mage," a new voice added as Lexie got to the door. They were speaking loudly enough that they probably wanted her to hear and give them attention, but she refused to.

"She's more than that. She's some kind of freak genius, probably. Or maybe her dad gave her tips."

"Your dad's a [Hero] too, Peter. He should have given you tips. Now, stop whining and figure out how not to lose your mind in a crisis next time."

Lexie did look at the girl who'd been defending her. When their gazes met, the girl gave her a tentative thumbs-up. Lexie returned the favor.

She still felt uncomfortable about the whole thing. She knew she wasn't well-liked by a lot of her classmates, and she was probably seen as strange and an outsider. She was used to it, but it did get annoying sometimes, and it was nice that someone was on her side.

That girl wasn't the only one. Someone else tapped Lexie's shoulder and told her, "Well done," on the way back to her room.

It was afternoon, and Lexie didn't really know what events led up to her going to the simulation lab. She was missing pieces of memory from this morning, but that would come back to her with time.

She was not supposed to gain awareness that she was in a simulation. She didn't quite know why she had, because she had no idea how a simulation actually worked, what kind of magic and science governed it. She decided to call her father on the way back to her room and tell him about what happened.

He couldn't answer at first, but texted that he was currently teaching a class and would step out in a few minutes. That came when she finally got to her room, and he called her back.

She told him everything.

"It was very weird," she said. "My soul felt different, and the more I noticed it, the more I couldn't help but notice, you know?"

Aiden nodded. "I can't say I've had that experience, but I've never dealt in soul magic before, so maybe that's why. What I will say about simulations is that they're essentially virtual worlds created by the scientists, and your psyche is implanted into an avatar that is basically a genetic make-up of you, right down to your skills and abilities."

"But…" she prompted because she could sense it coming.

"But, it's only an approximation of everything that you are. They use calculations from the tests they run to create a creepily accurate image of you. It should feel like you if you're not paying too much attention or looking too closely at it. But if you do look closely, you can start to see the cracks, the limitations of the machine. Of course, souls are extremely varied, and it would be impossible to completely recreate a soul, so that's probably where the crack is more obvious. Also, a machine cannot account for the part of your soul that it cannot see and cannot calculate."

He meant the Eldritch side that he and Naem hid.

"Is that how they increased my fear?"

"Yes. Most of our emotions come from the soul, and by using certain formulas they probably learned from necromancers, they can boost or restrict fear as needed in your artificial soul, to see how you would react under those circumstances. They also use emotional manipulation to prevent you from realizing it as a simulation."

"That's pretty twisted of them, I can't lie."

"It's the system," her father sighed. "Like I said, there are campaigns to get rid of it due to ethical concerns, but so far, the academy won't. The current academy leadership feel it's the best way to teach a hero how to react in real-life disasters, without risking their life in the field. It's good that you're doing well, but try not to be too good at it, though, or they might start to get suspicious."

"Okay, I will."

"I have to get back to class now."

"Okay, thanks, Dad. Love you."

"I love you too, Honeybee, so much."

After that, she met Xena and Dewie for lunch, and the other two had also been in simulations that afternoon, although they were not a part of the same group as Lexie.

When Lexie told them about her experience, they were impressed.

"That's pretty cool," Xena said. "I failed mine. Got like an eighteen percent."

"Me too," Dewie said. "Five percent."

"Ouch. At first, I wasn't too bothered because everyone else failed too. But of course, my best friend just had to be an overachiever." Xena gave Lexie a mock eye roll and bumped her shoulder. "I guess I get why they paired you up with Torin. If this keeps going, you might break his record after all."

"I don't think so." Lexie said. And even if she did break the record, she didn't think it would make her as heroic as Torin. She doubted Torin had woken up in the simulation like she had, so all things being equal, he was more heroic than she was. He was winning the game fair and square. Lexie was simply gaming the system.

"The AFC is coming back," Xena said as though reading Lexie's train of thought. "I'm going to miss the first match because I'll probably still be in Planet Fae by then. I can't believe it. I'm going to miss the return."

Lexie smiled. "I'll record all the fun matches while you're gone."

"I hate you," Xena said. "And it's going to be even crazier than before. A bunch of other academies are doing what Victoire's doing and offering their students extra credit to participate. So the AFC is doing a whole rebrand and introducing a new Hero league or something. There's also going to be folks from the war academy and Knight school participating in it."

"Isn't that the exact type of thing the AFC was supposed to be against?" Lexie said. "Like it was supposed to let people who weren't [Heroes] or [Knights] or [Soldiers] fight for fun?"

"Yes, but I think they decided that just fighting for fun was getting boring and people wanted to see real fights," she said. "So they're loosening the rules a bunch, especially for the heroes and knights division, so that there are real stakes. They're also giving a lot of focus to the Hero League. The current AFC fighters are pissed about it, because they're getting screwed over, but they can't argue back because they depend on the AFC for their livelihood, and the most profitable guy they have, who is Top Dog, is currently out of commission."

Lexie sighed. That was so unfair to all the Fighters who had trained so hard for this. How were Conrad and co dealing with it? Lexie would have to chat with her friends at the dojo soon.

She also wanted to know how Top Dog was doing, because he must also be feeling like shit right now.

But right now, she saw Xena's expression turn reflective, and Lexie asked, "Do you have to go to Planet Fae?"

"Yes," Xena said. "There's a huge infestation of sadness making the woodland creatures cry till they die, and if they're not able to find the source and get rid of it, they'll need me big time."

"They don't know where it's coming from?"

"No. It's weird, but it sounds like they don't have much experience with this Eldritch creature." Xena sighed. "The most annoying thing is that when we do find them, we don't always kill them. We just send them away, which means they'll be back at some point, and we'll have to do all this again. Isn't that annoying?"

"Yeah," Lexie said, feeling a little sick. She wasn't comfortable with the topic of killing the Eldritch creatures.

Xena must have noticed her mood because she fist-bumped Lexie's shoulder gently.

"I'll be back as soon as possible," she said. "And don't worry about me. I'll be very careful and well-protected."

"Of course," Lexie said, guilty that Xena's safety hadn't been the first thing she was worried about. That darn Eldritch was messing with her head again.

Nothing to do but scoop, scoop, scoop.

Lexie looked away and noticed that Dewie had gotten quiet. He also rubbed his temple absently as he spooned his gravy.

"You okay, Dewster?" Lexie asked.

"Yeah," he said. "I ran out of my medication two days ago and forgot to get it refilled, so now I'm having headaches."

"What medication? The one Journeyman gave you?"

"Yup." He nodded glumly. "I'm gonna go to his office after this and get the new prescription."

"Sorry, buddy." As bad as Lexie felt for him, a curiosity alighted in her then about the true nature and purpose of these medications. Lexie wasn't sure she liked them. It had rendered Dewie's foresight useless, but it wasn't working enough to deal with whatever pathway malformation he had.

A query formed in her mind concerning Dewie and his powers, too. She suddenly saw this as a chance to find out.

"Hey, do you mind if I hold your hand and check out your pathways while we're here? I just wanna see something."

Dewie looked around. "Right now? Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

"You'll be holding my hand in the cafeteria. Won't people think you're weird?"

"She is weird," Xena pointed out, and Lexie nodded.

"I'm weird and I don't care what people think. But you don't have to if you don't want to."

Dewie looked at his two best friends and shrugged. "I guess I don't care either." He put his hand on the table, and Lexie reached across and held it. She closed her eyes, quickly observing his pathways, checking for any supposed deformities and abnormalities.

She found nothing.

So instead, she used a different technique and started sensing out particles of his being, going deeper and deeper until she found something...a slight glow.

Her breath hitched in her chest.

"What?" Dewie asked nervously. "What is it?"

Lexie shook her head, not knowing how to reveal her discovery.

She knew it. She'd always had a feeling something was different about Dewie, and now she knew it for sure.

Like Xena, Dewie had magic in his soul.

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