Silence filled the room as we processed the weight of Twilight Aster's words.

  This had been a fluke, a one-in-a-million ce for us to live and breathe. For our families, for our friends and neighbors, it was aory.

  "Y-you mean..." S Dream gasped, her eyes widening in horror. "They're dead?"

  Twilight Aster nodded. "Those we could firm, at least. There were twenty-seven survivors between the ages of fourteen to sixteen out of the entire cohort in Kaleidoscope City. The other half chose not to e to Kaleidoscope Academy for one reason or another."

  The girl with the feathered hat cpped her hands to her mouth in a stifled sob. "That's... that's horrible," she whispered. "I wao e here on a track for supply engineering, but I definitely wao be a knight when I was a kid."

  "Wao?" Frostburn muttered, scoffing. "We're in the deep end now, so don't tell me you suddenly don't want to?"

  The girl with the feathered hat frowned. "Do you have any idea how I feel right now? Of course, I wao be a Knight! I'd been dreaming about it for so long. And now... now that I'm here, the situation is so fucked up!"

  She sighed, "I... my best friend and older sister figure has been a cadet for years. She doesn't know I was tracted, of course. She just thought I was brought in through the wait list for my natural talents and work ethic. But every time we'd hang out, she'd tell me all these stories about heroics, duty, and honor. I'm holy nothio her and I see why they picked her and passed up on me. So even if I don't have the title, I wao do my part."

  She closed her eyes, sinking bato her seat. "But now, I feel like a fraud."

  "You mustn't feel like a fraud," Twilight Aster admonished. "You are here for a reason, Magical Girl Forest Willow. Each of you survived a much more arduous ordeal than any knight cadet who went through the typical beaten path. All of you are likely at higher levels than the cadets who'd undergohe Knights Sele and training process in pre-adolesce."

  Forest Willow sniffled, smiling slightly. "Er, just ohing though. My name isn't teically 'Forest Willow'. It's still to be determined, but I picked the name 'Forest Willow' as a temporary name ing in here. 'Maggie Hunter' wasly unique or inspired, after all. Please call me 'Willow' for now though. It sounds cute and catchy."

  "Aw, I hear that, 'S Dream' was also kinda me," S Dream snickered. "But it sounds great, Willow! It suits you."

  "Fuh," Frostburn snorted. "As if anyone who actually wants to do the job would have a problem with their ame."

  "Oh no, Frostburn's personality is exactly on point," I heard another kid whisper behind us.

  "You say that again,"

  "Miss Aster, what else should we expect from this Knighthood?" a girl with golden hair, green eyes, a white dress, and a glowing halo on top of her head asked, her voice wavering.

  Twilight Aster fixed her with a look of sympathy, nodding. "Just as we were unprepared for the Cataclysm, we are unprepared for everything that will e after. The Knighthood, the Guardians, and the system we have ied had its fair share of successes and failures, and we must not overlook either. But in the immediate future, I am afraid there will be more strife, more upheaval and instability until things stabilize and the Guardians find a means to deal with the threats we face. Moreover..."

  Twilight Aster briefly made eye tact with me before turning back to the angelic girl. "The local kingpin Red Masque went missing during the Cataclysm and has left a power vacuum iy's criminal underworld which is rearing its head. There is also the current threat of the Vicious Alliance... So even though our is are teically aligned, we might be called up to stop the various supervilins across the city from doing more damage than necessary."

  She shook her head and sighed. "But, as I was saying, we will o remain vigint and dedicated, even in the faounting dangers and pressure. I imagihat your early indu into Knighthood, ck of traditional training and development of your powers, and unfamiliarity with your teammates will be difficult for some of you. But with some determination, grit, and skill, I am sure you all bee proud and respected knights in your ht."

  Frostburn grimaced, crossing his arms over his chest. "We'll see about that."

  "Yo, the fuck is your problem?" the pale boy with the long, spiky bck hair and silver piergs hissed from the other side of the room. "Seriously, you've dohing but be a douche since we walked in here. What's up?"

  Frostburhed deeply, shrugging as he stood up. "To be a Knight is to willingly sign up for a lifetime of absolute bullshit that's only fun until it isn't. And now that we have a baby dug-level emergency tract css for this semester, I guess we wipe the ste and start from scratch. God knows I've see what the job do to someone."

  "You got something to share with the css there, then?" the girl with red hair and Roman style dress whispered, cog her head to the side.

  "Yeah. Let's just say I've got some family history," Frostburn surning his ba us and leaning against the wall. "And it aily the hearts and rainbows as they make it look in the Arcadia Vox anime. But fuck it. I'm here, and I'll give it my best shot."

  Twilight Aster shook her head. "You don't have to be happy or excited to be a knight, Frostburn. But you did show up today, didn't you? Wele to the Academy."

  There was a faint smattering of appuse through the room, and Frostburn chuckled.

  "Yeah, yeah. As speak louder than words and all that, huh?" He leaned back against the wall and put his hands on his hips. "I just want to be clear that this isn't my first choice. And before I saw what it did to someone I care about a lot, I retty gung-ho about the prospect as a kid. Just saying that it's not what everyohinks it is. Especially with all the shit that's been going on."

  Twilight Aster gave him a sad smile. "I appreciate that. When things don't work out as pnned, it's good to be ho and practical about the options we have."

  "Ah," Frostburhed, "Isn't that the truth."

  I turo the girl o me.

  "So, S Dream huh? That's a really iing name," I said, nodding slowly. "Pleased to meet you. I'm er, Lux, as you might have figured before Frostbite there decided to call me out."

  She smiled, her purple eyes lighting up in amusement. "S Dream it is for now. And it's o meet you too. Don't worry about him. He's a real pain in the ass but I think he's just g in his own way. Like the rest of us."

  Her voice dropped to a spiratorial whisper as she gnced over at Frostburn. "Holy, I've dealt with more than my fair share of troublemakers and jerks back at home, so this is the norm for me. It's almost a routine now."

  "Tell me about it. I'm a hood girl through and through," I ughed. "I definitely rete. It's hard to judge someone for who they are and how they cope when we've had to gh what we've gohrough."

  "Oh, you 't judge me," S Dream grinned. "I was an honor student who gave up the dream of a normal life to save a bus full of preschoolers from some wolf monsters. Squeaky , vanil, and straight edge until... well, whatever that shitshow was. What's your excuse?"

  I shrugged. "My excuse was surviving. And, well... to make sure my childhood best friend made it through okay. He got bit by a zombie."

  "Bitten... by a zombie?" she breathed, raising her eyebrows. "Shit. Yeah, that sounds like a lot."

  "It was," I murmured, feeling the memories e flooding back. "It's been a lot."

  We sat in silence for a moment before Twilight Aster tinued her speech. "We will have a personal curriculum outlined for each of you for the remainder of the term," she expined. "You will tinue on your core study trations, but certain afternoon courses will be sed with magical trol and bat tactics. Like all of you, I am a student here, but in the junior college. Upon the end of your core programs, you will also have the option of tinuing your education here, or in a fast track to Kaleidoscope Uy."

  She pulled up a presentation on a projector, clig through a series of slides that showed diagrams of bat strategies, aerial fighting, and a glossary of Magical Knight sub-types and on abilities.

  I took it all in with a mix of awe and shock.

  It wasly o me that there was a sed branch to Kaleidoscope Academy, but I wasn't familiar with the curriculum raduation requirements. Of course, e that the greatest Magical Knights in the world went through a stint at Kaleidoscope, but the details weren't typically shared with a public.

  "I don't want to overwhelm you with information," Twilight Aster warned. "But it is important that you all uand your potential and capabilities as magical knights. I have prepared each of you with a personal, ized secure device that you use to access your specific learning pn and assigs."

  She reached underh the desk at the front of the room and pulled out a basket full of phone-sized fancy-looking devices. "Sihe cataclysm, the Guardians have had to mobilize and divert resources to more immediate priorities. Fortunately, we have a dedicated support staff and funding that ensure we are equipped with everything we out the best in each of you and prepare you for your Knighthood."

  Twilight Aster walked up to each of us and handed us a device. "These are to be used discreetly and securely. Please do not lose them or share them with ahey tain all your css schedules, video tutorials, and links to other resources you may o access. In spite of the... logistical challenges, high and has mao push through a new geion of cutting-edge tech for your cohort."

  There was a smattering of amusement and surprise around the room. "Wait, these things are new?" a boy with ptinum-blond hair, a bowler hat, and a e mused, raising his eyebrows. "Looks like each of them has been -tailored to our themes and outfits. Very thoughtful, I must say."

  He was right. Our devices were designed with little flourishes and touches that fit in with our own style and sense of fashion.

  As I clutched the ergonomidheld device, I couldn't help but smile at the spsh e and red, with a little cat outline and a tiny star he bottom. A small "HL" was scrawled on the back, and I k was meant for me.

  But there was also a small, intricate picture of a name across the back, inscribed in bck lettering with a lioh what looked like a 4-point su.

  "Babylon...?" I read out loud.

  "Ah, yes. The Guardians have recruited an indepe pany called Babylon to provide us with a new intra and unication tool fical Knights," Twilight Aster expined. "Named after the great wgiver and reformer of Mesopotamia, the Hammurabi Nexus is currently under development and should be fully ied into the Academy system in the few weeks. The Nexus will serve as a tralized work of unication and repository of intelligend knowledge that all knights will have access to."

  "That sounds very promising," the angelic girl beamed. "Having a tralized database of resources and information will save us so much time and effort. My was never learning how to fight, but accessing reliable sources and training materials."

  I nodded, gng at my own devid expl its yout aures. "I'm sure it's going to be helpful."

  "High and has reportedly been w on a project simir to the Nexus for a long time," Twilight Aster mused. "With the urgency of the current situation, they had to rush it to pletion. But I am fident they have put a lot of thought and energy into the design."

  The rest of the lecture flew by as I pted the information overload and tried to process everything that had just happewilight Aster briefly went over a mixer pnned with the other knights in our year pnned for ter in the week, as well as a group training session we would be attending tomorrow.

  We gathered our belongings and headed out of the lecture hall, whispering and murmuring to each other as we did so.

  The girl with the long, flowing red hair and Roman-style white dress tilted her head towards me. "I suppose I don't want to be rude, but what city did you e from before Kaleidoscope Academy, Harmonia Lux?"

  "Oh. I'm sorry," I replied, rubbing the bay head. "Uh, it's a bit out of the way but I guess it's still in the greater metropolitan area. Pewterstone?"

  Her eyes widened, and she nodded. "Isn't that where....?

  My heart pa the thought of my mother, and I breathed sharply. "Yup. Same pce that's been making national headlines. Iional, even. Who would've thought? And yeah, it was one of the hardest-hit cities in the northeast during the Cataclysm."

  "Was it really that bad? I heard it was difficult, but it sounds like it articurly gruesome there."

  I paused, a shiver running down my spine. "I was already in Kaleidoscope City by then fur admissions here, but I heard the stories. It was an all-out bloodbath. A million lives lost. It was a nightmare."

  "They also say that Nightingale Eclipse was involved in the fighting there," the boy with the bowler hat chimed in. "Of course I'm still waiting on a firmation that it's actually her. Could've just been a itted copycat."

  He just had to say it, didn't he?

  I was barely holding it together as it was, but at the mention of Nightingale Eclipse's name, my eyes welled up with tears, and I bit back a sob.

  "Hey, you gonna be okay?" the girl in the Roman-style dress asked me, pg her hand on my shoulder. "Sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up."

  "It's fine," I breathed, shaking my head and f myself to st. "I just... thought about my childhood home, that's all."

  "I certainly rete," the boy with the bowler hat said with a sad smile. "I wish I could go home too, but at least the Guardians allowed me and my family to e down here and provided us housing. Our home kinda burned down during the i and I had to relocate them here. Name's Ember Jazz, by the way."

  The girl with the Roman-style dress approached me. "And I'm Nova Victoria," she said with a nod. "You just call me Nova, though. Holy, all of this is a bit overwhelming, but I'm gd I got chosen. I think I'd love it here. But, uh, my story is a bit depressing. Grew up in an orphahat shut dht before the Cataclysm and didn't have any other family to speak of. Just woke up one day and poof! The streets were on fire and there was a big white dog outside, me a ce to save my 'brothers and sisters' in all but blood."

  "Oh, that sounds awful," I replied, frowning. "I'm sorry you had to gh that."

  She smiled. "Hey, we're here now, aren't we? And if I had the opportunity to help people, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Sometimes, a dark cloud bees a silver lining. So let's embrace it and do our best to make a difference here."

  The st few students trailed out behind us, and before long, we were all headed back to the ging rooms. Frostburn had a scowl on his face, but for once, he wasn't grumbling to himself. He was fortably quiet, even. S Dream fshed me a smile, and I smiled back.

  There was a strange sense of camaraderie and kinship among us, an inexplicable e that only experience could fe.

  I stepped bato the locker room beled 'HL' and began to ge bato my normal clothes. I could already feel a buzz of excitement in the air, as well as a sense of hope and purpose that seemed to flow through us all.

  Despite the heaviness of the versation and the despair that shrouded us, there was something very special about our little group, and it wasn't just because we were all survivors of the Cataclysm.

  It was something more than that, and it radiated out of ead every one of us, filling us with a quiet resiliehat would carry us through whatever y ahead.

  So while the news aions were grim, and our future was far from guaranteed, I couldn't help but feel a little bit grateful that I art of such a dedicated and driven group of peers.

  Maybe, just maybe, we could actually make a differen the world.

  Maybe, just maybe, we could save it.