After I reach for the nebmentia before it hits Sophie, my scar starts burning painfully. Suddenly, I'm launched into the air, my screaming echoing off of the conference room walls. Once my body collides forcefully with the wall, the entire room is covered with white, my scar still burning agonizingly.

When I actually fall onto the ground, my scar is burning even more. Pain erupting throughout my body, the white begins to fade away, and I see Mr. Wallace staring at me with an expression of fear. Immediately, I wonder what happened to me, and what I look like now since I touched three pieces of nebmentia.

And then I remember that Sophie's here, and I don't want her to know about my allergy this way. Just as that thought passes through my head, a white light washes over the entire room, the direction where Sophie is even brighter than the direction I'm facing. After a few seconds, the light dims down, and I see Mr. Wallace now wearing sheer confusion on his face.

My eyes narrowing, I fly towards the middle aged man at a remarkable speed, pure anger flowing through my veins. Not hesitating to grab him by the arms, I throw Mr. Wallace in the direction far away from the female Percipient, making sure that he can't try to hurt her now.

As he crumples to the floor, I glance over to see that Sophie's fainted. My eyes widening, I near her even quicker than before and pick her up bridal style. Still angered by Mr. Wallace's actions, I find myself bursting out of the conference room and into the main lobby in a matter of seconds. I don't realize that I have an audience until I hear someone cursing and another person gasping behind me.

I turn around to see Benen and Donovan stare up at me with wide eyes and pale faces, similar to Mr. Wallace. I then remember that I just touched nebmentia, and the same white light blinds everyone momentarily, the light not as bright as the light minutes before. I then turn around quickly and fly Sophie to the laboratory.

Somehow, in mere seconds, I find myself easily breaking through the steel doors where Caroline and Steven reside. After I gently place Sophie down on the metal table, I fly up in the air, looking down as Caroline rushes to the main area to only shriek. The white light I've seen multiple times today washes over this area as well before I can even tell what's happening, and her screaming stops. Instead, I see Caroline beginning to heal the female Percipient like she didn't scream moments before.

"Fitz!" I glance down to see Steven burst through the doors of his secondary laborator. "Fitz Vacker! It's me- Steven! Do you hear my voice?!" The forensic pathologist waves his arms around like a maniac, quickly earning my attention.

I manage to nod, even though the simple action seemed to drain me most of my energy. My scar begins to burn with incredible pain, causing me to suddenly circle around in the air as an attempt to calm the pain down.

"You're just transforming back!" Steven shouts at the top of his lungs. "You'll revert back to a human in a bit! Stay..! Still!"

Transforming? I think to myself. Back to a human? My eyes widen. If I'm not human right now, then what am I right now? Suddenly, my scar is so agonizing that I scream.

But I soon realize that it's not the scream of a human, but the scream of a beast.

The kind that'll shake mountains and can be heard for miles on end.

I can feel myself glowing a dark blue again, and my pain is slowly dying down. Because the pain is still there, I fly around in a circle, the beastly scream escaping my lips yet again.

My dark blue aura suddenly disappears and I'm flung towards the ground. I break through the doors to the couple's personal laboratory and skid on the smooth tiles until my back hits the far wall. Groaning, I don't try to stand up but close my eyes instead. I try to replay everything that just happened over in my mind, but it's just too draining for my head.

So I decide to just lay in the darkness.

...

When I wake up, I don't fail to notice that I'm still the the personal laboratory, but laying in a cot instead of the ground. Although I know that I seriously need to rest at least a few hours more, I force myself to sit up and look around. I realize that the searing pain of my scar lasted for so long that it burned my shirt to pieces of burnt fabric.

"You need to rest." Surprised, I look up to see Steven standing in front of me, a solemn yet gentle smile on his face. "After that, you must be drained, Fitz."

I furrow my eyebrows at his words. "What exactly happened?" I ask somewhat groggily. Rubbing my eyes to get rid of any tiredness I have, I sit up more and swing my legs over the side of the cot. "I... remember what happened, but I don't understand what happened."

Steven's smile falls as he hands me a tablet. "It's security footage," he explains. "From... last year."

"When I got my scar?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. Looking down at the tablet, I narrow my eyes at the screen. "Steven- what is this?"

"Just-" The pathologist pauses, clicking play. "Watch, Fitz."

I stare down, my eyes widening when I see myself trying to push the nebmentia back against Fitton. Since I don't see Donovan, I'm assuming that this is when I was brought to that room because of the three guards. My voice is caught in my throats when I watch as Fitton fires more and more nebmentia at the cluster until it smashes into me, sending me back into the wall. My eyes widen as I see my body glow a dark blue before the entire room is temporarily covered with white.

But I drop the actual tablet when I see a teal and brown dragon break through the steel doors effortlessly to fly down the hallway.

My face significantly paler, I look up at the forensic pathologist with slightly shaking hands. "What was that..?" I ask, my mind trying to wrap around what I just saw. I know what I say, but I can't understand it. "Steven," I say after a moment. "What exactly does my scar do?"

"Well, not only are you allergic to nebmentia," Steven begins, picking the tablet up again. Turning the tablet off, he continues, "You've developed... some sort of... transformation..." Sighing, he rubs the back of his neck. "I don't know why you turn into a dragon myself, but Fitton said that it must be based on your level of telepathic powers." Once again, it looks like he's holding something back.

I frown. "Wait..." I say, holding a hand out. Slowly standing up, I stare at the area where I broke the doors down after I... transformed back to myself. "Does that mean that when I screamed, I screamed the sound of a dragon? And I was circling around the laboratory like a dragon?!"

Steven nods. "If what Fitton emailed me is the truth, then the white light that happens when you're a dragon has the same effects of nebmentia, but more specific," he clarifies. "In this case, that means that no one will know what you look like as a dragon."

"But you know," I point out.

"That's only because you were extremely close to deforming," Steven explains. "You needed to conserve as much energy as you could to stay in that form."

I still can't believe it. "I..." My voice trails off as I stare down at my feet. "...Am I a monster?" I suddenly ask before I can stop and think about it. "It sounds like it."

Steven places his hands on my shoulders, causing me to look at him. "You aren't a monster," he assures me. "But for now, this new ability is uncontrollable- you don't know where to start. I'm going to train you as much as I can, even though I don't have that ability myself. I don't think anyone does, for that matter." At the last part, my eyes widen, dread pooling into my stomach. Suddenly, his voice breaks my train of thought, "Any questions right at the moment?"

"Can I still tell Sophie about the scar?" I ask him. "I was planning on telling her about it and my allergy to nebmentia."

Steven nods. "Anything except the transformation part, understand?"

"Alright," I say absentmindedly. Suddenly, my eyes widen. "Wait- how's Sophie doing..?!"

I'm about to exit the personal laboratory when Steven gently, yet firmly, pushes me towards the cot. "You need to sleep," he says solemnly. "And Sophie is fine, but she's sleeping still."

Still not satisfied with answer, I look down at my arms as I sit down. Only then do I realize that I have gauze wrapped around my left wrist. Looking at the pathologist again, I ask, "What happened? Did I get injured?"

"In a way," the pathologist admits. "But I noticed that you lost a teal-brown scale when you were in the laboratory. I think that the injury still stays with you once you deform as well, Fitz."

My head now against the pillow, I nod sleepily.

Closing my eyes, I then dream about a teal-brown dragon circling around a laboratory, its- my- scream echoing in the background.