The room was silent.
Daniel lay with his upper body slightly propped up. Whenever he breathed too deeply, some part of his body made sure to remind him what had happened.
Lina had been there for quite a while.
At first she had asked about everything.
Whether it hurt.
Whether he could move.
What the doctors had said.
When he could leave.
Then she had stopped asking.
Now she simply sat beside him.
Daniel turned his head towards her.
“I'm fine.”
Lina looked at him.
“No.”
“Lina...”
“You're not fine.”
Daniel looked away.
For a few seconds neither of them spoke.
“You didn't have to keep getting up,” she said.
Daniel swallowed.
“I couldn't just stay there.”
“Why?”
The answer came without thinking.
“Because they were there.”
Lina understood.
The boy.
That girl.
The others.
“And you?”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
“Who protects you?”
Daniel did not answer.
Lina lowered her eyes.
The anger she had arrived with had gradually unravelled until only what lay beneath it remained.
Fear.
She leaned towards him and hugged him carefully.
Daniel stayed still for a moment.
Then he closed his eyes and hugged her back.
“You really scared me, you idiot.”
Daniel managed a small smile.
“Sorry.”
Lina pulled away.
“I'll let Mum and Dad know. They're on their way.”
Daniel looked up.
“Lina.”
She stopped by the door.
“What?”
“Don't scare them.”
Lina watched him for a few seconds.
“You've managed that all by yourself.”
The door closed.
Daniel smiled.
Only for a moment.
Then the smile was gone.
The silence was different now.
There was no one left to put on an act for.
Daniel lowered his eyes to his hands.
And saw it again.
The ground.
A trainer retreating through the crowd.
Darian in front of him.
The blow.
Lina's voice.
He tried to get up.
He fell.
Again.
He remembered a hand braced against the ground.
His own hand.
Shaking.
And all around...
the looks.
His sister.
His friends.
People whose names he did not even know.
All there.
All watching.
Daniel slowly tightened his grip on the sheet.
He had wanted to protect them.
The boy.
That girl.
Anyone who might get caught in the middle.
But when the moment came...
he had not even been able to protect himself.
He closed his eyes.
During the fight there had only been one thought.
Get up.
Now he no longer had to.
And that was worse.
Because now he could think.
He could remember the exact moment he had ordered his body to get up...
and nothing had happened.
Daniel opened his eyes.
Shame.
Anger.
Helplessness.
And, buried beneath it all, fear.
He bowed his head.
“Pathetic...”
“That isn't what I saw.”
Daniel immediately turned his head.
Someone was standing by the door.
He recognised him.
The boy with the water.
He stood there for a few seconds, awkward, as though he was still deciding whether coming in had been a good idea.
“Daniel, right?”
Daniel sat up a little.
“You're...”
Now he recognised him properly.
“The boy from earlier.”
The young man nodded.
He approached and held out his hand.
“Armando.”
Daniel looked at his hand.
Then at him.
He shook it.
“Daniel.”
Armando smiled faintly.
“I knew that already.”
A small smile slipped across Daniel's face.
Armando looked at the visible injuries.
The smile disappeared.
“I wanted to thank you.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You don't have to thank me.”
“Yes, I do.”
“You tried to help her too.”
Armando said nothing.
Daniel gave a slight shrug and regretted it as soon as his body protested.
“So we're even.”
“No.”
Daniel looked up.
Armando took a moment to continue.
“You ended up like this because you stepped in.”
Daniel gave a small, humourless laugh.
“Yes. It went brilliantly.”
Armando did not laugh.
Daniel lowered his eyes to his hands.
“I suppose now we know what happens when a zero tries to play the hero.”
“That isn't what I saw.”
Daniel looked at him again.
“What?”
“I didn't see a hero.”
Daniel raised an eyebrow.
“Thanks.”
Armando almost smiled.
Almost.
“But I didn't see a zero either.”
Daniel stopped smiling.
Armando held his gaze.
“I saw someone who kept getting up even though everyone expected him to stay on the ground.”
Daniel did not answer.
Armando lowered his eyes.
“I was there.”
He closed his hand a little.
“And I couldn't do anything.”
“It wasn't your fault.”
“It wasn't your responsibility either.”
Daniel fell silent.
Armando looked at him again.
“And you stepped in anyway.”
“I couldn't just stand and watch.”
Armando nodded slowly.
“Yeah.”
Silence.
Daniel watched him.
There was something in the way Armando had said that.
Not admiration.
Not pity.
Something simpler.
Respect.
Armando took a step back.
“Well... I didn't want to bother you.”
“You're not bothering me.”
Armando nodded.
For a few seconds neither of them quite knew what to say.
They barely knew each other.
Until a few minutes ago they had not even known each other's names.
Armando held out his hand.
Daniel shook it.
“See you around,” Armando said.
“I hope so.”
Armando reached the door.
He stopped.
“Daniel.”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
Daniel looked at him.
This time he did not make a joke.
He simply nodded.
Armando left.
He walked down the corridor.
One step.
Another.
Daniel falling.
Back on his feet.
Another blow.
Another fall.
And him, there.
Watching.
Armando stopped.
He gritted his teeth.
THUD!
His fist struck the wall.
Pain shot through his knuckles.
He did not move his hand away.
He closed his eyes.
He had wanted to help.
He had not been able to.
He had wanted to stop it.
He had not been able to do that either.
And in the end someone else had taken the blows.
Armando took a deep breath.
He clenched his fist.
Never again.
He slowly took his hand away from the wall.
And kept walking.
Daniel was still looking at the closed door.
Armando had been in the same place.
He had seen exactly the same thing.
And yet he seemed to remember something completely different.
Daniel remembered every fall.
Armando remembered that he had got up.
Daniel lowered his eyes.
It should have made him feel better.
It did not.
His phone vibrated.
He picked it up.
There were messages.
Flora.
Nair.
Other people he knew.
People asking how he was.
Daniel scrolled through the screen without opening any of them.
He put the phone down, face down.
Two young people walked past, talking in the corridor.
“...they say they're going to call us back in.”
“Again?”
“Something about the results.”
The voices faded into the distance.
Daniel slowly looked up.
Results.
He remembered the evaluation.
The screen.
The values.
RESERVE: 0
FLOW: 0
CONTROL: 0
SYNCHRONY: 0
And finally that word.
INERT
Daniel looked at his hands.
Lina had the wind.
Flora had made life sprout.
Nair had awakened.
Armando had moved that water.
One after another, everyone seemed to be moving towards something.
Daniel slowly closed his hands.
He was still at zero.
Hours later, Lina returned with their parents.
His mother was the first to approach.
Daniel barely had time to prepare for the hug.
“Mum...”
“What were you thinking?”
Daniel looked at Lina.
She raised her hands.
“I haven't said anything.”
His father stood beside the bed.
He was trying to look calm.
He was not doing a very good job.
“How are you?”
Daniel smiled.
The same smile he had used with Lina.
“I'm fine.”
Lina looked at him from behind their parents.
This time she did not contradict him.
Daniel was grateful.
For a while there were questions.
Reproaches.
Relief.
His mother checking more than once that he really could move his arms.
His father asking exactly what the doctors had said.
Daniel even managed to make them laugh.
For a few minutes it almost worked.
His phone vibrated.
Daniel looked at the screen.
An official notification.
The smile disappeared.
Lina noticed.
“What's wrong?”
Daniel opened the message.
He read it.
Once.
Then again.
Another summons.
MANDATORY SUMMONS — RESULTS REVIEW
A new phase of the evaluation process.
Daniel instinctively searched for something else.
A correction.
A change.
Anything.
There was nothing.
It was still the same result.
The same zeros.
The same classification.
Daniel locked his phone.
“Nothing.”
Lina watched him.
She knew he was lying.
But this time she decided not to press him.
That night Daniel could not sleep.
Whenever he closed his eyes he returned to the same place.
The ground.
Darian.
The looks.
His body refusing to respond.
But now a different voice emerged among all those memories.
Armando's.
“I saw someone who kept getting up even though everyone expected him to stay on the ground.”
Daniel opened his eyes.
He looked at the ceiling.
“And what good did it do?”
No one answered.
He slowly sat up.
The pain came at once.
Daniel stopped.
He breathed.
And continued until he was sitting.
He picked up his phone.
He opened the summons again.
He read the location.
The time.
The date.
Then he scrolled down to his results.
0.
0.
0.
0.
Daniel stayed still.
For days he had waited for someone to tell him it was a mistake.
That the machine had failed.
That they would repeat the test and something would show up.
Anything.
But no one had called to tell him that.
The only call was for him to come back.
Daniel put his phone on the bed.
The others would go looking for answers.
He would go with the same four figures.
0.
0.
0.
0.
He was still an Inert.
Daniel slowly closed his hand.
For days he had waited for someone to tell him it was a mistake.
No one had.
No one was going to.
He lowered his eyes to the screen again.
He was going back.
Even if the machine read zero again.
Even if everyone else kept moving forward.
If the world said he was a zero...
he would have to find out what a zero could do.
Daniel turned off the screen.
The room went dark.
He stayed still for a few seconds.
Then he put his feet on the floor.
Pain ran through his whole body.
Even so...
he stood up.
This time...
no one had to tell him to get up.
END OF EPISODE 11