Chapter 42: A Trap
Julian stood frozen in front of the rows of glass chambers, chest tight, unable to look away from the still, silent faces suspended in pale light. But there was no time to sit with the horror of it, not really, not with every second spent standing there another second closer to Xavier discovering he’d gotten this far.
"we need to move," Julian said, forcing himself to turn from the chambers, voice rough. "fox, find me an exit. anything."
The fox was already scanning, tails twitching with nervous, focused energy as it swept the edges of the chamber, searching every corner, every seam in the stone. "I’m looking," it said. "Just give me a second..."
A minute passed. Then another. The fox’s ears drooped lower with each one.
"nothing," it said finally, voice tight with frustration. "there’s no visible exit from this room besides the vent we came through. no doors. no other passages. this room wasn’t built to be left."
What neither of them knew, what neither of them could have known, was that Xavier had been watching the entire time, patient and unbothered, from somewhere just beyond Julian’s perception, exactly the way he always seemed to know precisely where Julian was without ever needing to look. The second vent hadn’t been an oversight. It had been bait, laid deliberately, a carefully constructed illusion of hope meant to lead Julian exactly here, to this room, to this dead end, so he could see with his own eyes just how thoroughly there was nowhere left to run.
Julian didn’t know any of that. He just knew the fox had come up empty, and something in his chest cracked wide open with fury.
"system," he snapped, low and furious, "give me something. anything. I don’t care what it costs, I don’t care what the risk is, I need a way out of this fucking room right now."
[Analyzing.]
The pause stretched long and heavy, and when the System finally spoke again, its voice carried something Julian hadn’t heard from it before... not caution, not warning, but something closer to genuine, careful regret.
[There is no viable exit from this location. This unit has scanned every available surface, and detects no structural weakness, no hidden passage, nothing consistent with an actual escape route. Analysis suggests this room, and the vent leading to it, may have been deliberately constructed as a trap... designed specifically to appear as an opportunity while offering none.]
Julian’s whole body went still, ice flooding through him.
"a trap," he repeated, voice flat. "you’re telling me this whole thing, the vent, this room, all of it, was just... a setup. to make me think I had a chance."
[This unit believes that to be the most likely explanation, yes.]
Julian let out a sound that was half laugh, half something far uglier, dragging both hands back through his hair, fury boiling up hot and helpless in his chest with absolutely nowhere left to direct it. "of course," he said, voice cracking with bitter, exhausted rage. "of course it was. why would he leave an actual way out. why would anything in this stupid, cursed, backwards world ever just be simple for once..."
He kicked hard at the nearest support column, pain jolting up through his foot, and didn’t care, didn’t stop, cursing under his breath in a steady, furious stream, every ounce of hope he’d built up over that long, painful crawl through the vent curdling fast into something raw and desperate.
The fox pressed close against his leg, saying nothing, just staying near, the only comfort it had left to offer.
Somewhere beyond the walls, unseen and unheard, Xavier smiled.
---
Back at the academy, Reid sat across from the fake Julian in the quiet of the infirmary, watching him with the same careful, patient attention he’d been giving for days now, searching for any crack in the performance that might finally confirm what he already suspected in his gut.
"you’ve been quiet," Reid said, keeping his tone easy, conversational.
" Ah, just tired," the fake Julian said, offering a small, practiced smile.
Reid studied him a moment longer, then decided it was time to stop waiting for cracks to appear on their own and start looking for them directly. "hey," he said, casual, "do you remember when we first met? properly, I mean. not the evaluation. before that."
He watched closely as the question landed, watched the fake Julian’s expression shift, just slightly, calculation flickering fast behind its borrowed eyes as it searched for an answer it didn’t actually have. Xavier’s creation had access to fragments, memories skimmed and absorbed during its creation, but the specifics... the exact moment, the exact words... hadn’t been part of what it was given.
"I..." the fake Julian started, and Reid watched the hesitation stretch a half-second too long before something shifted fast in its expression, eyes fluttering, one hand coming up to press against its temple. "sorry, I... everything’s a little dizzy again, can we..."
It swayed forward, convincingly unsteady, and Reid’s arms came up on instinct to catch him, old habit and genuine care both kicking in faster than his suspicion could stop them.
"easy," Reid said, steadying him carefully, "easy, I’ve got you..."
The fake Julian leaned into him, arms lifting like it meant to wrap them around Reid properly, seeking comfort the way the real Julian sometimes had, in small, quiet moments neither of them talked about afterward.
And for one single, fractured second, as it tilted its face up toward him, something in its eyes changed.
The warm brown Reid had memorized, had stared into more times than he wanted to admit even to himself, flickered, and beneath it, just for that one instant, something hollow and gray and utterly wrong stared back at him instead, empty and hungry in a way no living person’s eyes had ever looked.
Reid’s whole body went rigid, and he stepped back fast, breaking the embrace before it could fully form, staring down at the creature wearing Julian’s face with cold, dawning horror crystallizing hard and absolute in his chest.
"Julian," Reid said, voice low and dangerous now, all pretense of casual conversation completely gone, "what are you really."