I found Lena after lunch by the lockers near the gym.
She was pretending to check her phone, but I could tell she was waiting for me.
"You saw him too," she said without looking up.
I didn't bother playing it cool. "Who is he?"
She finally met my eyes. "Someone from the Institute."
I blinked. "The what?"
She sighed and started walking. I followed.
"It's not really called that," she muttered. "But that's what I've always thought of it as. A group. People who know about us. Who study people like us."
I swallowed hard. "You're kidding."
"I wish I was."
She glanced around before lowering her voice. "They don't hurt people. Not usually. But they watch. They track. And if you start seeing things too clearly—like you do—they get interested."
I remembered how my flashes had gotten stronger since she came back.
"How do you know all this?" I asked.
She hesitated. Then said, "Because I used to be one of them."
I stopped walking.
"What?"
She kept going, slower now. "After I got my ability, I started having the same flashes. The same feelings. I thought I was going crazy."
She looked at me. "Then someone like him found me. Told me I wasn't alone. That there were others."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"So you left school… to go with them?"
She nodded. "For a while. Until I realized they weren't just helping us."
"Then what were they doing?"
Her voice dropped.
"They were training us."
I stared at her.
"For what?"
She didn't answer right away.
Then she said, "To see what happens when the future becomes a weapon."
And that's when another flash hit me.
Not about her.
Not about Ava.
About me.
And in it…
I was standing with a group of people I didn't recognize.
And I was telling them what to do.
Like I already knew how it would end.