I couldn't say I was surprised at Vir's revelation that he mentally prepared himself for practically every possible outcome of a situation. "Wow, it must be impossible to defeat you in chess huh."

Vir showed an adorable grin at my response. "That is indeed one of the most easy games for me, yes. It is just a ton of algorithms I have memorised years ago."

"My Dad taught me how to play chess when he was still alive," I said, my voice trailing off as I basked in memories from long ago. I remembered how he had sat me down at the kitchen table one day, and just told me that the ability to think forward would help me survive in the future. I was very bad at it in the beginning, and I had never managed to defeat him once. He did admit at some point that he had to think about his moves longer and longer the more we played together though.

"What was he like?" Vir asked, turning his body more towards me, giving me his full attention.

I sighed. "Amazing. He was very strict, harsher than most parents actually, but I loved him with all my heart. He wasn't very affectionate, but you could always see in his eyes that my Mom and I were very dear to him." I put my knees up to my chest and circled my arms around them as I closed my eyes. "What I always wanted most was to impress him. Mom didn't really care for academics or being tough, but I could make him so proud when I came home with a good grade, or when I first punched a bully square in the face." I smiled to myself at the fond memory. "He would really make it known that he was proud of me. We always went out to do something together then, be it running, reading, swimming or eating ice-cream." I stretched my body once more and turned towards my soulmate, my eyes a little glassy, my voice wavering. "Until I met you, he was the smartest, strongest and most intelligent man I knew."

Vir nodded. "You must miss him very much." His voice sounded deep but soft, compassionate, and when I looked at him I saw that his eyes were just as glassy as mine.

"More than anything in the world," I whispered, my voice nothing more than a gust of wind moving through my lips. Not willing to continue the relatively sad conversation, I picked up the TV remote and resumed the video wordlessly.

Everett Vanderberg, the interviewer, was looking with questioning eyes to the younger Vir. His curls were shorter than they were now, and less messy too. I now kind of regretted not watching the Alpha Trials two years ago, because if I had known that the winner would be this handsome, I even could have gotten Allison to watch it with me.

Immediately I found myself feeling jealous, merely by thinking of the possibility that my best friend would find my soulmate attractive. Maybe, in hindsight, the way things worked out was better after all.

"You are about to be subjected to your first crisis simulation. Are you nervous? Do you think you will be able to handle it? This challenge is a very difficult and tiring one, twenty to forty percent of the competitors are expected to drop out at this stage." Everett was talking fast, no doubt that he had a maximum amount of minutes he could spend interviewing each participant in the race for being the next Alpha. Vir only chuckled in amusement. "Of course there are a healthy amount of nerves present, but I'm fully confident I will pass this test with flying colours."

Everett raised an eyebrow. "You seem very convinced that you will excel here. You are not afraid of the saying: Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall?"

With a self-assured smile, Vir shook his head. "Not in the slightest."

"Does that mean you have a fool proof strategy then?" The interviewer continued without wasting a single second.

"Yes," said Vir, which elicited an impressed look on Everett's face, who clearly had not expected that he would get this answer. He didn't even have the time to correct his posture, for Vir instantly went on with his response. "The Alpha Trials are based on true possibilities, although farfetched. Since there are of course, different kinds of possible crises, I have no specific plan thought out. However, common knowledge is that according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the entropy of the universe always increases. This means that naturally, everything gravitates towards a state of disorder, or chaos, so to say. Yet, when you add some energy, give it attention, you find that you can create order. I am a firm believer that with order and structures, any problem can be solved." Everett nodded in response. "Well, thank you for this insight, Mr. Cervantes. I wish you the best of luck the upcoming days."

"If it comes down to luck," Vir answered, "We're doing something wrong. But I appreciate the meaning."

As Vir walked away from the scene, Everett vanderBerg immediately walked over to the other side of the road, where he hoped to catch a glimpse of the Alpha of Intelligence that was still in power, to exchange some words with him. He eventually managed to get him to accept an interview, but I couldn't manage to focus on what happened on TV. In my mind, I mulled over what I had just heard. Something about Vir's words made me think deeply about the situation at hand. "Vir..." I said, slowly, while getting up from the bed.

"Yes?" His immediate response signalled that he was fully focused on me, probably because of the tone of my voice.

"The Law of the Thermothingy that you just talked about in the interview, what did that mean again?" I had to hear it again, just to be sure. If I was correct on this, I might just have found something great.

Not great in terms of a big scientific discovery or something, but great all the same.

Vir, unsuspectingly, started explaining in full detail what the law comprised of, probably happy that I showed some interest in science. However, Vir being Vir, I didn't understand a word of what he was saying. He went on and on about some kind of formula, principles by Carnot and some kind of Planck, closed and open systems, physics... Nothing of use to me.

"And now in Livia language? And in one sentence, please?"

"Oh right, Layman's terms, of course. Where are you going?" I had started to walk to Vir's office, adjacent to his bedroom. When I didn't respond, he simply followed me to his workplace, which was still littered with papers, boxes and maps. I walked over to the large desk near the window, where I had spread the large map of the city with all the incidents, colour coded. As I stared at the map, Vir came to stand next to me.

"Explain to me in one simple sentence what the Law of Thermo... you know. What is it?"

"Second Law of Thermodynamics. If the amount of energy stays the same, everything natural in the universe slowly moves towards complete disorder."

"And there, disorder means complete chaos, no patterns whatsoever?"

Vir nodded. "Yes... I don't see where you are going with this." He looked at me with confusion visible in his eyes.

"This," I pointed towards the map. "Is not natural. Of course, there is no actual pattern to be found here, but it is obviously no real chaos. It started in this area of the city here, where there are many apartments and living complexes, with occasional disturbances in the rest of the city. Then it moved on to here, and then it spread there, and now it is nearly everywhere, except in the outer city suburbs, and this small area over here. Is it just me, or is that not complete chaos?"

I looked at Vir, whose eyes went wide. "How did I not realise this before?" He mumbled incredulously. "I was focused on what the exact pattern is here, not realising that that doesn't matter that much yet. This is logical chaos, it isn't natural."

I finished his sentence with a proud tone to my voice. "That means that someone is behind it."