The building shook like a living thing.
Outside, Dive soldiers stormed the ruins, shouting orders, setting up cannons. Explosions lit up the sky. The Black Bloom pulsed across the walls like veins under skin. Inside, the archive room had become a nest of meat and bone.
Kaila staggered back, blade in hand, chest heaving. Skate screamed inside her, a violent, ringing pulse that made the walls ripple.
Andy stood across from her, blood dripping from the wound she had given him.
He smiled through it. "It's fine. I don't bleed like you anymore."
His body began to swell.
Muscle fibers stretched and popped like ropes under tension. Bones cracked louder than gunfire. His arms elongated, fingers splitting into claws. His shirt fused into his skin. Patches of gray armor erupted across his chest and back like plates forcing their way out of flesh.
His eyes glowed blue-white, burning deep in sunken sockets. Hair burned away in strips, leaving scorched patches of skin. Tentacles erupted from his back and coiled in the air like snakes tasting blood.
He was 9 feet of raw obsession, towering over her.
A perfect weapon.
Driven by nothing but the idea of never letting go.
Scene: The Monster Speaks
He moved, fast and wrong. One moment across the room, the next crouched inches from her face, claws scraping the floor.
"Look at me," he said softly. "Look at what you made me. Look at what we can be."
Kaila's hand trembled on her blade. "This isn't you."
"It's always been me. You just wouldn't see it."
He lunged. She dodged, rolling under a tentacle, slicing at one of his arms. The blade cut deep but the wound sealed instantly, muscle knitting together before her eyes.
"Stop fighting," he hissed. "I don't want to hurt you."
"You're already hurting me."
Scene: The Fight
He struck again. A tentacle wrapped around her ankle and slammed her into the wall. She gasped, blood spraying from her mouth. Skate flared inside her, pushing a shockwave outward, breaking the tendril.
She scrambled to her feet, eyes glowing. Light poured from her fingertips. She slashed out with a beam of raw Skate power. It tore across his chest, peeling armor away and exposing twitching muscle.
He laughed.
"More."
He rushed her, claws tearing through stone, tentacles whipping. She ducked, rolled, blasted him again. He slammed her against the floor, pinning her with one massive hand. His other hand reached for her chest, fingers trembling as if trying to be gentle but too strong to control.
"Let me take it," he whispered. "Let me hold it. Let me hold you."
Skate screamed inside her.
"He is consuming you."
Scene: The End
Kaila closed her eyes. Tears slid down her face.
"I love you," she whispered. "But you're gone."
She summoned everything Skate gave her. Light burned through her veins, skin cracking like porcelain. She shoved her hand against his chest and screamed.
"Leave me!"
A blast of pure white light exploded outward. It tore the tentacles off his back, cracked the armor, and scorched the walls. For a heartbeat, Andy staggered.
But he didn't fall.
He roared and surged forward, claws sinking into her side. Not a slash. A hold. An embrace that broke her ribs.
He pulled Skate's light out of her like a thread of silk. Her body arched, mouth open in a silent scream. The glow bled from her skin into his claws, fusing with him.
His body swelled larger, armor locking into place. Tentacles reformed, now glowing faintly with her light.
Kaila collapsed against him, pale, eyes dim.
"You're hurting me," she whispered.
Andy cradled her gently, monstrous claws stroking her hair.
"No," he said softly. "I'm saving you."
Her head fell back. Breath shallow. Eyes closing.
Skate whispered one last time inside her skull.
"We are undone."
Kaila's hand slipped from his arm.
And she was gone.
Scene: The Arrival
Footsteps echoed.
Xin burst into the hall, covered in ash and blood, Harper behind him with a rifle.
They stopped.
Andy stood in the center of the room, towering, monstrous, glowing blue-white. Kaila's limp body in his claws, fused light still dripping from his hands.
He looked at Xin.
Smiled with teeth that weren't human anymore.
"I did this for her," he said.
Xin didn't answer.
He just screamed.
And charged.