The museum was shaking.
Dive's heavy vehicles had rolled into the ruins outside, engines rumbling like a storm. Spotlights cut through the ash. Soldiers were already setting up perimeter guns.
Inside, the base was chaos. Survivors shouted. Children cried. Harper barked orders, pushing people toward the evacuation tunnels. Alaric smashed hard drives and burned documents. The Black Bloom pulsed through the walls like a heartbeat. The entire building felt alive.
But Kaila wasn't running.
She stood in the center hall, staring at the cracked dancer statue. Her chest hurt. Skate was trembling inside her like a trapped bird.
"He calls you," Skate whispered.
"If you go, you will not come back whole."
"I have to," she whispered back. "He was mine before this. If there's any piece of him left, I have to reach it."
Scene: The Walk
The halls were empty as she walked. Blood-veins pulsed on the walls. The smell of rust and rot burned her throat. Somewhere behind her, Harper was shouting, but the sound faded as if the building swallowed it.
Every step echoed.
The lights flickered.
Her reflection appeared in the windows even when she wasn't near them.
And every time she blinked, she saw Andy.
Not standing.
Waiting.
Scene: The Hall of Flesh
She turned a corner and stopped breathing.
The corridor ahead had transformed into something wrong. Walls coated in red tissue. Metal fused to bone. Veins crawling across the ceiling like spider webs. The air was warm, damp, like a living lung exhaling.
At the end of the corridor was a door made of ribs.
It opened on its own.
Andy's voice slid through the air.
"Come in.
I've been waiting."
Kaila stepped through.
Scene: Andy Revealed
The room was once a grand archive. Now it looked like the inside of an organism. Bookshelves were twisted into bone towers. The floor pulsed under her boots. Dim red light glowed from somewhere behind the walls.
Andy stood in the center.
He wasn't Andy anymore.
His body was still roughly human, but wrong. Veins of glowing red crisscrossed his skin. His arms were too long. Muscle pulsed under his shirt like something was crawling inside. His eyes were twin coals.
But his voice was soft.
"You came."
Kaila's eyes filled with tears. "What did you do to yourself?"
"I became what you needed."
"This isn't me needing you. This is you taking me."
"I can save you. All of you. You and me and Skate. No more Dive. No more dying. Just us. Forever."
She shook her head. "That isn't love."
He smiled. It looked more like a wound.
"It's the only kind of love this world deserves."
Scene: The Attack
She tried to back away.
He moved faster than she had ever seen him move.
In an instant, his hand was on her shoulder. Not a grab. A hold. Skin cold, fingers like iron. Skate screamed inside her chest. The walls around them pulsed harder.
"Kaila," Andy whispered. "Let me in. I can carry it. I can carry you. We'll never be apart again."
"Andy, stop—"
He leaned closer.
"I'm not Andy."
Then the room collapsed.
Veins shot from the walls, wrapping around her arms. She gasped, trying to pull free. Skate flared bright, pushing the tendrils back. Andy stumbled but didn't release her.
"You're fighting me," he said. "Why are you fighting me?"
"Because this isn't you!"
Scene: Skate's Counter
Light burst from her chest.
It wasn't a blast like before. It was pure soundless pressure, ripping the tendrils from her arms. Andy staggered back, eyes glowing brighter.
"Let me help you," he hissed. "I can hold it all. I can be it all. Just let me take it."
Kaila raised her blade.
Her voice was shaking.
"I love you," she said. "But I can't let you do this."
She lunged.
The blade stabbed through his heart.
He didn't die.
He pulled it out slowly, smiling through blood.
"See? We're already more."
Scene: Cliffhanger
Outside the museum, Dive soldiers were storming the ruins. Explosions lit up the sky.
Inside, the heart of the building pulsed faster. The Black Bloom spread like fire.
Harper ran to the command deck.
"Where's Kaila?" she shouted.
No one answered.