Smoke poured through the cracks of the museum walls. The Black Bloom throbbed underfoot like a dying heartbeat. Blood stained the marble.
Xin stared at the monster holding Kaila's body.
It wasn't Andy anymore.
Whatever stood in front of him was a nightmare stitched together from love, hate, and obsession.
Kaila's head lolled lifelessly in his arms. Her body limp. Skate's glow was gone. So was her smile.
Xin's hands shook.
"You," he whispered.
Andy turned his head slowly, claws twitching, voice deeper than before.
"She's mine now."
Xin roared and launched forward.
Scene: The First Clash
Fists slammed into mutated flesh.
Xin's first punch cracked straight into Andy's jaw, knocking the beast sideways. The ground split under Andy's feet. A wall behind him exploded from the shockwave. But Andy didn't fall.
He growled low and backhanded Xin with an arm twice the size of a human torso.
Xin crashed through a glass mural. Shards tore into his back as he flew, smashing through stone pillars and slamming into a steel wall hard enough to dent it.
Blood ran from his mouth, but he got up.
"Come on!" Xin spat.
Andy stepped forward, limbs stretching unnaturally. His arms cracked and reformed mid-motion. His claws were longer now. Deadlier.
Scene: Chaos Outside
The wall behind Xin shattered as Andy charged again.
They both flew through it, crashing into the courtyard outside.
Xin rolled, grabbed a chunk of concrete, and flung it like a baseball. It hit Andy in the shoulder, exploding into dust, but Andy kept walking.
Xin sprinted, leapt, grabbed the side of a rusted jeep, and threw it full speed into Andy's chest.
Andy staggered, surprised.
Xin didn't stop.
He grabbed another wrecked car, screamed from his lungs, and hurled it like a cannonball.
Andy raised his arm too late.
The second car crushed into him, throwing his massive body into the far wall. Steel cracked behind him. He growled, voice warping.
"You're faster than before," Andy muttered. "But not enough."
Andy's body pulsed.
Tentacles ripped out of his back, black and red, twitching like snakes.
Scene: Tentacle Onslaught
Three tentacles whipped toward Xin.
He dove to the side, skidding across the concrete, rolling just under one. Another lashed out, slicing the ground where he'd stood. The third wrapped around his ankle.
Xin screamed as it slammed him into the ground, then flung him straight into a building.
Stone and glass shattered.
Xin was buried under debris.
Scene: Harper and The Dive
Dive soldiers stormed the base.
Harper and the survivors opened fire from the west barricade. Bullets tore through the air. Explosions rang out.
But they were outnumbered.
One by one, resistance fighters fell. The Black Bloom ignited as Dive flamethrowers scorched it from the roots.
A bullet skimmed Harper's arm. She bit down a scream and kept firing.
Then she saw him.
Andy.
He was holding Kaila's body.
But not whole anymore.
He had cut her in half, dragging her torso in one arm, her legs in the other, blood dripping behind him.
Harper froze in horror.
"No…"
Andy didn't look back.
He jumped, vanished into the shadows.
Scene: Xin's Collapse
Xin crawled from the rubble.
Face cut. Arms torn. Breathing ragged.
He looked up just in time to see Andy leap into the night with what was left of Kaila.
He tried to move.
He fell to his knees.
Harper limped toward him, covered in soot and blood.
The battlefield was full of corpses. Dive soldiers. Resistance members. Blood and fire.
Xin sat in the ruins, shaking.
In his hand was Kaila's necklace, still warm. Clutched in the other arm were her severed arm and leg, all that was left behind.
He screamed.
Not in rage.
In pain.
The kind of pain that breaks a man's mind.
The kind of scream the world should never hear.