The museum was almost silent that night.
Most of the survivors were asleep. The veins of the Black Bloom pulsed faintly under the floor, glowing like veins of molten metal. The statues in the hall looked like they were sweating blood.
Kaila walked down the main corridor, her footsteps echoing.
She knew where he would be.
He always ended up in the same place now.
The dancer statue.
The heart of the museum.
Scene: The Meeting
Andy was kneeling in front of the statue when she found him. His head bowed. His hands were clasped like a prayer. The red glow under his skin pulsed with each breath.
"You've been avoiding me," Kaila said softly.
He didn't answer.
She walked closer.
"Andy. Please. Talk to me."
Finally, he looked up. His eyes glimmered like coals.
"I didn't want you to see me like this," he said.
"I already see you. You're still you."
He shook his head.
"No. I'm not. Not anymore."
Scene: The Confession
He stood, slowly.
"I thought Skate was power. A weapon. Something that made you untouchable. But I was wrong. It's not power. It's love without an end. It's a heartbeat that never stops. It's the kind of beauty that burns everything else out of existence."
Kaila's hands trembled.
"You don't understand it," she said. "It isn't meant to be held."
"I do understand," Andy said. "I feel it every time you breathe. Every time you look at me. And I know you feel me too."
He stepped closer.
"I've figured it out. I know how to make sure you never die. How to make sure we're never apart again."
Kaila's voice cracked. "Andy…"
He reached out, almost touching her face.
"I'll fuse with it. With you. I'll take Skate into me and bind us together. We'll be one. Not just now. Not just until this war ends. Forever."
Her stomach turned cold.
"Listen to yourself. That isn't love. That's obsession."
He smiled faintly.
"That's survival."
"No," she said. "That's death. For both of us."
Scene: The Final Split
He stopped smiling.
"You don't believe me," he said quietly.
"I believe you've lost yourself," she whispered.
He laughed once, low. "Lost myself? I've found myself."
"You're sick, Andy."
"I'm perfect. Or I will be."
She took a step back.
"I can't follow you."
His face twitched.
"I'm doing this for you."
"No," she said. "You're doing this for you."
She turned to walk away.
"Don't go," he said.
Her footsteps echoed. She didn't stop.
Andy stood there, fists clenched, trembling. His skin rippled faintly, veins moving like worms.
Scene: The Darkness
Later, Harper found a smear of blood on the wall outside the art hall.
A single word was written in it.
"SOON"
Scene: Dream
That night, Kaila dreamed again.
She stood in the same black-glass field. The door of glass ahead of her was cracked wider than before.
On the other side was Andy.
But this time his face was a mask of red light, his arms too long, his chest pulsing with something alive.
Skate whispered inside her head.
"He will try to take me."
"If he takes me, he takes you."
She woke up with tears on her face.