They drove back in silence.
The old truck rattled down cracked pavement as the ruins passed by in slow motion. Smoke curled from the engine. The air was heavy with sweat and dried blood.
Andy sat in the back, his hand wrapped around a busted water flask, still tasting metal in his mouth. Kaila sat next to him, staring at the horizon with tired eyes. Harper was driving, one hand on the wheel, one holding a cigarette that wasn't even lit.
No one said it, but they all knew it.
They shouldn't have made it out.
Scene: The Return
The museum looked different when they returned.
Not in structure. In spirit.
The moment they stepped inside, the survivors looked up. One by one, people stopped what they were doing. The broken kids with scavenged gear. The medics with blood on their aprons. The engineers rebuilding tech with scrap and hope.
They stood.
They watched.
Someone whispered.
"They did it."
Kaila felt the weight in the room shift. Like hope was something physical, crawling back into the walls. Harper gave a tired salute and limped off.
Andy just stood there, blinking, as people started clapping.
Actual applause.
Kaila didn't move. She didn't smile.
She just grabbed Andy's hand and squeezed it.
Scene: Nightfall
The firepit was quiet. Most of the base had gone to sleep or passed out from stress. A few guards paced the upper floors. Someone was softly playing a broken piano three halls down.
Kaila and Andy sat in the art wing, alone now.
The dancer statue was still standing in the center of the room, light catching its cracked face.
Kaila stared at it.
"You ever think none of this is real?"
Andy didn't answer immediately. He pulled off his gloves and looked at his fingers. His knuckles were bruised, skin peeling.
"Sometimes I think I died already. Back in that first attack. And this is just the long dream before I rot."
Kaila turned to him.
"You didn't die."
"You sure?"
She shifted closer. Her voice was soft.
"I felt your hand when I was losing control. I felt it pull me back. That wasn't a dream."
Andy didn't look at her.
"I was so fucking scared," he said. "Not of dying. Not of him. Of watching you get taken by whatever that thing is inside you. I kept thinking... if you go, who the hell do I have left?"
Kaila reached out.
She placed her hand on his chest, right over his heartbeat.
"You still have me."
Andy looked up at her. Eyes wide. Vulnerable for once.
"You mean that?"
Kaila nodded. Just once.
He leaned in.
So did she.
No rush. No music. Just breath and closeness and the silence of the night finally letting them have this one damn moment.
Their lips met.
Soft. Real.
It was not perfect. His mouth was cut. Her lip was split. But it was theirs.
They stayed close after.
Foreheads touching.
He whispered, "You're the only thing that feels real anymore."
"And you're the only one that keeps me human."
Scene: Alaric's Worry
Deep in the lower lab, Alaric stood over a small glass container.
Inside it, something twitched.
A sliver of red metal. No bigger than a fingernail. Pulsing faintly.
Alive.
He frowned.
"Not dead. Just sleeping."
He locked it back inside the vault.
Behind him, a resistance member stood at the door.
"Dr. Ferrow. I've been getting headaches. Since they came back. And when I sleep, I see... machines."
Alaric's face darkened.
"Keep that to yourself for now."
Scene: Dream Again
That night, as Kaila slept, the Skate spoke.
"You opened the door.
He reached through it.
You kissed someone who bleeds like the one before."
She dreamed of a city where time ran backward.
Where Andy stood on a hill of bones, holding her broken necklace.
Where Draton wore a human face.
And where a voice whispered from beneath her feet.
"You will lose him.
Like I lost myself."
Kaila woke up sweating.
Andy was still there. Sleeping beside her, arm around her waist.
She didn't move.
But her eyes stayed open till sunrise.