The room exploded in heat.
Fire burst from my mother's hands in a furious wave, bright enough to wash the walls in white light. The curtains behind Dhruv ignited instantly. The air twisted, bending around the force of it.
Dhruv pushed forward anyway.
His metal skin glowed under the flames, but he didn't scream. He didn't flinch. He just kept walking, step by step, like someone completely certain of the ending.
My mother braced herself and poured everything she had into the fire. The flames roared louder, spreading across Dhruv's armor. Droplets of molten metal dripped from his forearms, hitting the floor with sharp, angry sizzles.
I crawled under the bed, hands shaking, breath stuck in my throat. The heat reached me even there. The wooden frame above me creaked, expanding under the pressure.
The apartment groaned.
Tiles cracked under the shifting weight.
The ceiling dust rained down in small clouds.
Dhruv took another heavy step forward. His arm, bright with heat, reached toward her. My mother staggered, but she didn't retreat.
She screamed and forced more fire from her palms.
A single, powerful blast.
The world burst into blinding white.
I squeezed my eyes shut as the shockwave slammed through the room. The bed scraped across the floor. The walls shook. Everything seemed to warp and stretch in that impossible light.
Then the sound began to fade.
I opened my eyes slowly.
Dhruv was on his knees. His armor had sagged and melted over his frame. His chestplate had collapsed inward. Metal pooled around him like silver mud.
He tried to rise.
His arm crumbled.
He fell again.
My mother stood over him, breathing hard, her shoulders trembling. The heat around her rippled like a dying flame.
She turned toward me.
Her face softened with relief.
Then something in her expression changed.
A small puff of grey rose from her shoulder.
I thought it was dust at first.
Then another flake drifted upward from her arm.
Then another.
And another.
"M-Ma?" My voice cracked.
The ash spread down her arm, across her chest, along her hair. Her body shimmered, losing shape, fading at the edges like she was being erased piece by piece.
She tried to take a step toward me.
Her foot dissolved before it touched the ground.
"Ma!" I crawled toward her, reaching out.
My hand passed through warm ash.
Her entire silhouette crumbled in a gentle, heartbreaking drift. Her final shape broke apart in front of me. Grey flecks rose into the air, carried by the heat she had created.
Then she was gone.
The floor shifted under me with a deep, terrible crack.
The melted metal beneath Dhruv snapped through the tiles. The ground opened.
Dhruv fell first, his heavy armor dragging him down into the floor below.
The cracking spread toward me.
My father tried to reach out, coughing blood, barely able to push himself upright. "Tejas—!" he tried to shout, but his voice broke halfway.
The floor under my hands split.
I slid toward the opening.
My feet slipped over the edge—
A hand grabbed my wrist.
"Hold on!" someone shouted through the smoke.
I looked up.
"Vahni Aunty?"
She pulled me upward with a strength that didn't feel human. The building groaned again. More tiles broke off behind me.
The last of my mother's ashes floated past in the chaos, carried by the collapsing air.
Vahni held me close and backed away from the opening.
And as the third floor caved in behind us, swallowing the fire and the metal and everything we had known…
The world went black.