A single building stood in front of the three of them.

Amber, Andrei, and Wendy stood in front of one building. The watches radar started back up again, and Kalea was inside the building, Unmoving. She was bouncing around the place for a while, but only now was she settled in the building. A two-storey restaurant. Amber remembered it. She ate here with Ulrich back when he was still alive.

"What you think is in there?" Andrei asked. "If she just isn't moving then it has to be a trap or something, right?"

Amber went to open the door, shaking the handle as she did.

"Door locked?" Wendy asked.

"Seems like we have to break in." Amber replied calmly. "Andrei, if you please."

Andrei summoned his greaves.

"Wait. She could be waiting by the door for an attack. Hit the wall." Wendy commanded.

"Good move." Amber whispered. A quick glance at Wendy's face revealed she was ready. Whatever was on the other side of the door, she was ready to kill it.

Andrei did as Wendy asked, breaking open the wall next to the door with a swift kick. A crack was made in the wall, which Andrei took a step inside.

"Hold on. Wouldn't recommend that."

The three turned around, and Silvia was behind them, looking different. She was wearing a visor underneath her trapper hat with leather gloves, alongside a belt holding what looked to be a pistol, alongside a second belt on her shoulder to her midsection, with several small boxes attached. It's containments were anyone's guess.

"Kalea wants to see Amber, and only Amber. You two can't go."

"And who's stopping us?" Wendy yelled.

"Me, I guess." Silvia responded casually.

Wendy swung her pole at Silvia, who caught it in her left hand. Wendy released all the built-up electricity in her body, which didn't faze Silvia in the slightest.

"What the…how the fuck are you doing that?" Wendy screamed.

Silvia lifted up her glove to reveal a metal tip within her palm, before shooting a stream of electricity next to Amber.

"Okay, gonna need you to go in, please." Silvia asked again, calmly.

"That's…that's cheating!" Wendy screamed again.

"Guess it is." Silvia replied coolly, putting her watch up to her mouth. "She's by the hole in the wall. I'll create a distraction."

Silvia took a black cylindrical tube out of her belt, throwing it to the ground. Almost instantly, smoke enveloped the area. Muffled screaming was heard from Amber before complete silence.

When the smoke dissipated, Andrei was the only one left. The hole in the wall was replaced with a lining of crystal, and Wendy was gone. Andrei looked behind him, and Silvia was sitting on the roof of the restaurant, with Wendy's unconscious body next to her.

"Hey Andrei, you want this?" She asked coldly, jumping down in front of the restaurant.

"Because if you do, you're gonna want to get me."

Silvia kicked her heels against the restaurant, and a set of wheels shot out from each. She skated off into the distance, and Andrei followed suit.

Once Amber was let down, she opened her eyes to pitch black darkness.

"You okay?" Kalea's voice asked softly.

"I'm fine." Amber replied.

"Good, good."

The lights turned on, and surrounding Kalea were six smilers, three on each side.

"Amber, I need to tell you something." Kalea said coldly. "The two of us are dying."

"Excuse me?" Amber asked. "What do you mean, we're both dying?"

"I mean, these smilers are attaching to both of us, and the two of us are exploding with them."

"Wait, why do you want to die?" Amber yelled, gathering the shadows from around the room into her hand, firing them into the smilers until they all fell back. Kalea sighed, pressing her watch a few times, with each smiler slowly getting up. Even if their masks remained expressionless, their bodies looked to be in agony.

"Amber, it's for our own good!" Kalea yelled back. "Think about it! I'm what Mersache called a chimera, and you achieved your awakening thing! Both of us are just weird science experiments to him! And if we get out of here, we're getting locked away into his house being tortured and picked apart until he can report to…somebody!"

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Reporting to who?" Amber yelled. She tried moving, but Kalea fired lasers onto her leg until she was forced onto one knee.

"I…I don't know! But he's reporting to someone! Maybe someone outside, I don't know!"

Kalea pressed on her watch frantically, and the smilers started moving. But as quickly as they started moving, they stopped.

"Mersache, you bastard." Kalea yelled in pure desperation. And while she was distracted, Amber managed to shoot a collection of gathered shadows into Kalea's chest, piercing her heart as she did.

"Don't…don't think you're getting out alive." Kalea whispered as she went up against the wall, and the building began to collapse over the two of them. Amber cast a wave of shadows over herself, and even then, the weight of falling debris was immense, having to quickly take the shadows from the falling rubble just to not have her head crushed.

Once she felt the world stop falling around her, she tried getting up from underneath the rubble, but felt her left leg in absolute flaming pain. She couldn't move it, it had to be broken. She wrapped a shadow around it, moving more shadows to move the debris, and eventually finding her way to the surface. She crawled out to the top of the pile, and just as she did, a series of crystalized spikes erupted around her, eventually piercing her in the heart. She walked on, covering herself in shadows to stop the bleeding, looking over the unmoving body of Kalea, still breathing.

"Give me…give me the numbers." She demanded.

"It's…too late for you. I sent them to Silvia, and she'll send them to the survivors. We won. Congratulations. And…see you on the other side."

She coughed up a chunk of blood, closing her eyes, and Amber felt her grip on her shadows slowly leave her. The shadows around her leg fell, and so did she. The emotions of everything that happened to her finally caught up to her. Lloyd's manipulation. Gemma's murder. Aurora's framing and death. Her dad's newfound chokehold on the city.

"I'm coming back!" She screamed in a fit of pure unfiltered rage. "You hear me, Mersache? And to whoever's controlling him, I'm coming back! Someone will bring me back to life, and I'll kill every single one of you!"

And as she let out the quickly extinguishing light of her soul, she felt everything around her darken.

Silvia darted through the streets of the city, growing vines in her hair to cling to rooftops and fling herself off them. Once she found a decently high building, she left Wendy's body on top of that.

"Alright, stay there." Silvia asked quietly. Not much of a point due to her being unconscious, but she felt better for saying it. Sitting on top of the building, she checked her watch. Amber and Kalea were both dead, and the numbers were transferred to her. She swiped to see where Andrei was, and he was on her tail. She looked over, and sure enough, Andrei was running at blinding speed. She looked over at Wendy's body. She had to kill one of them, so killing her now would be easy, and the whole thing could just end.

No. She wasn't doing that. As bad as she ended up being, that was too far. Better to kill someone who had a better time fighting back.

She looked over the rooftop, and Andrei was still running, about to get across the street. She jumped down, delivering a swift kick to his head and jumping behind him, stopping him in place.

"Hey." She said calmly. "How you doing?"

"Where's Wendy?" Andrei asked.

"Straight to the point, huh? Always liked that about you, big guy. But anyway, Wendy's safe. For now."

"Where?" He repeated.

"Boss is gonna send the information once you kill me."

"And…I have to do that?" He asked, groaning with pain at the very idea.

"It's one of us. Sorry you have to hear that." Silvia sighed.

Andrei summoned his greaves, jumping forward to kick her. She jumped to the left of him, skating behind him and delivering a swift kick to his head once again, repeating the strategy of skating back. She took a grenade out of her belt and threw it forward, with Andrei deflecting it into a wall with a single kick. The grenade exploded on impact, leaving a hole in the wall where Wendy was resting.

Grenades were out. The chance that Wendy could die was too much. Within her pockets was a flash grenade, so she took that out while Andrei was still charging at her. She threw it to the ground, and the blinding white light filled the streets. Andrei was left stunned in place, but Silvia could still see thanks to her visor. As she darted around Andrei for a weakness, she went for one directly in his side. As she landed the kick, Andrei jumped in pain. This was it, the final chance. She took her hat off, throwing it behind Andrei. He turned around, and she got behind and kicked him in the back. As he fell forward, she wrapped a set of vines around his neck. But just as she did, Andrei lurched forward, grabbing the vines from behind her, flinging her to his side. As their eyes met, he gave a mighty headbutt straight to her face.

Silvia was flung back. She checked her nose. The pain and blood coming off it was relentless, and she'd be surprised if it wasn't broken. The area of the grenade seemed to be wearing off from Andrei, and he was quickly approaching her. She quickly leapt back onto her feet, narrowly dodging the kick he gave the ground. She attached vines from both sides of her hair to fling herself upwards. She took another grenade out, looking at Wendy's body as she did. If she threw it directly downwards next to Andrei, she'd be fine. She took the grenade out, pulling the pin and throwing it downwards. The grenade exploded, and a sound of pain from Andrei made it's way to her ears. This was it, the final chance. She once again attached her hair vines to the roof and flung herself at Andrei's head.

Andrei finally fell to the ground, and Silvia used her vines to restrain his hands. He was still struggling beneath them, and it was taking all of Silvia's energy to keep the vines where they were. If most of her face wasn't covered, Andrei would know about pushing his body just a bit further to break free. So with no time to lose, she took her gun out, pointing it at his forehead.

"Listen, Andrei. I have an offer for ya. Lend me an ear?"

"What is it?" Andrei asked.

"I've read up on you. On your family. Your main reason for doing this is getting your siblings somewhere more secure and treating your sick mother, right?"

"Yes." Andrei replied, eyes widened.

"Right, right." Silvia nodded. "So tell you what. Amber's dead. Six people left, and the winners get housing on level five. But working with NeoBunny means my brother also gets a house, and I can live with him if I want to. So, here's the deal. You take the bullet, and your family gets to live on level five. All the wealth and health you could need. Sound good?"

Andrei looked at her, then at the ground next to him, then back at her.

"This isn't a trick, is it?" He asked quietly.

"Wouldn't lie about something like this, bud." Silvia replied with a soft shake of her head. "I haven't gone that far."

"And my family would be safe?"

"Hundred percent."

Andrei released a sigh with his eyes closed. "Go ahead."

"You're a good man, Andrei. Shame it had to come to this."

And with the final message, Silvia fired a single shot into Andrei's head. His head fell back, and Silvia checked her watch until the word 'Deceased' appeared next to Andrei's profile. Once it appeared, she jumped off him. She shed her equipment and went back to where Wendy was.

"You doing okay, Wendy?" Silvia asked, shaking her awake. As she began to stir, Silvia wrote the numbers and left them in the pocket of her hoodie, before taking her to the streets below.

"Right, the bar is gonna be safe, right?" Silvia whispered to herself. "Honestly, a drink couldn't hurt right now."