The facility screamed.
Alarms, gunfire, the crash of falling debris—it all blended into a single, endless noise. Eva moved through the chaos like a blade, her footsteps sure, her eyes fixed forward. Around her, Architects in white masks scrambled, desperate, terrified.
Leo raised his hand.
Electricity arced from his fingers, splitting, multiplying, becoming a web of lightning that found every target. The Architects dropped where they stood, bodies smoking, masks cracked, eyes empty.
"Go," he said.
They went.
---
Eva vs. Prime 7
The corridor ended in a blast door, already open, already waiting. Inside, a single figure stood in the center of an empty room. His dark grey mask was unmarked, his posture relaxed, his hands clasped behind his back.
"Ah." His voice was modulated, calm. "Eva Rostova. You've been quite troublesome, I hear."
Eva didn't answer.
"Well." He uncrossed his hands. "Your road ends here."
He moved.
---
Leo vs. Prime 8
The maintenance tunnel was narrow, dark, smelling of oil and ozone. Leo's footsteps echoed off the walls, each one steady, deliberate.
Ahead, a figure blocked the path.
Prime 8's mask gleamed in the emergency lighting. He didn't speak. Didn't move. Just stood there, waiting.
Leo's fists crackled.
---
Maya vs. Prime 9
She found him in the data core, surrounded by screens showing the chaos unfolding across the facility. He didn't turn when she entered.
"Subject Maya-07." His voice was almost bored. "I've read your file. Do you know what it says?"
Maya's eyes flickered. One white dot. Then two.
"It says you're unstable. Unpredictable. A failure."
She moved.
---
Jordan and Lena vs. Prime 6
They moved together, silent, synchronized. Lena's blade was drawn; Jordan's katana was already wet with blood.
Prime 6 waited in the armory, surrounded by weapons he wouldn't have time to use.
"You're the swordsman," he said to Jordan. "And you're the one who killed Superior 4."
Lena's grip tightened. "She had a name."
"Did she?"
Jordan moved first.
---
Derek vs. Prime 5
The hangar was vast, empty, echoing. Derek's footsteps were the only sound.
Prime 5 stood in the center, arms crossed, his mask somehow looking down despite being the same height.
"You're the one who killed Superior 5," he said. "He was a friend."
Derek's fists hardened.
"He was in the way."
They charged.
---
Dave
He walked through the corridors without urgency, without fear. His mask was off, his face bare, his steps slow.
Scientists and guards ran past him. He didn't stop them. Didn't attack. Just walked.
He was looking for something. Or someone.
---
Wolfen vs. Prime 10
He burned everything.
The corridors, the walls, the bodies—all of it fed the fire that followed him. He didn't run. Didn't charge. Just walked, leaving ash in his wake.
She was waiting in the central hub, surrounded by screens showing the destruction spreading through her facility. Her dark grey mask was fixed on him the moment he entered.
She rose. Her hands came up. A fighting stance, perfect, practiced, ready.
Wolfen's hands dropped to his sides. His black eye was open now, the veins pulsing faintly.
They looked at each other across the burning room.
No words. No need.
He moved.
---
Lily vs. Jenny
The centipede had carved a path through the facility, and Lily followed it into the dark. Around her, her monsters tore through the defenses, but they were dying—the Architects had prepared for this, had weapons designed to bring down kaiju, and her army was falling.
She didn't stop.
"Hello there, Monster Queen."
Jenny emerged from the wall like she'd always been there, her smile wide, her eyes bright. Beside her, a boy—eleven, maybe twelve, with the same smile—watched Lily with empty eyes.
"Go," Jenny said.
The boy melted into the wall.
"Aren't the Architects after you?" Lily's voice was steady, even as her hands reached for her gun.
"They are." Jenny's smile didn't waver. "Since I betrayed them, my little friend has been quite helpful. He's gotten me out of a lot of tight situations." She spread her arms, a magician presenting a trick. "Now you don't have any of your little pets here, do you? So I'm going to kill you now."
She looked positive. Happy. Excited.
"We'll see about that."
Jenny moved.
Lily didn't see her. Didn't track her. Just felt the pain explode from the side of her head, wet and sharp and wrong.
She screamed. Blood poured down her neck, her shoulder, her chest. Her hand went to her ear—and found nothing. Just a hole, ragged and raw.
Jenny was behind her, chewing.
"Hmm." She swallowed. "Not bad. A bit salty, I'd say. But in a good way."
Her eyes went black.
Blood—black, thick, wrong—poured from her mouth. She gagged, choked, clutched her throat.
"Did you think I'd just die like that, you fucking bitch?" Lily's voice was a snarl, bloody and raw. "I die—but I take you down with me."
The injection was empty now. Whatever was in it was already in Jenny, working, burning.
Jenny's arm swept out like she was swatting a fly.
Lily's ribs broke.
She hit the wall, slid down, gasped for air. Her revolver was in her hand—when had she drawn it? She fired. Once. Twice. Three times. Hybrid-killing rounds, laced with venom, burying themselves in Jenny's chest, her stomach, her throat.
Jenny bent over, vomiting blood, her body shaking, her healing failing.
Lily was on her.
The Umbralite rod—Wolfen's gift, old and worn and solid—rose and fell. Jenny's face crumpled under the first blow. Split under the second. Caved under the third.
Lily screamed with each strike. Blood sprayed across the walls, the floor, her face. Jenny's body jerked, convulsed, tried to rise—
Her arm came clean through Lily's stomach.
Right side. Through and through. Lily's breath caught. Her hands went to the wound, pressing, holding, keeping herself together.
Gunfire.
An Architect soldier had found them. Lily's hand—the one that wasn't holding her insides together—raised her revolver. The first shot took his knee. He fell. The second took his throat. He clawed at it, blood bubbling through his fingers, dying slow.
A bullet hit the gas pipe behind her.
Lily's hand—the one that was already ruined, fingers gone, bone visible—hung at her side. The other pressed her stomach together.
Gas hissed into the room.
Jenny's blade—saliva, white, shimmering—hit the wall.
Sparks flew.
Lily looked at the gas. At the sparks. At Jenny's ruined face, still smiling.
The explosion caught them both.
The facility shook. The walls cracked. The fire spread.
And somewhere in the dark, two monsters who had been hunting each other for years finally found what they were looking for.