The old rail tunnel groaned under their footsteps, metal echoing like distant thunder. Shadows stretched long. The air reeked of rust, secrets, and the past none of them had quite escaped.
Lilly stalked ahead—bleeding pride, biting fury.Ava flanked behind—silent, watching, walking the line between ally and threat.And Sam… Sam was the gravity between them. Pulled tight. Barely breathing. Ready to shatter and still somehow the glue.
"I can feel you staring," Lilly muttered without looking back.
Ava's voice was silk laced with barbed wire. "I'm making sure you don't bleed out before we get there."
"I've survived worse," Lilly snapped. "Including being stabbed in the back by someone I once trusted with my life."
Ava stopped walking.
"So, say it" she said flatly. "Say what you really want to say, Lilly."
Lilly turned, eyes burning. "You abandoned me. You trained me, broke me down, built me back up—and then you ghosted like I was just another op. You meant something to me, Ava."
"And you meant something to me too," Ava said, calm and lethal. "Which is exactly why I had to disappear."
Lilly's laugh was sharp. "You don't vanish to protect people. You vanish to erase them."
Tension snapped like wires pulled too tight.
Sam stepped between them. "Okay, maybe now's not the time to rekindle our trauma flame."
Sam's breath fogged in the cold air, heart thudding like gunfire. The tension had sharpened—an invisible thread pulled taut between Ava and Lilly.
And then it snapped.
Lilly moved.
Fast. Animal-fast.
Her fists collided with Ava's jaw before Sam even registered the blur of motion.
"You want me to say it?" Lilly snarled, landing a brutal second hit. "Fine. SCREW YOU FOR LEAVING, SCREW YOU FOR PRETENDING IT WAS MERCY!
Ava grunted, stumbling, but pivoted like a soldier trained for war. "You think I wanted to go?"
"You didn't have to go," Lilly spat, grabbing her collar and slamming her against the tunnel wall. "You chose to."
The clang echoed down the dark. Rats scattered. And Sam—
Sam was moving, but not fast enough.
Ava shoved back. Her elbow jabbed into Lilly's ribs, but Lilly didn't flinch—didn't budge.
"YOU BROKE ME!" Lilly growled. "Made me into this… thing. And then vanished like I wasn't worth saving."
"Don't put that on me," Ava snapped. "You always had that fire in you. I just showed you where the spark was."
Lilly lost it.
She tackled Ava to the ground, fists flying, fury boiling over. It wasn't just anger—it was grief. It was every sleepless night. Every whisper left because you weren't enough.
Sam lunged in. "Lilly—stop! You're bleeding again!"
But Lilly didn't hear her.
Didn't care.
Ava landed a hit of her own, finally, but Lilly rolled them, pinned her, a predator unhinged. Her voice cracked open—raw and shaking:"YOU LEFT ME TO ROT AVA!" YOU KNEW WHAT THEY'D DO TO ME!"
Sam dove between them, arms straining to pry Lilly off, but Lilly was pure instinct now. Hands locked, Body rigid, Fury unspent.
Ava met her eyes, blood trickling from her mouth, and whispered, "I thought disappearing would save you."
"You were wrong," Lilly whispered, voice shaking. "I stopped being saveable the moment you disappeared."
Sam finally wrenched her off, both of them collapsing backwards. Ava lay gasping, bruised, unmoving.
Lilly just stood there, panting, fists still clenched like she wanted to keep swinging until the past shut up and stayed dead.
The tunnel rang with silence.
The worst kind.
The kind where no one wins.
And Sam, arms wrapped around Lilly from behind, just whispered, "You're not alone anymore. But if you keep this up… you might be."
Lilly's head dropped.
Her fire didn't go out—but it flickered.