Smoke curled around the trees like dark fingers, twisting through the jungle air. Birds had stopped singing. Insects had gone silent.
And the thing—Project Hollow—stepped through the smoke like a ghost in armor.
Its boots crushed roots and stone alike. The jungle shuddered beneath its weight. A metal spine shimmered down its back, humming with red energy. From its broad shoulders, a series of rotating spikes emerged—steel thorns, lethal and glowing.
Serah pressed her back to Thorn's, her breath shaky.
"It's hunting us."
Thorn's body tensed. "No. It's hunting me."
The red visor on Hollow's face flared as it locked onto Thorn. No words. No voice. Just pure, calculated intent to kill.
And then it charged.
---
"RUN!" Thorn grabbed Serah's hand and pulled her into the trees just as Hollow's steel claws slammed into the earth where they had stood. The ground split. Roots burst from the soil. Thorn threw up a shield of thorns behind them—but Hollow shredded through it like paper.
They dashed through the dense foliage, dodging branches, leaping over roots. Serah's boots slipped in the mud, but Thorn caught her every time.
"How do we stop that thing?" she gasped.
"We don't," Thorn growled. "We outlast it."
"Easier said than done!"
Suddenly, a whirring sound echoed behind them.
"DOWN!" Thorn tackled her just as a spinning spike shot past them, lodging into a tree. The spike exploded a second later, turning the trunk into flying splinters.
Serah covered her head, coughing through the smoke. "What is it made of?!"
"Steel. Pain. And hate."
---
They crashed into a hidden ravine, tumbling down into a river below. The current swept them away. Thorn kept her close, arms wrapped around her as they floated into a cave system hidden by vines.
The cold water numbed Serah's skin, but Thorn's body radiated heat. His thorns retracted, his adrenaline calming.
"Are you okay?" he asked, cupping her face.
She nodded, shivering. "That thing… it's not human."
Thorn shook his head. "It was. Once. I think… it was a failed project. Like me. But they put it in a machine. Now it's just a weapon."
Serah leaned into him, her fingers trembling on his chest. "Then what are you, Thorn?"
He looked at her, water dripping from his hair, his eyes soft but fierce.
"I'm the mistake they couldn't control… but you made me something more."
---
They moved deeper into the cave, the world above forgotten for a moment. Safe. Silent.
Serah reached for Thorn's hand and placed it gently on her stomach.
"You felt it yet?" she asked softly.
Thorn's eyes widened as something fluttered beneath his palm.
Their child.
He stared at her, overwhelmed. "It's real…"
Serah smiled through the tears. "It's ours."
Thorn's lips met hers in a kiss that stole the air from her lungs. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. His back hit the cave wall, and her body pressed into his.
Heat ignited between them.
The pain. The fear. The love. It was all too much.
Clothes were wet and clinging. Hands slipped beneath fabric. His touch burned down her spine, and her lips traced his jaw, his neck, every inch she could reach.
"I want you," she breathed.
His voice rumbled with emotion. "Are you sure?"
"I've never been more."
Their bodies collided in a tangle of raw need and desperate love. She gasped as he lifted her, pinning her against the wall, their lips meeting again and again, fiercer each time.
He was gentle. Then wild.
And she matched him, touch for touch, moan for moan.
In that hidden cave, their souls finally collided.
Not just man and woman. Not just soldier and monster.
But mate and mate.
---
Hours passed like minutes.
They lay tangled in the afterglow, wrapped in each other, the candle-like light from the glowing moss above casting shadows across their skin.
Thorn stroked her hair. "I never thought I'd feel this. Peace. Love."
Serah kissed his chest. "You deserve it. We both do."
But far above the cave, in the silent jungle…
Project Hollow stood on the edge of the riverbank, analyzing the trail, recalculating.
Its visor flared red.
Target reacquired.