Chapter 30 - The Click
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usefulfinish421
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Reze grunts as she blocks another blow, the loud crack of wood echoing through the abandoned factory. The force of the strike catches her off guard, pushing her back a step before she shoves her assailant away. He slides backwards across the concrete, bringing his wooden staff up to point right at her as he adjusts the balaclava covering his face. He begins to slowly circle around her, tapping his staff in a steady rhythm on the floor. Reze tracks him silently, keeping her posture relaxed despite the growing tension.
"You're slow and corny." She says, tightening her grip on her staff as he vanishes into her blind spot. A sharp exhale comes from behind, followed by rapidly pounding footsteps on the concrete. Just before he reaches her, Reze pivots, driving her staff up into the air.
THUNKKK
Reze catches the overhead strike, balancing the assailant on her weapon for a moment before thrusting him skyward. The force hauls him directly over her head, sending him tumbling onto the ground behind. In one fluid motion, Reze swings the staff around and stops a hair length from his temple. She lowers the weapon and looks directly into the man's frustrated eyes and smiles.
"And you always go high."
She reaches her hand down to pull him up. Jin shakes his head, wrapping his hands around hers as she hauls him to his feet. He tugs his balaclava off and runs his fingers through his sweat damp hair, shoving his mask into his back pocket.
"Hey - it's worked before!" He pouts, letting the staff roll onto the ground.
"Yeah, it worked that one time." She teases, fixing his statically standing hair. A tiny spark shocks her finger, making her giggle. "Too bad I'm alive and remember things." She pats his head, smoothing the strands down to his skull. "You gotta mix it up."
"But it's my thing…" Jin turns away and grabs their water bottles from a nearby table. He takes a long swig before tossing the second bottle to Reze, who catches it effortlessly and pops the cap open with her teeth.
"Your thing?" Her voice drops into a playful growl. "Your thing is to stay back and be safe."
Jin sticks his tongue out and mumbles something incoherent under his breath. In response, Reze flips her bottle around and blasts a jet of lukewarm water straight into his face, instantly soaking his hair and shirt.
"ALRIGHT!" He raises his arms up and charges at her - a lot faster than she expects. He scoops her up and spins her around as her loud, ringing laughter bounces off the factory walls, before gently tackling her down to the concrete. For a brief moment, Reze considers flipping him over to teach him another lesson about never letting his guard down, but the hunger in his eyes stops her.
And she'd be lying if she didn't love it.
Their hot breaths wisp in the cool air and on their glistening skin. Jin flashes a devious grin, then leans down and shakes his hair like a wet dog, showering Reze with the water droplets. "COME ON!" She squeals, her own hair turning damp as she tries to block him. She wraps her arms around his neck and pulls his face down to mercifully stop the shaking.
"You're bad." Reze clicks her tongue. But as he settles over her, the warmth of his skin and the scent of salt and sweat send a sudden flutter through her chest. Jin adjusts his weight above her, his lips teasingly hovering over hers. Reze giggles, tilting her head up just as her mouth brushes his. "I think I gotta te-"
A high pitched gasp cuts through the air.
"Aw… I love love!"
Immediately, Jin's body goes stiff, his hands trembling violently on Reze's shoulders. He whips around, summoning his rifle in his clammy hands as he sweeps across vine wrapped industrial beams. The voice echoes over and over in his mind - it's the exact same cadence, the exact same teasing tone that haunts him in his nightmares. He starts to hyperventilate, the crosshair in the digital display blurring from the grip of panic.
Before he faints, Reze reacts. She rolls Jin behind her body and reaches for her trigger, instantly pulling the cold steel out.
BOOM
The Bomb Devil grabs Jin's soaked shirt and blasts away, leaving a trail of dark smoke to cover their escape. They sail through an open window in the factory, landing in the abandoned offices - still cluttered with desks and other devices from years past. The warhead turns to the trembling Jin, who's fearfully scanning for any entrance the woman could break through.
"Jin." She grabs his left shoulder and gives it a reassuring squeeze. "You're ok. We're ok."
"It's her."
"...I know."
"We gotta kill her. I gotta kill her." He raises his rifle and takes a step away, but a desk is forcefully slid in front of him, stopping him dead in his tracks. It crushes into another table, splintering down the middle and blocking Jin from moving forward. Jin forces a deep breath, letting an ounce of anxiety out and turns to the crossed armed Bomb Devil. "…I'll try to stay back." When he looks up to the smooth casing of the warhead, his eyes ignite in rage. "But I wanna be the one to put her down."
"I can't promise that." Reze says coldly. "I can handle her, just keep yourself safe. If she gets too close, use what we practiced last week, ok?"
"…CQC with my rifle?"
"Exactly."
Suddenly, the air around them swirls in an overwhelming wave of heat. It makes the room shimmer as the air burns away, and the office door connecting to the main factory equipment bursts into flames. It instantly crumbles into ash and blows away, revealing the businesswoman walking casually towards them. On her face is a big, terrifying smile as each step melts away the abandoned equipment around her.
"Honey… you really think training's going to save you?" She glowers, then shifts her expression into a mockingly nostalgic smile. "Look at us, target. After all these years, you think we'd forget each other and move on. But here we are, and it's just like last time - everything burning around you." She laughs out, raising her hand by her face. A bright orange flame sizzles in her palm, which she flicks lazily to the side. It catches onto a loose stack of papers, igniting it instantly and sending blazing debris fluttering through the room. More items catch fire as thick soot and smoke billow around the room and right into Jin and Reze's lungs.
"Fu-" Jin's voice is cut short as he coughs violently, spitting out the mixture of soot and saliva. He clears his throat with a growl and leans into the stock of his rifle, aiming the crosshairs directly at her. "FUCK YOU!"
"Ooh! I'm terrified of the little boy." She raises both her hands in mock surrender as she snickers softly. "Please don't hurt me!"
Reze grabs Jin and shoves him behind her. "Far enough." She raises her hands towards the woman, her clenched fist tightening into a thick, black ball.
"Now you." The woman points at Reze. "You're scary. But I know what you are." She smirks, grabbing a lamp off one of the melting desks as she passes by. The metal instantly liquifies and drips onto the ground, scorching the cold concrete floor black. "Just a terrified girl who grasps onto a fake life." She reaches for the red brooch on her suit jacket. "I saw what you did in the White Room. All those kids…" She clicks her tongue and tilts her head towards Reze. "…I would have done the same thing."
Reze's arms flex hard. Memories flood her mind, and for just a split second, a chilling shiver runs up her spine. But the grief is fought off, replaced with calculated anger as she takes a step forward. "Don't you dare."
"Aw… you do remember! How could you not? Thoth always speaks so highly of the things the great Bomb Devil could do… and how you always throw it away." The woman suddenly stops, maintaining a safe distance between her and Reze. "It's sad, really, hearing all the stories, then having to kill you over and over again. You usually scream like a dying child when I melt your body away." The woman shrugs and closes her eyes. "Guess that's life."
thupthupthup
Three silenced rounds slice through her suit jacket. The businesswoman - instead of crumpling over - only smiles wider as whitehot orange light spills out from the newly formed wounds, melting the bullets before they can embed in the wall behind her. The fabric around the holes instantly scorches into ash and reveals shimmering, liquid fire pulsing inside her torso. The woman snickers to herself and looks up at the hyperventilating, defeated Jin. "Aw honey… that never works."
A blast shoots Reze forward, her hand lunging out towards the woman's throat. But right before her fingers can crush the woman's windpipe, the brooch shatters in the woman's grasp.
Instantly, her body ignites into a blue and yellow blaze, scorching and boiling her skin into a blackened crisp. Her face - now a horrific, disfigured mix of melting flesh and roaring flame - snaps towards Reze and lifts a crackling arm. It catches the Bomb Devil midair, and a streak of flame snakes its way from the woman's arm and wraps around Reze's neck.
The scream Jin hears is nightmarish.
Reze kicks and claws furiously at the Flame Devil's arm, but each strike only tightens the chokehold around the warhead's neck. There's a loud, guttural gag from Reze's throat as her own skin begins to char under the blistering heat.
"Always the same, what a shame… I really don't like doing this to you, child." The woman's voice cuts through the roar of the fire as the skin on her jaw peels back with each word. She then turns her melted, burning head to Jin. "But whatever Thoth wants… and you're something he really needs."
Jin screams out and fires multiple rounds straight into the woman's chest. They melt into a slag before they pierce her skin. He drops his aim, his voice now cracking into a guttural shriek - a mix of pleas and curses - as he stands helplessly, forced to watch Reze burn.
CREAKKK
Directly above the Flame Devil, a heavy bulge groans in the ceiling. The rising heat has warped the steel beams and fastenings, leaving tons of unaccounted weight hanging by a thread. Jin spots it and roars at the top of his lungs.
"LET HER GO!"
thupthup
The two rounds cut through the growing bulge, connecting with a nearly melted support beam under the cheap material. The ceiling groans loudly for a moment, shaking the entire office floor before it fully gives way. With a deafening crash, the roof crumbles, sending debris and liquified metal from the floor above right towards the woman. She swings her head up just as a flaming metal desk crushes her, dropping Reze from her grasp. The Bomb Devil falls towards Jin, sucking in ragged breaths as Jin catches her.
"REZ!" He screams while he frantically checks over her body. Her pale skin that's not tightly wrapped in her detonator wiring is cracked and a dark, crackling black, burnt right down to her bone. She painfully takes raspy breaths and turns her towards Jin, the warhead casing reflecting the engulfing fire around them.
"I - I'm… I'm ok…" She manages, but a ragged cough shatters the lie.
Jin spins around and scans the burning desks for anything sharp. Through the smoke, a cheap pen catches his eye, caught between the melting keys of an old keyboard as fire laps greedily at the blank monitor above. He takes off towards it, fighting the primal instinct in his brain to run away from the inferno. When he gets to the pen and touches the plastic, the heat scorches straight through his overloaded nerves, searing the pen's small logo into his palm. He bites down another scream, swallowing the agony as he sprints back to Reze, who's slumped against a burning desk.
"Tilt your head back." He demands, gripping the pen like a dagger and pressing the top with an oddly satisfying click. Jin hoists his right shoulder over her mouth, taking deep breaths not only to calm himself - but to brace for the unimaginable torture he's about to inflict on his body.
"What are yo-"
SQUECH
The pen drives deep into Jin's shoulder, penetrating straight through the freshly scabbed wound. He howls out in pain as blood spills down his trembling arm.
*NOT ENOUGH.*
SQUECHSQUECH
*YOU CAN'T DIE.*
SQUECHSQUECHSQUECHSQUECHSQUECH
Jin punches the pen into his flesh over and over, shredding his skin. Blood and ink mix into a dark slurry, pouring in a thick stream straight past the sharp metallic teeth of the warhead. The effect is near instantaneous - the charred, peeling skin crackles and flakes away, wisping away into the blazing room as unblemished flesh knits itself back over her throat and arms. Even her lungs, filled with burning soot, clear as her breathing returns to a steady, normal rhythm. Reze snaps upright and catches a buckling Jin from toppling over.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?" She screeches, ripping apart her burned clothes and wrapping them around the bleeding wound. The white material is instantly sodden with the red liquid as Jin falls limp into her outstretched arms.
"I- I-" He stops when his shoulder slams into her body, sucking in a pained breath. "I can't lose you." Jin mumbles into her damp, warm skin, letting himself finally black out.
But, he's violently shaken back into the waking world.
"I TOLD YOU I DON'T NEED A MARTYR!"
The concrete floor beneath them lurches, rattling the remaining office equipment. Reze throws her hand up, unleashing a concentrated blast of explosive energy that tears a jagged hole through the office wall. She drags Jin to the crumbling exit and right into the setting afternoon sun, and hurls him to the overgrown grass. She rips the rest of her shirt into makeshift rags and tosses them to Jin, spinning back towards the office as the structure rumbles loudly.
"Patch yourself up. I got her." She rises into a shaky fighting stance and faces towards the breach. Behind, just before she walks forward, a shaking hand grabs her arm as Jin tries to stand.
"We're killing her together. I'm not letting her get away."
"You're bleeding out." Reze whirls around and shoves Jin into the dirt. He rolls across the grass, staining it with his own blood as the makeshift bandage slips off. Reze's breath hitches as she dives down and grabs the rags, quickly wrapping them around his wound before he can shove her off. Jin, through the searing pain, pulls his balaclava out of his pocket, yanking it over his sweat drenched head and flicking his wrist for the rifle.
"And YOU were about to be cooked ALIVE!" He shouts just as an eruption of yellow fire breaks through the crater. The Flame Devil crawls out of the hole, tossing a chunk of the molten table aside. She wobbles to her feet, then points a flickering hand at the two.
"Now that's never happened…" A melted smile forms on her disfigured face. "Thoth was right!"
The woman surges forward, throwing a growing fireball through the air. Reze points her fingers down and snaps two energy balls at the dirt, detonating a wall of dirt straight up. The natural debris mostly snuffs out the flame, only for wayward blades of grass to ignite and flutter onto a mass of vines. The fire instantly catches in the vegetation, surrounding the two in a roaring wall of fire that cages them in. Jin's heart hammers against his ribs, leaving his breath to be shallow and frantic.
"You two are different. Isn't that exciting?"
She drives her foot into the dirt. Behind, the concrete walls fissure and crack, with flames lapping out from the ruined stone. It travels upwards, ruining the factory walls as old support pillars and abandoned scaffolding tumble back to the earth. And the large smokestack that cuts through the city's skyline fractures, rumbling forcefully as debris rains down.
THWICK
BROOOOOOSH
The support structures snap, collapsing the smokestack within itself. Dark, suffocating smoke coats their lungs as Reze blindly lets loose a volley of explosive energy at the Flame Devil, who jumps back into the smoke to hide. The yellow balls detonate on the wall, the smokestack's destructive momentum towards Reze and Jin. Brick and metal slam onto the grass, with the massive backblast slamming into the two, launching them backwards through the wall of flame. The Bomb Devil shifts her flailing body to catch Jin, forcing him into her chest just as her mass sails over the street and right into the adjacent ruined factory.
When the dust clears, Reze jolts up, her eyes darting across the rubble to take in her surroundings.
Above, a giant hole in the ceiling reveals the rising flames, while the twisted machinery inside is still charred from the previous blast burns of that night, and - the most telling detail - is the ball the Trap Devil once used to roll around, still sitting idly in the middle of the room.
She reaches down and grabs Jin by his burnt shirt, placing him upright as he struggles to get his bearings together.
When his eyes drift, they land right onto the circus ball. It's followed by a headache that hits him like a truck. The mere proximity of the ball sends his consciousness plummeting back into the noiseless void, right where Thoth had tested him. And with his shoulder wound reopened, the agony his body is experiencing is almost unbearable. He scratches at his head, his fingernails tearing through the fabric of his balaclava at his temples as he groans.
"I can't be here." Jin mumbles, his fingers hooking onto The Bomb Devil's apron. "Something's not right."
BRRRRRSH
A surge of fire melts clean the ruined concrete wall, revealing the Flame Devil. She tilts her head at Jin and giggles, letting a small, malicious tongue flame snake its way between her fingers.
"Oh, sweetie, you can't go! Not with her still alive."
The flame stretches out, swiping right past the warhead. Reze shoves Jin to the cold ground just as the fire whips backwards, liquifying a section of the surrounding machinery. From the strike, a rogue spark fizzles backwards and right into the clown's ball.
WUMP
Even through Jin's panicked breathing, Reze hears the small, sharp snap of energy getting sucked straight into the rubber sphere. She whips her head back to the Flame Devil as fire starts to trickle from her forced entryway.
All that fire, all that energy.
-I'm sorry, Jin.-
"I need a second. Distract her."
"W - WHAT???" Jin shrieks with a terrified tone. "I'M SUPPOSED TO STA -"
"I'm not leaving you alone. Be ready for what I'm about to do."
Jin snaps his head towards her, fighting off rising tears, but his eye catches the ball. And even through the pain, it suddenly clicks. He glances between it and the warhead, giving her a pained, yet resolute, nod. Jin adjusts himself and raises his weapon, aiming it straight towards the now fully cackling Flame Devil. A rush of wind, along with the ear splitting sound of an explosion, flaps his hair and ruined shirt.
"Are you ready to get your revenge, sweetie?" The Flame Devil starts to circle Jin, who keeps his aim directly onto her ablaze chest. With the stock jammed into his shoulder wound, it's taking everything in him to keep a clear sight picture.
"They screamed and begged, you know?" The Flame Devil says matter of factly with a shrug.
"Shut up."
thupthup
A wall of jagged fire billows between them, instantly melting the bullets into a silver liquid slag.
"'Please don't hurt our son!'" The Flame Devil mocks between a harsh scoff. "Your mother's scream when I burnt your father. It plays in my mind every night like a lullaby, especially this one."
Flames whip through the cracks in the ground, forcing Jin to throw himself into a roll to the side.
"It's funny how Thoth makes me do it every time. At this point, it's like brushing your teeth every morning -" She stops, narrowing her eyes at the poorly designed balaclava. "- and once I bring you back, we won't have to do this again. And, I'll happily take his side in paradise."
A faint, near inaudible squeak of rubber rolling on concrete catches Jin's ear as the migraine recedes with each passing second. He scrambles back to his feet and drops his aim, retreating slowly towards a melting piece of industrial equipment. Behind the Flame Devil, the towering wall of fire roars deafeningly, drowning out the ambient sounds.
"What? You're not even going to try?" The Flame Devil pouts, looking genuinely confused. "You usually cry or try to put on that tough guy act… but this version of you? It's boring."
It starts off quiet.
WUMPWUMPWUMP
"Honestly? Out of all the other ones, you haven't really done much, have you?" The Flame Devil taunts. "Just relying on that girl. She's going to melt, babe. So don't get too connected to her."
WUMPWUMPWUMPWUMPWUMPWUMP
A blinding flash of yellow light bounces directly behind the Flame Devil, vacuuming up the surrounding blaze. She whips around with wide, frantic eyes, just as an explosive fist crunches into the back of the woman's skull. She skids across the broken concrete, catching herself right when the flashing ball rebounds off her leg. The flames that once burned endlessly out of her skin are violently sucked into the rolling ball, leaving a smoking streak of displaced fire hanging in the air as the ball bounces deeper into the factory.
She yelps, clutching at the melted flesh of her thigh, only for her ablaze hand to sear her fingers deeper into the muscle. The woman gasps in pain and turns to The Bomb Devil, igniting a large ball of unstable flame in her hand.
"That's not fair!" She shrieks, hurling out fire laced projectiles towards the warhead.
With lethal precision, Reze spins and dodges fluidly between the fireballs while launching a counter volley of her own. Her explosives carpet the ground first, kicking up a smokescreen before a hidden volley slams squarely into the Flame Devil's chest. The woman recoils, stumbling backwards as a final volley grazes past her face. When she swings her head behind, she watches as the energy is sucked into the ricocheting ball that's heading straight for her.
WUMPWUMPWUMPWUMPWUMPWUMP
The sphere glows brighter as it crushes into the woman's spine, greedily sucking out the fire on her back instantly. She screeches, whipping around to strike at the rubber, but the moment her ignited hand touches it, the fire sizzles away into nothingness, exposing her raw, melting skin beneath. The ball rebounds off the woman, but the Bomb Devil jumps to meet it, driving her foot down onto the rubber with a crackling burst of explosive energy.
The light seeps outwards from the ball, illuminating the entire factory floor in its terrifying, absorbed brilliance as it crushes straight into the woman's head. Reze detonates forward, rocketing through the air to deliver a decapitating blow to the woman's now exposed melted head, but the ball suddenly vibrates violently with a deafening hum as it drains the last of the Flame Devil's fire out of her body.
SHK-BROOSH
The factory erupts in a cataclysmic, blinding explosion of unrestrained energy. Reze's sent careening backwards, tearing through destroyed machinery and shattering concrete walls. Her body finally crunches into a steel support beam, stopping her momentum. The structure groans, but holds firm as she slumps forward into the dust covered floor.
_____________
*...It can't be that easy.*
Through the settling dust and broken shards of concrete, Jin takes slow, steady steps to the burnt husk on the ground. Her ragged breathing is the only sound left in the ruined factory, and the closer he gets, her exaggerated huffs say she knows it too. Her liquefied eyes lock directly onto him as he leans over her, forcing the cracked, charred lips into a pained smile.
"Lo-look… at… YOU!" The Flame Devil rasps between guttural coughs. "S-s-so…stupi-pid."
The Whisper materializes into Jin's trembling hand. He rests the suppressor straight onto the woman's peeling forehead, shoving the weight of the rifle down into her skull. She doesn't flinch, rather using her dead weight to stop the weapon from driving her to the ground.
"Al-all… thi…s ti-time…" She groans as the pressure from the weapon fractures the bone on her forehead. "Tho…th di-did sa…y i-it…was…always…gonna…be." The woman spits out steaming saliva towards Jin's feet. It lands between his shoes and sizzles harmlessly into the concrete, making the woman throw her head back and break into a raspy laughing fit.
"IT…WA-S ALW-WAYS YOU." She takes a deep, rattling breath, repositioning her head back against the suppressor. "Now… a-are… y-you go-gonna… kill… me?"
The question makes Jin's breath catch, driving the weapon an inch deeper into her forehead. The pressure finally shatters the bone, leaving loose, melted flaps of skin that slide around the impact point.
But the woman still giggles in glee.
"SHUT UP!" Jin screams out in spite of himself. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
"A-aw…poo…r b-b-b-baby." She reaches a melted, trembling hand up to the barrel. Any lingering flame that she had left to give - to even attempt to melt away the barrel and get away - refuses to ignite. "S-so…hel-hellb…ent…t-to…real..iz..e…"
The suppressor whips sideways across her face, shattering her cheekbone in a spray of steaming blood and bone fragments that splatter across the concrete and nearby machinery. Her eyes widen from the rush of pain, and for a split second, the air shifts.
He finally made her scared.
That brief phantom of satisfaction dissolves almost instantly as she chuckles again, rolling her mangled neck back to face him. She shoves her caved in cheek back into place with sickening crunches, but the skin still sags uselessly towards the floor.
"TH-THEY…RE…N-NO-NOT…COM-" A loud, raspy cough chokes her words short. She wipes away a smear of fresh blood on her face and fixes a ruined glare at Jin. "THEY'RE NOT COMING BACK!"
The rifle vibrates on her head as she smiles, feeling a rush of heat finally burn back inside her.
"AN-AND…IT…IT'S YO-"
thup
The round punches right through her cracked skull, rippling through her cranium and severing the brainstem in an instant. Her eyes flash with near comical surprise before going dull and vacant, followed by a thin strand of gunsmoke curling from the entry wound and out her nostrils as her head falls onto the concrete.
Jin keeps his weapon locked on her head, watching for her next move. He's expecting this to be a trick, ready for her to snap back to life.
But, the body lies still.
*She can't be dead.*
thup
Bits of brain matter and blood lightly speckle onto Jin's balaclava. He wipes them off the fabric quickly, his eyes never leaving the business woman's body. One of her liquified eyeballs drips onto the ground, but it fails to convince him that it's over.
"Get up."
thupthup
Her body jerks as two more rounds bisect the top of her skull. Her bloody tongue flaps out of her mouth, hanging loosely over her shattered cheek.
*The heart. Kill the heart.*
He shifts the rifle's barrel down towards her chest and right where the organ sits.
thupthupthup
"I SAID GET UP!!" Hot, furious tears overflow from his eyes, spilling down his cheeks as he plants his foot on the ground and kicks at the woman's body. Bones fracture with a sickening crunch that echoes off the factory's walls. A low, animalistic snarl escapes his throat as he slams the suppressor against her chest.
"YOU'RE NOT FUCKING DEAD YET!!"
Thupthupthupthupthupthupthupthup
clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick
He brings the rifle's ammo counter up to his face. A bright red '0' blinks back at him through the blood smeared across his eyes. The rifle dissolves into the purple light, spinning back into his bracelet as he scans the broken rubble around the body. A sharp piece of broken rebar leans idly on the debris, which Jin rushes to and takes into his hands. The harder he grips onto the rough rebar, small slices form on his hands as he straddles the woman's chest and glares at her lifeless eyes, raising the makeshift weapon up into the air.
*YOU CAN'T FUCKING DIE YET.*
SHUNK
The rebar buries deep into her chest, tearing out a geyser of blood when the metal's ripped back out. Jin's breathing comes in short, hyperventilated gasps, frantically glancing across her corpse for any telltale sign of life.
"GET UP!"
SHUNKSHUNKSHUNK
Jin's vision pulses at his peripherals, tunneling into pinpoint focus where the rebar keeps driving into burnt flesh over and over again.
"GET THE FUCK UP!"
All rational thought has left. There's only the impact, the resistance of pulling the bar out, and the wet splattering of blood on his skin.
*I DIDN'T GET TO FIGHT YOU.*
SHUNKSHUNKSHUNKSHUNKSHUNKSHUNKSHUNK
His mouth opens to curse at the body again, but no sound comes out. Even the rhythmic stabbing of the rough rebar slicing through muscles and organs fades from his ears. There's only the suffocating, absolute deafness.
*IT'S YOUR FAULT.*
How long he stays straddling her, driving the rebar into the corpse in endless rage, is lost in time.
*WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME?????*
Something catches his wrist from stabbing back down. Deep inside his own personal void, a voice struggles to break through the fog.
"-N!"
He struggles against the force, wrestling with it desperately to keep hacking away.
"-N!!!"
The grip tightens, stopping him cold. The rebar is wrenched out of his grip, vanishing from his localized senses.
"JIN!!!!!!"
The real world snaps back into focus.
The first thing that hits him is his breath - his lungs are dragging in massive, choking plumes of the smoke thick air. He pulls the balaclava off and swings his head to find where the rebar was tossed. It doesn't take long - the rough metal bar is grotesquely coated in thick blood, pieces of shredded skin and bone shards that stick to the rebar like glue. The sheer excess of gore plastered on the bar sends his mind into a panicked frenzy, forcing himself to look down to what he was actually doing.
Even though the businesswoman's Devil form was already a twisted husk, the body is completely unrecognizable. From her collarbone to her skull, the corpse is punctured with hundreds of stab wounds. Internal ribs and bone fragments are bursting outward through the mangled flesh, while torn flaps of skin are driven deep into gaping cavities. A nauseating slurry of shredded tissue, charred muscle, and sizzling fat fills the torso. The center of her chest, where her heart once sat, received the worst of his blind rage. Every single artery is severed with barbaric precision, and the organ itself is reduced to an unrecognizable mush.
A dark, nauseating, hate filled mush.
Suddenly, a warm hand is pressed onto his blood soaked side. He flinches, turning toward the presence that stopped him. Reze is crouched beside him in her human form, her fingers clamped firmly around his wrist. She, too, is drenched in blood, and her half naked, ash stained body is smeared in dark streaks of blood. And even though she tries to hold onto a calming gaze, a deep twang of terror breaks through her irises.
Jin's gaze finally meets hers. For a second, he holds it, desperately trying to force the weakness and panic back down into the dark recesses of his mind. But, the crushing weight of reality hits him all at once and breaks the dam. His tears spill over his face as he lunges forward, burying his face deep into her shoulder and wrapping his arms tightly around her. He shakes with dry, gasping sobs, with Reze pulling him in flush onto her, calmly shushing him as her fingers trace circles on his back.
And so they sit amidst the carnage. Gray ash and drifting embers continue to sift down from the ceiling, dusting the two in a shroud of soot.
After a long silence, Jin pulls back, looking up at her through bloodshot, tear ridden eyes. He blinks, suddenly realizing that her shirt is in tatters, exposing her bare body to the factory - sacrificed as the tourniquet that's wrapped tightly around his wounded shoulder. Without hesitation, he strips his own bloodstained shirt off and drapes it over her head and shoulders to shield her body from the empty ruins around them.
"Jin." She clutches the fabric around her neck, her grip tightening as she pulls him close again. "It's over."
He looks past her, staring blankly across the empty, fractured floor of the factory. The rage that drove him is entirely gone, leaving behind a hollow vacuum in his chest - the one outcome his psyche never considered. Through all the daydreams and unlikely scenarios he'd replay in his head for years, imagining the moment he'd finally corner her and claim his triumphant revenge, he assumed he would feel something. Something fulfilling, something strong enough to sweep Reze off her feet right now and take her away to their apartment.
Instead, he feels nothing.
Absolute, terrifying nothing.
His ragged, uneven breath tells Reze everything. It's the same rhythm she would have after particularly grueling days in the Division, ending with her balling into Soldat's chest as he coddled her.
"...I get it." Reze whispers, her fingers lightly pressing into his bare hip. The digits tremble for a moment, but hold firm. "But we're here. Alive."
Jin doesn't answer. He just shakes his head slowly, eyes drifting back to the mangled remains of the Flame Devil again as the memory of every single stab replays in his mind.
Every.
Single.
Stab.
"...Why don't I feel better?" The question slips out, barely above a whisper.
"It's not supposed to make you feel better." She releases her grip for a second to readjust the shirt onto her body before wrapping her arms back around his waist. "It was never gonna make you feel better."
"Sh - she took my family from me." He stutters, with a fresh streak of rage bubbling up from inside. Reze instantly constricts her hold, squeezing him tighter, fighting with every ounce of her strength to keep him tethered to the present moment. To her.
Exactly what Soldat used to do.
"You're right. She did. And it's awful." She reaches up, gently brushing a rogue strand of blood matted hair away from his eyes. "Eyes on me, Jin."
He doesn't respond.
"I need you to look at me."
He keeps his gaze locked onto the blood splattered machinery.
"Honey."
The term of endearment finally cracks through Jin's anger. He turns his head towards her, feeling a rush of shame to replace whatever fury was left.
"It's over. She's gone. No one else is gonna get hurt because of her."
"Too late for me." Jin scoffs. "...My life could've been different. I wouldn't be here, I wouldn't be a fucking TARGET, I wouldn't b-"
"You know we wouldn't have met… right?" Reze slides her hand up to cup his cheek, her platinum ring feeling cool against his damp skin. "Everything that's happened sucks. But we're here."
A fresh round of tears breaks free, dripping onto the concrete as Jin crumples into her. "I know, I di- I didn't mean that. I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry. It's all my fault…"
"It's their fault they won't leave us alone. Their fault for what they did to us. They ruined our lives. And we -" She kisses his forehead, leaving a dark smudge of lipmarks on his skin. "- are here. Together."
For a second, Jin stares back down at the floor. Blood from the businesswoman's stab wounds still oozes, slowly pooling and encircling the two of them in a viscous ring. Then he lifts his gaze back at Reze.
"...I'm scared."
"That's ok."
"...I should feel better."
"No. You. Shouldn't."
A spike of rage flares back to life, instantly controlling his shattered psyche.
"...You can't tell me how I should feel." Jin grunts out, pushing her off and staggering to his feet. His foot catches on the businesswoman's loose intestine, nearly tripping headfirst before steadies himself and marches down the destroyed factory.
"Wai - JIN!" Reze yells from behind. She bolts upright and sprints down the hall, catching up to Jin quickly. She yanks his arm, stopping him right in place. "You're right, I can't. But I know how you feel, you gotta trust me."
"What the FUCK do you know about what I went through?"
If Jin has ever regretted anything he said, the weight of his words instantly sags his shoulders.
Reze completely freezes. Her grip on Jin remains strong, but her eyes go dull and widen, her psyche absolutely fracturing as she's aggressively dragged back through every violent lesson, every agonizing training session, every kill she was forced to endure as a child. As Jin's face contorts with instant regret, the apologies tumbling out in a panicked rush from his lips, she doesn't move a muscle.
Slowly, she blinks once and turns her head to lock eyes with him.
"Everything."
The words hit Jin like a thunderclap. The only sound left in the still air between them is the ragged rasp of Jin's breathing with Reze's terrifying stillness.
Then, distant sirens cut into the quiet - first as low, distant whines, swelling rapidly into ear splitting wails that box the factory in every direction. Jin whips his head toward one of the entrances, watching for the first responders.
"Rez… I fucked up. I know. I know you know. I - I ju-"
"Shut. Up." She demands, locked like a statue. "I'll never forgive them for what they did to me. That's not stopping me from moving on. And I'm not letting it ruin you."
Reze tugs him towards her chest. Jin collapses into her body, and looks up at her raging irises.
"Don't even think about saying that to me again."
Finally, she drags Jin back into the shadows just as the door at the end of the hallway bursts open. Firefighters and paramedics flood into the smoking interior, checking the smoldering ruins for any survivors. The two press flat against a pillar as a first responder's voice bounces down the factory.
"ANYONE HERE??"
Footsteps start pounding on the concrete and straight for their hiding spot. Reze's hand instinctively reaches up, her fingers grazing over her trigger.
-I'm not doing this today.-
"HEY! WE GOT A BODY OVER HERE!"
The approaching footsteps clatter to an abrupt halt, pivoting back towards the shout. Jin lets out a shaky sigh of relief as Reze's arm drops back to her side. Without wasting the opportunity, she guides him deeper into the smoking, charred factory until the shouting fades out of earshot. They spot a service door, which Reze quietly opens and scans the outside, where a smoldering brick alley leads to the open street. Once she ensures it's safe, she bolts with Jin under the setting sun - only to skid to a halt as a police cruiser screams past.
Reze snags Jin by the hip and pulls him back down the alley.
A rusted staircase - one that snakes above the exit they came through - is the only other option. They scramble up the steps quickly, hitting the roof just as another siren wails below. They drop onto the hot asphalt, lying chest first to hide behind the parapet, listening to the thudding of movement from inside. Minutes tick by in slow motion, filled with the roar of a firehose drowning out flames from the adjacent overgrown factory and the heated argument between first responders swearing about a body that disappeared in the thin air.
After a moment, Jin, inevitably, cracks.
"I'm fucked up." He mutters to her, rolling onto his back and staring at the smoke rising in the sky. "... I didn't even do anything wrong…"
A warm mass blankets over his chest, followed by a familiar breath brushing on his neck. A pair of lips graze against his ear as she settles next to him.
"We didn't do anything wrong when we were kids. We wanted a normal life." Reze whispers back. "And we can't blame ourselves for that."
"...I just want to go back to before…"
Jin slowly props himself up, bringing his hands directly into his field of view. They're still caked in the dark, dried slurry of her blood and ash, glaring at them with a tight jaw.
"...Why wasn't she tougher?" He rasps out, his voice shaking with bitter disbelief. "That day plays in my mind every night. Her damn smile… it's, like, burned in my head. I'd cry for hours after the nightmare, and now…" He balls his hands into a fist. "...She was nothing."
Reze shifts beside him, her emerald eyes softening as she stares at his blood stained hands. "...Everything looks bigger and scarier when you're a kid. Growing up, you realize what scared you before is just… small."
Jin looks at her, his lip twitching. "I guess…" He sighs, running his hands through his hair. "We can't be normal… can we?"
"Don't say that." She sits up next to him, hooking her arm around his hip. "We can have our own normal. Something we can build with both our lives…"
She shifts her emerald eyes to him.
"Together."
The words electrify through Jin, making him shudder. Words and haunting visions clatter around his brain, forcing him to push them away as he crashes his lips into hers.
"I - I'm so sorry." He says when he pulls away. "I'm so fucking sorry. I'm not right, I'm not gonna be right, and I'm ne-"
"I told you to stop apologizing." She cuts him off, her hand sliding down to his thigh as a grounding force. "We're both fucked up." Reze says as her lip twitches into a smile.
"And I wanna be fucked up with you."
A small huff of a laugh breaks through her words at the end.
After a long, raspy breath, Jin rests his forehead against hers, finally allowing the warmth to break through.
"I wanna be fucked up with you, too."
"You're slow and corny." She says, tightening her grip on her staff as he vanishes into her blind spot. A sharp exhale comes from behind, followed by rapidly pounding footsteps on the concrete. Just before he reaches her, Reze pivots, driving her staff up into the air.
THUNKKK
Reze catches the overhead strike, balancing the assailant on her weapon for a moment before thrusting him skyward. The force hauls him directly over her head, sending him tumbling onto the ground behind. In one fluid motion, Reze swings the staff around and stops a hair length from his temple. She lowers the weapon and looks directly into the man's frustrated eyes and smiles.
"And you always go high."
She reaches her hand down to pull him up. Jin shakes his head, wrapping his hands around hers as she hauls him to his feet. He tugs his balaclava off and runs his fingers through his sweat damp hair, shoving his mask into his back pocket.
"Hey - it's worked before!" He pouts, letting the staff roll onto the ground.
"Yeah, it worked that one time." She teases, fixing his statically standing hair. A tiny spark shocks her finger, making her giggle. "Too bad I'm alive and remember things." She pats his head, smoothing the strands down to his skull. "You gotta mix it up."
"But it's my thing…" Jin turns away and grabs their water bottles from a nearby table. He takes a long swig before tossing the second bottle to Reze, who catches it effortlessly and pops the cap open with her teeth.
"Your thing?" Her voice drops into a playful growl. "Your thing is to stay back and be safe."
Jin sticks his tongue out and mumbles something incoherent under his breath. In response, Reze flips her bottle around and blasts a jet of lukewarm water straight into his face, instantly soaking his hair and shirt.
"ALRIGHT!" He raises his arms up and charges at her - a lot faster than she expects. He scoops her up and spins her around as her loud, ringing laughter bounces off the factory walls, before gently tackling her down to the concrete. For a brief moment, Reze considers flipping him over to teach him another lesson about never letting his guard down, but the hunger in his eyes stops her.
And she'd be lying if she didn't love it.
Their hot breaths wisp in the cool air and on their glistening skin. Jin flashes a devious grin, then leans down and shakes his hair like a wet dog, showering Reze with the water droplets. "COME ON!" She squeals, her own hair turning damp as she tries to block him. She wraps her arms around his neck and pulls his face down to mercifully stop the shaking.
"You're bad." Reze clicks her tongue. But as he settles over her, the warmth of his skin and the scent of salt and sweat send a sudden flutter through her chest. Jin adjusts his weight above her, his lips teasingly hovering over hers. Reze giggles, tilting her head up just as her mouth brushes his. "I think I gotta te-"
A high pitched gasp cuts through the air.
"Aw… I love love!"
Immediately, Jin's body goes stiff, his hands trembling violently on Reze's shoulders. He whips around, summoning his rifle in his clammy hands as he sweeps across vine wrapped industrial beams. The voice echoes over and over in his mind - it's the exact same cadence, the exact same teasing tone that haunts him in his nightmares. He starts to hyperventilate, the crosshair in the digital display blurring from the grip of panic.
Before he faints, Reze reacts. She rolls Jin behind her body and reaches for her trigger, instantly pulling the cold steel out.
BOOM
The Bomb Devil grabs Jin's soaked shirt and blasts away, leaving a trail of dark smoke to cover their escape. They sail through an open window in the factory, landing in the abandoned offices - still cluttered with desks and other devices from years past. The warhead turns to the trembling Jin, who's fearfully scanning for any entrance the woman could break through.
"Jin." She grabs his left shoulder and gives it a reassuring squeeze. "You're ok. We're ok."
"It's her."
"...I know."
"We gotta kill her. I gotta kill her." He raises his rifle and takes a step away, but a desk is forcefully slid in front of him, stopping him dead in his tracks. It crushes into another table, splintering down the middle and blocking Jin from moving forward. Jin forces a deep breath, letting an ounce of anxiety out and turns to the crossed armed Bomb Devil. "…I'll try to stay back." When he looks up to the smooth casing of the warhead, his eyes ignite in rage. "But I wanna be the one to put her down."
"I can't promise that." Reze says coldly. "I can handle her, just keep yourself safe. If she gets too close, use what we practiced last week, ok?"
"…CQC with my rifle?"
"Exactly."
Suddenly, the air around them swirls in an overwhelming wave of heat. It makes the room shimmer as the air burns away, and the office door connecting to the main factory equipment bursts into flames. It instantly crumbles into ash and blows away, revealing the businesswoman walking casually towards them. On her face is a big, terrifying smile as each step melts away the abandoned equipment around her.
"Honey… you really think training's going to save you?" She glowers, then shifts her expression into a mockingly nostalgic smile. "Look at us, target. After all these years, you think we'd forget each other and move on. But here we are, and it's just like last time - everything burning around you." She laughs out, raising her hand by her face. A bright orange flame sizzles in her palm, which she flicks lazily to the side. It catches onto a loose stack of papers, igniting it instantly and sending blazing debris fluttering through the room. More items catch fire as thick soot and smoke billow around the room and right into Jin and Reze's lungs.
"Fu-" Jin's voice is cut short as he coughs violently, spitting out the mixture of soot and saliva. He clears his throat with a growl and leans into the stock of his rifle, aiming the crosshairs directly at her. "FUCK YOU!"
"Ooh! I'm terrified of the little boy." She raises both her hands in mock surrender as she snickers softly. "Please don't hurt me!"
Reze grabs Jin and shoves him behind her. "Far enough." She raises her hands towards the woman, her clenched fist tightening into a thick, black ball.
"Now you." The woman points at Reze. "You're scary. But I know what you are." She smirks, grabbing a lamp off one of the melting desks as she passes by. The metal instantly liquifies and drips onto the ground, scorching the cold concrete floor black. "Just a terrified girl who grasps onto a fake life." She reaches for the red brooch on her suit jacket. "I saw what you did in the White Room. All those kids…" She clicks her tongue and tilts her head towards Reze. "…I would have done the same thing."
Reze's arms flex hard. Memories flood her mind, and for just a split second, a chilling shiver runs up her spine. But the grief is fought off, replaced with calculated anger as she takes a step forward. "Don't you dare."
"Aw… you do remember! How could you not? Thoth always speaks so highly of the things the great Bomb Devil could do… and how you always throw it away." The woman suddenly stops, maintaining a safe distance between her and Reze. "It's sad, really, hearing all the stories, then having to kill you over and over again. You usually scream like a dying child when I melt your body away." The woman shrugs and closes her eyes. "Guess that's life."
thupthupthup
Three silenced rounds slice through her suit jacket. The businesswoman - instead of crumpling over - only smiles wider as whitehot orange light spills out from the newly formed wounds, melting the bullets before they can embed in the wall behind her. The fabric around the holes instantly scorches into ash and reveals shimmering, liquid fire pulsing inside her torso. The woman snickers to herself and looks up at the hyperventilating, defeated Jin. "Aw honey… that never works."
A blast shoots Reze forward, her hand lunging out towards the woman's throat. But right before her fingers can crush the woman's windpipe, the brooch shatters in the woman's grasp.
Instantly, her body ignites into a blue and yellow blaze, scorching and boiling her skin into a blackened crisp. Her face - now a horrific, disfigured mix of melting flesh and roaring flame - snaps towards Reze and lifts a crackling arm. It catches the Bomb Devil midair, and a streak of flame snakes its way from the woman's arm and wraps around Reze's neck.
The scream Jin hears is nightmarish.
Reze kicks and claws furiously at the Flame Devil's arm, but each strike only tightens the chokehold around the warhead's neck. There's a loud, guttural gag from Reze's throat as her own skin begins to char under the blistering heat.
"Always the same, what a shame… I really don't like doing this to you, child." The woman's voice cuts through the roar of the fire as the skin on her jaw peels back with each word. She then turns her melted, burning head to Jin. "But whatever Thoth wants… and you're something he really needs."
Jin screams out and fires multiple rounds straight into the woman's chest. They melt into a slag before they pierce her skin. He drops his aim, his voice now cracking into a guttural shriek - a mix of pleas and curses - as he stands helplessly, forced to watch Reze burn.
CREAKKK
Directly above the Flame Devil, a heavy bulge groans in the ceiling. The rising heat has warped the steel beams and fastenings, leaving tons of unaccounted weight hanging by a thread. Jin spots it and roars at the top of his lungs.
"LET HER GO!"
thupthup
The two rounds cut through the growing bulge, connecting with a nearly melted support beam under the cheap material. The ceiling groans loudly for a moment, shaking the entire office floor before it fully gives way. With a deafening crash, the roof crumbles, sending debris and liquified metal from the floor above right towards the woman. She swings her head up just as a flaming metal desk crushes her, dropping Reze from her grasp. The Bomb Devil falls towards Jin, sucking in ragged breaths as Jin catches her.
"REZ!" He screams while he frantically checks over her body. Her pale skin that's not tightly wrapped in her detonator wiring is cracked and a dark, crackling black, burnt right down to her bone. She painfully takes raspy breaths and turns her towards Jin, the warhead casing reflecting the engulfing fire around them.
"I - I'm… I'm ok…" She manages, but a ragged cough shatters the lie.
Jin spins around and scans the burning desks for anything sharp. Through the smoke, a cheap pen catches his eye, caught between the melting keys of an old keyboard as fire laps greedily at the blank monitor above. He takes off towards it, fighting the primal instinct in his brain to run away from the inferno. When he gets to the pen and touches the plastic, the heat scorches straight through his overloaded nerves, searing the pen's small logo into his palm. He bites down another scream, swallowing the agony as he sprints back to Reze, who's slumped against a burning desk.
"Tilt your head back." He demands, gripping the pen like a dagger and pressing the top with an oddly satisfying click. Jin hoists his right shoulder over her mouth, taking deep breaths not only to calm himself - but to brace for the unimaginable torture he's about to inflict on his body.
"What are yo-"
SQUECH
The pen drives deep into Jin's shoulder, penetrating straight through the freshly scabbed wound. He howls out in pain as blood spills down his trembling arm.
*NOT ENOUGH.*
SQUECHSQUECH
*YOU CAN'T DIE.*
SQUECHSQUECHSQUECHSQUECHSQUECH
Jin punches the pen into his flesh over and over, shredding his skin. Blood and ink mix into a dark slurry, pouring in a thick stream straight past the sharp metallic teeth of the warhead. The effect is near instantaneous - the charred, peeling skin crackles and flakes away, wisping away into the blazing room as unblemished flesh knits itself back over her throat and arms. Even her lungs, filled with burning soot, clear as her breathing returns to a steady, normal rhythm. Reze snaps upright and catches a buckling Jin from toppling over.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?" She screeches, ripping apart her burned clothes and wrapping them around the bleeding wound. The white material is instantly sodden with the red liquid as Jin falls limp into her outstretched arms.
"I- I-" He stops when his shoulder slams into her body, sucking in a pained breath. "I can't lose you." Jin mumbles into her damp, warm skin, letting himself finally black out.
But, he's violently shaken back into the waking world.
"I TOLD YOU I DON'T NEED A MARTYR!"
The concrete floor beneath them lurches, rattling the remaining office equipment. Reze throws her hand up, unleashing a concentrated blast of explosive energy that tears a jagged hole through the office wall. She drags Jin to the crumbling exit and right into the setting afternoon sun, and hurls him to the overgrown grass. She rips the rest of her shirt into makeshift rags and tosses them to Jin, spinning back towards the office as the structure rumbles loudly.
"Patch yourself up. I got her." She rises into a shaky fighting stance and faces towards the breach. Behind, just before she walks forward, a shaking hand grabs her arm as Jin tries to stand.
"We're killing her together. I'm not letting her get away."
"You're bleeding out." Reze whirls around and shoves Jin into the dirt. He rolls across the grass, staining it with his own blood as the makeshift bandage slips off. Reze's breath hitches as she dives down and grabs the rags, quickly wrapping them around his wound before he can shove her off. Jin, through the searing pain, pulls his balaclava out of his pocket, yanking it over his sweat drenched head and flicking his wrist for the rifle.
"And YOU were about to be cooked ALIVE!" He shouts just as an eruption of yellow fire breaks through the crater. The Flame Devil crawls out of the hole, tossing a chunk of the molten table aside. She wobbles to her feet, then points a flickering hand at the two.
"Now that's never happened…" A melted smile forms on her disfigured face. "Thoth was right!"
The woman surges forward, throwing a growing fireball through the air. Reze points her fingers down and snaps two energy balls at the dirt, detonating a wall of dirt straight up. The natural debris mostly snuffs out the flame, only for wayward blades of grass to ignite and flutter onto a mass of vines. The fire instantly catches in the vegetation, surrounding the two in a roaring wall of fire that cages them in. Jin's heart hammers against his ribs, leaving his breath to be shallow and frantic.
"You two are different. Isn't that exciting?"
She drives her foot into the dirt. Behind, the concrete walls fissure and crack, with flames lapping out from the ruined stone. It travels upwards, ruining the factory walls as old support pillars and abandoned scaffolding tumble back to the earth. And the large smokestack that cuts through the city's skyline fractures, rumbling forcefully as debris rains down.
THWICK
BROOOOOOSH
The support structures snap, collapsing the smokestack within itself. Dark, suffocating smoke coats their lungs as Reze blindly lets loose a volley of explosive energy at the Flame Devil, who jumps back into the smoke to hide. The yellow balls detonate on the wall, the smokestack's destructive momentum towards Reze and Jin. Brick and metal slam onto the grass, with the massive backblast slamming into the two, launching them backwards through the wall of flame. The Bomb Devil shifts her flailing body to catch Jin, forcing him into her chest just as her mass sails over the street and right into the adjacent ruined factory.
When the dust clears, Reze jolts up, her eyes darting across the rubble to take in her surroundings.
Above, a giant hole in the ceiling reveals the rising flames, while the twisted machinery inside is still charred from the previous blast burns of that night, and - the most telling detail - is the ball the Trap Devil once used to roll around, still sitting idly in the middle of the room.
She reaches down and grabs Jin by his burnt shirt, placing him upright as he struggles to get his bearings together.
When his eyes drift, they land right onto the circus ball. It's followed by a headache that hits him like a truck. The mere proximity of the ball sends his consciousness plummeting back into the noiseless void, right where Thoth had tested him. And with his shoulder wound reopened, the agony his body is experiencing is almost unbearable. He scratches at his head, his fingernails tearing through the fabric of his balaclava at his temples as he groans.
"I can't be here." Jin mumbles, his fingers hooking onto The Bomb Devil's apron. "Something's not right."
BRRRRRSH
A surge of fire melts clean the ruined concrete wall, revealing the Flame Devil. She tilts her head at Jin and giggles, letting a small, malicious tongue flame snake its way between her fingers.
"Oh, sweetie, you can't go! Not with her still alive."
The flame stretches out, swiping right past the warhead. Reze shoves Jin to the cold ground just as the fire whips backwards, liquifying a section of the surrounding machinery. From the strike, a rogue spark fizzles backwards and right into the clown's ball.
WUMP
Even through Jin's panicked breathing, Reze hears the small, sharp snap of energy getting sucked straight into the rubber sphere. She whips her head back to the Flame Devil as fire starts to trickle from her forced entryway.
All that fire, all that energy.
-I'm sorry, Jin.-
"I need a second. Distract her."
"W - WHAT???" Jin shrieks with a terrified tone. "I'M SUPPOSED TO STA -"
"I'm not leaving you alone. Be ready for what I'm about to do."
Jin snaps his head towards her, fighting off rising tears, but his eye catches the ball. And even through the pain, it suddenly clicks. He glances between it and the warhead, giving her a pained, yet resolute, nod. Jin adjusts himself and raises his weapon, aiming it straight towards the now fully cackling Flame Devil. A rush of wind, along with the ear splitting sound of an explosion, flaps his hair and ruined shirt.
"Are you ready to get your revenge, sweetie?" The Flame Devil starts to circle Jin, who keeps his aim directly onto her ablaze chest. With the stock jammed into his shoulder wound, it's taking everything in him to keep a clear sight picture.
"They screamed and begged, you know?" The Flame Devil says matter of factly with a shrug.
"Shut up."
thupthup
A wall of jagged fire billows between them, instantly melting the bullets into a silver liquid slag.
"'Please don't hurt our son!'" The Flame Devil mocks between a harsh scoff. "Your mother's scream when I burnt your father. It plays in my mind every night like a lullaby, especially this one."
Flames whip through the cracks in the ground, forcing Jin to throw himself into a roll to the side.
"It's funny how Thoth makes me do it every time. At this point, it's like brushing your teeth every morning -" She stops, narrowing her eyes at the poorly designed balaclava. "- and once I bring you back, we won't have to do this again. And, I'll happily take his side in paradise."
A faint, near inaudible squeak of rubber rolling on concrete catches Jin's ear as the migraine recedes with each passing second. He scrambles back to his feet and drops his aim, retreating slowly towards a melting piece of industrial equipment. Behind the Flame Devil, the towering wall of fire roars deafeningly, drowning out the ambient sounds.
"What? You're not even going to try?" The Flame Devil pouts, looking genuinely confused. "You usually cry or try to put on that tough guy act… but this version of you? It's boring."
It starts off quiet.
WUMPWUMPWUMP
"Honestly? Out of all the other ones, you haven't really done much, have you?" The Flame Devil taunts. "Just relying on that girl. She's going to melt, babe. So don't get too connected to her."
WUMPWUMPWUMPWUMPWUMPWUMP
A blinding flash of yellow light bounces directly behind the Flame Devil, vacuuming up the surrounding blaze. She whips around with wide, frantic eyes, just as an explosive fist crunches into the back of the woman's skull. She skids across the broken concrete, catching herself right when the flashing ball rebounds off her leg. The flames that once burned endlessly out of her skin are violently sucked into the rolling ball, leaving a smoking streak of displaced fire hanging in the air as the ball bounces deeper into the factory.
She yelps, clutching at the melted flesh of her thigh, only for her ablaze hand to sear her fingers deeper into the muscle. The woman gasps in pain and turns to The Bomb Devil, igniting a large ball of unstable flame in her hand.
"That's not fair!" She shrieks, hurling out fire laced projectiles towards the warhead.
With lethal precision, Reze spins and dodges fluidly between the fireballs while launching a counter volley of her own. Her explosives carpet the ground first, kicking up a smokescreen before a hidden volley slams squarely into the Flame Devil's chest. The woman recoils, stumbling backwards as a final volley grazes past her face. When she swings her head behind, she watches as the energy is sucked into the ricocheting ball that's heading straight for her.
WUMPWUMPWUMPWUMPWUMPWUMP
The sphere glows brighter as it crushes into the woman's spine, greedily sucking out the fire on her back instantly. She screeches, whipping around to strike at the rubber, but the moment her ignited hand touches it, the fire sizzles away into nothingness, exposing her raw, melting skin beneath. The ball rebounds off the woman, but the Bomb Devil jumps to meet it, driving her foot down onto the rubber with a crackling burst of explosive energy.
The light seeps outwards from the ball, illuminating the entire factory floor in its terrifying, absorbed brilliance as it crushes straight into the woman's head. Reze detonates forward, rocketing through the air to deliver a decapitating blow to the woman's now exposed melted head, but the ball suddenly vibrates violently with a deafening hum as it drains the last of the Flame Devil's fire out of her body.
SHK-BROOSH
The factory erupts in a cataclysmic, blinding explosion of unrestrained energy. Reze's sent careening backwards, tearing through destroyed machinery and shattering concrete walls. Her body finally crunches into a steel support beam, stopping her momentum. The structure groans, but holds firm as she slumps forward into the dust covered floor.
_____________
*...It can't be that easy.*
Through the settling dust and broken shards of concrete, Jin takes slow, steady steps to the burnt husk on the ground. Her ragged breathing is the only sound left in the ruined factory, and the closer he gets, her exaggerated huffs say she knows it too. Her liquefied eyes lock directly onto him as he leans over her, forcing the cracked, charred lips into a pained smile.
"Lo-look… at… YOU!" The Flame Devil rasps between guttural coughs. "S-s-so…stupi-pid."
The Whisper materializes into Jin's trembling hand. He rests the suppressor straight onto the woman's peeling forehead, shoving the weight of the rifle down into her skull. She doesn't flinch, rather using her dead weight to stop the weapon from driving her to the ground.
"Al-all… thi…s ti-time…" She groans as the pressure from the weapon fractures the bone on her forehead. "Tho…th di-did sa…y i-it…was…always…gonna…be." The woman spits out steaming saliva towards Jin's feet. It lands between his shoes and sizzles harmlessly into the concrete, making the woman throw her head back and break into a raspy laughing fit.
"IT…WA-S ALW-WAYS YOU." She takes a deep, rattling breath, repositioning her head back against the suppressor. "Now… a-are… y-you go-gonna… kill… me?"
The question makes Jin's breath catch, driving the weapon an inch deeper into her forehead. The pressure finally shatters the bone, leaving loose, melted flaps of skin that slide around the impact point.
But the woman still giggles in glee.
"SHUT UP!" Jin screams out in spite of himself. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
"A-aw…poo…r b-b-b-baby." She reaches a melted, trembling hand up to the barrel. Any lingering flame that she had left to give - to even attempt to melt away the barrel and get away - refuses to ignite. "S-so…hel-hellb…ent…t-to…real..iz..e…"
The suppressor whips sideways across her face, shattering her cheekbone in a spray of steaming blood and bone fragments that splatter across the concrete and nearby machinery. Her eyes widen from the rush of pain, and for a split second, the air shifts.
He finally made her scared.
That brief phantom of satisfaction dissolves almost instantly as she chuckles again, rolling her mangled neck back to face him. She shoves her caved in cheek back into place with sickening crunches, but the skin still sags uselessly towards the floor.
"TH-THEY…RE…N-NO-NOT…COM-" A loud, raspy cough chokes her words short. She wipes away a smear of fresh blood on her face and fixes a ruined glare at Jin. "THEY'RE NOT COMING BACK!"
The rifle vibrates on her head as she smiles, feeling a rush of heat finally burn back inside her.
"AN-AND…IT…IT'S YO-"
thup
The round punches right through her cracked skull, rippling through her cranium and severing the brainstem in an instant. Her eyes flash with near comical surprise before going dull and vacant, followed by a thin strand of gunsmoke curling from the entry wound and out her nostrils as her head falls onto the concrete.
Jin keeps his weapon locked on her head, watching for her next move. He's expecting this to be a trick, ready for her to snap back to life.
But, the body lies still.
*She can't be dead.*
thup
Bits of brain matter and blood lightly speckle onto Jin's balaclava. He wipes them off the fabric quickly, his eyes never leaving the business woman's body. One of her liquified eyeballs drips onto the ground, but it fails to convince him that it's over.
"Get up."
thupthup
Her body jerks as two more rounds bisect the top of her skull. Her bloody tongue flaps out of her mouth, hanging loosely over her shattered cheek.
*The heart. Kill the heart.*
He shifts the rifle's barrel down towards her chest and right where the organ sits.
thupthupthup
"I SAID GET UP!!" Hot, furious tears overflow from his eyes, spilling down his cheeks as he plants his foot on the ground and kicks at the woman's body. Bones fracture with a sickening crunch that echoes off the factory's walls. A low, animalistic snarl escapes his throat as he slams the suppressor against her chest.
"YOU'RE NOT FUCKING DEAD YET!!"
Thupthupthupthupthupthupthupthup
clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick
He brings the rifle's ammo counter up to his face. A bright red '0' blinks back at him through the blood smeared across his eyes. The rifle dissolves into the purple light, spinning back into his bracelet as he scans the broken rubble around the body. A sharp piece of broken rebar leans idly on the debris, which Jin rushes to and takes into his hands. The harder he grips onto the rough rebar, small slices form on his hands as he straddles the woman's chest and glares at her lifeless eyes, raising the makeshift weapon up into the air.
*YOU CAN'T FUCKING DIE YET.*
SHUNK
The rebar buries deep into her chest, tearing out a geyser of blood when the metal's ripped back out. Jin's breathing comes in short, hyperventilated gasps, frantically glancing across her corpse for any telltale sign of life.
"GET UP!"
SHUNKSHUNKSHUNK
Jin's vision pulses at his peripherals, tunneling into pinpoint focus where the rebar keeps driving into burnt flesh over and over again.
"GET THE FUCK UP!"
All rational thought has left. There's only the impact, the resistance of pulling the bar out, and the wet splattering of blood on his skin.
*I DIDN'T GET TO FIGHT YOU.*
SHUNKSHUNKSHUNKSHUNKSHUNKSHUNKSHUNK
His mouth opens to curse at the body again, but no sound comes out. Even the rhythmic stabbing of the rough rebar slicing through muscles and organs fades from his ears. There's only the suffocating, absolute deafness.
*IT'S YOUR FAULT.*
How long he stays straddling her, driving the rebar into the corpse in endless rage, is lost in time.
*WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME?????*
Something catches his wrist from stabbing back down. Deep inside his own personal void, a voice struggles to break through the fog.
"-N!"
He struggles against the force, wrestling with it desperately to keep hacking away.
"-N!!!"
The grip tightens, stopping him cold. The rebar is wrenched out of his grip, vanishing from his localized senses.
"JIN!!!!!!"
The real world snaps back into focus.
The first thing that hits him is his breath - his lungs are dragging in massive, choking plumes of the smoke thick air. He pulls the balaclava off and swings his head to find where the rebar was tossed. It doesn't take long - the rough metal bar is grotesquely coated in thick blood, pieces of shredded skin and bone shards that stick to the rebar like glue. The sheer excess of gore plastered on the bar sends his mind into a panicked frenzy, forcing himself to look down to what he was actually doing.
Even though the businesswoman's Devil form was already a twisted husk, the body is completely unrecognizable. From her collarbone to her skull, the corpse is punctured with hundreds of stab wounds. Internal ribs and bone fragments are bursting outward through the mangled flesh, while torn flaps of skin are driven deep into gaping cavities. A nauseating slurry of shredded tissue, charred muscle, and sizzling fat fills the torso. The center of her chest, where her heart once sat, received the worst of his blind rage. Every single artery is severed with barbaric precision, and the organ itself is reduced to an unrecognizable mush.
A dark, nauseating, hate filled mush.
Suddenly, a warm hand is pressed onto his blood soaked side. He flinches, turning toward the presence that stopped him. Reze is crouched beside him in her human form, her fingers clamped firmly around his wrist. She, too, is drenched in blood, and her half naked, ash stained body is smeared in dark streaks of blood. And even though she tries to hold onto a calming gaze, a deep twang of terror breaks through her irises.
Jin's gaze finally meets hers. For a second, he holds it, desperately trying to force the weakness and panic back down into the dark recesses of his mind. But, the crushing weight of reality hits him all at once and breaks the dam. His tears spill over his face as he lunges forward, burying his face deep into her shoulder and wrapping his arms tightly around her. He shakes with dry, gasping sobs, with Reze pulling him in flush onto her, calmly shushing him as her fingers trace circles on his back.
And so they sit amidst the carnage. Gray ash and drifting embers continue to sift down from the ceiling, dusting the two in a shroud of soot.
After a long silence, Jin pulls back, looking up at her through bloodshot, tear ridden eyes. He blinks, suddenly realizing that her shirt is in tatters, exposing her bare body to the factory - sacrificed as the tourniquet that's wrapped tightly around his wounded shoulder. Without hesitation, he strips his own bloodstained shirt off and drapes it over her head and shoulders to shield her body from the empty ruins around them.
"Jin." She clutches the fabric around her neck, her grip tightening as she pulls him close again. "It's over."
He looks past her, staring blankly across the empty, fractured floor of the factory. The rage that drove him is entirely gone, leaving behind a hollow vacuum in his chest - the one outcome his psyche never considered. Through all the daydreams and unlikely scenarios he'd replay in his head for years, imagining the moment he'd finally corner her and claim his triumphant revenge, he assumed he would feel something. Something fulfilling, something strong enough to sweep Reze off her feet right now and take her away to their apartment.
Instead, he feels nothing.
Absolute, terrifying nothing.
His ragged, uneven breath tells Reze everything. It's the same rhythm she would have after particularly grueling days in the Division, ending with her balling into Soldat's chest as he coddled her.
"...I get it." Reze whispers, her fingers lightly pressing into his bare hip. The digits tremble for a moment, but hold firm. "But we're here. Alive."
Jin doesn't answer. He just shakes his head slowly, eyes drifting back to the mangled remains of the Flame Devil again as the memory of every single stab replays in his mind.
Every.
Single.
Stab.
"...Why don't I feel better?" The question slips out, barely above a whisper.
"It's not supposed to make you feel better." She releases her grip for a second to readjust the shirt onto her body before wrapping her arms back around his waist. "It was never gonna make you feel better."
"Sh - she took my family from me." He stutters, with a fresh streak of rage bubbling up from inside. Reze instantly constricts her hold, squeezing him tighter, fighting with every ounce of her strength to keep him tethered to the present moment. To her.
Exactly what Soldat used to do.
"You're right. She did. And it's awful." She reaches up, gently brushing a rogue strand of blood matted hair away from his eyes. "Eyes on me, Jin."
He doesn't respond.
"I need you to look at me."
He keeps his gaze locked onto the blood splattered machinery.
"Honey."
The term of endearment finally cracks through Jin's anger. He turns his head towards her, feeling a rush of shame to replace whatever fury was left.
"It's over. She's gone. No one else is gonna get hurt because of her."
"Too late for me." Jin scoffs. "...My life could've been different. I wouldn't be here, I wouldn't be a fucking TARGET, I wouldn't b-"
"You know we wouldn't have met… right?" Reze slides her hand up to cup his cheek, her platinum ring feeling cool against his damp skin. "Everything that's happened sucks. But we're here."
A fresh round of tears breaks free, dripping onto the concrete as Jin crumples into her. "I know, I di- I didn't mean that. I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry. It's all my fault…"
"It's their fault they won't leave us alone. Their fault for what they did to us. They ruined our lives. And we -" She kisses his forehead, leaving a dark smudge of lipmarks on his skin. "- are here. Together."
For a second, Jin stares back down at the floor. Blood from the businesswoman's stab wounds still oozes, slowly pooling and encircling the two of them in a viscous ring. Then he lifts his gaze back at Reze.
"...I'm scared."
"That's ok."
"...I should feel better."
"No. You. Shouldn't."
A spike of rage flares back to life, instantly controlling his shattered psyche.
"...You can't tell me how I should feel." Jin grunts out, pushing her off and staggering to his feet. His foot catches on the businesswoman's loose intestine, nearly tripping headfirst before steadies himself and marches down the destroyed factory.
"Wai - JIN!" Reze yells from behind. She bolts upright and sprints down the hall, catching up to Jin quickly. She yanks his arm, stopping him right in place. "You're right, I can't. But I know how you feel, you gotta trust me."
"What the FUCK do you know about what I went through?"
If Jin has ever regretted anything he said, the weight of his words instantly sags his shoulders.
Reze completely freezes. Her grip on Jin remains strong, but her eyes go dull and widen, her psyche absolutely fracturing as she's aggressively dragged back through every violent lesson, every agonizing training session, every kill she was forced to endure as a child. As Jin's face contorts with instant regret, the apologies tumbling out in a panicked rush from his lips, she doesn't move a muscle.
Slowly, she blinks once and turns her head to lock eyes with him.
"Everything."
The words hit Jin like a thunderclap. The only sound left in the still air between them is the ragged rasp of Jin's breathing with Reze's terrifying stillness.
Then, distant sirens cut into the quiet - first as low, distant whines, swelling rapidly into ear splitting wails that box the factory in every direction. Jin whips his head toward one of the entrances, watching for the first responders.
"Rez… I fucked up. I know. I know you know. I - I ju-"
"Shut. Up." She demands, locked like a statue. "I'll never forgive them for what they did to me. That's not stopping me from moving on. And I'm not letting it ruin you."
Reze tugs him towards her chest. Jin collapses into her body, and looks up at her raging irises.
"Don't even think about saying that to me again."
Finally, she drags Jin back into the shadows just as the door at the end of the hallway bursts open. Firefighters and paramedics flood into the smoking interior, checking the smoldering ruins for any survivors. The two press flat against a pillar as a first responder's voice bounces down the factory.
"ANYONE HERE??"
Footsteps start pounding on the concrete and straight for their hiding spot. Reze's hand instinctively reaches up, her fingers grazing over her trigger.
-I'm not doing this today.-
"HEY! WE GOT A BODY OVER HERE!"
The approaching footsteps clatter to an abrupt halt, pivoting back towards the shout. Jin lets out a shaky sigh of relief as Reze's arm drops back to her side. Without wasting the opportunity, she guides him deeper into the smoking, charred factory until the shouting fades out of earshot. They spot a service door, which Reze quietly opens and scans the outside, where a smoldering brick alley leads to the open street. Once she ensures it's safe, she bolts with Jin under the setting sun - only to skid to a halt as a police cruiser screams past.
Reze snags Jin by the hip and pulls him back down the alley.
A rusted staircase - one that snakes above the exit they came through - is the only other option. They scramble up the steps quickly, hitting the roof just as another siren wails below. They drop onto the hot asphalt, lying chest first to hide behind the parapet, listening to the thudding of movement from inside. Minutes tick by in slow motion, filled with the roar of a firehose drowning out flames from the adjacent overgrown factory and the heated argument between first responders swearing about a body that disappeared in the thin air.
After a moment, Jin, inevitably, cracks.
"I'm fucked up." He mutters to her, rolling onto his back and staring at the smoke rising in the sky. "... I didn't even do anything wrong…"
A warm mass blankets over his chest, followed by a familiar breath brushing on his neck. A pair of lips graze against his ear as she settles next to him.
"We didn't do anything wrong when we were kids. We wanted a normal life." Reze whispers back. "And we can't blame ourselves for that."
"...I just want to go back to before…"
Jin slowly props himself up, bringing his hands directly into his field of view. They're still caked in the dark, dried slurry of her blood and ash, glaring at them with a tight jaw.
"...Why wasn't she tougher?" He rasps out, his voice shaking with bitter disbelief. "That day plays in my mind every night. Her damn smile… it's, like, burned in my head. I'd cry for hours after the nightmare, and now…" He balls his hands into a fist. "...She was nothing."
Reze shifts beside him, her emerald eyes softening as she stares at his blood stained hands. "...Everything looks bigger and scarier when you're a kid. Growing up, you realize what scared you before is just… small."
Jin looks at her, his lip twitching. "I guess…" He sighs, running his hands through his hair. "We can't be normal… can we?"
"Don't say that." She sits up next to him, hooking her arm around his hip. "We can have our own normal. Something we can build with both our lives…"
She shifts her emerald eyes to him.
"Together."
The words electrify through Jin, making him shudder. Words and haunting visions clatter around his brain, forcing him to push them away as he crashes his lips into hers.
"I - I'm so sorry." He says when he pulls away. "I'm so fucking sorry. I'm not right, I'm not gonna be right, and I'm ne-"
"I told you to stop apologizing." She cuts him off, her hand sliding down to his thigh as a grounding force. "We're both fucked up." Reze says as her lip twitches into a smile.
"And I wanna be fucked up with you."
A small huff of a laugh breaks through her words at the end.
After a long, raspy breath, Jin rests his forehead against hers, finally allowing the warmth to break through.
"I wanna be fucked up with you, too."
'