POV – Michael
The forest was broken.
Ash drifted like dirty snow through the still air, and the ground cracked beneath Michael's boots with each step. Smoke still curled off the splintered trees. In the center of the blast zone, Steve lay sprawled in the dirt—broken.
His arms were limp. One leg twitched at an odd angle. Blood seeped beneath him in slow, thick streams, soaking into the blackened soil.
Michael stood over him, silent.
The red crystal pulsed gently inside his coat, warm against his ribs. Behind him, Mary was still unconscious—curled near a charred stump, motionless. He hadn't checked on her yet. He couldn't—not until this was done.
Steve let out a short, wet laugh, blood flecking his teeth. "You're really gonna kill me after all we've been through?"
Michael didn't answer. His pistol remained lowered—but not forgotten.
Steve coughed again, pain twisting his voice. "This place? This whole thing? It was already rotting. They just didn't know it yet."
Michael's eyes didn't waver. "You sold us out."
"To something better," Steve hissed, smiling through blood. "DARKOM was already dying. Politics, chains, lies. The demon offered power. Real purpose. And I took it."
Michael's jaw clenched. His voice came quiet, even. "You led them into a slaughter."
"I survived." Steve's smile turned bitter, almost proud. "And I could've finished her clean. Quick. No suffering. Mercy."
Michael's gaze drifted to Mary.
Her chest still moved.
He looked back at Steve.
"You're a coward."
For a moment, Steve didn't reply. Then he blinked, expression shifting—less pain, more defiance.
"So what now?" he rasped. "Execution?"
Michael didn't respond. Instead, he slowly holstered his weapon and stepped forward.
He knelt beside Steve, meeting him eye to eye.
"I won't kill you," Michael said, voice low. "You get to live with it."
Steve stared.
"I'll make sure everyone knows what you did. You'll rot in a cage until you beg for death. Until the world forgets your name. And all that's left is this moment."
Steve's face contorted—"disbelief" first, then "rage".
Michael stood, looking down at him with something close to contempt.
"You're not worth a bullet."
And he turned.
Walked away.
Left Steve bleeding in the dirt, alone with the weight of his own betrayal.
POV – Baines | DARKOM HQ
The halls were silent now.
Vice President Baines moved with methodical steps, his pistol held close to his side, trigger ready. Every corridor he passed was the same—dead lights, overturned chairs, blood drying on tile.
No bodies had been left whole.
His boots crunched glass as he stepped into another hallway.
No alarms.
No breathing.
No signs of life.
Only stillness.
'This wasn't a breach', he thought. It was a massacre.
The kind you don't come back from.
He entered the operations control wing. The reinforced doors were open—forced inward, not broken. There was no struggle. Just… abandonment.
Inside, the central room was wrecked—console screens shattered, cords torn free, surveillance systems looped into frozen fragments of earlier footage.
One monitor still worked.
It flickered with recordings from the building hours before. Men and women dropped with silent precision. Blood drawn with surgical efficiency. No screams. No alerts.
The feed stopped.
Baines exhaled slowly, lowered his weapon slightly.
That's when he saw it.
Across the chamber, near the central vault door, stood a figure. Still. Watching.
Tall, robed in a cloak that shimmered like ash caught in starlight. Its form was lean, but fluid—its presence too still, too deliberate.
And its eyes glowed—two orbs of dim, shifting red light, like burning coals buried deep in oil.
"You made it further than expected," the demon said, voice smooth and calm.
Baines didn't hesitate.
He raised the pistol and fired.
The bullet hit—headshot. A clean, perfect strike.
The demon staggered back, then tilted its head and chuckled.
"A weapon like that won't work on me."
Baines stepped slowly backward toward the wall.
His fingers brushed a recessed panel—hidden in the steel.
He flipped it open.
The demon paused. "What are you doing?"
"Ending the chapter," Baines said.
He entered the sequence with calm hands.
The keypad beeped. A quiet chime followed.
CODE BLACK INITIATEDALL UNITS COMPROMISED.ORGANIZATION STATUS: TERMINAL.DETONATION IN: 12 SECONDS
The demon hissed, moving forward.
Too slow.
Baines smiled—just for himself.
"God's plan," he whispered, "was never meant for me."
The screen turned white.
And then his world ended.