The flames in the distance weren't just smoke and destruction anymore.They were a promise, war cry ,a reckoning stitched in firelight.
Lilly moved like a woman reborn stitched back together with vengeance and the memory of a rose crushed beneath a child's body.
Sam followed, silent but steady, still gripping the broken breaker panel like it was their last lifeline. Her gaze never left Lilly's trembling hands, the fury stitched beneath her skin.
"Lilly," she whispered. "We need to slow down."
"No," Lilly snapped. "No more slowing. No more second-guessing. She killed him, Sam. She used me to do it."
They emerged from the blacksite's underground maw, the blast damage behind them groaning like a dying beast. Ava was nowhere to be seen—again. As always.
And that? That was the final match on the gasoline.
"Where the hell is she?" Lilly seethed, storming through smoke. "Hiding? Playing her games again?"
Sam reached out, fingers brushing Lilly's arm, hesitant. "She might be—"
"She's a coward. She runs every time the truth gets close. She lies with kisses and sets the world on fire with half-truths and manipulation and—"
A voice like velvet over broken bones cut through the smoke.
"Now now, that's no way to talk about your ex."
Ava.
Leaning casually against a crumbling wall, blood smeared across her temple like warpaint. A cut split her bottom lip, but her smirk? Untouched.
Lilly froze.
Sam tensed.
Ava's gaze dropped to the breaker panel, then slid up to Lilly's eyes like a knife being unsheathed.
"Cute souvenir," Ava said. "What did I miss?"
"Your exit," Sam hissed. "Again."
"I was gathering intel."
"You ran. Again."
"I ran to stay alive, darling," Ava purred, stepping closer. "Unlike some people, I don't throw myself at bombs for fun."
Lilly shoved Sam gently aside and stepped forward.
"This ends tonight," she said.
"Oh? You finally gonna kill me, babygirl?" Ava smirked. "That would be hot."
"Don't call me that."
Ava's smile turned razor-sharp. "You don't get to be righteous. Not after what we did in Havana."
"You made me—"
"I didn't force your finger on that trigger. You did it. And then you let me kiss you after."
Lilly lunged.
Sam grabbed her, held her back.
But it was too late.
The rage was old. Ancient. From Havana rooftops and Havana sins. From the memory of a white rose turning red.
Lilly broke free.
Fist to cheekbone.
Blood.
Ava stumbled, laughed, then tackled Lilly into the dirt.
They rolled. Scraped. Swung. It was teeth and nails and old wounds reopened.
Sam tried to pull them apart, but—
A scream cracked the sky.
Not Lilly.
Not Ava.
Someone else.
The smoke parted—and there she was.
The Woman in White.
Her presence stopped the fight cold. Her boots didn't touch the ground, not really. Her smile was carved from grief, and her hands were slick with something worse than blood.
"Playtime's over," she said.
Lilly scrambled up, chest heaving. Ava coughed, spitting blood into the dust.
"You're real," Sam whispered.
"I'm inevitable."
"What do you want?" Lilly asked.
"I already told you," the woman said, head tilting, eyes glinting like stars about to die. "Mercy died in Havana. And now?"
She raised her hand again, that same spark flaring in her palm.
"Now it's your turn to lose everything."