Every second felt like a heartbeat missed—every breath like it was scraped from smoke. I couldn't see where the battlefield ended anymore. It was all just motion and chaos and fire and guilt.
But through the storm, I saw them.
Diamond.
Lightning burst from her body like she'd ripped it straight out of the sky. Her arms were cut open, eyes burning—but she moved like nothing else mattered. Not the blood. Not the pain.
Not the betrayal.
My betrayal.
Behind her, Marcus let out a grunt and drove a pillar of acid straight through the chest of a charging Nomu. The beast let out a shriek before melting into bubbling sludge. "Eliza! Take the right!"
Eliza Kirishima, cheeks bruised and knuckles bleeding, slammed her fists together and hardened—stone laced with metal. "Got it!"
She bulldozed through three more Nomu like she was made of steel.
And then I saw Ryan.
Frost snaked down his arms as he crouched, eyes narrowed, calculating, like he always did before setting a plan in motion. "They're clustering again! I'll freeze the front—Diamond, supercharge the field!"
I wanted to shout. To tell them to stop. To get back. That they were too hurt.
But I knew they wouldn't.
They never did.
Not when people were in danger. Not when I was in danger.
Even now.
Even after everything.
Riley—goddess, she looked like she was going to drop any second. Her legs were trembling. One eye swollen shut. But her hands were raised to the clouds, hair whipping in the wind, voice cracked as she called out:
"Clear the air—STORM STRIKE!"
Thunder answered her.
Lightning lanced across the sky—her lightning—and the Nomu screamed.
They were fighting harder now.
Not just for survival.
For me.
And I never deserved it.
I ducked under a flying Nomu slash and drove my fist into its core, tearing through mutated flesh. As it fell, I launched up again—high enough to see the full scope of the madness.
Zane landed beside me, one arm slack and face soaked in blood.
"They're adapting again," he muttered. "Faster."
"How many?"
"Too many." He glanced at me. "And another Joker gate just opened."
Of course it did.
I turned my eyes back to the battlefield—then I saw her.
Diamond.
She looked up at me.
Through me.
Her eyes didn't shine like they used to when we were kids sneaking off to prank Kaminari. They weren't full of laughter or wild fire anymore.
They were tired.
They were betrayed.
"You lied to us…" she whispered. I saw it on her lips. I felt it in my chest like a stab.
Ryan turned to her. "We'll yell later. First, we survive."
Riley let out a raspy chuckle. "Then we kill him."
I almost laughed.
Almost.
A Nomu lunged from the side—I obliterated it mid-air.
Still standing.
Still burning.
I don't know how I held myself together when I saw them like this—Marcus limping, Eliza's arm hanging loosely, Ryan's frost flickering, Riley coughing blood.
And still, they moved in sync.
Like the team we used to be.
Like the team they thought I was still a part of.
They didn't know if they loved me or hated me right now.
But they were here.
And I felt the weight of it in every step.
I closed my eyes for just a second, pulled a breath through my cracked lips, and forced myself to believe I could keep going.
Then Zane's voice hit my comm again. "Phantom. You ready for the final phase?"
I looked down.
At my friends.
At my brother still somewhere in the smoke, broken and confused.
At the ruins of the life I built and the truth I tried to bury.
And I answered:
"Let's end this."