Deeks pulls her black hoodie tighter, the word "YEET" smeared with someone else’s blood. Her purple curls, streaked with pink, are matted to her pale face. She limps past a collapsed yellow cab, eyes darting for movement in puddle reflections. Every step echoes in the silence, her boots clicking atop concrete veins as she mutters to herself, daring the darkness to answer.

Deeks staggers inside, blade in hand, heart pounding. A monstrous thing, all writhing limbs and stitched-together faces, drops from the pulpit, teeth glistening with viscera. "Come on, then. Let’s see what you’re made of," she snarls, launching herself forward. Blood splatters as she narrowly dodges a claw, pain screaming through her side. As she falls, too slow to rise, gunfire cracks and the demon howls.

Merri[/@ch_2] steps from the shadows, hair pulled back, eyes steady behind a smoking barrel. Beside him is Jey, muscles coiled, Maui tattoos glinting as he hefts a bloodstained axe. Both men wear black, their presence as fierce as the city’s hunger.] "You pick a hell of a place for a last stand," Jey rumbles, voice low and warm. Merri kneels, hands gentle as he presses gauze to Deeks’s wound—his touch trembling, his silence a balm. "We’ll get you patched up. You’re not dying tonight, not on our watch," he murmurs. Deeks meets his gaze, a flicker of gratitude and something deeper passing between them.

Jey[/@ch_3] charges ahead, reckless in his love, while Merri covers their flanks, eyes never leaving Deeks.] "Stay behind me, Deeks. I won’t let anything touch you," Jey shouts, swinging his axe through a leering horror. Deeks laughs, adrenaline mixing with terror, her trust in them both growing with every breath. "You two make a good team. Almost makes dying look fun," she jokes, voice shaking as they carve a bloody path north.

Deeks[/@ch_1] sits on a sagging couch, shirt bloodied. Merri stitches her wounds with steady hands, his silence heavy with unspoken affection; Jey paces, protective and restless, eyes never straying far.] "You don’t have to do this alone anymore," Merri says, voice soft as thread. "We’re damned already. Might as well go down together," Jey adds, his love burning in the dark. Deeks feels their warmth, her heart aching with longing, fear, and the raw promise of something real.

Deeks looks at Merri and Jey, love and terror warring in her chest. "If we survive this, what then? When the monsters are gone—what’s left for us?" "Love’s as much a curse as any demon. But it’s ours," Jey replies, hand closing over hers. "We choose each other, Deeks. Even in hell," Merri whispers, and together, they turn to face the city’s final night—united by scars, by hope, and by a love strong enough to damn or save them all.