Twilight and Flash, hands still entwined, walked into the vaulted steel room of the command centre. An array of monitors and attached computer consoles dominated most of the area barring a row of windows along one wall that showed a laboratory accessible by a steel door to the side.

Lying dead in a chair placed perfectly in the center of the room was Spike.

Both stopped just before him. Twilight took in the ravaged corpse, the massive hole in his head, the gouges across his body. She felt herself shake from the emotion trying to claw its way out of her.

A comforting squeeze of her hand caused her to turn to face Flash. With a sympathetic look, he brushed away the beginnings of tears in her eyes.

“Do you need some time?” Flash asked quietly.

Walking up to the corpse, Twilight scanned over the body and found what she was looking for around its neck.

Ripping the keycard off the cord, she turned to Flash with a determined look on her face. “No, we have to survive first.” She looked back one more time at Spike before going to the nearest console. “I can mourn when we escape.”

Flash placed a hand on Twilight’s shoulder as she began searching the cameras for signs of Trixie. “What do you need me to do?”

“Go to one of the other stations and get a read on the other group’s progress. We need to know how close they are.”

“On it, Twilight,” Flash said.

She felt him leave and felt a momentary pang of loss at the removal of his touch. Shaking her head and admonishing herself silently for getting too caught up in the wrong things, she set to work on her task.

After a moment, she came upon the camera that faced into the corridor Trixie had gone down. A few more clicks and she came to the corpse of her.

A hole was punctured through the side of her head, dried blood caked onto rips and tears in her suit. Twilight closed her eyes to fight back another rise of emotion.

Another one of her team was gone.

“Twilight you need to get over here!” Flash called out.

Snapping open her eyes, she dashed to the monitor Flash was at, his face marred by a scowl.

“What’s happening?” Twilight asked.

“Tempest is on her way from the mine shaft and is entering through the lab,” Flash answered. “I also found Moon Dancer, Starlight, and Maud. They…” He frowned. “They’re dead.”

Numb from loss, Twilight could only close her eyes. “We can only hope that Shadow has the other keycards so we can escape together. How close is she?”

“Very.” Flash gripped the edge of the console, his knuckles going white, small tremors racing through his hands.

“And Adagio is right behind her.”

Tempest hobbled through the doors and into a spacious laboratory. Long tables with cabinets filled with precisely labeled chemicals. Several emergency levers were placed intermittently through the space that Tempest knew would initiate a lockout if pulled.

She stumbled forward using the tables as crutches, staying upright through sheer force of will.

Through the wall length window across from her, she saw Twilight and Flash racing to the door she was moving towards. As she arrived, it slid open revealing a frazzled Twilight.

“Shadow!” She jolted forward with her arms open to hug Tempest, but stopped short. She coughed into her hand embarrassed. “Good to see you alive, Staff Sergeant. Do you have the keycards?”

“Yes, here.” Tempest shoved the keycards into Twilight’s hands. “Adagio is right behind me, we need to slow her down.”

“We could shut the lab doors from the console,” Flash suggested, “stall her while we make our way back the way we came.”

“Pointless,” Tempest retorted. “I’ve been watching her tear through everything on my way here. A few doors, no matter how strong or thick they are, aren’t going to stop her from getting to us.”

“Should we just make a run for it back the way we came?” Flash said.

“You two might make it, but…” Tempest looked down at her injured leg. “I don’t think I’ll get there with you.”

“Then we need to think of a new plan,” Twilight said. “Has anything worked on her thus far? I doubt any of you went down without a fight.”

“No, anything we throw at her, she just heals or regenerates from.”

Twilight’s eyes widened as a plan began to form in her mind. “Have you managed to destroy any part of her?”

“No, why? What are you thinking?”

“What if we blow up the lab with her in it?” Twilight said. “Destroy every piece of her in one go. She can’t heal or regenerate from nothing. It’s not biologically possible.”

“That could work.” Flash frowned. “But how do we set this up?”

Tempest closed her eyes as she considered the variables and realized the inevitable conclusion. “We don’t.”

Twilight gave her a confused expression. “What do you—”

Stepping back into the lab, Tempest slammed the emergency lever down next to the door causing an alarm to blare and the doors to slam down on both sides of the lab. Red light flooded the room as the emergency protocols activated.

Ignoring the frantic slamming noises on the door from presumably Twilight, Tempest started searching for what she needed to blow up that monster. A quick perusal of a nearby cabinet got her a portable blowtorch, but nothing explosive.

Racking her brain through explosive chemicals that her roommate Moon Dancer had once recited to her on a particularly stressful examination day, she scanned across the room using her zoom scope.

A slam from the door leading to the mine shaft drew her attention for a moment.

“Come out and play!” Adagio sang through the steel as the sound of ripping metal filled the room.

Quickly running out of time, Tempest renewed her search in earnest and happened upon a white canister labeled “Isopropyl Ether” on one of the tables. Perfect explosive material.

She hobbled towards it, desperate to fulfill her last mission.

As she neared the canister, she felt a powerful force push her to the ground. Cackling with clawed hands, Adagio shredded Tempest in the back causing her to scream as red hot agony radiated from her back.

“Got you, little Shadow.” Adagio cackled again, a mad screeching sound. Electrical burns criss crossed her face from where Maud had punched her giving her a deranged look. “What are you up to?”

Tempest looked to a nearby open shelf under the table. Inside were several carelessly open glass tubes of clear liquid. A stroke of luck as one particular tube was labeled “Bleach”.

She recalled some pertinent information about chemical safety and grabbed the tube with an evil grin spreading across her face.

“Oh, and what’s— AH!” Adagio screamed as Tempest tossed the bleach from the tube directly into her eyes.

Adagio got off of Tempest as she fell back, rubbing at her eyes and causing the bleach to spread.

Not wanting to waste her only opportunity, Tempest gritted through the pain and hauled herself up using the table. Throwing her body across the surface, she grabbed the canister, twisted off the cap roughly and shoved the spout of the portable burner into the open top.

A flick of her finger caused flames to erupt from the spout.

Adagio looked in her direction, rage etched into her face as much as the chemicals burned into her eyeballs.

“You bitch!” She screamed.

“Go to Tartarus,” Tempest calmly replied.

Then the world exploded in a fiery blaze.

Twilight struggled back to her feet, throwing herself at the blackened window, her ungloved hands landing with a smack. “Sergeant!” she cried. “Shadow? Tempest?! Answer me, damn it!”

“Twilight…” Flash said, reaching out to set a hand on her shoulder.

Twilight shrugged it off and snagged her helmet off the floor, swapping between infrared to ultraviolet to every other detection method it had. “Staff Sergeant Tempest Shadow, answer me!”

“Twilight, she’s not--”

Shrieking wordlessly, Twilight slammed a fist against the transparent aluminium alloy between her and her last remaining survivor. “Celestia, damn it, answer me or I will have you court-martialed so hard your great-grandaughters’ll be feeling the aftereffects!”

Nothing.

Flash set another hand on Twilight’s shoulder, one she didn’t shrug off this time. “She’s gone, Twilight. She took Adagio with her, but… she’s gone.”

“...damn it,” Twilight whispered as she reached up and clawed the helmet back off her head, letting it collapse to the ground with a clatter. Her eyes watered up till moisture flowed freely down her cheeks. “Celestia damn it!”

She collapsed onto the floor, forcibly removing more and more of her armor as she sobbed, until she’d scattered it everywhere, leaving her in plain BDUs.

“Hey, hey,” Flash cooed, sitting down next to her. He opened up his arms, and she sank into them without regret. “It’s going to be okay.”

“Is it?” she muttered as she snuggled up against him. While never the most muscular of men, Flash was nevertheless toned, and she could feel every bit of his warm flesh through their thin uniforms. The comfort of simple human touch caused her to curl up more, until she was splayed out all over him. “I got them all killed, Flash… all of them. Sunburst, Moon Dancer, Trixie, Starlight, Maud, Tempest… they were counting on me, and now they’re all gone.”

Flash wrapped his arms tightly around her, pulling her in further. Her ear fell upon his chest, and she could clearly hear his heartbeat.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

“They knew the risks when they signed up, same as the rest of us,” Flash said quietly. He brushed one hand along her spine, down from the base of her neck to the center of her back. She shivered under the touch and clutched him harder. “But hey, like I said… Tempest got Adagio.”

Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

“Are we sure?” Twilight swallowed, her throat heavy and thick from snot. This was why she hated crying, more than anything else, how painful it left her throat afterwards. “Are we sure it’s over?”

Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

“I’m pretty sure.” Flash gave her one last squeeze, then released her and stood up. “I can check the cameras, make sure there’s nothing left.”

“Please!” Twilight said, louder than she intended. She held one hand to her breast. “Please,” she repeated, quieter this time. “I… I want to be sure.”

As she joined him over by the control console, she could hear her own heartbeat hammering in her ears.

Ba-da-dum. Ba-da-dum.

While he checked the cameras, Twilight switched on the thermal sensors and various other detection equipment. “Looks like she completely obliterated herself,” Twilight murmured as she scanned the area. “Tempest, I mean. There’s so much evaporated blood and gore everywhere…”

“About as bad as the rest of them, it seems,” Flash agreed. He made a face as he switched the cameras off. “You uh, you don’t want to see what it looks like.”

“No. I don’t.”

Ba-da-dum. Ba-da-dum.

Twilight continued to run analyses of the air. “Looks like a lot of strange particles there too…stuff I don’t recognize.”

Flash sidled up to her, closer than he needed to be, but she didn’t mind. He glanced down at the panel. “I recognize it. I saw it show up once when someone tried to use a makeshift flamethrower on Adagio. It was the only thing that seemed to do any real damage. I think it’s safe to say Tempest’s firebomb killed her.”

“Then it’s done,” Twilight said, her voice heavy. “At least… everything except that Primal entity you told us about. Do you know where--”

Flash held up a finger to Twilight’s lips, jacking up her heart rate.

Ba-da-da-dum. Ba-da-da-dum.

“I don’t think we need to worry about that right now,” Flash said. He dropped his finger, brushing his thumb along Twilight’s cheek. She took in a sharp breath as he closed the distance, his other hand running down her side. “I don’t know about you, but I’m just happy to be alive right now.”

Ba-da-da-dum. Ba-da-da-dum.

“Uuh, um, yeah,” Twilight breathed. Maybe it was the stress of battle, of survival, the relief of living through what had killed so many of her fellow soldiers, but something in Twilight caught fire and lit up her body, filling her with a sudden need for closeness. And here was Flash.

So she moved up against him, pressing their bodies together, unable to resist a gasp as she felt him poking into her hip. “Me-me too.”

“Twilight,” Flash panted, his hand on her side lowering to cup her rear, his other falling towards her breast. “Is… this is okay, right? I, we--”

She kissed him.

Ba-da-da-da-dum. Ba-da-da-da-dum.

His lips tasted like sweat and desperation, the same as hers no doubt. It was nevertheless a bouquet that stirred her like crazy, their tongues intermingling as her hands wandered up and down his body. She allowed him to walk them over to one of the empty control console chairs, setting her down in it while he hovered over her, breaking the kiss only to trail his lips down her neck.

“Oh… Flash… Flash,” she moaned, her eyes beginning to moisten again with fresh tears, though from ecstasy or overwhelmed emotion she couldn’t say. She pushed him away long enough to strip off her shirt and bra, baring her breasts to him.

Ba-da-da-da-da-dum. Ba-da-da-da-da-dum.

Flash laughed, a low, almost sadistic sounding laugh that made Twilight shiver to her bones from delight. “Oh wow, I missed seeing these,” he said, his hands freely exploring her skin as he resumed kissing her neck. “You’re. So. Beautiful.”

Then he moved one hand to rub on her belly, and she let out a loud moan.

Ba-da-da-da-da-dum. Ba-da-da-da-da-dum.

“Flash,” she whispered, arching her back as she allowed him full access to her. “I’m so glad you’re here. I love you.”

“You love me?” he chuckled, refusing to stop.

“Yes!” she cried out as his teeth nipped at her shoulder. “Yes, f-fuck, yes, I love you, Flash.”

Ba-da-da-da-da-da-dum.

“Are you sure about that?”

Ba-da-da-da-da-da-dum.

She laughed, her eyes squeezed shut as his hand moved to sit directly on her left breast, the other snaking down to the straps of her BDU pants. “Of course.”

Ba-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da….

Dum.

Her eyes shot open, bugging out of her skull as sheer agony replaced the ecstasy flooding her system. Her mouth gaped open, her breath coming in short, sudden gasps, blood trickling from both sides of her mouth as she stared down.

At her heart, clutched in Flash’s claws, ripped right out of her chest.

“What…” she gasped, even as her vision turned grey and fuzzy, her whole body slumping in the chair. “What…you… why…”

Flash beamed at her. “Love can really hurt like a bitch sometimes, don’t you think? Especially when you’re separated for a long time, pining after someone you wished never left. Didn't hurt me a bit, but you? I know you better. You were hurting for a long time, weren't you? Well, why don’t you just eat your heart out then?”

He opened his mouth, revealing a full set of razor sharp teeth identical to Adagio’s as he tore into the heart, unleashing a gush of blood all over Twilight’s body, splattering her face and into her mouth and eyes.

And then, as everything faded away into nothingness, Twilight could only think one thing.

He set us up. He used me.

Used.

Used used used used used…

…used….

Author's Note

And that's the end... well, the end for now. We've got a few details about how this was supposed to end we can go into in a blog entry once Otter and I have some time. For now, I hope you enjoyed this short little horror tale. It took me out of my comfort zone, but it also took Otter out of his (being sci-fi) so it made for a fun interesting little collab.

Thanks for reading.