🖤━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🖤

Content Warning

This episode contains themes of:

– Sexual content & nudity

– Sexual coercion / manipulation

– Physical & emotional abuse

– Drug / substance influence

Please read with care. 🖤

🖤━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🖤

The night swallowed the rest...

The lights were dim. The tech was humming.

Thistle was waiting.

She always was.

Rue landed hard on the platform, boots clanging against the metal.

Didn’t speak. Didn’t hesitate.

Thistle looked up from the console she was half-pretending to work on. One glance at Rue’s face, and her lips parted in a soft, knowing smile.

She liked it when Rue came like this.

Broken.

Breathless.

Thistle didn’t ask permission. She stood. She approached.

Rue caught her by the throat.

Not gently.

She laughed—soft and thrilled—as Rue shoved her back against the wall.

“You needed me bad this time, huh?”

Rue didn’t answer. Her slit-mouth pressed against Thistle’s jaw—not kissing, just silencing. Her hands bruised Thistle’s hips, making her feel the rage, the ache, the hunger Rue couldn’t tear out of herself.

Thistle moaned, arching into her, loving the violence.

Rue’s mind flickered—

Luma’s laugh in the wind.

The scent of rain and surrender.

The way her body opened under Rue’s hands.

Rue’s growl deepened. Rougher. Emptier.

Thistle gasped, mistaking it for passion. “You missed me, didn’t you?”

Rue yanked her by the hair, slamming her against the desk.

The ghost-chain burned hotter.

Thistle laughed breathlessly, drunk on the roughness. “… you still take me apart like no one else. My Darling…”

That word.

Darling.

It hit harder than any bullet.

Rue froze. Her grip tightened—then, with a violent shove, she yanked Thistle up by her horns and tossed her aside. She stumbled, crashing against the desk..

For a moment, Thistle just stared at her—eyes wide, lips parted. Then her mouth twisted into a shaky, bitter smile, half-mocking, half-wounded.

Rue’s voice came out low. Raw. Final.

No softness.

No forgiveness.

No second chances.

Just truth.

Rue turned on her heel. Wings glitching and flashing like knives. Boots striking like thunder as she stalked toward the exit—never once looking back.

The city blurred below. The stars above didn’t blink.

Rue’s fists clenched so tightly her nails dug into her palms.

Luma’s scent was still on her skin. Still in her lungs. Still coiled around her like a velvet chain.

She gritted her teeth.

I’m not your fucking darling.

The words echoed like empty casings.

But still, her chest burned.

The rooftop was quiet.

Cold.

Not abandoned.

A small figure stirred against the stone slab—wrapped in an oversized black jacket, sleeves hanging long past delicate fingers.

Luma shifted, murmuring something into the collar. Half-dream, half-desire.

“Smokey Eyes…”

The chain clinked faintly across her lap.

She didn’t open her eyes. She didn’t need to.

But even through the haze, she felt it—freedom, fury, flight. Still wrapped around her like Rue’s aura. Like Rue’s touch.

A small, exhausted smile touched her lips.

“Smokey Eyes…”

Rue didn’t remember turning back—

but she was there.

Landing silent at the far edge of the rooftop.

Not approaching.

Not daring.

Just watching.

She was... glowing even in her sleep.

You don’t belong here anymore, she told herself.

You don’t get to hold what you break.

But she stayed in the shadows anyway.

Breathless. Wishing.

She didn’t move until the stars faded into dawn.

And when Luma stirred, Rue turned. Wings unfolding in silence.

She left again.

Not with anger.

Not with chains.

Just with the unbearable ache of knowing she should have never returned...

— SURVEILLANCE LOG —

LOCATION: Black Nest – Bay 7E Observation Deck

TIME: 04:17 AM

Visual feed: split screen.

Top left — Rue in shadow, wings flickering like regret.

Bottom right — Luma curled in Rue’s jacket, asleep.

Amaya watched in silence, arms crossed, tea cooling beside her.

She leaned closer. Whispered to no one:

“You didn’t look like a predator.”

“You looked like you forgot how to breathe.”

She shut off the feed. The screen went black.

And when Rue came through the Nest gates forty minutes later—face blank, jaw set, pretending nothing happened—

Amaya only raised a brow over her tea.

Rue flinched.

And for the first time in years....Amaya smiled.....