TRIGGER WARNING: Violence, blood, gun usage, character death.

This entrance led straight into a maze of underground tunnels.

Stella tsked, careful to keep her voice low as she surveyed the walls, adorned with the damaged fossils of ancient creatures, brusquely broken apart to create clumsy, claustrophobic tunnels that Gill had to hunch over like some kind of giant gremlin in. "What a shame... this area is rich with Cosmos history. Pity they've vandalized it all."

"Let's not get into a history lesson, shall we?" Gill grumbled, walking half-stooped to avoid conking his brain out on the low ceiling.

"Aww, is someone being Mistew Gwumpy?" Maya asked, pouting at him in a very over-exaggerated fashion.

Gill extended a calm middle finger at her- both Maya and Stella were just short enough that their heads were a few inches shy of the low ceiling.

Maya would've continued poking fun at him and enjoying his reaction, except her head suddenly snapped to the left.

"How many?" Gill asked, the mock-scowl on his face immediately fading in favor of focus.

"Ten. Maybe nine," Maya amended, brow furrowing. "Tunnel opens into a fairly open space. Could probably take 'em out before they raise the alarm."

Stella nodded at that, glancing at the half-demon. "Gill-"

"Yeah, yeah..."

Gill blinked, staring hard at the wall.

Footsteps.

Echoing in the cavern near them.

Maya immediately shot down the tunnel as Gill kept up a deliberate- not quick, but very purposeful stride, each footstep echoing dozens of feet away in the cavern beyond, careful to keep it even. Stella broke into a surprisingly quick run (how the fuck was she doing that in heels)-

Maya had clubbed one over the head with her staff before they could even think to turn back around, a spray of blood hitting the floor.

The group had barely begun to spin back around to face them, one of them already slumping lifelessly to the ground, when Stella brought up her leg in a sharp kick-

The knife-sharp edge of the heel bludgeoned into the side of one of the demon's heads, sending that one dropping to the floor with a screech before skidding a few feet backwards over the craggy stone ground, dead.

A demon, shocked by the sudden assault, opened their mouth to scream for backup-

A gunshot sent all of their ears ringing, the demon crumpling to the floor like a clumsy house of cards, blood and brains smeared on the floor behind them, mouth gaping open to let the blood ooze out.

Maya was already behind another and sharply twisting her staff; another fell to the ground, neck snapped in an instant.

One was lunging at Stella, fumbling for a knife- Stella casually sidestepped, letting their momentum carry them past her and straight into the path of the bullet Gill sent their way.

"You're surprisingly good at combat," Maya grunted, ducking under a clumsy swipe from a demon and hammering a blow into the side of their head immediately.

"It'd be a bit inconvenient if I wasn't, seeing as I'm a baron," was Stella's calm (though slightly-breathless) reply as she swept her leg up in another high kick and slammed it down on a demon who had dropped to the ground from a throat-punch an instant earlier.

"Have you ever fought Petra?"

"Are you kidding? She'd kill me instantly," Stella chuckled, swaying to one side with an effortless motion as another demon lunged at her.

A moment later, there was a loud bleat, and Gill turned around to see a llama spit into the last demon's eye. The demon fumbled, stumbling, and the llama immediately jumped upon them and started stomping with vigor. The floor beneath was immediately staining red with blood.

"How the hell did Lluna get here?" Gill asked, turning to Stella as she carefully wiped the bladed heel with a rag, the demon who'd attacked her lifeless on the floor.

"Don't ask me. Sometimes I'll leave her in Champion City while I go to visit Sky City and she'll randomly appear in a meeting."

Maya looked around, counting- then nodded. "It was nine."

Gill sighed and put his pistol away, after flicking the safety back on and giving it a careful test to make sure it wouldn't fire. "Think we got them all in time?"

"Yeah. Come on, let's hurry. Jesse..." Maya's voice faltered slightly.

There was a world of unsaid uncertainty in that falter.

Gill, for once, didn't bother sniping at Maya- he just nodded, already turning towards the path ahead. "Sure. Lead the way?"

Without warning, Maya yelped. Gill and Stella whipped to see a circle of glowing, red runes around Maya's throat.

"Whoa, what the hell...?" Gill reached up in an effort to swat the runes away.

His hand barely got near them before he gave his own yelp and jumped back, shaking his gloved hand furiously- the leather had almost melted where he'd touched it, leaving a clumsy imitation of the rune in his glove and a tiny spark of flame trying to eat away at the rest of it.

"Fucking moron, you didn't notice the fire sigil in there?" Maya snarked, though there was a barely audible tremor to her voice. She was clearly a little shocked.

Holding it together remarkably well, though.

"You think you're clever, huh?"

Everyone swivelled (well, minus Maya, since she couldn't move her head less than an inch to the side before the runes felt dangerously hot near her skin) to look at the demon blocking the path ahead, bloodied and battered but still able to hold up the staff.

Blood poured from a large wound in the demon's side- it was clear the demon wasn't long for this world.

That said, that didn't mean it wouldn't take a single moment, a single word to cause the circle of runes to sear into Maya's throat.

"You surrender now, or her head goes."

"Let's not be rash," Stella said calmly, though when she raised her hand in a placating gesture, Gill noticed the tips of her fingers trembling slightly.

Lluna bleated, and the circle of runes got smaller. Maya muttered a curse- the heat from the runes, not even from touching her, but just being near her, was already causing the beginnings of a burn on her neck.

"You don't have a bargaining chip. Put your hands up."

In her peripheral, Stella did so.

Gill didn't.

She couldn't read his expression- his face was barely in her peripheral, and it kind of hurt to try to look at him directly from the angle she was at without turning her head.

"Hey, Maya?"

"What do you want, dipshit?" she muttered back, wondering what the hell he was doing.

"Let me know if you want any purple hyacinths, okay?"

"The fuck are you-" Maya started, before it clicked.

Purple hyacinths... that's right, they talked about it shortly prior. Something about human floriography.

What had it meant?

"Hands up, now!" The demon, confused by the conversation but perturbed by it, tightened the ring of runes even further- they were now so close that Maya couldn't even tremble without fear of accidentally grazing the runes.

"Okay, okay. Sheesh, don't be so high strung." Gill put his hands up, surprisingly calmly.

The demon relaxed the ring of runes slightly. Maya was puzzling through her memory- it was a human flower. It had a meaning. Lukas had told her this.

So what was it?

Fast, hard footsteps, all of a sudden- like someone was running in-

"Ah, that'd be our reinforcements," Gill said, absently.

What reinforcements? Maya thought, desperately. What the hell is the moron doing, we don't have anyone coming-

The demon whipped around, the runes warping, then fizzling out from the shock-

Gill shot forward, at the demon- the footsteps fizzled out, and the demon, realizing it was a trick, spun back around-

Stella was seizing Maya's arm. "We need to go, Maya," and it said so much that she wasn't calling her "sweetie" or "darling" or "sweetheart", just Maya, and they were already moving towards the exit- Maya turned to look behind her-

What does it mean?

Gill was wrestling with the other demon now, trying to keep them down, fingers digging into the demon's throat, and making no move to follow-

Maya heard rather than saw the slither of a knife on cloth.

Gill was fumbling his pistol out, pressing it to the demon's head.

A knife was at the demon's side already.

Gill clumsily flicked off the safety one-handed- still struggling against the thrashing demon beneath him (rough movements disguising the movement)

She opened her mouth to yell- warn him-

Maya couldn't scream. Maybe it was discipline from knowing this was a stealth mission.

Maybe it was shock.

His eyes flickered to the knife.

... oh.

He knew.

Gill fired, gunshot echoing through the cavern.

The demon didn't move.

Gill sat back on his haunches, Stella still yanking Maya down the hallway, trying to make her look away.

He sat there for what felt like a long time.

Maybe it was really just the length of a breath.

Because she couldn't breathe right now.

Then he slumped backwards, the gun clattering once on the ground beside him, and the silence was so loud that Maya almost couldn't hear the roar of blood in her ears.

Ah.

Gill didn't get back up.

... dick.

There was a pool of blood forming around him.

Jerk, asshole, fuckhead, how dare you, how dare you do this, how dare you let yourself get hurt, how dare you-

Then they were around a corner, and Maya couldn't see him anymore.

That's what it had meant.

"Gill," she croaked out, far too quietly for him to hear.

Please forgive me.

How dare you die like this.