Above Downtown – 11:53 p.m.

The news helicopter circled the square in slow, wobbling arcs, its spotlight swinging wildly over the wreckage below.

The camera feed streamed live to every TV and phone in the county—two giant women, hair whipping in the night wind, facing each other in the ruins of the town they once shared.

Nancy, bruised but unbowed, stood tall again, her chest heaving with effort. Honey rose to her full height opposite her, dark hair tangled, her eyes lit with a savage thrill.

From above, the anchor’s voice quavered:

“We’re…we’re witnessing something unprecedented—two women of impossible size—”

The cameraman zoomed in as Nancy took a steadying step forward.

And miles away at the Cobb estate, Hamilton Cobb nearly dropped his whiskey glass as the live feed played across the enormous flat screen.

His daughter—his inconvenient, troublesome daughter—was still alive.

Alive and about to tear the center of town in half. He swallowed hard, a sour taste rising in his throat. He knew that what he had just done in her presumed permanent absence would not go over well with her once she returns.

If she survives, he thought, she’s going to come for everything I took.

He set the glass down with a trembling hand. If she survives.

==

Back in town, Sheriff Denby stood behind the barricade, his big hands braced on the hood of a cruiser. Right beside him, Deputy Charlie Spooner lowered her binoculars, face pale in the strobing red and blue lights.

“Jesus.” she whispered. “She’s…she’s as big as Nancy now.”

Denby didn’t bother to answer. Because he knew the truth in the pit of his stomach: They were powerless to intervene.

No squad car. No rifle. No brave talk over the radio would stop two fifty-foot women from settling their war right here in the middle of town. All he could do was try to keep the bystanders clear—and pray there would be a town left by sunrise.

==

Clock Tower – 11:51 p.m.

Harry’s heart jackhammered as he clung to the brick ledge, the wind tearing through his hair.

Below him, the square was a war zone—pavement split in great spiderwebbed fractures, streetlamps toppled like matchsticks. He dared a glance down. The roofline dropped away at least twenty feet to the top of the courthouse annex.

You can do this, he thought. One ledge at a time.

He shifted his weight carefully, feeling for the old maintenance ladder bolted to the far side of the tower.

His hand found the edge of a rusted metal rung. Thank God.

With a ragged breath, he swung his leg over the ledge and began inching sideways.

Below, Honey’s voice rolled across the square like a siren.

“You think this ends with you standing there, Nancy?” she called. “You think this makes you strong?”

Harry gritted his teeth and kept moving. His foot slipped once—brick crumbling under his sole—but he caught himself on the rung, heart slamming so hard it made his ribs ache.

Just get to the ground. Get clear.

Harry reached the last rung, boots scraping over cracked stone as he dropped the final few feet to the ground.

He stumbled, gasping. A few yards away, an overturned patrol car still hissed steam. He ducked behind it, breathing hard, and looked back just in time to see Nancy brace her feet and raise her fists.

Above him, Nancy’s bare feet dug into the broken asphalt as she straightened to her full, impossible height. Her hair was wild around her shoulders while her ribs throbbed with every breath.

But her eyes were clear.

Honey stood across from her, breathing hard, her dark hair whipping in the wind. The air between them shimmered with heat and tension.

Nancy took one slow step forward.

“You want me on my knees?” she said, her voice low, steady. “You want me to crawl?”

Honey’s smile was bright and cold. “That’s exactly what I want.”

Nancy’s jaw flexed. “Then you’ll have to make me.”

Honey’s laughter echoed off the shattered buildings. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

Nancy squared her shoulders.

For Harry, she thought. For all the times I let myself believe I was less.

She exhaled once—steady, certain. Then she charged.

==

Downtown – 11:54 p.m.

Nancy surged forward in a blur of motion no one would have believed possible for something her size. Her bare feet thundered across the ruined asphalt.

Honey braced herself, lips curling in a savage grin.

Nancy slammed into her, shoulder driving straight into Honey’s midsection.

The impact cracked the pavement in a spiderweb that rippled for a block in every direction.

Honey let out a bark of shock as they tumbled across the square, smashing through the shell of the old bus terminal. Concrete rained down around them as they grappled—two fifty-foot women locked in a tangle of limbs and fury.

Honey’s hand shot up, fingers locking around Nancy’s throat.

Nancy snarled and wrenched free, shoving Honey back hard enough to send her skidding into a row of parked cars that flattened like toys.

For a moment, the two of them froze—panting, glaring.

Nancy’s gaze flicked to the side.

An empty city bus lay tilted on its side in the debris.

Her pulse hammered as she was now ready to fight with everything she had. Moving almost on instinct, she seized the bus in both hands and heaved it upright.

Her feet shifted onto the adjoining highway overpass—one planted in each lane—her massive silhouette framed by the floodlights and the wreckage.

It was a sight so eerily iconic that, for a second, even Honey’s smirk slipped.

Nancy met her eyes across the broken street. Then she raised the bus overhead, arms trembling with the effort.

“My husband doesn’t belong to you!” she growled. And she hurled it.

The battered vehicle spun end over end, slamming into Honey’s chest and knocking her backward through the facade of the courthouse.

Glass and brick exploded in a deafening roar. For a long, breathless moment, the square fell silent—just the hiss of settling dust.

Nancy lowered her arms, chest heaving, hair falling into her eyes.

I am not small, she thought. And I am not afraid.

==

Downtown – 11:56 p.m.

Honey exploded from the rubble in a fury, chunks of masonry tumbling from her shoulders.

“You bitch!” she roared.

Nancy barely had time to brace before Honey was on her—one colossal hand grabbing a fistful of her hair, yanking her sideways. Nancy slammed into the facade of the pawn shop, cracking the brick all the way to the roofline.

Honey’s other hand closed around her throat, squeezing.

“You think you can humiliate me?” she spat, voice vibrating through the walls. “I earned this. You were just handed your power.”

Nancy clawed at Honey’s wrist, gasping.

The world narrowed to the pressure on her windpipe and the gleam in Honey’s eyes.

==

Meanwhile above Earth and Inside the observation chamber, the Triumvirate watched the feed in fascinated silence.

Mei-Lien leaned forward slightly.

“She adapts even faster than we projected.” she murmured.

Rhaela’s pale eyes narrowed. “And she is reckless.”

Sorei’s mouth curved faintly.

“Delay the extraction.” she ordered. “Let them burn their rage out first. We will harvest whichever remains standing.”

==

Nancy wrenched free with a raw scream, shoving Honey back a step. But Honey just laughed, her breath hot on Nancy’s cheek.

“You want him?” she hissed.

Her gaze flicked down—and Nancy’s stomach dropped.

Harry was halfway down the courthouse steps, heart in his throat as he tried to slip clear of the chaos. Honey then lunged. And before he could turn, her massive hand scooped him up like a doll.

“No!” Nancy shouted.

Honey smirked. “Oh, I think yes.”

She lifted Harry in front of her face—her enormous pupils dilating as she studied him. Then she tucked him neatly into the warm, shadowed cleft between her breasts. Harry’s muffled voice rose in a mixture of alarm and something else he wasn’t sure he wanted to name.

“If you take one more step.” Honey purred, “I’ll smother him so thoroughly he won’t even get to scream.”

Nancy froze, every muscle locked.

Honey tilted her head, savoring the moment.

Harry swallowed hard. Think, damn it.

He shifted, trying to push himself free, but her arms pinned him in place. Do something.

His heart slammed as an idea—ridiculous, humiliating—sparked in desperation. Fine.

He craned his neck and bit down on the nearest patch of bare skin he could reach. Honey yelped, jerking in surprise.

Before she could crush him, Harry twisted sideways and grabbed the edge of her improvised sheet underwear, yanking with all his weight.

Honey let out a strangled shriek—part fury, part shock. Nancy didn’t hesitate. She lunged forward and swung her fist in a wide arc that smashed into Honey’s jaw with the force of a wrecking ball.

Honey reeled, staggering back over the wreckage of the courthouse steps. Harry tumbled free, landing in a heap on the cracked pavement.

Nancy moved to stand protectively over him, her voice low and shaking with fury.

“You don’t get to touch him ever again.”

Nancy dropped to one knee, her massive hand reaching for Harry as he lay dazed on the broken pavement.

“Harry—” Her voice cracked, raw with relief.

His vision swam as she lifted him carefully, her huge palm cradling him near her face. Her hair fell like a curtain around them, shutting out the chaos for a moment.

“Are you hurt?” she whispered, her breath warm over his skin.

“I—” He swallowed. “I’m okay.”

But over her shoulder, his eyes widened in horror.

Honey was already surging to her feet, eyes blazing, one hand braced on a toppled streetlamp as she launched herself forward.

“Nancy—!”

It was too late.

Honey slammed into her from behind with bone-rattling force. Harry tumbled from Nancy’s palm, hitting the pavement hard.

Nancy staggered, trying to twist away, but Honey’s colossal arms wrapped around her throat from behind in a brutal chokehold.

“You’re not better than me.” Honey hissed, her voice a guttural snarl in Nancy’s ear. “You never were.”

Nancy’s fingers clawed at Honey’s forearm, her vision going gray around the edges.

Harry struggled to his knees, dizzy and breathless, as he watched the two giantesses locked together—one desperate to protect him, the other determined to destroy everything in her path.

Honey tightened her hold, her teeth bared in triumph.

“Say it!” she spat. “Say you were never strong enough.”

Nancy gasped, her voice a ragged whisper. “Never—”

But her hands were already curling into fists.

Not yet, she thought. Not ever.

Nancy’s lungs burned, her vision tunneling to a narrow ring of darkness as Honey’s arm crushed tighter around her throat.

Get up, she told herself, teeth gritted. Get up.

She forced her knees under her, bracing her colossal weight.

Honey’s voice rasped hot against her ear: “Say you were never strong enough.”

Nancy’s gaze flicked sideways—past Honey’s tangled hair, past the caved-in storefronts—until she spotted it.

Half a block away: the old electric substation.

A spiderweb of transformers and high-tension wires glinted in the glow of the burning streetlights.

Perfect.

Nancy dug her heel into the pavement and shifted her hips just enough to find leverage. Honey didn’t notice—too consumed by the thrill of pressing her rival into the ground.

Nancy’s free hand balled into a fist. With a guttural roar, she drove her elbow back, slamming it into Honey’s ribs with all her weight behind it. Honey shrieked, the sound echoing across the rooftops.

Her grip loosened—just enough.

Nancy wrenched her arm free, pivoted on one knee, and hooked her hand behind Honey’s thigh. For a heartbeat, they were locked in perfect balance—two immense forces straining against each other.

Then Nancy shifted her weight and heaved. Honey’s eyes went wide in shock as her feet left the pavement.

Nancy roared again, using every ounce of her strength to twist—and threw Honey over her shoulder in a perfect judo arc.

Honey crashed down onto the electric substation with a thunderous impact.

A split second of silence.

Then: BOOM.

White-hot arcs of electricity exploded upward in a shower of blinding sparks. Transformers blew apart one after another, the shockwave rattling every window downtown. Honey’s body convulsed as thousands of volts raced across her skin.

Nancy staggered back, panting, watching the electric storm rage around her.

But even through the haze of pain and light, Honey’s eyes fluttered open—still full of fury.

The electric substation still burned in fitful bursts of blue flame.

Honey’s massive body lay sprawled over the mangled wreckage, her skin streaked with soot and deep, blistered burns. She shifted weakly, one colossal hand clawing for leverage.

Nancy took a cautious step forward, her breath ragged.

Honey tried to lift herself, trembling all over. But her arms gave out and she collapsed back onto the sparking transformers. The fury in her eyes flickered—then guttered out, leaving something smaller. One of exhaustion. Another of defeat.

Then the sky overhead shivered with a sudden, eerie ripple of blue light. Nancy’s gaze lifted. A shape resolved out of the darkness: the same sleek, black vessel she’d seen in her dreams.

A hatch irised open over the street, light flooding down onto Honey’s battered form.

And in that impossible glow, a woman appeared. Tall, serene, her hair a shimmering fall of black silk. Mei-Lien stepped calmly onto the scorched pavement, her bare feet leaving no mark.

Her voice carried over the silence like a song no human throat could make.

“You have exceeded your purpose.” she said softly, her gaze on Honey’s bruised face.

Honey tried to speak—her lips moving without sound. Mei-Lien bent to rest a cool hand against Honey’s forehead. Honey’s eyes closed, her last ragged breath sighing out into the night.

Nancy felt the weight of all she’d survived press into her chest. She took another step closer, her colossal shadow falling across Mei-Lien’s luminous figure.

“If you ever come back here.” Nancy said, her voice low and iron-hard, “there won’t be a next time.”

Mei-Lien lifted her gaze to meet Nancy’s. For a long moment, neither looked away. Then Mei-Lien inclined her head in a gesture halfway between respect and something older.

“So noted.” she murmured.

Light flared around her, brighter than any floodlamp. And in a single, blinding heartbeat—she and Honey were gone. The ship vanished into the sky without a sound.

Leaving only the cracked streets, the hissing transformers, and the woman who refused to kneel.

Nancy exhaled, every muscle in her body trembling. But she was still standing.

==

Downtown – 12:06 a.m.

The last blue sparks from the substation flickered and died, plunging the square into an eerie hush.

Nancy stood in the middle of it all, chest heaving, arms slack at her sides. Her adrenaline ebbed in a rush, leaving only the bone-deep ache of every bruise, every burn, every ounce of effort. Slowly, she lowered herself until she was sitting hard on the cracked pavement, legs splayed out in front of her.

Her breath hitched—half a laugh, half a sob.

She tilted her head back to look at the stars, and for a moment she felt impossibly small in the best way.

She’d done it. She was still alive.

“—Nancy!”

Her eyes flicked down.

Harry was sprinting across the debris-littered street, weaving around crushed cars and downed power lines. His hair was wild, his face pale, but he didn’t stop until he reached her knee.

Nancy’s throat went tight.  “Harry.” she whispered.

He clambered up onto the lowest fold of her sheet dress and scrambled higher until he could brace a hand against her thigh for balance.

He looked up at her—really looked—and his eyes brimmed.

“You okay?” he gasped, breathless.

Nancy swallowed.

“Yeah.” she croaked, her voice shaking. “I think—I think I am.”

She lifted a trembling hand and cupped it against her chest. Harry climbed into her palm without hesitation, pressing both hands over her thumb.

“You saved me.” he said, voice rough.

Nancy’s heart gave one grateful, exhausted thump.

“No.” she whispered. “You saved me first.”

And she let herself breathe, just for a moment, in the hush that followed.

Nancy’s enormous hand cradled Harry gently against her chest, her breathing slow and measured as the last sirens began to die away.

It felt like—for just a heartbeat—peace might be possible.

Then the rumble of black SUVs broke the quiet. Four matte vehicles rolled in from the north end of Main Street, tires crunching over shattered glass and debris.

Doors slammed. Jonas stepped into the wreckage, flanked by Kimball and half a dozen armored agents.

Nancy’s jaw tightened. Slowly, she shifted, planting one massive hand on the pavement to brace herself.

Harry felt the tension shiver through her palm.

“Stay behind me.” she murmured, voice low.

Jonas lifted his hand. The agents raised their weapons—sleek black launchers fitted with oversized cartridges.

“Mrs. Archer” Jonas called evenly. “Step away from the civilian.”

Sheriff Denby’s voice cut in from the darkness behind them. “Stand down.”

Jonas didn’t look away from Nancy. “Sheriff, this is not your jurisdiction.”

“The hell it isn’t.” Denby growled.

He stepped forward, shotgun cradled in both hands. Beside him, Deputy Charlie Spooner leveled her sidearm. Other officers fell in behind them, weapons ready.

Denby’s boots crunched over the rubble until he was just outside Nancy’s reach.

“She just saved this whole damn town.” he said, voice cold. “She’s not going anywhere tonight.”

Jonas’s gaze flicked to the sheriff, then back to Nancy.

“If you believe this ends here.” he said softly, “you’re mistaken.”

Nancy lifted her chin, her colossal silhouette blotting out what remained of the courthouse.

“You think I’m a threat?” she rasped. “Try me.”

For the first time, Jonas’s expression flickered—something cautious in his eyes.

“Very well.” he said at last. He lowered his hand, and the agents eased their launchers down.

“We will be monitoring you from here on out.” Jonas continued evenly. “If you prove incapable of restraint—”

His stare was flat, implacable. “—we will terminate you.”

Nancy held his gaze without flinching. “Then you’d better be very sure.” she said, voice steady.

Jonas inclined his head. “Kimball.” he ordered.

The team began to file back to the SUVs without another word. Engines roared as they pulled away into the night, red taillights vanishing into the darkness.

Denby let out a long breath and turned to look up at her.

“You alright?” he called.

Nancy’s shoulders sagged. “For now.” she said softly.

The sheriff nodded once. “We’ll keep them out as long as we can.”

And he turned to rally his deputies, leaving Nancy alone again with Harry and the stars overhead.

==

Downtown – 12:15 a.m.

For a long while after the SUVs vanished, no one said anything. The sheriff and his deputies moved quietly through the wreckage, ushering gawkers and press back behind the barricades.

Nancy stayed right where she was, sitting amid the fractured pavement with Harry tucked gently in her palm. Her hair drifted in the breeze. The adrenaline drained from her body, leaving a bone-deep weariness that made her eyelids heavy.

But in the hush, she felt something else, too. Warmth.

Harry reached out and rested his hand on the inside of her thumb.

“You did it.” he said softly.

Nancy swallowed. “I did.”

The words felt fragile—like she almost didn’t believe them herself.

Slowly, she turned her hand so she could see him more fully. The floodlights caught on the bruises and scrapes across her skin—some livid purple, some crusted with blood.

She braced herself for the pain. But instead, she felt a gentle, tingling heat where the worst gashes lay.

Harry followed her gaze. “…are you—?”

She lifted her free hand and traced her fingers over a long, ugly cut down her shoulder. Even as she watched, the torn skin was knitting itself back together—slow but unmistakable.

Nancy let out a shaky laugh.

“Looks like I’m…healing somewhat.” she whispered, wonder in her voice.

Harry looked up at her—really looked—and for the first time in months, she didn’t see fear or pity in his eyes.

Just awe and love.

He reached for her again, and she curled her fingers around him in a careful cradle.

For the first time since she’d woken up enormous, she didn’t feel like she was too big to hold someone she loved.

She felt…whole. Nancy closed her eyes and tilted her head back to the stars.

“Thank you.” she murmured, her voice barely audible over the breeze.

“For what?” Harry asked.

“For not giving up on me.” she said.

He pressed his palm to the center of hers. “Never.” he whispered.

And there, in the battered heart of a town they’d both nearly lost, Nancy let herself believe it was finally over.