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WHY DOES it seem like everytime they take down a set of five guards, there is a wave of ten that keeps appearing? Carmen didn't like being double-crossed. Neither did Robin, but she knew she had to do it or else she'd lose everyone.
In a snap, most likely.
They were still running, and as impressive as their endurance and stamina were, even the father and daughter can't stand against that. Carmen blames that on the nonstop chaos and the few hours deprived of their rest.
Her eyes widened, seeing two familiar hunched forms appearing suddenly behind two glass doors, followed by the domineering stance of Jack Lind, who seems to be making small talk. If Carmen stared hard enough, she could see his mouth moving along.
Robin snorted beside her, through his pants as he sees the same traitor, his wife's old friend. "Damn, and I thought his face would change and turn out like his insides."
Carmen had never seen their heads whip back, looking around until they see the two Murdocks on the other side. The three men dashed towards the doors, hurriedly unlocking it. They had ten seconds to make it, Carmen had studied these same, timer-controlled doors.
Her father was now gasping beside her as he grasps his abdomen, but his hand found refuge on her back, urging her forward as he fell back, his face red and soaking with sweat.
"No, dad," Carmen protested, grabbing him by the shirt with her weakened, tired arms. With a new burst of strength and energy, she began dragging him with all that was left of the seconds. Seven.
She could hear Sweet Pea's voice, spouting out words of encouragement while Elliot handled the guards chasing them by firing off rounds. Six.
Robin tripped, grunting as he panted against the floor and dragged Carmen down with him to her knees. He protested and tried to push and beckon her to run, leave him, but Carmen wouldn't have it. Five.
She tugged him back to his feet as the father and daughter began their way again. A long way, but Carmen had faith that they'll make it. Atleast close that she could throw her father past the doors and make a run for it. Four.
With wide, hurried steps, she let out a guttural, frustrated yell, her entire frame straining to support him. She was sure her fingers were numbed by now, because of how tight she clung to his shirt. Three.
Another step, and with all that she had, Carmen threw Robin past the glass doors and on to Jack and Elliot. Two.
She stayed where she was as Robin lurched forward, his eyes wide and animalistic, "No, no! Carmen, you can't do this to me, no! Carmen!" One.
A gun bumped against her foot as Sweet Pea had slid on the floor, his expression pained and she thought she'd seen tears in his eyes. The last they could remember of her was her expression, like a wounded animal who knew she was about to die. "I'm sorry."
She turned her head as soon as bullets ricocheted off the glass doors, and made a turn to run for it, completely the opposite way she'd come and ignored her father's cries, the way he banged against the glass, desperate for it to break so he could take her back and save her.
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"SOMETHING'S WRONG," Apollo frowned, looking over the laptop screen and looked up just in time to see an exotic blonde approaching him. None other than Adelaide Tremaine and Christian Yale coming to greet him. Adelaide, the same woman who he saved back in Budapest by inadvertently shoving her out of the tent that he'd caught her snooping in, yelling for her to run. Adelaide, the woman who was actually his fellow combat medic's fiancé.
"Seems like it, loverboy," Adelaide chuckled. "Care to enlighten us?"
"Someone's blocking the connections and I've tracked it. The apartment's not far from your brother's building. Prospect street, you know that?" Apollo stated, his fingers moving fast against the keyboard in another attempt to break the ciphers again.
"That's where my mother lived, actually, if you say there's someone else, maybe we should go check it out," Christian intervened.
"Really? You're willing to risk being seen for the Murdocks? Last I checked, you wanted nothing to do with them after Eliana married Robin and had the twins." Apollo snided.
"It was history, Apollo," Christian chastised him. "And I've got Adelaide."
Instead of replying, Apollo belted out a curse, successfully breaking the codes. The screen turned into multiple cameras in the building, as well as entering the network between the earpieces of the people infiltrating Novak's property. "I've got it, but something's off."
"Off, like what?" Adelaide gave him an intense look, to which Apollo returned and set his gaze on Christian.
"Like a lot of them will die."
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MEMORIES OF her moments in Riverdale began replaying in her head as Carmen ran towards her possible death. What would Betty say, Veronica think, when they hear and see her delivered back to Riverdale in a body bag?
When her coffin is wrapped in a flag, as a kinship to her father that had a large contribution in the army, and several of the soldiers he served with would attend?
They must be thinking of her like a murderer now. They saw the evidence of her killing a seemingly innocent teenager without mercy. Of course the world would side with the boy unnamed for his actions against her. Just like the wrong turns that the wheels of justice chose to take.
The gun in her hand felt heavier than ever. What were her other team mates doing? Carmen had hope that they would all survive.
The 25th floor came too easily but she stumbled in at the last minute, immediately brought to her knees by a smirking Novak. How long had she been actually running? Why was her father there?
Robin, as it seems, had grown restless and animalistic and so had his companions, but Elliot had dragged Sweet Pea off before he could follow with the two men. Lind was leant against the wall but there was something wrong, he wasn't breathing. His head was drooped so low and Carmen stared hard enough that she could see the concealed blood flowing from a hole square in his chest.
Robin was on the floor, in the same state, but he wasn't dead. Just unconscious, blood dripping from a cut on his temple.
"What did you do?" Carmen snarled as the gun was ripped from her grasp.
"Just redemption, my dear. I want a rematch of the fight in Budapest, care to remind me what victory feels like?" Novak slowly started laughing with a sinister edge, backhanding her when she didn't reply. Blood dripped from her aching cheek, as she turned her head back to him, glaring into his eyes. She hoped it was deep enough that it could pierce his soul, honestly.
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WAKING UP in the middle of the road, only to almost get ran over by a van operated by his own sister was not how he wanted to be halfway in a mission to be. And goddamit, how in the hell did he even get there? He swore there was someone, a redhead, and feminine body, clad in white, walking away from him before he fully passed out again.
He didn't want to believe who that woman actually was. After all this years, why exactly would she, of all people, help him? Liam explained the promise, that same promise that Carmen forced him and Elliot to take, to which Apollo had protested against fiercely.
"She's not going to die unless- unless she's going to use herself as the sacrificial lamb," Apollo retorted.
"I'm not turning back on my word," Liam replied. "The girl's back at the apartment. We need both of them on the plane the moment we've got word."
A black figure moved in the darkness from where they were parked, the mask was discarded and it was Elliot, dragging a body through the empty lot. He was panting for breath soon as Liam, Adelaide and Christian met him.
"The boy's out from this point on," Elliot told the four adults as he handed over to them Sweet Pea's unconscious body. "Should be out for a whole eight hours. Do the same to the girl, they're both out of this. The only thing left we do about them's to bring them back to Riverdale soon as we get the signal."
Fear engulfed Apollo's figure as he watched Christian and Liam maneuver the teen's body back into the van. "How're they?" He couldn't help but ask.
"Lind's dead," Elliot stated blankly. "Robin's out and Carmen's cut herself from the network."
"Fuck." The man gasps, his heart clenching. He grabs the gun from Elliot's waist, a spare, making the other man move to protest. "You can't stop me from saving my goddaughter and my brother."
Elliot gave him a hard stare and a short nod, jerking his head to the side, a motion for them to follow.
"Help's on the way. It's time we expose this to the media, I'll get Betty. The clips tonight should prove as substantial evidence against him in court," Adelaide assured the troubled man and squeezed his shoulder. "We'll make him pay for this."
Apollo laid a palm over hers, nodding as he appreciated the gesture. "Thank you."
Adelaide stood back, watching Elliot and Apollo run back inside the building looming over them, turning back around to her companions and pulled out her phone. The youngest Cooper picked up the call instantaneously. "Betty?"
"Ms. Tremaine," She heard the teenager gasp. "Are they okay? What's happened?"
"Much worst than I thought," Adelaide sighed, closing her eyes. "You've got them?"
"Yes."
"It's time, it's gone too far. This is our last resort," Adelaide instructed, voice hard as she stared upwards at the building. "Signals of a remote-controlled device is going off around the building. Hurry, before it gets triggered, we need to fight back against Novak."
"...Done."
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THE BUTT of a gun was whipped across her face, making her head snap to the side and Carmen honestly couldn't tell what made her head hurt more. That, or Novak's endless chatter and manic laughs.
Carmen got up from her place, throwing a misplaced punch towards him. Thankfully, it hit something, which was his throat, but that was it. She was attacking again before he could, actually sending him to one knee with a well-calculated roundhouse kick. Made her dizzy but did its job. She was so sure that she would die, she had that feeling, like an intuition. She knew better than to doubt her guts that this would be her last fight.
"You little shit," Novak scowled. He raised his gun and watched as she went down with a cry, holding on to her bleeding knee. He started laughing again, best as he could without choking from the blood in his mouth. Her cry had woken up Robin from his slumber, as he drunkenly started to get up, his fingers wrapping around a piece of glass.
He stumbled to his feet as silent as he could muster, grumbling under his breath. He saw red as soon as he saw them. Carmen, who'd limped towards Novak and now wrenching for the gun in his grip. He saw her free hand move, something silver glinting to his eye.
"You forgot one thing," she snarled, the gun dangerously pointed near her head. "This is a distraction. I've got something to kill."
The pain made him squeeze the trigger, the gun going off. Carmen's head whipped back, her eyes motionless as Novak loosened his grip on her shirt and let her fall to the floor in a heap. His hands crusted over the wound on his abdomen, the hilt of the knife sticking out as his gun followed Carmen's fall.
The pain was too much for Robin. His daughter going down, possibly dead like his wife, and possibly comatosed like his son. He let out a sob. Between the pain in his chest and the one from losing the one thing that kept him anchored, he didn't know what pulsed the most.
Another gunshot, he hadn't even realized the sirens as it was Christian Yale who had bursted into the empty floor through the staircase, followed by multiple FBI agents. His sobs had grown quieter, quiet until all that was left was the tears leaking from his eyes and was left to stare at his daughter's limp, battered form. It was like losing Eliana and Chandler all over again. His mother leaving him behind to suffer in the hands of her parents. Her father picking him up and then ripped from him as he was shot as they were in the ice cream parlor.
"Take this man away in federal custody!" Christian Yale's voice ordered. "And we need medics, lots of them! Nobody enters Novak's room unless it's me or Tremaine!"
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CLAIRE ATKINS and Wynona Tanner were a mess, glancing at Dane Walsh's dead body. The news of Carmen's fall and Novak finally being apprehended hit them hard enough. Between the two women, Wynona was hopeless, because she couldn't do anything else to help Claire, who had acquired a deadly injury to her solar plexus. The bullet from Walsh's rifle had gone straight through, still stuck inside.
Wynona was dazed, not because it was the first time she watched someone die (being Carmen's friend, and given her background history, that was a part of normalcy, for her atleast), no, it was the first time she actually fired a gun to kill. And killed. Her bullet hit Dane square in the neck.
The redhaired woman had wanted one last thing, even if Wynona thought she didn't deserve it because of her sins against Carmen and her family. She was long gone by the time Liam, Elliot and a still unconscious Sweet Pea made it back.
She whirled around, with teary, tired eyes, and a disheveled mess out of her dark mane. "I know what she made you promise."
The two men, lost on what to do, let their eyes drift over to her bloody hands, and the two dead bodies behind her. "What- What did that woman want?"
"To protect Carmen. And guess what?" Wynona let out a bitter chuckle, a tear trickling down her cheek. "It was too late. It was always too late."
"Wynona-"
"Don't even think about it."
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the end of act one