Chapter Text
BY SOME MIRACLE, Kieran was alive.
His chest huffed and wheezed ragged breaths, and he could feel warmth oozing from a stitch in his side. His fingers were dusted with black ash and sharp debris. Kieran should have registered that first, but he could only see one thing: FIRE. Flames, everywhere, surrounding him, engulfing him, choking him.
How was it possible that barely five minutes ago, he had accepted his fate, locked in a basement, holding Lauren to his chest?
Lauren!
Kieran struggled to an upright position. His body screamed in agony, but he ignored it. By now, the glass factory had crumbled to a desolate pile of ash, and the bright flames rose up into the night sky, rejoicing in their freedom.
Lauren!
He could hear the sirens and the shouting, the cops and the fire department trying desperately to put out the flames. The thunderstorm helped. The time bomb had triggered several dozen crates of nitroglycerine, and in their union had set off the worst fire in ten years.
What had Sake said, weeks ago? "The Allendale Tragedy will only look like a sparkler compared to what's to come."
"L-Lauren," he choked. "Wh-where...?"
And then he saw her: a limp frame a yard away. Her hat had flown off, so he could see auburn hair that had finally tumbled loose from its ribbon. She, too, was coated in ash and debris. Her fingers was outstretched towards her gun.
Kieran stumbled, and dropped to his knees next to her body. Please, please, please... He turned her over. "L-Lauren!"
Her arm was bent at an odd angle, and she was bleeding from a dozen different wounds. She lay in a puddle of blood. Kieran had always prided himself in remaining calm under pressure, but now, staring at the deep red gushing from where his partner had been shot, his brain malfunctioned.
He was caught in the crossfire — between flames and rain, between the Police Department and the Phantom Scythe, between Kieran White and the Purple Hyacinth.
Red, red, red. The intoxicating smell of iron.
He was trapped in a cell, shackled, battered, beaten... I HAVE TO KEEP GOING... He was standing on weathered gravel, hand gripped tightly around his sword, watching the street run red with the blood of dozens... UNFORGETTABLE... He was in a tower, placing a single purple flower next to the body of a man in an orange jumpsuit... He was in a cave, his hands gripped around her throat, and he lied — he lied to her — and a dead man's last words rang through his mind — the first man who died at his hand, the man who hung from a chandelier in that sacred place — and his last words, his last words —
"They will make you take many lives, but never let them take your soul. Do not become the monster they want you to be, you hear me, Kieran? NOW KILL ME!"
"SHIT!" KIERAN JOLTED back to the present. Stupid, stupid, this wasn't the time, with every fucking second he wasted Lauren sank further to the point of no return.
One thing at a time, Kieran. Is she breathing? He yanked off her mask and pressed his palm to her chest. He brushed his fingers against her wrist. A tiny pulse thrummed against his skin. Her chest lifted slightly, then dropped, and a soft breath escaped her lips.
"D-Dyl...an..." She whispered something, something incomprehensible, but it was enough to let Kieran know that she was alive. She's alive. Officer Lauren Sinclair, his resilient, bull-headed, selfless idiot of a partner, was alive... if only out her own pure stubbornness. This information filled him with a new kind of vigor. He tore his shirt and used it to fix her bandages. When he tightened the knot, Lauren gasped. Her eyes fluttered open. Her expression was a mix of confusion, pain, and relief.
"K-Kie — ?"
"Not now," he whispered. He had never been happier to see those golden pensive eyes (not that he'd admit it). "We have to get out here, before we're seen."
"Th-the bomb..." She only just seemed to register the burning building. "Oh fuck."
"Oh fuck is right," Kieran muttered. "Can you stand?" He helped her rise to her feet. He ended up placing his weight on her instead of the other way around. "Lauren, your arm... we need to — Lauren?"
But she'd frozen in place, staring up at the remains of the glass factory. The light and fire reflected in her golden eyes, and he wasn't surprised to see tears streaming down her face. Kieran thought back to when they'd intercepted the Apostle's orders on the walkie-talkie; how Lauren had seized up in a panic attack, and the only way she snapped out of it was by a self-inflicted blow to her wound.
"I'm not ready to watch anyone else die in an explosion again."
"LAUREN! Lauren, look at me — Lauren — " He grabbed her shoulders and shook her, forcing her to stare into his eyes, forcing her to return to the present. "Lauren, we have to get out of here."
She blinked, and her expression cleared... but only slightly. "K-Kym! And Will! A-and my uncle! Randall! They — "
"They're all safe," Kieran spoke his words slowly, so as not to scare her, but he couldn't keep the note of urgency and fear out of his voice. "Will and Randall are safe. Kym was rescued by an extraction team. It's you I'm worried about. So please focus, officer!"
He dragged her off the factory premises and into a shadowed alley off Sherbrooke Street, where they both leaned against a wall and caught their breath. They stayed quiet for a few moments, watching the red and blue police lights on the road and listening to the wailing of sirens.
"Kym knows," Lauren whispered, breathing hard. "She knows I'm one of Lune. Will probably does too by now."
Kieran sighed, and the movement made the injury on his chest squeeze painfully. "Only a matter of time. I don't think they'll tell anyone though." Kym and Will were two of the most loyal people Kieran had ever met; he knew they'd keep the secret, especially when it involved Lauren's life on the line. They amazed him in that way, and he felt his heart twinge painfully at the thought of them.
They probably think we're dead.
"I hope so. What do we do now?" Lauren pressed her arm tightly.
"First thing, we've got to get ourselves fixed up," Kieran said, trying to think rationally. "My apartment is closest, but as much as I want to, I don't think going anywhere near there is a risk we should take, especially now."
"The cave, then?" She murmured, glancing up at him.
Kieran glanced at her briefly, his mind racing through memories and possibilities. Finally he said, "yeah. That's our best bet right now."
Lauren nodded, her eyes taking on that signature sheen of steely determination. "We have to leave the docks. The cave's on the other side of the river... we need to get to the St. Lawrence bridge."