Chapter Text
August sat at a chair by Kate’s bedside. Henry said that she would be fine eventually, back to her normal self. Soro said it was doubtful. The difference was that Henry could lie and Soro couldn’t.
“You’re going to be okay,” he whispered. He couldn’t lie, either, so it had to be true. She was going to be fine.
He knew he shouldn’t have been there. He should’ve have been with Henry, figuring out what to do next. With Sloan and Alice dead, someone else was going to try and get power. That was just how life worked. They needed to make sure the right people got that power. It was bad when Callum Harker was in charge, and it was worse when Sloan was. They needed to make sure that didn’t happen again.
The door creaked in and Henry Flynn walked into the room.
“You really care about her?” he asked. “Katherine Harker?”
“She isn’t her father,” August said. “She’s a good person.”
“I didn’t say she was.” He pulled a chair up and sat in it, across from August. “You gonna keep staying here?”
He squeezed her hand tighter. “I’m not leaving her.”
“We’re still in a war, August,” Henry said. “I’m sorry about your friend, but you need to get your head in the game. You aren’t any help to anyone – including her – if you’re staying here. We need to make Verity safe.”
“Safe?” he repeated. “Verity isn’t safe, Henry. It’s never been safe. Hundreds of people, of innocent people, are dead! Ilsa is dead. Kate might…” The world died in his throat. He knew it wasn’t a lie, but he still couldn’t say it.
“I know. I know Ilsa’s dead. That’s why we need to make it safe. I’m trying to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to you or Emily or Soro. Just because Sloan is dead that doesn’t mean the war is over. There will always be someone else who wants power.”
He sighed. “So we need to get it before someone bad does?”
“Exactly.”
August looked back at Kate. She looked paler than usual. “Okay,” he said. “Just give me another day.”
“Fine.”
When he looked up, Henry was gone.
-
Alice pushed herself up off the floor. Stupid Kate Harker. If she wanted to kill her, she should’ve tried better. Couldn’t find a Malchai’s heart. How disappointing.
It still hurt, of course. But, she would deal with that later. She should probably find Sloan and tell him that Kate escaped. God, she wanted to kill her so bad. To be free of whatever connection their shared, to actually see her dead eyes, to taste her blood.
She wasn’t looking for Sloan very carefully as she walked. She had broken one of her nails – claws, really – while fighting Kate. She hated doing it. It always took days for them to grow back. A few of her teeth were missing, too. And more were loose.
“Sloan!” she called in a sing-song voice when she didn’t find him. “Come out, come out wherever you are!”
He didn’t ignore her. He would love the chance to, she know that. But, that would mean risking her going out and murdering people on their team. She’d done it before. ‘Psychotic’ he called her. Or ‘bitch’ sometimes, if she was being annoying without killing people.
Her foot hit someone. She looked down, and if anyone had been around her, they would’ve seen her face go pale. She didn’t like Sloan, she hated him quite a bit, but she recognised that he was powerful. Yet, it was his corpse her foot at hit.
Alice crouched down. She wanted to look at him dead. Savour the look on his face when he died. She only regretted that she hadn’t been there.
He made a noise when she turned him.
Damnit.
-
Kate woke up in a lot of pain.
Kate woke up.
She sat up so fast that her vision went blurry. She reached around instantly, trying to find her spikes.
Someone grabbed her wrist and swiftly got punched.
“Fuck, Kate.”
That’s when her vision came back. August was standing in front of her, holding his nose. Oops.
“Sorry,” she said.
He waved her off. “It’s fine.” He brought his hand away from his face. His nose was bleeding. “You throw a good punch, at least.”
“Alice is dead.” She wasn’t sure why that was the first thing she thought to say. “She… I killed her.”
He breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks. I mean, we assumed, but… Yeah, that’s good. Sloan’s dead, too.”
Finally, Kate thought.
“You were living in Prosperity, right?”
She nodded. “Why?”
“You should go back there,” he said.
“What? No. Did you hit your head or something?”
He gave her a look. “This isn’t your fight, anymore, Kate.”
“And it’s yours? I’m not leaving, August.”
He sighed. “Kate.”
“August. This is my fight just as much as it was yours,” she said. “I was born in Verity, you know. I lived here. I don’t want to see it in ruins. This is my fight, too.”
He sighed again. “You don’t have to do it.”
“Okay. I’m not doing it for you.”
And, well, he couldn’t really stop her. It wasn’t his choice if she wanted to stay and fight or not.
“Besides,” she said, “hard part’s over.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Hard part’s over.”
-
When Sloan opened his eyes, Alice was sitting atop the counter, crossed legged. He tried to stand up, and found that he was chained to a wall.
“Alice,” he growled.
“Sloan.”
She jumped down from th counter and sat on her heels in front of him. He tried to reach out and claw at her, but she was just barely out of reach. And, she knew it, too.
“You’re not very nice to me,” she said. She was making her voice sound sad. As if she actually cared.
“I hate you.”
She laughed, the little psycho. “Oh, I know. But, you need my help.”
“I don’t.”
“You do now.” She took something out of her pocket a twirled it around her finger. A key. “I’ll let you out. We go kill Kate Harker and the Flynns, and then we have Verity. Perfect plan.”
Sloan pulled at the chain around his wrist. “That’s not the perfect plan if you’re still here.”
“You’ll get over it. But, you understand, yeah? I let you out and we just continue as we were. But, you can’t kill me. I know you were thinking about it. You can’t kill blonde hair, blue eyed girls forever. You’ll run out. And, I’ll be good enough, won’t I?”
He growled at her.
She just laughed again. “You have to agree before I let you out.”
Was it really a question? He couldn’t stay chained to a wall forever. It was humiliating.
“Fine. I won’t kill you.”
She stood up at unlocked the chain. He was on his feet in seconds, slamming her against the wall. He put his arm just under her neck so he could keep her there. He’d seen her scared a few times, and unfortunately, she didn’t seem scared then.
“I could kill you,” he whispered. “Right now. You wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.”
She smiled. And pressed a knife against his neck.
It wasn’t to kill him, barely to threaten him like he was doing her. But she knew what she was doing.
“Where did you get that?”
“Our dear Kate Harker,” she said. “She dropped it. I think I’ll keep it.”
He tapped a claw against her neck. She didn’t even flinch.
“The Chaos Eater is dead. So is Flynn’s Sunai, Ilsa.”
The first thing was bad. The second was good. A win for him and a win for the Flynns.
“You should be dead,” he snarled. “Katherine Harker should’ve have killed you.”
She frowned then, finally. She tried to push him away and failed. “Would you have rathered that?” she asked. “I know stuff. I can kill her.”
“Can you?” he asked. “Didn’t seem like you did.”
“Fuck you.”
“My dear Alice, I thought you were trying to help me.”
She tried to push him away again. He moved his arm up, putting more pressure on her windpipe.
“I don’t need you,” he said. “I don’t need you to do anything for me. Especially since it seems like you fail at anything important.”
She snarled at him. She couldn’t really do anything else with the lack of air she was getting. He almost laughed at it. She was basically helpless. She couldn’t even put more pressure into stabbing him with the knife.
He let her go. He knew she hated to show any weakness, but he noticed how she leaned against the wall slightly and tried to hide her coughs. It made him incredibly happy.
“Okay,” he said, pushing her back against the wall. “I accept your deal.”
He let her go for real, then. And he walked off.