Summary: Based on Netflix's "Carmen Sandiego." Carmen feels guilty about what happened to Devineaux, and it haunts her in both the waking and sleeping world. Takes place after end of Season 1.

Disclaimer: I do not own "Carmen Sandiego."

Warning: This chapter might be just a little bit gory. Sorry.

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Chapter One

Carmen raced towards the basement room she knew Shadow-san and Coach Brunt had taken Inspector Devineaux. She had to hurry. Zack and Ivy could only distract the two V.I.L.E. faculty members for so long before they figured it out. Entering the room, she immediately noticed Devineaux cuffed to a chair with a V.I.L.E. Truth Extractor on his head. He didn't look too good. He perked up as she walked in.

"So, you show your face," he said with a glare, followed by a laugh. "I knew you were behind this."

Carmen inwardly sighed with relief. If Devineaux was still able to banter with her like he usually did, he couldn't have been too bad. She shushed him before removing the device from his head and kneeling down to be on eye level with him.

"Easy, Devineaux. Save your strength. We need to get you out of here," she said before going around behind him and using her own version of the Crackle to disable his handcuffs.

Returning around to his front, Carmen saw Devineaux lift up and click on a fountain pen before he passed out on the floor. The pen rolled and stopped in front of Carmen. She watched in surprise and astonishment as the pen stood straight up on its own and emitted a burst of light from the top. The light formed the holographic image of a woman.

"What is it now, Agent Devin. . ." the woman started to say before she noticed the man she was addressing passed out in front of her. The woman glanced behind her and noticed the lady in red. Turning around completely, she started, "Carmen Sandiego, I presume."

Carmen had no idea who this woman was, though she would suspect later on that she was linked to A.C.M.E. As much as she wanted to know more about Devineaux's new employers, she couldn't afford to waste time chatting. She brought her foot down on the pen, crushing it beneath her heel. The woman vanished and Carmen went to the unconscious man.

"C'mon, Devineaux," she grunted as she struggled to lift him. "We need to get you out of here before it's. . ."

"Too late," an uncomfortably familiar voice finished for her.

Her heart began to pound in her chest as she turned around to see Coach Brunt standing just outside the door. The large woman entered the room and shut the door, locking it behind her by twisting the metal slider.

"Coach Brunt," Carmen began as her former teacher started walking towards her. "Long way from campus, aren't you?"

"Now you didn't expect to move away from home without a visit from Mama Bear, did you?" The coach cracked her neck. "And I'm not sure I approve of the tall, handsome, law-abiding company you're keeping these days."

"Rebound relationship," Carmen responded. "Needed a change after all the criminals and psychopaths."

The coach stopped between Carmen and the window, crossing her arms. "Now you know I can't let you leave again, Lambkins."

"That's what I figured."

Carmen shot her grappling hook at a pipe just above the window. Holding on tightly to Devineaux, she pressed Retract and started to pull them both up. Coach Brunt wasn't going to let it be that easy, however. She grabbed onto Carmen's leg, halting her assent before pulling her back and flinging her away. Carmen felt Devineaux leave her arms before she slammed down onto the chair he had been cuffed to, shattering it.

"Red, you okay in there?" Player's concerned voice came through her earpiece.

Carmen couldn't focus on him right now. She had a major battle before her, and she had a feeling it was going to be her toughest one yet. She looked up, expecting to see Coach Brunt standing above her. To her surprise, the woman had wandered over to where Devineaux had fallen and was kneeling close to his head. She looked back over to Carmen with a cruel smile.

"Seems a shame to waste such a handsome face," Coach Brunt said, "but you two have been causing far too much trouble together, so I sadly can't let him walk out of here alive."

No!

Carmen's eyes grew wide and she felt her heart stop as Coach Brunt took Devineaux's head in one of her huge, meaty, bone-crushing hands.

"No!" Carmen screamed aloud this time.

She stood up and raced over to the two. She raised a fist only for Coach Brunt to smack her all the way across the room with her other arm. Carmen slammed into the wall, and it was as if she didn't have any lungs. After gulping in a few precious breaths, she looked up and saw Coach Brunt squeezing Devineaux's head. Carmen could hear the sound of bones being crushed to pieces. Only a second later, the coach's hand was coated in red liquid and fleshy gray bits.

"NO! DEVINEAUX!"

Carmen sat up and gasped. Looking around, she was relieved to see that she was in her bedroom in one of the many safehouses she and her friends had around the globe and not in the dark basement that had been the scene of that horrible night. She took a few long, deep, and slow breaths to calm her heart rate as she desperately tried to erase the terrifying images of her latest nightmare from her mind.

The door burst open, and two familiar gingers raced into the room.

"Carmen, are you okay?" Ivy asked as she reached her friend and put her hands on her shoulders.

"I'm fine," Carmen lied. The siblings bursting in had reversed any calming down she'd succeeded in doing since waking up.

"No, you're not," Zack insisted as he sat down on the bed on Carmen's other side. "C'mon, Carm. It's been a month since the incident and you've had at least one nightmare every night, and they keep getting worse."

He was right about that. Ever since her first nightmare, in which news had come to her that V.I.L.E. agents had infiltrated the hospital Devineaux was in and murdered him in his sleep, his death had happened sooner and sooner. Last time, the coach had used the wrench Carmen had been about to grab to smash Devineaux's skull after taunting the girl about protecting the face. The time before that, Coach Brunt had ripped the man in half after doing the same thing to Carmen's coat. The girl feared that, one night, she would enter that room only to find Devineaux already dead.

"You've got to let it go, Red," Player's voice spoke up from her phone beside the bed.

He had taken to keeping a channel open between them every time she slept in order to monitor her. If Ivy and Zack weren't woken up by her screams, both before and after she herself woke up, then Player would call them as soon as it was clear that Carmen was awake and the current nightmare was over.

"Devineaux's fine," Player continued. "He was released from the hospital not even a week after the incident. He's got a new apartment with stronger security, which I myself am keeping an eye on. He's suffered no permanent damage from the Truth Extractor and is back to his old self, and also back to hunting you down."

"Let him find me," Carmen mumbled under her breath.

"Huh?" three confused voices said in unison.

Oops. They heard her.

"I. . ." Carmen started. "I just need to see for myself that he's okay. And. . . and I need to apologize to him."

"We've been over this," Ivy said in a tone that clearly stated she was tired of this familiar argument. "What happened wasn't your fault."

"You guys keep telling me that, but it doesn't erase the fact that it was my actions that led to those events."

"You can't change what's already happened, Red," Player said. "You just have to be more careful in the future."

"That's just it," Carmen said. "I thought I was being careful, but I should have known not to take anything like the key card while chasing a V.I.L.E. agent if it wasn't something I didn't want falling into their hands."

"You made a mistake," Zack piped up. "It happens to everyone."

"But my mistake almost cost Devineaux his life." Carmen's vision began to blur due to the tears that always followed a nightmare once she started to really think about the events leading up to that night. "What happens if I make another mistake? What if they try pulling that trick again? What if I can't get to him in time? What if. . ?"

Carmen couldn't bring herself to finish the question as the tears broke free from her eyes. No one said anything. Zack and Ivy hugged their friend while Player patiently listened to the silence, wishing that he was there so that he could comfort the crying girl, too.

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End!

Of this chapter, at least. It was originally going to be just a oneshot, but I underestimated how long the story would actually be if I kept it to that. I don't know how many chapters this story will be. Please enjoy this one while you wait for chapter 2. Thanks.