I had the beginning idea for this story and wanted to get it out -- I'll be working on it more, probably when I get done with "Death Becomes Him."

Disclaimer: Rob Thomas owns it. I don't.

X X X X X

In between one of his and Kendall's bouts of lovemaking, Arron Echolls stepped outside to smoke. For the hell of it, he decided to wander up to the roof and get some fresh air.

And what he saw when he got there --

"You raped me!" He heard a familiar voice say. It couldn't be --

And then another familiar voice said, "And Dick still thinks I'm a virgin."

He peeked around the edge -- and there stood Beaver Casablancas holding a gun on Veronica Mars.

Beaver raped the little bitch? He wouldn't have thought the kid had it in him. And now he was going to kill her? This, he had to see.

He laughed -- and the kid spun around and pointed the gun at him. "Who are you?" he said. "Come out where I can see you--" What the hell. He posed no threat to the kid. He stepped out from where he was concealed. "Mr. Echolls?" Beaver asked.

Aaron said, "Yup. Oh, don't mind me -- I'm not going to stop you. Go ahead and kill her." The kid hesitated. "Look. Veronica Mars has caused me a whole shitload of trouble. I want to see you shoot her. I'm sure as hell not going to go blabbing to the cops. Besides, this seems like a justifiable homicide to me."

The kid laughed. "Fair enough. But hold on a minute. There's something I have to do."

X X X X X

When of all people Aaron fucking Echolls wandered out onto the roof of the Neptune Grand to watch Cassidy Casablancas kill her, Veronica Mars was sure that she finally had confirmation that there was no God.

The timing to that conclusion kind of sucked, seeing that she was going to be dead in about thirty seconds and now had nothing to look forward to, but there you go.

Still, Veronica Mars never quit. Not even faced with two homicidal maniacs. As soon as she saw that both Cassidy and Aaron were distracted, she texted the only person in the area she even remotely trusted and told him she was in trouble on the roof.

As soon as she heard Cassidy laugh and say that there was something he had to do, she finished texting and decided that she couldn't wait to be rescued.

There was a reason tricks became old -- it was because they worked. Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, she threw her cell phone as hard as she could without it being obvious.

It clattered to the roof about five feet beyond Cassidy. He jerked his head away and as soon as she jerked it ran towards him as fast as she could, hoping to somehow get the gun away from him.

She never got there. Aaron Echolls tackled her before she got within five feet of Cassidy. "Nice try, princess. But I used that trick myself all the way back in Road to Dead. Took down three IRA terrorists that way." She struggled, but she couldn't get free. "C'mon, kid," Aaron said. "I can hold her all day but the longer we stay up here the more likely we are to get caught."

"Hold on just one more second," Cassidy said as he pulled out some kind of remote control device. "Hey, Veronica. See that plane?" She could hear a plane buzzing by overhead. "That's the one bringing back Woody Goodman. You know your dad caught him, right?"

Veronica looked at him. No, no, no, he couldn't, he wouldn't . . .

And then he did.

The plane exploded as Cassidy pushed the button.

X X X X X

Logan rushed upstairs when he got Veronica's text message. He got to the roof just in time to hear an explosion.

He ran forward at top speed and saw his dad, laughing, holding Veronica -- who was crying uncontrollably -- as that little prick Beaver Casablabcas held some kind of machine he'd probably just used to cause whatever had just exploded.

Logan didn't hesitate. He slammed into his father as hard as he could and started whaling away on him. For Veronica, for Lilly, for fifteen fucking years of having the shit kicked out of him.

In the meantime, Veronica, thrown clear, stumbled forward and ran towards Beaver, who was still admiring his handiwork and had been distracted at the sight of Logan's pounding daddy dearest into the roof of the Neptune Grand.

And she grabbed the gun which Beaver had been casually holding in his off hand.

"Logan," she called out, "Get off of him."

Logan rolled clear and came over to stand by Veronica.

Tears still streaming down her face, she told Beaver to go stand next to Aaron Echolls.

"Whoa," Aaron said. "Veronica. Don't do anything stupid."

Cassidy just stood there, looking utterly defeated.

"What's that? Another quote from one of your movies?" She said bitterly.

Logan knew what she was going to do. He couldn't let her.

"Don't do this," he said. "This isn't who you are."

After taking a couple of sobbing breaths, she said, "My FATHER was on that plane. He killed everyone on the bus. He RAPED me! And your father --" she stopped. "He got away with it. He got away with it."

"You don't need to remind me of how big an asshole my father is," Logan said. "But you're not the type of person who would kill someone in cold blood."

She looked over at him and said, "I am now."

And pulled the trigger twice.